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CONTENTS
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie
The Prairie Provinces
How others see us
A chronology of key events in Canada
Settler's Guide
The Life of a Backswoodsman
A Sustainable Future for Small Coastal Fishing Communities
The Flag in the Wind
Electric Scotland
The Bards of Bon Accord 1375 - 1860
Northern Notes and Queries
Songs by John Henderson
Days at the Coast
Wild Flowers of Scotland
J. Keir Hardie
Robert Burns Lives!
Kirkintilloch Town and Parish (New Book)
John Kay, Economist
Shetland: Descriptive and Historical (New Book)
Electric Scotland News
There are now an astonishing 83 million fake users on Facebook, the social network has revealed. Now if you take this figure and then figure out how many people use Facebook just to play games. And then add to that the times you login to add a friend who you don't know and can find nothing about you are starting to get a view that Facebook is not nearly as good a place as you might first think.
I still see Facebook as a place where you can link up with friends and family but I have always felt that for business there is really nothing there that would make much or any impact on their business. You'll have noticed that their share price is well down from their launch and questions keep coming up where advertisers are not seeing value and indeed some quite large advertisers have pulled out.
It's my personal view that our forums in our Electric Scotland Community is actually a far better method of networking. You can actually post any size message you like and attach files to the message and display YouTube videos. You can build your own friends list if you wish meaning that friends get to view private galleries and private messages. And in your profile you have many options to configure things like will you allow people to email you.
I've actually got more impressed with our community and what it can offer by talking to people about the "Scotland's Future" project. They keep coming up with... can you do this... can you do that... and I'm finding that "Yes we can". and so if you haven't used the Community for a while perhaps take another look and explore all the options and tell others about us and persuade them to get involved.
And mind that if there is a facility you'd like to see feel free to email me with your suggestion and we'll do our best to meet your needs.
ABOUT THE STORIES
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Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
We try not to point to a pdf file and instead send you to page where the pdf can be downloaded.
Electric Canadian
The Prairie Provinces
A short history of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta by D. M. Duncan, M.A.
At time of writing we have almost completed this book and I hope you have enjoyed it and learned much in the process.
You can read the book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/prairiendx.htm
The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie
There is much to learn from this and no matter your views it does present another view of the fight for American Independence.
We are now making good progress with this book and now have up..
Chapter I. Introduction.
Chapter II. Political Aspect of the Revolution.
Chapter III. Motives of the Loyalists.
Chapter IV. Treatment of the Loyalists During the War.
Chapter V. Legislative Enactments for the Punishment of the Loyalists.
Chapter VI. British Parliament and the Loyalists.
Chapter VII. What Britain Did for the Loyalists.
Chapter VIII. Loyalist Emigration.
Chapter IX. Routes of the Loyalists.
Chapter X. Modes of Travelling.
Chapter XI. Early Accounts of Long Point.
Chapter XII. The County of Norfolk.
Chapter XIII. The Townships of Norfolk.
Chapter XIV. The Indians of the Long Point District.
In Chapter VIII I'm afraid our American friends may disagree with the sentiments but never the less better to be aware of it than ignore it so here is this entire chapter to read here...
Although the treaty of Peace recommended the Loyalists to the mercy of the different states, the Americans, being secured in their independence, used their victories to the blind and selfish punishment of the “traitors” to their traitorous cause.
Consequently, instead of an entire cessation of hostility, as should follow the conclusion of peace, the most bitter and rancorous mob law under the sanction of the different legislatures, was employed against the Loyalists. They were driven from the country by a process of organized persecution. Thus the wretched and short-sighted policy of the majority of the states depleted them of their very best blood. Those who had been the doctors, lawyers, judges and often ministers of the community, men of culture and refinement, men of worth and character, were driven into hopeless and interminable exile.
And indeed, the migration into Canada was considered by them as exile, though unfalteringly they chose its hardships. They believed that they were coining to the region of everlasting snow and ice. They understood that New Brunswick had at least seven months of winter in the year, that but few acres of that inhospitable land were fit for cultivation, and that the country was covered with a cold spongy moss instead of grass, and devoid of any kind of fodder for cattle.
Lower Canada was known as a region of deep snow, a nine months’ winter, a barren and inhospitable shore.
Upper Canada was not thought of in the early years of the migration, except as the “great beyond,” a tangled wilderness, the Indians’ hunting ground, covered with swamps and marshes and sandy hills, the forests full of bears and wolves and venomous reptiles. The only favorable report of Upper Canada that had reached them was of its abundance of fish and game.
The British commander of New York, in his work of transportation, when no more could be accommodated in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, sent for a Mr. Grass, who had been a prisoner at Fort Frontenac among the French, and anxiously inquired if he thought “men could live in Upper Canada,” and on a favorable reply being given Mr. Grass was sent as the founder of a colony to Cataraqui in 1784.
The mere fact that thirty-five thousand Loyalists left their native land for a country which they regarded as a land of exile, is the best proof of two things—first, that they were barbarously treated by the victorious side; and second, that they were not a mere set of office-holders influenced simply by mercenary motives, as is charged against them, or that they came to Canada for what Britain provided. To enter the unbroken forests, chop, hew, “log” and “after many days” sow the seed among the blackened stumps was a herculean task for any one, but was even more difficult for these men—judges, lawyers, commissioners, and others—who were not used to farm life, much less to the kind of toil required to change the acres of forest land into fields of waving grain.
But their courage rose with their difficulties, and in spite of their dangers there was much to encourage them. They were not, it is true, entering on a land “flowing with milk and honey,” but it abounded in fish and game; and, above all, it was a land over which waved the banner under whose folds their sons and fathers had fallen in disastrous war, and to which they clung with the love that passeth not away, but endureth “through all the years.”
You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...oint/index.htm
How others see us
The BBC has a Canada Direct section where they are exploring Canada and the Canadians and makes a good read. I've added a link to this section at the foot of our Facts about Canada page at http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/facts.htm
A chronology of key events in Canada
A short summary of the major topics from discovery to current day which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/timeline.htm
The next two books were micro filmed and so have done a wee make over of them to make them easier to read. Both are in pdf format but have done an introduction to them with a link to the book.
