“It might well raise eyebrows among the mourners - if mourners there were in any number.So with my hair confined beneath a bonnet and instructed not to show one solitary wild yellow curl I set forth, accompanied by a brisk breeze along the road past the loch, and parked my bicycle at a discreet distance from the church, namely near the fourteenth-century Sheeps Heid Inn, still doing a roaring trade, especially when the working day was over.Through the kirk gate, the bell tolling forlornly, I loo...ked for recognisable faces awaiting the arrival of the two coffins. There were maybe twenty other mourners - mostly women and all strangers to me, possibly neighbours - sombrely attired, the men in tall hats, the women in black bonnets and bombazine.Few to mourn Mrs Lawers and her faithful maid. In dying Mrs Lawers had indeed fulfilled her reputation to the very end of being a private person. I took in my surroundings: Duddingston's twelfth-century church, at the gate its 'loupin' stane' to assist worshippers to mount their horses, alongside the grim 'jougs', a forcible and public punishment for local transgressors, very unpopular with surprised fornicators.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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