A Quite Remarkable Man - the Life of Patrick Brydone and His Family (1736-1818)

This is a review of A Quite Remarkable Man - the Life of Patrick Brydone and His Family (1736-1818)’ by John Evans. Hardback. 384 pp. Published by Amberley Publishing, Gloucestershire, England at £20 (now £18). ISBN 978 1 4456 3890 4.

Patrick Brydone was born at Coldingham on 5 January 1736 to Rev Robert Brydone and Elizabeth Dysart, married Mary Robertson on 4 April 1785 and died 19 June 1818. 

Sir Walter Scott described him as our pilgrim and as "My venerable friend". 

He experimented with electric shock therapy on willing patients; as an army officer, he saw action in France, Portugal and Spain during the Seven Years' War; a tutor in Europe to William Beckford, owner of a large Jamaican sugar estate; author of A Tour through Sicily and Malta - 6,750 copies sold in under 4 years; visited France, Switzerland, Bavaria, Prussia and several other German territories, Austria, Italy, Malta, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and became comptroller-general of the London Stamp Office. 

He was obviously a scientist, explorer and a diplomat, so he clearly was a remarkable man. 

There's lots of interesting detail about Italy and Russia but rather less about other countries. Everywhere he seems to have met important people, however there are also anecdotes about peasants and more mundane events. I was interested to learn that miners at a copper and silver mine in Spania Dolina (now in Slovakia) in April 1776 received 12 kreuzers  (about 2½p) for an 8 hour day.

His daughter, Mary, married the Hon. Gilbert Elliot, eldest son of the first Baron Minto, the other 2 daughters married an admiral and a minister. There's some bits about life in the Scottish Borders and other parts of Scotland.  The notes to the book have more detail, there's a bibliography, and an index, mainly of people.

It took me a long time to read this book because, at 384 pages, it is a very long book and rather an academic book. Unlike most academic tomes, it is thoroughly interesting, lots of anecdotes about the celebrities of the day, pastiches about life in all the countries he visited, and helped me to understand events in Britain and Europe during the 17th century. There are lots of illustrations, too.

Today, we're quite used to people going off on holiday all over the world but that wasn't common except for the wealthy in the 18th century. Patrick Brydone not only visited more than 15 countries by travelling thousands of miles in horse-drawn carriages but found time to shape government policy and write about some of his travels.

As I hope the above shows, this book is well worth reading and if I had to find a criticism, it is that I would have liked a sort of "dramatis personae" so that I be reminded at a glance who somebody was when I encountered the name later on in the book. Not only was this book very interesting but it's inspired me to read Brydone's book 'A Tour through Sicily and Malta' which I've discovered is free on the web.

Change to our Programme for Sunday 25th November

Our next meeting is on Sunday, 25 November at 2.30pm in the Corn Exchange in Melrose, when Marjorie Gavin returns with a talk about Thomas Pringle of Blakelaw, near Kelso; a poet, traveller and anti-slavery campaigner - Thomas, in the early 19th century, was secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society and was famed for his poetry. Many people may not have heard of this Roxburghshire man but his story has many exciting ingredients including South Africa, Sir Walter Scott connections and politics !

The original planned talk on the 'Black Death' has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances and may be re-scheduled for 2013.

As usual, the doors will open at 2.00pm and the talk starts at 2.30pm.

Admission is free and we’ll have usual sales tables and refreshments after the talk. I hope to see you there. Map.

Scott's Selkirk - 3rd and 4th December

Just a reminder that it's Scott's Selkirk in Selkirk (Scotland) on 3rd and 4th December !

This annual event is loads of fun, people in old-fashioned clothes walking around, decorated shops, stalls in the High St with interesting things to taste and unusual presents you can buy for Christmas presents.

It commemorates Sir Walter Scott, and there's re-enactments of him presiding in the Court-house; but there'll also be tours of the prison under the main road, the A7, music in the streets and the Square, childrens activities at Halliwell's House museum and fireworks to finish the festival off.
According to the website there's tours of Haining House (with mulled wine) but that's not mentioned in the program.

More info about Scott's Selkirk.

I try to go every year, however the weather caused its cancellation last year.

Even though there's snow on Soutra, I hope it's going ahead this year.

See you there ?

Happy Birthday to Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott was born on 15 August 1771 in Edinburgh.

To celebrate his 240th birthday, Abbotsford House which was his favourite home, is running two events on Sunday 14th August. No doubt, the income will go towards their restoration and visitor centre building project.

Everybody gets the opportunity to go and picnic on the terraces to the accompaniment of live Scottish music between 4pm and 6.30 pm. The cost is £5.50 (kids over the age of 6, £3.50).

If you don't want to bring a picnic, you can order one in advance from their tearoom.

More info on the Abbotsford House picnic.

