"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

13 January 2007

Each week the Rampant Scotland Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather and the seasons, plus the flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. There are often so many such graphics of Scottish subjects worth including that this separate "colour supplement" was created where some of the best pictures can be displayed in a larger format. Here is this week's crop of Scottish views - all taken in Perth on Wednesday, when the sun shone, for once!


After all the recent rain, the river Tay was flowing fast and high. The flood defences which were built after a number of disastrous occasions when the river overflowed its banks - and they seem to work well in the centre of the town.


The High Street in Perth is still the retail heart of the town, despite the creation of a number of central shopping malls. Now pedestrianised, there are a number of sculptures, with links to the area, along its length.





It was Sir Walter Scott who made the "Fair Maid of Perth" or Catherine Glover, a well-known celebrity in his novel of with that name. The 17th century "Fair Maid's House" in Perth is the oldest surviving house in the town. Catherine Glover was the daughter of a glovemaker in Perth, who kissed Henry Smith, an armourer, while he is sleeping, on Valentine's Day. Although Catherine later refuses his proposal of marriage, she eventually marries him - at the end of the book. Scott's novel has a parallel plot, about the romance of Prince James, the son of King Robert III of Scotland, and Louise "the Glee-Maiden."



In recent years, Perth has put in place a lot of sculpture in its parks and streets. Some of it is thought provoking, others amusing and whimsical. There has always been the well-known Perth Museum and Gallery and in 1992, a former Water Works, dating from 1832, was converted into a gallery to display 200 works by John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961). Fergusson, along with artists such as JS Peploe, FCB Cadell and GL Hunter, became known as the Scottish Colourists.


Not quite in the same class as the Scottish Colourists, much of the sculpture around the streets of Perth is likely to give rise to a smile (and none the worse for that) such as these whimsical animals on top of the walls which form part of the flood defences.


John Knox, who led the Reformation of the church in Scotland, preached in St John's Kirk in Perth (seen here) in May 1559. A church has stood on the site for more than 800 years and, although much modified over the years, the oldest part of the existing building dates from the 15th century.

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page





Where else would you like to go in Scotland?








Separator line