Monday, March 31, 2008

Edinburgh--Renaissance Queen

--March, 2008: Edinburgh, Scotland





Edinburgh is barely an hour by train out of Glasgow’s Queen Street station, across a brief expanse of green and rolling countryside. But you couldn’t ask for a more dramatically different historical rival, or a fairer sister city.

Glasgow’s history has been one of struggle, from self-determination under royal charter to coming to terms with its own religious and industrial barons. But Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, has seemed freer, somehow, to devote its energies to common advantage for quite some time. The recurring themes in records of its earlier days, its formative years as a Renaissance town, show a concern for the security of ships and goods, amity with foreign nations, festivals, and orderly government—indeed, going so far as to levy a fine of fourpence for wine against those city fathers who failed to show up at scheduled town hall meetings. In short, a town at peace with itself, and closely focused on “the commoun proffitt of the burgh”.


As the train pulls in, there’s none of the industrial clutter or the unsightly railroad switchyards you might expect at central station. Right from the start, its spires and turrets dominate the skyline of a queenly city whose real estate values are among the highest in the realm. If you’ve got to love Glasgow for its spirit and its character, you’ve just got to love Edinburgh for her sheer beauty—unless, of course, you prefer Danish modern.



Interest in ‘the common profit’ may have carried local real estate to a point of diminishing returns. No one seems to know what’s in many of the lovely old edifices. “Dunno,” a common response. “Offices? In some, maybe. But they’re askin’ so much rent, they’re lyin’ empty.”


Still, there are parts of the towering past, besides the Bank of Scotland, that are proudly known to all. The “dragon spine” of the old town is a stretch of joined streets and lanes called the Royal Mile. Following the path of an ancient glacier, it runs eastward down the hill from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The castle was a hilltop fort in Roman times and, as the locals tell it, has never fallen to an enemy. The palace, Queen Elizabeth’s official Scottish residence, has known murder and sundry intrigues surrounding beloved Mary Queen of Scots. And the “dragon”? It’s the volcano that was once beneath it all.
The Royal Mile itself is a concentration of history the likes of which would enthrall many Americans, and tire many a Scot (albeit proudly). Don’t try to roll through it on wheels. Tour guides gasp for air as they keep up with the neck-wrenching pace. It may work best to meet this history half-way, and let the rest of it come to you.


We had asked, at the Hebrides Bar, about the occasional ghostly presence in Mary King’s Close. Not far to go, they said, to journey back to the 1600s. But we followed the wrong lanes, and took the long way around…

Past the Georgian mansions of yesterday’s rich merchants, now shops and rooms on the square…





Across Princes Street Gardens, now the dried up floor of what was once the Nor'Loch--a small lake that helped make the great Castle unapproachable...
Beneath the graveyard watch—a towering spire meant to stem the tide of bodysnatching for medical experiments in the 19th century…


Past the new Scottish Parliament building, completed by the widow of the Spanish architect who began it, in honor of Scotland's new autonomy...


In the shadow of Arthur’s Seat (from Scots Gaelic Ard na Saigheid: ‘height of the arrows), a volcanic plug rising 800 feet over the center of town—a mountain of steep crags, moorlands, and ruins, where sunrise observers gather on Midsummer’s and Midwinter’s Day...

Finally we found the lanes and passageways that led into the old town, where the world’s first tenements were built, expanding upward where the city walls prevented outward expansion. We said the word carefully—‘tenement’—and remembered the wise philosopher (was it Churchill? Samuel Pepys? The Bonnie Prince?) who once referred to America and Britain as ‘two nations separated by a common language’:

>Oxford English Dictionary:
tenement house, a house containing several apartments (period.)

>Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language
tenement house, a building divided into apartments, now specif. one in the slums that is run-down, overcrowded, etc.

For all the difference in concept, their ‘skyscraping’ potential certainly impressed Benjamin Franklin on his visit to Edinburgh. He may well have been the one to carry word to early New Yorkers regarding what they might do about limited space on that purloined island of theirs.


We climbed, wending our way, until we finally came upon a curiously attired figure. She stood with her back to us, motionless and alone in the ‘Street of Sorrows’. She heard us panting behind her, turned and invited us to stay; no need to push on, she said. Then she brought her finger to her lips in a gesture of silence, and continued to stare off in the direction of the Castle.

Suddenly the General and his Lady made their entrance onto the square followed by an entourage of nobles, witches, ghosts and murderers. The play was clearly the thing; and its plot unraveled before us as a vivid part of one of the world’s largest art festivals. The Edinburgh International Festival, now in its 62nd year, surrounded us with dance, drama, film, and wee sprites, in a colorful and welcoming Renaissance environment.






They seemed to know just what we needed, as (artists and wee sprites often do). They led us on through the crowds, sensing our roots, our world-weariness, our tired and flattened feet. Presently we heard familiar rhythms, taking us back…








...and with Liza Minelli smiling down on our Native crafts,

and First-Nation artists playing lonely tunes under Federal architecture...

how far away could home possibly be?


© Copyright 2008 by Cary Kamarat . All rights reserved.
How about you—don’t you sometimes find home in the strangest places? Please share your travel experiences and impressions by clicking on the word ‘comments' below. WATCH FOR NEW POSTINGS AT THE END OF EACH MONTH.