winter, and slow and difficult in summer. It was easy for a clan chief or

noble to throw off the rule of the king.

II. “…we will never consent to subject ourselves to the dominion of the

English.”

England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland were once known as the British

Isles. Nowadays this term is normally used only in Geography. In fact, the

people of these isles have seldom been politically or culturally united.

English kings started wars to unite the British Isles from the 12th

century. These wars were wars of conquest and only the Welsh war was a

success.

At that time England was ruled by several ambitious kings, who wanted

to conquer more countries for themselves and to add more titles to their

names. They had, as a rule, absolutely no interest in the people of the

countries that they wished to conquer. It did not concern them that these

wars brought misery to the people in whose land they fought. The result was

generally to create a strong, national, patriotic feeling in the invaded

country, and a great hatred of the invader.

I don’t have much space here to speak about the history of Scotland in

details that is why I’d like to mention one historical episode which shows

the Scottish attitude towards freedom and independence. (For the chronology

of the events in the history of Scotland see Appendices,

page 24).

Although Scottish kings had sometimes accepted the English king as

their “overlord”, they were much stronger than the many Welsh kings had

been. Scotland owes its clan system partly to an Englishwoman, Margaret,

the Saxon Queen of Malcolm III. After their marriage in 1069, she

introduced new fashions and new ideas to the Scottish court – and among the

new ideas was the feudal system of land tenure. Until that time, most of

the country had been divided into seven semi-independent tribal provinces.

Under the feudal system, all land belonged to the king, who distributed it

among his followers in exchange for allegiance and service. But a Highland

chieftain could easily ignore a far-off Lowland king and, as time went by,

the clan chiefs became minor kings themselves. They made alliances with

other clans, had the power of life and death over their followers.

By the 11th century there was only one king of Scots, and he ruled

over all the south and east of Scotland. In Ireland and Wales Norman

knights were strong enough to fight local chiefs on their own. But only the

English king with a large army could hope to defeat the Scots. Most English

kings did not even try, but Edward I was different.

The Scottish kings were closely connected with England. Since Saxon

times marriages had frequently taken place between the Scottish and English

royal families. At the same time the Scottish kings wanted to establish

strong government and so they offered land to Norman knights from England

in return for their loyalty.

In 1290 a crises took place over the succession to the Scottish

throne. On a stormy night in 1286 King Alexander of Scotland was riding

home along a path by the sea in the dark. His horse took a false step, and

the king was thrown from the top of a cliff.

Disputes arose at once among all those who had any claim at all to the

Scottish throne. Finally two of the claimants, John de Balliol and Robert

Bruce, were left. Scottish nobles wanted to avoid civil war and invited

Edward I to settle the matter. Edward had already shown interest in joining

Scotland to his kingdom. He wanted his son to marry Margaret, the heir to

the Scottish throne, but she had died in a shipwreck. Now he had another

chance. He told both men that they must do homage to him, and so accept his

overlordship, before he would help settle the question. He then invaded

Scotland and put one of them, John de Balliol, on the Scottish throne.

De Balliol’s four years as a king were not a success. First Edward

made him provide money and troops for the English army and the Scottish

nobles rebelled. They felt that Edward was ruining their country.

Then Edward invaded Scotland again, and captured all the main Scottish

castles. During this invasion he stole the sacred Stone of Destiny from

Scone Abbey. The legend said that all Scottish kings must sit on it. Edward

believed that without the Stone, any Scottish coronation would be

meaningless, and that his own possession of the Stone would persuade the

Scots to accept him as king. However, neither he nor his successors became

kings of Scots, and the Scottish kings managed perfectly well without the

stone.

All this led to the creation a popular resistance movement. At first

it was led by William Wallace, a Norman-Scottish knight. But after one

victory against English army, Wallace’s “people’s army” was itself

destroyed by Edward in 1297.

It seemed that Edward had won after all. Wallace was captured and

executed. His head was put on a pole on London Bridge. Edward tried to make

Scotland a part of England as he had already done with Wales. Some Scottish

nobles accepted him, but the people refused to be ruled by the English

king. Scottish nationalism was born on the day Wallace died.

