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CONTENTS
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Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Kay's Edinburgh Portraits
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
William and Louisa Anderson
The History of Fettercairn
Memoirs of the Jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice (New Book)
Robert Burns Lives!
songs of John Henderson
Video about our Books section on Electric Scotland
The Evolution of the Procurator-Fiscal
Kilmacolm: A Parish History 1100 - 1898
The Two Greatest of Scottish Caterans
Earl-Marishal and Field-Marshal
Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop
A Sassenach's Stravaig
Scottish Guilds
The Constable Nun' Alvares
The Knights Templars in Scotland
Religion
Korea and the Koreans
Ochtertyre House Booke of Accomps 1787 - 1789
Clan Leslie
The Commemoration of David Mitchell of Leslie - Locomotive Engine Driver
Electric Scotland News
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Figured it was about time to do a makeover of our site header. The menu is now a lot larger with more menu items appearing to reflect the considerable content we have on the site. We have also removed the site search engine and that now appears as a link at the very top of the page. When that is clicked you go to a special search page where you can do your searching. We've also taken the opportunity to give some hints on how to use it.
The only link that won't work immediately is the HELP link at the top. We've only just discovered today that it doesn't work. That is because of moving to our new server which is under electricscotland.org. The help system was licensed to scotchat.org and hence the reason it isn't working. I've sent off the money for a new license but likely a couple of days before we get it.
As this newsletter goes out the index page will have been updated but it now needs to propogate across all our pages so might take a few hours to do that.
Would be interested to hear what you think of the change!
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I've been invited to go to the Celtic Festival in Quebec in the second half of September and to give a talk there. I'll bring you up to date as more information becomes available. Obviously if you live anywhere near I'd be happy to meet with you if you can make it along.
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Should any of you work for a Scottish company either in Scotland or abroad would you please tell your bosses that Electric Scotland is willing to give them a free profile for their company. I really want to do something on the history of Scottish business but I can only do that if companies will provide the information. What I'd like to get is...
When the company started it and who started it.
What was the initial vision of the company.
Then give us the highs and lows of the trading record of your company.
Then what are you doing today.
There is no practical limit on how much you send us and we'll accept text, doc files, pdf's, pictures and videos. Also be sure to provide us with your contact details and web site address.
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Got told of an article on the BBC entitled "Keeping Scots traditions alive overseas" which is about celebrating Robert Burns in Argentina. You can read this article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7849244.stm
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Our thoughts also go out to all those affected by the recent and ongoing tornadoes in the USA. And I'm told quite a lot of ash has fallen on Scotland along with much damage from a severe storm that toppled trees and buildings this past week.
Ranald sent me a link to an article about the Ash Cloud which apparently has glass particles in it which you can read at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...tland-13559108
There is also an article about the storms that hit Scotland at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13517316
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As I've been giving you some links to explore here is one more to a video of a talk about the Scots Diaspora which you can view at http://video.stv.tv/bc/scotland-gene...tish-diaspora/
I thought this might actually answer a question that many ask about how Scots see Scots descendants from outside Scotland.
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And finally I also thought you might be interested in Alex Salmonds speech laying out his ambitions for Scotland over the next 5 years. You can read that at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Rele...11/05/26110705
ABOUT THE STORIES
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Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/rss/whatsnew.php
Electric Scotland Community
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An amazing revelation came in this week about how British Kids were sent to australia often without their parents knowing. The Australian Government and the British Government have offered an apology but it's really a terrible story. You can read more about this at http://www.electricscotland.org/show...avery#post4776
Our community can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.org but of course if you are reading this you're already in it :-)
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
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This weeks issue is now available compiled by Ian Goldie and he's obviously still euphoric about the SNPO victory!
You can get to the Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org
I got an email in from Christina McKelvie and she's told me she'll have a new diary entry for us for next week where she'll be telling us of her getting elected for the Hamilton area which from an SNP point of view is historic seeing that Hamilton was they very first seat ever won by the SNP.
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
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And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts by John Parker Lawson (1839). This is a new publication we're starting on which is in 4 volumes. We intend to post up 2 or 3 stories each week until complete.
This week we've added...
Seige of Dunottar Castle - 1651
Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge - 1679
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
I might add we've discovered that there are actually 4 volumes in this set. Obviously a lot of battles took place in Scotland!
Kay's Edinburgh Portraits
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A Series of Anecdotal Biographies chiefly of Scotchmen, Mostly by James Paterson and Edited by James Maidment (1885)
This week we have added...
Lord Bannatyne, of the Court of Session
Lord Woodhouselee, of the Court of Session
The Diamond Beetle Case, being Illustrations of the Styles of the Various Lords of Session
Lord Jeffrey, of the Court of Session
Dr. John Brown, alias "The Devil-Killer"
A Political Set-To at Kinghorn
Louis Cauvin, Founder of the Cauvin Hospital
An interesting account of Louis Cauvin, Founder of the Cauvin Hospital which includes...
The subject of this memoir at a very early age made choice of his father's profession. He was educated at the High School and College of Edinburgh; and, for some time before his father's death, had been in the habit of acting as his assistant. When that event took place, he decided upon continuing the school for the benefit of the family. Shortly afterwards he went to France, to complete his knowledge of the language and its pronunciation, and prosecuted his studies for two years in the University of Paris, during which time Mr. Moffat taught his classes in Edinburgh. Thus qualified for his task, he commanded, for a series of years, better filled classes than has fallen to the lot of any teacher of French in Edinburgh. Without attempting any delineation of his peculiar mode of imparting instruction, suffice it to say that he possessed such an extraordinary energy of mind and vigour of body, that first-rate teachers of the present day, who have studied under him, acknowledge that, within a similar period of time, no one in their experience ever taught so much, or so well. The history of his labours in private and public teaching, and of the early difficulties he had to struggle with, contains much that would be both interesting and instructive; but it may be enough to state, that his whole time was devoted to his profession—that he laboured in it with the greatest assiduity and industry for the greater part of his lifetime, from eight o'clock in the morning till nine at night, except on Saturdays, the afternoons of which were devoted to relaxation and hospitality—and that he retired from business in 1817 or 1818, after having realised, by his own exertions, a handsome fortune. For nearly twenty years before relinquishing his scholastic labours, he, in imitation of his father, rented a large farm in the parish of Duddingstone, which he managed with great skill, and where he resided during summer. In the winter months he resided in town, and regularly visited his farm on the Saturday ; but during the rest of the year lie personally directed the operations, morning and evening, rising regularly at four o'clock in the morning. The farm-house, now termed Woodlands, in the immediate vicinity of the Hospital, has been greatly enlarged since he left it, aud is at present occupied by Alexander Smith, Esq., W.S. During Mr. Cauvin's occupation of the farm, he erected the house of Louisfield, which now forms the centre part of the Hospital.
You can read the rest of this entry at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/kays/vol270.htm
The other entries can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/kays/index.htm
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
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Added another two poems, "Nurse Murphy's Retiral Presentation 1969" and "Christmas Eve" which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/rodger.htm
William and Louisa Anderson
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A record of their Life and Work in Jamaica and Old Calabar by William Markwick (1897)
This week we've added the following chapters...
Part III
Old Calabar Period, 1849-1889, and Closing Years, 1889-1895
Chapter 9
The First Converts, 1853—Excursion up Qua River—First Marriage in Duke Town, 1854
Chapter 10
The Beginnings of the Native Church
Chapter 11
Bombardment and Destruction of Old Town—Destruction by Fire of Duke Town Mission-House
Chapter 12
Calabar Slavery and Slave-holding in relation to Membership in the Church
Chapter 13
Another Victory—Right of Sanctuary for the Innocent Vindicated —Egbo Blown upon the Mission—Consular Intervention
Chapter 14
Arrival of Rev. Zerub Baillie-Native Affairs—Consular Intervention Death of Rev. Samuel Edgerley, senior—Furlough of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson—Address at Missionary Meeting of Synod
Chapter 15
Return to Calabar and Renewed Labours- Election and Coronation of Archibong II., etc.
In chapter 10 we learn...
The arrival of Mr. Alexander Sutherland on March 26, 1854, in the first of the monthly steamers, was a welcome addition to the staff. He relieved Mr. Anderson of the charge of the day-school, and thus left him more time to devote to other duties. As Calabar children can obey only one master, a divided authority in the school would have been inexpedient, and Mr. Anderson showed his wisdom and brotherly spirit in at once giving Mr. Sutherland . entire charge after initiating him into his duties.
