Architecture of Scotland in the Industrial Revolution
Architecture of Scotland in the Industrial Revolution includes all building in Scotland between the mid-eighteenth century and the end of the nineteenth century. During this period, the country underwent an economic and social transformation as a result of industrialisation, reflected in new architectural forms and scale of building. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Edinburgh was the focus of a classically inspired building boom that reflected the growing wealth and confidence of the capital. Housing took the form of horizontally divided tenement flats; some of the leading European architects during this period were Scottish, including Robert Adam and William Chambers. While urban centres were rebuilt in local materials, including Aberdeen in granite and Glasgow in red sandstone, the homes of the rural poor remained basic in the Highlands. In the cities they were confined to the sprawl of suburban tenements like those of the Gorbals in Glasgow. One response to growing population was the creation of planned new towns, like those at Inverary and New Lanark.
The nineteenth century was the revival of the Scots Baronial style, pioneered at Walter Scott's Abbotsford House and confirmed in popularity by Queen Victoria's residence at Balmoral Castle. There was a revival of Gothic styles in church architecture. Neo-classicism continued to be a major movement in the works of architects including William Henry Playfair and Alexander "Greek" Thomson; the part of the century saw some of the most important architectural products of new engineering, including the iconic Forth Bridge. During the Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of the commercial and industrial centres of the British Empire. From the mid-eighteenth century this growing wealth and confidence was reflected in a classically inspired building boom focused on Edinburgh's New Town, it was laid out according to a plan of rectangular blocks with open squares, drawn up by James Craig and built in strong Craigleith sandstone which could be cut by masons. Most residences were built as tenement flats, divided horizontally, with different occupants sharing a common staircase, in contrast to the houses used in contemporaneous building in England.
The smallest might have only one room. Common features of neo-classical building included columns, temple fronts, rounded arches, flanking wings and domes; this classicism, together with its reputation as a major centre of the Enlightenment, resulted in the city being nicknamed "The Athens of the North". The gridiron plan, building forms and the architectural detailing would be copied by many smaller towns, although rendered in locally quarried materials. Despite this building boom, the centralisation of much of the government administration, including the king's works, in London, meant that a number of Scottish architects spent most of their careers in England, where they had a major impact on Georgian architecture. Robert Adam emerged as leader of the first phase of the neo-classical revival in England and Scotland from around 1760 until his death, he rejected the elaborate Palladian style that had dominated building as "ponderous" and "disgustful". However, he continued their tradition of drawing inspiration directly from classical antiquity, influenced by his four-year stay in Europe, where he saw the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which for the first time allowed modern Europeans to see classical buildings first hand, rather than work from literary descriptions.
Neo-classicism strived for greater simplicity more influenced by Greek rather than Roman models. Adam's major works in Edinburgh included the General Register House, the University Building and Charlotte Square, he designed 36 country houses in Scotland. An interior designer as well as an architect, together with his brothers John and James developing the Adam style, he influenced the development of architecture, not just in Britain, but in Western Europe, North America and in Russia, where his patterns were taken by Scottish architect Charles Cameron. Adam's main rival was William Chambers, another Scot, but born in Sweden, he did most of his work with a small number of houses in Scotland. He was appointed architectural tutor to the Prince of Wales George III, in 1766, with Robert Adam, as Architect to the King. More international in outlook than Adam, he combined Neo-classicism and Palladian conventions and his influence was mediated through his large number of pupils; the classical influence reached church architecture.
