Old Calton Burial Ground is presented as both a place of public remembrance and a setting marked by unexplained comings and goings. Its famous graves and statue draw visitors, but John Rebus’s unease at its gates gives the cemetery a more ambiguous presence in the narrative.

Setting and Memorials

Rebus recalls bringing his daughter to see the graves of David Hume, publisher Constable, and painter David Allan, as well as a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The cemetery is therefore introduced through recognizable monuments and a family visit: a place where history is made visible through graves and public sculpture.

Unexplained Departures

That remembered visit also frames a less easily explained pattern. Rebus’s daughter had asked about men who walked briskly out of the cemetery with their heads bowed. Rebus remembers one older man and two teenagers, and acknowledges that he had wondered about them, though not deeply. Their hurried exits remain unexplained; the detail sets the cemetery’s familiar memorial landscape against a quiet suggestion of activity that attracts attention but does not yet yield an answer.

Rebus at the Gates

On this later visit, a young man indicates the cemetery as a place where a drink can be found. Rebus looks toward its wall and metal gates but cannot bring himself to go inside. He rejects fear as the explanation, yet cannot name what holds him back; feeling dizzy and unsteady, he returns to his car. The hesitation makes the threshold significant: the cemetery is close enough to invite entry, but Rebus turns away, leaving his reaction unresolved.