Saturday 15 June 2013

Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Little tricky this week, the prime minister was chancellor of several universities and people who are known for their work on logarithms, also went to Cambridge university. Near as I can figure it, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:


Q1. St Andrews

Q2. Stanley Baldwin

The initial clues place us in the university town of St Andrews, in Fife. I found a photograph of a gate at St Mary's college there, which has the motto 'In Principio Erat Verbum' or 'In the beginning was the word' written on it. The student union there claims to be the oldest and John Napier, who invented logarithms was a student there at one time. A British politician, who was prime minister three times (parents called Alfred and Louisa), who was also chancellor of St Andrew's university (c 1929 - 1947) was Stanley Baldwin.

A weekly spectacle which occurs there, is 'the pier walk', where after attending church the undergraduate students, who wear red gowns, march to the end of the pier, climb a ladder and walk back again. The Earl of St Andrews is said by some references, to be called George Windsor and he is the son of prince Edward of Kent. The town's most famous attraction at 6721 yards long, is the old course, which lies to its north west.

A chapel built there c 1516 could be Black friars and the cathedral with the ruined 33 metre or 108 foot high, St Rule's tower (feast day Oct 17), which held the relics of a fisherman (Scotland's patron saint), brought to these shores by St Rule of Patras,  is St Andrew's. The castle is said to have housed the bishops for the area and there is a botanic garden in the town, which was founded c 1889.........


link to the competition

Where Was I?

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