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Newsletter for 15th March 2019

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  • Newsletter for 15th March 2019

    For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
    https://electricscotland.com/scotnews.htm

    Electric Scotland News

    National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA announced today that the recipient of its 2019 Great Scot Award is Andy Scott, award-winning sculptor of The Kelpies and renowned artworks across the UK and internationally. The award will be presented to Mr. Scott at the Foundation’s annual fundraising gala, A Celebration of Scotland’s Treasures, on April 11, 2019, at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.

    Under the guidance of co-chairs Alan Cumming and Grant Shaffer, Christopher Forbes, Joan Kahn, and Susi and Alasdair Nichol, the black-tie evening will raise funds to support the conservation of the natural, built, and cultural treasures cared for by the National Trust for Scotland.

    The highlight of the evening is the presentation of the Great Scot Award. The award is presented annually to a Scot or American who has contributed to the countries’ shared heritage. Past recipients include endurance athlete and world-record breaking cyclist Mark Beaumont, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, comedian Sir Billy Connolly, actors Alan Cumming and Phyllis Logan, and author Alexander McCall Smith.

    “We are absolutely delighted to honor sculptor Andy Scott as our Great Scot this year,” said Charlotte Lyeth Burton, chair of the board of The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA. “Andy’s work in Scotland and the US is rooted in the past and looks forward to the future, marking the same connections across time and place that are at the heart of our Foundation’s work.”

    Andy Scott works in steel and bronze, combining figurative and equine themes with contemporary techniques to create stunning landmark artworks. He is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art and now works from his studio in Philadelphia, PA USA. He creates prominent public artworks for private, corporate, and civic clients, and his prodigious output now numbers in excess of eighty projects across the UK and internationally. He has received numerous awards and accolades for his work.

    His most prominent project to date is The Kelpies, which have become the best known public artworks in Scotland welcoming millions of visitors to the small town of Falkirk since their inauguration (pictured below; Graham Wylie Photography). The two 100-foot high steel horse heads are the largest equine sculptures in the world and straddle the Forth & Clyde Canal. They are inspired by Scottish mythology and by the heritage of the Clydesdale horses, the original source of locomotion for the canal barges and the power behind the industries and agriculture of central Scotland.

    Andy Scott’s current and recent projects include a bronze sculpture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, unveiled in Glasgow by Scotland’s First Minister in October of 2018 to coincide with Mackintosh’s 150th anniversary celebration, and a 18 foot tall grizzly bear to be installed this spring in the Scottish town of Dunbar. The grizzly bear theme relates to John Muir, advocate of the wilderness, founder of The Sierra Club, native of Dunbar and regarded as the father of the US National Park Service.

    The celebratory evening features a whisky tasting by The Macallan; Alasdair Nichol, Chairman and co-owner of Freeman’s, America’s oldest auction house and frequent appraiser on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow, will recite Burns’ Ode To A Haggis before dinner and later will preside over a live auction with lots including a one-week holiday in a chic London flat; a getaway to experience the spirit of the American West at Big Hat Ranch in Wyoming; and a limited edition bronze maquette of sculptor and Great Scot, Andy Scott’s iconic work The Kelpies.


    Culzean Castle, a Robert Adam-designed masterpiece perched on the cliffs of Ayrshire, has inspired the décor and will benefit from funds raised at the gala. Passing through the Ruined Arch at the entrance to the Castle, visitors are greeted with a panoramic view of the idyllic Fountain Court gardens. The formal landscape is centered on a Baroque fountain and is adorned with an extraordinary collection of subtropical plants, thanks to the nourishment of the passing Gulf Stream.

    While the Fountain Court was recently restored, the fountain itself—which dates to 1876 and features Triton surrounded by dolphins—no longer works. Proceeds from A Celebration of Scotland’s Treasures will help bring this magnificent water feature back to life so that it can once again delight visitors.

    The evening ends with a full-blown cèilidh. Scottish country dancing takes place to traditional Celtic music performed by Katie McNally & Friends. Before heading home, guests hold hands and sing Auld Lang Syne.

    ---------

    Scottish Studies Foundation, Toronto

    Join us at the "Oor Club" at noon on Friday, April 5, when Bruce Simpson (Scot of the Year 2017) will talk about his life and work. Originally from Scotland, Bruce is a Senior Partner of McKinsey & Company, the leading consulting firm, where he has worked for more than 30 years. Bruce had an incredible childhood — his parents were explorers and his mother is the first woman ever to have crossed the Greenland ice cap from one side to the other, a trip she did with his father in 1966. He spent much of his childhood in Greenland and the Canadian arctic living with the Inuit. Bruce was awarded a Churchill Medallion by Her Majesty the Queen for exploration in China, was a professional ski racer and musician, and is a keen sea kayaker in the arctic. More information athttp://www.scottishstudies.com/920oorclub.htm

    This year's Scottish Studies Spring Colloquium will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2019, at Knox College at the University of Toronto. This years theme is “Deviancy and Society in Scotland and Abroad” and speakers include Dr. Linda Mahood, University of Guelph; Dr. Cynthia Neville, Dalhousie University; Chelsea Hartlen, University of Guelph; Dr. Katherine Ashley, Acadia University; Amy Beingessner, University of Guelph; The Rev. Dr. Stuart Macdonald, Vice-Principal and Director of Graduate Studies, Knox College, University of Toronto; Joon Won Kim, Knox College, University of Toronto; Ciaran Jones, University of Edinburgh. Details can be seen here:http://www.scottishstudies.com/520-s...quium-2019.htm

    Also,I think you might be interested in listening to our good friend, former Foundation director and Scot of the year Douglas Gibson in his chat with Michael Enright in episode four of CBC's "The Backlist," a radio series about Canadian novels that have fallen out of public memory — or never got the attention they deserved in the first place. Douglas discusses Hugh MacLennan's novel "The Watch That Ends the Night," a novel about a love triangle, fighting fascism and 1930s Montreal which features one of the most compelling love triangles in Canadian literature. Be sure to listen out for Douglas reading aloud the passage in "Barometer Rising" where Hugh sees Canada, coast to coast, as if from outer space. Here is the link:
    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayed...real-1.5038806

    -------

    You can view a video introduction to this newsletter at:

    Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
    Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. 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.

    Scottish stock exchange launch on track
    Scotland’s first stock exchange since the early 1970s could be launched within months with a number of companies already in talks over plans to use it to raise funds.

