Do you spit on the heart of midlothian

[Paulie Walnut]

Just wondered if hearts fans did this

[Tiberius Stinkfinger]

Just wondered if hearts fans did this

 

You not a "Hearts fan" then ?

[buba]

Eh. No!!!

[The Mighty Thor]

Always.

 

I was actually offended to see that the city fathers had decided to let some unwashed **** sell some absolute fecking tat on top of the Heart of Midlothian during this year's festival. One generally had to shuffle a couple of stunned & bemused tourists out the way to deliver the greener.

[neave]

Yep.

[john brownlee]

only hobos spit on the badge

 

so NO I don't

[2NaFish]

always

[leginten]

Always.

 

I was actually offended to see that the city fathers had decided to let some unwashed **** sell some absolute fecking tat on top of the Heart of Midlothian during this year's festival. One generally had to shuffle a couple of stunned & bemused tourists out the way to deliver the greener.

 

Likewise. Always have done, always will. Causes the occasional furrowed brow when I'm showing people around the town, but what the hell.

[Big_Hearts_Runner]

Aye, remember spitting on it a few days before the cup final in 98 for good luck

[Say What Again]

Nope.

 

I used to work less than 30 yards from it and it was always covered in big, greeners that had been howked up by Hobos.

 

[johnjl]

Spitting in the street is horrible

[Ryan Gosling]

If I remember to.

[Pete Seeger]

Always.

[Munch]

Just wondered if hearts fans did this

 

reported hobo undercover you were doing well too

[cash is king]

yes always

for good luck

dont half of you know your edinburgh traditions

[cash is king]

it was the entrance to the Jail house there.

[londonjambo]

only hobos spit on the badge

 

so NO I don't

 

Clearly not from the other replies on the thread

 

The stones making up the Heart of Midlothian mark the site of the hated tollbooth jail. It was considered good luck to spit on the site of the jail.

 

It has nothing to do with the football club other than the fact that the jail was called the Heart of Midlothian and the club was called after a dance club which in itself was called after the jail.

 

It certainly isnt spitting on the club or anything approaching it and shouldnt be considered a slight on the club at all

 

GC

[johnjl]

yes always

for good luck

dont half of you know your edinburgh traditions

 

Also used to be common to throw piss and shit out your window. Some traditions should be allowed to die out.

[Maroon Tart]

Always

[londonjambo]

Also used to be common to throw piss and shit out your window. Some traditions should be allowed to die out.

 

Oh god, please tell me I'm not the only one that still does this. How embarrassing

 

 

GC

[Groatallar]

Also used to be common to throw piss and shit out your window.

It still is in certain parts of the country

[Spellczech]

I did once- but it's not anything to do with the football club other than the badge was taken from it right? It was the site of the old Tolbooth prison.

[Le Chat]

Do I feck.

[scott herbertson]

Taught by my grandfather (secretary of the Tolcross hearts supporters club back in the 50s) to do so and always will.

 

It is a mark of the independence of the burghers of edinburgh. Anyone wanting to reflect on that should read about the porteous riots

 

Porteous Riots

 

On 14 April 1736 three convicted smugglers, Andrew Wilson, William Hall and George Robertson, were arrested, tried and condemned to death. Hall's sentence was commuted to transportation for life, while Wilson and Robertson awaited their fate. A few days before the execution George Robertson managed to escape by widening the space between the window-bars of his cell and, with the help of sympathethic supporters eventually made his way to Holland.

 

The remaining convict, Andrew Wilson, was taken to be publicly hanged in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh on 14 April 1736. The body of Wilson was cut down against the wishes of the mob, and the ensuing riot was such that the hangman had to be placed in protective custody. As the situation worsened, for fear of an attempt to rescue the victims, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh instructed Captain Porteous to call out the entire guard and to furnish them with powder and shot.

 

After the execution the mob became violent and began to stone the City Guard. Accounts of events are confused, but what is certain is that Captain Porteous instructed his men to fire above the heads of the crowd but, in so doing, they shot and wounded people in the windows of the high tenement buildings opposite. The crowd became increasingly violent and, as panic set in, Captain Porteous ordered the guard to shoot into the mob, which led to the deaths of six people in all.

 

[edit] Trial and appeal

Porteous was arrested the same afternoon and charged with murder. He was tried at the High Court of Justiciary on 5 July 1736, where a majority of witnesses testified that Porteous had personally fired into the crowd on 14 April, although sixteen others said they had not seen him do so.

 

Feelings were running high in Edinburgh and the jury unanimously found Porteous guilty of murder. He was sentenced to death, the execution was set to take place in the Grassmarket on 8 September 1736. Porteous was imprisoned in the Tolbooth prison, near St Giles church.

