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Sponsored by Angus Middleton, Past President of the RBWF 2006-2007 World Federation Winter - 2006

The digital conversion was provided by Solway Offset Services Ltd by permission of the Robert Burns World Federation Limited to whom all Copyright title belongs.

www.solwayprint.co.uk BURNS CHRONICLE WINTER 2006

The Robert Burns Limited Edition Chess Set is a journey through both his life and his works and celebrates his loves, his humour, his irony and his lasting mark on the world of literature. More importantly, it celebrates his legacy to generations past, present and future. Crafted entirely in pewter, this is a remarkable set. Every single piece is different, each one reflecting either one of Burns' works or someone who played a part in his life. It is not difficult to imagine Burns as the King on the Light Side or the Devil as the King on the Dark. Thereafter, throughout the set, there is a mixture of the obvious and the not so obvious. The Robert Burns Chess set comprises: • 32 different playing pieces INDIVIDUAL PIECES • 20 page booklet are available in the • 21” playing board original metal finish, • FREE x three CDs featuring separately boxed, Burns’ words, music and song and ready to give as souvenirs – ideal as Robert Burns Chess sets are hand-made keepsakes for Burns to order. Some items are held in stock club members or but you should allow 28 days for delivery. gifts for speakers. The Robert Burns Chess Set is £699+VAT Auld Lang Syne (no VAT outside the European Union) and shown actual size includes door-to-door delivery worldwide. e: [email protected] James Thomson Memorial - Hawick telephone: +44 (0) 7977 26 1314 www.robertburnschessset.com “The Star of Robbie Burns”

A ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION PUBLICATION President AngusMiddleton (2006-2007) ITEMS FROMTHEFEDERATION SHOP PLUS POSTANDPACKING) BURNS NAVY TIE BURNS CHECKTIE DOWER HOUSE, KILMARNOCK.KA3 1XB. (ALL ITEMS DEAN CASTLE COUNTRYPARK, THE BURNSFEDERATION, Tel: 01563 572469. £10 £10 POSTCARDS (PACK OF8) CHRISTMAS CARDS SONG SHEETS...... FRIDGE MAGNETS...... MOUSE MATS. TIES...... BURNS CHECKBOW TARTAN PAPER...... ARMORIAL BADGES...... POSTERS (SMALL)...... POSTERS (LARGE)...... BURNS NAPKINS PLACE CARDS (100)...... MENU CARDS (100)...... SCHOOLS...... RESOURCES PACK FOR LOST POEMS...... GENEALOGY BOOK SONGS...... MINIATURE TARTAN POEM& LIFE OFBURNS...... BICENTENARY CHRONICLES...... LIFE OFJEANARMOUR...... A MANFORALLSEASONS...... ROBERT BURNSTHEFARMER...... BURNS FORBAIRNS...... BAIRNSANGS...... 3 VOLUME SET 2 VOLUME SET COMPLETE LETTERS...... DELUXE CASEBOUND EDITION COMPLETE WORKS COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS. TAM O’ SHANTERBALLET)...... (SCENES FROM (PACK OF10)...... (BLUE/WHITE) (250)...... (TARTAN SLIPCASE)...... (TARTAN PAPERBACK)...... STOCK LIST ...... £10.00 £19.00 £30.00 £75.00 £49.00 £29.50 £24.95 £19.50 £4.00 £0.15 £1.00 £3.00 £9.00 £1.50 £1.00 £2.00 £8.00 £4.00 £5.00 £4.00 £5.00 £1.95 £8.00 £5.00 £6.00 £1.50 £6.50 £3.00 £3.00 £9.95

Solway Offset the Printers, Heathhall, Dumfries. Tel. 01387 262960 Motto — “A man’s a man for a’ that” THE ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION LTD Company Registration No. 196895. Scottish Charity No. SCO29099 (Formerly THE BURNS FEDERATION) Instituted 1885 www.worldburnsclub.com HEADQUARTERS: DEAN CASTLE COUNTRY PARK, DOWER HOUSE, KILMARNOCK. KA3 1XB. TEL/FAX: 01563 572469. OFFICE HOURS: MONDAY TO FRIDAY 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. CLOSED FOR LUNCH 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. [email protected]

