Tweet
CONTENTS
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
Canadian Monthly Magazine
Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada
The Glittering Mountains of Canada
Handbook to Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba
The Maple Leaf as an Emblem of Canada
Information on the Delaware Nation
The Flag in the Wind
Electric Scotland
Northern Notes and Queries
Scots Drink
Reminiscences of the Royal Burgh of Haddington
Sketches of Virginia
Reminiscences of the Lews
Robert Burns Lives!
Bygone Punishments
The Tower of Craigietocher
James Watson
Auld Lang Syne
Songs of John Henderson
Significant Scots: Robert Gilfillan
Electric Scotland News
Steve was telling me this week that he is having issues with the Windows 2008 server as it is quite a bit different from the 2003 one in how it is configured. I've been sending him some web site addresses where other people have reported having problems getting email to work with a PHP program. He just told me that they have been helpful and he now thinks he might get this working. Should he succeed we will install the comment system we purchased some time ago now. In the event he doesn't then we'll use the other one we found.
---
I was over on an Indian Reservation at Moraviatown this week. This is part of my work to try and tell the story of the First Nations people in Canada. It seems no one wants to admit to knowing anything of their history. The resident registered population is 457, with another 587 band members living off the reserve. And so it's a small reservation but you'd think someone would be interested in talking about their community but not one person I asked knew anything of their history.
And so I am quite pleased to be able to report that I have found a great deal about them and have now posted my findings up on the site for which see more below. On my next visit to them I'll be able to tell them of this resource so if they want to find out more of their own history this will provide it.
Electric Canadian
Canadian Monthly Magazine
Published by the Vanderhoof-Gunn Publishing Company
I've now added Volume 21.
This can be found at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...zine/index.htm
Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada
This week I've put up the balance of the letters so this is now complete. You can see these at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/gazetteer/index.htm
The Glittering Mountains of Canada
A Record of Exploration and Pioneer Ascents in the Canadian Rockies 1914 - 1924 by J. Monroe Thorington (1925).
I've now completed the appendix articles and so this book is now complete.
You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...ains/index.htm
Handbook to Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba
Prepared for the 79th Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancemet of Science 1909.
Have now completed this book. You can read it at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...book/index.htm
The Maple Leaf as an Emblem of Canada
By Henry Scadding D.D.
Found this interesting wee leaflet so decided to ocr it in for you to read and you can get to it at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/mapleleaf.htm
Information on the Delaware Nation
As I live just an hour away from Moraviatown I thought I'd try and obtain more information about this area and its people. From what I have been able to discover the people of Moraviatown were Christian converts of the Delaware Nation and due to persecution by the American people they left the US to come to the Thames River area of Kent County in Ontario, Canada. Their spiritual leader was David Zeisberger from what is now known as the Czech Republic. The Lanapi was the original name of the Delaware and so have also looked for information on that name as well.
One way or another I found quite a few antiquarian books that I've now made available on the site. The list includes...
Diary of David Zeisberger Book 1
Diary of David Zeisberger Book 2
The Delaware Indians by Richard C Adams
This is a very short book but most interesting and tells of their Thanksgiving ceremonies.
Delaware Indian Legends by Richard C. Adams
Essay of a Delaware-Indian and English Spelling Book
History of the Delaware and Iroquois Indians
The Indian Chief, Journeycake
Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing
The Lenāpķ and their Legends
Memorial of the Delaware
The Moravian Indian Mission of White River
Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape
A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practice and Folk Beliefs
You can get to all these at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ware/index.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was Compiled by Jim Lynch
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Northern Notes and Queries
This week we include Volume 10 Notes 704 To 716
This issue includes...
Scottish Youths Kidnapped, 1697
Names of Sundays in Lent
Queen Mary's Cradle
Account of Charles Bailly.
