- 5/19/2025
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00In 1925, Richard Dimbleby and Skip McCamera from the BBC
00:28set out to find out more about the English language.
00:31They set up an educational programme called About Britain.
00:36The aim of the programme was to teach the English language to the best of its ability,
00:42with Richard himself teaching the English language to the best of his ability.
00:48Today, we will look at the history of the English language.
00:52In 1925, Richard Dimbleby and Skip McCamera from the BBC set out to find out more about the English language.
00:57They set out to find out more about the English language.
01:05When they set out to find out more about the English language,
01:08they met a man named Dam Hydro from Loughan-in-Stour,
01:12who lived in England.
01:14They met a man named Dam Hydro from Loughan-in-Stour,
01:16who lived in England.
01:21The number of people who speak the language today,
01:23on Saturday or Sunday,
01:25compared to 1925,
01:27compared to 1925,
01:29was around 8,000 at the time,
01:31which was a significant number for the people involved in the programme,
01:34and a significant number for the local population,
01:38which made it easier for them to learn the language.
01:42Although the name About Britain is still used today,
01:46although the name About Britain is still used today,
01:48it was a great help to the English economy.
01:51it was a great help to the English economy.
01:53And today, a great script has been written by the English language
01:57to help you learn the language,
01:59and to help you be a better person and a better representative of the people.
02:02This is About Britain, Isle of Skye.
02:18Isle of Skye
02:48Isle of Skye
03:19Isle of Skye
03:31We are 200 miles from Edinburgh,
03:34nearly 600 from London,
03:36approaching Portree, the capital.
03:39Over the sea to Skye.
03:41You know the song.
03:49Yet it's a song that sings of the other side of the island.
03:53It tells the story of a man and a woman,
03:56and the events of a few hours in history.
04:05At 8 o'clock on Saturday evening of June 28, 1746,
04:10the fugitive prince, Charles Edward Stuart,
04:13put out in a small boat to cross the Little Minch,
04:16from Bembecula to Skye.
04:18With the militia hunting him everywhere,
04:21it was planned that he should travel
04:23as young Flora MacDonald's Irish maidservant, Betty Burke.
04:30As they approached the shore,
04:32militiamen saw and fired on them,
04:34but they were able to reach the little bay of Kilbride without harm.
04:38And there, leaving the prince sitting on a trunk on the shore,
04:42Flora and the faithful Neil MacEachin
04:45made their way to Monkstead House,
04:47the home of Sir Alexander MacDonald.
04:52Here, Flora found officers of the militia being entertained at dinner.
04:57She was questioned about the prince's movements,
05:00but nothing in her manner suggested
05:03that he was waiting only a few yards away.
05:06Fresh plans were quickly made.
05:12The exhausted prince had to trudge weary miles
05:15along the coastline of Trotternish,
05:17accompanied by MacDonald of Kingsborough.
05:19And late on Sunday night, he arrived at Kingsborough House.
05:23It's said that in this house,
05:25where Johnson and Boswell were later to hear the details
05:28of the great escape from Flora herself,
05:30the prince made a hearty supper and took a hearty glass after it.
05:36Late on Monday afternoon, he set out in disguise again
05:40to walk in heavy rain eight miles eastward.
06:06Flora MacDonald had gone ahead
06:08to help in the arrangements for the prince's escape from Skye.
06:12And in this village of Portree,
06:14she met him for the last time.
06:23But that was nearly 200 years ago.
06:26The village has become a thriving tourist centre,
06:29welcoming all such as have an eye for scenery.
06:32The climber with a tough pair of boots
06:35and the motorist with a tough back axle.
07:02♪
07:32From Portree, the normal procedure is to board a bus
07:36for a tour of the beauty spots.
07:38It'll be a long journey.
07:40Skye is the largest of the Hebrides.
07:42It will be a rewarding journey.
07:45Skye may be over-romanticised,
07:47but there is an abiding appeal in its sinuous sea locks,
07:51in the mercurial changes of the Coulin Hills,
07:54in sunshine and in mist,
07:56in the infinite variety of the bright light.
07:59Skye is not paradise, but it often looks like it.
08:29♪
08:58These are the surface sights and sounds of Skye,
09:01an island rich in fauna and flora.
