Mixter Maxter

The 19th century tune Crimond seemed particularly appropriate for our ceremony for Dick, because my co-mother-in-law's grandfather went to school in Crimond when his father was Coastguard at Rattray Head.

We discovered this link when Dick and I went with Muriel just a few years ago for a short break in Fraserburgh - by public transport all the way! - to see the new Lighthouse Museum, and our landlady there very kindly drove us to Rattray Head.

And I've just remembered (7 months later) that our son recited the 23rd psalm in Gaelic at the Edinburgh Mod when he was about 10 years old - and won the prize. He may have been the only competitor; he had been taught by a marvellous lady, Ethel Bassin, a music teacher, when he was at the height of his Arthur Ransome phase and wanted to be able to do all the things that the hero of Great Northern did, like sailing, playing the pipes, watching birds with a telescope and speaking Gaelic. That's why I went to Gaelic evening classes for the next 3 years. Miss Bassin told us that she had come to Edinburgh from England in 1924, and everyone she met in the street was either going to a lecture or coming away from one.

Orna Gilchrist is a 19-year-old friend from Portobello who is well used to playing the fiddle in public.   She played most perfectly for Dick on the 29th, and the family and I are immensely grateful to her.

Winifred Sillitto, Dunbar 2005