A Scots Quair (37 page)
Authors: Lewis Grassic Gibbon
FOR : THE : MEMORY : OF : CHA RLES : STRACHAN : JAMES LESLIE : ROBERT : DUNCAN EWAN : TAVENDALE : WHO WERE : OF : THIS : LAND : AND FELL : IN : THE : GREAT : WAR IN : FRANCE : REVELATION II CH : 28 VERSE
 And then, with the night waiting out by on Blawearie brae, and the sun just verging the coarse hills, the minister began to speak again, his short hair blowing in the wind that had come, his voice not decent and a kirk-like bumble, but ringing out over the loch:
FOR I WILL GIVE YOU THE MORNING STAR
In the sunset of an age and an epoch we may write that for epitaph
of the men who were of it. They went quiet and brave from the
lands they loved, though seldom of that love might they speak, it
was not in them to tell in words of the earth that moved and lived
and abided, their life and enduring love. And who knows at the
last what memories of it were with them, the springs and the win
ters of this land and all the sounds and scents of it that had once
been theirs, deep, and a passion of their blood and spirit, those
four who died in France? With them we may say there died a
thing older than themselves, these were the Last of the Peasants,
the last of the Old Scots folk. A new generation comes up that
will know them not, except as a memory in a song, they pass with
the things that seemed good to them, with loves and desires that
grow dim and alien in the days to be. It was the old Scotland that
perished then, and we may believe that never again will the old
speech and the old songs, the old curses and the old benedictions,
rise but with alien effort to our lips. The last of the peasants, those
four that you knew, took that with them to the darkness and the
quietness of the places where they sleep. And the land changes,
their parks and their steadings are a desolation where the sheep
are pastured, we are told that great machines come soon to till the
land, and the great herds come to feed on it, the crofter is gone,
the man with the house and the steading of his own and the land
closer to his heart than the flesh of his body. Nothing, it has been
said, is true but change, nothing abides, and here in Kinraddie
where we watch the building of those little prides and those little
fortunes on the ruins of the little farms we must give heed that these
also do not abide, that a new spirit shall come to the land with
the greater herd and the great machines. For greed of place and
possession and great estate those four had little heed, the kindness
of friends and the warmth of toil and the peace of restâthey asked
no more from God or man, and no less would they endure. So,
lest we shame them, let us believe that the new oppressions and
foolish greeds are no more than mists that pass. They died for a
world that is past, these men, but they did not die for this that
we seem to inherit. Beyond it and us there shines a greater hope
and a newer world, undreamt when these four died. But need we
doubt which side the battle they would range themselves did they
live to-day, need we doubt the answer they cry to us even now,
the four of them, from the places of the sunset?
And then, as folk stood dumbfounded, this was just sheer politics, plain what he meant, the Highlandman McIvor tuned up his pipes and began to step slow round the stone circle by Blawearie Loch, slow and quiet, and folk watched him, the dark was near, it lifted your hair and was eerie and uncanny, the
Flowers of the Forest
as he played it:
It rose and rose and wept and cried, that crying for the men that fell in battle, and there was Kirsty Strachan weeping quietly and others with her, and the young ploughmen they stood with glum, white faces, they'd no understanding or caring, it was something that vexed and tore at them, it belonged to times they had no knowing of.
He fair could play, the piper, he tore at your heart marching
there with the tune leaping up the moor and echoing across the loch, folk said that Chris Tavendale alone shed never a tear, she stood quiet, holding her boy by the hand, looking down on Blawearie's fields till the playing was over. And syne folk saw that the dark had come and began to stream down the hill, leaving her there, some were uncertain and looked them back. But they saw the minister was standing behind her, waiting for her, they'd the last of the light with them up there, and maybe they didn't need it or heed it, you can do without the day if you've a lamp quiet-lighted and kind in your heart.
ogs =
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland
,
ed. F. H. Groome (Edinburgh 1901)
snd =
Scottish National Dictionary
,
ed. William Grant and David Murison.
