Willie didn’t keep his knowledge to himself. I don’t know that he was happier than when reminiscing upon one subject or another. He edited a newspaper from the Scotia Bar called ‘Scotia Folk’. He brought in an example which I’ve scanned in here.



He was so easy to chat to. The Bridgeton History Group was doing a Bridgeton Streets project and he’d requested information on Templeton Street and I’d scoured the newspapers for interesting tidbits he might like. Unfortunately the recent pandemic has prevented us meeting as usual and I was therefore unable to get the information to him. We talked books and he would bring in the odd publication for me to get jealous over. I regret not having had contact with him outside of the group for a prolonged conversation over coffee. He lived his life well and we’ll all miss him hugely.

03/06/2020 06:52

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Morning all,

Too much going on to be keeping track of, I’m afraid.

You may have caught us in iScot’s issue 57, ‘Not so Random Scottish History.’ Gordon Craigie had interviewed me about the site and the ‘Treaty of Union Articles’ publication. They even used Alex’s cover for our publication as their own without the usual added hints as to what’s inside, which was fantastic of them. We’re looking forward to working with them again in the future.



The crowdfunded hardback edition of ‘Treaty of Union Articles’ should be ready soon. I had posted an update to the Crowdfunder site explaining the changes that have been made due to the haggling over price. To keep it to £17, cost price, per book the incidental pictures are no longer colour but greyscale. The frontispiece is in colour as is the publisher’s page. They should be ready soon and with us so we can post them out to folk.

In order to satisfy the extra orders of paperbacks, without the finances to do so, has meant uploading a reformatted (for smaller page size) version to Amazon to have them print and distribute the copies. I get that there are folk who, for very good reason, can’t stand Amazon, but that’s just how much I needed to get these books out there. In fact, the prices set are as low as Amazon will allow me to price them at for each currency. The fact that out of that cost a mere £0.75 is my cut, shows how set I am to just get the information out there. Since there wasn’t a price restriction, as they get paid for the printing costs from the book sales, I was able to keep all the incidentals coloured, and the reformatting has led to some of Alex’s larger cartoons getting pages to themselves.

The chapter, ‘Scotland wasn’t Conquered, Ceded to, or Occupied by England,’ has now the full article. Only just a portion of it, that in the hardback edition, was available from the Kilkenny Journal, which was rereporting an article from another paper a fews days earlier, but I was certain I had the entire thing screenshot from a different source. I found said screenshot but it wasn’t good enough to copy the text from. I went to the British Newspaper Archive to find it. Even knowing what newspaper and the date it was reported, it refused to come up with any search terms like; “Scotland,” “British,” “Union,” or even its title “Declaration of Rights,” all of which terms occur in the article. So I searched for it using the generic term “Protocol,” which heads the original article, and hey presto! So after that wee battle I transcribed it and added to the online version here and it’s uploaded as the text for the paperback too.

We’re also awaiting a donation of books from Mr Graham Christie, who’s sending us a 6 volume set! of james Taylor’s ‘New and Enlarged Edition’ of ‘Pictorial History of Scotland‘ along with another mystery publication. I’m very excited to take receipt of this delivery. Can’t wait!

13/11/2019 01:01

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Good evening all. I’m sorry that, once again, it’s been a while.

Just a wee update tonight. There’s been a lot going on. The Crowdfunder is still running, for folk to be able to get their hands on a limited edition hardback copy of the ‘Treaty of Union Articles,’ until Hallowe’en when we hope to have enough to print as many copies as we’ve planned.

I’ve also been interviewed for a YouTube Video, out now, and an iScot magazine article out in the next couple of days. So hopefully, I’ve done the site justice.

24/10/2019 22:12

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It’s October people! I hope ‘Book of Days‘ has been doing it’s usual daily duty of keeping you historically updated along with the ‘On this Day’ snippets. It’s made my year fly, so far, due to always preparing for the next day’s post.

There have been updates with regards the Treaty of Union Articles. We’ve decided the reception to them was such that they needed published, the information is important and very few of us are aware of the events in our country’s history that have led us to where we are in the political arena today. To that end we set up a Crowdfunder to fund the publication on a number of platforms; Kindle, hard-copy, and audio book. We set the target for £500 in order to cover our achieving the first 2 options with a view to seeing what kind of support we could expect. Well, not only did the first subscription blow our minds, but the target was met, and some, within 3 days. I have high hopes for raising enough to pay a good Scottish narrator to do the book justice. We’ve had a few recommendations but I’d hate to think what their usual going rate might be. We’ve until the 25th of October until the fundraiser ends. Crowdfunders will receive the a copy of the first & only run of the hard-backed edition. Those already subscribing to RSH via Patreon will automatically receive a copy should they wish one. With any remaining funds we’ll print a run of paperbacks for anyone wishing to purchase a copy after Hallowe’en. ISBN codes have been purchased too so we’re a step nearer publication.



I’d like to thank every subscriber so far. We really can’t thank you enough. To be true patriots on a quest for knowledge of your own country is a noble endeavour but to help fund and support the distribution of said information is going above and beyond and we’re very grateful. The site Contributor’s Page has been updated with RSH’s new supporters. I’d also like to welcome our new Patreon subscriber to the family.



The articles, on the site themselves, have been proofread, finally, my apologies for not having done it sooner. I was just trying to get the information out there as fast as I was able. For the purposes of the publication I’m breaking up the articles some by taking some of the longer more interesting and informative and giving them chapters to themselves. I’ll be mostly doing that over the next few days, I think. The Contents Page now has more options:

Alex has done the Front Cover for the Book too and we’re very excited about it. He’s done an excellent job. He’s made a start on the incidental illustrations for throughout the publication so we’ve that to look forward to. I’m wondering if they’ll be in the same style as those for the Pride in Scottish History or whether he’ll do some more serious pictures to fit with the information it’s to illustrate. Can’t wait either way.

So please, if you’re able and interested, help us make this project amazing and aid in getting the information out there so Scots can take their country forward in an informed way that takes into account our past wins and losses and allows folk to learn from them.

Most of all, enjoy.

02/10/2019 09:12

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I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last update. Should I be feeling as guilty as I do about that? I’d like to say welcome and a big thank you to Random Scottish History’s new followers on Twitter/Facebook/Wordpress. It’s been a busy summer. It’s been virtually non-stop work but that’s at an end as of 2 days ago when the seeking out, typing up, and compilation of Newspaper Articles and Letters Relating to the Treaty of Union was finally completed. It was a project put forward to me by David Taylor and I really appreciate having been set on that path. The result of which I feel is a resource of, not only super interesting, but super important information of political struggles Scotland has found itself in since the enactment of the Treaty of Union with England in 1707. I can’t recommend them enough. RSH is able to now offer you;

Treaty of Union – The Articles agreed to.

Articles 1750-1800 – There was almost half-a-century of political apathy from the side of Scotland, who’s people felt their country had been sold then calls for a national militia in line with England’s begin.



Articles 1800-1850 – Notice is being taken of the disparities with Ireland’s treatment after their Treaty with Great Britain in 1801 and Scotland’s experiences. Scotland is feeling over-taxed and under-funded.

Articles 1850-1875 – The grievances from Scotland become so numerous as to inspire talks of Home Rule, in a bid to create a fairer system of local Government, from that majority of the population who were still hopeful of saving the union with England.

Articles 1875-1890 – Centralisation has really become the big topic of discussion alongside with, what appears to be, impending Home Rule. A cross-partisan petition, three-quarters of a mile long, with over 104,000 signatures, is sent to Queen Victoria demanding the practice of substituting England/English with Britain/British be ended.

Financial Cost to Scotland of the Union – This article speaks for itself and outlines the reasons for the feelings that began to gain traction from 1800.

Associated with the Treaty of Union Articles (1875-1900) is a book I obtained, George Outram’s ‘Legal & Other Lyrics‘ (1888), which contains the Invitation which was to have him actually reported for treason by the Lord Advocate for Scotland, who had been invited. The humourous aspect of it was explained to the honourable gentleman with the result being that he attended and everyone enjoyed themselves at this particularly Scottish event. The book itself has been scanned in as well as the Invitation.

We’ve been continuing daily with the ‘Book of Days’ and On this Day in Other Sources, though WordPress has been causing me issues that will hopefully be resolved when we move to RSH.scot. Rab at the DotScot team is on it and we appreciate how he’s helping us out here.

It’s quite late in the month to be starting on October’s chapters but that’s what I’ll be racing to do now before said month starts, so I’m away to begin that.



As always, folk, enjoy.

19/09/2019 00:57

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I should really be getting September started for the ‘Book of Days‘ posts but I have found myself somewhat sidetracked by research I thought wouldn’t take me half as long as it has.

I was set on the project of researching, in much the same way as I did for the Pride in Scottish History post, more about the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England. I was to see if I could find correspondence that was based on feelings of the natives with regards said union. I figured the best way again was to appeal to the British press as open letters to newspapers can be one of the best sources of information. And boy, did I find information.

For the most part, every believer in the union, had a grievance of some kind; whether it was in Scotland’s under-representation in Westminster, the paying of England’s debts, England’s attempts at Centralisation both by the dissolution of our establishments & parliament (supposedly protected by the treaty) and by insisting Britain/British could be just as easily replaced with England/English, the under-funding of Scotland despite the amount we parted with to Westminster in revenues, the shortfall in pay to Scotland’s government employees in comparison with those in England, &c.

The wealth of information is truly astounding and due to the sheer amount post-1850 it seemed a better idea to publish the information in a 25-year chunk instead of the 50-year chunks 1750-1800 and 1800-1850 were posted as.

So available for your perusal are Newspaper Articles and Letters Relating to the Treaty of Union;

The Contents’ pages for everything are up-to-date. I can’t wait to get back to what this year was meant to be spent on, ‘Popular Tales‘. It’ll happen.



14/08/2019 06:37

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Good morning.

August is upon us, so says the ‘Book of Days,’ and we have a few Acts of Parliament for today, as the 1st of August seems to be a day for the commencement or conclusion of Acts of Parliament. Those mentioned in the ‘Other Sources’ section from 1715, are those I have obtained, scanned & transcribed to the website, which are specific to the consequences of the ’15 and ’45 Rebellions and therefore are far more interesting than you’d think. John F. Campbell gives his opinion, in Popular Tales’, of the 1747 Act of Parliament denying Scots their usual mode of dress and this is included in today’s write-up. Menu for the ‘Book of Days‘ is up-to-date.

I hope to see some of you out on Saturday for Free Pride, where we’ll once again be in attendance as Rainbow Unicorns to help the LGBTQ+ community have their voices heard. The post I wrote up with research on ‘Pride in Scottish History‘ will be on the header menu again over the weekend so it’s easy to find for newcomers to the site. We’ll no doubt have another Video to upload to Youtube too. Hope to meet you there.

01/08/2019 07:53

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A very good morning to you!

