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Electric Scotland News
Scotland Week "soaring" success
Bannockburn Live warriors, Scottish “Iron” Chefs and a breath-taking myriad of business meetings, media and trade events promote Scotland to the world at annual event.
You can read a report from Visit Scotland about this event at:
http://www.visitscotland.org/media_c...g_success.aspx
American schoolteacher to be honoured for his book on Flora MacDonald at ceremony in Washington DC
JOHN TOFFEY will collect an award from the Scottish coalition as part of National Tartan Day for his book "A Woman Nobly Planned" which told how Flora smuggled Prince Charlie from the redcoats after the 1745 disaster of Culloden. You can read more about this at:
http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.c...-flora-3392905
As this was going to press I learned that Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister of Canada has died.
He kept Canada on the straight and narrow through the financial crises and contributed to the financial well being of Canada and this year will see Canada balancing its books which is a great legacy. Some information on him can be found at:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/former-...t-64-1.1770150
Electric Canadian
Nova Scotia Historical Society, Reports and Collections
I have found a number of volumes from this Society and have added the first four to get you started. I'll be adding more as I find them.
I added Volume VIII 1892/94 which is about the History of Halifax City.
You can read this volume at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ions/index.htm
Bert Lloyd's Boyhood.
A Story from Nova Scotia by J. MacDonald Oxley, LL.D. (1892).
We are now up to Chapter 14 which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...hood/index.htm
A History of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia
By Frank H. Patterson, LL.D (1917).
We have now completed this book which can be read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...uche/index.htm
Nova Scotia: The Province that has been Passed By
By Beckles Willson (1911). A new book we're starting.
Here is the Preface...
I suppose Canadians of the First Immigration should he very well pleased to see their farm lands overrun by the mongrel hordes of Europe who, we are told, are presently to assimilate the manners, institutions, and amenities which our British forefathers so slowly and painfully through the centuries established for us.
It is a magnificent spectacle the West is offering to the world—this great trek of a hundred thousand families a year—these cities arising in a single night, this flux and tumult, this noisy abandonment of effete conventions and ideals. Perhaps ir is all going to end, as the optimists tell us it will end, to the glory of the race—our race. But some of them do not deny a certain element of risk in the process. It is a big price we may have to pay. It is the price the Egyptians paid to the Semites; the Greeks paid to the Macedonians; the Romans paid to the Goths; the Persians paid to the Saracens; the Gauls paid to the Franks, and the Americans have paid to the Irish, Italians, and Poles. And always the price is—Character.
“When,” once wrote a distinguished American to me, “I think of the early nineteenth-century promise of New England, of its race of scholars and gentlemen, of its thousands of quiet God-fearing homes, and the contented industry of the countryside, I could wish that a great gulf had cut us off on the West and an impassable barrier had arisen on our Eastern sea-board.” But we are going to win through—We are going to assimilate these alien peoples. Our civilisation will suffer as our neighbours have suffered; our serenity will cloud for a time, and when the contents of the melting-pot have cooled the alloy may be a permanent part of our whole national being. But We shall not falter.
There is this to be said. The current gospel of altruism and greed will—nay, must—yield to other and higher notions of progress. Nor will this restless ethnological flux continue. We shall not always be touting for Slav and Hun and Celtic immigrants, and soon, tout as we may, they will not come. Europe will settle herself. Europe, in turn, will have her own “boom.” And, in the meanwhile, all CanaJa will not suffer alike, and the part which will longest retain its fundamental likeness to Britain, its moral unity with the people of the Mother land, is that province which is the subject of this book
It is not enough to say that I would rather live in Nova Scotia than in any other part of Canada. I do say that; and I show why in these pages I believe in Nova Scoria’s future, as I have long delighted in her past.
Nova Scotia has not been exempt from sacrifices. Great as the boon of Confederation doubtless was, and is, to the Provinces of the Dominion, it has been a small boon to Nova Scotia. She has had to play the part of Cinderella while her sisters went to the ball. But her comparative seclusion, added to her intelligence, her frugality, her gentle character, and far greater natural beauty, may commend her to the thousands of English and Scottish men and women who wish to migrate from the British island to the equally British peninsula on the other side of the ocean—the nearest to them of the provinces of Canada.
