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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
I've noticed a large amount of criticism of the SNP this week in the Daily Record despite the findings that 53% of voters now support independence. I also note that the EU is being heavily critised by a number of their members with squabbles between various EU members as well. Also the Express carries lots of items on the Harry & Meghan royal marriage and their subsequent decisions to move out of the Royal family club.
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A Taste of Britain opened a new store this Monday in Chatham which is only a few hundred yards from my home. I went in on Monday, their opening day, and purchased a few items. I got a 10% of card with my next purchase which I just need to present to them when I next shop with them.
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I have been scanning in some books that are not available online and as I complete them have been adding them also to the Internet Archive. In particular I did the book on Wamphray which is in Dumfries and Galloway in the Scottish Borders which I highly recommend reading.
-------
Pandemic
Top 10 countries are: US, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile & Iran
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 world news stories that can affect Scotland and all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in a number of newspapers 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 which I do myself from time to time.
Polling Shows UK Views CANZUK Countries As Its Closest Allies
The CANZUK countries received the highest levels of support, with 63-65% of the British public saying they regard these three countries as primarily being allies for the UK. The next closest countries in the results were France, Germany and the USA, who each received 56%, 51% and 44%, respectively.
Read more at:
https://www.canzukinternational.com/...st-allies.html
If We All Get COVID Anyway, Should We Just Get It Over With?
Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I'm Dr F. Perry Wilson at the Yale School of Medicine.
Read more at:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle...=2494177&faf=1
Sturgeon economy crisis: SNP blasted for failing Scotland with timid coronavirus plan
THE SNP has been criticised for failing to deliver in its response to the economic crisis following coronavirus.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...olyrood-latest
Borthwick Castle in Midlothian
A fifteenth-century stronghold and one of the best-preserved towers in Scotland, Borthwick Castle in Midlothian has seen military action and hosted Scottish royalty.
Read more and view video at:
Image without substance: Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP
Ms Sturgeon’s stated view is that independence transcends everything.
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkcu...ead_full=14231
Was this tiny church the Vatican of the Templars?
Just outside the city walls of Tomar, the last Portugese town to be commissioned for construction by the Knights Templar, lies a small church with a surprisingly important connection to this once mysterious and secretive religious organisation.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p08...-the-templars-
That SNP reputation for competence is now in tatters
When the SNP won its first Holyrood election in 2007, it wasn’t swept to power on a wave of nationalist fervour. There were no bold promises about independence or claims that the Union had had its day.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinio...atters-2936975
Sexual offences against children in Scotland up almost a third
Police Scotland data obtained by children’s charity NSPCC show there were 5,311 recorded offences in 2019/20 an average of 15 a day and up 30% in the five years since 2014/15.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/po...lmost-a-third/
The hypocrisy of ‘devocrats’ like Sturgeon imperils the UK economy
The Union's internal market is far more important to the home nations than the EU's single market
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-hypocrisy-of-dev...the-uk-economy
Biden VP pick: Kamala Harris chosen as running mate
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has named Kamala Harris as his running mate - the first black woman and South Asian American in the role.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53739323
Americans, go home: Tension at Canada-US border
As the pandemic continues to sweep the US, Canadians are getting more and more concerned about what American visitors could be bringing with them over the border.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53742684
Nicola Sturgeon’s attempts to keep Scotland linked to Brussels post-Brexit in tatters
AN SNP bid to keep Scotland linked with the EU after Brexit will not work, the Holyrood Government has admitted.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...s-johnson-late
Huge number of French admit Brexit Britain made the correct choice in leaving the EU
MORE than four in 10 French people believe the UK stands to benefit long-term from leaving the EU - even if Britons suffer in the short-term, a new survey has shown.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...rom-leaving-eu
TripAdvisor reviewers claim doughnut burger from Scots restaurant is best in the world
Bread Meats Bread's famous Luther burger has pulled in crowds from all over the world.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifest...urger-22510165
Electric Canadian
Canadian North-West
Free Homesteads of Wheat & Grazing Land in The Temperance Colony. Land for Sale, with or without Conditions of Cultivation. Rare inducements offered to Emigrants from Great Britain. Free-hold Farms may be acquired on Easy Terms by John How Telfer. (1884) (pdf)
You can read this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...north_west.pdf
An Emigrant in the Canadian Northwest
By H.E, Church (1929) (pdf)
You can read this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tnorthwest.pdf
Thoughts for Sunday 9th August 2020
By Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show...th-August-2020
Icelanders in Canada
You can read about them at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/iceland.htm
Electric Scotland
The History and Chronicles of Scotland
Written in Latin by Hector Boece, Canon of Aberdeen and Translated by John Bellenden, Archdean of Moray, and Canon of Ross in two volumes (1821)
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history/chronicles.htm
Wamphray
By John Paterson (1906)
Have scanned in the book on Wamphray which is in the Dumfries & Galloway area.
