St Andrews in Focus Issue 13 Nov Dec 2005

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

November / December 2005, Issue 13

the magazine for St Andrews

£1.50

www.standrewsinfocus.com

‘Lenten Pilgrim’ ‘Flanders to St Andrews in Fife, AD1500’

Throughout the entirety of the Middle Ages, no group of pilgrims commanded more respect than those universally known as the ‘Lenten Pilgrims’. They were the men and women drawn from all ranks of society who chose to embark upon a sacred pilgrimage in the depths of winter, deliberately and willingly embracing the severest of hardships for the love of Christ and the cause of their community. If they were lucky they would survive the pitiless winter journey from afar to arrive here in St Andrews, the ‘Jerusalem of the North’, for Holy Week and Easter. Their’s was not just a physical journey, but also a spiritual one which began in Autumn of the previous year. They would have embraced a cause; perhaps an acute unrelieved distress affecting and afflicting a specific community, such as famine brought on by the ravages of a war, or a plague, or a disease, which defied a cure. A penitential pilgrimage offered and made on behalf of such an afflicted community or individuals would have been the selfless resolve of a “Lenten Pilgrim’. After harvest time as the days grew shorter and a touch of frost marked each dawn, our Lenten Pilgrim commissioned the making of selected symbols of Faith to carry on his journey. At the smith’s furnace he watched the forging of three square shanked nine-inch nails, the Roman nails of Christ’s crucifixion. From the carpenter he obtained a small wooden cross and mallet; from the basket maker, a ‘Crown of Thorns’. The weaver wove a small ‘seamless cloak’, which the dyer would colour purple. A carved and painted Cockerel would be fashioned by the local carver, a reminder of St. Peter’s thrice repeated denial of his Master. Finally the scribe would inscribe two small wooden plaques, each bearing Pilate’s words, ‘Ecce Homo’ – ‘Behold the Man’, and ‘INRI‘ – ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’. Thus, by tradition, did many members of a community become inextricably involved with the pilgrimage. So armed, did the pilgrim depart, bearing the solemn reminders of Christ’s Passion and Death. So armed, did the Pilgrim offer each hard-won mile.

The falling leaves of a warm, russet Autumn mark the first phase, ‘Preparation’. A distressed, dismayed and distraught family gather around the bed of a seriously sick young woman. A young man kneels at her side.

He resolves to make a Lenten Pilgrimage on her behalf. He offers himself and his mission to Christ for her survival.

In a gloomy winter setting, he embraces his mother and leaves the comfort of home and hearth. He sets forth across a frozen Flemish landscape. Making the hazardous winter crossing of the English Channel he begins the long journey north traversing a forbidding English landscape. Finally he reaches the shrouded hills of Northumberland marked by the remains of Hadrian’s Wall. Through sleet and snow, wind and rain, he traverses the Southern Uplands of Scotland. At the end of each daunting day he has his feet washed by the Statio staff in remembrance of Christ’s great Act and example of the washing of the feet of the twelve Apostles. The days grow longer and the miles grow shorter.

Soon he is standing in the pale greenery of springtime and Fife on the final eastward leg of his journey. He is within sight of his destination.

Flanked by the broad estuary of the River Tay, Dundee and the snowcapped Grampians, he reaches the Great Pilgrim Assembly Station at Guardbridge. Rested and refreshed he crosses the Pilgrim Bridge – joyously striding the last token three miles to St Andrews. Kneeling within the Cathedral Church, he venerates the accredited corporeal relics of Christ’s First Chosen Apostle, Saint Andrew, displayed within the ancient ‘Morbrac’ reliquary. Before the Patron Saint of the Scots he makes his heartfelt appeal for the cure and comfort of the ailing young woman in faraway Flanders.

In a warm summer’s setting, spiritually heartened with renewed confidence and hope, he bids farewell to the fabled ‘Jerusalem of the North’. By Autumn, God willing, he will be safely home.

After the style of a hand-coloured printed woodblock of AD1500. Such storytelling illustrations were the prototypes of contemporary comics and strip cartoons.

Illustration and text, copyright May 2005. Jurek Alexander Putter.

Competition . . .

Great Scot! . . . Winners Mr Roy Robertson and Mr George Sutherland, both of St Andrews – Congratulations!

And thanks again to the Preservation Trust for their support, and for donating books and CD-Roms for the prizes.

1

2

3

8

4

5

6

7

9 10 11

12

13

15

16

14

17 19

20

18

21

22

24

Cover: ‘The Lenten Pilgrim’, an original design for the magazine by Jurek Alexander Putter

2

23

25

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

From the Editor My dictionary gives two meanings to the word ‘pilgrimage’.

Apart from its religious connotations, it also means a “journey or long search made for exalted or sentimental reasons”.

Who would disagree that St Andrews is a pilgrimage destination for all these reasons combined? Jurek Putter compellingly illustrates for us here the religious aspect. Our students and academic body surely demonstrate the exalted nature of their journeys, and the tourists come here for sentimental reasons. Add to that our built heritage and natural setting, and it makes me wonder how many towns in Britain can boast such a powerful attractive pull. No wonder demand outstrips the housing supply, while our University grows by leaps and bounds. Tell me honestly, would we have it any other way, difficulties or no difficulties?

Oh, by the way, I’ve caught a whiff on the wind of something interesting – keep reading this magazine! In the meantime, I wish all and every one of you, the best of joy in the coming season!

Flora Selwyn

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com ADVERTISING MANAGER Michael Milbank Mobile: 97887 756 980 Email: mwam@st-andrews.ac.uk DESIGNER University of St Andrews Reprographics Unit PRINTER Tayport Printers Ltd. DISTRIBUTER Elspeth’s of Guardbridge PUBLISHER (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: enquiries@standrewsinfocus.com SUBSCRIPTIONS St. Andrews in Focus is published 6 times a year, starting in January. Subscriptions for the full year are: £10.00 in the UK (post & packing included) £18.00 overseas (post & packing included) Please send your name and address, together with remittance to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND: 255564

THE PAPER USED IS 75% RECYCLED POST-CONSUMER WASTE

Contents SHOPS & SERVICES • • • • • •

The story of J. & G. Innes Our Post Office Fife’s first Genealogy Centre Oakwood House The Territorial Army Roving Reporter

4 5 5 7 9 11

EVENTS • •

St Andrews Week – programme Selected events

14 16

TOWN/GOWN • • • • • • • •

Reconnecting the Apostles The Book of St Andrews – review James Gregory The Students’ Association The Filial Revolution Allan Boyd and Andy Lyall OnsITe Who is the Photographer?

The Gateway reinvigorated

17 18 19 20 20 21 22 23

OUT AND ABOUT • • • •

Golfgirl St Andrews The Great Scottish Links The Botanic Garden’s Education Trust ScotWays

24 25 26 26

FEATURES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Community Safety Panel Transport giant passes through Burns me up!

Exhortations for St Andrews Day St Andrews is never short!

Save your 20% Pride of Place George Rae Book Review – Malcolm Black The Humanist Society The Double-Decker Poems of old St Andrews The Manse Ask the Curator A Christmas Story

27 27 27 27 28 28 29 30 31 32 32 33 34 34 35

NEXT ISSUE – Jan/Feb 2006 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 28 NOVEMBER All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

3

SHOPS & SERVICES J. & G. Innes, the St Andrews Citizen building in South Street, is unique in the town. Its prominent position and attractive features ensure its iconic nature, and the town is rightly proud of it. Mrs P. Innes, Director in Charge, has kindly given this magazine the privilege of writing a brief history of the building and her firm.

The Story of J. & G. Innes Stability, continuity – these are precious in our swiftly-changing world. J. & G. Innes, thriving today, traces its origins and its service to our town to 1795.

At the age of 12, young Robert Tullis, son of William Tillas, ‘a deacon of the guild of smiths in St Andrews’ was apprenticed to Patrick Bower, ‘bookseller and bookbinder’. It is recorded that Robert did ‘so faithfully discharge his duties, abstaining from Carding, Dycing, Drunkenness and other immoralities’ that he ended his apprenticeship in November 1790 with ‘his master’s highest commendation’. After a spell learning printing with the University printers, Robert left to start his own printing business in Cupar in 1795.

Success led in 1822 to the establishment of the Cupar Herald, ‘the first weekly newspaper in Fife and one of the first in Scotland, which a year later became the Fife Herald’. Needing paper for printing, Robert leased a local mill at Auchmuty, starting his paper-making business in 1809, the beginning of Tullis, Russell and Co. Ltd. Then, at the relatively early age of 56, Robert died in 1831.

John Innes during this time, a graduate of St Andrews University, had gone to work as a journalist on the Glasgow Herald. In 1870 he was appointed managing editor of the Fife Herald, and Fife News, which had started in March of that year. John saw that St Andrews would benefit from having a newspaper of its own, and so, on Christmas Eve 1870, the St Andrews Citizen was successfully launched.

John prospered. In 1879 he became the owner of the Tullis business and properties.

George Innes, his younger brother, became his partner, inaugurating J. & G. Innes.

Printed in Cupar, The St Andrews Citizen was initially published from the office of the University

4

printer, W. C. Henderson (present-day Bonkers). Then, Provost Murray’s post office, part of the present J. & G. Innes building, became the distributing agency. By 1890 this building became wholly devoted to the Citizen.

The association was historically noteworthy since it had been the site of a printing works since the 16th century. By 1744 it had become the home of Bailie Bell, a local barber and ‘an eager co-worker with Alexander Wilson, the father of Scottish type founding.’ Bailie Bell ‘was also associated with John Baine, whose type foundry in Philadelphia cast the first $ sign in 1797.’ Today there is a commemorative plaque to Bailie Bell over the main entrance to the shop. Bailie Bell’s second son was Dr. Andrew Bell, founder of Madras College, the City’s mosy bounteous benefactor. In 2003 a plaque was unveiled to his memory on the South Street side of the shop, highlighting his outstanding contribution to education.

Having rented the corner property for some 30 years, W. G. Innes bought it in 1927. Sparing no expense, W. G. appointed Frank Pride, of Walker and Pride Architects, to ‘transform it into a completely modern stationery and booksellers’ shop, along with the Citizen editorial offices.’ The interior high quality hardwood detailing, the stained glass windows, the historical allusions to St Andrew (in the gable niche), the shields of the town, the University, Fife, and Madras College, invest every visit to the shop with enhanced pleasure. A charming leaflet published in August 1931 pictures the progress of the complete reconstruction of the site from the original rather plain building gradually expanding into adjoining premises, into the present well-loved edifice. On the back of the leaflet, it announces the addition of a half-yearly subscription for its fiction library, housed upstairs, each book being issued complete ‘with a

hygienic wrapper and fresh book-mark.’ W. G., a man well ahead of his time, began the first superannuation scheme in Scotland for his employees.

In 1963 he was succeeded by his eldest son, Leng Innes, whose brother Neil gave up a successful career in the Merchant Navy in order to join him. Over the following years, the printing works were gradually sold off and the retail business expanded. Now it is fourth generation Miss Judith Innes who proudly bears the family flag. Bookselling and stationery comprise the main core of the business, with a very strong emphasis on personal attention by the loyal and committed staff. Mrs Innes herself asserts that, “Our most valuable assets are our customers.“ And although 21st century demands are exacting, J. & G. Innes’ flagship building will continue to be lovingly maintained.

St Andrews is indeed fortunate.

SHOPS & SERVICES Flora Selwyn has always wondered how our Post Office copes at this time of year.

So she went behind the scenes to talk to Manager Andy McIvor, and Staff member Dorothy Christie.

Post Office There’s a sticker in the Manager’s office which says, “People out there are relying on us. Royal Mail.” With only 2 full-time staff, 5 part-time, and 1 reserve, it is a miracle that there are always smiles behind the counter, no matter how big the queue waiting to be served. It is, I suppose, a measure of the success of our Post Office that we have come to take their pleasant courtesy for granted.

Before 9.00a.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays there is staff training to familiarise staff with new products, and the Office then opens to the public at 9.30a.m. Ever since pensions were taken away the Post Office has concentrated on being a high street retailer, necessitating extra staff training in product knowledge. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), National Savings, Government Agencies, and the United Kingdom Passport Service (UKPS), are all served by the Post Office. Home and car insurance, which claim to save customers money, is another service. If you are planning a visit abroad, you can opt for the new European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which is simpler than the old system giving you “a plastic card like a credit card that is valid up to 3 years.”

Andy told me that the Post Office has “done really well on the travel business” for there is no commission on foreign currency plus insurance taken out at the same time, and “you can more or less do everything except actually book your holiday!” For once the Post Office has become a market leader in issuing the first credit card system of its kind which has the double function of credit card and personal loan card. The details are on the leaflet headed New! Post Office 2 in 1 credit card. Also on offer is another attractive package: the Post

Office HomePhone, which is “Lower in rental than BT!” Then there are greetings cards, and innumerable kinds of packaging, stationery, and writing materials on sale, and tourists and students alike require phone cards in abundance! More and more DVDs are available too, as are commemorative stamps and coins.

Andy explained that the Post Office, that is, Post Office Ltd. (Counters), like Parcel Force, is part of the Royal Mail Group under the overall charge of Royal Mail CEO Alan Leighton, but that it has a separate management structure.

All mail from St Andrews goes to the Royal Mail sorting office in Edinburgh.

Dorothy told me about life behind the counter. One of the problems in this cosmopolitan city of ours is foreign languages.

It would be impossible to teach the staff all the languages needed to interact with visitors, so staff, having the additional hurdle of thick glass between them and their customers, often resort to sign language. Then there are the regulations governing each country. Dorothy mentioned one example, that “you are not allowed to send a trumpet or wind instrument to Serbia.” A new computer system now helps to get it right.

There are size restrictions. One customer wanted to send a huge surfboard, but was told he had to go away and find a carrier. Golf clubs cause regular headaches. So do bicycles, which can be cheaper for their owners to post than take with them. When students go home in summer they often bring in their laundry to send home to wash, packing it in the Post Office!

Live kittens have been brought in for posting, but were refused! When the automated voice saying, “Cashier no. 3 please“ was introduced (it started with a male voice) children were

heard wondering where the “man” was hiding.

Dorothy told me about one golfer’s wife, who phoned up and “expected the Post Office to go to the Old Course Hotel to pack all her shopping and send it while her husband was playing in the Open.” Another strange episode was once, when “a cremated man was sent back by post to America.” Apparently he had suffered a heart attack while playing golf, and had no relative here to arrange matters. Dorothy said, “It was a funny feeling; his ashes were sitting under the counter in a box until the postman came to take it away!”

Dorothy and her colleagues enjoy meeting the celebrities who come through the door.

When Prince William first came, wearing his iconic cap well down on his head, he stood in the queue like everyone else and no-one bothered him until he was going out.

Andy and Dorothy agree that it is mutual respect that makes everything run smoothly.

Just “occasionally the weather holds things up”, but on the whole there’s no problem. I asked Andy what he would advise, to help everyone at Christmas at a time when all staff leave is cancelled. “Buy packaging well in advance.

Have your items ready for posting before you come.” And, of course, make sure your labels are clear, and your parcels are secure. Thank you, Post Office – happy Christmas to you, and A Guid New Year and mony o’ them!

Jennifer Millar introduces

Fife’s Registration Service’s first Genealogy Centre What is Genealogy? It is one of the most popular indoor hobbies throughout the world, but is often given other titles, such as “family history research”, or “tracing your family tree”.

Local Registrars have been responsible for recording and providing records of life events in Scotland since 1855. We celebrate our 150th

Jennifer Millar (foreground), Councillor Lothian, who officially opened the Centre, and Joanna O’Rourke, Project Manager for the Scottish Family History Campus in Edinburgh.

anniversary of Civil Registration this year and what better way to bring this service to the fore than to launch Fife Council’s first Genealogy Centre, based in St Andrews.

Local Registrars have an in-depth knowledge of research which is an integral part of their day-to-day work. Within the last few months, registrars have been given access to Census Records and Statutory Birth, Death, and Marriage records for ALL of Scotland’s people. This has been a great boost to the customer and to the service. If you require a copy of a birth, death, or marriage certificate, we can now provide you with any one of these, regardless of where the event took place within Scotland.

Did your family come from Scotland? Carry out your research in Fife now, instead of having

to go further afield. The Genealogy Centre in St Andrews offers assisted searches. This means that an experienced member of staff will help you with your research, or carry out the research for you. Family Trees are available in a variety of ‘packages’ to allow you to decide how much detail you would like about your family and how much you want to spend. This is a great gift idea for anyone who wants to find out more about the history of their family.