The second event is a concert between 6.30pm and 8.30pm performed on traditional instruments. The concert will be held in the library at Abbotsford House and will be followed by drinks and canapés. The musicians are: Elspeth Smellie (Clarsach and voice), Christopher Keatinge (Accordion) and Matt Seattle (Border pipes, guitar, voice and fiddle).
The cost is £20 (kids up to the age of 15, £10).
If you want to go, I suggest you book early.

More info on the concert.

Sir Walter Scott, a cowboy of the Wild West ?

The headline in Scotland on Sunday, yesterday, was actually Sir Walter Scott, king of the wild frontier?
The article says that Scott now has a new claim to fame, and that a conference 'Walter Scott: Sheriff And Outlaw, organised by the University of Wyoming'   taking place 5th to 9th July in Laramie, Wyoming, USA, will discuss Scott's role as one of the pivotal influences on America's western frontier.

Jeni Calder, who will present a lecture on Scott's frontier legacy, says that Scott's influence on the wild west cannot be over-estimated and examines the comparisons between the wild frontier land of America and that of the Scottish Borders of the late 18th century - where Scott was Sheriff of Selkirkshire from 1799 until 1832.

Dr John Leyden, His Life and Family

In September 1775, in a thatched cottage overlooking Denholm Green, a young father proudly looked down on his first child, to be named John after his father and forefathers. At the time, neither of the parents, John Leyden nor his wife Isabel Scott, could have predicted the fascinating life ahead for their son - a life which was to see him master over 30 Oriental languages, become a minister, surgeon and naturalist, bring him fame as a poet and linguist and earn the respect, admiration and friendship of Sir Walter Scott and other eminent members of 19th century society before travelling to India and an untimely death in Java. A genius had been born - Dr John Leyden.

The title is the title of a talk to be given by Marjorie Gavin at Hawick Library, North Bridge Street, Hawick, TD9 9QT, Scotland on Tuesday 16th November at 7.15pm.

200th anniversary of the death of Dr John Leyden

August 2011 sees the 200th anniversary of the death of Dr John Leyden, the famous poet and Orientalist from Denholm in the Scottish Borders.

Dr Leyden was a great friend of Sir Walter Scott and it is said that after his death, Scott could never talk about Leyden without a tear in his eye. He really appears to have been a most remarkable man.

Over the next year, one of our members, Marjorie Gavin, who has served our Society both as Editor and as Chairman, and has transcribed births, marriages and deaths overseas from the Hawick Advertiser and Kelso Mail, hopes to visit as many groups and organisations as possible to talk about the life and achievements of the great Dr Leyden whose story deserves to be more widely known.

If you have any memorabilia or documents relating to Dr John Leyden that might assist her in this task please contact her by sending her a private message in our forum or replying to her forum topic.

More about Dr Leyden is in one of Marjorie's articles, The Life and Family of Dr. John Leyden.

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Sir Walter Scott's House to get £2.45m of Funding

Abbotsford House, near Galashiels, Scotland,  the home of the famous Sir Walter Scott, one of Scotland's greatest writers and one of the most influential Scots that ever lived, is to receive funds to pay for essential and urgent repairs to the building and help create a new visitor centre. 

With the death in 2004 of Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott, the last direct descendant of Sir Walter to live in Abbotsford, its future was put in doubt.
In January 2007, responsibility for the house and gardens passed from Dame Jean's executors to The Abbotsford Trust, a new charity.

The trustees will be getting £2.45m, but that's a lot less than the £10m they were seeking, which they say is needed to preserve the 19th century mansion and secure the house as a major tourist attraction, in part by creating luxury letting accommodation to generate an income.

The designs for the new visitor centre show it to be a most unattractive building, but its trustees don't accept that, and also say that it's been designed to be unobtrusive and have low running costs.

More details in a BBC article.

Scott's Selkirk

Yesterday and today, the Scott's Selkirk festival took place in Selkirk.

It's been very good in past years, and previous festivals have included a barrel-organ and monkey outside the Co-op in the High St, as well as stalls lining both sides of the High St, in the Market Square, the front garden of the Southern Reporter office and in the back yard of the County Hotel, as well as decorated shops, people dressed up in period costume and re-enactments, with a finale of fireworks at about 4.30 pm on the Sunday.

This year it was not so good. Admittedly, I didn't go yesterday, but today there seemed to be fewer stalls than there were on the Sunday last year. The shops were decorated, and there were a few people in period costume, but far fewer than last year. The tunnel underneath the main A7 road linking the Court house and the old Gaol (now where the library is), was open, and that's new.

It would be sad if this festival had had its day, because it's a nice celebration of Sir Walter Scott and other famous local people. In the past, I've felt it's brightened up a drab and dreich cold December weekend and been something to which to look forward, and an opportunity to buy last minute Christmas presents, particularly for people that seem to have everything.

And why has Borders Family History Society not had a stall ?
I don't know the answer to that question, and it's something to think about for next year, which will be our Silver Jubilee year.

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