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Electric Scotland News
Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year.
To see what we've added to the Electric Scotland site view our What's New page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm
To see what we've added to the Electric Canadian site view our What's New page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
Any books that we're adding day by day or week by week can be found on these what's new pages.
Here are some of the highlights from the past couple of weeks...
Electric Canadian
I added an extract on Ice Hockey from an old 1898 publication. Here is a little of what it had to say...
The game (hockey) which is now very popular in Great Britain is played on a rectangular field of turf, 125 yards long by 54 yards wide, with goal posts quite similar to those we use for foot ball. Fifteen players constitute a team, which consists of a goal-keeper, two backs, three half-backs, seven forwards and two advance-forwards. They carry ash sticks 34 inches or less in length, with a crook at the lower end not more than four inches long, and endeavor to strike a self-inflating one-ounce India rubber ball (which is 1% inches in diameter) with the stick, so as to make it pass between the goal posts and under the cross bar. As may be imagined, the game is exceedingly rough, probably because so many men are bunched at times. From this British game Canadians extracted ice hockey and have played the game so long in their climate, where natural ice skating is indulged in steadily from Dec. 1st until late in each spring, that they have well nigh reached perfection.
This article is mostly about US ice hockey but there are quite a few references about Canadian Ice Hockey which is why I published this onto the site. You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...ice_hockey.htm
The Dragon and the Crown by Stanley S.K. Kwan (pdf)
This is a memoir of living in Hong Kong which leads to his emigration to Canada. As I'm trying to build some histories of the various ethnic groups in Canada I found this book of interest and so have made it available for you to read. It's in pdf format and can be viewed at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ongk00kwan.pdf
Peace River District, Canada
Its Resources and Opportunities.
The Peace River District of Canada has been for many years the subject of much interest and speculation. Alluring tales from adventurous pioneers of its wonderful resources, its charming climate and varying scenery, had long since lent to the district that charm of romance which distance and uncertainty blend with glowing promises. Now the land so long famed by legend and mystery is being proved a reality. Modern transportation has brought the district to our doors, and our keen searching trials and tests are proving it to be all and more than it was represented to be. The tales were not myths; the truth was not half told, and every day added treasures of the district are being unfolded to our eyes.
This district, the drainage basin of the Peace river, lies in the northern parts of the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. It extends approximately from latitude 54° to 59° north and from longitude 112° to 125° east, and is a part of the great Mackenzie River drainage basin. Falling away from the Rocky mountains, it embraces a part of their eastern slope, and sweeps eastward and northward over a huge plateau extending to Lake Athabaska and the Athabaska and Slave rivers.
I have also added a tourism video of the area to this book which I hope you will enjoy and you can get to this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/alberta/peace_river.htm
Meanwhile in Canada
I got sent in some interesting pictures
and this is just one example and you can view the others at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../meanwhile.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Jim Lynch in which he gives us a copy of the First Ministers New Year message and also his own take on Scotland's Future.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Records of Argyll
Legends, Traditions, and Recollections of Argyllshire Highlanders collected chiefly from the Gaelic by Lord Archibald Campbell (1885).
I came across this book while looking for something else and reading just part of the Introduction I wanted to make this book available for you to read. Here is how it started and why it got my attention...
THOSE who have stood on the summit of Ben Cruachan, the mighty triple-peaked hill overlooking the Pass of Brander, and who have drunk at the well of “living water” bursting through its granite cone, are not likely during a lifetime to forget the prospect unfolded to their view. On the west lies the land of Lorne, sea-girt by the vast Atlantic, studded with countless islands; Scammadel Loch in an oasis of green hills; and the ground around Ardmaddy Bay and house,—as fair a region of copse-wood-covered hills as the eye could rest on. Eastward tower range after range of glorious mountains belonging to Breadalbane, and on the north lie wild corries and savage crags and far-distant peaks paling in the purple distance. To the south, the lower range of hill trending towards Glenara, the braes of Sonachen clothed in brilliant green, shaggy moorland crowning the higher ground, and the dark-coloured Lochow, with its fringe of hazel, ash, and rowan—Lochow, one of the most dangerous as it is one of the loveliest of West Highland lochs. It is to this land, lying at our feet, between us and the sea, that these Records of Argyll chiefly refer.
