The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that style, there is now this regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site including "Scottie's Photo Diary From Scotland".
To receive a text version of this newsletter as a reminder to look at these Web pages when they are published, just send an e-mail to Scottie@RampantScotland.com with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
Scotland Ten Years Ago - and Now
I quite often use the many years of Scottish Snippets newsletters (which are still on the Rampant Scotland Web Site) to refresh my memory on historical news items. While recently browsing through some pages it occurred to me that many of the issues which appeared in these newsletters have radically changed or else have not developed as predicted at the time. I thought that readers might find it entertaining and illuminating to take a selection of these and create a "then and now" page, month by month. It might have been better to have started in January - but striking while the iron was hot, I took the newsletters from June 2002 and added notes on a number of the items covered, bringing them up to date. In some cases it meant doing a bit of digging to get the current situation. Of course, I was struck by how many government projects, talked about ten years ago, had not moved on as predicted (no surprise there then) but also how some other areas had moved even faster than expected - or in unexpected ways. So here's my selection from June 2002 and where we are in June 2012: Scotland Ten Years Ago - and Now.
Queen's Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Bank Note
Ten years ago the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a £5 note to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee of 50 years on the throne. Ten years later, RBS produced a commemorative note for her Diamond Jubilee, this time on a special £10 bank note. Of course, I've added that to the collection of illustrations of Scottish banknotes, with some explanatory text. See Queen's Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Bank Note.
National War Museum
I've visited the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle on a few occasions but due to the dim lighting conditions, have never taken enough photos to allow me to create a "Places to Visit" page. But the latest digital cameras have much greater light gathering capabilities, so I've now created an illustrated page on this interesting collection of exhibits exploring over 400 years of the Scottish military history, mainly in the18th and 19th centuries. It is usually accepted that Scotland contributed more soldiers to the British Army as a percentage of its population than any other component part of the United Kingdom, so there are plenty of stories to tell. See Places to Visit - National War Museum
National War Museum Slide Show
In addition to the illustrations within the page noted above, there's a Web based slide show with thumbnails and individual pages of a number of photos of objects to be seen in the National War Museum. There's a link to the slide show within the article but just in case you missed it, the slide show can be found at National War Museum Slide Show.
Scottish Place Names in Kingston Jamaica
In the light of feedback and further research, Ian Kendall has updated his article on Scottish-related place names in Kingston Jamaica. Of the names of the 203 districts, neighbourhoods and suburbs that have been identified to date in Greater Kingston, 50 (24.6%) can be found in Scotland or are based on Scottish family names. Of course, many of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well, but at least 21 of them (10.3%) appear to have a direct or indirect link with Scotland. It may surprise some readers that the names of so many neighbourhoods and subdivisions in the Jamaican capital have a Scottish connection. Jamaica was at one stage a popular destination for settlers from all parts of the British Isles, including a large number of people from Scotland. In 1786 Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, was in fact on the point of migrating to Jamaica in order to escape his financial and other worries. For all the background to Scottish-related names in Kingston, Jamaica, see: Scottish Place Names in Kingston Jamaica.
Next Newsletter
The next newsletter is scheduled for 14 July. It is planned to include a "Places to Visit" page on Drumlanrig Castle and a Photo Diary for June.
Yours aye
Scottie
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in an Archive. The Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
