Clay Lane Blog

The Long Arm of Rob Roy

Dorothy Wordsworth recorded the magical effect of mentioning Rob Roy to a shy crofter’s wife.

September 21

The Long Arm of Rob Roy

I recently added this post, The Long Arm of Rob Roy.

It is taken from an entry in Dorothy Wordsworth’s diary of a visit to Scotland in 1803, in the company of her brother, poet William Wordsworth, and their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this extract, Dorothy recalls the magical effect that the mere mention of Rob Roy MacGregor’s name had on their hosts, a family of kindly Scottish crofters living beside Loch Lomond.

Read

Composition

Join each group of ideas together into one sentence, in at least two different ways.

1 Mrs Macfarlane spoke little. Dorothy mentioned Rob Roy. Mrs Macfarlane told a dozen tales of him.

2 There was a shower of rain. Dorothy got wet. Mrs Macfarlane gave her dry clothes.

3 Rob Roy stole from the rich. He gave to the poor. Dorothy likened him to Robin Hood.