Anthem myth
The Reverend Dr John Cameron (Letters, 18 September) attempts to perpetuate the myth which many Scots love to trot out to fuel their Anglophobia, which is that the national anthem includes a verse containing the line: “Hammer rebellious Scots.” That is balderdash.
For a short period in late 1745 an additional verse was said to have been sung, which did indeed include that verse.
This was when Marshall Wade was engaged in fighting Jacobite insurgents into England.
It never formed part of the formal national anthem, and was dropped soon after 1745.
The official national anthem comprises four verses, not one of which contains anything like the anti-Scottish words which were temporarily, and unofficially said to be sung, briefly, 270 years ago.
David Hollingdale
Easter Park Drive
Edinburgh
Robert Anderson (Letters, 18 September) thinks the prayer in the UK anthem worked.
Which one? “Rebellious Scots to crush”?
We are told that that verse is no longer sung, but it was certainly there on the website of a London newspaper last year.
David Stevenson
Blacket Place
Edinburgh