Hangman’s Craig

An Edinburgh hangman, who flourished about the time of Charles II, was a reduced gentleman. the last of a re-
spectable family who had possessed an estate in the neighbourhood of Melrose. He had been a profligate in early life, squandered the whole of his inheritance, and at length, for the sake of subsistence, was compelled to accept the wretched office, which in those days must have been unusually obnoxious to popular odium, on account of the frequent executions of innocent and religious men. Not withstanding his extreme degrada-
tion, this uuhappy reprobate could not altogether forget his original station, and his former tastes and habits.

He would occasionally resume the garb of a gentleman, and mingle in the parties of citizens who played at golf in the evenings on Bruntsfield I,inks. Being at length recognised, he was chased from the ground with shouts of hate and loathing, which affected him so much that he retired to the solitude of the King’s Park, and was next day found dead at the bottom of a precipice, over which he appeared to have thrown himself in his despair. This rock was afterwards called the Hangman’s Craig.

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