 

Events in Scotland alarmed the government in London, and Sir Robert Walpole attempted to influence events by asking his representative in Edinburgh to become involved. But he had miscalculated, underestimating the depth of feeling in Scotland. A formal appeal was petitioned and the execution was deferred.

 

[edit] Death

However, public resentment at a possible reprieve was such that a plot to murder Captain Porteous was hatched, and when the authorities heard of this it was decided to increase the guard at the Tolbooth prison. However, on the evening before this was due to happen, a large crowd of over four thousand gathered at Portsburgh, west of the city.

 

Making their way across the Grassmarket to the Cowgate and up the High Street, the mob converged on the Tolbooth, where they were eventually able to overpower the guards. Porteous was dragged from his cell and up the Lawnmarket towards the West Bow and the Grassmarket, where he was lynched from a dyer's pole, using a rope taken from a local draper's shop.

 

After a short while he was dragged down and stripped of his nightgown and shirt, which was then wrapped around his head before he was hauled up again. However, the mob had not tied his hands and, as he struggled free, they broke his arm and shoulder, while another attempted to set light to his naked foot. He was taken down a further time and cruelly beaten before being hung up again, and died a short while later, just before midnight on 7 September 1736. The spot where Porteous died is today marked by a memorial plate in the Grassmarket. The site of the Tolbooth is marked by paving stones arranged in the form of a heart, 'The Heart of Midlothian'. Tour guides will assure you that, even today, passers-by will spit on the spot, a tradition originally intended to demonstrate their contempt for the hated Tolbooth.

 

Porteous was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, the following day, near the westmost wall of the original graveyard. For more than two hundred years the grave was marked by a small square stone with the single letter P and the date 1736. In the 1930s this was replaced with a headstone of Craigleith stone, bearing the inscription John Porteous, a captain of the City Guard of Edinburgh, murdered September 7, 1736. All Passion Spent, 1973.

[Charlie-Brown]

What a gruesome story that is.

[Do The Dance]

Nope, spitting is clarty.

[bajthejambo]

Always.

[alwaysthereinspirit]

Was home in July. Made certain I did.

[hunnybunny]

Taught by my grandfather (secretary of the Tolcross hearts supporters club back in the 50s) to do so and always will.

 

It is a mark of the independence of the burghers of edinburgh. Anyone wanting to reflect on that should read about the porteous riots

 

Porteous Riots

 

On 14 April 1736 three convicted smugglers, Andrew Wilson, William Hall and George Robertson, were arrested, tried and condemned to death. Hall's sentence was commuted to transportation for life, while Wilson and Robertson awaited their fate. A few days before the execution George Robertson managed to escape by widening the space between the window-bars of his cell and, with the help of sympathethic supporters eventually made his way to Holland.

 

The remaining convict, Andrew Wilson, was taken to be publicly hanged in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh on 14 April 1736. The body of Wilson was cut down against the wishes of the mob, and the ensuing riot was such that the hangman had to be placed in protective custody. As the situation worsened, for fear of an attempt to rescue the victims, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh instructed Captain Porteous to call out the entire guard and to furnish them with powder and shot.

 

After the execution the mob became violent and began to stone the City Guard. Accounts of events are confused, but what is certain is that Captain Porteous instructed his men to fire above the heads of the crowd but, in so doing, they shot and wounded people in the windows of the high tenement buildings opposite. The crowd became increasingly violent and, as panic set in, Captain Porteous ordered the guard to shoot into the mob, which led to the deaths of six people in all.

 

[edit] Trial and appeal

Porteous was arrested the same afternoon and charged with murder. He was tried at the High Court of Justiciary on 5 July 1736, where a majority of witnesses testified that Porteous had personally fired into the crowd on 14 April, although sixteen others said they had not seen him do so.

 

Feelings were running high in Edinburgh and the jury unanimously found Porteous guilty of murder. He was sentenced to death, the execution was set to take place in the Grassmarket on 8 September 1736. Porteous was imprisoned in the Tolbooth prison, near St Giles church.

 

Events in Scotland alarmed the government in London, and Sir Robert Walpole attempted to influence events by asking his representative in Edinburgh to become involved. But he had miscalculated, underestimating the depth of feeling in Scotland. A formal appeal was petitioned and the execution was deferred.

 

[edit] Death

However, public resentment at a possible reprieve was such that a plot to murder Captain Porteous was hatched, and when the authorities heard of this it was decided to increase the guard at the Tolbooth prison. However, on the evening before this was due to happen, a large crowd of over four thousand gathered at Portsburgh, west of the city.

