As a point of information, I was one one of the scaldies of Brechin (NOT Brekin and certainly not pronounced Breekin - a soft 'ch' as in loch) mentioned in the song. The tinks (non-PC, but that's what we called them) used to move into a run-down semi-tenement in the winter and their kids used to go to the local primary school. Since they only went to school in winter, they were always put into classes two or three years below their chronological age. They seemed huge and terrorised us local bairns. I remember particularly a pair of twins called Smith; they had bright carrot-red hair and were as big as most of the teachers. The teacher used to belt them often - I had my fair share of the tawse, but nothing compared to them. I wouldn't tar all of the tinker bairns with the same brush - quite a few of them would join in "oor gang". I must admit, however, that I caught quite a few flechs (fleas to you) from them - my mother used to scrub me raw in the sink and say 'stiy awa fae they tinks!' The Blair mentioned in the song is Blairgowrie. Like Brechin, it was (and I suppose still is) a centre for soft fruit growing - mostly raspberries and strawberries, the berries in the song. These, together with the tatties (potatoes) provided a lot of casual work in Angus for the the tinkers. You could often see them pearling in the Esk at Brechin - its quite a good river for freshwater mussels, although I never found a pearl in any that I brought up. They used to just wade in waist-deep (clothes and all), peer through a bucket with a bit glass in the bottom and pick up the mussels with a forked stick. I don't know whether the tinks still winter in Brechin - all that I've described here was ion the 40's and early 50's. Still we got a good song out it!