On Good Friday 1882, 147 people in Inverness became severely ill after eating hot cross buns. While not fatal, they all experienced vomiting, tremors, and a dry throat. An unidentified alkaloid poison was found in the spice mix. The case was never solved.
To be honest though, hot cross buns do that at the best of times…
Dundee Courier. 11th April 1882. pg. 4
Inverness Courier. 13th June 1882. pg. 2
Fishermen in the Moray Firth hated getting their feet wet. Their wives would carry them out to the boats at low tide, would carry the catch to the shore, then go back out and carry the men back to shore. Burt, in 1726 commented on “their remarkable Laziness”.
Edward Burt was scathing of Highland life in the 1720s and quick to criticize what he didn’t fully understand. In Inverness men also spent a bodle to cross the Ness by bridge whereas women were made to wade through to save the household money. Wives were treated v. poorly in general.
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.
