The Clan Officer Writes

 Dear Kinsfolk.....

THE CLAN Council continues working in very close harmony and we have started holding what we call "working lunches". This means that, whenever possible, we meet in a hotel on a Sunday at lunchtime and talk. Ideas for the furtherment of Clan Hunter are put forward and are discussed seriously. These working lunches are not actual Council meetings as such. At present the only Council meeting occurs at the Annual General Meeting by reason that some of the Clan Council members live considerable distances away from Hunterston and Scotland. However, we all stay in close and regular touch by telephone and mail, especially email. The Burns Night Supper evolved from one of our working lunches. Our social evenings are really special. We practice a very strict dress code: the gentlemen in Highland dress or tartan trews, and the ladies - well, they always make us men feel right proud, they really are something else. Wherever we go, we are well received and we always leave a good impression. Full marks to Anne Service Hunter, our Membership Secretary, for setting up the Burns Night Supper. The venue was the Dryfesdale, Locherbie, a four star hotel which fully lives up to its rating. Viewed from the patio doors or the hotel bedroom on the morning after, the farmland and the distant forest were sparkling with frost. Add to this an early mist, a sky of deepest blue, a winter sun and the snow-capped tops of the Moffat valley, and the line "O Scotland, thy beauty, so wild and romantic" sprang easily to mind.

I wondered if I would have enjoyed this place so much if I had lived here in times past. For this was reiver country, and a flight of wild geese in arrowhead formation heading east towards liddesdale was a reminder of another type of wild geese who once roamed that remote land [ Thae thieves have nearhand Herreit Haill, Ettrick Forest and Lauderdale ]. The Anglo-Scottish Borders of the 16th century matched the 19th century Wild West and the 20th century Vietnam in turbulent violence and villainy. Graham, Armstrong, Maxwell, Elliott, Scott, Nixon - these are just a few of the great riding families of the Border Marches. And, would you believe, Hunter? Why would it be strange to find "a hunter" in the Borders in the 16th century? Read George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets, a marvelous history of the Anglo-Scottish Borders in which we get a brief mention. Anyway, time to stop day-dreaming about the past and return to the present. Those of you with a PC and access to the internet have probably realised that the Hunter website has gone. This is due to the fact that it was registered in the personal name of a Clan Member who has resigned and was not transferable. However, a new site is being prepared and its address

will be published when ready. Personally I prefer my news to arrive in the Hunters Tryst and remember: If you have any news or topics to air, send them along to the Editor, whose address is at the foot of Page 2. Following the success of the Flodden Commemoration last year, it has been decided to repeat the occasion on Saturday 8th September this year. With this in mind, I'd like to invite Clan Members to attend for a day that is guaranteed to mix remembrance and respect for the past with an enjoyable social occasion in good company. The Collingwood Arms Hotel in Coldstream, where we based ourselves last year, is a pleasant, comfortable and welcoming place and ideal for those who will have to travel some distance and would like to arrive early and/or stop over before beginning the return journey. The Hotel has vacancies over this weekend in September and if there are sufficient numbers of Hunters wishing to stay, will be pleased to offer us a block booking with a discount. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to avail yourselves of this opportunity. As always, I'm Robert Hunter Clan Officer 3 Tarbet Avenue, Priory Bridge Estate, Blantyre, Scotland G72 9PB Tel: 01698 825804 or robert.hunter2@btinternet.com See you all (I hope) at the Gathering! Yours Ayer Robert