St Andrews in Focus Issue 15 Mar Apr 2006

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

March / April 2006, Issue 15 £1.50

the award winning magazine for St Andrews www.standrewsinfocus.com

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

From the Editor I’ve always thought that St Andrews’ bracing air and beautiful surroundings are the best things about living here. Now I‘ve discovered a new, and somewhat surprising bonus – cobbles. New Scientist informed me (24/31 December 2005 issue, page 52) that, “In China, spas, hotels, apartment blocks, and even factories promote their cobblestone paths as healthful amenities.”

It appears that wobbles on surfaces activate “a host of muscles in people’s legs, which in turn help to pump blood back to their hearts” and that this reduces “stress on the entire cardiovascular system.” Flat surfaces aren‘t very good for you, in other words.

So, if you want to avoid varicose veins, high blood pressure, and all sorts of other ills, go walk on our cobbles as often as you can, preferably in soft shoes (socks, even?) to maximise the wobble – and while you’re about it, bless our ancestors for this restorative amenity. It’s free too!

Flora Selwyn The views expressed elsewhere in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor.

Contents EVENTS • • • • •

Easter at Holy Trinity St Andrews’ spring gardens StAnza, the poetry festival The Last Provost Selected Events list

3 3 4 5 6

SHOPS & SERVICES • • • • • • •

Birrell’s is Pleased to Serve Reiths – a Family Business Window Dressing Slow Food Roving Reporter The Merchants Association Motoring report

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

FEATURES MARCH/APRIL 2006 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com DESIGNER University of St Andrews Reprographics Unit PRINTER Tayport Printers Ltd. DISTRIBUTER Elspeth’s of Guardbridge PUBLISHER (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: enquiries@standrewsinfocus.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS St. Andrews in Focus is published 6 times a year, starting in January. Subscriptions for the full year are: £10.00 in the UK (post & packing included) £18.00 overseas (post & packing included) Please send your name and address, together with remittance to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ.

REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND: 255564

THE PAPER USED IS 75% RECYCLED POST-CONSUMER WASTE

COVER: Baker’s Lane, by Bill Glover, an original acrylic painting

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

St Andrews in 1956 Gowf!

Reflections of an Artist The last Fishwife Uncle Bob Ask the Curator Mental Skills for Junior Golf Coaches Nanzie McLeod’s St Andrews Is Rhyming a Hanging Offence?

Toonspot Illustrious Exile Competition – Great Scot!

In Quarto March Snowfall

14 14 15 16 17 18 18 19 19 19 20 20 21 21

TOWN/GOWN • • • • • • •

Oliver Li – St Leonards Ian McKie returns Behind the Lens Kate Seals and Susan Gallon Nightmare Runners Volunteers sought

22 22 23 23 24 25 25

OUT AND ABOUT • • • •

Spring in the Botanic Garden Ruth Burgess at Hill of Tarvit A Lot of Hot Air! Eden Equinox

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NEXT ISSUE – May/Jun 2006 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 MARCH All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

EVENTS The Rev’d Rory MacLeod invites you to celebrate

EASTER!

When you consider the history of St Andrews a pattern emerges – every 250 years or so something epoch-making occurs, whose repercussions are felt well beyond the town. It begins around 1300 with the dedication of the Cathedral, then the largest ecclesiastical building in Scotland, marking the emergence of St Andrews as a world-class pilgrimage destination.

In the mid 1500s Reformation zeal erupts through the witness of martyrs like Patrick Hamilton and the preaching of John Knox, whose inaugural sermon was delivered from the pulpit of the Town Kirk (Holy Trinity). The early 1800s witness the flowering of the overseas missionary impulse inspired by Thomas Chalmers through the ‘St Andrews Seven’.

In anticipation of what fresh departure may be on the horizon as we approach the mid 2000s, please join me on a journalistic pilgrimage through our Easter programme at Holy Trinity.

The journey begins on Palm Sunday, which this year falls on the 9th April, when we are planning a Palm Sunday Event (complete with pantomime donkey!) at 4.30pm, to capture the thrill and anticipation of the original ‘Triumphal Entry’. Jesus’ manner of arrival into Jerusalem to bring his earthly mission to a climax was an instantly recognisable gesture that was also provocative, for it reflected how Jews were taught over centuries to expect their long-awaited Messiah.

As the realisation dawns that the carpenter from Nazareth is not interested in leading an armed revolt against the Romans, but has his sights set much higher, delivery from slavery in sin to liberty in righteousness for all people, the mood turns ugly. Exacerbated, perhaps,

by Jesus ‘Cleansing of the Temple’ in which this lone, but compelling figure strikes a blow for the liberation of true worshippers from the corruption which has marred the administration of Judaism’s central shrine, the controversy continues into Tuesday as Jesus locks horns in debate with the religious leaders of the day. Anticipating the gruesome climax of it all, on Tuesday 11th April at 5.15pm, The Rev’d Dr Ian Bradley of St Mary’s College will conduct ‘Stations of the Cross’. This ancient tradition allows worshippers to travel through key moments of Christ’s passion in a series of carefully presented icons and reflections.

‘Maundy Thursday’ traditionally marks the anniversary of the Last Supper and prototype Holy Communion, when Jesus gathered with his closest companions for the last time around what was already an ancient ritual in Israel. ‘Passover’ celebrates the beginning of God’s deliverance of his chosen people out of slavery to the Egyptians, when the angel of death “passed over” Jewish homes daubed with the blood of the sacrificial lambs, which they were inside consuming as preparation for their Great Escape! Jesus took the elements of the feast – bread and wine – and invested them with a new significance – a new and better relationship with God – with himself as the sacrificial lamb making it all possible. Please

Photo by Bob Archer join us in a ceremony that re-enacts the occasion and looks forward to the ultimate feast in the Kingdom of Heaven, around a table laid out in the Hunter & Memorial Aisle of Holy Trinity at 7.30pm on Thursday 13th April.

‘Good Friday’ is where the rubber hits the road and the Christian faith presents its unique conviction in a holy God who faces up to his antithesis, evil, in all its abhorrence and suffers for our sake. Emphasizing the significance of the moment the parish churches of St Andrews come together for a United Service in Martyr’s Church at 7.30pm.

Saturday is left fallow – as a day for reflection. That is until the evening when a Vigil in Holy Trinity takes us into the glory of Easter morning with its triumphal shout: The Lord is Risen! Much controversy surrounds this crucial episode in the Christian story. 3 things are recognised unanimously: on the third day following Jesus’ crucifixion and burial his tomb was discovered to be empty; over the ensuing 40 days he was encountered by over 500 people, whose testimony to his resurrection in bodily form is recorded in the Bible; so convinced were Jesus’ closest companions that their whole outlook was transformed and their panic at the ignominious death of their leader gave way to a fearless zeal to pursue his mission to all extremes whatever the cost – and many paid the “ultimate price”.

The celebration continues with the ecumenical gathering for all churches at St Mary’s on the Rock from 7am and followed by breakfast at a venue to be announced. Morning and, in some cases, evening services pepper the day – many of which will include Holy Communion – to be rounded off this year in Holy Trinity with a concert at 8pm, arranged by Organist & Choirmaster Thomas G Duncan. Please come!

St. Andrews Spring Gardens Every year on a – hopefully sunny – Sunday in June hundreds of people can be seen walking round town, wearing stickers and clutching maps showing the Preservation Trust’s Hidden Gardens of St. Andrews. This is always a very popular event enabling locals and visitors alike to share in the delights of many beautiful gardens not generally on view.

This year, in addition to the Hidden Gardens Day, the Trust is holding a Spring Gardens Day, on Sunday April 23rd between 11a.m. and 5p.m. in the Hepburn Gardens / Lade Braes area of town.

Do come along, collect a list of the gardens and spend a leisurely hour or two exploring some of these previously unseen quiet corners of our lovely town.

Copies will be available on the day at Baidland, 19 Lade Braes and 17 Hepburn Gardens – two of the gardens which will be open and where refreshments will be served.

Admission to the gardens is £3.50 for adults, children free.

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EVENTS

StAnza 2006:

celebrating a passion for poetry

American poet, Thomas Lynch, reading to a packed house at last year’s festival

Since its distinctive blue and white banners first went up in St Andrews nine years ago, StAnza, Scotland’s poetry festival has become one of the highlights of the cultural calendar and has grown in importance nationally and internationally.

During four days every March, the town is filled with poetry lovers, keen to enjoy the wide range of readings, discussions, master classes, performances, music and exhibitions.

Celtic Links and Land & Ecology are the twin themes for StAnza 2006, creating a rich opportunity for lively and possibly controversial exchanges. Yet this is a festival that’s also friendly, relaxed and entertaining – where else can you enjoy poetry over a pie and a pint, or combined with some quick-fire stand-up comedy?

Scottish talent takes the stage With climate change and environment issues hitting the headlines daily, audiences will be keen to hear Fife’s Kathleen Jamie (prize-winning poet and author of Findings, the popular collection of essays on nature) in conversation with Richard Mabey, the author of Food for Free and Flora Britannica, who is equally well known as the writer/narrator of the BBC series, Postcards from the Country. Mabey will be taking part with John Burnside in a panel discussion on the role of poetry in ecology. And talking of Celtic links, who could be better than the Dundee-born poet Don Paterson to tackle the complicated question of Celtic identity with Glasgow’s A L Kennedy?

More poets with Celtic connections will be reading during the festival.

Valerie Gillies, StAnza’s poet in residence, who last year was appointed as Edinburgh Makar, or city poet laureate, has published seven poetry collections and most recently edited the first Poetry Map of Scotland for the Scottish Poetry Library website. Matthew Fitt and Rab Wilson, writing in Scots, always entertain – Dundonian Fitt’s written a sci-fi novel in Scots! Rab Wilson is appearing in StAnza’s new Poetry StAnd-up spots sharing his Scots wit and tall tales with audiences over a pie and a pint. Gaelic voices are represented by the celebrated Donald MacAulay, born in Lewis, whose poetry is famed for its subtlety and “fundamentally passionate clear-headedness”, and Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh, who has been hailed as a poet for the computer age, placing the richness of the Gaelic language firmly in the present-day.

StAnza welcomes its guests Andrew Motion, as the UK’s Poet Laureate, has campaigned tirelessly to preserve and promote the art. A prize-winning poet, he has published many collections and is also the respected biographer of Keats and Larkin. David Harsent ranges in his poetry from the domestic to the world-shaking. He won this year’s Forward Prize for his collection, Legion, which examines how people try to continue everyday lives in times of war. Pulitzer prize-winner Galway Kinnell is one of America’s foremost poets, one who “speaks with a big voice about the whole of life.” (American Poetry Review). Michael Longley is a contemporary of Seamus Heaney, whose lyrical and sensitive nature poems have been described as “extraordinary blendings of delicacy and strength.” (Sunday Telegraph) Another Irish poet is influential Eiléan Ni Chuilleánain, whose work “thrives on the creepings, rustlings and imperceptible burgeonings of life” (TLS). New Zealand born Fleur Adcock OBE is one of the UK’s outstanding poets – “her imagination thrives on what threatens the peace of mind” (TLS) – and she will be reading with the witty and original Jo Shapcott, presenter of Radio 3’s Poetry Proms.

Richard Mabey, who will be at StAnza 2006 (pic credit: Elizabeth Orcutt)

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Fun for all the family The Children’s Programme is over the weekend Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th March, with lively poetry performances and Poet Jo Shapcott, guest poet at this year’s free workshops for children festival (pic credit: Caroline Forbes) of all ages. Make puppets, masks and poems with animal themes, guided by Maureen Sangster and Jackie Galley, or join Valerie Thornton devising poems based on that familiar phrase, Don’t Do That! Even create your own song line with word, collage, and pictures, to the sound of the didgeridoo! – at StAnza’s free Workshop Party. StAnza poets and writers will be holding numerous poetry sessions with teachers and pupils at local schools.

Not to be missed is Hugh Lupton’s and Chris Wood’s performance of Praise Songs which appeals to adults and children alike: a rich evocation of the ancient relationship between man and horse through poetry, song, story, and music.

Poets and artists show natural talent StAnza’s exhibitions, running throughout the festival will provide rich insights into nature and the animal world. Island Works displays poemobjects from Julie Johnstone’s Essence Press : cards, pamphlets, and copies of Island, a magazine on poetry and nature that’s a work of art itself. To explore our relationship with animals and the land, poet Valerie Gillies and photographer Rebecca Marr journeyed across rural Scotland, recording what they found in Men and Beasts, on show at the Byre Theatre throughout the festival. On a more delicate note, poet Linda France and ceramicist Sue Dunne have produced Wildling, an exhibition in words and clay inspired by the brief season of wild daffodils in a Northumbrian wood, near where the collaborators live.

Looking ahead Will StAnza, which celebrates its tenth birthday next year, be ready for more challenges? Festival Director Brian Johnstone says: “Approaching the first decade of a constantly growing festival is never easy, and keeping what we offer fresh and engaging for our audiences remains a challenge we hope we rise to each year. That said, we are convinced that for 2006 we offer a programme that is second to none in this field and can guarantee a festival that will once again attract audiences from across the country and, more importantly, send them home inspired by the words and ideas they’ve experienced at StAnza”.

StAnza 2006 is at the Byre Theatre and other venues in St Andrews from 16-19 March. For more information about the festival, visit the website at www.stanzapoetry.org The StAnza Box Office is at the Byre Theatre, Abbey Street, St Andrews KY16 9LA. Tel: 01334 475000.

Programmes are available free from Fife Council Arts Development, 01592 414714.

EVENTS Alan Tricker, a Director of the Byre Theatre talks about a forthcoming production

The Last Provost – a local comedy After the success of The Open in 2005, the Play Club has decided to revive another play by A B Paterson, the founder of the Byre Theatre. The Last Provost is set in a small town in Fife in 1975 when Burgh Councils were abolished and Fife Regional Council was set up.

Like many of the plays by A B Paterson, the play takes one event in history and weaves a story of comic invention around it. St Andrews had been governed by a Burgh Council headed by a Provost since 1889.

However the Wheatley Report published in 1969 sounded the clarion call for the abolition of these ancient Burgh Councils and the establishment of bigger local government units. For a time it looked as if St Andrews and North East Fife would be incorporated into the new Tayside Region centred on Dundee. The horror of being removed from the Kingdom of Fife led to animated debates both locally and in the Houses of Westminster. The new Regions were finally established in Scotland in 1975 and St Andrews won its battle to stay in Fife.

A B Paterson was never slow to latch on to a local issue where he thought that he could get a good play out of it. He wrote The Last Provost in late 1971 and it was first performed at the Byre Theatre in 1972 – before the final boundaries for the new councils were established. The play is set in Auldburgh – a fictional small Fife Royal Burgh somewhere in North East Fife. Alex Paterson avoided setting it in St Andrews to save the blushes of the last provost of St Andrews – John Gilchrist.

The Provost of the fictional town of Auldburgh decides to lead his town along the route of independence with the intention of keeping the Burgh Council and himself as Provost. Needless to say he finds plenty of support locally, but opposition from the Scottish Office in Edinburgh.

The play has some hilarious moments – particularly during a rumbustious meeting set in the Town Hall. It is a great comedy and also a touching love story. The play will be presented at the Byre Theatre from Thursday 22nd May to Saturday 3rd June.

The last production of the play in St Andrews was in 1982 and the photo shows two of the cast – Andrew Soutar as the Provost and Jimmy Bone as the Bailie.

FROM 2 April – 25 June (only)

EVERY SUNDAY 2.00 – 5.00 p.m.

In Holy Trinity Church Hall Queens Terrace, St Andrews Live music, demonstrations tickets at the door – £3.00

(INCLUDES TEA/COFFEE, BISCUITS)

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EVENTS

Selected Events March – at the St Andrews Museum.

Dressed for the Occasion, an exhibition of costume from 1850 to 1950 curated by students from the Museum & Gallery Studies course at St Andrews University.

Thursday, 16 to Sunday, 19 March – StAnza, Scotland’s Poetry Festival.

Programmes are free from Fife Council, 01592 414 714 Tickets from The Byre Theatre, 01334 475 000

Saturday, 1 April – 10.30am-12noon in the Botanic Gardens, Canongate. Junior Hortus, children’s gardening club (age 5 -12). Friends of the Botanic Gardens, 01334-477178 / 01334-476452 £6.

Saturday, 4 March – 10.00am-5.45pm at the Younger Hall, North Street.

Sing-Away-Day – sing with a massed choir and orchestra. Rotary Club of St Andrews. Contact, 01382-540031 for application form.

Friday, 17 March to Sunday, 4 June – at the Crawford Centre, North Street, St Andrews. Susan McGill, ceramicist; Ruth Gordon, silverwork & acrylics; Virginia Graham, ceramicist; Fiona Thomson, textile artist.

Tuesday, 4 April – 7.30pm in the School of Chemistry, North Haugh. Lijiang Botanic Garden & Field Station, talk by David Paterson, Edinburgh. Friends of the Botanic Garden – free.

Saturday, 4 March – 7.30pm at the Younger Hall, North Street. Sing-AwayDay Charity Performance. Rotary Club of St Andrews. Contact, 01382-540031

Friday, 17 March to Sunday, 7 May – at the Crawford Centre, North Street, St Andrews. Contemporary Collecting in Scotland, curated by students of the University Museum & Gallery Studies Course.

Saturday, 4 March – 10.30am -12noon at the Botanic Gardens, Canongate. Junior Hortus, children’s gardening club (age 5 -12). Friends of the Botanic Garden, 01334-477178 / 01334-476452; £6.

Sunday, 5 March – 4.00pm. At St Leonard’s Music School, The Pends, St Andrews. The Music Club, Configure 8: Fenella Barton & Rick Koster, violin; Vanessa McNaught, viola; Sophie Harris, cello; Elizabeth Bradley, double bass. Programme: Haydn; Kodaly; Dvorak; Music for String Quintet by Brazilian composers. Tickets at the door: adults £9 (£8), students £5, children £1 Tuesday, 7 March – 7.30pm. in the School of Chemistry, North Haugh.

Pelargoniums & the Evolution of the Cape Flora, Dr Mary Gibby, Edinburgh.

Friends of the Botanic Garden & Botanical Society of Scotland – free.

Thursday, 9 March – 7.30pm at the Younger Hall, North Street. Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Rosemary Joshua, soprano. Music by Haydn; Mozart.

Tickets from the Younger Hall or the Byre Theatre.

Saturday, 11 March – 7.30pm at All Saints Church, North Castle Street. Classical Guitar Concert by Ben Kearsley. £7, £5 at the door.

Monday 13 – Saturday 18 March – National Science Week featuring a full and fascinating programme of events by the University. See the local press for details.

Wednesday, 15 March – 5.15pm in School III, St Salvator’s Quad, North Street. Inaugural Lecture by Prof. J. Bebbington & Prof. R. Gray, School of Management, the University.

Wednesday, 15 March – 5.30pm in St Salvator’s Chapel, North Street.

The Renaissance Group, Evensong for St Patrick. Contact the Music Centre, 01334-462226 Thursday, 16 March – 7.30pm in Hope Park Church Hall, Howard Place, St Andrews. Vegetable Growing, a talk by Les Craib, Forfar. St Andrews Gardeners’ Club.

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Saturday, 18 March – 7.30pm at the Younger Hall, North Street.

