Private university in Edinburgh, Scotland.
It was founded as a college under Presbyterian auspices in 1583 and achieved university status 0441; 1621 after a divinity school was added. Schools of medicine and law were added in the early 18th century, and faculties of music, science, arts, social sciences, and veterinary medicine were subsequently established. The university has produced a long line of eminent cultural figures, including Sir Walter Scott , John Stuart Mill , Thomas Carlyle , Charles Darwin , David Hume , Robert Louis Stevenson , and Alexander Graham Bell .