Abstract of Protocol Book of the Burgh of Stirling
From Perth to Carlisle in 1795
Palaeolithic Weapons in Nova Scotia
The Foulis Family
The Commissariot Register of Shetland
The Right to bear Coat Armour
Bygone Scotland in the Transvaal
The Scottish History Society and the Parochial Registers
British Record Society (Scottish Section)
This issue can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
Reminiscences of the Royal Burgh of Haddington
And Old East Lothian Agriculturists by John Martine (1883).
We added the following chapters this week...
The Carfraes of Yester
Bara Church and Churchyard
Reminiscences of the Parish of Morham
Crossgate Hall
John Cockburn of Ormiston
George Rennie of Phantassie and Andrew Meikle
Robert Brown of Markle
Here is how the chapter on John Cockburn of Ormiston...
ONE of the most distinguished men who ever possessed land in East Lothian, or perhaps in Scotland, was John Cockburn, proprietor of the estate of Ormiston. Descended from a family long and honourably known during the various struggles which Scotland made to shake off the fetters of tyranny, Mr Cockburn inherited with the estate of Ormiston a genuine and liberal patriotism. He was born about the year 1685, and was the son of Adam Cockburn of Ormiston, Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland after the Revolution of 1688. He sat as a member of the last Scottish Parliament, during the life of his father, and took an active part in the Union of Scotland, with England, which was consummated in 1707. Afterwards he was successively elected to represent the county of Haddington, from 1707 to 1741, in the Parliament of Great Britain. For many years he filled office as one of the Lords of the Admiralty with much credit, and proved himself to be of much service to the State. It is, however, as the first great improver of land, and as an able and energetic instructor in husbandry in East Lothian, that we desire to notice him.
In the period in which Mr Cockburn lived, the land in East Lothian, as elsewhere, was in a very low and miserable state of cultivation. Tenants were poor, and rarely accepted leases; they were oppressed by the lairds. Many farms were unoccupied and untilled. Lord Karnes declared, in his usual characteristic style, that the tenantry were so benumbed with oppression, that the most able instructor in husbandry could have made nothing of them,
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter39.htm
You can read the rest of these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gton/index.htm
Sketches of Virginia
Historical and Biographical by The Rev. William Henry Foote D.D. (1856)
We're now up to Chapter XIX of this book. In chapter XVIII we learn a little about conditions at the time...
The birth-place of John H. Rice was in Bedford County, Virginia, in sight of the Peaks of Otter. Fearlessness, composure, frugality, open-handed hospitality, frankness, and deep religious feelings, characterized the region in which he was born. Plain fare, plain dress, little money, cheerful hearts, active spirits, capability of endurance, and shrewd minds, were to be found in log-houses in that fertile and magnificent county, lying south of the river James, and at the base of the Blue Ridge.
Benjamin and Catherine Rice had six children, Edith, David, John Holt, Sarah, Benjamin Holt, and Elizabeth. John Holt, the third child, and second son, was born the 28th of November, 1777. The father grew up in Hanover County, and was by profession a lawyer, a man frank in his manners, sociable in bis disposition, and shrewd in his apprehensions. A natural vein of humor, and his determined piety, made him a pleasant and safe companion, and a desirable friend. At the time of the birth of his second son, he was deputy Clerk of Bedford County, and ruling elder in the congregation of Peaks and Pisgah, the pastoral charge of his uncle, David Rice, afterwards known as the apostle of Kentucky. The mother, Catherine Holt, a near relative of the second wife of Rev. Samuel Davies., born and reared in Hanover County, possessed a gentle disposition and a cultivated mind, was domestic in her habits, and devotedly pious.
