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Electric Scotland News
Many of you will know I'm pro Brexit so I've taken this opportunity on the 7th Anniversary of the vote to leave the EU to highlight some stories about it. I've also noted that we still retain much of the EU legal framework and so have also included a pdf file on work going on to try and remove some of it. It's a very long document (over 100 pages) but if you were to add up the various savings by reducing these EU regulations we would be much better of.
I might add that had we not left the EU we could not have joined the CPTPP and you can read about them in the news article "Trading places" below. This is what the EU was meant to be when we joined... all about trade and nothing else.
-------
I think my comment about voting for Kate Forbes was correct as I looks like our current First Minister is out of his depth. See the article in the Scottish Review below entitled "The SNP needs a new leader" in the news section.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
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. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Council incompetence to blame for Dargavel school blunder
An independent review has delivered a withering verdict on Renfrewshire Council's handling of an error which left Dargavel village short of up to 1,000 primary school places.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...-west-65920931
Nicola Sturgeon popularity plummets following police investigation into SNP finances, poll finds
A survey of voters in Scotland found the former first minister is no longer the country's favourite politician.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...owing-30248245
How Fortress EUrope demonstrates its disregard for emerging nations
THIS IS A TALE of how the EU uses regulations, quotas and tariffs to erect a Fortress Europe that, by protecting its inefficient and unsustainable agriculture industry, exports poverty to developing nations.
Read more at:
https://thinkscotland.org/2023/06/ho...rging-nations/
Who really misled voters over Brexit?
Seven years on from the referendum, it's remarkable how little scrutiny the outrageous scaremongering of the Remain campaign has attracted. Had it not been for dodgy economic forecasts and hyperbolic press conferences, we could have had a more decisive Leave vote and a less divided county.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/voters-were-misled-o...leave-campaign
Scotland's warm welcome for dollars and euros
More than half the projects come from four countries - Germany, Ireland and Canada, while the USA accounts for nearly a third.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...iness-65948190
Unlocking the secrets of the world's oldest computer
The mysterious Antikythera Mechanism has captured the imagination of archaeologists, mathematicians, and scientists ever since. Now, using the latest 3D x-ray and modelling technology, experts are unravelling the secrets of what this machine may have been capable of.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09pc...ldest-computer
Dundee tops list of recorded crime in Scotland
Crimes including car theft, sexual assault and fire-raising contributed to a big rise over the past 10 years.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/poli...st-crime-rate/
The SNP needs a new leader
This situation cannot be remedied overnight, but anyone seeking to maintain the right of Scots to self-determination and remains a member of the SNP should be pressing for the resignation of Humza Yousaf, who, on a daily basis, looks increasingly like the stooge that many already took him for. The SNP needs a new leader using a properly constituted election procedure held over the course of this summer (as happened in 2004).
Read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/BryanStuart663a.html
Innovation and Scottish politics
Take a brief audit of devolution Scotland. The Scottish Parliament set up a new institution and new structures. The Scottish Government was established, initially as the Scottish Executive, emerging out of the old Scottish Office the Westminster administrative body which had grown in size and scale over time and increasingly made the case for a parliament, democratic accountability and legitimacy.
Read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan663a.html
The identity crisis in our schools
Children questioning their gender is a relatively new phenomenon, and in the absence of official advice on how to help, schools have been making it up as they go along. It's time the Government gave teachers, kids and parents a clear steer on trans issues, and there are five key questions it's new guidance must answer.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/five-questions-the-n...ls-must-answer
Trading places
In a world dominated by sparring superpowers, medium-sized countries like the UK are in a tough trading spot. It's in that context that Britain's recent accession to the CPTPP is so interesting and why it is more significant than notional trade values might suggest.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/in-an-evolving-globa...it-for-the-uk/
How Fortress EUrope demonstrates its disregard for emerging nations
THIS IS A TALE of how the EU uses regulations, quotas and tariffs to erect a Fortress Europe that, by protecting its inefficient and unsustainable agriculture industry, exports poverty to developing nations.
Read more at:
https://thinkscotland.org/2023/06/ho...rging-nations/
Canada Bread agrees to pay C$50m for role in price-fixing scheme
A major bread maker in Canada will pay C$50m ($38m; £30m) for its role in a price-fixing scheme - the highest such fine ever imposed by a Canadian court.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65933102
China urged to boost home prices or face recession
Falling home prices, weakening market expectation and growing local debts have formed a vicious cycle in China
Read more at:
https://asiatimes.com/2023/06/china-...face-recession
Andrew Bailey must go
The Bank of England has no hope of regaining trust under its current governor.
Read more at:
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment...bailey-must-go
Note: Canada's inflation rate was 4.4% in May 2023, UK 7.9%, USA 4.0%
Electric Canadian
Domestic Rabbits
Raising for meet and fur (pdf)
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...tic-rabbit.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 18th day of June 2023 - Father's Day
BY the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...3-father-s-day
We Are Too Scotch
The Reverend William Proudfoot and the United Secession Mission to Canada by Stewart D. Gill, M.A., PH.D. (1851) (pdf)
An interesting article which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...etooscotch.pdf
Plank Frame Barn Construction
By John L. Shawver (1904) (pdf)
Thought I'd add this to our Beard collection and you can read it at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...rnco00shaw.pdf
Basketball
Added a video about the history of Basketball.
