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Kαλoι κ'αγαθoι (The Beautiful and the Good): Classical School Architecture and Educational Elitism in Early Nineteenth-Century Edinburgh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2016

Diane Watters
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Extract

Edinburgh's architecturally magnificent and much-admired historic school buildings, often set in opulent grounds, have come to symbolize the city's ongoing dichotomy between ‘normal’ state schools and ‘elite’ private schools. These schools are conspicuously sited in the most culturally prestigious locations in Edinburgh — the New Town, Old Town and Victorian bourgeois suburbs — and their architecture powerfully underpins their ideologies of longevity and tradition. The solidity of the built ‘heritage’ of these schools, however, obscures a story of great educational complexity and change. Many of the historic buildings are no longer used by the present school institutions; some now have alternative uses. Others have changed fundamentally their social and educational status (several, ironically, were originally built by wealthy donors as charitable orphanages for the ‘deserving poor’ and later converted to fee-paying day schools for the middle classes).

The complex history of these schools cannot be understood adequately without reference to the early history of their buildings. This article is intended as an initial exploration of these complexities. It focuses on two key Edinburgh case studies: the Edinburgh Academy (‘the Academy’), built to William Burn's design of 1823 and opened in 1824 (Fig. 1); and the Royal High School of Edinburgh (the ‘Royal High’), built to Thomas Hamilton's design of 1825 and opened in 1829 (Fig. 2). It examines the educational origins, brief, architectural design, and early use of these surviving purpose-built schools and, in particular, the associated negotiations and debate of 1822–23 that occurred at a municipal level, which links their controversial pre-histories.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 57 , 2014 , pp. 277 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2014

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References

Notes

1 Information from two unpublished architectural sources, and one research-based website, have, with permission of the respective authors, enhanced this article considerably: Fisher, Ian, ‘Thomas Hamilton of Edinburgh, Architect and Town Planner, 1784–1858‘(undergraduate thesis, University of Oxford, May 1965)Google Scholar; Cunliffe, J.M., ‘The Relationship between Architect, Builder and Client in the Early Nineteenth Century, with particular reference to William Burn's Early Practice and the Building of Edinburgh Academy’ (MA, University of Edinburgh, May 1976)Google Scholar; and ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages, Thomas Hamilton, Royal High School Chronology’, https://sites.google.com/site/ joerockresearchpages/Thomas-hamilton-architect/royal-high (accessed on 5 June 2013).

2 Anderson, R.D., Education & Opportunity in Victorian Scotland, Schools & Universities (Oxford, 1983), p. 20.Google Scholar

3 The details of which have been recounted in a forthcoming paper by the late historian and author John Gifford (1946–2013) to be published retrospectively in a commemorative volume of Architectural Heritage, the Journal of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, in 2014–15. The revealing correspondence between the commissioning committee and several architects (including Cockrell, Burn and Playfair) associated with the abandoned unfinished project, survives in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

4 Its southern boundary still remains open between the two lodges, but successive new school buildings from the 1890s onwards line the east and west boundaries.

5 Small- to medium-scale ancillary teaching blocks (dating from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries) have been discreetly set back from the main building along the north and south-east perimeters of the confined site.

6 The magnificent coffered ceiling hall survives, despite the removal of the original seating and extension to the galleries during its conversion to a debating chamber in the late 1970s in anticipation of it housing the new Scottish assembly.

7 In chronological order: Youngson, A.J., The Making of Classical Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1966), pp. 156–58Google Scholar; Fisher, Ian, ‘Thomas Hamilton’, in Scottish Pioneers of the Greek Revival: Burn, Hamilton, Playfair, Simpson, ed. Allen, Nic (Edinburgh, 1984), pp. 37–42 Google Scholar; Walker, David, ‘William Burn and the Influence of Sir Robert Smirke and William Wilkins on Scottish Greek Revival Design, 1810–40’, in Scottish Pioneers, ed. Allen, , pp. 3–35 Google Scholar; and Rock, Joe, Thomas Hamilton Architect, 1784–1858 (Edinburgh, 1984), pp. 23–26.Google Scholar (Unpublished): ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages, Thomas Hamilton, Royal High School Chronology’, https://sites.google.com/site/joerockresearchpages/Thomas-hamilton-architect/royal-high.

8 Notwithstanding Joe Rock's ‘Research Pages’ (see above).

9 Lengthy educational histories have been compiled on both schools. For the Academy, see Magnusson, Magnus, The Clacken and the Slate (Edinburgh 1974)Google Scholar, and Stanley, David, Academy Lore, The Story and Traditions of the Edinburgh Academy (Edinburgh, 2013).Google Scholar The 1974 school history by Magnusson, writer, broadcaster and former pupil, perhaps less bogged down by the weight of educational tradition given it was a new institution in 1824, gives a clear account of Burn's strikingly pure and primitive 1823 design, but soon reverts to even greater distinguished rectors and longer lists of former pupil achievements. For the Royal High, see Steven, William, The History of the High School of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1849)Google Scholar, Ross, William C.A., The High School of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1934)Google Scholar; Barclay, J.B., The Tounis Scule, The Royal High School of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1974)Google Scholar, and Murray, John, A History of the Royal High School (Edinburgh, 1997).Google Scholar

10 Davie, G.E., The Democratic Intellect, Scotland and her Universities in the Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1961)Google Scholar; and Davie, G.E., The Crisis of the Democratic Intellect: the Problem of Generalisation and Specialism in Twentieth- Century Scotland (Edinburgh, 1986).Google Scholar See also Anderson, R.D., Appendix II, ‘G E Davie's “The Democratic Intellect”’, in Anderson, Opportunity, pp. 358–61.Google Scholar

