Ballad of the dispossessed
QUESTION At the end of their song Letter From America, The Proclaimers sing: ‘Lochaber no more.’ To what does this refer?
The Proclaimers are twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid. They are famous for their perky love song I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), but most of their tunes have a strong Scottish nationalistic bent.
Letter From America, released in 1987, was their breakthrough track. Below the surface of this beautiful piece of harmony is a message about the state of Scotland.
It compares the highland Clearances, the forced evictions in the late 18th and early 19th century, with the loss of industry in the 20th century.
The key to the song is the ‘No more’ refrain. The first time, it goes: ‘Lochaber no more/Sutherland no more/ Lewis no more/Skye no more.’
Lochaber is an area in the north-west of Scotland that suffered during the Clearances while Lochaber No More is the name of a traditional pipe tune. Allan Ramsay set words to it in 1724, as a lament of a conscripted highlander: ‘Farewell to Lochaber, farewell to my Jean Where heartsome wi’ her I ha’e many
day days been For Lochaber no more, we’ll maybe return We’ll maybe return to Lochaber no more.’
In 1883, John Watson Nicol painted Lochaber No More, an artistic portrayal of the Clearances. It depicts a dispossessed shepherd, his wife and loyal dog. She has her head drooped and he gazes into space as neither has the desire to watch the mist- shrouded landscape of their home that recedes behind them.
The Proclaimers evoked this loss with: ‘I’ve looked at the ocean Tried hard to imagine The way you felt the day you sailed From Wester Ross to Nova Scotia.’
The second refrain replaced the list of places cleared in the 19th century with towns that lost their industry in the 20th: ‘Bathgate no more/Linwood no more/ Methil no more/Irvine no more.’ Letter From America was wrapped up in a jaunty little tune that made Number 3 in the charts. Very clever.
Scott Dunne, Elie, Fife.
QUESTION Does the name Alexander have the most diminutive forms?
The technical term for this is a hypocoristic name: a familiar or reduced form of a full name.
Will is a straightforward shortened form of William, but other forms, such as Bill and Billy, distort the original.
Alexander is the Latinised form of the Greek name Alexandros, which means ‘defender of men’.
There are at least 20 hypocoristic forms, including Al, Alec, Alex, Alyx, Axel, Lex, Sandie, Sandy, Sasha, Sander, Xander and Zander. Add to that the Scottish Alasdair, Alastair, Alistair, Alister, Ally, Sawney. With the female form Alexandra, you get Lexi, Ali, Alexa and Xandra.
Two female names, elizabeth and Margaret, have more diminutives.
elizabeth is the Greek form of the hebrew name Elisheva, meaning ‘my God is an oath’, and has more than 40 hypocoristic forms: Bess, Bessie, Beth, Betsy, Bette, Bettie, Betty, Bettye, Buffy, elisa, eliza, ella, elle, ellie, elly, elsa, elsie, elyse, Leanna, Leesa, Liana, Libbie, Libby, Liddy, Lilian, Liliana, Lilianna, Lilibet, Lilibeth, Lillia, Lillian, Lilliana, Lisa, Lise, Liz, Liza, Lizbeth, Lizette, Lizzie, Lizzy and Tetty.
If we include Scottish forms, we also have ealasaid, elspet, elspeth, Iseabail, Ishbel, Isobel, Beileag, Lileas, Lilias and Lillias, plus the Welsh form Bethan. Its chief rival is Margaret, which is derived from Margarita, Latin for pearl.
Its diminutives include Margie, Maggie, Madge, Mamie, Midge, Mette, Maisie, Daisy, Marnie, Meg, Peg, Peggy, May, Mags, Mara, Mari, Meg, Marge, Marg, GoGo, Meggie, Megan, Meghan, Minx, Retta, Greta, Gretchen and Margo. Scotland has Maighread, Mairead, Maisie, Marsaili, Mysie and Peigi, and the Welsh have Marged, Mererid, Mared and Megan.
Pegy is an example of the once common practice for nicknames to substitute a ‘P’ for ‘M’. The transition from Margaret to Daisy comes from the French Marguerite, which refers to the flower.
Sheila McDonald, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.
QUESTION In what strange ways have animals stopped sports matches?
FuRTheR to earlier answers, a football match featuring Sampdoria was delayed until a beekeeper removed a swarm from a corner of the goal netting.
David West, London W5. AS A local Press photographer for Wigan newspapers, I was covering an amateur rugby league match.
The caption I supplied with the photograph below was: ‘Acting half-bark . . . St Jude’s coach Bill Francis, the former Wigan rugby league club centre, tackles a terrier invasion of the pitch during the Ken Gee Cup Final at Robin Park on Sunday, May 24, 1992. his team showed dogged determination in the sweltering heat to beat Orrell St James 24-14.’
Frank Orrell, Wigan, Gtr Manchester.