Tweet
CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
What's new on ElectricCanadian.com
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
Through the Long Day
An Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona
Nether Lochaber
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming
Borrowstounness and District
David Hume (New Book)
Poems of John Henderson in the Dorric Language
The Life of George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson (New complete book)
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Hope you all had a good thanksgiving weekend. While not celebrated that much in Canada we still got a day off and the weather was superb. I must say that since the last newsletter it's been like the heart of summer here in Chatham with sunny skies and warm weather. It was a great opportunity to get my brickwork re-pointed and to get my shutters painted. Only problem with all that was that they noticed my chimney is in poor condition and they said it could come down if we have a real storm.
And so that meant it was time for me to bite the bullet and get a new water heater installed which I was considering as mine is some 20 years old. By doing this I can arrange to vent it to the outside of the house rather that up the chimney. And of course I need to do that as I've decided to take down the chimney. This way I can also take it out of the attic as it goes pretty well through the center of it as it is. That means I'll have a huge attic space to do something with if I want to. When they take it down they'll also put in a couple of roof vents as they noted in the warm weather that the attic was very hot which could have implications for the roof shingles.
Of course that's all the minus side of owning your own home as there is always something needing done.
-----
Made some more progress with Savannah's project in that we're near to getting the brochure complete which will then be hand delivered to all the local businesses. We hope to have these in our hands next week sometime and then it's full steam ahead.
-----
I noticed that the History Scotland magazine (September / October 2011 issue) was a special issue about "Scots in Canada" with some really good articles.
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 and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
ElectricCanadian.com
--------------------
http://www.electriccanadian.com
Made more progress with the Canadian site by adding...
Papineau & Cartier
By Alfred D. DeCelles (1909). Makers of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...tier/index.htm
The Story of Newfoundland
By the Right Hon. Lord Birkenhead (1920)
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ound/index.htm
General Brock
By Lady Edgar (1909). A Maker of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/brock/index.htm
John Graves Simcoe
By Duncan Campbell Scott (1909). A Maker of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/simcoe/index.htm
Louis-Joseph Papineau
By Alfred D Decelles (1912). A Maker of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...neau/index.htm
As you can see from the above I've been mainly concentrating on the Makers of Canada but next week I'll take a wee break from this to add some different texts. I actually came across a very good book about "Romantic Canada"which I found to be an excellent read so that will be one I'll try and add for next week.
Should any of you have anything to contribute to this site I'd love to hear from you.
Electric Scotland Community
---------------------------
http://www.electricsotland.org
I never seem to have the time these days to properly summarise all that is going on in our community. There are many diverse message threads and at least some of them are always a great read. Should anyone reading this be a regular in our community and would like to do a kind of Synopsis each week of what's been happening I'd love you to volunteer to send one in for me each Wednesday! <grin>
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks Flag was compiled by Jim Lynch. In this issue he's talking about The Megrahi affair and other interesting articles. In Jim's compilation he always includes a Gaelic and Scots Language article.
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...
Cardinal Beaton and his Victims
The Murder of Rizzio
Lords of Galloway
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...
Prophetic Criticism of Contremporaneity
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 X.—A Case of Arbitration.
You can get to all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mackay/
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 XI
The Judgment of the Adherents of Rome concerning the Culdees.—Of the Synod of Stroneshalch.—Of Colman and Adomnav.—Government not the only Ground of Difference with the, Romanists.—Charge brought by Richard of Hexham against the Scots.— Character given of the Culdees by Dr Henry.— Of the Synod of Cealhythe.—Their Character as given by Gibbon.—Of Clemens, Samson, and Firgilius.—Speech of Gilbert Murray.
These can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/culdees/index.htm
Nether Lochaber
---------------
The Natural History, Legends and Folk-Lore of the West Highlands by Rev. Alexander Stewart FSA Scot, (1883)
We're now up to chapter 23.
In Chapter 18 there is much discussion on the amount of rain in Skye...
With the exception of two, or at most three, tolerably fine days at the beginning of the month, December [1870] has been hardly less rainy and generally disagreeable than November itself, and this, although in November a fall of 18 inches—1500 tons of rain water to the imperial acre—was duly registered. A recent communication from Skye went to show that in the matter of rainfall that island is far ahead, not only of Lochaber, but of every other station in the kingdom—a pluvial pre-eminence which we had really thought belonged to ourselves, but which, claimed for Skye on the impartial authority of the rain-gauge, we give up ungrudgingly, simply exclaiming with Meliboeus in the Virgilian eclogue—
"Non equidem invideo, miror magis."
(In sooth I feel not envy, but surprise.)
