Coming to you from a Waterstone’s in London before we off to the Globe…
Settled in Edinburgh at the guesthouse, a little out of the center, but that was fine because the center was super-busy and expensive. This is good. This is the kind of place I’ll be staying at when (and if) I’m on my own: budget, simple, small.
First stop of the day, the really excellent, different and a little odd National Museum of Scotland.
It is indeed impressive, if challenging to understand. There’s a big chunk that’s about, you know, Scotland’s history, and it was very well done, including the religious history. I was a little surprised because my impression of Scotland and the Church of Scotland has always been Hate Catholics, aye, but the deep religious history of Scotland was dealt with very respectfully, with lots of interesting artifacts on display.
At one point, I happened upon a small group being led by a man in religious garb. I assumed he was LARPing and this was some sort of odd tour, but as I tagged along and listened, it seemed to me that the fellow really was a religious of some sort in his grey habit. He pointed out, for example, that the cross below is sometimes interpreted as a fusion of Christian and pre-Christian pagan beliefs, but another interpretation was that it represents the triumph of the Cross over paganism…
So you have the Scottish part, through which I learned a lot, gaining, most of all, an appreciation for the Scots identity and sense of nationhood. And then there are themes related to technology and culture which are certainly comprehensive and impressive, but organized, not horizontally – as if you would walk from gallery to gallery on the same floor – but vertically. Once I got the hang of that – well, I got the hang of it.
Lots and lots to see. Truly a unique museum.
We set out to find food and other things, and on the way stopped in St. Patrick’s Church, which hosts a shrine to the Venerable Margaret Sinclair, of whom I’d never heard, but who is worth hearing about:
Margaret Sinclair is a contemporary example of how each of us should pursue personal holiness. Firstly, she strove for sanctity wherever she found herself in life, whether that was the convent, the home or the factory. Secondly, her determination to do God’s will, often in the teeth of great difficulty, reminds us that saints are made, not born.
Lunch at Oink, a chain serving up roast pig:
A stop in St. Giles – a huge church, the mother church of the Church of Scotland, featuring the OG Presbyterian, John Knox. I was intrigued by the set-up, which is hard to explain, but I wondered if it was original or a contemporary arrangement with the altar in the middle near the very large and central pulpit – so I asked a docent, who first off, quickly and very justifiably corrected me – NOPE – not an “altar” – a TABLE. I slipped once more and yes, was corrected. I mean – he’s not wrong. No sacrifice is offered, so of course not an altar.
Anyway – his answer? In previous years, the table had been against the back wall (I assume close to where it was when it was a Catholic Church and there was an ALTAR there) and so the impression I got is that when they had communion in a service, they just sort of arranged things back there and brought them to the congregation when it was time.
Then up to the Edinburgh Castle. Lots to see, but mostly the view and the chapel of another Margaret – St. Margaret of Scotland.
Again, walking (quickly) through the various museums and exhibits dedicated to various branches of the Scots military, as well as the War Memorial (especially the War Memorial), I really came to a much deeper understanding of the uniqueness of the Scots identity.
Then back to the guest house for Mass (I wrote about it here) at St. Mary Star of the Sea:
A quick walk through Leith, and then dinner at an excellent pizza place with an obvious theme:
Tomorrow: SHEEP
Charlotte was Both 