YOUR two correspondents today, Kenyon Wright and John Millar, seem unaware that the extracts from The Scottish Nation, 1700-2000 to which they refer come from a part of a book of 720 pages in length and more than 330,000 words in total. The brief extracts could therefore give only a flavour of the complexity of the detailed arguments. I hope both your correspondents will read the book itself and then make a judgment on the treatment of the themes which concern them.
Professor Thomas M Devine,
Research Institute of Irish and Scottish
Studies, University of Aberdeen.
September 24.
T M DEVINE'S reference to bona fide travellers in Scotland's former licensing laws reminded me of my summer as a bartender in the Royal George Hotel in Millport in 1960. One could only be a bona fide traveller in Millport once the first boat had arrived. I remember one wet Sunday when the first boat arriving at 11.30 am disgorged two old ladies. Five minutes later the bar was full.
Cameron Shepherd,
4 Troon Drive, Bridge of Weir.
September 22.
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