page_title: St Giles' Cathedral
section_title: Victorian and Edwardian memorials
hierarchical_section_title: St Giles' Cathedral / Memorials / Victorian and Edwardian memorials
caption_attribution_description: English: Edinburgh, St Giles' Cathedral. This is a photo of listed building number 27381.
context_page_description: St Giles' Cathedral, or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland located in the Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; significant alterations were undertaken in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the addition of the Thistle Chapel. St Giles' is closely associated with many events and figures in Scottish history, including John Knox, who served as the church's minister after the Scottish Reformation.
  Likely founded in the 12th century and dedicated to Saint Giles, the church was elevated to collegiate status by Pope Paul II in 1467. In 1559, the church became Protestant with John Knox, the foremost figure of the Scottish Reformation, as its minister. After the Reformation, St Giles' was internally partitioned to serve multiple congregations as well as secular purposes, such as a prison and as a meeting place for the Parliament of Scotland. In 1633, Charles I made St Giles' the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Edinburgh.
context_section_description: Most memorials installed between the Burn restoration of 1829-33 and the Chambers restoration of 1872-83 are now located in the north transept: these include white marble tablets commemorating Major General Robert Henry Dick (died 1846); Patrick Robertson, Lord Robertson (died 1855); and Aglionby Ross Carson (1856). The largest of these memorials is a massive plaque surmounted by an urn designed by David Bryce to commemorate George Lorimer, Dean of Guild and hero of the 1865 Theatre Royal fire (1867).
  William Chambers, who funded the restoration of 1872–83, commissioned the memorial plaque to Walter Chepman in the Chepman Aisle (1879): this was designed by William Hay and produced by Francis Skidmore. Chambers himself is commemorated by a large plaque in a red marble frame (1894): located in the Chambers Aisle, this was designed by David MacGibbon with the bronze plaque produced by Hamilton and Inches. William Hay, the architect who oversaw the restoration (died 1888), is commemorated by a plaque in the north transept vestibule with a relief portrait by John Rhind.
  The first memorial installed after the Chambers restoration was a brass plaque dedicated to Dean James Hannay, the cleric whose reading of Charles I's Scottish Prayer Book in 1637 sparked rioting (1882). In response, and John Stuart Blackie and Robert Halliday Gunning supported a monument to Jenny Geddes, who, according to tradition, threw a stool at Hannay. An 1885 plaque on the floor between south nave aisles now marks the putative spot of Geddes' action. Other historical figures commemorated by plaques of this period include Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray (1893); Robert Leighton (1883); Gavin Douglas (1883); Alexander Henderson (1883); William Carstares (1884); and John Craig (1883), and James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair (1906).
  The largest memorials of this period are the Jacobean-style monuments to James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose in the Chepman Aisle (1888) and to his rival, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, in the St Eloi Aisle (1895); both are executed in alabaster and marble and take the form of aedicules in which lie life-size effigies of their dedicatees. The Montrose monument was designed by Robert Rowand Anderson and carved by John and William Birnie Rhind. The Argyll monument, funded by Robert Halliday Gunning, was designed by Sydney Mitchell and carved by Charles McBride.
  Other prominent memorials of this period include the Jacobean-style plaque on the south wall of the south choir aisle, commemorating John Inglis, Lord Glencorse and designed by Robert Rowand Anderson (1892); the memorial to Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (died 1881) in the Preston Aisle, including a relief portrait by Mary Grant; and the large bronze relief of Robert Louis Stevenson by Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the west wall of the Moray Aisle (1904). A life-size bronze statue of John Knox by James Pittendrigh MacGillivray (1906) stands in the north nave aisle. This initially stood in a Gothic niche in the east wall of the Albany Aisle; the niche was removed in 1951 and between 1965 and 1983, the statue stood outside the church, in Parliament Square.
caption: Detail of the memorial to Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll (1895)
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