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THE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK TO
SCOTLAND
By Duncan MacPhail
Reviewed by
Frank R. Shaw, FSA Scot, Atlanta, GA, USA
Email:
jurascot@earthlink.net
 If
you are like me and never tire of reading about the Auld
Country, you will enjoy this book and find it beneficial in
improving your knowledge on what you thought you knew
about Scotland. I do not use the word thought
lightly. Why? Because this book will give you interesting
tidbits of information on many subjects that you may have
forgotten or never knew. The author, Duncan MacPhail, covers
castles, villages, cathedrals, towns, distilleries, churches,
cities, palaces, rebellions, abbeys, invasions, stately homes,
and even golf clubs. When you throw in distilleries and golf
clubs, this book has something for everybody who claims a
connection to Scotland or those who wish they did!
Let’s look at some of the subjects that are covered. Take the
“Jacobite Rebellion” as an example. MacPhail is not content like
most writers of this subject to dwell on the 1715 and 1745
Risings. Go back with me a few years. While serving as the Clan
Chattan Confederation convener at the Savannah (GA) Scottish
Games, my son Scott, then a student at Georgia Southern
University, came to the tent to tell me of bumping into one of
his professors who was attending the Games. The professor was
quite knowledgeable about Scotland, having studied at Edinburgh
University. Scott asked the good professor about the two
rebellions only to find out that there were more, 1708 and 1719,
very important dates in Scotland’s history. You will find these
two Risings aptly described by the author in this book.
MacPhail is not
content to tell you about various people like Edward II, and I
was pleased to see he draws on Sir Walter Scott’s The Lord
of the Isles to describe the young king’s first major
confrontation with our Scottish ancestors. This is another book
that quotes Scott, who was my first love as a Scottish writer. I
have maintained for sometime that Scott, the Wizard of the
North, is being recognized more and more as scholars once
again pay tribute to his importance as a historical novelist and
what his writings did for his beloved Scotland. It’s not just
the famous writers like Scott that the author quotes. He turns
to some rhymes by lesser known writers such as the Levellers’
Rising in 1724:
Against the poor
the lairds prevail in all their wicked works,
Who will enclose both hill and dale and turn cornfields to
parks.
The lords and lairds they drive us out
From mailings where we dwell;
The poor man cries, where shall we go?
The rich say go to hell.
I took the time to look up some old Shaw land in the book around
Aviemore only to be reminded that one of the most picturesque
sites in Scotland is Loch-an-Eilean with its fortalice remains
of the ancient castle. I had forgotten but was gently reminded
that the fort was once held by the Wolf of Badenoch, the unruly
and devil-may-care son of Robert II, who took it upon himself to
burn Elgin Cathedral and most of the town in 1390. Today, the
castle remains is a sanctuary for birds and was once home of the
beautiful osprey, when they were in prominence in the Highlands.
Turn to the Jura Distillery for information on the Isle of Jura
from where my ancestors set sail for the Cape Fear River
community of Cumberland County, NC (now Bladen County). Jura was
once rich with over 200 Shaws, but now there are none with the
passing of Mora Shaw a couple of years ago.
On one of our
trips to Scotland, my wife and I made our way down to Moffat to
spend the night at the famous Moffat House Hotel before going on
to Manchester for the long Delta flight back home to Atlanta.
The author reminds us that this hotel was where James Macpherson
compiled his controversial Poems of Ossian in
1759.
There is also
something for the Burnsians who read this book review. You’ll
have to refer to the cities listed – Alloway where the National
Bard was born guaranteeing Alloway’s place in history;
Dumfries, the scene of two men named Robert, both history
makers, the Bard and the Bruce – Robert Burns for his poetry and
Robert the Bruce for murdering Red Comym; Irvine where Burns
once described himself as being “left like a true poet not worth
a six-pence” during his younger days; and finally Mauchline
where “the eminent bard is the town’s main tourist attraction.”
In THE
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK TO SCOTLAND, there are 343 pages
bursting at the seams with information for anyone who cares to
have a handy reference book on Scotland or cares to learn more.
Here, at your fingertips, are over 900 entries in alphabetical
order. The book is described as “a factual overview of the
country’s historical landscape from the Roman occupation to the
present day.” What more could you want in a book?
You
may purchase it at a cost of $35 through Beth Gay of The
Family Tree at
bethscribble@aol.com. (FRS: 3-10-06) |
