On this day in 1874

Sir George Gilbert Scott designed many of Britain’s great buildings, including the Albert Memorial in London, St Pancras railway station and Edinburgh’s Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin.

The cathedral’s foundation stone was laid by Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. The stone was hollow, and contains, among other items, a selection of coins and newspapers, a copy of the Trust Deed and the Edinburgh Post Office Directory.

Stone laying ceremony

“After the singing of a hymn, which had been specially composed for the occasion, the line was prepared, and was partly spread by the Duke of Buccleuch with a silver trowel handed to him by the architect, Sir G Gilbert Scott,” wrote the Southern Reporter one week later, on 28 May 1874. “The Duke of Buccleuch also read the inscription on the bronze plate, which was to cover the cavity in the stone. It was as follows: ‘The foundation stone of the Cathedral Church of St Mary, to be erected in accordance with the will of Misses Barbara and Mary Walker of Coates, was laid by his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KG, on Thursday, 21st day of May, in the year of our Lord 1874. Sir George Gilbert Scott, RA, architect; Geo Wm Booth, builder.’”

It took slightly less than five years for the first part of the cathedral to be ready for use, but two of the most prominent parts, the twin spires called Mary and Barbara, were not completed until 1917. The spires were named after the sisters who donated the land on which the cathedral is built, and helped fund construction.

Edinburgh Cathedral grows

At the time the foundation stone was laid, there had been several recent additions to the plans. The previous day, the Dakleith Advertiser revealed that “an important change has been made in the accepted design since the decision of the trustees. As finally determined on the plan consists of a choir, with north and south aisles. Transepts, with east and west aisles, nave, with north and south aisles, a spire at the interception of transepts, and two western towers.”

The Cathedral was first opened on 25 January 1879 while construction was still ongoing. The Edinburgh Evening News that day reported that the first service was morning prayer, at 11.30, followed by Holy Communion. It optimistically said that “the construction of the entire building will yet occupy about a couple of years”.

 

...and on this day in 1836

Eliza Fraser was shipwrecked on a reef off the coast of Australia and, after taking to a longboat, landed on the island of K’gari. She had sailed to the southern hemisphere with her husband, Captain James Fraser, and his crew on a brig called the Stirling Castle. The pair had left their children at home in Orkney.

Although some sources say the ship was wrecked on 22 May, The Pilot or Sailors’ Magazine of November 1837 records the wreck as having occurred on 21 May 1836, and it reported in some detail Eliza Fraser’s account of what happened.

After [the crew] had been on shore some time a great number of the natives were observed, and Mr. Fraser suggested giving themselves up quietly to the natives, as they were entirely defenceless , and of course already in their power. They had scarcely time to make the suggestion when several tribes came down upon them, one of which immediately captured Captain Fraser; another tribe took Mr. Brown, and a third Mr. Baxter. The natives would not allow Mrs. Fraser to go with either of them, and left her alone upon a sandy beach; and the next morning a number of old women, with some children, came down, and they gave Mrs. Fraser to understand that she must go with them, and carry one of the children upon her shoulders, which Mrs. Fraser of necessity complied with.

She told the magazine that she had not seen her husband again for three week but that when they were finally reunited he was being forced to drag around a heavy board. They were separated again and the next time she saw him, he had been speared in the shoulder for not having made sufficient progress. He died of his wound that night. Another member of the party, Mr Brown, was then burned to death, according to Eliza’s telling, from the feet upwards, for “showing some sign of dissatisfaction at the death of his captain”.

It is difficult to know for sure what happened on the island, and there have been suggestions that Eliza Fraser may have exaggerated her stories (or possibly made them up) in the hope of making a living from them after returning to Britain. For example, it has also been said that when the party landed on K’gari, they split up and went in opposite directions, with the group that didn’t include Eliza finding assistance almost right away.

Eliza was rescued around six weeks after arriving on K’gari, and the island, which is now a World Heritage-listed site, was renamed Fraser island in 1847, despite having by then been inhabited for thousands of years. It regained its original name in 2023.

 

...and on this day in 1911

Williamina Fleming was born in Dundee in 1857 and emigrated to the United States, with her husband, aged 21. When she and her husband separated very soon after their arrival in Boston, she found work as a maid to the director of Harvard College Observatory. He later employed her at the Observatory where she classified and catalogued stars and other astronomical objects.

As part of this work, Fleming made several notable discoveries, of which the most significant were the Horsehead Nebula and the first White Dwarf.