Records survive of the expenses made to feed the Scottish royal household in the sixteenth century, and the remains of royal kitchens can be seen in the ruins of palaces and castles. Archaeologists can recover evidence of diet from deposits including waste from meals and food preparation.

Overview
Some of the remaining and ruined Scottish royal palaces have kitchens, and the halls or chambers where food was served, and rooms where food and tableware were stored. There is an extensive archival record of the 16th-century royal kitchen in the series of households accounts in the National Records of Scotland, known as the Liber Emptorum, the Liber Domicilii and the Despences de la Maison Royale, which are daily records of the purchase of food and drink.

The royal kitchens in the 1530s employed around 60 people. Supplies of food for the royal household were known as "furnishing" and were usually managed by the Masters of the Household. Charles II came to Scotland in 1650 and a new Scottish household was created for him, and an account of food and spices survives for his stay at Falkland, Stirling, and Perth, where he may have stayed in the old Gowrie House.

The household books include many payments for the transport of meat, fish, and cereal products. Such records illustrate the royal itinerary. Much food was transported by boats in the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, Stirling, and Blackness Castle (the port for Linlithgow Palace). The household books for 1529 record the loss of provisions and barrels of beer from a boat between Leith and Stirling, due to "a great wind from the north by Aberdour". When James IV, and later, James V and Mary of Guise, went hunting to Glen Finglas supplies were sent from Stirling, while the keepers of the hunting forest, the Edmondstones of Duntreath, sourced milk and some provisions locally.

Kitchens in the royal palaces

There are no 16th-century inventories of kitchen equipment in the palaces. There are references in the treasurer's accounts to making furnishings, like the chests or "great kists" made for the petty larder and the silver vessel house at Stirling in 1532 made from "Eastland boards". The same carpenters panelled or partitioned a space called the "kitchen dressory" where food was plated up for serving. They made an oak table for the dressory, a frame for the serving hatch, and a chest for dried salmon. Four gardeners improved a kitchen garden and sowed lettuce and thyme.

Two iron frying pans were bought for the king's kitchen in 1525 and new pewter was bought for Christmas, including four chargers for the king's table, and other dishes and English plates. Murdo Stirling, pâtissier for Mary of Guise, bought four waffle irons in March 1539, and in June 1540 supervised the installation of ovens in the king's ships, including the Salamander for a voyage to Orkney.

A new stone oven at Holyrood Palace in 1532 had a floor made of specially selected tufa stone from North Berwick. The roof of kitchen was provided with a louvre for ventilation, resembling a beehive, an "aiphous in the heid of the samen for the mair vent". Mary, Queen of Scots, had coal brought from Wallyford for the fires in her own apartments, possibly the kitchen ovens were fuelled with wood and charcoal. In 1505 James IV granted lands at Bonnington including a coal pit to his master cook Thomas Schaw, who was expected to deliver coal to Linlithgow Palace.

Some kitchen equipment was included in an inventory of artillery at Edinburgh Castle in March 1567. It may represent a kitchen within an older Kitchen Tower then serving the castle gunners. There was an iron brander or grid-iron, two iron racks, two spits, and two dressing board tables. In the new bakehouse there was baking board, a storage girnel, and a trough. There were hand-mills for grinding wheat in a cellar. A brewhouse contained a "masking vat", a kettle, a "gyle" vat, and a "cumming", which was a vessel used in brewhouses. Similarly named items appear in the inventories of other Scottish houses and castles.

More kitchenalia was detailed in a 1562 inventory of the Earl of Moray, the half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots, including; skimming ladles, frying pans, goose pans, roasting irons, pestles and mortars, a block stock and a flesh (meat) stock, dressing knives, a coal rake, and pewter plates and vessels.

Stewart silver
James V had various items of silver and silver gilt plate for the table and for display on the cupboard in hall. In 1531 he acquired a quantity of silver plate from Nicholas Cannavett or Canivet, French comptroller of Dunbar, including two square trenchers with salt containers in the corner. These were in Edinburgh Castle in 1543 with other treasures like a silver cup said to have belonged to Robert the Bruce. Mary, Queen of Scots took silverware engraved with the royal arms on her ship to France in 1548 for the cuisine de bouche. James V had two silver gilt ships or nefs for the table, his grandson James VI sent them for repair by a Canongate goldsmith James Acheson in 1602.

Some of the family silver was melted down by Regent Moray in 1567. James VI acquired a cup fashioned from an ostrich egg mounted in silver in 1589. In October 1590 the master of the wine cellar Jerome Bowie and the master of household Andrew Melville made an inventory of old and new silver kept in the cuphouse with the pieces held for daily use by Francis Galbraith in the king's pantry.

Linlithgow Palace
The kitchens at Linlithgow Palace are on three levels within the tower at the north end of the Great Hall. They were modified in 1464, 1470–1, and 1539. Some alterations were occasioned by subsidence. The court kitchen is adjacent to the Great Hall. The room next door was probably the spice house. In August 1539 James Hamilton of Finnart was paid for rebuilding the king's kitchen with a fireplace, an oven, and a room for silver vessels, and another for keeping coal. There is a well in the lower "laich" kitchen.

The wine cellar is under the royal lodgings on the west side. A carved stone corbel depicts a figure drinking. The palace museum has an eel fork used to catch eels in the loch.

Stirling Castle

Vaulted cellars which served as a kitchen at Stirling Castle were discovered in 1920. This included a bakehouse and larder for bread. There was a kitchen space and a "dressory" for the preparation of food. These preparation spaces open into a corridor which probably linked to the hall. Another, separate, kitchen was provided for James IV in his lodging now known as the King's Old Building, and there was a "petty larder", pantry, and wine cellar. James V and Mary of Guise had kitchens in the cellar of the new Palace. The location of the castle brew house has not been discovered.

In 1533 a priest James Nicholson was in charge of the building fabric at Stirling, and he also fed cranes, herons, peacocks, and bitterns for the king's table. In March 1558 a carpenter Sandy Lawson made a cupboard for Mary of Guise's kitchen called a "gardemange", and a mason, Alexander Loverance, built a passageway from the queen's kitchen to a stairway.

James V distributed clothes and food to poor people on or around his birthday. In September 1533 poor people in Stirling received west sea herrings and beer. Rabbit warrens at Stirling near the Royal Park, attested by the names Coneyhill and Kenningknows, ponds for fish and birds, and later, a dovecote would provide food and also add to the Stewart's image of wealth, abundance, and prestige.

Food archaeology at Stirling Castle
Archaeological finds of animal bone at Stirling Castle from the 16th century include cat bones, cattle, goat, horse, pig, red deer, roe deer, and sheep. Cattle and sheep bones dominated the finds. The cattle were mostly at least two to three years, the finds indicating that the cattle and sheep had been farmed for meat. Finds from the 1594 Chapel Royal site were the bone of animals butchered elsewhere, while the deer had been brought to the castle complete. The finds of bones from whole deer are compatible with the archival record of food gifts. Herring, cod, pollack, coal-fish (saithe) and other fish bones were present, including some freshwater fish. Shellfish included oysters and mussels. Delicacies mentioned in the archival record, like roasted baby (boneless) rabbit are unlikely to be leave a trace in the archaeology. Plant and cereal remains included oats, barley, wheat, and rye. Some seeds of pulses, turnip, cabbage and mustard, were possibly incorporated in a condiment. Fruit was represented by a plum stone. A hazelnut shell may have been part of meal. Traces of plants perhaps categorized as weeds, hemlock and henbane, may have been incorporated in medicines. Rushes were used on the floor. More evidence for the castle diet in future may be found with the careful excavation and examination of cesspit deposits.

Dunfermline Palace
At Dunfermline Palace some remains of a kitchen can be seen which served both the hall of the royal lodging and the monastic refectory in the 15th century. There are also remains of a second kitchen serving the royal lodgings.

Falkland Palace
At Falkland Palace there was a kitchen to serve the demolished great hall at the garden end of the ruined east quarter. A bakehouse in a cellar kitchen area at the east tower has a service stair accessing the first floor royal lodgings in the east quarter at the other end. Another kitchen in the gatehouse tower served the keeper's lodging.

Accounts survive for Charles II's stay in July 1650. His food was seasoned with saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Every tart provided for the king's table had a pound of sugar, while tarts for lesser courtiers required only half a pound. A servant of the king's tailor was discovered to have taken one of the royal napkins and unpicked the embroidered initials.

Holyrood Palace
Although the old kitchens and Great Hall of Holyrood Palace have been demolished, the supper room, an intimate space in the royal bedchamber, where Mary, Queen of Scots dined with David Rizzio can still be seen. The day after the death of Lord Darnley at the Kirk o' Field, the servant known as "French Paris" came to queen's bedchamber to hang her bed with mourning black and light candles. A lady in waiting, Marie, Lady Seton gave him a fried egg for his breakfast, presumably prepared on a fireplace in the royal suite.

A banquet for the arrival of Mary of Gueldres
Mary of Guelders married James II of Scotland in 1449. After a tournament in Bruges, she travelled to Scotland. A banquet at Holyrood Abbey following the wedding was described by a chronicle writer Mathieu d'Escouchy. A stuffed boar was brought in, decorated with Scottish heraldry, and the stuffing was alight. An impressive and realistic silver ship was brought to the table (these silver ships called "nefs" feature in later royal inventories), and the Earl of Orkney and four knights entered the hall to preside over the service of food.

Reception for Margaret Tudor at Holyrood
An English herald, John Young, wrote about etiquette and seating arrangements at meals during the reception of Margaret Tudor at Holyrood in 1503. He mentions some dishes at the dinner following her wedding on 8 August. The first course involved a gilded boar's head on a platter, a fair piece of brawn, and gammon ham. Apart from these delicacies, Young does not specify other foods. The ingredients of brawn, calf's head and jelly or aspic are frequently mentioned in later Scottish royal household books. A menu for the whole banquet survives, copied into a London chronicle. It lists the same three opening dishes of the first course as, "The Borys head solemnly shedd, Sheydis & Rondis of Braun with mustard, Gambonys of Bacon with pestellys of pork". Desserts were served with "custard royall". Spiced "Hippocras" wine was made by the apothecary, John Mosman.

