Online Meetings, Summer 2020
As a result of the coronavirus restrictions, our normal programme of meetings was suspended, and we concluded the season with online presentations via Zoom for June and July, both of wich were recorded.
15 July
Marietta Crichton Stuart, House and Garden - the story of Falkland Palace and garden and its people, 1800–1952.
View the recording of Marietta's talk (just over an hour)
Marietta's talk traces the story of the Palace, its gardens and its occupants over a 150 year period.
By 1800 the Palace was largely roofless and in ruins with the local minister living in some pokey rooms in the south range. The building and royal tennis court were used as a stone quarry and the grounds a wilderness. During the next 150 years the Palace saw an initial programme of consolidation, followed by the Marquess of Bute's major restoration of the 1890s and, after the Second World War, what Marietta's father Michael, the then Keeper, termed 'a revival'.
The grounds saw similar changes and were transformed when Marietta's parents commissioned a new garden fit for a Palace from the landscape designer Percy Cane.
As for the occupants, for almost a century the Palace was home to the Estate factors and from 1947 Michael and Barbara Crichton Stuart began the work to make it 'domestically convenient and comfortable'. Realising that the task of preserving such a building was beyond the means of an individual, in 1952 the National Trust for Scotland were appointed the Deputy Keepers, one of their duties was to keep the Palace 'wind and watertight'.
Throughout these years the Palace and the historic village of Falkland have acted as a magnet to tourists; 2020 will be the first year since 1947 that there have been no visitors going round the Palace.
10 June
Dr Peter Burman, Padua - a conservation paradigm.
View the recording of Peter's talk (just over an hour)
This lecture focuses on the astonishing wealth of history and culture to be found in the city of Padua. It was severely damaged in WWII but responded to the challenges of post-war reconstruction with energy and enterprise. It has one of the world's oldest universities and the world's oldest botanic garden (a World Heritage site in its own right). The Cappella degli Scrovegni (also known as the 'Arena Chapel' because built on part of the site of the Roman Amphitheatre or Arena) is one of Europe's most important cultural sites: a chapel frescoed from top to toe by Giotto, beautifully conserved, scrupulously maintained and imaginatively presented.
A fascinating and important aspect of modern tourism is the revival of the phenomenon of 'going on pilgrimage'. The shrine of St Anthony of Padua, contained within the Basilica di Sant'Antonio, is a prime example, thronged as it is day after day with pilgrims wishing to pray at the shrine and by visitors anxious to see its treasures of art and history including a group of sculptures by Donatello.
As a cultural centre Padua is a little in the shadow of Venice, less than 40 minutes away by train or bus, and Verona is perhaps better known to British cultural travellers. But the lecture will present evidence to show that this is a city which has grasped both the significance of its past and the opportunities of its present.
Previous seasons
- The full programme for 2019–20, including events that were planned but may be presented later
- The programme for 2018–19