Scots-born architect James Gibbs introduced a consciously antique style in his rebuilding of St Martin-in-the-Fields, with a massive, steepled portico and rectangular, side-aisled plan. Similar patterns in Scotland can be seen at St Andrew's in the Square, designed by Allan Dreghorn and built by the master mason Mungo Nasmyth. Gibbs' own design for St. Nicholas West, had the same rectangular plan, with a nave-and-aisles, barrel-vaulted layout with superimposed pedimented front. Vernacular architecture of this period continued to dependent on local styles. Built by groups of friends and family, the homes of the rural poor were of simple construction. Contemporaries noted that cottages in the Highlands and Islands tended to be cruder, with single rooms, slit windows and earthen floors shared by a large family. In contrast many Lowland cottages had distinct rooms and chambers, were clad with plaster or paint and had glazed windows. In the early 1800s urban settings included traditional thatched houses, beside the larger and slate roofe
Scotland in the modern era
Scotland in the modern era, from the end of the Jacobite risings and beginnings of industrialisation in the 18th century to the present day, has played a major part in the economic and political history of the United Kingdom, British Empire and Europe, while recurring issues over the status of Scotland, its status and identity have dominated political debate. Scotland made a major contribution to the intellectual life of Europe in the Enlightenment, producing major figures including the economist Adam Smith, philosophers Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, scientists William Cullen, Joseph Black and James Hutton. In the 19th century major figures included James Watt, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin and Sir Walter Scott. Scotland's economic contribution to the Empire and the industrial revolution included its banking system and the development of cotton, coal mining, shipbuilding and an extensive railway network. Industrialisation and changes to agriculture and society led to depopulation and clearances of the rural highlands, migration to the towns and mass immigration, where Scots made a major contribution to the development of countries including the US, Canada and New Zealand.
In the 20th century, Scotland played a major role in the British and allied effort in the two world wars and began to suffer a sharp industrial decline, going through periods of considerable political instability. The decline was acute in the second half of the 20th century, but was compensated for to a degree by the development of an extensive oil industry, technological manufacturing and a growing service sector; this period increasing debates about the place of Scotland within the United Kingdom, the rise of the Scottish National Party and after a referendum in 1999 the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament. With the advent of the Union with England and the demise of Jacobitism, thousands of Scots Lowlanders, took up positions of power in politics, civil service, the army and navy, economics, colonial enterprises and other areas across the nascent British Empire. Historian Neil Davidson notes that "after 1746 there was an new level of participation by Scots in political life outside Scotland".
Davidson states that "far from being'peripheral' to the British economy, Scotland – or more the Lowlands – lay at its core". Scottish politics in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century was dominated by the Whigs and their successors the Liberal Party. From the Scottish Reform Act 1832, until the end of the century they managed to gain a majority of the Westminster Parliamentary seats for Scotland, although these were outnumbered by the much larger number of English and Welsh Conservatives. English-educated Scottish peer Lord Aberdeen led a coalition government from 1852 to 1855, but in general few Scots held office in the government. From the mid-century there were increasing calls for Home Rule for Scotland and when the Conservative Lord Salisbury became prime minister in 1885 he responded to pressure for more attention to be paid to Scottish issues by reviving the post of Secretary of State for Scotland, in abeyance since 1746, he appointed the Duke of Richmond, a wealthy landowner, both Chancellor of Aberdeen University and Lord Lieutenant of Banff.
Towards the end of the century the first Scottish Liberal to become prime minister was the Earl of Rosebery, like Aberdeen before him a product of the English education system. In the 19th century the issue of Irish Home Rule led to a split among the Liberals, with a minority breaking away to form the Liberal Unionists in 1886; the growing importance of the working classes was marked by Keir Hardie's success in the Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888, leading to the foundation of the Scottish Labour Party, absorbed into the Independent Labour Party in 1895, with Hardie as its first leader. The main unit of local government was the parish, since it was part of the church, the elders imposed public humiliation for what the locals considered immoral behaviour, including fornication, wife beating and Sabbath breaking; the main focus was on the poor and the landlords and gentry, their servants, were not subject to the parish's discipline. The policing system disappeared in most places by the 1850s.
In the 18th century, the Scottish Enlightenment brought the country to the front of intellectual achievement in Europe. The poorest country in Western Europe in 1707, Scotland reaped the economic benefits of free trade within the British Empire together with the intellectual benefits of a developed university system. Under these twin stimuli, Scottish thinkers began questioning assumptions taken for granted; the first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson, who held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1729 to 1746. A moral philosopher who produced alternatives to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes, one of his major contributions to world thought was the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method and some modern attitudes towards the relatio
Scottish education in the eighteenth century
Scottish education in the eighteenth century concerns all forms of education, including schools and informal instruction, in Scotland in the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the period there was a complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, although there were gaps in provision in the Highlands. Wealth from the Agricultural Revolution led to a programme of extensive rebuilding of schools. From the 1790s urban schools were rebuild in a more imposing classical style. Many poorer girls were taught in dame schools, informally set up by a widow or spinster to teach reading and cooking. Literacy rates were lower in the Highlands than in comparable Lowland rural society, despite these efforts illiteracy remained prevalent into the nineteenth century. Increasing numbers of girls from the higher social orders were taught in boarding schools. Female literacy rates remained high, but there were educated women who emerged as authors in this period. Scottish universities went from being small and parochial institutions for the training of clergy and lawyers, to major intellectual centres at the forefront of Scottish identity and life, seen as fundamental to democratic principles and the opportunity for social advancement for the talented.
Chairs of medicine were founded at all the university towns. By the 1740s Edinburgh medical school was the major centre of medicine in Europe and was a leading centre in the Atlantic world. Access to Scottish universities was more open than in contemporary England, Germany or France. Attendance was the student body more representative of society as a whole; the system was flexible and the curriculum became a modern philosophical and scientific one, in keeping with contemporary needs for improvement and progress. Scotland reaped the intellectual benefits of this system in its contribution to the European Enlightenment. Many of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment were university professors, who developed their ideas in university lectures. In the sixteenth century the Reformation had led to a disestablishment of the monastic and choir schools and the ambition to create a system of parish schools; this was enshrined in legislation in 1696. By the late seventeenth century there was a complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas.
Hospitals continued to be built by benefactors and some of these had impressive buildings, like that of Robert Gordon's Hospital in Aberdeen, designed by William Adam in the 1730s. Until the late eighteenth century most schools buildings were indistinguishable from houses, but the wealth from the Agricultural Revolution led to a programme of extensive rebuilding. Most schools had a single schoolroom, which could hold up to 80 pupils, were taught by a single schoolmaster. There might be smaller adjoining rooms for the teaching of girls. There was sometimes with a schoolmaster's house in the same style nearby. Many burgh schools moved away from this model of teaching from the late eighteenth century as the new commercial and vocational subjects led to the employment of more teachers. From the 1790s urban schools were rebuild in a more imposing classical style, from public subscription, or a legacy, renamed academies. One of the effects of the extensive network of parish schools was the growth of the "democratic myth", which in the nineteenth century created the widespread belief that many a "lad of pairts" had been able to rise up through the system to take high office and that literacy was much more widespread in Scotland than in neighbouring states England.
Historians now accept that few boys were able to pursue this route to social advancement and that literacy was not noticeably higher than in comparable nations, as the education in the parish schools was basic and short and attendance was not compulsory. By the eighteenth century many poorer girls were being taught in dame schools, informally set up by a widow or spinster to teach reading and cooking. From the mid-seventeenth century there were boarding schools for girls in Edinburgh or London; these were family-sized institutions headed by women. These were aimed at the girls of noble households, but by the eighteenth century there were complaints that the daughters of traders and craftsmen were following their social superiors into these institutions. Among members of the aristocracy by the early eighteenth century a girl's education was expected to include basic literacy and numeracy, needlework and household management, while polite accomplishments and piety were emphasised. Female illiteracy rates based on signatures among female servants were around 90 per cent from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries, 85 per cent for women of all ranks by 1750, compared with 35 per cent for men.
Overall literacy rates were higher than in England as a whole, but female rates were much lower than for their English counterparts. There were some notable aristocratic female writers, including included Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie. There are 50 autobiographies extant from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century, of which 16 were written by women, all of which are religious in content. In the Scottish Highlands, popular education was challenged by problems of distance and physical isolation, as well as teachers' and ministers' limited knowledge of Scottish Gaelic, the primary local language. Here the Kirk's parish schools were supplemented by those established from 1709 by the Scottish Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, its aim in the Highlands was to teach English language and end the attachm
Greyfriars Kirkyard
Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, a number of notable Edinburgh residents are interred at Greyfriars; the Kirkyard is operated by City of Edinburgh Council in liaison with a charitable trust, linked to but separate from the church. The Kirkyard and its monuments are protected as a category A listed building. Greyfriars takes its name from the Franciscan friary on the site, dissolved in 1559; the churchyard was founded in 1561 to replace the churchyard at St Giles. The Kirkyard was involved in the history of the Covenanters; the Covenanting movement began with signing of the National Covenant in Greyfriars Kirk on 28 February 1638. Following the defeat of the militant Covenanters at Bothwell Brig in 1679, some 1200 Covenanters were imprisoned in a field to the south of the churchyard. When, in the 18th century, part of this field was amalgamated into the churchyard as vaulted tombs the area became known as the "Covenanters' Prison".
During the early days of photography in the 1840s the kirkyard was used by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson as a setting for several portraits and tableaux such as The Artist and The Gravedigger. The graveyard is associated with the loyal dog who guarded his master's grave. Bobby's headstone at the entrance to the Kirkyard, erected by the Dog Aid Society in 1981, marks his actual burial place in an unconsecrated patch of the Kirkyard - a peculiarity which has led to many misunderstandings and fictions about his burial; the dog's statue is opposite the graveyard's gate, at the junction of George IV Bridge and Candlemaker Row. The grave of Edinburgh police officer John Gray, where the dog famously slept for 13 years, lies on the eastern path, some 30m north of the entrance; the stone is modern, the grave being unmarked. Enclosed vaults are found on the south edge of the graveyard and in the "Covenanters' Prison"; these either have solid stone walls or iron railings and were created as a deterrent to grave robbing, which had become a problem in the eighteenth century.
Greyfriars has two low ironwork cages, called mortsafes. These were leased, protected bodies for long enough to deter the attentions of the early nineteenth-century resurrection men who supplied Edinburgh Medical College with corpses for dissection; the kirkyard displays some of Scotland's finest mural monuments from the early 17th century, rich in symbolism of both mortality and immortality such as the Death Head, Angel of the Resurrection and the King of Terrors. These are found along the east and west walls of the old burial yard to the north of the kirkyard. Notable monuments include the Martyr's Monument; the Italianate monument to Sir George Mackenzie was designed by the architect James Smith, modelled on the Tempietto di San Pietro, designed by Donato Bramante. Duncan Ban MacIntyre's memorial was renovated in 2005, at a cost of about £3,000, raised by a fundraising campaign of over a year; the monument of John Byres of Coates, 1629, was one of the last works of the royal master mason William Wallace.
William Adam, with his son John Adam William Adam of Blair Adam, judge Alexander Adie FRSE optical instrument maker David Aikinhead, twice Lord Provost of Edinburgh, 1620–22 and 1625–30 William Annand and Dean of St Giles Cathedral John Bayne of Pitcairlie, Writer to the Signet Leslie Balfour-Melville golfer John Beugo, engraver Joseph Black, physician Rev Hugh Blair Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet Robert Blair, Lord Avontoun judge Very Rev Andrew Brown minister and historian of Nova Scotia George Buchanan and reformer James Buchanan of Drumpellier twice Lord Provost of Glasgow after whom Buchanan Street is named James Burnett, Lord Monboddo judge Sir John Byres of Coates Robert Cadell, publisher Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, nobleman General Duncan Campbell of Lochnell Sir Hugh Campbell of Cesnock, convenanter and MP for Ayrshire Aglionby Ross Carson FRSE, rector of the High School 1820-1845, author William Carstares and statesman Colonel Francis Charteris, notorious rake and member of the "Hell-fire" club Robert Chieslie Lord Provost who lost a fortune in the Darien scheme and died in Darien House - buried in MacKenzie's mausoleum alongside his murderer brother John Chiesley.
Prof Alexander Christison FRSE William Coulter, Lord Provost of Edinburgh Bishop William Cowper James Craig and designer of Edinburgh's New Town William Creech and Lord Provost of Edinburgh Andrew Crosbie and founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir Hugh Cunningham of Bonnington, Lord Provost of Edinburgh 1702-4 Prof Andrew Dalzell, FRSE Professor of Greek at Edinburgh University Charles Kemp Davidson, Lord Davidson Senator of the College of Justice Forrest Dewar surgeon, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1786/88 Alexander Donaldson and publisher. Admiral Sir Charles Douglas, 1st Baronet James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, Regent
Scottish religion in the eighteenth century
Scottish religion in the eighteenth century includes all forms of religious organisation and belief in Scotland in the eighteenth century. This period saw the beginnings of a fragmentation of the Church of Scotland, created in the Reformation and established on a Presbyterian basis after the Glorious Revolution; these fractures were prompted by issues of government and patronage, but reflected a wider division between the Evangelicals and the Moderate Party. The legal right of lay patrons to present clergymen of their choice to local ecclesiastical livings led to minor schisms from the church; the first in 1733, known as the First Secession and headed by figures including Ebenezer Erskine, led to the creation of a series of secessionist churches. The second in 1761 led to the foundation of the independent Relief Church. In 1743, the Cameronians established themselves as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, remaining separate from religious and political debate. Of independent churches from England that were established in the seventeenth century only the Quakers managed to endure in to the eighteenth century.
