Memorials
The final resting place of John Porteous in Greyfriars kirkyard had for more than two hundred years been marked by a small square stone engraved with the single letter "P" and the date 1736. More recently, this has been replaced with a headstone of Craigleith stone, bearing the inscription "John Porteous, a captain of the City Guard of Edinburgh, murdered September 7, 1736. All Passion Spent, 1973".
The spot where Porteous died is today marked by a memorial plate in the Grassmarket. The site of the infamous Tolbooth Prison is marked by paving stones arranged in the form of a heart, known as The Heart of Midlothian. Even today, passers-by will spit on the spot, a tradition originally intended to demonstrate their contempt for the hated Tolbooth.
Read more about this topic: Porteous Riots
Famous quotes containing the word memorials:
“Our public monuments are memorials to the Enlightenment.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Let these memorials of built stone music’s
enduring instrument, of many centuries of
patient cultivation of the earth, of English
verse ...”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“My titillations have no foot-notes
And their memorials are the phrases
Of idiosyncratic music.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)