One Midsummer Morning

Pentland Hills and T Plantation circa 1914 (Photographer Unknown Edinburgh Libraries, Museums and Galleries Collection)

This wonderful old photograph from a century ago shows three school-girls walking down Swanston Road through the farmland and fields. 

There is no sign of Swanston Farm or Swanston Golf Club. The Old Schoolhouse in Swanston Village was in existence so perhaps the girls are heading off to school in the morning. 

Swanston Farm, Robert Hope

The Pentland Hills and the T Woods can be seen clearly in the distance. 

The scree slopes of Caerketton were no different fifty years later when in the 1960s the Blades; the Hoggs; and the Hoffmanns stood at their living room windows looking out for the number 16 bus. 

There are hay stacks in one of the distant fields and one of the girls is only wearing a blouse, so we might surmise it is late summer. They are all dressed smartly in their straw hats; skirts; and dresses and each of them is carrying a metal case perhaps containing their books and school lunches.

On a fine late summer morn at the commencement of a new term after the school summer holidays or in early autumn the walk would be refreshing and enjoyable. However, on a bitter winter's morning, in the semi-darkness or in the cold of a March morning with a biting wind, it would have been quite a different story. At least they walked together which would have eased their passage and no doubt they will have enjoyed the company. Still, it's a long exposed country lane and one which we at The Stair often travelled on our adventures to the Pentland Hills half a century later and half a century ago.

I wonder where the girls are coming from as back then there wouldn't have been many houses in Fairmilehead. Perhaps they were sisters and lived at the old Hunters Tryst Farm. It's a lovely photograph capturing a moment in time. I also wonder who the photographer was. Was it set up or just serendipity? Perhaps their mum or dad wanted to capture a special moment in time to treasure and hold dear in their hearts, before the girls grew up, left home and moved on to follow life's journey.

They are all smartly dressed and don't look poor. Their outfits - straw hats, skirts and dresses remind me of the two girls in The Railway Children. They all look very lady-like; quite composed and serene, but not prim. If there had been a companion photograph taken at the end of the school day it would have looked quite different. We would of course see their faces and perhaps being the end of the day and free from school, we might have seen them un-lady-like taking to their heels, racing downhill from Swanston Village to head homewards for their tea and back to the welcome bosom of the family home.

Because we can't see the girls’ faces it adds to the elusiveness of the subject material. It forces the viewer to use their imagination; and of course one can't but help wonder what happened to each girl. The First World War was only a matter of months away. Did they go on to become wives and mothers or follow a career in nursing or teaching? Did they remain in Edinburgh or move on to other towns or even make a life for themselves abroad?

In a way, the photograph reminds me of the cover of the novel Three German Farmers On The Way To A Dance by Richard Powers which was based on an old photograph. It seems to me that in the hands of a fine novelist such as Joan Lingard a rather good story might be weaved.

Joan Lingard

Postscript: If you look more closely the girls aren't carrying schoolbags at all!  Still, much of my musings on what happened to the girls remains true so I thought I would leave the vignette as it stands!

Swanston Village and the Pentland Hills

After reaching Swanston Pig Farm we wandered up through the revelation that was Swanston Village (a hamlet preserved in time with cottages with thatched roofs) and followed a small burn set amidst a sylvan green pasture.

From there we climbed up to the army’s firing range. If there was a red flag flying we needed to make the difficult decision whether to turn back or somehow reconnoitre and by-pass the T Woods. It was not really a T but actually a cross which was disguised from the northerly Edinburgh direction. One of the children said the T stood for the Trotter family who had planted it. 

Photograph Dave Hennicker

From there we began the steep climb and scramble up the scree slope of the northerly side toward the summit of Caerketton. I found this quite scary; but I had to keep up with the party or risk becoming distanced and isolated so I pushed on. 

But the climb was worth it because once at the top we could survey and take in the whole panorama of Edinburgh and where The Stair and Oxgangs Avenue fitted in. It was an early opportunity to take our bearings and to look at the bigger picture and realise there was a world beyond Oxgangs.

The next generation of Hoffmann brothers (d’Artagnan and Atticus) on the Pentlands above Edinburgh, 2005.

On one of those early adventures we had forged beyond the hill tops deep into the glens perhaps between Fala Knowe and Woodhouselee Hill and then in the direction of Glencorse Reservoir; but for some reason my wee brother Iain (two and a half years younger than me) and I had to turn back to go home early. Unlike the older boys I didn’t know the way and of course back in the day we didn't have any maps or mobile phones. 

We were both in tears. However eventually we found our way back to the summits of Capelaw, Allermuir and Caerketton. And what a happy relief it was to be able to survey the whole panorama of Edinburgh and to say to Iain we’re fine and I think I know the way home. 

From the heights of Pentland it was downhill through Robert Louis Stevenson’s Swanston Village and home to Oxgangs and the bosom of The Stair and back for tea, either Heinz baked beans or spaghetti, toast and tea and as far as our parents knew we could just as easily been have down at Colinton Mains Park all afternoon!