Graeme's PhotoBlog from Fife, Scotland

"Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains,
Winning from Reason's hand the reins,
Pity and woe! for such a mind
Is soft contemplative, and kind."

Rokeby (canto I, st. 31), Sir Walter Scott, 1813

This extract is from 'Rokeby', a long narrative poem which is set in Rokeby, Yorkshire. It takes place in 1644, and concerns the events following the Battle of Marston Moor.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), began his career writing narrative poetry, and later re-launched his career as a novelist. Deriving most of his material from his native Scotland, its history and its legends, Scott invented and mastered what we know today as the historical novel.

This picture is of course of Edinburgh man, Sir Walter Scott in the Scott Monument, Princes Street, Edinburgh with the North British Clock Tower in the background. The clock is showing the time two minutes fast to ensure travellers are less likely to miss their trains. The North British Hotel or 'NB' was bought over in recent times by Forte Hotels and renamed The Balmoral. Many still refer to it as the 'NB' which can now stand for Not Balmoral.