Tweet
CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Book of Scottish Story
Scottish Loch Scenery
Geikie's Etchings
Town Council Seals of Scotland
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Robert Chambers - Songs of Scotland
The Heather in Lore, Lyric and Lay
Notes and Reminscences of Partick
Travel article
History of the Gipsies
The Long Glen
Lays of the Covenanters
The Scottish Reformation
Essays of Hugh Haliburton
History of Scotland
Glencreggan: or A Highland Home in Cantire
Scots in the Netherlands
Scots in Japan
Food and Drink
Thistledown
Highland Papers
Stoddard's Lectures
The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland
Poems by John Henderson
Out On The Pampas
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
This has been a week of research and some of it has paid off with new sections to the site. As so often happens when doing some concentrated research you also stumble across other information which is useful and so below I'll be telling you more about some of my discoveries.
-----
I have also embarked on trying to find information about Scots in the Middle East. I've emailed the various Scottish societies and also the local embassies in the hope they can help.
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/rss/whatsnew.php
Electric Scotland Community
---------------------------
We've been working on the Front Page of the site and a lot more work to do to get it to where we'd like it to be. There has been another update of the software and amazed that they seem to have fixed over 300 bugs!!! We'll be looking to updaste things probably over the weekend.
Our community can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.org/forum.php
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks issue has been compiled by Jennifer Dunn and most of what she is covering are the cuts in the UK budget and the implications they have for Scotland.
You can read this compilation at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Christina McKelvie's weekly diary is available at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lvie/index.htm
We didn't get a diary last week and will not get one this week but she will return next week.
Book of Scottish Story
----------------------
We've added "Black Joe o' the Bow" Part 3 which can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/book.../story132c.htm
The other stories can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/story/index.htm
The Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life
Our story this week is "The Shealing" which can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...y/shealing.htm
Scottish Loch Scenery
---------------------
From drawings by A F Lydon with descriptive notes by Thomas A Croal (1882)
This week we added "Loch Coruisk" which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/pictures/lochs21.htm
The other entries can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/pictures/lochs.htm
Geikie's Etchings
-----------------
This week we've added more articles...
Peace and Plenty
The Two Cronies
Speak Out Man
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ikie/index.htm
Town Council Seals of Scotland
------------------------------
Historical, Legendary and Heraldic by Alexander Posteous
Added this week...
Saltcoats To Stromness
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/council/
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
----------------------------------------
And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts by John Parker Lawson (1839). This is a new publication we're starting on which is in 3 volumes. We intend to post up 2 or 3 stories each week until complete.
This week we've added...
Siege of Lochleven Castle - 1335
Conflict between the Clan Chattan and the Clan Kay on the North Inch of Perth - 1396
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
Robert Chambers
---------------
Robert Chambers is a famous author and publisher and we do carry a few of his publications on our site such as the 3 volume Domestic Annals of Scotland and his 4 volume Biographical Dictionary of Significant Scots.
John Henderson found his 2 volume Songs of Scotland which we both agree is a fabulous resource and so we are going to add this to the site in small chuncks in pdf format for you to enjoy.
This week we added...
Pages 259 to 275
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_robert.htm
The Heather in Lore, Lyric and Lay
----------------------------------
By Alexander Wallace (1903)
We already have up a large page on Heather but when I discovered this book I thought it would be a good one for folk to dip into as it were.
This week we've completed this book with...
Chimings of the Heather Bells
Love Among the Heather
At Rest, where Heather Blooms
Heather Lays
Songs of the Heather
The final poem in the book is...
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea
To Scotia's sons, where'er they be;
Its bloom will bring to mind
Scenes and faces left behind,
And anew each heart will bind
To the old countrie.
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea;
Transported back each heart will be
To fair Scotland's wooded hills,
Hear the music of her rills,
And the mavis as it trills
In the old countrie.
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea;
Simple offering though it be,
Prized 'twill be where fairest flowers
Blossom in their tropic bowers,
Or where iceberg frowning towers
O'er the sea.
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea;
A dear remembrance may it be
To the ones now vigil keeping
O'er our soldiers quietly sleeping;
Send the heather—Scotland's greeting—
O'er the sea.
—M. CARTER, in the Scottish American
The chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/gardening/heather.htm
Notes and Reminscences of Partick
---------------------------------
By James Napier (1873)
This is another of those books that don't have any chapters and is around 300 pages. We're splitting this book up into a logical sequence of pdf files for you to read and will be easier to download. Partick is now a suburb of Glasgow.
We have up this week...
Part 7 (Pages 126 - 133)
This can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/partick/
Travel Article
--------------
We have been getting in some wee articles from Holiday Cottages and you can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/travel/holidayndx.htm
The article this week is about Christmas Cottages – Perfect for a memorable stay this Xmas.
History of the Gipsies
----------------------
By James Simson (1866)
All these chapters are a substantial read but certainly most interesting. There are a huge amount of footnotes in this publication so have done my best to incorporate them into the text.
This week we have added...
Chapter VII - Border Gipsies
Chapter VIII - Marriage and Divorce Ceremonies
Here is how Chapter VIII starts...
The Gipsies in Scotland are all married at a very early age. I do not recollect ever having seen or heard of them, male or female, being unmarried, after they were twenty years old. There are few instances of bastard children among them ; indeed, they declare that their children are all born in wedlock. [ There is one word in the Gipsy language to which is attached more importance than to any other thing whatever—Locha—the corporeal chastity of woman; the loss of which she is, from childhood, taught to dread. To ensure its preservation, the mother will have occasion to the Dicle—a kind of drapery which she ties around the daughter; and which is never removed, but continually inspected, till the day of marriage; but not for fear of the "stranger" or the "white blood." A girl is generally betrothed at fourteen, and never married till two years afterward. Betrothal is invariable. But the parties are never permitted, previous to marriage, to have any intimate associations together.—Sorrow on tlie Spanish Gipsies.— Ed.]
I know, however, of one instance to the contrary; and of the Gipsy being dreadfully punished for seducing a young girl of his own tribe.
The brother of the female, who was pregnant, took upon himself the task of chastising the offender. With a knife in his hand, and at the dead hour of night, he went to the house of the seducer. The first thing he did was deliberately to sharpen his knife upon the stone posts of the door of the man's house ; and then, in a gentle manner, tap at the door, to bring out his victim. The unsuspecting man came to the door, in his shirt, to see what was wanted; but the salutation he received was the knife thrust into his body, and the stabs repeated several times. The avenger of his sister's wrongs fled for a short while; the wounded Tinkler recovered, and, to repair the injury he had done, made the girl his wife. The occurrence took place in Mid-Lothian, about twenty years ago. The name of the woman was Baillie, and her husband, Tait
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/chapter8.htm
Other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gipsies/
The Long Glen
-------------
This is a story I found in old copies of the Celtic Magazine so I extracted it over a number of issues and now bring you the story.
