Gate posts and ghosts

After a morning of doing washing, since it was scorchio already, I computed for a while, sorting out some new photos. After lunch I computed a bit more, then cycled to Mum and Dad's.

For a change, and to be amongst the trees, en route I took the path through the lands of Comiston House, a large and still very grand mansion. At the old rear entrance to the grounds is a pair of stout gate pillars, and half of the gate.

'White Lady Walk' is a more recent addition to the naming of the area. The well-trodden footpath from which I took my photo is called Cockmylane (after a line of cottages that once stood on its route), and of which Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, in Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes: "Hard by at the back gate of Comiston, a belated carter beheld a lady in white 'with the most beautiful clear shoes upon her feet' who looked upon him in a very ghastly manner, then vanished..."

Tales of a ghost called 'The White Lady' have persisted among the children at the nearby primary school for at least 50 years. In the autumn of 1965 a group of terrified children said they had enountered such a figure, and the incident was apparently taken quite seriously by the authorities. In about 1985 there was another supposed sighting which was downplayed, with the not-entirely-convincing explanation that the White Lady was nothing more than a large plastic bag caught in a tree!

No ghosts were around when I visited though, so I carried on to headquarters and we had salad and gooseberry crumble. A highly efficient, summery late evening ride took me home for a chat with lovely bestie.