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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Things are progressing on the new hosting service but some things do take time. I've now identified several issues which I'm working on to fix and here are the issues I've spotted so far...
Our Community.
New members can't register as our Captcha system is not working. I'm in touch with the vBulletin folk about this.
Our Arcade system is not working. Seems that we're missing a file folder so am trying to see what we can do about that.
Postcard program
Seems we have an email issue which is preventing this loading. Our new hosting company is looking at this and I also have the issue logged with the software company.
Help and Recipe programs
These are not working and I suspect it's also an email issue but working on this with our new hosting company.
Of course these are all issues that Steve has caused in the past but at least I'm now in a position to work on them to get them fixed.
Printer Friendly
This script isn't working and I think it's a pathing error. This has been forwarded to the hosting companies programmers to look at.
Mailing List
This program is not working currently but again am working on this and hope to get this fixed by next week.
We'll get there.
------
My air conditioning failed yesterday and boy was it hot. Sweating buckets I am thanking myself that Canada is due to get cooler from now on.
Mind you my air conditioning unit must be around 20 years old at least and they tell me that these units have a life of some 15 years which means they don't make them very well these days. I'm told a new one can cost up to $4000 so am busy trying to figure out where to go to buy a new system. If anyone out there has any advice would love to hear from you!!!
------
Here is the video introduction to this newsletter...
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
As Parliaments are back in both Scotland and the UK there is more noise on Brexit and other issues.
The awakening of Mackintosh's sleeping giant
Carefully taken apart and flat-packed, an entire room of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's best work lay untouched.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...ntral-45356853
Muggles of the Glen
Where Potter fans gather in their hundreds
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...lands-45359275
Scotland’s best fish and chip shops announced by UK competition
Scotland’s best fish and chip shops have been revealed as the shortlist for the UK Fish and Chip Shop of the Year Award is announced.
Read more at:
https://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/fo...been-revealed/
Japanese garden nestling in Ochil Hills brought back to life
A historic Japanese garden destroyed by vandals in the 1960s is open to the public again.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...ntral-45375602
Tories to unveil alternative Chequers plan on eve of party conference
Ex-Minister and Stand Up 4 Brexit campaigner Steve Baker has released this video urging Mrs May to ‘chuck Chequers’ as a Canada-style deal and a no-deal blueprint are being stress-tested
Read more at:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/715499...ve-conference/
Heriot-Watt student designs tactile tartan
A student has designed a tactile tartan to try to make the traditional colours and patterns more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...tland-45397125
All the print that's fit for news
Sales of The National and the Sunday Herald - both a long way below 20,000 - tell you that circulation does not correlate to a political posture.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...iness-45390495
Remembering the Lochgelly Tawse
Made in the Fife town by two families of saddlers, the Lochgelly Taswe was supplied to schools for just over 100 years with it becoming the belt of choice for teachers.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/r...awse-1-4794829
Wash house culture gets fresh airing in Talk of the Steamie
It was where the noisy graft of the week’s washing was done and where working class women got together to share laughter, stories and a good dose of gossip.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/w...amie-1-4794311
Australia's economy storms ahead to best growth in six years
Australia’s economy sped past all expectations last quarter as rapid population growth fueled demand for homes and infrastructure, while bolstering consumer spending in the face of painfully slow wages growth
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-au...-idUKKCN1LL05O
David Davis may win his Canada-style Brexit deal
I am hearing from multiple sources that the only trade deal the EU’s lead negotiator Michel Barnier will countenance is Davis’s cherished Free Trade Agreement, what he called Canada Plus, rather than any version of May’s Chequers plan.
Read more at:
http://www.itv.com/news/2018-09-04/d...e-brexit-deal/
Scotland’s income tax receipts £550m lower than forecast
Income tax receipts in Scotland were £550 million lower in 2016-17 than originally forecast by the Scottish Fiscal Commission
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politi...cast-1-4795462
There's good news about UK plc if you ignore the doomsayers
The statistics tell of a country doing unexpectedly well
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkbu...ead_full=13660
German artist wins Carve Carrbridge
German artist Michael Tamoszus took three of the top prizes at this year's Scottish Open Chainsaw Carving competition.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...lands-45407288
Electric Canadian
Canada and its Provinces
Added Volume XII. The Dominion: Missions; Arts and Letters Part II. which you can read at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...aprovinces.htm
The Engineering Journal
Added the volume for 1952.at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...rial/index.htm
Includes topics on: The Engioneer in the Labour Force, Circuit Breaker Testing, Small Pipe System for Warm Air Heating, Slow Braking of Mine Hoists, Water is a Forest Product, A Helluva Shortage of Engineers, Obituaries, etc.
