19th century graffiti

i must have walked passed this piece of 19th century graffiti hundreds of times over the past year on my way into the office but it wasnt until today as i was swinging my cotton shopping bag that i noticed it.

it has left me wondering who these men were, what they were like, what they did, did they have a history of osteoporosis in the family and why they inscribed their initials on this particular stone?

perhaps they were the banksy of their generation. perhaps not.

for them who are interested in the history: Trinty Apse is situated bewteen Trunk's Close and Carruber's Close just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh or less romantically behind the Jury's Inn on Jeffrey Street and is now the home of the Brass Rubbing Centre. It is all that is left of the much larger 15th century Gothic Trinity College Church and Hospital founded by Mary of Gueldres following the death of her husband King James II at the siege of Roxburgh in 1460.

The original Trinity Church was demolished in the 1840s to make way for Waverley Railway Station but in the 1870s the Apse was rebuilt on its current site from original stones.