My Heart's in the Highlands

Sometimes having my classes based in London is hard. I always knew I wasn't a city girl, and this just confirms it. It is full of opportunities and adventures, but I crave the quiet rural areas full of fresh air and life. Going to the Lake District filled some of this need, but I fell in love with Scotland. Other students were excited to return home to London, but I was sorry to say goodbye. They say the weather was unusually good, but seeing the land as I did, I thought that I could live there. Perhaps I love Scotland so much because of some deep genetic connection to the land, or maybe it is because it reminded me of home--rugged, alive, and full of kind people.

As soon as we got off the bus we found this street performer. Welcome to Scotland!

Arthur's Seat, next to Edinburgh. (Pronounced Ed-in-burrow).

The view from Arthur's Seat

On Arthur's Seat with my friend Erica

Edinburg Castle is like the castle you hear about in stories, built on a hill of volcanic rock, it looks over the old city from a cliff. It is built in three levels so that if one wall is breached they can retreat to safety. Unfortunately, Robert De Bruce, the self crowned King of Scotland in 1306 (the English didn't like this) decided that if he couldn't have the castle, no one could, and razed almost all the buildings except the chapel. 

Inside the great Hall. It had a LOT of armor. My twelve year old self would be having fits.

The original wood ceiling.

The weaponry presentation. I got to hold a claymore and a musket.

Humpty Dumpty anyone?

The one original building, a small church to Saint Margaret

This reminded me of the Ruthwell cross which has portions of The Dream of the Rood, which I highly suggest reading. Rood means "cross" and this dream is a story, only a couple pages, of the crucifixion from the cross's point of view. It is very beautiful.

The cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote much of the first Harry Potter!

Greyfriars Graveyard, where you can see some of the names from Harry Potter. I have to wonder how the name-sakes feel...

Harry Potter's Prime Minister Scrymegeour

The Riddell Family

Edinburg College. One of my peers has a great desire to see a wizard's duel here in the courtyard.

 My last look back into Scotland

Yes, that is tartan. Not the family tartan though, which is navy and green. I didn't know the family tartan at the time, and I look better in this. Scotland's major export is wool, so every other store sells wool and cashmere. I got to cross touching cashmere off my bucket list. It was very soft, but there is synthetic stuff that is probably softer. It is incredibly expensive though, so I can see why it is a symbol of wealth. There are also a lot of sheep and highland cows, which are incredibly fluffy. I should have bought a stuffed one, but I was trying to exhibit self control...

Wordsworth Trust and the Lake District

I fell in love with the Lake District. This is where William Wordsworth lived with his sister. They would wander the hills, and she would keep a journal which he often turned into the poetry that earned him the title of Poet Laureate. As Wordsworth said, poetry is "emotion recollected in tranquility." I think I could spout some pretty amazing poetry if I lived here too.

The view from the front of our hostel in Ambleside

Some of my worshippers when I arrived with breakfast. One guy practically sat at my feet, so I taught him to jump. His name was Ferdinand.

Fluffykins, so named by my English Professors children.

Dove Cottage- the Wordsworth home where the better part of his poetry was composed.

I got to recite Wordsworth's "We Are Seven" here in his garden.

The pen and ink set given to Wordsworth's twelve year old cousin for writing the national anthem. Wordsworth refused the title of Poet Laureate because he didn't want to write on demand for special occasions, so they gave it to him as a title only. When asked to write an anthem by Queen Victoria, he asked his cousin to do it. This was her gift the the young cousin in thanks.

I got to hold this first edition of Lyrical Ballads. It is two hundred years old and is called the "book that will never be opened" because the binding is so frail.

A journal used by Dorothy, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Coleridge on their rambles.

First edition Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. Of four friends, she was the only one to finish the ghost story when they had a competition. Though Lord Byron never finished his story, scholars suspect that his physician based the dark and handsome vampire Dracula on his patient.

Wordsworth family graves

While out walking we discovered this fallen tree which has been covered in coins for who knows how many years. I added a penny of my own. Someday archeologists are going to be very confused.

Wordsworth and his family grew too big for Dove cottage and bought a lovely house on Rydal Mount that has a stunning garden, and an adorable garden that the professor's children christened Garfield. 

We also visited the garden and falls not far from the house at Rydal Mount.