Blackwood's Magazine/Volume 2/Issue 12/Buckhaven

The following queries are addressed to the author of the account of the gypsies of Fife, being suggested by the research and industry which he has displayed in collecting memorials of that vagrant race. They relate to a class of persons, who, distinguished for honest industry in a laborious and dangerous calling, have only this in common with the Egyptian tribes, that they are not originally natives of the country which they inhabit, and are supposed still to exhibit traces of a foreign origin. I mean the colony of fishermen (Danish, as has been presumed) settled in the village of Buckhaven in Fife, unless my memory deceives me, (for I have not at present leisure to verify the fact) by King James V., among other honourable attempts to introduce arts and civilization into his kingdom.

There is a foolish little book, called the History of Buckhaven, still, I believe, hawked about by pedlars, and well known to the curious students in stall pamphlets and penny histories, amongst whom I respectfully ask leave to enroll myself. It contains a series of idle jests and stories, like those fathered on the Wise Men of Gotham, tending chiefly to ridicule the good people of Buckhaven, for their alleged ignorance of all that is unconnected with their own maritime employment; nor is it by any means devoid of a strain of low and coarse humour. Yet even this vituperative and injurious account of the honest fishers of Buckhaven and their wives, contains, or rather indicates, some peculiarities respecting them which irritate the curiosity of a local antiquary. In my copy of this respectable treatise, the title-page professes to give "the antiquities of their old dress, the bucky-boat with a flag of green-tree, with their dancing, Willie and his trusty rapier," &c. In this, however, as in too many cases of more importance, we may adopt the old caution, fronti nulla fides; for little or nothing is said in the treatise itself of the matters thus formally announced in the title. It is ​however stated, that the fishers still retain a dialect quite different from any other in Scotland, and, as the author expresses it, almost shift the letter H, and employ the letter O in its stead. I cannot however trace, in the examples he has given us of their conversation, any thing illustrative of this peculiarity, nor do I observe any very peculiar word, excepting the epithet rolicouching, with the derivation and meaning of which I am not acquainted, unless it be the same with rollochin, a word given in Dr Jamieson's Dictionary, as applicable to a frolicksome wench.

It might however be worth the while of your correspondent, to inquire whether this people have still any phrases or dialect peculiar to themselves, as indicative of a northern origin. The dance mentioned in the title-page of the penny chronicle of Buckhaven, and all mention of which is so culpably omitted in the body of the chronicle, (tantamne rem tam negligenter!) has often excited my curiosity. It is well known that the dances of the northern people were one of their favourite festive amusements, remains of which may be traced wherever the Scandinavian rovers acquired extensive settlements. The Pyrrhic dance of the Goths, performed with naked swords in the hands of the dancers, by pointing and uniting which they formed various figures, and particularly that of a hexagon or rose, are mentioned by Olaus Magnus, as well as their ring-dance, and other exercises of the same nature. The same dances are repeatedly noticed in the Northern Ballads, translated by Mr Robert Jamieson; and every thing serves to show that the exercise was a favourite amusement with the northmen.

In modern times we find traces of this custom. The author of the history of Whitby mentions the sword-dance, as practised by the modern Northumbrians, the direct descendants of the followers of Inguar and Hubba, the sons of Regnar Lodbrog. Like the Swedes, in the time of Olaus, one of the various combinations of the sword dance at Whitby consists in imitating the form of an elegant hexagon or rose, which rose is so firmly made, that one of the party holds it up above their heads while they are dancing, without undoing it. The dance concludes with taking it to pieces, each man resuming his own sword.

In some of the remote Shetland islands the sword-dance is also still practised. But in general it is so little known, that, some few years since, a party of dancers from the Island of Papa came to Lerwick and represented it, as a public exhibition, with great applause. As described to me, there were eight persons on this occasion, seven of whom, supposed to represent the seven champions of Christendom, were supposed to perform their exercise for the amusement of the eighth, who represented a sovereign or potentate. Some rude couplets were recited (of which I could obtain no copy), and the dance was performed with evolutions similar to those I have described. Some of the performers were very old; and there is reason to believe this Pyrrick dance will be soon altogether forgotten. I am desirous to know if any vestiges of it can yet be traced among the Fife fishermen; and, in general, whether they have any thing in the customs, traditions, or superstitions, differing from those of the inland people, and allied to the manners of Scandinavia.

I make no apology to your respectable correspondent for engaging him in a troublesome, and yet a trivial, research, upon such authority as the penny history of Buckhaven. The local antiquary of all others ought, in the zeal of his calling, to feel the force of what Spencer wrote and Burke quoted:—"Love esteems no office mean."—"Entire affection scorneth nicer hands."—The curious collector, who seeks for ancient reliques among the ruins of Rome, often pays for permission to trench or dig over some particular piece of ground, in hopes to discover some remnant of antiquity. Sometimes he gets only his labour, and the ridicule of having wasted it, to pay for his pains; sometimes he finds but old bricks and shattered pot-sherds; but sometimes, also, his toil is rewarded by a valuable medal, cameo, bronze, or statue. And upon the same principle, it is by investivating and comparing popular customs, often trivial and foolish in themselves, that we often arrive at the means of establishing curious and material facts in history.

Edinburgh, 8th March.