Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Newsletter 23rd November 2012

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Newsletter 23rd November 2012

    CONTENTS

    Electric Scotland News
    Electric Canadian
    Memoir of the Rev James MacGregor D.D.
    Roughing it in the Bush (New Book)
    Canada’s Past Matters campaign
    Irish in Canada
    County of Halton
    Cape Breton
    The Flag in the Wind
    Electric Scotland
    Northern Notes and Queries
    Sketches of Virginia
    Robert Burns Lives!
    A Significant Scot - William Sharp
    Kilsyth, A Parish History
    The Little White Bird by James Barrie
    The Isle of Skye in 1882-1883
    Legacy of Honor
    The First Uniform Tartan
    The Lyon in Mourning
    Sketches of the Early History, Legends and Traditions of Strathardle and its Glens
    Vizzies Frae The Ochils

    Electric Scotland News
    Well we sure had problems with our Electric Scotland Community this week. This kind of issue is one that only Steve can deal with so in his hands to resolve the issues. From what I understand it was a hard disk issue with cross linked files and a couple of directories that we couldn't open. Of course due to the error message coming from Facebook this made us look in the wrong direction for a resolution to the problem so it was some time before we realised we were looking down the wrong path.

    We've also been hit by a number of spammers and it took some time to get rid of all their messages although I've now found a quicker method of doing that. And there are still a couple of add-ons that were hit and we are working to bring back.

    -----

    I had occasion this week to speak to Bob Scott, the VP at Glenora distillery. They are the only distiller of Single Malt Whisky in North America and reside in Cape Breton. Should you still be looking for Christmas presents you could not do better than phone them up and order one of their very good Whisky cakes and perhaps a couple of miniatures to go with it. You can get hold of them through their web site at http://www.glenoradistillery.com/ I might add they don't sell them through their web site so you would either need to phone them or send them an email. I've just ordered 8 of them and 16 miniatures.

    -----

    Finished three books this week so next week will see us embarking on at least two new books. I've also acquired several volumes of the Transactions of the Gaelic Society and am intending to extract interesting articles from them over the next few weeks.

    -----

    And WOW doing the Grand Priory of Canada newsletter is sure a lot of work. Part of the newsletter has to include reports from the various Priories and one only was good at getting it in and I am having to chase and chase to get the other ones. Given this is a Military Order you'd think there would be more discipline <sheesh>

    Electric Canadian

    Memoir of the Rev James MacGregor D.D.
    Missionary of the General Associate Synod of Scotland to Pictou, Nova Scotia with Notices of the Colonization of the Lower Provinces of British America, and of the Social and Religious condition of the Early Settlers by his Grandson The Rev. George Patterson (1859).

    I'm now adding the appendices to complete this book and will be finished by next week.

    You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...egor/index.htm

    Roughing it in the Bush
    or Forrest Life in Canada by Susanna Moodie (1871). A new book we're starting.

    This is an account of life as a Canadian settler by Susanna Moodie. Moodie immigrated to Canada West, near modern-day Peterborough, Ontario during the 1830s. At the suggestion of her editor, she wrote a "guide" to settler life for British subjects considering coming to Canada. Roughing It in the Bush was first published in London in 1852 (then Toronto in 1871). It was Moodie's most successful literary work. The work is part memoir, part novelization of her experiences, and is structured as a chronological series of sketches.

    You can read this new book we're starting at http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...hing/index.htm

    Canada’s Past Matters campaign
    By the Canadian Association of University Teachers

    (Ottawa: November 22, 2012) The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has unveiled a national campaign exposing the threats to Canada’s cultural institutions and historic sites and proposing what must be done to reverse the damage.

    I am very supportive of this campaign and you can read more about it at http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...st_matters.htm

    Irish in Canada
    Found a great book about the Irishman in Canada so that sets the scene to get our Irish in Canada section started. You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/history/irish/index.htm

    County of Halton
    This Sketch contains a huge number of names and could be an excellent resource for genealogists. You can read this book at:
    http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...rio/halton.htm

    Cape Breton
    By C. W. Vernon

    THE beginning of this twentieth century the eyes of the world have been directed towards Cape Breton, as a result of the important developments which have taken place in the coal, iron and steel industries at and in the vicinity of the Sydneys. Not only from an industrial, but from many other points of view, is the island worthy of careful study.

    You can read this book at http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...ape_breton.htm

    The Flag in the Wind

    This weeks edition was Compiled by Fraser Hudghton in which he has a very interesting article on our National Heath Service...

    Of the many improvements devolution has provided Scotland, the able stewardship of the NHS under Nicola Sturgeon, and now Alex Neil, has undoubtedly made it clear to any observer just how seriously the issue of the country’s poor health record is taken by the SNP government.

    The report published earlier this week by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH), however, certainly puts the leaps and bounds made by devolved government into some perspective.

    Amongst its conclusions, its noting that Scotland’s working age population has the worst mortality rate out of 19 European countries is a sobering reminder that there remains a long way to go before we can say our 21st century democracy is touching certain deep rooted cultural problems.

    You can read the rest of this article and this issue at http://www.scotsindependent.org

    Electric Scotland

    Northern Notes and Queries
    This weeks issue is for July 1897 and can be found at the foot of the page at:
    http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...hern/index.htm

    Sketches of Virginia
    Historical and Biographical by The Rev. William Henry Foote D.D. (1856)

    We've now completed this book and you can read the final chapters at:
    http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...inia/index.htm

    A Significant Scot - William Sharp
    Scottish poet, literary biographer, and romantic story-teller.

    We've now added...

    Chapter 4 Green Fire
    Chapter 5 From the Hills of Dream

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

    Kilsyth, A Parish History
    We've now completed this book and you can read the concluding chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/kilsyth

    The Little White Bird by James Barrie
    We've decided to serialize this book as part of the reason is that his famous Peter Pan first appeared in it which led to the play.

    We've now added the next 3 chapters...

    Chapter XVI - Lock-Out Time
    Chapter XVII - The Little House
    Chapter XVIII - Peter's Goat

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

    The Isle of Skye in 1882-1883
    Illustrated by a full report of the trials or the Braes and Glendale Crofters at Inverness and Edinburgh and an Introductory chapter by Alexander MacKenzie, FSA Scot. (1883).

    We have now completed this book with the final chapter on the Trial of Patrick Sellar.

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

    George Douglas Brown
    Journalist, Teacher, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Critic

    We've now added more chapter to the "House of Green Shutters"

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

    Legacy of Honor
    by Edward Grant Ries

    We got in a book review from this author on his new book. He is also going to send us a few articles that he's written and the first one he sent in is entitled "The True History of William Wallace". He then sent us in another of his articles "The First Crusade" and all this can be read at: http://www.electricscotland.com/books/ries/

    The First Uniform Tartan

    Much has been said on the origin of tartan, using that word as meaning a checkered cloth; but it is probably not known to most Highlanders that the first reliable account we have of its adoption as a uniform was by the Royal Company of Archers.

    You can read this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/tart...ary_tartan.htm

    The Lyon in Mourning
    Or a Collection of Speeches, Letters, Journals, etc., relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart by the Rev. Robert Forbes, A.M., Bishop of Ross and Caithness 1746 - 1775. Edited from his Manuscript with a Preface by Henry Paton, M.A., in three volumes.

    It always amaze me how you find books due to reading other books. I am intending to work on an article about Bonnie Prince Charlie and his wanderings and letters after the Battle of Culloden and found a reference to this publication. I've add an Introduction and then links to the three volumes which are in pdf format.

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

    Sketches of the Early History, Legends and Traditions of Strathardle and its Glens
    This comes from an old volume of the Transactions of the Gaelic Society.

    1700.—During the troublous times between the Battle of Killiecrankie and the Rising of 1715, Strathardle, Glenshee, Glenisla, etc., were terribly infested with bands of caterans and broken men, from Rannoch, Badenoch, and Lochaber. To keep clear of the strong Castle of Blair, where the Atholl family always kept strict watch for such depredators, they kept clear of the main valley of Atholl, and slipped along the Grampian ridge, and through the passes of Glenloch, Bealach-na-leum, and Glenlochsie, into the eastern glens, where, hurriedly collecting all the spoil they could, and making off as quickly and as quietly as they could, they were generally beyond pursuit before the alarm was given.

    You can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...trathardle.htm

    Vizzies Frae The Ochils
    A new song in the Doric language by John Henderson.

    You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel460.htm

    And finally...

    A Little Light Relief

    Monday's huge drop in the stockmarket was being discussed in an Edinburgh bar at lunchtime yesterday by three stockbrokers, with one of them bravely declaring:

    "Well I slept like a baby last night."

    Then added: "I woke up every hour and cried."

    -----

    Stay Healthy

    A chap was so fed up with a pale-faced youth who was smoking upstairs on a bus that he told him that it was bad for his health.

    The youth replied that his grandfather had lived till he was 96.

    "Did he smoke?" asked the chap.

    "Naw," replied the youth. "He jist minded his ain business."

    And that's it for now and hope our American friends have an enjoyable Thanksgiving and all of us a great weekend.

    Alastair
Working...
X