You can watch this on our Basketball page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...ball/index.htm
Electric Scotland
The Brexit dividend
It's seven years since we voted to leave the EU, but the great unshackling from Brussels has hardly happened at all. Given our economic situation, that has to change – and as a new report makes clear, there are plenty of rules and regulations the Government could get rid of right away.
You can read this article at:
https://capx.co/the-brexit-dividend-...onomic-growth/
See also The Brexit dividend by the International Business Network (pdf) mentioned in the above article at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...regulation.pdf
Puffins Don't Get Closer Than This!
A Remarkable Boat Trip to The Scottish Isles (Staffa and Lunga). A YouTube video I added to our page at:
https://electricscotland.com/travel/guide/part30.htm
Who really misled voters over Brexit?
Seven years on from the referendum, it's remarkable how little scrutiny the outrageous scaremongering of the Remain campaign has attracted. Had it not been for dodgy economic forecasts and hyperbolic press conferences, we could have had a more decisive Leave vote and a less divided county.19th June 2023 (pdf)
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...20-%20CapX.pdf
Smith, James
Inventor in the fields of Mechanics and Agriculture.
You can read about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...mith_james.htm
Horticulture - Peas, Beans, Radishes, Lettuce, Cabbage, Onions
By Mr. Towers, C M. H. S., Author of the Domestic Gardener's Manual (pdf)
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...vegetables.pdf
Meet the man keeping the history of Aberdeen shipbuilding alive
Stan Bruce dedicates his time to researching the history of shipbuilding across the north-east. By Lauren Taylor in the Press & Journal Newspaper of June 16, 2023.
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...UNE%202023.pdf
General Sir Duncan Cameron
Fought in Turkey and New Zealand and was also Governor of Sandhurst
You can read about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ron_duncan.htm
Clarke's Business Directory of Scotland (1895)
A good reference source which you can study at:
https://electricscotland.com/busines...sd1895dire.pdf
The Scottish Census
Of 1851 and 1911
Some interestng information which you can study at:
https://electricscotland.com/history/census/index.htm
An Illustrated History of the State of Wisconsin
A Complete Civil, Political, and Military History of the State from its first exploration down to 1875 by Charles R. Tuttle (1875) (pdf)
Added this to our Scots in America section at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...twisconsin.pdf
Campbell Biographies (pdf)
A small selection of biographies of people with the name of Campbell which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclans/atoc/campbell.pdf
Cameron Biographies (pdf)
A small selection of biographies of people with the name of Cameron which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclans/atoc/cameron.pdf
Story
Tour in the Northern Counties of England and in Scotland
By the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty (1838)
This is how Volume II starts in the Scottish portion of this publication which I intend to post up on the site next week.
DUMFRIES.
THE immediate entrance into Scotland, from Carlisle, is not one of the least local attraction. All is flat and common-place. The Frith of Solway, to the left, is tame and expansive. The rivers Eden, Eske, and Sark, to the right, are fringed by no “dun umbrage” over cliff or rock; and you would hardly suppose that you were entering the
“Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,"
as Scott so magnificently expresses it. But where all is new, in scenery and in inhabitants, you naturally open your eyes, and expect and resolve to be gratified with all around you. I very soon recognized a few indigenous, locomotive, plants of the soil. The shepherd’s plaid (so quiet, grey, and picturesque!) was soon seen across the breast and shoulders of sundry Drovers of apparently interminable lines of short, black cattle. The drover seems to fortify no part of his body but his chest. The wind whistles around him, and the small, sleety, driving rain cases all his clothing in heavy moisture—but his breast is protected; and he whistles or hums, as he goes, in the language of the native bard of the neighbouring county,
“The westlin wind blaws cold an* shill,
The night’s baith mirk and rainy, O;
But I'll get my plaid, an* out I'll steal,
An' owre the hills to Nannie, O.”
Doubtless he would leave his cattle behind, oh such an expedition. But the day is clearing. The cattle move along more lightsomely. The drover’s countenance is less stern and compressed. “Yon,” said the post-boy — "yon is Gretna Green"! We heard it without any extravagant emotion: and although January and May may be often seen hastening thither, in the same conveyance, with countenances not quite so composed as were our own, yet a father and a daughter would necessarily approach that far-famed spot—or rather mansion—
* As this is my first, and will probably be my last, notice of “drovers of cattle,” I cannot resist furnishing the reader with a curious note of a cattle market, or fair, which was held near Stirling, about the year 1722, and is described by a traveller, (Mackay) whose book, in 1723, is of uncommon occurrence. It is an ad vivum description; but I the rather notice it, as, what struck the traveller to be the Irish language, also frequently struck me in the earlier part of my Scottish tour. To have shut my eyes, I should often have said that it was an Irishman addressing me. But is not Ireland the Scotia Major?
