Hadrian's Wall, England - Abbotsford and Edinburgh, Scotland
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Today we are going to see Hadrian's Wall, some 73 and a half miles long. We stopped at a small pub near the wall for
coffee and a relax before walking down to the wall. It was raining but the views from behind the pub were indicative of the area,
all green with small houses scattered about and lots of sheep. Hadrian's Wall was built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to keep the
'barbarian' Picts from Scotland out of Roman Britain. It was started in 122 and was built of stone and wood. There were Vallums, (holes 25ft deep in
a V) shape. This added more protection from the Scots as they then had to cross the Vallum, wall and then a space as well to invade.
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After an interesting visit we boarded the coach again and after a while came across the border between England and Scotland in the Cheviot Hills. The Piper was playing
the bagpipes and they gave a welcome sound to our time in Scotland. The dividing wall was made of stone and unfortunately again it was raining
so after a reasonable visit we left for Jedburgh, to see Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford House.
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The house itself is set on The River Tweed, which was flowing very quickly due to the heavy rains.
Sir Walter bought the house in 1811 and took 6 years to build. A perfect example of a large comfortable home that has an essence of castle. An inside visit
was very interesting as we were in the library where Sir Walter wrote some of his well known books such as The Waverley Novels. The grounds of the house
were a delight and the house itself was in excellent repair. Many books, relics of pastimes and art work are on show here and the tour was quite fascinating.
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Next stop was Edinburgh, and we were in for an exciting time here with lots on our itinery to do. After checking
in to our hotel we ventured out to find The Grassmarket as we had booked a private Literary Tour here for the evening. After a long, sometimes not sure of where we were going walk,
we managed to find the shop to get our tickets and wait until 6pm to meet our group. There were about ten of us for the evening
performance and so after an introduction in the closest pub, we set off in the backstreets of Edinburgh to hear tales of long ago from two professional
actors. It was a freezing night and we were out in the cold listening to stories but were warmed up in local pubs as we moved along. All in all a great night!
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