Lord Monboddo is buried in this lair in The Covenanters Prison area of the Kirkyard. Today he is not a well known figure in Scottish history, despite some notable accomplishments, yet he is still celebrated in Germany. So why is this ?
James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714 – 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar of linguistic evolution and a philosopher who was a great host at dinner parties. Regarded as a very clever eccentric in his day, he was well liked & admired by a wide circle of friends.
Monboddo thought that clothes were unnatural and undesirable for both mind and body and believed that Nudism was good for you. He “awaked every morning at four, and then for his health got up and walked in his room naked, with the window open, which he called taking an air bath.” Such behaviour marked him as a rather odd eccentric in Scotland but in Germany it earned him a reputation as a pioneer of nudism. When nudism became very fashionable in Germany Monboddo was celebrated and in 1913 a Monboddo Club was established in Berlin for the harmonious culture of body and mind.
It might be a coincidence but the heraldic shield over the door of his burial lair includes a figure of a near-naked wildman!
