>I have a feeling that Edinbuurgh had its soubriquet of "Auld Reekie" long before that - am I right, Jo? Maybe the inhabitants could afford bigger and better fires than the Londoners - or maybe it's because Edinburgh is a damned cold place!
Edinbuurgh or Edinbrrrrrgh? Actually the sun is shining on this lovely autumn day.
It looks like Burns used the term in the 1780s and there are plenty of references to Edinburgh's 10,000 chimneys. see
http://members.home.net/iowascot/Scottish Bits/edinburgh.htmTo Miss Ferrier
Enclosing the Elegy on Sir J. H. Blair. (Burns - 1787)
Nae heathen name shall I prefix,
Frae Pindus or Parnassus;
Auld Reekie dings them a' to sticks,
For rhyme-inspiring lasses.
Jove's tunefu' dochters three times three
Made Homer deep their debtor;
But, gien the body half an e'e,
Nine Ferriers wad done better!
Last day my mind was in a bog,
Down George's Street I stoited;
A creeping cauld prosaic fog
My very sense doited.
Do what I dought to set her free,
My saul lay in the mire;
Ye turned a neuk-I saw your e'e-
She took the wing like fire!
The mournfu' sang I here enclose,
In gratitude I send you,
And pray, in rhyme as weel as prose,
A' gude things may attend you!
but I found an earlier reference:
As we know, Edinburgh people didn't actually walk down streets - they just went through the motions.
From: "An Edinburgh Day" (An extract from the long poem "Auld Reekie" by Robert Fergusson, 1750-74)
On stair wi' tub, or pat in hand
The barefoot housemaids looe to stand,
That antrin fock may ken how snell
Auld Reikie will at morning smell:
Then, with an inundation big as
The burn that 'neath the nore loch brig is,
They kindly shower Edina's Roses*,
