By Ena Saracevic

Copyright scotsman

A popular Edinburgh bookshop has come across a mummified spider that may be 200 years old squashed between book pages. Derek Walker, at McNaughtan’s Bookshop off the top of Leith Walk, discovered the spider while sorting through a collection of antique books. Mr Walker works alongside Anna Fomicheva as partners of the bookshop. He spotted the spider inside the front cover of a book and, upon discovering it for a second time while it was in their processing room, he decided to take a picture of the creature. Mr Walker said it was not uncommon to find “traces of organic matter” within books, but he said this specific spider was “very striking”. He said: “We find a lot of things in books – usually bits of paper, but sometimes traces of organic matter of various kinds. This one was a very striking little spider that caught the eye in the way its legs were splayed out.” The book itself, Gems: Principally from the Antique by George Croly and Richard Dagley, was published in 1822. Mr Walker said: “So the spider could’ve been caught in it during any point since then. We have no way of knowing its precise age, but it’s more likely the book was read most when it first came out.” He added: “We’ve come across squashed insects in books before, we’ve come across live insects on books. I’m not too squeamish about bugs. We do a lot of digging in dusty places and sometimes garages.” Make sure you keep up to date with news from across Scotland by signing up to our free newsletter here. McNaughtan’s Bookshop was opened by Major John and Mrs Marjorie McNaughtan. After renting premises for a brief time, they bought number 3a Haddington Place in 1957 and slowly built the shop’s reputation as one of the best places to buy or sell books in Edinburgh. After the business later went to assistant Elizabeth Strong in 1979, she retired in 2015 and the shop was taken on by Mr Walker and Ms Fomicheva.