- 3 months ago
After her second husband’s death, Chris Guthrie moves to Duncairn and buys a half-share in a guest house. Ewan is drawn to socialism and is increasingly radicalised.
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00:00.
00:30In the stillness of the steps, I was suddenly aware of the silence below, as though all
00:51the shrouded town also stood still, deep breathing in the curl of the fog.
00:56No need to hurry, if only once in the peace of the ill-tasting fog, in the blessed desertion
01:05of the windmill steps so few folk used in Duncairn town.
01:12Rest for a minute in the peace of the fog, or nearly a peace but for its foul smell, like
01:20the faint, ill odour of that silent place where they'd taken Robert's body a few months
01:25before.
01:33Oh, Robert man, had you stayed to help?
01:37Somehow we might have found the road together.
01:39I thought hardly at all what I'd do after Robert's funeral that so shocked Seggart.
01:53I'd carried out all the instructions in the will, and gone back to the manse.
01:59The empty manse.
02:00Mother?
02:02Mm-hm?
02:04I've applied for a job.
02:08A job?
02:09Who for?
02:11Why, for me.
02:12But if I get it, you'll have to sign the papers.
02:15But...
02:16But that's daft, Ewan.
02:18You're only 18, and you haven't finished college yet.
02:22And then there's the university.
02:25Not for me.
02:26I'm tired of college.
02:29And I'm not going to live off you.
02:32Especially as you haven't much to live off.
02:34And just what is this job?
02:36A four-year special apprenticeship at Gowans and Gloag in Duncairn.
02:40The steelworks?
02:42Ewan, you'll go daft in a job like that.
02:45I'll try hard not to.
02:47Especially as it's likely the only job I'll get.
02:50And I can come and see you quite often at the weekends.
02:54Then Cairns only 20 miles away.
02:56Oh.
02:58And where do you think I'm going to buy it?
03:02Here.
03:02In Seggart, aren't you?
03:05You used to like it before Robert died.
03:08Aye.
03:09Before Robert died.
03:14Does anything ever matter to you at all, Ewan?
03:18What?
03:20Where you're going to stay for one thing when I've gone?
03:23Well, I can't stay here forever.
03:25They'll be wanting the manse for the new minister.
03:28I know.
03:31Then there's only one thing.
03:33If you get this job,
03:35I'm coming to bide with you in Duncairn.
03:39Get it, he did.
03:43And I signed the papers of apprenticeship.
03:46Dreech things they were.
03:48Then I set about seeing to myself.
03:53My second husband was minister over at...
03:55Her name was Mrs. Cleghorn.
03:57And she ran a boarding house on Windmill Bray.
04:00A broad-bit house on the high hill that rises over Duncairn.
04:05And she'd advertised for a partner,
04:07with a bit of siller,
04:09to help her run the place.
04:12Aye, Mrs. Cahoon.
04:14It doesn't matter that you're a widow.
04:17I'm one myself, but...
04:19But what?
04:22Well, you're a minister's widow.
04:25Faith, it's guy hard work running a lodging, who she can?
04:28Not the sort of thing you'd be used to.
04:30Mrs. Cleghorn,
04:31I wasn't always a minister's wife.
04:34It was guy hard work running a Crofton Kinraddy,
04:36and that near single-handed.
04:38I dare say I can manage to help run a boarding house.
04:42A boarding house, is it?
04:46Aye.
04:47Dare say you could.
04:51Your advert said that you were looking for a partner
04:54to put money into the...
04:55boarding house.
04:57Aye, I'm not.
04:58The place is needing redecorating.
05:00Things need see and tell.
05:03How much were you thinking of?
05:05Well, I've still got things to settle in Saget,
05:07but I think once I've sold my furniture
05:10and paid off some debts,
05:12I'd be able to offer you a deposit of £150.
05:16The rest you could take out of my share of the profits.
05:19But I'd understand if you'd a better offer.
05:23Faith, Mrs. Cajoon,
05:24yours has been the only offer.
05:28Well.
05:30Well.
05:31If we're to be partners,
05:33we'd best get to know one another.
05:35Focca me, ma.
05:36And folk call me, Chris.
05:40Right, Chris.
05:42I'd best show you around the rest of the boarding house.
05:45All ended.
05:53Put by.
05:55Robert himself, no more than a name.
05:59I'd loved him so deep
06:00that the day he died, something had broken in me.
06:06Something went numb.
06:08Still.
06:08And stayed so.
06:13Fine.
06:14That'll hold your room till you're ready to move in.
06:17When do you think it must be, Sergeant Leslie?
06:20Oh, I'd take up my duties and done care next week,
06:22Mrs. Cajoon,
06:23so Monday, if that's all right.
06:25Aye, fine.
06:26Some of the rooms are still being redecorated,
06:29but yours is done.
06:30Oh, I thought I could smell you painted with the place.
06:33Oh, it's been just a naffa expense.
06:36I could've never had afforded it
06:37if I had taken on a partner.
06:39And she'll be helping me look after the ludget,
06:41the boarders.
06:42She's coming tonight for segget.
