November 4 , 2003 - page 2



their children, the government workers quickly bricked the door back up leaving the mothers to die with their children.

Also, during these times you didn’t actually have to be dead to be buried. You just had to look dead (e.g. you could be in a coma or have fainted). Thus, there were several people who
were buried alive. The government started to realize this, so it became common practice to have a bell next to the grave with a cord that extended down into the coffin. This was so that if you woke up and realized, “oh no, this isn’t good,” you could ring the bell and hopefully someone would come along




 

and dig you up.

The tour also led us into the underground vaults, which are supposedly haunted. At one point there was a giant fire in
Edinburgh, and large crowds of people ran down to the vaults with the thought that stone won’t burn. They didn’t think about smoke in the vaults. A building collapsed in front of the only vault exit. This basically turned the vaults into huge ovens that cooked everyone inside.

Okay, enough of that tasty history. There huge ornate churches (or kirks, as they call them) all along the royal mile. They have actually just unearthed an entire road buried underneath Tron church with the remnants of stores and houses. The royal mile is basically a road that runs from Edinburgh castle down to the palace and contains several wool shops, pubs, and fudge stores. Bagpipers can also been found on this street as well as a man who genuinely believes he’s William Wallace.

The cemeteries in Edinburgh look like those from old horror movies. All the stones are overgrown with weeds and ivy and have toppled over on each other. Several of the stones