Mining Review
Added the volume for 1904 at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...nes/mining.htm
In the Days of the Canada Company
The Story of the Settlement of the Huron Tract and a view at the Social Life of the period 1825 - 1850 by Robina and Kathleen MacFarlane Lizars with an Introduction by G. M. Grant, D.D., LL.D., (1896) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...adacompany.pdf
Canada under British Rule 1760 - 1905
By Sir John C. Bournot (1909) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...ritishrule.pdf
MacKenzie and his Voyageurs
By Canoe to the Arctic and the Pacific 1789-93 By Arthur P. Woollacott (1927) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...zievoyages.pdf
Grand Priory of Canada
Got in the September 2018 newsletter which you can read at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/Rel...tember2018.pdf
Clan Lachlan Association of Canada
Got in a copy of their Fall 2018 newsletter which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...hlan/index.htm
Conrad Black
McCain's Friends and Family Did Him No Honor
http://www.conradmblack.com/1415/mcc...d-him-no-honor
Electric Scotland
Excursions through the Highlands and Isles of Scotland
1835 and 1836, by the Rev. C. Lesingham Smith, M.A. (1837) (pdf)
It is, however, in the character of her mountain peasantry that Scotland may most proudly challenge competition with all the kingdoms of the world. The Author speaks not here of the Lowlands, where the people being congregated into cities, the great nurses of corruption as well as of civilization, differ very little from his own countrymen, and where they do differ, are not always superior: neither do the following observations extend to the most beaten part of the Highlands, in which the temptation to make a harvest of the wealthy traveller is often too great to be resisted. But in the more secluded districts, and especially near the great mountains on the extreme Northwestern coast, and in the distant isles, there is a simplicity, and moral beauty of character among the lower orders, which cannot be contemplated without an emotion of delight. A winning gentleness of manners, with a constant readiness to oblige, prevails throughout; and their honesty, which is as conspicuous as their poverty, often induces them to refuse from the stranger a remuneration which they consider exorbitant. There is not a nation in Europe among whom security of person is more absolute and undoubted; so that the traveller in these virtuous regions, finding a friend in every man he meets, cannot even dream that he is unsafe.
You can read this book at: https://electricscotland.com/travel/...ghscotland.pdf
Electric Scotland Community back again
The site is now back on the new server. I'll now try and get the Arcade working again. You can get to our community at:http://www.electricscotland.org
For the time being we can't process new members but am working on that as well.
The Howes of Buchan
Being Notes, Local, Historical, and Antiquarian, regarding the various places of interest along the route of the Buchan Railway by the Late William Anderson (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/howesobuchan.pdf
The Royal Scots Borderers
1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. Holyrood rehearsal. I added a video of their rehearsal at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...l_regiment.htm
Letters and Memorials of Captain William A. Douglas
6th Battalion The Royal Scots With Preface by the Rev. James Black (1920) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electricscotland.com/his...alsdouglas.pdf
Inspection of Aircraft after Overhaul
(Category B Licence) by S. J. Norton (fourth edition) (1940) (pdf)
This is continuing our exploration of what the servicemen did that maintained the aircraft. You can read this at:https://electricscotland.com/history...ulBLicence.pdf
History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas
By Capt. B. B. Paddock in 2 volumes (1906). Many Scots and Scots-Irish folk in these volumes/
That Americans are becoming aware, of the fact that they have a history is a matter of frequent observation and remark among writers and men of affairs generally. It was one of the changes in American thought considered worthy of especial note by Hon. James Bryce, on his recent visit to this country after an absence of twenty-five years. This keen student of American institutions thus expresses the result of his observation: “Reverence for the past and a desire to maintain every sort of connection with it is a strong and growing force among educated people.” Furthermore, this is one of the hopeful signs of the times. Well it is, for the nation as for the individual, when its career is anchored at both ends; is descended from a sturdy and virile ancestry and looks forward to a not less worthy posterity; rejoices both in the memories of a splendid past and in the hopes of a brilliant future. Such a nation or individual holds true in the course of best ideals and endeavors, is in the line of progress of its greater destiny. .