I’m hoping everyone has recovered from the weekend. It was a massive knees-up for everyone who attended Mardi Gla on Saturday there. The atmosphere on the walk was great with folk lining the streets to watch, participate from the sidelines and film the event.

YouTube Video Stills taken from Kathrine Stokes’

Really really hot in those onesies though! It was awesome to come out of West George street, which was crammed full of rainbow-clad folk, out into the open George square to see just how many had already arrived. In the YouTube Video (click to view) I took you can hear people around me vocalising their “wows” at the scene opening up before us. Then there were speeches and music and photos with some of the mascots and best dressed before saying goodbye to a departing Alex, who was on the night shift that night. We took ourselves off up to the Strathclyde Students Union on John street to see Paul Burns play the fiddle at the Pink Saltire stand for those arriving to party. Lots of new RSH Pride Cards were handed out:

Great day had by all with memories and new friends made. The next event we’ll be attending will be Free Pride on Saturday, 3rd of August, which meets at the CCA, 350 Sauchiehall street, at midday. We’re looking forward to getting in about it again in our rainbow unicorn onesies.

23/07/2019 00:56

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Good morning!

As ever we’re continuing with Chambers’ ‘Book of Days‘. Have done things backwards this month for August by starting with the “in Other Sources” and I’ll now get on to typing up the ‘Book of Days’ itself. I feel as though that may make the end of the month less of a desperate rush to get everything finished for the next beginning.



We’ve been preoccupied in getting prepared for Pride week here in Glasgow. I’ve been scouring the papers for information in order to make up a wee post about Pride in Scottish History. Turned out not to be such a wee post… It was difficult finding Scotland-specific information too. But I feel it’s a fairly comprehensive history from varying perspectives/countries. Alex then went through the basic draft in order to find opportunites to illustrate various articles throughout. I think it turned out alright. I’ve had a couple of LGBTQ+ friends and colleagues read the rough draft to ensure I’d basically covered everything and stood little chance of offending folk. I hope you guys find it as interesting as I did while researching and typing it.

We look forward to getting out to meet everyone at MardiGla this Saturday (20th of July). Don’t be too shy to come and say hi to us, we’ll be easy enough to spot in our rainbow unicorn onesies. There’s a walking history tour from Glasgow Cathedral down the High street to the High Court on the Saltmarket an hour before MardiGla begins at the other end of the city so I may very well be attending that dressed in my gay togs 😉



Enjoy. We’ll hopefully catch most of you this weekend.

17/07/2019 04:45



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A very good morning to you. It’s been a while since my last update as other historical projects have been taking up an awful lot of my time. The Bridgeton Streets project for the Bridgeton History Group isn’t specific enough to keep me to just the essentials of what they’re looking for so I’ve been compiling lists of every business that ever existed on the streets I’ve been given and any names of folk who lived there as well as events that took place. I feel like that way I can’t miss anything and they can scrap the surplus info.

The document I’ve researched and typed up to try to illustrate the History of Pride in Scotland is pretty extensive and contained a few shockers and super interesting tidbits of information, including the reason for why debates on continuing the use of the Pillory were instigated (see Book of Days, 30th of June, footnote).

I’ve also been set on the hunt for historical info for a Twitter friend’s project. Busy days. But we’ve taken some time off work, using the excuse that today is Alex’s and my 13th wedding anniversary. So that allows me time to complete all this research but I don’t have the space for a decent set-up to type up books outside of my place of work.

We’ve decided that we should be historically proactive on our holiday. To that end we ventured into Glasgow, using Glasgow City Heritage Trust Plaque Scheme’s Map.

I have to say we were sad, and a little frustrated, to find some of those marked on the map to be either gone or so completely hidden as to avoid our noticing them. We spent some amount of time trying to track down the missing one’s but decided we’d have to be content with those we did get. On our travels we started noticing Oor Wullie installations around the city and we had Alex oblige.

This is the 2nd time Alex has been up close with Wullie. Dundee is the home of D C Thomson’s Oor Wullie, the Broons, and the Bash Street Kids. While we were there we encountered statues to commemorate this and Alex sat with one.



I think I prefer Glasgow’s colourful homage.

So it’ll be another week before I’m back to typing up the books, but we’ll be continuing as ever with the ‘Book of Days‘.

We’d like to wish RSH’s theme creator, Tony Wilson, a speedy recovery & Bridgeton History Group’s Brian Charlton all the best. We’re thinking of you guys.



As for the rest of you, get oot and enjoy the braw weather we’re having at the moment & we shall catch up with everyone soon.

03/07/2016 09:38

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Good afternoon! We have good news. RSH.scot is ours. Do it, try it out 😛 We like its neatness and possibilities for freebies we can give to folk to spread the good word of Random Scottish History. The website is headed for a bit of a big change too and even I’m not sure what to expect from that but we have the extremely capable Anthony on it. We basically need something to handle the amount of information we’re posting in a better way.

Anyways, to celebrate our request to obtain the domain we made hot toddies then thought, “why not show folk who maybe don’t know that such things exist how to make them.” So we did and you can see it on YouTube HERE.

There’s also a final take that contained nothing of use but made for very funny watching (which we can’t advise you watch if the odd sweary word offends) HERE.

We also, finally, have a group pic from the Random Scottish History base that’s been uploaded into Those Who’ve Helped Make RSH.

On that note, enjoy all!

12/06/2019 12:30



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We have an intro song! This is only thanks to the wonderful Tony ‘Lucky Dog’ Wilson having taken time out of his super busy schedule to help us out and we’re extremely grateful for the resulting piece of music, it makes us very happy here at RSH. He has of course been gifted with all we can offer, being Mormaer tier goodies from Patreon and a copy of the book when finished as well as, of course, being credited as a site Contributor we’re ecstatic to have helping us.

This is our Completed Intro, provided I don’t take the notion to tweak anything in the morning when I get home:

Delaying my start on the next chapter of ‘Tales of the Highlands‘ as it’s a long one, July really needs to be started for ‘Book of Days‘, I’m researching our history as it relates to diverse-sexuality in preparation for Glasgow’s Mardi Gla Pride Festival in July, and of course I’ve got my designated streets to investigate for the Bridgeton History Group.

All relevant contents pages are up to date and we’ll hopefully be able to get some video randomness out to you soon.

10/06/2019 02:32



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So a wee quick update, as ma pit’s fair callin’ tae me, just before very much more is uploaded. We’re well under way with Sir T. D. Lauder’s ‘Tales of the Highlands‘ (1881). A dozen chapters uploaded, apologies for the slightly long wee stories, I’m hoping folk get as invested in them as I do when typing them up.

We also have, as of this morning, scans from within the ‘International Library of Famous Literature‘ (1898) I obtained a while ago. I had bought a 19th century picnic case and 15 out of the 20 volume set were within. So I took a moment to dig it out and see what was included of relevance to the site. I was pleased to find I wasn’t disappointed in my endeavours and have uploaded the result with links to further information with regards the various photos, illustrations and engravings.

Scans of Alex‘s artwork for the updated ‘Popular Tales‘ are being uploaded to Patreon when he’s happy with them and made them available to me. Those designated for the Gory-edition are locked for Tiers under Mormaer (sorry) as only that Tier have the option of that edition when published.

And that’s my update for today. Another wee chapter from ‘Tales of the Highlands’ tomorrow and of course we’re continuing with the ‘Book of Days‘. I’m away tae ma kip.

31/05/2019 11:32

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Exciting news, at least, we’re excited. The new RSH video has been made and I think we’re all pretty pleased with it here, so it seems like it’ll not change for a wee while. The idea was to create something that would act as a teaser trailer to the website and also as an intro to any future videos we produce. It’s not entirely completed, however, as we’re lacking a backing track, which we’re hoping some wonderful, musically inclined person, may be willing to help us out with.

We wanted an animation to be part of it, which is something none of us have tried to create as yet, and I think it went OK. It’s basic, in that there’s only 1 moving part of the scene, so as not to create problems for ourselves.

I decided on this picture from volume 1 of ‘Old and New Edinburgh‘, Chapter 4, as the main background:

Then made it black and white and stripped out all the unnecessary details to clean it up a bit:

The people hinted at in the original were taken out too as we needed as few moveable objects as possible. Then we had to decide what animated object to add. There were ideas along the lines of Claymore in the ground with a plaid hung over it billowing in the wind or a cluster of thistles doing the same, &c. We decided a flag would perhaps be easier, it wasn’t, and I was toying with the idea of having the clouds moving in the sky but for what would end up a 2 second animation I felt that they’d only get in the way of the flag animation, thereby giving us more work.

Here’s what we ended up with:

Which we then added to a series of selected book and image scans that would give an idea of what the site contained which has given us this final product (minus backing music).

Which we’re quite proud of. I’ll update when we obtain some suitably Scottish music behind it.

Still continuing ‘Book of Days‘ and becoming more certain that I’ll begin uploading ‘Tales of the Highlands‘ probably no later than the start of next week.



18/05/2019 01:14

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Lots going on at the moment. I was wanting to start Sir T. D. Lauder’s ‘Tales of the Highlands‘ (1881) but didn’t want to commit to another book until I knew I would be able to finish it without distraction. Alex is getting on with the artwork for ‘Popular Tales‘ but hasn’t quite caught up with the stories published as yet due to there being 2 lots of illustrations per tale (child friendly & gory).

We’re preparing already, just a wee bit early, for Glasgow’s Pride Weekend on the 21st and 22nd of July. Our outfits just arrived and, well, you can see I’m pretty excited about it. Our videographer and the world’s only PR person not online ensured their arrival was captured.



Also have just one wee animation to complete and add to the RSH video/intro to future videos. Mind you, we’re trying to come up with a backing track for it. If anyone can help, or knows of someone who can, with a wee appropriately Scottish ditty they don’t mind us using that would be awesome. Said kind person would of course be properly credited and would receive the same option of benefits as a Mormaer Tier on Patreon.

That’s it for now. We’ll of course be continuing daily with the ‘Book of Days’ but I may find myself starting T. D. Lauder’s tales sooner rather than later.

Enjoy.

17/05/2019 04:06

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Good morning.

Continuing, as usual, with ‘Book of Days‘. Also the 13 chapers of the ‘Sketches‘ Appendix uploaded and linked to their varying book chapters. Since the last update there’s now;

I’ve also gone through the book’s ‘Glossary‘ and updated the site’s with words I hadn’t yet included. Relevant contents pages have been updated.



11/05/2019 23:56

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As I’m a wee bit ahead of myself with the ‘Book of Days‘ advance posts and Alex has a wee bit of catching up to do with the ‘Popular Tales‘ illustrations I thought I’d start getting the Appendix to Cosmo Innes’ ‘Sketches of Early Scotch History‘ typed up and published here. The sections relate to footnotes throughout the rest of the book and supply some super interesting wee tidbits of information. The Appendix note I. Records from the Scots College has been linked to the Bishopric of Glasgow chapter.

