page_title: Canongate Kirkyard
section_title: 18th-century burials
hierarchical_section_title: Canongate Kirkyard / Monuments and burials of interest / 18th-century burials
caption_attribution_description: English: Robert Fergusson's gravestone. The stone was raised by Robert Burns who, on visiting Edinburgh twelve years after Fergusson's death, was shocked to find no memorial stone over the poet's grave. Burns commissioned the stone from the architect Robert Burn who later designed the Nelson Monument on the Calton Hill. It was erected in 1792 bearing lines written by Burns: "No Sculptur'd marble here, nor pompous lay, No storied Urn, nor animated Bust; This simple Stone directs Pale Scotia's way To pour her Sorrows o'er the Poet's Dust." 51022 .
context_page_description: The Canongate Kirkyard stands around Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. The churchyard was used for burials from the late 1680s until the mid-20th century.
  The most celebrated burials at the kirkyard are the economist Adam Smith and the poet Robert Fergusson, but many other notable people were interred in the cemetery. It has been claimed that David Rizzio, the murdered private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots lies here, although it is highly unlikely that an Italian Catholic would be reinterred in a Protestant graveyard 120 years after his death.
context_section_description: Very Rev Thomas Wilkie (1645–1711) first minister of Canongate Kirk and twice Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
  The Coachman's Stone, dating to around 1770, displays a skull and the motto "memento mori". It is inscribed "This stone is for the society of Coachdrivers In the Canongate It was chiefly erected by Thomas Jamieson and Robert Maving, treasurer, 1734–65". Below this inscription is a relief sculpture of a coach and horses crossing a bridge. The drivers operated the Edinburgh to London route from White Horse Close, around 200 metres (660 ft) to the east. Several of the Company are interred at this spot.
  John Frederick Lampe (1703–1751) was a composer, conductor and writer of hymn-tunes for Charles Wesley and others. His stone, just to the north of the Fettes tomb, is now badly eroded and for the most part illegible. At the base of the stone is a skull and two crossed bones, and at the top two figures hold a small book with some of his composition inscribed. The stone formerly read: 
  "Here lye the mortal remains of John Frederick Lampe whose harmonious composing shal out live Monumental register"
  Bishop Robert Keith (1681–1757) authored A History of the Church and State in Scotland from the Reformation to 1568.
  Sir Thomas Calder (1682–1760), stone erected by his grandson Admiral Robert Calder.
  Professor Charles Alston (1683–1760), lecturer in Botany and Medicinal Plants at Edinburgh University, was co-founder of the Edinburgh School of Medicine in 1726.
  George Drummond (1688–1766) was six times Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and the founder of Edinburgh New Town. He was responsible for the redevelopment of Edinburgh, founding the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; co-founding the Medical School; draining the Nor’ Loch; founding the Royal Exchange in 1753; and most importantly, initiating and founding the New Town and the first North Bridge (1763).
  John Gregory MD (1724–1773) and his son James Gregory MD (1753–1821) were from a long line of Gregorys from Aberdeen, eminent in both medicine and science. John was Professor of Medicine in Aberdeen from 1755 to 1766, and at Edinburgh University from 1766 until his death. James was a doctor and publisher, who succeeded his father in the chair of Medicine at Edinburgh University in 1776, and also had a separate chair in the Practice of Medicine from 1790. He was the inventor of "Gregory's Powder" a mixture of magnesia, rhubarb and ginger, used in the treatment of stomach complaints for around 150 years. His son Dr James Gregory and grandsons Donald Gregory and James Crawford Gregory lie nearby.
  Poet Robert Fergusson (1750–1774) was trained as a minister, but abandoned this to take up poetry at the age of 22, supplementing his income by working as a clerk. His career was short-lived, and he died in the Edinburgh lunatic asylum, then called Darien House, on Bristo Street. Robert Burns was inspired to be a poet by reading Fergusson's work. It is likely that Burns left monies in his will to erect a monument in grateful memory, penning the inscription himself. The year of birth on the stone is incorrect, though the day and month are correct. The monument was erected in June 1828, after Burns’ own death, but at his express wish. The grave was fully restored in 2010, replacing the enclosing ironwork and chains, and cleaning the stone. The gravestone reads:
  "Here lies Robert Fergusson, Poet Born September 5th 1751 Died October 16th 1774 No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay No storied urn, nor animated bust This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o’er her poet's dust"
  The reverse is inscribed:
  "By special grant of the managers to Robert Burns, who erected this stone, This burial place is to remain ever sacred To the memory of Robert Fergusson"
  A further plaque within the front enclosure explains how Robert Louis Stevenson was going to re-inscribe the stone in the mid-19th century. A statue was erected to Fergusson on the pavement at the churchyard entrance in 2004.
  Daniel Dow (1732–1783), fiddler and composer of vernacular music.
  Rev Will
caption: Robert Fergusson's grave
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