Midday Sunlight

The lamp posts on the railings above Princes Street Gardens are similar to the one outside Robert Louis Stevenson’s house in Heriot Row where he lived from the age of six. Famous as the author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Jekyll and Hyde, he also wrote

The Lamplighter

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
And my papa’s a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I’m to do,
O Leerie, I’ll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!

He was not at all well as a child and used to look forward to Leerie the lamplighter coming up the road with his ladder each evening and giving a wave as he lit the gas lamp outside the bedroom. No doubt when he was fit to go the short distance to Princes Street he would have seen this lamp post with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

He also wrote There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps.