Note In Bottle from 1887 Found Under Floorboards In Edinburgh
A woman from Edinburgh, Scotland discovered a note from 1887 in an old bottle, buried under the floorboards of her house.
The Victorian time capsule was discovered by local plumber Peter Allan, who just happened to cut through the exact place in the floorboards where it had been left on October 6, 1887.
Mum-of-two Eilidh Stimpson couldn't believe her eyes.
She tried to get the note out with tweezers and pliers, but it started to rip a little bit.
Eilidh didn't want to damage the note, so regrettably, she told Edinburgh Live that she had to smash the bottle.
Untouched for an astonishing 7,049 weeks and four days, the message written on the mysterious parchment was revealed.
The note reads: “James Ritchie, John Grieve, laid this floor but they did not drink the whiskey. October 6th, 1887. Whoever finds this bottle may think our dust is blowing along the road. JG”
Following his incredible discovery, plumber Peter Allan, who works with Bruntsfield firm WF Wightman, said: "It's all a bit strange, but what a find!
”Where I cut the hole in the floor, is exactly where the bottle was located, which is crazy and so random."
Reacting to the discovery on social media, someone said: “I wonder how many notes like this have been left behind in the infrastructure of our homes and buildings by the construction crews who built them.
”I've done this myself a few times during my framing days.”
Time capsules have been used for thousands of years to preserve a piece of the present for the future.
Though time capsules are commonly thought of as a box of buried treasure, there are actually four distinct types.
They can either be intentional or unintentional (such as Pompeii) and those which are meant to be opened on a certain date and those that are not.
In the Victorian era, there was a societal shift in which more emphasis was placed on the importance of time commemoration.
The creation of a time capsule is an example of how people of the Victorian era commemorated time.
Time capsules can be found in many cornerstones of buildings built in the Victorian era.
The content of each time capsule varies; however, the “usual deposits” include coins, newspapers, and religious or historical statements.
These objects show us the importance of religion and prosperity during the era.
They also give us a glimpse into the Victorian understanding of time.
These time capsules had no intended retrieval date and were expected to endure until the apocalypse.
If you enjoyed this blog post, please follow Exploring GB on Facebook for daily travel content and inspiration.
Don’t forget to check out our latest blog post below!
Thank you for visiting Exploring GB.
