Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

EDINBURGH.
535
EDINBURGH.
1685, at the cost of £1,000, which, in vigour of de-
Bign and general effect, is far from the worst speci-
men of hronze statuary in the metropolis. — On the
north side of the Castle esplanade is a splendid
hronze statue of the Duke of York, placed on a
pedestal, and erected in 1839. — In Adam-square is a
beautiful sandstone statue of James Watt, in a sitting
posture, on a granite pedestal, erected in 1853. — In
George-street, at the point of its intersection by
Frederick-street, is the bronze statue of Pitt, ex-
ecuted by Chantrey, and erected in 1833. The
statue is placed on a granite pedestal, and possesses
considerable dignity of expression. — In George-
street, at the point of its intersection by Hanover-
street, is the bronze statue of George IV., also executed
by Chantrey, and erected in 1832. This monument
is" utterly inferior to that of Pitt, and has the worse
effect from suffering comparison by its immediate
vicinity. " The majesty of the monarch must be
admitted to be somewhat transcendental. The
figure is so far thrown back, as to give it the ap-
pearance of deriving a share of its support from the
drapery behind, an expedient suggesting some par-
ticulars in the natural history of the kangaroo,
which by no means contribute to sublimity of effect.
It must, however, be granted, that by caricaturing
the monarch the artist has exalted the minister,
for the exaggerated pomp of the one, powerfully
contrasts with the intellectual elevation of the
other." — In the centre of St. Andrew's-square, at
the east end of George-street, stands Lord Melville's
monument. This is a remarkably handsome column,
begun in 1821, and finished in 1828, by subscrip-
tions chiefly of naval officers. It rises to the height
of 136 feet, and is then surmounted by a statue 14
feet high. The design is, in general, a copy of the
Trajan column in Rome; but deviates from that
model in the shaft being fluted instead of ornament-
ally sculptured, and in the pedestal being a square
instead of a sphere. The column is 12 feet 2 inches
thick at the bottom, and gradually diminishes in its
ascent, till it is 10J feet thick at the top. Up the
interior is a spiral staircase, lighted by almost im-
perceptible slits in the fluting. The base is adorned
with some beautiful architectural devices; and the
colossal statue, formed of stone, appears, on its
giddy elevation, of the natural size of the human
figure. — In front of the Royal bank in St. Andrew's-
square is a statue, in Roman costume, of the Earl
of Hopetoun, erected in 1835. The Earl leans on a
charger pawing the pedestal, and is eulogized in
inscriptions commemorative of his military exploits.
A colossal sitting statue of Queen Victoria, in
grey sandstone, surmounts the front of the Royal
institution, looking up South Hanover-street. It
was sculptured in 1844 by Steel. " Though some-
what rigid in outline, from the effect principally of
the mural crown encircling the Sovereign's brow,
this figure is finely proportioned. It is not easy to
conceive how a sitting figure can be gracefully
placed ; and the monks have so caricatured it in the
grotesque Gothic, that the pyramidal effect here
imparted to the mass, harmonized by Steel into a
regular geometrical figure, is quite unexpected.
Environed by finely sculptured sphinxes, by the same
artist, looking forth prophetically into the future,
from the four angles of the building, this statue
is one of the finest sculptures we possess." — A stand-
ing statue of Queen Victoria, in sandstone, admirably
chiselled, on a highly enriched pedestal in bas-relief,
by A. H. Ritchie, was erected in 1850 in the middle
of the area in front of Holyrood palace, but removed
in 1857. — On the south side of Regent-road, "260
yards east of the new prison, on a roek ten feet
higher than the level of the roadway, and conspicu-
ously overlooking all the valley of the Canongate
and of the Queen's-park, stands Burns' monument.
It was designed by Hamilton. It is a circular
temple of florid character, with Corinthian cyclostyle
of twelve columns, raised on a quadrangular base
the cupola after the monument of Lysicrates at
Athens, supporting a tripod with winged fabulous
creatures. A marble statue of Burns by Flaxman
was originally placed in it ; but, in consequence of
its sustaining injury from exposure, was removed
to the splendid library-hall of the College. Such a
place as that focus of learning for the unlettered
bard, may seem curious enough ; but the manner of
the statue itself is still more so, being, not that of
a peasant apostrophising the mountain daisy, but
that of a Roman senator, with scroll in hand, ad-
dressing the conscript fathers of the senate.
On the west face of Calton-hill, overlooking
Waterloo-place, is Dugald Stewart's monument,
erected in 1831. It was built from a design by Mr.
Playfair ; and is in the style of a Grecian temple, —
a restoration, with some variations, of the Choragic
monument of Lysicrates. It has seven Corinthian
columns, a rich entablature, and a beautiful funereal
urn. — Higher up, on the same face of the hill, at
the south-east corner of the new observatory, is
Professor Playfair's monument, also designed by
Mr. Playfair, a small, square, solid, uninscribed,
Doric edifice, enclosed with a railing. — In the High
Calton burying-ground, a few yards west of the jail,
surmounting the cliff which soars up from the Low
Calton, and forming a conspicuous object in various
points of view in the Old town, as also from the
Calton hill, is David Hume's monument, a dark,
low circular tower, of huge size for a mausoleum. —
In the vicinity of this, figuring with odious con-
spicuousness, a perfect pinnacle of bad taste, a great
finger of vulgarity, pointing up with impotent ridi-
cule amid the maze of architectural beauties around
it, is a lofty obelisk erected in 1845 to the memory
of Muir, Palmer, Skirving, Gerald, and Margaret,
who suffered banishment in 1794 for then - efforts in
the cause of political reform. — A small monument
to the poet Fergusson in the Canongate burying-
ground is remarkable for being a restoration by sub-
scription of an original one placed there by the poet
Burns. — A monument in the Greyfriars' burying-
ground, though possessing no attractions as a work
of art, is intensely interesting to a large poifion of
the community for its commemorating the martyrs of
the Covenant who were executed at Edinburgh dur-
ing the twenty-seven years preceding the Revolu-
tion. — A monument, from the chisel of A. H.
Ritchie, on the west side of the basement of the
tower of St. Cnthbert's church, to the memory of
the Rev. Dr. Dickson, is a remarkably beautiful
piece of sculpture, representing him in his gown
administering consolation to the widow and the
fatherless. — Another monument, by Steel in the
same burying-ground, to the memory of Mr. Jamie-
son, an eminent lawyer, the son of Dr. Jamieson,
beautifully represents innocence protected and op-
pression exposed. — Multitudes of monuments, in the
several burying-grounds, particularly in the newer
ones, display much beauty ; while not a few, such
as those of Dr. Chalmers and Sir Andrew Agnew in
the Grange cemetery, possess intense interest for
their associations. — A monument of the second Vis-
count Melville, consisting of a standing bronze
statue on a sandstone pedestal, was erected in 1857
in Melville-street.
On the summit of the highest rocky eminence of
Calton-hill stands Nelson's monument, — a conspicu-
ous object in almost every view of Edinburgh from
sea or land, and an aspiring termination to the view