In the 1820s, Will Quare, a miller in Alloa supplied all the town’s bakeries and dealers with meal. His specially trained mastiff dog lead the cart horses on deliveries. The dog knew to stop at every business and return to the mill once the cart was empty.
In Feb 1829, Alexander Fraser “An t-Iasgair bàn” of Dochnalurg near #Inverness, tied wire tags around the tails of young salmon heading downstream. When he caught the same fish as adults in 1830, he proved that salmon return to their home stream to breed.
CROTTLIE. adj. lichen-covered, or having the appearance of being so.
“Morag’s mournful ditty chimed / As oer the CROTTLIE crags they climbed”
From Gaelic, ‘crotal’ meaning lichen.
On 21st November 1906, a 150,000 gallon wash tun at the Loch Katrine Distillery in the Gorbals burst, sending a 20 foot wave of hot whisky into the streets killing 1 and injuring 10. Demolished in 1970, it is now the site of Glasgow Central Mosque.
The 14th century chronicler Jean Froissart wrote in French. After travelling in Scotland, he invented French translations for Scottish places.
Edinburgh – HANDEBOURCH
Stirling – STRUVELIN
Roxburgh – ROSEBOURCH
Aberdeen – BREDANE
Fife – FII
Dalkeith – ALQUEST
Dundee – DONDIEU
Dumbarton – DOUBRETAGNE
Strathearn – ASTRADERN
Erskine – VERSI
Buchan – BOSQUEM
Sutherland – SURLANCKT
Moray – MORET
Jedburgh – GEDEOURS
After cholera hit town in 1849, Eyemouth added 6ft of soil on top of the old cemetery to make a new one. The old headstones were lifted and used to make a watchhouse to guard against bodysnatchers.
In 1778, a Linlithgow man sent a woman some bad poetry. She was having none of it.
An EPIGRAM. Addressed to a certain Gentleman in Linlithgow, who lately attempted to write Poetry. By a Lady.
THOU scribbling, grovelling, Grubstreet dunce,
Edinburgh Weekly Magazine, June 1778
Why thus mispend your time?
Why struggle hard (oh! vain attempt)
To grace the polish’d rhime?
Why knock your stupid, brainless skull,
And think that rhyme will come;
Knock as you will, you’ll surely find.
There’s nobody at home.
During a February thaw in 1831, an ice jam formed on the Clyde and wiped out 40 ships at the Broomielaw Bridge, killing several people and caused major floods, After the disaster the town widened the river significantly.
The 1831 flood caused the Clyde to rise 18ft (5.5m) above the normal high tide level. An earlier flood in 1782 peaked at just over 20ft (6.1m) above normal!
Maps from NLS Maps site (from 1807 and 1857).
In 1734, 13 Huntly women petitioned for “riding the stang” as the legal punishment for abusive husbands. The offender was made to straddle a “stang” by neighbours, while others banged pots and jeered. Sometimes naked, usually painful, always embarrassing.
In 1813, the Campbells of Jura set about removing all eagle nests from the island after a swaddled newborn was snatched from nearby Scarba, carried over the Corryvreckan, and put down on Jura. The child survived with only minor injuries.
