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CONTENTS
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
Wild Life in Canada
Kildonan Gathering
Statement Respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement of Kildonan
The Flag in the Wind
Electric Scotland
The Scottish Historical Review
Songs Of Scotland, Prior To Burns
The Scottish Naturalist
Thomas Dykes
Enigma Machine
Songs from John Henderson
Beauties of Dr. John Moore
The Scottish Fairy Book
Braemar Highlands
Lord Charles Neaves
Robert Burns Lives!
Scottish Myths from Ontario
Very Basic Cooking
The Family of Gordon in Griamachary, in the Parish of Kildonan
European Union - The Birth of an Idea
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Clan Ogilvy
The Tower of Craigietocher
and finally
Electric Scotland News
Film archives are a tremendous resource for learning. They connect us to our past in an immediate and thrilling way, provoking thought, fuelling discussion and inspiring creativity. We can hear the deafening sounds of industry, see emotions of the workers, and bring history alive by reliving the experiences of the past through moving images. With digital technology, archive films are now as accessible in the classroom as books and music.
Scotland on Screen is a partnership project between Creative Scotland, Education Scotland and the National Library of Scotland. This new website provides free access to films from the Scottish Screen Archive (Scotland's film archive - part of National Library of Scotland) with accompanying learning resources and Feature Resources for use in the classroom by students and teachers. The materials can also be used by a range of educational instutions/providers and by the general public for research and enjoyment. The films document over a century of Scottish lives on film, with particular reference to social, economic and environmental change.
You can visit their web site at: http://scotlandonscreen.org.uk/
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You're likely aware that chip pan fires are a major cause of house fires. Indeed a house a couple of doors away from me burnt down due to just that situation.
I've been using a deep fat fryer since I came to Canada and the other day I did something I've never done in my life in that I forgot I was deep fat frying a couple of hash brown paties to have with a brunch I was having. Well having had my brunch I took the plate back into the kitchen and to get a cup of coffee when I noticed the light on my deep fat fryer! I'd totally forgotten about it.
Now that could have been very dangerous but I concluded that as the deep fat fryer is temperature controlled it didn't get any hotter than what it was set for so didn't go on fire. I was a bit shaken that I'd done that but also wondered if more people used a deep fat fryer whether that would reduce the chance of it going on fire?
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The World Pipe Band Championship is this weekend in Glasgow. You can watch live at www.bbc.co.uk/worlds
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HALF of all unemployed young people have never had a job, a study has revealed. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank revealed the shocking findings.
The study, published ahead of the latest unemployment figures, also showed that three quarters of young people in all levels of education do not have a job.
Figures revealed that since 1998 the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who have never had a job has almost doubled to 640,000.
This is just one of the stories you can read on our ScotNews feed at http://www.electricscotland.com which is updated daily.
Electric Canadian
Wild Life in Canada
By Captain Angus Buchanan, M.C. (1920).
I now have the first 5 chapters up of this book. In Chapter 2 there is an interesting list of what he had to pack to go on his trip Out to Lake Ile La Crosse.
You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...life/index.htm
Kildonan Gathering
A celebration of Scots from Canada and Helmsdale, Scotland.
Standing in a park overlooking the east Sutherland village of Helmsdale, a statue depicts a young 19th century family, with the father looking out to the North Sea, while the mother faces inland casting a final glance at her beloved Strath of Kildonan.
The Emigrants is a tangible tribute to the thousands of courageous Highlanders who sailed to the New World after being evicted from their homes during the Clearances in the 19th century.
You can read an article about this celebration at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...s/timespan.htm
Statement Respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement of Kildonan
Upon the Red River in North America: It's Destruction in the years 1815 and 1816; and the Massacre of Governor Semle and his Party.
This is a very interesting account and is provided as a pdf file which you can download at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist.../red_river.pdf
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Clare Adamson.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
The Scottish Historical Review
We are on Volume 10 and added this week the April 1913 issue. You can get to this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume10.htm
In this issue there is a good article about "The Royal Scottish Academy". There is also another interesting article...
The Influence of the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland on the Economic Development of Scotland before 1707
THE seventeenth century is a time of great change and development in the economic history of Scotland. At the beginning of the century her trade and industry were practically the same in organization and in scope as they had been for the two preceding centuries and the break with the middle ages was only beginning. At the end new industries were being promoted and old ones developed by individuals and by companies; the great Darien failure was the collapse of a modern scheme, and the Scottish merchants had begun that trade with America which was to lead their successors to fortune.
Scotland, by the time of the union, had entered on the paths which were to lead her by modern methods to commercial and industrial success, although her progress was for some time still to be slow and halting. This great change was the result of the work of several factors. These were the enterprise of the people and their growing interest in economic affairs, the increase of capital, the influence of new ideas from England and other countries, and the regulations and encouragement of four agents, the crown, the privy council, the parliament and the convention of the burghs. It is of the influence on the economic development of Scotland of the last of these factors the convention of the burghs that this article treats.
And yet another article on "Original Charters of the Abbey of Cupar, 1219-1448". This is clearly a very old document which of course makes it an interesting read. So all in all this issue is well worth a read.
You can read the previous issues at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/review/
Songs Of Scotland, Prior To Burns
This book is by Robert Chambers who is famous for collecting old Scottish Songs.
Added this week are...
