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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Been a busy week seeing as it was time to re-paint the outside of my house. Needed scaffolding to get to the top of the house and while I used the services of a non painting professional he wasn't too good at deciding how much paint was required so ended up making four trips to the paint store! At time of writing it's been pretty much completed but another half day to tidy up some wee bits that were missed. The last paint job ended up lasting 15 years so hopefully this will see me out.
Also found out I'd run out of printer ink and when I went to replace found out Kodak had ceased trading so no ink available which meant I had to get a new printer. And then my wee 13" TV stopped working so also had to purchase a new small TV which sits beside my computer monitor. I actually use this small TV much more than I use my larger TV.
Then I decided I needed a new electric razor and after using it for 4 days it wouldn't switch off so had to get it replaced.
Then as I'm a coffee drinker I noticed that Tim Horton has an instant coffee available. I decided to try it out so bought a jar of it and I'm quite pleased with the offering. I mean one spoonful of the coffee and then pour in hot water from the kettle and you have a good cup of coffee.
So all and all it's been quite a week.
--------
I can't say I'm enamoured with the Brexit deal the Prime Minister is offering to the EU. I still think that a "no deal" is the best way for us to go.
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.
Boris Johnson vows to compensate for 'SNP inadequacies"
In an interview with BBC Scotland ahead of the Conservative party conference, the prime minister attacked the SNP for their record on health and education.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-49844298
Busting the myths of nationalisation
Nationalisation puts power in the hands of bureaucrats, increases costs on the taxpayer and stifles innovation
Read more at:
https://capx.co/busting-the-myths-of-nationalisation/
How the British conception of sovereignty makes EU membership untenable
Although discord over Brexit is the most notorious dispute to emerge between the UK and the EU, it is not the first.
Read more at:
https://brexitcentral.com/how-the-br...hip-untenable/
The Superstate into which the EU is evolving makes our departure all the more urgent
Freedom has a price, it always has had, and I for one would rather be freer but poorer, and I suspect most of the 17.4 million who voted to Leave feel precisely the same way.
Read more at:
https://brexitcentral.com/the-supers...e-more-urgent/
Edinburgh woman wants to lead Scotland's sober revolution
The mother-of-three quit her job to launch her own alcohol-free brewery after realising she loved beer but not the hangovers they gave her.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-49878937
Why the next election will be the most important in a century
If Britain aspires to be a serious country, we need a serious overhaul of our public administration
Read more at:
https://capx.co/why-the-next-electio...-in-a-century/
Why the Supreme Court got it wrong on prorogation
The Supreme Court has rightly identified a power vacuum, then wrongly decided to leap into it
Read more at
https://capx.co/why-the-supreme-cour...n-prorogation/
Guy Verhofstadt is wrong again
Singaporeans live longer, healthier lives than Europeans - and they're much richer
Read more at:
https://capx.co/verhofstadt-is-wrong...ean-singapore/
Non-alcoholic whisky-style spirit fizzes onto market ahead of Sober October
Spirits of Virtue has launched Dochus, a zero-alcohol dark spirit blended and bottled in Scotland, along with a range of cocktail recipes to inspire those looking to avoid alcohol for the month-long challenge.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/business/no...ober-1-5014384
Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs
Scotch whisky exported to the United States is to face a tariff of 25% from 18 October
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...iness-49915034
How Brexit Britain can become a global trade hub for services
Britain's future is not just as an exporter, but as a bridge between other economies
Read more at:
https://capx.co/how-brexit-britain-c...l-services-hub
Scottish government confirms no fracking policy
Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told MSPs that the existing block on unconventional oil and gas development would continue indefinitely.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-49924749
Scotland becomes first UK country to ban smacking
The ban on all physical punishment was backed overwhelmingly by 84 votes to 29 by the Scottish Parliament on Thursday afternoon
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-49908849
The questions MEPs should ask the new EU Commission
The new European Commission must deal with a host of challenges - but are they up for the job?