The St Andrews Chorus, music by Mendelssohn. Contact, 01334-462226 Sunday, 19 March – 4.00 pm at St Leonard’s Music School, The Pends, St Andrews. The Music Club, Martin Burgess & Clare Hayes, violin; Fiona Bonds, viola; William Schofield, cello.

Music by Beethoven; Sally Beamish; Elgar. Tickets at the door: adults £9 (£8), students £5, children £1 Thursday, 20 March – 7.30pm, in Hope Park Church Hall, Howard Place.

Herbs – Growing and Use, talk by June Riches, Strathkinness. St Andrews Gardeners’ Club.

Wednesday, 12 April – 5.15pm in the School of Modern Languages, School III, St Salvator’s Quad, North Street.

Inaugural Lecture, Prof. D. Iordanova Saturday, 15 April – from 2.00pm, starting at the Old Quad, North Street, St Andrews, the University’s annual Kate Kennedy Procession.

Wednesday, 19 April – 5.30pm at St Salvator’s Chapel, North Street.

Evensong for Eastertide. Contact the Music Centre 01334-462226.

Saturday, 22 April – 7.30pm at Hope Park Church Hall, Howard Place.

Spring Show; St Andrews Gardeners’ Club.

Sunday, 23 April – 11.00am – 5.00pm St. Andrews Spring Gardens, in the Hepburn Gardens / Lade Braes area of town. Admission to the gardens on the day is £3.50 for adults, children free (see article). The Preservation Trust (01334) 477 152.

Advance Notice Wednesday, 3 May – at the Byre Theatre. The Opening Night of St Andrews Photographic Society’s Annual Exhibition of Colour and Monochrome Prints.

The winner of the exhibition will be announced by the judge at that time. The exhibition will be open to the public throughout the month of May. St Andrews Photographic Society meets each Wednesday from the end of September until the end of March. The programme is varied with guest speakers, competitions, and workshops.

More experienced members of the Society are able to help new photographers with composition, exposure, and camera problems. Some of the digital photographers meet on alternating Monday evenings to discuss and work out issues unique to digital photography. Photographic outings are arranged to local points of interest on Wednesday evenings in May and June. During the winter outings are scheduled on certain Saturday mornings.

For further information regarding St Andrews Photographic Society please contact: the Secretary, David Ogden, 01334 870231 or the President, Janice Dewar, 01334 656992.

Last year’s winner, Margaret Coull, with “Tiger Charge”, her winning print taken in India.

SHOPS & SERVICES Russell Guild is

Pleased to Serve Birrell’s fruit shop was first opened in 1971, just one week before decimalisation. It has remained open, and is still busy, at 201 South Street, St Andrews.

It began as a small family business supplying fruit and vegetables to the St Andrews townsfolk. Over the last thirty-five years it has grown to deliver orders throughout Fife and Tayside, and has supplied some famous local events such as the British Open and the Dunhill Cup. Mrs. Birrell remained working in the store until her retiral. Russell Guild has now taken over as manager along with staff Lydia, Irene, Gemma, Jillian, and Annabel. Being a local family business, Birrell’s has regular customers who have remained loyal since Day 1. Students also regularly visit the store for fresh groceries. Birrell’s is known, too, by holiday-makers from places such as California, and China. One gentleman from California swears by Birrell’s vine tomatoes, and makes the shop his first port of call in the town.

Birrell’s has most of the produce available in each season as it comes around. During January and early February, the Seville oranges from Spain prove very popular with customers making their homemade marmalade. Late February and March sees purple sprouting broccoli as an interesting, popular alternative to normal calabrese. As ever, the local strawberries and raspberries in the summer prove to be a huge attraction, their season running from around May to September. Whether for eating or making jam, they are always in stock, with delicious fresh cream.

October is pumpkin time, with a large selection of shapes and sizes, so the kids can have great fun carving their pumpkins for Halloween.

As many customers will know (both new and old) Christmas is one of the busiest times for the staff in Birrell’s, what with Christmas orders, mad sprout and parsnip dashes, and our fruit baskets. Without fail, every Christmas Eve closes with somebody desperate for a fruit basket for that last gift that causes so many problems. Normally, orders come for baskets worth £10 or maybe even £20. On a recent Christmas, staff received their most unusual request. A gentleman approached staff, following a stagger or two, and three or four hiccups. He tried to explain through slurred words that he had no present for his wife, and wanted a £50 fruit basket in under one hour! Now, anybody who has given, orders, or receives a basket will realise that a simple £5 one takes over half an hour to prepare.

You can imagine the reaction from the staff! After some persuasion, both the man and the staff settled for a £15 basket. Leaving his name and address, the gentleman left the shop to go for one more drink to wait. One hour passed by – still no man, so staff decided they’d deliver the basket themselves. Upon delivery of the lovely basket, the wife was very pleased and impressed with the gift. Just a pity the husband could barely walk to the door to see it. Not to worry, though, it ended with a happy wife. So for Birrell’s, another job well done!

Brushes to strings; easels to music stands – Everything for the discerning musician and artist.

Come and browse; see our wide range of gifts for all ages.

Remember Mother 26th March

“Giving up my ‘proper’ job and starting my own business is the best thing I’ve ever done” says Claire Gammie of Cakes Glorious Cakes.

“Making cakes has brought me into contact with so many interesting people. From future brides and grooms who want their perfect 4-tier wedding cake, to the toddler who just has to have a towering princess castle, or a pirate ship complete with shark infested waters, to a retiring minister who had a cake with himself in the pulpit and his grandchildren skateboarding down the isle! So many people have ideas of what they would like and it’s a pleasure to bring them to life in a gorgeous cake.

Of course, many people have helped me this year – my husband and 2 boys are extremely good critics, and my Mum is a wonder at childminding!

My friends and neighbours are always delighted to try out one of my new cake recipes. St Andrews In Focus magazine has been great for publicizing my new venture and of course, thanks to everyone who has had a cake from me. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have enjoyed making them.”

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SHOPS & SERVICES “St Andrews needs small businesses; hopefully the town will support us and we’ll still be here.”

Scott Reith epitomises the heart blood of our town with his

Family Business In 1968 Mr Reith Senior moved to St Andrews from Aberdeen to work at the former Fordyces in South Street. By 1973 he was confident enough to open his own shop at 129a Market Street. Today REITHS proudly announces itself at the same address.

Scott Reith was born and brought up here, going to school first in the Cannongate, then to Madras, where he played in the school’s rugby team. “I still like going to Murrayfield to watch Scotland play – for my punishment!” While still at school he helped in the shop at weekends.

For a school trip to Russia in 1988 he carefully saved all his earnings to buy a camera to take with him. Scott remembers the fortnight in Russia vividly. The group was advised to take with them toilet rolls and plugs for the washbasins! When in Leningrad, Scott and his friend (considered the sensible ones) were put in charge of the group. His friend’s part of the group didn’t make it onto the metro, “I had a nail-biting time waiting to see if they would turn up, but we all got together in the end.” The Russian

people were friendly and everyone in Sochi and Tibilisi “wanted to know all about us and we were invited to one person’s house.

It was very small, only a couple of rooms.” On their way from Tibilisi to Sochi, they arrived at the airport and found to their horror that, “no-one seemed to know we existed!” No flight was booked. Their only recourse was to take a 17 hour train journey.

After school, Scott went to Dundee to qualify in Business Studies at the College of Technology. Reiths is, by Scott’s definition, a “middle of the road kind of shop.” He isn’t driven by the demands of changing fashions, but caters “for a wide range.” Many students come to him, not only to purchase new clothes, but also for advice on how to wear some of them.

Scott says that students often come in “five minutes before they graduate” to ask him how to tie a bow tie. At lunchtime before the last graduation an entire Japanese family arrived, with little or no English, to equip their graduand son who was to appear in the Younger Hall in the afternoon.

Scott kitted him out with a new shirt, then had to show the young man how to wear his gown. It took some imagination to explain that the hood would be placed over his head after he was capped! “There was absolute chaos!”

Scott stocks school ties for primary school and Madras pupils, and a lot of evening wear, though sadly he remarks that “casual stuff” is taking over. Americans pose problems sometimes because their vocabulary differs from ours. One Transatlantic gentleman asked for a vest. “Did he want a singlet?” But no, it turned out it was a waistcoat he was after.

Americans call plus fours “knickers”!

A past chairman of Round Table, Scott is also a member of the New Golf Club, with a handicap of 10.

Scott clearly derives a great deal of satisfaction from his trade. He demonstrates a wealth of experience, as well as humour and resilience, qualities which this town has always valued highly down the years. Long may he flourish!

INVALID SERVICES Ltd. 01334 472834 / 01382 770303

For an all round “Care at Home” service Throughout Fife & Tayside Licensed by the Care Commission

The Three B’s Bedding Bits & Bobs 47-49 Kinnessburn Road, St Andrews, KY16 8AD Phone 01334 470700 Photocopying 5p per sheet A good selection of haberdashery, including a range of craft materials for card-making.

Wools include, Plumé 3ply & 4ply, double knitting, Chunky, & Aran Dance wear now in stock – shoes and outfits

For Mother’s Day – 26th March Gifts, cards, all your needs

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SHOPS & SERVICES Fiona Donaldson, Manager, and Katie Palmer, Assistant Manager of Sense Scotland talked to Flora Selwyn about their spectacular window displays

Window Dressing

It would be difficult to walk down Greyfriars Gardens without stopping to One of eleven, look in the window of Sense Scotland, the charity shop for the deafblind mostly in the West, and Rubella-affected children and adults – most especially at Christmas our Sense Scotland time. shop opened four The windows are artistically created by Fiona and Katie, both using years ago. It has their extremely vivid imagination and determination. won every windowFiona, a fourth-generation St Andrean, started her working life in dressing competition judged by the Area Manager of the company. what used to be Joan’s Gift Shop in Bell Street, where she was given In 2002 it also won the competition organised by St Andrews’ Junior the opportunity to dress the window, and although she has Higher Art, Chamber, with a very handsome shield to prove it. On that occasion, The she admits to not persevering with her painting much after leaving Citizen had coupons, but not every shop entered. The town’s Merchants school. Although Katie does not have an artistic Association donated money and Junior Chamber background, she very obviously had hidden awarded both a meal at Rufflets Hotel and the One of eleven, mostly in the talents, which she now produces on a regular shield. Since then, alas, no-one has come forward West, our Sense Scotland basis! Their planning for the themed windows to organise another event, which is a real pity is such that they are able to call on family and it generated good business. shop opened four years ago because friends, who willingly and ably assist with making Every week, Fiona and Katie dress their props and supplying materials, especially for the window. “We’ll do themed windows as much as Christmas windows. They also have the added input of Sales Assistant possible. There have been Jungle themes; Cowboys and Indians; seaside Sian, who, although not directly involved with the themed windows, knows themes; weddings.” They all express the wide range of their talents. what Fiona and Katie are planning and keeps an experienced eye out Although Fiona and Katie do the windows themselves, Fiona also told for suitable items. Sian is also responsible for many of the non-themed me that she can’t praise her volunteer staff in the shop highly enough, for window and internal displays. their hard work, dedication, and support for the charity.

Fiona showed me the back shop, which is filled to the ceiling with Ewen Farquharson is one of them. Born in Dundee and blind since donations of all kinds, some of which already have the makings of the birth, Ewen has gradually become more and more involved with Sense next Christmas window. Everything displayed in the window is for sale.

Scotland. In 1985 he attended the first Sense Scotland conference in Even if initially themed, the items can be purchased, and reserved until Glasgow. He has been on holidays with them and helped with workshops, the window is dismantled at a later date. Their Hogmanay window was as well as given talks. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ewen is now in the literally sold within an hour last time.

St Andrews shop operating the till, with help. He says he is in the process I wondered how Fiona and Katie went about designing the displays. of becoming “very independent” and was curious about how the shop “We can have one particular item coming in which sows a seed, and works. “It’s great,” he enthuses,”I’ve been enjoying it very much.” Ewen is before long we have enough items to dress our window. Myself and Katie also an accomplished musician, playing both accordion and keyboards. come in on a Sunday, two or three weeks before, and have been known He has an older brother who is also blind, and together they perform at to take from 8.00 in the morning to 8.00 at night. At Christmas we make ceilidhs and discos. “On the whole I it like our own special Christmas Day! We have Katie’s homemade soup have a good life,” Ewen assured me, and sandwiches, and we’ve been known to sit in the window with them and that speaks for itself.

– very entertaining for the passers-by! Our first Christmas window had a Victorian parlour theme. We even made a video with my daughter Lauren “Sense Scotland has been and Katie’s son Scott working for over 20 years with dressed as Victorian children and adults who have waifs and strays looking communication support needs through the window. because of deafblindness, sensory We had some fantastic impairment, learning and physical comments from people, disabilities.” one of the nicest from 04/05 Report a customer who said she would love to spend For further information: Christmas Day in our tel. 0141 429 0294 or parlour!” www.sensescotland.org.uk

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Slow Food On a visit to Tuscany not so long ago, I saw the sign, Slow Food, above a restaurant menu.

“What a joke!” I thought. But no, it turns out to be serious. So here’s your Editor, with a nose for something interesting, on the investigative trail.

First of all I asked our own restaurateurs, “What do you know about Slow Food?” and I was met with blank looks. So then I asked my good friend Google, and this is what came up: Paris 1989. A group interested in encouraging “a new type of agriculture respectful of the environment, of human beings, and of taste” set up the Slow Food movement. Its headquarters are now in Piedmont, Italy (in a place called Bra). It has become truly global, “Slow Food boasts 80,000 members in more than 100 countries” including the USA, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and it is growing.

There is a Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, whose mission is “to organise and fund projects that defend our world’s heritage of agricultural biodiversity and gastronomic traditions” envisioning “a new agricultural system that respects local cultural identities, the earth’s resources, sustainable animal husbandry, and the health of individual consumers.” The reasoning behind it is that, “75% of European food product diversity has been lost since 1900.

33% of livestock varieties have disappeared, or are near disappearing.

30,000 vegetable varieties have become extinct in the last century, and one more is lost every six hours.”

The Foundation has a project called The Ark of Taste, with strict guidelines for membership. The gist of it is that products used must conform to “outstanding quality in terms of taste”, the food being linked to “the memory and identity of a group……linked environmentally, socio-economically and historically to a specific area” and raised “by farms or by small-scale processing companies” and the products must also “be threatened with either real or potential extinction”.

Looking at the Sloweb page is also intriguing. It gives an English sample from Slowfood magazine, “that encompasses the world”, and it sings the praises of the good old-fashioned, olde-worlde kipper, spelling out how it should be produced quoting the example of one erstwhile executive chef of the Wentworth Golf Club in England, who has also run “several top eating places.”

I went in search of local opinion!

1. Neil Archibald, Manager at Bella Italia, Bell Street: “I’d definitely support it. I used to work in McDonald’s Company as a floor manager.

I ate there every day for 7 years and wonder at the long term effects of that, especially with the high concentration of superfats used – worrying! So, yes, I’d definitely support the idea.”

2. Morag Hamilton of the Vine Leaf Restaurant, South Street: “It sounds like a fantastic idea, but you’d have to have the support of the local community. I imagine it must be difficult to fit in with EEC health and safety legislation.”

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3. Grant Hughes, Restaurant Manager.

His personal opinion is that, “It is a great thought to support your local community, environment, and economy. However, I feel that in the current climate, the cost of such products would be too high, and the general public may only view them as a luxury rather than necessity. In order to obtain the long term benefits, a lot of time and money would have to be invested in the short term to make people aware of Slow Food.”

4. Craig Millar of the Seafood Restaurant says that, “I personally think that it is a great idea as it not only protects the cultural identities of world-wide cuisine, but also encourages family dining as it should be, i.e using good honest raw ingredients and encouraging the whole family to lend a hand. More should be done to make children aware.”

5. Dr. Margaret R. Ritchie,Teaching Fellow and Research Fellow, Cancer Biology Group, Bute Medical School, St. Andrews University, writes: The Slow Food Diet could be regarded as a ‘Back to the Future Diet for the prevention of disease’. In 2001, Don Coffey proposed an evolutionary aspect to diet and disease. He suggested that we are not biologically selected to eat the way that we do and diseases such as breast and prostate cancer are preventable nutritional diseases.

Of interest is that the Asian diet has changed very little over the last few centuries, whereas the adoption of the Western diet in Asia has been associated with an increase of breast and prostate cancer in Asian populations. The dietary consequences of evolution are that our present intake of wild fresh vegetables and fruits has reduced, the number of plants produced and stored is limited to wheat, corn, barley, rice, and potatoes, and lifestyles are more sedentary. From 200K years ago to the last 15K years, the greatest dietary changes have taken place in Western diets. There has been increase in intake of meat, fat, stored dairy products, processed and cooked meats, while the intake of fruit and fibre has reduced. The current dietary recommendations suggest that Western populations should consume more fruit, fibre, and vegetables, and reduce the intake of burned, cooked, and processed foods, dairy produce, red meat, and animal fats. In addition, weight should be reduced and exercise increased.

In other words we should return to a diet and lifestyle of about 135K years ago. This is a slow food diet.

Stop Press – this has just come to my attention, from Fiona Richmond, Slow Food UK Co-ordinator: “There are 2000 members in the UK, organised into local groups called convivia, of which there are 35 in the Uk, including Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Ayrshire, Highlands, Skye & Lochalsh & Aberdeen). There is a desperate need for a group in St Andrews!” The website is: www.slowfood.com Fiona can be contacted on: f.richmond@slowfood.com

SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter 1. Roving Reporter never has a dull moment. Visiting a well-known retail shop, quite by chance he met a singer, Christina Mowatt, St Andrean par excellence.

“I’m a Spittal” Christina announced with pride. “My grandfather, Jimmy Spittal, was a club-maker for Tom Morris. “They called him The Gunner, on account of his war service.” He was a “fabulous golfer, and he liked a good whisky!”. Christina’s mother came from the west of Scotland, fell in love with both St Andrews and Christina’s father, and never went back. Just before Christina was born, and when her sister was still a toddler, Christina’s father had the misfortune to fall in the harbour when the tide was out. He sustained quite severe head injuries, and as he was also epileptic, he spent the rest of his life in Stratheden Hospital. Christina says sadly that these days he would have had the treatment to let him stay at home. “My mum strived on alone” and so Christina was able to go, as one of the first intake, to Kilrymont School.

Since she was twelve years old, Christina had ambitions to sing with The Rebels, but was considered too young. “I love ‘60s music.

It’s always been in my heart, I don’t know why”, so Christina had her wish eventually and was able to “do a few gigs with them.”

For the last 20 years, Christina has been singing solo and is “out every weekend, and never looked back!” Weddings feature large in her appointments book. She has met Michael Barrymore, done a slot on the My Kind of People Show. She has also appeared on Grampian television in a telethon, raising money for Scottish charities. Indeed, Christina is a successful fundraiser. She mentioned one occasion in 1988, when she sang in the foyer of Presto (now Morrisons), and in 1990 she raised some £700 for Telethon and Heartstart.

Christina left school with Higher needlework. She does private dressmaking. At the new Byre’s opening show, Into the Woods, Christina helped make the costumes. She is married to a chef manager working on the oil rigs in Norway, and has two daughters living in Cyprus, one married to a St Andrews boy. Reporter was charmed!

