Straws in the wind ...
It's fascinating to see which posts on this blog attract most traffic. Sometimes things come out of left field.
For the past few days a lot of the visitors to this blog have been picking up the page I posted in July 2012 - at the time of the Olympics - about the full words to the British National Anthem.
The post concerned lists the full words for the five verses of "God Save the Queen" which are still current.
But what was in it that should come up now?
Then I realised. It includes a "PS" about the fact that someone had hacked the Daily Telegraph page with the official words for use at Jubilee celebrations, or else someone at the paper was being naughty, because that page also gave the 18th century anti-Jacobite verse. I wonder if this is what some people were looking for.
In the original 18th century context, the anti-Jacobite verse would have been understood not as an insult to all Scots, but specifically to those ultra-reactionary romantic idiots who were trying to restore probably the most incompetent, disastrous, and dictatorial dynasty ever to rule Scotland, England, or any other part of the British Isles.
The House of Stuart provoked literally dozens of civil wars in Scotland, not to mentione the big one in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, often by over-ruling the parliaments of both England and Scotland and trying to force their religious ideas on all four nations, usually against the will of the majority. "Bonnie Prince Charlie" might have been a romantic figure but the people of the time had very good reason to regard a Stuart restoration as a seriously bad idea and many Scots were just as keen as the English to see that rebellion defeated. That's why many Scots fought against the Jacobites.
However, outside the 18th century context the verse certainly comes over as an insult to Scots in general so I will not be quoting it here or including a link!
For the past few days a lot of the visitors to this blog have been picking up the page I posted in July 2012 - at the time of the Olympics - about the full words to the British National Anthem.
The post concerned lists the full words for the five verses of "God Save the Queen" which are still current.
But what was in it that should come up now?
In the original 18th century context, the anti-Jacobite verse would have been understood not as an insult to all Scots, but specifically to those ultra-reactionary romantic idiots who were trying to restore probably the most incompetent, disastrous, and dictatorial dynasty ever to rule Scotland, England, or any other part of the British Isles.
The House of Stuart provoked literally dozens of civil wars in Scotland, not to mentione the big one in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, often by over-ruling the parliaments of both England and Scotland and trying to force their religious ideas on all four nations, usually against the will of the majority. "Bonnie Prince Charlie" might have been a romantic figure but the people of the time had very good reason to regard a Stuart restoration as a seriously bad idea and many Scots were just as keen as the English to see that rebellion defeated. That's why many Scots fought against the Jacobites.
However, outside the 18th century context the verse certainly comes over as an insult to Scots in general so I will not be quoting it here or including a link!
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