Lockdown week 8 - Saturday

A walk up town today. From Queen Street, you can look down every side street and see views over the north of the city - with lots of trees - and over the water to Fife.

It must have been really stunning before the New Town was built: all fields, sloping down to the sea. And when the New Town was first built there would have been no cars (obviously, in 1760) and none of the clutter of street furniture and horrible tram wires that spoil the vista here. But it's still nice to look over there, where we can't go at the moment. 

These giraffes have been here since 2005. They're by Helen Denerley and supposedly built out of scrap metal. And are rather fetching.

And nearby are these sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi - a Scottish Italian: a big hand and a big foot. I like these as well, but had never before noticed the little flight of steps leading on to the hand, inviting (I suppose) children to climb on it.

The chap on the 150 foot high pillar is Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. He was an MP and a very powerful chap in Scotland but in 1806 was the last person in Britain to be impeached for the misappropriation of public funds. He was acquitted, however, and later had this statue erected in his memory. The sculptor must have been very annoyed, one feels, at the 150 foot high pole. It could be a model of anyone, for all it's seen. I wonder if this was a deliberate ploy to make Dundas less visible because he wasn't actually popular? He opposed the abolition of slavery, supported British domination of India and was known sarcastically as King Henry the Ninth. So, not a wonderful human being, though presumably he had some powerful friends, and he was influential in the building of the New Town. (I've just Googled it and though the column was erected in 1820, the statue wasn't added till 1828, so one assumes the sculptor knew it was destined for up there. One wonders if he bothered with eyelashes and the finer details of the nose.)

This, from slightly later, is David Livingstone, waving in a proprietorial fashion at Princes Street Gardens. Or possibly the Victoria Falls.

And this is the partially-assembled Floral Clock, a feature of the gardens. It's being planted with lots of succulents, saying appropriate things for lockdown.

A chap came and started working on it while I was there. It's a big job - arranging all these tiny plants which are laid out in trays on the path above the clock.

This photo is just to remind future me that I once stood in the middle of this street and lived to tell the tale. It's called The Mound and is just that: a mound of earth containing the spoil from excavating the foundations of the New Town and put there to join the New and Old Towns. Normally it's very busy.

A contrast in architecture: an art gallery built like a Greek temple and some ghastly 1960s town planning. Horrors were perpetrated then: beautiful 19th century buildings torn down and concrete nasties put in their place.

I like the inscription on this chair and the fact that it's been there since I was nearly seven. I wonder who "her friend" was. I wonder if anyone now remembers Catherine Fraser. Or her friend.

A lesser black backed gull wandered past. (Not a herring gull. Thanks, Barrie. I used to know the difference.)

It's impossible not to take a photo of the Castle if you happen to be here.

I've just looked at my stats - which I don't often do - and apparently 275 people  read my previous post (and this is the sort of number recorded every day). It's a bit creepy: 2 people commented, so I vaguely imagine that 2 people read it. Who are the other 273? Doubtless some of them are mistakes. But still.

Is this lockdown continuing? Really? Are we all sure it's the right thing to do? Are we not all going to get this virus in the end anyway?

So many questions... .