The tattoo fox, p.1
The Tattoo Fox, page 1
Brigadier David Allfrey MBE
Chief Executive and Producer
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
In July 2011, only a few months after taking up my new appointment, I was on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle at 1.15 in the morning watching lighting checks. The dark pools of indigo light were set out like stepping stones towards the Drawbridge. As I watched and listened, I reflected on the step change in my own life and the challenges that might lie ahead.
In the quiet, it was easy to hear a ‘patter’ of feet on the stairs of the North Stand! When she saw me only a few feet away, the vixen stopped on the bottom step and watched me warily. I held my breath. As the fox recognised that I was no threat, she relaxed, sat on her haunches and continued to watch me. We shared the moment for a short while before she became drawn to some other purpose, licked a front paw and jogged along the front of the Stands, into the Coalyard and away.
I felt privileged to have shared a few moments with a wild creature in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. I took our meeting as a good omen and speculated that the fox, and her family – perhaps even accompanied by a scarred dog fox – lived in the Castle precincts all year round, making the best of her environment and those things left behind by visitors and the Castle family. I wondered what she and her forebears would have made of our comings and goings. And, I wondered in particular, how she observed the summer invasion of her privacy and the extravaganza of the Tattoo. Would she be the most discerning critic of my endeavours?
Knowing that 2013 was designated ‘The Year of Natural Scotland’, I made mental note of the encounter and when the time was right asked our Narrator/Storyteller – the eloquent and knowledgeable Alasdair Hutton – whether he might write the story of ‘The Tattoo Fox’: drawing on the fox’s encounters with human beings and our complex world. I asked him to paint an easy picture but set out the story as a gentle morality tale laced with the simple values that might apply to both people and animals. I asked that he might look to thread in the military values of courage, discipline, respect for others, integrity, loyalty and selfless commitment.
Here is his charming tale with beautiful illustrations by Stref – our tribute to the Tattoo Fox.
August 2013
A story about a fox who lives
at Edinburgh Castle and loves the
Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
by Alasdair Hutton
Luath Press Limited
EDINBURGH
www.luath.co.uk
First published 2013
ISBN (print): 978-1-908373-93-9
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-909912-58-8
The creation and publication of this book was supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund
Text © The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Ltd., 2013
Illustrations © Steven White, 2013
No text or illustrations from this book may be reproduced without prior permission from The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Ltd.
All rights reserved.
For Aline. (AH)
For Granny, and her foxes! (SW)
Contents
Thanks
Chapter One
The Long Journey Home
Chapter Two
A Safe Place?
Chapter Three
Friend or Foe?
Chapter Four
The Riding of the Marches
Chapter Five
A Lost Child
Chapter Six
Christmas Eve
Chapter Seven
The Castle Cat and the Hogmanay Fireworks
Chapter Eight
Captured!
Chapter Nine
The Fox Family
Chapter Ten
The Fox and the Piper
Chapter Eleven
The Sniffer Dog and the Mobile Phone
Chapter Twelve
Welcome to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Thanks
When Brigadier David Allfrey told me about his encounter with the Tattoo Fox there was a lot of fun in the dark winter nights of 2012 and 2013 thinking about what adventures a fox could have in the Festival City of Edinburgh and at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
A number of people have been a wonderful help in turning those rambling thoughts into this little book and all deserve my undying thanks. Any failings in the book are mine alone.
Lindsey Fraser’s infectious enthusiasm was tremendously encouraging as her editing skills polished these stories from rough stones to gems.
Stref’s drawings are little jewels which remind me of the artistry of Ernest Shepard and they have been beautifully enhanced by Fin Cramb’s delicate skill with colours.
As project manager, Nancy Riach in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo office was a terrier, never letting these stories languish; bringing it all together. Also, our wonderful staff, friends and supporters in the Tattoo Office and wider afield, for all their support and encouragement.
Kirsten Graham of Luath was simultaneously patient and dynamic in pushing the project to its successful completion.
And I could not have understood anything about the behaviour of the fox without the observant guidance and willing help of the staff of Historic Scotland at Edinburgh Castle.
Finally I have to say the biggest thanks of all to the Fox for inspiring the whole idea.
Alasdair Hutton
Kelso
1
The Long Journey Home
The homeless fox arrives in town
And soon decides to settle down
The little fox was exhausted. She dipped in and out of doorways, shrinking back into the shadows whenever she heard a noise or sensed trouble. The summer was over and the moon was clear in the sky. She had lost count of the days she had been travelling. Would she ever find somewhere safe, somewhere she could curl up and sink into a deep sleep?
On she went, up the narrow road with its tall buildings on either side. Her eyes were wide and anxious, watching for danger as her mother had taught her.