It is this growing reverence for the past that renders such a work as the History of North and West Texas both valuable and timely. Even now many of the personalities and achievements of the county’s pioneers are matters of written record only, and, too often, those records are scanty and insufficient and difficult of access. To gather up and piece together in historical form and according to relative importance these records is the purpose of this work, in the preparation of which the constant endeavor has been to make a standard, comprehensive and authentic history, which, while narrating the wonderful story of the past, describes also the present, in its various aspects, with such thoroughness as to make this work a historical “base-line” from which all subsequent civic growth and progress may be computed.
Closely interwoven with every present event of material and civic progress are the character and activities of men. The Alamo lives forever because Travis and his comrades died there, and in their death gave birth to Texas Liberty. So, in only lesser degree, every town, every institution, every industry of North and West Texas exists and grows because men have devoted some portion of their energy and character to its upbuilding. It has been the purpose of this work to bring out this personal aspect of the history of North and West Texas; to mention events mainly in relation to the persons most closely connected with them; to describe the country as far as possible through the careers of the men who have developed it. This is the true office of biography—to bring events into their proper relation with persons. To carry out this novel and interesting plan of history writing sketches have been sought of representative men who have figured in the various phases of North and West Texas affairs up to the present time, and whose careers illustrate both local and general history.
In line with these purposes, it is believed that this work is a real and permanent contribution to the history of Texas. By observing historical proportions and setting the facts in a narrative form, it has been necessary to exclude irrelevant details that, however interesting in themselves, give bulk rather than symmetry; rather than make these volumes an encyclopedia of historical information, it has been thought best to pour over the rubble of facts the cement of literary narration. No effort has been spared to secure accuracy, and acknowledgement is due to the many who have heartily co-operated with and assisted the editorial staff in obtaining data for the history.
Lots of references to Scotland, Scotch, Scots, Scots-Irish, etc. throughout these volumes.
You can read these volumes at: https://electricscotland.com/history...outh/texas.htm
The Story
A Crannog Centre Visit
Written by Professor Adam Cumming FSA Scot, August 2018
The summer outings of the Society are always worth it! A lot of thought and preparation goes into them and the range is thought provoking. Visiting the Crannog Centre on Loch Tay maintained the tradition.
A coach trip with added on-board lecture to prepare us and warm sunny weather to greet us! The lecture by Dr Michael Stratigos gave us the background and provided an update of research in progress, including the questions that still need answering on why Crannogs were built, how many were in use at any one time and indeed how were they used. There are many sites in and around Scotland – why were there none in the Lake District? Some of the possible answers were given as we were taken round the centre seeing the reconstruction and how it worked; and seeing the way people probably lived, with cooking, wood working, weaving and dyeing. Perhaps the most impressive was that of making fire from scratch! All in all, the level of technology and the inventiveness that was demonstrated was humbling.
We tasted porridge made with local ingredients; were introduced to the making of dyes from plants and shown the vibrant colours that could be produced – it was not a drab brown world!! Some of us climbed into floating log boats! We saw some of the finds from the excavation that prompted the development of the Crannog Centre including cloth samples; we learned of the difficulties in preparing flour in enough quantities to be useable and the physical price paid for that milling – arthritis and disablement.
Often, we visit sites and are led round learning in the abstract, but here, for a change, we got closer to the reality of the inhabitants’ life and perhaps we will look afresh at those other sites.
-----
The precaution which led the Phoenicians to build their city of Tyre upon an island induced their colonists who settled in Britain to suggest the crannog, and to construct it. In some of the larger lakes, crannog-builders selected shallows or small islets, on which they raised platforms of clay and stone, supported by timber stakes. Upon these platforms they erected log dwellings, into which in times of peril they conveyed their stores. Scottish crannogs were most numerous; their remains are found in the lochs of the southern and western counties also in the northern provinces, except in the two northernmost counties. Within crannog-islets have been found carved ornaments in bone and jet, also handles of deer horn, querns, and bronze implements. In the Ayrshire crannogs have been picked up articles in wood-work, incised with Druidic symbols, and remains associated with the early Christian age. Crannog-building, from first to last, extended over a period of about fifteen hundred years. The crannog dwellers lived on venison, water-fowl, and shell-fish.
The crannog preceded the stone-built castle, also surrounded by water. The earlier stone strongholds were built on islets, then on edges of lakes and rivers, and partly enclosed by them; latterly in situations which admitted of fosse and rampart.
You can read another excellent article about Crannogs at:
https://www.electricscotland.com/web.../article10.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you have a great weekend.
Alastair
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Things are progressing on the new hosting service but some things do take time. I've now identified several issues which I'm working on to fix and here are the issues I've spotted so far...
Our Community.
New members can't register as our Captcha system is not working. I'm in touch with the vBulletin folk about this.
Our Arcade system is not working. Seems that we're missing a file folder so am trying to see what we can do about that.
Postcard program
Seems we have an email issue which is preventing this loading. Our new hosting company is looking at this and I also have the issue logged with the software company.
Help and Recipe programs
These are not working and I suspect it's also an email issue but working on this with our new hosting company.
Of course these are all issues that Steve has caused in the past but at least I'm now in a position to work on them to get them fixed.
Printer Friendly
This script isn't working and I think it's a pathing error. This has been forwarded to the hosting companies programmers to look at.
Mailing List
This program is not working currently but again am working on this and hope to get this fixed by next week.
We'll get there.
------
My air conditioning failed yesterday and boy was it hot. Sweating buckets I am thanking myself that Canada is due to get cooler from now on.
Mind you my air conditioning unit must be around 20 years old at least and they tell me that these units have a life of some 15 years which means they don't make them very well these days. I'm told a new one can cost up to $4000 so am busy trying to figure out where to go to buy a new system. If anyone out there has any advice would love to hear from you!!!
------
Here is the video introduction to this newsletter...
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish.
As Parliaments are back in both Scotland and the UK there is more noise on Brexit and other issues.
The awakening of Mackintosh's sleeping giant
Carefully taken apart and flat-packed, an entire room of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's best work lay untouched.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...ntral-45356853
Muggles of the Glen
Where Potter fans gather in their hundreds
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...lands-45359275
Scotland’s best fish and chip shops announced by UK competition
Scotland’s best fish and chip shops have been revealed as the shortlist for the UK Fish and Chip Shop of the Year Award is announced.
Read more at:
https://foodanddrink.scotsman.com/fo...been-revealed/
Japanese garden nestling in Ochil Hills brought back to life
A historic Japanese garden destroyed by vandals in the 1960s is open to the public again.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...ntral-45375602
Tories to unveil alternative Chequers plan on eve of party conference
Ex-Minister and Stand Up 4 Brexit campaigner Steve Baker has released this video urging Mrs May to ‘chuck Chequers’ as a Canada-style deal and a no-deal blueprint are being stress-tested
Read more at:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/715499...ve-conference/
Heriot-Watt student designs tactile tartan
A student has designed a tactile tartan to try to make the traditional colours and patterns more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...tland-45397125
All the print that's fit for news
Sales of The National and the Sunday Herald - both a long way below 20,000 - tell you that circulation does not correlate to a political posture.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...iness-45390495
Remembering the Lochgelly Tawse
Made in the Fife town by two families of saddlers, the Lochgelly Taswe was supplied to schools for just over 100 years with it becoming the belt of choice for teachers.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/r...awse-1-4794829
Wash house culture gets fresh airing in Talk of the Steamie
It was where the noisy graft of the week’s washing was done and where working class women got together to share laughter, stories and a good dose of gossip.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/w...amie-1-4794311
Australia's economy storms ahead to best growth in six years
Australia’s economy sped past all expectations last quarter as rapid population growth fueled demand for homes and infrastructure, while bolstering consumer spending in the face of painfully slow wages growth
Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-au...-idUKKCN1LL05O
David Davis may win his Canada-style Brexit deal
I am hearing from multiple sources that the only trade deal the EU’s lead negotiator Michel Barnier will countenance is Davis’s cherished Free Trade Agreement, what he called Canada Plus, rather than any version of May’s Chequers plan.
Read more at:
http://www.itv.com/news/2018-09-04/d...e-brexit-deal/
Scotland’s income tax receipts £550m lower than forecast
Income tax receipts in Scotland were £550 million lower in 2016-17 than originally forecast by the Scottish Fiscal Commission
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politi...cast-1-4795462
There's good news about UK plc if you ignore the doomsayers
The statistics tell of a country doing unexpectedly well
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkbu...ead_full=13660
German artist wins Carve Carrbridge
German artist Michael Tamoszus took three of the top prizes at this year's Scottish Open Chainsaw Carving competition.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...lands-45407288
Electric Canadian
Canada and its Provinces
Added Volume XII. The Dominion: Missions; Arts and Letters Part II. which you can read at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...aprovinces.htm
The Engineering Journal
Added the volume for 1952.at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...rial/index.htm
Includes topics on: The Engioneer in the Labour Force, Circuit Breaker Testing, Small Pipe System for Warm Air Heating, Slow Braking of Mine Hoists, Water is a Forest Product, A Helluva Shortage of Engineers, Obituaries, etc.
