The Craigentinny Marbles is the

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

of William Henry Miller (1789–1848), a wealthy landowner and Member of Parliament for

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

, who retired to his estate at

Craigentinny Craigentinny is a suburb in the north-east of Edinburgh, Scotland, east of Restalrig and Lochend. Its name may be a corruption of the Gaelic ''Creag an t-Sionnaich'', meaning "the fox's rock". History Previously moorland, the first major hou ...

after losing his parliamentary seat in 1841. Miller was childless, so upon his death in 1848, the execution of his will fell to a distant relative, Samuel Christy. The will contained instructions to bury Miller's body in a 20-foot-deep pit above which,

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

reported, would be built a monument "in commemoration of the private virtues of the deceased, for, as a public character, he was unknown." £20,000 was allocated for construction. Although the monument would originally have been a solitary structure in a moorland half a mile east of Miller's

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

, it is now somewhat incongruously surrounded by 1930s

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

s on Craigentinny Crescent. The mausoleum itself was designed by

David Rhind David Rhind FRSE (1808 – 26 April 1883) was a prominent Scotland, Scottish architect, mainly remembered for his public buildings, banks, churches and schools, most of which are now listed buildings. Life Rhind was born at 15 Gayfield Plac ...

and completed in 1856, with two

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

sculptures by Alfred Gatley depicting part of the biblical narrative of

the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew language, Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yəṣīʾat Mīṣrayīm'': ) is the Origin myth#Founding myth, founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Torah, Pentateuch (specif ...

added later. The relief on the north face, 'The Overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea', shows the destruction of

Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...

's army during the

crossing of the Red Sea The Parting of the Red Sea or Crossing of the Red Sea (, lit. "parting of the sea of reeds") is an episode in The Exodus, a foundational story in the Hebrew Bible. It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egypt ...

. The relief on the south face, 'The Song of Moses and Miriam', depicts the Israelites singing a

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

of celebration for their escape and the destruction of the Egyptian army. The 'Pharaoh' bas-relief was finished in time to be displayed at the

1862 International Exhibition The International Exhibition of 1862, officially the London International Exhibition of Industry and Art, also known as the Great London Exposition, was a world's fair held from 1 May to 1 November 1862 in South Kensington, London, England. Th ...

in London, but the 'Song' bas-relief was completed just before Gatley's death from dysentery in 1863. The monument was designated a

Category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) *Category (V ...

in 1970.

References

Mausoleums in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh Listed monuments and memorials in Scotland Outdoor sculptures in Edinburgh {{Scotland-struct-stub