(Edinburgh 1931-76)
p. 1
Cospatric de Gondeshil
. The name âCospatric' (the boy or servant of Patrick) is not Norman but a mixture of French, Celtic, and Latin.
William the Lyon
. King of Scotland, 1165-1214.
Aberlemno's Meikle Stane
. A six-foot high carved standing stone in Aberlemno churchyard, six miles ne. of Forfar. One side depicts a battle in which both horse and foot are engaged. Malcolm 11 (1005â34) commanded the victorious âPicts'.
p.2
Mondynes
. About one mile sw of Drumlithie, for which see below. Duncan 11, son of Malcolm Canmore, was defeated and slain there in 1094 by his uncles, Donald Bain and Edmund.
Dunnottar Castle
. A magnificent ruined coastal fortress about one mile se of Stonehaven. See below, pp. 126-8.
p.3
Aberbrothock
. Arbroath,17 miles ne of Dundee.
First Reformation
. That associated with John Knox and George Wishart, c. 1560.
others:
the high points of Calvinist history in the seventeenth century, viz. the National Covenant (1638), the Presbyterian ascendancy in the 1640s, and the resistance of the Covenanters against episcopalian conformity in Charles II's reign.
Whiggam!:
Gibbon makes this the battle-cry of the Covenanters. For a full explanation, see snd under âwhigga- more' (a colloquial term in the seventeeth century for a Presbyterian zealot).
Dutch William
. William III (of Orange), who was invited to be King of England and Scotland in 1688 in order to ensure the Protestant ascendancy.
p.3
James Îoswell
. The Greek letters spell out âPeggi Dundas was fat in the buttocks and I did lie with her'. Boswell, who is today almost as well known for his uninhibited journals as for his
Life of Samuel Johnson
, recorded on 28 August 1776, in Greek letters, as here, that he âmadly ventured to lye with' a prostitute called âPeggi Dundas' on the north brae of the Castle Hill, Edinburgh. Boswell's journal for 1776 was first printed privately in 1931, in an edition limited to 570 sets, a year before the publication of
Sunset Song
. Perhaps Gibbon read it in the British Museum.
p.4
The Auld Kirk
. The Established Church of Scotland.
Jacobin
. A supporter of the more extreme French revolutionaries.
p.5
black blood
. She had a hereditary mental instability.
p.7
the Turra Coo
. The National Insurance Act of 1911 had introduced unemployment insurance for certain trades, financed in part by weekly contributions from the employer. A certain Paterson of Lendrum, near Turriff (âTurra'), Aberdeenshire, refused on principle to buy insurance stamps for his men; when one of his cows was impounded, it was bought back by well-wishers and led home adorned with garlands and ribbons.
p.9
Drumlithie
. Village seven miles sw of Stonehaven.
Arbuthnott
. Kincardineshire rural parish in whose churchyard Leslie Mitchell's ashes are interred, and on which the fictitious âKinraddie' is largely based.
Laurencekirk
. A market town which lies along the main road between Aberdeen and Perth and more or less equidistant between Stonehaven and Brechin.
Peesie's Knapp
. âLapwing's Hillock'.
p. 13
Druid stones
. Most standing stones probably antedate the Celtic Druids.
Stonehaven
. At the period of the action, a seaport and the county town of Kincardineshireââthe capital of the Mearns', 16 miles sw of Aberdeen.
Auchenblae
. Market village five miles n of Laurencekirk.
p.17
Calgacus
. Caledonian chieftain, commander of the tribes defeated at Mons Graupius by Agricola in 84 ad.
p.18.
Ingersoll
. For comic effect, Gibbon has run together Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-99), colonel in the American Civil War and noted propagandist for agnosticism, and Robert Hawley Ingersoll (1859-1928) who in 1892 introduced the one-dollar watch, âthe watch that made the dollar famous'.
p.19
He'd whistle
. The first two pieces are folk songs, but English; for
The Lass that made the bed
, see the notes to p. 163 below.
p.21
Glenbervie
. The Kincardineshire parish which contains Drumlithie village.
p.22
Weeee ⦠Beastie
. The first line of Burns's
To a Mouse
.
p.24
kailyard ⦠green shutters
. Not a âdespicable literary in- joke', as one critic has called it, but a conscious craftsman's pointer to his intentions. In
Beside the Bonnie Brier
Bush
(1894) âIan Maclaren' (the Rev. John Watson) produced the archetypal sentimental novel of the âkailyard' (cabbage patch) school of Scottish fiction. George Douglas Brown's
The House with the Green Shutters
(1901) rendered the sombre meannesses of Scottish small-town life in the spirit of Zola's naturalism. To the Rev. Gibbon, Kinraddie echoed both imaginative worlds.
p.26
The Howe
. âThe Howe [vale] of the Mearns', the name given to that part of the great valley of Strathmore contained in Kincardineshire.
Prince of Wales
. In 1911, George v's son, the future Edward VIII.
p.27
The Barmekin
. A conical hill (800 ft) near the Aberdeenshire village of Echt.
Kildrummie
. A hamlet and parish on Donside, W central Aberdeenshire, with a notable ruined castle.
Pittodrie
. Perhaps the estate in Chapel of Garioch parish, Aberdeenshire.
p.31
Rienzi, the last of the Roman Tribunes
(1835), by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.
The Humours of Scottish Life
(1904), a collection of anecdotes by the Rev. John Gillespie, minister of Mouswald, Dumfriesshire. Many of them are rather ponderous jokes about ministers, elders, and church beadles.
p.33
Wallace
. Sir William Wallace (?1270-1305), guerilla fighter and Scottish Independence leader, was executed in 1305 and different parts of his body were gibbeted at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berwick, Stirling and Perth.
Bannockburn
. Robert Bruce's decisive victory against Edward 11 of England, 1314.
Flodden
. James iv's disastrous defeat in 1513 by the forces of Henry VIII of England, commanded by the Earl of Surrey.
The Flowers of the Forest
. See below, pp.163 and 257.
Mrs. Hemans
. Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793-1835), a writer of sentimental and patriotic verses popular through-
p.33 out the nineteenth century. Her best known piece is
Casa-
bianca
(âThe boy stood on the burning deck').
p.36
The Slug road
. Runs from near Banchory on Deeside to Stonehaven, climbs to a height of 757 feet, and is often snow-bound in winter.
p.39
Pytheas
. Greek navigator and geographer of the fourth century bc who circumnavigated the British Isles and described âThule', six days' sail to the north of Britain.
p.42
Kinneff
. A hamlet eight miles s of Stonehaven.
p.43
Duncairn
. A made-up name, in
Grey Granite
used of a city with many of Aberdeen's characteristics. Here the school has some of the features of Mackie Academy, Stonehaven.
p.50
Bonny wee thing
. The singer probably learnt this Burns song orally, not from print. He has changed Burns's âcanie' into âcanty', and âwear' into âclasp'.
p. 54
Song of Solomon
. Theologians made this Hebrew love song into an allegory of the Church described in terms of a woman's physical beauty.
p.55
Gourdon
. A coastal village in Bervie parish. At the turn of the century grain was shipped from the harbour, there was âan extensive fishing and fish-curing industry', and it had a boat-building yard (OGS).
p.59
Mucker
. From the portion of a draft typescript of
Sunset
Song
in the National Library of Scotland it seems clear that Gibbon intended âBugger' for every occurrence of the word. This is confirmed by the gloss he supplied for the American edition:
Mucker
. A euphemism for “bugger”;i.e.,a Bulgarian heretic; i.e., suspected of nauseous practices.'
Religio Medici
. A whimsical and erudite masterpiece of baroque prose by Sir Thomas Browne (?1605-82), physician, of Norwich, which would inevitably bore a person as young as Chris.
p.61
Aberdeen University
. The first degree there was m.a. not b.a.
p.82
Nebuchadnezzar
. This king of Babylon âwas driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws' (Daniel iv.33).
p.96 The Liberal âPeople's Budget' of 1909 taxed the wealthy to pay for a non-contributory pensions scheme and other social measures. It was passed by the Commons, rejected by the Lords, and finally passed in 1910 when the government threatened to create enough new peers to give it a majority in the Upper House. A consequence was the Parliament Act of 1911, which removed the Lords' right of veto except on
p.96 bills to extend the life of Parliament. For âInsurance', see note on p.7 above.
p.102
Up in the Morning
. Like âBonny wee Thing', this song helps to bring Burns subtly into the texture of the novel. Chae Strachan sings it at Chris's wedding (below p. 164).
p. 108
Old Testament times
. Lot's daughters lay with their father and bore his sons, but the initiative came from them, not Lot (Genesis xix.30-38). Thus Guthrie twists scripture to justify his lust.
p. 119
Brechin
. In e Forfarshire, and by courtesy a âcity' because of its cathedral. The âPictish Tower', attached to the sw angle of the cathedral, is round, and almost 90 feet high; it may date from the late tenth century (ogs). ÏανÏα ϱει âEverything flows on' (Heraclitus of Ephesus, c.500 bc, Greek philosopher).
p. 126
Rev
: XI
Ch
: 12
Verse
. âAnd to the angel of the Church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges'.
p. 163
The Lass that Made the Bed
. Another Burns song, whose imagery is linked to the Song of Solomon, so popular with the Rev. Gibbon. Ellison's first English song carries on from the Song of Solomon's imagery of cheeks, lilies, etc.
p. 164
Villikins and his Dinah
. A comic treatment of the old folk theme of unfortunate lovers who commit suicide, much sung in Victorian theatres and music halls.
The Bonnie House o' Airlie
. A traditional ballad about how âgley'd Argyll' (Montrose's opponent in the seventeenth century) burnt and plundered the Lady Ogilvy's house when her husband was from home.
Auld Robin Gray
. Originally an art song, by Lady Anne Barnard (1750-1825).
p. 165
The Flowers of the Forest
. A ânational', not a âfolk' song. The words are by Jean Elliot (1727-1805), sister of David Hume's great friend, Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto. âThe Forest' is Ettrick Forest.
p.173
Thomas the Rhymour
. Thomas of Ercildoune (Earlston, in Berwickshire) hero of the ballad âThomas the Rhymer', a seer and poet of the fourteenth century, to whom many prophetic rhymes and sayings were attributed. Gibbon catches their tone exactly.
Edzell Castle
. Formerly a seat of the Lindsays, in Glenesk. The walls of the original flower garden are decorated with bas-reliefs of the virtues, sciences, planets, etc.
Ρ.195
a jade called Jael
. See Judges iv. 17â22.
p.208
Conscription
Act
. The Military Service Act of January 1916.
p.231
Ladies of Spain, There was a Young Farmer
: folk songs, but not especially Scottish; indeed the first, which is almost Rob's âsignature tune', is a shanty about sailors returning to âold England'.
A
'
the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border
. A ânational', not a âfolk' song. The words are by Sir Walter Scott, from chapter 25 of
The Monastery
.
Tipperary, Long, Long Trail
: popular songs of 1912 and 1917 respectively.
p.239
Verey lights
. Coloured flares projected from a pistol for signalling or to light up part of a battlefield. The inventor's name is spelt âVery'.
p.245
Uhlans
. Originally Polish, later German, cavalrymen armed with lances and wearing distinctive uniforms.
p.251
They have made a desert ⦠peace
. These words go back to the Roman historian Tacitus (?55-117 ad), who puts them in the mouth of Calgacus, so potent a symbol in this novel.
p.255
Revelation
: 11 Ch: 28
Verse
. See the inscription to the Covenanters in Dunnottar Castle, from Revelation xi, above, note to p. 126. Revelation ii.28 actually reads âAnd I will give
him
the morning star', and is preceded by verses (26, 27) whose spirit is not elegiac but militant, looking forward to the positives of
Grey Granite
: âAnd he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: / And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father'.
