|
 Electric
Scotland's Weekly Email Newsletter
Dear
Friend
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/rss/whatsnew.php and you
can unsubscribe to this newsletter by clicking on the link at the
foot of this newsletter. In the event the link is not clickable
simply copy and paste the link into your browser.
See our Calendar of Scottish Events around the world and add your
own at
http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/calendar_help.htm
CONTENTS
--------
Electric Scotland News
The Flag in the Wind
Clan and Family Information
Poetry and Stories
Book of Scottish Story
The Concise Household Encyclopaedia
The Writings of John Muir
Fraser's Scottish Annual
Robert Burns Lives!
Among the Forrest Trees
Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical
The Scottish Church
Inverness-Shire, Parish by Parish
Grazing and Agrestic Customs of the Outer Hebrides (New Book)
ELECTRIC SCOTLAND NEWS
----------------------
Our new advertiser, FamilyTreeDNA, have sent in an overview of their
services...
DNA testing has revolutionised the world of family history during
the past decade, and the links within surnames and between them
become clearer day by day. As more and more DNA results are gathered
by ordinary genealogists of Scottish origin around the world, what
we’re finding is changing our understanding of how Scottish surnames
were formed and how they relate to each other.
Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) is the leading genetics firm in the world
that offers DNA tests specifically designed to help genealogists to
uncover new family connections. We've been in business since 2000
and over the last decade our academic lab partner has processed more
than 500,000 DNA test kits submitted by researchers from more than
eighty countries.
As the #1 choice of the vast majority of genealogists worldwide, we
host dozens of surname projects for Scottish-origin surnames. If you
want to use DNA testing to discover new relations sharing your
surname, the FTDNA surname project for your name is the best place
to look.
We offer a wide range of genealogical DNA tests, but the two of most
importance to family historians are the Y-chromosome test, which
will give you a DNA reading of your direct male line, and the
mitochondrial DNA test, which gives a DNA reading of your direct
maternal line.
It’s important to realise that the actual test result you get back
from us, or from any other company, isn't an answer in itself to
your genealogical query. The value contained within your result only
becomes visible to you when you compare it with the results of
everyone else who's taken a test. Put simply, you stand the best
chance of finding a genetic match with someone else by choosing
FTDNA as our database of results is larger than any other company’s
by a factor of five to ten.
While we’re based in the USA, we are the only recreational genetics
firm working directly to help genealogists which meets the EU's data
protection and privacy requirements. Testing with FTDNA, you're in
safe hands!
END.
I might add that I used this company myself over a year ago to get
my DNA done and they have been recognised as the DNA company for
this years Highland Gathering in Scotland. You can get to their site
at
http://www.familytreedna.com/scottish-clan-list.aspx
-----
As to the Flag in the Wind's Cultural section. I have copied this
over to Electric Scotland and am in the process of editing the
thousands of pages to bring them more into line with our site and
fixing any broken links that I find. It will likely take a few weeks
to get all this fixed but once done will advise where it can be
found.
I still haven't heard from Peter so still don't know if he's
interested in keeping his section going albeit under Electric
Scotland.
-----
As a wee aside... I was chatting to Harold Nelson about half breeds
in that I mentioned that an Intuit had said that his people were 50%
half breeds and of them 75% were Scots half breeds. Harold then
mentioned that a Scot and Native Indian half breed in Canada were
called "Improved Scots" :-)
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 or on our site menu.
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
--------------------
This weeks Flag is compiled by Jim Lynch and as usual there is a
great deal to read with articles in Gaelic and the old Scots
language as well as the regular Clamjamfrie articles by Donnie
MacNeill. In one of his articles he tells us...
It’s not often I’m wrong...
The current inability of our Prime Minister to admit that he might
have ‘got it wrong’ with his non-stewardship of the UK finances,
reminds me of my late Uncle Willie, a sterling chap and ‘one of
Brutain’s hardy sons’, as Para Handy would have put it.
When I was studying in Glasgow, I used to stay with him and my Aunty
Rita at the foothills of the Campsies. One night, whilst watching
the TV news, an article about Nigeria came up on the screen,
together with a map.
“That’s the river Danube!” exclaimed Uncle W.
“No it’s not,” said I, who had his higher geography!
“Yes it is!!”
“The Danube runs through Europe,” I persisted and went through to my
room and came back with my atlas, opened at Africa. I pointed out
the Niger and then showed him the Danube, with a self-satisfied
smirk on my face.
Undaunted, he stared me in the eyes and without blinking said,
“Well, they’ve shifted it since I was at school!”
Aye, just like Gordon Brown, right enough!
You can read the Flag at
http://www.scotsindependent.org
Christina McKelvie MSP's Weekly diary is available at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mckelvie/090521.htm
This week she's telling us about the UK Border Agency and it's dawn
raids and highlights the plight of one family.
