Adam Smith Statue set to be unveiled

A statue of a famous Scot is to be unveiled outside St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh this Friday, 4 July. Adam Smith's influence is such that he is still revered, in many quarters, more than 200 years after his death in 1790. Vernon Smith, a Noble Laureate economist, will have the honour of unveiling the statue.

Smith is best known as the author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776, while he was living in London. In the work, Smith argued against prohibitive trade practices sometimes referred to as mercantilism and for free trade. Smith returned to his homeland and died in Edinburgh. His reputation has grown posthumously. The statue that will be unveiled has been funded by private donations organised by the economic institute that bears his name.

Smith also penned The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which was published in 1759.

Visitors to Edinburgh can hear more about the forward thinking political economist and philosopher on the Royal Mile & More, audio downloadable walking tour. Smith is buried in Cannongate Kirkyard on the Royal Mile. To hear an audio sample from the Royal Mile & More, Edinburgh city guide, please click here

The later years of Smith's life coincided with a time when Edinburgh was a hub of creative activity and also at the forefront of major developments in town planning. Three years prior to the publication of The Wealth of Nations, a Scottish poet famed for writing in rich colloquial verse, Robert Fergusson, wrote Auld Reekie. In the poem he described the lingering smoke over Edinburgh which could be seen from Fife. Edinburgh was famously overcrowded with rich and poor alike crammed together in unsanitary conditions. After much deliberations, a plan by a young architect, James Craig, to construct a New Town to the North of Nor' Loch was adopted in 1767.

Independent travellers in Edinburgh can take a journey through time from the Old Town to the New Town with the Old & New Towns mp3 guided tour. The names of the streets (for example, George Street named after King George III and Hanover Street named after the House of Hanover) in the New Town reflected Edinburgh's allegiance to the Crown and the city's position as the capital of North Britain.

The grand neo-classical buildings of the New Town helped earn the city the nickname of 'Athens of the North' in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. David Hume, author of A Treatise of Human Nature, lived near the fashionable St Andrew Square. The Scottish philosopher and historian died in 1776.

Unlike on a conventional guided tour with a Walk Talk Tour, Edinburgh audio walking tour, you're in charge. No need to struggle to follow - let alone hear - the man with the umbrella, or feel too overtly like a tourist with a guidebook in your hands. Each Walk Talk Tour podcast guided tour comes complete with a downloadable map - for you to print off - so you won't miss a thing. Make the most of your Walk Talk Tour in Edinburgh by consulting our Where & When pages which provide information about the opening times of major attractions on each of the tour's routes.