Edinburgh: Picturesque NotesStevenson, Robert Louis
General
Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Edinburgh (Scotland) -- Description and travel
but being young Men, their Teeth remained. All were Witness to the
Holes in each of their Heads, which the Hangman broke with his
Hammer; and according to the Bigness of their Sculls, we laid the
Jaws to them, and drew the other Half of the Linen above them, and
stufft the Coffin with Shavings. Some prest hard to go thorow the
chief Parts of the City as was done at the Revolution; but this we
refused, considering that it looked airy and frothy, to make such
Show of them, and inconsistent with the solid serious Observing of
such an affecting, surprizing unheard-of Dispensation: But took the
ordinary Way of other Burials from that Place, to wit, we went east
the Back of the Wall, and in at _Bristo-Port_, and down the Way to
the Head of the _Cowgate_, and turned up to the Church-yard, where
they were interred closs to the Martyrs Tomb, with the greatest
Multitude of People Old and Young, Men and Women, Ministers and
others, that ever I saw together.’
And so there they were at last, in ‘their resting graves.’ So long as
men do their duty, even if it be greatly in a misapprehension, they will
be leading pattern lives; and whether or not they come to lie beside a
martyrs’ monument, we may be sure they will find a safe haven somewhere
in the providence of God. It is not well to think of death, unless we
temper the thought with that of heroes who despised it. Upon what
ground, is of small account; if it be only the bishop who was burned for
his faith in the antipodes, his memory lightens the heart and makes us
walk undisturbed among graves. And so the martyrs’ monument is a
wholesome, heartsome spot in the field of the dead; and as we look upon
it, a brave influence comes to us from the land of those who have won
their discharge and, in another phrase of Patrick Walker’s, got ‘cleanly
off the stage.’
CHAPTER VI. NEW TOWN—TOWN AND COUNTRY.
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