Diack’s dizzying rotten trotters

William Diack’s barrow of decaying sheep heads turned even the most seasoned stomach in Dundee’s Greenmarket. He wheeled the load into the crowded market hoping to make a quick buck but the smell soon had shoppers choking.

It was quite a barrowful. Diack, a druggist of Rose Street, who was selling the meat on behalf of grocer George Jessiman, St Andrew’s Street, had it piled full with 71 sheep heads and 284 trotters.

Jessiman had bought them as a bargain lot from Aberdeen and had them transported by rail late in 1865.

He then sent Diack and a boy in his employ to shift them on the streets of Dundee.

First Diack tried the chemical works which rendered animals for use in jute processing. But they were having none of it and sent him packing.

That is when he pitched up in Greenmarket hoping to offload the heads to thrifty shoppers looking to make a bargain broth.

The miasma from the animal parts was so revolting that marketgoers became dizzy.

It was not long before Diack’s wares came to the attention of the authorities. Police Inspector Parr called in butcher Peter Brown to examine the loads.

He was shocked by the state of the sheep heads and trotters. Brown judged them all to be rotten, up to two months old and well travelled.

At the trial of Diack and Jessiman, Mr Brown told the court: “There were some of them bad, really very bad.”

In his defence, Jessiman said he had no idea the animal parts were not fit for human consumption. Jessiman was fined £5 and Diack £2.50.

A few years later, another couple of chancers, Robert Burnet and 11-yearold John Leaburn, thought they were quids in when they acquired 488lb of fish.

Sure, the fish had seen better days, but they believed if they could shift them quickly, they could turn a profit.

So the pair of them began touring the streets bellowing: “Fine, cheap, fresh fish.”

Fresh it wasn’t. Putrid it was. The smell was so overpowering that two sanitary officers were soon on their tails.

The fish was judged to be in such a bad state it was taken to the police office and condemned.

The ensuing trial heard the fish were soft and smelt so offensive it was difficult to go near them.

The charge against the young lad was thrown out because of his age, but Burnet was fined 10 shillings.

Buying, selling and fairground attractions at Lady Mary Fair in Greenmarket, Shore Terrace, Dundee. The fair was held in Dundee for 700 years and the last was in 1930.