The Ewe-Buchtin's Bonnie
The Yellow-Haired Laddie
The Waukin' O' The Fauld
You can get to this book at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_robert.htm
The Scottish Naturalist
I added Volume 2 1873/1874 this week and here is an article from it telling you why you should be interested in Botany...
THE PLEASURES AND ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF BOTANY.
By JAMES ALLAN.
SEVERAL generations ago one of the pleasures of being a botanist was, that if you were a woman you might probably be burnt for a witch, and if a man, would be constantly requested to concoct love potions or cosmetics. But now these unfortunate adjuncts do not exist, and one meets ladies armed with vasculum and spud, who run no risk of hurt; and though botanists know the ingredients of love-philtres well enough, they are never asked for them, the belief in such things having probably passed away. .
Those who have felt an interest in, and have studied, Natural History, have always met with ridicule at the hands of the superficial or vulgar, which, although getting rarer every day, adds a certain piquancy to the study. Peter Pindar, the poet laureate of scurrility, delighted in nothing better than in ridiculing the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks. Here is one instance,—
"A president in butterflies profound,
Of whom all insect-mongers sing the praises,
Went on a day to catch his game renowned,
On violets, dunghills, nettletops, and daisies.”
And even the genial authors of the “Nugae Canorae” have poked their fun at us—
“Some folk ’ll tak’ a heap o’ fash
For unco little end man,
An’ muckle time an' muckle cash
For nocht ava’ they’ll spend man;
An abstract of an address by the Vice-President of the Glasgow Field-Naturalists1 Society.
Thae chaps had come a hun’er mile
For what was hardly worth the while;
'Twas a’ tae pu’
Some gerse that grew
On Ben Muic Dhu
That ne’er a coo
Wad care tae pit her moo’ till.”
The favourite joke of the rabble now is, “ What’s the price of candles?” mistaking the vasculum for a candle box.
It is a trite saying that things change; and a change has come over men’s thoughts in regard to science. When men cannot open their eyes without seeing what science has done for the world, they cease to sneer at students.
But it is not from an utilitarian point of view that I wish to consider this subject now. I wish chiefly to dwell on the intensely interesting nature of the pursuit, and its reflex effect on ourselves. And here I would advert to the beneficial effect that any hobby of this kind must have on people engaged in daily monotonous toil, giving them something to think of besides pounds shillings and pence, and educating the spirit of poetry in every one’s heart, save the most debased. This applies with great force to botany. Then it has this advantage as a hobby—that it is a cheap one. Many other sciences require expensive apparatus, but this one, after you have spent a few preliminary shillings, need not cost you anything more for years.
The science of botany brings one in contact with the most beautiful objects in existence, and men (save in cities,—for there, as Arthur Helps says, they will rather rush to see a representation of beauty than beauty itself), have always admired and loved the graceful objects which add such a charm to scenery, and without which scenery would be nothing.
“The young read nature like the manuscript of heaven,
And call the flowers its poetry.”
Our old songs and poems are full of this love of nature, which was perhaps more intense in days gone by. Over and over again the old ballad-makers tell us,—
“Oh it was so merry under the greenwood tree.”
Our poetic literature is full of the names of columbine and celandine, asphodel, anemone, pimpernel, and rue; and one immediate pleasure the botanist enjoys, is the full appreciation of such passages. Who can walk through a lime-tree avenue on a July evening without recalling the passage of Milton,
“The lime of dewy eve dropping odour sweet.”
This science is the study of beautiful forms; but you will soon see that it is a beauty according to law, and without irregularity, so much so, that after Chevieul and others had wrought out the laws of colour by prismatic experiment, the resulting laws of complimentary colours might equally have been deduced from the arrangement of colour in flowers.
As a lever of education botany is invaluable. You are taught to observe. It is in its practical details a science of observation. You are taught to generalise and to classify. If shown a room full of books, and you were asked to arrange them, before you touched a single book you would sit down and determine on some principle to guide you, whether by size, by dates, by authors, or by subjects. It is trile in botany you find the principal already determined, but the practical result is the same. You go forth to nature and investigate its truth. This power or faculty of arrangement is at once the most useful and the rarest of human endowments.
I need not touch on the pleasures of botanical excursions, the curious beings brought to notice, or the incidents that occur on almost every occasion.
There is again to be considered the poetry of flowers. By this I mean that analogy that poets have seen in flowers to some virtue or vice, or other human character, or that personal history many of them have. Ophelia says, “ There is rosemary, that’s for remembrance.” There is often a poetry in their very names, especially those named by Linnaeus. A strongly narcotic plant he names after the mother of the furies. He names plants indiscriminately, from the Fates, the Gods, or the Graces of ancient mythology. It is much to be regretted (from a poetical point of view) that modern botanists differ widely from him in this, and will call them by such sesquipedalian names as Pleuroschysmatypus, Boenninghausciiiana. Even the common Scotch names of Blinks, Branks, Taur, or Skellochs are better.
