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The People’s Money | Introduction The People’s Money Introduction This report shares the inspiring story behind the development of the new Royal Bank of Scotland polymer £5 and £10 pound notes. Pocket size works of art, the notes are full of meaning and part of a family of notes designed to work together to celebrate the people of Scotland. To help understand the tales the notes tell, we have laid out the process of their development in the enclosed pages. Every element is explained and its provenance provided. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 1
The People’s Money | Introduction Contents Section 01 Introduction 03 Project background 06 Series concepts 08 Story guidelines 10 Colour palettes 11 Bespoke tweed patterns Section 02 Five pound note - design and story 16 The Obverse 20 The Reverse Section 03 Ten pound note - design and story 30 The Obverse 38 The Reverse 2 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction The People’s Money Project background ‘The People’s Money’ has its roots in a country-wide collaboration with the Scottish public. Nile was engaged by The Royal Bank of Scotland to help build this collaboration through the design and facilitation of a series of public engagements both on and offline. Working across 4 cities, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness we held free and frank public conversations around a choice of 5 possible INVERNESS note themes generated by the bank: | Natural colour & light | Scottish achievements | The Scottish story | The future of Scotland | Coming home DUNDEE Meanwhile an online community was mirroring these discussions in a digital forum and a Yougov survey was taking a country wide sounding GLASGOW of opinion on which theme was the most appropriate for the new note EDINBURGH collection. 87 people engaged in workshops 66 people engaged through our 1025 people took part in our survey 27 designers from Scotland took part in online community the project Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 3
The People’s Money | Introduction The chosen theme Natural colour & light 1st Natural colour & light 498 votes 2nd Scottish achievements 323 votes 3rd The Scottish story 280 votes 4th The future of Scotland 192 votes 5th Coming home 83 votes Through the workshops and digital conversations we developed an understanding of what the public meant by Natural Colour and Light. It became clear there were important stories about Scotland the public wanted the notes to tell. Tradition was represented but there was also a strong desire to reflect the future hopes and aspirations, as well as the present reality of living here. Landscape, native animals and the natural world featured strongly as did the Scottish sense of humour. The traditional castles and bridges were avoided to help differentiate these notes from previous issues. 4 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction Developing the notes Design tools As a result of analysis of the public engagement and the Design Advisory board input, concepts have been agreed for the full set of new notes. Though conceived as a set, each denomination is being designed individually. To ensure the voice of the people is not lost and the notes maintain a visual consistency, 5 tools have been developed and are being used by the creative team for each note project. 1 The series concepts 2 Story guidelines 3 Bespoke colour palettes 4 Bespoke tweed patterns 5 Individual note templates Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 5
The People’s Money | Introduction The series concepts A connected story The notes were conceived as a set and the content based on a connected narrative that moves through our natural elements from sea to sky. The £10 otter lives on our coast & celebrates our beaches and shorelines. The £5 mackerel represents the sea and the fishing communities. 6 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction The £50 eagle as the king of our mountain skylines. The £20 red squirrel, a precious native of our woodlands. Care has been taken to make individual stories contained within each note. The four bespoke tweed patterns reflect each note denomination colour, the natural plant materials shown are used by the tweed industry to create the particular note colour and the poetry is chosen to connect to the type landscape element and animals represented. The aim is consistency rather than conformity - giving flexibility to tell authentic stories without compromising layout. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 7
The People’s Money | Introduction Story guidelines | The people’s voice Careful consideration of the public conversations lead to a set of guidelines for the content of the notes. The design teams use this as a tool when building the individual note stories to help ensure the voice of the people is carried through to the final note designs. Light Water & weather Invisible Grand elements The Scottish sky, and how it Refers to our ever present rain but The invisible layer was seen as fun, Celebrate our mountains and changes: foals legs, ‘end of the also our coasts, rivers and lochs. exploration, a surprise, a badly dramatic landscapes. world skies’ kept national secret. 8 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction Please note: this list is not intended to be prescriptive. The everyday Textile patterns Education Future modern A key element to all discussions, Fair Isle, tweed, Paisley patterns The importance of a story on the A desire to avoid the traditional midges, Tunnock’s biscuits, pan (NOT tartan). notes that would share information historical representation of the bread, machair. Elements that about an aspect of Scotland. country, instead to focus on where are part of everyday life for the we live now and our aspirations for ‘people’ of Scotland. the future. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 9
The People’s Money | Introduction Colour palettes Colour palettes have been developed by Donna Wilson for all four notes. blue brown £5 £10 purple green £20 £50 10 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Introduction Bespoke tweed patterns Created for the note by tweed designers Elspeth Anderson and Alistair McDade. Variation on a Herringbone houndstooth type weave (dog-otterstooth) £5 £10 Entwining twills Glen check £20 £50 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 11
Five pound note Design & elements
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Five Pound Note The Obverse 14 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Five Pound Note The Reverse Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 15
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note The full story £5 Obverse Scottish hero Hero quote Landscape Reverse elements Nan Shepherd “The living mountain” speaks of the The Cairngorms Bringing the tweed and woad shapes water and ice make as they elements from the reverse of the An ordinary lady with extraordinary The dramatic landscape Nan loved interact in a stream - Water note to visually connect obverse impact on those she taught and and celebrated in her writing - & weather. and reverse - Textile patterns. cared for - Everyday heroine. Grand elements. Midge cluster Blinkbox A security feature to be on all notes Simplified mackerel (using an in the UV layer - Everyday element of the reverse note & humour. design). UV layer 16 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Photo | Cairngorm An Garbh Choire (pronounced an garra chorry) is a massive glacial hollow in the heart of An Monadh Ruadh (the red range) otherwise known as the Cairngorms. An Garbh Coire is surrounded by some of the highest peaks in the Cairngorms – Braeriach to the north (right of the picture) and Sgorr an Lochain Uaine to the South (left of the picture) and Carn Toul (out of picture). This Coire has a special secret in that snow can last all year round and the snow patches (in upper centre of image) have only melted 5 times since the early 1900s. The small river you see in the centre is the start of the River Dee which flows down into the Lairig Ghru and into Royal Deeside. The river spring starts on the high plateau on the skyline of the picture at the back of the Coire and is known as the Wells of Dee at a height of around 1230 meters / nearly 4000ft above sea level and is one of the highest water springs in the British Isles. The Lairig Ghru is a huge glacial trench that cuts through this massive mountain range linking Deeside to Speyside providing a valuable trade route for moving cattle to the markets in the south of Scotland. The Lairig Ghru was famously used for aerial photography in the wartime film 633 ‘An Garbh Choire’ squadron. Photographer: Ruari MacDonald An Garbh Coire is probably one of the most remote places in the British Isles as from any direction, It takes many hours to travel across the rugged and varied landscape. The enormity of An Garbh Coire never fails to take your breath away, especially when viewed from the edge of the Cairngorm Plateau. With thanks to... Photographer and Cairngorm mountain ranger Ruari MacDonald Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 17
