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CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
What's new on ElectricCanada.com
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
Through the Long Day
Tent Life in Tigerland
An Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona
Sir James Young Simpson
The Sabbath School and Bible Teaching
Nether Lochaber
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming (New Book)
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia
Clan Leslie Society International
Clan Ross Association of Canada
Alastair's Canadian Journal
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
This past week saw me in Toronto for the annual Investiture of the Knights Templar St James Priory. I actually got promoted to grand Officier (GOTJ) which was a pleasant surprise.
I also spent some time completing the work on Savannah's site and organising how to get the local businesses involved. So I'm now done with this project and now up to Savannah to take it forward.
-----
This now means I can return to working on my new Canadian site. I am tending to post up complete books on this site as I try to get a decent body of work together. I continued to be impressed with the contributions of the Scots as I work on the histories.
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/whatsnew.htm
ElectricCanadian.com
--------------------
http://www.electriccanadian.com
Despite all the other things going on I did manage to add two new books...
The Royal North-West Mounted Police
A Corps History by Captain Ernest J Chambers at http://www.electriccanadian.com/forces/rnwmp/index.htm
Wolfe and Montcalm
By The Abbé H. R. Casgrain (1909) at http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/wolfe/index.htm
Electric Scotland Community
---------------------------
http://www.electricsotland.org
I did add a group of three forums in support of Savannah's web site which I hope will attract interest and even bring in some new members but time will tell.
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
At time of going to press the new Flag was not yet up but hopefully by the time you read this it will be.
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...
Battle of Gamrie
Monks of Melrose
Scottish Invasion of England - 1651
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
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...
Religious Responses
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
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 VIII.—The Doubleday Theory of Population
You can get to all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mackay/
Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier
-------------------------------------
Now onto the second book in this two book set.
We are now up to the penultimate chapter of this publication.
These chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/tentlife/
An Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona
----------------------------------------------------
And of their settlements in Scotland, England and Ireland by John Jamieson D.D. (1811)
Added another chapter...
Chapter IX
Of the Monasteries of Ornsay and Oronsay.— Of Govan;—Abercom;—Inchcalm;—Tyningham;—Aberlady ;—and Coldingham.— Of the first Missionaries to the Orkney Islands.—Churches and Chapels dedicated to St Columba.
These can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/culdees/index.htm
Sir James Young Simpson
-----------------------
And Chloroform (1811 - 1870) by H. Laing Gordon (1897)
We have now completed this book with the final two chapters and the appendix.
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...pson_james.htm
The Sabbath School and Bible Teaching
-------------------------------------
By James Inglis (1852)
We now have the following chapters up...
Systems of Teaching
Preparation
Explanation
Illustration
Application
Revision
Catechising
Bible History
Parables
The Law and the Gospel
Cetechisms
Reading
As we're reading this I thought I'd post up the short chapter on Reading here...
Teachers are apt to undervalue the influence of the simple reading of the Word in school, and to attribute too much to their own instructions. Now, though there are difficulties in the Scriptures, and we read them under all the disadvantages of a translation, such is their mingled simplicity and majesty, that no modern work written for children has the same power to arrest attention and reach the heart. The stories of the creation—of the flood—of the cities of the plain—of Moses and Daniel—Elijah and Elisha—and, above all, of Jesus Christ—are milk for babes, as much as they are meat for men. A child at first may meet with many words, sentences, and peculiarities which are unintelligible; he may not understand what the firmament was, nor that Pharoah was a general name for the kings of Egypt, nor how Darius came to the throne of Assyria; but the moral of the history will reach him almost unclouded.
We shall have a few remarks to offer under another head on the practice of teaching reading on Sabbath. The following observations have reference only to the reading of a Bible lesson.
1. Teach children the habit of reading the Bible correctly and fluently. With good readers, this is easily secured ; but as many of the children attending school have a partial education, it requires attention on the part of the teacher to make them always read as well as they are able. Few teachers are so careful as they might be. Thus, it is a very common reading with children, instead of, "Nor sitteth in the scortier's chair," "Nor sitteth in the corner chair." A careless teacher will find his readers deteriorating rather than improving.
