The bonnie, broukit bairn

On the 20th of August 1977, Voyager II was launched to be followed on the 5th September by its twin, Voyager I. The reversed sequence of launches was due to the different trajectories of the two craft as they set off for the outer reaches of our solar system to explore the gas and ice worlds of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, taking advantage of a once-in-175-years alignment of the planets The pictures they sent back were astounding.

I've just been watching again the Voyager programmes on the television and marvelling at the engineers' ability to guide a tiny probe with about as much computing power as a mobile phone, across billions of miles and decades of time and to receive back these spectacular images as well as all the scientific data.

The Voyagers have now gone beyond the heliosphere, beyond the influence of our sun and are travelling across the galaxy more than 20 billion miles away and will probably continue to do so even after our sun and its planets have ceased to exist.

In the years between then and now, we have had the Viking Landers on Mars, the red planet; the Mariner and Venera missions to Venus; Galileo and Cassini to Jupiter and Saturn again, all adding to our view of our solar system and its occupants.

Of all the images the most powerful, to my mind, is that of the "pale blue dot". As Voyager moved towards interstellar space, the cameras were turned round to look back over nearly 4 billion miles and there was this tiny speck.

This moved Carl Sagan to ask us "to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

The news is of micro-plastics in the snows of Antarctic, of animal, insect and plant species disappearing into extinction, and of global warming and the ecological and social problems that will bring.

The great Scots poet, Hugh Macdiarmid, showed remarkable prescience when in 1925 he wrote The Bonnie Broukit Bairn.

 Broukit, in Auld Scots, means neglected, begrimed. In 1925, it was dirty with soot from coal. MacDiarmid couldn't have imagined the levels of pollution we are now seeing.

Mars is braw in cramassy*,

Venus in a green silk goun

The auld mune shak's her gowden** feathers

Their starry talk's a wheen o' blethers,

Nane for thee a thochty sparin'

Earth thou bonnie broukit bairn

*crimson ** golden

Perhaps now we will spare a thochty for the pale blue dot.

Battle of Otterburn

It fell about the Lammas tide,

When the muir-men win their hay,

The doughty Earl of Douglas rode

Into England, to catch a prey.

 In 1388, England and France were locked in the struggle for dominance in the Hundred Years War. The Auld Alliance of Scotland with France gave the Scots a great excuse to raid the north of England and settle some old scores. The long standing enmity between the Douglases on the Scottish side and the Percy family of Northumberland never needed much to fan the flames of open conflict.

In August of that year James, the second Earl of Douglas led a raid as far south as Newcastle where he took a pennon as a trophy of his victory over Sir Henry "Hotspur" Percy, vowing to fly it from his castle at Dalkeith.

The Scots were retreating northwards and had camped for the night when Hotspur, still smarting at the loss of his standard, caught up with them and attacked.

The battle went the way of the Scots and Henry Percy and his brother Ralph were captured and later ransomed.

The site of  the battle

The bleak hillside is now grazed by sheep, the cries of the wounded and the clash of steel replaced by the happy sound of children playing  at the nearby primary school.

James Douglas was fatally wounded in the encounter and it was said that those closest to him hid his body under a bush so his army would not know of his death and wouldn't lose heart for the fight.

My wound is deep : I fain would sleep

Nae mair I'll fighting see,

Gae lay me in the braken bush

That grows on yonder lee.

The 1770 replacement Battle Stone

Sir Henry Percy came into combat with Hugh Montgomery, Douglas's nephew and, being wounded was given the chance to surrender. He refused, saying he would only surrender to the Earl of Douglas as befitted his rank. Montgomery indicated  where the dead body of the Scots leader lay and Percy yielded to the bush.

Thou shalt not yield to knave or loun

Nor shalt thou yield to me,

But yield thee to the braken bush

that grows upon yon lee

The deed was done at Otterburn

About the breaking of the day

Earl Douglas was buried at the braken bush

And the Percy led captive away

The original stone, the Battle Stone, that marked the site of Douglas's death is lost but base was incorporated into the replacement erected in 1777 when the turnpike road was made close by the spot.

A red flag as a warning of imminent firing on the range

The association with war is still attached to the area as it is now an Army firing range. What would Hotspur and Douglas have made of these weapons?

Otterburn Castle

  The castle was owned by Sir Robert de Umfraville, Lord of Redesdale whose younger brother, Thomas, led the English troops that flanked around the battle to try and capture the Scottish camp. The castle had been attacked on the morning on the 19 August 1388 as the Scottish forces traveled from Newcastle  towards the border but withstood the attempts made against it. Despite the Scots winning the battle, they quickly withdrew as English reinforcements arrived and therefore the castle was left intact.