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-questions-meps-s...eu-commission/
Electric Canadian
Two Little Savages
Being the adventures of Two Boys Who Lived as Indians and what they Learned By Ernest Thompson Seton (1922) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/lif...tlesavages.pdf
Three Years in Canada
An account of the actual state of the country in 1826-7-8 comprehending its resources, productions, improvements, and capabilities and including sketches of the state of society, advice to emigrants, &c. by John MacTaggart, civil engineer in the service of the British Government in two volumes (1829)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/pio...threeyears.htm
Xwelíqwiya
The Life of a Stó:lo¯ Matriarch
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...C3%ADqwiya.htm
Canadian Wild Flowers
Edited and Lithographed with Botanical Descriptions By C. P. Traill (1868) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/lif...ildflowers.pdf
The Canadian Rose Annual
1955 edition.
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/mag...anrose1955.pdf
Buying and storing Canadian Foods for foodservice industry
By Agriculture Canada (1981) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...ringcanada.pdf
Electric Scotland
The Imperial Magazine
Religious, Philosophical, Historical, Biographical, Topographical and General Knowledge. Got up the 1831 edition.
There are several articles of a Scottish nature to be read in this issue including some small biographies.
You can read this at; https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...almagazine.htm
Works of James Houstoun, M.D.
Containing Memoirs of his Life and Travels in Asia, Africa, America, and most parts of Europe, from the Year 1690, to the present time (1753) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history...meshouston.pdf
The Home Preacher
Added service 9 by Dr. Arthuir which you can read at: https://electricscotland.com/bible/h...her/week09.htm
Swiss Family Robinson
Thought I'd post up the book and a movie for you to read and view. I've added this to our Robinson Crusoe page.
You can read and view this at: https://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/crusoe.htm
The Union of 1707
Survey of Events by various writers with an introduction by P. Hume Brown, M.A., LL.D. and the text of the Articles of Union (1907) (pdf)
You can read this at; https://electricscotland.com/history/unionof1707.pdf
Two Centuries of Shipbuilding by the Scotts at Greenock
Second and Revised Edition 1920 which I added to the page with the first edition which you can read at the foot of the page at: https://electricscotland.com/history.../scottsndx.htm
Hylton Newsletter
Go in their Summer 2019 newsletter which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...tter2019-4.pdf
The Harp of the Scottish Covenant
Poems, Songs, and Ballads relating to the Covenanting struggle collected and edited by John MacFarlance, author of "Heather and Harebell" with a Preface by Prof. J. Clark Murray, LL.D., author of "The Ballads and Songs of Scotland" (1895) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/poetry/...scottishco.pdf
The Story
The Heather on Fire
By Mathilde Blind
I SEEM to hear many a reader ask whether such atrocities as are described in "The Heather on Fire" have indeed been committed within the memory of this generation. Let him be assured that this is no fancy picture; that, on the contrary, the author's aim has been to soften some of the worst features of the heart-rending scenes which were of such frequent occurrence during the Highland Clearances. Many of them are too revolting for the purposes of art ; for the ferocity shown by some of the factors and ground-officers employed by the landlords in evicting their inoffensive tenantry, can only be matched by the brutal excesses of victorious troops on a foreign soil. But even in those cases where no actual violence was resorted to, the uprooting and transplantation of whole communities of Crofters from the straths and glens which they had tilled for so many generations must be regarded in the light of a national crime.
No traveller can have failed to be struck by the solitude and desolation which now constitute the prevalent character of the Scottish Highlands. "Mile after mile," says Macaulay, speaking of Glencoe, "Taveller looks in vain for the smoke of one hut, or for one human form wrapped in a plaid, and listens in vain for the bark of a shepherd's dog, or the bleat of a lamb. Mile after mile, the only sound that indicates life is the faint cry of a bird of prey from some storm-beaten pinnacle of rock." His words might appropriately stand for a description of a great part of the north of Scotland. But it was not always so. The moors and valleys, whose blank silence is only broken by the rush of tumbling streams or the cry of some solitary bird, were once enlivened by the manifold sounds of human industry and made musical with children's voices. The crumbling walls and decaying roof-trees of ruined villages still bear witness to the former populousness of many a deserted glen. Perhaps these humble remains touch our feelings more deeply than the imposing fragments of Greek temples and Roman amphitheatres. For it was but yesterday that they were inhabited by a brave, moral, and industrious peasantry, full of poetic instincts and ardent patriotism, ruthlessly expelled their native land to make way for sporting grounds rented by merchant princes and American millionaires.
During a visit I paid to the Isle of Arran in the summer of 1884, I stood on the site of such a ruined village. All that remained of the once flourishing community was a solitary old Scotchwoman, who well remembered her banished countrymen. Her simple story had a thrilling pathos, told as it was on the melancholy slopes of North Glen Sannox, looking across to the wild broken mountain ridges called "The Old Wife's Steps." Here, she said, and as far as one could see, had dwelt the Glen Sannox people, the largest population then collected in any one spot of the island, and evicted by the Duke of Hamilton in the year 1832. The lives of these crofters became an idyll in her mouth. She dwelt proudly on their patient labour, their simple joys, and the kind, helpful ways of them; and her brown eyes filled with tears as she recalled the day of their expulsion, when the people gathered from all parts of the island to see the last of the Glen Sannox folk ere they went on board the brig that was bound for New Brunswick, in Canada. "Ah, it was a sore day that," she sighed, "when the old people cast themselves down on the sea-shore and wept."
They were gone, these Crofters, and their dwellings laid low with the hill-side, and their fertile plots of corn overrun with ling and heather; but the stream went rushing on as of old, and as of old the cloven mountain peaks cast their shadow on the valley below whence the once happy people were all gone — gone, too, their dwelling-places, and, to use the touching words of a Highland minister, ''There was not a smoke there now." For the progress of civilisation, which has redeemed many a wilderness, and gladdened the solitary places of the world, has come with a curse to these Highland glens, and turned green pastures and golden harvest-fields once more into a desert.
You can read the rest of this account at: https://electricscotland.com/history...etal00blin.pdf
And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
Been a busy week seeing as it was time to re-paint the outside of my house. Needed scaffolding to get to the top of the house and while I used the services of a non painting professional he wasn't too good at deciding how much paint was required so ended up making four trips to the paint store! At time of writing it's been pretty much completed but another half day to tidy up some wee bits that were missed. The last paint job ended up lasting 15 years so hopefully this will see me out.
Also found out I'd run out of printer ink and when I went to replace found out Kodak had ceased trading so no ink available which meant I had to get a new printer. And then my wee 13" TV stopped working so also had to purchase a new small TV which sits beside my computer monitor. I actually use this small TV much more than I use my larger TV.
Then I decided I needed a new electric razor and after using it for 4 days it wouldn't switch off so had to get it replaced.
Then as I'm a coffee drinker I noticed that Tim Horton has an instant coffee available. I decided to try it out so bought a jar of it and I'm quite pleased with the offering. I mean one spoonful of the coffee and then pour in hot water from the kettle and you have a good cup of coffee.
So all and all it's been quite a week.
--------
I can't say I'm enamoured with the Brexit deal the Prime Minister is offering to the EU. I still think that a "no deal" is the best way for us to go.
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.
Boris Johnson vows to compensate for 'SNP inadequacies"
In an interview with BBC Scotland ahead of the Conservative party conference, the prime minister attacked the SNP for their record on health and education.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-49844298
Busting the myths of nationalisation
Nationalisation puts power in the hands of bureaucrats, increases costs on the taxpayer and stifles innovation
Read more at:
https://capx.co/busting-the-myths-of-nationalisation/
How the British conception of sovereignty makes EU membership untenable
Although discord over Brexit is the most notorious dispute to emerge between the UK and the EU, it is not the first.
Read more at:
https://brexitcentral.com/how-the-br...hip-untenable/
The Superstate into which the EU is evolving makes our departure all the more urgent
Freedom has a price, it always has had, and I for one would rather be freer but poorer, and I suspect most of the 17.4 million who voted to Leave feel precisely the same way.
