{"id":1398,"date":"1876-07-01T14:51:00","date_gmt":"1876-07-01T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dorlach.scot\/?p=1398"},"modified":"2024-07-24T16:20:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T16:20:11","slug":"july-1876","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/july-1876","title":{"rendered":"AM BUAL DUBH – July 1876"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Latha math dhuibh, a ch\u00e0rdan.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the knock-on effect of the technology-related delay on our June blog, we are also slightly late with our July entry. Not to worry – time now to dive back into Victorian Edinburgh and the working life of D\u00e0ibhidh MacLe\u00f2id<\/strong> as he comes to the end of his span as an apprentice grocer at J.B. Low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FULL TEXT WITH COMMENTARY (in brackets and italics)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JULY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1st<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sent out \u00a310 ~ 8 ~ 5 \u00bd worth of goods today, the largest we ever sent out up to this date. (If currency equivalence calculators are anything to go by, that’s about \u00a31000 worth of goods in today’s money)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Called on Benjamin and we had a walk together.\u00a0 Met Sinclair on the Calton Hill.\u00a0 Went home with her. (Assuming that this means they walked towards home together, perhaps living nearby to one another. The assumption is due to the fact that in none of these entries is there ever anything written after “went home with X”)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3rd<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Went to the Gaiety Theatre.\u00a0 Had a letter from Robertina MacDonald and one from Neil Mackay, my cousin. (According to arthurlloyd.co.uk<\/a> the Gaiety Theatre was a “music hall situated on Chambers Street [above from this website<\/a><\/em>] which first opened on Monday the 5th of July, 1875″ meaning that it was very much in its infancy when David visited. As with every other entry so far, he says nothing about what he saw there or how it affected him. I am beginning to think that this diary was not so much begun to record his thoughts and feelings as it was simply to give a chronology of events, perhaps for further padding out into memoirs when David was older. It leaves the padding out therefore to ourselves as we seek to understand what was where in 1876, \u00c0M)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

9th<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Started by the one o\u2019clock boat with Miss Sheridan for Burntisland.\u00a0 Had lunch in Macleod\u2019s.\u00a0 Thence walked to Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy.\u00a0 Returned by train and boat to Edinburgh.\u00a0 Went to Wardie with Miss Sheridan. (Wardie appears to have been a suburb of Edinburgh at this point. David walks another respectable 6.5 miles this time with his companion whose identity is unclear. It must be assumed that MacLeod’s Tearooms, if that’s what the establishment was, is long gone. I cannot find any further information about it online. I wonder where those MacLeods originated from? Below is Burntisland as it looked in 1870 from the National Galleries Collection<\/a>, \u00c0M)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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10th<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin came down and we wrote Rose asking her to come away to be housekeeper during Miss Kiddie\u2019s holiday. (Changed days. I reckon that this will be David’s cousin R\u00f2s NicLe\u00f2id<\/strong> [Rose MacLeod]. The assumption from David that she wasn’t doing anything better with her time is quite remarkable. Perhaps she wasn’t, but it would surely be difficult not to take a certain umbridge at this from a female point of view, even with the knowledge that they lived in a different time and with a different set of norms! What this information does do however is supply us with the final confirmation that Benjamin and David were what we would now call flatmates. Due to David’s notorious lack of essential detail in his entries, there is a lot to be pieced together about the everyday set-up of his life, \u00c0M)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

16th<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Called on Benjamin.\u00a0 Called at St David\u2019s Terrace.\u00a0 Went to the Free St Columba Church.\u00a0 Then went with Mr & Mrs Mackay to tea.\u00a0 Went to see Sinclair.\u00a0 Had a walk with her and another girl.\u00a0 Went home with Sinclair to Hermitage Place. (Having just confirmed Benjamin as David’s flatmate, the above information is a little confusing, unless “calling on someone” meant crossing the hall to their quarters? St David’s Terrace is still there, on the way from the Old Town to Haymarket, but the person who was visited there remains obscure)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