Viewed in relation to home, the monthly arrival of the mail steamers has wonderfully altered the aspect of affairs in this country. In former days, two, three, and even four months have sometimes passed away without any European newspaper or letter reaching us, to let us know what was going on in the world. Then we sometimes felt as if we were in an out-of-the-world place. Now we have at least monthly means of communicating with distant friends; and it is no small comfort for us to feel that we are only a months distance from England. It is to us a great cause of thankfulness, and it should afford much relief to our personal friends, and to all the friends of the Mission, to know that, should any of us be necessitated to seek a change of air for sake of health, we have such frequent opportunities of taking a trip to sea, or, if need be, to England itself, and that, too, at a far less expense than the keeping up of a Mission ship and crew would necessarily involve.
During the week after Mr. Sutherland's arrival I went with him round the town, and introduced him to the native gentlemen, by all of whom he was kindly received. We also visited the Mission families at Creek Town and Old Town, as well as King Eyo, who also gave Mr. S. a cordial welcome to Old Calabar. On the following Sabbath, April 2nd, we, as usual on the first Sabbath of the month, observed the ordinance of the Lord's Supper in the schoolroom in the p.m. A large company of worshippers were present, both from the shipping and from the town. We remembered in our prayers at the table of the Lord the congregation at Whitburn, to which Mr. S. belonged in former days, as he informed us that that Sabbath was their Communion also.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...derson3-10.htm
You can read all the chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rson/index.htm
The History of Fettercairn
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A Parish in the County of Kincardine by Archd. Cowie Cameron (1899)
Added more chapters this week so now we have up...
Chapter XII.—Families of Belsches, Stuart and Forbes
John Clerk, a Refugee in Fettercaira 300 years ago—Ancestor of the Clerks, Baronets of Penicuik—Of Emilia Belsches—Clerk's descendants, Merchants in Montrose and Paris—Margaret Clerk and Belsches of Invermay—John Belsches and Mary Stuart—Sir John Wishart Belsches —Name of Stuart—Lady Jane Leslie—Miss Stuart—James Mill, Historian of India—Sir Walter Scott—Miss Stuart, prototype of Matilda in Rokeby —Sir William Forbes-Dr. Beattie, "the Minstrel"—Sir William's character—James Skene and Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion"—Dr. W. F. Skene—Sir William, seventh Baronet—His sons—Sir John Hepburn Stuart Forbes—Lord Clinton—Family—Hon. Charles F. Trefusis-Lady Jane Grey Trefusis—Family.
Chapter XIII.—Newdosk or Balfour
A Thanedom -Knights of St. John—Robert the Bruce—Reginald de Chen—Grant to Lindsay of Crawford—Rents—Earl of Angus—Charter to Lindsays —To Sir John Wishart of Pitarrow—Lands sold to Sir John Straton of Lauriston—Advowson of Fettercaira Church—Successive Owners — Lindsay of Edzell — Descendants of Stratons — Forbeses of Balfour—Captain Forbes, the "Daft Laird "—Anecdote—Sir John Stuart.
Chapter XIV.—Balbegno, Balnakettle and Littlestrath
The Woods, thanes of Fettercaira—Original name, De Bosco—Notable Men -Grant of lands to Andro Wood and Mariota Moncreife—Charter by James IV. and English translation—Admiral Wood—His bust—John Wood —Woods of Craig—Walter Wood and Lady Helen Stewart of Atholl —A royal descent — Walter and Sir John Wood — Precept of Oliver Cromwell—Andrew Wood—Andrew Middleton of Caldhame—Major Wood and John Lindsay—John Wood, Colinsburgh—John and Mrs Wood, Carlisle—Andrew and Robert Middleton—John Ogilvy of Lunan—Wife and daughters—Dr. Brisbane—Hon. Walter and Donald Ogilvy- The Woods, proprietors of Balnakettle and Littlestrath—Lands sold—Andrew and William Fraser —The Reida, ministers of Banchory Ternan— Distinguished men—Dr. Thomas Reid—Revs. Alexander Leslie and Dr. Leslie of Fordoun—Leslies of Birkwood—Miss Paterson—William Straehan, proprietor—Lady Pliesdo—Her son, John Falconer —Her message to the Kirk Session—James Falconer of Monkton, and Sir Alex. Ramsay Irvine—Peter Falconer—Viscount Arbuthnott—David Scott-Rev. Dr. Pirie—Sir Thomas Gladstone and Fasque Estate.
Chapter XV.—Balmain and Fasque
Owners in reign of James III.—"The good old rule"—"Earl Beardie" and his son the Duke of Montrose—The King's favourites at "Lauder Brig"—Pitscottie's narrative—John Ramsay—His career and intrigues— Perkin Warbeck—Margaret of England—Lands of Balmain—His son and successor William Ramsay— David Ramsay and Catherine Carnegie-Rev. Andrew Ramsay—Sir Gilbert and Grizel Durham—Sir David-Property destroyed—Compensation—Sir Charles and Elizabeth Falconer —Marriage contract and seventeen witnesses—Retour of holdings in Barony of Balmain—Diralands of Fettercaim—Sir David and Sir Alexander —Improvers—Trees planted at Fasque—Sir Alexander R. Irvine—A great agriculturist—New appliances—His character—Sir Thomas Ramsay, seventh Baronet, Sheriff Burnet as Sir Alexander Ramsay, first Baronet of United Kingdom, and Elizabeth Bannerman—Seven sons—Their training and career—Admiral Sir William, K.C.B.—A death—Dean Ramsay -"Any tail "—Building of Fasque House —Sir Alexander, second Baronet—Portrait—Tenantry—Fasque sold—Sir Alexander, third Baronet—His family—Offices of honour—Sir Alexander Entwistle, fourth Baronet Lady Ramsay and family—A long connection closed.
Chapter XVI.—Balmain and Fasque (continued)
Purchase by John Gladstone—Baronetcy in 1846—His ancestry—Herbert de Gledstan—Edward I.—Sir William de Gledstanes— His son—Gladstones in Forfarshire—Eminent men—Lanarkshire branch—John Gladstones of Toftcombs — Thomas of Leith —Sir John —His career — Enterprise — Character—Improvements at Fascine—Family—Sir Thomas—Additional estates—Public affairs—Character—Lady Gladstone and family—Sir John R. Gladstone—Military career.
Chapter XVII. —Disclune, Arnhall and The Burn
Durrysclune—Early proprietors—Stratons—David Carnegie, first Earl of Southesk—James, second Earl, a hero of the Covenant—Robert, third Earl—CharJLes, fourth Earl—Rental Book—Farms and their rents—James, fifth Earl—Rebellion of 1715—"Piper o' Dundee"—York Building Co.— Sir James Carnegie—Highland Raiders—Lord Milton—"Catching fish at Arnhall"—Fontenoy and Culloden—Barclay of Urie—His letter—Sir David Carnegie—Disposal of the Estates—Popularity of the Carnegies— Lord Adam Gordon—Military career—Marriage—"For lack of gold," &c. —Great improvements—Anecdote—Alexander Brodie—His improvements —His daughter, the Duchess of Gordon—John Shand—Drainage of the moss—"Muckle ditch"—William Shand—Colonel M'Inroy—Life and character—Popularity—Colonel Charles M'Inroy—Primrosehill—Captain Airth—Improvements—William Airth.
Chapter XVIII.—Dalladies, Drumhendry and Capo
Lands of Delany or Dullachy and Trembleys or Turnbulls—Stratons and Carnegies—Turnbulls of Stracathro—Dr. Turnbull- His career -Frugality—Jocularity—Lord Panmure his friend—A conditional vote-Kay's Portraits — "Shoes blackened" —A considerate landlord —Miss Page Turnbull Robertson — Present owners — Levingstones of Dunipace— Drumry and Luthra—John Wood—Andrew ftaitt—David, Principal of King's College—Colonel Rait—Lord Falconer—Castle of Haulkerton— Keith-Falconer, Earl of Kintore—The present Earl and Countess— . Lord Inverurie.
