Greyfriars Bobby

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

24686

Title

Greyfriars Bobby

Description

Greyfriar's Bobby, the Skye Terrior is depicted lying on his master's grave, in Greyfriar's Kirkyard. Inscribed Gourlay Steell, RSA 1867. Handwritten on the mount, From Gourlay Steell to Mr. Traill.

Artist / maker

Steell, Gourlay, RSA

Date

1867

Size

29.2 x 36.5

Type

Engraving

Location

Museum of Edinburgh

Accession number

HH2201g/1962

One of Edinburgh's most best loved stories is the legend of the devotion and loyalty of Greyfriars Bobby. The origins the Skye Terrier are shrouded in mystery. In one version of the story, he was owned by John Gray, an Edinburgh Police Constable, who died in February1858 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. According to legend, Bobby sat devotedly by his grave for 14 years.
Another version, which was the subject of Eleanor Atkinson's book (1912) and the Walt Disney film, is that he belonged to John Gray, (Auld Jock) a shepherd from the Pentland Hills, who died on a visit to Edinburgh in 1858. There was a shepherd named John Gray who had digs in Bristo place, opposite Greyfriars Kirkyard and died within days of John Gray the policeman. He was however buried not at Greyfriars but in East Preston Street graveyard.
It is however well documented that Bobby became a familiar figure around Greyfriars Kirkyard, where he was fed and given shelter by local residents. Sergeant Scott of the Royal Engineers trained Bobby to associate the One O'Clock gun with his dinner time and from 1862 his appearances at Traill's Restaurant rooms at
6 Greyfriars Place became a daily spectacle.
In 1867 a new duty on dogs was introduced, putting Bobby in danger as he had no legal owner. By now his story had reached important public figures and the Lord Provost, William Chambers, paid the licence fee and gave Bobby an inscribed collar. Bobby died in 1872 and a year later a memorial, commissioned by Baroness Burdett-Coutts, was unveiled.

This and many other City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries exhibits related to Greyfriars Bobby are on physical display at the Museum of Edinburgh on the Canongate.

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