VISITORS to Edinburgh can hardly avoid encountering the capital’s splendid collection of statues. Stewart Conn singles out four in his 2016 collection, Against the Light (Mariscat Press, £6). Here they are in their contrasting locations.
DAVID HUME
He sits slouched, his incongruous toga
no protection against incessant rain, downcast
eyes glazed, oblivious of the tourists jostling
to take selfies or queuing to rub his lustrous
big toe, before receding to a safe distance
from which they remain on the qui vive, like those
who skulked for nights after his Calton burial
to see if the Devil would come to claim his soul.
ROBERT FERGUSSON
Outside the gates to the Canongate Kirk, a spritely
Robert Fergusson is caught in jaunty mid-stride
yards from a slide made by a group of local children
in whose horseplay he’d like to join, nimbly catching
and returning their snowballs, before heading
for the Scottish Parliament, the Poetry Library
or the nearest alehouse – his last days in Bedlam,
a crown of straw plaited by his own hand, forgotten.
SCOTT MONUMENT
A crusting of snow thickens then crumbles, turning
this draughty belvedere into a tower of sugar-icing,
multi-tiered and tapered, making Gothic gargoyles
of Madge Wildfire, Jeanie Deans, Bailie Nicol Jarvie
and all those carved round its spiral staircase,
while smack at the centre, in white marble, their
creator looks out benignly; under a chill blanket
his loyal deer-hound Maida, uncomplaining as ever.
HENRY DUNDAS
At the mercy of the elements, does Henry Dundas
aloof in St Andrew Square still ponder having been
the most powerful politician of his day? Either way,
unlikely he looks kindly on the skaters circling below,
the helter-skelter and festooned carousel; far less,
as a break in the clouds reveals the view across the Forth,
the American couple emerging from Harvey Nick’s
and her ‘honey, I didn’t realise France was so close’.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here