Hello All,
Today we spent a rainy Monday in Edinburgh, but loved every minute of it. We started the day with an 80 Pence breakfast at our hostel, which consisted of really thick milk covering some cocoa-puffish cereal. After that, Molly fell back asleep for a little bit and I dove into a Bear Grylls book that I am loving and hoping I can get him to sign when he calls me to hang out in England. After our "nap", we left Castle Rock to go see if we could find some cheap knick-knacks, and ended up finding a free walking tour that was led by a man in a pink hat named Grant. Cheerful and dramatic, Grant guided us through Edinburgh's history, it's architecture, and even it's ghosts, leaving us with some amazing stories, two of which I'll share now.
Our first story is about a little white dog named Greyfriar Bobby (see pic). Bobby was owned by a nightwatchman at Greyfriar cemmetary, who aquired him because at that time, nightwatchmen were required to own and be accompanied by a dog. Even though Bobby was a tiny little fluff, he followed the watchman through the cemmetary loyally and until his owner died lived happily as a ferocious police companion. When the watchman died, two years later, Bobby was left to wander the graveyard. He sat on his master's grave everyday for a week, and then a month, and then fourteen years, eventually dying--having stayed with his master in Greyfriars every day of his life. Now Bobby is commemorated with the statue that you see (the most photographed one in Edinburgh), and a gravestone that reads "May his loyalty inspire us all".
Next, we have a story that is a bit less PG. Maggie Dickinson was a poor, but reasonably upstanding citizen, when her husband left her and she was forced to find a job in the house of a local nobelman. She took a liking to the nobelman's son, who also liked her, and eventually became pregnant by him. To save herself from certain punishment (for adultry), she hid the pregnancy for seven months, continuing to work hard in the nobelman's house. The work soon wore on Maggie and when her pregnancy progressed too far to stand it, she miscarried. Maggie took the body to the Leithe River to toss her dead baby in, but could not do it and dug a shallow grave by the River's shore. The next day, with Scottish weather being what it is, the grave melted away to reveal the child's body, and Maggie's secret was eventually discovered. She was arrested and condemned to hang for adultry. The story goes on to recount how at her hanging, she was pronounced dead, loaded into a herse, and as the herse driver sped her to the graveyard, she sat up exclaiming that she was not dead. Because Scottish law supports double jeopardy, she was allowed to go free--eventually marrying the nobelman's son, bearing him four children and living for forty more years. We ate dinner in the pub that she went on to own, tonight.
Tonight we're hanging out in the hostel with everyone here, and are hoping to make it to Bath tomorrow, if the trains of Britain permit.
We love you all so much.
Ben&Molly
Quote for the day:
rain rain go away--children's song.
see pics below***
