As you read this, advance copies of the February Spurtle have already begun snowdropping across the barony.

The new issue begins with an exclusive – the impending loss of a high-street staple. It continues cheerily with a local slant on disease, gives a guarded thumbs up to the brave new Bonnington, and heartily applauds two locals well worthy of your support and recognition.

Page 2 contains more Planning than you can shake a theodolite at. With added granola and extra parking.

Hotels, Hydropathics, &c.

Continental hotel and restaurant,

Meuse Lane (on St David Street.)

Luncheons, Dinners, and Suppers at Popular Prices.

Good-Sized Rooms for Meetings for Business Men.

Hotel Tariff Moderate.

G. RIETZ, Proprietor and Manager.[1]

Scotsman, 24 April 1902

WANTED, girl to wash bottles, and also one to label.—James Robertson & Co., York Lane.[1]

Edinburgh Evening News, 4 January 1902

[1] The company was a manufacturer of aerated water. It did not normally label girls.

****

Another of Warriston Cemetery’s gentle giants has fallen.

The latest example, when seen from Warriston Road, appears to have been rooted in the bank by the Water of Leith.

Closer inspection, though, shows that it’s the one next to the informal entry into the cemetery from the cyclepath at Warriston Junction.

We’re not aware of strong winds overnight. It seems instead that persistent rain has loosened the cemetery’s particularly soft and productive soil, and that the tree simply toppled under its own weight.

Some 30 local residents are circulating objections to planning proposals for two properties at 108/14 and 116 Dundas Street (20/05645/FUL; 20/05646/CON).

FIRE IN AN EDINBURGH WORKSHOP.

A fire broke out in a joiner’s workshop situated in Swinton Row, Broughton Street, Edinburgh, yesterday afternoon.[1]

The workshop, which occupies a two-storeyed brick building, is in close proximity to Messrs Moir & Co.’s large funeral undertaking establishment, where, in the stables and yard, there were a large number of horses, hearses, cabs, and other vehicles.

A day of greys.

A day of greys and drizzle on the brink of sleet.

A day of grey birds skating on thin ice.

A day of honey-coloured homes becoming headstones …

And then this: Bellevue surprises.

The photograph shown here of a ‘winter angel’, posted on Twitter at the weekend, prompted some interest among readers.

Several got in touch to ask what high-profile personage had been commemorated by such a substantial, beautiful, and expensive piece of sculpture.

The answers are surprising, for, despite occupying one of the most prestigious plots in Rosebank Cemetery, those remembered here came from comparatively humble origins.

The angel stands scattering flowers over the grave of David Bremner and Elizabeth Henderson.

LEITH POLICE COURT.

(BAILIE M’KELVIE ON THE BENCH.)

THURSDAY

Robert Mearns, labourer, Greenside Row, Edinburgh, was not working about the beginning of the present month, but he devised other and easier means to become the proud possessor of two quart bottles of whisky.

Planning permission is sought to convert two Category A-listed properties on London Street into short-term holiday-let accommodation.

Both properties are at No. 39, and both have fallen into disrepair after being unoccupied for between 10 and 30 years. Both properties have their own front doors.

On the level