My aim as Editor of this volume has been to rescue from an oblivion that is fast overtaking them, some of the more characteristic traditions of the Clans of Argyll and the Isles. Every year the chances of preserving the Gaelic legends that exist only in the recollections of the older generation of Highlanders are becoming less and less possible. The art of storytelling, which has shown a longer vitality among the Scottish Gael than among any of the other British races, is no longer cultivated with the same success as in days that are not very long gone by; and many a fine old legend perishes with the death of its only possessor.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/argyll/index.htm
The Martyres of Blantyre
Henry Henderson, Dr. John Bowie, Robert Cleland, A Chapter from the story of Missions in Central Africa by Rev. William Robertson (1892)
This book is issued as a simple memorial of three devoted lives. Those whose story it tells were “Martyrs,” not in the sense of having been slain for the truth, but in the no less real sense of being Witnesses for the testimony of Jesus Christ, who, with unswerving courage and devotion, laid down their lives in the African mission-field. The aim of the book is to give, in a short simple sketch, such a glimpse of them and their work as will convey to the reader some idea of what manner of men they were and what kind of work they did for Africa. It is not in any sense a complete biography of any of them, nor does it touch at all on questions of either Mission or State policy. Every effort has been made, however, to secure that it should be reliable, and all the information contained in it accurate and up to date.
The eyes of the world are on Africa at present. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding the Dark Continent, in one or other of its great regions, —Northern, Southern, Central,—claiming attention by the doings of the explorer, the soldier, the politician, or the missionary. Every now and again a quiver of interest thrills through the Cabinets of Europe at the surgings to and fro in the great scramble for Africa; while, on the other hand, the inrush of European life —English, German, Portuguese—with its diverse influences, and the formation of great chartered companies, all eager to colonise, to claim, to annex, is stirring the stagnant pool of African life. The evolutions are rapid, and almost before the world has had time to take in the situation which one ferment has produced the state of things has changed and another has begun. Struggle and death, prospect and progress, initial defeat and final triumph, follow each other in rapid succession. The expectation of yesterday is realised to-day and to-morrow is left behind. The map of Africa is changing so quickly that the geographer has a hard time keeping it up to date, and the public can hardly find leisure to make and keep themselves familiar with it.
In that swift rush the changes are so many and the events so important, that we are apt to lose sight of the men whose courage and devotion are achieving these results. Once in a while a Stanley, a Gordon, or a Hannington rivets public attention for a moment and becomes known to the world. But of the large number of devoted men and women whose life and labours have gone to the making of Africa, only a very few are, to most people, anything more than mere names. Yet never to have had even if it were but a glimpse of such lives is to miss a great deal that helps one to understand Africa and the problems it presents.
This is emphatically true of those who have laboured and died in the mission-field, and nowhere is it more strikingly true than in that part of Central Africa opened up by the explorations of Livingstone, and which is now being won for Christianity by those who have followed in his footsteps. To know them and their work brings one into touch, not only with the progress of civilisation, but with the coming of the kingdom of God there.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/africa/blantyre/index.htm
The spying Scotsman who hunted the Nazis of New York
By Adam Lebor
In the summer of 1940, as British pilots fought desperately for the skies of southern England, the battle was joined on a very different front, thousands of miles from the coast of Kent.
It was fought through the political salons of Washington DC, the boardrooms and the smoky nightclubs of New York.
The protagonists had no uniform save that of a well-tailored suit; their weapons were native cunning, a plausible manner, and, from time to time, a concealed revolver.
This was the secret battle for America, ordered by Winston Churchill himself, and the fate of the free world hung upon it.
