From the sweet vennels we saw lovely things like the Sir Walter Scott monument, the biggest monument to a single writer in the world, "created to represent the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries
, and to show the gratitude felt for him by Scotland," or something like that. He revived Scottish culture almost singlehandedly after their final war for freedom was crushed at the Battle of Culloden in 1745. Kilts and bagpipes were almost nonexistent, but Scott grew up on the border of Scotland and England, and he heard the old timers tell their tales of both the war and the true Scottish culture. He romanticized it so movingly that after his Waverley novels rocked the world and established the historical fiction genre, which eminents such as Victor Hugo and Leo Tolstoy wrote their magnum opei in (forgive my unwieldy latin: greatest works, I mean), that the world fell in love with Scotland so much that through it she was reborn.As you can tell by this gallant lads face, Scotland is no place for mamma's boys.
The high 
keep in Edinburgh Castle is this: a monument to Scotland's fallen in World War I. The phrase over the inner entrance simply reads, "Lest we forget." You should read the "Beware of Pride" talk by Pres. Benson--that line is taken from Rudyard Kipling's poem, which I might add here in full sometime. The other tribute inside--where we couldn't take pics--which I loved best, was inscribed in stone, beneath stained glass windows, round and round a central tomb: "Their Name Lives."
keep in Edinburgh Castle is this: a monument to Scotland's fallen in World War I. The phrase over the inner entrance simply reads, "Lest we forget." You should read the "Beware of Pride" talk by Pres. Benson--that line is taken from Rudyard Kipling's poem, which I might add here in full sometime. The other tribute inside--where we couldn't take pics--which I loved best, was inscribed in stone, beneath stained glass windows, round and round a central tomb: "Their Name Lives."
"Some say that the age of chivalry is past: that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, as long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, and a man or woman left to say, 'I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the attempt." -- Charles Kingsley(I've only read this quote, but intend to read the rest:
Scotland was epic. We were very tired, all having just got in, but adjusted quickly to the massive British breakfasts consisting of eggs, bacon (ham), sometimes mushrooms!!! (as I learned to yearn and scream for in my heart like Merry and Pippin), delicious mueslix cereal, yogurt, juices--even rolls and cheese and meat if you want. I suspect I'm fatter. But I don't care!!!
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