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Newsletter 4th May 2012

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  • Newsletter 4th May 2012

    CONTENTS

    Electric Scotland News
    Electric Canadian
    The Flag in the Wind
    The Bards of Bon Accord 1375 - 1860
    Brother Scots
    The History of Brechin
    Culross and Tulliallan
    Scotland Insured (New Book)
    A History of the Border Counties (New Book)
    Victorian Kitchen Garden (Videos)
    The Isle of Bute in the Olden Time (New complete book)
    Scottish Independence
    The Treaty of Union of 1707
    Statistical Accounts of Scotland
    The Picture of Scotland


    Electric Scotland News

    We eventually got our Community up at 23:30 on Sunday. Not perfect and more work to do but all messages are there and you can now add new messages. We have an issue with the editor menu which we're looking into and we still need to get the social networking embedded into the community. I got a phone call from Ranald and he was saying he thought the community was running much faster.

    We did get some good news from the Comment folk in that they sent us a copy of the code that does the email part of the system and we can modify it to work with our web site. This of course will take a wee bit of time as we're using a friend's PHP skills to fix the problem who, as it happens, lives in New York.

    -----

    As you'll have noted over the past few weeks I've been adding YouTube videos of places in Scotland. The intention is that when I add a new book on a place in Scotland I'll try and find one or more videos of the place. You can help with this in that if you come across a good video of a place either in Scotland or Canada or indeed anywhere in the world where I've featured Scots then feel free to send me the web address and also the page on the site where it might be placed.

    In actual fact this is something that could be done with the new comments system we hope to install.


    ABOUT THE STORIES
    -----------------
    Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at:
    http://www.electricscotland.com/whatsnew.htm and also http://www.electriccanadian.com/whatsnew.htm
    We try not to point to a pdf file and instead send you to page where the pdf can be downloaded.


    Electric Canadian
    -----------------
    The Treaties of CanadaWith The Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories By Alexander Morris. I had been looking for some information on the treaties between Canada and the First Nations people and so this book gives us some interesting information on this front and is at least a starting point for further research. You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ties/index.htm

    The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People
    An Historical Review by John George Bourinot.
    This series of papers has been prepared in accordance with a plan marked out by the writer, some years ago of taking up, from time to time, certain features of the social, political and industrial progress of the Dominion. Essays on the Maritime Industry and the National Development of Canada have been read before the Royal Colonial Institute in England, and have been so favourably received by the Press of both countries, that the writer has felt encouraged to continue in the same course of study, and supplement his previous efforts by an historical review of the intellectual progress of the Canadian people. You can read this book at:
    http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...tual/index.htm


    The Flag in the Wind
    This issue was Compiled by Clare Adamson. There is an interesting article about Women Offenders in the Synopsis which has not only benefits for the offenders but also a financial benefit to Government. Well worth a read.

    You can read this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org


    The Bards of Bon Accord 1375 - 1860
    By William Walker

    Added the chapter on "James Beattie"

    Foremost among those men who, rising from the shades and obscurity of rural life, have shed the lustre of true genius and the influence of a noble life over the city of their adoption and country of their birth, stands James Beattie—"the chastest minstrel of the Scottish grove". The details of his life are so well known to every class of readers that a brief recapitulation of its leading points is all that we deem necessary in introducing our notice of his poetical career. Born at Laurencekirk, 23rd October, 1735, he entered a bursar at Marisehal College in his fourteenth year, graduating A.M. in 1753. Successively teacher at the parish school of Fordoun, and Grammar School, Aberdeen, he was, in 1760, through the influence of the Earl of Knoll, appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in his Alma Mater. From that period on to 1793 he published a series of works metaphysical, critical, and poetical, which, for the time being, at all events, gave him a celebrity second to none of his contemporaries. His society and conversation were courted and esteemed by the learned and humane all over the country; his works were patronised and rewarded by Royal favour and bounty, and, when the grave closed over him, it might well have been said, that no finer literary genius had ever been laid to rest under the green-sward of St. Nicholas.

    I might add that there are pdf files of his poems on the Internet Archive.