This week we've added...
Chapter XIX - An Luadhadh
Chapter XX - A Scorner among Saints
Chapter XXI - The Presentee
Chapter XXII - The Veto
Chapter XXIII - Fiddling and Ominous Bell-Ringing
The chapter on The Presentee starts...
THE Crown presentee came at the appointed time, and preached his trial sermons. It was a foregone conclusion on the part of the great majority of the congregation that he should be vetoed—"whatever." To those who were so determined, it was a disappointment that they could not accuse him of keeping his nose to the paper or even of being a man of inferior preaching ability.
Although it was the last thing the leaders should like to confess, none of them could help feeling that the presentee was decidedly superior to the man for whose appointment the glen had unanimously petitioned. But matters were now come to such a pass throughout the whole Church that to call a man "presentee" was enough, in five cases out often, to ensure his condemnation.
Yet there was much wavering, too. In the glen, notwithstanding the rejection of the petition, Mr Stuart made such a favourable impression that the leaders needed to bring much prayer-meeting and other pressure to bear on weak, hesitating brethren and sisters, who, if left to themselves, would sign the call and spoil the game. Even Ealag was more than half recalcitrant, and it was not easy to keep her silent.
In after years a great outcry was made against the alleged tyranny of a few landlords who hesitated to grant sites on which to build Free Churches cheek-by-jowl with the Parish Churches; but that very limited tyranny was a trifle not worth mentioning compared with the real and general precedent tyranny by which peaceful and law-abiding people were, contrary to their will, driven step by step out of the Church of their fathers.
In consequence of the parish being vacant, this tyranny was exercised in the glen partly by the elders, but chiefly by the holy women, and by a knot of young men who found it much easier to qualify for ecclesiastical importance by effective partisanship than Effectual Calling.
You can read the rest of this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/longglen21.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/longglenndx.htm
Lays of the Covenanters
-----------------------
By James Dodds (1880)
This is another book we're starting in pdf format and this week we've added...
The Christian Exile
Battle-Song of the Pentlands
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/covenanters/
The Scottish Reformation
------------------------
A Historical Sketch by Peter Lorimer D.D. (1860)
As some of you will know there is to be a special celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation during November in Scotland. I thought that this would be a good time to make this book available so you can read up on it.
We have up this week...
Chapter I.—The Hamilton Period, a. d. 1515—1543
Section 10. Death of James V., and the First Reforming Parliament. 1542—1543
Chapter II.—The Wishart Period, a. d. 1543—1554
Section 1. Life of George Wishart to 1543
Section 2. Apostasy of the Regent, and Commencement of Wishart's Ministry. 1543—1544
Section 3. Renewal of Persecution—Appeal to the Nation by Alexander Alesius. 1543—1544
The Life of George Wishart starts...
When the commissioners sent by the Scottish Parliament to London to negotiate the marriage of Edward and Mary returned to Scotland, in July, 1543, they brought home with them an exiled countryman, whom Knox has characterised in the following glowing terms: "A man of such graces, as before him were never heard within this realm, and are rare to be found yet in any man, notwithstanding the great light of God that since his days has shined unto us; a man singularjy learned, as well in godly knowledge as in all honest human science." Such was George Wishart—with whose return to Scotland at this date, commences the Wishart period of the Scottish Reformation.
Neither the place nor the date of his birth has been recorded, but he was probably born at the house of Pitarrow, in the Mearns, about the year 1513. The family of the Wisharts of Pitarrow was ancient and honourable, and had produced several eminent men for the service of the church and the state. Sir James Wishart, the father of the reformer, was a man of ability and learning, and held for ten years—between 1513 and 1524 —the high judicial office of Lord Justice Clerk. The house of Pitarrow stood at no great distance from the ancient church of St Palladius, in the beautiful Glen of Fordoun, and George Wishart must have been early familiar with the popular superstitions connected with the shrine and the holy well of that long-honoured saint So recently as the days of Archbishop Shevez, the relics of St. Paldy, as he was popularly called, had been deposited in a silver shrine by that prelate upon occasion of his making a pilgrimage to the sacred spot—a proof that the worship of the saint was still flourishing in the reign of James the Third.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...p2section1.htm
This book is available at http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...tion/index.htm
Essays of Hugh Haliburton
--------------------------
I am extracting some of his essays that detail Scottish Life and Character from his various works. This week we've added...
The Bear Barrel
This starts...
The ancient hamely fare of the Scottish peasant has undergone a change within the last two or three generations. The halesome parritch is still, indeed, the chief of Scotia's food, though to a less extent than it was when Burns proclaimed its praise. Toasted cakes of oatmeal are, however—the more's the pity —perceptibly rarer even in farm kitchens than they were wont to be, while girdle cakes are practically unknown. To many people, whose immediate forefathers were possibly reared upon them, the distinction between those varieties of cake is probably only speculative. But while oatmeal has been declining somewhat in popular favour among our rustics, barley-meal may be said to have gone out of use altogether. The souple scone, the wale o' food, is merely a memory. It is almost necessary to say nowadays to an unenlightened public that it was a creation of barley-meal. John Barleycorn is still, no doubt, the king of grain on hundreds of Scottish farms. His tribute to the Scottish kail-pot, not yet entirely transmuted into that soft and fushionless concession to enfeebled digestions, rice, still tumbles in a rollicking dance with beef and greens in "the boiling flood;" but the barley bannock, at which our brave forbears took many a whang, and on which, as auld sangs asseverate, they upheld the national independence, has been for some time ungenerously banished from the bill of rural fare. It has no longer an honoured place on Highland dresser or in Lowland aumrie. What was once good feeding for the old Scots nobility is now scornfully rejected by the Scottish crofter and cottar— except, perhaps, in inaccessible regions of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. The ploughman's palate despises what the aristocratic throat took down with a relish—for how goes the auld Scots sonnet of John, Duke of Argyll? —
"At the sight of Dumbarton once again
I'll cock up my bonnet and march amain,
With a gude claymore hanging down at my heel,
To whang at the bannocks o' barley meal."
Did our swank country lads know how appetisingly sustaining a barley scone can be made—especially did our comely country lasses, our rustic Helens and Hebes, realise the virtues, of beauty to the skin and sweetness to the temper, which reside in bannocks of bear-meal — there would be, I am firmly convinced, such a revival of this well-approved ancient feeding-stuff as would send down the price of wheat, and drive tapioca and similar foreign skinking ware that jaups in luggies clean out of caup and market. It is only now and again, at rare intervals, that some patriotic and patriarchal bonnet-laird, earthfast on his own acres, takes a greening for the barley piece which consoled his youth, and orders a melder of bear to the mill for his individual consumption, starting off with a baking of half a firlot. But for these intermittent and, alas! ineffectual plunges into the cookery of a remote past, the memory even of the barley bannock would be lost to the whole countryside.