“The Highland fair of Criff happening when I was at Stirling, I had the curiosity to go see it. There were at least thirty thousand cattle sold there, most of them to English drovers; who paid down above thirty thousand guineas in ready money to the Highlanders; a sum they had never seen before, and proves the good effect of the Union. The Highland gentlemen were mighty civil, dressed in their slashed short waistcoats, a trousing, (which is breeches and stockings of one piece of striped stuff) with a plaid for a cloak, and a blue bonnet. They have a ponyard, knife, and fork, in one sheath, hanging at one side of their belt, their pistol at the other, and their snuff-mill before, with a great broad-sword at their side. Their attendants were very numerous, all in belted plaids, girt like women’s petticoats, down to the knee; their thighs and half of the leg all bare: they had also each their broad-sword and ponyard; and spake all Irish, an unintelligible language to the English. However, these poor creatures hired themselves out for a shilling a day, to drive the cattle to England, and to return home at their own charge.” p. 194.
impelled by curiosity alone...to hear of unions, which are at once a disgrace to our laws, and a scandal upon the moral character of both countries. This spot is as the smuggler’s cave, where no officer dare enter to seize the purloined property: it is the too frequent receptacle of passion without principle, and of cajolery without one spark of common sympathy. It furnishes the knave with a cloak, and the assassin with a dagger... which may not be wrested from him till the death of his victim or himself. Of all species of daggers, speaking daggers are the most terrible. Every day may receive a wound from its point; and every day may induce the wish or the prayer, that such wound may prove mortal: but years succeed to years of bitter taunt and inhuman reproach. Here, peradventure, if anywhere, is the fountain-head, the Marah, of the bitterest waters that flow !* which, at least, has nothing in its exterior that can be called seductive. Its attractiveness is questionless from within. It must, however, be borne in mind, that the following is "the old, original shop of matrimony."
* Pennant, about seventy years ago, thus described this place of resort:—“ At a little distance from the bridge, stop at the little village of Gretna, (or Gratna) the resort of all amorous couples, whose union the prudence of parents or guardians prohibits. Here the young couple may be instantly united by a fisherman, a joiner, or a blacksmith,—who marry from two guineas a job to a dram of whiskey; but the price is generally adjusted by the information of postilions from Carlisle, who are in pay of one or the other of the above worthies; but, even the drivers, in case of Necessity, have been known to undertake the sacerdotal office. If the pursuit of friends proves very hot, and there is not time for the ceremony, the frightened pair are advised to slip into bed; are shewn to the pursuers; who, imagining that they are irrecoverably united, retire.”..." This place is distinguished afar by a small plantation of firs, the Cyprian grove of the place: a sort of landmark for fugitive lovers. As I had a great desire (continues Pennant) to see the High Priest, by stratagem I succeeded. He appeared in form of a fisherman, a stout fellow, in a blue coat; rolling round his solemn chops a quid of tobacco of no common size. One of our party was supposed to come to explore the coast: we questioned him about his price; which, after eying us attentively, he left to our honour. The Church of Scotland does what it can to prevent these clandestine matches; but in vain: for those infamous couplers despise the fuhninations of the Kirk, and excommunication is the only penalty it can inflict" — Tour in Scotland; vol. i. p. 94. Surely the only available and effectual remedy would be, a statutablk declaration against the legality or validity of such matches: and, then, the fishermans “occupation is gone."
No particular curiosity seemed to be excited, as, on turning a little out of our way, to the right, we alighted at the door. The waiter’s movements were measured and sedate. The “cunning man” had had no intimation of our arrival. No messenger, mounted on quadruped, breathless from the swiftness of his pace, and dust and pebbles whirled around him, had preceded, to announce the almost instant arrival of the principle figurantes in the Hymeneal scene. Nothing, necessarily, of this kind could precede our approach. As we had no business to transact, the man quickly left us to ourselves, and to our own unassisted meditations: not, however, without telling us to enter the apartment in which the nuptials of the Prince of Capua with Miss Smith—and of Mr. Sheridan with Miss Grant—had been solemnized. The room had a very common-place aspect; in paper and decoration. There should have been a print of Wilkie’s Penny Wedding; instead of one of Tam O'Shanter, and another of Two Tigers fighting! — the latter, methinks, in many instances, too metaphorically true!
As there is little or nothing here locally attractive, we had no inducement to stay longer than was requisite. Gretna Green is situated ten miles from Carlisle, and nine from Annan, where we were to change horses. We entered Annan in something more solid than a Scotch mist. It rained sharply and heavily; and yet seemed to have no sort of effect upon a wide mass of population spread over the market-place: it being market-day. The inn, the principal one in the town—from whence the Earl of Annandale derives his title,—“the sweetest of all titles,” observed my travelling companion — speedily furnished us with a carriage, rather than a chaise, and pair: and during the whole of my progress in Scotland, of little short of five hundred miles, I met with no such chaise, and no such horses, as I obtained at Annan. Within the hour (a distance of nine miles) we entered the broad, clean, and tranquil town of Dumfries.