With such a rainfall as is claimed for Skye, one only wonders how it is that the inhabitants of the island seem not to suffer a whit because of it. As a rule, they are a robust and remarkably long-lived people; and, what is even more surprising, they are exceedingly good-humoured and cheerful—the pleasantest people in the world to meet with, whether at home or abroad. There is an old Gaelic apologue current in Lochaber, which may perhaps have some bearing on the point:—"It was long, long ago that, in the grey dawn of an intensely cold January morning, after a wild night of drift and snow, the heathcock of Ben Nevis clapped his wings, and, in a loud, prolonged, interrogative crow, addressed his first cousin by the father's side, the heathcock of Ben Cruachan—' How do you feel yourself this morning, dear heathcock of Cruachan?' ' So, so,' with a feeble attempt at wing-clapping, responded the heathcock of Cruachan; 'So, so; miserable enough, believe me, after such a night as last night was. And if I am thus miserable down here, it only puzzles me to understand how you can at all endure it, and live up there on Ben Nevis.' 'Thanks, my dear fellow,' with a second vigorous clapping of his wings, quoth the Ben Nevis bird; 'Thanks, my dear fellow, for your kind and cousinly solicitude for my welfare. Know this, however, that, bad as it doubtless is up here on Ben Nevis, I am made to it.'" "We can only suppose that our friends in Skye bear this prodigious rainfall with such philosophic equanimity and impunity because, like the heathcock of Ben Nevis, they are "made to it."
The first time we heard this apologue was many years ago, in the cabin of one of the Messrs. Hutcheson's steamers. A rubicund visaged drover—a fine-looking man, of burly frame and Atlantean shoulders—had just swallowed quite half-a-tumblerful of potent and unadulterated "Talisker" at a gulp rather than a draught, when his parish clergyman, who happened to be reclining on a sofa at the opposite side of the cabin, got up and expostulated with his parishioner for drinking ardent spirits in such a way as that; prophesying that unless he stopped it very quickly it would kill him, and only wondering that it had not killed him long ago. The drover, who was not aware until then that his minister was on board, and a witness to his potations, respectfully took off his broad bonnet, and, with a bow, begged to repeat the apologue, which he did, ore rotundo, in the most beautiful Gaelic; the application being so manifestly apt and pertinent to his particular case that we all burst out a laughing, the venerable clergyman—now, alas, no more!—enjoying it as much as any one that the tables had been so cleverly turned upon him. Fables apart, however, the fact of the matter seems to be simply this, that the humidity of the climate along our western sea-board, and amongst the Hebrides, is in nowise inimical to robust health or longevity. It is of course disagreeable enough at times, and frequently a sad drawback on our agricultural prosperity; but a minute examination of the vital statistics of the Western Highlands and Islands wrould probably go far to show that our superabundance of rain is rather favourable to health and long life than otherwise. Ach bCdh sin mar a chithear da, a beautiful Gaelic phrase literally.
But be that particular matter as it may seem to it,—what would most please us at this moment would be a month or more of the good old-fashioned winters of our boyhood, when everything was blanketed for weeks together in soft and virgin snow, and the earth was at times so braced and bound with frost that under the rapid tread and multitudinous rush of all the village schoolboys at play, it rang again like a hollow globe of iron ! It is now, alas, dribble and drip, and splash, slop, and slush from year's end to year's end.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter18.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...aber/index.htm
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming
---------------------------------
Discoverer of Penicillan by André Mourois (1956)
This is proving to be a good read and we have now added the following chapters...
Chapter X - Penicillin
Chapter XI - A new magic bullet: the sulphonamides
Chapter XII - The Oxford team
Chapter XIII - War and glory
Chapter XIV - Sir Alexander Fleming
Chapter XV - The Nobel Prize
Chapter XVI - Envoy extraordinary
In Chapter VIV we learn...
The summer of 1944 in London was the time of the flying-bombs. These objects, fired from the Continent, travelled with a terrifying rumble, and slowly enough to be seen with the naked eye before they reached the end of their trajectory. At St Mary's as soon as the sirens sounded, a watcher went up on to the roof, ready to give the alarm if he saw any 'doodlebug' making towards the hospital. This he did by setting off a bell. A second and a third shrilling meant 'Danger imminent' and 'Go down to the shelter'.
Often at the first warning Fleming and his friend, Professor Pannett, would rush up to the roof to watch the 'doodle-bug' through their glasses and compare notes on where they thought it would fall. One day when Clayden was on watch-duty, he said to Fleming: 'Look sir, this is becoming a bloody farce. You send me up here to keep people away, and then you come up yourself. You and Professor Pannett are important men and can't easily be spared.'
'That's all right,' replied Fleming, 'just say we're carrying out an inspection.'
Sometimes it happened that if he was in the laboratory engaged on an interesting piece of work, he did not hear the siren. His secretary, Mrs Helen Buckley, describes how, one morning, he was dictating a difficult letter when the alert went.
'I just looked up, a bit nervously,' she says, 'hoping for the best, and then presently the second warning rang and I could hear the wretched flying-bomb grumbling away in the distance getting louder, and then the third warning rang, and there was the horrible thing coming straight at us. I could see it from my window, and the sweat began to drip off my face on to my block. I could hardly hold on to my pencil, and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye — not a move! Finally, the thing rattled overhead, the whole building shook, and the objects on the desk tinkled. When it was gone, and the fourth bell rang for "All clear", suddenly the Professor came to, out of his deep thought, looked at me, and said "Duck!" He had not heard either of the first three warning bells, nor the flying-bomb.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lexander14.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm
Borrowstounness and District
----------------------------
Being Historical Sketches of Kinneil, Carriden and Bo'ness c. 1550 to 1850 by Thomas James Salmon (1913)
We now have lots of chapters up...
