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pleasantry; a fair proportion of dry fun。  The broadest 

of broad Scotch is now banished from the bench; but the 

courts still retain a certain national flavour。  We have 

a solemn enjoyable way of lingering on a case。  We treat 

law as a fine art; and relish and digest a good 

distinction。  There is no hurry: point after point must 

be rightly examined and reduced to principle; judge after 

judge must utter forth his OBITER DICTA to delighted 

brethren。



Besides the courts; there are installed under the 

same roof no less than three libraries: two of no mean 

order; confused and semi…subterranean; full of stairs and 

galleries; where you may see the most studious…looking 

wigs fishing out novels by lanthorn light; in the very 

place where the old Privy Council tortured Covenanters。  

As the Parliament House is built upon a slope; although 

it presents only one story to the north; it measures 

half…a…dozen at least upon the south; and range after 

range of vaults extend below the libraries。  Few places 

are more characteristic of this hilly capital。  You 

descend one stone stair after another; and wander; by the 

flicker of a match; in a labyrinth of stone cellars。  

Now; you pass below the Outer Hall and hear overhead; 

brisk but ghostly; the interminable pattering of legal 

feet。  Now; you come upon a strong door with a wicket: on 

the other side are the cells of the police office and the 

trap…stair that gives admittance to the dock in the 

Justiciary Court。  Many a foot that has gone up there 

lightly enough; has been dead…heavy in the descent。  Many 

a man's life has been argued away from him during long 

hours in the court above。  But just now that tragic stage 

is empty and silent like a church on a week…day; with the 

bench all sheeted up and nothing moving but the sunbeams 

on the wall。  A little farther and you strike upon a 

room; not empty like the rest; but crowded with 

PRODUCTIONS from bygone criminal cases: a grim lumber: 

lethal weapons; poisoned organs in a jar; a door with a 

shot…hole through the panel; behind which a man fell 

dead。  I cannot fancy why they should preserve them 

unless it were against the Judgment Day。  At length; as 

you continue to descend; you see a peep of yellow 

gaslight and hear a jostling; whispering noise ahead; 

next moment you turn a corner; and there; in a 

whitewashed passage; is a machinery belt industriously 

turning on its wheels。  You would think the engine had 

grown there of its own accord; like a cellar fungus; and 

would soon spin itself out and fill the vaults from end 

to end with its mysterious labours。  In truth; it is only 

some gear of the steam ventilator; and you will find the 

engineers at hand; and may step out of their door into 

the sunlight。  For all this while; you have not been 

descending towards the earth's centre; but only to the 

bottom of the hill and the foundations of the Parliament 

House; low down; to be sure; but still under the open 

heaven and in a field of grass。  The daylight shines 

garishly on the back windows of the Irish quarter; on 

broken shutters; wry gables; old palsied houses on the 

brink of ruin; a crumbling human pig…sty fit for human 

pigs。  There are few signs of life; besides a scanty 

washing or a face at a window: the dwellers are abroad; 

but they will return at night and stagger to their 

pallets。







CHAPTER IV。

LEGENDS。







THE character of a place is often most perfectly 

expressed in its associations。  An event strikes root and 

grows into a legend; when it has happened amongst 

congenial surroundings。  Ugly actions; above all in ugly 

places; have the true romantic quality; and become an 

undying property of their scene。  To a man like Scott; 

the different appearances of nature seemed each to 

contain its own legend ready made; which it was his to 

call forth: in such or such a place; only such or such 

events ought with propriety to happen; and in this spirit 

he made the LADY OF THE LAKE for Ben Venue; the HEART OF 

MIDLOTHIAN for Edinburgh; and the PIRATE; so 

indifferently written but so romantically conceived; for 

the desolate islands and roaring tideways of the North。  

The common run of mankind have; from generation to 

generation; an instinct almost as delicate as that of 

Scott; but where he created new things; they only forget 

what is unsuitable among the old; and by survival of the 

fittest; a body of tradition becomes a work of art。  So; 