Mr. Rice lived upon a small tract of land belonging to the brother of his wife, the Rev. John White Holt, an Episcopal minister, and had an income of eighty pounds from the Clerk’s Office, in addition to the profits of his legal practice. His unsullied purity of principle and life, and his unsophisticated manners gave him influence and a high standing in society. Hospitality, in those days of simplicity, unincumbered with expensive entertainments, was the source of great enjoyment and mental improvement. The habits of the country ensured the visitor a cheerful welcome to a plentiful supply of any provision the host might have prepared, or was convenient. Of books the number was small, and the circulation of newspapers very limited; and the conversation of intelligent visitors, at the evening fireside, or the table of refreshment, was eagerly sought for the passing enjoyment, and the improvement of a rising family. Some of the finest characters of the Revolution, and the times succeeding, were formed under this social influence, this contact with enlarged and improved minds. The earliest associations of Mr. Rice’s young family were with the good and the intelligent. The uncle of the father, the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation, and the brother of the mother, an Episcopal minister, exercised an elevating religious influence in their familiar intercourse with the young people.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter18.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...inia/index.htm
Reminiscences of the Lews
By Sixty One (1871)
This week we've added the following chapters...
Chapter IX - Loch Trialaval and the Young Geese
Chapter X - Dick Burnaby and Grouse the First
Chapter XI - Dear Old Shippy
Chapter XII - Setters and Wet Crawls
Chapter XIII - A Tame Stag
Chapter XIV - The Woodcock and his ways, and Shooting him in the open
Chapter XV - Woodcocks again
Here is how Chapter XI starts...
IT was with great regret, as I have already said, that I parted with my friend Burnaby. Independent of the regard I had for him, there was a comfort in having near at hand a countryman on whom one could rely in case of emergency. You may say what you like, but Celt clings to Celt, Saxon to Saxon; and in the far regions of the north-west one likes to be sure of something like fellow-feeling—one wants something like plain, down-right English. Living, as I did at that time, a great deal in the' Hebrides, I wanted a companion that understood English ways and habits thoroughly. No doubt, as long as Fred was in the island, and my own immediate neighbour, there was no lack of fellowship; but then, alas! December generally saw him migrate. I don’t think I could have stood the island by myself at first without Dick; but when he also went, my heart sank within me; and, but for my bright home, I believe I should have gone too. But Providence was very kind to me.
There still existed another Saxon in the long island—a true one too—with whom I had already smoked the calumet of peace, and with whom before we separated, I entered into the strongest bonds of amity. This individual was the Episcopalian clergyman of Stornoway —whom for short we used, or I used, to call Shippy—and an excellent, good man he was. He was a true specimen of an upright, conscientious being, with good brains, and that rare gift of common sense. By common sense I don’t mean worldly sense; but that instinct that sees what is the right thing to do, and never swerves one inch to right or left, to please the “Devil, the Pope, or the Pretender,” and thus gains respect, and by respect a following also. His preferment was not very large — one hundred pounds per annum ; but then Stornoway was not in those days a very dear place to live in, and its merchants were not “the princes of the earth.” The duties of his cure were not onerous, but in their discharge he managed to secure the good opinion of both the Established and the Free Church; and when he left the island to take a small, very small, living in England, he did. so to the great regret of all classes. In a pecuniary point of view he did not much better himself by the change; for, while the incomes of both valuable pieces of preferment were equal, the expenses of living in the county to which he moved were trebled. But I advised him strongly to do so, as where he was, with a wife and children, the future was a bad prospect. He took my advice, and that of his other friends, and there he is, “as you was,” as the drill-sergeant says, some fourteen years ago, except that he has received some small augmentation of £40 per annum to his means. And yet all agree in sounding his praises as a model parish priest. I visited him the other day on my road north, only to find him the same happy, contented being. Of course his bishop is most anxious to do something for so exemplary a man; but somehow bishops never find the opportunity of doing anything for these plain, hard-working, parish priests. No; tutorise, platformise, inspectarise, and you have a chance. But there are so many good, hardworking men, it would be invidious to select one. It, is like the army: the regimental officers get the kicks, the staff the halfpence. Oh, dear! how I wish I was a bishop for only a short time, to give a few good things to such men as good Shippy.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter11.htm
You can read this book and the opening chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/lews/index.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
My good friend Alastair McIntyre, creator of the www.electricscotland web site, is also my editor and “boss”. I am prone to listen when he sends something to me since he makes Robert Burns Lives! possible and available to interested Burns readers.
