Roamin’ in the gloamin’ (1928)

28 ROAMIN' IN THE GLOAMIN' constant references to it as the greatest country in the world. "England's a far better place!" he concluded. For a few seconds I was too stricken with anger to do or say anything, but then I leaped at him like a wild cat. He was bigger and older than me and I got the worst of the argument, but as I wandered down the lane nursing my injuries I felt within me a throbbing of pride that I had been able to strike my first blow for the country I adored. Fifty years have gone by since then. The flame of love for ' 'Scotland's name and Scotland's fame" still burns as fiercely in my breast. There is a great bit of the natural "fechter" in every Scot and when this tendency is fanned by native song or the skirl of the bagpipes he begins to hold up his head and cast his eye round for any trouble there may be around requiring settlement. It doesn't matter very much if it is his own affair or not — sing "Annie Laurie" and he'll greet, whistle "The Campbells Are Comin' " and he'll throw out his chest, let him hear the pipers play "Up WY The Bonnets" and he'll search out at once for the nearest recruiting office if there happens to be a little war on anywhere ! The emotion roused in the heart of a Scot under either or all of these circumstances has reacted in the same way for centuries. It inspired the victors of Bannockburn ; the Scots who marched to the relief of Lucknow; it made the Fifty-first Division (The Highland Brigade) the most dreaded Division by the enemy on the Western front and inspired the Kaiser to issue a special "hymn of hate" against the lads who were proud to wear the tartans of that immortal Division.