At some point in the early twentieth century, among her many travels to Scotland, Vernon Lee (pen name of Violet Paget) visited the shores of Fife, then one of the most industrialised regions of the country. Encompassing textiles and paper production, though driven above all by coal extraction and linoleum manufacturing, this industrial development left deep social and environmental scars whose consequences the region continues to confront today. In this short, first-person account from the collection The Golden Keys and Other Essays on the Genius Loci (1925), Lee recounts her reluctant walk to an old abode known as Kilmany House, cutting through a landscape of debris and fumes, only to find a long-gone world quietly undone by the heedless industrialisation closing in on it.
Read more