Chapter 5

Solution Manual for Human Sexuality in a World of

Diversity Fourth Canadian Canadian 4th Edition Rathus
Nevid Herold McKay 020501576X 9780205015764
Full download link at:
Solution manual: https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-manual-for-human-
sexuality-in-a-world-of-diversity-fourth-canadian-canadian-4th-edition-rathus-
nevid-herold-mckay020501576x-9780205015764/
Test bank: https://testbankpack.com/p/test-bank-for-human-sexuality-in-a-
world-of-diversity-fourth-canadian-canadian-4th-edition-rathus-nevid-herold-
mckay020501576x-9780205015764/

CHAPTER 5
Gender Identity & Gender Roles

CHAPTER-AT-A-GLANCE

Chapter Outline Instructional Ideas Supplemental

Materials
Prenatal Sexual Learning Objective 1
Differentiation
Gender Identity Learning Objective 2 IM Activity: Thinking
Learning Objective 3 About Gender and
Discussion Question 1 Reality
Discussion Question 2
Gender Roles and
Stereotypes
Sexism Learning Objective 4 IM Activity: What Do
Teaching Tip 1 You Say Now? Handling
a Sexist Remark
Learning Objective 5
IM Activity: Small Group
Discussion Questions
Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 1
Chapter 5
Gender Typing Learning Objective 6 IM Lecture Material: A
Learning Objective 7 Mixed Blessing: Female
Gender Roles and
Religion
Gender Roles and Sexual Learning Objective 8 IM Activity: Thinking
Behaviour Learning Objective 9 About Sleeping Beauty
and Other Fairy Tales
Learning Objective 10
Discussion Question 3
Discussion Question 4
Discussion Question 5
Psychological Learning Objective 11 IM Activity: The ANDRO
Androgyny Teaching Tip 2 Scale: Assessing Your
Masculinity & Femininity

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 2

Chapter 5

CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter discusses the biological, psychological and sociocultural aspects of gender.
It begins with a description of prenatal sexual differentiation, which starts at about the
seventh week of gestation. Without male sex hormones, we would all develop into
females in terms of anatomic structure. The development of the testes and ovaries and the
descent of the testes into the scrotal sac are described. Some sex chromosomal
syndromes (Klinefelter and Turner) and their impact on sexual characteristics, physical
health and psychological development are presented.

Gender identity and anatomic gender are distinguished. The influence of nature and
nurture on gender identity is explored. Studies of hermaphrodism and intersexualism are
described. It is concluded from these studies that gender identity is determined by a
complex interaction between biological and psychosocial factors. Transsexualism and
transgenderism are discussed and distinguished. Gender dysphoria (a sense of incongruity
between one’s anatomic sex and one’s gender identity) are discussed, patterns of sexual
attraction (not to be confused with gay male or lesbian orientation) are noted. The process
of gender reassignment psychological, surgical and hormonal treatment) is described and
its efficacy examined. Research suggests, for students, hearing directly from a transsexual
person directly is the best way to develop empathy and understanding related to
transsexuals. Numerous programs exist to support transsexual and transgender persons in
creating a social network, finding employment, coming out etc. The case of David
Reimer, one of a pair of male twins who lost much of his penis in a circumcision
accident, was reared as a girl until adolescence is presented in a text box, as are cultures
which recognize a third gender.

Gender role stereotypes are examined. Sexism is defined and its implications are
discussed. The relationship between gender and aggression is presented; although
typically men have been found to behave more aggressively than women, the rate of
aggression among girls seems to have increased in recent years. Gender and health is also
discussed. Women tend to live longer and healthier lives, and are more willing to seek
health care, than are men.

The biological, sociobiological, and psychological explanations for gender typing are
presented. Evolutionary perspectives emphasize that men’s and women’s traditional roles
are the result of genetic predispositions. Researchers studying prenatal brain organization
suggest that gender-typed behaviour is the result of sex hormones in utero. The concepts
of socialization, gender identity, gender stability and gender constancy are introduced.
The role of a gender schema, as an organizing and guiding construct in the formation of a
self-concept is explained.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 3

Chapter 5

The influence of gender roles on sexual behaviour is explored. Men typically initiate
while women play the “gatekeeper” role. Traditional gender roles constrain both men and
women and can negatively influence sexual relationships. The idea that men are
overaroused and women are underaroused is presented. Research on gender differences in
sexual drive and acceptance of casual sex is presented. Most people believe the sexual
double standard exists, and many believe women are the harshest judges of other
women’s sexual behaviours. However, most people endorse a single standard of sexual
behaviour for both men and women, and some hold a reverse double standard where the
sexual behaviour of men is judged more harshly than women’s. Despite the perception of
women as “underaroused” many women (highly sexual women) embrace their sexuality
and adopt a more liberal stance with regard to sexual behaviours.

Finally, the issue of androgyny and its impact on well-being and sexual behaviour is
presented. Some evidence shows psychologically androgynous men and women to be
more comfortable with their sexuality than are masculine men or feminine women.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Trace the influences of sex chromosomes and hormones on sexual differentiation
during the embryonic and fetal stages.
2. Discuss the research relevant to the nature-nurture debate about determination of
gender identity.
3. Define transsexualism, transgenderism and gender dysphoria, explain the theoretical
perspectives on transsexualism and describe the process and efficacy of gender-
reassignment.
4. Define sexism, give examples and discuss its effects on women and men. Identify
changes in gender roles in today’s society.
5. Summarize the research on gender differences in aggression and health.
6. Summarize the biological perspectives on gender typing.
7. Explain the psychological perspectives on gender typing.
8. Examine the influence of stereotypical gender roles on sexual behaviour and
relationships.
9. Summarize the research on gender differences and similarities in sexual desire.
10. Summarize the research on the sexual standards (the double standard, a single
standard, and the reverse double standard).
11. Define androgyny and discuss its impact on psychological health and sexual
behaviour.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 4

Chapter 5

USING THE ACTIVITIES AND ADDITIONAL LECTURE MATERIAL

I. Prenatal Sexual Differentiation
II. Gender Identity
• Activity I: Use this activity, Thinking About Gender and Reality, to have students
think and write about what they think really determines whether a person is male
or female.
III. Gender Roles and Stereotypes
IV. Sexism
• Activity II: This activity, What Do You Say Now? Handling a Sexist Remark,
asks students to practice responding to sexist remarks and suggests appropriate
responses.
• Activity III: Distribute the Small Group Discussion Questions. This activity asks
students in mixed-gender groups to discuss questions about the effect of gender
on behaviour.
V. Gender Typing
• Lecture I: Use the information in A Mixed Blessing: Female Gender Roles and
Religion to supplement your lecture on differences between male and female
gender roles.
VI. Gender Roles and Sexual Behaviour
• Activity IV: Use the activity Thinking About Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy
Tales, to help students think critically about the gender role messages in fairy
tales.
VII. Psychological Androgyny
• Activity V: The ANDRO Scale: Assessing Your Masculinity and Femininity
allows students to assess how masculine, feminine, or androgynous they are.