PREFACE
FINDING time hang heavy on my hands in the first 1 years of my retirement from active work in a large school, I devoted some time and attention to a paper on “Wamphray in the Olden Time,” which formed one of a series of lectures given in that parish. A number of my audience were good enough afterwards to express the wish that I should amplify the matter which I had collected and publish it in book form. The present volume contains, then, the result of my researches into the life and times of the parish in a bygone age. I publish it in the hope that it may interest not only the people living in Wamphray and Upper Annandale in the present day, but also the descendants of those who emigrated from the parish in former times to lands beyond the seas.
It may also be of interest even to those who have no connection with the parish, as giving a picture of life and the affairs of church, state, and school, at the dates of which it treats.
I desire to take this opportunity of expressing my warmest thanks to the friends, too numerous to mention by name, who have assisted me in various ways in the collection of material.
I have to thank Mr. G. C. Thomson for permission to use his photograph of Girthhead as a frontispiece. The other illustrations are from photographs which Mr. John Weir, photographer, Moffat, had the kindness to place at my disposal.
J.P.
CLIFTON, LOCKERBIE, Sept., 1906.
You can read this book at: https://electricscotland.com/council/wamphray.htm
John Millar
Updated our page on John Millar and also added a link to a book of his that also contains a good memoir of his life. You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history...illar_john.htm
Story
As I've spent a good chunk of the week scanning in the Wamphray book thought I'd bring you part of Chapter 5 for you to read here...
CHAPTER V - THE PARISH SCHOOL IN WAMPHRAY
PARISH schools are schools peculiar to Scotland, they formed a completion to the efforts that royal sovereigns, the church (both before and after the Reformation), and private individuals have made in the cause of education. They were established in 1696 under a statute which compelled the heritors or chief landowners in every parish to provide a school and salary for the teacher. Of these charges the heritors were entitled to recover one half from their tenants.
The object of this Act was the education of every child in the nation, and was passed exactly two hundred years after the famous compulsory Act of James the Fourth in which all “burgesses and freemen of substance were enjoined to send their eldest son and heir to school for a set number of years,” under a "penalty of twenty pounds Scots for disobedience.” There was no compulsory attendance clause or penalty included in the 1696 Act. The parents, too glad to take advantage of the great privilege afforded them, sent their children to school.
What that Act did for Scotland and Scotsmen all the world knows. How soon after the passing of that Act the first parish school was built in Wamphray and the first teacher appointed to it has not been ascertained, but it was probably at once. Mr. Carruthers of Mylne was clerk to the heritors at that time, so the building of the school and the appointment of the teacher would lie much in his hands. A stone dyke in the hedge on the east side of the road near the present school is said to mark the site of the first parish school. No house or garden was, by law, allotted to the teacher till 1803. Henderson was the name of the first teacher, apparently a Wamphray man. How long he held office is not recorded. A George McCall was teacher in 1753 and 1754, and as we learn from their records, the kirk-session “paid him four shillings and sevenpence on June 9th, 1754, for five quarters and a half’s wages for several poor children”!!!
The next teacher was David Reid, a native of the parish also. He continued in office about forty years. To meet increasing numbers a new school was built in his day on a different site (at Roughdykes). Tradition has ceased to speak of Mr. Reid, but being session clerk he has left a neat memorial of himself in his handwriting.
Mr. Leslie succeeded Mr. Reid in 1793. The average attendance in 1794 was one hundred and ten. Early in his regime a new school was built, and again on a different site. This school was a great improvement, in point of architecture, on the former two. It was well lighted, the heating apparatus was good (a stove), and the seats and desks were in the latest fashion of the day. Mr. Leslie did not profess the higher subjects, but he was spoken of by his scholars with respect, both as a man and a successful teacher of the three r’s. His discipline was strict and his punishment severe.
It may be interesting to recall the school books used in the 18th and first quarter of the 19th century. These were, first a small board, the capital and small letters of the alphabet with a few lines of words of one syllable pasted on one side, and on the reverse, words of two and more syllables. This was followed by a book a little more advanced. The third was the New Testament, the next was the Old. The Roman numerals were now taught, and all the books in both Testaments were learned by rote to enable children to-find the place in church easily. The most advanced reading book was a selection in prose and verse from great authors. The Shorter Catechism and the Book of Proverbs, bound up separately, and the Psalms of David, were the religious text-books. "Dilworth," from the name of its author, was the most advanced book in arithmetic.
Bad health obliged Mr. Leslie to resign in 1823 at a comparatively early age, after a career of thirty years in Wamphray parish school. He retired to Moffat, where he spent the remaining years of his life. His retiring allowance amounted to £16 a year, which was deducted from the statutory salary of £23, leaving the tempting income of £7 a year, the school fees, and a house and garden to attract a new teacher.
We may introduce Mr. Leslie’s successor by giving a short sketch of the early life and training of the man who made the small parish of less than six hundred inhabitants notable over the county and beyond it, and whose influence did much to form the character of his pupils who went from their Wamphray homes to do their part in the wide world.
John Charteris, son of Matthew Charteris and Jean Learmonth, was born in Newton, Wamphray, in 1803. His education began in the parish school there, and he continued to attend it till the stock of elementary subjects in Mr. Leslie’s school prospectus was exhausted. His school-fellows regretted his departure, for he was as expert at, and enthusiastic over, all the games in the playground as he was mentally capable in school work.
