20 VIII 1773
24 XI 2013
24 XI 2013
ARBROATH
Unusually, Johnson writes more than Boswell of their time at ‘Aberbrothick’; the antiquarian in him is pricked by the ruins of the abbey, ‘of great renown in the history of Scotland’, and he goes so far as to state, ‘I should scarcely have regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing more than the sight of Aberbrothick’. Boswell, who is often at pains to show his patriotism (nowhere more so than on Iona), doesn’t so much as mention the site of the famous declaration of Scottish independence in 1320, following the wars which began with the death of Alexander III.
At the other end of the modern town stands PLEASURELAND, next to the windswept football ground; what specific pleasures it had to offer I didn’t have time to discover.
Bibliography
Declaration of Arbroath in the National Archives of Scotland
Barrow, G.W.S. (ed.), The Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting (2003)
Parr, Martin, Boring Postcards (2004)
At the other end of the modern town stands PLEASURELAND, next to the windswept football ground; what specific pleasures it had to offer I didn’t have time to discover.
Declaration of Arbroath in the National Archives of Scotland
Barrow, G.W.S. (ed.), The Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting (2003)
Parr, Martin, Boring Postcards (2004)