Dalhouise Library -- Looking for Books and Historical Protection -- First Rural Library of Ontario
This is what remains-Moss covered rocks mark the North side of the old St Andrews hall. Photo- Deb Shea
The Dalhousie Library, Watsons Corner— The First Rural Library in Ontario
Although used with decreasing frequency, St. Andrew’s Hall Cemetery was operational until 1900 when a new St. Andrew’s Cemetery opened across the road. Today, only one gravestone in the original cemetery survives,…
Noah sings his unreleased song "I Think You Are A Whole City," lyrics from the poem by Earle Birney, at St. Andrews Hall, Detroit, January 12 2024. Video by toxiehorne
On the freezing morning of March 25 1306, Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots at Scone where a circlet of gold was raised and placed upon his head.
He was crowned in the presence of at least three bishops and four earls with the coronation, which followed the murder of John Comyn, Bruce’s main rival to the throne, a formal and solemn affair.
The King was draped in “kingly robes and vestments” which had been hidden away by Robert Wishart, the Bishop of Glasgow, until “this longed for day”, according to Ronald McNair Scott in his book Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland.
“(They) were brought out by the old man and set upon King Robert, and a circlet of gold was placed upon his head while the great banner of the kings of Scotland with its lion and scarlet lillies, that had lain so long concealed, was planted behind his throne,” the author wrote.
The Bishops of Moray and St Andrews were also in attendance as well as the Earls of Atholl, Lennox, Menteith and Mar. Absent, however, was the Earl of Fife, who held the hereditary right to crown the kings of Scotland.
Still a youth and held in England as a ward of court in 1306, he unable to attend the coronation and perform his hereditary duties. But his sister, 19-year-old Isabella MacDuff, the Countess of Buchan, went against the will of her husband - a loyal supporter of Edward I and close kinsman of the murdered John Comyn - by taking up the hugely symbolic role during the coronation.
“To her the call of Scotland and her youthful hero-worship of Bruce proved greater than her wifely duty,” Scott wrote.
“Seizing her husband’s finest horses, she rode with the upmost speed to Scone to act on her brother’s behalf” he added.
Isabella arrived a day too late but but King Robert took part in a second coronation ceremony, 48 hours after the first,so that the ancient tradition may be preserved.
“The golden circlet was lifted once more and placed upon the brow of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, Lord of Annandale, King of Scots.”
Following the coronation, Edward I sent soldiers into Scotland to hunt down the new king. Robert fled and, as the manhunt continued across Scotland, the King’s brother - Nigel de Brus - and other supporters were discovered.
They were taken to Berwick-Upon-Tweed where the men were judicially condemned, hanged, drawn and beheaded.
Along with other members of the family including King Robert's wife, Elizabeth, Isabella was captured and sent to the Borders town. There, she was confined to a cage that was hung from a tower at Berwick Castle as a warning to others. She remained in the cage for four years, according to accounts.
I love all your analysis! Could I ask you to chime in, if you have the time and the inclination, on my pet theory?
Here it goes: Meghan found it harder than Catherine to be succeed in the Royal family because she's not athletic.
The Aristo crowd is sporty. It's a good marker of privilege - one you cannot fake - to be able to ski, play tennis, row, sail, ride, dive. All these things require lots of leisure time, and money, and the confident, cheerful ease of the amateur sportsman.
Catherine is a good minor athlete - her reaction to the 2007 breakup was to enter a rowing challenge with her girlfriends (she went clubbing with Pips too, sure, but she was out there most mornings in her wetsuit, being healthy and determined). It's hard to explain the mindset of the "amateur athlete in friendly competition" if you've never been one, but it gives you confidence, emotional regulation, and the bone deep knowledge that small constant steps are key to achieving progress and success.
Meghan just knows that "rich people go skiing", and she gets photographed on the slopes in an unsuitable coat, thinking it's the same thing. She looks for the shortcut - and she may fool some of the non-skiers, but it's just a house of cards. It works for an influencer who will quickly move on to the next thing, but the Royal family thinks in decades, and the persona their PR builds for you must have some consistency.