Settler's Guide
Or the Homesteader's Handy Helper which you can read at http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/helper.htm
The Life of a Backswoodsman
Or particulars of the Emigrant's situation in the settling of the Wild Land of Canada which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...ckwoodsman.htm
A Sustainable Future for Small Coastal Fishing Communities
Paper presented at A.R. Scammell Academy, Change Islands, Newfoundland at the Change Islands / Simon Fraser University workshop conference Oceans and the Future of Endangered Coastal Communities. August 8 – 10 2006, by David B Thomson International fisheries and coastal consultant. You can read this article at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...d/fishing1.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This issue was Compiled by Jim Lynch, the editor of the Scots Independent Newspaper.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
The Bards of Bon Accord 1375 - 1860
By William Walker
Added John Imlah, Thomas Daniel and Harry Gauld.
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...cord/index.htm
Northern Notes and Queries
Note: In the pdf version of the newsletter I am placing a graphic of the Contents page so you can see what is included in each issue.
January 1893
This issue can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
Songs by John Henderson
John sent us in another song "Mochie Widder"
Lyrics composed by John Henderson on the 24th of July, 2012,
to Dick Black's Band playing their version of the tune, 'The Heather Gleams Like Stardust'.
Glossary:
fan=when; frae=from; hine awa=far away; wip-up=wrap up; ticht=tight; faar=where
caups=bowls; womble-bree=soup; ingles=firesides; widder=weather; mochie=damp
gryte-nips=advantages; drouthy=thirsty; hale an' fere an' kneef =healthy and active
galloshies=waterproof overboots; brollies= umbrellas
Fan the wind howls-frae the Nor,
Wi' cauld snaa nae hine awa',
It's a time fur a' Scots-fowks tae wip-up ticht;
Back at hame's faar they shud be,
Hivin'-waarm-caups-o' womble-bree,
As they sit aroon thur ingles bleezin' bricht.
Sich's Scotland as maist ken,
Faar nae jist oan ilk hich-Ben,
The widder's mochie as far as een can see;
Bit mynd this his gryte-nips tee,
Fur the watter's-aye clair an' free,
Fan ither-lans bide lang as drouthy as can be.
Tae bide hale an' fere an' kneef
Is nae aisy fan aye weet,
Bit wyse Scots they hiv 'galloshies' fur thur feet;
Cairr'in' 'brollies' tee they ken,
Fur haudin'-aff ilk shoo'r o' reyn,
Is as necessar as snaa-bits oan a Ben.
Sich's Scotland as maist ken,
Faar nae jist oan ilk hich-Ben,
The widder's mochie as far as een can see;
Bit mynd this his gryte-nips tee,
Fur the watter's-aye clair an' free,
Fan ither-lans bide lang as drouthy as can be.
Other of John's song can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Days at the Coast
A series of Sketches descriptive of the Frith of Clyde, its Watering Places, its Scenery and its Associations by Hugh MacDonald (1860).
We have now completed this book with the following chapters...
The Gareloch and Loch Long
Lochgoilhead and its Environs
The Holy Loch and Kilmun
Dunoon
Loch Fine and Inverary
The chapter on The Gairloch and Loch Long starts...
Among the most beautiful and striking features of the Frith of Clyde are its lochs. Just as the estuary begins to expand, and, as it were, claim kindred with the sea—in which it is so soon to be engulfed—it sends into the bowels of the land a couple of strong but unequal arms, winding far and gracefully around the rocky feet of the mountains, and lending an added charm to their silent and solitary recesses. One of these noble inlets is Lochlong—a self-descriptive name—the other the Gareloch—also a comparatively descriptive designation, the word “gare” signifying “short” in the Celtic language.
A third loch (to which we shall afterwards allude)—namely, the Holy Loch—is scarcely deserving of the name, as it partakes more of the character of a bay than of a loch. Lochlong—the opening of which is nearly opposite to Gourock, and which is flanked on the one side by the majestic promontory of Strone—stretches away in a northerly direction for about a distance of twentyrtwo miles into the interior, and at about half that distance, branches off in a north-westerly direction into Lochgoil. The Gareloch, on the other hand, although running parallel to Lochlong, and only separated from it by a single ridge of hills, is only about seven and a-half miles in length, reckoning from the extremity of Roseneath point. From the projection of the Row, or Rhue, where the loch may be said properly to commence, the length is perhaps about a mile less. Into this beautiful basin—for such, in truth, it is—let the reader imagine himself—say on board the good steamer “Alma accompanying us on one of those calm and sunny days, which form the pride of summer, when summer is at its highest noon.
Leaving the projecting point of Row, with Roseneath and its wooded slopes and clustering cottages behind, we have an expanse of water of nearly a mile in breadth before us, bounded on one side by the swelling and continuous ridge that flanks Glenfruin, and on the other by the range which intervenes between us and Lochlong. There is nothing particularly striking in the sky-line on either side. The hills are lofty, but neither mountainous in their height nor picturesque in their general features. Above, they are brown, barren, and bleak ; but toward the shore, they relax into a fresher green, with a dense fringe of copeswood, extending close to the beach, and fretted at intervals by shallow ravines and water-courses, and dotted every here and there by snug and neatly-built cottages—either nestling in foliage and verdure apart, or clustered into sweet and inviting groups. Things to dreary of are these same scattered edifices—alone or congregated—and centres of sweetest associations to many a summer migrant from the stir and the turmoil of the dinsome and bustling city.
The water o'er which we plough our foamy way, at the same time, is smooth as a mirror. In its depths we can see the ever-changing blue and white of the summer sky, while the old brown hills, and the sylvan slopes, and the straggling cottages and villas, and the green lawns, are seen in a watery shimmer reflected in either margin. A halo of peace and comfort and softest beauty seems, indeed, ever to hang over this calm and secluded lake, and over its environment of sheltering hills.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter11.htm
And you can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/coast/index.htm
Wild Flowers of Scotland
By J. H. Crawford (1897)
We have now also completed this book with the following chapters...
Chapter XII. Up the Glen
Chapter XIII. The Heather
Chapter XIV. On the Mountains
Chapter XV. On the Mountains
Chapter XVI. The Saxifrages
Chapter XVII. Among the Southern Uplands
These are actually a very good read and here is a bit on the chapter on Heather...
