David Hume (1711-76) was a philosopher, historian, essayist, and key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Edinburgh-born, he was instrumental in the influence of empiricism and naturism, believing that humans can only have knowledge of things they have experienced themselves and that human nature is a manifestation of the natural world. His most significant work, though not necessarily appreciated at the time, was his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) which he wrote at the age of 28. Amongst several roles through his life, Hume worked as a Keeper of the Advocates Library, 1752-59, where he authored his History of England which was a bestseller at the time. Hume was a known critic of religion and was often suspected of being an atheist. He was involved in procuring plantations for his patron, Lord Hertford. In Edinburgh, he lobbied the town council to build ‘public walks or roads for the health and amusement of the inhabitants’ on Calton Hill, one of Edinburgh’s monumental hills and key feature in the city’s landscape. He was also a dear and close friend of the Adam family, once described by the Adam brothers’ mother as ‘the most innocent, agreeable, facetious man I ever met with.’ He died in his house on St David’s Street, on 25 August 1776.

As a great friend of Hume’s, Robert Adam was commissioned after Hume’s death in 1776 to design his mausoleum. Hume had specified in his will that he was to be buried on the south side of the Old Calton Burying Ground in Edinburgh with a monument costing no more than one hundred pounds, and for the inscription to state only his date of birth and death. Adam created several variant designs, inspired by the Roman mausolea he saw whilst on his Grand Tour, including the Mausoleum of Theodoric at Ravenna, the Tomb of the Plautii near Tivoli, the Mausoleum of Helena on the Via Cassalina in Rome and, possibly, the Tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia outside Rome. For a detailed account of each variant and their Roman context, see: Brown (1991).

The principal of each design was a cylindrical drum raised on a square or polygonal base and flanked either side by a stone wall. One design (SM Adam volume 19/78a) includes the inscription ‘This was the one most approved of’ dated February 1777. This aligns most closely with what was executed though it is clear from early views of the monument (such as Aeneas Macpherson’s 1789 etching in Edina Delineata and the various views of Edinburgh by Joseph Farrington and Alexander Nasmyth) that parts of the design were omitted in execution. These include a plain moulded surround which was built in place of the Tuscan pilasters and pediment proposed to frame the entrance to the mausoleum, a simple and plain voussoired niche was added instead of the proposed arched niche which included an elegant urn, and the proposed sphinxes on the flanking walls were not carried out either.

An oversized urn was placed in the niche in 1817 by Hume’s nephew, with an inscription dedicated to his wife, Jane Alder. Other later additions to the exterior include a metal cross, which was later removed, atop a small decorative plinth located above the niche, with the date ‘1841’ inscribed below which might relate to the death of his nephew in 1838. There is also a later inscription of ‘erected in memory of him in 1778’ above the doorway.

Bolton has also attributed a design for an inscription panel to this scheme (SM Adam volume 21/192) but this is not thought to be related and has not been included within this catalogue.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, p. 11; J. Fleming, Robert Adam and his circle: in Edinburgh and Rome, 1962, pp. 101-2; I. G. Brown, ‘David Hume’s Tomb: a Roman mausoleum by Robert Adam’ in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 121 (1991), pp. 391-422; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 359; King, Volume 2, 2001, p. 265; J. Robertson, ‘David Hume 1771-1776’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online, 2009 [accessed 6 October 2022]; I. G. Brown, 'Musings on the Hume Mausoleum', Argument Amongst Friends: Twenty Five Years of Sceptical Enquiry, 2010, pp. 97-101; University of Edinburgh: IASH, David Hume and slavery, online, July 17 2020 [accessed 27 March 2023]

Louisa Catt, 2023