I overheard some Canadian visitors yesterday exclaiming about the oldness of Edinburgh's New Town - which is Georgian - and gasping when they were told by a local that the Old Town (above) is even older. "Canada is just too new!" they said.
In contrast to the enthusiasm and delight of the tourists, I was amused to read this less appreciative view of Edinburgh quoted in Hilary Mantel's novel of the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety. Here is Sir Francis Burdett, British Ambassador, on Paris:
"It is the most ill-contrived, ill-built, dirty stinking town that can possibly be imagined; as for the inhabitants, they are ten times more nasty than the inhabitants of Edinburgh."
What to say to that? Ça alors! Oh dear! Or in the vernacular, awa' an' bile yer heid, man!
