Scotfamtree

OUR NEW FORUM

2011-11-30T13:49:00.000+01:00

http://scotfamtree.b1.jcink.com/index.php?

Our new forum can be found at the link above

our main site is here(you can access the blog/forum here)

www.scotlandsfamilytree.moonfruit.com

OUR MAIN SITE

2011-11-04T12:12:00.000+01:00

From our mainsite you can now access (all in one place !) :

our forum

our blog

our library

our message board

I am currently working on other sections which are ''hidden'' at present.

OUR MAIN SITE

2011-11-03T11:16:00.000+01:00

You can now access our forum and this blog from our mainsite!

www.scotlandsfamilytree.moonfruit.com

simply scroll down the menu on the left hand side of the screen.

SFT FORUM PLATFORM MIGRATION

2011-11-01T18:59:00.002+01:00

Hi fellow members,our migration will now take place on Nov. 3rd.

Please accept my apologies for this but it will be worth waiting for.

Once we are back-up and running there will be many more
features onsite and a few more look-ups to add to our 550+ look-ups !

Watch this space !

meantime you can keep-up-to-date AND still post your queries here:

http://scotfamtree.b1.jcink.com/index.php

WE'RE BACK !!!.......again...lol!

2011-10-29T22:01:00.000+02:00

http://scotfamtree.b1.jcink.com/index

our reserve site

2011-10-29T21:42:00.001+02:00

Our host jcink have posted this on twitter:

Advance warning; serve #snow affecting our location's power. Prepping backup generators.

1 hour ago

http://www.facebook.com/jcinkcom

scotfamtree migration

2011-10-20T16:37:00.000+02:00

We believe that our forum migration will take place very soon.

We have set-up a temp place to meet and keep up to date with the latest updates.

http://scotfamtree.b1.jcink.com/index.php?

SCOTFAMTREE IS BACK ONLINE !

2011-10-10T20:50:00.002+02:00

I'm not 100% sure that we have been fully road-tested but we are back online.

A PLACE FOR SFT MEMBERS TO CHAT !

2011-10-09T12:59:00.007+02:00

http://scotfamtree.b1.jcink.com/index.php

LATEST UPDATE ON MIGRATION

2011-10-08T14:45:00.002+02:00

''Oh don't worry guys, nothing is lost, they are copying all the info and then converting and transferring it to the new platform....... until it actually works on the new platform, nothing will be deleted on the original server so all the info is still there......

The reason why the forums are off line for now, is that while it is all being done, there is no new info added cause that would be then lost (cause if you post something after the forum has been copied that new info wouldn't be copied onto the new place)

Seeing as these are the first two servers they are converting, if they run into unforeseen difficulties, they have to work to resolve them and that takes time, with all consequent servers they will know exactly what to expect so the downtime probably will be much shorter.

I am really sorry for all the inconvenience this is causing you but don't worry, nothing will be lost.

I'd just like to ask you to be patient. I know this all is frustrating, it is extremely frustrating for me too just to read this all, cause I feel for you guys, but this is something that has to be done.

Sorry.........''

UPDATE ON MIGRATION

2011-10-06T16:05:00.002+02:00

http://scotfamtreegenealogyforum.forumer.com/index.php

SFT FORUM PLATFORM MIGRATION

2011-10-05T09:56:00.000+02:00

Good morning fellow SFT'ers.

Our forum is down at the moment and may be off-line for a wee while.

We apologise for this and will update here and Scotfamteds facebook
page as soon as we have any further updates.

2012 AGM

2011-08-28T22:56:00.000+02:00

OUR 6TH AGM date and venue has just been set.

We will be meeting at the Summerlee Heritage Park on
18th August 2012 .For more info click the heading above.

TIER 3 LOOK-UP

2011-08-14T23:11:00.002+02:00

Our latest tier3 look-up offer is just about to close........

SCOTFAMTREE MEMBERSHIP

2011-08-14T23:07:00.002+02:00

......IS CURRENTLY 3550 and rising !!

SCOTFAMTREE SERVER DOWN !!

2011-08-10T22:16:00.000+02:00

Our forum is off-line at present,our server went down approx
30 mins ago. Tech's are working on this as I type...............

SFT Winter meeting !

2011-08-06T13:55:00.001+02:00

Our winter meeting is on the 4th February 2012 at the peoples
palace,Glasgow.Please feel free to come along for a general
meet and greet.

we will be there from 11am -til-whenever !!

WDYTYA

2011-08-05T21:07:00.003+02:00

scotfamtree gets a nice plug this month
in the WDYTYA magazine !

(click title ''WDYTYA'' for more info )

Scottish GENES (GEnealogy News and EventS)

2011-08-03T17:13:00.000+02:00

Genealogy plus blogging = the above !

A great write-up by Chris Paton !

2011-08-03T17:08:00.000+02:00

Chris has been a close friend of the SFT for a number
of years.

Not only has Chris attended our meetings,he has also
helped create a video for out TV Channel and this
year he gave a talk at our AGM.

THANKS CHRIS
http://scottishancestry.blogspot.com/2011/07/meet-scotfamted.html

ScotFamTed

2011-08-03T17:02:00.000+02:00

'' He Hip,He's Cool and he's nobodys' fool '' !

SFTed !

............Seen here at the Mitchell Library,Glasgow

Scotfamtree AGM 2011

2011-08-03T16:58:00.000+02:00

I would like to thank everyone who participated at

the 5th AGM on Saturday ! I think everyone in attendance
,would agree that it was our best meeting yet !

My thanks also go to Brodie,carrickid and gallowaylass
for taking the time to present three wonderful talks on
the day.

WORLD CUP WIDOW'S OFFER !!

2010-06-12T00:01:00.000+02:00

http://www.scotlandsfamilytree.moonfruit.com/#/tier2-subs/4519612376

THIS WEEK-END ONLY !! ONLY OPEN TO TIER 1 MEMBERS
£5 FOR 12 MONTHS !!!!!!!!!

Please see here:

http://scotfamtree.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=21487

Scotfamtree

2010-06-06T13:14:00.002+02:00

Dunkeld, about 1907

2010-06-06T13:12:00.000+02:00

Brae Street, Dunkeld, about 1907

A relaxed view of Brae Street, Dunkeld, about
1907. Dunkeld stands by the River Tay, 15 1/4
miles north north west of Perth. Brae Street leads
up Sunny Brae from the centre of the town. The
original town was destroyed by Highlanders after
the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689 so that most
of the buildings at the time of the photographs
dated from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Before the building of Dunkeld Bridge the main
road was down Brae Street and along by the
river to the West Ferry. The street was largely
rebuilt and improved during the first half of the
19th century, after the building of Dunkeld Bridge
in 1809, by Thomas Telford. The bridge
connected Birnam and Little Dunkeld with
the developing settlement at Dunkeld. By the
early 20th century there was a lemonade factory
on Brae Street, owned by one William Cuthbert.

Ayrshire, late 1800s.

2010-06-06T13:08:00.000+02:00

Mr. J.J.Walker standing by a Stewarton hive at
Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, late 1800s.

The Stewarton hive is one of the most significant
advances in beekeeping contributed by Scottish
beekeepers. The octagonal storifying boxes, called
'supers', separated the queen bees from the honey
boxes and produced clean combs of honey within
the hive. This meant it was no longer necessary to
kill colonies of bees to get to the honey. In the 1920s,
the Isle of Wight bee disease saw many Stewarton
hives destroyed in an effort to check the disease.
The hives proved expensive to reconstruct and
thus declined in popularity from this date onwards.

The inventor of the Stewarton Hive was Robert
Kerr, later known as 'Bee Robin', a cabinet maker
from Stewarton in Ayrshire. After a series of
experimental hives, Kerr standardised his hive in
1819. Mr.J.J.Walker's father, and then himself
later improved the design, making it the first fully
effective queen bee excluding hive.

OUR NEW FORUM LOGO

2010-06-04T16:00:00.000+02:00

OUR NEW FORUM LOGO incorporating our ''SFT Families '' site!

SCOTFAMTREE-WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO

2010-05-30T11:32:00.002+02:00

If you are considering joining our forum but
would like to know more about us before you
do.Simply click on the title of this post TITLE and
all will be explained !

Researching Scottish Family History (Paperback)

2010-05-30T10:52:00.001+02:00

Written by our Good friend Chris Paton,this
book is a must for all Genealogists.
(click the title for a link)

Researching Scottish Family History is a detailed
introductory guide to those wishing to explore
their Caledonian roots. Published by the Family
History Partnership, which aims to provide
genealogical books at an affordable price, the
book is a packed 120 page guide to all areas
of Scottish research, with information both on
traditional and internet based resources.

The book starts with a basic chapter in getting
started, detailing how to get the best out of
talking to your relatives, ways and means to
record your research and more. The second
chapter continues with a guide to the institutional
lay of the land, the records repositories that will
help with your efforts, including the most
detailed guide to the new ScotlandsPeople
Centre yet committed to print, as well as
various other institutions in both Scotland
and England that may help with your research.

The next five chapters provide detailed coverage
of the basic statutory, parish, census and probate
documents used within Scottish research, as well
as an in depth look at the role of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Scottish
research. The remainder of the book deals
with the unique records connected to Scottish
land holdings, occupational research records
(including for Scots in the armed forces),
the relevance and methods of DNA research,
heraldry and tartans, and other useful sources.
Filled with handy tips throughout, the book also
provides many useful contextual asides on various
aspects of Scottish history relevant to your
ancestral pursuit - why are there no bishops'
transcripts for Scotland, for example, and how
do you prove whether your ancestor really
was a Jacobite soldier? Completing the book
are handy appendices listing the contact details
of all Scottish based county archives, family
history societies and comainn eachdraidh, making
this an absolute essential for your personal
genealogical library.

.

SFT DOWN-LOADABLE BOOKS

2010-05-30T10:10:00.002+02:00

We now have over 50 Genealogical/Historical books for
members to download free of charge.Many of the
books are not to be found anywhere else on
the net.

The books are now in PDF format and are
fully searchable.

As time permits,I'll upload many more........

SCOTFAMTREE AGM

2010-05-30T09:07:00.000+02:00

A few Tickets are still available for our August
meeting.If you would like to attend,see here:

http://scotfamtree.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=18834

SFT FAMILIES !! The launch of our online family tree

2010-05-30T09:00:00.003+02:00

We are all very excited at this end with the launch of
our new site :SFT FAMILIES,which in a very short
time has already been very successful.

SCOTFAMTREE members can upload their family
tree for all other members to see.

Our Blog-- and not alot of blogging !

2010-05-30T08:49:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone,just a wee apology for not updating
the blog (again!!).Life has been pretty hectic in other
areas and I've just not had time to post here as much
as I would like.Normal service will resume as soon
as possible! LOL!!

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND (5)

2010-04-05T09:42:00.000+02:00

The discipline of St Columba was of the monastic model.
There were settlements of clerics in fortified villages; the
clerics were a kind of monks, with more regard for abbots
than for their many bishops, and with peculiar tonsures,
and a peculiar way of reckoning the date of Easter.
Each missionary was popularly called a Saint, and the
_Kil_, or cell, of many a Celtic missionary survives in
hundreds of place-names.

The salt-water Loch Leven in Argyll was on the west
the south frontier of "Pictland," which, on the east,
included all the country north of the Firth of Forth.
From Loch Leven south to Kintyre, a large cantle,
including the isles, was the land of the Scots from Ireland,
the Dalriadic kingdom. The south-west, from Dumbarton,
including our modern Cumberland and Westmorland, was
named Strathclyde, and was peopled by British folk,
speaking an ancient form of Welsh. On the east, from
Ettrick forest into Lothian, the land was part of the early
English kingdom of Bernicia; here the invading Angles were
already settled--though river-names here remain Gaelic,
and hill-names are often either Gaelic or Welsh.
The great Northern Pictland was divided into seven provinces, or
sub-kingdoms, while there was an over-King, or Ardrigh,
with his capital at Inverness and, later, in Angus or
Forfarshire. The country about Edinburgh was partly
English, partly Cymric or Welsh. The south-west
corner, Galloway, was called Pictish, and was peopled
by Gaelic-speaking tribes.

In the course of time and events the dynasty of the
Argyll Scoti from Ireland gave its name to Scotland,
while the English element gave its language to the
Lowlands; it was adopted by the Celtic kings of the
whole country and became dominant, while the Celtic
speech withdrew into the hills of the north and northwest.

The nation was thus evolved out of alien and hostile
elements, Irish, Pictish, Gaelic, Cymric, English, and
on the northern and western shores, Scandinavian.

More to follow........

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND (4)

2010-04-04T09:54:00.000+02:00

To the Scots, through St Columba, who, about 563,
settled in Iona, and converted the Picts as far north
as Inverness, we owe the introduction of Christianity,
for though the Roman Church of St Ninian (397), at
Whithern in Galloway, left embers of the faith not
extinct near Glasgow, St Kentigern's country, till
Columba's time, the rites of Christian Scotland
were partly of the Celtic Irish type, even after St
Wilfrid's victory at the Synod of Whitby (664).

St Columba himself was of the royal line in Ulster,
was learned, as learning was then reckoned, and,
if he had previously been turbulent, he now desired
to spread the Gospel. With twelve companions he
settled in Iona, established his cloister of cells, and
journeyed to Inverness, the capital of Pictland.
Here his miracles overcame the magic of the King's
druids; and his Majesty, Brude, came into the fold, his
people following him. Columba was no less of a
diplomatist than of an evangelist. In a crystal he saw
revealed the name of the rightful king of the Dalriad
Scots in Argyll--namely, Aidan--and in 575, at
Drumceat in North Ireland, he procured the
recognition of Aidan, and brought the King of the Picts
also to confess Aidan's independent royalty.

In the 'Life of Columba,' by Adamnan, we get a clear
and complete view of everyday existence in the Highlands
during that age. We are among the red deer, and the
salmon, and the cattle in the hills, among the second-
sighted men, too, of whom Columba was far the foremost.
We see the saint's inkpot upset by a clumsy but enthusiastic
convert; we even make acquaintance with the old white
pony of the monastery, who mourned when St Columba
was dying; while among secular men we observe the
differences in rank, measured by degrees of wealth in
cattle. Many centuries elapse before, in Froissart,
we find a picture of Scotland so distinct as that
painted by Adamnan.

more to follow.......

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND (3)

2010-04-03T10:45:00.000+02:00

The later years of the Romans, who abandoned Britain
in 410, were perturbed by attacks of the Scoti (Scots)
from Ireland, and it is to a settlement in Argyll of
"Dalriadic" Scots from Ireland about 500 A.D.
that our country owes the name of Scotland.

Rome has left traces of her presence on Scottish
soil--vestiges of the forts and vallum wall between
the firths; a station rich in antiquities under the Eildons
at Newstead; another, Ardoch, near Sheriffmuir; a third
near Solway Moss (Birrenswark); and others less
extensive, with some roads extending towards the
Moray Firth; and a villa at Musselburgh,
found in the reign of James VI.

chapter 2 to folow.

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND (2)

2010-04-03T09:52:00.000+02:00

Agricola was recalled by Domitian after seven years'
warfare, and his garrisons did not long hold their forts
on his lines or frontier, which stretched across the
country from Forth to Clyde; roughly speaking, from
Graham's Dyke, east of Borrowstounnis on the Firth of
Forth, to Old Kilpatrick on Clyde. The region is now
full of coal-mines, foundries, and villages; but excavations
at Bar Hill, Castlecary, and Roughcastle disclose traces
of Agricola's works, with their earthen ramparts. The
Roman station at Camelon, north-west of Falkirk, was
connected with the southern passes of the Highland hills
by a road with a chain of forts.The remains of Roman
pottery at Camelon are of the first century.

Two generations after Agricola, about 140-145, the
Roman Governor,Lollius Urbicus, refortified the line of
Forth to Clyde with a wall of sods and a ditch, and forts
much larger than those constructed by Agricola. His line,
"the Antonine Vallum," had its works on commanding
ridges; and fire-signals, in case of attack by the natives,
flashed the news "from one sea to the other sea," while
the troops of occupation could be provisioned from the
Roman fleet. Judging by the coins found by the excavators,
the line was abandoned about 190, and the forts were
wrecked and dismantled, perhaps by the retreating Romans.

