Ane New Scots Ballat

The wee lass cam' to the lecture ha'

Sing hey, ma linkumdoddie,

To learn o' the Picts an' Celts an' a'—

For eh! she's a wee Scots body.

But the lecturers in the lecture ha'

Sing hey, ma linkumdoddie,

Were Englishmen, not yin but twa!

Which affronted the wee Scots body.

She didna' hear o' the Picts sae free

Sing hey, ma linkumdoddie,

But muckle o' Hallstatt A and B—

Which fuddled the wee Scots body.

She didna hear o' the Celts sae fine

Sing hey, ma linkumdoddie,

Except that they cam' frae east o' the Rhine—

Which shocked the wee Scots body.

So she's awa' tae her Hieland glen

Sing hey, ma linkumdoddie,

An' wickedly laugh those Englishmen—

Hurrah for ane less Scots body!

‘about 1953-4’

NOTES

[Antony] Charles Thomas’s comments in letter 10-i-1998; his date for the poem;
'it is about 1953-4, a year or so before I came [to Edinburgh]. I never taught the Iron Age, but [RJ] Atkinson did, and when I took over SP did while I took on the post-Roman 2nd year classes etc. It was a girl from Inverness or somewhere who sat glumly through 1st year and then told SP at the end she had come to learn about her ancestors and all she had heard was about prehistoric Eastern Europe, so she packed it in. Remember this was virtually before Scot. Nat. affected any of the Universities.'
• from Ian Ralston (Abercromby Professor 2012–2019): ACT is mistaken. He didn't appear in Edinburgh until RJC Atkinson moved to Cardiff, 1958. See Ralston & Megaw (2004) n50. IR confirms that the 'Englishmen' were Piggott and Atkinson (email 3-iii-2020)