“Kristina”

Female Vocalist Music to suit all Weddings & functions

Tel: 01334 479 835

2. St Andrews, it cannot be repeated often enough, thrives through enterprise. Often this requires nerve, perseverance and an unfailing belief in oneself. Talking to Fiona Potter about her new venture, Studio Bizarre, 141 South Street, St Andrews, Roving Reporter learnt just what it takes.

Edinburgh-born Fiona returned to Scotland to settle in Dunino with her husband and four children after ten years in Germany, where she had become interested in textiles and designing clothes. “My Granny had taught me to knit when I was a wee lass,” said Fiona.

Reporter asked Fiona about her painting. “I can recall painting as a pre-teen; experimenting in a hut in the garden. I hate knitting per se,” explained Fiona, “it was only when I discovered I could create something different that it captured my interest. To me, it’s like painting a picture; whether you wear it, lie on it, or whatever. It’s about constructing something unique inspired by nature, be it a jacket or a coat or anything. There’s a flow to everything. Life is a way of flowing.” Reporter had never thought of clothes in that light before: a mixture of painting, architecture, sculpture even. But that is how Fiona envisages her creations.

Fiona Watson, as she was then known, couldn’t find the yarns she needed when she first returned to her native land. “I like natural fibres,” she told Reporter, “and when I discovered a spinning wheel I experimented and made a wee garment from the yarn I spun, using raw wool from rare-breed sheep at Cambo Farm.” Fiona gave free lessons in spinning and weaving: “I wanted people to learn the pleasure of these skills.”

Reporter wondered where Fiona found her inspiration. “I just look around at the beauty of the natural world and there it is,” Fiona explained. “I have always been an avid reader of any- and everything.

It was much later that I realised that what I’d been doing was research.” Discovering raw silk, almost by accident, added another dimension to Fiona’s creations. “Mixing silk and mohair was one exciting outcome. It has a really soft, luxurious, sumptuousness to it in its natural state. I love mixing materials in new ways.” This led to her famous Scottish Silk Collection, a unique, exotic line of clothes, which attracted interest in high circles.

Following on from her early work in kindergartens, Fiona became involved in Youth Work and was Chairperson of Fife Aids Care (no longer in existence). Her work in Sexual Health with young people led to another aspect of her creativity, examples of which can be found in the Studio.

Now Fiona is into this new adventure. Right at the start of the year, Fiona, daughter Kirsty, and family friend Helena have opened Studio Bizarre in Burgher’s Close, 141, South Street. “Something a wee bit out of the norm.” The three women see the Studio as a place where locals and visitors alike can come, look, and talk, seeing artists in action. “We are interested in people. The Studio is a place for contact, contact with art, with artists, with the curious.” The walls are covered with paintings, mostly by Fiona. You’ll find jewellery and handpainted scarves designed by Kirsty; Helena’s encaustic art in pictures and greeting cards; and other quirky items created by all three women.

“I’ve always seen myself as an artist and am delighted to work with Kirsty and Helena, both also creative women,” Fiona assured Reporter, “I want to develop my painting, but I’ll always be prepared to take on a commission for textiles.”

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SHOPS & SERVICES Julia Young describes the work of

The Merchants’ Association The St Andrews Merchants’ Association was formed in 1902 as a body to represent the views and protect the interests of the merchants of the town. As the number and type of shops and businesses in the town has grown and evolved over the past hundred and four years, so the remit of the Association has changed to reflect this. No longer are the uplift of horse manure, or the lighting of gas lamps, pressing problems in the town centre, although the uplift of waste is certainly still an issue! More important now is the promotion of the town of St Andrews as a pleasant and interesting place to shop.

The Merchants’ Association is a nonprofit making organisation and all monies which it generates are used for the good of the merchants in the town. The Executive Committee is made up of a maximum of ten representatives from the shops in the town, and they meet monthly to address issues pertaining to the Association. Four times a year the meetings are “open” to the rest of the members. There are around one hundred merchant members who can lobby the committee members if they have problems or concerns. The major fundraising project which the Association undertakes every year is the publication of the enormously popular Town Map and Guide. With assistance from what is now Visit Scotland and Fife Council Development Services, the Merchants’ Association produces and prints 80,000 copies of the 30 page full-colour guide to the town.

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This incorporates some of the history of the submits objections if the proposals appear place, essential information for visitors to detrimental to the balance of businesses in the town, a Shopping Guide, an Eating Out the town. The Merchant’ Association recently Guide and two maps of the town. It is a quality contributed to the fight to save the trees in publication which is available free to every South Street and to save dozens of parking visitor who goes to the Tourist Information spaces which Scottish Enterprise wanted to Centre and can also axe. They have be picked up in been struggling The Merchants’ Association is a shops, hotels, and for many years non-profit making organisation guest houses all against St Andrews’ over town. It is user-unfriendly and all monies which it generates used in “Welcome parking system Packs” for the and it appears that are used for the good of the many conferences there may be a merchants in the town which come to the compromise on the town and because horizon! They have it features advertising from the members it is a representative on the World Class Forum who seen as an invaluable tool in the promotion of reports regularly to the committee. www.visittown businesses. standrews.co.uk received around 150 million The revenue raised from the advertising in hits per annum in recent years and has links to the Guide is then used to fund the Christmas many other prestigious websites. lights and to support the St Andrews in Bloom But it is not all serious stuff at the hanging baskets, and events such as the Merchants’ Association! A couple of times a St Andrews Week celebrations. year there are meals out for the members and The Merchants’ Association is represented an article about the St Andrews Merchants’ on the Community Council and executive Association would not be complete without members are invited to attend civic functions. mention of our longest standing member The Association liaises with Fife Police, Fife and, since the death of Jimmy Senior, our Council, the Tourist Board, Scottish Enterprise, only Honorary Life Member, Gordon Christie. the Hoteliers and Guest House Association, This has been a brief resumé of the workings the University, and any other bodies which are of the Merchants’ Association today. For a seen to affect directly the viability of the town more detailed account of the history of the as a shopping centre. It scrutinises planning Association, and some wonderful anecdotes, applications for commercial property and Gordon Christie is your man!

SHOPS & SERVICES From Jim McGill, Motoring Correspondent, the

Smart ForFour Five years after it broke the automotive mould and unveiled its groundbreaking two-seater, Smart has decided to go head-to-head with Mini uc0 the class-leader in the supermini class uc0 with its new fourseater. So let’s get one thing over right away and not prolong the agony: Smart’s new ForFour is no Mini-beater.

The guys in Oxford who put together the baby Beemer can sleep easy knowing they have put one over their German rivals at MercedesBenz. When it comes to style, funky looks, brand image, and just sheer I-just-have-to-have-one reaction, the Mini leaves its Teutonic rival standing. But dig slightly deeper below the surface of the ForFour and you discover a number of attributes which give the new Smart every chance of establishing its own little niche in the car market. And it doesn’t take a genius to work out what the ForFour’s major advantage is; here’s a clue, check out the name.

The Smart seats four people. Indeed, at a slight push it can even squeeze five in. Plus, it’s got five doors. The rear seat is something of a masterpiece. Not only does the rear bench slide and recline, but both front seats fold forward too, creating, what the people at Smart call, the ForFour lounge. Front space is extensive in the leg and headroom departments and there are a number of cleverly positioned cubby holes to store the usual bits and pieces, like mobile phone, notebook, wallet, sunglass case. Unlike the original two-seater, the construction of the ForFour is more conventional than the original, despite the new Smart’s patent clip-on plastic skin and the Tridion visible steel safety cage, which is available in three colours.

So close under the body is the ForFour to Mitsubishi’s new Colt that the two will be made in the same Dutch factory. And, unlike the two-door, the twotone look isn’t integral to the ForFour. Smart decided to use it simply because it’s a Smart trademark.

Externally the ForFour doesn’t transmit the same eye-grabbing sensations achieved by the Mini, but the minimum rear overhang certainly enhances not only the car’s appearance, but has a significantly positive affect on the interior. And the inside is simply great. Without being cheesy, and in addition to the handy storage bins, the dials sit in pods with optional ones on the dash top in the traditional Smart way. The driving position has an interesting up-and-at-’em feel, while all five seats manage to support in all the right areas at just the right level.

And if you really want to impress your rear passengers, just slide the rear bench seat right back the full 150mm and they’ll find they have enough room to stretch out their legs. Ok, they won’t have any room for luggage in the boot, but at least they’ll be comfortable. Oh, and if they fancy stargazing, the ForFour comes with a variety of innovative roof concepts: solid roof, a panoramic glass roof and an electric glass sunroof.

There are five engine variants, uc0 four petrol, with a capacity of 1.0, 1.1, 1.3 and 1.5 litres and a power output of 75bhp, 95bhp and 109bhp respectively; plus two 1.5-litre diesels producing 68bhp and 95bhp uc0 available from the select group of Smart outlets across Scotland. Plus there’s a Brabus version. But having spent a day driving all five power plants, mixing the route through the nose-to-tail grind of Edinburgh’s city centre with the free-flowing city bypass, the two best models are the 1.1 petrol and the 95bhp 1.5 diesel.

The entry-level 1.0 Purestyle, at a paltry £7295, owes you nothing and yet succeeds in delivering a lively combination of pace, precision, and practicality. Yes, it whines a bit as you shift through the gears, but it’s perfectly adequate, though it’s best limited to city use. It quickly developed a wheeze as it hit the hills on the bypass. The 95bhp diesel, though, is the pick of the bunch.

At £10,995, the ForFour Pulse is the model to opt for if you’re going to be undertaking motorway or distance driving. Immediately it feels more solid and planted on the road, and though it drones a bit and never really falls quiet even on the bypass, it kicks along nicely. A top speed of 112mph and 0-62mph in 10.5-secs is laudable enough.

Even with four people inside, the brakes remain confident and the ride is firm, but not sharp. There’s a slight disappointment, though, in that the steering has a slightly dead feeling to it, which means it lacks the brightness and nimbleness of a 206 or Fiesta ... Or, dare I say, a Mini. If truth be told, I expected not to like the ForFour, but I came away with a qualified admiration for it.

VITAL STATISTICS: Smart ForFour 1.5 cdi Pulse How much? £10,995 How fast? 0-60 mph: 105secs Top speed: 112mph How thirsty/CO2? Combined mpg 61.4mpg / 121g/km Fit in the garage?

L 3752mm. W 1684mm.

On sale in Scotland? Now Verdict? Smart’s entry into the supermini sector is a brave move and the ForFour is certainly worth considering against many of the leading opposition. Ultimately lacks Mini’s chic, though many will prefer ForFour’s increased practicality.

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FEATURES

St Andrews in 1956 Looking back, says Donald Macgregor, has its fascination. What follows is a highly selective look at what some people were saying, doing and thinking about in the early months of the year half a century ago.

As in 2006, January had spells when it was sunny and over 50 degrees F (10 C) – not quite warm enough for any but the toughest to take a dook in the Step Rock swimming pool. The long-pondered question of an indoor pool got a series of airings at the Town Council, but government restrictions on capital expenditure (the estimated cost was £76,000) were blamed for making it impossible to build such a thing – even if the twelve councillors had been able to agree on its desirability, location and design. St Andrews swimmers had another 32 years to wait before a public indoor pool was built (after more controversy and at much greater cost) at the East Sands.

The Astronomer Royal had recently stated that space travel was ‘utter bilge’ – not because it was impossible to travel to the Moon, but because no one would put up the money. However the editor of the local paper did a bit of speculative time-travelling – it was, after all, the heyday of Dan Dare, pilot of the future – in a ‘light-hearted address’ just after New Year about what St Andrews might be like in 2056. Halfway there, our crystal ball is just as cloudy, but it looks as if his prediction that the town would not have spread much farther to the south and west, and that the centre would have a lot of ‘skyscraper-type buildings’, will not be realised. In 1956, there was little housing south of Lamond Drive, and no housing developments south of the Lade Braes farther west than what is now Viaduct Walk which was then the railway line describing, until 1965, a steep curve round the hill to Mount Melville Station and then eastwards towards Boarhills.

On the economic front, the speaker suggested that craftsmen such as cleek makers might by 2056 enjoy a four-day working week of 16 hours and might earn at least £50 a week. Television would be the universal means of education, and so the Fife accent would have disappeared in favour of a cut-glass ‘BBC accent’.

A shortage of entrants to the ranks of the clergy might mean that St Andrews would only have one minister, and that this person would preach in all the churches in turn, with the service relayed to the others by means of a life-size TV screen in the pulpit. The speaker surmised that the University would still be its 1956 size (about 1200), and its students would still wander around in red gowns, but carrying short-wave TV sets linked to tape-recorders so as to ‘assimilate their lectures’. Meantime, the Old Course would be the last one in the world where you had to walk round and would not be allowed to ride in a buggy.

In the real 1956 world, Fife County Council had just appointed a new Rector to Madras College, Dr John Thompson (who stayed in post until 1975). On March 13 Provost David Fraser declared open the first modern extension to the school, which at a cost of £110,000 provided it with a second enclosed quadrangle, a two storey block with classrooms and art rooms upstairs, and staff rooms, a gymnasium and an assembly hall downstairs (all still in use). The architects of this ‘first contemporary building of any size’ in the town were the local firm of Walker and Pride, and six of the fifteen firms of contractors were based in St Andrews.

Meantime, a long-running controversy of which echoes are still audible today was being fuelled, as the Town Council, the University and the Secretary of State’s officials twisted and turned over the location of future university developments. Would these be at West Burn Lane?

St Andrews was split on the question; and it was only after a prolonged, venomous, and expensive row that the North Haugh was chosen as the site for future development.

Safety Panel

Gowf!

Gowf? The verra name’s anither for frustration, An’ yet, it nivver fails tae lure ye back; Because ye got yin extra-special shot, elation Filled yer hert – deep doon, ye kent it wasna lack 0’ knack, or poverty o’ talent Na, juist yin o’ thae bad days When naethin’ seemed tae wark – it wasna meant Tae be. Aw’ve sniggered tae masel when Jimmy says, “It’s doon, as weel ye ken, tae practice – gettin’ fowk Like me tae tak ye roon’ an’ show ye a’ the proper ways.”

An’ then he swings the cleek, an’, like a gowk, Juist duffs the ba’. Aw ken juist how he feels; “Juist yin o’ thae things,” Aw venture tae suggest. “Ye nivver juist can tell Whit wey that ba’ is gaun tae gang!” He reels In disbelief, a chastened man. “Awa tae Hell, Whit div ye ken?” Wha better could be asked that question?

Aw’ve been in ivv’ry bunker, ditch an’ piece o’ rough; Aw ken ful weel there’s no’ anither game sae testin’ 0’ the patience when ye think ye’re guid an’ find ye’re no’ – for this is gowf!

From ‘Spiders’ Wings’ – A collection of Poems by Ian W. Seeley (private circulation)

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Photos: Starting young! – by F. Selwyn

PULL-OUT SUPPLEMENT: A SCOTTISH IDYLL

A Scottish Idyll Charles B. Ketcham, PhD St. Andrews, 1956 “I spent my life teaching, some thirty-one years at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and another nine years at Smith College in Massachusetts. I have published five books — mostly in religious studies and all out of print now. Amazon.com still lists them if you put my name in (Charles B. Ketcham)” My love affair with Scotland began on board a WW II American troop ship which, unescorted across the Atlantic, sailed up the Clyde late in 1944. I was an infantry replacement on my way to Joyce and Charles Ketcham France, destined to replace GIs killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Whether it was apprehension about impending combat, or relief at escaping German submarines which attacked us off the coast of Ireland, I thought I had never seen anything as beautiful as Ayr, or the coast and mountains of Arran. I vowed then and there that if I survived the war, I’d come back somehow, sometime, to explore this beautiful country from which some of my ancestors had emigrated.

That I survived is clearly self-evident, but there is some poetic justice in how, in 1949, I fulfilled my vow. Given a Fulbright Grant by the U.S. Government from monies dedicated to rationalizing war indebtedness, I chose to study philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. It was my ticket back to Brigadoon, courtesy of the Government which had landed me in Scotland in the first place.

Despite food rationing, gloves-and-coats-on frosty classrooms, and a limit of one hot bath per week at my digs, I was so enamoured of the countryside, the Scots, and the University, I decided to stay a second year. It was a decision that seemed wondrously fated. In 1949 the British pound was devalued, which had the salutary effect (for this foreign student) of doubling the stipend of the Fulbright Grant. In the same academic year, my fiancée, Joyce Parker, decided that, rather than waiting another year for me to return, she would come to Scotland to be married. Now what could be more Brigadoonish than that?

With parental blessings, but not presence, surrounded by Edinburgh University friends, dig-mates and landlady, the American Vice-consul and his wife, and a few stray Americans who came wandering through, Joyce and I were married on the 29th of June, 1950, in the Kirk of the Greyfriars by the Overseas Chaplain of the University, The Reverend Peter Reckard. From the beginning, it had promised to be joyous, even humorous, and so it was. It began with my attempt to order wedding invitations from a very proper stationers’ shop on Princes Street. I was told, politely but firmly, that I should not be the one sending out the invitations; it should be the bride’s parents. The clerk offered to reword the invitation for me. When I demurred, I was told that I would probably find Woolworths a “more convenient” provider. It was — to my relief and my friends’ delight.

Because we were to be married in the Church of Scotland, it was expected that we would have our banns read at my parish Church in Leith. I had never attended this Church, but the Minister seemed to be more amused than annoyed by my request for the reading. Members of the congregation identified me with ease, of course, and a few even came over to congratulate me. They were fascinated to learn that Joyce was flying to Scotland unaccompanied by family or friends and staying with a Scottish friend of mine, Jean Learmonth, in Morningside until the wedding.

Three days before the wedding, I went to Prestwick Airport, near Glasgow, to meet Joyce’s late afternoon flight from New York. When I arrived I found a cable from Joyce informing me that her American Airlines flight had been postponed twenty-four hours, probably because of the outbreak of the Korean War. Prestwick Airport had a few meagre lodgings for travellers, so I booked a room. I worried about Joyce, worried about what would happen to all our wedding plans if her flight were postponed for another day, worried about how the war might affect our lives, and eventually worried myself to sleep. The next morning, to break the worry-chain, I travelled to Glasgow, unaware that while I was there another cable from Joyce arrived saying that she had secured an earlier flight on KLM arriving in Prestwick early that afternoon. She arrived, having been teased by her flight companions that she would not be met, and sadly, was not met. She had me paged around the airport, found that my room was still booked, and discovered that her cable had never been received. Resigned, she settled down to wait. I arrived an hour later to find her standing with open arms in the middle of the waiting room. After a passionate embrace, we were interrupted by the airport pager who asked, very politely, “Is that Mr. Ketcham?”

Our wedding day began with a cool Scottish drizzle, but cleared to intermittent patches of blue by the end. The bride was to be “given away” by Warren Wallace, a close, painfully agnostic Fulbright friend of mine, who kept mumbling, “It’s immoral; I don’t even know the woman; how can I give her away…and to you of all people?” His wife, Catherine, was to be Joyce’s Matron of Honour, a role she nobly accepted with fear and much trembling — trembling which persisted all the way to the altar. This trauma was intensified because her position, first down the aisle as American bridesmaids are, signalled to our Scottish friends that she was the bride, frightened and alone. Unaware of this collective angst, I was waiting at the altar with my Best Man, Bob Rodman, a boyhood and college friend of mine. I was eagerly watching for Joyce and listening to the Wedding Processional my mother, a sometime student at the Julliard School of Music in New York, had written for her own wedding to my father. For me, it brought everything together — bride, family, and friends; Scotland and America.

i

A SCOTTISH IDYLL After the Service we had a receiving line outside of the Kirk, which was attended by the wedding guests and a congregation of very amused grave diggers who stood idly by, watching and critiquing the show. As one wag put it, “Ah, the beginning and the end. You’ve thought of it all, Ketcham.”