There are many partners involved in ensuring the service we provide is of a high standard. There are many resources already available in Fife, and by working together we can help you fill in the missing pieces of your family jigsaw. When we have exhausted our research, you will be assigned to the correct partner for further information.

The Genealogy Centre is based within St Andrews Local Office, St. Marys Place, St Andrews.

The Centre is open to the public for research on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

There may be plans in the near future to open other Centres in Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline For further information, please contact Jennifer Millar or Tracey Blyth on 08451 550 077 or have a look on our website, i.e. www.fifedirect.org.uk by searching under Genealogy.

Alternatively you can email Jennifer.millar@fife.gov.uk or tracey.blyth@fife.gov.uk Let us help you find out more about who you are. UNVEIL THE MYSTERY OF YOUR FAMILY HISTORY…… and do it in Fife.

5

SHOPS & SERVICES

Meeting the caring demands of the 21st Century These twelve Carers from Invalid Services Ltd recently completed a distance learning course, through Aberdeen College, in Advanced Care Practice.

Congratulations to all on their success!

INVALID SERVICES Ltd. 01334 472834 / 01382 770303

Providing personal care to Clients at home Throughout Fife & Tayside Licensed by the Care Commission

Craigmount Care Home Celebrates 80 years of caring for the elderly Craigmount enjoys a long history within St Andrews.

It began as a Maternity Home, and people still come, telling us they were born here, and may they look round?

A Nursing Home was established in 1925, and has continued, with 3 previous owners. Today, we are part of Four Seasons Health Care. We are Regulated and Registered with the Care Commission to provide full-time nursing care for the elderly. A team of professional and nonprofessional staff look after our residents in a personal, dignified, and caring environment. As one of them recently told an inspector, “I have no doubts that I have chosen the right place.

The staff are very kind and caring, the food is good, and I have a magnificent view.” Another one said, “I am always treated with dignity and respect. I am very confident in the abilities of the staff. It’s very nice here, I couldn’t be better looked after.”

We welcome visitors at any time. Please come and see what we offer, for both long- and short-term stays.

Craigmount Care Home, The Scores, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AS.

6

Telephone: 01334 473 608

SHOPS & SERVICES

Oakwood House Oakwood House Therapy Centre opened in Argyle Street in St Andrews in July of this year. The idea of the business partners, Angela Davey, and Gillian Batty, was to bring together a wide range of Complementary Therapies, including, Acupuncture, Clinical Aromatherapy, Cranio-Sacral, Indian Head Massage, Lymphatic Drainage, Pilates, Yoga Therapy, Reiki, Reflexology, Shiatsu, Thai Massage, Swedish Massage, as well as Remedial and Sports Massage, and make them available in a relaxing and therapeutic environment.

Oakwood House also offers Counselling/Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, (CBT), Clinical Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Angela Davey is our experienced CBT therapist, and is also a registered nurse with vast experience of dealing with many issues affecting Mental Health, such as, Stress and Depression Anxiety Disorders, Phobias, Relationship Problems, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Change and Bereavement. Our Hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner is experienced in treating similar issues, and also deals with smoking cessation and weight loss.

Dermalogica Beauty Treatments are also available at Oakwood House as well as a wide range of pampering treatments.

Our aim at Oakwood House is to tailor therapies to individual needs, treating both mind and body, enabling our clients to experience optimum wellbeing.

Oakwood House Gift Vouchers.

The Perfect Christmas Gift.

Treat someone to a unique Christmas gift by giving them an Oakwood House Gift Voucher for A Body or Beauty Treatment of their choice.

Call 01334 479747 or visit Oakwood House Therapy Centre at 28a Argyle Street. St Andrews.

Oakwood House Therapy Centre, 28a Argyle Street, St Andrews, KY16 9BU. Tel: 01334 479747

Cafe in the Park Located within St.Andrews Museum Kinburn Park Doubledykes Rd. St.Andrews.

Tel : 01334 413303 A consistently popular venue for over 12 years.

Enjoy home made soup, genuine home baking and satisfying main meals in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and in pleasant surroundings, for a very reasonable price.

* WINTER SPECIAL OFFER * Soup with roll, sandwich with your choice of filling, tea or coffee for Only ÂŁ4.00 ( between 2.00pm. and 3.30pm. )

7

SHOPS & SERVICES

St Andrews’ latest Art Gallery has opened in the David Brown Gallery at 9 Albany Place, St Andrews (beside the pedestrian lights in North Street). Stocking original paintings and prints by well-known artists throughout Britain, as well as local artists, such as Vettriano, Pam Carter, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Charlotte Atkinson, Alan Morgan, Terry Adams, Chris Taylor, Gillian Macdonald, Steven Jones, and many more.

There is also a massive collection of St Andrews golf originals and prints.

Getting engaged this Christmas? See our vast collection of diamond, emerald, sapphire, and ruby rings, as well as our latest collection of diamond-set wedding rings. We can also design and make a ring, or any piece of jewellery, to your requirements in our in-house jewellery repair area. Our stock of silver and Scottish jewellery, antique and modern, is second to none, with prices to suit everyone.

Gifts for all the family can be found at the Gallery : Armami Figurines; Saturno silver-enamel animals; art glass perfume bottles; vases; candle holders; decanters; paperweights by Okra, Graham Muir, Scottish Border Art Glass, and Beaches Glass, prices starting from ÂŁ16.

For the man in your life we have skean dhus, kilt pins, paperknives, cuff links, silver ball markers, and a large collection of golf memorabilia, both antique and modern.

We also buy all types of antiques, especially high-quality jewellery, silver, and golf memorabilia.

8

SHOPS & SERVICES

Joining the TA could be just the job!

St Andrews man, Malcolm Mitchell, is the Recruit Marketing Officer for the Highland Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association. His job is to raise the profile of the Territorial Army in the Northern two thirds of Scotland – from Dunoon in the South West, round the North of Glasgow, round the North of Edinburgh, up to Shetland. He is clearly enthusiastic about the opportunities in the TA for those aged between 171⁄2 and 32 (older if one has specialist skills or previous military experience) and particularly at the prospect of the new jobs being created in Fife.

Malcolm commented: “With the rebalancing of the Army in the next few months, we are creating a number of openings throughout the county. St Andrews itself has a thriving University Officer Training Corps at Wyvern, in City Road. Along the road in Cupar is C Squadron of the Queen’s Own Yeomanry, who play a reconnaissance role using light armoured vehicles. RAF Leuchars hosts the Royal Engineers and the Army Air Corps.

231 Evacuation Squadron is being formed in Glenrothes, and their job, as part of 225 General Medical Regiment, is to evacuate casualties from the battlefield and transport them to a safe medical facility, well away from the front line.”

Malcolm continues: “Dunfermline is home to the Scottish Transport Regiment, part of the Royal Logistic Corps and offers a huge range of opportunities for drivers, vehicle mechanics and chefs. The Royal Artillery are based in Kirkcaldy and they have just been provided with the new L118 105mm light gun, which can fire a shell nearly 11 miles!

Every single TA Unit requires drivers and mechanics and not only will the TA teach you to drive, we will also pay you to learn! You can even go on to gain your HGV licence by training with us. They say the Army marches on its stomach and chefs are always much sought after, as are people with medical experience. Whatever your skills, we can help you improve existing skills and acquire new ones and also help with personal development.”

If you’re looking for a new challenge and a rewarding experience outside normal working hours, you’ll find it in the Territorial Army. The TA offers the best of both worlds to people who find the idea of Army life appealing, but who are unable to make a full-time commitment.

The TA now forms over a third of the Regular Army and trains both men and women from all walks of life to be soldiers in their free time, to fulfil roles vital to the operation of the Army. It is a very exciting time for the Territorial Army, with its value being perceived as more critical than ever.

No previous military experience is needed, just the desire to embark on the opportunity of a lifetime. Thousands of people join the TA every year and there are plenty of opportunities in towns and cities across Scotland. It’s like having a part-time job that offers many of the perks

enjoyed by Regular Army soldiers. These include the opportunity to learn a wide range of valuable skills, meet new people and develop your personal fitness in a variety of adventurous activities.

Malcolm pictured in front of Old College at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

What can I do in the TA? Everyone who joins the TA trains as a soldier first. Following this, there are over 140 jobs or trades to train in. What you end up doing will depend on your particular preferences and skills, as well as the type of Unit you’re a member of.

You can use existing skills, or develop new ones. If you already have a particular skill or interest that you would like to use in the TA – for example, medicine or engineering – then you may be able to take on a more specialist role. If you think you have the potential to lead, you could become a junior NCO or be considered to become a TA Officer. Whatever you do, you can be sure that the TA will give you all the help and support you need.

there are over 140 jobs or trades to train in

The benefits?

TA training is a proven and unique way of developing the kinds of attributes that can enhance both your personal and professional lives. It develops the skills and qualifications that will broaden your horizons and advance your career. As well as developing transferable qualities such as communication, teamwork and leadership, you will also be able to expand existing skills. In the TA we won’t just teach you skills for combat – we’ll teach you skills for life. This has been estimated as the equivalent of £9000 in leadership training and you get paid to learn.

What’s in it for you?

Having the TA on your CV is a major advantage in today’s competitive job market. TA-trained employees are widely regarded as being more committed, dependable, confident and responsible in the workplace and someone who works well within a team.

For a part-time commitment, TA soldiers are paid at Regular Army rates. Add travel, adventure, camaraderie, skills training and if you achieve the required standards, you’ll also receive an annual tax-free bonus, known as a bounty. There’s never been a more exciting time to join the Territorial Army, so for more information about joining the TA in Scotland – visit your local TA Centre, call 0845 603 8000 or visit www.scottishsoldier.co.uk.

The Jahangir Restaurant We pride ourselves on offering the best Balti and Tandoori cuisine with the best service in a unique ambiance in wonderful St Andrews.

Where else in this town can you find a restaurant with its own stream running through it, filled with goldfish, and where each table is lit as if by sunlight shining through dappled leaves?

Our menu comprises a mouth-watering range of Tikkas, Kurmas, traditional curries and Biriyanies, as well as European dishes, and all the accompanying side dishes.

We also offer a comprehensive take-away menu, including European dishes, and within St Andrews we operate a home delivery service 7 days a week. Call 01334 470 300. Please note our new website: www.jahangirstandrews.co.uk

9

SHOPS & SERVICES

Fabulous festive flowers from

Brushes to strings; easels to music stands – Everything for the discerning musician and artist.

Come and browse; start shopping for Christmas; see our wide range of gifts for all ages.

O

ur Christmas stock has arrived!

Beautiful Loxwood handbags and cashmere wraps, pretty necklaces and bracelets, sumptuous Mulberry throws and candles.

Glassware, festive plates and crockery, crisp bedlinen and a fine selection of luxury bathtime treats for ladies and gents!

Please feel free to come and browse through our wide range of Christmas decorations, stocking fillers and mulling spices, along with our new stock of teddies, soft toys and babygifts.

Last appointments for Christmas curtains and sofas, armchairs and dining furniture now booking!

. . . . . but most of all – to all our customers, a very Merry Christmas!

From all of us at

The Three B’s Bedding Bits & Bobs 47-49 Kinnessburn Road, St Andrews, KY16 8AD Phone 01334 470700 Photocopying 5p per sheet A good selection of haberdashery, including a range of craft materials for card-making.

Wools include, Plumé 3ply & 4ply, double knitting, Chunky, & Aran Dance wear now in stock – shoes and outfits

175 South Street, St Andrews 01334 478291

10

Also in store, a large range of fancy goods + All you need for Christmas and New Year

SHOPS & SERVICES

Our Roving Reporter – is always pleased when a business that went somewhere else returns. So it is with In Stitches, which has resurfaced in 84 Market Street after a sojourn in Tom Stewart Lane. Pam and Keith Griffiths, kindly spoke to Reporter about their shop and their work. Pam was in charge of golf rain glove-making and golf head covers in family tartans at Swilcans until 1991, when the firm ceased trading. She bought their machinery and created In Stitches, unique in St Andrews. A onewoman operation, the business thrived. Sewing repairs of all kinds helped “in so many ups and downs,” explains Keith, who went on to say that “so much depends on luck. It’s a niche market.” While Reporter was talking to Keith, Pam was repairing rugby training pads, which have plastic covers.

She told Reporter that, “If it’s sewn, then it’s possible we’ll be able to repair it. Anything from horse blankets; everyday things.”

Keith added that, “It’s surprising that men come in with socks to darn!” Meanwhile, son Graham was working on the computer translating a very detailed coloured design into instructions for the linked machine to turn into embroidery. He is an expert in personalising designs. Regular customers have golf items made, including tartan head covers, some of which are used for promotional purposes. Internet sales go direct to America, Canada, Australia, and other countries around the world wherever family tartans are still highly valued. “Most of our business,” Keith says, “comes from recommendations.” In addition to the repairs and design service, the shop sells everything needed for embroidery; silks, cottons, needles etc. Artistic Pam has herself painted pictures for cross-stitch panels. Also, Keith assured Reporter, “We’re still oldfashioned enough to sell a yard of elastic (by the metre!). What the customer wants, is what the customer should get.” In Stitches now employs 4 girls, apart from the family itself.

“We’re an all-round family business. We have flexible working because that’s how we operate.” Customers are treated as people, “not just a number”, and many old customers simply come in for a chat. Pam and Keith have been gladdened by the many folk who have welcomed

them back into the centre of town.

Reporter is not surprised by this, for where else can you have so many of your ideas so delightfully turned into reality?

***

Reporter wandered into the wynd beside Argos in South Street and discovered a new shop, St Andrews Phone Shop.

Naturally he got talking to the owner, Mrs Lale Gunes, who runs the business with her husband Dogan (he was out looking after his taxi firm). Here you can buy second-hand mobile phones of every make, and all the accessories you could wish for.

There are covers, and chargers, headsets and batteries, you name it...

The most sought-after service is unlocking phones – that means changing networks on existing ones. Lale said, “We try to help customers in every way.” Prices are competitive and comprehensive; Nokias, Motorola, Samsung for example, can be unlocked here at £10.00. And for £7.99 you can buy body gloves, and travel chargers cost £9.99.

Reporter can only say, “go and look!”

***

Reporter was delighted to meet Osiris Parcero. Osiris came from Argentina seven years ago to study Economics. With an MSc in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Essex, and a PhD from Bristol University, he is now a Research Fellow at the School of Economics and Finance at

St Andrews University. Apart from his interest in Economics, Osiris has been a tango dancing instructor for more that eight years. He learned his first steps of this beautiful dance in Argentina and is happy to bring his knowledge to the people of St Andrews. He said, “Since I arrived in the UK my feelings for tango have become stronger. It is a way of keeping contact with my own culture, and even being able to show it to other people”. At present he is giving tango lessons at the Cosmos Centre in St Andrews.

The lessons are in a very friendly atmosphere. It is very easy to learn and a good way to meet new people. “My main aim with these tango lessons is to create a nice group of people, who share an interest in tango. Much of this has been achieved, but our group is happy to welcome new members.”

Osiris teaches the style that is danced in Buenos Aires. Argentine tango is a uniquely romantic, exciting, sexy, mesmerizing style of tango. His informal, but meticulously structured teaching is based on acquiring the correct posture and balance; learning the correct walking technique; understanding the basic principles of Tango dance. Osiris also offers

Tango performances for your special events. For that Osiris has a good repertoire of special choreographies for shows, parties, and any other event. You can contact him on his mobile: 07748030509 or email: ojp1@st-andrews.ac.uk. Reporter can’t wait to have a go!!

*** Like everyone in the town, Roving Reporter was greatly saddened by the recent passing of Mr James Senior.

Reporter would like to convey this magazine’s sincere condolences to his family.

Fortunately for St Andrews, the shop will still be trading, and Reporter sends his very best wishes to the family for their continuing prosperity.

Fresh Turkeys, Geese, Ducks and Chickens etc will be available from our usual reliable sources for the Christmas period.

Please order early.

11

SHOPS & SERVICES

Special package offer: Casual gent’s kilt (tartan as available in store only) together with – ghillie shirt, belt & buckle, plain-knit hose and basic leather sporran all for the price of £99 Boys’ kilts in Royal Stewart, Black Watch, Scottish National, Heritage of Scotland – Sizes 0-1 up to age 11-12 Special offer, £29.99 (were £34.99) Also shirts, belts, buckles, sporrans, socks.