The Earl of Atholl's banquet in Glen Tilt

A chronicle written by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie in the 1570s describes a banquet prepared by the Earl of Atholl for James V to impress a Papal ambassador. This event seems to have taken place in 1532 in a temporary wooden lodge built like a castle in Glen Tilt near Pitlochry. The banquet, as represented by Pitscottie, included:all manner of meats (foods), drinks, delicacies that was to be gotten at that time in all Scotland either in burgh or in land that might be gotten for money; that is to say, all kind of drink, as ale, beer, wine, both white wine and claret, malvassy, musticat and allicant, inchethrist (or hippocras) and aqua vitae. Further, there was of meats, of bread, white bread main breid and gingerbread, with fleshes (meats), beef, mutton, lamb, cunning (rabbit), crane, swan, wild goose, partridge and plover, duck, "brissill cock" (turkeys) and powins (peacocks) together with black cock and moor fowl and capercaillies and also the stanks (moat) that was round about the palace was sowmond (stocked) full of all delicate fishes, as salmon, trout and perches, pikes and eels and all other kind of delicate fishes that could be gotten in fresh waters was all ready to be prepared for the banquet. Since was there proper stewards and cunning bakers and also excellent cooks and pattisiers with confections and drugs for their desserts.

There are records of several other hunting royal trips. Food was brought from elsewhere. Since the 15th century there was a Hunt Hall in Glen Finglas to accommodate the royal party. James IV came to the Hunt Hall in July 1492. In August 1505 he was supplied with dairy goods by two women from Duntreath, and eels and pikes from the Lake of Menteith. In August 1538 James V and Mary of Guise, with six ladies in waiting, went to Glen Finglas, bringing provisions bought in Stirling. Mary, Queen of Scots spent three days in Glen Finglas in September 1563. James V stayed at Cultybraggan near Comrie to hunt deer in September 1532, bringing bread, ale, and fish from Stirling. He frequently hunted in Glen Artney.

The archival record

Workers and wages
Wages and fees for servants in the royal kitchen can be found in the accounts of the comptroller, published as the Exchequer Rolls, which include some food purchases. For instance, James IV provided a ship for Perkin Warbeck's servants with mutton, barrels of salmon and herring, and dried cod. Around the same time, James IV's officers sold fleeces, mutton and sheep intestines. Almost all the named kitchen workers were men, except the linen laundress, Margaret Musche in 1496.

James IV kept a separate household from his wife Margaret Tudor with two kitchens, the master cook of his court kitchen was Thomas Schaw, and the master cook of the king's kitchen was William Arth. Each kitchen had yeoman and junior "groom cooks", and two "turnbroches" who tended the fires and turned spits. He also employed brewers and bakers.

Menu
The "menu" was a household accounting document which listed the food allocations due to the several tables where courtiers and servants took their meals, and does not list dishes in detail. The surviving examples are often found with household rolls giving the names of courtiers. The seating was in a strict hierarchy and some servants were allowed the leftovers or "rests" allocated to courtier's tables. A menu was drawn up for Mary's household in 1562. This was just before the departure of Mademoiselles Pinguillon and Fontpertuis and noted that the budget for the table for the queen's gentlewomen could be reduced after they returned to France.

Household books and purchasing
Food for the royal household and others, including a garrison and workers on Inchgarvie, are mentioned in the treasurer's accounts. Another branch of royal finance, recorded as the Exchequer Roll series includes references to food, and some food was supplied as rent and feudal duty. Most food purchasing, from merchants, or suppliers known as "furnishers" were recorded in household books. The exchequer rolls for 1507 record two swans costing 12 shillings bought for a feast, a purchase omitted by mistake from the household books. Household books from the reign of James IV in 1511 until the end of the rule of the Earl of Arran as Regent in 1553 survive in the National Archives of Scotland in two series, known as the Liber Domicilli (NRS E31) and Liber Emptorum (NRS E32). These are written in Latin. The two series duplicate daily summaries of food purchases. The Liber Emptorum books also contain lists of extra purchases called "uncosts", including cord to hang poultry in the larder. James IV held a banquet for Christmas 1511, inviting a French ambassador. Lamb, piglets, quail, plovers, snipe, with young rabbits and a large quantity of calfs' foot jelly were served. James IV also held banquets on his newly built ships, including the Margaret, at Leith or Newhaven close to Edinburgh. There is one surviving household book written in Scots, which details meals at Linlithgow Palace when the infant James V remained there in 1512. The two oldest account books were compiled for the Bishop of Caithness, who seems to have accounted for the two households of James IV and his queen consort Margaret Tudor. The Bishop bought or collected herring and ling from Lewis, and sold a surplus of fish to merchants in Flanders.

An extract from the household books giving an idea of the diet of James V in his minority and the early years of his reign was published in 1836. Each day the whereabouts and movements of the monarch were noted. These records have often been consulted by historians and cited for the royal itineraries and significant dates. For instance, on 11 June 1533 James V went on pilgrimage to the shrine of St Ninian at Whithorn for a week, riding first to Glasgow, while most of the household remained at Stirling Castle. On 4 August 1536 James V arrived by ship at Whithorn at night and rode to Stirling, recorded as "Ista nocte dominus rex rediit de navibus apud Candidam Casam et equitavit versus Stirling". On 1 March 1539 James was in Edinburgh, and attended the trial and burning of men accused of heresy following the performance of a Passion Play at Stirling, "Accusatio haereticorum et eorum combustio apud Edinburgh. Rege presente".

The exchequer rolls were the responsibility of the comptroller. One unlucky comptroller of the exchequer, James Colville was sacked in 1538 and charged with treason for his friendship with the Douglas family. He was made personally responsible for £879 worth of wax, spice, and other goods supplied to the household by an Edinburgh merchant, William Tod. The next comptroller, David Wood of Craig, was promoted from Master of King's Larder. Wood noted that suppliers could, "if their conscience would serve them", claim payment several times over, as the royal accounts were kept in such in a way that payments were not recorded.

The household books include provisions bought for hunting trips, wedding feasts (for the daughters of Regent Arran), banquets on the Great Michael, table linen, soap for its laundry, and the swaddling clothes of royal infants. As well as regular meals, sometimes the monarch had afternoon drinks, especially in the hunting field. Occasional expenses include ferry boats and transport. Ginger and pepper, and linen for the cook, were supplied to James V by Michael McQueen, who with his wife Janet Rynd founded the Magdalen Chapel in Edinburgh's Cowgate.

Meat included salted Orkney beef, mutton, calves' heads, and ox feet. Lamb's intestines bought for a feast at St Andrews to welcome Mary of Guise to Scotland were probably used to prepare a form of haggis. A wide variety of fish and sea food was served including mackerel, Loch Fyne herring, conger eel, dried whitings, whale and porpoise. Poultry and birds included moor hens, dotterel, swans, quails and capercaillie. Rabbits were supplied from warrens at Dunbar and baked baby rabbit was a delicacy. Rabbits from Dunbar were supplied as a feudal duty and recorded in the Exchequer Rolls. The supply was halved by 1589, when the west link warren was destroyed by the sea and wind-blown sand.

Friday was a fish day. The clerks noted several days in the year as feast days of saints. Claret, tavern ale, and imported German beer feature. James V was supplied by the ale wives of North Berwick on his visits to Tantallon Castle. When Regent Arran visited Craignethan Castle with Henri Cleutin wine and beer was supplied by taverns in Lanark. Food gifts are noted in the uncost section with rewards given to the servants of the donors. Food gifts were made by higher status courtiers, landowners, and churchmen.

At Easter 1526, when he was 14, James V distributed ale and 14 loaves to poor people in Edinburgh. James V's cooks from 1525 were Hugh Johnston and Walter Gardener. In April 1533 Thomas Marschall was in charge of shopping during the king's visit to Perth, and was subsequently described as head cook.

A few pages which head sections of the accounts have illustrations or doodles including a unicorn, a thistle and rose, Lucretia, and figure of a man with a tent or pavilion, with the motto "spes fove". The motto was also used by Robert Denniston or Danielstoun, rector of Dysart, whose brother William Danielstoun was keeper of Linlithgow Palace.

When James V returned from France with Madeleine of Valois, he bought barrels of olive oil and verjuice, claret and white wine, and no less than 1762 pounds of salted lard, as a commitment to embrace French cuisine. In July 1537 Madeleine was ill at Holyrood, it was said by English spies that the king "doth keep so small an house that there is but only six messes of meat allowed in his house". A number of Scottish food words are borrowed from French, and examples from a list of loan words tabulated by the historian William Tytler in 1790 are frequently cited.

An account of the pursemaster of James V in 1539 in 1540 includes rewards given to servants who brought food gifts. Henry Wardlaw of Kilbaberton sent a boar and Lady Erskine sent him lampreys. When the king and Mary of Guise were at Ravenscraig Castle they ate pikes and eels from Loch Leven, and the Earl of Huntly brought aqua vitae and venison to Falkland. James V also ate pike from the Lake of Menteith and bream from Lochmaben. James V's favourite, Oliver Sinclair, brought 196 Dunbar rabbits for Christmas 1539.

Regent Arran
The household books include banquets given by Regent Arran for his daughter's weddings in Edinburgh. He entertained diplomats, and had a meal at Craignethan Castle with Henri Cleutin in 1550. In March 1549 whales beached at or near Cramond Island were salted and packed in barrels. Regent Arran had four barrels sent to Seton Palace, (he was building a fort at Luffness). Some whale oil was bought for use at Edinburgh Castle. Beached whales were a valuable property, and in 1597 Andrew Balfour of Montquhanie feuded with the Earl of Orkney over rights of wreck at Westray.

At the conclusion of the war known as the Rough Wooing, on 21 May 1550, Regent Arran hosted a banquet in his Edinburgh lodging for Mary of Guise's brother, Claude, Marquis de Mayenne, who had been a hostage in England for the peace negotiations. The banqueting hall was decorated with the royal tapestry, benches and stools were upholstered with green cloth and purple velvet by John Frog, and a new outfit in black wool and velvet was bought for Elizabeth Murray, who served or performed at the feast.

Latin names for meat and fish in the household accounts
The household books carefully detail purchases of meat, fish, wild fowl and poultry, cereals, and ale. The vocabulary is similar to the later form of Latin found in other medieval European account books. The precise identity of the species or crop may be difficult to identify in modern terms. Some words, especially those for fish and marine animals, seem to be the invention of the clerks. In 1836, John Fleming of the University of Aberdeen made a glossary of some recurring terms. West coast herrings are aleca occidentalia; flounders seem to be bronoscopi; the woodcock is gallus silvestris; river trout were trute torrentium; pewter dishes are parapsides stanee; napkins are manutergia.

Mary, Queen of Scots
A similar record exists for Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots, written in French, and known as the Despences de la Maison Royale. At this time, she paid for the food of her household from her own income rather than from her husband's revenues. The record has also been consulted for the royal itinerary. Typically, the manuscript shows that on Sunday 9 January 1540 Mary of Guise had dinner at Burleigh Castle and supper at Falkland Palace. Beef, mutton, goose, plovers and partridges were on the menu at dinner, and at Falkland, there was beef, mutton, pork, poultry and rabbit. The pastry cook made partridge pie, a pasty of pig's trotters à la sauce Madame, and craquelin. Dishes made for the common table were also listed, including plate-pasties.

During a political controversy in July 1543, Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots, moved from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle. The Despences include some details, nineteen horses were used to move the contents of the great larder, the kitchen utensils, the wine cellar, bakehouse, and the coffers of the bread pantry.

A "Bread book" from 1549, during the years before Mary of Guise became Regent, records allowances of bread for her courtiers and household. The Bread book mentions people called the "Morys", perhaps servants of African origin or the captured Spanish cavalrymen mentioned by Lady Home in her letter of 28 March 1549. Lady Home wrote to Mary of Guise "to be a good princess" to the "Moor" and the Spanish soldiers. The baker broke his arm in 1552.

After the Scottish Reformation, from 1561, some of the expenses of the household were met by "thirds of benefices" collected from teinds. Much of the food produce collected in this manner was sold, and wine and cheese was bought with the proceeds, but some wheat was sent directly to Mary, Queen of Scot's bakers and oats were taken by the master of avery, who fed the queen's horses. John Huntar kept sheep and cattle in Holyrood Park to feed the household.

When Mary visited Rossdhu and Dumbarton Castle in July 1563, fish was served on Saturday 17 July, including two salted salmon, two salted ling, 50 trout, and 36 plaice, cooked in 16 pounds of butter. The household book was checked and signed by her French former comptroller and master of household, Bartholomew de Villemore. Her argentar and household "furnisher" Alexander Durham collected a contribution of £124-10s-8d in August 1564 from Coupar Angus Abbey towards the expenses of a hunting trip to Glen Tilt, where her father James V had been banquetted.

For a few days in 1566, Mary resided in Edinburgh in a house in the Cowgate, where the Court of Exchequer held its business. The circumstances were included by George Buchanan in his Dectectioun. The Latin Exchequer Rolls mention that she and her nobles were provided with wine, bread, beer, meat fish, spices, pewter, and napkins.

Marmalade and cotignac

The word "marmalade" does not derive from a combination of the words "Mary" and "malade", as is sometimes claimed, but from a Portuguese word for the quince. A Portuguese quince paste was called marmelado. Mary certainly enjoyed and made a quince preserve called "cotignac" in France and "marmalade" in Scotland, as recorded in the accounts of the French royal children's household for 1551 held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The British Library has an account for food for the French household in the same year. According to Anthony Standen, before the baptism of Prince James in 1566, an associate of Francis Yaxley came from Flanders with a gift from Margaret Douglas including a "bancketynge dysshe of sugare and marmelade".

Mary of Guise wrote to France for fruit trees in 1538. Early Scottish recipes for marmalades and preserves are found in recipe books compiled for Margaret Home, Countess of Moray in the 1630s, a 1683 manuscript associated with Dunrobin Castle, and a recipe book of Katherine Bruce, Lady Saltoun. Fruits were considered as foodstuffs and medicine. Pomegranates and lemons or limes, "20 apile garnattis and 6 sidronis", were sent from Edinburgh to Mary when she was unwell at Jedburgh in October 1566.

Mary in English captivity
One of her cooks, Nicholas Boindreid, had a relationship with a woman called Bessy Brown in the Canongate. Estienne Hauet alias Stephen Hewat and his wife Elles Boug continued to cook for Mary when she was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle. The queen's food at Lochleven was "furnished" by James Dempsterton or Dempster, a servant of the Laird of Lochleven, while Walter Cockburn furnished the household of her infant son Regent Moray and James VI at Stirling Castle. Estienne and Martin Hauet rejoined Mary's household in England at Tutbury Castle in February 1569.

A detailed account of food supplied to Mary, Queen of Scots, at Tutbury Castle and Wingfield Manor in England, made by Brian Cave was acquired by the British Library in 2022. It includes "Gascoigne wine", sack, and muscadell, a variety of meats, sea and freshwater fish, and poultry including heron and dotterel. Spices include pepper, saffron and mace, with marmalade, sucket, and comfits.  The provisions are similar to diet enjoyed in Scotland. Some items were bought from the Earl of Shrewsbury. "Turnboches" were hired to work in the kitchens turning spits. The fuels used were wood, charcoal, and sea coal. Laundry and table linen was included. The account survives in duplicate.

Another account of household expenses with food for Mary's final months was published by the Camden Society in 1867. Some fish were taken from pools at "Hedsor" or "Hedford" in Canke Wood or Cannock Chase. The fish ponds at Hednesford had been built for John Hales, Bishop of Lichfield, and were still stocked with pike, perch and roach. The ponds were close to Beaudesert Park, and it was suggested Mary might move to Beaudesert from Tutbury. Coal for the kitchens was brought from Beaudesert. English kitchen staff included the cooks, Francis Gisborne, Robert Horne, and Christopher Clinton, and a scalder Henry Walker.

Mary sent a French envoy Albert Fontenay to Scotland in 1584. He was invited to a banquet at Edinburgh Castle by the Earl and Countess of Arran. He decided not to go, for diplomatic reasons, and made his excuses, that he could not eat food prepared in the Scottish fashion without suffering colic. This made James VI smile.

James VI and Anne of Denmark
Food allowances for the household of James VI as an infant at Stirling Castle in 1568 were set out by Regent Moray. Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar and her servants were to have:First, daily 14 great breads, 1 quart 1 pint wine, 1 gallon 2 quarts ale, 3 loads of coal weekly in winter, viz., from 1 September to 1 April, and in summer 1 1/2 loads, a half pound of candle in winter, and in summer a half of a quarter of a pound of candle.To my Lady and her servants daily in the kitchen on a flesh (meat) day, 2 "particles" of beef, 2 boiled poultry, 2 roast capons, 3 quarters of mutton, a kid, a side of "sukand" veal, 6 chickens or doves, with baking meat to my Lady only, at the discretion of the Master Household, with pottages after their discretion, and on the fish days suchlike referred to the Steward and Master Household.

The staff included a pastry cook or "pattisar" called Patrick Rannald. In the 1580s he prepared food for one of the king's pets at Holyrood, a leopard known as the "ounce".

James VI wrote to his nobles and lairds for gifts of food, mostly meat and game, to serve on special occasions, often citing national honour as a reason for soliciting gifts. He wrote to Robert Murray of Abercairny for "venison, wild fowls, fed capons" for the wedding of Henrietta Stewart and George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly in July 1588 at Holyrood. When he was still anticipating the arrival of his bride Anne of Denmark, on 30 August 1589 he wrote to ask the Laird of Arbuthnott and Sir Patrick Vans of Barnbarroch to provide "fat beef, mutton on foot, wild fowls and venison, to be delivered to Walter Naish, Master of the Royal Larder".

When James VI sailed to Norway to meet Anne of Denmark in October 1589, his ship was provisioned with 15,000 biscuit bakes costing £300 Scots. There was beef, mutton, salted goose and goose for baking, rabbits and capons for baking, 200 dried cod fish, 200 ling, and 200 skate, two barrels of salmon, 24 stones of cheese, 3 stones of sugar and 12 pounds of confectionary, ginger, pepper, apples, onions, vinegar, 20 great hams, kale and carrots, 180 live capons and oats to feed them, sack and Madeira wine.

On 19 February 1590, James VI wrote from Kronborg to his Privy Council, urging them to forward preparation for his return, for his "comming hame, God willing, draws neire ... a King of Scotland with a newe married Wife will not come hame every daye ... respect not onely my Honor in this, but the Honor of our wholle Nation ... and specially since I have seen so gude an example in this Countrie ... Faile not to provide gude Cheare for us, for we have heir aboundance of gude Meit and part of Drink".

Anne of Denmark had Danish kitchen staff including a cook called Marion who was a bedchamber servant. Cuisine from the country of origin provided continuity of diet and a cultural bridge for queens consort in the early modern period. James VI was supplied with shortbread and oatcakes by Christian Lindsay, who is also thought to have been a poet. He decided not use her services after the Union of the Crowns and gave her a pension.

Prince Henry at Stirling Castle
At Stirling Castle from February 1594 eight aristocratic women or "dames of honour" attending Prince Henry, including Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar, Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar, Lady Abercairny, and Lady Dudhope, were granted a daily allowance for dinner on meat and fish days, including:On the flesh day to the first service, a piece of beef, two pieces of sodden mutton, a boiled fowl, with six dishes of pottage. Their second service, 12 dishes of roast, at the Master Household's discretion.The fish day, 12 dishes to the first service viz., plumdames (prunes), rice, butter, eggs, fried toasties, milk and bread, speckit peas, oysters, green kale, and failing of any sort to be supplied with another. The second service, 8 dishes as the season yields, and to their desserts, eggs, raisins, confectionary, and apples, 8 dishes.

As was usual, the servers of the dames' table, and other servants, were fed on the left overs. There was another table for the Mistress Nurse and the women who rocked the cradle, and another for physicians and apothecary, and for the midwife and two others.

For the feast at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle in August 1594, James VI sent letters to several lairds and landowners, asking them to send "quick stuff" for the feast, live animals, especially deer and wild fowl, such as they "may have in readiness and spare". The banquet included a course of desserts fashioned in the shape of fish by a Flemish sugar confectioner Jacques de Bousie served in the Great Hall from a model ship with working cannon. The sugar fish were presented in glasses supplied by the court sommelier Jerome Bowie. The poet William Fowler described the scene, explaining that the sugar-laden ship represented the king and queen's good fortune in their voyage across the North Sea and her safe delivery from the "conspiracy of witches", and so Neptune:did bring such things as the Sea affords, to decore this festival time withal: which immediatly were delivered to the Sewers (servers), forth of the galleries of this ship, out of christalline glasse, very curiously painted with gold & azure, all sorts of fishes: as herrings, whitings, flooks (flounder), oysters, buckles (shell fish), limpets, partans (crab), lapstars (lobsters), crabs, spout-fish, clams: with other infinite things made of sugar, and most truely represented in their own shape. And whilst the ship was unloading: Arion sitting upon the galley nose, which resembled the form of a dolphin fish, played upon his harp.

For the baptism of Princess Elizabeth on 28 November 1596, James VI sent invitations and requests for "wild meat and venison" to the Earl of Rothes, Lord Lindsay and Gray, the Constable of Dundee, and the lairds of Balwearie, Easter Wemyss, Wester Wemyss, Torrie, and Bonnyton.

English beer and household books
In 1594, English beer was shipped to Leith and delivered to James Bog, assistant keeper of Anne of Denmark's cellar at Holyrood. Usually the beer was recorded in the household books, which mostly do not survive for the reign of James VI. In March 1595 James VI solicited a gift of beer brewed in England from Sir Robert Cecil and Elizabeth I for the cellars of Stirling Castle and Holyrood. In later years, in March, English beer for James and Anne of Denmark was brewed by Robert Sky and sent to Scotland. James wrote for "double London beer", which he said Anne drank daily.

Fragments of household books remain for James VI and Anne of Denmark covering most of 1598 and a part of 1599. These were long preserved by the family of the comptroller, George Home of Wedderburn. They are written in the Scots Language, (as is a book from 1512 covering the food of the household of James V as a baby at Linlithgow Palace), and detail the wedding feast of Anne of Denmark's preacher John Sering and Little Anna, and the visit of Ulrik, Duke of Holstein. In May 1599 Thomas Burnett supplied the queen's chamber with fresh butter, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, oranges, and limes, possibly for Marion the bedchamber cook. He supplied fresh butter and sugar candy to her daughter Margaret. The queen drank Bordeaux and Rhenish wine, and French wine was supplied for the wedding of her servant James Ogilvie. The queen's accounts were sometimes countersigned by the master of work, William Schaw.

Royal banquets in Edinburgh

Banquet in April 1596
The town of Edinburgh hosted banquets for James VI and Anne of Denmark at public expense, to mark special occasions and to maintain royal favour. In April 1597 it was decided to banquet James at the Minister's lodgings, housing provided for kirk ministers which was in a state of disrepair. Tapestry from Holyrood Palace was used to decorate the venue. The town accounts record a sugar banquet held in the council house in March 1596 costing £30, and a supper in April with a courses of meat of poultry, sugar work costing £23, and patisserie or pastry by Mungo Ross costing £13-10s. Two large platters, probably made of pewter, were borrowed from one Hew Broun were lost and he was given £3-16s-8d compensation.

Banquet for the Duke of Holstein

The town hosted a banquet for the Duke of Holstein at the house of Ninian MacMorran at Riddle's court on 2 May 1598. The queen's cook Hans Poppilman was employed and tableware and tapestries were borrowed from Holyrood Palace. Wine was sweetened and spiced to make hippocras by two apothecaries, John Lawtie and John Clavie. Alexander Barclay, an apothecary who frequently worked for the court, made a mutchkin of perfumed rose water. On 22 May 1598 James VI drank all night with the Duke of Holstein. On 19 June, his birthday, James VI had supper at Crichton Castle after a day's sport of hawking.

The baptism of Prince Charles was held in December 1600 at Holyrood House. This time James VI sent an invitation and request to Walter Dundas of Dundas for venison, wild meat, "brissel foulis", and capons. This would be his contribution or "propyne" to "great provision and cheer".

Banquet in Edinburgh, 1617
James VI returned to Scotland in 1617 for a visit, leaving Anne of Denmark in London. There were elaborate preparations. Silver and damask table cloths and napkins were sent ahead, in several qualities according to the status of the diners. The Privy Council asked the depute-treasurer Gideon Murray to make plans to finance feeding the royal party, and the provision of "wheat, beir, oats, wine, spices, beef, mutton, and other provisions" to the royal houses. He devised a special tax. Country lairds were asked to send produce, John Grant of Freuchie was asked to provide capercailzies and ptarmigan, for delivery to King James at Newcastle.

Edinburgh town hosted a banquet for King James, in a specially built banqueting house in the Council House Yard. An account for the banquet also survives. The king's fool or "pleasant" Archibald Armstrong was paid £66. There was French and Rhenish wine, sack, ale and beer. An Italian expert laid the table linen. 500 oranges were used to make a dessert with some strawberries and cream. The main courses were of venison and poultry. After the feast the visiting courtiers or "strangers danced through the town". With two other small intimate banquets hosted by Joseph Marjoribanks, the costs of the entertainment was nearly six times greater than the banquet at Riddles Court in 1598. Marjoribanks' country house at Prestonpans, Northfield, still survives.

Charles II and his Scottish coronation
When Charles II was in Scotland in 1650, spices were bought in December for Christmastime from Andrew Reid, a merchant in Perth, including especially "scrotckets and confects", sugar treats. A "scorchet" was a sugar sweet flavoured with rose water, known to have been served at Scottish celebrations and banquets since the 15th century. Charles was crowned at Scone in January 1651, and although the ceremony was comparatively modest, there was a significant expenditure on the banquet and table linen.

Academic research
The household records supply several historic dates. The death of James V on 14 December 1542 was noted as "Hodie dominus noster illustrissimus rex apud Falkland clausus est extremus". The death of Mary of Guise on 11 June 1560 as, "Mardy unziesme jour de Juing la royne trespassa dedans le charteau d'Edinburg à l'heure de une heure apres mynuict". This official time of death of the queen dowager appears in two contemporary notices of her death like a court circular. Early historians and chronicle writers may have accessed the household books, which seem to have been kept in this form since 1453.

A family history, the Memory of the Somervilles, describes a wedding "infare" at Cowthally Castle and, a few weeks later, the wedding at Craignethan Castle attended by James V. The author, James Somerville cited family household accounts, (now lost). However, the attendance of the king at these two events does not appear in the royal household books, casting doubt on the narrative and suggesting that the king did not visit Craignethan until July 1541, after the execution of his former favourite, James Hamilton of Finnart. James Somerville also claimed that James IV attended a wedding infare at Cowthally in September 1489 or 1490, and describes the meat, fish, and poultry provided. Again, this visit does not seem to fit the royal records. A 17th-century family history of the Lords Lovat makes similar reference to now lost family household books and lavish hospitality, and was written by James Fraser of Phopachy, a grandson of Simon Fraser, 6th Lord Lovat's master household who kept the accounts. These stories, and Pitscottie's description of the Atholl banquet, demonstrate that the provision of food in quantity was a significant element of courtly and aristocratic display, to be incorporated in the storytelling and recollections of later generations.

William Bourne, a zoologist, researched and identified some of the birds mentioned in the household books of James V, (using the extract published in 1836). The historian Amy Blakeway has abstracted data from the royal household books to illustrate the 16th-century inflationary price rise in Scotland. Blakeway has also compared costs to test the contemporary assertion of the comptroller David Wood of Craig that Regent Arran spent more on his household in 1543 than James V, that he "haldis ane greit hous and is at mair (more) sumpteous expense nor (than) umquhile (the late) our said soverane lord held in his time". While 1543 may have been expensive for Arran, costs in later years were lower.

Masters of the Royal Household
The Master of Household was responsible for the budget and buying food. Margaret Tudor's household was also served by an admimistrator called the "Great Purveyor". This office was held by Duncan Forestar of Skipinch in 1508.

David Beaton and Harry Lindsay were masters of household for Anne of Denmark. They complained in 1591 about missing allowances for the meals of ladies in waiting and other courtiers, including Marie Stewart, who deserved a "disjeune" or breakfast because she was a "tender bairn". At this time various suggestions were made to reduce the expenditure of both households on food. James Hudson reported that the king's table and the queen's "had like to have been unserved for want, the queen her house and trayne are more costlie to him than his own". After calculating and extrapolating the costs of food, the Master Households were advised that no more than £900 should be spent yearly on spices for the queen bought from Andrew Quhyte, and no more than £1500 on sugar, comfits, almonds, oil, and lard supplied by Robert Robesoun.

Servants and artisans who joined the royal households were given allowances of food according to their rank. Rolls of the royal household usually include these allowances, often organised in tables of servants who ate together, like Anne of Denmark's Danish servants. In November 1602 the embroiderer Thomas Barclay joined her household at Dunfermline Palace and she wrote to her Master of Household, Patrick Hume of Polwarth, asking him to give Barclay meat, bread, ale, candle and coal. The allowance was called an "ordinar".

Office holders included:
 James Anstruther
 Gilbert Balfour of Westray.
 David Beaton of Melgund
 Robert Beaton of Creich
 Francisco de Busso.
 Alan Cathcart, 4th Lord Cathcart
 John Campbell of Lundy
 Mungo Graham of Rathernis, (died 1589)
 Matthew Hamilton of Milnburn
 Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell
 Patrick Hume of Polwarth
 James Learmonth of Dairsie
 Harry Lindsay of Carrestoun
 Patrick Lyon, 1st Lord Glamis
 Andrew Melville of Garvock
 Robert Sempill, 3rd Lord Sempill
 Bartholomew de Villemore

References

External links
 A Stirling Feast: Short film about renaissance food and the kitchen at Stirling Castle: Historic Environment Scotland
 Itemised account book from the royal household 1534-1535: National Records of Scotland
 The Court Doodler: National Records of Scotland
 "The Bread Book" and the Court and Household of Mary de Guise
 Richard Oram, Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice: Food for James I from the Exchequer Rolls
 Richard Oram, Feasting with James I – Linlithgow Palace's Great Hall

16th century in Scotland
16th-century documents
Early Modern Scotland
History of Scottish cuisine
Material culture of royal courts
Medieval cuisine
Renaissance in Scotland
Scottish monarchy
Scottish royal court

Food and the Scottish royal household


John Pozer is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and editor. He has had two independent films chosen for the Cannes International Film Festival and has directed a number of live action and animated television episodes.

