[Greyfriars Churchyard]

From the Getty Museum record

> Described in *Chambers Edinburgh Journal* of 1836 as "the Westminster Abbey of Scotland," Greyfriars Kirk dates from 1620 and was the first church to be built in the capital city after the Reformation. In 1638 the National Covenant, a declaration of the Presbyterian faith, was signed there. Its churchyard is the oldest cemetery in Edinburgh. > > In this image the panoramic backdrop of the castle is replaced with a myriad of tenement buildings in the Old Town. The almost decorative quality of the architecture conveys a sense of the medieval city, densely organized around narrow closes and wynds. (See [84.XO.734.4.4.47](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/99426/hill-adamson-greyfriars-churchyard-the-castle-1843-1847/), [84.XM.263.5](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/38273/hill-adamson-greyfriars'-churchyard-the-dennistoun-monument-with-d-o-hill-and-his-nieces-scottish-1843-1847/), [84.XO.734.4.4.40](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/99419/hill-adamson-greyfriars-churchyard-1843-1848/), [84.XO.734.4.4.44](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/99423/hill-adamson-greyfriars-churchyard-heriot's-hospital-1843-1847/) for other views of Greyfriars and Edinburgh) > > Anne M. Lyden. *Hill and Adamson*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 38. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum. For more information about the places Hill and Adamson photographed see ["Hill and Adamson: Place"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl_MF40BGDk).