Alastair sent me an email on 04 October 2012 saying, “Hi Frank…I came across this article…”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-19798644
Alastair
You can read this article... Digitizing Robert Burns By Frank Shaw at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives156.htm
Other articles in this series can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...rank/burns.htm
Bygone Punishments
John Henderson found this book and thought it would be a worthwhile addition to our archives. He extracted three chapters which were of particular relevance to Scotland and you can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...les/bygone.htm
The Tower of Craigietocher
As some of you may remember this is a new tower being built and we've been party to the whole process as the foundations have been laid to now where the roof is now on and made water tight. The schedule is that the inside should be completed and ready to move in during 2014. Now that the roof is complete I got a few pictures sent in to show what the tower now looks like minus the scaffolding.
You can see this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...agietocher.htm
James Watson
This is a short biography taken from a book he published and makes an interesting read which also gives a very interesting description of his trials/tribulations and eventual success in business litigation concerning commercial printing/publishing in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tson_james.htm
Auld Lang Syne
Got in a copy of an old version of Old Lang Syne and also a translation of the poem into English. You'll find it towards the top of the article between horizontal lines. You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/langsyne.htm
Songs of John Henderson
John sent in another of his songs, Bessie An' MaryAnne, which you can view at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel454.htm
Significant Scots: Robert Gilfillan
We got in a great book of his poems which we have now added to his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lan_robert.htm
And finally...
End Game
A chicken walks up to a duck standing at the side of the road, and tells him,
"Don't do it mate - you'll never hear the end of it."
---
Nothing To It!
WE overhear a woman in a west end coffee shop tell her pal: "I've taken up meditation - well, it beats sitting around doing nothing."
---
Tough, Eh?
The school that was so tough that even the arms on the chairs had tattoos was tame compared to ours - our weekly school magazine had an obituary column.
---
Estate Planning
Dan was a single man living at home with his father and working in the family business. Then he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died. So he decided he needed a wife with whom to share it.
One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.
"I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit millions"
Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.
And that's it for now and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
Canadian Monthly Magazine
Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada
The Glittering Mountains of Canada
Handbook to Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba
The Maple Leaf as an Emblem of Canada
Information on the Delaware Nation
The Flag in the Wind
Electric Scotland
Northern Notes and Queries
Scots Drink
Reminiscences of the Royal Burgh of Haddington
Sketches of Virginia
Reminiscences of the Lews
Robert Burns Lives!
Bygone Punishments
The Tower of Craigietocher
James Watson
Auld Lang Syne
Songs of John Henderson
Significant Scots: Robert Gilfillan
Electric Scotland News
Steve was telling me this week that he is having issues with the Windows 2008 server as it is quite a bit different from the 2003 one in how it is configured. I've been sending him some web site addresses where other people have reported having problems getting email to work with a PHP program. He just told me that they have been helpful and he now thinks he might get this working. Should he succeed we will install the comment system we purchased some time ago now. In the event he doesn't then we'll use the other one we found.
---
I was over on an Indian Reservation at Moraviatown this week. This is part of my work to try and tell the story of the First Nations people in Canada. It seems no one wants to admit to knowing anything of their history. The resident registered population is 457, with another 587 band members living off the reserve. And so it's a small reservation but you'd think someone would be interested in talking about their community but not one person I asked knew anything of their history.
And so I am quite pleased to be able to report that I have found a great deal about them and have now posted my findings up on the site for which see more below. On my next visit to them I'll be able to tell them of this resource so if they want to find out more of their own history this will provide it.
Electric Canadian
Canadian Monthly Magazine
Published by the Vanderhoof-Gunn Publishing Company
I've now added Volume 21.
This can be found at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...zine/index.htm
Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada
This week I've put up the balance of the letters so this is now complete. You can see these at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/gazetteer/index.htm
The Glittering Mountains of Canada
A Record of Exploration and Pioneer Ascents in the Canadian Rockies 1914 - 1924 by J. Monroe Thorington (1925).
I've now completed the appendix articles and so this book is now complete.
