DATES IN
HISTORY
28 September
1864
Birth of Charles Murray, ‘Hamewith’, engineer and poet, at Alford,
Aberdeenshire. He emigrated to South Africa in 1888 and began writing
poetry, mostly in the East coast dialect of Scots, which was noted for its
perceptive and evocative portrayal of Aberdeenshire life at the turn of the
century. This was reflected in his best known poem ‘The Whistle’. He
returned to Scotland in 1924 and settled in Banchory, Kincardineshire, where
he died in 1941.
29
September 1589
The court of James VI, King of Scots, was stunned by the death of Jane
Kennedy, Lady Melville, who was drowned when a ferry sank in the Forth. She
had attended Mary Queen of Scots on the scaffold at Fotheringay Castle,
England, in 1587.
29 September
1891
Three painters were killed when scaffolding collapsed on the Forth Railway
Bridge which had opened for traffic in 1890.
29 September
2006
The Royal Navy’s biggest warship HMS Ark Royal sailed from the Forth for sea
trials after a comprehensive £25 million refit to transform her into the
service’s only combined troop and aircraft carrier. The upgrade was carried
out at Babcock’s shipyard at Rosyth, Fife.
30 September
1928
Discovery of penicillin by Ayrshire-born Sir Alexander Fleming was
announced. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.
30 September
1944
Birth of Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, Celtic and Scotland (23 caps), at Viewpark,
Bothwell. One of the ‘Lisbon Lions’ he won a European Cup winners medal with
Celtic in 1967.
1
October 2006
A memorial cairn to Scotland’s last veteran of the First World War, Alfred
Anderson, who died aged 109, was unveiled in his home town of Alyth,
Perthshire, by the Duke of Rothesay. Alfred Anderson joined the Black Watch,
aged 16, and saw action in the trenches in France before being invalided out
in 1916 with serious shrapnel wounds. His medals, including the French
Legion d’Honneur, are displayed at the Black Watch Museum, Perth.
4 October 1694
Birth of Lord George Murray, son of John Murray, 1st Duke of
Atholl, at Blair Castle. The leading commander of the 1745 Jacobite army he
was also out in both the 1715 and 1719 Risings. Following the Jacobite
defeat at Culloden he escaped to France.
4 October 2006
Pupils from a Glasgow school, All Saints Secondary School, handed in the
1,000th petition to the Scottish Parliament. The pupils called
for an inquiry into the public health impact of cheap alcohol.
4 October 2006
In a surprise move Colin Boyd QC, Lord Boyd of Duncansby, resigned as Lord
Advocate. He denied that his decision was because of the Crown Office
problems over the Shirley McKie fingerprint case.
See Dates in History in our
Features Section
SCOTTISH QUOTATIONS
I like to have quotations ready for every occasions - they
give one's ideas so pat and save one the trouble of finding
expression adequate to one's feeling.
Robert Burns
Statements in prose and verse which reflect
all aspects of Scottish life and outlook from the 1st century to the present day.
New
quotes added every week. The
quotations are not restricted to native Scots but include observations
from abroad which help us, in the words of our National Bard, Robert
Burns, "To see oursels as others see us"
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This week starts a wee series concerning the core of Scottish life
over the centuries – Law, Education and Religion. The first
quotation is from our National Bard who has a dig at two out of the
three! He composed the cantata ‘The Jolly Beggars’ at Mossgiel in
1785 and in a letter to George Thomson concerning the cantata in
September 1793 Robert Burns stated – “however, I remember that none
of the songs pleased myself, except the last, something about
‘Courts for cowards were erected, churches to please the
priests.’”
In
spite of the poet’s comment the cantata is well worth seeing and
deserves to be performed more widely. I first saw it performed at a
Scots Language Society Annual Collogue in Aberdeen some twenty years
ago.
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Robert Burns
(1759-1796)
A fig for
those by law protected!
Liberty’s a glorious feast,
Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priest!
(The Jolly
Beggars ‘Love and Liberty’ 1785)
Sir Nicholas
Hardwick Fairbairn (1933-1995)
Before the
Reformation, colour and music and splendid robes were part of the law of
Scotland and Scottish court and church … until recent times, the
ministers of the Church of Scotland wore black and colour was not to be
seen in the kirks. Music was absent, except for the stilted chant of the
metrical psalms, and drink was, of course, a demon of the Devil.
(The Scotsman
24 May 1984)
Sir Patrick
Geddes (1854-1973)
Education
is not merely by and for the sake of thought, it is in a still higher
degree by and for the sake of action. Just as the man of science must
think and experiment alternately, so too must artist, author and scholar
alternate creation or study with participation in the life around them.
For it is only by thinking things out as one lives them, and living
things out as one thinks them, that a man or society can really be said
to think or even live at all.
(Lecture 1895)
Alexander
Sutherland (AS) Neill (1883-1973)
I taught
in a system that depended on the tawse, as we called the belt in
Scotland. My father used it and I followed suit, without ever thinking
about the rights and wrongs of it – until the day when I myself as a
headmaster, belted a boy for insolence. A new, sudden thought came to
me. Why am I hitting someone not my own size? I put my tawse in the fire
and never hit a child again.
(Neill! Neill!
Orange Peel! 1973)
Dame Muriel
Sarah Spark (1918-2006)
To me,
education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.
(The Prime of
Miss Jean Brodie 1961)
See
Scottish Quotations in our Features Section
SONGS AND BALLADS
from The Blairgowrie Festival - 1968
Twenty-one Scottish songs, as sung by a variety of traditional singers at
the Blairgowrie Festival in August 1968 and published by The Traditional
Music and Song Association of Scotland, priced 1/- (5p).
THE
LANG TAILED SARK
Traditional as sung by Dave Marshall
Noo ma
story tells ye o’ a lad och I’ll jist ca’ him Wull
He drives the orra baister on the Mains o’ Pyker’s hull
For a cheerier lad ye’ll never see jist something like masel’
Until ae nicht when he got fu bad luck him befell
Noo
this bad luck it taen the form o’ big fat Jeannie Bell
O’er thirteen stane o’ muscle an’ bane three times as big’s masel’
Noo when Wull wis fu she taen her chance an’ she got aff her mark
For she dragged him tae the register wi’ the lang tale o’ his sark
Noo
beside his spouse our brave Wull stood the sweat fae him did rise
For his bonnet it wis ticht tae reach the hicht o’ Jeannie’s stays
Noo Wull began tae sober up jist tae see what was in store
For he chanced anither look at her an’ he hurled rich toot the door
Noo
the mannie wi’ the Bible glowered he thocht this unco queer
For stannin’ like the Law hull oor Jeannie didna steer
Noo Wull he wisna lookin’ back for he never made the stair
For she clappit her fit and nailed him wi’ the sark tail tae the
flair
Noo
Wull complains in bed at nicht he doesnae get his share
His sleep is oft times broken when he gangs dunt on the flair
“Get up ye feil an’ mak some tea” ye’ll hear his guidwife bark
It’s a lauch tae see Wull makin’ tea dressed in his lang tailed sark
Noo
the grieve he says tae Wull each morn “Hoo is it ye’re late for wark”
Oh Wull he said “The wife wis lyin’ on the lang tail o’ ma sark”
“Look here ma man o’ that’s nae use jist try this for a lark
An’ slip intae yer bed the nicht with oot yer lang tailed sark”
Noo
you should see Wull’s family noo each een is sax foot three
Oh five big strappin’ dochters an’ sons oor Wull hae three
Noo Jeannie says “Look here ma man yer bite’s worse than yer bark
For I think the time has come for you tae wear yer lang tailed sark”
Flagnote:
I suspect with the reference to The Law in Dundee that this song comes from
either the city or surrounding area.
See the
SONGS AND
BALLADS in our
Features section
SCOTTISH FOOD, TRADITIONS
AND CUSTOMS
This
month saw the 500th anniversary (15 September 1507) of the
granting
of a patent by James IV, King of Scots, to Androw Myllar and Walter
Chepman authorising them to set up a printing press in Edinburgh – the
first in Scotland. The earliest known output from their press – ‘The
Complaint of the Black Knight – is dated 4 April 1508. The National
Library of Scotland and the Scottish Printing Archival Trust is jointly
promoting the 500th anniversary of this publication in 2008.
Please visit
www.500yearsofprinting.org for details of the preparation of many
events which will be held throughout Scotland to celebrate this historic
publication.
The printed word has
played a long history in Scotland with the establishment of many leading
publishers. Writers such as literary figures from the past Robert Burns,
Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson down to present day writers
such as William McIllvaney and Ian Rankin have provided us with a wealth
of reading material. Book reading continues to play a prominent part in
Scottish life with Book Festivals proving to very popular. The largest
such festival is the August Edinburgh Book Festival but the second
largest takes place in the much smaller burgh of Wigtown. Now in its 9th
year the Wigtown Festival takes place in Scotland’s officially
recognised National Book Town from
today
Friday 28 September to Sunday 7 October 2007. Tonight the Opening
Address will be given by Northern Ireland’s First Minister Rev Ian
Paisley in the Wigtown Festival Marquee. The First Minister and a host
of Irish writers will reflect this year’s festival theme of peace in
Northern Ireland. Visit
www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk for full details of this popular
festival.
Wigtown was chosen in
1997 as Scotland’s National Book Town from a leet which included
Dalmellington, Dunblane, Gatehouse-of-Fleet, Moffat, Strathaven and the
winning town, Wigtown, a royal burgh from at least 1292 now houses some
thirty book related businesses with new and second-hand books galore.
Wigtown
was the county town of Wigtownshire which before local government
reorganisation formed the extreme south-west corner of Scotland with a
coastline of 120 miles. But this week’s recipe – Pot Roast of Lamb –
looks to the rural area of the county, which was most famous for dairy
farming, but like the all areas of Scotland had its share of sheep.
Pot Roast of Lamb
Ingredients: 2
lbs neck end lamb, trimmed and cut into bite sized chunks; 2 tbs olive
oil; 2 large onions, chopped; 1 clove of garlic, chopped; 1 tin of
tomatoes; 1 lb flour; 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary; 1 tin of haricot
beans; vegetable stock; salt and pepper
Method: Put half
the flour into a plastic bag with the salt and pepper, and add the lamb,
shaking until each piece is well coated. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil until
smoking, then add the lamb in small batches, making sure each piece has
been well browned. Remove the lamb, add more olive oil, then fry the
onions and garlic, add the rest of the flour, making sure it has
absorbed all the oil. Stir in the stock gradually, making sure the
mixture is smooth and free of lumps. Add the tomatoes and bring back to
a simmer, then add the lamb and haricot beans. Cook in a covered
casserole at 150 degrees for two to three hours. Serve with new potatoes
and peas
A KIST
O FERLIES
A Keek
at the Guid Scots Tung
By Peter & Marilyn Wright
(Note: All words
underlined in this section are RealAudio links)
ben: inner part of
house; in; inside; into; through; within
jouk: to duck; elude;
side step; swerve
waur: defeat; worst;
parry
The mitherless bairn gangs till his lane bed,
Nane covers his cauld back, or haps his bare head;
His wee hackit heelies are hard as the airn,
An' litheless the lair o' the mitherless!
COMPLETE POEM
This week sees the 143rd anniversary of the birth of Alford poet
Charles Murray (28 September 1864) whose best known poem ‘The Whistle is
featured this week. Many, many years ago I recited this poem at a St Comb’s
Primary School Concert, much to my Granda’s enjoyment as Charles Murray was
his favourite poet.
The
Whistle
By Charles Murray
Read by Peter Wright
Listen
to this poem in Real Audio here!
He cut a sappy sucker from the muckle rodden-tree,
He
trimmed it, an' he wet it, an' he thumped it on his knee ;
He
never heard the teuchat when the harrow broke her eggs,
He
missed the craggit heron nabbin' puddocks in the seggs,
He
forgot to hound the collie at the cattle when they strayed,
But you should hae seen the whistle that the wee herd made !
He
wheepled on't at mornin' an' he tweetled on't at nicht'
He
puffed his freckled cheeks until his nose sank oot o' sicht,
The kye were late for milkin' when he piped them up the closs,
The kitlin's got his supper syne, an' he was beddit boss ;
But he cared na doit nor docken what they did or thocht or said,
There was comfort in the whistle that the wee herd made.
For lyin' lang o' mornin's he had clawed the caup for weeks,
But noo he had his bonnet on afore the lave had breeks ;
He
was whistlin' to the porridge that were hott'rin on the fire,
He
was whistlin' ower the travise to the baillie in the byre ;
Nae a blackbird nor a mavis, that hae pipin' for their trade,
Was a marrow for the whistle that the wee herd made.
He
played a march to battle, it cam' dirlin' through the mist,
Till the halflin squared his shou'ders an' made up his mind to 'list ;
He
tried a spring for wooers, though he wistna what it meant,
But the kitchen-lass was lauchin' an' he thocht she maybe kent ;
He
got ream an' buttered bannocks for the lovin' lilt he played.
Wasna that a cheery whistle that the wee herd made ?
He
blew them rants sae lively, schottisches, reels, an' jigs,
The foalie flang his muckle legs an' capered ower the rigs,
The grey-tailed futt'rat bobbit oot to hear his ain strathspey,
The bawd cam' loupin' through the corn to "Clean Pease Strae" ;
The feet o' ilka man an' beast gat youkie when he played -
Hae ye ever heard o' whistle like the wee herd made ?
But the snaw it stopped the herdin' an' the winter brocht him dool,
When in spite o' hacks an' chilblains he was shod again for school ;
He
couldna sough the catechis nor pipe the rule o' three,
He
was keepit in an' lickit when the ither loons got free ;
But he aften played the truant - 'twas the only thing he played,
For the maister brunt the whistle that the wee herd made !
Gordon
Wright’s Scottish Photo
Library