First published in two volumes in 1886, Guide
to the East Neuk of Fife by
David Hay Fleming sets
out, as its subtitle suggests, to "embrace all the towns
and villages, antiquities and places of interest between Fifeness and
Leven". This it does, and the result is a truly fascinating insight into
how this part of Fife looked to the
visitor a century and a quarter ago: far enough back in time to make it a very
different place from the East Neuk you find today, but not so far back that you
cannot identify with the language and sentiments of the author, or with the
places described.
David Hay
Fleming was a native of St
Andrews who sold the family china and stoneware business in 1883 in order
to focus full time on the study of Scottish history. In the early
1900s he lectured on Church History at the
University of
Edinburgh, and he also played significant roles in the Scottish History
Society and St Andrews
Cathedral Museum. His best known book was his Guidebook to St Andrews, published in 1881 but his
Guide to the East Neuk of
Fife takes a rather broader
view. On his death, the 13,000 books he collected were left to
St Andrews
University.
Like other eBooks whose texts are reproduced on Undiscovered
Scotland, Guide to the East Neuk of Fife, by D Hay
Fleming is long out of copyright. What sets the Undiscovered Scotland
version apart is the cross linking between the text of the book and features
elsewhere on the site, allowing the reader to explore beyond the text itself,
finding out more about the places and people mentioned.
