Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain; the union created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
Pencaitland
Pencaitland is a village in East Lothian, about 12 miles south-east of Edinburgh, 5 miles south-west of Haddington, 1 mile east of Ormiston. The land where the village lies is said to have been granted by William the Lion to Calum Cormack in 1169, who gave the church, with the tithes and other property belonging to it, to the monks of Kelso, in whose possession it remained till a short time prior to the accession of Robert Bruce; the land subsequently became the property of a younger branch of the Maxwell family, who granted the advowson and tithes to the monks of Dryburgh Abbey, who held them until the Reformation. The Tyne Water divides the village into Easter Pencaitland and Wester Pencaitland, crossed by a three-arched bridge dating from the 16th Century. An ancient cross in Wester Pencaitland indicates that there would have been a market there. A large industrial maltings, built in 1965, is situated just before the entrance to the village at Wester Pencaitland; the name "Pencaitland" may derive from the Old Brythonic meaning "Head of the Woodland" Pencaitland Community Council meets 10 times throughout the year on the last Wednesday of the month at the Trevelyan Hall in Wester Pencaitland.
The Community Council is constituted from fifteen members of the local population along with the locally elected representatives of the Fa'side catchment. This catchment extends to New Boggs Holdings to the north and Peastonbank to the south. 0.5 miles north-west of Pencaitland is Winton House, the original square Tower house being built in the 15th century on land granted to the Setons by David I c1152, mentioned in a charter to them from William the Lion in 1169. It was burnt by the Earl of Hertford's forces during the Rough Wooing, subsequently repaired and enlarged by George Seton, 3rd Earl of Winton, commencing in 1619. Architecturally, Winton is one of the most important houses in Scotland, due to the work of William Wallace, appointed the King's Master Mason in 1617; this "peculiar and beautiful structure", is situated on a steep embankment sloping down to the valley of the Tyne. Hunnewell says: "this Jacobean mansion was that of Ravenswood in The Bride of Lammermoor. There is, of course, a ghost-room in the upper part of the house.
In 1630, Lord Winton had completed half of the house, beginning at Wallace’s Tower, burned, continuing as far as Jacob’s Tower. Another room, called the King’s Chamber, is said to have been occupied by Charles I when he came to Scotland to be crowned in 1633, although most records have him staying at Seton Palace. Thinking that better times were now at hand, the Earl of Winton caused to be carved on a fine stone tablet upon the frontispiece of his new building a crown supported by a thistle between two roses, signifying the union of Scotland and England. Under it he caused to be inscribed in deep letters of gold this Latin verse: Unio Nune Stoque Cadoque Tuis. Mylne makes a note upon this, saying: "Ye Union was ye cause of the families' ruin"; the Wintons' tenure lasted until 1715 when George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton engaged in supporting the Jacobites. He was captured and taken to the Tower of London, forfeited his land; the Earl's capture ended an era when kings were entertained and master craftsmen were engaged fresh from Edinburgh Castle to embellish Winton House in the style of the Scottish Renaissance.
In the absence of the Earl but in his name, Winton was requisitioned by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 when his rebel army camped on the Winton estate. Winton is now the family home of Lady Ogilvy. 0.75 miles south-west of Pencaitland is Fountainhall, a late 16th-century mansion extended in the early 17th century on the same intimate scale and with the same materials, fine-grained harlings matching the pale yellow sandstone of the chimneys, crowstep gables, other dressings. The estate's original name was Woodhead, was purchased by John Pringle in 1635 who carried out extensive alterations and enhancements. On 13 August 1681 the estate was purchased by John Lauder of Newington, a rich Baillie of Edinburgh, for whom the house and lands were erected into the feudal barony of Fountainhall, becoming the seat of that family. Tradition states. Most of the internal finishings are the work of the Lauders from the early 18th century, with much panelling and plaster cornices. After the Lauders parted with Fountainhall in the 1920s, the removal of a lath-and-plaster wall revealed a tapestry in situ, dating from about 1700.
There is a 17th-century walled garden adjoining the east of the house, to the south of the house is a ruined 17th century dovecote imitated by the erection of another, nearby. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland suggests that the two buildings flanked an 18th-century pedestrian access to the house. Professor John Holbourn renamed the house Pencait Castle. Professor Holbourn, a survivor of the Lusitania sinking in 1916, was the owner and laird of Foula in the Shetland Islands; the house was sold after the death of Marion, in the 1950s. In 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Ian and Trudy Cowe bought the house. In 1988, the house came into the hands of their son Robert and his wife Alison in whose possession the house remains; the Pencaitland parish Church of Scotland, at Easter Pencaitland, is of the 16th or early 17th century, but standing on medieval foundations. The west tower contains the Saltoun aisle entered through a fi
Denis Jenkinson
Denis Sargent Jenkinson, "Jenks" or "DSJ" as he was known in the pages of Motor Sport, was a journalist involved in motorsports. As Continental Correspondent of the UK-based Motor Sport magazine, he covered Formula One and other races all over Europe. Jenkinson became a motor sport enthusiast in the mid-1930s: "In 1936 I saw a racing car "in the flesh" or should I say "in the metal," for the first time, an E. R. A. at the schoolboys' Exhibition. In the year, whilst staying at Brighton, I found that the Lewes Speed Trials were quite near, so off I went to find the venue, it was there that I first saw racing-cars in action, what a thrill!" Jenkinson was studying engineering at the Regent Street Polytechnic when the Second World War broke out. As a conscientious objector, he served in a civilian capacity at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough; this brought him into contact with Bill Boddy, editor of Motor Sport, other enthusiasts. In 1943 Motor Sport reported: "D. S. Jenkinson has constructed himself a nice motor-bicycle of Norton parts, with taper forks, much of the work being accomplished by torch-light in a small shed."
After the war Jenkinson started competing on two and four wheels, but he lacked the funds to race regularly. He found that acting as sidecar passenger to top riders enabled him to both enjoy top-level European competition himself while being paid and to scratch a living writing about it – he was passenger to Eric Oliver and Marcel Masuy, he competed as a sidecar passenger the following two seasons, latterly for BMW. He was'given" a BMW R67 motorcycle for his personal use by the factory and with a sidecar attached used this to travel to report on racing throughout Europe. Jenkinson wrote about his personal life but mentioned how he would pick up Mike Hawthorn, living nearby, who would ride it with Jenks as passenger. Jenkinson abandoned front-line competition to become Continental Correspondent for Motor Sport, he spent his summers touring his winters in a succession of ` digs' in England. He was legendary in the sport for the lack of basic domestic amenities in his home, he became accepted as the'elder statesman' of British racing journalists due to his closeness to the teams and drivers, his conversational writing style and his obvious and enduring passion for the sport.
DSJ loved to race and drive Porsche cars and coined the term wischening for the manner in which one may corner in a Porsche 356. He adopted an E-Type Jaguar as his work transport, although at home he had assorted decrepit vehicles including an elderly Mercedes-Benz saloon, a Citroën 2CV and others, his most famous competitive outing was as navigator for Stirling Moss during the 1955 Mille Miglia. His book The Racing Driver was based on his experience as navigator and is a true classic worthy of any motorsports literature collection, his "pacenotes" while on this event were pioneering, leading up to today's use of pacenotes in rallying. One of Jenks' most famous exploits was road-testing an unregistered and much not road-legal Lotus Formula Two car on the roads near his Hampshire home on Christmas Day 1958, the logic being that the roads would be quiet and few police would be active; as well as his journalism, Jenkinson went on to write several other motorsports books about Porsche, Frazer Nash, the Jaguar E-type, the 2.5-litre Formula One, Juan Manuel Fangio, the Schlumpf Collection and a particular Maserati.
