"I want to start with the words I have always wanted to say or hear someone say," said Mrs Winnie Ewing yesterday morning. "The Scottish Parliament adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707 is hereby reconvened."
The veteran Nationalist MEP is the oldest member of the new parliament. That made her first to be sworn in, in both English and Gaelic, then taking the chair for four hours until a Presiding Officer was elected.
All morning, the new members of this parliament had uneasily felt their way into the blue turquoise seats and around what appeared to be Ikea flat-pack desks. How were they to show their appreciation?
In the House of Commons, it is by a gentlemanly farmyard noise of hear-hears. Honourable members do not clap their hands. In the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland - which gave up its normal meeting place this week to allow the parliament to use it temporarily - there is a quaint tradition of foot-shuffling. By mid-morning, two or three MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) had marked the swearing-in of Mrs Ewing's nationalist son and daughter-in-law, Fergus and Margaret (yes, like Dallas, Scotland has its own Ewing dynasty) with some mild thumping of their desks. There had been a gentle rustling of order papers at times. One of the 48 women MSPs was flustered by cries of "mummy" from her toddler daughter in the public gallery.
But when the Mother of the House declared proceedings formally under way, the Scottish Presbyterian reserve which is usual in the sombre building gave way to some exuberant applause and even a partisan standing ovation. At least that is set to be different from Westminster. All this was in stark contrast with 1707. When the last Scottish parliament voted to merge with the London parliament nearly 300 years ago, the Edinburgh mob was rioting outside Parliament Hall, within 600 yards of the new chamber.
Insurrection was planned. There was talk of a force of 15,000 marching in Edinburgh - if only the rain would stop. An English government force was marched to the border, ready to invade if the revolting Jocks got out of control.
At that time, one of the thorniest issues to negotiate was the succession to the Scottish crown. By yesterday, the issue had not gone away. The Scotland Act which set up the parliament required all MSPs to pledge allegiance to the monarch. No allegiance, no salary.
This does not sit well with an established, but much ignored, part of Scotland's constitutional tradition which makes the people of Scotland supremely sovereign. Mr Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, who now leads the opposition in the Edinburgh parliament, spoke for his 35-member group by saying the Scottish people had their primary loyalty. So too with the one Green MSP.
But the star of this disloyal show was Mr Tommy Sheridan, sole representative of the Scottish Socialist Alliance. The Glaswegian firebrand, wearing the sharpest suit of all amid much Sunday best, declared his vision of Scotland to be a democratic, socialist republic, and that he was taking the oath only under protest. So Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successor can rest easy that Mr Sheridan has pledged his allegiance - even if he did so with a defiantly raised and clenched fist.