On Thursday, 12 October, Friends gathered in
Kelvingrove to hear the first in a series of free talks by Burrell Guides and
were treated to an extremely amusing but very informative talk about alcohol by
John Rattenbury.
We learned of the origins of beer making in
Mesopotamia c 7000 BC and continued through the ages with the introduction of
wine and finally spirits.
I learned a lot about items in the Burrell
collection and facts like “tonnage” referring to a ship’s cargo comes from the
word “tun”, meaning barrel, and the cargo was taxed according to how many
“tuns” or barrels of wine it could hold.
The only thing which could have improved on the
talk was if we had been able to sample some of the drinks being discussed!
The talks continue to be held on the second
Thursday of the month at 2.00pm.
Liz Dent