TEACHING TIPS
1. Set up two columns on the blackboard: one labeled “Sexist Remarks About Women”
and the other labeled “Sexist Remarks about Men.” Have students suggest remarks
they’ve heard. Examine the intent behind the remarks. Was it to force or shame
people into conforming to stereotypical gender roles?
2. Have students give examples of famous people or people they know who excel in
fields stereotypically associated with the other gender. Use the examples to
emphasize that differences within a gender are much larger than (small) differences
between the “average” male and the “average” female.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 5

Chapter 5

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What do you think has shaped your sense of self as masculine or feminine? Would
you want to raise your children with a strong sense of one or the other, or a mix of
both? What are the consequences for feminine boys and masculine girls growing up?
2. Much controversy has surrounded surgeries performed on intersex babies in infancy
and childhood to make genitals less ambiguous and assign sex. Many in the intersex
movement say surgery should be delayed until children can consent. What would you
do if you gave birth to a child with ambiguous genitalia?
3. Recalling from your childhood, do you think you were socialized in a stereotyped
masculine or feminine way? What impact do you think those socialization
experiences have had on your current sexual attitudes and behaviours?
4. Do you think you conform to traditional gender roles? Do you think most people do?
5. Do you perceive a sexual double standard around you? Or do you think Canada is
becoming more egalitarian in terms of the sexual freedom afforded women and men?
Why do you think research has found women are harsher judges of other women’s
behaviour than are men?
6. Who has a higher sex drive, men or women? Or do men and women have similar sex
drives? Some have suggested that women feel desire for sex as intensely as men, but
just experience it less frequently. What do you think of that?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Literature

Baber, K. M. (2001). A postmodern feminist approach to teaching human sexuality.

Family Relations, 50, 1, 23-34.
Bailey, J., Bechtold, K. and Berenbaum, S. (2002) Who are tomboys and why should we
study them? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31,4, 333-341.
Beasley, C. (2005). Gender and Sexuality: Critical Theories, Critical Thinkers. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bockting, W. and Cesaretti, C. (2002). Spirituality, transgender identity, and coming out.
Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 26,4, 291-300.
Brod, H. and Kaufman, M. eds. (1994). Theorizing Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Byers, S. (1991). Gender differences in the traditional sexual script: Fact or Fiction.
SIECCAN Journal, 6, 4, 16-18.
Califia, P. (1997). Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. San Francisco, CA:
Cleis Press.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 6

Chapter 5

Clark, C. A. (2000). Gender and reactions to a hypothetical relationship partner's

masturbation and use of sexually explicit media. The Journal of Sex Research, 37, 2,
133-142.
Dreger, A. D. (2008). The controversy surrounding The Man Who Would be Queen: A
case history in the politics of science, identity , and sex in the internet age. Archives
of Sexual Behavior, 37, 3, 366-421.
Dovor, H. (1997). FTM: Female to Male Transsexuals in Society. Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press.
Dozier, R. (2005). Beards, breasts, and bodies: Doing sex in a gendered world. Gender
and Society, 19, 3, 297-316.
Green, J. (2004). Becoming a Visible Man. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University
Press.
Kaufman, M. (1987). Beyond Patriarchy: Essays by Men on Pleasure, Power and
Change. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Greer, J.H. (1996). Gender differences in cognitive processes in sexuality. Annual Review
of Sex Research, 7, 90-124.
Hyde, J. (1996). Half the human experience: The psychology of women (fourth edition).
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Lips, H. (2005). Sex and gender (5th ed.) Boston: McGraw Hill.
Lips, H. (2006). A New Psychology of Women: Gender, Culture, Ethnicity (3rd ed.).
Boston: McGraw Hill.
Peterson, V. (2000). Mars and Venus: The rhetoric of sexual planetary alignment. Women
and Language, 23, 2, 1-8.
Schrock, D. P. and Reid, L. L. (2006). Transsexuals’ sexual stories. Archives of Sexual
Behavior, 35, 1, 75-86.
Veale, J. F., Clarke, D. E., & Lomax, T. C. (2008). Sexuality of male-to-female
transsexuals. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 4, 586-597.

Videos

(The websites for many of the major education video distribution companies are listed on
page 257 of this manual.)
Adventures in The Gender Trade: A Case for Diversity (1994, 40 min.). This video
presents a spectrum of colorful gender anomalies: drag queens, transsexuals, cross
dressers, gays and lesbians and those who refuse to be categorized. They want the right to
be not “male” or “female,” but whatever they choose in between. Academics in the video

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 7

Chapter 5

encourage a re-evaluation of traditional thinking and a distinction between gender

orientation and sexual preference. From Filmakers Library
Beyond Killing Us Softly (2000, 34 min.). A documentary about the struggle against
degrading media messages to women and girls. Leading authorities in the fields of the
psychology of women, eating disorders, gender studies, violence against women and
media literacy discuss their ideas on how to counteract and eliminate these “toxic”
messages. From Cambridge Documentary Films
The Blank Point: What Is Transsexualism? (1994, 58 min.). Two male-to-female
transsexuals and one female-to-male transsexual discuss their old identities, their
transitions to their new lives and the medical and psychological processes that enabled
them to change sex. From Cinema Guild
Brain Sex (1993, three volumes totaling 150 min.). This series examines differences in
learning patterns, appetites, expectations and behaviours of men and women. It examines
how fetal sex hormone levels affect later behaviour. It considers evidence that males and
females use different parts of the brain to carry out similar functions, explores how
evolution helped shape gender differences and probes differences in attitudes toward love
and sex. From Insight Media
Dreamworlds III (2006, 55 min.). Drawing on hundreds of images, Dreamworlds III
encourages viewers to critically examine contemporary music videos for the messages
they convey about women, men and sexuality. From Media Education Foundation
Gender and Communication: She Talks, He Talks (1994, 22 min.). This program
explores the different ways in which men and women converse and consider factors that
may have created those differences. Among the topics explored are why males place
more emphasis on the literal meaning of words than females, the different motivations
each has for asking questions and women’s use of weakening speech patterns such as
upward inflections and disclaimers. From Insight Media
The Idea of Gender (1995, 60 min.). How much are gender roles determined by nature?
How much by social and cultural forces? James Sheehan of Stanford University lectures
on how the idea of gender has evolved in Europe and America over the last 200 years. He
describes traditional beliefs and the idea of male domination and examines views of
gender expressed in Mill’s The Subjection of Women and De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex.
From Insight Media
In My Country: An International Perspective on Gender (1993, two volumes
totalling 91 min.). This video is designed to be used as a resource for studying cultural
attitudes related to gender. Divided into segments by topic, it covers division of
household labour, types of disciplines for boys and girls, marriage decisions, control of
money, society’s view of rape, care for the elderly and attitudes toward homosexuals. It

