I imagine the first question anyone will ask is what is a column called "Scottish Flotsam". I guess we will have to begin with what is "flotsam". Among the definitions of the word are "things washed ashore" or "miscellaneous trifles". Well, we believe you can find some great treasure on the ocean shore. But -- you will never know what you will find or its value. So we decided that is what this column is - flotsam. We wanted a place to put things that didn't fit anywhere else and might be of interest. Each item could be a column itself and might be some day but for now it will be the flotsam, which washes our way.

Watt is a shadowy figure associated with a revolutionary conspiracy hatched in Edinburgh after the demise of the Scottish Friends of the People and later sedition trails of 1793 -94. Watt had attended meetings of radical societies - including the Friends of the People - apparently acted as a government informer until his services were dispensed with in 1793. Perhaps for this reason he continued to associate with small underground group, which drew delegates from various societies. Its Committee of Ways and Means, under Watt's direction, planned an armed insurrection in the spring of 1704. Troops were to be won over, the workers mobilized in support, Edinburgh Castle, the post office, and banks seized, and a provisional government proclaimed. Similar plans had allegedly been drawn up for London and Dublin. The plot was soon discovered. Watt and an associate, David Downie, were tried for treason in August 1794 and ultimately sentenced to death. Others arrested turned King's Evidence and were pardoned, Downie was reprieved, but Watt was executed for his part in the plot October 1794.

Now lets look at a Scottish King:

In so far as there can be said to have been a succession in Alba, it was that the eldest, or ablest, male of the royal house, and not the heir of line, should inherit the throne, but this meant that any energetic male could assert his claim, which he often did by encompassing the death of the reigning sovereign. It was later believed that Malcolm II's father, Kenneth II, had tried to ensure his son's succession by altering the old system, but if he made such an attempt it met with opposition, for on Kenneth's death two kinsmen excluded Malcolm from the throne for a time. Malcolm, however, succeeded in bring about the installation after him of his grandson Duncan - Shakespeare's Duncan - contrary to the old rules, but Duncan's position was challenged by Macbeth, who by the native principles, had dual claim to the throne, both in his own right and in that of his wife.

Source - Scottish Kings by Gordon Donaldson which is currently out of print.

It is time to stop combing the library but we can not quit without some quotes from The Pocket Book of Scottish Quotations another great History bookshelf resident. Let's see what quotes we can find.

Biography and Memoirs

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
J.M. Barrie (1860 - 1980), The Golden Book

...well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.
Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881), Essays, on Jean Paul Richter

Ghlacadh e'na lìon fhèin

He was caught in his own net.

You can find more articles in the archive under Scottish Flotsam.