A 'return home' of an edition of long-defunct Scottish newspaper, the Edinburgh Courant, has resulted in a wave of others being offered.
It follows the management team at the Fraser Suites Edinburgh hotel tracking down a 250 year-old copy of the newspaper, which was printed on the site of the hotel, from a collector in America – after many months of searching.
And after the story of the hotel’s discovery was reported in the media – including allmediascotland – a number of private collectors contacted the hotel looking to offer further copies.
But Heather Gilchrist, regional general manager at Frasers Hospitality Scotland, says one copy is enough, to mark the site's place in Scottish newspaper history, its St Giles Street location once known as 'Scotland's Fleet Street'.
She said: “It’s great that we have been able to spark such interest in what is an important piece of Edinburgh’s history.
“I’ve had emails and calls from various people who heard about our search and wanted to offer us their copies.
“But we’ve got our unique edition and I’m very happy with it. The fact is, we are a hotel not a library so I’ve suggested to all the callers that they approach the National Library of Scotland.
“It would be fantastic if these important relics found their way back to Edinburgh and we had played a part of that. The National Library of Scotland would be the perfect venue to allow the general public to gain access to these wonderful pieces of both Edinburgh’s and newspaper history.”
The 1759 edition of the Edinburgh Courant located by Fraser Suites Edinburgh is to be framed and put on display in the hotel's reception area.