And there would have been nothing wrong with saying outright "you know what, I didn't grow up with that kind of money, I can't ski or row" - she would have got lots of sympathy.
Don't you love "training montages" in movies? She could have had years of upbeat training montage PR! Or she could have gone with an "outsider perspective" PR strategy, where she would have represented the slightly ironic common man faced with the BRF.
But Meghan the Narc can't stand to acknowledge she doesn't know something. She should have been herself, and instead she tried to be Catherine and failed.
It's a good theory, but i don't think it holds much weight when you really dig into it - for exactly what you pointed out: Meghan wasn't herself.
Kate was unabashedly and genuinely herself. Long before St. Andrews or William entered the picture, and she stayed that way after everything with William. The aristo crowd probably prefers that, and Kate doesn't strike me as someone who's impressed by all that. She probably cared more about their art collection than whether they were Duke So-and-So or Earl Whozitsandwhatsits, and that's impressive on its own. (I'm reminded now of the story with Cillian Murphy; he doesn't like it when people fawn all over him and he shuts down when that happens, so a seat-filler who sat next to him at one of the recent awards shows pretended she didn't know who he was and had the most incredible conversation wtih him.)
Whereas Meghan was always playing a role, and badly at that. So it was pretty easy for the aristo crowd to see right through her and know that she was bad news. Especially once she stop pretending to be aristo-like, with the cursing and demanding to sit next to Harry/switching place cards at the dinner parties, the screaming at staff, policing what everyone was saying and confronting them when it wasn't PC (according to her).
I think being sporty/athletic helped Kate, but the vibe I get from the aristo crowd isn't necessarily a sporty set. As a whole, they seem more outdoorsy to me with the skiing holidays, the shooting parties, the horse racing, the sailing. I think William's side of the aristo crowd (like his friends and Anne's family that he's closest to) is sporty because that's what they've connected over, and Kate fits in well with that crowd so it was easier for her to be accepted by them. But there's also the "city" side of the aristo crowd like the Yorkies and the Spencers where they're more known for their holidays, artsy/culture-type activities, and spectatoring sports.
Not to say that the two can't blend - they do, obviously, and everyone is probably really good at code-switching to navigate between the different segments of the aristo world (William and Kate especially as the future King and Queen, who have to be both representational and aspirational to all segments of the populartion, not just the aristos). And maybe the more culture set are sporty too (like how Diana danced and the Yorks skiied) but sport isn't how we think of those aristos. The latter crowd is what Meghan expected because that's the world Diana inhabited and as we all know, Meghan views royalty through Diana exclusively, so when she saw Kate in that sphere, she tried to emulate that side of Kate (the evening-gown wearing, gala attending, world-traveling, tennis-watching, polo-wifeing Kate) not knowing that it's just a small piece of who, and what, Kate actually is.
It's why the role she tried to play fell flat; Meghan didn't know the whole character, she just had the PR version of Kate to work with. Or, in acting parlance, Meghan had the character notes for Kate the Bit Player. She didn't get the character profile for Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, a main character.
Going back to what you originally said, that Meghan didn't integrate as easily as Kate did because of the athletics, I'd say it's bigger than that. It's because she didn't have any hobbies or interests. Everyone in the aristo set has hobbies and interests. Meghan didn't/doesn't have a single hobby and that made/makes it hard to connect with people on any level. She didn't need to have the same hobbies or interests as everyone else, she just had to have something. But she didn't. She had nothing.
All she had was Harry but Harry assumes the personality of whomever he's dating...which is the same thing Meghan does; she assumes the personality of whomever she's dating. So when there are two people being each other, they end up with nothing. Or they end up being his mother. Which isn't that much better either.
dark academic things I love since moving to Edinburgh
I recently moved to Edinburgh to study psychology at the University of Edinburgh. These are some things I like to remind myself of how privileged I am to be able to experience when I'm feeling a bit melancholic
The sun against Arthur's seat in the morning
Feeding the squirrels in George Square garden when you got to the lecture too early
The empty Royal Mile on your way to your 9AM
Mourning the loss of Teviot Row House (may she rest in peace... for two years while she gets renovated)
Watching the sun paint the sky pink and the buildings a deep orange as it sets, cup of hot earl grey tea, laptop open, notebooks everywhere, LED candles flickering around the room.
Tutorials where people take things as seriously as you do
Walking around Greyfriars Kirkyard on a crisp autumn evening, sipping chai from a local coffee house
Sharing biscuits with the crows in Holyrood park
Disgracing the architecture of the Holyrood Parliament building -- much preferring St Andrew's House -- but also just disgracing the Parliament as a whole
Not feeling like you're trying too hard; everyone's trying harder than you
Meeting a bunch of Oxbridge rejects. Being thankful you didn't apply (and thus avoided that embarrassment...)
Buying dried herbs from the herbalist across the street from the university to make your own tea blends
Quoting Shakespeare; someone finishes the quote for you
Pondering your own mortality in the many museums across the city (especially the Surgeon's Hall museum...)
Feeling validated when someone mentions they're on their third coffee of the day and it's only 12PM
getting the bus from Old Town to New Town, being able to look out across the North Sea. Mentally conjuring up Siren's songs
Venturing out to Leith for the Witchcraft Market once a month
Pinning handouts of poetry to your pin board in your room. Saves you spending money to print off your own
the Law library
Taking a French class, because Greek clashed with your main course and Latin had prerequisites. Studying all 3 on your own out of spite
Being taught in the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, where Burke and Hare delivered bodies to
It's normal to wear a suit and tie every day; it's also normal to wear a hoodie and jeans if you woke up too late from studying all night
Cringing when someone compares the city to Harry Potter. Then softening as you realise they're just noticing the same magic that you noticed, too, only articulating it differently
Watching the trees turn red and scatter their leaves across the pavement before they're carried away by the wind. being reminded once again of your own approaching doom
Going to the Frankenstein bar, zoning out of the conversation and watching the black&white film that plays on loop. Then talking at the person next to you about the inaccuracy, using quotes from the novel to back up your argument
Bonus points if they agree
Everyone freaking out about deadlines in a few weeks' time; knowing you'll be fine, because you developed your study methods in school
The Christmas market coming up
Farmers' markets on the weekends
Beltane Fire Society, and the upcoming Samhuinn festival in the pitch black of Holyrood park
Imagining the horses and their carriages trotting along the cobblestone roads
Fantasising about moving to Dean's village; knowing you'll have to settle for Stockbridge
Or wanting to move to Murrayfield, but not wanting to be too far from the university
Vanilla room spray. Fresh black coffee. Biscuits to dip into it
Being the one people go to for answers, but only helping them if they're genuinely stuck and want to learn
Cashmere scarf, tweed coat, saddle bag -- copious amounts of compliments on your outfit choice
Watching the bats flutter past your window
Not being able to go into the castle, lest you fail all your exams!
Buying a hefty coat from Armstrong & Son's vintage emporium
Double doors built so small, you have to open both in order to get through. Then feeling like a villain as the heavy wood slams behind you
Dimly lit, dark wooden hallways
Free coffee, if you know where to look
Taking a nap in the library between lectures. No weird stares
Being able to spot the people you know have definitely read The Secret History, or The Song of Achilles, or The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avoiding the touristy areas, but finding places just as good
Happy 91st birthday to Katharine, Duchess of Kent!
Born on February 22nd 1933, Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley is the fourth child and only daughter of Sir William Worley, 4th Baronet, Lord-lieutenant of North Riding, and his wife Joyce Morgan Brunner, and wife to Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.
The couple have three children: George, Earl of St Andrews, Lady Helen Taylor, and Lord Nicholas Windsor. In the 90s Katharine stepped down from her royal duties and is now a music teacher.
"I have this thinking that Charles doesn't like any of his children because they didn't come from Camilla."
While i have no opinion on what Charles thinks of his kids, i do eyeroll so hard every time people bring up his relationship with Camilla as if it were the ultimate true love thwarted story.
