The Statistical Account of Scotland, culled from responses to a series of questions by Church of Scotland ministers in every county, was first published between 1791 and 1799 in twenty-one volumes. In this first edition were three letters, by the bookseller and publisher William Creech, demonstrating the great changes Edinburgh had seen in the space of twenty years. A selection of his main points follows:
In 1763 – There were two stage-coaches, with three horses, a coachman, and postilion to each coach, which went to the port of Leith (a mile and a half distant) every hour from eight in the morning, till eight at night, and consumed a full hour upon the road. There were no other stage-coaches in Scotland, except one, which set out once a month for London, and it was from twelve to sixteen days upon the journey.
In 1783 – There were five or six stage-coaches to Leith every half-hour, which ran it in fifteen minutes. Dunn, who opened the magnificent hotels in the New Town, was the first person who attempted a stagecoach to Dalkeith, a village six miles distant. – There are now stagecoaches, flies, and diligences, to every considerable town in Scotland, and to many of them two, three, four, and five: To London there were not less than sixty stage-coaches monthly, or fifteen every week, and they reached the capital in four days.
In 1763 – The number of boys at the grammar school was not more than 200.
In 1783 – The number of boys at the grammar school was 500. It is believed the most numerous school in Britain.
In 1763 – There was no such profession known as a Haberdasher.
In 1783 – The profession of a haberdasher (which includes many trades, the mercer, the milliner, the linen-draper, the hatter, the hosier, the glover, and many others), was nearly the most common in town; and they have multiplied greatly.
In 1763 – There was no such profession known as a perfumer: barbers and wigmakers were numerous, and were in the order of decent burgesses! Hairdressers were few, and hardly permitted to dress hair on Sundays; and many of them voluntarily declined it.
In 1783 – Perfumers had splendid shops in every principal street: Some of them advertised the keeping of bears, to kill occasionally, for greasing ladies and gentlemen’s hair, as superior to any other animal fat. Hairdressers were more than tripled in number; and their busiest day was Sunday. There was a professor who advertised a Hair dressing Academy, and gave lectures on that noble and useful art.
In 1763 – The wages to maid-servants were generally from L.3 to L.4 a year. They dressed decently in blue or red cloaks, or in plaids, suitable to their stations.
In 1783 – The wages are nearly the same; but their dress and appearance are greatly altered, the maid-servants dressing almost as fine as their mistresses did in 1763.
In 1763 – A stranger coming to Edinburgh was obliged to put up at a dirty and uncomfortable inn, or to remove to private lodgings. There was no such place as an hotel; the word, indeed, was not known, or was only intelligible to persons acquainted with the French.
In 1783 – A stranger might have been accommodated, not only comfortably, but most elegantly, at many public hotels; and the person who, in 1763, was obliged to put up with accommodation little better than that of a waggoner or a carrier, may now be lodged like a prince, and command every luxury of life. His guinea, it must be acknowledged, will not go quite so far as it did in 1763.
In 1763 – It was fashionable to go to church, and people were interested about religion. Sunday was strictly observed by all ranks as a day of devotion; and it was disgraceful to be seen on the streets during the time of public worship …
In 1783 – Attendance on church was greatly neglected, and particularly by the men. Sunday was by many made a day of relaxation; and young people were allowed to stroll about at all hours. Families thought it ungenteel to take their domestics to church with them: The streets were far from being void of people in the time of public worship; and, in the evenings, were frequently loose and riotous; particularly owing to bands of apprentice boys and young lads.
In 1763 – There were five or six brothels, or houses of bad fame, and a very few of the lowest and most ignorant order of females sculked about the streets at night. A person might have gone from the Castle to Holyroodhouse, (the then length of the city), at any hour in the night, without being accosted by a single street-walker. Street-robbery, and pocket-picking were unknown.
In 1783 – The number of brothels has increased twenty-fold, and the women of the town more than a hundred-fold. Every quarter of the city and suburbs was infested with multitudes of females abandoned to vice, and a great many at a very early period of life, before passion could mislead, or reason teach them right from wrong. Street-robbers, pick-pockets, and thieves, had much increased.
In 1763 – In the best families in town, the education of daughters was fitted, not only to embellish and improve their minds, but to accomplish them in the useful and necessary arts of domestic economy. The sewing-school, the pastry-school, were then essential branches of female education; nor was a young lady of the best family ashamed to go to market with her mother.
In 1783 – The daughters of many tradesmen consumed the mornings at the toilet, or in strolling from shop to shop, &c. Many of them would have blushed to have been seen in a market. The cares of the family were devolved upon a housekeeper; and the young lady employed those heavy hours when she was disengaged from public or private amusements, in improving her mind from the precious stores of a circulating library; – and all, whether they had taste for it or not, were taught music at a great expense.
In 1763 – Young ladies (even by themselves) might have walked through the streets of the city in perfect security at any hour. No person would have interrupted, or spoken to them.
In 1783 – The mistresses of boarding-schools found it necessary to advertise, that their young ladies were not permitted to go abroad without proper attendants.
In 1791 – Boys, from bad example at home, and worse abroad, had become forward and insolent. They early frequented taverns, and were soon initiated in folly and vice, without any religious principle to restrain them. It has been an error of twenty years, to precipitate the education of boys, and make them too soon men.