Wednesday 23 September 2015

The Radical Thomas Muir

It is strange how one story can lead on to another.  When I attend Edinburgh festival I hear many stories - and the one on Thomas Muir (1765 - 1799) stood out this year. I had never heard of Muir, even though I grew up in Edinburgh and not only studied higher History, I also taught history in primary schools! Muir came from Glasgow, studied Law and later worked in Edinburgh. 

I passed Martyr's monument Edinburgh and a statue of William Pitt with a bird on his head in George street. I read a great read - 'Scotland's Future History' by Stuart McHardy. He writes of the Scottish cultural resurgence the past fifty years. He writes that the term “War of Independence’ is a big insult – as Scotland was a country before England – and has never been a part of England. We never had to win our independence. Information on Scotland from 1740 – 1760 is only held in libraries in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Australia – and not to be found in any Scottish libraries.

I read of the radical Thomas Muir - an incredible Scot - who along with others, set up the Convention of the Societies of Friends of the People in 1792 and dared to march for democracy. For which he was sent by the then Scottish Secretary of state to Botany Bay. A true radical thinker, he was one of the Scottish Political Martyrs. He is better known abroad than here in Scotland. He escaped for Botany bay which was virtually unheard of. 

McHardy writes of Scotland’s lost mythology. In books on Celtic Briton – there is no mention at all of Scotland’s clan system – while there is mention of Ireland’s Celtic heritage.  In 1997 there was a conference at Moray House college on the teaching of Scots language and Scottish history in Scottish schools and introduced in 2011 in the Curriculum for Excellence. The first time Scottish history in our schools curriculum. Since 1872 only English language taught . Both the Scots and Gaelic language – mother tongue are now allowed to be taught.

As I was reading of Thomas Muir it all sounded so familiar to today. We still have this privileged Eton elite that works to maintain their own interests.

It feels sad that nothing much has changed the past two centuries since our poet Robert Burns - who tried to imagine a better world for all, with his words such as "A Man's a Man for a that." ..

Monument Edinburgh (left) for Scottish Political Martyrs
When Burns wrote his poem ‘Scots Wa Hae’, in a footnote he wrote how he had been inspired by Bruce's "glorious struggle for Freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient."
Burns may even have met Thomas Muir in Edinburgh - was he writing about the Scottish free thinkers who dared to march for democracy?  

A few days later I read Michael Gray’s report in the National newspaper on an artists’ portrait of Thomas Muir being unveiled at my local art gallery, Lillie Art Galleries, snd also of Alex Salmond’s recent talk on Muir.
Strange how one story leads to another really…..
  
Stuart McHardy – Scotland’s Future History
This book is a short guide that raises several issues that include  - Brodgar of Ness site recently found in Orkney of an ancient temple older than Stonehenge or the Pryamids, the largest Neolithic stone structure in Britain; Kilmartin glen ritual stones; Highland Tales; the Jacobites after Culloden; of the influence of the German speaking Norse settlers, the indigenous  PIcts.

"There is a subject called British history, but as far as I can discover it consists of English history, with an occasional side-glance at Scotland at times when Scotland crossed England's path. This is a society devoted to the study and furtherance of Scottish history, and it seems a little odd to me that this educational policy should still prevail. It is calculated to condition the Scottish mind into turning instinctively towards London with the submission of the Moslem turning towards Mecca."  Lord Cooper, President of the court of Session, to the Scottish history Society 1948.  MORE on Stuart McHardy's excellent book in a separate blog.

Monday 14 September 2015

Robert Crawford on the Young TS Eliot: Edinburgh International book festival 2015.


I recently enjoyed reading Crawford's excellent biography on the Scottish poet Robert Burns. He demonstrates that he has a sensitive clarity when writing on the great poets.

Robert Crawford, who is a Scottish poet and lecturer at St Andrews university, gave a informed and highly interesting talk on the young TS Eliot at Edinburgh International book festival 2015. He felt that Eliot's early years were often ignored in the biographies of the famous American poet who ended up living in London.

'Young Eliot: From St Louis to the Wasteland'.
He stated that he hoped in his book to dehumanize Eliot, who had to face up to his own woundedness and breakages.  Crawford said he would go into lecturer mode for his talk when he stood at the lectern.

He gave us some background on Eliot's formative years. Eliot's mother was a poet and his father a business man. He lived his first 26 years in St Louis in the late 19th century. At school he edited and wrote a magazine titled The Fireside.   
Eliot attended Harvard in 1906, which also transformed him greatly. He later studied Philosophy at Oxford and Paris. 

