Sir Walter Scott sits (or his statue anyway), often with a parking cone on his head, in Princes Street Gardens under the most outrageous Victorian Gothic edifice I have ever had the pleasure of casting my eye over.
I've spent most of my 42 years living in Edinburgh, and like most residents of Scotland's capital city, take a particular delight in avoiding anything remotely 'touristy'.
Having being banished from the house while lady 'muffplaster' (her Ciao member name) and daughter number 1 cleared out her bedroom, I found myself in the city centre with daughter number 2, a couple of hours to spare - we'd taken the bus up Broughton Street and subsequently exhausted the delights of the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street, followed by a trip down Cockburn Street (all of which I intend to review in the near future) and were walking along Princes Street Gardens - when my five year old asked 'can we go up there Dad?' - and for once, I couldn't provide an adequate excuse why not.
The Scott Monument boasts that it is the 'largest monument in the world dedicated to a single writer' - and at a height of 200 feet six inches, is a claim which I find hard to dispute.
In the early 21st century, it may strike one as a little odd that such a project would have been tackled, more so, were you to ask any number of people in the street 'name a famous Scotsman who has made a significant cultural contribution in the last 200 years' - Walter Scott would probably struggle to make the top ten.
He was, in fact, little short of the Elvis Presley of his generation.
Scott was born in 1771, the son of a solicitor, six of his eleven siblings died in childhood, and survived polio, which left him lame (none of this especially unusual for the cramped and unsanitary conditions of Edinburgh's old town). He was educated in the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and read Law at Edinburgh University - a thoroughly unremarkable upbringing
for someone born into the Edinburgh professional classes.
In his youth, he spent part of his formative years in the Scottish Border country and was immersed in the romantic tradition of ballads and tales of medieval heroes and heroines, the love of these stories never left him.
Scot was born at a critical time in his nation's history. The chaotic Jacobean rising of 1745 was still well recalled in folk memory, the subsequent suppression of this, and resultant oppression of anything vaguely Caledonian resulted almost in the denial of the Scottish nation as an entity - many maps from the period of simply refer to the land above the tweed river as 'North Britain'.
Scott was almost single handedly responsible for reviving the notion of Scottish nationhood - the zenith of his influence was the visit in 1822 by the Hanoverian King George IV - in which Scott was credited with organising a civic spectacle of enormous proportions, resulting in the social acceptance of tartan - the wearing of which had been banned since 1776.
Anybody who has seen a map of Scotland (frequently printed on a tea-towel!), depicting various regions ascribed to clans and feudal families, along with appropriate tartans etc has observed a construction almost entirely the product of one man's mind - Walter Scott - there is precious little evidence that such a notion ever existed before the Royal visit of 1822.
The 'traditional' highland dress, comprising of brogues, long socks, a pleated kilt, plaid over one shoulder, lace collared shirt, bonnet, sporran, etc, is also largely the product of his mind.
These are the rather superficial, if somewhat enduring signs of this man's influence, but there is far more behind the man than that.
Scott started recounting his tales of medieval chivalry in 1802 - a time when Europe was ravaged by revolution and conquest - his notion of the 'noble savage' in a time less complicated than the present struck a chord with it's readers, and he became the most widely read author of his period, both in the United Kingdom and beyond.
He was, in effect, of literally putting Scotland back on the map, and his influence can be felt to the present day, not only in the obvious sentiments expressed in modern films such as 'Braveheart' but deeper still, one can even draw parallels in such ephemera as 'The Hulk'.
He was also a director of the 'Bank of Scotland' - his likeness is still printed on BoS bank notes. (Interestingly, the Bank was responsible for advancing funds in 1745 to fund the Jacobite rebellion, an action which resulted in the foundation of the Royal Bank of Scotland by the Anglo-Scottish establishment)
He was appointed as Sheriff of Selkirkshire (that's the equivalent of a county court judge, not someone in a ten gallon hats wearing a badge in the shape of six pointed star!) And built a mansion house in Abbotsford, near Gallashiels in the Scottish Borders.
The venture took him to the edge of bankruptcy, rather than suffer the social exclusion that would ensue (it is interesting to note that the Calvinist Presbyterian Church of Scotland still retain the lines 'forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors' instead of 'forgive us our trespasses ...') Scott decided to 'work his way through' his financial embarrassment, a task which is widely attributed with causing his untimely death in 1832 at the age of 61.
