‘The Sound of Many Waters; A Journey Along the River Tay’ paperback out now.
Just some of the books that inspired my journey.
Paperback Publication Day
Tag: Beatrix Potter
The Sound of Many Waters 3
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Beatrix Potter based ‘Mrs Tiggy-winkle’ on Kitty MacDonald, a washerwoman from Inver on the Tay. One of the many sounds along the river has been that of generations of poor women’s feet trampling in washtubs, their red raw hands beating laundry against river rocks, their fingers rasping on ribbed washboards.
Victorian holidaymakers to the Tay like Beatrix Potter would pass their stained clothing to local laundresses to be washed in its pure waters in basement rooms, outhouses or in tubs by the river. Potter dressed Kitty in 19th C. clothes but chose to depict her as a hedgehog, a small, timid creature but with prickly defences – an eater of slugs, different from them. “The Scotch,” she wrote were “tolerable savages.” Kitty was not just small, she was stunted from an orphaned childhood of malnutrition and a life of poverty.
150 years later Potter’s books are as popular as ever, what does that tell us about the attitudes to those who service the needs of tourists along the river today? Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Image: AFrederick Warne & Co., Penguin Books.
Sound of Many Waters 2
Millais was drawn to the river Tay not only to paint but, like so many others, came to fish. Here the artist becomes model, the epitome of the Victorian sporting gentleman. The artist is posed on a Tay coble rowing boat, a favourite of anglers on the river for centuries. Beside him is the ghillie who helped him land the salmon and trout displayed for us to admire on the river bank.
The photograph was taken by his friend Rupert Potter in 1881 on the river near Dalguise. Potter and his family, including his daughter Beatrix, spent many summers holidaying on the Tay around Dunkeld. Beatrix was a keen artist and photographer too. Sometimes Millais would ask Beatrix to photograph the scene he was painting as an aide memoire for him when he worked it up later in his studio.
Forthcoming
The Sound of Many Waters,
A Journey along the River Tay
I’m delighted to be working again with the great publishing team at Birlinn on a new book on the River Tay. It’s a journey- historical, natural, cultural- along Scotland’s longest river from the source high on Ben Lui in the Highlands to the Firth at Dundee.
For a taster you can listen to this edition of ‘Open Country‘ on BBC Radio 4. I had great fun recording with Dougie Vipond and edited by Ruth Sanderson.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ngmp
Browse the accompanying images as you listen.
Hope you enjoy!
Robin A Crawford 