I got this comment from a youtube freeloader with the most excellent moniker of
"I love your videos but you are negatively obsessed with the Jacobites."
it got me thinking.....
am I?
have I been overdoing the history in the past few films?
D
From a storytelling-basis, I’ll lend a modest critique;
For an Englishman approaching the Scottish Border from the South, laying on thick about the Jacobites is good dramatic reading, but once past the frontier you’re a guest in a strange land. For the Scots, it’s a proud part of their heritage. Some were Jacobites as good Royalists; some were good, patriotic Scots; some were and are proud Loyalists.
It’s similar to the American Civil War here in the States. In the North and Midwest, it’s “the Great Rebellion.” In the Border Sates and the Mid-Atlantic, it’s the “War between the States”. In the South it’s the “War of Northern Aggression”. In parts of the Deep South, it’s still the “Recent Unpleasantness.” On the West Coast, you just get a polite but puzzled look…
What’s the point of visiting a place without understanding a little of the local history? It’s a part of the KTL formula; the boats, the sailing, the wildlife, the geography, the tides, the music & the history. It works & would not be a Dylan Winter production without all of these elements.
Maybe the Skye boat song when on a bit long…. its an ear worm and still stuck in my head!
Keep up the excellent work and don’t change a thing. J
Personally I don’t think so, but I am an uncouth Australian, pretty ignorant of European history.
Everybodies slant on the past is shaped by what they have read or been told by someone who has gone before, so that is open to interpretation and easily modified to suit someones agenda, and the story is easy to change over time. Also people look at history and apply their own experience and values. This is the bit that annoys me. You should not apply 2015 values and sensabilities to past thinking and events.
Many things have happened in this world and there is always two (or many) different sides to every story. You are English so tell it from an Englishmens viewpoint, but Im sure you acknowledge the other sides story as equally valid. Its all happened, been and gone so lets not worry about argueing over the past. Accept that things have happened and move on. The real thing is that we need to remember to learn from past mistakes and not repeat them.
A man is smart if he makes a mistake and realises it. its a stupid man who does not learn. That’s the real importance of history. Lets not repeat the bad bits.
Enough raving. I was going to mention the bible, but THAT would be inflammatory
Im all for your bits of history as its a huge part of the trip. Its another layer over the scenery and sailing and really adds to the videos.
Since I am fairly ignorant of north of the border history I find the history lesson interesting as heck and sent me into a research on the whole subject. Keep it coming.
I also find the industrial / fishing history interesting especially when it’s related to the places you visit.
When I have to go and do research on what you have found out, find other photos or my own google earth searching it’s defiantly a good film!
As to looking at history with 2015 eyes, of course we must do that but also consider why or how opinions from the past were different.
I do hope you keep us all thinking and questioning
Warren
Keep up the refreshing critique. All history is propaganda, and the Scots line in professional victimhood as the ‘Braveheart’ version of history illustrates that pradigm par exellence. That’s not to say that many wicked things have not been done, but as with your analysis of how the Toffs keep on top wherever you drop the hook, so pointing out that that is the real story for much of the Scottish myth, not that the multi ethinic denizens of ‘North Britain’ have been persecuted by the multi ethnic South British peasants, as portrayed in the Braveheart industry.
Healthy skepticism is one of your many charming journalistic traits, – don’t change a thing – oh execpt the Skye Boat Song thing was a bit long, but inadvertently illustated the Toffs at it again with their copyright nonesense!
ian
Mark Twain said that “the very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice”.
Dylan
I think your take on history is great as I often end up, like others, looking it up on-line to find out more.
So from me it is please “carry on as before” with (as noted above) the exception of that blasted Skye Boat Song for which I will never forgive…..bloody tune I can still here it now!
Thank you for all the interesting history etc at the many places you have already visited. I personally enjoyed the historical facts connected to the Orwell and the Stour as they are my local waters. The history along with sailing is a great enhancement, keep it coming!
The above comments have said it all Dylan. Don’t change a thing, it’s working – we wouldn’t be spending our valuable spare time watching your videos and following your blog if we didn’t enjoy it.
Thought it so good (and topical this year) I posted it on Facebook, but was soundly beaten for ‘likes’ by other friend’s kittens, food covered kids, and complaints they can’t find a decent love for their life. But don’t stop making them for M.O.Bs sake!
The picture shows a fairly stationary bunched group. – a musketeer’s dream target. Facing them you would be told, ‘Keep firing at the centre boys’.
I particularly like learning why all that marvelous 18th and 19th infrastructure got built.
If Mel Gibson is allowed to totally distort history with his rendition of Braveheart, representing William Wallace as the hero of the hour whilst old Longshanks is evil beyond redemption, thereby causing a very small percentage of voters to make the difference and start the break up of the United Kingdom; I think your telling of the Jacobite story in its true colours can hardly make things any worse…
…and Bonnie Prince Charlie really wasn’t all that bonnie, was he?
Besides we all love your historic meanderings – and everybody is allowed their opinions – speech is still free.
Cheers
G
Besides you are telling the story of where you happen to be. I’m sure when you get to going round the Welsh coast, you’ll have a few things to say about Owen Glendower…
The sons of Glendower might get a little aeriated…
Do they know the meaning of the word? Surely its plain to all that the whole shebang took 7 days to put together about 10,000 years ago.
It’s breathtaking sometimes\\\\\1