<b>The Heart of Mid-Lothian by Walter Scott</b>&nbsp;is the seventh of&nbsp;Sir Walter Scott&#39;s&nbsp;Waverley Novels. It was originally published in four volumes on 25 July 1818, under the title of&nbsp;<i>Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series</i>, and the author was given as &quot;Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster and Parish-clerk of Gandercleugh&quot;.<br /><br />The main action, which takes place between September 1736 and May 1737, is set in motion by the&nbsp;Porteous Riots&nbsp;in Edinburgh and involves an epic journey from Edinburgh to London by a working-class girl to obtain a royal commutation of the death penalty incurred by her sister for the alleged murder of her new-born baby. Despite some negative contemporary reviews, some now consider it Scott&#39;s best novel.<br /><br />The title of the book refers to the&nbsp;Old Tolbooth&nbsp;prison in&nbsp;Edinburgh, Scotland, at the time in the heart of the Scottish county of&nbsp;Midlothian. The historical backdrop was the event known as the&nbsp;Porteous riots. In 1736, a riot broke out in Edinburgh over the execution of two smugglers.<br /><br />The Captain of the City Guards,&nbsp;Captain John Porteous, ordered the soldiers to fire into the crowd, killing several people. Porteous was later killed by a lynch mob who stormed the Old Tolbooth.