CHAPTER IV.
THE TOLBOOTH, L UCKENBOOTHS, AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE.
HE grim and massive prison of the old Scottish capital, which had degenerated to
that base office after having served for the hall of the national parliaments, for the
College of Justice founded by James V., and for some of the earliest assemblies of the
kirk, has, in our own day, acquired a popular interest, and a notoriety as extensive as the
diffusion of English literature, under the name of ‘‘ The Heart of Midlothian.” Such is
the power of genius, that the association of this ancient fabric with the assault of the
Porteous mob, and the captivity of the (( Effie Deans” of the novelist’s fancy, has been
able to confer on it an interest, even in the minds of strangers, which all the thrilling
scenes during the eventful reigns of our own Jameses, the tumults of Mary’s brief reign,
and the civil commotions of that of her son, had failed to excite in the minds of
Scotsmen.
The site of the Tolbooth.was in the very heart of the ancient capital, and so placed
that it might have occurred to a fanciful mind to suppose, that the antique fabric had been
VIGNETTE.-NsOid~e of the Tolbooth.
L UCKENBOOTHS AND PARLIAMENT CLOSE. 185
dropped whole and complete into the midst of the pent-up city.
west corner of St Giles’s Church, so close to that ancient building as only to leave a
narrow footpath beyond its projecting buttresses ; while the tall and gloomy-looking pile
extended so far into the main street that a roadway of fourteen feet in breadth was all
that intervened between it and the lofty range of buildings on the opposite side. We
cannot better describe this interesting building than in the lively narrative of Scott,
written about the time of its demolition,-“The prison reared its ancient front in the
very middle of the High Street, forming the termination to a huge pile of buildings called
the Luckenbooths, which, for some inconceivable reason, our ancestors had jammed into
the midst of the principal street of the town, leaving for passage a narrow way on the
north; and on the south-into which the prison opens--a crooked lane, winding betwixt
the high and sombre walls of the Tolbooth and the adjacent houses on the one side, and
the buttresses and projections of the old cathedral upon the other. To give some gaiety to
this sombre passage, well known by the name of the Krames, a number of little booths or
shops, after the fashion of cobblers’ stalls, were plastered, as it were, against the Gothic
projections and abutments, so that it seemed as if the traders had occupied every buttress
and coigne of vantage,’ with nests bearing the same proportion to the building as the
martlet’s did in Macbeth’s Castle.” The most prominent features in the south front of
the Tolbooth,-of which we furnish an engraving,-were two projecting turret staircases.
A neatly carved Gothic doorway, surmounted by -a niche, gave entrance to the building
at the foot of the eastern tower; and this, on its demolition in 1817, was removed by Sir
Walter Scott to Abbotsford, and there converted to,the humble oEce of giving access to
his kitchen court.’
Some account has already been given, in our brief sketch of the period of Queen Mary,’
of the mandate issued by her in 1561, requiring the rebuilding of the Tolbooth, and the
many difficulties that the city had to encounter in satisfying this royal command. The
letter sets forth, that “ The Queiny’s Majestie, understanding that the Tolbuith of the
Burgh of Edinburgh is ruinous and abill haistielie to dekay ind fall doun, quhilk will be
warrap dampnable and skaythfull to the pepill dwelland thairabout . . . without
heistie remeid be providit thairin. Thairfor hir Heines ordinis ane masser to pass alid
charge the Provest, Baillies, and Counsale, to caus put workmen to the taking doun of the
said Tolbuith, with all possible deligence.” ‘‘ In obedience to the Queen’s command,”
says Maitland, It has already been shown, however,
in the earlier allusions to the subject, that this is an error. The new building was erected
entirely apart from it, adjoining the south-west corner of St Giles’s Church, and the
eastern portion of the Old Tolbooth bore incontestible evidence of being the work of a
much earlier period than the date of Queen Mary’s mandate.
It stood at the north-.
the Tolbooth was taken down.”
1 Sir Walter Scott remarks, in a note to the edition of his works issued in 1830,--“Last year, to complete the
change, a torn-tit waa pleased to build her nest within the lock of the Tolbooth,--a strong temptation to have committed
n sonnet.” The nest we must preaurne to have occupied the place of the lock, the key-hole of which, when deprived of
the scuteheon, would readily admit the tom-tit. The original lock and key, which were made immediately after the
Porteous mob, were in the possession of Messrs Cormack & Son, Leith Street, and formed the most substantial produc
tions of the Locksmith’s art we ever eaw. The lock measured two feet long by one broad ; and the key, which waa a‘oout
a foot long, looked more like a huge iron mace.
Ante, p. 71. Maitland, p. 21.
2 A