THE freshness, for which I have panted all the 1 day, dwells up here. The tail stream from the tarn, coming out of the mist, passes about fifty yards to the right. Though its motion, as it rushes down the slope and falls headlong into the frequent pools, is so boisterous, it awakens no longer the sensation of heat, but of coolness. The glare has gone out of the light. Mountain shadows fall across the glen, as the house shadows fell across Thrum’s streets in the morning.
The contrast of this evening lounge on the hillside, compared with the involuntary siesta on the way up the glen, is great. How pleasant is the South Esk as it runs down the valley, with a margin of cool black shadow under its banks! How tempting the distant ripple of currents that scarce cooled the feet at midday!
Not far off is a moist patch. Round cushions of pale sphagnum are touched here and there with red by our native insect-eater. I find that the sundew. almost always chooses cushions of sphagnum, where they are to be found. It may be because these retain sufficient moisture in all states of the air; and also, that they offer a background against which it more easily catches the eye of its insect prey. There is scarcely any other white background over all its hillside or moorland haunts.
On the same marshy spot grows the cross-leaved heather, easily known by its pale downy look. From the shape of its very large flowers, it gets its familiar name of bell heather, though the so-called bells are almost closed at the mouth into little balloons.
This is-the earliest of the year’s heather. Pale at first, the blossoms blush on the exposed side, where they are kissed by the sun into rose; after which they swiftly fade into an unsightly brown mass. As these three stages are very often present in the same cluster, one has sometimes to search a long time for a perfect sprig of rose-and-white.
Of sprawling and somewhat slovenly habit, it presents a frequent dishevelled washed-out appearance. Under the most favourable circumstances, like many another rose-and-white beauty, it looks better at a distance.
The hue of the opposite hill-slope, extending far and wide on either side, is not rose, but purple. This purple form is the next to flower, and seems to be the only one some people know. The sole talk we hear is of purple heather, as if all heather must be the same. Now, purple is not very common, and this is the only native species of that colour.
The association of purple with heather is a very natural one, and doubtless owes its origin to the fact that this species lends the delightful autumn glow to the hill-slopes, just at the very time when the tourist is on the alert and all the world is in the Highlands. Whereas the delicate rose of the bell heather appeals only to those who are as near as I am now, the mass and glow of the purple is caught from the glen, even by those who are many miles away.
He has enjoyed a rare privilege who has seen this heather darken under the passing cloud, and blush vividly out again when the shadow has passed over; or the richer, deeper effects as the crimson light of evening comes slant-wise across the purple, as it is doing now. The hue will rest upon the spirit, to fall on the page of the ledger or manuscript, months after, amid the dulness of short winter days and the fog of cities. Little wonder that the dream is of purple heather.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter13.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...wers/index.htm
J. Keir Hardie
A Biography by William Stewart and Introduction by J. Ramsay MacDonald
We are now making progress with this book and now have up...
Introduction by J. Ramsay MacDonald
Chapter 1. The Making of an Agitator
Chapter 2. Journalist and Labour Organiser—“The Miner”
Chapter 3. Mid-Lanark — The Scottish Labour Party — The Socialist Movement
Chapter 4. The Second International—West Ham—The I.L.P. Parliament
Chapter 5. Standing Alone—The Member for the Unemployed
Chapter 6. A General Election—America—Industrial Strife
Chapter 7. South African War—The L.R.C.—Merthyr Tydvil
Chapter 8. Parliament Once More—“The White Herald”—Serious Illness
Chapter 9. The Class War in Theory and Practice
In Chapter 5 we learn...
HARDIE was as indefatigable outside of Parliament as inside, addressing propaganda meetings all over the country, writing encouraging letters to branch secretaries, and editing the “Labour Leader,” which on March 31st, 1894, became a weekly, and for the financing and management of which he made himself wholly responsible. The wages bill of the paper, exclusive of printing, he estimated at £y50 a year, which he hoped would be covered by income from sales and advertisements, an optimistic miscalculation which involved him in considerable worry later on, when he found it necessary to dispense with much of the paid service and rely to some extent upon voluntary work by enthusiasts in the cause, who, it should be said here, seldom failed him. The first weekly number contained Robert Smillie’s election address as Labour Candidate for Mid-Lanark, where a by-election in which Hardie took an active part was again being fought. In the “Leader,” Hardie had an article on the election, a leading article on Lord Rosebery as prospective Premier, and a page of intimate chat with his readers under the heading of “Entre Notts” afterwards changed to the plain English of “Between Ourselves,” and this quantity of journalistic output he continued for years, while shirking none of the other work that came to him as an agitator and public man. This number contained also an article by Cunninghame Graham, the I.L.P. Monthly Report by Tom Mann, “News of the Movement at Home and Abroad,” besides literary sketches and verses by various contributors. The paper was edited from London, but printed in Glasgow and distributed from there. There was a working staff at both ends. Of the London experiences, Councillor Ben Gardner of West Ham could doubtless give some interesting reminiscences, while George D. Hardie, Keir’s younger brother, could do the same for Glasgow. At the end of the first six months, David Lowe, a young enthusiast from Dundee, with literary tastes and Socialist beliefs, came in as sub-editor and to an appreciable extent relieved Hardie of some of the management worries, besides adding somewhat to the literary flavour of the paper.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter05.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rdie/index.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
By Frank Shaw
I have been seeking an article from Ian Duncan for nearly two years now and was determined to persevere. Last summer my family visited our favorite city, San Francisco, for a week’s vacation. In the back of my mind was the thought I might have time to rendezvous with Ian in Berkeley but since he was out of town that idea did not pan out. After beginning these pages of Robert Burns Lives! almost a 150 chapters (lectures, speeches, articles) ago, I’m well aware that talented writers and professors stay on the go. But, people do want to hear what they have to say. No matter whether I was attending conferences in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Paris, Columbia, SC, Washington, DC or Atlanta, his name always came up. Ian Duncan is one of the busiest of that select group of most wanted speakers.
