I hope this query doesn't strike people as too strange, but I don't know of
any better way to address a question I've been wondering about since my
recent trip to Edinburgh.
Many of you probably know that there is a brick heart in the ground where
the Tolbooth (the infamous "Heart of Midlothian") once stood beside St.
Giles in Edinburgh. I've never noticed it before, but on this visit I
realized that people often spit on the heart when they walk past it. At
first, I thought nothing of it, since I live in Chicago, where spitting on
the sidewalk is a favorite pastime (judging from the amount of it one needs
to dodge every day). It gradually dawned on me, however, that people
rarely spit on the street or sidewalk in Edinburgh, at least not to the
extent that they do in Chicago (if the Chicago tourist office finds
out about this message, I'm doomed), and that everytime I passed the heart,
there was spit inside it, particularly in the center (meaning people aim
for it, and it's not a coincidence).
I told you this query might strike you as strange.
My question is this: do people in Edinburgh spit on the heart as a way of
spitting on the Heart and all it represented (imprisonment, oppression,
etc.)? Did people start doing this because they knew about the Tolbooth,
and now the tradition sticks even though folks no longer know the reason?
Or does the heart just make a nice target?
Just curious...
Stephanie Friedman
University of Chicago
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