That was a good week ....part 1

So there I was back in the Central Belt last week, with a side trip to Leeds at the weekend. And a good time was had, with one foreseeable and unpleasant exception. But there you go, as Austen said 'let other pens dwell on guilt and misery'.

We hadn't been planning on being away for a week but the OH won tickets to the Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites exhibition which was on at the National Museum and so we needed to find a time to go before it ended. And this seemed to be the only option for us  given that it ends in mid-November and we're not planning any more trips south for the foreseeable future. Well I'm not. 

Incidentally I took no photographs while I was away at all but here's a picture of said Prince and his brother from the exhibition.

                                                  

Taken from Google. You weren't allowed to take photos inside the exhibition anyway.

The competition in which the OH won the tickets was on Facebook, and basically you had to say what you would take on a picnic to make it perfect and in amongst all the 'wine/ glasses/ pate/ gold forks I suppose his (calculated)  answer of 'someone I love' did stand out. The prize was in two parts; there were the tickets and then there was a copy of the catalogue signed, if you can contain your excitement, by the actor who actually plays BPC in the TV series Outlander. Hooray. Or not. I did say we could always try and sell it on e-bay, but that was before I saw it. It's a beautiful book, full of photographs of some of the exhibits together with some historical background and essays on aspects of Jacobite culture. The 'signature' of the actor I cannot decipher, since it seems to comprise some single arcane symbol. Although he has helpfully appended BPC to it. 

I enjoyed the exhibition and I certainly enjoyed the associated pop up shop, but I had the same  problem with it that I have had with exhibitions at the National Museum before. It was Anglo-centric. It took a totally English view of the period and the people in it. Never was the phrase, history is written by the winners, more brilliantly displayed than on occasions like this, when the National Museum of Scotland  simply regurgitates the English view without even noticing (presumably, which is bad) or perhaps not even caring (which is worse). Do not by the way run away with the notion that I am a some sort of romantic Jacobite fan.  I'm not. The Stewarts generally were a pretty poor lot, both as people and as monarchs, although probably not a great deal worse than many of their contemporaries  throughout the ages, but I doubt I'd have been turning out for the Prince had I been around in 1745. I just think that the National Museum might try and be a bit more National as in Scotland rather than National as in England's junior branch, that's all. 

Also on was a much smaller, and free, exhibition of Early Scottish Silver which the OH, a one  time and maybe to be again, maker of silver jewellery was keen to see. And that was interesting too. 

Afterwards we took the opportunity to go and check that the George Campbell Hay stone was still in situ in Makar's Court, where it seemed to be weathering nicely, before meeting up with my friend V and her husband for a lovely Italian meal, which was a good end to an interesting and enjoyable day. Although it rained quite heavily on the way back to the car.  

Next time, the strange tale of the salad and the wood.