Innholdsfortegnelse for January-February 2024 i History Scotland

Dr Karen E. McAulay is a performing arts librarian and postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Qualified as a librarian, musicologist and pedagogue, she studied for her PhD in music at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era (2013); and her second book on amateur music-making in late 19th-century and early 20th-century Scotland is currently with the publishers. Dr McAulay shares her music history expertise in ‘Professional women singers’ on page 12, where she explores the careers of Annie Grey and Marjory Kennedy Fraser. Dr John McCallum is senior lecturer in history at Nottingham Trent University, and a specialist in Scottish Reformation history. Their research has explored the clergy, poverty and poor…

10 minutes on Following an almost decade-long minority, James III took personal control of his government in 1469. From the beginning, his rule proved controversial, thanks principally to his reliance on low-born favourites, unusually pacific policy towards England, debasement of the coinage and generally high-handed style. He also suffered from the presence of two ambitious younger brothers, Alexander, duke of Albany and John, earl of Mar, both of whom stood ever-ready to challenge the king for supremacy. James held his unstable regime together throughout the 1470s, but eventually things began to unravel. The first real inkling of trouble came in 1479, when the king, for reasons that remain obscure, fell out with his brothers. Mar was imprisoned and later died, while Albany fled to France to escape charges of treason.…

CLICK HERE VIEW GALLERY For centuries, Scotland has had a reputation for producing high-quality jeweller y and silverware. From enormous pieces of decorative silver displayed on gleaming woodwork in grand homes, to the tiniest of brooches worn as charms on the bodies of children, these objects – many of which survive today – point to the story of the jewellers and goldsmiths who made them. The age of industry, from the later 18th century through to the early 20th, is often considered a period when craft skill went into terminal decline – when machines and mass production replaced the human hand and specialist knowledge applied in the making of things. But this was not the case: Scotland’s metalworkers continued to produce innovative and expertly-made pieces, mostly working on a…

Arbroath Abbey and its Abbots Ishbel Barnes Strathmartine Press, paperback (December 2022) pp.330 Paperback, £20 ISBN: 9780995544130 This book tells the history of Arbroath Abbey from its foundation in 1178 through to Bannockburn, and from the Declaration of Arbroath to its closing during the Protestant Reformation. The abbey’s story is told through the lives of its abbots and has been painstakingly researched. The author is to be congratulated on her scholarly approach yet easy readability. Clearly, Arbroath’s abbots had to be all things to all people. They had to be politically savvy; mindful of the pope, his wants, his idiosyncrasies, always anticipating his next move; they were diplomats but never, ever could they forget who was in charge - not God, but the popes. From accounts of double-dealings, the extortion…

ON-SITE EVENTS Turner in January, 1-31 January Scotland’s famous collection of Turner watercolours was left to the nation by art collector Henry Vaughan in 1900. Since then, following Vaughan’s strict guidelines, they have only ever been displayed during the month of January, when natural light levels are at their lowest. The watercolours include dramatic landscapes from the Himalayas, Swiss Alps and Isle of Skye. Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL; website: www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/turner-january Glen Finglas: a changing landscape, 10 January Loch Ard Local History Group presents a talk by Bernard Love, who will share the outcomes of his recent research on the landscape of Glen Finglas. £4 guest, free to Loch Ard Local History Group members. For more information, e-mail: jimmy.8ken3@gmail.com Kinlochard Village Hall, Kinlochard, Stirling FK8 3TL Recent…

Find out more at: http://scot.sh/his-board PATRONS David Breeze Christopher Smout Historiographer Royal Elizabeth Ewan University of Guelph Richard Oram University of Stirling Murray Pittock University of Glasgow Mr Derek Alexander Archaeologist, National Trust for Scotland Dr John Atkinson Managing Director GUARD Archaeology Ltd Medieval and post-medieval settlement and industry Dr Michelle D. Brock Associate Professor of History, Washington & Lee University Dr Sonja Cameron Historian, writer and editor Prof Hugh Cheape Sabhal Mor Ostaig College, University of the Highlands and Islands Dr Murray Cook Stirling Council archaeologist Mr Andrew Dunwell Director, CFA Archaeology, Edinburgh (Later prehistory and Roman) Mark A Hall History Officer (archaeology collections) at Perth Museum & Art Gallery. Dr Kevin James Dept of History and Scottish Studies Programme, University of Guelph, Canada Dr Catriona MacDonald Reader in…

