Museums, Music & MADNESS

There is an infinite number of wonders that awaits a visitor to Edinburgh and a great deal of those wonders are completely free. I began my day at one of them, the incredible National Museum of Scotland.

To start, we must discuss the magnificent Victorian building that houses this Museum, one of the country's greatest treasures.
The Royal Scottish Museum began life as the Industrial Museum of Scotland, founded in 1854 to reflect Victorian ideals of education. Renamed the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, it opened in its bespoke building in 1866. Originally inspired by London’s Crystal Palace, the building was designed by visionary engineer Captain Francis Fowke and local architect Robert Matheson to be both beautiful and technically innovative.

By the time of the building’s jubilee in 1904, the museum had become the Royal Scottish Museum, and was Scotland’s first national public building. This significance as a building of historical importance is reflected today with a Category A listing.
With limited time, I went directly to the Art, Design and Fashion galleries. These sumptuous galleries showcase the best of decorative art, design, fashion and style. Here I was able to discover, in complete solitude, a treasure trove of creativity. The displays showcased the influence of design on everyday life and explained how contemporary makers continue to innovate.

I was hooked on the historical like this Mantua from the 1750s. For court wear in the early 18th century, women wore the open-fronted mantua, with a train and matching petticoat. To give the figure the required shape, a corset and hooped petticoat or panniers were worn underneath. Designed to reflect the wearer's status, it was usually decorated with opulent embroidery incorporating gold or silver thread or gilt lace. Wouldn't this have been great during COVID when we had to stay 6 feet apart?




The Science and Technology galleries offered displays on everything from communications, transport, industry, engineering, and energy, to medicine and how scientific and technological inventions have changed our lives.
I was incredibly intrigued by the Jacquard loom. Invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in France in 1801, it was one of the first ever numerically-controlled machines. Controlled by a chain of punched cards, laced together into a continuous sequence, the holes on each complete card represented one row of the design. By transferring patterns from the cards to the loom, the Jacquard mechanism made it possible to produce complex patterns more simply. What was extra cool about the display was its accompanying video showing the loom at work.
There was truly something for everyone. How about this stack of Formula 1 cars?!
Another intriguing artifact was Dolly the Sheep. Remember her? The most famous sheep in the world. Born in 1996, she was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. Dolly was the only live lamb from 277 eggs used in cloning. Interesting and quite cute.
I have met so many famous people never knowing they were Scottish like James Watt (1736-1819). Inventor and engineer Watt made a significant contribution to the Industrial Revolution through improvements to steam power technology that revolutionized production and manufacturing.
The diverse offerings in this museum never ends. I loved this iron drinking fountain, made the 1880s by the Glasgow firm, Walter Macfarlane and Co., Scotland's most important manufacturer of ornamental ironwork at the time. The company was well known for making public drinking fountains, bandstands and other architectural ironwork. Macfarlane exported products around the world. Some of their ironwork still survives in places as diverse as a bank in India, a theater in Brazil and Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Decorative ironwork like this was very fashionable in the 19th century, as changes in manufacturing techniques made it possible to produce cast iron that was strong and could be shaped into complex designs.
Near the fountain is this structure, an Atom smasher. Experiments to investigate atoms and subatomic particles require huge pieces of apparatus to generate the high energies needed. Modern particle accelerators can be many kilometers long. This is only one section of an accelerator used at the University of Edinburgh for nuclear physics research from 1950 to 1972. Very, very cool.
A brief run through the Natural World galleries introduced me to the much-loved Tyrannosaurus Rex, which guards the entrance to a stunning series of galleries about our precious planet. Here the big questions are asked: how does the world work? What do we know about it? What is our place in the universe?