Knowing it would compliment the works by many fine writers and scholars already published in Robert Burns Lives!, I was not willing to give up my pursuit of an article on Burns from Dr. Duncan. Many of our contributors count Ian as a friend. So, I contacted him again a couple of months ago and, luckily for me, he was in his office. Every good thing I had heard about him was true - warm, polite, friendly, accommodating and willing to be of assistance to me. He readily agreed to share a speech of his on Burns but explained that the speech I was seeking was in hand-written form only and that he would type it sometime in the near future if I would bear with him. Needless to say, I was elated. I even went so far as to ask for some background on the speech, and he advised that “the paper was originally given as a lecture at the ‘Robert Burns in European Culture’ conference in Prague, in March 2009, and again later that year, at a one-day conference at Berkeley, ‘Robert Burns 1759-2009’ (September), and then at Brigham Young University as part of their Burns sesquicentennial series (October).” More importantly to me was his concluding remark which says all you need to know about Ian Duncan, “let me know if you need anything else, though”. He has been described by one of his colleagues as “a very, very clever man. No one writes better on the early 19th century Scottish novel. He is also a very pleasant man.”
Ian Duncan is also known the world over as a Sir Walter Scott scholar, so indulge me as I digress a moment to say a word about Scott even though this article is about Burns. Long before Robert Burns came into my life, Scott was one of my first literary heroes. There are over 500 books on or by Scott in my library. A favorite book of mine on Scott happens to be one by Professor Duncan, Scott’s Shadow, The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh, which covers more ground than Sir Walter Scott know as the Wizard of the North. To quote from the book’s cover, it “illuminates a major but neglected episode of British Romanticism as well as a pivotal moment in the history and development of the novel”. But I do recommend this book as the most objective approach to Scott and that special time of romanticism in my opinion.
As directed by Ian Duncan, the information below was borrowed from the web site of the University of California at Berkeley:
I studied at King's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1977) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1989), and taught for several years in the Yale English department before being appointed Barbara and Carlisle Moore Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Oregon in 1995. I came to Berkeley in 2001, and was appointed to the Florence Green Bixby chair in 2011. I am the author of Modern Romance and Transformations of the Novel (Cambridge, 1992) and Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh (Princeton, 2007). I am currently working on the novel and the "science of man," from Hume to Darwin. I've taught courses on Scotland and Romanticism, Darwin and Culture, Gothic, Walter Scott, and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novel, among other topics. I am currently a Vice-President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the editorial board of Representations, a General Editor of the Collected Works of James Hogg, and co-editor of a new book series, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism.
In the fall semester of 2012 I will be a visiting professor of English at Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich. (ID 8.2.12)
You can find other interesting information about Ian Duncan at http://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/2. I am pleased to bring you the following speech by Ian Duncan. It is truly an immortal memory! (FRS 7.31.12)
You can read this paper, “An Unco’ Sight”: Burns and Enjoyment at
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives146.htm
Kirkintilloch Town and Parish
By Thomas Watson (1894)
A new book we're starting and here is the Preface to read here....
The idea of writing a history of Kirkintilloch had casually occurred to me for a good many years past, but several considerations prevented its taking practical shape.
My life has not been an idle one—if I may be permitted to say so—and I could not afford the requisite time for such a work—besides, I hoped that some one trained to literature and better qualified, might undertake it.
When I left Scotland for New Zealand, ten years ago— with the expectation of leaving my bones in that country —of course the thing passed from my mind. But having in the good Providence of God returned to my native land, and finding the field still unoccupied, while circumstances compelled me to involuntary leisure; the old idea returned, and became a fixed resolution; the result being the present volume.
It has given me much pleasure to find that Kirkintilloch is associated with such men as King William the Lion, as well as King Robert the Bruce and his companions-in-arms who achieved the independence of Scotland.
My aim has been all along to make the work as comprehensive as possible; and to gather together everything connected with the subject that would be likely to interest the most numerous class of my fellow-natives, who have not had means nor opportunity to see or study records of past events; and it is for them I write.
With this motive, I have endeavoured to place on record all who have given the benefit of their services to the community in any way, and that without considering their condition in life.
I must beg the forbearance of my readers with the defects of my work, which is only that of a “'prentice hand,” and trust that nevertheless they may experience, in reading, a part of the pleasure I have had in writing it. Especially do I hope that it may be the means of recalling and preserving to the natives of the parish now scattered over the world, scenes and circumstances which are rapidly passing into oblivion.
And I further trust that my humble endeavour may induce some savant to follow me; and as he will be able to plough deeper than I have done, in a soil so rich he need have no fear of the result of his labours.
T. W.
42 Scott Street, Garnethill,
Glasgow, 1894.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...loch/index.htm
John Kay
Economist who we've added to our significant Scots
John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists. He is a distinguished academic, a successful businessman, an adviser to companies and governments around the world, and an acclaimed columnist. His work has been mostly concerned with the application of economics to the analysis of changes in industrial structure and the competitive advantage of individual firms. His interests encompass both business strategy and public policy. Today he is probably most widely known for his weekly column in the Financial Times, which ranges over topical issues in economics, finance and business. A guide to his recent writing can be found on his website www.johnkay.com
He was born and educated in Scotland, at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh University before going to Nuffield College, Oxford, as a graduate student. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has been awarded an honorary D.Litt by Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
I learned about him from an article in one of the Scottish newspapers where they were discussing his report on the Banking Industry. You can read more about him at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...er/kayjohn.htm
I also found a copy of the report they were discussing and added it as an attachment to a message I put up in our community at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show...eed-isn-t-good
Shetland: Descriptive and Historical
By Robert Cowie (1874)
Another new book we're starting.
I found a couple of very good videos about Shetland which I've added to the index page. I also found a further 2 volume book so if you are anxious to read about Shetland you'll find links to both volumes at the foot of the index page in pdf format.
For those that don't know Shetland is the most northerly point of the British Isles and as the first video shows is also where you can find Brochs, which were the castles of some 2,500 years ago.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...land/index.htm
And finally...
Off-Balance
"Bank staff are getting cheekier," the woman in the new Logieburn shopping centre was telling her pal. "I went in and asked the cashier to check my balance and the young lad there asked me to stand on one foot with my arms outstretched."
