“My knowledge on this topic is limited. My understanding is that the Gregorian calendar was introduced to sort out problems resulting from the previous calendar which was exactly 365 days long. Scotland did adopt the new calendar far earlier than England did, which caused some problems. In 1752 the Gregorian calendar was imposed by government decree on the whole of Britain. As a matter of interest certain long established seasonal customs in Scotland kept to the original dates, thus in parts of Shetland Christmas was celebrated on 6 January, while in Burghead, Moray, New Year’s Eve was celebrated on 11 January. I understand that when the new calendar was introduced to England there were riots as some folk believed that their life spans were being reduced!”

I can see you are quoting from the first edition of Heber’s book. In the last sentence of the quote, Heber states that the 11 days were omitted in September 1751… It was actually 1752 not 1751.

The 1751 error was corrected in the second edition…but I’m afraid he still maintains, quite wrongly, that there was eleven days difference between the Scottish and English calendar.

There was never 10 or 11 days difference between the Scottish and English calendar. The only difference was that from 1600 until 1752 Scotland’s New Year started approximately 3 months before England; however, from the 25th of March to the 31st December each year both countries were in complete alignment i.e. when it was the 26 of March 1701 in Scotland, it was precisely the same date in England.

Happy to discuss.

Colin