Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen

The nearest Edinburgh Art Festival exhibit to our cottage is in New Calton Burying Ground. A commission by artists Christine Borland and Brody Condon.

When you visit there are two guides who will explain the art work for you - the punch cards are able to be used on a Jacquard loom - one of the new-fangled industrial devices which led to the work of tradesmen diminishing. The punch cards are punched with a narrative by twins who were daughters of a tradesman who died, leaving them to be looked after at Edinburgh Trades Maiden Hospital, which stood on the corner of Chambers Street (so I was told).

It was an excuse for me to go wandering round the graveyard looking at some of the interesting graves there.