“For we fight not for glory, nor riches, nor honors, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”
~ Translation on the wall of the National Museum of Scotland from the Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
By Catherine Austin Fitts
After arriving from Amsterdam on Friday, Saturday was my day to explore Edinburgh, the capital and financial center of Scotland.
I am staying in a hotel in Old Town, so my day started with breakfast looking up at Edinburgh Castle (more at Wikipedia: Edinburgh Castle).
I hopped a cab to the suburbs of Edinburgh to see Rosslyn Chapel (more at Wikipedia: Rosslyn Chapel).
After carefully touring the chapel, the crypt and the grounds, I heard a fascinating lecture by one of the tour guides and watched the videos in the visitor center. It was the movie The Da Vinci Code which finally succeeded in attracting the support necessary to restore the building and construct the visitor center. The sense you got from this extraordinary ancient chapel was of a people striving to lift themselves, their culture and their technology.
I headed back into town to the National Museum of Scotland (more at Wikipedia: National Museum of Scotland). The exhibits on the Kingdom and history of Scotland were the most interesting, including Scotland’s contribution to the industrial revolution, shipbuilding, railroads, textiles and much more.
My favorite part of Scottish history is the Scottish Enlightenment.
“Sharing the humanist and rationalist outlook of the European Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the fundamental importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. They held to an optimistic belief in the ability of humanity to effect changes for the better in society and nature, guided only by reason. This latter feature gave the Scottish Enlightenment its special flavour, distinguishing it from its continental European counterpart. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole.”
Scotland’s population is 5.3 million. Over 25 million people worldwide claim Scottish descent. The Scots impact and contribution to Western culture and the global economy far exceed their size.
As a special treat, I finally got to see the Monarch of the Glen. I did not realize that it was hanging in the Museum. I turned a corner, looked across the room and there it was, taking my breath away.
Then I was off to meet a wonderful British subscriber for drinks at one of the local pubs, Fiddlers Arms on the Grassmarket, for wine and conversation that went on until the wee hours!
I have to brag — Solari Report subscribers are the smartest, most charming people I have ever known. No doubt, we were encouraged by the spirit of freedom that fills Edinburgh!