T. C. Smout
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748635139
- eISBN:
- 9780748651375
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635139.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter sketches, in a Scottish context, the relationship between trees and our sense of landscape, especially of historic or cultural landscape. Trees have always been many things to many ...
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This chapter sketches, in a Scottish context, the relationship between trees and our sense of landscape, especially of historic or cultural landscape. Trees have always been many things to many people, but mostly they have been, for those who planted or managed them, timber: utilitarian, not ornamental. It was not, however, the only view. Trees from remotest antiquity were regarded as having spiritual attributes: The Roman authorities referred generally to the groves of oak associated with the Celtic druid priesthood and with acts of worship, including human sacrifice. In the hazy world of folklore, every Scottish tree had its properties. Ash was the tree of life, with power to protect against charms and enchantment; rowan was another defence against evil, and its general presence outside every croft house testifies to this; apple and birch were associated with birth; elder and hawthorn with the spirit of the dead; alder with rebirth; hazel with wisdom, and so forth.Less
This chapter sketches, in a Scottish context, the relationship between trees and our sense of landscape, especially of historic or cultural landscape. Trees have always been many things to many people, but mostly they have been, for those who planted or managed them, timber: utilitarian, not ornamental. It was not, however, the only view. Trees from remotest antiquity were regarded as having spiritual attributes: The Roman authorities referred generally to the groves of oak associated with the Celtic druid priesthood and with acts of worship, including human sacrifice. In the hazy world of folklore, every Scottish tree had its properties. Ash was the tree of life, with power to protect against charms and enchantment; rowan was another defence against evil, and its general presence outside every croft house testifies to this; apple and birch were associated with birth; elder and hawthorn with the spirit of the dead; alder with rebirth; hazel with wisdom, and so forth.
Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153201
- eISBN:
- 9780231526814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153201.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter studies the mystery of the Loch Ness monster. Loch Ness, the UK's largest body of freshwater, is a long, deep lake that lies in a geological fault line called the Great Glen. The first ...
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This chapter studies the mystery of the Loch Ness monster. Loch Ness, the UK's largest body of freshwater, is a long, deep lake that lies in a geological fault line called the Great Glen. The first modern Loch Ness monster case appeared in a small news story from 1930, featuring “three young anglers” who had a strange experience while fishing for trout on Loch Ness. Another sighting was that of Aldie and John Mackay in 1933. When small-town reporter Alex Campbell heard that the Mackays had spotted something in the water while driving along the shore of Loch Ness, he wrote a sensationalized story about it for the Inverness Courier, which ran it under the headline “Strange Spectacle on Loch Ness: What Was It?”Less
This chapter studies the mystery of the Loch Ness monster. Loch Ness, the UK's largest body of freshwater, is a long, deep lake that lies in a geological fault line called the Great Glen. The first modern Loch Ness monster case appeared in a small news story from 1930, featuring “three young anglers” who had a strange experience while fishing for trout on Loch Ness. Another sighting was that of Aldie and John Mackay in 1933. When small-town reporter Alex Campbell heard that the Mackays had spotted something in the water while driving along the shore of Loch Ness, he wrote a sensationalized story about it for the Inverness Courier, which ran it under the headline “Strange Spectacle on Loch Ness: What Was It?”
