- 01 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Sir Walter Scott 1771>1832 - Monument
Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Ivanhoe’ (1810) was my introduction to formal literature studies at grammar school a long time ago. A lawyer by profession his experience covered many of its aspects and furthered his literary skills through related writing and editing. Formal positions in the law and leadership in societies related to Scottish antiquity and history contributed to his fiction writing and his influence on literature beyond Scotland. This monument overlooks Waverley Station, named after his novel ‘Waverley’ and its related series.
- 02 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | The Scott Monument – from 1840
After Scott’s death in 1832 a competition sought a design for a monument to him in the city. It was won by a John Morvo who was actually George Kemp (1795-1844) who thought his lack of formal qualifications in architecture would prevent his entry being accepted. With little boyhood formal education this shepherd’s son was apprenticed to a joiner and developed his innate talents through drawing, wood working and an intense observed study of gothic architecture: his biography is fascinating. The marble figure of Scott is by Scottish sculptor John Steell.
- 03 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | In the Dean Cemetery with headstones and mature trees
This cemetery opened in 1845 and occupies the site and grounds of the 17C Dean House. Graveyards are fascinating places on several levels. Even without knowing anything about those whose names are recorded on the monuments it’s possible to read family details beyond simply names and their dates of births and deaths. This image shows a glimpse of a few of the many headstones framed by mature trees on a main avenue.
- 04 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Bronze relief on a headstone in the Dean Cemetery
The Dean monuments are often imposing in scale, design and craft skill. Stone dominates, sometimes carrying portrait heads or reliefs in bronze. Earlier Edinburgh Fragments galleries carry more Dean images like these.
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- 06 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Colouration in tall wall mounted family headstones
The burial ground is surrounded by a wall some nine or more feet high with lengths surviving from the original house grounds. Here, three memorials are placed against it to record one family’s members from the eighteenth and into the twentieth centuries. Some are names of children who died in infancy or at a young age, all taken by causes affecting even their affluent family. Weathering has created these beautifully abstract colorations in the stone.
- 07 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | A headstone detail in the Dean Cemetery
My first visit to the city was some eighty years ago with surviving memories of a rare ice cream and being given a glass Christmas tree decoration. Edinburgh Festival visits began in teens and city stays continue to this day with another coming close as I write. John Bellamy (1942>2013) painting exhibitions made strong impressions as they must have done for many others: his work still grips. This slice of raw stone marks his grave here in the Dean.
- 08 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Cut-out design in a small upper window in the R.B.G east gate lodge
Visitors entering by the east gate to the Royal Botanic Garden can seek information and maps from the lodge building. Lifted eyes found a small upper window with what seems to be a paper cut-out growing across its glass.
- 09 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Plant growing at the Palm House door in the Royal Botanic Garden
I noticed this growing just inside the entrance to the Palm House: its form and colour subtleties attracted. The House of 1858 was designed by Robert Matheson in sandstone, iron and glass. Its architecture and engineering create a very fine setting for the plants within. Sir James Rocheid’s nearby Inverleith House of 1773 designed by David Henderson is used for exhibitions and between 1960 and 1984 was the first home of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
- 10 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Bark on a Chinese Acer Griseum in the Garden grounds
The delicate and myriad shades of the tissue bark on this tree appealed. The Garden is equal to any of the many built attractions in the city and repays any number of return visits across a year.
- 11 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Tree bark detail with enhancement in Princes Street Gardens
This tree stands by one of many footpaths in Princes Street Gardens. Did the drawing’s creator by chance arrive with paint and brush or was a second visit required? It looked quite subtle in the shadows cast by the leaf canopy under bright sunshine.
- 12 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Stone wall with aperture and tree foliage shadows, Stockbridge
This was recorded across a point on the Water of Leith in Stockbridge where most of the structures present blank stone walls to walkers on the riverside path. I was drawn to the contrast of lighting created by strong sunshine falling directly on to the stone and the blurred shapes of intervening foliage.
- 13 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Stonework detail and posters on King’s Stables road
Former properties on this street have long had stone fillings in their doors and windows and these are evident in this large expanse of wall enlivened by a small patch of contrasting advertising colour and detail.
- 14 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Stonework detail near Nicholson Square
Several short terraces and buildings in the Nicholson Square area of the city featured similar stone colours and the decorative use of smaller pieces between the vertical joints in the masonry. It’s visually powerful when applied to a complete façade, especially when accented by dressed stonework around windows and doors, Sometimes another element is added by black painted iron railings.
- 15 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | A detail from closed shop shutters on Cockburn Street
This was a closed and shuttered shop I passed whilst walking the street around mid-day. I liked the flecking of the blue and grey zinc coating on the precise forms of the door slats and the offset intrusion of the dimly lit opening times notice in the dark void beyond.
- 16 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Spray can and five sticker additions to doors off the Cowgate
I cropped and reversed this image to reduce legibility and increase the visual contribution of coloured line on this pair of doors. The thin white lines of light reflected from its sheet metal edges seem to help structure the random placing of the scribble.
- 17 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Multi-coloured scaffolding on a Cockburn Street building
The lengths of coloured scaffolding and the pink of the lightweight fabric draped to protect the extensively carved façade stonework attracted but a composition was difficult to define. I have doubts with it as an image but it’s certainly a good contrast with the real scaffolder’s scaffolding structure in the next image.
- 18 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 6 | Detail from scaffolding on the North Bridge
The North Bridge of 1894-7 links High Street in the Old Town and Princes Street in the New and stands above the tracks and roof of the Waverley Station. It was constructed by Sir William Arrol & Company, better known for their involvement with the slightly earlier, larger and better known Forth Railway Bridge. This 2019 image shows a detail from the scaffolding encasing the whole structure during a major overhaul of the metal structure completed in 2021.