My favorites from the Museum—the Lewis Chessmen

Sir Walter Scott July 24, 2011

Just noticed the coolest thing—a book I bought at the Old Children’s Bookshop the other day has a tiny sticker on the back with the price of “Two Shillings & Sixpence.” It is placed over a price printedon the book which is covered but I believe it say “One Shilling & Sixpence.” Amazing. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. In England, a shilling was a coin used from the reign of Henry VII until the Acts of Union ended the Kingdom of England. The term schilling or shilling was in use in Scotland from early mediaeval times.

The date of publication of the book, Young Walter Scott by E. J. Gray, is 1936, so I wonder when shillings stopped being used. Colin?

From this little book, I found out that there are Quakers in my family tree. There was a Walter Scott in the 1600s who turned Quaker and his borther, Sir William, had him shut up for it in the tolbooth in Edinburgh first, then in Jedburgh Jail, and had his children taken away from him. He then got the court to grant him 10 thousand pounds a year from his brother’s prperty in order to bring up the children out of the faith of their father. So the Quaker faith died out of the Scott family.

After reading the book, which was an excellent story of Walter Scott’s younger years, every time I cross the George IV Bridge, I imagine him trying to climb up to the bridge from Cowgate below so that he can have a better advantage in snowball fights. There is a building in Cowgate that has a sign saying “High School Grounds,” and I am sure this is where Sir Walter and his brothers went to school. Go into Greyfriars Kirk and see where he used to endure sermons with his family while trying not to get caught napping. Walk through the Meadows and imagine the “bickering” that went on—brutal fights between the George Square boys and the Potterow Boys—throwing of stones and mud and anything else handy, just because it was the thing to do.

This morning, we walked over to #5 Buccleuch Place and found where Miss Susan Scott in 1869. then I found the correct location of Sir Walter Scott’s childhood home at 25 George SQUARE. The Meadows was very near—the place where he and the other boys in the neighborhood used to have their “bickers”—fights with stones and mud. We walked from the apartment past the George Watson’s Ladies College, the labyrinth, and up to George IV Bridge, past the place where Young Walter Scott would have tried to throw snowballs from the bridge, past the India Buildings on Weswt Bow, and over to the Royal Mile.

I found Carrubber’s Close where Sir Walter Scott would meet with friends of his Club in a room every Friday evening before adjourning to a nearby oyster cellar in Covenants Close. Other famous residents have incuded the poet Allan Ramsay and James Young Simpson, who discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform while running a dispensary on this site.

Stopped at St. Giles for pictures of its Crown spire and of the emblem on the Mercat cross.

Liberton Wynd has been mostly removed to make way for the bridge and other buildings. It was called a wynd because it was wider than a close. The fronts of its mansions had been so added on to with gables and other additions that they nearly met overhead. Here is where Johnnie Dowie’s Tavern stood, one of the most famous taverns of all. Johnny Dowie was the kindest of landlords. He was so friendly and brought a smile to everyone’s face whenever he brought a bottle of his famous old Edinburgh ale to a well-known and friendly customer. The formality with which he drew the cork, the eai with which he filled the long, slender glasses, and the regularity with which he drank to the healths of all present. He alswuyas wore a cocked hat, buckels at the knees and shows and a cross-handed cane. The tavern was in a space so small and dark that even cabmen would avoid it now. Famous customers include Robert Fergusson the poet. David Martin instituted the Club here and this was the favorite resort of Robert Burns, and many people would stop by just to gaze upon him in the “coffin” of the bard—a small dark room which would barely squeeze in six people but where Burns used to sit. Here he composed some of his best songs and the table and chair where he sat were preserved for a long time. Once the clock at St. Giles tolled midnight, not another bottle would be opened. Dowie would announce, “ Gentlemen, it is past twelve, and time to go home.” This tavern would have been located under the new access to the George IV Bridge. Sir Walter Scott also frequented the tavern with friends.

We walked back over the bridge and past the library then returned to the museum to do another floor, this time seeing many grave slabs, swords, seals, candleholders, a tirling pen from the door of the mint (just looked like a chain with a large link at the bottom), a 17th century “worm” excavated from a castle (see picture—I don’t know what this was. Could it be from a distillery? Water pipe?), a tappit hen (a pewter pitcher so called because of the shape of its lid being like that of a tappit or tufted hen), and a silver and gold backgammon board from the 16th century. I love being greeted at this museum every time I go with the most beautiful lines from the Declaration of Arbroath:

…for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

My favorite thing here though is always the Lewis Chessmen. They are ten chessmen of walrus ivory from the 12th century that were found near Uig, Isle of Lewis, in 1831. Their facial expressions are priceless. I could’ve walked around all day seeing these bits of history, but Ray’s back started giving him trouble and we returned home for lunch. After lunch we took a bus out to the ASDA to do some shopping—found out that the self-catering apartment in Oban doesn’t provide towels—then back home for the day.

Notes:

Funny to pass a gentleman on the street who is talking into his cellphone and arguing with the other person about politics, saying, “Them what’s bean een pow-wuh, they has nuh seens et ahl.”

Lady getting her 2 daughters off the bus. “Come on, “gair-rulls.” (girls)
I thought a haberdashery was a hat shop—nope, it’s a craft shop. I also didn’t know that the Tron kirk is named for the Tron where they used to do the measuring with the weights for the market.

Found a plaque on Chapel Street that said Mrs. Cockburn, who wrote Flowers of the Forest, was buried near it. Alison cockburn was a Scottish poet, wit, and socialtie who collected a circle of eminent friends in the 18th century in Edinburgh, including Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and David Hume.

In 1777, she remarked of a young Walter Scott that he was “the most extraordinary genius of a boy.” She was an indefatigable letter-writer and a composer of parodies, squibs, toasts and "character sketches" , then a favourite form of composition. The "Flowers of the Forest" however is considered the only thing she wrote that possesses lasting literary merit. Sir Walter Scott's mother, and was her intimate friend. Lockhart quotes a letter written by Mrs Cockburn in 1777, describing the conduct of little Walter Scott, then scarcely six years old, during a visit which she paid to his mother, when the child gave as a reason for his liking for Mrs Cockburn that she was a "virtuoso like himself."

Pictures from top: Sir Walter Scott’s childhood home at 25 George Square from 1774-1797; George Watson’s Ladies College; emblem on Mercat cross; St. Giles crown spire; Edinburgh Library.

In and Around the Museum

From top: mid-1500s grave slab; “worm” from Carrick Castle 17th century; crown atop the Crown Office; now a Spoon Bistro but was the Buffet King where J. K. Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter at the corner table upstairs.