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Portrait | Nan Shepherd Nan Shepherd was a novelist ‘nature writer’ and poet whose sensitivity to the wilderness, the character of the wild world of the Grampian mountains and their surrounding terrain, encompassed families, groups and individual people in their full social and creatural potential. She is a modernist comparable with Virginia Woolf or Lewis Grassic Gibbon, a meticulous writer of narrative prose and a close observer of the finest tracings of influence and motivation that cross through nature and human will, moving between ecology and social construction, combining feminist aspiration and commitment to social justice. Source: Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University With thanks to... Erlend Clouston, Deirdre Burton, John Clouston and Magnus Clouston. (Descendents of Nan Shepherd) for permission to use this portrait and to mirror the image to better fit the note. ‘Nan Shepherd’ Owner: The Estate of Nan Shepherd 18 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Quotation by Nan Shepherd The freezing of running water is another mystery. The strong white stuff, whose power I have felt in swollen streams, which I have watched pour over ledges in endless ease, is itself held and punished. But the struggle between frost and the force in running water is not quickly over. The battle fluctuates, and at the point of fluctuation between the immobility of frost, strange and beautiful forms are evolved. Reference: Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain Ay, ay, answered her father, still holding the hen ‘It’s a grand thing to get leave to live.’ Reference: Chapter XIX, The Quarry Wood With thanks to... Erlend Clouston, Deirdre Burton, John Clouston and Magnus Clouston. for permission to use Nan’s writing. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 19
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note The full story £5 Reverse Animal Plant Midge Scottish poetry Mackerel Woad Almost hidden on every note, Excerpt from the poem this midge represents the reality ‘The Choice’ by Sorley MacLean. An ‘everyday’ seafish but the single An historic plant used to create of everyday living in the Scottish Gaelic and written in Scottish most valuable stock for the Scottish blue dye for the wool used in tweed countryside - Everyday & humour. Secretary Hand in the visible layer fishing industry - Current Scotland. - Textile patterns. “I walked with my reason, out beside the sea” Scottish language poets and authors are now central to the studies of literature in all secondary schools - Education. Tweed Invisible poetry A traditional Scottish fabric woven The English translation of the with colour of the Scottish light visible Gaelic lines from Sorley and landscape, traditionally used MacLean’s poem - Education. in hunting clothing as early form UV layer of camouflage. Blue on this note to reflect the sea theme - Textile patterns. 20 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Mackerel | Scomber scombrus Mackerel (Scomber scombrus) is the most important pelagic species for the Scottish fishing industry. It is caught predominantly with pelagic trawl mainly in western waters and the North Sea. Landed into Scotland in 2013: 160,118 tonnes. Value for 2013 : £67 million Mackerel are streamlined for swimming, and because of their body design, need to keep swimming constantly in order to take in sufficient oxygen. So they symbolize a mixture of speed, beauty and marine productivity – a good blend for Scotland’s home waters. Source: Wardle, C.S., and He, P. 1988. Burst swimming speeds of mackerel, Scomber scombrus L. Journal of Fish Biology 32: 471-478. Mackerel gather in large schools, which are active day and night. In turn, these schools can provide food for other marine predators, such as northern gannets and whales. So big shoals of mackerel, rippling the water in patches as if a local rain is falling, are a distinctive feature of some Scottish waters in summer. In turn, these patches can be places to look for gannets diving and minke whales feeding. Source: www.nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/tm/tm141/tm141.pdf Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 21
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Woad | Isatis tinctoria Woad, Isatis Tinctoria, is not native to the UK but was an imported crop, grown in both Scotland and England. It was used to create a blue dye for wool and may have created the colour of the famous Tam O Shanter - the hat worn by the hero of the eponymous poem. ‘The blue of woad is different from the blue of indigo. It’s warmer and more luminous. When indigo items are dyed pale blue, they can seem under-dyed; with woad you can get a gorgeous pale blue that seems like a real color and not a wash. Woad also has a teal undertone to my eye. It was easy to get an even colour, but it always remains a vibrant blue with no black overcast.’ With thanks to... John Gillespie – Director Knockando Woollen Mill Mason Dixon knitting.com – Woad dying experience. 