11 Smout, T.C., A History of the Scottish People, 1560–1830 (Glasgow, 1970), p. 451.Google Scholar Smout's excellent overviews of Scottish education, although only forming a part of his books, provided an early balanced account of hitherto unquestioned and commonly held beliefs about educational traditions in Scotland. See also Smout, T.C., A Century of the Scottish People, 1830–1950 (London, 1986).Google Scholar

12 Anderson, , Opportunity, p. 1.Google ScholarPubMed Anderson is the leading authority on the history of secondary education in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scotland, and has published the two key works on the subject. See also Anderson, R.D., Education and the Scottish People, 1750–1918) (Oxford, 1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Anderson, , Opportunity, p. 20.Google ScholarPubMed

14 Sir William Forbes, laying of foundation stone ceremony, 24 June 1777, Scots Magazine, 39 (1777)Google Scholar, cited in Steven, , History, p. 124.Google Scholar

15 Anderson, , Opportunity, p. 162.Google Scholar Anderson puts forward a complex set of arguments, establishing that, because nineteenth-century Scotland was a society dominated by the values and interests of the middle classes, it was they who made the fundamental decisions about educational policy which shaped both the schools which they used themselves and those destined for the classes below. From the 1820s onwards, he argues, middle-class pressures lay behind a movement for reforming and improving secondary schools, but the strength of the ‘democratic myth’ eventually acted to moderate their elitist excesses. For eighteenth-century Edinburgh, see Law, A., Education in Edinburgh in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1965), p. 84.Google Scholar See also Paterson, H.M., ‘Incubus and Ideology: the Development of Secondary Schooling in Scotland’, in Scottish Culture and Scottish Education, ed. Humes, W. and Paterson, H.M. (Edinburgh, 1983), pp. 14–21.Google Scholar For an up-to-date perspective on Scottish education history and its relationship with the democratic intellect and other ‘celebratory traditions’, see Paterson, L., ‘Traditions of Scottish Education’, in Scottish Life and Society, Institutions of Scotland, Education, A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology,ed. Holmes, H., 11 vols (East Lothian, 2000), II, pp. 21–43.Google Scholar

16 The grammar school of Edinburgh was under the patronage of Holyrood Abbey and this may have originated in the twelfth century. The earliest record was in 1378, when Adam de Camis, master of ‘the grammar schools of the church of Edinburgh’, attended the law faculty of Montpelier University. See Barclay, , The Tounis Scule, pp. 56–57.Google Scholar In 1578, the council decided to erect their new grammar school on the site of the former Blackfriars’ (Dominican) Friary church, Blackfriars’ Yards (later High School Yards). A surviving engraving of the 1578 school shows a modest three-storey building, with a detached steeple, and two circular stair-towers and central rectangular tower of the north front. The ‘turnpikes’ were probably added when the number of masters was increased and they were reroofed in 1658. It is illustrated in Steven, , The History of the High School of Edinburgh, p. 14.Google Scholar The source of this engraving is not known, but it is probably the earliest Scottish school building whose form is known to us. The only surviving feature of the building is the armorial relief panel that was set above the doorway in the east face of the central tower, and was later built into the janitor's house of about 1780. It was removed to the Royal High Regent Road building about 1830 and in 1897 was set above the west door of the hall, where it remains today. A double-moulded surround includes a pediment inscribed: I(ACOBUS) R(EX) 6, for King James VI, with a crown and two thistles. The main panel bears the arms of the burgh, a triple-towered castle, with the unexplained initials I S above. At the foot is the relief inscription: MUSIS : RESPUBLICA / FLORET (‘the community flourishes by the arts’), followed by a mason's mark, a thistle and the date 1578.

17 See Law, , Eighteenth Century, pp. 58–103 Google Scholar; Anderson, , Opportunity, p. 21 Google ScholarPubMed; Anderson, , Education, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar For an excellent detailed account of late eighteenth-century building in Edinburgh's Old Town (including public works), see Bell, Dorothy, Edinburgh Old Town: the Forgotten Nature of an Urban Form, 1746–93 (Edinburgh, 2008).Google Scholar

18 Minute of the Town Council and report of a meeting of the committee on the proposed High School', pp. 17–18, referenced in Fisher, , ‘Hamilton’, p. 49 Google Scholar.

19 The negotiations preceding the foundation of the Academy have been well documented in Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 42–49.Google Scholar

20 Cockburn, H., Memorials of His Time (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 388–90.Google Scholar

21 Letter from Leonard Horner, Ham Common, Surrey, 26 December 1822. Original pasted in the front of his copy of the Edinburgh Academy Directors’ Reports, photocopy in Cunliffe, ‘Builder and Client’, Appendix 1.

22 Ibid. John Russell, Writer to the Signet and a Tory, remained director until his death in 1862.

23 Edinburgh, Edinburgh Academy, Edinburgh Academy minutes [hereafter EAM] of 7 June 1822. It was recorded in the minutes of 22 July 1822 that Burn produced ‘an elevation and plan’. Cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, p. 39.Google Scholar

