HIC JACET ADAMUS FLEMENG
I think that will do.
“J’ai seulement fait ici un amas de fleurs étrangères, n’y ayant fourni du mien que le filet à les lier.”
I conclude with Montaigne, then lean forward to wipe my breath from the glass. Clouds slide over the hill, more come into view. The trees above the North Esk have begun their greening, the sycamore’s black buds are sticky to the touch. Drummond and his eldest lass walk by the river, deep in conversation as he tries to persuade her to the match he desires. Plus ça change, eh? The packman left this morning with food in his belly, hitching on his load again, a man condemned to be his own horse as he struggles down the yew alley to his next call.
Though I had but minor part in the events I have scrieved, those days made and unmade me. The rest has been one long post scriptum. My job here is done, and so am I. “I have gathered a garland of other men’s flowers, and nothing is mine but the cord that binds them.”
When folk cry Helen Irvine fair, I think it was not for any by-ordinar beauty of form, face or limb, but on account of something they had glimpsed within her, of which she was but the bearer, and it cost her dear.
As for my friends and foes and loves among the reivers, they too have passed from life to ballad, from flesh to sculpture. No matter how much I have insisted they were but human, they have become golden and outsize, as though their living forms and faces were remade in clay then dipped in layers of bronze.
The feather that once scratched out a mind’s wind flutters down, is still.
H.L.
SCOTS GUIDE
aa’ all
agin against
agley askew
ahint behind
aince once
aircock weathercock
airt direction, as of wind
alane alone
amang among
anither another
ashet large plate
atween between
awa away
awfy awful/ly, very
aye ever and yes
bairn child
birl turn, whirl
bonnie pretty, fine
bougie candle
brig bridge
brither brother
bruck rubbish, mess
bunnet bonnet
by-ordinar unusual, extraordinary
ca’ canny be cautious, go careful
callant lad
canna can’t
canny careful/ly, shrewd/ly
carefu’ carefilled
chanty pot chamber pot
clart dirt, muck
clash chatter
cleuch ravine, gorge
clype on inform on
coory, cooried snuggle, embrace
cott cottage, cot
creusie lamp simple oil lamp
cry call, name
dae do
daftie fool, idiot
daunder stroll
the Deil the Devil
deleerit crazed
dene vale
didna, dinna, disna didn’t, don’t, doesn’t
dirl pierce
dominie schoolteacher
doolie melancholy
doos doves
doo-cot dovecote
dowie melancholy, miserable
dreich grim, severe
dumfounert dumbfounded
dwam trance, day-dream
een eyes
Embra Edinburgh
fecht, fechter fight, fighter
feckful, feckfu’ powerful
flyting formalised contest of insults, ideally in verse
feir friend, trusted companion
foreby as well as, additionally
forky golach earwig
fou drunk
gey very
gie give
gill ravine
gin if, would
glaur mud
glisk quick glance
gowk cuckoo, fool
greit cry tears, grieve
grue shiver
guid good
haar mist
hail whole
hairm, hairmless harm, harmless
hairst harvest
hame home
hap gather, cover
haud hold
heidsman clan or family leader
heid yin boss, leader
heuch quarry, cliff
Hieland Highland
hirple hobble, limp
hot-trod legitimized hot pursuit
houghmagandie sexual shenanigans
in-by entrance
isna isn’t
jack long jacket, usually reinforced
jalouse suspect, intuit
jouk jerk, dodge
keek peep, glance
ken, kenning, kenned know/ing, knew
knowe knoll
kye oxen, cattle
the Lallans Lowlands, incl. Language of
lang syne old times
lave those left, the rest
laverock lark
lichtsome/ness light-hearted/ness
loup leap, jump, bound
lug ear
makar maker, poet
maun must
morn tomorrow, morning, e.g. “the morn’s morn”
muckle large
muir moor
nane none
neb nose
neuk nook, corner
no not
Peel Tower fortified tower with signal-fire
pend covered archway or passageway
quine female, woman
rammie fight, brawl
reeshle rustle
reiver robber, rustler, especially of livestock
saft soft
sair sore
scunnered fed up with, loathing
shoogling shaking
sic such
siccar safe, reliable, certain
skeely skilful
skelly squint
skite dash, hurry
sleekit crafty
sma small
smeddum spirit
smoor smother
snell sharp, biting, as in wind
sonsie plump, hearty
sough sigh, bearing
speir ask, enquire
spey-wife female fortune-teller
sprush spruce, smart
stookie statue, scarecrow
stramash upheaval, brawl
stravaig wander
stushie disturbance, fracas, fuss
thegither together
thirl subject, bind, enslave
thocht thought
thole endure
thrapple throat
thrawn crooked, contrary
trod road, track
tummle tumult
twa-three a few
unco unusual, exceedingly
wabbit very tired, exhausted
wanchancy unlucky, ill-fated
watergaw rainbow
wean child
whaup curlew
wheen small amount, several
whilie short while
wi’ with
wynd alley
yersel yourself
yestreen yesterday evening
yowes ewes
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to John Wallace of Kirtlebridge for first drawing my attention to the Border Ballad “Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lea.” His walking tour of the principal sites and peel towers, filling me in on the history and families, made it real. His guidance, sense of personal connection, introductions and enthusiasm have been invaluable. Many thanks also to Alastair Moffat, font of Borders history, especially on the matter of horses. This book draws on his The Reivers, also on The Steel Bonnets by George MacDonald Fraser.
