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Electric Scotland News
Clan Currie Tartan Day release is now available over the wire at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11596284.htm where they announce "New York Tartan Week to Open with “Scots in the American West”"
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Got this in from Tanja...
Scotland has a long history of emigration and Scots can be found all over the world. The word diaspora is used to describe them as a group – in its broadest sense the term simply refers to the movement of people, but I’d say it means much more than that. It stands too for shared cultural roots and an orientation to a homeland, Scotland in this case. So who are the Scots in the diaspora? And what is your link with it? That’s what this project is all about, bringing together Scots from around the world to share on this site their personal reflections on the Scottish diaspora, its history and legacy.
The Reflections project is part of my Scottish Diaspora Blog at http://thescottishdiaspora.co.uk/ There are no special requirements, the project is open to anyone with a love for Scotland and Scottish history. So are you a Scot living abroad with an interest in your Scottish roots? Or do you live in Scotland and love Scottish history and culture? Share your story to see it included on the Reflections wall here:
http://reflections.thescottishdiaspora.co.uk/
If you would like to become a contributor, all you have to do is fill in this Survey here:
http://reflections.thescottishdiaspo...uk/?page_id=43.
Come and join in & please spread the word!
All the best,
Tanja
I might add that I completed this survey myself.
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Hawick Reivers Festival 2014 28th to 30th March
2014 is finally with us – a year of huge significance for the town of Hawick when we look back to the events of 1514 and all that they have come to signify for the town. The subsequent years were amongst the most violent and lawless in our history with the families on both sides of the Border engaged in bitter feuding in defence of their lands and it is fitting that our Literary Event this year has the title “Reiving and Bereaving”
The committee have worked hard to make this a special and different festival this year with a number of changes from our previous programme.
I got in a pdf of this event which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/imag...gramme2014.pdf
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Now crossing the Atlantic to holiday and visit friends in Scotland is incredible value for money when you book with Canadian Affair. With direct flights year round from Toronto to Glasgow from just $799pp roundtrip, you can fly into the heart of Scotland placing you in an ideal position to explore all that the country has to offer, whether you are heading up north to the Highlands and beyond, or city hopping to the historical capital city Edinburgh. During summer months, you can also fly direct from Calgary and Vancouver into Glasgow, the perfect time to explore some of Scotland's unspoiled coastline.
See http://www.canadianaffair.ca/destinations/uk/scotland/
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The Scottish Studies Society of Canada invites you and your friends and family to a very special Tartan Day Celebration on Saturday April 5, 2014.
The venue for this year's event will be Massey College's Ondaatje Hall in the University of Toronto in which you will enjoy a magnificent evening of fine food and entertainment with a Scots-Canadian flavour.
During the evening we will be presenting our 22nd annual "Scot of the Year Award" which was initiated in 1993 to honour individuals who have achieved distinction through their contribution to Canadian society or the international community at large. This year's recipient will be Canadian politician, diplomat, historian, and author the Hon. Roy MacLaren.
The dress code for the evening will be formal (black tie or Highland dress) so this is your chance to dress up for one of the most sophisticated events in the Scots-Canadian calendar, taking place this year in the unique environment of Ondaatje Hall, the Canadian architectural masterpiece designed by Ronald Thom.
Reception: 6:30 p.m.
Dinner: 7: 30 p.m.
Tickets: $150 per person
You can order online at www.scottishstudies.com
Electric Canadian
Experiences of a Backwoods Preacher
Facts and Incidents culled from thirty years of Ministerial life by Rev. Joseph H. Hilts, Second Edition (1892).
Here is how Chapter XV. Remembered Kindness starts...
IT may be difficult to tell whether acts of kindness or deeds of injury imprint themselves more indelibly upon the memory, but it is not hard to settle the question as to which of the two should exert the greater influence on our actions. To cherish the remembrance of past injuries so as to influence our actions only tends to harden the heart and warp the character; so that in doing this we harm ourselves and only make matters worse. We thereby sustain a double injury—first, by the harmful act, and secondly, by remembering the act in such a way as to produce in us a sort of moral deformity. Thus we magnify into a life-long injury what should have been only a temporary grievance or a short-lived vexation. We may remember those who have wilfully and spitefully injured us as we would remember a rock that had once upset our boat—not with the intention of using dynamite, but with a desire to keep at a safe distance from it.
We must cherish feelings toward those who have injured us that will prompt us to help them if we can, and do them good when we can; but that does not mean that we must hug them to our hearts. But the grateful remembrance of acts of kindness has a softening influence upon the heart, and it exerts an elevating tendency of character. There is nothing low or degrading in cherishing the remembrance of kindly deeds, and there is nothing in the acknowledging of them that is either dishonourable or humiliating; but it is only doing simple justice to the performers of kindly actions to let them know that the recipients of those kindnesses are neither forgetful nor ungrateful.
With these views and for these reasons I shall, in this chapter, speak of the many acts of kindness shown to me and mine during the thirty years since I entered the Christian ministry. Many of these acts were unexpected, and most of them were either entirely unmerited or only partially deserved.
As I have intimated elsewhere, when I went on the backwoods missions I had some means of my own, the results of hard work by myself and wife; but we also had a number of children to which three more were added within a few years after commencing our itinerant life. The country at the time was new, the people were mostly poor, and the Church members were few. Every family had their own difficulties to grapple with, and the minister had to take his full share of the burdens that always settle down on the shoulders of pioneers ; and the lengthened period that I had to face these difficulties makes my case an exceptional one.
Other men were sent into the new parts of the work.
They would be left there a few years, and then be brought out to the front. But for some reason I was kept there from first to last. There was not another instance in the Church that I belonged to where a man was kept on one District through twenty-two years of active service, and that District the hardest one in the Connexion, in more ways than one. If there was such another case, I never heard of it.
After our own means were gone, if it had not been for the kindness shown' to us from time to time by church members and others, we should have suffered more than we did. I might almost as well undertake to number the hairs left on my head as to recount all the kindly deeds done to us. I shall have to content myself by giving a few details.
A Generous Irishman.
I use the term Irishman simply to indicate a man who came from Ireland. The man I speak of was a Protestant, an Orangeman, and a Methodist local preacher. At the time I speak of he resided in the township of Hawick, and was a member of the Official Board on the Teeswater mission, on which I was stationed. His name was William Ekins.
