Chapter Red Tape to Reekie of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Reekie (Auld). Chambers says: “An old patriarchal laird (Durham of Largo) was in the habit of regulating the time of evening worship by the appearance of the smoke of Edinburgh. ... When it increased in density, in consequence of the good folk preparing supper, he would ... say, `It is time noo, bairns, to tak the buiks and gang to our beds, for yonder's auld Reekie, I see, putting on her night-cap.”'

“Yonder is auld Reekie. You may see the smoke hover over her at twenty miles' distance.”- Sir W. Scott: The Abbot, xvii.