It's your Electric Scotland newsletter meaning
the weekend is nearly here :-)
You can view what's new this week on Electric Scotland at
http://www.electricscotland.com/update.html and you can unsubscribe to
this newsletter by clicking on the link at the foot of this newsletter.
See our Calendar of Scottish Events around the world at
http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/calendar_help.htm
CONTENTS
-----------------
Electric Scotland News
The Flag in the Wind
The Scottish Nation
Raiderland, All about Grey Galloway
Poems and Stories
Scottish Canadian Newspaper
Proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Third Congress at Louisville, Kentucky May
14 to 17, 1891
History of Scotland
Highlanders in Spain
Memoir of Norman MacLeod, D.D.
Doug Ross's pictures from his Scottish Tour
MacIntyre Gathering in Scotland for 2008
ELECTRIC SCOTLAND
---------------------------------
Away in Toronto again this week attending a Knight Templars meeting so doing
a bit of catch up again.
Nothing particular of note this week other than acquiring a copy of the 1877
edition of "Good Words" which I plan to add to the site at some point.
Did get an email in this week asking if I had any additional information on
clan names. I thought I'd just mention that there are various ways to
explore clan names on the site. First if you go to the "Clans" section of
the site you'll find two links (1) Official Clans and (2) Information on
other names. Essentially over the years I was asked if I could separate out
official clans recognised by the Lord Lyon from all the names I had on the
site so this division was the result.
Second... you can click on "Famous Scots" in our menu and there you may well
find accounts of people with your clan name. Third.. we are also publishing
each week names in The Scottish Nation and currently we have just moved onto
the H's.
Four and finally.. make use of the Google search engine on the site.. it's
in our header... and that will also find any information we have on any clan
names throughout all the historican material we hold on the site. In the
event you can't find your name you should also try other spelling like Mac,
Mc or M' but as there are so many name spellings in connection with Scottish
names you should also try different spellings. Try saying your name out loud
and imagine other ways that it could be spelt and then enter those in the
search engine and see what comes up.
You should also note that many Scots who emigrated around the world were
Gaelic speakers and others may well not have been able to read and hence the
name was spelt differently at the time. Even today you can hit problem. When
I came to Canada from Scotland I hadn't noticed that my first name was spelt
incorrectly on the work permit... Alistair instead of Alastair. Before I
knew it the same spelling was on the driving license, social security card
and health card. I had to spend a fair bit of time correcting that. You can
image in the old days many people just wouldn't have bothered getting it
changed.
So.. just some general advice on finding information on your name :-)
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 at the link at the top of this newsletter and pick up poems and
stories sent into us during the week from Donna, Margo, Stan, John and
others.
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
------------------------------------
Mind that The Flag is now in two sections (1) Political and (2) Cultural.
This weeks Flag is compiled by Ian Goldie in which he's documenting the
first month of the SNP led government.
In Peter's cultural section he talks about...
As The Flag’s Scottish History Time-line enters its eighth year it now
contains nearly 1,700 dates spanning the past 2,000 years. The
ever-expanding time-line is divided into significant historical section
which are revised as it increases and is an excellent back-up to James
Halliday’s splendid Scotland: A Concise History. A book which every Scot and
all those interested in Scotland should read. (Note: You can read this book
at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/index.htm
Here is this weeks time line for you...
15 June 1828
Twenty-eight people died when the north gallery collapsed at The Old Kirk,
Kirkcaldy, whilst the congregation listened to noted preacher Edward Irving.
15 June 1945
Family allowance payments were introduced in Britain – five shillings (25p)
a week for the second child and subsequent children, no payment being made
for the firstborn.
16 June 1890
The Caledonian Railway station in Edinburgh was destroyed by fire.
16 June 2006
The nearly 150-year-old papermaking firm Smith Anderson, Feetykil, Leslie,
Fife, went into receivership with the loss of 106 jobs. An earlier cut-back
had seen 70 jobs losses in August 2005.
17 June 1747
The Vesting Act authorised the Scottish Court of Exchequer, the guardian of
crown revenues in Scotland, to make full inquiry into the extent and value
of estates forfeited by Jacobites following the 1745 Rising. Fifty-three
estates were surveyed and only 12 of these were declared not forfeit.
17 June 1999
In a parliamentary debate on the new Scottish Parliament building project
First Minister of Scotland Donald Dewar gave an estimate cost of £109
million including VAT, fees and fit-out.
