By Larry and Joan Dolinski
THE ART OF UNDERSTATEMENT: In an act of union, the Scottish Parliament was dissolved in 1707 and moved to London (Westminster). Then by popular vote, it was brought back to Edinburgh in 1999. The convocation in totality was the single sentence "The Parliament is hereby reconvened." Such succinctness is so antithetical to the American approach.
The St. Giles Cathedral (High Church of Scotland) commemorated a number of very famous former citizens of Edinburgh. One stained glass window was devoted to Robert Burns, the national poet who included among his works "Auld Lang Syne." (We strolled by the house where he lived).
A large memorial plaque honored Robert Louis Stevenson, whose works include Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The last line of his self written requiem has appeared in many a eulogy. It goes as follows: "...home is the sailor, home from the sea and the hunter home from the hill."
Another stained glass window honors Walter Scott, who authored, among other works, Ivanhoe, Waverley and The Heart of Midlothian.
We also saw a plaque honoring Dr. James Young Simpson, the discoverer of Chloroform Anesthesia in 1847.
And a couple of interesting notes:
STORY OF GREYFRIER'S BOBBY: This is about the most famous and revered dog in Scottish history. As the story goes, Bobby, a Skye Terrier, belonged to the police constable, Sgt. John Grey. Every night for 14 years, following the death of Sgt. Grey, Bobby would creep into the cemetery and sleep over his master's grave. Following a tradition established when his master was alive, upon the firing of the 1:00 PM signal gun, Bobby would go to the nearest pub and the owners would feed him. When Bobby died, the public established a grave of honor for him, with a permanent monument bearing the epitaph, "Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all."
ORIGIN OF THE EXPRESSION "IT'S RAINING CATS AND DOGS": The old medieval city of Edinburgh was comprised of tall buildings (8-14 stories), separated by narrow alleys called "closes." Public laws permitted "nastiness" (i.e., garbage and human waste) to be discarded from windows into the "closes" after 10 PM each night. The protocol of that time was never to clean it up, but rather to let the rain wash it away. As one might expect, cats and dogs would creep into the "closes", feast on the "nastiness" and many of them would die. Only when the rain was sufficiently heavy would it wash away the "nastiness", INCLUDING the cats and dogs ... giving rise to the expression "raining cats and dogs."
Incidentally, all of the rain washings drained into Nor Loch, the source of drinking water. Of course, disease was rampant in those days and the septic conditions are thought to have exacerbated the great plagues of the middle ages. It is claimed that a person at that time had a 50% probability of reaching the age of 21.
"DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE": There was a man by the name of Deacon Brodie who was a respected cabinet maker by day and a house thief by night. In the course of his cabinet making activities, people would entrust him with keys to their houses, whereupon Deacon Brodie would make a copy for later illicit operations. He is the person on whom Robert Louis Stevenson modeled his Jekyll and Hyde character.
We strolled by the business address of Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Carusoe. His business was that of publishing, and served as a front for him, that he would not be expected of being a spy (We don't know how to interpret this - was he a spy?).
Another part of our stroll took us by Boswell's Court, a place where Samuel Johnson (author of the dictionary) met with his biographer, James Boswell.
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