People often ask us how we plan our scone adventures. The answer, of course, is we don’t … they just kind of happen. How we ended up here at the Wee Timorous Beastie Café in Bridge of Allan is a typical example.

A few day ago we received an email from the Major A A Gordon Society, based in Antwerp. They had read one of our posts from 2015 about the Scotch Tea House in Nice. Major Gordon hails from Bridge od Allan and although pretty well unknown here he is a national war hero in Belgium, The Major A A Gordon Society is dedicated to preserving his memory. Their enquiry arose because In 1939  he visited Nice and, according to his letters, had taken tea with his sister-in-law, Dolly, in the “Scottish Tea Rooms”.

Research

They wanted to know if we thought it would be the same tearoom. We had mentioned that its dark cool interior and proximity to the Promenade des Angles made it ideal for Victorian ladies to seek shelter from the sun and partake of tea and scones. Queen Victoria spent a lot of time in Nice. They eventually built a special hotel, the Excelsior, to accommodate her and her entourage of over 100 attendants. She was a fan of all things Scottish so it seemed likely that the “Scottish Tea House” would have also been created around that time. When we replied we also mentioned that we lived close to Bridge of Allan. There then followed a list of requests for us to research in the town. Hence you find us in the Wee Timorous Beastie Café obtaining sustenance before we begin to scour the town for clues to Major Gordon’s existence.

Of mice and men

“Wee Timorous Beastie’ may seem like an odd name to many readers but, of course, all Scottish folk will identify with it immediately.  The timorous beastie in question is, of course, a field mouse, the description given in the poem,”To A Mouse”, by Robert Burns. He wrote it in 1785 to express his sorrow after he inadvertently destroyed the creature’s nest with his plough.

Back then

The last time we were here in 2015 it was called  Café 33. Back then it was raining and we were not very impressed with the experience we had there. In addition, David Cameron seemed hell bent on bombing Syria. He had been in power for five years and hadn’t yet managed a war. Surely a significant failure for a British Prime Minister?  Anyway, Syria seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth and this time we were desperately seeking shade.

In the splendid display of cakes on the counter we noted that there was only one scone. We asked if they had some in reserve but they didn’t so we had to reserve this solitary example. After some excellent lunch the scone arrived with our coffee. This time, of course, we didn’t have any choice but to share. No cream but it did come with plenty jam and butter. Not a topscone but we enjoyed it nevertheless.

We were looking for local people to help us with our research so we asked the lady sitting at the next table. She was no use whatsoever! She was from Northampton and had only moved to nearby Dunblane a couple of weeks previously. Her son had had the good sense to marry a Scottish lass and she had decided to move up to be nearer to them. She was still trying to find her way around. A delightful conversation but eventually we had to take our leave, we had work to do!

Helpful people

Suffice to say that we now know Bridge of Allan much better than we did before. We poked into most of its neuks and crannies and met some lovely people along the way. The folks in the local library were fantastic. One couple were having lunch in their garden in the sunshine until we interrupted their idyl with our questions. That resulted in them going into the house to bring out some local history books and spending ages trying to help. Wonderful! We eventually got answers to most of our questions and have reported back to Belgium. 

And that’s how we plan our scone adventures!

In “To a Mouse” Burns reflected on life and its unpredictability. “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley.” He apologises to the mouse and for the general tyranny of man. Unfortunately, in the intervening 250 years, everything has changed but when it comes to the tyranny of man it’s still the same. 

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