For the next few years he attended Applegarth parish school. There he obtained from Mr. Brown, a university man, an extensive acquaintance with the best prose and verse authors of ancient Greece and Rome. Mathematics and modern languages were also among his subjects of study.
In Garrel school, Kirkmichael, Mr. Charteris began his life-work as a teacher. He did not long continue there. Wamphray school fell vacant; he applied for it, and was appointed assistant and successor to Mr. Leslie (out of several applicants) at the tempting income of the remaining £7 of the statutory salary, the school fees, and a house and garden. For this sum the teacher had to undergo an examination in mathematics, arithmetic, Latin and Greek. Horace was examined in ad aperturam, with grammar and scanning. Truly, the calling had been considered honourable in those days to demand such accomplishments, but the pay may go without mention. Nothing daunted by poor money prospects, but animated by a warm affection for his native parish, and evidently alive to the responsibilities and possibilities which lay in his calling to benefit its youths, he added, to the former elementary branches taught in the school, the higher subjects that he had acquired. No Wamphray boy was now obliged to travel many miles every day to prepare either for a professional or commercial career. The prospectus of the school work was equal to that of any high school or academy in the country. As one or other of the professions was the only opening to a clever and ambitious country boy in the beginning of last century, the opportunity was at once taken advantage of. A class was formed; five to six years was the time allotted to prepare for college in country schools. In the session of 1829 the first band of five—three to the medical and two to the humanity classes—set out from Wamphray to Edinburgh University. For the next forty-four years, from the above date, Mr. Charteris had an unbroken connection through his pupils with either Glasgow or Edinburgh University—usually with both; and prizes and medals were won by his students from the first session and onwards during their course.
But the classical was not the only side attended to in Wamphray school. The commercial was as carefully looked after. Arithmetic was a favourite subject with Mr. Charteris. Revisal of it at short intervals, with or without the slate, was a bright episode in the school work. It was, who to be quickest, most correct, and take places. The classical side boasts of names that have reached the highest point attainable in their professions, and of a greater number, too, than any parish school in Scotland has had or is likely, in altered circumstances, ever to produce. The names of the three moderators of the Church, Charteris, Pagan, and Gillespie, are household words to Scotsmen everywhere, and aptly by their side may be placed the late General Currie, C.B., and the late Professor Matthew Charteris, M.D., in the medical professions. But in trade and commerce and other business lines the school has names to charm with also, and of these the “Maister” was no less proud and pleased. The Jardines, Gateside, emigrated to Rushibuctoo in Canada and entered on a successful shipbuilding career there. The Taits, later, in Canada, and the Hallidays as East Indian merchants are names well known in commercial circles. The Thomsons have long been established in business in Glasgow. The Littles, Newton, the Smiths of Laverhay, the Smiths of Howgill, the Smiths and Harknesses and Sanderses and Brydens, are all successful in business in their several lines; and Porteous, Paterson,1 and Graham, and Little, Langside, were well known names in Annandale as blacksmiths for ploughmakers and millwrights. The last named, Little, has just retired on a pension from the Cunard Company after being in their service as an engineer forty-one years; and many more might be mentioned. There can be no doubt but that the higher subjects in school and the constantly recurring visits of the college students to see the “Maister” had a great influence, not only in Wamphray, but all over the country in stirring up the scholars to do their best, each in his own calling, however humble it might be.
Nor did the technical side lack its share of attention. After the rules at the end of Gray’s arithmetic (on the measurement of round and square timber, stone and brick walls) were theoretically studied and practically applied, a regular course in superficies and solids began.
In the olden time the teacher did most of the survey work the farmers required. On those occasions he took the “mensuration boys” with him, and instructed them practically into both branches of that science. That was not all. The class was sent out with chain and cross-staff to measure a field, and if the area found by their measurements corresponded to the plan in the master’s desk, the young surveyors, each with square and compass, drew a plan of their work on their copybooks. If not, it had to be surveyed over again, and so on they went, adding field to field till the most crooked fence could not baffle their surveying powers.
Mr. Charteris was before his day in the higher education of girls. His opinion was that the girls who had time and talent should be taught all the subjects the boys were taught, and, though some did take Latin and Greek and mathematics, their higher subjects generally consisted of French and German, bookkeeping and composition, and the measurements of floors for carpets. An old “parochial," speaking lately on the subject of mensuration, said he was “afraid that practical mensuration is now a lost art among teachers."
Mr. Charteris did not think that his duty to his scholars ended when they left the school at twelve or fourteen years of age. The debating society was formed in his early youth. When he became teacher in his native parish he enthusiastically supported this institution as a means of fostering and developing intelligence, teaching the use of parliamentary language, his friend, the late Hon. James Kirk, governor of Tobago, when a young man resident in the parish, was an active member and keen supporter of the debating society, or “gabbing school” as it was at first dubbed. Its meetings were largely attended by all classes in the parish and district; and farmers, shepherds, tradesmen, and labourers were among its active members. His early students were a great acquisition, and later, in the days of the three moderators, it blossomed out into great prominence, and its anniversary at Christmas became the leading event of the season. A good body, afraid that intelligence might be getting too all engrossing, handed up to the person conducting a crowded revival meeting in a neighbouring parish, a paper on which was written, “ Pray for the intellectual people of Wamphray."
