The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

wards a ponderous key of about two feet in length, he
proceeded to shut a strong plate of steel, which folded
down above the keyhole, and was secured by a steel
spring and catch. Butler stood still instinctively while
the door was made fast, and then looking at his watch,
walked briskly up the street, muttering to himself, almost
unconsciously—
Porta adversa, ingens, solidoque adamante columnae;
Vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi exscindere ferro
Coelicolae valeant—Stat ferrea turris ad auras—etc.*
Dryden’s Virgil, Book vi.
Having wasted half-an-hour more in a second fruitless
attempt to find his legal friend and adviser, he
thought it time to leave the city and return to his place
of residence, in a small village about two miles and a
Sir Walter Scott
half to the southward of Edinburgh. The metropolis
was at this time surrounded by a high wall, with battlements
and flanking projections at some intervals, and
the access was through gates, called in the Scottish language
ports, which were regularly shut at night. A small
fee to the keepers would indeed procure egress and ingress
at any time, through a wicket left for that purpose
in the large gate; but it was of some importance, to a
man so poor as Butler, to avoid even this slight pecuniary
mulct; and fearing the hour of shutting the gates
might be near, he made for that to which he found himself
nearest, although, by doing so, he somewhat lengthened
his walk homewards. Bristo Port was that by which
his direct road lay, but the West Port, which leads out
of the Grassmarket, was the nearest of the city gates to
the place where he found himself, and to that, therefore,
he directed his course. He reached the port in ample
time to pass the circuit of the walls, and entered a sub-
urb called Portsburgh, chiefly inhabited by the lower
* Wide is the fronting gate, and, raised on high,/ With ada-
order of citizens and mechanics. Here he was unexpectmantine
columns threats the sky;/ Vain is the force of man,
and Heaven’s as vain,/ To crush the pillars which the pile edly interrupted.
sustain:/ Sublime on these a tower of steel is reard.
83