This is a revised, updated and newly colour-illustrated companion and guide to Edinburgh's - and Scotland's - past and present. Professor Youngson matches buildings with history. First there is the city as it stands. He draws our attention to its visible splendour and curiosities, explaining how they came to be there and showing how far it was a plan, and how far an accident that Edinburgh has become one of the most visually inspiring cities in Europe. But in Edinburgh, as perhaps in no other city, the visible - however arresting - is outdone by the invisible. The character of the city, beyond appearances, is in its ghosts, who in these pages walk the streets: kings and queens, John Knox, Scott, Stevenson, Burke and Hare, assassins and their victims. The Border region complements the town, easy rolling landscapes "with sheep on the warm hillside" and the River Tweed never far away. There are great houses such as Bowhill and Floors; mighty fortresses like Hermitage, in wild remote country, and above all four Border abbeys, half destroyed by invading armies. Nowhere else, surely, are the beauties of nature and the destruction of beautiful things so poignantly combined.
"The Companion Guide to Edinburgh and the Borders" captures the charm and mystery of Edinburgh, and should be an excellent companion for those travelling through Edinburgh and the Borders, or who have an interest in the impressive architecture and history of this part of Scotland.
Preface
A high proportion of Scottish history and what for want of a better word one must call Scottish culture is concentrated in Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Borders. Each of these parts of the country, although perfectly distinct from the others, occupies a prominent place in the mainstream of Scottish history, and each exhibits a certain grey sombreness which lies beneath its more cheerful and inviting characteristics and which adds substance and serious interest to almost every scene.
Edinburgh is one of the world's remarkable cities because it contains both an old town, rebuilt on the medieval street plan after being burned by an English army in 1544, and right alongside the old town a new town, a planned concentration of eighteenth and nineteenth century classical buildings which is more extensive than anything else of its kind in Europe. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote of 'the incomparable loveliness of Edinburgh;' evidently he missed the point . Edinburgh is a city of variety; it is surprising, challenging, spectacular; it can be gloomy, mysterious. Even forbidding; above all, it is historic; but loveliness is not its forte.
The modern city encloses both the Old Town and the New Town. In total it spreads, as do all modern cities, for considerable distances, and the spread is mostly of no particualr interest. This book concentrates on the historic central areas, although there are also chapters which deal with excursions to outlying parts where there is something interesting to see.
After London, Edinburgh is the most visited city in Britain. At Festival time, in August, it is packed with action; all the convenient as well as many inconvenient places are appropriated for plays, concerts, exhibitions, happenings and every other conceivable kind of public attraction. The crowds in August are part of the fun. At other times of the year there is room for everyone, for there is much to see. But should the visitor grow tired of human company, some of the emptiest and most beautiful country in these islands is at Edinburgh's door. Space and quiet are the priceless assets of East Lothian and the Borders. These happy lands are all but untouched by modern developments. From the rocky coast of Berwickshire to the high fastnesses of Liddesdale there is very little industry, no great town, no international holiday centre to pull in the crowds and the caravans.
The whole of the south-east of Scotland is steeped in history. Scotland was an independent kingdom before the year 1000, and Edinburgh was its capital from around 1450 until 1603. It still has the air of a capital. It was Sir John Vanbrugh who said that old buildings give rise to 'lively and pleasant reflections on the persons who have inhabited them, and on the remarkable things which have been transacted in them'. True enough. But not everywhere does one find buildings where kings were born, or where some of their more prominent subjects were assassinated; or streets once trodden by persons as diverse and famous as Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Dr Johnson and Sir Walter Scott, to name only a few. In the countryside it is much the same; abbeys destroyed by invading armies, castles that withstood countless sieges but have crumbled at last, great houses still owned by families 'that the Flood could not wash away'. History is everywhere, although not all of it gives rise to 'pleasant reflections'. I have tried to indicate some of this history, but it is very complicated.
Central Edinburgh is described in chapters which are arranged so that the reader can walk through sections of town without having repeatedly to turn aside or retrace his steps in search of some item of note but inconveniently located.
East Lothian has a chapter to itself. A circular tour is outlined which could just possibly be managed - but not very well managed - in the course of a day.
For those who have enough time to see the Borders, the final chapters suppose the visitor to begin in Edinburgh, and to take any of four routes to the Tweed. Then, starting from Berwick-upon-Tweed, successive chapters take the reader on a tour to the source of the Tweed and from there back eastwards to Jedburgh. The final chapter deals with the remote hilly areas that lie close to the Border itself.
No guide book can cover everything, and like other authors of guide books I have picked and chosen. So there are omissions, some of which I regret. But I believe that there is enough here to convey the style and spirit of this part of Scotland, and of its people. For the reader who wants to know more, there are countless other books to read. Or better still, live here.
Gullane, East Lothian 1992
Preface to the Second Edition
This Edition includes new material, principally because Edinburgh has altered and expanded since 1992. New constitutional arrangements for Scotland have demanded a Parliament House and related buildings; there are new museums, a large new conference centre in the very heart of the city, and new uses have been found for several existing buildings, some of them unoccupied for several years. It seems that Edinburgh has changed more in the 1990s than in the previous thirty or forty years put together. In the countryside, change has been far less, as in the way of things. But many will say, none the worse for that.
A.Youngson, 2000