22 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Poetry Sorley MacLean (1911-1996) was the major Gaelic poet of the twentieth century, whose breakthrough volume, Dain do Eimhir (1943), changed the possibilities of what modern Gaelic poetry could be. A poet of love and loss, a poet of war and tragedy, a poet engaged with the modern world in all its complexities and risks, his vision arises from a deeply-earthed consciousness of the islands and Highlands of Scotland, the possibilities of change, and the human need to resist oppression. His poems are energised by an inimitable linguistic urgency and drive. Born on the island of Raasay, which lies off the east coast of the Isle of Skye, his upbringing was rooted in Gaelic culture and in its rich song tradition. Sorley was a headmaster at a school in Plockton from 1956 to 1972. During his time in Plockton, Sorley MacLean worked tirelessly to improve the situation of the Gaelic language, the inexorable decline of which was a source of deep anxiety to him. Both Nan and Sorley made unique contributions to modern Scottish literature and modern literature internationally. In their respective languages, Gaelic and English, in their sensitivity to the Scots idiom of their Susie Leiper: Calligraphy. people, and in their achievement as writers of the first calibre, MacLean in a major body of visionary poetry, groundbreaking criticism, and in With thanks to... his championship of the Gaelic language, and Shepherd in new forms of fiction and discursive prose heralding ‘new nature writing’, as well as Professor Alan Riach, Glasgow University, expertise and guidance. distinctively fresh poems. Both deal with the necessity of, and desire for, Ishbel MacLean for permission to use Sorley’s poetry transformation, both count the cost and reckon the worth of taking the risk, and both have delivered literature of lasting and major significance. Michael Schmidt for invaluable help in connecting us to the families and publishers of the poets we have referenced. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 23
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note The Choice by: Sorley MacLean I walked with my reason How should I think that I would out beside the sea. grab the radiant golden star, We were together but it was that I would catch it and put keeping a little distance from me. it prudently in my pocket? Then it turned saying: I did not take a cross’s death is it true you heard that your in the hard extremity of Spain beautiful white love is getting and how then should I expect married early on Monday? the one new prize of fate? I checked the heart that was rising in my torn swift breast I followed only a way that was small, mean, low, Visable Choisich mi cuide ri mo thuigse and I said: most likely; why should I lie about it? dry, lukewarm, and how then should I meet the thunderbolt layer a-muigh ri taobh a’ chuain; of love? But if I had the choice again UV I walked with my reason and stood on that headland, I would leap from heaven or layer Out beside the sea hell with a whole spirit and heart. 24 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Five Pound Note Five and Ten Pound Note Typefaces Scotch Modern typefaces emerge as a distinctive Scottish Secretary Hand is a style of writing employed typographic form from Scottish type-foundries of the late in Scottish offices during the 16th and 17th Centuries, 18th / early 19th Century. In style they are rational, logical replacing the previously dominant ‘book hand’ as a more and practical whilst also expressing great personality legible, faster written style better suited to the growth of and character. Scotch modern types found success in national and international communication in business and the UK but with their introduction to America, at a time law. of dramatic growth in mass literacy, they became highly influential at an international level. With thanks to... Edwin Pickstone, Typographer, The Glasgow School of Art Royal Susie Bank Leiper, of Scotland in association with Calligrapher 25
Ten pound note Design & elements
The People’s Money | Ten Pound Note Ten Pound Note The Obverse 28 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Ten Pound Note Ten Pound Note The Reverse Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 29
The People’s Money | The Obverse The Obverse Choosing a hero The Facebook campaign to make the final choice of Hero for the note ran from 30th January 2016 to 7th February 2016 Mary Somerville as a young woman James Clerk Maxwell holding his colour wheel Portrait of Thomas Telford Artist: John Jackson, Owner: Somerville College, Owner: John O’Conner, University of St Andrews. Artist: Henry Raeburn, Owner: Lady Lever Art Gallery. University of Oxford. 4200 votes 2100 votes 714 votes (Authenticated UK votes) 30 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Obverse The Obverse Design elements Scottish hero Hero quote Landscape Reverse elements Mary Somerville From ‘The Connection of the Burntisland Beach Bringing the tweed and Dulse Physical Sciences’ a lovely example elements from the reverse of the Scientist, astronomer, translator Where Mary lived as a child and of how Mary brought science into note to visually connect obverse and extraordinary communicator, discovered her love of the natural everyday language and experience and reverse - Textile patterns. bringing science to the wider world - The everyday. - Education. population - Everyday heroine. Midge cluster Moon diagramme Blinkbox A security feature to be on all Taken from Mary Somerville’s book Simplified otter (using an element notes in the UV layer - Everyday & ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’ - of the reverse note design) and humour. Education. micro organism, Acanthometra Bulbosa. UV layer Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 31
