Ensign Ewart - Finally facing my Waterloo
Plus: Is Big Alcohol lying to you?
The Ensign Ewart is a pub I must have walked past a hundred times without paying it a second glance. A pub on the Royal Mile, right next to the castle? Why would I bother with such a tourist trap?
The pub is named after Kilmarnock-born Charles Ewart, member of the Royal Scots Grey regiment. A large man of “Herculean strength,” he joined the army and fought for the British during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But he is most famous for capturing a flag during the Battle of Waterloo.
On 18 June 1815, in the midst of battle, Ewart found himself face to face with a Napoleonic soldier. Defeated, Ewart awaited the fatal blow – when one of his Scottish comrades, Francis Kinchant, rode in and forced the French soldier to surrender. But as Kinchant got back on his horse, the Frenchman drew his pistol and shot him.
Enraged, Ewart drew his sword and removed the Frenchman’s head. Amid the bloody battle, Ewart tore a path through the enemy, slashing and scything his way to the French standard-bearer. There, he took the tricolour banner, attached to a gold eagle-topped pole.
“It was in the first charge I took the eagle from the enemy: he and I had a hard contest for it,” Ewart later wrote. “He made a thrust at my groin, I parried it off and cut him down through the head. After this a lancer came at me; I threw the lance off by my right side, and cut him through the chin and upward through the teeth.”
That wasn’t the end. “Next, a foot-soldier fired at me and charged me with his bayonet, which I also had the good luck to parry, and then I cut him down through the head; thus ended the contest.”
Ewart took the flag to Brussels, “amid the acclamations of thousands of spectators who saw it.”
He became a hero and was promoted to the rank of ensign. A year after the battle, he was invited by Sir Walter Scott to give a speech at a celebratory dinner in Leith. (He went to the dinner but declined the speech, saying he “would rather fight the battle of Waterloo over again, than face so large an assemblage”.)
His body now lies in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle, and in the museum is the gold eagle standard which he had captured.
Anyway, back to the pub. Because I did finally go in, after dismissing it for years.
The building dates back to the 17th century, and has the claim to be the “highest pub in Edinburgh” due to it being the closest to the castle.
It surprised me. I was expecting a tourist trap, but instead got a cosy and well-decorated interior. The ceilings are low and the beams are prominent. A mural of the Battle of Waterloo dominates one wall, while the others are adorned with the usual pub memorabilia.
On its website, the Ensign Ewart describes itself as a whisky bar, boasting over 250 malts on at any one time. But it also boasts four cask ales, when there were only a couple on at my visit. I went for a Ewart Ale, by Stewart Brewing. It was well-kept and did the job nicely. Which is not always the case at pubs in this part of town.
Where is it?
Where next?
Walk across the road, down the steps to Victoria Street, and straight into The Bow Bar.
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The chaser – ‘Denormalising’ alcohol
Last week I wrote about Dry January. If you didn’t read it, here’s a summary: Give up or cut down on booze if you want, but don’t stop going to the pub, please. It’s still good value. (Unless you are this guy, who spent £55k on a Deuchars IPA.)
For more on the people who invented Dry January, and their future plans for getting us drink less, I recommend this article from Felicity Carter of
. It outlines their intention to use anti-smoking campaign tactics on alcohol.The general thrust of the methods used is, according to the article, to harness young people’s apparent distrust of mega corporations to come up with a simple message: Big Alcohol is lying to you.
Have a read for yourself and see what you make of it. But before you do, allow me to repeat myself: Give up or cut down on booze if you want, but don’t stop going to the pub, please.
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