Our local Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) writes a weekly column for the
Berwickshire with the rather off putting title of 'Mound of Information' In this week's he reports on a visit to Hutton and Paxton (in that correct order) for a 'surgery' with his Westminster colleague the new Lib Dem MP for these parts. I don't know who he saw in Hutton but I did note two villagers awaiting his arrival at the old Village Hall sitting,
mirabile dictu*, on the wild cherry wood bench outside the Kirk with its unrivalled view of the back of the war memorial some 5 yards away. Our MSP reports that he heard concerns about speeding -that must be the one car that goes through the village ignoring the 30MPH limit every day (not that Huttonian has ever seen it) and about damage done to the old gravestones (the monuments as Mr P calls them) which careless grass trimmers chip with their implements-never mind setting a grave on fire as Huttonian had to report to the High Heidians in St Boswells not too long ago. Apart from the Laird's family plot the old graveyard has been closed for yonks and the 'new' one down the road has been doing a roaring trade since before the First World War if the evidence of the inscriptions is to be believed. The graves are in a mess in the old place to the despair of visiting geneologists tracing their family roots. But the roots flourish.
In Paxton the parliamentarians were 'quieter with concerns' (no voices raised in anger?) including investment in railways. Which railways? The re -opening of Reston Station on the East Coast Line? Or the proposed Waverley Line linking the Borders heartland with Edinburgh but not too convenient for the Merse. Hutton Think Tank has unearthed (quite literally as it had been buried to protect it from German Paratroopers) an old file on the 'Hutton to Paxton Railway' Scotland's initial response to the famous Stockton to Darlington line in England. The file is mostly unreadable and there is no clue as to why this great exciting project came to naught. Lack of imagination and commitment by the Victorians I suspect. Perhaps who so ever spoke to Mr R and Mr M referred to the need for investment in this project although of course it would make a dent in the profits currently earned by the No 32 Bus. Ht2 are now being asked to commission a feasibility study due out at the end of the decade. Watch this space if enough of us are spared*
You can't baffle me with obscure Lation jargon Blog-ed
PS Spell checker suggests 'Rectum' for 'Reston'
