First Full Day

 

Today was earmarked as a day of rest - both to overcome jetlag, to rest up after lengthy flights, and also to refresh my soul after the stress of planning pandemic travel.  I began my day by going to what I consider the most restful place in Edinburgh, the Water of Leith Walkway.  I love to sit here and watch the water.  The next four pictures are along this walkway:

The picture above is of the Dean Bridge above the Water of Leith.  It is gorgeous, but I can never get a decent picture of it because it is so large, and there are so many trees; also the water is quite far below where I am standing.  I guess it's one of those things you just have to experience.  On the way home I took Circus Lane, which I think is particularly beautiful.  I'm living approximately one or two blocks from here:

I returned home by noon since Toby had found an event at Lauriston Castle -- "Spirits of the Dead: The Terror of Edgar Allan Poe."  If you know me, you know I love Poe, and though Toby and I are just now getting to know each other, he must have just intuited it.  He and I are very similar as it turns out.  We headed out to Lauriston, but this seems to be yet another event canceled by COVID.  Time at Lauriston Castle is certainly not lost, however, as I'm here in large part to study mathematician John Napier, and Lauriston Castle (back when it was a tower house) belonged to his brother Alexander.  Toby is an expert on the history and architecture of Lauriston Castle, so it was quite educational.

Oh, and I have to post this engraving from an outer wall on this castle.  It looks like the astrological work (horoscopes) I studied last spring in Dee's copy of Cardano's work on the subject.  I'm putting it here so I remember I have it and can come back to it!

Toby: my guide, my host, and now my friend.  He is a truly brilliant man, and I hope to learn as much as I can from him in my time here.

Lauriston Castle has been renovated and expanded many times over the centuries.  What Archibald Napier would have lived in would have been the part of the castle that was a tower house (somewhat similar to Merchiston Tower).  Below is my best effort at capturing just that part, but even here the architecture has changed.  Do you notice anything "odd" about it?

I would never have noticed it, but between the two largest windows is what remains of an old arch, which was probably where the main entrance was.  As fortified tower houses the entrance was on the first floor (what we in America call the second floor), and a removable wooden staircase led up to that door.  This was, and still is, the case at Merchiston.

After Lauriston, Toby took me to Cramond to show me a tower house from Napier's time that hasn't had so much renovation.

While in Cramond, we also saw the ruins of a barracks from Roman times (about 100 AD).

While in Cramond we also went to Cramond "Brig" (Scottish for "bridge").  It is a very old bridge and would have been here in some form in Napier's time.  You would have to go very far up the river to find another bridge, though there was a ferry further down.  This just has me thinking a bit about what travel was like centuries ago, and Toby and I have talked quite a lot about how traveling by water was much preferable to traveling by land - easier and faster - particularly if heavy loads were involved.

The repairs to the bridge were noted in the stone when they were done.  In the central stone below you can make out the "Anno D" of Anno Domini but not the year.

This was my first day here after lengthy travels, but we/I just kept going and going.  After we got back to the flat from Lauriston and Cramond, Toby asked if I wanted to see Queen Street Gardens.  I knew they were relatively nearby, having walked past them on a previous trip.  They are private gardens that you need a key to get into, so I'd only ever looked in from the outside, and you can't see much because of the hedges and the trees planted right up to the fence.  We got to the corner where the gardens were, and Toby pulled a key out of his pocket!  WHAT?!?!?!  I got to go into the secret garden!

The picture above is of a pond and island in the midst of the garden.  This island may be where the idea for the book Treasure Island formed in the head of Robert Louis Stevenson who lived near here in childhood.

I was beyond dead on my feet by this time, but Toby, who already knew I liked visiting cemeteries since it had already come up in conversation, asked if I'd like to see Warriston Cemetery.  Well, I wasn't about to say "no," so off we went.  I've been to a lot of cemeteries and kirkyards in Edinburgh, but I'd never even heard of this one.  It is the biggest I've been in here, and very atmospheric.  It was built at the same time as Highgate in London (Victorian).

I have only recently learned that the rooster is a meaningful symbol in Christian iconography, and here I found one on a grave with "Gloria Patri" written beneath it.

It's uncanny how much Toby and I have in common.  If it weren't for a 7-year age difference I'd think we were identical twins.  Along with so much else, we both love wandering through cemeteries, and we both love poetry, so we wandered through this cemetery spontaneously reciting Byron as we walked!

Now that it's "tomorrow," I'm off to bed!