The story behind the image:
The cobbled West Bow was once the main traffic route into Edinburgh from the west and south to the main thoroughfare, the High Street or Royal Mile. This was also the entry to the Grassmarket, the common place of execution.
In 1736 Captain John Porteous, Commander of the City Guard, ordered his men to fire into the Edinburgh mob who were rioting after an execution. Many were killed and wounded. Porteous was tried and sentenced to hang, but reprieved. This verdict so enraged the mob that they broke into the Tolbooth Jail in the High Street and dragged Porteous to the Grassmarket down the West Bow. Some of the mob entered a hardware store in the Bow and took a rope to hang Porteous. They insisted on paying for the rope, preferring not to be known as thieves as well as murderers.
The cobbled streets of the West Bow also saved a life.
Maggie Dixon was hanged for killing her baby. After execution, her body was taken from the Grassmarket up the West Bow. The shaking of the cart on the cobblestones must have revived the 'corpse.' When the carter stopped at a tavern for a drink, she left the cart and walked home. As her sentence had been carried out she was declared free and for the rest of her life was known as ' half-hingit Maggie.'
Many people think the houses have a Dutch flavour and certainly the orange fronted tenement is of that nation's character. Scotland and Holland have had a long association and the towns on the east coast of Scotland feature many houses in the Dutch style. The Old Town of Edinburgh is renowned for the height of its buildings or tenements.
In the 18th century it was observed "that in no City in the World so many people live in so little room as Edinburgh." Another observer in the 17th century said that the houses were commonplace but are so stocked with people that there can be hardly another town so populous for its size.
Finally, a resident of the West Bow, in the the 17th century, was Major Thomas Weir. He and his sister Griselda, in the heat and fervour of a religious meeting confessed that they were devil worshippers and enjoyed an incestuous relationship.
Both were strangled and burnt for witchcraft in 1670.
The ghost of Major Weir, on a black headless horse is said to clatter down the West Bow on dark and windy nights.
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