Measuring Land

While his father was 'missurin lan' Conal Gillespie recalls 'cairtin chains' in this week's Ulster-Scots language column.

Amang the poets A laike the maist bes a bhoy cried
Charles Murray fae Aberdeen.  Es beuk o' poems
"Hamewith", brocht oot i 1909, bes writ i braid Doric
Scots.  Murray shewed kintra fowk i a wie at wus true
tae lif'an no yin bit couthy.  Sim scholars alloo at
Murray wus the foremaist poet screevin i Scots afore
Hugh MacDiarmid.  Murray maun hae lairned es Scots
young an minded hit weel fer eh lee'd maist o' es lif'
i Sooth Africa.

A thocht oan Charles Murray the ither day quhan A wus
howkin aboot i yin o' mae oot biggins , ettlin tae fin
a bow saw.  The wie ye dae A didnae fin' the saw bit
cum oan twathrie aul chains hingin fae the ruif.  A
leuked oan thaim an mae min' turnt tae Charles Murray
an tae mae faither.  Thon wur missurin chains.  Murray
writ aboot missurin lan', mae faither uist tae dae
hit, an A wus es helper.

I Murray's  poem "Dockens Afore his Peers" a fairmer
bes afore a tribunal maakin a caase fer nane o' es
fairm fowk bein pit intae the army.  Eh lists
ivryboadie oan the fairm fae es wumman, es dochter, an
es auldest sinn tae the bhoys at wrocht tae him.  Aa
the enn eh maks mention o' es young bhoy.  "He's
hardly through his squeelin' yet an' noo we hae a
plan, to lat him simmer i' the toon an' learn to
mizzer lan'".  A thocht oan thaim lines an hoo
missurin lan wus a gye important joab yeirs sine. 

No sae lang sine thair wusnae onie roughness o' catter
i the feck o' kintra airts.  Gif a boadie hed a baag
fiel' tae let fer crappin i Novemmer hit micht bae tuk
bae twathrie differ bhoys.  Saie at twa fairmers tuk a
five acre fiel' tae graw prittas.  Thaim bhoys wud hae
2 1/2 acres each.  Atween thair craps they wud set a
raa o'  cabbage seed fer York plants.  Baith fairmers
wud hae tae missure thon fiel intae twa plots o' 2 1/2
acres.  Thon wus the missurin man's joab.

Mae faither did the feck o' lan missurin i oor enn an
A hed the joab o' carryin es chains.  The aul bhoy
missured fiels oan a Setturday.  Mae da wud stan' i a
fiel an leuk aa hit fer a wee.  Gif hit wus square ir
hed straicht sides eh'd smile.  Eh wud missure the
fiel wi' es chains, dae the sums i es heid an we wur
awa' hame ir oan tae the next fairm.  Hooiniver
clatters o' fiels hev riare shapes an the aul bhoy wud
mak clatters o' missure ettlin tae mak' squares o'
hit.  A'hd trot efter him cairtin chains.  Noo an agin
eh'd stap, tak oot a beuk an dae his sums, til eh hed
the fiel' missured.  A niver missured lan' maesel' bit
ivryboadie kens thair acerage noo.