Susan Morrison on Ladies of Pleasure

James Tytler was a busy man. In addition to his skills as a writer, pharmacist and surgeon, he also found time to edit the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and become the first man in Britain to fly in a balloon. 

Despite all these achievements James 'Balloon' Tytler was permanently broke. At some point in 1774, he got an idea. Young men were heading North to get drunk, get laid and probably get their first dose of the clap. In Edinburgh you could usually do all three in about 15 minutes of arriving, if you knew where to look. In London, sin-seekers had a guide to the best gals in town. Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies kept gentlemen abreast of fornicating opportunities and where to find them. It's possible Tytler got wind of this book, and thought Edinburgh could do with a list just like it. Could be a lucrative little publication.

He wrote under the pseudonym 'The Ranger'. His list was printed in 1775, entitled Rangers Impartial List of the Ladies of Pleasure in Edinburgh. Sixty-six women each get a write-up and, crucially, their business address. 

James Tytler's book | Photo courtesy of Susan Morrison 

You can walk the High Street today and find where those ladies of pleasure lived and worked. 

In Halkerston's Wynd, 163 High Street, Mistress Adams kept a house that was 'a genteel Temple'. She was 'about 25 years of age, very agreeable… dark brown eyes, remarkably good teeth and a tempting white bosom.' She had a taste for the finer things in life, and was known to 'toss off a sparkling bumper' of wine, which the author gently warns her about. One too many and she becomes 'rather noisy'. We've all got a pal like that. 

At the back of Bells Wynd, 146 High Street, you would find the house of Mistress Walker. Now, you needed to watch this one. The house was 'genteel', and a success, but madam had a bit of a temper on her and was known to take it out on any guest who failed to pay the going rate. Despite this, it was just the place to meet someone like Miss Peggy Bruce, a 'most devout worshipper at the shrine of Venus' and will let her lover be 'everso vigorous'. All in all, she is 'not a bad pennyworth for any gentleman'.

You might want to stay clear of Miss Galloway. She learned her trade on man-o-war, which is probably why her temper is a bit snappy, too. But then there is the jewel in Mistress Walker's crown, little Miss Inglis. She is about 24, and 'foolishly good-natured'. She is no 'novice at the game of love, for she is remarkably fond of performing on the silent flute, and can manage the stops extraordinary well. She twists around you like an eel, and would not loose a drop of the precious juice of nature.' 

Fountain Well | Photo by Lauren Hunter 

At the Fountain Well, beside the Storytelling Centre, you can find Miss Dingwell. She had a house of her own, and was 'a fit person to grace a table, being pretty fat and comely, she is a good Winter-piece.' 

In the Netherbow itself, was the notorious 'Lady' Agnew. 'A drunken bundle of iniquity' who would as 'willing lie with a chimney-sweep as a lord'. The Ranger called her 'an abandoned piece'. As well he might. Lady Agnew wasn't a lady of pleasure. She'd had a fight with Tytler and he owned her money. He put her in the list as his revenge. 

Tytler presumably intended to produce his guide every year, but he ran afoul of the authorities for his radical views and took off for America. He lived in Salem, Massachusetts.

One evening in 1804, he drunkenly lurched out of his house, fell in the sea and drowned. A sad end for the man who gave 18th century Edinburgh its first Tripadvisor listings for the Ladies of Pleasure.