Category Archive

So after a hearty Scottish breakfast we  drove back the way we came yesterday and visited Culzean Castle, home of the Marquesses of Ailsa (if that’s the plural of Marquis), a stately-home-type-castle set in wonderful grounds on the Ayrshire coast. And for quite a bit of our visit we had lovely winter sunshine as I had hoped, though to be truthful it was the first day this autumn that I actually felt cold and my sheepskin gloves were produced.

The castle is well worth visiting; I hadn’t been there since a school outing back in the 1970s and was surprised by how much I had remembered and how interesting it all was. Eisenhower was given an apartment here to mark his commanding Scottish troops during D-Day and there’s an exhibition on his life with some fascinating memorabilia. The decoration by Robert Adam was stunning; I particularly loved the blue drawing room. And the grounds are fantastic, sheltered and warmed by the Gulf Stream so there are palm trees growing quite happily and a couple of seasons ago they even had a banana crop.

And there are some really good shops, including an excellent second-hand book shop and a wonderful toy shop where I gave in to my inner toddler and bought myself a large puppet dragon, christened Thorin. He may make an appearance here once I’ve decided where to keep him when I get back home.

A good day; now just thinking about what wine to have with dinner…..

Hey, it’s a tough job  but someone’s got to do it!

Well, actually we have mostly been driving in the rain since we left home yesterday morning (Monday) and it’s now Tuesday evening, but are we disheartened? No, because no-one in their right mind ever comes to Scotland in October for the weather, and as long as you have the right (but not necessarily trendy or flattering) clothing you can cope with anything.

Anyway, after an overnight stay in Northumberland we are now settled into our fabulous hotel in Ayrshire, all this via a drive along the Tweed valley. We had a comfort stop in Kelso where I took the only picture I’ve been able get today during the 10 minutes it wasn’t raining, so here’s what’s left of Kelso Abbey.

To be fair, the sun did come out a little bit late this afternoon, and I’m hoping all will be well tomorrow.

This is Lacock Abbey, which the Book God and I visited at the end of May when on an outing to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The reason I mention it here are the two literary connections which we spotted. One is that the cloisters were used in at least one of the Harry Potter films (it’s difficult to miss this as they understandably make a big thing of it and it certainly excited the children that were there at the same time as us).

The other is a little more interesting. The Abbey is also home to the a museum dedicated to the work of William Henry Fox Talbot, who was a pioneer of early photography. In the museum, as well as the standard exhibits, they had a special exhibition on the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, specifically the photographs she took as an illustration of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, which I have started to read as part of Becky’s Arthurian challenge. It was a lovely coincidence and the photographs themselves were otherworldly and beautiful.

I decided that to celebrate my birthday I wanted to go on an outing, so the Book God and I headed off to the Dulwich Picture Galleryto see the Age of Enchantment exhibition. I love illustrated books, and it was wonderful to see many of the original pieces for various fairy-tales produced by Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham and others. The biggest thrill for me, though, was the selection of drawings by Aubrey Beardsley. When I was a student in the late 1970s, early 1980s it was common to see posters of the work he did for Oscar Wilde’s Salome on bedsit walls, and I’m sure I have set of postcards somewhere. Anyhow, I can really recommend the exhibition if you are at all interested in the illustrator’s art. I believe it is open until 17th February, but if you can’t make it in person then the catalogue is worth buying – I must admit that I succumbed!

One of our most enjoyable trips during the holiday was our visit to the home of Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford. The Book God has often driven us past the sign giving directions to the house, and during every holiday in the Borders I have meant to visit but never quite made it. This year, though, I was determined, and very glad that we went. The house itself is lovely, and it was easy to imagine Sir Walter living there. It was one of the great loves of his life, and he died there looking out over the River Tweed; the house is well worth a visit, both to see the building and it’s lovely setting. We had an enjoyable chat with the one of the staff in the shop, where I got a hold of a couple of books, The Heart of Midlothian and Sir Walter’s Journal. It seems that apart from Ivanhoe and one or two others, no-one really reads Scott anymore, which I think is a shame. Mind you, I remember in my last year at school wanting to pursue my interest in Scott and being given a small pile of books with the warning not to start with Old Mortality, which of course being 16 I duly ignored and was completely put off, so that may explain things. A few days later we drove to Dryburgh Abbey where Scott is buried. I find the man fascinating, and although much of his work is now unfashionable, he was in a large part responsible for the invention (if you can call it that) of the historical novel. He was also responsible for a lot of the tartanry associated with Scotland, but I’m happy to forgive him for that. He is going to be one of my reading projects for 2008.

It was my birthday at the end of last month so the Book God and I headed to Glasgow for the first visit in a number of years. We had a great time, and bought some more books to add to the presents the BG had kindly bought me before we left.

I didn’t get much reading done while we were there but the trip was relaxing nonetheless, though I’m now forbidden from starting any sentence with “I remember when this used to be…..”