Archived essays

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• Great music

  23 April by Ray

  A selection of musical texts and interpretaions of the very highest level of artistic inspiration. Date Composer Work/Movement_______ Artist(s) Label time Comments________________________ 1 1708 Bach Cantate BWV 106 "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit"/ Chœur Süddeutscher Madrigalchor & (...)

• "In Memoriam to William Makepeace Thackeray" - by Charles Dickens

  4 October 2015 by Charles Dickens

  William Thackeray, author of the immortal Vanity Fair, wrote a number of other highly-regarded and well-selling novels during his very successful career, notably the well-known historical blockbuster novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, Catherine (whose central character is a rather nasty female (...)

• Marcel Proust and the 4th Dimension

  10 October 2013 by Ray

  While the concept of a fourth dimension of "space-time" is generally associated with the theory of General Relativity developed by Albert Einstein between 1907 and 1915 and published in 1916, we would like to point out in ths anniversary year of the publication of the first volume of Marcel (...)

• Extracts from the Minutes of the annual Smith-McWilliam picnics (1907-1945)

  23 September 2012 by Ray

  The first Smith-McWilliam family picnic in Embro in 1907, which brought together 73 the descendants of the McWilliam and Smith pioneers who had emigrated to the West Zorra township in Ontario from Scotland between 1846 and 1853, was such a success that it became a yearly event.
  The photo and (...)

• The Maisley McWilliams in Canada family history book (1846-1939)

  12 September 2012 by Ray

  This carefully-researched booklet is a complete history of the extended "Maisley McWillam" family in Canada up until 1939.
  It contains photos, biographies, and a complete list of all of the known descendants of the five members of the McWilliam family and their Innes-Smith-Shearer-Hamilton (...)