Police Scotland issued the following press release yesterday.

We reproduce it unedited and in full.

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Detectives are continuing their enquiries and appealing for information after two men attempted to rob a man in Edinburgh on Friday, 12 June, 2020.

Around 3.45pm on Friday afternoon, the two suspects approached a 66 year-old man near to Gayfield Square in Edinburgh. They threatened him with a knife and demanded money. The victim refused and the men walked off.

1878

THIS DAY’S POLICE NEWS

MOLESTING POLICE OFFICERS.

At the City Police Court, before Bailie Rowatt, a young man, named Patrick M’Gachie, was accused of committing a breach of the peace in Rose Street and Rose Street Lane on Thursday night, and at the same time obstructing and molesting two police officers, and attempting to rescue a female prisoner then in their charge.

ASPARAGUS, POTATO, AND GOAT'S CHEESE SAVOURY TART

Asparagus is one of my absolute favourite ingredients – as well as being one of the many ingredients I discovered after moving to the UK. Growing up in Italy, we mostly had white asparagus and, in particular, the local variety called Asparago di Bassano. Ten years on, springtime has now become for me synonymous with asparagus, and I really relish the freshness and versatility of this wonder-vegetable.

As Spurtle has reported on several occasions in recent weeks, there are widespread misgivings about the speed (and questionable democratic credentials) with which emergency measures are being drafted and enacted in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Some people and organisations grit their teeth and push through that sense of unease. This seems to have been the general approach of the New Town & Broughton Community Council.

Yesterday we reported the mysterious overnight felling of a tree in Warriston Playing Fields.

When Eildon Street residents woke yesterday morning, they found that a tree on the boundary between their road and Warriston Playing Fields had been cut down in the night.

This seems to have been no officially sanctioned felling, or a random slash in the dark by a drunken teenager.

The substantial elder was systematically taken down with a hand saw in secret between 11pm and 7am.

One neighbour, who described the act of vandalism as ‘horrific’, told Spurtle, ‘Locals are fuming and children are devastated as it was a great climbing tree and they used it as a den.’

1877

SHEBEENING IN GREENSIDE ROW.

At the City Police Court, a man named John Buist, residing in Simpson’s Court, was charged with having trafficked in liquors in his house without having the necessary license.

—He pleaded guilty, and was fined £7, with the alternative of six weeks’ imprisonment.

Edinburgh Evening News, 12 February 1877