24 Letter from Lord Provost Arbuthnott to the Academy subscribers, cited in Magnusson, Clacken, p. 39 Google Scholar.

25 These negotiations were recorded via the committee of subscribers in the Edinburgh Academy minutes, and the Edinburgh Town Council minutes record the actions of the often-divided council officials. Although a chronology of events has been established (sometimes confusingly or in support of the actions taken by either the subscribers or the town council), an understanding of the behind-the-scenes political manoeuvrings of both interested parties and the opinions of the broader public has not been examined in detail yet. See EAM; Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Archives, Edinburgh Town Council minutes [TCM], and Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Special Collections [NLS], ABS.2.97.34 (1–16), pp. 3–25, bound collection of several reports and notes relating to the New Town school proposal. Whilst Magnusson provides a detailed chronology of events, he relies mainly on Academy archives. Cunliffe's chapter 4 ‘An Account of the Building of Edinburgh Academy’, provides the most precise account of events utilizing both city and Academy minutes. See Cunliffe, , ‘Builder and Client’, pp. 42–57 Google Scholar, and Youngson, , Classical Edinburgh, pp. 156–58.Google Scholar

26 Magnusson, , Clacken, p. 44.Google Scholar

27 Agreed TCM, July 4 1822, cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

28 EAM, 7 June 1822.

29 TCM, 2 October 1822; Burn's account, TCM, 30 May 1827.

30 Original drawings in Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Archives and copies in Edinburgh, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland [RCAHMS], DC 7811–23.

31 Walker, , ‘Burn’, in Scottish Pioneers, pp. 18–20.Google ScholarPubMed Walker points out that Burn supervised the Covent Garden Theatre, London, whilst working in Smirke's office in 1808. Subsequently, Burn ‘did not stray from this formula’. Walker explains that Smirke's influential neo-Greek Covent Garden façade composition formula was in fact first adopted by William Stark with his un-built design for the library and schools in Greenock. Walker, ‘Burn’, p. 3 (see Fig. 13).

32 Attribution by historian Aonghus Mackechnie.

33 Colvin, H., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architecture 1600–1840 (London, 1995), p. 823.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., pp. 18–20.

35 Excepting the residential charitable hospitals, surviving pre-nineteenth-century burgh schools are rare. Of the two significant mid-eighteenth-century burgh schools which do survive, the former Haddington Old Grammar and English Schools, 1755, and the former Stirling Old Grammar, 1788, designed by Gideon Gray, little is known of their original plan types.

36 Fearon, D., Schools Inquiry Commission, Part V (1867–68), p. 38 Google Scholar, in Parliamentary Papers, 1867–68 XXVIII. The author would like to thank Robert Anderson for bringing this source to her attention.

37 For an excellent general overview, see chapter 5, ‘Romantic Classicism and National Architecture, 1800–1840’, in Glendinning, M., MacInnes, R. and Mackechnie, A., A History of Scottish Architecture (Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 185–242.Google Scholar Poet Hugh William Wilkins identified Edinburgh ‘The Athens of the North’ in 1829.

38 EAM, 11 December 1822. Of the twelve tenders considered by the joint committee on 2 December 1822, the highest was £19,423, and the lowest £15,200. The town council and subscribers accepted that the plan must be modified to reduce expense.

39 Burn, revised scheme of 8 February 1823. On 18 February 1823, the town council insisted the cost be reduced to £8,000.

40 In a letter from Academy subscribers to the town council of 24 February 1823 they expressed their concerns over cost and delays and indicated that they might pull out. In response the town council agreed a cost of £9,000 on 26 February 1823. See TCM, 25 and 26 February 1823. See also Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 36–58.Google Scholar

41 EAM, 24 February 1823; TCM, 18 March 1823. Drawings from February-March 1823 do not survive, but several of the drawings dated 18 October 1822 (RCAHMS, DC 7811–23) bear partial overlays to show proposed alterations. The upper storey was itself removed in two stages, the projecting upper stair-hall being deleted first. The proposed basement, entered from the north by Tudor arcades, was presumably to be a covered playground.

42 TCM, 26 January 1831 (Hamilton's account) and 10 July 1823, cited in Fisher, , ‘Hamilton’, pp. 7–8 Google Scholar. See also Youngson, , Classical Edinburgh, pp. 156–58.Google Scholar

43 This early nineteenth-century City Council acceptance and low-key support for independent fee-paying schools, and graded fee-paying within their own public schools, was of course in keeping with all pre-universal education provision in Scotland pre–1872.

44 Blackwood protested against the pupil entrance fee proposal on 17 July and 16 October 1822, cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, p. 44.Google Scholar

45 TCM, 26 February 1823,11 and 19 March 1823, and 7 April 1823.

46 ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages’.

47 One Edinburgh citizen pragmatically suggested improving the old High School in the Old Town by building a new hall. See NLS, ABS.2.97.34 (1–16), pp 3–25, bound collection of several reports and notes relating to the New Town school proposal, pp. 11–14, ‘Letter to John Waugh, Esq. from Dr Duncan Senior, March 1823’.

48 ‘Minute of the Town Council and report of a meeting of the committee on the proposed High School’, pp. 17–18, referenced in Fisher, ‘Hamilton’, p. 49.

49 NLS, ABS.2.97.34 (1–16), p. 9, ‘Record of the meeting between town council and subscribers committee, 29 April 1823’.

50 ‘A Letter to the Lord Provost, on the Mischievous Tendency of a Scheme for Abolishing the High School - ‘Et tu, Brute!’, undated, cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., p. 52.

52 Perhaps as a last attempt to keep the subscribers on board, the town council's original preferred site east of the Mound was tested with bore-holes and declared suitable in mid-April 1823, but the concept was unacceptable to the academy's supporters, TCM, 9 April 1823, cited in Youngson, , Classical Edinburgh, pp. 156– 58.Google Scholar TCM, 16 April 1823.

53 NLS, ABS.2.97.34 (1–16), p. 9, ‘Minutes of the Town Council and Report of the Committee Respecting the New High School, (ordered to be printed 16 April 1823), reported in meeting of 29 April 1823’.

