Graham T
I am retired and an enthusiastic amateur photographer. I particularly enjoy the great outdoors and landscape photography but recently I've developed a keen interest in macro photography.
Location United Kingdom
Activity
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Graham T made a comment
Thank you for a great course.
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Graham T made a comment
I found clan development interesting and perhaps a little surprising.
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Graham T made a comment
I loved the book Kindnapped and well remember Michael Caines’ appalling accent . However , I forgive him as I enjoyed the film.
I think films can engender an interest in a subject. -
Graham T made a comment
Interesting .I must read some of these books
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Graham T made a comment
I live in Aberdeen and we have our Highland Games. I have no idea when they started .I will find out
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Graham T made a comment
This is a great video and really makes the case for clanship today
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The clans have developed well and kept alive traditions . I have been to the
Braemar gathering and really liked seeing the Men of Lonach marching across the mountain to compete. -
Graham T made a comment
I’ts good that the Highland societies were formed. As far as language goes it’s hard to learn a language such as Gaelic. It needs to be your first language and spoken at home.This is certainly the experience that I have had with Welsh.
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Graham T made a comment
Scott dwells on the diffculty of the terrain and the agility of the highlanders. Bryon speaks of the beauty of the country and the death of the clansmen at Culloden. Why is Lochnagar spelt differently in the poem?
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Graham T made a comment
I am personally not a fan of Walter Scot ( don’ t hold that against me ) but I do like Burns’poetry. Most cultures romantise their past especially when they have many colourful heroes and it is very good for tourism but it does not do to think of the past as definitive of present culture. Scotland has a lot to offer the world in the present day and this...
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Graham T made a comment
The first poem strikes me as defeatist and the second showing the will to fight for their land using legal process. Clanship probably had less to do with it as it was individuals who seem to be involved.
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Graham T made a comment
This is very poignent song and the lyrics are so sad.
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Graham T made a comment
This is a valuable example of economic forces shaping communities
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I don’ t think that I can usefully comment except to say that yet again archaeology is vital to our understanding.
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Graham T made a comment
It was a brutal battle. I have been to Culloden many times and always been fascinated. I think that Cumberlands’ reprisals were abhorrent but I suppose it was the second uprising in 30 years so the English had had enough.
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This does not help my understanding much.
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Graham T made a comment
The Scottish Jacobites must have got a bit dispirited when they realised that Charles still wanted to rule over a Union of three countries and not definately going to give them independace.
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Graham T made a comment
I find the support for the Stuarts rather astonishing perhaps because I do not believe in the divine right of kings and I can only assume that the main aim of the uprisings was to be an independant country which I can understand.
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Graham T made a comment
Well Simon I don’t know the answer to your comment but maybe we’ll have a better idea by the end of this week
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Graham T made a comment
I was particularly interested by the role of the tacksman. I suspect that he was unpopular with the clansmen. A bit like the manager of a large firm who has to pass on unpleasant news and decisions. The workforce never like them.
I have been interested in the views of my fellow learners and learnt a lot from them.
I want to know where the clans are now in... -
Graham T made a comment
Social economic changes would have been more significant in the long term. Clan chiefs being lured by more sophisticated ways and by the attraction of being the elite in a wider society. Wars are expensive and so that would have played a part.
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Graham T made a comment
So things have got less violent but far more expensive and the clansmen now have to pay for the chiefs way of life and kinship begins to fade.
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Graham T made a comment
I feel that the Stuarts on the whole were poor kings so I would have had to choose the covenanters not the royalists.
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Graham T made a comment
It seems that little has changed. Still
killing each other but a different excuse this time. Religion involved as well just as it was at the start. -
Graham T made a comment
I think that he wanted to ‘civilize’ both groups but that one group would be easier to control than the other and in some areas it seems to have worked quite well. He probably wanted to change the Gaelic way of life and bring it under central control but not necessarily to exterminate all its culture.
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Graham T made a comment
If the monarch wishe to have a cohesive, loyal ( as much as possible)and modern country it is not sensible to have factions present who owe loyalty to their clan rather than their king. Also by this time I suspect that the clan system was beginning to falter.
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Clan feuds were clearly a nasty business resulting in the death of many men. There has been no information about what happened to the wounded presumably they took some Beatons along with them or maybe not?
This is a very detailed and colourful account of the battle and I suspect the bards had a lot to do with passing the information down through the years.... -
Graham T made a comment
As society got more sophisticated and information more easily spread about different ways to live the clan system was bound to falter as in many ways it was repressive and people in general dislike repression. However freedom is often hard won as we are currently seeing in Europe.
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Graham T made a comment
Sad sad song.
