A strange world full of odd facts

[dogsbody]

2 hours ago, LaurieS said:

 

 

Left handed using just one hand right handed (ie normal) when using two hands

 

Ie playing cricket bat right handed bowl left handed. apparently this is the mixed up brain syndrome. 🤣

 

Laurie

 

I'm predominantly right-handed, but all my life I've done some things left-handed. Don't know why, I just do.

 

 

 

Chris

[Graham Boak]

I'm right handed but used to bat left-handed.  No idea why, but suggest that it was simply how I first picked it up and after that anything else just felt wrong.  Perhaps had I been taught properly initially I'd have been Captain of Durham.  Perhaps.

[JosephLalor]

On 8/30/2020 at 6:42 PM, Tzulscha said:

 

 

Just noticed this.  I can certainly make out some of the Irish ones.  The fort giving its name to the bay in the northwest is Dún na nGall - Donegal.  Dark Pool is still called that now pretty much.  Dubh Linn -> Dyfflyn -> Dublin.  The name refers to the old confluence of the rivers Poddle and Liffey.  The former flows near me in Harolds Cross.  Strictly speaking the modern city is downstream on the Liffey and its Gaelic name is Baile Átha Cliath.

Edited October 22, 2020 by JosephLalor

[hairystick]

If you are at a scene of an accident, it is important to prevent the loss of blood.

 

A simple fact, explained to me by a person trained in these matters... "All bleeding stops... eventually".

[Black Knight]

Whilst having a nice big bowl of porridge for brekky this morning reminded me of how the Scots used porridge oats in warfare against the English

 

From about the middle of the 1200s (13th century) to about the first third of the 1700s (18th century) there were some very naughty Scotsmen who used to go a-raiding into England, to burn houses and villages, kill people and steal their cattle and sheep. They were called Border Reivers

 

The English would send out small armies to try and catch these Reivers. But they rarely got anywhere near them. Despite the Scots having poor ponies, if any, or being on foot and also driving livestock the Scots moved faster, always ahead.

 

The reason was porridge oats.

Back then the English soldier demanded his daily ration of fresh baked bread (1pound weight) and ration of fresh meat (1.5 pounds weight). Thus the English army had to have numerous wagons carrying bread, flour, portable ovens and slaughtered beef plus fodder for all the horses.

An army moves as fast as its slowest component. The wagons could only manage about 3 to 5 miles per day

 

However, the Scots carried bags of dried oats. They would camp up near fresh water, for the animals, and they would make porridge with the oats. If they wanted meat they slaughtered a stolen animal, skinned it and then boiled the meat in its own hide over a camp fire.

 

The English army could manage 3 to 5 miles per day, needed to set up camp in the evening and breaking it down again in the morning whereas the Scots kept on the move day and night, only needing about an hour to set up a fire and boil up water for porridge

 

When I was a bee keeper we used to take the hives out round to various farms and orchards. One chap in my club told me of this;

He took his hives to a farm

He and the farmer got talking.

Farmer was being paid to return some land to the wild. What could he plant that would be good for the bees and other insects?

My friend told him 'Borage, its a plant the bees really love'

The farmer thought for a few moments then said 'aye, I could plant the old paddock with that. But round here we just call it oats'

[Graham Boak]

Carrying one of the reiving "Names", I feel bound to point out that the Border Reivers were both Scottish and English, one side being every bit as "bad" as the other.  With the Grahams having a cross-border foot in both "sides".  It was much more a matter of the Borderers against themselves and both Scotland and England.  The Scots just had the best propagandist in Sir Walter Scott.  However, the English Army, as such, was not used to chase the Reivers, it was a matter of the locals obtaining help sometimes from the local Lord, or more often doing it themselves.  With most of the action being at night and no stopping to camp for anyone!

 

It is a fascinating fraction of British history and Macdonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets is perhaps the best introduction to themes as the Debatable Land and The Rough Wooing.  Or just listen to a collection of the Border Ballads.

 

 

 

 

[bentwaters81tfw]

Indeed, as another of the reiving 'Names', I have to concur with Graham's comments. Though I believe there is still an ongoing feud between the Grahams and the Bells.

As for 'poor ponies', the 'bog trotters' as they were called, were superior to the soldiers mounts, as they were bred locally and knew the ground they traversed.

[593jones]

SWMBO's ancestors were Border Reivers, and don't I know it!

[bentwaters81tfw]

There's a man who knows his place..........

[dogsbody]

I, too, am descended from those Scottish reivers, on my mother's side. The family name is Armstrong. They were amongst the first settlers in my part of Nova Scotia, after the British Expulsion Of The Acadians in 1755. Thought it has now fallen down after over a decade of non-use, the house my mother grew up in was built in the early 1760s and was lived in up to the late 1990's, as well as I can remember.