Christmas Gifts

at Elspeth’s of St Andrews, 9 Church Street, St Andrews, KY16 9NW Tel: 01334 472494

Ferguson’s Shoe Repairs

Where better to give your footware new life?

Fine quality leather gifts for all occasions.

New in — travel goods, including Carlton.

151 South Street, St Andrews.

Tel: 01334 472134

12

SHOPS & SERVICES

Congratulations and best wishes to John and Clare married 22nd August

Le Rendez-vous

Buy one Pizza, get second one half price.

Take away service – free delivery in St Andrews.

First Fair Trade coffee shop in St Andrews.

Stocks all sorts of books, new and second-hand.

The best golf bookshop on earth.

– Today’s Golfer Email: quartobooks@btconnect.com

DAVID DONALDSON Proprietor: B Donaldson

Plasterer, Slater & Glazier 45D South Street, St Andrews.

Telephone: 01334 473965

13

EVENTS

St Andrew’s Week 2005 Tuesday 22nd – Wednesday 30th November

7.30pm – 9:30pm – St Andrews Bay Hotel.

Champagne Tasting. Taste up to ten different styles of champagne in the company of Master of Wine, Rose Murray Brown. Limited seats on shuttle bus from town, reserve your seat when booking your tasting place. Ticket £35 – Cost includes Buffet – Booking Essential.

Tel: 01334 870731 or 07984893138.

Email: masterclass@rosemurraybrown.com

Friday, 28 October – Wednesday, 21 December (Monday – Saturday, 10.00am – 4.00pm : Sunday, 2.00pm – 5.00pm) – Crawford Arts Centre, North Street. Exchange: Art Exhibition Exploring Chinese and Scottish Culture. Colourful work by adults and children who have taken part in workshops with artist in residence Pamela So. FREE. 01334 474610

7:30pm – St Andrews Episcopal Church.

The Legend of St Andrews. Play by A.B Paterson adapted for a church setting

by Alan Tricker. Prog/Donation

Wednesday, 23 – 30 November – Aikmans Bar Bistro, Bell Street.

Live Music. Various artists, styles, and sessions throughout the week. FREE. 01334 477452 Wednesday, 23 – 30 November – The Pilmour Hotel. Scottish Week. Full week’s programme of entertainment with a Scottish Flavour, Scottish food, and beer special for St Andrews Week.

For further information contact the Pilmour Hotel on the number below.

FREE. 01334 473252 Wednesday, 23 – 30 November – Various venues. Informal Music Sessions.

A wide range of music, including the acoustic tradition. Open to all, come and join the session, bring an instrument. FREE. John Cunningham: 01334 479348 or jcunni1248@aol.com Thursday, 24 November – Sunday, 4 December (10.00am – 4.00pm) – The British Golf Museum. Free entry for all visitors over the St Andrews Week Period. 01334 460046 Saturday, 26 November – Friday, 2 December – St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum. Preserving St Andrews. Exhibition of the history and work of the St Andrews Preservation Trust, established 1937.

FREE. 01334 477629 Wednesday, 30 November – Saturday, 3 December (11.00am – 5.00pm) – Victory Memorial Hall, St Mary’s Place.

Art and Photographic Exhibition.

The 7th annual art and photographic exhibition by the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council.

FREE. 01334 47893

DATES: Tuesday, 22 November 8.00pm – Byre Theatre. Scottish Dance Theatre. Featuring an intensely physical and spirited new work by red-hot Portuguese choreographer Rui Horta, award-winning Scottish Dance Theatre returns to the Byre with a captivating repertoire of original dance theatre. £12, £9 concession, £6 children 01334 475000 9.00pm – Downstairs in Aikmans Cellar Bar, Bell Street. Session. A well-established session attracting a wide range of local musicians. FREE 01334 477425

14

Wednesday, 23 November 8.00pm – Byre Theatre, Abbey Walk. Tam White’s Shoestring. Scotland’s premier blues man, Tam White, returns to the Byre with his shoestring featuring the lightning touch of Neil Warden on lead guitar, and ace West-Coast harmonica player Fraser Spiers, with Tam on acoustic rhythm guitar.

The ultimate ‘unplugged’ blues/roots experience. £10, £8 concessions.

01334 475000 Aikman’s Bar/Bistro, Bell Street. Live Music Night. Various styles of music. FREE. 01334 477425 10.00pm – The Pilmour Hotel. Session.

Acoustic Music. FREE. 01334 473252

Thursday, 24 November 1.15 – 1.45pm – Younger Hall, North Street.

Lunch Hour Recital. 01334 462110 6.00pm – Church Street to Harbour Pier, procession with piper and Celtic Society.

Beacon Lighting/ Festival Launch 6:30pm.

Fireworks at 7pm. Food and drink on sale.

FREE. 01334 412674

8.00pm – Byre Theatre, Abbey Walk. Scottish National Jazz Orchestra – 10th Anniversary Tour, directed by Tommy Smith. A selection of fantastic toe-tapping pieces. SNJO’s reputation for thoroughness in research, recreation and presentation of the original material, means we have a very rare opportunity to hear the music of legends played live by one of the leading jazz Orchestras of the world. £13.50, £10 concession 01334 475000 9.00pm – Castle Tavern, North Street.

Session, informal music at the oldest pub in St Andrews. FREE. Paul Hughs: 01334 474977 9.00pm – Aikman’s Bar Bistro. Music Night Various styles of music. FREE 01334 477425

Saturday, 26 November 10:30am – noon – St Andrews Episcopal Church. Coffee Morning. Traditional Coffee morning with home baking and stalls to help you get ready for Christmas. £1

7:30pm – St Andrews Episcopal Church. The Legend of St Andrews, a play by A.B Paterson adapted for a church setting

by Alan Tricker. Prog/Donation

11.00am – 4.00pm – Byre Theatre, Abbey Street. Food and Drink Fayre. For many, the annual Scott’s Porage Oats Food and Drink Fair is the highlight of the St Andrews Week celebrations. Featuring the annual Golden Spurtle Award, to find the best bowl of porridge in Fife, with family entertainment. FREE. 01334 412674

7:30pm – American Thanksgiving Dinner.

Holy Trinity Church Hall, Greenside Place. £3, £2 children or family. 01334 478 317

3.00pm – Market Square. St Andrews Merchants Association Christmas lights switch-on. See Father Christmas. FREE

7:30pm – Public Library, Church Street. Magic and Witchcraft. Dr Maxwell Stuart talks on Magic and Witchcraft in Scotland during the 18th & 19th Centuries.

Noon – St Salvator’s Chapel, North Street.

Younger Fiddle Players. FREE. 01334 462110

9.00pm – Aikman’s Cellar Bar, Bell Street.

Pop Quiz – the longest running quiz night in town.

Also Music Night. Contact Aikman’s for further details. FREE. 01334 477425 10:15pm – ByreTheatre, Abbey Walk. Session, acoustic session following the evening concert in the foyer. FREE

Friday, 25 November 7:30pm – Younger Hall, North Street. RSCDS Ball. Open to RSCDS members only. £20.

Johnathan Wilson: jjw21g@aol.com

7:30pm – Holy Trinity Church. Concert, St Andrews Chorus. Music by Bernstein, Rutter, and Bach. Adults £8, Concessions £6, Children & Students £3 01334 880390 8.00pm – Byre Theatre, Abbey Walk. Following the great success throughout Europe and Hong Kong, TNT Music Theatre presents ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Adapted from the Charles Dickens novel

by Paul Stebbings and Phil Smith. £13, £9 concessions.

01334 475000

EVENTS

The place to celebrate St Andrew’s Day is, naturally, St Andrews.

8.00pm – Aikman’s Bar Bistro, Bell Street.

Music Night. Various styles. FREE. 01334 477425

6.00pm – Holy Trinity Church, South Street.

Celebration of St Andrews. FREE. 01334 478317

10:30am – 4.00pm – St Andrews Episcopal Church, Worship Workshop, led by John and Olive Drane. £10 for the day

9:45pm – Pilgrimage around sites of religious significance. Meeting at Holy Trinity Church in South Street. Led by the Rev. Dr Ian Bradley. FREE. 01334 478317

6.00pm – St Andrews Episcopal Church.

Carols for Advent Sunday, with personal drama favorites by Alan Tricker. FREE (but collection).

11.00am – Holy Trinity Church, South Street.

Civic Service. Church open between 9.00am. and 4.00pm. FREE. 01334 478317

7:30pm – Younger Hall, North Street. Concert.

Music Society Symphony Orchestra.

01334 462110

Tuesday, 29 November Noon, & 5:30pm – Holy Trinity Church, South Street. Multi-media Presentation by Ken Cochrane on “The Legacy and Inspiration of St Andrews”. FREE. 01334 478317 9 .00pm – Downstairs in Aikmans Cellar Bar, Bell Street. Session, attracting a wide range of local musicians. FREE. 01334 477425

Wednesday, 30 November Sunday, 27 November 10.00am – St Andrews Episcopal Church.

Festival Mass. Rt. Rev. Martin Shaw, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles. FREE (but collection) 10:30am – 3:30pm – St Andrews Botanic Garden, The Canongate. Fun in the Garden. A great opportunity to explore “the secret garden” of St Andrews. There will be activities all day long for both adults and children, including the Chairman’s annual Conker Contest, story telling in the potting shed, working with healing herbs, worms and other creepy crawlies, and making bumble bee boxes. There will also be a plant sale and refreshments. FREE. www.standrews-botanic.org

St Andrews University, St Andrews Day Graduation. Professorial induction and conferment of degrees. Younger Hall, North Street, Tickets only. 01334 476161 All Day – St Andrews Masonic Lodge Open, above the Town Hall, home to the Masonic Lodge St Andrews no.25. FREE. 01334 652056

5.00pm – 6.00pm – Venue to be announced.

St Andrews Fair Trade Town Declaration.

2 – 3 speakers, and light refreshments.

FREE. Alice Curteis: 01334 840384/473648 6:15pm – St Andrews Episcopal Church.

Choral Mass of St Andrews, led by the choir of St Andrews Episcopal Church. FREE 9.00pm – Aikman’s Bar Bistro. Music Night.

Various styles. FREE. 01334 477425 7:30pm – St Andrews Town Hall. Phil Cunningham & Aly Bain. A night of guaranteed high-quality music and entertainment. £12. To avoid disappointment, call the Festival Office on 01334 412674 9.00pm – The Pilmour Hotel. Session. Acoustic music. FREE. 01334 473252

11am – 4.00pm – West Sands. Kite Festival.

A spectacular day out with international and World Champions. Sky Art. An amazing and colourful display, with your chance to take the reins. Free Kites, RNLI sea rescue display, raffle. FREE 11.00am – Holy Trinity Church, South Street.

Youth Service and welcome to visitors.

FREE. 01334 478317 2.00 – 5.00pm – Boys Brigade Hall, Kinnessburn Road. Ceilidh/Old Time Dance. Dance to live music. Dances are demonstrated. £3 at the door (includes light refreshments). Contact: 01334 472375

15

EVENTS

Selected Events November – 8 January 2006 – 10.30am-4.30pm St Andrews Museum, Kinburn Park. Wild! – featuring natural history exhibits from the University of Dundee Museum and Zoological Collections, and the Bell Pettigrew Museum in St Andrews, as well as stunning wildlife photography, paintings and much more.

Admission free Monday, 7, 14, 21, 28 November, and 5 December – starting 6.00p.m (and finishing) at Church Square, St Andrews – walks of about 2 miles; The Fife Walking Initiative (Bums off Seats).

Contact Janice Meehan, Project Officer, 01592 414 300. email: Janice.Meehan@fife.gov.uk Friday, 11 November – 7.30 – 9.30p.m. Port Masterclass in the Conservatory, The Old Course Hotel, St Andrews. A unique chance to taste different port styles: from white, aged tawny, colheita, LBV to vintage, from famous houses and lesser known single quintas. Price: £25 Contact Rose Murray Brown 01334 870 731 Saturday, 12 November – 8.00p.m at St Leonard’s School Auditorium, the Pends, St Andrews, The Music Club.

Australian String Quartet : music by Mozart, Bartok, Dvorak. £9 (£8 concession) students £5, kids £1.

Sunday, 13 November – 4.00pm. at Cameron Reservoir Car Park, Winter Wildfowl. East Fife Rangers, 01592 424 300 Thursday, 17 November – 7.30-9.30pm at The Old Course Hotel.

Northern Italy Wine Masterclass. Study sparkling, white, red & sweet wines from Veneto, Fruili, Alto Adige, Emilia Romagna and Lombardy, including fine Barolo and Barbaresco from Piedmont. £25. Contact, Rose Murray Brown 01334 870 731 Saturday, 19 November – 10am-5pm at the Town Hall, St Andrews.

Antique & Collectors Fair; 90p (50p) accompanied kids free.

Contact, Mike Frodsham 01334 880 254, Rob Walker 01334 838 217 Wednesday 23 – 30 November – St Andrews Week. See programme of events Wednesday, 30th November – 5-6 pm, Venue to be confirmed.

St Andrews Fairtrade Town Campaign: Declaration Event, when it is expected that official Fairtrade Town status will be announced.

All Fairtrade supporters welcome. Contact: M. Robinson 01334 840 387.

Saturday, 3 December – 8.00 pm. at St Leonard’s School Auditorium, the Pends, St Andrews, The Music Club. Llyr Williams (piano). Music by Beethoven; Liszt; Ravel; Debussy; Chopin. £9 (£8 concession) students £5, kids £1 Sunday, 4 December – 2.00p.m at Birnie Loch, Winter Wildfowl, East Fife Rangers, 01592 424 300 Thursday, 8 December – 7.30p.m at the Younger Hall, St Andrews, Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor Garry Walker : Lawrence Power, viola. Music by Osborne, Beamish, MacMillan, Henze.

There will be a pre-concert talk about the music at 6.30p.m (free for ticket holders). Tickets at the Byre Theatre, the Younger Hall.

16

TOWN/GOWN

St Andrews and Santiago de Compostela: reconnecting the Apostles Alastair Work, recently returned from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, reflects upon what, apart from 1600 miles in the saddle, links it to St Andrews.

Over the summers of 2004 and 2005, four of us undertook a pilgrimage by bicycle from the St Andrews Cathedral to the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. It was a journey of 1600 miles that took 29 days. We carried everything with us and camped along the way.

We retraced mediaeval pilgrim routes (from St Andrews to Dunfermline, southwards from Bruges, from Vezelay to the Pyrennees, from Roncesvalles to Santiago). We crossed plains and rivers, hills and forests, lost ourselves in La France Profonde and pedalled up mountains the size of Ben Nevis. It was a great adventure, physically, culturally and spiritually. But why did we do it?

To be honest, we didn’t have a very clear idea when we set out. We had dreamed up the escapade in the pub one night. We had planned it in a spirit of adventure, and that left us with as much to discover about why we were doing it as how.

It was only when we arrived in Santiago that things began to be clear. Up to that point, we had been wholly pre-occupied with the journey, with the route and with finding places to stay, keeping fit, avoiding sunburn and dehydration and recovering from long days on the road There was little time for reflection, much less, in fact, than we had expected. But when we arrived, we were suddenly deprived of the comfort of having a single objective. Now, we had to make sense of it all.

There are obvious reasons why St Andrews and Santiago are linked. Both cities were centres of mediaeval pilgrimage; both places have laid claim to apostolic relics, a boast that, in Europe, only Rome can match. Fragments of St Andrew had arrived at Kilrymont by sea, the same way by which elements of St James were borne to Compostela, only rather more impressively, in their case, by means of a stone boat!

Both places have fine cathedrals, although, whilst ours is now a totem to what George Mackay Brown called our “Knox-ruined nation”, Santiago’s remains intact, unashamed and opulent. Both places have ancient universities and, through that connection, we were very generously received by the Secretary General of Santiago University, who showed us their gorgeous formal rooms. One of these, in an interesting parallel to St Andrews’ long standing relationships with North America, was a room devoted to national reconciliation with Latin America, in which Fidel Castro had recently stood as an honoured guest.

Both places had quickly capitalised on that earliest incarnation of the tourist trade; the pilgrimage, by investing in the infrastructure that brought pilgrims (and their purses) to their cities. The Queen’s Ferry, the Earl’s Ferry and Guardbridge, were all built to make it possible for pilgrims to reach St Andrews. Meanwhile in Spain, from Navarre to Galicia, a string of churches, hostels and bridges were built for the same purpose. Further afield, in France, pilgrim infrastructure was developed to link Paris, Vezelay, Le Puy and Arles to the Pyrenean passes that gave access to Santiago. It was a sort of early European project, bringing people from all states and nations across their many frontiers. From archaeological evidence uncovered on the Isle of May, at least one mediaeval St Andrean had been before us to Santiago, and brought back the prized silver scallop shell souvenir that was his evidence of the journey made. We took a copy of that artefact with us, pinned to a saddlebag.

