Miscellany

In addition to the plants, paths, hedges and other structures supporting the layout of the garden, there are also a number of statues, benches and bits and pieces located around the Main Garden. The picture on the right is of a statuette by an unknown sculptor from Zimbabwe which I have named African Dance.

Statues and objects

The most striking statue is featured on The Mount. Hortus (Latin for 'garden') was commissioned from Orcadian sculptor, Frances Pelly, at the end of the last century to occupy a rather dark spot under a copper beech in my previous garden (hence the original name of Dunkelmann, German for 'dark man'). Made of greenheart oak and destined to be one of the pier supports at Kirkwall, the statue shows little sign of wear in the last twenty years. Now stained a mahogany colour, it catches the light wonderfully and, gazing from the Mount over the Main Garden, it provides a great divine (or diabolical) focus for the garden.

Commissioned by me from Estonian artist, Tõnis Kriisa, in 2002 for Robert's 50th birthday, The Sleeper is made in white ceramic (now nicely aged and a bit mossy) and consists of a head depicted as sleeping on one hand, while the other is movable, slotting into the other hand or placed nearby.

Robert commissioned this piece called Celebration from Tõnis for me in 2004 for my 50th birthday. It consists of a large circular structure, which I interpret as the sun, and three left hands, possibly raised in salute. Of course, there could be other interpretations. Robert's mother's only comment on the piece was to ask Robert why he felt the need to bury his friends in the garden...

The Sundial, originally the centrepiece in the formal garden in my last garden, sits on the lawn and is inscribed with my motto "The dead, only they, should do nothing" which I found on a card in Robert Smail's printing works in Innerleithen quite a long time ago now. It seemed a fitting motto for the relentlessness of my life in academoa.

Benches

There are a number of benches around the garden. Two are iron and the rest are wooden. The pictured bench was made by the last blacksmith in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, for my fortieth birthday. It features the back to back Rs of Robert's and my logo and looks good. Unfortunately, the slats go from front to back rather than side to side so it is rather uncomfortable to sit on for any length of time.

Latin Tags

The other benches are all fairly standard bought wooden ones. Each one carries a Latin tag (well I am a classicist by early training) and below is a list of the Latin, and their provenance.

Nemo me impune lacessit: 'No-one assails me with impunity'. The motto of the Royal Stuarts in Scotland from the time of James VI and of the Black Watch regiment in which Robert, his father, his youngest brother and one of his nephews served.

Humani nihil alienum: 'Nothing human is strange to me'. The Bradford family motto. The original quote is from a play by Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) and the original quote is: Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto: 'I am human: I think nothing human is strange to me'.

Nos contra mundum: 'Us against the world'. Of unknown origin but widely used and certainly fitting at times in everyone's life!

In memoriam iuventutis pulchritudinisque: ' In memory of youth and beauty'. I had an emergency appendectomy (unnecessarily it later transpired) when I was forty and Robert bought our first garden bench to help with my convalescence. Since we associated garden benches with middle age, I made up this little tag.

Mortuis solis nihil facere licet: 'The dead, only they, should do nothing'. My translation of this Victorian motto which I adopted as my own and whose English version also appears on the sundial in the lawn.

Sine spe - sine testudine - sine praemio: 'Without hope, without witness, without reward'. My translation of the Stephen Moffat quote used extensively in Peter Capaldi's final season as Dr Who (one of the best series in my humble opinion). The full quote is: “Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit – without hope, without witness, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis'.

Virtus modo virtus est in extremis: 'Virtue is only virtue in extremis'. My translation of the last of the above quote.