Life in London

Scotland is home to the westernmost and northenmost points of Great Britain. The highest peak of Great Britain is at Ben Nevis in Scotland at 1344 metres.

This geographical location makes it cold, wet and windy with some of the most inhospitable terrain of the entire country.

Scots have a reputation for being a hard and often fierce race but this is not necessarily so. Indeed, with their very best export being Scotch Whiskey this must have mellowed them somewhat over the years.

However, whiskey aside, how much easier would life have been for the Scottish clans if car hire had been around as long as they had?

Just think back to King Macbeth. Reigning from 1040 to 1057, Macbeth won his seat by slaying Duncan I in battle near Elgin. During his time on the throne he went on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050. How much quicker would this have been in a car hired from Scotland instead of on horseback and boat? The pilgrimage obviously did him no favours as he was killed seven years later by Duncan’s son, Malcolm Canmore at Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire.

Maybe if Macbeth had travelled to Rome in a hired car, he would have been home sooner and in a better position to prepare himself for battle against Canmore?

The trials of Sir William Wallace would have been infinitely reduced if he had car hire Scotland available to him. Born in 1270 in Renfrewshire, West Scotland, Sir William was a firm believer in the independence of Scotland from England.

Beating the English army in 1297, Sir William was hailed a hero by the Scottish people and was given control of the government while their King was in prison in England. Unfortunately, he was defeated the following year but his crusade to keep Scotland free of British rule continued.

The demise of Sir William Wallace came about when he was captured in Glasgow in 1305 and executed in London shortly after. Maybe if he had car hire options he could have covered more ground, won more battles and escaped his enemies?

Scotland has produced many fine artists of literature in its time. Poet Robert Burns and novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott lived in the late 1700′s. Burns was born the son of a farmer and twice during his lifetime tried his hand at farming, failing dismally. His heart was in writing poetry and he excelled at this. One of his most famous pieces is Auld Lang Syne but in The Authors Earnest Cry and Prayer he sang ‘Freedom and whiskey gang thegither’.

Car hire would have been useful to Burns as his travels around Scotland took him from his birthplace in Ayrshire, South West Scotland to Edinburgh and Dumfries. With a hired car, visiting fellow artists such as Walter Scott would have proved beneficial for inspiration. However, with his love of the Scotch, maybe it wouldn’t have been such a good idea.

Sir Walter Scott overtook Robert Burns as the most popular author of his time. Maybe because he started off in Edinburgh and therefore was much more central to the larger population. When he wrote The Heart of Midlothian, is it possible that he had a visit from Robert Burns in mind when he said ‘The hour is come but not the man’? Possibly with car hire this line would never have been written.

In more recent times, Alexander Graham Bell, educationist and inventor from 1847 to 1922 is one of Scotland’s more notable exports. Studying at Edinburgh and London, Bell spent many years working with his father on their sign language system and elocution lessons. Responsible for the invention of the telephone, Bell’s life would have been easier if he had hired a car to get between Edinburgh and London instead of relying on public transport. He could also have used car hire for his visits abroad.

Bell moved to Canada in 1871 taking with him the fine reputation of the Scot’s people as being fine inventors with creative minds. Maybe it’s the extreme climate of Scotland and the fact that they have had to walk all over the difficult terrain instead of using hired cars that has hardened them to the elements and given them some of the best minds in existence.