Tuesday, December 1, 2009

And the Greatest Scot is...


according to the results of an STV poll revealed yesterday (St. Andrew's Day): Robert Burns.

I was, of course, rooting for Robert the Bruce or William Wallace, but I heartily admit to having warbled many hours away in my car while singing the refrains from Old Blind Dogs' rendition of For a' that and a' that - 'Is There for Honest Poverty', or The Chieftains' version of MacPherson's Farewell - The Long Black Veil. And what would we sing on New Year's Eve at midnight, if not for Rabbie's Auld Lang Syne?

I don't know what the final tally of votes was, but also in the running along with Wallace and the Bruce were some very recognizable names, such as: writers Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and J K Rowling; entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie and inventor Alexander Graham Bell; actor Sean Connery and singer Annie Lennox; and the man who discovered penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming.

So here's an homage to my Scottish ancestors, from Rabbie himself:

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Until later,
Gemi

1 comment:

Mirella Patzer said...

My favourites were also Robert Burns and Robert the Bruce. Your blog has really expanded. It's lovely.