South Milton Cottage

Sandy Robb was a House Painter and he and his wife Helen lived in South Miton cottage not far from Logie Coldstone in Aberdeenshire.

Sandy died in April 1956, aged 90. His wife died a decade before him. Sandy left his estate to a local Nursing Home including his 3.5 % War Stock and his Electric Razor. It seems likely that his ‘ARCADIA’, South Milton Coattage and garden, was abandoned at the time of Sandy’s death.

[My thanks to James Dyas Davidson for sharing his wonderful photographs. It was amongst these photographs that I came across South Milton cottage]

ACANTHUS:

To play this short film please click here or on image above.

This is my poem. It is for Sandy and Helen Robb.

An Electric Razor: Donated.

A fading Classic scene,
– cottage style:
in a bristly commercial woodland.

South Milton cottage,
yesterday, I visited you.
I had travelled far North to be with you
and the late Spring light was disappearing with the sun:
over the horizon.

The Acanthus leaves that you hand moulded
in concrete
are still there –
as your Doric pillars reach for the sky.

The woodland is dark now –
but your ARCADIA still brings magical light.