DIRECTORS AND CONVENERS ANGUS MIDDLETON (President), “Red Gables”, 38A Skelmorlie Castle Road, Skelmorlie, Ayrshire. PA17 5AL. Tel: 01475 522 722. E-mail: [email protected] JOHN F. HAINING (Vice-President), 115 Ralston Avenue, Paisley. PA1 3BY. Tel: 0141 883 2059. E-mail: [email protected] WILLIAM DAWSON (Junior Vice-President), 4 Riverview, Claremont, Alloa. FK10 2DF. E-mail: [email protected] WILSON OGILVIE (Heritage Convener), “Lingerwood”, 2 Nelson Street, Dumfries. DG2 9AY. Tel: 01387 264267 MARGARET SKILLING (Schools Convener), 16 Craigstewart Crescent, Doonbank, Ayr. KA7 4DB. Tel: 01292 445230. E-mail: [email protected] HARRY McGUFFOG (Conference Convener): 30 South Edge, Shipley, West Yorkshire. BD18 4RA. E-mail: [email protected] MURDO MORRISON (Marketing Convener), 110 Campbell Street, Wishaw. ML2 8HU. Tel: 01698 372638. E-mail: [email protected] JOHN PATERSON (Past President), Newlands, 35 Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone, Kent. CT20 2NQ. Tel: 01303 256670 WALTER WATSON (Finance), 7 John Street, Biggar, Lanarkshire. ML12 6AE. Tel: 01899 220708. E-mail: [email protected] SHIRLEY BELL (Chief Executive), “Inveresk,” Kelton, Dumfries. DG1 4UA. Tel/Fax: 01387 770283. E-mail: [email protected] A. MacARTHUR IRVIN (Director USA), 40 Brighton Road, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30309, USA. E-mail: [email protected] MAY CRAWLEY (Director Canada), 25 Pine Street, St. Catherines, Ontario. L2N 4T2. Tel/Fax: 001-905-934-9169. E-mail: mayandalex@aol JIM O’LONE (Director Pacific Rim), 14 Marine Terrace, Fremantle, 6160, W. Australia. E-mail: [email protected] 200 Club Organiser: MOIRA RENNIE DUNSMORE, 5 Southwark Close, Stevenage, Herts. SG1 4PG. Tel: 01438 228366. E-mail: [email protected]

OFFICIALS Chief Executive/Secretary: SHIRLEY BELL, “Inveresk,” Kelton, Dumfries. DG1 4UA. Tel/Fax: 01387 770283. E-mail: [email protected] Clerical Secretary: MARGARET CRAIG, Dean Castle Country Park, Dower House, Kilmarnock. KA3 1XB. Editor: PETER J. WESTWOOD, 1 Cairnsmore Road, Castle Douglas. DG7 1BN. Tel: 01556 504448. E-mail: [email protected] Hon. Legal Advisor: DAVID STEVENSON. Auditors: SMITH & WALLACE & CO. MacMillan and Associates Burns Society Construction T.C. Society ~ London

FEDERATED 1997 Burns Club FOUNDED 1986 C M T I CO SERRIS SUCCURRERE DIS “CancerC doesn’t care - We do” SPONSOR FEDERATION’S NATIONAL SCHOOL CHILDREN’S COMPETITION

1 SPONSOR FEDERATION’S NATIONAL SCHOOL CHILDRENS COMPETITION

Incorporated with the Robert Burns Worldwide Federation. St Bartholomews Hospital Childrens Cancer Research Sponsors to The Benevolent Fund of the Lighthouse Club MacMillan Nurses Sponsor to various charities

Founder: John MacMillan www.ctc-burns.co.uk BURNS CHRONICLE WINTER EDITION 2006 Editor: PETER J. WESTWOOD, 1 Cairnsmore Road, Castle Douglas. DG7 1BN. Tel: 01556 504448. E-mail: [email protected] Advertising Manager: MURDO MORRISON, 110 Campbell Street, Wishaw, ML2 8HU. Tel/Fax: 01698 372638. E-mail: murdo.morrisonmmpr@btint EDITORIAL Contents Robert Burns and Mrs. McLehose were A LIFETIMES RESEARCH related to each other...... 4 Original Burns poem goes on display at BURNS Clubs, Federated Members and Edinburgh’s newest museum...... 6 Burnsians in general may well be aware that Editing Heron Ballad Second...... 14 the late Lawrence R. Burness gifted to the Federation his entire collection of material The Canongate Burns: Misreading Robert Burns and the Periodical Press of the related to his genealogical study of Robert 1790’s...... 21 Burns, his ancestors, descendants and Burns on the Fringe - The Culture and the associates. Apart from his service during Comic...... 24 the last war the remainder of his life was devoted to researching the genealogy of the The Cottage leaves the Palace far behind: Pastoral Idealism and Social Change “The Poet and studying his life and works. Cotter’s Saturday Night”...... 26 Having had the good fortune to have worked with Lawrence on a number of Burns and Adelaide, South Australia...... 31 projects and in receipt of items for my Robert Burns Banffshire Connection...... 33 own archives, it was his wish that some The Family, Relations and Close Friends of day he would publish his work. Sadly, his Robert Burns...... 35 untimely passing made this impossible. Robert Burns Diamond Stylus...... 39 However, in this and future issues of the Burns Chronicle we will carry out some of Unveiling Statue to James Thomson...... 50 his wishes by publishing a series of articles, Historic Museum - Lodge Tarbolton the first two of these being “Robert Burns (Kilwinning) St. James No. 135...... 53 and Mrs McLehose were Related to each other” New Kay Park Monument...... 59 and “The Family, Relations and close friends Treasures of the Chronicle...... 62 continued on page 3

