He Was Here

A bit of a deju vu day, copying last Sunday. Had breakfast at the Pillars of Hercules café again - though the poached eggs weren't as good as last week's had been. They weren't runny today.

Then the rest of the day was spent walking in Falkland Estate once more. This carving "Tyndall June 1854" is on an enormous stone that has been sculpted to form a seat within it, with an overhanging roof.

Onesiphorous Tyndall would have been 64 when he carved his name here, one year before he died. He had married the heiress to the estate, Margaret Stuart Hamilton Bruce in 1828, and both of them took the surname "Tyndall-Bruce". By all accounts he was a good and decent man, and treated the villagers of Falkland exceptionally well. The huge phallic-looking monument that can be seen on the hillside west of the village was raised in his memory by the people of Falkland, and in the village itself a statue of him can be seen in the grounds of the church which he'd had built, and overlooking the Bruce Fountain which he was responsible for constructing too.

It was the Tyndall-Bruce's who also commissioned the building of the House of Falkland, which was completed in 1844 and became their home. This fabulous Jacobean-style house with it's barley sugar twist chimneys is even more fantastic inside - I should know - it's now a residential schools for boys with Additional Support Needs and I worked as the Science teacher there for six happy years. It wasn't the Tyndall-Bruce's who created the current interiors though - that was the work of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, who bought the house and estate in 1890, and which still remain in his family to this day. Every room in the main building has different design features - for instance, one room has inlaid wood all over it, including animals with mother-of-pearl details, like a snail with the shell being the section made of pearl. There is a room which used to be the lady of the house's boudoir and it has cherubs and gilt-surrounded mirrors decorating the top of the walls. There are ornamental coloured grapevines hanging down from the hallway roof on the first floor, and a room where every wall is covered in plasterwork seagulls - I forget how many there are, I did count them once - there are over a hundred I think. It's usually open for a tour during the Doors Open Day events in autumn - and is definitely worth a visit.

I have digressed a lot from this photo though. As you can see, Tyndall's carving has been joined over the years by many, many more. Initials, names and dates now cover the entire back wall of the seat, and are overspilling onto the roof and sides too. What I didn't notice at the time, but can now clearly see from the picture, is that moss is growing in the letters of Tyndall's name.

What I also should note for today is that for lunch I had one of the most delicious sandwiches that I have ever tasted. I didn't make it - Al did - and it was glorious. It was a BLT with smoked bacon, and mustard mayonnaise on M&S cheese focaccia bread. It was so divine that I took another one home with me so I could have it for tea. Just about to go and have it right now with a cold glass of Italian dry white wine. It's going to be bliss!