06:44For segget?
06:46That's her name.
06:47Mrs. Cajoon.
06:48Her man was a minister,
06:50cried her there a long time,
06:51to see he looks at.
06:52A fleet, trig woman
06:54that could muck a buyer
06:55more riddy any day than Snuffle a Sam.
06:57You ken her?
07:02Well, mistress,
07:04so you're away, then?
07:07I am, that, Ike.
07:10Likely you'll not be sorry
07:11to see the last of segget.
07:13Nor at me, I dare say.
07:15Oh, there's some tain pleasure
07:17in your misfortune.
07:19Aye.
07:20They're saying that you've been living up
07:22at the manse in one room this past while,
07:25and that you've less than a hundred pounds
07:27to your name.
07:29They're right about both.
07:31Though God knows how they came to hear it.
07:33Oh, segget will overhear it,
07:36though you may whisper the thing
07:37at the dead of night
07:38ten miles from a living soul
07:41in the hills.
07:44Likely they'll think it had judgment on me
07:46for being proud and stuck up.
07:48I'd pay no heed to them, mistress.
07:51I won't.
07:55You've been a good friend, Ike.
07:56If I'm ever in Duncairn,
07:59I'll drop in and see you.
08:02Good luck, mistress, go.
08:10I soon got into the way
08:11of the boarding house and the work.
08:13At half past five,
08:14my alarm clock would go,
08:16and I'd be out of bed and dressed
08:17and go down to the kitchen
08:18to make tea for those that wanted it.
08:20Well, well,
08:24they'll soon be howling for their meat.
08:33Whatever made me talk to
08:34keeping out a lodging house?
08:37A boarding house, please,
08:39Mrs. Clegghorn.
08:41Boarding.
08:41Look out, it's leather in there, wind.
08:48I ain't a pair of bloomers
08:50to my name.
08:51It's not darned
08:53so I bet you can hardly sit down.
08:55Aye.
08:56It's time you bought a new pair.
08:59Mine?
09:00I've a fair bit of pardon
09:01to my ain't to ease it.
09:03But you haven't.
09:04So get out of this
09:06damp trade, lass,
09:09and fore you like me
09:10and talk to bloomers
09:12instead of them
09:13frilly things that you wear.
09:16They'll kill you dead
09:18yet with a call.
09:20Aren't your legs frozen?
09:22No, not them.
09:25Fine legs.
09:26Oh, you're not blight.
09:29And who told you they were fine?
09:32Oh, men.
09:34Aye.
09:35I've not out the dead
09:36and enjoyed them fine
09:38and would again
09:40if you gave them the chance.
09:48Soon after,
09:49there'd be an uproar
09:50of banging pans
09:51as Ma cooked the porridge
09:52and bacon and sausages
09:53and coffee and tea
09:54and swore at young Meg
09:56for being late.
09:58Sorry, Mrs. Clegghorn.
10:00I just slept in.
10:01Slept in?
10:02You're supposed to be here
10:03at seven.
10:03You're kind of seven, do you?
10:04Then you're blown
10:05as we all swore you.
10:06Sorry, Mrs. Clegghorn.
10:07Ach, stack up that range.
10:09I've been there bare booted.
10:10That's the table set,
10:11Mrs. Clegghorn.
10:12Right, Mrs. Cajun,
10:14hit the gong
10:15and bring them down.
10:16So I'd hit the gong
10:22and down they'd all pour.
10:24Miss Smurga tried.
10:26Awful respectable.
10:28Sitting neat as a pin,
10:30eating her grapefruit
10:30like a sparrow.
10:31All of the same.
10:34When you're ready.
10:35Feet.
10:36Supping as porridge
10:37and goggling at me
10:38over his collar.
10:38Do you want to have the butter?
10:40Does anyone got the butter?
10:43Ewan,
10:44indifferent to them all
10:44as usual,
10:46lost in a book.
10:47Miss Ena Lyon,
10:48the typist,
10:50lipsticked and powdered
10:51even at that hour.
10:52Boy never uses one word
10:53for 60 minutes.
10:53Next to her,
10:54Archie Clearmond,
10:56a nice loon
10:56who went to university.
10:59And Mr. Piddle,
10:59who was a reporter
11:01on the Duncairn Daily Runner.
11:02A fine paper,
11:04the runner.
11:05Awful useful
11:06for lining the shelves.
11:08Mr. Quaritch
11:09worked beside him
11:10on the paper.
11:11Some kind of
11:12sub-editor creature he was.
11:14I reading books
11:15and criticising them
11:16in the paper.
11:16Joy will be your young lady.
11:18And the last
11:18was John Cushney,
11:20shy and red.
11:22He was a clerk
11:23at a drapery depot
11:24and he shared
11:25Archie Clearmond's room.
11:27You should have gone
11:27to the concert
11:28Miss Lyon.
11:29They were doing
11:29Beethoven, you know.
11:31Is that a fact now?
11:33I wish I had,
11:34now you tell me.
11:36I'm very fond of music.
11:38I just love
11:39a good talkie
11:40with a catchy tune.
