A HIGHLAND WEDDING

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 89

A HIGHLAND WEDDING

(By Rev. William Thomson.)

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

What a wonderful place the Highlands of Scotland is ! Every other country in the world has been conquered — the Highlands ne\ er. The Romans subdued England and Lowland Scotland — the Highlands was too much for the conquciors of Hannibal-. It is the land of song, of poetry, of beauty, and of mysticism. It is a land of culture, for the a\erage Highlander is a gentleman; and it is the land of the esthetic, where giacc in walking, dancing, general bearing, and even dram-drinking, are done according to the best rules of high art. It is one spot on earth where the visitor grows young again. Five miles before breakfast, and 15 more during the same day, loaves one refreshed and ready for a good dinner at 6.30 p.m. Next day jou are quite ready to do the same again. I am no Christopher North, but the bracing air of the Highlands is the best renewer one can experience, as is proved by the thousands of southland visitors who return in the best of health and spirits after a brief sojourn in the land of the mountain and - the flood, feeling, like the Edinburgh professor, that it is the finest of stimulants for their weary constitutions.

Highland food is, shall I say, the best in the world. Plain living and high thinking is very much better than high living and poor thinking. The Highlander lives very plainly. I would not give the oat-cakes, the croudy, the clo\er and heather honey, and the fresh herrings which I enjoyed in Culliecudden for all the flesh-pots of Egypt. There are thousands who suffer more from overeating than from over-drinking. The Highlander is never a prohibitionist, rarely even an abstainer ; but he never sufters from an over-fondness of the table, and is perhaps the most temperate man in the world.

Highland courtships are often practical in a degree unknown elsewhere, and are so very Scriotural, which probably accounts for the fact that Highland marriages are almost uniformly happy. The Divorce Court is never thought of, because never required. Happy indeed is the woman, be she Lowland, English, Irish, or colonial, who secures a -Highlander. I detest Crossland, the author of that vile book, "The Unspeakable Scot," because in his ntter ignorance he slandered the Scottish wife. " Here's tae ye, an' ta hell wi' the English " are the words that imp puts into her mouth when she was toasting her husband and himself. No Scotch wife, much less a Highland wife, would think of using such words, unless indeed she knew Ciossland. who thought that evprv wife "should be put into a hutch and kept at the bottom o> the garden.* 0 Highland courtships are peculiar and quite unique. The Englishman can never understand their philosophy until the charms of Highland beauty compel him to become its willing slave, when escape becomes impossible. They are conducted in the most open and frankest of ways. The kitchen fire 'in winter time, the shady glen, the burn-side, the cornvaH, the stable, the hayfield are quite suitable places for lovers to express their Inmost souls. Dr Alexander, the famous editor of the Aberdeen Free Press, in the very readable story, "Johnny Gibb. of Gushetneuk," tells of a rusLic courtship among that unpoetical, but industrious, people, the Abeidonians. which could never occur in the Highlands. Tarn Meerison, madly in love with Jinsp. sought her company at night in the kitchen when Johnny anJ his wife were recruit ina at the "walls" o' AJacrluff. As an illustration of the lassio's, inventiveness, it may be well to Jot Dr Alexander tell how the lowers succeeded that night on the deece (kitt hen sofa) : "T don't know all what Tarn Meerison said to Jinsp Deans that summer gloamin'. How should I' The whisoers of lovers are hard to citch, . . But certain it is that this was not the first time that Jinse had been wooed in a similar manner and in that same place. Not by the same wooer, certainly • for until three weeks ago she had been utterly unawaie that such a man as Tarn Meerison existed. At anyiate, if Jinse saw no harm in receiving a little attention from an additional sweetheart, Tarn evidently found her company the reverse of disagreeable. Tli<» time fled Ewiftl-y- past, as it is wont to do in such circumstances. (It was now 1 o'clock.)

Wheest ! ' exclaimed Jinse in a low whisper. 'Fat's that 9 I hear a fit.'

" 'Nonsense! ' said Tarn. 'It's some o' the horse i' tne park at the back o' the hoose.' "'lt's naething o' the kin. Here. I say, there's somebody comin' up the close. In aneth the deece wi' ye this minit.' "

And beneath the kitchen sofa Tarn hid_ his ungainly bulk. His disgust may be imagined when " twa burly chiels cam' along" intent on paying the same sort of attentions to fickle Jinse which he had done for over two hours, but when "the twa flopped Jinse on the deece wi' a dooslit " that bron eht his person into violent contact with a three-cornered ironing-heater which happened to be under him, the involuntary " Go-ch ! " he uttered was as expressive of mental pain as of bodily discomfort. There thpy icmained. three on the couch (Jinsp in the centre) and Tarn beneath, comnelled to listen to many a criticism of himself which was neither complimentary or too delicately expressed. It would be utterly impossible for anything like this to occur in the Highlan3s — for one reason, tho difficulty of finding a maid of the Jinse type, and for another that no Highwould ever submit to lie beneath"

a " deece " for two hours while his fair one sat on it with an asp'ring lover on either side of her. William Mackeddie and Jess, both natives of the Bog in Resolis, who have long since departed to join the happier fellowship in the better world, were: a typical Highland couple. The story oi their courtship was orally handed down with more accurar-y than the poems of Homer or Ossian ever were. William's knowledge of Gaelic was passable ; but although he knew very little of English, for some unexplained reason he communicated the secret which possessed his soul to Jess in that language. The smarter set divined Jess to be responsible for William's use of a tongue which he was ignorant of, as it gave her endless fun to hear him mix the genders, and