None of the people who stumbled out of restaurants and pubs on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile noticed the little fox that September night. Nobody in the queue for the night bus saw her slip across George IV Bridge. Only one person spotted her – a soldier making his way back to his barracks in Edinburgh Castle. He had been visiting his family for the weekend.
“I’ve never seen a fox with black tips to her ears,” he said to himself. “What a beautiful animal.”
Realising that she had been seen, the little fox backed into a doorway, terrified. The soldier crouched, holding out the end of the ham sandwich his mother had made for his train journey. But despite the ache in her stomach the fox did not dare take it from his hand. So he threw it gently towards her.
“Take it! Go on…” The soldier backed away. He could tell the fox was hungry. She was thin. And frightened.
The sandwich lay on the pavement.
The fox’s mouth watered.
“It’s for you,” said the soldier quietly. “You look as if you could do with a decent dinner.”
The temptation was too much. In a single movement she snatched up the sandwich and ran as far and as fast as her weary legs could carry her. She risked looking back only once. The soldier was smiling as he watched her. He meant her no harm.
She dashed round a corner and into a doorway where she devoured the sandwich. It was the first food she had eaten in a long time. She’d had nothing but water from puddles since she’d found a bin that had been blown over by the wind.
After a few minutes the fox plucked up the courage to poke her head out from the shadows. She watched the soldier walking further up the road, towards a huge dark shape.
Edinburgh Castle.
2
A Safe Place?
The little fox is all alone
Is this place safe to make her home?
The fox had not meant to leave the den where she had been born in the Spring. She and the other kits had been happy, safe and well fed by their parents. But something in the late summer air had tempted her away. Before she knew it she was alone, in a place she didn’t know. At first she tried to look for her parents, and her brothers and sisters. Night fell and there was no sign of them, so she took refuge in a ditch beneath a hedge and tried to sleep. Her empty stomach woke her before dawn, so she ate some of the berries on the hedge and after pouncing on a couple of sleepy worms she started walking again, keeping to the shadows. The fields and the hedges looked very like the fields and hedges she was used to, but they were not quite the same. As time passed she realised that she was on her own now. She would have to find her own food and make her own den.
So she had left the woods and hills near Kelso in the Scottish Borders where she had been born and headed north. In Lauder she had found the upturned bin full of scraps from a family’s Sunday lunch. The left-over chicken bones had been so delicious that she decided to make her home in the garden, beneath a hut. Perhaps there would be more tasty meals. But in the morning a huge cat hissed at her, making it clear that foxes were not welcome there.
On she went, travelling by night if she could. She was too easily seen in daylight. One night, just before dawn she crept in below a feeding trough on a hillside and was quickly asleep, wrapping her tail round her nose to keep warm. But she was not peaceful for long.
The sheep were moving early and woke the sleeping fox. She had just started to creep out of her hiding place when she heard the rumble of a motor and, more worryingly, th
But one of the dogs had spotted her. And it alerted the others.
The little fox plucked up her courage and bounded into a full run, heading for shelter in a small copse of trees.
But the trees were a long way off, and the dogs were trying to drive her away from them. They were gaining on her with every second that passed. She didn’t know how much longer she could go on.
All of a sudden the fox heard some piercing whistles and immediately the dogs turned back. Their master had work for them. The fun was over.
Exhausted, the little fox rested in amongst the trees, but it was not easy to sleep soundly when there were dangers all around. She had to keep going until she found somewhere safe.
During the days and nights that followed, she was shouted at by farmers, puzzled by the noise the huge wind turbines made and narrowly avoided being run over by a lorry as she crossed a country road.
But one morning she could see on the horizon the shape of a hill that reminded her of the countryside where she had been born. It looked rather like a big armchair. There was something very reassuring about it. That was where she would settle, she decided.
On she went. She knew where she was going now.
Eventually she reached a huge road – the Edinburgh bypass. She waited in the woodland until night-time when there were fewer cars and lorries and carefully made her way across the four lanes. Once she was safely on the other side she padded silently through the suburbs of the city, past houses and tenements and offices until she came to the hill she had seen – Arthur’s Seat.
At last. Somewhere safe with grassy slopes, bushes and rocky ledges.
The little fox was just looking around for a place to make her den when a fierce looking dog fox appeared, chittering at her. Who did she think she was? This was his territory. She would have to move on. She bowed in submission and slunk off. Foxes don’t usually attack each other but she was taking no risks.
What was she to do now? There was no choice. The little fox had to move on again.
She ran down the hill and keeping close to the wall round the Palace of Holyroodhouse, she put as much distance as she could between herself and the unfriendly fox. A car screeched by, its siren blaring. Panting, she headed up the narrow road – Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
It was near the top of the Royal Mile that she had been spotted by the soldier on his way back from a weekend away.
* * *
After she had finished the sandwich the little fox sat hunched, looking in the direction the soldier had gone. He had been kind. He hadn’t chased her away, or yelled at her, or kicked out at her, as someone had in one of the villages she’d passed through.
