THE CURSE OF THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY
When a Jacobite sympathiser proposed a toast to the exiled Stuarts in a Perth tavern after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 , a young boy who had served as a drummer with the Rebel army raised his glass in response. The tavern owner’s wife reported the boy’s disloyalty to the authorities and he was executed. Afterwards, the boy’s grieving mother turned up at the tavern carrying his bloodied shirt and cursed the occupants. The tavern’s fortunes went down hill after that and the owners died in poverty. Curse or boycott? Who can say now?
Next Week - WHIPPING BOY