19 June 1943
Flyweight boxer Jackie Paterson followed in the footsteps of Benny Lynch by
winning the world title at Hampden park, Glasgow. He spectacularly knocked
out Englishman Peter Kane after only 61 seconds of the first round.
21 June 2006
Scotland experienced its wettest and windiest June day on record.
Should you be in Scotland you might wish to attend...
Bannockburn Rally Saturday 16th June 2007
We are assembling at 13:30 at Lower Bridge Street in Stirling with the March
kicking off at 14:00. At the National Trust site of Bannockburn Nicola
Sturgeon MSP will lay the wreath for the SNP. Everyone will hear Nicola and
Bruce Crawford MSP speak and then we will be entertained by Eva Christie who
has played Glastonbury before and Five Park Drive. Hopefully it will be a
good family event that further celebrates our victory at the elections and
the important time in our history. This year Professor Christopher Harvie
MSP is giving our Dr. Allan Macartney lecture at the King Robert Hotel at
16:30 .
The local SNP branch are hosting a party at the King Robert Hotel,
provisionally from 6pm to 10pm. We do not have their final details yet, but
I think it is likely that there will be a couple of traditional Scottish
bands there.
You can read the Flag, listen to the Scots Language, enjoy the Scots Wit and
lots more at
http://www.scotsindependent.org
The Scottish Nation
----------------------------
My thanks to Lora for transcribing these volumes for us.
Now completed the G's and moved onto the H's with Guthrie, Hackston, Haig
and Haldane
Here is how the Haldane entry starts...
HALDANE, a surname derived from Haldenus, a Dane, who first possessed the
lands on the borders called from him, Halden-rig. “In old charters,” says
Mr. Alexander Haldane, in his Memoirs of Robert and James A. Haldane,
(London, 1852), “in the rolls of parliament, and in other public documents,
the name is variously written Halden, Haldane, Hadden, or Hauden. There is
no doubt that it is of Norse origin.” In the 12th century a younger son of
the border Haldens of that ilk became possessed of the estate of Gleneagles,
Perthshire, by marrying the heiress of that family, and assumed the arms but
not the name of Gleneagles. In 1296 the name of Aylmer de Haldane of
Gleneagles appears in the Ragman Roll as among the barons who swore fealty
to Edward I. Sir Bernard Haldane of Gleneagles married a daughter of
William, Lord Seton. His son, Sir John Haldane, in 1460 married Agnes
Menteith of Ruskie, one of the two co-heiresses of the half of the lands and
honours of her maternal great-grandfather Duncan, last of the ancient Saxon
earls of Lennox, beheaded by James I. In 1424, and in consequence assumed
their armorial bearings. This Sir John Haldane was sent by James III.
Ambassador to Denmark. He was also master of the king’s household, sheriff
principal of the shire of Edinburgh, and lord-justice-general of Scotland
beyond the Forth. In 1473 he was allowed to take out brieves in chancery for
serving him one of the heirs of Duncan last earl of Lennox, and he had a
long and tedious lawsuit with Lord Darnley as to the superiority of the
earldom, which was gained by the latter. In 1482, when the duke of
Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. Of England, invaded Scotland, Sir John
Haldane, and three others, were appointed “joint captains, chieftains,
keepers, and governors of the town of Berwick, and to defend it against the
invasion of our old enemies of England.” The memorable defection, however,
of the rebellious nobles at the bridge of Lauder, speedily caused the
capitulation of that town. Sir John died in 1493. His son, Sir James, was,
in 1505, appointed keeper of the king’s castle of Dunbar, but died soon
after. The son of the latter, also Sir John Haldane, fell at Flodden.
The Haldanes of Gleneagles gave their hearty support to the Reformation in
Scotland, and in 1585, when the earl of Angus and the other banished lords
returned from England, the laird of ‘Glennegeis,’ as he is styled by
Calderwood, (vol. Iv. P. 390), took a prominent part in what was called “the
raid of Stirling,” which had been concocted with the exiled nobles by the
master of Gray. He was a prisoner in the town when it was attacked, but was
enabled to join the assailants, and assisted in the armed remonstrance with
the king, which brought back the banished ministers, and drove the earl of
Arran into disgrace and banishment. When Sir William Stewart, colonel of the
royal guard, was repulsed from the West Port of Stirling, he “was followed
so hardlie that Mr. James Haddane, brother-german to the laird of Glennegeis,
overtooke him; and as he was laying hands on him, was shott by the
colonell’s servant, Joshuah Henderson.” In 1650 Sir John Haldane of
Gleneagles was a leader in the Presbyterian army opposed to Cromwell, and
fell in the rout at Dunbar. His successor, also Sir John Haldane, conferred
a large portion of the Menteith or Lanrick estates on a younger son, Patrick
Haldane. The eldest son, Mungo Haldane of Gleneagles, a member of the
Scottish parliament, is mentioned by Nisbet in his account of the gorgeous
public funeral of the duke of Rothes, lord-chancellor, in 1681, as in the
procession bearing the banner of his relative, the earl of Tullibardine,
afterwards marquis of Athol. On his death in 1685 he was succeeded by his
son John Haldane, who, previous to the Revolution, sat in the Scottish
parliament for Dumbartonshire.
