A Scots Quair (70 page)
Authors: Lewis Grassic Gibbon
  Â
My text is from the twenty-third chapter of St Luke, verse forty-
two:
AND HE SAID UNTO JESUS, LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM
.
It is nineteen hundred years since that cry was heard, it is sixteen
hundred years since the holy Catholic Church was established in
temporal power. In the early days after the death of Christ His
return was hourly awaitedâHis followers, scanty, assured,
looked to His coming within a few months or years at the most,
they were certain He would come again and redeem the evil of the
world that had murdered
him.
And the years went by: and He
tarried still. But that Hope and that Promise it was that bore the
Cross to triumph at last in Rome, all over Europe; that uplifts
it still. And still the Christ tarries and the world remains
.
LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM
.
In Segget a week ago to-night, in this Christian village, a man
and a woman were driven from their home and had no place to
lay their heads. In the night a rat came and fed on their child,
eating its flesh in a sacrament of hunger
â
LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM
!
In the years when the Great War ended the world seemed to
turn in its sleep and awake, a new promise cried all about the
earth, the promise of the Christ fulfilled in Manâfulfilled
in the movements of pity and hope that men called by many
names, meaning the same. Against ignoble oppressions and a
bitter tyranny the common people banded themselves at lastâin
a Christ-like rage of pity to defend their brothers who sweated
their blood in the mines, to give warmth and light and ease to
us all. And the leaders of the great Nine Days, days filled with
the anger and pity of the Christ who drove the money-changers
from the Temple courts, looked in their hearts and found there
fear, heard the crunch of the nails that were driven in through
the shrinking hands of the Christ. And they sold Him again, his
promise in Man, each for their thirty pieces of silver
.
LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM
.
This year, when hunger and want filled the land, the coun
sellors of the nation told for our guidance that more hunger and
poverty yet must come, an increasing of stripes in the name of
the Law, of Good Government, Order, in this Christian land,
in this nineteenth century since the Christ died and came into that
Kingdom of the Soul which the Churches proclaim that he came
intoâ
LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM
.
AND IT WAS ABOUT THE SIXTH HOUR, AND THERE WAS A DARKNESS OVER ALL THE EARTH UNTIL THE NINTH HOUR
.
AND THE SUN WAS DARKENED AND THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE WAS RENT IN THE MIDST
.
So we see, it seems, in the darkened sun, in the rending veils
of the temples and kirks, the end of Mankind himself in the
West, or the end of the strangest dream men have dreamtâof
both the God and the Man Who was Christ, Who gave to
the world a hope that passes, and goeth about like the wind,
and like it returns and follows, fulfilling nothing. There is no
hope for the world at allâas I, the least of His follow
ers seeâexcept it forget the dream of the Christ, forget the
creeds that they forged in His shadow when their primal faith
in the God was loosedâand turn and seek with unclouded
eyes, not that sad vision that leaves hunger unfed, the wail of
children in unending dark, the cry of human flesh eaten by
beastsâ¦. But a stark, sure creed that will cut like a knife,
a surgeon's knife through the doubt and diseaseâmen with
unclouded eyes may yet find it, and far off yet in the times to
be, on an earth at peace, living and joyous, the Christ come
backâ
His voice had sunk near to a whisper by then, so that folk in the back of the kirk couldn't hear, all the kirk sitting and staring in silence. Then he started again, he said, very clear, and once again, slowly, terrible to hear, as a man who cried from his soul on a friend who had passed beyond either helping or help:
LORD, REMEMBER ME WHEN THOU COMEST INTO THY KINGDOM
.
  Â
CHRIS WAS NEVER
exactly sure of what followed. But she got from the choir stalls and ran up the aisle, the frozenness gone that had hemmed her inâtook scarcely a second to move from that moment when Robert had stopped, the queer look on his face. For he stared down the kirk as though Someone stood there. And then a bright crimson thing came on his lips, and down at the kirk's far end a loon screamed.
John Muir reached the pulpit as quick as she did, she saw Ewan, swift and dark, stand up, Ake Ogilvie as well, the rest of the folk stared and stared in a frozen silence, from them to the silent figure up there. Chris ran up the pulpit-stair, opened the door, Robert's head had fallen forward in his hands, and all the pages of the Bible below she saw soaked in the stream of blood from his lips.
And somehow it did not matter, she had known, she put out her hand and put back the hair, from his forehead, gently; and looked at the faces of the congregation. She wetted her lips and tried to speak, to be cool and tell them the minister was dead, and the service was ended, would they please go? And then at last she heard herself speak, in strange words not her own, unbidden to her lips:
It is Finished
.