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Graham T made a comment
I can see why the Macgregors were a bit put out.
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Well, he seems to have been quite a guy! He presumably had been fighting in France whether actually exiled or sent away to hone his military skills. This poem extolls the virtues of his ancestors , his looks and personality. The poem also gives advice as to his future behaviour. Much is made of his valour and the men who love and support him wth the exception...
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Graham T made a comment
I didn’t understand the words until I looked up the translation but the song itself gives a great sense of her sadness.
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Graham T made a comment
I found this video very interesting and informative.
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Graham T made a comment
Well, I had a go at this and got into a shocking tangle. It may have been easier with wool cloth than cotton but I ‘m glad that I don’t have to get dressed like that. By the time that I had got dressed it would be time for bed.
I suppose that the Highlander could have got someone else to wrap the plaid round him. -
This is interesting. I had not realised that tartans could represent districts rather than just clans. It would be interesting to know what local vegetation was used for dyes .True blue at that time was usually taken from indigo which like cochineal would need to be imported.
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Graham T made a comment
1 . Knowledge of the land and the way it could be used to maximum benefit of all concerned.
2. The ability to organise the area under his control in good times and bad. That must have meant conserving goods and animals against bad weather and raiders.
3. The personality to order the farmers etc under his aegis to carry out his orders ( sometimes unpleasant... -
Graham T made a comment
I can see that this system would work well as long as everyone played their part. It would give security to the farmers and manpower when required.
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Graham T made a comment
It must have been a hard life and in poor years difficult to feed the clan.
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Graham T made a comment
I am looking forward to this week.
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Graham T made a comment
Whenever I learn about other times it becomes clear that however much times change and knowledge progresses human nature remains essentially the same.
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Graham T made a comment
Really fascinating.
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Graham T made a comment
Without written testimony it is difficult to hve an unbiased opinion but even a written record can be biased so records from all combatants would be useful to try and sort out what really happend. Of course oral histories are more exciting .
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Well I will be brave an add a comment. I was interested in the comment that history bassically provides an overview and archeology the insight of the reality of the times.
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Graham T made a comment
I have looked at the Padlet wall and there are some remarkable crests. I do not have the ability to do this so I will just admire others.
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Graham T made a comment
Clearly a lot of showing off necessary to maintain status.
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Graham T made a comment
Religion seems to have had a large part in producing cohesion within the clan.
The burning in Trumpan was almost certainly an act of revenge justified by the fact that it was heretics being burnt. -
Graham T made a comment
Giving the bonds a legal basis was good as it prpbably helped keep law and order between the clans thus making less likely for the crown to need to interfere.
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I think that we are hearing the views of two very different people. The lawyer and the poet or the realist and the romantic. They both have a point.
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Graham T replied to Yvonne Williams
It probablyworked well in it’s initial time. I don’t think that I would have liked it though. Also we are assuming that all the chiefs were kindly. That is unlikely. Not all bosses are good bosses.
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Maybe the Stewarts thought that the Lords of the Isles were getting too big for their boots and needed to be taught a lesson.
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Graham T made a comment
Glad to know a little about the battle of Harlaw. I live in Aberdeen but knew nothing at all about the battle itself despite passing the battleground many times.
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Graham T made a comment
Wow!
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Graham T made a comment
Kinship and family seem to be the thread running through the cloud. I must say that I have previously considered it to be more feudal. I may change my opinion as I go on.
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Graham T made a comment
I don’t like any of them very much. I prefer reading about her.
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Graham T made a comment
Very clever and entertaining to some. I’m not sure that Mary herself would either appreciate or understand this interpretation
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I found this entertaining and thought provoking.
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Graham T made a comment
I liked the clips and the films that I have seen have been entertaining and I think will mke some wish to know more about Mary.
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Graham T made a comment
I am not a fan of comics but that’s personal . If they cause people to become interested in a subject then great.
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Graham T made a comment
I embroider a lot and feel some kinship with others who love this art form. Men and women both. Mary would have been absorbed and as content as it was possible for her to be while engaged in this work. I can understand this.
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Graham T made a comment
This painting shows to me an unhappy woman surrounded my men who are for ing her to do something against her will. Whether it has political significance I cannot say.
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Graham T made a comment
I like the paintings but think that they are romantic reimaginings rather than anything to do with Mary herself.
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Graham T made a comment
Transformed into a catholic martyr.
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Graham T made a comment
So sad. Things could have been so different.All Mary of Guise careful plans came to nothing and there was no plan B. Too little understanding of the political situation in Scotland and in England. Like Don Quixote she was tilting at windmills. She comes asross the centuries as a good woman in the wrong place and time.