The People’s Money | The Obverse Portrait | Mary Somerville While Mary Somerville did not discover or invent anything, she made science accessible to a much wider audience by breaking down complicated scientific topics into more simple terms and thereby started the trend for ‘Popular Science’ through her widely published and used scientific writing. One of Mary’s great qualities as a scientific writer was an openness to new possibilities. She entranced her readers not only by reporting on the extraordinary new discoveries of her own time, but by opening the door to wondrous possibilities in the future. Her 1831 book, ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’, made Pierre Laplace’s ‘Celestial Mechanics’ more accessible with her own commentaries and simple explanations of the difficult elements, which meant that it was used as a college text for the next century. “I translated Laplace’s work from algebra into common language” said Mary. Mary’s books spread across several scientific disciplines such as astronomy, physics, geography and biology and it was her work that prompted the creation of the term ‘scientist’, a new professional concept and umbrella term to define it, coined in 1834 by William Whewell. ‘Mary Somerville as a young woman’ Artist: John Jackson With thanks to... Owner: Somerville College, University of Oxford. Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library: research materials. Alice Prochaska, Somerville College Library: research materials. Permission to use: Somerville College and Fairfax Lucy family (descendants of Mary Somerville). 32 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Obverse Landscape | Burntisland Beach “Genteel poverty” is the phrase that has been used to describe Mary Fairfax’s circumstances. She ran wild in the coastal countryside of her home in Burntisland, and inheriting her father’s fascination with natural history (in his case, plants and especially tulips), she studied the sea shells, birds and flowers that she found around her. “With the exception of dulse and tangle I knew the names of none, though I was well acquainted with and admired many of these beautiful plants. I also watched the crabs, live shells, jelly-fish, and various marine animals, all of which were objects of curiosity and amusement to me in my lonely life.” Reference: Mary Somerville. “Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville.” p. 47 With thanks to... Rebekka Bush, RBS: Somerville College research. Ryan Kane, RBS: for his local knowledge and research. Peter Dibdin: Photography. ‘Burntisland beach’ Commissioned by RBS from photographer Peter Dibdin. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 33
The People’s Money | The Obverse Quotation by Mary Somerville This particular passage was chosen for its reference to water - connecting it to the shoreline which is the theme of the note, and for its mention of the behaviour of light - connecting to the overall theme of the Note family ‘natural colour and light’. Anyone who has observed the reflection of the waves from a wall on the side of a river after the passage of a steam-boat, will have a perfect idea of the reflection of sound and light. Reference: ‘The connection of the physical sciences’, p. 119, Mary Somerville, 1834, Publisher: Philadelphia: Key and Biddle, public domain. With thanks to... Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library. Permission to use: Somerville College and Fairfax Lucy family: descendants of Mary Somerville. 34 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Obverse Moon diagramme Hidden in the UV layer is the diagramme below. It is taken from Mary Somerville’s book ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’, where it illustrates how we can use the light of the sun hitting the moon to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This is an example of her efforts to make knowledge available to the wider population. S S fig. 94. L P m B A N C D E Mechanism of the heavens (1834) ‘Mary’s Moon Diagramme’, Ryan Kane, RBS Mary Somerville, page 412, Figure 94, Publisher: London: J. Murray, public domain With thanks to... Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library. Permission to use: Book out of copyright. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 35
