Great British Railway Journeys (2010–…): Season 6, Episode 5 - St Andrew's to Edinburgh - full transcript
[OPENING THEME MUSIC]
For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw
was a household name.
At a time when railways
were new...
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them
to take to the tracks.
I'm using a Bradshaw's guide...
to understand how trains
transformed Britain.
Its landscape, its industries, society
and leisure time.
As I arias-cross the country,
150 years later...
it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.
I'm now concluding my
Scottish journey.
While Victorian English
flocked to Scotland...
the world beyond these shores also
felt the Caledonian influence.
Men of fortune left their mark
in the New World...
and around the globe, sportsmen discovered a
Scottish pastime that suited them to a tee!
My journey has taken me across
Scotland - from west to east.
It began at the Clyde estuary.
Heading through the Scottish
lowlands to Glasgow.
It continued to Stirling and Perth -
touching the Highlands.
Now I'm traveling east
to Fife.
To the famous university
town of St Andrews.
Before heading south to
Scotland's capital city.
On today's leg, I start on the
bracing east coast...
before heading inland along
the Firth of Forth...
and on to the theatrical city
of Edinburgh.
And my journey ends in the former mining
village of Newcraighall.
I pay homage at the birthplace
of golf.
Great shot, Michael.
Can't believe I hit it!
Discover how a penniless Scot
gave away a fortune.
He wrote "The Gospel of Wealth"
and in that he said...
"He who dies thus rich
dies disgraced."
And tread the boards at
the Edinburgh fringe.
I demand to know Where you deposited the
handbag that contained that infant!
I left it - in the cloakroom...
of one of the larger... railway
stations... in London.
"No one can say he has seen Scotland, who
has not paid St Andrew's a visit."
Thus declares Bradshaw's.
And with the university founded in 1411 - and my
mother's school of St Leonard's in 1552 - no wonder.
"One branch of manufacture flourishes
- making balls for golf."
"A favourite game, played on the links or
flat sands along the sea shore."
I think I'll swing by!
Leuchars station may not be familiar,
but most people will have heard...
of the world-famous golf
course nearby.
St Andrew's Golf Club was founded in
1843 with eleven members.
Who were mostly tradesmen - including
a dancing master and a butler.
They were soon joined by Allan Robertson -
the foremost golfer of his day.
And Mackenzie Turpie - who competed in the 1900
Paris Olympics, when golf was first included.
I'm going to visit a golf-club factory,
Where they maintain the special skills...
needed to craft traditional
hickory-shafted clubs by hand.
I'm meeting Hamish Steedman,
its chairman.
Hamish...
I'm getting the feeling of a lovely
traditional Workshop here.
How far back in history
does golf go?
Well, the earliest documented
evidence of golf was 1452.
When our James ll banned golf
in favour of archery practice.
But we know ball-and-stick games have
been played from the earliest days.
The Scots were the first to actually play towards
a hole in the ground - to put a ball in.
And that's really defined
as the start of golf.
So... for over six hundred years it's
been played in St Andrews.
What was the game like,
here, in St Andrews?
Well, the history demonstrates that links
courses have been here for centuries.
The links land, for example, is really
the common ground...
between the shoreline and
the farmland.
It Wasn't manicured as it is today.
And, in fact, it was nearly lost to
rabbits in the early 1800s..
When the rabbit holes almost took
over the golf holes.
It took a handful of rocks to
fill in the rabbit holes...
plus pluck - and a favourable wind -
to see those early golfers...
safely through eleven holes out
and the same eleven back!
Well, Michael, this is one of the
long-nose clubs, here...
which was used throughout
Victorian times and before.
We have the splice shaft, here.
The leather face insert.
The ram's horn.
That would protect the leading
edge of the club.
And the most important
part of the club...
was each club was weighed - with lead
weight being poured into the club.
Even now, the skill lies in precise
measurement of the molten lead.
- Hello, Angus.
- Hello there.
What temperature is your lead?
Hot!
[LAUGHTER]
What weight are you trying
to achieve there?
Well, the head weight is usually three
to four ounces, and you add lead...
so it comes up to the
eight-ounce mark.
And that's the standard weight
that we make the putters.
When the molten lead has cooled a little,
it's hammered and left to set.
Nowadays, golf clubs and their shafts are
made from steel and titanium.
But hickory clubs smack of history
and craftsmanship.
Hickory is obviously the
shaft of the golf club.
It's not indigenous to this country.
But it was used in tooling - your pickaxes,
shovels, broom handles.
And the wood is indigenous to North
America - so it was imported.
So you are still making Victorian clubs -
there must be a market for them?
Yes, there is.
We export, primarily,
around the World.
We're involved with the
World Hickory Open Championship.
That's played here
every year.
And last year we had fourteen
different countries playing in that.
So it is a growing interest in the hickory
game - and it's exciting to see.
In Victorian times the game was regarded as a
great leveller between ranks and classes.
When matched in skill, king and
commoner played on equal terms.
Lacking skill, I'd hoped, at least,
to look the part.
Hamish, I can't say I feel completely sensible
in this gear. What's the origin of it?
Well, the plus-fours were typical
of countrywear.