A compilation of some of his best pieces, biographical articles about him, was published soon after his death as Jenks: A Passion For Motor Sport. For many years in the 1950s he produced an annual Racing Car Review for Motor Sport, but stopped doing so as he became disgruntled with the discrepancies between the chassis numbers teams quoted and what was being raced. Jenkinson developed the classification of a driver's effort into "tenths". 10/10ths being the highest, attained by only a few drivers in history. In the sixties Jenkinson did much to promote the sport of drag racing in the pages of Motor Sport magazine. On 14 September 1963 he rode his NorBSA motorcycle, a BSA Gold Star 500cc engine in a modified and lowered Norton frame, at the Brighton Speed Trials, he drove an Allard Dragon dragster and rode a 648 c.c. Triumph sprint motorcycle in the 1965 Drag Festival, he remained a motorcycle enthusiast, competed in hillclimbs and sprints on his own Triumph-BSA hybrid well into his seventies. As DSJ he contributed regular columns and features for several decades to Motor Sport's sister magazine Motorcycle Sport run from the same offices at Standard House.
In his years, he became involved with Brooklands Museum and was involved in several adventurous operations, including exploring sealed up underground air raid shelters. Despite his advanced years, he worked as hard as any of the others involved and never asked for or received any special treatment. Jenkinson suffered a series of strokes in 1996 and moved to a home administered by the motor industry benevolent fund, BEN. A partial list of the books written by Jenkinson follows. Not included are several monograp
Helmut Fath
Helmut Fath was a German sidecar racer and engineer. He won the Sidecar World Championship in 1960 and 1968, his early racing was on BMW R50 sidecars with a chassis of his own design. After a bad accident in 1961, he took time off and returned with his own design URS four-cylinder machine to win the title in 1968; the URS engine was used in solo competition as well as powering Horst Owesle/Peter Rutterford to the 1971 World Sidecar Championship. Http://www.classic-motorrad.de/v25/stories/166-2010-fath-denkmal-ursenbach http://www.classic-motorrad.de/galerie/displayimage.php?album=84&pos=65
Imatra
Imatra is a town and municipality in eastern Finland. Imatra is dominated by the Vuoksi River and the border with Russia. On the other side of the border, 7 kilometres away from the centre of Imatra, lies the Russian town of Svetogorsk. St Petersburg is situated 210 km to the southeast, Finland's capital Helsinki is 230 km away and Lappeenranta, the nearest Finnish town, is 37 km away. Imatra belongs to the region of South Karelia; the main employers are pulp and paper manufacturer Stora Enso Oyj, the Town of Imatra, engineering steel manufacturer Ovako Bar Oy Ab, the Finnish Border Guard. As of October 2003, the total number of employees was 12,423; as of December 2004, 1,868 employees were employed by the Town of Imatra. As of 24 April 2017, the mayor of Imatra is Rami Hasu. An Art Nouveau or Jugend style castle known as Imatran Valtionhotelli, was built near the rapids in 1903 as a hotel for tourists from the Russian Imperial capital Saint Petersburg. During the Continuation War, Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim met with Adolf Hitler in secrecy near the town for the former's 75th birthday.
Imatra was founded in 1948 on the territory of three municipalities – Jääski and Joutseno. Finland ceded 11% of its territory to the Soviet Union after the Winter War. Jääski lost 85% of its territory and it was decided that a new municipality, should be established on the remaining 15% of Jääski and some areas of Ruokolahti and Joutseno; this is why the Imatra coat of arms has three flashes – in honour of those previous municipalities that granted areas to it. It gained its municipal charter in 1971. PaSa Bandy is a bandy club in Imatra. Imatra is the birthplace of National Hockey League players Jussi Petteri Nokelainen. In motorsport history, Imatra is best known for its road races from 1963 to 1986. From 1962 to 1982 it was the home of the Finnish motorcycle Grand Prix. Racing on the Imatra road circuit ended after fatal accident during the 1986 European Championship event. Racing resumed in 2016 as an International Road Racing Championship event. Imatra is twinned with: Ludvika, Sweden Salzgitter, Germany Zvolen, Slovakia Tikhvin, Russia Szigetvár, Hungary Narva-Jõesuu, Estonia Imatra shooting Media related to Imatra at Wikimedia Commons Town of Imatra – Official site Imatra travel guide from Wikivoyage goSaimaa.com – Travel information about Imatra
Scottish people
The Scottish people or Scots, are a nation and Celtic ethnic group native to Scotland. They emerged from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland in the 9th century; the neighbouring Celtic-speaking Cumbrians, as well as Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons and Norse, were incorporated into the Scottish nation. In modern usage, "Scottish people" or "Scots" is used to refer to anyone whose linguistic, family ancestral or genetic origins are from Scotland; the Latin word Scoti referred to the Gaels, but came to describe all inhabitants of Scotland. Considered archaic or pejorative, the term Scotch has been used for Scottish people outside Scotland. John Kenneth Galbraith in his book The Scotch documents the descendants of 19th-century Scottish pioneers who settled in Southwestern Ontario and affectionately referred to themselves as'Scotch', he states the book was meant to give a true picture of life in the community in the early decades of the 20th century.
