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<DIV>I have been reading Jane Goldman’s "Two Postcards from Skye: Virginia Woolf
in the Hebrides" in the latest VWM, where she quotes VW’s PC of Monday [27 June
1938] to Duncan Grant:</DIV>
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<DIV>“This is the nearest I could get to the Isle of Barra. Skye is often
raining, but also fine: hardly embodied; semi-transparent; like living in a
jelly fish lit up with green light. Remote as Samoa; deserted: prehistoric. No
room for more.”</DIV>
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<DIV>Goldman:</DIV>
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<DIV>‘On the reverse (more<FONT color=#000000> properly, recto) of the postcard
to Grant is a photograph of Uig Bay, which, on the south western side of the
Trotternish peninsula of Skye, is the point of departure for ferries to the
other Hebridean islands, and apparently was selected, as Woolf writes, as "the
nearest I could get to the Isle of Barra" (L6 248). It is not clear why Wooif
harbored ambitions to get as close</FONT> as possible to the tiny and beautiful
island of Barra, the second southernmost inhabited of the Outer Hebrides, with
two small townships, a couple of small fortifications and some Iron Age brochs,
but perhaps it may more accurately fit Woolf's epithets for more populous Skye
-- "Remote as Samoa; deserted: prehistoric." Yet the reference to Samoa suggests
a primitivism associated with Stevenson and Gauguin, which would appeal to her
postimpressionist correspondent, and Skye itself boasts numerous primitive
sites.’</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Well, I don’t think that Barra is particularly “beautiful”, but then I’m
rather jaundiced about it. We visited it from 9 to 13 May 2011, and I
couldn’t wait to get away. We went especially because it was where
“Whiskey Galore” (“Tight Little Island”) was filmed, but of course the weather
was uncertain and not that warm. It seemed to me that the visitors were
divided into 2 groups: those who had cars and were island hopping and those who
couldn’t wait to don waterproofs and stout boots and walk along muddy seaside
paths in stout boots against a sharp wind mitigated (or otherwise) by sunshine
and showers. We fell into neither category (how I wished I’d taken my
driving licence and we could have hired a car), so we were reduced to mooching
about and taking rides on the infrequent bus services. We never managed to
see an aeroplane landing or taking off on the beach (a famous tourist sight) and
all “Iron Age brochs” were, I think, inaccessible by bus. Perhaps you
could get to one, but then you get off the bus and hang around, perhaps in the
rain for 1½ hours waiting for the next bus. As you will gather from the
photos</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><A
title=https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=34efbc61c5dfb4e3&id=34EFBC61C5DFB4E3%211362&Bsrc=Photomail&Bpub=SDX.Photos&sff=1&authkey=!AP5GclNUucNnexI
href="https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=34efbc61c5dfb4e3&id=34EFBC61C5DFB4E3%211362&Bsrc=Photomail&Bpub=SDX.Photos&sff=1&authkey=!AP5GclNUucNnexI">https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=34efbc61c5dfb4e3&id=34EFBC61C5DFB4E3%211362&Bsrc=Photomail&Bpub=SDX.Photos&sff=1&authkey=!AP5GclNUucNnexI</A></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>as you bus around the
roads, what you get is a barren landscape almost invariably populated by a house
here and there, spoiling the barrenness (if that is your thing).</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>It’s a long time since
I visited Skye, and I was prejudiced against it. When I was growing up in
Wimbledon, middle-class people visited Skye and raved about it. When
living in Stirling before the war, my mother would be asked why she didn’t
holiday in Skye. It’s got no trees, she would reply. We’re
surrounded by beautiful scenery here. I want life – she meant Blackpool,
or even Southport.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>However, I did think
that Skye was exceptionally beautiful and worth all the accolades that I’d
heard. So, don’t talk to me about Barra, although I’m still keeping an
open mind about the Vatersay Boys</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><A title=http://www.thevatersayboys.com/home.html
href="http://www.thevatersayboys.com/home.html">http://www.thevatersayboys.com/home.html</A></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri>as long as I don’t have
to go to Barra (or Vatersay) to hear them.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><FONT size=3 face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"><FONT size=3
face=Calibri>Stuart</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>