They are ideal for golf.
Ideal for hunting and shooting.
Because you don't get the bottom
of your trousers dirty.
And, of course, the greens and the
the golf courses, in those days...
weren't manicured like
they are today.
And certainly Scottish rough isn't very
pleasant at the best of times, anyway.
Lovely weather -
and beautiful views.
Although that flag looks
rather a long way!
[LAUGHTER]
Right, slowly back... and nice,
easy forward - that's you.
And follow through, straight
to the hole.
Ooh!
I personally blame that one on the
stiffening sea breeze.
Michael, with the hickory clubs -
you trust the club.
So it's a nice easy swing back
and swing through...
trusting the club, and hitting
towards the hole.
Great shot, Michael.
Can't believe I hit it!
Let's hope I haven't
peaked already!
Oh! Stop, stop, stop, stop!
Ran on.
I hope no one was looking down from the
famous St Andrews club house.
Which has occupied this splendid
Victorian mansion since 1933.
I'll get the flag for
you, Michael.
Oh, thank you.
Not sure that it will
be needed!
Ahh!
Close.
Feeling a bit below-par, today.
Not before time, I must resume my
journey south from Leuchars station.
My next stop will be
Dunfermline.
Bradshaw's tells me that it's a "large
burgh town in the county of Fife"...
"whose inhabitants are engaged in the
manufacture of diaper, damask and table linen."
I'm here to find out about the son of a linen worker
who moved from below the salt to the top of the table.
The ancient town of Dunfermline
dates back to Neolithic times.
Perched on a rocky hilltop, it's
crowned by a magnificent abbey.
The resting place of Scottish kings.
The Victorian visitor armed with Bradshaw's guide
came to see a Scotland swathed in romance.
[BAGPIPES PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND]
On my own travels abroad I've been impressed by
the philanthropic works of Andrew Carnegie.
But I knew little of his poor
beginnings here in Dunfermline.
To discover more about this
remarkable man I'm meeting
Lorna Owers from the Carnegie
Birthplace Museum.
I believe that this beautiful park
might hot be open to the public...
if it weren't for the generosity
of Mr Andrew Carnegie.
That's true.
When Andrew Carnegie was a child he
Wasn't allowed to go into the park.
It was owned by a Colonel Hunt
and it was a private estate.
And the locals were allowed in one
day a year - on a public holiday.
But, because Andrew's uncle was a Chartist
and very anti-establishment...
which didn't go down too well
with Colonel Hunt...
he and his family were banned from the
park - and that included Andrew.
Chartism was one of the most important popular
reform movements of the 19th century.
Working-class men hadn't gained the vote in
the great Parliamentary reforms of 1832.
Radicals drew up a People's Charter
so becoming known as "Chartists"...
which included the demand for
universal male suffrage.
Riots broke out - and Colonel Hunt may
have feared disorder in his park.
Carnegie vowed that one day he would
hold a public meeting there.
And in the end, of course, he bought the park
and gave it to the people to enjoy.
A lot of people think that he only started his
philanthropy when he retired.
But actually, he wrote a memo to himself
when he was thirty-three...
and he had decided at that
point to retire when he was...
thirty-five before he discovered
the steel industry...
and he was going to give his money
away for good causes.
He was going to get a proper education -
because he'd only had four years at school.
And he was going to
buy a newspaper.
And he didn't get a proper education
because he discovered steel...
and kept working till he was sixty-five.
But he did start giving his money away, actually,
when he was forty-three - and he left a huge legacy.
There are now twenty-two institutions, worldwide,
which are still going strong.
Which are spending something like a hundred and
fifty dollars every minute of every day.
So it's quite an impressive
legacy there.
And here, in the town, of course, Dunfermline has
benefitted from the library and the swimming baths...
the music institute and, of course,
our Carnegie Hall...
which was built after the original
American, New York, Carnegie Hall.
And give me some sort of indication of
What kind of a man he was.
He wrote the Gospel of Wealth - and in that he
said "He who dies thus rich dies disgraced."
In other Words, you should give your money
away - you can't take it with you.
And he was, really, as good
as his own motto.
He was, indeed. He gave away 350
million dollars in his lifetime.
And, uh, that's probably the equivalent of
over a hundred billion nowadays.
A truly inspirational example, from
a man of humble beginnings.
Lorna is taking me to
his birthplace.
Carnegie was born at this cottage,
in Moody Street, in 1835...
where his father worked as a
hand-loom weaver.
Competition from the linen factories
hit these artisans hard...
and the family emigrated to America,
Where Carnegie began to work on the railroads...
before making his fortune
in steel.
Despite acquiring great wealth, he retained
an affinity with Dunfermline...
and his Wife bought him this cottage
for his sixtieth birthday.
Today it survives as a museum,
celebrating his life.
Andrew Carnegie was given a record
number of "freedoms" of cities.
We have fifty-six in the museum, and
this was his very first.
Which he was presented with in
1877 from Dunfermline.
And it's the one he was
most proud of.
Of course, his native city, to which
he was so generous.
That's right, yes. It's mainly thanks for the
library and the swimming baths.
