Author: The Wee Museum of Memory

By Vivienne Corgoova

The year was 1958 when Addie Donaldson went on a cycling holiday with his wife Barbara to explore the Highlands. While cycling, they simply had to capture the approaching automobile in a photograph as they happened to be fellow tourists captivated by the mysterious atmosphere of the Highlands. The romantic promotion of the Scottish Highlands saw its peak after the publication of Sir Walter Scott´s historical novels in the early 19^th century. “My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,” (Scott, line 2) is one of his profound quotes which summarizes the importance the Scottish nature resembled to the author himself. Scott´s depictions of the Scottish Highlands as a mythical, melancholic, and yet bewitching and beautiful place inspired tourists and families across Britain to use the Highlands as their weekend getaway. The illustrations in Scott´s novels by a history painter, William Allan, complimented his literary depiction of Scottish heritage and enhanced the reader´s desire to visit the landscape. The mid-19th century therefore marked the emergence of literary tourism in Scotland.

In addition to the literary works of Scottish authors, the British royal family also contributed to the popularization of touring Scottish nature mainly thanks to Queen Victoria´s numerous visits to the Balmoral Castle. Many English people wanted to follow her travels and participate in the new “touring Scotland trend.” This can raise several questions concerning Scottish uniqueness. What makes Scotland different? How is Scottish identity defined and why is it so attractive to tourists? The iconography in a typical Scottish souvenir shop would be filled with images of tartans, bagpipes, whiskey, and predominantly magical Scottish nature with the cutest Highland cows and vibrant blue skies without any sign of rain. While these images are usually used to lure tourists into the country, they are also associated with Scottish nationhood. The way most nations started to form is by declaring what they are not like rather than emphasizing their most prominent features. Scotland sought to distinguish itself from the English identity by stating that it was different from England building the evidence from stereotypical images such as men in kilts, bagpipers in the Highlands and magnificent nature. This distinction was the point that made the English public interested in the country and it forced them to explore the country to witness those mythical characteristics.

As the railway system across Britain evolved and improved throughout the 20^th century, tickets soon became more accessible to the working classes who could travel to different parts of the country for leisure. In 1983, ScotRail was first introduced to public transport making the travel from southern parts of the UK to the north even easier. The accessibility of the transport system was strongly interlinked with tourism as the decision to go on a holiday to the other side of the country often depended on the convenience of railways, roads, and buses. In very recent history, we can see how imperative transportation is for touring companies as hundreds of Edinburgh Tour Buses pass us every day. These buses can easily go from the Royal Mile to Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith just in a few minutes while providing the guides with the possibility to cover a wider area of Edinburgh´s history all while looking out the window and seeing the mentioned places. The popularity of such buses shows the importance of the tourism sector in Scottish history which also provides 13% of Scotland´s total employment (Bhandari, 21). Even though the stereotypical images on postcards and guide tour leaflets barely represent the complexity of Scottish identity, they are a profound part of a visitor´s idea of Scotland which can only encourage them to visit the place and experience the full extent of Scottish heritage.

Don´t forget to visit us in The Wee Museum of Living Memory to see our “Transport and Tourism” monthly table!

Sources:

Scott, Walter. “My heart’s in the Highlands”

Bhandari, Kalyan. Tourism and National Identity: Heritage and Nationhood in Scotland. Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications, 2014.

Glendening, John. The High Road: Romantic Tourism, Scotland, and Literature, 1720-1820, Macmillan, 1997.

By Vivienne Corgoova

They are seen on every street and every corner, a prerequisite of even the smallest Scottish village and an integral part of all Scottish tourist guides. Their popularity persevered even in the modern era connecting modern society with communities in the past. Bars, pubs, inns, ale houses, and taverns. They were all used as the main sites for socialising for centuries and continue to be regarded as places of social connections even today. Scottish pubs have been an intrinsic part of Scottish history since the 1700s. After the Union of Scotland and England in 1707, major political and social changes took place forcing the general Scottish public to engage in political discussions and form protesting groups. Pubs and ale houses at the time were considered public spaces where labourers, merchants, craftsmen, and others could meet and discuss their discontent with the current politics without being noticed by the authorities. No wonder that even Robert Burns, a prominent Scottish poet during the Jacobite Uprisings, wittily refers to such meetings in his poem “The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer”: “Freedom and whisky gang thegither” (Burns, stanza 32). Since then, it was often the Presbyterian ministers and clergy criticizing the Scottish public for their drunkenness and rising level of crime. This notion together with constant rioting was one of the reasons why the Scots were regarded as “the swine and rabble of England and Scotland” (Husks for Swine, 1974).

A wee bit of a Gin Craze

Anyone who enjoys a good pub crawl would soon notice the extensive selection of gins in every good bar or pub ranging from London and its notorious London Dry Gin to Scottish numerous craft gins. This notion can be once again traced all the way back to the 18^th century´s “Gin Craze” when the consumption of gin skyrocketed among the British public. Gin was particularly popular in working-class environments as it was seen as the cheaper alternative to French brandy. First crates of gin were being imported from the Netherlands meaning that the Port of Leith played a crucial part in distributing gin among Edinburgh citizens. Soon enough, the market opened up to gin distillation after Queen Anne herself approved of the botanical drink which led her to reduce taxes for the distilleries and even allow them to run the business without any license needed. However, the heavenly indulgence did not last for long and in the mid-18^th century, the authorities realized that crime had significantly increased after the introduction of gin to the market. By 1743, England was known for drinking almost 10 litres of gin per person per year. Naturally, the taxation on gin was increased in the Gin Act of 1751 as a response to that. Despite the decrease in consumption after the Act was issued, gin remained a popular drink and the established distilleries were getting more recognition.

