CONTENTS
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Electric Scotland News
Electric Canadian
The Flag in the Wind
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language
Scottish Poets in America
Chronicles of Gretna Green
Homespun
Life Jottings of an Old Edinburgh Citizen
James Ballantine
Calendar Of Documents Relating to Scotland
John Henderson
Northern Notes and Queries
A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld (New Book)
Unveiling of a Statue of King Robert the Bruce at Stirling
Sepoy Generals
Evan McColl
Cunningham Name
Hugh Miller
Electric Scotland News
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Not much news this week although John Henderson is helping me add "Songs of Robert Burns". We have a 135Mb pdf file available of this book but of course it is huge. John has discovered a 35Mb version which is much more easy to download but he's also going to serialise it for us making it even easier to download. He's made a start which you can see at http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/songs/index.htm
And of course good timing with Burns Suppers coming up this month. You might have a read of the Preface as it would make a good talking point should you need to give the Immortal Memory!
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I've been more agressive on deleting spam messages in our Electric Scotland Community and as a result there hasn't been any span in the past week. Hopefully this will continue. It really only takes me a few seconds to both delete the messages and ban the user. It would take a few minutes for them to create a new account and upload a message so I'm sure they'll get fed up before I do <grin>
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Once we have our new servers up in the new location... and yes that still hasn't been done. It seems that Americans are a wee bit afraid of snow so Steve is waiting until it goes away before removing them.
Anyway... there is a new facility within the Electric Scotland Community to send out a newsletter from a forum. I'd like to do a trial send with this once we know it works ok. The point being is that we might be able to send out the entire weekly newsletter instead of you having to visit the forum to read it.
Any our Community will be the first major work we do when we know all is working as it should as we want to get the very latest upgrade up and running and also update the various applications we've added including the Arcade. We are also looking to bring in some new functionalit into the community. We're also looking to add a mobile suite for it as well so you can use it on your smart phone.
ABOUT THE STORIES
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Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
Electric Canadian
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http://www.electriccanadian.com
Makers of Canada
Managed to get up Tilley this week which you can read at
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...lley/index.htm
I have also managed to get up George Brown (a Scot) which means that now completes the Makers of Canada project. You can read about him at http://www.electriccanadian.com/makers/brown/index.htm
The Life of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal
I have found a much better account of Lord Strathcona and so have made it available at the foot of this page. It goes into much more detail on his early life which was sadly lacking in the first account. It's a two volume publication and can be read at http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...cona/index.htm
Journals of Alexander Henry the Younger
This is a very interesting account of the early fur trading days. His Journal of 1799-1814 covers a very interesting period in fur trading history and he comes across many of the famous and not so famous people as well as many Indian tribes. These personal accounts are very rare so this is a bit of a gem. You can read this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...nder_henry.htm
Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada
Here you will find a list of some 14,850 cities, towns, villages and places once it is completed which is likely to take a number of months. So far have managed to get up the A's.
I did the Scottish Gazetteer which took almost a year to put up so this will certainly take a few months. Like you take a scan of each page but then have to crop it and tidy it up to make it as readable as possible. Having done that I then need to create a web page for each book page and type in all the names on that page. And as many names are indian names it means I have to double check the spelling to make sure I don't make any mistakes. So you can perhaps see why this takes so long to do.
I do think this is a worth while project as the Scottish Gazetteer is well used on Electric Scotland.
You can get to this at http://www.electriccanadian.com/gazetteer/index.htm
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
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We have a new compiler this week, Clare Adamson.
Clare Adamson is an SNP Member for Central Scotland and local government Councillor on North Lanarkshire Council, Wishaw Ward. Clare joined the SNP in the early ‘90s and has stood as a local Government candidate in both Stirling and North Lanarkshire Councils. Clare also stood for the Westminster seat of Lanark and Hamilton East in 2010. Clare has previously been a member of the SNP National Council and the Standing Orders and Agenda Committee. Prior to being elected as a Councillor in 2007 Clare worked in IT for twenty years, latterly at the SNP Head Quarters Campaign Unit as Project Manager of the Activate Project. At Holyrood, Clare serves on the Education & Culture and the Equal Opportunities Committees and is Parliamentary Liaison Officer to the Cabinet secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop.
Her first contribution is single interesting article but no Synopsis this week for some reason.
You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language
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We've added more to this disctionary...
