H'm... information like you mention, Roger, is what often makes the basis
for a poem I might yet write. I can just see the guy scowling at some corner
table in wet boots and trying not to grimace so loud...
The images he mentions - and the drink he must have consumed before he began
writing are a delight to read about.
And, yes, David, it could well be celtic (Brythonic...). There's plenty of
placenames on each side of the (Scottish-English) border that originated
before the anglo-saxons came and imposed their English language. But I'm
glad they did! And kept it so open in what it could incorporate and change
and invent!
And, thanks Arthur for what you've discovered! If I've got time, the next
time I drive past, it may be interesting to go to the place. (But I might
have an eye open to see if there's a pub and hope there's not a fiddler - or
canned music!). I guess there's plenty of saints whose characters and names
have been submerged or subdued by history. It's interesting to discover yet
another of them!
Bob



>From: Roger Collett <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Ecclefechan
>Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 18:29:37 +0100
>
>Herewith an interesting extract from the Burns Encyclopedia
>
>http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/Ecclefechan.328.html
>
><QUOTE>
>Ecclefechan
>A small village in Dumfriesshire which became the birthplace of Thomas
>Carlyle.
>Burns twice visited the village. On the second visit, 7th February 1795, he
>wrote to Thomson: 'You cannot have any idea of the predicament in which I
>write you. In the course of my duty as Supervisor (in which capacity I have
>acted of late) I came yesternight to this unfortunate, wicked little
>village. I have gone forward - but snows of ten feet deep have impeded my
>progress: I have tried to 'gae back the gate I cam again', but the same
>obstacle has shut me up within insuperable bars. To add to my misfortune;
>since dinner, a Scraper has been torturing Catgut, in sounds that would
>have
>insulted the dying agonies of a Sow under the hands of a Butcher - and
>thinks himself, on that very account, exceeding good company. In fact, I
>have been in a dilemma, either to get drunk, to forget the miseries; or to
>hang myself, to get rid of these miseries: like a prudent man (a character
>congenial to my every thought word and deed). I, of two evils have chosen
>the least, and am very drunk - at your service!'
><UNQUOTE>
>
>Roger










_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com