A most interesting subject is the folk lore of plants still current in many places. One cannot look at the rare and beautiful fairy rings without half believing the superstition that soon they will be filled with merry groups of the “good folks” in green, dancing under the harvest moon. Fern seed is one of the substances which universally enters into folk lore, and is supposed to be of great power. The common belief is that it renders one invisible. It ought to be gathered on the night of 22nd June, in a wood, a plate or white piece of paper being put below the fern, and the fern seed, which drops while the would-be-invisible repeats an incantation three times with his back to the fern, is said to have peculiar power. One of the prettiest of these fables is that attaching to the pellucid St. John's Wort. This plant, called in Germany the “plant of power,” is very delicate and readily fades. Its power culminates on the night of St. John, and at midnight the German girls are wont to go out to gather it. If itfkeeps fresh till morning they believe they will be married before twelve months are over.
There are many theories in connection with the study ol Botany, as to which the student must form an opinion for himself, and take one side or other. One cannot go far into the study of botany without having to face somehow the question of the origin of species, so long debated and so well stated by Mr. Darwin. This question is more troublesome in botany than anywhere else, and from botany will yet come, I think, the answer to the question, “What are the conditions of a species?”
The geographical distribution of plants is perhaps the most interesting part of the study, and opens to us some curious relations between far distant countries.
Botany is a science closely related to many others. We are brought in contact with chemistry, medicine, geology,geography, and mechanics. Perhaps the young student may find the mechanical part the most interesting, when he observes the number of elastic lids, springs, boxes, syphons, and tubes, which go to make up the most insignificant flower. The spores of the fern are the most curious mechanical contrivances in the vegetable world. As a study of the beautiful, this science has a most beneficial effect in correcting and improving our taste, or sense of the beautiful. Ladies will dress more in accordance with the laws of beauty when they get acquainted with them.
There are hundreds of things done in the worst taste, which people would be ashamed to do if they were botanists.
And botany is intimately connected with Theology. As Shelley says,—
“Nothing in this world is single,
All things by a law divine,
In one another’s being mingle.”
So even the grass of the field or the moss on the wall speak not only of themselves, but of the God who made them, and declare His power and goodness in words easily read. From nature we cannot help turning to nature’s God. Well did the great German poet make the spirit of nature say—
"Still at the roaring loom of time I ply,
And weave for God the garment that thou seest Him by."
Glasgow, November, 1872.
You can get to this volume at: http://www.electricscotland.com/nature/naturalist.htm
Thomas Dykes
(1850, Dundonald, Ayrshire - 1916, London, England) Journalist and Author
This week we added to his book "All Round Sport with Fish, Fur and Feather"...
A Farewell Shot
He Wanted an Order
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...kes_thomas.htm
Enigma Machine
This is where we are publishing this set of puzzles created by Doug Ross which can now be found in Doctor's Surgeries, Old Folks Homes, etc.
Added Enigma Machine 27 puzzle which you can get to at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma027.htm
The other puzzles we've already published can be found at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...igma/index.htm
Songs from John Henderson
John has sent us in another song, The School On The Rock In Stirling, which you can read at:
His other songs can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Beauties of Dr. John Moore
Selected from the moral, philosophical, and miscellaneous works of that esteemed author, to which are added, a new biographical and critical account of the doctor and his writings, and notes, historical, classical, and explanatory.
These pages include lots of wee snippets such as...
STRONG REASONS AGAINST MARRIAGE
"Well, Sir, do you ever intend to marry?"
"No, I cannot say I do; as I never was accustomed to a wife. I am not much inclined to matrimony; for through the whole course of my life I have never found any thing to agree with me but what I am accustomed to.
Now added the next 50 pages of this book, Pages 202 to 253, which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...moore_john.htm
The Scottish Fairy Book
By Elizabeth W. Grierson (1918)
This week we've added more stories...
What to say to the New Mune
Habetrot the Spinstress
Nippit Fit and Clippit Fit
The Fairies of Merlin’s Crag
The Wedding of Robin Redbreast and Jenny Wren
The Dwarfie Stone
Canonbie Dick and Thomas of Ercildoune
You can get to these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../fairybook.htm
Braemar Highlands
Their Tales, Traditions and History by Elizabeth Taylor (1869)
Have now completed Part the Second and started on Part the Third.
Part the Second - Earliest Traditions of BraemarChapter I.
Visits of the Romans—Introduction of Christianity—Giants.
Chapter II.
Kenneth the Hardy—Malcolm Canmore—Origin of the Gatherings, etc.
Chapter III.
Origin of Braemar Surnames. Durward—Lumsden—Mulloch— Coutts—M‘Hardy—Stewart.
Chapter IV.
Origins continued. M‘Gregor—M‘Donald—M‘Intosh—Cumming, etc.—Destruction of Kindroket Castle.
Chapter V.
The Earls of Mar, from their creation in 1057, until their attainder in 1715.
Part the Third - Rise of the Farquharsons
Chapter I.
Fearchar Shaw—Finla Mor, Founder of the Clan Farquharson.
Chapter II.
Donald Farquharson of Castleton—Robert Farquharson, Founder of the Fenzean Farquharsons—Alexander Farquharson, first Laird of Allen-quoich—The Baron of Braichley—Tragedy of Strathgimock—James Farquharson, the first Laird of Inverey.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/braemar
Lord Charles Neaves
Charles Neaves, Lord Neaves FRSE (1800-1876) was a Scottish advocate, judge, theologian and writer.
We thought we'd also serialize a book of poems he wrote and you can learn more about him and read his book at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...es_charles.htm
This week we added the following poems...
Don't Forget The Rich
O Why Should A Woman Not Get A Degree?
