Well I bought the local newspaper last Friday - the Peeblesshire News - and in the inside front page was an article taken from another newspaper, the Border Telegraph.
The headline said that there were plans to mark the birth of the Ettrick Shepherd, as next year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of James Hogg.
A Dr Hunter of Stirling University and the Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company are getting together to promote Hogg's work and organise events and celebrations in the Scottish Borders during 2020. Local people and businesses will be encouraged to get involved.
Dr Hunter is a Senior Lecturer of English Studies and is quoted as saying that "It is really important to celebrate James Hogg as he is one of the great literary geniuses of the 19th Century, whose work is just as relevant now as it once was".
I look forward to seeing what will be arranged but in the meantime the full newspaper article is undernoted.
About a month ago, I received a comment on one of my posts. This related to great uncle Richard Byers, who was killed in action in the Great War, and was from someone who was involved with a project at Langholm Academy.
Because Richard was born in the catchment area (Rowanburnfoot near Canonbie) of Langholm Academy, they wished to include Richard in their "Remembering My Soldier" project, which had commenced in 2017. One of its' aims was to create a memorial book, to be retained at the school, with details of all the men from the catchment area who had fallen in the Great War - and a total of 264 were currently known.
A page in this book would be dedicated to each soldier, including as much information as was available, and I was asked if they could use the photo and some detail from my blog post in compiling this page for their book. I replied absolutely no problem.
I was subsequently forwarded a copy of the aforementioned page - and here it is.