    Read more at:
    https://www.scotsman.com/business/ma...rack-1-4885557

    How to survive and thrive after a No Deal Brexit
    The prospect of failing to reach an agreement with the EU cannot simply be ignored in the hope it goes away

    Read more at:
    https://capx.co/how-to-survive-and-t...no-deal-brexit

    Why Scotland matters in Russia’s cyber war games
    What is the importance of Scotland to Russia and what is the Kremlin trying to achieve there?

    Read more at:
    https://capx.co/why-scotland-matters...yber-war-games

    It’s a violation of our rights
    Expats complain of unfair system that leaves them with frozen pensions

    Read more at:
    https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/...nsions-brexit/

    Highland Games to break with men-only traditions
    Women will be able to compete in a range of events at Scotland’s Highland Games after organisers gave in to pressure by campaigners to promote a gender balance.

    Read more at:
    https://www.scotsman.com/news/highla...ions-1-4886643

    Laughter is the best medicine
    As fabulous Clowndoctors give kids in Scots hospitals lots to smile about

    Read more at:
    https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/laught...o-smile-about/

    A WTO No Deal Brexit is now the only way to honour the referendum result
    As Attorney General Geoffrey Cox’s attempts to procure a legally-binding change to the backstop appear to have proven futile, the last hope for Theresa May’s deal is slipping away. Reportedly, the Cabinet already anticipates another crushing Commons defeat when the vote is held tomorrow.

    Read more at:
    https://brexitcentral.com/wto-no-dea...rendum-result/

    Offshore wind offshored
    Scotland has been talking a big game in potential for renewable energy, while others have been getting on with it. And those others have developed supply chains which now have scale and efficiency.

    Read more at:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...iness-47511310

    Fracking could cut Britain's gas imports to zero by early 2030s
    Fracking Britain’s shale gas reserves could cut the country’s imports of gas to zero by the early 2030s, an industry group said on Monday.

    Read more at:
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-br...-idUKKBN1QS1JC

    Online voting
    Now Estonia teaches the world a lesson in electronic elections. In this month's Estonian parliamentary elections, a whopping 44 percent of the ballot was cast using e-voting.

    Read more at:
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/online...onic-elections

    Row over hydro projects in Skyfall glen
    The three proposed schemes are opposed by a campaign, Save Glen Etive.

    Read more at:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland...islands-474966

    The kindness judges turning courts inside out
    Two American judges who argue that people who come before criminal courts should be treated with more compassion and kindness have arrived in Scotland for a week-long visit.

    Read more at:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-47528102

    Britain and Brexit in chaos
    Parliament rejects May's EU deal again

    Read more at:
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-br...-idUKKBN1QT0ZQ

    Meet Kara - the parrot who enjoys trekking and teasing dogs
    Kara is a seven-year-old African grey parrot who joins her owners for walks in the Scottish Highlands.

    Read more at:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-scotl...d-teasing-dogs

    Is nuclear fusion finally moving beyond the realm of science fiction?
    Free energy, interstellar travel, terraforming Mars - the possibilities of nuclear fusion are boundless

    Read more at:
    https://capx.co/is-nuclear-fusion-fi...cience-fiction

    Will the EU let Britain delay Brexit?
    Brussels is unlikely to say no to an extension, but everything depends on why the UK is asking for a delay

    Read more at:
    https://capx.co/will-the-eu-let-britain-delay-brexit

    MPs vote by a majority of 211 to seek delay to EU departure
    It means the UK may not now leave on 29 March as previously planned.

    Read more at:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47576813

    Trump: Surprised at bad Brexit negotiations
    Trump told reporters a second vote would be unfair "on the people who won", and that the Irish border issue was one of the most complex Brexit issues.

    Read more at:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-47...t-negotiations

    Electric Canadian

    Canadian Archive Reports
    Added the 1899 report.

    You can read this at: https://www.electriccanadian.com/mak...er_douglas.htm

    The Canadian Horticulturist
    Volume 17 (1894) can be read at:
    https://www.electriccanadian.com/tra...culturirst.htm

    The Canadian Practitioner
    Added volumes 1 & 10 and a link to other copies on the Internet Archive. You can read these towards the foot of the page at:https://www.electriccanadian.com/magazines/index.htm

    Canadian Railway and Marine World
    Added volumes for 1918 and 1919 with a link to other copies on the Internet Archive which you can read towards the foot of the page at:https://www.electriccanadian.com/magazines/index.htm

    Knight Errant of the Wilderness
    Tales of the Explorers of the great North-West by Morden H. Long (1925) (pdf) which can be read at:
    https://www.electriccanadian.com/pio...ghtserrant.pdf

    The Story of Butler's Rangers
    And the Settlement of Niagara by Ernest Cruikshanks (1893) (pdf) which can be read at:
    https://www.electriccanadian.com/his...ersrangers.pdf

    Sir Charles Tupper
    By the Hon. J. W. Longley (pdf) to our Makers of Canada page and can be read at:
    https://www.electriccanadian.com/mak...rlestupper.pdf

    England and Canada
    By Sandford Fleming. You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/history...g_sandford.htm

    Conrad Black
    The Liberals have stumbled their way into a disaster
    http://www.conradmblack.com/1456/the...their-way-into

    Electric Scotland

    The Scottish Review
    Added Volume 28 -
    July October 1896 for you to read at:
    https://electricscotland.com/history/review/index.htm

    Global Britain: A Twenty-First Century Vision
    Global Britain implies a national global Strategy to express the nation’s values and interests beyond our shores.

    You can read about this at: https://electricscotland.com/indepen...al-Britain.pdf

    The Gordon Clan
    I found a lot of material on the Gordons and have added it all to our Gordon page at:
    https://electricscotland.com/webclans/dtog/gordon.html

    The new material starts from The Gordons in Forfarshire and then read further down from there to get all 11 books I've added.

