U.K. 2013
EDINBURGH
Day 6, Sunday, September 8
It had turned rather chilly last but had a good night’s sleep with our little electric radiator. Sometime
during the night Kathleen unplugged it because she got hot and didn’t
know how to turn it down. After another good breakfast, we walked about
10 minutes to
St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral.
St. Mary's Cathedral is the mother church of the diocese of Edinburgh
and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and part of the worldwide Anglican
Communion. It is the first large cathedral built in Britain since the
Reformation, and one of Scotland's principal monuments of mid-Victorian
architecture. It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott following a
competition in
1872.
The construction began in 1874 and was completed
in 1917. The style of Scott’s design for the Cathedral was inspired by
the early Gothic churches and abbeys of Scotland. He gave it as large a
floor space as the site would allow (262' X 131') and made the massive
central tower and spire (295') and the twin western spires (196') which
can be seen from miles away. The enormous weight of the central tower
(over 5,000 tons) is carried on four main pillars .
It was quite beautiful inside. The Cathedral had a long Gothic style
interior with pointed arcade arches, a triforium level and the
clearstory with stained glass windows.
The
reredos behind the altar was a marble relief of the Crucifixion flanked
by figures of St. Margaret of Scotland and St. Columba. It was
designed and sculped by Mary Grant of Kilgraston.
The choir was on vacation, but the organ
was wonderful. After church we introduced ourselves to the Dean and a
young man who is going to be ordained priest the next Sunday. He
preached the sermon this morning. Several other people spoke to us.
An
older couple started a conversation and very kindly offered to walk us
to the train station so we would find our way. We accepted.
When we were in Cancun with my daughter and her husband in February, we
attended a dinner on the beach. We met a couple from Edinburgh. They
said their best friend had the same family name as Kathleen, and that he
had done considerable genealogical research on
the family. They invited
us to visit them and their friends when we came to Edinburgh.
Later through correspondence, they invited us to have Sunday lunch with
them and their friends. We took the train to a nearby town, and they met
us at the train station and took us to their lovely home. The friends
that they had told us about at the beach were also there. Dinner
consisted of a variety of very tasty local dishes. We had a wonderful
time and appreciate very much their gracious hospitality. After we ate,
we walked over to the other couple's house for an assortment of sweets
and tea.
We left about 5:30, and our host drove us all the way back to our hotel
– about a 20 minute ride. We have such a good time meeting people on
these trips. We look forward to spending time in London with two
friends that I met via cathedralquest.com and papermodelers.com.
About 7:00 we decided that we need to eat something, so we went across the
street to McDonalds for a Quarter Pounder with cheese and a McFlurry ice
cream. We came back to pack as our train for York leaves at 10 AM. We have had a wonderful time in Edinburgh. We have seen lots
of interesting sites. It doesn’t seem possible that we have been almost
a week. Everyone we have met has been very friendly and helpful.
