Eighteenth Century Scotland Trivia Quiz

Answer: Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun

Fletcher and Lockhart were both opponents of the Bill (which of course became the Act of Union once it passed both the Scottish and English Parliaments). Clerk was a supporter of Union and Queensberry was Queen Anne's Commissioner in Scotland responsible for trying to guide the Bill through the Scottish Parliament. Opponents of Union accused those who voted for it of accepting English bribes.

Answer: The Earl of Mar

John Erskine, Earl of Mar, was nicknamed "Bobbing John" because he was a former supporter of the Union who changed sides. He raised the Jacobite standard at Braemar and led his army south, only to be stopped by the Government army under the Duke of Argyll at the drawn battle or Sheriffmuir north of Stirling. Thereafter his troops melted away back to the Highlands and the rebellion fizzled out.

Lord Kilmarnock and Lord George Murray were Jacobite leaders in the '45 rebellion.

Answer: The separate condenser

Watt observed that the Newcomen engine was inefficient as the boiler had to be heated and cooled repeatedly. His idea of expelling the steam to a different chamber to be cooled meant that the boiler could be kept hot all the time, saving energy and thus fuel.

Answer: Culzean Castle

Robert Adam was inspired by the classical art and architecture of Greece and Rome. He was the son of the great architect William Adam. Though a great country house, the design of Culzean gives the impression of being a castle through the use of crenellations. Now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, it is the centre of a magnificent country park.

Dundonald Castle, near Troon, goes back to the fourteenth century when it was built by King Robert II on the same site as a previous castle built 300 years earlier.

Rowallan Castle, near Kilmarnock, probably dates from the thirteenth century and Elizabeth Mure, wife of the same Robert II, may have been born there.

Kelburn Castle, in North Ayrshire, is the home of the Earls of Glasgow. It may be the oldest castle to have remained the property of a single family throughout its history.

Answer: New Lanark

Dale chose New Lanark because of the power supplied by the water from the Falls of Clyde. Robert Owen married Dale's daughter Caroline and set up a management system based on kindness instead of the harsh regime common in other cotton mills. He even built a school and the "Institute for the Formation of Character", which offered adult education.

Paisley and Stewarton also featured in Dale's life. He was born in Stewarton in Ayrshire and served his apprenticeship in Paisley. Blantyre, not far from New Lanark, became best known as the birthplace of the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

Answer: David Hume

Hume was one of many philosophers in eighteenth century Edinburgh. His work was often controversial, especially in his criticisms of religious orthodoxy and his defence of Charles I in his History of England.

Adam Smith was another philosopher of the period, best known for his work on economics, "The Wealth of Nations". Kames was both a writer and a judge who also took a keen interest in agricultural improvement. Scott, though active in Edinburgh, was a poet and novelist rather than a philosopher.

Answer: Thomas Telford

Though born in Scotland, much of Telford's work was carried out south of the border. He did not limit his energies to road building, but also built bridges (including the Menai Suspension Bridge linking Anglesey and the Welsh mainland) and engineered canals, the most famous of which was the Caledonian Canal.

John Macadam was also a Scottish road builder who developed the process of using small stones instead of large ones to surface his roads, the stones being compacted together into a solid surface by the wheels of he wagons going over them. He is remembered in the term "tar macadam" though he did not actually use tar.

General Wade was a soldier who was given the task of building roads through the glens in the Highlands to make it easier for Government troops to travel there to put down unrest during the Jacobite risings.

John Rennie, yet another Scottish engineer, was born in East Lothian in 1761. Much of his work in road, bridge and canal building in England and Ireland was contemporary with that of Telford. Among his achievements was (the old) Waterloo Bridge in London opened in 1817.

Answer: Excise officer

In 1789 Burns became an excise officer in Dumfries as he had become very short of money. This made him responsible, among other things, for collecting the duty payable on whisky. He satirised himself in the poem, "The Deil's Awa' wi' the Exciseman", written in 1792.

Answer: Dr Samuel Johnson

Dr Johnson's visit was recorded by his biographer, James Boswell, in the book "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides". Johnson was notorious for looking down on the way of life of the Scots. For example, he described oats as "a grain which in England is generally given to a horse, but in Scotland supports the people" and summed up his feelings about the country when he said "The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England".

Fielding was the author of novels including "Tom Jones" and "Joseph Andrrews", Richardson wrote the early novel "Pamela" and Addison is most remembered for being, with his friend Richard Steele, the founder of the magazine "The Spectator".

Answer: Tobacco merchants

The "tobacco lords" gained enormous wealth by their trade with North America and the Caribbean following the Act of Union. It was their money which helped Glasgow to grow from a small river crossing to become a commercial centre to rival Liverpool and Bristol and thereafter the heart of the Scottish industrial revolution.