I can't and don't blame the public for this gargantuan PR fib, but it demonstrates how effective it has been and of course history is rewritten by the victors and the past is forgotten.
The truth is that he was in a menage a trois with Camilla and Kanga within months of meeting both ladies in 1971/72 until 1985 when a childhood illness reappeared in Kanga and made her so ill that her mental and physical health deteriorated until she died in November 1997.
Every biographer published before the great whitewashing says that Camilla didn't hold supremacy while Kanga was still in play and she was horribly insecure about her.
Kanga is the only woman Charles has complimented publicly by saying she's the only woman in the world who understood him - yet he dropped her when she got sick and didn't acknowledge her death.
Everything that people accuse Camilla doing can be levelled at Kanga because both ladies were equally and deeply involved with Charles. All the way to vetting his future bride and attending the wedding at St Paul's.
One of the reasons he struggled to find a bride was the presence of these 2 ladies which wasn't a secret in his social circle. One of the women he proposed to, Anne Wallace, broke off the engagement because she refused to tolerate their presence in her future life as his wife.
And what's creepier is that Anne Wallace in 1980 superficially resembled Diana. Almost like he just replaced her with a clone. Then again, Kanga and Camilla superficially resembled each other though Kanga was prettier and illness aside, aged very well.
The Kanga affair was accepted by Diana who went as far as befriending Kanga and even wore one of her dresses to LiveAid concert 1985.
The DM's society gossip columnist Nigel Dempster used to covertly discuss the affairs by saying one or the other lady was seen with The Earl of Chester - this was one of Charles's lesser titles.
Ironically, Diana is the one that provided the bones of the future PR story that Camilla and Charles had a thwarted love story that has come to be accepted truth.
After Kanga was dropped in 1985, Camilla remained while Diana floundered with her many love affairs. She became hyper focused on Camilla and retconned the affair removing Kanga, Anne Wallace and others from the story and telling this retconned version to the world and the world built upon this story to add more retconned details eg Camilla wasn't a virgin which made her unsuitable. Nevermind the real story that Camilla was deeply in love with Andrew PB and was using Charles as a distraction and a way to prompt Andrew to propose which he did.
The biographer Sally Bedell Smith goes as far as saying that Charles continued to have discreet affairs upto 1997 and names the lady in her 2017 biography of Charles even though publicly he was introducing Camilla to the world at this time.
Perhaps Diana's death changed his emotional world because no more whispers of affairs after that and he finally, fully committed to Camilla.
The Working Royals of the British Royal Family: A Series
Full name: William Arthur Philip Louis
Title: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Earl of Chester)
Place in the line of succession: First (1)
Birth: 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London
Current Age: 41
William is the eldest child of King Charles and the late Diana Spencer. He is the first heir to attend university, having studied at the University of St Andrews, which is also where he met his wife, Catherine Middleton. William married in 2011 and has three childre - Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Since becoming a full time working royal, William has been instrumental in the creation of several projects, notably The Earthshot Prize and Homewards
Hi folks! We’ve got a large number of participants for our little tourney! Since these are podcast people, most of them don’t have official/free to use art. So, especially since we have multiple characters from the same podcasts, I need your help!
Below is a list of characters. If their name is not crossed out, that means I need art! Please dm me your art (and how you would like to be properly credited if it differs from your blog handle). Do not send art that isn’t yours unless you have explicit permission from the artist.
Characters are ordered by show (shows listed alphabetically) and not by bracket listing. Brackets will be revealed after preliminary rounds.
Alice (Alice isn’t Dead)
Rat/Jacob (Archive 81)
Aava Arek (Campaign Podcast)
Amos Faraday (In Transit)
Kayne (Malevolent)
Kellin
Hastur/The King in Yellow
Collins/The Butcher
Wallace “Andrew” Larson
Isaac Prince (Mayfair Watcher’s Society)
Queen of the Summer Sun (Mistholme Museum of Mystery Morbidity and Mortality)