Kitty

Four dozen shirts! Quickly revised downwards when he realised how little room he had in his cabin

I think my husband is sick of hearing about them and various other people on this trip 😅

Harry Goodsir in 1842; very faded image of a young man with slightly receding hair, wearing a dark jacket and light waistcoat, holding a book upright on his knee (likely to keep his hands steady). Written below is ‘1842 Dr Harry Goodsir’ (he wasn’t a doctor)

He likely also took the 1842 calotype of Harry Goodsir which is in one of the Playfair albums - it’s very faded now

Gravestone of John Adamson (plus his wife and son) - a pointed light granite (I think?) stone with a cross above the inscription.

John Adamson’s grave in St Andrews - he was the brother of the equally famous Robert, and a photographic pioneer in his own right; he started taking calotypes in around 1841 and was the first person in Scotland to do so; he then taught the same process to Robert.

Text of poem - Pact. This is my child; that is yours. Let peace be between them when they grow up. They are far off now; let it not be through war they are brought near. Their languages are different. Let them both learn it is peace in the hand is the translation of peace in the mind.

Pact - RS Thomas

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus...

A Very Large Gun pointing directly at the St James shopping centre, from Edinburgh Castle

Yeah, it did amuse me that this gun was pointing at the shopping centre

Objectively the coolest flag in the world - y Ddraig Goch (Red Dragon) - a red dragon facing left on a ground of white at the top half and green the bottom half

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus! (Or, for those not fortunate enough to know the language of heaven, happy St David’s Day!)

Might go back this evening and check if it’s glowing 😜

Mossy old granite Celtic cross grave monument to George Wilson, MD (1818-1859) it’s behind steel fencing with a couple of yellow ‘Danger, Keep Out’ signs

George Wilson’s grave in Edinburgh’s Old Calton burial ground. Among many other things, Wilson was the first biographer of Edward Forbes, until he died in 1859.

Some of the tombs/graves are being stabilised, hence the fence/signs; they’re not there to warn he might rise from the grave, probably

Bloody hell, please stay safe

SO much. I had such a fantastic time reading reminiscences from his friends that they sent to Geikie for the Memoir. A real palate cleanser after some heavy 1800s Goodsir stuff 😅

Scrap of paper with black ink doodle of a grinning ray smoking a pipe, with ‘a member of the ray club’ written underneath, ‘Very sincerely yours, Edward Forbes’. University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections, Coll-74/11/3/1

I’ve seen this online before but it was so lovely to see the original and handle it. A doodle referring to the @raysocietybooks.bsky.social by Edward Forbes, cut from the bottom of a letter and sent to his biographer for possible inclusion in the Memoir

Hill & Adamson | National Galleries of Scotland Hill & Adamson were a pioneering photographic partnership creating some of the first acknowledged artworks in the medium.

We are staying in the studio David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson worked in. This is a huge, huge deal for me, but even if it wasn’t it’s gorgeous and in a lovely location!

Hill and Adamson info cos I’m v tired and can’t be arsed explaining

www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-arti...

You had me at ‘whole deep fried Thai seabass’

This is appalling; I hope the Mayor does the right thing and cuts ties with these greedy bastards.

The horrifying visage of an antediluvian reptile. Ok, it’s a black and white photo of Richard Owen

For comparison:

Black ink sketch of what looks a bit like a bird, in a tailcoat, with a human head that has a large nose and chin and looks quite a bit like Richard Owen, the paleontologist. University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections, Coll-74/11/3/1

I really think this creature by Edward Forbes looks like Richard Owen.

Anyway, am currently reading Harry Goodsir’s notes on gonorrhoea, which is nice.

Whoever was last looking at the papers I’m looking at now really did a spectacular job of not putting them back in order. Did they even read them?!

But where do all the calculators go?

Tall modern buildings, some being orange with light coloured lines of brick, and a wet pavement and grey sky. They look like they’re made of Lego

Ok, I’m exhausted. Have a picture of my view. External view that is; all I can see when I close my eyes is cursive handwriting

Urrrgh, my eyes are falling out and I still have two hours and a lot of horrible handwriting to get through. I’m loving it really 😄

Her dress was of the old school. Her Barcelona quilted petticoat had a hole on either side for the convenience of rummaging two immense pockets stuffed with books of all sorts. The petticoat was covered with a deep stumachered gown... In this dress I have frequently seen her walk, followed by a six-foot servant with a cane, almost as tall as himself... Notwithstanding the very singular appearance of Miss Banks she was, in the prime of life, a fashionable whip and drive four-in-hand.

New role model just dropped (this is Sarah Sophia Banks (1744–1818), sister of Sir Joseph Banks).

I don’t know if there’s ever a good time for a tech like this. But this absolutely isn’t it.

And now I’m experiencing existential terror in the middle of bloody Yorkshire

Well. This has cheered me right the fuck up. For the avoidance of doubt, I was being sarcastic just there.

YouTube video by muttonbirdsandbeyond The Mutton Birds - Nature

Now listening to one of THE best NZ songs of the early 90s, which is fitting as we’re now well into the countryside

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ghbt...

Most of my photos will be of old letters 😄 but I’ll do my best!

Photo of the ruins of ancient Assur with a ziggurat rising in the distance and low remains of walls in the foreground. It looks like sunset or sunrise with the soft, orange lighting. Photo by Mahmoud Fakhri

How to make perfume in 1230 BCE in the heartland of ancient Assyria.

First, you need to mix cane with cleansed water from the palace well of the city of Aššur (pronounced Ashur).

Second, you need to pour this mixture into a special vessel before adding...

White hand holding a cardboard coffee cup with ‘Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters’ on in red san serif font. It is the nicest coffee in the King’s Cross area imo

Off to Edinburgh! The sun is out (at least in N London) and the coffee is delicious