In 1688 he was a member of the convention parliament, and at the Union was
one of the four members for Perthshire. He was the first member for the
county of Perth in the first British parliament, and one of the
commissioners for settling the equivalents at the union. He took a prominent
part in the politics of his day, and on the passing of the Septennial act in
1716, he spoke strongly in its favour. He was twice married: first, to Mary,
third daughter of David Lord Maderty; and, secondly, to Helen, only daughter
of Sir Charles Erskine of Alva, ancestor of the earls of Rosslyn, and had a
large family by both wives. His eldest son, successively M.P. for the
counties of Perth and Stirling, died in 1757, at the age of seventy-three,
unmarried. He was succeeded by his brother, Patrick, who was first professor
of history at St. Andrews; then M.P. for the St. Andrews burghs; then
solicitor-general; a royal commissioner for selling the forfeited estates;
and in 1721 was appointed a lord of session. “This appointment,” says Mr.
Alexander Haldane,”gave rise to a curious lawsuit as to the right of the
Crown to appoint a judge or senator of the college of justice, ‘without the
concurrence of the college itself.’ The matter was carried by appeal to the
House of Lords (see Robertson’s Appeal Cases, p. 422,) and decided in favour
of the Crown; but Patrick Haldane’s right was not insisted on, and he
received another appointment. He was objected to as not being a practising
advocate, but the pamphlets which appeared on the occasion, one of them
attributed to the celebrated Duncan Forbes of Culloden, indicate strong
political and personal rancour. Mr. Patrick Haldane is, amongst other
things, not only charged with bribery at his elections, but with having
induced his younger brother, James Haldane, then under age, the grandfather
of Robert and James Alexander Haldane, to assist in carrying off and
imprisoning hostile voters, on pretended charges of high treason and
Jacobitism.” [Memoirs, page 8, Note.] Patrick’s only son, George, a
brigadier-general in the army, and M.P. for the Dundee and Forfar burghs,
died in 1759 governor of Jamaica, predeceasing his father ten years. The
estate of Gleneagles being very much burdened, was sold to Captain Robert
Haldane, a younger brother of the half-blood, who had returned from India,
with a large fortune, being the first Scotsman who ever commanded an East
India Company’s ship. He also acquired by purchase the estate of Airthrey,
near the Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, and becoming M.P. for the Stirling
burghs, is referred to in the Letters of Junius. He died at Airthrey, 1st
January 1768, leaving that estate to his nephew, Captain James Haldane, of
the Duke of Albany, East Indiaman, and entailling Gleneagles and Trinity
Gask, in Perthshire, on the male descendant of his two sisters, Margaret,
wife of Cockburn of Ormiston, East Lothian, and Helen, married to Alexander
Duncan of Lundie, mother of the celebrated admiral Viscount Duncan, with
remainder to his nephew, the said Captain James Haldane.
George Cockburn, the son of the elder sister, on succeeding to Gleneagles,
took the name and arms of Haldane, but on his death, without issue male, in
1799, that estate devolved on Admiral Lord Duncan, the eldest surviving son
of the younger sister, the maternal grandmother of Robert and James
Alexander Haldane, of whom a memoir is given in the following pages. Their
father, Captain James Haldane of Airthrey, was the only son of Colonel James
Haldane, who served from 1715 to 1741, in that squadron of the royal horse
now known as the 2d regiment of life-guards. He died at sea, 9th December
1742, near Jamaica, on the Carthagena expedition, in command of General
Guise’s regiment of infantry. On 15th December 1762, his son married his
first cousin, Katherine, daughter of Alexander Duncan of Lundie, and had,
with a daughter, who died in infancy, two sons; Robert, born at London 28th
February 1764; and James Alexander Haldane, a posthumous child, both of whom
acquired a prominent name in the modern religious history of Scotland, as
narrated in a subsequent memoir. The elder son, Robert, succeeded to the
estate of Airthrey, and built Airthrey castle in 1791. A few years
previously he had constructed a lake covering thirty acres on his grounds,
in which, soon after, he was nearly drowned. “It was winter,” says his
nephew, the biographer of the family, “and during the frost, there was a
large party of visitors and others on the ice, enjoying the amusement of
skating and curling. He was himself standing near a chair on which a lady
had been seated, when the ice suddenly broke, and he was nearly carried
under the surface. With his usual presence of mind, he seized on the chair,
which supported him, and quietly gave directions to send for ropes, as a
rash attempt to extricate him might have only involved others in the
impending catastrophe. Providentially there was help at hand; and by laying
hold of the ropes brought by a gamekeeper and an old servant, he was happily
extricated from his perilous position.” [Memoirs, p. 42.] the estate of
Airthrey is now the property of Lord Abercromby, having been purchased from
Robert Haldane in 1798, by the celebrated General Sir Ralph Abercromby.
