A Bonnie wee Scotch lassie, with rosy cheeks, sunny hair,
Laughing eyes, and bare, brown feet, stood beside a brawling
Mountain stream. Poised on one foot, she lightly touched the
Water with the other.
“Eh, but it’s cauld and it’s deep. Will ye no help me across Sandy?”
“No, if ye canna come yersel, then ye maun jist gang hame.”
“Weel. If I maun, I maun” and with a splash she bravely
crossed the stream and stood by her brothers side.
“Eh, Sandy, look!”
“Wheesht, Myzie, thems the sojers”
Up the mountain pass came the glittering bayonets, and
Before the boy and girl could gain shelter they were surrounded
by armed men.
“Here boy, has anyone passed this way this morning?”
“No mony folk pass this wey,”
“Perhaps not, but one has passed not more than an hour ago.”
“Do you know the man I speak of?”
“Whit like was he?”
“Do you know Robert Brock?”
“Aye, I ken him for a guid man, wha ner did onybody hairm.”
“You saw him then?”
“Aye.”
“Which road did he take?”
“Whit d’ye want him for?”
“To send a bullet through his head, as I’ll send one through
yours if you don’t answer,”
“Ye can send a bullet thro, my heid gin ye like, but I’ll no
tell which wey Robert Brock went.”
“Ask the girl, Captain: she’ll tell fast enough.”
“Sh! Dinna tell them Myzie.”
“Curse you, be quiet.”
And a heavy hand fell with cruel force on the boys mouth.
“Now girl, which way went the Saintly man of God?”
“I canna tell.”
“You will not, you mean, then I will give you something
that will make you tell.”
Seizing her by the wrist, twisting it, til she screamed with pain-
“Lay her be, ye black herted coo-ard!”
“I’ll lay her be, when she’s answered my question.”
“Now, girl for the last time which way went Robert Brock?”
“I canna tell!”
“We’ll see, put her against that boulder,
Present arms!
FIRE!
A wreath of white smoke curling upwards to the blue heaven -
A mass of fair hair dabbled in blood, a white face on the green grass
“Throw her into the stream.”
In an instant the crystal water blushed in Gods sunlight
with the blood of one of his martyrs.
“Now boy, perhaps you’ll tell us. Which way went Robert
Brock?”
Ye’ve killed ma pair wee sister, noo ye can jist kill me.”
“It’s easy to talk of dying boy.”
“I’d raither dee wi clean hands, than stain them wi the blood ‘o Gods servant, and live.”
“We’ll see, put him against that boulder.
Present arms!”
“Now boy, for the last time. Which way went the Saintly man of God?”
He looked at the sunny sky, the crystal water,
He heard the singing of the birds in his brave young soul.
“FIRE!”
“Throw him into the stream.”
Once more, The blood stained turf, the crystal water,
Once more the armed men marched down the mountain-side on their bootless errand,
While God looked over the lonely resting place of the little,
SCOTTISH MARTYRS.
The Little Scottish Martyrs
Scotland my home
Here in dear Scotland are mountains and glens. Lone crofters cottages and wee but and bens.
We can ski down fine mountains all covered with snow.
Fish from the river in glens down below.
Ben Nevis and Cairngorm majestically rise.
From deep in the glens with tops in the skies.
Then from Strathspey comes the water of life, as whisky is known.
Come see it made then take some of it home.
Why not visit the Sutherland coast.
Come see the fine beaches of which we can boast.
There’s golf at St Andrews who home it is found.
Beautiful gardens and castles abound.
With all of these sights and wonders at hand.
Why do we holiday in some foreign land?© Brian W Hill
Oh, Scotland, My Heart!
Oh, Scotland! How I long to walk your highlands and your glens,
To watch the flowers in your meadows wave in the breeze,
To hear the ocean waves noisily kiss the shores of your western isles,
To sift the sands of your beaches through my fingers,
To see the rainbows after your showers,
And to feel your history surround me.You are not the land of my birth.
You are the land of my ancestors’ birth.
My ancestors, who were involved in your struggles to become a nation,
Who were there in your shining hours and your darkest hours,
Who sacrificed for you and were shaped by your story
Then later left you for reasons I do not know,
But my innermost being knows there were tears at the parting.As the ripples and tides of the ocean shape the sands and even the shorelines over time,
So did the experiences of my ancestors ripple through the generations and shape me.
The whispers and shouts of their patriotism have flowed through my blood since my brith.
And, I long to know your history, to fathom the riddles of your past.
I cannot read enough or learn enough about you.
I want to experience every facet of you so that I may better understand myself.I must have inherited a homesickness gene, one that pines for you at times
And feels incomplete without my connection to you.
Your music soothes an empty corner of my heart
When I am aching to be on your sod.
My love for you permeates my soul.No, you are not the land of my birth,
But you are the land of who I am.
You haunt me; your magic pulls me.
Oh, Scotland! You are my heart!Pensive Thoughts on a Warm Summer’s Evening
Scotland, My Heart,
I have seen your highlands and your glens
and felt a recognition I did not expect.
I belong to the rocky areas of your highlands.
Why, I do not know, but I am at home there.
