The People’s Money - Nile

The People’s Money Provenance research | £5 and £10 story

In association with

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

Section 01Introduction

03 Project background06 Series concepts08 Story guidelines10 Colour palettes11 Bespoke tweed patterns

Section 02Five pound note - design and story

16 The Obverse20 The Reverse

Section 03Ten pound note - design and story

30 The Obverse38 The Reverse

Contents

Royal Bank of Scotland in association with2



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 note themes generated by the bank:

| Natural colour & light| Scottish achievements| The Scottish story| The future of Scotland| Coming home

Meanwhile an online community was mirroring these discussions in a digital forum and a Yougov survey was taking a country wide sounding of opinion on which theme was the most appropriate for the new note collection.

engaged in workshops87people

engaged through our online community

66peopletook part in our survey1025people

INVERNESS

DUNDEE

EDINBURGHGLASGOW

from Scotland took part in the project

27designers



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.



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



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 £5 mackerel represents the sea and the fishing communities.

The £10 otter lives on our coast & celebrates our beaches and shorelines.

The series concepts

A connected story



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.

The £20 red squirrel, a precious native of our woodlands.

The £50 eagle as the king of our mountain skylines.



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.

Story guidelines | The people’s voice

LightThe Scottish sky, and how it changes: foals legs, ‘end of the world skies’

Water & weatherRefers to our ever present rain but also our coasts, rivers and lochs.

InvisibleThe invisible layer was seen as fun, exploration, a surprise, a badly kept national secret.

Grand elementsCelebrate our mountains and dramatic landscapes.



Please note: this list is not intended to be prescriptive.

The everydayA key element to all discussions, midges, Tunnock’s biscuits, pan bread, machair. Elements that are part of everyday life for the ‘people’ of Scotland.

Textile patternsFair Isle, tweed, Paisley patterns (NOT tartan).

EducationThe importance of a story on the notes that would share information about an aspect of Scotland.

Future modernA desire to avoid the traditional historical representation of the country, instead to focus on where we live now and our aspirations for the future.



Colour palettes have been developed by Donna Wilson for all four notes.

Colour palettes

£5blue

£20purple

£10brown

£50green



Created for the note by tweed designers Elspeth Anderson and Alistair McDade.

Bespoke tweed patterns

£5

£20

£10

£50

Herringbonetype weave

Entwining twills

Variation on a houndstooth(dog-otterstooth)

Glen check



Royal Bank of Scotland


Five pound noteDesign & elements

Five Pound Note

The Obverse


The People’s Money | Five Pound Note

Five Pound Note

The Reverse



UV layer

The full story

£5 ObverseScottish heroNan ShepherdAn ordinary lady with extraordinary impact on those she taught and cared for - Everyday heroine.

Reverse elementsBringing the tweed and woad elements from the reverse of the note to visually connect obverse and reverse - Textile patterns.

LandscapeThe CairngormsThe dramatic landscape Nan loved and celebrated in her writing - Grand elements.

Hero quote“The living mountain” speaks of the shapes water and ice make as they interact in a stream - Water& weather.

Midge clusterA security feature to be on all notes in the UV layer - Everyday& humour.

BlinkboxSimplified mackerel (using an element of the reverse note design).



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 squadron.

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

Photo | Cairngorm

‘An Garbh Choire’Photographer: Ruari MacDonald



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.

Portrait | Nan Shepherd

‘Nan Shepherd’Owner: The Estate of 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.

Quotation by Nan Shepherd

Ay, ay, answered her father, still holding the hen ‘It’s a grand thing to get leave to live.’

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.

With thanks to...

Erlend Clouston, Deirdre Burton, John Clouston and Magnus Clouston. for permission to use Nan’s writing.

Reference: Chapter XIX, The Quarry Wood

Reference: Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain



UV layer

The full story

£5 ReverseScottish poetryExcerpt from the poem‘The Choice’ by Sorley MacLean. Gaelic and written in Scottish Secretary Hand in the visible layer

“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.

AnimalMackerelAn ‘everyday’ seafish but the single most valuable stock for the Scottish fishing industry - Current Scotland.

MidgeAlmost hidden on every note, this midge represents the reality of everyday living in the Scottish countryside - Everyday & humour.

PlantWoadAn historic plant used to create blue dye for the wool used in tweed - Textile patterns.