Little wonder then, that the Scottish Establishment felt an enormous debt of gratitude from one of their most famous sons.
The Scott Monument was therefore considered a fitting testament to the man, the design was prepared by George Meikle Kemp in the gothic style, the foundation stone being laid on the 15th August 1844.
Kemp died before the completion in autumn 1844, at a cost of £16,154/7/6 - this would represent several millions of pounds in today's money.
To describe the building is somewhat difficult - it looks for all the world like black sandstone space rocket - rather similar in form to the Gerry Anderson 'thunderbird 3'.
At he base, is a statue by Sir John Steel depicting Walter Scott with his faithful border collie dog sitting at his feet, above is a tower which would have been worthy of any medieval cathedral - complete with gargoyles, niches, stained glass etc.
The stone, which is actually cream in colour, has long since weathered to a distinctive black colour, originated from Linlithgowshire (now incorporated with West Lothian) and consists of a square base, approximately a third if the total height, upon which are four supports, flanked by four flying buttresses.
Within the Southwest buttress, a tight spiral staircase takes you to the first level, whereupon you come to a square double height room, approximately 16 metres square, in which there are four stained glass windows.
On the walls are various displays, the walls are lined with oak panelling, all depicting the life and times of Walter Scott. Round the room are several lecterns enclosing several CD players with headphones, these are used to play recordings of Scotts work in English, French, German Italian and Spanish - one station even plays extracts from operas inspired by Scott's work.
The window to the south depicts Saint Giles, the patron saint of Edinburgh, and to whom the High Kirk of Scotland is dedicated, the figure holds a model of the church, depicting the 'crown tower' of 1500 - this directly faces the church, which can be seen half a mile to the south from the monument parapet.
The opposite window, to the north, depicts the Patron Saint of Scotland, St Andrew, resplendent with his saltire cross, this faces north, which approximates to the direction of the town of St Andrews, in which his remains were said to be interred.
The windows to the east and west depict the Scottish Royal Standard (a red Lion Rampant on a yellow background) and the arms of the Edinburgh Corporation, and the legend 'nisi Dominus, frustra' (which according to popular legend states 'even God frustrates us') - comes from the 127th psalm 'Unless the Lord is with us, our labor is vain.'
The next flight of stairs takes you to level two up one of the four supporting columns - this emerges at a second parapet, whereupon you move to a central spiral staircase, with one further parapet before commencing on the last flight of steps to the top level.
It's always a good idea to shout up the stairway before climbing or descending, as passing people on the stairway is difficult - towards the top of the last flight, the stairway narrows, I found both my shoulders touching each side of the walls!
The view from the top is little short of breathtaking - being made of stone, there is a reassuring solidity to the structure, however I found myself feeling slightly uncomfortable at the height - I wouldn't normally bother about heights, but the confinement of the stair well and small depth of parapet (it felt like about 18 inches deep) added to the feeling that I was really rather higher than was entirely prudent!
My five year old daughter absolutely loved it!
As far as the descent was concerned, it was literally downhill all the way.
Something I hadn't appreciated on the way up was the number of viewing slits in the stairway - there was nothing quite as sobering as getting the visual clues that you were a very long way up, it became uncomfortably obvious that was nothing more between yourself and a rather nasty bump on the ground a couple of hundred feet down than a few inches of rather old sandstone!
Add to this the somewhat tight spiral of the stair, and I found a degree of comfort on the landings to stop my head from spinning!
The value of this experience is almost priceless, but in purely financial terms, it costs £2.50 a head - no concessions.
Don't attempt this if you are fat, unfit, scared of heights, or are carrying shopping!
With any luck, it'll be a trip my daughter will remember for the rest of her life, and it will be another 35 years before I have to go up again!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
This would be ideal to see but being disabled...is a stumbling block
avril
fallen121 28.09.2003 21:14
For some reason I wasn't aware you could even climb the monument. Because it is invaraibly covered in scaffolding I was under the impression that it was closed. I'll certainly make a point of checking this one out next time I'm passing.
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Sep 28th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