otherwise to struggle with the impossible. His Calvinism in courtship may be guessed when it >s known that it took William seven long years— he sitting iA the tae side of the fire and Jess sitting at the tither — before he popped the question. If ever the happy couple was disturbed by someone coming beii from the room William's invariable remark disarmed youthful suspicion: "I am sinking the weather will be no so pad after all." " But the weather is very good, William." " Well, I"m sinking it will pc no goot after it was so pad. — pit it will be goot too." "Is Jpss kind to you, William?" j " Och ! Jess, lad; she is fery ponnie, pit he's no so pad— pit very goot too." " Does Jess play any tricks on you, William?" " What pusiness you speak o' tricks? He's fery mischeevin' wi' a pody, pit for a' that there's no a wan in Resolis could pc a match wi' him."' In due course " the contract " approached, and after William asked her. in the presence of many an honest witness, if she had any objections to him, whether she would always go to the Free Church with him, and so forth, althougn he couldn't dance a step, none danced so lightly as he did. It was 5 o'clock that summer morning when the "contract" party broke up, and William went home with a light heart to think that in JO days the marriage day would come, when his happiness would be complete. When ,it was known that Jess had openly I accepted William and that the contract j had actually taken place, the intended i couple became the subjects of universal | discussion in Resolis. To tell the truth, ; enthusiasm was great, while speculation as to William's behaviour became very keen. It was known that he went to Invergordon, where his purchases included a frock coat, a belltopper, several pairs of snow-white stockings, pair of white gloves, and sundry other articles more or less intended to grace the marriage day. His present to his bride was a chest of drawers, made, as he said, " oot o' the i'cry pest mahogany." Invitations were sent to all " the neebors," who sent presents of fowl, duck, ham, eggs, whisky, cakes, and a hundred other things useful and appropriate. Compare this marriage , with that in Aberdeen mentioned by Dv ! Alexander : "Fan [wheii] Sarnie an' me wus mairriet there was a byowtifu' brakfast set doon ; sax-an'-therty blue-lipppt plates (as mony plates as mony fowk), naetly full't o' milk pottage, wi' a braw dossie o' gweed broon sugar i' the middtle o" ilka dish, an' as protty horn-speens as I ever Caird Young turn't oot o' 's caums lyin' aside the plates ready for the fowk to fa' tee." William's marriage was as infinitely superior to that in Aberdeen, with its porridge and fresh milk, as the Aberdeen wedding is to the modern, socalled, beggarly affair called marriage i which in boast of nothing better than a cup of coffee and a miserly cookie. William Mackeddie's wedding day came at length. About 1 o'clock groups were i quietly making their way to Springfield. j The bagpipes pealed out loud and clear. I and Colin the fiddler, who had no equal .n his l-pnderng of strathspeys, hornpipes, and country dances, was ready to take his " seat on the loft " when the fun j began. The guests assembled, William | took up his position in front of the Rev. i Donald Sage, and awaited his Bride s arrival. When Jess entered', dressed in a "silk goon." William -visibly blushed Seven long, long j'ears ! He was conqueror at last. " Do you t^ke this woman to be your ! wife, and will you promise to love her, \ to honour her. to nourish and cherish her all the days of your life, until death do you part?"' said the minister. William might not follow its full significance, but knowing that Mr Sage could do no wrong readily nodded his assent :

and never was a. promise moi'e faithfull'v

kept. After service tea. whisky, oatcakes, and cheese were handed round, then two hours of games, and at 5 o'clock the guests sat down to dinner. And such a dinner! It was a " Highland dinner," fit for a king. Then followed dancing and various refreshments in endless courses. Songs in Gaelic and English were given with great glee. About 5 in the morning the company broke up. William could neither Tead nor write, nnd Jess, who could do both, showed her Christian character by beginning the nr=t day of their married life by keeping family worship. William listened in rapt attention, while Jess began by reading a wellknown Psalm : Set them thy trvtf upon Hie Lord, And be thou doing <»ooci And so thou in the land slia't clv/ell. And verily have food. Aft°r the Psalm she read to him out of the Gospels, and explained in Gaelic when there was a difficulty for William to follow the srnse in English. When Sunday < amo William and Jess went to get " churched." for no marriage was considered complete without it. More than 40 years after that Sunday I frequently saw William and Jess still sitting 'Side by side in the same pew. Their faces were a continual study to me. Often William's beamed like one about to enter into "the rest that remalneth/'

' often with an expression of -absorbec ecstasy he was in the third heaven. 1 " hearing things which is not lawful foi a man to utter." Jess, no less devoted, had her affections on William, but vcr> much too "on things vhich are above." On that glorious Sabbath morning, when the sun bathed Resolis in foods of light, William and Jess heard Mr Snge lead, I with pathos which words cannot describe, as the closing Psalm — Thou wilt ma show "the path of life; Of joys theie is full 6tore ; Before Thy. face, at Tky right hand, Are pleasures evermore — which was sung to the tune " Martyr* | dom." William knew the Psalm by : heart, and he sang • Jpss sang too. Xf there is anything in Kingsley's theory, William and Jpss may have' frequently sung the same vnrds *on .many Sabbath Days in that- Upper Country of which the Sabbath in Resolis when they were churched was but a type.

According to 'bathers, people eat 20 per j cent, more bread whon the weather is cold I than when it is mild.