My heart is at home there.I have walked on your beaches
and felt your breezes ruffle my hair.
How lovely is the beach on Mull,
looking across deep blue water to Oban on the mainland.
For hours I could sit there seeing on my left the Isle of Lismore,
the birthplace of Duncan, who was my ancestor.Your wildflowers are pressed in the pages of my scrapbook,
A reminder to me of how they wave in the breath of your fresh, pure air.
I look at my photographs and try in my mind to transport myself back there,
But you are just out of reach.
I can’t quite do it.
So I remain unsatisfied.
A sadness grips me.I long to be back on your soil to stay
even though I have people and things here who need me.
What is this thing that pulls me, embeds itself in my soul?
What hold do you have on me and why?
I don’t understand it.You haunt me.
Your magic pulls me.
You are my dream come true.
I am incomplete when I’m away from you.
But why?
Oh, Scotland, My Heart.
Who is a Scot?
Who heard the ancient battlecry?
A chieftans bloodied sword held high,
To a cloudy cross in the azure sky,
Who is a Scot?Who saw proud Wallace’s face?
Guardian of our Celtic race,
Slay tyrants with his sword and mace,
Who is a Scot?Who smelt the blood and sensed the fear?
Who felt The Bruce’s spirit near?
At Bannockburn who shed a tear?
Who is a Scot?Who knew the pride felt at Arbroath?
Which freemen love and tyrants loathe,
To sign the pledge and take the oath.
Who is a Scot?Who felt the shame and shivered cold?
Their heritage and their freedom sold,
For a wagonload of tainted gold,
Who is a Scot?Who paid a heavy bloodsoaked toll?
So foreign powers could ne’er control,
My Gaelic heart and Celtic soul,
I am a Scot!
Scots Wha Hae
Scots Wha Hae (“Scots, Who Have”; Scottish Gaelic: Brosnachadh Bhruis) is a patriotic song of Scotland which served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country, but has lately been largely supplanted by Scotland the Brave and Flower of Scotland.
The lyrics were written by Robert Burns in 1793, in the form of a speech given by Robert the Bruce before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where Scotland maintained its sovereignty from the Kingdom of England. Although the lyrics are by Burns, he wrote them to the traditional Scottish tune Hey Tuttie Tatie which, according to tradition, was played by Bruce’s army at the Battle of Bannockburn, and by the Franco-Scots army at the Siege of Orleans
The tune tends to be played as a slow air, but certain arrangements put it at a faster tempo, as in the Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch and the concert overture Rob Roy by Hector Berlioz.
The song was sent by Burns to his publisher George Thomson, at the end of August 1793, with the title Robert Bruce’s March To Bannockburn, and a postscript saying that he had been inspired by Bruce’s ‘glorious struggle for Freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient.’ This is seen as a covert reference to the Radical movement, and particularly to the trial of the Glasgow lawyer Thomas Muir of Huntershill, whose trial began on 30 August 1793 as part of a British government crackdown, after the French Revolutionary Wars led to France declaring war on the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 February 1793.
Muir was accused of sedition for allegedly inciting the Scottish people to oppose the government during the December 1792 convention of the Scottish ‘Friends of the People’ society, and was eventually sentenced to fourteen years transportation to the convict settlement at Botany Bay, Australia.
Burns was aware that if he declared his Republican and Radical sympathies openly he could suffer the same fate. It is notable that when Burns agreed to let the Morning Chronicle, of 8 May 1794, publish the song, it was on the basis of ‘let them insert it as a thing they have met with by accident, and unknown to me.’
The song was included in the 1799 edition of A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice, edited by George Thomson, but Thomson preferred the tune “Lewie Gordon” and had Burns add to the fourth line of each stanza, to suit. In the 1802 edition, the original words and tune were restored.
“Scots Wha Hae” is the party song of the Scottish National Party. It is sung at the close of their annual national conference each year.
Lyrics
- Original lyrics in Scots
- ‘Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
- Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
- Welcome tae yer gory bed,
- Or tæ Victory.
- English translation
- ‘Scots, who have with Wallace bled,
- Scots, whom Bruce has often led,
- Welcome to your gory bed
- Or to victory.
- ‘Now’s the day, and now’s the hour:
- See the front o’ battle lour,
- See approach proud Edward’s power -
- Chains and Slavery.
- ‘Now is the day, and now is the hour:
- See the front of battle lower (threaten),
- See approach proud Edward’s power -
- Chains and slavery.
- ‘Wha will be a traitor knave?
- Wha will fill a coward’s grave?
- Wha sæ base as be a slave?
- Let him turn and flee.
- ‘Who will be a traitor knave?
- Who will fill a coward’s grave?
- Who’s so base as be a slave? -
- Let him turn, and flee.
- ‘Wha, for Scotland’s king and law,
- Freedom’s sword will strongly draw,
- Freeman stand, or Freeman fa’,
- Let him follow me.
- ‘Who for Scotland’s King and Law
- Freedom’s sword will strongly draw,
- Freeman stand or freeman fall,
- Let him follow me.
- ‘By Oppression’s woes and pains,
- By your sons in servile chains!
