Letter about living beneath elephant puts flatmate problems in perspective
An letter from the early 1700s has come to light detailing a shopkeeper's complaint about an elephant being kept in a nearby upstairs flat, the Edinburgh City Archives said.
Edinburgh's Adam Kerr complained in 1705 that his bakery was being ruined, tainted with elephant dung, and swamped by water from upstairs.
He asked the Guild Court to evict the pachyderm.
An elephant once lived in an upstairs flat in Edinburgh. AAP
But the elephant's owner, Dutchman Abraham Sever, responded by petitioning the town council to grant him permission to show the elephant off to the public.
This - no doubt to Mr Kerr's frustration - was granted.
The letter from Mr Kerr. Edinburgh City Archives/Facebook
The elephant was used to public life though, having been taken on tour around Europe in the preceding 20 years.
Edinburgh City Archives said the elephant was thought to have died just months after Mr Kerr's letter, in 1706.