We also have the original manuscript
of Triumphant Democracy...
one of the many books
he wrote.
This is unusual because it's in
his own handwriting.
"The United States have already
reached the foremost rank..."
among civilised nations. The old nations of
the earth creep on at a snail's pace."
"America thunders past with the rush
of the express train."
I love a man who uses a
railway analogy!
It's back to the tracks for me. To travel further
south, for a night at Fife's most southerly village.
Bradshaw's tells me that
"in the neighbourhood of Queensferry..."
by the southern approximation
of opposite promontories,
the River Forth is forced
into a narrow strait."
That enabled the building, after my Bradshaw's,
of the famous Forth Rail Bridge.
Before that, people relied oh the ferry - and the
northern point was marked by a light.
North Queensferry lies between two huge bridges - the
Forth Road Bridge and the red Forth Rail Bridge.
I'm meeting Queensferry Trust chairman,
James Lawson, in this stunning setting...
to find out more about the light.
This just has to be the greatest view
of the bridge, doesn't it'?
You only get the sense of scale when
you're down here, don't you?
And absolutely dwarfed by the
bridge, is the light.
Now James, I don't Want to be rude... but I
was expecting something a little larger!
Well, it is What it is! Designed and
put up by Robert Stevenson.
Perhaps the grandfather of all
Scottish lighthouses.
And how does it work
nowadays?
Well, there's a single Wick. And there is ah oil
reservoir - and you just light it with a match.
It originally burned whale oil,
commonly in use until about...
.4850, when the much cheaper
paraffin became available.
The light would have guided sailors
towards the safety of the pier.
The tower's not much more
than twenty feet tall.
What you see here is the oil reservoir.
The oil comes out...
through this "S" bend tube to
the bottom of the Wick.
You light the wick here, and then
put on the glass funnel.
You lift the whole mechanism up,
with this unit here.
Very, very carefully. Well, it is certainly
getting towards dark. Shall we give it a go?
Why not?
It's hard to imagine now, how dependent traffic would
have been, for navigation, on this little light.
In the 1840s, ferryboats traversing
the Forth would have picked...
their Way between trading ships
from the continents.
It's interesting to reflect that this little light
burned on until the opening of the road bridge in 1964.
After a night's rest it's back to the station, for
the penultimate leg of my journey across Scotland.
"Edinburgh", says Bradshaw's,
"is one of the most ancient...
cities in the country and
the capital of Scotland."
"It is not inaptly termed
'The modern Athens'."
Now, you may think that a bit of an
exaggeration, but think of this...
the ancient Greeks brought
theatre to the masses...
and if one city has done as much
as Athens to popularise...
theatre, it could claim to be Edinburgh.
Edinburgh's origins are as a defensive stronghold,
on this imposing rocky ridge.
From the seventh to the ninth centuries it was
pan of the kingdom of Northumbria.
And, after that, a royal residence of
the Scottish kings.
I'm alighting at Edinburgh, Waverley.
Developed in 1854, the station
sits in the valley between the...
medieval old town and the
18th-century new town.
Today, it's Britain's busiest mainline
station outside London...
with around sixty thousand people
passing through each day.
When Britain built its railways, that changed
everything, for good or ill.
For example, when Queen Victoria
came to the throne...
Edinburgh had the sort of theatre scene
that you would associate with a capital city.
But in 1859 the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, closed its
doors claiming that there had been ah exodus...
of talent - of writers and actors attracted
by the bright lights of the West End of London...
and now able to travel
easily by train.
Well, if that was so, the process was reversed
after the Second World War...
when talent came from all over Britain to the
Scottish capital - attracted by the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Edinburgh Fringe is the world's
largest arts festival.
This Wonderful craziness began in 1947.
When a group of uninvited theatre
companies gatecrashed...
the launch of the city's international
cultural festival.
Today, the Fringe fills twenty-five days with
more than three thousand snows.
The result is a joyful anarchy,
combining household names and hopeful amateurs.
Merci, Monsieur.
Come to the Fringe
very often?
No, this is my first time - in fact it's my
first time in Edinburgh.
Oh, my goodness! How on earth do
you decide What to go to?
Easy - I've let a friend of
mine choose!
How are you enjoying
the Fringe?
Yeah, I'm actually performing
my work.
What are you performing?
I'm a choreographer, presenting my
work at the Dance Space.
What do you hope to get out of
being at the Fringe?
Ah... I guess visibility -
and lots of fun, to be honest.
I mean, it's great to be in a place Where
you can see so many things.
What's the best thing
you've seen?
You!
[LAUGHTER]
- I feel sorry for you then, I feel sorry.
- Do you?
Well, We're not so sure
about that.
Do you come every year?
Yeah, we try to come
every year, yeah.
What makes you come back
every year?
- Well, it's just the atmosphere, yeah, absolutely.
- Twenty-minute journey oh the train.
Think I can squeeze in there?
Oh, thank you!
Let's take a selfie.
This is going to be the world's
biggest selfie!
I mustn't let this adulation
go to my head.
I've secured tickets for an alternative take of
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
Where Women play men -
and vice versa.
Hello, to our Wonderful
audience.
