[Mike]

The 28 August 1640 saw the Battle of Newburn on Tyne. The battle was fought between Leslie's veteran Scottish army and a hastily assembled English force. The Scots had invaded northern England in response to the attempts of Charles I to impose an Anglican prayer book upon Scotland. The Scots bypassed the garrisoned towns of Newcastle and Berwick, instead intending to cross the Tyne at Newburn. The English chose not to defend from high ground and were decimated by Scottish gunfire until they fled the battlefield, leaving the Scots free to advance as far south as York.

On 28 August 1902 George Douglas, the Scottish novelist, died. Douglas wrote mostly under the penname of George Dougles Brown. His most successful work was 'The House with the Green Shutters' a tale of the pettiness of rural life in Victorian Scotland. Douglas is noted for his move away from the Kailyard style which was dominant in the Scottish literary scene at that time.