Perhaps she could make her home near where he lived? She set off.
After a few hundred metres she found herself at the entrance to a huge arena, full of piles of scaffolding. What a mess! It was hard to know which way to turn. Away in the distance she heard the soldier greet some friends and watched as he disappeared through an archway.
What should she do? She hopped over the piles of poles and skirted round the lorries waiting to take the scaffolding away in the morning until she reached a long wall. The soldier and his friends had gone now. Once again the little fox was on her own. Unsure, she stood and sniffed the air. To her joy she smelled grass, and trees and shrubs. And rabbits.
She skipped through the railings and over the wall and found herself on a steep slope, sheltered by the huge castle above. It was perfect. In a hollow beneath an overhanging rock she nosed into a bed of dried leaves, curled up and fell fast asleep.
3
Friend or Foe?
The fox is hungry and afraid
When the cat comes to her aid
The fox woke as the day brightened over the city of Edinburgh.
From her vantage point on the hillside beneath the castle she could see buses and cars and people. Every so often a plane would fly across the sky. It was all so different from the fields and woodlands where she had been born. She stretched as best she could, reluctant to leave the safety of her new den. But soon her stomach began growling. She needed something to eat.
Rabbits! Her mother had often brought the kits rabbits to eat and she had tried to teach them to hunt them. The fox ventured out into the autumn morning and looked around the hillside. There wasn’t a rabbit to be seen anywhere. She would have to think again.
“Looking for something?”
The fox jumped and swung round.
“I said… are you looking for something?”
The voice was coming from above her.
The fox squinted up towards the wall where she saw an enormous grey cat, the end of its tail twitching slightly.
“I am looking… for something to eat,” replied the fox. She steadied herself and got ready to run. The only cats she’d ever met had chased her away.
“Rabbits?” suggested the cat. He seemed pleasant enough.
“That would be perfect,” said the fox politely. Her mouth was watering at the thought.
“Good,” said the cat, “but you’ll have to cross the Esplanade and try the other side of the Castle. There are hundreds of the blighters there.”
“Oh…” For a moment the fox wondered if this was a trap.
“I’m the Edinburgh Castle Cat, by the way. Who are you? Are you passing through? Or planning to stay for a while?”
‘I’m a fox from the Borders,’ said the fox, ‘and I’d love to stay. I’ve been travelling for days, and need to make a den for myself.’
“Well you couldn’t have chosen a finer residence,” said the cat. “City centre with lovely views and lots of food scraps. I live up there in David’s Tower. It’s part of Edinburgh Castle. I’m delighted you’ll be my new neighbour.”
“I’ll share my rabbits with you,” offered the fox. “If I ever manage to catch one.”
“Oh don’t worry about that! I catch the odd mouse, just to earn my keep, but mostly I’m fed by the regiment. I’m their unofficial lucky mascot so they like to keep me happy. In fact, I’m a bit on the tubby side at the moment,” he said, looking down at his rather large furry tummy. “It’s always the same at the end of the tourist season. So many tempting snacks around the place. Perhaps you’d like to share a little of my food?”
The fox didn’t know what to say except, “Thank you…”
The cat explained that he was given one very large meal every day at lunchtime. “You’ll hear a loud BOOM!” he said. “That’s the One O’Clock Gun. It makes a frightful noise, but they’re not shooting anybody. In the past it was to help the sailors down in the docks at Leith set their clocks accurately. Nowadays the people of Edinburgh depend on it so that they aren’t late back from their lunch breaks.
Anyway, once the BOOM! is done and dusted, slip through the tunnel just by the entrance to the castle and follow the cobbles round until you reach the Tearoom – you’ll know it by the delicious smell of the cakes. Run round the back and I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Thank you very much,” said the fox again.
“You’re most welcome. Once the Tattoo’s finished, things become a little dull around here. I’m glad to have some company,” said the cat. He stood up, swishing his tail. “See you just after one o’clock,” he said and made his way along the wall back towards the castle.
The fox couldn’t believe her luck. A cat who was friendly, and who was happy to share his food! She wanted to hunt for her own food, of course, but it was good to know that she didn’t have to, at least while she settled in to her new home.
She decided to explore. She dug up some worms and bugs, and even caught a mouse. There was no reason to venture far from her new home that morning. She was still tired after the long journey, and rather nervous. Time seemed to pass slowly as she waited for the BOOM!
But when the BOOM! came, it was louder than the little fox could possibly have imagined. She leapt to her feet and vanished behind one of the bushes. Her fur bristled with fear. What was that? A few moments passed before she remembered. The Castle Cat had warned her about the One O’Clock Gun. There was so much she would have to get used to in her new home. But first things first. Now it must be time for a meal.