The Reading of Greek
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature, Edited by Gerard Carruthers and Liam McIlvanney.
The following description is found on both the first page and back cover of The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature and, quite frankly, it would be difficult for me or any other reviewer to improve upon it:
“Scotland's rich literary tradition is a product of its unique culture and landscape, as well as of its long history of inclusion and resistance to the United Kingdom. Scottish literature includes masterpieces in three languages – English, Scots and Gaelic – and global perspectives from the diaspora of Scots all over the world. This Companion offers a unique introduction, guide and reference work for students and readers of Scottish literature from the pre-medieval period to the post-devolution present. Essays focus on key periods and movements (the Scottish Enlightenment, Scottish Romanticism, and the Scottish Renaissance), genres (the historical novel, Scottish Gothic, 'Tartan Noir') and major authors (Burns, Scott, Stevenson, MacDiarmid and Spark). A chronology and guides to further reading in each chapter make this an ideal overview of a national literature that continues to develop its own distinctive style.” With this book, editors Gerard Carruthers and Liam McIlvanney, as well as the authors of each chapter, have, in my opinion, presented a tremendous gift to each of us.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives178.htm
You can read other articles in this series at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...rank/burns.htm
Scottish Myths from Ontario
Scottish Ghost stories in Ontario.
In a certain part of Ontario (my stories being true, I must be reticent as to localities and persons) the country is peopled with Scotch Highlanders from Glenelg. If, as is often said, Scotch people are superstitious, the Glenelg men are superlatively so. Every nook and every grassy plot in that famous glen is haunted, and weird tales belong to every family, high and low, handed down from father to son. The Glenelg men in Canada whom I knew still have the traditional tales, — the ancestral ones, I mean, — and are very willing to tell them: but I greatly preferred to hear them recount the uncanny doings of their own Canadian township.
They are the third generation in this country. It is an old part of Ontario,—one of the oldest, I think, for in a long-discarded burying-ground I found inscriptions bearing date of the last century. Although so long here, and tolerably fair farmers, they are curiously backward, preferring in their daily life to talk Gaelic; and it is even now very common to find children of eight without a word of English. Most of the very old people have only their native tongue. Their schools are so poor that it is difficult to believe one’s self in Ontario, where the standard of education is so high. They are handsome people, — nearly all very tall and well-built, bearing a family likeness. The men have none of the farmer slouch so usual in most country places; they are thorough Highlanders of the best type, and have the traditional grace and condescension of manner, even when speaking to an acknowledged superior. The impression of refinement is intensified by their speech.
They came to this country understanding only Gaelic, had no schools until the present generation, and therefore received the whole of their education in church. Their speech is Scripture English, quaint, careful, and accurate. It was at first an astonishment to me, as my knowledge of rural life in western Ontario had prepared me to expect from farmers everywhere the horrible colloquialisms, nasal twang, and most wonderful idioms which perhaps some Montrealers have noticed in the townships, for it is the same there, I believe. It was a great pleasure to me to listen to the polished old English, and I soon recognized the cause, and was interested, and perhaps startled, to discover that the beautiful speech of one of the least progressive counties of Ontario is directly owing to the neglect of the government — in short, to their want of education.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nada/myths.htm
Very Basic Cooking
A few simple recipes explained through video demonstrations all to do with eggs.
I was introduced to a young man the other day in his mid twenties who I found had never cooked a meal in his life. I have known other men who also have never cooked a meal although I have yet to find a woman who couldn't cook at least a basic meal. I thus thought I'd create a wee section within our Food & Drink section to provide a few very basic video recipes. This week I concentrated on cooking with eggs.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/basic_cooking.htm
The Family of Gordon in Griamachary, in the Parish of Kildonan
Adam Gordon, tacksman, Griamachary, Kildonan, who died in 1831, gave thirteen Soldiers - all commissioned officers, and two of them honoured Generals - to his Country.
This is a pdf file and have added a link to it from our Clan Gordon page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...og/gordon.html
European Union - The Birth of an Idea
By James Wilkie. This paper in pdf format shows how the EU came into being.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/Briand.pdf
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in Section 1 of the September 2013 issue which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Clan Ogilvy
Added an old book and an extra link to give you more information on the name Ogilvy. You can get to this on our Clan Ogilvy page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...or/ogilvy.html
The Tower of Craigietocher
We have been following the building of this new tower since 2008 and have just received a few pictures from the start of work on the inside where they have started to paint the ceiling. You can get caught up on this project athttp://www.electricscotland.com/hist...agietocher.htm and at the foot of that page you can find the link to the first pictures of the painting of the ceiling.
And finally...
Clippie Repartee
On a wet, blustery day, a small, comfortably built lady, laden with shopping bags came staggering up the Main Street of Cambuslang to the bus stop at the Cross and collapsed, gasping, on the platform just as the bus was about to depart.
Red-faced and panting, she asked the conductress: ‘Does this bus go tae Taylor’s the vets?’
Quick as a flash came the clippie’s reply: ‘Aye, sit doon, hen. Ye look as if ye’ve got distemper!’”
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Call Collect
An Edinburgh woman was telling her friends about her new enthusiasm for collecting antiques when one told her: “An antique is something your grandma bought, your mother threw out, and you are now buying back.”