On a rainy day, few places look inviting; but the breadth and length of the High Street, and the roominess and apparent comfort of the inn, (the “King’s Arms,” opposite the "Commercial Inn”) threw an air of cheerfulness about us; and a letter of introduction to Mr. Macdiarmid, the editor of the“ Dumfries Courier,” was immediately dispatched. Meanwhile we ordered dinner and a good fire. The room on the first floor was large and commodious. A full-length portrait of its owner, or proprietor, as large as life, in oil, occupied a good many square feet of the wainscot; and the countenance depicted appeared to be indicative of the original being in prosperity and good-humour. Mails, stages, and post-chaises, should here seem to have all their wheels well greased and in constant play. As this was our first meal in Scotland, we felt ourselves bound— in homage to the genius loci—to order a little whiskey in the after part of our dinner. The female attendant was the best, as well as the first, specimen of a Scotch waiter which we encountered throughout our whole journey. She wore a white cap, upon which was a transverse piece of muslin,—and which altogether I conceive might be the Cocker-nonny of Allan Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherdess. She was tall, and even genteel in her deportment. How opposite, in all respects, to the young man-waiter of the “Luss Inn,” on the banks of Loch Lomond, who waited upon us... without his coat!—but then, the sleeves of his shirt were as white as
“The snow which oft-times caps Ben Lomond’s head.”
We were now then at Dumfries. During and after dinner, I made attacks upon the whiskey in every possible direction: with and without aqueous dilution—with and without saccharine infusion: but to no purpose. “Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, whiskey, still thou art a bitter draught.” With or without sugar, or water—hot or cold—still thou art brimstone and fire to-day, and fire and brimstone to-morrow. As it was my first, so it was my last, experiment upon this generally seductive liquor with the Scotch. In the everlasting ZotZr/y-potations at Glasgow, I could never be brought to bear my part in brandishing a ladle or emptying a rummer. Even its infusion into the punch-bowl there, though that bowl came fresh and foaming from the “cunning” hand of the good Joseph Hunter, Esq.—even then, the slightest infusion of this pellucid dram seemed, to my palate, to poison the whole of its contents. “Ah, sir, but yon should just live in the mountains a twelvemonth — and then!”—“Execrate it the more” replied I. My disputant thought me a “hopeless characterand I bade a longum vale to whiskey.*
After dinner we wrote our first Scotch letters homewards; gave ourselves great airs in descriptions of passing scenes; and already fancied that we had stormed Caerlaveroc Castle, and knelt within Sweet Heart Abbey my daughter, in every respect, preferring the latter occupation. We pulled out the carte du pays and there hardly seemed to be a marked spot upon its surface but what we were resolved to visit... forgetting that every evening was casting longer shadows, and that we had left our home on the day when we ought to have taken our first nap at Dumfries. Unluckily, Mr. Macdiarmid was away for two days; but his good lady tendered every assistance, both in person, and by means of her two sons. We sent to a bookseller opposite, and possessed ourselves of her husband’s admirable Guide, or Picture of Dumfries and its Environs, with eight plates; and retired to rest, never more disposed to quarrel with the night for its length, and the morrow for the tardiness of its appearance.
*My friend, the late Mr. Alexander Chalmers, was, of all anglicized Scotchmen, the “coolest hand at a glass of whiskey. Like Corporal Trim's cane, it “was gone in a moment,”—succeeded by neither contortion nor distortion. I remember that worthy person’s once telling me, at the table of that to the full as worthy person, the late Mr. Thomas Payne, bookseller, that he had known more than one Argyleshire man who could “drink two bottles of whiskey without inconvenience; but then, they were on the chase after the red deer.”
“The morrow” was fortunately fine. We were “up and were doing” before breakfast; but the town presents nothing in the shape of antiquities. It is, generally speaking, a new town; containing a population of nine thousand inhabitants. But if the inhabitants of Maxwell-town, divided off only by the river Nith, be also considered, there will be an addition of four thousand inhabitants. Thus the reader will understand Dumfries to be no mean “ abiding place” in the list of Scotch towns. It is a royal burgh of considerable antiquity, the seat of a presbytery, synod, sheriff’s court, record of sasines, and has four branch-banks, connected with the principal companies of Scotland.* The exports consist chiefly of grain, and the imports of coal, timber, and goods. The opposite shores of England are exceedingly rich in mineral wealth, and supply in fuel nearly the whole of Galloway and Dumfries-shire, and a large section of the northern coast of Ireland. I am willing to grant it all the trade and all the prosperity which the most ardent of its natives and its inhabitants can wish or desire; and am right well disposed to admit that the translucent waters of the Nith bring with them every year, to the joyous eyes and stomachs of the townsmen, millions of salmon, herling, gilse, sea-trout, and par, collectively. My business and my ambition lie within different limits. My first emotions, on gazing upon the broad, beautiful, and weedless Nith,* were those of a man accustomed to associate local history with local scenery; and the Abbey of Lincluden, and New Abbey, together with the Castle of Caerlaveroc... all now desolate, within a stone’s - throw of its banks . .. were grouped in my mind’s eye as I gazed. Another consideration weighed with me. I might now contemplate a beautiful country, unstained by the blood of contending feuds ... where the shrill pibroch had now ceased to be heard, and where midnight harrying no longer desolated the land. Blessed be God! its internal security seemed now to correspond with its external tranquillity.\
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
Many of you will know I'm pro Brexit so I've taken this opportunity on the 7th Anniversary of the vote to leave the EU to highlight some stories about it. I've also noted that we still retain much of the EU legal framework and so have also included a pdf file on work going on to try and remove some of it. It's a very long document (over 100 pages) but if you were to add up the various savings by reducing these EU regulations we would be much better of.
I might add that had we not left the EU we could not have joined the CPTPP and you can read about them in the news article "Trading places" below. This is what the EU was meant to be when we joined... all about trade and nothing else.
-------
I think my comment about voting for Kate Forbes was correct as I looks like our current First Minister is out of his depth. See the article in the Scottish Review below entitled "The SNP needs a new leader" in the news section.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
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. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Council incompetence to blame for Dargavel school blunder
An independent review has delivered a withering verdict on Renfrewshire Council's handling of an error which left Dargavel village short of up to 1,000 primary school places.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...-west-65920931
Nicola Sturgeon popularity plummets following police investigation into SNP finances, poll finds
A survey of voters in Scotland found the former first minister is no longer the country's favourite politician.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...owing-30248245
How Fortress EUrope demonstrates its disregard for emerging nations
THIS IS A TALE of how the EU uses regulations, quotas and tariffs to erect a Fortress Europe that, by protecting its inefficient and unsustainable agriculture industry, exports poverty to developing nations.
Read more at:
https://thinkscotland.org/2023/06/ho...rging-nations/
Who really misled voters over Brexit?
Seven years on from the referendum, it's remarkable how little scrutiny the outrageous scaremongering of the Remain campaign has attracted. Had it not been for dodgy economic forecasts and hyperbolic press conferences, we could have had a more decisive Leave vote and a less divided county.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/voters-were-misled-o...leave-campaign
Scotland's warm welcome for dollars and euros
More than half the projects come from four countries - Germany, Ireland and Canada, while the USA accounts for nearly a third.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...iness-65948190
Unlocking the secrets of the world's oldest computer
The mysterious Antikythera Mechanism has captured the imagination of archaeologists, mathematicians, and scientists ever since. Now, using the latest 3D x-ray and modelling technology, experts are unravelling the secrets of what this machine may have been capable of.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09pc...ldest-computer
Dundee tops list of recorded crime in Scotland
Crimes including car theft, sexual assault and fire-raising contributed to a big rise over the past 10 years.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/poli...st-crime-rate/
The SNP needs a new leader
This situation cannot be remedied overnight, but anyone seeking to maintain the right of Scots to self-determination and remains a member of the SNP should be pressing for the resignation of Humza Yousaf, who, on a daily basis, looks increasingly like the stooge that many already took him for. The SNP needs a new leader using a properly constituted election procedure held over the course of this summer (as happened in 2004).
Read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/BryanStuart663a.html
Innovation and Scottish politics
Take a brief audit of devolution Scotland. The Scottish Parliament set up a new institution and new structures. The Scottish Government was established, initially as the Scottish Executive, emerging out of the old Scottish Office the Westminster administrative body which had grown in size and scale over time and increasingly made the case for a parliament, democratic accountability and legitimacy.
Read more at:
https://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan663a.html
The identity crisis in our schools
Children questioning their gender is a relatively new phenomenon, and in the absence of official advice on how to help, schools have been making it up as they go along. It's time the Government gave teachers, kids and parents a clear steer on trans issues, and there are five key questions it's new guidance must answer.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/five-questions-the-n...ls-must-answer
Trading places
In a world dominated by sparring superpowers, medium-sized countries like the UK are in a tough trading spot. It's in that context that Britain's recent accession to the CPTPP is so interesting and why it is more significant than notional trade values might suggest.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/in-an-evolving-globa...it-for-the-uk/
How Fortress EUrope demonstrates its disregard for emerging nations
THIS IS A TALE of how the EU uses regulations, quotas and tariffs to erect a Fortress Europe that, by protecting its inefficient and unsustainable agriculture industry, exports poverty to developing nations.
Read more at:
https://thinkscotland.org/2023/06/ho...rging-nations/
Canada Bread agrees to pay C$50m for role in price-fixing scheme
A major bread maker in Canada will pay C$50m ($38m; £30m) for its role in a price-fixing scheme - the highest such fine ever imposed by a Canadian court.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65933102
China urged to boost home prices or face recession
Falling home prices, weakening market expectation and growing local debts have formed a vicious cycle in China
Read more at:
https://asiatimes.com/2023/06/china-...face-recession
Andrew Bailey must go
The Bank of England has no hope of regaining trust under its current governor.
Read more at:
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment...bailey-must-go
Note: Canada's inflation rate was 4.4% in May 2023, UK 7.9%, USA 4.0%
Electric Canadian
Domestic Rabbits
Raising for meet and fur (pdf)
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...tic-rabbit.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 18th day of June 2023 - Father's Day
BY the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...3-father-s-day
We Are Too Scotch
The Reverend William Proudfoot and the United Secession Mission to Canada by Stewart D. Gill, M.A., PH.D. (1851) (pdf)
An interesting article which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...etooscotch.pdf
Plank Frame Barn Construction
By John L. Shawver (1904) (pdf)
Thought I'd add this to our Beard collection and you can read it at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...rnco00shaw.pdf
Basketball
Added a video about the history of Basketball.
