Back and Forth Across the Pond

I'm getting quite annoyed with Blogger. I'm only using this site because I couldn't work with my normal blog on my iPad whilst I was in England. I had this post all done and I actually got it published, but the coding got screwed up by the system somehow and all of my text attached with the photos couldn't be seen. I have now sat here for the better part of an hour trying to fix the post to no avail. None of the HTML coding makes sense and I could not get the text to be visible. I then tried a different template with a light background (the caption text was coming out black so it was invisible against my black background), and then the fonts were changing size and type throughout! I'm entirely fed up, so I erased the whole post and am starting from scratch. If this keeps up, Google can shove it and I'll move my blog back onto our website. In the meantime, I decided to change the blog's look. This blog continues with Day 2 of our motoring adventure. After w...

Day 2 of our road trip had us heading north to Jedburgh, Scotland. I wanted to go there simply because my ancestry extends to that region of Scotland. My genealogical research has, thus far, revealed that I have Scottish ancestors named Blackwood, Ainslie, and Brack. Ainslie was an ancient clan, but it technically no longer exists because there is no clan chief. Blackwood is a sept of the Douglas Clan. I'm not sure where the Bracks fit. My Ainslie and Brack ancestors hailed from the Roxburgh District of Scotland. A district is a Scottish county or shire. So it's also Roxburghshire, but that's a mouthful since 'burgh' is pronounced 'burrow.' Anyway, Jedburgh is the heart of Roxburgh District. Although I cannot yet trace my lineage to the village, I figured it was a good place to visit and get a feel for my ancestral stomping grounds. I had also hoped to find some Roxburgh District tartan in the area, but failed. I want to have a sash or something to wear to t...

Our first night was spent in Carlisle, which once served as defense point when the English/Scottish border was a little further south than it is today. Carlisle is home to one of my favorite cathedrals (Britain's smallest). I visited the city back in 2009 when I was doing research for my master's thesis, but Steve had never been. It's an easy drive from Preston, so it was a logical starting point. After we left Long Meg, we went straight to Carlisle. This is Carlisle Castle. We did not go inside this trip. From the 12th until the early 17th centuries, Carlisle Castle was one of England's principal fortresses against Scotland. It was the most besieged place in Britain, having been under siege ten times in its history. I remember rooms inside that still contain the carvings made by soldiers holed up there during one particularly long siege. We crossed the main road via an elevated walkway. This is a view down one of the streets toward the cathedral. This...