    You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...cord/index.htm


    Brother Scots
    By Donald Carswell

    This week we added an account of Lord Overtoun

    "The news of Lord Overtoun's death will be received with an almost personal sorrow in every part of Scotland, for his princely generosity flowed through channels that conveyed its beneficent influence to the remotest comers of the country." Such a tribute, paid as it was in a leading article by a great newspaper which notoriously did not see always eye to eye with his Lordship in regard to the leading ecclesiastical and political questions of the day, is a striking testimony to the high place the deceased nobleman held in the esteem and affections of his fellow-countrymen irrespective of class, creed or political colour. It would have been Strange had it been otherwise.The proprietor of a large and successful manufacturing business, the inheritor and^for no man ever more worthily exemplified the truth of the Scriptural adage that "the hand of the diligent maketh rich" the creator of vast wealth, combining as he did business acumen of no mean order with the greatest religious activity in a manner that commanded universal admiration, John Campbell White was indeed a man remarkable among his compeers. He filled the varied role of merchant prince, county magnate. Churchman, evangelist and philanthropist, and later took his place among the legislators of the Upper House of Parliament, this last perhaps in a less degree than his other activities, though even in the House of Lords his influence was exerted on behalf of every good cause.

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


    The History of Brechin
    By David D Black, Town Clerk (1867)

    We have now completed the appendices and thus completed this book which you can read these at
    http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...chin/index.htm


    Culross and Tulliallan
    or Perthshire on Forth, its History and Antiquities with elucidation on Scottish Life and Character from the Burgh and Kirk-Session Records of that District by David Beveridge (1885) in two volumes.

    We continue to work on the first volume. You can see that a lot of the text in these historical articles are in the old Scots language and here is an example...

    CHANGES are approaching: “coming events cast their shadows before,” and the manoeuvres of General Monk for the restoration of Charles II. begin to show themselves:—

    “14 November 1659.

    “The said day there being ane letter, direct from General George Monck to the burgh of Burntisland, and communicat be thame to this burgh, presentit befor the saids bailleis and counsell, shewing that his lordship did desyre this burgh to agrie amongst thameselves to send over such persone as they sould think fitt to choose from this burgh, and the rest of the burghes in Scotland, to meit with his lordship at Edinburgh the fyftene day of November, because he had ane great occasion to speak with thame about some affaires that conceme the country at that tyme; qlk being read and dewlie considered upone be the saids bailleis and counsell, they judged it meit and expedient that one of their number sould be send over as commissioner to my Lord Generali. Thairfor they did mak, nominat, and con-stitut John Bumsyde, baillie, thair commissioner; gevand to him thair full power and commissione to conveane with my Lord Generali George Monck at Edinburgh the fyftene day of November instant, and thair to confer and conclude with his lordship in effeiris concemyng the weill of this country, and to do everie other lawful thing thair-anent qlk they might doe thameselves if they war present.*’

    You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ross/index.htm


    Scotland Insured
    By J. M. Hogge, M.P.

    This is a booklet produced to explain what was the start of the National Health Service in Scotland. Given it was a ground breaking Act which set this up it is certainly of interest to students of history and anyone engaged in the National Health Service. You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...al/insured.htm


    A History of the Border Counties
    Roxburgh, Selkirk, Peebles by Sir George Douglas Bart.

    PREFACE

    In composing a History of the Border Counties, a writer’s first inclination is to produce a book made up largely of legend and tradition, and freely interspersed with citations from the Border Ballads. But, fascinating as is the material thus presented, so long as Sir Walter Scott’s ‘ Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,’ with its rich equipment of notes and introduction, is within the reach of every one, a new book of the kind can scarcely be considered necessary; whilst those who seek for a critical study of the ballads will find it ready to their hand in the second volume of the ‘History and Poetry of the Scottish Border’ by the late Professor Veitch. The aim, then, of the following sketch is rather to bring the history of the Border counties into line with the results of recent historical and antiquarian research, presenting to the reader, so far as may be, only well authenticated fact, and thus not scrupling, when necessary, to explode even long-cherished error. In pursuit of this method, where no reliable information is available, a matter is occasionally left doubtful—though the ingenious surmises of competent students have of course been allowed their due weight.

    In preparing his little monograph, the author has of course made free use of the existing histories of the district—namely, of the careful but somewhat ponderous work of Ridpath; of Jeffrey’s ‘Roxburghshire,’ which, much of its information has been superseded, still for Borderers contains much good reading; of the animated narrative and valuable documents of Mr Craig-Brown’s 'Selkirkshire’; of William Chambers’s pleasantly written ‘Peeblesshire’; and, finally, of Mr F. H. Groome’s useful ‘Short Border History.’