The Robert Burns World Federation Limited does not accept any responsibility for statements made or opinions expressed in the Burns Chronicle. Contributors are responsible for articles signed by them; the Editor is responsible for articles initialed or signed by him, as well as for those unsigned. Articles, photographs, items for review and all correspondence should be addressed and forwarded to the Editor at the above address. Articles offered should be in typescript with double spacing and on the one side of the sheet. A stamped addressed envelope should be forwarded for return of articles and photographs. © THE ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION LIMITED

2 LAWRENCE BURNESS standing beside the remains of the house at Brawliemuir in 1931. Home of the Poet’s ancestors and birthplace of his Grandfather. of Robert Burns”. See pages 4 and 35. From time to time I have been asked about Lawrence’s connection with the family of Robert Burns. Lawrence was in some ways shy about this matter. On page 12 I have reproduced part of the Robert Burns family tree showing his connection with the family from Walter Burness who died in 1670. Peter J. Westwood, Editor ———————————— BURNS STATUE STOLEN We regret to report that the Statuette of Robert Burns by sculptor George Lawson, the property of Alloway Burns Club was stolen from a locked cabinet in Bellisle House Hotel, Alloway on Wednesday 16th August. The Statuette is one of a number and a replica of the Poet’s Statue in Ayr, and was presented to the Alloway Club by British Bakeries. Contact your local Police Station if you hear of any information on the whereabouts of the Statuette.

3 THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF ARTICLES ROBERT BURNS AND Mrs. AGNES McLEHOSE WERE RELATED TO EACH OTHER (FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE LATE LAWRENCE R. BURNESS)

obert Burns, his controversial life and well publicised loves, has always provided a rich hunting Rground for the researchers and biographers over 200 years since his death. Arguably the best poet the Scottish nation has sired, literally millions of words have been written about him. In that light it would seem extremely unlikely that anything fresh could be uncovered about a man whose every facet has already been so thoroughly investigated and documented – but that’s just what the late Lawrence R. Burness of Arbroath achieved. Lawrence – a direct descendant of the same family from which the Poet came – was an Aberdonian with a world-wide reputation as an authority on his famous relative. He was engaged in full-time Burns research at the William Coull Anderson Library of Glenealogy in the Town House, Arbroath – a department founded by a Trust under the will of the late Mr. Anderson, a native of Arbroath who lived in retirement in America, who had a passionate feeling for the poet. The discovery which Lawrence made is the result of paintstaking research and one which will create a vast amount of interest amongst the legions of Burns addicts the world over. It is that Sylvander (Burns) and Clarinda (Mrs. Agnes McLehose) were actually related to each other. The famous letters which passed between the two, following their meeting in Edinburgh, are, of course, treasures – masterpieces of romantic correspondence. The informed speculations which Lawrence has made on what might have been had Burns and Clarinda been able to form a more permanent association are fascinating. His researches in the past were always concentrated on the male side of the Burns family, but the late William Coull Anderson had always insisted that the female connections should be investigated as well. One of the first jobs, therefore, which Lawrence tackled on starting the Genealogical Department in Arbroath was to trace and document the family connections through the marriage of the daughters. Much of this work had already been done by Dr. James Burnes and Rev. Dr. Rogers to name but two – but the line of research which was to prove so fruitful concerned the Poet’s cousin, James Burnes, a Writer and Notary Public in Montrose. Robert Burns wrote to him on several occasions – to acquaint him of his father’s death and then a few days before he himself died, to ask for aid in his desperate financial straits. This cousin of the Poet had a son – also James Burnes – who later was twice Provost of Montrose. In 1800 he married Elizabeth Glegg, daughter of another Provost of Montrose, Adam Glegg. Adam Glegg was married to Anne Smith, daughter of a Provost of Brechin and she had a sister, Margaret, who was married to Robert Gillies. Now, the Gillies family had strong connections with the Church of Scotland, not the least of which was Robert’s father, Rev. John Gillies, who was the first minister of Carroldston (now known as Careston) near Brechin. Mention of the Church of Scotland immediately switched researches to Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, which is the official record of every Parish in Scotland with details of all the ministers and their families – a veritable mine of information for the genealogist. Therein it was recorded that Robert Gillies had a brother, Rev. Dr. John Gillies, who had married Elizabeth McLaurin whose sister was Clarinda’s mother.