And that's all for now and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair
Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie
The Prairie Provinces
How others see us
A chronology of key events in Canada
Settler's Guide
The Life of a Backswoodsman
A Sustainable Future for Small Coastal Fishing Communities
The Flag in the Wind
Electric Scotland
The Bards of Bon Accord 1375 - 1860
Northern Notes and Queries
Songs by John Henderson
Days at the Coast
Wild Flowers of Scotland
J. Keir Hardie
Robert Burns Lives!
Kirkintilloch Town and Parish (New Book)
John Kay, Economist
Shetland: Descriptive and Historical (New Book)
Electric Scotland News
There are now an astonishing 83 million fake users on Facebook, the social network has revealed. Now if you take this figure and then figure out how many people use Facebook just to play games. And then add to that the times you login to add a friend who you don't know and can find nothing about you are starting to get a view that Facebook is not nearly as good a place as you might first think.
I still see Facebook as a place where you can link up with friends and family but I have always felt that for business there is really nothing there that would make much or any impact on their business. You'll have noticed that their share price is well down from their launch and questions keep coming up where advertisers are not seeing value and indeed some quite large advertisers have pulled out.
It's my personal view that our forums in our Electric Scotland Community is actually a far better method of networking. You can actually post any size message you like and attach files to the message and display YouTube videos. You can build your own friends list if you wish meaning that friends get to view private galleries and private messages. And in your profile you have many options to configure things like will you allow people to email you.
I've actually got more impressed with our community and what it can offer by talking to people about the "Scotland's Future" project. They keep coming up with... can you do this... can you do that... and I'm finding that "Yes we can". and so if you haven't used the Community for a while perhaps take another look and explore all the options and tell others about us and persuade them to get involved.
And mind that if there is a facility you'd like to see feel free to email me with your suggestion and we'll do our best to meet your needs.
ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
We try not to point to a pdf file and instead send you to page where the pdf can be downloaded.
Electric Canadian
The Prairie Provinces
A short history of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta by D. M. Duncan, M.A.
At time of writing we have almost completed this book and I hope you have enjoyed it and learned much in the process.
You can read the book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/prairiendx.htm
The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie
There is much to learn from this and no matter your views it does present another view of the fight for American Independence.
We are now making good progress with this book and now have up..
Chapter I. Introduction.
Chapter II. Political Aspect of the Revolution.
Chapter III. Motives of the Loyalists.
Chapter IV. Treatment of the Loyalists During the War.
Chapter V. Legislative Enactments for the Punishment of the Loyalists.
Chapter VI. British Parliament and the Loyalists.
Chapter VII. What Britain Did for the Loyalists.
Chapter VIII. Loyalist Emigration.
Chapter IX. Routes of the Loyalists.
Chapter X. Modes of Travelling.
Chapter XI. Early Accounts of Long Point.
Chapter XII. The County of Norfolk.
Chapter XIII. The Townships of Norfolk.
Chapter XIV. The Indians of the Long Point District.
In Chapter VIII I'm afraid our American friends may disagree with the sentiments but never the less better to be aware of it than ignore it so here is this entire chapter to read here...
Although the treaty of Peace recommended the Loyalists to the mercy of the different states, the Americans, being secured in their independence, used their victories to the blind and selfish punishment of the “traitors” to their traitorous cause.
Consequently, instead of an entire cessation of hostility, as should follow the conclusion of peace, the most bitter and rancorous mob law under the sanction of the different legislatures, was employed against the Loyalists. They were driven from the country by a process of organized persecution. Thus the wretched and short-sighted policy of the majority of the states depleted them of their very best blood. Those who had been the doctors, lawyers, judges and often ministers of the community, men of culture and refinement, men of worth and character, were driven into hopeless and interminable exile.
And indeed, the migration into Canada was considered by them as exile, though unfalteringly they chose its hardships. They believed that they were coining to the region of everlasting snow and ice. They understood that New Brunswick had at least seven months of winter in the year, that but few acres of that inhospitable land were fit for cultivation, and that the country was covered with a cold spongy moss instead of grass, and devoid of any kind of fodder for cattle.
Lower Canada was known as a region of deep snow, a nine months’ winter, a barren and inhospitable shore.
Upper Canada was not thought of in the early years of the migration, except as the “great beyond,” a tangled wilderness, the Indians’ hunting ground, covered with swamps and marshes and sandy hills, the forests full of bears and wolves and venomous reptiles. The only favorable report of Upper Canada that had reached them was of its abundance of fish and game.
The British commander of New York, in his work of transportation, when no more could be accommodated in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, sent for a Mr. Grass, who had been a prisoner at Fort Frontenac among the French, and anxiously inquired if he thought “men could live in Upper Canada,” and on a favorable reply being given Mr. Grass was sent as the founder of a colony to Cataraqui in 1784.
The mere fact that thirty-five thousand Loyalists left their native land for a country which they regarded as a land of exile, is the best proof of two things—first, that they were barbarously treated by the victorious side; and second, that they were not a mere set of office-holders influenced simply by mercenary motives, as is charged against them, or that they came to Canada for what Britain provided. To enter the unbroken forests, chop, hew, “log” and “after many days” sow the seed among the blackened stumps was a herculean task for any one, but was even more difficult for these men—judges, lawyers, commissioners, and others—who were not used to farm life, much less to the kind of toil required to change the acres of forest land into fields of waving grain.
But their courage rose with their difficulties, and in spite of their dangers there was much to encourage them. They were not, it is true, entering on a land “flowing with milk and honey,” but it abounded in fish and game; and, above all, it was a land over which waved the banner under whose folds their sons and fathers had fallen in disastrous war, and to which they clung with the love that passeth not away, but endureth “through all the years.”
You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...oint/index.htm
How others see us
The BBC has a Canada Direct section where they are exploring Canada and the Canadians and makes a good read. I've added a link to this section at the foot of our Facts about Canada page at http://www.electriccanadian.com/lifestyle/facts.htm
A chronology of key events in Canada
A short summary of the major topics from discovery to current day which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/timeline.htm
The next two books were micro filmed and so have done a wee make over of them to make them easier to read. Both are in pdf format but have done an introduction to them with a link to the book.
Settler's Guide
Or the Homesteader's Handy Helper which you can read at http://www.electriccanadian.com/pioneering/helper.htm
The Life of a Backswoodsman
Or particulars of the Emigrant's situation in the settling of the Wild Land of Canada which you can read at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...ckwoodsman.htm
A Sustainable Future for Small Coastal Fishing Communities
Paper presented at A.R. Scammell Academy, Change Islands, Newfoundland at the Change Islands / Simon Fraser University workshop conference Oceans and the Future of Endangered Coastal Communities. August 8 – 10 2006, by David B Thomson International fisheries and coastal consultant. You can read this article at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...d/fishing1.htm
The Flag in the Wind
This issue was Compiled by Jim Lynch, the editor of the Scots Independent Newspaper.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Electric Scotland
The Bards of Bon Accord 1375 - 1860
By William Walker
Added John Imlah, Thomas Daniel and Harry Gauld.
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...cord/index.htm
Northern Notes and Queries
Note: In the pdf version of the newsletter I am placing a graphic of the Contents page so you can see what is included in each issue.
January 1893
This issue can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
Songs by John Henderson
John sent us in another song "Mochie Widder"
Lyrics composed by John Henderson on the 24th of July, 2012,
to Dick Black's Band playing their version of the tune, 'The Heather Gleams Like Stardust'.
Glossary:
fan=when; frae=from; hine awa=far away; wip-up=wrap up; ticht=tight; faar=where
caups=bowls; womble-bree=soup; ingles=firesides; widder=weather; mochie=damp
gryte-nips=advantages; drouthy=thirsty; hale an' fere an' kneef =healthy and active
galloshies=waterproof overboots; brollies= umbrellas
Fan the wind howls-frae the Nor,
Wi' cauld snaa nae hine awa',
It's a time fur a' Scots-fowks tae wip-up ticht;
Back at hame's faar they shud be,
Hivin'-waarm-caups-o' womble-bree,
As they sit aroon thur ingles bleezin' bricht.
Sich's Scotland as maist ken,
Faar nae jist oan ilk hich-Ben,
The widder's mochie as far as een can see;
Bit mynd this his gryte-nips tee,
Fur the watter's-aye clair an' free,
Fan ither-lans bide lang as drouthy as can be.
Tae bide hale an' fere an' kneef
Is nae aisy fan aye weet,
Bit wyse Scots they hiv 'galloshies' fur thur feet;
Cairr'in' 'brollies' tee they ken,
Fur haudin'-aff ilk shoo'r o' reyn,
Is as necessar as snaa-bits oan a Ben.
Sich's Scotland as maist ken,
Faar nae jist oan ilk hich-Ben,
The widder's mochie as far as een can see;
Bit mynd this his gryte-nips tee,
Fur the watter's-aye clair an' free,
Fan ither-lans bide lang as drouthy as can be.
Other of John's song can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Days at the Coast
A series of Sketches descriptive of the Frith of Clyde, its Watering Places, its Scenery and its Associations by Hugh MacDonald (1860).
We have now completed this book with the following chapters...
The Gareloch and Loch Long
Lochgoilhead and its Environs
The Holy Loch and Kilmun
Dunoon
Loch Fine and Inverary
The chapter on The Gairloch and Loch Long starts...
Among the most beautiful and striking features of the Frith of Clyde are its lochs. Just as the estuary begins to expand, and, as it were, claim kindred with the sea—in which it is so soon to be engulfed—it sends into the bowels of the land a couple of strong but unequal arms, winding far and gracefully around the rocky feet of the mountains, and lending an added charm to their silent and solitary recesses. One of these noble inlets is Lochlong—a self-descriptive name—the other the Gareloch—also a comparatively descriptive designation, the word “gare” signifying “short” in the Celtic language.
A third loch (to which we shall afterwards allude)—namely, the Holy Loch—is scarcely deserving of the name, as it partakes more of the character of a bay than of a loch. Lochlong—the opening of which is nearly opposite to Gourock, and which is flanked on the one side by the majestic promontory of Strone—stretches away in a northerly direction for about a distance of twentyrtwo miles into the interior, and at about half that distance, branches off in a north-westerly direction into Lochgoil. The Gareloch, on the other hand, although running parallel to Lochlong, and only separated from it by a single ridge of hills, is only about seven and a-half miles in length, reckoning from the extremity of Roseneath point. From the projection of the Row, or Rhue, where the loch may be said properly to commence, the length is perhaps about a mile less. Into this beautiful basin—for such, in truth, it is—let the reader imagine himself—say on board the good steamer “Alma accompanying us on one of those calm and sunny days, which form the pride of summer, when summer is at its highest noon.
Leaving the projecting point of Row, with Roseneath and its wooded slopes and clustering cottages behind, we have an expanse of water of nearly a mile in breadth before us, bounded on one side by the swelling and continuous ridge that flanks Glenfruin, and on the other by the range which intervenes between us and Lochlong. There is nothing particularly striking in the sky-line on either side. The hills are lofty, but neither mountainous in their height nor picturesque in their general features. Above, they are brown, barren, and bleak ; but toward the shore, they relax into a fresher green, with a dense fringe of copeswood, extending close to the beach, and fretted at intervals by shallow ravines and water-courses, and dotted every here and there by snug and neatly-built cottages—either nestling in foliage and verdure apart, or clustered into sweet and inviting groups. Things to dreary of are these same scattered edifices—alone or congregated—and centres of sweetest associations to many a summer migrant from the stir and the turmoil of the dinsome and bustling city.
The water o'er which we plough our foamy way, at the same time, is smooth as a mirror. In its depths we can see the ever-changing blue and white of the summer sky, while the old brown hills, and the sylvan slopes, and the straggling cottages and villas, and the green lawns, are seen in a watery shimmer reflected in either margin. A halo of peace and comfort and softest beauty seems, indeed, ever to hang over this calm and secluded lake, and over its environment of sheltering hills.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter11.htm
And you can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/coast/index.htm
Wild Flowers of Scotland
By J. H. Crawford (1897)
We have now also completed this book with the following chapters...
Chapter XII. Up the Glen
Chapter XIII. The Heather
Chapter XIV. On the Mountains
Chapter XV. On the Mountains
Chapter XVI. The Saxifrages
Chapter XVII. Among the Southern Uplands
These are actually a very good read and here is a bit on the chapter on Heather...