 

 

 

Chris

[bentwaters81tfw]

^The Armstrongs and the Bells were allied, our ancestors probably rode together.

[dogsbody]

11 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

^The Armstrongs and the Bells were allied, our ancestors probably rode together.

 

Clan bros. 

 

 

 

Chris

[LaurieS]

11 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

Carrying one of the reiving "Names", I feel bound to point out that the Border Reivers were both Scottish and English, one side being every bit as "bad" as the other.  With the Grahams having a cross-border foot in both "sides".  It was much more a matter of the Borderers against themselves and both Scotland and England.  The Scots just had the best propagandist in Sir Walter Scott.  However, the English Army, as such, was not used to chase the Reivers, it was a matter of the locals obtaining help sometimes from the local Lord, or more often doing it themselves.  With most of the action being at night and no stopping to camp for anyone!

 

It is a fascinating fraction of British history and Macdonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets is perhaps the best introduction to themes as the Debatable Land and The Rough Wooing.  Or just listen to a collection of the Border Ballads.

 

 

 

 

Yes then the Scots produced this poisonous stuff. Which keeps a lot of Englishman docile & Scots in Jail.

 

I am descended from very nice Scottish people.

 

Actually Grandad from Glasgow & Grandad from The Shetlands.

 

Clean as a whistle.

 

Laurie

 

[593jones]

4 hours ago, dogsbody said:

I, too, am descended from those Scottish reivers, on my mother's side. The family name is Armstrong. They were amongst the first settlers in my part of Nova Scotia, after the British Expulsion Of The Acadians in 1755. Thought it has now fallen down after over a decade of non-use, the house my mother grew up in was built in the early 1760s and was lived in up to the late 1990's, as well as I can remember.

 

 

 

Chris

 

SWMBO's ancestors were Armstrongs as well.  I'm always very polite to her when she has something sharp in her hand, it's in the genes, you know.

Edited November 9, 2020 by 593jones

[dogsbody]

2 hours ago, 593jones said:

 

SWMBO's ancestors were Armstrongs as well.  I'm always very polite to her when she has something sharp in her hand, it's in the genes, you know.

 

My Albertan farmgirl wife is from Ukrainian descent on her mother's side. She scares the livin'  outta me!

 

 

 

Chris

[Admiral Puff]

My late wife was descended of Border Reiver stock. The family name was Eliott (Eliott of Stobbes) - note one "L", two "T"s. Other variants are much lesser breeds, I'm assured. One of her ancestors was Sir Gilbert Eliott, who did something of note involving Gibraltar, and as a result every first-born male since has been named "Gilbert". Whatever turns you on ...

 

And I'll second Graham's remarks on The Steel Bonnets - a terrific read, even allowing that most of my lot come from up around Aberdeen and Wick.

[Black Knight]

Here is somat to interest you and confound you.

Spring Fever

 

I study history, in the perspective of the ordinary person. I read books by historians but I also read original manuscripts and books from the 12th century up to the recent past

 

On odd thing I've come across is writers describing people having 'Spring Fever'

This 'Spring Fever' is often mentioned just we would mention someone had a head-cold. It happens, then passes.

But this 'Spring Fever' is mentioned from the 12th century right up to the 1930s

 

A person, usually in the writings the scribes are writing of a man, gets 'Spring Fever' and he cannot do what he normally does without everything going pear-shaped. What the man could do normally and skilfully he couldn't do it properly whilst the fever was upon him

eg. a 12th century writer says of a skilled knight 'when the spring fever is upon him he cannot sit his horse and he must avoid all tournaments'

1812 - 1815, a British Cavalry officer, says 'I cannot control my troop as the Spring Fever is upon them and they are wont to do nothing well'

 

This Spring Fever affected people differently. It seems some people had it bad for a few days or a week, whilst others had it mildly for nearly a month

 

Over the centuries there were 'medicines' which were 'cure-alls' and included they cured 'Spring Fever' and there were 'medicines' which were specifically for curing the Spring Fever. Some of these medicines were available right up to the 1930s

 

Ever wondered why you've had days in spring when nothing you do seems to go right?

Maybe you / I have the 'Spring Fever'

[Max Headroom]

I’m looking into the life of a local saint, John Plessington. At his trial there were three witnesses. One died before the verdict was given, being crushed by a boat on its launch, another was found dead in a pigsty and the third was mad.

 

Popularly thought to have been buried in the local parish church, some remains were found in a nearby pub stored in a suitcase, in a location he was known to have lived and on which were unmistakable marks of being hung, drawn and quartered.

 

Trevor