Skulferatu #25 - John Livingstone's Tomb, 1 Chamberlain Road, Edinburgh

 

Just along from Holy Corner at Greenhill in Edinburgh, down a quiet suburban street of nursing homes and large, villa type houses, there is what looks like a neat and well-kept garden.  It is a place I have walked past many times and have always assumed it was part of the garden of the house that stands behind it.  That is until a friend pointed out that it is actually the tomb of a long dead Edinburgh resident.

 

The tomb is in what looks like a well-kept and neat garden

 

Today I took a walk there and wandered on in.  I wasn’t convinced at first that I hadn’t actually just walked into somebody’s private garden, and was half expecting to be asked what I was doing there.  But on going through the gate, I found myself in a small walled area with a large gravestone on one of the walls and realised it was indeed an old tomb that I was in.

 

The gravestone within the tomb

 

The tomb is the burial place of John Livingstone and his wife, Elizabeth Rig.  Livingstone was an apothecary who lived in Edinburgh in the 17^th Century.  In 1636 he purchased the house and estate of Greenhill.  At that time Greenhill lay well outside the city boundaries and was within an area known as Burgh Muir.  In 1645 the Black Death swept through Scotland, killing many in Edinburgh, Leith, and the surrounding areas.  Livingstone was one of those who succumbed to the disease and he died shortly after falling ill.  He was buried in the grounds of his house, rather than in one of the many churchyards in Edinburgh, as laws introduced to deal with the plague stipulated that the bodies of plague victims had to be buried outside of the city.  Livingstone’s house was demolished many years ago and replaced with the suburban sprawl of Victorian villas in which the tomb now sits.

  

View of the gravestone and inscription

 

On the gravestone within the tomb, there is carved a grinning skull and crossbones and underneath this are John Livingstone’s initials IL (I being an old way of writing a J, as can be seen on the word judgement on the inscription).  There is then an inscription that reads –

 

THIS SAINT WHOS CORPS LYES BURIED HEIR

LET ALL POSTERITIE ADMEIR

FOR VPRIGHT LIF IN GODLY FEIR

 

WHEN IUDGMENTS DID THIS LAND SURROUND

HE WITH GOD WAS WALKING FOUND

FOR WHICH FROM MIDST OF FERS HE'S CROUND

 

HEIR TO BE INTERRD BOTH HE

AND FRIENDS BY PROVIDENC AGRIE

NO AGE SHAL LOS HIS MEMORIE

 

HIS AGE 53       DIED 1645.

For those who don’t want to work through the old spellings, a straight translation is –

 

The saint whose corpse lies buried here

Let all posterity admire

For upright life in Godly fear

 

When judgements did this land surround

He with God was walking found

For which from midst of fears he’s crowned

 

Here to be interred both he

And friends by providence agree

No age shall lose his memory

 

There is also an inscription in Latin above the carved skull and crossbones that reads ‘MORS PATET, HORA LATET’.  This meaning - ‘Death is sure, the Hour obscure’ or to put it more simply, we are all going to die, but don’t know when.  Cheery stuff.

 

Latin inscription on the gravestone

 

In the Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Volume 3, there is a section by John Geddie on the ‘Sculpted Stones of Edinburgh’.  In this he describes the tomb and includes the following sketch, which clearly details the inscription.

 

Sketch from The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club of inscription on Livingstone’s tomb

 

Geddie rather wryly points out that despite the inscription stating Livingstone’s memory will not be lost, nowadays nobody does actually remember him or his ‘saintly qualities’.

 

Over the years the tomb fell into a state of disrepair.  In 1984 the council carried out research to see who owned it, as they wanted to issue them with a notice to carry out the work that was needed.  However, their research led them to realise that the tomb was owned by no-one, so they took it into their ownership and then carried out extensive repairs.  The restored tomb and forecourt were re-opened to the public in 1999.

 

I placed the Skulferatu that accompanied me on todays trip in a gap in the wall opposite the gravestone.

 

Skulferatu #25

 

Skulferatu #25 in gap in wall at John Livingstone’s tomb

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #25

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 55.934420

Longitude -3.205961

I used the following sources for information on John Livingstone’s Tomb –

 

Plaque on wall of tomb

 

Wikipedia Page on Greenhill, Edinburgh

Greenhill, Edinburgh - Wikipedia

 

Historic Environment Scotland Website – Article on Tomb

Historic Environment Scotland - Tomb of John Livingstone

 

Canmore Website

Canmore - John Livingstone's Tomb

 

The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Third Volume

The Sculptured Stones of Edinburgh

By John Geddie

Published 1910