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Newsletter 5th July 2013

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  • Newsletter 5th July 2013

    CONTENTS

    Electric Scotland News
    Electric Canadian
    Canada Day
    The Flag in the Wind
    Electric Scotland
    The Scottish Historical Review
    Songs Of Scotland, Prior To Burns
    The Annals of Scottish Natural History

    Caledonia Monthly Magazine
    Tasmina's Column
    Scottish Stories for Young Readers
    Thomas Dykes
    History of West Calder
    Hound and Horn in Jedforrest
    Life and Work of Joanna Baillie (New Book)
    Sketches of Tranent in the Olden Times (New Book)
    Enigma Machine
    Songs from John Henderson
    The Tartan Herald
    Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
    The Past at our Doors or The Old in the New Around Us
    and finally

    Electric Scotland News
    Got in a new advertiser in our Classified Directory, "Things Scottish". Stacy tells us a wee bit about her company...

    My maiden name is Armstrong. While I do have a kilt in the Armstrong tartan, I found it very difficult to find anything else to show my clan heritage. After doing some research online, I found CafePress.com in 2003. I have a background in graphic design and knew I could create my own tartan related images. CafePress gave me the means of marketing and selling items with my images. While I know that Armstrong is one of the lesser known clans, I knew there had to be others looking for items to celebrate their Scottish heritage.

    I began doing extensive research into the different tartans and gradually started including more and more clan names in my shop. While working on my own family history, I have found connections to at least 72 other Scottish surnames in my family tree. I am currently in the process of adding many new items to each name in the shop. I am also a member of the Scottish Tartans Authority.

    You can always see her advert in our Classified Directory but you can also visit her at:
    http://www.cafepress.com/thingsscottish/

    ------

    I did get some gratifying complimentary emails in about the latest issue of the Grand Priory of Canada newsletter, for which for better or worse I'm the editor, and the Grand Prior gave us a wee plug by mentioning our web site. Apparently a lot of the top brass of the Knights Templar throughout the world have been sent copies.
    You can read this issue in pdf format at:
    http://www.electriccanadian.com/ktj/CanadianGrandPrioryNewsletterjul2013.pdf

    -----

    Got in an email about a clan gathering at the Bannockburn event in 2014 organised by the National Trust for Scotland. I added this to our Electric Scotland Community which you can read at:
    http://www.electricscotland.org/showthread.php/4019-Bannockburn-2014-event

    -----

    And here in Canada it's fruit season so I was down at the farm shop getting fresh strawberries, raspberries, and cherries. Where I go they also bake pies so got a rhubarb pie along with some potato bread and biscuits (scones). Have to say that fresh strawberries are way better than the supermarket ones. In the next week or so they should be getting in sweet corn and peaches. I really enjoy fresh corn on the cob, the peaches and cream version, which has mixed yellow and white kernels.

    -----

    Found a book written by Queen Victoria about her time in the Highlands of Scotland so am busy working on that at the moment. Some of her descriptions of some of the wee trips she did around the Balmoral Estate are so good I just wish I could get someone to follow those trails and take pictures to go with the book.

    Electric Canadian

    Sorry... didn't have time to add anything this week although I was able to provide a link to watch the Canada Day noon celebrations on Parliament Hill which you can get to at
    http://www.electricscotland.org/showthread.php/4017-Canada-Day

    The Flag in the Wind

    This weeks edition was compiled by Jim Lynch. In this issue he is talking about the annual SI lunch and the awarding of the Oliver Brown Award to Sean Connery is which he quotes the letter that Sean sent in accepting the award which was read out by Finance Secretary John Swinney MSP.You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org

    Electric Scotland

    The Scottish Historical Review
    We have now started on Volume 9 and added this week the October 1911 issue..
    You can get to this at:http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...w/volume09.htm

    In this issue there is an excellent article about the Black Friars and the Scottish Universities. It is to the foresight and the action of St. Dominic and his great Order of Friars Preachers colloquially known as the Black Friars that the first introduction into Scotland of a systematic course of education is to be attributed. No doubt, there were schools in existence in the twelfth century, and men of high literary attainments were to be found among the Roman hierarchy as well as in the monasteries; but there was no organized system of study in operation in this country until the advent of the Black Friars in 1230.

