It never ceases to amaze me how many folks whose grasp of history is poor or in some cases based on the "dramas" penned by the Bard of Avon, are prepared to make their prejudices known. For example last year in our local evening newspaper, one of the regular columnists had an item about Macbeth. In it he was described (and I quote) as a "power-crazed megalomanic nutter" and consumed by his own ambition and comparable to Adolf Hitler in those aspects. I dropped a letter explaining the true facts and I fully expected a host of replies from Scottish folks in support. Mine was the only one published. Not surprising I suppose as many people have no time for such things as history and I have met some who think "Bannockburn" was some thing one did with a cake; the "Yellow Ford" was the latest model car and "Hastings" a character in an Agatha Christie novel.