THOMAS FERGUSON, BEDLAM, AND ODE TO A GOWDSPINK

                                                       DARIEN HOUSE HOSPITAL

 Darien House Edinburgh

Darien House was the headquarters of the Darien Scheme 1698. Later it became Darien House Hospital that looked after mentally ill patients. It stood in the area known as Bedlam on the corner of Teviot Place and Bristo Street (now Bristo Place). Bedlam area was situated in the triangle od Bristo Place, Teviot Place and Forrest Road with two main buildings, the poor house for children and the poor house for adults.  The building on the corner named Bedlam was knocked down in 1845 a year after the patients of the asylum were transferred to the new Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum in Morningside. The Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum was founded by Doctor Andrew Duncan in 1809 and opened in 1813 after the loss of Robert Fergusson who was known to have suffered from depression. However, after a serious head injury caused by a fall led to the famous poet being diagnosed mentally unsound, the 24 year old died of his head injury.  In 1847 a new church was built on the Bedlam area which is still present today. The Church Building was taken over by the University of Edinburgh in the 1970s and later the Theatre Company which is the oldest student run theatre company in Scotland now occupy the building. The Bedlam Theatre is named after the area where it stands today.

                                                 SITE OF DARIEN HOUSE


                                                                     

                                                      POETIC MADNESS AT BEDLAM


                                                                     

FOR MORE than two centuries, Robert Fergusson has been remembered more often for his influence on two other famous Roberts – Burns and Stevenson – than for his own remarkable literary achievements.

Yet Fergusson, whose poems are now regarded as amongst the greatest written in the Scots vernacular, has left another enduring and important legacy. His death in tragic circumstances, at the age of just 24, inspired a young Scottish doctor to campaign for a more humane approach to the care of the mentally ill and to found what is now the Royal Edinburgh Hospital

                                              ROBERT FERGUSSON--WIKI

                                                                      

                             ROBERT FERGUSSON--BURNS' FORGETTEN HERO



                                                                 

SCOTTISH POETRY LIBRARY

ODE TO THE GOWDSPINK

                                               EDINBURGH HISTORIC HOSPITALS