Scottish Language Letter K
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...eson/index.htm
Scottish Poets in America
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With Biographical and Critical Notices by John D, Ross (1889)
Now added...
M'Lachlan, Alexander
This is a new entry for this week and can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet.../chapter11.htm
The other entries can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...rica/index.htm
Chronicles of Gretna Green
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By Peter Orlando Hutchinson (1844)
Added this week...
Chapter IX.
Ancient Marriage Customs
Chapter X.
Essay on Marriage
Chapter XI.
The new Marriage Act
Chapter XII.
Rivalry of the Gretna Priests
Chapter XIII.
Qualifications or non-qualifications of the Gretna Green Priests
Chapter IX starts...
Some ancient marriage customs cited,
Some modern customs 'shown,
Some evil customs not yet righted,
Some good ones used and known.
We hope it will be long before any other idea than that a halo of religious sanctity hangs over the marriage ceremony in >Great Britain, will pervade the national mind. That marriage should be looked upon in a sacred light, and not merely as a legal contract, by which one person is bound to another for life, as an apprentice is for seven years, is especially desirable to the unthinking, the volatile, and the rash, to say nothing of the vicious and the wicked. Many a thoughtless person will unreflectingly enter upon a civil contract, however binding, (and peradventure to their sorrow afterwards,) when, on the other hand, had the sanctity of the church hovered like a descending dove over the contract, that same person would have hesitated to proceed thus blindly. And then, from hesitating to go forward with precipitancy, time would be given to reflect, and reflexion might bring reason, and reason might save that person from doing an action which would be the misery of all after years, had it been done. Even the greatest sinners that tread this earth under foot, that desecrate the sabbath, or live a life of blind iniquity, still feel an awe when they enter a church to go through the ceremony of a binding obligation.
It is a fact, that many an atheist, who knows not what the words "God," or "religion" mean, or who will never scruple to tell any the most horrible lie to suit his purpose, will, nevertheless, shun repeating the same thing, either before the altar, or with his right hand placed upon the bible ; and yet this atheist openly derides and disbelieves every word that the bible contains, and always says in his heart, "There is no God." Even to such a one as this, there is an indescribable, inscrutable, and mysteriously dreaded something connected with the sound of that word religion, which all his disbelief cannot overcome, and which all his philosophy cannot persuade away. If the idea of a God be not innate, then we will give way to Locke, and concede that we are born without ideas, of a truth: but if the most barbarous, ignorant, neglected, or abandoned that ever stepped on British soil, have not clear notions on this subject, still, there never was a person, however benighted, but owned to a superstitious fear of some undefined power beyond the world superior to himself and his control; and this is the crude commencement of belief.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...chapter209.htm
You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...etna/index.htm
Homespun
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A Study of a Simple Folk by Annie S. Swan (1894)
This week have added...
Chapter XVIII. Good-bye
And this now completes this book.
You can read this and The other chapters http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...spun/index.htm
Life Jottings of an Old Edinburgh Citizen
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By Sir J. H. A. MacDonald P.C., K.C.B., Lord Justice-Clerk.
Added this week...
Chapter Thirteen
The Lord High Commissioner—Michael Sanderson—Soldiers' dress, head-dress, and equipment—Queen's Birthday fireworks
Chapter Fourteen
Drowning memory—Misjudged parental precaution—Punctuality—Public lighting- -Gas—English ignorance of Scotland—Funerals
Chapter Fifteen
Hustings elections- Open voting—Thomas Babington Macaulay—Cockburn's criticism of him—Chartist Riots
Chapter Sixteen
Calton Hill—Disfigurement—Forrest's Statuary—Short's Observatory— City Chambers -National Gallery—Gasworks chimney—Trinity College Church—St. Giles' Cathedral
Chapter Seventeen
Disfigurement of Edinburgh—Government outrages—Vandalism on ancient buildings- -Queen Margaret's Chapel—Castle Parliament Hall—The "Cotton Mill"--Botanical Gardens buildings—Calton Jail site—Modern public buildings—Improvements
Here is how Chapter Fifteen starts...
