Summary
'TIME has wrought its changes," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in his 1879 Picturesque Notes on Edinburgh, "most notably around the precincts of St Giles". The High Kirk of Edinburgh had already seen its fair share of history by the time Stevenson started scribbling about it. More than 700 years old by the 19th century, the Cathedral was undergoing another major restoration. Inside, the post- Reformation walls were being stripped back. Outside, a new sandstone exterior had been completed by the Victorians keen to preserve this icon of Scotland that is today known worldwide as the mother church of Presbyterianism.
Stevenson, however, wasn't blown away. "The church itself, if it were not for the spire, would be unrecognisable," he bemoaned. "The krames [an arcade of market stalls] are all gone, not a shop is left to shelter in its buttresses; and zealous magistrates and a misguided architect have shorn the design of manhood, and left it poor, naked, and pitifully pretentious."See the full content of this document
Extract
A Reformed Character
Walking around the church with Sir Angus Grossart, you can't help wondering what Stevenson, whose bronze memorial is inside, would make of St Giles circa 2010. Thanks to another restoration, this one taking 16 years, St Giles is entering its next phase and the sombre Victorian feel of its interior has gone forever. Outside, the winking brass finials and vanes on top of the crown spire make the High Kirk look the very opposite of "poor" and "naked".
The St Giles' Cathedral Renewal Appeal aims to be completed next y...See the full content of this document
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