54 Ibid. ‘Remarks on the New High School’, n.d, p. 4–8. The justification was as follows: ‘The obvious result of having one school for the New Town, and another for the Old, will be a very distinct and marked separation between boys in different ranks and circumstances in life. The council have strongly felt that one peculiar and important advantage, which has hitherto attended the system of public education in Edinburgh, has been the common education of boys of all ranks and conditions. Almost every man who has risen to eminence in public life in Scotland has been educated at the High School; and many of the most distinguished and illustrious of the Scottish nobility have also there received their education […]. In order, however, to insure these important advantages, connected with the original character and system of the High School, it is essential that expense of education in it should be kept at the present moderate rate, and that no addition should be made in the name of entry money at the commencement of each session, as would have been absolutely necessary had the intended New School been erected.’

55 Ibid. ‘Report by the Committee of Contributors to the Edinburgh Academy’, April 1823, p. 22.

56 Henry Brougham, speech of 25 April 1825, cited in Steven, , History, p. 114.Google Scholar

57 On 14 May 1823, a meeting (held at the Waterloo Hotel, Edinburgh) of Academy subscribers, or ‘proprietors’, elected fifteen directors to establish an independent school, cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, p. 57.Google Scholar On 24 April 1824 the royal charter was sealed, and all subscribers became ‘The Proprietors of The Edinburgh Academy’. The original financial model adopted envisaged that subscription (shares) would pay for the building, tuition fees would fund staff, and class entrance fees would pay for maintenance and running of school. This was the same scheme adopted by the pioneering Tain Academy in 1812, but it received an annual income from the town council. Just like Tain, no subscribers received dividends from their investment in Edinburgh Academy. See Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 158–61.Google Scholar

58 For a more detailed and precise account of the design and two contracts of 22 August 1823 and 17 September 1825, see Cunliffe, , ‘Builder and Client’, pp. 72–89.Google Scholar

59 EAM, 21 May 1823. Edinburgh, RCAHMS, drawings dated 4 July 1823, EDD 10/1–7. The design of July 1823 reduced the original two-storey October 1822 design in width by about four metres.

60 Cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 60–61.Google Scholar On 17 July the estimate of £8,162 by Walter S. Dinn was accepted as the lowest of five, but the writing room added a further cost of £1,130, and the final payment to the contractor was to be £12,295. Edinburgh, Edinburgh Academy Archives [EAA], ‘Estimates, Contract and Specifications; Accounts’, 1823–25, pp. 57–62, 79–81 (copies in RCAHMS). By October 1823, Burn was ‘much satisfied with the mode in which Dinn the contractor was executing the work’, shortages of stone from Collalo and Denny quarries led to some delay. EAM, 23 October and 27 November 1823, cited in Cunliffe, ‘Builder and Client’, p. 72.

61 John Ness and Co., sculptors, received £3 6s. ‘for cutting letters on the portico’, Account Book, 2 November 1825, detailed in EAA, ‘Estimates, Contract and Specifications; Accounts’, 1823–25 (copies in RCAHMS).

62 Ibid., 22–26 August 1823.

63 Ground plan, July 1823 (RCAHMS, EDD 10/2); engraved plan, c. 1823, copy in EAA.

64 Walker, , ‘Burn’, p. 20.Google ScholarPubMed

65 Engraved plan, c. 1823, copy in EAA. This plan is unusual, for its date, in referring to the large rooms as ‘Class Rooms’, and illustrates Burn's use of simple dimensions: hall, 70 ft by 50 ft; classrooms, 40 ft by 30 ft; rector's room, 50 ft by 30 ft; rector's private rooms, 20 ft by 16 ft; writing class, 60 ft by 33 ft. Up until the 1850s the teaching wings of the main block remained unaltered.

66 Magnusson, , Clacken, p. 169.Google Scholar

67 The simple geometric aesthetic of the hall has been somewhat lost in the process of remodelling which began in the late nineteenth century, but the beauty of the original architectural form survives. From 1890 to 1913 it was used as a dining hall and floored at the level of the door-thresholds. In 1913, it was remodelled, with the floor sunk about 0.9 m within a balustraded perimeter-aisle. The organ was installed in 1913. Large gilt plaster rosettes were also added to the cells of the coved ceiling in 1913.

68 EAA, ‘Estimates, Contract and Specifications; Accounts’, 1823–25 (copies in RCAHMS).

69 ‘Account of the Ceremony at the opening of The Edinburgh Academy’ cited in Magnusson, , Clacken, p. 85.Google ScholarHe details that Scott ‘stepped in at last minute’ because Sir Robert Dundas of Arniston, chairman of the Directors, had to cancel.

70 Cited in Harris, George, ‘Enlightenment and Empire, The Foundation of the Edinburgh Academy’, The Academical, 9 (2000), pp. 36–42.Google Scholar

71 The Scotsman, 14 January 1824.

72 Edinburgh Academy Register, 1824–1914, 9 (Edinburgh, 1914)Google Scholar, cited in Magnusson, Clacken,pp. 88,121Google Scholar. The outcome of this is not recorded.

73 Rector Williams, ‘Report to the Directors’, 2 July 1825, Edinburgh Academy Annual Report (1825), ibid., p. 90.

74 ‘Report by the Directors of The Edinburgh Academy to the Proprietors of the Academy, at their general meeting on 4 July 1825’, NLS, ABS.2.97.34 (1–16), pp. 4–18.

75 After the writing and arithmetic classes were moved to the new north-west block, EAA, Edinburgh Academy Annual Report, 1825, 1826 (p. 5), and 1827.

