In all probability the Comrie people involved in the Comrie Diasporas of 1818 and 1829 gathered here, and no doubt many leant upon it for one last time, before taking that long, lonesome road, the Lang Side. This road would take them eventually to the “Tail o’ the Bank” and thence onwards for their new lives in the great Dominion of Canada. Others who left for the United States of America, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the 1840’s may also have assembled here. Only imagination can tell one what that feeling must have been like!
It is here that the greater or lesser moments of the day were pondered upon. Current events are discussed in passing, or with emotional vehemence. Typical among the subjects were; the families and relatives who left the village to avoid starvation and their hope for a better and fairer world in Canada; Waterloo; The Siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War; the Relief of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, the raising of the siege of Mafeking, and the two Boer Wars; the “Old Contemptibles” the Somme and Passchendaele in the First World War, and El Alamein and Monte Casino, as well as Normandy and Burma in the Second. Comrie people or their relatives were at every one of them. The Atomic and Hydrogen bombs, Korea, Vietnam, the Poll Tax and the Gulf War along with all the other news of the day, someone has passed on, a baby was born, the new golf course, the Twinning of Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada, and the village, the Bicentennial of the Ross Bridge, a Highland Games, the Royal Family, etc, are typical examples. Furthermore the Wall has witnessed many moments in time, of significance to Comrie, which are an integral part of the fabric and legacy of our common history.
It saw our military men and women off to various wars and it received them on their return. It observed thousands of Germans marching off to permanent P.O.W. camps in Canada such as Petawawa, near Carleton Place and Bowmanville in Ontario, Medicine Hat in Alberta and countless others.. Annually it has been the meeting place for those involved in beating for the grouse and pheasant season. It is the hub of all activities related to the Comrie Fortnight and it is the traditional meeting place for bringing in the “Flambeaux” on New Year’s Eve and thousands of people, over time, have sat upon it, danced upon it, contemplated upon it, and leaned upon it. It has heard all the stories of Comrie and its history, and heard the music of our culture, past and present, its poetry, its sadness and its joy and happiness. As a Social Historian I only wish that I could recapture some of those stories of days gone by so that they could be recorded for the current and future generations of Comrie people, for although the Wall sees and hears it would be better “IF ONLY THE WALL COULD SPEAK!”
Rain, cold and damp are its greatest enemies as they have a tendency to curtail conversation and on days like this, which as Comrie folk know, are few and far between, the staunch move to the other side of the road and kind of huddle on the south-east corner of the square under a less than adequate building overhang which acts as a shelter, although to call it shelter is a gross misnomer!
Comrie people, like me, living abroad relate to its purpose, its age and its seeming timelessness and in our idle moments think of the Wall as well as of memories of days gone by. A gravedigger working on the “other” side of the Wall was once asked by the local barman in a nearby hostelry on “this” side of the Wall, what kind of day he had enjoyed. Slowly and phlegmatically, and before pulling on his pint, he said, “If I’m no chopping off their heids’, I’m chopping off their feet!”
It was here in the twenties that an Argyllshire man with a soft west coast accent, and who had lived most of his life in the village, challenged the local policeman with the classic words, “Come over the the Glebe, McCulloch, and I’ll wrassel (wrestle) you for a pound!” Ah, it is sad that the days of chivalry are long gone.
Many people, on the other hand, sit on the Wall adopting one of the philosophies of my maternal grandmother who in old age, and who never sat on the Wall, and in fact rarely sat down due to leading a busy and active life, said when she did, “Sometimes I just sit and think and sometimes I just sit!”
It should be mentioned that the gravestones on the “other” side of the Wall generally are in need of serious repair. The last time the author was there many were in pieces or were cracked or had fallen over. There was also a lot of garbage and rubbish lying around. Several years ago on a visit to the St. Fillans Cemetery at Carleton Place, for those long gone folk of Comrie and Stathearn, the author noticed that of all the stones there, only one had fallen over; this year on a return visit the stone had been repositioned in an upright manner. Perhaps the people in Carleton Place are more conscious about the need to keep graveyards in good order as some folk visit them, often feeling that a well-kept cemetery is symptomatic of the care and concern local people have about their forebears. It also reflects on their community and environment! Many from Carleton Place people visiting Comrie to research their roots may be very concerned when they discover the condition of the graveyard and the state of the gravestones of their long lost ancestors and relatives!
