Edinburgh and Its People
Every day except Sunday, at one o’clock in the afternoon, a
loud boom splits the air, shattering the calm of visitors yet prompting
locals merely to glance at their wristwatches. A twenty-five pound gun
set on a battery of the imposing castle above the town has fired a
single shell. The sound fades into the distance as the smoke from its
muzzle dissipates into the clear air. This is Edinburgh, a city which,
since 1846, has marked time in its own distinctive style and to which,
in return, time has bequeathed a rich legacy of monuments, myths,
martyrs, and memories that make it a magnet for visitors.
The city of Edinburgh is the capital of the nation of
Scotland. It sits in the east of the country, 5-km (3-miles) south of
the estuary of the River Forth and 605-km (378-miles) north of London,
the capital of the United Kingdom. It was founded in an amazing
geological area on hills created by ancient volcanic activity — ideal
vantage points for building strong defenses and spying an approaching
enemy.
The allure of Edinburgh is its complexity: It’s like a jewel
with several facets. Look at it from different angles and you will
discover something new each time.
The town became the “principal burgh” of the kingdom during
the reign of James III (1460–1488), and in the following years it
blossomed. Complete districts from that time are still in place,
replete with multi-story houses (called tenements or “lands”),
churches, taverns, and tollhouses. These are crisscrossed by numerous
narrow alleys called “wynds” and separated by open spaces where markets
were held, royal decrees were heard, and criminals were hanged in front
of large and enthusiastic crowds.
Take a stroll through these wynds today, especially at dusk
when the pale glow of the streetlamps softens the shadows. It is
possible to imagine the activities of the population five centuries
ago: officials going about the king’s business or off to the tavern,
children playing noisy street games, or “fishwives” on the street
corners selling shucked oysters from the town of Leith (on the coast
three miles away). Fortunately, it is less easy to conjure up the
smells of that time. Sewage was thrown into the streets from upstairs
windows, accompanied by shouts of “Gardeyloo! ” (derived from the
French “Guarde de l’eau! ” or “Beware of the water! ” ). Strolling
would not have been as pleasant an experience as it is today.
Three hundred years later, in the 1760s, this medieval city
spawned a sibling. The “New Town,” which was planned by architect James
Craig and embellished by Robert Adam, became one of the most beautiful
Georgian cities of the world. Today it is still very much complete,
rivaled only in size and grandeur by Russia’s St. Petersburg. One can
easily imagine ladies in crinolines and bonnets walking along the
thoroughfares, with carriages riding noisily over the cobbled
streets.
The spirit engendered by the creation of the New Town
brought about the new “Age of Enlightenment” for Edinburgh. Although it
ceased to be a political capital in 1707 (when Scotland joined with
England to create the United Kingdom), Edinburgh was at the forefront
of intellectual debate. The Scottish arts were in the ascendant, with
novelist Sir Walter Scott creating such works as Rob Roy and Ivanhoe
and poet Robert Burns composing his epic poetry.
In modern times the handsome Georgian New Town and noble
medieval Old Town live happily side by side. Their very different
characters offer visitors “two cities for the price of one. ”
Edinburgh watches over many of Scotland’s national
treasures with great pride. Edinburgh Castle is a treasure in
itself — and with more than one million visitors each year also
Scotland’s most popular attraction. Its strong walls guard not only
jewels and royal artifacts but also the memories of thousands of
historic events. There are three national art galleries featuring the
work of masters from around the world. You’ll find a Royal Palace
dating back to the 15th century and two Parliament buildings, one left
powerless in 1707 and the other newly empowered in 1999. Three major
museums illustrate Edinburgh’s fascinating history, with one holding a
collection revealing the annals of Scotland’s past and the lives of her
most illustrious sons and daughters.
Yet one of the delights of the city is that it is not
simply a collection of heartless historic façades. It is instead a
living, thriving community. The tenements of the Old Town and Georgian
buildings of the New Town are still in residential use, with a range of
stores, restaurants, pubs, and theaters sustaining the population.
Edinburgh is compact, a city where you can walk to appointments or to
your evening entertainment. It has few tall buildings. With its
proximity to the countryside — only ten minutes in any direction to the
seashore or unbroken green hills — it comes as no surprise to learn
that it has been confirmed as one of the most congenial places to live
in the UK.
The people of Edinburgh are often accused by their fellow
Scots of lacking passion and have been labeled “prim and proper. ” One
reason for this could be that they have traditionally pursued such
conservative, respectable vocations as banking, medicine, law, and
academia. But this wealth of earnest achievement doesn’t mean that the
people lack verve or the ability to enjoy themselves. It is simply that
the serious aspects of life are given their proper due before the fun
can begin.
Edinburgh’s people are some of the most friendly and
welcoming you could hope to meet: they are quite genuine and
unaffected. The city’s urbane residents enjoy their galleries,
theaters, and exhibitions as much as visitors do. Their restaurants
feature internationally renowned chefs who create dishes using some of
the finest meat, game, and fish in the world. People here love to
socialize, and they get together in hundreds of pubs, each with its own
character. Old Town pubs hark back to the days of Burns and Scott, with
small, smoky rooms and low lighting. In the New Town, chic wine bars
welcome the banking and insurance set for after-office rendezvous.
In 1947 the opera impresario Sir Rudolf Bing undertook the
task of organizing the first annual arts festival, which aimed to
attract major names in the fields of music, drama, and dance. By 1987,
the Edinburgh International Festival had grown into the largest annual
arts event in the world, with hundreds of performances in numerous
venues across the city during August and early September. Today,
however, the main arts festival is only part of a veritable circus of
summer activities that seem to turn the city upside down.
Regiments of soldiers in full dress regalia march precisely
to the sound of pipe and drum in the Military Tattoo, and connoisseurs
of the silver screen gather for an extravaganza of offerings on
celluloid. The Festival Fringe, perhaps Dr. Jekyll to the International
Festival’s Mr. Hyde, is an umbrella title given to thousands of
performances ranging from the avant-garde to the downright irreverent.
And each year at festival time, Edinburgh willingly gives its streets
over to stilt walkers, automatons, satirists, and barbershop quartets
along with 500,000 visitors — belying its reputation for being sober
and staid.
Another wonderful time to visit Edinburgh is at the turn of
the year, when the city hosts the “biggest New Year’s Eve party in the
world,” called Hogmanay. The whole population comes out into the
streets to watch a huge display of fireworks illuminate the historic
skyline. Where better to sing your year-end rendition of “Auld Lang
Syne”?
At the start of the new millennium, Edinburgh is once again
wielding true political power on behalf of its fellow countrymen: The
“Scotland Act,” passed in November 1998, transferred control of
domestic policy from London back to the Scots for the first time since
1707. The sense of an impending new era can be discerned in the pride,
confidence, and energy of people on the city streets. It is also taking
concrete form in the new Scottish Parliament building at the bottom of
the Royal Mile. Edinburgh is a city with firm foundations in the past,
but it also has designs on the future.