People of Scottish descent live in many countries. Emigration, influenced by factors such as the Highland and Lowland Clearances, Scottish participation in the British Empire, latterly industrial decline and unemployment, have resulted in Scottish people being found throughout the world. Scottish emigrants took with them their Scottish languages and culture. Large populations of Scottish people settled the new-world lands of North and South America and New Zealand. Canada has the highest level of Scottish descendants per capita in the world and the second-largest population of Scottish descendants, after the United States. Scotland has seen settlement of many peoples at different periods in its history; the Gaels, the Picts and the Britons have their respective origin myths, like most medieval European peoples. Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxons, arrived beginning in the 7th century, while the Norse settled parts of Scotland from the 8th century onwards. In the High Middle Ages, from the reign of David I of Scotland, there was some emigration from France and the Low Countries to Scotland.
Some famous Scottish family names, including those bearing the names which became Bruce, Balliol and Stewart came to Scotland at this time. Today Scotland is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, the majority of people living there are British citizens; the highest concentrations of people of Scottish descent in the world outside of Scotland are located in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in Canada and Southland in New Zealand, the Falklands Islands, Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. In the Early Middle Ages, Scotland saw several ethnic or cultural groups mentioned in contemporary sources, namely the Picts, the Gaels, the Britons, the Angles, with the latter settling in the southeast of the country. Culturally, these peoples are grouped according to language. Most of Scotland until the 13th century spoke Celtic languages and these included, at least the Britons, as well as the Gaels and the Picts. Germanic peoples included the Angles of Northumbria, who settled in south-eastern Scotland in the region between the Firth of Forth to the north and the River Tweed to the south.
They occupied the south-west of Scotland up to and including the Plain of Kyle and their language, Old English, was the earliest form of the language which became known as Scots. Use of the Gaelic language spread throughout nearly the whole of Scotland by the 9th century, reaching a peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, but was never the language of the south-east of the country. King Edgar divided the Kingdom of Northumbria between England. South-east of the Firth of Forth in Lothian and the Borders, a northern variety of Old English known as Early Scots, was spoken; as a result of David I, King of Scots' return from exile in England in 1113 to assume the throne in 1124 with the help of Norman military force, David invited Norman families from France and England to settle in lands he granted them to spread a ruling class loyal to him. This Davidian Revolution, as many historians call it, brought a European style of feudalism to Scotland along with an influx of people of Norman descent - by invitation, unlike England where it was by conquest.
To this day, many of the common family names of Scotland can trace ancestry to Normans from this period, such as the Stewarts, the Bruces, the Hamiltons, the Wallaces, the Melvilles, some Browns and many others. The Northern Isles and some parts of Caithness were Norn-speaking. From 1200 to 1500 the Early Scots language spread across the lowland parts of Scotland between Galloway and the Highland line, being used by Barbour in his historical epic The Brus in the late 14th century in Aberdeen. From 1500 on, Scotland was divided by language into two groups of people, Gaelic-speaking "Highlanders" and the Inglis-speaking "Lowlanders". Today, immigrants have brought other languages, but every adult throughout Scotland is fluent in the English language. Today, Scotland has a population of just over five million people, the majority of whom co
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Grand Prix motorcycle racing refers to the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by FIM. Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start of the twentieth century and large national events were given the title Grand Prix, The foundation of a recognised international governing body for motorcycle sport, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme in 1949 provided the opportunity to coordinate rules and regulations in order that selected events could count towards official World Championships as FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix, it is the oldest established motorsport world championship. Grand Prix motorcycles are purpose-built racing machines that are unavailable for purchase by the general public or able to be ridden on public roads; this contrasts with the various production-based categories of racing, such as the Superbike World Championship and the Isle of Man TT Races that feature modified versions of road-going motorcycles available to the public.
