This time turning north for Scotland: In 1296 Edward invaded. Sam Willis, Castles: Britain's Fortified History II: Kingdom of Conquest, BBC 2014
Most Scots strongly objected to the Act of Union. David Dimbleby: Seven Ages of Britain: Age of Money, BBC 2010
For a time Scotland was the intellectual powerhouse of Europe. ibid.
Around 5,000 English infantrymen died at Stirling Bridge ... Wallace’s defiance shook Edward. Professor Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets II, BBC 2014
With the agreement of the Solemn League and Covenant the whole complexion of the war was altered. For it bound the Scots to provide an army on the Parliamentary side. Jeremy Black, The English Civil War II: A Nation at War, BBC 2001
The King surrendered himself to the Scots Army near Newark in Nottinghamshire 5th May 1646. Jeremy Black, The English Civil War III: To Kill a King
Despite Fairfax’s deep reservations Cromwell invaded Scotland entering the country in the summer of 1650. Jeremy Black, The English Civil War IV: The Shadow of the Scaffold
The Scots realised they had probably swapped one king for another at this point. And this was exploited by Charles II. Steve Pickstock
Bannockburn became infamous as England’s most shameful defeat by the Scots … Edward fled the battlefield. Monarchy by David Starkey s1e5: A United Kingdom, Channel 4 2004
But the English parliament was determined not to have a Catholic. So in 1701 they passed the Act of Settlement which handed the succession to Sophia of Hanover and her eldest son George. They were an improbable fiftieth and fifty-first in succession ... It was now the Scots’ turn ... Each parliament now appointed a set of commissioners to try to thrash out an agreement in London ... On 16th January 1707, after three months of clause by clause debate, the Scottish parliament voted decisively. Monarchy by David Starkey s3e3: Rule Britannia
We’re now in Falkirk which of course was the place where the industrial revolution in Scotland all started. And here there is a great iron foundry called the Carron Iron Works that were opened in 1760. After thirty years it employed a thousand men and became the biggest iron smelting plant in the whole of Europe. Fred Dinah’s Made in Britain e4: Castings, BBC 2005
In 1950 there were more than two-hundred foundries like this in central Scotland. Now this is one of the only ones left. ibid.
All this tourist-brochure stuff about Scotland is introduced by the English after they’ve invaded the country and destroyed the Clans and ‘pacified’ the place. (Civilisation & Scotland) James Burke, Connections s3e6: Elementary Stuff, BBC 1998
There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make. J M Barrie, What Every Woman Knows
Auld Scotland has a raucle tongue! Robert Burns
The healsome porritch, chief of Scotia’s food. Robert Burns
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind? ...
We'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne. Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne
It was a’ for your rightfu’ King
We left fair Scotland’s strand. Robert Burns
A land of meanness, sophistry and mist. Lord Byron, The Curse of Minerva
Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain
Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain,
Till, burst at length, each wat’ry head o’erflows,
Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snow. ibid.
Roamin’ in the gloamin’,
On the bonnie banks o’ Clyde. Harry Lauder, Roamin’ in the Gloamin’ 1911 song
The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet – and breaks the heart. George MacDonald, The Little White Rose
O flower of Scotland,
When will we see
Your likes again
That fought and died for
You wee bit hill and glen … Roy Williamson, O Flower of Scotland, BBC 1967
Minds like ours, my dear James, must always be above national prejudices, and in all companies it gives me true pleasure to declare, that, as a people, the English are very little indeed inferior to the Scotch. Christopher North
O Scotland, Scotland! ...
O nation miserable,
With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again. William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth IV iii @100 MacDuff
Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing
But who knows nothing is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air
Are made, not marked; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy. ibid. IV iii @165, Ross
Adam Smith, David Hume, Joseph Black and James Watt: It’s a matter of historical fact that these were the men who soon after the year 1760 changed the whole current of European thought and life. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation 10/13, The Smile of Reason, BBC 1969
Scotland. Not far from London. Not far enough. Spitting Image s1e9, ITV 1984
Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn
Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn. Tobias Smollett, The Tears of Scotland, 1746
It’s shite being Scottish. We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking earth. The most wretched, miserable servile pathetic trash that was shat on civilisation. Trainspotting 1996 starring Ewan McGregor & Ewan Bremner & Robert Carlyle & Jonny Lee Miller & Kevin McKidd & Kelly MacDonald & Peter Mullan & Eileen Nicholas & James Cosmo & Susan Vidler & Pauline Lynch et al, director Danny Boyle
They’ll be long sleeves for all in an independent Scotland. Rab C Nesbitt s2e7: Home, Gash, BBC 1992
87,787. I am ill. I have incurable Scottishness. I am in pain. I have a really sore accent. It’s keesh, lady. Pure minging keesh. Rab C Nesbitt s8e7: Trips, Hugh to wife, BBC 1998
Ancient stone markers, mysterious symbols, hints of the Loch Ness Monster, a code that may reveal the secrets of an ancient people. Ancient X Files s2e8: Great Flood & Scottish Stone Mystery, History 2012
Scattered around Scotland are 350 standing stones. ibid.
Today Scotland stands on the edge of the most important event in her history for three hundred years. The vote on whether to end her Union with the rest of the United Kingdom. Andrew Marr’s Great Scots: The Writers Who Shaped A Nation: James Boswell, BBC 2014
The father of modern journalism ... James Boswell writes it like it is. ibid.
There was no bigger celebrity than Samuel Johnson. ibid.
Walter Scott: A prolific novelist and political fixer he believed in a proud Scotland inside the United Kingdom. He was a literary superstar. Andrew Marr’s Great Scots: The Writers Who Shaped A Nation: Walter Scott
He devoted his entire life to the causes of communism and Scottish independence. Andrew Marr’s Great Scots: The Writers Who Shaped a Nation: Hugh MacDiarmid
His most famous work: A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. ibid.
The early hours of 24th June 2016: this is a decision that will affect the whole of the UK, especially Scotland. Andrew Marr, Scotland and the Battle for Britain I, BBC 2016
A much longer story of two British political cultures drifting apart ... Will it also lead to Scotland seizing independence? Scotland is a country of many faces. ibid.
1955: Conservatives won 50% of the Scottish vote ... SNP back in the day, well they managed 0.5%, exactly the same as the British Communist Party. ibid.