Sections


Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell
The '45
Extracts of Statistics from the Annexed Estates for Western Strathearn (1755-56)
The Reports of the Annexed Estates (1755-69)
A Tour of Scotland - Observations
Seismic Activity (1789)
Account of 1791-99 vol-11 - Comrie, County of Perth
Archibald MacNab (1734-1816)
Henry Dundas (1742-1811)
Sir David Baird of Seringapatam (1757-1829)
Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland – Sarah Murray (1799)
Roman Camp, Dalginross – October (1800)
Flash from the Caledonian Mercury – September (1814)
I've a Boat to Catch (1818)
A Picture of Strathearn - John Brown (1823)
St Fillan’s Highland Society (1827)
Letters from the Distant Past (1831 - 1859)
Comrie, St Fillans and Monivard (1837)
Statistical Account: Parish of Comrie (1838)
The Glen Lednock Census (1841)
The Queen’s Visit (1842)
The Road to Comrie (1857)
For the Sake of Nelly Fergus (1860)
From an Unknown Guidebook-circa (1892)
Comrie (1895)
Tales of Derring Do
Soldier, Soldier, won’t you marry me wi’…
The Adventures of Paddy or Highland Peter
Ghoulie Tales
A Serious Business
Mail Order Bride
The Man with the Powerful Voice
Double Entry bookkeeping
Hey, Gie’s ma Haun…or Murder Most Foul
Kate Mackenzie's Terrible Deeds
Watty and Meg Drummond
The Fencibles
Deacon Reid
Amazing Grace
The Day of the Penny Wedding
The MacArthur's were there before the Hills
The Beggar's Badge
A Pane by any other name can be a Pain!
The Powder Keg
The Coo didnae hae ony Teeth!
The Green Lady of Glen Lednock
The Queen of Tynasithe
The Great Wall of Comrie
Whisky, You're the Devil
A Wee Rumble
A Whale of a Time
An Encounter of the Third Kind
Another Debate
Bosom Pals
Getting Stoned in Comrie
Hanging about Comrie
It's Whisky in the Jar
Picking Other Folks' Brains
Porridge for Breakfast
Tarred and Buttered
Temperance
The Convert
The Debate
The Schism
The Levitation
The Twa' Brithers
There’s a Hare in my Soup
Yer bum's oot the Window

18th & 19th Century

Soldier, Soldier, won’t you marry me wi’…

OH TO BE A SOLDIER, OH!

One Comrie soldier, John McNiven, from Glenartney, had enlisted as a boy in the 44th regiment as a seven years’ man. He shared in the brunt of several severe battles in the Peninsula including the fighting retreat to Corunna. Later, like many others who expected to be returned to the United Kingdom after the conflict, he was sent to America to fight in the War of 1812. He was in one of the advance companies of “forlorn hope” at the taking of Washington. He was one of only eleven soldiers of his company who survived to tell the tale. When asked by one of his neighbours how he felt when he was marching through Washington, he answered sadly and with much thought, “I dinna ken, I was just there.” He also took part in the Battle of New Orleans, where he was wounded.

Uniform of the 44th Regiment


During his later years in Comrie there was much discussion regarding the superior education which young people were receiving compared to his own schooling, especially about geography. Finally John exclaimed, “Aye, aye! The children at the skules now-a-days ken better aboot Spain and Portugal than them that were in’t! Is that fair?” One day he was detailing the hardships undergone in the Peninsula, and the effects of hunger on the great retreat to Corunna mentioning that the soldiers were compelled to eat their boots. One of the children found this hard to grasp and asked with some amazement, “Surely you didn’t eat the tackets in the boots as well?” “No, no,” said the soldier, “we just ate round about them!”

Several years before his death he received the Peninsula medal with clasps, and also a small pension. This was awarded on account of his being wounded in the ankles by slug shot during the American War of 1812-1814.