“Reminiscences of Dunfermline – Sixty Years Ago” by Alexander Stewart, published in 1886, includes a story concerning an unusual college and a Provost of the town who was also a fixer of dislocated bones. In “Pattiesmuir College and Adam Low, the Dunfermline Bonesetter“, George Robertson, who has recently been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, continues his occasional series based on the “Reminiscences” and tells us more about this talented Provost.
“Gude” Mr Erskine and his Fiddle
Jean Barclay starts a new series of short pieces based on a 19th Century compilation of writings about Dunfermline, the “Folio of Oddities”. In “The ‘Gude’ Mr Erskine and his Fiddle” she presents the story of a new father searching for the perfect minister to baptise a new-born child.
`Our Autumnal Remittent’: Dr John Stedman and the influenza epidemic of 1758
As we continue to cope with the current pandemic, it is interesting to learn how epidemics were managed in the past. In “Our Autumnal Remittent: Dr. John Steadman and the Influenza Epidemic of 1758”, Dr Jean Barclay recounts the life of one of the doctors involved in treating those affected by an outbreak of influenza, in the time between the identification of that disease and any real understanding of its causes.
Andrew Allan, Baker
Allan’s bakery was a feature of Dunfermline High Street from the 1880’s to the 1960’s. In another of our series on Dunfermline’s Industrial and Commercial past, George Beattie writes, in “Andrew Allan, Baker”, a short, illustrated history of the firm.
Dunfermline’s Post Office
George Robertson starts today a new series of articles on local history in which he features stories from “Reminiscences of Dunfermline – Sixty Years Ago“. This book by Alexander Stewart was published in 1886 and so these articles take us back in two steps. As George says, the book “captured the flavour of Dunfermline and it’s people at the time in question” and so provides a different perspective on our past. The first article concerns “Dunfermline’s Post Office” and vividly illustrates the immense social changes which took place between the 1820s and the 1880s.