Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

[Fwd: Stirling]

From: Zvi Har'El <rl~at~math.technion.ac.il>
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 11:37:16 +0300
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Ian's message complete with the map is archived for your convenience in
http://JV.Gilead.org.il/forum/2006/08/0096.html

-- 
Dr. Zvi Har'El      mailto:rl~at~math.technion.ac.il    Department of Mathematics
tel:+972-54-4227607 icq:179294841    Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
fax:+972-4-8293388  http://www.math.technion.ac.il/~rl/    Haifa 32000, ISRAEL
"If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all." -- Thumper (1942)

attached mail follows:

---

To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

I have sent to Zvi today my latest map for posting on the Forum. It shows Stirling and attempts to differentiate between fact (i.e. Verne and Hignard's visit in 1859) and fiction (Les Indes noires). I have distinguished between travel on foot, by boat and by train and have added one or two details eg the Castle, Esplanade and the Red Lion Hotel where they stayed. I have made a spelling mistake...Lyon instead of Lion...will correct this.I have included travel dates of Verne's visits.Until I drew this map I had not really realised how important Stirling was as a geographical crossroads for Verne. It is not difficult to explain...Stirling is at the crossroads between Highland and Lowland Scotland at the point where it intersects with the most northerly east-west route between the Clyde and the Forth. Thus whoever controlled Stirling controlled Scotland...hence the formidable castle and the proliferation of battlefields around Stirling, the most famous of which, Bannockburn, is mentioned by Verne in Backwards to Britain.
Verne passed through Stirling again in 1879 en route to the Trossachs and Loch Lomond. However, by then there were through trains from Edinburgh, where the St Michel was moored, to Callander, where Verne took the coach to Loch Katrine, so it is unlikely that he had to change trains at Stirling.
The map shows the proliferation of railway companies using Stirling and so the station had (and still does have) many platforms, which explains Verne's confusion in 1859 when he arrived from Oakley, bought a ticket for Glasgow but then almost boarded a train going back to Oakley!
The map also shows the "links" (meanders) of the River Forth which greatly increase the travel time by steamer from Edinburgh as Verne remarks in relation to Starr's journey aboard the SS Prince of Wales. The scale on the map indicates that Starr would easily have walked from the Steamboat Jetty to the Railway Station in five minutes as stated by Verne in Les Indes noires.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Sat 26 Aug 2006 - 11:37:21 IDT

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$