The Massed Bands lead the way for the spectacular Parade of Tartans at the 2004 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games this past July.  If you can hear these pipes and drums and not be moved…you need to call 911!  My heart always beats faster and pride oozes out of my head as the drum majors lead their musicians around the track at beautiful MacRae Meadows at Grandfather Mountain.

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Robert Louis Stevenson, quoted in
W. S. Baring-Gould, The Lure of the Limerick:

There was an old man of the Cape
Who made himself garments of crape.
When asked, “Do they tear?”
He replied, “Here and there;
But they’re perfectly splendid for shape.”

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We know where we are…but it’s harder to figure out when we are…when you see such authentic reenactors in a Parade of Tartans as this one at the 2004 Blairsville, Georgia Highland Games in the beautiful north Georgia mountains.

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            The Clan Baird Society Worldwide’s publication The Gryphon has a list of things we all just need to know:

• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our noses and ears never stop growing.
• No word in the English language rhymes with “month”.  Orange is a problem, too.
• The word “facetious” includes all five vowels in their proper alphabetical order.
• Walter Cavanaugh, “Mr. Plastic Fantastic”, has 1196 valid credit cards.
• If NASA sent birds into space, they would die.  Birds need gravity to swallow.
• Einstein could not speak fluently when he was nine years old.  His parents thought he was retarded.
• You’re more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather.
• How can you tell a gorilla is angry?  It sticks its tongue out.
• If an orangutan belches at you – watch out.  He is warning you to stay out of his territory.
• Dirty snow melts quicker than clean snow.
• You can only see a rainbow in the morning or the late afternoon.
• In 1984, a New Jersey man opened a summer camp for Cabbage Patch dolls.
• In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.

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Three things come without seeking -- jealousy, terror, and love.    

Anonymous, from Gaelic

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Jeri Daniel Martin, DGOTJ, LOK, FSA Scot in her new electric buggy at the 2004 Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.

Jeri says that since the Games…she has added a four-inch fringe to her “surrey” top!

 

        

One of the most popular pipe tunes to appear on the Scots music scene in recent years is the haunting Highland Cathedral, a favorite with bridal couples as an alternative during the wedding service to Marie’s Wedding or even Amazing Grace.

            It appears two Germans composed the tune – some say brothers – who went by the name Roever and Korb.   Lyrics were set to the tune after the fashion of a national anthem, and were based on an old legend.

            The folk tale goes that, during the reign of King James I of Scotland, all clan chiefs were required to assemble in a secret place known as Highland Cathedral, to pledge a cessation to their constant feuding, and to live in peace with each other.

            This they agreed on – unanimously – and peace prevailed in Scotland, but unfortunately only as long as the king lived.

            Thanks to The Merito.

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   Clan Elliot at Grandfather Mountain Highland Games 2004 Parade of Tartans.  Did you know that this surname appears in the 13th century, both in England – from the Old English forename “Elwald” and in Scotland at Arbirlot (Aber-Eliot)?  The names of the ancestors of the folks shown here…varied as Elliots of Minto and Eliotts of Stobs. 

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Ancient Romans paid for peace with Scots

            Roman soldiers kept the rebellious Scots under control using generous bribes rather than brute force, archaeologists have claimed.  This discovery of a hoard of 300 Roman silver coins buried in an Iron Age pot on a farm in Elgin, Moray, on Scotland’s northeastern coast, has given weight to the theory that the Romans avoided fighting local chieftains by paying them to keep the peace.

            The coins span more than 100 years, from A.D. 60 in Nero’s day to A.D. 197, the reign of Emperor Severus, when the Romans had all but retreated to Hadrian’s Wall.  They still had two forts north of the border, at Cramond, near Edinburgh, and at Newstead, near Melrose, but they were staffed by only small numbers of soldiers.

            The soldiers made it their business, however, to march up the east coast as far as Elgin, about 200 miles from their northern frontier, to bribe chieftains not to cause trouble.

            Fraser Hunter, curator of  Iron Age and Roman archaeology at the National Museums of Scotland, said yesterday the find was “very unusual” and the first to show firm evidence of a financial arrangement between Romans and the Scots.

            Although buried Roman treasure has been found before – the largest find being 2,000 silver coins unearthed at Falkirk in the 1930s – this was the first time the money had been found in a local pot, rather than a Roman one, Mr. Hunter said.

            “This find supports our theory that the coins were given to native chieftains as a bribe.  The Romans were shrewd politicians and to keep the peace may have bribed tribes that were causing trouble, rather than going into battle.  Here, far beyond the Roman frontier, it may have seemed simpler to bribe than to fight,” he said.

            The cache of denarii, the Roman silver currency, was discovered during excavations by the National Museums, after an amateur enthusiast with a metal detector found 18 loose coins in a plowed field at Birnie.

            Thanks to The Scots Speak, Official Voice of the St. Andrew’s Society of Jacksonville, PO Box 5441, Jacksonville, FL 32247-5441.

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How a piper “minds his manners!” 

WARNING!  The following may only be read if you love the pipes!

1.  Always put your pipes down when embracing your fiancee.
2. When in church being married, ask the best man to hold your pipes while you slip the ring on your bride’s finger.  After all, this is her big day and you must make some sacrifice.
3. If you are dressing your pipe bag with treacle or honey on the dining room table, see that there are no crumbs on the cloth.  If these get into the bag, they may get onto the reeds with most undesirable consequences.  Ask your wife or mother to put a clean cloth on the table.
4. When your wife is holding a ladies’ meeting in the house, do not play your pipes in the same room.  The ladies will be too busy talking to listen attentively to your music.
5. Do not tune your pipes in the same room as others are watching television.  Wait until after the epilogue or when everyone is in bed.
6. When playing at a wedding do not stand in front of the bridegroom and play a lament.   It is equally bad taste to stand in front of the bride, especially if she is over forty, and play  When the Battle’s O’er.
7. In competitions, do not approach the judges’ table with a truculent swagger and say, “Right, Jock, get an earful of this.”  It is bad taste to affix your chewing gum to the underside of his table.  It is far better to stick it to the ivory bit on the end of your chanter until the conclusion of your recital.

Thanks to the Clan Guthrie News.