Clan and Family Information
---------------------------
Got the Clan Thompson Newsletter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/newsletters/thompson/Spring%202009%20public.pdf
Poetry and Stories
------------------
John sent in another poem this week...
"Sindoon an Mornin" at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel317.htm
You can also read other stories in our Article Service and even add
your own at
http://www.electricscotland.com/article
Book of Scottish Story
----------------------
Our thanks to John Henderson for sending this in for us.
This week have added...
Elphin Irving, the Fairies' Cupbearer
by Allan Cunningham
Here is how it starts...
Chapter 1
The romantic vale of Corriewater, in Annandale, is regarded by the
inhabitants, a pastoral and unmingled people, as the last border
refuge of those beautiful and capricious beings, the fairies. Many
old people, yet living, imagine they have had intercourse of good
words and good deeds with the " gude folk ;" and continue to tell
that in the ancient days the fairies danced on the hill, and
revelled in the glen, and showed themselves, like the mysterious
children of the Deity of old, among the sons and daughters of men.
Their visits to the earth were periods of joy and mirth to mankind,
rather than of sorrow and apprehension. They played on musical
instruments of wonderful sweetness and variety of note, spread
unexpected feasts, the supernatural flavour of which overpowered on
many occasions the religious scruples of the Presbyterian shepherds,
performed wonderful deeds of horsemanship, and marched in midnight
processions, when the sound of their elfin minstrelsy charmed youths
and maidens into love for their persons and pursuits ; and more than
one family of Corriewater have the fame of augmenting the numbers of
the elfin chivalry. Faces of friends and relatives, long since
doomed to the battle trench, or the deep sea, have been recognised
by those who dared to gaze on the fairy march. The maid has seen her
lost lover, and the mother her stolen child ; and the courage to
plan and achieve their deliverance has been possessed by, at least,
one border maiden. In the legends of the people of Corrievale, there
is a singular mixture of chin and human adventure, and the
traditional story of the Cupbearer to the Queen of the Fairies
appeals alike to our domestic feelings and imagination.
In one of the little green loops or bends, on the banks of
Corriewater, mouldered walls, and a few stunted wild plum-trees and
vagrant roses, still point out the site of a cottage and garden. A
well of pure spring-water leaps out from an old tree-root before the
door ; and here the shepherds, shading themselves in summer from the
influence of the sun, tell to their children the wild tale of Elphin
Irving and his sister Phemie; and, singular as the story seems, it
has gained full credence among the people where the scene is laid.
"I ken the tale and the place weel,” interrupted an old woman, who,
from the predominance of scarlet in her apparel, seemed to have been
a follower of the camp; " I ken them weel, and the tale’s as true as
a bullet to its aim, and a spark to powder. Oh, bonnie Corriewater!
a thousand times have I pu’ed gowans on its banks wi’ ane that lies
stiff and stark on a foreign shore in a bloody grave :” and sobbing
audibly, she drew the remains of a military cloak over her face, and
allowed the story to proceed.
The rest of this chapter can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/story/story87a.htm
The other stories can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/story/index.htm
The Concise Household Encyclopaedia
-----------------------------------
Added four more pages including, Cupboard, Cup Cake, Curacao, Curb,
Curd, Curly Kale, Currant, Currant Sawfly, Curry.
You can read about these at
http://www.electricscotland.com/household/c.htm
The Writings of John Muir
-------------------------
We have now completed the 5th volume and added this week are...
The Yosemite
Chapter V. (XI). The Ancient Yosemite Glaciers: How the Valley was
Formed
Chapter VI. (XII). How best to spend one's Yosemite Time
Chapter VII. (XIII). Lamon
Chapter VIII. (XIV). Galen Clark
Chapter IX. (XV). Hetch Hetchy Valley
And we have now started on the 6th volume in which he tells us...
IN this book, made up of sketches first published in the Atlantic
Monthly, I have done the best I could to show forth the beauty,
grandeur, and all-embracing usefulness of our wild mountain forest
reservations and parks, with a view to inciting the people to come
and enjoy them, and get them into their hearts, that so at length
their preservation and right use might be made sure.
The chapters added so far are...
Chapter I. The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West
Chapter II. The Yellowstone National Park
Here is a bit from Volume 5 chapter VI...
ONE-DAY EXCURSIONS
No. 1
IF I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite
I should start at daybreak, say at three o'clock in midsummer, with
a pocketful of any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point,
Sentinel Dome, the head of Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, the top of
Liberty Cap, Vernal Fall and the wild boulder-choked River Cañon.
The trail leaves the Valley at the base of the Sentinel Rock, and as
you slowly saunter from point to point along its many accommodating
zigzags nearly all the Valley rocks and falls are seen in striking,
ever- changing combinations. At an elevation of about five hundred
feet a particularly fine, wide-sweeping view down the Valley is
obtained, past the sheer face of the Sentinel and between the
Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan. At a height of about fifteen hundred
feet the great Half Dome comes full in sight, overshadowing every
other feature of the Valley to the eastward. From Glacier Point you
look down three thousand feet over the edge of its sheer face to the
meadows and groves and innumerable yellow pine spires, with the
meandering river sparkling and spangling through the midst of them.
Across the Valley a great telling view is presented of the Royal
Arches, North Dome, Indian Cañon, Three Brothers and El Capitan,
with the dome-paved basin of Yosemite Creek and Mount Hoffman in the
background. To the eastward, the Half Dome close beside you looking
higher and more wonderful than ever, southeastward the Starr King,
girdled with silver firs, and the spacious garden-like basin of the
Illilouette and its deeply sculptured fountain peaks, called the
Merced group; and beyond all, marshaled along the eastern horizon,
the icy summits on the axis of the range and broad swaths of forests
growing on ancient moraines, while the Nevada, Vernal, and Yosemite
Falls are not only full in sight, but are distinctly heard as if one
were standing beside them in their spray.
The views from the summit of Sentinel Dome are still more extensive
and telling. Eastward the crowds of peaks at the head of the Merced,
Tuolumne, and San Joaquin Rivers are presented in bewildering array;
westward, the vast forests, yellow foothills and the broad San
Joaquin plains and the coast ranges, hazy and dim in the distance.
From Glacier Point go down the trail into the lower end of the
Illilouette basin, cross Illilouette Creek and follow it to the
fall, where from an out-jutting rock at its head you will get a fine
view of its rejoicing waters and wild cañon and the Half Dome.
Thence returning to the trail, follow it to the head of the Nevada
Fall. Linger here an hour or two, for not only have you glorious
views of the wonderful fall, but of its wild, leaping, exulting
rapids and, greater than all, the stupendous scenery into the heart
of which the white passionate river goes wildly thundering,
surpassing everything of its kind in the world. After an unmeasured
hour or so of this glory, all your body aglow, nerve currents
flashing through you never before felt, go to the top of the Liberty
Cap, only a glad saunter now that your legs as well as head and
heart are awake and rejoicing with everything. The Liberty Cap, a
companion of the Half Dome, is sheer and inaccessible on three of
its sides but on the east a gentle, ice- burnished, juniper-dotted
slope extends to the summit where other wonderful views are
displayed where all are wonderful: the south side and shoulders of
Half Dome and Clouds' Rest, the beautiful Little Yosemite Valley and
its many domes, the Starr King cluster of domes, Sentinel Dome,
Glacier Point, and, perhaps the most tremendously impressive of all,
the views of the hopper-shaped cañon of the river from the head of
the Nevada Fall to the head of the Valley.
Returning to the trail you descend between the Nevada Fall and the
Liberty Cap with fine side views of both the fall and the rock, pass
on through clouds of spray and along the rapids to the head of the
Vernal Fall, about a mile below the Nevada. Linger here if night is
still distant, for views of this favorite fall and the stupendous
rock scenery about it. Then descend a stairway by its side, follow a
dim trail through its spray, and a plain one along the border of the
boulder-dashed rapids and so back to the wide, tranquil Valley.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/muir/vol5_chapter6.htm
The rest of the chapters can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/muir/index.htm
Fraser's Scottish Annual
------------------------
These are articles from the 1900 - 1904 issues of Fraser's Scottish
Annual. This week we've added...
The Art of Robert Louis Stevenson
A Judge's Joke
The Passing of the Century
The Scotch Church of Birmingham
Here is how the article on "The Art of Robert Louis Stevenson"
starts...
BY PROFESSOR MACNAUGHTON, M.A., B.D.
THERE are some works of fiction which one never dreams of reading a
second time, though the first perusal may be interesting enough. To
others, most of the novels of Scott, Thackeray and Dickens, for
instance, we constantly return.
"Age cannot wither them, nor custom stale
Their infinite variety."
Or, rather, perhaps it is not precisely the variety—some quality, at
any rate, they have, whose spell is unfailing and inexhaustible. The
more we read them the more they bind us to them; the more inevitably
do we go back to them. Their people are old friends, the friends of
our youth, with whom, though they never cease to live in our memory,
it is ever a fresh delight to renew the fulness of a direct and
immediate intercourse. Their scenes abide with us like the familiar
landscapes of childhood, and are wrought into the permanent stuff of
our inward world; our hearts are irresistibly drawn to revisit them
; we are jealous as of a precious possession which is slipping out
of our hands, to fix once more their fleeting shapes and colours.