The People’s Money | The Obverse Blink box Blinkbox - this security element references both the otter and another of the illustrations from Mary’s book ‘On molecular and microscopic science’. Acanthometra Bulbosa is a microscopic cellular organism found in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. The tiny marine animal is considered one of the lowest forms of animal existence. Acanthometra Bulbosa With thanks to... Fig. 88 p. 19 from the book ‘On molecular and microscopic Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library: supplying reference material. science’, 1869, Mary Somerville, public domain, Supplied by: Somerville College, University of Oxford. Neil Wallace, O Street: Blink box diagramme. Permission to use: Book out of copyright. 36 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Obverse The Midge The Scottish midge, an everpresent element of summer in the Scottish countryside. Shown in all the notes as a cluster on the obverse and individually hidden on the reverse. Reverse | Hidden midge Obverse | Midge cluster ‘Midge cluster’ With thanks to... by Paul Simmons, Timorous Beasties. Hans Kruuk: otter and midge habitat. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 37
The People’s Money | The Reverse The Reverse Design elements Animal Plant Midge Scottish poetry Otter Dulse Almost hidden on every note, Excerpt from the poem ‘Moorings’ this midge represents the reality by Norman MacCaig. The first two Scotland is one of the best places A red seaweed used by the early of everyday living in the Scottish line in the visible layer in western Europe to see otters, Scots for dyeing yarn brown for the countryside - Everyday & humour. “The cork that can’t be travels - especially along the coasts of the coloring of the tweeds and tartans Hebrides and North Isles. - - Textile patterns. Nose of a dog otter. Current Scotland. It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn at By an elegant oystercatcher” Followed by the second two lines in the UV layer - Education. Tweed Invisible poetry Houndstooth variation - Textile The second two lines of the visible patterns. poem by Norman MacCaig - Education. UV layer 38 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Reverse Otters | Lutra Lutra Although male and female otters are rarely seen together they make a special appearance on this note. The male is shown side on and the female from the top. Scotland is one of the best places in Western Europe to see otters, especially along the coasts of the Hebrides and North Isles. Currently estimated at around 8,000 animals, Scottish otters can be rather different in their behaviour from otters elsewhere. Only around half the otters in Scotland live in freshwaters, whereas almost all of those in England and Wales do so. The coastal dwelling Scottish otters can be very active during the day. So otter viewing is easier around Scottish shores – a boon for wildlife enthusiasts and filmmakers. The Scottish otter population benefited from the end of otter hunting many decades ago and is being helped now by improvement in the quality of water in lochs, rivers and canals across the country. So the otter symbolizes health of both inshore and freshwater habitat. Source: Kenny Taylor, wildlife expert. With thanks to... Hans Kruuk, Biologist with expertise in otters: validation of otter drawings. Kenny Taylor, Wildlife expert: supplying expert knowledge. Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue: reference images of male and female otters. The International Otter Survival Fund: Otter habitat and anatomy reference material. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 39
The People’s Money | The Reverse Dulse | Palmaria Palmata Dulse is a red seaweed that grows in the area between the high tide and low tide to depths of 20m below the surface on the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Harvested from the Scottish coasts, it was used by the early Scots for dyeing yarn brown for the coloring of the tweeds and tartans for their plaids and kilts. References: Irvine, L.M. & Guiry, M.D. “Palmariales and Rhodymeniales” in Irvine, L.M. 1983. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 1. Part 2A. Cryptonemiales (sensu stricto) Palamriales, Rhodymeniales. British Museum (Natural History), London. Eva Lamber, commercial natural dyer at Shilasdair the Skye Yarn Company & author of the book ‘The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing’. Link:http://www.tartansauthority.com/tartan/the-growth-of-tartan/tartan- production/colours-and-dyeing/traditional-dyeing/ Book: ‘Vegetable Dyes Being a Book of Recipes and Other Information Useful to the Dyer’, Ethel Mairet, Chapter III. https://archive.org/details/ vegetabledyesbei24076gut With thanks to... Dr. Michele Stanley, Centre Lead for Marine Biotechnology, Scottish Marine Institute: validation of dulse drawings. Lars Brunner, Scientist in Macroalgal Cultivation, Scottish Association for Marine Science: supplying dulse images. Mara Seaweed: Dulse harvesters and foodmakers for their references. 40 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Reverse Photographic images of dulse are used alongside the illustrations on the note. ‘Rhodeminia Palmeta (Dulse’s old latin name red)’ ‘Dulse on the rocks’ Nature print by Henry Bradbury featured in “The nature- Lars Brunner, SAMS. printed British sea-weeds : a history, accompanied by figures and dissections of the Algae of the British Isles”, William Grosart Permission to use: Lars Brunner Johnstone. Permission to use: Public domain. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 41