After the retreat from the Antonine Vallum, about
190, we hear of the vigorous "unrest" of the Meatae
and Caledonians; the latter people are said, on very poor
authority, to have been little better than savages.
Against them Severus (208) made an expedition
indefinitely far to the north, but the enemy shunned
a general engagement, cut off small detachments, and
caused the Romans terrible losses in this march to a non-
existent Moscow.

Not till 306 do we hear of the Picts, about whom there is infinite
learning but little knowledge. They must have spoken Gaelic
by Severus's time (208), whatever their original language; and
were long recognised in Galloway, where the hill and river
names are Gaelic..

more to follow......

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND

2010-04-02T13:27:00.005+02:00

If we could see in a magic mirror the country now
called Scotland as it was when the Romans under
Agricola(81 A.D.) crossed the Border, we should
recognise little but the familiar hills and mountains.
The rivers, in the plains, overflowed their present
banks; dense forests of oak and pine, haunted by
great red deer, elks, and boars, covered land
that has long been arable. There were lakes and
lagoons where for centuries there have been fields
of corn. On the oldest sites of our towns were
groups of huts made of clay and wattle, and
dominated, perhaps, by the large stockaded
house of the tribal prince. In the lochs, natural
islands, or artificial islets made of piles (crannogs),
afforded standing-ground and protection
to villages, if indeed these lake-dwellings are
earlier in Scotland than the age of war that
followed the withdrawal of the Romans.The
natives were far beyond the savage stage of culture.
They lived in an age of iron tools and weapons and
of wheeled vehicles; and were in what is called the Late
Celtic condition of art and culture, familiar to us from
beautiful objects in bronze work, more commonly
found in Ireland than in Scotland, and from the oldest
Irish romances and poems.

In these "epics" the manners much resemble those
described by Homer. Like his heroes, the men in the
Cuchullain sagas fight from light chariots,drawn by
two ponies, and we know that so fought the tribes in
Scotland encountered by Agricola the Roman
General (81-85 A.D.) It is even said in the Irish epics
that Cuchullain learned his chariotry in _Alba_--that
is, in our Scotland. {2} The warriors had "mighty limbs
and flaming hair," says Tacitus. Their weapons were
heavy iron swords, in bronze sheaths beautifully
decorated, and iron-headed spears; they had large
round bronze-studded shields, and battle-axes. The
dress consisted of two upper garments: first, the smock,
of linen or other fabric--in battle, often of tanned hides
of animals,--and the mantle, or plaid, with its brooch.
Golden torques and heavy gold bracelets were worn by the
chiefs; the women had bronze ornaments with brightly
coloured enamelled decoration.

Agriculture was practised, and corn was ground in the
circular querns of stone, of which the use so long
survived. The women span and wove the
gay smocks and darker cloaks of the warriors.

Of the religion, we only know that it was a form
of polytheism; that sacrifices were made, and that
Druids existed; they were soothsayers, magicians,
perhaps priests, and were attendant on kings.

Such were the people in Alba whom we can
dimly descry around Agricola's fortified frontier
between the firths of Forth and Clyde, about
81-82A.D. When Agricola pushed north of the
Forth and Tay he still met men who had
considerable knowledge of the art of war. In
his battle at Mons Graupius (perhaps at the
junction of Isla and Tay), his cavalry had the
better of the native chariotry in the plain; and
the native infantry, descending from their position
on the heights, were attacked by his
horsemen in their attempt to assail his rear.
But they were swift of foot, the woods sheltered
and the hills defended them. He made no more
effectual pursuit than Cumberland did at Culloden.

More to follow.........

My apologies to all followers

2010-04-02T13:21:00.000+02:00

I've been away for some time and have been unable to keep the blog
up to date but things are beginning to return to normal and
hopefully I can post again ,each day.

30th November - St Andrews Day

2009-11-29T22:50:00.001+01:00

Who was St Andrew?

Andrew and his brother (Simon) Peter were fishermen from Bathsaida on the Sea of Galilee. While living in Capernaum they became disciples of John the Baptist, who introduced Andrew to Jesus of Nazareth. Andrew recognized Jesus as the Messiah and became the first Apostle. He then introduced Peter to Jesus, “Come with Me, and I will make you fishers of men”

After the crucifixion of Jesus, Andrew traveled to Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Southern Russia. He became a missionary, telling people about the life Jesus had led. While he was preaching at Patras in Greece he offended the Roman governor (possibly for baptising his wife). He was then tied (not nailed) to an X-shaped cross, where he continued to preach for two days before dying on the 30th of November.

The majority of his bones were taken to the Church of Holy Apostles in Constantinople around 375 AD, when it was the capital of the (Christian) Roman Empire. It was during this time that some of his remains were taken to Scotland. In 1206 they were moved to the Cathedral of St Andrew in Amalfi in Italy by Cardinal Pietro of Capua. However in 1964 they were returned to Patras by Pope Paul VI. They now lie in the Church of Saint Andrew.

At some point during the 730s some of St Andrews relics were brought to the Fife coast. This is widely credited to St Rule (Regulus). In the legend, an angel comes to St Rule in a dream, asking him to take the bones of St Andrew to the ends of the earth. He arrived on the Fife coast by boat (possibly shipwrecked) bearing a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap, and some fingers of the Saint. A chapel was then built to house the relics, and the town of St Andrews was founded. There is however little evidence to prove the validity of this version of events.

A more plausible explanation involves Acca, the Bishop of Hexam. He was a renowned relic collector and could have bought them after they arrived in England with St Augustine. When Bishop Acca sought asylum in Scotland in 732 he took the bones with him to Kirrymont, later renamed St Andrews.

The bones were initially stored in St Rule's Church, but were transferred to the cathedral in the 14th century. Twice a year the relics were carried in procession around the town. Cathedral and church bells rang and in the evening there were bonfires and fireworks.

St Andrews became the religious capital of Scotland and an important place of pilgrimage. Around the middle of the tenth century he became the patron saint of Scotland. In the 11th century, Saint Margaret, Queen Consort to Malcolm the Third, provided a free ferry across the Forth Estuary (now known as North and South Queensferry) and housing for pilgrims to the relics. The 1320 Declaration of Arbroath recognised St Andrew as Scotland's patron saint.

On the 14th of June 1559, John Knox and his followers arrived in the City of St Andrews. They entered the cathedral and proceeded to remove all valuable items. At this point, the relics of St Andrew (along with many other important historical artefacts were lost). This was done to aid the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. Scotland became a Protestant country in 1560, with the aid of Queen Elizabeth of England.

There are currently two relics of St Andrew in Scotland. They are kept in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh, at the National Shrine to St Andrew. The first was given as a gift from the Archbishop of Amalfi to the Archbishop of Strain in 1879, after the restoration of Catholic Emancipation in 1793. The second was given to the newly created Scottish Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray(the first in 400 years) by Pope Paul VI in 1969.

St Andrew is usually portrayed carrying an X-shaped cross. As legend would have it, St Andrew appeared in a dream to the Pictish King Angus in the 800s. In the dream, St Andrew gave him advice on the forthcoming battle of Athelstaneford against the Northumbrians. When that battle took place, the cross of St Andrew's appeared in the sky, leading to a Scottish victory. King Angus adopted it as his flag to commemorate that day, but it was not until 1540 that the Saltire was officially adopted in the form we see today. Before that, various forms of the Saltire were used, including on military uniforms from 1385.

The St Andrew's cross and the Cross of St George were combined to form the Union flag of Great Britain. With the addition of Northern Ireland the final Union Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was formed.
The 30th of November

The 30th of November is a celebration of “everything that is good about Scotland”, with ceilidhs, haggis suppers, and general whisky drinking. In the town of St Andrews, a week long festival is held in celebration. However St Andrew's day celebrations are a relatively new development, with the St Andrew's Week only in its tenth year. It has always been celebrated by Scots and their descendants living abroad, but a survey by Famous Grouse revealed that only 20% of Scottish residents knew when St Andrew's Day was (compared with 64% for Burns night). The Scottish Government declared that from 2007 St Andrew's day would be a public holiday (although not a statutory one).

St Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russia, and Romania.

'Old Mortality '

2009-11-28T15:32:00.000+01:00

Old Mortality, the pious enthusiast - Robert Paterson, is depicted standing at the foot of a grave, he was a real life character who tended Covenanters gravestones.
Old Mortality (Old Mortality, 1816): Scott used the historical figure of Robert Paterson (1715-1801) as the ostensible source of his novel about the Covenanters. Paterson "left his house, his home, and his kindred, and wandered about until the day of his death" repairing the graves of the Covenanter martyrs, "cleaning the moss from the grey stones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced inscriptions, and repairing the emblems of death with which these simple monuments are usually adorned". But Scott's own political sympathies meant that, whatever respect he showed for Old Mortality's dedication to the martyrs' memory, he was "far from adopting either his style, his opinions, or even his facts, so far as they appear to have been distorted by party prejudice".

The statue of Old Mortality is by Andrew Currie and is located on the upper tier of the North East Buttress of the monument Currie was born in Ettrick Forest in 1813, died Edinburgh 1891. The son of a farmer, he abandoned an apprenticeship at Chatham dockyard to become a self-taught sculptor. Other works include the Ettrick Monument at St. Mary's Loch (1860),the Bruce statue at Stirling Castle and a wooden figure of Thomas the Rhymer now at Methven House. A sandstone figure of 'Old Mortality' was housed in an octagonal temple in Dumfries. The City Art Centre, Edinburgh has a marble statue of an unknown girl holding flowers (1882)

Union Canal

2009-11-28T15:28:00.002+01:00

Every bridge on the Union Canal has a serial number which runs numerically from Bridge No 1, Edinburgh to Bridge No 62, Falkirk. A few of the bridges also have panels with emblems which represent facts about the canal. This monogram may be the initials of Henry Hopetoun (1812-31) a son of the 4th Earl of Hopetoun.
The government authorised the construction of the Union Canal in 1817 and appointed Hugh Baird (1770-1827) as the chief engineer. The main purpose of the canal was to provide an economical route for the transportation of coal and lime between Edinburgh and Glasgow via the Forth & Clyde Canal (1768-90). The 51km-long canal was opened in 1822 at a cost of £461,760, almost double the estimate, and it ran from Lock 16 at Camelon, Falkirk to Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. Except where the two canals are joined at Falkirk, the canal was built with no locks because it followed the contours of the hills. The Union Canal was closed in 1965, two years after the Forth & Clyde Canal, and the construction of new roads meant that it was impossible for boats to travel along the full length of these watercourses. However, the £84.5m Millennium Link project enabled both canals to reopen in 2002.

Just for fun....

2009-11-28T15:11:00.002+01:00

Scots & Death

2009-11-27T23:20:00.002+01:00

Scots were all too familiar with death in a society where disease, ill health or accident touched most families. As soon as death intruded into a home there were rituals to be followed. Familiar customs took the bereaved family and the wider community through the days to the burial and on into the mourning period.

Mortsafes were used to protect the coffin underground for the first six weeks after burial. They were among measures taken by relatives desperate to protect their dead from the resurrectionists or bodysnatchers, who dug up fresh corpses for dissection. A demand for corpses was created by advances in the study of anatomy. Many were afraid that a dissected body would not rise to life at the last judgement. Panic reached its height immediately after the 1828-9 trials of Burke and Hare, whose supply of corpses for sale came not from grave robbing but from murder.

When someone died the body was kept in the home until burial. Most Scottish houses had only one or two rooms, and so the family lived, slept and ate beside the corpse. In the days following the death, ritual, ceremony and hospitality centred on the home. The walls and furniture were draped with white sheets, clocks were stopped and mirrors turned to the wall in readiness for friends to come and pay their respects. It was important that people knew of a death as soon as possible, so the deid-bell was rung through the community, usually by the beadle. This acted as a general invitation to both the funeral and the lykewake - a watching of the corpse held each night between death and burial. The lykewake was an occasion for paying respects, but also for drinking, dancing and music.

The church frowned on lykewakes, and condemned many Scottish burial customs as pagan superstition. The minister's involvement was often limited to the kisting, the lifting of the corpse into the coffin. Originally ministers were present to ensure the body was wrapped in Scots linen, as decreed by law in 1686, but the kisting became an opportunity for prayer and consolation. It was not until the later 19th century that graveside burial services became at all common.

The church usually supplied the mortcloth which was draped over the coffin. Each kirk session owned at least one, and used funds from its hire towards poor relief. Trade and craft guilds might also own mortcloths, and some co-operative societies were established to help with funeral expenses.

In a funeral procession heraldry was used to demonstrate the ancestry of the deceased, and so to emphasize his position in society for the successor who would inherit his land and title. Funerals became increasingly elaborate, and an act of the Scottish parliament of September 1681 limited the number of mourners, thus reducing the amount spent on mourning clothes and funeral decoration. The use of a horse-drawn hearse to carry the coffin initially indicated wealth and status, but gradually became an accepted part of many funeral processions. Funds raised through hiring out the hearse contributed to poor relief.

People displayed their loss and grief through the clothes and jewellery they wore, their behaviour and even the stationery they used. They were expected to mourn publicly not just their own family but also royalty. During the 19th century the etiquette of mourning became more complex and more widespread, particularly for women.

Public mourning began in the royal court. Queen Victoria was widowed suddenly in 1861 and wore mourning dress from that time until her death 40 years later. Her example was followed by widows everywhere, and when Victoria herself died mourning dress was widely adopted.

Ladies' magazines helped to spread information about the etiquette of mourning, but not everyone could afford mourning dress. The working classes struggled to hire or dye black clothes for the funeral itself, often just wearing Sunday best. The 'correct' use of mourning became a reflection of social status, and in an age of high mortality many women who could afford it were rarely out of black.

The dead were also remembered in special commemorative jewellery and in mourning cards. The cards were distributed by the bereaved family, acting both as a memento of the dead and as a symbol of social status. Tending the grave was an important part of mourning and those who could afford it erected gravestones to their relatives. A walk to the cemetery or graveyard was seen as a suitable Sabbath activity for many Scottish families.

Charms and amulets were made and kept as a means of protection against illness which was often fatal. Such misfortune was assumed to have supernatural as well as natural causes. Belief in supernatural forces, such as the 'evil eye' or witchcraft, was deeply rooted. Protection was sought equally for animals and humans. Certain elements and materials have been considered to possess special powers, either to protect, to heal or to bring good luck. These powers might be summoned by reciting a verbal charm, often pagan in origin but given a Christian form.

The Fishing Tradition

2009-11-27T23:01:00.001+01:00

While the novels of Lowlander Scott were responsible
for popularizing the historical romance of be-tartaned
Highlanders, the Gaelic-speakers of the North had
moved on from previous jacobite aspirations. In many
areas bankrupt clan chieftains had sold their lands.
In others, they had turned to sheep—rearing. The
resulting Clearances in the nineteenth century marked the end of
the communal clan system where the produce of land and sea had
been a common asset. The system of grazing domestic animals on
the hills during the summer became less and less practical, and
salmon, deer and grouse became sport for the new landowners.

While in the remoter areas of the Highlands and Islands sea
Fishing continued to be an important part of the peasant-crofters
economy, from the 1840s to the 1880s the fishing industry on the
East Coast was particularly prosperous. Three men would work
in one yawl. Sailing to the fishing grounds, they took with them a
keg of water and enough oatcakes and cheese in their 'pocken mor'
(canvas bag with a drawstring) to keep them going for
twenty—four hours. The baited line was cast and left
for half an hour before being pulled in, hopefully
full of cod, haddock, mackerel, whiting,cuddies
(young coalfish), soles, flounders, skate and dogfish.
As one man rowed another pulled in the line while a
third removed the fish as they came into the boat.

Back on the shore, the catch was laid out on the beach
and the three men distributed piles of fish evenly
between them. Their wives took on the job of
packing the fish into creels which they then
put onto their backs to go off
selling around the country.

Not all the fish, however, was sold fresh. Each fishwife was also
an expert smoker, owning a wooden smoking shed with an
earthen floor and a hollow centre where the fire was laid. There
was no chimney, so as the fire burned, the shed filled with smoke.
Along with her collection of hard woods, she used fir cones to
make the cool smoke which preserved the fish. Firstly, however,
the fish had to be gutted, split and their heads removed. Haddock
was most commonly smoked by this method. Then they had to be
scrubbed clean of blood and put into a tub with salt to preserve
them. Finally they were hung up on spits and put into the
smoking shed. The process took the best part of the day. The fish-
wife smoked for two days of the week and for the other four, went
to the country selling fish. On Sunday she went to church.