The school books in use in 1823 were continued for some years afterwards, till McCulloch’s series of school books were published. When the Old and New Testaments ceased to be ordinary reading books, the Shorter Catechism and Psalms were continued as the religious lesson text-books to which was added Bible biography. In all the secular subjects taught in school the latest and most approved text-books were henceforth regularly introduced.
In the statistical account for 1834 the income of Wamphray school is given at twenty-five pounds in school fees, fourteen pounds in salary, and a house— forty pounds a year. Mr. Charteris married Miss Jean Hamilton of Broomlulls, Wamphray, in 1834. Their family consisted of a daughter and two sons.
The statutory salary of parish teachers had by this time risen to the maximum of thirty-four pounds a year. The heritors divided the eleven pounds of increase between Mr. Leslie and Mr. Charteris: four pounds to the former and seven pounds to the latter. Not till 1839 did Mr. Charteris receive the maximum salary. Long before this his scholars were in distinguished positions and enjoying handsome incomes. Mr. Charteris was offered several better situations, but he preferred to stay in his native parish. He always had boarders, and during the latter half of his career, had often as many as his house could contain. Money was not his motive power. Noblesse oblige perhaps in his case was a minor incentive to duty. Though he never was heard to boast of it, he knew the name he bore, and the high and distinguished position it had formerly held in the county of Dumfries in political matters, and also in the sphere of education—the highest attainable in the University of Edinburgh. His dictum to all and sundry who spoke of name and pedigree was, “If you do not add further lustre to your name and pedigree, do not mention either.” It may be said that one Wamphray man, after a long and succesful professional career, bought the parish and made it a garden, another, after him, made it an intellectual centre.
Mr. Charteris encouraged his scholars in all games that developed physical strength and manliness. At swimming he was an expert, and advised all to learn the art. Football was his favourite game; he never ceased to enjoy a well-played match, and played it in winter when the big lads came to school, long after he was teacher in Wamphray; and when no longer able to take the field, it pleased him greatly when the boys handed the new ball to the “Maister” to give it the first kick-off. A favourite hobby of his was gardening and bee-keeping - His studious habits, successful career as a teacher, his genial and cheerful disposition and well-ordered life, won for him that respect and admiration he was so justly held in by all his friends and acquaintances, and made his early death at sixty eight universally regretted by all who had known or heard of him. He died in Wamphray Schoolhouse in September, 1871.
In the sixties of last century the handsome new parish school and schoolhouse were built, and the teacher's salary considerably advanced. But the old school by the glen was the place where Mr. Charteris did his great work. The glen was the playground. Its beauty and romanticity with its winding rivulet and gushing waterfalls was an education in itself. Where-ever in it the scholars ran they trod on historic ground. The romantic tales of Border raids and the thrilling story of Covenanting times connected with it, were the first history lessons to his scholars. The following tribute to his memory is from the pen of one of his distinguished scholars, Dr. Pagan, Bothwell manse.
Love to his native parish had a deep and warm hold on Mr. Charteris' heart. He was, at all times, most desirous that every thing connected with it should be worthy of its best traditions.
“From his earliest years he had read thoughtfully the best literature that was within the reach of those who resided in the rural districts of Scotland, and possessed a more than ordinary acquaintance with books of many and different kinds.
“The special interest of his life was the work of his school. Any personal or pecuniary advantage to him-self from continuance of attendance at school to qualify for the university or other opening in life had not the slightest influence with him. He would have given his time and his work as cordially and ungrudgingly to any of his pupils without fee or reward, who gave promise of gifts for a professional or commercial life, as he would have given to those who possessed ample means to recognise whatever service he rendered.
“It seems in these times very wonderful that from a parish with so limited a population, for the fee of five shillings a quarter, pupils could go direct to the university and at once take a position as good as those who came from the amply endowed and staffed educational institutions in the leading centres of population. For the sum stated acquaintance was acquired with the outstanding Greek and Latin classics, and also with some of the best names in French literature. In addition to these there were included in the course of instruction given, the elements of German, mathematics, algebra, trigonometry, measurement of land, and navigation. He never professed to teach what he did not know, and no gratification was deeper to him than to conduct others into the paths over which he himself had gone.
“I am sure that I give expression, not only to my own sentiments but to those of every one who had the privilege of being a pupil in his school, when I state that I will never cease to cherish a sacred and affectionate regard for his memory.”
You can read the balance of this chapter 5 at: https://electricscotland.com/council/wamphray.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend and mind and keep your distance, wash your hands and stay safe. Don't be stupid or selfish and instead be considerate of others and wear a mask if going shopping or into a crowded place and consider whether you should indeed go into a crowded space in the first place.