Baptist chapels were re-established in the middle of the century and, although Scotland appeared fertile ground for Methodism, it failed to expand as as elsewhere in the Great Britain and Ireland. A number of minor Scottish sects developed, such as the Bereans, Buchanites and Glassites. Episcopalianism had retained supporters through the civil wars and changes of regime in the seventeenth century. Since most Episcopalians gave their support to the Jacobite rebellions in the first half of the early eighteenth century, they suffered a decline in fortunes; the remoteness of the Highlands and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The eighteenth century saw some success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society. Catholicism had been reduced to the fringes of the country the Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands and Islands. Conditions grew worse for Catholics after the Jacobite rebellions and Catholicism was reduced to little more than a poorly run mission.
There was Evangelical Revival from the 1730s, reaching its peak at the Cambuslang Wark in 1742. The movement benefited the secessionist churches; the Kirk had considerable control over the lives of the people, with a major role in the Poor Law and schools and over the morals of the population. Strict Sabbatarianism was vital to Presbyterianism; the sermon was seen as central and the only participation by the congregation the singing of the psalms. Communion was the central occasion of the church, conducted infrequently, at most once a year taking a week of festivals as part of a communion season. In the second half of the century there were a series of reforms of church music connected to a choir movement. Episcopalians installed organs and hired musicians, following the practice in English parish churches. Catholic worship was deliberately low key, with musical accompaniment prohibited; the religious settlement after the Glorious Revolution of 1688/9 adopted the legal forms of 1592, which instituted a Presbyterian kirk, doctrine based on the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith.
The early eighteenth century saw the growth of "praying societies", who supplemented the services of the established kirk with communal devotions. These had the approval of parish ministers and their members were drawn from the lower ranks of local society, their outlook varied but they disliked preaching that emphasised the Law or that understood the gospel as a new law neonomianism, or, mere morality, sought out a gospel that stressed the Grace of God in the sense set out in the Confession of Faith. They disliked the role of lay patronage in the kirk; the theological division between neonomian and antineonomian tendencies in the kirk were highlighted by the Marrow Controversy. The Marrow of Modern Divinity was a mid-seventeenth century book with an antineonomian perspective, reprinted in 1718 and promoted by Thomas Boston and others; the book was condemned by the General Assembly. The decision was appealed by 12 "Marrow Men", but the repudiation was upheld in 1722 and although its supporters were not expelled, they were denied advancement and the controversy continued.
There were growing divisions between the Moderate Party. While Evangelicals emphasised the authority of the Bible and the traditions and historical documents of the kirk, the Moderates tended to stress intellectualism in theology, the established hierarchy of the kirk and attempted to raise the social status of the clergy. From the 1760s the Moderates gained an ascendancy in the General Assembly of the Church, they were led by the historian William Robertson, who became principal of the University of Edinburgh and by his successor George Hill, professor at the University of Aberdeen. Evangelical leaders included John McLaurin and Alexander Webster; the most important figure was John Erskine, minister of Old Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh from 1768 and for 26 years a friend and colleague to Robertson. He was orthodox in doctrine, but sympathised with the Enlightenment and supported reforms in religious practice. A popular preacher, he corresponded with religious leaders in other countries, including New England theologian Johnathan Edwards, whose ideas were a major influence on the movement in Scotland.
Judged by the number of books printed in Scotland, Boston was the most popular theological writer in the movement. The eighteenth century saw the beginni
Society of the Friends of the People
The Society of the Friends of the People was an organization in Great Britain, focused on advocating for Parliamentary Reform. It was founded by the Whig Party in 1792; the Society in England was aristocratic and exclusive, in contrast to the Friends of the People in Scotland who drew on a wider membership. Members wanted parliamentary representatives to reflect the population of Great Britain, which could be achieved by making voting more accessible, by allowing more men the right to vote, by making it possible for a broader variety of men to take part in the government; the Society disbanded in the mid 1790s as a result of conservative reaction against radical political movements. During the 18th century, civic humanism became an important political consideration in England. Civic humanism stresses the importance of abandoning personal gain for the common good, it called for a political balance. In England, civic humanism gave rise to the Country Party, which advocated for a less corrupt government that would work for the good of the people and not for the attainment of wealth.
The idea of country-party ideology and civic humanism led to the formation of many reformist movements called for parliamentary reform in order to more reflect the will of the people. The end of the 18th century brought political change throughout Europe. Although the French revolution brought about extreme unrest in France, similar ideas were being discussed in Great Britain; the British radicals believed in the idea of the universal rights of democracy. Conservatives wanted to maintain the monarchy and Parliament the way it was. In 1791, Thomas Paine published Rights of Man, which stated that the French Revolution was bringing good change to the political system of France, he declared that the people of Great Britain should rebel to establish democracy and universal rights for all men in Britain. This paper fueled the radical ideology in Great Britain at the time, it increased the tension between radicals and conservatives, leading to political uncertainty in Britain. In 1780, about 3% of the population of England had the right to elect members of Parliament's House of Commons.
Some of the largest cities were unrepresented and more than half of the rotten boroughs were so small as to attract widespread vote buying. On April 11, 1792, a group of reformist Whigs started the Society of the Friends of the People, a group dedicated to parliamentary reform. To gain membership, a prospective member must be proposed by two current members and approved by 90% of the members. Members paid dues of two and a half guineas per year, unless they joined with the intent to start a similar organization elsewhere, in which case they paid only one; the group met on the first Saturday of each month. Notable members and supporters include Reverend Christopher Wyvill, Sir Philip Francis, George Tierney; the Society wanted to extend the right of freedom of election to a larger group of men. They wanted more equal representation in the House of Commons, they wanted to shorten the maximum interval allowed by law between any two successive elections of members of the House of Commons. In 1794, Sir Philip Francis stated in a meeting that the society should support extending the right to vote in elections of the House of Commons to any male adult, not a convicted criminal or "lunatic".
The Address to the People of Great Britain was written in 1792 by Reverend Christopher Wyvill. The Society feared being linked to radical political movements like those in France or to radical English groups like the London Corresponding Society and the Society for Constitutional Information; as a result, this address denied any association with the political reforms happening in France. They felt that the French reformists were trying to create a new type of government, while the Society was trying to make the current English government the way it was supposed to be, they stated that their methods were reasonable and moderate in comparison. While the French had lost hope in the government and resorted to violence as a means of bringing change, the Society was focused more on moderate reform through intellectual communication; the State of the Representation of England and Wales was delivered to the Society on February 9th, 1793. This pointed out the unfair manner in which Parliament representatives were chosen and conducted business, it called for change of these issues.
They found that members of parliament were chosen by a minuscule portion of the population, meaning they were not representatives for the entire people of England. The number of members were not assigned to counties in a way that represented the population of England, they found that the right to vote was limited to a small population, property owning men of a certain income who met religious and other requirements. The Society felt some restrictions should be lifted, allowing the voting population to be more reflective of the actual population, they thought that the elections were held in a manner that inconvenienced many people, making it hard for some to vote. Voters had to travel a great distance to be able to vote, which further dwindles the number of people voting. Although candidates theoretically only needed 300 pounds a year to qualify, the operation was set up in such a way to prevent anyone who did not own thousands of pounds from being a candidate, they found that although Parliament was supposed to last no longer than three years, Parliament itself decided that in 1715, they could hold their seats for seven.
The society felt. The Society wanted all of these grievances to spark reform in the way Parliam
Scottish national identity
Scottish national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture and traditions, of the Scottish people. Although the various dialects of Gaelic, the Scots language and Scottish English are distinctive, people associate them all together as Scottish with a shared identity, as well as a regional or local identity. Parts of Scotland, like Glasgow, the Outer Hebrides, the north east of Scotland, the Scottish Borders retain a strong sense of regional identity, alongside the idea of a Scottish national identity. In the early Middle Ages, what is now Scotland was divided between four major ethnic groups and kingdoms. In the east were the Picts, who fell under the leadership of the kings of Fortriu. In the west were the Gaelic -speaking people of Dál Riata with close links with the island of Ireland, from which they brought with them the name Scots. In the south-west was the British Kingdom of Strathclyde named Alt Clut. There were the'English', the Angles, a Germanic people who had established a number of kingdoms in Great Britain, including the Kingdom of Bernicia, part of, in the south-east of modern Scotland.
In the late eighth century this situation was transformed by the beginning of ferocious attacks by the Vikings, who settled in Galloway, Orkney and the Hebrides. These threats may have speeded a long term process of gaelicisation of the Pictish kingdoms, which adopted Gaelic language and customs. There was a merger of the Gaelic and Pictish crowns; when he died as king of the combined kingdom in 900, Domnall II was the first man to be called rí Alban. In the High Middle Ages the word "Scot" was only used by Scots to describe themselves to foreigners, amongst whom it was the most common word, they called themselves Albanach or Gaidel. Both "Scot" and Gaidel were ethnic terms that connected them to the majority of the inhabitants of Ireland. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the author of De Situ Albanie noted: "The name Arregathel means margin of the Scots or Irish, because all Scots and Irish are called'Gattheli'." Scotland came to possess a unity which transcended Gaelic and Germanic ethnic differences and by the end of the period, the Latin and English word "Scot" could be used for any subject of the Scottish king.
Scotland's multilingual Scoto-Norman monarchs and mixed Gaelic and Scoto-Norman aristocracy all became part of the "Community of the Realm", in which ethnic differences were less divisive than in Ireland and Wales. This identity was defined in opposition to English attempts to annexe the country and as a result of social and cultural changes; the resulting antipathy towards England dominated Scottish foreign policy well into the fifteenth century, making it difficult for Scottish kings like James III and James IV to pursue policies of peace towards their southern neighbour. In particular the Declaration of Arbroath asserted the ancient distinctiveness of Scotland in the face of English aggression, arguing that it was the role of the king to defend the independence of the community of Scotland; this document has been seen as the first "nationalist theory of sovereignty". The late Middle Ages has been seen as the era in which Scottish national identity was forged, in opposition to English attempts to annexe the country, led by figures such as Robert the Bruce and William Wallace and as a result of social and cultural changes.
English invasions and interference in Scotland have been judged to have created a sense of national unity and a hatred towards England which dominated Scottish foreign policy well into the 15th century, making it difficult for Scottish kings like James III and James IV to pursue policies of peace towards their southern neighbour. In particular the Declaration of Arbroath asserted the ancient distinctiveness of Scotland in the face of English aggression, arguing that it was the role of the king was to defend the independence of the community of Scotland and has been seen as the first "nationalist theory of sovereignty"; the adoption of Middle Scots by the aristocracy has been seen as building a sense of national solidarity and culture between rulers and ruled, although the fact that North of the Tay Gaelic still dominated, may have helped widen the cultural divide between Highlands and Lowlands. The national literature of Scotland created in the late medieval period employed legend and history in the service of the crown and nationalism, helping to foster a sense of national identity at least within its elite audience.
The epic poetic history of The Brus and Wallace helped outline a narrative of united struggle against the English enemy. Arthurian literature differed from conventional version of the legend by treating Arthur as a villain and Mordred, the son of the king of the Picts, as a hero; the origin myth of the Scots, systematised by John of Fordun, traced their beginnings from the Greek prince Gathelus and his Egyptian wife Scota, allowing them to argue superiority over the English, who claimed their descent from the Trojans, defeated by the Greeks. It was in this period; the image of St. Andrew martyred bound to an X-shaped cross first appeared in the Kingdom of Scotland during the reign of William I and was again depicted on seals used during the late 13th century. Use of a simplified symbol associated with Saint Andrew, the saltire, has its origins in the late 14th century.
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