Read more at:
https://brexitcentral.com/the-supers...e-more-urgent/
Edinburgh woman wants to lead Scotland's sober revolution
The mother-of-three quit her job to launch her own alcohol-free brewery after realising she loved beer but not the hangovers they gave her.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-49878937
Why the next election will be the most important in a century
If Britain aspires to be a serious country, we need a serious overhaul of our public administration
Read more at:
https://capx.co/why-the-next-electio...-in-a-century/
Why the Supreme Court got it wrong on prorogation
The Supreme Court has rightly identified a power vacuum, then wrongly decided to leap into it
Read more at
https://capx.co/why-the-supreme-cour...n-prorogation/
Guy Verhofstadt is wrong again
Singaporeans live longer, healthier lives than Europeans - and they're much richer
Read more at:
https://capx.co/verhofstadt-is-wrong...ean-singapore/
Non-alcoholic whisky-style spirit fizzes onto market ahead of Sober October
Spirits of Virtue has launched Dochus, a zero-alcohol dark spirit blended and bottled in Scotland, along with a range of cocktail recipes to inspire those looking to avoid alcohol for the month-long challenge.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/business/no...ober-1-5014384
Scotch whisky targeted by United States tariffs
Scotch whisky exported to the United States is to face a tariff of 25% from 18 October
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...iness-49915034
How Brexit Britain can become a global trade hub for services
Britain's future is not just as an exporter, but as a bridge between other economies
Read more at:
https://capx.co/how-brexit-britain-c...l-services-hub
Scottish government confirms no fracking policy
Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told MSPs that the existing block on unconventional oil and gas development would continue indefinitely.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-49924749
Scotland becomes first UK country to ban smacking
The ban on all physical punishment was backed overwhelmingly by 84 votes to 29 by the Scottish Parliament on Thursday afternoon
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...itics-49908849
The questions MEPs should ask the new EU Commission
The new European Commission must deal with a host of challenges - but are they up for the job?
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-questions-meps-s...eu-commission/
Electric Canadian
Two Little Savages
Being the adventures of Two Boys Who Lived as Indians and what they Learned By Ernest Thompson Seton (1922) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/lif...tlesavages.pdf
Three Years in Canada
An account of the actual state of the country in 1826-7-8 comprehending its resources, productions, improvements, and capabilities and including sketches of the state of society, advice to emigrants, &c. by John MacTaggart, civil engineer in the service of the British Government in two volumes (1829)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/pio...threeyears.htm
Xwelíqwiya
The Life of a Stó:lo¯ Matriarch
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...C3%ADqwiya.htm
Canadian Wild Flowers
Edited and Lithographed with Botanical Descriptions By C. P. Traill (1868) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/lif...ildflowers.pdf
The Canadian Rose Annual
1955 edition.
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/mag...anrose1955.pdf
Buying and storing Canadian Foods for foodservice industry
By Agriculture Canada (1981) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...ringcanada.pdf
Electric Scotland
The Imperial Magazine
Religious, Philosophical, Historical, Biographical, Topographical and General Knowledge. Got up the 1831 edition.
There are several articles of a Scottish nature to be read in this issue including some small biographies.
You can read this at; https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...almagazine.htm
Works of James Houstoun, M.D.
Containing Memoirs of his Life and Travels in Asia, Africa, America, and most parts of Europe, from the Year 1690, to the present time (1753) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history...meshouston.pdf
The Home Preacher
Added service 9 by Dr. Arthuir which you can read at: https://electricscotland.com/bible/h...her/week09.htm
Swiss Family Robinson
Thought I'd post up the book and a movie for you to read and view. I've added this to our Robinson Crusoe page.
