St Andrews in Focus Issue 8 Jan Feb 2005

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

January / February 2005, Issue 8 £1.50

Travel History Forward Thinking

the magazine for St Andrews www.standrewsinfocus.com

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

From the Editor A new year, new resolutions! Every time, it seems the same resolutions are made, then forgotten.

Well, I have one resolution I’d very much like to keep, but it needs your help.

It goes like this: there are plans afoot in all directions to modify St Andrews. These plans appear to be neither coherent, nor related to the people who actually live here.

What I think we need, and this is where all of you come in, is a united vision for the way our town may be improved. Therefore, in the next issue of the magazine, March/April, I hope you will let me publish what direction you think the town should take. Whether you address the parking problems, or pedestrianisation, or relief roads – whatever – as long as it is constructive, polite, absolutely non-partypolitical, and no longer than 1000 words I will try to fit it in. This is our town, we have to work together to shape its future.

In the meantime, a Guid New Year tae ane an’ a’, an’ mony may ye see!

Flora Selwyn

Up and running successfully for a year now, St Andrews in Focus is seeking help with gathering advertising. Do you enjoy meeting people? Are you someone who likes to be in charge of your own flexible working arrangements? Are you reliable, committed, and positive in outlook? Do you drive and have a car? For further information, and discussion, please contact the Editor, either by email, post, or phone (see below).

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel/fax: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com DESIGNER University of St Andrews Reprographics Unit PRINTER Tayport Printers Ltd. DISTRIBUTER B & S Distribution, Dundee THE PAPER USED IS 75% RECYCLED POST-CONSUMER WASTE 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 149 Market Street, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 9PF.

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Contents SHOPS & SERVICES • ‘The Act’ • The Community Council • Sandra Urie, Auctioneer • The Harbour Trust • Our Local Shops – heartbeat of St Andrews • Healthy eating? Shop at John Birrell • Roving Reporter • Taxis revisited; Stuart Winton brings further insights

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TOWN / GOWN • Sonia Fodor, on times ‘lang syne’ • Archways inspire Irene Smith • Tim Heyden-Smith, Bobby Jones Scholar • James Harkin visits Bangladesh • An architectural tour with Abigail Grater, part 1 • University Rag Week, Alison Bertram

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SELECTED EVENTS • List

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GOLF • Psychology applied to success in golf • The R&A talks business

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FEATURES • Ian Seeley’s St Andrews • Colin McAllister, with a sideways glance at Robert Burns • The Robert Burns connection • Gavin Reid – homecoming • Jerusalem’s Scottish connection • Jonathan Dowling takes a fresh look at the Cathedral graves • Neil Dobson finds gold • Toonspot • Do we cater sufficiently for our children?

• St Valentine – and Catherine McDonald!

• The (new) Museum Panel • A ‘solution’ to our traffic problems??

• Competition winners OUT AND ABOUT • A walk with Veronica Smart

NEXT ISSUE – March/April 2005 COPY DEADLINE: STRICTLY 26 JANUARY All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

Cover picture by A. C. Rutherford (by kind permission the R & A)

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SHOPS & SERVICES

1st January 2005 – and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 Hogmanay had particular significance for one office in St Andrews this year. January 1st 2005 saw the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“the Act”) come into effect, creating for the first time a right to access any recorded information held by public authorities all across Scotland. The Scottish Information Commissioner, who established his office here in 2003, is the official responsible for enforcing and promoting these new rights.

The right to information contained in the Act is wide-ranging. The Data Protection Act already allows you to request access to any personal information about yourself that organisations hold. Under freedom of information laws you can now ask to see any other information held by public authorities, from formal reports, statistics, minutes of meetings and financial data right down to individual e-mails or internal memos.

Any person or organisation wanting to find out more about issues that affect their lives: how planning decisions are made; how public money is allocated; how their schools or universities are run need only ask.

Now, his office’s attention will shift towards the public, and ensuring that they are aware of their rights and that their requests are responded to correctly.

There are though, as in all other access to information laws around the world, limitations on this right off access. If releasing information would damage certain interests, law enforcement or international relations for example, it may be exempt from release. In most cases though, where information may be withheld, a public authority must consider whether the public interest in withholding it is greater than that in release. Only if the public interest is in favour of withholding the information can a request be refused. Where your request is reviewed, you should be given a full explanation of which exemptions are judged to apply.

If your application is refused, you are entitled to require the public authority to review its decision. Following this, you are entitled to apply to the Commissioner if you are still dissatisfied with the response. He can investigate whether the information should or should not be released under the terms of the Act and compel the authority to release it if he finds that it should be made available.

With the Act now in force, the Commissioner’s work is about to change dramatically. Much of the last year was spent working with public authorities to ensure they are aware of their new obligations and ready for implementation. Much of his staff’s attention was focussed in particular on approving publication schemes, documents that had to be produced by all public authorities setting out the kinds of information they make readily available. Now, his office’s attention will shift towards the public, and ensuring that they are aware of their rights and that their requests are responded to correctly.

Research conducted in August 2004 suggested that only a third of people in Scotland had then heard of the Act, and that those who had heard of it were confused about what it meant for them. A television advertising campaign will begin at the end of January as the first step in raising public awareness of the right to access information.

Alongside his promotional work, the Commissioner is expecting the first cases requiring investigation to be received in the coming weeks.

Investigating staff will have to consider the decisions made by public authority in the light of the detailed exemptions set out in the Act. All in all, it is looking like an exciting and challenging new year.

What does the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (the Act) do?

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The Act creates a right to access any recorded information held by around 10,000 public authorities in Scotland, subject to certain limited exemptions.

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The authorities covered include the Scottish Parliament, the Executive, the NHS (including individual GPs, dentists and pharmacists), police and education institutions and others such as Audit Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Water. Any companies wholly owned by these organisations are also covered by the Act.

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When a request is made for information from any of these organisations, it must be provided within 20 working days or a notice must be issued explaining why it will not be provided.

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You have the right to challenge any decision to withhold information, first by requesting a review of the decision by the public authority.

If still dissatisfied after this review, they can apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

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The Commissioner can investigate such disputed cases and issue legally binding decisions about whether or not the information should be released.

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To make a request under the Act, you should apply to the public authority in writing, or some other recordable form (e.g. e-mail), stating a name and address for correspondence (which can be simply an e-mail address). You should describe the information required but there is no need to explain why you want it. You do not need to refer to the Act.

The Scottish Information Commissioner 1

The Commissioner is an independent public official responsible for enforcing and promoting freedom of information in Scotland.

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He has authority to force public authorities to release information in disputed cases and failure to comply with his decisions can ultimately be treated as contempt of court.

Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner

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Kevin Dunion is the first Scottish Information Commissioner, appointed by HM Queen in February 2002 on the nomination of the Scottish Parliament. He was appointed for a 5 year term that may be extended for a further 5 years.

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He established his office in St Andrews in October 2003, after converting the former Parklands Hotel into modern offices. A team of thirteen staff work there to support the Commissioner in all aspects of his work.

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The Commissioner has long-standing connections with St Andrews, receiving his MA in History at the University in the 1970s.

You can find out more about the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act and the work of the Scottish Information Commissioner by accessing his website at www.itspublicknowledge.info

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Community Councillor Chris Lesurf writes – A couple of months ago the Community Council (of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews) agreed to support the work of the Fairtrade Foundation in its efforts to ensure that producers in the poorer countries of the world receive a just return for their labour.

Fairtrade Fortnight is going to be from the 1-13 March 2005 and no doubt there will be local activities to support it.

The financial deprivation of our local traders may not be so great, but I feel they do not get the credit they deserve for the abundance and variety of produce they supply in our shops and services. Therefore, I have started the ball rolling for a Fair Share Fair on the 19 March, the Saturday before Easter. Local businesses are being offered the chance to have stalls displaying their goods, or information about themselves, for a few hours at the Cosmos Centre, Abbey Walk. It is not intended to be a fund-raising event, but one to educate and inform members of the community about the treasures available in St Andrews. In other words, to help suppliers satisfy the desires of the local population and, you never know, there may be some bargains too.

Charities will also be asked to take part and advertise their purposes. Those that have already agreed to take part include FEAT (Fife Employment Accessibility Trust). Its main purpose is to liaise between potential employers and potential employees who have had recent difficulties with mental illness; quite often the only difficulty occurs when each is apprehensive about the other’s likely behaviour. The go-betweens from FEAT help to smooth the way.

Several shop owners have already agreed to take part, some with stalls and others by showing posters beforehand. I have been collecting information in the shops, but I know that quite a few people work from home so they are welcome to contact me by e-mail. If you don’t know my address then perhaps you would benefit from looking at the Community Council web pages. They list all the councillors and details about communication with them, as well as providing access to the minutes of our meetings and plans for the future.

The Fair Share Fair will be a meeting of the past and the future. I want to fortify the strong sense of tradition and long-standing values of our community, but I am having to learn the computing systems used by most people wishing to communicate productively these days. The Computer Passport course is available via the Glenrothes College Learning Centre at the Cosmos Centre in Abbey Walk. It is one of the Learning Direct courses that anyone may start any time if there is space and may proceed at his/her own pace.

Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote to the Citizen saying, “If you regard politics as a dirty word, why not try to wash it yourself? If you don’t tell other people what you would like them to do, how can you complain if they don’t do what you want?”

The Community Council is there to speak for all the residents of St Andrews and will also consider the views of those who work here or come as visitors. We have little direct power, but the more among you who take part in our work, particularly in attending our monthly meetings, the louder and more effective will be our communal voice when we shout out on your behalf.

Fife Council has control over major society influences on St Andrews, but it is still our community !

Sash Window Problems? – There is a solution Sliding sash windows are found in many of the older properties in St Andrews and they are an important part of the local heritage. However, people who live in these beautiful properties are only too aware of the problems with sliding sash windows. They are difficult to open and close, the sashes rattle in the wind, and they let in cold draughts as well as dust and noise.

No wonder home owners are sometimes tempted to change their sash windows!

But this is not a good idea. Removing the original windows will ruin the character of traditional property and planning restrictions protect certain areas of St Andrews from such unsuitable alterations. Sash windows can be an asset and research shows that well preserved original features enhance the value of your property.

Fortunately, there is a reliable solution to sash window problems.

Ventrolla is the UK market leader in sash window renovation services.

Since 1986 when they won a Design Council Award for their patented method of upgrading old sash windows to modern performance standards, they have renovated many thousands of windows throughout Britain. Their clients include the Royal Household, Edinburgh Castle and Gleneagles Hotel. They have worked on national treasures such as windows inscribed with Robert Burn’s poems in his own hand. However, most of their work is for private customers who want to improve their sash windows whilst retaining the unique character of their homes. Ventrolla have recently completed a major renovation project for The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

The first step is to arrange for Ventrolla to carry out a free, no-obligation survey and provide a report on the condition of the sash windows. The customer receives a written quotation detailing the work needed to repair and up-grade the windows. The cost depends on the size and condition of the windows but customers are often pleasantly surprised to find that renovation is significantly cheaper than replacement.

All work is carried out on the premises by Ventrolla’s own craftsmen.

As well as carrying out timber repairs using a combination of traditional and modern methods, the windows are thoroughly overhauled. Weights are re-balanced, cords renewed and pulleys are serviced. To improve energy efficiency, ensure ease of operation and eradicate rattles, Ventrolla fit their patented Perimeter Sealing System.

Ventrolla regularly carry out work in St Andrews and their system has been approved for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas. To find out more about this unique service contact Ventrolla and let them solve your sash window problems.

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SHOPS & SERVICES

“Contented wi’ little, and cantie wi’ mair”

(Burns)

Sandra Urie of Macgregor Auctions talks to Flora Selwyn Born on a farm in Boarhills, Sandra enjoyed a happy childhood; “it was wonderful. There are seven of us, so I had plenty of playmates.” At sixteen she journeyed forth to join the Civil Service in Glasgow. Doing “various things” entailed one year in Athens looking after a supposedlyhandicapped little boy, “but there was nothing wrong with him – he was simply spoilt rotten!” On her return, Sandra found herself living in a cottage in Dunino with two goats, three dogs, and a couple of horses, but no job.

Unable to drive, and in those days with no buses to Dundee, where a suitable job might have been available, Sandra saw an advertisement for an assistant in Macgregor, the furniture shop (where Littlejohn’s and Macgregor Gift & Coffee Shop are today). Sandra remembers her interview vividly, “There was old Peter Swankie in a suit, wearing a bowler hat, and sitting on a stool behind a high Victorian desk. I thought it was a wind-up!” However, she was taken on and put in the linen department, handling bales of material, “People would go away with what I always thought of as clooty dumplings of linen, because that was how the linen was bundled.”

Peter Swankie’s “pet occupation” was running auctions. He used to take his staff to help him. Sandra was delighted, “I just loved it”. So Peter trained her, and when he died eighteen years ago, and his son having no interest in auctions, Sandra bought the business, “doing the best I could.”

She admits she was worried about being exploited, because a) “I was female”, and b) “I was relatively young”. She also quickly realised that “if I got mad I’d lose the plot. You’ve got to be in charge.” Sound sense, but with it Sandra’s humanity shines through everything she does. When it comes to the goods she deals in she is positive that “your customers are people, but what people don’t understand is that you’re not dealing in things, but in people’s lives.” After a bereavement she and husband Ian are called in to inventory the entire contents of a house for the Inland Revenue. And if anyone removes even so much as a teaspoon before that, Sandra is legally obliged to find that object, wherever it is, and list it. While Ian makes detailed notes, Sandra chats to those in the house, putting them at ease, helping to calm and soothe. “Once you’ve gone through the contents of a house you know the history, the lives...and that’s what makes it different.” So, back in the saleroom, “You’re selling people.”

How is the market in today’s world? Some goods, especially if dark mahogany, are not in fashion. Many people between 25 and 45 years of age are living in small flats requiring minimalist furnishing. The market for “the quirky”, however, is currently strong.

