A visit to St Andrews

What a lovely lunch we had! oldgoat, I must say I was a bit concerned about the 'aroma' of your Arbroath Smokies on the train - so hopefully they won't get too warm before you get home....?. Perhaps the strong coffee at the Tailend spoiled any chance of a rosy glow from your rose wine!
It was a lovely meet up - thanks to you all for making the trip on such a horrid day!

oldgoat The rose will kick in when you step off the train onto the platform.

That was a very nice meetup. Such a pity that elizabeth1 couldn't be there. Lets hope for good news when we hear from her next.

Hope my OH will be at the station to offer a steadying arm then elegran !

I have PMed you a shortened version of the Arbroath smokie tart recipe, oldgoat Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks elegran

It was indeed a lovely lunch....pity the weather wasn't the same!! I managed to get a wet behind sitting on a bench at the station- thought my long jacket would protect me but ended up sitting in damp jeans/undies all the way home! Bought the vacuum packed smokies though-thought they were more train friendly! Sorry that Elizabeth couldn't be there but hope her brother is improving.

Was good to meet old friends and new. Sorry about the rushed goodbyes - everything seemed to happen all at once so virtual goodbye hugs to all.

When is next one?!?

Next one - would 16th July be too soon? There will be a parade of jazz bands and Mardi-Gras-style characters along Princes St at 2.30, followed by performances in Princes St Gardens. Spectacular. I intend to be in town to watch. Anyone for lunch beforehand?

No can do Elegran, sorry. We're away for a relaxing weekend near Loch Rannoch with the midges! Pity, I would have enjoyed that and there are some great £5 train deals just now. <sigh>

Wish I lived a bit closer to Edinburgh elegran then I could have joined you for lunch on the 16th.
I breached the secure wrappings around my Arbroath smokies today. They certainly had a powerful aroma so I was glad the fishmonger had double-wrapped them! I used all the flesh to make your quiche elegran and we enjoyed it for dinner with a generous dollop of aioli. Oscar enjoyed the skin.

Glad you enjoyed your fish oldgoat - did you get anywhere with your journal?

katek I was wondering about your suggestion of looking up the author on an ancestry site. They have free access to one at our local library. I'm also planning to take it to the Antiques Roadshow at Castle Howard in August. I'm sure they'll have somebody who knows about this type of journal and it will be an interesting day out too.Luckily we belong to HHA so can visit Castle Howard once a year without having to pay. Otherwise, it's a really expensive day out. Of course the roadshow will be free.The lady who gave me the journal tracked me down at the (very damp) book sale yesterday to enquire whether I'd managed to find out any more about it. I'd really like to be able to find out more about the author for her.

Oldgoat I have had a bit of a look on FreeBMD and then some general internet searching. My results are here (a lot of guesswork, but maybe you can follow some of it up and see whether there is anything in my gueses)

FreeBMD is just England/Wales, not Scotland, so if she was Scots searches will have to be at Scotland's People.

1) Searched FreeBMD index for births of a Jenny Whittle between 1850-1890. NONE

2) Thought maybe she was married, so searched for a marriage 1870-1890 between a Jenny X and a Y Whittle - NONE

3) Jenny is Scots diminutive for Janet, so searched for marriage Janet X to Y Whittle - YES - Janet Linton married Thomas Whittle, Easington (ref 10a 697) 2nd quarter of 1890

4) So searched for birth of Janet Linton - YES - first quarter of 1867, Houghton, Co Durham (ref 10a 424)

Linton is a Scottish placename (East Linton and West Linton not far from Edinburgh) Maybe she had Scottish parents/ancestors and was visiting to see them as well as doing the Grand Tour?

5) Internet search for Eagle Hall in County Durham - YES Eagle Hall Farm, Sunderland Road, Hawthorn, SDeaham, SR7 8RU

None of this confirms that it is the same person - but it may give you somewhere to start from.

Seaham, not Sdeaham.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201707/medium-683608-20170702-145621.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201707/medium-295203-20170702-145641.jpg

elegran Thanks for all your detective work on the journal. I have just removed the brown paper cover and there are two messages inside. I've attached them for you to see. I do struggle with the handwriting in places. I wonder whether the person who wrote the second message was one of the four on the trip?
It looks as though the author is called Jennie Whittle and lived at Eagle Hurst , Bournemouth. On the back cover she has written 'Miss Snook from Jennie'.
Intriguing isn't it! I'm going to read it all again slowly and look for some more clues.

So my County Durham references are probably irrelevant? Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

But I see that in the 30s there was an Eagle Hurst Hotel in Bournemouth. A photo shows a substantial Victorian house - just the kind of place a young lady who could tour Scotland (in a newfangled motor car) would live.

That's really interesting elegran I tried to find Eagle Hurst on Google Earth and drew a blank, obviously because it had been demolished years ago
I'm going to print off the photos though. The author must have been very well-off to have made this journey, travelling by train and boat and staying in hotels on the way.
I wonder if there is any archived information about the hotel, in Bournemouth?

Was it train/boat etc? I thought she might have been terribly modern and actually motored, but I suppose she would have said that - and detailed all the breakdowns!

There was a census in 1901, so you might catch her at home. I wonder whether Eagle Hurst was a school and she and her friends were teachers?

I'm planning to log their journey elegran and their hotels, too (if I can read the writing).

Transcribing the journal sounds a fascinating project. I could make out the first message, but the second is partly trimmed off. Ironic that she tells Emily not to show it to anyone else, but here we are discussing it on the world-wide web. I thought the writer of the second sounded a bit more mature or more senior than Jenny.

1901 was a census year. You should find her at 38 Bodorgan Road, Bournemouth, unless she was still travelling around Scotland then. Once you have her year and date and place of birth from that, and names and other details of any relatives also living there, you can trace more of her life.

You could start a custom map on Google Maps and mark her progress.

I would like to

Do you mean you would like to have lunch before the jazz parade, Abrile? If you meant meet in St Andrews, that was last week.