Andrew Dorward took me to Crichton Castle, corrected my history, and filled me in on aspects of the Scottish Reformation. Reading The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt re-awoke me to the extraordinary On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura); Sarah Bakewell’s
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer brought me to the Essays and into that man’s life-enhancing company. In this at least Harry Langton’s tastes are mine, though I do not possess an actor’s prompt of Love’s Labours Won, which may yet be among Drummond of Hawthornden’s papers.
Also a big thank you to the Royal Literary Fund, whose Fellowship at the Office of Lifelong Learning at Edinburgh University has greatly aided the writing of this book.
Notes
1. I was apprenticed to the trade till the brewer’s clerk taught me to read, the first in my family. My faither skelped my arse, and then encouraged me. My scholarship to the Town’s College was, quite literally, beer money from the guild.
2. In those distant-seeming days before the merging of the Crowns, the West, Middle and East March in Scotland and England each had their own Warden. The most troublesome parts, such as Liddesdale, in addition had a Keeper. Some Wardens were reiver warlords, all looked to their own and family advantage, few lasted long. I couldn’t keep up.
3. Reluctantly, I must conclude Jamie Saxt was not there in disguise. He could not abide the new tobacco fashion, and would write a grand rant, A Counterblast to Tobacco.
4. That skinny boy bided his time. Some fifteen years later, in a private parley with James Johnstone, he shot him dead. Maxwell escaped abroad, was later captured and finally executed. That—along with the Union—put an end to the greatest Border blood-feud.
5. The Earl of Moray killed by sniper; Lennox stabbed in Edinburgh; Mar poisoned; Morton executed; Esmé Stuart exiled; and the Earl of Gowrie executed. Bordellos have a slower turnover.
6. Buccleuch had gathered no more than eighty men to free Kinmont from that impregnable fortress. They rode by night, crossed the swollen Border burns, secretly opened a postern gate by forcing its hinges, and entered the castle. They extracted the old ruffian (“What kept ye?” as he buckled on his boots), were pursued by the English Warden, Lord Scrope. Buccleuch led his men across the raging Eden, turned and taunted Scrope (“I’ll gie you better hospitality in Scotland!”) and rode off. The ballad makers loved it. The reivers, including many on the English side, thought it hilarious.
7. “Mistress” Kerr, “Bareback” Bob, Davy Graham—their preferences were widely known. None dared mock them. In their society, fighting ability outweighed every other consideration. The less violent had to be circumspect, for it remained a capital offence.
8. The image haunts me still. It is in part why, however poor I become, I must have a taper or candle or lantern on winter nights when I sleep alone. As I have done most all my life.
9. Erwyn—a green margin, as in Eire. Indeed in my mind she is limned in green.
10. It alone of our universities was not founded by Papal Bull or Royal Warrant, but belonged to Embra Toun. Which made it less answerable to Church or state and so—Reformation zeal notwithstanding!—made for a degree of free thought. Here I first heard of certain texts that would become my lights through a murky world.