As you walk along the Royal Mile towards Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh there is a green-and-brown tavern/pub on your left. The tavern is called "Deacon Brody's" and the house is about 300 years old. On the wall there is a large board that tells the story of this tavern and Deacon Brody. Since this story is important for British literature, I think you may be interested to know it.

William Brodie (sometimes spelt as "Brody" was a cabinet maker and a deacon of a trade guild, so often he is referred to as "Deacon Brodie". In the 18th century Edinburgh he was a prosperous and respected man, so respected, in fact, that he was made a member of the burgh council and served on the jury as well. To better serve justice, he even designed and funded a gallows to be put up in the city.

But who was a respectable man in the daytime turned into a burglar and gambler at night. Since he was a very popular craftsman and locksmith, he was often invited to the homes of the richest people of Edinburgh to fix locks for them, which gave him excellent opportunities to see where the money was. At night he would disguise himself underneath a mask,, burgle the houses he had recently been called to, used copies of the keys he had made for the locks and take the money. His night-time "earnings" enabled him to gamble a lot, keep two mistresses and five children. When he was found out, he was condemned and hanged on the same gallows that he had so enthusiastically built. A legend has it that he tried to bribe the hangman and put a steel collar to escape the death by hanging, but the plan di dnot work.

Robert Louis Stevenson was so impressed by this man's adventures that he wrote his famous "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". So this was deacon Brody's involuntary input in British literature. And somehow the dark stones of the old houses in the Royal Mile make it easy to believe the story.