James IV And The Giant Peach...

[endlessrarities]

Well, it's over.  After weeks of preparation my clay tobacco pipe debut is over. 

The venue was very strange.  Historic Scotland had offered us accomodation in the depths of Stirling Castle, so we found ourselves billeted in a former powder magazine for the day.  Yes it seems like there's no getting away from high (and low!) explosives as far as I'm concerned. 

I prefer big venues.  Not little intimate places.   I'd prepared a formal paper, but a series of impromptu notes would have been more appropriate.  It was a bit out of my comfort zone at times, but I got through okay, and my paper provoked some interest.  So thank you, Leander Starr Jameson (aka Dr Jim) - former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. 

And at the end of the day, we had a private tour of the refurbishment works that are currently taking place at Stirling Castle.  The Renaissance Palace of James V, used as a barracks until the 1970s, is now being recreated as it would have been in 1542, the year of James's death.  We weren't allowed to take photographs, as work's still in progress and the place is closed to the public.  But HS have helpfully provided a publicity video on YouTube, which is worth checking out:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRXUBht1z4

It looks stupendous.  Why, then, did I finish the tour feeling profoundly uncomfortable??  Call it an over-sensitivity to Late Medieval Scots imagery, but it all stemmed from a dead unicorn... 

The unicorn has a special place in Scots heraldry.  It's the supporter of the Royal Stewart arms, and King James IV was very fond of it. 

As part of the new improved Stirling, HS have commissioned a reproduction of 'The Hunt of the Unicorn' for the Presence Chamber of Mary of Guise (widow of James V).  They had pictures of the entire set in our conference venue: when I 'read' the images, which follows a 15th century hunting party as it tracks down and slaughters a unicorn, then bears its corpse back to the castle in triumph, I saw an allegory for the Battle of Flodden, where James IV was killed by an English Army.  And yet this is the scene being featured in a Scots palace!!  A dead unicorn also featured in the King's Bedchamber, unceremoniously squashed beneath a lion rampant....  Well, it looked dead.  Maybe it was just dozing...

To add insult to injury, one of the famous Stirling Heads has been interpreted as Henry VIII, that same English King whose second division army killed James IV and didn't even afford him a decent burial!!!  Did James V's parents - James IV and Margaret Tudor- feature on the heads?  No.  But his darling Uncle Henry did...

Hmmm.  It didn't quite sit comfortably with me.  My 'inner Hugh' (some people who call themselves psychic have a spirit guide.  I'm a writer, I have characters who perform a similar service!)  shook his head and muttered that it was 'inappropriate'.  He'd have been alive at this time, though no longer active in Scots politics, so I guess he'd know what he was talking about.  Perhaps it's been a deliberate ploy to demonstrate that by this time, the Franco Scottish element had already been routed by the anglophiles.... Though to be honest, I doubt it's been thought out with anything resembling that much subtlety...

Anyway, since I feel that James IV has been thoroughly slighted in the New Improved James V palace, I'll do what I can to address the balance.  This is James IV's Great Hall.  HS caused quite a stooshie when they coated it with this brilliant peachy-gold harling - it sticks out like a sore thumb and you can see it for miles.
 
I love it.  It's vibrant, it's in-yer-face, and it's so very James...
 

And just to prove that not all Stirling unicorns are dead, here's this fellow which adorns the Mercat Cross:-


 

Unicorns are a common feature in Scots towns.  When you see one on a mercat cross like this, you know you're in a Royal burgh.  Burgh of baronies, where the taxes were collected by the local landowner as opposed to the Crown, have lions.

Live unicorns are ten-apenny in Scots iconography.  But dead ones are not...  That's why I found it all so hard to swallow.  Does it mean that I think the restoration's a waste of time?? Absolutely not!!  The project will be finished next Easter - if you're planning on visiting Stirling any time soon, put it off till then, because it's well worth a visit.

And tomorrow, I'll be waxing lyrical about Stirling, because it's a wonderful place, and if there's one place in Scotland you should really, really, REALLY, visit, this is it. 

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

That's very odd. I'm assuming it's intellectual laziness, rather than a political statemnt, but yes, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

The Patriotic Scot in me (it's buried very deep, but occasionally it stirs...) did wonder if it might be politically motivated: something along the lines of 'See that Henry VIII? He's a good egg, you know. You really don't want to follow a nationalist agenda' etc. The Palace is being restored as it was in 1542: I really don't think relations with England were that good then. Four years later, the Earl of Hertford rode north in the Rough Wooing and laid waste to the Borders, trashing the Border abbeys in the process. This was not an act of a friendly protective neighbour...

I'm disappointed to think that things weren't thought through better - it's not as if HS is short of intellectual heavyweights. But I don't suppose medieval iconography is their strongpoint...

We love Stirling!!

[slysidonia.livejournal.com]

I (we)stay at John Forty's Court dorms when my husband's band competes at the World's bagpipe competition. I've been three times. But i didn't go the last trip because they stayed at Stirling University campus and it was too much walking for me.
Stirling is a lovely town and they had many great Eateries in town. like the Brasserie? Indian restaurant and Italian place upstairs in town. We liked having lunch at the Brandon? Bistro.Think it went out of business..

Re: We love Stirling!!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

We've never stayed there. It's a day trip for us...

I loitered there yesterday because it was a beautiful day, and it's a beautiful town, but in the evening it was becoming much like any other Scots town. Full of young neds in high-powered cars cruising around, and silly girls teetering around in skimpy dressed and massive heels (it's September, for gawd's sake!). The town centre seems to be full of bars and nightclubs. There was a Pancho Villas (they do a reasonable Mexican) but it had closed down:-(

Maybe I noticed this more because I was grumpy about the dead unicorns...

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear the paper went well. But the wife murdering gut bucket's name shall not pass my lips, not even to call him names.