11:42Could you pass the crew
11:43up, Mr. Quaritch?
11:44I'm in a guy hurry
11:45this morning.
11:46Me and Mr. Robinson
11:47have got the sale on.
11:48Aye, by all means,
11:49Mr. Cushney.
11:52Aye, Andy.
11:54How are things
11:54in your trade, Sergeant?
11:56You're not providing us
11:57with many good stories
11:58these days.
11:59Eh?
12:01Oh, no, no.
12:02We've got everything
12:03under control.
12:04I think.
12:05Oh, have you now?
12:06Well, I'm sorry
12:07to hear that.
12:09Professionally speaking.
12:10We're both sorry.
12:12Aren't we, George?
12:13Oh, I'm very sorry
12:15to hear that, Sergeant.
12:21May I have another
12:22cup of tea,
12:23Mrs. Cajun?
12:24I'll go and make
12:25some fresh.
12:25I'll get some fresh.
12:45By ten,
12:46the lot would have
12:47clattered away
12:47on trams and buses,
12:49on foot and a run.
12:50Mr. Piddle
12:52hurrying away
12:53on his bike.
12:55Ewan in his
12:55dungarees
12:56after his first day
12:58in the steelworks.
12:59Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
13:29Mr. Cavendale!
13:31Yes?
13:32Up here, charging level.
13:54Metal containers, fine casting.
13:57That's the sort of thing we make here, Mr. Cavendale.
14:00You'll be starting off here in the furnace.
14:03Later on, you'll be moved on to the machine shop,
14:06then the stores, then the drawing office.
14:11You'll see later special apprenticeship lads
14:13to start at the bottom here in the furnace.
14:17That's fine by me, Mr. Dallas.
14:19How many men have you worked with?
14:21Over a thousand in the whole poundings.
14:24Three pounds as many just after the war.
14:26Aye, that was the day of the high wages and the bonuses.
14:29They'd like that.
14:30Well, down their throat for the most part.
14:32Dogs, horses, things.
14:34Spent at the usual Keeley things.
14:36Keeley?
14:37Aye, the Paulde Parish folk.
14:39Shiffless, though.
14:40They'll never get much better than they are.
14:42Don't let it worry you.
14:44You won't have much to do with them for a very long.
14:46Say hello.
14:47No.
14:48Don't expect they will.
14:49Looks like we're getting another college muck at Norman.
14:52I missed the country sore those first months in Duncairn.
15:05But I'd over much to do to weep.
15:08More than enough for me, but not for others.
15:11There were plenty of unemployed in the toon.
15:14Yawning and wearied.
15:15With their flat-soled boots and their half-starved faces.
15:20I'm starving wifey.
15:24He's a diner.
15:27All right.
15:34Though I haven't got one to spare.
15:42He nodded, said no thanks, and looked away.
15:46And I hurried on.
15:49Suddenly trembling.
15:51My lips grown wet.
15:54Oh, God.
15:55No porridge again.
15:56Is that the best you can manage?
15:58You're lucky to have even that.
16:00If it's ham and eggs you're wanting,
16:01you'll have to wait till you're earning a man's wage.
16:04And that's no likely for another two years.
16:07It's no likely even then.
16:08Why things are gone at gowns?
16:10How's that?
16:11You'll have served your time.
16:13Oh, I lost my job for it.
16:15Bloody sack the apprentices knew when their time's up.
16:17Save paying them a man's money.
16:19And do you think that'll happen to you?
16:21Well, why?
16:22Maybe to me the same as the others.
16:23You know the stinking college lads they're ticking on.
16:25Ach, away.
16:27It's college lads doing working at gowns.
16:30Ah, well, you see, they're in special apprenticeships.
16:32It's easy as bloody winking.
16:34They spend a few months here, a few months there.
16:36Then they get office jobs.
16:38Brewing their clean collars and setting their doubts
16:41getting out orders.
16:42They don't get that bag.
16:43Yeah, that's no fair.
16:45Nah, they've been trained as managers, you see.
16:47We've had one in the furnaces since two months back.
16:50Black-haired, stuck-up mucker.
16:52Always ever find to speak to anybody that likes us.
16:54And a punch in the bloody face if you're no careful.
16:57I didn't believe it.
16:58You have any the guts?
16:59What have I no?
17:00You're just jealous cos he's got brains in you, have any?
17:03That's all.
17:04What brains?
17:05Ah, he's only good swank.
17:06Anyway, me and the boys are planning a wee bit of surprise for Mr bloody Ewan Tavondale.
17:14What's his name?
17:15What's your looks out, you and Tavondale?
17:25Hi Meg.
17:26Just coming up to see your mother.
17:28Has she still got that spare bed to let?
17:30Supposing you gang in spirit her, Mr Treese?
17:33Right.
17:34And we will.
17:35Thanks Meg.
17:36Is it for him?
17:37Aye.
17:38This is Stephen Selden.
17:40The party's sent him up to help me organise the branch.
17:43Hello Meg.
17:44Hello.
