I Believe That
Fortunately there was a mapboard at the top of the hill that let us know what we were looking at. This tiny island in the middle of the Firth has a long history. It reminds me of Alcatraz Island, but a prison is about the only thing it hasn't been in the past. It has been a quarantine area for syphillis patients, a fort, a depot, a lighthouse and a French base. Most interesting of all, at one time King James IV directed in 1493 that a dumb Woman and two infants be transported to the island, in order to ascertain which language the infants would grow up to speak isolated from the rest of the world. It was thought they'd speak a pure tongue directed from God. Instead, the children never spoke. Duh.
Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the ear... ... read more 