The fashion for undertaking pilgrimages died away in later centuries but, in the case of Santiago, it has re-exploded in the last 20 years, according to the graphs we were shown in the little stone pilgrim office at the foot of the Pyrenees. Tens of thousands of people each

Puente la Reina – medieval bridge built for pilgrims, just south-west of Pamplona.

year are migrating across Europe to Santiago.

The old staging posts have been revived; hostels have re-opened; local government has cleared paths, printed maps and put up signs; bars and restaurants offer discounts to pilgrims; a hoard of pilgrim memorabilia is to be found in tourist shops along the way. Pilgrimage is big business once more.

This perhaps, is where the similarities end.

Where, in Santiago, you see shop windows full of Scallop Shells and statuettes of St James, here in St Andrews it is all golf balls and gowns.

St Andrews is, in many ways, as visited and vibrant a place as Santiago, but people are no longer flocking here for the same reasons. A taste of learning, a round of golf, a walk on the beach perhaps. There are plenty of visitors to St Andrews who stand at the Links, their hearts thrilled to be in that sacred place at last, but so far we have not seen lines of footsore pilgrims with floppy hats and dusty clothes flowing steadily along the Strathkinness Low Road and pausing, as they crest the hill at Blebo, to cheer or shed a tear as they catch their first glimpse of the cathedral’s towers glinting in the sunlight.

There are those who would revive the mediaeval pilgrimage to St Andrews. By the evidence of our trip to Santiago, there is certainly an appetite. www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pilgrim

17

TOWN/GOWN

The Book of St Andrews Professor Robert Crawford Ever since coming to live in St Andrews sixteen years ago I’ve collected imaginative writings about the place.

It’s easy to imagine monks and medieval poets in the town centre. Yet, if anything, the literary heritage of St Andrews is more clearly signposted in the modern outskirts. Recent street names in western St Andrews commemorate Robert Fergusson (Robert Burns’s favourite poet who was a St Andrews student in the 1760s), Andrew Lang (who wrote about ‘St Andrews by the Northern Sea’ in the later nineteenth century), and Willa and Edwin Muir, the novelist and poet couple who lived here in the 1930s.

All these writers are included in The Book of St Andrews, but the anthology aims to have a markedly contemporary feel. Though I spent a good deal of time in the Special Collections Department of the University Library looking at Scott, Stevenson, and at rarer volumes, what I also wanted to do was commission new work relating to St Andrews.

Getting funding wasn’t easy. However, through the university’s St Andrews Scottish Studies Centre enough money was found to commission new writing. Some people donated work to the book, most notably the Nobel

Prizewinner Seamus Heaney, whose poem ‘To the Poets of St Andrews’ has just been produced as a beautiful poster by the University Library to go with their current exhibition (open to all) about Poetry in St Andrews. A.L. Kennedy sent a new St Andrews story. Sarah Hall (the former St Andrews creative writing student, whose work was short-listed for last year’s Man Booker Prize), wrote a story based around her experience as a waitress in the town. Ian Rankin supplied a memoir about holidaying at a local caravan site. From America the best-selling writer Kay Redfield Jamison wrote about how she used to cook lobsters over bunsen burners in the university’s zoology laboratory (‘unlike in psychology, you could eat your subjects’). I don’t suppose that happens so much now.

As the Australian writers Meaghan Delahunt and Les Murray, the Irish poet Paul Muldoon, and local Scottish writers including John Burnside, Anna Crowe, Douglas Dunn, Lillias Forbes, Kathleen Jamie, and Don Paterson, all sent in work, the book began to take shape. Golf and ghosts were obligatory topics; the longest piece in the book is the classic nineteenth-century St Andrews ghost story ‘The Library Window’ by Margaret Oliphant. Other topics were less predictable: Liz Lochhead writes about playing croquet; Roddy Lumsden’s wonderful poem ‘The Drop of a Hat’ ends with exactly that — in Market Street — while John

UniverCity board game – www.univercity-game.com

There is a St Andrews’ board game, Do you know its name?

For young and old, For the daring and the bold, For the cunning, for the cautious, For the play-safe and audacious.

A game testing skill and drive That makes your true character come alive.

Never are you sure of your lead; Will fellow players beat your speed?

Fast “Departmental Expansion” is the key – This leads to “Chancellor Victory”; While money is the major factor That wins you the title of Rector.

This game is “UniverCity”.

Will it be ‘neath your Christmas Tree?

Price: £30 (incl. p&p) per game within UK. Euro and USD prices available upon request.

Order form Name: Postal address: E-mail:

No. of games:

Mail to: Ben Crane, 12 Monkhams Drive, Woodford Green, Essex 1G8 0LQ, UK (with cheque).

OR: E-mail: univercity@gmx.net

18

Burnside on the West Sands reflects obliquely on 9/11.

When I started assembling the work for the book, I put it together dutifully in chronological order, arranging pieces according to the author’s date of birth. Things got much more interesting when I scrapped that idea and decided that, like St Andrews itself, The Book of St Andrews ought to have ancient and modern cheek-by-jowl. This let me be more mischievous, juxtaposing Benjamin Franklin and Brian Johnstone, putting Rudyard Kipling next door to John Knox.

The Book of St Andrews doesn’t contain everything ever imagined about St Andrews.

But I hope it does contain a lot of the most interestingly written imaginings. It has red gowns, caravans, a seafront castle and cathedral, professors, love, and martyrdom. But it starts with a short medieval account of the Scottish winter ‘scharp and chylI’. Some things don’t change.

The Book of St Andrews... edited by Robert Crawford, is published by Polygon, costs £12.99, and is available in local bookshops.

The exhibition Poetry and St Andrews runs in the University Library until the end of November.

Photograph: Robert Crawford, courtesy the Poetry House (from a photograph by Steve Lindridge)

TOWN/GOWN Dr Peter Clive is a director of Counting Thoughts, a scientific consultancy that develops software for teaching and research. His first degree is in Astrophysics, his PhD in Particle Physics, and he holds a third degree in Information Technology. Here he portrays

James Gregory, Regius Professor of Mathematics “Let in the sun’s rays by a small hole to a darkened house, and at the hole place a feather (the more delicate and white the better for this purpose), and it shall direct to a white wall or paper opposite to it a number of small circles and ovals (if I mistake them not) whereof one is somewhat white (to wit, the middle which is opposite the sun) and all the rest severally coloured. I would gladly hear Mr Newton’s thoughts of it.”

Thus James Gregory, the first Regius Professor of Mathematics at the University of St. Andrews, described in the 1670s his observations of the world’s first diffraction grating. Significantly, his closing reference to Isaac Newton is typical of his desire to avoid priority disputes. This caused a reluctance to publish that has since amounted to the abdication of his proper place in history as one of the most gifted scientific minds these islands have produced. Diffraction is a fundamental physical phenomenon, the reason sound travels around corners and the reason the sky is blue.

While Gregory was discovering the diffraction grating and the way it split white light into its component colours, Newton was famously splitting white light using a prism, that is, using refraction, like a rainbow. We take this result for granted now, but at the time it was highly contentious. Yet Gregory’s investigation of

James Gregory’s telescope, courtesy the Museum Collections Unit, University of St Andrews

diffraction is not the principal achievement upon to rank with Newton, Leibniz and Fermat among which his renown depends. the discoverers of the Calculus.

James Gregory was born in the manse Sadly his time in St. Andrews did not of Drumoak near Aberdeen in 1638. His end happily. A general prejudice against mother taught him mathematics until he was mathematics that prevailed among the 13 when his father died and his brother David professors of law, divinity, rhetoric, and the undertook his education. Eventually he studied other more established subjects studied at that at Marischal College in Aberdeen. On moving time, caused funds and eventually students to London to pursue the manufacture of the to be withheld from him, and he was forced reflecting telescope he had invented he formed to leave to take the chair of mathematics at a lasting friendship with John Collins, the Edinburgh University. One night in Edinburgh in librarian of the Royal Society. It is through his 1675 Gregory had been observing the moons correspondence with Collins that we are made of Jupiter with four students, naturally using a aware of many of his achievements. Then he telescope of his own design, since as a youth moved on to Flanders, Paris, Rome, and Padua, he had invented the first practical reflecting where he distinguished himself in mathematics. telescope. On his way home afterwards he On his return to London he was elected to the suffered a stroke and went blind. Three days Royal Society and it was probably the president later he died. He was 36. One is inclined once of the Royal Society, more to draw Robert Moray, comparison with one of the most gifted scientific himself a graduate Newton, who had minds these islands have produced not published the of St. Andrews, who prevailed upon results for which Charles II to create, in 1668, the chair of Regius he is most celebrated when he was of a similar professor of mathematics at that University in age. Had Gregory survived it is tempting to order to obtain a position for Gregory that would speculate that a colleague concerned for his induce him to remain in the country. posterity would have persuaded him to make a Some of Gregory’s most astounding wider public aware of his findings – as Edrnund achievements were in the realm of mathematics, Halley did for Newton – and that Gregory’s many of which were decades, if not centuries, posthumous reputation would therefore have ahead of their time. He speculated about enjoyed a prominence commensurate with his the existence of what are now known as achievements and talent. “transcendental numbers”. These are numbers An interesting footnote might be to observe that cannot be expressed as a solution of any that Gregorian telescopes remained standard equation that can be written down completely. astronomical apparatus for the following It occurred to Gregory, correctly, that “pi”, the century and a half. Indeed, when in the 1760s ratio of the circumference of a circle to its the size of the Solar System was measured diameter, was just such a number. He obtained for the first time by timing the passage of the the important mathematical result known as planet Venus across the face of the Sun from Taylor’s Theorem, 40 years before Brook Taylor different latitudes, it was done using Gregorian to whom it is conventionally attributed. The telescopes. This method of determining the size result was written by him on the back of a letter of the Solar System is commonly attributed to he had received from an Edinburgh bookseller Edrnund Halley, who made many of the relevant (which is held in the library of the University of calculations. However, Halley had read about St. Andrews) before he wrote to John Collins the method in one of the few published works of to inform him. He independently derived the Gregory, the Optica Promata. Nearly 100 years binomial theorem. He was the first to prove the after his death Gregory’s central role remained fundamental theorem of Calculus. Indeed, had unacknowledged, an oversight we can now he published his results then, Clio, the muse of thankfully remedy.

History, would surely have acknowledged him

19

TOWN/GOWN

The Students’ Association Alex Yabroff, Assocation President On behalf of the Students’ Association I am pleased to introduce the new set of student sabbatical officers for this upcoming academic year to the entire St Andrews community. While we took office at the beginning of July and have been working very hard throughout the summer, it is not until the students return to the town that we get to explore our positions fully. All four of us are committed not only to serve students within the Union building, but also to work within the town to promote a stronger and more respectful relationship with the wider St Andrews community, of which we believe ourselves and all students to be an integral part. The activities the Association hosts, the projects we are preparing this year, and the role students play as ambassadors for the town all serve to strengthen this town, which all its inhabitants love and cherish.

The sabbatical officers are, needless to say, an eclectic bunch. We have two new positions this year, splitting the role of the former Director of Services. Chris Marks, as Director of Events and Services, is responsible for all of the in-house entertainments the Association puts on, many of which the local community are invited to. David Bean is the new Director of Student Development and Activities, focusing primarily on the myriad societies the Association hosts, as well as projects geared at student involvement outwith university life. Ben Reilly is serving a second term as Director of Representation, with particular interest in student housing issues.

As many readers will be aware, the Students’ Association is not simply a place for students to grab a few pints after class, but rather a very substantial support and service network for students. By fostering close relations with the University, particularly the departments we work closely with, such as Student Support Service, or College Gate, the Association is able to provide students with a support network far greater than the social side of the Union. To name one example, our student health campaigns launched in partnership with the NHS provide students with the information to make wise choices while enjoying themselves around town. Also, the joint efforts of Student Support Services and the Association regarding community safety provide students with invaluable information to assist them in becoming responsible and respectful members of the wider St Andrews community. Often students feel isolated within the community, operating only inside the University ‘bubble.’ Hopefully, this year will provide students with more and more opportunity within the town, and more opportunity for the town to interact with its co-habitant students.

On behalf of the Association, let me welcome you all again to a new Academic year. If at any time you have any concern regarding students, or need more information about student activities, services and town participation please do not hesitate to get in touch with me at pre@st-and.ac.uk, or on 01334 462700. I look forward to answering any queries you may have and welcome any concern regarding the students.

Student Sabbatical Officers, courtesy University of St Andrews Publications Unit (photograph by Bruce Pert)

20

Hail the Filial Revolution!

David M. Bean, Director of Student Development and Activities, University of St Andrews Students’ Association, helps to clarify a complicated development in student life.

From the perspective of an outsider, the academic family system seems arcane to the point of absurdity. What’s all this rot about fathers, mothers and children? Why wine and raisins? Is this a university, or a Monty Python sketch?

It’s true that the most readers are likely to see of the academic family occurs during Raisin Weekend, a two-day party involving gifts, fancy dress, a foam fight and some inevitable over-indulgence. What’s less visible is what’s actually going on here – what the academic family system is really about.

To understand the present, it’s usually helpful to begin with the past. Earlier in the twentieth century, a custom existed whereby students in the third and fourth year would assume a kind of mentoring role over members of the new intake, acting as their ‘senior men’ and ‘senior women’. In gratitude, students on a given weekend would present their senior students each with a pound of raisins (then a valuable commodity given the fashion for home baking) and in return would receive a short braid of the senior woman’s mortar-board strings to be attached to the red undergraduate gown, and a receipt, written in Latin, from the senior man/woman.

Tea parties (as opposed to today’s ‘tea parties’) began to be held to celebrate this academic coming-of-age, and all had a pleasant, civilised time.

As the century progressed and fashions changed, the emphasis of the weekend shifted away from the tea and towards the party. Raisins became wine; ‘raisin strings’ became longer, and were adorned with novelty items; receipts became deliberately cumbersome and disposable and the infamous foam fight was introduced. Looking back on the tender days of the past, it would be easy to view this evolution in a negative light, as though the traditions of old had been bastardised by modern fashions for instant gratification. But to dismiss it all as a failed experiment, or even a good one gone bad, would be to overlook the development of its best feature: the filial revolution.

These days, students think of academic parents – fathers and mothers. The metaphor does not stop there. It extends, allowing a network of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and ancestry stretching back through as many generations as living memory recalls. But this is more than a semantic change.

Students who take the system seriously develop feelings for their families that run beyond friendship. The children enjoy the attention of someone as close to a genuine parent as they have ever had: not just someone to introduce them to the ways of the town, but someone to look out for them, care for them, be their first telephone call in times of crisis. Parents, meanwhile, are perhaps even more greatly enriched by the experience, having someone who looks up to them, who relies on them. The best academic parents feel a genuine sense of duty towards their offspring, and so it should not be surprising that some of the closest, most enduring relationships between students are fostered through the family. There are other advantages, too. Some months ago I realised that a girl who would shortly become my best friend was, in fact, my academic stepdaughter, a fact that delighted us both and seemed to provide a new legitimacy to our relationship.

Of course, the only way for students to realise what can only be described as these wonderful benefits is by treating the system with respect.

There is a practice that could be termed ‘academic poly-ancestry’, whereby overexuberant bejants and bejantines spend their bar-hopping Orientation Week getting themselves adopted by all and sundry. This is understandable: they might have been worried before their arrival that they wouldn’t find anyone, and suddenly here they are with a list of mums and dads as long as their arms. However, as I noted in a talk to a reception for new Glaswegian students the other week, it’s probably not the way to make the most of the academic family. A child with seven fathers and seven mothers cannot possibly hope to establish a meaningful relationship with most of them and, unless they can gravitate towards one or two of each, they will most likely come out of the experience feeling cheated, or wait two years and become one of the poly-paternal deadbeat mums and dads they had previously suffered under.