4 As the last link in the chain was not forged until 1800, the Poet most certainly never knew of any genealogical connection between them and it is very doubtful if Clarinda was ever aware of the relationship as it is not thought that she was sufficiently in touch with the various families involved. Having established the facts, Lawrence stated – “I well believe that Robert Burns would at one time have liked to marry Clarinda. Their correspondence went to a tremendous height in January and February of 1788 when they were writing to each other often twice a day. It must be remembered that Robert Burns’s marriage to Jean Armour was not regularised until later in 1788. “But the great stumbling block was that Clarinda was not free to marry as she was already married to James McLehose, a clever man no doubt, but a rotter to her and their children. He went off to Jamaica to make his fortune leaving them to fend for themselves. Nevertheless, I think we might allow ourselves to go into the realms of speculation as to what might have happened if they had been able to marry. In the first place, Jean Armour, despite the fact that she had already borne children to him, would have been out. As it turned out, Jean Armour was a good wife to him and one does not like to say too much against her but I think it must be conceded that Clarinda was streets ahead of her intellectually. The letters which went back and fore between her and Robert Burns were masterpieces of composition – on both sides. “Supposing Burns had married Clarinda, I think he would have forsaken the plough and country life to live in Edinburgh. In spite of the fact that the country life inspired many of his best works, it was a hard life and he had never been able to make much of a living at it. I think he would have been quite happy to have hung up his hat at Clarinda’s house. The more sheltered life of the city would have probably prolonged his life by who knows – another 30 years? “Undoubtedly many more fine works would have come from his pen but, apart from that, there is every possibility he would have had a better chance to have more contact with his relations in the North East and also with her relations”. The Burns connections in this part of the country had a record of public service, considerable standing in their respective communities and eminent respectability. Research has proved that Clarinda was, without a shadow of doubt, very well connected indeed. Lawrence adds – “Clarinda was able to supply that challenge to Burns which was lacking among those who surrounded him in Dumfries and there is little doubt that he would have responded to that challenge in no uncertain way. Furthermore, I feel sure that had Robert Burns managed to come into contact with the sophisticated society which surrounded both his own family in the North East and that of Clarinda in Edinburgh it would have had a profound affect on him and his writings and likewise he would have had some affect on them”. NOTES: From the Burness Archives:- Adam Glegg was married to his cousin, Anne Smith and her father was Provost of Brechin. Another daughter of Adam Glegg was Margaret Smith and she married Robert Gillies. Robert Gillies had a brother, Rev. Dr. John Gillies whose first wife was Elizabeth McLaurin. Elizabeth McLaurin had a sister who was married to a certain Andrew Craig, they were the parents of Agnes Craig who was “Clarinda” in the famous correspondence which took place between “Clarinda” and “Sylvander”. Looking at them in more detail. Of the Gleggs the only one of note was Adam Glegg, Provost of Montrose, but when we come across to the family of Gillies we have recorded Lord Adam Gillies who was born in 1760, only a year after the poet himself. He was Sheriff-depute of Kincardineshire in 1806, Lord Commissioner of the Jury Court in 1816 and later Judge of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland – a man of the highest integrity. Agnes McLehose’s mother’s family – the McLaurins – came from the Isle of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides. Her great-grandfather was Rev. John McLaurin, minister of Kilmodan, and her great grand-uncle was Rev. Daniel McLaurin who was a minister at Kilfinan in