76 EAA, ‘Statement by the Directors of the Edinburgh Academy, Explanatory of the Scheme of that Institution, December 1823’ (Edinburgh, 1824), pp. 1–41.Google Scholar List of subscribers, plan, engraving and plan of the weekly distribution of time in the six classes of the Edinburgh Academy.

77 See Magnusson, , Clacken, pp. 57–120.Google Scholar For the importance of the old High School in Scott's life and career, see Scott, Paul Henderson, ‘Edinburgh Walter Scott in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 39–46 Google Scholar. Cited in Harris, George, ‘Enlightenment and Empire, The Foundation of the Edinburgh Academy’, The Academical, 9 (2000), pp. 36–42.Google Scholar The success of the directors’ academic ambitions, however, was seen in the career of Archibald Campbell Tait, dux in 1825 and 1826 and later headmaster of Rugby and archbishop of Canterbury. Other celebrated Academy pupils included the physicist James Clerk Maxwell (attended the Academy 1841–47), and the writers R.M. Ballantyne (1835–37), Robert Louis Stevenson (1861–63) and Andrew Lang (1854–61).

78 The Scotsman, 10 December 1828. It was reported that it was now completely roofed and glazed.

79 W.H. Playfair's neo-Greek Dollar Academy, despite being a straightforward design (1818–21) and construction, took nineteen years from initial idea to official opening.

80 In that same year Pillans, an accomplished classicist, educationalist and good friend of fellow Whig Cockburn, resigned, and was appointed professor of humanity and laws (Latin) at Edinburgh University. Pillans was a lifelong friend of Francis Horner who helped him obtain his post as rector in 1810. It was Francis' brother Leonard Horner who alongside Cockburn first initiated the Academy idea. Steven, , History, p. 65.Google Scholar

81 Dr Carson, speech at the opening of the High School, 23 June 1829. Ibid., Appendix, p. 73.

82 Edinburgh, Edinburgh City Archives, Town Council Record, 7 May 1824; TCM, vol. 208, p.14

83 These 1824 drawings were uncovered in the archives of the Royal High School, Regent Road, by former RCAHMS investigator Ian Fisher in 1966 (copies in RCAHMS).

84 See Schinkel's neues Schauspielhaus (now Konzerthaus), Berlin, 1818–21 and Konigliches Museum (Altes Museum), Berlin, 1823–30. The 1824 un-built scheme also proposed a general improvement of the area behind Register House (enabling it to be seen properly from the north), St James Square (including partial demolition), and to the east of the excise office (now Dundas House) behind St Andrew Square. Detailed in a commentary with the volume of designs held in the school ‘Drawing No. 6’ was ‘intended to explain how very small a part of the Register House can at present be seen from (St James') square’. Hamilton's dislike of the untidy buildings behind Register House was almost certainly intensified by his having lived for several years in a house near the viewpoint of his drawings 6 and 7. He proposed to lower the level of St James’ Square by 10 ft and to make a broad street separating Register House from the school whose ground floor would be occupied by shops not lit by structurally unsound windows but by cupolas in their roofs. Hamilton presented bill for £105 for these plans, TCM, 2 January 1831.

85 Rock, , Thomas, p. 26.Google Scholar

86 For a general overview of stylistic background, see Walker, David, ‘The Development of Thomson's Style, the Scottish Background’, in Alexander Thomson: the Unknown Genius, ed. Stamp, Gavin (Glasgow, 1999), pp. 23–49.Google Scholar

87 The Scotsman, 31 July 1824. A notice of the decision of a meeting of residents and proprietors that a new high school in vicinity of St Andrew Square was recorded as not being in the residents’ interest. Excise Office site sold to Royal Bank for £35,000. See Edinburgh Journal, 10 March 1825.

88 In March 1823 it was reported, ‘There is much talk of moving the High School’, with two probable sites at the bottom of the Nor Loch and east side of Calton Hill. See Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 12 March 1823.

89 Cited in Fisher, , ‘Hamilton’, p. 17 Google Scholar.

90 Edinburgh Journal, 10 June 1825. At the official opening of the school in June 1829 the Revd Dr Andrew Thomson recalled, ‘When it [Calton Hill site] was first spoken of, the terrors of parents were awakened, as if they saw all their children falling over precipices.’ Cited in Steven, , History, p. 239.Google Scholar

91 Edinburgh Weekly Journal, 27 July 1824.

92 Lord Provost Henderson at the official opening ceremony, 23 June 1829. Cited in Steven, , History, p. 214.Google Scholar

93 Rock's research pages highlight an interesting discrepancy in contemporary press reports. The Scotsman, 2 July 1825, makes reference to both ‘Messrs. Burn and Hamilton in forming the plan should be limited to an expense of £20,000 […]’. Later, ‘At a meeting of the council on Wednesday 20 July, two plans or the new school adapted to different scales of expense were laid on the table from the architects.’ See The Scotsman, 23 July 1825. No other references to Burn are cited. See ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages’.