This method of smoking fish by splitting open was common
practice in most East Coast fishing communities, eventually
taking its name Finnan (haddie) from the Aberdeenshire fishing
village of Findon, colloquially known as Finnan. Further south, a
‘closed’ unsplit cure also developed at Auchmithie, a small
fishing village just north of Arbroath. Here, the fish became
known as a Smokie, not smoked in a tall shed with cool smoke but
over a hotter fire in a half whisky barrel covered with layers of
hessian sacking.

Gutted and salted, a pair of fish, their tails tied together, were
hung over wooden rods. Layers of sacking were laid on top. The
smoking process took about forty minutes, which cooked the fish
to a coppery brown on the outside, flavouring the flesh with a
mild smokiness. Both finnans and smokies (which were later
smoked also in Arbroath and became known as Arbroath smokies)
joined the collection of wet fish in the fishwife’s creel.

Radicalism

2009-11-27T22:57:00.000+01:00

A Man’s a Man for a’ that’.
Ye see yon birkie ca’d ‘a lord’,
Wha struts an’ stares, an’ a’ that?
Tho’ hundreds worship at his word,
He’s but a cuif for a’ that.
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
His riband, star, an’ a’ that,
The man o’ independent mind,
He looks an’ laughs at a’ that.

Robert Burns - ‘A Man’s A Man For A' That

The term ‘radical’ literally means ‘from the root’,
and describes exactly the kind of political reform
that the Radical movement was seeking towards
the end of the 18th century. One of the most famous
radical sympathisers in Scottish history was the poet
Robert Burns. This is shown in what is considered by
many to be Burns' most famous song, A man’s a man
for a’ that, which encapsulates in song the radical ideas
of Tom Paine, the author of The Rights of Man.
Burns’ notion of the independent mind, like many
others, was influenced by two very important
international events at the time: The American and
French Revolutions.

The American Revolution
The progress of the American Revolution, 1776-83,
was closely followed by a Scottish public with a
growing interest in international events. Newspaper
circulation boomed as news-hungry readers followed
the disastrous progress of the war and the British
Government’s increasing incompetence. Many Scots,
whose livelihoods depended on the Atlantic trade,
patriotically desired the revolution crushed, but with
defeat in 1783 they became increasingly critical of
their noble leaders. With the establishment of the
United States reformers now had a concrete example
of how a more socially progressive society could be
constructed.

The French Revolution
The advent of the French Revolution in 1789 seemed
to herald a new age of Enlightenment across Europe.
As the French embraced an enlightened constitution,
Radicals in Scotland began to demand the same.
The Revolution was an inspiring example for
Scotland’s developing middle and working classes;
it demonstrated that they too could participate in
the governance of the country, that the status quo
could be changed, and that constitutions weren’t
handed down from God but were made by men.

Radical Scotland
Liberty trees, a French revolutionary symbol, were
planted around Scotland on market crosses, and
ideas of political reform were being publicly debated.
At Edinburgh, in what became known as the King’s
Birthday Riots, thousands protested for three days
from the 4th of June, 1792. They burnt effigies of
the Home Secretary, Robert Dundas, and attempted
to burn down the Lord Advocate‘s house. Only an
army-command to open fire on the mob managed
to suppress the riot eventually, and the authorities
worried that riot might turn to revolution.

In December 1792 a democratic organisation
called the Friends of the People was created out
of numerous Reform Societies which had emerged
across Scotland. They demanded moderate change
, to bring the mercantile middle classes into the
governance of the country; however, change
was not forthcoming, and as Henry Dundas said:
‘It would be easier to reform Hell’. When
events in France turned into ‘The Terror’ of
1793, with the widespread public execution
of nobles and priests, the British Government
set out to quash the Radicalism in no uncertain
terms.

Robert Louis Stevenson

2009-11-27T16:16:00.000+01:00

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born on
November 13 1850 in Edinburgh to parents
Thomas Stevenson and Margaret Balfour. The
Stevenson family were already well known as
Thomas and his father, Robert Stevenson, were
both famous lighthouse designer and engineers.
From them, Robert Louis inherited his adventurous
nature that would stimulate his imagination and
spark his interest in literature.

As a child Robert was severely ill due to a
weakness in his lungs which he inherited from
his mother. His health improved with age and
after a troublesome time at Edinburgh Academy
he entered Edinburgh University at the age of
seventeen. Lacking the necessary approach for
engineering, he instead pursued law and was
called to the bar at twenty-five. This was a
reserve plan to fall back on should his true passion
– literature – fail.

A man who saw great romance and art in all

aspects of life, Stevenson decided to travel.

This was most likely in search of better health

but also for adventure. As a writer, he craved

stimulation for his imagination and he created

notes of all he saw. His travels took him to

Grez-Doiceau, Belgium and France where

he visited Nemours and Paris often. A canoe

trip in 1878 inspired his travelogue An Inland

Voyage and later Travels with a Donkey in

the Cevennes. He also wrote a number of articles

and essays to generate income. Two years before

this, he had met Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, an

American divorcee, in France and fallen in love.

A few months later she returned home and fell ill

. When the news reached him, Stevenson, against

the advice of his friends, departed for San Francisco.

The journey from New York to California almost

killed him. However, it inspired his works An

Amateur Immigrant and Across the Plains.

He eventually arrived in San Francisco with

scarcely any money at all. By the end of winter

1879 his health declined once more. Fanny

nursed him back to health.

In May 1880 he and Fanny married. They would
spend the next seven years seeking a suitable
environment for his ever declining health. Having
suffered so terribly in winter during his life, they
would reside in Scotland and England and winter
in France . His greatest works were created in this
period: Treasure Island, The Strange case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Kidnapped. He
also published two volumes of poetry: A Child’s
Garden of Verses and Underwoods.
Stevenson’s father died in 1887. In June 1888
Stevenson chartered the yacht Casco and he
and his family sailed around various locations.
This period also saw the production of further
work including: The Master of Ballantrae,
The Bottle Imp and The South Seas.

In 1890 Stevenson and his family moved to the
Samoan island of Upolu where he would live
out his final years. He named his estate Vailima,
meaning “Five Rivers”. His literary work and
reputation was influential and the locals would
consult him for advice. They named him the Tusitala
– the Teller of Tales. His interaction with the locals
led him to observe that European rule was less than
benevolent and he published the highly critical A

Footnote on History. Given his literary power, his
work caused two officials to be recalled. As well as
supporting the natives and building his estate,
Stevenson published further works such as David
Balfour and Ebb Tide. He also wrote the Vailima
Letters in this period. With his health waning,
Stevenson became depressed and concerned
that his creativity was being exhausted.

His spirit refused to succumb and he began his
masterpiece, the Weir of Hermiston. He
apparently remarked: “It’s so good that it frightens
me.” He would not complete it. On December
3 1894, after working on his book, Stevenson
collapsed in the company of his wife. He was
44 when he died as a result of a cerebral
haemorrhage. The natives surrounded his body
and carried their Tusitala upon their shoulders to
a cliff top where he was buried.

Fishing-East Coast

2009-11-27T16:08:00.000+01:00

At the beginning of the Twentieth century, Scottish

fishing boats could be powered in one of three

ways. There was the traditional wind and muscle,

steam and the internal combustion engine had

recently been introduced.

At this time, many Scottish fishing boats were
still powered by sails. They were divided into
three main types: scaffies, zulus and fifies.This
photograph shows boats in Arbroath Harbour
around 1910. They are mainly small and powered
by sail. This type of vessel, with a nearly vertical
stem and stern was known as a fifie. The smaller
vessels of this type were known as baldies.There
has been fishing in Arbroath for centuries. The
industry increased in importance in the 1830s,
when fishing families moved from Auchmithie for
the better harbour facilities at Arbroath.

Extract from ''Glasghu Facies''

2009-11-26T09:09:00.000+01:00

Rarely has Great Britain been so close to revolution
as in the Eighteen-thirties. Indeed, the brink was so
often reached that continentals spoke of this country
as the place where revolutions refuse to happen.
Such were the social conditions of those times that it
is surprising that this particular revolution did not
happen,at least, in Glasgow. In 1839 a Report to
Parliament on housing in Great Britain said:

" I have seen human degradation in some of the worst
places, both in England and abroad, but I did not believe
until I had visited the wynds of Glasgow that so large an
amount of filth, crime, misery and disease existed in one
spot in any civilized country"

Lord Shaftesbury, in the same year,said in his diary
about Glasgow, " Walked through the ‘ dreadful ’
parts of this amazing city; it is a small square plot
intersected by small alleys, like gutters, crammed
with houses, dunghills, and human beings; hence
arise . . . nine-tenths of the disease and
nine-tenths of the crime in Glasgow; and well it may.

`Health would be impossible in such a climate; the
air tainted by exhalation from the most stinking and
stagnant sources, a pavement ,never dry, in lanes
not broad enough to admit a wheelbarrow.
And is moral propriety and moral cleanliness,
so to speak, moreprobable? Quite the reverse."

GLASGOW's SUBWAY

2009-11-25T13:18:00.000+01:00

The Glasgow Subway is a metro system in Glasgow,
Scotland. Opened in 1896, it is the third oldest subway
system in the world after the London Underground
and the Budapest Metro. Originally a cable railway,
the Subway was later electrified, but its one circular
line has never been expanded. Officially the Glasgow
Underground between 1936 and 2003, it has reverted
to its colloquial name of Subway. It remains one of
only two underground metro-type systems in the UK
outside London, the other being the Tyne and Wear
Metro. The Subway has been policed by British
Transport Police since 2007 .

One of the few long-lived metro systems that have
never expanded from its original route, its circular
route is almost 6.5 miles (10.4 km) long and extends
both north and south of the River Clyde. The tracks
have the unusual narrow gauge of four feet
(1219 mm), the tunnel diameter of 11 feet
(3.35 m) comparable to that of the deep-level
lines of the London Underground (11'8" or 3.56m).
A £40,000 study examining the feasibility of an
expansion into the city’s south side is in progress.

The subway is not the oldest underground railway in
Glasgow itself; that distinction belongs to a 5 km
stretch of the North Clyde Line of the suburban
railway network which runs in a sub-surface tunnel
under the city centre between High Street and west
of Charing Cross.

The subway’s running lines are entirely underground,
but the maintenance depot at Broomloan Road
(located between the Govan and Ibrox stations) is
above ground, as was the earlier depot, also at Govan.
Prior to modernisation, trains used to be hoisted by
crane onto and off of the tracks. Modernisation brought
the installation of points and a ramp between Govan and
Ibrox where trains can exit the underground tunnel
system to terminate for engineering, cleaning or storage.

As built and opened on 14 December 1896 by the
Glasgow District Subway Company, the subway
was powered by a clutch-and-cable system, with
one cable for each direction. The cable was driven
from a steam-powered plant between West Street
and Shields Road stations. There was no additional
cable to allow trains to reach the depot; instead, they
were transferred to and from the running lines by crane
operating over a pit at the Govan workshops. This
also meant that the two tracks could be completely
separate, with no points anywhere. The company's
headquarters were in the upper rooms at St Enoch
subway station; this distinctive ornate building still
stands in St Enoch Square and is now used as a
travel information office.

When the Subway first opened, single-carriage trains
were operated. An accident on the opening day
entailed the closure of the Subway until 1897. The
20 original carriages were built by the Oldbury Railway
Carriage and Wagon Company, of Oldbury,
Birmingham, England. Many continued in service
until 1977. A further 10 were delivered by the
same manufacturer in 1897. From 1898, second
(trailer) carriages without a cable gripper mechanism
were added, though they were considerably
shorter than the front (gripper) carriage. These
additional carriages, eventually numbering 30,
were built by Hurst Nelson & Company,
Motherwell, Lanarkshire. These carriages were
soon expanded to match the length of the front
carriages, although carriage 41 has been restored
to its original length and can be seen preserved
at Buchanan Street subway station. Most of the
gripper carriages were subsequently converted
to electric traction in 1935. All carriages were
originally built with lattice gates (instead of doors)
at the ends; many were converted to air-operated
sliding doors in the 1960s, but a few retained the
gates until 1977.

All 15 stations were built with island platforms.
The trains were thus built with doors on one side
only. When electric lighting in the trains was
introduced, the current was supplied by two
parallel wall-mounted rails (known as "T-irons")
at window level on the non-platform side of the
trains; trains were equipped with skids to pick
up the electricity. The trains remained cable-
hauled until 1935, though the anachronistic way
of supplying power for the lighting continued
until 1977.

Glasgow Corporation took over the company in 1923.
In 1935, the existing trains were converted to electric
power delivered by a third rail at 600 volts, direct
current. From March until December 1935, clockwise
trains were cable-hauled, whilst anti-clockwise ones
were electric. The trains lost their original plum and
cream-coloured liveries, being painted red and white
instead. From the 1950s the trains became all red
-— in a shade similar to that of London buses.
During the early 1970s, trailer carriage number
41 was repainted in the original 1896 livery; part
of the carriage, shortened to its original length, is
now preserved at Buchanan Street station.

After the Beeching Axe of the 1960s, both St
Enoch and Buchanan Street mainline stations were
closed and demolished. Ever since, the Subway
has had no direct passenger connection to the national
railway network -— a major weakness -—
although an interchange to the suburban rail
system exists at Partick, and a moving walkway
was installed between Buchanan Street station and
Queen Street mainline station as part of the
late 1970s modernisation.

St.Kilda

2009-11-25T11:09:00.000+01:00

News report 1st May 1920

ST KILDA'S PLIGHT

Epidemic of Influenza. Information has reached
Aberdeen by the steam trawler Active that the
condition of affairs on the lone island of St Kilda
is very serious. One of the inhabitants, acknowledging
receipt of a bundle of newspapers sent from
Aberdeen, writes that most of the inhabitants are
laid up with influenza, and that one died last week
—a girl" nine years of ago. " The 'flu - is very bad
here at present," writes another. The letter is dated
20th April. Mr R. Craig. D.S.C.. The skipper of the
Active, states that of the total.population of 80 on the
island, no fewer than about 60 have been laid aside
with the influenza, and business on the islands practically
at a standstill. There is no doctor on the island, and
Nurse Mackenzie and the minister have more than
enough to do in attending to the wants of the distressed
population. There is plenty of food on the island,
but medicine—Skipper Craig includes whisky
under that term—is badly wanted. The skipper
proposes to return vorv soon to the fishing grounds
in the neighbourhood of St Kilda, arid hopes to
land on the island, medicine and comforts for the
people forwarded to the Aberdeen Fish Market.
He states that all gifts will be received with feelings
of the greatest gratitude by the St Kildeans.

Maister Adam Colquhoun

2009-11-24T08:35:00.001+01:00

Maister Adam Colquhoun died at his house in
Glasgow in February, 1542. He was described
as an "ordinary Scottish priest", though he was a
canon of Glasgow Cathedral and "persone of
Stobo". The Stobo Manse was at the top of the
Drygate.
The Glasgow chapter consisted of 32 canons or
prebendaries with Stobo amongst the most desirable
. The benefice brought in 2,000 merks a year.

A full description of his possessions survives, from
which we can form a tolerably clear picture of what
must have been a remarkable house. For Maister
Adam was not short of this world’s gear. The bed he
died on was richly carved, of wood and decorated
with gold. The mattress had 140 lbs of feather down;
sheets and pillows were of holland cloth, covered by
a pair of line fustian blankets. To ensure the parson’s
slumber, damask curtains "of divers hewis, fassit with
silk and knoppit with gold" surrounded the bed, a
covering of rich velvet, lined with fustian, stretched
across his person and was spread with a blue mantle.
Panels of arras work hung round the walls, designed
with foliage and flowers, varied with squirrels, monkeys
or little rabbits disappearing into their hurrows,
"portraiture of huntsman, hawk and hound", scriptural
scenes, or a secular romance. There were twelve varied
panels, low toned tapestries, a large chandelier with tall
white candles,an oak settle,a carved oak press,boxes of
wood and silver for storing valuables,a silver water pot,
sponge,rubber,combs, and the parson’s pet, a parrot.