I’ve also been able to finally scan in the 2 page Map of Glasgow for Comparison (1773-1880) from MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘. It had originally been a photo as it was near impossible to scan on the old A4 scanner (see the update for 25/10/2018).



Aside from that we have, recently uploaded, scans of ‘Memorials and Letters‘ (1762) of James VI.’s reign and scans of the 3 Mauchline Ware Books in the collection. The first is a new acquisition, a Photo Album dated to about 1890, which we were very excited to receive from an exceptionally generous Patron who I’m, unfortunately, not allowed to “out”. The 2nd and 3rd I acquired myself a few years ago, an undated copy of Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Marmion‘, inscribed “1890”, and an undated copy of the ‘Story of Queen Mary‘. They both need a wee bit of help from the Cameron Bookbinders who I use for all my repairs.

All relevant contents pages have been updated.

06/05/2019 02:35



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Finally got round to scanning in Sir T. D. Lauder’s ‘Tales of the Highlands‘ (1881) to link to the Battle of Culloden article, referring to the callousness and barbarity of Cumberland in its aftermath, taken from it for the 16th of April post for ‘Book of Days‘. The Contents Page for Scanned Images has been updated as has the Bibliography.

19/04/2019 07:23

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Chambers is still annoying me with his perspective for the ‘Book of Days.’ He says things like, “in the days of Elizabeth and the first Stuarts.” The first Stuart on the throne of Scotland was Robert II. in 1371 with James VI. ascending to the English throne on the death of Elizabeth in 1603, therefore, his quote suggests “the days” as being about 230 years apart. Of course we already know this Scottish author is writing for an English audience and that he means the end of the 16th, start of the 17th, century when England obtained their first Stuart monarch.

11/04/2019 01:18

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‘Book of Days‘ continues with its daily dose of information and more from Volume 1 of ‘Popular Tales‘ uploaded. We have; The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh – Notes, The Battle of the Birds, and The Battle of the Birds – Notes.

Alex‘s pictures so far, for the stories, are being uploaded to the Patreon page but are only viewable to subscribers. Respective content pages have been updated.

10/04/2019 03:56

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My parents-in-law, Julie and Hilton, have just given us a framed drypoint picture of Arbroath Abbey, just in time for tomorrow’s information relating to the Declaration of Arbroath in the Other Sources for Chambers’ ‘Book of Days.’ It was pretty difficult to scan in its frame and with Zara cat walking all over it when the scanner sounds grabbed her attention. The scans came out pretty dark but a wee bit of level fiddling on photoshop mean they’ve turned out not bad.

05/04/2019 10:19

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Another end to another month. If anything, doing this daily round-up thing for the ‘Book of Days‘ is making this year pass faster than I’d like. Scary that we’re headed so swiftly for summer.

The stories from ‘Popular Tales‘ are going to be posted fairly spaced apart as offline I’m rewriting the stories after posting while Alex is drawing the illustrations that occur to him after he’s read them. His reaction and questions throughout the reading of the original versions would seem to justify the text requiring an update. For sneak peaks of pictures for the upcoming publication subscribe to RSH’s Patreon page.



Besides that the Book of Days stuff isn’t quick work. The ‘In other Sources’ section is about 20hrs in its compilation so as to be ready for the coming month. Interesting to see the information collected. Makes me look forward to particular days. April 1st is a good example for the examples of April Fools jokes from our history, Scotland was somewhat harsh on its “Fools.”

Speaking of which, Robert Chambers mentioned for the 27th of March in his ‘Book of Days’ that,

“During his reign in Scotland, King James had a fool or court jester, named Jemmy Camber, who lodged with a laundress in Edinburgh, and was making love to her daughter, when death cut him off in an unexpected and singular manner, as related by Robert Armin in his Nest of Ninnies, published in 1608.”

Intrigued, as this is something I’d definitely read, I obtained an 1842 publication of ‘Fools and Jesters: with a Reprint of Robert Armin’s Nest of Ninnies. 1608,’ printed for the Shakespeare Society. I’ll get that scanned in just now and up loaded into Non-Scottish Publications. Bibliography and Miscellany contents pages will be updated.



31/03/2019 09:14

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Still continuing with ‘Book of Days.’ Some interesting information from Mr Chambers, when he deigns focus his attention on our wee country, but it’s more interesting for me going back through the information already uploaded for the Other Sources sections.

‘Popular Tales;’ We’ve got started with the first of the Tales from Volume 1 – The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, pp.1-11. & Volume 4‘s complete (though I may type up the Appendix too at some point) – West Highland Stories, Supernatural History, A Plea for Gaelic, Highland Dress, Celtic Art, Music, and Notes which referenced 6 Acts of Parliament, of which I’d already uploaded 4 into Scanned Images, so I typed those up and stuck them in Miscellany. There’s George I., 1st Year, Chapter 54, 1715 & George I., 11th Year, Chapter [26], 1724, which deals with Scotland post-1715 Rebellion, George II., 21st Year, Chapter 26, 1747 which deals with the same post-1745 Rebellion, and George III., 21st Year, Chapter 63, 1780 which repeals the lot.

Should be finished compiling the first decade of Bridgeton’s Streets as they appear in the Glasgow Press this week for the Bridgeton History Group. There’s been a lot of super interesting information appearing to the point where I may upload the information here when the Group’s finished getting what they can from it. It would be street by street as I’ve over 60,000 words in total for the area with half a year still left to go.

20/03/2019 08:07

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I feel like I’m back in the swing of things. I start my nights with a chapter from ‘Popular Tales‘, tonight’s was Aryan Theory, then maybe 3-5 days from the ‘Book of Days‘, as I have to stay ahead of myself with that one, then I finish my night by transcribing Bridgeton street information found in Glasgow publications, courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive, from 1840 onwards, which is when Bridgeton’s first street, Main street, was first mentioned, for the Bridgeton History Group. This schedule tends to make for pretty quick nights.

I know folk visit RSH for Genealogical reasons and with a view to finding out a bit more of my own background I sent away a DNA sample to Ancestry. I thought I’d share the results here.

I’ve checked with a maternal aunt and my dad to find out why Donegal was specifically mentioned when there were no specifications mentioned in Scotland or the North England border regions. They both came up blank though there are certainly Irish roots on the maternal side, just not the Donegal region of Ireland. Interesting thing to do anyway and I’d recommend anyone curious about their own heritage give it a go.

06/03/2019 03:54

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A very good morning to you. While we’ve been continuing daily with ‘Book of Days,’ I’m finally recovered enough that I’m back in work and able to get back to ‘Popular Tales.’ New available chapters are Welsh Stories and Origin of Such Stories. Contents pages for both publications are up to date.

05/03/2019 05:01

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Today is RandomScottishHistory.com’s Birthday!

To celebrate I thought maybe supporters and the interested would like to see the site’s stats from the last year. The worldwide reach surprised me, as did the site’s estimated word count, it’s made me realise just how much has been uploaded so far and I’m confident this momentum will be maintained over the years ahead.

Thank you to everyone who’s taken time to follow the site and engage with the information provided. A massive thank you goes to those who’ve subscribed via the site and Patreon for helping me to afford to maintain the site for the long run. It’s my mission this year to publish the book of Folklore in order to give you something tangible in return for your aid of a wee Scottish History site from Glasgow.

21/02/2019 14:20

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I wanted to take a moment to apologise for it only having been the ‘Book of Days‘ daily pages that have been updated and even then I’ve had to curtail my addition of titles to the ‘in Other Sources.’

I was in for surgery at the start of the month for a minor day procedure. Unfortunately I took home a lung infection with me to deal with as I recouped. So I figured it’d only be for a couple of weeks max, if that. Though I’m afraid another wee lurker was waiting for it’s chance to stop me in my tracks. So I’m stuck, bedbound, with C. Diff (read Cholera), taking the odd 5/10 mins to compile the daily pages when I can. It’s not been fun and I’m regretting the amount of work I’m missing out on. It would seem February’s a bust but I shall be back as soon as I’m literally physically able.

Take it easy all.

16/02/2019 13:06

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Evening, Over the last few days all 6 parts of Hector MacLean’s ‘Gaelic Poetry of Known & Unknown Bards, Published & Traditional‘ have been uploaded as well as short chapters; Gaelic Proverbs and Family History.

‘Book of Days‘ has been continuing. All menus have been updated as has the Bibliography.

I was discussing with a Patron the idea of having a page devoted to recommendations. I want to help support Scottish-based businesses that I know from experience do good work but I have the feeling if I activate the Ads on the site not only will they be everywhere (and I don’t want them on all pages) and are also likely to be a random pick of businesses & services. I’m not stoked about the thought of gambling apps, &c. being promoted here but there are companys like Tradeston-based Cameron Bookbinders, who I’ve used & mentioned often in the Scanned Images section, every so often we’ll order a box of meaty goodies from Linlithgow-based Campbells and we’ve yet to be disappointed. Also deserving of mention are the only bakers that have ever made a glazed doughnut I’m prepared to eat, Yorkhill-based Tantrum Doughnuts who supply the Finnieston-based Clydeside Distillery with their whisky-glazed tastiness, we also recommend taking a tour of said distillery or just popping in for a coffee and snack, it has an excellent atmosphere and the staff couldn’t be nicer – pictures below in the update for 23/11/2018. There are more I’d mention but I’d like to have them all in one place so I’ll think on it. I’m sure these places won’t mind me mentioning them.

I can only assume that for the rest of the week it’ll be just the ‘Book of Days‘ posts as I head home from work this morning at 07:00 only to have to be in hospital all ready to be operated on from 08:00. All very exciting but I doubt I’ll be good for much thereafter so I hope you’ll excuse my inactivity this week. I may even find a minute to get some frivolous for-no-purpose reading done. Thousand & One Nights (1841) looks really appealing.

Enjoy for now and I shall be back soon.

05/02/2019 00:08



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Just ‘Book of Days‘ again today. My time has otherwise been spent compiling February’s ‘On this Day in Other Sources’, as I’ll be out the game for the first part of the month, and mentions of Bridgeton’s streets from 19th century newspapers in preparation for the Bridgeton History Groups’ next publication.

Back to ‘Popular Tales‘ tonight as I figure it’s a better set-up to transcribe books in work and it would be just as easy compiling the lists in the house.

Alex is creating a new logo for RSH which will be uploaded the moment he decides he’s finished with it.

28/01/2019 07:28

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Celebrating Robert Burns on RSH today we have him mentioned, of course, in the ‘Book of Days‘ chapter for today, 25th of January – Burns’ Night, as well as having some dedicated posts for the occasion. ‘Robert Burns & His Night‘ is a wee bit about the man from ‘Poetry of Robert Burns‘ (1896) followed by a run down of traditional Burns’ Supper procedure to which is added links to ‘Address to a Haggis‘ (& Notes) and ‘Tam o’ Shanter‘ (& Notes). I hope folk enjoy whatever their plans for this evening constitute.