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And that's it for now and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
Wild Life in Canada
Kildonan Gathering
Statement Respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement of Kildonan
The Flag in the Wind
Electric Scotland
The Scottish Historical Review
Songs Of Scotland, Prior To Burns
The Scottish Naturalist
Thomas Dykes
Enigma Machine
Songs from John Henderson
Beauties of Dr. John Moore
The Scottish Fairy Book
Braemar Highlands
Lord Charles Neaves
Robert Burns Lives!
Scottish Myths from Ontario
Very Basic Cooking
The Family of Gordon in Griamachary, in the Parish of Kildonan
European Union - The Birth of an Idea
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Clan Ogilvy
The Tower of Craigietocher
and finally
Electric Scotland News
Film archives are a tremendous resource for learning. They connect us to our past in an immediate and thrilling way, provoking thought, fuelling discussion and inspiring creativity. We can hear the deafening sounds of industry, see emotions of the workers, and bring history alive by reliving the experiences of the past through moving images. With digital technology, archive films are now as accessible in the classroom as books and music.
Scotland on Screen is a partnership project between Creative Scotland, Education Scotland and the National Library of Scotland. This new website provides free access to films from the Scottish Screen Archive (Scotland's film archive - part of National Library of Scotland) with accompanying learning resources and Feature Resources for use in the classroom by students and teachers. The materials can also be used by a range of educational instutions/providers and by the general public for research and enjoyment. The films document over a century of Scottish lives on film, with particular reference to social, economic and environmental change.
You can visit their web site at: http://scotlandonscreen.org.uk/
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You're likely aware that chip pan fires are a major cause of house fires. Indeed a house a couple of doors away from me burnt down due to just that situation.
I've been using a deep fat fryer since I came to Canada and the other day I did something I've never done in my life in that I forgot I was deep fat frying a couple of hash brown paties to have with a brunch I was having. Well having had my brunch I took the plate back into the kitchen and to get a cup of coffee when I noticed the light on my deep fat fryer! I'd totally forgotten about it.
Now that could have been very dangerous but I concluded that as the deep fat fryer is temperature controlled it didn't get any hotter than what it was set for so didn't go on fire. I was a bit shaken that I'd done that but also wondered if more people used a deep fat fryer whether that would reduce the chance of it going on fire?
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The World Pipe Band Championship is this weekend in Glasgow. You can watch live at www.bbc.co.uk/worlds
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HALF of all unemployed young people have never had a job, a study has revealed. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank revealed the shocking findings.
The study, published ahead of the latest unemployment figures, also showed that three quarters of young people in all levels of education do not have a job.
Figures revealed that since 1998 the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who have never had a job has almost doubled to 640,000.
This is just one of the stories you can read on our ScotNews feed at http://www.electricscotland.com which is updated daily.
Electric Canadian
Wild Life in Canada
By Captain Angus Buchanan, M.C. (1920).
I now have the first 5 chapters up of this book. In Chapter 2 there is an interesting list of what he had to pack to go on his trip Out to Lake Ile La Crosse.
You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...life/index.htm
Kildonan Gathering
A celebration of Scots from Canada and Helmsdale, Scotland.
Standing in a park overlooking the east Sutherland village of Helmsdale, a statue depicts a young 19th century family, with the father looking out to the North Sea, while the mother faces inland casting a final glance at her beloved Strath of Kildonan.
The Emigrants is a tangible tribute to the thousands of courageous Highlanders who sailed to the New World after being evicted from their homes during the Clearances in the 19th century.
You can read an article about this celebration at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...s/timespan.htm
Statement Respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement of Kildonan
Upon the Red River in North America: It's Destruction in the years 1815 and 1816; and the Massacre of Governor Semle and his Party.
This is a very interesting account and is provided as a pdf file which you can download at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist.../red_river.pdf
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Clare Adamson.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
The Scottish Historical Review
We are on Volume 10 and added this week the April 1913 issue. You can get to this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume10.htm
In this issue there is a good article about "The Royal Scottish Academy". There is also another interesting article...
The Influence of the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland on the Economic Development of Scotland before 1707
THE seventeenth century is a time of great change and development in the economic history of Scotland. At the beginning of the century her trade and industry were practically the same in organization and in scope as they had been for the two preceding centuries and the break with the middle ages was only beginning. At the end new industries were being promoted and old ones developed by individuals and by companies; the great Darien failure was the collapse of a modern scheme, and the Scottish merchants had begun that trade with America which was to lead their successors to fortune.
Scotland, by the time of the union, had entered on the paths which were to lead her by modern methods to commercial and industrial success, although her progress was for some time still to be slow and halting. This great change was the result of the work of several factors. These were the enterprise of the people and their growing interest in economic affairs, the increase of capital, the influence of new ideas from England and other countries, and the regulations and encouragement of four agents, the crown, the privy council, the parliament and the convention of the burghs. It is of the influence on the economic development of Scotland of the last of these factors the convention of the burghs that this article treats.
And yet another article on "Original Charters of the Abbey of Cupar, 1219-1448". This is clearly a very old document which of course makes it an interesting read. So all in all this issue is well worth a read.
You can read the previous issues at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/review/
Songs Of Scotland, Prior To Burns
This book is by Robert Chambers who is famous for collecting old Scottish Songs.
Added this week are...
