ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an image by John Duncan, published in Edinburgh in 1895. John Duncan's Anima Celtica is a remarkable work. It refers to the heritage of shared legend and material culture of the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. One might want to leave it at that and just place Duncan's Anima Celtica alongside other female embodiments of nation and culture such as Britannia, or indeed the image of Caledonia that William Hole painted for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in the same period. Consequently any consideration of the 'soul of the Celt' as Duncan delineates her must take heed of Patrick Geddes's view of history as a live issue for the present and the future, sharing both cyclical and evolutionary characteristics with nature. Cyclical characteristics in particular, for the very idea of the annual revival of nature is symbolic of the cultural revival with which both Geddes and Duncan were concerned.
