Scotiana

 
 
Here fond affection
rears its sculpted stone…
(from John Henry Alexander’s epitaph – Glasgow Necropolis)
 
“CEMETERIES ARE FOR THE LIVING. Sure, the dead are the permanent residents and the living merely visitors but the Necropolis and every other burying ground in the world were imagined, designed and built for the benefit of other living people. Time, as [...]

I would like to begin this post with a few words about Lettres de Gourgounel (1979), one of the first books written by Kenneth White (his first book of prose) and also the first book I‘ve read by this author. The title of the original English edition is Letters from Gourgounel (1966) but it has [...]

Hi everybody ! Try to imagine we’re all sitting on a Mackintosh chair round a Mackintosh table, in the very special atmosphere of the Willow Tearooms in Glasgow, chatting about everything Scotland, our favourite subject !
To begin with, have you read our friends’ second Letter from Scotland? This time, Iain and Margaret have told us [...]

We are very  pleased today to introduce our dear Scottish friends, Margaret and Iain McEwan, as our first “Guests Bloggers” on Scotiana.
In this Letter from Scotland, Iain will guide us to the St-Valentine relics that remain in Glasgow, a very timely and interesting subject to read on the eve of worldwide celebration of St-Valentine’s day.
We [...]

Back in 1840, Glasgow architect John Baird was commissioned by Sir James Campbell, to design the large block of business premises in Buchanan Street, known as Prince’s Buildings. The buildings formed a four-storey merchant square in yellow sandstone, named in honour of the birth of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII)
A year or so [...]