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. Wigtown
Q2. Cardoness Castle
When you read the phrase "book town", you may possibly think of Hay on Wye but that is probably not the one the author is referring to in the initial clues, which more likely place us in the Dumfries and Galloway region, specifically in the settlement of Wigtown, which some of the sources I checked, claim was designated Scotland's national book town, c 1998. Wigtown was once the county town of the four hundred and eight seven square mile county of Wigtownshire, which existed until c 1975.
A writer called John Kincaid McNeillie (born c 1916),once lived in North Clutag, which is around three miles south west of Wigtown and penned a famous novel about a fierce ploughman called 'Andy Walker'. Some of McNeillie's bios say that the book was called "Wigtown Ploughman: Part of his Life" and was published c 1939. McNeillie seems to have been a bit like Thomas Hardy, in that some of his works reflect the very harsh environment and poverty that country people lived in, even in the twentieth century. He wrote so many books and articles for journals, that they named the library in Wigtown after him. When he died, it is said that his ashes were transported to North Clutag and washed into the earth there, with whisky from the local Bladnoch distillery.
A town eight miles north or so from Wigtown, is most likely Newton Stewart and it was here that the exciseman and antiquary, Joseph Train was based for a time. Train published his work 'Poetical Reveries' c 1806 and carried out research for the writer Sir Walter Scott (born c 1771), sending him many pages of his antiquarian material, some of which Scott based his novels on.
Motoring down the opposite shore from the book town, south east along the A75, would probably take us past Creetown and Carsluith Castle. This does not seem to be the castle mentioned in the hints, as the blurb on the Historic Scotland web site says that it is of circa sixteenth century origin. From looking at the pictures of it, it does not appear to be six storeys high, either. Just before the road turns east further on, lies Barholm castle, once owned by the McCullochs, who feuded with the Browns of Carsluith Castle. Barholm Castle is around three storeys high and of 15th/16th century origin. It seems to be for sale for more the half a million pounds but you could possibly get hit for a lot of council tax if you buy it.
The road turns east toward the town of Gatehouse of Fleet, and it was here c 1793, that the lines 'By oppression’s woes and pains! ' were written by Robert Burns, for his poem 'Scots Wha Hae' or in English 'Scots Who Have With Wallace Bled'. Burns used to hang out with a good ol' Jacobite bampot called Wullie Nicol and it was said that Nicol had to be taken everywhere twice, the purpose of the second visit being to apologize to the hosts, for the first visit. The bard himself also met Sir Walter Scott, at the house of the philosopher, professor Adam Ferguson, in Edinburgh. To complicate things further, there seem to be three castles at Gatehouse of fleet (which fits in with the 'fleeting shower' clue), one is a ruin called 'Cally Castle', which was built c 16th century and attained a height of four storeys, a second is called Green Tower Motte (aka Boreland of Anwoth motte), which is little more than earthworks now and the third, is 'Cardoness Castle', which Historic Scotland describe as 'a well preserved six storey tower house of the McCullochs, dating back to the 15th century'. It is this tower which lies just outside of the town on the road that the puzzle author was probably travelling on and is the one which seems to be a good fit for the clues given.
N.B. The Eastender has moved to moderated comments due to the number of people who normally write letters in green ink, posting on his page. Rest assured though, if you have a non abusive comment relating to solving the puzzle and possible solutions, he will publish it.
No comments:
Post a Comment