The Story of Burke and Hare

Alexander Leighton

Description

“The Story of Burke and Hare” is an 1861 work by Alexander Leighton that examines the Burke and Hare case, a series of 16 brutal murders perpetrated by William Burke and William Hare in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1828. After the murders, the duo sold the cadavers to Robert Knox who then used them in his lectures for dissection. Leighton describes in detail the murders and evidence, as well as the trial and other elements of one of Scotland's most notorious crimes. Contents include: “First Appearance in Surgeon’s Square”, “Intercalary”, “The Young Amateurs”, “The Regular Staff.”, “Sympathising Sextons, Doctors, and Relatives”, “Preying on Each Other”, “Resumption of the Great Drama”, “The Quaternion”, “The Opening of the Court”, “The Mother and Daughter”, “The Grandmother and the Dumb Boy.”, “The Stray Waifs”, “The Relative”, “The Study for the Artist”, etc. Read & Co. History is proudly republishing this classic work now in a brand new edition complete with an introductory biography of the author by Thomas Wilson Bayne.

Sujets

• Grave robbery

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 24 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528792257
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Story of Burke and Hare
By
ALEXANDER LEIGHTON

First published in 1861



Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. History
This edition is published by Read & Co. History, an imprint of Read & Co.
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Contents
ALEXAN DER LEIGHTON
By Thomas Wilson Bayne
PREFACE
FIRST APPEARANCE IN SURG EON’S SQUARE
INTERCALARY
THE YO UNG AMATEURS
THE R EGULAR STAFF
SYMPATHISING SEXTONS, DOCTORS, A ND RELATIVES
PREYING O N EACH OTHER
RESUMPTION OF THE GREAT DRAMA
TH E QUATERNION
THE OPENING OF THE COURT
THE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER
THE GRANDMOTHER AND THE DUMB BOY
THE STRAY WAIFS
THE RELATIVE
THE STUDY FO R THE ARTIST
DAFT JAMIE
THE BRISK LITT LE OLD WOMAN
T HE DISCOVERY
THE COMPLICITY OF THE DOCTORS
THE TRIAL
THE JAIL
VEJOVE
TH E EXHIBITION
THE PROSECUTION AGAINST HARE
THE HUNT OUT
THE FINAL CAUSE




ALEXANDER LEIGHTON
By Thomas Wilson Bayne
Editor of Tales of the Borders , was born at Dundee in 1800. After distinguishing himself at Dundee academy he studied medicine at Edinburgh and settled there, first working as a lawyer's clerk and then as a man of letters.
The Tales of the Borders , a series of short stories, still popular among the Scottish peasantry, was projected at Berwick-on-Tweed in 1834 by John Mackay Wilson, on whose death in 1835 his brother continued the work for a time. Shortly afterwards an Edinburgh publisher named Sutherland became proprietor, and Leighton was appointed editor and chief story writer; the series was completed in 1840. He received assistance from Hugh Miller, Thomas Gillespie (1777–1844), and others. Reading widely he had an extensive, if not very accurate, knowledge of many subjects, including metaphysics and especially Hume's philosophy.
He died 2 4 Dec. 1874.
In 1857 Leighton re-edited the complete Tales of the Borders , and this was reissued in 1863–4, 1869 (with additions), and in 1888. In 1860–1 he published two series of Curious Storied Traditions of Scottish Life, in 1864 Mysterious Legends of Edinburgh , in 1865 Shellburn , a novel, and in 1867 his interesting Romance of the Old Town of Edinburgh .
Other of his works are: The Court of Cacus, Or The Story of Burke and Hare, Men and Women of History, Jephthah's Daughter, A Dictionary of Religions , and a Latin metrical version of Burns's songs, which Carlyle praised. Various writers submitted their books to his editing, and he probably wrote whole volumes to which others prefixed their names.
A bio graphy from Dictionary of National Biography , 1885-190 0 , Volume 33


