On September 18th the good people of Scotland go to vote in the Referendum on whether Scotland should stay part of the United Kingdom or become, after 307 years together, a separate country.
This post is not about politics but about my view. My Paternal Grandmother and family were Scottish and lived in Edinburgh before moving and settling in Nottingham, where I was born. I have a great affinity with my Scottish roots, I also have Welsh roots too as my Maternal Grandmother was from Wales, so really you could say I am made up of bits from all over the UK (I haven’t found any Irish roots yet!)
DH, The Boys and I have spent seventeen years going to The Highlands of Scotland for our holidays and I really feel when I get there that I am home and in my opinion Scotland and England will be worse off by being separate.
It was not an easy process to get the two countries together with much controversy about spying and bribery to achieve the end goal but in the end The Treaty of the Union was ratified in Parliament on 16th January 1707 by a majority of 110 Votes to 69. However despite the initial resistance to the Treaty, by the time Samuel Johnson (an English writer) and James Boswell (a Scottish Lawyer & Diarist) made their tour in 1773, recorded in “A Journey To The Western Islands of Scotland” Johnson noted that Scotland was: “a nation of which the commerce is hourly extending, and the wealth increasing,” and Glasgow in particular had become one of the greatest cities of Britain.
So if Scotland cedes from England, in sixty six years time two journalists traveling through may write “A nation which was once rich in culture, land and commerce has declined so much to become almost feudal again. Glasgow and Edinburgh no longer great but brief stops on the way South for many heading for the Border”
I really hope that the good people of Scotland vote to stay with us. I, for one, don’t want to have to take my passport North with me when I go on holiday to Scotland!
Have a lovely weekend! I am hoping to get some more quilting done.
Hugs, Susie x
Susie, I had no idea this was a possibility. You sure know your history!
I am watching this vote as well, but without the stake you have in it. I have family roots in Scotland as well, being part of the Farquarson clan and distantly related to Queen Elizabeth who was born a Bowes-Lyon. My dad (my maiden name is Lyon) has the family tree, and they are on it!