Dog Alert!

This is an Alsatian dog, or perhaps its a German Shepherd dog. Some people argue that they are two different, but similar breeds - one is from Alsace the other from Germany and the only way you can tell them apart is that they bark in different accents...

Anyway this Deutscher Schäferhund was casually watching my approach, but the two people sitting on the doorstep drinking coffee and smoking their cigarettes got up and bolted as soon as they saw me lift my camera. Perhaps I'm more scary than the dog?

This is taken in the square that sits through these arches leading from the Royal Mile. I don't know the name of the dog but the square is part of Chessel's Court, an outstanding example of mansion flats built in 1748 by Archibald Chessel. They were restored and renovated in the early 1960s

The only other thing I know about it is that this is house number two.