Right. Can everyone stand
up, please.
Absolutely everyone, please,
thank you.
Ah ha! It seems this production is
short of a cast member!
Some victims left.
You, sir! What was your
name, sir?
Michael.
No surprises -
I've drawn the short straw!
[APPLAUSE]
Great names have trodden these
boards before me.
John Cleese and Emma Thompson, to
name but two geniuses of comedy.
My Wig should get
a laugh!
And beneath it I am playing Miss Prism,
the forgetful governess...
who mislays the baby
in her charge.
"Miss Prism...
Where is that baby?"
[MICHAEL USES A HIGH VOICE]
"Lady Bracknell- ♪
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
- I-I-I admit for some shame
that I do not know."
"I only wish that I did."
"I had with me a somewhat old,
but capacious, handbag..."
"in which I had intended to place the manuscript
of a work of fiction that I've Written..."
"in my few, unoccupied hours."
"In a moment of mental... abstraction, for
which I can never forgive myself..."
I deposited the manuscript in the bassinet,
and placed the baby in the handbag."
"I demand to know Where you deposited the
handbag that contained that infant!"
"I left it... in the cloakroom... of one of the
larger... railway stations in London."
What railway station?
"Victoria."
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
Entrusted to the railways!
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
I'm now traveling on a line that once
joined England and Scotland.
Bradshaw's tells me that "the Waverley
route passes through country..."
"that assumes a
highly picturesque character..."
'Land becomes rich in
its historical association..."
"being immortalised by the pen
of Sir Walter Scott."
The old Waverley line that ran from Carlisle,
through the borders to Edinburgh...
like so many lines in my Bradshaw's
guide, passed into history.
Remembered only by
grandparents.
But now a section of it, from Edinburgh
to Galashiels and Tweedbank, will re-open.
This part of the Waverley line was built by the
North British Railway Company in 1849.
At the time, Newcraighall was a mining village,
built around a pit that's since closed.
I've come to meet Project Director
Hugh Wark.
The Waverley railway is a very well-known
railway, at least in Scotland.
How does it feel to be
re-building it?
When I started my career we were still
ripping up some of the old railways...
that had been closed. So, it's great at this
stage to be actually working to re-open one again.
The line, like so many, was a victim
of the Beeching cuts.
The announcement of its closure in 1967
provoked fierce local protest.
Even sabotage attacks!
So it's quite emotional to be driving along
What will be the route of this new line.
With fifty kilometres of track,
this is the longest domestic passenger line...
to be re-opened in the United Kingdom
for a hundred years.
The buffer, in front of us here, is the
end of the existing railway.
It is actually a folding buffer, to allow our new
engineering trains to come onto the line.
But it's also the start
of the new line.
And this three and a half kilometers of brand-new
railway - not on the Waverley route at all.
And the reason We've diverted the railway is to
take it through this area we call "Shawfair".
It's a major development area.
And some of the bridges in this area, and the
station just along the line is all part of...
bringing economic development
into this area.
All the communities clown the line see the
benefits the railways going to bring...
and they're all really looking forward to
having stations in their local communities...
that's going to give them good transport access
to Edinburgh and down into the Borders.
And in honour of the line's remarkable reversal of
fortune, Hugh invites me to leave a mark...
on the beautiful Lothian bridge viaduct,
during its restoration.
- Michael, how are you? My name's Willy.
- Good to see you.
I see you've got some quite big cracks here.
Does all that have to come out?
Ah... In the worst case scenario, yes,
but in this case we were lucky.
It sounds like you're doing this with a great
deal of respect for the original structure.
Amazing respect, amazing respect.
Amazing respect for the masons and the
engineers who built it as well.
I'm really in awe of these guys.
We're so lucky that it's lasted -
that it's not been demolished.
Well, the very fact that it HAS lasted shows
you how skilful they Were.
It certainly does.
Invited to position even one brick,
I gain a new sense of...
respect for the hundreds who
toiled to build this viaduct.
Here you are. Take your trowel up to it and
just push it, push it along the bed.
Like that?
Yep, that's perfect.
Pushing that along the bed there.
Make sure We've got all of it
right to the back.
Oops!
I can see why it's a skilled job!
You've done a great job, Michael.
Thank you very much.
One small brick, in one arch of twenty-three
arches, of this enormous Victorian structure...
because those people had
big ideas!
Victorian railways bound England and
Scotland together as never before.
Despite that, the Scottish retained a
distinctive national culture...
expressed, not least, in the sports and the
ware that I've sampled in recent days.
One of the advantages of Scotland
is that even those, like me...
associated with it only through ancestry, swell with
pride at What the Scots have done for the World.
That's certainly What I've been feeling, as
I've travelled with my Bradshaw's.
Next time I'll scoop a cool treat
in suburban London.
Sludging, yes.
"Sludging"..?
Not sure I Want to be known for
making sludgy ice-cream!
Learn how the Railway Age was also
a boom time for cemeteries.
Some wag had written "New
graves warmed by steam."
And visit an exotic 19th-century attraction
that still draws a crowd today.
It's a great way for people to
get close to animals.
A bit too close, possibly!
