LOCAL HISTORY
CRAIGLOCKHART ESTATE - THE LAST PRIVATE OWNERS It’s a relatively well-known fact that the body of notorious 18th century bodysnatcher William Burke was dissected at Edinburgh Medical College, in an ironic post-mortem punishment. It’s less well-known that the surgeon who carried out the dissection was a Dr Alexander Munro, the last private owner of the Craiglockhart Estate. He was reputed to have penned a letter in blood taken from Burke’s brain. If this makes him sound a grimly fascinating character, the reality apparently was quite different. As a lecturer of anatomy at Edinburgh University, his lectures were so boring that they often degenerated into riots. Charles Darwin as a youth spent two years at Edinburgh University and described Monro’s lectures ‘as dull as he was himself.’ His disgust was partially due to Monro’s appearance as ‘dishevelled, scruffy and even dirty ... arriving at lectures still bloody from the dissecting room’. The last of three generations of the famous Monro family of pioneering physicians, Monro Tertius, as he was known, died at Craiglockhart in 1859 and the estate passed into public ownership soon afterwards. Their story starts with Alexander Monro, primus (1697-1767) who lived in Covenant Close in the High Street of Edinburgh. He was one of the most famous anatomists in the English-speaking world whose brilliant teaching, research and publications attracted students world-wide. His father, John Monro (1670-1740), a military surgeon, had co-founded the Edinburgh Medical School. Alexander studied in the Universities of Edinburgh, London, Paris and Leiden, achieved membership of the Royal College of Physicians and the Incorporation of Surgeons, and was elected Professor of 8 | BALERNO
Anatomy on 29th January 1720 aged only twenty-three. The following year, along with other physicians and surgeons of the newly-founded Medical Society, he raised funds for the establishment of a hospital for the treatment and care of the poor. They rented premises at the head of Robertson’s Close and opened a small establishment. Monro petitioned the Lord Provost for a new hospital, which was soon opened nearby in what would become Infirmary Street – The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Its Royal Charter was granted by George II in 1736 and patients were admitted from 1741. At the age of sixty-seven and very ill, Monro primus announced his retirement. His legacy of his published works major included four voluminous books of anatomy running to several editions and fifty-three academic papers. He died in July 1767 and was buried in Greyfriars Churchyard. His son Alexander Monro secundus (1733-1817) was the one who purchased the Craiglockhart estate in 1773, partly to indulge his passion for horticulture. He planted thousands of native trees across the estate. A medical man like his father and grandfather, Munro secundus proved himself a gifted and influential teacher of anatomy. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), the famous American physician and politician, recalling his student days wrote “... in anatomy he is superior perhaps to most men in Europe. He is a gentleman of great politeness and humanity and much admired by everyone who knows him.” Monro secundus became even more distinguished than his famous
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