Deacon Brodie
Farther down, on the same side, is Brodie's Close, where lived the notorious Deacon Brodie, immortalised by R. L. Stevenson and W. E. Henley in The Double Life.
Brodie was a town councillor and cabinet-maker by day and an ingenious burglar by night. He made copies of his customers' keys while working in their houses and at night came back to burgle them.
In a tenement opposite (now removed), Robert Burns lodged during his first visit to Edinburgh. Behind, and reached either by James's Court or Wardrop's Court, is a mansion known as Lady stair's House. Built in 1622 by Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, whose initials, together with those of his wife, are above the doorway, the mansion was restored and presented to the city by Lord Rosebery. It is now a municipal museum.
The site of the old Tolbooth of Edinburgh, Scott's "Heart of Midlothian," is a few yards to the west of St. Giles' Church, and is marked by special paving - stones. The Tolbooth (demolished 1817) had a remarkable history, being at one time or another the meeting-place of the Parliament, the Privy Council, the College of Justice, and the Town Council; but it gathered most fame as a prison.
