SCOTLAND REVISITED

Evening Star, Issue 22720, 6 August 1937, Page 13

SCOTLAND REVISITED

IMPRESSIONS Of MR W. B. STEEL After an absence of almost 50 years Mr W. U. Steel visited his native land of Scotland, and gave a vivid and interesting account ot his travels to representatives of the various Scottish societies last night. Ho punctuated his remarks with many amusing stories of happenings during his visit, and held his audience with his picturesque narrative. The chair was occupied by Mr J. Caldwell, president of the Council of Scottish Societies. Edinburgh, Mr Steel said, was one of the beauty spots of the world, and ho had found that his native city had changed considerably since ho had left it 47 years ago. Especially was this noticeable in the suburbs, where farm lands that he had known were now miles of streets and houses. The first place that anyone visiting Edinburgh went to see was, of course, the castle. The whole history of tho city was bound up in that old grey pile, which had seen so many incidents of war and horror, but which had about it a perennial air of beauty. The Edinburgh War Memorial was a shrine which typified tho very heart of Scotland, while the memorial in the Princes Street Gardens was a thing of beauty. For sheer beauty of conception and excellence of work,"however. Rosslyn Chapel, erected .'is part of a great abbey cathedral in the fifteenth century but never completed, was a building the equal of which he had never seen.

After a brief reference to Falkland Castle, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, Mr Steel took his audience on a brief tour of the Border lands, through which the Tweed winds, describing Dryhorough, where Sir Walter Scott was buried, Abbotsford and Melrose; then going on to Aberdeen, “ the granite city,” which is the pride of the people of eastern Scotland. The seat of a great university, its college buildings were well worth seeing. Peterhead and Inverness, both well known to Mr Steel in his boyhood days, were described briefly by the speaker, who then told of his visit to Loch Ness. “ There is something there,” he said, amid laughter, “ but I did not see it.” Peebles, Perth, the valley of the Tweed, the canal district, and many other places of interest were dealt with by tho speaker, who j/r as accorded a hearty vote of thanks at the conclusion of. his address.