22nd<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gave three weeks notice to my master with the intention of leaving his employment. (This would mean that David was due to finish up work at J.B. Low on the 12th of August 1876. It would appear as if he was in the employ of this particular grocer from November of 1874 until the above date, meaning that his apprenticeship had lasted almost two years. I am assuming that this is why his employment came to an end. The below grocer’s shop<\/a>, presumed to be in Leith, shows the owners standing outside c1880 which gives a good idea of how J.B. Low’s may have looked four years earlier, \u00c0M)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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23rd<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Called at Fountainbridge and then at Glen Street.\u00a0 David Sutherland Buldoo and his wife was there.\u00a0 Went to Free St Columba Church.\u00a0 Had a walk with Catherine Sutherland in Queen\u2019s Park.\u00a0 Went with D. Sutherland and wife to the Royal Infirmary. (I wonder if this D\u00e0ibhidh <\/strong>[David] was a brother of Eathan S\u00f9rlan<\/strong>, Bual Dubh<\/strong> [John Sutherland, Buldoo] about whom the following information was included in “Highland Heroes of the Land League” by Se\u00f3saidh MacLe\u00f2id<\/strong> [Joseph MacLeod of “Dreary Memories” fame]:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Having had years of close intimacy with Mr John Sutherland, Buldoo, Latheron, I can testify to the vigorous and enthusiastic manner in which he held aloft the banner of land reform in the County of Caithness. His apt and practical contributions to the Northern and Southern Press have borne surprising results during the last thirty-five years. No one could wield the pen to better purpose. He spoke with great fluency and being a political fighting man, he often flogged the Philistines in all quarters. His helpfulness to the people in preparing for the Land Court was well known. Doing his best for his fellow-countrymen was indeed to him a labour of love. Mr Sutherland\u2019s value must be realised in the fact that he is a real public man, a member of all the local bodies, where he has the full confidence of the people. In recognition of his work he was presented with a purse of money in January, 1913.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My g-grandfather on my mother’s paternal side, Seumas MacCongail<\/strong> [James McGonigill] was a great friend of JS Buldoo and spoke himself at Land League meetings. However, he reported that John was not at all fond of work and would avoid it at all costs. Clearly, he had found his vocation in public speaking! Below is the standing stone at Bual Dubh<\/strong> [Buldoo] behind the village of Latharn <\/strong>[Latheron] from my own private collection. It is a mighty megalith and now sports a giant, bushy, lime-green beard of lichen, \u00c0M)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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25th<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The master went to get married.\u00a0 He is to reside in no 67. (Unfortunately, there are no further details of the wedding. From information gleaned so far, it seems as if the grocer’s shop was on Inverleith Row, meaning that David would have had a walk across the city each day for work from his digs just south of the castle. If the master was residing at 67, we must assume this is also Inverleith Row. It is, however, somewhat difficult to work out in exactly which building the shop would have been)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

27th<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grocers\u2019 excursion today.\u00a0 Went down to New Banks for Catherine Cameron.\u00a0 We went by train to Roslin.\u00a0 Had a fine day. (Another trip to Roslin. At least there is mention of the fact that it was enjoyed! Might we assume that this grocer’s excursion was a regular occurence, perhaps annual and potentially involved all of the city’s grocers? We are unaware of who Catherine Cameron was, though with a name like that, would assume a Highlander)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

30th<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Went to Glen Street.\u00a0 Went to the Free Assembly Hall.\u00a0 Had a walk on Princes Street.\u00a0 Heard that A. Sutherland was in the Royal Infirmary. (It seems as if the Royal Infirmary was at this time in the centre of the city. According to the NHS website<\/a>: “Edinburgh\u2019s growing population, combined with advances in what medical science could actually do for patients, saw demand for its services increase still further… The infirmary gradually expanded to occupy most of the land between present-day Infirmary Street and Drummond Street, including the old Surgical Hospital, which opened in 1832, and the new Surgical Hospital in 1853.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above<\/a> is the old Royal Infirmary, built by public subscription. The era during which David’s Sutherland relation would have been in the hospital was just before a major expansion of Edinburgh’s medical capacity. The NHS website continues: “But still this was not enough to meet the needs of the sick. By the 1860s, concerns were being expressed about the conditions at Infirmary Street, and once again, plans were drawn up for a new hospital for Edinburgh…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…In 1872, the architect David Bryce was asked to design a new Royal Infirmary, and his plans were heavily influenced by the ‘pavilion’ model advanced by the nursing pioneer, Florence Nightingale. The Infirmary moved to Lauriston Place in 1879, and at the time, it was described as \u201cprobably the best planned hospital\u201d in the whole of Britain.”)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

31st<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had a letter from Sinclair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s all for this month. Join us in August 1876 when D\u00e0ibhidh <\/strong>breaks with the tradition of the previous couple of years and crams in an almighty range of activites, visiting just about every historical momument in Edinburgh with his newly-found time off. He sets out on trips to North Berwick, the Bass Rock, Stirling Castle, the Wallace Monument, Bridge of Allan, Bannockburn Battlefield and Linlithgow before heading north by boat to Wick via Aberdeen. David then spends the whole of September at home in Latharn <\/strong>[Latheron] before heading south for Edinburgh once again in October 1876.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gach beannachd air an \u00e0m,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c0dhamh MacLe\u00f2id<\/strong> (\u00c0M)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Latha math dhuibh, a ch\u00e0rdan. Due to the knock-on effect of the technology-related delay on our June blog, we are also slightly late with our July entry. Not to worry – time now to dive back into Victorian Edinburgh and the working life of D\u00e0ibhidh MacLe\u00f2id as he comes to the end of his span […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-forgotten-gaeldom"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Scan10215.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalriada.scot\/gd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}