In the book "In My Ain Words - An East Neuk Vocabulary" by Mary Murray, some information is given about New Year locally in the past.  Apparently Auld 'Ear's Day would have been the phrase used rather than Hogmanay, while children might refer to it as cake day.  Children would would go round carrying baskets in the forenoon, to friends' homes.  They would be given shortbread, cake, an orange and an apple.  An even older tradition was to give a penticut biscuit, which was oddly-shaped and plain with a few carraway seeds on top.  The accompanying children's chant would be:

" Gi'es ma cakes an' let me rin,
Ma feet's cauld, ma shune's thin,
So gi'es ma cakes an' let me rin."

In fact, adults also might invite one another to "see an' come in for yer cakes".  Generous shopkeepers would perhaps hand over a little bit extra to customers, saying "here's yer cakes".

Very Best Wishes for the New Year!

The above image is detail taken from the photograph shown in the previous post. It focuses on the western edge of Drummochy.  The gable end of Drum Lodge can just be made out among the trees in the top right corner.  This house (previously known as Drummochy House or Drumochie House) was built around the late 18th or early 19th century and once had extensive park land and a garden with many fruit trees.  A boundary wall can observed (partially lined with trees) separating Drum Lodge grounds from what seems to be more of a communal grass area (possibly an old bleaching green) and some cultivated land adjacent to the Net House.  The open area to the right of the Net House would soon be built upon.  Drum Park comprises sixteen houses, in two terraces of eight, with a commanding position above the sea wall.  Known also as 'Drum Lodge Park' in its early days, this development met a demand for seaside accommodation on this popular part of the Fife coast.

This photograph, taken from an elevated position at Largo Station, facing towards the harbour and Drummochy, provides a fantastic panoramic view.  This crisp image provides so much detail on this area at the time - capturing many features that have changed over the years.  The station and its little hut in the foreground are long gone.  The roof and windows on the Crusoe Hotel have been altered - more than once.  A century has passed since the road bridge was built over the Keil burn connecting Drummochy to Lower Largo.  Fishing nets no longer skirt the coastline nor hang out to dry by the shore. Drum Park has long since filled the gap between the Net House and the trees in the upper right of the shot.  I'd guess this photograph was taken not long after 1900.  A good clue is the little sign, barely noticeable on the fence at the lower left corner of the shot.  Blown up this sign reads "BOWLING GREEN & TENNIS COURT - SIMPSON INSTITUTE - UPPER LARGO".  This suggests that the photo dates to before the tennis courts and bowling green were opened in Lundin Links in 1905.  The facilities at the Simpson Institute date back to 1892.  In the next post - more information on the contents of this image, as we zoom in to more detail.

In the book 'In My Ain Words - An East Neuk Vocabulary' by Mary Murray, in a section about Christmas, it is said that:

"Saundy Claw or Santy brought small gifts for children, but adults paid little attention to Christmas and, until the Second World War, it was not even a holiday.  Shops and work places were all open as usual."

In fact, Christmas Day did not become a public holiday in Scotland until 1958.  Newspaper archives yield little detail on Christmas-related activities, aside from the 'soirees' arranged for children.  If you have more recent memories of Christmas past in Lundin Links and Largo, please comment.  I recall carol singers going round the streets, the annual primary school Christmas Fair and singing to the old folks at Peacehaven with the Brownies and Guides.  Plus, more generally in winter - if it snowed - sledging on the Ladies Golf Course was extremely popular!

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure many will recall the 'Viennese Tearooms' in Lundin Links - a small restaurant run by Max and Jean Jurecki, who also offered outside catering for weddings and other functions at the time. The family also had a number of shops over the years, including one on Lower Largo's Main Street and one on Leven Road, Lundin Links (now Premier Stores). Perhaps someone reading this might even have been at the Christmas Night Dinner Dance at the Montrave Hall advertised above in 1969.  If you were - or you remember other similar Christmas events in the area - please comment.

Now known as the Upper Largo Hotel, at the time of this advert for the 1969 Festive Season the hotel in Upper Largo was simply known as The Largo Hotel.  Back then the hotel was taking bookings for Christmas meals as well as holding 'musical evenings' at weekends. 

