Percy’s Cup

(Image by the extremely well-named ArchiveTheNoo.)
A few weeks back, my sister Miriam presented a cup to a young Highland Dancer at the renowned Cowal Gathering in Scotland. The cup is new this year, and was named for Percy Patrick Geddes, our grandfather. The recipient was Angela Ramsay from Forfar.
I emailed Miri and asked her to scribble something down for a guest entry in this blog. She declined, and just gave me some notes, which I will print almost verbatim because despite her protests they do a grand job.
Miri and her husband Matt are both settled in Oxford, so the trip to the Cowal Peninsula meant going up to Scotland. I lived in Scotland for several years, so the start of her account fills me with happy nostalgia:

Can I ask how you lived in Scotland for so long?? Glasgow was terrifying. We made the rash decision to head into town for dinner Friday (Sauciehall (?) Street) as it was Matt’s B’Day. We witnessed a man running down the footpath brandishing his belt and whipping random members of the public as he ran past (luckily across the road from us). Shortly after a car drove across the wrong side of the street, onto the footpath near us and pinned a guy to a shopfront…
The violence continued on the ferry from Glasgow to Dunoon on the Cowal Peninsula (45 mins west of Glasgow). 10:20am and over half of the passengers were drinking. A brawl ensued and a man punched a teenaged girl in the face… I can only assume Edinburgh is more civilised.

Ah, brings a tear to the eye. Finally our intrepid duo made it to the Cowal Gathering, which is (as it bills itself on its website) the largest and most spectacular Highland Games in the world. And it being Scotland in summer, there was no doubt of the fine weather they would find!

The morning of the Games was kinda miserable- relentless rain and COLD (11
to 15 degrees that day- in August). We paid £10 each to get in- but that didn’t include the Grandstand (full) so we waited for 2 1/2 hours under an umbrella in the mud until the dancing finally started. Yay for the dancing!

Good to see they were treated like royalty as well. Hours under an umbrella in the mud! A few generations back the Presbyterian Church would have called such larking about an orgy and been done with it! Back in those days you were only allowed to kneel, praying, on a pile of rocks! Young people these days, don’t know how lucky they are. [Whereas, down in Yorkshire they really had it tough…]

Pipe bands were stirring (as expected). Food was appalling (as expected). Met Billy Forsyth and he mentioned how much he admired Grandy and how thrilled he was that we’d come. I was pleased we had made the effort though I can’t really say we enjoyed ourselves (and I was acutely aware that a weekend in Vienna would have cost us about the same). Prizegiving at last- presented Cup then missioned it to the ferry and train back to Glasgow… (wanted to get into and out of the central city before the sat night hijinks began).

And that, as they say, is that. I for one am very grateful that Miri and Matt went to such effort. Percy would have been proud to be remembered in this way, but I think it would have made him even more proud to have Miri go and present it the first time. Nice one, sister, nice one.
(Marg, email me or comment with more details about the cup – its actual proper title, for example… And if anyone knows the name of the girl in the photo, I’d like to record it, so she can google herself one day and find this blog post… Name added!