TweedA traditional Scottish fabric woven with colour of the Scottish light and landscape, traditionally used in hunting clothing as early form of camouflage. Blue on this note to reflect the sea theme - Textile patterns.

Invisible poetryThe English translation of the visible Gaelic lines from Sorley MacLean’s poem - Education.



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

Mackerel | Scomber scombrus



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.

Woad | Isatis tinctoria



PoetrySorley 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 people, and in their achievement as writers of the first calibre, MacLean in a major body of visionary poetry, groundbreaking criticism, and in his championship of the Gaelic language, and Shepherd in new forms of fiction and discursive prose heralding ‘new nature writing’, as well as distinctively fresh poems. Both deal with the necessity of, and desire for, transformation, both count the cost and reckon the worth of taking the risk, and both have delivered literature of lasting and major significance.

With thanks to...

Professor Alan Riach, Glasgow University, expertise and guidance.

Ishbel MacLean for permission to use Sorley’s poetry

Michael Schmidt for invaluable help in connecting us to the families and publishers of the poets we have referenced.

Susie Leiper: Calligraphy.



The Choiceby: Sorley MacLean

I walked with my reasonout beside the sea.We were together but it waskeeping a little distance from me.

Then it turned saying:is it true you heard that your beautiful white love is getting married early on Monday?

I checked the heart that was rising in my torn swift breastand I said: most likely;why should I lie about it?

How should I think that I would grab the radiant golden star,that I would catch it and put it prudently in my pocket?

I did not take a cross’s deathin the hard extremity of Spainand how then should I expectthe one new prize of fate?

I followed only a waythat was small, mean, low, dry, lukewarm, and how then should I meet the thunderbolt of love?

But if I had the choice againand stood on that headland,I would leap from heaven or hell with a whole spirit and heart.

Choisich mi cuide ri mo thuigse a-muigh ri taobh a’ chuain;

I walked with my reasonOut beside the sea

UVlayer

Visable layer



Five and Ten Pound Note

Typefaces

Scotch Modern typefaces emerge as a distinctive typographic form from Scottish type-foundries of the late 18th / early 19th Century. In style they are rational, logical and practical whilst also expressing great personality and character. Scotch modern types found success in the UK but with their introduction to America, at a time of dramatic growth in mass literacy, they became highly influential at an international level.

Scottish Secretary Hand is a style of writing employed in Scottish offices during the 16th and 17th Centuries, replacing the previously dominant ‘book hand’ as a more legible, faster written style better suited to the growth of national and international communication in business and law.



With thanks to...

Edwin Pickstone, Typographer, The Glasgow School of Art Susie Leiper, Calligrapher



Ten pound noteDesign & elements

Ten Pound Note

The Obverse


The People’s Money | Ten Pound Note

Ten Pound Note

The Reverse


The People’s Money | Ten Pound Note

The Obverse

Choosing a hero

Mary Somerville as a young womanArtist: John Jackson, Owner: Somerville College, University of Oxford.

Portrait of Thomas TelfordArtist: Henry Raeburn, Owner: Lady Lever Art Gallery.

James Clerk Maxwell holding his colour wheelOwner: John O’Conner, University of St Andrews.

The Facebook campaign to make the final choice of Hero for the note ran from 30th January 2016 to 7th February 2016

2100votes 714votes4200votes(Authenticated UK votes)


The People’s Money | The Obverse

UV layer

The Obverse

Design elementsScottish heroMary SomervilleScientist, astronomer, translator and extraordinary communicator, bringing science to the wider population - Everyday heroine.

Reverse elementsBringing the tweed and Dulse elements from the reverse of the note to visually connect obverse and reverse - Textile patterns.

LandscapeBurntisland BeachWhere Mary lived as a child and discovered her love of the natural world - The everyday.

Hero quoteFrom ‘The Connection of the Physical Sciences’ a lovely example of how Mary brought science into everyday language and experience - Education.

Moon diagrammeTaken from Mary Somerville’s book ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’ - Education.

BlinkboxSimplified otter (using an element of the reverse note design) and micro organism, Acanthometra Bulbosa.

Midge clusterA security feature to be on all notes in the UV layer - Everyday & humour.



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.

With thanks to...

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).

Portrait | Mary Somerville

‘Mary Somerville as a young woman’Artist: John JacksonOwner: Somerville College, University of Oxford.



“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.

Landscape | Burntisland Beach

‘Burntisland beach’Commissioned by RBS from photographer Peter Dibdin.



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’.

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.