  Â
NOW, WITH THE
broadening of the day, she could see the peaks of the Mounth wheel one by one into the line of the flow of the light, dun and sun-riding they rode down the Howe. Trusta towered first and north and north the peaks came fast, sun on the Howe and day on the Howe, her last day in Segget ere she went elsewhere, to new days and ways,
to changes she could not foresee or foreknow. Round her the new year wakened to life, she saw the steam of a ploughing team, a curlew was calling up in the broom.
She moved and stretched in weariness then, the morning weariness before you right woke, so standing she minded the way that Robert would bless the folk of Segget on Sabbath. And queerly, her hands shaped into that gesture, with Segget rising in its driftings of smoke, and the hills behind, and all time before.
Then that had finished; she went slow down the brae, only once looked back at the frown of the hills, and caught her breath at that sight they held, seeing them bare of their clouds for once, the pillars of mist that aye crowned their heights, all but a faint wisp vanishing south, and the bare, still rocks upturned to the sky.
Black = G. F. Black,
The Surnames of Scotland
(New York 1946)
Kinnear = G. H. Kinnear,
Glenbervie
(Laurencekirk 1895)
ogs =
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland
, ed. F. Î. Groome (Edinburgh 1901)
snd =
Scottish National Dictionary
, ed. William Grant and David Murison (Edinburgh 1931â76)
Watt = J. C. Watt,
The Mearns of Old
(Edinburgh and Glasgow 1914)Â
p. 1
borough of Segget
. Gibbon got the name from his birthplace, the croft Hillhead of Segget in Auchterless parish, Aberdeenshire, and he has anglicised the Scots âburgh'. The location is deliberately vague; the town and its industries are fictitious, blending some of the characteristics of Auchenblae, Inverbervie and Drumlithie.
the Mounth
. The great se spur of the Grampian mountain system.Â
Îearns Howe
. That part of the great valley of Strathmore contained in Kincardineshire.Â
Fordoun
. Village on the main Stonehaven-Forfar road, some three miles ne of Laurencekirk.
Drumlithie
. Village seven miles sw of Stonehaven.
the Kaimes
. A âkame' or âkaime' is a long narrow steep-sided ridge, or the crest of a hill or ridge (
SND
). There is a sandbank with this name between Glenbervie and Arbuthnott parishes which looks âas if it had been cast up by human art' (Kinnear, p.5), but the choice of name may also have been influenced by the Kaim of Mathers, a fortress in the parish of St Cyrus, though it rises above the sea and these Kaimes are inland.
Laurencekirk
. Market town on the main road between Aberdeen and Perth, some thirteen miles ssw of Stonehaven.
Finella
. The daughter of the Mormaer (High Steward) of Angus and wife of the Mormaer of the Mearns, who is traditionally supposed to have slain Kenneth 111 in 964 at Fenella Castle, one mile W of Fettercairn. Her name occurs in at least three other Kincardineshire place names (
OGS
).
p. 1
Wyntoun
. Andrew of Wyntoun (?1350â?1420), whose vernacular metrical history tells the story of Scotland from the beginning of the world to the accession of James I in 1406. In the Scottish Text Society's edition of his
Original
Chronicle
, Fenella is called âFembel'.
p.2
Iohannes de Fordun
(?d. 1384). Probably a chantry priest at Aberdeen, he was part author of the Latin
Scotichronicon
and continued it as
Gesta Annalia
. He naturally says nothing about these Kaimes, since they are fictitious, or about Hew Monte Alto and the ruined camp. But he does tell us that the town of Fettercairn was reduced to ashes in revenge for Kenneth's murder (
John of Fordun's Chronicles
, ed. W. F. Skene, 1872, ii. 167).
Bara
. A hill of this name in e central Aberdeenshire, with a prehistoric fort and three concentric earthworks, is traditionally linked to Robert Bruce's victory against Comyn Earl of Buchan and other magnates in 1308 (
OGS
).
Monte Alto
. The derivation of Mowat from Monte Alto is generally accepted. The first of the family in Scotland is said to have come from Wales, and the name appears frequently in chartularies of Arbroath and Brechin between 1198 and 1218 (Black, p.614). In Gibbon's boyhood Mowats owned the tan works in Stonehaven.
Mathers
. The family name of the lairds of Mathers and of the builder of the Kaim of Mathers referred to above, was Barclay (Kinnear, p.21).
p. 3
Fettercairn
. Village and parish in sw Kincardineshire, five miles nnw of Laurencekirk.
King Grig
. Sometimes written Greg, sometimes Circ: a Pictish king said to have reigned c. 877 (Watt, pp.4,95â8).
Mearniae decurio
. Sheriff of the Mearns.
Bannock burn
. The site of Robert Bruce's decisive victory against Edward II of England, 1314.