Part fourtb.— Antiquities: Buildings, Ancient and Modern
Chapter XIX.—Antiquities and Old Buildings
Roman road—King's ford—Station of Tina—Causewayend— "Coupers' avenue"—Dr. Don's Roman Iter—Hill of Esslie—Roman outpost—Castle and garden—Old house of Balmain—Underground passage—Greencaim and other vitrified forts—Dimensions—Fenella's Castle—Sir Walter Scott's letter—Copy and fac-simile—William the Lion—Randolph the Falconer —Balbegno Castle—John Wood—Carved and Stirling heads—Admiral Wood's—Wood and Barclay Arms-The ceiling—Scotch peers—Dungeon —Moot hill, or "Tod hillock"—Mort-town-hole—"Taed's nest," or hangman's dwelling—Balfour House—The Stratons—Stones for Fasque House—Fasque Old House—Douglas's description and expression—"The Octagon a pasteboard cage"—The Chinese bridge—Balnakettle Old House—Old trees.
You can read all these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...airn/index.htm
Memoirs of the Jacobites
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Of 1715 and 1745 by Mrs Thomson (1845) in 3 volumes. We intend to add a chapter a week until complete.
I've now added the first chapter of this publication on John Erskine, Earl of Mar.
The account starts...
"The title of Mar," observes Lord Hailes, "is one of the Earldoms whose origin is lost in its antiquity." It existed before our records, and before the era of general history: hence, the Earls of Mar claimed always to be called first in the Scottish Parliament in the roll of Earls, as having no rival in the antiquity of their honours.
From the time of Malcolm Canmore, in the year 1065, until the fourteenth century, the family of De Mar enjoyed this Earldom; but on the death of Thomas, the. thirteenth Earl of Mar, in 1377, the direct male line of this race ended. The Earldom then devolved upon the female representatives of the house of De Mar; and thence, as in most similar instances in Scotland, it became the subject of contention, fraud, and violence.
Isabel, Countess of Mar and Garioch, the last of the De Mar family, was won in marriage by a singular and determined species of courtship, formerly common in Scotland; the influence of terror. The heiress of the castle of Kildrummie, and a widow, her first husband, Sir Malcolm Druminond, having died in 1403, her wealth and rank attracted the regards of Alexander Stewart, the natural son of Robert Earl of Buchan, of royal blood. Without waiting for the ordinary mode of persuasion to establish an interest in his favour, this wild, rapacious man appeared in the Highlands at the head of a band of plunderers, and planting himself before the castle of Kildrummie, stormed it, and effected a marriage between himself and the Countess of Mar. Alexander Stewart, in cooler moments, however, perceived the danger of this bold measure, and resolved to establish his right to the Countess and to her estates by another process. One morning, during the month of September 1404, he presented himself at the Castle gate of Kildrummie, and formally surrendered to the Countess the castle, its furniture, and the title-deeds kept within its chests; thus returning them to her to do with them as she pleased. The Countess, on the other hand, holding the keys in her hand, and declaring herself to be of "mature advice," chose the said Alexander for her husband, and gave him the castle, the Earldom of Mar, with all the other family estates in her possession. She afterwards conferred these gifts by a charter, signed and sealed in the open fields, in the presence of the Bishop of Ross, and of her whole tenantry, in order to show that these acts were produced by no unlawful coercion on the part of her husband. The said honours and estates were also to descend to any children born in that marriage. Some of her kindred listened resentfully to the account of these proceedings of Isabel of Mar.
You can read the rest of this very long story at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter02.htm
You can read the other chapters as we get them up at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
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An Appreciation of his Social and Religious Outlook by Ian M. Fraser (2002). This is a new book we're embarking on.
Quite a character and our thanks go to John Henderson for getting us permission to post this book up on our site. John will be scanning it in for us and will send us chapters as they are completed.
A Scottish aristocrat but also a rancher in Texas and South America with Spanish connections and on and on it goes.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
Robert Burns Lives!
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Edited by Frank Shaw
The G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns: An Illustrated Catalogue
It has been much too long since the writings of Dr. Kenneth Simpson have graced these pages. One of the kindest and most polite men I have ever known, an undisputed Burns scholar, as well as a talented writer, scholar, author and speaker, it is wonderful to welcome my good friend back to Robert Burns Lives!. Among my favorite books written on Burns are two edited by Ken: Love & Liberty and Burns Now.
In this article Ken reviews The G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns: An Illustrated Catalogue which first appeared in the Scottish Literary Review edited by Sarah Dunnigan and Rhona Brown who edits the reviews section. Thanks to them for allowing the review to appear on our web site.
By way of introduction to Ken’s review below, I take great pride in sharing a blurb I was asked to write for this book:
“This eagerly awaited publication will be a joy for all serious Burnsians since there has been no major Burns catalogue in recent times. It is a useful research tool by the world’s most preeminent Burns scholar. Ross Roy’s comments and illustrations regarding the rarer items make this great collection even better for all who wish to study the Scottish bard. This book will be of special value as a guide to the major Burns collection in North America.” (FRS: 5.25.11)
You can read this book review at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives120.htm
You can also read all the other articles in this series at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...rank/burns.htm
songs of John Henderson
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John has sent us in another two of his songs...
Ma Guid Freen at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel387.htm
Hame in Kinglassie at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel386.htm
All of John's songs can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Video about our Books section on Electric Scotland
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I posted up a new video about our Books section in our Electric Scotland Community which you can find at http://www.electricscotland.org/show...tland#post4761
The Evolution of the Procurator-Fiscal
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THERE are two questions which meet the student of Scottish criminal procedure on the threshold of his study. What was the origin of the Procurator-Fiscal, and by what process of evolution has his office developed into its present shape? Neither question has been satisfactorily answered. Legal antiquarians have neglected the subject, and other persons have lacked either the opportunity or the inclination to make the requisite researches. The title is sufficiently familiar as applied to prosecutors in the public interest before various inferior tribunals both of the past and present—bishop, commissary, baron, sheriff, justice of peace, burgh—each of which has or had an official bearing the name. The type of the whole, and the officer who is invariably denoted in modern practice by the unqualified expression, is the sheriff's procurator-fiscal. The pre-eminent position of this officer, as compared with others of the same class, is due to the readiness with which his powers and duties have proved themselves capable of adaptation to the circumstances of different periods, and to the political and financial necessities of successive governments. It is the result of a curious process of evolution and development, which merits attentive consideration from all who interest themselves in historical and social problems.
You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tor_fiscal.htm
Kilmacolm: A Parish History 1100 - 1898
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Both a review of this book from the Scottish Review and the book in pdf format which you can get to at http://www.electricscotland.com/council/kilmacolm.htm
The Two Greatest of Scottish Caterans
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An article from the Scottish Review of 1898.
THE directors of the Highland Railway, solicitous for the welfare of their passengers, show at one of the best known, and not least important of their stations, a special thoughtfulness, which is, perhaps, not so much appreciated as it deserves to be by the tourist rushing to find health and golf at Nairn, or the sportsman bent upon demonstrating the temper of English stoicism by facing the discomforts of a soakiug Twelfth of August upon a Scottish moor. The traveller who has been surfeited with the leafy riches of Perthshire scenery, has rushed through the Pass of Killiecrankie with the fervour of Macaulay's prose, if not with the roaring fury of the Highland clans, and has panted up the ascent to Dalnaspidal, relieved as it is from absolute dreariness by the brawling Garry, is glad to rest for a few minutes at Kingussie Station, stretch his legs on the platform, and drink the cup of tea which is offered for his acceptance. During the brief respite from the occasionally too severe task of realising the grandeur of the Grampians which is here offered him, his eye cannot fail to note a grey pile of ruins, surmounting a conical green mound, about three-quarters of a mile distant on the south side of the Spey, which has now superseded the Garry in the landscape as the Garry superseded the Tay. If he has time to make enquiries, or to consult a guide-book, he ascertains that these ruins are popularly known as Ruthven Castle, but that they are in reality all that is left of the barracks erected by the British Government about the middle of the seventeenth century to aid in keeping the always turbulent Highlands in order. But if he is wise enough to halt for a few days at Kingussie, and make it his head-quarters while he is engaged in exploring the beauties of Speyside, he will learn a great deal more about the history of Ruthven Castle. No fortress in Scotland has suffered more the brunt of war; none has been so often destroyed and so often rebuilt. "Standing at a crossing point of tracks north, south, east, and west, in the great valley of the Spey, it saw and felt every raid westward by the Gordons, Grants, Mackintoshes; eastwards by Macdonalds, Camerons, Macleans, and Campbells; southwards by them all, with Macphersons, Mackenzies, and many more; and northward by the regular forces of the kingdom." Huntly, when fighting "the bonnie Earl of Moray," repaired it. Argyll besieged it when it was held by Macphersons. Montrose, Monk, Lilburn, and Mackay in turn garrisoned it. Dundee burned it. It was in front of Ruthven that the remains of the defeated army of Prince Charles—a force of several thousands strong which, well led, might have accomplished much—rallied after the disaster of Culloden, and it was there that most of them received, with rage and grief, the somewhat cold-blooded sauve qui pent transmitted to them by an aide-de-camp.