2. "To assist backward scholars, when difficult words occur, give the correct pronunciation at once, and do not suffer the scholar first to miscall them two or three times."
3. When a sentence has been read imperfectly, the teacher should read it aloud, and make the scholar read it again.
4. "Always join," says Mr Collins, "in the reading-lessons. The careful and distinct manner in which you read; the proper emphasis which you put on the more important words; the change of tone which you adopt when the language of different individuals is introduced; your constant observance of the several pauses, and the general adaptation of your style to the varied subjects as they occur, will do more to produce good readers in a Sabbath-school class, than a multitude of elaborate lectures on the art of reading." We may add that, by joining in the reading lesson, the teacher will promote the fellowship of the class.
You can read all these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...ath_school.htm
Nether Lochaber
---------------
The Natural History, Legends and Folk-Lore of the West Highlands by Rev. Alexander Stewart FSA Scot, (1883)
We are now up to chapter IX of this publication and in that chapter he is puzzling over why they are not able to catch any fish...
For several years past [March 1870] the spring fishing with "long lines" in our western lochs has been so unsuccessful as to he hardly Avorth the while engaging in it. At our very doors, where with the hand-line during the summer and autumn months, some ten or twelve years ago, we could almost always depend on a large basketful of the finest rock cod, gurnard, haddock, and flounder, as the result of a couple of hours fishing, more recently very few, and sometimes none at all, could be caught, with the cunningest exercise of all the patience and piscatorial skill at our command, while in winter and spring the long-line fishing of grey cod, skate, and ling, and eel has been equally disappointing. Why it should be so no one would venture to say; the utmost you could get out of the oldest fisherman on the coast was an admission of the fact, with a shake of the head and a shrug of the shoulders, that if so disposed you could very readily interpret into the line, albeit unknown to him, that—
"Twas true 'twas pity, pity 'twas 'twas true,"
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...r/chapter9.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...aber/index.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
-----------------------------
Beth had her work cut out for her with this issue due to major computer problems so she's done sterling work to get it out on time. You can reads the October issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming
---------------------------------
Discoverer of Penicillan by André Mourois (1956)
Here is the Introduction to read as we start on this book...
The biography of a great and famous man requires much research and study by the biographer, not only regarding the subject of his portrait but also about the environment in which his hero has grown up and lived. We are today increasingly conscious, both in health and illness, of the important influences which heredity, on the one hand, and environmental factors, on the other, have upon our lives and destinies. M. Andr£ Maurois has painted this picture of Sir Alexander Fleming against the backgrounds of boyhood on a Scottish hill farm and manhood in the bacteriological laboratories of a London medical school. It would be idle to deny the effects of early experiences on the Ayrshire farm or of Sir Almroth Wright and others in the Inoculation Department at St. Mary's Hospital in moulding the life and shaping the destiny of the discoverer of penicillin, while he, himself, and others have been impressed by the curious concatenation of circumstances which seemed to direct his footsteps.
But these outside influences and, later, the glittering prizes and the adulation of kings and commoners in many lands could not mask the innate qualities of a man who, through all his trials and triumphs, remained staunchly true to himself and to his ancestry. For Fleming had, to a remarkable degree, those qualities which we attribute to the Scots: a capacity for hard and sustained work, a combative spirit which refuses to admit defeat, a steadfastness and loyalty which creates respect and affection, and a true humility which protects against pretentiousness and pride. He had other great gifts which helped to make him an outstanding scientist: keen curiosity and perceptiveness, an excellent memory, technical inventiveness and skill of a highly artistic order, and the mental and physical toughness that is characteristic of great men in many walks of life-
The picture of the man and the scientist emerges for us from the background of laboratories and test-tubes and pipettes, antiseptics and antibiotics, Paddington and Chelsea and the country house in Suffolk, Greece and Spain and the Americas. The appraisals and letters of friends and colleagues are interspersed with his own terse remarks in his diaries, notebooks and letters; and through it all goes the thread of continuous effort to lay bare the truth about the body's fight with infection, which was Fleming's abiding interest. It is a fascinating story for all of us, and Fleming's part in it, leading up to the discovery of penicillin, will surely never be forgotten. It was left to others to develop penicillin as a lifesaving drug, but Alexander Fleming and penicillin will always be linked together in the public mind and his name will be remembered with those of other great men, like Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister, who have made major contributions to the conquest of disease.
