We're a'Jock Tamson's Bairns

Working close by early each morning for three mornings, the blip is still in Duddingston.

There was a minister of Duddingston Kirk called Revd John Thomson who lived at the beginning of the 19th century. He was a very well known landscape painter. The story goes that his first wife died after they had five children, he then married a widow who already had five children, and this second marriage produced another four children. When his wife then made introductions to visitors and tried to explain which family the various children belonged to, Thomson would interrupt her with the statement that "They're a' Jock Thomson's bairns". That's now become a famous Scots saying - meaning we're all, at the end of the day, equal!

Another story about Thomson is that he liked to retire to his studio at the foot of the manse garden (just behind the building on the left.) He called the building "Edinburgh". So if anyone came and knocked at the manse door looking for him, the maid could say with all veracity "Och, sorry, Mr Thomson's gone to Edinburgh!"

The loch here was the setting for the famous painting "The Skating Minister" by Sir Henry Raeburn. However the subject of the painting was not Thomson but the Reverend Robert Walker from the Canongate Kirk. The Skating Minister

A very different day from yesterday, you'll see - overcast, wet, horrible - and a strange light to go with it!