Alastair
https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm
Electric Scotland News
I've noticed a large amount of criticism of the SNP this week in the Daily Record despite the findings that 53% of voters now support independence. I also note that the EU is being heavily critised by a number of their members with squabbles between various EU members as well. Also the Express carries lots of items on the Harry & Meghan royal marriage and their subsequent decisions to move out of the Royal family club.
-------
A Taste of Britain opened a new store this Monday in Chatham which is only a few hundred yards from my home. I went in on Monday, their opening day, and purchased a few items. I got a 10% of card with my next purchase which I just need to present to them when I next shop with them.
-------
I have been scanning in some books that are not available online and as I complete them have been adding them also to the Internet Archive. In particular I did the book on Wamphray which is in Dumfries and Galloway in the Scottish Borders which I highly recommend reading.
-------
Pandemic
Top 10 countries are: US, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile & Iran
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 world news stories that can affect Scotland and all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in a number of newspapers 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 which I do myself from time to time.
Polling Shows UK Views CANZUK Countries As Its Closest Allies
The CANZUK countries received the highest levels of support, with 63-65% of the British public saying they regard these three countries as primarily being allies for the UK. The next closest countries in the results were France, Germany and the USA, who each received 56%, 51% and 44%, respectively.
Read more at:
https://www.canzukinternational.com/...st-allies.html
If We All Get COVID Anyway, Should We Just Get It Over With?
Welcome to Impact Factor, your weekly dose of commentary on a new medical study. I'm Dr F. Perry Wilson at the Yale School of Medicine.
Read more at:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle...=2494177&faf=1
Sturgeon economy crisis: SNP blasted for failing Scotland with timid coronavirus plan
THE SNP has been criticised for failing to deliver in its response to the economic crisis following coronavirus.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...olyrood-latest
Borthwick Castle in Midlothian
A fifteenth-century stronghold and one of the best-preserved towers in Scotland, Borthwick Castle in Midlothian has seen military action and hosted Scottish royalty.
Read more and view video at:
Image without substance: Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP
Ms Sturgeon’s stated view is that independence transcends everything.
Read more at:
http://www.thinkscotland.org/thinkcu...ead_full=14231
Was this tiny church the Vatican of the Templars?
Just outside the city walls of Tomar, the last Portugese town to be commissioned for construction by the Knights Templar, lies a small church with a surprisingly important connection to this once mysterious and secretive religious organisation.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p08...-the-templars-
That SNP reputation for competence is now in tatters
When the SNP won its first Holyrood election in 2007, it wasn’t swept to power on a wave of nationalist fervour. There were no bold promises about independence or claims that the Union had had its day.
Read more at:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinio...atters-2936975
Sexual offences against children in Scotland up almost a third
Police Scotland data obtained by children’s charity NSPCC show there were 5,311 recorded offences in 2019/20 an average of 15 a day and up 30% in the five years since 2014/15.
Read more at:
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/po...lmost-a-third/
The hypocrisy of ‘devocrats’ like Sturgeon imperils the UK economy
The Union's internal market is far more important to the home nations than the EU's single market
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-hypocrisy-of-dev...the-uk-economy
Biden VP pick: Kamala Harris chosen as running mate
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has named Kamala Harris as his running mate - the first black woman and South Asian American in the role.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53739323
Americans, go home: Tension at Canada-US border
As the pandemic continues to sweep the US, Canadians are getting more and more concerned about what American visitors could be bringing with them over the border.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53742684
Nicola Sturgeon’s attempts to keep Scotland linked to Brussels post-Brexit in tatters
AN SNP bid to keep Scotland linked with the EU after Brexit will not work, the Holyrood Government has admitted.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...s-johnson-late
Huge number of French admit Brexit Britain made the correct choice in leaving the EU
MORE than four in 10 French people believe the UK stands to benefit long-term from leaving the EU - even if Britons suffer in the short-term, a new survey has shown.
Read more at:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...rom-leaving-eu
TripAdvisor reviewers claim doughnut burger from Scots restaurant is best in the world
Bread Meats Bread's famous Luther burger has pulled in crowds from all over the world.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifest...urger-22510165
Electric Canadian
Canadian North-West
Free Homesteads of Wheat & Grazing Land in The Temperance Colony. Land for Sale, with or without Conditions of Cultivation. Rare inducements offered to Emigrants from Great Britain. Free-hold Farms may be acquired on Easy Terms by John How Telfer. (1884) (pdf)
You can read this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...north_west.pdf
An Emigrant in the Canadian Northwest
By H.E, Church (1929) (pdf)
You can read this book at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tnorthwest.pdf
Thoughts for Sunday 9th August 2020
By Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show...th-August-2020
Icelanders in Canada
You can read about them at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/iceland.htm
Electric Scotland
The History and Chronicles of Scotland
Written in Latin by Hector Boece, Canon of Aberdeen and Translated by John Bellenden, Archdean of Moray, and Canon of Ross in two volumes (1821)
You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history/chronicles.htm
Wamphray
By John Paterson (1906)
Have scanned in the book on Wamphray which is in the Dumfries & Galloway area.