You can read the rest of this entry at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/haldane.htm
You can read the other entries at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/index.htm
Raiderland, All about Grey Galloway
----------------------------------------------------
by S. R. Crockett (1902)
Our thanks to John Snyder for ocr'ing in this book for us
Added chapters XVI through to XVIII this week. Here is a bit from chapter
XVII...
SOME BALMAGHIE WORTHIES
As I write the words, there comes before me a long defile of men and women
whom I have known, natives of or resident in the parish of Balmaghie. Of
mine own I will say nothing, though they too were held of the worthiest,
save of William Crockett, so lately of Glenlochar, swiftly carried off by a
fever caught in the discharge of his duty, and followed to an honoured grave
by the sincere mourning of a whole countryside, leaving a name of an
enduring sweet savour for simple truth, justice, and loyalty.
Of a few others I have spoken elsewhere, notably in the chapters of this
book entitled Four Galloway Farms.
The M'Haffies.
As characters, I do not think that any in all Galloway impressed my boyish
mind so much as the three Laurieston old maids, Mary, Jennie, and Jean
M'Haffie. I have written of them time and again.
Hardly ever did I go to church without making up to the three brave little
old maids, who, leaving a Free Kirk at their very door, and an Established
one over the hill, made their way seven long miles to the true Kirk of the
Persecutions.
It had always, I think. been a grief to them that there was no Lag to make
them testify up to the chin in Solway tide, or with a great fiery match
between their fingers to burn them to the bone. But what they could, they
did. They trudged fourteen miles every Sabbath day, with their dresses “feat
and snod” and their linen like the very snow, to listen to the gospel
preached according to their consciences. They were all the smallest or
women, but their hearts were great, and those who knew them held them far
more worthy of honour than all the lairds of the parish.
Of them all only one remains. [Alas, no more even one!] But their name and
honour shall not be forgotten on Deeside while fire burns and water runs, if
this biographer can help it. The M'Haffies were all distinguished by their
sturdy independence, but Jen M'Haffie was ever the cleverest with her head.
A former parish minister had once mistaken Jen for a person of limited
intelligence; but he altered his opinion after Jen had taken him
through-hands upon the Settlement of ”Aughty-nine” (1689), when the
Cameronians refused to enter into the Church or Scotland as reconstructed by
the Revolution Settlement.
The three sisters kept a little shop which the two less active tended, while
Mary, the business woman of the family, resorted to Cairn Edward every
Monday and Thursday with and for a miscellaneous cargo. As she plodded the
weary way, she divided herself between conning the sermons of the previous
Sabbath, arranging her packages, and anathematising the cuddy. “Ye person–ye
awfu' person!” was her severest denunciation.
Billy was a donkey of parts. He knew what houses to call at. It is said that
he always brayed when he had to pass the Established manse, in order to
express his feelings. But in spite of this Billy was not a true Cameronian.
It was always suspected that he could not be much more than Cameronian by
marriage–a" tacked-on one," in short. His walk and conversation were by no
means so straightforward as those of one sound in the faith ought to have
been. It was easy to tell when Billy and his cart had passed along the road,
for his tracks did not go forward, like all other wheel-marks, but meandered
hither and thither across the road, as tough he had been weaving some
intricate web or his own devising. He was called the Laurieston Express, and
his record was a mile and a quarter an hour, good going.
Mary herself was generally tugging at him to come on. She pulled Billy, and
Billy pulled the cart. But, nevertheless, in the long run, it was the will
of Billy that was the ultimate law. The School Boy was very glad to have the
M'Haffies taken up on the cart, both because he was allowed to walk all the
time, and because he hoped to get Mary into a good temper against next
Tuesday.