Today, we can reveal the untold story of how British agents went to war on Wall Street, a story pieced together from a remarkable collection of secret intelligence reports lying untouched for decades.
Uncovered by the MoS, the documents show how British agents took on Nazi sympathisers in the US with a masterful campaign of dirty tricks and disinformation, how they outmanoeuvred Hitler’s network of American allies and how they, ultimately, destroyed the Third Reich’s powerful business and intelligence empire across the water.
[Uncovered documents show how British agents, headed by Highland clan chief Donald MacLaren, took on Nazi sympathisers in the US]
Today, amid talk of special relationships and historic links, few remember that a sizeable part of American opinion was pro-German, even as Europe burned – or that many well-placed Americans were virulently anti-British.
There was a strongly held belief, particularly in corporate and financial life, that the Nazis were the best bulwark against the advance of Communism.
You can read the rest of this account at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...d_maclaren.htm
The Tartan Herald
The newsletter from the Scottish Tartans Authority which is always an interesting read and can be downloaded at http://www.electricscotland.com/tartans/newsletter/
Brian the Aberdonian
Got an interesting article from him about "Wakes Weeks" which starts...
The Bold Type is my record of the Original Post; the Italic Type in { } new notes I have added to make some sense after the passage of many years.
{I recall why I posted this item: A gentleman of Scottish decent, resident in Durban, South Africa, Posted about his previous visit to Scotland}.
Having taken a ‘Sleeper Train’ from London to Glasgow.
{Whilst the Preston Bound Sleeper cars were being detached from the Glasgow Sleeper-train to be shunted into a siding at Preston Station. The travellers to be wakened and served breakfast before leaving the sleeper at 8am}.
{The post stated} I wandered into the Preston Station barbers-shop for a shave and hair cut; missing the Glasgow sleeper train.
{His ticket was re-booked for the following nights Preston to Glasgow night-sleeper. With a day to fill in},
A ticket inspector, advised me to join a train on the next platform, for a day at the sea-side in Blackpool, and to return to Preston {on a service train from Blackpool to Preston} in time to catch the Glasgow sleeper.
{the train from Preston to Blackpool was taking Cotton Mill Workers for a seven day holiday Called a Wakes Week whilst their towns Cotton-mills underwent their annual maintenance}
{The Posted Question ended with} “Can anyone tell me what a Wakes Week is”?.
And so this article answers this question which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...deen/brian.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Published by Frank Shaw
For two of the last three years I have had the distinct pleasure and privilege to speak at The University of Glasgow’s Robert Burns Conference sponsored by The Centre for Robert Burns Studies. I have met some exciting new friends, men and women, who are Burns scholars in the best sense of the words. Sir Kenneth Calman, Dr. Natalia Kaloh Vid, Professor Nigel Leask, Michael Morris and a trinity of Ukrainian speakers, Peter Kormlo, Hanna Dyka and Taya Khryplyva, who spoke as few can about there work and love for Burns. Two of them, Peter and Hannah compiled the 295 pages of the book, Robert Burns Selected Works.
During our break for lunch they graciously presented me with a copy of their book. Later, as I am prone to do, I got around to asking them to write something for the pages of Robert Burns Lives! and they willingly accepted. Finally, we have the following for you. Also, I was introduced to John Clark via email. John is important to the book as he designed the magnificent cover for the book. It is something special! I do not speak Ukrainian but I really do not have to since the book is written in English on the left hand side of the page and in Ukrainian on the other side of the page. Below you will follow their connection to Burns through some emails where they share their love of Burns with me.
Unfortunately the article from Tayisa Khryplyva did not come in time to be included in this chapter. As soon as it does, I will have Alastair include it for our readers.
Next week I will share with you a most interesting account of how John Clark, well known Dumfries artist and published poet, designed the book cover for Robert Burns Selected Works (FRS:1.2.14)
You can read this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives188.htm
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year.