 

Making their way across the Grassmarket to the Cowgate and up the High Street, the mob converged on the Tolbooth, where they were eventually able to overpower the guards. Porteous was dragged from his cell and up the Lawnmarket towards the West Bow and the Grassmarket, where he was lynched from a dyer's pole, using a rope taken from a local draper's shop.

 

After a short while he was dragged down and stripped of his nightgown and shirt, which was then wrapped around his head before he was hauled up again. However, the mob had not tied his hands and, as he struggled free, they broke his arm and shoulder, while another attempted to set light to his naked foot. He was taken down a further time and cruelly beaten before being hung up again, and died a short while later, just before midnight on 7 September 1736. The spot where Porteous died is today marked by a memorial plate in the Grassmarket. The site of the Tolbooth is marked by paving stones arranged in the form of a heart, 'The Heart of Midlothian'. Tour guides will assure you that, even today, passers-by will spit on the spot, a tradition originally intended to demonstrate their contempt for the hated Tolbooth.

 

Porteous was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh, the following day, near the westmost wall of the original graveyard. For more than two hundred years the grave was marked by a small square stone with the single letter P and the date 1736. In the 1930s this was replaced with a headstone of Craigleith stone, bearing the inscription John Porteous, a captain of the City Guard of Edinburgh, murdered September 7, 1736. All Passion Spent, 1973.

[Tasavallan]

Taught by my grandfather (secretary of the Tolcross hearts supporters club back in the 50s) to do so and always will.

 

It is a mark of the independence of the burghers of edinburgh. Anyone wanting to reflect on that should read about the porteous riots

Scott, while I know the Cpt. Porteous story from reading your namesake Walter's novel 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian', my mother brought me up never to spit. As such, I have never spat on the heart and I dare say I never will.

 

 

 

 

 

And all that just because three neds from the Cowgate came back from a stag doo to Amsterdam with a bottle of whisky too many in their luggage. Anybody read the Quintilian Dalrymple novels?

 

 

 

[speedbump]

Clearly not from the other replies on the thread

 

The stones making up the Heart of Midlothian mark the site of the hated tollbooth jail. It was considered good luck to spit on the site of the jail.

 

It has nothing to do with the football club other than the fact that the jail was called the Heart of Midlothian and the club was called after a dance club which in itself was called after the jail.

 

It certainly isnt spitting on the club or anything approaching it and shouldnt be considered a slight on the club at all

 

GC

 

There we go, the definitive answer.

[ecosse]

yup everytime i`m up that way

[Buffalo Bill]

I never look at the Heart if Midlothian cobble stones because I hate the sight of spat out chewing gum and horrible lumps of green spit.

 

 

 

It's a no from me.

[Debut 4]

Clearly not from the other replies on the thread

 

The stones making up the Heart of Midlothian mark the site of the hated tollbooth jail. It was considered good luck to spit on the site of the jail.

 

It has nothing to do with the football club other than the fact that the jail was called the Heart of Midlothian and the club was called after a dance club which in itself was called after the jail.

 

It certainly isnt spitting on the club or anything approaching it and shouldnt be considered a slight on the club at all

 

GC

I thought most Edinburghers knew this! However, while its a good point i think by default everyone associates it with the club , naturally.

 

The founders took the name so there is a link, however loose it may be.

[Bigsmak]

I was told that it was placed on the site of where the last hanging occurred in the Edinburgh and that spitting on it is a sign of our anger and resent towards the whole capital punishment history of the city.

 

Good story, never had thought to doubt if it was true or not and always spit on the stone!

[Boof]

Always.

 

 

But not hacked up greeners - that's just disgusting.

[Cut The Crap]

Nah, I never spit in the street, partly because I've never actually been any good at it. Usually just dribbles down over my jaikit.

[Harry Palmer]

Yep.

 

Wasn't there some law that it was the only place in Edinburgh where you could legally spit?

 

Or did I just imagine/make that up?

[heartsfc_fan]

Nope.

[harvey05]

I did once- but it's not anything to do with the football club other than the badge was taken from it right? It was the site of the old Tolbooth prison.

 

You may find the link below interesting

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Midlothian_%28Royal_Mile%29

[Armageddon]

Nope.

 

I used to work less than 30 yards from it and it was always covered in big, greeners that had been howked up by Hobos.

 

 

 

Hahaha you obviously worked in the same place as me

[TimeBandit]

My wife complains bitterly at me every time she sees me do this..

 

but then she's a weegie and loves the barras..

[Do The Dance]

I thought most Edinburghers knew this! However, while its a good point i think by default everyone associates it with the club , naturally.

 

The founders took the name so there is a link, however loose it may be.

 

What is an Edinburgher?