Cock-A-Leekie...

Lunch, and since its Burns season, today its Cock-A-Leekie soup. Not, I am sorry to say, home made, but out of a Baxter's tin. It is missing, for me at least, the essential ingredient of a small amount of cut prunes. But it'll do.

Cock-A-Leekie soup is a regular soup course at Burns Suppers prior to haggis. However, for today's quotation I am not going to quote from the obvious Address to a Haggis, but from the poem The Rights of Woman, inspired by the fact I live and work amongst many. It was written in 1792, and in many ways is remarkable for its time.

While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.