On a somewhat dreich day, 18 Strollers gathered at the Mound for an historic walk about Sir Walter Scott and other tit-bits of information. (Moira T caught up later which might have been earlier had the organiser been texting the correct Moira!)
The guides told us how the Nor Loch was
created as an extra defence for the Castle before eventually being drained and
turned into the gardens. The minister at St Cuthbert's was granted the only
licence to fish in the loch.
As we walked through the West gardens we saw
the Elephant of Remembrance and the rock which came as a present from Norway to
remember the aid given to them in the 2nd World War. We stopped at the statue
of the Polish army bear, Wojtek, and looked at the Scottish American Memorial
which depicts workers marching to become soldiers in World War 1.
We also admired the Ross fountain, sculpted by artist Jean-Baptiste Jules Klagmann, and brought from the
Great Exhibition of 1862 in London to Edinburgh in 1869 by Daniel Ross a local
gun maker.
As we stood looking up at the castle we heard
how Sir Walter Scott choreographed the visit of George IV in 1822 and found the
Crown Jewels hidden in the castle.
We then stopped at St Johns church to visit
the grave of Sir Walter’s mother and to see the grave of Malvina Wells which is
the only recorded grave in Edinburgh of someone who was born enslaved. She came
as a teenager from Grenada with the Macrae family, in whose plot she is buried,
though she seems to have worked in various households until her death at the
age of 84.
We then moved on to the corner at what some
of still call Binns, but which is now the Johnnie Walker Centre, to watch the
pipers on the restored clock march round playing Scotland the Brave. They also
play Caller Herrin’ and for some reason they march at 7 and 37 minutes past the
hour.
We also heard about the Sinclair fountain
which used to stand here until 1926, paid for by Catherine Sinclair, for horses
to get some water as they pulled the carts round Edinburgh. She was a writer
and philanthropist and the “Eleanor Cross” at the end of North Charlotte Street
and St Colme Street was built by public subscription to commemorate her.
On Castle Street we saw the house once owned
by Sir Walter Scott. It was from here that he was evicted when he was declared
bankrupt though he was allowed to keep the contents of his wine cellar as no
‘gentleman’ should be left without his wine! Now split into flats the basement
which had been the kitchen area was sold for over £500,000. He kept writing in
order to pay off all his debts.
We finished at the Scott Monument back in
Princes Street, designed by George Meikle Kemp, started in 1840 and completed
in 1846. The statue of Scott is in Carrara marble and took 6 years for the
sculptor John Steell to sculpt from one piece of stone weighing 30 tons.
The many smaller figures on the monument depict characters from his novels and
poems.
Our Thanks to guides Karen and Helen for all
the information on the walk and keeping us going in the rain.
