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Electric Scotland News
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship television program of The Christian Broadcasting Network. It airs each weekday on Freeform and presents relevant news, entertainment, testimonies and Christian ministry. The 700 Club YouTube channel shares similar content and provides Christian ministry through live streams and community updates.
https://www.youtube.com/@700club/
--------
Managed to talk to Beth and Tom of Beth's Newfangled Family Tree yesterday and happy to report both are well.
They've spent the last four months in hospital and Tom's had his final surgery and it ended up very well. He's now at home in recovery and is getting visits from the care facility to get physiotherapy and he tells me he should be able to get around like he used to within the next 6 months and getting stronger week by week.
Beth's much improved. She suffered from sleep depravation which was quite serious but is now over that. She has spinal issues but has an appointment with a specialist today where they hope an injection of some kind will help to much improve her mobility. She hasn't been able to use her computer but is now looking to get a tablet so she can do email. So you will be able to email her at bethscribble@aol.com in around 2 weeks time and she should be able to receive it and reply. She also has a new mobile phone and you can call her on 762 230 1637.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Israel must defend itself!
By Jeff Taylor
View this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSz1BQ1vbz0
Who owns Scotland’s sea lochs?
The biggest fish farming company in Scotland, MOWI, won a permanent interdict last week that says kayak-campaigner Don Staniford - or any of his associates - cannot go within 15 meters of its fish farms.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2023/10/who-o...nds-sea-lochs/
CBN News
Ground War in Gaza | News on The 700 Club: October 30, 2023
View this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9FprIhQEV4
Scotland gripped in crisis!
By Jeff Taylor
View this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxWb2Q9H1JE
The Left's ceasefire stupidity
Labour MPs calling for a ceasefire in Gaza are far from the only useful idiots on the Left who believe being nice to terrorists will stop them wanting to kill you. Both Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak must continue to hold the line when members of their own parties call for capitulation to Hamas.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/starmer-has-seen-sen...-for-how-long/
Jihadists at home
As a demonstration of more than 100,000 people in London shows, the West has permitted a large Islamist element to develop in its midst.
Read more at:
https://www.city-journal.org/article...ters-in-london
Best fish and chip shop in Scotland crowned with visitors calling it unreal
The Trawler, situated in the Highlands village of Golspie, received the award for Best Fish and Chip in Scotland at the 2023 national Grand Final of Scotlands Business Awards.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...tland-31322677
The Isle of Eigg: The community-owned island that powers itself
Despite being one of the smallest Scottish islands with just 110 residents, the Isle of Eigg is a model of forward-thinking, sustainable, eco-conscious living.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...-powers-itself
Dr Jordan Peterson and Piers Morgan break down Israel-Hamas war
Clinical psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson has examined the ongoing brutal war between Israel and Hamas during an insightful and confronting wide-ranging interview with Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan.
View this at:
https://youtu.be/3s-22sMkYAs?si=SqOr2jVD54Gsz_LN
Is Scotland Islamophobic?
