About three weeks ago I read on this archive under the heading Scottish Punishment' by Doug. an item about a boy caught trespassing by some Scottish gamekeepers and describing the very unusual way he was spanked for it. The writer explained that the account had been sent to him by a man called Doug and had occurred in Scotland in the 1930's.
I was intrigued to read this account because back in the early fifties when I was 13 I was punished in the same unusual way. I had been invited to stay with my Scottish aunt and uncle and my cousin, a boy of my own age, for the Summer holidays. My uncle was the local doctor and he was friendly with the laird who owned most of the land around the village. Every year shooting parties would come up from London and a number of local boys would be recruited by the laird's ghillie (gamekeeper) to help out. My uncle had arranged for my cousin and me to be taken on when the shooting season started.
The laird was very strict about dress code for his parties - Scottish dress, kilts or trews, for the shooters and all the staff had to wear a tweed jacket and a kilt in the laird's tartan, which he provided.
I had never worn a kilt before and my cousin had shown me how to put it on and fasten the buckles. Each morning started with the same ritual. We reported for duty to the ghillie together with about ten other boys. He would take us out to the yard where we stood in a circle around him to be given our duties for the day and to be inspected for smartness. The first morning turned out to be an embarrassing experience for me. He stood in front of the first boy and after looking him up and down, to my surprise, he lifted the boys kilt right up and I was amused to see that the boy was not wearing underpants. The ghillie moved round the circle and did the same thing to each boy in turn. I could see each boy was naked under the kilt and I was really surprised when I saw that my cousin was too. I had not heard of this Scottish custom and I was wearing underpants. When it came to my turn and he saw my underpants he put his hands up under my kilt and pulled them down and told me to step out of them. Then accompanied by much sniggering from the other boys he held them up in front of everyone and said, "In Scotland laddie, we leave the lassies to wear the knickers". He then walked over to the dustbin and dropped them in.
After this embarrassing start I didn't fall foul of the ghillie again until some days later. It was a lunch break and all the guns were unloaded, broken and laid on a table outside the picnic lodge. The shooting party were all inside eating their lunches when I picked up one of the guns, closed it and laughingly pointed it at my cousin. The ghille saw me an shouted at me to go and wait by the gate. About 100 yards away was a five bar gate into the next field.
A few moments later the ghillie and one of his assistants came over to the gate with all the other boys who were told to line up. The ghillie and his assistant picked me up bodily and held me face down horizontal to the ground and then hooked my feet over one of the upper bars of the gate and told me to support myself with my arms. (Doug described it as 'being in position for a wheelbarrow race', my body was about 45 degrees to the ground.
One of the older boys was detailed to hold my feet and the assistant ghillie turned my kilt right back over my hips exposing my bare bottom, penis and testicles to the gaze of the other boys. He then stood beside me and put the palm of his hand flat over my penis holding it against my abdomen and supporting me and curled his fingers around my testicles to discourage me from moving. The ghillie then stepped up and gave my bottom about a dozen stinging slaps with his open hand.
When I had taken my place in the line we were all given a lecture about gun safety and then returned to our duties.
In Doug's account the gamekeepers _s_e_x_ually molested the boy after his spanking but nothing like that happened to me.
When I arrived back at my aunts I must have looked a bit miserable because she asked me what was the matter.
Before I could answer my cousin said, "Aw, Mr. McGregor put him to the gate today' . My aunt didn't need to ask what he meant, she seemed to know exactly what had happened and asked what mischief I'd been up to.
When I told her she just said, 'Ah well, we all have to learn'
I'd always thought that the way I'd been punished was just the way that particular gamekeeper decided to do it but there are so many similarities with Doug's account I'm wondering if this was a particular or traditional Scottish method of punishing a boy.
I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else has heard of Scottish boys being punished in this way or have witnessed or experienced it themselves.