THE freshness, for which I have panted all the 1 day, dwells up here. The tail stream from the tarn, coming out of the mist, passes about fifty yards to the right. Though its motion, as it rushes down the slope and falls headlong into the frequent pools, is so boisterous, it awakens no longer the sensation of heat, but of coolness. The glare has gone out of the light. Mountain shadows fall across the glen, as the house shadows fell across Thrum’s streets in the morning.
The contrast of this evening lounge on the hillside, compared with the involuntary siesta on the way up the glen, is great. How pleasant is the South Esk as it runs down the valley, with a margin of cool black shadow under its banks! How tempting the distant ripple of currents that scarce cooled the feet at midday!
Not far off is a moist patch. Round cushions of pale sphagnum are touched here and there with red by our native insect-eater. I find that the sundew. almost always chooses cushions of sphagnum, where they are to be found. It may be because these retain sufficient moisture in all states of the air; and also, that they offer a background against which it more easily catches the eye of its insect prey. There is scarcely any other white background over all its hillside or moorland haunts.
On the same marshy spot grows the cross-leaved heather, easily known by its pale downy look. From the shape of its very large flowers, it gets its familiar name of bell heather, though the so-called bells are almost closed at the mouth into little balloons.
This is-the earliest of the year’s heather. Pale at first, the blossoms blush on the exposed side, where they are kissed by the sun into rose; after which they swiftly fade into an unsightly brown mass. As these three stages are very often present in the same cluster, one has sometimes to search a long time for a perfect sprig of rose-and-white.
Of sprawling and somewhat slovenly habit, it presents a frequent dishevelled washed-out appearance. Under the most favourable circumstances, like many another rose-and-white beauty, it looks better at a distance.
The hue of the opposite hill-slope, extending far and wide on either side, is not rose, but purple. This purple form is the next to flower, and seems to be the only one some people know. The sole talk we hear is of purple heather, as if all heather must be the same. Now, purple is not very common, and this is the only native species of that colour.
The association of purple with heather is a very natural one, and doubtless owes its origin to the fact that this species lends the delightful autumn glow to the hill-slopes, just at the very time when the tourist is on the alert and all the world is in the Highlands. Whereas the delicate rose of the bell heather appeals only to those who are as near as I am now, the mass and glow of the purple is caught from the glen, even by those who are many miles away.
He has enjoyed a rare privilege who has seen this heather darken under the passing cloud, and blush vividly out again when the shadow has passed over; or the richer, deeper effects as the crimson light of evening comes slant-wise across the purple, as it is doing now. The hue will rest upon the spirit, to fall on the page of the ledger or manuscript, months after, amid the dulness of short winter days and the fog of cities. Little wonder that the dream is of purple heather.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter13.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...wers/index.htm
J. Keir Hardie
A Biography by William Stewart and Introduction by J. Ramsay MacDonald
We are now making progress with this book and now have up...
Introduction by J. Ramsay MacDonald
Chapter 1. The Making of an Agitator
Chapter 2. Journalist and Labour Organiser—“The Miner”
Chapter 3. Mid-Lanark — The Scottish Labour Party — The Socialist Movement
Chapter 4. The Second International—West Ham—The I.L.P. Parliament
Chapter 5. Standing Alone—The Member for the Unemployed
Chapter 6. A General Election—America—Industrial Strife
Chapter 7. South African War—The L.R.C.—Merthyr Tydvil
Chapter 8. Parliament Once More—“The White Herald”—Serious Illness
Chapter 9. The Class War in Theory and Practice
In Chapter 5 we learn...
HARDIE was as indefatigable outside of Parliament as inside, addressing propaganda meetings all over the country, writing encouraging letters to branch secretaries, and editing the “Labour Leader,” which on March 31st, 1894, became a weekly, and for the financing and management of which he made himself wholly responsible. The wages bill of the paper, exclusive of printing, he estimated at £y50 a year, which he hoped would be covered by income from sales and advertisements, an optimistic miscalculation which involved him in considerable worry later on, when he found it necessary to dispense with much of the paid service and rely to some extent upon voluntary work by enthusiasts in the cause, who, it should be said here, seldom failed him. The first weekly number contained Robert Smillie’s election address as Labour Candidate for Mid-Lanark, where a by-election in which Hardie took an active part was again being fought. In the “Leader,” Hardie had an article on the election, a leading article on Lord Rosebery as prospective Premier, and a page of intimate chat with his readers under the heading of “Entre Notts” afterwards changed to the plain English of “Between Ourselves,” and this quantity of journalistic output he continued for years, while shirking none of the other work that came to him as an agitator and public man. This number contained also an article by Cunninghame Graham, the I.L.P. Monthly Report by Tom Mann, “News of the Movement at Home and Abroad,” besides literary sketches and verses by various contributors. The paper was edited from London, but printed in Glasgow and distributed from there. There was a working staff at both ends. Of the London experiences, Councillor Ben Gardner of West Ham could doubtless give some interesting reminiscences, while George D. Hardie, Keir’s younger brother, could do the same for Glasgow. At the end of the first six months, David Lowe, a young enthusiast from Dundee, with literary tastes and Socialist beliefs, came in as sub-editor and to an appreciable extent relieved Hardie of some of the management worries, besides adding somewhat to the literary flavour of the paper.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter05.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rdie/index.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
By Frank Shaw
I have been seeking an article from Ian Duncan for nearly two years now and was determined to persevere. Last summer my family visited our favorite city, San Francisco, for a week’s vacation. In the back of my mind was the thought I might have time to rendezvous with Ian in Berkeley but since he was out of town that idea did not pan out. After beginning these pages of Robert Burns Lives! almost a 150 chapters (lectures, speeches, articles) ago, I’m well aware that talented writers and professors stay on the go. But, people do want to hear what they have to say. No matter whether I was attending conferences in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Paris, Columbia, SC, Washington, DC or Atlanta, his name always came up. Ian Duncan is one of the busiest of that select group of most wanted speakers.
