Those who may be familar with some of the words and images that I share on hole ousia [a non-existent place] will be aware of my fascination with archives!
Archives, as silent as light, remind us that meaning does not exist unless you look for it.
In an archive, I came across this image:
This, a wooden figure of a man, who stood as a shop sign outside three different shops in Edinburgh. This wooden figure dates from the 18th century and first stood at the door of a gardener’s shop in Edinburgh’s Canongate. This shop, on Horse Wynd, is possibly the one:
Edinburgh’s Horse Wynd has a fascinating history [see the 1928 newspaper account below].
Horse Wynd, mid-18th century:
Horse Wynd, early 19th century:
Horse Wynd, 1st Ordnance Survey, 1854:
Today: no physical vestiges of Horse Wynd survive. However, it ‘lives on’ in a different physical form:
Like Patrick Geddes, I would like to be remembered [silent as light] as a gardener.