The Ewe-Buchtin's Bonnie
The Yellow-Haired Laddie
The Waukin' O' The Fauld
You can get to this book at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_robert.htm
The Scottish Naturalist
I added Volume 2 1873/1874 this week and here is an article from it telling you why you should be interested in Botany...
THE PLEASURES AND ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF BOTANY.
By JAMES ALLAN.
SEVERAL generations ago one of the pleasures of being a botanist was, that if you were a woman you might probably be burnt for a witch, and if a man, would be constantly requested to concoct love potions or cosmetics. But now these unfortunate adjuncts do not exist, and one meets ladies armed with vasculum and spud, who run no risk of hurt; and though botanists know the ingredients of love-philtres well enough, they are never asked for them, the belief in such things having probably passed away. .
Those who have felt an interest in, and have studied, Natural History, have always met with ridicule at the hands of the superficial or vulgar, which, although getting rarer every day, adds a certain piquancy to the study. Peter Pindar, the poet laureate of scurrility, delighted in nothing better than in ridiculing the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks. Here is one instance,—
"A president in butterflies profound,
Of whom all insect-mongers sing the praises,
Went on a day to catch his game renowned,
On violets, dunghills, nettletops, and daisies.”
And even the genial authors of the “Nugae Canorae” have poked their fun at us—
“Some folk ’ll tak’ a heap o’ fash
For unco little end man,
An’ muckle time an' muckle cash
For nocht ava’ they’ll spend man;
An abstract of an address by the Vice-President of the Glasgow Field-Naturalists1 Society.
Thae chaps had come a hun’er mile
For what was hardly worth the while;
'Twas a’ tae pu’
Some gerse that grew
On Ben Muic Dhu
That ne’er a coo
Wad care tae pit her moo’ till.”
The favourite joke of the rabble now is, “ What’s the price of candles?” mistaking the vasculum for a candle box.
It is a trite saying that things change; and a change has come over men’s thoughts in regard to science. When men cannot open their eyes without seeing what science has done for the world, they cease to sneer at students.
But it is not from an utilitarian point of view that I wish to consider this subject now. I wish chiefly to dwell on the intensely interesting nature of the pursuit, and its reflex effect on ourselves. And here I would advert to the beneficial effect that any hobby of this kind must have on people engaged in daily monotonous toil, giving them something to think of besides pounds shillings and pence, and educating the spirit of poetry in every one’s heart, save the most debased. This applies with great force to botany. Then it has this advantage as a hobby—that it is a cheap one. Many other sciences require expensive apparatus, but this one, after you have spent a few preliminary shillings, need not cost you anything more for years.
The science of botany brings one in contact with the most beautiful objects in existence, and men (save in cities,—for there, as Arthur Helps says, they will rather rush to see a representation of beauty than beauty itself), have always admired and loved the graceful objects which add such a charm to scenery, and without which scenery would be nothing.
“The young read nature like the manuscript of heaven,
And call the flowers its poetry.”
Our old songs and poems are full of this love of nature, which was perhaps more intense in days gone by. Over and over again the old ballad-makers tell us,—
“Oh it was so merry under the greenwood tree.”
Our poetic literature is full of the names of columbine and celandine, asphodel, anemone, pimpernel, and rue; and one immediate pleasure the botanist enjoys, is the full appreciation of such passages. Who can walk through a lime-tree avenue on a July evening without recalling the passage of Milton,
“The lime of dewy eve dropping odour sweet.”
This science is the study of beautiful forms; but you will soon see that it is a beauty according to law, and without irregularity, so much so, that after Chevieul and others had wrought out the laws of colour by prismatic experiment, the resulting laws of complimentary colours might equally have been deduced from the arrangement of colour in flowers.
As a lever of education botany is invaluable. You are taught to observe. It is in its practical details a science of observation. You are taught to generalise and to classify. If shown a room full of books, and you were asked to arrange them, before you touched a single book you would sit down and determine on some principle to guide you, whether by size, by dates, by authors, or by subjects. It is trile in botany you find the principal already determined, but the practical result is the same. You go forth to nature and investigate its truth. This power or faculty of arrangement is at once the most useful and the rarest of human endowments.
I need not touch on the pleasures of botanical excursions, the curious beings brought to notice, or the incidents that occur on almost every occasion.
There is again to be considered the poetry of flowers. By this I mean that analogy that poets have seen in flowers to some virtue or vice, or other human character, or that personal history many of them have. Ophelia says, “ There is rosemary, that’s for remembrance.” There is often a poetry in their very names, especially those named by Linnaeus. A strongly narcotic plant he names after the mother of the furies. He names plants indiscriminately, from the Fates, the Gods, or the Graces of ancient mythology. It is much to be regretted (from a poetical point of view) that modern botanists differ widely from him in this, and will call them by such sesquipedalian names as Pleuroschysmatypus, Boenninghausciiiana. Even the common Scotch names of Blinks, Branks, Taur, or Skellochs are better.
