Leith, Midlothian : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Leith. You may be able to find further references to Leith in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Leith parliamentary burgh, seaport, and manufacturing town Bartholomew
Leith the sixth largest town Groome

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Leith within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 11: South-Eastern Scotland 18
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 1: Fife and Perth 6
James Boswell August 18th to 20th, 1773: From Edinburgh to Montrose 2
William Camden Scotland: South of the Antonine Wall 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 12, Part 1: South-Western Scotland 1
John Wesley 1763-4: In Scotland Again; Methodist's Wealth; "No Law for Methodists"; Exhausting Days 1
Thomas Pennant July 17-23: The Borders and Edinburgh 1
Thomas Pennant July 24-31: Fife and Perthshire 1
Thomas Pennant September 5-17: Inveraray to Edinburgh 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Bonnington 0 2
Abbeyhill 0 2
Newhaven 0 2
Restalrig 0 2
Broughton 0 1
Holyrood 6 1
Calton Hill 2 1
Abbey 0 3
Jocks Lodge 0 2
Canongate 0 2
Edinburgh 224 2
Salisbury Crags 2 1
Arthurs Seat 2 2
Granton 0 2
Duddingston 0 3
Portobello 0 2
Craigmillar 1 2
Tynecastle 0 2
Easter Duddingston 0 1
Morningside 0 1

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Leith. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
INVERLET F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
LEITH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
LET F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
LETH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.