When the Edinburgh-born author, Robert Louis Stevenson sat down to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, he no doubt had in mind the story of Deacon Brodie – upright pillar of the community by day, criminal by night. However, he must also have been aware of the many faces that his home city presented. Edinburgh, the city of education, enlightenment and rational thought was also the home of the riotous mob that could not be reasoned with. The wide, elegant, refined streets of the Georgian New Town could have no greater contrast than the stinking wynds and verminous closes of Auld Reekie. Yet, it was these very opposites that gave Edinburgh and her people their unique character, a city that is both high and low, in reality, imagination and temperament. A character, summed up by other Scots, in the phrase, “Fur coat and nae knickers”. Such a city has many, many tales. Here, are just a few of them.