| Description | Charlotte Higgins and Jock Higgins talk to Charles Parker.
Track 1: Charlotte Higgins talks about her best friend and tells how her friend helped her by giving her things to sell and clothes for her children, 2.31 mins
Track 2: She talks about people driving her away from bits of ground, even though they were rights of way, and dealing with country policemen. She says that the 'gypsies' knew rights of way better than the policemen because they carried maps, and the policemen were not well educated, 2.19 mins
Track 3: She talks about 'going to a house' near Aberdeen and meeting a 'gentlemen from abroad' and being attacked by a cockatoo. She talks about meeting bad people but says that nice people make up for the bad ones, 2.01 mins
Track 4: She says she likes hawking in the country villages, and talks about girls marrying country people, and discusses names usually associated with 'tinkers'. She talks about the people who fled to the Lowlands after fighting between the Scottish and the English, 2.01 mins
Track 5: She talks about 'the real tinkers' who fled to the Lowlands after the battles of Culloden and Glencoe to live in caves and camps and says that they are remnants of the Highland Clans. She talks about the family names of the clans, 1.31 mins
Track 6: She talks about her friends, the Lindsays and MacDonalds. She says that their speech was different - 'very refined' and they loved pipes and music. She talks about people's speech in different parts of Scotland and about 'the cant' and 'gibberish', 2.38 mins
Track 7: She talks about superstitions associated with rats, needles, names, and the moon. An unidentified man talks about superstitions associated with washing shirts. Charlotte Higgins talks about superstitions associated with birds, for example owls are called 'broad-faced chickens', 3.58 mins
Track 8: Ewan MacColl asks about other superstitions about birds. She talks about the future of the travelling people and says that some 'tinkers' are doing well in Perthshire in car dealing. She says that she thinks some travellers will not be able to live in houses, 2.55 mins
Track 9: She talks about boys who had deserted from the army during the war being looked after by travellers and says that they will always help people in need. She talks about children being taught not to wash their face in the same basin that they wash their dishes in. She talks about travellers' superstitions about not mentioning the first day of the week, 2.54 mins
Track 10: She talks about German prisoners of war in the farms in the area, who made wooden toys. An unidentified man recites a poem. Charlotte Higgins recites 'a tinker's toast' which praises Scotland. She talks about not being allowed to swear when she was a child and country people's names for the travelling people, 3.05 mins
Track 11: She talks about Buchan people's names for travelling people. She talks about Buchan people's broad speech. John talks about travelling people fighting in the First and Second World Wars, 2.22 mins
Tracks 12-13: John talks about young men coming back from the War and having to sleep on the floor because they found the beds too soft. He tells a story about a woman whose son went to the War and had a dream about her dying son, 2.37 mins
Total: 33.38 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF549C0336080 |