[LAUGHTER]
[END THEME]
For Victorian Britons, George Bradshaw
was a household name.
At a time when railways
were new...
Bradshaw's guidebook inspired them
to take to the tracks.
I'm using a Bradshaw's guide...
to understand how trains
transformed Britain.
Its landscape, its industries, society
and leisure time.
As I arias-cross the country,
150 years later...
it helps me to discover
the Britain of today.
I'm now concluding my
Scottish journey.
While Victorian English
flocked to Scotland...
the world beyond these shores also
felt the Caledonian influence.
Men of fortune left their mark
in the New World...
and around the globe, sportsmen discovered a
Scottish pastime that suited them to a tee!
My journey has taken me across
Scotland - from west to east.
It began at the Clyde estuary.
Heading through the Scottish
lowlands to Glasgow.
It continued to Stirling and Perth -
touching the Highlands.
Now I'm traveling east
to Fife.
To the famous university
town of St Andrews.
Before heading south to
Scotland's capital city.
On today's leg, I start on the
bracing east coast...
before heading inland along
the Firth of Forth...
and on to the theatrical city
of Edinburgh.
And my journey ends in the former mining
village of Newcraighall.
I pay homage at the birthplace
of golf.
Great shot, Michael.
Can't believe I hit it!
Discover how a penniless Scot
gave away a fortune.
He wrote "The Gospel of Wealth"
and in that he said...
"He who dies thus rich
dies disgraced."
And tread the boards at
the Edinburgh fringe.
I demand to know Where you deposited the
handbag that contained that infant!
I left it - in the cloakroom...
of one of the larger... railway
stations... in London.
"No one can say he has seen Scotland, who
has not paid St Andrew's a visit."
Thus declares Bradshaw's.
And with the university founded in 1411 - and my
mother's school of St Leonard's in 1552 - no wonder.
"One branch of manufacture flourishes
- making balls for golf."
"A favourite game, played on the links or
flat sands along the sea shore."
I think I'll swing by!
Leuchars station may not be familiar,
but most people will have heard...
of the world-famous golf
course nearby.
St Andrew's Golf Club was founded in
1843 with eleven members.
Who were mostly tradesmen - including
a dancing master and a butler.
They were soon joined by Allan Robertson -
the foremost golfer of his day.
And Mackenzie Turpie - who competed in the 1900
Paris Olympics, when golf was first included.
I'm going to visit a golf-club factory,
Where they maintain the special skills...
needed to craft traditional
hickory-shafted clubs by hand.
I'm meeting Hamish Steedman,
its chairman.
Hamish...
I'm getting the feeling of a lovely
traditional Workshop here.
How far back in history
does golf go?
Well, the earliest documented
evidence of golf was 1452.
When our James ll banned golf
in favour of archery practice.
But we know ball-and-stick games have
been played from the earliest days.
The Scots were the first to actually play towards
a hole in the ground - to put a ball in.
And that's really defined
as the start of golf.
So... for over six hundred years it's
been played in St Andrews.
What was the game like,
here, in St Andrews?
Well, the history demonstrates that links
courses have been here for centuries.
The links land, for example, is really
the common ground...
between the shoreline and
the farmland.
It Wasn't manicured as it is today.
And, in fact, it was nearly lost to
rabbits in the early 1800s..
When the rabbit holes almost took
over the golf holes.
It took a handful of rocks to
fill in the rabbit holes...
plus pluck - and a favourable wind -
to see those early golfers...
safely through eleven holes out
and the same eleven back!
Well, Michael, this is one of the
long-nose clubs, here...
which was used throughout
Victorian times and before.
We have the splice shaft, here.
The leather face insert.
The ram's horn.
That would protect the leading
edge of the club.
And the most important
part of the club...
was each club was weighed - with lead
weight being poured into the club.
Even now, the skill lies in precise
measurement of the molten lead.
- Hello, Angus.
- Hello there.
What temperature is your lead?
Hot!
[LAUGHTER]
What weight are you trying
to achieve there?
Well, the head weight is usually three
to four ounces, and you add lead...
so it comes up to the
eight-ounce mark.
And that's the standard weight
that we make the putters.
When the molten lead has cooled a little,
it's hammered and left to set.
Nowadays, golf clubs and their shafts are
made from steel and titanium.
But hickory clubs smack of history
and craftsmanship.
Hickory is obviously the
shaft of the golf club.
It's not indigenous to this country.
But it was used in tooling - your pickaxes,
shovels, broom handles.
And the wood is indigenous to North
America - so it was imported.
So you are still making Victorian clubs -
there must be a market for them?
Yes, there is.
We export, primarily,
around the World.
We're involved with the
World Hickory Open Championship.
That's played here
every year.
And last year we had fourteen
different countries playing in that.
So it is a growing interest in the hickory
game - and it's exciting to see.
In Victorian times the game was regarded as a
great leveller between ranks and classes.
When matched in skill, king and
commoner played on equal terms.
Lacking skill, I'd hoped, at least,
to look the part.
Hamish, I can't say I feel completely sensible
in this gear. What's the origin of it?
Well, the plus-fours were typical
of countrywear.
They are ideal for golf.