Crawford spoke at some length of a poem the 'Love Song of Harry Prufrock', one of Eliot’s greatest, which was based on a family he knew in St Louis. 'that is not it, at all. ' Eliot liked his poems to insinuate music.

He later moved over to London at the age of  26 and there he met Ezra Pound.  
 His poetry draws heavily on the American landscape and speaks of the banks of the Mississippi river  - 'the strong brown God'.  Crawford said that when he stood next to the muddy brown Mississippi river he felt closest to Eliot.

T S Eliot, was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets". He was born in St Loius, to the old Yankee Eliot family descended from Andrew Eliot, who migrated to Boston, Massachusetts from England 1660s. He emigrated to England in 1914 (at age 25), settling, working and marrying there. Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), which is seen as a masterpiece of the modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), and Four Quartets (1945).

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.


And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head
               Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
               That is not it, at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
               “That is not it at all,
               That is not what I meant, at all.”
  

Edinburgh Fringe festival 2015


Last year Robin Williams died during the start of EF. Williams suffered  from severe depression and he committed suicide. He was one of the most respected actors and it was felt as a sad loss. This year at EF themes of depressions were explored by several shows. I have read that isolation in today's society leads to depressions also.

**I am on the train, it’s August again and I’m off to Edinburgh festival. Another year gone. It’s been hectic.  It is a balmy hot day which is good – perhaps we’ll have a late summer? There’s a beautiful still fluffy blue reflection on the lake as we head over. I browse through the festival literature.

EIF is such a carnival of the extremes – from the sublime to the ridiculous, the daring to the intellectual; great thinkers to the clowns. It provides a platform for new creatives; brings together the great and the good and encourages collaborations.

Does it all matter? What does culture and the arts mean for societies? A great big fat and resonating yes.


At EIBF; Edinburgh International book festival 2015
‘Around the world’ brochure and Trading Stories. ‘We would be a much poorer culture had those wayfarers not persisted in gazing beyond the next horizon.’
The centre for the festival action is the Royal mile that leads from the Edinburgh castle to Holyrood (crag and tail volcanic formation). Here you can see performers from many of the fringe shows. It can be quite manic!! Mind you if you enjoy crowds it is great fun. Take change to give the performers something for their efforts. This year I saw some rather gay Australians in Mohawk headdresses; a South African high school choir; Korean dancers; more.... I have only a limited time on the high street. 


Sunday 13 September 2015

Edinburgh 2015


On Rose street I pass the old hotels such as the Kenilworth. From my first Edinburgh festival images I decide to focus on the old and the new. – the way they sit so cleverly side to side in Edinburgh’s historic lanes, closes and stairways. A town built on hills always has its long range views. It is good to venture off the main pavements – where you can see the unexpected. Edinburgh is a good place for walking and cycling – and with the castle, gardens, dips and valleys – often easier to get around than by car. At Biblos restaurant I remember they play an original playlist – how nice.

There is now Blackwell’s where Thins bookshop used to be. Beside the Scott monument is a large Ferris wheel. There are now large maroon and white trams running along the centre of Princes street.


I walked up the steps from the galleries of the mound, which take you quit suddenly from the busy thoroughfare of Princes street to the Edinburgh old town. Instead of heading to George IV bridge I decide to take the old steps past the Lady stairs close and the tiny turret of the Scottish writers museum. There is a plaque which states that when Burns came to live in Edinburgh, shortly after his first book of poems was published, he lived here in the close. It is very near to the castle and these hidden places are very unexpected. Burns must have felt right at the heart of things. It must have felt like a bustling cosmopolitan place to the Ayrshire born lad. Here he became the toast of the Edinburgh intelligencia class.


I walked past the statue of William Pitt on George street - a seagull sat on his head. In 1783 Pitt, at 24, became prime minster. There was a great deal of corrupt government he claimed he’d reform, but on gaining office he put all these thoughts aside. Nothing ever changes....There is also a statue on Hanover street to King George who came to Scotland and even wore a kilt here. I also passed Martyr's monument Edinburgh I read of the radical Thomas Muir - an incredible Scot - who along with others, set up the Convention of the Societies of Friends of the People in 1792 and dared to march for democracy. For which he was sent by the then Scottish Secretary of state to Botany Bay. A true radical thinker.

Each year I travel over to Edinburgh for the August festival. It’s one of the highlights of my year.
 Edinburgh is known as Auld Reekie. I grew up here and walked its historic streets without realising all the stories around me. Perhaps I sensed then though along the winding closes; the tall narrow buildings; the elegant Georgian new town; and always the castle high street that led over to Arthur street and the distinctive historic skyline.