When our first Quarterly Meeting came on he was present at the business meeting on Saturday. That was the year of the hard summer, that the older people still talk about in the back townships when the Government had to send provisions to hundreds of families to keep them from starvation. Not being a taxpayer, I was not in a position to ask for help in that way. The result was that we were one month without a bit of bread in the house. We had a very little johnny cake. But we had plenty of greens, consisting of cooked “cow cabbage.” We also had a good supply of speckled trout, when we could catch them, and butter was to be had at reasonable figures.
Mr. Ekins came to our place for dinner. Two of our children were bad with cholera-infantum, induced, as was supposed, by the diet they were forced to live on. My friend brought with him one-half of a good sized veal, which he carried on horseback a long distance. He said when he came in with it, “I heard that you were trying to live on cattle feed, so I thought I would bring you a piece of one of them. I see that these little fellows of yours don’t take to that sort of diet very readily.”
On Monday morning, before he started, he said to me, “I do not see how you are to get along with all these children without milk. We have more cows than we need, and you may just as well have one of them as not; send the two boys home with me, and I will send a cow, and a boy to help drive it home, to-morrow.” We took his offer without much pressing. The cow was brought and proved to be a good one. I offered to pay him for her, but he would take nothing, saying that when he gave a thing he never would take pay for it. We kept that cow for five or six years, and then she got poisoned in some way and died.
Now up to Chapter XV which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...oods/index.htm
Summer Suns in the Far West
A Holiday Trip to the Pacific Slope by W. G. Blaikie D.D., LL.D. (1890).
Preface
SOME portions of what follows have already appeared in the form of letters, partly in one journal, partly in another. Any friends, interested in what they read there, have expressed a desire to have a more full and connected record of my tour. I have therefore recast the whole, and added nearly as much as was contained in the original papers, keeping up the style of easy letters, so that the whole might he regarded as written (as much of it was) in the railway carriage. The book is neither more nor less than notes of a holiday trip; and I cannot hope by means of it to do more' than enable others to share the information and the pleasure which the trip imparted to the travellers themselves, and perhaps add a little filament to the cord of interest and regard that binds together the two great sections of (he Anglo-Saxon family.
So we are now getting this book up at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...rsun/index.htm
Original Correspondence of General Wolfe
An interesting pdf article which includes information on his Canadian exploits. I thought this may be of interest to anyone interested in the battle of Quebec.
You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...eral_wolfe.pdf
Colonial Question - Canada
A four part article from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine 1849 (pdf). Given the time frame this is an interesting article on how Britain viewed Canada.
You can read this article at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ial_canada.pdf
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Grant Thoms and his article is about currency union in the event of a YES vote for Independence.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Alexander Murdoch (1841-1891)
A Scottish Engineer, Poet, Author, Journalist
Added a third book called "Scotch Readings: Humorous and Amusing" and we're breaking this down into individual chapters for you to read. We've added two more chapters, "The Stairheid Manawdge" and "Wee Bobbie Barefeet" which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...doch/index.htm
Dr James Wilkie getting involved in the Scotsman newspaper.
David Hume once remarked that he preferred to live under good laws than under good men. The principle still holds good. We know from experience that even the written Treaty of Union and its two ratifying and implementing Acts of Union provided no protection against the many breaches of their own stipulations, whether in the spirit or the letter. Constitutional sovereignty is essential as Scotland's built-in safeguard against such abuse.
For years I have been advancing the suggestions George Kerevan makes in this article. We now have a global political system consisting of more international institutions than sovereign states, and Scotland will need representation in most of them.
At regional level we have four major all-European institutions (CoE, UNECE, OSCE and NATO) and a dozen or so sub-regional groupings (EU and other local groups covering the Alpine, Adriatic, Danube, Central European, Scandinavian and other sub-regions of the continent.
I would envisage Scottish membership of two overlapping sub-regional groupings on a confederal basis: Firstly, a Council of the Isles covering our own archipelago, including the Republic of Ireland (which will never accept the title "British" for the institution).
Secondly, Scottish membership of the already existing Nordic Council, based on Scotland's status as a Scandinavian country.
To this might be added associate membership, or at least observer status, within the Tromsö-based 8-member Arctic Council on the basis that Scotland's national waters are the only ones of a non-member bordering on the Council's own marine jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, the SNP's command of international affairs ranges from abysmal to non-existent, and that of its advisers apparently does not extend beyond a very erroneous grasp of the sub-regional European Union.
I have been associated with European integration for well over 40 years, and I have witnessed the EU becoming ever more unfit for purpose. It is quite simply an aberration that is doing some useful transitional work in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, but in its present form is hopelessly unsuitable for Scottish membership.
The powers behind the EU are indelibly fixated on the creation of "a European nation" as a major player on the world stage, and are unable to see that this notion from the 1920s has been completely overtaken by globalisation and the new system of global governance.
I commend George Kerevan's vision as set out in this article. It is both visionary and realistic, and I am quite sure that the final result of the massive reconstruction of our political system that lies before us will not be too distant from the lines he indicates. However, the first step towards a realisation of such visions is a resounding Yes vote on 18 September, for without that nothing will take place.
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6 replies
I agree with a great deal of this. I have been a committed European for some time, but I do think we will need to reassess our position after independence. We need not lose our EU ties completely, but look elsewhere, as well and keep our options open. I do understand why the SNP has adopted its stance on EU membership as a means of keeping the ship of state steady as we move towards independence - so much has more to do with not frightening the horses as it has to do with sound policy, but there are other opportunities, too, and I think that, perhaps, these have not been ruled out entirely.
The overall pattern does appear to be for smaller nations to emerge from large entities, settle down to independence, then find their own feet by making alliances more beneficial to them and conducive to future prosperity and security.
As for the rest of Britain and Ireland, it would make sense for all of us to have strong ties and exchange of ideas and to facilitate good relations across the whole of these islands. Indeed, we have much to lose if we don't and, in reality, little incentive to be obstructive.
Surely the 'Council of the Isles' is merely intended as a mechanism for the Celtic nations to interfere in English issues in a spirit of revanchism?
The idea that the global mesh of institutions (largely constructed during a period of western dominance) will necessarily endure, develop or even survive is not a given.
The middle east is an example of a place where an ideologically incompatible system could arise as is the increasingly belligerent China (the recent increase in tension in the South China Sea being an ominous example). Ultimately the larger powers have a bigger influence in global affairs on crunch issues.