Ideal for hunting and shooting.
Because you don't get the bottom
of your trousers dirty.
And, of course, the greens and the
the golf courses, in those days...
weren't manicured like
they are today.
And certainly Scottish rough isn't very
pleasant at the best of times, anyway.
Lovely weather -
and beautiful views.
Although that flag looks
rather a long way!
[LAUGHTER]
Right, slowly back... and nice,
easy forward - that's you.
And follow through, straight
to the hole.
Ooh!
I personally blame that one on the
stiffening sea breeze.
Michael, with the hickory clubs -
you trust the club.
So it's a nice easy swing back
and swing through...
trusting the club, and hitting
towards the hole.
Great shot, Michael.
Can't believe I hit it!
Let's hope I haven't
peaked already!
Oh! Stop, stop, stop, stop!
Ran on.
I hope no one was looking down from the
famous St Andrews club house.
Which has occupied this splendid
Victorian mansion since 1933.
I'll get the flag for
you, Michael.
Oh, thank you.
Not sure that it will
be needed!
Ahh!
Close.
Feeling a bit below-par, today.
Not before time, I must resume my
journey south from Leuchars station.
My next stop will be
Dunfermline.
Bradshaw's tells me that it's a "large
burgh town in the county of Fife"...
"whose inhabitants are engaged in the
manufacture of diaper, damask and table linen."
I'm here to find out about the son of a linen worker
who moved from below the salt to the top of the table.
The ancient town of Dunfermline
dates back to Neolithic times.
Perched on a rocky hilltop, it's
crowned by a magnificent abbey.
The resting place of Scottish kings.
The Victorian visitor armed with Bradshaw's guide
came to see a Scotland swathed in romance.
[BAGPIPES PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND]
On my own travels abroad I've been impressed by
the philanthropic works of Andrew Carnegie.
But I knew little of his poor
beginnings here in Dunfermline.
To discover more about this
remarkable man I'm meeting
Lorna Owers from the Carnegie
Birthplace Museum.
I believe that this beautiful park
might hot be open to the public...
if it weren't for the generosity
of Mr Andrew Carnegie.
That's true.
When Andrew Carnegie was a child he
Wasn't allowed to go into the park.
It was owned by a Colonel Hunt
and it was a private estate.
And the locals were allowed in one
day a year - on a public holiday.
But, because Andrew's uncle was a Chartist
and very anti-establishment...
which didn't go down too well
with Colonel Hunt...
he and his family were banned from the
park - and that included Andrew.
Chartism was one of the most important popular
reform movements of the 19th century.
Working-class men hadn't gained the vote in
the great Parliamentary reforms of 1832.
Radicals drew up a People's Charter
so becoming known as "Chartists"...
which included the demand for
universal male suffrage.
Riots broke out - and Colonel Hunt may
have feared disorder in his park.
Carnegie vowed that one day he would
hold a public meeting there.
And in the end, of course, he bought the park
and gave it to the people to enjoy.
A lot of people think that he only started his
philanthropy when he retired.
But actually, he wrote a memo to himself
when he was thirty-three...
and he had decided at that
point to retire when he was...
thirty-five before he discovered
the steel industry...
and he was going to give his money
away for good causes.
He was going to get a proper education -
because he'd only had four years at school.
And he was going to
buy a newspaper.
And he didn't get a proper education
because he discovered steel...
and kept working till he was sixty-five.
But he did start giving his money away, actually,
when he was forty-three - and he left a huge legacy.
There are now twenty-two institutions, worldwide,
which are still going strong.
Which are spending something like a hundred and
fifty dollars every minute of every day.
So it's quite an impressive
legacy there.
And here, in the town, of course, Dunfermline has
benefitted from the library and the swimming baths...
the music institute and, of course,
our Carnegie Hall...
which was built after the original
American, New York, Carnegie Hall.
And give me some sort of indication of
What kind of a man he was.
He wrote the Gospel of Wealth - and in that he
said "He who dies thus rich dies disgraced."
In other Words, you should give your money
away - you can't take it with you.
And he was, really, as good
as his own motto.
He was, indeed. He gave away 350
million dollars in his lifetime.
And, uh, that's probably the equivalent of
over a hundred billion nowadays.
A truly inspirational example, from
a man of humble beginnings.
Lorna is taking me to
his birthplace.
Carnegie was born at this cottage,
in Moody Street, in 1835...
where his father worked as a
hand-loom weaver.
Competition from the linen factories
hit these artisans hard...
and the family emigrated to America,
Where Carnegie began to work on the railroads...
before making his fortune
in steel.
Despite acquiring great wealth, he retained
an affinity with Dunfermline...
and his Wife bought him this cottage
for his sixtieth birthday.
Today it survives as a museum,
celebrating his life.
Andrew Carnegie was given a record
number of "freedoms" of cities.
We have fifty-six in the museum, and
this was his very first.
Which he was presented with in
1877 from Dunfermline.
And it's the one he was
most proud of.
Of course, his native city, to which
he was so generous.
That's right, yes. It's mainly thanks for the
library and the swimming baths.
We also have the original manuscript
of Triumphant Democracy...
one of the many books
he wrote.