Having a Muslim First Minister has not deterred officials from claiming that Scotland is a hotbed of Islamophobia. But if the report's analysis seems like a stretch, its draconian recommendations for schools and the media are deeply troubling – and show just how hysterical the Scottish establishment has become.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/islamophobia-report-...nt-has-become/
Electric Canadian
Letters from Settlers in Canada
Official and other information for intending settlers in Manitoba, the North-West Territories, British Columbia and the other Provinces of Canada (Issued by the authority of the Minister of the Interior of Canada) (1896) (pdf)
You can read this report at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...cihm_14548.pdf
A Family Record
Embracing a Sketch of the history of the Scratch, Wigle, Fox, Friend, Wilkinson, Shepley, McCormick, Malotte, Coatsworth, Iler families and other early Settlers of the country of Essex. The Sketch gives an account of their early settlement in America and the final settlement of their descendants in Western Canada By Mrs. Mary J. Burch (1880) (pdf)
You can read this record at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/cihm_08553.pdf
Queries and Replies
The Canadian Pacific, Manitoba, The Canadian North-West, Testimony by Actual Settlers (pdf)
You can read this testimony at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...acif00cana.pdf
The Canadian Settlers' Guide
Tenth Edition, considerable enlarged (1860) (pdf)
You can read this guide at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tlersguide.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 29th day of October 2023 - All Hallows Eve
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view her homily at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...ll-hallows-eve
Nick and Maëla
This Log Cabin Project is a dream that we have had for several years that we finally decided to make a reality. Our goal is to build a tiny log cabin from scratch using as much material from our land as possible. We are building it entirely using hand tools (no chainsaw!. This cabin will function fully off-grid and will be only accessible by foot. Subscribe to follow our journey! [external link]
You can view their channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/@NickandMaela
Dreams of Fort Garry
By Robert Watson, F.R.G.S. (1931) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...garr00wats.pdf
Electric Scotland
Picturesque Perthshire
By J. E. A. Steggall, M.A. Trin. Coll. Cam. (1906) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...erth00steg.pdf
Joe and Mike Guide: The Kiltmaker
Join Joe and Mike as they visit Gordon Nicolson who runs a kiltmaking business in St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh. This interview answers many questions posed by Joe and Mike as well as their online audience. These questions range from the design of tartans to the art of making a quality made to measure traditional garment for men as well as women.
Added this video to our Tartans page which you czn get to at:
https://electricscotland.com/tartans/index.htm
Fur and Feather Series
Added the fourth book to this series, The Red Deer.
You can get to this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...furfeather.htm
Notes for Hunting Men
By Captain Cortlandt Gordon Mackenzie, Royal Artillery (1901) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ingm00mack.pdf
Naval Stories
By William Leggett (second edition) (1835) (pdf)
You can read these stories at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ries00legg.pdf
My own life and times, 1741-1814
By Thomas Somerville (1861)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...somerville.htm
James Telfer
Found a wee bio of this poet and added it to our page The Gloaming Bucht under The Fairy's Song.
You can get to this at:
https://electricscotland.com/kids/stories/bucht.htm
An Alphabetical Abridgment of The Laws for the Prevention of Smuggling
(1816) (pdf)
Added this to our Smuggling page which can be read at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/lawsonsmuggling.pdf
A Scotch Communion Sunday
To which are added certain discourses from a University city by the Author of The Recreations of a Country Parson, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd (1873) (pdf)
You can read these discourses at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/A...hich_are_a.pdf
Story
My own life and times, 1741-1814
By Thomas Somerville (1861)
THOMAS SOMERVILLE, D.D., Minister of Jedburgh, the author of the following Memoirs, was, as he himself informs us, born on the 26th of February (old style) 1741. He died on the 16th of May 1830, in the ninetieth year of his age. He had thus lived through the whole of the long and eventful reign of George the Third, having indeed nearly reached manhood at the date of its commencement, and survived its close more than ten years. It was an age not only of great events and great men, but one also characterized—especially in Scotland—by social changes hardly less memorable. Its nearness to our own times has added to the interest, for many reasons, felt by us in whatever relates to the epoch in question. Nor has that interest been lessened, but on the contrary greatly increased,—indeed it has been mainly created,— by the copious illustration which the history, and, above all, the personal and domestic history of the whole period has already received.
With regard to the opportunities of observation enjoyed by the author of the present autobiography, and his claim generally to be heard as a chronicler of his own Life and Times, enough is probably said in the few sentences of introduction, or may be gathered from the work itself. That he was one of the latest survivors of a past generation is the ground on which he himself seems chiefly to assert the privilege of writing these Memoirs. His life, however, was not only greatly prolonged, but, in its comparatively narrow sphere, had been more than usually active and varied. He refers to his frequent, and occasionally intimate, intercourse with many of the best known and some of the most distinguished of his contemporaries. The list included such names as those of Burke, Robertson, Dugald Stewart, Fox, Henry Dundas, Sir Gilbert Elliot, the Duke of Portland, Mr. Pitt, President Blair, Sir Henry Moncreiff and Dr. Erskine, Lord Kames, Henry Mackenzie, Lord Minto, Sir Walter Scott. He had, however, not less ample opportunities of becoming personally acquainted with the middle and the humbler classes of society than—whether as regards rank or intellectual cultivation—with the highest; and perhaps the portions of this autobiography which by many readers will be found the most attractive, are those in which the minister of Jedburgh speaks of the social condition and social usages of his own parishioners, as these had been familiar to him in all their changes during a course of pastoral labours extending over a period of more than sixty years. Dr. Somerville is known as the author of two historical works—the Histories of the Revolution, and of the Reign of Queen Anne—which, besides other acknowledged merits, are distinguished by their fairness and impartiality. The same qualities will, it is believed, be found in this less elaborate performance, and, more especially, great candour and liberality on the author’s part in his judgments of the personal conduct and character of other men, with an absence of anything approaching either to pretension or reticence in his not very frequent or obtrusive allusions to himself and his own affairs.