This wedding-pantomime was followed immediately by a trip in our Rolls Royce limousine to a Princes Street photographer, who pictorially transported us back to the beginning of the 20th century. In the few hurried steps from limo to studio, Bob Rodman was stopped by shoppers on Princes Street and asked if Joyce, resplendent in her white wedding suit, was a Hollywood star. It was a heady time for us all. Then it was on to the Caledonian Hotel for the Wedding Luncheon generously underwritten by Joyce’s parents. Tastefully, the chefs managed to comply with all the restrictions of Britain’s post-war rationing. Perhaps it was that the menu was all in French. It was a scrumptious way to bid goodbye to our friends and get started on our honeymoon.

But even the tranquillity of a honeymoon in the Trossachs and on the Island of Iona could not alter the fact that I, now we, had to face serious vocational choices. When Joyce came to Scotland, she thought she was marrying a philosopher with a probable academic career, but now, suddenly, and unexpectedly, she found she had married a potential clergyman with a probable church career. Considering what was expected of clergymen’s wives in those days, the change would be daunting to say the least. I, too, faced a daunting set of choices: I was the fourth generation in a family with three prior generations of Methodist ministers, the first of whom served as a chaplain in the American Civil War and the third (my father) who served as a chaplain in World War I. I was already a combat veteran of World War II, but now I was facing the possibility of serving in the developing war in Korea. But, in what capacity? I doubt that Korea would have weighted the scales alone, but two additional influences had been significantly shaping my life during my first year in Edinburgh.

The first was the powerful and gifted preaching of James S. Stewart, who at this time was teaching at New College, Edinburgh. I had become a member of a groupie congregation following him about the city of Edinburgh, where he was a much sought-after guest preacher. The second was the persuasive teaching of John Macmurray, the Moral Philosophy Professor at the University. His life was a model of Quaker dedication to both erudition and service to the Nation as an international consultant.

Not willing to be paralysed by such decision-making, Joyce and I took a long, glorious hostelling trip into the Highlands, where all the external ins-and-outs, ups-and-downs of the conflicting forces at work on us were exchanged for the lochs, glens, and mountains of Argyll, Inverness, and Ross and Cromarty. With a new perspective, we returned to Edinburgh convinced that I should make the move to read theology at New College, the seminary for the Church of Scotland . The Principal, Professor John Baillie, after reviewing my records from the University and granting me an interview (more like a cordial conversation) graciously accepted me as a matriculating Divinity student at New College, and the vocational question was, for the moment, settled.

New College, Edinburgh, followed by a semester at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and two graduate years at Drew University in New Jersey, USA, led to my degree in divinity and ordination in 1953. Granted a generous travelling fellowship from Drew upon graduation, I was given the thrilling, if sobering, choice of selecting any centre in the world (that would admit me) for a year’s further study in theology. The richness of available scholarly resources was endless, yet for me there was one pre-eminent choice—one scholar and one University: Professor Donald Baillie of St. Mary’s College at the University of St. Andrews.

In 1951 I had heard Professor Baillie lecture at New College, Edinburgh. His lecture was on his recently published book, God Was in Christ, and the impact of this man and his thought was profound and transforming for me. So when, through Drew, the opportunity came to extend my life as a “professional student,” it was to him that I turned. Unlike my earlier European studies under the aegis of the Fulbright Committee, I now had to be my own advocate. I knew that my application for study would not be to the University of St. Andrews, or even St. Mary’s College (a seminary for the Church of Scotland), but directly to Professor Baillie. Should he accept me, the rest would simply fall into place.

It was into grace that I fell. Professor Baillie not only accepted me for graduate studies, he arranged initial housing for Joyce and me at 17 South Street in St. Andrews. This was a large townhouse which another American student was now, entrepreneurially, subletting to others. It was convenient to St. Mary’s and the centre of town. Two other graduate students of the Divinity School were residents. It was a perfect place to begin. But, this particular townhouse came with a local history unknown to us and, I’m sure, to Professor Baillie. It had been used to house university students before, and the tenants the previous year had been notorious for their wild parties and unrestrained social life. For weeks St. Andreans, after high tea, strolled by our ground floor living room, with its large windows facing on to South Street, to see what we were up to. Eventually they decided “not much” and the parades stopped.

Professor Baillie’s kindnesses went far beyond logistics, to be sure. He introduced me to local clergy, invited me to preach at Martyrs’ Church where he was a presbyter, arranged an appropriate course of study at St. Mary’s, and after six months invited me to stay on to do my doctorate under his supervision. It was an incredible opportunity which the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill would make financially possible. Neither Professor Baillie nor I knew, of course, that I was to be his last doctoral student because of his unexpected death at sixty-seven in 1954. The Rev. Murdo E. MacDonald of St. George’s West, Edinburgh, in his tribute to Baillie in the “Scotsman” recalled his impressions of the man, which all of us knew so well: “the loose-limbed undulating walk, the lean ascetic features, the shy but kindly eyes, the indefinable aura of goodness.” As our professor, we found him to be soft spoken, gentle, generous, perceptive and patient. I remember one earnest student saying: “Professor Baillie, I think you’re just playing with words!” We were startled and offended by the unwarranted presumption of such a remark, but Professor Baillie responded with smile and twinkle: “Well, then I suggest we play a little more.” During the period we were in St. Andrews, the University invited Professor Baillie to become Principal of St. Mary’s College, an honour he respectfully declined. From him I learned the profound lesson that there is an exquisite excitement in the search for truth, which transcends the rewards of temporal power.

ii

A SCOTTISH IDYLL That Professor Baillie was brilliant goes without saying. It was the reason why many of us from many nations and religious affiliations had gathered in St. Andrews. He helped us appreciate the brilliance of Calvin and the significance of Reformation history without distorting, for good or ill, Calvin’s occasional theological surrender to logical extremes. Equally important, he would then demonstrate the significance of this heritage for the current keen interests in ecumenism, Kierkegaardian existential confession, and Continental Neo-Orthodox theology. This same acknowledged brilliance brought many of the worlds’ most exciting theologians to St. Andrews to visit Professor Baillie — Barth, Brunner, Tillich, Market Square, St Andrews Bultmann. In the fall of 1953, it was through his good offices that Paul Tillich, a Gifford lecturer at the University, was able to accept an invitation to join the American students at 17 South St. for a Thanksgiving Day celebration. While student-husbands attended the lecture, the wives, substituting a British goose for an American turkey, prepared a wonderful dinner, much of which was supplied by “care packages” from the States.

The decision to accept Professor Baillie’s generous offer to direct my doctoral studies led Joyce and me to seek more comfortable lodgings for our longer stay. In the local newspaper, “The St. Andrews Citizen”, an ad for a gatehouse five miles west of St. Andrews appeared with a designated time for applicants to visit and inspect. We took the bus from St. Andrews to the village of Dairsie, walked south down a narrow intersecting road, over the River Eden on Kemback Bridge, and into Dura Den. The gatehouse, called Kemback Lodge, was a quarter of a mile along on the left-hand side of the road. Even Beatrix Potter could not have sketched out a more enchanting cottage.

Nestled in trees and shrubs about one hundred feet from the road, the Lodge was surrounded by beautifully tended, seasonally rotated beds of flowers and sculpted holly trees. Its grey stone walls, thick as the length of my forearm, were cut from local quarries, and a pitched roof of slate betrayed the earlier presence of thatching. We were shown the Lodge by Douglas Thomson, who introduced himself as the Head Gardener on the Kemback Estate. Knowledgeable and gracious, he showed us the house and answered most of the questions we asked. The Lodge itself was Kemback Lodge beautifully furnished — dining room, living room, kitchen, bath, and bedroom downstairs. Upstairs a small guest room, central hall, and a dormer room, perfect for a study.

The Lodge had been occupied by the landlord’s eldest son Brian and his wife, who had recently moved to St. Andrews.

This was obviously no ordinary rental cottage.

It was at this point that Douglas Thomson said, “I think Mr. Thomson would like to meet you.” His eyes twinkled.

Without prompting, except for the look of surprise on our faces, he added, “No, we’re not related. It’s just coincidence.”

We were told to walk up the long drive through policy parks to Kemback House and knock on the door. We would be expected. This may not have been a “Narnia” we were entering, but it was a C.S. Lewis wardrobe-experience: a strange Other-world, a Victorian world we could only naively relate to through the writings of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. As we walked up the drive worrying about bus schedules back to St. Andrews, a Royal Air Force jet roared overhead on its way to Leuchars Air Force Base just five miles away.

Through impressive gates, past embracing banks of rhododendron bushes, we followed a circular drive to the front of a breathtakingly beautiful stone mansion covered with crimson Virginia Creeper. We were met at the door by William Harold Thomson, the Principal, we later Kemback House

iii

A SCOTTISH IDYLL learned, of D. C. Thomson, Ltd., the publishing giant based in Manchester, England, but with home offices in Dundee, just across the Tay. Harold Thomson, back-lighted in the doorway, was an imposing silhouette with a shock of white hair. He sort of roared, “Hello”, and said, “Douglas said you’d be right along.” We saw a robust man, around five-feet ten-inches tall, obviously very vigorous, with a round, jovial face transected by half-glasses. We were led upstairs, through panelled halls and into a long, richly panelled drawing room with a superb Adams fireplace at the far end. There were comfortable chairs, antique tables and chests, flowers galore, and stunning still-life paintings by the French artist Jean Baptiste Robie — or so Mr. Thomson thought. The collection was really the passion of his late wife, Helen, and was initiated at the time of the wartime death of the Thomsons’ second son, Trevor.

At the time of our arrival, Mr. Thomson’s youngest son Derek, was at Kemback. Both he and his elder brother Brian were part of the D.C. Thomson Corporation in Dundee. Derek was as affable as his father, and he graciously put our minds at ease about returning to St. Andrews. He said he would drive us back on his way home to Broughty Ferry. We spent a delightful hour getting acquainted, warmed and nourished by lively conversation, sherry, and cheese biscuits.

With some apprehension we brought up the fact that we had recently acquired an Irish terrier puppy named “Crags.”

Mr. Thomson thought that splendid, which made us believe that Mr. Thomson was pretty splendid himself. By the end of our visit we had reached an agreement to move to the Lodge.

Like so many great houses in Scotland, Kemback had a colourful history. In 1437, Melis Graham owned the estate, but as a convicted accomplice in the murder of King James the I in Perth that year, he was executed. His wife, having tried to hide him, was hanged from Kemback Bridge. The estate, subsequently deeded to the Roman Catholic Bishopric of St. Andrews, was given by Bishop Kennedy to St. Salvator’s College in 1485, and returned to private hands in 1583. It was purchased by the Thomson family in the 1920s. All of this bloody and ecclesiastical history was vividly related in what Mr. Thomson called “The White Book” kept under lock and key. Some of it had to do with tales of the White Lady, who reportedly haunts Kemback Bridge and the Kemback estate. Mr. Thomson’s fear was that the staff would be too upset if they read the stories. He apparently thought that of us, for we never did see “The White Book.”

But, Kemback was more than colourful history for us; it was our initiation into the world of the BBC’s drama series, “Upstairs, Downstairs.” Kemback was a working estate, a splendid, if vanishing, example of the Victorian lifestyle of the landed gentry. The rich farmlands around the estate were leased to local farmers and arrangements were made with them about grazing their cattle and some sheep on the policy parks. The grounds of Kemback House and Lodge, as well as the overall maintenance of the policy parks, were under the direction of Douglas Thomson and one other full-time gardener, but Douglas Thomson’s major responsibility was the maintenance of a large walled garden at the back of Kemback House. Against the high stone walls were Kemback House walled garden carefully espaliered fruit trees and against the back wall were greenhouses. The gardens themselves were divided between flowers, and a wide selection of vegetables and herbs. Except for meat, fish, and poultry (available from his tenant farmers), Kemback was succulently self-sufficient. There was even a local gamekeeper who, by providing a steady supply of rabbits, kept the well-populated Kemback warrens under control. During these post-war years of continuing scarcity, such provisions were highly cherished.

The loyalty of the staff of Kemback was almost fierce. They took great pride in being associated with, even defined by, the Service they rendered to Harold Thomson and to the estate. I have capitalized the word “Service” because it was obvious the staff did not think of what they did as a “job”, but more as an honourable vocation which carried social status and recognition. That it was jarring to our egalitarian American culture would never have occurred to them, nor did they see the growing influence of the British Labour Party as coming liberation from class-structured, even if privileged, lives of servitude. For them, Pipa’s judgment could be taken at face value, “God’s in his heaven, and all’s right with the world.”

Douglas Thomson had spent his life “in Service” to the Harold Thomson family. During WWII he joined the Army as Brian Thomson’s batman, and at war’s end returned to his gardening position at Kemback. It was obvious that Harold Thomson trusted him implicitly, and we gradually understood that it was Douglas who selected us from all the applicants as prospective new tenants for the Lodge. Kemback House itself was efficiently and invisibly (we thought almost magically) run by Margaret, the Housekeeper, who managed her own staff. Her responsibilities were made somewhat easier by the fact that Kemback House was centrally heated. In the days when coal for domestic heating was strictly rationed and electrical heat inordinately expensive even for a Harold Thomson, this was no mean feat and was worthy of being a “cunning plan” offered by Blackadder’s Baldrich. Mr. Thomson had the clinkers discarded from the heating plants of the “Dundee Courrier” (his flagship newspaper) delivered to Kemback house, where the residue coal in the clinkers was re-burned with forced air.

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A SCOTTISH IDYLL The cook, Mary, was gourmet and insisted that Mr. Thomson keep her kitchen busy. This proved fortuitous for us, and we became frequent guests (and often adjunct hosts) for dinner along with his favourite ‘locals’—the Sheriff of Fife, a retired Admiral of the Fleet, retired diplomats and civil servants from India now living in St. Andrews, local farmers, and friends from the other three great houses in that part of Fife: Rumgally, Dura House, and Blebo Craigs. There were no servants in the dining room. Whether this was Mr. Thomson’s desire for privacy or a token gesture to war austerity, we never knew. Mary placed, in a double-door serving hatch, her culinary creations which Mr. Thomson (or Joyce) retrieved and served to his guests. Dishes removed after each course were placed in the hatch, and collected by Mary on the other side. No visual contacts; it was a magical cornucopia.

And finally there was Adam, the chauffeur, who daily drove Mr. Thomson to his Dundee office via the car ferry across the Tay. Mr. Thomson ritually left the car to pace the deck for the duration of the ferry journey. He claimed to cover one half mile before returning to the car. Adam, a round little man with automotive tunnel vision, kept the Thomson cars in mint condition; even the engines were show-room clean. Adam died while we were there. His widow was permitted to remain in their apartment located behind Kemback House, but Adam was not replaced. His chauffeuring had been primarily for the convenience of Mrs. Thomson. Following Adam’s death, Harold Tay Bridge and Dundee Thomson drove his own cars, but he didn’t stop pacing the ferry deck.

Maintaining such Victorian charm and fashion concurrently with leading his publishing world into the post-war, post-modern world was something that Harold Thomson did with grace and no little humour. Although the two worlds did not mix well, there were moments when he brought the two together as skilfully as a cabinetmaker would a mitred corner. Religion, I observed, was a case in point. Mr. Thomson was not what one would call an avid churchman, but he did have a cultural and historical appreciation of religion and the role of the Church. Before the Thomson’s tenure at Kemback, land from the Estate was provided to the Church of Scotland for the Kemback Parish Church. This was a practice common enough in the 19th century, and the Laird was often granted the courtesy of selecting the minister to serve the parish. Though this practice had ceased long ago, the relationship of Laird and Minister often remained close.

In Mr. Thomson’s case the word would more likely be “cordial” rather than “close.” Mr. Thomson was not a member of the Parish, or even the Church of Scotland. The Thomsons were Scottish Episcopalians. Mr. Thomson, nevertheless, took a proprietary interest in the Kemback Parish Church and its welfare. For his part, the Minister returned the gesture, and each Saturday night, if not informed otherwise, he would take the footpath from Church to Kemback House around nine in the evening to pay his respects and ask after Mr. Thomson’s health. They then shared a dram or two of Mr. Thomson’s single malt, and with this, the Minister returned home.

To our great benefit and delight, we had become guest members of the extended Kemback Estate. Looking back, there seem to have been a number of factors which facilitated this relationship. Although the classical, de jure social structure of the Three Estates has long since disappeared in Britain, it’s social privileges and constraints still exert some de facto influence, and my ordained status in the Church identified us as members of the First Estate. That I was a graduate student in one of the most prestigious Universities in Scotland gave me Third Estate status in the bourgeoisie, where the Thomsons found their own social niche in addition to being a prominent voice in the relatively recent Fourth Estate, the press. Neither of us qualified as Second Estate nobility. What all this means is that we met on common ground, and the decision to associate was predicated on social congeniality, not social class.

But there is another explanation which, for us Americans, comes more readily to mind to explain this adoption into the Kemback Estate family.

As Americans we were difficult to classify; few of the historical codifications of class described above applied west of the Atlantic Ocean. So for the Thomsons we were the exceptions which proved (or maybe avoided) the subtle rules of classification. For the Thomsons, we were innocents abroad; for us, the Thomsons were cultural history to be appreciated. Two episodes will illustrate the point.

Shortly after moving from St. Andrews to the Lodge, we wanted to thank the two gardeners for the extraordinary and courteous help they had provided during our move. Joyce called Mrs. Douglas Thomson and invited her for afternoon Haystacks of old

v

A SCOTTISH IDYLL tea. When Mrs. Thomson accepted, Joyce expressed her delight, and then called the wife of the Second Gardener. Joyce told her of Mrs. Thomson’s acceptance and asked if she and her husband could come that same day. She expressed great regret, but reported that she had to drive her daughter to the dentist in Cupar that day. Joyce then asked her if she could possibly come the following day. “Oh yes,” she replied, “that would be lovely.” Joyce then called Mrs. Douglas Thomson back and asked her if she could come on that next day and explained why there was a need to change dates. “Och, no,” replied Mrs. Thomson, “I’m very sorry, but that time would not be possible for us.” It was only then that the scales fell from our eyes: to have the Head Gardener and his wife to tea with the Second Gardener and his wife was simply “not the done thing.” There is a proper order to be observed. We had the Douglas Thomsons to tea first....

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Harold Thomson accepted our invitation to dinner at the Lodge with a show of good grace.

Looking back, I don’t know whether Mr. Thomson or Joyce acted more courageously — Mr. Thomson for accepting the invitation to have dinner with his Bob Cratchet tenants, or Joyce for her willingness to provide a dinner under the constraints of a very limited choice of provisions, a strange kitchen, and confusing culinary measurements. Mr. Thomson arrived with a beautiful bouquet of cut flowers from his garden and a little tin of Turkish Delights. I cannot recall what Joyce prepared. She thinks it must have been some sort of pasta, because meat was still very scarce, followed by fruit compote for dessert. The after-dinner sweets, I’m sure, were Turkish Delights. My most vivid memory of that dinner came afterwards, finding in Mr. Thomson’s wine glass a large residue of dregs left from the cheap Italian red wine we had bought on the suggestion of a student friend. Mr. Thomson thanked us for the dinner, but insisted that henceforth we would eat at his house, because Mary, the cook, was angry when she couldn’t prepare dinner for him. It was the last time that Mr. Thomson ate at the Lodge; we became “regulars” at Kemback House weekends. There were no dregs in our wine glasses!

