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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Had a visit to my Doctor, first for over 2 years. All went well but I noted my Doctor wasn't too keen on booster shots for Covid and said it was up to me to decide if I needed the 2nd booster shot. In her opinion it was a waste of time.
I also noted that she recommended I drank at least 1 litre of water each day. She said she personally drinks 2 litres per day. I am going to increase my water intake. I take three lots of pills each day and use a little water to get them down so now I'm going to drink a tumbler of water each time I take them. While that won't be a litre it will make a significant increase as I usually only take two drinks most days and one is coffee in the morning. I asked her about this as when I went for my 4 monthly visit to get my blood work done the lab assistant had difficulty in getting enough out of me and asked if I was drinking enough water. I pass this along for your consideration.
------
I have done a small update on my Canadian Experience story for March to June 2022 and you can read that at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add9.htm
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
War's harvest: the looming food crisis
A report just published by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), sets out alarming prospects that indicate higher prices will not lead to more supply. Those higher prices may continue rising next year and beyond.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-61756203
Canada mulls putting warnings on each cigarette
Canada's government is proposing putting health warnings on individual cigarettes in what would be a world-first way of tackling the habit.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61767386
Many mothers grapple with mental health challenges after the birth of a child. But fathers experience PND, too
For David Levine, the watershed moment came when he imagined he had shaken his baby.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article...gle-in-silence
Rum's Kinloch Castle set to be sold
Kinloch Castle and most of the island are owned by public agency NatureScot. who said it was now in advanced talks with a businessman about buying the property and placing it into a charitable trust.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c28xxxml3lzo
Could flat tyres soon be a thing of the past?
Electric cars and autonomous mobility are changing tyre needs. Delivery firms and shuttle services want products that are low-maintenance, puncture-proof, recyclable, and have sensors that map road conditions.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61644033
Christians are under attack in Nigeria
On 5 June, a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria was stormed by militant attackers, leaving at least 50 dead. Churchgoers were congregating for Sunday worship to celebrate the holy feast of Pentecost. The men, women and children slaughtered while peacefully attending church services were victims of a targeted attack on Christians.
You can read more at:
https://thecritic.co.uk/christians-a...rce=newsletter
Scientists to harness DNA technology in battle to save the Eriskay pony
It’s an ancient breed and icon of Scotland’s wild places but, still, the Eriskay pony remains in peril.
You can read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/eriskay-pony
Scotland's independence debate
Nicola Sturgeon has fired the gun on Scotland's independence debate, standing in Bute House yesterday with Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, launching the first of several papers on independence
You can read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan620a.html
Media
By Hamish Mackay in the Scottish Review
You can read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/HamishMackay620a.html
Audit Scotland calls for more clarity over Covid funding
The Scottish government needs to be clearer about how and why it spent £12bn of emergency funding during the pandemic, the country's spending watchdog has said. Audit Scotland said more than 300 funding announcements have been made at Holyrood in response to Covid. But it said it was hard to see how some financial decisions were reached.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-61816859
Electric Canadian
Proceedings of the Canadian Institute
Part of the 1889/90 volume with many articles (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...gsofca1887.pdf
The Making of the Canadian West
Being the Reminiscences of an eye-witness by Rev. R. G. MacBeth, M.A. (1898) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...nadianwest.pdf
Manitoba Memories
Leaves from my Life in the Prairie Province, 1868-1884, by Rev. George Young, D.D., Founder of Methodist Missions in the Red River Settlement (1897) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...bamemories.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday morning - the 12th day of June 2022
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...y-of-june-2022
The Net in the Bay
Or, The Journal of a visit to Moose and Albany by David Anderson D.D., First Bishop of Rupert's Land. (second edition) (1873) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...erta_01151.pdf
Electric Scotland
Beth's Video Talks
June 15th, 2022 - Research using school and education records
You can view this talk at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Hey. Here is Section 2 for July 2022.
There is a very special article about the magical Celtic wedding of Al and Lori McGalliard in Ireland beginning on page 19. I know that I grinned and smiled every second I read it and type-set it. It will make you happy too, I'll bet. Al is president of the Clan Skene Association, Inc.
A Scot, Tom Stoltman, is for the second time the World's Strongest Man. His older brother was five times the same title winner. Congratulations!
