The Tam O'Shanter

One of my occasional pub shots and interestingly I discovered today that Charing X Road used to be called Crown Road and this pub was enlarged and renamed the Tam O?Shanter in 1896 at 103 Charing X Road - having earlier been called the Bull?s Head (at originally 8 Crown Street in 1759 - then when the road was renumbered it became 64 & 66!!). In 1900 the pub was renamed the Palace Tavern, but the frontage retained the old name even although it was actually only called teh Tam O'Shanter for a short while - the pub ceased trading in 1960 and the premises is now part of the Scotch Steak House chain. I must have walked past this building a million times yet it wasn't until after blip that I noticed its old name and boy did that bring back childhood memories of school when we had tro learn the poem off by heart

The first part is as below:-

When Chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neebors neebors meet,
As market-days are wearing late,
An' folk begin to tak the gate;
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and styles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Whare sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like a gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest Tam O Shanter,
As he frae Ayr ae nicht did canter:
(Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonie lasses.)
Robert Burns 1790

....... and nope I don't remember it coz it was way too complex at school never mind now!!

Still not resolved my printer problems or discovered why my rewriter wil only play DVD's and not CD Rom's - or why its taken me 3 months to notice *sigh* thank goodness the week is almost over roll on 8am and the F1 at Sepang :)