Watch this [windy] space – by Stuart Delves

This is my country
The land that begat me.
These windy spaces
Are surely my own.
And those who here toil
In the sweat of their faces
Are flesh of my flesh
And bone of my bone.

From ‘Scotland’ by Sir Alexander Gray

The father of an octogenarian friend of the family wrote the famous poem ‘Scotland’ – a stanza of which I’ve copied above. It’s stirring stuff. And it’s often used in advertising, most famously in the fairly recent Scottish Rugby Union TV commercials. But without permission. So, on behalf of Sir Alexander’s son, John, I found a Scots lawyer prepared to take on the SRU and John was a good few thousand pounds the richer for the trouble.

All of this by way of announcing that as from November there is going to be a regular ‘Letter from Scotland’ in the 26 Newsletter. There’s an exciting energy up here, stoked no doubt by the bracing air, wide open spaces and the sense of being in a nation striving to redefine its identity following devolution. It’s a different country. And a small one that has always punched far above its weight in influencing and improving the world. In our own sphere, crackling right now with the 26 DNA, 26 Malts is just a taste of what Scotland hopes to contribute to this timely and exciting movement.

posted by jim @ 9:44 AM