November 27, 2009

[Alastair]

CONTENTS
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Electric Scotland News
The Flag in the Wind
Clans and Families
Books of John McDougall
Book of Scottish Story
Oor Mither Tongue
John's Scottish Sing-Along
Songs of Lowland Scotland
"Curdies" a Glasgow Sketch Book
Writings of Albert Morris
More Adventures in Kilt and Khaki
The United States of America: A History
Johnny Gibb Of Gushetneuk
Scotland's Story
Alexander MacLagan
Native Indian Lore
William Harvey (New Books)


Electric Scotland News
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I've always thought you get good value for money when you become a member of the Scottish Studies Foundation. While the annual membership dues are only CAN$20.00 a year there are quite a few that actually pay $50 or more for their annual membership and thus giving us a wee donation.

Today I got in my annual membership pack which included my membership card. It also included the book "International Review of Scottish Studies, vol 34, 2009". You get this book each year you are a member and that's worth the annual fee on its own. This year we also got a very nice booklet "Selected Songs of Scotland". And of course we also got the quarterly newsletter which itself has some excellent stories in it.

Should you be interested in joining you can do so online at http://www.scottishstudies.com/200membership.htm

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As you know we're looking to upgrade our Aois Community when the new version 4 is released. It's in open beta at the moment so hopefully we'll get this before the end of the year.

While this is a social networking site it's also far more powerful than that as it can be used as a giant database to store information on all kinds of things and you can then search it or browse it. A saying I have is that you are only limited by your imagination and I think in some ways the power of this system has unlimited possibilities.

What it takes to build huge information resources are people that have the knowledge and are willing to give of their time to provide that information. The other way is to point to open source or out of copyright content that is available somewhere that we might make use of. Or indeed in copyright content if we can get permission to use it.

In some ways this is what I did with Electric Scotland. I went out and hunted for information on Scottish history and as I found it I published it on the site. Over the years this had grown to considerable content.

Should you have a passion for a sport or a hobby and have been collecting information for your own statistics then you might share that with us in one of our forums or indeed we could create a forum for you. Equally if you have been collecting information to do with your work that might also be useful to others then you might consider sharing with us.

I've also found over the years that many people collect interesting information for their own pleasure and interest but apart from themselves this never sees the light of day. Might this be you? And if so might you share some of that with us?

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I was doing some reading on the Internet archive this week and decided to see if I could find any books about clans and families. I've decided that each week I'll spend time looking and if I find any I'll post them up onto the site. This week I got through the A's and some of the B's.

I also found copies of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and I believe there are some 150 volumes available.

What is interesting about this publication is firstly that it was started in 1817. This is a period in Scottish history where the Scots were making huge progress. We were making great strides in literacy, inventions, emigration, manufacturing and scientific discoveries. The whole world was at our feet and in this time frame Scots were sought after as Pioneers to help build the new world. Most Scots were well versed in the three R's but they also were engaged at the very forefront of industrial endeavor and thus made ideal emigrants to the new world.

This magazine thus shows what we Scots were interested in at this important time in our history and the breadth of scope of this publications shows where out interests lay. In these issues you'll find poems and stories but also commentary on Scientific discoveries, proceedings of Parliament, commentary on countries of the world including Europe, North America, etc. You'll find weather information, comments on agriculture, and even births, marriages and deaths. Book reviews, Medical reports, foreign intelligence, commercial reports, and also historical articles.

Due to the listings of births, marriages and deaths as well as listings of appointments they are also a good source of genealogy information.

The publication ceased in 1980 and I've made available on the site the first 3 volumes at http://www.electricscotland.com/book...blackwoods.htm

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We got a write up in the online magazine, "Discover My Past Scotland", in their December 2009 issue. They kindly sent me a pdf file of the article which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/DMPS14V411.pdf



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 in our site menu.


THE FLAG IN THE WIND
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This weeks issue was compiled by Richard Thomson in which he only has a single article but a long one on the situation in Wales as per devolution.

Lots more to read in this weeks Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org

The Working Life of Christina McKelvie MSP diary entry for this week can be viewed at
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...lvie/index.htm

We did get in a diary entry from her but too late to mention in last weeks newsletter and we have got one in for this week.


Clans and Families
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Got in a variety of newsletters from Clan Cunningham Global and they have a new web address as well. You can get to these at http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...c/cunning.html

Got in the December newsletter of Clan MacKenzie Society in the Americas - Canadian Chapter which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/mack...nzienews02.pdf


Books of John McDougall
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We're now onto the next book in the series... In the days of the Red River Rebellion,
Life and Adventure in the Far West of Canada (1868-1872).