You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...h_caterans.htm
Earl-Marishal and Field-Marshal
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This will be of interest to Clan Keith members and of general interest to others. This is an article I found in the Scottish Review of 1898 in which they have detailed some letters he wrote.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...ol/keith3.html
Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop
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Their Correspondence by William Wallace (1898)
As an editor of Burns, Mr. Wallace is easily in the first rank, if not, indeed, in the first place. His admirable edition of the Chambers' Burns has already been noticed in the pages of this Revieto, and there are few readers of Burns who are not by this time more or leas acquainted with it. In the volume before us he adds another to the many services which he has already rendered to the students of Burns and his times. The correspondence between the Ayrshire poet and Mrs. Dunlop has long been known to exist and has in part been published. Carrie printed some thirty-nine of Burns's letters to Mrs. Dunlop; to these Crorack added three, and Scott-Douglas a fourth ; but here, for the first time, Mr. Wallace has printed the whole of the correspondence from the Lochryan MSS., containing no fewer than thirty-eight additional holograph letters and parts of letters from the poet to Mrs. Dunlop, and ninety-seven letters from Mrs. Dunlop to Burns, or, as Mr. Wallace observes, *the surplus of the collection made for Currie's use by Mrs. Dunlop and Gilbert Burns from the MSS. which the lady had in her possession at the poet's death.'
You can read the rest of this review and also download the book at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/mrsdunlop.htm
A Sassenach's Stravaig
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Monday, 31 August 2009 -- Meandering southwards. This is the final part of this wee series and can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...hitehead07.htm
Scottish Guilds
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Found an interesting review about a book containing good information on Scottish Guilds.
Among the institutions of the Middle Ages, few were of greater importance, and are more deserving of careful study than the Gilda Mercatoria or Merchant Guild. Though by no means exciting, its history is intensely interesting, and throws a flood of light upon the social as well as upon the industrial and commercial life of mediaeval Europe. In our own country it has not attracted that amount of attention which it rightly deserves. Though the list of authorities which Mr. Gross has printed at the end of his first volume is somewhat formidable, the number of works it includes which have been written by English authors on the history of Guilds in general, is remarkably small. On the Continent the institution has been more fortunate. In France and Germany and elsewhere there is a fairly large literature in connection with it. Among others may be mentioned the contributions of Wilda, Gierke, Karl Hegel, Georg von Bulow, and Vander Linden. Across the Atlantic, also, the subject would appear to be attracting a considerable amount of attention. Mr. Gross himself, though his work issues from the Clarendon Press, and in its original form appeared at Gottingen, is the Instructor in History at the Harvard University. Mr. Ashley, however, who has written two most admirable chapters on the Merchant and Craft Guilds in his History of Economic though a professor in the same University, belongs to Oxford.
You can read the rest of this review and download the books at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ish_guilds.htm
The Constable Nun' Alvares
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An article from the July 1898 Scottish Review with some interesting information on Portugal and the Knights Hospitallers.
This is an interesting account of Senhor Oliveira Martins, the gifted Portuguese author who has so graphically pictured us to ourselves in his Inglaterra de Hoje, has, among other and numerous works, left us a picture of his own too little known country in the Middle Ages, in the shape of a life of Nun'Alvares, the celebrated Constable of Portugal in the fourteenth century. It also has some interesting information on the Knights Hospitallers.
You can read more of this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/portugal.htm
The Knights Templars in Scotland
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Found this interesting article in the Scottish Review of 1898.
ON the map of "Lowland Scotland one finds in places the name Temple, marking here a parish, and there, it maybe, a farm, a hamlet, or a croft. The name, of course, is a relic of the presence and possessions of the order of Knights Templars in our country—the only relic and memorial of itself which the order has left on Scottish soil. Elsewhere throughout Western Europe, and even in the Mohammedan East, material remains not unworthy of the power and glory of the greatest military order of mediaeval Christendom have endured till modern times. The ruins of the Pilgrim's Castle are still to be seen on the coast of Palestine, frowning over the perilous defile which, about the time of the Third Crusade, it was built to guard. In all its rich store of antiquities Cyprus has nothing more splendid than the noble halls and churches, which were the abode of the order in its later years. The last king of the old regime in France passed to the guillotine from the fortress whence his predecessor, almost five centuries before, had dragged the last Grand Master of the Temple to torture and death. The grey walls of more than one preceptory still stand among the meadows of England, and in the central throng and roar of London, the order has bequeathed to the Inns of Court not its name only, but also, xxxn. 1 in its chapel, one of the finest and most venerable examples of Gothic art. Scotland alone possesses no tangible memorial of these monkish knights whose pride and riches once provoked the fear and envy of kings. Other monastic orders have left tokens enough of their presence to give beauty and melancholy to our landscapes. Black monks and grey, Cistercians, Augustinians, Praemonstratenses—one sees their ruined churches and cloisters rising in the heart of busy towns, or above the roofs of sleepy villages, or, in some quiet and fertile valley, peeping from amidst immemorial trees. Even the Knights of St. John, the masters of Rhodes and Malta, have their memorial in the church of Torphichen. But the Templars are without a monument. Chapel and preceptory have vanished.
'The Knights' bones are dust,
And their good swords rust,'
and the place of their sepulchre is remembered here and there only by some vague and doubtful tradition, in the mouths of country folk, of ' the Templar's grave.' Nothing but their name is left, haunting ghostlike and impalpable the ancient scenes of their habitation.
You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s_scotland.htm
Religion
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Found a couple of interesting book reviews which I've extracted below and have also found the books which you'll also be able to download...
Elements of the Science of Religion
Being the Gifford Lectures delivered before the University of Edinburgh in 1896. THis can be got to at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/kerr02.htm
05/23/2011 02:18 PM
The Christ of History and of Experience
I'm publishing a couple of these Kerr lectures just to giver you a flavour of what's available. This can be got to at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/kerr01.htm
Korea and the Koreans
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An interesting book which teaches us some of the history of Korea. At the end of this review there is a link to purchase a reprint of this book which was published in 1898.
As Asia is a major emerging market I thought is might be interesting learn something for their history.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cles/korea.htm
Ochtertyre House Booke of Accomps 1787 - 1789
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Some insights into how folk lived in the 18th century.
Information on how more ordinary folk lived in the olden days are actually quite rare. This is thus one of those rare books where you get some insight. Like they obviously went through a lot of eggs and fish.
This is a pdf file but I have extracted some of the Introduction to give you an idea on what to expect. You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...ochtertyre.htm
Clan Leslie
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We got in a copy of their latest Grip Fast Newsletter which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...ters/leslieint
Also got in an article on the Leslie Log House which was unveliled in Ontario and you can read about this at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...l/leslie5.html
The Commemoration of David Mitchell of Leslie - Locomotive Engine Driver
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By Ian Nimmo White
'm a writer and currently vice-chairman of the TRBDMT. After I'd completed the job on the David Mitchell headstone, I recorded the story in approx. 3,000 words, and rounded it off with a 20 line poem in both English and Scots. Both are attached here.
My purpose was to use the story, perhaps the poem as well, to raise further funds for the TRBDMT. See the link to them at the foot of this page. Here is the story...
And this can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...d_mitchell.htm
Rattray's Seiks
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I just happened to stumble on this story which I thought was rather interesting.
And finally...
The Elderly And Technology
Janice remembers the time her father in law came out to Texas to visit her. The old guy was used to regular trips to the shops in East Kilbride so Janice dropped him off at her local mall after giving him a pager and explaining that when it went off he should head for the exit and she would be there to pick him up.
Later, after paging repeatedly with no sign of him, Janice headed into the mall and found him sitting on a bench regaling two or three women with tales of his wartime visits to the States. On approaching she could hear the pager vibrating in his top pocket and asked him why he hadn’t responded. At that he clasped his hand to his chest and said,
“Thank God that’s what it was – I thought I was having heart palpitations because of these lovely ladies.”