PREFACE
FINDING time hang heavy on my hands in the first 1 years of my retirement from active work in a large school, I devoted some time and attention to a paper on “Wamphray in the Olden Time,” which formed one of a series of lectures given in that parish. A number of my audience were good enough afterwards to express the wish that I should amplify the matter which I had collected and publish it in book form. The present volume contains, then, the result of my researches into the life and times of the parish in a bygone age. I publish it in the hope that it may interest not only the people living in Wamphray and Upper Annandale in the present day, but also the descendants of those who emigrated from the parish in former times to lands beyond the seas.
It may also be of interest even to those who have no connection with the parish, as giving a picture of life and the affairs of church, state, and school, at the dates of which it treats.
I desire to take this opportunity of expressing my warmest thanks to the friends, too numerous to mention by name, who have assisted me in various ways in the collection of material.
I have to thank Mr. G. C. Thomson for permission to use his photograph of Girthhead as a frontispiece. The other illustrations are from photographs which Mr. John Weir, photographer, Moffat, had the kindness to place at my disposal.
J.P.
CLIFTON, LOCKERBIE, Sept., 1906.
You can read this book at: https://electricscotland.com/council/wamphray.htm
John Millar
Updated our page on John Millar and also added a link to a book of his that also contains a good memoir of his life. You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history...illar_john.htm
Story
As I've spent a good chunk of the week scanning in the Wamphray book thought I'd bring you part of Chapter 5 for you to read here...
CHAPTER V - THE PARISH SCHOOL IN WAMPHRAY
PARISH schools are schools peculiar to Scotland, they formed a completion to the efforts that royal sovereigns, the church (both before and after the Reformation), and private individuals have made in the cause of education. They were established in 1696 under a statute which compelled the heritors or chief landowners in every parish to provide a school and salary for the teacher. Of these charges the heritors were entitled to recover one half from their tenants.
The object of this Act was the education of every child in the nation, and was passed exactly two hundred years after the famous compulsory Act of James the Fourth in which all “burgesses and freemen of substance were enjoined to send their eldest son and heir to school for a set number of years,” under a "penalty of twenty pounds Scots for disobedience.” There was no compulsory attendance clause or penalty included in the 1696 Act. The parents, too glad to take advantage of the great privilege afforded them, sent their children to school.
What that Act did for Scotland and Scotsmen all the world knows. How soon after the passing of that Act the first parish school was built in Wamphray and the first teacher appointed to it has not been ascertained, but it was probably at once. Mr. Carruthers of Mylne was clerk to the heritors at that time, so the building of the school and the appointment of the teacher would lie much in his hands. A stone dyke in the hedge on the east side of the road near the present school is said to mark the site of the first parish school. No house or garden was, by law, allotted to the teacher till 1803. Henderson was the name of the first teacher, apparently a Wamphray man. How long he held office is not recorded. A George McCall was teacher in 1753 and 1754, and as we learn from their records, the kirk-session “paid him four shillings and sevenpence on June 9th, 1754, for five quarters and a half’s wages for several poor children”!!!
The next teacher was David Reid, a native of the parish also. He continued in office about forty years. To meet increasing numbers a new school was built in his day on a different site (at Roughdykes). Tradition has ceased to speak of Mr. Reid, but being session clerk he has left a neat memorial of himself in his handwriting.
Mr. Leslie succeeded Mr. Reid in 1793. The average attendance in 1794 was one hundred and ten. Early in his regime a new school was built, and again on a different site. This school was a great improvement, in point of architecture, on the former two. It was well lighted, the heating apparatus was good (a stove), and the seats and desks were in the latest fashion of the day. Mr. Leslie did not profess the higher subjects, but he was spoken of by his scholars with respect, both as a man and a successful teacher of the three r’s. His discipline was strict and his punishment severe.
It may be interesting to recall the school books used in the 18th and first quarter of the 19th century. These were, first a small board, the capital and small letters of the alphabet with a few lines of words of one syllable pasted on one side, and on the reverse, words of two and more syllables. This was followed by a book a little more advanced. The third was the New Testament, the next was the Old. The Roman numerals were now taught, and all the books in both Testaments were learned by rote to enable children to-find the place in church easily. The most advanced reading book was a selection in prose and verse from great authors. The Shorter Catechism and the Book of Proverbs, bound up separately, and the Psalms of David, were the religious text-books. "Dilworth," from the name of its author, was the most advanced book in arithmetic.
Bad health obliged Mr. Leslie to resign in 1823 at a comparatively early age, after a career of thirty years in Wamphray parish school. He retired to Moffat, where he spent the remaining years of his life. His retiring allowance amounted to £16 a year, which was deducted from the statutory salary of £23, leaving the tempting income of £7 a year, the school fees, and a house and garden to attract a new teacher.
We may introduce Mr. Leslie’s successor by giving a short sketch of the early life and training of the man who made the small parish of less than six hundred inhabitants notable over the county and beyond it, and whose influence did much to form the character of his pupils who went from their Wamphray homes to do their part in the wide world.
