An Edinburgh Pilgrimage II

 Of course, another major reason for returning to Scotland's capital city is to scour its second-hand bookshops. Alas, like everywhere else - London, Bath, York, Brighton etc. - several have closed for good; victims, not just of the recent Covid scourge, but of the Internet and a new uncultured generation. There is no time for reading if your mobile phone is beckoning.

For all that, I did manage to visit three old favourites and they delivered some interesting tomes. First to Mcnaughtan's Bookshop and Gallery at 3a Haddington Place, where I chatted to Derek Walker, who I first met at the York Book Fair. It seemed the same as ever, apart from a slight retreat from two rooms. The Scottish section (a feature of all three bookshops) was interesting, but had no great 'finds'. I did purchase two volumes published by T. N. Foulis.

                    The Life of Mansie Wauch 1911       :          The Provost 1913   

That was on the Tuesday. Wednesday afternoon, I was let loose in the West Port Area. First stop was Armchair Books, where it was a tight squeeze throughout! I did manage to find another John Galt in the same series as the two above.

Annals of the Parish 1910

Then, one hundred yards away, across the road I plunged into Edinburgh Books (once West Port Books, I think). Another great Scottish section, with more John Buchan available than in the other two. This time I bagged three volumes - one Literature and two History.

W. S. Crockett - 1932

                               A.J.P. Taylor - 1965                      Charles Spencer - 2007

All in all, a useful haul and not expensive either. They made for an interesting skim through that same evening. I also started the latest (the ninth) Sarah Hawkswood  medieval mystery novel, Wolf at the Door.

 

Sarah Hawkswood - 2020

As with all series, one finds one getting to 'know' the main personnel, and Hawkswood manages to give each of them a rounded character. She is 'drawing out' the young Wakelin as the long term successor to the grizzled Serjeant Catchpoll, and she brought Sheriff William de Beauchamp into the plot more this time. There were a few references to King Stephen, although the Anarchy 'feel' is rather slight. I finished the book on the long train journey South.

Finally, a very useful book on Edinburgh.

Published by B. T. Batsford, Spring 1947

G. Scott-Moncrieff had some trenchant views which I had no problem with, as I agreed with them! On John Knox, for instance: 

It would be difficult for anyone to make a case that Knox did other than pervert the Scottish Reformation...the impossible creed of Knox created an intellectual vacuum from which his Church can scarcely be said to have recovered....he was its saboteur rather than its genius....he was a spy for the English and their hired tool...a quisling, that is, a self-justified traitor. He was a demagogue and a liar: a man of violence who did not mind flatly contradicting himself when it suited him... And so say all of us.

It was, therefore, particularly satisfying to traipse round St Giles's cathedral, enjoying the beauty of the stained glass windows (I wasn't so sure about the Robbie Burns one, but it was another poke in the eye for Knox) and then out-staring the life-size carving of the bearded one himself. The coffee was good in thr John Knox house, too.