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A dreich day in Edinburgh today. I spent a happy morning trawling the charity shops in Stockbridge and then a happy afternoon in the galleries. There was a nice photography exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery called "Planes, Trains, Automobiles" with a particularly fine set of stereoscopic images. What caught my eye the most, though, were Alfred Buckham's stunning aerial views and also a group photo of the inhabitants of St Kilda from the end of the 19th C (see extra). All the women look undernourished and most of them are knitting. The caption to the photograph made the point that increased travel to St Kilda by tourists from the mainland increased emigration as the islanders wanted a higher standard of living. Who can blame them? Easy to romanticise their way of life but you can see in their faces how hard it must have been.