- We will drain our dearest veins,
- But they shall be free.
- ‘By oppression’s woes and pains,
- By your sons in servile chains,
- We will drain our dearest veins
- But they shall be free.
- ‘Lay the proud usurpers low,
- Tyrants fall in every foe,
- Liberty’s in every blow! -
- Let us do or dee.
- ‘Lay the proud usurpers low,
- Tyrants fall in every foe,
- Liberty is in every blow,
- Let us do or die!’
Freedom Come All Ye
“Freedom Come-All-Ye” is a song written by Hamish Henderson, the Scottish poet, songwriter, and intellectual. It is written in the Scots Language. “Freedom Come-All-Ye”, one of Henderson’s most important songs, gives a non-romantic, revisionist view of the role of the Scots in the world at the time it was written. It describes a wind of change blowing through Scotland and the world at large, sweeping away exploitation and imperialism. It renounces the tradition of the Scottish soldier both as imperial cannon-fodder and colonial oppressor, and ends with a vision of a future global society which is multiracial and just.
The song was written in 1960, to an adaptation of the First World War pipe march “The Bloody Fields of Flanders”, which Henderson first heard played on the Anzio beachhead. The lyrics were written following a visit and discussions with Ken Goldstein, an American researcher at the School of Scottish Studies, who had enjoyed Henderson’s rendition of the tune. It was subsequently adopted by Glasgow Peace Marchers CND demonstrators, and the anti-Polaris campaign. A product of the Scottish Folk revival, and originally a sixties protest song, it is still popular in Scotland and overseas. Henderson described it as “expressing my hopes for Scotland, and for the survival of humanity on this beleaguered planet.”
It is viewed by many as Scotland’s ‘alternative’ national anthem (although there is no ‘official’ Scottish anthem). However, Henderson never wanted it to become as he felt that part of its strength lies in the fact that it is an alternative, an “International Anthem”.
Lyrics
The lyrics are written in the Scots language (not misspelled words).
Roch the wind in the clear day’s dawin
Blaws the cloods heilster-gowdie owre the bay
But there’s mair nor a roch wind blawin
Thro the Great Glen o the warld the day
It’s a thocht that wad gar oor rottans
Aa thae rogues that gang gallus fresh an gay
Tak the road an seek ither loanins
Wi thair ill-ploys tae sport an playNae mair will our bonnie callants
Merch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw
Nor wee weans frae pitheid an clachan
Mourn the ships sailin doun the Broomielaw
Broken faimlies in lands we’ve hairriet
Will curse ‘Scotlan the Brave’ nae mair, nae mair
Black an white ane-til-ither mairriet
Mak the vile barracks o thair maisters bareSae come aa ye at hame wi freedom
Never heed whit the houdies croak for Doom
In yer hoos aa the bairns o Adam
Will find breid, barley-bree an paintit rooms
When Maclean meets wi’s friens in Springburn
Aa thae roses an geans will turn tae blume
An the black lad frae yont Nyanga
Dings the fell gallows o the burghers doun.
The phrase “come aa ye” is the “come all ye” of the title. Some words are similar (blaws, mak, tak, sailin, blume for: blows, make, take, sailing, bloom). However, other words are more obscure (owre, nae, frae, tae, thae, an, yer, thair, doun, wi, merch, mair, hoos for: over, no, from, to, thy, and, your, their, down, with, march, more, house).
Scotland the Brave
“Scotland the Brave” (Scottish Gaelic: Alba an Aigh) is a patriotic song and one of the main contenders to be considered as a “unofficial” national anthem of Scotland. In June 2006, the song came second to Flower of Scotland in an online poll with more than 10,000 votes to determine the nation’s favourite unofficial “anthem”.The song was used to represent Scotland in the Commonwealth Games until it was replaced by Flower of Scotland from the 2010 games in Delhi onwards.
Scotland the Brave is also the authorised pipe band march of The British Columbia Dragoons of the Canadian Forces and is played during the Pass in Review at Friday parades at The Citadel. In 2006, it was adopted as the regimental quick march of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. In the 1982, 1986, and in the 1990 FIFA World Cup the Scottish national team used it as its anthem prior to using Flower of Scotland.
- Lyrics
The tune probably first appeared around the turn of the 20th century, and at that time was sometimes known as Scotland the Brave. However, the lyrics were written around 1950 by the Scottish journalist Cliff Hanley for the singer Robert Wilson in an arrangement by Marion McClurg.
Hark when the night is falling
Hear! Hear the pipes are calling,
Loudly and proudly calling,
Down thro’ the glen.
There where the hills are sleeping,
Now feel the blood a-leaping,
High as the spirits of the old Highland men.Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.High in the misty Highlands,
Out by the purple islands,
Brave are the hearts that beat
Beneath Scottish skies.
Wild are the winds to meet you,
Staunch are the friends that greet you,
Kind as the love that shines from fair maiden’s eyes.Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.Far off in sunlit places,
Sad are the Scottish faces,
Yearning to feel the kiss
Of sweet Scottish rain.
Where tropic skies are beaming,
Love sets the heart a-dreaming,
Longing and dreaming for the homeland again.Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.