'BEAUTIFUL as she is, she is not so much beautiful as interesting" wrote one of Edinburgh's most famous sons, Robert Louis Stevenson, of the city of his birth. "In a word, and above all, she is a curiosity."
And how right he was.
Stevenson was remarking on the eccentricities of Edinburgh's architecture - the Victorian squalor of the Old Town harshly juxtaposed by the New Town's elegance, where grave, bewigged judges sat in splendour just yards from the stinking homes of bedraggled citizens.
Yet his comments could just as easily relate to the almost disproportionate number of unconventional and outlandish figures, each with his or her own unique place in the Capital's history.
For while every town and every city has its share of interesting characters, few can boast such a wealth of oddballs and eccentrics as Edinburgh.
Some have, of course, become worldwide household names: from the infamous, murderous pairing of Burke and Hare to the heartwarming, sugary tale of Greyfriars Bobby and the duplicitous Deacon Brodie.
Then there's Indian Peter. Less famous, but with a story just as remarkable, he was snatched as a child, sold into American slavery then kidnapped by Native Americans. Perhaps even stranger, Indian Peter returned to Edinburgh to publish the city's first 'A-Z' style roads directory and launch its penny post, while making a handsome living from dressing as a Native American and performing war dances.
Larger than life, perhaps, yet Indian Peter seems tame when set alongside some of Edinburgh's other extraordinary characters.
LORD MONBODDO (pictured)
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, a Court of Session judge, scholar of language evolution and philosopher, should have been a perfect example of intellect and good sense. In truth, he was among Edinburgh's oddest characters.
Born in 1714, his home in St John Street became one of the city's key venues for intellectual gatherings - Burns, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell were among his guests. But quite what they made of Monboddo's theories is anyone's guess.
According to Monboddo, babies the world over were born with tails which were lopped off by midwives at birth. He was passionate about the Ancient Greeks and believed prime physical condition could be achieved by following their practices - so much so that he loathed anything modern, preferring to travel by horseback in all weathers rather than accept the comfort of a modern carriage.
But perhaps his finest moment came when visiting the King's Court in London in 1787. Rumours swept the building that part of the courtroom ceiling was going to collapse. Burnett, now aged 71, partially deaf and with eyesight problems, was the only person not to move. Asked later why he hadn't stirred, he calmly stated that he thought it "an annual ceremony with which, as an alien, he had nothing to do".
Despite his oddities, Monboddo was later considered to be years ahead of his time. He shocked society with his belief that the orangutan was a form of man - a theory later seen to precede those of Charles Darwin.
DR JAMES GRAHAM
Lord Monboddo appears normal alongside his 18th century contemporary, Dr Graham, possibly the world's first sex therapist.
His Temple of Health and Hymen became a Mecca for Georgian gents and their blushing lovers with its promise to cure sexual woes by way of an aromatic mattress, powerful magnets and a hefty jolt of electricity administered at the crucial moment.
Born in the Cowgate, he put his medical studies at Edinburgh University to dubious use by becoming one of the many quacks who combined a gift for showmanship with a gullible public.
And yet, like Monboddo, is it possible he was really ahead of his time? He spouted the benefits of mud baths as vital for long life, embraced vegetarianism - although he took it a bit far by suggesting it was possible to live for months without food - and encouraged his patients to eat healthily on nuts and seeds and drink only cold water and fresh milk.
He is credited by some for inventing electrotherapy - still used in hospitals today - and his clever marketing skills and use of celebrity endorsement was many decades ahead of its time. Nuts, seeds, mud baths and electric shocks, however, did not ensure Dr Graham lived to a grand old age. He died in 1794, aged 49.
JAMES 'BALLOON' TYTLER
Surgeon, encyclopedia writer, composer, poet, publisher - James Tytler was also the first man in Britain to fly.
It was at Comely Gardens near King's Park in August 1784 that he donned a cork jacket for protection and seated himself in the basket of his fire-powered balloon ready for lift off.
"The ropes being cut, he ascended very high and again descended very leisurely on the road to Restalrig, about half a mile from the place where he rose," reported the Gentlemen's Magazine of September 1784.
Tytler's own description paints a rather more chaotic image. "The balloon set off from the ground with the swiftness of an arrow but could not ascend more than a few feet when it was stopped by a rope.
"This broke, and when freed from this, it flew with such rapidity that several of the spectators, terrified at the sight, endeavoured to drag it downwards. Thus my career was stopped and I arose only a very small way, some say 350 feet, others 500 feet."
One biography written 100 years after his death suggested his flight prompted more guffaws than gasps of awe.
"There was no real danger; the balloon only moved so high and so far as to carry him over the garden wall and deposit him softly on an adjoining dunghill," reported The Scotsman at the time.
Oddball, off centre, certainly unconventional: just one of many characters whose presence lit up - as RLS might have put it - Edinburgh's curious streets.
And without them, Auld Reekie may well have been a much greyer city indeed.
Appeared Edinburgh Evening News, 18 Feb 2006
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