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Kay's Edinburgh Portraits
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
William and Louisa Anderson
The History of Fettercairn
Memoirs of the Jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice (New Book)
Robert Burns Lives!
songs of John Henderson
Video about our Books section on Electric Scotland
The Evolution of the Procurator-Fiscal
Kilmacolm: A Parish History 1100 - 1898
The Two Greatest of Scottish Caterans
Earl-Marishal and Field-Marshal
Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop
A Sassenach's Stravaig
Scottish Guilds
The Constable Nun' Alvares
The Knights Templars in Scotland
Religion
Korea and the Koreans
Ochtertyre House Booke of Accomps 1787 - 1789
Clan Leslie
The Commemoration of David Mitchell of Leslie - Locomotive Engine Driver
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Figured it was about time to do a makeover of our site header. The menu is now a lot larger with more menu items appearing to reflect the considerable content we have on the site. We have also removed the site search engine and that now appears as a link at the very top of the page. When that is clicked you go to a special search page where you can do your searching. We've also taken the opportunity to give some hints on how to use it.
The only link that won't work immediately is the HELP link at the top. We've only just discovered today that it doesn't work. That is because of moving to our new server which is under electricscotland.org. The help system was licensed to scotchat.org and hence the reason it isn't working. I've sent off the money for a new license but likely a couple of days before we get it.
As this newsletter goes out the index page will have been updated but it now needs to propogate across all our pages so might take a few hours to do that.
Would be interested to hear what you think of the change!
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I've been invited to go to the Celtic Festival in Quebec in the second half of September and to give a talk there. I'll bring you up to date as more information becomes available. Obviously if you live anywhere near I'd be happy to meet with you if you can make it along.
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Should any of you work for a Scottish company either in Scotland or abroad would you please tell your bosses that Electric Scotland is willing to give them a free profile for their company. I really want to do something on the history of Scottish business but I can only do that if companies will provide the information. What I'd like to get is...
When the company started it and who started it.
What was the initial vision of the company.
Then give us the highs and lows of the trading record of your company.
Then what are you doing today.
There is no practical limit on how much you send us and we'll accept text, doc files, pdf's, pictures and videos. Also be sure to provide us with your contact details and web site address.
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Got told of an article on the BBC entitled "Keeping Scots traditions alive overseas" which is about celebrating Robert Burns in Argentina. You can read this article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7849244.stm
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Our thoughts also go out to all those affected by the recent and ongoing tornadoes in the USA. And I'm told quite a lot of ash has fallen on Scotland along with much damage from a severe storm that toppled trees and buildings this past week.
Ranald sent me a link to an article about the Ash Cloud which apparently has glass particles in it which you can read at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...tland-13559108
There is also an article about the storms that hit Scotland at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13517316
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As I've been giving you some links to explore here is one more to a video of a talk about the Scots Diaspora which you can view at http://video.stv.tv/bc/scotland-gene...tish-diaspora/
I thought this might actually answer a question that many ask about how Scots see Scots descendants from outside Scotland.
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And finally I also thought you might be interested in Alex Salmonds speech laying out his ambitions for Scotland over the next 5 years. You can read that at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Rele...11/05/26110705
ABOUT THE STORIES
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Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/rss/whatsnew.php
Electric Scotland Community
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An amazing revelation came in this week about how British Kids were sent to australia often without their parents knowing. The Australian Government and the British Government have offered an apology but it's really a terrible story. You can read more about this at http://www.electricscotland.org/show...avery#post4776
Our community can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.org but of course if you are reading this you're already in it :-)
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
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This weeks issue is now available compiled by Ian Goldie and he's obviously still euphoric about the SNPO victory!
You can get to the Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org
I got an email in from Christina McKelvie and she's told me she'll have a new diary entry for us for next week where she'll be telling us of her getting elected for the Hamilton area which from an SNP point of view is historic seeing that Hamilton was they very first seat ever won by the SNP.
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
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And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts by John Parker Lawson (1839). This is a new publication we're starting on which is in 4 volumes. We intend to post up 2 or 3 stories each week until complete.
This week we've added...
Seige of Dunottar Castle - 1651
Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge - 1679
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
I might add we've discovered that there are actually 4 volumes in this set. Obviously a lot of battles took place in Scotland!
Kay's Edinburgh Portraits
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A Series of Anecdotal Biographies chiefly of Scotchmen, Mostly by James Paterson and Edited by James Maidment (1885)
This week we have added...
Lord Bannatyne, of the Court of Session
Lord Woodhouselee, of the Court of Session
The Diamond Beetle Case, being Illustrations of the Styles of the Various Lords of Session
Lord Jeffrey, of the Court of Session
Dr. John Brown, alias "The Devil-Killer"
A Political Set-To at Kinghorn
Louis Cauvin, Founder of the Cauvin Hospital
An interesting account of Louis Cauvin, Founder of the Cauvin Hospital which includes...
The subject of this memoir at a very early age made choice of his father's profession. He was educated at the High School and College of Edinburgh; and, for some time before his father's death, had been in the habit of acting as his assistant. When that event took place, he decided upon continuing the school for the benefit of the family. Shortly afterwards he went to France, to complete his knowledge of the language and its pronunciation, and prosecuted his studies for two years in the University of Paris, during which time Mr. Moffat taught his classes in Edinburgh. Thus qualified for his task, he commanded, for a series of years, better filled classes than has fallen to the lot of any teacher of French in Edinburgh. Without attempting any delineation of his peculiar mode of imparting instruction, suffice it to say that he possessed such an extraordinary energy of mind and vigour of body, that first-rate teachers of the present day, who have studied under him, acknowledge that, within a similar period of time, no one in their experience ever taught so much, or so well. The history of his labours in private and public teaching, and of the early difficulties he had to struggle with, contains much that would be both interesting and instructive; but it may be enough to state, that his whole time was devoted to his profession—that he laboured in it with the greatest assiduity and industry for the greater part of his lifetime, from eight o'clock in the morning till nine at night, except on Saturdays, the afternoons of which were devoted to relaxation and hospitality—and that he retired from business in 1817 or 1818, after having realised, by his own exertions, a handsome fortune. For nearly twenty years before relinquishing his scholastic labours, he, in imitation of his father, rented a large farm in the parish of Duddingstone, which he managed with great skill, and where he resided during summer. In the winter months he resided in town, and regularly visited his farm on the Saturday ; but during the rest of the year lie personally directed the operations, morning and evening, rising regularly at four o'clock in the morning. The farm-house, now termed Woodlands, in the immediate vicinity of the Hospital, has been greatly enlarged since he left it, aud is at present occupied by Alexander Smith, Esq., W.S. During Mr. Cauvin's occupation of the farm, he erected the house of Louisfield, which now forms the centre part of the Hospital.
You can read the rest of this entry at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/kays/vol270.htm
The other entries can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/kays/index.htm
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
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Added another two poems, "Nurse Murphy's Retiral Presentation 1969" and "Christmas Eve" which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/rodger.htm
William and Louisa Anderson
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A record of their Life and Work in Jamaica and Old Calabar by William Markwick (1897)
This week we've added the following chapters...
Part III
Old Calabar Period, 1849-1889, and Closing Years, 1889-1895
Chapter 9
The First Converts, 1853—Excursion up Qua River—First Marriage in Duke Town, 1854
Chapter 10
The Beginnings of the Native Church
Chapter 11
Bombardment and Destruction of Old Town—Destruction by Fire of Duke Town Mission-House
Chapter 12
Calabar Slavery and Slave-holding in relation to Membership in the Church
Chapter 13
Another Victory—Right of Sanctuary for the Innocent Vindicated —Egbo Blown upon the Mission—Consular Intervention
Chapter 14
Arrival of Rev. Zerub Baillie-Native Affairs—Consular Intervention Death of Rev. Samuel Edgerley, senior—Furlough of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson—Address at Missionary Meeting of Synod
Chapter 15
Return to Calabar and Renewed Labours- Election and Coronation of Archibong II., etc.
In chapter 10 we learn...
The arrival of Mr. Alexander Sutherland on March 26, 1854, in the first of the monthly steamers, was a welcome addition to the staff. He relieved Mr. Anderson of the charge of the day-school, and thus left him more time to devote to other duties. As Calabar children can obey only one master, a divided authority in the school would have been inexpedient, and Mr. Anderson showed his wisdom and brotherly spirit in at once giving Mr. Sutherland . entire charge after initiating him into his duties.
