1 Pride

And first of all in dance wes Pryd

With hair wyld back and bonet on syde.

(William Dunbar)

“Yon is pride,” said Mungo the priest, “and it is one of the seven woesome sins which make a devil’s kingrik of this world.”

(Colin Mackay The Song of the Forest 1986)

If there is one sin that the Scots dislike in other people, it is the sin of pride. At the first sign of anyone getting a bit above himself or herself, a fellow Scot will be ready with an appropriate put-down. As soon as someone gets on in the world and gives themselves airs and graces, a detractor will remark ‘Jist wha daes he think he is?’ The most famous Scots response to those who would set a high value on themselves is the great Burns’ poem, A Man’s a Man for aw that: The honest man tho ere sae poor is king o men for a that.

Nevertheless, pride still lurks in the mountains and valleys of Scotland and several authorities, like Dunbar, acknowledge it to be the first of the deadly sins. One such authority is John Barbour in his Legends of the Saints (1380): Of synnis kyndis are thre, & the formaste pride ma be. And, according to Johannes de Irland in The Meroure of Wyssdome (1490), the prince of prid, lord of all iniquite and myrknes is Lucifer himself. So, pride, manifested in ‘self-esteem, arrogance, conceit, presumption; vanity, the outward appearance of pride, pomp, splendour, ostentation’, as the Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines it, is a bad thing, but those Scots who have in the past pursued the paths of wickedness have left us many words for pride. 

So let’s have a look at some proud words and modest words to help us start finding out what the Scots really think about themselves.

Proverbs and sayings

The most famous proverb relating to pride is Pride goeth before a fall (based on the Old Testament Book of Proverbs 16:18, which, in the King James version, reads Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. This appears in Scottish literature in the Book of the Howlat (c1450-2) by Sir Richard Holland as Pryde neuer yit left His feir but a fall [Pride never yet left his companion without a fall] and this is very similarly expressed by Stewart in the Metrical Chronicle of Scotland 1535) as Pryde left neuir his maist[er] but ane fall. The idea that in some way people are misled by pride is expressed in a quotation from The Buike of King Allexander the Conqueroure, translated by Sir Gilbert Hay (c1460): Hichty men that pride dissavis ay.

The Upside of Pride

But is pride really such a bad thing? Do we not all have things that we are right to be proud of? The Dictionaries of the Scots Language gives further meanings of pride as the ‘cream’, the ‘flower’, the ‘glory’, the ‘joy’ (of a person or group). We can all aspire to greater things and there is no sin in being sodger-clad but major-mindit.

Ten things for Scots to be proud of:

1. Scottish literature

From Barbour’s Bruce (1375) to the appointment of Edinburgh in 2004 as the first City of Literature, Scotland has produced authors of the first rank. As well known as Burns is, he is just one star in a galaxy of Scottish writers in both Scots and English.

2. Scottish music

The fiddle music, bagpipe music and songs of Scotland can make the feet itch to dance or wring the heart. We have a whole new generation of virtuosi performing traditional music and creating a new and exciting heritage for musicians in the years to come.

3. Scottish engineering and science 

James Clerk Maxwell (electro-magnetism), Alexander Grahame Bell (telephone) , John Logie Baird (television), Alexander Fleming (penicillin), James Young Simpson (anaesthesia), Joseph Lister (antisepsis), John Napier (logarithms), Thomas Telford (civil engineering, canals, roads, bridges, churches) Robert Stevenson (lighthouses), John Boyd Dunlop (pneumatic tyres), Dugald Clerk (two-stroke engine), James Watt (steam engine), James Black (thermochemistry),  James Dewar (thermos flask), Charles Macintosh (raincoats), and James ‘Paraffin’ Young (extraction of oil from coal and shale) are just a few of the great Scots inventors and researchers.

4. Scottish art and architecture

James Craig, Sir Robert Lorimer, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, James Adam, Robert Adam, William Henry Playfair and Basil Spence are some of the best known architects from Scotland. Many elegant, practical, defensive or decorative buildings are lasting monuments to the famous and less well known Scots architects. Artists include Henry Raeburn, Allan Ramsay, Alexander Naysmith, Samuel John Peploe, Anne Redpath, Elizabeth Blackadder, Joan Eardley, John Byrne (also a playwright) and Jack Vettriano. These are a sample of the artists whose work can be seen in the great galleries in Scotland and throughout the world.

5. Scottish food

Deep-fried Mars Bars aside, Scotland produces fish, meat, fruit and vegetables of the finest quality and now has some of the world’s finest chefs and restaurants.

6. Scottish Wildlife

A large part of Scotland is sparsely inhabited and offers a safe environment for many birds and animals from the red deer to the gold-crested wren. 

7. Scottish Adventure 

Scotland has sent explorers and missionaries to all parts of the globe. Now we invite visitors to come here and experience the variety of outdoor activities from mountaineering to white-water rafting, ski-ing to pony-trekking. Worth watching is the annual Scottish Six Days Trial where an international field of Motor Cycle Trials riders compete over some of the roughest terrain in Britain around Fort William every May.

8. Scottish Festivals 

Everybody knows about the Edinburgh Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, but T in the Park is the new Woodstock and there are cultural festivals throughout the year in many parts of the country.

9. Scottish Hospitality

Welcome. Come awa ben! Wull ye no come back again?

10. The Scots Language

Stick in an learn mair!

Feel free to add another 90!

Pride might not always be a bad thing, but remember:

There’s aye a muckle slippy stane at ilka bodie’s door