Old Travel Blog Photograph Of Queen Victoria With Her Servant John Brown At Balmoral Castle Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of Queen Victoria with her Servant John Brown at Balmoral Castle, Scotland. John Brown was a Scottish personal attendant and favourite of Queen Victoria for many years. He was appreciated by many, including the Queen, for his competence and companionship, and resented by others for his influence and informal manner. The exact nature of his relationship with Victoria was the subject of great speculation by contemporaries and continues to be controversial today. Brown had several younger brothers and a sister, three of whom also entered the royal service. His brother Archibald Anderson ,15 years John's junior, eventually became personal valet to Victoria's youngest son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. The 1997 film Mrs Brown is the fictionalised story of John Brown. Billy Connolly stars as Brown and Dame Judi Dench as Victoria, with Antony Sher appearing as Benjamin Disraeli. His character, with a wink at Victoria's unspeakable grief over Albert's death, is informed that she would like to say goodbye at his deathbed. To which he replies: " Oh Lord, no. She will only want me to take a message to Albert. "



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Old Travel Blog Photograph Bridge Of Lochay Hotel Killin Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Bridge Of Lochay Hotel in Killin, Scotland. The Bridge of Lochay is a single high stone arched bridge carrying the A827 across the River Lochay to the North of Killin. The bridge was built in the late 18th century. The road across the bridge is narrow and single carriageway. The MacNab Clan were once dominant here, and have long been associated with Killin. Their ancient burial ground is on Inchbuie in the River Dochart, just below the falls, and is visible from the bridge in Killin. In 1767 the minister of Killin, James Stuart, published the first New Testament in Scottish Gaelic.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph South West Gifford Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of children in the Park in South West Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. The village takes its name from the 13th century Sir Hugo de Giffard of Yester, whose ancient Scoto Norman family possessed the baronies of Yester, Morham, and Duncanlaw in Haddingtonshire, and Tayling and Poldame in the counties of Perthshire and Forfar. The initial chief industry in the town was the paper mill, which was once the source of the Bank of Scotland's bank notes. However, this mill closed in the late 18th century. The earliest recorded presence of a church in the area is in 1241, the present church in the centre of the village was built in 1710. Gifford was the terminus on a branch railway operated by the North British Railway and then the London and North Eastern Railway. The section of line to Gifford was closed in 1947. John Knox, the famous reformer of Scotland, was born in Gifford in 1505. Reverend John Witherspoon, was born in Gifford in 1723. He studied at the Haddington Grammar School, gained a Master of Arts from the University of Edinburgh in 1739, and was a Presbyterian minister in Beith, Ayrshire, before accepting an offer from Princeton in New Jersey to be their 6th President. He was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on 4 July 1776. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Ferguson Avenue Milngavie Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of houses and people on Ferguson Avenue in Milngavie, a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. A Scottish town on the Allander Water, at the north western edge of Glasgow. It neighbours Bearsden. Although known today as a dormitory suburb of Glasgow, the town grew from a country village within the parish of New Kilpatrick to a minor industrial centre in the nineteenth century with paper mills and bleach works on the Allander River to the north east of the town centre. The land surrounding the village comprised several estates with tenant farms, amongst them Barloch, Clober, Craigton, Craigdhu, Dougalston, Douglas Mains and South Mains. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Ogilvy Family Winton House Scotland

Old photograph of the most recent owners, the Ogilvy family, on the grounds of Winton House located between Pencaitland and Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland. The Seton family were granted lands in East Lothian, including Winton, by King David I of Scotland in 1150. In the ensuing years the estate has passed through the hands of several eminent families. The origins of the house date from 1480 when George, 4th Lord Seton, commenced the building of Wintoun Castle, a tower standing 4 stories high, surrounded by a defensive curtain wall. During the War of the Rough Wooing in 1544, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, all but destroyed the original Wintoun Castle after bombardment and burning.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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