One is warned of the imprudence of hanging so thorny a bush at the door of one’s little shop, hut perhaps few will trouble to read this prefatory note.
Heartily, then, do I wish—for that we travel such dusty political highways nowadays, and in such sultry weather—I could promise good drinking within. Let me hope the wayfarer will be glad to lay hold of inferior vintage if only it help to quench his thirst.
Quebec House, Westerham,
March 1911
You can read this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ssed/index.htm
Pioneer Days in Muskoka
Came across this wee book where folk are remembering their early days in Muskoka in Northern Ontario. You can read this book at:http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...io/muskoka.htm
The J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport
A history of the airport in Cape Breton which you can read at;
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...on/airport.htm
Grand Priory of Canada
Have now published the April 2014 issue which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Religion/kt.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Grant Thoms where he has an article about wearing your badge with pride.
There is also a Synopsis this week.
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, "Jock Turnips Mither-In-law" and "Lodgings at Arran".which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...doch/index.htm
Thomas Dick Lauder
This is an author that wrote many historical books and we are going to be bringing you a selection of his books over the next few months.. We are starting on his 3 volume book "Lochandu".
Added another two chapters to this book which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...er_thomas1.htm
Enigma Machine
Added puzzle 57 which you can get to at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma057.htm
Scottish Historical Review
We've added the July 1921 issue. This issue includes an article on "Mr. Robert Kirk's Note-book" and another one, "An Old Scottish Handicraft Industry".
You can read this issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume18.htm
The Book of Scottish Anecdote
Humorous, Social, Legendary and Historical edited by Alexander Hislop, eighth edition.
Added pages 152 to 201.You can read these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/anecdote
Alan Cunningham
This distinguished poet entered the world under those lowly circumstances, and was educated under those disadvantages, which have so signally characterized the history of the best of our Scottish bards.
We've added chapter X to the Life of Alan Cunningham.
You can read it at the foot of his page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gham_allan.htm
Scottish Ghost Stories
By Elliot O'Donnell (1911).
We've now completed this book with the final 7 chapters which you can read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/ghost/index.htm
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's Trip to Scotland
By Thomas Dick Lauder (1843).
We're now up to chapter XVII where they are heading towards Taymouth. In the chapter on Dunkeld we learn of the preparations that were made..
.
Lord Glenlyon was unfortunately very much indisposed at the time Her Majesty’s visit to Scotland was announced, having been rendered blind by inflammation in his eyes, from cold caught in deer-stalking. But the moment he was informed of the honour which the Sovereign intended to pay to Perthshire, he placed his ancient castle of Blair at Her Majesty’s disposal, and he proposed to get up a grand drive of the forest for the occasion. Owing to the shortness of the time that the Queen could spend in Scotland, these offers were graciously declined, but Her Majesty afterwards signified that it was her royal pleasure to accept of an entertainment at Dunkeld, on her way to Taymouth. Upon Friday the 26th of August, Lord Glenlyon sent an order to Mr. Gunter, the great London confectioner, to send down a tent, provisions, fruit, plate, wines, and every thing requisite for giving an entertainment; and accordingly his principal assistant, Mr. Rawlins, arrived at Dunkeld on Friday the 2d of September, with all these articles, together with a proper corps of cooks. His lordship also ordered Mr. Edgington to bring down instantly from London a marquee 100 feet long, and two dozen of tents of different kinds, and he came with them along with Gunter’s people. Lord Glenlyon then begged of the gentlemen of Athole to meet him on the morning of the fith, each with as great a following as he could muster, and with his men all clad in the full Highland dress, and ready to proceed to Dunkeld. The gentlemen and their followers turned out nobly, and joined his lordship at different points on his road from Blair, so that he marched into Dunkeld on Tuesday evening, at the head of eight hundred and seventy men, all well clothed, and followed by a commissariat of carts, filled with stores and provisions. When it is considered that many of the men had joined the parade at Blair Castle, at half-past three o’clock in the morning, after coming a distance of twenty miles— that they required to be fitted with clothing before marching at eleven—and that, after halting for two hours at Moulinearn, they did not reach Dunkeld till eight o’clock in the evening, it will be admitted that they must have been pretty well prepared for rest by the time they took possession of the encampment prepared for them.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...index.htm#trip
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in her Section 1 of her April issue which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Margo MacDonald MSP
This famous Scottish politician died this week and we've added a page for her in our Significant Scots section which can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nald_margo.htm
Request for Evidence of Proof of Ownership by ‘the Crown’ of the Stone of Scone
Got in a copy of this letter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...oneofscone.htm
The Working Life of Christina McKelvie MSP
Got in her column for 6th April 2014 which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...vie/140406.htm
Andrew Lang as Man of Letters and Folk-Lorist
By Joseph Jacobs
My main purpose in adding a page about him to the site was that I discovered he'd produced 12 books of Fairy Tales and so just had to find out something about him.