There was an enormous quantity of jewellery, crosses,
rings and chains made from gold and sapphires, valued
at hundreds of pounds.There were no clerical vestments,
but the Parson of Stobo was distinguishable by his silk
clothes, damask shirts, sable furs, velvet shoes, golden
pins, buttons and a silver toothpick in a bag at his waist.

Holland cloths surrounded the altar. There were gold
and silver sacred vessels and a silver cushion for the
"mess buke", hand-penned in black and red Gothic
lettering, illuminated with rich colours and golden
foils. There was also a substantial library of holy
and secular books, similarly made.

There were 40 separate silver vessels, silver bottles,
silver carving knives and a fork, used for eating fruit.
The cupboard abounded in silver plate and the
kitchen, though fairly bare of furniture, was crammed
with utensils, pots, jars, bottles and plates; oven and
bakehouse paraphernalia; brewing requisites; a barn
of wheat, oats, “beir", pease and hay, eight carcasses
of salted beef, eight dozen salmon, forty bolls of meal,
eight dozen Loch Fyne herring, six stone of butter
, 22lbs of cheese and eight loads of coal. The stable
accoutrements were of silver, wood and velvet. He
had a fully carved suit of armour and swords. His
sport was archery. He had silken dog leads and
silver studded collars. Maister Adam also had a
striking clock.

Scotland was reputedly a poor country, though
Glasgow was seldom described as a poor city and
certainly not around Maister Adam’s time. No one
liked the climate and how the priest’s velvet boots
fared in Glasgow’s winters is not recorded. “The
sky is foul with frequent rain and clouds,"' wrote
Tacitus around AD8O, chronicling the life of his
father-in—law Julius Agricola, governor of Britain
. "The length of their days is beyond the measure
of our world . . . If clouds do not hinder they say
the sun’s brightness is seen all night, and nor sets
nor rises but passes across the sky". When the
French soldiers came over in 1385 to march
against the English, they asked, "What could have
brought us hither? We have never known till now
what was meant by poverty and hard living".

Just for fun....

2009-11-23T13:25:00.000+01:00

Just for fun....

2009-11-23T13:24:00.000+01:00

Inferno that brought death and despair.

2009-11-23T10:27:00.000+01:00

FIRE is a frightening and destructive force. A fire
ripping through a building in the dark of a winter
night is not only destructive, but terrifying. For many
of the men trapped in a Glasgow lodging house in
November 1907 it was not only terrifying, but deadly.

On that night nearly 400 men were inside asleep in
their cramped cubicles when they were roused by
a shout of "Fire! Fire!" Many escaped but saw their
possessions burn. Nearly forty men lost their lives.

Victorian Glasgow was a magnet for itinerant workers.
Highlanders, Irish workers and other Scots streamed
into the city in search of any low-paid manual labour.
By 1860 the city council, appalled by the overcrowded
hostels that accommodated these people, built six
Model Lodging Houses for men and one for women.
These were meant to provide better and cheaper
accommodation for the city's poor and destitute.
They were meant to keep them safe.

By the 1900s, Gordon Street, close to the centre of
Glasgow, was lined with these hostels. Number 39
was one of two owned by William Nicol, a local
town councillor.

This converted warehouse comprised four floors plus
an attic and basement. Each floor was divided into
dormitories – which in turn were broken up into
small wooden cubicles. These tiny cramped spaces
could fit only a bed. For the privilege of sleeping here
the men paid between 4d (pence) and 6d per night.

The interior was lined with wood. The cubicles were
made of wood. Although smoking in bed or using
candles was prohibited, the rules were often ignored.
And, fatally, there was inadequate fire protection.

On the night of Sunday 19 November 1907 the house
was full of men. At ten to six in the morning a
watchman outside noticed smoke and alerted the fire
brigade. By the time they arrived minutes later huge
licking flames were shooting out from the fourth
floor dormitories.

Soon half-clothed men started staggering out of the
building, shivering in the cold. Firemen struggling to
reach those trapped inside had to battle up the single
stairway, pushing their way through the throng of
panic-stricken men flooding towards the one exit.

The fire had started on the fourth floor, just below the
attic where yet more men slept. The firemen had only
ten minutes in which to mount their rescue before they
were forced back by the heat of the blaze. In this
time they rescued nearly 40 men – men who would
have surely perished but for their perseverance.

In the attic floors a different drama was unfolding.
Realising that escape downwards was impossible,
they took to the roof. Donald McNab, who was
physically disabled and used a crutch, later described
seeing men hammering away in desperation at glass
windows with their bare hands. He waited with a blind
man and a paralysed man whilst the able-bodied
around him tried to flee. One man, Jack Findlay – later
hailed as a hero – used McNab's crutch to break the
windows. He returned to help the three disabled men
onto the roof and found a ladder leading to a
neighbouring building. Over thirty men's lives were
saved that way – over the roof, most naked in the bitter
cold.

Survivors were taken to the Central Police Station
where they were served tea, bread and butter and
provided with clothing. The more seriously injured,
29 in total, were taken to the Royal Infirmary.

When the fire was brought under control the fire
brigade began the grim task of searching for the dead.
Eventually 39 bodies were pulled from the ruin of the
building; most had died from suffocation. The bodies
were laid out in the mortuary of the police station and
crowds formed immediately of those seeking to
identify missing relatives.

By Wednesday all but eight were identified and the
funerals began. Some bodies were taken by family
for private service, but the greater proportion were
honoured with a public burial.

On Wednesday 22 November thousands lined the
City centre streets to watch the funeral cortege process
to the cemeteries. On this wet drizzly day two mounted
policemen lead first the hearses containing the
protestant dead, then the hearses with the Roman
Catholic dead. Round the graves were women
carrying children, a desperate reminder of the
human tragedy.

The police, the fire brigade and the city council were
widely praised for the actions they took on the night
of the fire. But later there were concerns raised over
the level of safety in the Model Lodging House. Later,
in an effort to ensure that such a disaster never
happened again, the law was changed and many new
safety measures insisted upon for Lodging Houses.

Yet, although covered well in the press of the time,
there appeared to be a collective shame at the fate
of these vulnerable men. William Cross, author of
a book on the fire, Death in a Lodging House, is
saddened that their death was so quickly forgotten
and that unlike other areas where there was tragic
death, no memorial to the men has ever been erected.

""These men were among the poorest in the City,"
says Cross. " They were men with few friends some
separated from their families and their past. These
men deserve to be remembered. "

Caledonian Hunt.

2009-11-23T01:14:00.000+01:00

The Royal Caledonian Hunt was founded in 1777 as
the Hunters' Club, becoming the Caledonian Hunt
Club in 1778. The Duke of Hamilton was president,
and the Countess of Eglinton was patroness. There
were 12 original members, from the aristocracy; by
October 1778 there were 50 members, admitted by
ballot, who paid a 5 guinea annual subscription and
a one guinea entry fee. The Club met for dinner once
a month over the winter months in Edinburgh, and
additional meetings and dinners were held during the
Edinburgh races and when the Hunt held its own
annual meet in October. Other social events, e.g.
assemblies and concerts, were also arranged, as
well as the annual Caledonian Hunt Ball, already
attracting over 300 by 1787. The poet Robert
Burns was enrolled a member in 1792.

The founding aim of the Hunt was apparently to
'further the interests of fox-hunting', but this was
widened to include the encouragement of horse
racing and breeding in Scotland. The Hunt did not,
however, organise its own fixtures, instead
sponsoring a race in local race meetings. Ayr
was a regular venue in the early 19th century,
but Edinburgh did not feature until there was
turf track laid at Musselburgh in 1816. Mostly
the membership was Borders-based, which
influenced its choice of meets. The membership
in general may have preferred social events in the
early years of the Hunt's existence, rather than
maintain racehorses, although there were exceptions.
From the mid-1820s, the Hunt membership was
more interested in racing than hunting. During the
visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822, he
attended the Hunt ball, and agreed to become its
patron, whereby the name then became Royal
Caledonian Hunt.

Thanks to tireetam

Spanish Flu

2009-11-23T01:06:00.000+01:00

The Spanish Flu Pandemic (less misleadingly called the
1918 flu pandemic) was a pandemic in 1918 and 1919
caused by an unusually severe and deadly strain of the
subtype H1N1 of the species Influenza A virus (which
apparently killed via cytokine storm, explaining the severe
nature and unusual age distribution). In the 12 months
of the pandemic, 50 million to 100 million people
worldwide were killed.

Despite not having originated in Spain, the Allies of
World War I came to call it the "Spanish Flu". This
was mainly because the pandemic received greater
press attention in Spain than in the rest of the world,
as Spain was not involved in the war and there was
no wartime censorship in Spain.

The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic
is not known, but is estimated at 2.5 – 5% of the human
population, with 20% of the world population suffering
from the disease to some extent. Influenza may have
killed as many as 25 million in its first 25 weeks; in
contrast, AIDS killed 25 million in its first 25 years.
Influenza spread across the world, killing more than
25 million in six months; some estimates put the total
killed at over twice that number, possibly even 100
million.

In the U.S., about 28% of the population suffered,
and 500,000 to 675,000 died. In Britain 200,000
died; in France more than 400,000. Entire villages
perished in Alaska and southern Africa. In Australia
an estimated 10,000 people died and in the Fiji Islands,
14% of the population died during only two weeks,
and in Western Samoa 22%. An estimated 17 million
died in India, about 5% of India's population at the
time. In the Indian Army, almost 22% of troops who
caught the disease died of it.

While World War I did not cause the flu, the close
quarters and mass movement of troops quickened
its spread. It has been speculated that the soldiers'
immune systems were weakened by the stresses of
combat and chemical attacks, increasing their
susceptibility to the disease

The Black Death

2009-11-23T00:58:00.000+01:00

The bubonic plague reached Europe from China
via the Middle East (Asia Minor) and began to
spread over western Europe during the late 1340s.
It is impossible to know with any degree of accuracy
the population of Scotland during the medieval period
and the scarcity of evidence has so far prevented
modern scholars investigating the effects of the Black
Death on Scotland in detail. In 1349 the Scots were
evidently delighted to hear of the fate that had overtaken
the English as the plague took its relentless toll,
sweeping from the Channel and Bristol Channel ports
through the Midlands and on into the northern counties.

This was regarded as just retribution and at the same
time the Scots gathered their forces around Selkirk,
‘laughing at their enemies’ and preparing to invade.
But as Ziegler notes, it was their last laugh, because
just as they prepared to march ‘a fearful mortality fell
upon them and the Scots were scattered by sudden
and savage death so that within a short period, some
five thousand died’. The army dispersed, men dying
on the roadside or taking the infection back to their
homes in the more populated parts of the country.

Actual evidence on the impact is hard to come by
though it is known that 24 canons of the priory of St
Andrews also died in 1349. The Scottish winter possibly
helped retard the plague’s progress but this was
short-lived and during 1350 it spread rapidly over the
whole country. Demographers think we can assume that
because of the dispersed settlement pattern the effects
of the plague were less severe than in England, where
data for upland areas suggest mortality rates of 33—50
per cent, as compared to a possible 25—30 per cent in
Scotland. The most striking feature of all the surviving
accounts is the statement that a third of the population
perished, though this may have been an exaggeration.

Two chroniclers, John of Fordun and Andrew of Wyntoun,
left descriptions of its impact, which can be read in the
archive sources, while the later Book of Pluscarden says
a third of the people died — with the poor suffering fir more
than the rich. On a political level it would be reasonable to
assume that relatively small losses were sustained by the
elite but the plague nevertheless affected Anglo-Scottish
relations in that the English failed to capitalize on the lasting
success that might have been possible following the Scots
defeat at Nevilles Cross and the capture of David II. A
second major epidemic struck in 1361—62, but it may
well have remained endemic thereafter, Another severe
outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in the mid-1640s,
after which it largely disappeared from Scotland. This
could well be explained by changes in climate or other
environmental factors.

Robert Stevenson

2009-11-22T23:12:00.000+01:00

Robert Stevenson was born in Glasgow in 1772.
His father, a West Indies merchant, died when
he was two, leaving the family in difficult
circumstances.

Robert entered the service of Thomas Smith,
whom his mother later married, in 1791. Thomas
Smith, who was a lamp-maker engineer to the
Northern Lighthouse Board, took Stevenson on
as an apprentice and he also studied civil
engineering at the Andersonian Institute and the
University of Edinburgh.

In 1796, Smith took him into partnership to be in
charge of the lighthouse side of Smith's business,
and in 1797 Stevenson succeeded him as engineer
to the Northern Lighthouse Board. Stevenson is
best known for his work in establishing the system
of lighthouses in Scotland, building 20 lighthouses
during his career, including the Bell Rock Lighthouse
which was completed in 1811.

He also improved current lighthouse engineering by
improving the way in which light was used and reflected.
He adopted the use of the cat atrophic or reflecting
light advocated the use of the diotropic or refracting
system and invented the intermittent and flashing lights.
He was also influential in general engineering circles.

He undertook several other projects including bridge
building, railway engineering (advocating the adoption
of the flanged wheel on locomotives) and road design
, and experimented with the durability of timber at sea.
He was a Fellow of several societies in Edinburgh and
London including the Royal Society of Edinburgh and
the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, and a member of
the Institute of Civil Engineering. He married Smith's
daughter Jane in 1799. His three sons, Alan (1807 - 1865),
David (1815 - 1886) and Thomas (1818 - 1887)
all followed him into engineering and became partners
in the firm.

His son Thomas was the father of Robert Louis
Stevenson, author (1850 - 1894). Robert Stevenson
died in 1850 and is buried in Edinburgh.

Thanks to tireetam.

Impact of the Railways.

2009-11-22T23:07:00.000+01:00

When Victoria came to the throne in 1837 very few
railway lines had been opened in Scotland, and those
which were operating were mainly for the benefit of
industry, transporting coal and other raw materials
between Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. By the turn
of the century, within one generation, nearly all of
Scotland’s railways had been built, linking most major
towns and many small villages, stretching from the
Borders in the south to Thurso on north coast, and
operating many lines which are shut and deemed
unprofitable today. Journeys which had taken days
prior to Victoria’s reign, when the fasted method of
travel had been the horse-drawn carriage, were now
completed in a matter of hours.

The very earliest railways carried coal from mines to
coastal harbours; these included the Tranent and
Cockenzie Waggonway of 1772, which ran on wooden
rails, and the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway of 1805.
It wasn’t long before advances in engineering and the
development of more efficient steam engines presented
itself as an opportunity to the railway men of the early
19th century.

In the 1842 the Edinburgh and Glasgow line opened
and the popularity of the railways was becoming something
of a sensation. A rivalry developed between two major
companies, the Caledonian Company, which ran trains
into Glasgow, and the North British Company which linked
Edinburgh to Carlisle. The link to the English railway
network opened in 1848. In an attempt to compete with
the Caledonian Company’s dominance north of the River
Tay, the North British Company made plans to open an
east coast route by bridging both the Tay and the Forth.
So started some of the biggest engineering projects in the
world at the time.

Temperance.

2009-11-22T12:54:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Temperance Society was founed in
Glasgow in 1830,supported by William Collins,
a publisher in the City,and John Dunlop,a Greenock
Lawyer.Their views,advocating temperate use,were
opposed by the total abstainers who believed in the
complete renunciation of all alcoholic drinks.The
temperance and teetotal movements gathered force
as the century progressed,joining with other campaigns
to improve the lot of the working classes,particularly
saving societies such as the Good Templars.

We have a first edition copy of the
very first ''Temperance League of Scotland''
onsite for our members.The book lists
all members and their addresses

Raiders from across the Solway!!

2009-11-22T12:38:00.003+01:00

St.Michael's church in Bowness on Solway had its bells
stolen by raiders in 1626 but they lost them in the
Solway when returning to Annan on the Scottish shore.
Bowness villagers retaliated by taking the church bells
from Dornock and Middlebie. Every new vicar of the
church in Annan continues to request the return of
their bells. His entreaties are always refused -
nowadays politely!

Thanks Bitza !

Glasgow

2009-11-22T12:34:00.002+01:00

Glasgow has been seriously out of order for 800 years,
as long as we’ve had the Fair. It is the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution, antiseptic surgery, the raincoat,
Ian Brady and the Boys’ Brigade.

