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Weekly Mailing List Archives
15th June 2007


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
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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
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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
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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
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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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