Sensible first-years will wait a while and choose their parents, hopefully just one of each, with a discerning eye. They will realise that the best place to find someone with whom they enjoy a strong basis for establishing a relationship is probably not their hall and almost certainly not in a pub: it is at the groups, clubs and societies they will join at the Societies’ Fair at the end of the week. These, after all, are the ones they’ll share some common interests with and, if they intend to progress in the societies, the ones they’ll be spending a good chunk of their extra-curricular time with. Sensible parents will do the same: instead of waking up, realising they’re in third year and suddenly eligible to adopt, and going crazy, they’ll take a step back, wait and see whom they can get along with, and towards whom they feel able to assume the kind of duty that is so important to a successful relationship.

Handled badly, the academic family system can feel to a student like a worthless frivolity. But handled properly, it has the potential to be the most important aspect of their life. Whilst perhaps not all the traditions of its past versions deserved to be dropped or adapted so heavily, the chief virtue of today’s system – the great personal and moral growth afforded to parent and child through its emphasis on care and duty – would be nothing without the filial revolution. That’s what I call progress.

TOWN/GOWN Andrew Lyall and Allan Boyd, newly graduated BSc Hons in Computer Sciences, have set up a business unique to our town, and what’s more, they have now redesigned this magazine’s website – please log on!

IT Onsite It seems sometimes that while computers and technology spiral away into ever more complex functions and uses, the majority of people are simply left wanting their PC to do exactly the same thing as it did yesterday. Apparently however, some unseen authority has decided that this is no longer allowed as your computer is officially out of date and in order for you to continue writing letters you must buy a brand new one post haste.

The transition from Gown to Town is not one often experienced by the students of St. Andrews. However, Andrew Lyall and Allan Boyd are two such students who took it upon themselves to go through this process. After they graduated from the University in June of this year they immediately embarked on setting up their new computer support company: IT Onsite.

Their goal is to provide a kind of IT support previously unavailable in St. Andrews and the key is in their name, ‘OnsITe’. A simple phone call is all it will take to have one of the pair arrive swiftly on your doorstep with everything needed to fix all your computer problems. Whilst they can fix your computer problems, their plan also entails giving lessons and tutorials on different software packages, as well as simple maintenance and upgrades for your computer.

Their initial market focus was that of the tourism industry, helping the B&Bs and small hotels

with their IT and within this, they have a design department which handles websites and hosting. Their services don’t stop there either, they also offer a custom computer-building service, whereby they can create a computer that will suit your needs. As this avoids unnecessary ‘middle-men’ the service can often cost significantly less than some high street retailers.

Andrew (23) from York, and Allan (21) from Kirkintilloch, both started their degrees in 2001 studying computer science. It was during this time that they both encountered the problems that residents and students alike are faced with in the everyday quest of getting a computer to function efficiently. Whilst it is true that some of these problems are simple if one is in the know, it is important to recognise that it requires a more professionally-minded approach in order to avoid a mere short term fix. The pair’s relevant training through their degree course allows them not only to solve simple everyday problems, but also to design and apply more complex solutions to business level computer issues.

IT Onsite’s plans for the future have the pair broadening their clientele to include the wider Fife area and bigger businesses, but most importantly, local schools. They feel that as the world becomes increasingly more dependant upon IT, school children must be educated to be aware of the many benefits of computing

Evening Degree Programme Keen to get a degree?

Too busy to study full-time?

Try the flexible route to your MA General degree at the University of St Andrews via the Evening Degree Programme • • • • •

One or two evenings of classes per week Broad range of subjects Minimum age 21 Flexible entry requirements Fee Waiver scheme for people on low income or State benefits

Find out more from: Alison Andrews Evening Degree Co-ordinator Telephone: 01334 462203 Email: parttime@st-andrews.ac.uk

and how to become proficient in its use. These are skills, which without doubt will become invaluable to them in the future, and Allan and Andrew believe they should be given a higher priority in the curriculum.

IT Onsite is now fully mobile and would be quite happy to take any of your queries and calls regarding any aspect of the business.

If you would like more information about IT Onsite please contact the team using the following details (or see advert above): IT Onsite, Flat 1, Westoun, Wardlaw Gardens, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DW.

Reprographics Unit For all your printing requirements and much much more All types of printing and design work undertaken, from simple b/w membership cards to full colour brochures Please contact us for a free estimate • • • • • • • •

Dissertations Theses Soft Binding Colour and B/W Printing and Copying Large Format Poster Printing Laminating Encapsulating Mounting Now located at St Katharine’s West, 16 The Scores, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AX Telephone: (01334) 463020 Email: amm@st-andrews.ac.uk

www.st-andrews.ac.uk/reprographic/latestrepro.html

21

TOWN/GOWN Isabel Chen is in her final year at the University of St Andrews. She is studying Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. While most would thus call her a Scientist, she herself lays no claim to either Science or Art. She proudly calls herself a Person. Her interest in photography apart, her other (first) love is music. She sings with the University Chapel Choir, and is learning to play the cello and organ. She asks…..

Who is the Photographer?

The Scientist (thoughtfully and seriously): The etymology of a word can be most telling. The photographic process can be very simply put as the manipulating of light (photo) to create pictures (graphic symbols) of the world around us.

The Artist (exasperated and indignant): Oh, you and your lab coats and dry logic!

To see the world through plastic goggles and microscopes! To be endowed with such a painfully dismal disposition, one that is excited only by endless columns of data, or the 307th digit of π. You are besotted by the dull and banal. A gulf separates us. Listen to me: the world is beautiful!

The Scientist (smiles benignly and shakes his head): You speak of beauty. Let me tell you that your beautiful photograph would not be in your hands today were it not for the toil of us dull scientists. How much thought, how much reasoning, how much scientific ingenuity was required before the photographic process was honed to the level of sophistication, as we know it today? To find suitable light-sensitive materials that are inexpensive and easy to handle; to literally create chemical compounds that first of all develop the latent image, and second of all, fix the image permanently on the film; to learn the intricate relationship between light, matter and film…Where would your beautiful photograph be without what you call our dry and unfeeling scientific method?

The Artist (with an impatient gesture): If you insist, I grant you that much. The photographic process, as you call it, can be dissected into the coldest of logical structures. But the act of capturing a fleeting moment, a pleasing composition, of creating an evocative picture of the world – that remains in the domain of the artist. To try and see the world in a grain of sand. The inspiration of a good photograph must be the artistic sensibility, and not the technicalities of the matter.

The Scientist (peers over his horn-rimmed spectacles and taps his finger on the table): Do not insult the method of science by misunderstanding it. We do not usually like to dabble with things unseen. That we leave to you artists. In any case, back to the subject of photography, you are still undermining the status of the scientific approach. You are forgetting that in order to put on paper the effects that one desires to achieve, one needs to be the master of his camera and its machinery. As I said right at the start of this conversation, the photograph is a result of the manipulation of light, via the photographic process. Without scientific knowledge and understanding of how the camera works, and all the rest of the boring technicalities, even the most beautiful scene will not be captured effectively on film.

All aspects of the entire process, from taking the shot, to developing the film, to enlarging the negatives, even down to the type of film one uses – all these aspects

Product and procedure, the two are inseparable

interplay and work together cohesively to create the final print. You may signify the feelings, the vision of the artist, but without actually getting your hands dirty and making use of Reality your vision will remain only in your head and not in your hands in the form of a photograph. So stop denouncing science in the name of art. Especially so in the case of the photograph, the art cannot exist without the science!

– This is how I envisaged the conversation between the caricatures of what society has called the Artist and the Scientist.

So who is the photographer?

The rambling, raving artist? The strict and severe scientist? One or the other? Or both and neither?

Photography, as in all art forms, is an expression of the artist’s reality. Whatever that reality might be, it is the artist’s own, and for that reason alone it deserves validity, it deserves respect. Appreciation and applause, empathy and encouragement, these are not worthy markers of goodness in art. An extra dash of Tabasco sauce or another glass of wine – they are pleasant accompaniments, but not the meal in itself.

The photographer’s reality is that objective Reality, which is seen through the eyes of the camera and fixed through the process of making the photograph. His artistic sensibility inspires the procedure; his skilful manipulation of it gives birth to the actual photograph. Product and procedure, the two are inseparable.

Becoming a master of any form of expression is no easy task. It requires a complete assimilation of the art form into the nature of the artist, in order that ,with the least effort, he is in total control of the tool in his hand.

To be able to manage the machinery with such adroitness and ease that he can only use it to his advantage, to know it so well that there are minimal surprises. With the result that at the end of the day he can stand back, admire his handiwork, and be proud enough of it to say, ‘This is me, this is mine; it is what I saw, it is what I felt, and here, let me share it with you.’

So look at a photograph and see what the photographer saw. Enjoy that shared moment – whoever the photographer is.

Photograph by Tushar S R Das ‘Dawn in Bhutan’.

Together with Amartya Sinha he exhibited at the Pittenweem Arts Festival this August.

22

TOWN/GOWN David Hopes, Acting Curator University Museum Collections Unit, and Catherine Dyce, Hospitality Manager Residential & Business Services bid you

A Warm Welcome at the Gateway!

The impressive Gateway Building on North Haugh, which previously lay empty for too long, is now home to an excellent exhibition space and café, and will shortly have a tourist information point.

Gateway Galleries Dr. Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Gallery in London, was in the town on Wednesday, 28th September to open the Gateway Galleries – the University of St Andrews’ exciting new museums exhibition space on North Haugh.

Permanent exhibitions at the Gateway Galleries include several star items from the University’s historic collections, including James Gregory’s Reflecting Telescope, and fossil fish from Dura Den. The first temporary exhibition is devoted to ‘Views of St Andrews’, featuring books, prints, paintings, photographs, and film footage of the town. Dr Saumarez Smith, also in town to launch the University’s Museums, Galleries, and Collections Research Institute, praised St Andrews for at last marrying the field of research into art history with the displaying of art for the benefit of artists and the general public.

The Gateway Galleries are open Monday to Sunday, 0900 to 1730.

Café Gateway Residential & Business Services have designed and opened ‘café@gateway’ a classic brasserie, serving a wide selection of very fresh foods to tempt any taste; including: homemade soups; a variety of freshly baked baguettes, or paninis, with fillings of your choice. Why not try the Deli Platter with a selection of local cheeses, meats and fish? Or simply enjoy a Fairtrade coffee with a homemade scone, cake, or pastry. Café Gateway is licensed, and offers a selection of bottled beers & wines – perfect for a weekend lunch with beautiful views over Madras Playing Fields to the Old Course beyond.

The opening hours are Monday to Friday 0900 to 1730, Saturday and Sunday 1000 to 1730 and everyone is welcome.

A Warm Welcome It is hoped that the Gateway Galleries, Café Gateway, and the imminent Tourist Information Point – all on the ground floor of Gateway – will make the North Haugh an obvious choice for locals and visitors alike who wish to relax and unwind in beautiful surroundings.

23

OUT & ABOUT

Golfgirl St Andrews Chris Miller Growing up adjacent to an inner city golf course in Sydney, Chris was often found walking the fairways in the afternoon and during his holidays, and probably on the odd school day too!

Whilst completing a traineeship with the Australian PGA, Chris won the National Futures Trainee Championships and represented Australia at the United States Assistants Championships in Florida.

Chris has a relaxed approach to golf; he is extremely patient and finds teaching new players to be very rewarding. He also has an extensive history teaching junior players.

Before coming to Scotland, Chris was the Assistant Professional at Marrickville Golf Club, where he conducted private lessons and group classes for adults and juniors.

Through winter, Chris and Kylie will be conducting lessons and group classes for men, women and children. Irrespective of your golf experience Kylie and Chris can improve your skills with uncomplicated and effective advice.

Chris and Kylie are also the managers of local golf school – Golfgirl St Andrews. Golfgirl St Andrews is dedicated to providing golf tuition programmes for women and specialise in tailor made programmes to suit individual and group needs. Golfgirl St Andrews offers golf tuition in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, ideal for new players.

Golfgirl St Andrews is also very happy to tailor programmes for mixed groups, couples and for groups of people with different levels of ability.

Kylie Moulds As the daughter of a golf professional, Kylie was introduced to golf in her early teens. After playing representative amateur golf, she completed a traineeship with the Australian PGA. With extensive experience teaching new golfers, Kylie is dedicated to helping players learn and enjoy golf. She has written and taught many programmes for women including beginners, experienced players and corporate groups. With a gentle approach, Kylie keeps her teaching simple and uncomplicated.

Kylie has been awarded AAA (the highest level teaching qualification) status by the PGA of Australia. Before arriving in St Andrews, Kylie worked at both private and public golf facilities in Sydney, teaching both men and women, from novice to elite levels.

In the summer of 2005, Kylie and Chris worked at the St Andrews Links Practice Centre and at Drumoig Driving Range. They are members of the British PGA and the Australian PGA and they offer golf tuition to players of all standards. Their programmes range from group classes, private lessons and accompanied play. To date they have taught local residents and tourists visiting St Andrews.

For more details please contact: Kylie 07962524838; Chris 07962524835 or email: kylieandchris@ontel.com

Renton Oriental Rugs Est. 1976 With an extensive network of suppliers from around the world, we provide a variety of specialist rugs, carpets, and furniture. We also fit plain carpets, and invite you to have free estimates. A friendly, family-run business, we even allow you to ‘live with’ a selection of rugs in your own home so that you can be sure you’ve made the right choice.

Christmas is coming! We have a fantastic selection of gifts, and decorations, as well as hand-made furniture from Indonesia, and Thailand, rich in colour and unique in design.

Ladies, make a note in your diary! Tuesday, 22 November from 7.30pm we are having our ever-popular Ladies’ Night, with wine and food. All are welcome.

If you are looking for something beautiful for your home, or for a gift, visit Renton Oriental Rugs, and be transported to another world.

24

Renton Oriental Rugs 77 South Street, St Andrews, Fife Tel: 01334 476334 Fax: 01334 475721

OUT & ABOUT

Links Feast Awaits the Home of Golf St Andrews’ Old Course was privileged to provide centre stage for Tiger Woods to show why he is the world’s number one golfer at The 134th Open Championship in July.

And golf’s most historic venue is at the forefront of an exciting new initiative aimed at promoting and underlining why Scotland is THE place to experience the truest form of the game – links golf.

St Andrews has joined forces with VisitScotland, Scotland’s four other Open Championship venues Muirfield, Royal Troon, Turnberry and Carnoustie and 35 of the finest Scottish links courses to provide a mouth-watering treat for lovers of the sport at the Home of Golf. Golfers across the globe will be familiar with such landmarks as the Swilcan Bridge and the 17th Road Hole on St Andrews’ Old Course and the famous 8th hole at Royal Troon nicknamed The Postage Stamp. But they have been largely unaware of some of the golfing treasures that lie in store with a little more exploration – until now.

The Great Scottish Links Collection website has been launched to help raise awareness of some of the lesser-known links courses of the golfing world that lie in wait for players visiting the historic land where the game began. And the project has received the full backing of former Royal & Ancient Club secretary and captain, Sir Michael Bonallack – one of golf’s most respected figures. Bonallack, who also won five Amateur Championships between 1951and 1970 and appeared in nine Walker Cups, was also part of the voting and was on hand to help launch the collection at St Andrews Links Clubhouse.

He said: “Links golf is the truest test of the game. It brings out all the toughest characteristics in golf – not just as a golfer, but also as a person.

You get good bounces and bad bounces on undulating terrain. It is all about how you deal with them. Scotland’s courses offer the best test of them all.”

The idea was developed by VisitScotland’s Sector Development, and UK and Ireland Marketing departments, with support from renowned Scottish golf writer and author Malcolm Campbell, who was very keen for golfers across the globe to discover Scotland’s true golfing roots and heritage that date back centuries. Campbell, who joined Bonallack on the collection’s six-man panel of experts, said: “Scotland is not only the Home of Golf, but where it all started, and the collection will re-enforce that image.

We have the best collection of pure links courses in the world. We have more of them and they are better than any other place, and the idea is that people can collect them by visiting them. There are dozens and dozens and if you want to play links golf then Scotland is the place to be.

Five of the eight Open venues are included in the collection, but there are so many more courses waiting to be discovered. A lot of people won’t

have heard of most of them, but they are all great in their own right. They are very old and inexpensive and very happy to welcome visitors.”

Jillian Swankie, from VisitScotland, said: “This is a very exciting development. We believe Scotland has the best collection of links courses in the world and this website will make it obvious to the consumer. The new web pages have been designed, not only so golfers can choose the course they want to play, they can also book accommodation nearby and decide on which restaurant they’d like to eat at later. Additionally, although the collection features only 40 of our links courses, there are many more to choose from, all of which can be found on www.visitscotland.com/golf.

Some of the smaller courses are available to play for as little as £15; they are steeped in history and they are all true links courses. For example, Shiskine Golf Club on the Isle of Arran is only a twelve-hole course, but it is in a great setting, with views of the Mull of Kintyre. A little further on from the course you will come across the cave where we’re told Robert the Bruce watched the tireless efforts of a spider, whose persistence encouraged him to continue with his task and ultimate victory at Bannockburn.”

The panel of experts and VisitScotland drew up the exclusive list of courses by adhering to the strict definition of links golf provided by the British Golf Museum. The museum states: “The links are the strip of land that can be found between the beach and the agricultural land used for growing crops. It is a stretch of land that is characterised by bunkers of sand, poor soil quality, and long, thick grasses. The land is considered to have few uses … one use for this was to play golf on it and the tradition has stuck.”

In addition to this, VisitScotland set further criteria for inclusion, including:

We have the best collection of pure links courses in the world

• • •

Courses must be true links and not simply coastal or sea view; As the collection will be consumer-facing via the proposed online presence, the courses must be visitor friendly; The courses selected have a reputation for working in partnership with other tourism-related organisations and bodies.

Every course participating in the project will also receive a personalised plaque stating that they are a member of the collection, a supply of postcards to give to visiting golfers, and the right to use the speciallydesigned Great Scottish Links logo on their own golf club literature and website.

Full details of the courses included in the collection and further information can be found by entering the website link http://www.visitscotland.com/golf/gslcollection Issued by Pete Richardson Communications Ltd. For more information, please contact Pete Simm or David Garlant on 08700 330550, or e-mail pete.simm@prcpr.co.uk or david.garlant@prcpr.co.uk

Sir Michael Bonallack putting, surrounded by panel experts (left to right) George Peper, Gordon Moir, and Malcolm Campbell

25

OUT & ABOUT

St Andrews Botanic Garden Education Trust

(Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee) Edith Cormack, Friends of St Andrews Botanic Garden, explains.

A newcomer on the scene! What is it? Why is it needed? What will it do?

This Trust was established recently to promote environmental, botanical and horticultural education at the Botanic Garden for everyone. Members are Fife Council, the University of St Andrews, and the Friends of the Botanic Garden, each represented by two Trustees. It follows the great success of the Friends’ schools programme (which regular readers of St Andrews in Focus know about) and the potential for wider involvement in community education in Garden-related topics as a whole. “We thought it would be rubbish, but it was great”, said an honest thank-you letter.

‘Hands-on’ learning as offered in the Garden during the last three years to school groups has proved to be worthwhile, successful, rewarding and popular. In 2004 and already in the first half of 2005 more than a thousand nursery, primary and secondary pupils from all over Fife have made the Garden a delightfully busy place. The visits started on a small scale five years ago and took their present form three years ago, when the Glass Class came into being. The Friends have carried most of the associated responsibilities, helped by Fife Council (management lease of the Garden from the University), and the University School of Biology. Thanks to an unsolicited and very generous bequest specifically for the purpose, the Friends have provided most of the day to day finance, helped by Scottish Natural Heritage (50% travel cost paid to schools), and by a ‘Take a Pride in Fife’ grant for Jan-June this year.

Credit for the success must go to the Friends’ three principal teachers, Jean Kemp of St Andrews, and Tom and Biddy Gray of Glenrothes, all well known in environmental education. Without their skill and hard work, there would be no recognition of the potential and no Trust. The additional voluntary contribution of expertise and time from the Friends has been enormous.

Goodwill has been overwhelming, especially from children, teachers, parents and grandparents, who have experienced the programme, or heard tell of it.

Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews WOODLAND & WATERGARDENS HERBACEOUS & SCREE ALPINES & RHODODENDRONS GLORIOUS GLASSHOUSE COLLECTIONS OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMME First Tuesday at 7.30 pm Chemistry Dept., North Haugh ENTRY FREE – ALL WELCOME

VARIED PROGRAMME TO CELEBRATE ST.ANDREWS DAY Sunday 27th November 11 am – 3 pm

CHRISTMAS PLANT SALES

10th & 17th December 10 am – 12 noon TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY. Canongate, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8RT Tel: 01334 476452 www.st-andrews-botanic.org

I hope that will continue. It is now time to move forward. The project has grown too big for the Friends. They are proud to remain part of it and delighted to have the opportunity to work in partnership with Fife Council and the University. The programmes will continue and expand, catering not only for children, but also for adults, if adequate funding can be found.

The Botanic Garden is an important special attraction of St Andrews. The Trust should make it even more so.

If you would like to know more about the schools programme, visit www.st-andrews-botanic.org or phone 1334-476452 If you would like to see the Glass Class in action, look in on November 27th for the Friends St Andrews day event.

Alistair Lawson, Field Officer, ScotWays, contributes

Something Seasonal Back in 1887, the Scottish Rights of Way Society (now ScotWays) fought the second of its Victorian “watershed” legal cases, the first having been the so-called “Battle of Glen Tilt” forty years earlier, in 1847.

Glen Doll estate in the eastern Grampians was at that time owned by a man called Duncan Macpherson, who, perhaps typically for that era, took the view that, having bought the land, he had the right to control who entered onto or passed over it. The “boots and rucksacks” type of recreation was just in its infancy then, but a trickle of hikers aspired to use the track leading north over the hills to Glen Callater and Braemar; this was the now well-known “Jock’s Road”. Macpherson resisted such use, the matter escalated, it went to the courts, was appealed at every stage and eventually arrived at the House of Lords.

The Society’s argument in support of a public right was based on use of the route by

26

the Aberdeenshire shepherds, who emerged out of the hills once a year at the time of the Braemar sheep fair, met their pals, enjoyed the craic, sank whisky as if there were no tomorrow, bought and sold sheep all day and – if the market had been brisk and they had completed their business – retreated back into the hills.

If, on the other hand, business had been slack and they had sheep left over, they drove the remaining ones south, up Glen Clunie and Glen Callater, over the high ground between Tolmount and the White Mounth, down into Glen Doll and Glen Clova and so to a second sheep fair at Cullow, near Kirriemuir, where they sold the remainder.

In the House of Lords, it was considered that this use, though slight, though seasonal and though not necessarily occurring every year, was nonetheless representative of public use in an area which was mountainous, sparsely populated and where the main

livelihood was the rearing of stock.

On that basis, they upheld the Society’s case on behalf of the public, and Macpherson was forced to acknowledge public use.

The principle established was that public exercise of a right may well only be seasonal, as determined by occupation, need, livelihood and local customs.

Should any readers be interested, the full details of the case may be found in the Court of Session records for 1887 (series ‘R’, volume 14, page 875) and 1888 (series ‘R’, volume 15, page 68).

FEATURES New members are needed on

The St Andrews & District Community Safety Panel The Safety Panel works in partnership with the Police to promote public community safety in St Andrews and its surroundings. It addresses a wide range of issues; for example, road safety, safety in the home, and others, including crime prevention.

The panel meets every two months in the evening. If you have an interest in the wellbeing of your community and feel you can contribute, please get in touch with the Panel Secretary, Community Safety Officer PC Mark Anderson, through the St Andrews Police Station in North Street, telephone: 01334 418 900.

Transport giant passes through Girders for the new Arts Building – Congratulations to the driver for negotiating our narrow streets safely!

An indignant Bob Hunter exclaims,

Burns Me Up! Why do the English call him ROBBlE ?

Ian Seeley’s

Exhortations for St Andrews Day Dance the reel and sing the songs of glory; Tune the fiddle, play the airs and tell the story, Yet again, of Scotland’s sons, their doughty deeds, Their loves, their countryside and customs, sowing seeds Of pride untainted by false claim Or wild exaggeration. Scorn and set aside, disdain, All elements that contrive to cheapen This rich heritage so dearly won. Deepen That unique Scots consciousness Unsullied by the politicians’ stress On self-aggrandisement, half-truth and self-gain.

Corruption in high places ever brings the wane In nations’ fortunes. Let men strive That Scotia’s share of honour may yet thrive And prosper. Laud her faith, sustain her culture, Fly the saltire proudly; give no vulture Nation cause to pick her bones.

Emulate St. Andrew’s way among the ones Who followed with the news of greater good; Live the life that every Scotsman knows he should In freedom. Know the motto that must best express it; Nemo me impune lacessit.

Tae annoy us thus must be their hobby: Thae Sassenachs, RABBlE, hae nae sense, The effect oan oar nerves is sae intense.

Ach ! Lock them a’ up – send roon the Bobby!

27

FEATURES Donald Macgregor reports that for the

Community Council – St Andrews is never short! ‘semper eadem’ We pride ourselves on welcoming tourists and visitors, some even claiming that St Andrews is, or very shortly will be, “world-class”. Well, it’s far from worldclass as far as public toilet provision is concerned. In the town library the other day I saw fixed to the desk a plan of ‘alternative’ toilets which could be used while the Church Square facilities were out of use. Fife Council has reduced opening hours in some toilets (because of misuse) and wants to reduce the total number, whereas the town really needs more and better facilities.

It is all very well to ask local businesses to be ‘sympathetic’ to visitors caught short – what’s in it for them? The local authority takes money for parking, council tax, business rates : one has to wonder sometimes whether the town gets its money’s worth.

One area where the Fife Council does give support is in connection with flower baskets and gardens. This summer St Andrews retained its Best Kept Town award, and the Community Council also asked Mr Alistair Barnard, parks development officer with Fife Council, to open this year’s best kept gardens awards ceremony and to present two of the prizes. The principal trophy winners included the following: The R&A Rosebowl for formal house gardens was won by Bill Martin, 19 Allan Robertson Drive, and the Recreation

Committee Trophy for mixed gardens by Mr and Mrs Dominiak, 1 Spinkie Crescent. The Halcro Tait Shield was awarded to Mr A. Crichton, 14 Sandyhill Crescent, and the Bank of Scotland Quaich for hanging baskets (businesses) went to Links Golf Ltd, Pilmour Links. The St Andrews Garden Centre Shield (hotels and restaurants) went to Rusack’s Hotel, the Pagan Osborne Cup (guest houses) to Mr and Mrs A Finlay, 2 Kilrymont Place, and the Yvonne StewartMeiklejohn Shield to Margaret Coull, Abbey Walk. In addition over a dozen other entrants were either highly commended or commended.

Congratulations to all whose gardens and displays make our town such a pleasant place to walk round – even if you’re searching for a public toilet that’s open!

During The Open temporary pedestrian bridges were erected over the A91 to ensure the safety of spectators. They have now been removed, but the traffic flow along that road has increased enormously since Fife Regional Council was first asked (in the early 90s) by NE Fife District Council to install a pedestrian/cycle crossing over the A91 to replace the Petheram rail bridge. Crossing the A91, and also the old road behind the Old Course Hotel used as a short cut by impatient drivers caught behind slow traffic, is becoming increasingly dangerous. Action should be taken before a serious accident occurs.

Winter is upon us, but you can . . .

Save money, energy and the environment Last month saw the beginning of the ‘Save your 20%’ nationwide campaign being run by the Energy Saving Trust. The aim of this campaign is to raise awareness of the measures we can all take to reduce our energy use. If each household saved just 20% of all energy used in the home every day, we could help prevent climate change.

In these modern times, we are using more and more energy to power our cars, entertainment gadgets and labour-saving appliances. To satisfy the increasing demand for energy we are burning larger amounts of fossil fuels and producing greenhouse gasses, in particular carbon dioxide. As the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase they are trapping more of the sun’s energy, causing Earth’s temperature to rise and leading to climate change and damage to the environment.

Some may say that warmer temperatures will benefit Scotland.

Unfortunately, climate change will lead to less snow and more rain and flooding for Scotland. As polar ice caps melt sea levels will rise, which may threaten many costal communities.

Climate change is already affecting the beautiful natural world around us. Scotland is rich in diverse wildlife, but this will change as nature’s food chain is disrupted by the rise in temperatures.

We regularly hear reports in the media of sea bird migratory patterns changing and the decline in breeding numbers in Scotland. This is credited to the reduction in Scotland’s seas of sand eel populations, sea birds’ main source of food, influenced by plankton colonies following ocean currents that are now shifting due to global warming. In time, these changes in the food chain may not only affect sea birds, but humans as well.

Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to the greenhouse effect and climate change. We are familiar with the pollution caused by vehicles – domestic travel accounts for 26% of UK carbon dioxide emissions entering the atmosphere. A lesser-known fact is that household energy use accounts for a further 28% of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK. Our energy use not only damages the environment, it hurts our wallets, too. In recent years energy prices have been increasing dramatically, with some households seeing a 40% rise over a period of two years. That is an average increase of £200 in bill payments over the same period.

However, all is not lost. It is easy to reduce energy use in the home. By following the tips below, you can cut your energy use significantly and save your 20%.

•

Turn off lights when leaving a room and adjust curtains and blinds to let in as much light as possible during the day. Try to use energy efficient light bulbs wherever possible. They are cost effective, using five times less energy than a normal light bulb and lasting an average of 10 years.

28

• •

• • • •

• • •

Close curtains at dusk. This will stop heat escaping through the windows.

Avoid leaving appliances, such as televisions, stereos and computers on standby and try not to charge them unnecessarily. Mobile phone chargers should be unplugged when not in use.

Boil the kettle with only as much water as is needed.

When cooking, use lids on saucepans to conserve heat and match hob ring size to saucepan size.

Try to use the low temperature programme on the dishwasher and ensure it is a full load.

Use the low temperature programme on washing machines bearing in mind that modern washing powders will be just as effective at lower temperatures. Wait for a full load of washing if half-load or economy programmes are not an option on the machine. Wring out or spin-dry really wet clothes before putting them into a tumble dryer, or better yet, hang clothes out to dry naturally.

Draught proof and double glaze windows, where possible. A low cost, short-term alternative to double-glazing is to tape polythene across window frames.

Avoid placing furniture in front of radiators and blocking heat flow.

Hot water cylinder thermostats can be set at 60°C/140°F. For most people this temperature is fine for bathing and washing.

In addition to saving your 20% by following these easy tips, you can also fill out a home energy check that will highlight any areas of energy loss in your home, and the measures you can take to improve your energy efficiency. Such measures include cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and draught proofing which are all effective methods of stopping heat from escaping from your home. You can fill out a home energy check online at www.est.org.uk/myhome/whatcan/hec or contact your local Energy Efficiency Advice Centre (EEAC) for the form.

The EEAC is a charity funded in part by the Energy Saving Trust to provide free, impartial and expert energy advice to householders. It was set up in 1993 to help the Government achieve its goal of reducing UK carbon emissions by 20 percent of the 1990 levels by 2010.

You can contact the EEAC on 0800 512 012, for advice on energy efficiency, renewable energy, fuel bills, grants to install recommended efficient measures, to book a presentation for a school or community group, or for more information about the home energy check.

So, play your part in preventing climate change. Save money, energy and the environment; Save your 20%!

FEATURES Jimmy Macgregor MBE (for Services to Education), Chairman of The Pride of Place Committee, reports

We’ve got Pride of Place St Andrews’ householders, businesses and public bodies were honoured on Monday, 26th September, at a reception in the Old Parliament Hall in South Street held

by St Andrews Preservation Trust, in association with St Andrews World Class.

They received awards from the Honorary President of the Trust, Professor Charles McKean, for the pride they have taken in the enhancement of St Andrews through building, restoration, or townscape improvements. Some have funded developments themselves, others have received financial support from public bodies such as Fife Council, and Scottish Enterprise, Fife. All have carried out developments to the highest standards, using the best of materials and having regard to the surroundings of the town.

Anne Morris, Chairman of the Preservation Trust commented, “On behalf of the St Andrews Preservation Trust, I would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s awards who represent some of the many individuals and organizations working to retain pride of place in St Andrews. This is the first year of the award which has been made possible by a bequest to the Trust from Dr. J.W. Buchanan, a former chairman of the Trust, with the purpose of encouraging others to remedy defects and make suitable improvements to their properties, an improved face to old St Andrews being of value to visitors and residents alike. We hope that others will be encouraged to follow the example set by this year’s winners, as we intend to have further rounds of the award”.

Those receiving Pride of Place Awards are: Mr and Mrs Angus Mitchell Pizza Express plc The Royal and Ancient Golf Club – two The St Andrews Harbour Trust The University of St.Andrews – two The Board of the Byre Theatre

29

FEATURES

George Rae (1811-1869) –

The Original Architect of the Royal & Ancient Club House

By Caroline Makein There is a brass plaque on the front door of my childhood home at 59 South Street, beautifully engraved with the number of the house and George Rae, Architect. Research revealed that George Rae and his brother David, had inherited the house from their maternal grandfather, David Smith, a local wheelwright, who died in 1835. The house passed to them when David’s second wife, Elizabeth Melville, died aged 91 in 1866.

George was born in St Andrews on 1st October 1811 to Walter Rae, wheelwright from nearby Ceres parish, and his wife Janet Smith, a St Andrean. Following his father and grandfather, George became a Freeman of the Wrights trade in 1833.

George’s Patron, Major Playfair In 1842 Major Hugh Lyon Playfair was elected Provost of St Andrews Town Council. A retired soldier, a strategist, a man with vision, Provost Playfair led the drive to improve the urban decay of St Andrews. Maps before and after this period show the development of new roads, terraces of houses, and public buildings.

One of the first Council projects Playfair undertook was to improve mussel farming in the Eden estuary.

George was employed in 1843, ‘in making a survey and plan of muscle (sic) scalps & of various properties belonging to the city – £10-4/-’.

George was deeply involved in implementing the Police Act improvements to the city in which he grew up, which appear in the Town Council Minutes from 1843 onwards.

In 1845 the Town Factor recorded that George was paid ‘for measuring and for a plan of the city’.

From 1846-1848 he superintended work at the East Sands barrier, produced plans of the harbour and oversaw its cleaning and repairs.

In June 1848 he was again paid for plans, specifications, and for attending meetings, and in 1852 he became a councillor.

The Union Club House The most prestigious project in which George Rae was involved was the Union Club House, designed in 1853 and completed in May 1854 – later to be incorporated into what is now the Royal & Ancient Club House.

Rae had obviously already surveyed the area for Playfair and the Union Club and a plan was shown on 18th March 1853 to the Town Council, who then decided the best site. Mr Lindesay, a representative from the Union Club, stated that, although it was the Union Club which wanted to build the clubhouse, in fact it was the R & A which had the right to the site.

Mr Lindesay asked the Council to put the site up for roup, later agreed and advertised for 2nd June. The land had been inspected and staked out on the 5th April by the Finance Committee, and it was decided that whoever feued the site would have to build the clubhouse to George’s specifications and conditions, as laid out by the Council, within 12 months of the roup date.

When the Union Club feued the land on 2nd June 1853, George already had tenders out for the building work! At a meeting of the Golf Union Building Committee on 23rd May 1853, “The committee directed Mr Rae to submit the schedules to the undermentioned contractors.”

The foundation ceremony took place on 13th July 1853. John Whyte Melville laid the foundation stone with full Masonic honours. The

30

clubhouse was completed within 11 months and although Playfair missed the founding ceremony through illness, he and his Council, including George, met inside the Union Club House on Thursday, 1st June 1854 at 7.30pm for a site meeting. The clubhouse was referred to as the Union Club House right up to 1877 and all building work was by the Union Club – the clubhouse did not belong to the R & A until the official merger of the two clubs took place in 1877. After Playfair’s death in 1861, George Rae was not involved in any further changes to the Union Club House.

Although today it is virtually impossible to see anything of his original ‘H’ plan classical design, Rae’s great importance as the original architect should not be underestimated.

George’s Other Architectural Achievements Houses in North Bell Street (Greyfriars Gardens) were built to his designs, and the overall plan for South Bell Street (Bell Street) commissioned in 1849. He designed 4 Queen Street, (Queens Gardens) for W. Stobie in 1857, prescribed as a general model of development of the street under the Town Council.

George produced plans for the Council for Playfair Terrace 1846-52, and Gillespie Terrace, 1849. He designed the Cross Keys Hotel (east wing) 1864, Seaton House 1864, and Edgecliffe on the Scores, 186466, the Royal Hotel, South Street, (dining room wing), 1865. In 1857 he entered the competition for the new Town Hall, but in the end neither of his designs was chosen.

George Rae designed and oversaw the building of the slaughterhouses in St Andrews in 1853 and the original signed plan is among the Burgh records in the University Muniments. One of George’s last commissions was to design the new church at Boarhills, 1866-67.

In 1866 the reconstruction of 59 South Street was remarked upon on p.2 of The St Andrews Gazette on 3rd November 1866: ‘Mr George Rae is executing extensive improvements on the house second east of Baker Lane; internal alterations are not so conspicuous, but the street front is a very fine affair...’

Sadly George did not live in his house for long, as he died, aged 57 years, from heart disease at his brother’s manse in the Parish of Kinloch on 5th February 1869.

There is no gravestone in the Cathedral to the memory of George Rae, but this son and grandson of tradesmen, achieved success and high status in St Andrews as an architect. One has only to walk around the main streets to see George Rae’s lasting legacy to the city of his birth.

George Rae’s grandmother’s gravestone

FEATURES

Book Review: TASK FORCE Gleneagles – an international thriller by Malcolm Black July,1983, on the eve of the Open, an American academic, Colin Glen, arrives to take up a sabbatical appointment in the Economics Department at St Andrews University. No surprise there. However, his first port of call is the Royal & Ancient Clubhouse – in the dark and through the roof.

His first entry to the Economics Department is equally unorthodox and covered by darkness. Considering that he is at St Andrews on a Bobby Jones Fellowship, it seems extraordinary that he forgot to bring his golf clubs, but he is able to have them flown across the Atlantic by an American Air Force bomber. Two fatalities have already taken place in his near presence less than two days earlier, and a third one awaits him at the foot of St Rule’s Tower. Glen’s journey from Florida to St Andrews took him by, as Charles Lamb once described a stroll in Hertfordshire, ‘somewhat a circuitous route’ – Seattle and Vancouver to be precIse. – So begins the recently published political thriller by first-time author, Malcolm Black.

The idea for the story came from a front-page news item in the ‘Sunday Times’ of 9th October,1983 :

“ TASK FORCE Gleneagles is an actionpacked thriller with an intriguing, original and unexpected political twist. You will not find it easy to guess what happens next in this complex story, but you will assuredly want to know. Malcolm Black has set much of the novel in Fife and Tayside, which gives an additional interest for readers in this locality. If you think of St Andrews as a douce and respectable Scottish burgh, then this novel will challenge your assumptions.” Kenneth Melvin, Principal Lecturer in English (Rtd.).

Prompted by the above comments and encouraged by the suggestion from the personal assistant of a famous film star, Malcolm has now moved on from his first novel to his first film script.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Malcolm Black settled with his family in St Andrews when he came to work at Dundee Teacher Training College, now the Education Faculty ‘At the height of the Falklands War a well-equipped Argentine of Dundee University. Originally an English teacher, he extended his underwater sabotage team slipped secretly into Spain and made its qualifications and retired very early as Head of Department of Economics, way towards Gibraltar…’

Geography & Modern Studies. He then established and ran for almost two decades However much the Spanish government might Having travelled extensively all a successful English Language Summer have sympathised with their objectives, and, School, bringing students from every over the world during the last half despite considerable opposition, especially country in Western and Northern Europe. from military and political veterans who had century, Malcolm has been careful He combined this with teaching outwith the supported Franco, the Spanish government, summer in various exotic locations. He was to give descriptions only of places which was seeking membership of NATO and also involved in various voluntary offices could not afford to offend Britain or America, with which he is familiar and became the first non-Conservative to promptly deported the saboteurs to Buenos represent a St Andrews Division on Fife Aires.

Regional Council. TASK FORCE Gleneagles is Malcolm’s first novel.

Malcolm determined to focus his story in and around St Andrews, where he has chosen to live for over thirty years. The presence of Britain’s TASK FORCE Gleneagles is available in paperback from J & G Innes largest operational Royal Air Force base at Leuchars and the Royal or the Quarto Bookshop in St Andrews, and independent bookshops Marine Commandos at HMS Condor, Arbroath, are perfect for a fertile throughout Scotland @ £7.99, or post-free from Malcolm, imagination to construct an action-packed finale to a fast paced thriller.

30 Buchanan Gardens, ST ANDREWS, KY16 9LU. An international conference of NATO Defence Ministers at Gleneagles, was spotted for its potential by Malcolm long before the G8 ever existed. (With the new scale and quality of large hotels, it would be simple to contrive such a conference in the St Andrews area itself.)

For the macro-political themes, Malcolm chose three national groups including most unusual alliances to set up an elaborate mass kidnap of government ministers, who would literally disappear off the face of the earth – temporarily.

For the micro-political themes, Malcolm chose the friction between different arms of security services, both British and American, the personal antagonism and subtleties of ambitious politicians against their fellow party members, Scottish cultural differences, and some of the dilemmas facing the Polish community in Scotland.

By contrast, the unexplained origins of Basque and its unusual distribution provide an unusual key to the climax of the story. Again there is a link with St Andrews, as the University Department of Hispanic Studies has a special interest in South American as well as Iberian Spanish, not to mention its expertise in Basque.

Having travelled extensively all over the world during the last half century, Malcolm has been careful to give descriptions only of places with which he is familiar. This adds authenticity and originality to a tightly scripted novel.

As a member of Glasgow University Air Squadron in his student days, Malcolm has maintained his interest in current aircraft development and writes with authority and authenticity on the aircraft and air forces which play an integral part in this complex story.

No story involving St Andrews could possibly be complete without at least a reference to golf, and Malcolm has gone for broke by including the last round of the Open with some hyperaerial activity over Leuchars, prompting the kind of comments with which local newspaper readers are familiar. The winner of the Open just happens to have been a Spaniard!

Wisely, as a non-golfer, Malcolm has restricted club scenes strictly to the A REAL SURPRISE GIFT dining and drinking areas of the clubhouse.

AND SO EASY TO ARRANGE

FOR CHRISTMAS

Feedback from readers include these comments:

“I look forward with enthusiasm to the film version.” James Halliday, Historian & Political Scientist.

“This would make great television or a film.” Harry Mouat, Master Mariner.

“An absorbing thriller, enhanced by the local setting.” Dr David Dobson, Historian & Genealogist.

Malcolm Black, 30 Buchanan Gardens, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9LU Email: malcolm@st-andrew.demon.co.uk £7.99 (UK) £9.99 (world-wide)

31

FEATURES Sandy Edwards lives in St. Andrews, is a member of the National Executive of the HSS, their Education Officer, and one of their registered officiants. He is a biologist and has three children. He introduces –

The Humanist Society of Scotland Most people attempt to get on with their lives as best as possible and most realise that this usually has to be done in amongst other people; family, employers, friends etc. There is also an understanding, often unconsciously, that we are responsible for what we do and answerable to our fellow human beings for our actions either towards them or the world in which we live; our social and environmental responsibility.

So what has this got to do with Humanism? The main strands of Humanist belief is that this is the only life and the only world we have and our concern for them needs no external sanction, such as a god.

Humanists try to develop the positive characteristics of human nature such as cooperation and consideration and also believe that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine revelation. There is no need for life to have an ‘ultimate purpose’, life can have as much or as little purpose as each individual cares to give it. Reliable knowledge of the world and ourselves arises through a continuing process of observation, evaluation and revision. It is rational, and uses science to seek these explanations and for solutions to our problems, the technology of which must be tempered by human values.

These moral values will of course change as our knowledge increases; they are not an authoritarian set of ethics, but more of a support of democracy and human rights. Secular Humanism, to give it its full name, promotes knowledge and evidence over and against irrationality and superstition. There is, of course, a spiritual side to humanism, concentrating on the human spirit which can involve appreciation and wonder of the world and can often give strength to people in times of hardship.

The Humanist Society of Scotland seeks to represent the increasing numbers in Scotland who choose to adopt a non-religious, but ethical life stance. Humanism is not a religion. The 2001 census showed that 1.4 million Scots (27.5%) choose to live their lives without religion. The Society is active in many fields in its aim for a better secular world, and works in conjunction with other Humanist organisations in the world such as the British Humanists Association, the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and the American Humanists, to name but a few. The “Happy Human” logo is the international symbol of Humanism. The words of Robert Ingersoll, a great American humanist puts things succinctly: “The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here.

The way to be happy is to make others so”.

At present, the Society’s main efforts are in lobbying for all state schools to be secular, where there can be the shared values of all beliefs and faiths, and also removal of religious privilege from government. We

are also involved in counteracting any attempts to install creationism (now called ‘intelligent design!) into the science curriculum in schools rather than keeping it in classical studies. The study of Humanism is one of the options in the Higher Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) curriculum, although we would like this to be replaced simply by a Morals and Ethics curriculum. The Society publishes the “student Guide to Secular Humanism”, which is a standard text for secondary schools.

The Society also provides trained and experienced officiants, literature, and guidance for those who prefer secular funerals, weddings and namings. The first legal Humanist marriage in the UK was conducted by one of our registered celebrants in Edinburgh in June. Scotland is one of the few places in the world where Humanist marriages are now legal; previously the couple had to go to the registry office beforehand. These, and the naming ceremonies are put together by the people involved and with help and advice from the officiant; it is thus an individually tailored event. Last year the Society carried out over 1400 funerals and have now trained more officiants. These funeral ceremonies are more a celebration of someone’s life, and with the help of family and friends it is an occasion to remember the unique qualities of the person, what they have passed on as their work, family, or just memories. The music, poetry and form of the ceremony is designed, with the help of the officiant, to capture the essence of the person. This is what humanists think of as immortality; someone’s life remaining in other people.

The Humanist view is increasingly voiced in the media, usually on moral issues such as human rights, euthanasia, abortion, equal opportunities, and areas where there is sectarian, racist, and sexual discrimination. This often conflicts with the views of authoritarian religions.

The HSS also has a quarterly magazine “Humanism Scotland”. Some other organisations supported by the HSS include: Make Poverty History, Amnesty International, Scottish Refugee Council, Scottish Human Rights Centre, Childline Scotland, ITDG (now Practical Action) and Medical Aid for Palestine.

We have, as all the other Humanist organisations have, some distinguished supporters; Claire Rayner, Iain Banks, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry, A C Grayling, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, and Polly Toynbee, to name a few.

The Humanist Society of Scotland website is: http://www.humanism-scotland.org.uk/ Enquiries to the Secretary Tel: 07010 714 778 Or locally: 01334 463498

Mrs Linda Finlay read the piece about the Double-Decker (‘Ask the Curator’, issue 11, p14) and got in touch with the magazine.

Her father, Willy Rodger, was born in 1911 in the Humpy-Backit house opposite the Double-Decker.

He then moved with the family, first to College Street, then to Den Head, and back to 5 Union Street (he used to help his Mum take the washing out to the drying green where the Younger Hall now stands!). He became a surfaceman on the railways after starting his working life with Niven the Butcher as an errand boy.

In 1991 Willy Rodger starred in Gerry Davis’ Grampian TV production, “The Way it Was”.

Left: Photograph by Willy Frank Douglas of the Double-Decker shortly after the disastrous fire. By kind permission Mr & Mrs Finlay.

Right: The Humpy-Backit House, Market Street, St Andrews, c. 1937.

Photo by J. Y. Macdonald: courtesy The Preservation Trust Museum.

32

FEATURES Anne Outram surveys a neglected field,

Poems of past St Andrews St Andrews is a town that inspires poets. Just songs and ballads from the bothies. He himself think of the many well-known poets who have wrote many fine songs including, ‘The Last o’ celebrated the town: think of the wonderful the Clydesdales’ , which has become a favourite Stanza Festival every spring. But there are with folk singers here and in America, It begins: also lots of undiscovered local poems, poems Come aa ye young ploughboys that that recall St Andrews as it used to be. I first list tae ma tale, found these when I was researching old Scots As ye seit roun the tables aa drinkin’ recitations. Friends have lent me tapes, and yer ale, copied out poems which have been recited at I’ll take ye aa back tae a far distant concerts and family gatherings. And at one time day the St Andrews Citizen would regularly publish When I drove the last Clydesdales poems on local themes, usually under a nom tae work on Denbrae. de plume.

Another evocative poem, The Burn, describes Many of these verses evoke St Andrews the bum that runs, people. Skimming through the Citizen on microfiche, in the issue of 20th January 1951, ‘By Magus, Tongues and Burnside...’

I came across a poem in praise of the Burgh through the Lade Braes, before it reaches Engineer. Do you remember when winter the town. Archie Webster’s poems are full brought hard frosts, and there was skating of a knowledge and outdoors? Remember when St Andrews had its What a lot of local history in understanding of the countryside around own Town Council and these poems! They depict St Andrews, and they officials? If not, here’s a provide a fascinating little bit of social history. life in St Andrews just as record of a vanished It’s called The Wizard of vividly as any photograph. way of life.