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 8

Chapter 5

features interviews with people from Zaire, El Salvador, St. Vincent, England, Taiwan,
Sweden, Lebanon, Japan, India, China, the Fiji Islands and Mexico. From Insight Media
Intersexuality (2000, 24 min.) This program, a segment from SexTV, examines the
medical ethics surrounding the surgical treatment of intersex children. From SexTY, City
TV.
Is it a Boy of a Girl? (2000, 60 min.). Originally broadcast on the Discovery Channel,
this film explores the hormonal and genetic causes of intersexualism, as well as the
medical procedures used to deal with the condition. Intersex individuals and their parents
comment on the effects of medical interventions and discuss their personal stories. From
The Intersex Society of North America.
It’s A Female Thing (1995, 27 min.). This is a gender awareness video documenting the
story of twenty one girls and women ages eight to ninety one who gathered together to
create, perform and tour the Growing Up Female theater piece about their personal and
collective lives. An empowering program, it covers topics such as sexism, body image,
gender roles, sexual abuse, multiculturalism, self-esteem, role models and what it means
to be female in our society. From Intermedia, Inc.
Man to Man: Exploring the Myths of Manhood (1998, 30 min.). This documentary
explores gender stereotypes; what it means to be a man in today’s society and challenges
many clichés about masculinity. From NIMCO, Inc.
Metamorphosis: Man into Woman (1990, 58 min.). At age 36, Gary decided to begin
the extraordinary process of changing his sex. Shot over three years, this compassionate
yet unsentimental film follows Gary’s transformation into Gabi. Metamorphosis raises
profound questions about gender stereotypes. Watching Gary make conscious choices of
what is appropriate behaviour for a woman today challenges the audience to confront
personal biases and expectations of what men and women are supposed to be. From
Filmakers Library
Paradise Bent (2000, 50 min.). Presents the story of the Samoan fa'afafines, boys who
are raised as girls, fulfilling a traditional role in Samoan culture being accepted and
appreciated. They cheerfully share the women's traditional work of cooking, cleaning and
caring for children and the elderly. From Filmakers Library
Reviving Ophelia (1998, 35 min.). Mary Pipher, Ph.D., discusses the challenges facing
today’s teenagers, especially girls, as well as the role of the media and popular culture in
shaping their identities. Offers suggestions for freeing girls from the toxic influence of
today’s media. From Media Education Foundation
The Remarkable Story of John/Joan (1997, 30 min.) Originally broadcast on the CBC
programme The Fifth Estate, this film tells the true story of John/Joan, who as a baby
suffered an accident during circumcision that severed most of his penis. Dr. John Money

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 9

Chapter 5

recommended sex reassignment surgery and the child was subsequently raised as a girl.
The film documents the struggle of John/Joan to reassert a masculine identity after years
of being treated as female. From CBC Educational Sales.
Sexism in Language: Thief of Honor, Shaper of Lies (1995, 20 min.). This video
explores sexism in both the syntax and semantic of language and shows how it is often
unintentional or even unrecognized. Four key areas are explored: “female” words that are
dependent on a “male” version; words that are more positive for men than for women;
words for women that carry negative sexual connotations; and “neutral” words that
become inferior when applied to women. From Berkeley Media LLC
Sex and Money: Dr. John Money on Sexual Identity (1991, 50 min.) Dr. John Money
is well known for his research on what makes a person become heterosexual,
homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual. In this film he presents his ideas on the anatomical
and biological factors that steer one towards masculinity or femininity, sorting them out
from the historical, cultural and sociological influences. This film shows people in
various stages of transsexual transformation. We see the adaptations they have made with
their families and partners. From Filmakers Library
To Be a Man: "Boys Don't Cry" and the Story of Brandon Teena (1999, 88 min.)
Depicts the true story of Teena Brandon, who was born as a girl but created a male
identity for himself. After being accepted and appreciated by the people around him in a
small Nebraska town he was raped and murdered when his biological sex was discovered.
From http://www.newvideo.com/brandon.shtml
You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men (1997, 58 min.) Six
men who were once women, and their partners, friends and family, are profiled. From
Berkeley Media LLC.

Web Sites

http://www.ingersollcenter.org Provides information and links to opinions,

publications and services for the transsexual, transgender and transvestite individuals.
http://www.ifge.org Website of the International Foundation For Gender Education, a
non-profit organization dedicated to educating members of the transgender community,
the general public, and health care professionals about gender issues.
http://www.isna.org The Intersex Society of North America is dedicated to ending the
shame, secrecy and fear associated with intersexualism. The organization offers support,
advice and educational resources for those seeking information about intersexualism.
http://www.ipdx.org/articles/intersex-faq.html Frequently asked questions about
intersex conditions from the Intersex Initiative of the Pacific Northwest, SF Bay Area,
and Japan.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 10

Chapter 5

http://www.ok2bme.ca An information source for kids and teens to visit regarding

LGBTQ such as understanding terms, religion, coming out, harassment, programs, from
K-W counselling and Family and children services of Waterloo.

