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BANKS : The first County
Banks were established at Aberdeen and Glasgow in 1749.
BYRON: Lord Byron the
poet was born in Holles Street, London, on the 22nd January, 1788.
BUNYAN: Thomas Bunyan,
London, a descendant of John Bunyan, claims that the famous author of
the Pilgrim's Progress was of Scottish descent.
BANNS OF MARRIAGE In the
feudal law banns were a solemn declaration of anything, and hence arose
the custom of asking banns, or giving notice before marriage.
BANKS were of Venetian
origin, the first having been opened about 1150. Banking was opened at
Barcelona in 1401; at Genoa, in 1407; at Amsterdam, in 1609; in London,
in 1691; at Edinburgh, in 1695; and at Paris, in 1716.
BURNS: During the year
ending September last (when the tourist season was practically at an
end), there visited the birth-place of Burns no fewer than 42,499
persons, a number exceeding that of the previous year by 6,909,. and
4,290 more than in 1896, when the centenary year of the poet was so
signally observed.
BURNS CLUB at Ayr dates
from. 1801, and claims to be the oldest Burns Club in Scotland. Its
first meeting was held in the cottage in which Burns was born, and among
those present were friends of the poet, such as Robert Aiken, John
Ballantine, and Rev. Hamilton Paul (Burns' first clerical editor); the
Greenock Burns Club was organized in 1802, and that at Paisley in 1803.
BAWBEE: Bawbee took its
rise from a copper coined after the death of James IV. of Scotland. He,
with many of the nobility, was slain in the battle of Flodden-field.
James left a son of a year old, his heir. The effigy of the infant king
was struck about the year 1514, upon a coin of the value of a halfpenny.
Because he was so very young, this piece of money was called the baby or
bawbee.
CAPERCAILZIE: The
Capercailzie or Cock of the "Woods" was re-introduced in Great Britain
by Lord Fife in 1828.
CALEDONIA, MEANING OF:
Several etymologies have been offered, but that generally accepted is
Coille-daoiue-woodlanders.
CANADA: The population of
Canada on its conquest by the British in 1763 was 65,000, inhabiting a
narrow slip along the St. Lawrence.
CALCULATION: The origin
of the term calculation is—In semi-civilized countries small stones were
used as counters; hence the word "calculation" derived from calculus, a
little pebble.
CALENDAR: The reformation
of the calendar took place by statute 24 George II. c. 23 by which the
legal year was ordered to commence on 1st January, 1753.
COATS OF ARMS, became
hereditary in families at the latter end of the twelfth century. They
took their rise from the knights painting their banners with different
figures to distinguish them in the crusades.
COATS OF ARMS: A grant of
a coat of arms costs above 100. The heralds first make search whether
you are already entitled to use any particular arms. If none can be
found, then the heralds sketch up something, and Queen's licence is
sought by petition to use the same.
COINS: From 1293 to 1355
the coins of England and Scotland were of the same weight and purity;
but in the last mentioned year the standard of Scotch money was, for the
first time, sunk below that of England, and by successive degradations
the value of Scotch money at the time of the union of the two crowns in
1603 was only a twelfth part of the whole of the value of the English
money of the same denomination, it remained at this point till the
Legislative union of the two kingdoms in 1707 cancelled the separate
coinage of Scotland.
CROFTER SETTLEMENTS IN
CANADA: In 1888 thirty families were placed on thirty-two homesteads, at
Killarney, Manitoba, there being 293 of a population in the party.
Additional homesteads were taken up by younger members of the families
until these numbered fifty- four. At the time of the settlement there
was a debt of $18,000 on the settlers for monies advanced for passage
and purchase of settlers' necessaries. The following year, 1889,
forty-nine families settled on homesteads at Saltcoats, the number of
individuals being 282.
"EXILE OF ERIN" The
"Exile of Erin " was written by Thomas Campbell.
FREE MASONRY: The Stuarts
were all masons. James II. was W. G. M. during his reign.
FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL:
The Forth and Clyde Canal was begun in 1768 and completed in 1790.
JOHN BULL.: The origin of
this term is thus explained. The name John Bull cannot be traced beyond
Queen Anne's time, when all satire entitled the "History of John Bull,"
was written by the celebrated Dr. Arbuthnott, the friend of Swift. The
object of this satire was to throw ridicule on the politics of the
Spanish succession.
LOGARITHAMS: The inventor
of logarithms was Napier of Merchiston.
LINEN: The linen
manufacture penetrated to Kilmarnock in 1744, to Inverary in 1748, to
Fife in 1760.
MACPHERSON: ,Means "son
of the parson." The term "parson" has a classical origin, and is derived
from the Latin law term "persona ecclessiac."
MCGILL UNIVERSITY; The
founder of McGill University, Montreal, was the Hon. James McGill, who
was born in Glasgow in 1744. He was prominent in Canadian commerce, in
politics and in military life. He died December 1813.
NINE OF DIAMONDS: There
are two reasons assigned for the saying that the nine of diamonds is the
curse of Scotland, namely, that it was on the back of that card that the
Duke of Cumberland wrote the cruel order to give no quarter to the Scots
who fought on the side of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at the battle of
Culloden; and that it was owing to a Scotch member of Parliament, part
of whose arms was the nine of diamonds having voted for the introduction
of the malt tax into Scotland.
PHILADELPHIA: The St.
Andrew's Society of Philadelphia was founded in 1739.
SCOTLAND: No part of
Scotland is more than 40 miles from the sea.
SCOTT, SCOT: Translated
by Whitley Stokes as "masters" or ''owners," and by Rhys as a ''cutting
" or "carving tattooed or painted men."—MacBain.
SCOTT; Sir Walter Scott's
Heir: The present male representative of Sir Walter Scott is Walter
Joseph Maxwell Scott, and his descent from the author of Waverley is
through the female line. Neither of Scott's sons left children. His
daughter Sophia was married to J. G. Lockhart, his biographer, and left
a son, Walter Scott Lockhart, and a daughter Charlotte Harriet Jane, who
married James Robert Hope. Mrs. Hope succeeded her brother in the estate
of Abbotsford, her husband adopting the name Scott. Her daughter, Mary
Monica, alone survived of Sir Walter's great-grand-children. She married
Joseph Constable-Maxwell, and her eldest surviving son is Walter Joseph
Maxwell Scott, born 1875.
The first vessel which crossed the Atlantic from Glasgow was in the year
1719.
UNION OF SCOTLAND AND
ENGLAND: The Union of Scotland and England took place in 1707.
UNITED STATES: Britain
acknowledged the independence of the North American States in 1782, the
same year as that in which the Crimea fell under the dominion of Russia.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
LONDON: Was founded largely through the efforts of Thomas Campbell the
poet.
WHEAT; The first shipment
of wheat and of flour from Upper Canada to Montreal, was sent by the
Hon. James Crooks, a native of Kilmarnock, Scotland, who settled at
Niagara in 1794. His son was the Hon. Mr. Crooks Minister of Education
for Ontario. |
