Discover the tales behind the creepy skull, sword-cane and riding boots to be found in the Edinburgh museum known as a 'mini Hogwarts'

Plaster cast of Robert Burns' skull at Edinburgh's Writers' Museum

WELL-TRODDEN slippers, poetry, an adventurer’s boots and a lopsided rocking horse: The Magic of the Writers’ Museum. As soon as you ‘find’ the Writers’ Museum you just know it is special. The Writers’ Museum is a mini Hogwarts and if you believe in magic it is right behind the ancient door.

The Museum tells the story of three mighty authors in the history of Scottish literature, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. It is one of our most picturesque museums on the Royal Mile made even more special by its slightly secret location down a close.

The Writers’ rich collections include books, manuscripts, portraits and fascinating personal items. Highlights include a first edition of Scott’s novel Waverley and Stevenson’s classic, A Child’s Garden of Verses. There is also the press on which Scott’s Waverley Novels were printed and a chair used by Burns to correct proofs.

Items belonging to Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh's Writer Museum

In the Stevenson Gallery, there are interesting artefacts from his time in Samoa and items from his Edinburgh life. Key items are his wardrobe, made by the infamous Deacon Brodie whose double life may have inspired The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. One of my personal favourite objects is Stevenson’s riding boots. A consummate traveller, we can just imagine the adventures these boots have had and the places they have seen. Every crease symbolises a different adventure.

Stevenson wrote some his best works while confined to bed ill, and Bed In Summer from A Child’s Garden of Verses: Selected Poems is one of my favourite poems. Stevenson talks about his confinement to a day-bed. It resonates deeply with us all at the moment, as many of us are confined to four walls, yet we are forced to be ever-creative.

Another of my firm favourites are three exquisite paintings by Robert Hope. Beautifully evocative, they show Stevenson’s principal Edinburgh residences and all the glamour of the New Town.

You can then proceed up incredibly special and slightly lethal ‘burglar-proof’ stairs to the Sir Walter Scott Gallery. Here you will find a fascinating collection of items relating to the great Scottish writer and poet ranging from a printing press and chess set to an inkwell and published works. I have two favourite objects in this room, both deeply personal to Scott.

The first are some well-trodden slippers, currently on loan to the Museum. Scott was gifted the slippers in 1830 by friends who were saddened by the state of the ones they found him wearing at his home in Abbotsford.

A letter from Scott’s friend, Lady Honoria Louisa Cadogan, reads: “The only thing we did not admire at Abbotsford was a (pair) of ugly, uncomfortable slippers we saw in (your) study so my daughters hope you will replace them by their’s.”

These special slippers tell a personal story of the importance of home comforts and the compassion the author inspired in his friends, particularly at this vulnerable moment towards the end of his life. He was still mourning the loss of his wife and struggling since the banking crisis of 1825. They symbolise for me the humanity of one of the greatest writers ever, yet how fragile life is.

The second object I love is the wooden rocking horse lovingly made by Scott’s father who set the footrests at different heights to allow for his son’s polio. There are two galleries dedicated to our national bard, Robert Burns.

Items belonging to Robert Louis Stevenson

The Museum holds an outstanding collection of personal objects, published works and manuscripts relating to one of Scotland’s best-loved poets. The rise of Burns from ‘ploughman’ to poet and darling of Edinburgh society is the stuff of romance. The first of my favourite objects in this gallery is the plaster cast of the skull of Burns, as it is slightly random and just a bit creepy.

The second is the sword cane. This looks suspiciously like a walking cane but inside it a sword is cunningly concealed. Probably useful for Burns when he was working as an excise man. This job involved checking people had paid the right amount of tax on items they were bringing into the county. I however prefer to imagine Burns duelling at dawn with this sword for the honour all his many lady friends.

That is my short walk around our picture-perfect Writers’ Museum - there are many more things to explore.

Margaret Findlay, Learning and Public Programmes Manager

Further information on The Writers’ Museum can be found at www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk

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