5 1698. Her grandfather was Rev. John McLaurin, M.A. who was educated in the University of Glasgow and was minister at Luss in 1719. Her grand-uncle was Colin McLaurin M.A. – a brilliant man. He was educated in the University of Glasgow, was a Professor in the University of Edinburgh and then was Professor of Mathematics in Marischal College, Aberdeen. He married Anne Stewart, daughter of Walter Stewart who was Solicitor-General for Scotland and he was also a great friend of the great Sir Isaac Newton. One of his sons was John McLaurin who became Lord Dreghorn. He was educated in the University of Edinburgh and appointed Senator of the College of Justice in 1788. All in all, Agnes McLehose was very well connected. Of her own family, only one grew up to adulthood, Andrew who became a writer to the Signet. Agnes’s father was a surgeon in Glasgow. His brother was Rev. Dr. William Craig who had a son, also named William, who was educated in the Univeristy of Edinburgh and became Sheriff-depute of Ayrshire in 1787 and later became Lord Craig on being appointed Judge of the Court of Session. This Lord Craig was Agnes’s cousin, a most honourable and upright man, did a great deal to help her in Edinburgh when she was in such straitened circumstances and deserted by her husband. L.R.B. ———————————— ORIGINAL BURNS POEM GOES ON DISPLAY AT EDINBURGH’S NEWEST MUSEUM

hanks to the Burns Monument Trustees, the original of a poem written by Burns on the back of a Bank of Scotland 1780 One Guinea Note, has gone on display in the new Museum on Tthe Mound, Edinburgh, which opened to the public on 12th September 2006. The banknote was previously on display in the Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway and given on temporary loan to the Bank.. The Museum on the Mound is based at the Bank of Scotland’s (now HBOS) head office in Edinburgh. As part of the recent restoration of the whole building, the museum was completely transformed. It is now 6 times larger than the old museum and has a wider remit to cover all of the constituents of HBOS, which was formed from the merger of Bank of Scotland and the Halifax in 2001. The first gallery of the museum covers the origins and development of Bank of Scotland from 1695 to the present, through a number of themes. One of the themes covered is ‘Famous Customers’ and it is in this context that a number of items relating to Burns are displayed. But what exactly are Burns’ connections with banks and finance? Beginning with the most literal connection, the poem on display, aptly titled ‘Lines Written on a Banknote’, was penned by Burns in 1786, when he was considering emigration to Jamaica. It expresses his sadness at having to ‘leave this much-lov’d shore, never, perhaps, to greet old Scotland more’ and also the Poet’s bitter despair with regard to his own poor state and to the effects of poverty in general. But the success of the Kilmarnock Edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect transformed his fortunes and Burns travelled to Edinburgh, instead of being forced to emigrate overseas. Burns had personal connections with several bankers. For example, he was received in Edinburgh by Sir James Hunter Blair, partner in the private bank Sir William Forbes, James Hunter & Co. Blair had been elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1784 and Burns later wrote an elegy on his death. Burns also refers in a letter written from Edinburgh, to an ‘unknown hand’1 leaving him a present

6 Pictured at the opening of the Bank of Scotland Museum on the left beside the display showing the banknote, Past President of the Burns Federation John Skilling and Peter J. Westwood, Editor the Burns Chornicle. of 10 guineas. He subsequently discovers his generous friend to have been Patrick Miller, a director of Bank of Scotland (of which more below). There are several letters in his surviving correspondence to John Ballantine, of Hunters & Co Bank in Ayr. Ballantine was entrusted with finding a suitable merchant who would distribute his books among Ayrshire subscribers and collect the proceeds. In September 1791, Burns describes himself in a letter to Ballantine, as ‘miserably ignorant’2 in the business of banker’s drafts, but he wasn’t wholly ignorant of banking terms. In a letter to Robert Aiken he passes on his best wishes to Ballantine using some humorous banking-related puns: “I never end a letter to you of late but I think of Mr Ballantine… will you tell him that my heart warm pray’r for him is that he may never have a Draft on Expectation, Wishes on the House of enjoyment returned unaccepted, that as seldom as possible for humanity he may have occasion to discount, with the Agents of Remorse, that Happiness may give him a large Cash Account in this world, & an Eternal Cart Blanche in the world to come…”3 Other correspondence indicates he was reasonably well informed about the various financial instruments available at the time. In a letter to Alexander Pattison, textile manufacturer, Paisley he thanks him for receipt of, ‘…an order of the Paisley banking company on the Royal Bank for twenty two pounds seven shillings Sterling, payment in full, after carriage deducted, for ninety copies of my book I sent you…’4 Given the state of his finances, it is perhaps not surprising that there is no evidence of Burns having had a bank account. The Poet’s poor circumstances can be attributed to a number of factors:

1 R. Burns to John Ballantine, Edinburgh, 13th December 1786 2 R. Burns to John Ballantine, Ellisland, September 1791 3 R. Burns to Robert Aiken, about 27th September 1786 4 R. Burns to Alexander Pattison, 17th May 1787

