Trial of Deacon Brodie

Trial of Deacon Brodie

FEW cities have preserved more faithfully than Edinburgh the traditions of former days, and none is richer in the material of romance. Throughout the length of the Royal mile extending from Holyrood to the Castle Hill, each tortuous wynd and narrow close owns its peculiar association, each obscure court and towering land has contributed, if but by a footnote, to the volume of the citys history. And where these visible memorials have perished beneath the slow assault of time, or succumbed to the more lethal methods of modern improvement, the legends which they embodied survive their dissolution and serve in turn to perpetuate their fame. Of the many memories that haunt the lover of old Edinburgh, wandering to-day among the vestiges of her romantic and insanitary past, perhaps the most curious is that of William Brodie, Deacon of the Wrights and doyen of the double life; by day a considerable house carpenter and member of the Town Council; by night a housebreaker and the companion of thieves. It is nearly a hundred and twenty years since Deacon Brodie played out his twofold part at the west end of the Luckenbooths one grey October afternoon in 1788; but the close in the Lawnmarket which bears his name remains to this day. Here he was born and lived, man and boy, robber and decent burgess, for many reputable years; here his old father passed away, happy in the possession of so excellent a son; and from hence did the son essay that last fatal adventure, the issue of which was, for him, discovery and the scaffold. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 49405
Author: Roughead, William
Release Date: Jul 9, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Roughead, William, 1870-1952