Chapter I. Introductory
Chapter II. The House of Hamilton and Kinneil
Chapter III. Kinneil
Chapter IV. What the Privy Council Registers Reveal. Period 1549-1668
Chapter V. Regality Court Book
Chapter VI. Regality—the Register of Deeds
Chapter VII. The trial and burning of the Borrowstounness witches
Chapter VIII. Local Covenanting History and "The Borrowstounness Martyrs,"
Chapter IX. Grange Estate and its Owners
Chapter X. Carriden (See also Appendix)
Chapter XI. Ecclesiastical
Chapter XII. The "Trustees for the two pennies in the pint"
Chapter X starts...
About twenty years ago the Parishes of Borrowstounness and Carriden were for civil purposes combined. Ecclesiastically, however, they remain distinct, and it is around its ecclesiastical affairs that the real and abiding history of the Parish of Carriden clusters.
According to a survey in 1817 the parish is 424 miles square. It is bounded on the east by the Parish of Abercorn; on the west by the Parish of Borrowstounness; on the north by the Forth; and on the south by the Parish of Linlithgow. Altogether it presents the appearance of an irregular four-sided figure, the longest side stretching along the shores of the Forth. Its surface is very unequal, rising from the shore by a quick ascent with a varied undulating form for about a mile, and then declining to the south. The most elevated ground lies to the south-west, near the Irongath Hills. The highest point is 519 feet above the level of the sea. In the west end of the parish we have Thirlstane, Grangepans, Cowdenhill, Bridgeness, and Cuffabouts, and in this stretch of shore-ground is now to be found as busy a hive of modern industry as can be seen in Scotland. Coal mines, potteries, woodyards, sawmills, and other works occupy almost all the available industrial space in the neighbourhood—and a romantic touch is given by the quaint old harbour or haven of Bridgeness.
Long ago the estate of Carriden was smaller than it is now, the Stacks, Dyland, Walton, and ether farms being then separate holdings. Carriden lands, like those of Grange, were originally in part Church lands. We find more than one reference to the "Dominical lands of Carriden," and we know also that the coal there was worked in early times by the monks. The remainder of the lands of Carriden have a long history,1 in which we find references to Sir William de Yeteriponte or Vipont, proprietor of Langton, in Berwickshire; also to Sir Alexander de Cockburn, who married Sir William's daughter Mary. He succeeded to Langton in right of his wife, and obtained the Barony of Carriden from David the Second in 1358. With the Cockburns the estate remained until 1541, when Sir James Cockburn of Langton granted a feu charter to one Patrick Abercromby. In 1598 the property descended to Patrick Abercromby, junior, who, in 1601, disponed it to Sir John Hamilton of Letterick. Sir John afterwards became the first Lord Bargany, and in 1632 conveyed the subjects to John Hamilton, his son, and Jean Douglas, his son's spouse. Lord Bargany died soon after, and in the following year John, the second Lord Bargany, completed his title. In the Sea Box records it appears that his lordship had a loan over the estate from that society, and they for a time held the title deeds in security for the advance. Of this laird the couplet was written—
"Kind Bargany, faithful to his word,
Whom Heaven made good and social though a Lord."
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter10.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ness/index.htm
David Hume
----------
By Henry Calderwood (1898)
A new book we're starting and here is the Preface to read here...
In the following pages I have attempted to compress into small compass an account of the life of one of the most illustrious Scotsmen of last century.
Notwithstanding Hume's vast ability and many services, his name has hitherto awakened the dislike of the majority of his fellow-countrymen, because of his openly avowed scepticism concerning views reverently cherished by Christian men.
At this date, however, we may claim to have reached the period when it is possible to survey the writings with more of the historic spirit, or at least, with that 'freedom from prejudice' for which Hume pleads; with enlarged views as to liberty of thought, and with perhaps greater indifference to the disturbing influence of the opinions so characteristic of the Historian.
The keen antagonism of the religious men of the time induced the country to regard Hume as an 'Infidel,' a 'Philistine,' and an 'Arch-Sceptic,' a good man who had gone astray. Now, when the enmity against him has in great measure become traditional, it seems possible to place him in a truer light, to shew that he is not an Infidel, that he scorns even the name of Deist, and that the man who himself challenged the evidence for belief in miracles maintains [Essays II., sec. x., p. 147] 'that the Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.'
So readers may be willing to consider afresh the scepticism and the religious faith; and they may even be able to find, in Hume, a witness for Christianity whose testimony is in some respects the more valuable since beset with so many and such grave doubts. Going further than this, it is probable that a renewed study of Hume's writings may lead us to a fairer interpretation of the attitude of those, in our own day, whose avowed doubts have induced earnest men to classify them amongst the irreligious.