So I would suggest the aspiration of a US of Europe is not unreasonable in a world that is re-balancing, with some very large and populous players starting to assert themselves. I agree that the EU is unfit to achieve this, but the impetus for it to happen to some degree is likely to increase. It only takes 1 hyper power to dominate a world of pygmy nations.
Dr. James Wilkie's reply
Uisge gu leoir, you make some good points, but it would take a lot of space to go into them adequately. You are right that the early international institutions were set up after the war by Western powers, but there has been a lot of development since then. For example, the influence of the US-oriented Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank, IMF) is not so all-pervasive as it was, and if any one can be said to be directing the world economy nowadays it is more likely to be the new/old Bank for International Settlements (BIS), based in Basel, not America.
The idea of a United States of Europe arose when there was no global political and administrative system, and Europe apparently had to defend itself economically and politically against a hostile world. That idea has persisted long after the reality has changed. Just last week I was with a group of diplomats and a leading member of the EU who is also a prominent advocate of a European federal state. His arguments were torn to ribbons by his listeners. One case-hardened veteran ambassador told him bluntly that there is no such thing as a single European "people". (He also told him that the Euro has been a disastrous failure, but that is another issue).
The quasi-religious "European Nation" idea been around for decades, and in some respects for centuries, and believe me, it is still a factor in current economic and political affairs, no matter how the real world changes round about it.
With few exceptions major political and religious blocks are now living beside each other with no serious friction under the much more practical United Nations system based on intergovernmental consensus. It is the EU that is trying to swim against the tide with its attempted reversion to authoritarian supranational rule behind closed doors (only the Commission, and not the so-called Parliament, can inaugurate legislation).
One of these days the Islamic world will go through its own Enlightenment, allowing us to sleep more easily. Russia is already a member of all the European institutions except the EU (with no intention of ever joining), and is playing a most cooperative part in international affairs, as I know from encountering its people in the United Nations and elsewhere. It is a very hopeful world that Scotland will be entering, but if it does so at the present level of naivety and factual ignorance of the world outside its doors, then its premature exposure could deliver a setback that might take a generation to overcome.
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine
Have continued to work on these magazines from c1840. Here are some of the articles I've culled from the pages this week. I might add that some of the scans are not too clear so I ended up providing them as pdf files.
Church and School in Scotland
The population of Scotland, by last census, amounted to 2,870,784; but in the statements which we are about to submit, we shall assume, with Lord Melgund, that it amounts, in round numbers, to 3,000,000. Such a population would involve 600,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen; but the existing educational machinery overtakes, at the utmost, only 300,000, leaving a similar number to grow up in ignorance and degradation.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rch_school.htm
Coal Mine Explosions
Added this article to the foot of our coal mining page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/Hist.../industry1.htm
Literary and Scientific Society of Edinburgh 1848-9
I found this a very interesting article that highlights the significant Scots at this time period. It is actually a very good start to do research on the literary and scientific with lots of references to people and publications. I have provided this in pdf format for you to download and it was extracted from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine of 1849.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...scientific.htm
Scotch Bills and Scotch Representation
The success of Mr. Hume’s motion for the reform of the House of Commons would ^increase the representation of Scotland by 50 per cent., and men do say in Scotland that thereby the mortal dulness of the Commons would be increased by four per cent. The Scotch representation is every way deficient—first, in numbers, which the Scotch cannot help; but, second, in talents, which they might endeavour to amend. By some exertion, fifty-two less efficient representatives might be found in Parliament than the gentlemen sent up from Scotland, but an intimate knowledge of the House would be necessary in any man who undertook to find them.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...otch_bills.htm
Lives of the Linsays
We have the 4 volume book about them but I discovered this article about the publication so thought I'd add it to the page at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...e_lindsays.pdf
A Day in the Neighbourhood of Loch Skene
This was an interesting article and I also found a video of the area. You can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...loch_skene.htm
Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir Robert Murray Keith, K.B.
Found a copy of this 2 volume publication and an excellent article about it from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.
The motives which have given birth to the following publication, are such, as it is believed may enlist the sympathies, if not challenge the approbation, of the reader. There are, in the annals of every family, any of whose members have filled conspicuous stations in the public service—some privileged epochs round which its own memories have been fondly taught to congregate, and which it would fain rescue from oblivion in those of others. Such, during the long diplomatic career of Sir Robert Murray Keith, was the episode of the revolution in Denmark in 1772; and his spirited rescue, as representative of Great Britain, of a "daughter of England,” and the sister of his sovereign, from a fate the least disastrous probable issue of which was imprisonment for life in a northern fortress.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...th_robert.html
The Music, Poetry, and Tradition of the Highlands
By Donald Campbell. This is a four part article extracted from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine of 1849.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._tradition.htm
Edinburgh in November
Education. We like the phrase. No word can more adequately express the great circle of ideas which the transit of the mind from ignorance and imbecility to knowledge and power naturally suggests. It presents the picture of a fond and solicitous parent, guiding, with anxious eye and skilful hand, the first feeble essays of her infant offspring to achieve his physical independence. It exhibits her assiduously smoothing every wrinkle of the carpet, avoiding every angle of the table, and safely conducting him to the well-stuffed fauteuil, on whose soft arms complacently resting his tiny hands, as after the accomplishment of some marvellous exploit, he repairs his exhausted strength, and resolves on a more vigorous, sustained, and successful effort. It conducts us to the hour when the young aspirant, disdaining his maternal auxiliary, alone and unaided, boldly attempts, and triumphantly executes, his first perilous journey from the sofa to the sideboard. It anon reveals him revelling in all the luxurious sensations of uncontrolled muscular exertion, striding majestically away in the pomp and pride of unfettered power, with every function promptly obeying the active dictates of a sovereign volition. All this is a type of the intellectual process indicated by the term Education. The mind, invited from its original territory of gloom and sterility, is led by the hand of an enlightened guide, into the fair and fertile domains of literature and science. At first every ascent is levelled, every difficulty smoothed, and every obstacle carefully avoided, until sufficiently practised in these moral excursions, it is seen successfully clearing its own way; resolutely toiling along, either in paths familiar to others; or, more nobly still, forming a new and hitherto undiscovered avenue for itself, and by the light of its own sacred lamp, safely advancing in fearless strength, and pointing out that route to others, at whose extremity ascends the beautiful temple of absolute truth. Both tableaux, the material and the mental, are invested, to the student of humanity, with an interest which few other scenes can excite. The importance of the one, however, is immeasurably superior to the other, as time is greater than eternity. We witness the first faint struggles to exercise the animal functions crowned by ultimate success.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../edinburgh.htm
And that's it from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine for this week.