A new leader took up the struggle. This was Robert Bruce, who had

competed with John de Balliol for the throne. He was able to raise an army

and defeat the English army in Scotland. Edward the I gathered another

great army and marched against Robert Bruce, but he died on the way north

in 1327. On Edward’s grave were written the words “Edward, the Hammer of

the Scots”. He had intended to hammer them into the ground and destroy

them, but in fact he had hammered them into a nation.

After Edward’s death Bruce had enough time to defeat his Scottish

enemies, and make himself accepted as king of the Scots. He then began to

win back the castles still held by the English. When the son of his old

enemy Edward II invaded Scotland in 1314 Bruce destroyed his army at

Bannockburn, near Stirling. Six years later, in 1320, the Scots clergy

meeting in Arbroath wrote to the Pope in Rome to tell him that they would

never accept English authority: “for as long as even one hundred of us

remain alive, we will never consent to subject ourselves to the dominion of

the English.”

In the long, bitter struggle for independence, Scotland never

capitulated, and when at last it became part of the United Kingdom in 1707

it was by treaty, even if many Scots regarded the Act of Union[6] as a

piece of treachery. It is still a land apart, with a very separate culture.

Scotland retained its separate legal and ecclesiastical systems, and until

well into the 20th century its separate system of free education was the

most advanced and generous in Britain. Nowadays, it has its own Parliament.

III. Scotland’s beautiful capital.

1. Introduction

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is one of the most beautiful

cities in Europe. This distinction is partly an accident of Nature, for the

city is built upon jumble of hills and valleys; however, during the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the natural geography was enhanced by

the works of a succession of distinguished Georgian and Victorian

architects.

Evidence that Stone Ages settlers lived in Edinburgh has been found on

Calton Hill[7], Arthur’s Seat[8] and Castlehill, and the town’s early

history centres around Castlehill. Some historians believe that this

volcanic hill was a tribal stronghold as early as 600 BC.

One tribe who definitely made their mark were a group of Nothumbrians,

whose 7th-century king Edwin[9], is thought to have given his name to the

castle and town. “Burgh” is a Scottish word for borough (a small town).

2. Edinburgh’s Castle

The Royal Castle of Edinburgh is the most powerful symbol of Scotland.

For centuries, this mighty fortress has dominated its surroundings with a

majesty, which has deeply impressed many generations.

The volcanic castle rock in Edinburgh was born over 340 million years

ago following a violent eruption deep in the earth’s crust. Its story as a

place of human habitation stretches back a mere 3,000 years, to the late

Bronze Age. It was evidently a thriving hill-top settlement when Roman

soldiers marched by in the first century AD.

The place had become an important royal fortress by the time of Queen

Margaret’s[10] death there in November 1093. Throughout the Middle Ages

Edinburgh Castle ranked as one of the major castles of the kingdom and its

story is very much the story of Scotland. But within the building of the

Palace of Holyroodhouse in the early 16th century, the castle was used less

and less as a royal residence, though it remained symbolically the heart of

the kingdom.

Edinburgh Castle is the home of the Scottish Crown Jewels, the oldest

Royal Regalia in Britain. The Honours of Scotland – the Crown, Sword and

Sceptre – were shaped in Italy and Scotland during the reigns of King James

IV and king James V and were first used together as coronation regalia in

1543.

After the 1707 Treaty of Union between Scotland and England, the

Honours were locked away in the Crown Room and the doors were walled up.

111 years later, the Honours were rediscovered and immediately displayed to

the public. Displayed with the Crown Jewels is the Stone of Destiny,

returned to Scotland after 700 years in England.

Edinburgh Castle boasts having the giant siege gun Mons Meg in its

military collection. Mons Meg (or simply “Mons”) was made at Mons (in

present-day Belgium) in 1449. It was at the leading edge of artillery

technology at the time: it weighs 6040 kilogrammes and its firing gunstones

weigh 150 kilogrammes. It soon saw action against the English. But it great

weigh made it ponderously slow to drag around – it could only make 5

kilometres a day. By the middle of the 16th century it was retired from

military service and restricted to firing salutes from the castle ramparts.

It was returned to the castle in 1829.

3. The Military Tattoo

For many visitors the castle means nothing without the Edinburgh

Military Tattoo[11] which is taking place at the Castle Esplanade. The

esplanade had been a narrow rocky ridge until the middle of the 18th

century when the present platform was created as a parade ground.