[Note.—At the time of Professor Calderwood's death, the MS. for this volume was all but complete, and it has been printed as it was left by him.
Unfortunately, however, only a rough shorthand draft of the preface had been drawn up, and, while every effort has been made to convey the thoughts expressed, I am not certain that the wording is in strict accord with the author's intention. W.L.C.]
Edinburgh, February 1898.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/hume/index.htm
Poems of John Henderson in the Dorric Language
----------------------------------------------
John has sent us in a couple of new poems, "Unexpeckit Widder" and "Bide-ins" which you can read at the foot of the page at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
The Life of George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson
-----------------------------------------------------------
Comprising also a history of the invention of the Railway Locomotive by Samuel Smiles (1868). This gives you an introduction and then the book is in pdf format.
The following is a revised and improved edition of "The Life of George Stephenson," with which is incorporated a Memoir of his son Robert, late President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Since its original appearance in 1857, much additional information has been communicated to the author relative to the early history of Railways and the men principally concerned in establishing them, of which he has availed himself in the present edition.
In preparing the original work for publication, the author enjoyed the advantage of the cordial co-operation and assistance of Robert Stephenson, on whom he mainly relied for information as to the various stages through which the Locomotive passed, and especially as to his father's share in its improvement. Through Mr. Stephenson's instrumentality also, the author was enabled to obtain much valuable information from gentlemen who had been intimately connected -with, his father and himself in their early undertakings—among others, from Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington; Mr. Dixon, C.E.; Mr. Sopwith, F.R.S., Mr. Charles Parker; and Sir Joshua Walmsley.
Most of the facts relating to the early period of George Stephenson's career were collected from colliers, brakesmen, enginemen, and others, who had known him intimately, or been fellow workmen with him, and were proud to communicate what they remembered of his early life. The information obtained from these old men—most of them illiterate, and some broken down by hard work—^though valuable in many respects, was confused, and sometimes contradictory; but, to insure as much accuracy and consistency of narrative as possible, the author submitted the MS. to Mr. Stephenson, and had the benefit of his revision of it previous to publication.
Mr. Stephenson took a lively interest in the -improvement of the "Life" of his father, and continued to furnish corrections and additions for insertion in the successive editions of the book which were called for by the public. After the first two editions had appeared, he induced several gentlemen, well qualified to supply additional authentic information, to communicate their recollections of his father, among whom may be mentioned Mr. T. L. Gooch, C.E.; Mr.Vaughan, of Snibston; Mr. F. Swanwick, C.E.; and Mr. Binns, of Clayross, who had officiated as private secretaries to George Stephenson at different periods of his life, and afterward held responsible offices either under him or in conjunction with him.
The author states these facts to show that the information contained in this book is of an authentic character, and has been obtained from the most trustworthy sources. Whether he has used it to the best purpose or not, he leaves others to judge. This much, however, he may himself say—that he has endeavored, to the best of his ability, to set forth the facts communicated to him in a simple, faithful, and straightforward manner; and, even if he has not wholly succeeded in doing this, he has, at all events, been the means of collecting information on a subject originally unattractive to professional literary men, and thereby rendered its farther prosecution comparatively easy to those who may feel called upon to undertake it.
The author does not pretend to have steered clear of errors in treating a subject so extensive, and, before he undertook the labor, comparatively uninvestigated; but, wherever errors have been pointed out, he has taken the earliest opportunity of correcting them. With respect to objections taken to the book because of the undue share of merit alleged to be therein attributed to the Stephensons in respect of the Railway and the Locomotive, there will necessarily be various opinions. There is scarcely an invention or improvement in mechanics but has been the subject of dispute, and it was to be expected that those who had counter claims would put them forward in the present case nor has the author any reason to complain of the manner in which this has been done. While George Stephenson is the principal subject in the following book, his son Robert also forms an essential part of it.
Father and son were so intimately associated in the early period of their career, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to describe the one apart from the other. The life and achievements of the son were in a great measure the complement of the life and achievements of the father. The care, also, with which the elder Stephenson, while occupying the position of an obscure engine wright, devoted himself to his son's education, and the gratitude with which the latter repaid the affectionate self-denial of his father, furnish some of the most interesting illustrations of the personal character of both.
These views were early adopted by the author and carried out by him in the preparation of the original work, with the concurrence of Robert Stephenson, who supplied the necessary particulars relating to himself. Such portions of these were accordingly embodied in the narrative as could with propriety be published during his life-time, and the remaining portions are now added with the object of rendering more complete the record of the son's life, as well as the early history of the Railway System.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...stephenson.htm
And finally...
Unparliamentary Reaction
A former driving test examiner told me about a middle-aged driver in Glasgow sitting her test who found the road blocked by a van of workies half-heartedly unloading scaffolding.
She asked the examiner what to do, and he replied, as he had to:
“Do what you would normally do in such circumstances.”
She then surprised him by getting out of the car and shouting at the workmen:
“Wid youse idle b******* shift that truck tae ah get past, yer haudin’ up ma drivin’ test.”
The truck was immediately shifted, but the lady failed her test.
