Cassell's Old and new Edinburgh: its history, its people, and its places . xercise in the Links, or any othei George Square.] GREEN BREEKS. 341 incident which occurred in that then fashionablepromenade. It was in this square, and in tlie adjoiningsuburbs of ]]risto Street, the Potterrow, and CrossCauseway, that those bidders of stones, or streetfights between bo)S of different ranks and locah-ties—New Town and Old Town boys, Heriotersand Watsoners—took place—juvenile exploits, towhich he refers in his general preface to the? Waverley Novels. These dangerous rows were bickers which took place b
Cassell's Old and new Edinburgh: its history, its people, and its places . xercise in the Links, or any othei George Square.] GREEN BREEKS. 341 incident which occurred in that then fashionablepromenade. It was in this square, and in tlie adjoiningsuburbs of ]]risto Street, the Potterrow, and CrossCauseway, that those bidders of stones, or streetfights between bo)S of different ranks and locah-ties—New Town and Old Town boys, Heriotersand Watsoners—took place—juvenile exploits, towhich he refers in his general preface to the? Waverley Novels. These dangerous rows were bickers which took place between the aristocraticyouths of George Square and the plebeian fry of itsvicinity, and it runs thus :— It followed, from ourfrequent opposition to each other, that, though notknowing the names of our enemies, we were yetwell acquainted with tlieir appearance, and hai;nicknames for the most remarkable of tliem. Onevery active and spirited boy might be considered,leader in the cohort of the suburbs. He was, Isuppose, thirteen or fourteen years old, finely , SH(P\VlNi; I1(JUSE (sKi;UM) (in the lei I ) uK bIR ^rrill b IAiUIK. difficult of su[)pression, as the parties always keptpretty far apart, and the fight was often a runningone, till the Town Guard caine on the ground, andthen all parties joined against that force as acommon foe, and clouds of stones were hurled atthem. These bickers, as an Edinburgh feature,were of great anti(iuity, and we have already citedan act of the Town Council published anent themin 1529; and Calderwood tells us that upon Day, the 20th (January, 1582-3), the LordHeries departed this life suddonlie, in time of theafternoones preaching, going to an upi)er cham-ber in Uilliam Fowllars lodging to sec the boyesbicker Scott has told us an anecdote of his share in the tall, blue-eyed, with long fair hair, the very pictureof a Goth. Tliis lad was always the first in thecharge and last in retreat—the Achilles
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