The book Flower o' the Heather written by Robert William MacKenna revolves around the moments
of killing time. An excerpt from the first chapter goes thus It is a far cry from the grey
walls of Balliol College to the sands at Dumfries and many ways may lead a man from one to the
other. So thought I Walter de Brydde of the City of Warwick when on an April morning in the
year of grace 1685 I stood upon Devorgilla's bridge and watched the silver Nith glide under the
red arches. I was there in obedience to a whim and the whim with all that went before it--let
me set it down that men may judge me for what I was--was the child of a drunken frolic. It
befell in this wise.