The Songstresses of Scotland
Added the biography of Mrs Elizabeth Hamilton (1758—1816)
This one can be read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/music/songstresses/
Enigma Machine
Put up puzzle 52 at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma052.htm
The Campells of Argyll
By Hilda Skae.
We've now added the final chapter which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...pbell_book.htm
As it happens this final chapter is about Lord Clyde and I was so impressed about this person that I looked for a larger account of his life and as a result now started on the book...
Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde
By Archibald Forbes (1895)
You can read this account at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...lord_clyde.htm
The Working Life of Christina McKelvie MSP
Got in her column at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...vie/140223.htm
Summer at the Lake of Monteith
By P. Dun, Station Master, Port of Monteith (1866). A new book we're starting.
These pages—containing some notes of a locality unsurpassed in placid loveliness, and surrounded by much of the sublime, but which has hitherto attracted little notice of the great travelling world—are now, for the first time, presented to the public in a collected form.
When the idea first occurred to the Author, of bringing the “Lake of Monteith,” and the old traditions that still linger around its shores, prominently before the public, he was actuated by the desire of lending his humble aid to raise in the estimation of those who, flying from the din and bustle of commerce, seek for health and pleasure amid the glories of Nature, a locality which, although seldom traversed by the tourists who flock from all quarters of the world, to behold, with their own eyes, the land of “the mountain and the flood,” is, in his estimation, unrivalled in its varied charms, and to which he feels proud to be united by the strong tie of nativity. In attempting this, however, he acknowledges his inability to do justice to a subject with which only the genius of a Scott or of a Burns could competently engage.
The Author craves, therefore, the kind indulgence of the courteous reader in his perusal of these pages; and, should he consider they lack that interest, he is requested to visit the district which they attempt to describe, and he will find attraction without limit, of the most interesting and imposing character.
PORT OF MONTEITH STATION,
1st June, 1866.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eith/index.htm
The Tudor Farm
You likely know that I am interested in how our ancestors lived and to that end I found a new series this week from the BBC and have made them available for you to view at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/agri....htm#tudorfarm
Beths Newfangled Family Tree
Beth's having computer problems and explains the issues in Section 1 which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Clan Wallace Newsletter
Got in a copy of their Winter 2014 newsletter which you can read at;
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...lace/index.htm
The Bannatyne Club
Produced a list of their books which you can view at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../bannatyne.htm
Scots Canadian Newsletter
Got in their Spring 2014 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...s_canadian.htm
Scottish Chapbook Literature
By William Harvey (1903). I've added this book to the foot his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ey_william.htm
I might add that the University of Guelph has a large collection of chapbooks and I did a wee review of them at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada/library2.htm
The Life of Lieut.-General Hugh MacKay
Commander in Chief of the Forces in Scotland 1689 and 1690 by John MacKay of Rockfield (1836)
At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Bannatyne Club, held on Monday the 29th of February, 1836, in the Apartments of the Antiquarian Society,
“There was brought under the notice of the Meeting a work on the eve of publication, entitled the “Life of Lieut.-General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, Commander in Chief of the Forces in Scotland, 1689 and 1690, Colonel-Commandant of the Scottish Brigade in the Service of the States General, and a Privy Counsellor in Scotland: By John Mackay, Esq. of Rockfield originally compiled for the purpose of accompanying the Memoirs of the War, 1689-1691, by General Mackay, printed for the Club in 1833; when it was
“Resolved,
“That One Hundred and One Copies of the Life of General Mackay be purchased for the use of the Members.”
Extracted from the Minutes of the Club.
D. Laing, Secretary.
I have found a copy of this book and have ocr'd in the Preface and made the whole book available as a pdf file. You can get to this at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ckay/index.htm
Bennachie
A book in pdf format by Alexander Inkson McConnochie which I added to the foot of his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cconnochie.htm
Children's stories by Sergey Nikolov
Got in three stories from this author from Bulgaria which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/nikolov/index.htm
The lost pictures of Lewis, Scotland
By Euan Ferguson in the Observor Newspaper. Robert Stewart told me about this article and I thought I'd add it to the site and you can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...n_morrison.htm
Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers
I updated our page about him to provide the four volume memoirs and an article of the publication from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. You can find this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_thomas.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
The journal deals with the relationship of a New Zealander by the name of James Baxter and our own Robert Burns which I found to be an exciting read. I must confess I had never heard of James Baxter, but now I will never forget him. Like Burns, he died too young, Burns at 37 and Baxter at 46. Baxter cast a big net and is one of New Zealand’s best poets, if not the best. He blazed a trail that few men in the world dared face and came out on top. He went through tribulation after tribulation and somehow emerged a better and stronger man. Whereas Burns was a Deist, Baxter was an Anglican and then a Catholic. Burns wrote only one book while Baxter wrote several. Both men battled with alcohol. Baxter was an alcoholic and Burns was a heavy drinker like most men in Scotland. Yet, both men were celebrated by their own people in their own country.
You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives195.htm
We've continued to add chapters to...
Scottish Historical Review at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume17.htm
In the latest issue there is an interesting article about "The Causes of the Highland Emigrations of 1783-1803"
The Clyde from the Source to the Sea at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/clyde/index.htm which we've now completed.
The History of Burke and Hare at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/burkehare/ where we've now added chapters 21 to 30.
And Finally...
I got an email in from Doug Ross which resonated with me and thought I'd share it with you...
Setting a new password
"Please set a password to register."
cabbage
"Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters."
boiled cabbage
"Sorry, the password must contain 1 numerical character. "
1 boiled cabbage
"Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces. "
50soddingboiledcabbages
"Sorry, the password must contain at least one upper case character. "
50SODDINGboiledcabbages
"Sorry, the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively. "
50SoddingBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYours, IfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessImmediately
"Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation. "
NowIAmGettingReallyPissedOff50SoddingBoiledCabbage sShovedUpYoursIfYouDontGiveMeAccessImmediately
"Sorry, that password is already in use!"
