Being Scottish

As the Maxwell name was progenited in the borderlands of Scotland it is fair to assume that practically all Maxwells are by descent Scots. It is therefore only fair to tell all Scotsmen and women what it is to be Scottish or at least lowland Scots.

Here is a list of things you should know and practice.

Scots are not Scotch. It is a common mistake for those unfamiliar with their Scottish origins to say they are of Scotch descent. However, Scotch is what we drink and Scots is what we are.

Scotland is not part of England, nor is it in England or under English rule. Scotland is in itself a Country and a Kingdom. Scotland is part of The United Kingdoms of Great Britain or as it is more usually now known, The United Kingdom.

Not all Scotsmen have red hair, play the bagpipes, eat haggis and sound like Sean Connery.

Not all Scotland is heather covered hills and glens. Scotland has three dominant regions, The Highlands and Islands, the industrial heartland and the rural Lowlands, The Highlands are in the north, and the Lowlands are the southern half of the country. Maxwells are from the Lowlands and in particular from the western border county were Scotland meets England.

Some lowlanders wear the kilt, others wear tartan trews (trousers), but neither are worn as every day dress by normal Scots. Borderers, as in the Maxwells, should be inclined towards trews, but a kilt is not out of the question. It is all a matter of taste and having kilt legs! The rule of thumb is, if you look bad in shorts, you will look a damned sight worse in a kilt!

The kilt is not worn half way up the thigh…..   ever!

"For that is the mark of the Scots of all classes: that he stands in an attitude towards a past unthinkable to Englishmen, and remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation."
Robert Louis Stevenson.   The Weir of Hermiston, 1894