Rivalry between Banff and Macduff traced to the hanging of M...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1953.245.B10; SA1953.245.B11
Original Tape ID
Summary
Rivalry between Banff and Macduff traced to the hanging of MacPherson.
The rivalry between Banff and Macduff goes back to the hanging of MacPherson. Some of the bigger lairds were encroaching on his estate, so he was only taking back his own, and it was said that he robbed the rich to give to the poor. He was captured, but his retainers rode to Edinburgh and got a pardon for him. When the Banff men on the Gallowhill saw the messenger coming, waving the reprieve, they put the clock forward a quarter of an hour, and they hanged him. Even in Charles 'Codlins' Simpson's time, a Banff lad wouldn't go out with a Macduff girl. Macduff was a rendezvous for MacPhersons, being on the same side of the Deveron as the Montcoffer woods. Talk of changes to the mouth of the Deveron. MacPherson was being chased and jumped into the Deveron, but he left his bonnet behind in the whirlpool beneath the Bridge of Alvah. The pursuers thought that was the end of him, but he was in Banff that night.
The Banff lads used to shout at the Macduff lads, "Fa shot the loon?" [Who shot the lad?] A lad had been playing between the Volunteers' targets and was killed by a stray bullet. The Macduff lads cast up to them, "Fa hanged the man afore his time? Put up the clock a quarter of an hour." And:
Banff it is a burgh toon
A kirk withoot a steeple
A load o muck at ilka door
An damned unceevil people.
Banff is a town of lawyers and hotels, but Macduff lives on commerce.
Item Notes
Charles 'Codlins' Simpson was a youth in the 1890s.
Item Subject/Person
MacPherson, James, fiddler
Recording Location
County - Banffshire
Parish - Gamrie
Village/Place - Macduff
Item Location
County - Banffshire
Parish - Banff
Village/Place - Banff
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good