Mary came his way twice a week–on Tuesdays and Fridays. As the School Boy
plodded along towards school he met her, and, being allowed by his granny
one penny to spend at Mary's cart, he generally occupied most of church
time, and all the school hours for a day or two before, in deciding what he
would buy.
It did not make choice any easier that alternatives were strictly limited.
While he was slowly and laboriously making up his mind as to the
long-drawn-out merits of four farthing biscuits, the way that “halfpenny
Abernethies" melted in the mouth arose before him with irresistible force.
And just as he had settled to have these, the thought of charming
explorations after the currants in a couple of “cookies" was really too much
for him. Again, the solid and enduring charms of a penny I”Jew's roll," into
which he could put his lump of butter, often entirely unsettled his mind at
the last moment. The consequence was that he had always to make up his mind
in the immediate presence of the objects, and by that time neither Billy nor
Mary could brook any very long delays.
It was important, therefore, on Sabbaths, to propitiate. Mary as much as
possible, so that she might not cut him short and proceed on her way without
supplying his wants, as she had done more than once before. On that occasion
her words were these–
"D'ye think Mary M 'Haffie has naething else in the world to do, but stan'
still as lang as it pleases you to gawp there! Gin ye canna tell us what ye
want, ye can e'en do withoot! Gee up, Billy! Come oot o' the roadside–ye're
aye eat-eatin', ye bursen craitur ye !”
You can read more of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/raiderland/chapter17.htm
You can read the rest of the chapters at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/raiderland/index.htm
Poems and Stories
----------------------------
Added Chapter 55 of John's Recounting Blessings at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/henderson/Chapter%2055.pdf
John also sent in two doggerels, A Blether an Niffer o Cheer at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel212.htm
and
'Allan' an' 'Jess' - Cottar Fowk at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel213.htm
Added a new poem from The Bard of Banff, now the Unofficial Poet to the
Scottish Parliament, Scotland Taken for Granted at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/banff/story41.htm
Donna sent in a journal entry, No Man (or woman) is Unsuccessful Who Has a
Friend at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/america/donna/journal/journal83.htm
Scottish Canadian Newspaper
--------------------------------------------
Added another issue of this newspaper...
August 13, 1891 at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/scotscan/issue38.htm
This issue carries an article about the residence of Drummond of Hawthornden,
an early Scottish Poet.
You can see all the issues to date at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/scotscan/index.htm
Proceedings of the Scotch-Irish Third Congress at Louisville, Kentucky May
14 to 17, 1891
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now working on the Third Congress and this week as well as completing the
summary proceedings have added...
Andrew Jackson.
By Rev. D. C. Kelley, of Tennessee
Facts about Ulster.
By Rev. Dr. John Hall, of New York
The Scotch-Irish of Kentucky.
By Judge William Lindsay, of Frankfort, Ky.
Here is a bit from The Scotch-Irish of Kentucky.
Now, the Scotch-Irish of Kentucky. Why, Kentucky is Scotch-Irish itself. I
can't speak of Kentucky without speaking of the Scotch-Irish, and I can't
speak of the Scotch-Irishmen that have lived in Kentucky without recalling
the history of Kentucky. When the Revolutionary War was closed, and Kentucky
was opened for settlement, it is not a singular fact that from Pennsylvania
down the Ohio River came the Scotch-Irish, because they had found out that
this was a land literally flowing with milk and honey. The Scotch-Irish of
the Virginias had scaled the Alleghany Mountains and found the road down the
Kanawha into the eastern portions of Kentucky, and from that time forward
there was a constant stream of Scotch-Irishmen into this territory from
those and other sources, and it is another singular fact that scarcely had
three or four Scotch-Irishmen come together until they immediately organized
themselves into a public meeting and commenced demanding their rights. We
did not have any thing to do with the Mecklenburg declaration; we were not
there to take part with the Scotch-Irish people of Virginia; but straightway
we called a Constitutional Convention and made Samuel McDowell Chairman, and
demanded that we be admitted into the Union as an independent State. We were
not admitted: we could not settle terms with old Virginia. We held another
convention and made Sam McDowell President again, and called it up year
after year until we had held nine conventions at which Samuel McDowell, a
Scotch-Irishman, was President; and finally, in 1792, we held another, and
to get rid of us and to keep us quiet, they admitted us into the Union, and
we have gotten everything ever since that we were entitled to.
