Ashley Chiaramonte - Edinburgh Day 3

Today we explored Edinburgh Castle…the home of the (late…very late) Mary, Queen of Scots. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see this castle as Mary was one of my all time favorite Scottish queens. While at the castle, I was given the rare opportunity to see the changing of the guard as it only happens once a year. I was also given the opportunity to see demonstrations from within the castle.

Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile

After spending some time at the castle, we made sure to stop over at the Writers' Museum. Here we learned about Steven Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. I learned interesting tidbits of information about all three of these Scottish authors. 

The Writers' Museum - Home of Burns, Scott and Stevenson

The most interesting information that I learned was that Burns actually had an affair with a married woman. Their relationship stayed somewhat platonic as they had an emotional affair through letters. After Burns left Scotland, the affair ended and he never saw his “love” again.

Walter Scott was a lawyer who ventured into the literary realm to make money. Since he was not technically allowed to make money outside of his profession, Scott published his series of texts anonymously. He made lots of money because of this and gained a certain taste for the expensive life. Unfortunately for Scott, he would spend money before he gained it. This caused him to get into A LOT of debt – by about 9 million USD or 6 million British Pounds. In order to not lose his mansion and his expensive items (and foods/beverages), Burns admitted that he was the author of his previously anonymously published series. Since he was in the field of law, he was able to finangle a deal with the people who he owed a debt to. Burns was able to pay back his loans while still keeping a portion of his earnings (which was unheard of). Soon after his death, his debt was settled by his family.

As a fan of Stevenson, I did not really learn a lot of new information about him from the museum. However, I did find out something very interesting about the author of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. People who have read his work have become enamored in what he has written. One fan went as far as making a book sculpture depicting a scene from the text, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Nobody really knows who created this sculpture, but millions of people travel to this museum annually just to see this sculpture in person.