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Document 224

Colina Mackay

Author(s): Anna Blair

Copyright holder(s): Anna Blair

Text

I'm here in my attic
Colina Mackay
Come today into Glasgow
From Uig in Skye
To start into service
Tomorrow at six
And I'm ever so nervous
Of learning its tricks.
Serve family at table
Not hay to the nags,
To polish linoleum
Instead of scrub flags,
How to dip a nice curtsey
And kindle the fire,
Tidy a drawin'-room
In place of a byre.
When I rub up the silver
What cloth must I use?
Do I wear my feet bare
Or this strap-button shoes?
How to talk to the mistress
And heed the Skye nuns
"Behave like a good girl
And beware of the SONS"
But after tomorrow
I'll know how it feels
To be a right housemaid
In this...Pollok-sheels.

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APA Style:

Colina Mackay. 2025. In The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 30 April 2025, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=224.

MLA Style:

"Colina Mackay." The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2025. Web. 30 April 2025. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=224.

Chicago Style

The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech, s.v., "Colina Mackay," accessed 30 April 2025, http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=224.

If your style guide prefers a single bibliography entry for this resource, we recommend:

The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. 2025. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk.

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Information about Document 224

Colina Mackay

Text

Text audience

General public
Audience size 1

Text details

Method of composition Handwritten
Year of composition 1998
Word count 129

Text setting

Leisure/entertainment
Private/personal

Text type

Poem/song/ballad

Author

Author details

Author id 127
Forenames Anna
Surname Blair
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1920
Educational attainment College
Age left school 17
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Teacher/author
Place of birth Giffnock
Region of birth Glasgow
Birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Glasgow
Region of residence Glasgow
Residence CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Business
Father's place of birth Glasgow
Father's region of birth Glasgow
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Business
Mother's place of birth Glasgow
Mother's region of birth Glasgow
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes
French Yes Yes Yes Yes Visits to France, correspondence
Scots Yes Yes Yes Yes

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