Hi Alastair, it's Margaret Lyon again.

When my mother, Margaret (Peggy), passed away I kept her book Poetical Works of Robert Burns by William Wallace. I kept it in my bookcase for many years, but never looked at it until recently. Inside I found 3 items that might be of interest to you. Two are Scottish Good Wishes, and one is a poem, written in 1903 entitled "Bonnie Lossiemouth", which is where her father, George Geddes, was born. My grandmother, Rose, must have cut that out of the paper, even though she was English, because they lived in Lossiemouth from 1902, when they married, until some time between 1906 when my Uncle George was born and 1910, when my mother was born in Scotston in Glasgow. 

 

The Scottish Wishes are:

 

Where 'er you bide in the world sae wide,

We wish you a nook on the sunny side,

Wi' muckle o' love and little o' care,

A wee bit pursie with siller to spare,

Your ain firside when day is spent,

In a wee bit housie wi' hearts content.

 

and:

 

May the best ye've ever seen,

Be the worst ye'll ever see;

May the moose ne'er leave yer pantry

Wi' a tear drap in his e'n.

 

This last was hand written, and I don't know if that is the Scottish (Glasgow) dialectic spelling of mouse because it is hard to read. I do know it is not a Canadian moose :-).

 

BONNIE LOSSIEMOUTH

 

A Tribue to Elgin's Health Resort.

              ----------

Beside the Moray Firth there lies

    A little seaport town,

Which only just is on the rise

    To glory and renown.

Long years ago this health resort

    Three "cots" could only boast,

But now it is the fines port

    Along the Scottish coast.

 

It has a stretch of golden sand,

    It's got a fine hotel;

So if it only had a band

    No place could it excel.

From grand machines drawn up in state

    The bathers sally forth;

For now it's coming up-to-date --

    The Brighton of the North.

 

There is to be a grand bazaar

    For Stotfield's new parade,

Then all resorts both near and far

    Will quite be in the shade.

The new hotel will be complete

    When summer time comes on,

The grand "Marine" will be the seat

    Of every duke and don.

 

A better golf couse can't be found

    Throughout the Empire wide;

That ditch and whin empede the round

    By non can be denied;

But after all a sporting course

    Is really far the best,

And be there ditch, or be there gorse,

    It fairly licks the rest.

 

The golf-house of the Moray Club

    Is really very fine,

And you can have a jolly "grub"

    For less than one and nine;

In some things it is very cheap,

    In others very dear,

A pretty harvest they must reap

    From off the ginger beer.

 

For if you want to have a glass

    Then threepence you must pay,

But this can not be helped, alas!

    For thirst will rule the day.

The teas are always patronised

    By golfers one and all,

And visitors are quite surprised

    The charge is very small.

 

The smoking-room's a splendid view

    Of all the country wide,

The Moray Firth, so calm and blue,

    With fast receding tide.

The ladies' room is very trim,

    Although a little dark;

'Twas furnished by the wife of him

    Who gave the Cooper Park.

 

The red-roofed church from far you see,

    It is so small and quaint,

It's called St. Gerardine's, for he

    Was Stotfield's patron saint.

From John o' Groat's to Solway Firth,

    Or even further south,

You will not find a place on earth

    Like bonnie Lossiemouth.

 

                        E. L. Galletly.

 

Elgin, 19th February, 1903

        --------------------

 

And I'm sure you know that GOLF stands for:

Gentlemen

Only

Ladies

Forbidden

 

Although that obviously must have 'gone by the wayside' by 1903, even though the ladies still had their own separate rooms.