Category Archives: Great Scots

To Sir With Love

Posted on March 6, 2021 by Grouse Beater

I was going to say this to Grouse Beater privately, but circumstances being what they are, I feel I should do it publically. If you know me, you know I think the world of my mammy. She was, after all, … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots, Scottish Independence Referendum, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

I Am A Man

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Grouse Beater

I Am A Man I am a man. I am a man who is fighting for his rights. I fight for the rights of every man in my homeland. And every woman and every child, and those who want none, … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots | 38 Comments

Dr William Gordon Stables

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Grouse Beater

An ocasional series on eminent Scots forgotten or largely ignored This is the tale of a travelling man who invented the caravan to make his life on the road more comfortable, a Scot, a man who without knowing it, was … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots, Transportation | 13 Comments

Dr James Niven

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Grouse Beater

An occasional series on eminent Scots unjustly forgotten or ignored We are suffering one of humankind’s many pandemics, killing over two million souls, as I write, and as with those killed in past times, the majority the poorest in our … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots | 9 Comments

Chippy Harry McNish

Posted on June 13, 2020 by Grouse Beater

An occasional series on eminent Scots ignored or forgotten As true as I can tell it, this is the story of a Scotsman and an Englishman. The Scot was called Harry McNish. The Englishman was called Ernest Shackleton. As the … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots | 29 Comments

What is Coronavirus?

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Grouse Beater

We – the world’s nations in the west and Asia – were warned in 2019 a new incurable ‘flu’ was on its way and we should prepare for it. We did not. What is the virus and is it Armageddon, … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Great Scots | 5 Comments

Mary Somerville

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Grouse Beater

An occasional series on great Scots unjustly ignored or forgotten Put off by the acrid smells of school science laboratories, I avoided the study of science subjects like I did tripe (a sheep’s stomach) boiled in milk. That is my … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots | 10 Comments

Jane Haining

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Grouse Beater

An occasional series on great Scots unjustly ignored or forgotten Empathy for others is one of humankind’s greatest qualities.  There are those among us, ordinary down-to-earth folk, modest in ambition and material possession, that make a life altering decision to sublimate their … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots | 2 Comments

Patrick Matthew on Origins

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Grouse Beater

An occasional series on eminent Scots unjustly ignored or forgotten From the minute we were entranced by a bug on a rug, or wondered why blackbirds are black and gulls are white and live by the sea, we were told … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots, Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish Politics | 33 Comments

David Douglas

Posted on February 16, 2019 by Grouse Beater

An occasional series about eminent Scots unjustly forgotten or ignored It has not occurred to me to write about plant hunter David Douglas because I’d already written about another plantsman who lived closer to our age, the redoubtable George Forrest, … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Scots | 8 Comments