_He that tholes_ (that is, bears) _overcomes_; equivalent to what
Virgil says:
‘Quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.’
_Æneid_, v.
We may safely speculate on this inscription being antecedent in date to
the Reformation, as after that period merely moral apothegms were held
in little regard, and none but biblical inscriptions were actually put
upon the fronts of houses.
[Illustration: Mahogany Land, West Bow.]
On the other side of the street is a small shop (marked No. 69), now
occupied by a dealer in small miscellaneous wares,[38] and which was,
a hundred years ago, open for a nearly similar kind of business, under
the charge of a Mrs Jeffrey. When, on the night of the 7th September
1736, the rioters hurried their victim Porteous down the West Bow, with
the design of executing him in the Grassmarket, they called at this
shop to provide themselves with a rope. The woman asked if it was to
hang Porteous, and when they answered in the affirmative, she told them
they were welcome to all she had of that article. They coolly took
off what they required, and laid a guinea on the counter as payment;
ostentatious to mark that they ‘did all in honour.’