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Graham T made a comment
Oh dear. What a terrible end .
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Graham T replied to John Maguire
Her life has certainly spawned a great many textbooks, plays and romantic novels so in that sense she has had great significance but perhaps after her lifetime.
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Graham T made a comment
I can see more clearly how she made the choices that she did. She felt unable to rule without male support. Normal at that time I’m sure.
I did know a little about Mary’s reign. Mostly from school and she seemed a romantic figure but now she seems unfortunate.
I am married to a lovely Scotsman but I am begining to woner if there were any decent men around... -
Graham T made a comment
I think that the saddest part of all this is that James was not very kind to his mother
Mary had made some unwise choices as queen and was not by this time able to face the realities of her situation. -
Graham T made a comment
Mary has not shown herself to be the most astute person but I do not think that she would have written to Bothwell or anyone else in that way. I t would have been beneath her to do so.
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Graham T made a comment
Mary was clearly able to charm most people she met but charm only carries you so far. Also she could not charm someone she had not met and Elizabeth had kept well away.
I can see the arguments for going to England but they were based on assumptions not facts. France was not a great option either.
Given her ability to influence I think that she should have... -
Graham T made a comment
Mary made a very poor choice in her 2nd husband and there was scandal and mistrust following his death. There were different factions at court and at this point it may have been thought that Mary was losing control and that opportunities for grabbing power were becoming available.
As far as signing the abdication goes(if she did sign it) she may have seen it... -
It is indeed a fascinating tale and the whole situation seems to be one amazing mess. Not only is the situation beyond Mary to tidy up but also poor Scotland itself must be suffering.
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Graham T made a comment
If she married him because she had no choice then it was not willing
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Graham T made a comment
It seems a little odd that Mary sort of reconciled with Darnley and persuaded him to move from Glasgow to Edinburgh where he was murdered. Coincidence?
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Graham T made a comment
The whole appalling business shows what little respect these “ nobles” had for their queen.
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Graham T made a comment
He wasn’t a good marriage choice for anyone even with his dynastic background. I think that the adage ‘ handsome is as handsome does’ is pertinant here. His bad points definately outweigh the good reasons. Also marrying Darnley would annoy Elizabeth and it’s not a good idea to annoy someone who might do you a favour.
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Graham T made a comment
Mary felt that she had a right to the English throne and possibly she did. There was no court of human rights at that time and Elizabeth had dodged too many bullets in her youth to name a catholic successor which would undoubtedly cause unrest in England.
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Graham T made a comment
Mary behaved reasonably at this point .Whether acting from advice from others or alone. I’m not sure about putting corpses on trial though. I hope that it does’nt take on today!
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Graham T replied to Steven Reid
I took lessons from a lady who was very interested in Mary’s embroideries many of which were done during her captivity and I believe that she took great pleasure in the work.They are beautiful.
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Graham T made a comment
Mary was trained to be a helpmeet and support for her husband not to rule herself. She would have been expected to charm and entertain diplomats and important visitors. There was no need for her to consider Scotland as it would be a vassal state to France and it was necessary that Mary’s loyalties lay only with France and the French so she must be distanced...
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Graham T made a comment
Mary probably thought thatit was quite reasonable to sign the marriage clauses but she might have wondered why it had to be secret.
No real power but some infuence while she and her husband remained on good terms.
None that was acceptable to her. -
Graham T made a comment
Poor Mary . Queen of so many countries but Catholic and brought up in France. Not a good look for protestant England still reeling from Mary Tudor’s reign,
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Graham T made a comment
this question can be considered in two ways. Firstly from the view of the general public who would be more concerned with their own religious observances and secondly from tha aims and ambitions of the politicians.
There were no referenda then so I will never know. -
Graham T made a comment
john knox was probably the pop star of the reformed religion in scotland.Saying what people wanted
to hear and saying it loudly. We have not heard yet of the input of the Lords of the congregation so cannot know how much politics was involved. I think that the tide of the reformation was advancing so quickly that it could not have been stopped. -
Graham T made a comment
She remains popular because she seems to be an ill treated and tragic creature. To some perhaps even a martyr.
Myself I find her lack of ability to realise what she can and cannot achieve remarkable. I assume that is because of her early teaching at the French court. -
Graham T made a comment
Mary is a romantic figure to me but one whose ambitions were far beyond her ability to achieve.
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Graham T made a comment
I have had the impression that Mary was essentially well meaning but was thrust into a situation that she was ill equipped to deal with. She
was brought up expecting to be queen in France but thrown into a very different culture after the death of her husband. My knowledge of her is
sketchy and I hope to flesh this out and find the real Mary.