the monument was to be built of Binny sandstone. This stone was popular in Edinburgh because it was easily worked and could be transported into the city by the Union Canal, but hindsight has shown it be a poor choice because of its propensity for attracting soot. Kemp took over as his own clerk of works, which gave him a regular income and the opportunity to supervise closely the building of his design. He was well liked by the craftsmen working for him, because of his humble origins and because he demanded accuracy and precision. In an early instance of his determination that the monument should be built in his own way, he rejected a proposal that wooden piles be driven into the ground to support the structure, insisting the excavation for the foundation should be carried down to the bedrock, below the surface of Princes Street. However, Kemp at first lost an argument about the height of the monument; the organising committee blamed insufficient funds for their order to build it lower than originally planned, but Kemp eventually persuaded them to keep the structure's original height and in the end even slightly higher. The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1840, the 69th anniversary of Scott's birth, the day being especially declared a public holiday. Tens of thousands of people were present at the ceremony and Kemp was prominent among those being celebrated. As work progressed over the next four years, Kemp's presence on the building site, visible daily to passers-by on Princes Street, probably contributed to his growing public popularity. With the public interest in the Scott Monument, Kemp was now admired by the moneyed and influential classes in Edinburgh, and several potentially lucrative architectural commissions came his way. In the early months of 1844 the monument was nearing completion. It was reported that as each step of the building was completed “the public eye detected some new beauty, and waited impatiently for the completion”. As the monument became a startlingly dramatic presence on Princes Street Kemp was being increasingly fêted. Death During the evening of Wednesday 6 March 1844, while walking on his way home from a meeting with his builder, Kemp drowned in the Union Canal. His body was found the following Monday. The circumstances of Kemp's death have not been explained. Suicide was discounted. Other theories such as drunkenness, an attack by robbers or