This is my third trip to Scotland. My first trip to Edinburgh was in 1968. I was on my first honeymoon. We flew to London, of course. We took the train from London to Edinburgh. We stayed in a small bed and breakfast, so typical of travel in those days. It was my first international travel with my first passport. We went to Edinburgh Castle and an early version of the Edinburgh Art Festival. Back in London, we rented a car and travelled to Cornwall and hiked along the coast. Robert drove. It was a Mini Morris and my first experience with driving on the right. I remember that while on the road, other drivers would blink their lights at us when in oncoming traffic and we didn't know why. Turns out, we were driving with lights on, which is what we did in the States at that time, and the other drivers were trying to warn us about draining the battery., which we did. I knew something about my mother's Ross family clan and they came from Tain, in the northwest corner of Scotland. Eight siblings all eventually came over during the 1880's. The first, my great uncle Alexander Ross, settled in Webster, South Dakota, where he became a newspaperman. He was the one who wrote about their adventures and an extensive family history and genealogy. I got more serious about reading it after I came back home.
My second trip to Scotland was in 2004. I went with my uncle, Charles Supplee, and my cousin, Joe Supplee. Besides being actively researching our French roots on the Supplee side -- Andre Souplis, arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1683 (now Philadelphia) with a German wife -- Joe visiting the town where the French Huguenot was from and driving around the countryside looking for our lost estates. In Scotland, Joe was looking for our Penland roots. The Penlands arrrived in New Jersey in the first wave of immigrants in the 1630s. They moved south to North Carolina, where there is still a town named Penland. Then some travelled, mostly by water, to Ohio and Iowa, and I remember my paternal grandmother, Ollie Penland Supplee, often talked about wanting to visit that town and looking up family still there. My Aunt Faye spent a lot of time with Ollie, writing her story and documenting a lot of family genealogy. And then there's The Penland School for Crafts. I suspect it's part of my heritage. Joe rented a car in London and we started north. He had read about Roslyn Chapel, whose elaborate carvings were in danger of disappearing. So we stopped there in Roslin, south of Edinburgh, and toured the sad chapel. Soon after, when Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code” became all the rage, I read a copy of the book and I was sure I recognized the final scenes in the book to be the very same chapel we had visited. Indeed, it was!!
We went to Edinburgh Castle, of course. We went to St. Andrews and Balmoral Castle. And at my direction, we choose one of the many factories advertising tours of their weaving operations. Inspired by that visit, when we returned to Edinburgh, I went looking for my passion -- modern day handcrafted goods. I found what I was looking for when I spotted a window full of woven and knitted sweaters on Grassmarket Street. I found a young couple, with a new baby, making wonderful sweaters. I bought ten sweaters for myself, gave some away as gifts and still have five of them in my closet. Bill Baber Knitwear was my special find and my prize!
By that time, my mother, Phyllis Supplee, had managed to make her only trip to Scotland. She knew that her grandmother came from a small town near Dumphries, Scotland. Her name was Mary Corrie and she was born in Moniaive. She came to the States as a teenager. She met Finlay Ross, from faraway Tain, in Chicago and they married. When Phyllis visited the area, she had a number for a cousin in Dumphries. They had lunch.
Following my mother's lead, I convinced cousin Joe to make a similar journey when we left Edinburgh and I was navigating. The road to Moniavie is a breathtaking drive through narrow valleys and mountains filled with sheep and goats. We knocked on doors and introduced ourselves and made new friends.
So here I am in Edinburgh for the third time. It's April 2023, almost twenty years later. I look up Bill Baber Knitwear and there he is in the same location at 66 Grassmarket Street. His son is grown and runs the operations for the company. Bill is still designing spectacular knits, sweaters, scarves and hats, and making them in the shop. The computerized knitting machine is running in the back room where we visit and catch up on what business is like today.. I buy three new sweaters for myself. We also revisit Roslyn Chapel and discover what miracles can come from international fame. The monies have poured in, restoration has transformed Roslyn Chapel. Plus there’s a new Visitor Center and cafe. In the gift shop, I buy pens and bookmarks. The bookmarks quote the only words found carved in the chapel — “Wine is strong, The King is stronger, women are stronger still."
I hired a driver to once again visit Moniavie to see if it had changed. It has not changed, much. What had been the Post office then, is now Watson's Grocery and I am standing by one of my new friends, wearing my new Bill Baber sweater.
