From http://www.campin.me.uk/Embro/Webrelease/Embro/04places/04places.htm
[Edinburgh] was walled in 1460, and part of the wall acted as a dam forming The North Loch . . . . After 300 years, the loch was permanently drained in stages, first in 1763 to help build the North Bridge, and the final drainage in the early 19th century. It was much used for fishing, though given old Edinburgh's standards of sanitation, this must have been playing Russian roulette with food poisoning. The city abattoir was beside it for its entire existence, on the site now occupied by the Lothian Region Transport office on Waverley Bridge; wastes from slaughtering were simply dumped in the water. During the great idol-smashing of 1560, the Reformers sent the statue of St Giles from the High Kirk the way of a century's putrefied offal; then they pulled it out again and burnt it just to make sure. In 1562, one particularly deep part was designated for ducking fornicators. "The North Loch" was first published by Robert Bremner (c.1713-1789) in the 1750s.
It is also known from Ireland, as "The Lucky Lover;" lucky not to make too close an acquaintance with the loch, perhaps. It was later reprinted in Lowe's Collection as "Gin I had a Bonny Lass, Little Sleep Wad Sair Me" and as "Gin I had a Bonny Lassie" in the later Athole and Kerr collections.
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