As I entered the Old Calton Cemetery, I saw in the corner a rather overbearing structure that I took to be the guard tower. After wandering around the cemetery, I made my way over to the structure only to realize it wasn’t a guard tower at all, but was, instead a tomb or mausoleum. The interred is Philosopher, essayist and one of the founders of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume.
Hume was born in Edinburgh but primarily raised in Berwickshire. Hume’s father died when Hume was just 2, leaving his mother to raise three children. Seeing how precocious young David was, his mother, Catherine, sent him off the Edinburgh University with his older brother. He was 10 or 12 at the time. While at University, young David studied Greek, Latin, and History. David was not a fan of university, believing that the professors could not teach him anything that he couldn’t learn through reading books. He did not graduate.
During his life, Hume served as Tutor, Librarian at the Advocates Library, and Private Secretary to the Ambassador to France. As a well-known philosopher, his aim was to found the 'Science of Man' - the study of human nature by scientific means.
Hume died of
intestinal cancer in 1776. He has requested that his tomb be a simple roman tomb
with only his name and dates of birth and death inscribed. He wanted the “rest
left to posterity.” Hume’s tomb stands on the southwest corner of the Old
Calton Cemetery. It was built by architect Robert Adam.