Welsh-born Thomas Pennant has increasingly been credited with pioneering the ‘home tour’ of the British Isles, and for ‘discovering’ parts of the country previously unknown to outsiders, inspired by the Pacific travels of his contemporaries Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks. Pennant’s travel books, describing his tours of Scotland in 1769 and 1772, and of Wales between 1778 and 1785, were essential guidebooks for tourists who followed in his footsteps. They outlined the first tourist itineraries and provided ‘national descriptions’ of the cultural, economic and environmental condition of both countries, the first extensively illustrated documentation of Scotland and Wales. Now, researchers from the University of Wales,Trinity St David, the University of Glasgow and the Natural History Museum hope that people will follow in Pennant’s footsteps with a new digital…

One of the most pressing concerns facing modern historians is the need to connect our research with audiences and readerships beyond the academy. In part, this reflects pressure from government, which through various assessment exercises and funding schemes is increasingly demanding that scholars of all kinds demonstrate ‘engagement’ with, and ‘impact’ on, wider society. It is also rooted, however, in a growing trend within academic circles themselves towards recognising ‘public history’ as a legitimate, indeed vital part of the scholarly mission. History, after all, is central to so many people’s understanding of the world around them, and it would not take an especially in-depth survey of the 20th and 21st centuries to confirm that bad history, when left unchallenged, can have serious consequences. The need for academic historians to get…

One of my earliest memories of Christmas is the start of the ‘-ber’ months and the countdown to fun! As I write, there are 60 days to Christmas. However, for my father’s generation, Christmas was just for kids (an orange, a penny and the Broons/OorWullie annual); the adults worked.The festival was not widely adopted as a holiday in Scotland until the 1970s, a remarkable change over a generation. Christmas has, and continues, to evolve and change each year. Increasingly, Scotland’s version looks more and more American and yet there are still uniquely Scottish innovations.This complex mix is what inspired my co-author, DrTom Christie and I to write Scotland’s Christmas: Festive Celebration,Traditions and Customs in Scotland from Samhain to Still Game – covering nearly ten millennia of tradition. Mid-winter festivals Yes…

Unlocking Scots: The Secret Life of the Scots Language CliveYoung Luath Press Ltd., (2023) pp.348 Paperback, £16.99; Kindle, £13.20 ISBN: 978180250495 If you ask ChatGPT to write a witty introduction to a book review on the Scots language, it comes back with the following: ‘It’s time to step into the literary haggis of linguistic delight, where the tartan-clad wordsmiths of Scotland’s linguistic tapestry beckon you with a siren call that is both poetic and...’ It’s best to stop there.What this brief but impactful message should indicate to the reader, who may by now be feeling slightly ill at the prospect of a future populated by garrulous AI, is not that the reviewer is lazy and has tried to write his introduction using ChatGPT, but that the language of Scots, ‘the…

It would be easy to imagine that a 16th- or 17th-century Calvinist would pay little attention to private emotional matters; indeed, the stereotype of such a man or woman would seem to ensure it. But nothing could be further from the truth. As we have seen in the leader for this issue, internal examination, reflection and writing on one’s emotional state was central to Calvinist faith. Nowhere, perhaps, is this more vividly demonstrated than in the heartfelt and prodigiously lengthy diary of the Calvinist lawyer and politician Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Wariston (1611-63). Johnston’s extraordinary work is, at least in part, addressed directly to his soul and begins with an exacting recapitulation of his place in the universe and his relationship with God. A peculiar and not unpleasing dialogue appears…

What is your favourite part of this redeveloped, historic building and why? My favourite part of the redevelopment is the retention of the character of the building. Mecanoo, our architects, were so careful to preser ve as much of the original interior as they could, which really honours its status as a physical reminder of personal landmarks in the lives of the people of Perth and Kinross. It has been wonderful to give talks to community groups, showing them the renders of the interior, and having people approach me afterwards to share their stories of the dances they attended in the Lesser City Hall and the relationships they forged there, the choirs they sang in on the stage and how ner vous they were to perform, or the length of…

