
	Information on Scotland and its people. A serious and light hearted look at the Scottish race, our admirable traits and our foibles.

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The People of Scotland

(© Bryan D Weir 2002)

Scotland is a small country on the very edge of Europe whose people historically have been tempered by the struggle with poverty and the harsh winter climate. We are a tribal people who traditionally belonged to clans. Racially we are mix of Picts, Romans, Angles, Britons, Vikings, Scandinavians, Teutons and Scots (from Ireland!). We still cling to our identity and take pride in the fact that we are different from the English people although many people from other countries are still unaware of this.

Last of the Scottish Clan
Tom Faed - "The Last of the Clan" 1865

For about 80 years from 1780 there began a period called the "Highland Clearances" when the local lairds and clan chiefs, backed by the English based government basically drove highlanders from their homes to allow the wealthy landowners to use the lands to raise sheep and cattle. For many of these highland people the only choice was to emigrate to the Americas and this they did. Areas like the Carolinas and Canada became very popular and there are many people of Scots descent there to this day. Many of those who stayed were burned out of their homes and died of cold or starvation. Some of the ruins of these crofts (cottages) that were destroyed at that time can still be seen today.

My own family moved to Loch Lomondside from rural Argyllshire in the early 1800's because there was a textile industry blossoming, which required workers.

While I do not know for sure that the clearances forced their move I do know that this was their first experience away from the land. Scotland is rich in history like this but we won't go any deeper into that here as there are many books and web sites better qualified to do so.

Remains of a Croft

scotsman in kilt

So what is your image of we Scots? You will probably think us as standing on a misty hillside looking over a highland landscape, playing the bagpipes while the wee wife is at home pouring her man a dram and preparing the haggis, oatcakes and shortbread for dinner.

If this is what you expect then you are unlikely to find it because most young Scots nowadays are more likely to drink Vodka and prefer an Indian curry to haggis.

We are certainly a very proud people who can be dour and aggressive at times. This aggression continues to be channeled into the armed forces during any wars or conflicts where you will find a disproportionate number of Scots (and also Welsh and Irish) on most casualty lists.

Part of this is due to the traditionally higher unemployment in Scotland, which forces many young people to look to the armed forces for a career. It is often said jokingly that the Scots are a well balanced race, having a chip on both shoulders.

Famous Scot, Sir Harry Lauder
Sir Harry Lauder 1870 - 1950

We have a reputation for meanness but this was a fairly recent thing, propagated by the English and Sir Harry Lauder, the famous Scottish music hall comedian. He has a lot to answer for because he became internationally famous through depicting his fellow Scots as being tight-fisted, drunken, kilt wearing stereotypes.

The damage he caused, ably assisted by Jack Benny, in the name of entertainment (and making himself extremely rich!) cannot be measured. In company when Scots are present they are taunted about their so called "meanness" while others dodge their round at the bar.

Even yet you will find that most Scots are generous to a fault in the ongoing effort to live down a reputation that was undeserved in the first place.

Glasgow Bar Drinkers

We are also extremely open and friendly. In Glasgow for example, many visitors are taken aback by the openness of the people.

It is almost impossible to go into a bar alone in Glasgow without getting into a conversation with someone.

The Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow

The same thing applies to shops, restaurants and even on the street with passers by. When socialising, your main problem may be in understanding the local accents, particularly in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

Scots here tend to speak very fast, omitting some letters, slurring others and over pronouncing the rest. The good news is that we know that we do this and won't take offence if you tell us you can't understand us. (We'll generally acknowledge this by carrying on as before!)

The following is an interesting excerpt from an article "Who are the nations of Great Britain?". I found this on a Russian web site!

"In general the nation of modern Scotland derives from three main racial sources. The Celts, the Scandinavians or Teutons and the mysterious and shadowy Picts. These Picts, historically speaking, were the first inhabitants of what we now call Scotland. They were a small tough people. They have left their strain in the blood and occasional marks in the land and language. They were conquered by the invading Celts from Ireland who, incidentally, were called Scots and from whom the name of the modern nation comes.

