A corner of the Canongate Kirkyard, just to the rear of the Tolbooth.




The grave of Adam Smith (1723-90), author of Wealth of Nations.




Grave of Robert Fergusson (1750-74).

Robert Fergusson , a young poet of genius, took his own life in the Bedlam and was buried in a pauper's grave. He was greatly admired by Robert Burns, who when visiting the city in 1787 wrote the epitaph and arranged for a headstone to be placed on the grave.

The physician who treated Fergusson was Dr Andrew Duncan, who lies in Buccleuch Churchyard.

Robert Fergusson's headstone (showing the incorrect year of birth).

Earnock and Dalnair Monument.

The face in profile in the centre of the memorial (and below) is that of Hugh 'Greek' Williams (1773-1829), according to The Edinburgh Graveyard Guide :

Lord Cockburn wrote that he was 'by far the finest painter in water-colours that Scotland has yet produced'.

The inscription above reads:

William Duff aged twenty years
Son to Archibald Duff Shirriff
Clerk Elgin Died 7 Nov 1782

I was curious about the stone pictured above and below and then, by chance, while leafing through Silences That Speak I came across the following :

North of the church, and at the west end of the first terrace, a small stone is said by tradition to be the burial-place of a French refugee. The inscription, which is on both sides of the stone, is in Latin, and the lettering more than usually quaint:

Hic Jacet
Thomas Este
Qui Mori in Orbit
Anno Domini
Mille fsimo Sept-
-nge nic fsimo
Quandrage fsimo Quinio Ætatis Sui
Trige fsimo primo Exit.

roughly translated as :

Here lies Thomas Este, who died in the Year of our Lord 1740.

He made his exit in the 45th year of his age.