The Last Fatal Duel in Scotland

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The Last Fatal Duel in Scotland

Postby Field Marshall Shug » Mon May 07, 2007 11:29 pm

Not so long ago the news featured a story on the last fatal duel in Scotland - Kirkcaldy 1826.

I have been reading a very interesting book published at the time of the Queen's coronation called 'The Queen's Scotland' and the author stated the last fatal duel was in 1821 - also in Kirkcaldy - and the victim was the son of the famous Auchinleck writer James Boswell, whose cannonball I currently posses. I thought the 1821 duel was more romantic as the 1826 one was about money essentially, while the Boswell duel (he was an MP, publisher and poet) was about honour - the victor was insulted by a comment Boswell had made.

It put me in mind of a desire of mine to recreate a 'War and Peace' or 'Onegin' style duel - wearing all the correct gear etc. My love of the film 'The Duellists' has only inspired me further.
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Re: The Last Fatal Duel in Scotland

Postby eltor2ga » Tue May 08, 2007 6:33 pm

Field Marshall Shug wrote:Not so long ago the news featured a story on the last fatal duel in Scotland - Kirkcaldy 1826.

I have been reading a very interesting book published at the time of the Queen's coronation called 'The Queen's Scotland' and the author stated the last fatal duel was in 1821 - also in Kirkcaldy - and the victim was the son of the famous Auchinleck writer James Boswell, whose cannonball I currently posses. I thought the 1821 duel was more romantic as the 1826 one was about money essentially, while the Boswell duel (he was an MP, publisher and poet) was about honour - the victor was insulted by a comment Boswell had made.

It put me in mind of a desire of mine to recreate a 'War and Peace' or 'Onegin' style duel - wearing all the correct gear etc. My love of the film 'The Duellists' has only inspired me further.


Would it be rude of me to ask: How the feck did you come to own Boswell's ball? :twisted:
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Re: The Last Fatal Duel in Scotland

Postby Josef » Tue May 08, 2007 8:55 pm

eltor2ga wrote:Would it be rude of me to ask: How the feck did you come to own Boswell's ball? :twisted:

I think there may be some connection here. Anyone done a stockcheck recently? ::):
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Postby Field Marshall Shug » Tue May 08, 2007 11:06 pm

Er...well...I have been suffering from memory loss recently. It is a sort of Chaos Theory idea. A butterfly flaps its wings in Sherwood Forest and a cannonball materializes elsewhere. On the same day, the keys to my flat went missing and I had to get the locks changed.
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Postby cybers » Wed May 09, 2007 1:20 am

Wonderful snippet but i truly believe a duel should be for Love.

Though i think the headline of last fatal duel might be a bit off.
Surely the papers are full of fatal duelists most weekends.
Though to be fair not all are willing participants.
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Postby Field Marshall Shug » Wed May 09, 2007 6:33 pm

My lost keys literally materialized today in a place I had checked many times.
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Postby Cyclo2000 » Fri May 11, 2007 8:29 am

But did Boswell's Cannonball (wasn't that a hit for Lonnie Donnegan?) disappear simultaneously? Whooooo...spooky...!
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Postby Field Marshall Shug » Fri May 11, 2007 9:26 pm

I have been checking the small ads but can't find any suitable cannons for it. If anyone has one, I will swap an M1 Abrahams tank for it; it's 2nd hand but comes with a crew.
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Postby Peekay » Fri May 11, 2007 10:15 pm

Try outside Portencross castle. There's one from the Spanish galleon there.

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Postby bluepeterno1 » Sun May 13, 2007 12:58 pm

Still have duels nowadays , we just call them square goes .

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Postby Dexter St. Clair » Sun May 13, 2007 4:31 pm

Cyclo2000 wrote:But did Boswell's Cannonball (wasn't that a hit for Lonnie Donnegan?) disappear simultaneously? Whooooo...spooky...!


Aye you're right here's the lyrics

Listen to the jingle the rumble and the roar as she glides along the woodland
ore the hills and by the shore
hear the rush of the mighty engine hear the lonesome hobos call
he's riding through the jungle on the Bothwell’s cannon ball

VERSE
now the western states are dandies so the southern people say from Chicago
and St. Louis
and Peoria by the way
to the lake of Minnesota where the rippling waters flow no chances to be
taken on
the Bothwell’s cannon ball

VERSE
she pulled in to the station one cold December day
as she rolled up to the platform you could hear all the people say
now theirs a gal from Birmingham she's Elong and she's tall she came down
from Georgia
on the Bothwell’s cannon ball

VERSE
now heres to daddy claxton may his name forever stand
and always be remembered in the courts of all the land
his earthly race is over and as the curtain falls
we'll carry him back to Dixie on the Bothwell’s cannon ball
Bothwell’s Cannonball
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