Stories in stone

We decided to go to Edinburgh for the day, so caught a train from Penrith this morning and got there in time for coffee. Our first stop was the National Gallery and to get there we had to pass the massive clear up operation that was still underway, after Christmas and New Year festivities – what a job. At the Gallery we made for the Turner exhibition. This is where a collection of Turner watercolours that the Gallery has are displayed, but only in January. A fascinating set of pictures, a joy to see the magical use of colour and movement characteristic of Turner’s more well known work. Surprising how many people there were at the exhibition.
 
We had planned to go elsewhere for lunch, but thought we might as well stay at the Gallery and eat at the restaurant there. Excellent it was too. Afterwards we returned to the Gallery to see Ruben’s painting of his daughter – a truly beautiful portrait.
 
Then we headed up the flight of steps to the Mound and, from there, further up to Lawnmarket. I was on a mission.
 
From the time when I first heard about them, I have been fascinated by the story of the book sculptures that mysteriously appeared in the city during 2011, in various places that support literature. There are now ten of them and I have longed to see some of them. Today was the day to locate one and in doing so we were brought to a wonderful place that I didn’t know existed and can’t imagine why I didn’t know.
 
The Writers’ Museum
This is a quirky place in a fantastic old building (see extra) in Lady Stair’s Close, just behind the Royal Mile. The museum celebrates the lives of three giants of Scottish Literature – Burns, Scott and Stevenson. There is much to see and ponder over, but the building itself is amazing, with its steep spiral stairs and little rooms. We spent a lot longer that we had anticipated here. Gordon got chatting to a guy who appeared to know everything about Robert Louis Stevenson that there is to know and loved talking about him. I found the book sculpture and this is it - Street Scene. It was created from a copy of Ian Rankin’s book Hide and Seek and links him with Stevenson’s story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, from which the line ‘the stories are in the stones’ was taken. The idea was to illustrate the two sides of the city – the light and shade. Coincidently, there was a temporary Ian Rankin exhibition too. This was interesting, despite my never having read any of his books - we have a few lying around as Gordon likes them.
 
We eventually left the museum and I even got a glimpse of an exhibition of Pauline Burbidge’s textiles at the City Art Gallery. Nice to see her work being given the space it needs. The last time I saw some of it, it was sadly displayed in a  cramped corner of the Bowes Museum. Then we crossed the road to the station and got the train back to Penrith. A good day.