Two and three centuries later, however, the Celts retreated into the north-western hills and islands, their place in the east and south lowlands being taken by the Scandinavians, Teutons and Angles. Hence the celebrated division of the Scottish people into Highlanders and Lowlanders. It was a division which marked the distinction between people of different culture, temperament and language.

It is from the Celts that there comes the more colourful, exciting and extravagant strain in the Scots. The Gaelic language and song, the tartan, the bagpipes, the Highland panache, and so on. It is in the contemplation of the debasement of this lively, attractive and touching tradition in Scotland and the Scottish temperament for commercial purposes that the natives have to endure the greatest embarrassments and discomforts.

It is from the Lowland strain that there comes the equally celebrated Scottish tradition of dourness, implacability and splendid courage in defence, providing a complementary virtue to the splendid Highland courage in attack. The cautious, dry, humourless, mean, red-nosed Scot is, of course, a stock figure for stage, fiction and comic picture postcard use. The legend of this alcoholic miser, the hero of all Scotch stories, has, of course, little more than the most remote origin in fact (no more indeed than has the stock, garrulous, insensitive, over-eating Englishman of some North-of-the-Border stories about their neighbours). But in so far as this admittedly highly comical, and sometimes even affectionately regarded figure, touches reality at all he derives from certain Lowland characteristics.

The truth is that since the break-up of the old Highland system in the 18th century they are in Scotland all so mixed up in blood that most of them combine something of the characteristics of both Highlander and Lowlander. A little over two hundred years ago nearly all Scots living north and west of the Highland line which, geographically speaking, still runs diagonally across Scotland were true Celtic Highlanders. That is to say they spoke the Gaelic language, lived under the ancient Celtic system of land tenure and, of course, as members of clans, bore Highland names. South and east of that line in the Lowland towns, villages and in the countryside, Highland names were rare."

You can read the full article at this link ...

http://archive.1september.ru/eng/1999/eng42-2.htm

One thing for sure is that for such a small country we have managed to produce many of the World's greatest inventors, writers, politicians and doctors. The following is an often reproduced, tongue in cheek story about this, often shoved in the face (in the nicest possible sense of course!) of English people.

Wha's Like Us?

	The average Englishman in the home he calls his castle, slips into his national costume ~ a shabby raincoat ~ patented by chemist Charles Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland.
	En route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.
	He drives a car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop of Dreghorn, Scotland.
	At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland.
	During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
	At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Blacksmith of Dumfries, Scotland.
	He watches the news on T.V., an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland and hears an item about the U.S. Navy, founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.
	He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible, only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot ~ King James VI ~ who authorised its translation.
	Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots.
	He could take to drink but the Scots make the best in the world.
	He could take a rifle and end it all but the breech~loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.
	If he escaped death, he could find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, discovered by Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland, and given an anaesthetic, discovered by Sir James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland.
	Out of the anaesthetic he would find no comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England, founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.
	Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask "WHA'S LIKE US?"

What's Not Politically Correct in Scotland?
(Drive on the left but stay on the right side of the people by obeying these simple rules.)

	Don't call a Scot English. This is quite simply unforgivable.
	Don't call us Scotch.The only thing that is Scotch is whisky, the people and everything else are Scots or Scottish. (This is forgivable.)
	Don't call us Jock.
	If you are American don't tell us that you play football. How can any game that is based on running and throwing a "ball" be called football? We play football by kicking the ball with our feet (albeit badly of late.)
	Don't refer to anyone wearing a kilt as being in a "skirt". There is an old Scots law that allows Scots to shoot anyone who does so! There were 12,890 killings of this type in 2003.
	Don't call a loch a "lock". A lock is part of a door or part of a canal. Try to use the guttural "ch" sound that we use. To do this put your forefingers in both corners of the mouth and pull your cheeks apart as hard as you can without tearing the flesh then say "loch". Don't do this every time you say it, particularly in your hotel, or you may find that the landlord will call a doctor.
	Don't try to impersonate the accent. It is highly unlikely that you will succeed in doing anything else but making yourself sound stupid. The accent is very difficult and many excellent actors have failed in their attempts. We find it easy and the little Australian, Mel Gibson almost managed it in Braveheart.

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