David Hume - 1711-1776
30th April 2011 proved to be a bright, sunny day, the perfect weather to bring out the visitors for Chirnside's David Hume Tercentennial Celebrations.
With events in various parts of the village, both indoors and out, the whole village came alive as people strolled around in the sunshine.
The heart of the event was the exhibition in the village hall which opened on the Thursday. A great deal of work went into providing information panels about both David Hume and Chirnside in the 18th century. Professor Fenton Robb gave a number of talks about David Hume throughout the exhibition.
Saturday's events included;
'Life in Georgian Chirnside' - a living history demonstration on life in an 18th century village, with Fiona Houston, author of ‘The Garden Cottage Diaries: My Year in the Eighteenth Century’.
'Unanswerable Questions' - A play, written for Hume’s tercentenary, and performed by pupils from Chirnside Primary School.
Georgian Food on sale at the exhibition to raise money for local causes.
A number of local pubs offered an 18th century themed lunch.
A David Hume memorial plaque was unveiled by Scottish Borders Council Chief Executive, David Hume, as a permanent tribute to his namesake and Chirnside’s world famous son.
A David Hume Interpretation Panel was unveiled at Ninewells Walk near Ninewells House where Hume lived.
David Hume ‘The Man and His Life’ - in this talk David Hume’s biographer Roderick Graham, author of The Great Infidel, revealed the story behind this great man and thinker.
This talk took place in The Red Lion, which was offering for sale 'Enlightenment', a specially brewed David Hume beer.
David Hume ‘The Philosophy’ - a talk by Dr Alasdair Richmond and Dr Peter Millican of the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford.
The David Hume Essay Prize - the winner of this essay competition, open to all Borders' high school pupils was announced.
An 'Enlightenment Evening' at Paxton House including tours of the house, talks and a celebration banquet. The three course supper in Paxton’s magnificent Picture Gallery, featured recipes from Elisabeth Cleland’s Scottish Cookery, written in 1755 during David Hume’s lifetime, and republished by Paxton House.
Supper was followed by 'David Hume & The Borders' - a talk by Oxford University’s Dr Peter Millican exploring how the Borders and its great Enlightenment thinkers shaped Hume’s philosophy.
The day ended with 'Borderers who changed the World – James Hutton' -
a talk by Denise Walton, curator of Paxton’s James Hutton Exhibition and
expert for the BBC TV series ‘Men of Rock’, revealing the life story
and ground-breaking discoveries of the Berwickshire farmer and
‘father of geology’.
Images from the Philosophy Festival
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