The Heart of Mid-Lothian

come, but

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absolutely filled with spectators. The uncommon height and antique appearance of these houses, some of which were formerly the property of the Knights Templars, and the Knights of St. John, and still exhibit on their fronts and gables the iron cross of these orders, gave additional effect to a scene in itself so striking. The area of the Grassmarket re

anything resembling the more noisy current of their ordinary feelings. Had a stranger consulted only the evidence of his ears, he might have supposed that so vast a multitude were assembled for some purpose which affected them with the deepest sorrow, and stilled those noises which, on all ordinary occasions, arise from such a concourse; but if he had gazed upon their faces, he would have been instantly undeceived. The compressed lip, the bent brow, the stern and flashing

which, being a numerous and fluctuating body, requires for its support a degree of energy in its functionaries, which the individuals who compose it cannot at all times alike be supposed to possess in their own persons. It was remembered, that in the Information for Porteous (the paper, namely, in which his case was stated to the Judges of the criminal court), he had been described by his counsel as the person on whom the magistrates chiefly relied in all emergencies of uncommon difficulty. It was ar

ly be thought, that to visit it with a capital punishment would render it both delicate and dangerous for future officers, in the same circumstances, to act with effect in repressing tumults. There is also a natural feeling, on the part of all members of Government, for the general maintenance of authority; and it seemed not unlikely, that what to the relatives of the sufferers appeared a wanton and unprovoked massacre, shou

st excesses of the poor, he not only overlooked the license of the young nobles and gentry, but was very willing to lend them the countenance of his official authority, in execution of such loose pranks as it was chiefly his duty to have restrained. This suspicion, which was perhaps much exaggerated, made a deep impression on the minds of the populace; and when several of the higher rank joined in a petition,

t any visible cause of impulse, like the agitation of the waters, called by sailors the ground-swell. The news, which the magistrates had almost hesitated to communicate to them, were at length announced, and spread among the spectators with a rapidity like lightning. A reprieve from the Secretary of State’s office, under the hand of his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, had

ation seemed to forbode some immediate explosion of popular resentment, and, in fact, such had been expected by the magistrates, and the necessary measures had been taken to repress it. But the shout was not repeated, nor did any sudden tumult ensue, such as it appeared to announce. The populace seemed to be ashamed of

e mistaken motives on which he acted, as well as from the generosity he had displayed towards his accomplice. “This man,” they said — “the brave, the resolute, the generous, was executed to death without mercy for stealing a purse of gold, which in some sense he might consider as a fair reprisal; while the profligate satel

e had the desired effect; for no sooner had the fatal tree been unfixed from the large stone pedestal or socket in which it was secured, and sunk slowly down upon the wain intended to remove it to the

ered the cause as common to all ranks. Indeed, as we have already noticed, it was by no means amongst the lowest class of the spectators, or those most likely to be engaged in the riot at Wilson’s execution, that the fatal fire of Porteous’s soldiers had taken effect. Several persons were killed who were looking out at windows at the scen

ne group of people to another, remaining long with none, but whispering for a little time with those who appeared to be declaiming most violently against the conduct of Government. These ac

d went home peaceably; and it was only by observing the moody discontent on their brows, or catching the tenor of the conversation they held with each other, that a stranger could estimate the state of their mind

woman, as he offered her his arm to assist her in the toilsome ascent, “to see the grit folk at Lunnon

comfortable window as I had gotten, too, just within a penny-stane-cast of the scaffold — I could

this reprieve wadna stand gude in the auld

ng, and a chancellor, and parliament men o’ our ain, we could aye peeble them wi’ stan

amstress; “they hae taen away our parliament, and they hae oppressed our trade. Our gentl

come down to vex and torment us, that an honest man canna fetch sae muckle as a bit anker o’ brandy frae Leith to the Lawnmarket, but he’s like to be rubbit o’ the very gudes he’s bought and pai

wden, “here comes Mr. Saddletree, that ca

riwig, dressed in a decent suit of sad-coloured clothes, came up

pt an excellent and highly-esteemed shop for harness, saddles, &

on improving his stock of legal knowledge without interruption; but, as if in requital, she insisted upon having her own will in the domestic and commercial departments which he abandoned to her. Now, as Bartoline Saddletree had a considerable gift of words, which he mistook for eloquence, and conferred more liberally upon the society in which he lived than was at all times gracious and acceptable, there went forth a saying, with which wags used sometimes to interrupt his rhetoric, that, as he had a golden nag at his door, so he had a grey mare in his shop. This reproach

arrived at this conclusion, that, if Porteous had fired five minutes sooner, before Wilson was cut down, he would have been versans in licito; engaged, that

ineness of this distinction was entirely thrown away — “whan had Jock Por

owden,” said

ss Damahoy, “min

entreated the in

lumdamas, “mind

ys —‘I,’ says he, ‘take a distinction.’ Now, the body of the criminal being cut down, and the execution ended, Porteous was n

phasis on the first syllable) Mr. Butler, the deputy-schoolmaster of a parish nea

t I am glad to see ye notwithstanding — I speak a

ssed his loof with a tight leathern strap, Mr. Saddletree; there is not a boy o

Mr. Butler, and not like a sch

hoolboy, I think,

ishment — which is to say, in plain Scotch, the gallows — simply because he did not fire when he was in office, but waited till the bo

think John Porteous’s case wad hae been better if he

t, or, at least, not implemented, or finally ended; but after Wilson was cut down it was a’ ower — he was clean exauctorate, and had nae mair ado but to g

ord of state, or a lord of s

een idle questions about their saddles, and curpels, and holsters and horse-furniture, and what they

” said Mrs. Howden, somewhat indignant at the contemptuous way in which her gossip was mentioned; “when she and I were

y, was cudgelling his brains for an answer to

gude auld time before the Union — a year’s rent o’ mony a gude estate gaed for horse-graith and harnessing, forby bro

comfits wet and dry, and dried fruits of divers sorts,”

ront they hae gien us this day. It’s not only the blude that is shed, but the blude that might hae been shed, that’s required at our hands; there was

Butler, “they should be soundly

mightna she hae been shot as weel as the rest o’ them, and where wad we a’ hae been then? I wonder how

such a circumstance would not have dis

man, I wad hae amends o’ Jock Porteous, be the upshot what like o’t

h door wi’ my nails,” said Mis

” said Butler, “but I would no

ll be naething else spoken about frae the Weigh-house

were wont to take that refreshment. Mr. Plumdamas then departed towards his shop, and Mr. Butler, who happened to have some particular occasion for the rein of an old bridle (the truants of that busy day could have anticipated its