Viewed in relation to home, the monthly arrival of the mail steamers has wonderfully altered the aspect of affairs in this country. In former days, two, three, and even four months have sometimes passed away without any European newspaper or letter reaching us, to let us know what was going on in the world. Then we sometimes felt as if we were in an out-of-the-world place. Now we have at least monthly means of communicating with distant friends; and it is no small comfort for us to feel that we are only a months distance from England. It is to us a great cause of thankfulness, and it should afford much relief to our personal friends, and to all the friends of the Mission, to know that, should any of us be necessitated to seek a change of air for sake of health, we have such frequent opportunities of taking a trip to sea, or, if need be, to England itself, and that, too, at a far less expense than the keeping up of a Mission ship and crew would necessarily involve.
During the week after Mr. Sutherland's arrival I went with him round the town, and introduced him to the native gentlemen, by all of whom he was kindly received. We also visited the Mission families at Creek Town and Old Town, as well as King Eyo, who also gave Mr. S. a cordial welcome to Old Calabar. On the following Sabbath, April 2nd, we, as usual on the first Sabbath of the month, observed the ordinance of the Lord's Supper in the schoolroom in the p.m. A large company of worshippers were present, both from the shipping and from the town. We remembered in our prayers at the table of the Lord the congregation at Whitburn, to which Mr. S. belonged in former days, as he informed us that that Sabbath was their Communion also.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...derson3-10.htm
You can read all the chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rson/index.htm
The History of Fettercairn
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A Parish in the County of Kincardine by Archd. Cowie Cameron (1899)
Added more chapters this week so now we have up...
Chapter XII.—Families of Belsches, Stuart and Forbes
John Clerk, a Refugee in Fettercaira 300 years ago—Ancestor of the Clerks, Baronets of Penicuik—Of Emilia Belsches—Clerk's descendants, Merchants in Montrose and Paris—Margaret Clerk and Belsches of Invermay—John Belsches and Mary Stuart—Sir John Wishart Belsches —Name of Stuart—Lady Jane Leslie—Miss Stuart—James Mill, Historian of India—Sir Walter Scott—Miss Stuart, prototype of Matilda in Rokeby —Sir William Forbes-Dr. Beattie, "the Minstrel"—Sir William's character—James Skene and Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion"—Dr. W. F. Skene—Sir William, seventh Baronet—His sons—Sir John Hepburn Stuart Forbes—Lord Clinton—Family—Hon. Charles F. Trefusis-Lady Jane Grey Trefusis—Family.
Chapter XIII.—Newdosk or Balfour
A Thanedom -Knights of St. John—Robert the Bruce—Reginald de Chen—Grant to Lindsay of Crawford—Rents—Earl of Angus—Charter to Lindsays —To Sir John Wishart of Pitarrow—Lands sold to Sir John Straton of Lauriston—Advowson of Fettercaira Church—Successive Owners — Lindsay of Edzell — Descendants of Stratons — Forbeses of Balfour—Captain Forbes, the "Daft Laird "—Anecdote—Sir John Stuart.
Chapter XIV.—Balbegno, Balnakettle and Littlestrath
The Woods, thanes of Fettercaira—Original name, De Bosco—Notable Men -Grant of lands to Andro Wood and Mariota Moncreife—Charter by James IV. and English translation—Admiral Wood—His bust—John Wood —Woods of Craig—Walter Wood and Lady Helen Stewart of Atholl —A royal descent — Walter and Sir John Wood — Precept of Oliver Cromwell—Andrew Wood—Andrew Middleton of Caldhame—Major Wood and John Lindsay—John Wood, Colinsburgh—John and Mrs Wood, Carlisle—Andrew and Robert Middleton—John Ogilvy of Lunan—Wife and daughters—Dr. Brisbane—Hon. Walter and Donald Ogilvy- The Woods, proprietors of Balnakettle and Littlestrath—Lands sold—Andrew and William Fraser —The Reida, ministers of Banchory Ternan— Distinguished men—Dr. Thomas Reid—Revs. Alexander Leslie and Dr. Leslie of Fordoun—Leslies of Birkwood—Miss Paterson—William Straehan, proprietor—Lady Pliesdo—Her son, John Falconer —Her message to the Kirk Session—James Falconer of Monkton, and Sir Alex. Ramsay Irvine—Peter Falconer—Viscount Arbuthnott—David Scott-Rev. Dr. Pirie—Sir Thomas Gladstone and Fasque Estate.
Chapter XV.—Balmain and Fasque
Owners in reign of James III.—"The good old rule"—"Earl Beardie" and his son the Duke of Montrose—The King's favourites at "Lauder Brig"—Pitscottie's narrative—John Ramsay—His career and intrigues— Perkin Warbeck—Margaret of England—Lands of Balmain—His son and successor William Ramsay— David Ramsay and Catherine Carnegie-Rev. Andrew Ramsay—Sir Gilbert and Grizel Durham—Sir David-Property destroyed—Compensation—Sir Charles and Elizabeth Falconer —Marriage contract and seventeen witnesses—Retour of holdings in Barony of Balmain—Diralands of Fettercaim—Sir David and Sir Alexander —Improvers—Trees planted at Fasque—Sir Alexander R. Irvine—A great agriculturist—New appliances—His character—Sir Thomas Ramsay, seventh Baronet, Sheriff Burnet as Sir Alexander Ramsay, first Baronet of United Kingdom, and Elizabeth Bannerman—Seven sons—Their training and career—Admiral Sir William, K.C.B.—A death—Dean Ramsay -"Any tail "—Building of Fasque House —Sir Alexander, second Baronet—Portrait—Tenantry—Fasque sold—Sir Alexander, third Baronet—His family—Offices of honour—Sir Alexander Entwistle, fourth Baronet Lady Ramsay and family—A long connection closed.
Chapter XVI.—Balmain and Fasque (continued)
Purchase by John Gladstone—Baronetcy in 1846—His ancestry—Herbert de Gledstan—Edward I.—Sir William de Gledstanes— His son—Gladstones in Forfarshire—Eminent men—Lanarkshire branch—John Gladstones of Toftcombs — Thomas of Leith —Sir John —His career — Enterprise — Character—Improvements at Fascine—Family—Sir Thomas—Additional estates—Public affairs—Character—Lady Gladstone and family—Sir John R. Gladstone—Military career.
Chapter XVII. —Disclune, Arnhall and The Burn
Durrysclune—Early proprietors—Stratons—David Carnegie, first Earl of Southesk—James, second Earl, a hero of the Covenant—Robert, third Earl—CharJLes, fourth Earl—Rental Book—Farms and their rents—James, fifth Earl—Rebellion of 1715—"Piper o' Dundee"—York Building Co.— Sir James Carnegie—Highland Raiders—Lord Milton—"Catching fish at Arnhall"—Fontenoy and Culloden—Barclay of Urie—His letter—Sir David Carnegie—Disposal of the Estates—Popularity of the Carnegies— Lord Adam Gordon—Military career—Marriage—"For lack of gold," &c. —Great improvements—Anecdote—Alexander Brodie—His improvements —His daughter, the Duchess of Gordon—John Shand—Drainage of the moss—"Muckle ditch"—William Shand—Colonel M'Inroy—Life and character—Popularity—Colonel Charles M'Inroy—Primrosehill—Captain Airth—Improvements—William Airth.
Chapter XVIII.—Dalladies, Drumhendry and Capo
Lands of Delany or Dullachy and Trembleys or Turnbulls—Stratons and Carnegies—Turnbulls of Stracathro—Dr. Turnbull- His career -Frugality—Jocularity—Lord Panmure his friend—A conditional vote-Kay's Portraits — "Shoes blackened" —A considerate landlord —Miss Page Turnbull Robertson — Present owners — Levingstones of Dunipace— Drumry and Luthra—John Wood—Andrew ftaitt—David, Principal of King's College—Colonel Rait—Lord Falconer—Castle of Haulkerton— Keith-Falconer, Earl of Kintore—The present Earl and Countess— . Lord Inverurie.