17:45I'd best hurry or I'll miss my tram.
17:51Not very friendly, Jim.
17:53Aye, well, you know what us communists are like.
17:56Aye, raping and murdering the women like they do in Russia.
18:02If you move in, she'll likely sleep with her door snippet.
18:08Sorry Meg.
18:09My fault.
18:10Wasn't looking.
18:11That's all right.
18:15Mr Tavondale!
18:17Yes?
18:18Nathan.
18:30We'd better get to you, Geordie.
18:32Or Dallas will be at us again.
18:34In a minute.
18:35Nice and quick, Shane.
18:36Nice and quick, Shane.
18:37Nice and quick, Shane.
18:38Nice and quick.
19:05If you're leaving these shovels much longer, we'll take root.
19:08Let's get up on that hoist.
19:09You take it easier, Mr Tavondale.
19:11These are my lazy muckles.
19:13By the way, I'm doing a talking plush for broads in half an hour.
19:15I expect to see you there.
19:18I'll be there, Mr Dallas.
19:20Watson Crookshank, that's us.
19:22But he's Mr bloody Tavondale.
19:24Aye, choppy-nosed bastard.
19:26I'd like to feed him.
19:36Now, do you know any poetry this morning, Norman?
19:39Poetry?
19:40Oh, aye.
19:41Aye, a fine bit.
19:43Would you like to hear it?
19:44Oh, we'd love to hear it, Norman.
19:46Now, how does it go?
19:48Aye.
19:49There once was a gent, Tavondale.
19:52Oh, really, the guff marks me pale.
19:55A pimp and a sucker.
19:58A dirty wee mucker.
20:00And his name, as I said, Tavondale.
20:03Yeah, that's awfully good.
20:05Do you know any poems, Ali?
20:07Aye, as a matter of fact, I know one about the same fella.
20:10About his mammy, in fact.
20:14Now, this Tavondale had her mother.
20:22Hello?
20:34Yeah.
20:41Hello?
20:42Yes, ma'am.
20:46Yes...
20:48Yes, ma'am.
20:52you
20:59Uh
21:22What the hell's going on here?
21:24Tavondale!
21:25Tavondale!
21:26Tavondale!
21:27Tavondale!
21:28Tavondale!
21:43How are you feeling?
21:46A bit better after a night's sleep.
21:48The doctor says it'll be a couple of days before you can go back.
21:55Ah, damn!
21:57It means I'll miss the lectures in Frostford bronze.
22:01Oh, Ewan.
22:04You're so young.
22:07And so different.
22:10Different from whom?
22:12Everyone.
22:14Me.
22:15Your father.
22:18You're my son.
22:20But sometimes I feel more kin to Meg the maid.
22:25I'm not so different.
22:28But I want to know things.
22:32But I love you, Chris.
22:34I love you up to that...
22:37...phosphor bronze hair.
22:51What was the fight all about?
22:53Filth.
22:54Nothing you need worry about.
22:57They don't much like me, the Keeleys.
23:03Keeleys?
23:05What's a Keeley, Ewan?
23:07Folk that work with their hands?
23:10Your father was a ploughman afore we were wed, and I was a quine in a crofter's kitchen.
23:15Maybe you'd call us the same.
23:17That ploughman's not a Keeley.
23:21Anyhow...
23:22Anyhow what?
23:24It's just that though my father was a ploughman and you came from a kitchen, that's got nothing to do with me, has it?
23:33I'm neither you nor my father.
23:36I'm myself.
23:37I'll strangle that cat if it comes back. Just look at the scarf they gave me.
23:43And as for that lazy bitch of Quine Meg, I'll give her the same.
23:46Look at the time in her in that here I get.
23:48Two days I've had to attend this kitchen on my own.
23:51Maybe she's been taken ill?
23:52Maybe no.
23:54Malaga roused by a cat and forsooked by a jade.
23:58Will you tear hoose and see what's come o'er?
24:07Is Meg Watson in?
24:13Meg Watson's gonna have to look for a job.
24:16I see.
24:19Will you tell her I want to know why she left me?
24:22My name's Mrs. Cahoon and if she comes back the morn you can tell her I'll say nothing about it.
24:28Meg was fair to go back when she heard from my brother that he'd bashed your son in a bit fecht at the works.
24:34Well she needn't be.
24:40I think you owe me a sixpence.
24:47There you are mistress.
24:50Enjoy your money while you have it.
24:53There's a time coming when your class won't have it long.
24:57My class?
24:58My class was digging its living in sweat.
25:03While yours lay down with the whine in the dirt.
25:07Goodbye.
25:08So Meg came back next day and no more was said.
25:20I had other things to think about.
25:23A new lodger was coming.
25:25A lass up from Dundee.
25:28A school teacher said Ma.
25:30And English.
25:32Her name was Ellen Johns.
25:34What's she like?
25:36Ha.
25:37Stuck up looking bitch.
25:39Slumpet and English.
25:42Thin as a sparrow.
25:44I never could have by that stuck up kind.
25:47Some folks say that I'm stuck up.
25:49So you are.