I was a little troubled the other day in taking up a newspaper to read an
article in which a gentleman started out to prove that there was no such a
race of people as the Scotch-Irish at all; I thought that if he established
his point my speech would be gone, and I would be compelled to change my
remarks to this mistaken assemblage that I find here to-day, but I was
gratified with his method of proving his case. He did not deny that under
James the First the Scotch had come over in Northern Ireland and
appropriated the best part of the country; he did not deny that sixty-five
years afterward there were a hundred thousand Scotch and their descendants
in Northern Ireland, and that the bishops were compelled to turn their eyes
away whilst these people went on following the teachings of John Calvin and
John Knox; nor did he deny that about the year 1715 these people commenced
coming to America; but he proves his case this way; and that is, about three
centuries before the Christian era the Irish went over to Scotland and ran
the Northern people out of the country, and that they are not Scotch, but
Irish. I accept his explanation. I was not prepared to disprove his point;
but I concluded that if our people had lived in Scotland for the period of
2,000 years they were good Scotch-Irish, therefore I laid his paper down
with a feeling of gratification, and I am here to-day to talk to you about
the Scotch-Irish of Kentucky—I believe it is that I am to talk about.
Now, as I said, I cannot individualize. There are too many Scotch-Irish
people in Kentucky to talk about; and if I commenced to hold up one family
for your admiration, my life would not be safe when I leave this house. A
distinguished gentleman, of a literary turn of mind, undertook a few years
ago to write a book upon the representative families of Kentucky. He wrote a
book as big as both volumes of the reports of the Scotch-Irish Congress, and
he exhausted only four families; he left, however, a note at the close of
his book saying that at some other time, under some other circumstances,
when he had time, he would continue the representative families of the State
of Kentucky. Now I want to say to you that all four of those families were
Scotch-Irish families. Now if my friend Breckinridge was here, he has all
this at the tip of his tongue, because he belongs to one of those
representative families. One of the distinguishing traits of the
Scotch-Irish people is that whenever a good thing is to be found there a
Scotch-Irishman will also be found, wherever a good deed is to be done you
will find Scotch-Irishmen leading in doing it, and the result is this little
colony in Ulster has almost created the civilization of the modern world. We
have been told that the doctrines of Knox with the Church were the
embodiment of a religion some of the features of which were unrevealed when
considered from an abstract stand-point, but if we will take this point into
consideration, those unrevealed features with the necessities of the age,
they have so far reformed the civilization of the world as that the
unrevealed features cannot now be lost sight of. John Calvin and John Knox
built wiser than they knew.
They did not intend at the outset, possibly, to establish civil liberty;
their great desire was for religious freedom, but when they laid the
foundation of religious freedom they laid also the foundation of civil
liberty, and religious freedom and civil liberty have since, under all
circumstances, traveled hand in hand. They did not fear to speak the truth
to kings, they did not hesitate to speak the truth to queens, and it is
quite a remarkable fact, to which the attention of the world is called by
Green, that when these progressive peasants sat as members of the General
Assembly they compelled nobles to come before them and make their defense
when they did wrong. The foundation of civil liberty was then and there
raised in the declaration that under certain conditions and certain
circumstances all men are equal. Now this is all I care to say of the
Scotch-Irish people of Kentucky, because I have another duty to perform. I
want in conclusion to express my gratification in having met this
distinguished assembly, of having heard these distinguished gentlemen here,
and to express for the Kentucky people that which I know they feel, the
pride that they have a right to feel, on account of your presence amongst
them, and I wish to say that this session of the Congress of the
Scotch-Irish people will be an era in the district of Kentucky, and
especially of the people of the city of Louisville. Now I want to apologize
for this poor presentation of the Scotch-Irish of Kentucky; I want to
apologize because a better selection was not made, and I wish to apologize
because of the very imperfect and incomplete way in which I have attempted
to discharge the duty imposed upon me. I thank this audience for their close
attention, and go to report to my duties elsewhere.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotsirish/congress3-22.htm
You can read more of this volume at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotsirish/congress3ndx.htm
History of Scotland
----------------------------
In 9 volumes By Patrick Fraser Tytler (1828)
Continued the fifth volume. Here is what has been added this week...
Chapter 5 (Pages 305 - 369)
Mary (1542)
Chapter 6 (Pages 370 - 430)
Mary (continued) (1544)
Here is a bit from Chapter 5...