I ended my visit in the Scottish History and Archaeology galleries which covers everything from the Paleolithic era to the present day, from the earliest cultures to space age science, prehistory to pop culture. I was invited to "Come face-to-face with iconic historic artifacts, learn how Scottish innovation has helped shape the modern world, and see how the lives of everyday Scots have changed through the centuries."
I am intrigued by Mary, Queen of Scots, so I focused a little on her.
This fine silver-gilt casket is believed to have been owned by Mary, Queen of Scots. Made in Paris, it is an extremely rare example of French late medieval-early Renaissance silver and would have been used to store jewelry or devotional objects. It is of particular renown because, allegedly, it once held the Casket Letters, which were used to implicate Mary in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley, and an illicit relationship with Lord Bothwell. The Letters, in a silver casket like this, were presented as evidence at her trial. Poor Mary, she should have thought a bit more about keeping them. Hmmm.
Perhaps Mary had an encounter with this, the Maiden, a beheading machine.
For 145 years it was used to execute criminals and political opponents of the crown. Executions were public - absolute demonstrations of authority by a monarchy determined to maintain law and order.
When people weren't being beheaded, there was always the option of torture. The iron collar was a way of trying to get someone (usually a woman) suspected of witchcraft to confess to being a witch. I can just imagine the jagged points making her neck bleed. Sometimes all a woman did to be suspected was to talk in her sleep or mumble! If that were true, I'd be in one almost daily. In late 16th and 17th-century Scotland, between 3,000- 4,000 people were tortured and executed as 'witches', a group identified as threatening social stability. Most of those accused were women... spinsters or widows with no means of support and unable to defend themselves. Often they had a local reputation for herbal remedies, folk medicine and healing. The persecution of witches in Scotland was an extreme example of a movement which swept Europe. Its history is incredibly interesting but far too vast to share here. But wow!

I was in the museum for almost two hours and I barely scratched the surface on the 1st floor. With six floors of exhibits, I probably would never finish, even if I had a week. What a fantastic National treasure.
Our second amazement of the day was at this church, Canongate Kirk. Scotland's King James VII (aka James II of England) arranged for the parish church of Canongate adjacent to the Palace of Holyroodhouse to become the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, and ordered that money left at the disposal of the Crown by a merchant, Thomas Moodie, should be used to build a new building.  The new building, which was started in 1688, was quite unlike anything else built in Scotland at that time.
We came for the free lunchtime concert which featured the music of Mendelssohn, Fuchs, and Ireland. It was performed by the Countess of Wessex's String Orchestra (CWSO). These musicians from The Royal Corps of Army Music, one of 14 Regular Army Bands in the British Army, played for the King just yesterday, and here they were providing us with the most fabulous musical interlude. This brief video gives a glimpse on the magic.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes.
"A magic beyond all we do here!”
 -J.K. Rowling
The finale of our day was remarkable. When our dates were secured for our stay in Edinburgh, I discovered that MADNESS was happening. For those who don't know, Madness is an English ska and pop band from London, who formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s two-tone ska revival, they continue to perform with six of the seven members of their original line-up. Madness' most successful period was from 1980 to 1986, when the band's songs spent a total of 214 weeks on the UK Singles Chart and when we fell in love with them, too!
The concert was held at the Edinburgh Castle and it truly was madness getting into the venue (organized, polite madness as the Scots do). There were so many die-hard Madness fans. I so loved it all. What infectious excitement ensued!
This guy gets the award as the #1 fan with the band's logo tattooed on the back of his bald head. THAT is devotion!

What a venue!
What a backdrop!
What a night!
What unforgettable memories!
Madness' opening number, One Step Beyond, captured in this video, started the night as only this band could! The festiveness never stopped.

On the way home it was interesting to see that the masses, who did not attend the concert, were huddled, around any television they could find, to watch football. Wild stuff.
When traveling, there is nothing better than staying in the heart of a city. To wander its streets, virtually alone, adds a whole new level of amazement.
"The Scots think of it as their capital;
they’re too possessive,
Edinburgh belongs to the world.”
-Richard Demarco

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1 comments:

Denise said...

I'm afraid you are going to have to ditch those wonderful coats, sweaters and long sleeves when you get home! Argh.

July 7, 2024 at 1:53 PM

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