Mining Review
Added the volume for 1904 at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...nes/mining.htm
In the Days of the Canada Company
The Story of the Settlement of the Huron Tract and a view at the Social Life of the period 1825 - 1850 by Robina and Kathleen MacFarlane Lizars with an Introduction by G. M. Grant, D.D., LL.D., (1896) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...adacompany.pdf
Canada under British Rule 1760 - 1905
By Sir John C. Bournot (1909) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...ritishrule.pdf
MacKenzie and his Voyageurs
By Canoe to the Arctic and the Pacific 1789-93 By Arthur P. Woollacott (1927) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...zievoyages.pdf
Grand Priory of Canada
Got in the September 2018 newsletter which you can read at:
https://www.electriccanadian.com/Rel...tember2018.pdf
Clan Lachlan Association of Canada
Got in a copy of their Fall 2018 newsletter which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...hlan/index.htm
Conrad Black
McCain's Friends and Family Did Him No Honor
http://www.conradmblack.com/1415/mcc...d-him-no-honor
Electric Scotland
Excursions through the Highlands and Isles of Scotland
1835 and 1836, by the Rev. C. Lesingham Smith, M.A. (1837) (pdf)
It is, however, in the character of her mountain peasantry that Scotland may most proudly challenge competition with all the kingdoms of the world. The Author speaks not here of the Lowlands, where the people being congregated into cities, the great nurses of corruption as well as of civilization, differ very little from his own countrymen, and where they do differ, are not always superior: neither do the following observations extend to the most beaten part of the Highlands, in which the temptation to make a harvest of the wealthy traveller is often too great to be resisted. But in the more secluded districts, and especially near the great mountains on the extreme Northwestern coast, and in the distant isles, there is a simplicity, and moral beauty of character among the lower orders, which cannot be contemplated without an emotion of delight. A winning gentleness of manners, with a constant readiness to oblige, prevails throughout; and their honesty, which is as conspicuous as their poverty, often induces them to refuse from the stranger a remuneration which they consider exorbitant. There is not a nation in Europe among whom security of person is more absolute and undoubted; so that the traveller in these virtuous regions, finding a friend in every man he meets, cannot even dream that he is unsafe.
You can read this book at: https://electricscotland.com/travel/...ghscotland.pdf
Electric Scotland Community back again
The site is now back on the new server. I'll now try and get the Arcade working again. You can get to our community at:http://www.electricscotland.org
For the time being we can't process new members but am working on that as well.
The Howes of Buchan
Being Notes, Local, Historical, and Antiquarian, regarding the various places of interest along the route of the Buchan Railway by the Late William Anderson (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/howesobuchan.pdf
The Royal Scots Borderers
1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. Holyrood rehearsal. I added a video of their rehearsal at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...l_regiment.htm
Letters and Memorials of Captain William A. Douglas
6th Battalion The Royal Scots With Preface by the Rev. James Black (1920) (pdf)
You can read this book at: https://www.electricscotland.com/his...alsdouglas.pdf
Inspection of Aircraft after Overhaul
(Category B Licence) by S. J. Norton (fourth edition) (1940) (pdf)
This is continuing our exploration of what the servicemen did that maintained the aircraft. You can read this at:https://electricscotland.com/history...ulBLicence.pdf
History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas
By Capt. B. B. Paddock in 2 volumes (1906). Many Scots and Scots-Irish folk in these volumes/
That Americans are becoming aware, of the fact that they have a history is a matter of frequent observation and remark among writers and men of affairs generally. It was one of the changes in American thought considered worthy of especial note by Hon. James Bryce, on his recent visit to this country after an absence of twenty-five years. This keen student of American institutions thus expresses the result of his observation: “Reverence for the past and a desire to maintain every sort of connection with it is a strong and growing force among educated people.” Furthermore, this is one of the hopeful signs of the times. Well it is, for the nation as for the individual, when its career is anchored at both ends; is descended from a sturdy and virile ancestry and looks forward to a not less worthy posterity; rejoices both in the memories of a splendid past and in the hopes of a brilliant future. Such a nation or individual holds true in the course of best ideals and endeavors, is in the line of progress of its greater destiny. .
