The Great McGonagall...

The Great McGonagall lies in Greyfriars burial ground www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk.

Sir William Topaz  McGonagall was born in Edinburgh in the 1820s but moved to Dundee, returning to his birthplace in 1895. The poet and his wife Jean lived at 5 South College Street not far from Bobby’s drinking fountain.

A life long campaigner against drink and drugs, the poet would have visited Traill’s Temperance Coffee House and the public houses in the district to sell his broadsheets.

The poet liked to travel and it’s possible he may have seen Bobby during one of his visits to Edinburgh when the terrier inhabited Greyfriars burial ground.

It’s not known if the poet immortalised Bobby on a broadsheet. If he had, the verses may have read as follows: 

Greyfriars Bobby

The Church of Greyfriars so beautiful to be seen
Stands on the opposite side of the city from
the palace of the Queen.
A little dog sat beside one of the hundreds of graves
Mourning his master who had come to the end of his days. 

The little dog belonged to a farm labourer
named Mr Gray
When he came to the city he sadly passed away
The faithful little animal like a sentry did lay
Watching his grave every night and even during the day. 

The people of the city gathered at the church gates to wait 
To see the little dog leave the graveyard by the front gate 
He went for his dinner when the time-gun fired
from the Castle on the rock
He did this this every day at exactly one o’ clock.

When the city fathers decreed that the terrier be put down
The Lord Provost regarded their proposal with a frown
His wife advised her husband to purchase Bobby a licence and collar 
Which saved the little dog from getting into any further bother.
 
When Baroness Burdett- Coutts came to visit the little dog
She found him in the burial ground lying motionless like a log
When the terrier died she set up a red granite fountain
To remind everybody in the city of his loyalty and devotion.

return to blog