You can watch this on our Basketball page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...ball/index.htm
Electric Scotland
The Brexit dividend
It's seven years since we voted to leave the EU, but the great unshackling from Brussels has hardly happened at all. Given our economic situation, that has to change – and as a new report makes clear, there are plenty of rules and regulations the Government could get rid of right away.
You can read this article at:
https://capx.co/the-brexit-dividend-...onomic-growth/
See also The Brexit dividend by the International Business Network (pdf) mentioned in the above article at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...regulation.pdf
Puffins Don't Get Closer Than This!
A Remarkable Boat Trip to The Scottish Isles (Staffa and Lunga). A YouTube video I added to our page at:
https://electricscotland.com/travel/guide/part30.htm
Who really misled voters over Brexit?
Seven years on from the referendum, it's remarkable how little scrutiny the outrageous scaremongering of the Remain campaign has attracted. Had it not been for dodgy economic forecasts and hyperbolic press conferences, we could have had a more decisive Leave vote and a less divided county.19th June 2023 (pdf)
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/indepen...20-%20CapX.pdf
Smith, James
Inventor in the fields of Mechanics and Agriculture.
You can read about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...mith_james.htm
Horticulture - Peas, Beans, Radishes, Lettuce, Cabbage, Onions
By Mr. Towers, C M. H. S., Author of the Domestic Gardener's Manual (pdf)
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...vegetables.pdf
Meet the man keeping the history of Aberdeen shipbuilding alive
Stan Bruce dedicates his time to researching the history of shipbuilding across the north-east. By Lauren Taylor in the Press & Journal Newspaper of June 16, 2023.
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...UNE%202023.pdf
General Sir Duncan Cameron
Fought in Turkey and New Zealand and was also Governor of Sandhurst
You can read about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ron_duncan.htm
Clarke's Business Directory of Scotland (1895)
A good reference source which you can study at:
https://electricscotland.com/busines...sd1895dire.pdf
The Scottish Census
Of 1851 and 1911
Some interestng information which you can study at:
https://electricscotland.com/history/census/index.htm
An Illustrated History of the State of Wisconsin
A Complete Civil, Political, and Military History of the State from its first exploration down to 1875 by Charles R. Tuttle (1875) (pdf)
Added this to our Scots in America section at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...twisconsin.pdf
Campbell Biographies (pdf)
A small selection of biographies of people with the name of Campbell which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclans/atoc/campbell.pdf
Cameron Biographies (pdf)
A small selection of biographies of people with the name of Cameron which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclans/atoc/cameron.pdf
Story
Tour in the Northern Counties of England and in Scotland
By the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty (1838)
This is how Volume II starts in the Scottish portion of this publication which I intend to post up on the site next week.
DUMFRIES.
THE immediate entrance into Scotland, from Carlisle, is not one of the least local attraction. All is flat and common-place. The Frith of Solway, to the left, is tame and expansive. The rivers Eden, Eske, and Sark, to the right, are fringed by no “dun umbrage” over cliff or rock; and you would hardly suppose that you were entering the
“Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,"
as Scott so magnificently expresses it. But where all is new, in scenery and in inhabitants, you naturally open your eyes, and expect and resolve to be gratified with all around you. I very soon recognized a few indigenous, locomotive, plants of the soil. The shepherd’s plaid (so quiet, grey, and picturesque!) was soon seen across the breast and shoulders of sundry Drovers of apparently interminable lines of short, black cattle. The drover seems to fortify no part of his body but his chest. The wind whistles around him, and the small, sleety, driving rain cases all his clothing in heavy moisture—but his breast is protected; and he whistles or hums, as he goes, in the language of the native bard of the neighbouring county,
“The westlin wind blaws cold an* shill,
The night’s baith mirk and rainy, O;
But I'll get my plaid, an* out I'll steal,
An' owre the hills to Nannie, O.”
Doubtless he would leave his cattle behind, oh such an expedition. But the day is clearing. The cattle move along more lightsomely. The drover’s countenance is less stern and compressed. “Yon,” said the post-boy — "yon is Gretna Green"! We heard it without any extravagant emotion: and although January and May may be often seen hastening thither, in the same conveyance, with countenances not quite so composed as were our own, yet a father and a daughter would necessarily approach that far-famed spot—or rather mansion—
* As this is my first, and will probably be my last, notice of “drovers of cattle,” I cannot resist furnishing the reader with a curious note of a cattle market, or fair, which was held near Stirling, about the year 1722, and is described by a traveller, (Mackay) whose book, in 1723, is of uncommon occurrence. It is an ad vivum description; but I the rather notice it, as, what struck the traveller to be the Irish language, also frequently struck me in the earlier part of my Scottish tour. To have shut my eyes, I should often have said that it was an Irishman addressing me. But is not Ireland the Scotia Major?