    His researches have also been much aided by such standard works as—to name but one or two—Morton’s ‘Monastic Annals of Teviotdale,’ and the valuable Introductions to the Cartularies of the Border abbeys, as well as by the many interesting books dealing with the Borders which in more recent years have poured from the press, among which it may suffice to specify the two volumes of ‘Calendars of Border Papers’ (1560-1603), the ‘History of Liddesdale’ by Mr R. B. Armstrong, the histories of the Douglas and Scott families, compiled from original sources by the late Sir William Fraser, the ‘Border Elliots’ of the Hon. George Elliot, and the Rev. J. Wood Brown’s ‘Life and Legend of Michael Scot.’

    It now remains for the author gratefully to acknowledge the goodwill which he has met with generally in the course of his labours, and to record his special thanks to the gentlemen and lady hereafter named : to Dr David Christison and Dr Joseph Anderson, for notes lent and help by consultation; to Mr F. H. Groome and the Rev. George Gunn of Stichill for reading the proof-sheets of the book; to the gentleman last-named and to the Rev. J. A. Findlay of Sprouston for local information; and to Mrs M. M. Turnbull of Eastfield and others for information regarding Borderers in the Colonies. He also wishes to convey his thanks to Mr James Sinton for undertaking the compilation of the Bibliography appended to the volume, at the same time acknowledging the assistance Mr Sinton has received from Messrs D. Johnstone and Orr of Edinburgh and Messrs W. & J. Kennedy of Hawick.

    Springwood Park, Kelso,
    March 1899

    I also found a number of videos to go with the book which you can see at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/counties.htm


    Victorian Kitchen Garden
    I have made a page available for these two series. The first was the Victorian Kitchen Garden showing how it was prepared and the growing of crops. It then spawned another series on the Victorian Kitchen where it showed how the meals were prepared and the Garden supplying come of the crops.

    I remember watching this series when in Scotland and I really enjoyed it. You can watch this series through YouTube at http://www.electricscotland.com/food...an_kitchen.htm


    The Isle of Bute in the Olden Time
    By James King Hewison (1893)

    This is a two volume publication and one I've had around for quite a while. However the ocr'ing of this has been a nightmare due to the font used so it's always been put on the back burner. I decided this week to make it available as a pdf file and so you can find this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/bute/index.htm and I also found a very good video to go with it.


    Scottish Independence
    I got in a draft of a presentation to be made by the SDA to a Scottish University. I thought it made an interesting read so thought I'd share it with you. It's a pdf file which can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/scot...esentation.pdf


    The Treaty of Union of 1707
    The Attempted Murder of the Kingdom of Scotland by Robbie the Pict. I got sent this in as it does detail the treaty but also the author adds comments on the various parts which make an interesting read. You can read this at
    http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...les/treaty.htm

    I might add that the first print run has sold out and a second run is being considered.


    Statistical Accounts of Scotland
    I have done an update of this page to better link you to the three major accounts of Scotland and also links to associated major publications. You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...l_accounts.htm


    The Picture of Scotland
    By Robert Chambers in two volumes (1818)

    This is an interesting publication in that Robert Chambers personally visited all the areas he writes about and consulted local experts for information on the area. I wanted to ocr this publication onto the site but the font was a bit too difficult to make this easy so I cheated and made the two volumes available as pdf files. You can download these 2 files at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/picture.htm


    And finally...

    Here's why salesmen are smooth operators...

    THE bald truth is that a job in sales could cost you your hair. The industry is Britain’s baldest, according to a poll.

    Sixty percent of men who work in sales have lost their hair or have a receding hairline. Half of them believe long working hours and the pressure to sell in a difficult economic environment are the main causes of their hair loss. Most of them had a full head of hair when they started their job but began losing it within four and a half years.

    Stresses

    Web developers and software engineers were the second most likely group of workers to lose their hair, according to the poll of 1,903 men. Of all those who admit their hair is thinning, a quarter blame the stresses of their job.

    Nicola Reid, brand manager for Regaine for Men Foam, said: "Hair loss in men still carries a major stigma as this survey shows. "On average, hair loss affects 40 per cent of men under 35."

    And now you know why I'm mostly bald having for some 14 years been in sales and many more in web development! <grin>

    And that's all for now and hope you all have a great weekend.

    Alastair
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