It is currently home for three orchestras, two chamber
orchestras, an opera company, one internationally famous
theatre company and at the last count 18 others. It also
houses what has been called
“one of the most remarkable assemblages of works of art
ever brought together by one man.”.

Mary, Queen of Scots, fought her last battle here, Bonnie
Prince Charlie met his mistress and Robert Burns bought
Jean Armour’s wedding dress.

One district contains what is believed to be the oldest
European site of continuous worship, and St Valentine’s
bones are here.

“Wee Willie Winkie” was written here, and The Wealth
of Nations was planned here. Robert Service was educated
here, so too was the first Director General of the BBC,
then plain John Reith. He bullied a schoolboy called
John Logie Baird; they met later in life, though neither
forgot their early encounter. Albert Einstein lectured
us on Relativity and a Glaswegian founded McGill University.

We have the second oldest Chamber of Commerce in the
world, the only Doge’s Palace outside Venice, and the
only sea-going paddle steamer in the world.

We built the first column to Nelson, the first memorial
to Sir Walter Scott, had the first cable underground
system and gas lit streets. We placed great faith in the
tramcar, had the world’s first municipal tramway system,
the world’s longest track, at 238 and a half miles, and
the world’s busiest junction.

We have “the most astonishing piece of earthenware
ever made”, the largest public reference library in Europe,
the biggest indoor market in Europe and Europe’s first
temperance meeting was held here. This was the northern
limit of the Roman Empire.

Presbyteries were named here, giving the world Presbyterianism.
Mr Anderson’s Polytechnic was the world’s first department
store and Glasgow is currently the third biggest shopping
centre in Britain.

We boast a gents’ outfitters which stocks more suits than
any other. Per head of population, we have more parklands
than any other European city.

We have a population of around 725,000, of whom
17.7 per cent are under 14 and 19,4 per cent are over
60; 445,000 people are employed here; 22.6 per cent of
Strathclyde Region’s labour force were looking for work
in April 1989. Glasgow has 40 parks covering 3,325
acres. We have our own herds of Highland cattle,
Clydesdale horses, sheep and deer.

Glasgow has a total land area of almost 49,000 acres,
has a housing stock of 304,668, is on the same latitude
as Moscow and until recently, our rainfall averaged
between 37 and 40 inches per year, with temperatures
ranging between —18 and 30 degrees Centigrade.
The Gulf Stream that laps the shores of the Atlantic,
the hills to the north and south-west and a prevailing
westerly wind give us a moderate climate.

Glasgow is the only city in the world to have its own
dictionary,claimed as the best selling Scottish
paperback ever.

To stand at a bus stop in this city is to
invite conversation!

James Clerk Maxwell

2009-11-22T06:37:00.002+01:00

''With his ground-breaking work, James Clerk Maxwell
had more influence on 20th century physics. than any
other scientist. He paved the way for Einstein’s theory
of relativity, yet he was largely unheard of by the public.''

He was seen as the gentleman genius,a scientist who in
his own way was as brilliant and influential as Charles
Darwin and Albert Einstein.

Regarded as one of the greatest and cleverest men
Scotland has ever produced, James Clerk Maxwell
was writing scientific papers at an age when most
boys would be kicking a ball around in the street.

Sadly, however, his scientific brilliance never achieved
the recognition it deserved — unlike many of his
Victorian contemporaries, he was never granted a
peerage or a knighthood, and his
name is far from universally known.

Maxwell’s great genius lay in his development of a grand
theory of electromagnetism. The principles of this subject
define how every piece of modern electrical equipment,
from TV through to radar and telephone, behaves.

Maxwell also carried out important work in other areas
of science such as the behaviour of molecules and the
principles of colour vision. His talents were recognised
by his fellow scientists but, because many of his theories
were complex, the general public never realised their importance.

James Clerk Maxwell was born in 1831 near Castle Douglas
in Kirkcudbrightshire. His father’s name was simply Clerk
— he added Maxwell after inheriting a run—down
estate in the area.

Maxwell’s mother died when he was just eight and, after
a spell being taught by private tutors, he was sent to Edinburgh
Academy, where he received a classical education in the
English rather than Scottish tradition.

By the time he was 16, James had moved on to Edinburgh
University, where he was taught by . two of the most famous
professors of his day-J.D. Forbes, Professor of Natural Philosophy,
and Sir William Hamilton, who held the chair of Logic and
Metaphysics.

Both men stimulated Maxwell’s already brilliant mind,
encouraging him to develop a forensic style of thinking
and to probe and question scientific principles which
had until then been considered as fact.

He then moved south of the border to further his studies
at Trinity College in Cambridge. He didn't enjoy the experience,
but developed his expertise in electro magnetics and then
moved to take the Chair of Natural Philosophy at Marischal
College in Aberdeen.

Maxwell was regarded as an excellent teacher at Aberdeen
and was popular with the students. He also met and married
the Principal's daughter, Kathleen Dewar, who was seven years
his senior. After this, he moved back south again to take
up an offer of a professorship at King’s College in London.
His new job gave him the chance to spend more time on the
research which was eventually to define him as a brilliant scientist.

He carried out experimental measurements on behalf of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science and
completed two more major studies in electromagnetism.

However, he didn’t enjoy his time in London and yearned
to return to his native Scotland. He did so when he was 34,
deciding to retire on the family estate in Galloway.

It was a remarkably young age to give up work, but Maxwell
wasn’t attracted by the lure of money or even in advancing
his career.

He was however, interested in scientific research for its own
sake, and he pressed on with this.

Because he no longer had to teach, time was freed up for
him to start work on the book which was to make his name
famous in scientific circles throughout the world — his
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.

The book, finally published in 1873, was one of the most
important scientific works of the 19th century. It sparked
off a world-wide interest in electro magnetics with students
of the subject keen to try to take his ideas further forward.
Maxwell's book advocated the so-called field theory which
suggested that electromagnetic action took place in the space
between electric wires rather than — as some scientists
believed —at a distance from them.

Maxwell’s theory was extremely important, and provided
a starting point for further work on the subject.

His assertion that electromagnetic waves could be generated
in a laboratory, for instance, led on to the development of radio.

His work is now thought of as having had the greatest influence
of any individual scientist on 20th century physics. It paved
the way, for instance, for Einstein’s theory of relativity, which
established the relationship between mass and energy.

During a remarkable life, Maxwell also made other important
breakthroughs. For instance, he managed to identify the
correct structure of Saturn’s Rings — his research was proved
correct more than 100 years later when the Voyager probe
went to the planet.

In 1871 Maxwell accepted an academic post south of the Border
again. He was lured back to become the first professor of the
Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, which was to become
one of the world’s most important centres for
scientific research.

The Cavendish formally opened in 1874, after Maxwell had
made major contributions to its design. However, his
association with it was not to last for long.

In 1877 he began to feel unwell and was diagnosed as having
abdominal cancer — the illness which had killed his mother.
He died in 1879 in Cambridge, though he was buried in a
church near his beloved estate in Kirkcudbrightshire.

There are few physical memorials to James Clerk Maxwell,
and he has never achieved the public recognition his brilliance
deserved. But his memory lives on in the minds of the
world’s most brilliant scientists, who to this day use his
theories to keep pushing the boundaries of their
profession forward.

Thomas Muir

2009-11-22T06:30:00.000+01:00

At his state-rigged show-trial in August, 1793,
leading Scots radical Thomas Muir was sentenced
to 14 years transportation to Botany Bay,a penal
settlement in Australia. Following a lengthy wait in
London for a transport ship, Muir finally set foot in
the Bay on October 25, 1794.

Penal servitude could have been worse — Muir was
able to buy a 30-acre farm near Sydney Cove and
settled down to farming, fishing and reading. But he
didn’t put up with Australian isolation for long.

On January 26, 1796, an American ship, the Otter,
arrived in Botany Bay to take on fresh water and provisions.
The captain of the Otter, Ebeneezer Dorr, met Muir and
agreed to take him to his home port of Boston. After crossing
the Pacific to the northwest coast of America, Muir
arranged to be transferred to a Spanish ship.

His hopes that the Spanish authorities in California
and Mexico would provide him with a passport to the
United States were disappointed. The Spanish
officials treated the Scots radical with deep suspicion
and arranged for him to be taken back to Spain.

But as the convoy carrying Muir approached Cadiz
on April 26, 1797, it was attacked by a squadron of
British warships - as Britain and Spain were by
now at war.

Muir was badly wounded in the battle and had to be
carried to an on-shore military hospital. When the French
learned of Muir’s plight they petitioned the Spanish for his
release, which was negotiated on September 16, 1797.
Muir arrived in France in November, 1797, and was
greeted as a hero.

He settled in Paris where he soon began to involve
himself again in the cause of reform at home.

Allying himself with James Napper Tandy, one of the
leading United lrishmen in Paris, he began to put pressure
on the French government to send an army to liberate
Scotland.

The French showed interest in Muir’s proposals at first,
but by the spring of 1798 their military commanders
had decided that invasion of the British Isles was not a
good strategic option. Muir’s personal commitment to
overthrowing the ’tyrannicaI' British state remained strong,
until his retirement to the town of Chantilly, where he
died on January 26, 1799.

The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots.

2009-11-21T12:28:00.002+01:00

Written at 2am on Wednesday 8 February 1587 to her former
brother-in-law, Henri III of France six hours before her execution
at Fotheringay Castle.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Queen of Scotland
8 Feb. 1587
Royal brother, having by God's will, for my sins I think,
thrown myself into the power of the Queen my cousin,
at whose hands I have suffered much for almost twenty
years, I have finally been condemned to death by her
and her Estates. I have asked for my papers, which they
have taken away, in order that I might make my will,
but I have been unable to recover anything of use to me,
or even get leave either to make my will freely or to have
my body conveyed after my death, as I would wish, to
your kingdom where I had the honour to be queen, your
sister and old ally.
Tonight, after dinner, I have been advised of my
sentence: I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in
the morning. I have not had time to give you a full
account of everything that has happened, but if you will
listen to my doctor and my other unfortunate servants,
you will learn the truth, and how, thanks be to God, I
scorn death and vow that I meet it innocent of any
crime, even if I were their subject. The Catholic faith
and the assertion of my God-given right to the English
crown are the two issues on which I am condemned,
and yet I am not allowed to say that it is for the Catholic
religion that I die, but for fear of interference with
theirs. The proof of this is that they have taken away my
chaplain, and although he is in the building, I have not
been able to get permission for him to come and hear
my confession and give me the Last Sacrament, while
they have been most insistent that I receive the
consolation and instruction of their minister, brought
here for that purpose. The bearer of this letter and his
companions, most of them your subjects, will testify to
my conduct at my last hour. It remains for me to beg
Your Most Christian Majesty, my brother-in-law and
old ally, who have always protested your love for me, to
give proof now of your goodness on all these points:
firstly by charity, in paying my unfortunate servants the
wages due them - this is a burden on my conscience that
only you can relieve: further, by having prayers offered
to God for a queen who has borne the title Most
Christian, and who dies a Catholic, stripped of all her
possessions. As for my son, I commend him to you in so
far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for him. I have
taken the liberty of sending you two precious stones,
talismans against illness, trusting that you will enjoy
good health and a long and happy life. Accept them
from your loving sister-in-law, who, as she dies, bears
witness of her warm feeling for you. Again I commend
my servants to you. Give instructions, if it please you,
that for my soul's sake part of what you owe me should
be paid, and that for the sake of Jesus Christ, to whom I
shall pray for you tomorrow as I die, I be left enough to
found a memorial mass and give the customary alms.
Wednesday, at two in the morning
Your most loving and most
true sister Mary R
To the most
Christian king,
my brother and old
ally
FRENCH VERSION
Reyne descosse
8 feu 1587
Monssieur mon beau frere estant par la permission
de Dieu pour mes peschez comme ie croy venue
me iecter entre les bras de ceste Royne ma
cousine ou iay eu beaucoup dennuis & passe
pres de vingt ans ie suis enfin par elle & ses
estats condampnee a la mort & ayant demande
mes papiers par eulx ostez a ceste fin de fayre
mon testament ie nay peu rien retirer qui me
seruist ny obtenir conge den fayre ung libre
ny quapres ma mort mon corps fust transporte
sellon mon desir en votre royaulme ou iay eu
lhonneur destre royne vorte soeur & ancienne
allyee.
Ceiourdhuy apres disner ma este desnonsse
ma sentence pour estre executee demain comme
une criminelle a huict heures du matin
ie nay eu loisir de vous fayre ung ample discours
de tout ce qui sest passe may sil vous plaist
de crere mon medesin & ces aultres miens
desolez seruiters vous oyres la verite & comme
graces a dieu ie mesprise las mort & fidellement
proteste de la recepuoir innocente de tout crime
quant ie serois leur subiecte la religion chatolique
& la mayntien du droit que dieu ma donne a
ceste couronne sont les deulx poincts de ma
condampnation & toutesfoy ilz ne me veullent
permettre de dire que cest pour la religion catolique
que ie meurs may pour la crainte du champge
de la leur & pour preuue ilz mont oste mon
aulmonier lequel bien quil soit en la mayson ie
nay peu obtenir quil me vinst confesser ny
communier a ma mort mays mont faict grande
instance de recepuoir la consolation & doctrine
de leur ministre ammene pour ce faict. Ce porteur
& sa compaigne la pluspart de vos subiectz
vous tesmoigneront mes deportemantz en ce
mien acte dernier il reste que ie vous suplie
comme roy tres chrestien mon beau frere & ansien
allye & qui mauuez tousiours proteste de
maymer qua ce coup vous faysiez preuue en
toutz ces poincts de vostre vertu tant par
charite me souslageant de ce que pour descharger
ma conssiance ie ne puis sans vous qui
est de reconpenser mes seruiteurs desolez leur
layssant leurs gaiges laultre faysant prier dieu
pour une royne qui a estay nommee tres chrestienne
& meurt chatolique desnuee de toutz ses biens
quant a mon fylz ie le vous recommande autant
quil le meritera car ie nen puis respondre
Iay pris la hardiesse de vous enuoier deulx
pierres rares pour la sante vous la desirant
parfaicte auuec heurese & longue vie Vous le
recuperez comme de vostre tres affectionee
belle soeur mourante en vous rendant tesmoygnage
de son bon cueur enuers vous ie vous recommande
encore mes seruiteurs vous ordonneres si il vous
plaict que pour mon ame ie soye payee de
partye de ce me que debuez & qu'en l'honnheur
de Jhesus Christ lequel ie priray demayn a
ma mort pour vous me laysser de quoy fonder
un obit & fayre les aulmosnes requises
ce mercredy a deulx heures aprex minuit
Vostre tres affectionnee & bien
bonne soeur Mari R
Au Roy tres chrestien
monssieur mon beau
frere & ansien
allye

Shut yer geggie !!

2009-11-21T12:21:00.001+01:00

It used to be quite common in Glasgow to be told
''shut your geggie'' instead of ''shut your mouth ''.

Geggies or more usually penny geggies,were portable
theatres made of wood and canvas which performed
rough and ready versions of Shakespeare,melodrama
and Scottish plays-admission one penny.They were part
of the popular entertainment of Glasgow for much of
the 19th century and were erected where ever there was
space in the Town centre.The most famous,Mumford's,
founded in 1835 by a drunken Englishman,which stood
at the corner of Saltmarket and Greendyke street.

It wasn't really a geggie at all as it was permanent
structure.

THE MITCHELL LIBRARY GLASGOW

2009-11-21T12:18:00.000+01:00

'' A CEMETERY OF BOOKS! '' Lord Rosebery called
The Mitchell Library when he opened the North Street
Building in 1911.In fact ,the Library has always been
alive to the needs of it's readers;it has provided the citizens
of Glasgow with their own open University for over 100
years.It is named after Stephen Mitchell,a tobacco
manufacturer in Glasgow( '' PRIZE CROP! ''),who left
£67,000 ''for the establishmentof a large public library
in Glasgow,with all the modern accessories connected werewith''.

