History of Leith, Edinburgh

… of the Death of Mackay the Boxer, attended with the Mur- der of three men, and of a foot soldier, and the partial destruction of the Roman Catholic Chapel. for more click here

GRACE ANDERSON , a servant in the British Hotel, Queen Street, pled Guilty to the Concealment of Pregnancy of a female child, born on the 25th or 26th of December last, which was afterwards found dead in a chest or trunk in her bed-room in the said house. Sentence, Seven Months’ confinement in Prison. for more click here

A Fully True, and Particular Account of that Awful
Bloody BATTLE for the BREEKS! that was Fought last Saturday Night, in’this Neighbourhood, between a Sprightly Young Couple, who had been married a whole Fortnight; and which did not end without Torn Clothes, Broken Heads,.and Bloody Noses; together with a Copy of the Articles of Agreement’ made between them, after the Battle was over! for more click here

Just published, the melancholy Death of the Town Council of the City of Edinburgh, with an account of the Legacy which they have left to the inhabitants at their demise; also the state of the Poll at Closing, givingthe names of the New Council elected this day. for more click here

A Letter from Helen Hutton, who was Execute at Haddington, on
Friday last, the 25th of February, written to her Mother a few Days before her Execution. for more click here

An account of the Extraordinary Life and Adventures of Catherine Wilson, an interesting young woman, about twenty years of age, daughter of respectable parents, near Perth, who assumed man’s
apparel at the age of fourteen, and hired herself to a drover, when she came to Edinburgh, and got into a respectable gentleman’s family as foot boy, but being discharged was compelled to work as a bricklayer’s labourer ; how she assumed the name of John Thomson, and married her landlady’s daughter, Mary Gray, and on Saturday last resumed her petticoats. for more click here

This broadside begins: ‘A copy of a very affecting and interesting letter, written by William Perrie, before his execution, on Wedneday, and which was found in the Condemned Cell, after his execution, addressed to Mr Mason, one of the elders who attended him when in Jail.’ The letter was sourced from the ‘Glasgow Herald’ of the 23rd October, 1837. for more click here

This broadside, a hybrid of list and public announcement, begins: ‘List of the Horses book’d, That are to run for the Fifty Pound Sterling Plate, set out by the Town of Edinburgh, to be run for on Friday the 14. of June instant, on the Sands at Leith.’ After naming the horses, riders and owners, the writer tells his audience the exact time when the race will start. Although the sheet was published in Edinburgh in 1728, the publisher is not identified. for more click here

I HEAR a Horse Race lately Run, Was into Leith where no Man wan Untill a … Scots Horse be Swister than the Yorkshire Gray, Who boast of gaining Races, for more click here

Verse 1: ‘Was never in Scotland heard nor seen / such Dancing nor Deray, / Neither on Falkland on the Green, / nor Peebles at the play; / As was of Wooers as I ween, / at Christs Kirk on a day; / For there came Kittie washen clean, / with her new Gown of Gray, / Full gay that day.’ The text beneath the title reads ‘Composed (as is supposed) by King James V. Newly Corrected according to the Original Copy’. Many reprints were made of this poem, and all those held by the National Library of Scotland show subtle differences in wording and spelling, reflecting the ‘corrections’ that were made by publishers according to the standards af their day. for more click here