    Folk Lore
    Superstitious beliefs in the West of Scotland within this century by James Napier (1879) (pdf). You can read this at:https://electricscotland.com/history...ofscotland.pdf

    Folk Lore Journal
    In the book on Folk Lore there was a reference to the Folk Lore Journal in which in volume 1 there is an article by the author so I managed to find this edition and now make it available for you to read which you can read at:https://electricscotland.com/history...ejournal01.pdf

    Folk-Medicine
    A Chapter in the History of Culture by William George Black (1883) (pdf) and you can read this at:
    https://electricscotland.com/history...kMedicine..pdf

    Calendar of Letters and Papers
    Relating to the affairs of the Borders of England and Scotland preserved in Her Majesty's Public Record Office London edited by Joseph Bain in 2 volumes (1894). Added to the foot of our page at:
    https://electricscotland.com/history/borders/

    Florentius Volusenus
    A Philosopher whom we've added to our Significant Scots page at:
    https://electricscotland.com/history...sVolusenus.htm

    By-Ways among Books
    By David J. MacKenzie (1900)

    You can read this at: https://electricscotland.com/books/p...amongbooks.pdf

    Alastair McIntyre
    I did a bit of an update on my mini bio on the site at: https://electricscotland.com/history...e_alastair.htm

    Canadian Journal
    I did another update on my Canadian Journal. which you can read at:
    https://www.electriccanadian.com/canada_add2.htm

    Lieutenant John Gordon of the Dundurous family
    Massacred at Patna 1763 and you can read about him at:
    https://electricscotland.com/history...ordon_john.pdf

    Early Travellers in Scotland
    By P Hume Brown (1891) (pdf) which you can read at:
    https://electricscotland.com/history...inscotland.pdf

    Beth's Newfangled Family Tree
    Got in the April 2019 section 2 issue.

    Hi Everyone! Hope you are all ready for St. Patrick's Day. If you are in Atlanta and see the Clan Buchanan parading with a brand new - and gorgeous - banner...my Tom just made that for them. Give them an extra cheer, please!

    This issue has good news from Clan MacAlpine, with their brand new Commander! We also have sad news with the death of former Lord Lyon David Sellar.

    We have celebrated with April Fool fun...and the marriage of our dear friends, Ann McNutt and Paul Arnett!

    There's lots more to read and enjoy.

    And you can read this issue at: https://electricscotland.com/bnft/index.htm

    The Story

    SCOTLAND UNDER THE ROUNDHEADS

    IN the last issue of the Scottish History Society’s publications is included a volume of much and varied interest—Scotland under the Commonwealth, 1651-3. If a statue to the Lord-General should again become a question of the hour, even to the imminent peril of an English ministry, this volume ought to recommend the tardy honour, for it goes far to justify the favourable judgment on his usurpation of Scotland as ‘tolerant, wise, and just.’ It entirely wants the commanding personality of Cromwell himself, who finally turned his back on the Kirk and her cantankerous leaders in the early autumn of 1351, to close with Leslie and the Royalists at Worcester. But it deals with questions of considerable moment at the time, and of constitutional interest now, such as the incorporating Union of the two kingdoms, the reduction of the Highlands, and the settlement of difficult ecclesiastical, judicial, and economic problems. The sources of the narmtive are the Oxford MSS. of William Clarke in Scotland, acting as secretary to Cromwell, and thereafter to his right-hand man, Monk. That office he continued to hold, till the Restoration, under the officers that succeeded Monk. The lacunae in Clarke’s Journal have been supplied from the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian, consisting of letters to the Speaker, supplemented by news-letters of the day and intercepted Royalist correspondence.

    The narrative opens with Monk’s march through Fife to the reduction of Stirling Castle. He crossed the Forth, not by the bridge but at the Ford of Frew, a few miles farther up, where in the ’45 Prince Charlie’s men passed southward. William Cunningham, anciente of the Castle, gave in after a week’s feeble pounding at the ramparts from the kirk steeple. The mortars proved too much for the nerves of his Highlandmen, among whom they produced a panic and mutiny. These would appear to have been the most advanced type of ordnance, worked only by Mr. Joachim Hane, the Dutch Engineer, of whom, on a later occasion, Lilburne says, writing to Cromwell, i we have an exceeding great want. Should we have any occasion to use a morter peece without him, there is nobody to undertake that business that is fitt for itt.” Among the spoils we find, 4 4 leather guns, 2 coaches and a sedan, the Earl of Murris coronet and Parliament roabes.’ Monk lived in the interesting old Stirling mansion, Mar’s Wark, from which the Countess of Argyll had to retire during the siege, being sik, and there terms of capitulation were signed. The siege of Dundee, which Monk reached from Stirling by Perth, has made a profounder mark in history, for it proved a Scottish sack of Drogheda, for which the General gets off much more lightly in history than his master over the Irish affair. Hither most of the portable wealth of the country had been transported. With two wide firths between it and the Sectaries it was deemed safe. The townspeople were very confident, remembering their success in beating off Montrose, but Engineer Hana plaid again with his morter peece, the troopers poured through the breaches on the east and west, ‘divers of the ^treated to the church and steeple, and among the rest aour, whoe was kild with between foure and five hundred souldyers and townsmen. The sduldyers had the plunder of the town for all that day and night, and had very large prize, many inhabitantes of Edinburgh and other places having sent their ware and geere thither. Captain Eely led on the Pioneers, whoe made way for the horse, and the Lt.-Generali went in person. Our word was, God with us, and the signe a white cloath or shirt hanging out behind.’ The minister of the town was among the slain. Such is the brief contemporary narrative of a massacre which great historians, like Burton and Gardiner, have disbelieved. Two days before had been enacted the Crowning Mercy of Worcester, of which Monk heard 4 the happy news’ here, September 9. Shortly before this (August 27) Colonel Alured accomplished his smart feat, the Raid of Aly th, and curtly tells in due course, ‘From my Tent at the Leagure before Dundee,’ how ‘ It hath pleased the Lord to give a great mercy to us,’ no less indeed than the capture of the whole committee of the Scots Estates, barring two. He rode with his dragoons 'on a darke rainey night in rough and tedious way to a Towne called Ellit,’ where lay the Scots Parliament, at the foot of the Sid-laws, in full security of its Highland supports. The Earls of Leven (General Leslie) and Marischal were among the batch of captives that Monk shipped off to a long captivity in the Tower, from which the old Captain of the Covenant was ultimately liberated to die in peace at his beautiful Fifeshire retreat of Balgonie. Another of the caged Scots was the notorious Lauderdale, and him we can fancy having a crack over the adventure, after the Restoration, with his companion renegade, the now glorified Duke of Albemarle. Thus was the curtain rung down on that Covenanted Republic, Carlyle’s ‘theocracy without the inspiration,’ which Jenny Geddes and Duns Law had brought into being.

