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Archiver > SCT-ISLEOFMULL > 2001-02 > 0982110943


From: Anne Stevens <>
Subject: Re: Sassenachs
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 20:35:43 -0400
References: <l03110700b6a86f4552ba@[206.172.32.160]><l03110700b6a86f4552ba@[206.172.32.160]>
In-Reply-To: <NJcaLWBw1ug6EwRE@lachiemacq.demon.co.uk>


Hello Lachie, Alan in Sweden, and Joanne from Georgian Bay.
Thank your all for your replies. I apologize for the delay in answering
your emails, but I have been having difficulty with my Server. Everone in
town, except me it seems, has gone on the high speed access - the fast
r=track, and I'm afraid I have been left behind. With great difficulty I
have finally managed to access my email and send replies.
We haven't used the word "Sassenach" in our family for many long years,
mainly because my father was one - from Derbyshire, England. Every now and
again my sister uses the word, and I have to remind her that she is half of
one. She and her husband go Scottish Country Dancing you see, and that is
where she picked up "the word".
Thanks to Joan from Georgian Bay, I now know it can be used as a term of
endearment. I had only heard it in a semi-derogatory context.
It is really one of those Scottish expressions that is somewhat like a
claymore - two-edged.

Incidentally, I have been a member of the Derbyshire Mailing List for the
past year, and at least as far south as the city of Derby, they were fairly
evenly split between Royalists and Parliament Royalsit families. Many of
them paid a high price for supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie and the
Highlanders in the '45.

Many highlanders were imprisoned in Derbyshire, and some stayed and
married local girls. There is a story, somewhat akin to the Black Hole of
Calcutta regarding the Highlanders in the '45, on their way back to
Scotland. About 300 of them were locked in a church near Chapel-en-le-Frith
in the High Peak District of Derbyshire. They were so closely packed that
they couldn't sit or lie down. After some days, they were released and
sent on their way home, those that were still alive.

We have had many an interesting discussion on the Derbyshire Mailing List
about the history of the county as well as the people from all over the
world with ancestors from Derbyshire. It certainly makes for a lively
list.
Thanks again for the explanations of Sassenach. I hope you will forgive
me for not sending each of your a reply. It probably wouldn't go through.
I may have to go fast track myself, but I had hoped that retirement was the
time for slowing down.
Ach weel.
Anne
Newmarket, Ont. Canada.




>In message <l03110700b6a86f4552ba@[206.172.32.160]>, Anne Stevens
><> writes
>>To Jo Currie & List
>>You used the term Sassenach in one of your emails. I didn't know that the
>>term Sassenach was still used or is it reserved for the BBC?
>>Does anyone know how it came about? Did it refer to Anglo-Saxons or just
>>Englishers in general? Did this include Britishers as well?
>>Regards
>>Anne stvens
>>Newmarket, Ont. Canada.
>
>
>http://www.lineone.net/dictionaryof/difficultwords/d0011538.html
>
>sassenach
>n. Saxon; Englishman; Lowland Scottish
>
>
>I have been called it myself much to my chagrin. It is still used
>regularly as a mild derogatory term for the English but you would not
>now usually refer to lowlanders in this way.
>
>Why did you the Beeb were referred to specifically?
>--
>Lachie Macquarie.
>Do the Habanero Reel.
>
>
>==============================
>Ancestry.com Genealogical Databases
>http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist2.asp
>Search over 2500 databases with one easy query!



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