John Charteris, son of Matthew Charteris and Jean Learmonth, was born in Newton, Wamphray, in 1803. His education began in the parish school there, and he continued to attend it till the stock of elementary subjects in Mr. Leslie’s school prospectus was exhausted. His school-fellows regretted his departure, for he was as expert at, and enthusiastic over, all the games in the playground as he was mentally capable in school work.
For the next few years he attended Applegarth parish school. There he obtained from Mr. Brown, a university man, an extensive acquaintance with the best prose and verse authors of ancient Greece and Rome. Mathematics and modern languages were also among his subjects of study.
In Garrel school, Kirkmichael, Mr. Charteris began his life-work as a teacher. He did not long continue there. Wamphray school fell vacant; he applied for it, and was appointed assistant and successor to Mr. Leslie (out of several applicants) at the tempting income of the remaining £7 of the statutory salary, the school fees, and a house and garden. For this sum the teacher had to undergo an examination in mathematics, arithmetic, Latin and Greek. Horace was examined in ad aperturam, with grammar and scanning. Truly, the calling had been considered honourable in those days to demand such accomplishments, but the pay may go without mention. Nothing daunted by poor money prospects, but animated by a warm affection for his native parish, and evidently alive to the responsibilities and possibilities which lay in his calling to benefit its youths, he added, to the former elementary branches taught in the school, the higher subjects that he had acquired. No Wamphray boy was now obliged to travel many miles every day to prepare either for a professional or commercial career. The prospectus of the school work was equal to that of any high school or academy in the country. As one or other of the professions was the only opening to a clever and ambitious country boy in the beginning of last century, the opportunity was at once taken advantage of. A class was formed; five to six years was the time allotted to prepare for college in country schools. In the session of 1829 the first band of five—three to the medical and two to the humanity classes—set out from Wamphray to Edinburgh University. For the next forty-four years, from the above date, Mr. Charteris had an unbroken connection through his pupils with either Glasgow or Edinburgh University—usually with both; and prizes and medals were won by his students from the first session and onwards during their course.
But the classical was not the only side attended to in Wamphray school. The commercial was as carefully looked after. Arithmetic was a favourite subject with Mr. Charteris. Revisal of it at short intervals, with or without the slate, was a bright episode in the school work. It was, who to be quickest, most correct, and take places. The classical side boasts of names that have reached the highest point attainable in their professions, and of a greater number, too, than any parish school in Scotland has had or is likely, in altered circumstances, ever to produce. The names of the three moderators of the Church, Charteris, Pagan, and Gillespie, are household words to Scotsmen everywhere, and aptly by their side may be placed the late General Currie, C.B., and the late Professor Matthew Charteris, M.D., in the medical professions. But in trade and commerce and other business lines the school has names to charm with also, and of these the “Maister” was no less proud and pleased. The Jardines, Gateside, emigrated to Rushibuctoo in Canada and entered on a successful shipbuilding career there. The Taits, later, in Canada, and the Hallidays as East Indian merchants are names well known in commercial circles. The Thomsons have long been established in business in Glasgow. The Littles, Newton, the Smiths of Laverhay, the Smiths of Howgill, the Smiths and Harknesses and Sanderses and Brydens, are all successful in business in their several lines; and Porteous, Paterson,1 and Graham, and Little, Langside, were well known names in Annandale as blacksmiths for ploughmakers and millwrights. The last named, Little, has just retired on a pension from the Cunard Company after being in their service as an engineer forty-one years; and many more might be mentioned. There can be no doubt but that the higher subjects in school and the constantly recurring visits of the college students to see the “Maister” had a great influence, not only in Wamphray, but all over the country in stirring up the scholars to do their best, each in his own calling, however humble it might be.
Nor did the technical side lack its share of attention. After the rules at the end of Gray’s arithmetic (on the measurement of round and square timber, stone and brick walls) were theoretically studied and practically applied, a regular course in superficies and solids began.
In the olden time the teacher did most of the survey work the farmers required. On those occasions he took the “mensuration boys” with him, and instructed them practically into both branches of that science. That was not all. The class was sent out with chain and cross-staff to measure a field, and if the area found by their measurements corresponded to the plan in the master’s desk, the young surveyors, each with square and compass, drew a plan of their work on their copybooks. If not, it had to be surveyed over again, and so on they went, adding field to field till the most crooked fence could not baffle their surveying powers.
Mr. Charteris was before his day in the higher education of girls. His opinion was that the girls who had time and talent should be taught all the subjects the boys were taught, and, though some did take Latin and Greek and mathematics, their higher subjects generally consisted of French and German, bookkeeping and composition, and the measurements of floors for carpets. An old “parochial," speaking lately on the subject of mensuration, said he was “afraid that practical mensuration is now a lost art among teachers."
Mr. Charteris did not think that his duty to his scholars ended when they left the school at twelve or fourteen years of age. The debating society was formed in his early youth. When he became teacher in his native parish he enthusiastically supported this institution as a means of fostering and developing intelligence, teaching the use of parliamentary language, his friend, the late Hon. James Kirk, governor of Tobago, when a young man resident in the parish, was an active member and keen supporter of the debating society, or “gabbing school” as it was at first dubbed. Its meetings were largely attended by all classes in the parish and district; and farmers, shepherds, tradesmen, and labourers were among its active members. His early students were a great acquisition, and later, in the days of the three moderators, it blossomed out into great prominence, and its anniversary at Christmas became the leading event of the season. A good body, afraid that intelligence might be getting too all engrossing, handed up to the person conducting a crowded revival meeting in a neighbouring parish, a paper on which was written, “ Pray for the intellectual people of Wamphray."