The championship is divided into four classes: MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE. The first three classes use four-stroke engines; the 2019 MotoGP season comprises 19 Grands Prix, with 12 held in Europe, three in Asia, two in the Americas, one each in Australia and the Middle East. A FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix was first organized by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme in 1949; the commercial rights are now owned by Dorna Sports, with the FIM remaining as the sport sanctioning body. Teams are represented by the International Road Racing Teams Association and manufacturers by the Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association. Rules and changes to regulations are decided between the four entities, with Dorna casting a tie-breaking vote. In cases of technical modifications, the MSMA can unilaterally enact or veto changes by unanimous vote among its members; these four entities compose the Grand Prix Commission. There have traditionally been several races at each event for various classes of motorcycles, based on engine size, one class for sidecars.
Classes for 50 cc, 80 cc, 125 cc, 250 cc, 350 cc, 500 cc solo machines have existed at some time, 350 cc and 500 cc sidecars. Up through the 1950s and most of the 1960s, four-stroke engines dominated all classes. In part this was due to rules, which allowed a multiplicity of cylinders and a multiplicity of gears. In the 1960s, two-stroke engines began to take root in the smaller classes. In 1969, the FIM —citing high development costs for non-works teams— brought in new rules restricting all classes to six gears and most to two cylinders; this led to a mass walk-out of the sport by the highly successful Honda and Yamaha manufacturer teams, skewing the results tables for the next several years, with MV Agusta the only works team left in the sport until Yamaha and Suzuki returned with new two-stroke designs. By this time, two-strokes eclipsed the four-strokes in all classes. In 1979, Honda, on its return to GP racing, made an attempt to return the four-stroke to the top class with the NR500, but this project failed, and, in 1983 Honda was winning with a two-stroke 500.
The championship featured a 50cc class from 1962 to 1983 changed to an 80cc class from 1984 to 1989. The class was dropped for the 1990 season, after being dominated by Spanish and Italian makes, it featured a 350cc class from 1949 to 1982, a 750 cc class from 1977 to 1979. Sidecars were dropped from world championship events in the 1990s. From the mid-1970s through to 2001, the top class of GP racing allowed 500 cc displacement with a maximum of four cylinders, regardless of whether the engine was a two-stroke or four-stroke; this is unlike TT Formula or motocross, where two and four strokes had different engine size limits in the same class to provide similar performance. All machines were two-strokes, since they produce power with every rotation of the crank, whereas four-stroke engines produce power only every second rotation; some two- and three-cylinder two-stroke 500s were seen, but though they had a minimum-weight advantage under the rules attained higher corner speed and could qualify well, they lacked the power of the four-cylinder machines.
In 2002, rule changes were introduced to facilitate the phasing out of the 500 cc two-strokes. The premier class was rebranded MotoGP, as manufacturers were to choose between running two-stroke engines up to 500 cc or four-strokes up to 990 cc or less. Manufacturers were permitted to employ their choice of engine configuration. Despite the increased costs of the new four-stroke engines, they were soon able to dominate their two-stroke rivals; as a result, by 2003 no two-stroke machines remained in the MotoGP field. The 125 cc and 250 cc classes still consisted of two-stroke machines. In 2007, the MotoGP class had its maximum engine displacement capacity reduced to 800 cc for a minimum of five years; as a result of the 2008–2009 financial crisis, MotoGP underwent changes in an effort to cut costs. Among them are reducing Friday practice sessions and testing sessions, extending the lifespan of engines, switching to a single tyre manufacturer, banning qualifying tyres, active suspension, launch control and ceramic composite brakes.
For the 2010 season, carbon brake discs were banned. For the 2012 season, the MotoGP engine capacity was increased again to 1,000 cc, it saw the introduction of Claiming Rule Teams, which were given more engi
