Week 14

Our weeks are slipping away, and we are beginning to bring closure to our wonderful semester in Scotland.  I will miss this place and these students, even as I look forward to returning home.  We all are feeling pulled in two directions.  We also are thinking and talking lots about the people of Paris and praying for their healing and for our world.

York, England

My class got invited to join the theatre class for a day-trip to York, England (about 2 hours away by train).  The central part of York is an old city surrounded by Roman walls.  We explored that and York Minster, a huge and beautiful cathedral.  Then we took a tour that focused on the mystery plays from medieval times and the modern revival and production of them.  We met the guide, Warwick, at the Museum Garden Gate, then walked together to All Saints Church (formerly Catholic, now Church of England).  That church was chosen for the tour because of its large number of medieval stained glass windows, some of which contain images of the same Biblical stories that were presented in the mystery plays.  While we were at the church, Warwick explained the plays, the guild structure and the guilds’ involvement in producing the plays, and the images in the stained glass windows.  Then we left the church and walked the route the plays used as they moved through town with their wagons/sets and the actors performed their shows 12-18 times.  These plays were started in medieval times but stopped during the Reformation.  The modern performances began in the 1950s.

York Minster--west entrance

King's Screen

York Minster--choir

One of the Minster's many beautiful stained glass windows

From York Minster Tower looking west over the nave toward the city beyond

A view of a section of the Roman wall from the Tower

Interior--All Saints Church

Detail from stained glass in All Saints, note the Middle English caption

The Shambles, a 15th century cobbled street

York covered market

Robert Louis Stevenson Week

Since Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13 in Edinburgh, the city celebrates this famous literary figure with a week of events to coincide with that date.  This year the events ranged from a play about his life and a lecture (by the RLS Club) on movie adaptations of his work to a retelling of “Kidnapped” and a tour of the anatomical museum at the university.  The session we attended was a telling of stories by and about Stevenson, and it was hosted by Ferguson McNicol and Claire McNicol.  This event at the Storytelling Centre included audience participation in a quiz on RLS and with audience members volunteering to tell stories or read poems.  In addition to those by RLS, there were also some tales of travel and adventure.  When the hosts greeted us at our table, we learned that Ferguson had lived in Minnesota for a year while working at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, where he got his start as a storyteller.  He was delighted to talk to someone who not only knows of the place but who has been there and whose children loved their week there.

The Contrast of the Week—Fort Kinnaird and Duddingston

One of my colleagues rented a car for the last two weeks he is here, so we got a chance to do a couple of afternoon outings this weekend.  Saturday we drove to Fort Kinnaird to see a movie.  The very new movie theatre is in a shopping mall not unlike those in the US.  It even has a Pizza Hut, Five Guys, and TK Maxx (that’s the UK name for TJ Maxx).  We saw The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith as the lady.  It is based on a true story in which a homeless woman parks her van in a writer’s driveway for a few months—which turns into 15 years.  It’s delightful film that made us laugh and cry and laugh again.  It’s written by Alan Bennett, who is, of course, the writer with the driveway.  I haven’t included any pictures of the Fort Kinnaird because you all know what it looks like—it could be just off the freeway anywhere in the US.

On Sunday we drove to Duddingston, a small village to the east of Aruthur’s Seat.  That means it is in the city of Edinburgh but separated from it by that volcanic dome.  Part of the village's fame is from Loch Duddingston, home to many birds and the place the reverend is ice skating in a famous portrait by Henry Raeburn.  The old church and a house where Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed are other notable sights.  We enjoyed lunch there at the Sheep Heid (pronounced “heed,” means “head”) Inn to celebrate the birthday of one of our colleagues.

Sheep Heid Inn

Looking out through the old glass window

Duddingston Kirk, 12th century

Arthur's Seat trail head