Melville
. The Mearns Melvilles were supposedly descendants of James Melvill, a Hungarian noble (Kinnear, p. 20).
p. 4
four fierce lairds
. Daniel de Berkeley (1406â37), laird of Berkeley, with Arbuthnott, Lauriston, Pitarra and Halkes- ton, were accessory to the slaughter by boiling of John Melville of Glenbervie (Watt, p. 8).
Garvock
. The hill of Garvock, a small range of high land covered with heath, rises to 810 ft. and runs through the Kincardineshire parish of that name, approximately 1½ miles e of Laurencekirk. It forms the eastern boundary of the Howe (
OGS
).
Killing Time
. The period of the greatest persecution of the Covenanters, 1685. The term was later extended to cover the whole period 1679â1688, during which Charles II and James VII tried to put down by force those Presbyterians who refused to worship in a Church headed by bishops.
p.6
Bervie
. It flows from the ne corner of Fordoun parish past Glenbervie, Mondynes, Arbuthnott and Inverbervie to enter the sea at Bervie bay.
O Segget it's a dirty hole
. In
Sunset Song
Drumlithie church is said to have no steeple (p. 76, Canongate Classics edn), though the original rhyme was about Tarland parish in Aberdeenshire (Note by Gibbon in NLS MS Acc. 26041).
p. 8
strange happening
. Her love-making with Long Rob of the Mill (
Sunset Song
, pp. 232â3, Canongate Classics edn).
p. 17
Stonehive
. The traditional pronunciation of Stonehaven.
p.21
Mondynes
. About one mile s W of Drumlithie, which is seven miles W of Stonehaven.
Christ tempted of the devil
. See Matthew 4 and Luke 4.
p.22
a dead
. Pronounced âdeid'; a corpse.
try for his pulpit
. In the Church of Scotland congregations have the right to choose their ministers, which is done only after they have heard the candidates preach.
p.23
Judges
Chapter xvi. 25â30.
p.26
Dalziel
. Pronounced âDee-yel' or âDalyel'.
p.27
option
. The right of a town or district to decide whether and how many licences to sell liquor should be granted within its bounds.
p.29
Wallace
. Sir William Wallace, Scottish Independence leader (executed 1305).
p.30
Blawearie
. The Guthrie farm-croft in Kinraddie, whose lease was continued by Chris after her father's death and on which she lived after her marriage to Ewan Tavendale, her first husband.
blue
. Chris's favourite colour. She had worn blue underwear and a blue dress for her first wedding.
p.33
salt and savour
. âYe are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? (Matthew, v.13).
p.34
her father
. John Guthrie had lusted after Chris when she was a young girl.
p. 38
all that were in their gates
. âGather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates' (Deuteronomy xxxi. 12).
p.39
certificated
. Malapropism for âcertified'.
p.40
Dundon
. A made-up name for a city with some of the features of Aberdeen, such as the barracks that were the headquarters of the Gordon Highlanders.
p.48
Tipperary
. Though it will always be associated with the 1914â18 War, the song was first published in 1912.
p.49
Old Kirk
. The established (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.
the Frees
. Originally members of the Free Kirk, which broke away from the established church at the Disruption of 1843, but at this time (and now) applied to the minority which refused to enter the union between the Free Presbyterian Church and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900.
came from the south
. She has a southern Scottish, not an English, accent.
p. 50
Blood of the Lamb
. âHave you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?', from a nineteenth-century evangelical hymn by Elisha B. Hoffmann.
Whiter than â the whitewash on the wall!
From âThe Top of the Dixie Lid', an anonymous soldiers' song of the 1914â18 War.
p.51
Ananias
. He means old Leslie is a hypocrite, like the Ananias of Acts v.
p.53
but they knew
. Without knowing.
p.54
High Places
. In the Old Testament, âhigh places' are associated with temples, altars, the prophets' communion with God, and with worship and spiritual experience generally.
Trusta
. A hill (1052 ft) in Fetteresso Forest, some six miles e of Stonehaven.
p.60
east-windy, west-endy
. Fashionable (âwest-endy') attire for active leisure, such as golf at St Andrews, where the chill east wind often blows in from the North Sea.
p.61
Skite
. Contemptuous name for Drumlithie. The most pejorative meanings of âskite' are âmad' (adj.) and âsoil with excrement' (vb.)
Arbuthnott
. Kincardineshire rural parish in whose churchyard Leslie Mitchell's ashes are interred, and on which the Kinraddie of
Sunset Song
is largely based.
p.63
W.R.I
. Properly S.W.R.I., the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes. They encouraged domestic skills through classes and competitions in baking etc. and were centres of leisure activity.