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 ElectricCanadian.com
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
Through the Long Day
An Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees of Iona
Nether Lochaber
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming
Borrowstounness and District
David Hume (New Book)
Poems of John Henderson in the Dorric Language
The Life of George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson (New complete book)
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
Hope you all had a good thanksgiving weekend. While not celebrated that much in Canada we still got a day off and the weather was superb. I must say that since the last newsletter it's been like the heart of summer here in Chatham with sunny skies and warm weather. It was a great opportunity to get my brickwork re-pointed and to get my shutters painted. Only problem with all that was that they noticed my chimney is in poor condition and they said it could come down if we have a real storm.
And so that meant it was time for me to bite the bullet and get a new water heater installed which I was considering as mine is some 20 years old. By doing this I can arrange to vent it to the outside of the house rather that up the chimney. And of course I need to do that as I've decided to take down the chimney. This way I can also take it out of the attic as it goes pretty well through the center of it as it is. That means I'll have a huge attic space to do something with if I want to. When they take it down they'll also put in a couple of roof vents as they noted in the warm weather that the attic was very hot which could have implications for the roof shingles.
Of course that's all the minus side of owning your own home as there is always something needing done.
-----
Made some more progress with Savannah's project in that we're near to getting the brochure complete which will then be hand delivered to all the local businesses. We hope to have these in our hands next week sometime and then it's full steam ahead.
-----
I noticed that the History Scotland magazine (September / October 2011 issue) was a special issue about "Scots in Canada" with some really good articles.
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 and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
ElectricCanadian.com
--------------------
http://www.electriccanadian.com
Made more progress with the Canadian site by adding...
Papineau & Cartier
By Alfred D. DeCelles (1909). Makers of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...tier/index.htm
The Story of Newfoundland
By the Right Hon. Lord Birkenhead (1920)
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ound/index.htm
General Brock
By Lady Edgar (1909). A Maker of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/brock/index.htm
John Graves Simcoe
By Duncan Campbell Scott (1909). A Maker of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/simcoe/index.htm
Louis-Joseph Papineau
By Alfred D Decelles (1912). A Maker of Canada.
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...neau/index.htm
As you can see from the above I've been mainly concentrating on the Makers of Canada but next week I'll take a wee break from this to add some different texts. I actually came across a very good book about "Romantic Canada"which I found to be an excellent read so that will be one I'll try and add for next week.
Should any of you have anything to contribute to this site I'd love to hear from you.
Electric Scotland Community
---------------------------
http://www.electricsotland.org
I never seem to have the time these days to properly summarise all that is going on in our community. There are many diverse message threads and at least some of them are always a great read. Should anyone reading this be a regular in our community and would like to do a kind of Synopsis each week of what's been happening I'd love you to volunteer to send one in for me each Wednesday! <grin>
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks Flag was compiled by Jim Lynch. In this issue he's talking about The Megrahi affair and other interesting articles. In Jim's compilation he always includes a Gaelic and Scots Language article.
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...
Cardinal Beaton and his Victims
The Murder of Rizzio
Lords of Galloway
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...
Prophetic Criticism of Contremporaneity
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 X.—A Case of Arbitration.
You can get to all this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mackay/
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 XI
The Judgment of the Adherents of Rome concerning the Culdees.—Of the Synod of Stroneshalch.—Of Colman and Adomnav.—Government not the only Ground of Difference with the, Romanists.—Charge brought by Richard of Hexham against the Scots.— Character given of the Culdees by Dr Henry.— Of the Synod of Cealhythe.—Their Character as given by Gibbon.—Of Clemens, Samson, and Firgilius.—Speech of Gilbert Murray.
These can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/culdees/index.htm
Nether Lochaber
---------------
The Natural History, Legends and Folk-Lore of the West Highlands by Rev. Alexander Stewart FSA Scot, (1883)
We're now up to chapter 23.
In Chapter 18 there is much discussion on the amount of rain in Skye...
With the exception of two, or at most three, tolerably fine days at the beginning of the month, December [1870] has been hardly less rainy and generally disagreeable than November itself, and this, although in November a fall of 18 inches—1500 tons of rain water to the imperial acre—was duly registered. A recent communication from Skye went to show that in the matter of rainfall that island is far ahead, not only of Lochaber, but of every other station in the kingdom—a pluvial pre-eminence which we had really thought belonged to ourselves, but which, claimed for Skye on the impartial authority of the rain-gauge, we give up ungrudgingly, simply exclaiming with Meliboeus in the Virgilian eclogue—
"Non equidem invideo, miror magis."
(In sooth I feel not envy, but surprise.)