A most interesting subject is the folk lore of plants still current in many places. One cannot look at the rare and beautiful fairy rings without half believing the superstition that soon they will be filled with merry groups of the “good folks” in green, dancing under the harvest moon. Fern seed is one of the substances which universally enters into folk lore, and is supposed to be of great power. The common belief is that it renders one invisible. It ought to be gathered on the night of 22nd June, in a wood, a plate or white piece of paper being put below the fern, and the fern seed, which drops while the would-be-invisible repeats an incantation three times with his back to the fern, is said to have peculiar power. One of the prettiest of these fables is that attaching to the pellucid St. John's Wort. This plant, called in Germany the “plant of power,” is very delicate and readily fades. Its power culminates on the night of St. John, and at midnight the German girls are wont to go out to gather it. If itfkeeps fresh till morning they believe they will be married before twelve months are over.
There are many theories in connection with the study ol Botany, as to which the student must form an opinion for himself, and take one side or other. One cannot go far into the study of botany without having to face somehow the question of the origin of species, so long debated and so well stated by Mr. Darwin. This question is more troublesome in botany than anywhere else, and from botany will yet come, I think, the answer to the question, “What are the conditions of a species?”
The geographical distribution of plants is perhaps the most interesting part of the study, and opens to us some curious relations between far distant countries.
Botany is a science closely related to many others. We are brought in contact with chemistry, medicine, geology,geography, and mechanics. Perhaps the young student may find the mechanical part the most interesting, when he observes the number of elastic lids, springs, boxes, syphons, and tubes, which go to make up the most insignificant flower. The spores of the fern are the most curious mechanical contrivances in the vegetable world. As a study of the beautiful, this science has a most beneficial effect in correcting and improving our taste, or sense of the beautiful. Ladies will dress more in accordance with the laws of beauty when they get acquainted with them.
There are hundreds of things done in the worst taste, which people would be ashamed to do if they were botanists.
And botany is intimately connected with Theology. As Shelley says,—
“Nothing in this world is single,
All things by a law divine,
In one another’s being mingle.”
So even the grass of the field or the moss on the wall speak not only of themselves, but of the God who made them, and declare His power and goodness in words easily read. From nature we cannot help turning to nature’s God. Well did the great German poet make the spirit of nature say—
"Still at the roaring loom of time I ply,
And weave for God the garment that thou seest Him by."
Glasgow, November, 1872.
You can get to this volume at: http://www.electricscotland.com/nature/naturalist.htm
Thomas Dykes
(1850, Dundonald, Ayrshire - 1916, London, England) Journalist and Author
This week we added to his book "All Round Sport with Fish, Fur and Feather"...
A Farewell Shot
He Wanted an Order
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...kes_thomas.htm
Enigma Machine
This is where we are publishing this set of puzzles created by Doug Ross which can now be found in Doctor's Surgeries, Old Folks Homes, etc.
Added Enigma Machine 27 puzzle which you can get to at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma027.htm
The other puzzles we've already published can be found at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...igma/index.htm
Songs from John Henderson
John has sent us in another song, The School On The Rock In Stirling, which you can read at:
His other songs can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Beauties of Dr. John Moore
Selected from the moral, philosophical, and miscellaneous works of that esteemed author, to which are added, a new biographical and critical account of the doctor and his writings, and notes, historical, classical, and explanatory.
These pages include lots of wee snippets such as...
STRONG REASONS AGAINST MARRIAGE
"Well, Sir, do you ever intend to marry?"
"No, I cannot say I do; as I never was accustomed to a wife. I am not much inclined to matrimony; for through the whole course of my life I have never found any thing to agree with me but what I am accustomed to.
Now added the next 50 pages of this book, Pages 202 to 253, which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...moore_john.htm
The Scottish Fairy Book
By Elizabeth W. Grierson (1918)
This week we've added more stories...
What to say to the New Mune
Habetrot the Spinstress
Nippit Fit and Clippit Fit
The Fairies of Merlin’s Crag
The Wedding of Robin Redbreast and Jenny Wren
The Dwarfie Stone
Canonbie Dick and Thomas of Ercildoune
You can get to these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../fairybook.htm
Braemar Highlands
Their Tales, Traditions and History by Elizabeth Taylor (1869)
Have now completed Part the Second and started on Part the Third.
Part the Second - Earliest Traditions of BraemarChapter I.
Visits of the Romans—Introduction of Christianity—Giants.
Chapter II.
Kenneth the Hardy—Malcolm Canmore—Origin of the Gatherings, etc.
Chapter III.
Origin of Braemar Surnames. Durward—Lumsden—Mulloch— Coutts—M‘Hardy—Stewart.
Chapter IV.
Origins continued. M‘Gregor—M‘Donald—M‘Intosh—Cumming, etc.—Destruction of Kindroket Castle.
Chapter V.
The Earls of Mar, from their creation in 1057, until their attainder in 1715.
Part the Third - Rise of the Farquharsons
Chapter I.
Fearchar Shaw—Finla Mor, Founder of the Clan Farquharson.
Chapter II.
Donald Farquharson of Castleton—Robert Farquharson, Founder of the Fenzean Farquharsons—Alexander Farquharson, first Laird of Allen-quoich—The Baron of Braichley—Tragedy of Strathgimock—James Farquharson, the first Laird of Inverey.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/braemar
Lord Charles Neaves
Charles Neaves, Lord Neaves FRSE (1800-1876) was a Scottish advocate, judge, theologian and writer.
We thought we'd also serialize a book of poems he wrote and you can learn more about him and read his book at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...es_charles.htm
This week we added the following poems...
Don't Forget The Rich
O Why Should A Woman Not Get A Degree?