    There are also more good stories, one "The Hospitallers in Scotland" and also "Scotsmen Serving the Swede".

    You can read the previous issues at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/review/

    Songs Of Scotland, Prior To Burns
    This book is by Robert Chambers who is famous for collecting old Scottish Songs.

    Added this week are...

    Fair Helen of Kirkconnell
    Cromlet's Lilt
    Anne Bothwell's Lament

    You can get to this book at the foot of the page at:
    http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_robert.htm

    The Annals of Scottish Natural History
    Have now added Volume 16 1907 issue.

    You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/natu...al_history.htm

    Caledonia Monthly Magazine
    Have added additional articles from this magazine...

    Unrest
    Nature in White

    You can get to these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...pers/caledonia

    Tasmina's column
    Got in her column for 1st July 2013, Celebrating Croatia's membership of the EU and drawing parallels with Scotland.

    You can read this weeks issue at http://www.electricscotland.com/life...ina/130701.htm

    The rest of her columns can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/lifestyle/tasmina

    Scottish Stories for Young Readers
    Added the sixth and final story, "Renwick at Priesthill" which can be read at:
    http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...es/renwick.htm

    You can get to the other stories in this section at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/stories/

    Thomas Dykes
    (1850, Dundonald, Ayrshire - 1916, London, England) Journalist and Author

    This week we added to his book "All Round Sport with Fish, Fur and Feather"...

    Curlew and Plover Shooting
    With the Rabbit Catcher

    You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...kes_thomas.htm

    History of West Calder
    Compiled from various sources of information by a Native (1885)

    Have now completed this book. You might take time to read Appendix I. Baad’s Family Bible, the oldest Heir Loom in West Calder. It starts...

    Badds Family Bible is a distinctive link of the past; for although the version now in common use dates some 264 years back (1611), this one is older still and belongs to the period that awoke and moulded our stern, fearless forefathers of the first covenanting era, and irresistably wafts us back in thought to that time when

    “The sighs and vows

    Amoung the knows ”
    of the sparce populace of what was then known as South Calder, mingled with the whispers of conventicles and the murmurs of persecution, which still in fancy—like as the shell re-echos the ocean—echos and re-echos through all the vale from Craigmailin to the Cauld Stane Slap; and, from. Headlaws Cross to the Grasmarket; as well as over every hill and glen through all broad Scotland. This by the kindness of the R.W.M. of the Thistle Lodge of West Calder that I have been allowed a private inspection of this very old and interesting Bible, which is so different from the one now in use that a short history of the English Bible is necessary to trace its origin and development of which this is an intermediate stage.

    You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...appendix01.htm

    You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lder/index.htm

    Hound and Horn in Jedforrest
    Being some experiences of a Scottish M.F.H. by T. Scott Anderson

    Have now completed this book which I found to be a most enjoyable read.

    You can read the final chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/hound/

    Life and Work of Joanna Baillie
    A new book we're starting.

    "If I had to present any one to a foreigner as a model of an English Gentlewoman," said William Wordsworth, "it would be Joanna Baillie. And this was the same Joanna Baillie whom Sir Walter Scott called 'the best dramatic writer Britain had produced since the days of Shakespeare and Massinger.’"

    Now have the first chapter up for you to read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...llie/index.htm

    Sketches of Tranent in the Olden Times
    By J Sands (1881)

    TRANENT is a small town or village in East Lothian, with a population in the present year (1881) of 2,233, is built on a gentle slope, about 300 feet above the level of the sea, and about a mile and a quarter from the estuary of the Forth. It is described in the Gazetteers as being a place of no importance, and one of the poorest looking towns in the three Lothians, though in recent times it has shown some signs of renovation. It consists of two streets of commonplace houses and two or three squalid lanes. Yet in this insignificant theatre, as will be seen in the following pages, some extraordinary tragedies were performed in the olden time, at which all Scotland gazed with breathless and horrified interest. Tranent can boast of a venerable antiquity.

    You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nent/index.htm

    Enigma Machine
    This is where we are publishing this set of puzzles created by Doug Ross which can now be found in Doctor's Surgeries, Old Folks Homes, etc.

    Added Enigma Machine 21 puzzle which you can get to at:
    http://www.electriccanadian.com/life.../enigma021.htm

    The discussions on puzzle 22 have started in our Electric Scotland Community at:
    http://www.electricscotland.org/show...2970#post12970

    The other puzzles we've already published can be found at:
    http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...igma/index.htm

    Songs from John Henderson
    John has sent us in another song, "Dinna Smucht Oor Scots' Leids" and you can read this at:
    http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel497.htm

    His other songs can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm

    The Tartan Herald
    Got in the June 2013 newsletter of the Scottish Tartans Authority.

    You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/tart...tter/index.htm

    Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
    Got in Section 2 for July 2013 which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/bnft

    The Past at our Doors or The Old in the New Around Us
    By Walter W. Skeat, M.A. With numerous Illustrations. 1911.

    DEDICATED to the author's father and mother on their golden wedding day, Mr. Skeat's slim little volume pleasantly continues in the second generation Professor Skeat's mingling of studies in history with philological researches. The son is more an archaeologist than the father and less a philologist, but he practises both kinds of research in his series of comprehensive essays on our food, dress and homes, considered chiefly in the light of the names of things. He has the philologist's tendency to draw very remote inferences sometimes (for example, regarding 'haggis'), but his gatherings of little domestic fact on the evolution of dishes, garments and types of houses are generally excellent. Notable instances are his treatment of plough, sickle, coat-tail buttons, the dresser, hall and belfry. The book recalls the late Sir Arthur Mitchell's way of seeing the past in the present, and is an informing popular sketch.

    I cam across this book while reading another publication and it tweaked my interest so had a read and thought I'd share it with you. You can download the book in pdf format at: http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/past.htm

    And finally...
    I don't know if I ever shared this story with you but if so it does bear a repeat...

    Newfoundland Declares War on the U.S.A.

    President Obama was in the Oval Office wondering what he would do next, when his telephone rang.

    "Hallo, President Obama" a heavily accented voice said. "This is Archie, up ere at the Harp Seal Pub in Badger's Cove, Newfoundland, Canada eh? I am callin' to tells ya dat we are officially declaring war on ya!"

    "Well Archie," the President replied, "This is indeed important news! How big is your army?"

    "Right now," said Archie, after a moments calculation "there is myself, me cousin Harold, me next-door-neighbor Mick, and the whole dart team from the pub. That makes eight!"

    Obama paused. "I must tell you Archie that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command."

    "Holy jeez," said Archie. "I'll have ta call ya back!"

    Sure enough, the next day, Archie called again. "Mr. Obama, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!"

    "And what equipment would that be Archie?" Obama asked.

    "Well sir, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Harry 's farm tractor."

    President Obama sighed. "I must tell you Archie, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also I've increased my army to one and a half million since we last spoke."

    "Lard t'underin' bye", said Archie, "I'll be getting back to ya."

    Sure enough, Archie rang again the next day.. "President Obama, the war is still on! We have managed to git ourselves airborne! We up an' modified Harrigan's ultra-light wit a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four byes from the Legion have joined us as well!"

    Obama was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. "I must tell you Archie that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"

    "Jumpins," said Archie, "l'll have ta call youse back."

    Sure enough, Archie called again the next day. "President Obama! I am sorry to have to tell you dat we have had to call off dis 'ere war."

    "I'm sorry to hear that" said the president . "Why the sudden change of heart?"

    Well, sir," said Archie, "we've all sat ourselves down and had a long chat over a bunch of pints, and come to realize dat dere's no way we can feed two million prisoners."

    CANADIAN CONFIDENCE CANNOT BE SHAKEN!

    -----

    And that's it for now and hope our Canadian members enjoyed their Canada Day celebrations on 1st July and that our American members enjoyed their 4th of July.

    Alastair
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