I've added an article about him which starts...
Andrew Lang was a born man of letters; that is to say, he envisaged life through literature. Whatever he experienced, whatever he read or thought about, recalled to his mind something that he had read and retained in his tenacious memory. If he were writing or speaking of golf, he would be reminded of Sam Weller or Adam o'Gordon. Scraps of the old Scotch ballads would recur to his mind when he was writing about the suffragettes. If he were talking of the old ballads themselves, he would be reminded of the aborigine’s song of triumph in Charles Reade’s "It is Never too Late to Mend,” or Allan Breck’s Gaelic song in Stevenson’s "Kidnapped.” He had, too, the literary man’s wide curiosity about things literary, and more than the ordinary literary man’s power of reproducing the literary effects of others: hence the impression he left of remarkable versatility and omniscience. He could illustrate his criticisms by his anthropology; he could illuminate his folk-lore by his literature.
He also produced a series of 12 volumes of Fairy Tales which I've added links to on this page which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ndrew_lang.htm
Adventures of J. M'Alpine
A Native Highlander, from the time of his emigration from Scotland to America, 1773.
This reprint of the first book printed in Greenock in 1780 (a copy of the original, from which this is reprinted, is in the Greenock Library), being the Adventures of J. M‘Alpine during the American War of Independence, is dedicated to the Highland Societies of Glasgow and Greenock by the Publisher.
You can read this short book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/mcalpine.htm
With the Scottish Regiments at the Front
This is a new book we're starting which provides details of some of the actions that the Scots Regiments were involved in.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ront/index.htm
Lindores Abbey and the Burgh of Newburgh
I got in a communication from the owner of this abbey and am providing the information he gave along with a copy of this book for you to read.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/lindores
And Finally...
Here are a few wee stories from "The Book of Scottish Anecdote"...
A STRAIGHTFORWARD ANSWER
In the familiar manner which was wont to be not uncommon in country kirks, a minister stopped in the course of his sermon one day, and thus addresed a parishioner who was somewhat deaf.
"Are ye hearing, John?"
"Oh, yes, sir," was John's prompt reply; "I am hearing, but to very little purpose!"
A CAULD KIRK.
On one occasion Burns, being stormstayed at Lamington, went to church, but was so little pleased with the preacher and the place, that he left a record of his opinion on the church-window against them:-
"As cauld a wind as ever blew,
A caulder kirk, and in't but few;
As cauld a minister's e'er spak,
Ye'se a' be het ere I come back."
A HIGHLANDER'S ANSWER
A gentleman from the Highlands, attended by his trusty servant Donald, a native of the wild and mountainous
district of Lochaber, was travelling through the fertile and delightful plains of Italy. The master asked Donald how he would like to possess an estate there, and what he would do with one if he had it?
"Please your honour," replied Donald, "I would sell him, and buy a farm in Lochaber."
SIR ROBERT BURNS, KNIGHT!
Henry Bruce, the last laird of Clackmannan, who died in 1772, was descended, it is said, in a direct line from King Robert. His widow, the old lady of Clackmannan, was equally remarkable for wit, good humour, economy, and devotion to the house of Stuart. She had the sword of King Robert in her possession, with which she assumed the privilege of conferring knighthood. When Burns visited this old Jacobite lady, she knighted the poet with the king's sword, observing, while she performed the ceremony, that "she had a better richt to do so than some other folk!" When asked if she was of Bruce's family, she would answer with much dignity, "King Robert was of my family." She bequeathed King Robert's sword, with a helmet, said to have been worn by him at Bannockburn, to the Earl of Elgin, and these interesting relics are now at Broomhall.
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
Scotland Week "soaring" success
Bannockburn Live warriors, Scottish “Iron” Chefs and a breath-taking myriad of business meetings, media and trade events promote Scotland to the world at annual event.
You can read a report from Visit Scotland about this event at:
http://www.visitscotland.org/media_c...g_success.aspx
American schoolteacher to be honoured for his book on Flora MacDonald at ceremony in Washington DC
JOHN TOFFEY will collect an award from the Scottish coalition as part of National Tartan Day for his book "A Woman Nobly Planned" which told how Flora smuggled Prince Charlie from the redcoats after the 1745 disaster of Culloden. You can read more about this at:
http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.c...-flora-3392905
As this was going to press I learned that Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister of Canada has died.
He kept Canada on the straight and narrow through the financial crises and contributed to the financial well being of Canada and this year will see Canada balancing its books which is a great legacy. Some information on him can be found at:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/former-...t-64-1.1770150
Electric Canadian
Nova Scotia Historical Society, Reports and Collections
I have found a number of volumes from this Society and have added the first four to get you started. I'll be adding more as I find them.
I added Volume VIII 1892/94 which is about the History of Halifax City.
You can read this volume at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ions/index.htm
Bert Lloyd's Boyhood.
A Story from Nova Scotia by J. MacDonald Oxley, LL.D. (1892).
We are now up to Chapter 14 which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...hood/index.htm
A History of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia
By Frank H. Patterson, LL.D (1917).
We have now completed this book which can be read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...uche/index.htm
Nova Scotia: The Province that has been Passed By
By Beckles Willson (1911). A new book we're starting.
Here is the Preface...
I suppose Canadians of the First Immigration should he very well pleased to see their farm lands overrun by the mongrel hordes of Europe who, we are told, are presently to assimilate the manners, institutions, and amenities which our British forefathers so slowly and painfully through the centuries established for us.
It is a magnificent spectacle the West is offering to the world—this great trek of a hundred thousand families a year—these cities arising in a single night, this flux and tumult, this noisy abandonment of effete conventions and ideals. Perhaps ir is all going to end, as the optimists tell us it will end, to the glory of the race—our race. But some of them do not deny a certain element of risk in the process. It is a big price we may have to pay. It is the price the Egyptians paid to the Semites; the Greeks paid to the Macedonians; the Romans paid to the Goths; the Persians paid to the Saracens; the Gauls paid to the Franks, and the Americans have paid to the Irish, Italians, and Poles. And always the price is—Character.
“When,” once wrote a distinguished American to me, “I think of the early nineteenth-century promise of New England, of its race of scholars and gentlemen, of its thousands of quiet God-fearing homes, and the contented industry of the countryside, I could wish that a great gulf had cut us off on the West and an impassable barrier had arisen on our Eastern sea-board.” But we are going to win through—We are going to assimilate these alien peoples. Our civilisation will suffer as our neighbours have suffered; our serenity will cloud for a time, and when the contents of the melting-pot have cooled the alloy may be a permanent part of our whole national being. But We shall not falter.
There is this to be said. The current gospel of altruism and greed will—nay, must—yield to other and higher notions of progress. Nor will this restless ethnological flux continue. We shall not always be touting for Slav and Hun and Celtic immigrants, and soon, tout as we may, they will not come. Europe will settle herself. Europe, in turn, will have her own “boom.” And, in the meanwhile, all CanaJa will not suffer alike, and the part which will longest retain its fundamental likeness to Britain, its moral unity with the people of the Mother land, is that province which is the subject of this book
It is not enough to say that I would rather live in Nova Scotia than in any other part of Canada. I do say that; and I show why in these pages I believe in Nova Scoria’s future, as I have long delighted in her past.
Nova Scotia has not been exempt from sacrifices. Great as the boon of Confederation doubtless was, and is, to the Provinces of the Dominion, it has been a small boon to Nova Scotia. She has had to play the part of Cinderella while her sisters went to the ball. But her comparative seclusion, added to her intelligence, her frugality, her gentle character, and far greater natural beauty, may commend her to the thousands of English and Scottish men and women who wish to migrate from the British island to the equally British peninsula on the other side of the ocean—the nearest to them of the provinces of Canada.
One is warned of the imprudence of hanging so thorny a bush at the door of one’s little shop, hut perhaps few will trouble to read this prefatory note.
Heartily, then, do I wish—for that we travel such dusty political highways nowadays, and in such sultry weather—I could promise good drinking within. Let me hope the wayfarer will be glad to lay hold of inferior vintage if only it help to quench his thirst.
Quebec House, Westerham,
March 1911
You can read this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ssed/index.htm
Pioneer Days in Muskoka
Came across this wee book where folk are remembering their early days in Muskoka in Northern Ontario. You can read this book at:http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...io/muskoka.htm
The J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport
A history of the airport in Cape Breton which you can read at;
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...on/airport.htm
Grand Priory of Canada
Have now published the April 2014 issue which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Religion/kt.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This weeks issue was compiled by Grant Thoms where he has an article about wearing your badge with pride.
There is also a Synopsis this week.
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, "Jock Turnips Mither-In-law" and "Lodgings at Arran".which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...doch/index.htm
Thomas Dick Lauder
This is an author that wrote many historical books and we are going to be bringing you a selection of his books over the next few months.. We are starting on his 3 volume book "Lochandu".
Added another two chapters to this book which you can find at the foot of the page at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...er_thomas1.htm
Enigma Machine
Added puzzle 57 which you can get to at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma057.htm
Scottish Historical Review
We've added the July 1921 issue. This issue includes an article on "Mr. Robert Kirk's Note-book" and another one, "An Old Scottish Handicraft Industry".
You can read this issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume18.htm
The Book of Scottish Anecdote
Humorous, Social, Legendary and Historical edited by Alexander Hislop, eighth edition.
Added pages 152 to 201.You can read these at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/anecdote
Alan Cunningham
This distinguished poet entered the world under those lowly circumstances, and was educated under those disadvantages, which have so signally characterized the history of the best of our Scottish bards.
We've added chapter X to the Life of Alan Cunningham.
You can read it at the foot of his page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gham_allan.htm
Scottish Ghost Stories
By Elliot O'Donnell (1911).
We've now completed this book with the final 7 chapters which you can read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/ghost/index.htm
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's Trip to Scotland
By Thomas Dick Lauder (1843).
We're now up to chapter XVII where they are heading towards Taymouth. In the chapter on Dunkeld we learn of the preparations that were made..
.
Lord Glenlyon was unfortunately very much indisposed at the time Her Majesty’s visit to Scotland was announced, having been rendered blind by inflammation in his eyes, from cold caught in deer-stalking. But the moment he was informed of the honour which the Sovereign intended to pay to Perthshire, he placed his ancient castle of Blair at Her Majesty’s disposal, and he proposed to get up a grand drive of the forest for the occasion. Owing to the shortness of the time that the Queen could spend in Scotland, these offers were graciously declined, but Her Majesty afterwards signified that it was her royal pleasure to accept of an entertainment at Dunkeld, on her way to Taymouth. Upon Friday the 26th of August, Lord Glenlyon sent an order to Mr. Gunter, the great London confectioner, to send down a tent, provisions, fruit, plate, wines, and every thing requisite for giving an entertainment; and accordingly his principal assistant, Mr. Rawlins, arrived at Dunkeld on Friday the 2d of September, with all these articles, together with a proper corps of cooks. His lordship also ordered Mr. Edgington to bring down instantly from London a marquee 100 feet long, and two dozen of tents of different kinds, and he came with them along with Gunter’s people. Lord Glenlyon then begged of the gentlemen of Athole to meet him on the morning of the fith, each with as great a following as he could muster, and with his men all clad in the full Highland dress, and ready to proceed to Dunkeld. The gentlemen and their followers turned out nobly, and joined his lordship at different points on his road from Blair, so that he marched into Dunkeld on Tuesday evening, at the head of eight hundred and seventy men, all well clothed, and followed by a commissariat of carts, filled with stores and provisions. When it is considered that many of the men had joined the parade at Blair Castle, at half-past three o’clock in the morning, after coming a distance of twenty miles— that they required to be fitted with clothing before marching at eleven—and that, after halting for two hours at Moulinearn, they did not reach Dunkeld till eight o’clock in the evening, it will be admitted that they must have been pretty well prepared for rest by the time they took possession of the encampment prepared for them.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...index.htm#trip
Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
Got in her Section 1 of her April issue which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft
Margo MacDonald MSP
This famous Scottish politician died this week and we've added a page for her in our Significant Scots section which can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nald_margo.htm
Request for Evidence of Proof of Ownership by ‘the Crown’ of the Stone of Scone
Got in a copy of this letter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...oneofscone.htm
The Working Life of Christina McKelvie MSP
Got in her column for 6th April 2014 which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...vie/140406.htm
Andrew Lang as Man of Letters and Folk-Lorist
By Joseph Jacobs
My main purpose in adding a page about him to the site was that I discovered he'd produced 12 books of Fairy Tales and so just had to find out something about him.