You can read and view this at: https://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/crusoe.htm
The Union of 1707
Survey of Events by various writers with an introduction by P. Hume Brown, M.A., LL.D. and the text of the Articles of Union (1907) (pdf)
You can read this at; https://electricscotland.com/history/unionof1707.pdf
Two Centuries of Shipbuilding by the Scotts at Greenock
Second and Revised Edition 1920 which I added to the page with the first edition which you can read at the foot of the page at: https://electricscotland.com/history.../scottsndx.htm
Hylton Newsletter
Go in their Summer 2019 newsletter which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/familyt...tter2019-4.pdf
The Harp of the Scottish Covenant
Poems, Songs, and Ballads relating to the Covenanting struggle collected and edited by John MacFarlance, author of "Heather and Harebell" with a Preface by Prof. J. Clark Murray, LL.D., author of "The Ballads and Songs of Scotland" (1895) (pdf)
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/poetry/...scottishco.pdf
The Story
The Heather on Fire
By Mathilde Blind
I SEEM to hear many a reader ask whether such atrocities as are described in "The Heather on Fire" have indeed been committed within the memory of this generation. Let him be assured that this is no fancy picture; that, on the contrary, the author's aim has been to soften some of the worst features of the heart-rending scenes which were of such frequent occurrence during the Highland Clearances. Many of them are too revolting for the purposes of art ; for the ferocity shown by some of the factors and ground-officers employed by the landlords in evicting their inoffensive tenantry, can only be matched by the brutal excesses of victorious troops on a foreign soil. But even in those cases where no actual violence was resorted to, the uprooting and transplantation of whole communities of Crofters from the straths and glens which they had tilled for so many generations must be regarded in the light of a national crime.
No traveller can have failed to be struck by the solitude and desolation which now constitute the prevalent character of the Scottish Highlands. "Mile after mile," says Macaulay, speaking of Glencoe, "Taveller looks in vain for the smoke of one hut, or for one human form wrapped in a plaid, and listens in vain for the bark of a shepherd's dog, or the bleat of a lamb. Mile after mile, the only sound that indicates life is the faint cry of a bird of prey from some storm-beaten pinnacle of rock." His words might appropriately stand for a description of a great part of the north of Scotland. But it was not always so. The moors and valleys, whose blank silence is only broken by the rush of tumbling streams or the cry of some solitary bird, were once enlivened by the manifold sounds of human industry and made musical with children's voices. The crumbling walls and decaying roof-trees of ruined villages still bear witness to the former populousness of many a deserted glen. Perhaps these humble remains touch our feelings more deeply than the imposing fragments of Greek temples and Roman amphitheatres. For it was but yesterday that they were inhabited by a brave, moral, and industrious peasantry, full of poetic instincts and ardent patriotism, ruthlessly expelled their native land to make way for sporting grounds rented by merchant princes and American millionaires.
During a visit I paid to the Isle of Arran in the summer of 1884, I stood on the site of such a ruined village. All that remained of the once flourishing community was a solitary old Scotchwoman, who well remembered her banished countrymen. Her simple story had a thrilling pathos, told as it was on the melancholy slopes of North Glen Sannox, looking across to the wild broken mountain ridges called "The Old Wife's Steps." Here, she said, and as far as one could see, had dwelt the Glen Sannox people, the largest population then collected in any one spot of the island, and evicted by the Duke of Hamilton in the year 1832. The lives of these crofters became an idyll in her mouth. She dwelt proudly on their patient labour, their simple joys, and the kind, helpful ways of them; and her brown eyes filled with tears as she recalled the day of their expulsion, when the people gathered from all parts of the island to see the last of the Glen Sannox folk ere they went on board the brig that was bound for New Brunswick, in Canada. "Ah, it was a sore day that," she sighed, "when the old people cast themselves down on the sea-shore and wept."
They were gone, these Crofters, and their dwellings laid low with the hill-side, and their fertile plots of corn overrun with ling and heather; but the stream went rushing on as of old, and as of old the cloven mountain peaks cast their shadow on the valley below whence the once happy people were all gone — gone, too, their dwelling-places, and, to use the touching words of a Highland minister, ''There was not a smoke there now." For the progress of civilisation, which has redeemed many a wilderness, and gladdened the solitary places of the world, has come with a curse to these Highland glens, and turned green pastures and golden harvest-fields once more into a desert.
You can read the rest of this account at: https://electricscotland.com/history...etal00blin.pdf
And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair