Note 896 — PREFATIO. (continued 2)

The Tolbooth or Council House must not be confounded with the Old Tollbooth or Jail, which was described in 1561 as ruinous, and ordered to be demolished. It was, however, repaired, and has been immortalized as "The Heart of Mid-Lothian." In Chambers's "Reekiana," a number of curious and interesting notices are collected regarding this building, which was situated at the west-end of St. Giles's Church, and encroached so much on that part of the High Street, called the Luckenbooths, as to leave only a kind of lane to the north, of 14 feet wide. Further to the south, and connected with the south-west corner of St. Giles's Church, with a covered passage to the Parliament Square, there was a large mass of buildings, which included what was known as the New Tolbooth or Council House, the Goldsmith's Hall, &c. All these were pulled down when the Signet Library was built, and the ornamented exterior of the Parliament House, (begun in 1632, and completed in 1640,) was so unfortunately sacrificed. The Old Tolbooth or Jail was demolished in 1817; and the changes which took place in and around the Parliament Square at that time, completely altered the singularly picturesque character of the Old Town of Edinburgh.