Category: Verse
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“The Auld Tongue”
Barrowsgate remembers a farmer’s son who, having spent some time in London, spoke in a genteel manner on his return. However, he forgot his airs and graces when he trod on a barrel hoop, and reverted to his mother tongue with some choice Doric words.
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“The Twelfth”
A southerner comes up for some grouse shooting. Thinking he’s hit one he tells the Ghillie that it’s coming down. Gillie replies that it’ll come down when it’s hungry.
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The Rin-Awa’
A cow escapes and Jim and Janet run after it, After a while it gives up and they all go home.
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“A Lass O’ Pairts”
An older man, thinking he’d better take a wife, marries the first woman who agrees. He soon discovers that she’s not the woman he thought she was, when, before going to bed, she takes off her wig, takes out a glass eye, false teeth etc.
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Takin’s Turn
The minister’s son comes across a drunken Geordie Tamson lying in the road. He and a friend put Geordie in a barrow and wheel him home. When they stop for a rest, Geordie wakes up, jumps in the barrow and wheels himself home.
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The De’il and Clochnaben
Barrowsgate gives his own devilish explanation of how the rocky outcrop at Clochnaben was formed.
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The Last Ditch
Parsons McDrooth and Slockit had officiated at a wedding and walked home together, the worse for wear. McDrooth fell into a ditch and begged Tam Slockit for help. Tam was in no state to help so he just got into the ditch to keep McDrooth company.
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The Cure-A’
Hypchondriac Tibbie swore by her many “Cure-alls” but, feeling ill, she called out the Doctor. Before he arrived, another box of potions arrived so she sent the Doctor away. The Doctor tells her that she might as well throw the rest of her potions in the fire.
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The Corp.
This verse is based on a story, recounted in “The History of the 10th Battalion AIF” by AH Limb. Flanders 1918. Two Australian soldiers evidently carrying the corpse of a mate on a stretcher were stopped by a curious officer. The officer, wishing to see the body, pulled back the groundsheet only to discover a…
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“Seein’s Believin’”
An old lady living in the remote countryside goes to visit her daughter in Aboyne and is terrified when she sees a steam train in a tunnel, thinking it is the Devil.