On July 1 1803 Rev Thomas Guthrie, founder of the Ragged Schools, was born.

After founding a savings bank at his first parish in Angus, Guthrie, shocked by the poverty surrounding his new charge in Edinburgh's old town, founded a "Ragged School", a privately funded school intended to give the poor a good education on Protestant lines. This model was succesfully copied across the country and provided the basis for the state industrial schools. Guthrie was also active during the Disruption, becoming a leading light in the new Free Church and serving as its moderator in 1862.

On July 12th 1698 a small fleet of five ships set out for the Isthmus of Darien in Panama carrying Scotland's hopes of founding a new empire on board.

The driving force behind the expedition was William Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England. The expedition arrived on 30th October 1698 and the first act of the pioneers was to bury those among them who had died en route. Within seven months of their arrival a third of the 1200 who had travelled were dead and the consensus among those left was to abandon the venture.

Today's recipe: TV presenter Hardeep Singh Kohli's aromatic oxtail curry.