Part fourtb.— Antiquities: Buildings, Ancient and Modern
Chapter XIX.—Antiquities and Old Buildings
Roman road—King's ford—Station of Tina—Causewayend— "Coupers' avenue"—Dr. Don's Roman Iter—Hill of Esslie—Roman outpost—Castle and garden—Old house of Balmain—Underground passage—Greencaim and other vitrified forts—Dimensions—Fenella's Castle—Sir Walter Scott's letter—Copy and fac-simile—William the Lion—Randolph the Falconer —Balbegno Castle—John Wood—Carved and Stirling heads—Admiral Wood's—Wood and Barclay Arms-The ceiling—Scotch peers—Dungeon —Moot hill, or "Tod hillock"—Mort-town-hole—"Taed's nest," or hangman's dwelling—Balfour House—The Stratons—Stones for Fasque House—Fasque Old House—Douglas's description and expression—"The Octagon a pasteboard cage"—The Chinese bridge—Balnakettle Old House—Old trees.
You can read all these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...airn/index.htm
Memoirs of the Jacobites
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Of 1715 and 1745 by Mrs Thomson (1845) in 3 volumes. We intend to add a chapter a week until complete.
I've now added the first chapter of this publication on John Erskine, Earl of Mar.
The account starts...
"The title of Mar," observes Lord Hailes, "is one of the Earldoms whose origin is lost in its antiquity." It existed before our records, and before the era of general history: hence, the Earls of Mar claimed always to be called first in the Scottish Parliament in the roll of Earls, as having no rival in the antiquity of their honours.
From the time of Malcolm Canmore, in the year 1065, until the fourteenth century, the family of De Mar enjoyed this Earldom; but on the death of Thomas, the. thirteenth Earl of Mar, in 1377, the direct male line of this race ended. The Earldom then devolved upon the female representatives of the house of De Mar; and thence, as in most similar instances in Scotland, it became the subject of contention, fraud, and violence.
Isabel, Countess of Mar and Garioch, the last of the De Mar family, was won in marriage by a singular and determined species of courtship, formerly common in Scotland; the influence of terror. The heiress of the castle of Kildrummie, and a widow, her first husband, Sir Malcolm Druminond, having died in 1403, her wealth and rank attracted the regards of Alexander Stewart, the natural son of Robert Earl of Buchan, of royal blood. Without waiting for the ordinary mode of persuasion to establish an interest in his favour, this wild, rapacious man appeared in the Highlands at the head of a band of plunderers, and planting himself before the castle of Kildrummie, stormed it, and effected a marriage between himself and the Countess of Mar. Alexander Stewart, in cooler moments, however, perceived the danger of this bold measure, and resolved to establish his right to the Countess and to her estates by another process. One morning, during the month of September 1404, he presented himself at the Castle gate of Kildrummie, and formally surrendered to the Countess the castle, its furniture, and the title-deeds kept within its chests; thus returning them to her to do with them as she pleased. The Countess, on the other hand, holding the keys in her hand, and declaring herself to be of "mature advice," chose the said Alexander for her husband, and gave him the castle, the Earldom of Mar, with all the other family estates in her possession. She afterwards conferred these gifts by a charter, signed and sealed in the open fields, in the presence of the Bishop of Ross, and of her whole tenantry, in order to show that these acts were produced by no unlawful coercion on the part of her husband. The said honours and estates were also to descend to any children born in that marriage. Some of her kindred listened resentfully to the account of these proceedings of Isabel of Mar.
You can read the rest of this very long story at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter02.htm
You can read the other chapters as we get them up at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
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An Appreciation of his Social and Religious Outlook by Ian M. Fraser (2002). This is a new book we're embarking on.
Quite a character and our thanks go to John Henderson for getting us permission to post this book up on our site. John will be scanning it in for us and will send us chapters as they are completed.
A Scottish aristocrat but also a rancher in Texas and South America with Spanish connections and on and on it goes.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
Robert Burns Lives!
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Edited by Frank Shaw
The G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns: An Illustrated Catalogue
It has been much too long since the writings of Dr. Kenneth Simpson have graced these pages. One of the kindest and most polite men I have ever known, an undisputed Burns scholar, as well as a talented writer, scholar, author and speaker, it is wonderful to welcome my good friend back to Robert Burns Lives!. Among my favorite books written on Burns are two edited by Ken: Love & Liberty and Burns Now.
In this article Ken reviews The G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns: An Illustrated Catalogue which first appeared in the Scottish Literary Review edited by Sarah Dunnigan and Rhona Brown who edits the reviews section. Thanks to them for allowing the review to appear on our web site.
By way of introduction to Ken’s review below, I take great pride in sharing a blurb I was asked to write for this book:
“This eagerly awaited publication will be a joy for all serious Burnsians since there has been no major Burns catalogue in recent times. It is a useful research tool by the world’s most preeminent Burns scholar. Ross Roy’s comments and illustrations regarding the rarer items make this great collection even better for all who wish to study the Scottish bard. This book will be of special value as a guide to the major Burns collection in North America.” (FRS: 5.25.11)
You can read this book review at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives120.htm
You can also read all the other articles in this series at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...rank/burns.htm
songs of John Henderson
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John has sent us in another two of his songs...
Ma Guid Freen at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel387.htm
Hame in Kinglassie at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel386.htm
All of John's songs can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Video about our Books section on Electric Scotland
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I posted up a new video about our Books section in our Electric Scotland Community which you can find at http://www.electricscotland.org/show...tland#post4761
The Evolution of the Procurator-Fiscal
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THERE are two questions which meet the student of Scottish criminal procedure on the threshold of his study. What was the origin of the Procurator-Fiscal, and by what process of evolution has his office developed into its present shape? Neither question has been satisfactorily answered. Legal antiquarians have neglected the subject, and other persons have lacked either the opportunity or the inclination to make the requisite researches. The title is sufficiently familiar as applied to prosecutors in the public interest before various inferior tribunals both of the past and present—bishop, commissary, baron, sheriff, justice of peace, burgh—each of which has or had an official bearing the name. The type of the whole, and the officer who is invariably denoted in modern practice by the unqualified expression, is the sheriff's procurator-fiscal. The pre-eminent position of this officer, as compared with others of the same class, is due to the readiness with which his powers and duties have proved themselves capable of adaptation to the circumstances of different periods, and to the political and financial necessities of successive governments. It is the result of a curious process of evolution and development, which merits attentive consideration from all who interest themselves in historical and social problems.
You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tor_fiscal.htm
Kilmacolm: A Parish History 1100 - 1898
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Both a review of this book from the Scottish Review and the book in pdf format which you can get to at http://www.electricscotland.com/council/kilmacolm.htm
The Two Greatest of Scottish Caterans
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An article from the Scottish Review of 1898.
THE directors of the Highland Railway, solicitous for the welfare of their passengers, show at one of the best known, and not least important of their stations, a special thoughtfulness, which is, perhaps, not so much appreciated as it deserves to be by the tourist rushing to find health and golf at Nairn, or the sportsman bent upon demonstrating the temper of English stoicism by facing the discomforts of a soakiug Twelfth of August upon a Scottish moor. The traveller who has been surfeited with the leafy riches of Perthshire scenery, has rushed through the Pass of Killiecrankie with the fervour of Macaulay's prose, if not with the roaring fury of the Highland clans, and has panted up the ascent to Dalnaspidal, relieved as it is from absolute dreariness by the brawling Garry, is glad to rest for a few minutes at Kingussie Station, stretch his legs on the platform, and drink the cup of tea which is offered for his acceptance. During the brief respite from the occasionally too severe task of realising the grandeur of the Grampians which is here offered him, his eye cannot fail to note a grey pile of ruins, surmounting a conical green mound, about three-quarters of a mile distant on the south side of the Spey, which has now superseded the Garry in the landscape as the Garry superseded the Tay. If he has time to make enquiries, or to consult a guide-book, he ascertains that these ruins are popularly known as Ruthven Castle, but that they are in reality all that is left of the barracks erected by the British Government about the middle of the seventeenth century to aid in keeping the always turbulent Highlands in order. But if he is wise enough to halt for a few days at Kingussie, and make it his head-quarters while he is engaged in exploring the beauties of Speyside, he will learn a great deal more about the history of Ruthven Castle. No fortress in Scotland has suffered more the brunt of war; none has been so often destroyed and so often rebuilt. "Standing at a crossing point of tracks north, south, east, and west, in the great valley of the Spey, it saw and felt every raid westward by the Gordons, Grants, Mackintoshes; eastwards by Macdonalds, Camerons, Macleans, and Campbells; southwards by them all, with Macphersons, Mackenzies, and many more; and northward by the regular forces of the kingdom." Huntly, when fighting "the bonnie Earl of Moray," repaired it. Argyll besieged it when it was held by Macphersons. Montrose, Monk, Lilburn, and Mackay in turn garrisoned it. Dundee burned it. It was in front of Ruthven that the remains of the defeated army of Prince Charles—a force of several thousands strong which, well led, might have accomplished much—rallied after the disaster of Culloden, and it was there that most of them received, with rage and grief, the somewhat cold-blooded sauve qui pent transmitted to them by an aide-de-camp.
