The Heart of Mid-Lothian, set between the two Jacobean insurrections in 1736 and during the Porteous Riots, marks the peak of its author's achievement; many consider it to be Scott's national epic. Jeanie Deans, a young woman from a family of highly devout Presbyterians, goes to London, partly by foot, hoping to achieve an audience with the Queen through the influence of the Duke of Argyll. She is determined to receive a royal pardon for her sister, who was unjustly imprisoned at the Old Tolbooth prison in Edinburgh, known as The Heart of Midlothian, and notorious for the cruelty and severity of its guards.