As his colleague and successor, I salute this fine portrait of a great man.
Robert Cruickshank
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia Newsletter
---------------------------------------------------------
We got in the Oct, Nov, Dec 2011 newsletter which you caan read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...NovDec2011.pdf
Clan Leslie Society International
--------------------------------
We aso got in their September 2011 newsletter which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...nt/2011SEP.pdf
Clan Ross Association of Canada
-------------------------------
And we also got in the Clan Ross newsletter for Summer 2011 which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...sletter20A.pdf
Alastair's Canadian Journal
---------------------------
As some of you will know I started this journal at the request of Ontario Immigration as they thought it would be interesting to have an account of someone settling in Canada. I have actually continued it beyond the date it was meant to finish so it's become a kind of diary to remind myself about things I've got up to.
I am now doing this quarterly so the July, August, September 2011 issue is now available which if you can be bothered reading is at http://www.electricscotland.net/canada_92.htm
And finally...
Angus Broon of Glasgow , Scotland, comes to the little lady of the house exclaiming, "Maggie, cud ya be sewin on a wee button that's come off of me fly? I can't button me pants."
"Oh Angus, I've got me hands in the dishpan, go up the stairs and see if Mrs. MacDonald could be helpin ya with it."
About 5 minutes later, there's a terrible crash, a bang, a bit of yelling and the sound of a body falling down the stairs.
Walking back in the door with a blackened eye and a bloody nose comes Angus. The little lady looks at him and says, "My god, what happened to ya? Did you ask her like I told you?"
"Aye," says Angus. "I asked her to sew on the wee button, an she did, everything was goin' fine but when she bent doon to bite off the wee thread, Mr MacDonald walked in."
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
--------
Electric Scotland News
What's new on ElectricCanada.com
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
Through the Long Day
Tent Life in Tigerland
An Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona
Sir James Young Simpson
The Sabbath School and Bible Teaching
Nether Lochaber
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming (New Book)
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia
Clan Leslie Society International
Clan Ross Association of Canada
Alastair's Canadian Journal
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
This past week saw me in Toronto for the annual Investiture of the Knights Templar St James Priory. I actually got promoted to grand Officier (GOTJ) which was a pleasant surprise.
I also spent some time completing the work on Savannah's site and organising how to get the local businesses involved. So I'm now done with this project and now up to Savannah to take it forward.
-----
This now means I can return to working on my new Canadian site. I am tending to post up complete books on this site as I try to get a decent body of work together. I continued to be impressed with the contributions of the Scots as I work on the histories.
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/whatsnew.htm
ElectricCanadian.com
--------------------
http://www.electriccanadian.com
Despite all the other things going on I did manage to add two new books...
The Royal North-West Mounted Police
A Corps History by Captain Ernest J Chambers at http://www.electriccanadian.com/forces/rnwmp/index.htm
Wolfe and Montcalm
By The Abbé H. R. Casgrain (1909) at http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/wolfe/index.htm
Electric Scotland Community
---------------------------
http://www.electricsotland.org
I did add a group of three forums in support of Savannah's web site which I hope will attract interest and even bring in some new members but time will tell.
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
At time of going to press the new Flag was not yet up but hopefully by the time you read this it will be.
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...
Battle of Gamrie
Monks of Melrose
Scottish Invasion of England - 1651
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
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...
Religious Responses
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
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 VIII.—The Doubleday Theory of Population
You can get to all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mackay/
Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier
-------------------------------------
Now onto the second book in this two book set.
We are now up to the penultimate chapter of this publication.
These chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/tentlife/
An Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona
----------------------------------------------------
And of their settlements in Scotland, England and Ireland by John Jamieson D.D. (1811)
Added another chapter...
