edingburgh picturesque notes-第5章
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will be a round of hisses when he is brought forth。 Once
in a while; too; an advocate in wig and gown; hand upon
mouth; full of pregnant nods; sweeps to and fro in the
arcade listening to an agent; and at certain regular
hours a whole tide of lawyers hurries across the space。
The Parliament Close has been the scene of marking
incidents in Scottish history。 Thus; when the Bishops
were ejected from the Convention in 1688; 'all fourteen
of them gathered together with pale faces and stood in a
cloud in the Parliament Close:' poor episcopal personages
who were done with fair weather for life! Some of the
west…country Societarians standing by; who would have
'rejoiced more than in great sums' to be at their
hanging; hustled them so rudely that they knocked their
heads together。 It was not magnanimous behaviour to
dethroned enemies; but one; at least; of the Societarians
had groaned in the BOOTS; and they had all seen their
dear friends upon the scaffold。 Again; at the 'woeful
Union;' it was here that people crowded to escort their
favourite from the last of Scottish parliaments: people
flushed with nationality; as Boswell would have said;
ready for riotous acts; and fresh from throwing stones at
the author of 'Robinson Crusoe' as he looked out of
window。
One of the pious in the seventeenth century; going
to pass his TRIALS (examinations as we now say) for the
Scottish Bar; beheld the Parliament Close open and had a
vision of the mouth of Hell。 This; and small wonder; was
the means of his conversion。 Nor was the vision
unsuitable to the locality; for after an hospital; what
uglier piece is there in civilisation than a court of
law? Hither come envy; malice; and all uncharitableness
to wrestle it out in public tourney; crimes; broken
fortunes; severed households; the knave and his victim;
gravitate to this low building with the arcade。 To how
many has not St。 Giles's bell told the first hour after
ruin? I think I see them pause to count the strokes; and
wander on again into the moving High Street; stunned and
sick at heart。
A pair of swing doors gives admittance to a hall
with a carved roof; hung with legal portraits; adorned
with legal statuary; lighted by windows of painted glass;
and warmed by three vast fires。 This is the SALLE DES
PAS PERDUS of the Scottish Bar。 Here; by a ferocious
custom; idle youths must promenade from ten till two。
From end to end; singly or in pairs or trios; the gowns
and wigs go back and forward。 Through a hum of talk and
footfalls; the piping tones of a Macer announce a fresh
cause and call upon the names of those concerned。
Intelligent men have been walking here daily for ten or
twenty years without a rag of business or a shilling of
reward。 In process of time; they may perhaps be made the
Sheriff…Substitute and Fountain of Justice at Lerwick or
Tobermory。 There is nothing required; you would say; but
a little patience and a taste for exercise and bad air。
To breathe dust and bombazine; to feed the mind on
cackling gossip; to hear three parts of a case and drink
a glass of sherry; to long with indescribable longings
for the hour when a man may slip out of his travesty and
devote himself to golf for the rest of the afternoon; and
to do this day by day and year after year; may seem so
small a thing to the inexperienced! But those who have
made the experiment are of a different way of thinking;
and count it the most arduous form of idleness。
More swing doors open into pigeon…holes where judges
of the First Appeal sit singly; and halls of audience
where the supreme Lords sit by three or four。 Here; you
may see Scott's place within the bar; where he wrote many
a page of Waverley novels to the drone of judicial
proceeding。 You will hear a good deal of shrewdness;
and; as their Lordships do not altogether disdain
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 s