This is unusual because it's in
his own handwriting.
"The United States have already
reached the foremost rank..."
among civilised nations. The old nations of
the earth creep on at a snail's pace."
"America thunders past with the rush
of the express train."
I love a man who uses a
railway analogy!
It's back to the tracks for me. To travel further
south, for a night at Fife's most southerly village.
Bradshaw's tells me that
"in the neighbourhood of Queensferry..."
by the southern approximation
of opposite promontories,
the River Forth is forced
into a narrow strait."
That enabled the building, after my Bradshaw's,
of the famous Forth Rail Bridge.
Before that, people relied oh the ferry - and the
northern point was marked by a light.
North Queensferry lies between two huge bridges - the
Forth Road Bridge and the red Forth Rail Bridge.
I'm meeting Queensferry Trust chairman,
James Lawson, in this stunning setting...
to find out more about the light.
This just has to be the greatest view
of the bridge, doesn't it'?
You only get the sense of scale when
you're down here, don't you?
And absolutely dwarfed by the
bridge, is the light.
Now James, I don't Want to be rude... but I
was expecting something a little larger!
Well, it is What it is! Designed and
put up by Robert Stevenson.
Perhaps the grandfather of all
Scottish lighthouses.
And how does it work
nowadays?
Well, there's a single Wick. And there is ah oil
reservoir - and you just light it with a match.
It originally burned whale oil,
commonly in use until about...
.4850, when the much cheaper
paraffin became available.
The light would have guided sailors
towards the safety of the pier.
The tower's not much more
than twenty feet tall.
What you see here is the oil reservoir.
The oil comes out...
through this "S" bend tube to
the bottom of the Wick.
You light the wick here, and then
put on the glass funnel.
You lift the whole mechanism up,
with this unit here.
Very, very carefully. Well, it is certainly
getting towards dark. Shall we give it a go?
Why not?
It's hard to imagine now, how dependent traffic would
have been, for navigation, on this little light.
In the 1840s, ferryboats traversing
the Forth would have picked...
their Way between trading ships
from the continents.
It's interesting to reflect that this little light
burned on until the opening of the road bridge in 1964.
After a night's rest it's back to the station, for
the penultimate leg of my journey across Scotland.
"Edinburgh", says Bradshaw's,
"is one of the most ancient...
cities in the country and
the capital of Scotland."
"It is not inaptly termed
'The modern Athens'."
Now, you may think that a bit of an
exaggeration, but think of this...
the ancient Greeks brought
theatre to the masses...
and if one city has done as much
as Athens to popularise...
theatre, it could claim to be Edinburgh.
Edinburgh's origins are as a defensive stronghold,
on this imposing rocky ridge.
From the seventh to the ninth centuries it was
pan of the kingdom of Northumbria.
And, after that, a royal residence of
the Scottish kings.
I'm alighting at Edinburgh, Waverley.
Developed in 1854, the station
sits in the valley between the...
medieval old town and the
18th-century new town.
Today, it's Britain's busiest mainline
station outside London...
with around sixty thousand people
passing through each day.
When Britain built its railways, that changed
everything, for good or ill.
For example, when Queen Victoria
came to the throne...
Edinburgh had the sort of theatre scene
that you would associate with a capital city.
But in 1859 the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, closed its
doors claiming that there had been ah exodus...
of talent - of writers and actors attracted
by the bright lights of the West End of London...
and now able to travel
easily by train.
Well, if that was so, the process was reversed
after the Second World War...
when talent came from all over Britain to the
Scottish capital - attracted by the Edinburgh Fringe.
The Edinburgh Fringe is the world's
largest arts festival.
This Wonderful craziness began in 1947.
When a group of uninvited theatre
companies gatecrashed...
the launch of the city's international
cultural festival.
Today, the Fringe fills twenty-five days with
more than three thousand snows.
The result is a joyful anarchy,
combining household names and hopeful amateurs.
Merci, Monsieur.
Come to the Fringe
very often?
No, this is my first time - in fact it's my
first time in Edinburgh.
Oh, my goodness! How on earth do
you decide What to go to?
Easy - I've let a friend of
mine choose!
How are you enjoying
the Fringe?
Yeah, I'm actually performing
my work.
What are you performing?
I'm a choreographer, presenting my
work at the Dance Space.
What do you hope to get out of
being at the Fringe?
Ah... I guess visibility -
and lots of fun, to be honest.
I mean, it's great to be in a place Where
you can see so many things.
What's the best thing
you've seen?
You!
[LAUGHTER]
- I feel sorry for you then, I feel sorry.
- Do you?
Well, We're not so sure
about that.
Do you come every year?
Yeah, we try to come
every year, yeah.
What makes you come back
every year?
- Well, it's just the atmosphere, yeah, absolutely.
- Twenty-minute journey oh the train.
Think I can squeeze in there?
Oh, thank you!
Let's take a selfie.
This is going to be the world's
biggest selfie!
I mustn't let this adulation
go to my head.
I've secured tickets for an alternative take of
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
Where Women play men -
and vice versa.
Hello, to our Wonderful
audience.
Right. Can everyone stand
up, please.