You can read the rest of this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ear_barrel.htm
The other essays can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/haliburton
History of Scotland
-------------------
By Wm Robertson
This is part of the Works of Wm. Robertson and it's actually my intention to bring you all his works over time but to start we're doing his "History of Scotland" which got very favourable reviews at the time and so much so he was asked by the King to do a History of England.
The History is now going up and this week we've added...
Book 3 Section 2.
These can be read, along with a small biography of him at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...on_william.htm
Glencreggan: or A Highland Home in Cantire
------------------------------------------
By Cuthbert Bede (1861)
This week we put up Chapter IV - On Highland Ground
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/glencreggan/
Scots in the Netherlands
------------------------
This is a new section for the site in our "Scots in the World" and included on this page you will find...
The Scots Brigade
Scots fought for the Netherlands for over 2 centuries and in this history you can learn more about them.
Ledger of Andrew Halyburton
Conservator of the Privileges of the Scotch Nation in the Netherlands (1492-1503)
The Scottish Staple in the Netherlands
An account of the Trade relations between Scotland and the Low Countries from 1292 till 1676 with a calendar of illustrative documents.
The Scottish Staple at Veere
A study in the economic history of Scotland
The History of the Scottish Church in Rotterdam
By Rev. William Steven (1832)
You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/netherlands/
Scots in Japan
--------------
This is another new section for "Scots in Japan" and included on this page you will find...
Thomas Blake Glover
One of the father's of modern Japan
Henry Dyer
Henry Dyer (1848 - 1918) was a Scottish engineer who contributed much to founding Western-style technical education in Japan and Anglo-Japanese relations.
William Kinninmond Burton
The Scot who designed Japan's first Skyscraper
Richard Henry Brunton
(26 December 1841 – 24 April 1901) was the so-called "Father of Japanese lighthouses". Brunton was born in Muchalls, Kincardineshire, Scotland. He was employed by the Japanese Government as an o-yatoi gaikokujin to build lighthouses in Japan.
Sir James Alfred Ewing KCB FRS FRSE MInstitCE
(27 March 1855 - 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties
You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/japan/
Food and Drink
--------------
I thought it was time to focus on Whisky and so created a page to bring together some of the information we carry. While doing some research on Whisky I also discovered a couple of interesting recipe books.
Our whisky page includes...
An account of Highland Whisky with smuggling stories and detections
By Ian MacDonald (1914)
Whiskey Still
From McIan's Highlanders At Home
Heather Whisky
It is said that some of the finest brands of whisky derive some of their most delicate flavours from the heather.
At the Highland Park Distillery, in Kirkwall, Orkney, there was a peculiarly shaped timber building, referred to as the ‘Heather House’. This was where heather, which had been gathered in the month of July when the plant was in full bloom, was stored. Carefully cut off near the root, and tied into small faggots of about a dozen branches each, the heather was used on the peat fire to help dry the malt and impart a delicate flavour which, was claimed, to give Highland Park Distillery its unique taste.
It is interesting to note that in former times the wooden containers for fermentation, known in whisky distilleries as ‘washbacks’, would be cleaned using heather besoms. And when new stills were installed, bundles of heather would be placed in the water and boiled in order to sweeten the still before the first distillation took place.
In the nineteenth century and possibly even earlier, illicit stills were used to make whisky - in broad daylight. The crofters were able to do this because, by gathering up and using old stumps of burnt heather, they could make a fire without smoke, and so not raise suspicion!
An account of Whisky by Ray Pearson
Taken from the In the Soup web site with permission from the author.
The rise and progress of whisky-drinking in Scotland, and the working of the 'Public-houses (Scotland) Act', commonly called the Forbes M'Kenzie Act
By Duncan M;Laren (1858) (pdf)
You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/whisky.htm
Pot Luck
The British Home Cookery Book with over a 1,000 recipes. In the Preface it says...
This is not the ordinary conventional cookery book, affording instructions how to dress, cook, and serve every variety of joint, fish, vegetable, etc., etc., etc. I take for granted that the reader is already acquainted with ordinary means and methods, and is versed in the preparation of simple food. To be a "good plain " cook always appears to me a contradiction in terms: because, if a person's treatment of plain dishes is good, she should be equally good at more elaborate ones. The same amount of application will serve for both. To make "plain" dishes palatable is, indeed, the highest test to which a woman can be put. The culinary skill demanded in these pages is of an everyday, common-sense character, such as any housewife, old or young, may exercise with pleasure. For these are chiefly specimens of the "good plain cooking" which was done by our mothers, and grandmothers, and great-grandmothers—the old home cookery before tinned things and preservatives were invented. This book is, in its way, unique.
And so I thought I'd make this book available which be got to at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/potluck.htm
I also came across this book...
Six Hundred Recipes
Six hundred receipts, worth their weight in gold: including receipts for cooking, making preserves, perfumery, cordials, ice creams, inks, paints, dyes of all kinds, cider, vinegar, wines, spirits, whiskey, brandy, gin, etc., and how to make imitations of all kinds of liquors: together with valuable gauging tables: the collections, testing, and improvements on the receipts extending over a period of thirty years.
When I saw this book I was most intrigued to see "imitations of all kinds of liquors" and so thought I'd take a copy of it to include on the site. It's in pdf format but can be download at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/lib.htm
Thistledown
-----------
I extracted some of the colour illustrations from this book on wit and humour. You can see them at http://www.electricscotland.com/humo...ustrations.htm
Highland Papers
---------------
This is a publication in 3 volumes. There is a great deal of information on various clans within this collection and we have made available the contents for each volume.
Preface
At his early death in 1836 Mr. Donald Gregory, whose History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland still remains the standard work on the subject, left behind him a considerable body of MSS. These contain the results of his researches in the public records and in various private charter chests to which he had access and also include transcripts of various family histories which had been placed at his disposal. Although utilised for his history, these materials are in themselves of great interest and value.
After Mr. Gregory's death these MS. Collections were acquired by the Society of Antiquaries, by whose kindness they have been made available for the purpose of printing such portions as might seem desirable. The present volume is largely drawn from these Collections, though it also contains documents derived from other sources. Its purpose is the modest one of making available to the Society, and through it to all interested in Highland History, some of the original material and recorded tradition on which knowledge of that history must be largely based; but a certain limited amount of annotation and comment has been found necessary.
You can download these volumes at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...and_papers.htm
Stoddard's Lectures
-------------------
JOHN L. STODDARD was born in Brookline, Mass., April 24, 1850. He graduated at Williams College, as valedictorian of his class, in 1871, and then studied theology for two years at Yale Divinity School. Next he taught Latin and French in the Boston Latin School. In 1874 he was able to gratify a long cherished desire to travel in foreign lands, and not only made the customary tour of Europe, but visited Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt as well. He then studied in Germany, and upon his return to America, began his career as a lecturer, which for about twenty years has known no interruptions save those due to his repeated visits to remote countries. His travels embrace nearly all the habitable parts of the globe.
I extracted his lecture on Scotland which can be downloaded at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/stoddard.htm
The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland
-------------------------------
Just to illustrate what can be found in these Rolls I am going to give you below a bit of the Preface from the 1455 to 1460 volume and at the end will provide links to that and another 3 volumes that you can download. I should mention here that the Preface of each volume is very large and it needs to be as it explains in considerable detail what is contained in these Rolls. The Rolls themselves are in Latin and so I guess few reading them will be able to translate them and hence the Preface is where you'll get good information for the time period of each volume.
Here is a bit from the first Preface...
The present volume contains the Exchequer accounts rendered during the last six years of the reign of James II., or from 1455 to 1460 inclusive. The audits took place in the summer or autumn of each of these years at Edinburgh, Linlithgow, or Perth. The rolls of the custumars and bailies of the burghs, and also of the managers of the Crown lands, are complete. There are two rolls of the Sheriffs, containing the accounts audited in 1455 and 1456, a separate account of the Comptroller for 1456, and a few miscellaneous accounts inserted in the already mentioned rolls. The rebellion of James ninth and last Earl of Douglas had been to appearance put down in 1452, and the Earl himself ostensibly received into favour. But his secret disaffection continued, and was fomented by the English government. On 22nd May 1453, he had a safe-conduct, in which his brothers were included, and he himself was designed Earl of Douglas, Wigtown and Annandale, and Lord of Galloway, to pass with a large following through England to Rome; and a similar passport was at the same time given to Hamilton. But it does not appear that either Douglas or Hamilton proceeded further than England; and the English records throw some light on their movements. On 17th June 1453, Malise, Earl of Strathern (formerly Earl of Menteith), was liberated from the captivity in which he had been held for twenty-five years as a hostage for the ransom of the King who had so deeply wronged him, this being done at the instance and on the petition of the Earl of Douglas and Lord Hamilton, and the evident motive being to involve James II. in trouble by a revival of the old question regarding the respective rights of the two families of Robert ii. On 19th February 1453-4, a disbursement of £16, 13s. 4d. occurs in the English Exchequer accounts to Garter King of Arms for a journey undertaken by him to the borders to make certain appointments with the Earl of Douglas, for more than five weeks' attendance on Lord Hamilton in London and elsewhere, and for six weeks' attendance on the King while an answer was prepared to the Commissioners and the Earl of Douglas, who was then in these parts.
We have four volumes...
1455 - 1460 | 1460 - 1469 | 1568 - 1579 | 1580 - 1588
You can read more of this and download the volumes at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...quer_rolls.htm
More of these volumes are available on the Internet Archive.
Poems by John Henderson
-----------------------
John sent us in this poem...
Autumn Morn Sweems
Lyrics composed by John Henderson on the 19th of October, 2010,
to William Huddie Leadbetter's music for his 1934 song, 'Goodnight Irene'
Oan maist autumn morns Jock gings sweemin,
Fan the sin's fant an it's cweel;
He troos thit this keps him halesome,
An sinsyne he's niver felt oonweel.
Waater, saut waater,
Dipp'd in ilk day;
Sich waater's guid, Ay affa guid
Alang in Coral Bay.
Ye tee micht fin morns bricht an airly,
Fan nae sin's hich in the lift,
A graun time tae sweem, a bittie,
An syne thenk Ma Naitur for her gift.
Waater, saut waater,
Dipp'd in ilk day;
Sich waater's guid, Ay affa guid
Alang in Coral Bay.
You can get to all John's poems at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Out On The Pampas
-----------------
I thought from time to time I might highlight a story that is on the site that I believe would make a good read.
This is a book that I read online and I have to say I don't usually read an entire book online but this one just gripped my imagination and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
I had been working on the history of Scots in Argentina at the time and I stumbled across this book which is about an English family that decided to immigrate to Argentina. While it is about an English family they did end up with some Scots as neighbours. But what I liked about this book was the explantion about how they went about the whole process of immigration, how they got there, and how they settled, etc.
Here is a bit from the first chapter...
'Now silence all, and listen to me. This affair is a serious business; and although I hope and believe that we shall all enjoy our life very much, still we must prepare for it, and look upon it in earnest, and not as a sort of game'. I have business here which I cannot finish before another eight or nine months. Let us all make the most of our time before we start. In the first place, the language of the people among whom we are going is Spanish, and we must all learn to speak it well before we leave. For the next three months we will work together at grammar and exercises, and then I will try and get some Spanish teacher to live in the house, and speak the language with us until we go. In the next place, it will be well that you should all four learn to ride. I have hired the paddock next to our garden, and have bought a pony, which will be here to-day, for the girls. You boys have already ridden a little, and I shall now have you taught in the riding school. I went yesterday to Mr. Saris, and asked him if he would allow me to make an arrangement with his head gardener for you to go there to learn gardening. He at once agreed; and I have arranged with the gardener that you are both to be there every morning at six o'clock, and are to work until nine. At nine you will come in to breakfast. From breakfast to dinner you will have to yourselves, except upon the days you take riding lessons; and I should wish you to spend this time at your usual studies, except Latin, which will be of no use to you. From two till halfpast four you are to learn carpentering. I have made an agreement with Mr. Jones to pay him so much to take you as a sort of apprentices for the next nine months. In the evening we will all work together at Spanish. It will be hard work; but if you want to be of any real use....
And so you can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/pampas.htm
And to finish...
A Square Meal
NOSTALGIA alert! A new edition of Alan Brown's book Craigendoran Steamers has been published to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Waverley paddle steamer. In it, we read about speedy rival, the Jeanie Deans and its galley boy Alec, who found potato-peeling a tiresome chore. One day he completed the task quickly by simply cutting off all the sides of the potatoes.
The chief steward, glancing at the tub, abruptly stopped and asked: "Hey Alec, whit's all this, square potatoes?"
"Ah," replied the galley boy, "it's a wee bit rough the day, and that's tae stop them rolling off the plates."
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend :-)
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
--------
Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Book of Scottish Story
Scottish Loch Scenery
Geikie's Etchings
Town Council Seals of Scotland
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Robert Chambers - Songs of Scotland
The Heather in Lore, Lyric and Lay
Notes and Reminscences of Partick
Travel article
History of the Gipsies
The Long Glen
Lays of the Covenanters
The Scottish Reformation
Essays of Hugh Haliburton
History of Scotland
Glencreggan: or A Highland Home in Cantire
Scots in the Netherlands
Scots in Japan
Food and Drink
Thistledown
Highland Papers
Stoddard's Lectures
The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland
Poems by John Henderson
Out On The Pampas
Electric Scotland News
----------------------
This has been a week of research and some of it has paid off with new sections to the site. As so often happens when doing some concentrated research you also stumble across other information which is useful and so below I'll be telling you more about some of my discoveries.
-----
I have also embarked on trying to find information about Scots in the Middle East. I've emailed the various Scottish societies and also the local embassies in the hope they can help.
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/rss/whatsnew.php
Electric Scotland Community
---------------------------
We've been working on the Front Page of the site and a lot more work to do to get it to where we'd like it to be. There has been another update of the software and amazed that they seem to have fixed over 300 bugs!!! We'll be looking to updaste things probably over the weekend.
Our community can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.org/forum.php
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks issue has been compiled by Jennifer Dunn and most of what she is covering are the cuts in the UK budget and the implications they have for Scotland.
You can read this compilation at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Christina McKelvie's weekly diary is available at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lvie/index.htm
We didn't get a diary last week and will not get one this week but she will return next week.
Book of Scottish Story
----------------------
We've added "Black Joe o' the Bow" Part 3 which can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/book.../story132c.htm
The other stories can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/story/index.htm
The Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life
Our story this week is "The Shealing" which can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...y/shealing.htm
Scottish Loch Scenery
---------------------
From drawings by A F Lydon with descriptive notes by Thomas A Croal (1882)
This week we added "Loch Coruisk" which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/pictures/lochs21.htm
The other entries can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/pictures/lochs.htm
Geikie's Etchings
-----------------
This week we've added more articles...
Peace and Plenty
The Two Cronies
Speak Out Man
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ikie/index.htm
Town Council Seals of Scotland
------------------------------
Historical, Legendary and Heraldic by Alexander Posteous
Added this week...
Saltcoats To Stromness
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/council/
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
----------------------------------------
And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts by John Parker Lawson (1839). This is a new publication we're starting on which is in 3 volumes. We intend to post up 2 or 3 stories each week until complete.
This week we've added...
Siege of Lochleven Castle - 1335
Conflict between the Clan Chattan and the Clan Kay on the North Inch of Perth - 1396
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
Robert Chambers
---------------
Robert Chambers is a famous author and publisher and we do carry a few of his publications on our site such as the 3 volume Domestic Annals of Scotland and his 4 volume Biographical Dictionary of Significant Scots.
John Henderson found his 2 volume Songs of Scotland which we both agree is a fabulous resource and so we are going to add this to the site in small chuncks in pdf format for you to enjoy.
This week we added...
Pages 259 to 275
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ers_robert.htm
The Heather in Lore, Lyric and Lay
----------------------------------
By Alexander Wallace (1903)
We already have up a large page on Heather but when I discovered this book I thought it would be a good one for folk to dip into as it were.
This week we've completed this book with...
Chimings of the Heather Bells
Love Among the Heather
At Rest, where Heather Blooms
Heather Lays
Songs of the Heather
The final poem in the book is...
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea
To Scotia's sons, where'er they be;
Its bloom will bring to mind
Scenes and faces left behind,
And anew each heart will bind
To the old countrie.
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea;
Transported back each heart will be
To fair Scotland's wooded hills,
Hear the music of her rills,
And the mavis as it trills
In the old countrie.
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea;
Simple offering though it be,
Prized 'twill be where fairest flowers
Blossom in their tropic bowers,
Or where iceberg frowning towers
O'er the sea.
Send a bit of heather o'er the sea;
A dear remembrance may it be
To the ones now vigil keeping
O'er our soldiers quietly sleeping;
Send the heather—Scotland's greeting—
O'er the sea.
—M. CARTER, in the Scottish American
The chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/gardening/heather.htm
Notes and Reminscences of Partick
---------------------------------
By James Napier (1873)
This is another of those books that don't have any chapters and is around 300 pages. We're splitting this book up into a logical sequence of pdf files for you to read and will be easier to download. Partick is now a suburb of Glasgow.
We have up this week...
Part 7 (Pages 126 - 133)
This can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/partick/
Travel Article
--------------
We have been getting in some wee articles from Holiday Cottages and you can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/travel/holidayndx.htm
The article this week is about Christmas Cottages – Perfect for a memorable stay this Xmas.
History of the Gipsies
----------------------
By James Simson (1866)
All these chapters are a substantial read but certainly most interesting. There are a huge amount of footnotes in this publication so have done my best to incorporate them into the text.
This week we have added...
Chapter VII - Border Gipsies
Chapter VIII - Marriage and Divorce Ceremonies
Here is how Chapter VIII starts...
The Gipsies in Scotland are all married at a very early age. I do not recollect ever having seen or heard of them, male or female, being unmarried, after they were twenty years old. There are few instances of bastard children among them ; indeed, they declare that their children are all born in wedlock. [ There is one word in the Gipsy language to which is attached more importance than to any other thing whatever—Locha—the corporeal chastity of woman; the loss of which she is, from childhood, taught to dread. To ensure its preservation, the mother will have occasion to the Dicle—a kind of drapery which she ties around the daughter; and which is never removed, but continually inspected, till the day of marriage; but not for fear of the "stranger" or the "white blood." A girl is generally betrothed at fourteen, and never married till two years afterward. Betrothal is invariable. But the parties are never permitted, previous to marriage, to have any intimate associations together.—Sorrow on tlie Spanish Gipsies.— Ed.]
I know, however, of one instance to the contrary; and of the Gipsy being dreadfully punished for seducing a young girl of his own tribe.
The brother of the female, who was pregnant, took upon himself the task of chastising the offender. With a knife in his hand, and at the dead hour of night, he went to the house of the seducer. The first thing he did was deliberately to sharpen his knife upon the stone posts of the door of the man's house ; and then, in a gentle manner, tap at the door, to bring out his victim. The unsuspecting man came to the door, in his shirt, to see what was wanted; but the salutation he received was the knife thrust into his body, and the stabs repeated several times. The avenger of his sister's wrongs fled for a short while; the wounded Tinkler recovered, and, to repair the injury he had done, made the girl his wife. The occurrence took place in Mid-Lothian, about twenty years ago. The name of the woman was Baillie, and her husband, Tait
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...s/chapter8.htm
Other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gipsies/
The Long Glen
-------------
This is a story I found in old copies of the Celtic Magazine so I extracted it over a number of issues and now bring you the story.
This week we've added...
Chapter XIX - An Luadhadh
Chapter XX - A Scorner among Saints
Chapter XXI - The Presentee
Chapter XXII - The Veto
Chapter XXIII - Fiddling and Ominous Bell-Ringing
The chapter on The Presentee starts...
THE Crown presentee came at the appointed time, and preached his trial sermons. It was a foregone conclusion on the part of the great majority of the congregation that he should be vetoed—"whatever." To those who were so determined, it was a disappointment that they could not accuse him of keeping his nose to the paper or even of being a man of inferior preaching ability.
Although it was the last thing the leaders should like to confess, none of them could help feeling that the presentee was decidedly superior to the man for whose appointment the glen had unanimously petitioned. But matters were now come to such a pass throughout the whole Church that to call a man "presentee" was enough, in five cases out often, to ensure his condemnation.
Yet there was much wavering, too. In the glen, notwithstanding the rejection of the petition, Mr Stuart made such a favourable impression that the leaders needed to bring much prayer-meeting and other pressure to bear on weak, hesitating brethren and sisters, who, if left to themselves, would sign the call and spoil the game. Even Ealag was more than half recalcitrant, and it was not easy to keep her silent.
In after years a great outcry was made against the alleged tyranny of a few landlords who hesitated to grant sites on which to build Free Churches cheek-by-jowl with the Parish Churches; but that very limited tyranny was a trifle not worth mentioning compared with the real and general precedent tyranny by which peaceful and law-abiding people were, contrary to their will, driven step by step out of the Church of their fathers.
In consequence of the parish being vacant, this tyranny was exercised in the glen partly by the elders, but chiefly by the holy women, and by a knot of young men who found it much easier to qualify for ecclesiastical importance by effective partisanship than Effectual Calling.
You can read the rest of this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/longglen21.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/longglenndx.htm
Lays of the Covenanters
-----------------------
By James Dodds (1880)
This is another book we're starting in pdf format and this week we've added...
The Christian Exile
Battle-Song of the Pentlands
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/covenanters/
The Scottish Reformation
------------------------
A Historical Sketch by Peter Lorimer D.D. (1860)
As some of you will know there is to be a special celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Scottish Reformation during November in Scotland. I thought that this would be a good time to make this book available so you can read up on it.
We have up this week...
Chapter I.—The Hamilton Period, a. d. 1515—1543
Section 10. Death of James V., and the First Reforming Parliament. 1542—1543
Chapter II.—The Wishart Period, a. d. 1543—1554
Section 1. Life of George Wishart to 1543
Section 2. Apostasy of the Regent, and Commencement of Wishart's Ministry. 1543—1544
Section 3. Renewal of Persecution—Appeal to the Nation by Alexander Alesius. 1543—1544
The Life of George Wishart starts...
When the commissioners sent by the Scottish Parliament to London to negotiate the marriage of Edward and Mary returned to Scotland, in July, 1543, they brought home with them an exiled countryman, whom Knox has characterised in the following glowing terms: "A man of such graces, as before him were never heard within this realm, and are rare to be found yet in any man, notwithstanding the great light of God that since his days has shined unto us; a man singularjy learned, as well in godly knowledge as in all honest human science." Such was George Wishart—with whose return to Scotland at this date, commences the Wishart period of the Scottish Reformation.
Neither the place nor the date of his birth has been recorded, but he was probably born at the house of Pitarrow, in the Mearns, about the year 1513. The family of the Wisharts of Pitarrow was ancient and honourable, and had produced several eminent men for the service of the church and the state. Sir James Wishart, the father of the reformer, was a man of ability and learning, and held for ten years—between 1513 and 1524 —the high judicial office of Lord Justice Clerk. The house of Pitarrow stood at no great distance from the ancient church of St Palladius, in the beautiful Glen of Fordoun, and George Wishart must have been early familiar with the popular superstitions connected with the shrine and the holy well of that long-honoured saint So recently as the days of Archbishop Shevez, the relics of St. Paldy, as he was popularly called, had been deposited in a silver shrine by that prelate upon occasion of his making a pilgrimage to the sacred spot—a proof that the worship of the saint was still flourishing in the reign of James the Third.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...p2section1.htm
This book is available at http://www.electricscotland.com/bibl...tion/index.htm
Essays of Hugh Haliburton
--------------------------
I am extracting some of his essays that detail Scottish Life and Character from his various works. This week we've added...
The Bear Barrel
This starts...
The ancient hamely fare of the Scottish peasant has undergone a change within the last two or three generations. The halesome parritch is still, indeed, the chief of Scotia's food, though to a less extent than it was when Burns proclaimed its praise. Toasted cakes of oatmeal are, however—the more's the pity —perceptibly rarer even in farm kitchens than they were wont to be, while girdle cakes are practically unknown. To many people, whose immediate forefathers were possibly reared upon them, the distinction between those varieties of cake is probably only speculative. But while oatmeal has been declining somewhat in popular favour among our rustics, barley-meal may be said to have gone out of use altogether. The souple scone, the wale o' food, is merely a memory. It is almost necessary to say nowadays to an unenlightened public that it was a creation of barley-meal. John Barleycorn is still, no doubt, the king of grain on hundreds of Scottish farms. His tribute to the Scottish kail-pot, not yet entirely transmuted into that soft and fushionless concession to enfeebled digestions, rice, still tumbles in a rollicking dance with beef and greens in "the boiling flood;" but the barley bannock, at which our brave forbears took many a whang, and on which, as auld sangs asseverate, they upheld the national independence, has been for some time ungenerously banished from the bill of rural fare. It has no longer an honoured place on Highland dresser or in Lowland aumrie. What was once good feeding for the old Scots nobility is now scornfully rejected by the Scottish crofter and cottar— except, perhaps, in inaccessible regions of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. The ploughman's palate despises what the aristocratic throat took down with a relish—for how goes the auld Scots sonnet of John, Duke of Argyll? —
"At the sight of Dumbarton once again
I'll cock up my bonnet and march amain,
With a gude claymore hanging down at my heel,
To whang at the bannocks o' barley meal."
Did our swank country lads know how appetisingly sustaining a barley scone can be made—especially did our comely country lasses, our rustic Helens and Hebes, realise the virtues, of beauty to the skin and sweetness to the temper, which reside in bannocks of bear-meal — there would be, I am firmly convinced, such a revival of this well-approved ancient feeding-stuff as would send down the price of wheat, and drive tapioca and similar foreign skinking ware that jaups in luggies clean out of caup and market. It is only now and again, at rare intervals, that some patriotic and patriarchal bonnet-laird, earthfast on his own acres, takes a greening for the barley piece which consoled his youth, and orders a melder of bear to the mill for his individual consumption, starting off with a baking of half a firlot. But for these intermittent and, alas! ineffectual plunges into the cookery of a remote past, the memory even of the barley bannock would be lost to the whole countryside.
You can read the rest of this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ear_barrel.htm
The other essays can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/haliburton
History of Scotland
-------------------
By Wm Robertson
This is part of the Works of Wm. Robertson and it's actually my intention to bring you all his works over time but to start we're doing his "History of Scotland" which got very favourable reviews at the time and so much so he was asked by the King to do a History of England.
The History is now going up and this week we've added...
Book 3 Section 2.
These can be read, along with a small biography of him at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...on_william.htm
Glencreggan: or A Highland Home in Cantire
------------------------------------------
By Cuthbert Bede (1861)
This week we put up Chapter IV - On Highland Ground
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/glencreggan/
Scots in the Netherlands
------------------------
This is a new section for the site in our "Scots in the World" and included on this page you will find...
The Scots Brigade
Scots fought for the Netherlands for over 2 centuries and in this history you can learn more about them.
Ledger of Andrew Halyburton
Conservator of the Privileges of the Scotch Nation in the Netherlands (1492-1503)
The Scottish Staple in the Netherlands
An account of the Trade relations between Scotland and the Low Countries from 1292 till 1676 with a calendar of illustrative documents.
The Scottish Staple at Veere
A study in the economic history of Scotland
The History of the Scottish Church in Rotterdam
By Rev. William Steven (1832)
You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/netherlands/
Scots in Japan
--------------
This is another new section for "Scots in Japan" and included on this page you will find...
Thomas Blake Glover
One of the father's of modern Japan
Henry Dyer
Henry Dyer (1848 - 1918) was a Scottish engineer who contributed much to founding Western-style technical education in Japan and Anglo-Japanese relations.
William Kinninmond Burton
The Scot who designed Japan's first Skyscraper
Richard Henry Brunton
(26 December 1841 – 24 April 1901) was the so-called "Father of Japanese lighthouses". Brunton was born in Muchalls, Kincardineshire, Scotland. He was employed by the Japanese Government as an o-yatoi gaikokujin to build lighthouses in Japan.
Sir James Alfred Ewing KCB FRS FRSE MInstitCE
(27 March 1855 - 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties
You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/japan/
Food and Drink
--------------
I thought it was time to focus on Whisky and so created a page to bring together some of the information we carry. While doing some research on Whisky I also discovered a couple of interesting recipe books.
Our whisky page includes...
An account of Highland Whisky with smuggling stories and detections
By Ian MacDonald (1914)
Whiskey Still
From McIan's Highlanders At Home
Heather Whisky
It is said that some of the finest brands of whisky derive some of their most delicate flavours from the heather.
At the Highland Park Distillery, in Kirkwall, Orkney, there was a peculiarly shaped timber building, referred to as the ‘Heather House’. This was where heather, which had been gathered in the month of July when the plant was in full bloom, was stored. Carefully cut off near the root, and tied into small faggots of about a dozen branches each, the heather was used on the peat fire to help dry the malt and impart a delicate flavour which, was claimed, to give Highland Park Distillery its unique taste.
It is interesting to note that in former times the wooden containers for fermentation, known in whisky distilleries as ‘washbacks’, would be cleaned using heather besoms. And when new stills were installed, bundles of heather would be placed in the water and boiled in order to sweeten the still before the first distillation took place.
In the nineteenth century and possibly even earlier, illicit stills were used to make whisky - in broad daylight. The crofters were able to do this because, by gathering up and using old stumps of burnt heather, they could make a fire without smoke, and so not raise suspicion!
An account of Whisky by Ray Pearson
Taken from the In the Soup web site with permission from the author.
The rise and progress of whisky-drinking in Scotland, and the working of the 'Public-houses (Scotland) Act', commonly called the Forbes M'Kenzie Act
By Duncan M;Laren (1858) (pdf)
You can get to this page at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/whisky.htm
Pot Luck
The British Home Cookery Book with over a 1,000 recipes. In the Preface it says...
This is not the ordinary conventional cookery book, affording instructions how to dress, cook, and serve every variety of joint, fish, vegetable, etc., etc., etc. I take for granted that the reader is already acquainted with ordinary means and methods, and is versed in the preparation of simple food. To be a "good plain " cook always appears to me a contradiction in terms: because, if a person's treatment of plain dishes is good, she should be equally good at more elaborate ones. The same amount of application will serve for both. To make "plain" dishes palatable is, indeed, the highest test to which a woman can be put. The culinary skill demanded in these pages is of an everyday, common-sense character, such as any housewife, old or young, may exercise with pleasure. For these are chiefly specimens of the "good plain cooking" which was done by our mothers, and grandmothers, and great-grandmothers—the old home cookery before tinned things and preservatives were invented. This book is, in its way, unique.
And so I thought I'd make this book available which be got to at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/potluck.htm
I also came across this book...
Six Hundred Recipes
Six hundred receipts, worth their weight in gold: including receipts for cooking, making preserves, perfumery, cordials, ice creams, inks, paints, dyes of all kinds, cider, vinegar, wines, spirits, whiskey, brandy, gin, etc., and how to make imitations of all kinds of liquors: together with valuable gauging tables: the collections, testing, and improvements on the receipts extending over a period of thirty years.
When I saw this book I was most intrigued to see "imitations of all kinds of liquors" and so thought I'd take a copy of it to include on the site. It's in pdf format but can be download at http://www.electricscotland.com/food/lib.htm
Thistledown
-----------
I extracted some of the colour illustrations from this book on wit and humour. You can see them at http://www.electricscotland.com/humo...ustrations.htm
Highland Papers
---------------
This is a publication in 3 volumes. There is a great deal of information on various clans within this collection and we have made available the contents for each volume.
Preface
At his early death in 1836 Mr. Donald Gregory, whose History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland still remains the standard work on the subject, left behind him a considerable body of MSS. These contain the results of his researches in the public records and in various private charter chests to which he had access and also include transcripts of various family histories which had been placed at his disposal. Although utilised for his history, these materials are in themselves of great interest and value.
After Mr. Gregory's death these MS. Collections were acquired by the Society of Antiquaries, by whose kindness they have been made available for the purpose of printing such portions as might seem desirable. The present volume is largely drawn from these Collections, though it also contains documents derived from other sources. Its purpose is the modest one of making available to the Society, and through it to all interested in Highland History, some of the original material and recorded tradition on which knowledge of that history must be largely based; but a certain limited amount of annotation and comment has been found necessary.