ACTIVITIES

Activity I: Thinking About Gender and Reality

Teachers of human sexuality find that students now and then become confused, even
frustrated, when discussing intersexualism, a condition describing people born with
internal gonads of one gender and external genitalia (and possibly internal reproductive
organs) that are either ambiguous as to gender or resemble the structures of the opposite
gender. In discussing intersexuals, teachers may hear the question, “Well, was he/she
really a boy or a girl?” Consider the word “really.” What does it mean to you to really be
male or female? What do you say?
• Is reality, for you, defined in terms of chromosomal gender? That is, if an individual
with masculinized sex organs and the gender identity of a male has an XX sex
chromosomal structure, do you see him/her as really male or really female?
• Consider transsexuals. When a person has the gender identity of a person of the
opposite chromosomal gender and undergoes gender reassignment to live life as a
member of the opposite chromosomal gender, has his or her gender really changed?
• What, for you, is the ultimate definition of gender, something biological, something
psychological, or a bit of each?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 11

Chapter 5

Activity II: What Do You Say Now? Handling a Sexist Remark

You have “arrived.” You are out of university for only a dozen years and you have
become a vice president for sales at your computer firm. Your letterhead uses your
initials, “J. T. Hernandez,” rather than your first name, so sometimes your correspondents
are surprised to learn that you’re a woman.

One of them has called on you at your office. He walks in and raises his eyebrows as
you rise to meet him. You hold out your hand and he takes it in both of his. He gives you
a great big grin, winks and says, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a job like this?”

He is being friendly, but you are fuming. This is a business call and not a blind date.

What do you say now? Write down some possible responses and then check the
discussion below.

1.

2.

Let us note first that male readers have probably learned at least one thing not to say
to businesswomen, unless they purposefully want to sabotage their business relationships
with them. Women may wish to consider responses such as the following.

1. “My hand’s not cold, Mr. Harbinger. Perhaps we can talk about why you’re here.”
(This is a very negative response to his holding your hand within his own and may be
linked to another response as well.)

2. “We’ve found out that men just aren’t tough enough for this job.” (This comment can
be made in a pleasant, humorous voice if the goal is to “proceed as normal,” or in a
biting voice, if the expression of displeasure is the sole goal.)

3. “This is a busy day, Mr. Harbinger. Perhaps you’d care to discuss your reasons for
coming here.” (This lets your visitor know that he is taking your time and that he is
on your “territory.” It can be said matter-of-factly, in which case there is the
possibility for exploring a business relationship further, or it can be said in a way to
let your visitor know that the meeting is perilously close to an end. Either way, it puts
you in the driver’s seat.)

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 12

Chapter 5

4. “This is the twenty-first century, Mr. Harbinger. We refer to adult females as women,
not girls.” (This points out the fact that “girl” is a demeaning way of addressing an
adult and it can be linked with responses such as 2 or 3.)

5. A suggestion about what not to say: It’s probably wise not to take your visitor up on
the adjective nice—that is, avoid saying anything to suggest that you are not, or are,
“nice.” The word nice in this context has an old-fashioned degrading connotation that
you need not deal with.

Some of the suggested responses may at first seem like an overreaction. After all, one
could argue that Mr. Harbinger was nonplused and did not know exactly what to say.
Perhaps his remark was “innocent,” and not an effort at “one-ups-person-ship.” If you
suspect that he meant no harm, you could make a remark such as one suggested in a more
friendly voice, but it might be an error to just let his sexist remark go. It gives him an
advantage on your territory and it might be that no profitable business can be transacted
with him while he retains this advantage. In other words, by saying nothing you lose in
terms of business as well as self-esteem. By saying something, there is a chance of
coming out ahead in business and you’ll certainly feel better about yourself.

As an alternative to this activity you might want to ask students to volunteer if they
have ever been subjected to sexist remarks, what these were, how they reacted and how
they felt after the incident, if appropriate ask them to think of alternative ways of
responding that could make them feel more comfortable with their reaction.

Adapted from Rathus, S. A. and Nevid, J. S. (1992). Adjustment and growth: The challenges of life. (Fifth
edition) Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 384.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 13

Chapter 5

Activity III: Small Group Discussion Questions

How Does Gender Affect Our Behaviour

In mixed-gender groups of three to four students each, discuss the following

questions and ideas. After 20 minutes, one student from each group should summarize
the small group discussion to the class.

1. How would you react if one of your classmates told you he or she had gender-
reassignment surgery? if a friend told you? if your date told you? What questions
would you want to ask him or her?

2. Generate a list of common stereotypes about males and females. Discuss the
evidence for the “truth” of these stereotypes. How might the stereotypes we believe
influence our relationships?

3. Do your experiences confirm the research finding that boys often dominate
classroom discussions and discussions in mixed-gender groups? Do your
experiences confirm that men interrupt others more? What effects do these patterns
have on conversations? on intimate relationships? Ask students to conduct an
observation of some of their other classes and bring them for discussion.

4. Can you think of examples of boys and girls teasing their playmates into making
more “gender appropriate” choices of activities and toys? In what ways might this
pressure affect children?

5. Several recent best sellers seem to emphasize the differences between rather than
the similarities in males and females. What effect do you think this has on what
some label the “War Between the Sexes”?

6. What is the impact of using the term “opposite sex”? Are men and women really
opposites?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 14

Chapter 5

Activity IV: Thinking About Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales

Critical thinkers are curious and skeptical. They remain open-minded to alternatives to
traditional beliefs. We invite you to take a nontraditional look at a traditional fairy tale, a
tale that may have much to teach us about cultural attitudes toward sexuality, especially
female sexuality.

The fables, folk tales and fairy tales that we pass down through the generations form
repositories of the beliefs and values that comprise our cultural heritage. Consider the
fairy tale of “Sleeping Beauty.” Sleeping Beauty is a young woman who is placed in a
protracted unnatural sleep by an evil witch. She can be awakened only by a kiss from her
Prince Charming, although generations are born and wither while she awaits. Once she is
kissed, however, she and her prince get married and live happily ever after. What does
this tale say about cultural attitudes toward female sexuality? About the roles of men and
women? About the acceptability of premarital sex? Myths and fables can be interpreted
in different ways, on different levels. On one such level, the tale of Sleeping Beauty
serves as a metaphor for a girl’s transition to womanhood. Our reading of the tale
suggests that the sexual desires of young women are meant to lie dormant-asleep-until
aroused by Messieurs Right. These are the men who can awaken them with gentlemanly
kisses.

Fables like “Sleeping Beauty” impart cultural values concerning gender roles.
“Sleeping Beauty” also suggests that there is a right man for every woman and that each
woman is to remain pure and chaste — to wait a hundred years if necessary—until he
comes along. It is not Tom, Dick, or Harry who awakens Sleeping Beauty; it is her Prince
Charming.

