Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Scotland-Our Heritage



Although I need to dig much deeper into our Scottish heritage, here are a few things I know: Jeff and I both have Stewarts in our line. His is a little more recent with his paternal grandmother being a Stewart (that's where we got Elijah Stewart). Mine goes back a few generations, and I also have Stuarts in my line. For a bit of history, Mary Queen of Scots was a Stewart but changed the spelling t Stuart because she preferred France to her native Scotland. She had married the Dauphin of France and since there is no "ew" in French she replaced it with "u", but they are the same family line.  She had a son, James VI of Scotland who became James I of England. He gave us the King Jame Bible. There is a little more delving to do, but maybe we have a little royal blood in us. i also had several ancestors who came from Edinburgh, so maybe we walked in their footsteps while we were there.

We had a great time, beginning with our train ride from London to Edinburgh.  We met a family who was going to Edinburgh on vacation.  They were really great.  We also sat with what had to be England's version of a redneck family.  I guess every culture has them!

Once we arrived in Edinburgh, we sought out a good pub.  We gound one that from the outside looked really good.  The downside, they weren't licensed for kids, and it did smell of beer and piss.  Blunt, but the only way to really describe it.  So we found a really nice pub just across from our hotel.  Haggis!  That is what Jeff had been looking forward to (really) for a week.  We ordered the appetizer size first.  I have to say, it was really good.  He went on to order the meal.  I had salmon and Elijah chose chicken.  The salmon was really good, but I would guess after haggis, that is a food the Scots are known to do well. 

The next morning we headed off to Edinburgh castle.  It is very imposing and you can see immediately why the site was chosen.  We really enjoyed our look around.  We saw Scotalnd's crown jewels and the Stone of Scone (Destiny or Lia Fail).  While not nearly as impressive in quantity or splendor, the crown jewels are actually older than England's.  Afterward we went to to theTartan Weaving Mill.  It is next to the castle on the Royal Mile.  We bought a couple of Stewart plaid scarves for Tabitha and me and the guys got neck ties.  I really wanted a kilt, but the one I wanted were too short in my size or tehy didn't have my size in the longer ones.  I also think I was teh blue Stewart.  I may order one in red and in blue.  Here is a picture of the looms set up. 


It was a great day.  I think we all enjoyed Scatland more than we did England, even though it was only for a day.

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