Looking west

Somewhere in the National Museum of Scotland, but apparently not under the roof of the Grand Gallery, there is the foundation stone. Laid by Prince Albert in 1861, it was his last public appearance before his death. It was a pretty large foundation stone he laid. One half of it contained a glass jar. Ok that doesn’t make it sound big but look what the jar contained:

    •     a copy of the Edinburgh directory;
    •     Oliver and Boyd’s Almanac;
    •     a glass jar containing the following gold and silver coins: a sovereign, a half sovereign, 5s, 2s, 6d, 2s, 1s, 6d, 4d and 3d., besides a penny, a half penny and a farthing in bronze;
    •     Looking upJohnson’s view of the building and the Post Office;
    •     Johnson’s new plan of the city;
    •     Lectures etc in connection with the Industrial Museum by the late Professor George Wilson;
    •     also a portrait engraving;
    •     Lecture by Professor Archer to the Chamber of Commerce;
    •     Hislop’s Postal Sheet for October 1861;
    •     Hislop’s Time-Gun plan of the city of Edinburgh;
    •     the Edinburgh newspapers of the 23 October 1861.”

Bizarrely though, given the size of the stone and the grandeur of the stone laying ceremony, no one apparently knows exactly where the foundation stone is. Maybe someone will unravel the mystery and enlighten us one of these days.

Looking east

128 thoughts

  1. Great building! I had to look at my photos of it, but none are easily cropped into a square. Jo and I had a wander around and a look at a photographic exhibition there back in September 2016. Seems like only five minutes ago, not three plus years!

    Featherlight

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    1. Such a huge space I really struggled with photographing and cropping to get what I wanted

      And was it really three years ago. I can recall Jo mentioning she was seeing you, sure it was only a year ago!

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    1. I didn’t spot anything at the museum sharing this, but found it later on the museum blog! I was intending to share something about the roof, but then was distracted about the foundations

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  12. Sounds as though they hid it deliberately, so that it can remain buried for many generations. But I’m amazed someone hasn’t found it by now.
    And it makes a lovely square light, Becky.

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    1. it does but the ceremony took place in full view of the general public and there was an inscription plate! It must be buried deep in the foundations somewhere. Such a great tale!

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        1. I’ve also messaged the National Museum . . .don’t panic not to say you are visiting next month to enquire whether they have found it since the blog post 8 years ago where I discovered it is lost!

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