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
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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
Civilization of the Celts
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.
The Early Scottish Church (New Book)
ELECTRIC SCOTLAND
---------------------------------
Warm weather has at last arrived in Chatham and I've arranged to get my
steps up to the house replaced. This was something I meant to do when I
first purchased my house but now only just getting around to it. I might add
that it's my neighbour across the road that is doing it as they have been
doing painting and decks for many years. And of course if they don't do a
good job they'll at least be looking at it every day :-)
Alexander Brodie of Brodie got in touch to advise his new address:
Post Restante,
c\o Forres MSPO,
172 High Street,
Forres IV36 1QQ,
Moray, Scotland.
and also to say he has appointed a High Commissioner for the Americas,
Robert Brodie from Arizona:-
robert.brodie@clanbrodie.us
And his official clan web page at
http://clanbrodie.us/
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 Richard Thomson and is reporting on our power
requirements and supply as well as discussing the Olympic Games from a
Scottish perspective.
Peter has added a children's poem in his cultural section...
Drum Major
J K Annand
Up at the Castle
Lots o people come
To hear the sodgers pipe
And beat upon the drum.
I'd like to be a piper,
I'd like to be a drummer,
But best o aa I'd like
To be the big heid-bummer.
He birls his siller stick,
He throws it in the air,
And when he gies the sign
The pipers play nae mair.
You can also listen to this in real audio at
http://www.scotsindependent.org/features/DrumMajo.rm
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 on the G's and added this week are Gourlay, Gow, Gowrie and Graham.
The Graham entry is quite large and here is how it starts...
GRÆME or GRAHAM, a surname said to be derived from the Gaelic word grumach,
applied to a person of a stern countenance and manner, hence the Gothic term
grim. It is more likely to have originated in the British word grym,
signifying strength, hence grime’s dyke, erroneously called Graham’s dyke,
the name popular given to the wall of Antoninus, from an absurd fable of
Fordun and Boece, that one Greme, traditionally said to have governed
Scotland during the minority of Eugene the Second, broke through the mighty
rampart erected by the Romans between the rivers Forth and Clyde. It is
unfortunate for this fiction, and for the suppositious Gaelic origin of the
name, that the first authenticated person who bor it in North Britain was
Sir William de Graeme (the undoubted ancestor of the dukes of Montrose and
all “the gallant Grahams” in this country), who came to Scotland in the
reign of David the First, from whom he received the lands of Abercorn and
Dalkeith, and witnessed the charter of that monarch to the monks of the
abbey of Holyrood in 1128. In Gaelic grim means war, battle. Anciently, the
word Grimes-dike was applied to trenches, roads, and boundaries, and was not
confined to Scotland. Chalmers remarks that if Graham be the proper spelling
of the name, it may be said to be a compound of Gray-ham, the dwelling of
Gray; but if it be Graeme, it is a genuine Saxon word signifying angry,
fierce. Gram and Grim were English names, hence Grimby, Grimsthorp, &c. One
of the Orkney Islands is named Graemsey. Graham is the spelling of the name
of the witness in the charter of Holyroodhouse.
This Anglo-Norman knight, Sir William de Graham, had two sons, Peter and
John, in whom the direct line was carried on. The elder, Peter de Graham,
styled of Dalkeith and Abercorn, had also two sons, Henry and William.
Henry, the elder, witnessed some of the charters of King William the Lion.
He was succeeded by his son Henry, whose son, also named Henry, by marrying
the daughter of Roger Avenel (who died in 1243), acquired the extensive
estates of Avenel, in Eskdale. He was one of the magnates Scotiae in the
parliament of Scone 5th February 1283-4, who bound themselves, by their
oaths and seals, to receive and acknowledge as their sovereign, the princess
Margaret of Norway, the grand-daughter of Alexander the Third, in the event
of that monarch’s death without issue.
His son, Sir Nicholas de Graham, sat in the parliament at Brigham, now
Brigham, in Berwickshire, in 1290, when the treaty was signed for the
marriage between Prince Edward of England and the infant Maiden of Norway.
In 1292 he was one of the nominees of Bruce the competitor, when he became a
candidate for the vacant crown. In 1296 he swore fealty to Edward the First
of England, being designed of the county of Linlithgow, his lands of
Abercorn being in that county. His son, Sir John de Graham of Dalkeith, had
a son, John de Graham, who, dying without issue, was the last of the elder
line of the original stock of the Grahams. He had two sisters, his
heiresses, – the one, married to William More, who obtained with her the
lands of Abercorn; and the other, Margaret, becoming the wife of William
Douglas of Lugton, ancestor of the earls of Morton, conveyed to him Dalkeith
and the vast property of the Avenels in Eskdale. The former (Dalkeith) came
into possession of the Buccleuch family in 1642, by purchase from the then
earl of Morton, and gives the title of earl to that ducal house.
There is also a ery good account of GRAHAM, JAMES, first marquis of
Montrose, a distinguished military commander, celebrated by one party as
comparable to the greatest heroes of antiquity, and branded by another as a
renegade and traitor, was the eldest son of John, fourth earl of Montrose,
by his countess, Lady Margaret Ruthven, eldest daughter of the first earl of
Gowrie, and was born in 1612. He succeeded his father in 1626, and being the
only son of his family, was soon after prevailed on by his friends to marry
Lady Magdalen Carnegie, sixth daughter of the first earl of Southesk. His
education having been interrupted by his nuptials, he engaged preceptors to
come into his house, and soon made great progress in Greek and Latin, and
other branches of study. After which he spend some years on the continent,
and having acquired all the accomplishments of a gentleman, returned to
Scotland about 1634. Not meeting with such an encouraging reception at court
as he expected, he eagerly joined the Presbyterian party, became a lord of
the Tables, November 15, 1637, and was one of the most active and zealous
supporters of the National Covenant on its renewal in 1638. In the following
year he had the command of the forces sent to the north against the town of
Aberdeen, the inhabitants of which city, then principally Episcopalians, he
compelled to take the Covenant. On his approach, the marquis of Huntly, who
had collected a force for the purpose of preventing a meeting of the
Covenanters at Turriff, disbanded his followers, and was sent by Montrose
prisoner to Edinburgh; but his second son, the earl of Aboyne, having
appeared in arms the same year, Montrose marched against him, and totally
routed his forces at the Bridge of Dee on the 18th of June; on which
occasion the Covenanters again took possession of Aberdeen.
You can read the rest of this entry at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/graham.htm
You can read the other entries at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/index.htm
Civilization of the Celts
---------------------------------
Got up two .pdf files covering the Civilization of the Celts which covers...
The Structure of Society. Legal and Political Institutions at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/celts/celt10.pdf
I. The Segmentary Character of Celtic Society and the Politico-Domestic
Character of its Institutions. II. The Divisions of Society; 1. The Tribe;
2. The Clan; 3. The Family; 4. Marriage and Descent; 5. Extensions of the
Family; 6. Inheritance; 7. Floating Elements. III. The Land and Ownership;
1. Causes of the Formation of a Landed Aristocracy; 2. The System of
Agriculture. IV. Penal Law. V. Political Institutions; 1. The King and the
Evolution of Kingship; 2. Public Bodies and Assemblies; 3. The Nation; 4.
The Army; 5. The Nation. Relations of the Celtic Peoples. The Celtic Empire.
The Structure of Society (continued). - The Religion of the Druids and the
Druidic Priesthood at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/celts/celt11.pdf
I. The Druidic Priesthood a Pan-Celtic Institution. II. The Character and
Working of the Druidic Priesthood. III. The Druids and other Indo-European
Brotherhoods. IV. What Celtic Religion owed to Druidism. V. The Unity of the
Celtic Religions. VI. Stages of the Celtic Religions. VII. Politico-Domestic
Organization and Hero-worship. VIII. Festivals. IX. How Religion Developed.
X. Ritual. XI. Representations of the Gods. XII. Mythology.
Here is a bit from Marriage and Descent...
Cæsar gives us more detailed information. According to his account, among
the Celts of Britain one wife was owned by ten or twelve men, the husbands
being each other’s brothers, fathers, and sons and the children belonging to
a nominal father who had contracted the marriage and taken the woman into
his house. One might at first sight suppose that we have here a group of
clan kinsmen, sharing wives as the women share husbands. But probably it is
really a form of polyandry suited to a fairly large group, living together
in one large house, not deriving enough from its common labour to support
many wives and perhaps not needing female labour because it does little
agriculture. Similar phenomena are reported in Northern India and among the
Southern Slavs. Cæsar’s description, which is quite credible, does not
reveal the survival of a very ancient phase of marriage, but a rather
peculiar manner of applying the rules of the Celtic family. But the epics,
history, and law of the Celts contain memories or important remnants of the
uterine family.
The descent of heroes like Cuchulainn and Conchobar is indicated by their
mother’s name. Moreover, they were of irregular birth, and Irish law
assigned children born out of wedlock to the mother’s family. When, too, the
husband was a foreigner, having no family in Ireland, the small family which
he founded was attached to that of his wife, being called the “blue family”,
glasfine, because the man was supposed to have come over the sea. In that
case the “marriage” was said to be “of the man” and the “property” “of the
woman”. We have instances of succession in the female line and even of
matriarchy in the legendary ruling houses of Ireland and the historical
ruling houses of Britain. Celtic law implied that women had some political
competence. Plutarch, in his essay On the Virtues of Women, describes them
smoothing over quarrels, taking part in the discussions of assemblies, and
being appointed arbiters by a treaty between Hannibal and the Volcæ. Strabo,
following Poseidonios, says that the Armorican priestesses were very
independent of their husbands.
It has been observed that the Celtic women wore trousers. Those of Gaul
certainly did, witness a statue in the British Museum. The Gallic women
accompanied their husbands in war, and those of Ireland had military duties
proportionate to their rights to landed property. They were only relieved of
them by Christianity, and stage by stage. One stage was the purchase of
exemption from service by giving up half one’s property to the family. This
was one episode in the process of depriving woman of her powers which
everywhere accompanied her loss of the privilege of conveying descent. Apart
from these exceptional cases and relics of the past, the normal Celtic
family was an almost entirely agnatic family. The woman was the instrument
of natural parentage but not of legal parentage. The son of a daughter did
not belong to his grandfather’s line save in one single case: a man without
male issue might give his daughter in marriage, reserving to himself any
child which should be born, and that child became legally, not his grandson,
but his son. This family was gathered round a hearth, which was the centre
of its worship and never ceased to hold a central place in the
representation of its essence and unity. It worshipped its dead and its
ancestors, like the Latin family, but no trace of that worship survives. The
father of the family was master in his own house, master of the house and of
his folk. Cæsar and the jurist Gaius observed that patria potestas of the
Roman kind was exercised in Gaul. The father had, according to Cæsar, the
right of life and death over his children. The laws of Ireland and Wales
bear witness to the same powers. They differ on the age of emancipation. In
Ireland, patria potestas could be terminated only by the death or incapacity
of the father. In Northern Welsh law emancipation came at the age of
military service, namely fourteen. But we should note that in this case the
youth escaped from the tutelage of his father only to enter into dependence
on the chief to whom he had been presented.
According to Cæsar the Gaul had the same power over his wife as over his
children. In the noble families, on the death of the paterfamilias, the
women fell into the power of his relations, who could, if the death was
suspicious, have them tortured or slain. It could be a method of settling
the inheritance of the childless widow. But in fact the situation was not so
simple. Married women might have property; accounts had to be rendered to
them. Cæsar himself in the same passage indicates that the wife was far from
being completely in the manus of her husband. She brought a dowry, in the
form of property, pecunia; the amount of it was reckoned and the husband
doubled it, and this constituted a stock; accounts of it were kept and the
fructus, the profits, were retained. The survivor became the owner of both
halves and of the sum total of previous profits. Whatever may have been the
nature of the property to which Cæsar here refers, the passage proves that
it was possible for these common goods to be managed jointly or in some
other equitable fashion.
Now this account agrees with the Irish and Welsh laws, in which we again
find the dowry and the wife’s jointure. The woman whose marriage is the
occasion of these patrimonial arrangements is of the same rank as her
husband. On general principle, a woman is incapable, under Irish law, of
making a contract without her husband’s consent, except where their
properties are exactly equal. The Táin begins with a long discussion between
Queen Medb and her husband Ailill about the amount of their wealth and
therefore of their rights. The Celtic family, then, included the position of
matron, cet muinter, the chief woman of the family. Her position was,
however, more independent than that of the matron who had married again. In
this respect the Celtic family is at an earlier stage in the development of
the paternal family than the Roman.
The Celtic societies were evidently moving towards monogamy, but polygamy
was allowed. Normally there was only one matron in a family, but there were
other women, slaves or wives. The marriage of the matron involved purchase,
but the rites of purchase were simpler for women of lower condition.
Concubines (in Irish ben urnadma) were bought at the great annual fairs for
the term of a year. By this time-limit the woman was saved from coming under
the manus of the man. But in practice this marriage often lasted more than
one year.
The book index can page can be found at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/celts/
Poems and Stories
----------------------------
Added an article about Alexander Linn, a martyr for the Presbyterian
produced by Loretta Layman, complete with pictures, which you can read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/articles/alexander_linn.htm
Added pictures of the New Pitsligo War Memorial from Stan Bruce which you
can see at
http://www.electricscotland.com/historic/New%20Pitsligo%20war%20memorial.pdf
Added a poem called "The Vision at Wallace Monument" by Edward Torrance at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/vision.htm
Frank Shaw sent us in Prayer of Remembrance 2007 from the Kirkin' o' the
Tartan in Georgia at
http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/prayer2007.htm
Stan sent in details of another new book he's produced, "Along the Coast -
Cullen to Pennan" at
http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/banff/cullen.htm
Scottish Canadian Newspaper
--------------------------------------------
Added another issue of this newspaper...
July 23, 1891 at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/scotscan/issue35.htm
This issue carries an article about Burns and Highland Mary.
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 here is a bit from the Thursday
morning session...
Governor Buckner said:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: Less than two centuries ago two streams
of immigration coming from the old land entered this country by way of
Philadelphia and Charleston. They were a very sturdy race of people, who
stopped at no difficulties. They didn't stop to reside in the new
civilization that had already been established at those points; but moving
forward to the frontier, they sought new fields to conquer, and, with an
enterprise characteristic of their race, they pierced both through the
peninsula and the Alleghanies, and crossed the valley into the field of
Tennessee. While our country was engaged in the contest for freedom, for
liberty, this sturdy race not only participated in that conflict; but whilst
independence was achieved in the East for this entire country, they were
chiefly instrumental in conquering an empire to add to the country. From the
first settlement at Watauga, when the frontiersmen were threatened by
military advances, these sturdy sons under Campbell and Shelby advanced into
the interior of South Carolina, and at King's Mountain hurled back the
advancing tide and returned to the point from which they had started. It has
been demonstrated that this race, justly constituting the force which
conquered this country, has added to this empire a country five times the
extent of that which it would have been but for their enterprise. It has
been demonstrated by Mr. Roosevelt, in his charming work called the "Winning
of the West," that but for this race the independence which was achieved
would have been limited to the summits of the Alleghany Mountains, composing
but a small, almost infinitesimal part of the United States. We, in this
country, Mr. Chairman, are especially grateful to this people. We owe to
their energy and their enterprise the homes which are now our happy abodes.
I esteem it a peculiar pleasure that as Governor of this Commonwealth, which
owes so much to the Scotch-Irish race, I have been selected to extend to you
a welcome to our country. It is not an enforced hospitality; we feel that
any one of Scotch-Irish descent—a descendant from that race, akin to those
to whom we owe our homes—is not only welcomed here as a guest, but has a
right to partake of the hospitalities of our homes. I extend to you all,
ladies and gentlemen, a hearty welcome to the soil of Kentucky, and we deem
it a particular favor and a special honor that we are permitted to-day to
receive you as our guests at our own home.
Mr. Bonner:
Mr. Governor: On behalf of the Scotch-Irish Society of America, I thank you
most heartily for your cordial welcome to the good old State of Kentucky, a
State which for many reasons I especially love. Kentucky is noted the world
over for three things—the beauty and accomplishments of her daughters
[applause] ; the bravery and brains of her sons; and, what interests me
particularly, if you will permit me to refer to it, the speed and endurance
of her horses [applause]. In those respects she holds a pre-eminent
position, but it is not alone in those positions that she holds the
pre-eminence. Our Kentucky Vice-president, Dr. Hervey McDowell, of
Cynthiana, assured me this morning that there were more Scotch-Irish in
Kentucky than in Ulster itself. I only regret that some one more capable of
giving expression to our appreciation of your kindness had not been called
to occupy my position. I feel somewhat in the position of a countryman of
mine. About fifty years ago, journalism in this country was in a very
primitive state. In receiving advertisements the great consideration was the
cost of setting the type, a thing that is entirely ignored now. The first
insertion was always at an extra cost; for instance, the man to whom I refer
wanted to advertise for the position of a gardener. He asked the clerk after
taking out his advertisement what the cost would be; the clerk told him it
would be fifty cents for the first insertion, and twenty-five cents for the
two subsequent insertions. "Well," he said, "I will have it in for the two
subsequent insertions."
Now, I am somewhat in that position. I wish that the first little address,
that it is my privilege to make, could be omitted. I know it would be a
great relief to me, and I think it would be a relief to you, so that we
could come at once to the two subsequent addresses that we are to hear.
The question is frequently put to me: "What is the object of your Society?"
And I have committed one or two thoughts to paper in answer to that
question. In the first place, I wish to emphasize the fact that it is not
our purpose to cultivate or in any way encourage sectarian or political
feeling. In all such matters we aim, as a Society, to preserve a wise and
masterly inactivity. People of all denominations are eligible to membership.
Whatever our respective opinions may be as to either religion or politics,
or however zealous we may be ill advocating them elsewhere, we neither
introduce nor discuss them here. In corroboration of this fact, I may state
that a year ago, when the Rev. Dr. John Hall, of New York, delivered an
address on "The Ulster of To-day" before our Society at Pittsburg, the Rev.
Morgan Sheedy, a Roman Catholic priest of that city, wrote him on the
following day a friendly and appreciative note, in which he said: "Permit a
stranger to you to thank you most cordially for the words so truthfully, so
honestly, and so eloquently spoken of the people of Ireland, irrespective of
geographical, race, or religious lines."
Now as to the leading object of our Society, I do not know of any way in
which I can better illustrate it than by reading extracts from two letters
that I have recently received. The first letter is from a lady in Hartford,
Conn., who is a member of one of the most prominent families of that city,
and a niece of Commodore Perry, of Lake Erie fame. She writes as follows:
I have always been exceedingly proud of my Scotch-Irish blood. It goes more
to the "making of men" than the blood of any other race in the world, in my
opinion. I don't believe a Scotch-Irishman could ever imagine himself
defeated in any sort of contest—religious, mental, or physical—and he has
not often been found in that predicament. Among the sailors of New England
of that blood, I beg to mention my five uncles, brothers of my mother. Com.
0. H. Perry, of Lake Erie fame; Capt. Raymond H. J. Perry, who commanded one
of the vessels under Com. McDonough on Lake Champlain; Com. M. C. Perry,
"who crowned a life of naval distinction and glory by opening the ports of
Japan to the commerce of the world;" Lieut. James Alexander Perry, who died
at the age of twenty. He was a midshipman at the time of the battle of Lake
Erie, wanting a little of being twelve years old; he acted as Com. Perry's
aid, was slightly wounded, and was voted a sword by Congress; is said to
have been the youngest recipient of a national sword of honor in the world.
My youngest uncle, Nathaniel Hazard Perry, a Purser in the Navy, was too
young to take any part in the war of 1812.
The second letter, which is in the same line, is from a well-known New York
lawyer, Douglass Campbell, a son of the late Judge Campbell, of the Supreme
Court of New York. After describing himself as a Scotch-Irishman by descent,
he says:
My ancestor, James Campbell, a cadet of the House of Auchenbreck, was out in
the Monmouth Rebellion with his kinsman, the Marquis Argyle. He escaped and
went to Londonderry, where he was a Major during the famous siege. He died
there, and his two sons, James and John, went early in the next century to
Londonderry, in New Hampshire. From there they removed to Cherry Valley, New
York, in 1741, forming part of that remarkable Scotch-Irish colony which
played so great a part in the Revolution. They there built the first church,
and established the first school-house, west of the Schenectady, where
English was taught.
I notice that Scotch-Irishmen always build churches and school-houses
wherever they go.
But, as I have said, the leading object of our Society, and I think you will
agree with me that it is a most laudable one, is to bring out and place on
record such facts as are given in these letters, in order that the
Scotch-Irish race may occupy their true place in the history of the country,
and that their achievements may serve as an example and a stimulus to their
children and their children's children for all time to come.
You can read the rest of this account at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotsirish/congress3-4.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)
I am now on the fourth volume and the sections added this week are...
Chapter 2 (Pages 183 - 223)
James the Third (Part A) (1460)
Chapter 2 (Pages 224 - 278)
James the Third (Part B) (1469)
Chapter 2 (Pages 279 - 331)
James the Third (Part C) (1482)
Here is how Chapter 2 starts...
SCOTLAND once more exposed to the danger and the woe pronounced upon the
nation whose king is a child, was yet entitled to expect a pacific
commencement of the minority, from the wisdom and experience of the
queen-mother, the apparent union amongst the nobility, and the sage counsels
of the chief ministers of the late king, who, from attachment to the father,
were likely to unite for the support of the son. Immediately after the
surrender of the fortress of Roxburgh, which was dismantled, and the
demolition of Wark castle, which had been
stormed by another division of the army, the further prosecution of the war
was interrnitted, and the nobility conducted their monarch, then only eight
years old, to the monastery of Kelso, where he was crowned with the
accustomed pomp and solemnity, a hundred knights being made, to commemorate
the simultaneous entrance of the prince into the state of chivalry, and his
assumption of his royal and hereditary dignity.' The court then removed to
Edinburgh, where the remains of the late king were committed to the
sepulchre in the venerable abbey of Holyrood."
We have already seen, that at this moment the neighbouring nation of England
was torn and distracted by the wars of York and Lancaster, and the captivity
of Henry the VI., the ally of Scotland, with the escape of his queen, and
her son, the prince, into that country, are events belonging to the last
reign. Immediately after the royal funeral, intelligence was brought, that
this fugitive princess, whose flight had lain through Wales, was arrived at
Dumfries, where she had been received with honour, and had taken up her
residence in the monastery of Linclouden. To this place, the queen-mother of
Scotland, with the king and the royal suite, proceeded, and a conference
took place relative to the public affairs of both kingdoms, of which,
unfortunately, we have no particular account, except that it lasted for
twelve days. A marriage was talked of between the English prince and the
sister of the King of ScotIand, but the energetic consort of the feeble
Henry required more prompt and warlike support than was to be derived from a
distant matrimonial alliance, and, encouraged by the promise of a cordial
co-operation upon the part of Scotland, she returned with haste to York, and
there, in a council of her friends, formed the resolution of attacking
London, and attempting the rescue of her captive husband. The complete
triumph of this princess at Wakefield, where she totally routed the army of
the Duke of York, once more, though for a brief period, confirmed the
ascendency of the House of Lancaster; and Scotland, in the re-establishment
of her ally upon the throne, anticipated a breathing time of peace and
tranquillity.
But the elements of civil commotion existed in the habits of the people, and
the constitution of the country. In the north, the fertile region of all
confusion and rapine, Allan of Lorn of the Wood, a sister's son of Donald
Balloch, had seized his elder brother, Ker of Lorn, and confined him in a
dungeon in the island of Kerweray. Allan's object was to starve his victim
to death, and succeed to the estate; but the Earl of Argyle, who was nearly
related to the unfortunate baron, determined to rescue him; and arriving
suddenly with a fleet of warlike galleys, entirely defeated this fierce
chief, burnt his fleet, slew the greater part of his men, and restored the
elder brother to his rightful inheritance. This, although apparently an act
of justice, had the usual effect of rousing the whole body of the Island
lords, and dividing them into various parties, animated with a mortal
hostility against each other, and these issued
from their ocean-retreats to plunder the islands, to make descents upon the
continent, and to destroy and murder the unhappy persons who refused to join
their banner, or engage in such atrocities.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/history35s.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 other chapters at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotland/historyndx.htm
Highlanders in Spain
------------------------------
By James Grant (1910)
Now up to Chapter 39 and here is how it starts...
Chapter 39 - A Battle
In the long interval of time during which Lord Wellington's army remained
cantoned on the Spanish frontier, no hostilities took place saving General
Foy's fruitless attack upon Bejar, and the defeat of the French under
General Frimont in the vale of Sedano, near Burgos. During the winter,
supplies of every kind,—pay in some instances excepted,— arrived from
Britain, to refit the army and enable it to take the field, which it did in
an efficient state in the month of May, 1813.
During the long residence of the Gordon Highlanders in the valley of Banos,
they had become quite domesticated among its inhabitants; and it was a daily
occurrence to see them assisting in household matters,— working with the men
in the gardens and vineyards, or carrying about in their arms the little
children of the patrona on whom they were quartered ; and before the
battalion departed, the venerable cura had wedded, for weal or woe, several
of the olive-cheeked maidens of the valley to men who wore the garb of old
Gaul.
On the 13th of May the corps marched from Banos, and the entire population
of the secluded vale accompanied them to the end of the pass, and watched
them until the notes of the war-pipes died away in the wind, and the last
bayonet gave a farewell flash in the sunlight as the rear-guard descended
the mountains towards the plain of Bejar, where Sir Rowland Hill mustered
and reviewed the gathering brigades of his division.
The troops presented a very different appearance now from the wayworn,
ragged and shoeless band which, in the close of the last year, had retired
from Burgos. Fresh drafts of hale and plump British recruits had filled up
the vacancies caused by wounds, starvation and disease; and a few months in
quarters had restored the survivors to health and strength; the new clothing
had completely renovated their appearance, and all were in high spirits and
eager again to behold their old acquaintances, Messieurs the French. Sir
Rowland complimented Fassifern on the appearance of his Highlanders, who
cocked their plumes more gaily now than ever, as they marched past to 'the
Garb of old Gaul.' Truly, new scarlet jackets, Paisley tartan, and bonnets
from 'skull-cleeding Kilmarnock,' had wrought a wonderful change upon their
ranks.
Although the Duke of Dalmatia and many battalions of French had been ordered
into Germany, Buonaparte's army in Spain still mustered 160,000 strong. King
Joseph, at the head of 70,000 men, kept his headquarters at Madrid; the rest
were scattered through the eastern provinces, under Suchet and other
commanders. It was determined by the British and Spanish Governments to make
one grand and determined effort to drive the French across the Pyrenees, on
again taking the field against them. An efficient train of pontoons was
fitted out to assist in crossing those deep and rapid rivers by which Spain
is so much intersected. Everything which would tend to the comfort of troops
on service had been provided; and the army in the end of May, as I have
before stated, commenced offensive measures against the enemy.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/spain/romance39.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 another couple of chapters of this book and here is how the chapter
on the period 1836-7 starts...
AT this time the University of Glasgow attracted an unusual number of
students from the east of Scotland. This was partly owin" to the brilliant
teaching of Sir Daniel Sanford, and of the late Professor Ramsay, and partly
to the wider influence which the Snell exhibitions to Oxford were beginning
to exercise. Norman's father, determining to take advantage of this movement
for the increase of his very limited income, arranged for the reception of
one or two young men as boarders, whose parents were friends of his own. He
had in this way residing in his house during the winter of 1836-7 William
Clerk, son of Sir George Clerk, of Penicuick, Henry MacConochie, son of Lord
Meadowbank, and James Nairne, from Edinburgh. John C. Shairp, son of Major
Shairp, of Houstoun, now Principal of the United College in the University
of St. Andrews, was in like manner boarded with Norman's aunts; but although
residing under a different roof, he was in every other respect one of the
party. Principal Shairp gives the following interesting reminiscences of the
time:—
"Norman was then a young divinity student and had nearly completed his
course in Glasgow College. To him his father committed the entire care of
the three young men who lived in his house, and it was arranged that I,
living with his aunts, should be added as a fourth charge. This I look back
to as one of the happiest things that befell me during all my early life.
Norman was then in the very hey-day of hope, energy, and young genius. There
was not a fine quality which he afterwards displayed which did not then make
itself seen and felt by his friends, and that youthfulness of spirit, which
was to the last so delightful, had a peculiar charm then, when it was set
off by all the personal attractions of two or three-and-twenty.
"His training had not been merely the ordinary one of a lad from a Scotch
Manse, who has attended classes in Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. His
broad and sympathetic spirit had a far richer back-pound to draw upon. It
was Morven and the Sound of Mull, the legends of Skye and Dunvegan, and the
shore of Kintyre, that had dyed the first and inmost feelings of childhood
with their deep colouring. Then, as boyhood passed into manhood, came his
sojourn among Yorkshire squires, his visit to Germany, and all the
stimulating society of Weimar, on which still rested the spirit of the
lately-departed Goethe. All these things, so unlike the common-place
experience of many, had added to his nature a variety and compass which
seemed wonderful, compared with that of most young men around him. Child of
nature as he was, this variety of experience had stimulated and enlarged
nature in him, not overlaid it.
"There were many bonds of sympathy between us to begin with. First, there
was his purely Highland and Celtic blood and up-bringing; and I, both from
my mother's and paternal grandmother's side, had Celtic blood. The shores of
Argyllshire were common ground to us. The same places and the same
people—many of them—were familiar to his childhood and to mine. And he and
his father and mother used to stimulate my love for that western land by
endless stories, legends, histories, jests, allusions, brought from thence.
It was to him, as to me, the region of poetry, of romance, adventure,
mystery, gladness, and sadness infinite. Here was a great background of
common interest which made us feel as old friends at first sight. Indeed, I
never remember the time when I felt the least a stranger to Norman.
Secondly, besides this, I soon found that our likings for the poets were the
same. Especially were we at one in our common devotion to one, to us the
chief of poets.
You can read the rest of this chapter at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/macleod/chapter6.htm
The index page for the book is at
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/macleod/index.htm
The Early Scottish Church
--------------------------------------
The Ecclesiastical History of Scotland from the First to the Twelfth century
by the Rev. Thomas M'Lauchlin (1865).
I was sent in a .pdf file of this complete book which you can read at
http://www.electricscotland.com/etexts/earlyscottishchurch.pdf
THIS volume is the result of an effort to fill up a blank in the
Ecclesiastical History of Scotland. Monograms exist on periods and persons
introduced throughout it; and also brief sketches of the period, in works on
Scottish Church History, preparatory to the history of more recent and more
prominent events, but no work exists whose sole object is to present the
reader with a consecutive and connected view of the period embraced. This
was to be regretted, considering the importance of the events recorded, and
their influence upon the future state of the Church in Scotland. Inferences,
not borne out by historical facts, were drawn from assumptions regarding the
early Church, by parties of various, and even of contending views, and
antiquity was cited in support of conclusions which in reality derived no
aid from its testimony. The author has endeavoured to collect his facts from
the most trustworthy sources, linking them in a continuous narrative.
Although these sources are few, yet, when the straggling rays are gathered
together, it is wonderful how much light they afford. Impartiality has been
earnestly studied throughout, the writer having but one object in view, the
discovery of truth in questions of national interest.
In pursuing the history of the Scottish Church, it was impossible to exclude
a reference to the civil history of the country during the same period. It
will be found, in consequence, that a sketch of the civil history of
Scotland, brief, but it is hoped sufficiently comprehensive, accompanies
that of the Church; while some questions are discussed connected with
topography and the names of persons and tribes, which may add interest to
the volume in the eyes of a growing class of readers. The sources whence
information has been sought in preparing this work, will be found on
referring to the work itself. They come down to the most recent
contributions made by writers of authority. The references might be more
extensive, for there are few works on the subject which have not been
consulted with some care; but the works cited are those whose authority
stands highest on the various points discussed.
EDINBURGH, Oct. 1864.
And that's all for now and hope you all have a good weekend :-)
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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