I think we are near Melrose in the area of the Scottish Borders but I don’t know the name of the place. The hotel is “The Border Hotel”. Now, it appears that the Scottish Border is something of a moving experience, hence the “Scottish Borders“! We presume that it is nailed down now but historically it has been fought over. We’ve overnighted in a quaint little pub which I don’t remember the name of or where it is but it was OK. The main reason I don’t remember is that we spent hours chasing a laundromat and we’ve been to Melrose, Selkirk, some where else, some where else and finally Galashiels to find some wash tubs in a car park behind a service station.And this on the advice of two local constables who got it wrong anyway.
But, before I go on – Belated “Happy Birthday” to John Fowler, early “Happy Birthday” to Rob Dey, and very early “Happy Birthday” to our beloved daughter Calinda. We’ve been having trouble sending emails – for some reason they don’t like travelling over water and as I’m sure you’re well aware theres lots of that betwen here and there, but for some reason our blog continues to keep you up to date despite the water.
There is altogether too much to see and spend time on in the Scottish Border region. One could probably spend weeks here exploring ancient history but we’ve now got limited time, made worse by actually seeing things. We stumbled upon Mallestein House…
circa 1600 with the middle bit around 1750. I don’t know how they can live like this! And, its still with the same family the current generation of whom still lives there. Mind you, we didn’t see their wing to appreciate things like modern plumbing, toilets etc. cos the old bit don’t have none.
We learnt an interesting fact about personal hygeine in Edinbrugh – there was none! Bodily waste in the “potty” was thrown out the window to the cry of “gardyloo” around 10.00pm each night into the street. Urine was stored for washing – it is a bleach. Other bits, thrown from the windows were consumed by pigs, the pigs being the ultimate recycler, cos then you ate the pigs – Ugh! There was no running water, nobody bathed and even in the new town of Edinburgh in the 1800’s there was no running water. Edinburgh was known as “Stinky Town”, but it highlights the deficiencies of the era everywhere and Mallenstein was no exception.
However, a surprising contradiction exists at Melrose Chapel. Dating back to the 1300’s the Cistercian Monks had some very advanced ideas. Not only were they financially self sustaining, they built a massive business empire through farming – wool, sheep, crops and they had latrines which were self flushing. Diverting the local river through channels facilitated the movement of movements….
and they built a massive church complex of which only ruins exist today…
but it gives you some idea of the masons and artisans skills of some 700 years ago.
Within the Borders area there are many similar examples and by this stage we have taken much longer than anticipated to suss out some. It would not be hard to spend weeks exploring this area and learning of the history. What was particularly interesting here at Melrose was that the monks failed because of their own success – commercialism won out – the order simply moved on to become a business empire.
One interesting sidelight is that purportedly Robert the Bruce’s heart is buried here (think Mel Gibson – ‘Braveheart’).
Then it was on to “Mary,Queen of Scots” house in somewhere I forget and I’m sure she did too cos she was only here for a period of time while recovering from an illness whilst travelling, but every town has to have a ‘hook’. The picture of the “garderobe” illustrates a typical toilet facility of ‘wealthy’ home owners. Where does it all go – out into the street of course.
There is still so much more to show and tell but lets get this across the water for the birthdays before they too become old hat.