224 PROTECTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



was not very different from that of many modern sites of 

 habitation in the East. Imagine the state of the streets of 

 Edinburgh, for example, when, even so late as 1730, the 

 frequent cry of " Gardy Loo" (Gardez feau) heralded a 

 deluge of household slops and filth from the window of an 

 upper storey upon the causeway, or when middens plentifully 

 bestrewed the main avenues of traffic, to the hindrance of 

 the lieges, as Lindsay (d. 1557) relates: 



Marie ! cummand throw the Schogait, 

 Bot thair hes bene ane great debait 



Betwix me and ane sow. 

 The sow cryit guff, and I to ga, 

 Throw speid of fute I gat awa 

 But in the midst of the cawsa 1 



I fell into ane midding. 



In such conditions many animals prone to nose in garbage 

 were afforded a mild sort of protection. Swine were to be 

 found, especially at night, roaming from one heap of offal 

 to another, and it was no unusual chance that led the hero 

 of the verses quoted to meet one in a thoroughfare. Nor was 

 it a fortuitous juxtaposition that occurred when the Assize of 

 Haddington in October 1543 ordained "Item all muk to 

 be put off the Gait [street] and all swyne to be put off the 

 Towne." The foragings of clogs and cats also were so much 

 encouraged that their presence became a public nuisance, and 

 the Haddington Assize was compelled to ordain "that the 

 hangman sail escheit to hymself all swyne doggs & catts at 

 [that] he fyndis one [on] the gait fra this nycht furcht." 



BIRDS OF CARRION 



Many carrion-feeding birds were encouraged to aid in 

 the work of scavenging; else how can we account for the 

 numbers which frequented the streets of Edinburgh and 

 Leith? A casual reference in Wedderburn's Accompt Book 

 indicates the presence of these visitors, whose appearance in 

 the streets called for no remark on ordinary occasions, 

 although during an eclipse of the sun in 1597, 



the peiple with gryt fair fled aff the calsayis [causeways] to houssis 

 mourning and lamenting, and the crawis and corbeis and ravenois foullis 

 fled to houssis to our steple and tolbuith and schip tappis, maist merveul- 

 ously affrayit. 



1 Causeway. 



