Thank you, Ms. Maeve and Archie Fisher and Jim Dixon, for posting the "Coll MacKenzie" lyrics AND adding the glossary notes to explain the Scots words meanings!

I study Scottish history now, mostly on my own. Ms. Maeve, I am an autodidact now! But maybe not entirely since my stepmother teaches me how to find the books I need since 'it is important to know how to do one's own research,' except when I am utterly frustrated and then she helps. Someday I will go to Scotland and research the original documents. I have total respect for Archie Fisher's knowledge of not only major historical events such the hardess of the croft laws but also everyday life such as the Callotype Salon which awakened curiosity in me about the evolution of photograohy. And to encorporate all into a song! Merveille!

He brings such feeling to his poetry; the lyrics "crueller as a deer yoked to a plough" is even more sad than "to raise 3 sons without her was the hardest thing on earth."

To explain why I am so late to acknowledge your posting: I really checked the thread obsessively at first, but I am too shy to contact you which my stepmother says is good since "it is rude to harry people who freely offer to aid one and most worthwhile things take time so this can be approached as an opportunity to cultivate patience" with which she once had difficility also. Then my father simultaneously worried about the Internet to the point of limiting my time to almost zero AND was offered work in Luxembourg and Belgium to arrange and conduct which is heaven to him. This time the cadet members of the family travelled along since it is not the Third World where he used to do good medical works. I never saw my father relaxed before; he is happier after four months of music. I enjoyed, I was edified. So, this combination effectively stopped my web searches until we are now "back in what passes for homebase" (my stepmother can be sarky about our peripateticness).

I appreciate this so much and I am glad that some other people wanted to understand the lyrics too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Three true thanks to 3 kind people.

Sincerely
Marianne