There's still no word about Findlay, the Scottish Wildcat who was taken from the Scottish Wildcat folks last February.
We had sad news about the death of Alex Beaton. You can find the note that Linda Beaton sent on page 1 of BNF There is a URL directing you to his full obituary. Our sincere sympathy to his wife, Linda, and his family.
My "farm" has numerous baby tomatoes and I counted 9 yellow squash and blossoms that are about ready to be devoured. The zucchini is filled with blooms and the eggplant is blooming too. We are both enjoying seeing everything so green and healthy. GrowBoxes really are great if you can't physically have a garden! My red cabbage is huge already.
Please remember to keep your email address up to date by sending any edits or changes to bethscribble@aol.com. Remember, too, that Flowers of the Forest are free as are news items from your Scottish or genealogical group. If you have genealogical queries, please send them to the same email. No charge for those either.
Stay safe and remain vigilant regarding Covid-19. It's still lurking about.
Aye,
beth
You can get to this at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft
Memoir of the Rev. Henry Duncan D.D.
Minister of Ruthwell, Founder of Savings Banks, author of "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons", &c. &c. By His Son, The Rev. George John C. Duncan (1848) (pdf). I added this to the foot of his page at: https://electricscotland.com/history...ncan_henry.htm
By-Gone Days in our Village
By Jean L. Watson (1864) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...ourvillage.pdf
Mine Eyes to the Hills
An Anthology of the Highland Forest arranged by Patrick R. Chalmers illustrated by V. R. Balfour-Browne (1931) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifestyle/mineeyes.htm
Autobiography of Rev. James B. Finley
Or Pioneer life in the West edited by N. P. Strickland, D. D. (1857) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...heWest1857.pdf
Story
Thomas White
By William Robertson (1900)
Mr. THOMAS WHITE, senior partner of the firm of Messrs White & Smith, restaurateurs, Glasgow, is perhaps as well-known, and certainly as well liked, as any Borderer in the Second City. Deservedly so. He has been the pioneer of his own fortunes, rising to his present position from the humble cottage, “the but an’ ben", a house which makes the happy home of the industrious peasantry of Merse and Teviotdale.
Mr White was born half a century ago at the “Farm Toun” of Skaithmuir, in Berwickshire. He had no more than got into the period of “short clothes,” when his father removed to Dunse, as it was then known and spelt. It was in this pretty little Border town that Mr White was for the most part educated. Here he received the kind of instruction that makes for Scottish character, an education for which the parish schools of those days were justly eminent. The parish dominie was a friend both feared and loved, and it is a question if the Board School teacher is leaving such a strong impression on the minds of the boys and girls of to-day.
In those schoolboy days, as was common with all children of the agricultural classes during the vacation, Mr White had the usual spell of farm work, graduating from the singling of turnips and raking corn to the climax of every country boy’s ambition—the driving of a horse and cart. On leaving school Mr White chose to follow the “genteel trade,” and was duly apprenticed to Mr John Young, draper, in Duns. During his first week behind the counter, the following incident happened. Plucking up courage to encounter his first customer, a wee girl put a penny down on the counter and demanded “a ha’-penny pirn and a ha’-penny back.” The pirn was duly forthcoming, but the embryo draper had to appeal to older hands plaintively, “Where do the ha’-penny backs lie?”
Having finished his apprenticeship, and after serving three years with another firm of drapers in the soutars’ toun of Selkirk, our friend came to find a home and a career in the great commercial city of the west. Mr White relates with gratitude his first experience of the city. Coming in the forenoon, a perfect stranger, within one hour of his arrival he secured a good situation in a large retail drapery warehouse in Buchanan Street. After several years’ service, noting changes at work in the wholesale trade, and ever on the alert to get to the top of the tree, he applied for, and secured, the appointment of buyer in one of the most important departments in the large and prosperous drapery warehouse of Messrs Stewart & McDonald. This position Mr White occupied for ten years with great satisfaction to his employers.
He was forced to relinquish this appointment on account of a severe ice accident which he met with while skating, and which incapacitated him from business for about one year. On resuming, Mr White gave up what he calls the trade of “clothing the naked,” and took to that of “feeding the hungry.” He commenced his new venture by purchasing the old-fashioned hotel, now merged in the Bonanza Warehouse, but then well known as “His Lordship’s Larder.” Here for another five years, Mr White did yeoman service to the farmers and others frequenting St Enoch’s Square on market days.
