The Scottish Summer School

Once again we meet, and meeting,
Eagerly renew the thrills,
Summer School-mates all, repeating
Last year's fun among the hills:
Plodding through the soaking stubble,
Peering hopefully at rubble
Remnants of a ruined broch,
As again the northern summer
Sends the rain-clouds down the loch.

Archaeologists! We're tougher
Than the average lot of chaps,
See how cheerfully we suffer,
Faced with distribution-maps,
Plans of hill-forts, stone cists, castles,
Scotland's past done up in parcels
Neatly tied by expert hands,
When upon the classroom platform
Lecturer after lecturer stands.

Cracking jokes about the Legions
As we have our buns and tea,
Out of all the local Regions,
Ours the only one for me!
We're the heirs of all the ages,
Scampering through History's pages,
Indoors, outdoors, back and forth:
Borders, Lowlands, Highlands, Islands
Oh, wha's like us in the North?

‘early 1950s’

NOTES

• Charles Thomas’ comments (letter 10-i-1998); his date for SP's poem:
'Early 1950s. The Scottish Summer School in Archaeology was an annual sort of WEA event, run from Glasgow by Annie Robertson, and at the Edinburgh end regarded as a sort of joke/penance. SP went to it once or twice, but not after 1956 as far as I know; he was always amused by it, and this seems to be a pastiche written for Betjeman. [Eds: Thomas had received the version titled: 'The Scottish Summer School/Mr Betjeman joins the Summer School' from the writers for comment] It was July or August and of course it always notoriously rained.'

It is unlikely that SP wrote this for Betjeman. SP on occasions altered or re-attributed an existing poem to suit the recipient. There are no internal references in the poem to JB's (unlikely) presence at any of these events, set very much in a Scottish frame.

• Ian Ralston: 'The Summer school, still running [2017], was set up by the Council for British Archaeology (Scottish Group) in 1952. It is in essence an extended guided field trip.' https://archaeologyscotland.org.uk/summer-school/