Tuesday 26 October 2010

Geographical fun


I've left the scan of this very unusual card quite large so that you can see the details for yourselves.  The words at the bottom say:
A gallent piper struggling through the bogs
His windbag broken, wearing his clay clogs,
Yet strong of heart, a fitting emblem makes
For Scotland - land of heroes and of cakes.
I had no idea what all this was about until I looked up that rhyme.  The illustration is one of a series entitled Geographical fun: Humorous outlines of various countries first published in 1869 by Hodder and Stoughton, as an educational tool.

This reproduction came to me all the way from Brazil.  On the other side the title has changed a little to "Humorous Maps of Serious Countries".  I don't know if somebody somewhere thought somebody somewhere else would be offended.  The rest of the reverse reads:
Scotland
The gallant piper representing Scotland plays an instrument strongly identified with the Scots, but in fact it originated in the Middle East; a bagpipe appears on a Hittite monument dating to 1000 BC.
Aleph (William Harvey) 1796-1873.
The website, The Map House, has more information on this series
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6 comments:

  1. Hi Sheila, thanks for stopping by my blog. I too was more interested in the container operation that most of the other stuff. What amazed me was the very tall lifts that actually straddled the trailers and lifted the trailer up into itself. The operator was located high at the top right corner and had 4 wheels on each side and was able to lift the trailer up high enough to position it 3 high as it drove down the row straddling all the trailers in the row. He would deposit it either on the ground or in 2nd or 3rd high and continue out the end of the row to get another one. I drive a fork lift at work sometimes so it really caught my attention. Thanks again for stopping by.
    Odie

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  2. the note makes me ponder..very interesting postcard!

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  3. I like it. Hittites, huh? Weren't they smited in the Bible? Seems like. Well, I would too if they were blowing on bagpipes. :)

    Smote? Smutted?

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  4. So neat! I'd love to have a copy of this to share with my Scottish relatives and friends at the local highland games. Looks like I have some hunting to do. haha

    (The series on the linked page are all fun too. I only wish there were more!)

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  5. Great postcards that you find.

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  6. What a beautiful and interesting card!

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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