The work was written in the years 1813 and 1814, and appears to have been revised on more than one occasion afterwards. It was intended for publication; and it may be proper to state, that in allowing an interval of nearly half a century to elapse before making it public, the representatives of the author have, as in now committing it to the press, acted in fulfilment of his own instructions. A few notes have been supplied by the Editor, chiefly for the purpose of identifying the persons whose names are introduced in the course of the work. These annotations will sometimes, perhaps, appear superfluous; but, upon the whole, it has been thought advisable to follow a uniform rule on the occasion of any name being mentioned for the first time.
Some account may be here given of the last years of the author, for the sake of completing the narrative. There is not much to be told. Dr. Somerville concludes his own recollections by expressing his gratitude to God that up to the advanced age of seventy-three, which he had then reached, he had been favoured with uninterrupted good health, and that he was still in possession of the capacity of discharging the ordinary duties of his profession, as well as enjoying the many blessings that remained to him. With hardly any qualification, the same language might have been used by him in his ninetieth year, and until within a few days of his death. He never ceased to be able to take delight in the society of his friends; or to find pleasure in his books—to the last, too, keeping himself abreast with the literature of the day;—or to feel a keen interest in public events and questions; or, above all, to retain that active solicitude for the welfare (both temporal and spiritual) of every individual member of his flock, which, in a very remarkable degree, characterized him throughout his long and useful life. Mr. Lockhart, who, at this period, “spent many pleasant hours under his hospitable roof with Sir Walter Scott,” speaks of him as “preserving his faculties quite entire to a great old age,” and says, “We heard him preach an excellent circuit sermon when he was upwards of eighty-two; and at the judge’s dinner afterwards, he was among the gayest of the company.”—(Life of Sir W. Scott, ch. viii.) In the year 1828, a public dinner was given to him by his co-presbyters and some of his other friends, on the occasion of his completing the sixtieth year of his ministry. He was by that time the father of the Church of Scotland, having outlived the whole of those of his brethren who were ministers of the Church at the date of his own ordination. On Sunday the 9th of May 1830—to quote an obituary notice in a contemporary newspaper—he preached and dispensed the Lord’s Supper to his people, with much animation, ability, and feeling, alluding in the close of the service to the probability that it might be the last occasion of the kind on which they might meet together..... He took a solemn leave of them on that Sunday afternoon, and gave them what might be considered his parting admonition and benediction. ‘Yet his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.’ In the course of the same evening he became seriously indisposed and on the evening of the following Sabbath he departed peacefully, rejoicing in the hopes and consolations of the gospel.”
Dr. Somerville is buried in the Lady Chapel of Jedburgh Abbey—a portion of that beautiful ruin, which also goes by the name of “the Latiner’s aisle,” having at one time been used as a Grammar School; and, besides a monument erected over the grave by his family, a mural tablet was placed in the parish church a short time after his death by the heritors of Jedburgh, “AS A MEMORIAL OF THEIR HIGH ESTEEM AND RESPECT FOR HIS PUBLIC SERVICES AND PRIVATE WORTH”—esteem and respect which, it may be here added, were largely shared by the whole of his parishioners, without distinction of sect or party, and by a wide circle of personal friends.
W. L.
Roxburgh, 15™ March 1861.
You can read his account at the link in the Electric Scotland section above.