7 the early death of his father, family obligation and bad luck. His generosity towards his brother Gilbert was often at the expense of his own comfort. For example, in 1788 (just 2 years after he penned ‘Lines on a Banknote’, bemoaning his poverty), he saved Gilbert from ruin by lending him £180 (equivalent to about £10,600 nowadays). He felt obliged to assist because the latter had care of their mother, younger brothers and sisters as well as Burns’ illegitimate daughter! In a letter to James Cunningham, the Earl of Glencairn, he mentions that this loan was a means of holding the family together and also states, interestingly: “... I guess my remaining all will be about two hundred pounds. Instead of beggaring myself with a small dear farm, I will lodge my little stock, a sacred deposite, in a banking-house…”5 However, rather than follow his own advice, he did pursue farming. His decision, in June 1788, to take on the lease of Ellisland farm, near Dumfries, at a rent of £50 per annum, was to turn out to be a financial disaster. His landlord was Patrick Miller of Dalswinton (1731-1815). Miller became a director of Bank of Scotland in 1767, becoming Deputy Governor in 1790. He bought Dalswinton estate, Dumfriesshire, in 1785 and it was here he financed William Symington’s early experimental steam boat, using the loch at Dalswinton for trials. Miller was a pioneer of agricultural improvement (among other things), but by the time his schemes for making Ellisland productive and profitable came to fruition, it was too late for Burns. Burns moved from Ellisland to the town of Dumfries itself, in November 1791. In January 1790 he had referred to Ellisland, in a letter to his brother Gilbert, as ‘this ruinous affair’6 and expressed a desire to be rid of it at the earliest opportunity. He had been trying to run his farm and work as an Excise Officer at the same time, just to bring in sufficient income. His friendship with Patrick Miller remained intact nevertheless. By February 1792, Burns was more optimistic about his finances. In a letter to Maria Riddell, he refers to his promotion within the Excise (to the first or Port Division), at a salary of £70 per annum

A Bank of Scotland One Guinea Note circa 1780 similar to that inscribed by Robert Burns.

5 R. Burns to James Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn [1788] 6 R. Burns to Gilbert Burns, 11th January 1790

8 The verse in the Poet’s hand on the reverse of the Bank of Scotland note. (equivalent to around £4,120 nowadays) and mentioned that he hoped to make perks of £15-£20 on top of this.7 But misfortune was to strike again, as his income was reduced in 1793 due to the drop in imports associated with the Napoleonic Wars and the ensuing financial crisis of that year. Just before the crisis Burns had helped his friend, James Clarke, by lending his name as a guarantor. This had brought him into arrears of rent on his house. Burns’ finances gradually deteriorate from this point, due to the ongoing problem of restricted imports and the rising cost of food for his family. Indeed, there was a famine in Dumfries from January to March 1796. Hundreds of families were unable to purchase grain and riots erupted in the town. So, what of the evidence on Burns’ finances in the surviving Dumfries branch records held in the archives of Bank of Scotland? The Dumfries branch opened in 1774. The problem is that the ledgers which would reveal most have, infuriatingly, not survived. Burns lived in the Dumfries area from 1788 until his death in 1796, but virtually no ledgers have survived for this period. Nor is there any reference in the Directors’ Minutes to an application for an account from him. It is therefore not possible to state whether he had an account with the Bank of Scotland or not, but it seems unlikely. Again though, there are some personal connections between Burns and Bank of Scotland. For example, his friend David Staig, Provost of Dumfries, was also agent of Bank of Scotland’s Dumfries

7 R. Burns to Maria Riddell, February 1792

9 A page from the Bank ledger in the name of Mrs Robert Burns. branch for over 40 years (at that time managers were known as agents). Staig was married to Patrick Miller’s daughter. Another acquaintance was James Gracie, accountant of Bank of Scotland from 1788 until 1804. Burns wrote a poem about him when he became a member of the Dean of Guild. In the summer of 1791 their friendship didn’t prevent Gracie from insisting that Burns pay off a £20 bill of exchange which he had endorsed. The Dumfries branch ledgers which have survived (for the period 1795-1805) record the accounts of many of those closest to Burns. The most intriguing account, perhaps, is that of Jean Armour. The extract of the ledger showing the start of ‘Mrs Robert Burns’ account is on display in the museum. This account was opened on 4th August 1796, just 2 weeks after the poet’s death, with a deposit of £26: 5 shillings. Deposits continued on an almost weekly basis until January 1797, by which time the balance of the account had reached £93: 8s: 7d – more than the amount her husband had earned annually as an Exciseman. The account with Bank of Scotland continued until 11th April 1798 when Mrs Burns withdrew the whole sum of £112: 14s: 1d.8 It is thought that the monies paid in were part of the subscriptions raised to support Jean and her family, after Burns’ death, by John Syme, Dr William Maxwell and Alexander Cunningham. The regular monthly deposits which are exact multiples of a guinea (£1: 1s.) would certainly suggest this.