We are now up to chapter 14 and here is how chapter 13 starts...

I HAD at this time summering with me my sister, Mrs. Hardisty, and her children. One day a courier came in from Fort Canton instructing me to send Mrs. Hardisty and family down to that point, and as all the Hudson's Bay Company's posts and forts were parts of our missions and circuits, and as this gave me the opportunity of visiting Fort Pitt and possibly Fort Canton, and also of meeting any Indians who might be em route to or fro, I concluded to take her and children down the river in the skiff. Arranging to have her horses and two of mine driven across country in the first place to Fort Pitt, we embarked and began our journey down stream. In less than two days we had made Fort Pitt, which I judge is from one hundred and eighty to two hundred miles by the winding of the river; but such was the current, and so continuous was our movement day and night, without loss of time, that we did better than a hundred miles in a day. Here we heard that Mr. Hardisty had passed west, hoping to meet his wife and children, of course never thinking of their coming by river. Knowing that he would return to this point when he met our men and horses, we waited and I had full opportunity W do some mission work. Here traded the Plain and Wood Crees, the Chippewyans of the Beaver River and north country, the Saulteaux and the Cree, and sometimes even Blackfeet came to this post. In my time noted Indians, such as Sweet Grass, Big Bear and Little Pine, made this their headquarters. A big trade in provisions was generally done here, and both wood and plain furs were taken in large quantities; many a boat-load of furs and pemmican went down the Saskatchewan annually from Fort Pitt. Several times in my journeyings I had been privileged to preach the Gospel in the mother-tongue to people who up to these times had never heard it. Nomads, wanderers out of the ages, a strange, mysterious people they were, and how solemnly and earnestly they would look into my eyes as I came to them in their own language with this new and wonderful evangel. This present occasion was no exception, and I held services with a mixed crowd of tribes and peoples. God only knows if any permanent good was done as to Christianity, but in the meantime, at any rate, they were made to understand something aboit law and civilization, and, I do hope, of Christ and heaven.

Hardisty came in Sunday afternoon and thus relieved me of going any farther. We visited a good part of Monday and then parted, my friends going east and I west. It was a lovely evening, and alone with my two horses, Bob No. 1 and Archie, either following the other and not needing to be led, my equipment a leather shirt, trousers and blanket, and my gun and ammunition and some dried meat as provision all on my saddle, so that my free horse was indeed free, on we went and near dark crossed Frog Creek and camped. I have already told my readers I never was made to be alone; I have always found myself in such condition under protest. I remember I was unusually lonely that night. I hobbled my horses, and as they moved off to better grass I made a fire and roasted some dried meat, and nibbling at it thought one man thirty-five miles from the nearest of his kind, so far as he knows, is entirely too far away, and I wondered how some are so constituted as almost to enjoy solitude. Then I became aware that a pair of eyes were fastened on me. A casual glance over my shoulder caught a movement, and gripping my gun I awaited developments. Presently I saw that the object looking down from the brink of the hill was a big timber wolf. This was a relief, for if he was alone I did not fear him; so I threw more wood on the fire, renewed my attention to the dried meat, and by and by moved away and spread my saddle-blanket, then wrapping myself in my own blanket I lay down with gun at hand and fell asleep to waken as the day sky came with all nature around me and myself as well covered with heavy dew. Breaking another bit of meat, I ate as I went for my horses, which had ascended the hill and hobbled some distance. Soon I was back again, and saddling up was off on the lope in the fresh of the morning, while all the earth and its luxuriant vegetation was glistening with moisture, which, as the sun appeared, flashed and brightened the whole scene. I said to myself, "I will do well if I reach Saddle Lake to-day." A vigorous trot, a few miles of canter alternating, and in three hours changing horses, on I went across valleys and over plains, in and out and through and between islands of timber, all the white keeping a sharp lookout on the distant horizon, and as much as possible on everything within this, myself always its centre. Thus across Moose Creek and the Dog Rump and the immense stretches of country this side and between and beyond them, on and on past Egg Lake No. 2, and by the early evening I had made Saddle Lake, with self and horses still fresh.

You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gall/red13.htm

and the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...all/redndx.htm


Book of Scottish Story
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Thanks to John Henderson for sending this book into us.

This week he's sent in "The Minister's Beat" chapter 2 which starts...

