This past weekend mia_mcdavid and I were part of colgaffneyis group at the Scottish
Ramble, held at the Landmark Center
in St. Paul.

Highland Dancers at Ramble	Vendors at Scottish Ramble

colgaffneyis gave some presentations in Room 430, the Chief
Justice Room. This was somewhat isolated, but a lovely place.

Solon	Pericles
Cicero	Justinian

On Saturday the Highland Dance competition finished early, and
colgaffneyis was asked to fill the empty time slot on the main stage.
We did a demonstration of 17^th century pike drill, a dance presentation, and mia_mcdavid, with the help of a victim volunteer from
the audience, gave a presentation on how the belted plaid/great kilt was worn.

During the ceremonies on Sunday there was nobody to lead “Flower of Scotland” and the singing faltered. mia_mcdavid was the only person on the podium singing loudly and clearly, so she was pushed forward to the mike and saved the day.

On both days at this event I gave a presentation on

Scottish Mercenaries: For several centuries, notably between 1500 & 1700, mercenary soldiers were one of Scotland’s most important exports. Today we look at where they fought, how they were armed, what were their motivations, and the consequences for British history.

This went OK on Saturday, but Sunday was better. Because of the weather (a major snowstorm) attendance was way down all day, and I only had two people in the
audience. However, they were obviously interested, and asked questions. This led
to discussion. This interactive format was much more fun. We let the discussion go wherever they wanted it to go. This was fine with me: My objective was to get people interested in the history. Exactly what details we touched on at the time does not really matter in the greater scheme of things.

Here are two of the posters I used as visual aids:

Scottish Mercenary Timeline: 1300-1500 AD

Scottish Mercenary Timeline: 1500-1700 AD

The 3^rd was simply a map of Europe. I plan to clean up my notes and
post them and a bibliography. If I find myself doing this
sort of thing on a regular basis I can make PowerPoint/Impress slides, and bring a
laptop, projector and screen. The latter two items will require something resembling real money, so I am a little bit hesitant about this.