25:51So's your bit ewing.
25:53I'll maybe thole the two of you about the house.
25:55But I'll be darned to sin or ash if I'll bear with another of the brew.
26:00Ach, go away lassie.
26:03I'm in bad tune this morning.
26:07Take the teacher a cup of tea.
26:09Come in.
26:26Good morning.
26:28Thought you'd like a cup of tea.
26:30Thanks.
26:35You'll be Mrs Clegghorn's partner.
26:37Hi.
26:38I'm Mrs Cahoon.
26:41And you'll be Miss Johns.
26:45You're a bit different from what I expected.
26:48You're a wee bitty different yourself.
26:53I knew for certain then what was wrong.
26:56The English lass was shy as could be.
26:59But carrying it off with a brassy front.
27:02The kind of cool courage I'd always liked.
27:04And as we smiled at each other.
27:07The brassiness went.
27:09The quine flushed sweetly.
27:11Was suddenly neat and demure and forlorn.
27:14No more.
27:16Like a prize pussycat.
27:18Nice to have had a quine like that for my own sometime.
27:22As well as had Ewan.
27:24But that was just dreaming.
27:26She wouldn't have been mine any more than was Ewan.
27:28Oh but they made you feel like an old trochled wife the young folk.
27:33And suddenly there came a waft of stray wind through the window.
27:39A lost wane of the wind that had tinted itself in play in the heights of the summer month.
27:44A lost child of the wind that goeth towards the south and turneth about unto the north.
27:54It whirleth aloud continually and returneth again according to his circuits.
28:02Ach they be here lass. Have you seen a ghost?
28:05Eh?
28:10No.
28:12Only smelt one.
28:16Ma, I want the day off. Can you spare me?
28:20If you like. You're hardly my slave.
28:22I know that. But can you manage yourself?
28:26I've managed a good 55 years off and on.
28:30And as far as I can at the moment I'm neither crippled nor a brain concussion.
28:36Where are you waiting?
28:38I'm off to the country.
28:39Oh.
28:49I thought Ewan was in here.
28:51Ewan?
28:53He's my son.
28:55Sometimes.
28:57No, there's just me, Mrs Gahoon.
28:59Oh.
29:00Then he must still be up in his room.
29:06I'm going for a job today.
29:07Up until the Howe of the Merns.
29:09I thought Ewan might go as well.
29:11Would you like to come if you've nothing else to do?
29:14I'd love to.
29:16Only I've no money.
29:19You see, I've come dead broke from Dundee and I won't get an advance till Wednesday.
29:23Oh, I'll pay.
29:24You can pay me back sometime.
29:28That's nice of you, Mrs Gahoon.
29:31Fine.
29:33What's your name?
29:35Your first name.
29:36Oh, Ellen.
29:37Ellen, really.
29:39But when Dad came up from London to work in Dundee, I went to high school and they misspelt me Ellen.
29:44It's been that ever since.
29:46Aye.
29:47You look like an Ellen.
29:53Basic metallurgy.
29:55God, that sounds drich stuff.
29:57I can let you have a novel if you like.
29:58No, thanks.
30:00I can't be bothered with novels.
30:03Well, count yourself lucky.
30:04I have to read about 20 of the damn things every week.
30:07Who writes them?
30:08What for?
30:09Well, they're mostly written by wee chaps without chins.
30:12And God knows why.
30:13He's keeping quiet about it.
30:14Unless it's to provide deserving reviewers like myself with the odd half croon of copy when I sell them to a bookshop.
30:21I can let you have one to review if you like.
30:23A mystery.
30:25Thanks.
30:26But I prefer reading about the mysteries of phosphor bronze.
30:28Oh, well, let me know if you change your mind.
30:31See you later.
30:45So you're up?
30:48I'm feeling my feet.
30:50It's too hot to lie in bed.
30:52I'm off for a day in the country.
30:54Oh?
30:55Have a good time.
30:59But aren't you coming?
31:01Not if you want to be on your own.
31:04Oh, don't be daft.
31:06I'll always want you with me.
31:10That's nice.
31:12Well, to be cuddled by a naked man at this hour in the morning.
31:17Sorry.
31:20Oh, Ewan.
31:24Robert, I said you were a born prig with no sense of humour.
31:29Be ready in half an hour.
31:33Soon we were out of Duncairn.
31:35And there below us the how of the merns.
31:38Crowned, shod and be belted in green and gold.
31:42Silver chains where the merns' barns wound and spun.
31:46Far off the shimmer where the grampians rode.
31:48Then, next thing I knew, we were climbing the slug road.
31:54And there came to me a sudden memory of a winter night.
31:58Years before.
32:00When father and mother and Will and myself.
32:03And the loons long lost and the twins that died.
32:07Had flitted across those hills in a storm.
32:10With battered lanterns.
32:11In the unding of sleet.
32:16Chris?
32:19Where are we going?
32:20To Aberdeen?
32:22No.
32:23We'll get out of debt and wait the bus back.
32:41That's the hill of fear, that far away one.
32:44And that's the barmican.
32:49Oh, will you listen to them?
32:52Listen to what, Mrs. Cahoon?
32:54The peases.
32:56Oh, the peewits.
32:58Aye.
33:00Crying over the barmican.
33:02They've been crying all these years, never stopping.
33:06With me never here to listen to them.
33:09Lush.
33:11But their throats must be dry.
33:14Come on, I'll show you Cairndoo where I was born.
33:25What a stage it's at.
33:28If my father saw this, the ground would surely tremble.
33:40What a stage it's at.
33:44My father saw this, the ground would surely tremble.
33:55I wandered from place to place, like one seeking that which she wouldn't know.
34:08Maybe something of that sureness mislaid in the past,
34:13like one seeking that which she wouldn't know.
34:17Maybe something of that sureness mislaid in the past,
34:20long ago when I was a quine.
34:23More room.
34:25More room.
34:27More room do we want than we have.
34:28Do you think we are gentry?
34:30We are not gentry.
34:32But we're not dinks either.
34:34Or you might think it the way we're all living on top of one another.
34:36It was barely enough room before the twins came, but now there's eight of us.
34:40Eight?
34:42You're welcome.
34:44So...
34:46What do you think?
34:47What do you think?
34:48You're welcome.
34:50But here there was nothing.
34:52Nothing but change that had followed every pace of my feet,
34:56quiet padding as a panther might.
34:59might I found Ellen and Ewan sitting speaking low and clear to each other not
35:17to disturb me cat like the two of them unheeding in the sun haunted by no such
35:26memories as mine we're low Chris you're the gate oh
35:38fancy climbing the barnacle I haven't been up there since I was a bear well you
35:43don't look as though that was long ago a nice bear like is all that no I didn't
35:49mean that it's just that you don't possibly look as though mr. Tavendale
35:52here with your son well he is worst luck the locks all mine come on then carry
36:00your bag Chris I can manage it myself I'm not in my second childhood either
36:22it was a mistake to mention your mother's age she's putting us in our place Chris
36:27grew up doing this sort of thing you call your mother Chris always have done are you
36:35country born in a way I was born on a croft in Kinraday but I know little of the
36:40land and care less it's not my job what is I stoke a furnace at the steelworks come on
36:49you poor fusionless creatures I waited for them to catch up and I thought of my father who all
36:58his years in Cairndoo had never climbed the Barmican Hill over busy with charving and slaving his
37:06flesh body and soul and that dark fierce heart into the land to ring substance there from
37:12it's not before time I'm hungry aren't you Miss Jones aren't I hungry as hell there's an old
37:23Pictish fort on the top we can have a picnic there
37:26the swines the ignorant loutish swines this place has been here since before Christ was born
37:40a holy place and some thick heated yokels make this sort of a mess a gang of them by the look of it
37:48I either had a fair fire going must have been some sort of a celebration celebration they didn't
37:55have to leave this Keeley's from Duncair nor Aberdeen you and don't be so angry you know nothing
38:03about it I agree with your mother there are more important things to worry about I didn't expect that
38:12you'd think different
38:13I wonder what they were like who the men who built this
38:42place not very different from us not in the essentials but they must have been if history
38:50has any lesson at all it's just that men haven't changed since the days of the cave paintings except
38:56to take up civilization and that was a calamity and it's gods and kings and culture and classes but
39:03then you're a socialist what's that to do with it everything if there was once a time without gods and
39:10classes couldn't there be that time again I suppose so I don't care it won't come in our time and I've
39:17got my own life to lead well I think that's rot how can anyone live their life a free life in this age
39:23with capitalism falling to bits everywhere and fascism coming the rule of the beast they won't rule me I'm
39:31myself no you're not you're a consequence and a product as all of us are as they argued my mind went
39:43back again to my own father so the whirly McGig went round and on father now you and the hell little to
39:52either of them only to me who came in between and carried the little torch one from the other on that
39:59dreech daft journey that led nowhere when I awoke they were nowhere in sight far off drowsy a ringdove
40:12crooned in the little woods scampering down to act promoter still peases cried the other apprentices
40:23ah they don't seem anxious to talk to me and I'm not anxious to talk to them killies a lot of them
40:34well maybe you should try talking to them the working classes are just waiting to be captured
40:41and led and it's up to people like us to do it and be part of history in the making eh
40:47and don't be so horribly superior you'll never lead if you can't be an equal
40:55right you two tell me we're starting back just coming
41:04Alex I just wrote another poem do you want to hear it it's about Tavindale
41:19ah what the swine be he gave me as good as I gave him
41:22ah he gave me a bloody sight in there
41:24who could have thought the toff could punch like that
41:28here listen to my poem
41:29ah see you you're no right to heed
41:31he could have reported us to the manager couldn't he
41:34but he did not
41:35hello
41:44hi hello
41:46it's a warm day
41:48I'm going down to the harbour for you
41:51coming
41:52aye
41:55good idea
41:57make a fag
42:03aye things are in a fair bad way
42:17sacked about a dozen men in the machine shop
42:20could have had the guts of leaving tack to the sea
42:23yeah a fine bit of life that hey
42:25been a sailor
42:26ah and if they don't near starve you to days
42:30no Alec what I'd like is a fern
42:32plenty of grub and be your own boss
42:34my mother could never tell you different
42:37can't the union do anything to improve matters
42:40the union
42:41they just talk and grab your subscription
42:44never give anything
42:45there are twisting a lot of swine in the union
42:48my old man's I been keen on them
42:50but he's labour you see
42:52there's lots of chaps labour
42:54my stepfather was
42:55and I'm a minister
42:57I thought the toffs were a Tory or liberal
43:00are you labour?
43:01nah I'm nothing
43:02the Tories have the money
43:03they're the muckers for the working man
43:05blathers Geordie
43:07they've got the money out right
43:08but they take good care to keep it for themselves
43:10aye
43:11I feel maybe the next labour government
43:13will no be as bad as the last
43:14and fitter you Ewan
43:16me?
43:20I haven't exactly made up my mind
43:21I don't know any more than you three
43:24less in fact
43:25what I know it's just stuff out of books
43:28when's the next union meeting?
43:31tonight
43:32where you think of the going?
43:34well I suppose we can't blame the union
43:36for not doing anything if we don't attend its meeting
43:38ah true enough
43:38we've got a new ledger cried selden
43:41he's a red
43:42you know a communist
43:43he's a saying the unions
43:45have been a use until they get new leaders
43:46maybe
43:48aye we'll see you to meet in the night then
43:50you know Chris
43:53a lassie look you's fair going to waste
43:56you should marry some cheal
43:58oh aye
44:00and who should I marry?
44:02Mr. Piddle
44:02I said marry
44:05not martyr
44:06do do that
44:07he'd never get up for the marriage bed
44:10that's a dying decent thing to see
44:12well life is damned indecent as we both know
44:17you know
44:21the first time ever I lay with my man Jim
44:25I couldn't make up my mind to be sick
44:28or to sing
44:29oh ma
44:30but there was more of the singing than the sickness for all that
44:35even though it felt like gone to bed and been cuddled by a hair in creel
44:39but my thing Chris
44:43that lassie just bubbles for a man to set her on fire
44:47or the dead when I was a lass
44:49oh I think they still do
44:51no
44:51no
44:52you know they're eyes cold and hard and
44:55unhandled as a
44:57slab of grey granite in a symmetry
44:59I'll go away with you
45:00through
45:01look at who our teacher
45:03greater Miss Johns
45:05whipping her out of the house like a foot
45:07with books and papers and
45:09meetings to attend
45:10never a lad to gear a bit squeeze
45:13you don't know
45:14maybe she's squeezed on the slide
45:16not her
45:18she'd just freeze up
45:20not but she's not bonnie in a kind of a way
45:24though I never could stick the black like Jade's myself
45:28she's very bonnie
45:30you've half a taste Chris
45:33although Cushney and Clearman think the same
45:37then you eat her up at breakfast
45:38I suppose that most of the coins about her
45:43it's like a pack of scrawny scarts
45:46it's like a sleek pussycat like our Miss Johns
45:50just sets a chill for a tingle to stroke her
45:53come on Steve
46:09give us the song
46:11a rising
46:13a rising
46:17a rising
46:18criminals
46:18of war
46:20for we
46:22to turn in
46:22and that
46:25can't
46:26face the
46:26end
46:27of
46:28and
46:28the
47:00Watch the human race.
47:05Wait, lads, wait.
47:07Mate, that's far enough.
47:08You can turn back now.
47:10What do you mean, turn back?
47:11We're marching to the town hall.
47:13Aye.
47:14The provost won't see you.
47:16We have orders not to let you in the town hall.
47:18This is a peaceful demonstration.
47:21Never mind the muckers.
47:23They can't stop our march.
47:25We're fast and back.
47:26Keep the light.
47:27Yeah, hold the light.
47:29Take care.
47:30Back this...
47:31Get him.
47:33Right on that, Pop.
47:34Get him.
47:35Get him.
47:35Get him.
47:36Get him.
47:37Get him.
47:37Get him.
47:39Get him.
47:44Come on.
47:46Come on.
47:47Get him.
47:48Get him.
47:48Get him.
47:49Hey.
47:50Come on, Danny.
48:06Here!
48:07Come on!
48:08Come on!
48:10Come on!
48:10Come on!
48:20Let's go.
48:50Ewan, what were you thinking of?
48:55Getting mixed up in a thing like this?
48:57I don't know.
48:59I saw the brewery lorry jammed by the pavement, full of empty bottles.
49:04Something just took hold of me.
49:06Is that so?
49:09And what have their troubles to do with you?
49:11Nothing.
49:14Nothing.
49:16Keeleys. That's what you used to call them.
49:19Some of them are lights.
49:22Some decent.
49:23Most brainless.
49:26God knows why I mix with them.
49:28They don't like the same things I do.
49:30They haven't the same interests.
49:31Aye.
49:33Your interests.
49:35You've been neglecting them of late.
49:38And your books with all these union meetings.
49:40Ewan, something's happening to you.
49:46No.
50:08Oh, I said, no!
50:11You weren't!
50:12What?
50:16Oh, I knew he'd know right to do it.
50:19But from what I mind of Sim Lesley in Saget,
50:22he likely enjoyed using his baton.
50:26Anyhow, it's Guy Akward, the two of them in the same house.
50:31Ah, Ariel.
50:33If that's how you're Ewan feels,
50:37I'd never much like him for bobeys, myself.
50:41Although maybe the Mickle Sumpf, you know,
50:44was doing them here in his duty, like.
50:47His duty?
50:49To bash a young boy
50:51before the boy had done anything to him?
50:54Well, well, you're fair stirred up.
51:06I'll think up some son-say lie as an excuse
51:10and tell him the morn to seek other lodgings.
51:18So, eh, that's how it is, Mr. Lesley.
51:21We need your room for another.
51:23Someday we promised it to a whiley back.
51:25You never mentioned that before.
51:27Well, I'm mentioning it now.
51:28By God, you'd better watch out, Mrs. Cleggorn.
51:34It doesn't do to get in ill with a force.
51:37Aye, and we've heard things.
51:39And an eye's been kept in this place.
51:41Look, I don't care a toughenie dam
51:43if I the bobbies in Duncair
51:44and glue theirselves to the door, knocker.
51:46I'm warning you.
51:48We've heard about young Quaine Johns
51:50and the things she's been teaching the Waynes.
51:52And don't think I don't know about young Tavondale.
51:55Who are you to insult a decent woman
51:58that always pays her rights on the nail?
52:00If my man had been alive,
52:02he'd have kicked you out, Sergeant Stripes and I,
52:04you great, coarse, bap-faced gollock that you are.
52:08I wasn't trying to insult you.
52:10Give me on him out of your lip
52:11and I'll tackle the kicking of your doubt myself.
52:23So there you are, lass.
52:25We're sure to a lodger.
52:28I'll try to get another.
52:30Ah, don't worry about that.
52:32Some crater will soon come round.
52:35I thought the same,
52:37though it was a shame to lose Feet's rent.
52:39But he couldn't have stayed in the house at all
52:41after the tale that Ewan had told me.
52:44Ewan stirred as I'd never seen him stirred.
52:46Why, lassie?
53:10Is the provost in?
53:12He is.
53:13Tell him I'd like a workroom.
53:15And what name shall I tell the provost, please?
53:17My name's Ake Ogilvy, tell him.
53:20And ask him if he minds the time in Lawrence Kirk
53:23for now a guy near drooned him in a stone horse trough.
53:31This way, please.
53:40Aye, Jimmy, lad.
53:42Well, Ake.
53:43Oh, God, you've fairly landed here, eh?
53:45A fine house and a grand business.
53:47No, I've no done so badly, Ake.
53:49And no shortage of coins to see to your needs at the door and the table.
53:53And no doubt in your bed.
53:55Oh, whist, Ake, for God's sake.
53:57You're a merit now when the wife's on the prowl.
54:00Merit?
54:01Well, well.
54:02Here.
54:03Do you mind if it happened to Kate Duthie, Langsyne?
54:06Oh, for God's sake, Ake.
54:08Keep off the subject of Kate Duthie, eh?
54:11That's so in the past.
54:12Oh, surely, surely.
54:13There'll no be many in Duncairn I'll have heard of you fair.
54:16Oh, there's no anybody.
54:17Aye.
54:18Well, as you said yourself at the time,
54:20she was probably macking the whole thing up.
54:22Aye.
54:23If it brings you here anyway,
54:26you'll just be passing through.
54:28No, no.
54:30I'm on the lookout for a job.
54:32And I minded that you had a fine big sawmill.
54:36Ah, well, you misunderstand Ake.
54:38I have nothing to do with tacking on men.
54:40My manager does that, and I seldom interfere.
54:43Oh, well, I hardly want his job.
54:45Though I'd tackle a foreman's.
54:47Aye, a foreman's job.
54:49I could manage that fine.
54:52Ake.
54:53Aye, mistress Gahoon.
54:54You look as bonny as ever.
54:55But what are you doing here, Ake?
54:57I've come to bide, if you've roon.
55:10And so it was, as I stood on the windmill steps that autumn night,
55:15dreaming like a gouged bairn.
55:17Funny this habit I had of finding some place wherever I bad,
55:24to which I could climb by Malone for a while,
55:25and think of days new finished and done.
55:27Above Blue Eerie by the marled druid stones,
55:29above Seget in the ruined canes,
55:30above Seget in the ruined canes,
55:31and the
55:54The fog was thickening,
55:57blanketing Duncairn.
55:59Time I went into those mists of the future.
56:13Grey Granite continues next here on BBC Four,
56:17or watch the whole of a Scot Square trilogy at any time on BBC iPlayer.
56:24The
56:30movie
56:34The
56:36It's
56:37It's
56:40It's
56:42It's
56:43It's
56:45It's
56:47It's
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