Addition to the Literary Edinburgh tour notice this week-end:

A correspondent has reminded me that Adam Smith was critical of the design of David Hume’s tomb, for which David Hume had left £100 in his will for its design (by Robert Adam, the still famous architect with buildings in Edinburgh and London), and for its construction. According to Ernest C. Mossner, Hume’s biographer, Smith commented:

“I don’t like that monument. It is the greatest piece of vanity I ever saw in my firned Hume” (Mossner, 1980 (2nd ed). The Life of David Hume, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 438.

Smith’s tomb was also designed by Robert Adam.

Details from: Ross, I. 1995, The Life of Adam Smith, Clarenden Press, Oxford, p 302
(Added 22 August 2005)