To see what we've added to the Electric Scotland site view our What's New page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm
To see what we've added to the Electric Canadian site view our What's New page at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
Any books that we're adding day by day or week by week can be found on these what's new pages.
Here are some of the highlights from the past couple of weeks...
Electric Canadian
I added an extract on Ice Hockey from an old 1898 publication. Here is a little of what it had to say...
The game (hockey) which is now very popular in Great Britain is played on a rectangular field of turf, 125 yards long by 54 yards wide, with goal posts quite similar to those we use for foot ball. Fifteen players constitute a team, which consists of a goal-keeper, two backs, three half-backs, seven forwards and two advance-forwards. They carry ash sticks 34 inches or less in length, with a crook at the lower end not more than four inches long, and endeavor to strike a self-inflating one-ounce India rubber ball (which is 1% inches in diameter) with the stick, so as to make it pass between the goal posts and under the cross bar. As may be imagined, the game is exceedingly rough, probably because so many men are bunched at times. From this British game Canadians extracted ice hockey and have played the game so long in their climate, where natural ice skating is indulged in steadily from Dec. 1st until late in each spring, that they have well nigh reached perfection.
This article is mostly about US ice hockey but there are quite a few references about Canadian Ice Hockey which is why I published this onto the site. You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...ice_hockey.htm
The Dragon and the Crown by Stanley S.K. Kwan (pdf)
This is a memoir of living in Hong Kong which leads to his emigration to Canada. As I'm trying to build some histories of the various ethnic groups in Canada I found this book of interest and so have made it available for you to read. It's in pdf format and can be viewed at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ongk00kwan.pdf
Peace River District, Canada
Its Resources and Opportunities.
The Peace River District of Canada has been for many years the subject of much interest and speculation. Alluring tales from adventurous pioneers of its wonderful resources, its charming climate and varying scenery, had long since lent to the district that charm of romance which distance and uncertainty blend with glowing promises. Now the land so long famed by legend and mystery is being proved a reality. Modern transportation has brought the district to our doors, and our keen searching trials and tests are proving it to be all and more than it was represented to be. The tales were not myths; the truth was not half told, and every day added treasures of the district are being unfolded to our eyes.
This district, the drainage basin of the Peace river, lies in the northern parts of the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. It extends approximately from latitude 54° to 59° north and from longitude 112° to 125° east, and is a part of the great Mackenzie River drainage basin. Falling away from the Rocky mountains, it embraces a part of their eastern slope, and sweeps eastward and northward over a huge plateau extending to Lake Athabaska and the Athabaska and Slave rivers.
I have also added a tourism video of the area to this book which I hope you will enjoy and you can get to this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/alberta/peace_river.htm
Meanwhile in Canada
I got sent in some interesting pictures
and this is just one example and you can view the others at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../meanwhile.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Jim Lynch in which he gives us a copy of the First Ministers New Year message and also his own take on Scotland's Future.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Records of Argyll
Legends, Traditions, and Recollections of Argyllshire Highlanders collected chiefly from the Gaelic by Lord Archibald Campbell (1885).
I came across this book while looking for something else and reading just part of the Introduction I wanted to make this book available for you to read. Here is how it started and why it got my attention...
THOSE who have stood on the summit of Ben Cruachan, the mighty triple-peaked hill overlooking the Pass of Brander, and who have drunk at the well of “living water” bursting through its granite cone, are not likely during a lifetime to forget the prospect unfolded to their view. On the west lies the land of Lorne, sea-girt by the vast Atlantic, studded with countless islands; Scammadel Loch in an oasis of green hills; and the ground around Ardmaddy Bay and house,—as fair a region of copse-wood-covered hills as the eye could rest on. Eastward tower range after range of glorious mountains belonging to Breadalbane, and on the north lie wild corries and savage crags and far-distant peaks paling in the purple distance. To the south, the lower range of hill trending towards Glenara, the braes of Sonachen clothed in brilliant green, shaggy moorland crowning the higher ground, and the dark-coloured Lochow, with its fringe of hazel, ash, and rowan—Lochow, one of the most dangerous as it is one of the loveliest of West Highland lochs. It is to this land, lying at our feet, between us and the sea, that these Records of Argyll chiefly refer.
