Edition of an important collection of ballads, taken down in the eighteenth century from a female singer.

The author recalls her time living and working as a nurse on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides.

The author recalls her time living and working as a nurse on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides.

The daughter of a titled Scottish father recounts the horrors of her childhood in spite of popular beliefs about her fairy-tale lifestyle, describing her father's struggles with alcoholism that resulted in numerous brushes with death and the loss of his family's legacy. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors—Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland—a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were “incomers.” Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man on the island he owned. While comparing crofter and laird, McPhee gives readers a deep and rich portrait of the terrain, the history, the legends, and the people of this fragment of the Hebrides. When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors—Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland—a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were “incomers.” Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man on the island he owned. While comparing crofter and laird, McPhee gives readers a deep and rich portrait of the terrain, the history, the legends, and the people of this fragment of the Hebrides.

“A brisk and accessible guide to a thousand years of reiving and rivalry in the Highlands.

Interprets the traditional background, culture and ways of life of the Highlands. The author writes in terms of individuals and suggests reasons why Highland culture is unique in the world - it is something that, if lost, can never be recovered or recreated.

This series demonstrates how everyday routines and behaviours can open a window into the social, economic and cultural lives of ordinary Scots Each volume examines common topics such as landscape, homes, objects, rituals, beliefs, work and leisure patterns, conflict and communication Across the series there are some striking continuities and remarkable changes in aspects of Scottish everyday life, while the everyday is shown to be shaped by national and regional surroundings, and varied between urban and rural, highland lowland settings. Based on the collective research of a large team of established and younger scholars, this series presents an entirely new way of looking at Scotland's past Accounts of nineteenth-century Scotland have been preoccupied with the impact of change, unprecedented in its pace and extent. Through the shock of industrialisation and its close cousin urbanisation, society evolved from small scale and personal to larger scale, dense and urban, in the process transforming all aspects of the everyday. The chapters in this volume examine the lives of the Scottish people under the changes and continuities that enveloped the nineteenth century. Some of the most visible transformations were reflected in the Scottish landscape and in the work and culture found in urban areas. Locality and community were revitalised in new customs and ceremonies. The printed word brought insight into society at home and at a distance. Rural Scotland adjusted to changes in farming practice and the traumas of population loss and began to look to the opportunities presented by recreation and tourism. With new interpretations from some of Scotland's most respected historians, this collection makes essential reading for anyone looking to understand the everyday lives of the Scottish people in this most dynamic century.

A one-volume history of the Socttish nation.

A distinguished historian explores the seminal contributions of Scotland to the development of modern Western civilization, discussing the impact of such ideals as democracy, freedom of speech, equal opportunity, and a commitment to education and exploring Scottish accomplishments in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, engineering, political thought, and more. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.