Author Topic: Where Should I Start?  (Read 10326 times)

Donna

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 409
Where Should I Start?
« on: June 03, 2008, 06:08:13 PM »
I've just finished reading every word y'all have posted here.  There were several words that were new to me (Septs, Rievers, Picts etc.) but I'm learning!  I know so little about the history and daily life in Scotland and I need to correct that. Can anyone recommend a good book for me to start with?

Donna Lingren  
ANY DAY ABOVE GROUND IS A GOOD DAY !

Mary

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 997
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2008, 09:10:19 PM »
Reiver: Border Reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border (Border country), for nearly three hundred years from the late 13th century to the end of the 16th century, although their heyday was perhaps in the last hundred years of their existence.The reivers were both English and Scottish and raided both sides of the border impartially, so long as the people they hit had no powerful protectors and no connection to their own kin. Their activities, although usually within a day's ride of the Border, extended both north and south of their main haunts. English raiders were reported to have hit the outskirts of Edinburgh, and Scottish raids were known as far south as Yorkshire. The main raiding season ran through the winter months, when the nights were longest and the cattle and horses fat from having spent the summer grazing.

The inhabitants had to live in a state of constant alert, and for self-protection, they built fortified tower houses, such as the bastle houses and Peel towers which are characteristic of this area and period. Smailholm is one of many surviving Peel towers.

When raiding, or riding, as it was termed, the Reivers rode light on hardy nags or ponies renowned for the ability to pick their way over the boggy moss lands. The original dress of a shepherd's plaid was later replaced by light armour such as Brigandines or jacks of plaite (a type of sleeveless doublet into which small plates of steel were stitched), and a metal helmet such as a burgonet or morion; hence their nickname of the steel bonnets. They were armed with a lance and small shield, and sometimes also with a longbow, or a light crossbow known as a "latch", or later on in their history with one or more pistols. They invariably also carried a sword and dirk.


SEPTS:
(from Wikipedia) In Scotland, a sept is often a family that is absorbed into a larger Scottish clan for mutual benefit. For example, the Burns family sept was absorbed into the Clan Campbell. The Burns family, being very small and of questionable heritage, gained legitimacy and protection; the Campbell clan absorbed a potential rival for British affection in Scotland. Each Scottish clan typically has a number of septs, each with its own surname. Septs have rights to wear clan tartans although they often have tartans of their own.
Har har har!  Have you opened yourself up for a floodgate of book titles!!!

THE SURNAMES OF SCOTLAND THEIR ORIGIN, MEANING AND HISTORY ---BLACK, GEORGE F.

The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers  by Alistair Moffat (Paperback - Jun 2008) (great book!)
Book Description
Only one period in history is immediately, indelibly and uniquely linked to the whole area of the Scottish and English Border country, and that is the time of the Reivers. Whenever anyone mentions "Reiver," noone hesitates to add "Border." It is an inextricable association, and rightly so.

Nowhere else in Britain in the modern era, or indeed in Europe, did civil order break down over such a wide area, or for such a long time. For more than a century the hoof-beats of countless raiding parties drummed over the border. From Dumfriesshire to the high wastes of East Cumbria, from Roxburghshire to Redesdale, from the lonely valley of Liddesdale to the fortress city of Carlisle, swords and spears spoke while the law remained silent. Fierce family loyalty counted for everything while the rules of nationality counted for nothing. The whole range of the Cheviot Hills, its watershed ridges and the river valleys which flowed out of them became the landscape of larceny while Maxwells, Grahams, Fenwicks, Carletons, Armstrongs, and Elliots rode hard and often for plunder. These were the Riding Times and in modern European history, they have no parallel.

This book tells the remarkable story of the Reivers and how they made the Borders.

The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers  by George MacDonald Fraser (Paperback - Jul 1, 2008) (great book!)

Exploring Border Reivers History by Philip Nixon (Hardcover - Jan 2007) - Import (more of a history of the PLACES, STRONGHOLDS, ETC of the Reivers)

The Historical Families of Dumfriesshire & the Border Wars. (Heritage Classic) by Christopher Lyle Johnstone (Paperback - April 1994
) (good book to find out what things were like in Dumbriesshire for our people and the other clans. Doesn't make much of the Thomsons (most of the reiver books don't because we are not a recognized clan. But all the other recognized clans mentioned in the 1587 and 1594 Acts of the Scottish Parliament along with us in the Marche are in the Dumfriesshire book)

I know there are some more out there that would be really good, but these are the only ones I can think of right now.

Mary

Booner

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 321
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2008, 09:20:47 PM »
great post Mary!

Booner

Donna

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 409
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2008, 12:01:32 AM »
Thanks a bunch, Mary, and I think I'm off to the book store!

Donna
ANY DAY ABOVE GROUND IS A GOOD DAY !

Mary

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 997
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2008, 06:22:54 AM »
Some are available used......... on Amazon.com, abebooks.com, alibris.com and half.com

Good hunting!

Donna

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 409
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2008, 04:40:33 PM »
My copy of "The Steel Bonnets" arrived in todays mail. I can't wait to start reading!  (oops! no time left to do housework!)

One more question...I'd like to purchase some Thompson Tartan cloth. I searched on Google but was directed to sites selling ready made items.
What I need is just the cloth.   Any suggestions?

Donna
ANY DAY ABOVE GROUND IS A GOOD DAY !

Booner

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 321
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2008, 09:35:20 PM »
Donna,

Pester, ah I mean, ask Mary.  She can help you

Booner


Donna

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 409
Re: Where Should I Start?
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2008, 12:32:23 AM »
Thanks Booner and to your son, Congratulations on a job well done!

Donna
ANY DAY ABOVE GROUND IS A GOOD DAY !