The hotel or inn in Upper Largo has a long history.  For many decades, from the mid-late 1800s, it was known as The Commercial Hotel - although it was also commonly referred to as 'Duff's Inn' during the second half of the 19th century, reflecting the fact that the hotel was under the ownership of the Duff family.  More on them to come soon in a future post - they had a long-standing high profile in the Largo area, having run the inn part of the present Crusoe Hotel in Lower Largo before moving to Kirkton. Before the Duff's era, the inn in Upper Largo was known as 'Lee's Inn', after the innkeeper Edward Lee who died early in 1842.

The Serpentine Walk is an old tree-lined path linking Lower Largo to Upper Largo.  The name 'Serpentine' is a commonly-used one for paths, rivers, lakes and the like which curve and twist like a snake.  It is difficult to say how long this route has existed but probably for hundreds of years.  The above postcard view gives the impression that perhaps occasional carts used the route as well as people on foot.  There were a number of postcards produced in the early 1900s featuring this walk, suggesting it was popular with visitors and generally enjoyed for leisure.

Now managed by the Woodland Trust, their management plan describes the Serpentine as a "coastal broadleaf woodland". It talks about the tree and plant types found there, the soil types and the topography of the area.  However, what interests me is how this trail was used over its long history.  It must have been a well-worn path for people from both villages before the days of mass private transport.  Yes, it would have been used for leisure but it also would have been a route taken by traders, workers and travellers.  Many an interesting character would have walked the Serpentine, for a wide variety of reasons.  

One interesting suggestion from the Woodland Trust's documentation is that the walk was associated with the planned landscape of Largo House in the mid 18th century (although was likely a pre-existing route). Anecdotally, ladies from Largo House wishing to go sea-bathing would have been conveyed down the Serpentine - along with bathing paraphernalia - this being a direct and attractive route to the beach.

After 1857, when the railway came to Largo, the route would have been frequented by Kirkton residents either going to catch a train or meet a train at the station. The property advert from the 9 July 1857 Fife Herald boasts that it is "within 15 minutes walk of the Railway Station".  





Another important group of users of the path must have been church-goers - particularly in the days before the Largo St David's Church.  Sunday mornings must have seen folks from the Seatoun dressed up in their Sunday best heading up the Serpentine to the Largo Kirk.  On occasion, locals must have made the journey on foot to attend christenings, marriages and burials.  

Of course, the harbour would have been another destination for walkers along the Serpentine of yesteryear.  Fishing, trade by the sea and regular steam packets calling at Largo are just some potential draws for Kirkton of Largo folks heading to their local 'port'.  The Woodland Trust information states that there is a well-built wall running along much of the route, retaining the Largo Burn, which would imply the path was more than simply a recreational woodland walk. Indeed it was also referred to as the "Wall Walk".

No doubt the Largo Field Naturalists' Society members would have taken an interest in the flora and fauna of the Serpentine during their long history, which began in 1863.  I also understand that school children from the east end of Lower Largo at one time went to school in the Kirkton and so would follow the "Serpie" to and from school.  If you recall this or any other common purpose for folks walking the Serpentine (other than a bit of fresh air and exercise) please comment!

Click on the link below for many recent photographs of the Serpentine Walk along with details of flora found there:

http://lundinandlargo.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Serpentine%20Walk

Although the Selkirk Museum, mentioned in the previous post, was very short-lived, it's remarkable that relics from Alexander Selkirk's time on the island of Juan Fernandez still exist today. The wooden sea chest, for example, that went on that famous early 18th century adventure with him, remaining with him during his four years and four months exile, before returning back home with him, is held by the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.  A coconut shell cup is another surviving artefact, also held by the NMS.  Sadly, neither of these items are currently on public display but rather are kept in storage - awaiting a request to perhaps be part of a temporary exhibition some time in the future.

These two articles - the sea chest and cup - had remained in Largo, in the possession of the family from before Selkirk's death in 1721 until the death of his great-grand-niece, Catherine Selkirk Gillies, early in 1862.  She had occupied the cottage in which Alexander had been born and had "guarded most religiously his cup and chest" according to the North London news of 22 February 1862.  The article continued that...

