T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear

This weekend, Si and I were trying to slip back into the routine we established in September when Tooli took off to Edinburgh.

He wasn't camping, or Scouting, so it was a gentle kind of day, which we spent getting ourselves together slowly, and then having a bimble round the town.

We found ourselves outside a little shop in Ayr Street, which is just off Portland Street, and became a bit entranced by a map which was hanging centre of the display.

We stood and argued back and forward about whether it was a real map or not, it was just too far away for me to focus on the names. Si was offended because Scotland appeared to take up the majority of the map - however, Anglia had all but disappeared, and Wales was square.

Intrigued, I went in to ask the shop owner what exactly the map was, and he pointed behind me and said "It's wrapping paper". So we quickly grabbed a sheet, and laughed about our fortune and were about to head away when I glanced at a painting on the wall - "That is beautiful", and the owner said, "Thank you, I painted it, it's the Galloway hills". Wow. Artist. We stopped and glanced round the rest of his paintings, and then our eyes fell on a series of books

Yes, the owner was the author of the books too! He joined the foreign legion at the age of 38, and served for 12 years. One of his books was his autobiography, the rest were a series of adventure novels.

Then Si stopped and asked him if he had served in Djibouti... I was a bit confused about that, but he had, and Si went on to explain that while he had been in Djibouti it had been Foreign Legion Soldiers who had looked after them and took care of their R&R. It turns out the shop owner and Si had been in Djibouti at the same time!

Small world eh!

But talking of small world. This map is a revelation. It is actually known as the Cotton MS Augustus I.i.9: The 'Anglia Figura' (map of the British Isles) from about 1537. - and resides in the British Library.

The map was part of a collection of Sir Robert Cotton, and was estimated to be a representation of Great Britain at the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus.

What is even more fascinating about it, and all it's inaccuracies is that my home town exists on it, in it's olden form Trwyn - meaning Nose.... Troon is a pointy peninsula sticking out into the Firth Of Clyde.

This little sheet of wrapping paper is going to give me hours of fun!