Treasure on Arthur’s Seat by Ronnie Mackintosh

On the wall above my desk is a copy of Kay‟s Plan of Edinburgh, 1836. Beneath it; a stack of print-outs, notes and copies of contemporaneous paintings. Researching my treasure, the mysterious Arthur‟s Seat miniature coffins and their unknowable origins, has become something of a mild obsession.
I‟m a screenwriter, and with my allocated 62 words, I intend to create a scene as my 26Treasures submission. At 62 words, it‟ll be little more than a moment in the life (or lives) that end up on the page. Regardless, this imagined fragment of time must be as authentic as possible.
First of all, what do we know about the coffins?
Discovered on a summers day in June or July (accounts differ), 1836, by five boys while out hunting for rabbits on the slopes of Arthur‟s Seat, in what was described as: „an aperture about twelve inches square‟, further described in the Scotsman: ‘The mouth of this little cave was closed by three thin pieces of slate-stone, rudely cut at the upper ends into a conical form, and so placed as to protect the interior from the effects of the weather.’
And when the boys removed the slate pieces, seventeen miniature coffins, laid out in two layers of eight with a single coffin on top, were exposed, each around four inches long, fixed with a lid and neatly adorned with small pieces of shaped tin.
An historic find indeed, although, according to another report of the day, in The London Times, dated July 20th, 1836, its significance was lost on the youngsters; “a number were destroyed by the boys pelting them at each other as unmeaning and contemptible trifles.”
Some coffins were in a bad state of decay and did not survive, but those that did were later recovered, according to some records by the boy‟s schoolmaster, who opened them to discover that each contained a small wooden figure, dressed in a sewn cloth garment.
What is known of the chain of ownership from then is unremarkable, until their donation to the National Museum of Scotland in 1901.
Such is the context in which the miniature coffins were discovered. But of course, the interest lies not in their discovery but in their creation and purpose.
A scientific study of the coffins and their occupants, published in 1994, gave new insights into the mystery. Those that attracted me, bearing in mind my intention, included the suggestion that the uniformity of the rough cut figures, the markings on them and the remains of paint implies that at one time they may have been part of a set of “toy soldiers‟. This may be supported by the fact that several figures had arms removed to allow them to fit into the coffins, suggesting that they had another prior purpose and had not been created for burial in the coffins. The examination of the textiles and threads suggest a date of interment no earlier than 1830, and the tin from which the coffin decorations are made is similar to the sort used in shoe buckles of the time, but while the tin-work suggests a degree of proficiency, the coffins were not shaped with carpentry tools or developed with any significant woodworking skill.
The widely held belief is that the figures are connected to the infamous Burke and Hare murders of 1827/1828. While the chronology and body count fit nicely with this theory, I find it contradictory that of the sixteen Burke and Hare victims (another died of natural causes) twelve were women. Yet all of the wooden figures are dressed in representations of male clothing, where dresses would surely have been easier to fashion.
Other general matters that struck me, include the fact that in 1836, Edinburgh was going through an historic rebirth with the stunning New Town having been completed the previous year.
Holyrood Palace, which sits at the base of Arthur‟s Seat, had also just undergone significant external works, and paintings of the time show smart, red coated soldiers on the parade square.
And yet, only three years before, the city had been declared bankrupt, with the blame being placed on the development of Leith Docks. The same docks from which those who wanted to and could afford it, were emigrating to a better life, on ships such as that which records show departed from Leith and arrived at New York on 29th May, 1835.
My task is to create that brief, imagined moment, and with the help of the foregoing information, characters and circumstances can now be imagined.
And I think there‟s enough clues in this piece to suggest where I might be going with this.