Another advantage, unanticipated, of moving to Kemback Lodge was its proximity to Cupar, the County Town of Fife, and one of the oldest burghs in Scotland. As early as the 13th century it was known as the seat of the Courts of Justice, and it was the reputed site of the castle of the MacDuffs, Thanes of Fife, of Shakespearian note in “Macbeth.” But there was a price to pay for such an advantage. The constant threemile journey to Cupar for shopping, the commute to St. Andrews for seminars, and the increasingly frequent trips to Edinburgh for doctoral research at the National Library of Scotland, required an upgrade in transportation. We sold our Raleigh bikes and bought a 1934 Morris sedan in a petrol-station-what-you-see“Himself”, Joyce and Crags is-what-you-get deal. With no mechanical experience or aptitude, we had nothing to go on, but tire-kicking aesthetics, and the Morris was an impressive-looking machine. We should have listened to Proverbs which sternly warned us that “beauty is vain”, rather than romanticizing with Keats’s “Beauty is truth.” In short, we missed the fact that there was a hairline crack in the block, a worn head gasket, frayed brake cables, and heaven only knows what else.

Starting the car was always a chore. I had to crank the engine, and in cold weather it turned into a labour for Hercules.

On winter Sundays I found that I had used up all my religious importuning and damnations before I even arrived at the Church. Mr. Thomson appreciated the fact that we parked it off to the side of the Lodge in a wooded area and not in the entryway to Kemback House.

Being of an age when we imagined that cars evidenced a persona of their own, we might have named our Morris, “Lochinvar;” but because it was of an age when dignity rather than romantic athleticism seemed more appropriate, we named him (there was never ever a question of gender!) “Himself.” As it turned out, he played several important roles in our lives, not the least of which was as an expediting agent in the two-month premature birth of our son. Because of a history of miscarriages, we knew that Joyce had to be careful. In May, with visitors in tow, a sightseeing trip around Fife in a car with dysfunctional shock absorbers proved to be too challenging. We whisked Joyce to Craigtoun Maternity Hospital near St. Andrews where she gave birth to a three-pound, thirteen-ounce boy to whom we gave the family name of “Merrick.” Little did we know then that “The Merrick” was the name of the highest summit in the Scottish Galloway Hills, and was locally referred to as the big-toe-of-the-mountain-in-the-mist. Our Merrick claims only the family connection.

One of the reasons for Merrick’s survival was the incomparable care Joyce and he received from both Dr. Isobel Cochrane of St. Andrews and the skilled midwives and staff of Craigtoun Hospital. Dr. Cochrane, a five-foot five arsenal of energy with an irrepressible laugh, canny eyes, and black short-cropped hair, was the ‘mother’ for the wives of American students studying in St. Andrews. Before she took up practice in St. Andrews, she had served in the British Armed Forces, so there was little that could surprise or intimidate her. When Joyce joined the ranks of the “Cochrane Corps,” Dr. Cochrane invited me to come along, but I was too shy to join their ranks. That amused her, and I think disappointed her. We nevertheless became fast friends over the next two years, a relationship we actively maintained over the next forty years. When Merrick was in college, he made a special pilgrimage to St. Andrews to hug this Nightingale in his life.

For two weeks Joyce was confined to hospital. Then it was two more weeks at Kemback Lodge while she regularly delivered her milk to the hospital, which engendered a depressing bovine complex. Finally she spent two more weeks

vi

A SCOTTISH IDYLL residing at hospital to learn the techniques of caring for a premature baby. All of this was under the supervision of “The Matron” of Craigtoun, whose authority was that of an absolute monarch. It was she who had to give Dr. Cochrane permission to assist in Merrick’s birth and to visit Joyce daily that first week of confinement. That was far more consideration than I was given. It was two days before I could see Joyce, and a week before I could see that wee jaundiced bairn in his swaddling wraps in the premies’ nursery room. The costs for such comprehensive and dedicated care would have been enormous. Amazing to us, our medical expenses were covered by the National Health Service, but private practice or hospital could not have given us superior care.

The Morris had virtues, even if it had jolted Merrick into the world prematurely. It gave us needed access to Cupar, to inaccessible and stunning places beyond the reach of public transport, and it proved convenient for two of the churches in Cupar, where I occasionally preached. Before Donald Baillie became a theology professor at St. Mary’s College, one of the parishes he served as minister was St. John’s in Cupar. St. John’s roots are in the Free Church of Scotland, established during the “Disruption” of 1843, a tradition in which Donald Baillie had grown up. The second church in which I preached was Bonnygate, located only a long, Scots’ Hammer toss from St. John’s. Bonnygate comes out of the Church of Scotland tradition, but both Churches now are part of a United Church of Scotland. As most locals would have it, where you had two Churches before the unification, you now have three, which is one reason why there is such a plethora of churches in most Scottish cities and towns.

When, on occasions such as the vacation month of July, these two Cupar parishes were in need of a supply preacher, I would be asked to preach at both. Tradition dictated that I would serve Bonnygate first and then walk up the street to St. Johns’ where I would conduct the same service, read the same Scripture lessons, and preach the same sermon. The two congregations simply would not attend each others’ services. I better understood the mystery of this because of some sage instruction given to us (the gaggle of foreign graduate students who supplied any number of pulpits in the East Neuk of Fife), by St. Mary’s Professor of Pastoral Theology, the affable Rev. Professor William Forrester, whom colleagues called “Willie” and students called “Daddy.”

The precipitating occasion for our briefing by Professor Forrester was a guest visitation I paid to the little Church at Kingsbarns, just south of St. Andrews. All began well: the beadle had led me into the sanctuary, climbed the pulpit stairs, placed the open Bible on the pulpit, and then closed the pulpit door behind me as he left. It was the traditional way the Scots have to let you know that the “Word” takes precedence over all else in the Kirk. The opening hymn was followed

by Scripture readings, prayers, sermon, and more hymns. It was the usual Order of Service. But, when I asked them to join with me in reciting the Lord’s Prayer, I could only hear Joyce’s voice from the congregation. Each of us started praying louder, but it was to no avail. At the end of the service it is customary for the beadle to come to the pulpit, open the door, and then lead the clergyman to the Retiring Room to greet whoever wished to come in. I sat waiting for the beadle, but he never came. The congregation was fast departing, so I let myself out and went to the Retiring Room. No one came, which was most unusual for friendly and hospitable Scots. When I returned to the sanctuary, there sat Joyce alone as the beadle proceeded to clean up the pews. I finally said to him, “Look, I must have done something outrageous to offend these people. What happened?” He eyed me carefully for an uncomfortable length of time, then said, “Ye no read from the true Word of God, and Ye asked the people to pray by rote. If Ye had’ne been an American, they’d have cried out ‘Popery!’ and walked out.” I was more stunned than offended by this, but I had to acknowledge that I had read from an American translation of the Bible, and I had asked them to join in a common prayer.

When I returned to St. Mary’s and reported all this to Professor Forrester, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, but I think I should talk to all of you about this.” His explanation at our meeting was clear, simple, and even generously apologetic. “We should have warned you that some of the country parishes around the East Neuk are rigidly Calvinistic and unabashedly conservative. From now on we’ll identify them for you before you go. In part, however, it’s just the nature of Scots who live on the Northeast coast of Scotland. If you go to Glasgow to preach, your congregants will crowd around you after the service and tell you that you’ve just preached one of the finest sermons they’ve ever heard. They’ll probably insist you come back soon. If you go back in two weeks, they won’t remember that you’ve been there before and will probably tell you that you’ve just preached one of the finest sermons they’ve ever heard.” Then he added, impishly, “It’s the ‘Irish’ in them. But don’t expect to make an impression on the East coast.

We’re a dour lot. However, if you do make an impression, know it will last for three generations!”

My guest preaching assignments took me to beautiful East Neuk coastal villages such as Pittenweem and Anstruther, but that ended when the Presbytery in Cupar, with approval of Professors Baillie and Forrester, asked me to become the interim minister for the parishes of Kilmany and Rathillet — overlooking the fact that my ordination was in the United Methodist Church in America. I thought this to be ecumenism at its best. These two Scottish Kirks were linked together and in the process of looking for a permanent replacement, and so the congregations, during my tenure, would remain under the pastoral care of the Presbytery. Kilmany and Rathillet are located just north of Cupar, each worthy of historical note. Kilmany was the church where Thomas Chalmers started his movement, leading to the “Disruption of 1843” and the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland. Chalmers had a distinguished career serving as Professor of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrews, Professor of Theology at the University of Edinburgh, and as the first Moderator of the new Free Church. It was a hard act for me to follow, even after a century (let alone three generations) of intervening history.

Rathillet’s claim to fame came somewhat earlier. It was the home parish of David Hackston, a Church of Scotland Covenanter, executed in 1680 as an accomplice in the murder of Archbishop Sharp of St. Andrews in 1679. I shall spare you the details of one of the most grisly executions in Scottish history, except to say the unfortunate man was paraded through Edinburgh in chains, hanged by his neck, disembowelled, his heart cut out and publicly burned, his body quartered and sent to St. Andrews, Leith, Glasgow, and Burntisland, and his head affixed on top of Edinburgh’s principal gateway, the Netherbow. This was an act I had absolutely no interest in following.

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A SCOTTISH IDYLL These two parishes had grown pathetically small because they had lacked any recent continuous pastoral care, but both small congregations warmly welcomed my arrival. There were seven souls (even counting the organist) at the first Sunday Service at Kilmany. I gathered them from their (probably) traditional pews scattered around the Church to the pews in front of the Communion Table, where I then stood. The thought of climbing up into the pulpit high over their heads seemed absurd, so I stayed put. They seemed to welcome the informality and intimacy of this arrangement, and it remained our pattern of worship for the whole six months that I served them. At Rathillet, which had a much larger sanctuary, the discrepancy between size and numbers was even more evident. There were just four of us (even counting the organist and myself) that first Sunday. We, too, gathered together at the altar and sang our hymns in unison. Who needs more than two or three gathered together to sing the 23rd Psalm to a great hymn tune like Crimond? It was a rare kind of affirmation of faith.

Two, almost three, generations have passed since those days, and I have no illusions about any impression of my presence remaining at Kilmany and Rathillet. Contrariwise, their impression is still very much with me — so “Daddy” Forrester was right after all. Nevertheless, there was a real warmth and sense of community which marked the Services at each of the Kirks. When my tenure at the two churches was over, my doctoral research complete, and my dissertation submitted to the University, Joyce, Merrick, and I, along with our rascally Irish terrier “Crags,” made preparations to return to the States. My last Service at Kilmany and Rathillet was on August 14th. After the Service the congregation made a presentation, which we treasure as much as anything during our three years at St. Andrews. The following are excerpts from an article about the presentation, which appeared in the local Cupar newspaper, the “Herald and Journal:” KILMANY: Presentation To Minister A meeting was held after the service in Kilmany Parish Church on Sunday for a presentation to the Rev. Charles Ketcham, Kemback Lodge, who has been taking the services at Kilmany and Rathillet Churches during the past [six] months. In his remarks, Mr. J. Alston, chairman, mentioned how fortunate the parishioners had been in having Mr. Ketcham as a preacher. His brisk manner in preaching had been most refreshing. Mr. Alston called on Mrs. Howat, Wester Kinnear, to make the presentation. Mrs. Howat thanked Mr. Ketcham for his helpful advice during his time with them, and asked him to accept a pair of blankets and a child’s cot blanket, which had been subscribed for by members of the congregation. In handing over the gift, Mrs. Howat expressed the congregation’s bests wishes for Mr. and Mrs. Ketcham’s future happiness.

[At this point the article stated I expressed my surprise and profound gratitude for this generous and thoughtful gift; then it continued...] by saying that Mrs. Ketcham, who was at the service, had brought along their baby son, and any member of the congregation who cared, could see him in the Vestry after the service. The ladies of the congregation took advantage of this kind offer. [The men at this point joined me in the Churchyard to talk about football.] Mr. Ketcham is an American who is studying at St. Andrews University. His method of conducting the church services had been quite different from the usual Scottish manner. He did not go into the pulpit, but stood at the communion table on the ground level. He did not like the congregation to sit in solitary isolation, one here and another there, all over the church, but collected those present into the front pews. Mr. Ketcham had the rare gift of making his listeners lose the feeling that they were being preached to and could make them feel that they were being led in a study of the Bible. During his ministry in the parish, the attendances at both churches were greatly improved.

What infantryman-turned-minister could ask a Country for more than that?

Harold Thomson would not hear of our entourage taking the train to Glasgow to board the SS Laurentia of the Donaldson Lines. The Laurentia was a cargo ship bound for Montreal, with fifty passengers. We had permission to bring our Irish terrier along. This option proved important to us because dogs from Britain could enter Canada without quarantine, and dogs from Canada could enter the U.S. without quarantine. Had we sailed directly to New York, a short, but very awkward, quarantine would have been necessary. This option proved fortuitous for Crags because we learned that he would not be staying in a small cage in some isolated storage area, but in the butcher’s cabin. Life never had been, nor ever would be again, so glorious. We had a lovely trip; all four of us spent time together on deck, the food (even for us) was excellent, the crew and officers cordial and helpful, and our fellow passengers were friendly and solicitous of this young family in their midst; “Ah” they all said as they looked down into Merrick’s carrier, “Rocked in the cradle of the deep.”

My Scottish voyage-of-discovery ended as it had begun eleven years before, sailing down the Clyde past the beautiful island of Arran on the west, and the velvet-green sweep of the mainland to the east, but with a heart more richly full than anything my original vow to return could have imagined. Our friends, before we departed, had sung us that traditional, sentimental Scottish song of farewell: “Will ye no come back again? Better lo’ed ye canna be, Will ye no come back again?” Unlike the Bonny Prince, for whom the song was written, we did — again, and again, and again.

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FEATURES

Reflections of an artist Alan Stephens, Portrait and Landscape artist Most people’s impressions of an artist are of a to get over to them and helps everyone to paint-splattered person in a smock, pacing up understand more. At least it shows that they are and down waiting for inspiration. Now, there paying attention and not falling asleep! Many are probably people who fit this description, of my students just went to classes to be with but for a professional artist, others, I had one class in which this does not get the work over half of the students had Painting for me is done. Painting for me is been attending for 5 years or as much of a job as it is a as much of a job as more, some were very good pleasure. Either I am working artists and really didn’t need it is a pleasure on a commission, in which lessons, they simply came for case the subject has been the social aspects. But whether BBC as a transmitter engineer, I always thought selected for me, or I am painting for exhibitions, students produce fine works of art or not, of myself as an artist first and an engineer in which case my subjects are out there in the what is important is getting enjoyment out of second. I had the chance to leave the BBC in surrounding area…waiting for inspiration is not painting.

1991 to concentrate on art, and shortly after an option.

I also enjoy the camaraderie of meeting that began teaching both privately and at the However, since moving to St Andrews last people who share my passion, and was local adult education centre. year, I have not had to wait for inspiration and pleased to see that St Andrews has a large Moving to have found that a change of scenery can be and thriving art St Andrews has extremely refreshing when you are looking for group. Joining was . . . whether students produce provided me with the new subjects or landscapes to paint. one of my priorities, opportunity to meet lots My wife and I moved here from Oxford, in after the stress of fine works of art or not, of new people and to order to be closer to our two daughters and buying a new house, what is important is getting test my skills on a whole their families who both live in the Kingdom. and I have had the new set of landscapes Oxford, while picturesque, was around two pleasure of meeting enjoyment out of painting and subjects. Painting, hours from the sea. Here, within a fifteenlocal artists as well for me, is both a minute walk I have dramatic seascapes and as being involved in business and a pleasure and I recommend that, harbour scenes as well as new townscapes, local exhibitions. if you have ever thought you would like to paint, landscapes, and not forgetting golf courses!

I am happy to find myself in the situation then just do it and see what inspiration the These are all great subjects, but my favourite where I can concentrate on what I enjoy most. world brings you! subject matter is portraiture, and during the I am self taught, and have been painting since You can contact time I am not working on commissions, I have I was very young, and despite specialising in Alan Stephens on 01334 478016 five grandchildren to work on, which keeps electronics and spending 25 years with the me very busy. Painting a portrait can often be a profound experience, as you never know what the reaction is going to be when you show people their portrait for the first time. Some are so taken that it brings them to tears, for others there is a stony silence, which leaves you wondering whether they are shocked by the likeness of the painting, or it’s a disaster and they hate it. Fortunately in my case, for 99 percent of the pictures, it’s the first option and I am told that the reactions are because they were nervous at seeing themselves as others see them. Occasionally vanity gets in the way, and the customer wants a little off here or a bit more hair up there, ”just make my chins less prominent” or “could you reduce my waist a little”. I am happy to oblige, changes are not a problem, and in the end I want satisfied clients!

As well as painting for commissions, I also tutor one-onone and have held evening classes.

Teaching adults can be great fun, as everyone is keen to try out new techniques and improve, whatever their skill level. Good camaraderie also grows up around the classes, and there always seems to be a comedian in the class who will come up with witty comments whilst I am trying to demonstrate!

One lady asked where I obtained my specs from!! Thinking that she just admired my expensive bifocals, I told her which opticians in Oxford they came from. “Its just that you seem to see things differently from the rest of us”, she replied. This sort of comment usually leads to discussions about some aspect of what I am trying

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15

FEATURES Jane Ann Liston honours her Grandmother,

The Last Fishwife Grandma was born Esther Murray in 1896 in warily from a safe distance as they gripped a Newhaven. Although her mother carried the piece of newspaper. Saturdays she came round creel, she did not want her daughters to follow just to a few select customers, and in civvies such a hard life. The younger daughter, Robina with the fish in a message-bag rather than the (Bobbie) was even spared the horrible task of creel. So as a child I ate fish 3 times a week, black-leading the kitchen fireplace, a sort of which according to a recent study suggests I early range; that task was left for her big sister. am liable to a stroke; however I simply do not Esther went to Couper Street School, rather believe that fresh fish, as opposed to salt fish, than the high school, Trinity Academy, because could possibly be detrimental. Esther stopped she wanted to stay with her friends. One of carrying the creel around the end of the 1960s, the subjects she studied was dress-making, but still visited a small number of customers and after leaving school until she retired in 1976. became apprenticed to As she lived until she she lived until she was 92, a dress-maker along was 92, with hardly a with hardly a day’s illness at Starbank. However, day’s illness, the lifestyle she did not actually cannot exactly have continue in that profession after completing been harmful to her, and she certainly never the apprenticeship; instead she worked in the had a stroke!

