大象传媒

Good morning. Watching the skaters at Edinburgh鈥檚 temporary ice rinks over the holiday season reminded me that one of my most famous predecessors as minister of Canongate Kirk here on the Royal Mile was the Revd Robert Walker. Whilst not necessarily a famous name he has certainly become a famous figure, literally, as the subject of Sir Henry Raeburn鈥檚 iconic painting 鈥淭he Skating Minister鈥�. Cutting a dash in his top hat and frock coat as he skates sedately around a frozen Duddingston Loch some winter鈥檚 day over two hundred years ago, he looks every inch the sombre Presbyterian dressed in black from head to toe. Except that鈥檚 not quite true. For if you look closely enough you will see that his buckled shoes are fixed to his skates with pink straps!聽

The devil鈥檚 in the detail, they say, but I鈥檓 more inclined to see this as a sign of the Skating Minister鈥檚 lighter side, perhaps a subtle hint even of that period known as the Scottish Enlightenment in which he lived. Raeburn painted plenty other leading figures of that distinctive era, distinguished professors of philosophy and theology among them. But he always depicted them in more conventional portraits, standing or sitting. The Skating Minister鈥檚 the only one who has become famous not for what he said or what he thought, but for what he did.聽