Reader's & writers paradise

Edinburgh

 Edinburgh is named after the 1st Scottish King who lived there who was Edwin. It was originally Edwin's Burgh. It's the capital City of Scotland though there are lots of arguments as to whether it should be as capital cities are normally the most central city which would mean Perth or Aberdeen deserved the title or the largest city of a country which would mean Glasgow should be the capital city of Scotland. It has 2 nick-names "Auld Reekie" because at 1 time it was a slum town & stunk & "the Athens of the North" because later on the new town was built & some of the buildings in the new town were inspired by ancient Greek buildings. Most of the rest of the new town was designed by Robert Adam who was part of the Adam family of architects. The old town centres around the Royal mile which stretches from the castle at the top of the hill to the palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom. Holyrood means Holycross. The castle was built on an extinct volcano. The castle cost £7.50 to go in when I went but it was well worth it because it was fascinating & I got to see the Scottish crown jewels. In the palace of Holyroodhouse it is said that Mary Queen of Scots hired David Rizzio to stab her husband, Henry, Lord Darnley to death.

 At the front of 1 of the Kirks (churches) you will see a watch-tower. This was built so friends & families of newly buried corpses could watch over their bodies as dissection of human bodies for medical education purposes had just been allowed & Edinburgh being a University city had people who dug up bodies to sell them to University students. There are 2 famous body-snatchers who are particularly notorious. They are Burke & Hare. Why they're particularly notorious is because they got greedy & couldn't wait for bodies to be buried to supply the demand for them to do this so they killed people for their bodies to sell to medical students.

 John Knox brought Protestantism into Scotland. As part of this the covenant was signed in Greyfriar's Kirkyaird (Churchyard). This stated that all churches had to preach the Protestant religion. The details get too gory so I won't carry on. There is however another true story which Greyfriar's Kirkyaird features in & that's the story of Greyfriar's Bobby. It was written down by Eleanor Atkinson & made into a couple of films. I prefer the Disney 1 even at my age but here's the story. An old shepherd called Auld Jock worked for a farmer at Cauldbrae farm. He was laid off because he was ill & couldn't do as much as he used to. The farm had a Skye terrier called Bobby who was kept for the farmer's daughter Elsie. Bobby took more to Auld Jock though. 1 day Auld Jock went to Edinburgh alone on his normal market day & was going to make a new life for himself. Bobby escaped from the farm & found Auld Jock in all Auld Jock's usual haunts including Mr. Traill's dining-rooms where he normally went for his dinner on market-day (which are now a solicitor's). Mr. Traill realised Auld Jock was very ill & tried to get him to go to a Dr. but he wouldn't. He found lodging in a lodging-house off the Cow-market. He died that night. The Land-lady found out when she tried to get him out to let his room & the police found enough money for a burial. Bobby slept on his grave every night although it wasn't permitted & went to Mr. Traill's Dining-room's for his dinner. After Mr. Traill found out Auld Jock was dead, he got the farmer to come back to get his dog but Bobby kept running back. He wanted to keep him but Bobby kept running back. 1 day a policeman caught Bobby at Mr. Traill's without a collar. It was a crime to keep a dog without a license. The policeman got a summons for Mr. Traill to go to court with Bobby to get a license or put Bobby to sleep. A lot of poor children heard about this & scraped together to pay for the license as they used to play with Bobby. They burst into court with this money for the license. The Laird-provost (Lord Mayor) himself was in charge & he gave Bobby a collar & the key to the city of Edinburgh otherwise known as having the freedom of the city so he could go where he wanted & all the children were responsible for him. There is a statue on the Royal Mile of Greyfriar's Bobby.

 Edinburgh is especially good at tattoo & festival time which is in August. During festival time there are people acting, singing, dancing, telling jokes & doing magic in the town. Edinburgh Tattoo is fantastic to watch live. I've been twice. They don't show everyone singing the national anthem, old Scottish unofficial national anthem, new Scottish unofficial national anthem & Auld Lang Syne on T.V. I'd definitely recommend it.


https://youtu.be/kJTuRfAo2eU

Happy St. Andrews Day!

More content will soon be coming your way.

You're welcome. The fireworks tradition doesn't but the lighting a bonfire & making a Guy, asking for a penny for him & burning him dates from the year after I think. I know the gunpowder plot was discovered on 5/11/1605 anyway.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_robinson_01.shtml
https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/gunpowder-plot
https://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/gunpowder-plot/
Gosh! I remember learning about this at school. It's amazing when we re-read stuff to think about everything we used to know but forgot & sometimes how the smallest thing will remind us of the little things we used to know.

Happy Bonfire Night!

Stay safe. Remember firework safety if you're letting them off.

On 5 November 1605, Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes & 11 other people were caught in the act of trying to blow up the houses of Parliament with the King in it.

Since then people have had bonfires on the night of 5th November & we let off fireworks, make guys, go round asking for a penny for the guy which goes on the bonfire, we have jacket potatoes with cheese, pie & peas, bonfire toffee, toffee apples & parkin. Some people have bangers & mash too.

There was a rhyme we all learnt when I was at school. "Remember, Remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason & plot."

Quote from: Horsa on October 31, 2018, 08:53:27 am

This is a story I wrote for Halloween but it's only a 1st draft. I haven't proof-read or edited it yet.

In a dark, dark galaxy far away lived some aliens who were very intelligent & psychic & azure. They didn't speak to each other because they didn't need to as they always communicated using E.S.P. Their planet was all made up of different shades of red. Everything on their planet was red except the people & their cheese which was green. Their moon was green. They were always looking up at the sky to the nearest planet to them. This planet was blue & green & was made up of all different inhabitants. This planet had woods & seas. On this planet were countries. 1 of these countries had a dragon living at both ends in caves. At 1 end of this country was a red dragon who was wicked & breathed fire. Near his cave lived a wicked witch who had a big, black cat. She was married to an ogre. At the other end of the country was a green dragon who wasn't wicked but he didn't realise he breathed fire & was very upset when he hurt people by breathing on them & burning them. Near his cave lived a good witch who tried to help people. She was married to & lived with a wizard. They used to heal the people the dragon burnt & make him feel better about himself. In the middle there lived lots of normal people, ghosts who were nocturnal & huge, green monsters as well as gorgons like Medusa but with all different species of snakes. These were worse than Medusa as some of them could squeeze you to death like a python, hypnotise you & spit venom on you so you'd die, spit venom in your eye like a cobra & bite you. They were all venomous. There were also mines in this country. Down mines there lived a devil who terrorised people too. This country was always at war because the good witch could never get on with the bad witch.

Ouch! That story is really scary. I like everything in it, especially gorgons with hair like snakes.
BTW, I'm proud to be one of the very intelligent & psychic aliens, be cause I also communicate using ESP (English for Specific Purpose), although here down under it's called ESL (English as a Second Language). Well, not anymore, but I used to when I learned it at uni. And I learnt it very seriously, because virtually all literature related to my job was in English (translations to my mother tongue were poor and far in between), so I had no choice but to learn my ESP.
Yeah, that changed somewhat now as I grew up & English became my main language. But I still remember those ESP times, when I felt almost like a kid, scared of everything.

I'm glad you like my story.

Haha! Where I come from E.S.P. stands for extra sensory perception.