Views in Edinburgh, c. 1857.

Thomas Vernon Begbie [1840-1915] was born at 8 St. James' Square, Edinburgh to Jane and William Begbie. His father was a lapidary as were his grandparents and Thomas served an apprentiship with his maternal grandfather in the craft. Their business was carried on in St. James' Square until 1852 when they moved a short distance to Leith Terrace and changed the name to 'William Begbie and Co., Lapidaries'. Thomas does not appear in the post office directories until 1874-5 when he lived at 7 Leith Street. He remained there until 1881 advertising from 1879 as a photographer although these negatives prove that he had been taking photographs from at least 1857. After 1881, No. 7 Leith Street was occupied consecutively until 1896 by James Murray, Alexander Milne, John Whyte and Alexander Mann, all photographers. Thomas Begbie married Sarah MacDonald [1838-1915] of Glasgow, around 1869 and by the time of the 1881 census they had five children. From 1893-1900 the family lived at 4 East St. James Street, after which Thomas and his wife appear to have lived with their sons Alexander, a lapidary and James a jeweller at 13 St. James' Square. Thomas Begbie died there on 6 March 1915, two months after his wife. Mr. Stanley Cavaye saved Thomas Begbie's glass negatives from almost certain destruction in 1950 and they remained in his attic until I approached him, having seen Begbie's original contact prints in the Edinburgh Public Library. Stanley generously allowed me to have the negatives (around 400) in my studio for almost three years and I slowly worked through them, making indentifications and printing up the best. I made archival prints from one half of each of 150 stereo pairs, the first time Begbie's photographs had been enlarged. Because of the techniques he used, his negatives were extremely contrasty, which is why few of them have any indication of sky. The prints were shown in an exhibition of Begbie's work, jointly curated by David Patterson and myself, at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in 1992 and they now form part of the City collection. We also published a book entitled 'Thomas Begbie's Edinburgh - A Mid Victorian Portrait'(Edinburgh, John Donald 1992). In a further act of generosity, Stanley presented the original glass negatives to the City of Edinburgh after the exhibition, where they remain. CONTACT: joe@tilton.freeserve.co.uk for research in Scotland