A View from the Gray Friars (Greyfriars) Church Yard

Category

Library Item

Item no

535

Title

A view from the Gray Friars (Greyfriars) Church Yard, July 1816

Description

The gravestones of Greyfriars Churchyard can be seen in the foreground and Edinburgh Castle rises in the distance.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1880

Size

35 x 24 cm.

Type

Lithograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Edinburgh Castle stands on a volcanic plug. It has been used as a fortification since the Iron Age. The oldest part of the present day castle is St Margaret's Chapel which dates from 1093. The Castle holds the Honours of Scotland and more recently has welcomed back the Stone of Scone otherwise known as the Stone of Destiny.

In this stylized view of the Castle we can see the Great Hall, where soldiers captured during the Napoleonic Wars were imprisoned until 1815. The Esplanade is an open promenade area for the citizens of Edinburgh.

This image comes from a large volume entitled, “Edinburgh in the olden time: Displayed in a series of 63 original views between the years 1717 and 1828, reproduced in a facsimile from the original drawings”, published by Thomas George Stevenson in 1880.

46 of the images in the volume set come from a collection which belonged to Reverend John Sime. Reverend Sime was Chaplain to Trinity College Hospital and also to Magdalene Asylum in the Canongate. He died on 28 April 1864, bequeathing his whole effects to his wife. Mrs Sime died 3 September 1869 bequeathing her whole property to the Governors of James Gillespie’s Hospital. Publisher, T G Stevenson was asked to arrange the collection of manuscripts, books, prints, engravings, and drawings. It was then that he discovered 46 of the drawings.

At first, Stevenson credited the drawings to Sime, but having found no mention of them in his diaries or letters, he concluded they must have simply been collected by Sime. The originals were china ink drawings and by chance, he then learnt of 17 more “of the same series” which had been found in an old trunk in the possession of Messrs. Seton & MacKenzie, Booksellers on George Street, where they had been kept for 20 years or more.
Unfortunately, Stevenson was unable to ascertain the artist of these works.

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Related subjects

Homes > Residential buildings > Houses

Homes > Residential buildings > Tenements

Landscape > Land > Rock formations

Places > Edinburgh areas > Old Town

Places > Edinburgh Landmarks > Edinburgh Castle

Places > Edinburgh Landmarks > Greyfriars Kirkyard

Religion > Religious facilities > Churchyards

Religion > Religious facilities > Graveyards

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