Murray And Scots

The Scots tongue itself had been under pressure since the reform of school education in 1872. As one North-East enthusiast, Alexander Mackie, wrote, 'the vernacular was under a cloud...tabooed and frowned upon by most of our educational mentors.' He added that the publication of Hamewith helped to change attitudes - even in schools:

'in many...some or other of [Murray's] poems are being committed to memory by the pupils' and 'even HM Inspectors hail the "Hamewith" recitations with official approval.'

And the effect was not confined to the North-East - several of Murray's poems became 'household words... far beyond' Aberdeenshire.

Most popular of all was 'The Whistle', the tale of a herd-lad who 'cuts a suppy sucker' from a rowan tree to make a home-made whistle. Having a good ear, he quickly learns traditional tunes and delights the locals with his playing.

'The Whistle' Play

The Whistle

He cut a sappy sucker from the muckle rodden-tree,

He trimmed it, an' he wet it, an' he thumped it on his knee;

He never heard the teuchat when the harrow broke her eggs,

He missed the craggit heron nabbin' puddocks in the seggs,

He forgot to hound the collie at the cattle when they strayed,

But you should hae seen the whistle that the wee herd made!

He blew them rants sae lively, schottisches, reels, an' jigs,

The foalie flang his muckle legs an' capered ower the rigs,

The grey-tailed futt'rat bobbit oot to hear his ain strathspey,

The bawd cam' loupin' through the corn to "Clean Pease Strae";

The feet o' ilka man an' beast gat youkie when he played -

Hae ye ever heard o' whistle like the wee herd made?

But the snaw it stopped the herdin' an' the winter brocht him dool,

When in spite o' hacks an' chilblains he was shod again for school;

He couldna sough the catechis nor pipe the rule o' three,

He was keepit in an' lickit when the ither loons got free;

But he aften played the truant - 'twas the only thing he played,

For the maister brunt the whistle that the wee herd made!

But when he goes back to school in winter, his music is seems an irrelevance to the dominie, who confiscates and burns the whistle. The poem suggests that formal schooling, standardised and utilitarian, represents a threat to local culture. Ironically, 'The Whistle' became a favourite for classroom recitation

Murray followed his great eighteenth century predecessors Ramsay, Fergusson and Burns and created a poetic language which drew on the Scots he heard around him as he grew up. Many of the words and turns of phrase he employs belong to the north-east, but he was careful to make his Scots accessible to readers from other areas as well. So he only occasionally used the regular north-east substitution of 'f' for 'wh', and his best known poem is 'The Whistle' and not 'The Fussle'.