94 The Scotsman, 21 January 1826.

95 Hamilton's drawings, Edinburgh, RCAHMS, DC7780–DC7823.

96 The foundation stone ceremony was first fixed for the anniversary of the coronation, 19 July 1825.

97 NLS, 6.260 (49), ‘Order of Procession to be observed At Laying the Foundation Stone of the Royal High School, on Thursday July 28,1825’. Steven provided a lengthy account of the day's events and speeches ( Steven, , History, pp. 214–22Google Scholar), including that of Lord Glenorchy, Grand Master, who ‘… trusted that the same system which had been followed in the Old High School, would be preserved in the New Seminary in all its purity. If such were the case, future ages would see men arise distinguished for their talents as statesmen, and lawyers, and heroes, and go forth as the lights of their country.’ Cited in Steven, , History, p. 216.Google Scholar Rector Carson claimed 'In all seminaries it was of the utmost consequence that the access should be easy — that all ranks might thereby enjoy the benefits of education. It must therefore be of the utmost importance to preserve an institution, which has existed for three hundred years ….’ Steven, , History, p. 219.Google Scholar Stevens, who dedicated his school history of 1849 former rector Professor Pillans, recalled his friend's speech word for word. Pillans argued that the key principle of the school was the mixture of ranks: ‘And he would say, if there was one class of boys more distinguished for laborious diligence than another, it was those who came from the lower and middling classes, and would appeal to his successor if such was not the case, and ask, if there could be a greater pleasure to a teacher than to see a youth, un-befriended by fortune, toiling up the step that leads to [i]mmortal fame?’ Steven, , History, p. 22.Google Scholar

98 Ibid., p. 218.

99 Ibid.

100 The Scotsman, 2 July 1825.

101 Edinburgh, Edinburgh Central Library, ECL, YLF, 1135R 20320, ‘Edinburgh Town Council, Address from the Town Council of Edinburgh on the subject of the new buildings for the High School, of which the foundation was laid on 28th July, 1825’ (Edinburgh, 1825).

102 The Scotsman, 2 July 1825. Hamilton received £900 of his own account of £1,400 by 1830, but it was not finally settled until 1834. The cost of the project came under scrutiny again following Edinburgh Town Council's bankruptcy in June 1833, when James Gillespie Graham was asked to examine the details of Hamilton's account, and that of the second contractor Peter Lorimer. Rock's research pages detail a ‘bitter’ public argument between Lord Provost Learmonth and Hamilton relating to the costs of the Royal High School. Begun in 1831, when Learmonth suggested that the town council was misled by Hamilton on the true costs of school, the argument reached a climax on 4 April 1832 when letters between the men were published on the front page of The Scotsman. Hamilton vigorously defended himself, but according to Rock the slur remained. See ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages’.

103 Ross, , High,p. 33.Google Scholar

104 Just after the new high school subscription opened in April 1825, the astute Edinburgh Journal,a critic of the project, anticipated, ‘It will not be easy to raise £12–13,000 by subscription for this purpose if we may judge from the new Infirmary, contributions for public institutions are not getting on at present with much spirit.’ The slow subscription levels from £1,100 in December 1825 to nearly £5,000 in April 1826 were recorded in the press. See Edinburgh Journal,3 December 1825; The Scotsman,3 December 1825 and 22 April 1826. The Scotsman reported, ‘The King has just now bestowed a donation of £500 on it but a great deal more will require to be subscribed before it can be finished.’ The Scotsman,30 December 1826. William Dundas, MP for Edinburgh, subscribed £100, and the current rector Carson and Professor Pillans both subscribed £50. See Steven, , History, p. 248 Google Scholar.

105 Edinburgh Journal,31 March 1827.

106 Rock's research notes provide an excellent account of the construction details and complex negotiations between client and contractor, and detail the fall-out from the first contractor's collapse. See ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages’ and also Edinburgh, National Archives of Scotland, John Dickson Sequestration papers, CS96/867/1, Sederunt book.

107 By 1826, the two entrance gates had been moved to a more central position, strengthening the forward thrust of the dominating central feature of the design, and the original fussy detailing of the entablature of the flanking classroom wings was simplified to emphasise the pediment of the main temple. The 1826 drawings do not show the two statues set on top of the two projecting pedimented battered Egyptian-style gateways which were seen on later engravings. The engraving found in the front piece of Steven's history showed two statues intended to represent ‘distinguished literary characters connected with seminary’, but these were never built. As built, further small changes led to the removal of a row of ‘porthole’ windows from the 1826 design, further simplification of the entablature of the classroom wings, and the addition of small gables to the entrance 100 gates. The only considerable changes were internal, with the use of metal pillars to support the hall galleries which were cantilevered in the working drawings.

108 Grant, James, Cassall's Old and New Edinburgh, 3 vols (London, 1882), II, p. 110.Google Scholar

109 Translated: ‘High School of Edinburgh, founded Three hundred years ago, and consecrated to the study of polite learning, now by an act of the Town Council enlarged and fitted up in this new situation, suitably to the dignity of the city and resort of scholars. This edifice, commenced with the usual solemnities in the year 1825, by Alexander Henderson, Lord Provost of the city, was reared with every regard to elegance under the auspices of William Trotter, the succeeding Lord Provost; the expense being chiefly defrayed from the funds of the city, aided by the voluntary contributions of patriotic citizens, in the reign of George the Fourth, a most munificent Prince, who vouchsafed his royal favour and aid to this undertaking.’

110 Professor Pillans at the official opening ceremony, 23 June 1829, quoted in Steven, , History,p. 22.Google Scholar

111 Copy, RCAHMS, EDD / 281 / 5. Rock attributes the painting to David Roberts and Thomas Hamilton, Rock, Thomas,p. ii. Friends and admirers subscribed 100 guineas to purchase the paining, noted in Stamp, G., ‘Thomas Hamilton (1784–1858)’, in Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), pp. 904–07.Google Scholar

112 See Lowrey, John, ‘From Caesarea to Athens, Greek Revival Edinburgh and the Question of Scottish Identity within the Unionist State’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 60.2 (2001), pp. 136–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

113 Later removed as part of the late 1970s refurbishment.

114 Groome, F.H. (ed.), Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, 6 vols (Edinburgh, 1882–85), II, P. 509.Google Scholar

115 The Scotsman,11 January 1826. This article was probably written by Charles McLaren, joint editor and proprietor of the Scotsman. The hexastyle Temple of Theseion (also known as Theseus, from 449 BC) was reportedly Hamilton's favourite Greek model.