Nor do Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming hop into the sack or initiate
cohabitation. Once awakened, a woman’s desires are to be consummated only through
matrimony, which, as legend has it, will lead to happiness ever after. (Separation and
divorce were no more parts of the fable than was cohabitation.) As for men, they are to
make the first moves, but then to wait patiently to see if their sleeping beauties awaken to
them.

It helps, of course, for Mr. Charming to arrive at her front door on a white stallion, or
perhaps in a white Corvette.

Nevid, J. S. (1992, February). Personal communication. Used with permission.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc. 15

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Edinburgh
sketches & memories
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Edinburgh sketches & memories

Author: David Masson

Release date: October 30, 2023 [eBook #71958]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Adam and Charles Black, 1892

Credits: Richard Tonsing, Susan Skinner, and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDINBURGH

SKETCHES & MEMORIES ***
Transcriber’s Note:
New original cover art included with this eBook is
granted to the public domain.
 EDINBURGH
SKETCHES & MEMORIES
BY

DAVID MASSON
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
EDINBURGH

LONDON AND EDINBURGH

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1892
 PREFATORY NOTE

The following Papers, though in their collected state they have a

certain continuity of general subject, were written at different times
and for different purposes. One is a modified reprint of an article
which appeared in the Westminster Review as long ago as 1856.
Seven of the others were contributed, at intervals within the last
twelve years, to Macmillan’s Magazine, The Scotsman, or The Scots
Observer, and are reprinted now with courteous permission. The
remaining five are from manuscript of various dates since 1867, and
are now published for the first time. An occasional small recurrence
of fact or of phrase in the series may be excused in consideration that
the Papers, thus written separately, may still be read separately.
Edinburgh: March 1892.
 CONTENTS

PAGE
I. Queen Mary’s Edinburgh:—
1. Queen Mary’s Return to Scotland, August 1561 1
2. Plan and Fabric of Edinburgh in 1561 9
3. The Edinburgh Population in 1561 20
II. Robert Rollock and the Beginnings of Edinburgh
University 35
III. King James’s Farewell to Holyrood 61
IV. Proposed Memorial to Drummond of Hawthornden 76
V. Allan Ramsay 88
VI. Lady Wardlaw and the Baroness Nairne 110
VII. Edinburgh through the Dundas Despotism 141
VIII. The Last Years of Sir Walter Scott 204
IX. Carlyle’s Edinburgh Life:—
Part I.—1809–1818 226
Part II.—1818–1822 262
Part III.—1822–1828 302
X. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe 359
XI. John Hill Burton 372
XII. Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh 384
XIII. Literary History of Edinburgh: a General Review 417
 QUEEN MARY’S EDINBURGH[1]