PREFACE
I have not written this book,—narrating a series of tragedies unprecedented in the history of mankind, as well for the number of victims and the depth of their sufferings as for the sordid temptation of the actors,—without a proper consideration of what is due to the public and myself. If I had thought I was to contribute to the increase of a taste for moral stimulants, said to be peculiarly incident to our age—and yet, I suspect, as strong in all bygone times—and without any countervailing advantage to morals and the welfare of society, I would have desisted from my labours.
But, being satisfied that what has really occurred on the stage of the world, however involving the dignity of our nature or revolting to human feelings, must and will be known in some way, wherever there are eyes to read or ears to hear, nay, was intended to be known by Him through whose permission it was allowed to be, I consider it a benefaction that the knowledge which kills shall be accompanied by the knowledge which cures. Nay, were it possible, which it is not, to keep from succeeding generations cases of great depravity punished for example, and atoned for by penitence, the man who tried to conceal them would be acting neither in obedience to God’s providence nor for the good of the people.
We know what the Bible records of the doings of depraved men, and we know also for what purpose; and may we not follow in the steps of t he inspired?
But a slight survey of the nature of the mind may satisfy any one, not necessarily a philosopher, that it requires as its natural food examples of evil with the punishment and the cure. If it had been so ordered that there were not in the soil of the heart congenital germs of wickedness ready to spring up and branch into crimes under favouring circumstances, which the complications of society are eternally producing, and that, consequently, all evil was sheer imitation, something might be said for concealing the thing to be imitated, even at the expense of losing the antidote. Even in that case the “huddlers-up” would not be very philosophical or very sensible; religious they could not be, because the supposition is adverse to the most fundamental truth of Christianity—for, as the imitation must of necessity be admitted to be catching, where so many are caught, the deterring influences would be more necessary. But as all must admit that the evil comes of itself and the antidote from man, those who would conceal the latter must allow to the former it s full sway.
In all this, I do not overlook the benefits of abstract representations of the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vice. These belong to the department of the imagination, where no principle of action resides; and every one knows that the images must be embodied, in particular instances taken from the real world of flesh and blood, so that the historian of real occurrences must still work as an adjunct even to the fancy. If it be said that he narrates stories that are revolting, the answer would seem to be that, as the law still justifies example, and society calls for it, the objection that the interest of a story is too deep can only be used by those who view the records of wickedness as a stimulant and not as a terror, or those who, amidst the still-recurring daily murders, consider society as beyond the need of amendment. The objection is thus an adjection.
Fortunately, none of us are acquainted with amiable enormities, and the longer these remain unknown to us, the better for us and mankind; so that it seems to follow, that he who can render the acted crimes of history as disagreeable and hateful as they can be made, even with the aid of the dark shadows of his fancy, performs an act favourable to the interests of society. Yet I have done my best to save from revolt the feelings of the virtuous, as far as is consistent with the moral effect intended by Providence to be produced on the vicious.
York Lodge, Trinity , Sep tember 1861 .


FIRST APPEARANCE IN SURGEON’S SQUARE
When the gloaming was setting in of an evening in the autumn of 1827, and when the young students of Dr Knox’s class had covered up those remains of their own kind from which they had been trying to extract nature’s secrets, one was looking listlessly from the window into the Square. The place was as quiet as usual, silent and sad enough to gratify a fancy that there existed some connexion between the stillness and the work carried on from day to day and night to night in these mysterious recesses; for, strange enough, whatever curiosity might be felt by the inhabitants as to what was done there, few were ever seen within that area except those in some way connected with the rooms. So was it the more likely that our young student’s eye should have been attracted by the figure of a man moving stealthily under the shade of the houses. Then he looked more intently to ascertain whether he was not one of the regular staff of body-snatchers who supplied “the thing,” as they called it. But no; the stranger, whoever he might be, was neither “Merryandrew,” nor “the Spune,” nor “the Captain,” nor any other of the gouls,—some half-dozen,—yet he would have done no discredit to the fraternity either as to dress or manner: little and thick-set, with a firm round face, small eyes, and Irish nose, a down-looking sleazy dog, who, as he furtively turned his eye up to the window, seemed to think he had no right to direct his vision beyond the parallel of a m an’s pocket.
The student, who could dissect living character no less than he could dead tissue, immediately suspected that this meditative “worshipper of the sweets of eve” was there upon business, but, being probably new to the calling, he was timid, if not bashful. Yes, bashful; we do not retract the word, comely as it is, for where, in all this wide world of sin and shamelessness, could we suppose it possible to find a man who lives upon it, and is shone on by its sun, and cheered by its flowers, capable of selling the body of his fellow-creature for gold without having his face suffused with blood, cast up by the indignant heart, at least for the first time? And perhaps it was the first time to this new-comer. But in whatever condition the strange man might be, the student had got over his weakness, that is, nature’s strength, and, resolving to test the lounger, he went down, and, shewing himself at the door, beckoned the bashful one forward.
“Were you looking for any one?” said he, as h