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The sealed-off northern entrance of the Scotland Street Tunnel where it opened onto Scotland Street Station, scene of some excitement in 1856 when the Irish-born Edinburgh detective, James McLevy, and a colleague enlisted the help of railway porters in apprehending a gang of four London pickpockets operating on the crowded platform. The judge clearly expressed local indignation when he said at their trial, "It is not often that I have to pass sentence on people of your description from England, but I hope the circumstance of my being a Scottish judge will not be held to sway me in the discharge of my duty. Yet I am not sure if the circumstance of your being English men and women is not a considerable aggravation of your crime. What did Scotland ever do to you that you should come here, hundreds of miles, to prey upon her unwary subjects? You forgot that in comparison of England we are poor, and less able to lose what we earn by hard labour. Now the issue has proved that you had made a wrong calculation, not only as to the intelligence and sharpness of our people, but the boldness and adroitness of our detectives; and I hope you will bear in mind, and tell your compeers in England, what we fear they sometimes forget, that we have not renounced our emblem of a thistle - the pricks of which you may expect to feel, when I now sentence you to sixty days' hard labour."