Absolutely everyone, please,
thank you.
Ah ha! It seems this production is
short of a cast member!
Some victims left.
You, sir! What was your
name, sir?
Michael.
No surprises -
I've drawn the short straw!
[APPLAUSE]
Great names have trodden these
boards before me.
John Cleese and Emma Thompson, to
name but two geniuses of comedy.
My Wig should get
a laugh!
And beneath it I am playing Miss Prism,
the forgetful governess...
who mislays the baby
in her charge.
"Miss Prism...
Where is that baby?"
[MICHAEL USES A HIGH VOICE]
"Lady Bracknell- ♪
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
- I-I-I admit for some shame
that I do not know."
"I only wish that I did."
"I had with me a somewhat old,
but capacious, handbag..."
"in which I had intended to place the manuscript
of a work of fiction that I've Written..."
"in my few, unoccupied hours."
"In a moment of mental... abstraction, for
which I can never forgive myself..."
I deposited the manuscript in the bassinet,
and placed the baby in the handbag."
"I demand to know Where you deposited the
handbag that contained that infant!"
"I left it... in the cloakroom... of one of the
larger... railway stations in London."
What railway station?
"Victoria."
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
Entrusted to the railways!
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
I'm now traveling on a line that once
joined England and Scotland.
Bradshaw's tells me that "the Waverley
route passes through country..."
"that assumes a
highly picturesque character..."
'Land becomes rich in
its historical association..."
"being immortalised by the pen
of Sir Walter Scott."
The old Waverley line that ran from Carlisle,
through the borders to Edinburgh...
like so many lines in my Bradshaw's
guide, passed into history.
Remembered only by
grandparents.
But now a section of it, from Edinburgh
to Galashiels and Tweedbank, will re-open.
This part of the Waverley line was built by the
North British Railway Company in 1849.
At the time, Newcraighall was a mining village,
built around a pit that's since closed.
I've come to meet Project Director
Hugh Wark.
The Waverley railway is a very well-known
railway, at least in Scotland.
How does it feel to be
re-building it?
When I started my career we were still
ripping up some of the old railways...
that had been closed. So, it's great at this
stage to be actually working to re-open one again.
The line, like so many, was a victim
of the Beeching cuts.
The announcement of its closure in 1967
provoked fierce local protest.
Even sabotage attacks!
So it's quite emotional to be driving along
What will be the route of this new line.
With fifty kilometres of track,
this is the longest domestic passenger line...
to be re-opened in the United Kingdom
for a hundred years.
The buffer, in front of us here, is the
end of the existing railway.
It is actually a folding buffer, to allow our new
engineering trains to come onto the line.
But it's also the start
of the new line.
And this three and a half kilometers of brand-new
railway - not on the Waverley route at all.
And the reason We've diverted the railway is to
take it through this area we call "Shawfair".
It's a major development area.
And some of the bridges in this area, and the
station just along the line is all part of...
bringing economic development
into this area.
All the communities clown the line see the
benefits the railways going to bring...
and they're all really looking forward to
having stations in their local communities...
that's going to give them good transport access
to Edinburgh and down into the Borders.
And in honour of the line's remarkable reversal of
fortune, Hugh invites me to leave a mark...
on the beautiful Lothian bridge viaduct,
during its restoration.
- Michael, how are you? My name's Willy.
- Good to see you.
I see you've got some quite big cracks here.
Does all that have to come out?
Ah... In the worst case scenario, yes,
but in this case we were lucky.
It sounds like you're doing this with a great
deal of respect for the original structure.
Amazing respect, amazing respect.
Amazing respect for the masons and the
engineers who built it as well.
I'm really in awe of these guys.
We're so lucky that it's lasted -
that it's not been demolished.
Well, the very fact that it HAS lasted shows
you how skilful they Were.
It certainly does.
Invited to position even one brick,
I gain a new sense of...
respect for the hundreds who
toiled to build this viaduct.
Here you are. Take your trowel up to it and
just push it, push it along the bed.
Like that?
Yep, that's perfect.
Pushing that along the bed there.
Make sure We've got all of it
right to the back.
Oops!
I can see why it's a skilled job!
You've done a great job, Michael.
Thank you very much.
One small brick, in one arch of twenty-three
arches, of this enormous Victorian structure...
because those people had
big ideas!
Victorian railways bound England and
Scotland together as never before.
Despite that, the Scottish retained a
distinctive national culture...
expressed, not least, in the sports and the
ware that I've sampled in recent days.
One of the advantages of Scotland
is that even those, like me...
associated with it only through ancestry, swell with
pride at What the Scots have done for the World.
That's certainly What I've been feeling, as
I've travelled with my Bradshaw's.
Next time I'll scoop a cool treat
in suburban London.
Sludging, yes.
"Sludging"..?
Not sure I Want to be known for
making sludgy ice-cream!
Learn how the Railway Age was also
a boom time for cemeteries.
Some wag had written "New
graves warmed by steam."
And visit an exotic 19th-century attraction
that still draws a crowd today.
It's a great way for people to
get close to animals.
A bit too close, possibly!
[LAUGHTER]
[END THEME]