Old Calton Graveyard!

Toon was mobbed today, the pubs around Haymarket and the West End were teeming with rugby fans. Went into Jessops to try a lens - Canon EFS 55 - 250mm f4-5.6 IS, which i think will do me nicely however Jessops best price £219 and Amazons £167. Feel bad for not buying it from Jessops, they were very helpful, gave me their expertise and let me try it out, but £52 is too much of a difference not to buy it online.

Blip shows Old Calton Graveyard
From left to right:-
The Martyrs Monument
David Hume's Tomb (which bizarrely had a rubber chicken in it)
American Soldiers Monument

Click here to see my fave grave (i know i'm a freak)

Martyr?s Monument (1844). The monument remembers members of ?The Friends of the People?, an early universal suffrage movement, were brought to trial and deported, being charged with treason for attempting to correspond with the French. Thomas Muir of Hunter?s Hill was their leading figure, and he was banished to Botany Bay in Australia on 30th August 1793. The huge obelisk, clearly visible from many central Edinburgh viewpoints, is the focal point of Old Calton Cemetery, and was erected in their memory. The choice of this site is probably linked to the graveyards lack of affiliation to any church, and prominent position.

David Hume 1711 ? 1776. Historian and philosopher, author of ?Treatise of Human Nature?. Hume was a household name across Europe in the 18th century, and a critical figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. He was a strong influence on many other thinkers and public figures, Adam Smith among them. However, his grave had to be guarded for 8 days after burial, due to strong public hostility towards him at the time of his death. The tomb is a dominant circular tower on the Edinburgh skyline, designed by Robert Adam in 1777.

Scottish ? American Soldiers Monument (erected 1893). This features a standing figure of Abraham Lincoln, the first statue to an American President in any country outwith the USA. The monument was erected at American expense to a small group of Scots (buried here) who had all fought for the North in the American Civil War.

Those interred are:
Sergeant Major John McEwan, Co H 65th Regt Illinois Yol Infantry
William L Duff, Lt Col 2nd Illinois Regt of Artillery
Robert Steedman, Co E 5th Regt Maine Infantry Volunteers
James Wilkie, Co C 1st Michigan Cavalry
Robert Ferguson, Co F 57th Regt New York Infantry Volunteers
Alexander Smith, Co G 66th Regt New York Infantry Volunteers.