[OT] Waiting for Beta and Visiting Edinburgh

[Richmond Mathewson]

I don't really know about 'Highlanders" and 'Lowlanders" beyond their 
being rather artificial
"them and us" categories dreamt up by purveyors of Shortbread in tins 
with a portrait of a
highly pansified King Charles III when he was Prince Regent; following 
on from Victoria's
Uncle ("William IV') who pranced round the policies in his fantasy on 
Gaelic dress complete
with pink socks, thinking he had mollified all "those nice highland 
boys", and Victoria's
own "adventures" with loverboy Brown.

Comes to mind a story, whether true ot not I cannot say, about yon 
Victoria, who was
once benighted a fair way from Balmoral, so she "put in" at a humble 
cottage where
the humble cottager (no, not what that means today!) put her at her ease 
by offering
her soup. The lady enjoyed her soup and inquired of the cottager "what's 
in the soup"
to which the reply was "Ah dinnae ken whaas intult" (I don't know what's 
in it), his
wife having made it. On return to Balmoral, Victoria was heard ordering 
up "Whaas
Intult Soup" from her servants to the general  amusement of all.

Personally I wear a kilt, a green kilt, because at an awkward time in my 
life, some
25-6 years ago, I was feeling insecure and a bit mixed up about who or 
what I was
and what I stood for. I took to wearing a kilt; a marvellous shield 
against all sorts
of things. Having now worn that kilt some 26-7 years it is now so much a 
part of my
identity (for better or worse) that I would fain be parted from it. I 
cannot speak
Gaelic, which, supposedly is what all kilt wearers should . . .

Now, outwith all the bullshit about who can wear what tartan, and who 
can wear a kilt at all;
if you want to put one on, get on with it - I have seen Indians and 
Japanese who, when they are
either in Scotland or relaxing at home, choose to wear kilts: good on them!

As to the kilt being 'national dress' - that is just a lot of tourist 
Hooty-Tootie.  Neither of
my Scots grandfathers ever wore kilts, nor their fathers before them; 
and, arguably,
they were a lot more Scots (whatever that means) than I am.

Dave; you are right on the button!

Dave Cragg wrote:
>
> On 16 Jul 2009, at 09:51, Peter Alcibiades wrote:
>
>>  Historically Scotland has been two cultures, the culture
>> of the lowland cities, ....  Then you have
>> the highland culture,
>
> Oh dear me, Peter. If there were only these two cultures, a bunch of 
> skirt-wearing highland lassies and  football-playing lowlanders, our 
> country would have disappeared long ago. From time immemorial (I can't 
> remember when), Scotland's culture has been defended, sold out, and 
> oft times created by the people of the Southern Uplands. While 
> highlanders were deciding what clothes to wear, and lowlanders were 
> still in bed, Scottish Borderers were already in the thick of battle, 
> displaying fearsome feats of strength and even fighting on both sides 
> at once. 
The McIntosh ancestor on the distaff side of my family was, supposedly, 
the drummer boy for the HALF of the McIntosh who fought
for the Jacobites (the other HALF fought for the Hanoverians) at 
Culloden; and he ran away because he was scared - which, to my mind, was
just about the most sensible thing to do!  "Discretion is the better 
part of Valour".

> And while others would head home at the end of day's fighting, those 
> Border lads still had the strength to "attend the wounded" and relieve 
> them of heavy burdens such as weapons, horses and coins.
may be this is what will happen at the end of each day at the Edinburgh 
conference!
>
> In the 16th century, they taught the world the art of stealing cattle, 
> how to hold a grudge, and introduced the word "blackmail" to the 
> English language. The "reiving" tradition is still carried on today, 
> although generally just at weekends and mainly by young girls.
Sorry, I'm a bit long in the tooth for young girls (err, plus being 
faithfully married), but making off with a few stirks might be fun.
>
> And a selfless lot too. In the 19th century, the mills along the Tweed 
> designed and produced tartan cloth for their highland cousins who were 
> otherwise naked and seemed to like such colourful things.
Oh, come on, let's not be politically correct; they were a bunch of 
heavily tribal fowk (some of them still are).
>
> So for those visiting Edinburgh, and who would like to see the home of 
> the Armstrongs, Grahams, Johnstons, Kerrs, and many other notorious 
> clans whose names don't being with Mac, 
'Mac' is Gaelic (meaning 'Irish' - to be totally blunt) for "son of"; 
just as my name (a fine 'Scots' name) is Mathewson, and, Bulgarians
tend to have '-ov' or '-ev' at the end of their names.

Or, put it another way (if you understand the reference), the "Mac 
thing" is, largely, a load of  old 'Kroc'.   :)

> I suggest you head south a little. And if you want to feel at home, 
> here's a picture of how you might want to dress:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/iainmac/1303617693/
Spent all of my holidays as a boy in the Rhinns of Galloway.  Not a kilt 
in sight; but very Scottish  :)
>
> Cheers
> Dave
> _______________________________________________