With such a rainfall as is claimed for Skye, one only wonders how it is that the inhabitants of the island seem not to suffer a whit because of it. As a rule, they are a robust and remarkably long-lived people; and, what is even more surprising, they are exceedingly good-humoured and cheerful—the pleasantest people in the world to meet with, whether at home or abroad. There is an old Gaelic apologue current in Lochaber, which may perhaps have some bearing on the point:—"It was long, long ago that, in the grey dawn of an intensely cold January morning, after a wild night of drift and snow, the heathcock of Ben Nevis clapped his wings, and, in a loud, prolonged, interrogative crow, addressed his first cousin by the father's side, the heathcock of Ben Cruachan—' How do you feel yourself this morning, dear heathcock of Cruachan?' ' So, so,' with a feeble attempt at wing-clapping, responded the heathcock of Cruachan; 'So, so; miserable enough, believe me, after such a night as last night was. And if I am thus miserable down here, it only puzzles me to understand how you can at all endure it, and live up there on Ben Nevis.' 'Thanks, my dear fellow,' with a second vigorous clapping of his wings, quoth the Ben Nevis bird; 'Thanks, my dear fellow, for your kind and cousinly solicitude for my welfare. Know this, however, that, bad as it doubtless is up here on Ben Nevis, I am made to it.'" "We can only suppose that our friends in Skye bear this prodigious rainfall with such philosophic equanimity and impunity because, like the heathcock of Ben Nevis, they are "made to it."
The first time we heard this apologue was many years ago, in the cabin of one of the Messrs. Hutcheson's steamers. A rubicund visaged drover—a fine-looking man, of burly frame and Atlantean shoulders—had just swallowed quite half-a-tumblerful of potent and unadulterated "Talisker" at a gulp rather than a draught, when his parish clergyman, who happened to be reclining on a sofa at the opposite side of the cabin, got up and expostulated with his parishioner for drinking ardent spirits in such a way as that; prophesying that unless he stopped it very quickly it would kill him, and only wondering that it had not killed him long ago. The drover, who was not aware until then that his minister was on board, and a witness to his potations, respectfully took off his broad bonnet, and, with a bow, begged to repeat the apologue, which he did, ore rotundo, in the most beautiful Gaelic; the application being so manifestly apt and pertinent to his particular case that we all burst out a laughing, the venerable clergyman—now, alas, no more!—enjoying it as much as any one that the tables had been so cleverly turned upon him. Fables apart, however, the fact of the matter seems to be simply this, that the humidity of the climate along our western sea-board, and amongst the Hebrides, is in nowise inimical to robust health or longevity. It is of course disagreeable enough at times, and frequently a sad drawback on our agricultural prosperity; but a minute examination of the vital statistics of the Western Highlands and Islands wrould probably go far to show that our superabundance of rain is rather favourable to health and long life than otherwise. Ach bCdh sin mar a chithear da, a beautiful Gaelic phrase literally.
But be that particular matter as it may seem to it,—what would most please us at this moment would be a month or more of the good old-fashioned winters of our boyhood, when everything was blanketed for weeks together in soft and virgin snow, and the earth was at times so braced and bound with frost that under the rapid tread and multitudinous rush of all the village schoolboys at play, it rang again like a hollow globe of iron ! It is now, alas, dribble and drip, and splash, slop, and slush from year's end to year's end.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter18.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...aber/index.htm
The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming
---------------------------------
Discoverer of Penicillan by André Mourois (1956)
This is proving to be a good read and we have now added the following chapters...
Chapter X - Penicillin
Chapter XI - A new magic bullet: the sulphonamides
Chapter XII - The Oxford team
Chapter XIII - War and glory
Chapter XIV - Sir Alexander Fleming
Chapter XV - The Nobel Prize
Chapter XVI - Envoy extraordinary
In Chapter VIV we learn...
The summer of 1944 in London was the time of the flying-bombs. These objects, fired from the Continent, travelled with a terrifying rumble, and slowly enough to be seen with the naked eye before they reached the end of their trajectory. At St Mary's as soon as the sirens sounded, a watcher went up on to the roof, ready to give the alarm if he saw any 'doodlebug' making towards the hospital. This he did by setting off a bell. A second and a third shrilling meant 'Danger imminent' and 'Go down to the shelter'.
Often at the first warning Fleming and his friend, Professor Pannett, would rush up to the roof to watch the 'doodle-bug' through their glasses and compare notes on where they thought it would fall. One day when Clayden was on watch-duty, he said to Fleming: 'Look sir, this is becoming a bloody farce. You send me up here to keep people away, and then you come up yourself. You and Professor Pannett are important men and can't easily be spared.'
'That's all right,' replied Fleming, 'just say we're carrying out an inspection.'
Sometimes it happened that if he was in the laboratory engaged on an interesting piece of work, he did not hear the siren. His secretary, Mrs Helen Buckley, describes how, one morning, he was dictating a difficult letter when the alert went.
'I just looked up, a bit nervously,' she says, 'hoping for the best, and then presently the second warning rang and I could hear the wretched flying-bomb grumbling away in the distance getting louder, and then the third warning rang, and there was the horrible thing coming straight at us. I could see it from my window, and the sweat began to drip off my face on to my block. I could hardly hold on to my pencil, and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye — not a move! Finally, the thing rattled overhead, the whole building shook, and the objects on the desk tinkled. When it was gone, and the fourth bell rang for "All clear", suddenly the Professor came to, out of his deep thought, looked at me, and said "Duck!" He had not heard either of the first three warning bells, nor the flying-bomb.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lexander14.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm
Borrowstounness and District
----------------------------
Being Historical Sketches of Kinneil, Carriden and Bo'ness c. 1550 to 1850 by Thomas James Salmon (1913)
We now have lots of chapters up...