Chapter IX
Of the Monasteries of Ornsay and Oronsay.— Of Govan;—Abercom;—Inchcalm;—Tyningham;—Aberlady ;—and Coldingham.— Of the first Missionaries to the Orkney Islands.—Churches and Chapels dedicated to St Columba.
These can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/culdees/index.htm
Sir James Young Simpson
-----------------------
And Chloroform (1811 - 1870) by H. Laing Gordon (1897)
We have now completed this book with the final two chapters and the appendix.
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...pson_james.htm
The Sabbath School and Bible Teaching
-------------------------------------
By James Inglis (1852)
We now have the following chapters up...
Systems of Teaching
Preparation
Explanation
Illustration
Application
Revision
Catechising
Bible History
Parables
The Law and the Gospel
Cetechisms
Reading
As we're reading this I thought I'd post up the short chapter on Reading here...
Teachers are apt to undervalue the influence of the simple reading of the Word in school, and to attribute too much to their own instructions. Now, though there are difficulties in the Scriptures, and we read them under all the disadvantages of a translation, such is their mingled simplicity and majesty, that no modern work written for children has the same power to arrest attention and reach the heart. The stories of the creation—of the flood—of the cities of the plain—of Moses and Daniel—Elijah and Elisha—and, above all, of Jesus Christ—are milk for babes, as much as they are meat for men. A child at first may meet with many words, sentences, and peculiarities which are unintelligible; he may not understand what the firmament was, nor that Pharoah was a general name for the kings of Egypt, nor how Darius came to the throne of Assyria; but the moral of the history will reach him almost unclouded.
We shall have a few remarks to offer under another head on the practice of teaching reading on Sabbath. The following observations have reference only to the reading of a Bible lesson.
1. Teach children the habit of reading the Bible correctly and fluently. With good readers, this is easily secured ; but as many of the children attending school have a partial education, it requires attention on the part of the teacher to make them always read as well as they are able. Few teachers are so careful as they might be. Thus, it is a very common reading with children, instead of, "Nor sitteth in the scortier's chair," "Nor sitteth in the corner chair." A careless teacher will find his readers deteriorating rather than improving.
2. "To assist backward scholars, when difficult words occur, give the correct pronunciation at once, and do not suffer the scholar first to miscall them two or three times."
3. When a sentence has been read imperfectly, the teacher should read it aloud, and make the scholar read it again.
4. "Always join," says Mr Collins, "in the reading-lessons. The careful and distinct manner in which you read; the proper emphasis which you put on the more important words; the change of tone which you adopt when the language of different individuals is introduced; your constant observance of the several pauses, and the general adaptation of your style to the varied subjects as they occur, will do more to produce good readers in a Sabbath-school class, than a multitude of elaborate lectures on the art of reading." We may add that, by joining in the reading lesson, the teacher will promote the fellowship of the class.
You can read all these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...ath_school.htm
Nether Lochaber
---------------
The Natural History, Legends and Folk-Lore of the West Highlands by Rev. Alexander Stewart FSA Scot, (1883)
We are now up to chapter IX of this publication and in that chapter he is puzzling over why they are not able to catch any fish...
For several years past [March 1870] the spring fishing with "long lines" in our western lochs has been so unsuccessful as to he hardly Avorth the while engaging in it. At our very doors, where with the hand-line during the summer and autumn months, some ten or twelve years ago, we could almost always depend on a large basketful of the finest rock cod, gurnard, haddock, and flounder, as the result of a couple of hours fishing, more recently very few, and sometimes none at all, could be caught, with the cunningest exercise of all the patience and piscatorial skill at our command, while in winter and spring the long-line fishing of grey cod, skate, and ling, and eel has been equally disappointing. Why it should be so no one would venture to say; the utmost you could get out of the oldest fisherman on the coast was an admission of the fact, with a shake of the head and a shrug of the shoulders, that if so disposed you could very readily interpret into the line, albeit unknown to him, that—
"Twas true 'twas pity, pity 'twas 'twas true,"
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...r/chapter9.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...aber/index.htm
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
-----------------------------
Beth had her work cut out for her with this issue due to major computer problems so she's done sterling work to get it out on time. You can reads the October issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming
---------------------------------
Discoverer of Penicillan by André Mourois (1956)
Here is the Introduction to read as we start on this book...
The biography of a great and famous man requires much research and study by the biographer, not only regarding the subject of his portrait but also about the environment in which his hero has grown up and lived. We are today increasingly conscious, both in health and illness, of the important influences which heredity, on the one hand, and environmental factors, on the other, have upon our lives and destinies. M. Andr£ Maurois has painted this picture of Sir Alexander Fleming against the backgrounds of boyhood on a Scottish hill farm and manhood in the bacteriological laboratories of a London medical school. It would be idle to deny the effects of early experiences on the Ayrshire farm or of Sir Almroth Wright and others in the Inoculation Department at St. Mary's Hospital in moulding the life and shaping the destiny of the discoverer of penicillin, while he, himself, and others have been impressed by the curious concatenation of circumstances which seemed to direct his footsteps.
But these outside influences and, later, the glittering prizes and the adulation of kings and commoners in many lands could not mask the innate qualities of a man who, through all his trials and triumphs, remained staunchly true to himself and to his ancestry. For Fleming had, to a remarkable degree, those qualities which we attribute to the Scots: a capacity for hard and sustained work, a combative spirit which refuses to admit defeat, a steadfastness and loyalty which creates respect and affection, and a true humility which protects against pretentiousness and pride. He had other great gifts which helped to make him an outstanding scientist: keen curiosity and perceptiveness, an excellent memory, technical inventiveness and skill of a highly artistic order, and the mental and physical toughness that is characteristic of great men in many walks of life-
The picture of the man and the scientist emerges for us from the background of laboratories and test-tubes and pipettes, antiseptics and antibiotics, Paddington and Chelsea and the country house in Suffolk, Greece and Spain and the Americas. The appraisals and letters of friends and colleagues are interspersed with his own terse remarks in his diaries, notebooks and letters; and through it all goes the thread of continuous effort to lay bare the truth about the body's fight with infection, which was Fleming's abiding interest. It is a fascinating story for all of us, and Fleming's part in it, leading up to the discovery of penicillin, will surely never be forgotten. It was left to others to develop penicillin as a lifesaving drug, but Alexander Fleming and penicillin will always be linked together in the public mind and his name will be remembered with those of other great men, like Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister, who have made major contributions to the conquest of disease.
As his colleague and successor, I salute this fine portrait of a great man.
Robert Cruickshank
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia Newsletter
---------------------------------------------------------
We got in the Oct, Nov, Dec 2011 newsletter which you caan read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...NovDec2011.pdf
Clan Leslie Society International
--------------------------------
We aso got in their September 2011 newsletter which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...nt/2011SEP.pdf
Clan Ross Association of Canada
-------------------------------
And we also got in the Clan Ross newsletter for Summer 2011 which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...sletter20A.pdf
Alastair's Canadian Journal
---------------------------
As some of you will know I started this journal at the request of Ontario Immigration as they thought it would be interesting to have an account of someone settling in Canada. I have actually continued it beyond the date it was meant to finish so it's become a kind of diary to remind myself about things I've got up to.
I am now doing this quarterly so the July, August, September 2011 issue is now available which if you can be bothered reading is at http://www.electricscotland.net/canada_92.htm
And finally...
Angus Broon of Glasgow , Scotland, comes to the little lady of the house exclaiming, "Maggie, cud ya be sewin on a wee button that's come off of me fly? I can't button me pants."
"Oh Angus, I've got me hands in the dishpan, go up the stairs and see if Mrs. MacDonald could be helpin ya with it."
About 5 minutes later, there's a terrible crash, a bang, a bit of yelling and the sound of a body falling down the stairs.
Walking back in the door with a blackened eye and a bloody nose comes Angus. The little lady looks at him and says, "My god, what happened to ya? Did you ask her like I told you?"
"Aye," says Angus. "I asked her to sew on the wee button, an she did, everything was goin' fine but when she bent doon to bite off the wee thread, Mr MacDonald walked in."
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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