Gordon’s London Dry Gin was introduced to the market in 1769 by Alexander Gordon who was of Scottish descent. The Wee Museum’s collection holds a miniature book ‘Gordon´s Recipes for Cocktails and Other Mixed Drinks’ which on the very first page highlights that “the name Gordon guarantees purity and quality.” The book contains recipes for the old gin classics. Negronis, dry Martinis or Clover Club. The cocktail more unknown to modern bar-goers would be “Gin Daisy”, which can be made as follows:

Half fill tumbler with chipped ice and add

1 glass Gordon´s Dry Gin

6 dashes of Grenadine

Juice of ½ a Lemon

½ Tablespoonful of Powdered Sugar

Stir well until the glass is frosted, fill with Soda Water adding 2 or 3 sprigs of Mint, and decorate with slices of fruit in season.

Make a wee space for women

Moralising over the consumption of alcohol naturally could not go without a dash of double standards that would demonize women who participated in the “pub culture”. During the First World War, female pub-going significantly increased as a result of growing anxieties surrounding the war continuing in the interwar period too. The public treated female drunkenness as a failure of morality and a total end of femininity and proper womanhood. The reason was simple, the demon drink could only lead to sexual immorality or to the abandonment of maternal responsibilities. The stigma over women in drinking spaces changed after the Second World War when women were widely employed in hospitality, service-based industries, and warehouses. By the mid-1990s in Scotland, there would even be a higher percentage of women in such workplaces than men. A picture from our photo archive depicting the bottling line at Invergordon Whisky Bond in 1990 shows that women made up the majority of such workplaces relating to alcohol. 

Sources

Burns, Robert. “The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer.” 1786

Husks for Swine. Dedicated to the Swine of England, the Rabble of Scotland, and the Wretches of Ireland. 1794. Edinburgh: Edinburgh.

Yeomans, Henry. Alcohol and Moral Regulation: Public Attitudes, Spirited Measures and Victorian Hangovers. Bristol ; Policy Press, 2014.

Cooke, Anthony. A History of Drinking: The Scottish Pub since 1700. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.

The History of Gin in Edinburgh: From Old Town to New, 2023 https://secretgardendistillery.co.uk/blogs/secret-garden-blog/the-history-of-gin-in-edinburgh-from-old-town-to-new

We are introducing a new display area in the Wee Museum of Memory which will focus on a particular theme each month. The themes, and objects to support them, will be selected by different members of staff or volunteer to reflect their personal interests in the topic or the objects themselves.

This month’s theme was chosen by one of our volunteers Hayley, who has been helping Naomi with the collections, in particular the Queen Edinburgh Project. Hayley is studying history at the University of Stirling and has been voluteering with us for some months. The objects that Hayley has selected all relate to youth organisations such as Guiding and the Boys’ Brigade. She was herelf involved with Guiding for many years, from Rainbows, to Brownies, Guides, and then as a Young Leader with a Rainbow group.

We have quite a lot of material culture related to these organisations in the our collections which has been donated over the years, including: uniforms, hats, belts, badges, books, and programmes.

Hayley has chosen a Brownie Uniform from the 1970s which shows a yellow cross-over tie with a white metal trefoil badge. The girl who wore this uniform was in the Imps and was a sixer. She was also awarded quite a few merit or proficiency badges. The Girl Guide

uniform is older – from the early 1960s – with the traditional pale blue triangular scarf folded into a neck tie and pinned with a white metal trefoil badge. The donor also gained a few proficiency badges including laundress, child nurse, and cook.

Merit or proficiency badges were a key element of youth organisations and we have a board with all the badges that were awarded to May, one of our regular visitors. May was at boarding school in Dollar and was in 1st Dollar B. Company. She was in the Nightingale patrol, and gained seventeen proficiency badges, including fitness, gymnast, cyclist, hiker, country dancer, reader, cook and needlewoman. These badges sum up well what we learned about May in later years: she was a very active lady who had trained as a physio, she liked cooking and was an excellent needlewoman who also knitted and crocheted – she taught some of us how to do both, although we never managed to reach her level of skill.

Hayley also selected a few objects about the Boys’ Brigade from our collection – notably a Pill Box hat which many will associate with the BBs – a leather belt with a yellow metal buckle, and an arm band with some metal proficiency badges including: Leadership, Physical, Adventure, and Interests. The selection of badges we have here is from the later twentieth century, possibly the 1980s.

Many key youth organisations started in the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and are still going today. They have had to adapt and evolve over the years, responding to changes in social habits and preferences. The display that Hayley has chosen reflects some of the changes in uniforms between the 1960s and 1980s, but also highlights that offering opportunities and developing skills for young people is still important for all of these organisations. The display demonstrates our ethos at the Wee Museum of Memory: to reflect lived experiences and living memories of social history through the twentieth century, for all ages, young and old.

Pop in and share your memories…perhaps you remember or took part in The Gang Show which was a yearly event at the King’s Theatre?