Chapter I. Introductory
Chapter II. The House of Hamilton and Kinneil
Chapter III. Kinneil
Chapter IV. What the Privy Council Registers Reveal. Period 1549-1668
Chapter V. Regality Court Book
Chapter VI. Regality—the Register of Deeds
Chapter VII. The trial and burning of the Borrowstounness witches
Chapter VIII. Local Covenanting History and "The Borrowstounness Martyrs,"
Chapter IX. Grange Estate and its Owners
Chapter X. Carriden (See also Appendix)
Chapter XI. Ecclesiastical
Chapter XII. The "Trustees for the two pennies in the pint"
Chapter X starts...
About twenty years ago the Parishes of Borrowstounness and Carriden were for civil purposes combined. Ecclesiastically, however, they remain distinct, and it is around its ecclesiastical affairs that the real and abiding history of the Parish of Carriden clusters.
According to a survey in 1817 the parish is 424 miles square. It is bounded on the east by the Parish of Abercorn; on the west by the Parish of Borrowstounness; on the north by the Forth; and on the south by the Parish of Linlithgow. Altogether it presents the appearance of an irregular four-sided figure, the longest side stretching along the shores of the Forth. Its surface is very unequal, rising from the shore by a quick ascent with a varied undulating form for about a mile, and then declining to the south. The most elevated ground lies to the south-west, near the Irongath Hills. The highest point is 519 feet above the level of the sea. In the west end of the parish we have Thirlstane, Grangepans, Cowdenhill, Bridgeness, and Cuffabouts, and in this stretch of shore-ground is now to be found as busy a hive of modern industry as can be seen in Scotland. Coal mines, potteries, woodyards, sawmills, and other works occupy almost all the available industrial space in the neighbourhood—and a romantic touch is given by the quaint old harbour or haven of Bridgeness.
Long ago the estate of Carriden was smaller than it is now, the Stacks, Dyland, Walton, and ether farms being then separate holdings. Carriden lands, like those of Grange, were originally in part Church lands. We find more than one reference to the "Dominical lands of Carriden," and we know also that the coal there was worked in early times by the monks. The remainder of the lands of Carriden have a long history,1 in which we find references to Sir William de Yeteriponte or Vipont, proprietor of Langton, in Berwickshire; also to Sir Alexander de Cockburn, who married Sir William's daughter Mary. He succeeded to Langton in right of his wife, and obtained the Barony of Carriden from David the Second in 1358. With the Cockburns the estate remained until 1541, when Sir James Cockburn of Langton granted a feu charter to one Patrick Abercromby. In 1598 the property descended to Patrick Abercromby, junior, who, in 1601, disponed it to Sir John Hamilton of Letterick. Sir John afterwards became the first Lord Bargany, and in 1632 conveyed the subjects to John Hamilton, his son, and Jean Douglas, his son's spouse. Lord Bargany died soon after, and in the following year John, the second Lord Bargany, completed his title. In the Sea Box records it appears that his lordship had a loan over the estate from that society, and they for a time held the title deeds in security for the advance. Of this laird the couplet was written—
"Kind Bargany, faithful to his word,
Whom Heaven made good and social though a Lord."
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter10.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ness/index.htm
David Hume
----------
By Henry Calderwood (1898)
A new book we're starting and here is the Preface to read here...
In the following pages I have attempted to compress into small compass an account of the life of one of the most illustrious Scotsmen of last century.
Notwithstanding Hume's vast ability and many services, his name has hitherto awakened the dislike of the majority of his fellow-countrymen, because of his openly avowed scepticism concerning views reverently cherished by Christian men.
At this date, however, we may claim to have reached the period when it is possible to survey the writings with more of the historic spirit, or at least, with that 'freedom from prejudice' for which Hume pleads; with enlarged views as to liberty of thought, and with perhaps greater indifference to the disturbing influence of the opinions so characteristic of the Historian.
The keen antagonism of the religious men of the time induced the country to regard Hume as an 'Infidel,' a 'Philistine,' and an 'Arch-Sceptic,' a good man who had gone astray. Now, when the enmity against him has in great measure become traditional, it seems possible to place him in a truer light, to shew that he is not an Infidel, that he scorns even the name of Deist, and that the man who himself challenged the evidence for belief in miracles maintains [Essays II., sec. x., p. 147] 'that the Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.'
So readers may be willing to consider afresh the scepticism and the religious faith; and they may even be able to find, in Hume, a witness for Christianity whose testimony is in some respects the more valuable since beset with so many and such grave doubts. Going further than this, it is probable that a renewed study of Hume's writings may lead us to a fairer interpretation of the attitude of those, in our own day, whose avowed doubts have induced earnest men to classify them amongst the irreligious.