My aim as Editor of this volume has been to rescue from an oblivion that is fast overtaking them, some of the more characteristic traditions of the Clans of Argyll and the Isles. Every year the chances of preserving the Gaelic legends that exist only in the recollections of the older generation of Highlanders are becoming less and less possible. The art of storytelling, which has shown a longer vitality among the Scottish Gael than among any of the other British races, is no longer cultivated with the same success as in days that are not very long gone by; and many a fine old legend perishes with the death of its only possessor.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/argyll/index.htm
The Martyres of Blantyre
Henry Henderson, Dr. John Bowie, Robert Cleland, A Chapter from the story of Missions in Central Africa by Rev. William Robertson (1892)
This book is issued as a simple memorial of three devoted lives. Those whose story it tells were “Martyrs,” not in the sense of having been slain for the truth, but in the no less real sense of being Witnesses for the testimony of Jesus Christ, who, with unswerving courage and devotion, laid down their lives in the African mission-field. The aim of the book is to give, in a short simple sketch, such a glimpse of them and their work as will convey to the reader some idea of what manner of men they were and what kind of work they did for Africa. It is not in any sense a complete biography of any of them, nor does it touch at all on questions of either Mission or State policy. Every effort has been made, however, to secure that it should be reliable, and all the information contained in it accurate and up to date.
The eyes of the world are on Africa at present. One cannot take up a newspaper without finding the Dark Continent, in one or other of its great regions, —Northern, Southern, Central,—claiming attention by the doings of the explorer, the soldier, the politician, or the missionary. Every now and again a quiver of interest thrills through the Cabinets of Europe at the surgings to and fro in the great scramble for Africa; while, on the other hand, the inrush of European life —English, German, Portuguese—with its diverse influences, and the formation of great chartered companies, all eager to colonise, to claim, to annex, is stirring the stagnant pool of African life. The evolutions are rapid, and almost before the world has had time to take in the situation which one ferment has produced the state of things has changed and another has begun. Struggle and death, prospect and progress, initial defeat and final triumph, follow each other in rapid succession. The expectation of yesterday is realised to-day and to-morrow is left behind. The map of Africa is changing so quickly that the geographer has a hard time keeping it up to date, and the public can hardly find leisure to make and keep themselves familiar with it.
In that swift rush the changes are so many and the events so important, that we are apt to lose sight of the men whose courage and devotion are achieving these results. Once in a while a Stanley, a Gordon, or a Hannington rivets public attention for a moment and becomes known to the world. But of the large number of devoted men and women whose life and labours have gone to the making of Africa, only a very few are, to most people, anything more than mere names. Yet never to have had even if it were but a glimpse of such lives is to miss a great deal that helps one to understand Africa and the problems it presents.
This is emphatically true of those who have laboured and died in the mission-field, and nowhere is it more strikingly true than in that part of Central Africa opened up by the explorations of Livingstone, and which is now being won for Christianity by those who have followed in his footsteps. To know them and their work brings one into touch, not only with the progress of civilisation, but with the coming of the kingdom of God there.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/africa/blantyre/index.htm
The spying Scotsman who hunted the Nazis of New York
By Adam Lebor
In the summer of 1940, as British pilots fought desperately for the skies of southern England, the battle was joined on a very different front, thousands of miles from the coast of Kent.
It was fought through the political salons of Washington DC, the boardrooms and the smoky nightclubs of New York.
The protagonists had no uniform save that of a well-tailored suit; their weapons were native cunning, a plausible manner, and, from time to time, a concealed revolver.
This was the secret battle for America, ordered by Winston Churchill himself, and the fate of the free world hung upon it.