8 HBOS Group Archives NRAS945 1/347/4-5 Dumfries Branch General Ledgers Fol. 231 and 142

10 It is perhaps no coincidence that the account of John Syme is on the same page as Mrs R. Burns in one of the ledgers. Another account which appears in the Dumfries branch ledger is that of ‘The Proprietors of the Theatre’. The first meeting of subscribers to this project took place on 18th February 1790 and the foundation stone was laid later that year. The Theatre Royal Dumfries finally opened on 29th September 1792, the scenery being painted by Alexander Nasmyth and Burns was an enthusiastic supporter.9 John McMurdo of Drumlanrig, another friend of Burns, also had an account at Dumfries branch. In 1792, Burns wrote to McMurdo enclosing a sum of six guineas, claiming that he had owed this money longer than he had ever owed it to any man. This letter indicates Burns felt shame in owing money. In the same letter he loans his Collection of Scots Songs (collected on his travels around the country) to McMurdo, writing ‘There is not another copy of the Collection in the world…’10. McMurdo was later to become a trustee of the funds raised for Burns’ family. The account of Maria Riddell – the friend who composed Burns’ obituary notice which appeared in the Dumfries Journal – is also in the surviving ledgers. Finally, there is also the account of Gilbert Burns, farmer, of Dinning, Closeburn.11 In the register of bonds for the branch, we find that, in April 1800, Gilbert Burns was granted a cash

‘LINES WRITTEN ON A BANKNOTE’: Wae worth thy power, thou cursed leaf! Fell source o a’ my woe and grief, For lack o thee I’ve lost my lass, For lack o thee I scrimp my glass! I see the children of affliction Unaided, through thy curs’d restriction. I’ve seen the oppressor’s cruel smile Amid his hapless victims’ spoil; And for thy potence vainly wish’d, To crush the villain in the dust. For lack o thee, I leave this much lov’d shore, Never, perhaps, to greet old Scotland more. R. B. - Kyle account credit for £200, with John Dunlop of Marcham, near Haddington, Mr Thomson and William Stewart, Closeburn signing up as his guarantors.12 The last few letters written by Burns are heartbreakingly sad. He knew he was dying and feared for the future of his family. He wrote to James Clarke, who owed him money, requesting another [bank] note ‘by return of post’. He wrote to his brother Gilbert expressing worry about 1 or 2 serious debts he had run up during the time he was ill. He was forced to write begging letters to his cousin, James Burness, and to George Thomson, as he was being pursued for a debt owed to ‘a cruel haberdasher’ and feared dying in prison.

9 HBOS Group Archives NRAS945 1/347/4-5 Dumfries Branch General Ledgers Fol. 68 and 91 10 R. Burns to John McMurdo, Dumfries, [February? 1792] 11 HBOS Group Archives NRAS945 1/347/6-7 Dumfries Branch General Ledgers Fol. 314 and 56 12 HBOS Group Archives NRAS945 1/347/18 Dumfries Branch Bond Book, 1795-1826, Bond No 294

11 Ironically, despite Burns’ terrible anxiety during those final days, his widow and children were eventually quite comfortably off. This was as a result of the efforts of Burns’ friends in raising a subscription, referred to above, combined with the income from sales of books by and about her husband. Seonaid McDonald Deputy Archivist, HBOS Group Archives

Museum on the Mound, HBOS Head Office, The Mound, Edinburgh. The Museum tells the fascinating story of money, banking and more. Opening Times: Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday, Sunday & Holiday Mondays 1-5pm. Admission Free. www.museumonthemound.com ———————————— THE BURNESS FAMILY TREE Referred to on Page 3