The day was advancing. These two scenes had encroached deeply on the privileged hours for visiting, and the minister, partly to turn the account of our thoughts into a less agitating channel, partly to balance the delights of the last hour with their due counterpoise of alloy, suggested the propriety of going next to pay, at the house of his patron, the laird of the parish, the visit of duty and ceremony, which his late return, and a domestic affliction in the family, rendered indispensable. There were reasons which made my going equally proper and disagreeable; and formal calls being among the many evils which are lightened by participation, I gladly availed myself of the shelter of the ministerâ??s name and company.

Mr Morison, of Castle Morison, was one of those spoiled children of fortune, whom in her cruel kindness she renders miserable. He had never known contradiction, and a straw across his path made him chafe like a resisted torrent; he had never known sorrow, and was, consequently, but half acquainted with joy; he was a stranger to compassion, and consequently himself an object of pity to all who could allow for the force of early education in searing and hardening the human heart. He had, as a boy, made his mother tremble; it is little to be wondered that in manhood he was the tyrant of his wife and children. Mrs Morisonâ??s spirit, originally gentle, was soon broken; and if her heart was not equally so, it was because she learned reluctantly to despise her tyrant, and found compensation in the double portion of affection bestowed on her by her son and daughters. For the latter, Mr Morison manifested only contempt. There was not a horse in his stable, nor a dog in his kennel, which did not engross more of his attention; but like the foxes and hares which it was the business of these favourite animals to hunt down, girls could be made to afford no bad sport in a rainy day. It was no wonder, that with them fear usurped the place of reverence for such a parent. If they did not hate him, they were indebted to their motherâ??s piety and their own sweet dispositions; and if they neither hated nor envied their only brother, it was not the fault of him, who, by injudicious distinctions and blind indulgence, laid the foundation for envy and all uncharitableness in their youthful bosoms. In that of his favourite, they had the usual effect of generating self-will and rebellion; and while Jane and Agnes, well knowing nothing they did would be thought right, rarely erred from the path of duty, Edmund, aware that he could scarce do wrong, took care his privileges should not rust for want of exercise.

You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/book.../story101b.htm

All the other stories can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/books/story/


Oor Mither Tongue
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An Anthology of Scots Vernacular Verse by Ninian Macwhannell (1938) and our thanks to John Henderson for sending this into us.

We have new poems up this week by...

GRAY, ALEXANDER:
Babylon in Retrospect
Persuasion,
Disquiet
December Gloaming
Christmas Greeting

which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/mither/


John's Scottish Sing-Along
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Provided by John Henderson

This week we've added...

Stop Yer Tickling, Jock!

You can find these songs at http://www.electricscotland.com/poet...long/index.htm

We also got in a new poem in the Doric from John called "Winter an Spring" which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/doggerel330.htm


Songs of Lowland Scotland
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From the times of James V, King of Scots, A book of c. 600 pages of songs published in Scotland in 1870, and arranged in episodic form by John Henderson.

We've added a further 30 or so pages this week, Pages 477 - 505, as a pdf file which are songs from a variety of poets which you can get to at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/songs/index.htm


"Curdies" a Glasgow Sketch Book
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By Hugh S. Roberton

We've added another chapter this week...

Chapter XXIII - The Glens of Antrim

You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/curdies/


Writings of Albert Morris
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A five-days-a-week column to be grave but gay (in the old sense), pungent but subtle, learned but light. Articles by the Scotsman's legendary feature writer, Albert Morris, from 29 December, 2001 to 8th April, 2005. Our thanks to John Henderson for pulling all this together for us.

Have added the following articles this week...

Article 66 - Polishing sparkling platitudes and repartee
Article 67 - Television dispels fears that history was becoming a thing of the past
Article 68 - While around us the elements stormed, inside we were toast warm
Article 69 - Renaissance Man of the honours rejectees hands in his bus pass
Article 70 - Long-forgotten newshawk days
Article 71 - Officialdom's bias towards the diversity of Caledonia
Article 72 - New-fangled camera world unsettling for an old shutter-clicker

These can all be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/life...rris/index.htm


More Adventures in Kilt and Khaki
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Sketches of the Glasgow Highlanders and others in France by Thomas M. Lyon (1917) and our thanks to John Henderson for sending this in to us.

Have added another chapter from this book...

At the Sign of the Red Triangle

These are stories of the first world war and you can read them at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...g/khakindx.htm


The United States of America: A History
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By Robert MacKenzie (1870)

We have added several chapters this week including...

CHAPTER IV. AMERICA ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION
CHAPTER V. BUNKER HILL
CHAPTER VI. INDEPENDENCE
CHAPTER VII. AT WAR
CHAPTER VIII. SYMPATHY BEYOND THE SEA
CHAPTER IX. THE WAR CONTINUES
CHAPTER X. THE SURRENDER AT SARATOGA

The chapter on Bunker Hill starts...

THE encounters at Lexington and Concord thoroughly aroused the American people. The news rang through the land that blood had been spiltâ??that already there were martyrs to the great cause. Mounted couriers galloped along all highways. Over the bustle of the market-placeâ??in the stillness of the quiet village churchâ??there broke the startling shout, "The war has begun." All men felt that the hour had come, and they promptly laid aside their accustomed labour that they might gird themselves for the battle. North Carolina, in her haste, threw off the authority of the King, and formed herself into military companies. Timid Georgia sent gifts of money and of rice, and cheering letters, to confirm the bold purposes of the men of Boston. In aristocratic and loyal Virginia there was a general rush to arms. From every corner of the New England States men hurried to Boston. Down in pleasant Connecticut an old man was ploughing his field one April afternoon. His name was Israel Putnam. He was now a farmer and tavernkeeperâ??a combination frequent at that time in New England, and not at all inconsistent, we are told, "with a Roman character." Formerly he had been a warrior. He had fought the Indians, and had narrowly escaped the jeopardies of such warfare. Once he had been bound to a tree, and the savages were beginning to toss their tomahawks at his head, when unhoped-for rescue found him. As rugged old Israel ploughed his field, some one told him of Lexington. That day he ploughed no more. He sent word home that he had gone to Boston. Unyoking his horse from the plough, in a few minutes he was mounted and hastening towards the camp.

You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/usa/book2c5.htm

You can read this book as we post it up a chapter per day at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/usa/index.htm


Johnny Gibb Of Gushetneuk
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By William Alexander 1881

This is a book that really needs to be done in adobe reader format as the Scots language in this book would give any ocr software a nervous breakdown! :-)

we've added Chapter VII - Back from the Wells and Chapter VIII - Tam Meerison Flits

You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/gibb/index.htm


Scotland's Story
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A History of Scotland for Boys and Girls By H. E. Marshall.

We've now added the following chapters...

Chapter IX. MacBethâ??The Murder of Banquo
Chapter X. MacBeth - How the Thane of Fife went to England
Chapter XI, MacBeth - How Birnham Wood came to Dunsinane
Chapter XII. Malcolm Canmoreâ??How the King overcame a Traitor
Chapter XIII. Malcolm Canmoreâ??How Saint Margaret came to Scotland
Chapter XIV. The Story of Pierce-Eye
Chapter XV, The Reigns of Donald Bane, Duncan and Edgar

Here's the how the story of "Malcolm Canmoreâ??How Saint Margaret came to Scotland" starts...

WHEN Malcolm Canmore had reigned over Scotland for about ten years, a great event happened in the neighbouring kingdom of England. I mean the conquest of England by William Duke of Normandy.

William Duke of Normandy took possession of all England, and Edgar, the rightful heir to the throne, fled with his mother and sisters. They set sail in a ship, meaning to go to Hungary, where they knew they would be kindly received. But great storms arose. Their ship was battered and driven about by winds and waves they knew not whither, and at last when they had lost all hope of ever seeing land again, they were driven upon the shores of Scotland. They landed there at a place on the Firth of Forth which to this day is called Margaret's Hope, from the name of Edgar's sister the Princess Margaret. The place at which they afterwards crossed the river is still called Queen's Ferry.

When Edgar, who was only a boy, and his sisters and mother found themselves in Scotland they were uncertain what to do. They did not know if they would be received in a friendly manner or not.

The country people gathered round and stared at these strange ladies. They were astonished, and a little afraid too at their grand clothes, and at the great size of the ship in which they had come.

When King Malcolm was told of the beautiful ladies and fine tall men who had come in the strange ship, he sent some of his nobles to find out who they were, where they came from, and what they wanted.

When the nobles came to the ship they were almost as much astonished as the common people had been at the splendid men, and beautiful, sad ladies. So the nobles spoke gently to them, and asked them how it was that they had landed upon these shores.

Then the lady Agatha and her daughters told their sad story. 'We are English,' they said, 'the relatives of King Edward. He is dead, and his throne and crown have been taken by the cruel Duke of Normandy. We have fled from the country. The winds and the waves have driven us upon your shores, and we seek the help and protection of your most gracious King.'

The ladies spoke so simply, yet they looked so beautiful and so grand, that the nobles felt more and more sorry for them. They talked kindly to the ladies for some time. Then they went back to King Malcolm and told him all that they had learned.

When Malcolm heard that the ladies and their brother were English, and relatives of the King who had been so kind to him, he called for his horse and set out to visit them.

Malcolm brought Edgar and his mother and sisters back with him, gave them rooms in his palace, and treated them as great and honoured guests. Soon he came to love the Princess Margaret very much, for she was both beautiful and good. She too loved the King, and after a little time they were married.

The wedding was very splendid. Such pomp and grandeur had never before been seen in Scotland as was seen at the marriage of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret For the sake of his wife Margaret, King Malcolm treated all English people kindly. So at this time very many of the English, who were driven out of their own country by William of Normandy, came to settle in Scot- land. Malcolm gave these English exiles both land and money, and thus it came about that in after years many of the great families had lands both in Scotland and in England.

These English nobles brought English manners and customs to Scotland. This greatly displeased many of the Scottish nobles. The Scots had always been a very hardy people. They were big and strongâ??more like giants than like ordinary people. They ate and drank little and cared little for fine clothes or fine houses. It seemed to them that the English cared too much for all these things. They thought it was a bad day for Scotland when all these grand knights and nobles came to live there, and they were angry with Malcolm because he was kind to them.

They were angry too with Queen Margaret, for she thought it right that the King of Scotland should be surrounded by splendour as befits a great king. So she did away with all the old simple ways to which the Scottish people were accustomed. Great knights, nobles, and fair ladies waited upon the King and Queen. Their meals were served upon dishes of gold and silver, and the clothes they wore were beautiful and gorgeous.

Queen Margaret also encouraged merchants to come to Scotland to trade. They brought jewels and gold and other beautiful things, and took away woollen cloth and whatever else the Scots had to sell. It was in the days of Queen Margaret that the Scottish people first began to wear the brightly coloured checked cloths which we call tartans.

You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter13.htm

You can read the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/story/


Alexander MacLagan
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Thanks to John Henderson for sending us this wee bio on a famous poet and a few of his more famous poems. You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist..._alexander.htm


Centre for Scottish Studies - Simon Fraser University
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We got a copy of their Fall newsletter in which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/cana...diesFall09.pdf


Native Indian Lore
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Got in an interesting article from Donna about John Joseph Mathews which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...re/mathews.htm

Donna also has new articles in our Article service which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/article


William Harvey
--------------
We got in a bio on this journalist and author together with one of his books entitled "Kennethcrook: Some sketches of village life".

In addition we're also publishing another of his books "Scottish Life And Character".

William clearly progressed in his journalistic career as it is known that he soon became the editor of a Dundee Newspaper. But this probably did not occur until after the publication in 1911 of one of his most popular books, the 545 page opus, â??Scottish Life and Character in Anecdote and Storyâ?�. He clearly was a highly regarded citizen when we note that he served as a Justice of the Peace; and he must also have been well respected by his fellow contributors to the arts when he was awarded a Fellowship of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. However, little appears to have been recorded about the details of his life in the 1920s and 1930s â?¦. apart from his Freemasonry activities. The certificate of his premature death on the 5th of July, 1936, following a coronary thrombosis, shows that he had been predeceased by his wife Marjorie, but that he at least had had the company of his son, William, at 11 Blackness Avenue in his latter years.

You can read more about him, read the book "Kennethcrook" and start on his "Scottish Life and Character" at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ey_william.htm


And finally I got in a couple of wee stories...

Two shepherds, Donald and Davie, were standing at the door of their shieling in Argyll when two tourists approached.

"Och, noo, an' ye'll poth be fery tired, whatever?" said Davie in the best English he could command.

"Yes, we are both tired and thirsty," said one of the tourists.

"That's a great sorra," replied Donald with apparent sympathy.

"We wad haff made ye a cup of tea, but there's nae women in the place but oorsel's."


and


A family was seated around the fire one evening, when little Jessie suddenly asked at what time she was born.

"You were born at two o'clock in the morning, lassie; but why do you ask?"

"Because Johnnie was saying he was born earlier than I was," replied Jessie.

"Oh, no; he was not," said her mother. "He was not born until eight o'clock in the morning."

"Well," said Jessie, joyously, my birthday's longer than yours yet, Johnnie."

Johnnie, however, was not to be beaten, for he contemptuously responded,

"Och, whit's the use oâ?? beinâ?? born afore it's time tae get up?"


And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend and to our American friends hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving.

Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com


OUR NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
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You can see old issues of this newsletter at http://www.electricscotland.com/newsletter/index.htm