in a parallel universe

300 or so years ago Dumfries was concerned as much with its relationship with the tobacco plantations of North America as it was with Carlisle or Glasgow - so much so that a town in Virginia is named for the Queen of the South:

From the Globe Inn website: 'Dumfries in Burns' time was economically, and socially, more significant than it is today; in 1752 it was described as the 'Scottish Liverpool' with more American tobacco trade than Glasgow. Its importance as a west coast port was emphasized by the fact that an estimated 21,000 people from all over Scotland, more than the town's own population, emigrated through Dumfries in 1851 to the United States, Australia and New Zealand'

Occasionally news from the other Dumfries pops into the Commonty inbox....today:

African American cemetery discovered
The Weems-Botts Museum in Dumfries has a report from an archeological investigation that of a nearby African American cemetery, recently located behind Dumfries Elementary School. The cemetery was not found until school officials explored the possibility of expanding the parking lot there, said Prince William and Manassas, Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Jennifer Buske.

(Now that would be a headline in the Dumfries Standard worth reading....only question would be how they could turn the story into a waste of public money...)

posted by MB