vld.Ve.Mycht.Haif.As.Ve.Vald;" which is translated,
"If we did as we should, we might have as we would."

[Illustration: JOHN KNOX'S STUDY.]

Near the end of the High street, on the way to the Canongate, stands
John Knox's house, which has been put in order and made a show-place.
The exterior, from its exceedingly picturesque character, is more
attractive than the interior. The house had originally belonged to the
abbot of Dunfermline, and when taken by Knox a very snug little study
was added, built of wood and projecting from the front, in accordance
with an order from the magistrates, directing "with al diligence to make
ane warm studye of dailles to the minister John Knox, within his
hous, aboue the hall of the same, with light and wyndokis
thereunto, and al uther necessaris." The motto of this house is
"Lvfe.God.Abvfe.Al.And.Yi.Nychtbovr.As.Yi.Self." A curious image at one
corner was long thought to represent Knox preaching, and probably still
does so in the popular belief; but others now think it represents Moses.
It is an old man kneeling, with one hand resting on a tablet, and with
the other pointing up to a stone above him carved to resemble the sun,
and having on its disk the name of the Deity in three languages:
"[Greek: THEOS].Deus.God."

Of the style of Knox's preaching, even when he was enfeebled by
ill-health, one gets a good idea from the following passage in James
Melville's diary: "And by the said Rickart and an other servant, lifted
up to the pulpit whar he behovit to lean, at his first entrie; bot or he
had done with his sermon, he was sa active and vigorous, that he was lyk
to ding that pulpit in blads and flie out of it."

[Illustration: ROOM IN WHICH KNOX DIED.]

Passing on down Canongate, once the court suburb, we come to Moray
House, the former residence of the earls of Moray, and at one time
occupied by Cromwell. It is now used for a school, and is in much better
preservation than many of its neighbors. At the very bottom of the
Canongate, not far from Holyrood House, stands the White Horse Inn. The
house has not been an inn for many years, but was chosen by Scott as the
quarters of Captain Waverley: its builders probably thought little of
beauty when they built it, yet squalor, dilapidation and decay have
given it the elements of the picturesque, and the fact that Scott has
mentioned it is sufficient to nerve the tourist to hold his nose and
admire.

A black, gaunt, forbidding-looking st