I.—QUEEN MARY’S RETURN TO SCOTLAND,

AUGUST 1561
On a clear day the inhabitants of Edinburgh, by merely
ascending the Calton Hill or any other of the familiar heights in or
around their city, can have a view of nearly the whole length of their
noble estuary, the Firth of Forth. To the right or east, its entrance
from the open sea, between the two shires of Fife and Haddington, is
marked most conspicuously on the Haddingtonshire side by a distant
conical mound, called Berwick Law, rising with peculiar distinctness
from the northward curve of land which there bounds the horizon. It
is thither that the eye is directed if it would watch the first
appearance of steamers and ships from any part of the world that
may be bound up the Firth for Edinburgh by its port of Leith. Moving
thence westward, the eye can command easily the twenty miles more
of the Firth which these ships and steamers have to traverse. The
outlines of both shores, though the breadth between them averages
twelve miles, may be traced with wonderful sharpness, pleasingly
defined as they are by their little bays and promontories, and by the
succession of towns and fishing villages with which they are studded.
Of these, Musselburgh on the near side marks the transition from the
shire of Haddington to that of Edinburgh; after which point the Firth
begins to narrow. Just below Edinburgh itself, where its port of Leith
confronts the Fifeshire towns of Kinghorn and Burntisland, with the
island of Inchkeith a little to the right between, the breadth is about
six miles. There the main maritime interest of the Firth ceases, few
ships going farther up; but, for any eye that can appreciate scenic
beauty, there remains the delight of observing the continued course
of the Firth westward to Queensferry and beyond, a riband of
flashing water between the two coasts which are known prosaically
as those of Linlithgowshire and West Fifeshire, but which, in their
quiet and mystic remoteness, look like a tract of some Arthurian
dreamland.
While something of all this is to be seen on almost any day from
any of the eminences in or near Edinburgh, it is only on rare
occasions that it can be all seen to perfection. Frequently, even in
sunny weather, when the sky is blue above, a haze overspreads the
Firth, concealing the Fifeshire shore, or blurring it into a vague
cloud-like bank. Sometimes, on the other hand, when there is little
sunshine, and the day seems rather sombre in the Edinburgh streets,
the view of the Firth and of the other surroundings of the city from
any of the higher spots is amazingly distinct to the utmost possible
distance, though with the distinctness of a drawing in pen and ink.
Worst of all the atmospheric conditions for a survey of the Firth, or
of the scenery generally, from Edinburgh, is that of the thick, dull,
drizzling, chilling, and piercing fog or mist, called locally a haar,
which the easterly wind brings up at certain seasons from the sea. Up
the Firth this haar will creep or roll, converting the whole aerial gap
between the opposed shores into a mere continuous trough of
seething and impenetrable mist, or of rain and mist commingled,
drenching the Fifeshire hills on the one side, enveloping all
Edinburgh on the other, and pushing itself still westward and inland
over the higher and narrower reaches of the estuary, till the aforesaid
tract of gleaming Arthurian scenery is absorbed into the long foggy
gloom, and even Alloa and Stirling feel the discomfort. No chance
then, from any height near Edinburgh, of seeing the ships and
steamers in any part of their course from the mouth of the Firth to
the port of Leith. If any there be, they are down in the vast abysm of
mist, at anchor for safety, or piloting their Leithward course slowly
and cautiously through the opaque element, with bells ringing, horns
blowing, and now and then a boom from the cannon on the deck to
warn off other vessels or ascertain their own whereabouts. So even
during the day; but, when the haar lasts through the night, and the
opaque gray of the air is deepened into an equally opaque black or
umber, the confusion is still greater. The sounds of fog-signals from
the bewildered vessels are incessant; the shore-lights from the piers
and landing-places can throw their yellow glare but a little way into
the turbid consistency; and, if any adventurous vessel does manage
to warp herself into port in such circumstances, it is with excited
vociferation and stamping among those on board, and no less hurry-
skurry among the men ashore who assist in the feat. Happily, an
Edinburgh haar at once of such dense quality and of long duration is
a rare occurrence. April and May are the likeliest months for the
phenomenon, and it passes usually within twenty-four hours. It may
come later in the year, however, and may last longer.
Just after the middle of August 1561, as we learn from
contemporary records, there was a haar of unusual intensity and
continuance over Edinburgh and all the vicinity. It began on Sunday
the 17th, and it lasted, with slight intermissions, till Thursday the
21st. “Besides the surfett weat and corruptioun of the air,” writes
Knox, then living in Edinburgh, “the myst was so thick and dark that
skairse mycht any man espy ane other the lenth of two pair of butts.”
It was the more unfortunate because it was precisely in those days of
miserable fog and drizzle that Mary, Queen of Scots, on her return to
Scotland after her thirteen years of residence and education in
France, had to form her first real acquaintance with her native shores
and the capital of her realm.
She had left Calais for the homeward voyage on Thursday the
14th August, with a retinue of about 120 persons, French and
Scottish, embarked in two French state galleys, attended by several
transports. They were a goodly company, with rich and splendid
baggage. The Queen’s two most important uncles, indeed,—the great
Francis de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, and his brother, Charles de
Lorraine, the Cardinal,—were not on board. They, with the Duchess
of Guise and other senior lords and ladies of the French Court, had
bidden Mary farewell at Calais, after having accompanied her thither
from Paris, and after the Cardinal had in vain tried to persuade her
not to take her costly collection of pearls and other jewels with her,
but to leave them in his keeping till it should be seen how she might
fare among her Scottish subjects. But on board the Queen’s own
galley were three others of her Guise or Lorraine uncles,—the Duke
d’Aumale, the Grand Prior, and the Marquis d’Elbeuf,—with M.
Damville, son of the Constable of France, and a number of French
gentlemen of lower rank, among whom one notes especially young
Pierre de Bourdeilles, better known afterwards in literary history as
Sieur de Brantôme, and a sprightly and poetic youth from Dauphiné,
named Chastelard, one of the attendants of M. Damville. With these
were mixed the Scottish contingent of the Queen’s train, her four
famous “Marys” included,—Mary Fleming, Mary Livingstone, Mary
Seton, and Mary Beaton. They had been her playfellows and little
maids of honour long ago in her Scottish childhood; they had
accompanied her when she went abroad, and had lived with her ever
since in France; and they were now returning with her, Scoto-
Frenchwomen like herself, and all of about her own age, to share her
new fortunes.
It is to Brantôme that we owe what account we have of the
voyage from Calais. He tells us how the Queen could hardly tear
herself away from her beloved France, but kept gazing at the French
coast hour after hour so long as it was in sight, shedding tears with
every look, and exclaiming again and again, “Adieu, ma chère
France! je ne vous verray jamais plus!” He tells us how, when at
length they did lose sight of France, and were on the open sea
northward with a fair wind, there was some anxiety lest they should
be intercepted, and the Queen taken prisoner by an English fleet. In
the peculiar state of the relations between England and Scotland at
the time, this was not an impossibility, and would hardly have been
against the law of nations. There had been some angry
correspondence between Elizabeth and Mary respecting the non-
ratification by Mary of a certain “Treaty of Edinburgh” of the
previous year, stipulating that she would desist from her claim to
Elizabeth’s throne of England. Elizabeth had consequently refused
Mary’s application for a safeguard for her homeward journey; and
there was actually an English squadron in the North Sea available for
the capture of Mary if Elizabeth had chosen to give the word. But,
though the English squadron does seem to have waylaid the French
galleys, and one of the transports following the galleys was taken and
detained for some reason or other, the galleys themselves, by rapid
sailing or by English sufferance, threw that danger behind, and
