A Traveller boy gets a lift in the coach of the Angel of Dea...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1975.200
Original Tape ID
Summary
A Traveller boy gets a lift in the coach of the Angel of Death. His family are to be visited, but only the dog is taken.
Stanley Robertson introduces a true story that he calls 'The Angel of Death', learned from his grandfather.
About a hundred years ago, a Traveller family were staying in Ballater in their caravan. They had one son, Sandy, aged about twelve, who went around the area hawking. One day when he was very tired, a coach pulled by six horses came past and the driver offered him a lift, but said that he had some collections to make on the way. Sandy sat with the driver. They stopped to pick up passengers, all with glazed expressions. None of them spoke. They stopped at a house, where the driver was early, and Sandy looked through a window, and saw a man dying. The coach driver entered, and beckoned the dead man, who walked out with him.
Sandy, realising that the driver was the Angel of Death, asked to get off as soon as they reached the outskirts of Ballater. As he left, Sandy asked the driver where his next stop was: it was his parents' caravan, the Evening Star. Sandy ran to warn his parents, but the caravan was on fire when he arrived. However, his parents were safe. The family dog died in fire, so the Angel of Death didn't go away empty-handed.
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good