    Scotland was now left to the tender mercies of that ‘very precious instrument,’ General Monk, unfortunately seized with a very desperate sickness after the fall of Dundee. Clarke gives him a high character in writing to Speaker Lenthal—‘ the most properly fitted for the management of affairs here. His temper every way fits him and none could order the Scots so handsomely as himself, he carries things with such a grace and rigid gentle-nesse? The Secretary writes a pretty style it must be admitted. Monk certainly lost no time in getting his men well in hand again after the sack, proclamations following, on the next day, to ‘forbear© further plundering or rifling of the houses in Dundee.’ Court martials severely punished offenders who had been scouring the district for plunder. For robbing two countrymen a brace of dragoons are led with ropes about their necks to the gallows, tied up, flogged with thirty stripes a piece; then on their knees they have to beg forgiveness of their victims, and restore the plunder four-fold. Others have to ride the tree mare for similar offences—‘ so severe,’ says Clarke, ‘ is the Lt.-General and officers against injuring the countrey, to whom we endeavour to show as much favour as may be (especially to the poorer sort) to convince them of the slavery they have been under and freedom they may now enjoy under the English.’

    Monk followed up his success with the reduction of the coast towns and the establishment of small garrisons. A good footing was gained as far north as Aberdeen, ‘ one of the richest and chiefest cities,’ where the officers were handsomely entertained. No doubt both parties were anxious as to the attitude of that great scourge of the north, the Marquis of Huntly, but he proved powerless both in health and purse to interfere in the struggle. Before the renewal of active operations in the spring of 1652 Monk’s weak health compelled him to retire to Bath for the waters, and Deane assumed command for a few months, but the really active officer was Lilburne. To him fell the hardest task of all, to reduce the Highlands and keep the active royalists at bay. The situation reached its acute stage in the summer of 1653, when the Roundhead government was put to the severest strain. The Dutch War absorbed its whole energies and Lilburne was in despair for men and means. One cannot but sympathise with his efforts to be honest and faithful. In a letter to Cromwell he speaks his mind—‘ Our want of money seemes to be an incouragement to our enimies, who conceives we are not able to subsist long at the vast charge the Commonwealth is at; the foote eate biskett and cheese on Pentland hills, and hath not money to buy them other refreshments, being now 2 months and above in arreare and our fortifications readie to stand still, nor do I know where to gett 1001. in the treasury; this hath bene often represented above and hinted to your Excellencie.’ In the early days of the occupation the troopers had lived at free quarters on a rough system of local billeting, but latterly about £8000 a month had been uniformly levied, which sum, however, had to be largely supplemented from England. The assessments for the different shires and burghs are detailed in this volume and give a valuable indication of the economic situation. Fife and Perth head the list of the shires by a long way, then follow Aberdeen, Ayr, Midlothian and Lanark. Of the burghs, Edinburgh pays more than five times Dundee, the second on the list, closely followed by Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Perth. Rutherglen has to contribute £3 less than Rothesay, and only half the cess from the ancient burgh of Culross. From Argyle-shire Lilburne had to accept the cess in kind, cows at 26s.—28s. if fat, and trees at 4s. each if from 20—24 feet long and a foot square. Here he had an eye to the substantial forts he was constructing as at Ayr—sconces (Ger. schanze}, these were called after the Dutch masters in gunnery. The term is still used in South African warfare, and is heard, in modified form, in ensconced. This volume corroborates the tradition that the Cromwellian rule pressed hard on the few native woods as well as the historic churches. Thus Lilburne tells Cromwell that the broken men under Glencairn and Kenmure had come down from the hills as far as Falkland and secured four or five men in charge of the timber in the park at Falkland, designed for the citadel at Perth. The meat supply was an even greater difficulty, the country was so poor. The ships had to go often to Newcastle and Hull for beef and pork; hay and meal the country provided, but in the hills the men had to subsist on the biscuits and cheese they carried with them. In the Lowlands trade flowed on in the usual channels. Thus we find Lilburne telling Cromwell that it ‘ was strange that the Treasurer should hinder the return of money and put the State and the soldiers to the trouble of bringing it out from London and York in waggons when it might be almost every groat received here upon bills.’

    The untiring energy displayed gives one a high idea of the splendid stuff developed by the army of the New Model. In all directions there is the greatest activity. The mosstroopers of the Border were dragooned into decent dalesmen. The coast towns were made ready to meet the Dutchmen. Arbroath Abbey, for example, was turned into what was deemed a very tenable fort; while the Scots navy, taken in Dundee—sixty sail of 10, 6, and 4 guns—along with one that had escaped to Aberdeen, having 6 peeces, and stoare of wines and other good comodityes,’ were pressed into the service. To checkmate the Dutch, who set the greatest store upon the Orkneys and Shetland for the Great Fishing, Overton fortified Kirkwall, making tenable the Cathedral Kirk of St. Maans (Magnus) and the Earl of Morton’s house, where a regiment can lodge. Lilburne, writing to Cromwell, tells how the Dutch have especially ail eye upon Shetland. * There have bin sometimes 1800 saile in and about Birssie (Bressay) Sound,’ the narrowest part of which he proposes to secure with a strong fort. For a time the Lewes had been thought well worth securing, and here Cobbett worked hard at making a strength at Stornoway. It was found, however, that the course of trade did not at all lie in that direction. Montrose’s destructive raid had taught the lesson that there was a real danger from Ireland through the West Highlands, where another Colkitto might any day appear; and so Ayr and Brodick, Dunstaffnage and Dunolly were strongly held. Inverness was relied upon as the chief defence for the central Highlands, and in an interesting letter we read the story of the building of a citadel and particularly of the great feat of dragging a forty ton pinnace across six miles of dry land for service on Loch Ness, ‘ to the admiration of the spectators. The men broke three cables, seven inches about, with hawling of her . . . The west end of the Lough is near unto the Irish Sea, it wanting not above six mile of ground to be cut to make the es north of it an entire island of itself.’ Inverlochy, at the fern side of the Great Glen, was held strongly to keep down was the main-stay of the Royalists, the cattle-lifting caterans Kochaber, the Macdonalds and the Camerons. The attitude of r gy 11, the great leader of the Covenant and the rival of Montrose, a constant source of anxiety. With a caution characteristic of these old times, when the head of the clan remained in one camp while a son or brother stuck by its rival, the Marquis had frequent friendly correspondences with the Roundheads, doing them valuable service, while his son, Lorn, was a leading spirit among the Royalists. In consequence Argyllshire required constant watchfulness, and was often the scene of really plucky marchings and counter-marchings. It would be something even in these days to take, as Colonel Read did, 700 horse, dragoons and foot, from Tarbert to Dunstaffnage ‘after four hard dayes march,’ find no provisions there nor in Dunolly, and after a stay of two nights, ‘be forced to act the King of France’s part,’ to face about ‘and by a nearer cut return to his base.’ A still more toilsome undertaking was the marching and the dragging of guns from Athole over the stiffest part of the Highlands to Inverlochy in Lochaber. Nor again was that a small feat of which we read in a Letter from Paisley, August, 1652. Here we can follow the handful of surly Roundheads as they marched from Inveraray across ‘ an impregnable Passe, called Glen Crow (Croe), where onely one could but file over,’ for not till a century later did Lascelles’ regiment make the present road. The jagged cliffs that frown upon the gloomy tarn at Rest and be Thankful, were dotted over with crowds of excited clansmen, ‘ to know if the E. of Argyle were our prisoner; yet God, who restrains the fury of the most savage beasts, doth also muzzle the mouthes of bloody-minded men. Wee drew up our men under their noses until our rear-guard was got over. I doubt whether these things are in order, to war with these base and beggerlv wild beasts, a thing to be avoided for many reasons, especially their poverty and unft accessiblenesse of every passe and place, where each hill is no less than an invincible garrison.’

    Worcester had proved a heavy blow to the Royalists. For some time the exiles suffered the greatest straits. But the Dutch War revived their hopes, absorbing as it did all Cromwell’s energies and resources. The difficulty, however, was to find money for an expedition. Late in 1652 we have the King, young Charles, or the lad of the Roundhead letters, writing from Paris to Middleton, ‘I have scarce received 200 pistoles since you went.’ By the spring of 1653 everything seemed favourable for action, all the more urgent that the fall of Dunnottar, the last of the Covenanting strengths to succumb, was imminent. Here were stored the royal plenishing and the regalia, the preservation of which forms a well-known romantic incident of the time.* Agents scoured the Baltic provinces to raise money from the Scotch merchants there. One letter from a General Douglas at Stockholm breathes the most touching loyalty. In answer to His Sacred Majesty’s own letter he says that all he can do ‘ must be in a private way; however, your goodness will not reject the harte affections of your subjects abroad, quhairoff a few with my selfe have maide boulde to send your Majeste a somme of 5200 rixdollars’ through William Davidson, merchant in Amsterdam. The King himself writes, asking a loan of £300 from the Earls of Southesk and Panmure. Hyde entreats Middleton, appointed General in Scotland, ‘not to be angry at the sum’ he sends, ‘being but £100, God knowes the King had rather give you £1000.’ Middleton, originally a Fifeshire trooper in Hepburn’s regiment, rose to be the King’s Viceroy in Scotland with an evil reputation for rough measures and manners and drunken habits. The cruel agents of the Secret Council during the Killing Times all occur in this correspondence as working for the King—Strachan, Turner, Ballantyne, and that truculent trooper, Dalzel. Great efforts were made to secure the co-operation of the Dutch, the Royalists offering them fishing stations in the isles ‘to be possessed by them forever.’ All this activity resulted in the Glencairn Rising of 1653, which we can now study here in most interesting detail. There were high hopes of the Highland chiefs, with Glengarry at their head. Charles took great pains to reduce the friction of jealousy by giving the chief command to Middleton, but with little success. Lorn and Glengarry one day drew their claymores on each another. Glencairn, one of the most active leaders, was a Cunningham, an Ayrshire laird, and his henchman, that energetic raider, Kenmore, was the head of the Galloway Gordons, who took to the hills with but a hundred followers. Scott’s Locliinvar and that Stirring Jacobite March of The Fifteen, Kenmures on and awa! wa11 forever preserve the memory of the lords of the grim f°rhdice at the head of Loch Ken. There was no Montrose now among. these leaders, and, if there had been, the Roundhead troopers would have made his tactics impracticable. The King cheered on his followers with the sham hope of joining them, but he secretly had no wish to be up a tree again. Nothing more serious than horse-stealing was done. A slight skirmish at Aberfovle, a Boundhead raid into Athole in which the Laird of Macnab got killed, Kenmore’s futile landing in Cantire and attack on Campbeltown, then known only as Lochhead—these summed up the exploits of the Royalists; and, when Cromwell assumed the Protectorate and dismissed the Long Parliament, his officers in the north could assure him of the support of Scotland.

    Lilbume’s reports prove him an admirable administrator. The backbone of the rising he rightly conceives to be the bankrupt position of the gentry, impoverished by civil war and a vicious land system. To Cromwell he more than once strongly represents the situation. The creditors of the lairds were using the increased strictness and despatch of the reformed Court of Session to harass their debtors, and again and again we find Lilburne pressing them to leniency, their action driving many to the hills. To this the scarcity of money contributed. All this bears out the gloomy picture of the economic situation drawn by Baillie in his Letters, 1 Our nobility weel near all are wracked,’ and accounts for the exaggerated strain of Glencairn’s appeal to the United Provinces, how ‘ the cry of our blood hath reached to Heaven, soe we doe not at all doubt but the extremities of the Earth are acquainted with the horrid actings of those men of blood,’ the Roundheads. Lilburne tells Cromwell that there are (December, 1653) ‘ 35,000 captions (arrest-warrants for debt) out against men. Huntly being one of that number, sent this day to me for protection.’ About the same date Lord Cardross was writing to the Stirling bailies to allow the Earl of Mar to come south without fear of arrest, the revenue of the town’s hospital depending upon monies that had been lent to him. Lilburne also strongly urged the policy which President Forbes and Argyll pressed upon the Hanoverian Government after the Fifteen. This was, ‘ That libertie may bee given to any Scotchman to transport regiments to Forraine princes in amity with us.’ Forbes’s plan contemplated service under the British flag, and this was left to Cha^fiam to carry out Had it been adopted earlier, we should probably never have heard of the Forty-five.

    Cromwell, finding the country at his feet, lost no time in promoting an Incorporating Union. A commission of eight, on which sat such famous Roundhead officers as Vane, Lambert, Monk, and St. John,' arrived in Scotland early in 1652 to confer with the local leaders with a view to union. Argyll held out in the hope of resuscitating the old Scots Estates, and even summoned them to a futile meeting at Finlarig, on Loch Tay, but after a conference with Monk at Dumbarton he gave in, and rendered valuable assistance in reducing the Highlands. Cromwell evidently looked upon Scotland as won by his sword, and was disposed towards annexation pure and simple. Convinced that the advantages of union were all on the side of the poor Scots, he and his officers were astonished that they were so little grateful for the boon. It offered a mild form of Home Rule in place of a military occupation, Parliamentary representation by thirty members, most of them drawn from the officers of the English, and three peers, among them Argyll and Johnston of Warristoun. This was the outcome of the instrument of Government, or declaration for Union, i proclaymed with much solemnity att the Markett Crosse in Edinburgh by beate of drum and sound of trumpett, and the Crosse adorned with hangings,’ all which can be read in this volume in a letter from Leith, April, 1652. There was a great concourse of people, and after the reading the soldiers shouted their approbation with the * free conferring of liberty upon a conquered people, but soe sencelesse are this generation of theire owne goods, that scarce a man of them shew’d any signe of rejoycing.’ The citizens evidently thought this a poor substitute for the riding of the Parliament* the glories of which made Miss Damahoy wax so eloquent td her neighbour, Peter Plumdammas.

    Of greater moment than this abortive Union, on which the volume throws but little light, was the creation of a new bench of judges in place of the corrupt Court of Session. They were seven in number, four English and three Scots—James Dalrymple, better known as Viscount Stair, Johnston of Warris-*4 Lockhart of Lee. They were no longer paper lords. but designated Judge Smith and the like, in colonial fashion. Henceforth, too, all legal documents were to be in English. This Southron justice proved popular, for it was pure and expeditious. A laudator temporis acti of a later date, who admired the old style of ‘ tholing an assize with a formidable tail of supporters,’ disposed of them sneeringly with a ‘ Deil thank them I a wheen kinless loons.’ They appear to have valued their salaries, regularly paid them, better than the gifts and favour of kinsmen. Nicoll, the diarist, an Edinburgh writer who acted as agent for the city of Glasgow at this time, laments that the old legal officials dare not show themselves for fear of the English. To his disgust people had to seek j’ustice from the English governors and officers. There was no magistrate or Council for Edinburgh, and petitioners had to go to the Castle and Leith, 4 whose officers (to speak truly) proceeded more equitably and conscientiously nor our own magistrates.’ The Commissioners sat at Dalkeith, in what had been the castle of the Regent Morton in Queen Mary’s time, and thither had many a deputation from the burghs to trudge and make a poor face over the paying of the cess and the quartering of soldiers, or take their commands as to the ordering of burghal affairs. They contrived, however, to thole their troubles. In the burgh accounts of Stirling at this date appear the items—(Spent with Tammas Bruce the nicht befor going to Dalkeith, on wine, succar, tabacco, and other necessaris; on return with Tammas, in John Cahouns, 9 muchkins (quarts) canary, tobacco, and pypes; mair, when Tammas gaed to his awn hoose, 1 muchkin canary.’ Nor did these hard-driven bailies deny themselves the compensations of the deid chock, as witness the item (1651)—< Spent wi’ the auld provist and bailyeis in Jas. Swordis efter the execution of the man quha murderit his chyld, on wyn, aill, and tibac., £3 11s. 6d.’

    The wars for Covenant and Crown had proved the ruin of Scottish feudalism and prepared the way for that degradation of public spirit and character among the governing classes which made the Restoration period the most scandalous in our annals. Robert Baillie pithily sketches the condition of the peers— ‘ Hamilton execute and the estates forfault, one part gifted to English sojours, rest not fit to pay the debt, Argyll amost drowned in debt, Douglas and his son Angus quyet men of no respect, Loudoun ane outlaw about Athole, Balmerino suddenly deid and his son for caption* (warrants) keips not the causey, Eglinton and Glencaini on the brink of bankruptcy.’ Lilburne’s letters amply corroborate Baillie. He shows how this state of matters was feeding the flames of disaffection, ‘many broken men of desperate fortunes running to the Hills daily, and from thence fall downe in parties in the night time into the Lowlands, and steal horses/ thus putting the garrisons to much trouble and expense. Of course one cannot expect sympathy with broken barons from such militant republicans, whose leanings were all towards the poore commonis. The news-letters seem to delight in showing these royalist barons at a disadvantage. Thus the Mercurius Politic us, of October 1653, tells, with a chuckle, how Kenmore ‘ marches with a rundiet (keg) of strong waters before him which they call Kenmore’s Drum.’ On the other hand the peasantry are cordially supported as the victims of their feudal masters, whose ruin proved in fact to them a genuine relief from rent and harassing exactions. The raising of the royal standard at Killin, July 1653, was virtually a No Rent manifesto. The burghers were more to be pitied, for they had to contribute heavily to support the military occupation in spite of disorganised trade and great scarcity of money. There are frequent petitions for abatements. Lilburne, ever considerate, presses the Committee for the Army to be lenient and not charge any more than £8,500 a month, with abatements to depopulate places. Perth, Dundee, Glasgow, and other great burghs, he adds, pay little or nothing, Argyle and most of the Highlands nothing at all. Especially sad was the case of Glasgow, ‘ fair and beautiful, the flower of Scotland/ of which the fourth part was burnt down in 1652. It took forty-eight hours to quench the fire in spite of the help of the garrison. ‘ Yesterday, when we went to view it, it drew tears from my eyes, and not mine alone, but many/ says a contemporary letter. The burghers wofully petition that ‘ the poore widowis and orphaunts wha hes no scheildis to creipe in may be timeously supported’ The times had wrought sad reverses among even the well to do burgess class. Sir William Dick, who had been a great merchant in the Lawnmarket of Edinburgh and architect of his own fortune, died a pauper in Westminster, December, 1655, and without a decent funeral, yet his advances in hard cash, the sacks of dollars that Davie Deans describes, really gained the victory of Duns Law and turned the tide of history. Lilburne, in November 1653, pleads with the judges to grant a suspension to his sons from personal execution, ‘ being very sensible of the sufferings of the old gentleman, their father, at London agitating for some public satisfaction for his great sacrifices.’

    The poverty of the country, unable as it was to bear the military burdens, and the disaffection of the chiefs, formed not the only rocks on which Cromwellian rule split. The real rock was the clergy. The divisions among them were more political, and more bitter than those among the Sectaries whom they detested. There were a few Malignants, professed Royalists with no great love for Presbytery. They pretended to be most ready to submit to Cromwell, but, in reality, merely from hostility to the Kirk. A letter from Hyde to Middleton in this yolume is a curious commentary on Church politics and royalist tactics. For some years after 1660 he ruled Scotland, and, himself a cavalier toper, presided over that Drunken Parliament at Glasgow, 1662, which sent so many of the westland clergy to the moors and the moss-hags. Hyde tells him, ‘I fear you are not Presbiterian enough, for I do not find any of that trybe who are ther (in Scotland) have any confidence in you.’ At the other extreme were the Remonstrants, the true-blues of the west, who protested against certain resolutions of recent assemblies in favour of the King, passed by a party that they dubbed in consequence Resolutioners. These Resolutioners were the Moderates of the time, who clung to their simulacrum of a Covenant and hoped to purge and plant the church and bring in their ^covenanted king. Chief of these were Robert Baillie, and ‘ that very worthy, pious, wise, and diligent young man, James Sharp? Cromwell upon the whole preferred the Remonstrants as more thorough-going Puritans. In truth the Moderates had an intense hatred of that Brownism or Independency which had neutralised the victory of Presbyterianism in the Westminster Assembly. The Roundhead officers were diligent apostles and exemplars of Brownism, trying their best among the common people with a fervour worthy of rivals such as that John Menzies who used to change his shirt always after preaching, and to wet two or three napkins with his tears every sermon. Under their example the devotional aspect of the old service of Knox and Melville deteriorated. The Brownists made great ado about their hats during sermon, sitting covered during the preaching. A Cross-michael minister objected to this among his own people. ‘ I see a man,’ he said from the pulpit one day, 4 aneath that laft wi’ a hat on. I’m sure ye’re clear o’ the sooch o’ the door. Keep aff your bannet, Tammas, and if your bare pow be cauld ye maun just get a grey worsit wig like mysel.’ Lilburne believed that * there is an increase of good people who daily some way or other are sweetened towards us, only there wants some meanes to lead many into a clearer light that are waiting for it.’ He expects some favourable movement among ‘ the people in the west, who have bin always accounted most precise.’ There were a few gathered churches or meetings of converts to Brownism here and there. Lilburne soon comes to see, however, that even the Remonstrants detested the Cromwellian subordination of the Church to the State and its lax toleration of Anabaptists, Quakers, Papists, and even Atheists. That dour Precisian, Andrew Cant, who was watching so sedulously over Aberdeen for the Covenant, rejected the advances of Colonel Overton when apologising for some incivilities offered by his men to one ‘ who he heard was a friend to us; to which Mr. Cant replied in plain Scottish that he was a lying knave who told him so, for he neither respected him nor his party.’ At Cupar there was a conference between the Puritan and the Presbyterian preachers, where were discussed, with much cry and little wcol, such kittle pints as Adam’s sin, infant baptism, and universalism. Among the benighted Highlanders progress was made, it was believed, (some having heard our preaching with great attention and groanings. They are very simple, and ignorant in the things of God, and some live even as brutish as the heathen.’ In 1651 Lambert had received overtures from Warristoun, Rutherford, and others of the rigid sect ‘in name of those who would be called the godly party,’ but he sees their drift, which is to ‘ exalt their government in the Kirk.’ By the summer of 1653 Lilburne has become convinced that the disaffected clergy are secretly encouraging the rebel Malignants in the Highlands, and on his own responsibility orders Colonel Cotterell to treat that popular and godly Parliament, the General Assembly, to his master’s stern Get thee gone I He ‘ besett the church (St. Giles) with some rattes of musketers and a troop of horse,’ marched the members ignominiously out at the West Port and so on to the quarry holes on Bruntsfield Links, and there at the foot of the thieves’ gallows set them about their business. The two prelatic Stuart kings had never dared to do so much.

    The divided state of public opinion on church matters showed what a loss the country sustained in the death of a real statesman like Alexander Henderson. King-made Prelacy and drumhead Independency had both been tried and Scotland would have none of them. The position of parties made compromise impossible, and so a great opportunity was lost. And while the Kirk learned little or nothing of ‘ sweet reasonableness ’ from the piety of the Independents, their example destroyed much of that ‘ beauty of holiness ’ in ritual which Knox and Melville had left untouched.

    By vehement harangues in sermon and prayer the clergy sought to show forth the power of grace, resulting only in an incongruous blend of secular and sacred. Thus, in Edinburgh, there was a daily-service in the kirks every afternoon at four, in which the officers were wont to play the part of the church militant. r<icoll sarcastically extracts good out of the practice, ‘ which benefited soul and body, the soul being edified and fed by the Word, the body withhalden from unnecessar bibing, whilk at that hour of the door was in use and custom ’—an early authority for that time-honoured institution, the meridian. The diarist tells us that in its social aspects the Usurpation was still more aggressive. The Independents ‘ proclamit the day called Christmas to cease, demolished the King’s seat in the High Church, pulled down the King’s arms and dang down the unicorn, hanging up the crown on the gallows,’ which stood at the cross on the High Street. They struck too at the Kirk’s police control over public morals, for the dragoons took out and burned the repentance stool wherever they went, making fun of it as a Popish relic of penance. No doubt the Church had shown the absurdity of giving legislative importance to trifles. They had found the most scandalous offenders among selfaccused demented creatures. In this volume we are told how the English judges sat for three days (October 1652) on a long list of arrears, cases under the seventh commandment, all more or less shocking. Above sixty offenders were libelled, most for deeds done years before, the chief proof being found to be their own confession. With all this the Sectaries had little sympathy, though in a practical way they studied public decency. The garrison at Leith was made the nucleus of a sort of model community, and here the governor tried (January 1652) to put down immorality with a strong hand, forbidding the employment of women and maid-servants as tapsters and the marriage of any soldier with a Scots woman without official sanction. Military discipline was admirably maintained, and there are here many proclamations against the breaking into ‘ orchards, gardens, yards, to plunder fruits, cabbage, roots, also green pease or beanes in fields, or killing rabbits belonging to warrens, and house-pigeons,’ the object being to conciliate the people. ‘ Free the poor commoners, and make as little use as can be either of the great men or clergy,’ sums up well the policy of the Usurpation.

    Cromwell’s officers followed on the lines of the old Privy Council in interfering, for a social good, with the liberty of the subject. They fixed the price of hay and stabling charges, restrained the extortions of the boatmen and ferrymen of Burntisland and Leith, inspected and regulated the quality and price of bread. Bakers must expose their bread for sale only on Fridays and Tuesdays at the Brig-end of Leith, and not run from house to house with it. Moderns will have more sympathy with the efforts to improve the comforts of the capital. The order that householders must hang out lanterns and candles at their doors and windows—6 p.m. to 9 p.m.—almost turned, according to a contemporary, night into day. The provost, too, was to give present order to clean wynds and closes, and that none throw water from their windows, or be fined 4s. Scots, half to the informer, half to the poor. Not till 1731 did the Edinburgh Corporation make any real headway in repressing the throwin owre practices. In Cromwell’s time the thrifty magistrates complained of the enormous expense of the enforced scavenging (£50 Scots a week), landing the city, as it did, in debt.

