Edinburgh - Enlightenment

The Scottish Enlightenment was cradled, nurtured and reached its zenith in Edinburgh, where a veritable storm of intellectual fervour accompanied the extension of a squalid, overcrowded and almost medieval Old Town into the elegant Georgian marvel of urban planning known as the New Town.

About the author, Sebastian Wanless:
Being born in the 1950’s in Edinburgh, Scotland, I was a youthful witness to the efforts of a population determined to mitigate the austerity of war and rediscover the city’s cultural vibrancy, enshrined in its heritage as the cradle of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Edinburgh Festival, launched in 1947, was in full swing and from an early age I proudly relished the international prestige it conferred on the city. Enrolled at the Royal High School, I was constantly reminded of the institution’s ancient and illustrious history, having been founded in 1128 and having provided a classical education to the majority of the impresarios of the Edinburgh Enlightenment. The teaching regimen was rigorous and strict. However, taking advantage of Scotland’s adherence to renaissance education, and leaving the school in 1973, fluent in French and Russian, knowledgeable about English literature and well versed in the sciences and mathematics, I was matriculated at Edinburgh Medical School, another bastion of enlightened thinking since the 18th. century.