09:04♪
09:07Architecture, on the larger scale,
09:09is confined to castles like Armidale,
09:12the seat of Lord Macdonald and ascends towards,
09:14in Macleod country,
09:16where the battlements of Dunvegan Castle,
09:19said to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland,
09:23bristle over Loch Dunvegan.
09:26♪
09:49Today, Dunvegan is the home of the 28th chieftain of the clan Macleod,
09:55and the chieftain is a woman,
09:57Dame Flora Macleod of Macleod.
10:01You know, even on a misty, rather drizzly day like this, Dame Flora,
10:05that's a splendid view, particularly the mountain.
10:08It reminds me very much of Table Mountain, you know, near Cape Town.
10:11You've said it quite right, Mr Dimbleby.
10:14It's our Table Mountain.
10:16And I'll tell you the story.
10:18Many hundreds of years ago,
10:20one of my ancestors was in Holyrood,
10:22visiting the King of Scotland,
10:24and he was entertained at a very superb banquet in Holyrood Palace.
10:28And the courtiers treated him
10:30with the magnificence of the entertainment in Edinburgh
10:33and the poor, hard conditions that he endured here.
10:37And my ancestor, not to be haunted,
10:40at once invited the King to come and feast at Dunvegan.
10:45And he prepared a magnificent banquet for him on the top of the table,
10:49and the tansmen stood around with lighted torches.
10:53And they had the King beat cold.
10:56Dinner on the mountaintop.
10:58I hope it was a good one with that climb.
11:00You know, Dame Flora, something I wanted to ask you.
11:03One always associates the chieftainship of a clan with a man.
11:08Now, how is it that you come to be as a woman,
11:11the head of the Clan Macleod?
11:13It is a great misfortune that the 28th Chief of Clan Macleod,
11:17though in the direct line, should be a woman.
11:21My grandfather had four sons
11:24and was surely entitled to think he'd secured the succession.
11:27Yes.
11:28But he only had one grandson,
11:30and he was killed as quite a boy at the beginning of the First War.
11:34Oh, I see.
11:35Then he came to the eldest daughter of the last chief.
11:39And into good hands, I think, for all that.
11:42What does it mean to you, really, to be the chief of the clan?
11:47Well, it's a very proud and wonderful thing to be.
11:50In olden days, the chiefs were men who led the clan in battle.
11:55But I, as a woman, feel myself to be the mother of the clan.
12:00And I've a very good excuse for calling myself mother
12:04because clan is the Gaelic word for children.
12:07Yes.
12:08You know that?
12:09I didn't.
12:10And Mac means son of.
12:11So when people say they belong to Clan Macleod,
12:14they are actually saying,
12:16I am the son of the children of the son of Loud.
12:21Well, then, they're a family.
12:23And if there's a family, we all belong to each other.
12:26And it doesn't matter a bit where we live.
12:29Wherever a Macleod is, he feels that he's akin to all the other Macleods.
12:34That must be a nice, cozy family feeling.
12:37Wonderful.
12:38You say, no matter where you live,
12:40I assume by your love and understanding of all this,
12:42that you were born and brought up here.
12:44Well, actually, I wasn't.
12:46I was born in 10 Downing Street.
12:48Downing Street?
12:49You look rather surprised, Mr. Dimbleby.
12:51I am. Why?
12:53How were you born there?
12:54Well, my grandfather was Chancellor of the Exchequer
12:57when Disraeli was, or Lord Beaconsfield, as he was then,
13:00was Prime Minister.
13:02And they were very good friends.
13:03And my grandfather had a large family.
13:05And Disraeli was a widower.
13:07And the kind friends exchanged houses.
13:11And I naturally was born in my mother's home.
13:14You must be one of the only people who ever were,
13:16or ever was born in number 10 Downing Street, I think.
13:18As far as I know.
13:20I've been reading, Dame Flora,
13:22that in the last year or two or three,
13:24you've been doing a great deal of gathering the clan together here
13:27from all over the world.
13:28How did that start?
13:29It started long ago with the first coronation.
13:33I invited, or was it the jubilee,
13:36when I invited Macleods from all over the world
13:39to come and be entertained here.
13:42But now we have every year a Dunvegan Day during Sky Week.
13:48And we invite, it's especially a Macleod Day,
13:52and we have Macleods from all over the world to attend it.
