Private, Keep Out!

We're still trying to vary Arlo's walk given he has to take it easy for the rest of the week. He usually races all around Arniston Estate several times a week but we kept him to the roads tonight on leash. This section is closed unless the house is open for visits, which it might be gearing up for soon.

The Dundas-Bekker family own the estate and the house built in the mid 1700s for Robert Dundas. Their name is found across the Edinburgh and Midlothian area, Scottish Law, UK politics and as far away as Toronto. Robert introduced the proven/not proven outcomes in trials. His son Henry was involved in the abolition of slavery act which took 15 years to take effect. Last year there was many protests about the family where it was claimed Henry delayed the abolition of slavery by 15 years to ease the effect on the finances of the privileged. Statues were vandalised and even in Toronto, they renamed Dundas Street on 6th July 2021.

I was aware of all the social media discussions and I think took it as fact, but did not read much about it. As I was just just googling about it there, I found this document which must have been published somewhere on the Arniston House website in the past year which seems to attempt to correct the perception of this history to assist BLM to be informed of the evidence. 

It is a lengthy read, too late for this time of night, but I should read it. It seems to be too late for Toronto who have renamed their street and Edinburgh who have mounted a plaque to explain a statue. I am not sure if the explanation is just an attempt to recover the history of the family name and rewrite history or is genuine fact - and probably never will know, as long as Neil Oliver never tries to explain it to me! 

When I asked Arlo about this, he just looked at me and asked if I could let him off the leash soon. Tch...