THE total rout of the Scottish army at the Solway Moss, and the death of
James the Fifth within a fortnight after that event, produced the most
important changes in the policy of both kingdoms. To Henry the Eighth, and
that powerful faction of the Donglases, which, even in banishment, had
continued to exert, by its secret friends, a remarkable influence in
Scottish affairs, the death of the king was a subject of fervent
congratulation. The English monarch immediately embraced, with the
enthusiasm belonging to his character, the design of marrying his son, the
Prince of Wales, to the infant Mary, hoping by this means to unite the two
kingdoms, which had so long been the enemies of each other, into one
powerful monarchy in the persons of their descendants. The Earl of Angus,
and the Douglases, after a banishment of fifteen years, joyfully
contemplated the prospect of a return to their native country; they had
become subjects of the English monarch, had largely shared his bounty and
protection; and Henry, determined to put their gratitude to the test by
claiming their assistance in forwarding his great scheme of procuring the
Princess Mary for his son, and incorporating the kingdom of Scotland into
the English monarchy; but, in the prosecution of this design, the king
employed other agents. On their first arrival in London the Scottish
prisoners, who were taken at the Solway Moss, found themselves treated with
great severity; they were paraded through the streets of the metropolis,
conducted to the Tower, and watched with much jealousy; but, as soon as the
intelligence arrived of the death of their master the king, an immediate and
favorable change in their condition took place. Their high rank and
influence in Scotland convinced Henry, that they might be useful, and even
necessary agents to him in the accomplishment of his designs; the rigor of
their confinement was accordingly relaxed; and they now experienced not only
kindness, but were entertained with hopes of a speedy return to their
country, on condition that they forwarded the designs of the English king.
Sir George Douglas, the brother of Angus, who had shared his long
banishment, and was much in the confidence of Henry, appears to have been
entrusted with the principal share in negociating the marriage. His talents
for the management of political affairs were superior to those of his
brother, the Earl, over whose milld he possessed great influence; and if we
may believe the expressions which he employed in his correspondence with
Henry, he appears to have forgotten his allegiance to his natural prince in
the humility of his homage, and the warmth of his devotion to the English
monarch.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/history45s.pdf
As all the chapters are .pdf files I'll just point you at the index page of
this publication where you can read the rest of the chapters at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/historyndx.htm
Highlanders in Spain
------------------------------
By James Grant (1910)
Now up to Chapter 50 and here is how chapter 48 starts...
The night was approaching, and Ronald, being anxious to reach Los Alduides,
Cambo, or any other village on the route for Toulouse, rode as rapidly as
the rough and steep nature of the mountain-path would permit. As he
descended towards the Lower Pyrenees, the ground became more irregular, and
the road at times wound below beetling crags and through narrow gorges,
which were scarcely illuminated by the red light from the westward.
Twice or thrice Ronald beheld, or imagined that he beheld, a head,
surmounted by a high-crowned and broad-leaved hat, observing his progress
from the summit of the rocks skirting a narrow dell, through which he rode.
This kept him on the alert, and the threatening words of Don Carlos Avallo
recurred to him. He halted, drew his saddle-girths tighter, and looked to
his pistols, leaving unstrapped the bearskin which covered the holsters. At
the very moment when he was putting his foot in the stirrup to remount, a
musket was discharged from the top of a neighbouring cliff, and the ball
fell flattened from a rock within a yard of his head. The white smoke was
floating upwards through the still air, but no person was visible.
'Banditti, by Heaven!' exclaimed the startled and enraged Highlander, as he
sprang on the snorting steed. 'Farewell, Spain! and may all mischief attend
you, from the Pillars of Hercules to these infernal Pyrenees!
I wish the Nive rolled between them and me! But if swift hoofs and a stout
blade will serve me in peril, I shall be in broad Gascony to-night.'
Onward went Egypt at a full gallop, which was soon brought to a stop on his
turning an angle of the rocks. Across the narrow pathway a number of men
were busily raising a barricade of turf, branches, and earth; but on
Ronald's appearance they snatched up their carbines, and leaping up the
rocks with the agility of monkeys, disappeared.
'There is an ambush here,' muttered Stuart. 'Oh! could we but meet on the
mountain-side to-night, Senor Availo, I would teach you a sharp lesson for
the time to come. On now! on, for death or life!'
He had very little practice in the true scientific mode of clearing a
five-barred gate, but he feared not to leap with any man who ever held a
rein; and when riding a Highland shelty at home, had leapt from rock to
rock, and from cliff to cliff, over roaring linns, yawning chasms, and
gloomy corries, which would have caused the heart of a Lowlander even to
thrill with fear. Grasping a steel pistol in each hand, he came furiously
down the path, with his belted plaid and ostrich feathers streaming far
behind him.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/spain/romance48.htm
You can read the other chapters at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/spain/romancendx.htm
Memoir of Norman MacLeod, D.D.