in the low dens and high…flying garrets of Edinburgh; 

people may go back upon dark passages in the town's 

adventures; and chill their marrow with winter's tales 

about the fire: tales that are singularly apposite and 

characteristic; not only of the old life; but of the very 

constitution of built nature in that part; and singularly 

well qualified to add horror to horror; when the wind 

pipes around the tall LANDS; and hoots adown arched 

passages; and the far…spread wilderness of city lamps 

keeps quavering and flaring in the gusts。



Here; it is the tale of Begbie the bank…porter; 

stricken to the heart at a blow and left in his blood 

within a step or two of the crowded High Street。  There; 

people hush their voices over Burke and Hare; over drugs 

and violated graves; and the resurrection…men smothering 

their victims with their knees。  Here; again; the fame of 

Deacon Brodie is kept piously fresh。  A great man in his 

day was the Deacon; well seen in good society; crafty 

with his hands as a cabinet…maker; and one who could sing 

a song with taste。  Many a citizen was proud to welcome 

the Deacon to supper; and dismissed him with regret at a 

timeous hour; who would have been vastly disconcerted had 

he known how soon; and in what guise; his visitor 

returned。  Many stories are told of this redoubtable 

Edinburgh burglar; but the one I have in my mind most 

vividly gives the key of all the rest。  A friend of 

Brodie's; nested some way towards heaven in one of these 

great LANDS; had told him of a projected visit to the 

country; and afterwards; detained by some affairs; put it 

off and stayed the night in town。  The good man had lain 

some time awake; it was far on in the small hours by the 

Tron bell; when suddenly there came a creak; a jar; a 

faint light。  Softly he clambered out of bed and up to a 

false window which looked upon another room; and there; 

by the glimmer of a thieves' lantern; was his good friend 

the Deacon in a mask。  It is characteristic of the town 

and the town's manners that this little episode should 

have been quietly tided over; and quite a good time 

elapsed before a great robbery; an escape; a Bow Street 

runner; a cock…fight; an apprehension in a cupboard in 

Amsterdam; and a last step into the air off his own 

greatly…improved gallows drop; brought the career of 

Deacon William Brodie to an end。  But still; by the 

mind's eye; he may be seen; a man harassed below a 

mountain of duplicity; slinking from a magistrate's 

supper…room to a thieves' ken; and pickeering among the 

closes by the flicker of a dark lamp。



Or where the Deacon is out of favour; perhaps some 

memory lingers of the great plagues; and of fatal houses 

still unsafe to enter within the memory of man。  For in 

time of pestilence the discipline had been sharp and 

sudden; and what we now call 'stamping out contagion' was 

carried on with deadly rigour。  The officials; in their 

gowns of grey; with a white St。 Andrew's cross on back 

and breast; and a white cloth carried before them on a 

staff; perambulated the city; adding the terror of man's 

justice to the fear of God's visitation。  The dead they 

buried on the Borough Muir; the living who had concealed 

the sickness were drowned; if they were women; in the 

Quarry Holes; and if they were men; were hanged and 

gibbeted at their own doors; and wherever the evil had 

passed; furniture was destroyed and houses closed。  And 

the most bogeyish part of the story is about such houses。  

Two generations back they still stood dark and empty; 

people avoided them as they passed by; the boldest 

schoolboy only shouted through the keyhole and made off; 

for within; it was supposed; the plague lay ambushed like 

a basilisk; ready to flow forth and spread blain and 

pustule through the city。  What a terrible next…door 

neighbour for superstitious citizens!  A rat scampering 

within would send a shudder through the stoutest heart。  

Here; if you like; was a sanitary parable; addressed by 

our uncleanly forefathers to their own neglect。



And then we have Major Weir; for although even his 

house is now demolished; old Edinburgh cannot clear 

herself of his unholy memory。  He and his sister lived 

together in an odour of sour piety。  She was a marvellous 

spinster; he had a rare gift of supplication; and was 

known among devout admirers b

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