Selling “His Lordship’s Larder,” Mr White acquired the much more extensive business long carried on by Mr Forrester in Gordon Street. Here his business increased by leaps and bounds. After another five years’ hard work, he assumed a partner, and purchased at the same time another business—The Trades’ House Restaurant in Glassford Street. In Mr Smith, Mr White finds a partner most congenial, thoroughly practical, and with energy enough to go through fire and water.
Mr. White's Christmas Card
The firm of Thos. White and Smith is known far and wide. The number of cakes and buns, made and disposed of by them at Christmas and New Year, is something enormous and requires all hands to work on night and day shifts. These, as New Year gifts, find their way into all parts of the world.
The functions entrusted to the firm are numerous, from parts both north and south; now providing for a banquet at the “Bonnie House o’ Airlie,” anon for the launching of a British battleship at Barrow-in-Furness—items that have to be attended to on the shortest notice.
Mr White is a man of generous sympathies. Very little is known to his innermost circle of friends of what he does for those in need. Perhaps it may be even an offence to make this statement, so much does he keep his right hand from knowing what the left is doing.
Punch’s famous advice, “Don’t," has been disregarded by Mr White, for, after having been for about eighteen years a widower, he has taken unto himself a wife. All the Borderers who know him are happy over the event, and feel assured that he has got a proper helpmeet. This event took place on the 11th November last in the Catholic Apostolic Church, Glasgow, of which both Mr White and his good lady are members. He has a son and daughter, now grown up, who reside with him in his happy home at Willowbank, Gartcosh.
Living, as Mr White does in the country, he is a more regular attender at the Parish Church of Chryston than at his own in Glasgow. I had the privilege of sitting in the same pew with the Chryston parish minister’s wife, and in course of conversation she gave me what I think may be regarded as the local village estimate of his character. “Fine man, Mr White. I wish we had more like him.”
This article comes from the Border's Magazine January 1900 edition.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Had a visit to my Doctor, first for over 2 years. All went well but I noted my Doctor wasn't too keen on booster shots for Covid and said it was up to me to decide if I needed the 2nd booster shot. In her opinion it was a waste of time.
I also noted that she recommended I drank at least 1 litre of water each day. She said she personally drinks 2 litres per day. I am going to increase my water intake. I take three lots of pills each day and use a little water to get them down so now I'm going to drink a tumbler of water each time I take them. While that won't be a litre it will make a significant increase as I usually only take two drinks most days and one is coffee in the morning. I asked her about this as when I went for my 4 monthly visit to get my blood work done the lab assistant had difficulty in getting enough out of me and asked if I was drinking enough water. I pass this along for your consideration.
------
I have done a small update on my Canadian Experience story for March to June 2022 and you can read that at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add9.htm
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
War's harvest: the looming food crisis
A report just published by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), sets out alarming prospects that indicate higher prices will not lead to more supply. Those higher prices may continue rising next year and beyond.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-61756203
Canada mulls putting warnings on each cigarette
Canada's government is proposing putting health warnings on individual cigarettes in what would be a world-first way of tackling the habit.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61767386
Many mothers grapple with mental health challenges after the birth of a child. But fathers experience PND, too
For David Levine, the watershed moment came when he imagined he had shaken his baby.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article...gle-in-silence
Rum's Kinloch Castle set to be sold
Kinloch Castle and most of the island are owned by public agency NatureScot. who said it was now in advanced talks with a businessman about buying the property and placing it into a charitable trust.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c28xxxml3lzo
Could flat tyres soon be a thing of the past?
Electric cars and autonomous mobility are changing tyre needs. Delivery firms and shuttle services want products that are low-maintenance, puncture-proof, recyclable, and have sensors that map road conditions.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61644033
Christians are under attack in Nigeria
On 5 June, a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria was stormed by militant attackers, leaving at least 50 dead. Churchgoers were congregating for Sunday worship to celebrate the holy feast of Pentecost. The men, women and children slaughtered while peacefully attending church services were victims of a targeted attack on Christians.