It is this growing reverence for the past that renders such a work as the History of North and West Texas both valuable and timely. Even now many of the personalities and achievements of the county’s pioneers are matters of written record only, and, too often, those records are scanty and insufficient and difficult of access. To gather up and piece together in historical form and according to relative importance these records is the purpose of this work, in the preparation of which the constant endeavor has been to make a standard, comprehensive and authentic history, which, while narrating the wonderful story of the past, describes also the present, in its various aspects, with such thoroughness as to make this work a historical “base-line” from which all subsequent civic growth and progress may be computed.
Closely interwoven with every present event of material and civic progress are the character and activities of men. The Alamo lives forever because Travis and his comrades died there, and in their death gave birth to Texas Liberty. So, in only lesser degree, every town, every institution, every industry of North and West Texas exists and grows because men have devoted some portion of their energy and character to its upbuilding. It has been the purpose of this work to bring out this personal aspect of the history of North and West Texas; to mention events mainly in relation to the persons most closely connected with them; to describe the country as far as possible through the careers of the men who have developed it. This is the true office of biography—to bring events into their proper relation with persons. To carry out this novel and interesting plan of history writing sketches have been sought of representative men who have figured in the various phases of North and West Texas affairs up to the present time, and whose careers illustrate both local and general history.
In line with these purposes, it is believed that this work is a real and permanent contribution to the history of Texas. By observing historical proportions and setting the facts in a narrative form, it has been necessary to exclude irrelevant details that, however interesting in themselves, give bulk rather than symmetry; rather than make these volumes an encyclopedia of historical information, it has been thought best to pour over the rubble of facts the cement of literary narration. No effort has been spared to secure accuracy, and acknowledgement is due to the many who have heartily co-operated with and assisted the editorial staff in obtaining data for the history.
Lots of references to Scotland, Scotch, Scots, Scots-Irish, etc. throughout these volumes.
You can read these volumes at: https://electricscotland.com/history...outh/texas.htm
The Story
A Crannog Centre Visit
Written by Professor Adam Cumming FSA Scot, August 2018
The summer outings of the Society are always worth it! A lot of thought and preparation goes into them and the range is thought provoking. Visiting the Crannog Centre on Loch Tay maintained the tradition.
A coach trip with added on-board lecture to prepare us and warm sunny weather to greet us! The lecture by Dr Michael Stratigos gave us the background and provided an update of research in progress, including the questions that still need answering on why Crannogs were built, how many were in use at any one time and indeed how were they used. There are many sites in and around Scotland – why were there none in the Lake District? Some of the possible answers were given as we were taken round the centre seeing the reconstruction and how it worked; and seeing the way people probably lived, with cooking, wood working, weaving and dyeing. Perhaps the most impressive was that of making fire from scratch! All in all, the level of technology and the inventiveness that was demonstrated was humbling.
We tasted porridge made with local ingredients; were introduced to the making of dyes from plants and shown the vibrant colours that could be produced – it was not a drab brown world!! Some of us climbed into floating log boats! We saw some of the finds from the excavation that prompted the development of the Crannog Centre including cloth samples; we learned of the difficulties in preparing flour in enough quantities to be useable and the physical price paid for that milling – arthritis and disablement.
Often, we visit sites and are led round learning in the abstract, but here, for a change, we got closer to the reality of the inhabitants’ life and perhaps we will look afresh at those other sites.
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The precaution which led the Phoenicians to build their city of Tyre upon an island induced their colonists who settled in Britain to suggest the crannog, and to construct it. In some of the larger lakes, crannog-builders selected shallows or small islets, on which they raised platforms of clay and stone, supported by timber stakes. Upon these platforms they erected log dwellings, into which in times of peril they conveyed their stores. Scottish crannogs were most numerous; their remains are found in the lochs of the southern and western counties also in the northern provinces, except in the two northernmost counties. Within crannog-islets have been found carved ornaments in bone and jet, also handles of deer horn, querns, and bronze implements. In the Ayrshire crannogs have been picked up articles in wood-work, incised with Druidic symbols, and remains associated with the early Christian age. Crannog-building, from first to last, extended over a period of about fifteen hundred years. The crannog dwellers lived on venison, water-fowl, and shell-fish.
The crannog preceded the stone-built castle, also surrounded by water. The earlier stone strongholds were built on islets, then on edges of lakes and rivers, and partly enclosed by them; latterly in situations which admitted of fosse and rampart.
You can read another excellent article about Crannogs at:
https://www.electricscotland.com/web.../article10.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you have a great weekend.
Alastair
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