Does internet trading affect business at all? Sandra pointed out that eBay has to source its goods somewhere. Overall then, the net may be responsible for improving business generally.

I wanted to ask about the Lammas Market, where Sandra used to auction the stances early on the Monday morning, but time grew short, so I asked for one little story to illustrate life at MacGregor Auctions.

Sandra told me she once went to a cottage where an elderly woman lived alone. The old lady wanted items valued that she planned to leave to her relatives. In the bathroom, Sandra came upon a bluish-white glass vase shaped like a thistle and decorated with carp. In it was a hoard of soaps for visitors. Turning the vase upside down Sandra saw the name “R. Lalique, France”. That one vase, from the Art Nouveau period, astonished and delighted its owner by fetching £980 at auction. The old lady had said, as there were fish on the vase “where else could you keep it but in the bathroom?”

What does Sandra do to relax, I wondered?

Well, she and Ian have “a nice shabby house in the country. Luckily, father-in-law is a keen gardener. Ian is a very good cook, so we love to be home” – with the three dogs and two cats as well. Married nine years, Sandra and Ian have never been away for a holiday, “just the two of us and the animals and we’re quite happy.”

How many of us can say that, and with such conviction?

Macgregor Auctions Auctioneers & Valuators

Tel: (01334) 472431

Est 1857

56 LARGO ROAD ST ANDREWS FIFE KY16 8RP

Fortnightly auctions held over Thursday and Friday Bi-monthly Antique and Collectors’ Sales Auction advice free of charge For all advice, please contact:Ian or Sandra Urie Macgregor Auctions, 56 Largo Road, St Andrews Tel: 01334 472431 Fax: 01334 479606 Websites: www.scotlandstreasures.co.uk www.antiques-scotland.co.uk

Douglas Kinnear adds a rider to a previous article

St. Andrews Harbour Trust I write to introduce myself as Clerk to the Harbour Trust, and I have been instructed by the Trustees to write to you on their behalf to print a correction to the article concerning the Harbourmaster which appeared in St. Andrews in Focus in September/October, Issue 6.

In the article concerning the Harbourmaster it was suggested that certain changes to the Constitution of the Harbour Trust had already been made in implementation of the Government’s aims to modernise Trust Ports. It should be noted that whilst there are proposals to change the Constitution of the Harbour Trust these have not as yet been implemented and the Trust is in fact in consultation with the Scottish Executive at this time.

Again, by way of correction, the present Constitution of the Trust is five Local Authority Trustees appointed by Fife Council and four elected Fishermen Trustees.

Our Chairman would like to remind readers of the recent extremely successful St. Andrews Harbour Gala Day at the end of August this year. The event was attended by thousands,

both locals and visitors alike. Historic sailing vessels to the most modern RNLI sea rescue craft were on display. Refreshments and various stalls gave great entertainment and were sponsored by the St. Andrews Round Table and there was a display of St. Andrews Harbour past, present and future. The event raised a significant sum of money for the Trust, which is of course a charitable institution, and it is now intended to hold a Gala Day on an annual basis.

More recently the Harbour hosted a St. Andrews Day celebration, including the lighting of a traditional beacon, and refreshments were again available and those present enjoyed a grandstand view of the spectacular fireworks display over St. Andrews Bay. Should you require further information concerning the Gala Day I would suggest that you contact David Martin direct, and if you require any further clarification on the two corrective points referred to above please do not hesitate to contact me.

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Our Local Shops . . .

You can’t beat a well-stocked flower shop for lifting your spirits! Whether you’re just looking for a small bunch for the kitchen window, or something grander for a special occasion, the sight and perfume that greets you inside the door cheers you for the rest of your day. Knowing this, Flora Selwyn went lightly to talk to Jamie Fraser, owner of Jamie’s the Florist, 211 South Street, St. Andrews (01334 476 798).

After working in his parents’ flower shop in Cupar, Jamie came to St. Andrews in 1991, to the shop which bears his name. With his mother and Norma to help him, the 13 years he has been here have flown swiftly by.

“I like flowers,” says Jamie, “because they make people happy. The look on people’s faces when you come to their door….. What we pride ourselves on most is on the quality of the service, that the flowers are the best we can get. Also, we get to know our customers and

what they like.” I know what he means – as the lucky recipient of bouquets from Jamie’s I’ve been delighted at how beautifully they’ve been presented, and how long the flowers last.

Flowers come from all over the world; carnations from Colombia in South America; freesias from Guernsey; many flowers, of course, from Holland, where subsidies make them more competitive. Most of them arrive fresh every day. In springtime, local daffodils come in. Sadly, the trade in local flowers is not

as economically viable as it used to be, but that’s the modern world. Jamie is an agent for Teleflower, the 50-year old UK equivalent of Interflora. The service is the same as Interflora, but with one important difference; it does not dictate to florists how they should arrange their bouquets. Teleflower leaves the artistry to the individual florist, to the value of the purchase, and according to what is in stock.

All businesses have interesting stories to tell, and Jamie’s is no different. Once a bride popped in on her way to getting married, and casually chose her flowers there and then!

Naturally, romantic gestures are very popular, and many a student in love comes in for that single red rose. The morning I visited, a birthday order had come in from “Dolly, PJ, Luke, and Megan”, all of them donkeys (yes!) + “Jessie, Bell and Martha”, three chickens (yes, again!) A note explained that one of the said chickens had had a sore leg and that the bill for treatment had come to £50!

Jamie’s prices range from single flowers costing 50p to orders costing hundreds of pounds. In the past he has arranged a child’s posy destined for the Queen, a bouquet for Margaret Thatcher, flowers on behalf of Desmond Tutu, and for Clarence House.

However great or humble, Jamie gives every order the same care and attention to detail and quality. He smiles, “I’d rather be here than in a fish shop!” and it’s obvious he’s the right person in the right job.

“But I send you a cream-white rosebud, With a flush on its petal tips; For the love that is purest and sweetest Has a kiss of desire on the lips” A White Rose, John Boyle O’Reilly, 1878

Jamie and Norma

GROWING WHEELS GARDEN SERVICES – no job too small.

Mowing, weeding, digging, borders designed and renovated, odd jobs and DIY also considered.

PHONE KEITH ON: 07840 106983 OR: 07821 976572

HYPNOTHERAPY can help with issues such as

Consultations in: The Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa. The Natural Therapy Clinic, St Andrews.

STOP SMOKING USUALLY IN 1 SESSION

For further information, contact Connie on: 0777 618 3695 www.connieweir.com Connie Weir BA(hons) Psy. DHyp

Milk & Dairy Products Delivered Throughout Fife Milk Tokens Welcome Delivery to Shops, Factories & Homes Tel: 01334 840880 Ladeddie Farmhouse, Pitscottie, Cupar

INVALID SERVICES Ltd. 01334 472834 / 01382 770303

For an all round “Care at Home” service Throughout Fife & Tayside Licensed by the Care Commission

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SHOPS & SERVICES

. . . Our Town’s Life John Birrell, Wholesale Fruit and Vegetables, at 201 South Street, St Andrews (01334 472 530) is our town’s only remaining specialist greengrocer.

John Birrell moved to St Andrews from Kirkcaldy in 1964. Today his son Alan runs the business with his wife Lynn, and his mother is still often seen at the shop as well.

Success comes only with hard, hard work.

Alan started out with his father as soon as he left school at 16. By 1989 the back of the South

Street shop had become too small to cope with all the goods, so a warehouse was acquired in Kinnessburn Road, by the Bowling Green. It, too, is open to shoppers.

For the past 21 years, three times every week, while most of us are still fast asleep, Alan has been leaving home at 1.00a.m. to drive to

the market in Glasgow. Quality is everything, so “you have to choose your own stuff,” Alan explains. In the last five years orders have also arrived direct from Holland. Just a phone call, and peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes etc. are on their way.

Although the South Street shop is always busy, Alan says that it accounts for only 20% of his trade. Supplies to hotels and restaurants all over the East Neuk, and even Dundee, make up the other 80%. Customers sometimes ask for organic produce, but Alan says it isn’t available in the Glasgow market he goes to, though he is interested in stocking it.

What happens to fruit and vegetables that haven’t sold? “There’s not much waste,” Alan says, “Slightly soft, or broken carrots, for instance, can go into soup; or they can go to horses, along with bruised apples!”

The Birrell family has been trading here for 36 years – treasure them!

Alan and Lynn in The Warehouse

KERACHERS

Fish merchants, Salmon Smokers & Game Dealers 73 South Street, St Andrews Fife KY16 9QW tel 01334 472541 www.keracher.co.uk enquiries@keracher.co.uk

Serving St Andrews with quality seafood & game since 1925

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SHOPS & SERVICES

Our Roving Reporter has more news

The Music Shop has moved from 151 South Street, across the road, and combined with the Art Shop to become St Andrews Art and Music Shop, 138 South Street, with the same phone no.

01334 478 625. Mrs. Kate Sharp explains that the two shops always shared the same customers, so it was logical to combine the businesses. A music teacher in Edinburgh for 30 years, Mrs Sharp’s knowledge of both her stock and her customers’ needs is unrivalled. Furthermore, her father was both an eminent Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and an artist, so she grew up steeped in both worlds. In a way, by opening on the anniversary of his passing, the new shop is an eloquent tribute to her father.

Whatever customers want Mrs. Sharp will endeavour to provide it.

There will inevitably be expansion, as the premises are larger, airier.

Stock will include more guitars, as well as Naxos, Scottish, and Gift of Music CDs. As for the art side, Mrs. Sharp wants to make it “a little bit quirky” – Roving Reporter says you must go and see for yourself exactly what that means!

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Business rates have sadly claimed another victim in St Andrews – David Martin has closed his jewellery workshop in Bell Street.

Nick Tully, the young apprentice, has been taken on by David Brown in his shop, the David Brown Gallery, 9 Albany Place, 01334 477840 (beside the traffic lights in North Street!). So take any jewellery needing repairs to Nick, for expert attention. While in the shop look around. Reporter was dazzled by the range of beautiful objects on sale. There are framed pictures; gleaming silverware of every kind; specialist antique Scottish jewellery; and one of the biggest collections in the country of golf memorabilia.

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Shopping heavy? Shoulders sore? Well, you don’t have to carry the milk home, because you can have it delivered straight to your door and save the hassle.

How? Call Sun Fresh Dairies, on 01334 840880. Mrs. McQueen told Roving Reporter that they’ve been delivering to St Andrews for ten years, and Reporter never knew till now! It’s a family business run from Ladeddie Farmhouse,

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Pitscottie, by Mr and Mrs McQueen and three of their sons, whose laudable aim is a better and more personal service which “we want to get right”. The milk, “the best quality available”, is sourced from Wiseman Dairies, the processors and packers. Reporter, remembering the old days when milk floats used to wake him up of a morning, is delighted that he never hears a sound, yet there on the doorstep at 7.00am is his milk – a silent miracle! He suggests you try it too.

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Keith Wheeler, Growing Wheels Garden Services, 07840 106983 / 07821 976572, came originally from Dorking in Surrey.

In 1995, recovering from illness, Keith launched his own nursery garden. After more than three years he went on to become Nursery Manager with 5 acres in Buckinghamshire, growing everything from 20,000 poinsettias to the whole range of vegetables.

This was truly ’learning on the job’.

A further stint as Nursery Manager in Worcester was interrupted by romance, and relocation to Fife!

Seven months as Production Manager with Pentland Plants then decided Keith to go it alone again, because “I like to be my own boss.

I like the flexibility.”

Keith enjoys his work tremendously. He’ll “give anything a go”, from designing and laying out a garden from scratch to maintaining well-established herbaceous borders, or expertly pruning trees. He is properly described as a fully experienced horticulturalist (never a mere jobbing gardener).

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Our Reporter met Alan Sturrock, AJS Video Services, St Andrews, a Fairground Enthusiast, who told him – “I started to meet lots of enthusiasts who came to see the Lammas Market to take photos and use their video recorders, which got me thinking, why not produce a video for the enthusiasts who can’t come to the Market, and as a historical record (Fife Council receive complimentary copies)?

I was already using a good video camera for other things, so I have been producing a video of the

Lammas Market from the early 90s for sale to fairground enthusiasts and the showmen. Each year the competition between the showmen gets stronger and stronger, because I choose a different ride to picture on the cover. Some say, “Put mine on the cover, it’s been repainted.” Others give me access to rides to get different shots for the video; for example, from inside the Dodgems, the Waltzers, and the Fun House. The first video I made received feedback from both the enthusiasts and the showmen, and now we cover the pull on (when the lorries come into the street), the build-up, the paintwork on machines and lorries, and the pull down (when all the rides get packed away again). The Lammas used to be the only market in the UK to auction off some of the ground to showmen and traders at start-up. Nowadays it’s all pre-Iet and vendors are checked by the Council before being allowed to set up their stalls.

There’s a paper called World’s Fair Newspaper, out every Friday, and all the enthusiasts read it. It tells you what’s going on in the Funfair world and what rides are up for sale. Nowadays I produce videos of St Andrews, Kirkcaldy, and Burntisland Fairs, and I advertise my videos for sale in the paper. I have just completed a documentary on the 700-year old Kirkcaldy Links Market.

Enthusiasts made models of the rides and transport, and there was a good exhibition held during the Kirkcaldy Links Market period. Roll in, the next fair. . .”

* * *

Long intrigued by the charming Indian lady sitting in the window of the Jahangir Restaurant in South Street, Roving Reporter popped inside for a chat with Zulfi, the Manager.

In October 1991 Zulfi arrived in Dundee, fresh from Pakistan, to get married in the traditional Muslim way. Without very much English, and not at all familiar with Dundonian, Reporter could only guess at the initial culture shock!

As Zulfi himself says, with a wry smile, “the lingo was really hard to understand.” But he worked hard in Dundee’s Jahangir Restaurant.

He was lucky, in that his elder brother, Wali, who had arrived before him in 1987, was able to give all the help and support he needed. The fact also that Wali

is married to Zulfi’s wife’s sister makes for a very close family relationship.

Six years later, and by now fluent in English, Zulfi relocated to St Andrews with his wife and two daughters. Wali came too, as head chef. The South Street Jahangir opened in July 1998. “I made the right move. The restaurant is doing well and I’m happy.” Zulfi doesn’t exaggerate – the awards proudly announced on the menu says it all. And these awards are genuine, given after unannounced and unknown inspectors had eaten there, and later pronounced their verdicts. However, Zulfi is adamant that awards by themselves, though welcome, are not his most important goal; “I think it’s psychological – if you can’t satisfy your customers it’s no use.”

Zulfi stresses that his brother’s dedication in the kitchen underlies the restaurant’s success.

The name of the restaurant is explained inside the menu card.

Prince Jahangir fell in love with a beautiful dancing girl, Anarkale.

Of course, this did not please his father, the King. First sentenced to death, Anarkale was reprieved, but exiled, and in the Dundee restaurant the final parting of the lovers is depicted in a tableau.

Jahangir’s own rule was eventful, signing a treaty with England in 1605. Shah Jahan, famous for the Taj Mahal, succeeded him in 1627.

The restaurant’s décor is unusual. Our Reporter was surprised to find a stream midway towards the back, with glass over it. He was at first doubtful about putting his weight on the glass, but there was no problem, and to his amazement he saw goldfish swimming beneath his feet!

Zulfi said it was “just something new, running water, fish, nice atmosphere, no bright colours and stuff like that”. And he is right, the atmosphere is pleasantly relaxing.

The menu has to be seen to be believed, there is so much variety. There’s Charcoal Tandoori; Balti Cuisine; Original Cuisine; Kurma Specialities; Specialities of the House; and European Cuisine.

Prices are equally wide-ranging, all very reasonable. Reporter had a mouth-watering vegetable biriyani to take home; a good introduction to further visits to the Jahangir!

Outside catering is also available.

Zulfi and Wali

SHOPS & SERVICES

Taxis – revisited In issue 6 of St Andrews in Focus, Stuart Winton (stuwinton@aol.com) read – . . . an article containing the view that there were “too many independent taxis in town without a base station and that raises a safety issue”, but the issue in question was not disclosed. In fact the legal essence of a taxi is that it is available for immediate hire in a public place, with pre-booked work purely optional. Thus to suggest that there may be something inappropriate about taxis not being attached to a base station (despatch office) seems to distort current thinking somewhat.

Indeed, taxis and drivers are licensed, and thus subject to safety and character checks, whereas despatch offices per se are unregulated. The Scottish Executive is currently considering proposals to license despatch offices to combat claims that private hire firms elsewhere in Scotland are sometimes used as fronts for organised crime. While no such problems are evident locally, it is worth noting that currently anyone could open a despatch office without any vetting whatsoever. Thus the main issue of public concern seems to be the regulation of despatch offices rather than currently licensed taxis operating independently.

The article also claimed that the presence of independent taxis means that someone who loses property in a taxi could have difficulty getting it back. In fact all drivers are subject to the same rules, which state that unreturned lost property should be handed into a police station within 24 hours. However, it seems that some despatch offices retain lost property on the assumption that the owner will contact them directly, which may have some merit, but not if the owner can’t remember which taxi firm they used.

The main safety issue in the local trade is probably the standard of driving occasionally exhibited; for example, ignoring the ban on hand-held mobile phones, tailgating other drivers, and driving around town at night with only parking lights. There is presumably no evidence to suggest that these matters depend on whether the driver works from a despatch office or not.

The burgeoning number of taxis is probably primarily due to the unconscionably large fare rises implemented by Fife Council in recent years. This seems to have been instrumental in nearly doubling taxi numbers since the first significant fare rises in 1999.

Among the issues this has given rise to is widespread discounting from the official tariff, which in turn has increased pubic confusion and conflict with drivers, not to mention exacerbating friction within the trade.

Another related problem is congestion at taxi ranks. While Fife Council has presided over the explosion in taxi numbers to around 80 in the area, it’s not that long since a proposal to redevelop the bus station omitted even to mention the ten rank spaces currently there (out of around 15 official spaces in town), with provision for adequate replacements only agreed after pressure from trade representatives.

The other official rank, faces with the traffic during the day, against the traffic in the evening, and later still taxis jostle for position nearby in the diagonal parking spaces adjacent to a pub and fast-food takeaway, with the actual rank effectively unused.

Meanwhile, an unofficial rank in St Mary’s Place regularly plays host to up to nearly 20 taxis, compared to six or so before the ratcheting up of fares, leading to traffic congestion and safety concerns. (Recently it was proposed to replace this with around eight official spaces). While this ‘rank’ has been allowed to develop for around a decade, Fife Council is now accusing drivers of “inconsiderate and indiscriminate parking”, which seems strange since it was the Council that deemed the area suitable for parking originally. Meanwhile, late at night commercial vehicles make things worse by parking here for apparently little other purpose than to ogle at passing females.

To alleviate safety concerns, in 2002 the authorities ordered some sort of ban on threepoint turns in St Mary’s Place, but the precise terms of this decree were never made clear.

Moreover, this matter was communicated only to a handful of drivers, who were entrusted to tell the other 200 or so in the area. Almost three years later and some drivers have clearly never been informed of the ‘ban’, some completely ignore it, some take an ad hoc approach, while others interpret the prohibition literally and execute all kinds of intricate manoeuvres, which do little to promote safety, but avoid doing an actual three-point turn. Moreover, the several hundredyard detour required to avoid a three-point turn adds around 50p to the metered fare, and while some drivers add nothing, others add the whole lot. Again, the official position on this has never been disclosed, but if the full fare is charged for this detour then, with the general increases, a typical one-mile trip westwards from this rank has roughly doubled in price in five years – it’s little wonder that there’s conflict between the trade and public.

Whereas in other locations prospective taxi drivers have to undertake a proper ‘knowledge’ examination, pass a special driving test and demonstrate an understanding of the pertinent rules to gain a license, in St Andrews it’s effectively a case of filling in a form. And even with Fife Council’s controversial eight-year age limit for vehicles it will still be possible to license as a taxi a vehicle bought for a few hundred pounds.

It is this contrast between ballooning fares and ease of entry into the trade that has resulted in the oversupply of taxis, with drivers often spending a normal working day doing nothing, and an additional couple of hours or so actually driving.

The Three B’s Bedding Bits & Bobs 47-49 Kinnessburn Road, St Andrews, KY16 8AD Phone 01334 470700 Photocopying 5p per sheet A selection of haberdashery & wool Bedding at good prices with 10% discount for students, hotels and B&Bs Dance wear now in stock – shoes and outfits Also in store: Large range of new jewellery & candles, cards, fancy goods, batteries, tools, crystal, etc.

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Those Were the Days:

before and just after the ’39-45 War University Alumna Sonia Fodor (née Silver) remembers an earlier St Andrews Our family lived in Dundee. In summer, if we had a few hours of leisure, his whistle. I fell and skinned my we went to Broughty Ferry, or one of the glens. For a whole day out, it knee. That lovely man held up was very often in particular the Step Rock Pool, St. Andrews . That’s the train while he put a bandage where it all happened. The water was freezing, but there were always on my knee, and only when I was interesting people to watch and, if the young ones could find a place in safely on board did he give the the sand not occupied with deck chairs, there were holes to dig. The older signal. generation just sat on the steps, licked their ice-creams and looked on.

In the Town Hall I danced with Looking again at the photo (below) of my father, the late Henry Silver, young men of many nationalities. my late sister Freda, father’s best friend, the late Percy Doughty, and his One day, in the street, I saw a son Philip, taken at the Step Rock Pool in 1938, I had a sudden memory group of exhausted Norwegians – my father, Freda, Philip, Percy, and I were out in a rowing boat hired in their lovely seamen’s jerseys, from St Andrews harbour. The two men were totally unskilled at rowing, trying to march in good order, Sonia & Freda, 1941 but wanted to impress the two wives sitting in deck-chairs on the sands at having just landed from the other Step Rock Pool. So they rowed round, in rather choppy conditions and a side of the North Sea – in a little boat. very high tide. As usual, the pool was covered I think it was about then that I started to in sea water and the boat found itself right go to the old Byre Theatre, when it really was People of all nationalities over the middle of the pool. I have no memory a byre. Richard the Third, in full costume, sold of how we were helped out, only of the men’s you a programme at the door, and you could appeared; Polish soldiers, embarrassment! hear the actors clumping about above your head in the dressing room, which had been Norwegian soldiers, the hay loft. I wonder if they had to go up an During the War: air-force personnel from many outside ladder to reach it? I think there were This was when it became much more about 80 seats, with 2 all by themselves in a countries, and bombed-out interesting. People of all nationalities appeared; little space at the back. Once, on my own, I Polish soldiers, Norwegian soldiers, air-force bought a single seat and found myself beside civilians from England personnel from many countries, and bombeda nice airman. Naturally we got talking and he out civilians from England. One such family we walked me home got to know well was a mother with two daughters who were ladies’ tailors My girlfriend once spent a week in lodgings when we were across the and did very well with their skilled and sophisticated styles. It took them road. She shared a bed with a fireman. This was not as bad as it sounds, some time to come to terms with Scottish idioms. One customer had said because in those days of shortage of accommodation this landlady used that she would like to delay picking up her skirt until the Saturday “if it’s every room twice over, as some firemen worked the night shift. She did not in your road”. Our friend looked rather startled, “Oh, no, madam; it will change the sheets! be in the back shop!”

At the Step Rock pool there were After the War: fascinating foreigners to look at, such as A Ministry of Food inspector Polish men wearing bathing caps (sissies, In 1946 I was lucky enough to go full-time came to examine the famous we thought). There was a very beautiful to University College, Dundee. I then saw young Polish lady we all called “the mermaid” St. Andrews in a different light, as I was meat pies to make sure that because she was always sunning herself, semi-attached to it. I occasionally went over sitting apart, combing her long hair. She knew for a philosophy lecture and I sang in the they did not contain more than that no-one else got a look-in when she was Younger Hall with the U.C.D. music society. around.

My mother and sister still took rooms in the a certain amount of meat.

By 1944 I had left school and was working summer holidays and I worked for a month Rationing was still a fact of life in a Dundee office. My father had died and my in Macarthur’s bakery shop, the one with a sister was still at school. Our mother rented bake-house upstairs, where they made fancy rooms in St. Andrews for a summer month cakes of all kinds, with fancy names. We and I commuted every week-day by train. Oh, that wonderful train! Why supplied Rusack’s Hotel, among others. The shop workers were allowed ever was it axed? One morning I was late and ran along to eat any cakes that were slightly damaged and, most days, someone the gravel path when the man was contrived to shake a tray and dislodge the icing. A Ministry of Food just about to blow inspector came to examine the famous meat pies to make sure that they did not contain more than a certain amount of meat. Rationing was still a fact of life.

Once, some of us were sitting in a shelter with a view of the first tee at the Royal and Ancient golf course. Some Americans came out of Auchterlonie’s shop with a full set of clubs and wearing all the right gear.

They proceeded to photograph one another in various poses, after which they went back to the shop to return everything. They had “done” the R. and A.!

Finally I graduated from St. Andrews and then life got serious with teacher training followed by a job. I’m glad to say that two of our children, Karen and Martin, are also St. Andrews Alumni.

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TOWN/GOWN Irene Smith, in her second year studying Theology as a mature student, conjures up

Evocative Juxtapositions

“Farnworth, Mill Gate” by Irene Smith, after Lowry Do you ever give a second thought to familiar places you pass, sometimes daily? A gate, or an archway you go under – such as the Mill Port at the end of the Pends? The Mill Port was known in earlier times (18th Century and early 1900s I am referring to specifically) as the Sea Yett, leading to the harbour beyond. Have you ever thought of its significance to the people of years ago when the area enjoyed a completely different lifestyle? I’m referring particularly to the fishing community of St Andrews in the time and place mentioned.

It reminds me of another archway / gateway that had a profound influence on its neighbourhood in the 1900s: the “Millgate” or “Factory Gate”, prominent in the industrial towns of Lancashire. The artist L.S. Lowry sketched and painted many examples of this feature, capturing a unique atmosphere for posterity. For instance, the street scene (1935) of the ACME cotton mill, with the mill workers’ terraced houses grouped around the giant structure, conveying a feeling of claustrophobia, while the “Factory Gate” oil painting (1951) shows simply, in iconographic form, the focus of the lifestyle.

I’m thinking in particular of the industrial setting of Farnworth, near Bolton, Lancashire. The terraced houses still stand, and some people still remember the dark and polluted atmosphere that once pervaded the area due to the smoking, towering chimneys of the mills around them. Then, there was no light or blue sky above. In contrast to this, the area of St Andrews where the Mill Port stands, leads down to the harbour and the vast open space of the sea. It was a hard and severe way of life for both communities. Each knew poverty, tragedy and sickness, but this bound the people strongly together and forged community idiosyncrasies, many linked in their daily lives to the arch or gateway.

As the people of Farnworth passed through the Millgate (mainly men and children) they swung in one hand a billycan containing loose tea and sugar. This was spooned into their famous “tin pint pots” at tea breaks, then filled with boiling water. It was hard luck if the errand boy had not collected the milk from the milkman’s horse and cart where he ladled it out from his pails. Tea at lunchtime was sacrosanct. Of course the boys had to go with buckets behind the carts to gather up any “surprises” left by the horses – to be used in various ways.

Lunchtimes had their own patterns, particularly on Fridays. Children who had male relations working in the mills (practically all of them) were

officially let out of school early. They went to the fish and chip shop for “getin” their lunches. They would take a cake and a “copper’s worth” of fish and chips, or simply “scratchings”, depending on what the families could afford. The mill workers would leave to the sound of the bell or whistle siren, brew their tea, then meet the children at the gateway.

Clogs were worn to the mills until the early 1940s. The soles were wooden and the uppers leather. The upper was fastened on top with a metal clip and attached to the clog sole with “irons” pinned in a horseshoe shape. There was also a foot piece for under the clog and a heel piece.

When these metal pieces wore away they were replaced, just like a horseshoe. The final detail was a metal strip around the edge to reinforce the leather upper. This was fixed by metal studs. The awful clatter of the clogs would have been covered by the deafening noise of the working looms.

In startling comparison the fishing community of St Andrews was usually devoid of footwear – mainly and particularly the women. In warm summers money was saved by not wearing shoes. Even in the bitter days of an east coast Scottish winter the fisherwomen walked bare-legged and barefoot, out by the West Sands to the mouth of the River Eden, to gather the mussels which they carried home in creels on their backs – a round journey of approximately 3 miles, much of it across jagged rocks. And the womenfolk carried their men on their backs out to the fishing boats, since no man could go to sea with wet feet.

The fishing community were very superstitious. If, on the way to the harbour, they met a minister, or a person with red hair, they simply did NOT go to sea. This happened also if they saw a hare or a dog.

Not surprisingly there were unlucky words too, such as rat, pig, salt.

Alternative words were used – “himself” for minister, “land lugs” for hares, and “redfish” for salmon. Several birds were regarded as bringers of good or bad luck – seagulls were thought to be the souls of dead seamen. On the other hand, a very lucky word was “puggies”. Monkeys were known as puggies in those days and if you happened to have one as a pet (common at that time) your company would be appreciated going down the Pends and under Mill Port in the evenings when bats tended to congregate there.

With gas street lighting still in use long after the town had electricity, it was an especially eerie place to be in the dark!

In time motor vehicles replaced the horse and cart in St Andrews, whilst noticeable in Farnworth were the odd motorbike and sidecar; and the old black Ford Popular. (Do these vehicles jog a memory or two?)

I have to thank a very special gentleman, my wonderful step-father Mr L. Burton, for the idiosyncratic details of industrial Farnworth. They come from his personal, as well as handed down, knowledge of the area. My thanks also to Lesley-Anne Lettice, Curator of the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum.

Mill Port, photo by Flora Selwyn

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‘Memories are made of this!’

Tim Hayden-Smith (MA Geography 2003, University of St Andrews) has recently returned from a year in America on the Robert T. Jones Jnr. Memorial Scholarship. Below he describes his year in the United States.

Dressed in my tuxedo and walking down a red carpet to watch the Atlanta premiere of Bobby Jones – Stroke of Genius at the Fox Theatre earlier this year, it was hard not to let the evening go to my head. Brushing shoulders with celebrities such as Jim Caviezel, star of The Passion of the Christ, who portrays Jones in the movie, and Malcolm McDowell, was nothing short of fantasy.

Yet a few months earlier, I was waiting patiently at 5.00am to be fitted out in 1920s garb before a brief trip to the barber and then on to the set for twelve hours of filming. As a Bobby Jones scholar, I had been invited to be part of the biopic that portrays the life of the only man to date to win the Grand Slam of golf. I spent a total of three days on set and appear in the movie on five separate occasions. However, the highlight for me occurred off camera, as I confidently approached Claire Forlani, playing Jones’ wife, who took offence at my advancing and promptly called security!

The Bobby Jones scholarship program started in 1976 and since then two hundred and twenty students have participated. When Jones died in 1971 his friends, law partners, and business associates sought to memorialise him. The Scholarship was therefore set up to allow students to exchange between Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, and the The set of “Stroke of Genius” (Tim on left) University of St Andrews here in Scotland. Four lucky students a year from each are expected to familiarise themselves with the customs and institutions of their temporary home.

I spent two weeks in the Albanian capital, Tirana, attending meetings St Andrews had a special place in Bobby Jones’ heart, and life. It with international donors and Albanian ministers, thus gaining valuable was here that he won the British Amateur in 1930 and where he also won experience in international cooperation. the affection of the townspeople and the British sporting public. In 1958 Travelling was an important part of the year and during the Christmas Jones was granted the Freedom of the vacation we drove over 8000 miles City and Royal Burgh of St Andrews at a experiencing the hugely diverse landscape memorable ceremony in the University’s of America. Memorable stops included Younger Hall. He was the first American watching the sunrise over Monument since Benjamin Franklin, 199 years earlier, Valley, dressing up as Santa Claus in the to have this honour bestowed upon him by Grand Canyon, whale-watching off the St Andrews . coast of San Diego, Christmas shopping While at Emory University I took the in Tijuana, Mexico, and losing my dinner opportunity to study subjects previously money in the casinos of Las Vegas. The unavailable to me. I took a most interesting City of Angels was our home for Christmas, course in colonial Latin American history followed by a spectacular drive up the coast and also had the opportunity to learn the road to San Francisco, on to Yosemite art of black and white photography. As part National Park before rounding off the trip of an environmental consultancy class I with a few days skiing in Colorado. None designed and presented a new storm-water of this travelling would have been possible management plan for the university, and without a car, generously provided by participated in a weekly environmental the scholarship. In all, I visited 35 of the seminar and debate. The highlight for me, 50 States, and even found time to go to however, was being an intern at the Jimmy Canada twice, and relax on the beaches Carter Center for human rights. I worked of the Bahamas. I believe I am fortunate to for four months in a department known have seen more of the United States now In the Grand Canyon as the Global Development Initiative, than most American citizens. specialising in the poorest country in Another perk of the year is membership Europe, Albania. My job involved civil society and capacity building at the at East Lake Golf Club, the course where Bobby Jones learnt to play. A grassroots level, as well as working on a national development strategy keen golfer, I made great use of the facility and was fortunate enough to that increased Albania’s chances of accession to the European Union. meet some of Jones’ contemporaries and rivals on the course. It is with great humility that I remember chatting with Tommy Barnes and Charlie Yates, who both still recall humorous anecdotes concerning Jones’ tremendous competitive spirit on the golf course.

One of Jones’ greatest legacies is the Masters golf tournament held each year at Augusta National. When Phil Mickelson sank his putt on the 18th green to win his first major, I jumped up from my front row seat to applaud what was definitely one of the most exciting Masters tournaments for some years. Perhaps the greatest thrill of the year was returning a few weeks later to play the course, where I am pleased to report that I posted a respectable 87. As if this was not enough for a golf enthusiast, I spent a week in the summer on the Monterey Peninsular battling with the likes of Pebble Beach and Cyprus Point.

The hospitality we received throughout our stay was incredible.

The year was a fantastic blend of social engagements, exploratory travel and academic pursuits, all providing the opportunity to establish lifelong friendships. The thousands of photographs I have are only surpassed by my memories. Such is the number of these recollections that I fear I am likely to forget having been guest of honour at the North Carolina Highland Games, or meeting the Atlanta Falcons Football Team cheerleading squad. Yet I will never forget the enduring legacy of Bobby Jones – a man whose sportsmanship, integrity, intellect, courage, grace Tim assessing line of putt, East Lake Golf Course and modesty is an example to us all.

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44 Days in Bangladesh James Harkin, in his Honours year studying German, shares his moving and challenging experiences.

Wedged between giant India and forgotten Myanmar, Bangladesh is a country that lies on the alluvial plain of the Ganges Brahmaputra river system – the largest delta in the world. Its water flow is second only to that of the Amazon, and flooding is normal for Bengali people; however, this summer saw some of the worst flooding since the infamous 1998 disaster. I was in Bangladesh when the waters ripped apart the poverty-ridden country.

Packing flood relief As I said goodbye to my family, I was very apprehensive about the following six weeks.

I am not a seasoned traveller, never having left Europe before, and I was unsure exactly what Bangladesh would be like. Despite these apprehensions I was filled with a sense of excitement and anticipation about my visit and I was very keen to see finally what I would be doing and where I would be living.

Geographically the country is roughly the same size as England and Wales, but whereas these two British countries have a population of roughly 55 million, Bangladesh has over 140 million people crammed into a giant flood plain.

Although initially I organised everything myself, when I arrived in Asia I was under the jurisdiction of the International Leprosy Mission. Over 130 years old, the International Leprosy Mission is a leading international non-denominational Christian organization committed to eradicating leprosy, and healing, restoring, empowering the lives of people affected by it. I was in the North of the country, near Nepal and Bhutan and the Danish Bangladesh Leprosy Mission (DBLM) was my home. I found the people friendly, welcoming and very willing to show me around. During my

James and leprosy students

stay I tried to meet and speak with as many people as possible, giving me a true flavour of Bangladesh and the work undertaken by the staff at DBLM. There are numerous problems facing Bangladesh that are familiar to many developing nations and some that are unique to Bangladesh, but the corruption that flows freely through all aspects of life appears to be the biggest hindrance to development.

In such a culture, the death, disease, and damage that the flooding brought were further exacerbated by a corrupt government totally incapable of coping. Flood waters covered 60% of the nation, leaving nearly 30 million people homeless or stranded. According to the UN, over 1,000 people died as a direct result, over 4,000 died from the waterborne diseases that followed and an estimated four million homes were destroyed. Emergency funds were sent from the UK and other countries to provide food, and I helped prepare these emergency rations for some of the flood-affected people.

In a village called Dimla I distributed the packs and also observed the health education classes that accompanied the flood relief. The effects of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases are devastating and these classes are invaluable in educating people and minimising potential illness.

Six weeks is a long time, and certainly for a first visit to the Third World, so I was grateful for the extreme generosity and helpfulness shown by the staff both at DBLM and in Dhaka. There was so much for me to get used to and all my senses were bombarded with the various smells, sights and sounds of a country alien to my own. I had to contend with mass poverty, horrible disfigurements, and social deprivation on a scale I could never have been prepared for. Furthermore, these were not images in a newspaper or on television; these were people I began to know over a period of time. Moreover, I was a white person in a Muslim country that viewed the American and British “liberation” of Iraq as war on all Muslims. Twice I was accosted and told to leave Iraq and stop killing innocent Muslims. This was an experience that I will never forget as I was surrounded by a crowd of over 30 people gradually becoming more aggressive.

I met many Muslims who did not fit this stereotype and were incredibly friendly and interested in my culture and in explaining their own to me.

One medical doctor and I had many frank discussions on Islam, the world, and Bangladesh in particular.

Bangladesh in flood I taught English to the staff at DBLM and was thrilled to see their development as the course went on. As I expected, the basic knowledge was very poor, and I had to work hard to create a lesson plan and communicate without any common language. I hope that these people feel happy with the course we worked through together. In addition, I visited many leprosy clinics, out-patient consultations and even twice spent a full day in the operating theatre. Barely able to watch Casualty, I nevertheless managed to view major surgery and amputations.

The grenade attack on the opposition party rally in Dhaka overshadowed my final two weeks. The numerous country-wide strikes served to confine me to the compound. When I did get to Dhaka I actually went to the point where Ivy Rahmen and 17 others had been killed. A large banner and a group of well-wishers were all that remained.

My time in Bangladesh was a time of reflection for me on many issues that needed resolution. The complete removal from everything familiar offered me a rare chance to grow as a person both emotionally and spiritually, and I am thankful for this opportunity, and in this case education can never replace the experience. I had felt prepared to go, I was not overly naïve about what to expect and I felt confident that I could adapt, but the difference between the state of preparation and participation was, however, monumental.

I would like to thank the Leprosy Mission (England, Wales & Channel Islands) for funding my board and lodging, for my visit and allowing me this valuable chance to travel and see a part of the world not often visited by outsiders. As the Bangladesh Tourism Board themselves say: “Visit Bangladesh before tourists come”.

Further information can be found at: www.leprosymission.org.uk/

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The University of St Andrews: Part 1, the early years Abigail Grater MA (St Andrews) tells the story of the buildings of the University, from its foundation until the formation of the United College in 1747.

The University of St Andrews began its life addition, ordered by Archbishop Hamilton with no fixed abode. Founded by Bishop after the tower had been used to mount guns Wardlaw in c.1411, it consisted of a number during the Castle siege of 1547. The College of private teaching bodies (pedagogies) entrance at the foot of the tower originally operating separately in pre-existing buildings led through to two courts – one leading back around the town. This was common among from the entrance and flanked on its west side early universities, but the resultant competition by the Common Hall and Schools, the other between tutors threatened the University’s comprising a small cloister behind the Chapel. coherence.

Despite encouraging The first real centre unity to a certain extent, St Salvator’s Chapel and of learning was the St Salvator’s College was its neighbouring North Chapel and College of St wealthy enough not to John, on the South Street have to bow down to the Street buildings are the site now occupied by St wishes of benefactors only parts of the original Mary’s College, where seeking to strengthen the buildings were acquired University. It was partly College still standing. by the University in 1419. because of this that, in In 1430 an official Pedagogy was founded 1512, Archbishop Alexander Stewart decided to on an adjacent site, intended to govern the transform the original Pedagogy into a separate teaching of the Arts, but this largely failed in College – the College of St Leonard. His initial its aims. When Bishop Kennedy took over plans to repair the Pedagogy buildings, which as Chancellor of the University on Wardlaw’s had been neglected since the foundation of death in 1440, he concluded that the only way St Salvator’s, were abandoned under the forward for the University was to re-establish influence of John Hepburn, Prior of St Andrews, it in new buildings on a new site, breaking the who encouraged him to locate the new College association with past failures. Thus beside the Cathedral and to concentrate on St Salvator’s College was founded as a college providing the latter with well-educated novices. of Theology and Arts and its new buildings As a result, St Leonard’s was largely monastic inaugurated on 27 August 1450. in character and student life there was strictly St Salvator’s Chapel and its neighbouring regimented. The last college to be founded North Street buildings are the only parts of was St Mary’s, instituted by Archbishop James the original College still standing. The Chapel Beaton in 1537–8 as a training centre for the dominated the College from the outset, and secular clergy with teaching incorporating early members of the University community, Canon Law and Medicine as well as Theology all of whom lived on College premises, were and Arts. encouraged to be equally devoted to learning Due to the University’s strong ecclesiastical and to God. Simple in plan, it had a vaulted connections, the Reformation in 1560 prompted ceiling with ornamental ribs and a stonevarious proposals for structural changes, and slab roof. The soaring Gothic tomb of Bishop in 1579 it was decided that St Mary’s would Kennedy is one of very few remaining features become a College of Divinity, whilst both St of the medieval interior. Outside, the spire that Salvator’s and St Leonard’s would provide exists today on the Chapel tower is a later instruction in Philosophy and Arts. It was also

Calotype print made in 1846 by pioneer photographers D O Hill and R Adamson, showing the medieval Common Hall and Schools of St Salvator’s College (Courtesy of the St Andrews University Library).

14

St Salvator’s Chapel and its neighbouring College buildings today (photograph by Peter Adamson, courtesy of the St Andrews University Library). at this time that St Salvator’s Chapel ceased to be the College’s central place of worship; it was stripped of its furnishings and of the statues that occupied the canopied niches on the exterior, and students were encouraged to worship with townsfolk in the Town Kirk of the Holy Trinity.

This period seems to have coincided with the neglect of the buildings of St Salvator’s College: the Commissioners who visited in 1588 reported that “the bigging of the college is not weill repairit, for thair is ane quarter of the closter ruinus, and siclyke the greit hall abone the scole”. However, the University itself continued to thrive, and the buildings of St Leonard’s and St Mary’s Colleges were kept in a reasonable state of repair. The fate of St Salvator’s improved in the 17th century when an east accommodation block and new north building were added, followed by repairs to the Chapel, tower and cloister instigated by Provost Skene in the 1680s. It was probably also at this time that further extensions were added to form the College into an L-shaped ‘court’ surrounding the old cloister.

It was the Revolution of 1689 and the Union of England and Scotland of 1707 that had the most damaging effect on the University’s prosperity, as the town suddenly lost much of its prestige. The student population halved between 1689 and 1730 and the quality of teaching also deteriorated as those in positions of influence sent their sons instead to the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. It became clear that some change had to take place if the University was to survive, and it was decided that the Colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, with their similar teaching emphases, should be amalgamated. This Union was sanctioned by Parliament on 24 June 1747. Whilst St Leonard’s had been repaired approximately twenty years earlier, St Salvator’s had remained untouched since Provost Skene’s restoration, and tourists of the mid-18th century report that it was severely neglected. However, Principal Tullideph preferred St Salvator’s, and it is probably because of this that the latter was selected as the home of the new United College.

The story continues in the next issue of St Andrews in Focus

TOWN/GOWN / SELECTED EVENTS

Are you ready to RAG? – asks Alison Bertram, Rag Week Co-ordinator and Vice-convenor of the University of St Andrews Charities Campaign Raising And Giving Week is a national week of fundraising events run by students across the country. This year we, at the University of St Andrews Charities Campaign, are holding a fun-packed week of events for both the students and the townspeople from Friday 11 – 18 February, to raise money for Cancer Research UK, Oxfam, Breast Cancer Campaign, Fife Society for the Blind, and the Student Voluntary Service. Last year we raised a record £11,000 and we hope this year to beat that; however, to do so we need your support!

This year’s events include street collections with ‘Simba’ the Lion on Saturday 12th, live bands at the Students’ Union on Thursday 17th and the premiere of the all-new People’s Fashion Show, ‘RAGs not Riches’, on Wednesday 16th February! ‘RAGs not Riches’ is run by the Charities Campaign with the kind sponsorship of local shops in both St Andrews and Dundee. The aim of the show is to promote real fashion that real people wear and will feature household names such as French Connection, Next, Primark, and Marks and Spencer. Clothes from local shops will also be shown, including the Spring Collections of New Look, Sam Thomas, Monsoon, UK Design, Fat Face, and many, many more!

So if you want to get a sneak preview of the latest trends come along to ‘RAGs not Riches’ in Venue 1 of the Students’ Union on Wednesday 16th February. Tickets are available to all, and can be bought from Cancer Research UK and Oxfam, as well as the Union Box Office in the week preceding the event.

Other events will also be held throughout the week in conjunction with RAG Week, so keep an eye out for further information around the town from the end of January. We hope that both the students and the people of St Andrews will enjoy all the events held during RAG Week and help to raise both money and awareness for all of our nominated charities.

Selected Events 14 January – 6 March 2005 – at the Crawford Arts Centre, 93 North Street, St Andrews.

The Dangers of Sewing and knitting – Deirdre Nelson. A unique and humorous exhibition inspired by the absurd and quirky in textile history. Her research into historical and contemporary perils, associated with crafts usually thought of as safe and passive, has been developed by Deirdre Nelson into intriguing and beautifully made new objects. Exhibition created in collaboration with the Colllins Gallery, University of Strathclyde.

Craft Showcase – includes handwoven scarves by Kirstie Thornber; feather jewellery by Katie Clarke; ceramics by John Maguire, and Hannah McAndrew, Barm Pottery.

Open Mon-Sat.10am-5pm. Sun.2-5pm. Admission free.

Tel: 01334-474610, Fax: 01334-479880.

Sunday, 9 January – 2.00-5.00pm. The Scout Hall, The Scores, St Andrews. Ceilidh, Old Time, Social Dancing. Live music, walkthroughs & demonstrations. £3 at the door (includes refreshments).

Everyone welcome, even spectators – no experience necessary, just a love of traditional music and dance! Contact, 01334 472375.

Tuesday,18 January – 7.30pm. The Byre Theatre, St Andrews.

East German Railways in the 1900s, a talk by Martin Barkla, the Railway & Transport Society. £1.50 The Secretary, 01334 655965.

Thursday, 20 January – 7.30pm. Hope Park Church Hall, St Andrews. Greenhouse Maintenance, a talk by Jim Williams, the Gardeners’ Club. Contact, 01334 477429.

Thursday, 20 January – 7.30pm. School 1, University Old Quad, North Street, St Andrews. The Etruscan Legacy, a talk by Professor Chris Smith of the School of Classics, for The Archaeological Society. Everyone welcome.

Sunday, 6 February – at 4.00pm in the Music Auditorium, St Leonard’s School, St Andrews. William Conway (cello) & Simon Parkin (piano) play works by Beethoven, De Falla, Frank Bridge, and Elliot Carter. £8 (£7) students £4, kids £1.

Thursday, 10 February – 7.30pm. Hope Park Church Hall, St Andrews.

Raspberries and Strawberries, a talk by Jim Duncan, the Gardeners’ Club.

Contact 01334 477429.

Tuesday,15 February – 7.30pm. The Byre Theatre, St Andrews. Quiz Night, the Railway & Transport Society, £1.50. The Secretary, 01334 655965.

Sunday, 27 February – at 4.00pm in the Music Auditorium, St Leonard’s School, St Andrews, the VogIer String Quartet playing quartets by Schubert, Hartman, and Beethoven. £8 (£7) students £4, kids £1.

Advance Notice Wednesday, 9 March – at 8.00pm in the Music Auditorium, St Leonard’s School, St Andrews. Marina Nadiradze (piano) playing works by Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy. £8 (£7) students £4, kids £1.

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Come and enjoy Our dinner for two

Valentine’s Day Dinner at the Scores Hotel

Celebrate in the romantic surroundings of Alexander’s Restaurant

♥

A glass of bubbly on arrival A three-course dinner A red, red rose

♥

£48.50 per couple For reservations please telephone Scores Hotel, St Andrews 01334 472451 or email reception@scoreshotel.co.uk

15

GOLF

Playing the Six Inch Golf Course An Introduction to Golf Psychology by Sandy Cameron, consultant psychologist to the World Golf Teachers’ Federation and teacher at a night class at Madras College He is a founder member of the 19th Hole Golf Club of St Andrews.

Many people are unaware of the role psychology now plays in golf, unless they saw the televised play-off for the Open Claret Jug at Muirfield not long ago. They were treated to the incongruous sight of Jos Vanstiphout, the Belgian psychologist, trying to maintain impartiality between his two clients, Ernie EIs and Thomas Levet. This scenario stimulated much debate in the clubhouses throughout the land. The consensus seemed to be that while the discipline may have some benefit for the game’s elite, psychology had not much relevance for the ordinary club player.

It is my contention that this latter view is wrong and hopefully this article will dispel that notion. Interest in the mental game really began with the publication of ‘The Inner Game of Golf’ in the early eighties. Most critics agreed that this book had some serious things to say about improving your game, but it had a short-lived effect. Up till then only the USSR had laid much emphasis on psychology in sport, and that was to try and get an advantage in Cold War propaganda. Nowadays, of course, many universities have a department of Sport Psychology. Golf psychology is a sub section of the latter, and has been growing as a subject for the last two decades, although mainly in the US and Australia. Of course, there has always been a sizeable store of received wisdom on the mental game, but it has consisted of what science calls ‘anecdotal evidence‘.

One of the tasks of golf psychology is to examine the inherited wisdom and subject it to scientific scrutiny. An example from my own experience will suffice: as a student here in the fifties, I caddied for a famous Scots player of the time by the name of Eric Brown who, among other distinctions, captained our Ryder Cup team.

I was intrigued by his practice of talking to himself on the course.

On the green, he would say ‘Eric, you are a great putter and you are going to sink this putt’.

To my amazement he mostly did. I thought it was a pointless and rather silly eccentricity.

Now I know better, for self talk is an established part of the performance routine in all top class sport.

Research has repeatedly shown how effective it can be in producing peak performance. So golf psychology is not about esoteric mind games. It is, in this respect, a systematic way of checking out established practice.

But golf psychology is much more than scientific research. It can be just what it implies, i.e. using your head (the ’6 inch course’ of the title) in a smart fashion. Dave Pelz has shown, for example, that 70% of shots are played within 100 yards of the hole, yet club players persist in spending more than 90% of their time in practising the long clubs. This is hardly sensible when around 70% of shots are with the wedges and putter in an average round. Bob Rotella, a well-known American golf psychologist, proved the point to a sceptical journalist. He undertook to reduce the journalist’s handicap by 5 strokes in 6 months by using only psychological

techniques. The amazed hack, in fact, lost 8 shots and his comment was, “I came to scoff and remained to cheer”.

New advances in brain research are also applicable to golf. Improbable as it may sound, it has been found that it is possible to improve your game without getting out of bed. Repeated experiments have shown the benefits of mental training, if practised in the prescribed way. And research in progress on left and right brain processes promise dramatic consequences for how we approach our golf game.

Many of the ideas in golf psychology are taken from mainstream psychology and applied to this specialised context. Take the Self-fulfilling Prophecy, for example, which briefly states that a prediction will come true simply because people believe in it. If you think that, instead of pitching over the bunker to the green, you are going to duff it into the sand, then that is what will happen. Linked to this is the concept of Learned Helplessness which states that repeated failure in a task leads to a pessimistic mindset which EXPECTS failure and, unsurprisingly, gets it. Golf psychology has developed ways of combating such negative thinking.

I am often asked how I can fill a course with sufficient material on the subject of golf psychology. The answer is – easily. Golf is, in many ways, a microcosm of life and as such it has countless areas of interest and investigation. I do not touch on the spiritual, for example, yet there has been much written on the subject. Do we suffer from ‘Outcome Preoccupation’, where, as in life, we do not enjoy the moment for worrying about the future? WaIter Hagen knew what he was on about when he exhorted us to ‘smell the flowers’. Studies have shown that each shot takes 40 seconds on average to play. This means that we are playing for only one hour in a 4 hour round. It is inconceivable that what happens in this time will not have some influence on the game.

In this country, golf authorities are finally waking up to the benefits of golf psychology. Only recently did national coach Ian Rae announce that the mental side of the game is just as important as the physical. Yet the club player will continue to spend hundreds of hours on the latter and none on the psychological. One of these days, however, we may have a set-up like America where club players can attend free classes at their local range and get individual advice from the resident ‘shrink’. But don’t hold your breath.

I am often asked how I can fill a course with sufficient material on the subject of golf psychology. The answer is – easily.

Golf is, in many ways, a microcosm of life and as such it has countless areas of interest and investigation

16

GOLF

The R&A Talks Business in St Andrews By a Focus reporter The R&A is undoubtedly one of the town’s most important corporate citizens, so St Andrews in Focus was there when one of its directors, Michael Tate, addressed the St Andrews Business Club at its October breakfast meeting.

Most organisations these days have a boilerplate description of who they are and what they do and Tate shared the R&A’s with his audience of local business people.

“The R&A is the golf’s world rules and development body, and organiser of The Open Championship. It operates with the consent of 127 national and international, amateur and professional organisations from 112 countries, and on behalf of an estimated 28 million golfers in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas outside the United States and Mexico. The USGA is the game’s governing body in the USA and Mexico”.

Positioning done, he moved quickly on to his major theme, that the R&A today is a global sports business, controlling a major sporting property, The Open Championship: a sports business that works in a genuine st partnership with broadcasters and sponsors, or patrons, as the R&A prefers to call them, in pursuit of a worldwide audience. Tate argued that business and golf have been inseparable since 20 noblemen of Fife began the R&A story 250 years ago. Apparently they played golf in the morning, and transacted business over lunch in a local tavern after the match.

a fundamental shift in the way the R&A does business. Effective from that date, the membership of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews passed responsibility for The Rules of Golf and for The Open Championship to newly formed corporate structures. From the same moment they also created The R&A Foundation, as the charitable body that distributes funding to help the development of the game worldwide.

According to Tate, the R&A’s business contacts welcomed the changes because the deals that underpin the running of The Open Championship need the protection of company law. The business structure of a private members’ club is not designed for doing business on a global scale.

To illustrate the change in scale, Tate referred to The Open Championship of 1984 in St Andrews, won by Seve Ballesteros when the revenue from TV rights was £1m. Twenty years on, there are 40 rights-holding broadcasters covering 191 territories, delivering on average 360 hours of airtime, each day of The Championship.

The audience reach is close to 500m households, and revenue has increased twenty-fold. The Open Championship ranks jointly with Wimbledon as the world’s largest annual sporting event viewed by a global TV audience.

The promotional value of The Open Championship to the town that hosts the event is almost incalculable, but in terms of additional spending the four-day event is known to add at least £20m to the local economy at each venue.

Tate went on to outline some of the golf development work carried out by The R&A Foundation, which reinvests an annual £5m surplus from The Open back into the game, particularly into those countries where golf is still a relatively new sport.

He cited help for the building of new public golf courses in Brazil and The Czech Republic as prime examples.

Firmly tongue in cheek, Tate told his audience that the R&A, unlike most other sports governing bodies, would resist the attraction of a headquarters base in Lausanne, Switzerland. Its work is global, but its base will always be St Andrews. The Rules of The Club, Tate told his audience, affirmed that –

1 January 2004 marked a fundamental shift in the way the R&A does business

He quoted a recent MORI poll that found that – 1

54% of decision makers see golf as the sport of business.

2

25% of business decision makers play golf.

3

Almost half of all executives see the golf course as a business environment

4

38% of business leaders view the golf course as an international language through which business is conducted.

5

27% see golf as ideal for people who want to get ahead.

That message is clearly hitting home as Tate went on to cite a recent PGA survey that revealed that 9.8% of adults in Great Britain and Ireland play golf, compared with 7.4% who play football, and 6.5% who play tennis. And the news gets even better for golf, as today, according to the same survey, 14% of all 7 to 14 yearolds play golf.

Tate conceded that talking openly about its role as a global sports business was a relatively new phenomenon for the R&A. However, 1st January 2004 marked

Michael Tate is a Director of The R&A. He is a former director of the PGA European Tour and has worked extensively in the game worldwide.

He lives in St Andrews with his wife Hazel and their two children.

“The Club is established to promote the position of St Andrews as the Home of Golf, and to assist the Trustees and Management of the Links Trust in the development of appropriate golfing facilities”.

17

FEATURES Ian Seeley’s

Colin McAllister, wi’ ae glaikit keek tae Rabbie Burns!

St. Andrews Craw-stepp’d gables, cobblestanes, Lang rigs, dykes, an’ narraw lanes, Tooerin’ spires an’ crummled ruins, Mortar boards an’ scarlet goons; Snell north wund an’ boilin’ haar, Whin-strewn links that stretch oot far Tae Eden’s moo’ past gowden beach; Grey-staned mansions, oot o’ reach 0’ puirer fowk, an’ perched on cliff Ahent stoot wa’ s, wi’ tales tae gliff 0’ bogIes, phantom coaches, ghaists; 0’ hooded monks, an’ coffins, kists, An’ a’ thae things that gar ye wauk Tae hear each chime, afore the brak 0’ day, strike frae the auld Toon Kirk; The early hoors when bakers wark Tae mak breid rolls for ha’s An’ hames o’ citizens aroon’.

An ‘ a’ this oot o’ Andra’ s cause, We’re tellt, tae seek yon croon 0’ life lang promised by the Maister.

Troubles did it bring an’ a’ Wi’ sairs a-plenty set tae fester.

Beaton, Wishart, Shairp an’ Knox, sae ca’ Them a’ – they’ve a’ been here As sharely as the Lammas Fair An’ gowf, of coorse! Rare Find, a toon like this, rare treasure Riches weel ootwi’ man’s measure.

To a Computer (a glossary – for the Sassenachs!) crummled / crumbled wund / wind

haar / sea mist

gowden / golden fowk / folk ahent / behind

gliff / scare

bogles / phantoms

ghaists / ghosts

Fair fa’ your electronic face, Great chieftain 0’ the TV race!

Abune them a’ ye tak your place, PC’s your name; Weel are ye wordy of a place Within my hame.

mak breid / make bread

ha’s / halls

oot / out

Andra / Andrew

The corner of my room ye fill, You’re ready aye to serve my will, Your memory I can access still In time 0’ need, “While on your screen the pixels spill For me to read.

kist / large box, chest gar ye wauk / wake you up toon kirk / town church wark / work

tellt / told

sairs / troubles

gowf / golf weel ootwi’ / well beyond

Then see your face licht up sae bricht, Wi’ your eldritch flickerin’ licht, Working tirelessly through the nicht, Like onie witch; And then, gieing the answers richt, Without a hitch!

Then computer buffs stretch and strive: This their boast – the best hard disk-drive – Till a’ their weel-swall’d bytes belyve Can do their sums; Then Computerman, maist like a hive, ‘Bethankit’ hums.

Is there that owre his pen and ink, That had the time an ee tae blink, Or ever that had dared to think How great’s your speed?

It’s faster than a curling rink, He’s left for deid!

Poor devil! see him owre his task, Unequal to what his job may ask, He’s got nae time like sharks to bask, Or even think; Weaker than beer made outwith a cask, Unfit to drink!

But mark the geek, computer-mad, For him his work is no sae bad, Clap in his haund a mouse, he’s glad, For hours he’ll sit; He’ll even buy his mouse a pad, Nor work will quit.

Bill Gates, wha’s dollars and to spare, A’ made through your computing flair, Oor Scotland wants nae auld software – Parritch and claes!

But, if you wish her grateful’ prayer, Gie her Windaes!

18

FEATURES Robert Crawford is Professor of Modern Scottish Literature and Head of the School of English at the University of St Andrews.

His most recent collection of poetry, The Tip of My Tongue, is published by Cape. He is also editor of books on Burns and on Fergusson.

Here he takes a look at

Robert Burns, Poetry, and St Andrews As Burns Night (25 January) approaches, tourist sites across the land from Ayr to Auchmithie can claim direct connection with Scotland’s greatest poet. St Andrews can’t do this. For, though Burns (1759-96) made tours of both Highlands and Lowlands, he never came here, never mentions the place.

Yet local Burns Clubs toast the Bard. In St Andrews his songs are sung, his poems read and recited; hundreds of students study his work each year. There are local people who could tell you about his life, even the curious details: as a teenager he wore ‘the only tied hair in the parish’; he played the flute; he suffered from depression; he made his first song when he was fifteen; he was a farmer in Ayrshire and, as he and his Kirk put it, a celebrated ‘fornicator’; he didn’t go to university; he decided to emigrate to Jamaica (but didn’t go); he cried in public; he was a freemason; he worked for a time as a civil servant; as a wedding present for his long-suffering wife, Jean Armour, he ordered fifteen yards of black silk; on horseback he would sometimes ride 30 or 40 miles a day in all weathers; one of his many lovers, Jenny Clow (who died of TB), came from Newburgh; he supported the ideals of the French Revolution, but paid lip service to the British monarchy (his job depended on that); he wrote an ode for George Washington; he complained of acute rheumatism; he died in his mid-30s; in his lifetime he published just two books.

Burns never visited St Andrews, but he would certainly have known about it. His favourite Scottish poet, Robert Fergusson (1750-74) was educated here at the University, and almost expelled from it. Burns imitated and learned from many of Fergusson’s poems. When Fergusson, reproaching ‘The Principal and Professors of the University of St Andrews’, exalts the haggis, Burns follows by celebrating, with a dash of self-mockery, the virtues of that distinctively Scottish food: ‘Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,/ Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!’ One of Fergusson’s fellow St Andrews students scribbled in a library book that Fergusson was ‘a reptile of the serpent kind, a snake in human form stain’d with infamy and wickedness’; others thought him wildly charismatic. A mixture of charisma and libertinism is also essential to Burns.

The two poets shared a depressive streak, a great delight in Scots vernacular culture and language, and a sense of humour. You can hear echoes of Fergusson at the start of ‘Tam o’ Shanter’, in ‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’, and in many other Burns poems. Burns called Fergusson ‘By far my elder brother in the Muse’. Burns’s celebration of Fergusson is part of his argument that contemporary Scottish poetry must be supported.

So that’s why there is a modern St Andrews street named after Robert Fergusson. That’s why the University Principal has a statue of Fergusson in his office. That’s why in 1996 St Andrews University’s Scottish Studies Centre ran a public series of Robert Burns Bicentenary

Lectures, and in 2000 it commissioned ten contemporary poets to write tributes to Robert Fergusson, celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth.

If Burns returned to Scotland today, he’d certainly come to St Andrews. He’d be invited to StAnza. For many years now, St Andrews has hosted Scotland’s largest poetry festival, run by local people (several of them poets) such as Brian Johnstone and Anna Crowe, with support from the University and other sponsors. StAnza has staged a number of Burns events, but likes to relate the poetry of the past to the poetry of the present, and to support contemporary poets – as the best Burns Suppers do.

Burns Suppers were mocked by many twentieth-century Scottish intellectuals, because the Suppers were nostalgic piss-ups.

They used Burns as an excuse to ignore, rather than to celebrate poetry. Yet Burns himself belonged to laddish, all-male clubs that are not a million miles away from the caricature Burns Supper. In the nineteenth century the great Burns Clubs, such as that in Paisley, celebrated modern poetry as well as that of Burns. Good modern Burns clubs not only have female office-bearers; they also give encouragement and financial support to the best contemporary Scottish poetry.

St Andrews has an uneven record in its support for poets. It remembers too seldom that it educated several of the great medieval ones (including the poet who wrote the line

Burns quotes at the start of ‘Tam o’Shanter’). It has no plaque to its former inhabitant George Buchanan, the great Scottish Renaissance poet whose 500th birthday will be in 2006; and it has rather forgotten that it was a centre of activity during the literary, cultural, and nationalist Scottish Renaissance of the earlier twentieth century.

Yet today in The Poetry House, part of the University’s School of English, St Andrews has the largest building in Britain (if you exclude libraries) devoted to the reading and writing of poetry. Among my colleagues in the School of English are the poets John Burnside, Douglas Dunn, Kathleen Jamie, and Don Paterson, all of whom enjoy international reputations. In St Andrews we teach Creative Writing on undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. Working closely with StAnza and with the Public Library in Church Square, the Poetry House is involved in a year-round programme of public events. www.thepoetryhouse.org is the web’s most authoritative guide to poetry in the Englishspeaking world, and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (which is more than anyone in the actual Poetry House can manage!). If you visit it, you’ll find a remarkable cornucopia of information about poetry. You’ll find Australian poetry, African poetry, Scottish poetry. You’ll even find local man Christopher MacLachlan’s guide to the best websites to do with Robert Burns.

Airport Rendezvous Gavin Reid

Descending through the clouds reverie turns to expectation.

We spill out of the aircraft, tottering, balance baulked, onto hard ground.

At Arrivals, I scan the crowd.

You are there, gaze open.

Suddenly, you see me, and you shine, you shine, as if lightened from within.

Shocked, enraptured, I receive your embrace.

I have landed – I am home.

19

FEATURES

20

FEATURES

St Andrews – Jerusalem Connection A report from Tsvi November, our Jerusalem Correspondent The St. Andrew’s Church and Guesthouse is located on the most central and prestigious site in Jerusalem. Only a few hundred yards from the exclusive King David Hotel, it overlooks the Old City which is in easy walking distance. Between the Church and the Old City is the Valley of Hinnom which is mentioned several times in the Bible and marked the boundary between the territory allotted to the tribe of Benjamin and the lands assigned to the tribe of Judah. The lovely St. Andrew’s Pilgrim Hostel is literally a stone’s throw away from Mishkenot Sha’ananim, the very first neighborhood built outside the ancient walled city by Sir Moses Montefiore in the middle of the 19th century. Today Mishkenot serves as a guesthouse for world-famous artists, writers and poets who are invited to Jerusalem as guests of Mayor Uri Lupolianski and the municipality. The Menachem Begin Heritage Center adjoins St. Andrew’s. This brand new architectural gem opened its doors in June 2004. It features a multi-media museum and culture centre. The Khan Theatre is just around the corner from St. Andrew’s. It offers plays (mainly in Hebrew) and concerts to small intimate audiences.

St. Andrew’s Church and adjacent Guesthouse were built in 1930 as a memorial to the many Scots, soldiers and officers, who gave their lives fighting the Turks in the Holy Land during the Great War. Most of these brave Scotsmen are buried in a well-maintained cemetery on Mount Scopus next to Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University, Israel’s premier institution of higher education which was dedicated by Lord Balfour in 1925.

A great deal of the bitter fighting during Israel’s war for independence (1947-48) took place all around St. Andrew’s. Jews driven out of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter by Jordan’s Arab legionnaires escaped through Zion Gate, which is closest to St. Andrew’s. Even after the 1949 cease fire between Israel and the invading Arab armies from Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan went into effect, Arab snipers positioned on the walls of the Old City shot at Jews, who had to be sheltered in Mishkenot Sha’ananim because no other dwellings were available.

St. Andrew’s saw action again when Israeli forces drove the Jordanian occupiers out of the Old City in June 1967 and re-united Jerusalem as it had been during the British mandate period. The pock-marks on the Church walls are a silent reminder of Jordanian fire power. Since the 1967 reunification Jerusalem has bloomed as Israel’s capital with St. Andrew’s physically in the cultural and historical centre of the city.

Nowadays Christian visitors and others who choose to stay at the reasonably priced and tranquil Guesthouse have free access to all the Christian and Jewish holy sites, most of which are located in the older eastern parts of Jerusalem. Even the Garden Tomb (where Protestants believe that Jesus is really buried) maintained by The Garden Tomb

Association, an independent British charitable trust, can be reached in 25 minutes.

A number of Christian activists, most notably the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, are against any so-called “peace” agreement which would once again divide Jerusalem in half thereby denying guests at St. Andrew’s easy access to holy places and further jeopardize Arab Christians who live in Muslim controlled areas.

Archaeological excavations in and around ancient Jewish burial caves, which are situated within the St. Andrew’s Church and Guesthouse courtyard, have yielded very important finds. The most significant discovery dating back to the First Temple epoch (7th century B.C.) are two small silver scrolls containing the kohanim (priestly) blessings : ‘The Lord will bless you and keep you.

The Lord will shine His face on you and enlighten you.

The Lord’s radiance shall cover you and bring you peace’.

Every year, on the Jewish High Holy Days, kohanim (the direct descendants of Aaron) recite this exact same prayer (now that’s tradition for you!) These priceless scrolls, written in ancient Hebrew script, were on display for many years in the Israel Museum, which also houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents that throw much light on early Christianity.

Over the past four Intifada years Israel’s security services have expanded and improved their counter-terror warfare capabilities to the point that one can safely enjoy everything that Jerusalem has to offer, and there is no better starting point than St. Andrew’s Church and Guesthouse.

Postscript – Jurek Pütter pointed out that…

Throughout the Middle Ages, St. Andrews, the ‘Pilgrim and Principal City’ of Scotland was also regarded and revered as the ‘Jerusalem of the North’. Both Cities were regarded by the entire international community as exceptionally ‘Holy’, and further, they shared a remarkable topographical similarity. The Dominicans of St. Andrews alluded to that fact in a petition which they presented to the Papacy in the sixteenth century. At the foot of Prior’s Wynd (Abbey Street), stands a Great Gateway. In the Middle Ages that ‘Port’, the most ancient of the City’s many Gateways, was known as the ‘Golden Gate’, on account of its counterpart in Jerusalem.

Photograph by Miriam Selwyn

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FEATURES Jonathan Dowling in

The Cathedral Graveyard My work as a research assistant for St Andrews Heritage Services has involved recording and photographing the gravestones in the Cathedral Graveyard and the East Cemetery alongside. With around 2500 stones altogether, the complete record gives a fascinating insight into the social history of St Andrews. What follows is a brief tour of some of the people and their graves that have captivated my imagination during my work.

One of the biggest and most conspicuous stones is that of John Tulloch, and it was one of the first stones I recorded. Standing proudly in a commanding position in the East Cemetery, the granite cross remembers a man of the highest order. He was Dean of the Order of the Thistle, and Chaplain to Queen Victoria. His work at St Andrews included being Principal of St Mary’s College and Professor of Divinity. I was struck at once by the power and influence John Tulloch must have experienced, and the importance of his lifetime to this community.

Walking around the graveyards has both fascinated and saddened me. The latter experienced when recording three, four, or more, children who all died in their early years in the same family, presumably from illnesses (such as scarlet fever, recorded on one stone) or malnutrition and poor living conditions. In addition, the families who had to bury sons or fathers, most not even twenty years old, who perished in the two World Wars. How their families must have suffered! I was surprised at their number in the graveyard (most are found in the more recent East Cemetery), and reflected that this must be the case in graveyards up and down the country. I was fascinated by the diversity of lifestyles and work to which the stones testify.

I’ve come across merchants, ship owners (often with elaborate stones, highlighting the wealth they had accumulated), fishermen, bakers, candle makers, teachers, dyers, ministers, shoe and boot makers, weavers and joiners.

Even simple labourers have fairly significant stones, and it pleased me to see the ‘lower classes’ as well as the wealthier upper class together, with a labourer’s grave next to a powerful family plot such as that of the Playfairs.

Being the ‘Home of Golf’, there are, not surprisingly, a number of golf-related stone; the most famous that of Tom Morris, a name synonymous with the sport. His gravestone lies in the Morris family The elaborate gravestone of plot, and without doubt is the most Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, who did visited, as attested by the worn so much to improve St Andrews grass that leads to it! Golfers come from all over the world to St Andrews and naturally want to pay homage. Gifts and mementoes are left; golf balls, tees with messages scrawled on them, which I find a nice gesture, and one that reveals an emotional input to a local St Andrean by complete strangers .

Other names, well-known to golf and the history of St Andrews, are the Auchterlonies and Wilsons, club makers and golf business owners.

These family plots reflect the importance of this sport to the town’s development and prestige. Other gravestones important to St Andrews include that of Warington Smyth Baden-Powell, the founder of the Sea Scouts, and the dark granite monument to the Houston family who started the iron foundry in Cupar, still in business. Such graves remind me of the diversity of the lives led by the people they represent, and the improvements and developments they brought, not only to this town, but the wider world.

At the bottom of the East Cemetery, in a quiet corner, stand two gravestones that struck me because of the tragedies they detail, and also because of the way in which the events were remembered and the dead honoured. They both commemorate sailors lost in shipwrecks off St Andrews harbour at around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. One commemorates Captain Griffith Lewis and ten crew, lost on the ‘Merlin’ out of Sunderland, in 1881. The stone was erected by the people of St

Andrews, not the families. I was touched by this public show of respect for people they had not even met. The second stone commemorates the French ship ‘Hoche’ which sank in 1915. The inscription is written entirely in French. I thought this was both unusual, as well as poignant. These two gravestones also reflect the importance of the harbour here in St Andrews up to modem times. The present assortment of small fishing boats and pleasure craft differ greatly from the time, as recent as the mid20th century, when trading ships and large fishing vessels traded goods and fished the local waters.

Perhaps St Andrews should be most grateful to Lieutenant Colonel Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, although even many locals might not know all he did for the town.

His impressive, grey-painted gravestone makes no mention of his work, which I feel is a shame considering what he did. Returning from India, he single-handedly began a scheme to improve the health of the townsfolk of St Andrews. He knew that ill health and disease could be largely improved by implementing a sewerage system and paving the streets. He knocked down the existing town hall in Market Street, realising it made the side streets around it too narrow and unproductive, and built the present one in South Street. His work remains with us today, for the present town owes much to his perseverance and hard work.

I hope this small piece helps to encourage you to see the graveyards in a different light. They are not simply the grassy areas you walk through to reach the more famous ruins, but a spotlight on the local history of this town, and worth a visit of their own!

Perhaps St Andrews should be most grateful to Lieutenant Colonel Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, although even many locals might not know all he did for the town

22

The “Merlin” Wreck gravestone

FEATURES

Gold from the Sea Many of us have dreamt of finding shipwrecks on the ocean seabed, full of gold. For marine archaeologist Neil Cunningham Dobson, a Scot from St Andrews, this dream has come true. When Neil is not involved in marine archaeology and is home, he is a member of the St Andrews Coastguard Rescue Team and voluntary Chairman of the St Andrews Cosmos Community Centre.

Neil is one of the world’s most surprising archaeologists. Rather than coming first from academia, he has almost 30 years of experience working in the marine industry.

Neil has served as a junior deck officer in the British Merchant Navy, spent 11 years working on oil rigs, 5 years as an offshore marine survival instructor.

“I guess seafaring is in my blood,” Neil explains, coming from a nautical family – his Cunningham ancestors formed a large fishing family in the town and were crew members of both the St Andrews and Crail lifeboats. His grandmother was born and brought up in the Royal George within the fishing community of the town and his father was a Merchant Navy radio officer.

Neil’s diving roots are firmly Sub Aqua Association based. During his time onshore, Neil took up sport diving, and in the late 1980s founded a local Sub Aqua Association club, where he qualified as a sport diving instructor. Today he is Diving Officer of St Andrews Archaeological Divers SAA 903, and the National Boathandling, Chartwork and Navigation Co-ordinator. Approached by the Archaeological Diving Unit, which used to be based at St Andrews University, Neil became interested in marine archaeology.

A commercial diving course followed and he became involved with the Nautical Archaeology Society and qualified as a tutor.

After experience and learning the techniques involved in the survey, excavation and study of a shipwreck working with Dr Colin Martin, of the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies, and having gained a Master’s Degree in Maritime Studies, Neil finally set up his own archaeology and exploration company, Rovarch, as a freelance marine archaeologist.

Neil continues to provide clients with offshore marine survival training.

“The world of marine archaeology is tough, there is usually not enough work to go round and competition is fierce,” said Neil, “I decided to try and find a niche in which I could specialise. With my marine background I realised that deep-water shipwreck investigation was an area needing more work”. After some background research Neil enrolled on a one month ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) Pilot / Technician Course at the Underwater Centre based in Fort William in the Highlands of Scotland. “The course gave me the basic knowledge of ROV operations and the capabilities of the various types of underwater robots. Coupled with my underwater excavation experience, I was able to see how present marine technology could be developed further to carry out deep-water archaeological investigations.”

The search for the Struma, a Jewish refugee ship lost in the Black Sea during World War Two, and the identification of HMS Exmouth lost in the Moray Firth, Scotland, also during World War Two, showed that archaeology could be done at depth, and not necessarily with the archaeologist diving on the site. It also forged future links between marine archaeologists and technical divers.

Neil was then approached by Greg Stemm, co-founder of Odyssey Marine

Exploration Inc, Tampa, Florida, leaders in the field of deep-water shipwreck exploration.

He was invited to join the company in their deep-water projects in America and the Mediterranean. With Odyssey, Neil is a pioneer in developing techniques and standards for conducting archaeological investigations in deep-water. “Odyssey Marine Exploration has created an extremely exciting and rare opportunity for any archaeologist to be a part of.”

Using side-scan sonar and a ROV, Odyssey located one wreck 1,700 feet below the Gulf Stream, and identified it as the SS Republic. The SS Republic was a side-wheel paddle steamer built in 1854 in Baltimore.

After a colourful career which included working for both sides during the American Civil War, she sank in a storm off the Georgia coast on 25th October 1865. The vessel was en route from New York to New Orleans. All but one of the passengers and crew made it safely to a lifeboat or the makeshift life raft, although a number of people on the raft died before they could be rescued. Along with general cargo, the vessel was carrying a reported $400,000 (1865 value) in coins.

To date more than 51,000 have been recovered including $20 Double Eagles, $10 Eagles, Half Dollars and Quarter Dollars.

Each coin is carefully recovered using a

limpet suction tool fitted to the sophisticated manipulator arms of the ROV. Once on the surface, the coins are counted, logged and kept in containers of salt water in cool dark safes. Once on land, they are sent to a specialist coin conservation company which conserves, grades, certifies and encapsulates the coins. Among the $20 coins found is an 1854 – O (New Orleans minted) in almost mint (AU58) condition, there are only three other examples of this coin known in such fine condition. Until it was found, only about 30 such coins had been known to exist throughout the world and are much sought after. Another, an 1861 – S (San Francisco minted), recovered from the wreck emerged from the sea also one of the “finest known.”

While the coins are impressive, and provide the funding for the high cost of deepwater archaeology, to Neil the real treasure is the ship and its history. The artefacts, which all tell a story, are sent to a land-based conservation facility where they are examined, documented, photographed, cleaned, conserved and stored.

“I am just lucky and privileged to be able to do what I do. The crew call me the ‘people’s archaeologist’ and I think that is quite fitting,” said Neil.

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FEATURES A disgruntled Professor of the University complained to this magazine about the lack of facilities in the town for his children to enjoy. We therefore asked Madras College if they would comment.

We are delighted to publish this reply from Nony Mordi (S6 Year Council), and the voice of class 4H3

It’s a Teenage Thing!

In St Andrews, a town with a school as large as Madras College, you would expect there to be plenty of things to do for young teenagers: there are activities outwith school hours; there are various sports in the town; there’s the Leisure Centre, Cosmos, and youth organisations.

There’s a lot out there, but is it for everyone?

There seems to be a lack of places that youngsters can go to just to have a simple kick-about. It would appear that the obvious place to go would be the University. St Andrews University has excellent sports facilities that could be used. Unfortunately these facilities are in many ways inaccessible to people outwith the University, because they are expensive. There are no children’s rates which would make it attractive. For example, for an under-18 to use the University track, which is brand new and in wonderful condition, the cost is £1.10 (it used to be 65p), but for a student it costs only 65p. Fair enough, the students go to the University, but they get discount rates at Fife Council places as well. Why does the system not work the other way around?

In the town there seems to be a lack of places that have the enthusiasm and encouragement that the youngsters need. There is a communication problem and therefore a lack of understanding, a gap that needs to be bridged between the older and younger populations in the town. The older generation complain about children hanging around the streets drinking, smoking, and making noise in the town. The teenagers reply that it is because there is nothing else to do. There seems to be an ‘all talk, no action attitude’, when it comes down to dealing with teenagers, not only in St Andrews, but probably in the whole of the UK. There is a general consensus that people of secondary school age are a bit of a nuisance and should be kept away somewhere, an “out of sight, out of mind” idea.

So let’s do it. Why can’t there be somewhere in the town that the teenagers can go to on a Friday night, or any other night? The

under-11s are still content going to the parks to play, and the over-l7s have the pubs. The teenagers within the crucial age band of 12-16 do not really have anywhere, and that is the age when they need guidance and support, as well as a bit of freedom, since they can easily be lead astray. I know there are Community Organisations working on this, but they, too, need support.

Something like a café where young people could sit and practice making their hot chocolate last hours whilst feeling welcome, (all at an affordable price) does not seem to exist.

While some might argue that such places exist in the way of Youth Cafés and Youth Clubs, they are not keeping the children interested all the time.

When adults of the older generation organise such clubs and run them with their ideas of fun the age gap becomes a problem. For example the lingo will never be correct. Tell a 16-year old that there is a disco on a Friday night, they will diplomatically say, “Maybe”, but are unlikely to turn up. If you say ‘party’ or even ‘dance night’ then they’ll be planning their outfit before the words are out of your mouth. Of course, it’s impossible to educate the older generation in the language of the young! The only way to get the children really interested in these types of clubs is to give them the opportunity to run them themselves, under adult supervision of course. This is a programme that has existed on occasions and could work again with a positive outlook. When presented with this idea, the fourth years gave a very positive response. They felt that they could organise events with a bit of help, that they would be a success because they could persuade their friends to go and would have a great time because it was something that they organised and would therefore want to make a success of.

St Andrews is very much a student-centred town. There always seems to be a lot going on in the town, organised by students for students, and the events are a success, for example balls, ceilidhs, and band nights, and this gets them off the street. It could therefore be suggested that teenagers should also be given the opportunity to plan events in the town for themselves. Such events would also give them the chance to show off their talent to the older generation and show them that there are some positives about the age group too.

The best way to find out what children need and want, is to ask them, and involve them in any decisions and changes that will be made that will impact on their lives.

Therefore in conclusion, I’d say that on behalf of a small cross-section of Madras College pupils the facilities in St Andrews are there and are not too bad, but there are certain gaps that need filling with the help of the teenage population, and other town organisations.

Wider access to University facilities and greater advertisement of events which we do have access to could bring benefits to all concerned. Unfortunately not all of us read every inch of every newspaper. It’s a teenage thing!

The best way to find out what children need and want, is to ask them, and involve them in any decisions and changes that will be made that will impact on their lives.

The last 4 pages of this magazine have been sponsored by a kind and generous reader who wishes to remain anonymous, but who said that he thinks others should follow his example!

24

FEATURES Catherine McDonald tells a true story for St Valentine’s Day. Her own story is so interesting in itself that it is included at the end.

Love Affair – with a difference I cannot lay claim to many love affairs in my life time – if any, were the truth to be told. The term ‘promiscuous’ has been used, I admit, but only to describe the turnover of antique furniture in my life. There is however one brief episode, which took place some fourteen years ago. This I would now like to confess in full, it being the season of love and romance, reminiscence and regret.

There were a few places left on a Naval Association twinning trip to Mülheim, and I was offered one of them in return for my services as an interpreter of German. A last minute visitor’s passport was obtained and suddenly I was part of the veteran crew.

Much heavy drinking took place from the start, for which no linguistic assistance was required, but about halfway across the Channel came the first plea for help. His name was Peter; he wanted to show me something.

Unusually sober and with an honest face, it seemed reasonable to follow him into a quiet corner of the boat.

From a trouser pocket he carefully withdrew a small pink package. It was a Bingo card, on the back of which were scribbled the words: RETURN TO XANTEN. “Roman coins“, he explained whilst unwrapping the enclosure. “My brother-in-law looted them in 1945 from the Xanten Museum, and seeing as we are going there, he thought we could hand them in.”

The coins, in accordance with Peter’s story, proved to be the priceless Xanten Hoard which had been missing from the museum since the time of the Allied advance into Germany.

The brother-in-law saw this trip as a means of returning a young soldier’s ‘spoils of war’, and easing an old man’s burden of guilt. The package was entrusted to me for delivery.

As our group passed through customs, I was the only one to be stopped. This I presumed was on account of mine being the only visitor’s passport, rather than of some guilty secret I might be trying to hide. Giving me a doubtful look, the customs officer did no more than scrutinize it intently before waving

me on towards the questioning group. “You must have a dishonest face“, whispered someone accusingly to me, as yet in ignorance of the episode on the boat and of what I was carrying in my handbag as a result.

The coins remained there for a couple of days, as the programme was tight and fraught with the usual petty tensions involved in such events. Besides, the moment had to be just right for the final surrender of such a treasure, and how nice it was to have the power to select that moment.

In the meantime, there they now were, ensconced in a lady’s handbag on the floor of a German department store while the lady was trying on coats. What if the bag were to be stolen or snatched? Imagine trying to explain to the German police the nature of the contents of the missing bag. They would think I was being impertinent.

Evening came and time for bed. The crisp, white sheets provided the perfect backdrop for viewing and handling the fifteen coins in the utmost privacy.

I even allowed myself one or two rubbings.

In fact, the more I looked at them the more desirable they became. Was this ‘falling in love’, was it ‘love at first sight!, ‘infatuation’ perhaps, or was it just lust, or greed,? Could it be history repeating itself? No, it certainly could not.

Whatever it was, we spent a memorable night together and agreed to part company first thing in the morning.

A blaze of publicity, one night’s imprisonment in the hotel safe, then a journey in a velvet case to their new and cloistered existence at the museum in Xanten.

In no time at all it was over, yesterday’s news . . . my affair with the Xanten Hoard.

Now Catherine’s Story: I was born in Wuppertal, Germany, in I948. My father was an army A change of house took us to Bridge of Allan, with the opportunity to chaplain and he met my mother, a German refugee from Stettin, live in and restore a former ‘Free Church’ which had connections with as she played the organ in his church. My childhood was spent in Robert Louis Stevenson. mining villages in the diocese of Durham, to which he returned as a It was artistically as well as financially rewarding prior to a Church of England vicar after the war. retirement move to St Andrews.

Following my education at Durham High School, I worked as a The love of music, as well as a lifelong ambition to live by the translator of technical German for a local mining engineering firm, sea was more than satisfied by this move nearly four years ago. My with time spent abroad in the parent company in Westphalia. I met concern for people with special needs continues here in the art and my husband, a Church of Scotland minister, on the Island of Iona, craft work which I do as a volunteer in Rymonth House. Finally, the and came to live in Limekilns in Fife. My two daughters were born in interest in antiques and collectables is met by the Antiques Fairs Dunfermline. in the Town Hall, where I am frequently a stallholder. More for the After a move to Falkirk and then to Dunblane, I attended Stirling disposal of a backlog of life’s interesting clutter than University as a mature student, studying English (with German for the avid and ongoing renewal of stock, these fairs and music) plus a diploma in education. I combined an increasing (especially in a cosmopolitan town like St Andrews) interest in antiques and restoration with work as a supply teacher in provide some social stimulus and excitement , which Central Region. The diversity of Special Needs education appealed can often be missing in your life in retirement! to me most of all.

2nd Century AD Roman coin reproduced by kind permission the Northern Echo

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FEATURES

Ask the Museum Marion Wood, Curator of the St Andrews Museum, has retired – this magazine thanks her most sincerely for all her contributions, and wishes her much happiness and prosperity.

Lesley-Anne Lettice, Curator of the Preservation Trust Museum, North Street, St Andrews, has kindly stepped into the breach. If you have a query, both the Curator and Volunteer Research Group at the Preservation Trust Museum would be pleased to hear from you.

Answer to Stan Reed’s enquiry Regarding Stan Reed’s query about the funeral of seven victims of the 1942 Nelson Street bomb, we have been unable to find anyone who recalls seeing the funeral procession mentioned in The Citizen of August 15th 1942. According to the report, the bodies were buried in one large grave. Thanks to Alison Sullivan of Historic Scotland, we discovered that one of the deceased, Albert Alfred Brown, a waiter at Rusack’s hotel, was buried in the grounds of the Cathedral on 15th August 1942 (Section G, Row 33, Layer 8). We could not find any mention in the records of the burial of Mr Wilson, son of the owner of Wilson’s garage at 193 South Street, or that of the five members of the Brown family of Dundee, who were holidaying in St Andrews at the time. It may be that the bodies of this family were carried in the funeral procession, then later transferred to Dundee for burial.

Interested parties may wish to contact Alison at the Cathedral or alternatively, contact the records Office in Edinburgh.

Introducing the Green solution to St. Andrews’ traffic problems – our Alternative Motoring Correspondent writes: This is truly the revolution in urban transportation we’ve all been waiting for!

The retractable legs below the floor facilitate parking. There is an auxilliary engine powered by rotting compost, a booster running on fermenting chicken manure, and a battery charger made out of sprouting alfalfa. The wind generator is also retractable, as it won’t pass under arches like the West Port, or the Pends, or under bridges. The pulling-kite that allows it to accelerate past 3 mph can’t be used inside the Edinburgh Airport Control Zone. But you can wind it up.

Several people either phoned, or wrote in, about Stan Reed’s query in the last issue, and all are in agreement with this letter from Elizabeth Bushnell: “The grassy patch at the top of Greenside Place was not the site of a cottage bombed in the 1940s. I remember washing hanging out on that grassy patch in the late 1920s and 30s. The cottage that was bombed was further along Queen’s Terrace and behind Alison Place: there is new building of some sort there (about opposite the bottom of Westburn Lane). The nearby ‘Orchard Cottage’ (the garden gate of which is halfway up the steps and facing the grassy Patch) was damaged.

It belonged to a friend of my parents, a Miss Joan Paterson (daughter of the artist Malcolm Paterson) and she came to stay with us while her cottage was repaired.

The other cottage on which the bombs fell was, I think, completely destroyed – but it certainly was not on that grassy patch!”

Q: I have in my possession several humorous postcards signed ‘Cynicus’ and understand that the artist, Martin Anderson, had St Andrews’ connections. I wonder if you can tell me any more about him?

A: Martin Anderson was born in Leuchars in 1854 and educated at Madras College, St Andrews. He studied at Glasgow School of Art, contributing humorous drawings to the local press. He set out to conquer London, but returned to Scotland unsuccessful, and began working for the left-wing Liberal Dundee Advertiser, building up a reputation as a cartoonist. In 1889, he returned to London, turning a fried-fish shop into a gallery and becoming an overnight sensation. His first publication, The Satires of Cynicus (1890), contained hand-coloured illustrations and became a bestseller. Many walls sported ‘Cynicus’ prints, which poked fun at drunkards, hypocrites, and the unhappy poor who were their victims. In 1893, however, he published Cartoons Social and Political, biting political satire, too strong for many tastes. The book did not sell and reviewers called his drawings, ‘vulgar’, and, ‘crude’.

Anderson returned to Scotland, where his sister Annie, had set up a small company in Tayport, supplying hand-coloured plates for the publications. The Cynicus Publishing Company began producing humorous postcards based on his cartoons and at its height employed around a hundred staff. CPC collapsed in 1910 when the postcard craze ended. Most of Anderson’s capital had gone into building his home, Castle Cynicus, at Balmullo. Forced to sell off many of his original paintings at a fraction of their worth, he and his sister lived a hand-to-mouth existence. After his death, his wonderful collection of paintings and curiosities were sold at public auction.

Castle Cynicus was purchased by a neighbour, and left to fall into ruin.

Q: As a relative newcomer to St Andrews, I wonder if you could answer the following query. Can you tell me anything about an inscription above a door in Queens Terrace – ‘They have said, they will say, let them be saying’?

A: The door itself leads to the former University Botanic Garden in St Mary’s College.

The inscription is a version of the Keith family motto. Like many others in St Andrews, the stone itself is displaced. It is believed to have originally come from a house in Westburn Lane. Those interested in finding out more about the many inscriptions, carvings and architectural embellishments to be found in the ancient city would be well advised to find a copy of The Carved Stones of St Andrews, by Mary. M. Innes, published by the University Library 1992 ISBN 0 900897 10 4

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COMPETITION RESULTS The winner is Ms Cathie Kelly from Kingsbarns, Fife.

Bottoms-Up was so impressed with the number of people who entered that they very generously decided to give a runner-up award as well, and that lucky winner is Mr R. Irvine of St Andrews.

Well done both of you. And thank you, all those who sent in completed searches – better luck next time!

OUT & ABOUT

Take a refreshing walk By the time this appears the leaves will almost all have fallen, and the autumn colours have gone, but spring is around the corner and even on a fine clear winter’s day the Kemback woods and their approaches offer an attractive walk with some wide and splendid views We usually make this a “tadpole walk” – the circuit of the woods is the round head, and the tail is the same path out as in. You can park in Strathkinness.

Proceed along Bonfield Road, at the end of which the footpath to Blebo begins. Just after Clatto Farm it joins a road through the village of Blebo Craigs. Pass two houses on your right, the second of which is a large new building, and between this latter house and a stone wall you will find a path with, a little way in, a wooden gate.

with Veronica Smart

Go through the gate and continue till you meet a road running east/west with a couple of houses, but turn left here, and very shortly afterwards, right, into the woods.

There are a number of paths through the woods, but a circuit can be made by taking the last on the left, and continuing round with it until it emerges from the woods, and you come to the road just above Jennie’s Steps (a flight leading down to Kemback Church and School) back into Blebo Craigs.

Return through Blebo along this road, ignoring roads to the right and left, and you will rejoin your outward route. Be careful at the fork shortly after Clatto Farm, as the true path is less obvious in this direction than on the way out;

**

the seemingly better track veers right down from the ridge, but the way you want is the green path to the left, keeping to the high ground, which will bring you back to Bonfield Road.

If you prefer a wholly circular route, and do not mind walking on a moderately busy road, you can make your way outwards along Strathkinness High Road for a little under two miles after the Tavern crossroads, and join the point by means of a track leading southwards shortly after Knock Hill Farm. This track should have a Public Footpath signpost, but don’t count on it – these posts have an unfortunate habit of disappearing.

**

** Ordnance Survey maps Explorer 311 or Landranger 59 would be useful. Stout footwear is advisable after a wet spell, as some of the footpaths can be very muddy.

Cambo Snowdrops Walking through the 70 acres of woodland at Cambo when it is carpeted in snowdrops, snowflakes and aconites, is becoming something of a tradition for many people during February and March.

As the area of snowdrops increases, so do the attractions. Following the clearing of shrubs and small trees along the edge of the burn, new vistas have been created for 2005, and two ginger pigs have joined Holly and Ivy – they clear the ivy which threatens to engulf the snowdrops.

National Collection status has now been granted to Catherine Erskine’s collection of over 200 varieties of snowdrop, and it is anticipated that this will bring even more enthusiasts to examine the differences among them.

An interesting collection of ‘snowdrop’ gifts and cards has been put together and will be available for sale on the estate, or by mail order from www.camboestate.com

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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

Purdie Building North Haugh St Andrews Fife KY16 9ST Telephone: (01334) 463020 Email: amm@st-andrews.ac.uk Website: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/reprographic/latestrepro.html