British and Argentine butcher’s shop in Ferry She was a member of the Newhaven Road. This change of direction must have Fisherwomen’s Choir, which I was delighted coincided with the First World War and indeed to discover was founded as the Newhaven that may have been the reason. I did hear that Liberal Women’s Choir in 1927 to support the one of the services offered by this shop was the parliamentary candidate Ernest Brown, who neutering of tom cats round the back! Esther became MP for Leith. The women all wore the was young and strong, and used to swing the gala-dress for concerts, and in the early 1960s sides of meat on to her shoulder. ‘You’ll be visited Norway and sang before the King. sorry, my girl,’ warned the butcher, and indeed Coincidentally, their conductor, Menie Addison, she did displace her collar-bone, which injury née Ritchie, was married to my mother’s uncle, was probably to be exacerbated later by the so the choir was connected with both sides of creel. A few years later, in 1923, she married the family.

George Liston, another Newhavener.

So there is quite a lot of history in that He worked at the Edinburgh Stock Exchange, Newhaven fishwife’s costume, with all its pins although his parents were fisherfolk too; and ties, stripes and bustle, although it is strange, then, that Esther felt she wasn’t probably a good thing that such a hard career considered ‘good enough’ by his family, and has been consigned to history, leaving only a their wedding took place at the manse away colourful relic. I don’t think I could manage 2 up at Morningside in the south of Edinburgh, stone or more of fish on my back! although they lived in Newhaven.

The marriage did not last long. George fell a victim to tuberculosis. Advised to get plenty of fresh air, he swapped the stock exchange for his father’s fishing boat, the trawler River Tweed. It was not a good idea, and he died in 1932, leaving Esther a widow at 36, with 2 boys at primary school. TB was rife in those days; her sister Bobbie, who had a job in the office of the smart shop Greensmith Downes, ‘where she got notions’ also died, aged about 30. A talented pianist, she used to play at concerts, then come home and hang her washing out at night, which was blamed for her early death.

That was when Esther took the creel, involving an early start to buy the fish at the market, then selling it to her customers, and a career of over 40 years. I well remember her coming round in the 1960s in the navy workingdress, with the creel on her back, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and watching her fillet the fish on a board so expertly that there was hardly a bone left in it. This spoiled me so that I am wary of fish from any other source. The usual fish were haddies, sole and whiting, also halibut, turbot, dory and herring. Occasionally she had partans for customers, very much ‘alive, alive-o’ which I watched

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Photos – “All of Esther, taken by my father George Liston after the Harvest Thanksgiving in 1972, down at Newhaven Harbour (you can see Fife in the distance). The one with Esther in the gala dress with the creel was taken in front of the old Newhaven fishmarket, where the museum now stands.”

– A life in medicine Available from bookshops, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee (Medical Bookshop), or direct from Marina Branscombe, 32 North Street, St Andrews £8 (or £10 incl p&p)

FEATURES Robert Frederick has just celebrated his 94th birthday. His niece, Phyllis Dickson, who well remembers 3 Abbey Street (demolished in the road-widening of the ‘60s) chatted with him in Montrose, where he now lives, about his

Memories of Old St Andrews My Uncle Bob was born in Kennoway. “we were fitted then to take His father, my grandfather, was a painter care of that if it happened. and decorator working all over Scotland, We used to do displays for cycling to his various jobs. Whenever he people, getting someone to had a big contract, he would move the shout for help. I would dive in family with him. That was how Uncle Bob with a line, others playing it came to live in Fife; first in Elie, then in out – to let people know that St Andrews. there was an efficient team After attending Waid Academy, Uncle there.” His skills stood him in Bob worked on a farm before joining good stead during the war. the Co-op in South Street, St Andrews He was on a French ship (where the DIY shop is today). Uncle deploying anti-submarine Bob says, “I learned to be a grocer and nets with floats. One of the provision merchant. I learned to drive by accompanying the van drivers to sailors kicked a football into the sea and went after it. “He couldn’t make the farms round about. The driver would tell me to take over on the farm it and he was drowning, so some of the others, they started jumping in to roads – you could in those days.” The job required showing new lines, help him, and they were getting into trouble.” Then Uncle Bob jumped in hoping for sales. Once, “I had what were supposed to be unbreakable too, and managed to get them to the floats on the nets, when a boat was tumblers, only I dropped one, and it fell on a stone and smashed in front launched to rescue them all. “Just one of these things,” says Uncle Bob of the farmer’s wife!” modestly, “but that’s why I say I was very happy for all that I had learned I remembered a story about an elephant. “Yes, when the circus came in St Andrews. If I hadn’t learned in St Andrews I couldn’t have done it.” to St Andrews there was always a procession through the town. The Uncle Bob played the cornet in the town band. His young brother elephant came at the end of the parade. I came into the house (3 Abbey played the trombone, and his elder brother played the euphonium; “what Street) and my mother was in a state of shock. my mother had to put up with, when all three of us She’d heard a noise and come into the rather I was very happy for all that had to play a different piece for a practice!” Going dark passage out of the kitchen. And there was a over to Dundee to play, the band would perform I had learned in St Andrews on the ferry in their smart uniforms with a silver baby elephant! It must have been curious about the open door. I don’t know how they got it out; it stripe down the sides of their trousers, “all made must have been the keeper. I went to the circus with my daughter Lindsey, to measure.” They narrowly missed winning one competition because the and the elephant there reached into my pocket and found a biscuit. When two bassoonists had had a couple of beers over lunch! we went back the next year, I was the only one greeted by the elephant.”

My great-great-grandfather was a ship master in Montrose, and Well, they say elephants never forget! my grandfather and two brothers were born there. Both these brothers My Uncle Bob was a fit and handsome young man, and a keen sailed with the Terra Nova to the Antarctic to rescue Captain Scott member of the Step Rock Swimming Club. “It was started in 1928. We – relatives were recently feted in Dundee on the Discovery. The seafaring were amateurs, we did it for fun. We were friendly with people, and we got background also explains how Uncle Bob was once in charge of the the name of having been the first mixed male and female club in Scotland. swimming pool on a P & O liner. During the war he served on The Viceroy It was so well run. We had competitions, we had galas. We played water of India, torpedoed in the Mediterranean, eventually returning with only polo over in Dundee and they came over here.” To practice diving, they the clothes he stood up in, without money, since his pay stopped when would throw tins of fruit, peaches, pears, into the pool. “That would be the ship sank. Having no papers either, he found himself “arrested” by the on the Saturday. They didn’t find everything, there were still some of the Home Guard one dark night after taking his girl in Dundee to the pictures, tins down there. On Sunday we’d joke with the girls, you know, holidaymissing his train to St Andrews, and trying to find his way in the blackout makers. The girls will get the ice cream, and we’ll get the fruit! I was the to the home of a friend where he could stay. trainer – anybody who wanted could learn to swim provided they were I really think Uncle Bob should publish his memoirs! willing to do what they were asked to do.” Uncle Bob said the pool was 100 yards long by 40 yards wide, and he could swim the length under water! He loved to do a “flat dive and skim along the surface.“ Once, he dived in and swam the length as usual. He said he felt he’d hit something. When he came out of the pool his chest was running with blood from top to bottom.

Unknown to him a part of the concrete wall had collapsed into the pool during a storm the night before. Had he dived in deep he would have hit his head, with much worse consequences.

Keeping fit for his lifesaving duties, Uncle Bob ran regularly all year round with the “dookers” along the Scores from the Castle “to get enough heat in the body to have a quick dive in the pool, swim across and back, then run back again. We didn’t stay in long enough to get chilled”. He said people Uncle Bob 6th from the left in the back row next to his friend A B Paterson (below picture) would fall in the sea and

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FEATURES

Ask the Curator Lesley-Anne Lettice of the St Andrews Museum answers your questions Q. Can you tell me anything about the old Market Street tolbooth? When was it built and why was it demolished?

A. The old Tolbooth was situated just before the entrance to the narrow end of Market Street. It’s not clear when exactly it was built, but the original part of the structure may have dated from the early 16th century. A number of additions were made to the building over the years, with little attention either to design or structural integrity.

The Tolbooth served many purposes in its lifetime, including council offices, town gaol, and police station. By the 19th century the building was in a sorry state of repair. This, coupled with increased traffic in the town centre, led a group of local councillors to campaign for its demolition.

In 1845 Provost Hugh Lyon Playfair succeeded in having the old English School premises in Church Square (now the Public Library) remodelled as a ‘City Hall’. This was primarily intended to accommodate civic functions. The campaign for a new Town Hall to replace both the Tolbooth and the City Hall began in the late 1850s. The Town Council was very much divided on this issue, but eventually those in favour of a new building, both large enough and grand enough to fit the image of the ‘new’ St Andrews, won the day. A competition to design the new Town Hall was launched. The winner was Edinburgh architect, James Anderson Hamilton. Much of the funding for the venture came from subscriptions sought by Playfair from some of the town’s more affluent citizens. The chosen plot was on the corner of South Street and Queens Gardens. The project was dogged by controversy and bad luck. The plans were altered several times to keep costs under control and part of the building collapsed and had to be rebuilt.

The building was completed in 1862 and the old Tolbooth was demolished that same year.

Q. When did the first lifeboat arrive in St Andrews and when and why was the service discontinued?

A. The first St Andrews lifeboat was paid for by public subscription after the wreck in St Andrews Bay on 5 January 1800 of the sloop Janet out of Macduff. The crew were rescued by a young Divinity student, John Honey, who swam out to the stranded ship and assisted each man to shore using a lifeline.

The St Andrews service was only the second in Scotland – Montrose being the first. The boat was 30ft long and padded inside with cork to help it float. It was manned by volunteers from the community, many of them fishermen.

The boat fell into disrepair and was replaced in 1823, again by public subscription. From 1823 -1860 the crew saved 96 lives. The first RNLI lifeboat, the Annie, arrived in 1860. Local businessman, George Bruce, bought the old boat and placed it at Boarhills to act as back-up if the St Andrews lifeboat could not be launched because of weather conditions.

The Annie was replaced in 1871 by the Ladies Own. In 1881 the Boarhills lifeboat was replaced by an RNLI lifeboat, the John and James Mills.

The last St Andrews lifeboat, the John and Sarah Hatfield served the town from 1910 to 1938 when the RNLI decided to close the lifeboat station at St Andrews. The lifeboat was sold to an Edinburgh businessman and converted into a pleasure boat, and St Andrews Bay was from then on served by the Broughty Ferry lifeboat.

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Sandy Cameron offers some hints for those involved in a Scottish Golf Revolution.

Mental Skills for Junior Golf Coaches St. Andrews being the town that it is, many of the townspeople have come forward to assist with a marvellous new golf initiative, where every child in Scotland, from the age of nine, will be taught the basics of the game of golf. While these volunteers are given appropriate technical training, they are not qualified to teach basic mental skills. As one who missed out on this aspect myself, I feel that this is an important omission in the early training of youngsters. This article outlines three mental game topics that these coaches can introduce to the junior golfer and describes how to address some typical issues that can occur in teaching mental game skills to juniors.

The Importance of Emotional Control.

All golfers, but especially juniors, have difficulty accepting the outcome of a poor shot, a poorly played hole, or a bad round. Juniors are at the stage of learning to control their emotions in a variety of situations. They often have a perception that playing golf well is easier than it really is. So they become upset when things do not go well on the course.

The explosions of anger and temper that can result from these unrealistic expectations are harmful to the youngster and to playing partners and unless they are managed properly can destroy motivation and morale. An effective way to teach the importance of emotional control is to help the children understand that golf is a game of recovery from mistakes; that even the very best players make a few mistakes on each round and it is the way that they handle these mistakes that determines the outcome of the game. Loss of control can mean a chain reaction which spells disaster. Talking to the child about how emotional arousal affects attention, concentration, muscle tension, and ultimately performance, will help make the link between anger and poor play.

The Pre-shot Routine Having a consistent pre-shot routine is important for all golfers for a variety of reasons.

One of the most important is that it is an invaluable resource for the subconscious under pressure. Ask any tour player how important automatic responses are when faced with a five-footer to win a competition event. Many amateurs have little sense of the importance of this mental habit and tend to be sloppy about their routines, particularly coming down the stretch. How often does a potential medal-winning card get ruined by a six-seven-six finish, for example! The child coach should make a point of talking with each student about how to assess a shot and how to structure a repeating pre-shot routine. Because children tend to be impetuous, it is vital that they are shown the value of calm and deliberate routines with examples of how missing a small component of a PSR, such as the direction of the grain on a putt, can turn a good shot into a bad one. Patience and tenacity on this teaching point are required, for children (and many adults) are not very good with this. They are at a stage where their thinking is less organised than that of adults. However, they will benefit greatly from frequent reminders and being made to demonstrate this ability repeatedly to the coach.

Dealing With Pressure Since most juniors will play in tournaments of some kind, techniques for dealing with pressure will be of great benefit to them. Most will have a difficult experience with their first pressure-filled situation and will quickly realise how pressure affects the fluency of the golf swing and their ultimate performance. Teaching juniors about the effects of pressure on their thinking (decision making is impaired) and physical actions (muscles tense up) can help them to appreciate the need to face this on the course. Teachers can draw on their own experiences to describe how they reacted negatively to pressure. In my own case, I recall one particular episode in the City Fours competition where an attack of muscular paralysis caused my team to fall at the final hurdle! These stories go a long way towards helping the child prepare for the next pressure experience and help establish identification with the instructor. Giving simple instructions about how to identify the effects of pressure (walking faster, shaky hands, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms etc.) can be very helpful.

Offering suggestions about the value of slowing down, sticking to the preshot routine, and remembering to take deep breaths, can make a world of difference at a critical time in their George, by F. Selwyn golf development.

FEATURES Nanzie McLeod is a writer and painter with her daughter, Sarah McLeod artist and filmmaker with her daughter, Eden McLeod still at Madras College. Nanzie, Sarah and Eden come from a long line of artists, Nanzie’s grandfather John McGhie was a successful portrait painter working out of Glasgow, but with a summer home and studio in Pittenweem where he painted the sea and fisher folk.

Nanzie McLeod’s St Andrews My Grandfather, John McGhie the artist, bought a house in Pittenweem in 1911. Five generations of our family have enjoyed our holidays on the beautiful and bracing East coast. At different times some of us have made it our home and I lived there with my mother during the second world war. Because of our long association with this interesting and historic area and the stories that my mother and grandmother told, I have written a book, “Tales of the East Neuk”. Obviously, I know St Andrews very well. Our visits there seemed special and exciting and many ‘memorable moments’ of childhood happened to me there.

Clear in my mind is that heady independence, when a young child has a first ride on a merrygo-round with no accompanying adult, that first disappointing and yet fascinating taste of coconut milk from the rough-skinned nut, and the timid peep into the splendidly furnished caravans that lined the streets at the Lammas Fair. Also a less happy day, when a donkey trotted away from the boy in charge, and I was carried through unknown streets, helpless, weeping and positive that I would never find my mother again.

St Andrews was where I saw my first cuckoo clock and earned a consolation prize at the children’s talent competition on the stage of the little theatre where the pierrots performed their summer shows. (It is now a restaurant.) I was five and sang “Can’t help lovin’ dat man of mine”. Though I have no recollection of it, my only brush with Royalty happened nearby in the thirties, when, seated on my father’s shoulder, I received a wave and a smile from the then Prince of Wales. At that time his unhappy love affair was only spoken of in whispers.

St Andrews was a wonderful place to shop. Probably the shop which I have most frequented and enjoyed throughout the different stages of my life was the very handsome and still unchanged stationers and booksellers on the corner of South Street and Church Street.

I remember the excitement of buying a copy of “The Arabian Nights” there during the lean war years, when buying a book was a very special and unusual luxury. Always my favourite type of shop, J.& G. Innes, as it is now, is unchanged inside and out and retains the original sturdy, yet elegant oak panelling and coloured glass of another era. Apart from the myriad beautiful and tempting goods on display, it has a charming and luxurious atmosphere which no longer exists in the crowded self-service shops of today. One Saturday last November, I was in the shop for several hours, signing my book. As I sat there watching the customers and staff interact in a quiet, courteous way, I remembered the ritual of shopping as it used to be and regretted its passing.

Also in South Street were several shops which my grandmother would visit in order to choose a new hat. It was fun to see her try on the different styles. A photo in my book, snapped by a street photographer, of my grandparents, my mother, and myself walking along in 1937 or 38 shows Boots, the chemist, in the background, a location it left comparatively recently. We bought strawberries and raspberries, to eat as we strolled along, then I loved to marvel at the dolls and mechanical toys that were in the magnificent toyshop in South Street. In Market Street, we would buy plants for the garden. The sweet shop, which is still there, sold St Andrews

pebbles, which were marzipan bonbons realistically painted to look like small marble stones. I loved them. In my twenties, I acquired a car and St Andrews was accessible for dancing, swimming, flirting, and delicious cream cakes.

Times change. My children enjoyed the Step Rock pool, but my grandchildren have seen it transformed into a Sea Life Centre.

Their swimming is indoors at the East Braes Leisure pool. For real waves, they are clad in a wetsuit. My children attended drama classes at the Crawford Arts Centre, while I swam at the West Sands. My daughter, Sarah, would teach art classes there as an adult. Sarah is an accomplished portrait painter and in February, she and I showed some of our paintings in the splendid exhibition space of the refurbished Byre Theatre. As well as her portraits she showed her unique drawings and abstract designs. I showed my 2003 exhibition, “Seven Elder Statesmen of Pittenweem”, portraits of the doctor, minister, teacher, baker, fisherman, builder and electrical engineer, with a short film which Sarah and I had made. Each man has worked most of his life in Pittenweem and contributed to the well-being of the town in many other ways. Also on show were illustrations for a forthcoming book and a nostalgic look at the old Pittenweem swimming pool. Some mornings, I was available to discuss my work, while enjoying coffee and an excellent scone in the Byre.

It seems that I still associate St Andrews with the exciting aspects of my life!

Is Rhyming a Hanging Offence?

Bob Hunter asks Is it really such a crime To write poetic lines that rhyme?

At least I never thought it so, Until about a year ago: Always keen to reach the top I joined St Andrews Poetry Workshop.

I duly paid the appropriate fee, Then with a feather you could have floored me: The class tutor telephoned me one day, This is what she had to say, [Did she really have to crow?]

“Have you in my class? Oh no, no, no!

I should have told you many times I hate the fact your poetry rhymes: Further I have no confidence In my ability to teach you sense, To write poetry bereft of rhyme, To achieve that aim I have no time!”

Now, what about old poets romantic, Are they turning in their graves in sheer blind panic?

O.K., I know my lines don’t scan, I’m only doing the best I can; Perhaps write poems of only one word, As others have, but that’s absurd.

Inspire me, Willie McGonagall, To me you’re the finest poet of all!

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FEATURES: BOOK REVIEWS

Robert Burns – a ‘poor Negro-driver’?

by Andrew O. Lindsay gives some insight into the realities of plantation life in the closing years of In 1786 Burns had been on the point of the eighteenth century. emigrating to the West Indies, hopeful Above all I have tried to be true to the character of Burns: As Edwin that even a modest success with the Muir pointed out, his appeal lies in his complexity. Burns can be couthy, Kilmarnock Edition would raise the high-flown, satirical, coarse, moral, or sentimental; he wrote in English as £9 needed to finance the voyage. He well as Scots; he straddled the worlds of high society and the common had already secured a position as a people; and displayed a talent for expressing universal truths through the book-keeper on a plantation near Port simplest and yet most memorable of images. In writing the book it was Antonio, in the north-east of Jamaica. important to reflect this, and not to paint a simplistic picture of him.

