Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Bothwell Bridge, 20 June 1903




(click to enlarge)

This photo is from the "Bothwell Bridge National Memorial" book, which was produced following the installation of the monument to the many Covenanters who fought and died on this spot in 1679. 224 years after the battle, 25,000 - 30,000 spectators gathered for the installation event.

Of the many dignatories on the Committee which organised the monument and event was Lord Rosebery. He had been Prime Minister from 1894 - 1895, and in a speech in Edinburgh in November 1911 (where he shared the platform with Whitelaw Reid, the US Ambassador to Britain who was of Co Tyrone Covenanter descent) Rosebery famously said:

"I love Highlanders and I love Lowlanders, but when I come to that branch of our race that has been grafted on to the Ulster stem, I take off my hat in veneration and in awe. They are, I believe, without exception the toughest, the most dominant, the most irresistible race that exists in the universe at this moment."

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