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CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
Memoirs of the Jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
The Fall of Canada
Through the Long Day
Tent Life in Tigerland
Sketches Illustrating the Early Settlement and History of Glengarry in Canada
The Aberdeen Doctors
Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Well I did manage to get to the Fergus Games and did meet with a few folk who spotted me. Saw the clan passports being handed around the clan tents for the Kids to get their passports stamped.
-----
I'm not sure if i mentioned it before but I'm helping to build a web site for Savannah Johnston, the grand daughter of my good friends Nola and Harold in Toronto. You can see the results to date at http://www.savannahjohnston.com
And another of Nola's daughters and her husband have started "cinq fine foods" which is a catering business and you can see their web site at http://www.cinqfoods.com
-----
I also launched my own new web site, ElectricCanadian.com as there is plenty of information up already but of course a lot more to come. You can get to the site at http://www.electriccanadian.com
On that site I've just added a History of Manitoba where there are plenty of Scottish connections. Also added within the lifestyle section the book "Songs of the Makers of Canada".
-----
And of course we were down for 3 days this week which was a real pain. This was due to a lightning strike which was actually repaired quite quickly so lines were back by 5am on the Saturday and that's where our personal tale of woe began. The lightning had also fried our router but because it was the weekend the technical people said that was our problem as we didn't purchase it from them. Problem was we did purchsse it from them but the tech side didn't have the paperwork and at the weekend they don't talk to sales who did have a record.
So we were on our own... but we did have a backup router so plugged that in and got it configured and then got in touch with the techs at Verizon who couldn't talk to it and so yet again said that was out fault. We did actually pay Cisco to check out our router and they confirmed everything was setup correctly and thus had to be a fault at the Verizon end. And so around lunch time on the Monday we saw Steve heading out to find email access so we could supply Verizon with a step by step guide on how to fix their problem and so we finally got back around 2 pm on the Monday.
I can only say that the sheer incompetance of Virizon was shocking. As a result of this we will be moving to a new Telco quite shortly.
ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
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
---------------------------
Still a lot of new posts coming in which is amazing seeing as we are still well within the Summer holidays and usually the slow time for Internet sites.
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
--------------------
This weeks issue is now available compiled by Jim Lynch. As usual with Jim you get lots of good articles and so well worth a read.
You can get to the Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
----------------------------------------
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.
Added this week...
Strifes of Mortlach
Siege of Bergan Op Zoom
Execution of Lady Jane Douglas
Frolics of James V
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
--------------------------------
Added some more poems...
Harvest Home 1967
Strathardle Sheep Dog Trials
Masonic Service, Kirkmichael Church
Enochdhu Social Club
which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/rodger.htm
Memoirs of the Jacobites
------------------------
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 "Flora MacDonald".
The account starts...
The character of this celebrated woman, heroic, yet gentle, was formed in the privacy of the strictest Highland seclusion. She was born in the island of South Uist, in 1720: she was the daughter of Macdonald of Milton. The Clan of her family was that of Macdonald of Clanranald; the Chief of which is called in Gaelic, Mack-ire-Allein, and in English, the captain of Clan Ranald. The estate of this Chief, which is held principally from the Crown, is situated in Moidart and Arisaig on the continent of Scotland, and m the islands of Uist, Benbecula, and Rum. His vassals, capable of military service, amounted in 1745 to five hundred.
The Hebrides were at that time regarded in the more civilized parts of Europe somewhat in the same light as the Arctic regions are now considered by the. inhabitants of England, and other polished nations: "WVhen I was at Ferney in 1704." Boswell relates, "I mentioned our design (of going to the Hebrides) to Voltaire. He looked at me as if I had talked of going to the North Pole, and said, 'You do not insist on my accompanying you?' 'No, sir.' 'Then I am very willing you should go.' In this remote, and, in the circles of London, almost unknown region. Flora Macdonald was born and educated.
The death of her father, Macdonald of Milton, when she was only a year old, made an important change in the destiny of the little Highland girl. Her mother married again, and became the wife of Macdonald of Armadale in Skye. Flora was, therefore, removed from the island of South Uist to an island which was nearer to the means of acquiring information than her native place.
