Black Bitch Explained

11 Dec 2006 at 22:41 // under Facebook

This is a followup from the initial post black bitch.

Whilst Googling the term "Black Bitch" may bring up some interesting sites it doesn't really help. Wikipedia does mention briefly it however it is not very useful in the article on Linlithgow – I ought to create its own article

Anyone born in the town of Linlithgow is known as a Black Bitch. This comes from 'The legend of the BlackBitch'.

The legend dates back to the days when naughty people in the town were punished by being taken out into the loch and tied to a tree on one of the islands. They were then left there to starve to death. One man however didn't die. In fact a month later he was still fit as a fiddle. what had happened was at night his wife went down to the waters edge and tied food to the dog and let it swim out to its master. In the end the dog was tied to the tree and the towns coat of arms includes a dog tied to a tree on an island. What a nice bunch of people.

Tam Dalyell the local MP was invited to a debate in one of the Oxbridge societies as the main guest and after he had been introduced by the chair (a Linlithgow girl herself) he stood up and thanked 'the black bitch' but then went on quickly to explain himself to the rest of the room before he got slaughtered.

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