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the final History Scotland of 2023. As always, we span the centuries and a wide range of topics to bring you the latest research from Scotland’s history and archaeology communities. This summer has seen some exciting archaeological finds and we start on page 6, with a round-up of digs and discoveries, followed by a look at a chance find in an abandoned fireplace that turned out to be a hoard of coins dating to the time of the Glencoe massacre. On the history side, we explore the careers of early 20th-century female singers, look at the return ofWorldWar I POWS via Leith – and the deadly Spanish Flu that accompanied them, and explore the early modern era with essays on Calvinist selfwritings,…

CLICK HERE TO WATCH a harvest reel by Marjory KenedyFraser played by Yuki Negishi Marjory KennedyFraser’s autobiography reflects that, in 1887, marriage was regarded as ‘the end of a professional woman’s career’. Too often we assume that late Victorian and Edwardian women led sheltered lives, going unnoticed among an army of ambitious men. However, although it required determination, women with talent certainly could make their way as musical performers. Marjory was this kind of woman. Starting her career at an early age as a pianist and singer, her name lives on in a multitude of copies of Songs of the Hebrides and From the Hebr ides hiding in pianostools and music cabinets. If you were an amateur singer wanting to perform classy arrangements of highland songs in the early…

After four years of war waged on three continents, a new enemy emerged in 1918. Nowadays, ‘a touch of ‘flu’ is a casual label attached to any cold-like ailment real or imagined (at least, in the days before coronavirus), but in the last full year of the First World War, influenza was to bring a new wave of death and devastation to a war-weakened population at home and abroad. In Leith, Edinburgh’s port but a separate local authority, the first cases had been reported in July 1918, followed by a temporary lull in the numbers of sufferers. But in October the epidemic fully revealed itself. In a fourteen-week period, Leith Hospital admitted 86 flu patients – this at a time when the number of resident doctors had been reduced…

This article examines the correspondence of Sir David Dalrymple, 1st baronet of Hailes and lord advocate in 1709-11 and 1714-20. For some, the Dalrymple family might appear to epitomise that Robert Burns’ ‘parcel of rogues’ who allegedly gave up their nation’s sovereignty in return for personal gain. This research suggests something different, and, through Sir David’s own words, we hear the voice of a patriot who strove to protect his nation. Family background and the union Sir David Dalrymple was born around 1665, son of Sir James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair and Margaret Ross. The family had a long tradition of supporting the reformed faith and in the 1680s they faced persecution which resulted in Sir James, accompanied by David, fleeing to Holland. Following the arrival of William and Mary in…

Explore a selection of digital history guides in the History Scotland store: https://scot.sh/hsdownload Edited by Dr Louise Heren reviews@historyscotland.com The Clergy in Early Modern Scotland Eds Chris R. Langley, Catherine E. McMillan, & Russell Newton, St. Andrews Studies in Scottish History 9, Boydell Press, (2021) pp.290 Hardback, £85; E-book, £24.99 ISBN: 9781783276196 The eleven marvellous essays contained in this book explore the complicated lives of the Reformed Protestant clergy of (primarily) lowland Scotland. Five synoptic chapters first paint the ministry with a broad brush between the early-mid-1500s and 1700. Preaching was the minister’s responsibility of responsibilities. Using sermon notebooks as her primary source, Michelle D. Brock demolishes stereotypes of passive congregants being talked at by their ministers, proving that parishioners resented florid, wordy, perfunctory, or over-scholarly sermons.They demanded ministers…

Sugar, Slaves and High Society: The Grants of Kilgraston 1750-1860 R. P. J. Blake Buskin Books (2023) pp.351 Paperback, £25 ISBN: 9781399943529 This is a well-researched history of the Grant family – Caribbean plantation owners and Scottish estate owners - between 1750 and 1860; the author is a lawyer and descendant of Rajah Sir James Brooke of Sarawak, whose appointed heir (subsequently disinherited) was the Rajah Muda Captain John Brooke Johnson Brooke who married into the Grant family. The two Grant brothers, John and Francis, sons of Patrick Grant of Glenlochy in Strathavon, Speyside emigrated from Scotland via Nova Scotia to Jamaica where fortunes were to be made from the sugar and rum industry, albeit on the backs of enslaved people transported from Africa under appalling conditions. The wealth the…