Knowing it would compliment the works by many fine writers and scholars already published in Robert Burns Lives!, I was not willing to give up my pursuit of an article on Burns from Dr. Duncan. Many of our contributors count Ian as a friend. So, I contacted him again a couple of months ago and, luckily for me, he was in his office. Every good thing I had heard about him was true - warm, polite, friendly, accommodating and willing to be of assistance to me. He readily agreed to share a speech of his on Burns but explained that the speech I was seeking was in hand-written form only and that he would type it sometime in the near future if I would bear with him. Needless to say, I was elated. I even went so far as to ask for some background on the speech, and he advised that “the paper was originally given as a lecture at the ‘Robert Burns in European Culture’ conference in Prague, in March 2009, and again later that year, at a one-day conference at Berkeley, ‘Robert Burns 1759-2009’ (September), and then at Brigham Young University as part of their Burns sesquicentennial series (October).” More importantly to me was his concluding remark which says all you need to know about Ian Duncan, “let me know if you need anything else, though”. He has been described by one of his colleagues as “a very, very clever man. No one writes better on the early 19th century Scottish novel. He is also a very pleasant man.”
Ian Duncan is also known the world over as a Sir Walter Scott scholar, so indulge me as I digress a moment to say a word about Scott even though this article is about Burns. Long before Robert Burns came into my life, Scott was one of my first literary heroes. There are over 500 books on or by Scott in my library. A favorite book of mine on Scott happens to be one by Professor Duncan, Scott’s Shadow, The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh, which covers more ground than Sir Walter Scott know as the Wizard of the North. To quote from the book’s cover, it “illuminates a major but neglected episode of British Romanticism as well as a pivotal moment in the history and development of the novel”. But I do recommend this book as the most objective approach to Scott and that special time of romanticism in my opinion.
As directed by Ian Duncan, the information below was borrowed from the web site of the University of California at Berkeley:
Ian Duncan, Professor, Florence Green Bixby Chair in English, University of California, Berkeley
I studied at King's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1977) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1989), and taught for several years in the Yale English department before being appointed Barbara and Carlisle Moore Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Oregon in 1995. I came to Berkeley in 2001, and was appointed to the Florence Green Bixby chair in 2011. I am the author of Modern Romance and Transformations of the Novel (Cambridge, 1992) and Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh (Princeton, 2007). I am currently working on the novel and the "science of man," from Hume to Darwin. I've taught courses on Scotland and Romanticism, Darwin and Culture, Gothic, Walter Scott, and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British novel, among other topics. I am currently a Vice-President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the editorial board of Representations, a General Editor of the Collected Works of James Hogg, and co-editor of a new book series, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism.
In the fall semester of 2012 I will be a visiting professor of English at Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich. (ID 8.2.12)
You can find other interesting information about Ian Duncan at http://english.berkeley.edu/profiles/2. I am pleased to bring you the following speech by Ian Duncan. It is truly an immortal memory! (FRS 7.31.12)
You can read this paper, “An Unco’ Sight”: Burns and Enjoyment at
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives146.htm
Kirkintilloch Town and Parish
By Thomas Watson (1894)
A new book we're starting and here is the Preface to read here....
The idea of writing a history of Kirkintilloch had casually occurred to me for a good many years past, but several considerations prevented its taking practical shape.
My life has not been an idle one—if I may be permitted to say so—and I could not afford the requisite time for such a work—besides, I hoped that some one trained to literature and better qualified, might undertake it.
When I left Scotland for New Zealand, ten years ago— with the expectation of leaving my bones in that country —of course the thing passed from my mind. But having in the good Providence of God returned to my native land, and finding the field still unoccupied, while circumstances compelled me to involuntary leisure; the old idea returned, and became a fixed resolution; the result being the present volume.
It has given me much pleasure to find that Kirkintilloch is associated with such men as King William the Lion, as well as King Robert the Bruce and his companions-in-arms who achieved the independence of Scotland.
My aim has been all along to make the work as comprehensive as possible; and to gather together everything connected with the subject that would be likely to interest the most numerous class of my fellow-natives, who have not had means nor opportunity to see or study records of past events; and it is for them I write.
With this motive, I have endeavoured to place on record all who have given the benefit of their services to the community in any way, and that without considering their condition in life.
I must beg the forbearance of my readers with the defects of my work, which is only that of a “'prentice hand,” and trust that nevertheless they may experience, in reading, a part of the pleasure I have had in writing it. Especially do I hope that it may be the means of recalling and preserving to the natives of the parish now scattered over the world, scenes and circumstances which are rapidly passing into oblivion.
And I further trust that my humble endeavour may induce some savant to follow me; and as he will be able to plough deeper than I have done, in a soil so rich he need have no fear of the result of his labours.
T. W.
42 Scott Street, Garnethill,
Glasgow, 1894.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...loch/index.htm
John Kay
Economist who we've added to our significant Scots
John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists. He is a distinguished academic, a successful businessman, an adviser to companies and governments around the world, and an acclaimed columnist. His work has been mostly concerned with the application of economics to the analysis of changes in industrial structure and the competitive advantage of individual firms. His interests encompass both business strategy and public policy. Today he is probably most widely known for his weekly column in the Financial Times, which ranges over topical issues in economics, finance and business. A guide to his recent writing can be found on his website www.johnkay.com
He was born and educated in Scotland, at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and at Edinburgh University before going to Nuffield College, Oxford, as a graduate student. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has been awarded an honorary D.Litt by Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
I learned about him from an article in one of the Scottish newspapers where they were discussing his report on the Banking Industry. You can read more about him at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...er/kayjohn.htm
I also found a copy of the report they were discussing and added it as an attachment to a message I put up in our community at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/show...eed-isn-t-good
Shetland: Descriptive and Historical
By Robert Cowie (1874)
Another new book we're starting.
I found a couple of very good videos about Shetland which I've added to the index page. I also found a further 2 volume book so if you are anxious to read about Shetland you'll find links to both volumes at the foot of the index page in pdf format.
For those that don't know Shetland is the most northerly point of the British Isles and as the first video shows is also where you can find Brochs, which were the castles of some 2,500 years ago.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...land/index.htm
And finally...
Off-Balance
"Bank staff are getting cheekier," the woman in the new Logieburn shopping centre was telling her pal. "I went in and asked the cashier to check my balance and the young lad there asked me to stand on one foot with my arms outstretched."
And that's all for now and hope you all have a great weekend.
Alastair