Melville Monument

Bristol is not the only town with questionable statues. In Edinburgh we have the Melville Monument commemorating Henry Dundas. Dundas was an important Tory politician at the end of the 18th century. He frustrated the abolition of slavery by arguing for the gradual abolition of slavery, in effect delaying the end of slavery in the UK by a decade. His political career ended when he was impeached for the embezzlement of funds. A group of historians have argued over the wording for a new plaque explaining the history of Dundas for the last two years. Yesterday's events in Bristol, where the statue of Edward Colston a slaver was toppled and sunk in the harbour, focused the minds of the Council and apparently a new plaque will get installed soon.

Near St Andrew Square is the statue of the Edinburgh born physicist James Clerk Maxwell who discovered the equations governing electro-magnetism (see extra). Although I do miss Maxell's Demon.