Today, we can reveal the untold story of how British agents went to war on Wall Street, a story pieced together from a remarkable collection of secret intelligence reports lying untouched for decades.
Uncovered by the MoS, the documents show how British agents took on Nazi sympathisers in the US with a masterful campaign of dirty tricks and disinformation, how they outmanoeuvred Hitler’s network of American allies and how they, ultimately, destroyed the Third Reich’s powerful business and intelligence empire across the water.
[Uncovered documents show how British agents, headed by Highland clan chief Donald MacLaren, took on Nazi sympathisers in the US]
Today, amid talk of special relationships and historic links, few remember that a sizeable part of American opinion was pro-German, even as Europe burned – or that many well-placed Americans were virulently anti-British.
There was a strongly held belief, particularly in corporate and financial life, that the Nazis were the best bulwark against the advance of Communism.
You can read the rest of this account at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...d_maclaren.htm
The Tartan Herald
The newsletter from the Scottish Tartans Authority which is always an interesting read and can be downloaded at http://www.electricscotland.com/tartans/newsletter/
Brian the Aberdonian
Got an interesting article from him about "Wakes Weeks" which starts...
The Bold Type is my record of the Original Post; the Italic Type in { } new notes I have added to make some sense after the passage of many years.
{I recall why I posted this item: A gentleman of Scottish decent, resident in Durban, South Africa, Posted about his previous visit to Scotland}.
Having taken a ‘Sleeper Train’ from London to Glasgow.
{Whilst the Preston Bound Sleeper cars were being detached from the Glasgow Sleeper-train to be shunted into a siding at Preston Station. The travellers to be wakened and served breakfast before leaving the sleeper at 8am}.
{The post stated} I wandered into the Preston Station barbers-shop for a shave and hair cut; missing the Glasgow sleeper train.
{His ticket was re-booked for the following nights Preston to Glasgow night-sleeper. With a day to fill in},
A ticket inspector, advised me to join a train on the next platform, for a day at the sea-side in Blackpool, and to return to Preston {on a service train from Blackpool to Preston} in time to catch the Glasgow sleeper.
{the train from Preston to Blackpool was taking Cotton Mill Workers for a seven day holiday Called a Wakes Week whilst their towns Cotton-mills underwent their annual maintenance}
{The Posted Question ended with} “Can anyone tell me what a Wakes Week is”?.
And so this article answers this question which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...deen/brian.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Published by Frank Shaw
For two of the last three years I have had the distinct pleasure and privilege to speak at The University of Glasgow’s Robert Burns Conference sponsored by The Centre for Robert Burns Studies. I have met some exciting new friends, men and women, who are Burns scholars in the best sense of the words. Sir Kenneth Calman, Dr. Natalia Kaloh Vid, Professor Nigel Leask, Michael Morris and a trinity of Ukrainian speakers, Peter Kormlo, Hanna Dyka and Taya Khryplyva, who spoke as few can about there work and love for Burns. Two of them, Peter and Hannah compiled the 295 pages of the book, Robert Burns Selected Works.
During our break for lunch they graciously presented me with a copy of their book. Later, as I am prone to do, I got around to asking them to write something for the pages of Robert Burns Lives! and they willingly accepted. Finally, we have the following for you. Also, I was introduced to John Clark via email. John is important to the book as he designed the magnificent cover for the book. It is something special! I do not speak Ukrainian but I really do not have to since the book is written in English on the left hand side of the page and in Ukrainian on the other side of the page. Below you will follow their connection to Burns through some emails where they share their love of Burns with me.
Unfortunately the article from Tayisa Khryplyva did not come in time to be included in this chapter. As soon as it does, I will have Alastair include it for our readers.
Next week I will share with you a most interesting account of how John Clark, well known Dumfries artist and published poet, designed the book cover for Robert Burns Selected Works (FRS:1.2.14)
You can read this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives188.htm
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
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