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  • The Tenant
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The Tenant

Hilton Brown

The Tenant’s gane, the Lodge is shut;
Nae mair, until the Twalth return,
We’ll see him threshin’ at the burn
Or sittin’ shiverin’ in his butt.

A sair wee man, wi’ a’ respec’;
If a’thing wasna as he wantit
He girned an’ grat an’ raged an’ rantit
Till folks was fain t’ thraw his neck.

He made oor road a road o’ fear;
His hunnert-horse-poo’er Sich-an-Sich
Wad send ye loupin’ for the ditch –
An’ ‘Damn yer eyes!’ was a’ ye’d hear.

A sair wee man; but sich maun be.
He pays the Laird a bonny rent
An’ syne the Lairdie, weel content,
Brings doon the rents for chiels like me.

O’ birds an’ fish a michty killer –
Guid send him back wi’ gun an’ creel;
We nivver lo’ed him unco weel –
But, man, we fairly rooked his siller!


Hilton Brown

The Gold and the Grey: some more collected verses 1930-1935 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1936)

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capitalism Highlands & Islands hunting Scots Scots tourism
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Hilton Brown1890 - 1961

Hilton Brown, biographer, novelist and travel writer, was the creator of the daft old sheep-dog 'Glen'.
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