"Many visitors had been welcomed to that curious, antique-looking thatched house by its kind old inmate, and had been permitted to drink what pleased them out of the small silver-mounted cocoa nutshell - to pass their hands over the cunning joinings of the "auld cedar kist" - to feel the weight of its heavy rounded lid - and to examine the initials and rude carvings of the lonely exile."






The cup had apparently caught the interest of Sir Walter Scott and his publisher Archibald Constable (who had arranged for a rosewood stand and silver rim to be put on the simple cup around 1820).  Katherine Gillies was a fisherman's wife, mother of thirteen and reportedly had around one hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren at the time of her death at the age of 83. Her death triggered the disposal of the "Crusoe relics" from the family.

The sea chest and the cup became the property of a Mr James Hutchison of London.  According to various newspaper reports of late 1863 and early 1864, his intention was to exhibit the items in London.  This venture must have been short-lived as in 1870 the two articles were donated to the Museum of Antiquaries of Scotland by linen manufacturer Sir David Baxter of Kilmaron Castle near Cupar.  Apparently, the previous year, the items had come up at auction and Sir David had purchased them with the express intention to donate them to the museum.  The description of the sea chest given at the time of the donation was "a substantially made chest of teak, 3 feet in length, by about 18 inches in breadth and the same in depth.  The lid is slightly arched above, and closes with an iron tongue or hasp, which comes nearly halfway down the front of the chest, and is there secured by an iron-faced lock".  The cup was described as "formed of a small cocoa nut, 31/2 inches in depth inside, is ornamented on the outside with a zig-zag pattern. A depressed border runs around the rim in two divisions."

Of course there were other items associated with Selkirk.  Much detail on the subject is provided with the book "The Man Who Was Robinson Crusoe" by Rick Wilson - particularly in respect of guns which Selkirk may have owned.  In 1959, a small feature appeared in the 27 July Leven Mail under the headline "The Fate of Crusoe's Relics".  This repeated some of the information already given above but also touched upon some lesser known items.  The image below shows a Mr William Eadie with some relics that he had collected while writing a book about Selkirk.  These included an old cradle belonging to the Selkirk family, spinning wheel bobbins found in the roof of the original cottage, and a book entitled "Thoughts of Heaven, Our Home Above" - copies of which had been presented by Lord and Lady Aberdeen to every guest at the 11 December 1885 unveiling of the Selkirk statue.

Back in 1985, the centenary of the unveiling of the Alexander Selkirk statue did not go unmarked.  Not only was there a procession down Lower Largo's Main Street, as there had been in 1885, but a new museum to commemorate Selkirk was opened.  All this was captured in an episode of the long-running TV series 'Weir's Way' and the museum was officially opened by presenter Tom Weir.  Fortunately, someone has unearthed this episode and placed it on Youtube.  The images above are stills from the programme but to view it in full see the following two links (as the episode is split into two parts):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoKTzl6ToNw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IHJLKwVWAA

The Weir's Way episode covers not only the Selkirk story and the museum (which is no longer in existence), but also looks at Sir Andrew Wood - visiting both Wood's Tower and Upper Largo Kirk.  Visits are also made to the Serpentine Walk, Keil's Den and Pitcruvie Castle.  If you were there when this episode was filmed, remember the centenary celebrations or have memories of the museum - please add a comment.

I'm sure everyone reading this blog is very familiar with the pictured statue of Alexander Selkirk, which can be found on Lower Largo's Main Street.  It was unveiled at this time of the year - Friday 11th December 1885 - on a cold and damp day.  Nevertheless, the occasion was described as a "red letter day" which would "never be forgotten".  Still today people enjoy looking at the many photographs taken on that day in 1885.  Above we have someone remarking on the statue in a 1901 postcard.  This visitor was staying at the Belmont Hotel which once stood close to Largo Station, before it was gutted by fire in 1926.  Elements of the outer shell of the old hotel can still be seen in a wall at the top of the steep pathway running from the Main Street to the car park on the site of the former station (see images below).