3-034-539 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Scott Monument, Edinburgh, 1871. Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, in in Princes Street Gardens. Designed by George Meikle Kemp, it was built from Binny sandstone. 'It is an open Gothic shrine to canopy a statue. Four grand arches, of the Early English form, springing from the top of clustered pillars, support a groined and vaulted roof, which is adorned with carved bosses and with a richly-ornamented pendant or drop in the centre. Outside, at each of the four angles, is a buttress connected by an arch with the main structure, all decorated in the same manner, and rising to pinnacles at the height of 98 ft. ; but the superstructure of the middle reaches 200 ft. It presents several stories, with arched windows of varied successive designs, flanked by many close buttresses terminating in pinnacles, crockets, and finials, of gradually diminished size; the whole majestic edifice being surmounted by a noble spire...The interior chamber of this story is fitted up as a Waverley Museum. There are galleries at three successive heights, to be reached by a staircase, which afford most interesting views of Edinburgh on each side'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.