[Note.—At the time of Professor Calderwood's death, the MS. for this volume was all but complete, and it has been printed as it was left by him.
Unfortunately, however, only a rough shorthand draft of the preface had been drawn up, and, while every effort has been made to convey the thoughts expressed, I am not certain that the wording is in strict accord with the author's intention. W.L.C.]
Edinburgh, February 1898.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/hume/index.htm
Poems of John Henderson in the Dorric Language
----------------------------------------------
John has sent us in a couple of new poems, "Unexpeckit Widder" and "Bide-ins" which you can read at the foot of the page at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
The Life of George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson
-----------------------------------------------------------
Comprising also a history of the invention of the Railway Locomotive by Samuel Smiles (1868). This gives you an introduction and then the book is in pdf format.
The following is a revised and improved edition of "The Life of George Stephenson," with which is incorporated a Memoir of his son Robert, late President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Since its original appearance in 1857, much additional information has been communicated to the author relative to the early history of Railways and the men principally concerned in establishing them, of which he has availed himself in the present edition.
In preparing the original work for publication, the author enjoyed the advantage of the cordial co-operation and assistance of Robert Stephenson, on whom he mainly relied for information as to the various stages through which the Locomotive passed, and especially as to his father's share in its improvement. Through Mr. Stephenson's instrumentality also, the author was enabled to obtain much valuable information from gentlemen who had been intimately connected -with, his father and himself in their early undertakings—among others, from Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington; Mr. Dixon, C.E.; Mr. Sopwith, F.R.S., Mr. Charles Parker; and Sir Joshua Walmsley.
Most of the facts relating to the early period of George Stephenson's career were collected from colliers, brakesmen, enginemen, and others, who had known him intimately, or been fellow workmen with him, and were proud to communicate what they remembered of his early life. The information obtained from these old men—most of them illiterate, and some broken down by hard work—^though valuable in many respects, was confused, and sometimes contradictory; but, to insure as much accuracy and consistency of narrative as possible, the author submitted the MS. to Mr. Stephenson, and had the benefit of his revision of it previous to publication.
Mr. Stephenson took a lively interest in the -improvement of the "Life" of his father, and continued to furnish corrections and additions for insertion in the successive editions of the book which were called for by the public. After the first two editions had appeared, he induced several gentlemen, well qualified to supply additional authentic information, to communicate their recollections of his father, among whom may be mentioned Mr. T. L. Gooch, C.E.; Mr.Vaughan, of Snibston; Mr. F. Swanwick, C.E.; and Mr. Binns, of Clayross, who had officiated as private secretaries to George Stephenson at different periods of his life, and afterward held responsible offices either under him or in conjunction with him.
The author states these facts to show that the information contained in this book is of an authentic character, and has been obtained from the most trustworthy sources. Whether he has used it to the best purpose or not, he leaves others to judge. This much, however, he may himself say—that he has endeavored, to the best of his ability, to set forth the facts communicated to him in a simple, faithful, and straightforward manner; and, even if he has not wholly succeeded in doing this, he has, at all events, been the means of collecting information on a subject originally unattractive to professional literary men, and thereby rendered its farther prosecution comparatively easy to those who may feel called upon to undertake it.
The author does not pretend to have steered clear of errors in treating a subject so extensive, and, before he undertook the labor, comparatively uninvestigated; but, wherever errors have been pointed out, he has taken the earliest opportunity of correcting them. With respect to objections taken to the book because of the undue share of merit alleged to be therein attributed to the Stephensons in respect of the Railway and the Locomotive, there will necessarily be various opinions. There is scarcely an invention or improvement in mechanics but has been the subject of dispute, and it was to be expected that those who had counter claims would put them forward in the present case nor has the author any reason to complain of the manner in which this has been done. While George Stephenson is the principal subject in the following book, his son Robert also forms an essential part of it.
Father and son were so intimately associated in the early period of their career, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to describe the one apart from the other. The life and achievements of the son were in a great measure the complement of the life and achievements of the father. The care, also, with which the elder Stephenson, while occupying the position of an obscure engine wright, devoted himself to his son's education, and the gratitude with which the latter repaid the affectionate self-denial of his father, furnish some of the most interesting illustrations of the personal character of both.
These views were early adopted by the author and carried out by him in the preparation of the original work, with the concurrence of Robert Stephenson, who supplied the necessary particulars relating to himself. Such portions of these were accordingly embodied in the narrative as could with propriety be published during his life-time, and the remaining portions are now added with the object of rendering more complete the record of the son's life, as well as the early history of the Railway System.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...stephenson.htm
And finally...
Unparliamentary Reaction
A former driving test examiner told me about a middle-aged driver in Glasgow sitting her test who found the road blocked by a van of workies half-heartedly unloading scaffolding.
She asked the examiner what to do, and he replied, as he had to:
“Do what you would normally do in such circumstances.”
She then surprised him by getting out of the car and shouting at the workmen:
“Wid youse idle b******* shift that truck tae ah get past, yer haudin’ up ma drivin’ test.”
The truck was immediately shifted, but the lady failed her test.
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com