Biography

Pozer began his career in the 1960s as a stage actor, touring in musical theatre productions such as Camelot, The King and I, The Sound of Music, and starring in the title roles of  Oliver and Peter Pan.  He went on to star as Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, which opened the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.  In 1970, Pozer was presented with the E.V. Young Memorial Award for Most Promising Actor.

Born in Kamloops, British Columbia, Pozer studied filmmaking and creative writing at the University of British Columbia and graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in Cinema from Concordia University in Montreal. He received the UBC Film Society Award for his series of documentaries which profiled university life in the 1980s.

In 2010, Pozer became Senior Directing Instructor for the Vancouver Film School and was acknowledged in 2012 for 'excellence in teaching' for his contribution to the film production program.

Pozer authored his first book, 21st Century Film Student PRIMER - Everything You Need to Know and Do Before You Go to Film School, which was released in 2019.

Filmography
His first feature, The Grocer's Wife, which he wrote, directed, and produced, garnered international awards at festivals around the world. In 1992, it was selected to open the Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival, and went on to win the critics' award, the Prix Georges Sadoul, for Best First Film. In Canada, Pozer was awarded the inaugural Claude Jutra Award for Best Direction of a First Feature Film at the 1993 Genie Awards.

He next directed the dark comedy The Michelle Apartments, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically distributed by Cineplex Odeon.

Pozer also executive produced and edited the independent feature Kissed, which was selected for the Director's Fortnight at Cannes in 1997. The film earned eight Genie nominations and went on to critical and box-office success.

He has directed episodic television such as Disney's So Weird, CTV's Cold Squad, CBC's These Arms of Mine, Global's Blackfly, Fox Family's computer-animated Beast Wars, and MTV's 2ge+her. Pozer received a Leo Award for Best Director in May 2002 for his work on the MTV comedy series Sausage Factory.

In 2015, Pozer took on the role of executive producer for the feature film, After Eden, which was selected for the New Directors Competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

References

External links

Living people
Best First Feature Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners
Canadian film educators
Film producers from British Columbia
Canadian male screenwriters
Canadian television directors
Concordia University alumni
Film directors from British Columbia
People from Kamloops
University of British Columbia alumni
Academic staff of the Vancouver Film School
Writers from British Columbia
20th-century Canadian screenwriters
Year of birth missing (living people)

John Pozer


The Andoma () is a river in Vytegorsky District of Vologda Oblast in Russia. It flows out of Lake Groptozero and is a tributary of Lake Onega. It is  long, and the area of its basin . The main tributary of the Andoma is the Samina (right).

The river basin of the Andoma occupies much of the northern part of Vytegorsky District. The river flows through the Andoma Hills, and the basin contains many lakes of glacial origin. The biggest lake in the Andoma Basin is Lake Aynozero.

The source of the Andoma is in the system of lakes in the northern part of Vytegorsky District. The river flows in the general direction south, turns west, and eventually northwest. The lower course of the Andoma is populated. In the village of Sorokopolye the Andoma accepts the Samina from the right, and downstream from this place it forms a delta as it flows into Lake Onega.

A short stretch of a highway connecting Vologda and Medvezhyegorsk via Vytegra and Pudozh runs along the Andoma, crossing it over a bridge in the village of Sorokopolye.

Between 1927 and 1957 Andomsky District with the center in the selo of Andomsky Pogost existed, first in Leningrad Oblast, from 1937 on in Vologda Oblast. In 1957, the district was abolished and merged into Vytegorsky District. Both the selo, located upstream from Sorokopolye, and the district were named after the Andoma.

References

External links

Rivers of Vologda Oblast

Andoma


Nabua () is a suburb of the Fijian capital of Suva.  The Queen Elizabeth Barracks, a major military base which saw a mutiny on 2 November 2000, is located there.

Nabua was established in 1935 by the late Ratu Sir Josefa Vanayaliyali Sukuna after the great Tsunami heat in Suva. It was mainly populated by Indigenous Fijian Community.

See also
Nabua, Camarines Sur

References

Populated places in Fiji

Nabua, Fiji


Burnsville ( ) is a city  south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city is situated on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.7 million residents. At the 2020 census the population was 64,317.

Burnsville is home to a regional mall (Burnsville Center), a section of Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve,  vertical ski peak Buck Hill, and part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Burnsville stands on land that once contained a village of Mdewakanton Dakota. Later, it became a rural Irish farming community. Burnsville became Minnesota's 14th-largest city in the 2020 census following the construction of Interstate 35. Now the ninth-largest suburb in the metro area and a bedroom community of both Minneapolis and Saint Paul, it was fully built by the late 2000s. Burnsville's downtown area is called Heart of the City with urban-style retail and condominiums. The Burnsville Transit Station serves as the hub and headquarters of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, providing regional bus service to five other suburbs.

The name Burnsville is attributed to an early Irish settler and land owner, William Byrne. His surname was recorded as "Burns" and was never corrected.

History
The Mdewakanton Dakota were the earliest inhabitants, arriving by the Minnesota River, following water fowl and game animals. Around 1750, as part of the greater migration of the Mdewakanton from their ancestral area around Mille Lacs Lake to the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, Chief Black Dog established his band at a permanent village at the isthmus between Black Dog Lake (which is named after him) and the Minnesota River, near the present site of the Black Dog Power Plant. Early settlers reported the village's population as over 250 Dakota. At the south end of Burnsville, Crystal Lake, recorded as "Minne Elk", was used for fishing, leisure and burial. It was also a gathering spot where Dakota watched deer or bucks drink at the lake from the top of Buck Hill, which was named by early settlers who witnessed this activity. Three large burial mounds were discovered after European settlement.

The Dakota nation ceded land in 1851 and many relocated to Chief Shakopee's village—the Shakopee-Mdewakanton Indian Reservation in nearby Prior Lake. The first European settlers were Irish, Scottish and Norwegian farmers who came upriver from Saint Paul. One of these was William Byrne, who had immigrated in 1840 from County Kilkenny, Ireland to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In 1855, he settled at the present-day junction of County Road 34 and Judicial Road near the Scott County line, just southeast of old downtown Savage. He subsequently donated land there for a church, school, and a cemetery, and served as town chairman. In 1858, the Dakota County Board authorized Byrnsville Township in the north by the Minnesota River, east by Eagan and Apple Valley, south by Lakeville, and west by Scott County. There is some ambiguity about whether the name actually derived from Byrne, since there were people with the surname "Burns" (a Scottish variant) living in the area. The town clerk recorded variations between "Burns" and "Byrne" but at the 1960s city incorporation, "Burnsville" prevailed. The school district was organized during this time as well. Burnsville originally comprised the present-day downtown of Savage (then known as Hamilton) until county border revisions by the legislature. Irish and Scottish settlers left their names on many area roads and parks and their religion in Presbyterian, Protestant, and Catholic churches.

In the 19th century, Burnsville was considered far from downtown Minneapolis. Rail access came in 1864 and Burnsville became a resort town, with cottages along Crystal Lake as well as Orchard Lake and Marion Lake in nearby Lakeville. The Bloomington Ferry provided river crossings until 1889 when the original Bloomington Ferry Bridge was built. By 1920, the Lyndale Avenue Drawbridge opened next to Black Dog Lake, extending Minneapolis's first north-south highway to the rural communities of southern Minnesota. Later, the bridge, upgraded several times, was replaced by the I-35W Minnesota River bridge. In 1950, just before the World War II postwar housing boom, Burnsville was still a quiet township with a population of 583. School was taught in a one-room schoolhouse containing eight grades.

After the arrival of Interstate 35W in 1960, the next two decades saw the largest boom in population when postwar pressures forced the community to develop at rapid pace. Byrnesville Township was officially incorporated in 1964 after defeating an annexation attempt by the city of Bloomington. Mass housing development followed and former mayor Connie Morrison has said city managers had foresight in producing shopping nodes in walking distance of most homes. The city became a regional pull when Burnsville Center opened in 1977 and produced the heavily traveled retail strip on County Road 42. The next decades dealt with managing Burnsville's increasing population and growth which led to providing alternative transportation options, diverse housing projects, and ultimately the "Heart of the City" project. The city approached build-out in the late 1990s and changed focus from new development to redevelopment and rehabilitation of existing structures.

Descendants of the Byrne family still remain in greater Minnesota with the original spelling in their surname. A relative who dedicated William Byrne Elementary in the 1960s considered petitioning to correct the spelling but most of the family had moved away for several decades.

Geography
Fed by receding glaciers and Lake Agassiz 12,000 years ago, the Glacial River Warren carved today's Minnesota River valley. On Burnsville's northern border, the Minnesota River winds through marshland and flood plains toward its confluence with the Mississippi. Most of the river is in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge with fish, wildlife, and parkland managed collectively by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Burnsville also contains the Black Dog and Lower Minnesota River Watershed Districts, managed by the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which  is land and  is water.

Interstate Highway 35 splits into Interstate Highways 35W and 35E within the city. Other routes in the city include Minnesota Highway 13 and County Road 42.

Demographics

The earliest settlers were roughly 250 Mdewakanton Dakota who lived permanently at Black Dog camp. Starting in the 1850s, Old stock Americans from the east coast and French Canadians moved into eastern Dakota County near Saint Paul. A decade later, major European immigration began with settlers from Ireland, Scotland, and Great Britain. By the 1900s there were a few Scandinavians from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, but these ethnic groups were mostly concentrated near Lakeville. Those from Germany and Eastern Europe gradually joined the minority from the packing jobs in nearby South St. Paul. Irish descendants maintained the majority through the early 1950s owing to the town's origin, overall land ownership, and the practice of marrying within ethnic clans. The early 20th century's permanent population remained very low as the Minnesota River's lack of bridges and streetcar connection isolated the area from development, preventing people from moving south of the river. The lakeside houses around Crystal Lake and Orchard Lake attracted various immigrant and first-generation wealthier people to temporarily settle or own land in the town limits.

