Watt a life...

Today I had to go to the Riccarton Campus at Heriot-Watt University outside Edinburgh.

Getting a little lost en route took my companion and I a little uncomfortably close to the World Headquarters of Royal Bank of Scotland - a monument to the fine old banking tradition of "hubris".

Arriving at Heriot-Watt. Heriot, of course, was "Jingling Geordie", banker to James VI. But Watt was a different kettle of fish. (Terrible pun in there, but never mind!)

Here he sits looking a bit fed up on his plinth outside the building at the University that bears his name. He didn't (although it is often said that he did) invent the steam engine - but he improved it beyond recognition, and actually got it to work. He came from Greenock. (Which I once heard the present Moderator of the CofS General Assembly say - "isn't the end of the world - but you can see it from there!" )