Because, until the building of the New Town in the 18th Century, everyone — royalty, the aristocracy, merchants and workers — all lived within a stone’s throw of each other, it was hard to maintain airs and graces. Politicians who had fallen out with the people, were ‘peebled wi’ stanes’ in Walter Scott’s phrase, if they progressed down the street unguarded. Dukes, like Queensberry, had to take care as they walked up the Canongate. Even James VI — First of England — described by Fry as ‘not just queer but peculiar’, was greeted more as a relative who was going away for a bit, than a monarch taking leave of his country, when he announced to the congregation in St Giles that he was leaving for England.
Behind all this, mercantile Edinburgh was keeping the place going. One of the revelations of Fry’s book is how few real money-makers drove the city forward. In the aftermath of the Union, it was estimated that just 300 rich merchants were keeping Edinburgh’s head above water. Later, of course, it became a serious wealth creator.
Fry’s range is impressive. His account of Edinburgh is in the style of Peter Ackroyd’s history of London — digging into its dark corners rather than maintaining a historian’s narrative. Where he strays is in attempting too broad a historical account, not just of Edinburgh, but of Scotland. It might have been better if he had concentrated on the sex.
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