The Tangling of the Web by Millie Gray Page A

given history lessons, which always included the details of what the building that now housed the two pubs had been used for.
    She chuckled as she acknowledged that there was not one bairn in Leith who didn’t know that in 1575 those suffering from the dreaded plague were treated in the building, which had been turned into a hospital. The children also shared stories about the ghostly appearances of people who lurked in the great cellar that ran underneath both establishments. These boggies had either died of the plague or had been burned to death when the Wark was destroyed by fire in the 1690s.
    During the following years, the building had many renovations to suit the several changes of use it experienced. It was during one of these alterations that the two hostelries came into being.
    Sally wondered when the first customers had drunk fine wine from silver tankards if they imagined over the centuries that both establishments would be known infamously throughout the whole wide modern world as the Jungle.
    Could they have imagined that all that would remain of the royal patronage they had enjoyed were the names – the King’s Wark and the Four Marys? And what would they say about the gallus women who made their living by accommodating sailors of all nationalities and therefore brought worldwide notoriety to the hostelries? Until recently, every night in these establishments fallen women had bedded men for a few bob, which they then spent on Red Biddy, a cheap, harsh wine. It would be a funny night that the Leith police were not called in to break up fights, not only between men but also women. These women were also expert at getting their clients so drunk that they were then able to rob them before eventually pushing them out into the gutter to sleep it off.
    That was what life in the Jungle had been like, but Ginny, a shrewd businesswoman who was always looking at changing trends, had decided that Leith pubs would need to transform if they were to survive. It was also true that the Leith constabulary had warned her when she took over the pubs that change was necessary and if it was not forthcoming then the establishments would be closed down. What they were actually saying was that no longer could they turn a blind eye to the sordid businesses that were carried out under their noses.
    Ginny had noted not only that men would no longer be able to seek out the comfort of a woman in pubs, she had also realised that long gone were the days when a man walked into a pub on payday and staggered out to hand over the pittance of what was left to his wife, who would then have to work a miracle to be able to feed and clothe her bairns. Since the war there had been great social changes, especially in the attitude of working-class women. Not only was there now the blessed welfare state, but women also knew that they were not wholly financially dependent on any man and they were therefore able to stand up for their rights to be equal in the marriage deal. They also wished to have nights out at the pictures and perhaps be taken afterwards for a wee sherry or what were becoming the must-have drinks – a Pimm’s No. 1 or a brandy and Babycham. Then there was the unthinkable: before the war, a woman would be happy to stay at home and have numerous children, but now she was better educated and because of the contraceptive pill she was in charge of the decision as to when she would have children and how many.
    This being the case, pubs would need to change to become places where men would wish to take their wives out for the evening and where women would feel safe and comfortable.
    Sally, with Ginny’s words still echoing in her mind, decided she would have to get a move on and get herself into the Four Marys. Dancing over the cobbles, she noted that the building had been erected centuries ago and she wondered how the stonemasons, who would have been without all the assistance that craftsmen had today, had managed to erect these buildings