Honours
Two large obelisks were funded by public subscription raised by the radical MP Joseph Hume. One of these is in Nunhead Cemetery in South East London, while the other in the Old Calton Cemetery dominates the Edinburgh sky-line.
The obelisk in the Old Calton Cemetery in Edinburgh was designed in 1844 by architect Thomas Hamilton (1784–1858) and stands 90 feet (27 m) high.
The monument speaks for itself:
To The Memory Of Thomas Muir, Thomas Fyshe Palmer, William Skirving, Maurice Margarot and Joseph Gerrald. Erected by the Friends of Parliamentary Reform in England and Scotland, 1844.
It includes the following quotations:
I have devoted myself to the cause of The People. It is a good cause - it shall ultimately prevail - it shall finally triumph.
(Speech of Thomas Muir in the Court of Judiciary on 30 August 1793.)
I know that what has been done these two days will be Re-Judged.
(Speech of William Skirving in the Court of Judiciary on 7 January 1794.)
The Nunhead obelisk was erected in 1837 and stands 40 feet (12 m) high.
A Cairn and Martyrs Gate were erected at Huntershill Village by John SL Watson of Huntershill and partly funded by the East Dunbartonshire Council.
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Thomas Muir Cairn at Huntershill Village
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Scottish Political Martyrs Gate at Huntershill Village
John Watson and Thomas Muir Coffee Shop commissioned Bishopbriggs local artist John Spinelli to paint a series of watercolours, depicting Thomas Muir's dramatic escape from Botany Bay and his adventures that led him to France. They're displayed throughout the coffee shop.
There is a permanent exhibition to Thomas Muir at Bishopbriggs library, which includes a specially commissioned bust of Thomas Muir by celebrated Scottish artist Alexander Stoddart. Thomas Muir Street in Greenock is named after him. A school in Bishopbriggs, the Thomas Muir High School which opened in 1975, was named after him. It was merged with another school in 2003 to form Bishopbriggs Academy.
Robert Burns wrote Scots Wha Hae on the day Muir's trial started. The letter he wrote to George Hamilton (about 30 August 1793) with the first draft made it clear who he had in mind; Wallace was an allegory for the real hero*...
… So may God defend the cause of TRUTH and LIBERTY, as he did that day! – Amen!
P.S. I shewed the air to Urbani, who was highly please with it, & begged me to make soft verses for it; but I had no idea of giving myself any trouble on the subject, till the accidental recollection of that same struggle for Freedom, associated with the glowing idea’s of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient*, roused my rhyming Mania. –Clarke’s set of the tune, with his bass, you will find in the Museum; though I am afraid that the air is not what will entitle it to a place in your elegant selection. – However, I am so pleased with my verses, or more properly, the subject of my verses, that although Johnson has already given the tune a place, yet it shall appear again, set to this song, in his next & last Volume.- RB
Read more about this topic: Thomas Muir Of Huntershill
Famous quotes containing the word honours:
“If a novel reveals true and vivid relationships, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationships consist in. If the novelist honours the relationship in itself, it will be a great novel.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Come hither, all ye empty things,
Ye bubbles rais’d by breath of Kings;
Who float upon the tide of state,
Come hither, and behold your fate.
Let pride be taught by this rebuke,
How very mean a thing’s a Duke;
From all his ill-got honours flung,
Turn’d to that dirt from whence he sprung.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“Vain men delight in telling what Honours have been done them, what great Company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess, that these Honours were more than their Due, and such as their Friends would not believe if they had not been told: Whereas a Man truly proud, thinks the greatest Honours below his Merit, and consequently scorns to boast. I therefore deliver it as a Maxim that whoever desires the Character of a proud Man, ought to conceal his Vanity.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)