Some Friends of Bobby

The Eating House (now The Temperance Eating House) was a place that John Gray and Bobby used to visit.

At this time colour Sergeant Scott, serving in the Royal Engineers Survey Company and Royal Artillery was on special duties which involved priming the 1 o’clock time gun.

He lived at 28 Candlemaker Row overlooking the Greyfriars Kirk Yard and used to see Bobby running after the cats . He befriended Bobby and encourage him to recognised that the boom of the One o’clock Time Gun, was a call for dinner.

William Dow a cabinet maker at George Heriot’s Hospital (now a School) frequently used the path through the Kirkyard to the eating house. His daughter, writing in The Scotsman newspaper in 1953, said that she had stroked and held Bobby in her arms many times and that she went to the Eating House with her father where Bobby would have his dinner.

Robert Richie and his daughter used to see Bobby chasing the cats in the Kirkyard, also James Anderson, an Upholsterer, both lived in Candlemaker Row overlooking the Kirkyard, both tried to encourage Bobby, during the harsh weather, to come inside but to no avail.

This area in Candlemaker Row is now occupied by Bobby’s Bar. Previous occupiers of the Eating House, where Bobby had a good meal, were in 1857 -1858 Wm. Ramsey: 1858 -1859 Mrs Ramsey: 1859 - 1861 Wm. Pattison: 1861 - 1862 James Currie.

From May 1862 John Traill, the new owner, gave Bobby his dinner, until Bobby’s death on 14th January 1872. According to records Bobby died in John Traill’s home and friends got together and buried him in the triangular flower bed beneath the tree in front of the old Greyfriars Kirk, on unconsecreated ground. They marked the spot with a stone but it was later removed.