The signal (Tattoo) indicated that soldiers should return to their

quarters and that the beer in the taverns should be turned off. This signal

was transmitted by drum beat each evening. Eventually this developed into a

ceremonial performance of military music by massed bands.

It began when the city held its first International Festival in the

summer of 1947. The Army staged an evening military display on the

Esplanade. The march and counter-march of the pipes and drums which was

held near one of the most dramatic places anywhere in the world made it an

immediate success. The Tattoo has been repeated every summer since on the

same site. Each Tattoo closes with another “tradition”- the appearance of

the lone piper on the battlements of the castle.

4. St. Giles’ Cathedral

If Edinburgh Castle has been at the centre of Scottish life for 9

centuries, St. Giles’ Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, has been the

religious heart of Scotland for even longer.

In 854 there was a church. It belonged to Lindisfarne, where Columba’s

monks first brought the Gospel from Iona. In 1150, the monks of St. Giles’

were farming lands round about and a bigger church was built by the end of

the century. The first parish church of Edinburgh was dedicated to St.

Giles, a saint popular in France. It was probably due to the Auld Alliance

of Scotland and France against the common enemy of England.

St Giles’Cathedral is one of the most historic and romantic buildings

in Scotland. Founded in 1100s, this church has witnessed executions, riots

and celebrations. Its famous crown spire has dominated Edinburgh’s skyline

for over 500 years. Scotland was a Catholic nation until the Reformation in

the mid-16th century.

John Knox[12], the fiery “Trumpeter of God”, who preached against

Popery, brought St. Giles into great prominence. Knox’s aim was to create a

reformed Church of Scotland, to banish “popery”, to strengthen democracy

and to set up a system of comprehensive education. The religious transition

was to take 130 years of struggle to achieve.

Many of the famous Scots are commemorated in the church, including R.

Burns and R. L. Stevenson.

The Giles is famous for its Thistle Chapel, which is home to the Order

of the Thistle[13] and honours some of the greatest Scots of the last 300

years. This exquisite little room will take one’s breath away. Its

magnificent carvings and stonework evoke the ancient origins of the order

and will amaze anyone with a wealth of details associated with Scotland,

for example, the angel that plays the bagpipe.

5. Edinburgh’s museums.

In the field of arts, Edinburgh has a host of outstanding attractions

for different tastes and interests. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery

provides a unique visual history of Scotland, told through portraits of the

figures who shaped it: royals and rebels, poets and philosophers, heroes

and villains. All the portraits are of Scots, but not all are by Scots. The

collection also holds works by great English, European and American

masters. Since the Gallery first opened its doors, the collection has grown

steadily to form a kaleidoscope of Scottish life and history. Among the

most famous portraits are Mary, Queen of Scots, Ramsay’s portrait of

philosopher David Hume, Nasmyth’s portrait of Robert Burns, and Raeburn’s

Sir Walter Scott. In addition to paintings, it displays sculptures,

miniatures, coins, medallions, drawings, watercolours and photographs.

The Royal Museum and the Museum of Scotland are two museums under one

roof. The Royal Museum is Scotland’s premier museum and international

treasure-house. It contains material from all over the world. A vast and

varied range of objects are on display – from the endangered Giant Panda to

working scale models of British steam engines. The Museum of Scotland tells

the remarkable story of a remarkable country from the geological dawn of

time to modern-day life in Scotland. The variety and richness of Scotland’s

long and vibrant history, is brought to life by the fascinating stories

each object and every gallery has to tell.

At the heart of the museum is the Kingdom of the Scots. This is the

story of Scotland’s emergence as a distinctive nation able to take its

place on the European stage. Here are the icons of Scotland’s past –

objects connected with some of the most famous events and best-known

figures in Scottish history, from the Declaration of Arbroath[14] to Mary,

Queen of Scots.

Described as “the noisiest museum in the world”, the Museum of

Childhood is a favourite with adults and children alike. It is a treasure

house, full of objects telling of childhood, past and present. The museum

has five public galleries. A list of their contents makes it sound like a

magical department store. There are riding toys, push and pull toys, doll’s

prams, yachts and boats, slot machines, a punch and judy, a nickelodeon, a

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