It was owned by Dr Patrick Douglas of He would have gone to Jamaica not really knowing what to expect, Garallan, who had met Burns and made and would have had to reassess all of his preconceptions about race the necessary arrangements with his and servitude. This would have been a long and brother Charles, process. As a member of the Jamaican who actually managed the It is an expression of simple painful plantocracy his opportunities for changing the plantation. What are we to make of his matter-ofhumanism that enables system from within would have been very limited. fact comment to Dr Moore in 1787 that, had he He would also have encountered wide and gone to the Indies, he would have been employed people of all faiths and confusing variations in the way that slaves were as a ‘Negro-driver’? Can we possibly imagine our treated. Many slave owners justified their position National Bard being happy in such employment? cultures to embrace Burns by reference to Biblical authority, claiming that Is there a hint of racism here? If we feel that Burns God had ordained that Negroes should serve white men, and if Burns had was guilty of, at the very least, political incorrectness, then are we making expressed a contrary opinion, it would have been viewed as seditious. He the mistake of judging him by the standards of our own times? It is an would not have been immune to the temptation expression of simple humanism that enables people of all faiths and offered by the plantation women. His life, in cultures to embrace Burns, and it enables us to speculate what would short, would have been turned upside down. have happened if he had gone to be a ‘Negro-driver’.

Is Illustrious Exile plausible? I hope so.

I have had a strong interest in Burns since childhood, hardly I have tried to write a thoughtful, authenticsurprising in one who was born in Ayrshire, and familiar with the places sounding and convincing account of how his mentioned in his poetry and letters. I also have family links with the life might have turned out. Of course, our own Caribbean, and I have witnessed at first hand the workings of the great lives would have been immeasurably poorer sugar estates. This led me to write Illustrious Exile: Journal of my if Scotland had indeed lost the man who Sojourn in the West Indies, by Robert Burns. I make the assumption has become, as Hans Hecht remarked, ‘an that he did indeed set sail for Jamaica, and the book is the diary that he essential part of (our) spiritual possessions’. kept. It describes at first-hand his impressions, his thoughts, his loves, We should be grateful that he never boarded and his adventures. There are poems too, conceived in a Caribbean the Nancy at Greenock. context. I have striven for historical accuracy and I hope that the book

Competition . . . GREAT SCOT! . . . Competition An occasional series devised by Ian Seeley to test your knowledge of St Andrews!

Ottakar’s Bookshop in Market Street is very kindly offering a £5 voucher for the first correct entry received no later than 30th March. Please photocopy this crossword if you don’t want to cut up your magazine!

ACROSS 2. 6th Century Pope whose name is associated with the plainchant used in the Cathedral 7 7. Circular building; east end of South Street – The _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 7 8. Scots word for a cloth 5 1

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9. Scots word for a pigeon or dove 3 11. Exotic bird carried by 1 Down on his shoulder 6 13. (& 21 Down) Old established pub outside the West Port 4, 3 14. Subject of 1981 film (used West Sands as one location) “Chariots of Fire’ _ _ _ _ Liddel 4 16. Name for a St. Andrews University freshman 6 18. Scots word for eyes 3 22. James Boswell’s _ _ _ _ _ or journal records his arrival in St Andrews with Dr. Johnson, 18th Aug. 1773 5 23. Name of former farm, now private housing estate west of Lade Braes 7 24. Name given to King Malcolm I! owing to the size of his head 7 DOWN 1. Jane Austen’s male hero? No, give us the eccentric Prof of Zoology (forename) 5 3. Pioneer of photography – Thomas 6 4. Colour of the whin flower 6 5. Name (shortened form) of St Salvator’s bell 4 6. The city’s motto; _ _ _ Spiro Spero 3 10. (& 11 Down) Historic city gateway 4,4 11 See 10 Down 4 12. Derogatory name for a boat 3 15. _ _ _ _ _ _ Thorpe Davie, Scottish composer and University of St Andrews Professor of Music 1973-78 6 17. Hoofer at the inn.? 6 19. Northern sea duck with down very soft down 5 20. God’s garden? 4 21. See 13 Across 3

FEATURES: BOOK REVIEWS

In Quarto

By Margaret Squires, Capella Archive 2005, 93 pages, 1-902918-2, £9.00. Reviewed by David Hamilton.

Mrs. Squires runs the tiny legendary Quarto Bookshop in St Andrews.

The front window is ever-changing and never dull, and she has some ‘experienced’, and often exotic, golf balls for sale. Over the years, she entertained the readers of the magazine Scottish Book Collector with a regular column which took a wry look at the world of books, the foibles of bookish people, and chronicled a world which is increasingly centralised and dumbed-down. These vignettes have now been collected in this slim volume. We learn how she watches as the greatest golf book collector in the world silently studies her stock: he has, she thinks, a ‘computer in his fInger’, but less discriminating was the gentleman from Japan who took away one of each golf book she had. She enjoys jousts with the mindless bureaucracy of the Water Board and the European Parliament and their proposed standard letterbox. Call centres and the disappearing post offices in the town do not please her nor do wordy Americans who think

NPH Cinema 117 North Street St Andrews

that Putting up with the Russians is a golf title. Local ladies with double-barrelled names offering precious collections of Readers Digest Condensed Books and last year’s Beano Annual should not call again.

Her rush times are when the students arrive, and at the end of term, or when The Open is nearby – very nearby. January could be busy when the Woollen Mill round the comer beside the 18th green had its famed January Sale. The golfing ladies flocked in to snap up the cashmere, while husband peeled off round the corner to Quarto with the other credit card.

She shares the joy when a visitor finds a desired book lying unwanted for years on her shelving, but gloom descends when, on at last finding that very rare volume, Wood’s East Neuk of Fife, she realises that all four on her waiting list are all dead. She sells trashy paperbacks for a few pence to the manager at Rusacks Hotel nearby, and these disappear, as planned, with the guests, thus preventing theft of better volumes. A rubbishy obscure title on the shelf does not sell over the years, so she mischievously hangs it up, marking it ‘For Reference Only’. As hoped, it is shortly spirited away by a credulous shoplifter.

Quarto survives as a place of sanity in the globalised world of multiple stores and the Net. She may still outwit them yet. A customer hunting for The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven comes away empty-handed from the High Street outlets and even Google/ABE fails to source any copy in the world. Mrs. S cracks the problem. The search engines, mighty but dumb, do not know what she knows – that the book is The Playne Man’s Pathwaye. On another occasion she dissuades a aggressive golf book collector from buying the Badminton Library volume on ‘Driving’. ‘It’s about horses’ she explains patiently.

She was touched when a visitor from afar, sensing the real estate value of the property, if sought for yet another golf club store, told her, ‘Never, never close this shop.’

Amen to that.

March Snowfall Gavin C. Reid Surely too late for winter you are a defiant gesture against spring.

Beautiful in your austerity, glittering, your sharp white welcome dazzles me as I open my shutters this morning of the first of March.

By midday you are gone.

Small puddles and melting ice remain, and the grass crunches at each step as I walk across the garden lawn.

At the rockery, I kneel to caress blades of snowdrops: nascent spring.

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TOWN & GOWN Oliver Li (in the Lower Sixth) sets out his experiences at

St Leonards Nearly two and half years ago, I arrived in particularly, I began to relish the opportunities St Andrews, famously known as the “home the St. Leonards community gives to be of golf”. Surprisingly, I did involved and to take pleasure not come here to play golf; from the multi-cultural It was tough at the instead, I joined St. Leonards experience.

School.

There are many beginning, but I am I still remember that differences between the glad I chose to come systems of education in I was fascinated by the buildings and location of China and the UK. Drama to study here the school, and impressed serves as a particular interest by the nice people I met. for me in St. Leonards, which However, it was not an easy time from the start, I would not be able to enjoy had I stayed in both academically and socially. I am a foreign China. I was involved in the cast of Romeo student and not a native English speaker. My and Juliet, which was performed in the Byre poor language skills limited me at first from Theatre last year. This gave me an extra the classroom to the boarding house. I had chance to practise speaking English and, more difficulties with arts subjects, such as English importantly, the confidence to talk in front of a literature, geography, and history, where a good large audience. deal of analytical writing is required. I recall that my first geography test was a U grade Innumerable opportunities – ungraded, or “unbelievable” if you like! I also I think that one of the most found it hard to express myself easily in front of exciting aspects of St Leonards other students and the strong culture difference are the innumerable opportunities. Apart from made me feel like an outsider in the community. the drama, I have also taken the opportunity After all this, I was asking myself: is it a better to play my clarinet in the various bands option to come to study here than to stay at or orchestras during the school concerts. home?

In addition to clarinet, I enjoy learning the I soon found the answer to that question.

Bagpipes and believe it is an appealing and I adapted to life here as my English improved. exciting cultural experience for me. There is I also learnt to be open-minded in order to also the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, which adapt to the life in the boarding house. More allows me to hike the mountains as well as

serve the community. Last term, I had the privilege to join the Berlin Model United Nations Conference, which again was a rewarding and enlightening experience for me. I am now involved in the team entering the J8 competition in order to gain us a place to attend the G8 summit in Russia.

It was tough at the beginning, but I am glad I chose to come to study here; St Leonards has so much to offer. I thoroughly enjoy the challenges and opportunities.

Ian McKie, a recent graduate, reflects on being back in the neighbourhood –

Back so soon?

How many of the population of in St Andrews, my wife and I live down the road in Cellardyke. There are St Andrews and the surrounding two reasons why we live down the road. Firstly, we grew to love the East area are St Andrews graduates, Neuk and its coastal villages during Yvonne’s time living on the Isle of returned to settle in the May. If you are a student and you are reading this, then I urge you to visit comforting embrace of their alma the East Neuk and explore its coast line. Secondly, and most importantly, mater? I suspect that there must it was too soon after my student days to be living in St Andrews. be several hundred, perhaps That second reason is the crux of this reflection. There is a slight over a thousand, certainly there sense of returning to a great party after all of your friends have left. are many. The editor of this I spent much of my time as an economics student dreaming of the magazine is one, as am I. What corporate career opportunities that my degree might enable. It does feel makes me a slightly unusual slightly strange to be back so soon, and to be living a life quite different case is that I came back only four to the one I envisaged during all of those economics lectures. I have and a half years after graduating. I know several people who arrived as only just got used to the fact that I can go the full length of Market Street students and one way or another never left, but having torn myself away without cause to stop and chat with someone. I wonder if graduates who you would have thought I could have managed more than four and a half have returned after many years away, perhaps upon retirement, feel years. similar bittersweet emotions? I suspect that the longer the time away the In my time away from Fife I managed, eventually, to pass my less prevalent would be these emotions. Perhaps they are replaced with Chartered Accountancy exams. I worked for two of the big four different ones. accountancy firms, (there were five when I started). The main lessons of I am extremely fortunate to be back in this beautiful corner of Fife this period were: that I was not good at taxation exams; that I did not wish once again, but for now, at least, I am happy to be 15 minutes outside the to be an accountant; and that the perks of working for a large corporation town. It provides me with the sense that I have moved on from my student were, for me, out-weighed by the downsides. times, even if only by a sum total of 15 miles! I’m sure in a few more I did not, however, make a direct decision to return. years, after a few career and family developments, I’ll I did not say, “That’s it then, I’m going back to Fife.” be itching to get hold of a KY16 address, and not just it was too soon after Ironically it was my girlfriend, (now wife) who had no for a Links Trust card. connections with St Andrews at all, and whom frankly And you may be wondering about the “unorthodox my student days to be I viewed as a likely barrier to a future return to St career” that I have mentioned. Well, I was a caddy living in St Andrews Andrews, who led me back. It was a happy day when at Kingsbarns last summer, and I must say that it is she informed me that she fancied a job on the Isle of tempting to do nothing else. Walking around a golf May. course by the sea, talking to people from all around the world, doesn’t Yvonne loved her spell on the enchanting Isle of May, which is really seem to be work to me. However, my accounting experience will be put to worth a visit if you get the chance. Incidentally, my best man enjoyed some use in the form of a business venture which I am currently working the observation that I returned to Fife so that my wife could study the on. With a lot of work, and a bit of luck, it will be the latest in a long list of birds here, something which I had tried without much success for four things which have started in St Andrews before spreading far and wide. years. (He’s not planning to give up his career as a surgeon to become a If that has intrigued you then “tune in next time”, as I hope to be in a comedian.) I digress. I must admit that whilst I spend a great deal of time position to introduce you to the idea in a future issue.

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TOWN/GOWN Peter Adamson kindly photographed the painting for the cover of this issue of the magazine, and then snapped your editor too! So Flora Selwyn chatted to him about his life and work

Behind the Lens Born just before the war in Kelso, in the Borders, the middle one of three boys, Peter’s earliest memories include Polish soldiers staying at his house in 1942. They used to put a row of milk bottles to sour on the mantelpiece (presumably to make crowdie) – “as children we thought this was an odd thing to do”. Peter also remembers long queues of soldiers at the picture house to see Old Mother Riley.

The family moved to Morningside in Edinburgh when Peter was four years old. After school at George Watson’s, he enlisted in the RAF in 1956. In order to fulfil his ambition to do photography, Peter exchanged two years of conscription, still obligatory at that time, for a four-year contract. This led to two and a half years in Germany, where Peter “learned a bit of German; I went to classes”, and cycled extensively all over the country. On one occasion he took the train to Switzerland, then cycled back all the way back north to Hamburg, “a fair distance!”

At the end of his contract with the RAF, Peter gained a Diploma in Photography – the course has now become a degree course – at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London.

Peter claims, however, “that 95% of what I put

into practice is self-taught. I do believe that her son, the Hon.James Ogilvie, when he it’s important to develop skills of working with came to St Andrews University. He is a very people; you have to be able to deal with people, good photographer and that’s how we became to be pleasant with them.” Wedding photos, friends.” requiring an abundance of such skills, have Peter retired in 2004. “I was a trifle surprised given “ a very stimulating, happy experience.” when I received a letter from Principal Lang He has over 2000 of them to his credit! awarding me the first University Medal”. It In 1968, while working for D. C. Thomson, represents well-deserved recognition for Peter’s Peter was appointed by Professor John Steer to long and exceptional service to the University work in the Fine Arts Department of St Andrews and the town.

University. It was not long before he became I asked Peter if he had time for any other head of the photographic unit at the University, interests. “I enjoy outdoor activities, such as covering publicity, hill walking and cycling.” graduations, and prestigious Mrs Adamson is very you have to be able to events of all kinds. committed to the Save the Many famous people Children shop in Greyfriars deal with people, to be have posed in front of Gardens. They have two pleasant with them Peter’s camera. John sons and a daughter, the Cleese demonstrated his eldest an army officer just ‘silly walk’ in the Castle just before becoming back from Iraq, the others both teachers, and Rector. He told Peter that he was fine in front two grandchildren. of a movie camera, but froze before a still “I consider myself very, very privileged,” one! Frank Muir, when he was Rector – “he Peter added finally, “in working closely with was such a wonderful person”; the Dalai Lorn Macintyre, whom I consider one of the top Lama; many renowned golfers, all passed Scottish writers.” Following on from their highly before Peter’s lens. While still in the RAF, acclaimed book, St Andrews, Portrait of a City, Peter had photographed Princess Alexandra Peter and Lorn are on the point of launching at Turnhouse Airport. “She went to pat a Dundee, Portrait of a City. police dog, and nearly got her hand bitten.

I thanked Peter, and as I watched him The handler had to pull the dog back sharply. cycling away, I found myself feeling also very, Then I had the privilege of being friends with very privileged!

Saturday 15th April will see the Kate Kennedy Procession enter its 80th year.

Last year’s ‘Lady Katharine Kennedy’ and this year’s organiser, Tom Wright, remembers an extraordinary day, and an eventful year…

Last April, I was selected to take on the role of Kate Kennedy in the annual event that has brought together town and gown for eighty years, and has its roots as far back as the founding of the University itself. The Procession celebrates the many historical figures that have been a part of St. Andrews life over the centuries, from Kings to comedians, and poets to Popes. To be given the opportunity to take part at the very centre of this unique tradition was indeed an honour and a privilege, and an experience that will remain with me for many years to come. Many people would assume that the role of ‘Kate’ begins and ends on the day of the Procession, however, reflecting upon the year gone by, I can confidently say this has been far from the case.

‘Kate’ is selected from the first-year members of the Kate Kennedy Club, and this member then automatically inherits the position of Marshal for the following Procession (essentially the event organiser). The role of Marshal is a year-long responsibility and one that requires constant attention. This responsibility has provided me with a unique insight into the inner workings of the town and university, and an awareness of the efforts of many people, who work tirelessly to preserve St. Andrews and

maintain its smooth running. The Procession would not be possible without the help of the University, Fife Constabulary, Fife Council, and many individual members of our community, who give their time each year to maintain this tradition.

The newly-established Kate Kennedy Procession Committee oversees the running of the event and is ultimately responsible for it. The members of this committee greatly ease communication and co-operation between town and University.

As a result of my interaction with the many people who contribute to the Procession, I feel for the first time I’m living and playing a part in a community, and a brilliant community at that! As a student it has been fantastic to find so many willing people within the University and the town ready and eager to help me. Speaking to representatives from the churches, the local schools, and the countless number of wonderfully active residents in the town, has given me a terrific feeling of involvement as a member of the community.

My last year as Kate has been amazing. It’s been fascinating to learn what it is to be a Kate, not just in the procession, but for life. The experience is unique, and it’s one that only a very small group of people has had. Upon becoming Kate, there is immediately a link between yourself and dozens of ‘Kates’ before you, many complete strangers, who are associated by the traditions, the honour, and responsibility of such a role. You are thus linked timelessly to the past.

Before becoming ‘Kate’ I had assumed my University career would be confined to study, sport, and socialising. However, through the responsibility that has been bestowed upon me, I have witnessed at first hand the work that takes place behind the scenes to keep St. Andrews moving. To be given the opportunity to feel a part of that for even one day, is a humbling experience that very few students are lucky enough to have.

I’m very grateful for this, and the amazing opportunity that being Kate has given me, and I relish the thought of spending the rest of my time in St Andrews, as a member of the community, and not just as a student.

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TOWN & GOWN

Seals and Susan Gallon I’ve always wanted to be a field biologist, work outside in contact with animals and travel around the world.

I am half French, half Scottish. Born and brought up in France I always wanted to come and study in the UK. My first opportunity was a 3month project on aquatic insects in Colchester during my undergraduate study. I loved it. It was hard, it was new, I had never seen these insects before in my life, but it was lots of fun too. After that my supervisor put me in contact with a French scientist working in St Andrews. It was he who introduced me to the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU). The next year, I was doing a master’s degree in France with a 5-month project to be carried out at SMRU. I knew at once how lucky I was to be there, not only because I was working with marine mammals, but also because SMRU is one of the best places in the world to study them. It was my first contact with seals and it was a wonderful experience.

I arrived in January 2004 to start my 5-month project and went on my first seal catching trip. Every year, 4 or more animals are brought back to the SMRU pool facility, and returned to the sea after a few months where they fit straight back in to their normal routines in the wild. The SMRU facility comprises a large pool (42x6x2.5m) and 3 smaller pools. The first contact with the seals is to feed them, but it is only the first of many challenges. It usually takes them a few days to adjust, after that we spend our entire day with them so there is a permanent contact. It is incredible to see how fast these wild animals learn: how and where to get food, how to get our attention. I am also amazed by the animals’ individuality: they are all different, some are shy, others are curious and this was unexpected by me. Then, the next challenge is to plan my work. As part of a team you need to first agree on a plan with your colleagues and the seal’s trainer.

