Monthly Archives: August 2020

Tales from the Dundas Archives 1

  Dr Alan MacDonald delves into the rich and fascinating papers of Sir Walter Dundas (1562-1636), a West Lothian laird whose innovative land-management practices suggest that ‘Improvement’ may have begun in Scotland a good deal earlier than is often supposed. Follow Alan on Twitter at @estaitis   Sir Walter Dundas (1562-1636): Pioneer of ‘Improvement’? When I

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A Kirk Session Coverup

  Samantha Hunter is a PhD student at the University of Dundee, researching governance and social control in seventeenth-century Scotland.   Follow Samantha on Twitter at @sam_hunter95   The records of the early modern period provide wonderful, and often unexpected, glimpses into the lives of the people who lived centuries ago. Not only can they

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A Horror of Dirt: Uncleanliness and Vice in Early Modern Scotland

  Dr Allan Kennedy discusses the concept of uncleanliness in early modern Scotland, and explores the way this idea linked to issues of public order and criminal deviance.  Follow Allan on Twitter at: @Allan_D_Kennedy    Among the many consequences of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been renewed emphasis on the importance of cleanliness. Thorough hand-washing, we

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