You can read more at:
https://thecritic.co.uk/christians-a...rce=newsletter
Scientists to harness DNA technology in battle to save the Eriskay pony
It’s an ancient breed and icon of Scotland’s wild places but, still, the Eriskay pony remains in peril.
You can read more at:
https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/eriskay-pony
Scotland's independence debate
Nicola Sturgeon has fired the gun on Scotland's independence debate, standing in Bute House yesterday with Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, launching the first of several papers on independence
You can read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan620a.html
Media
By Hamish Mackay in the Scottish Review
You can read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/HamishMackay620a.html
Audit Scotland calls for more clarity over Covid funding
The Scottish government needs to be clearer about how and why it spent £12bn of emergency funding during the pandemic, the country's spending watchdog has said. Audit Scotland said more than 300 funding announcements have been made at Holyrood in response to Covid. But it said it was hard to see how some financial decisions were reached.
You can read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-61816859
Electric Canadian
Proceedings of the Canadian Institute
Part of the 1889/90 volume with many articles (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...gsofca1887.pdf
The Making of the Canadian West
Being the Reminiscences of an eye-witness by Rev. R. G. MacBeth, M.A. (1898) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...nadianwest.pdf
Manitoba Memories
Leaves from my Life in the Prairie Province, 1868-1884, by Rev. George Young, D.D., Founder of Methodist Missions in the Red River Settlement (1897) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...bamemories.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday morning - the 12th day of June 2022
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...y-of-june-2022
The Net in the Bay
Or, The Journal of a visit to Moose and Albany by David Anderson D.D., First Bishop of Rupert's Land. (second edition) (1873) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...erta_01151.pdf
Electric Scotland
Beth's Video Talks
June 15th, 2022 - Research using school and education records
You can view this talk at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Hey. Here is Section 2 for July 2022.
There is a very special article about the magical Celtic wedding of Al and Lori McGalliard in Ireland beginning on page 19. I know that I grinned and smiled every second I read it and type-set it. It will make you happy too, I'll bet. Al is president of the Clan Skene Association, Inc.
A Scot, Tom Stoltman, is for the second time the World's Strongest Man. His older brother was five times the same title winner. Congratulations!
There's still no word about Findlay, the Scottish Wildcat who was taken from the Scottish Wildcat folks last February.
We had sad news about the death of Alex Beaton. You can find the note that Linda Beaton sent on page 1 of BNF There is a URL directing you to his full obituary. Our sincere sympathy to his wife, Linda, and his family.
My "farm" has numerous baby tomatoes and I counted 9 yellow squash and blossoms that are about ready to be devoured. The zucchini is filled with blooms and the eggplant is blooming too. We are both enjoying seeing everything so green and healthy. GrowBoxes really are great if you can't physically have a garden! My red cabbage is huge already.
Please remember to keep your email address up to date by sending any edits or changes to bethscribble@aol.com. Remember, too, that Flowers of the Forest are free as are news items from your Scottish or genealogical group. If you have genealogical queries, please send them to the same email. No charge for those either.
Stay safe and remain vigilant regarding Covid-19. It's still lurking about.
Aye,
beth
You can get to this at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft
Memoir of the Rev. Henry Duncan D.D.
Minister of Ruthwell, Founder of Savings Banks, author of "Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons", &c. &c. By His Son, The Rev. George John C. Duncan (1848) (pdf). I added this to the foot of his page at: https://electricscotland.com/history...ncan_henry.htm
By-Gone Days in our Village
By Jean L. Watson (1864) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...ourvillage.pdf
Mine Eyes to the Hills
An Anthology of the Highland Forest arranged by Patrick R. Chalmers illustrated by V. R. Balfour-Browne (1931) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifestyle/mineeyes.htm
Autobiography of Rev. James B. Finley
Or Pioneer life in the West edited by N. P. Strickland, D. D. (1857) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...heWest1857.pdf
Story
Thomas White
By William Robertson (1900)
Mr. THOMAS WHITE, senior partner of the firm of Messrs White & Smith, restaurateurs, Glasgow, is perhaps as well-known, and certainly as well liked, as any Borderer in the Second City. Deservedly so. He has been the pioneer of his own fortunes, rising to his present position from the humble cottage, “the but an’ ben", a house which makes the happy home of the industrious peasantry of Merse and Teviotdale.