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
Clan Currie Tartan Day release is now available over the wire at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11596284.htm where they announce "New York Tartan Week to Open with “Scots in the American West”"
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Got this in from Tanja...
Scotland has a long history of emigration and Scots can be found all over the world. The word diaspora is used to describe them as a group – in its broadest sense the term simply refers to the movement of people, but I’d say it means much more than that. It stands too for shared cultural roots and an orientation to a homeland, Scotland in this case. So who are the Scots in the diaspora? And what is your link with it? That’s what this project is all about, bringing together Scots from around the world to share on this site their personal reflections on the Scottish diaspora, its history and legacy.
The Reflections project is part of my Scottish Diaspora Blog at http://thescottishdiaspora.co.uk/ There are no special requirements, the project is open to anyone with a love for Scotland and Scottish history. So are you a Scot living abroad with an interest in your Scottish roots? Or do you live in Scotland and love Scottish history and culture? Share your story to see it included on the Reflections wall here:
http://reflections.thescottishdiaspora.co.uk/
If you would like to become a contributor, all you have to do is fill in this Survey here:
http://reflections.thescottishdiaspo...uk/?page_id=43.
Come and join in & please spread the word!
All the best,
Tanja
I might add that I completed this survey myself.
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Hawick Reivers Festival 2014 28th to 30th March
2014 is finally with us – a year of huge significance for the town of Hawick when we look back to the events of 1514 and all that they have come to signify for the town. The subsequent years were amongst the most violent and lawless in our history with the families on both sides of the Border engaged in bitter feuding in defence of their lands and it is fitting that our Literary Event this year has the title “Reiving and Bereaving”
The committee have worked hard to make this a special and different festival this year with a number of changes from our previous programme.
I got in a pdf of this event which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/imag...gramme2014.pdf
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Now crossing the Atlantic to holiday and visit friends in Scotland is incredible value for money when you book with Canadian Affair. With direct flights year round from Toronto to Glasgow from just $799pp roundtrip, you can fly into the heart of Scotland placing you in an ideal position to explore all that the country has to offer, whether you are heading up north to the Highlands and beyond, or city hopping to the historical capital city Edinburgh. During summer months, you can also fly direct from Calgary and Vancouver into Glasgow, the perfect time to explore some of Scotland's unspoiled coastline.
See http://www.canadianaffair.ca/destinations/uk/scotland/
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The Scottish Studies Society of Canada invites you and your friends and family to a very special Tartan Day Celebration on Saturday April 5, 2014.
The venue for this year's event will be Massey College's Ondaatje Hall in the University of Toronto in which you will enjoy a magnificent evening of fine food and entertainment with a Scots-Canadian flavour.
During the evening we will be presenting our 22nd annual "Scot of the Year Award" which was initiated in 1993 to honour individuals who have achieved distinction through their contribution to Canadian society or the international community at large. This year's recipient will be Canadian politician, diplomat, historian, and author the Hon. Roy MacLaren.
The dress code for the evening will be formal (black tie or Highland dress) so this is your chance to dress up for one of the most sophisticated events in the Scots-Canadian calendar, taking place this year in the unique environment of Ondaatje Hall, the Canadian architectural masterpiece designed by Ronald Thom.
Reception: 6:30 p.m.
Dinner: 7: 30 p.m.
Tickets: $150 per person
You can order online at www.scottishstudies.com
Electric Canadian
Experiences of a Backwoods Preacher
Facts and Incidents culled from thirty years of Ministerial life by Rev. Joseph H. Hilts, Second Edition (1892).
Here is how Chapter XV. Remembered Kindness starts...
IT may be difficult to tell whether acts of kindness or deeds of injury imprint themselves more indelibly upon the memory, but it is not hard to settle the question as to which of the two should exert the greater influence on our actions. To cherish the remembrance of past injuries so as to influence our actions only tends to harden the heart and warp the character; so that in doing this we harm ourselves and only make matters worse. We thereby sustain a double injury—first, by the harmful act, and secondly, by remembering the act in such a way as to produce in us a sort of moral deformity. Thus we magnify into a life-long injury what should have been only a temporary grievance or a short-lived vexation. We may remember those who have wilfully and spitefully injured us as we would remember a rock that had once upset our boat—not with the intention of using dynamite, but with a desire to keep at a safe distance from it.
We must cherish feelings toward those who have injured us that will prompt us to help them if we can, and do them good when we can; but that does not mean that we must hug them to our hearts. But the grateful remembrance of acts of kindness has a softening influence upon the heart, and it exerts an elevating tendency of character. There is nothing low or degrading in cherishing the remembrance of kindly deeds, and there is nothing in the acknowledging of them that is either dishonourable or humiliating; but it is only doing simple justice to the performers of kindly actions to let them know that the recipients of those kindnesses are neither forgetful nor ungrateful.
With these views and for these reasons I shall, in this chapter, speak of the many acts of kindness shown to me and mine during the thirty years since I entered the Christian ministry. Many of these acts were unexpected, and most of them were either entirely unmerited or only partially deserved.
As I have intimated elsewhere, when I went on the backwoods missions I had some means of my own, the results of hard work by myself and wife; but we also had a number of children to which three more were added within a few years after commencing our itinerant life. The country at the time was new, the people were mostly poor, and the Church members were few. Every family had their own difficulties to grapple with, and the minister had to take his full share of the burdens that always settle down on the shoulders of pioneers ; and the lengthened period that I had to face these difficulties makes my case an exceptional one.
Other men were sent into the new parts of the work.
They would be left there a few years, and then be brought out to the front. But for some reason I was kept there from first to last. There was not another instance in the Church that I belonged to where a man was kept on one District through twenty-two years of active service, and that District the hardest one in the Connexion, in more ways than one. If there was such another case, I never heard of it.
After our own means were gone, if it had not been for the kindness shown' to us from time to time by church members and others, we should have suffered more than we did. I might almost as well undertake to number the hairs left on my head as to recount all the kindly deeds done to us. I shall have to content myself by giving a few details.
A Generous Irishman.
I use the term Irishman simply to indicate a man who came from Ireland. The man I speak of was a Protestant, an Orangeman, and a Methodist local preacher. At the time I speak of he resided in the township of Hawick, and was a member of the Official Board on the Teeswater mission, on which I was stationed. His name was William Ekins.
