Timeline of Edinburgh history Scottish Academy (later the Royal Scottish Academy) is founded; John Bartholomew founds the mapmaking firm John Bartholomew & Son Ltd. 1827 Walter Scott reveals himself to be the author of the "Waverley novels" at a Theatrical Fund dinner in the George Street Assembly Rooms 1828: Burke and Hare are arrested for the "West Port Murders". Burke is put on trial and convicted on Hare's evidence 1829: Building of George IV Bridge and Dean Bridge begins; the murderer William Burke is hanged; the new Royal High School opens; Walter Scott arranges the return of Mons Meg to Edinburgh Castle 1830: Advocates'
Burke and Hare murders Britain. He worked on the Union Canal for seven years before moving to Edinburgh in the mid-1820s, where he worked as a coal man's assistant. He lodged at Tanner's Close, in the house of a man named Logue and his wife, Margaret Laird, in the nearby West Port area of the town. When Logue died in 1826, Hare may have married Margaret. Based on contemporary accounts, Brian Bailey in his history of the murders describes Hare as "illiterate and uncouth—a lean, quarrelsome, violent and amoral character with the scars from old wounds about his head and brow". Bailey describes Margaret,