Quotation by Mary Somerville

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.



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.

Moon diagramme

S S

L

fig. 94.

P

E

N

DC

B Am

Mechanism of the heavens (1834)Mary Somerville, page 412, Figure 94, Publisher: London: J. Murray, public domain

‘Mary’s Moon Diagramme’, Ryan Kane, RBS

With thanks to...

Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library.

Permission to use: Book out of copyright.



Blink boxBlinkbox - 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 BulbosaFig. 88 p. 19 from the book ‘On molecular and microscopic science’, 1869, Mary Somerville, public domain, Supplied by: Somerville College, University of Oxford.

With thanks to...

Anne Manuel, Somerville College Library: supplying reference material.

Neil Wallace, O Street: Blink box diagramme.

Permission to use: Book out of copyright.



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.

The Midge

‘Midge cluster’by Paul Simmons, Timorous Beasties.

With thanks to...

Hans Kruuk: otter and midge habitat.

Obverse | Midge cluster

Reverse | Hidden midge



UV layer

The Reverse

Design elementsScottish poetryExcerpt from the poem ‘Moorings’ by Norman MacCaig. The first two line in the visible layer

“The cork that can’t be travels -Nose of a dog otter.It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn atBy an elegant oystercatcher”Followed by the second two lines in the UV layer - Education.

AnimalOtterScotland is one of the best places in western Europe to see otters, especially along the coasts of the Hebrides and North Isles. -Current Scotland.

MidgeAlmost hidden on every note, this midge represents the reality of everyday living in the Scottish countryside - Everyday & humour.

PlantDulseA red seaweed used by the early Scots for dyeing yarn brown for the coloring of the tweeds and tartans - Textile patterns.

TweedHoundstooth variation - Textile patterns.

Invisible poetryThe second two lines of the visible poem by Norman MacCaig - Education.


The People’s Money | The Reverse

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.

Otters | Lutra Lutra



Dulse | Palmaria PalmataDulse 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.



‘Dulse on the rocks’Lars Brunner, SAMS.

Permission to use: Lars Brunner

‘Rhodeminia Palmeta (Dulse’s old latin name red)’Nature print by Henry Bradbury featured in “The nature-printed British sea-weeds : a history, accompanied by figures and dissections of the Algae of the British Isles”, William Grosart Johnstone.

Permission to use: Public domain.

Photographic images of dulse are used alongside the illustrations on the note.



PoetryNorman 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.

He is also a major poet for Scotland and the world because, beyond all question, his use of the English language is supremely controlled, in cadence, nuance, tone, precision of line-break, restrained but exact delivery of deep meaning. His voice is distinctly Scots, its music inflected by Gaelic and the urban register of Scots, so that it is unimaginable coming from anywhere in the English-speaking world other than Scotland, but it 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.

With thanks to...

Professor Alan Riach, University of Glasgow: Expertiseand guidance.

Permissions to use: Euan McCaig, estate of Norman MacCaig and Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Publishing.

Susie Leiper: Calligraphy.



Mooringsby: Norman MacCaig

In a salt ring of moonlightThe dinghy nods at nothing.It paws the bright waterAnd scatters its own shadowIn a false net of light

A ruined chain lies reptile,Tied to the ground by grasses.Two oars, wet with sweet waterFilched from the air, are slantedFrom a wrecked lobster creel.

The cork that can’t be travels -Nose of a dog otter.It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn atBy an elegant oystercatcherOn furious orange legs.

With a sort of idle swayingThe tide breathes in. Harsh seaweedUncrackles to its kissing;The skin of the water glistens;Rech fat swims on the brine.

And all night in his stableThe dinghy paws bright water,Restless steeplechaserLonging to clear the hurdlesThat ring the Point of Stoar.

The cork that can’t be travels -Nose of a dog otter.

It’s piped at, screamed at, sworn atBy an elegant oystercatcher

UVlayer

Visable layer



Alternative heros

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.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

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.

Thomas Telford (1757-1843)


The People’s Money | Appendix


The Creative Team

Rebekka Bush

Ryan Kane

Nile

Graven

Timorous Beasties

Stuart Kerr

O Street

RBS

RBS

Public engagement Provenance & verification

Creative direction & print liaison

Illustration

Illustration

Art direction & note design


The People’s Money | Appendix

Nile HQ13-15 Circus LaneEdinburghEH3 6SU

[email protected]+44 131 220 5671

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The People’s Money - Nile