Calton discovery

Out and about in Edinburgh giving my daughter a special day out to cheer her up. Ice skating with her dad first then off to see High School Musical 3 with me. I saw this as a great opportunity to earn martyr mum brownie points, since Mr B was next door watching the Bond movie, but actually I really enjoyed HSM3. If we'd been watching it at home I dare say I would have wandered off in the slow bits, but on the big screen it wasn't bad at all.

We had some tapas and then wandered up for a walk on Calton Hill. On the way we spotted that the Calton Old Burial Ground was open (which it never has been before when we've wandered by). We're both fascinated by graveyards so had a good look around.

This monument (Hamilton's Obelisk to Political Martyrs) really caught my interest as it was something I'd never heard of. You can read about Thomas Muir here. A brief summary is that the people commemorated here were transported to Australia (which at the time was pretty much the same as a death sentence) for advocating (peacefully) parliamentary reform.

At their trial Lord Maxfield summed up the anti-reformers' position: "Government in this country is made up of the landed interest, which alone has a right to be represented; as for the rabble, who have nothing but personal property, what hold has the nation of them? what security for the payment of their taxes? They may pack up all their property on their backs, and leave the country in the twinkling of an eye."

Muir represented himself (he was an advocate) and his address to the jury included the quote on the obelisk: "I have devoted myself to the cause of the people. It is a good cause, it shall ultimately prevail, it shall finally triumph."

Other accounts of this I've found on the internet have slightly different stories, but it sounds like he had a fascinating life. He died in 1798, too early to see that he was right - though from what I've read he sounds like the kind of guy who was never in any doubt about that.