25/01/2019 04:00

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Only just the ‘Book of Days‘ and Other Sources posted today. What with tomorrow being Burns’ Night I got down to typing up what I felt would make for some posts with plenty of information that’ll be posted every 5 minutes from 00:05-00:35. Typing up the posts and scanning/editing the pictures for inclusion took a solid 14.5 hours and I’m done now.

Looking forward to doing nothing for a wee while.

24/01/2019 05:15

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We’re continuing with Chambers’ ‘Book of Days‘ and it’s been nice to revisit chapters posted throughout the site to add to the ‘On the Day in Other Sources’ section for each day.

For Campbell’s ‘Popular Tales‘ volume 4 we have the chapters; Ossian and Ballads, Internal Evidence, &c., and, from Hector MacLean‘s offering, Gaelic Poetry of Known & Unknown Bards, Published & Traditional.

I also posted scans of ‘Dantes’ Visions; Inferno, Purgatory, & Paradise’ (1888) as I’d been reminded of them by Campbell’s mention of Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ in Gaelic Ossian – Internal Evidence, &c.

Also added was my second copy, an earlier edition, of ‘Popular Tales‘ volume 4 to the scans of the volumes I’m already working from. It has an excellent front cover, which was my reason for purchase.

‘Tales of a Grandfather‘ was also mentioned in Campbell’s chapter, Popular Ballads, so I’ve uploaded my copy into Scanned Images.



I’m off now to scan in whatever books on Robert Burns I can find for the bard’s birthday remembrance on the 25th.

23/06/2019 08:15

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An A3 scanner has been obtained, purchased entirely with vouchers obtained from surveys, as those of you on my Facebook feed will know from my joy at the time. So I’ve spent my night off tonight rescanning in Punch’s ‘Willing Hands for India’ 2-page cartoon for the Chapter from ‘Gloomy Memories‘ of the same name and finally uploading a large A3 publication of Rob Roy inspired engravings, Six Engravings in Illustration of Rob Roy (1868). The Bibliography has been updated. I was going to also redo the 1767 Map of Scotland though I’ll need to do something about flattening it some more.



20/01/2019 06:11



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I’m sorry I’ve not found time to keep up with regular updates. I wanted to get the first chapters of ‘Popular Tales‘ Volume 4, relating to Ossian, typed up and uploaded as quickly as possible. Also ensuring there’s a post goes out from the ‘Book of Days‘ daily.

Unfortunately, as will happen, today is one of those without any Scotland-relevant articles included. Even though Chambers is both the author of ‘Domestic Annals of Scotland‘ (1885) and ‘Book of Days‘ (1886), I’m finding its ‘Domestic Annals‘ that makes up for a lot of the missing information from ‘Book of Days.’

The chapters dedicated to Exploring the Ossian Controversy have now all been uploaded; Points for Argument, Heroes of Ossian, Ossianic Heroes & Poems in Old Writings, Traditions, Writings, &c., Translating the Poems, and Published Evidence.

Heading out to pick up our new A3 scanner this morning, so I’ll be spending my nights off now uploading all my big pictures and maps to the site. Images like the Map of Scotland (1767) that were scanned in sections and pieced together for upload will be rescanned as one image for a, hopefully, cleaner result. I’ll issue a list of any that are updated as well as new additions once done.



18/01/2019 06:36

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Good morning.

I went and tidied up the volume 1 Contents Page for Popular Tales. The Introduction is now the contents for the 10 parts. I’ve tidied up the urls a bit too so the links for the parts, as posted in the last update, won’t work.

Also, all that’s left, text-wise, of volumes 1-3 are the stories, fables, and poems. Now, as I want to get as much background information as possible uploaded before I start on those, we’re jumping straight to volume 4 which starts us of with an in-depth look at the history, work, and controversy of Ossianic poetry.

Trying to get as much of Chambers’ ‘Book of Days’ typed up in advance of being required as possible as I’ll be in hospital and indisposed for the first part of February [fingers crossed folk]. So 2019 has proven to be a super non-stop year so far.

Here’s to time off.

12/01/2019 08:13

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There have been so many additions to the site in the last week or so I’ll maybe just list them for ease:

You’re already aware Chalmers’ ‘Book of Days‘ is being uploaded in order to give you historical info about whatever day of the year it happens to be. I hope you’ve found it interesting enough that you’ll not hate it taking up the whole year. I copy the details for the day it is over to the Homepage as well.

For Campbell’s ‘Popular Tales‘ we have available; Dedication, Advertisement, Introduction – Part 1 – Fairy Eggs, Part 2 – Obtaining the Stories, Part 3 – Types of Story, Part 4 – All in How You Tell it, Part 5 – Evolution of Stories, Part 6 – Etymological Objects Within Stories, and Part 7 – Nature in the Stories.

The new books in Scanned Images are; ‘Popular Tales of the West Highlands‘ (1890-1893), ‘Poems of Ossian‘ (1812), ‘Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides‘ (1908 & 1909).

I’ve also done as I said I’d have to in my previous update and scanned a few books into the Non-Scottish Publications section of the Miscellany tab; ‘Popular Tales from the Norse‘ (1862), ‘Iliad of Homer‘ (1756), ‘Thousand and One Nights‘ (1841), ‘Nights of Straparola‘ (1894).

All relevant Contents Pages have been updated as has the Bibliography.

Now I’m away for a coffee before I disappear to bed. Enjoy.



11/01/2019 07:41

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Good morning and a very Happy New Year to everyone. I wanted plenty of new things to have been uploaded before the first Update of 2019. I think we’ve accomplished that here. We have two books on the go; the ‘Book of Days‘ (1886) by Robert Chambers, which will be posted daily and allows me to add information from the other sources already uploaded, and volume 1 of ‘Popular Tales of the West Highlands‘ (1890) by John F. Campbell, which I’m very excited about. His introduction is fantastic but long, so I’m breaking it up into bite-size parts. Many of the books he mentions as his sources formed the beginnings of the Random Scottish History library, therefore, whenever a title is mentioned for the first time in the introduction it’ll be highlighted in BOLD text until the book mentioned is scanned in and I can link it to give you an idea of the texts he speaks of. The Scottish publications will be uploaded into the usual Scanned Images section and those from elsewhere will be added to the Non-Scottish Publications section. I’ll begin scanning the first couple already mentioned. Also in BOLD text will be stories from further ahead in ‘Popular Tales’ which I’ll make links to the stories as they’re uploaded.

Just to clarify, for our supporters on Patreon, the original text published here is not what will be published in hard copy to thank you for your support later on in the year. I’ll be updating the text, though not the dialogue, of the stories and Alex will of course be making it beautiful with a plethora of illustrations.

09/01/2019 06:40

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Nothing posted over the last couple of nights as I’ve been preparing posts for the New Year. I’ve a couple scheduled which’ll set the tone for the year’s Home Page. I’m finally getting round to something I’ve been putting off, in lieu of getting more general information uploaded, transcribing Chambers’ ‘Book of Days’ (1886). It’ll provide you with information on each month and day of the year. The days will be posted to the homepage each day.

Now, although Chambers and his brother were Scottish Authors/Publishers operating out of Edinburgh, quite a heavy amount of the information contained within these 2 volumes is not in any way Scotland-related. So, I’m going to do something that I’ve abstained from with the other Scottish books, but that I did with the London-based ‘Punch,’ and I’m going to pick out the relevant information. Unfortunately there isn’t always anything Scottish for every day so I’ll fill those spaces with an ‘On This Day from Other Sources.’

I’ll also be typing up John F. Campbell’s ‘Popular Tales of the West Highlands’ (1890) which will ultimately form the basis for the book of Gaelic Tales I’ll have published next year and which’ll be available to Patreon supporters to obtain one of a few different editions we have in mind. So that’ll be exciting!

Enjoy your Hogmanay and we shall see you back in here in the New Year. Slàinte!

31/12/2018 08:12

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A huge welcome to New RSH patrons Louise & Andy! Thank you so much for your interest in & contribution to the site 😊



The updating of Footnotes is complete, as of about 03:30 this morning. I spent the rest of it collecting information associated with January dates for the RSH ‘Page per Day’ doodah I’ll be starting as of January 1st, 2019. It’ll be Chambers’ ‘Book of Days’, ‘cept with only Scotland-relevant information, of which he’s failed to include a tidbit for every date, so I thought I’d bulk it up some with events mentioned in the books already uploaded to the site.

Yesterday I was also in receipt of my copy of the inimitable Marilee Wein’s ‘Double Genealogy’, which will make for a great read, if the Site‘s anything to go by.

On that note, I’ve been inspired to send off a DNA sample to Ancestry to see what comes of it. Shall include update of the results when I get them back.

29/12/2018 07:31

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My 8 hours at work last night were spent satisfying my OCD by continuing with my fixing of footnotes throughout the books already uploaded. Scots Lore had already been done so I got on with ‘Old and New Edinburgh‘, ‘Gloomy Memories‘, ‘Memorial Catalogue‘, ‘Life of Mary, Queen of Scots‘, ‘Select Views on the River Clyde‘, the first couple of introductory chapters from the Original ‘Balfour’s Historical Works’ and all of the Companion ‘Balfour’s Historical Works’, ‘Domestic Annals‘, and I’ve managed to make a start on ‘Old Glasgow‘ as well. I’ll be finished with the clean-up tonight.

28/12/2018 06:51

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Good morning and a very merry Christmas to those of you partaking in today’s festivities. It’s suitably frosty outside so wrap up warm for those family visits.

Last night I was able to get the final chapter (bar the Appendix) of Cosmo Innes’ ‘Sketches of Early Scotch History‘ published, so this morning you have ‘Kilravock Papers‘ available to you. I also finally uploaded my copy of Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary to the Scanned Images section. Contents pages have been updated.

Enjoy today, whatever you have planned.

25/12/2018 08:43

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Came so close to finishing last night’s chapter, Kilravock Papers, but no biscuit I’m afraid. Shall be completed tonight.

I’ve had a couple of friends exclaim over my intentions to work through the Season and one US friend in particular who seems to have almost taken offense to the lack of festive randomness on the webpage. I celebrate Christmas about as much as I would the Muslim celebrations of the Birth of Muhammad (Mawlid), or the Jewish observance of the Tenth of Tevet, or the Hindu celebration of Tulsi Pujan Diwas, or the Buddhist Dharma Day. I don’t hold religion. As my American friend seemed almost insulted that I was set on keeping the page politics and religion-free, to the exclusion of anything Christmassy, I’ve thrown him a bone, I hope he’s content with, in the form of a wee sprig of holly and berries on the Homepage. Fortunately my workplace is populated by folk of a similar mind on the night shift and so the Kerrang radio station was picked as our playlist for the night in order to escape the repeated seasonal songs that can be difficult to avoid at this time of year. Thank you Kerrang 😆



24/12/2018 07:51

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As promised, the footnotes to the Breadalbane Papers chapter were added on Friday night. Last night I was able to get the entire Cawdor Papers chapter typed up and published for you, so that made me happy. The Contents Page for ‘Sketches’ has been updated too.