You can download these volumes at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...and_papers.htm
Stoddard's Lectures
-------------------
JOHN L. STODDARD was born in Brookline, Mass., April 24, 1850. He graduated at Williams College, as valedictorian of his class, in 1871, and then studied theology for two years at Yale Divinity School. Next he taught Latin and French in the Boston Latin School. In 1874 he was able to gratify a long cherished desire to travel in foreign lands, and not only made the customary tour of Europe, but visited Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt as well. He then studied in Germany, and upon his return to America, began his career as a lecturer, which for about twenty years has known no interruptions save those due to his repeated visits to remote countries. His travels embrace nearly all the habitable parts of the globe.
I extracted his lecture on Scotland which can be downloaded at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/stoddard.htm
The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland
-------------------------------
Just to illustrate what can be found in these Rolls I am going to give you below a bit of the Preface from the 1455 to 1460 volume and at the end will provide links to that and another 3 volumes that you can download. I should mention here that the Preface of each volume is very large and it needs to be as it explains in considerable detail what is contained in these Rolls. The Rolls themselves are in Latin and so I guess few reading them will be able to translate them and hence the Preface is where you'll get good information for the time period of each volume.
Here is a bit from the first Preface...
The present volume contains the Exchequer accounts rendered during the last six years of the reign of James II., or from 1455 to 1460 inclusive. The audits took place in the summer or autumn of each of these years at Edinburgh, Linlithgow, or Perth. The rolls of the custumars and bailies of the burghs, and also of the managers of the Crown lands, are complete. There are two rolls of the Sheriffs, containing the accounts audited in 1455 and 1456, a separate account of the Comptroller for 1456, and a few miscellaneous accounts inserted in the already mentioned rolls. The rebellion of James ninth and last Earl of Douglas had been to appearance put down in 1452, and the Earl himself ostensibly received into favour. But his secret disaffection continued, and was fomented by the English government. On 22nd May 1453, he had a safe-conduct, in which his brothers were included, and he himself was designed Earl of Douglas, Wigtown and Annandale, and Lord of Galloway, to pass with a large following through England to Rome; and a similar passport was at the same time given to Hamilton. But it does not appear that either Douglas or Hamilton proceeded further than England; and the English records throw some light on their movements. On 17th June 1453, Malise, Earl of Strathern (formerly Earl of Menteith), was liberated from the captivity in which he had been held for twenty-five years as a hostage for the ransom of the King who had so deeply wronged him, this being done at the instance and on the petition of the Earl of Douglas and Lord Hamilton, and the evident motive being to involve James II. in trouble by a revival of the old question regarding the respective rights of the two families of Robert ii. On 19th February 1453-4, a disbursement of £16, 13s. 4d. occurs in the English Exchequer accounts to Garter King of Arms for a journey undertaken by him to the borders to make certain appointments with the Earl of Douglas, for more than five weeks' attendance on Lord Hamilton in London and elsewhere, and for six weeks' attendance on the King while an answer was prepared to the Commissioners and the Earl of Douglas, who was then in these parts.
We have four volumes...
1455 - 1460 | 1460 - 1469 | 1568 - 1579 | 1580 - 1588
You can read more of this and download the volumes at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...quer_rolls.htm
More of these volumes are available on the Internet Archive.
Poems by John Henderson
-----------------------
John sent us in this poem...
Autumn Morn Sweems
Lyrics composed by John Henderson on the 19th of October, 2010,
to William Huddie Leadbetter's music for his 1934 song, 'Goodnight Irene'
Oan maist autumn morns Jock gings sweemin,
Fan the sin's fant an it's cweel;
He troos thit this keps him halesome,
An sinsyne he's niver felt oonweel.
Waater, saut waater,
Dipp'd in ilk day;
Sich waater's guid, Ay affa guid
Alang in Coral Bay.
Ye tee micht fin morns bricht an airly,
Fan nae sin's hich in the lift,
A graun time tae sweem, a bittie,
An syne thenk Ma Naitur for her gift.
Waater, saut waater,
Dipp'd in ilk day;
Sich waater's guid, Ay affa guid
Alang in Coral Bay.
You can get to all John's poems at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerels.htm
Out On The Pampas
-----------------
I thought from time to time I might highlight a story that is on the site that I believe would make a good read.
This is a book that I read online and I have to say I don't usually read an entire book online but this one just gripped my imagination and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
I had been working on the history of Scots in Argentina at the time and I stumbled across this book which is about an English family that decided to immigrate to Argentina. While it is about an English family they did end up with some Scots as neighbours. But what I liked about this book was the explantion about how they went about the whole process of immigration, how they got there, and how they settled, etc.
Here is a bit from the first chapter...
'Now silence all, and listen to me. This affair is a serious business; and although I hope and believe that we shall all enjoy our life very much, still we must prepare for it, and look upon it in earnest, and not as a sort of game'. I have business here which I cannot finish before another eight or nine months. Let us all make the most of our time before we start. In the first place, the language of the people among whom we are going is Spanish, and we must all learn to speak it well before we leave. For the next three months we will work together at grammar and exercises, and then I will try and get some Spanish teacher to live in the house, and speak the language with us until we go. In the next place, it will be well that you should all four learn to ride. I have hired the paddock next to our garden, and have bought a pony, which will be here to-day, for the girls. You boys have already ridden a little, and I shall now have you taught in the riding school. I went yesterday to Mr. Saris, and asked him if he would allow me to make an arrangement with his head gardener for you to go there to learn gardening. He at once agreed; and I have arranged with the gardener that you are both to be there every morning at six o'clock, and are to work until nine. At nine you will come in to breakfast. From breakfast to dinner you will have to yourselves, except upon the days you take riding lessons; and I should wish you to spend this time at your usual studies, except Latin, which will be of no use to you. From two till halfpast four you are to learn carpentering. I have made an agreement with Mr. Jones to pay him so much to take you as a sort of apprentices for the next nine months. In the evening we will all work together at Spanish. It will be hard work; but if you want to be of any real use....
And so you can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/pampas.htm
And to finish...
A Square Meal
NOSTALGIA alert! A new edition of Alan Brown's book Craigendoran Steamers has been published to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Waverley paddle steamer. In it, we read about speedy rival, the Jeanie Deans and its galley boy Alec, who found potato-peeling a tiresome chore. One day he completed the task quickly by simply cutting off all the sides of the potatoes.
The chief steward, glancing at the tub, abruptly stopped and asked: "Hey Alec, whit's all this, square potatoes?"
"Ah," replied the galley boy, "it's a wee bit rough the day, and that's tae stop them rolling off the plates."
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend :-)
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com