Songs of guilt from innocents

Red satins on the knife.

When Doctor Buck Ruxton cut up his wife.

Maid May she saw him, and said she would tell.

So Doctor Buck Ruxton cut him up as well.”

Shortly afterwards, another ditty reflected current events:

“Who’s that walking down the street?

Mrs Simpson, on her beat.

She’s been married twice before,

Now she’s knocking on Eddie’s door.”

We sang these songs with gusto, innocents that we were, thrilling to the goriness of the first and without a clue as to what the words implied.

Do children chant similar rhymes nowadays, about Donald Trump perhaps?

I’d love to hear them.

Oonagh Morrison,

7 Templeton Mews, Helensburgh.

I DO regret that I do not remember Mrs Forrest’s song about the Dr Buck Ruxton hunt and I even more regret missing Ken Smith's article about forensics in Moffat (“Gruesome find led to murder hunt and new forensics technique”, The Herald, February 14).

In September 1939, my grandmother, aunt with a two-month-old baby, my mother and I were evacuated. The destination was Moffat and the long train ride from Glasgow Central to Beattock was so exciting for a four-year-old.Even better was "Puffing Billy" which ran from Beattock to Moffat skimming the beautiful park with a small lake which, I believe, still flourishes.

Our billet was called "Hidden Corner" and rightly so. It was on the road from Beattock to Moffat and only the roof could be seen from the road. It was a large wooden hut. I still remember the door being opened and finding on a table, large brown bags containing Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Carnation Milk and lots of biscuits.

We liked Moffat and the local people were very friendly, telling us our billet had been put up for the policemen and detectives searching for evidence in a murder inquiry.

Like many evacuated, our stay was short, only three weeks, hastened by my discovery of rabbits with very long tails.

Granny feared the rats more than Hitler's bombs.

Elizabeth Penny,

22 Hepburn Gardens, St Andrews.