The Foul Washings of a Spent Gun Barrel

The internet is a wonder of the modern age, on a parallel with space travel and microwave popcorn.  For example, I was just able to look up "St. Bernard's Well".

I used to pass this edifice regularly, whenever I felt the urge to walk along the Water of Leith to Dean Village, and it always seemed odd to me, back in the 1990's.  A monument.  Just there.  For no reason.  For all the world like someone had a mineral well cluttering up their garden shed and had dumped it by the side of the path in the hope that the council would take it away.

That was the prehistoric 90's for you.  In the brave new millennium I can look it up and tell you that - 

"St Bernard's Well as we have it today was constructed in 1789 to a design by celebrated Edinburgh landscape painter Alexander Nasymth drawing inspiration from the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli in Italy. At the centre of an open pillared dome stands a marble statue of Hygieia, Goddess of Health."

- And furthermore -

"For decades wealthy holiday makers would visit Edinburgh to partake of the well's waters. Various claims were made about its medicinal properties - a cure for arthritis, back ache, and even total blindness. Others have described the taste of the water as having the "odious twang of hydrogen gas" or even like "the washings from a foul gun barrel". As you walk along the Water of Leith path you may even still detect this dull metallic smell."

I have actually detected that smell.  I always blamed it on vegetation or small dogs.  But now I know.  Truly an age of wonders, I tell you.