The school books in use in 1823 were continued for some years afterwards, till McCulloch’s series of school books were published. When the Old and New Testaments ceased to be ordinary reading books, the Shorter Catechism and Psalms were continued as the religious lesson text-books to which was added Bible biography. In all the secular subjects taught in school the latest and most approved text-books were henceforth regularly introduced.
In the statistical account for 1834 the income of Wamphray school is given at twenty-five pounds in school fees, fourteen pounds in salary, and a house— forty pounds a year. Mr. Charteris married Miss Jean Hamilton of Broomlulls, Wamphray, in 1834. Their family consisted of a daughter and two sons.
The statutory salary of parish teachers had by this time risen to the maximum of thirty-four pounds a year. The heritors divided the eleven pounds of increase between Mr. Leslie and Mr. Charteris: four pounds to the former and seven pounds to the latter. Not till 1839 did Mr. Charteris receive the maximum salary. Long before this his scholars were in distinguished positions and enjoying handsome incomes. Mr. Charteris was offered several better situations, but he preferred to stay in his native parish. He always had boarders, and during the latter half of his career, had often as many as his house could contain. Money was not his motive power. Noblesse oblige perhaps in his case was a minor incentive to duty. Though he never was heard to boast of it, he knew the name he bore, and the high and distinguished position it had formerly held in the county of Dumfries in political matters, and also in the sphere of education—the highest attainable in the University of Edinburgh. His dictum to all and sundry who spoke of name and pedigree was, “If you do not add further lustre to your name and pedigree, do not mention either.” It may be said that one Wamphray man, after a long and succesful professional career, bought the parish and made it a garden, another, after him, made it an intellectual centre.
Mr. Charteris encouraged his scholars in all games that developed physical strength and manliness. At swimming he was an expert, and advised all to learn the art. Football was his favourite game; he never ceased to enjoy a well-played match, and played it in winter when the big lads came to school, long after he was teacher in Wamphray; and when no longer able to take the field, it pleased him greatly when the boys handed the new ball to the “Maister” to give it the first kick-off. A favourite hobby of his was gardening and bee-keeping - His studious habits, successful career as a teacher, his genial and cheerful disposition and well-ordered life, won for him that respect and admiration he was so justly held in by all his friends and acquaintances, and made his early death at sixty eight universally regretted by all who had known or heard of him. He died in Wamphray Schoolhouse in September, 1871.
In the sixties of last century the handsome new parish school and schoolhouse were built, and the teacher's salary considerably advanced. But the old school by the glen was the place where Mr. Charteris did his great work. The glen was the playground. Its beauty and romanticity with its winding rivulet and gushing waterfalls was an education in itself. Where-ever in it the scholars ran they trod on historic ground. The romantic tales of Border raids and the thrilling story of Covenanting times connected with it, were the first history lessons to his scholars. The following tribute to his memory is from the pen of one of his distinguished scholars, Dr. Pagan, Bothwell manse.
Love to his native parish had a deep and warm hold on Mr. Charteris' heart. He was, at all times, most desirous that every thing connected with it should be worthy of its best traditions.
“From his earliest years he had read thoughtfully the best literature that was within the reach of those who resided in the rural districts of Scotland, and possessed a more than ordinary acquaintance with books of many and different kinds.
“The special interest of his life was the work of his school. Any personal or pecuniary advantage to him-self from continuance of attendance at school to qualify for the university or other opening in life had not the slightest influence with him. He would have given his time and his work as cordially and ungrudgingly to any of his pupils without fee or reward, who gave promise of gifts for a professional or commercial life, as he would have given to those who possessed ample means to recognise whatever service he rendered.
“It seems in these times very wonderful that from a parish with so limited a population, for the fee of five shillings a quarter, pupils could go direct to the university and at once take a position as good as those who came from the amply endowed and staffed educational institutions in the leading centres of population. For the sum stated acquaintance was acquired with the outstanding Greek and Latin classics, and also with some of the best names in French literature. In addition to these there were included in the course of instruction given, the elements of German, mathematics, algebra, trigonometry, measurement of land, and navigation. He never professed to teach what he did not know, and no gratification was deeper to him than to conduct others into the paths over which he himself had gone.
“I am sure that I give expression, not only to my own sentiments but to those of every one who had the privilege of being a pupil in his school, when I state that I will never cease to cherish a sacred and affectionate regard for his memory.”
You can read the balance of this chapter 5 at: https://electricscotland.com/council/wamphray.htm
And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend and mind and keep your distance, wash your hands and stay safe. Don't be stupid or selfish and instead be considerate of others and wear a mask if going shopping or into a crowded place and consider whether you should indeed go into a crowded space in the first place.
Alastair
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