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship television program of The Christian Broadcasting Network. It airs each weekday on Freeform and presents relevant news, entertainment, testimonies and Christian ministry. The 700 Club YouTube channel shares similar content and provides Christian ministry through live streams and community updates.
https://www.youtube.com/@700club/
--------
Managed to talk to Beth and Tom of Beth's Newfangled Family Tree yesterday and happy to report both are well.
They've spent the last four months in hospital and Tom's had his final surgery and it ended up very well. He's now at home in recovery and is getting visits from the care facility to get physiotherapy and he tells me he should be able to get around like he used to within the next 6 months and getting stronger week by week.
Beth's much improved. She suffered from sleep depravation which was quite serious but is now over that. She has spinal issues but has an appointment with a specialist today where they hope an injection of some kind will help to much improve her mobility. She hasn't been able to use her computer but is now looking to get a tablet so she can do email. So you will be able to email her at bethscribble@aol.com in around 2 weeks time and she should be able to receive it and reply. She also has a new mobile phone and you can call her on 762 230 1637.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Israel must defend itself!
By Jeff Taylor
View this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSz1BQ1vbz0
Who owns Scotland’s sea lochs?
The biggest fish farming company in Scotland, MOWI, won a permanent interdict last week that says kayak-campaigner Don Staniford - or any of his associates - cannot go within 15 meters of its fish farms.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2023/10/who-o...nds-sea-lochs/
CBN News
Ground War in Gaza | News on The 700 Club: October 30, 2023
View this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9FprIhQEV4
Scotland gripped in crisis!
By Jeff Taylor
View this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxWb2Q9H1JE
The Left's ceasefire stupidity
Labour MPs calling for a ceasefire in Gaza are far from the only useful idiots on the Left who believe being nice to terrorists will stop them wanting to kill you. Both Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak must continue to hold the line when members of their own parties call for capitulation to Hamas.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/starmer-has-seen-sen...-for-how-long/
Jihadists at home
As a demonstration of more than 100,000 people in London shows, the West has permitted a large Islamist element to develop in its midst.
Read more at:
https://www.city-journal.org/article...ters-in-london
Best fish and chip shop in Scotland crowned with visitors calling it unreal
The Trawler, situated in the Highlands village of Golspie, received the award for Best Fish and Chip in Scotland at the 2023 national Grand Final of Scotlands Business Awards.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...tland-31322677
The Isle of Eigg: The community-owned island that powers itself
Despite being one of the smallest Scottish islands with just 110 residents, the Isle of Eigg is a model of forward-thinking, sustainable, eco-conscious living.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...-powers-itself
Dr Jordan Peterson and Piers Morgan break down Israel-Hamas war
Clinical psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson has examined the ongoing brutal war between Israel and Hamas during an insightful and confronting wide-ranging interview with Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan.
View this at:
https://youtu.be/3s-22sMkYAs?si=SqOr2jVD54Gsz_LN
Is Scotland Islamophobic?
Having a Muslim First Minister has not deterred officials from claiming that Scotland is a hotbed of Islamophobia. But if the report's analysis seems like a stretch, its draconian recommendations for schools and the media are deeply troubling – and show just how hysterical the Scottish establishment has become.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/islamophobia-report-...nt-has-become/
Electric Canadian
Letters from Settlers in Canada
Official and other information for intending settlers in Manitoba, the North-West Territories, British Columbia and the other Provinces of Canada (Issued by the authority of the Minister of the Interior of Canada) (1896) (pdf)
You can read this report at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...cihm_14548.pdf
A Family Record
Embracing a Sketch of the history of the Scratch, Wigle, Fox, Friend, Wilkinson, Shepley, McCormick, Malotte, Coatsworth, Iler families and other early Settlers of the country of Essex. The Sketch gives an account of their early settlement in America and the final settlement of their descendants in Western Canada By Mrs. Mary J. Burch (1880) (pdf)
You can read this record at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/cihm_08553.pdf
Queries and Replies
The Canadian Pacific, Manitoba, The Canadian North-West, Testimony by Actual Settlers (pdf)
You can read this testimony at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...acif00cana.pdf
The Canadian Settlers' Guide
Tenth Edition, considerable enlarged (1860) (pdf)
You can read this guide at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tlersguide.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 29th day of October 2023 - All Hallows Eve
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can view her homily at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...ll-hallows-eve
Nick and Maëla
This Log Cabin Project is a dream that we have had for several years that we finally decided to make a reality. Our goal is to build a tiny log cabin from scratch using as much material from our land as possible. We are building it entirely using hand tools (no chainsaw!. This cabin will function fully off-grid and will be only accessible by foot. Subscribe to follow our journey! [external link]
You can view their channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/@NickandMaela
Dreams of Fort Garry
By Robert Watson, F.R.G.S. (1931) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...garr00wats.pdf
Electric Scotland
Picturesque Perthshire
By J. E. A. Steggall, M.A. Trin. Coll. Cam. (1906) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...erth00steg.pdf
Joe and Mike Guide: The Kiltmaker
Join Joe and Mike as they visit Gordon Nicolson who runs a kiltmaking business in St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh. This interview answers many questions posed by Joe and Mike as well as their online audience. These questions range from the design of tartans to the art of making a quality made to measure traditional garment for men as well as women.
Added this video to our Tartans page which you czn get to at:
https://electricscotland.com/tartans/index.htm
Fur and Feather Series
Added the fourth book to this series, The Red Deer.
You can get to this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...furfeather.htm
Notes for Hunting Men
By Captain Cortlandt Gordon Mackenzie, Royal Artillery (1901) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ingm00mack.pdf
Naval Stories
By William Leggett (second edition) (1835) (pdf)
You can read these stories at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ries00legg.pdf
My own life and times, 1741-1814
By Thomas Somerville (1861)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...somerville.htm
James Telfer
Found a wee bio of this poet and added it to our page The Gloaming Bucht under The Fairy's Song.
You can get to this at:
https://electricscotland.com/kids/stories/bucht.htm
An Alphabetical Abridgment of The Laws for the Prevention of Smuggling
(1816) (pdf)
Added this to our Smuggling page which can be read at:
https://electricscotland.com/books/lawsonsmuggling.pdf
A Scotch Communion Sunday
To which are added certain discourses from a University city by the Author of The Recreations of a Country Parson, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd (1873) (pdf)
You can read these discourses at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/A...hich_are_a.pdf
Story
My own life and times, 1741-1814
By Thomas Somerville (1861)
THOMAS SOMERVILLE, D.D., Minister of Jedburgh, the author of the following Memoirs, was, as he himself informs us, born on the 26th of February (old style) 1741. He died on the 16th of May 1830, in the ninetieth year of his age. He had thus lived through the whole of the long and eventful reign of George the Third, having indeed nearly reached manhood at the date of its commencement, and survived its close more than ten years. It was an age not only of great events and great men, but one also characterized—especially in Scotland—by social changes hardly less memorable. Its nearness to our own times has added to the interest, for many reasons, felt by us in whatever relates to the epoch in question. Nor has that interest been lessened, but on the contrary greatly increased,—indeed it has been mainly created,— by the copious illustration which the history, and, above all, the personal and domestic history of the whole period has already received.
With regard to the opportunities of observation enjoyed by the author of the present autobiography, and his claim generally to be heard as a chronicler of his own Life and Times, enough is probably said in the few sentences of introduction, or may be gathered from the work itself. That he was one of the latest survivors of a past generation is the ground on which he himself seems chiefly to assert the privilege of writing these Memoirs. His life, however, was not only greatly prolonged, but, in its comparatively narrow sphere, had been more than usually active and varied. He refers to his frequent, and occasionally intimate, intercourse with many of the best known and some of the most distinguished of his contemporaries. The list included such names as those of Burke, Robertson, Dugald Stewart, Fox, Henry Dundas, Sir Gilbert Elliot, the Duke of Portland, Mr. Pitt, President Blair, Sir Henry Moncreiff and Dr. Erskine, Lord Kames, Henry Mackenzie, Lord Minto, Sir Walter Scott. He had, however, not less ample opportunities of becoming personally acquainted with the middle and the humbler classes of society than—whether as regards rank or intellectual cultivation—with the highest; and perhaps the portions of this autobiography which by many readers will be found the most attractive, are those in which the minister of Jedburgh speaks of the social condition and social usages of his own parishioners, as these had been familiar to him in all their changes during a course of pastoral labours extending over a period of more than sixty years. Dr. Somerville is known as the author of two historical works—the Histories of the Revolution, and of the Reign of Queen Anne—which, besides other acknowledged merits, are distinguished by their fairness and impartiality. The same qualities will, it is believed, be found in this less elaborate performance, and, more especially, great candour and liberality on the author’s part in his judgments of the personal conduct and character of other men, with an absence of anything approaching either to pretension or reticence in his not very frequent or obtrusive allusions to himself and his own affairs.
The work was written in the years 1813 and 1814, and appears to have been revised on more than one occasion afterwards. It was intended for publication; and it may be proper to state, that in allowing an interval of nearly half a century to elapse before making it public, the representatives of the author have, as in now committing it to the press, acted in fulfilment of his own instructions. A few notes have been supplied by the Editor, chiefly for the purpose of identifying the persons whose names are introduced in the course of the work. These annotations will sometimes, perhaps, appear superfluous; but, upon the whole, it has been thought advisable to follow a uniform rule on the occasion of any name being mentioned for the first time.
Some account may be here given of the last years of the author, for the sake of completing the narrative. There is not much to be told. Dr. Somerville concludes his own recollections by expressing his gratitude to God that up to the advanced age of seventy-three, which he had then reached, he had been favoured with uninterrupted good health, and that he was still in possession of the capacity of discharging the ordinary duties of his profession, as well as enjoying the many blessings that remained to him. With hardly any qualification, the same language might have been used by him in his ninetieth year, and until within a few days of his death. He never ceased to be able to take delight in the society of his friends; or to find pleasure in his books—to the last, too, keeping himself abreast with the literature of the day;—or to feel a keen interest in public events and questions; or, above all, to retain that active solicitude for the welfare (both temporal and spiritual) of every individual member of his flock, which, in a very remarkable degree, characterized him throughout his long and useful life. Mr. Lockhart, who, at this period, “spent many pleasant hours under his hospitable roof with Sir Walter Scott,” speaks of him as “preserving his faculties quite entire to a great old age,” and says, “We heard him preach an excellent circuit sermon when he was upwards of eighty-two; and at the judge’s dinner afterwards, he was among the gayest of the company.”—(Life of Sir W. Scott, ch. viii.) In the year 1828, a public dinner was given to him by his co-presbyters and some of his other friends, on the occasion of his completing the sixtieth year of his ministry. He was by that time the father of the Church of Scotland, having outlived the whole of those of his brethren who were ministers of the Church at the date of his own ordination. On Sunday the 9th of May 1830—to quote an obituary notice in a contemporary newspaper—he preached and dispensed the Lord’s Supper to his people, with much animation, ability, and feeling, alluding in the close of the service to the probability that it might be the last occasion of the kind on which they might meet together..... He took a solemn leave of them on that Sunday afternoon, and gave them what might be considered his parting admonition and benediction. ‘Yet his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.’ In the course of the same evening he became seriously indisposed and on the evening of the following Sabbath he departed peacefully, rejoicing in the hopes and consolations of the gospel.”
Dr. Somerville is buried in the Lady Chapel of Jedburgh Abbey—a portion of that beautiful ruin, which also goes by the name of “the Latiner’s aisle,” having at one time been used as a Grammar School; and, besides a monument erected over the grave by his family, a mural tablet was placed in the parish church a short time after his death by the heritors of Jedburgh, “AS A MEMORIAL OF THEIR HIGH ESTEEM AND RESPECT FOR HIS PUBLIC SERVICES AND PRIVATE WORTH”—esteem and respect which, it may be here added, were largely shared by the whole of his parishioners, without distinction of sect or party, and by a wide circle of personal friends.
W. L.
Roxburgh, 15™ March 1861.
You can read his account at the link in the Electric Scotland section above.
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
Comment