TAM O' SHANTER  (R8x48)  Barry Priddey  Tam O'Shanter Set  1- 8 1s set, cross RH, cast 1 place & turn LH to face 1 st  corners  9-16 1s dance RSh reel of 4 with 1 st  corners & end with a LH turn to dance face out opposite sides between 2s+3s 17-24 1s dance Fig of 8 round 2 nd +1 st  corners (LSh to 2 nd  corner to start) & turn LH to face 4 th  corner 25-32 1s dance reel of 4 with 4 th  corners & pass LSh to end Lady between 2s & Man between 3s 33-40 1s dance reel of 3 across giving LSh to 1 st  corner & end in 2 nd  place own sides 41-48 2s+1s+3s circle 6H round & back

"Tam o' Shanter" is a narrative poem by Robert Burns. Written in 1790, while he was living in Dumfries and first published in 1791, this poem describes the habits of Tam, a farmer who often got drunk with his friends in a public house in Ayr, and his thoughtless ways, especially towards his wife, who is waiting at home for him. After one late-night revel, Tam rides home on his horse Meg while a storm is brewing. On the way he sees the local haunted church lit up, with witches and warlocks dancing and the devil playing the bagpipes. He is still drunk, still upon his horse, just on the edge of the light, watching, amazed to see the place bedecked with many gruesome things such as gibbet irons and knives that had been used to commit murders and other macabre artefacts. The witches are dancing as the music intensifies and, upon seeing one particularly wanton witch in a short dress he loses his reason and shouts, `Weel done, cutty-sark!' (cutty-sark: "short shirt"). Immediately, the lights go out, the music and dancing stops and many of the creatures lunge after Tam, with the witches leading. Tam spurs Meg to turn and flee and drives the horse on towards the River Doon as the creatures dare not cross a running stream. The creatures give chase and the witches come so close to catching Tam and Meg that they pull Meg's tail off just as she reaches the Brig o' Doon. The poem first appeared in the Edinburgh Herald and the Edinburgh Magazine in March 1791, a month before it appeared in the second volume of Francis Grose's Antiquities of Scotland, for which it was written. Robert Burns had asked the antiquarian to include a drawing of Alloway Kirk, to which Grose agreed, as long as Burns gave him something to print alongside it. Burns sent him three witch stories associated with Alloway Kirk, two of which he said were "authentic", the third, "though equally true, being not so well identified as the two former with regard to the scene". The second of the stories was, in fact, Tam o' Shanter. Burns based the character of Tam O'Shanter on Douglas Graham (1739–1811), a friend who lived at Shanter Farm, about half a mile inland from the fishing village of Maidens in South Ayrshire. The Tam O' Shanter Urban Cottage on Bidston Hill, Merseyside was named after the poem in 1837 after being built beyond a stream which was said to repel witches. It attracts both Robert Burns fans and those interested in witch stories. The Tam o' Shanter cap, a 19 th C traditional Scottish bonnet worn by men, is named after the poem. The tam o'shanter's cap is normally constructed in cylindrical fashion out of six "pie segments" of woollen fabric, is attached to a 1-inch headband of the same material and has a toorie in the centre. It was first worn throughout north-western Europe during the 15 th C. Before the introduction of cheap chemical dyes in the mid-19 th C, the Scottish bonnet was made only in black, brown, or blue cloth, the blue kind dyed with woad or indigo ("blue bonnets"). Now it is available in a wide variety of colours, particularly tartan. The tam o' shanter was the original form of the Balmoral bonnet and the Glengarry in Highland dress and is now best known as the headgear of a number of Scottish infantry regiments and those with Scottish affiliations. A khaki Balmoral bonnet was introduced in 1915 for wear in the trenches by Scottish infantry serving on the Western Front. This came to be known as the bonnet, or tam o' shanter, later abbreviated among military personnel to ToS, and replaced the Glengarry – a dark blue cap with coloured dicing, which had been worn with khaki field dress by Highland regiments during the early months of the war. Today, the Royal Regiment of Scotland and some regiments of the Canadian Forces and Australian Army continue to wear the ToS as undress and working headgear, with various battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland identifying themselves by wearing distinctive coloured hackles (often red) or toories (dark green, red, blue or more often khaki) on their bonnets.