116 Steven, , History,pp. 223–24Google Scholar. The flat pilastered end bays were based on the Choragic Monumnent of Thrasyllus, Athens (320 BC).

117 Joe Rock pinpoints that the Temple of Theseus was illustrated in Antiquities of Athens. Rock, , Thomas,p. 25 Google Scholar; William Wilkins, The Civil Architecture of Vitruvius(1813–17), a translation by Wilkins, with an anonymous introduction (now known to be by George, fourth Earl of Aberdeen) titled ‘An Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture’. Aberdeen was a client of Burn. Hugh William Williams, began to publish his Select Views of Greece with Classical Illustrations,published in twelve parts 1823–29. For full account of Select Views, see ‘Joe Rock's Research Pages’; Rock, , Thomas,p. 26 Google Scholar.

118 Lauder, T.D., Sir Uvedale Price on the Picturesque, with an essay on the origin of taste and much original matter (Edinburgh, 1842), p. 345.Google Scholar

119 Edinburgh, Edinburgh Central Library, ‘Considerations on the nature of the Improvements Bill’, by the Committee of the inhabitants, Edinburgh. Cited in Fisher, ‘Hamilton’, p. 49.

120 The Scotsman,11 January 1826.

121 Thomson, A., ‘An Inquiry as to the Appropriateness of the Gothic style …’, in Proceedings of the Glasgow Architectural Society (1865–67), p. 58 Google Scholar. Cited in Walker, D., ‘The Development of Thomson's Style, the Scottish Background’, in Alexander Thomson: the Unknown Genius,ed. Stamp, Gavin (Glasgow, 1999), pp. 23–49.Google Scholar

122 The school was listed at Category A in 1966, as a building of national architectural and historical importance. By that date it was recognized within a British architectural context as a building of great significance. In 1914, historian Richardson stated, ‘If Hamilton's reputation […] rested solely on his design for the High School this building alone would secure his immortality.’ Richardson, A., Monumental Classical Architecture in Great Britain and Ireland: During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century (London, 1914), p. 71 Google Scholar. In 1953, the English architectural historian Summerson, claimed it was ‘surely the noblest monument of the Scottish Greek Revival’, Summerson, John, Architecture in Britain (London, 1953), p. 311 Google Scholar. In Summerson's sixth revised edition of 1977 he identifies a ‘probably coincidental resemblance’ to William Wilkins’ later London University Design of 1827–28, and in particular its ‘grandiose arrangement of steps’. In 1972, J.M. Crook stated, ‘It is of course the Royal High School by which this half-death solitary genius will always be remembered.’ Mordaunt Crook, J., The Greek Revival(London, 1972), p. 105 Google Scholar, cited in Stamp, , ‘Thomas Hamilton (1784–1858)’, pp. 904–07Google Scholar. In the 1980s, a number of Scottish architectural historians, most notably Joe Rock, revived an interest in Hamilton’s architecture. See Fisher, , ‘Hamilton’, pp. 37–42 Google Scholar; and Rock, Thomas. In the 1996 volume A History of Scottish Architecture,the authors claim, ‘It was on the flanks of Calton Hill that Hamilton designed what was, perhaps, the single most significant monument of Edinburgh Classical Romanticism and one of the setpieces of archaeological Hellenism in Europe: The Royal High School.’ Glendinning, Machines and Mackechnie, A History of Scottish Architecture,p. 202.Google ScholarPubMed

123 In 1829 pupil John I.C. Lockhart penned ‘A Valedictory to the Old High School… Farewell! thou sacred venerable pile …/But thou! Who long hast stood Edina's pride, And still remains to tell of what is past ….’ Cited in Steven, , History,pp. 229–30.Google Scholar

124 The Scotsman,24 June 1829. The grand ordered procession was arranged by Sir Patrick Walker of Coates, and preceded by the band of the Seventeenth Lancers. Grant, James, Cassall's Old and New Edinburgh,3 vols (London, 1882), II, p. 111.Google Scholar

125 Steven, , History,pp. 231–32.Google Scholar

126 Ibid., p. 236. The cost of the public project was defended by a number of speakers. Carson argued that it was ‘… not the overflowing of opulence [but] a voluntary testimony, borne by an intelligent Magistracy to the value of classical learning and the general improvement of the human mind; they are a proud and grateful acknowledgement of those important services which this school has rendered to our country, to literature, and to society’. Ibid., Appendix, p. 74. In the evening Dr David Maclagan defended Hamilton ‘an ardent admirer and faithful friend of the High School’ who persevered ‘amidst the difficulties which of site presented, and the obstacles which local interests and prejudice, misconception and misrepresentation’. Ibid., p. 244.

127 Rector Carson at the opening of the High School, 23 June 1829, ibid., Appendix, pp. 73–74.

128 Prior to moving in 1829, an improved course of study suggested by the rector and masters, was approved by the city council in July 1827. Optional subjects (English literature, history and geography) were to be taught by the classics masters ‘without interfering in the slightest degree’ with classics, and a separate class for writing, arithmetic and maths was planned with an additional master appointed in 1828. Ibid., p. 226. Steven claimed that the reforms of 1827 and those which followed, were debated in detail, with public and parents who were 'extremely touchy’ about change, especially about fee increases (p. 304).

129 Ibid., Appendix, p. 78. Former rector Professor Pillans again stressed continuity in his speech following the last examinations in the old school building: ‘It may appear to some too great a stretch of sentimentality to talk with much tenderness of bidding these walls adieu, since after all it is but stone and lime which we are about to part with. I rejoice to think that under a roof more worthy of its eminence, the school will still survive — the masters who have proved themselves so fit for the task, will still preside — and the same system be continued in a situation better adapted for carrying it into effect, and still richer in local associations where the youthful eye cannot open without resting on some of the noblest features of our own beautiful and romantic town, or on the monuments, still, I hope, to be increased in number, of those who, by their talents and industry, had raised themselves to distinction in all the various departments of honourable exertion; and where the youthful mind will this be stirred up to emulate their fame in literature, science, and public virtue, and to bequeath like them an imperishable name.’ Ibid., p. 228.

130 At the foundation stone ceremony of 28 July 1825, Pillans announced ‘…he could not help expressing his satisfaction, after having looked at the ground plan, of the facilities the proposed edifice afforded for monitorial education, which was attended with the most important results.’ It is unclear what Pillans saw in the ground floor plan. Hamilton's 1826 plans show a large square room, and two smaller flanking classrooms as ‘practice rooms’ in the rector's wing. Ibid., p. 222.

131 In 1835, two teachers for gymnastics and fencing were appointed, the first German teacher was appointed in 1845, and science was introduced to the rector's class, taught by him. Ibid., p. 256.

132 ‘Regulations for the External Discipline of the High School of Edinburgh’ drafted by Drs Boyd and Gunn, and approved by the rector and masters in 1846. Ibid., p. 139.

133 The increased cost of building the northern wing, and the cost of building the new north-west teaching block in 1826, had resulted in unforeseen debts. In late 1848, the directors reluctantly made a further public appeal for funds, and by the end of 1849 had successfully raised £2,266. Magnusson, , Clacken,pp. 158–61Google Scholar. In the early 1840s, Tain Academy, which had adopted a similar financial model to the academy in 1812, closed for a short period because of lack of funds.

134 The private independent Edinburgh Institution of 1832 was a more modern teaching establishment with less emphasis on the classics. It also provided some competition to the two established schools. Groome, , Gazetteer, II, pp. 509–10.Google Scholar

135 Steven, , History,pp. 22, 261Google Scholar; New Statistical Account of Scotland,15 vols (1834–45), I, (1 July 1845), p. 683.Google Scholar

136 Alistair Allanach of the historic Royal High School Club has tentatively begun analysing fees and social make up of the boys attending the Royal High in the 1930s.

137 Anderson, , Opportunity,pp. 20–21.Google ScholarPubMed

138 Ibid., p. 22.

139 Steven, , History,p. 271.Google Scholar

140 Harvey, T and Sellar, A.C., Report on The State of Education in the Burgh and Middle Class Schools of Scotland, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1867–68), II, 1868Google Scholar, in Parliamentary Papers, 1867–68 XXXIX, Education Commission (Scotland).Google Scholar

141 ‘The Edinburgh Academy, visited 20 and 21 March, 1867’, in ibid., pp. 193–202. It was reported that the annual fees covered the full curriculum, but the salaries of the classical masters still depended on class size and the masters resisted division. Harvey defended large classes, arguing that ‘a good master is quite able to interest and teach 80 or 100 boys’, whereas his colleague Sellar recorded his disagreement. See also Magnusson, , Clacken,pp. 139–208 Google Scholar. The commissioners claimed of the Academy, ‘It does for the West of Edinburgh what the High School does for the East; for the professional classes what the latter does for the great body of the citizens. This speaking roughly, however; for there are many sons of ministers, lawyers, doctors, and country gentlemen in the High School, and there is no lack of citizens’ sons in the Academy.’ Harvey, and Sellar, , Burgh and Middle Class Schools,p. 198.Google Scholar

142 Groome, , Gazetteer,II, p. 509.Google Scholar

143 ‘Edinburgh High School, visited 27 and 28 March, 1867’, in Harvey, and Sellar, , Burgh and Middle Class Schools,pp. 203–44Google Scholar. The report details a list prepared by the rector Dr Donaldson, of the occupation of the parents of the first 21 scholars on the Royal High roll (making up 15.7% of the total roll): these consisted of ‘2 clergymen, 2 general drapers, 2 railway managers, 3 general merchants, 2 doctors, 1 tea merchant and grocer, 1 wine merchant, 1 teacher, 1 ironmonger, 1 bookbinder, 1 cabinetmaker, 1 sheriff officer, lprofessor, 1 president of a bank, 1 solicitor, 1 shawl manufacturer, 2 colonels, 5 farmers, 1 general draper, 1 brewer, 1 jeweller, 1 lecturer on science, 1 land steward, 1 professor of music, 1 superintendent revenue survey, 1 baker, 1 landed proprietor, 1 banker, and 1 clerk of session’ (p. 216).

144 Ibid., p. 209.

145 Magnusson, , Clacken,p. 257 Google Scholar. Following Mackenzie's death in 1911, the directors in their report of 1913 stated, ‘He was a born Headmaster, gifted alike with imagination and foresight and with genius for the practical work of organisation.’

146 Anderson, , Opportunity,p. 20.Google ScholarPubMed

147 MacLeod, I., The Glasgow Academy: 150 Years (Glasgow, 1997), p. 1.Google Scholar

148 Anderson, , Opportunity,p. 22 Google ScholarPubMed. Unlike the Edinburgh Academy, Glasgow Academy did make payment of dividends and bonuses to shareholders. In 1878, Wilson's grand Academy building was sold to the Glasgow School Board as the new home for the overcrowded Glasgow High School (£32,000). A ‘New Academy Company’ was formed, and a new building for the Glasgow Academy was built at Kelvinbridge.

149 The Scotsman,11 January 1826.