The late April noon
Dickson McCunn was never to forget the first stage in that pilgrimage . A little after midday he descended from a grimy third-class carriage at a little station whose name I have forgotten . In the village near-by he purchased some new-baked buns and ginger biscuits , to which he was partial , and followed by the shouts of urchins , who admired his pack -- `` Look at the auld man gaun to the schule '' -- he emerged into open country . The late April noon gleamed like a frosty morning , but the air , though tonic , was kind . The road ran over sweeps of moorland where curlews wailed , and into lowland pastures dotted with very white , very vocal lambs . The young grass had the warm fragrance of new milk . As he went he munched his buns , for he had resolved to have no plethoric midday meal , and presently he found the burnside nook of his fancy , and halted to smoke .