Discussion of politics is to be avoided, but that need not exclude a good story now and again, which does not touch any political question, though relating to public life. As a boy I saw the unopposed election of the present Duke of Buccleuch when he stood for Midlothian. Of course it was before the days of the ballot; the first step in an election taking place by show of hands at the open meeting on the hustings. There being no opposition there was no excitement, and as it appeared to me, the Earl, who was not heard much beyond the reporters' table, spoke into his hat, if indeed he was not speaking out of his hat. But the election of the old days which I remember best was the contested election in 1847, when Thomas Babington Macaulay was candidate for the city. In those days, as the numbers were posted on the booths throughout the day at intervals, it was soon seen who was heading the poll. When a candidate's name and figures attached indicated failure, in half an hour a poster would be out: "There is time yet, rush to the poll and vote for Holdfast, the supporter of Church and State." And when it was seen that a candidate had. no chance, the votes which would have gone to him were transferred to a candidate who was less unacceptable than the man who was for the time looking dangerous. The glorious uncertainty until 11 P.M., or even till next day, of the ballot vote was not then part of the excitements of an election.
Mr. Macaulay, whose eloquence was well known, made, I doubt not, an impressed, he probably was not so successful. My father told of him that he received a deputation of postal employees, who probably had some cause for pressing their views, as the penny postage system developed, and threw extra work yearly upon the staff. He evidently gave them little satisfaction. The day following the address by the deputation, our letter-carrier was asked by the maid who took in the letters in the morning how they had been received. "A' weel" he said, "he was pulie; oh, he talkit fine, an' constant. Bit we had nae chance: he talkit and talk*t, an he booed us in an he booed us oot"; and then, in bitter tone: "He's a tonguey cratur, but, eh, he's haaley ' (hollow).
How well this letter-carrier tersely and incisively described his parliamentary member may be gauged by quoting Lord Cockburn's opinion, expressed at length in his journal:
"The truth is that Macaulay, with all his admitted knowledge, talent, eloquence, and worth, is not popular. He cares more for his history than for the jobs of his constituents, and answers letters irregularly, and with a brevity deemed contemptuous; and above all other defects, he suffers severely from the vice of over-talking, and consequently under-listening. A deputation goes to London to enlighten their representative. They are full of their own matter, and their chairman has a statement, bottled and ripe, which he s anxious to draw and decant, but instead of being listened to, they no sooner enter the audience-chamber than they find themselves all superseded by the restless ability of their eloquent member, who besides mistaking speaking for hearing has the indelicate candour not even to profess being struck by the importance of the affair."
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter15.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ings/index.htm
James Ballantine
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We continue our book "Gaberlunzies Wallet" and now have up Chapter 9 which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...nine/index.htm
Calendar Of Documents Relating to Scotland
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By Joseph Bain
Our thanks to John Henderson for compiling this for us. This week we've added...
Volume 3
1313 to 1321
You can get to this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...bain/index.htm
John Henderson
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John sent in more new poems and songs which you can get to at the foot of http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
In John's Scottish Sing-Along he's also added three new songs, "I Met Four Chaps Yon Birks Amang",
"Highland Mary" and "Mary MacNeil" which you can listen to and read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...long/index.htm
Northern Notes and Queries
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Edited by Rev. R. W. Cornelious Hallen (1886)
We now have up the first 3 issues of this publication which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm
A Description of the Scenery of Dunkeld
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And in Blair of Atholl (1823)
For those that enjoy walking this book might well be a good one to help plan out some walks in this area. I've added a Google map and also a YouTube video of the town to the page.
Here is the first chapter to serve as an Introduction...
It has been frequently asked by those whom a taste for the beauties ot' nature annually leads into the romantic recesses of the Highlands, why no one has undertaken to point out the various and delicious scenes of Dunkeld, when even the most worthless spots in England are all provided with their " Guides." The present book is intended to supply that defect. But its purpose is not confined to so narrow a limit; as a part of its object is to point out, in a similar manner, the magnificent scenery of Blair in Atholl; together with such spots as the traveller may visit between and around these two places, without the sacrifice of much time or labour.
For want of such an assistant, il must always be the fate of a stranger, and particularly in a country so diversified and intricate, to remain ignorant of the tar greater part of the beauties that lie within his reach. The artist, in particular, as well as all those who are not content unless they can fix in their portfolios the Memorials of their journeys, will frequently find that he has overlooked a scene of the greatest interest, when, under a proper direction, he would have enjoyed it merely by deviating a few yard* from the ordinary line of road, or by quitting the beaten track to wander through these recesses where nature so often conceals her principal charms. If' the scenery of Dunkeld is so open to inspection that time alone is sufficient to view and enjoy it, the case is far otherwise with Blair; where, without directions, the traveller, and even the experienced artist, ma\ long wander without discovering the beauties that cause it, assuredly, to combine more of th« magnificent and picturesque than any place in Scotland, or perhaps in Britain.
As Dunkeld is the only rival to Blair, so is Blair the only place which can come into competition with Dunkeld, Differing, however, so strongly as they do. in style and character, it is not for the author of these pages to draw a closer comparison between them nor will he attempt to assign the palm. Together, they are calculated to please,- all but different tastes will determine in favour of the one or the other, as they happen to prefer the luxury and of endless wood and forest, the deep romantic valley, the abruptness of hill and rock, and the sequestered solitudes of shady and twilight walks, embellished by all that wealth and taste can confer; or the open sweeping wooded vale, the lofty mountains, the wild rivers and cascades, and the more numerous though less accessible scenes of grandeur or beauty, which must be sought to be seen, and studied to be fully enjoyed. That one nobleman should be the possessor of two seats which, united, no proprietor in Britain can rival, and with which, even separately, few indeed can enter into competition, might excite envy; were it possible that such a feeling could enter the mind of any one to who the liberality of the noble owner is known. To the public at large they are free, without restraint or 'imitation: while it is one of his chief enjoyments that he can thus diffuse, among multitudes, a pleasure probably as great as that which their beauties excite in himself*. The friend and the stranger alike are received at a house ever open and ever full; and at a table where the warm welcome of ancient Highland hospitality is united to all the munificence and the minute attentions of refinement.
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...keld/index.htm
Unveiling of a Statue of King Robert the Bruce at Stirling
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From the Glasgow Herald of 1877.
This is an interesting article which we came across and have added to the site at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/stirling.htm
Sepoy Generals
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Sir Donald Stewart and Sir William Lockhart.
I was looking for some information on Sir William Lockhart and came across this book which included a decent article on both these Scottish Generals. And so I extracted these articles and you can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...t_lockhart.htm
Evan McColl
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We've added some more Poems, Songs and Sonnets Written Chiefly in Canada. You can find these at the foot of this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet.../chapter09.htm
Cunningham Name
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Got an email in giving some information on the name. See foot of this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...cunningham.htm
Hugh Miller
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We put up a book about Hugh Miller not so long ago. Ranald phoned me to say he had copies of some of his books and offered to have them scanned in for the site which was much appreciated. However I double checked with the Internet archive and found the four books in question were available there. As a result I have provided links on the page so you can download these books if you wish. You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...iller_hugh.htm
And finally...
Smart Alec
A technician on one of the smaller radio stations in Scotland tells us of the day when a bulletin
contained a particularly difficult surname of a Polish chap who was injured in a car accident locally.
Staff were taking childish pleasure in whether the bumptious newsreader would stumble over it.
But when it came to the name, the newsreader smoothly announced:
"The driver's name has been withheld by police until relatives have been informed."
And that's all for now and hope you all enjoy your weekend.
Alastair
Alastair
I noted the remark in the newspaper article of 1877 where Dr Charles Mackay of London mentioned "That there were Scotchmen out of Scotland who loved Scotland perhaps better than the Scotchmen in it,and who had formed New Scotlands in other parts of the world.who looked with great interest on the unveiling of this noble statue" the remainder of the paragraph is quite interesting--------sort of reinforces the views of the current diaspora against the local population at times.
Gordon,
I tend to agree Gordon. I've often felt that it is the Scots that left Scotland that are the most passionate about it. I often think that it is when we leave Scotland that we actually learn more about it than what we learnt when we lived there.
In fact that was the reason Istarted this web site as I knew almost nothing about the history of Scotland and I knew nothing of the Scots who left Scotland which is an even bigger story.
Alastair
I was having problems trying to find the links for the books by Hugh Miller. The links were not obvious, possibly as the page had been viewed before the links were added, and therefore the page came from one saved on my computer.
For those who wish to look at the other books by Hugh Miller, as mentioned by Alastair in the News Letter, then once having used the link in the News Letter, follow as shown below.
Under the heading - "The Newspaper Editor Writes in Sand"
In the second paragraph are links to "The Old Red Sandstone" and "My Schools and School Masters"
And under the heading "Refuses To Forsake Geology" in first paragraph are the links for "The Footprints of the Creator" and "The Testimony of the Rocks".
Alastair also suggested that, should the above not be shown as links, then refresh the page (useing the F5 key).
Ranald
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