In 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau recorded the population of Byrnesville Township at 2,716 and soon after, the postwar growth was dramatic, filling the city with second- to third-generation European descendants from Minneapolis. From 1960 to 1970, the population rose to nearly 20,000 and by 2000, the population was roughly 60,000.

2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 60,306 people, 24,283 households, and 15,656 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 25,759 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 77.5% White, 10.0% African American, 0.4% Native American, 5.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.5% from other races, and 3.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.9% of the population.

There were 24,283 households, of which 32.1% had children under 18 living with them, 48.4% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 35.5% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.03.

The median age in the city was 35.9. 11% of residents were under the age of 18; 9% were between 18 and 24; 28.6% were from 25 to 44; 26.7% were from 45 to 64; and 11.7% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.7% male and 51.3% female.

Economy
Burnsville's biggest employer is its school district, Independent School District 191, followed by Fairview Ridges Hospital, UTAS Sensor Systems, Northern Tool + Equipment, Pepsi-Cola Bottling, YRC, Mackin Educational Resources, Cub Foods, Frontier Communications, and AMS Holding. Manufacturing is the second-largest industry. Many employers, including Northern Tool + Equipment, Abdallah Candies, and UTC Aerospace Systems, are in the industrial areas in the southwest and the north, with corporate headquarters and modern warehouses in services and manufacturing. Service firms such as internet utilities, news, and real estate are mostly located throughout the north along Highway 13.

Retail shopping is along County Road 42 and Highway 13 in the west and east sections of the city with local shopping nodes positioned throughout. The largest strip, County Road 42, is lined with suburban strip malls, restaurants, goods and grocery stores. The anchor of the strip, Burnsville Center, is a  regional mall.

Burnsville is a 15- to 30-minute drive from many regional attractions and services, such as the Mall of America, Valleyfair Amusement Park, Buck Hill Ski Area, the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, downtown Saint Paul and downtown Minneapolis. Adjacent cities of Apple Valley, Bloomington, Eagan, Lakeville, and Savage provide even more shopping hubs, lakes and parks.

Heart of the City

Burnsville's "Heart of the City" project is a downtown development policy driven by smart growth and new urbanism. The redevelopment encompasses  in central Burnsville, a few miles south of the Minnesota River.

The 1150-seat postmodern Burnsville Performing Arts Center, now The Ames Performing Arts Center, opened in January 2009. Its approval in 2007 was controversial. Grande Market Square at Nicollet Avenue and Burnsville Parkway is the cornerstone of the Heart of the City project, and features a Doron Jensen-signature restaurant.

Arts and culture
The Ames Performing Arts Center is at 12600 Nicollet Avenue in the Heart of the City. The center has two theatres, a 1000-seat Proscenium Stage, and an art gallery.

The Garage located near City Hall is a nonprofit music club and teen center that has attracted music acts nationally and internationally.

Annually every August or September, the community holds the Burnsville Fire Muster. Established in 1980, the event originated in the 1970s as a showcase and short parade for a local fire equipment collector. Taking on the New England fire muster tradition, the event now includes a large parade, music concerts, and fireworks. In 2004, the Guinness Book of World Records cited the namesake event of this celebration, a fire truck parade, as the longest of its kind in the world at that time.

Parks and recreation

The city contains  of parkland throughout 79 parks and is managed by the Burnsville Parks Department, which follows a Parks & Trails Master Plan. Only a third is developed and for recreation, with the remainder preserved as natural habitat. Burnsville's border with the Minnesota River is within the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Crystal Lake is the city's major recreation lake, allowing boating, fishing, jet-skiing, and swimming. Burnsville Skate Park is a free facility during summer hours. Burnsville Ice Center has two large professional ice rinks.

Burnsville Athletic Club is an all-volunteer youth sports league. It has an annual participation of nearly 1,300 in the baseball leagues for grades K-12, 80–90 boys' basketball teams in grades 3–12, and over 400 in flag and tackle American football in grades 2–8. There are also traveling teams for boys' and girls' basketball, girls' fast pitch softball, and 8th grade boys' football, which play against similar teams from around the state at a higher competitive level. Other adult sports are provided through the city's recreation department, other recreational organizations, and minor league groups.

Burnsville has over 58 playgrounds and roughly 11 recreational lakes. The most heavily used lakes are Keller Lake, Crystal Lake, Kruse Lake, and Aligmanet Lake (split with Burnsville's neighbor Apple Valley, MN). In mid-2021, after finding numerous large goldfish in Keller Lake, Burnsville warned residents against public goldfish release, citing ecological concerns (goldfish are a regulated invasive species in Minnesota and their release into public waters is illegal).

Government and politics

Burnsville operates as a Statutory Plan B city under the Minnesota Legislature. Government consists of an elected city council of one executive mayor and four council members. All four council members are elected at-large to serve four-year terms. The mayor's term was changed from two to four years in 2000. The city manager is in charge of administrative duties, including employment of the city. As one of many Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan municipalities, the city is required to regularly submit a Comprehensive Plan detailing infrastructure and development progress to the Metropolitan Council.

Elizabeth Kautz has been mayor since 1995, elected after serving two years on the city council, where she replaced Ken Wolf, who was elected to the State House of Representatives in District 41B. Having been reelected eight times, she has served for over 27 years. Kautz's framework of progressive activity and financial management has been studied academically. She cites in her biography that she has reduced Burnsville's debt, increased infrastructure improvement, maintained the scheduled property tax decrease, established a new youth center, and overseen the establishment of the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority.

One of Kautz's major redevelopment projects was the Burnsville Heart of the City, the intersecting commercial areas near Burnsville Parkway and Nicollet Avenue. In the 2008 mayoral election, her opponent cited the 1,000-seat regional performing arts center component as misuse of public funds toward arts.

The city is in multiple districts in both the Minnesota Senate (51, 56) and Minnesota House (51A, 56A, 56B). Burnsville is represented in the State Senate by Jim Carlson (District 51, DFL) and Lindsey Port (District 56, DFL), and in the State House by Sandra Masin (District 51A, DFL), Jessica Hanson (District 56A, DFL), and Kaela Berg (District 56B, DFL).

Burnsville is in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district and is represented by Angie Craig, a Democrat.

Politics

Education

Burnsville Independent School District 191, which includes Burnsville as well as parts of neighboring cities Savage and Eagan, has:

Two 9–12 high schools:
 Burnsville High School
 Cedar Alternative High School

Three 6–8 middle schools:
 Eagle Ridge Middle School (in Savage)
 John Metcalf Middle School (Closed in 2020)
 Joseph Nicollet Middle School

Ten K-5 elementary schools:

 Harriet Bishop (in Savage)
 Edward D. Neill
 Gideon Pond
 Hidden Valley (in Savage)
 Marion W. Savage (in Savage)
 Rahn (in Eagan)
 Sioux Trail
 Sky Oaks
 Vista View
 William Byrne

About 20% of Burnsville's students attend Independent School District 196 schools; they include Apple Valley High School and Valley Middle School in Apple Valley; and Echo Park Elementary School in Burnsville.

About 10% of Burnsville's students attend Independent School District 194 schools; they include Lakeville North High School, Kenwood Trail Middle School, and Orchard Lake Elementary, all of which are in Lakeville.

Good Shepherd Lutheran School is a Pre-K-8 Christian school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Burnsville.

Infrastructure
Burnsville is a fully developed suburban bedroom community. Large pockets of ramblers and split-level houses were due to Interstate 35W's completion in the 1960s which came earlier than most of the metro highways. Burnsville through the 1990s filled in the last of its available land with upscale housing stock and apartment complexes. In the 2000s Burnsville went under redevelopment activity, producing many four-story residential buildings. The "Heart of the City", a new downtown area, contains mixed-use residential and retail buildings. This has produced a diverse range of housing types from single-family homes to high-density condominiums. Since the city was developed in a sprawl fashion, new and old buildings sit between each other. The original industrial area along the Minnesota River is mostly abandoned, and also contains a sealed land-fill site. The new industrial area in the west side of the city contains manufacturing and corporate headquarters. West of the new downtown area are new office buildings.

Since 2005, Burnsville has cut its carbon emissions by almost 30%, through changes such as energy efficiency, composting to reduce methane emissions from landfills, and improvements to water infrastructure.

Transportation
Minnesota Valley Transit Authority provides regional bus service between many transit hubs within the city, south of the river, and to destinations such as the Mall of America, Downtown Minneapolis, and Southdale Mall. Most residents commute and move around by car. Burnsville contains the Interstate Highway 35 split with Interstate Highway 35W leading to downtown Minneapolis and Interstate Highway 35E to downtown St. Paul. The major on and off-ramps for I-35W are located at Burnsville Parkway, County Road 42, and State Highway 13. County Road 42 and State Highway 13 both provide east–west access to the western suburb of Savage and the eastern suburbs of Eagan and Apple Valley. Major interior arteries include Nicollet Avenue, McAndrews Road (East 138th Street), County Road 5 (Kenwood Trail), County Road 11, Portland Avenue, Southcross Drive, and Lac Lavon Drive.

Utilities
Burnsville Public Works draws water from wells and not the Minnesota River, supplying all homes and businesses. Electricity is provided by Dakota Electric Association, Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative and Xcel Energy. Natural gas is provided by Centerpoint Minnegasco. Telephone and internet services are provided by Frontier Communications and Qwest.

Fairview Ridges Hospital located south of City Hall along Nicollet Avenue is a 24-hour facility, touting the most advanced emergency, surgery, orthopedic and childcare south of the river. The hospital is within The Ridges campus which includes various medical clinics, services, centers and institutes. Nearby is a Park Nicollet Health Services.

Law enforcement
Burnsville's law enforcement is provided by the Burnsville Police Department, which formed in July 1964 soon after the town's incorporation. The department consists of 75 sworn officers and 19 civilian personnel. The current chief of police, as of May 10, 2019, is Tanya Schwartz. The department was the first in the state of Minnesota to introduce body-worn cameras to its officers in the summer of 2010 and rolled them out to all officers by the end of 2011. The department's current police station was built in 1988 and is located at 100 Civic Center Parkway. The station underwent a major $13.3 million renovation starting in summer 2017, and the newly renovated station was re-opened in February 2018.

Notable people

 Cole Aldrich, former basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves was born in Burnsville, but moved to Bloomington at a young age.
 Brock Boeser, professional hockey player, who plays for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League
 J.T. Brown, professional hockey player, who went on to play for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League
 Dropping Daylight, music band
 Breanne Düren, singer/songwriter, touring keyboardist for Owl City.
 Durry, indie rock band from by Austin and Taryn Durry
 Sara Groves, contemporary Christian music artist
 Chuck Halberg, lawyer and Minnesota state legislator
 Gao Hong, Chinese pipa player
 Ernie Hudson, actor
 Doron Jensen, Founder of Timber Lodge Steakhouse
 Cayla Kluver, author
 Kristina Koznick, former World Cup ski racer
 David Knutson, Minnesota state senator, lawyer, and judge
 Harold A. Knutson, Minnesota state legislator and lawyer
 M.A. Larson, screenwriter and author
 Trevor Laws, former American football defensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams
 Connie Morrison, Minnesota state legislator, member of the Burnsville City Council, and Mayor of Burnsville
 Todd Okerlund, former New York Islander hockey player, son of "Mean" Gene Okerlund
 Kirsten Olson, ice skater and actress
 Laura Osnes, Broadway singer and actress, born in Burnsville and raised in Eagan
 Melissa Peterman, actress
 Tabitha Peterson, curler
 Bradley G. Pieper, Minnesota state legislator and businessman
 Duke Powell, Minnesota state legislator and paramedic
 James Ruffin, defensive lineman
 Randy Scheunemann, Washington lobbyist and John McCain Presidential adviser
 Sing It Loud, music band
 Lindsey Vonn (née Kildow), U.S. Ski Team alpine ski racer, 2008 World Cup overall champion
 Nicolas Eugene Walsh, Roman Catholic bishop
 Cedric Yarbrough, actor

References

External links

 City of Burnsville – Official Website

Cities in Minnesota
Cities in Dakota County, Minnesota
Populated places established in 1855
1855 establishments in Minnesota Territory

Burnsville, Minnesota


Ballow Chambers is a heritage-listed office building at 121 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Lange Leopold Powell and built from 1924 to 1926 by John Hutchinson. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

History
This three-storeyed masonry office building was constructed in two stages, in 1924 and in 1926, for Ballow Chambers Ltd, a group of medical practitioners headed by Charles Thelander. The company acquired most of the site in 1924. Bunya Bunya Cottage, erected on the site c. 1870s, had accommodated a medical practice in the late 1880s, and from about 1900.

Brisbane architect Lange Powell was commissioned to design the new building. Powell was an established Brisbane architect, whose work includes St Martin's House (1922) and the Masonic Temple (1930), both in Ann Street, Brisbane.

Ballow Chambers was one of the earliest of the purpose-built specialist medical buildings in Brisbane. These interwar medical office redevelopments along Wickham Terrace included Wickham House (1923–24), Craigston (1927), Inchcolm (1930) and Brisbane Clinic (Lister House) (1930) . Their construction constituted the second phase (the first being in the 1880s) of Wickham Terrace's growth as a medical precinct, and was indicative of new directions toward specialist medicine in Queensland in the interwar years.

The ground floor and sub-floor of Ballow Chambers were constructed in 1924, with a further two storeys added in 1926. John Hutchinson was the builder for both stages. The building was named after a colonial surgeon and the first doctor to establish a private practice in Brisbane, David Keith Ballow, who died of typhus fever while treating emigrants quarantined at Dunwich in 1850.

Ballow Chambers, together with Wickham House, was the scene of a tragic occurrence in December 1955. On Thursday, 1 December 1955, Karl Kast, carrying a home-made bomb shot dead two doctors, Dr Arthur Vincent Meehan and Dr Andrew Russell Murray and wounded Dr Michael Joseph Gallagher and George Boland. A fourth doctor, Dr John Rudolph Sergius Lahz was severely traumatised due to the incident. Dr Gallahger, Kast's first victim, was shot in his offices in Wickham House. Kast then ignited three bombs in the foyer of Wickham House. George Boland, a patient of one of the doctors in the building, attempted to stub out the bomb only to have it explode and maim his hand. Kast then went to Ballow Chambers, around hundred metres down Wickham Terrace, where he shot Dr Murray and attempted to apprehend Dr Lahz, who escaped. Following his rampage, Kast locked himself in the office of Dr Lahz, within Ballow Chambers, where he shot himself and ignited another bomb. He later died in hospital. The tragedy was reported in the Courier-Mail on Friday, 2 December, as "...a horrible crime ...[that]...sent a shock of horror through the city and all Queensland".

Description

Ballow Chambers, a three-storeyed brick building, is located towards the eastern end of Wickham Terrace, overlooking the city centre, within a precinct associated since the 1880s with Brisbane's medical profession. The street facade, with five bays, has restrained Georgian details: a central, rendered, triple-arched entry with balcony above; stucco quoins and strings; and a cornice and parapet with balustrading. Rectangular multi-paned casement windows with fanlights and metal glazing bars define each storey. Windows along the northern wall are shaded by awnings supported on large brackets.

Internally the building is divided into suites of medical offices, accessed via a hallway on each level. The ground floor corridor is particularly intact, and displays a sequence of arches, plastered walls, and timber skirting boards and dado rail (now painted). A central staircase of dark-stained, silky oak treads and handrail, with wrought iron balustrading and dado tiles, services all floors, as does the adjacent elevator. A casement window and arched fanlight with multi-paned leadlights is a prominent feature of the ground-floor stairwell.

The original configuration of suites has been retained, despite some remodelling of individual offices. The interior public spaces sustain the 1920s ambience. Ballow Chambers continues as a specialist medical office building.

Heritage listing
Ballow Chambers was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

Ballow Chambers is important in demonstrating the interwar evolution of Wickham Terrace as an important medical specialist precinct in Brisbane, and is associated with the development of specialist medicine in Queensland.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Ballow Chambers is an accomplished building which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a purpose-built interwar medical office building, including in the restrained design the assertion of medical specialist prestige.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

As one of a related group of classical facades, Ballow Chambers exhibits a strong aesthetic contribution to the Wickham Terrace streetscape, which is valued by the community.

The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.

The building has a special association with Brisbane architect Lange L Powell, as an example of his interwar work.

References

Attribution

External links

Queensland Heritage Register
Heritage of Brisbane
Spring Hill, Queensland
Office buildings in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register
Office buildings completed in 1926

Ballow Chambers


Modewarre is a locality in the Surf Coast Shire, Victoria, Australia. The town adjoins Lake Modewarre. In the 2016 census, Modewarre had a population of 276 people.

Modewarre Primary School began as a local Anglican school in the 1850s, became a vested National School in 1859, and closed in 1971.

A post office at Modewarre opened in 1859 and closed in 1967.

The Modewarre Memorial Hall was erected in 1923 in memory of World War I. The Modewarre Avenue of Honour on Cape Otway Road was planted in 1918, and is the last surviving Avenue of Honour in the Surf Coast Shire. Tree number #33 was planted to honour Albert Jacka, Australia's first winner of the Victoria Cross and a Modewarre local.

The town has a football club, Modewarre Football Club, which has existed since 1878. It currently plays in the Bellarine Football League, but formerly played in the Geelong & District Football League.

Construction of a $350 million world-class training and sports health facility at Modewarre was approved by the Victorian government in October 2020. The Cape Otway Road Australia (CORA) precinct will feature training, sport science, education and medical facilities as well as a 128-room residential hotel, wellness centre and retail village.

References

External links

Towns in Victoria (state)

Modewarre


Bissulfosuccinimidyl suberate (BS3) is a crosslinker used in biological research.  It is a water-soluble version of disuccinimidyl suberate.

Crosslinkers
Crosslinkers are chemical reagents that play a crucial role in the preparation of conjugates used in biological research particularly immuno-technologies and protein studies. Crosslinkers are designed to covalently interact with molecules of interest, resulting in conjugation. A spacer arm, generally consisting of several atoms, separates the two molecules, and the nature and length of this spacer is important to consider when designing an assay involving the selected crosslinker. Bissulfosuccinimidyl suberate is an example of a homobifunctional crosslinker.

Characteristics
Water-soluble: BS3 is hydrophilic due to its terminal sulfonyl substituents and as a result dissociates in water, eliminating the need to use organic solvents which interfere with protein structure and function.  Because organic solvents need not be used when BS3 is used as the crosslinker, it is ideal for investigations into protein structure and function in physiologic conditions.

Non-cleavable: The BS3 crosslinker has an 8-atom spacer is non-cleavable and the molecule is not cell membrane permeable.  BS3 binds irreversibly to its conjugate molecules, meaning that once BS3 creates covalent linkages to its target molecules, those associations are not easily broken.

Membrane impermeable: Since BS3 is a charged molecule, it cannot freely pass through cellular membranes which makes it an ideal crosslinker for cell surface proteins.

Homobifunctional: BS3 is a homobifunctional crosslinker in that it has two identical reactive groups, i.e. the N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide esters, and only one step is necessary to establish crosslinking between conjugate molecules.

Amine reactive:  BS3 is amine-reactive in that its N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide (NHS) esters at each end react specifically with primary amines to form stable amide bonds in a nucleophilic acyl substitution-type reaction in which the N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide acts as the leaving group. BS3 is particularly useful in protein-related applications in that it can react with the primary amines on the side chain of lysine residues and the N-terminus of polypeptide chains.  This crosslinker can also be used to stabilize protein-protein interactions for further analysis by immunoprecipitation.

Deuterated BS3
The deuterated crosslinker bis(sulfosuccinimidyl) 2,2,7,7-suberate-d4 is the "heavy" BS3 crosslinking agent that contains 4 deuterium atoms. When used in mass spectrometry studies, BS3-d4 provides a 4 dalton shift compared to crosslinked proteins with the non-deuterated analog (BS3-d0). Thus, "heavy" and "light" crosslinker analogs can be used for isotopically labeling protein and peptides in mass spectrometry research applications.