“The Highland fair of Criff happening when I was at Stirling, I had the curiosity to go see it. There were at least thirty thousand cattle sold there, most of them to English drovers; who paid down above thirty thousand guineas in ready money to the Highlanders; a sum they had never seen before, and proves the good effect of the Union. The Highland gentlemen were mighty civil, dressed in their slashed short waistcoats, a trousing, (which is breeches and stockings of one piece of striped stuff) with a plaid for a cloak, and a blue bonnet. They have a ponyard, knife, and fork, in one sheath, hanging at one side of their belt, their pistol at the other, and their snuff-mill before, with a great broad-sword at their side. Their attendants were very numerous, all in belted plaids, girt like women’s petticoats, down to the knee; their thighs and half of the leg all bare: they had also each their broad-sword and ponyard; and spake all Irish, an unintelligible language to the English. However, these poor creatures hired themselves out for a shilling a day, to drive the cattle to England, and to return home at their own charge.” p. 194.
impelled by curiosity alone...to hear of unions, which are at once a disgrace to our laws, and a scandal upon the moral character of both countries. This spot is as the smuggler’s cave, where no officer dare enter to seize the purloined property: it is the too frequent receptacle of passion without principle, and of cajolery without one spark of common sympathy. It furnishes the knave with a cloak, and the assassin with a dagger... which may not be wrested from him till the death of his victim or himself. Of all species of daggers, speaking daggers are the most terrible. Every day may receive a wound from its point; and every day may induce the wish or the prayer, that such wound may prove mortal: but years succeed to years of bitter taunt and inhuman reproach. Here, peradventure, if anywhere, is the fountain-head, the Marah, of the bitterest waters that flow !* which, at least, has nothing in its exterior that can be called seductive. Its attractiveness is questionless from within. It must, however, be borne in mind, that the following is "the old, original shop of matrimony."
* Pennant, about seventy years ago, thus described this place of resort:—“ At a little distance from the bridge, stop at the little village of Gretna, (or Gratna) the resort of all amorous couples, whose union the prudence of parents or guardians prohibits. Here the young couple may be instantly united by a fisherman, a joiner, or a blacksmith,—who marry from two guineas a job to a dram of whiskey; but the price is generally adjusted by the information of postilions from Carlisle, who are in pay of one or the other of the above worthies; but, even the drivers, in case of Necessity, have been known to undertake the sacerdotal office. If the pursuit of friends proves very hot, and there is not time for the ceremony, the frightened pair are advised to slip into bed; are shewn to the pursuers; who, imagining that they are irrecoverably united, retire.”..." This place is distinguished afar by a small plantation of firs, the Cyprian grove of the place: a sort of landmark for fugitive lovers. As I had a great desire (continues Pennant) to see the High Priest, by stratagem I succeeded. He appeared in form of a fisherman, a stout fellow, in a blue coat; rolling round his solemn chops a quid of tobacco of no common size. One of our party was supposed to come to explore the coast: we questioned him about his price; which, after eying us attentively, he left to our honour. The Church of Scotland does what it can to prevent these clandestine matches; but in vain: for those infamous couplers despise the fuhninations of the Kirk, and excommunication is the only penalty it can inflict" — Tour in Scotland; vol. i. p. 94. Surely the only available and effectual remedy would be, a statutablk declaration against the legality or validity of such matches: and, then, the fishermans “occupation is gone."
No particular curiosity seemed to be excited, as, on turning a little out of our way, to the right, we alighted at the door. The waiter’s movements were measured and sedate. The “cunning man” had had no intimation of our arrival. No messenger, mounted on quadruped, breathless from the swiftness of his pace, and dust and pebbles whirled around him, had preceded, to announce the almost instant arrival of the principle figurantes in the Hymeneal scene. Nothing, necessarily, of this kind could precede our approach. As we had no business to transact, the man quickly left us to ourselves, and to our own unassisted meditations: not, however, without telling us to enter the apartment in which the nuptials of the Prince of Capua with Miss Smith—and of Mr. Sheridan with Miss Grant—had been solemnized. The room had a very common-place aspect; in paper and decoration. There should have been a print of Wilkie’s Penny Wedding; instead of one of Tam O'Shanter, and another of Two Tigers fighting! — the latter, methinks, in many instances, too metaphorically true!
As there is little or nothing here locally attractive, we had no inducement to stay longer than was requisite. Gretna Green is situated ten miles from Carlisle, and nine from Annan, where we were to change horses. We entered Annan in something more solid than a Scotch mist. It rained sharply and heavily; and yet seemed to have no sort of effect upon a wide mass of population spread over the market-place: it being market-day. The inn, the principal one in the town—from whence the Earl of Annandale derives his title,—“the sweetest of all titles,” observed my travelling companion — speedily furnished us with a carriage, rather than a chaise, and pair: and during the whole of my progress in Scotland, of little short of five hundred miles, I met with no such chaise, and no such horses, as I obtained at Annan. Within the hour (a distance of nine miles) we entered the broad, clean, and tranquil town of Dumfries.
