Various instances of Travellers defending themselves; prowes...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1979.30.A5
Original Tape ID
Summary
Various instances of Travellers defending themselves; prowess in fisticuffs.
In modern times there are stories of Travellers being attacked. When Stanley Robertson's grandfather was young, he and his wife were attacked in their camp at night by country yokels. Stanley's grandmother picked up a jockie stick [tent peg], but his grandfather pretended his pipe was a pistol, and scared them off.
One of Stanley's forebears was Auld Jenny the Deevil, who fought bare-fisted, as did his aunt, Lizzie-Ann Higgins. She and her husband were once set upon by rochies [rough types] and beat half-a-dozen of them. Shortly before Lizzie-Ann died, she maintained that she was fine as long as she was eating: it's the belly that keeps up the back. She threw out a minister who started to pray over her.
Stanley's father once had a big man travelling with him who wouldn't work; he leathered the man when he came back from hawking one day to find that the man had eaten all the food.
Item Subject/Person
Higgins, Lizzie-Ann
Recording Location
County - Aberdeenshire
Parish - Aberdeen
Village/Place - Aberdeen
Language
English
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good