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Lament for Culloden

A private and corporal of a Highland Regiment, circa 1744. The private is wearing a belted plaid in the Government tartan

On this day April 16th 1746 the Jacobite army was defeated by the Hanoverians on Culloden Moor.


THE lovely lass o’ Inverness,
Nae joy nor pleasure can she see;
For e’en and morn she cries, ‘Alas!’
And aye the saut tear blin’s her e’e:
‘Drumossie moor, Drumossie day,
A waefu’ day it was to me!
For there I lost my father dear,
My father dear and brethren three.

‘Their winding-sheet the bluidy clay,
Their graves are growing green to see;
And by them lies the dearest lad
That ever blest a woman’s e’e!
Now wae to thee, thou cruel lord,
A bluidy man I trow thou be;
For monie a heart thou hast made sair,
That ne’er did wrang to thine or thee.’

by Robert Burns 1759 – 1796

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