On a rainy day, few places look inviting; but the breadth and length of the High Street, and the roominess and apparent comfort of the inn, (the “King’s Arms,” opposite the "Commercial Inn”) threw an air of cheerfulness about us; and a letter of introduction to Mr. Macdiarmid, the editor of the“ Dumfries Courier,” was immediately dispatched. Meanwhile we ordered dinner and a good fire. The room on the first floor was large and commodious. A full-length portrait of its owner, or proprietor, as large as life, in oil, occupied a good many square feet of the wainscot; and the countenance depicted appeared to be indicative of the original being in prosperity and good-humour. Mails, stages, and post-chaises, should here seem to have all their wheels well greased and in constant play. As this was our first meal in Scotland, we felt ourselves bound— in homage to the genius loci—to order a little whiskey in the after part of our dinner. The female attendant was the best, as well as the first, specimen of a Scotch waiter which we encountered throughout our whole journey. She wore a white cap, upon which was a transverse piece of muslin,—and which altogether I conceive might be the Cocker-nonny of Allan Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherdess. She was tall, and even genteel in her deportment. How opposite, in all respects, to the young man-waiter of the “Luss Inn,” on the banks of Loch Lomond, who waited upon us... without his coat!—but then, the sleeves of his shirt were as white as
“The snow which oft-times caps Ben Lomond’s head.”
We were now then at Dumfries. During and after dinner, I made attacks upon the whiskey in every possible direction: with and without aqueous dilution—with and without saccharine infusion: but to no purpose. “Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, whiskey, still thou art a bitter draught.” With or without sugar, or water—hot or cold—still thou art brimstone and fire to-day, and fire and brimstone to-morrow. As it was my first, so it was my last, experiment upon this generally seductive liquor with the Scotch. In the everlasting ZotZr/y-potations at Glasgow, I could never be brought to bear my part in brandishing a ladle or emptying a rummer. Even its infusion into the punch-bowl there, though that bowl came fresh and foaming from the “cunning” hand of the good Joseph Hunter, Esq.—even then, the slightest infusion of this pellucid dram seemed, to my palate, to poison the whole of its contents. “Ah, sir, but yon should just live in the mountains a twelvemonth — and then!”—“Execrate it the more” replied I. My disputant thought me a “hopeless characterand I bade a longum vale to whiskey.*
After dinner we wrote our first Scotch letters homewards; gave ourselves great airs in descriptions of passing scenes; and already fancied that we had stormed Caerlaveroc Castle, and knelt within Sweet Heart Abbey my daughter, in every respect, preferring the latter occupation. We pulled out the carte du pays and there hardly seemed to be a marked spot upon its surface but what we were resolved to visit... forgetting that every evening was casting longer shadows, and that we had left our home on the day when we ought to have taken our first nap at Dumfries. Unluckily, Mr. Macdiarmid was away for two days; but his good lady tendered every assistance, both in person, and by means of her two sons. We sent to a bookseller opposite, and possessed ourselves of her husband’s admirable Guide, or Picture of Dumfries and its Environs, with eight plates; and retired to rest, never more disposed to quarrel with the night for its length, and the morrow for the tardiness of its appearance.
*My friend, the late Mr. Alexander Chalmers, was, of all anglicized Scotchmen, the “coolest hand at a glass of whiskey. Like Corporal Trim's cane, it “was gone in a moment,”—succeeded by neither contortion nor distortion. I remember that worthy person’s once telling me, at the table of that to the full as worthy person, the late Mr. Thomas Payne, bookseller, that he had known more than one Argyleshire man who could “drink two bottles of whiskey without inconvenience; but then, they were on the chase after the red deer.”
“The morrow” was fortunately fine. We were “up and were doing” before breakfast; but the town presents nothing in the shape of antiquities. It is, generally speaking, a new town; containing a population of nine thousand inhabitants. But if the inhabitants of Maxwell-town, divided off only by the river Nith, be also considered, there will be an addition of four thousand inhabitants. Thus the reader will understand Dumfries to be no mean “ abiding place” in the list of Scotch towns. It is a royal burgh of considerable antiquity, the seat of a presbytery, synod, sheriff’s court, record of sasines, and has four branch-banks, connected with the principal companies of Scotland.* The exports consist chiefly of grain, and the imports of coal, timber, and goods. The opposite shores of England are exceedingly rich in mineral wealth, and supply in fuel nearly the whole of Galloway and Dumfries-shire, and a large section of the northern coast of Ireland. I am willing to grant it all the trade and all the prosperity which the most ardent of its natives and its inhabitants can wish or desire; and am right well disposed to admit that the translucent waters of the Nith bring with them every year, to the joyous eyes and stomachs of the townsmen, millions of salmon, herling, gilse, sea-trout, and par, collectively. My business and my ambition lie within different limits. My first emotions, on gazing upon the broad, beautiful, and weedless Nith,* were those of a man accustomed to associate local history with local scenery; and the Abbey of Lincluden, and New Abbey, together with the Castle of Caerlaveroc... all now desolate, within a stone’s - throw of its banks . .. were grouped in my mind’s eye as I gazed. Another consideration weighed with me. I might now contemplate a beautiful country, unstained by the blood of contending feuds ... where the shrill pibroch had now ceased to be heard, and where midnight harrying no longer desolated the land. Blessed be God! its internal security seemed now to correspond with its external tranquillity.\
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
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