Club News

Common Weal Perth and Kinross The next meeting of Common Weal Perth and Kinross is at 6.30pm on Wednesday, March 29, at Heaven Scent Coffee Shop, 19 South Street, Milnathort, when writer and broadcaster Billy Kay will give a talk entitled “The Mither Tongue and the Scottish World”. Admission is free and all are welcome, but space is limited, so it’s highly recommended to reserve your place via Eventbrite at http://bit.ly/2n8bTGU. You can find out more about Common Weal at www.allofusfirst.org and follow the local Perth & Kinross group either on Facebook or on Twitter at @commonwealpk. Inner Link Club of Perth On Wednesday, March 15, president Kaye welcomed 58 ladies to the meeting. The minutes of the previous meeting were read by the secretary and approved by Cathy Prescott, seconded by Eileen Montgomery. Colin Melville, our speaker from Live Active, was introduced. His subject was “Stride for Life”. Colin’s job is to promote physical activities and he explained to us the benefits of walking to our health and wellbeing. Cathy Prescott gave the vote of thanks. The next meeting will be on March 29 when the speaker will be from Perth Police on safety. Kinross and District Probus Club Meeting held on March 15: Three Kingdoms for a Mass presented by Christine Short. Christine gave the members a most intriguing talk on the Old Pretender. Prince James Francis Edward was born 10 June 1688, at St. James’s Palace. He was the son of King James II of England and Ireland (VII of Scotland), and his Roman Catholic second wife, Mary of Modena, and as such was automatically Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, among other titles. The Prince’s birth was controversial and unanticipated on the part of a number of British Protestants. The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 resulted in the Roman Catholic Stuart king fleeing to exile in France under the protection of Louis XIV. James’s; daughter and her husband ascended to the British thrones as joint sovereigns William and Mary. In 1690 Presbyterianism was established as the state religion of Scotland. The Act of Settlement 1701 settled the succession of the English throne on the Protestant House of Hanover. The Act of Union 1707 applied the Act of Settlement to Scotland. Young James matured into a young gentleman and always had the understanding that he would one day return and rule the Three Kingdoms, but he would never give up his Catholic faith. By 1715 James was being urged by his supporters to act and on 14 March he appealed to Pope Clement XI for help for a Jacobite rising. The Pretender believed the Duke of Marlborough would join him when he landed in Scotland and laid plans for the Rising. Despite receiving no commission from James to start the rising, the Earl of Mar sailed from London to Scotland and on 27 August at Braemar held the first council of war. By October, Mar’s forces (nearly 20,000) had taken control of all Scotland above the Firth of Forth, apart from Stirling Castle. However Mar was indecisive and the capture of Perth and the move south by 2,000 men were probably decided by subordinates. Mar’s indecisiveness gave the Hanoverian forces under the command of the Duke of Argyll time to increase their strength. The English Jacobites joined with a force of Scottish Borderer Jacobites and they marched into England as far as Preston where the Government forces caught up with them. At the Battle of Preston the Jacobites won the first day of the battle, killing large numbers of Government forces, but Government reinforcements arrived the next day and the Jacobites even-

tually surrendered. Belatedly on 22 December 1715 the Pretender landed in Scotland at Peterhead but by the time he arrived at Perth on 9 January 1716, the Jacobite army numbered less than 5,000. In contrast, Argyll’s forces had acquired heavy artillery and were advancing quickly. On 30 January Mar led the Jacobite forces out of Perth and on 4 February the Pretender wrote a farewell letter to Scotland, sailing from Montrose the day after and never to return. There are many reasons why James failed in his attempt to regain the throne but clearly the main reason was his dogged determination not to relinquish his faith and will go down in history as the man who gave up Three Kingdoms for a Mass. Vote of thanks was given by Jim King. The next meeting will be held on April 5. Kinross-shire Historical Society On Monday, March 20, the members and guests of Kinross-shire Hisinternationally Society were treated to a very entertaining and informative evening by speaker Jess Smith on The Ways of the Wanderers. She spoke about her life as a traveller child and related stories about family members and some of their customs. She explained that she promised her father on his death bed that she would write about the lives of the travellers as the paper he wrote, White Niggers, failed to get published. Despite having had little education, having joined a writers’ group and a 50+ group, she succeeded in having a book published which was a great success. This led on to other books but she felt she still hadn’t kept her promise to her father to expose the truth about the treatment of the Travellers in society. She then spoke of the research she did at places such as the A K Bell library and the National Library. She spoke of historical information relating to the travelling people, their place

such as ‘Egyptians’ deriving from the word gypsies, Romanies, the top level of travellers, as their licences needed to have the seal of Rome on them.When she had finished a more serious book ‘The Way of the Wanderer’ , it was rejected and she had to restructure it, mixing the information with stories, to have it published. Music was important to travellers, both singing and playing instruments. Jess Smith rounded off her talk by a lovely song ‘Yellow on the Broom’. Anne Milburn thanked Jess Smith for an amazing experience, when the audience had been kept in thrall for the whole evening by her humour, the poignancy and the social history she had provided in her talk. Pain Association Scotland Meeting Tuesday, April 4, 2 – 4pm, Perth Riverside Church, Bute Drive, North Muirton, Perth. Perth Bridge Club Results, Thurstorical

day, March 16, Simple Systems (Howell Movement) 1 Sandy Scholes & Peter Johnson 64.58%, 2 Walter Ewing & David Campbell 58.33%, 3 Fergus Woods & Shona Isbister 51.04% Tuesday, March 21: Easter Pairs (Howell Movement) 1 Rob Sibley & Betty Pow 67.36%, 2= William Young & Marilyn Thomson 53.47%, 2= George & Gill Roberts 53.47%. Perth and District Ramblers Walk on Saturday, March 25. Glen Tarken Tracks 8.5 miles Grade C+. Meet at 9am at Asda car park, Perth, or 10am. at St Fillans car park. Map ref. 51/ NN:688247. Further information from Gil McGeachy tel. 01738 583940 mob. 07946 65568. The group also holds walks every Wednesday; for details contact Jim Pirie tel. 01738 451314 mob. 07923 457219. Perth Macular Group Members are reminded that the AGM is to be held on Wednesday, March 29, at the Blind Society, New Row, Perth. Tea and coffee will be served from 10am. Any queries to Hazel Rennie on 01738 442358. Perth Quiz League The final of the Inveralmond Breweries Knockout Cup between CSSA Club B and Greyfriars proved to be the expected ultra tight affair, ending all square at 69 points each, before Greyfriars came out ahead in the tie-break, clinching a Division One League and cup double. CSSA Club B have to settle for runners-up in both competitions. The remaining teams affiliated to Perth Quiz League all competed for the Consolation Cup, and Kirkside A were duly consoled for narrowly missing out in last week’s semi-final in the main cup competition by winning the Consolation Cup with a score of 63. New Second Division Champions Cherrybank A were Runners-up with a score of 58. The last event of Season 2016/17 takes place at the CS Club next Tuesday (28th). The twin competitions, Alan Paterson