I’m not sure there’s very much left, meaning I could very well be on-target to finish this one for the end of December in order to get next year’s project started.

23/12/2018 07:30

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I’m afraid there was no chance of finishing the Breadalbane Papers chapter, from ‘Sketches‘, completely. I’ve published it to the site anyway as the only things missing are the footnotes, I apologise to those of you who enjoy the extra tidbits and clarifications. There is quite a lot of really interesting information included. It’s my night off tonight and my birthday tomorrow so I hope you’ll excuse me. I’ll have the footnotes added and the chapter updated on Friday night. The pictures included for this one are from the Black Book scans already posted.

Welcome to RSH’s newest patron Deborah Campbell. I hope this most recent chapter is of interest as it’s dedicated to the family history of the Campbells.

19/12/2018 07:30

Update: Thought I’d do a quick wee re-do of the footnotes throughout the books so far uploaded as I’ve just been let in on how to make x → x using the HTML coding bit. This means that not only am I able to forgo the use of hundreds of weird symbols, see ‘Old Glasgow‘ for good examples of how out-of-hand that could get, but also Mcs can be Mcs.

I started at the beginning with ‘Scots Lore‘ intending on getting most, if not all, done. Nope. Turns out that one book took 5 hours from getting home this morning. I took a wee break for a quick sandwich & didn’t realise the one thermos of coffee had seen me through. Still one down…

19/12/2018 13:28

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This morning another chapter from Cosmo Innes’ ‘Sketches‘ has been uploaded, the Morton Papers, detailing the history of the Douglases. Next up is the Breadalbane Papers which I’ve been able to supply with some scanned illustrations from the Black Book of Taymouth. I’m glad I didn’t type up the Black Book as Cosmo Innes was also its author and I’d be repeating him for this chapter.

Alex’s illustration of a burning croft was initially for the Gloomy Memories Contents Page but I feel it’s a little too illustrative for that purpose. We’ll maybe stick to spot character illustrations for the Contents. It has been included into the ‘Eviction by Fire in Sutherland‘ chapter instead.

18/12/2018 06:14

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Yay! The chapter for Aberdeen University is finally complete and uploaded. It ended up as a total of 24,482 words, the footnotes alone are 10,763 words., and I don’t know how much of the total is in Latin, I hazard a guess at 15,000… At least that’s what it felt like. This is what the footnotes looked like throughout this chapter:



Alex also has a picture in the works for the ‘Gloomy Memories‘ contents page:

17/12/2018 06:42

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My 8 hours of work last night resulted in 13,002 words typed. Yet I’m still 4 pages away from completing the Aberdeen University chapter, not including all the footnotes (103 so far) that still need typed up. This is a BIG chapter… So, to punish myself for not having completed it in the time allotted, I’ve brought my work home with me in order to get it finished over my nights off. It must be done if we’re hoping to have Innes’ ‘Sketches’ uploaded before the new year.

I hope everyone has more interesting plans for their weekend.



13/12/2018 07:46

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Good morning all. Only just a few wee updates. Couple more chapters added from Cosmo Innes’ ‘Sketches’; Inchaffray, which ends the Monastery section of the first ‘Church Organization’ chapter, and Glasgow University, which is the first half of ‘The University’ chapter, Aberdeen’s next. Contents Page has been updated. That’s us halfway through now so should be on-track to finish by the start of the new year.

The Contents Page for Chalmers’ ‘Life of Mary, Queen of Scots’ (1822) now has a wee Mary character too.

12/12/2018 05:53

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Quite a lot uploaded from ‘Sketches of Early Scotch History‘ in the last week; Bishopric of Caithness, Bishopric of Aberdeen, Melrose, Scone, Newbattle, Arbroath, and Kelso. A lot of information on the ecclesiastical history of Scotland so far with a few really interesting wee incidentals. The Contents Page is up-to-date. Almost halfway through the book now with hopes of having it fully uploaded by the end of the month.

2019 is finally the year I’ve decided to buckle down and get the book of John F. Campbell’s saved Gaelic tales out to those of you interested. The Patreon page had suggestions for tiers, pricing, &c. But I found these didn’t suit what I was wanting. Firstly I want everyone who subscribes as a Patron of Random Scottish History to end up with a book, not just those able to contribute a wee bit more. Secondly I figured the price options were a wee bit steep so I’ve amended those too as I want this to be accessible to everyone who has an interest. So please have a wee look at what’s on offer, as well as earning yourself a spot on the ‘Those Who’ve Helped Make RSH‘ page, and helping to aid the spread of Scotland’s history to those who missed out, were denied, or are just curious.

10/12/2018 06:23

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Good morning all. Another chapter from Innes’ ‘Sketches of Early Scotch History‘ added, this one is the Bishopric of Glasgow. The next chapter has been started and should be done fairly quickly tonight.

I’ve updated the goal of Random Scottish History’s Patreon page and the information on the Contact/Donate page. It’s a goal I’ve had for a while now. John F. Campbell’s 4-volume set ‘Popular Tales of the West Highlands’ was one of the first additions to the ‘Library.’ His introduction is a fully comprehensive run-down of the etymology of Scottish Gaelic folklore. He quotes from many sources and when faced with a quote I tend to get curious about its original context. So I started collecting pre-1900 editions of the books he named. Fairly quickly I decided I wanted to republish these stories with updated narrative, original dialogue, and illustrations. These are not fairytales everyone will be comfortable sharing with their young children. These are pre-Disneyfied, sometimes bloody, tales told to prepare children for the world they were entering. So for general release the illustrations would be child-friendly for those who’re happy to involve their children in their readings. I was always going to publish myself a copy with alternative, more gory, illustrations but I’ve decided to offer that edition as a super-limited run to those patronising the site at the highest, Mormaer, tier.



It’s freezing out this morning so wrap up well and watch your footing.

04/12/2018 08:00

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Happy St. Andrews Day all!

Attempted to type up the entire Bishopric of Glasgow chapter tonight. It was so busy I only had 5717 words when my 1st break arrived at 3am. Needless to say, I’m 14 pages short of finishing and as it’s my nights off I’ll not finish it until Monday night. This means I can’t publish anything to my page in the meantime as the unfinished post will also be published.

I am, however, able to amend already published posts so I’ve added one of Alex’s cartoon pictures of Wallace to Balfour’s ‘Historical Works’ Contents Page. I’ll update you as more are added.



30/11/2018 06:35

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Many things done since yesterday. Scans of ‘Sketches of Early Scotch History‘ (1861) have been uploaded, as have the Prologue and The Parish (part one of chapter one). I realised the WordPress editor format had changed in that links didn’t go blue automatically, they’d just stay the same colour as the surrounding text, but would underline. I didn’t feel that highlighted the links enough so they’re now the custom purple any in-text additions by myself already go in order to highlight them as not original to the prose.

The desire to maintain site continuity, however, has led me to change the link colours for all the contents pages to said purple. The ocd wouldn’t have allowed me sleep had I not. I’m tempted to go down this page and through all the already uploaded posts to do the same to them but I’ve resigned myself to leaving that until I have a wee bit more free time on my hands. It’ll happen.

Also I’d noticed that the Book List drop-down menu of the book titles contained therein had an issue. The 80 chapters uploaded for ‘Scotland Illustrated’ seemed like they were taking over the menu so that you could see a couple of them without hovering the cursor over the book title, as you would normally need to. They had hidden the book titles of ‘Scotland Illustrated‘ (1845) and ‘Old Glasgow‘ (1880). I’ve split the chapters into 2 parts of 40 chapters. That seems to have fixed it. All the associated contents pages have been updated.

Lastly, in my attempt to find out more about Scotland’s whisky history I obtained another disbound Act of Parliament. Not as old as the others, this one’s almost a century older than the first two Acts uploaded. It’s entitled “An Act to reduce the Allowance on Spirits made from Malt only in Scotland and Ireland. [9th April 1832.]” and is at the bottom of the Acts Relating to Scotland post.



29/11/2018 09:21

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The last 5 chapters of ‘Scotland Illustrated’ (1845) have been uploaded; Plate LXXVI., Loch Fad, Plate LXXVII., Dundonald Castle, Plate LXXVIII., Hunters’ Bog, Plate LXXIX., The Falls of Lochy, and Plate LXXX., Anstruther. The Contents Page is fully populated. I’m sad there’s not more as it was super easy to get into and makes me want to visit pretty much everywhere mentioned, even if just to see how they’ve changed. ‘Select Views on the River Clyde’ (1830) is an excellent complement to this book as it covers areas not mentioned in ‘Scotland Illustrated’ in a similar format.

Next up is Cosmo Innes’ ‘Sketches of Early Scotch History’ (1861) as it was cited often in the previous book uploaded to Random Scottish History, MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow’ (1880), and as I happen to already have a copy I feel I may as well. That should take us to the New Year when I’ll be focussing on the main crux of the project, John F. Campbell’s ‘Popular Tales of the West Highlands’ (1890).

28/11/2018 01:20

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Morning all! I had hoped to have completed ‘Scotland Illustrated’ (1845) this morning so I could take the weekend off, however, it was not to be. Far too busy last night to get nearly as much as I wanted done. Still 7 chapters isn’t bad; Plate LXIX., St. Fillan’s Games, Plate LXX., Edinburgh from the Pentlands, Plate LXXI., Dryburgh Abbey, Plate LXXII., Broughty Ferry, Plate LXXIII., Musselburgh, Plate LXXIV., Castle Hill, Edinburgh, and Plate LXXV., Dairsie. Only 5 chapters left to go. Contents Page has been updated.

25/11/2018 06:22

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Good morning. Regardless of it seeming to me as though I hadn’t gotten through very much of ‘Scotland Illustrated‘ (1845), it turns out I managed to get through 9 chapters. I might have hazarded a guess at 6, so that’s nice but also shows how it doesn’t feel much like work when it’s a truly enjoyable book.

This morning we have available for you; Plate LX., City of Perth, from Moncrieff Island, Plate LXI., Distant View of Kinfauns, Plate LXII., Carrick Castle, Plate LXIII., St. Fort, Plate LXIV., Glen Ericht, Plate LXV., Rothesay Castle, Plate LXVI., Murthly Castle, Plate LXVII., Newburgh, and Plate LXVIII., Ardvraick Castle. The book’s Contents Page has also, as usual, been updated.

I think Alex and I are set on starting his new wee troop of historical cartoon characters on the Contents Pages for the books so far uploaded. I’ll keep you updated as they make their appearances.

24/11/2018 06:32

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A whole 10 chapters uploaded tonight. Barely stopped for coffee. For you this morning we have; Plate L., Crichton Castle, Plate LI., Gleneagles, Plate LII., Kelso Abbey, Plate LIII., Sir Walter Scott’s Burial-Place in Dryburgh Abbey, Plate LIV., Craighall, Plate LV., Broomhall, Plate LVI., Loch Tay and Taymouth Castle, Plate LVII., Saint Monance, Plate LVIII., Portobello, and Plate LIX., High Street of Dundee.

You know how it can be difficult to spot what’s missing from something? That it can be easier to see when something’s out of place than absent? Turns out that’s something like what appears to have happened to our whisky barons. There have been more than a few mentions of tobacco barons and the tobacco trade, yet very little on Scotland’s whisky trade. We discovered this when Alex and I went on a tour of Glasgow’s Clydeside Distillery a couple of days ago. Our friend David works there and was happy to tell us all about the place.

Whisky Timeline.

I was lamenting the lack of mentions within the books and trying to work out why that might be. I have two running theories; Firstly, that Temperance was a huge movement in the 19th century. Those guys were vehemently against alcohol and would have stifled marketing as much as they possibly could. Although

Dewar’s Scotch Whisky Advert (1897)

suggests they weren’t causing too much of a problem there. Secondly we have that whisky is a homegrown trade. Keep that in mind. Now England tried on a continual basis to thwart Scotland’s trade. Ships were attacked or made to turn back to shore. They also deemed Scots foreign for the purposes of trade to inhibit our trading capabilities but that meant they spent huge amounts of money upkeeping their regulations against us, therefore, making it detrimental to themselves. So, post-Union, suddenly we have these historians telling us how much the Union benefitted trade, without mentioning why there was any kind of an issue beforehand. In order to laud this change they tell us about the Tobacco, Cotton, and Sugar trades, &c. As we required to be able to trade with other countries to maintain these commodities coming into our country and the manufacturing into marketable wares. Whisky, however, doesn’t lend itself so neatly to this narrative. We need no other country to trade anything with us to support the market, it’s something we’ve produced for centuries regardless of England and its policies against us.

The Clydeside Distillery is beautiful, with excellent views. They’ve been very lucky with obtaining their premises as it’s a building the owner’s great grandfather, John Morrison, built in 1836, though not with a view to whisky distillation. We recommend a visit to everyone partial to a wee tipple of Uisge Beatha, though, even if not, the cafe would be difficult to beat. We recommend the Bank Note whisky glazed doughnut.

23/11/2018 06:44



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Loads of chapters uploaded since the last update. 7 chapters were uploaded on the 18th/19th November; Plate XXXVII., Auchtermuchty, Plate XXXVIII., Craigmillar Castle, Plate XXXIX., Hermitage at Dunkeld, Plate XL., Loch Awe, Plate XLI., Wemyss Castle, Plate XLII., Dalkeith, and Plate XLIII., Loch Ken.

Tonight has produced 6 additional chapters; Plate XLIV., Grave of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, Plate XLV., Hawthornden, Plate XLVI., Bandirran, and Dunsinnaine Hill, Plate XLVII., Melrose Abbey, Plate XLVIII., Loch Lochy, and Plate XLIX., Inchrye Abbey.

We’re also now have a Patreon Profile for anyone wishing to become a patron of the page. I’m going to try and convince our artist, Alex, to agree to draw portraits of selected famous Scots from history, to be sent as prints to those kind enough to help fund the site.

We’ll see how it goes.



22/11/2018 06:21

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Another very good morning all! The speed these chapters are getting posted is making me feel super productive of late. That’s another six chapters for your reading/viewing pleasure; Plate XXXI., Falkland Palace, from the Court-yard, Plate XXXII., Roslin Glen and Castle, Plate XXXIII., Roslin Chapel, Plate XXXIV., Burntisland, Plate XXXV., Loch Winnoch, and Plate XXXVI., The Falls of Bruar. I’ve been enjoying the accompanying pictures immensely for the detail they contain. Contents Page is updated as usual.

17/11/2018 05:51

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Good morning! Five chapters uploaded for you last night; Plate XXVI., Invermay, Plate XXVII., Loch-Eck, Plate XXVIII., Dura Den, Plate XXIX., Loch Oich, and Invergarry Castle, and Plate XXX., Town of Falkland and Palace. I was going to go on and do a sixth but I thought stopping at Chapter 30, page 60, was a nice place to stop for the morning as it appealed to my OCD for anything 3-related.

The Contents Page for ‘Scotland Illustrated’ (1845) is looking fairly healthy for the small amount of time I feel like I’ve spent with this publication. Hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

16/11/2018 05:05

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Another seven chapters uploaded tonight; Plate XVIII., Habbie’s How, Plate XIX., Ballendean, Plate XX., Loch Doon, Plate XXI., Duddingston and Arthur’s Seat, Plate XXII., Craighall, Plate XXIII., Castle Urquhart, and Plate XXIV & XXV., The Twa Brigs O’ Doon.

Also Alex has done us some wee cartoon characters of four of the more obvious Scottish folk from history. ‘Warring Wullie’ Wallace, Robert ‘Balshie Bruce’ , Queen ‘Mary Doll’, and Rabbie ‘Bardie Burns’ (provisionally). We’ll see how we can make use of them later on.

13/11/2018 06:51

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More chapters uploaded tonight; Plate XI., Borthwick Castle, Plate XII., Jedburgh Abbey, Plate XIII., Interior of Jedburgh Abbey, Plate XIV., Crail, Plate XV., Loch Maben and Castle, Plate XVI., Linlithgow Palace, and Plate XVII., Balcarres Craig. I have to say I’m not stoked about how the scans are turning out on this one. They seem a bit dark and I didn’t want to edit them too much but if I find a better way to scan them in I’ll be sure to replace them all. This is a great book though with nice wee chapters that should make it a fairly speedy process to upload.

12/11/2018 05:52

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Over the last few nights we’ve got right in about ‘Scotland Illustrated’ (1845). Professor Wilson’s rather lengthy introduction, Remarks on the Scenery of the Highlands, took a couple of nights but the chapters themselves are fairly short; Plate I., The City of St. Andrews, Plate II., Loch-Lomond, Looking North, Plate III., Abbey of Balmerino, Plate IV., Dunstaffnage Castle, Plate V., Scone Palace, Plate VI., Ancient Gateway of Scone Palace, Plate VII., Loch-Leven Castle, Plate VIII., Dunfermline, Plate IX., Dunfermline Palace, and Plate X., Harbour of Dundee, have all been uploaded for your perusal. The pictures are as good as I can get them with the hand scanner as the pages are very tightly bound and this has made the pages a wee bit warped and bumpy. I do what I can and hope it’s enough.



Enjoy.

11/11/2018 04:53

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Apologies for my absence for the last 11 days. I absconded to Crete with Alex, RSH’s illustrator, to immerse ourselves in Greek history. My interest in history began with Classical Greece, leading me to do Arts and Humanities at the Open University with a view to learning ancient Greek in order to read Homer’s original works without the need to rely on, say, Alexander Pope’s translations. In changing my field to Scottish history it turns out Latin is of more use to me though of a less interesting nature.

We covered a fair amount of the island’s places of historical interest, though we’d have needed maybe a month to get through everything there was to see.

Aptera Fortress.

Agia Triada Monastery.

Statue of Spiros Kayales, Akrotiri.

Venetian Lighthouse at Chania Harbour.

Arkadi Monastery.

Mosque turned Church in Rethymno.

Palace of Knossos Archaeological Excavation Site.

Morosini Fountain, Heraklion.

St. Peter & Paul Church, Heraklion.

Wooden Model of the Palace of Knossos, Phaistos Disc (both sides), and Skeletal Remains in a Jar at Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum.

Palace of Phaistos Archaeological Excavation Site.

Carved Tree at Matala.

Wee Windmill at Elounda, with our Artist, where we boarded the boat to Spinalonga Island. We had our picture taken as we boarded. The resulting keyring. The Island itself.

Round Spinalonga Island a former Leper Colony or Lazar House.

Europa Sitting on Zeus as a Bull (both sides) and Lake Voulismeni in Agios Nikolaos.

We captured a fair number of Crete’s wildlife on camera. A skink was the first in Skaleta. We were told it was basically a lizard that didn’t use its legs, to the point of being basically a snake. The praying mantis I caught by the pool, in Hersonissos, was striking as it appeared to be albino though this is how they are just after molting. There were also what I took to be geese, though they’re apparently large ducks, by Lake Voulismeni in Agios Nikolaos happily co-existing with the local cat population.

There’s also a kind of moth that mimics hummingbirds called the Hummingbird Hawk Moth which I was lucky to catch on video in Hersonissos.

Plenty of cats. I’ll not bore you with all the pics and vids. The island is overrun with them but every one I came across seemed clean, without fleas or injuries, and were super friendly, if a little skinny in most cases. In our wanderings through varying residential areas we were happy to see plenty of folk left containers of water and food out indiscriminately for any wandering animals requiring them.

Cat in a plant pot at the Agia Triada Monastery and kittens at Arkadi Monastery.

Kittens with their mum at the Palace of Phaistos.

Also lots of fish. Super close to the shore in most cases, which is not something I’ve seen before, as well as trout and a Sturgeon in a decorative pool at the Argrypolis Waterfalls.

At the Rethymnon Harbour.

At the shore of Agios Nikolaos.

This is obviously only a taste of the 485 photos and 30 videos I uploaded as my holiday diary to Facebook but you’d need to send me a wee friend request in order to see them if you’re not already in my contacts.

Back to transcribing Professor Wilson’s Introduction to ‘Scotland Illustrated‘ (1845) which should be published tomorrow morning.

06/11/2018 06:10

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Over 8000 words typed up from the introduction to ‘Scotland Illustrated‘ (1845) and I’m just about halfway through. So nothing to post this morning I’m afraid. Professor Wilson, the author of said introduction, is another one of those we’ve become so used to, a Scottish historian who can’t help but compare everything they come across to its supposed counterpart in England. He spends an entire paragraph extolling the virtues of the Borrowdale scenery in Cumberland and begins the subsequent paragraph with the sentence, “No – there is no glen in all the Highlands comparable with Borrowdale.”, well gee thanks love…

It’s striking how often authors felt the need to do this as I would think it a fairly uncommon occurrence for French historians to devote entire sections of their writings to how incredible a random bit of Spain of Germany is, or the difference in the currency exchanges at different points of their histories between the countries… Anyways, it is how it is and we make do with the information we can get our hands on.

26/10/2018 06:54

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MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ (1880) is now complete, with the exception of the appendix which I’ll decide on later. A whole 4 chapters typed up and posted this morning; Literary History, Value of Property, Price of Commodities and Labour, and Contrast Between Former and Present Condition of the City. As per usual the Contents Page has been updated too.

There’s an excellent map of Glasgow that’s part of the last chapter showing how the city changed in a century but I’ve tried scanning it in and the binding of the book makes it impossible. When an A3 scanner is obtained (we’ve obtained 2 of the same type we couldn’t get working in the last 2 weeks) it shall be done and will be included in the Maps from Books section as well. I’ve included a photo of it in its spot in the chapter as a placeholder for the time being.



‘Scotland Illustrated‘ will be joining me in my place of employment tonight so I can get started on that wee gem.

25/10/2018 08:34

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Another couple of chapters typed up and published this morning for you; Education – Amusements – Fairs and Police, Water Supply, &c.. Some nice information in the latter chapter on Glasgow’s publishers. Contents Page for ‘Old Glasgow’ has been updated.

I’m afraid I’ve still not heard from anyone with regards M’Ure’s ‘View of the City of Glasgow’ and I don’t know that I’ll feel comfortable with it until I know where it originated. So please contact me – I’m happy to retain your anonymity – it’s really for my own peace of mind.

We’ll be done with MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ (1880) as of tomorrow morning I’m thinking. On Thursday night I’ll make a wee start on uploading ‘Scotland Illustrated‘ (1845) before we disappear abroad for a wee break to immerse ourselves in Greek history.

24/10/2018 06:41

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Back to work and two more chapters uploaded for you this morning; The River and Harbour and Sanitary Condition of City – Habits of the People.

On a strange and confusing note, M’Ure (McUre) has been mentioned and cited quite a number of times in MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ so far but he’s as much an author I’d go after as Tytler, in that you can expect originals of their work to cost far too much to be feasible for this project (maybe when I’m rich in my next life). A copy of John M’Ure’s ‘A View of the City of Glasgow’ was delivered to my humble abode yesterday morning and has me perplexed as to where it’s come from. It has a date of 1830 on the initial publisher’s page and a date on the second of 1733. I can only assume it’s been a wee fan of Random Scottish History but if you could contact me and let me know who you are so I can thank you (so much and forever), I think I’d feel better about it.

23/10/2018 06:40

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The last two nights have been spent on 3 chapters from ‘Old Glasgow‘; Municipal and Social History, Distinction of Classes, and Trade and Commerce. I felt it was necessary to add a few of my own footnotes at the bottom of the chapter on Trade to give a more rounded perspective of the information offered.

Alex has very kindly illustrated a wee sketched likeness of John Glassford taken from the tobacco lord’s family portrait for the ‘Municipal and Social History’ chapter.



20/10/2018 03:56

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Only just the one chapter uploaded this morning. I’m thinking I should’ve split it into two parts but as it was Ecclesiastical History I thought I’d just batter on and get it done.

Some numbers for you from tonight’s work; 26 pages, just over 10,000 words, in approximately 9 hours, with roughly 90 appearances of varying incarnations of the word “Presbytery”. Even typing it again there was painful. 65 Footnotes, to the point I ran out of symbols and resorted to those Greek Letters most dissimilar to our’s.

You may want to brush up on your yoghs (ʒ) and thorns (þ/y) for this one 😉 If in doubt I’ve explained these defunct letters at the start of the Glossary.



All in all just glad it’s done. Not my favourite chapter of MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ so far.

18/10/2018 06:04

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Back to work and right back into the swing of things with MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ (1880).

Three chapters uploaded for you this morning; The City Ports and Military Defences, Early State of the Land near Glasgow, and The People, and How They Lived. Lots more footnote links taking you to ‘Scots Lore‘ (1895) and Grant’s ‘Old and New Edinburgh‘ (1880).

17/10/2018 06:11

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I know it was supposed to be my night off but I though I might as well post the recently obtained ‘Directory of Ladies of Pleasure in Edinburgh‘, originally anonymously authored and published in 1775, this facsimile edition published in 1978 as I could obtain no pre-1900 copies, into Scanned Images. I’ve decided not to type up the descriptions given though I’ve included searchable type-ups of the Preface in which the author really attempts to defend prostitution and its “virtues”. The contemporary engravings included at the end are very nice and swung my decision to publish it to Random Scottish History.

15/10/2018 04:30

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I’ve been steadily continuing with MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘. Since my last wee break I’ve managed to get six chapters uploaded with their respective pictures. The last of the said six chapters, Old Streets and Buildings, I’ve divided up into four parts as it was a little long for one post.

For your reading pleasure we now have; Tenure of Property, Rule of Bishops, Armorial Insignia and City Seals, Cathedral, Castle and the Manor Houses of the Bishops, Old Streets and Buildings Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

I’m off for another couple of nights. Enjoy all.

14/10/2018 04:46

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A very good morning to you. In the last 4 nights I’ve managed to get a whole 7 chapters of MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ typed, scanned, and published. I wasn’t kidding when I said this book has me excited. I can’t get through it fast enough though the author’s comparisons with the English way of things got tiring fairly quickly. I assume this was his way of attempting to make the information relatable, though I’d have preferred to have the comparisons made with the other cities in Scotland to give an idea of how the country evolved as a whole in relation to its fastest growing city. That and the Latin-heavy text are my only complaints, otherwise this makes for a fascinating read.

Covered so far are Glasgow’s; First Bishop, Bell and Miracles, Name, Early Church, Early Inhabitants, Early Language, and Early Houses which leads nicely to the Thomas Fairbairn Lithographs already posted.

Time for a couple of days off methinks.

08/10/2018 08:05

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I was hoping to have Chambers’ ‘Domestic Annals‘ (1885) completed within the space of a couple of nights. I’m very pleased, having had a night to myself, to declare my transcription of this book completely ended already. The last three chapters uploaded for your reading pleasure are; the Reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714), Reign of George I. (1714-1727), and Reign of George II. (1727-1745). Contents pages and Bibliography are up to date.



I’ll be taking the next couple of nights off to reset and prepare for MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘ (1880), which I’ve already mentioned has me very excited 😃



02/10/2018 06:14

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Good morning all,

A few additions over the last few nights to bring to your attention.

In Maps from Books I’ve added Maps of Edinburgh (Varying Years) which have been taken from James Grant’s ‘Old and New Edinburgh‘ (1880), volume 1, already uploaded in full.

The second of Charles II.‘s chapters, from Chambers’ ‘Domestic Annals‘, is uploaded, as is James VII., William & Mary, and William III. Only 3 wee chapters left to finish this book and allow us to get on to MacGeorge’s ‘Old Glasgow‘.

In the Interregnum chapter of ‘Domestic Annals’ is mentioned something called the ‘Caldwell Papers’ which I’d never heard of and being a Caldwell from Greenock I thought I’d seek out more information. To that end I obtained the London Quarterly Review’s write-up of the Caldwell Papers for those interested.

Also mentioned, in the first of Charles II.‘s chapters (‘Domestic Annals’) and Chapter 34 (‘Old and New Edinburgh’), is Scotland’s first newspaper the ‘Mercurius Caledonius‘ of 1661. I managed to obtain the “Fac Simile” copy of this edition in a disbound copy of the 200th celebration of the ‘Caledonian Mercury’. I’ve typed up the 1661 Edition and the 1861 Historical Sketch.

So I’ve not had too much time for a life recently but the upside is you’ve lots to look through 😉



01/10/2018 06:43

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Firstly tonight, the first of Charles II.‘s chapters has been uploaded and the Contents Page has been updated.

I’ve populated the Maps from Books section with Map of Glasgow (1879), which must be one of the very last maps of the city published before Central Station opened in the middle of that year, Maps of Glasgow & Edinburgh (1847), and Maps of Edinburgh and the Wider Suburbs (1884).

24/09/2018 02:55

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As I’m in receipt of all the books donated recently to Random Scottish History’s library I tried to have them all speedily scanned and uploaded to Scanned Images. They’re fantastic and I can’t wait to get properly into them. As you’ll be aware by now, I don’t get to read them until I’m typing them up for the site so I’m very excited.

To begin with a long-time friend, who would like to remain anonymous, has donated:

‘Pictorial History of Scotland‘, J. Taylor (1859), Vols. 1 & 2.

‘Old Glasgow‘, A. MacGeorge (1880). This will be the next book uploaded after ‘Domestic Annals‘.

Then my wonderfully supportive parents-in-law, Julie and Hilton Eeles have donated:

‘Edinburgh Almanack‘ (1794). This is so information-heavy with statistics and costs for various that it seemed wiser to scan in as much of the book as related to Scotland as possible instead of typing it all out for the Book List.

‘History of Glasgow‘, A. Brown (1795). I may have this bound at some point.

‘History of Scotland‘, Rev. J. MacKenzie (1894).

‘Scotland Illustrated‘, Prof. Wilson (1845). This book is so tightly bound and full of beautiful pictures it will be the next book uploaded after ‘Old Glasgow‘.

The Scanned Images menu has been updated as has the Bibliography.

23/09/2018 03:59

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Last night I completed the most recent chapter, Interregnum (1649-1660), of Chambers’ ‘Domestic Annals‘ and the contents page has been updated. As mentioned previously in the Updates here, Chalmers has been doing my head in a bit with his constant picking of majoritively negative quotes from our history, though he made quite the error in having a go at our tradesmen ancestors apparently adulterating booze in the 17th century. I’ve cleared up his error in the footnotes with an excerpt from James Greenwood’s excellent ‘Seven Curses of London’ (1869) detailing the publicans, in England’s capital, doing the same, perhaps even worse, in the mid to late 19th century. This is backed by the article, also cited in the footnotes, from Punch.



With a view to scanning in large newspapers, maps, &c. I went online and searched for an A3 scanner to purchase. One came up that I figured was a super reasonable price and so I went for it. The thing arrived only for us to quickly realise it was A4 size, which we already have… So I’ve made a shortlist of (definitely A3) flatbed scanners which I’ll whittle down to one as soon as Currys accept the return of their very badly marketed small one.

20/09/2018 07:46

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No more hospital for me for a while, fingers crossed, I may be able to tell you about it shortly, all very exciting.

For now though, that’s the last chapter of Charles I. uploaded and the Contents Page for ‘Domestic Annals‘ has been updated too.

I’ll be going through the books this morning looking for maps to upload into the Maps from Books section as near everyone I’ve ever met is a fan of old maps. I know I have a nice 1847 reproduction of a Glasgow map from 1650 that’ll need to be scanned in an innovative way, as you can see here:



I’ve scanned in Guthrie’s ‘General History of Scotland‘ (1767), vol. 2, which is where the Map of Scotland came from and added it to the site’s Bibliography.

Also Random Scottish History has been in receipt of a few donated books recently. A 2 volume illustrated set I’m very much looking to get stuck into and one on Glasgow I’ve been after for a wee while. I’ll elaborate on what they are with scans when I have them both. My donor of these fine publications is looking to remain anonymous though they are fully aware of my gratitude for these additions to the library.

18/09/2018 10:35



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It’s been a wee while since I wrote an update. I’ve been going through a series of medical procedures that have left me lethargic, uncomfortable, and incapable of completing anything quickly I’m afraid.

On Saturday, 8th of Sept., after a week of tracking down and typing out sources, I uploaded Curious and Interesting Deaths for those of you morbidly inclined like myself. This I was inspired to do from a post on the A Grave Announcement page.

The next night I spent fixing and ironing a very detailed Map of Scotland that had separated from its book, the 2nd volume of ‘A General History of Scotland’ by William Guthrie (1767). I then scanned it into the computer in 6 pieces due to its size and spent a few hours on Photoshop straightening and jigsawing said map back together again to post on Monday the 10th.

Monday night was spent typing up and scanning in Charles I.’s chapter, 1625-1637, from Chambers’ ‘Domestic Annals of Scotland‘ (1885), which was posted yesterday morning.

Last night was used in uploading my collection of the few miscellaneous postcards, photos, newspaper pages, and other Scotland-related ephemera, into the Miscellaneous Collected Pictures post for this morning. The Miscellany Contents menu has been updated.



12/09/2018 05:33

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Instead of giving myself the short-breathed chest pain the anxiety of trying to get a chapter done within as few nights as possible gives, I took my time over this one. Made for a far more pleasant experience.

So, the next chapter of Chambers’ ‘Domestic Annals‘, James VI. (1603-1625), has been uploaded.

Will go through my miscellany of pictures from various sources over the next couple of days and get them uploaded into the Scanned Images tab.

Enjoy.

02/09/2018 08:21

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Thought I’d get something accomplished before I went to bed this morning. I’ve uploaded the ‘Royal Scottish Album of Glasgow and the Clyde‘ (undated). They seem to be drawings of Valentine & Son’s photos but there’s really no information within the book and I’m unable to find out more online. It doesn’t seem as though very many were made. I love these pictures though and if I can find out more I’ll update the post.

29/08/2018 10:26

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Had a wee bit of time on my hands and thought I’d upload scans of my copies of Valentine & Sons’ view books of Stirling (1890ish) and Glasgow (undated, end of 19th century). Stirling‘s done though the scanner stopped working halfway through Glasgow so I’ll finish it later. Scanned Images Content page has been updated.

28/08/2018 13:27

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James VI.’s third chapter (1591-1603) has been published. Was set on having it up and done before my days off. There were still 12,000ish words to type up in order to successfully do that, so I ended up having to bring it home to finish, apparently it’s not possible to do in 8hrs (ended up taking me 10). Content page has been updated. Still it’s done and I can treat myself to an early morning.

Good night all.

27/08/2018 09:09

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I’d mentioned, previously, the Glasgow Gallivanter inspiring me to post my Dundee pictures along with relevant information. Last night was spent organising the few that were of any use to the page and finding out more about the buildings featured therein. I’ve made the names of those pictured links to take you to websites that explain a wee bit more about them. The Miscellany Contents page has been updated.

It’s a beautiful city full of history and fantastic architecture and we’ll be back again in the future, if only to see if the interior and exhibits of the V & A Museum justify the exterior choice of design, as it would seem to be a little incongruous with its surroundings.

I’ll be continuing with James the VI.’s third chapter from Chambers’ ‘Domestic Annals‘ (1885) tonight.

24/08/2018 08:22

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The second of James VI.’s Chapters has been published for your perusal. Is super witchcraft heavy this one, but of course our author couldn’t resist finishing with a plague.

Have messed about, reordered and added to the Miscellany menu option in order to give space to our new guest author Mr Tam McCann of the Parkhead History Group and the new Wanderings folder.

Contents pages have been updated for both ‘Domestic Annals‘ and Miscellany.

Off for a couple of nights now and looking forward to meeting an active participant of Random Scottih History, in the form of the Glasgow Gallivanter, on one of my days off which I’m really looking forward to.

Enjoy guys!

21/08/2018 01:51

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So I was somewhat overconfident in my ability to complete everything last night. I’ve posted my own pics of Glasgow’s City Necropolis with the epitaphs that can be read, which may aid those in search of relatives. Still 7 pages short of completing James VI., however, when time ran out this morning.

I promise I tried.

20/08/2018 07:36

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I’ve been recovering from a minor medical procedure this week. Though I’ve made a start on the next chapter of James VI., it seemed like the break was a good opportunity to introduce Mr Tam McCann of the Parkhead History Group. He sent me a couple of articles he’s written about both the Eastern (Janefield) and City Necropolises in Glasgow. So I’ve typed them up and added the pictures he’s included. They’re full of super interesting information that would be of possible use to folk tracing their genealogy.

James VI.’s next installment will probably be published early bells tomorrow.

19/08/2018 09:20

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I forgot to update you on Sunday (05/08) night’s work, so that was the Regency of Morton. Last night was the Reign of James the Sixth, from 1578-1585. Contents page has been updated.

09/08/2018 09:05

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More of an update for this morning. Two more chapters uploaded; Regency of Moray and Regencies of Lennox and Mar, with illustrations. Contents page has been updated.

This Updates section was a page but that was annoying me so it’s now a post. and the menu options have been messed with a wee bit. C’est tout.

03/08/2018 08:32

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Morning all, just. Mary’s second chapter has been uploaded and Content page updated. Already! I know! These are nice quick chapters with beautiful wee illustrations.



Also, Random Scottish History’s very own illustrator, Alex, had entered a portrait of your’s truly into the Scottish Portrait Awards. He spent a good 3 months on it and used a mixed media of paint, pastels, pencils and even nail polish. He didn’t make the final pick but it’s something I’ll certainly treasure, regardless of his being sick of the sight of it 😆.

03/08/2018 00:04

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Afternoon. I was so relieved at finishing a number of things I’d been putting off with Random Scottish History that I nearly forgot to write an update.

The first of Queen Mary‘s chapters has been uploaded with illustration, taking us from 1561-1565. Contents page has been updated. There was a discrepancy with dates for the two factions seen fighting in the sky by thousands of people. Balfour claims it was 1529, during James V.’s reign,

“In Agust, this same zeire, light candells appeire one the topes of the mountans, neir Stirling, befor the sune; and 2 battalions of armed men seeme to skirmishe, in order of batell, in the firmament, to the grate astonishment of maney thousands that did behold the same.”

whereas Chambers has it occurring in 1564, as told by Knox, a man he obviously admires,

There were seen in the firmament (Feb. 15 and 18), says he, ‘battles arrayit, spears and other weapons, and as it had been the joining of two armies. Thir things were not only observed, but also spoken and constantly affirmed by men of judgment and credit.’ Nevertheless, he adds, ‘the queen and our court made merry.’ The Reformer considered these appearances as declarations of divine wrath against the iniquity of the land. Most probably they were resolvable into a simple example of the aurora borealis.

I’m inclined towards the latter as Balfour had a tendency to get dates slightly wrong.

The Scanned Images section had the books listed oldest uploaded first where the Book List was vice-versa, so I amended that. Firstly I’d realised, however, that the scans were pages instead of posts and they hadn’t shared when posted, so I copied them into new posts and reordered them in line with the other list. Now the OCD’s satisfied I can get on with the rest of Chambers’ somewhat biased Annals.

02/08/2018 13:03

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I created this site due a love I have of my country of origin. I wanted to know more about it and put the information I was coming across out there for others with a similar interest. It, therefore, saddens me when I come across an author, Scottish by nationality, who seems so set on putting Scotland down due to their own prejudices. Unfortunately some found the need to pander to the rest of the island’s population. A large proportion of Scotland’s population wasn’t overly enamoured with the union with England and so a faction arose of historians set on making the case for said union, for justifying it. This they did, mainly, by being derogatory about Scotland and its capabilities. If we were to only take their word for it, we’d wonder how Scotland managed to remain self-sufficient and independent as long as it did. Fortunately we have the Chalmers and McLeods of this nation to rely upon for a more balanced, investigative, take on our histories.

Chambers fulfils this ‘British-perspective’ role in our new [old] book, ‘Domestic Annals of Scotland’. It’s already hard going and we’re only the introduction and half a chapter in. For Queen Mary’s first arrival in Leith after her husband Francis’ death he chooses a quote, out of all the high-profile witnesses to that landing, from John Knox. Literally akin to her step-brother in being vindictive and a close contender for position as her nemesis. He very carefully chooses who’s quotes will lend themselves to his narrative and, as you’ll find out in reading his produce, relies heavily on hearsay and conjecture, from people who, from their own quotes, held super sectarian views heavily against Catholics and their religion. It’s difficult to see through the bias these are coloured with. A straight-forward, here are the facts, history would have been so much more useful to the generations that have been since. I’ve tackled a few of what’s said with footnotes but don’t have the will to take it sentence by sentence, as is probably needed.



Bibliography, Contents and Book List pages have been updated, and “tulyie/tulʒie” added to the Glossary.

Good luck history lovers.

01/08/2018 06:09

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Finally!

It may have taken an entire week but James VI.’s updated Companion copy is now published for your enjoyment, the Contents page has been updated, and that’s us now finished Volume 1 of ‘Balfour’s Historical Works‘.

In my researches, of which there were many for this chapter, I came across both a 16th century Ritchie Rich and an English lawyer of Italian descent by the name of Julius Caesar. I also found my sister [granddaughter of a MacLean from Tobermory, Mull] had continued a trend from history of the MacLeans marrying Campbells in order to mitigate the feuds between the two families, though I doubt that was behind the decision.

I’m keen to upload the ‘Domestic Annals of Scotland’, Robert Chambers (1885), so no doubt that’ll be started tonight.

31/07/2018 09:19

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Good morning.

The Original version of James VI.’s chapter has been typed up and published and the Contents page updated.

Couple of days off now so you can expect the Updated version by the middle of next week. Then we’re done with Volume 1 of Balfour’s ‘Historical Works‘. Already deciding on the next random book to upload for the interested.

22/07/2018 04:24

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Apologies history fans. It took 3 nights to type up Mary’s Companion copy and 3.5 nights to complete the research of who/where/what was being talked about. Loads of fun. I almost feel like these guys are family now I know them so well, though I’m sure my shocking memory’ll cure me of that soon enough.

It is, however, complete for your enjoyment/research purposes. Contents page has been updated and more words have been added to the Glossary.



Next up, James VI., Mary’s son and first monarch of both Scotland and England.

20/07/2018 00:37

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Yay!

Mary, Queen of Scots’, chapter (Original version) is finished and published complete with her portrait, thanks to the very talented Mr Alex Eeles. Contents page has been updated.

I have to say, though, that Balfour failed somewhat to really get into the intriguing done by Elizabeth in her bid to oust Mary and deny her the birthright owed to her (the English crown) should Elizabeth fail to produce heirs. He does hint at it some, though completely ignores Mary’s brother the Earl of Murray’s part in Darnley’s murder and her downfall. He makes the Earl of Bothwell out to be some kind of lone wolf acting for the Queen when Chalmers provides us with evidence he was fully in league with Murray, Morton & Elizabeth. Darnley also wasn’t the “innocent Prince” Balfour makes him out to be as he would seem to have been behind the murder of David Rizzio, Mary’s personal assistant and confidant, through jealousy and the urging of the faction out against her.



It doesn’t correlate with the mountain of evidence George Chalmers provides us with in his ‘Life of Mary, Queen of Scots‘. Though does give us the extra interesting detail, I failed to notice in his dissection of h