13:56And who come, they feel that they're coming home.
13:59And it is a homecoming for them.
14:02I suppose that during the centuries,
14:04many famous people must have come to this castle.
14:06Oh, indeed they have.
14:07Rob Roy and Flora MacDonald and General Wolfe,
14:10the late King and the Queen Mother,
14:13when they were Duke and Duchess of York,
14:15and, of course, the great historical visit
14:18of Dr. Johnson and Boswell.
14:20I'd awfully like to show you in the library
14:23what he wrote about Dunvegan.
14:25Boswell?
14:26Boswell.
14:27Oh, in his Tour of the Hebrides?
14:28Surely.
14:29I'd love to see that.
14:30Well, will you come and I'll show you, brother?
14:38Here it is, Mr. Dimbleby.
14:39I've found the right place for you.
14:41Will you sit down and read?
14:43I will.
14:44Thanks very much.
14:52Oh, this is an account by Boswell
14:54of a conversation of Boswell's and Johnson's
14:57and the Lady Macleod of the day about the castle.
15:01The lady insisted that the rock was very inconvenient.
15:06Madam, I said, if you once quit this rock,
15:09the centre of gravity, there's no knowing
15:11where you may settle.
15:13Keep to the rock.
15:14It's the very jewel of the estate.
15:17It looks as if it had been let down...
15:19You know, I can just hear Johnson saying that.
15:22And I believe he said it in this very room,
15:24Mr. Dimbleby.
15:25But it's not our greatest treasure.
15:27You mean the fairy fag?
15:29I do indeed.
15:30And I would very much like to take you and show it to you.
15:32Good.
15:33Will you follow me?
15:35Yes.
15:50This is our magical, wonder-working fairy flag,
15:54which has guarded the castle and the clan and the chief
15:57for many, many hundreds of years.
16:00It's a mystery, you know.
16:02I don't know where it came from or how it came here.
16:06There are the lovely stories which people tell here
16:09of the chief who married a fairy wife in 1360
16:13and of the fairy who wrapped the baby in the flag.
16:16But I think probably the real story is that it came
16:20from the east, possibly from the Crusades.
16:23The wise men who have mounted it,
16:26and you can see that it's gossamer through,
16:29it's transparent.
16:31It has been through my ring.
16:33Yes.
16:34That it was looked upon as great treasure in the east
16:38and that because the dance made upon it were made
16:42in the east before it ever left its home.
16:46And there's a very fascinating idea that Harold Hardrada,
16:51who was the famous Viking, and the clan is descended
16:56from the Vikings, brought that flag back with him
17:00to the Holy Land.
17:01And when he got back to Norway,
17:03he claimed that the greatest of all his treasures
17:06was his banner, Lundöder, which has a horrid meaning,
17:10you know, ravager of lands.
17:12But Harold Hardrada said that it always brought him victory.
17:16And if that conjecture can be accepted,
17:19that flag landed in England in 1066
17:23when the Norseman landed and Harold of England
17:27left the coast of Sussex
17:29where he was waiting for William the Conqueror
17:32and he hastened up to the north
17:35and he fought the Vikings at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
17:39And the flag was withdrawn after defeat by the Norsemen
17:44to their ships.
17:46But that flag does still protect and guard us.
17:50To this day?
17:51To this day.
17:52And does that mean that you believe in fairy powers
17:55to this day?
17:56Completely.
18:20There is another sky, a harsher, harder sky.
18:25I began to learn something of it
18:27just outside Portree at Shuley Shadder.
18:55Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush.
19:26Can you tell me if Mr. Nicholson's about?
19:28There he is, coming down the hill.
19:30Ah, thanks.
19:32Mr. Nicholson!
19:45Hello, Mr. Nicholson.
19:46Hi.
19:47I was just looking up at the sky, wondering about the weather.
19:50Oh, it's fairly good today.
19:52It hasn't been so good for many today,
19:54hasn't looked like carrying on for too long even.
19:56I'm told you've had a very bad winter.
19:58Oh, very bad indeed.
19:59It's raining continuously.
20:01We had a lot of loss in our stock going into the wet weather.
20:05What stock is that?
20:06The sheep, especially.
20:07Oh, the sheep.
20:08I noticed also walking up, in fact here too, it's squelching.
20:11Oh, we didn't get our hair cut.
20:12It's very wet.
20:13See that?
20:14Yes, you can see the water coming up.
20:16Squelching up through it.
20:17Tell me, the average croft here that's farmed on sky, how big is it?
20:23Oh, well it's in fact from our nakeds are for 2 acres to 50.
20:27But a lot of people think that a croft, that it's a house, but it's not.
20:31It's a piece of land owned by the crofter.
20:34By paying rent for it, he owns the house, we own the house.
20:37That's funny, I always thought the croft was the house.
20:39No, no.
20:40The land belongs to the landlord, we pay rent, but the house belongs to the crofter.
20:45Now supposing that the weather this last year or so had been good and not bad,
20:49do you reckon that the average small crofter could have made a do of it then?
20:52Oh, it would not.
20:53We were well off with subsidies and the like of that for the last few years,
20:56but still it's not enough to make a living on the land, solely on the land.
20:59The croft is far too small.
21:01Because you're talking now of the man who just relies on sheep only, I suppose.
21:04Well, the man that relies on...
21:06For the likes of me, I've got sidelines like potatoes and milk and things like that,
21:10along with the sheep.
21:11Not so bad off, but the man that solely depended on sheep,
21:13he was very hard hit through the severe winter.
21:16A lot of the sheep died.
21:17I can imagine that in a bad winter this must be very bleak, isn't it?
21:20Oh, you get five and six weeks just of incessant rain and sleet and gales.
21:26What a break.
21:28What does the younger generation think about all this,
21:31the difficulty of making a go of it, naturally?
21:33Well, there's few of the younger generation left now,
21:36with the exception of a few that are stopping for the sake of their parents.
21:39And they're stopping there for that, not for to make a living on,
21:42because it's very difficult for them to do that.
21:44Have you got a family?
21:46Yes, I've got a son.
21:47I've got a son there, he's down on a tractor there,
21:49and he's considering very much whether he'll stop for much longer.
21:52And I wouldn't advise him to stop.
21:54Would you not?
21:55Not for to start on his own, the way I started.
21:58Well, if the younger generation is going to be going away, as I'm told it is now,
22:02what's going to happen in the future?
22:04Oh, it's just going to be a wilderness, with the exception of the people who have a good stretch of land
22:09where they can have 200 sheep.
22:11The cross is too small.
22:12It's got to be bigger.
22:13It's got to be much bigger for them to make a living.
22:15I imagine that you folk who've maybe lived here three or four or even five hundred years...
22:19Oh, we've been on for three and four hundred years,
22:21and nobody's able to shaft you out, and nobody will shaft you out,
22:24if you could make a go that you could be able to meet it.
22:27But things might turn.
22:29If the weather would come better, would have some heart,
22:31then we might be able to make ends meet.
22:35Music
22:43There are 2,300 holdings on Skye.
22:46The life looks pleasant enough and easy going from the outside.
22:50But in springtime and harvest time, there's no seven hour day,
22:53no five hour week, and no great reward at the end.
22:58Music
23:03Many of the crofters are having to take on any temporary jobs they can get to make ends meet.
23:14But that's not to say that there are no big farms and fine cattle on the island.
23:18There are a few, like Hugh McCrae's in Glenbrickle.
23:22But there aren't enough of them.
23:24Music
23:32Glenbrickle, incidentally, is the base on Skye for climbing the coolins.
23:37It's one of the rules here at this youth hostel that you must leave word where you're going.
23:43Music
23:51The coolins are not very high as hills go,
23:54but they are unquestionably the most savage and difficult range to climb in the British Isles.
24:00Music
24:13Music
24:24Apart from crofting, there are practically no other industries on Skye.
24:29But they say that water which passes through peat and granite has special qualities.
24:34So I was not surprised to find a small distillery at Carburst on Loch Harport.
24:40I imagine the work is not uncongenial, but one small distillery can't provide work for an island.
24:46Music
24:52Nearby, at Fiskervik, I found a small colony of settlers from the Outer Hebrides.
24:58They're still spinning and weaving fine cloth, but their profits are small.
25:03They lack organisation.
25:05Their work of walking, the shrinking of the tweed, may look very picturesque to the outsider, but it's wearisome.
25:13Still, as they say, a song will always lighten labour.
25:17Music
25:35Music
25:56Crofting, distilling, weaving, tourism, they're not enough for Skye.
26:02In 1841, the population was over 23,000.
26:06By 1911, it had dropped to some 13,000.
26:11Today, it's just over 8,000, and it's still dropping.
26:16The evidence of decline is plainly written all over the island.
26:24In one crofting township, which had a population of 100 50 years ago, there are less than a dozen left.
26:31None under 40 years of age.
26:34Many of the young folk are leaving to find easier work and better pay packets in the cities of the mainland.
26:41Moreover, some of them have developed a taste for social amenities which do not exist on Skye, especially on a Sunday.
26:50Music
27:01Dog barking
27:21The boat sails every morning at 8, except on Sundays.
27:25Many of the Skye men who sail away on her do not return.
27:31Music
28:02But there are fiery spirits like A.W. Nicholson of Struan, or Alley Willie as he's called all over the island,
28:09who do hold some very strong opinions on the state of affairs.
28:13I don't like it.
28:15But I don't agree that it could take 23,000 as it did 140 years ago.
28:21But still, I'm confident it could support another 5,000.
28:28I beg your pardon. I think in Gaelic and speak to you in English.
28:35You normally talk Gaelic, do you?
28:37I do, yes, sir.
28:38Good for you. Well, it's not a good way to talk English now.
28:40You say 15,000. How is the place going to carry more young men than it's got already?
28:47Well, first of all, we have got to get the agriculture mechanized.
28:57And brought up to modern standards.
29:00What about the number of cattle you've got on the island?
29:03We haven't got enough. I think that we could keep as many more sheep and cattle,
29:09provided the bracken was eradicated and the land properly drained.
29:18But you talk rather as though nothing's been done at all for Skye.
29:22Hasn't quite a lot of money been spent, I mean government money, been spent on the place?
29:26It has been spent. It came to Skye, but it went in fumes.
29:33Why fumes?
29:34Fumes. Why?
29:36Good gracious, officials going about in motor cars since the last 25 years.
29:42Thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds have gone away in fumes.
29:47We don't want that. We want something real. Something real.
29:51I can understand that.
29:53Tell me, you feel strongly about this, I know. Have you done anything about it yourself?
30:00Practical, I mean.
30:01Well, I started the Clarion of Skye. I've got a copy of it here.
30:08The Clarion.
30:09How long ago did you start this?
30:10Four years ago.
30:11What's the idea?
30:13My idea was that we should voice our grievances and that the world would listen to us eventually.
30:21How big was it when it began?
30:23Oh, just one full scaff, 200 words and four old implements I had about the farm.
30:32Just to give them an idea of what I wanted to, in order to support it.
30:36But it's grown a bit since then, I see.
30:38It has grown.
30:39Sixteen pages.
30:40Beyond what I thought it would be.
30:42How many people read it now?
30:43Oh, I believe 1,500. And it's passed on from house to house.
30:47It's passed on from exile to exile away.
30:49And this is telling the story of Skye to people outside?
30:52Telling the story of Skye.
30:53And nobody has got anything to do with it myself.
30:56I do it all myself. Everything about it. Organise it and distribute it and everything.
31:00Oh, you certainly have done something towards your ideal.
31:02But I know a little bit about printing and publishing newspapers.
31:05Who publishes this? Do you?
31:07No, my daughter publishes it.
31:09Your daughter?
31:10Yes, Christabel.
31:11How old is she?
31:12Sixteen.
31:14Alley Willie, of course, is a bit of a radical.
31:17And who wouldn't be if he cared passionately about Skye?
31:20And yet, a great deal has been done in the last few years.
31:24A great deal has gone up, and not all in fumes.
31:27There is a new ferry from Kyle of Loch Ausch to Callaghan, crossing at all states of the tide.
31:35The roads are gradually giving Skye men and tourists less cause for sighing.
31:46Modern Scandinavian houses have successfully weathered both the rain and the first criticisms of the islanders.
31:56But the biggest change came in May 1952.
32:00Two lochs, Fata and Leighan, had their water levelled by a new dam.
32:07Swelled by a catchment area of five square miles, the loch's overflow was harnessed in three years to the needs of Skye.
32:19Harnessed to fall 350 feet into the turbines by the shore,
32:24and to generate enough electricity to do away with the old lamps,
32:28and to help agriculture, and to give any new industry the power and the opportunity of growth.
32:36Today, less than a hundred houses wait to be linked to the Stor Loch's electricity scheme, as it's called.
32:44And a new pipeline will in time provide a surplus of electricity for use on the mainland.
32:51This alone seems an achievement sufficient to justify Ellie Willey's monthly slogan on the front page of his newspaper.
33:00Onward Skye, it reads. Onward Skye, Queen of the West.
33:21Power by itself, however, without local raw material, would make new island industries uneconomic.
33:28Transport costs alone would be too high.
33:31But the search for local wealth has had one small but dramatic success, diatomite.
33:38A few years ago, skeleton remains of insects, 47 millions to the cubic inch, were found in a loch here.
33:45By crushing and drying these diatomite deposits, an industry grew up at Uig,
33:51which may help to employ more Skye men and to provide Britain with an important industrial ingredient,
33:57which at present we import from America.
34:00It's a filler for paints and plastics.
34:03In war, it helps in the manufacture of explosives.
34:07And in peace, among a dozen other uses, it goes as a powder into cosmetics.
34:12But not only Skye's industry springs from the soil.
34:16Entertainment here is equally homemade.
34:19And as this Caeliac portrait shows, it's all the better for that.
34:41Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye, Skye.
35:11You should initiate Oran for Kenna Campbell.
35:14Oran garlic.
35:16We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
35:19Oran garlic.
35:21We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
35:48Oran garlic.
35:50We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
35:53Oran garlic.
35:55We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
35:58Oran garlic.
36:00We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:03Oran garlic.
36:05We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:08Oran garlic.
36:10We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:13Oran garlic.
36:15We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:18Oran garlic.
36:20We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:23Oran garlic.
36:25We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:28Oran garlic.
36:30We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:33Oran garlic.
36:35We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:38Oran garlic.
36:40We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:43Oran garlic.
36:45We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:48Oran garlic.
36:50We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:53Oran garlic.
36:55We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
36:58Oran garlic.
37:00We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:03Oran garlic.
37:05We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:08Oran garlic.
37:10We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:13Oran garlic.
37:15We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:18Oran garlic.
37:20We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:23Oran garlic.
37:25We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:28Oran garlic.
37:30We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:33Oran garlic.
37:35We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:38Oran garlic.
37:40We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:43Oran garlic.
37:45We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
37:48Oran garlic.
37:50We'll now have a garlic song from Kenna Campbell.
38:13It's a message from Mr. McWaiy.
38:16♪
38:26♪
38:36♪
38:46♪
38:56♪
39:06It was not long after Hugh McCrae's phone call
39:08that a rescue team made its way through the night to Glenbrook.
39:12♪
39:20By first light, the party had set off for the kiosk.
39:24They were men, postmen and crofters.
39:27♪
39:37There were Sergeant Neil MacLean and Jimmy Dewar,
39:42Callum McInnes, John McPherson,
39:47Roger Gray and Archer Wilson and Sandy Innes.
39:54None of them is a professional mountaineer.
39:57Sky men in general keep away from the coolings,
40:00but no call for help is left unanswered in Sky.
40:04♪
40:29The life to these islanders may have a worth
40:31greater than city dwellers can understand,
40:34for so much life has been departing over the years.
40:38Call it what you will,
40:40the struggle of Sky folk against hostile nature or abiding faith.
40:46♪
40:51He putteth forth his hand on the rock.
40:54He overtonneth the mountains by the roots.
40:58He cutteth out rivers among the rocks,
41:01and his eye seeth every precious thing.
41:05He bindeth the floods from overflowing,
41:08and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
41:13♪
41:42♪
42:11♪
42:24♪
42:44♪
43:04♪
43:24♪
43:48♪
44:17The job is done.
44:19The Sky man goes back to work.
44:22It's always unremitting, never easy.
44:25If the mainlander was often waxed romantic over Sky,
44:29it's not been the Sky man's fault.
44:32The people here are not sentimental about themselves.
44:35Life's been too hard.
44:38♪
45:03There's a sadness about Sky, in song and in memory.
45:07It's still there, but it is being conquered,
45:10and conquered by the promise of better years ahead.
45:14Perhaps one day the exiles will come home.
45:21♪
45:50♪
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