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The Plague

Edinburgh did not escape the visitations of that frightful scourge, the Plague, or Pest, which so ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages. This dreaded disease was a malignant and fatal contagious sickness, resembling in its nature typhus fever. It was characterized by buboes, or swelling of certain lymphatic glands, and frequently attended by purpuric spots, due to a rupture of the blood vessels under the skin. These marks were the so-called " plague spots," and were always considered a fatal sign. During the various epidemics throughout Europe, the mortality ranged from 50 to 90 per cent.

This disease, which in olden times was considered to be a visitation of God to punish the wickedness of the people, we now know to have its origin in a specific germ. The conditions most favourable for the development of the plague are poor nutrition, overcrowding, bad ventilation, uncleanliness, and the saturation of the soil with filth. We thus see that all these conditions were realized in the Old Town when we remember its sanitary state.

In the year 1513 — the date of the frightful disaster at Flodden — the terror and mourning in the stricken city was intensified by the presence of the plague within its walls. It was the old superstition that the pest always portended or accompanied some great general calamity.

The plague again in 1530 laid its fell hand upon Edinburgh, and a curious entry exists in the Burgh records, where Marione Clerk is convicted by the magistrates of concealing her infection, and of having " past amongis ye nychtbouris of this toune to ye chapell of Sant Mary Wynd on Sonday to ye mess, and to hir sisteris houss and vther placis, doand quhat wes in hir till haif infekkit alle ye toune." This unfortunate woman for going to church during her illness was convicted and drowned in the " Quarell Holes."

Hanging was not at all uncommon for this offence of concealment, and the case below quoted is recorded under August 2d of this same year: — "The quhilk day forsamekle as it wes perfytlie vnderstand and kend that Dauid Duly, tailyour, has haldin his wife seyk in ye contagious seiknes of pestilens ij dayis in his houss, and wald nocht revele ye samyn to ye officiaris of ye toune quhill scho (she) wes deid in ye said seiknes. And in ye meyn tyme ye sayde Dauid past to Sanct Gelis Kirk quhilk wes Sonday, and thair said mess amangis ye cleyne pepill, his wife beand in extremis in ye said seiknes, doand quhat wes in him till haif inf ekkit all ye toune. For the quhilk causis he wes adjudgit to be hangit on ane gebat befor his awin durr, and that wes gevin for dome."

It appears, however, that in this case David miraculously escaped by reason of the breaking of the rope when he was swung from the gibbet, for the record says later: — " becaus at ye will of God he has eschapit and ye raip brokin, and fallin of ye gibbat, and is ane pure (poor) man with small barnis, and for pete of him, ye prouest, bailies and counsall, bannasis ye said Dauid this toune for all ye dais of his lyf, and nocht to cum thairintill in ye meyn tyme, vnder ye pain of deid."

The " Diurnal of Occurrents " notes under the date of Sept. 8, 1568, that " Ane callit James Dalgleish, merchant, brought the pest to Edinburgh." The pestilence prevailed until February, and is said to have carried off 2,500 persons in Edinburgh, or about one-tenth of the population. The public policy was directed rather to the preservation of the untainted than to the care of the sick. Selfishness ruled the day, and the inhumanity towards the humbler classes was beyond belief. " Maister Gilbert Skeyne, Doctour in Medicine," remarks in his little tract on the pest printed in Edinburgh at this time, that " Every ane is become sae detestable to the other (whilk is to be lamentit) and specially the puir in the sight of the rich, as gif they were not equal with them touching their creation, but rather without saul or spirit, as beasts degenerate fra mankind."

Dr. Skeyne's treatise gives us an idea of the views of the medical profession of those days regarding the pest. It proceeds, in his opinion, from a corruption of the air, which he traces to the wrath of the just God at the sins of mankind. But to show that even in the old days medical observation and judgment were not wanting, even if treatment was inefficient, he states that there are inferior causes. These he mentions as corrupting animal matters and filth, unwholesome food and bad water. He gives a variety of curious recipes and rules of treatment, expressed partly in Latin, and partly in English.

Again, under October 14, 1574, it is recorded that the plague entered Edinburgh, " brought in by ane dochter (daughter) of Malvis Curll, out of Kirkaldy." The Court of Session abstained from sitting in consequence, and the kirk-session later appointed " ane public fast and humiliation to last for eight days" to remove the scourge. Apparently the disease did not claim many victims at this time.

King James VI. tells us, in his " Basilicon Doron," that " the pest always smites the sickarest such as flies it furthest and apprehends deepliest the peril thereof." It is to be noted, however, that whenever the plague appeared in " Jamie's " vicinity, the royal person was removed to more salubrious parts with great and exceeding celerity. When he was hunting at Ruthven, in September, 1584, " word came that there were five or six houses affected with the plague in Perth, where his Majesty's servants were for the time. Whereupon his Majesty departed the same night with a very small train to Tullibardine, and next day to Stirling, leaving his whole household servants enclosed in the place of Ruthven, with express command not to follow, nor remove forth of the same, until they saw what became of them on the suspicion." In May, 1585, the pest was brought by a servant-woman to the Fish-market in Edinburgh, where it " was first knawn to be in Simon Mercerbank's house." On the very day the disease appeared in Edinburgh, King " Jamie" suddenly remembered an important engagement at Dirleton with the

Earl of Arran, and departed so swiftly, that to quote an old saying, " you could not see his heels for dust." The pest raged in the city until the following January, and many died, the total number being about 2,000. All those who were able to do so fled from the city. The people attributed the severity of this pestilence to the infamous life of the Earl of Arran and his lady, then the ruling power of Scotland.

The plague, which continued to appear from time to time in Edinburgh, made its last and most fatal visitation in 1645. So fiercely did it rage that it is said there were scarcely sixty men left capable of defending the city. When the Marquis of Montrose, therefore, wrote to the Magistrates and Council after his victory over the Covenanters at Kilsyth, demanding the immediate liberation, under threats of fire and sword, of the Earl of Crawford, with other political prisoners who had been confined in the Tolbooth, the Magistrates had no alternative but to obey. Montrose was prevented solely by the plague from advancing and taking the city.