You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...ains/index.htm
Handbook to Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba
Prepared for the 79th Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancemet of Science 1909.
Have now completed this book. You can read it at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...book/index.htm
The Maple Leaf as an Emblem of Canada
By Henry Scadding D.D.
Found this interesting wee leaflet so decided to ocr it in for you to read and you can get to it at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/mapleleaf.htm
Information on the Delaware Nation
As I live just an hour away from Moraviatown I thought I'd try and obtain more information about this area and its people. From what I have been able to discover the people of Moraviatown were Christian converts of the Delaware Nation and due to persecution by the American people they left the US to come to the Thames River area of Kent County in Ontario, Canada. Their spiritual leader was David Zeisberger from what is now known as the Czech Republic. The Lanapi was the original name of the Delaware and so have also looked for information on that name as well.
One way or another I found quite a few antiquarian books that I've now made available on the site. The list includes...
Diary of David Zeisberger Book 1
Diary of David Zeisberger Book 2
The Delaware Indians by Richard C Adams
This is a very short book but most interesting and tells of their Thanksgiving ceremonies.
Delaware Indian Legends by Richard C. Adams
Essay of a Delaware-Indian and English Spelling Book
History of the Delaware and Iroquois Indians
The Indian Chief, Journeycake
Legends of the Delaware Indians and Picture Writing
The Lenāpķ and their Legends
Memorial of the Delaware
The Moravian Indian Mission of White River
Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape
A Study of Delaware Indian Medicine Practice and Folk Beliefs
You can get to all these at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ware/index.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was Compiled by Jim Lynch
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Northern Notes and Queries
This week we include Volume 10 Notes 704 To 716
This issue includes...
Scottish Youths Kidnapped, 1697
Names of Sundays in Lent
Queen Mary's Cradle
Account of Charles Bailly.
Abstract of Protocol Book of the Burgh of Stirling
From Perth to Carlisle in 1795
Palaeolithic Weapons in Nova Scotia
The Foulis Family
The Commissariot Register of Shetland
The Right to bear Coat Armour
Bygone Scotland in the Transvaal
The Scottish History Society and the Parochial Registers
British Record Society (Scottish Section)
This issue can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
Reminiscences of the Royal Burgh of Haddington
And Old East Lothian Agriculturists by John Martine (1883).
We added the following chapters this week...
The Carfraes of Yester
Bara Church and Churchyard
Reminiscences of the Parish of Morham
Crossgate Hall
John Cockburn of Ormiston
George Rennie of Phantassie and Andrew Meikle
Robert Brown of Markle
Here is how the chapter on John Cockburn of Ormiston...
ONE of the most distinguished men who ever possessed land in East Lothian, or perhaps in Scotland, was John Cockburn, proprietor of the estate of Ormiston. Descended from a family long and honourably known during the various struggles which Scotland made to shake off the fetters of tyranny, Mr Cockburn inherited with the estate of Ormiston a genuine and liberal patriotism. He was born about the year 1685, and was the son of Adam Cockburn of Ormiston, Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland after the Revolution of 1688. He sat as a member of the last Scottish Parliament, during the life of his father, and took an active part in the Union of Scotland, with England, which was consummated in 1707. Afterwards he was successively elected to represent the county of Haddington, from 1707 to 1741, in the Parliament of Great Britain. For many years he filled office as one of the Lords of the Admiralty with much credit, and proved himself to be of much service to the State. It is, however, as the first great improver of land, and as an able and energetic instructor in husbandry in East Lothian, that we desire to notice him.
In the period in which Mr Cockburn lived, the land in East Lothian, as elsewhere, was in a very low and miserable state of cultivation. Tenants were poor, and rarely accepted leases; they were oppressed by the lairds. Many farms were unoccupied and untilled. Lord Karnes declared, in his usual characteristic style, that the tenantry were so benumbed with oppression, that the most able instructor in husbandry could have made nothing of them,
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter39.htm
You can read the rest of these chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gton/index.htm
Sketches of Virginia
Historical and Biographical by The Rev. William Henry Foote D.D. (1856)
We're now up to Chapter XIX of this book. In chapter XVIII we learn a little about conditions at the time...
The birth-place of John H. Rice was in Bedford County, Virginia, in sight of the Peaks of Otter. Fearlessness, composure, frugality, open-handed hospitality, frankness, and deep religious feelings, characterized the region in which he was born. Plain fare, plain dress, little money, cheerful hearts, active spirits, capability of endurance, and shrewd minds, were to be found in log-houses in that fertile and magnificent county, lying south of the river James, and at the base of the Blue Ridge.
Benjamin and Catherine Rice had six children, Edith, David, John Holt, Sarah, Benjamin Holt, and Elizabeth. John Holt, the third child, and second son, was born the 28th of November, 1777. The father grew up in Hanover County, and was by profession a lawyer, a man frank in his manners, sociable in bis disposition, and shrewd in his apprehensions. A natural vein of humor, and his determined piety, made him a pleasant and safe companion, and a desirable friend. At the time of the birth of his second son, he was deputy Clerk of Bedford County, and ruling elder in the congregation of Peaks and Pisgah, the pastoral charge of his uncle, David Rice, afterwards known as the apostle of Kentucky. The mother, Catherine Holt, a near relative of the second wife of Rev. Samuel Davies., born and reared in Hanover County, possessed a gentle disposition and a cultivated mind, was domestic in her habits, and devotedly pious.
Mr. Rice lived upon a small tract of land belonging to the brother of his wife, the Rev. John White Holt, an Episcopal minister, and had an income of eighty pounds from the Clerk’s Office, in addition to the profits of his legal practice. His unsullied purity of principle and life, and his unsophisticated manners gave him influence and a high standing in society. Hospitality, in those days of simplicity, unincumbered with expensive entertainments, was the source of great enjoyment and mental improvement. The habits of the country ensured the visitor a cheerful welcome to a plentiful supply of any provision the host might have prepared, or was convenient. Of books the number was small, and the circulation of newspapers very limited; and the conversation of intelligent visitors, at the evening fireside, or the table of refreshment, was eagerly sought for the passing enjoyment, and the improvement of a rising family. Some of the finest characters of the Revolution, and the times succeeding, were formed under this social influence, this contact with enlarged and improved minds. The earliest associations of Mr. Rice’s young family were with the good and the intelligent. The uncle of the father, the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation, and the brother of the mother, an Episcopal minister, exercised an elevating religious influence in their familiar intercourse with the young people.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter18.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...inia/index.htm
Reminiscences of the Lews
By Sixty One (1871)
This week we've added the following chapters...
Chapter IX - Loch Trialaval and the Young Geese
Chapter X - Dick Burnaby and Grouse the First
Chapter XI - Dear Old Shippy
Chapter XII - Setters and Wet Crawls
Chapter XIII - A Tame Stag
Chapter XIV - The Woodcock and his ways, and Shooting him in the open
Chapter XV - Woodcocks again
Here is how Chapter XI starts...
IT was with great regret, as I have already said, that I parted with my friend Burnaby. Independent of the regard I had for him, there was a comfort in having near at hand a countryman on whom one could rely in case of emergency. You may say what you like, but Celt clings to Celt, Saxon to Saxon; and in the far regions of the north-west one likes to be sure of something like fellow-feeling—one wants something like plain, down-right English. Living, as I did at that time, a great deal in the' Hebrides, I wanted a companion that understood English ways and habits thoroughly. No doubt, as long as Fred was in the island, and my own immediate neighbour, there was no lack of fellowship; but then, alas! December generally saw him migrate. I don’t think I could have stood the island by myself at first without Dick; but when he also went, my heart sank within me; and, but for my bright home, I believe I should have gone too. But Providence was very kind to me.
There still existed another Saxon in the long island—a true one too—with whom I had already smoked the calumet of peace, and with whom before we separated, I entered into the strongest bonds of amity. This individual was the Episcopalian clergyman of Stornoway —whom for short we used, or I used, to call Shippy—and an excellent, good man he was. He was a true specimen of an upright, conscientious being, with good brains, and that rare gift of common sense. By common sense I don’t mean worldly sense; but that instinct that sees what is the right thing to do, and never swerves one inch to right or left, to please the “Devil, the Pope, or the Pretender,” and thus gains respect, and by respect a following also. His preferment was not very large — one hundred pounds per annum ; but then Stornoway was not in those days a very dear place to live in, and its merchants were not “the princes of the earth.” The duties of his cure were not onerous, but in their discharge he managed to secure the good opinion of both the Established and the Free Church; and when he left the island to take a small, very small, living in England, he did. so to the great regret of all classes. In a pecuniary point of view he did not much better himself by the change; for, while the incomes of both valuable pieces of preferment were equal, the expenses of living in the county to which he moved were trebled. But I advised him strongly to do so, as where he was, with a wife and children, the future was a bad prospect. He took my advice, and that of his other friends, and there he is, “as you was,” as the drill-sergeant says, some fourteen years ago, except that he has received some small augmentation of £40 per annum to his means. And yet all agree in sounding his praises as a model parish priest. I visited him the other day on my road north, only to find him the same happy, contented being. Of course his bishop is most anxious to do something for so exemplary a man; but somehow bishops never find the opportunity of doing anything for these plain, hard-working, parish priests. No; tutorise, platformise, inspectarise, and you have a chance. But there are so many good, hardworking men, it would be invidious to select one. It, is like the army: the regimental officers get the kicks, the staff the halfpence. Oh, dear! how I wish I was a bishop for only a short time, to give a few good things to such men as good Shippy.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter11.htm
You can read this book and the opening chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/lews/index.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
My good friend Alastair McIntyre, creator of the www.electricscotland web site, is also my editor and “boss”. I am prone to listen when he sends something to me since he makes Robert Burns Lives! possible and available to interested Burns readers.
Alastair sent me an email on 04 October 2012 saying, “Hi Frank…I came across this article…”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-19798644
Alastair
You can read this article... Digitizing Robert Burns By Frank Shaw at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives156.htm
Other articles in this series can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...rank/burns.htm
Bygone Punishments
John Henderson found this book and thought it would be a worthwhile addition to our archives. He extracted three chapters which were of particular relevance to Scotland and you can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...les/bygone.htm
The Tower of Craigietocher
As some of you may remember this is a new tower being built and we've been party to the whole process as the foundations have been laid to now where the roof is now on and made water tight. The schedule is that the inside should be completed and ready to move in during 2014. Now that the roof is complete I got a few pictures sent in to show what the tower now looks like minus the scaffolding.
You can see this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...agietocher.htm
James Watson
This is a short biography taken from a book he published and makes an interesting read which also gives a very interesting description of his trials/tribulations and eventual success in business litigation concerning commercial printing/publishing in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tson_james.htm
Auld Lang Syne
Got in a copy of an old version of Old Lang Syne and also a translation of the poem into English. You'll find it towards the top of the article between horizontal lines. You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/langsyne.htm
Songs of John Henderson
John sent in another of his songs, Bessie An' MaryAnne, which you can view at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel454.htm
Significant Scots: Robert Gilfillan
We got in a great book of his poems which we have now added to his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lan_robert.htm
And finally...
End Game
A chicken walks up to a duck standing at the side of the road, and tells him,
"Don't do it mate - you'll never hear the end of it."
---
Nothing To It!
WE overhear a woman in a west end coffee shop tell her pal: "I've taken up meditation - well, it beats sitting around doing nothing."
---
Tough, Eh?
The school that was so tough that even the arms on the chairs had tattoos was tame compared to ours - our weekly school magazine had an obituary column.
---
Estate Planning
Dan was a single man living at home with his father and working in the family business. Then he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died. So he decided he needed a wife with whom to share it.
One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away.
"I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit millions"
Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.
And that's it for now and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair