Did you miss the Flower Festival at the Kirk or just want to be reminded of its glory. Here are a few pictures that tell the story of this wonderful event.
If you would like to read the leaflet that was available in PDF format here it is: https://duddingstonkirk.org.uk/assets/FlowerFestivalLeaflet.pdf
Additionally the Kirk’s online service from the 1st of September 24 is filmed in the Kirk showcasing the festival to a soundtrack of psalms. You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6887304/video/1004935701
A message from the minister
2024 is a significant year for the Congregation of Duddingston Kirk as we mark the 900th Anniversary of our building. Although there was a major extension built in 1631, the larger part of the building dates from 1124. The roof timbers above the transept are original with the timber coming from Sweden – a Medieval Ikea.
I find it amazing that the building has survived so long and has been continually used as a place of Christian worship. It is difficult to imagine the thousands who have entered these doors for happy and sad occasions throughout the years.
As part of our Duddingston 900 celebrations this Flower Festival remembers in flowers some who have worshiped here in the past. We hope that you will enjoy your visit on this historic year.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Dr Jim Jack
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Waverley, Old Mortality, The Heart of Mid-Lothian and The Bride of Lammermoor along with the narrative poems Marmion and The Lady of the Lake. He had a major impact on European and American literature. Sir Walter was ordained an elder at Duddingston Kirk in 1806,and is reputed to have worked on his novel The Heart of Midlothian in the manse garden.
He had studied law with John Thomson’s older brother Thomas. Scott and the Thomson brothers shared a flat in George Square whilst students in Edinburgh.
Louis Cauvin
Louis Cauvin was the son of a French Huguenot officer who fled France in the 1740s or 50s following a fatal duelling incident. The young Louis made his fortune teaching French in Edinburgh, Robert Burns being one of his most famous pupils. On retiring he became the tenant of Woodlands Farm, Duddingston and built his new house called ‘Louisville’ opposite the farm on the road to Jock’s Lodge. Before his death in 1824 he bequeathed a hospital to provide for the maintenance and education of 20 boys between the ages of six and eight for a period of six years. The scholars were to be the sons of teachers and farmers (failing which, master printers, booksellers or farm servants). A bias towards languages was reflected in the curriculum which, beside the three ‘R’s and Mathematics, comprised Latin, Greek, French and German. It opened in 1833 and was administered by trustees, including the Lord Provost, the Principal of the University, the Rector of the High School, the Ministers of Duddingston and Liberton and the factor of the chief local landowner, the Duke of Abercorn. The building is now the centrepiece of housing for the elderly. Cauvin was an elder at Duddingston until his death and attended this Kirk regularly. As a very busy man with great energy and an eagerness to progress things, he did not suffer long sermons. If the minister persisted in speaking at length, Monsieur Cauvin was known to take out his gold watch and chain and dangle it over the gallery until the preacher took heed!
Drs Andrew and Nancy Neil
Drs Andrew and Nancy Neil were local GPs. In the early 1960s they sought an escape from their home and garden which was also the local doctor’s surgery. They asked an Elder of Duddingston if the church had any spare land. Dr Neil’s Garden was begun in part of the Church’s glebe land. Sometimes referred to as Edinburgh’s Secret Garden, this peaceful and beautiful garden was created from a wilderness. Recognising the importance of the two doctors work, the Kirk Session formed a Trust to continue the garden for future generations to enjoy. The Physic Garden is a memorial to the doctors’ lifelong interest in horticulture and medicine. The Garden
Jesus the Good Shepherd
It was Jesus who likened himself to the Good Shepherd. The ‘Jesus’ window adjacent to the pulpit has five sheep portrayed. There are 128 images of animals in the Kirk! The Jesus Window is a reminder to all of us that we have a Good Shepherd who is prepared to protect us, guide, us and lead us through all of life. The baptismal font was made in 1964 and depicts the shepherd’s crook from the Good Shepherd window.
Stevenson Macadam
Stevenson Macadam was a Scottish scientist, analytical chemist, lecturer, and academic author. He was a founding member of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and a founding member of the Society of Chemical Industry. He was a prominent lecturer in chemistry at institutions in Edinburgh, including Edinburgh University, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh veterinary colleges. He had a large analytical chemical consulting practice and was an elder of Duddingston Kirk.
He was part of a small dynasty of Scottish chemical scientists including his elder half-brother William Macadam and brother Dr John Macadam after whom Macadamia nuts are named.
The window dedicated to him depicts Jesus the Good Shepherd. The inscription below it reads :
Life’s race well run, Life’s work well done,
Life’s victory won, Now cometh rest.
Communion Table
On the night before Jesus was betrayed he celebrated the Jewish Passover meal with his disciples. During that event he took bread and broke it saying, “This is my body broken for you”. After the supper he took the cup and said, “This cup is the new promise sealed by my blood. Whenever you drink it do this in memory of me.” Ever since, the Christian Church has celebrated Holy Communion. At Duddingston we have some of the oldest Communion silver in Scotland. It was displayed at the 1911 Scottish Exhibition in Glasgow and some of it is on our Communion Table today:
– Two alms plates from the 16th century. One depicting the spies coming back to the Israelites with bunches of grapes from the Promised Land. The other depicting Adam and Eve. They were made in Holland.
– Two silver communion cups inscribed “This commvnione cop belongs to the Chvrch of Dvdingstovne 12 May Anno 1682”
– Two pewter flagons inscribed “For the use of the Kirk of Dvdingstoun 1724”
– One silver communion cup inscribed “This commvnione cop belongs to the chvurch of Dvdingstovne 10 Feby Anno 1897” Presented by the Women’s Guild.
Rev John Thomson
Rev John Thomson was inducted to the parish of Duddingston in 1805. He had shared a flat with Walter Scott, the Scottish novelist, when he was a student at the University of Edinburgh. One of the first acts of his ministry at Duddingston was to ordain Scott as an Elder of the Kirk Session. Rev Thomson had five children with his first wife, Isabella, who died in 1809. Four years later he married Frances Spence, a widow who had three children from her first marriage to Martin Dalrymple. Together they had a further five children. Frances introduced her family to visitors by saying, “These are mine, these are John’s and these are yins we’ve had together” and John would say, “But ye are a’ ma bairns.” He started using this phrase to describe his parishioners and hence the saying, “We are a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns”. Rev Thomson had two main passions; landscape painting and playing music on his fiddle. It was his painting that attracted to Duddingston other painters like Raeburn (who painted the Skating Minister) and Joseph Turner who on one visit stood on the Manse doorsteps and declared, ‘By God, sir, I envy you that piece of water’ as he made sketches of the Loch.
The Grave of John Thomson
The grave of John Thomson (Jock Tamson) decorated by the community garden Jock Tamson’s Gairden.
https://www.jocktamsonsgairden.org.uk/
Jenny Enterkin
Jenny was a member of Duddingston Kirk. Jenny was only 27-years-old and working as a first aider when the Luftwaffe dropped two parachute bombs, killing 92 people, at the Woodside first aid post in Paisley, on May 6, 1941. The bomb blew up the first aid post and an adjoining tenement. Jenny was buried beneath rubble and taken for dead. She woke up in the make shift mortuary in the local school and cried for help. She survived and lived until she was 103 years of age. Jenny was a faithful and regular attender at worship. She was a member of the Kirk’s Garden Club winning the “Industrial Trophy” ten years in a row well into her 90s.
Display by Duddingston Kirk Garden Club
www.facebook.com/DuddingstonKirkGardenClub
Rev William Bennet
Rev William Bennet was inducted to Duddingston as minister in 1746. During his time the Kirk Session Minutes reported in 1763 “it is fashionable to go to church. Sunday is strictly observed by all ranks as a day of devotion; and it is disgraceful to be seen on the streets during the time of public worship. However, twenty years later in 1783 “attendance at church is much neglected; Sunday is made a day of relaxation; families think it ungenteel to take their domestic to church with them; the streets are often crowed at times of worship.” Rev Bennet died in 1785 but had developed the manse garden to grow pineapples and yams. He even heightened the boundary wall to divert the manse chimney through it to give extra heating for his exotic plants.
The Bible
This copy of the Holy Bible was given to Duddingston Kirk by the late Florence Jones in memory of her husband. She later gave a more modern version of the Bible written in language that is easier to understand and this is now the Bible which is taken into Church each Sunday.
The Bible uses the metaphor of light to represent life.
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path” PSALM 119:105
Joan Carfrae
The three upstairs windows in the Prestonfield Gallery were gifted by the Pinkerton family (of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the USA) to commemorate the donor’s mother, Joan Carfrae (Mrs Alan Pinkerton), who was born in Duddingston and a member of the congregation. These windows depict “I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” Matthew 25:35-36.
Lt Col Dick Cunygham
Dick Cunyngham was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. It was presented to him by Queen Victoria on the 1st of December 1881. He gave his life at Ladysmith on 6 January 1900 in the South-African War (Anglo-Boer War). Dick-Cunyngham was the youngest son of Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham, 8th Baronet of Prestonfield and Lambrughton. The family lived at Prestonfield House.
Local Heroes
Unveiled in 1922, both the main doorway and the War Memorial listing 29 names, are dedicated to the memory of those who died in World War I. The oak for the door itself came from the Duddingston Estate and the work was completed by Mr John Hay – a joiner, JP and elder in the Kirk – who had lost three sons in the war.
https://duddingstonkirk.org.uk/assets/Duddingston_Kirk_War_Memorial.pdf
Captain Haldane
Although the inscription on the stone says it is a memorial to Patrick Haldane Esq. of Gleneagles erected at the expense of his grandson Captain John Haldane, it is really a memorial to the Captain himself. John Haldane was a Captain in the East India Company. He was dogged by misfortune. He took command of the East India Company ship Fairford; it caught fire in Bombay on its maiden voyage, in June 1783. He took command of another ship, the Nancy, and set sail for England. On board was an actress and opera singer, Mrs Ann Cargill. She had made her Covent Garden debut in 1771, aged 11. Ann eloped twice before she was 21 and then, in 1783, she became besotted with John Haldane. She sailed with him on the Fairford to India, where she was a great success on the stage. Her benefit performance in Calcutta raised an astonishing 12,000 rupees. On their return to England on the Nancy. the ship was caught in a storm off the Isles of Scilly and struck rocks. Most of the crew and passengers were lost at sea, but the corpses of two men, and of Mrs Cargill, floating in her shift, and her infant in her arms were recovered. It seems likely that the child was John Haldane’s. The wreck was located in 2008.
The wreck of the Nancy is depicted on the stone at Duddingston.
Wee Jim
Jim was the son of an unmarried girl who worked in the Duddingston flax mill. He was much loved by the women who worked in the mills as his mother brought him with her to work. Sadly, the atmosphere in the mill did not agree with him and he died of TB at age five. As his mother could not afford a memorial to him, the mill girls, despite being on poverty wages themselves and struggling to bring up families, clubbed together and bought this simple stone for the wee soul. The engraver charged by the letter hence the simple inscription “Wee Jim”. The story has been passed down through the years by local women.