GENERAL INFORMATION

A a wee meenit: a short time aback: behind; at rear of able: astute; clever ableize: ablaze ablow: below; under abstraklous: bad tempered; obstreperous abune: above; over acquant: acquaint adae: difficulty: fuss; ceremony aefauldlie: best wishes aff-luif: extempore aff-pit: excuse affrontit: ashamed affstaunin: aloof aft/aften: often agate: abroad; on the road agee ( ajee ): askew ; ajar agin: against agley: awry agrun: aground aheid: ahead ahin/ahint: behind ahin-haun: late Aiberdeen: Aberdeen aiblins: perhaps aik: oak ain: own; private; privilege aince: once aipple: apple airm: arm aistlin: easterly aither: either aits: oats aix: axe al…

The Top 10 Castle Hotels With accommodations befitting a king, and fairytale-worthy dungeons, moats, drawbridges and towers, you'll be feeling like royalty in no time in these ten castle hotels. By ShermansTravel editorial staff [Lake Palace, afloat on India's Lake Pichola, in Rajasthan (© Taj Lake Palace)] Related Articles * The Best Accommodations in Paris * Design: Hotel Room or Art Exhibit Related Destinations * Lisbon * Venice * Scotland's Orkney and Shetland Islands Gone are the days when you needed a royal title to spend the night in a castle. Nowadays, even the masses can stay in a storied, turreted keep, as residences of bygone kings a…

pinched from a really great site http://miljokes.com/ A latin phrases A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi - A precipice in front, wolves behind (between a rock and a hard place) Ab imo pectore - From the bottom of the chest (from the heart) Ab/Ex uno disce omnes - From one person, learn all people Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit - He has left, absconded, escaped and disappeared Absit omen may the omen be absent - May this not be an omen Abusus non tollit usum - Wrong use does not preclude proper use Abyssus abyssum invocat - Hell calls hell; one mistep leads to another Accipere quam facere praestat injuriam - It is better to suffer an injustice than to do an inju…

Mice Infected With Bubonic Plague Missing Thu Sep 15, 1:04 PM ET NEWARK, N.J. - Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago, and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk. The mice were unaccounted-for at the Public Health Research Institute, which is on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government. Federal official said the mice may never be accounted for. Among other things, the rodents may have been stolen, eaten by other lab animals or just misp…

The essential guide to Scotland's castles by CHRIS TABRAHAM HUMANS have lived in Scotland for 11,000 years. For the first 8,000 years, they seemed able to live mostly in peace. Then the climate cooled, and men were forced to fight over the fast-diminishing good ground for their survival. They littered the Highland glens and Lowland valleys with huge hillforts. In the far north and west, they built towering stone structures we call brochs. Then came the Roman legionaries around AD78. They built forts and marching camps - and the Antonine Wall, between the Forth and the Clyde, Imperial Rome’s most northerly frontier. No sooner had they gone than new invaders appeared …

Early British Kingdoms Bernicia Deheubarth Deira East Anglia Essex Glywysing Gwynedd Hwicce King of the Isles (North) Kent Lindsey Magonset English Kings of Man Norse Kings of Man Mercia Morgannwg Northumbria Kings of the Picts Powys Kings of Scots South Gyrwe Strathclyde Surrey Sussex Wessex Kings of York

British Monarchs House of Wessex Egbert (802-39) Aethelwulf (839-55) Aethelbald (855-60) Aethelbert (860-6) Aethelred (866-71) Alfred, the Great (871-99) Edward, the Elder (899-925) Athelstan (925-40) Edmund, the Magnificent (940-6) Eadred (946-55) Eadwig (Edwy), All-Fair (955-59) Edgar, the Peaceable (959-75) Edward, the Martyr (975-78) Aethelred, the Unready (978-1016) Edmund, Ironside (1016) Danish Line Svein, Forkbeard (1014) Canute, the Great (1016-35) Harald, Harefoot (1035-40) Hardicanute (1040-42) House of Wessex, Restored Edward, the Confessor (1042-66) Harold II (1066) Norman Line William I, the Conqueror (1066-87) Will…

British Houses House of Stuart, Restored Charles II (1660-85) James II (1685-88) House of Orange and Stuart William III, Mary II (1689-1702) House of Stuart Anne (1702-14) House of Brunswick, Hanover Line George I (1714-27) George II (1727-60) George III (1760-1820) George IV (1820-30) William IV (1830-37) Victoria (1837-1901) House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Edward VII (1901-10) House of Windsor George V (1910-36) Edward VIII (1936) George VI (1936-52) Elizabeth II (1952-present)

Copied from Britannia.com Arthurian Time Line 410 - Emperor Honorius of Rome tells Britain to attend to its own affairs. Zosmius reports Roman officials expelled and native government establishes "independence". c.410 - Governor Owain Finddu of Glywysing is assassinated in Gwynedd. Irish incursions into Gwynedd, Powys, Garth Madrun, Dyfed & the Gower Peninsula. 411 - Capture, at Arles, of Constatine, last Emperor of Britain. He was executed at Ravenna soon afterward. 413 - Pelagian heresy said to have begun, by Prosper (Tiro) of Aquitaine in his "Chronicle". 420 - Pelagian heresy outlawed in Rome (418) but, in Britain, supposedly enjoys much support…

A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 8000 BC Neolithic people were mining bloodstone on the Isle of Rum in the Hebrides, some of which was traded as far away as Nice in the south of France. 3000 BC A people known as the Iberians introduced bronze to Scotland and built imposing stone circles in Orkney and Lewis, possibly for religious and astronomical purposes. 2000 BC The Beaker people, so-called because of their beaker pots settled on the Scottish east coast in the Aberdeen area. The "Prospectors" arrived from the Mediterranean, probably in search of gold, copper and river pearls. 1000 BC Scotland was now trading with the Mediterranean. A gold route from Ireland to t…