|
Legend is always a chancy thing. It's believed for years and then the iconoclasts move in and the legend is shattered. But sometimes, after it has been discarded and despised, the legend is proved to be true, or partly true. It is unwise to spit upon legends, and I have no hesitation in recounting the famous "Over Fork Over" story of Stewarton.
It goes back to the days when Macbeth killed King Duncan and was himself determined to be the King of Scots. That meant that Duncan's son Malcolm, who became king on the death of his father, must be put out of the way. Malcolm knew what his fate would be if he fell into Macbeth's hands, so he rode south to seek safety in England. Malcolm owned Corsehill Castle, said to be on the east side of the Corsehill
Burn in Stewarton, and he rode straight for it. But he had hardly got to Corsehill when he heard that Macbeth and his men were hot on the trail.
It is said that the pursuers were almost in sight of the castle when Malcolm fled on foot over the fields. He reached a hayfield where the farmer was
racking his crop. The prince jumped on to a half made rick and cried, "Over Fork Over." Immediately the farmer covered Malcolm with hay and, when Macbeth arrived, gave him the old Scots equivalent of "He went that-a-way!"
Thus Malcolm was saved and went to England, where Edward The Confessor welcomed him. He married Margaret, Edward's daughter, and eventually marched back into Scotland and defeated Macbeth. So, if it had not been for a quick-witted Stewarton farmer, there would have been no Malcolm Canmore, who was the first man to make Scotland into a real kingdom.
So speaks legend, but one man who apparently didn't listen was Sir Thomas Innes of Learney when he was Lord Lyon King of Arms. Stewarton, like many other Scottish towns, had their own coat of arms, designed apparently about the time the town became a Police Burgh in 1868. It showed the shake fork and had the motto, "Over Fork Over". But the Lord Lyon insisted that all coats of arms should be registered and, since he has the power of execution (no recent Lord Lyon has ever exercised ill), the Town Council had to accept his design in 1955.
As you can see, the motto was changed to "Knit Weel", a compliment to the town's ancient industry. The coat of arms shows part of the
baronial arms of the Earls of Douglas, Earls of Arran, the Cunningham's of Corsehill, and the
Montgomery's of Lainshaw. These were the landowners in the old days.
So often when we look at history, we are treated to accounts of battles, murders, romances and riots. But the real history of Scotland is not the stuff about Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the like. The men who have made Scotland (and the women too) have often been quiet, ordinary-seeming persons.
And as far as Stewarton is concerned, I hold Sir Alexander Cunningham of Corsehill to be a more important man in the history of the town than any of the fighting men who threw their weight about, built castles that crumbled, and often were no better than well-heeled gangsters. |