Mr White was born half a century ago at the “Farm Toun” of Skaithmuir, in Berwickshire. He had no more than got into the period of “short clothes,” when his father removed to Dunse, as it was then known and spelt. It was in this pretty little Border town that Mr White was for the most part educated. Here he received the kind of instruction that makes for Scottish character, an education for which the parish schools of those days were justly eminent. The parish dominie was a friend both feared and loved, and it is a question if the Board School teacher is leaving such a strong impression on the minds of the boys and girls of to-day.
In those schoolboy days, as was common with all children of the agricultural classes during the vacation, Mr White had the usual spell of farm work, graduating from the singling of turnips and raking corn to the climax of every country boy’s ambition—the driving of a horse and cart. On leaving school Mr White chose to follow the “genteel trade,” and was duly apprenticed to Mr John Young, draper, in Duns. During his first week behind the counter, the following incident happened. Plucking up courage to encounter his first customer, a wee girl put a penny down on the counter and demanded “a ha’-penny pirn and a ha’-penny back.” The pirn was duly forthcoming, but the embryo draper had to appeal to older hands plaintively, “Where do the ha’-penny backs lie?”
Having finished his apprenticeship, and after serving three years with another firm of drapers in the soutars’ toun of Selkirk, our friend came to find a home and a career in the great commercial city of the west. Mr White relates with gratitude his first experience of the city. Coming in the forenoon, a perfect stranger, within one hour of his arrival he secured a good situation in a large retail drapery warehouse in Buchanan Street. After several years’ service, noting changes at work in the wholesale trade, and ever on the alert to get to the top of the tree, he applied for, and secured, the appointment of buyer in one of the most important departments in the large and prosperous drapery warehouse of Messrs Stewart & McDonald. This position Mr White occupied for ten years with great satisfaction to his employers.
He was forced to relinquish this appointment on account of a severe ice accident which he met with while skating, and which incapacitated him from business for about one year. On resuming, Mr White gave up what he calls the trade of “clothing the naked,” and took to that of “feeding the hungry.” He commenced his new venture by purchasing the old-fashioned hotel, now merged in the Bonanza Warehouse, but then well known as “His Lordship’s Larder.” Here for another five years, Mr White did yeoman service to the farmers and others frequenting St Enoch’s Square on market days.
Selling “His Lordship’s Larder,” Mr White acquired the much more extensive business long carried on by Mr Forrester in Gordon Street. Here his business increased by leaps and bounds. After another five years’ hard work, he assumed a partner, and purchased at the same time another business—The Trades’ House Restaurant in Glassford Street. In Mr Smith, Mr White finds a partner most congenial, thoroughly practical, and with energy enough to go through fire and water.
Mr. White's Christmas Card
The firm of Thos. White and Smith is known far and wide. The number of cakes and buns, made and disposed of by them at Christmas and New Year, is something enormous and requires all hands to work on night and day shifts. These, as New Year gifts, find their way into all parts of the world.
The functions entrusted to the firm are numerous, from parts both north and south; now providing for a banquet at the “Bonnie House o’ Airlie,” anon for the launching of a British battleship at Barrow-in-Furness—items that have to be attended to on the shortest notice.
Mr White is a man of generous sympathies. Very little is known to his innermost circle of friends of what he does for those in need. Perhaps it may be even an offence to make this statement, so much does he keep his right hand from knowing what the left is doing.
Punch’s famous advice, “Don’t," has been disregarded by Mr White, for, after having been for about eighteen years a widower, he has taken unto himself a wife. All the Borderers who know him are happy over the event, and feel assured that he has got a proper helpmeet. This event took place on the 11th November last in the Catholic Apostolic Church, Glasgow, of which both Mr White and his good lady are members. He has a son and daughter, now grown up, who reside with him in his happy home at Willowbank, Gartcosh.
Living, as Mr White does in the country, he is a more regular attender at the Parish Church of Chryston than at his own in Glasgow. I had the privilege of sitting in the same pew with the Chryston parish minister’s wife, and in course of conversation she gave me what I think may be regarded as the local village estimate of his character. “Fine man, Mr White. I wish we had more like him.”
This article comes from the Border's Magazine January 1900 edition.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair