The Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh wanted to commission a song-cycle for their Tercentenary celebrations in 1994 and we discussed several ideas for texts including Robert Louis Stevenson's 'A Child's Garden of Verses'. At first I discarded that idea and began researching early Scottish poetry, producing this called 'Coronach' (or 'Somebody'), a thinly-veiled lament for Bonnie Prince Charlie, and suggesting 'My Peggy'.
I presented them to the commissioners but they were far more interested in the RLS idea and inspired me to write 'The Land of Counterpane' instead.