-------------------------------------------------
Minister of Barony Parish, Glasgow; one of Her Majesty's Chaplains; Dean of
The Chapel Royal; Dean of The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of The
Thistle.
By his brother The Rev. Donald MacLeod, B.A. (1876)
Got up six chapters this week covering...
1868
Moderatorship and Patronage, 1869 - 70
1871 - 72
His Death
The Funeral
Appendix A
Here is how Chapter 24 starts...
"I FEEL as if the winding-up were coming soon," he wrote to Principal Shairp,
with little anticipation of how soon his words were to be realised.
As the spring wore on, the sense of feebleness and discomfort continued to
increase; but his family physician, Professor Andrew Buchanan, after careful
examination, discovered, at that time, nothing organically wrong with his
heart; and believing that complete rest and freedom from anxiety would
suffice to remove his ailments, he ordered him to give up the India Mission,
leave his town-house and reside in the country, and, in short, confine his
duties within the narrowest possible circle. Dr. Macleod at once acquiesced
in these arrangements, and for a time found some enjoyment in planning a
cottage which he thought of building on the slope of Campsie Fell, in a
situation he had long admired, and he seemed almost happy at the prospect of
renewing his early love of country life. The other direction of his
physician made a greater demand on his feelings. He did not hesitate as to
relinquishing the India Mission, but he determined that in doing so he would
express, once for all, the conclusions he had reached regarding the manner
in which Christian work in India ought to be conducted. For weeks he
revolved the subject in his mind; for weeks it possessed his thoughts night
and day; and, whether from the nature of the views he felt it his duty to
propound, or more probably, from the exaggerated colouring which weak health
imparts to coming difficulties, he somehow expected that his speech was to
provoke a violent and painful discussion. These anticipations, natural to an
invalid, although utterly groundless, had the effect of exciting his
shattered nervous system, and of producing an anxiety and agitation which
told with fatal effect upon him.
When he rose in the Assembly to address a house crowded to suffocation, his
rapid breathing revealed the strain he was labouring under. He had written
nothing beforehand except a few jottings on the flyleaf of the Mission
Report; and such was the impassioned and rapid manner in which, under the
pressure of his convictions, he grappled with the points he wished most to
impress, that the reporters were unable to take down even the meaning of a
great part of the address—the most powerful and stirring he ever delivered.
The speech is practically lost. Passages can be recalled; the general scope
can be sketched; but there is no adequate record of the masterly handling of
principles, the touches of kindly humour, the skill with which he
conciliated his audience while urging views calculated to offend the
prejudices of many, the overpowering earnestness with which he defended his
own position and appealed to the Church for a generous and self-forgetful
policy towards India. Those who were present may retain an impression of its
power, but the speech itself has perished.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/macleod/chapter24.htm
The index page for the book is at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/macleod/index.htm
Doug Ross's Pictures from Scotland
----------------------------------------------------
Doug and Pat Ross have sent in five more chapters in their tour...
Cawdor Castle
Dunrobin Castle
Loch Ness Cruise
Dunnet Head, Canisby Church, John O'Groats
Skara Brae, Orkney
Churchill Barriers and Italian Chapel, Orkney
Kirkwall, Orkney
Ring of Brogar, Orkney
In Orkney you'll see great pictures of a 5,000 year old village and the Ring
of Brogar which is being recording as being built around 10,000 BC.
You can see these at
http://www.electricscotland.com/pictures/ross/index.htm
MacIntyre Gathering in Scotland for 2008
-----------------------------------------------------------
Martin has just returned from Scotland and has sent in an update for those
interested in attending. I did think if any non MacIntyre or Wrights were
interesting in this gathering I'm sure you'd be made most welcome :-)
You can view this update at
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/macintyre/2008.htm
And to finish... George McNeillie sent me in a wee humour story...
Tony Blair is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of
patients with no obvious sign of injury or illness and greets one. The
patient replies:
"Fair fa your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin race,
Aboon them a you take your place,
Painch, tripe or thairm,
As langs my airm."
Blair is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient. The
patient responds:
"Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit."
Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the PM moves on to the
next patient, who immediately begins to chant:
"We sleekit, cowerin, timrous beasty, Thou needna start awa sae hastie, Wi
bickering brattle."
Now seriously troubled, Blair turns to the accompanying doctor and asks
"What kind of facility is this? A mental ward?"
"No", replies the doctor. "This is the serious Burns Unit."
And that's all for now and hope you all have a good weekend :-)
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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