The People’s Money | The Reverse Poetry Norman MacCaig (1910-96) was one of the great generation of Scottish poets writing after the Second World War who were pre-eminently associated with particular locations and real geographies. He is best known as a great love poet of the natural world: mountains, lochs, birds, beasts and landscapes of the north-west generally. Landscapes are his expertise. He is in his geography, observant, acutely sensitive to the visions, geologies, histories, social and political, the meanings landscape brings and delivers. Landscape is never merely scenic. On the western coasts of Scotland, he is a master of annotating colour and light, shades and tones, transparencies in water, opacities in rocks. His landscapes, seascapes and pictures of the natural world are populous, with seabeasts like the basking shark, tiny green frogs beneath the height of Ben Dorain, or, in an Edinburgh cityscape, a cat sitting halfway up a tree, inexplicably. The nuanced care of his language matches the precision of his observation and indeed his love of what the natural world out there really is, what it is made of. Susie Leiper: Calligraphy. He is also a major poet for Scotland and the world because, beyond With thanks to... all question, his use of the English language is supremely controlled, in cadence, nuance, tone, precision of line-break, restrained but exact Professor Alan Riach, University of Glasgow: Expertise delivery of deep meaning. His voice is distinctly Scots, its music inflected by and guidance. Gaelic and the urban register of Scots, so that it is unimaginable coming Permissions to use: Euan McCaig, estate of Norman MacCaig and from anywhere in the English-speaking world other than Scotland, but it Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Publishing. is nonetheless in an English immediately accessible and bracingly fresh to any English-language reader anywhere. Partly for this reason, perhaps, Seamus Heaney once remarked of MacCaig: ‘He means poetry to me.’ Source: Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow. 42 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | The Reverse Moorings by: Norman MacCaig In a salt ring of moonlight The dinghy nods at nothing. It paws the bright water And scatters its own shadow In a false net of light A ruined chain lies reptile, Tied to the ground by grasses. Two oars, wet with sweet water Filched from the air, are slanted From a wrecked lobster creel. Visable The cork that can’t be travels - The cork that can’t be travels - Nose of a dog otter. layer Nose of a dog otter. It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn at By an elegant oystercatcher On furious orange legs. UV It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn at With a sort of idle swaying layer By an elegant oystercatcher The tide breathes in. Harsh seaweed Uncrackles to its kissing; The skin of the water glistens; Rech fat swims on the brine. And all night in his stable The dinghy paws bright water, Restless steeplechaser Longing to clear the hurdles That ring the Point of Stoar. Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 43
The People’s Money | Appendix Alternative heros James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) Scientist, formulated the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which has led to such present-day users such as radio, television, radar, microwaves and thermal imaging. Einstein considered him his hero, and the greatest scientist since Newton. Landscape image by Duncan Ferguson. Thomas Telford (1757-1843) Civil engineer, architect and stone mason. Known as The Colossus of Roads, he built over 1000 miles of road in his lifetime, designed bridges, harbours, canals still in use today, helping connect communities and boosting economic development. Landscape image by Marcus McAdam. 44 Royal Bank of Scotland in association with
The People’s Money | Appendix The People’s Money The Creative Team Rebekka Bush RBS Ryan Kane RBS Nile Public engagement Provenance & verification Graven Creative direction & print liaison Timorous Beasties Illustration Stuart Kerr Illustration O Street Art direction & note design Royal Bank of Scotland in association with 45
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