The Reading of Greek
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature, Edited by Gerard Carruthers and Liam McIlvanney.
The following description is found on both the first page and back cover of The Cambridge Companion to Scottish Literature and, quite frankly, it would be difficult for me or any other reviewer to improve upon it:
“Scotland's rich literary tradition is a product of its unique culture and landscape, as well as of its long history of inclusion and resistance to the United Kingdom. Scottish literature includes masterpieces in three languages – English, Scots and Gaelic – and global perspectives from the diaspora of Scots all over the world. This Companion offers a unique introduction, guide and reference work for students and readers of Scottish literature from the pre-medieval period to the post-devolution present. Essays focus on key periods and movements (the Scottish Enlightenment, Scottish Romanticism, and the Scottish Renaissance), genres (the historical novel, Scottish Gothic, 'Tartan Noir') and major authors (Burns, Scott, Stevenson, MacDiarmid and Spark). A chronology and guides to further reading in each chapter make this an ideal overview of a national literature that continues to develop its own distinctive style.” With this book, editors Gerard Carruthers and Liam McIlvanney, as well as the authors of each chapter, have, in my opinion, presented a tremendous gift to each of us.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives178.htm
You can read other articles in this series at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...rank/burns.htm
Scottish Myths from Ontario
Scottish Ghost stories in Ontario.
In a certain part of Ontario (my stories being true, I must be reticent as to localities and persons) the country is peopled with Scotch Highlanders from Glenelg. If, as is often said, Scotch people are superstitious, the Glenelg men are superlatively so. Every nook and every grassy plot in that famous glen is haunted, and weird tales belong to every family, high and low, handed down from father to son. The Glenelg men in Canada whom I knew still have the traditional tales, — the ancestral ones, I mean, — and are very willing to tell them: but I greatly preferred to hear them recount the uncanny doings of their own Canadian township.
They are the third generation in this country. It is an old part of Ontario,—one of the oldest, I think, for in a long-discarded burying-ground I found inscriptions bearing date of the last century. Although so long here, and tolerably fair farmers, they are curiously backward, preferring in their daily life to talk Gaelic; and it is even now very common to find children of eight without a word of English. Most of the very old people have only their native tongue. Their schools are so poor that it is difficult to believe one’s self in Ontario, where the standard of education is so high. They are handsome people, — nearly all very tall and well-built, bearing a family likeness. The men have none of the farmer slouch so usual in most country places; they are thorough Highlanders of the best type, and have the traditional grace and condescension of manner, even when speaking to an acknowledged superior. The impression of refinement is intensified by their speech.
They came to this country understanding only Gaelic, had no schools until the present generation, and therefore received the whole of their education in church. Their speech is Scripture English, quaint, careful, and accurate. It was at first an astonishment to me, as my knowledge of rural life in western Ontario had prepared me to expect from farmers everywhere the horrible colloquialisms, nasal twang, and most wonderful idioms which perhaps some Montrealers have noticed in the townships, for it is the same there, I believe. It was a great pleasure to me to listen to the polished old English, and I soon recognized the cause, and was interested, and perhaps startled, to discover that the beautiful speech of one of the least progressive counties of Ontario is directly owing to the neglect of the government — in short, to their want of education.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nada/myths.htm
Very Basic Cooking
A few simple recipes explained through video demonstrations all to do with eggs.
I was introduced to a young man the other day in his mid twenties who I found had never cooked a meal in his life. I have known other men who also have never cooked a meal although I have yet to find a woman who couldn't cook at least a basic meal. I thus thought I'd create a wee section within our Food & Drink section to provide a few very basic video recipes. This week I concentrated on cooking with eggs.
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/basic_cooking.htm
The Family of Gordon in Griamachary, in the Parish of Kildonan
Adam Gordon, tacksman, Griamachary, Kildonan, who died in 1831, gave thirteen Soldiers - all commissioned officers, and two of them honoured Generals - to his Country.
This is a pdf file and have added a link to it from our Clan Gordon page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...og/gordon.html
European Union - The Birth of an Idea
By James Wilkie. This paper in pdf format shows how the EU came into being.
You can download this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/independence/Briand.pdf
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in Section 1 of the September 2013 issue which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Clan Ogilvy
Added an old book and an extra link to give you more information on the name Ogilvy. You can get to this on our Clan Ogilvy page at:http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...or/ogilvy.html
The Tower of Craigietocher
We have been following the building of this new tower since 2008 and have just received a few pictures from the start of work on the inside where they have started to paint the ceiling. You can get caught up on this project athttp://www.electricscotland.com/hist...agietocher.htm and at the foot of that page you can find the link to the first pictures of the painting of the ceiling.
And finally...
Clippie Repartee
On a wet, blustery day, a small, comfortably built lady, laden with shopping bags came staggering up the Main Street of Cambuslang to the bus stop at the Cross and collapsed, gasping, on the platform just as the bus was about to depart.
Red-faced and panting, she asked the conductress: ‘Does this bus go tae Taylor’s the vets?’
Quick as a flash came the clippie’s reply: ‘Aye, sit doon, hen. Ye look as if ye’ve got distemper!’”
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Call Collect
An Edinburgh woman was telling her friends about her new enthusiasm for collecting antiques when one told her: “An antique is something your grandma bought, your mother threw out, and you are now buying back.”
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And that's it for now and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair