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First published by Viking 2007
Published in Penguin Books 2008
This updated edition published in Penguin Books 2014
Copyright © Rosemary Goring, 2007, 2014
All rights reserved
Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reproduce an extract from Direadh 1, from Hugh MacDiarmid’s Complete Poems, published by Carcanet Press Ltd
Further permissions can be found on pages 466–78 which represent a continuation of this copyright page
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ISBN: 978-0-141-91064-2
Introduction
Discovering Skara Brae
PROFESSOR VERE GORDON CHILDE
Agricola Sails around Scotland, AD C. 80
TACITUS
Death of St Columba, 597
ADAMNAN
Viking Invaders, 870
MATTHEW PARIS
Battle between the Saxons and Northmen, 937
THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE
The King of Scots Insults the English King, c. 971–975
WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY
English Fashion, Eleventh Century
SCOTICHRONICON
English Invective against the Scots, Eleventh Century
AILRED OF RIEVAULX
Capture of William I by the English, 1174
WILLIAM OF NEWBURGH
Guidelines for the Clergy, Thirteenth Century
SCOTTISH ECCLESIASTICAL STATUTES
Religious Houses, 1207
GERVASE OF CANTERBURY
The Burning of a Bishop, 1222
ANNALS OF DUNSTABLE
Church Corruption, 1271
THE CHRONICLE OF LANERCOST
The Death of Alexander III, 19 March 1286
THE CHRONICLE OF LANERCOST
The Death of the Maid of Norway, c. 26 September 1290
ANONYMOUS
The Rise and Fall of William Wallace, 1297–1305
BLIND HARRY AND ANONYMOUS
The Execution of William Wallace, 23 August 1305
ANONYMOUS
The Battle of Bannockburn, 23–24 June 1314
JOHN BARBOUR
The Battle of Bannockburn: an Englishman’s View, 23–24 June 1314
ROBERT BASTON
The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320
Robert Bruce’s Epitaph, 1329
WALTER BOWER
Bird Flu, or Similar, 1344
JOHN OF FORDUN
The Black Death, 1350
JOHN OF FORDUN
The Auld Alliance, 1385
JEAN FROISSART
Acts of Parliament
JAMES I, JAMES II AND JAMES III
The Murder of James I, 20 February 1437
? ONE OF QUEEN JOAN’S ATTENDANTS
The Battle of Flodden, 9 September 1513
THOMAS RUTHALL
A Paen to Oatcakes, 1521
JOHN MAJOR
The Burning of George Wishart, 1 March 1546
JOHN KNOX
The Murder of Cardinal David Beaton, 29 May 1546
JOHN KNOX
John Knox Apologizes to Queen Elizabeth I, 1559
JOHN KNOX
Schooldays, 1560s
JAMES MELVILLE
Mary, Queen of Scots, Arrives in Scotland, 19 August 1561
JOHN KNOX
The Murder of Riccio, 9 March 1566
SIR JAMES MELVILLE
Mary, Queen of Scots, Appeals to Elizabeth I for Help, 1 May 1568
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
Act against Luxury, 1581
THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTLAND
The Habits of Highlanders, 1582
GEORGE BUCHANAN
The Morning of Mary, Queen of Scots’ Execution, 8 February 1587
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 8 February 1587
ROBERT WINGFIELD
The North Berwick Witches, 1591
NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
No Pipe-playing on Sundays, 1593
THE PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW
Grammar School Mutiny, 1595
ROBERT BIRREL
Border Reivers Defy Capture, 14 April 1596
THE LORD TREASURER OF ENGLAND
The Scottish Diet, 1598
FYNES MORYSON
The First New Year’s Day, 1600
THE PRIVY COUNCIL
The Union of the Crowns, 24 March 1603
ROBERT CAREY
The Evils of Tobacco, 1604
JAMES VI AND I
Ben Jonson Walks to Scotland, 1618–1619
WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN
A Visitor’s Impression of Edinburgh, 6 June 1634
SIR WILLIAM BRERETON
The National Covenant, 1638
JOHN LIVINGSTONE
The Battle of Dunbar, 3 September 1650
OLIVER CROMWELL
A Good Use for the Plantations, 1665
REGISTER OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL
Murder of Archbishop Sharp, 3 May 1679
JAMES RUSSELL
The Battle of Killiecrankie, 27 July 1689
THE EARL OF BALCARRES
The Massacre of Glencoe, 13 February 1692
A GENTLEMAN IN SCOTLAND
A Gael’s View of the Islands, 1695
MARTIN MARTIN
Famine, 1698
PATRICK WALKER
The Darien Venture, 25 December 1699
REVEREND ARCHIBALD STOBO
The Run-up to the Union of the Scottish and English Parliaments, 1707
DANIEL DEFOE, STIRLING TOWN COUNCIL AND GEORGE LOCKHART OF CARNWATH
A Jacobite Escapes from the Tower of London, 23 February 1716
THE COUNTESS OF NITHSDALE
Manners, 1720
REVEREND ADAM PETRIE
The Aftermath of the Union of Parliaments, 1723
DANIEL DEFOE
The Porteous Riot, 14 April 1736
REVEREND ALEXANDER CARLYLE
The Battle of Prestonpans, 21 September 1745
REVEREND ALEXANDER CARLYLE
The Battle of Culloden, 16 April 1746
COLONEL KER OF GRADYNE
The Aftermath of Culloden, April 1746
ROBERT FORBES
Jacobite Orphans, 1746
JOHN MACDONALD
Superstition and Punishment, 1754–1777
REVEREND JOHN MILL
Taking a Play to London, 1755
REVEREND ALEXANDER CARLYLE
A Scot Meets Voltaire, 24 December 1764
JAMES BOSWELL
The New Town Is Conceived, 1767
THE SCOTS MAGAZINE
The Invention of the Steam Engine, 1769
JAMES WATT
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1771
WILLIAM SMELLIE
Dr Johnson Arrives in Scotland, 14 August 1773
JAMES BOSWELL
A Visitor’s Impressions of Scotland, 1773
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The American Independence War, 19 June 1776
COLONEL ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL
The Wealth of Nations, March 1776
DAVID HUME
Death of David Hume, 25 August 1776
ADAM SMITH
A Jamaican Sugar Plantation, 1784
ZACHARY MACAULAY
A Bagpipe Competition, 1784
B. FAUJAIS ST FOND
Robert Burns Is Hailed as a Genius, 1786
HENRY MACKENZIE
The Age of the Earth Is Proved by James Hutton, 1788
JAMES HUTTON AND JOHN PLAYFAIR
Robert Burns Meets Walter Scott, 1787
SIR WALTER SCOTT
Smallpox, 1791
THOMAS POLLOCK
Twenty Years of Dramatic Change, c. 1792
WILLIAM CREECH
The Trial of ‘the Pest of Scotland’, 30–31 August 1793
THOMAS MUIR
African Exploration, 1796
MUNGO PARK
Henry Raeburn, Early 1800s
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM AND ANONYMOUS
Highland Emigration, 1806
JAMES CRAIG
The Ossian Fraud, 1806
SIR WALTER SCOTT
Building the Bell Rock Lighthouse, 2 September 1807
ROBERT STEVENSON
Conditions in the Mines, 1808
ROBERT BALD
The Historical Novel Is Born, 1814
HENRY COCKBURN
The Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815
SERGEANT-MAJOR DICKSON
Law and Justice in the Highlands, c. 1816–1826
JOSEPH MITCHELL
An Experiment in Humanity, 1816
ROBERT OWEN
The Sutherland Clearances, 1816
DONALD MACLEOD
The Scotsman Is Launched, January 1817
HENRY COCKBURN
Radicals in the Playground, 1819
ALEXANDER SOMERVILLE
George IV Visits Scotland, 14 August 1822
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART
Child Worker in a Dundee Factory, 1824
JAMES MYLES
The Recipe for Haggis, 1826
MEG DODS
The Search for the Sugar Pine, 1826
DAVID DOUGLAS
Travelling Conditions for Emigrants, 1827
A HUNTER, W.S.
The Sale of a Wife, 1828
Sutherland after the Clearances, 1828
DONALD MACLEOD
The Trial of Burke and Hare, 24 December 1828
WILLIAM HARE
Mendelssohn Visits Scotland, 1829
FELIX MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY
Reminiscences of Edinburgh Life, Early 1800s
HENRY COCKBURN
Cholera Epidemic, 1832
THE CREENOCK ADVERTISER
Testimony of Coal Workers, 1840
JANET CUMMING, JANET ALLEN, JANE JOHNSON, ISABEL HOGG, JANE PEACOCK WATSON, KATHARINE LOGAN, HELEN READ AND MARGARET WATSON
Streets of Sewage, 1842
DR W. L. LAWRIE
The Disruption of the Church of Scotland, 1843
REVEREND MCLEAN
The Origins of Photography, 1845
DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL
Railway Mania, 1847
JOSEPH MITCHELL
Experimenting with Chloroform, 1847
JAMES SIMPSON
Rioting in Caithness, 1847
THE INVERNESS COURIER
Victoria and Albert at Balmoral, 1848
QUEEN VICTORIA
Andrew Carnegie Shows an Early Interest in Libraries, 1853
ANDREW CARNEGIE
Thomas Carlyle’s Tax Return, 21 November 1855
JANE CARLYLE
Fish Gutters, 1859
CHARLES RICHARD WELD
Scavenging, May 1859
THE ARGYLLSHIRE HERALD
The Glorious Twelfth, 1859
CHARLES RICHARD WELD
An Edinburgh Detective at Work, 1861
JAMES MCLEVY
Abbotsford, the Tourist Trap, 1863
EDWARD BRADLEY
A Missionary Visits Greenock, 1865
WALTER GUNN
The First Scottish Football Match, 1868
ROBERT GARDNER
Mayhem at Musselburgh Golf Match, 22–23 April 1870
THE SCOTSMAN
Dr Livingstone Is Found by Henry Morton Stanley, November 1871
DAVID LIVINGSTONE
The Invention of the Telephone, 1875
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
‘Saxpence in ma claes, ninepence in ma skin’, 1876
JOHN LAVERY
Mary Slessor’s Campaign to Save Babies, Late 1870s/1880s
MARY SLESSOR
The Mental Asylum, 1878
CHRISTIAN WATT
The Tay Railway Bridge Disaster, 28 December 1879
WILLIAM MCGONAGALL
Among the Residents of Black Houses, c. 1880
JOHN WILSON
The Eyemouth Fishing Disaster, 14 October 1881
GEORGE COLLIN AND GEORGE PATERSON
The Battle of the Braes, 18 April 1882
ALEXANDER GOW
Treasure Island, 1882
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
The Origins of Sherlock Holmes, 1891
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Keir Hardie Elected as First Labour MP, 3 August 1892
KEIR HARDIE
Unknown Comedian Tries His Luck in London, March 1900
HARRY LAUDER
Down the Mine in Fife, 1900
KELLOGG DURLAND
The Opening of Peter Pan, December 1904
MAX BEERBOHM
The Early Adventures of Toad, May 1907
KENNETH GRAHAME
Force-feeding Suffragettes, 1909
MEDICAL OFFICERS OF PERTH AND BARLINNIE PRISONS
Life at the Front in France, 1915–1918
DAVID SMITH
Glasgow Rent Strike, September–October 1915
THE GLASGOW HERALD
A Hospital on the Western Front, July 1916
MISS V. C. C. COLLUM
Red Clydeside Erupts, 31 January 1919
THE STRIKE BULLETIN
The Scuttling of the German Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, 21 June 1919
JAMES TAYLOR
Churchill on the Eve of Defeat, 14 November 1922
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Sectarian Anxieties, 1923
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND
Eric Liddell Wins Gold at the Olympics, 11 July 1924
THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS
The Invention of Television, October 1925
JOHN LOGIE BAIRD
The Origins of Miss Jean Brodie, 1929
MURIEL SPARK
The Evacuation of St Kilda, 29 and 30 August 1930
THE GLASGOW HERALD
Burns’s Halo Is Tarnished, 1930
CATHERINE CARSWELL
The Loch Ness Monster, 1933
LT-COMMANDER R. T. GOULD RN (RETIRED)
The Queen’s Governess, 1933
MARION CRAWFORD
Edinburgh and Its Street Girls, 1934
EDWIN MUIR
The Hungry Prostitute, 1935
RALPH CLASSER
The Spanish Civil War, May 1937
ETHEL MACDONALD
Benny Lynch Retains His Triple Crown, 12 October 1937
THE SCOTSMAN
A Glasgow Orange March, 1938
J. R. ALLAN
Rape, Late 1930s
ISA PORTE
The Sinking of the Arandora Star, 2 July 1940
THE TIMES
The Travelling Family, 1941
DUNCAN WILLIAMSON
The Clydebank Blitz, 13 March 1941
THE GLASGOW HERALD
A Conscientious Objector, 1941
NORMAN MACCAIG
Rudolf Hess Crash-lands in Scotland, 13 May 1941
THE GLASGOW HERALD
On Manoeuvre with the Home Guard, 1943
GEORGE M. GALL
Prisoner of War, 1944–5
ROBERT GARIOCH
The Second Edinburgh Festival, 1948
TYRONE GUTHRIE
Stealing the Stone of Destiny, 25 December 1950
IAN HAMILTON
Jimmy MacBeath, King of the Cornkisters, 1951
HAMISH HENDERSON
The Flodden of Football, 15 April 1961
DENIS LAW
Petition for Women to Become Ministers in the Church of Scotland, 26 May 1963
MARY LUSK
Prince Charles and the Cherry Brandy, 20 June 1963
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Nudity at the Edinburgh Festival, September 1963
THE SCOTSMAN
Gordonstoun School, 1965
WILLIAM BOYD
A Glasgow Gang, 1966
JAMES PATRICK
Scotland Beats the English World Cup Team, 15 April 1967
JOHN RAFFERTY
Celtic Win the European Cup, 25 May 1967
HUGH MCILVANNEY
The SNP Take Their Second Seat at Parliament, 17 November 1967
WINNIE EWING
Prison, November 1967
JIMMY BOYLE
The Ibrox Disaster, 2 January 1971
THE GLASGOW HERALD
The Upper Clydeside Shipyards’ Work-in, 18 August 1971
JIMMY REID
The Big Yin, 1975
GEORGE ROSIE
The Death of Hugh MacDiarmid, 9 September 1978
ALAN BOLD
Allan Wells Wins Olympic Gold, 25 July 1980
THE SCOTSMAN
The Pope Visits Scotland, June 1982
CHRIS BAUR
Munro-bagging, 1980s
MURIEL GRAY
The Miners’ Strike, March 1984 to March 1985
MICK MCGAHEY
Glasgow’s Cultural Credentials Are Recognized, 1986
BILLY CONNOLLY
The Lockerbie Disaster, 22 December 1988
BARCLAY MCBAIN
Porridge, 1990
GEORGE MACKAY BROWN
Scotland Win the Grand Slam, 17 March 1990
IAIN ANDERSON
Trainspotting, August 1993
KENNY FARQUHARSON
The Flying Scotsman Breaks the World Hour Record, 17 July 1993
GRAEME OBREE
The Poll that Put Gordon Brown out of the Leadership Race, 26 May 1994
THE SCOTSMAN
James Kelman Wins the Booker Prize, 11 October 1994
SIMON JENKINS
The Dunblane Massacre, 13 March 1996
FORDYCE MAXWELL
Dolly the Sheep, 5 July 1996
PROFESSOR IAN WILMUT
The Day They Buried Princess Diana, 6 September 1997
JAMES ROBERTSON
The Scottish Parliament Reconvenes, 12 May 1999
IAN BELL
Sean Connery: a Lifetime’s Perspective
RICHARD DEMARCO
Black Watch Takes to the Stage, August 2006
JOYCE MCMILLAN
The SNP Come to Power, 4 May 2007
ALEX SALMOND
Donald Trump’s Little Piece of Scotland, 2007
ALEX SHOUMATOFF
The Royal Bank of Scotland Comes Close to Collapse, 7 October 2008
ALISTAIR DARLING
Tilting at Wind Farms, 2009
SARA MAITLAND
Alex Salmond’s Enchanted Evening, 5 May 2011
ALAN TAYLOR
Andy Murray Wins Wimbledon, 7 July 2013
HUGH MACDONALD
Appendices: Original Texts
Sources and Permissions
Select Bibliography
Personal Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Grateful thanks to all the family, friends and colleagues who have provided invaluable advice, in particular Chris Dolan, Allan Hunter, Angela Laurins, Barclay McBain and Hugh MacDonald. The staff of the Edinburgh Room and Scottish Department of Edinburgh Central Library have been unfailingly helpful, as have the staff of the National Library of Scotland, Haddington’s local history department, and the British Golf Museum. Thanks also to Andrew Marr for pointing me towards Agnes Mure Mackenzie’s books, to Richard Demarco, Jan Leman, Conrad Wilson, Stuart Allan of National Museums Scotland, and to James Robertson for introducing me to Zachary Macaulay. Judy Moir, my editor, has been a constant source of enthusiasm, ideas and sound advice, and copy editor Helen Campbell has been elegantly meticulous. And thanks above all to Alan Taylor.