Applications
 Cell-surface receptor-ligand studies
 Crosslinking biomolecules on cells
 Fixation of protein complexes prior to protein interaction analysis

Disuccinimidyl suberate

Disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS) is the non-water-soluble analog of BS3. DSS and BS3 express the same crosslinking ability toward primary amines. The major structural difference between these two molecules is that DSS does not contain the sulfonate substituents at either end of the molecule, and it is this difference that is responsible for the uncharged, non-polar nature of the DSS molecule.  Due to the hydrophobic nature of this crosslinker it must be dissolved in an organic solvent such as dimethylsulfoxide before being added to an aqueous sample. Because of the ability of DSS to cross cell membranes, it is best suited for applications where intracellular crosslinking is needed.

References

Sulfonic acids
Succinimides

Bissulfosuccinimidyl suberate


Walter William Laird  (26 July 1920 – 30 May 2002) was a major influence in the development of Latin American dancing in Britain after the Second World War. He was World Professional Latin Dance Champion three times. He coached many successful dancers including Allan Tornsberg, Vibeke Toft, Espen Salberg, Jukka Haapalainen, Sirpa Suutari,  Donnie Burns & Ian Waite.    Peter Maxwell & Lynn Harman were amongst his first major champions and a couple on which much of his ultimate technique was developed. Laird was a Fellow and Examiner of the IDTA, and until 2000, he was Secretary (and later President) of the Ballroom Dancers' Federation.

Laird first danced with his sister Joan in the 1930s. His professional partner during the war and after was Andé Lyons (née Ashcroft, and subsequently Andé Tyrer). They met when Andé was sent to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough as a shorthand typist. One day she took dictation from Walter Laird, who was a scientist working there. At the end of the dictation, he asked her if she was keen on dancing.

"By this time, the Americans were in force in the area. Like most of the girls, I now knew how to Jitter Bug (later called the Jive), and I was having a great time! My answer to him was that I loved dancing and that I was pretty good at it too! We made a date and to my horror it turned out Walter was a professional ballroom dancer. I soon realised that I was well out of my depth. However, Walter offered to teach me to dance properly as he thought that I had potential. So that was how my second career was born!"

The Laird–Lyons partnership was entirely traditional ballroom dancing. Laird did not switch to Latin until some time after the war. Laird's three world championships (1962–1964) were in partnership with Lorraine Reynolds (now Rohdin), known professionally as 'Lorraine'. Later Walter married Julie, who continues the dance school in South London. One of Laird's greatest achievements was his Technique of Latin dancing, first published in 1961; further editions in 1964, 1972, 1977, 1983, 1988, 2003. Initially Laird followed the traditional descriptive format, but in 1972 edition he published the results of a major analysis of Latin dance, and used a tabular form, including a column for 'action used' to help definition. This edition was widely influential, and has since been accepted by many dance teacher organisations as a definitive work.

Works
Technique of Latin dancing. IDTA standard text.
Technique of Latin dancing supplement: technique for the British Dance Council's Appendix 1. (Latin) Figures.
Ballroom Dance pack. 1994, 2004. Includes CD; French, German, Spanish editions exist.

See also
 List of dancers

References

1920 births
2002 deaths
British ballroom dancers
English male dancers
Dance teachers

Walter Laird


Sir Thomas Meres (1634 – 9 July 1715), of Lincoln and Bloomsbury, Middlesex, was an English lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1659 and 1710. He showed a remarkable level of activity both within and outside Parliament, particularly during the reign of Charles II.

Early life
Meres was baptised on 17 September 1634, the eldest son of Robert Meres, DD, of Kirton, Lincolnshire, chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, and his first wife Elizabeth Williams, daughter of Hugh Williams of Wegg, Caernarvonshire who was the widow of William Dolben, DD, prebendary of Lincoln. He was thus the half-brother of John Dolben,  Archbishop of York, and Sir William Dolben, a judge. He was educated at Carre's Grammar School in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, under Mr Gibson and was admitted at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge on 23 January 1651 aged 15.  He was admitted to Inner Temple in 1652 and in the same year succeeded to his father's property. He married  Anne  de la Fountaine, daughter of Sir Erasmus de la Fountaine of Kirby Bellars, Leicestershire in January 1658.

Career
In 1659, Meres was chosen as  Member of Parliament for Lincoln in the Third Protectorate Parliament. In January 1660, he was appointed Commissioner for assessment for Lincolnshire, and in March 1690  Commissioner for militia for Lincolnshire and Justice of the Peace for Lindsay and for Holland. He was returned unopposed as MP for Lincoln at the 1660 English general election for the Convention Parliament. He was knighted on 11 June 1660 and  was also called to the bar in 1660. In July 1660 he became Justice of the Peace for  Kesteven and in August a Commissioner for sewers for Hatfield chase and a Commissioner for assessment for Lindsey and Lincoln. He was appointed Commissioner for maimed soldiers in September 1660. In 1661 he was re-elected MP for Lincoln. In the 18 years of the Cavalier Parliament he made over 500 speeches and served on 686 committees. He produced over 100 reports and acted as teller 35 times.

Outside Parliament, Meres was Commissioner for oyer and terminer at Lincoln 1661, and Commissioner for assessment for Lincolnshire from 1661 to 1663. From 1662 to 1663 he was a Commissioner for corporations and in 1663 a Commissioner for loyal and indigent officers for Lincolnshire, Commissioner for complaints for the  Bedford level and   Commissioner for assessment for Lindsey and Lincoln to 1664, and for Westminster until 1680. He was Commissioner for assessment for Lincolnshire from 1664 to 1680, and a Commissioner for enclosures for Deeping fen in 1665. In 1670 he became Deputy lieutenant for Lincolnshire and in 1671 a Commissioner for concealments. In Parliament he was chairman of the committee of elections and privileges from  8 February 1673 to 30 December 1678. He was a Commissioner for recusants in 1675 and an assistant to the Sons of the Clergy in 1678.

Meres was re-elected MP for Lincoln at the first general election of 1679 and was chairman of the committee of elections and privileges from 19 March to 27 May 1679. He was returned again at the second general election of 1679. He was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1679 to 1684 and a Commissioner for assessment for Essex, Leicestershire and London from 1679 to 1680. By 1680 he was a captain in the  foot militia. He was returned in a contest as MP for Lincoln at the 1681 English general election and also became a Justice of the Peace for  Holland in 1681. He was unopposed at the 1685 English general election. He lost his position as Deputy Lieutenant and on the Commissions of the Peace in 1688 after the Test Acts.

After the Glorious Revolution, in October 1688, Meres was restored to the Commission of the Peace as JP for  Lindsey and Kesteven and was Commissioner for assessment for Lincolnshire in 1689. By 1689 he had lost his support at Lincoln and did not stand for the Parliaments in that year. He was restored as deputy lieutenant for Lincolnshire in  1691 and was appointed a Commissioner for  rebuilding St Paul's in  1692. He stood for Lincoln at the 1695 English general election and at the 1698 English general election but was unsuccessful on both occasions. In 1696 he was vice-president of the Sons of the Clergy. He was appointed a Commissioner for collecting subscriptions to the land bank in 1699.

Meres was eventually returned as MP for Lincoln in a contest at the first general election of 1701 but did not stand at the second election of that year. He was returned for Lincoln in a contest at the 1702 English general election. At the 1705 English general election, he was returned for Lincoln unopposed and voted against the Court candidate for Speaker on 25 October 1705. He was  named to two drafting committees and spoke frequently in debates on the Regency bill. He was returned  unopposed as a Tory for Lincoln at the 1708 British general election. He made little contribution  in  Parliament, but voted against the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell in 1710. At the 1710 British general election he was defeated and did not stand for Parliament again. He was involved in a scandal in 1711 as one of the commissioners for rebuilding St Paul's, who were accused of awarding a contract on a corrupt basis to Richard Jones against the wishes of Sir Christopher Wren.

Death and legacy
Meres died at his  home in London on 9 July 1715 and was buried at Kirby Bellars, Leicestershire. He and his wife had three sons  Thomas, John and William and three daughters. He disinherited his son Thomas and was thus succeeded by his second son John. .

References

1634 births
1715 deaths
People from Kirton, Lincolnshire
Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Members of the Inner Temple
English MPs 1659
English MPs 1660
English MPs 1661–1679
English MPs 1679
English MPs 1680–1681
English MPs 1681
English MPs 1685–1687
English MPs 1701
English MPs 1702–1705
English MPs 1705–1707
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
British MPs 1707–1708
British MPs 1708–1710
Lords of the Admiralty

Thomas Meres


The Key Route Inn was a major hotel in Oakland, California in the early decades of the 20th century. It was constructed by the Realty Syndicate of Francis "Borax" Smith and Frank C. Havens, a subsidiary of which was the Key Route transit system. The Inn opened on May 7, 1907, straddling what is now Grand Avenue along the west side of Broadway. President William Howard Taft and his party were guests in 1909. The building was a massive wood-framed structure with open timbering, in imitation of an old English style. One of its most remarkable features was a large archway and corridor through which the tracks of one of the Key Route's transbay lines passed. A Key Route stop in this corridor connected to the hotel's main lobby.

The Key Route Inn suffered major fire damage on September 8, 1930. This, combined with the beginning of the Great Depression and the City of Oakland's desire to connect Grand Avenue with 22nd Street led to the Inn being fully demolished in April and May, 1932, only 25 years after it opened.

The rail line continued, however,  becoming the "B" transbay line upon the opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge railway. The rail line was replaced by the "B" bus route in April 1958, and was subsequently incorporated into the publicly owned AC Transit system; the modern line B route bypasses the location of the former hotel by nearly a mile.

See also
 Claremont Hotel & Spa, a sister hotel opened in 1915 which still exists.

References
 Oakland Herald, May 7, 1907
 Oakland Tribune, September 8–9, 1930; April 28, 1932

External links

 Photo of the Inn shortly before it burned, Oakland Public Library collection

Hotel buildings completed in 1907
Buildings and structures in Oakland, California
History of Oakland, California
Demolished hotels in California
Hotels established in 1907
Tudor Revival architecture in California
1907 establishments in California
1932 disestablishments in California
1930 fires in the United States
Hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1907
Railway stations in Oakland, California
Buildings and structures demolished in 1932
Railway stations in the United States closed in 1958

Key Route Inn