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John Gray,
a gardener, together with his wife Jess
and son John, arrived in Edinburgh around 1850.
Unable to find work as a gardener
he avoided the
workhouse by joining the Edinburgh Police Force as
a night watchman. To keep him company through
the
long winter nights John took on a partner, a
diminutive Skye Terrier, his 'watchdog' called Bobby.
Together John and
Bobby became a familiar sight,
trudging through the old cobbled streets of
Edinburgh. Through thick and thin, winter
and
summer, they were faithful friends.
The years on the streets appear to have taken their
toll on John, as
he was treated by the police surgeon
for tuberculosis. He eventually died of the disease on
the 15th of February 1858
and was buried in
Greyfriars Kirkyard. Bobby soon touched the hearts
of the local residents when he refused to leave
his
master's grave, even in the worst weather conditions.
The gardener and keeper of Greyfriars tried on many
occasions
to evict Bobby from the Kirkyard. In the
end he gave up and provided a shelter for Bobby by
placing sacking beneath
two tablestones at the side
of John Gray's grave.
Bobby's fame spread throughout Edinburgh. It is
reported
that almost on a daily basis the crowds
would gather at the entrance of the Kirkyard.,
waiting for the one o'clock gun
that would signal
the appearance of Bobby leaving the grave for his
midday meal. Bobby would follow William Dow, a
local
joiner and cabinet maker to the same coffee
house that he had frequented with his now dead
master, where he was given
a meal.
In 1867 a new by-law was passed that required all
dogs to be licensed in the city or they would be
destroyed.
Sir William Chambers (the Lord Provost of
Edinburgh) decided to pay Bobby's licence and
presented
him with a collar with a brass inscription
"Greyfriars Bobby from the Lord Provost of
Edinburgh 1867 licenced". This
can be seen
at the Museum of Edinburgh.
The kind folk of Edinburgh took good
care of Bobby,
but still he remained loyal to his master. For fourteen
years the dead man's faithful dog kept constant
watch
and guard over the grave until his own
death in 1872.
Baroness Angelia
Georgina Coutts, President of the
Ladies Committee of the RSPCA, was so deeply
moved by his story that she asked the
City Council
for permission to erect a granite fountain with a
statue of Bobby placed on top.
William
Brody sculptered the statue from life, and it
was unveiled without ceremony in November 1873,
opposite Greyfriars Kirkyard.
And it is with that, that
Scotland's capital city will always remember its
most famous and faithful dog.
Bobby's headstone reads
"Greyfriars Bobby - died 14th January
1872 - aged 16 years -
Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all".
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