You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...h_caterans.htm
Earl-Marishal and Field-Marshal
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This will be of interest to Clan Keith members and of general interest to others. This is an article I found in the Scottish Review of 1898 in which they have detailed some letters he wrote.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...ol/keith3.html
Robert Burns and Mrs Dunlop
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Their Correspondence by William Wallace (1898)
As an editor of Burns, Mr. Wallace is easily in the first rank, if not, indeed, in the first place. His admirable edition of the Chambers' Burns has already been noticed in the pages of this Revieto, and there are few readers of Burns who are not by this time more or leas acquainted with it. In the volume before us he adds another to the many services which he has already rendered to the students of Burns and his times. The correspondence between the Ayrshire poet and Mrs. Dunlop has long been known to exist and has in part been published. Carrie printed some thirty-nine of Burns's letters to Mrs. Dunlop; to these Crorack added three, and Scott-Douglas a fourth ; but here, for the first time, Mr. Wallace has printed the whole of the correspondence from the Lochryan MSS., containing no fewer than thirty-eight additional holograph letters and parts of letters from the poet to Mrs. Dunlop, and ninety-seven letters from Mrs. Dunlop to Burns, or, as Mr. Wallace observes, *the surplus of the collection made for Currie's use by Mrs. Dunlop and Gilbert Burns from the MSS. which the lady had in her possession at the poet's death.'
You can read the rest of this review and also download the book at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/mrsdunlop.htm
A Sassenach's Stravaig
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Monday, 31 August 2009 -- Meandering southwards. This is the final part of this wee series and can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/trav...hitehead07.htm
Scottish Guilds
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Found an interesting review about a book containing good information on Scottish Guilds.
Among the institutions of the Middle Ages, few were of greater importance, and are more deserving of careful study than the Gilda Mercatoria or Merchant Guild. Though by no means exciting, its history is intensely interesting, and throws a flood of light upon the social as well as upon the industrial and commercial life of mediaeval Europe. In our own country it has not attracted that amount of attention which it rightly deserves. Though the list of authorities which Mr. Gross has printed at the end of his first volume is somewhat formidable, the number of works it includes which have been written by English authors on the history of Guilds in general, is remarkably small. On the Continent the institution has been more fortunate. In France and Germany and elsewhere there is a fairly large literature in connection with it. Among others may be mentioned the contributions of Wilda, Gierke, Karl Hegel, Georg von Bulow, and Vander Linden. Across the Atlantic, also, the subject would appear to be attracting a considerable amount of attention. Mr. Gross himself, though his work issues from the Clarendon Press, and in its original form appeared at Gottingen, is the Instructor in History at the Harvard University. Mr. Ashley, however, who has written two most admirable chapters on the Merchant and Craft Guilds in his History of Economic though a professor in the same University, belongs to Oxford.
You can read the rest of this review and download the books at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ish_guilds.htm
The Constable Nun' Alvares
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An article from the July 1898 Scottish Review with some interesting information on Portugal and the Knights Hospitallers.
This is an interesting account of Senhor Oliveira Martins, the gifted Portuguese author who has so graphically pictured us to ourselves in his Inglaterra de Hoje, has, among other and numerous works, left us a picture of his own too little known country in the Middle Ages, in the shape of a life of Nun'Alvares, the celebrated Constable of Portugal in the fourteenth century. It also has some interesting information on the Knights Hospitallers.
You can read more of this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/portugal.htm
The Knights Templars in Scotland
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Found this interesting article in the Scottish Review of 1898.
ON the map of "Lowland Scotland one finds in places the name Temple, marking here a parish, and there, it maybe, a farm, a hamlet, or a croft. The name, of course, is a relic of the presence and possessions of the order of Knights Templars in our country—the only relic and memorial of itself which the order has left on Scottish soil. Elsewhere throughout Western Europe, and even in the Mohammedan East, material remains not unworthy of the power and glory of the greatest military order of mediaeval Christendom have endured till modern times. The ruins of the Pilgrim's Castle are still to be seen on the coast of Palestine, frowning over the perilous defile which, about the time of the Third Crusade, it was built to guard. In all its rich store of antiquities Cyprus has nothing more splendid than the noble halls and churches, which were the abode of the order in its later years. The last king of the old regime in France passed to the guillotine from the fortress whence his predecessor, almost five centuries before, had dragged the last Grand Master of the Temple to torture and death. The grey walls of more than one preceptory still stand among the meadows of England, and in the central throng and roar of London, the order has bequeathed to the Inns of Court not its name only, but also, xxxn. 1 in its chapel, one of the finest and most venerable examples of Gothic art. Scotland alone possesses no tangible memorial of these monkish knights whose pride and riches once provoked the fear and envy of kings. Other monastic orders have left tokens enough of their presence to give beauty and melancholy to our landscapes. Black monks and grey, Cistercians, Augustinians, Praemonstratenses—one sees their ruined churches and cloisters rising in the heart of busy towns, or above the roofs of sleepy villages, or, in some quiet and fertile valley, peeping from amidst immemorial trees. Even the Knights of St. John, the masters of Rhodes and Malta, have their memorial in the church of Torphichen. But the Templars are without a monument. Chapel and preceptory have vanished.
'The Knights' bones are dust,
And their good swords rust,'
and the place of their sepulchre is remembered here and there only by some vague and doubtful tradition, in the mouths of country folk, of ' the Templar's grave.' Nothing but their name is left, haunting ghostlike and impalpable the ancient scenes of their habitation.
You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s_scotland.htm
Religion
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Found a couple of interesting book reviews which I've extracted below and have also found the books which you'll also be able to download...
Elements of the Science of Religion
Being the Gifford Lectures delivered before the University of Edinburgh in 1896. THis can be got to at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/kerr02.htm
05/23/2011 02:18 PM
The Christ of History and of Experience
I'm publishing a couple of these Kerr lectures just to giver you a flavour of what's available. This can be got to at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/kerr01.htm
Korea and the Koreans
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An interesting book which teaches us some of the history of Korea. At the end of this review there is a link to purchase a reprint of this book which was published in 1898.
As Asia is a major emerging market I thought is might be interesting learn something for their history.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cles/korea.htm
Ochtertyre House Booke of Accomps 1787 - 1789
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Some insights into how folk lived in the 18th century.
Information on how more ordinary folk lived in the olden days are actually quite rare. This is thus one of those rare books where you get some insight. Like they obviously went through a lot of eggs and fish.
This is a pdf file but I have extracted some of the Introduction to give you an idea on what to expect. You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...ochtertyre.htm
Clan Leslie
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We got in a copy of their latest Grip Fast Newsletter which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...ters/leslieint
Also got in an article on the Leslie Log House which was unveliled in Ontario and you can read about this at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...l/leslie5.html
The Commemoration of David Mitchell of Leslie - Locomotive Engine Driver
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By Ian Nimmo White
'm a writer and currently vice-chairman of the TRBDMT. After I'd completed the job on the David Mitchell headstone, I recorded the story in approx. 3,000 words, and rounded it off with a 20 line poem in both English and Scots. Both are attached here.
My purpose was to use the story, perhaps the poem as well, to raise further funds for the TRBDMT. See the link to them at the foot of this page. Here is the story...
And this can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...d_mitchell.htm
Rattray's Seiks
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I just happened to stumble on this story which I thought was rather interesting.
And finally...
The Elderly And Technology
Janice remembers the time her father in law came out to Texas to visit her. The old guy was used to regular trips to the shops in East Kilbride so Janice dropped him off at her local mall after giving him a pager and explaining that when it went off he should head for the exit and she would be there to pick him up.
Later, after paging repeatedly with no sign of him, Janice headed into the mall and found him sitting on a bench regaling two or three women with tales of his wartime visits to the States. On approaching she could hear the pager vibrating in his top pocket and asked him why he hadn’t responded. At that he clasped his hand to his chest and said,
“Thank God that’s what it was – I thought I was having heart palpitations because of these lovely ladies.”
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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