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Covent
Garden goes tartan
COVENT
Garden creates images of cluttered fruit
and vegetable stalls, Pearly kings and
queens, and Eliza Doolittle selling
flowers from the steps, writes Lorna
MacLaren.
Yesterday,
Londoners stood open-mouthed as this
bastian of Englishness echoed with the
sound of of bagpipes and Scots voices
chattered, almost transforming it into
Argyle Street on a Saturday
afternoon.
Scotland
the Brand had arrived. Nothing like this
week-long promotion of Caledonian
businesses backed by Scottish Enterprise
has ever been attempted before.
Stamping
their feet against the cold, stall holders
from 40 diverse companies ranging from
Glenmorangie to Edinburgh's Canongate
Books shared their products with the
initially puzzled crowds.
After
hovering from a safe distance, some
onlookers edged forward to sip cautiously
at a liqueur or nibble at some shortbread.
Visibly, the suspicion could be seen to
melt as the businessmen and women chatted
and smiled, quietly determined to get the
quality of their goods across.
Ms
Jacqueline Boyd, 42, from Birmingham,
stood biting her lip near a Western Isles
Tourist Board stand. "I've never been to
Scotland and I must admit I know nothing
about it but it does look lovely on the
television."
Irish
nurse Patricia Martin, 23, said: "I think
it's a positive idea, as most people in
London know as much about Scotland as they
do Ireland - not a lot."
One
highlight was watching a lady employee of
Glasgow-based McLelland Cheese tell in
sigh language the story of Islay's
aphrodisiac cheese to two blushing Italian
men.
As
the day wore on more people arrived,
mainly drawn by the bagpipes, skillfully
handled by ex-pipe major of the King's Own
Scottish Borderers, Willie Cochrane, 61.
He was interrupted by an elderly Clapham
lady, giggling a the sight of men in
kilts: "I've given a few of them a pat on
the bottom. They have such lovely legs,"
she said.
That's
one convert.
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