Since it's opening in Ingram St. in 1877,''The Mitchell ''
has out grown three buildings.Originally it was a
closed-access library,books being issued through a
central point.This gradually changed to there being a
specialist subject dept. and a basic stock on the open
shelves.The additional space offered by a new building
on the site of the St. Andrews Halls accelerated this
trend quickly making the Mitchell ,the largest public
reference Library in Britain!,so that there was now
ten departments

When the Mitchell Library opened it's door in North
street ,it had grown so much in volume not to mention
it's world wide reputation as a major source of
information.By 1920 it had grown to be (and still is)
the largest reference library in Europe!It has at anyone
time only approx 12% of it's entire stock on view.North
street has around 2 million volumes within it's walls.

While the library has often attracted prestigious
donations(such as the Jeffrey Library with it's
Audubon's Birds of America)two important collections
were projected from the start:The Glasgow Collection
(''all papers which illustrate the City's growth and life'')
and Scottish Poetry (including the Robert Burns
Collection,the largest in existence).

Three waters or five waters??

2009-11-21T12:14:00.000+01:00

Sugar from the West Indies had become a major Glasgow
import before the middle of the 18th Century,the Union
of 1707 having opened up the West Indies sugar
imports to the City just as it had with Tobacco from
Virginia.

Rum(made from sugar)thus became the characteristic
Glasgow spirit of that Century.Bankers,merchants,
doctors and lawyers regularly took a '' merdian'' or
noon drink in a tavern or coffee house,often meeting
their clients or customers and sharing a glass of rum
and hot-water (''three-waters'' rum or ''five-waters
rum according to strength).Sometimes they would
drink claret,and the less prosperous would indulge
in a chopine(half-pint)of two- penny ale.But rum
was by far the greater Glasgow Drink

Glasgow Courier,December 15th 1804

2009-11-21T12:12:00.000+01:00

APPRENTICE RUN-OFF

On Wednesday the 28th of November
John McConnell,apprentice to
Jonathan Tomlinson,weaver,Calton
,left his work.He is about nine years of age
,four foot high,fair hair and fair
complexion.
Had on an old blue Jacket and a pair
of new corduroy calshes,but neither
shoes,stockings or hat.

Any person who will bring the said boy to
his master,will receive
HALF-A-GUINEA of reward;and
those who employ him after this
intimation,will be prosecuted with
the upmost rigour.

Pit Ponies

2009-11-20T22:52:00.001+01:00

Horses were first used in the coal industry to deliver coal on
the surface.Paths were too bumpy for carts so coal was
carried on a horse's back in a 'pannier'. As the quality of
pathways improved, horses were able to
pull carts loaded with coal.

In 1722 Scotland's first railway was laid between the
mines at Tranent and the Port of Cockenzie on the
Forth, and horses pulled the wagons.
In the early 19th Century locomotives were introduced.
Locomotives were cheaper to run and moved more
coal than a horse and wagon. Smaller pits, however,
still relied on the power of horses.

As coal was mined from deeper seams horses were put to work
underground. They powered gins to wind coal and workers up
and down the shaft. In Scotland the task of moving coal from the
face to shaft originally fell to women and children called bearers.
They carried coal on their backs in wicker creels or baskets. The
introduction of iron wagonways meant that hutches could be
pulled by horses or ponies. More horses were used as distances
from the face to the shaft increased.

Horses could pull more than men could, a fact that offset the
higher cost of horses. In 1810 it cost 5s 1/2d (25p) per day to
keep a horse, whilst a driver's wage was around 1s 2d (6p).

During the first half of the 19th century, women and children
transported coal in seams too low for horses. After the Coal
Mines Regulations Act of 1842 women, and girls and boys under
the age of ten, were forbidden to work underground. The
number of ponies in use in the pits therefore increased. They
pulled hutches and took supplies to the coalface. The height
of the roof in some roadways had to be raised to accommodate
the horses. This meant added expense and many mine owners
kept roof heights to a minimum. Ponies often scraped their heads
or backs as a result, something called 'rooving',
'topping', or 'scrubbing'.

The conditions that a pony lived in underground depended very
much on the mine manager. At the beginning of the twentieth
century the guidelines for feeding and stabling pit horses and
ponies were as follows:

FEEDING: 'A good daily allowance for each horse is as follows:
hay, 12 pounds; straw, which is not essential, 1 1/2 pounds;
oats, 8 pound; maize, 3 pounds; bran, 3 pounds. If beans are
used, the oats should be reduced. The cost of feeding horses
per week, as above, taken from actual practice, works out at
9s 6d to 10s 6d per horse per week, according to the market
prices of the foods.'

STABLING: 'The site should have a good fall for drainage. Stalls
should be 6 foot wide separated by props which secure the
roof and form a sufficient partition without being boarded up.'

Not only were the siting and dimensions of the stables important,
but colliery managers also had to consider the following when
planning a stables: whitewashing the walls regularly, ventilation,
bedding, water supply, mangers, shoeing, veterinary care, name
plates, and dealing with pests like cockroaches and rats.

Several breeds of horses were used underground, depending
on the task to be performed and the height of the roadways in
the mine. Shetland Welsh ponies, ten to twelve hands high,
were in common use, though horses of up to twelve hands
were used. Of the large breeds of horse, Percherons were
preferred to the British Shire horse due to the lack of 'feather'
on their legs. This hair could clog up with coal dust and mud
and cause infection. The names and tails of the horses were
kept close cropped as this helped to keep them cool and clean.

The Coal Mines Regulations Act of 1887 was the first legislation
relating to ponies underground. Inspectors investigated how
the animals were treated and checked that underground roadways
were high enough. The Royal Commission of 1911 took
evidence about the living conditions of pit ponies and horses.
The resultant Coal Mines Act of 1911 provided further legislation
to regulate the condition of stables, the keeping of records
and the appointment of competent horseman. It also made
the use of protective headgear and eye guards compulsory.

Legally pit ponies could only begin work at the age of four
continuing for as long as they were able, perhaps into their
twenties. Before going underground ponies were trained to
pull weight behind them, and to get them used to the harness,
headgear and limbers. A wrongly fitted collar could rub on
the neck and cause sores.

Ponies were lowered into the pit in the cage, or, if the cage
was too small, they were lowered under the cage. The ponies
lived underground, only coming to the surface when the pit
closed for a holiday or a strike. It could take up to twenty-four
hours for the ponies' eyes to adjust to the light on the
surface, because they were so used to the dark. This might
have lead to the myth that all pit ponies went blind.

During the 20th century mining became more mechanised
in all areas including haulage, and the number of ponies
working declined. The last pit pony came out of Lady
Victoria Colliery in 1925, but the last working pit ponies
did not come out of the mines until 1994.

Thanks to our Mining Mod ' Bitza ' .

The Mineral wealth of Lanarkshire

2009-11-20T22:47:00.002+01:00

Coal has been " worked " in Scotland since the twelfth
century. The growing scarcity of wood had already brought
about its use as fuel both in house and in forge by the end of the
sixteenth century. Miners and other colliery workers were
practically serfs, being " thirled " for life by Acts, passed in the
seventeenth century, to the mine in which they worked. A collar
was riveted on to the miner’s neck, stating the name of his mine-
owner. These servile conditions were modified by an Act passed
in 1775, but were not abolished until 1799—that is to say, until
comparatively recent times. The practice of whole families,
women and girls as well as men and boys, working in the pits
continued for long afterwards.

Small mines had been opened in various parts of the Glasgow
district by the beginning of the eighteenth century, particularly
in the vicinity of Airdrie, and ironstone also was mined. The
Carron Company, the progenitor of the Scottish heavy industries,
were located in 1760 near Falkirk, because supplies of coal and of
ironstone were at hand, and, incidentally, because water power
could be obtained from the River Carron for driving the blowing
engines. The company rapidly became famous they had, when
they cast the small cannons, known as carronades, used by
Wellington at Waterloo, as many, as 2000 employees and
inspired other potential manufacturers, notably Colin Dunlop,
who founded the Clyde Ironworks at Tollcross, and William
Dixon, a Northumberland miner, who came to Clydeside in 1770
to seek his fortune, assisted in building the Calder Ironworks, and
in time acquired extensive interests in collieries, blast furnaces
and malleable ironworks. His son, William Dixon (2) founded
Dix0n’s Blazes in 1839.

In 1801 David Mushet, of the Clyde Ironworks, discovered
that a material mined in the district and thrown away as " wild
coal " was really a valuable iron ore. Not much interest, how-
ever, was taken in this " blackband ironstone " until after 1828
J. B. Neilson, manager of the Glasgow Gas Works, while carrying
out experiments at the Clyde Ironworks, discovered how to use
hot instead of cold air for the furnace blast. At first stoves were
used to heat the air but,when in I840 a method was devised for
heating the blast with waste gases from the furnaces, the " hot blast "
method was adopted as the most economical, and was soon being used for
every furnace in Scotland and for most furnaces in England.
From then the heavy industries were extensively developed
in the district—to such an extent, in fact, that Clydeside has since
become, not altogether to its advantage, particularly associated
in the public mind with these heavy industries.

ARGYLL or ARGYLE

2009-11-20T15:53:00.000+01:00

Argyle street(Glasgow) was originally a rather
unpleasant street,known as Westergait.It was
drained ,sanitised and renamed Anderson
walk,but in 1751 it's name changed again ,
to Argyll street in honour of John Campbell
,the 2nd DUKE OF ARGYLL(1678-1743),
THE most ardent champion of the act of union
(1707)and commander of the Hanoverian troops
who defeated the Jacobites in the rebellion of
1715.The spelling ''ARGYLE'' was adopted
by 1826,although the form''ARGYLL'' was
reverted to for a brief period in 1880s.

Famous Death!

2009-11-20T15:48:00.001+01:00

Whilst trawling through some of the entries
for the SOUTHERN NECROPOLIS
IN GLASGOW I came across this entry:-

Row 8 - This monument erected in 1912
by members of the Institute of Engineers
and shipbuilders in Scotland to the memory
of JOHN ROBERTSON, engineer, born
10/12/1782, died 19/ll/1862 - maker of
the engine of the 'COMET' 1812, the
first steamboat that plied regularly in Europe.

Thanks to BD

Cullen School

2009-11-20T15:45:00.001+01:00

The old public school of Cullen was opened
on 26 January 1876, three years after the first
election of a School Board. To celebrate its
opening the grammar school pupils got ready
a flute band, and with flags, flutes and drums
they marched up to Cullen House, got an orange,
and marched back again to their new premises.

Thanks to BD

Trial of John Stewart.

2009-11-20T15:34:00.001+01:00

John Stewart, born in Glasgow, “lived there with his Parents
till about 15 Years old, and then was put Apprentice to a
Collier, whom he served only two Years. When the Ship
being at London, and just entered into the Transport
Service, he took it into his Head to leave her, thinking he
might do better in the Navy, as 'twas then in the Time
of the late War; so he entered himself on Board the
Maidstone Man of War, a fifty Gun Ship. He says,
she had a roving Commission, and sailed where the
Commander thought proper, and that she had the
good Fortune to take as many or more Prizes, than any
single English Ship during the whole war; but had the
Misfortune at last to be cast away upon the Island of
Almonteer, a desolate Island, opposite to Bourdeaux.
At which Time upwards of forty Hands were lost, besides
Spaniards, and French Prisoners, and the whole Ship's
Crew were in great Danger. Those that were saved, were
carried in Boats to the Main, and made Prisoners; but
Stewart made his Escape from Prison, and travelling
250 Miles on Foot, came to St. Maloes, where he was again

made Prisoner, and brought Home by a Cartel Ship to
England. He and the rest of the Maidstone's Crew were
turned over, when they came Home, to the New Anson;
which after he had helped to rigg out, and she was
ready to go abroad, he gave her the Slip. Having some
Prize-money for the Maidstone to receive, he thought it
was best to stay at Home, and spend that first, before he
went to work for more. But now he laments his Folly,
and says, he thinks it had been better for him to have
continued in the Service.

He has left off going to Sea, these twelve Months
past, and has lived a very wicked Life, in drinking,
cursing, and swearing, &c. and was concerned
in two Robberies, besides what he is convicted and
suffers for. He was in Company with two others,
when they robbed a Gentleman in Cullum Street,
and took from him a gold Watch, &c. and
the Gentleman thinking one of them was going to stab
him, catched hold of the Weapon,and received a Cut
by its being drawn through his Hand. Another Person
was robbed by the same three, near Broad Street, of
a silver Watch. These two Robberies were committed
by them about four or five Nights before the Robbery
in St. Swithin's Lane, which was the 23d of June. The
Watches were immediately sold for what they could
get, and Stewart says, he had about 10 s. to his Share.

As to the Robbery for which he suffers he says, he had
been rambling, and got drunk, that he saw not the
Accomplices that Day: But about 11 o'Clock at Night,
reeling homeward towards Whitechappel, where
he lived, thro' Cannon Street he met them. One of
them had been his Shipmate, who asked him to drink
, but he says, he refused, because he had got enough.
While they were talking together, he says, the other two
ran from him of a sudden, and seized the Prosecutor,
and robbed him.
They were presently pursued, but run away towards
Lombard Street, and he, being in their Company,
thought proper to run towards Walbroke, but being
in Liquor, fell down, and was presently taken. He was
carried to the Poultry Counter that Night, and being
examined before an Alderman, he thought proper
to commit him to Newgate.

Stewart persisted for a long while to say, that he had
never been concerned in any other Robbery, but
what he was convicted of; but on the first of
August, he confessed the other two, saying, his
Conscience would not suffer him to keep the Secret
any longer. He heartily begs Pardon of those
he has had a Hand in injuring, and hopes for
Mercy thro' Jesus Christ.”

My thanks to Janglaschu.

Glasgow 1866.

2009-11-20T15:29:00.001+01:00

In the City Hall,a New Year supper of Beef ,
potatoes,bread and plum pudding was provided
for ' the deserved poor ' .Tickets were
distributed by ' the bible women of the city ' .

Plate Tax.

2009-11-20T15:25:00.002+01:00

DID YOU KNOW that tax on silver was known as Plate Tax.
This tax was imposed on anyone who possessed 100 ounces
or more of silver plate; that is solid silver not Sheffield plate or
electroplated silver (these processes were not developed until
some time later). Records of this tax, naming the owners of the
silver, have been found in Treasury documents in the TNA.

In 1903....

2009-11-20T15:24:00.000+01:00

...there were 12,000 telephone
subscribers in glasgow each
paying £5 per year.

Sir Archibald Geikie wrote....

2009-11-20T15:22:00.000+01:00

''.......As I was returning from my ramble,a strange wailing sound
reached my ears at intervals on the breeze from the west.On gaining
the top of one of the hills on the south side of the valley,I could
see a long and motley procession winding along the road......It
halted at the point of the road opposite Kilbride,and there the
lamentation became loud and long.As i drew nearer,I could see
the minister with his wife and daughters had come out to meet
the people and bid them all farewell.It was a gathering of at least
three generations of crofters.There were old men and women ,too
feeble to walk,who were placed in carts;the youger members of
the community on foot were carrying their bundles of clothes and
household effects,while the children,with look of alarm,walked
along side.....When they set forth once more,a cry of grief went
up to the heavens,the long plaintive wail,like a funeral coronach,
was resumed,and after the last of the emigrants had disappeared
behind the hill,the sound seemed to re-echo through the whole
wide valley of Strath in one prolonged note of desolation.The
people were on their way to be shipped to Canada...........''

In 1796....

2009-11-20T15:20:00.000+01:00

....A coach would leave the BLACK BULL inn,
which was situated in Argyle Street,it would depart
every weekday at 10am travelling to EDINBURGH ,
'inside tickets' were 10s and 'outside tickets' 6s.

What Regiment?

2009-11-20T15:17:00.000+01:00

Here is a list of the traditional Scottish Regiments
and their traditional recruiting areas.

Please note that the Highland Regiments had
the entitlement to wear the kilt into battle.

Lowland -
The Royal Scots - Edinburgh
The Roal Scots Fusiliers - Ayrshire
The Kings Own Scottish Borderers - Roxburgh & Selkirk
The Camerons - Lanarkshire

Highland -

The Black Watch - Dundee & Forfarshire
The Highland Light Infantry - Glasgow
The Seaforth Highlanders - Ross-Shire
The Gordon Highlanders - Aberdeen & Shire
The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders - Inverness & Shire
The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders - Renfrewshire

National -

The Royal Scots Greys
The Scots Guards

Coaching and the Post Office in olden Times (5)end.

2009-11-20T15:14:00.000+01:00

"If one of the now expected vacancies in the
Court of Session were an object of your Lordship, and that
last week you had committed to the Post Office the trans-
mission of a letter or packet by express to your friend in
London upon that subject, could you in such a case approve
of the pursuers being obliged to discover your Lordship’s
secret and confidential affairs?" The Sheriff, however,
not with standing of this personal appeal, remained firm, and
assoilzied the defenders and found them entitled to expenses.
Upon this Mr. Jackson thought proper to present a bill of
advocation, which, having been passed, came, in course of
the rolls, before the Lord Ordinary, who, upon advising the
memorials, made avizandum with the cause to their Lord-
ships. The Court of Session confirmed the interlocutor of
the Sheriff, and thus an end was put to the system in
Glasgow of the Post Office sending off private expresses
under the cloak of the Post Office seal, and under the
pretence of their being sent on Government business.

Coaching and the Post Office in olden Times (4)

2009-11-17T14:07:00.000+01:00

.....but also to make payment to the pursuer of the
sum of .£20 in name of damages and expenses.
The tollmen, in their answers, maintained that the
said expresses were not sent bona fide upon
Government business, but were despatches
forwarded by Mr. Jackson to particular country
gentlemen whom he wished to accommodate,
and upon their private affairs only. The Sheriff,
upon advising the condescendence, &c., ordained
Mr. Jackson " specially to set forth whether the
persons who were stopped were carrying the
public mail or packet, which is regularly sent off
at stated times, in the common course of the
Post Office employment, or a packet despatched
by special express from the Post Office; and
Whether such packet was a Government or
public packet upon His Majesty’s service, or a
private packet sent off at the instance of a private
person in regard to private affairs."

This interlocutor seemed to have given Mr.
Jackson great offence, for he gave in a reply
saying——" That his duty as His Majesty’s
postmaster made it impossible for him to
condescend in terms of the interlocutor, upon
account of the impropriety of laying open and
discovering the objects of His Majesty’s service."

At this time there happened to be a
prospect of a vacant seat on the Bench in the Court of
Session, and Mr. Jackson added the following singular
argumentum ad hominem for the consideration of the
’Sheriff:—

Coaching and the Post Office in olden Times (3)

2009-11-12T10:57:00.000+01:00

In the year 17 74 the collector of pontage on the New
Bridge (now Glasgow Bridge) stopped and detained a horse
carrying the mail or packet from Paisley to Glasgow until
he paid one penny of pontage for crossing the said bridge.
Upon this being made known to Mr. Jackson, the Post-
master, he was grievously offended, and complained to the
Hon.` Arthur Connel, then Lord Provost of Glasgow, for
redress, who, upon hearing parties, severely reprimanded
the collector for his misbehaviour, and ordered the money
to be returned. But in the following year—viz., on 1st
December, 1775-David Cross, keeper of the Paisley Loan
turnpike (situated at the junction of Bridge Street with
Norfolk Street and Nelson Street), and William Ure,
collector of pontage on the New Bridge, having laid their
heads together, did stop and detain a horse carrying a
packet or despatch, alleged to be an express from the Post
Office of Glasgow, till the rider paid the turnpike and
pontage duties imposed by law. In like manner, 011 the
14th of said month, Andrew Brown, keeper of the toll—bar
at the south end of the village of Gorbals, did stop and
detain a horse carrying the mail, or packet, or despatch,
with an express said to be upon the public service from the
Post Office of Glasgow. _Mr. Jackson was in a mighty
passion that these paltry toll gatherers should presume to
stop the expresses of His Majesty George III, and therefore,
in January, 1776, he brought an action before the Sheriff of
Lanarkshire, concluding not only for repayment of the sums
alleged to have been illegally abstracted from the post rider,

Coaching and the Post Office in olden Times (2)

2009-11-12T10:50:00.000+01:00

... any part of the country, applied to the Post Office
for what was called a despatch express. The postmaster
or some of his clerks were always so obliging as to
accommodate gentlemen in this respect, and
enclosed the letters in a cover, sealed with the Post
Office seal; upon which the express boy proceeded
on his way, and at all the stages he came to, he
obtained horses by the authority of the Post Office.
This practice became very common, and was found
to be very convenient to our great tobacco merchants,
many of whom had country houses at some considerable
distance from the city.lt was encouraged by the
postmaster, who no doubt received "a consideration "
for his services. But in course of time the system
was put a stop to in a rather authoritative
manner.

SCOTFAMTREE (The SFT)

2009-11-11T14:36:00.000+01:00

Hello,I'm Jock Tamson of the Scottish Genealogy Forum - SCOTFAMTREE.

I would like to invite anyone interested in tracing their Scottish roots to join us at

http://www.scotfamtree.org.uk

This will take you directly to the Forum but if you want to know a wee bit more about us and what we do,then please go to:

http://www.thesft.moonfruit.com/

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Coaching and the Post Office in olden Times (1)

2009-11-11T14:25:00.001+01:00

An excerpt from

''Popular Traditions of Glasgow ''

by Andrew Wallace 1889

--

Recently ,across the UK,The post office
has been going through some turbulant times.
I thought it may be interesting to look at our
Postal service during the 18th & 19th centuries.

-----

CHAPTER VII.
COACHING AND THE POST OFFICE IN OLDEN TIMES.

" What news? what news? your tidings tell,
Tell me, you must, and shall-
Say why bareheaded you are come,
Or why you come at all? "

THE speed, accuracy, and care with which the business of
the Post Office is now conducted, present a strong and
remarkable contrast to the careless and haphazard manner
in which it was carried on in the "good old days " of a
hundred years ago ; and a few incidents relating to postal
matters in those former days, may be interesting to our
readers. Our gossipy historian " Senex " relates that on one
occasion about the close of last century, he found the Fort
William mail bag lying on the public road, a little way —
beyond Dumbarton, and he had to perform the office of post
boy for several miles ; and when he delivered the bag at the
next post village, the postmaster never even said, "Thank
you, sir," but with a 'humph', carelessly tossed the bag into
a corner. This may be taken as a fair sample of the indif-
ference with which postal matters were treated in those
primitive days.

Before the, Union of Scotland and England in 1707, the
mail between Edinburgh and Glasgow was conveyed by a
foot runner , but on 7th November, 1709, application was
made to the United Parliament for a 'riding' post between
the cities, which application was successful ; but the mail,
in reality, had no proper protection, for, down to " Senex’s "
time, the rider with the mail was a mere boy, and his horse
a sorry hack. About the year 1730, and for many years
after, the Glasgow Post Office was located at No. 51 Princes
Street, City, (then called Gibson’s Wynd), and consisted
of three small apartments. The delivery "bole " or wicket
window was a hole broken through the wall of the close,
which close was a common thoroughfare entry to King
Street. The rent of the premises was some .£6 or £8 a year.
The salaries of the postmaster and clerks were of a similarly
humble order, but these were supplemented by perquisites
for extra services rendered to the wealthier merchants of the
city in the special despatch of letters. About this period
(latter half of last century) Glasgow was becoming a city of
considerable importance ; her merchants carrying on not
only an extensive country trade, but also a foreign com-
merce of pretty large extent. The usual mode of despatch- .
ing letters by the Post Office to the small provincial towns
through running boys, whose regular delivery of letters
could not be depended on, was felt by the Glasgow mer-
chants as a great drawback to their business; it therefore
came to be a practice with our wealthier merchants to send
their letters express by special messengers of their own , but
as this was a rather expensive method of transmitting their
correspondence, they contrived the means of obtaining the
assistance of the postmaster in sending off their express
despatches under the cloak of the Post Office seal. A
private party, who had occasion to despatch an
express to..........

Sketches of Scottish History (last excerpt)

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"Still," said Duke William,
" there are thousands
of the English, firm as rocks around their
king. Shoot upward, Norman archers, that your
arrows may fall down upon their faces."

The sun rose high, and sank, and the battle still
raged. Through all that wild October day the
clash and din resounded in the air. In the red sunset,
and in the white moonlight, heaps upon heaps
of dead men lay strewn, a dreadful spectacle, all
over the ground. King Harold, wounded with an
arrow in the eye, was nearly blind. His brothers
were already killed. Twenty Norman knights,
whose battered armour had flashed fiery and golden
in the sunshine all day long, and now looked silvery
in the moonlight, dashed forward to seize the
royal banner from, the English knights and soldiers,
still faithfully collected round their blinded king.
The king received a mortal wound, and dropped.
The English broke and fled. The Normans rallied,
and the day was lost.
Oh ! what a sight beneath the moon and stars,
when lights were shining in the tent of the victorious
Duke William, which was pitched near the
spot where Harold fell and he and his knights
were carousing within and soldiers with torches,
going slowly to and fro without, sought for the
corpse of Harold among piles of dead and the warrior,
woiked in golden thread and precious stones,
lay low, all torn and soiled with blood and the
three Norman lions kept watch over the field !

About two years after the Battle of Hastings
some of the fugitives, escaping from their country,
set sail for Scotland, and after a tedious and stormy
voyage in their small ship, effected a landing at a
place called St. Margaret's Hope near Edinburgh,
though what name it received previous to their arrival
is unknown. Noble looked the men, but sad.
There were three females accompanied them and to
whom the greatest courtesy was shown. Edgar
Atheling the true and rightful heir to the English
throne, was the name of the principal refugee. The
three ladies were his mother and two sisters Margaret
and Christina. They were on their way to
seek an asylum with Malcolm the Scottish King,
whom they had known in England, when he was
a lonely exile there. He received them all most cordially
and tenderly and shortly after married the
Princess Margaret, one of the two sisters of Edgar.
By this union was established for all dissatisfied
and exiled Saxons from England, in the reigns of
William the Conqueror and of his son William Rufus,
a sure haven of rest and asylum in Scotland at
Malcolm' s court and elsewhere, whence many of the
Lowland Saxon houses derived their origin and
amongst the rest the ancient House of Borthwick.
The first of this name had come with Hengist and
Horsa from their Saxon Woods and he and his
successors had firmly stood by the Saxon dynasty
during its continuance on the throne of England
and when that house was overthrown by Normandy's
great son, Andreas Borthwick accompanied Edgar
Atheling and his two sisters to Scotland and
thus planted the House of Borthwick on the waters
of Borthwick not many miles from Edinburgh the
"borough of Edwin" its ancient founder.

END

Sketches of Scottish History (9)

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On an opposite hill, in three lines archers, footsoldiers,
horsemen was the Norman force. Of a
sudden, a great battle-cry burst from the Norman
lines. The English answered with their own battlecry.
The Normans then came sweeping down the
hill to attack the English.
There was one tall Norman knight who rode before
the Norman army on a prancing horse, throwing
up his heavy sword and catching it, and singing
of the bravery of his countrymen. An English
knight who rode out from the English force to meet
him, fell by this knight's hand. Another English
knight rode out, and he fell too. But then a third
rode out, and killed the Norman. This was in the
beginning of the fight. It soon raged everywhere.
The English, keeping side by side in a great
mass, cared no more for the showers of Norman arrows
than if they had been showers of Norman rain.
When the Norman horsemen rode against them,
with their battle-axes they cut men and horses
down. The Normans gave way. The English pressed
forward. A cry went forth among the Norman
troops that Duke William was killed. Duke William
took off his helmet, in order that his face might
be distinctly seen, and rode along the line before
his men. This gave them courage. As they turned
again to face the English, some of the Norman
horse divided the pursuing body of the English
from the rest, and thus all that foremost portion of
the English fell, fighting bravely. The main body
still remaining firm, heedless of the Norman arrows,
and with their battle-axes cutting down the crowds
of horsemen when they rode up, like forests ofyoung
trees, Duke William pretended to retreat. The
eager English followed. The Norman army closed
again, and fell upon them with great slaughter.

Sketches of Scottish History (8)

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Harold broke up the feast and hurried to London.
Within a week, his army was ready. He sent out
spies to ascertain the Norman strength. William
took them, caused them to be led through his whole
camp, and then dismissed. " The Normans," said
these spies to Harold," are not bearded on the upper
Hp as we English are, but are shorn. They are
priests."
" My men," replied Harold, with a laugh,
" will find those priests good soldiers."
" The Saxons," reported Duke William's outposts
of Norman soldiers, who were instructed to retire
as King Harold's army advanced,
" rush on us
through their pillaged country with the fury of
madmen."
" Let them come, and come soon !"
said DukeWilliam.

Some proposals for a reconciliation were made,
but were soon abandoned. In the middle of the
month of October, in the year 1066, the Normans
and the English came front to front. All night the
armies lay encamped before each other, in a part of
the country then called Senlac, now called (in remembrance
of them) -Battle. With the first dawn
of day they arose. There, in the faint light, were
the English on a hill ; a wood behind them ; in
their midst the royal banner, representing a fighting
warrior, woven in gold thread adorned with
precious stones ; beneath the banner, as it rustled
in the wind, stood King Harold on foot, with two
of his remaining brothers by his side ; around them,
still and silent as the dead, clustered the whole
English army every soldier covered by his shield,
and bearing in his hand his dreaded English battleaxe

Sketches of Scottish History (7)

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...ing their forces against England, with Duke William's
help won a fight, in which the English were
commanded by two nobles, and then besieged York.

Harold, who was waiting for the Normans on the
coast at Hastings, with his army, marched to Stamford
bridge, upon the river Derwent, to give his
brother and the Norwegians instant battle.
He found them drawn up in a hollow circle,
marked out by their shining spears. Riding round
this circle at a distance, to survey it, he saw a brave
figure on horseback, in a blue mantle and a bright
helmet, whose horse suddenly stumbled and threw
him.
" Who is that man who has fallen ?" Harold asked
of one of his captains.
" The King of Norway," he replied. " He is a tall and stately king,"
said Harold," but his end is near."
He added, in a little while,
" Go yonder to my
brother, and tell him if he withdraw his troops he
shall be Earl of Northumberland, and rich and
powerful in England."
The captain rode away and gave the message.
" What will he give to my friend the King of
Norway ?" asked the brother.
" Seven feet of earth for a grave," replied the
captain.
" No more ?" returned the brother with a smile.
" The King of Norway being a tall man, perhaps
a little more," replied the captain.
" Ride back," said the brother,
" and tell King Harold to make ready for the fight !"
He did so very soon. And such a fight King
Harold led against that force, that his brother, the
Norwegian king, and every chief of note in all
their host, except the Norwegian king's son, Olave,
to whom he gave honourable dismissal, were left
dead upon the field. The victorious army marched
to York. As King Harold sat there at the feast, in
the midst of all his company, a stir was heard at
the doors, and messengers, all covered with mire
from riding far and fast through broken ground,
came hurrying in to report that the Normans had
landed in England.
The intelligence was true. They had been tossed
about by contrary winds, and some of their ships
had been wrecked. A part of their own shore, to
which they had been driven back, was strewn with
Norman bodies. But they had once more made sail,
led by the duke's own galley, a present from his
wife, upon the prow whereof the figure of a golden
boy stood pointing towards England. By day, the
banner of the three lions of Normandy, the diverse
coloured sails, the gilded vanes, the many decorations
of this gorgeous ship, had glittered in the sun
and sunny water ; by night, a light had sparkled
like a star at her mast head : and now, encamped
near Hastings, with their leader lying in the old
Roman castle of Pevensy, the English retiring in all
directions, the land for miles around scorched and
smoking, fired and pillaged, was the whole Norman
power, hopeful and strong, on English ground.

Sketches of Scottish History (6)

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this beautiful Tragedy are multitudinous, but space
in this History, will enable us but to gather a few.
The terrible thoughts of Macbeth haunting his
conscience previous to the murder of Duncan is one
of the finest pieces of English composition.
" If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well,
It were done quickly. If the assassination

''Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease success ; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which being taught, return
To plague the inventor. This even handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust :
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off,
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself
And fails on the other."

These extracts would be incomplete without the
well known soliloquy.
" Is this a dagger that I see before me ?
The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch
thee ;
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still
Art thou not, fatal vision ! sensible
To feeling, as to sight ? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain ? .
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw,
Thou marshul'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use,
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest, I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which were not there before There's no such thing;
It is the bloody business, which informs
Thus to mine eyes Now o'er one half the world
Nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep ; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings ; and wither'd murder
Alarm' d by his sentinel the wolf,
Whose howls' his watch, thus with his stealthy pace
With Tarquin's ravishing strides,towards his design
Moves like a ghost Thou sure and firm set earth
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The very stones watch of my whereabouts
And take the present horror from the time
Which now suits with it, Whiles I threat he lives
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives,
I go, and it is done ; the bell invites me,
Hear it not, Duncan ; for it is the knell
That summons thee to Heaven or Hell.

After the death of Duncan the scene changes to
the court of the English King, where Kosse has
brought news to Malcolm and Macduff of the massacre
of the latter's whole family in Fife, by Macbeth,
who is now to all appearance firmly seated on
the Scottish throne. This sad event had been predicted
by the tyrant himself where he says :

" The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
Seize upon Fife, give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace his line.
After Rosse had brought the news Malcolm says
to Macduff:
Be comforted,
Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
Macduff. He has no children All my pretty ones?
Did you say ail ? Oh Hell Kite ! All !
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop ?

Malcolm. Dispute it like a man.
Macduff. I shall do so ;
But I must also feel it as a man,
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me did Heaven
look on,
And would not take their part ? sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee ! naught that I
am.''

When Malcolm had been twelve years on the
throne of Scotland, there came to the shores of
England another invader like Julius Caesar, William
of Normandy by name. " The Conqueror'' in
English History. At the celebrated Battle of Hastings
he attacked King Harold, and after a long
and stout encounter the English King was slain and
his army put to rout.
We must insert here the great English novelist's
description of the Battle of Hastings ; Charles Dickens
very truthfully remarks that

" HAROLD was crowned King of England on the
very day of Edward the Confessor's funeral. When
the news reached Norman William, hunting in his
park at Rouen, he dropped his bow, returned to his
palace, called his nobles to council, and presently
sent ambassadors to Harold, calling on him to keep
his oath, and resign the crown. Harold would do
no such thing. The barons of France leagued together
round Duke William for the invasion of England.
Duke William promised freely to distribute
English wealth and English lands among them.
The Pope sent to Normandy a consecrated banner,
and a ring containing a hair which he warranted to
have grown on the head of St. Peter ! He blessed
the enterprise, and cursed Harold, and requested
the Normans would pay " Peter's pence" or a tax
to himself of a penny a year on every house a
little more regularly in future, if they could make
it convenient.

King Harold had a rebel brother in Flanders,
who was a vassal of Harold Hardrada, king of Norway.
This brother and this Norwegian king, join......

Sketches of Scottish History (5)

2009-11-08T15:42:00.002+01:00

IT is impossible to find out in what way Christianity
was introduced into Scotland ; but it is
certain that the first great name with which this
era is connected is that of St. Ninian, who is called
by the " venerable Bede." " The Apostle of the
South of Scotland." He founded a religious house
or church at Whithorn in Wigtownshire and died
in A. D. 432. Intimately connected with him was
St. Patrick who went to Ireland, the year of St.
Ninian's Death. He died A. D. 460. In Scotland
arose another great name Palladius who labored
successfully among the Picts, to near the middle of
the sixth century. A well know disciple of his
St. Kentigern or St. Mungo, established the faith
among the Britons in the West. St. Columba succeeded
Palladius, but on account of the civil strifes
of his country retired to lona in A. D. 563 and
founded the celebrated monastery there which
became a centre of learning. From this time to
the middle of 1he eighth century and on to that of
the tenth, we know little of the Church in Scotland .
These names then of St. Ninian, Palladius and St.
Columba are imperishably connected with the era
succeeding that of the Druids. Druidical worship
gave way before their kindly teachings. The long
white-robed Druid priest neither cut the Mistletoe
any more nor sacrificed the wretched victim on the
Altar Stone. The great circles of stones became
deserted and in their place little churches began to
be built all over the Island.
It continued thus until the reign of King Malcolm.
This King is immortalized by Shakespeare,
the renowned Bard of Avon in his beautiful and
well known Tragedy of Macbeth. Macbeth had
murdered the previous King
" Good King Duncan"
and usurped the throne. Young Malcolm, his son,
fled to England and lived for fifteen years at the
English court, eating the bread and drinking the
water of a lonely exile from his native land. At
last, receiving help from the English King, he
returned to Scotland, encountered Macbeth at
Dunsinane and slew him. He thus ascended the
Scottish throne and reigned in peace.
Some extracts from that immortal Tragedy must
be inserted here as the "Play of Macbeth" tells us
of one of the earliest periods in Scottish History.
The exquisite morceaux which can be culled
from..........

Sketches of Scottish History (4)

2009-11-08T15:39:00.001+01:00

Druids and early Britons, for it represented their
sun-god Hoius, of Eastern mythology (the offspring
of Deo and Virgo, which the Egyptians represented
by the Sphinx), as also Baldur, the loved and early
lost, whose tale in the Norse mythology is like a
sunshiny fragment of Ionian life, dropped into the
stormy centre of Scandinavian existence. For
Baldur, the holiest Druids sought with prayers and
ceremonies on the sixth day of the moon the mistletoe
which grew on the sacred oak. Its discovery
was hailed with songs and sacrifices of white bulls.
None but the chief priest might gather it, which
was done by separating it from the tree with a
golden knife. It was caught in the robe of a priest,
and on no account allowed to touch the ground. In
Denmark, Sweden and Norway, it has still names
equivalent to u Baldur brow." It was in high
reputation with all pretenders to the black art, and
is authoritatively said to possess the power of
resisting lightning. It grows in abundance in central
Texas, and it is currently believed that even if
the tree on which it grew were blasted by lightning,
it was always uninjured. Chandler says that the
custom of decking the house at Christmas with mistletoe
is of pagan origin, and was done by the
Druids to allure and comfort the sylvan spirits during
the sleep of nature."

Sketches of Scottish History (3)

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pretended to cure all diseases the grand remedy
being a parasitic plant growing in the oak tree and
called Mistletoe.
The power and influence of this singular order
were immense. Whoever refused obedience to them
was accursed and cut off from every right belonging
to a human being. He was forbidden all use of fire
and no man dared on pain of death to allow the poor
shivering wretch to warm himself. All fled at his
approach, lest they should be polluted by his touch.
Such was the tremendous power which this giant
superstition exercised over the brave but simple
Caledonians or People of the woods, as well as over
all the inhabitants of Britain.

Before concluding this first Chapter, it may be
interesting to insert the following short article
taken from a recent number of " Potter 's American
Monthly ''and which gives some items of useful
information regarding the Mistletoe.
'' This singular plant, so weirdly interwoven with
the superstition and poetry of our Saxon forefathers,
and inseparable from both heathen and
Christian traditions of" Yule-tide," is a coarse, twoleaved
evergreen growing on trees, as many of the
mosses and fungi do. Its leaves are oblong, and
between every pair of them is found a cluster of
small, sticky berries the same of which the substance
called birdlime is made. During the Christmas
week of 1872 the English" mistletoe bough"
was offered for sale in Boston for the first time. We
give our readers the following mythological account
of this plant, still dear to every English home circle.
The mistletoe was the holiest plant in nature to the....

Sketches of Scottish History (2)

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.. the chariots is this : in the first place they drive
round to all quarters and cast darts, and with the
very terror caused by their horses, and the rumb-
ling noise of their wheels, they generally disorder
the ranks, and having wrought themselves in
betwixt the troops of the cavalry, they jump out
u of their chariots and fight on foot. Their drivers,
in the meantime, retire a little from the action
and so station the chariots, that in case they be
overpowered by the enemies' numbers, they may
have a free retreat to their friends. Thus in
battles they act with the swiftness of cavalry
and the firmness of infantry ; and by daily expe-
rience and practice become so expert, that they
use on declining and sloping ground to check their
horses at full gallop and quickly manage and turn
them and run along the pole and rest on the
lt harness and from thence, with great nimbleness,
leap back into the chariots."

The Romans remained undisputed masters of all
the southern parts of Great Britain, for one hundred
and fifty years after Caesar's victory on the Kentish
shore. At this period the celebrated General Julius
Agricola led his army across the border which then
divided the conquered from the unconquered part
of Britain, and began to hew and cut his way into the
dense forest of Caledonia. After a great deal of
hard fighting he at last, built a chain of strong torts
between the firths of Clyde and Forth but all
the country to the north of these forts or what is
called The Highlands of Scotland could never be
conquered or subdued ; hence the Romans were in
continual alarm and trouble from the incursions of
these hardy Picts and Scots which continued till
the last legions of Home left the Island nearly
four hundred years after Caesar's victory at the
Chalk Cliffs of Dover.

We cannot close this short account of the occupation
by the Romans of Britain's Isle without
inserting the following poem of Cowper on this
subject.
It is supposed that an ancient Druid is speaking
to the British Queen and foretelling the greatness
and the grandeur of that Empire upon which the
sun never sets in his celestial circuit.

BOADICEA.
" When the Romans landed in Britain, Boadicea was queen of a
tribe of Britons living on the eastern coast, Her husband, shortly
before his death, had made a will dividing his property between
his two daughters and the emperor of Rome ; by which means he
expected to make the Roman government friendly. But the plan
entirely failed. After his death, his kingdom was plundered, and
his family abused and maltreated in a most outrageous manner.
Boadicea, rendered frantic by the injuries inflicted on herself and
her daughters, gathered an 'army, and took the field against the
Romans. Before the battle she rode along the ranks in a war
chariot with her daughters behind her, and harangued the soldiers
as she passed along the lines, denouncing the tyranny and
the crimes of the Romans, and urging them to fight bravely in
the coming conflict, and thus at onee avenge her wrongs and save
their common country. All, however, was vain. The battle was
fiercely fought, but the Romans were victorious."

When the British warrior Queen,
Bleeding from the Roman rods,
Sought, with an indignant mien,
Counsel of her country's gods :
Sage beneath the spreading oak
Sat the Druid, hoary chief5
Every burning word he spoke
Full of rage and full of Grief:-

" Princess ! if our aged eyes
Weep upon thy matchless wrongs,
Tis because resentment ties
All the terrors of our tongues.
Rome shall perish ! write that word
In the blood that she has spilt !
Perish, hopeless and abhorred,
Deep in ruin as in guilt.
Rome, for empire far renowned,
Tramples on a thousand states ;
Soon her pride shall kiss the ground
Hark ! the Goth is at her gates !
Other Romans shall arise,
Heedless of a soldier's name ;
Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize,
Harmony the path to fame.
Then the progeny that springs
From the forests of our land,
Armed with thunder, clad with wings,
Shall a wider world command.
Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway ;
Where his eagles never flew
None invincible as they.
Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.
She, with all a monarch's pride,
Felt them in her bosom glow ;
Rushed to battle, fought, and died,
Dying, hurled them at the foe :
Ruffians ! pitiless as proud.
Heaven awards the vengeance due ;
Empire is on us bestowed,
Shame and ruin wait for you !

At this period, all over France as well as Britain,
prevailed that terrible and bloody religion which
is known as the Druid. These Druids or men of the
Oaks worshipped a supreme God or as he was styled
The Ruler of the World. They worshipped the
sun also under the name of Bel and made him the
God of Medicine, because by his rays and heat the
healing plants and all the shrubs which they required
in their arts and incantations were made to
grow. They taught the doctrine of a future life but
held like the Hindoos that before the soul reached
a state of happiness, it had to undergo a series of
transmigrations, becoming the inhabitant of a succession
of brute bodies. The oak tree was their
sacred tree. Their places of worship were called
Henges and their altars styled Kromlachs. They
offered human victims in sacrifice. Plunging the
sacrificial knive into the bosom of the poor wretch,
they drew signs and omens from the manner in
which it fell the convulsions of the limbs and the
spurting and flowing of the victim's blood. Sometimes
they made huge wicker work figures of men
filled them with human beings afterwards burning
both the figure and its contents to ashes. They..........

Sketches of Scottish History (1)

2009-11-04T16:36:00.000+01:00

SKETCHES OF SCOTTISH HISTORY
Great Boadicea
''Thy very fall perpetuates thy fame,
And Suetonius' laurels droop with shame,"
DIBDIN.

CHAPTER I.
Description of Scotland. Arrival of the Romans under
Julius Csesar. His Victory on the Kentish Shore.
Descriptions from the Commentaries. Julius Agricola.
Boadicea. The Druids. Story of the Mistletoe;
(" Potter's American Monthly")

IT is now impossible even in this practical age of
the world's history to find out, when Scotland
was first inhabited, or when the ancient and primitive
tribes first landed on its northern shores and
spread themselves over its heather hills. There is
nothing in all history no written memorial or
record of any kind whatever, to give us the information
we are in search of or to tell us who were
or whither came the aboriginal inhabitants. Antiquity's
darkest pall covers the whole subject, and
it thus continues until the 55th year before the
Christian Era,In this ever memorable year memorable to
every British subject, in every part of our ever
Gracious Majesty the Queen's vast dominions, and
wherever the English language is spoken the
Romans, at this time the undisputable possessors
and conquerors of almost the whole known world,
made their first descent on the shores of Albion.
Let the reader carry back his imagination to this
important period. No modern writer can give so
faithful and exact an account of this great expedition
as he who was an eye-witness to and the
commander of the whole. In the 4th Book of
Caesar's Commentaries, we have a graphic description
of the landing of the Romans on the Kentish
shore. In the 25th Chapter of that book, Caesar
thus writes :

"Atque nostris militibus cunctantibus
maxime propter altitudinem maris ; qui X legio-
nis aquilam ferebat, contestatus deos, ut ea res
legioni feliciter eveniret : Desilite, inquit, com-
militones, nisi vultis aquilam hostibus prodere,
ergo, certe meum reipub. atque imperatori offici-
" um praestitero. Hoc quum magna voce dixisset,
" ex navi se projecit, atque in hostes aquilam ferre
coepit."

" And whilst our men demurred (aboutventuring ashore)
chiefly on account of the deepness of the sea, the
standard-bearer of the tenthlegion, imploring the gods
that the thing might turn out lucky for the legion,
Fellow-soldiers,said he, jump out, unless you have a
mind to give up your eagle to the enemy. I, at least,
shall perform my duty to the commonwealth and
my general. Having said this with a loud voice,
he leaped overboard, and began to advance the
eagle towards the enemy."

This happened on a lovely afternoon of a beautiful
day in September, when the leaves of the old
oak trees in the English forests were beginning to
be tinged with the glorious tints of an approaching
autumnal season. Caesar's fleet amounted to eighty
ships of all sizes. The sturdy native Britons lined
the beach, their army consisting of foot, horse, and
chariots, and they opposed, with all their might,
the landing of the Roman legions on their shores.
Caesar opened on the Islanders a heavy discharge
not of cannon balls and rifle bullets, for artillery
was then unknown but of stones and darts, from
the Balista and Catapulta, warlike military engines
which he had on board the fleet. This made the
brave Britons retire a little, but after the 10th
legion, Caesar's favorite corps, with many others,
amounting to 12,000 soldiers, entered the water,
the Islanders were slowly driven back, and the
Imperial army of Rome remained masters of the field.
Thus for the first time, was the standard eagle of
the conquering Romans planted on Albion's Isle.

Let us look for a moment to the Commentaries of
the renowned Julius Caesar, and give two additional
extracts, relative to the occupation of Britain by the
Romans, he says :

" The enemy being vanquished in battle, so
soon as they recovered themselves after their
flight, sent instantly to Caesar to treat about a
peace, and promised to give hostages, and submit
to orders."

He then, in the 33rd Chapter describes graphically
the ancient mode of fighting, by the inhabitants
of Britain.

" The manner of fighting from..........

More to follow....

Sample pages from the KINGS OF SCOTLAND( 5 vol. first edition)

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The KINGS of SCOTLAND (excerpt end)

2009-11-04T10:54:00.001+01:00

I hope you have enjoyed this wee excerpt
from ''The Scots Peerage'' or
''The KINGS of SCOTLAND'' .(Vol. 1)

These Volumes ( 5 ) will be on sale
Later this month in our wee shop.
They (five volumes) have been digitised
and will be on sale for £5 per volume
or £20 for the full set.

As the pages are turned,these books
become very detailed after the 14th
century,often whole chapters are
given over to an individual.Each Vol.
has approx 600+ pages.

I'll post a few sample pages...........