The Character Statues

Peter Peebles

Found on the south facade of the Scott Monument.

Peter Peebles (from the novel 'Redgauntlet', 1824) is looking somewhat dishevelled shown in tricorn hat, waistcoat, frockcoat, trews and buckled shoes, with an air of careworn resignation

Peter Peebles is the eccentric, obsessed plaintiff in the case 'Peebles against Plainstanes', which the reluctant advocate Alan Fairford takes on. The case has dragged on for fifteen years, leaving a trail of confusion - "the Augean mass of Peter Peebles's law-matters" - and Alan's father does not think that "even you, Alan, can do it much harm - ye may get credit by it, but ye can lose none".

Peter has become the "old scarecrow of Parliament House", and cannot live without his law-case: "It is grandeur upon earth," he declares, "to hear ane's name thunnered out along the long-arched roof of the Outer House".

About the Sculptor

William Grant Stevenson (1849 to 1919)

Born in Ratho, Midlothian, William Grant Stevenson was the younger brother of David Watson Stevenson. He was educated in the parish school and later trained at Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy life class, where he gained one gold and two silver national medals.

His most important works are statues of Robert Burns in Kilmarnock, Denver and Chicago, and Sir William Wallace in Duthie Park, Aberdeen (1883).

His statues on the Scott Monument are of Caleb Balderstone, The Abbess and Peter Peebles.

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