Annie S. Swan, David Lyall
. The two are one and the same. Annie Shepherd Swan (Mrs Burnett-Smith, 1860â1943), an immensely popular romantic novelist with a colossal output, also published under the pseudonym of David Lyall.
p.64
Catcraig
. There seems to have been no Catcraig in the Mearns, but Gibbon did not invent the name. There is a farm called Catcraig ½ mile s of Auchnagatt in Aberdeenshire.
p. 69
Drops of Brandy
. The steps are danced to a Scottische (J.Î. and Τ. Î. Flett,
Traditional Dancing in Scotland
, 1964, p. 20).
when she did the line
. The dancers were in two parallel lines facing each other. Each couple had a chance to lead the line and pass down the set in turn â âdown the middle and up'.
p. 93
slew ⦠the French
. Burns welcomed the French Revolution at first, but partly owing to fear of persecution and the possible loss of his job in the excise, swung round to support âthe defence of the realm' after France declared war on Britain. He helped to organise the Dumfries Royal Volunteers in January 1795, but his song for them â
Does
haughty Gaul invasion threat?
has a refrain with radical undertones: âFor never but by British hands/ Must British wrongs be righted.'
p.94
pillar of cloud and fire
. On the Israelites' road to the promised land, âthe Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light' (Exodus xiv. 21).
trumpet had cried
. Robert has in mind God's colloquy with Moses on Sinai: there were âthunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud' (Exodus xix. 16).
p.96
shrouded dead in red
. The allusion is to
The Red Flag
, anthem of the British Labour Party: âThe people's flag is deepest red/ It shrouded oft our martyred dead' (lines 1â2). The words are by James Connell (1852â1929) and the tune is that of the German folk song, âO Tannenbaum'.
p.97
on the bureau
. Drawing unemployment pay. The âbureau' (pron. âburroo' in Scotland) was the local Labour Exchange, which paid out unemployment benefit.
p.98
Chae Strachan
. The well-travelled socialist crofter of Peesie's Knapp in
Sunset Song
.
p. 107
Dunnottar Castle see Sunset Song
, pp. 125â6 (Canongate Classics edition).
p.111
Edzell
. A village some six miles n by w of Brechin. The magnificent ruined castle on its outskirts was formerly a seat of the Lindsays.
Brechin. A âcity' with a cathedral in Îwan Forfarshire.
p. 113
Twin Daughters of the Voice of God
. Wordsworth's âOde to Duty' begins âStern Daughter of the Voice of God'.
p. 119
Venricones
. The ancient inhabitants âwho, according to Ptolemy, occupied the country south of the Water of Carron, with Forfar as their capital' (Watt, p. 14).
ovates
. Handaxes elliptical in shape, relatively thin in section, and sometimes with a twisted edge due to alternate flaking.
tortoise-core.
Tortoise-shaped nodule of stone from which flakes have been intentionally removed.
p. 120
fabricator
. Piece of stone used for detaching flakes from a core.
Golden Age
. According to Diffusionist theory, men were organised in happy, peaceful groups of nomadic hunters before civilisation with all its corruptions was created in ancient Egypt.
p. 121
People's Journal
. Published in Dundee from 1858, it became the most popular weekly printed in Scotland until overtaken by
The Sunday Post
.
p. 141
Culdyce
. Evidently a made-up name. âCuldors' occurs in what appears to be a short list of such names in nls ms Acc.26041, a notebook containing fifty numbered ideas for
Cloud Howe
, and there is a Culdees Castle in Perthshire.
Leachie
. A hill (1289 ft.) some four miles WSW of Trusta.
p. 142
Pytheas
. A reference back to
Sunset Song
, where this Greek navigator and geographer of the fourth century bc is a potent historical symbol. (p.39, Canongate Classics edition).
p. 148
The O.M.S
. The Organization for the Maintenance of Supplies emerged in 1925 and had registered about 100,000 volunteers in the nine months before the General Strike of 1926. They drove cars, buses, lorries, and even trains, and also acted as electricians, mechanics and other maintenance staff (Patrick Renshaw,
The General Strike
, 1930, p. 130 and
passim
).
p. 150
Quarles
. Gibbon has brought this name in from outside; there is no Quarles on any of the 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey Maps of Scotland.
p. 151
Carmont
. A farm-settlement some four miles W of Stonehaven, below Carmont Hill (774 ft.).
p. 158
Kinneff
. A coastal hamlet eight miles s of Stonehaven.
ten full years
. The year is now 1932.
p. 159
The wind goeth towards the south
. (Ecclesiastes i. 6).
p. 166
went with him
. Ran away with him, took over.
and watch
. The first edition and all others have âand to watch', but the intrusive âto' is clearly an error not picked up at the proof stage.
