Wednesday, July 16, 2008

"The Balmoral" Every town has one

Am I right on this? Well in South Africa very town has a Balmoral and a Royal.

2 comments:

Tash said...

We have plenty of Royals but I've never heard of a Balmoral. Where does the word come from? Why is the name so popular there? BTW very nice capture, esp. with the shadows.

Unknown said...

As South Africa was settled as a colonial colony by the English, I am presuming that it has some connection with the English.

Aaaah haa - I am correct;

(taken from - http://www.answers.com/balmoral&r=67)

"Balmoral (Aberdeenshire). The Scottish holiday home of the royal family. The present house was built in 1853-6 for Queen Victoria by the architect William Smith of Aberdeen (1817-91) as a replacement for an earlier house in Jacobethan style erected in 1834-9. ‘This dear paradise’, as she called it, is a white granite mansion in Scots baronial style, and embodies modifications suggested by Prince Albert. Queen Victoria spent part of every spring and autumn at Balmoral, her love of Scotland finding public expression in her books Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the Highlands published in 1869, with a second part, More Leaves, appearing in 1883."