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Summary

Description

Sir John Steell, 1850 and David Bryce, 1865. Pedestrian figure of Allan Ramsay in 18th century costume, with cape, and holding book; Carrara marble, by Steell, on square-plan corniced ashlar pedestal with Corinthian colonnettes to corners and high relief sculpted profile portraits (see Notes) to each elevation. Square-plan Baronial substructure by Bryce: stugged sandstone with polished dressings; timber boarded door with decorative iron hinges to W elevation in roll-moulded surround with rope hoodmould; stop-chamfered corners; corbelled out to corners above (carved masks to corbels); rope moulding and cannon spouts to corbel course; balustrade with semicircular corners to roof.

Statement of Special Interest

The A Group comprises The Allan Ramsay Monument, The Cottage, Dr Guthrie's Monument, The Police Box, The Ross Fountain, The Royal Scots Greys Monument, The Royal Scots Memorial, The Scottish American Memorial, The Shelters, The Simpson Monument, The Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial and The Statuary Group, all in West Princes Street Gardens. The Allan Ramsay Monument was erected by Lord Murray of Henderland, in memory of his great uncle, the poet Allan Ramsay (father of the painter), author of the GENTLE SHEPHERD. The likeness is based on a pastel portrait which the poet's son drew as a boy, and which was engraved and used as a frontispiece to several editions of the poet's work, including the TEA-TABLE MISCELLANY. Joe Rock illustrates a photograph of a maquette by Steell for the statue. Portraits on the pedestal depict Lord Murray, his father General Ramsay, his wife, and his 2 daughters, Lady Campbell and Mrs Malcolm. Lord Murray inherited Ramsay Lodge, the villa built on Castlehill by Allan Ramsay in 1734 (now incorporated in Ramsay Garden) in 1845. He originally intended to place the statue on a terrace, designed by Robert Billings, in front of the Lodge. In 1860, however, the newly completed terrace collapsed, and the statue was erected in the NE corner of Princes Street Gardens. West Princes Street Gardens were laid out by James Skene for the Princes Street proprietors circa 1820. In 1866 John Dick Peddie produced a plan, shown in 2 water-colours entitled 'the Athens of the North,' one looking NE across E Princes Street Gardens, showing Calton Hill with a completed National Monument/Parthenon, and the other, looking W across W Princes Street Gardens, showing the Gardens as a 'Walhalla' with a broad terrace with monuments and mausolea, fountains and a winter garden. The gardens were acquired by the city in 1876 and further landscaped by Robert Morham. The mechanism for the Floral Clock (summer only) to the E of the Ramsay Monument is contained in the pedestal of the Monument. It was the first Floral Clock in the world (1903), and was the brain-child of the superintendent of the Gardens, John McHattie. Initially it used the redundant mechanism from the clock tower of Elie. Subsequently a mechanism was manufactured by James Ritchie and sons, clockmakers in Edinburgh. The clock was electrified in 1973.

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