Genius Fan

The Eighteenth century is all around us. All history is, of course, and usually the further back in time you go the harder you have to look for evidence of any particular period. So, what Eighteenth century things, books, people etc could I see over the course of a week’s holiday. Let’s see. This series of posts is an experiment to do just that.

Day 1 (Saturday 19 July)

Hamilton Old Parish Church
One great way to glimpse the life of people from the Eighteenth century is to visit their churches. There are still a great many around, for example, Hamilton Old Parish Church, design by Kirkcaldy-born Scots architect William Adam (1689-1748). (Adam started the incredibly famous architectural dynasty, which was followed by his sons John, Robert and James.) The church opened in 1734^* and here I am walking about the grounds, sidestepping gravestones nearly three centuries later. It was locked so I wasn’t able to go inside, but you can quite clearly see the building has a large circular ‘body’ with four blocks coming off at ’12, 3, 6 and 9 on the clock’. I know there are architectural terms for churches…I haven’t learned them. There’s also a tower with a clock. What you can’t see from my sketches is the yellow, brown and grey of the sandstone blocks used in its construction. (I’ll learn how to paint in colour at some point!) It’s a really nice church to look at and the grounds have lots of gravestones dating from 1700s. I’m most interested in a date when the first two digits are a 1 and a 7!

* Exactly when was the church built and opened? The Hamilton Old Parish Church website lists the opening of the church as 1734. Wikipedia page for the church says the church was built between 1729 and 1732. The William Adam Wikipedia page says the church was designed by Adam in 1735.