Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:
Q1. Melrose
Q2. The Leaderfoot viaduct
(N.B. for question two, this span is sometimes referred to as the Drygrange railway viaduct, British Rail Bridge Number 401/61; 'Tripontium' viaduct; Bridge Pool viaduct; Blackrock Pool viaduct, St Boswells Drygrange viaduct. The Eastender is taking a punt that the answer will be the one that's on the tourist blurb for the area, ie the Leaderfoot viaduct)
The initial clues place us most likely in the town of Melrose, in the Scottish border country. According to some sources, a sporting event called the 'Melrose Sevens' was started there c 1883. It was basically a form of rugby with smaller teams and fifteen minutes playing time (two halves of 7.5 minutes duration). The sevens game has spread around the world and the number of players and match durations, may have evolved since then.
Melrose abbey was said to have been founded by David I of Scotland, c 1136 and Alexander II of Scotland (wives Joan of England and Marie de Coucy) and the heart of Robert the Bruce (mother, Marjorie of Carrick) are reputed to be buried there. A second abbey around three miles to the south east of Melrose, is likely to be Dryburgh abbey. Driving east from Melrose would bring us to the site of the Roman fort of Trimontium, so called because to the south west of that position, lie three lofty eminences, which make up the Eildon hills.
The nearest viaduct to the Trimontium fort site, is most likely the Leaderfoot viaduct, which has nineteen arches and in some references is said to be 38.4 metres high or 126 feet. Depending on which source you check, it was built by the Berwickshire railway c 1863 or c 1865 and closed c 1965. The viaduct does not seem to be visible from the site of the fort but can be viewed, by looking to the west, from the road bridge which carries the A68 across the Tweed. The OS map, shows a footpath/walking trail going across the viaduct.
Travelling two miles or so south south east of the viaduct takes us to Dryburgh abbey, founded c 1150. In the graveyard there lie the remains of the best general the Germans ever had, with two million British casualties resulting from his 'cunning plans', the completely hatstand Field Marshall Douglas Haig (born c 1861). There is a theory that Haig was acting under the unconscious influence of primitive baboon genes inherited from one of his ancestors, which compelled him to attempt the elimination of the genetic competition, by sending them all off to war to get killed.The poet is most likely Sir Walter Scott, whose remains are also said to be buried at Dryburgh abbey. Scott wrote a poem about a smile, which is where the quotation "
Ne'er Was flattery lost on poet's ear A simple race they waste their toil For the vain tribute of a smile" seems to originate.
A tower which lies around three miles north east of Dryburgh abbey, is likely to be Smailholm Tower. Allegedly built for the Pringle clan c 15th century, it was once owned by Sir Walter Scott's ancestors and it was said that he often visited his grandfather there as a child. Historic Scotland claim that the tower is twenty metres or sixty five feet high. Scott himself, is said to have lived in Abbotsford house, which is situated to the west of Melrose, near Galashiels. The last quote is possibly from Scott's 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel', written c 1805. (Canto #6 of a very long poem, written in a faux medieval style).
"O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band,That knits me to thy rugged strand!"
Link to the competition:
Where Was I?
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