It was a popular error of the times, more especially among the English Whigs, to regard the Highlanders of every grade, as an ignorant, barbarous race. So far as the lowest classes were concerned, this imputation might be well-founded, though certainly not so well as it has much longer been in the same classes in England. Previously to the reign of George the Third many of the peasantry could not read, and many could not understand what they read in English. There were few books in Gaelic, and the defect was only partially supplied by the instruction of bards and seneachies. But, among the middle and higher classes, education was generally diffused. The excellent grammar-schools in Inverness, Fortrose. and Dunkeld sent out men well-informed, excellent classical scholars, and these from among that order which in England is the most illiterate — the gentlemen farmers. The Universities gave them even a greater extent of advantages When the Hessian troops were quartered in Atholl, the commanding officers, who were accomplished gentlemen, found a ready communication in Latin at every imi. Upon the Colonel of the Hessian cavalry halting at Dunkeld, he was addressed by the innkeeper in Latin. This class of innkeepers has wholly, unhappily, disappeared in the Highlands.
You can read the rest of this long story at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter14.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
---------------------------------------------
An Appreciation of his Social and Religious Outlook by Ian M. Fraser (2002).
Added another chapter to this account...
Creator and Human Status
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
The Fall of Canada
------------------
A Chapter in the History of the Seven Year's War by George M. Wrong (1914)
We have now completed this book and along with the book I've added several pdf books which tell more about the people concerned in this account.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...da/fallndx.htm
Through the Long Day
--------------------
Or Memorials of a Literary Life during half a century by Charles MacKay LL.D. (1887)
This week have added...
Chapter II.—The "Morning Chronicle" and the Newspaper Press Half a Century ago
and
Part II of The Scottish Language and its Literary History
And in the Preface it mentioned his famous song "It's a Good Time Coming" which was very popular in the USA and I came across a YouTube video of the song being sung which you can view here...
You can get to all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mackay/
Tent Life in Tigerland
----------------------
In which is incorporated "Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier" being twelve years reminiscences of a pioneer planter in an Indian Frontier District by James Inglis (1892)
We are now up to Chapter VI of this book.
Chapter IV starts...
ack to camp—A piteous burden—The agonised mother—The father's story—Pity and indignation—An ingrate servant— Fiendish barbarity—The long weary night—Welcome arrival of the old doctor—Hovering twixt life and death—Skilful surgery —"Who did it?"—The tell-tale slate—How the deed was done —Retribution.
By the time I had finished narrating ray nocturnal adventure with the leopard, we had nearly arrived hack again at the camp. On a nearer approach to the tents, we could plainly perceive, from the unusual noise and hustle, that something extraordinary had happened. The servants were hurrying to and fro with agitated looks and gestures, and a dense crowd of villagers, each swaying his arms, brandishing his iron-shod lathee, and all speaking excitedly together, showed plainly that no ordinary event had either happened or was even now being enacted. Jogging and spurring the elephant into a shuffling sort of an amble, we hastily neared the centre of all this tumult, the crowd scattering to right and left at our approach. A lane was thus opened through the intensely excited spectators, and it disclosed to us a spectacle which I will never forget.
Before the Shamiana, several Kuhars, or palkee carriers, were grouped around a rude litter, or Dhoohj, on which was seated, tailor fashion, a handsome little olive-skinned boy. Hid garments were literally soaked with blood. It had streamed down his shoulders from two ragged torn wounds in his ears. His breast was crimsoned with the copious flow, and a coagulated pool of the life fluid nearly filled his lap. His clothes were saturated with it, and at the slightest motion it welled up and bubbled frothily out from a frightful gash in the poor little fellow's throat. His throat was nearly cut from ear to ear. His head, was bent down upon his chest, and with the fingers of the left hand he clutched the edges of the gaping gash, the blood oozing through the poor bent fingers as he tried to stem the fatal drain. He sat perfectly motionless and still. He seemed at the last stage of exhaustion. His eye alone betrayed intelligence. It was clouded by a look of intense suffering and pain, but its intelligent glance showed that he was keenly observant of all that was passing around.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter04.htm
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/tentlife/
Sketches Illustrating the Early Settlement and History of Glengarry in Canada
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By J. A. MacDonell (1983)
We are now up to Chapter 7 of this book.
In Chapter IV we learn...
In the Spring of 1779, it was determined by the Americans that active measures should be taken against the Indians* especially the Senacas and Cayugas, that those tribes should in fact be annihilated, and with this object in view a division of their army from Pennsylvania under General Sullivan, who was in command of the expedition, and another from the north under General Clinton, effected a junction at Newton, the site of the present town of Elmira. Their joint forces amounted to five thousand men. They were there met by a gallant band of five hundred Indians -under Brant, with two hundred and fifty British under Colonel John Butler, associated with whom were Sir John and Guy Johnson, Major Walter N. Butler and Captain John Macdonell (Aberchalder). A desperate resistance was made against such tremendous odds, but without present success, yet the ultimate and indeed the principal object of the campaign, which was the capture of Niagara, the headquarters of the British in that region, and the seat of influence and power among the Indians, was abandoned, and the Americans reaped but little advantage from the expedition except that they scourged a broad extent of country, and laid more towns in ashes than ever had been destroyed on the continent before. Such of the redmen as were not massacred were with their women and children driven from the- country, their habitations were left in ruin, their fields laid waste, their orchards uprooted, their altars overthrown, and the tombs of their fathers desecrated—all of which is admitted by the American historians, and was in strict accordance with General Washington's orders, and for which General Sullivan received the thanks of Congress (November 50th, 1779). And yet they complained of the atrocities of the Indians.
Still again, in May, 1780. Sir John Johnson, at the head of five hundred men, composed of some Regular troops, a detachment of his own Regiment, and about two hundred Indians and "Tories," re-visited the scene of their once habitation, a visit highly unpopular to their former neighbours, and the immediate object of which was to recover Sir John's family plate, which had been buried in the cellar of Johnson Hall at the time of his flight in 1776, the place of deposit being confided only to a faithful slave. It was found and distributed among forty of his soldiers, who brought it back to Montreal. After the custom of the day, they destroyed all the buildings, killed the sheep, cattle and a number of obnoxious Whigs, and appropriated all the horses to their own use. Then ranks were recruited by a considerable number of Loyalists, while Sir John also obtained possession of some thirty of his negro slaves. A number of prisoners were also taken and sent to Chambly. We are of course told that this irruption was one of the most indefensible aggressions upon an unarmed and slumbering people which stain the annals of British arms. It made much difference on which leg the boot was placed; and the Indians in sympathy and alliance with the British were to abstain from all acts of violence, while not only the men of their race, but the women and children as well, were to be massacred in cold blood, their very extermination being the object in view—and the Loyalists were to strike no blow for the Cause they held so dear, and against those who had deprived them of every earthly possession.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...y/chapter4.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/glengarry/
The Aberdeen Doctors
--------------------
A noteable group of Scottish Theologians of the first Episcopal period, 1610 to 1638, and the bearing of their teaching on some questions of the present time by D. MacMillan (1909).
A new book we're starting...
Shortly after Professor Hastie's death, in 1903, a movement was set on foot for the purpose of perpetuating his memory in Glasgow University, and particularly in connection with the subject of Theology, of which he was so great a master. A considerable sum was speedily subscribed, and it was decided that the memorial should take the form of a Lectureship. The Trustees did me the honour of giving me the first appointment, and in the spring of this year I delivered, under the Hastie Foundation, a course of Lectures on the "Aberdeen Doctors," a subject suggested to me by Dr. Hastie himself. As no formal biography of Dr. Hastie has appeared, I thought it would not be out of place to make his remarkable career the subject of the Introductory Lecture; and as the question of Union between the chief Churches in the country is so much in the air at the present moment, I thought it right to make this the theme of my last Lecture. This of course I could do in perfect keeping with my subject, for it was a question on which the Doctors themselves gave a pronouncement, not of course in its present aspect, but as it forced itself upon them in their day. I have put into Appendices information which could not find a suitable place in the Lectures themselves. The biographical and historical matter which they contain will, I hope, be of some service to any who may wish to prosecute the matter further.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tors/index.htm
Craigietocher Tower
-------------------
Got some update pictures of the progress of building this tower showing them starting to work on the roof which you can view at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gietocher8.htm
Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
-------------------------
A feature on Belle from John Henderson which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...ng/page119.htm
And to finish...
Patient: Doctor, do you think that I will live until I'm a hundred?
Doctor: Do you smoke or drink?
Patient: No.
Doctor: Do you drive fast cars, gamble, or play around with women?
Patient: Certainly not!
Doctor: Then what do you want to live to a hundred for?
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
--------
Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
Memoirs of the Jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
The Fall of Canada
Through the Long Day
Tent Life in Tigerland
Sketches Illustrating the Early Settlement and History of Glengarry in Canada
The Aberdeen Doctors
Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Well I did manage to get to the Fergus Games and did meet with a few folk who spotted me. Saw the clan passports being handed around the clan tents for the Kids to get their passports stamped.
-----
I'm not sure if i mentioned it before but I'm helping to build a web site for Savannah Johnston, the grand daughter of my good friends Nola and Harold in Toronto. You can see the results to date at http://www.savannahjohnston.com
And another of Nola's daughters and her husband have started "cinq fine foods" which is a catering business and you can see their web site at http://www.cinqfoods.com
-----
I also launched my own new web site, ElectricCanadian.com as there is plenty of information up already but of course a lot more to come. You can get to the site at http://www.electriccanadian.com
On that site I've just added a History of Manitoba where there are plenty of Scottish connections. Also added within the lifestyle section the book "Songs of the Makers of Canada".
-----
And of course we were down for 3 days this week which was a real pain. This was due to a lightning strike which was actually repaired quite quickly so lines were back by 5am on the Saturday and that's where our personal tale of woe began. The lightning had also fried our router but because it was the weekend the technical people said that was our problem as we didn't purchase it from them. Problem was we did purchsse it from them but the tech side didn't have the paperwork and at the weekend they don't talk to sales who did have a record.
So we were on our own... but we did have a backup router so plugged that in and got it configured and then got in touch with the techs at Verizon who couldn't talk to it and so yet again said that was out fault. We did actually pay Cisco to check out our router and they confirmed everything was setup correctly and thus had to be a fault at the Verizon end. And so around lunch time on the Monday we saw Steve heading out to find email access so we could supply Verizon with a step by step guide on how to fix their problem and so we finally got back around 2 pm on the Monday.
I can only say that the sheer incompetance of Virizon was shocking. As a result of this we will be moving to a new Telco quite shortly.
ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
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
---------------------------
Still a lot of new posts coming in which is amazing seeing as we are still well within the Summer holidays and usually the slow time for Internet sites.
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
--------------------
This weeks issue is now available compiled by Jim Lynch. As usual with Jim you get lots of good articles and so well worth a read.
You can get to the Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
----------------------------------------
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.
Added this week...
Strifes of Mortlach
Siege of Bergan Op Zoom
Execution of Lady Jane Douglas
Frolics of James V
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
--------------------------------
Added some more poems...
Harvest Home 1967
Strathardle Sheep Dog Trials
Masonic Service, Kirkmichael Church
Enochdhu Social Club
which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/rodger.htm
Memoirs of the Jacobites
------------------------
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 "Flora MacDonald".
The account starts...
The character of this celebrated woman, heroic, yet gentle, was formed in the privacy of the strictest Highland seclusion. She was born in the island of South Uist, in 1720: she was the daughter of Macdonald of Milton. The Clan of her family was that of Macdonald of Clanranald; the Chief of which is called in Gaelic, Mack-ire-Allein, and in English, the captain of Clan Ranald. The estate of this Chief, which is held principally from the Crown, is situated in Moidart and Arisaig on the continent of Scotland, and m the islands of Uist, Benbecula, and Rum. His vassals, capable of military service, amounted in 1745 to five hundred.
The Hebrides were at that time regarded in the more civilized parts of Europe somewhat in the same light as the Arctic regions are now considered by the. inhabitants of England, and other polished nations: "WVhen I was at Ferney in 1704." Boswell relates, "I mentioned our design (of going to the Hebrides) to Voltaire. He looked at me as if I had talked of going to the North Pole, and said, 'You do not insist on my accompanying you?' 'No, sir.' 'Then I am very willing you should go.' In this remote, and, in the circles of London, almost unknown region. Flora Macdonald was born and educated.
The death of her father, Macdonald of Milton, when she was only a year old, made an important change in the destiny of the little Highland girl. Her mother married again, and became the wife of Macdonald of Armadale in Skye. Flora was, therefore, removed from the island of South Uist to an island which was nearer to the means of acquiring information than her native place.
It was a popular error of the times, more especially among the English Whigs, to regard the Highlanders of every grade, as an ignorant, barbarous race. So far as the lowest classes were concerned, this imputation might be well-founded, though certainly not so well as it has much longer been in the same classes in England. Previously to the reign of George the Third many of the peasantry could not read, and many could not understand what they read in English. There were few books in Gaelic, and the defect was only partially supplied by the instruction of bards and seneachies. But, among the middle and higher classes, education was generally diffused. The excellent grammar-schools in Inverness, Fortrose. and Dunkeld sent out men well-informed, excellent classical scholars, and these from among that order which in England is the most illiterate — the gentlemen farmers. The Universities gave them even a greater extent of advantages When the Hessian troops were quartered in Atholl, the commanding officers, who were accomplished gentlemen, found a ready communication in Latin at every imi. Upon the Colonel of the Hessian cavalry halting at Dunkeld, he was addressed by the innkeeper in Latin. This class of innkeepers has wholly, unhappily, disappeared in the Highlands.
You can read the rest of this long story at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter14.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
---------------------------------------------
An Appreciation of his Social and Religious Outlook by Ian M. Fraser (2002).
Added another chapter to this account...
Creator and Human Status
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
The Fall of Canada
------------------
A Chapter in the History of the Seven Year's War by George M. Wrong (1914)
We have now completed this book and along with the book I've added several pdf books which tell more about the people concerned in this account.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...da/fallndx.htm
Through the Long Day
--------------------
Or Memorials of a Literary Life during half a century by Charles MacKay LL.D. (1887)
This week have added...
Chapter II.—The "Morning Chronicle" and the Newspaper Press Half a Century ago
and
Part II of The Scottish Language and its Literary History
And in the Preface it mentioned his famous song "It's a Good Time Coming" which was very popular in the USA and I came across a YouTube video of the song being sung which you can view here...
You can get to all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mackay/
Tent Life in Tigerland
----------------------
In which is incorporated "Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier" being twelve years reminiscences of a pioneer planter in an Indian Frontier District by James Inglis (1892)
We are now up to Chapter VI of this book.
Chapter IV starts...
ack to camp—A piteous burden—The agonised mother—The father's story—Pity and indignation—An ingrate servant— Fiendish barbarity—The long weary night—Welcome arrival of the old doctor—Hovering twixt life and death—Skilful surgery —"Who did it?"—The tell-tale slate—How the deed was done —Retribution.
By the time I had finished narrating ray nocturnal adventure with the leopard, we had nearly arrived hack again at the camp. On a nearer approach to the tents, we could plainly perceive, from the unusual noise and hustle, that something extraordinary had happened. The servants were hurrying to and fro with agitated looks and gestures, and a dense crowd of villagers, each swaying his arms, brandishing his iron-shod lathee, and all speaking excitedly together, showed plainly that no ordinary event had either happened or was even now being enacted. Jogging and spurring the elephant into a shuffling sort of an amble, we hastily neared the centre of all this tumult, the crowd scattering to right and left at our approach. A lane was thus opened through the intensely excited spectators, and it disclosed to us a spectacle which I will never forget.
Before the Shamiana, several Kuhars, or palkee carriers, were grouped around a rude litter, or Dhoohj, on which was seated, tailor fashion, a handsome little olive-skinned boy. Hid garments were literally soaked with blood. It had streamed down his shoulders from two ragged torn wounds in his ears. His breast was crimsoned with the copious flow, and a coagulated pool of the life fluid nearly filled his lap. His clothes were saturated with it, and at the slightest motion it welled up and bubbled frothily out from a frightful gash in the poor little fellow's throat. His throat was nearly cut from ear to ear. His head, was bent down upon his chest, and with the fingers of the left hand he clutched the edges of the gaping gash, the blood oozing through the poor bent fingers as he tried to stem the fatal drain. He sat perfectly motionless and still. He seemed at the last stage of exhaustion. His eye alone betrayed intelligence. It was clouded by a look of intense suffering and pain, but its intelligent glance showed that he was keenly observant of all that was passing around.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter04.htm
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/tentlife/
Sketches Illustrating the Early Settlement and History of Glengarry in Canada
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By J. A. MacDonell (1983)
We are now up to Chapter 7 of this book.
In Chapter IV we learn...
In the Spring of 1779, it was determined by the Americans that active measures should be taken against the Indians* especially the Senacas and Cayugas, that those tribes should in fact be annihilated, and with this object in view a division of their army from Pennsylvania under General Sullivan, who was in command of the expedition, and another from the north under General Clinton, effected a junction at Newton, the site of the present town of Elmira. Their joint forces amounted to five thousand men. They were there met by a gallant band of five hundred Indians -under Brant, with two hundred and fifty British under Colonel John Butler, associated with whom were Sir John and Guy Johnson, Major Walter N. Butler and Captain John Macdonell (Aberchalder). A desperate resistance was made against such tremendous odds, but without present success, yet the ultimate and indeed the principal object of the campaign, which was the capture of Niagara, the headquarters of the British in that region, and the seat of influence and power among the Indians, was abandoned, and the Americans reaped but little advantage from the expedition except that they scourged a broad extent of country, and laid more towns in ashes than ever had been destroyed on the continent before. Such of the redmen as were not massacred were with their women and children driven from the- country, their habitations were left in ruin, their fields laid waste, their orchards uprooted, their altars overthrown, and the tombs of their fathers desecrated—all of which is admitted by the American historians, and was in strict accordance with General Washington's orders, and for which General Sullivan received the thanks of Congress (November 50th, 1779). And yet they complained of the atrocities of the Indians.
Still again, in May, 1780. Sir John Johnson, at the head of five hundred men, composed of some Regular troops, a detachment of his own Regiment, and about two hundred Indians and "Tories," re-visited the scene of their once habitation, a visit highly unpopular to their former neighbours, and the immediate object of which was to recover Sir John's family plate, which had been buried in the cellar of Johnson Hall at the time of his flight in 1776, the place of deposit being confided only to a faithful slave. It was found and distributed among forty of his soldiers, who brought it back to Montreal. After the custom of the day, they destroyed all the buildings, killed the sheep, cattle and a number of obnoxious Whigs, and appropriated all the horses to their own use. Then ranks were recruited by a considerable number of Loyalists, while Sir John also obtained possession of some thirty of his negro slaves. A number of prisoners were also taken and sent to Chambly. We are of course told that this irruption was one of the most indefensible aggressions upon an unarmed and slumbering people which stain the annals of British arms. It made much difference on which leg the boot was placed; and the Indians in sympathy and alliance with the British were to abstain from all acts of violence, while not only the men of their race, but the women and children as well, were to be massacred in cold blood, their very extermination being the object in view—and the Loyalists were to strike no blow for the Cause they held so dear, and against those who had deprived them of every earthly possession.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...y/chapter4.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/glengarry/
The Aberdeen Doctors
--------------------
A noteable group of Scottish Theologians of the first Episcopal period, 1610 to 1638, and the bearing of their teaching on some questions of the present time by D. MacMillan (1909).
A new book we're starting...
Shortly after Professor Hastie's death, in 1903, a movement was set on foot for the purpose of perpetuating his memory in Glasgow University, and particularly in connection with the subject of Theology, of which he was so great a master. A considerable sum was speedily subscribed, and it was decided that the memorial should take the form of a Lectureship. The Trustees did me the honour of giving me the first appointment, and in the spring of this year I delivered, under the Hastie Foundation, a course of Lectures on the "Aberdeen Doctors," a subject suggested to me by Dr. Hastie himself. As no formal biography of Dr. Hastie has appeared, I thought it would not be out of place to make his remarkable career the subject of the Introductory Lecture; and as the question of Union between the chief Churches in the country is so much in the air at the present moment, I thought it right to make this the theme of my last Lecture. This of course I could do in perfect keeping with my subject, for it was a question on which the Doctors themselves gave a pronouncement, not of course in its present aspect, but as it forced itself upon them in their day. I have put into Appendices information which could not find a suitable place in the Lectures themselves. The biographical and historical matter which they contain will, I hope, be of some service to any who may wish to prosecute the matter further.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tors/index.htm
Craigietocher Tower
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Got some update pictures of the progress of building this tower showing them starting to work on the roof which you can view at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gietocher8.htm
Belle Stewart (1906-1997)
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A feature on Belle from John Henderson which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...ng/page119.htm
And to finish...
Patient: Doctor, do you think that I will live until I'm a hundred?
Doctor: Do you smoke or drink?
Patient: No.
Doctor: Do you drive fast cars, gamble, or play around with women?
Patient: Certainly not!
Doctor: Then what do you want to live to a hundred for?
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com