Scotland Remembers—

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 442, 25 August 1928, Page 26

Scotland Remembers —

EARING itself | VjiS? majestically from j the storied; ' masonry crowning Edinburgh Hill, ri P %- stands the great Hall of Memories j - that Scots, the j —— world over, have j built as abiding tribute to their gallant j countrymen who died in the Great j War. The finest structure of its kind j yet built in the Empire, this memorial j has been designed and erected by Scotsmen. It contains superb sculpture, glorious symbolic windows, and magnificent bronze friezes, all the work of Scots hands, and so long as Western civilisation lasts, the memorial will stand there reminding the future generations peopling Edinburgh Town of the heroic sacrifice of their 1 forbears. The names of the gallant L dead will be enshrined for all time in j a modest casket resting in the main | shrine.

In 1918, the British Government, j through the Rt. Hon. Robert Munro, Secretary for Scotland, intimated that j Edinburgh Castle would no longer be j required for any large body of troops, j The Cabinet was willing that the peak of this rock, around which Scottish life and history had surged for centuries, should be dedicated to the purpose of a war memorial, and ultimately de- j veloped into a treasre house for Scottish national history.

The preliminary negotiations were made, and by the end of 1924 the work was going ahead on noble lines. There was bitter controversy as to what form the memorial should take; but it was finally decided to use old stone for the memorial, and from this ancient material, reshaped by the art of today, has grown this sanctuary of Scotland’s love, anguish and pride. The memorial has been built from the old barracks crowning the hill, and the work of creating modern heauty out of the old confusion fell to Sir Robert Lorimer, father of the modern Scottish architectural renaissance. All that was old and worthy he retained that which had nothing but age to commend it, he swept away. Standing on the pinnacle of the great rock which dominated the old town in the fighting rays, the memorial

A Glimpse of the East Wall of the Shrine . is approached through the old archway to the castle, and up the toilsome paved causeway. The first glimpse is of the west end of the memorial, with its great canopied niche containing r figure of Freedom, one of the eight re-