A tourist peers inside Mary King’s Close — she is portrayed by the somewhat ghostly mannequin in the background.
EDINBURGH - The young woman greeted us with a smile, her face framed in the kind of hood popular with women of the 17th century. Her dress, typical of the same era, was floor length and frilly, the lace indicating she was well to do.
"My mother was the real Mary King" she said, adding that her name was Jonet (pronounced JOHNet). With that, she began talking our group back in time 250 years, and then she began walking us there.
"We lived on the fifth floor of a building. In those days, the better off you were, the higher your home, (and) our family lived well. My father was a merchant, and after he passed away, my mother continued in business, specializing in fabrics and lace goods for upper-class Edinburgh homes."
Jonet led the way into a dark alley before she headed underground about 40 steps below Edinburgh's famed Royal Mile. The narrow alleys were closed off at night with gates and thus a path was called a "close."
"People did not live underground like moles," Jonet explained. The narrow passageways had been there since the 1100s, with development building around and above them, especially from the 1550s until the mid 1700s. The closes and streets were given names of prominent residents or shop owners. We were at Mary King's Close.
When in 1753 Edinburgh's city fathers decided that a new building was required to house the City Chambers, architects chose a site opposite St. Giles Cathedral, reasoning that the area was least used and therefore expendable.
The buildings on Mary King's Close and four streets surrounding it were leveled, though the City Chambers were built on existing foundations of some of the former buildings, to hold down construction costs.
The area where we walked had been underground for about 250 years. Modern-day Edinburgh officials and historians have recreated, in rooms that existed long ago, versions of residential life as it probably was in 1635 and then up into the 19th century.
Jonet's first stop was at a room in Mary King's home, furnished as it likely would have been more than 31/2 centuries ago. The room had finely carved oak paneling and tapestries on the walls, for added insulation against the cold winter weather.
A side board held odorless tallow candles, silver spoons and a silver loving cup, and a larger "friendship cup" that would be passed around for guests each to sip from.
From this relative elegance of Mary King's apartment, Jonet took us down to where the poorest of the poor lived. Only one room, it would have been home for 10 to 12 people - the place where they slept, ate, drank, cooked and went to the bathroom.
There was little natural light, and the candles used here were not the odorless type found in Mary King's. The poor people burned fish oil and animal fat for illumination.
The invention of the flush toilet was still a couple of centuries away, so everyone living here used the same bucket to relieve themselves. It was the job of the youngest member of the family to see that the "bucket of nastiness" was emptied each evening - into the gutter outside.
"Can you imagine the conditions?" asked Jonet. There were about 70,000 people living in Edinburgh at that time, and all their sewage was dumped in the gutters, which drained off to an area known as Nor' Loch. Nor' Loch also provided Edinburgh residents with their drinking water.
In another home, one Alexander Cant met an untimely demise. He had taken his wife and mother-in-law to court, as they had failed to deliver the dowry that had been promised him for the arranged marriage. The ruling in favor of the husband was too much for the women, one of whom struck a lethal blow to his head with a fire iron. A scene with mannequins depicts this episode. Amd a chambermaid is shown trying to clean the victim's blood off the floor.
The story continued with a bizarre twist: Both mother and daughter were convicted of the murder and sentenced to death - by drowning in the Nor' Loch, of sewage infamy. But the daughter was pregnant and so was spared until the baby arrived. After birth of her child, she asked her brother to take the newborn and she escaped to England, where she remarried.
Our tour also visited a home occupied by a tanner, and we also saw in Pearson's Close the cow shed in the basement - when meat was needed, animals were slaughtered there. As our guide notes, waterborne diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera were often present.
Another health threat were the bubonic and pneumonic (the Black Death) plagues, and their destruction in Edinburgh is also displayed in this unusual museum.
If a plague was traced to a residence, it was quarantined; once the quarantine was lifted, the residence had to be cleansed. In the 1600s that meant burning clothing and any other fabric, as well as the roof thatching. The cleaning job fell to men called "foulis clengers," and while they were offered a good wage, many did not live to collect it.
If you go
The two-hour walk through the underground alleys of the Real Mary King's Close is based on fact: Mary King did live in the area and the close was named after her. She did have a daughter named Jonet, as well as three other children. Alexander Cant really was murdered in a home in the area, and the plagues did strike there.
GETTING THERE: The Real Mary King's Close is located just off Edinburgh's High Street, down the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle and near North Bridge.
The attraction is open every day except Christmas. Tours leave every 20 minutes, beginning at 10 a.m. From April through October, the last tour starts at 9 p.m. From November through March, the last tour leaves at 4 p.m.
Because the underground site has uneven surfaces and some steep inclines, sturdy footwear is essential. Access may prove difficult to those with mobility problems; wheelchairs cannot be accommodated. Children younger than 5 are not admitted.
ADMISSION: The fee for adults is 7 pounds (about $12.75; children ages 5-15 are 5 pounds (about $9). Seniors and students are 6 pounds (about $11)