But this is the easy part. After that, you need to get all your equipment ready. Video, camera, etc…, there is always something that does not work or that is missing! Finally you need your animal to participate of its own free will and this is not always the case. Sometimes the seal is not hungry; sometimes it doesn’t want to move from one pool to the other, sometimes it will just play with the fish: catching it, throwing it, tearing it to pieces, but it will not eat it. So you need to be patient and calm, but ready to start at any moment. That means I am never bored, because plans are always changing and new problems continuously emerge.

I am now 24 years old and in the 2nd year of my PhD that I was offered at the end of my master’s. I am looking at how different prey species, prey densities and dive depths affect the diving behaviour in grey seals.

People often ask me what I do and why. The first question is easy I am always doing different things. When we have animals, I spent most of the day with the animals and the trainers: preparing food, training and feeding the seals. A young seal eats around 1.5 to 3 kg of fish per day and an adult 4 to 6kg. It can take up to 3 hours to feed one animal during one experiment. Every 2 weeks, we also have to clean the entire pool, which takes an entire day. The rest of the time I am in front of my computer entering or analysing data or in various meetings. As a researcher you are part of a group and you are constantly sharing your work, results,

and ideas with the others. You also often need some help and advice from statisticians or engineers. I also go and present my work at various conferences which is always a good opportunity to do some travelling. In addition, I participate in other fieldwork. For the last 2 years, I have spent a few weeks on the Isle of May during the grey seals’ breeding season to help other researchers and gain experience. The second question: “why”, is more difficult to answer and I often ask myself. When you are doing a PhD you are trying to answer specific questions and you sometimes forget the big picture. So it is always a good exercise for me to explain what the experiments are for. As you may know all marine mammals must dive to feed, but at the same time they are mammals and have to breathe air at the surface. Therefore, they are faced with several challenges; firstly they must decide how to divide their time between diving and surfacing.

Secondly they have to search for prey in a 3 dimensional environment, where these are sometimes difficult to find. Finally, once they have been to the surface to breathe, they have to relocate the prey on the next dive.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to observe them directly in the wild. So the SMRU facility offers a unique opportunity to examine the behavioural decisions that seals make underwater. By presenting seals with different prey species at a range of depths we can calculate the cost and benefit associated with their decisions. At a bigger scale this can help us understand how marine mammal populations would be affected by a change in prey availability.

I am enjoying my PhD enormously, because seals are fantastic animals to work with, because SMRU is the perfect place to study them and also because I have a great supervisor and a team that makes life so much easier Grey seal pup can be black and more fun.

(Isle of May, 2004).

Evening Degree Programme Keen to get a degree?

Too busy to study full-time?

Try the flexible route to your MA General degree at the University of St Andrews via the Evening Degree Programme • • • • •

One or two evenings of classes per week Broad range of subjects Minimum age 21 Flexible entry requirements Fee Waiver scheme for people on low income or State benefits

Find out more from: Alison Andrews Evening Degree Co-ordinator Agnes, a grey seal adult female, swimming in the SMRU’s pool (Summer 2005).

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Telephone: 01334 462203 Email: parttime@st-andrews.ac.uk

TOWN & GOWN

Volunteers sought

Charlotte Firth tells what’s behind the

Nightmare Runners The St. Andrews University Cross-country Running Club is one of the smaller, but more dynamic of the University’s sports clubs. A dedicated group of sociable running enthusiasts, we meet regularly for track training and longer runs. Runners of all standards and levels of experience are welcome, from those who wish to compete at a high level, to those who are simply looking to keep fit and meet new people.

Members of the Club compete in high-calibre events such as the Braid Hills race in Edinburgh, the Scottish University’s Cross-Country Championship, as well as varied and enjoyable races, such as those organised in the local area by Fife A.C. This winter, we have taken part in Fife Athletic Club’s Nightmare Series, cross-country races run in the dark, using torches to navigate the varied and challenging courses. Each race is in a different location in Fife, with courses ranging from long, flat beaches, undulating woodland, rugged hillside, and even St. Andrews’ very own golf courses. These races have been particularly successful in developing strong links between the Club and the local community and our Club displays great team spirit and enthusiasm at these events. One member, Jackie Bonisteel, is currently a strong challenger for the top position in the women’s Nightmare standing, having won three out of five races so far, with two to go.

Being a very friendly and sociable club, the post-training and race events we organise are an important aspect. We are an outgoing bunch, participating in everything from fancy-dress events to karaoke, as well as meeting for quiet drinks at a local pub.

This spring we have big plans for the Club. We will of course be completing the Nightmare Series and entering other local events, but also wish to enter some races further away. The Club captain, John Pearman, a fourth-year marine and environmental biologist, has his sights set on members entering a half-marathon, and other longer races in Edinburgh and Inverness.

As we are one of the lesser-known clubs within the University, we have to be extra-dedicated and resourceful in order to fulfil our racing ambitions. The University only provides funded entry and transport for the annual Scottish University’s Cross-Country Championship, and so for every other event we wish to enter, we have to find the money to hire cars from the Sports Centre and pay for petrol. Therefore, we would be very interested and grateful to hear from any business wishing to offer us sponsorship to fund our racing lifestyle. Publicity guaranteed!

Anyone keen to get involved with the Club should come along to training on the track at 17:15 Mondays and Thursdays, or for a long run on Wednesdays at 15:00, meeting at the Sports Centre. For any other information, please contact John Pearman at jp35@st-andrews.ac.uk or visit our website at www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~xcrun

Students from Overseas often find that they feel a little isolated and in need of some respite from university life. When they are in their home environment it would be easy for them to go out with friends or family for a walk, or a trip to the theatre, or something of a relaxing nature, but when living in halls of residence or in private accommodation surrounded by other students it is difficult for them to get a break away from academic life. This sometimes means that students from Overseas do not have the opportunity to experience all of our Scottish Culture.

Student Support Services at the University of St Andrews and Elmwood College are recruiting volunteers to invite students occasionally to join them for some recreational activities, such as walks in the Highlands, visits to the theatre or cinema, shopping in one of the cities, family lunch, local Ceilidh. If a volunteer has a particular hobby; for example, sailing, horse-riding etc, we would like to match them with a student with similar interests, so that both the volunteer and the student benefit from the scheme.

The University also has a number of students from overseas who are accompanied during their studies by their families, and we feel it would be beneficial to the families to be given the opportunity to meet local families and to form friendships and links in Scotland, and get a true feeling of living in Scotland.

If you feel you could offer this type of hospitality to a student, either from Elmwood College or the University of St Andrews (please let us know if you have a preference for which institution the student attends), and would like to find out more please contact: Wendy Houldsworth, Student Support Services, University of St Andrews, 9 St Mary’s Place, St Andrews, KY16 9UZ Tel: 01334 462041 Fax: 01334 464007 Email: wah1@st-and.ac.uk

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OUT & ABOUT

Spring in the Botanic Garden Professor R.M.M. Crawford (Chairman – Friends of St Andrews Botanic Garden) Spring is always an anxious time. In the Botanic in carbohydrates and provide an abundant garden spring is especially hazardous as the supply of sugars in early spring, when overplants come from regions with very different wintering starch reserves are mobilized to fuel meteorological expectations sap-rise and bud-burst. from those that prevail in period of sap flow is due to starvation, more The St Andrews. Winter in the prime flowering time for St Andrews may not be as rootworms, and the Purple plants die in spring severe as in other countries, Toothwort can be seen than at any other but it can be longer and flowering in the Botanic late arrival of spring can put Garden from March to season of the year a strain on over-wintering April. Only the flower ever carbohydrate reserves. appears above ground.

Consequently, due to starvation, more plants Anyone thinking of introducing this botanical die in spring than at any other season of the marvel into a garden should be aware that it is year. It may at first seem strange that plants that sometimes 10 years before a flowering shoot have well-developed storage organs, ever have emerges above the ground (Photo 2). a starvation problem. However, over winter, especially when temperatures are above zero, respiration still continues and carbohydrate levels constantly drop.

Carbon recycling in plants Some woody plants (e.g. pines and heath species) have a problem in relation to spring starvation, as they have to support a large mass of living tissues through long winters. Several species have evolved a carbon recycling habit that is highly effective in overcoming this problem of spring starvation. In poplar, birch, and alder, a greenish zone can be seen below the outer bark with chlorophyll-containing tissues that receive enough light to be able to re-use internally respired carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. This internal re-fixation of carbon dioxide in the common birch (Betula pubescens) can compensate for 60-90% of the potential respiratory winter carbon loss (Photo 1).

Photo 1. The Himalayan Birch (Betula utilis) The parasitic Purple Toothwort Purple Toothwort (Lathraea clandestina) never suffers from spring starvation. The toothworts belong to the Broomrape family, which is entirely parasitic on other plants. The Purple Toothwort attaches itself to roots of willow and poplar. Willow and poplar roots are rich

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Photo 2. The Purple Toothwort (Lathraea clandestina) Spring flowering Plants that flower in early spring raise the question of why they begin the hazardous task of reproduction at such a climatically uncertain time of year. As with many biological questions there are several answers. For woodland plants to profit from their environment the early spring has to be exploited to the full before the forest canopy closes and reduces available light.

There is, however, another less obvious reason.

When the soil warms up after winter there is a period when soil respiration liberates large quantities of carbon dioxide. For many plants it is not light that limits growth, but the availability of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is now (despite the current rise) much lower than when the flowering plants originally evolved 100 million years ago. The prostrate plants of the forest floor are therefore ideally adapted for maximizing their capture of this essential resource in spring.

Many of our mountain plants also choose to flower early in spring, and the best example of this is the Purple Saxifrage, which is always the first mountain species to flower in Scotland and in the rock garden (Photo 3). The Purple Saxifrage grows on the treeless wastes of the Tundra and here the climatic advantages of the forest floor are not relevant. The answer is more probably in the reproductive strategy adopted by this species. In relation to reproduction, flowering plants can be divided into two opposing categories, namely, pollenriskers and seed-riskers. The pollen-riskers are the early flowering plants and are generally outbreeding (pollen has to be transferred to another plant to produce seed). They have high ovule abortion rates due to a lack of pollinating insects and unfavourable weather.

Photo 3. The early flowering Purple Saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) Nevertheless, some seed is produced every year and as it is cross-pollinated it provides genetic dispersion. The late-flowering species, the seed-riskers, are at the other extreme. Their flowers are largely self-pollinating and there is little ovule abortion. However, in unfavourable years these late-flowering species risk losing their entire seed crop. The pollen-riskers, due to the greater genetic diversity that comes from out breeding, adapt more readily to adverse climatic alterations. Another early flowering pollen-risker is Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), our only wild plum (Photo 4). This species lives in a wide variety of habitats that stretch from Atlantic shores to Siberia. For this species, like the Purple Saxifrage, taking risks with pollen is the price for remaining adaptable and having a widespread distribution. In more stable habitats this need is not so great, as the life of the individual plant is more secure and risks can be taken with seed survival.

Photo 4. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) When you visit the Garden, and admire the magic of early flowering plants, you are not just enjoying a cheering horticultural spectacle after winter gloom. Instead, you are also witnessing an age-old, plant-devised strategy for survival in an uncertain and changing world.

OUT & ABOUT Hill of Tarvit Mansion House and Gardens will be celebrating their centenary this year. Flora Selwyn met the new Property Manager who will steer the celebrations,

Ruth Burgess

The National Trust for Scotland appointed Ruth to her exciting new post here in July 2005. Brought up in Aberystwyth, Wales, Ruth obtained her BA Hons Degree in Fine Art Valuation in Southampton University, followed by a Masters at the University of Buckingham. In 1999 she took up a post as Assistant House Manager at Burghley House, in Stamford, Lincs. I remarked, what a small world it is, because this magazine is modelled on Stamford Living, Stamford‘s own magazine!

Ruth enjoyed her time there, during which she “went to Carolina to fly back the Treasures of Burghley House.” A short spell at the late seventeenth century house of Uppark, in West Sussex, and Ruth went to the magnificent National Trust property of Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire. A William and Mary mansion within an ancient deer park, Dyrham boasts a lavish collection of seventeenth century Dutch art and ceramics. Ruth acted as courier, “a great experience“ in charge of priceless works of art. She says she went to Memphis, “with Bess of Harwick” and was paid for the privilege!

September 2004 saw Ruth in Edinburgh working as Gallery Assistant to Anthony Wood. There she was responsible for putting together catalogues and exhibitions. “I love the eighteenth century. I’m a member of the Georgian Group.” Ruth also loves ”visiting country houses, which may seem strange since I work in them.” Horses are another love. She once had a bet that she would learn riding sidesaddle. This was a challenge she couldn’t resist. She won her bet at Burghley! “I don’t own a horse. I’d be more than willing to exercise horses because I want to get back into riding.” Any offers? Ruth is a great lover of books as well – oh, and pugs!

To accommodate Mr. F. B. Sharp’s large collection of furniture, porcelain, and paintings, Sir Robert Lorimer remodelled Hill of Tarvit Mansion and its gardens in 1906. In1949 Miss E. C. Sharp bequeathed it to the National Trust for Scotland. From Easter this year there will be many events marking the centenary – plays; concerts; an Edwardian fête and flower festival etc. It will, says Ruth, be “a very exciting time in the Hill of Tarvit’s history.”

A Lot of Hot Air! From Alistair Lawson, ScotWays’ Field Officer Readers who are also walkers will know that North-East Fife is more densely criss-crossed by rights of way than any other part of Scotland.

The range of walking experiences varies greatly, not just in terms of the geography, but in terms of the unexpected gems of incidental information across which one sometimes stumbles.

In the triangle bounded by Ceres, Pitscottie and Cameron, there is a network of inter-connected routes with a focus at Callange, a mile south of Pitscottie. From there, off-road paths and quiet-road paths link Ceres to the west with Kinninmonth and Drumcarrow, or Baldinie and Wilkieston to the east. However, just at the side of the B940, at Grid Reference 420 120, lies a clue to an unexpected piece of history.

We were all told at school that hot-air ballooning was pioneered by the Montgolfier brothers, the French balloonists, whose first successful flight is recorded as having been over Paris, in 1783. In rather the same way that aeroplanes found a new role in the First World War, balloons were put to military use in Napoleonic times and were being used as “spotters” as early as 1794.

All that is very much France’s affair, but it is surprising to find that Scotland – and, more significantly, North-East Fife – had a part to play in the early days of this new form of travel. A plaque on a roadside rock at Callange tells of a flight made from Edinburgh to Grange of Callange in 1785, by Vicenzo Lunardi, a native of Lucca in Italy.

One wonders what strange combination of circumstances brought a balloonist to central Scotland just two years after the first-ever flight. It is rather as though the Wright brothers, having made their first flight in December 1903, had prompted a disciple to appear in Fife in a “flying machine” sometime in 1905. Come to think of it, Dundee’s Preston Watson did claim to have flown at Errol in the summer of 1903.

Perhaps readers would like to deluge “St Andrews in Focus” with a barrage of Letters to the Editor, either filling out the Lunardi story or telling of other gems of incidental information found while walking Fife’s rights of way.

Les Hatton, of Fife Rangers, paints a picture of the

Eden Equinox The Spring equinox, that period when day and night are of equal length and whose passing tells us that good times are coming as the days continue to grow in length and the night retreats, is a time of great change around the Eden Estuary. We know from research that most of the rhythms of nature, although they may respond in part to temperature changes, are usually more driven by changes in day length, thousands of years of selection having taught most organisms not to rely on something as fickle as the weather.

On an estuary the most obvious changes are in the bird life, with winter migrants gathering, feeding hard to put on the fuel needed to carry them over inhospitable waters to their arctic breeding grounds. Why head north anyway? Popular theory is that the long daylight allows otherwise inhospitable lands to provide a short flush of massive productivity (it is not for nothing that Myvatin, the largest lake in Iceland, is named after the midge). For those birds fit and able to undertake the journey such places offer abundant breeding habitat and feeding – but for a short time only.

March and April finds the Eden’s goose population getting fat in the local fields on the finest food the Common Agricultural Policy can provide, their body profiles visibly rounding out

Photo by Christine McGuinness – a volunteer photographer with the service who has provided us with lots of terrific images

like folk after Christmas dinner. No snoozing in front of repeats and soaps for them though, a 1000 kilometre journey awaits, with the possibility of snow-bound shores greeting them at the other end.

Once on their Icelandic breeding grounds, pairs will lay claim to their nesting sites, the Pink-footed geese choosing remoter, upland sites, full of short tough grasses and vividly coloured mosses and lichens. Meanwhile the Greylags will seek out the lower ground, often around human settlement and cultivation, each water body resounding to their loud honking, disturbing the prehistoric-looking divers, and watched with indifference by whirling Rednecked Phalaropes. The Icelanders, perhaps unkindly, call the Greylag the ‘lazy goose‘, for its love of these green, cultivated pastures.

Geese are famously monogamous, with strong pair bonds and wider kinship networks.

Although divorce does occasionally occur, and reforming of pair bonds due to the loss of mates is a common result of winter mortality, ‘new’ pairs tend to have lower breeding success than long established ‘couples’, experience clearly counting for something.

Once territories are sorted out, egg laying must commence as soon as possible in order to

make the most use of the short summer, and ensure that the grass is at its best when the young hatch, usually within 28 days of the eggs being laid. A short and furious eight weeks for the youngsters to grow after hatching, a period the adults take advantage of to moult all of their flight feathers in preparation for the autumn migration, and suddenly the nights are almost as long as the days.

The internal clocks of these long-lived birds begins to sound alarm bells as the autumn equinox approaches. Once again the birds concentrate on taking in as much food as they can, gathering together in favoured feeding grounds as they prepare to return to our shores.

At this stage the youngsters are still downy on their underparts and an experienced eye can tell their slim and slight shapes from those robust veterans of the great journey.

The departure of wild geese in the Spring, and their ragged return on a late September gale, connect us with that most primitive force – sometimes masked by easy access to electric lighting – the simple reality of changing day length and all that it promises.

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Elspeth’s of St Andrews, 9 Church Street Tel: 01334 472494

Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews WOODLAND & WATERGARDENS HERBACEOUS & SCREE ALPINES & RHODODENDRONS GLORIOUS GLASSHOUSE COLLECTIONS OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMME First Tuesday at 7.30 pm Chemistry Dept., North Haugh ENTRY FREE – ALL WELCOME CONDUCTED GARDEN WALKS First Sunday at 2.00 pm SPRING PLANT SALE Saturday 11th March 10 am – 12 noon PLANT SALES AREA OPENS SATURDAY 25th MARCH TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY. Canongate, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8RT Tel: 01334 476452 www.st-andrews-botanic.org

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Shock Absorber was launched in 1995 as a result of research by Edinburgh University which showed that wearing a sports bra whilst you exercise reduced breast movement by 50%, delaying long term sagging.

Fact: Even among 34As, tests found that breast movement ranged up to an average of 42mm away from the resting place on the body.

Fact: Tests showed that breast movement is reduced by 38% when wearing an ordinary bra, but this reduces as much as 56% with a Shock Absorber sports bra.

A bra designed specifically for physical activity is vital for every woman who cares about her body when she exercises. Whether you’re playing to win, or just running for fun, competing, or training, a sports bra will give you the support and comfort you need.

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