approached the Scottish coast in perfect safety. What then
astonished Brantôme, and what he seems to have remembered all his
life with a kind of horror in association with his first introduction to
Queen Mary’s native climate and kingdom, was the extraordinary
fog, the si grand brouillard, in which they suddenly found
themselves. “On a Sunday morning, the day before we came to
Scotland,” he says, “there rose so great a fog that we could not see
from the stern to the prow, much to the discomfiture of the pilots
and crews, so that we were obliged to let go the anchor in the open
sea, and take soundings to know where we were.” Brantôme’s
measure of time becomes a little incoherent at this point; and we
hardly know from his language whether it was outside the Firth of
Forth altogether, or inside of the Firth about Berwick Law, that the
fog caught them, if indeed he remembered that there was such a
thing as an estuary at all between the open sea and Leith. He
distinctly says, however, that they were a whole day and night in the
fog, and that he and the other Frenchmen were blaspheming
Scotland a good deal on account of it before they did reach Leith.
That, as other authorities inform us, was about ten o’clock in the
morning of Tuesday the 19th.
The Leith people and the Edinburgh people were quite
unprepared, the last intimation from France having pointed to the
end of the month as the probable time of the Queen’s arrival, if she
were to be expected at all. But the cannon-shots from the galleys, as
they contrived to near Leith harbour, were, doubtless, a sufficient
advertisement. Soon, so far as the fog would permit, all Leith was in
proper bustle, and all the political and civic dignitaries that chanced
to be in Edinburgh were streaming to Leith. Not till the evening,
according to one account, not till next morning, according to
another, did the Queen leave her galley and set foot on shore. Then,
to allow a few hours more for getting her Palace of Holyrood, and her
escort thither, into tolerable readiness, she took some rest in the
house in Leith deemed most suitable for her reception, the owner
being Andrew Lamb, a wealthy Leith merchant. It was in the
afternoon of Wednesday, the 20th of August, that there was the
procession on horseback of the Queen, her French retinue, and the
gathered Scottish lords and councillors, through the two miles of
road which led from Leith to Holyrood. On the way the Queen was
met by a deputation of the Edinburgh craftsmen and their
apprentices, craving her royal pardon for the ringleaders in a recent
riot, in which the Tolbooth had been broken open and the
Magistrates insulted and defied. This act of grace accorded as a
matter of course, the Queen was that evening in her hall of Holyrood,
the most popular of sovereigns for the moment, her uncles and other
chiefs of her escort with her, and the rest dispersed throughout the
apartments, while outside, in spite of the fog, there were bonfires of
joy in the streets and up the slopes of Arthur Seat, and a crowd of
cheering loiterers moved about in the space between the palace-gate
and the foot of the Canongate. Imparting some regulation to the
proceedings of this crowd, for a while at least, was a special company
of the most “honest” of the townsmen, “with instruments of musick
and with musicians,” admitted within the gate, and tendering the
Queen their salutations, instrumental and vocal, under her chamber-
window. “The melody, as she alledged, lyked her weill, and she willed
the same to be continewed some nightis after.” This is Knox’s
account; but Brantôme tells a different story. After noting the
wretchedness of the hackneys provided for the procession from Leith
to Holyrood, and the poorness of their harnessings and trappings,
the sight of which, he says, made the Queen weep, he goes on to
mention the evening serenade under the windows of Holyrood as the
very completion of the day’s disagreeables. The Abbey itself, he
admits, was a fine enough building; but, just as the Queen had
supped and wanted to go to sleep, “there came under her window
five or six hundred rascals of the town to serenade her with vile
fiddles and rebecks, such as they do not lack in that country, setting
themselves to sing psalms, and singing so ill and in such bad accord
that there could be nothing worse. Ah! what music, and what a
lullaby for the night!” Whether Knox’s account of the Queen’s
impressions of the serenade or Brantôme’s is to be accepted, there
can be no doubt that the matter and intention of the performance
were religious. Our authentic picture, therefore, of Queen Mary’s
first night in Holyrood after her return from France is that of the
Palace lit up within, the dreary fog still persistent outside, the
bonfires on Arthur Seat and other vantage-grounds flickering
through the fog, and the portion of the wet crowd nearest the Palace
singing Protestant psalms for the Queen’s delectation to an
accompaniment of violins.
Next day, Thursday the 21st, this memorable Edinburgh haar of
August 1561 came to an end. Arthur Seat and the other heights and
ranges of the park round Holyrood wore, we may suppose, their
freshest verdure; and Edinburgh, dripping no longer, shone forth, we
may hope, in her sunniest beauty. The Queen could then become
more particularly acquainted with the Palace in which she had come
to reside, and with the nearer aspects of the town to which the Palace
was attached, and into which she had yet to make her formal entry.
 II.—PLAN AND FABRIC OF THE TOWN IN 1561
Then, as now, the buildings that went by the general name of
Holyrood were distinguishable into two portions. There was the
Abbey, now represented only by one beautiful and spacious fragment
of ruin, called the Royal Chapel, but then, despite the spoliations to
which it had been subjected by recent English invasions, still
tolerably preserved in its integrity as the famous edifice, in Early
Norman style, which had been founded in the twelfth century by
David I., and had been enlarged in the fifteenth by additions in the
later and more florid Gothic. Close by this was Holyrood House, or
the Palace proper, built in the earlier part of the sixteenth century,
and chiefly by James IV., to form a distinct royal dwelling, and so
supersede that occasional accommodation in the Abbey itself which
had sufficed for Scottish sovereigns before Edinburgh was their
habitual or capital residence. One block of this original Holyrood
House still remains in the two-turreted projection of the present
Holyrood which adjoins the ruined relic of the Abbey, and which
contains the rooms now specially shown as “Queen Mary’s
Apartments.” But the present Holyrood, as a whole, is a construction
of the reign of Charles II., and gives little idea of the Palace in which
Mary took up her abode in 1561. The two-turreted projection on the
left was not balanced then, as now, by a similar two-turreted
projection on the right, with a façade of less height between, but was
flanked on the right by a continued chateau-like frontage, of about
the same height as the turreted projection, and at a uniform depth of
recess from it, but independently garnished with towers and
pinnacles. The main entrance into the Palace from the great outer
courtyard was through this chateau-like flank, just about the spot
where there is the entrance through the present middle façade; and
this entrance led, like the present, into an inner court or quadrangle,
built round on all the four sides. That quadrangle of chateau,
touching the Abbey to the back from its north-eastern corner, and
with the two-turreted projection to its front from its north-western
corner, constituted, indeed, the main bulk of the Palace. There were,
however, extensive appurtenances of other buildings at the back or at
the side farthest from the Abbey, forming minor inner courts, while
part of that side of the great outer courtyard which faced the
entrance was occupied by offices belonging to the Palace, and
separating the courtyard from the adjacent purlieus of the town. For
the grounds of both Palace and Abbey were encompassed by a wall,
having gates at various points of its circuit, the principal and most
strongly guarded of which was the Gothic porch admitting from the
foot of the Canongate into the front courtyard. The grounds so
enclosed were ample enough to contain gardens and spaces of
plantation, besides the buildings and their courts. Altogether, what
with the buildings themselves, what with the courts and gardens, and
what with the natural grandeur of the site,—a level of deep and
wooded park, between the Calton heights and crags on the one hand
and the towering shoulders of Arthur Seat and precipitous
escarpment of Salisbury Crags on the other,—Holyrood in 1561 must
have seemed, even to an eye the most satiated with palatial
splendours abroad, a sufficiently impressive dwelling-place to be the
metropolitan home of Scottish royalty.
The town itself, of which Holyrood was but the eastward
terminus, corresponded singularly well. Edinburgh even now is,
more than almost any other city in Europe, a city of heights and
hollows, and owes its characteristic and indestructible beauty to that
fact. But the peculiarity of Old Edinburgh was that it consisted
mainly of that one continuous ridge of street which rises, by gradual
ascent for a whole mile, from the deeply-ensconced Holyrood at one
end to the high Castle Rock at the other, sending off on both sides a
multiplicity of narrow foot-passages, called closes, with a few wider
and more street-like cuttings, called wynds, all of which slope
downward from the main ridge in some degree, while many descend
from it with the steepness of mountain gullies into the parallel
ravines. Whoever walks now from Holyrood to the Castle, up the
Canongate, the High Street, and the Lawnmarket, walks through that
portion of the present “Old Town” which figures to us the main
Edinburgh of Queen Mary’s time, and is in fact its residue. But
imagination and some study of old maps and records are necessary
to divest this residue of its acquired irrelevancies, and so to reconvert
it into the actual Edinburgh of three hundred years ago. The
divisions of the great ridge of street from Holyrood to the Castle were
the same as now, with the same names; but objects once conspicuous
in each have disappeared, and the features of each have been
otherwise altered.
The first part of the long ascent from Holyrood was the
Canongate. Though occupying nearly half of the whole, and in
complete junction with the Edinburgh proper up to which it led, it
was a separate “burgh of regality,” which had formed itself, as its
name implies, under the protection of the abbots and canons of
Holyrood. By virtue of that original, it was not yet included in the
municipal jurisdiction of the Edinburgh Magistrates and Town
Council, but held out under a magistracy of its own. Hence some
characteristics distinguishing this lower part of the ascent from the
rest. The old Canongate was by no means the dense exhibition of
dingy picturesqueness now known as the Canongate of Edinburgh,
with repulsive entries and closes on both sides, leading to cages of
crammed humanity of the poorer sort, or to inner recesses of bone-
yards, pipe-clay yards, and the like. It had the sparseness and
airiness of a suburb of the Court. The houses, whether of stone or
partly of wood, were pretty thickly put together, indeed, along the
immediate street-margins, with the inevitable access to many of
them by entries and closes, but did not go so deeply back on either
side as not to leave room for pleasant gardens and tracts of vacant
ground behind. A paved and causewayed street, ascending
continuously between two rows of houses, of irregular forms and
varying heights, but few of them of more than three storeys; other
houses at the backs of these to some little depth all the way, reached
by closes from the street, and generally set gablewise to those in
front; and, behind these again, garden grounds and grassy slopes and
hollows: such was the ancient Canongate. In token of its claims to be
a separate burgh, it had its own market cross, and, near this, its own
Tolbooth or prison and council-house. The present Canongate
Tolbooth, though an antique object, is only the successor of the older
Canongate Tolbooth of Queen Mary’s time.
The ending of the Canongate and beginning of the High Street of
Edinburgh proper was at a cross street, the left arm of which,
descending from the ridge into the ravine on that side, was called St.
Mary’s Wynd, while the arm to the right was called Leith Wynd.
Here, to mark more emphatically the transition from the smaller
burgh into the greater, one encountered the separating barrier of the
Nether Bow Port. It has left no trace of itself now, but was a
battlemented stone structure, spanning the entire breadth of the
thoroughfare, with an arched gateway in the middle and gates for
admission or exclusion. That passed, one was in the lower portion of
the High Street, called specifically the Nether Bow. Here, it was not
merely the increasing breadth of the thoroughfare and the increasing
height of the houses that showed one had come within the
boundaries of the real civic and commercial Edinburgh. No such
sparseness of building now as in the Canongate; no mere double
fringe of houses to a short depth, with entries and closes ending in
gardens and vacant ground; but a sense of being between two masses
of densely-peopled habitations, clothing the declivities from the
ridge to their lowest depths on both sides, and penetrable only by
those courts and wynds of which one saw the mouths, but the
labyrinthine intricacy of which in the course of their descent baffled
conception.
The same sensation accompanied one on advancing still
upwards into the middle and broadest part of the High Street. Here
the street had much the same striking appearance as now. One saw a
spacious incline of oblong piazza, rather than a street, lined by
buildings, some of solid stone throughout and very tall, others lower
and timber-fronted, all of quaint architecture from their basements
to their peaked roofs and chimneys, and not a few with “fore-stairs,”
or projecting flights of steps from doors on the first floor down to the
causeway. It was here, too, that the lateral fringes of habitation down
the steep alleys were of greatest width. That on the right was stopped
only at the bottom of the ravine on that side by a lake called the
North Loch, while that on the left, after reaching the bottom of the
other ravine, mingled itself there with an independent and very
aristocratic suburb that had grown up in the ravine itself, under the
name of the Cowgate, as a southern parallel of relief to the main
Edinburgh of the ridge above. This low-lying, aristocratic suburb,
though accessible from the piazza of the High Street by the wynds
and closes on the southern side, did not come easily into the
cognisance of a stranger that might be exploring the piazza itself. He
had enough to arrest his attention where he was. One difference
between the old High Street and the present, despite their general
resemblance, consisted in a huge obstruction, now removed, which
interrupted the old High Street at its very midmost point,
immediately above the Town Cross. Just above the spot now marked
in the causeway as the site of this Town Cross, and beginning exactly
where the great church of St. Giles protrudes its complex pile on the
left and raises into the sky its remarkable tower and open octagonal
crown of stonework, there stood in the old High Street a stack of lofty
masonry, stretching up the centre of the street for a considerable
way, and leaving only a gloomy and tortuous lane for pedestrians
along the buttresses of the church on one side, and a somewhat wider
channel,—called the Luckenbooths,—for shops and traffic, on the
other. The lower portion of this obstructive stack of masonry
belonged to the Luckenbooths, and was included in the name, the
basement being let out in shops or stalls for goods, while the upper
floors were parcelled out as dwellings. The higher and larger portion,
separated from the lower by a narrow suture called “The Kirk Stile,”
was nothing less than the famous Heart of Midlothian itself, or Old
Tolbooth, which had served hitherto as the prætorium burgi, at once
the jail of Edinburgh, its Town Council House, the seat of the
Supreme Courts of Justice for Scotland, and the occasional meeting-
place of a Scottish Parliament. Little wonder if one lingered round
this core of the High Street and of the whole town. The channel of the
Luckenbooths on one side of the street, the lane between the
Tolbooth and St. Giles’s on the other, and the cross passage or Kirk
Stile, were worth more than one perambulation, if only on account of
their amusing interconnection; at the back of St. Giles’s Church,
overhanging the Cowgate, was St. Giles’s Churchyard, the chief
cemetery of the town; and the Tolbooth alone might well detain one
by its look and the interest of its associations. In 1561 they were
voting it to be too old and decayed, if not too unsightly, for the
various and important purposes which it had hitherto served; and
within a few months from our present date there was to be an order
for its demolition, and for the erection of another building more
suitable for those purposes, and especially for the accommodation of
the Lords of Council and Session. But, though they did then begin to
take it down, and though a “New Tolbooth” or “Council House” was
built near it in the same part of the High Street, the old or original
Tolbooth escaped its doom, and was left standing after all. A little re-
edified, it was to survive its more modern substitute, and to be
known till 1817 as at least the Jail of Edinburgh and real old Heart of
Midlothian. Some persons still alive can remember it.