What is the secret of these writers' charm? We call it genius. The
word is vague even as the quality at which we throw it out is
elusive. This much at least seems to be implied in it, a certain
strong vitality and, as it were, permanent youthfulness and
freshness of sense, which finds an inexhaustible interest and
delight in the spectacle of the world. The ordinary man soon
outgrows the catholicity and vividness of his childish interest in
things. He becomes blunter as he grows older. He has seen all this
before. It is dull, stale, flat and unprofitable to him. That is to
say, he has failed to grasp the elements of permanent significance
in the shows of things. As soon as the newness of their outward
features has worn away, and they have ceased to prick his jaded
sense, they become a mere weariness. He has never seized, or never
strongly and clearly enough, the immortal part of them, and the
perishable appearance, the symbol by which their inward life is half
revealed and half concealed, fades by repetition. The old cat,
reserving herself for serious business, which is mice, is unmoved by
the ball of thread which let loose the overflowing vitality of the
kitten. All the more is our need for those who, favoured by the
gods, like the ancient Greeks, are always children, who in their
firm manhood still retain the disinterested and unworn exuberance of
youth, and use the solidity of their maturer vigour to give body and
consistency to such glimpses as have come to them of the perennial,
myriad-sided marvel and problem of the living world. Those who
succeed in doing so with a certain clearness, completeness, harmony
and sanity, we call great artists.
The rest of this article can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/annual/article38.htm
The other articles can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/annual/
Robert Burns Lives!
-------------------
By Frank Shaw
"Fickle Man", Robert Burns in the 21st Century
Fickle Man is a book any serious Burnsian, scholar or layman should
acquire. More importantly, it needs to be read, maybe twice, it’s
that good! I found it to be both challenging and rewarding, and it
will enlarge your Burns horizon. The book is edited by two men who
are imminently qualified in Burns scholarship, Johnny Rodger and
Gerard Carruthers. Rodger lectures at Glasgow School of Art and is
co-editor of The Drouth. Carruthers, noted international Burns
scholar, is Head of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University. In
addition, they have brought together some of the best minds in the
world on the subject of Robert Burns.
Right off the bat the two authors say “…Burns is not a phony, he is
a great artist and as true a writer as any other. We celebrate here
the 250th birth anniversary of the poet by publishing a collection
of essays of his life and work.” Fickle Man is written by men and
women who are not afraid to unlock doors to new topics on Burns and
neither are they afraid to provoke “the Burns Police”, a term I
picked up from popular Scottish singer and Burns vocalist Eddi
Reader. Who are the Burns Police? They are so labeled because they
insist on their way or no way when it comes to Burns. This usually
happens when the Burns pot is stirred with a hard question about
Burns or when a new view is espoused vis-à-vis the Bard. Burns
Police cannot tolerate their “ownership” of Burns being challenged.
Neither do they tolerate their beliefs concerning Burns being
threatened.
You can read this article at
http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/burns_lives51.htm
And you can read other articles in this Robert Burns Lives! series
at
http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/burns.htm
Among the Forrest Trees
-----------------------
or How the Bushman Family got their Homes, by being a book of facts
and incidents of pioneering life in Upper Canada, arranged in the
form of a story, by Rev. Joseph H. Hilts (1888)
We have several more chapters up now...
Chapter XVIII - More Settlers Coming
Rapid Settlement - A Crowded House - Lost Children - Harry Hawthorn
- Mr. Beech - Shearing Sheep.
Chapter XIX - And Still They Come
A True Woman - A Bear Eats a Boy - A Bear in a Berry Patch - Matthew
Millwood.
Chapter XX - A Neighborhood of Strangers
Canadian Society - Married Under a Tree - The First Baby -
Neighborly Kindness - Mean Speculation.
Chapter XXI - Riverbend Mills
The Stolen Baby - White Squaw - Children Killed - The First Funeral
- A Neighborhood Sensation.
Chapter XXII - A Boarding House Wanted
A Cook Needed - Backwoods Society - Wolves at Work - The Wolf
Classified - He is a Sneaking Coward.
Chapter XXIII - A Backwoods Lyceum
The Old Mill - The Boy's Load - The Bear and the hunter - No Toll
Allowed - The Bear and the Mill Saw.
Chapter XXIV - More Boarding-House Tales
The Lost Girl - The Lost Woman - Boys and Ghosts.
Here is how Chapter XX starts...
Now that the lot at the bend of the river was taken up, every lot
that in any way touched John Bushman's lot was taken up, and had
some one on it, or was to be occupied in a short time. So that
John's isolated condition was already a thing of the past. At the
east end of his lot, and butting against it, was the Crautmaker
family. These were an industrious and well-doing class of people; a
trifle awkward in some things, perhaps, but, on the whole, a very
safe and respectable acquisition in any settlement. On the north of
these, and cornering John's lot at its north-east angle, was the
Greenleaf's home. Richard Greenleaf. and his wife were an
intelligent and well-brought-up couple, who had been trained to
industry and economy from childhood. They had got married and come
right off to the bush on what now would be called their wedding
trip. Read if you like between the lines, that few wedding trips
last as long or prove as successful as theirs did. Martha Greenleaf
was the first white woman in her township.
Then at the south-east corner of John's lot was a family of Gaelic
people, by the name of McWithy. They had only been a few days on
their lot. They came in from the east, and lived in a tent made of
blankets until they got up a shanty. They are a hardy-looking
family, made up of father and mother and a number of children. Some
of the children are nearly men and women. They are more accustomed
to backwoods life than those who come here directly from the Old
Country. They lived a few years in the country before they came to
settle here.
On the lot that is the east hundred acres of the one that Mr. Beech
is on, there is a single man, a Nova Scotian, his name Timberline.
He is a nice, steady young man. But he seems to be very bashful,
especially when there are any young women around. On the whole,
however, he is a promising settler.
Mr. Beech and his family we have already heard about. They are
English people, of the industrious and well-doing class.
Then on the west John has for a neighbor the Irish family, Mr.
Hawthorn and Bridget. They are a hardworking couple, and for a real,
genuine, free-hearted, unbounded hospitality you can't beat them
anywhere; in fact, Harry would take the shoes off his feet and give
them to one who needed them. And Bridget would take the handkerchief
off her head and give it to a bareheaded woman.
Then, as we have already learned, the lot that touched the
north-west angle of John's lot was to be occupied by Messrs.
Millwood and Root; and at the south-west angle is the lot occupied
by Mr. Woodbine and family. They are Lowland Scotch, and they are
not much accustomed to life on a farm, having been living in one of
the manufacturing towns in Scotland.
But Mr. Woodbine is, perhaps, the best read and most intelligent
man, on general subjects, among the settlers around the four
corners.
On the south side of Bushman's is Will Briars' lot of two hundred
acres, running across the concession.
Now, if we should divide this little community into distinct
nationalities, we would find one family of Irish; two of Scotch; one
of English; two Canadian, of English descent; two Canadian, of
German descent; one Nova Scotian; one American, of German descent;
and one Canadian, of Irish descent. And taking Moses Moosewood into
the number, we have one man who is a Canadian, of Scotch descent.
Then, if we go one lot north of Mr. Beech, we find a Mr. Baptiste
Shelebean, who is a Frenchman, from Lower Canada.
This is a fair sample of the mixed origin of the race of people who
are making this Canada of ours what it is, and in whose hands is the
destiny of this Dominion.
This reminds us of a statement that has been attributed to the late
John Hilliard Cameron, which is as follows:
"If you take the cool, shrewd, calculating head of a canny
Scotchman, the stern, unbending will of the German, the warm heart
and ready wit of an Irishrnan, the vivacity and activity of the
Frenchman, and put all of these into the robust, healthy frame of an
Englishman, you then have a Canadian."
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/forrest/chapter20.htm
The other chapters can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/forrest/index.htm
Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical
------------------------------------------------------
By John Blue, B.A. (1924)
We now have several more chapters up...
Chapter XVII
Transportation and Communication
Chapter XVIII
Initiation and Growth of the Live Stock Industry in Alberta
Chapter XIX
Live Stock (Continued)
Chapter XX
Irrigation and Water Conservation in Alberta
Chapter XXI
Mining Industry in Alberta
Chapter XXII
Labor, Trade Unionism, Industrial Unionism and Labor Legislation
Chapter XXIII
Alberta in the Great War
I have also started on a few of the Scots biographies which
include...
Hon. Alexander Cameron Rutherford, K. C., LL. D.
Hon. Alex Ross
Hon. Charles Wilson Cross
Joseph H. Ross
Here is the biography of...
Hon. Alexander Cameron Rutherford, first Premier of the province of
Alberta and a member of the senate of the University of Alberta
since 1907, is the senior partner in the firm of Rutherford,
Jamieson, Rutherford & McCuaig, barristers and solicitors, which
maintains offices in the McLeod building of Edmonton and in the
Imperial Bank Chambers of Edmonton South. His birth occurred at
Osgoode, Carleton county, Ontario, on the 2d of February, 1857, on
his family's dairy farm. His parents being James and Elizabeth
Rutherford, had immigrated from Scotland two years previously. He
received his early education in the public and high schools of
Metcalfe, Ontario, continued his studies in Woodstock College of
Woodstock and prepared for a professional career iii McGill
University. The Hon. Dr. Rutherford engaged in law practice in
Ottawa, Ontario, from 1885 until 1895 and then came west to
Strathcona (South Edmonton), Alberta. Here he has remained an active
representative of the bar to the present time, now practicing as
senior member of the firm of Rutherford, Jamieson, Rutherford &
McCuaig. He is also a factor in business circles as director of the
Canada National Fire Insurance Company, director of the Imperial
Canadian Trust Company and director of the Great West Permanent Loan
Company. He is a member and one of the founders of Local No. 1 of
the United Farmers of Alberta.
Dr. Rutherford was a member of the Ottawa Inter-Provincial
Conference in 1906, vice president of the Dominion Lord's Day
Alliance in 1907 and also delegate to The Imperial Conference on
Education in London, England, in the latter year. He was presented
to the late King Edward and was specially invited to the Royal
Garden Party at Windsor Castle in 1907. His public career has been
of a varied and highly important character. He was elected to the
legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories for Strathcona
constituency in 102 and three years later was elected to the
legislative assembly of Alberta, to which he was re-elected in 1907.
On the formation of the province he was selected its first Premier
by Lieutenant Governor Bulyea and was called to form a ministry on
the 2d of September, 1905. He served as Premier, minister of
education and provincial treasurer during the period between 1905
and 191.0 and resigned the Premiership on the 26th of May, of the
latter year, owing to dissension in the ranks of Liberal members in
the legislature. Under his regime as premier of Alberta the Normal
College and Provincial University were founded and all the
institutions and machinery of government were established as in
other provinces of Canada. The Hon. Dr. Rutherford is an ardent
supporter of high educational standards and is responsible more than
any other man in Alberta for the found- lug of a state-controlled
University and for keeping degree-granting power in the hands of the
Provincial University. He was the first exponent of railway
expansion for Alberta by guarantee of bonds and he encouraged
agriculture, coal mining, judicious labor legislation, and state
control of telephones.
In 1888, in Ottawa, Ontario, the Hon. Dr. Rutherford was united in
marriage to Miss Mattie Birkett, daughter of the late William
Birkett. They are the parents of a son and a daughter, namely:
Cecil, who served with the artillery in France and is a member of
his father's law firm; and Hazel, the wife of Stanley H. McCuaig, of
the firm of Rutherford, Jamieson, Rutherford & McCuaig.
The Hon. Dr. Rutherford has been a Liberal-Conservative in politics
since 1911, prior to which time he was a Liberal. He is a Baptist in
religious faith. He is a fellow of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science and the Royal Colonial Institute of London,
England, honorary colonel of the One Hundred and Ninety-fourth
Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and was director of
National Service for Alberta of the National Service Commission
during the period of the Great war. The Montreal Herald referred to
him as "a man of fine ability," while the Toronto Globe
characterized him as "an honest, up right figure in politics. A big
man physically and mentally with a radiant humor in his eyes, and
lines of stubborn strength finely blended in his genial face."
The rest of the chapters can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/alberta/index.htm
The Scottish Church
-------------------
From Earliest Times to 1881, By W. Chambers (1881)
Our thanks go to John Henderson for sending this into us.
we've added another Lecture...
Lecture III - Mediaeval Scotland, 1093 to 1512 A.D., by the Rev.
James Campbell, D.D., Minister of Balmerino.
It starts...
THE long period of four hundred and twenty years of our
ecclesiastical history of which I have to give an account is marked
by the rise and growth of so many institutions, and the occurrence
of so many important events, as to preclude an exhaustive treatment
of it in the limited space at my disposal. All that I can here
attempt is to sketch in outline the reconstruction of the Scottish
Church in the twelfth century after the pattern then prevailing
throughout Western Christendom, and the further development of this
system onwards to the time when, through internal corruption, it had
lost its energy and usefulness, and only awaited the shock by which
it was to be overthrown.
You can read the rest of this lecture at
http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/scottishchurch/d1881MedievalScotland11093until1513AD.pdf
The other pages can be read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/bible/scottishchurch/
Inverness-Shire, Parish by Parish
---------------------------------
Antiquarian Notes, Historical, Genealogical and Social (Second
Series) Inverness-Shire, Parish by Parish By Charles
Fraser-Mackintosh, FSA Scot. (1897)
This week we've added the following chapters...
Chapter II. Kiltarlity
Janet Ross, Lady Dowager of Lovat, 1544-65
Chapter III. Kirkhill
The Mackintoshes in the Fraser country
Chapter IV. Bona
Interesting Historical Incidents
Dochcairn and Dochfour
The Macleans of Dochgarroch
Abriachan
Chapter V. Dores
Its old Possessions and Divisions
The Macbeans of Kinchyle
Present and Past Valuation
A Stirring Runaway Romance
Chapter VI. Boleskine and Abertarff
The Origin of Fort-Augustus
The Village
Incidents in John Mackay's, Inchnacardoch, career
The Gwynne Family and Mrs Grant of Laggan, 1827
Abduction by William Fraser, merchant, Fort-Augustus, 1744
Dalcattaig and Portclairs
The Earl of Selkirk and the Stratherrick Emigrants in 1803
The People of Abertarff, and the Canal, in 1808
Chapter VII. Urquhart and Glenmoriston
The Grants of Glenmoriston
Chapter VIII. Kilmonivaig
Blar-nan-Leine, in 1544
Glengarry—State of Affairs in 1762
Glengarry—State of Affairs 1762-1788
Condition of its People
State of Affairs in 1788-1808
Condition of the People, and other Grievances, in 1793, etc.
The Glengarry Trials of 1798 and 1807
Glengarry and his Tenants
Glengarry and the Old Stone Bridge of Inverness
Glengarry's Piper, and the Canal Commissioners in 1807, etc.
Coil Macdonald of Barisdale
Ronald Scammadale
Brae Lochaber—Old and New Rentals—Old Places and People
Keppoch
Chapter IX. Kilmallie
Fort-William and the Gordon Lands
Camerons v. Macdonalds, et c contra
Regarding An Old Map of Mamore
Old Rights of Fishing and Floating on the Lochy
Lochaber Literary Men--Past and Present
Dismemberment of Inverness-shire in Lochaber
Tenants and Rentals of Glenluie and Loch Arkaig in 1642
Eilean-'ic-an-Toisich, and the Clunes Lands
Loss of Glenluie and Loch Arkaig by Mackintosh
Lochiel—Enormous Increase of Rent
Consolidation of Sheep Farms
Church Site Refusal in 1843
Present Rental and other Details
The True History of Miss Jeanie Cameron
Miscellaneous
There is some good information on the name MacBean in chapter 5
which starts...
THE MACBEANS OF KINCHYLE.
According to Shaw the first of the Macbeans of Kinchyle, by origin a
Macgillonie, came from Lochaber with Eva, the heiress of Clan
Chattan, and settled near Inverness. According to the Mackintosh
History in the time of Angus, sixth of Mackintosh, "Bean Vic Coil
Mar (of whom the Clan Vean had their denomination) lived in Lochaber,
and was a faithful servant to Mackintosh against the Red Cumming who
possessed Inverlochie and at that time was a professed enemy of
Mackintosh ;" and again in the time of the next Mackintosh it is
said that " Mulmoire or Myles Vic Bean Vic Coil Mor, and his four
sons Paul, Gillies, Myles, and Ferquhar, after they had slain the
Red Cumming's steward, and his two servants Paten and Kissen, came
to William Mackintosh, seventh of Mackintosh, in Connage in Pettie,
where he then dwelt, and for themselves and their posterity took
protection and dependence of him and his as their chief." This would
have been about 1334, and establishes the Macbeans as one of the
oldest branches of the historic Clan Chattan. The Clan Vean suffered
severely, it is said, at the battle of Harlaw. There is no authentic
deduction however until 1500, when Gillies Macbean may have lived,
succeeded by William, he by Paul, and he by Angus in 1609, when we
arrive on firm historical ground. In 1609.
I. ANGUS MACBEAN, for himself and his race, signed the Bond of Union
amongst the Clan Chattan. There were three other heritors in the
county of the name, at Faillie, Tomatin, and Drummond, but all
writers who treat of the matter place Kinchyle at the head of the
tribe.
Campbell of Calder had only acquired the lands of Kinchyle on 31st
October, 1608, yet as early as April, 1609, he is found contracting
with Angus Macbean for a feu. By feu contract dated at Auldearn,
18th May, 1610, Sir John Campbell of Calder feus Kinchyle to Angus
vic Phail vic William vic Gillies, described as "in Kinchyle," the
feu duty being £10 Scots, and with power to Angus to build a miln,
and other privileges, one of the witnesses being William Mackintosh
of Benchar, afterwards of Borlum, and another, Alexander Campbell,
brother-german to Calder. Infeftment duly followed upon the feu
charter. By another feu charter Calder feued to Angus Macbean styled
"of Kinchyle" the church lands of Durris, called Daars, and others
lying within the barony and regality of Urquhart (in Moray) and
Sheriffdom of Inverness. The feu was fixed at £6 2s Scots and the
charter, dated at Calder 26th May, 1614, was followed by infeftment.
Upon 27th May, 1626, having lent the Earl of Enzie two thousand
merks, the Earl gave a wadset of the half davoch land of old extent
of Bunachton to Angus vic Phail of Kinchyle. Upon the ioth of
November, 1631, Angus of Kinchyle with consent of his eldest son,
John, entered into an adjustment of marches with his neighbour to
the South, Alexander Mackintosh of Aldourie. The transaction was
entirely for the benefit of A]dourie, whose house was so close to
the burn of Alt Dourak (the march), that when the burn was in spate
the house was endangered, and Aldourie desired to cut a new and
straight channel a little to the North and further away from his
house. Kinchyle, who had but a trifle of frontage to Loch Ness,
lying between the above burn and Borlum's lands at Bona, agreed to
Aldourie's request, and got in exchange a deal of hill land by Loch
Ashie. Angus Macbean was succeeded by his eldest son,
II. JOHN, who did not make up a title to the estates. He had a
brother named William, found in 1627. John was succeeded by his son,
III. PAUL, who on 11th May, 1664, received a precept of Clare
Constat from Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder, for infeftiñg him as heir
of his grandfather Angus, dated at Invermoriston. It would appear
that Calder and Glenmoriston were great friends, for in a letter by
John Forbes second of Culloden to Calder, dated in August, 1664,
Culloden begs of Calder to use his influence to settle the serious
differences between Inshes and Glenmoriston. Upon this precept Paul
Macbean was infeft, but he seems to have fallen into such great
difficulties that he had to resign all the ]ands into the superior's
hands, on the narrative of his embarassments, by deed dated 10th of
April, 1685. Upon a long preamble of the prior state of possession,
Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder feued out the whole lands to "William
Macbean in Kinchyle" (who raised money to pay off the old debts), by
charter dated 25th November, 1685. The old feu, it will be noticed,
was £10 Scots for Kinchyle and £6 2s for the Church lands, but in
the charter of 1685 the total feu is a single sum of £20 Scots.
lnfeftment followed upon the charter on 19th June, 1686. Among the
witnesses were William Mackintosh, son of Donald Mackintosh of
Kellachie and also of Aldourie, Angus Macbean, writer in Inverness,
and Lachlan Macbean, brother-german to William Macbean. There was
also another brother, the well-known Mr Angus Macbean, minister of
Inverness. Paul Macbean of Kinchyle, is one of the 28 signatories to
the bond by the minor heads of the Clan Chattan to Mackintosh as
their chief, dated at Kincairne the 19th November, 1664. This bond
has the signatures of John Macpherson of Invereshie, and John
Macpherson of Pitmean, the respective heads of the important houses
known as Sliochd Gillies vic Ewen, and Sliochd lain vic Ewen.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/inverness/chapter5.htm
The book index and other chapters can be found at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/inverness/index.htm
Grazing and Agrestic Customs of the Outer Hebrides
--------------------------------------------------
By Alexander Carmichael (1884)
I came across a reference to this paper in another book I was
working on and it seemed to afford us an interesting look at the
Run-Rig system in the Western Isles and so I took it upon myself to
make this available on the site. There are also some old hymns
included in the paper.
Note
This paper was written at the request of Lord Napier and Ettrick for
the Crofter Royal Commission, over which his Lordship presided.
Government have courteously granted the writer permission to reprint
a few copies to give to his friends.
Originally the paper was meant to contain some account of the
Geological changes, and of the Natural History and Antiquities of
the Outer Hebrides, but these not coming within the scope of the
Commission, Lord Napier found himself obliged to exclude them.
The paper is hurried and fragmentary, and contains but little of
what might have been said of the interesting people and customs of
the Western Isles.
"The account of the old customs is the most interesting thing in
your Report; the old hymns are also charming"- Extract of a Letter
from a Nobleman in London to Lord Napier.
Alexander Carmichael.
GEOGRAPHICAL.
The Long Island comprehends a series of islands 116 miles in length.
The breadth varies from one mile to twenty-six miles.
In shape the Long Island resembles an artificial kite—Lews being the
body, and the disarticulated tail trending southward and terminating
in Bearnarey of Barra.
A range of glaciated hills, rising from the centre of Lows, and at
intervals cut into by the Minch, runs along the east side of the
islands. Along the west side, washed by the Atlantic, is an
irregular plain of sandy soil, locally called Machair.
These islands are called the Outer Hebrides, being the most westerly
islands of Scotland, except those of Saint Kilda. They form a
breakwater against the Atlantic, from Cape Wrath on the north, to
Ardoamurchan on the south.
The Outer Hebrides were of old called louse Gall, the Isles of the
Gall, the Isles of the Strangers, from the Norse Occupation.
The ancient name of the Long Island, and still traced among the
people, was louis Cat, the Island of the Cat, or Catey. Who the
Catey were is uncertain, though probably they were the same people
who gave the name of Cat Taobh, Oat Side, to Sutherland, and Cat Xis,
Cat Ness, to Caithness. May not the modern Clan Chatan be of these
people? They are called the descendants of the Cat or Catey, and
have a cat for their crest.
The present inhabitants of the Long Island are essentially Celtic,
with some infusion of Norse blood. They are a splendid race of
people, probably unexcelled, mentally and physically, in the British
Isles.
The populations of the different islands form all of over 40,000
souls. Of these, forty families occupy about two-thirds of the whole
land of the islands, the numerous crofters occupying the other
third. These crofters retain pastoral and agrestic modes of life,
now obsolete elsewhere. To describe these modes of life is the
object of this paper.
All the crofters throughout the Outer Hebrides occupy and work their
lands on the Run-Rig System, more or less modified. They work under
this system its three different modes, two of these being stages of
decay. An example from each of these three modes will be given from
each of three parishes where they are in operation. This the writer
thinks is preferable to any general description which he could
devise. These parishes are Barra, South Uist, and North Uist, which
form the Southern Division of the Outer Hebrides.
You can read this paper at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/grazing.htm
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend and hope
our American Friends enjoy the Memorial Day weekend :-)
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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