Category: Edinburgh

Face to face with my grandfather

I’ve never concerned myself particularly with the family tree.

With my surname, Cameron, I romantically assumed that my ancestors were highlanders; if they didn’t perish on Culloden Moor in 1746, they made their way to the Scottish lowlands, or perhaps further afield to make their fortunes.

My mother was Ruth Nicolson, born in 1916, the eldest of three children. Her family were originally from Pittenweem, a fishing village in the Kingdom of Fife.

Her father William was a minister in the Church of Scotland, first in Edinburgh, then later in the parish of Elgin. He wanted to become a missionary, but was prevented by rheumatic fever, which led to his premature death in 1921 at the age of 34, leaving three young orphans: my mother, her sister Aunt Jessie, and Uncle Bill.

I knew little more about him, apart from his portrait photograph as a minister; he has a strong resemblance to one of my nephews.

This year I came across a family photo I hadn’t seen before. If I hadn’t been told they were my relatives, I might almost have thought they were members of a minor Sicilian mafia clan; these sturdy people look as if they have had a hard life.

 

The Nicolsons, c1903

 

 

The Nicolson genes are strong; the boy in the back row is my grandfather.

 

He’s perhaps 16 years old, which dates the picture to about 1903. My guess is that the two young women on either side of him are his sisters; I dimly remember knowing Auntie Maggie, and I believe the other was Aunt Madeleine – my great aunts.

Along with the family photo was an extract of the Register of Marriages from 1912, when my grandfather William, aged 25, (described then as a lecturer) married Jessie Hogg (spinster), aged 24. Jessie’s parents were David Hogg, a plasterer (deceased) and Rachael (née Scott).

William’s father, also William, was a retired hairdresser. His late wife was Christina (nee Doig). They must be the seated couple in the photo. Perhaps one of the boys is my Great Uncle Bill, who became a member of The Magic Circle; when I was a small boy he still performed tricks at his flat in Edinburgh.

 

They say you can’t choose your family, but I’m glad to have met them face to face at last. Now I know more about who I am.

Edinburgh: mussels for lunch, dinner at The Dogs

Walking through the Old Town, I started looking for somewhere to have lunch. Most of the menus on Victoria Street and the Royal Mile were pretty much interchangeable: “best haggis in town”, salmon, or steak and chips, and I was looking for something lighter.

Walking down Cockburn Street, I spotted a blackboard on the pavement outside Ecco Vino.

 

I can resist everything except temptation

 

I peered inside the dark interior to ask for a table on the pavement. The open kitchen is just inside the entrance, and I was greeted by the appetising aroma of fresh seafood and garlic – I had struck lucky! The interior was a classic small Italian Enoteca, lined with bottles of wine.

Settled outside, I started with a side salad, which was a generous mix of mustardy leaves, ripe cherry tomatoes and a dusting of parmesan, for just £3. Then a small portion of Mussels for £9. I expected a bowl, but they arrived in a metal pot. They were a thing of beauty, in a wonderful wine and cream broth spiked with parsley and just a whisper of chilli. As I tucked in, I wondered whether I had been served a main course portion by mistake!

 

Every good story should have a beginning….
…. a middle….
….and an end.

 

Ecco Vino, Seafood & Wine Bar

 

Cockburn Street

 

After an excellent espresso, I went back in to thank the chef, and asked him which region of Italy he was from; he turned out to be Spanish, and my mussels had been prepared by his Polish assistant.

https://www.eccovinoedinburgh.com/

Ecco Vino Seafood & Wine Bar, 19 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh EH1 1BP

 

going to the dogs

The Dogs is a quirky dining room situated on a first floor above a shop on Hanover Street, with daylight streaming in through the Georgian windows. The tables are packed close together, there’s a busy bar dispensing wine and cocktails, so it’s noisy, but it’s mostly noise generated by people having fun.

There’s a lot of meat on the menu (crunchy pigs’ ears, oxtail, ham hock, ox kidney), and the food is served on mismatched vintage china. It’s not all meat though, and we started our meal with a tangy smoked mackerel paté, which came with lightly pickled cucumber and sourdough toast. The wine list is good, with plenty of choices available by the glass or carafe.

The Dogs is well priced – you’re invited to use hashtags #dogsdinner and #valueformoney

 

The Dogs
Evening light in The Dogs

 

http://www.thedogsonline.co.uk/

The Dogs, 110 Hanover Street, Edinburgh EH2 1DR

 

Postcard from Edinburgh

My parents met, married and lived in Edinburgh until moving to London in 1946. Although I’ve never lived there, I’ve always felt a connection with the city. If you ignore the shopfronts, the yellow lines and the traffic, look up and you’ll see how little has changed in much of the city since my parents’ heyday in the 1930s.

 

Victoria Street, Edinburgh Old Town

 

The weather was unusually sunny on a recent visit, and it would have been easy to reach the conclusion that the Scottish capital enjoys a Mediterranean climate. On Midsummer Night the skies were still light until after 10pm.

 

Edinburgh Castle, Midsummer Night

 

edinburgh, the athens of the north – or its venice?

Historically, Edinburgh was known as “the Athens of the North”, but on this occasion I was struck by some similarities to Venice.

A “Close” in the Old Town reminded me of a Venetian “Sottoportego”.

 

Fisher’s Close, between Victoria Terrace and the Royal Mile

 

Crossing the Forth Railway Bridge on a train towards Dunfermline, I was surprised to see this cruise ship moored at South Queensferry. It looks more in scale with the Firth of Forth than it would on the Giudecca Canal. Apparently they land 3,000 passengers a day here.

 

Cruise ship at South Queensferry

 

 

Some of Edinburgh’s restaurants take pride in using the best local ingredients and suppliers, an echo of the best Venetian menus.

 

Contini, George Street

 

Nightmare on Cockburn Street.

Walking through the Old Town, I started looking for somewhere to have lunch.

Enjoying an espresso after my outdoor lunch at Ecco Vino, (see separate post here http://wp.me/p7AW4i-nr) a couple left the next table and a huge seagull immediately swooped down and made off with a piece of baguette. Then another settled and started picking at the remains of a melanzane parmigiana. The blue sky started to fill with fearless flapping; it looked as if someone was filming a remake of Hitchcock’s classic, “The Birds”, on Cockburn Street.

 

A seagull with a taste for aubergine
“Bandit, Twelve O’Clock High!”
Dive Bombers
It’s amazing what they can do with CGI these days.

 

“The Modern Portrait”

at The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, I was particularly struck by three images:

 

Annie Lennox describes this photograph of herself as “gender free, and racially ambiguous. I could be a statue, a ghostly apparition, or an Indian sadhu. The false eyelashes represent the artifice of performance”.

 

Annie Lennox (2003) by Annie Lennox & Allan Martin

 

 

Artist Ken Currie quoted Sir David Lane, one of the distinguished surgeons in his large scale portrait Three Oncologists, talking about the nature of cancer: “People saw cancer as a kind of darkness, and our job is to go in there and retrieve people from it.” That was Currie’s key, allowing him to unlock the subject and create this disturbing image, which hangs on a blood-red wall.

 

 

Three Oncologists (2001) by Ken Currie

 

 

Looking at the painting of actor Alan Cumming, I was startled by someone speaking to me.

 

Gallery Attendant: (unprompted) “He likes to have his picture taken in front of it when he comes in; he comes in a lot….”

Me: “Is it OK to take a photo?”

Gallery Attendant: “Oh, he takes pictures of himself all the time, so it’s perfectly fine”.

 

 

Alan Cumming, OBE (2014) by Christian Hook

 

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/scottish-national-portrait-gallery

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JD

 

Later that night, there he was again, this time in Thistle Street in the window of 21st Century Kilts, kiltmaker to the stars.

http://21stcenturykilts.com/

 

Alan Cumming, OBE

 

 

valvona & crolla

Breakfast tranquility at Valvona & Crolla
Aladdin’s Cave on Elm Row

 

No visit to Edinburgh is complete without a visit to the institution that is Valvona & Crolla, whether for a “full Italian” breakfast, lunch, or to buy a picnic for the train home. I bought slices of a pungent Tuscan salame Spagato, pecorino cheese, olives and some green red Camone tomatoes from Sicily – crunchy, juicy, thick-skinned little flavour bombs.

http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/

Valvona & Crolla,19 Elm Row, Edinburgh EH7 4AA