    Scotland suffered badly from the witch mania that disgraced so many countries and centuries. These poor creatures had reason to bless the Roundhead officers, under whom they enjoyed something of a respite. Thus Clarke, in reporting to Lenthall the doings of the judges on that notable three days’ assize in 1652, mentions a witch case of several years’ standing. On their own confession, the unhappy wretches had been turned over to the civil magistrate, and this is how they had been proved witches—‘ By tying their thumbs behind them and then hanging them up by them when they were whipped, after which lighted candles were set to the soles of their feet and between their toes, then they burnt them by putting candles into their mouths.’ Of the six so treated, four died of the torture. The judges appointed the sheriffs, ministers, and tormentors to be found out, and to give an account of the ground of the cruelty. Another suspect was ‘ kept on bread and water twenty days, stript naked and laid upon a cold stone, with only a hair-cloth over her. Others had hair-shirts dipt in vinegar put on them to fetch off their skin. Here is enough for reasonable men to comment upon.’ The humanity of Puritanism was never more conspicuous than at this time.

    The editorial introduction to this curious volume is excellent, but the annotation of the text, and especially the indexing, leave much to be desired. As the material of the volume has been deciphered and pieced together with great difficulty, often from rough notes and jottings in shorthand, we ought to be thankful that it has been made so intelligible. The numerous topographical references on every page, a matter of very great and lasting interest, have been but perfunctorily handled. This may be one of the disadvantages accruing to Scottish history made or edited in England. Many of the place-names are almost hopelessly disguised. As the index offers no help here ingenuity might be directed to such as Bohanty, the best of the three ways out of the Highlands/ Bonny wher, neere Ruthven Castle ’ in Badenoch, Canygeles, Huntly’s house/ Carversa Castle, ‘ 20 miles from Inveraray ’ (?) Tarbert, Gillogaer somewhere on the northern bounds of Athole. These are only a few of the unexplained. They include such very obvious ores as Dagettee in Fife, Finlarge at the west-end of Loch Tay, Logyerate, Envernes, Rowborough, and Bigtoune, indexed as Biscoptoune (Bishopton). The editor queries ‘ Knapdrale betweene Swin Castle and Rosse/ suggesting Knapdale, and leaving the other tempting bits of topography unexplained. And yet the ordnance maps are not difficult of access. Baginoth is Badenoch in the index, but Badinoth in Ruthven and Baggon are never mentioned though obviously the same place. When Kenmore went from Busse to the head of Loch Long to meet Colonel Macnaughten, we are left to conjecture that Luss on Loch Lomond is meant. Another passage surely calling for explanation is, ‘The Marquess of Huntley died last week at his house at Bogy-geith.’ This place is not even indexed, so it may be well to say it is on p. 289. It is the famous Bog o’ Gight, that gives its name to Strathbogie. Slezer in his Theatrum Scotice blunders strangely over this name. He gives a view of Heriot’s Hospital, which he labels Boghen-gieght. Now and again the Roundhead officers preserve the local pronunciation very correctly as in ‘our new garrisons att Buhannon and Cardrus/ and again in ‘Kirkmichill' (near Blair Athol). The index affords no help, though we have obviously here Buchanan Castle, Cardross, and Kirkmichael. One would never guess, again, from text or index, where Loch-heid is. In this connection falls to be noted the strangest bit of editorial obscurity. ‘ For the Major General who went by sea from Inverary to Ayre, came to us by boat (to Peasly i.e. Paisley), and wee heard by him of the surprizall of our garrisons of Lough, Kincairn, and Turbet/ The comma after Lough is in the text. Kincairn stands in the index with a reference only. Now we have here Kenmore’s famous dash at Kintyre and a very pretty bit of topographical lore. The fort on the beautiful loch at Campbeltown had the honour of first appearing in history as Dalruadhain, the capital of Fergus King of Scotia. When Kiaran, the black-visaged, settled here in his cell as an Irish saint, the spot became the holy Kil-cerran and in Gaelic to this day Ceann locha chille Chiaran, head of the loch of Kiaran, or, in this Roundhead officer’s letter, Lough Kincairn. During the early Protectorate Argyll induced many westland Whigs to settle here from Ayrshire, and they Saxonised the spot as Loch-head. On the site of the old castle that Kenmore stormed, at the head of Main Street of Campbeltown, a church was built in 1780. In the Expedition of Argyll, 1661, the town is called Cean Loch or Loch-heid, and in a church register of 1671 it appears for the first time as Campbeltown in honour of the Argyll family. After these faults of omission it is venial to find the editor telling in his preface that Monk’s soldiers learned at Dundee, Aug. 9th, of the victory at Worcester at the beginning of September.

    The personal names in the text offer most tempting bits of family history. Not to speak of the crowd of Macs, disguised by outrageous spelling, we have such members of noted historical families as Hope of Craighall, Sir John Chiesly, Sir James Stewart, Lord Dundas of Arniston. Most of the King’s agents in the Persecution (1662-87) are here—Middleton, Turner, Ballan-tyne, Dalzel—all active in stirring up opposition among the Tories, as Lilbume calls his Highland enemies, ‘people who speak Irish, and go only with plaids about their middle, both men and women.’ It may be observed here that all through our literature Scottish Gaelic generally appears as Erse or Irish, and this even so late as the poetry of Burns, a fact not always recognised by his editors. Of the clergy Lilburne was much pleased with Mr. Galeaspe, honest Robert Baillie’s bete noir, Patrick Gillespie, whom Cromwell made Principal of Glasgow University, paying also Charles I.’s subscription to the building fund, to which the King had signed his name. Lilburne’s name for him is that which Milton thought as inharmonious as his own Tetrachordon. Here, too, is Master Robert Leighton, as yet minister of Newbattle, and going to London to help the poor clergy whom Captain Alured had captured in the Raid of Alyth. But the most curious personal name occurs in a letter of Hyde to Middleton, who had wished ‘the King should write to Mr. Junius of Amsterdam in Latine,’ probably that he might be another Salmasius and catch the ear of academic Europe for the woes of royalty in exile. Junius was among the first to draw attention to Old English, publishing Caedmon’s Paraphrase, and the Moeso-Gothic Gospels of Wulfila, two of the most notable finds in the whole range of English philology.

    James Colville.

    This article was taken from the Scottish Review Volume 28 - July October 1896.

    And that's it for this week and hope you all have a great weekend.

    Alastair
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