When our first Quarterly Meeting came on he was present at the business meeting on Saturday. That was the year of the hard summer, that the older people still talk about in the back townships when the Government had to send provisions to hundreds of families to keep them from starvation. Not being a taxpayer, I was not in a position to ask for help in that way. The result was that we were one month without a bit of bread in the house. We had a very little johnny cake. But we had plenty of greens, consisting of cooked “cow cabbage.” We also had a good supply of speckled trout, when we could catch them, and butter was to be had at reasonable figures.
Mr. Ekins came to our place for dinner. Two of our children were bad with cholera-infantum, induced, as was supposed, by the diet they were forced to live on. My friend brought with him one-half of a good sized veal, which he carried on horseback a long distance. He said when he came in with it, “I heard that you were trying to live on cattle feed, so I thought I would bring you a piece of one of them. I see that these little fellows of yours don’t take to that sort of diet very readily.”
On Monday morning, before he started, he said to me, “I do not see how you are to get along with all these children without milk. We have more cows than we need, and you may just as well have one of them as not; send the two boys home with me, and I will send a cow, and a boy to help drive it home, to-morrow.” We took his offer without much pressing. The cow was brought and proved to be a good one. I offered to pay him for her, but he would take nothing, saying that when he gave a thing he never would take pay for it. We kept that cow for five or six years, and then she got poisoned in some way and died.
Now up to Chapter XV which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...oods/index.htm
Summer Suns in the Far West
A Holiday Trip to the Pacific Slope by W. G. Blaikie D.D., LL.D. (1890).
Preface
SOME portions of what follows have already appeared in the form of letters, partly in one journal, partly in another. Any friends, interested in what they read there, have expressed a desire to have a more full and connected record of my tour. I have therefore recast the whole, and added nearly as much as was contained in the original papers, keeping up the style of easy letters, so that the whole might he regarded as written (as much of it was) in the railway carriage. The book is neither more nor less than notes of a holiday trip; and I cannot hope by means of it to do more' than enable others to share the information and the pleasure which the trip imparted to the travellers themselves, and perhaps add a little filament to the cord of interest and regard that binds together the two great sections of (he Anglo-Saxon family.
So we are now getting this book up at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...rsun/index.htm
Original Correspondence of General Wolfe
An interesting pdf article which includes information on his Canadian exploits. I thought this may be of interest to anyone interested in the battle of Quebec.
You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...eral_wolfe.pdf
Colonial Question - Canada
A four part article from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine 1849 (pdf). Given the time frame this is an interesting article on how Britain viewed Canada.
You can read this article at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ial_canada.pdf
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Grant Thoms and his article is about currency union in the event of a YES vote for Independence.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
Alexander Murdoch (1841-1891)
A Scottish Engineer, Poet, Author, Journalist
Added a third book called "Scotch Readings: Humorous and Amusing" and we're breaking this down into individual chapters for you to read. We've added two more chapters, "The Stairheid Manawdge" and "Wee Bobbie Barefeet" which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...doch/index.htm
Dr James Wilkie getting involved in the Scotsman newspaper.
David Hume once remarked that he preferred to live under good laws than under good men. The principle still holds good. We know from experience that even the written Treaty of Union and its two ratifying and implementing Acts of Union provided no protection against the many breaches of their own stipulations, whether in the spirit or the letter. Constitutional sovereignty is essential as Scotland's built-in safeguard against such abuse.
For years I have been advancing the suggestions George Kerevan makes in this article. We now have a global political system consisting of more international institutions than sovereign states, and Scotland will need representation in most of them.
At regional level we have four major all-European institutions (CoE, UNECE, OSCE and NATO) and a dozen or so sub-regional groupings (EU and other local groups covering the Alpine, Adriatic, Danube, Central European, Scandinavian and other sub-regions of the continent.
I would envisage Scottish membership of two overlapping sub-regional groupings on a confederal basis: Firstly, a Council of the Isles covering our own archipelago, including the Republic of Ireland (which will never accept the title "British" for the institution).
Secondly, Scottish membership of the already existing Nordic Council, based on Scotland's status as a Scandinavian country.
To this might be added associate membership, or at least observer status, within the Tromsö-based 8-member Arctic Council on the basis that Scotland's national waters are the only ones of a non-member bordering on the Council's own marine jurisdiction.
Unfortunately, the SNP's command of international affairs ranges from abysmal to non-existent, and that of its advisers apparently does not extend beyond a very erroneous grasp of the sub-regional European Union.
I have been associated with European integration for well over 40 years, and I have witnessed the EU becoming ever more unfit for purpose. It is quite simply an aberration that is doing some useful transitional work in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, but in its present form is hopelessly unsuitable for Scottish membership.
The powers behind the EU are indelibly fixated on the creation of "a European nation" as a major player on the world stage, and are unable to see that this notion from the 1920s has been completely overtaken by globalisation and the new system of global governance.
I commend George Kerevan's vision as set out in this article. It is both visionary and realistic, and I am quite sure that the final result of the massive reconstruction of our political system that lies before us will not be too distant from the lines he indicates. However, the first step towards a realisation of such visions is a resounding Yes vote on 18 September, for without that nothing will take place.
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6 replies
I agree with a great deal of this. I have been a committed European for some time, but I do think we will need to reassess our position after independence. We need not lose our EU ties completely, but look elsewhere, as well and keep our options open. I do understand why the SNP has adopted its stance on EU membership as a means of keeping the ship of state steady as we move towards independence - so much has more to do with not frightening the horses as it has to do with sound policy, but there are other opportunities, too, and I think that, perhaps, these have not been ruled out entirely.
The overall pattern does appear to be for smaller nations to emerge from large entities, settle down to independence, then find their own feet by making alliances more beneficial to them and conducive to future prosperity and security.
As for the rest of Britain and Ireland, it would make sense for all of us to have strong ties and exchange of ideas and to facilitate good relations across the whole of these islands. Indeed, we have much to lose if we don't and, in reality, little incentive to be obstructive.
Surely the 'Council of the Isles' is merely intended as a mechanism for the Celtic nations to interfere in English issues in a spirit of revanchism?
The idea that the global mesh of institutions (largely constructed during a period of western dominance) will necessarily endure, develop or even survive is not a given.
The middle east is an example of a place where an ideologically incompatible system could arise as is the increasingly belligerent China (the recent increase in tension in the South China Sea being an ominous example). Ultimately the larger powers have a bigger influence in global affairs on crunch issues.
So I would suggest the aspiration of a US of Europe is not unreasonable in a world that is re-balancing, with some very large and populous players starting to assert themselves. I agree that the EU is unfit to achieve this, but the impetus for it to happen to some degree is likely to increase. It only takes 1 hyper power to dominate a world of pygmy nations.
Dr. James Wilkie's reply
Uisge gu leoir, you make some good points, but it would take a lot of space to go into them adequately. You are right that the early international institutions were set up after the war by Western powers, but there has been a lot of development since then. For example, the influence of the US-oriented Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank, IMF) is not so all-pervasive as it was, and if any one can be said to be directing the world economy nowadays it is more likely to be the new/old Bank for International Settlements (BIS), based in Basel, not America.
The idea of a United States of Europe arose when there was no global political and administrative system, and Europe apparently had to defend itself economically and politically against a hostile world. That idea has persisted long after the reality has changed. Just last week I was with a group of diplomats and a leading member of the EU who is also a prominent advocate of a European federal state. His arguments were torn to ribbons by his listeners. One case-hardened veteran ambassador told him bluntly that there is no such thing as a single European "people". (He also told him that the Euro has been a disastrous failure, but that is another issue).
The quasi-religious "European Nation" idea been around for decades, and in some respects for centuries, and believe me, it is still a factor in current economic and political affairs, no matter how the real world changes round about it.
With few exceptions major political and religious blocks are now living beside each other with no serious friction under the much more practical United Nations system based on intergovernmental consensus. It is the EU that is trying to swim against the tide with its attempted reversion to authoritarian supranational rule behind closed doors (only the Commission, and not the so-called Parliament, can inaugurate legislation).
One of these days the Islamic world will go through its own Enlightenment, allowing us to sleep more easily. Russia is already a member of all the European institutions except the EU (with no intention of ever joining), and is playing a most cooperative part in international affairs, as I know from encountering its people in the United Nations and elsewhere. It is a very hopeful world that Scotland will be entering, but if it does so at the present level of naivety and factual ignorance of the world outside its doors, then its premature exposure could deliver a setback that might take a generation to overcome.
Tait's Edinburgh Magazine
Have continued to work on these magazines from c1840. Here are some of the articles I've culled from the pages this week. I might add that some of the scans are not too clear so I ended up providing them as pdf files.
Church and School in Scotland
The population of Scotland, by last census, amounted to 2,870,784; but in the statements which we are about to submit, we shall assume, with Lord Melgund, that it amounts, in round numbers, to 3,000,000. Such a population would involve 600,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen; but the existing educational machinery overtakes, at the utmost, only 300,000, leaving a similar number to grow up in ignorance and degradation.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rch_school.htm
Coal Mine Explosions
Added this article to the foot of our coal mining page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/Hist.../industry1.htm
Literary and Scientific Society of Edinburgh 1848-9
I found this a very interesting article that highlights the significant Scots at this time period. It is actually a very good start to do research on the literary and scientific with lots of references to people and publications. I have provided this in pdf format for you to download and it was extracted from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine of 1849.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...scientific.htm
Scotch Bills and Scotch Representation
The success of Mr. Hume’s motion for the reform of the House of Commons would ^increase the representation of Scotland by 50 per cent., and men do say in Scotland that thereby the mortal dulness of the Commons would be increased by four per cent. The Scotch representation is every way deficient—first, in numbers, which the Scotch cannot help; but, second, in talents, which they might endeavour to amend. By some exertion, fifty-two less efficient representatives might be found in Parliament than the gentlemen sent up from Scotland, but an intimate knowledge of the House would be necessary in any man who undertook to find them.
You can read this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...otch_bills.htm
Lives of the Linsays
We have the 4 volume book about them but I discovered this article about the publication so thought I'd add it to the page at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...e_lindsays.pdf
A Day in the Neighbourhood of Loch Skene
This was an interesting article and I also found a video of the area. You can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...loch_skene.htm
Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir Robert Murray Keith, K.B.
Found a copy of this 2 volume publication and an excellent article about it from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine.
The motives which have given birth to the following publication, are such, as it is believed may enlist the sympathies, if not challenge the approbation, of the reader. There are, in the annals of every family, any of whose members have filled conspicuous stations in the public service—some privileged epochs round which its own memories have been fondly taught to congregate, and which it would fain rescue from oblivion in those of others. Such, during the long diplomatic career of Sir Robert Murray Keith, was the episode of the revolution in Denmark in 1772; and his spirited rescue, as representative of Great Britain, of a "daughter of England,” and the sister of his sovereign, from a fate the least disastrous probable issue of which was imprisonment for life in a northern fortress.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...th_robert.html
The Music, Poetry, and Tradition of the Highlands
By Donald Campbell. This is a four part article extracted from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine of 1849.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._tradition.htm
Edinburgh in November
Education. We like the phrase. No word can more adequately express the great circle of ideas which the transit of the mind from ignorance and imbecility to knowledge and power naturally suggests. It presents the picture of a fond and solicitous parent, guiding, with anxious eye and skilful hand, the first feeble essays of her infant offspring to achieve his physical independence. It exhibits her assiduously smoothing every wrinkle of the carpet, avoiding every angle of the table, and safely conducting him to the well-stuffed fauteuil, on whose soft arms complacently resting his tiny hands, as after the accomplishment of some marvellous exploit, he repairs his exhausted strength, and resolves on a more vigorous, sustained, and successful effort. It conducts us to the hour when the young aspirant, disdaining his maternal auxiliary, alone and unaided, boldly attempts, and triumphantly executes, his first perilous journey from the sofa to the sideboard. It anon reveals him revelling in all the luxurious sensations of uncontrolled muscular exertion, striding majestically away in the pomp and pride of unfettered power, with every function promptly obeying the active dictates of a sovereign volition. All this is a type of the intellectual process indicated by the term Education. The mind, invited from its original territory of gloom and sterility, is led by the hand of an enlightened guide, into the fair and fertile domains of literature and science. At first every ascent is levelled, every difficulty smoothed, and every obstacle carefully avoided, until sufficiently practised in these moral excursions, it is seen successfully clearing its own way; resolutely toiling along, either in paths familiar to others; or, more nobly still, forming a new and hitherto undiscovered avenue for itself, and by the light of its own sacred lamp, safely advancing in fearless strength, and pointing out that route to others, at whose extremity ascends the beautiful temple of absolute truth. Both tableaux, the material and the mental, are invested, to the student of humanity, with an interest which few other scenes can excite. The importance of the one, however, is immeasurably superior to the other, as time is greater than eternity. We witness the first faint struggles to exercise the animal functions crowned by ultimate success.
