Milestones....

I owned this book for years - and enjoyed it often. A very accessible set of historical essays about the Royal Mile of Edinburgh.

Then it disappeared. In a moment of madness I had sent it to the Christian Aid Booksale. I had to buy it all over again!

Andrew P. Wilson, born 1886 in Edinburgh was a director, playwright, teacher, and actor. He acted as General Manager for the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1914-15.

Wilson wrote radio plays for the BBC, including the series "Sandy and Andy" that ran between 1936 and 1947. He published this book in 1947.

A mile that's thronged with memories
A highway through the years.
A mile that's known a nation's joys
And seen a people's tears.
A teeming mile of gallant hopes
Dispelled by Fate's grim frown;
That is the Mile - the Royal Mile -
Of Edinburgh town.

A mile that's fringed with battlements
Of houses soaring high.
A mile that's seen great causes lost
And watched the martyrs die.
A teeming mile of great events,
Some shameful, some sublime;
That is the Mile - the Pilgrim Mile -
That leads to Scotland's Shrine.

APW