Crossing the Marne

‘Sunday, the 6th of March [1644], I went to Charenton, two leagues from Paris, to hear and see the manner of the French Protestant Church service. The place of meeting they call the Temple, a very fair and spacious room, built of freestone, very decently adorned with paintings of the Tables of the Law, the Lord's Prayer, and Creed. The pulpit stands at the upper end in the middle, having an inclosure of seats about it, where the Elders and persons of greatest quality and strangers, sit; the rest of the congregation on forms and low stools, but none in pews, as in our churches, to their great disgrace, as nothing so orderly, as here the stools and other cumber are removed when the assembly rises. I was greatly pleased with their harmonious singing the Psalms, which they all learn perfectly well, their children being as duly taught these, as their catechism.

In our passage, we went by that famous bridge over the Marne, where that renowned echo returns the voice of a good singer nine or ten times. ‘

John Evelyn writes in his diary, on March 6, 1644 of crossing the Marne River.  It was much easier for him to pass in 1644, than it was for Count Gebhard von Blucher 170 years later, in his battles with Napoleon.  Walter Scott’s “Life of Napoleon” discusses the strategy for entering Paris.

‘A general council of war, held at the castle of Brienne, now resolved that the two armies (although having so lately found the advantage of mutual support) should separate form each other, and that Blucher, detaching himself to the northward, and uniting under his command the division of Yorck and Kleist, both of whom had occupied St. Dizier and Vitry, should approach Paris by the Marne; while Prince Schwartzenberg and the Grand Army should descend on the capital by the course of the Seine.  The difficulty of finding provisions for such immense armies was doubtless in part the cause of his resolution.  But it was likewise recommended by the success of a similar plan of operations at Dresden, and afterwards Leipsic, where the enemies of Buonaparte approached him from so many different quarters, as to render it impossible for him to make head against one army, without giving great opportunity of advantage to the others…’

Kemp's Monument to Scott

George Meikle Kemp might have been a shepherd had it not been for a trip to Roslin Castle and Roslin Chapel.  Here he was inspired to architecture.  Kemp developed his interest, travelling throughout Britain for work, and to study gothic architecture.  Ultimately he found work at Melrose Abbey. 

In the spring of 1833, after Sir Walter Scott had died (the previous September, Kemp entered a contest to build a monument to Scott.  Against the odds, Kemp emerged the winner, and built the monument situated in Edinburgh today (John Steell sculpted the statue of Scott from carrara marble; later a cast bronze statue in New York's Central Park).  Kemp unfortunately died before the completion of his memorial, falling into a canal one foggy night - March 6, 1844.

Saint Baldred (or Balfred)

Saint Baldred was a monk of the 7th century.  Baldred was a Bishop of Scotland, who succeeded Saint Kentigern in Glasgow.  At some point, Balfred bedcame a hermit, establishing a cell/chapel on The Bass Rock.  Baldred died on March 6, 608.

The Bass, situated in the Firth of Forth, was later used as a prison for religious and political prisoners, especially by King James I in the 15th century.  The fort used for this purpose was demolished in 1701.  In 1706, Hew Dalrymple, brother of the Master of Stair, acquired The Bass, and it remains in the family today.

Bass Rock Lighthouse (photo by Don Carter) was built by David Stevenson, grandson of Robert Stevenson, who led Walter Scott on a voyage to the Northern Lights in 1814.  David Stevenson engineered 26 lighthouses; three with his uncle Thomas Stevenson, and twenty-three with his brother Charles.  Bass Rock lighthouse was completed in 1903, well after Scott's lifetime.  The light figures in another Scottish author's novel,  Robert Louis Stevenson's (cousin of David) "Catronia".

Scott makes a melancholy reference to Bass Rock in his journal, on the death of his "Lady Scott":

"May_ 16.(1826) --She died at nine in the morning, after being
very ill for two days,--easy at last.
I arrived here late last night. Anne is worn out, and has had hysterics,
which returned on my arrival. Her broken accents were like those of a
child, the language, as well as the tones, broken, but in the most
gentle voice of submission. "Poor mamma--never return again--'gone for
ever--a better place." Then, when she came to herself, she spoke with
sense, freedom, and strength of mind, till her weakness returned. It
would have been inexpressibly moving to me as a stranger--what was it
then to the father and the husband? For myself, I scarce know how I
feel, sometimes as firm as the Bass Rock, sometimes as weak as the wave
that breaks on it."