A snippet from the Hamilton Herald 2nd October 1896, a newspaper describing the Blantyre column news from 127 years ago. Hope you find these jottings interesting. This was the news that week:

“We see from the papers that Mr Carnegie has been opening a library at Auchterarder. Could some of our local dignitaries not whisper in his ear that the famous village of Blantyre was still lacking in that respect? We think he would hardly overlook the place which gave Livingstone the world.”

“Judging by the dreary appearances of the arable farms in the district, the farmers have suffered terribly by the recent unpropitious weather. Whilst journeying to Edinburgh the other day, we passed field after field in which the grain was still standing, in some places stocked and in some places still uncut, and we couldn’t help remarking that the loss to the agriculturists must be very great.”

“We would call the attention of the railway officials to the extreme dirtiness of some of the carriages folks have to travel in. According to the bacteriologists, dirt is apparently synonymous with disease and passengers are charged enough for the privilege of travelling to demand clean, healthy carriages. “

More Jottings tomorrow….

AI images a Lanarkshire farm worker in fields of withering crops during 1896 to illustrate.