DATE: Monday 14 August, 1995
PLACE: Derculich Farm, Strathtay
WEATHER: Overcast
REMARKS: A long drive back to Edinburgh takes us over the
Forth Road Bridge. Edinburgh is in the grip of its annual
Festival, and crawling with visitors. We eventually find a
park at the foot of the Castle hill and walk up. Preparations
are underway for the Tattoo, with extra seating up by the
entrance.
The Castle too is full of visitors. As with the Tower of
London, this one impresses with its 'city within a city' feel
and complex of buildings. Also the accretion of buildings
heightens the sense of its age. Here one can see the castle
'growing' organically from the rock - a strange impression.
The Crown Jewels are unimpressive after those of England,
but the Grand Hall with its wood paneling and array of weaponry
is starkly impressive. The Castle, with 2 Regimental Museums,
has a militaristic feel quite different from Italy and France
- here the role of the soldier is a more commonplace, even
mundane, one vis a vis the grandeur and heroicism of the art
in French and Italian Palaces.
Edinburgh itself, on a cloudy and windy day, is a dark uninviting
place. Imposing stone buildings appear dark and forbidding.
Perhaps more time would increase its appeal?
We go south to New Lanark. A series of cotton mills built
in a river valley, this has preserved a successful experiment
in proto-socialism run by Robert Owen. Truly 19th century
views of improving the lot of the worker - medical care, schooling,
limits on hours and age of work. But an unmistakable feel
of bourgeois intellectual paternalism.
Impressive for its time but most definitely a product of
its time.
A long drive home, and we find an open supermarket by accident,
to a late dinner.
The onset of a cold has been building all day.
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