Netherbow Well, High Street

Image: © kim traynor Taken: 5 Nov 2010

Before fresh water was piped into Edinburgh in the 1620s, residents had to draw supplies from the Nor Loch which was later drained to form Princes Street Gardens. The scarcity of water led to almost every visitor being taken aback by the noxious smells, filth and squalor of living conditions that seem to have beggared belief. An English courtier, Sir Antony Weldon, accompanying James VI on his only return visit to Scotland in 1617, made the following tactless observation, "And therefore, to conclude, the men of old did no more wonder that the great Messias should be born in so poor a town as Bethlem in Judea, than I do wonder that so great a prince as King James should be born in so stinking a town as Edinburgh in lousy Scotland." But even after the introduction of a communal water supply, the tone of traveller's accounts changed little. Joseph Taylor, visiting in 1705, wrote, "Every street shows the nastiness of the inhabitants, the excrements lie in heaps. In a morning the scent was so offensive, that we were forced to hold our noses as we past the streets, and take care where we trod for fear of disobliging our shoes, and to walk in the middle at night, for fear of an accident on our heads. 'Tis a common thing for a man or woman to go into these closes at all times of the day to ease nature. The lodgings are as nasty as the streets, and washed so seldom that the dirt is thick enough to be pared off with a shovel. Every room is well scented with a close stool, and the master, mistress, and servants lie all on a floor, like so many swine in a hogsty. This with the rest of their sluttishness, is no doubt the occasion of the Itch, which is so common amongst them."

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