I've added an article about him which starts...
Andrew Lang was a born man of letters; that is to say, he envisaged life through literature. Whatever he experienced, whatever he read or thought about, recalled to his mind something that he had read and retained in his tenacious memory. If he were writing or speaking of golf, he would be reminded of Sam Weller or Adam o'Gordon. Scraps of the old Scotch ballads would recur to his mind when he was writing about the suffragettes. If he were talking of the old ballads themselves, he would be reminded of the aborigine’s song of triumph in Charles Reade’s "It is Never too Late to Mend,” or Allan Breck’s Gaelic song in Stevenson’s "Kidnapped.” He had, too, the literary man’s wide curiosity about things literary, and more than the ordinary literary man’s power of reproducing the literary effects of others: hence the impression he left of remarkable versatility and omniscience. He could illustrate his criticisms by his anthropology; he could illuminate his folk-lore by his literature.
He also produced a series of 12 volumes of Fairy Tales which I've added links to on this page which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ndrew_lang.htm
Adventures of J. M'Alpine
A Native Highlander, from the time of his emigration from Scotland to America, 1773.
This reprint of the first book printed in Greenock in 1780 (a copy of the original, from which this is reprinted, is in the Greenock Library), being the Adventures of J. M‘Alpine during the American War of Independence, is dedicated to the Highland Societies of Glasgow and Greenock by the Publisher.
You can read this short book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/mcalpine.htm
With the Scottish Regiments at the Front
This is a new book we're starting which provides details of some of the actions that the Scots Regiments were involved in.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ront/index.htm
Lindores Abbey and the Burgh of Newburgh
I got in a communication from the owner of this abbey and am providing the information he gave along with a copy of this book for you to read.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/lindores
And Finally...
Here are a few wee stories from "The Book of Scottish Anecdote"...
A STRAIGHTFORWARD ANSWER
In the familiar manner which was wont to be not uncommon in country kirks, a minister stopped in the course of his sermon one day, and thus addresed a parishioner who was somewhat deaf.
"Are ye hearing, John?"
"Oh, yes, sir," was John's prompt reply; "I am hearing, but to very little purpose!"
A CAULD KIRK.
On one occasion Burns, being stormstayed at Lamington, went to church, but was so little pleased with the preacher and the place, that he left a record of his opinion on the church-window against them:-
"As cauld a wind as ever blew,
A caulder kirk, and in't but few;
As cauld a minister's e'er spak,
Ye'se a' be het ere I come back."
A HIGHLANDER'S ANSWER
A gentleman from the Highlands, attended by his trusty servant Donald, a native of the wild and mountainous
district of Lochaber, was travelling through the fertile and delightful plains of Italy. The master asked Donald how he would like to possess an estate there, and what he would do with one if he had it?
"Please your honour," replied Donald, "I would sell him, and buy a farm in Lochaber."
SIR ROBERT BURNS, KNIGHT!
Henry Bruce, the last laird of Clackmannan, who died in 1772, was descended, it is said, in a direct line from King Robert. His widow, the old lady of Clackmannan, was equally remarkable for wit, good humour, economy, and devotion to the house of Stuart. She had the sword of King Robert in her possession, with which she assumed the privilege of conferring knighthood. When Burns visited this old Jacobite lady, she knighted the poet with the king's sword, observing, while she performed the ceremony, that "she had a better richt to do so than some other folk!" When asked if she was of Bruce's family, she would answer with much dignity, "King Robert was of my family." She bequeathed King Robert's sword, with a helmet, said to have been worn by him at Bannockburn, to the Earl of Elgin, and these interesting relics are now at Broomhall.
And that's it for this week and I hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair