Gusts of the sun race north across the grass. Humped from the eastern hills dark clouds arise, Knotted God-muscle, mass, and hover, Coasting near in mantled poise above the earth, Cloaking the sun. Trees, caught in a timeless trice of … Continue reading
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Yesterday haar cloaked our sight, bound us in Fife, lorn booming calls of lighthouse horns sounding through mist like calls of ancient seabeasts seeking lost mates. Evening wind puffed it back to sea, lost it towards Scandinavia. Today is all … Continue reading
Alert, poised, head cocked, listening: stab and swallow wriggle worm soil glistening; spring-hop, stop; attend, repeat: toss off the luscious living meat. The rhythm of the rapt bill is jerking syncopation: cock, nail, kill. Relaxed and ostentatious, head back, trilling, … Continue reading
We found a mole one spring evening, Lying dead by his trampled hill, His body folded like an empty velvet purse. His blind little eyes had never blinked Into the sunlit morning, His sharp puppet claws had never touched The … Continue reading
Yan, tan, tethera, methera, pimp, once I met a shepherd walking with a limp. ‘Pray tell me, good shepherd, does counting your sheep make you feel drowsy, or send you to sleep?’ Sethera, lethera, hothera, dothera, dick, he tallied them … Continue reading
Step you softly on the stair, tiptoe past the dragon’s lair. Take care! If he hears the slightest sound, he will wake and look around, and spy you sneaking past his den and rise and roar and flame and then… … Continue reading
Devon < *Domnona? A fine river cutting eastward down from deep Glendevon in the high Ochils, the River Devon PER KNR CLA veers southward through the Yetts o’ Muckhart, turning sharply back at the Crook o’ Devon to drain westward … Continue reading
With an host of furious fancies, Whereof I am commander, With a burning spear, and a horse of aire, To the wildernesse I wander: By a knight of ghostes and shadowes I summon’d am to tourney Ten leagues beyond the … Continue reading
A pristine original version of the 1992 edition of West Lothian Place Names is now available to download free of charge in PDF format (6 MB). West Lothian Place Names (1992) … Continue reading
Can history help us define British identity today, or is it part of the problem? Five-sevenths of history is story. In the Romance languages the equation is exact. History and story are the same word: Spanish historia, French histoire, Italian … Continue reading