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As a companion piece to last month's 'Desecration of the Calton Hill', we reproduce this article from the North Briton (8 December 1877).

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As you read this, early copies of the November Spurtle are already filtering out across the barony like leaves borne on an Edinburgh autumn breeze. Horizontal, at high speed, and soggy.

Page 1 starts with reports about roads, rubbish, riverbank accommodation, a new place to stay, and an enormous inflatable monkey.

It continues on Page 2 by examining space and what to do with it, capital nuisances, fresh fish, a lack of therapy, and a movie-related fart in the dark in Warriston.

When Spurtle interviewed Tom Hodges earlier this week, the irrepressible fizz in the Typewronger Books bottle was anxiously preparing for a special delivery … 1,400 books all arriving at once and requiring careful checking before removal by a customer the next day.

The client on this occasion was a film company requiring Tom’s quirky curation to dress a set. But compiling collections small and large like this is nothing new for this 34-year-old bookseller, who is long accustomed to providing personalised consultations and bespoke gift boxes for curious readers.

THERE'S ALWAYS CLEANING FLUID, BUT IS IT THE SOLUTION?

Councillors on the Culture & Communities Cmte last month approved a Report on Edinburgh Council’s Graffiti Strategy.

The Report comes at a time when anecdotal evidence suggests graffiti – or at least the repetitive territorial marks known as ‘tags’ as opposed to ‘street-art’ – have become more prevalent across the city.

MUSIC SCHOOL IS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE

Scottish Ministers have dismissed the planning appeals by Duddingston House Properties and Urbanist Hotels against City of Edinburgh Council’s denial of planning permission for proposals to turn the old Royal High School into a luxury hotel (PPA-230-2213).

Better Broughton is a new informal group set up by local residents to campaign for improvements to the corridor between Canonmills and the top of Leith Street.

This intriguing enigma appeared in Bellevue recently.

The point seems to be that either a food product is so unhealthy that to consume it displays a lack of common sense. Or that a lack of common sense explains people’s failure to consume this healthy food product.

There’s a self-contradictory balance at play here, although other explanations are likely available.

Gentle breeze

SHORT SHRIFT FOR THIN-END-OF-THE-WEDGE HOUSE PROPOSAL

Verticus Ltd seeks planning permission to demolish a single-storey garage at 17 Spey Street Lane and build in its place a 2-storey three-bedroom house (20/04132/FUL; 20/04133/CON).

EYRE PLACE RESIDENTS CONCERNED FOR PRIVACY

Some residents on the south side of Eyre Place are concerned that their bedrooms at the back will be overlooked from adjacent flats forming part of the proposed New Town Quarter between Dundas Street and King George V Park.

DAMAGE IN CHARLOTTE SQUARE GARDENS

A new visual assessment looking at the current condition of 49 trees in Charlotte Square Gardens has found that ‘continued instances of inappropriate cultural practices’ are causing damage.

The harms include: alteration of soil structure, physical wounding of surface roots through turf maintenance, and physical damage to a significant number of trees’ roots and stems.