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.