Kilrymont and it begins: Concerts by popular Others may sleep but he leans out musician Billy Anderson are always most On his icy window ledge, enjoyable and I specially like his recitations.

And sees the frost lie all about His poem, Me and the Town, is a fascinating On road, on tree, on hedge. reminiscence of St Andrews past. From schooldays, at Madras, to working at Lipton’s, He gives one sympathetic luick, and the Dundee Savings Bank, the poem He heeds not meat nor drink.. records familiar names and places: ‘Send fifty men,’ cries Mr Buick ‘To clear the skating rink!’

I remember Johnston’s Garage An’ the pub in Logies Lane.

Two more verses, then it ends: John Marshall was in Market Street This Wizard charms the very night He’s still a household name.

(For every whim he caters), I wish there were room to quote it all – there Bidding the city’s ancient lights are, for example, memories of a first car, ‘frae Illuminate the skaters.

Andrew Culross’. It was pretty good on petrol: So while you sing, ‘Long live the king,’ I got four gallons for a pound, Reserve a special cheer, Which I bought from Eck Gillespie For Mr Buick, honouring At the West Port Garage ground.

Our Burgh Engineer.

This poem, signed only, ‘Mohawk’, is an affectionate tribute to someone who clearly worked long and conscientiously for the benefit of the town.

Macgregor’s Saleroom (author unknown) is another poem that is full of local memories. It’s the tale of Aggie and Eck, who go to an auction at the saleroom:

There are recollections, too, of entertaining at the Star Hotel, the Royal Hotel, the Victoria, and MacArthur’s. As St Andrews is changing rapidly, the whole poem is a marvellous and entertaining account of old familiar places.

Eck, ‘gie’s his dreepin’ neb a dicht’ and finds he’s

Johnston’s Garage, Market St T. Evans Johnstone was another local poet who wrote about the town. The Besom Haunle describes ‘an unco skeely halflin loon’ who lived in St Andrews. Sweeping the floor for his mother, the dust (or stoor) ‘gaed him a ragin’ drouth’, and he goes into the old Bell Rock tavern for a glass of beer. And then he’s inspired to put a handle on the besom . ‘There have been great inventors since,’ concludes the poem, but nane could haud a canle, Tae that great brain that first conceived An’ made a besom haunle.

‘... paid a fiver for a message laddie’s bike’.

Aggie suggests they climb on the bike together, and round the town they go, past the fountain in Market Street, until they crash into the fishmonger’s. (I understand this was Gordon’s the fishmonger’s, near the fountain.) But Aggie kept her composure An’ says, ‘Weel, since I’m here, I’ll hae a pair o’ kippers And a piece o’ cod, my dear.’

I was delighted to be introduced to the poems of Archie Webster, who lived in Strathkinness.

Born in Leuchars, he became a ploughman at the age of 14, and was among the last of those still working the horse plough in the 1950s. He was a Bums enthusiast, and also collected old

Market St. both looking west (top: 1945-50; above: 1955)

G. Gordon, fishmonger, Market St. 1953 (courtesy The Preservation Trust Museum)

What a lot of local history in these poems! They depict life in St Andrews just as vividly as any photograph.

I’m very grateful to all those who have helped me in discovering these poems: copying out poems, lending tapes, books and memorabilia.

My thanks go to Billy Anderson for allowing me to quote ‘Me and the Town’; to a friend of the late Mrs Mary Ritchie, for ‘Macgregor’s Saleroom’; and to Pat Anthony and Pat Harvey for invaluable help in researching the poem.

All photographs courtesy The Preservation Trust Museum.

33

FEATURES

Religion, Romance . . . the Sale of the Manse

Ask the Curator – Lesley-Anne Lettice, of the St Andrews Museum Q. Can you tell me when the flats at the harbour were built? What was there previously?

Catherine McDonald contrasts two sides of the story.

A recent article in the Sunday Times describes, through rose-coloured spectacles, a number of manses for sale in this part of Scotland. There is something ‘romantic’, it claims, about the thought of living in a manse, in a property which is possibly ‘blessed’ from being the home of a church minister.

Or perhaps it is just the attraction of the ‘large regal-style house with rambling garden’?

These impressive old manses, along with their English counterparts, vicarages, and rectories, were built to accommodate large families and a staff of servants, but with the decline in rural populations they have become totally unrealistic in terms of maintenance and social distance from the people. Many have long been converted into country house hotels, offering seekers of comfort and refuge a ‘time-warp treat’, where ‘traditional values of an English vicarage’ continue to be available, but to those with a healthy cheque book. For me, their brochures, with sample menu from the restaurant, are an invitation to look back on childhood days, to a time when ‘The Old Vicarage’ experience was a different one, far removed from the one on offer, but with its own, now special romance.

Byers Green Rectory in County Durham, at the beginning of the ‘fifties had twenty-two rooms.

I remember very little of the inside of the house, for many of those rooms were boarded up, and life centred mostly around the kitchen, two or three bedrooms, and the study. That was all my parents could afford to heat, let alone furnish. A local auction yielded threadbare carpets as well as faded curtains for some of the rooms. Lighting was still by gas, which made it very eerie at night, especially when something was needed from a remote part of the house. My mother once had a fright going up to the attic, feeling there was a strong presence behind her. Previous occupiers of the Rectory confirmed this feeling and claimed that their dog had whined outside one of the bedrooms, refusing to go in. It was revealed that a maid who had worked in the house at one time had been murdered in the nearby woods, a story which parishioners had been reluctant to tell the new vicar’s young wife.

For me and my brother, as much time as possible was spent outside the house in the overgrown garden, orchard and outbuildings of various kinds. The greenness of the place was a welcome change from the dusty dockland parish we had just left. My father, who was from a farming background, was now able to keep pigs, hens, turkeys, ducks, and two goats which were always escaping into the village, only to be brought back by the local policeman. I will always remember the poor pigs being taken away one Sunday morning, their anguished squeals sounding against the church bells. We ate those pigs, and occasionally a rabbit or hare which had been freshly run over on the road in front of us.

Adjoining the Rectory grounds was a sombre graveyard, and often my father had to dig the grave himself at the last minute since the grave digger, an alcoholic, was unreliable. But at least he earned the grave digger’s fee! Money was always scarce, it being the worst-paid diocese in Britain. At Parochial Church Council meetings you had to beg for small mercies, which were rarely forthcoming. And so the paint kept on flaking as the garden grew wilder and the sound of the pigeons louder.

With the absence of toys and material possessions, found objects proved to be of great importance. A skull thrown into the Girls’ Friendly Society meeting produced the shrieks of horror intended. Tree-houses, and the world of make-believe, were an important part of play. But our social life was bleak, to say the least. There were no nice clothes to wear. I recall with sadness a black skirt made down from my father’s old cassock and trimmed with some token colourful braid. The only new dress was put away for best, and was too small before I had a chance to wear it. One of my younger sisters recalls, to her embarrassment at school, two dresses which were made from curtains. It is no wonder we learned to trade early in life, with apples, conkers, and embroidery threads stolen from the Mothers’ Union cupboard. These bought us friends, as well as lemonade, sweets, and otherwise unobtainable delights.

I smile when I look at the glittering menu on offer in the dining room today, the silver, the crystal, the linen. ‘Top culinary awards... International recommendations... ‘Gourmet Wine Tasting Dinners.’

What happened to our home-cured bacon with black pudding for supper, served on a simple cloth and accompanied by a strong pot of tea? Our ‘supper’ has become their breakfast. Our ‘dinner’ is, not surprisingly, local wild wood pigeon, with a choice of fine wines…as a starter. And the chef’s choice?

Hare in Madeira sauce!

No, thank you, not for me. Just give me back those honest days with the ‘traditional values of an English vicarage’?’ .... Where Grace was said, but only for visitors, who were few and far between.

Photographs courtesy of Catherine McDonald

34

A. The Shorehead flats, designed by local firm, Gillespie & Scott, were built in the 1960s.

Prior to this the tenement building, the Royal George, stood on this site. It was the home of local fisher families, who inhabited the east end of North Street (known as the ‘Ladyhead’) and the harbour area.

The Royal George, originally a series of warehouses, was named for a naval vessel.

Other tenements in St Andrews, such as the Great Eastern in South Street and the Pembroke in the narrow end of Market Street, were similarly named.

Converted in the 1850s the Royal George was part living accommodation, part granary, flanked on either side by two public houses, The Bell Rock Tavern, and The Auld Hoose. Behind it sat the buildings of St Andrews Gas Company (now demolished). Living conditions in the Royal George were far from ideal – large extended families (anything up to 8 or10 members) lived in two cramped rooms with outside toilets situated inside ‘towers’. Contemporary reports liken it to a ‘rabbit warren’ and there are records of repeat visits to the building by the Burgh Medical Officer and the Sanitary Inspectorate.

The Royal George was served with a demolition order and emptied of its occupants in 1935. Many were relocated to the new municipal housing schemes being built on the far side of the Kinness Burn. The building itself remained derelict for many years.

Q. I recently saw an old print of the east end of North Street showing a church near where the Younger Hall now stands. Any information?

A. The building in question is St Andrews Episcopal Church. For 150 years after the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, there was no place of worship for its followers in St Andrews.

FEATURES The congregation met in various places including Priorsgate in South Street and an outhouse in what is now Westburn Lane. The Episcopal Church had Jacobite associations and restrictions on worship were not relaxed until the 1790s. St Andrews Episcopal Church was erected on a site in North Street in 1825, east of St Salvator’s College. The original building was designed

by William Burn, who also designed the Madras College Building. In 1853 an ornate gothic front was added by Gilbert Scott.

The congregation grew and the building became too small. A new church was built at Queens Terrace in 1869. The North Street Church was sold and was moved, stone by stone, to Buckhaven. The new church was a much grander affair than its predecessor, designed by Edinburgh architect, R. Rowand Anderson. A tower was added in 1892 but was removed in 1938 in the belief that its weight was making the main body of the church structurally unsafe.

Q. Can you provide any information about Sir D’Arcy Thompson? I saw a plaque bearing his name on the wall of a house in South Street and would like to know more about him.

A. Born in 1860, D’Arcy Thompson became the first occupant of the Chair of Biology at University College Dundee (UCD) at the tender age of twenty-four. In 1917 he took over the Chair of Natural History at St Andrews, a position he held until his death in 1948. He lived with his wife and daughters at No 54 South Street.

He was director of the University’s Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History and of its pioneering marine laboratory, ‘the Gatty’.

A brilliant biologist, mathematician and classicist, he corresponded with some of the greatest minds of his day and was himself the author of more than 30,000 articles. His greatest work was the seminal, On Growth and Form. Published in 1917 it pioneered the application of mathematical methods to the study of biology.

In 1885 he became a Fellow, and later, President, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was also President of both the Edinburgh and London branches of the Classical Association. In 1898 he was made Commander of the Bath for his work on Fur Seal fisheries in the Bering Sea. Knighted in 1937, he was also a delegate at the North Sea Conference and Adviser to the Fishery Board for Scotland.

A founder member of the St Andrews Preservation Trust, he was very fond of his adopted city. He was also a man with a social conscience – while at UCD he helped found the Dundee Social Union, which bought slum properties in the town and renovated them as homes for the town’s poorer families.

Tall, with flowing hair and long beard, he was a colourful figure and was often seen at lectures, and around town, with a parrot on his shoulder. A father himself, he enjoyed the company of young people – he often took favourite students off to tea dances and lunches in Edinburgh and many St Andreans who were children in the 1930s and 1940s remember him fondly.

Darcy Thompson features in the current exhibition at St Andrews Museum along with some of the specimens from the Bell Pettigrew Museum and the University of Dundee.

Photos, courtesy the St Andrews Museum

A seasonal story by Noreen Masud (age16), Madras College, class S5.

A Candle In My Hand Dark-green glazed paper, in a glossy roll.

Unfurl it, spread it white-side-up on the floor and sketch out a large, rough circle with a biro.

Twice, when the first attempt turns out crooked.

“Can I cut it out? Please?”

Take the big orange scissors, sacred to this purpose, and begin to cut around the lesswobbly inner circle. The paper parts with a sound like, ‘sneeze’, as easily and crisply as eating a meringue. Cut a long slit to the centre, curl it up, and tape it. Jahanara is bobbing up and down to invisible music, emitting little strangled ‘ooh’s of delight and rapidly patting her hands together.

“Stop that. Go and get the sweets, please.”

A sudden blessed sense of space as the slippers patter across the marble, and room to turn and find the blue and red and yellow paper. For the baubles. Rough rounds are cut and taped to the green cone, in a satisfyingly random manner.

“We need a star,” Jahanara interrupts.

Soon the thing is finished and propped up against the cupboards like a large, rakish party hat. Glittering with the gold-wrapped sweets and the silver foil star at the top, it certainly looks like a Christmas tree. When one stands back, anyway. And squints . . .

A candle for the long road A candle for the slumbering houses There is a sudden mmm of microphone silence, and the evening begins to sing.

“Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar!

Ash-hadu Allah Ilaha II-Allah . . .”

It’s the prayer call, becoming more frequent as Eid approaches. “God is great”, the muezzin calls. “Come to prayer. Come to success”. The final note is flung into the sky, before silence falls like a receding sea. When you were very young, your sisters told you that the prayer call meant, “If the world has been broken, then I am not to blame.” You wonder why, at five, you never questioned the idea of a broken world. Then you stop wondering. An old Urdu lesson comes into your mind, and you click your prayer-beads to the regular drum-beat of the Urdu original. “Eid Day is a Happy Day. Children wear New Clothes. They eat Good Food.”

They Sit on Hard, Shiny Chairs, the little voice in your head continues, and Suffer in Silence as Distant Relations Discuss Politics.

They Place their Gift Money into their Banks, and feel Cheated.

You laugh out loud, then feel ashamed.

Then feel ashamed of feeling ashamed.

A candle for the wounded A candle for honest talk For as long as you can remember, Eid has fallen in winter. But it has never been an Eid holiday. It’s diplomatically referred to as a Winter Holiday, but everyone is thinking about Christmas. Your mother, missing Scotland more keenly than ever at the year’s turn. You. Jahanara. Even your father, your pious, silver-tongued Muslim father. And how angry he was about that.

A candle for the sky that has folded Your mother tells you to blow it out before you go to bed. It will bum out by the morning, she says, and then it will be wasted, the whole beautiful waxen length of it. But you do not.

The whole point of it, after all, is to bum all night in the window so that Santa Claus can find you. (Or to light the sailor home, or to show Prosperity her sanctuary, or to signal for help to a passing vessel . . . ) Also, between the sad little paper tree and the limp, home-made chains, it pleases you to have one decoration that cannot be faulted. A candle is a candle is a candle. So you leave it burning. And before you go to bed, you glance around the secret-lit room, and you bow to the candle because it is there.

A candle for the air It had not occurred to you that your father, coming in late at night, would find the room candlelit and Christmas. Nor had it occurred to you that paper and temper were equally flammable. You awoke to a screaming and a dim smokescreen of choking firelight, and you stumbled through the doorway and found . . .

Oh, a great festoon of fire, slashing along the walls as paper-chain ash crumbled, a pyramidal blaze of Hell pulsing and swaying above the smell of charred toffee, and the curtains, O GOD! O ALLAH! the curtains chased by flame on the dark window night and your mother, screaming and beating at the flames with a towel . . .

A candle for the beginning A candle for the end On some days there is no answer, I think. Some days there is no place for thought, for memory, and the only thing remaining is the sound of the rain. In this country, by November, everything is delightedly, vivaciously Christmas. Carols instead of a prayer call, sung without end on a blissfully conspiring radio. Real trees, to buy without repercussions. Real holly. Real snow, too, if the forecast is to be believed.

For a long time, I could never bear candles at Christmas. I used shining strings of fairy lights, with their calm switching of colours from pinks to greens to golds. The structure of their dance, in itself, was very like a carol.

But tonight I light a candle, carry it over to the window. I set it on the sill and draw back the curtains. For Santa Claus. For the sailor, for Prosperity, for help when help was needed, for my mother. For the prayer-call. For a child lost.

For a candle.

A candle for conscience A candle in my hand

Original drawing by Susanna Stark, Madras College, S6.

(Lines from ‘Night in Al-Hamra ‘ by Saadi Youssef. Translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa.)

35

NPH Cinema 117 North Street St Andrews

Shoes for slim feet Barker “Esme” ‘AA’ fitting £74

Black, navy or mid-brown 47 South Street

01334 473355