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../edinburgh.htm
And that's it from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine for this week.
The Songstresses of Scotland
Added the biography of Mrs Elizabeth Hamilton (1758—1816)
This one can be read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/music/songstresses/
Enigma Machine
Put up puzzle 52 at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma052.htm
The Campells of Argyll
By Hilda Skae.
We've now added the final chapter which you can get to at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...pbell_book.htm
As it happens this final chapter is about Lord Clyde and I was so impressed about this person that I looked for a larger account of his life and as a result now started on the book...
Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde
By Archibald Forbes (1895)
You can read this account at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...lord_clyde.htm
The Working Life of Christina McKelvie MSP
Got in her column at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...vie/140223.htm
Summer at the Lake of Monteith
By P. Dun, Station Master, Port of Monteith (1866). A new book we're starting.
These pages—containing some notes of a locality unsurpassed in placid loveliness, and surrounded by much of the sublime, but which has hitherto attracted little notice of the great travelling world—are now, for the first time, presented to the public in a collected form.
When the idea first occurred to the Author, of bringing the “Lake of Monteith,” and the old traditions that still linger around its shores, prominently before the public, he was actuated by the desire of lending his humble aid to raise in the estimation of those who, flying from the din and bustle of commerce, seek for health and pleasure amid the glories of Nature, a locality which, although seldom traversed by the tourists who flock from all quarters of the world, to behold, with their own eyes, the land of “the mountain and the flood,” is, in his estimation, unrivalled in its varied charms, and to which he feels proud to be united by the strong tie of nativity. In attempting this, however, he acknowledges his inability to do justice to a subject with which only the genius of a Scott or of a Burns could competently engage.
The Author craves, therefore, the kind indulgence of the courteous reader in his perusal of these pages; and, should he consider they lack that interest, he is requested to visit the district which they attempt to describe, and he will find attraction without limit, of the most interesting and imposing character.
PORT OF MONTEITH STATION,
1st June, 1866.
You can read this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eith/index.htm
The Tudor Farm
You likely know that I am interested in how our ancestors lived and to that end I found a new series this week from the BBC and have made them available for you to view at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/agri....htm#tudorfarm
Beths Newfangled Family Tree
Beth's having computer problems and explains the issues in Section 1 which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Clan Wallace Newsletter
Got in a copy of their Winter 2014 newsletter which you can read at;
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...lace/index.htm
The Bannatyne Club
Produced a list of their books which you can view at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../bannatyne.htm
Scots Canadian Newsletter
Got in their Spring 2014 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...s_canadian.htm
Scottish Chapbook Literature
By William Harvey (1903). I've added this book to the foot his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ey_william.htm
I might add that the University of Guelph has a large collection of chapbooks and I did a wee review of them at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/canada/library2.htm
The Life of Lieut.-General Hugh MacKay
Commander in Chief of the Forces in Scotland 1689 and 1690 by John MacKay of Rockfield (1836)
At an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Bannatyne Club, held on Monday the 29th of February, 1836, in the Apartments of the Antiquarian Society,
“There was brought under the notice of the Meeting a work on the eve of publication, entitled the “Life of Lieut.-General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, Commander in Chief of the Forces in Scotland, 1689 and 1690, Colonel-Commandant of the Scottish Brigade in the Service of the States General, and a Privy Counsellor in Scotland: By John Mackay, Esq. of Rockfield originally compiled for the purpose of accompanying the Memoirs of the War, 1689-1691, by General Mackay, printed for the Club in 1833; when it was
“Resolved,
“That One Hundred and One Copies of the Life of General Mackay be purchased for the use of the Members.”
Extracted from the Minutes of the Club.
D. Laing, Secretary.
I have found a copy of this book and have ocr'd in the Preface and made the whole book available as a pdf file. You can get to this at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ckay/index.htm
Bennachie
A book in pdf format by Alexander Inkson McConnochie which I added to the foot of his page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cconnochie.htm
Children's stories by Sergey Nikolov
Got in three stories from this author from Bulgaria which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/nikolov/index.htm
The lost pictures of Lewis, Scotland
By Euan Ferguson in the Observor Newspaper. Robert Stewart told me about this article and I thought I'd add it to the site and you can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...n_morrison.htm
Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers
I updated our page about him to provide the four volume memoirs and an article of the publication from Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. You can find this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_thomas.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw
Journal of New Zealand Literature 30 Special Issue: Baxter and Burns
The journal deals with the relationship of a New Zealander by the name of James Baxter and our own Robert Burns which I found to be an exciting read. I must confess I had never heard of James Baxter, but now I will never forget him. Like Burns, he died too young, Burns at 37 and Baxter at 46. Baxter cast a big net and is one of New Zealand’s best poets, if not the best. He blazed a trail that few men in the world dared face and came out on top. He went through tribulation after tribulation and somehow emerged a better and stronger man. Whereas Burns was a Deist, Baxter was an Anglican and then a Catholic. Burns wrote only one book while Baxter wrote several. Both men battled with alcohol. Baxter was an alcoholic and Burns was a heavy drinker like most men in Scotland. Yet, both men were celebrated by their own people in their own country.
You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives195.htm
We've continued to add chapters to...
Scottish Historical Review at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume17.htm
In the latest issue there is an interesting article about "The Causes of the Highland Emigrations of 1783-1803"
The Clyde from the Source to the Sea at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/clyde/index.htm which we've now completed.
The History of Burke and Hare at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/burkehare/ where we've now added chapters 21 to 30.
And Finally...
I got an email in from Doug Ross which resonated with me and thought I'd share it with you...
Setting a new password
"Please set a password to register."
cabbage
"Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters."
boiled cabbage
"Sorry, the password must contain 1 numerical character. "
1 boiled cabbage
"Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces. "
50soddingboiledcabbages
"Sorry, the password must contain at least one upper case character. "
50SODDINGboiledcabbages
"Sorry, the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively. "
50SoddingBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYours, IfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessImmediately
"Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation. "
NowIAmGettingReallyPissedOff50SoddingBoiledCabbage sShovedUpYoursIfYouDontGiveMeAccessImmediately
"Sorry, that password is already in use!"
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair