Author: jack.mclachlan14

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Medicine Poetry

Migraine Poetry

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Not many poems about migraines out there. “On his Heidake” was written by Scottish makar William Dunbar about 1500 to 1513 to explain a lack of productivity to his patron and benefactor, James IV.

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Rough Translation:

My head did ache last night,
so much that I cannot write poetry today.
So painfully the migraine does disable me,
piercing my brow just like any arrow,
that I can scarcely look at the light

And now, Sire, shortly after mass,
though I tried to begin to write,
the sense of it lurked very hard to find,
deep down sleepless in my head,
dulled in dullness and distress

Very often in the morning I get up
when my spirit lies sleeping.
Neither for mirth, for minstrelsy and play,
nor for noise nor dancing nor revelry,
it will not awaken in me at all.

Categories
Animals

The astonishing and sagacious CATS!!

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They don’t make cats like they used to… Showed my cat this handbill from 1830s Edinburgh. Nope.

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Source: https://digital.nls.uk/188069617
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My cat, Rab, not roasting my coffee or sharpening my knives for me.
References

National Library of Scotland. Broadsides from the Crawford Collection. https://digital.nls.uk/188069617

Categories
Animals Folklore

Fyrie Dragon

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In his 1646 history of the Church in Scotland, David Calderwood very matter-of-factly records that: On Monday 3rd June 1622, “A fyrie dragon, both greate and long” flew over Scotland and was “spouting fyre from her”. Was no big deal.

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References

Thomson, T. (ed.) (1845) The History of the Kirk of Scotland, by Mr. David Calderwood. vol. 7. Wodrow Society, Edinburgh. pg. 548

Categories
Folklore

Laying the Ghost

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The famous 1889 “Arran Murder” of Edwin Rose almost went unsolved because the island’s police buried a key piece of evidence in the sea–his boots. They upheld the old Arran superstition of “laying the ghost” to prevent murdered men from haunting the locals.

Source: Illustrated Police News. 14th September 1889. pg. 1
References

Roughead, W. (1913) Twelve Scots Trials. William Green & Sons, Edinburgh. pp. 273-302

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Uncategorized

Midnight Cropper

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On a dark night in February 1813, a Dunblane man was stealing from his neighbour’s garden when he tripped on the cat and fell down a well. The neighbour heard his screams and got a ladder. The thief ran off leaving 19 heads of cabbage down the well.

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References

Perthshire Courier. 18th February 1813. pg. 4

Categories
Animals Rural Life

Rosyth fin-whale fundraiser

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In October 1833, a dead 83ft fin whale washed ashore at Rosyth. Locals built a roof and walls around it and charged admission to buy coal and meal for the parish poor.

A book of whales London,J. Murray;1900. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/16965

For comparison, the average Atlantic fin whale is 65ft. The longest ever recorded was 85ft.

References

Perthshire Courier. 10th October 1833. pg. 2.

Categories
Folklore Medicine

Curing warts in OWS

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Folk in the Northeast believed the following would cure warts.

Rub the wart with snails,

Secretly rub the wart on a cheating husband (he would get your wart),

Lick it every morning,

Rub it with dust from crossroads while saying the words:
“A’m ane, the wart’s twa,
The first ane it comes by
Taks the warts awa.”,

Wash it with water that has collected on a boulder,

Rub with meat, bury said meat, and the wart will “decompose” as the meat does.,

Rub with sack of barley–whoever eats the grains, gets your wart,

References

Gregor, W. (1881) Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland. Elliot Stock, London. 238pp.

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Uncategorized

Tunnels below Tranent

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The Tranent Coal Wastes are/were a massive underground network of caverns created by 700yrs of coal mining. The folk of Tranent hid in the wastes in 1547 before the Battle of Pinkie and many houses had direct access down into the tunnels under their floors.

In 1710, Prestoungrange kirk partly fell into the wastes and people lifted the flagstones to go down into the them. Until 1884, some families even buried their dead in carved niches in the wastes using stairs under a false tombstone at Tranent Kirkyard.

Because of the wastes, Tranent famously never had water, as the wells got undermined.

“I can wash tripe with as little water as any woman in Tranent”

old Scots saying (A bad workman blames his tools).

This scarcity was *really* bad news when cholera would hit the town.

There are many stories about folk lost in the wastes or falling through the crust– I’m not sure how safe I’d feel in Tranent, but it does seem to genuinely have 700+ years of tunnels underneath it! Also, here’s my favourite epitaph from a Tranent headstone.

References

Alison, S.S. (1840) Report on the sanatory condition and general economy of the town of Tranent, and the neighbouring district in Haddingtonshire. W. Clowes, London. 40pp.
McNeill, P. (1884) Tranent and its surroundings: historical, ecclesiastical, & traditional. 2nd Ed. John Menzies & Co., Glasgow. 279pp.
Sands, J. (1881) Sketches of Tranent in the olden time. James Hogg, Edinburgh. 103pp.

Categories
Medicine People

The Bloodless Surgeon of Blantyre

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From 1903 to 1907, Blantyre was known as “Lanarkshire Lourdes” because of the “miracles” of William Rae, a bonesetter. Known as the “Bloodless Surgeon” he saw as many 360 patients a day and once helped 100 children to walk again in 24hrs.

References

Penny Illustrated News. 2nd July 1904. pg. 4.

Categories
Animals Crime and Punishment

Kirk Dogge-less

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In 1640, so many Aberdonians brought their dogs to church, the burgh council had to ban them from sermons. “The barking and peturbation of these dogges, aftin withdraw people from hearing of God’s word!”

UPDATE: It seems that it was fairly common for shepherds and other folk to bring their dogs to church with them, which for some parishes, was considered “sabbath-breaking”. In Inverurie there were stiff fines for bringing your dog to the kirk as outlines in this extract from the Kirk Session minutes:

Every an that brings doggs to the kirk with them to pay 40 shillings for the first time; hav a merk for the second tym, whilk is still to be doublit, so long as they continue so doing.

Inverurie Kirk Session Minutes, 17th February 1650.

In March 1673, Oyne parish kirk in The Garioch, Aberdeenshire, paid for a “dog-clip” to be made– a long handled pair of forceps that the official dogwhipper would use to grab dogs from the church and take them outside.

The role of “dogwhipper” can be seen the bottom right of David Allan’s 1807 etching “Presbyterian Penance (The Black Stool).

References

Mackinlay, J. (1897). Dogs in Church. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 31, 98-103.

Turreff, G. (1871) Antiquarian Gleanings from Aberdeenshire Records. James Murray, Aberdeen. pg. 174

Davidson, J. (1878) Inverurie and the Earldom of the Garioch. David Douglas, Edinburgh. pg. 316.