Remnants of the old Caledonian forest, the oak trees at Dalkeith Country Park are 700 years old. They were coppiced and pollarded hundreds of years ago, and they’ve grown back stunted, gall-stricken, and twisted. Like the ancient Ents presiding over Fangorn, they’ve witnessed the rise of machines and the fall of kings.
The dead and dying oaks are left standing in the forest, which will someday become a vast graveyard of the Ents.
The shifting voice, along with MacDiarmid’s use of “Lallans” Scots, makes this a magical and moving poem.
“The Bonnie Broukit Bairn”
Venus in a green silk goun,
The auld mune shaks her gowden feathers,
Their starry talk’s a wheen o blethers,
Nane for thee a thochtie sparin’
Earth, thou bonnie broukit bairn!
- But greet, an in your tears ye’ll droun
- The haill clanjamfrie!
In between teaching R.L. Stevenson and J.K. Rowling, I made a weekend trip to the Scottish Highlands, where I got to take a fabulous rail journey from Fort William to Mallaig. Here’s the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, used in the Harry Potter films, among others:
And here is beautiful Loch Ness. I’m pretty sure I saw something in the water…
My favorite building on the Dalkeith estate is the ruined orangery. Once topped with glass and filled with palms and figs and banana trees, the orangery required a ton of coal each day to keep it warm. The ovens beneath the structure sent heat up through vents in the floor. Built in the 1700’s, it epitomized wealth and luxury and elegance.
I’m glad to see that it’s undergoing renovation now.
