ABSTRACT
Over the years, the Martyrs and Lord Braxfield have remained part of Scottish public memory to such an extent that modern historians have warned readers against seeing them as people of folklore. Edinburgh provides an exceptionally clear example of a growing interest in public monuments during the early nineteenth century. The building of the New Town provided an ideal opportunity for creating an architecture parlante, an opportunity that was used by the civic elite to such an extent that the result has been described as a monument in its own right. Hume's attention was drawn back to the Martyrs when Mackenzie sent him a copy of The Life of Thomas Muir. In the course of the twentieth century there have been attempts to revive interest in the commemoration of the Martyrs. Some of these have been associated with left-wing groups which saw the Martyrs as progenitors.