12 A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT I will never forget the feeling when President ——————— John Paterson passed on the Chain of Office on to my honoured shoulders at the Inaugural MESSAGE FROM Dinner in the Normandy Hotel, Renfrew in September 2006. MAYOR SAM KATZ It was a feeling of great excitement and pride, matched with the reality of the responsibility to It is with ensure the prosperity of our Federation, which great pleasure was Instituted way back in 1885. that I am able I bring my enthusiasm, personality, and to extend greet- genuine love of Burns to the table and pledge ings to all those my 100% commitment to my duties. In my attending the acceptance speech I asked for support in 2007 Robert increasing the uptake of the following vital parts Burns World of our structure, Federation 1. Joining the 200 Club Conference. We 2. Increasing the sales of The Chronicle are honoured to 3. Becoming Individual/Family Members be your hosts for 4. By purchasing items via the Federation what will undoubtedly be a great conference Shop. and I hope that our city will exceed all your expectations. If ye hae friend enow, I applaud the Winnipeg Robert Burns Club in their ability to keep the Scottish culture thriv- Tho real friends I b’lieve are few; ing, and by providing a forum to encourage Yet, if your catalogue be fow, knowledge and camaraderie. Your contributions I’se no insist: to Winnipeg are to be commended and cel- But, gif ye want ae friend that’s true, ebrated, and are what helps to define our city as I’m on your list. a hub of diversity. I would also encourage our visitors to experience the warm hospitality that our city offers and take the time to explore some of our city’s many attractions. Winnipeg is a vibrant young city that offers a variety of restaurants, fabulous entertainment, and a host of cultural activities that I am sure you will all enjoy. We truly have WINNIPEG – 2007 something for everyone. Once again, on behalf of my esteemed city council colleagues and all the citizens of CONFERENCE Winnipeg, I wish you success, and offer my FULL DETAILS ON congratulations on your conference. Best wishes, PAGE 61 Sam Katz Mayor of Winnipeg

13 EDITING HERON BALLAD SECOND by Henryk Minc

I. INTRODUCTION. n June 1794 Robert Burns accompanied by his friends, John Syme and David M’Culloch, visited Patrick Heron in Kerroughtree. It appears that Burns was greatly pleased with the reception I accorded to them, and when Heron was standing for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in the elections held on 23 May 1795, Burns decided to help him by composing election ballads in his support. In March 1795 Burns wrote a letter to Heron [9, Letter 660] (see References at the end of the article). The letter includes the following lines.

I inclose you some copies of a couple of political ballads; one of which, I believe, you have never seen. Would to Heaven I could make you master of as many votes in the Stewartry. But “Who does the utmost that he can, Does well, acts nobly, angels could no more.” In order to bring my humble efforts to bear with more effect on the foe, I have privately printed a good many copies of both ballad, and have sent them among friends all about the country.

Altogether Burns wrote four “Heron Ballads.” In this paper we study the second of these which probably was one of the two mentioned in his letter to Heron. Although no complete holograph of this ballad, in Burns’s hand, is extant, two partial holographs have been preserved: the Huntington MS., [1], and the Cowie MS., [2] (see References at the end of the article). Each of them contains twenty-eight lines, but only twelve of these lines appear in both partial manuscripts. We shall analyse these holographs in Section II below. According to Egerer [7, #31, p.52]: “During the years 1795-6, Burns became involved in politics in and about Dumfries. Of the four political ballads that he wrote during this period three, perhaps four, were first published as broadsides, and are as follows: … … b. “Fy, let us a’ to K[irkcudbright].” Copies in B.C., B.M. and E.U.L.* ” However, the Burns Cottage Museum denies that they own an original broadside of Heron Ballad Second. Indeed no such broadside is listed in their catalogue. Nor is one included in the list of manuscripts in the Burns Cottage Collection, Alloway, in [8]. We shall discuss the two broadsides, in British Museum and in Edinburgh University Library, in Section III. Heron Ballad II first entered the canon in 1834 in [5], and it was included in most editions of Burns’s poems published thereafter. However, most of the later editions of his poems just copied the ballad either from [5], or from [6], or from Kinsley’s prestigious 1968 edition [8]. We shall discuss these three editions of Heron Ballad II in Section IV. Many of Burns’s poems and songs were preserved in his holographs or appeared in various editions published in his lifetime with the poet’s approval. Other works, published after his death, were left to the tender mercies of publishers and editors who often just copied earlier editions with some alterations of their own. Of course, some of these, like replacing Scottish words by their English equivalents, or Scottish spelling by another spelling, or expurgating objectionable matter, or filling lacunae** were often done intentionally by publishers and editors in England and in America for the

* That is: Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway, British Museum, and Edinburgh University Library. ** Gaps in names, titles, or in offensive words, created by replacing some letters by dashes or dots.

14 purpose of increasing sales. Alterations found in some Scottish editions of Herron Ballad II cannot be thus justified. II. HOLOGRAPHS OF HERON BALLAD II. It is generally agreed that manuscripts [1] and [2] were actually written by Robert Burns. Indeed this is confirmed by Kinsley who lists them among manuscripts in the Henry E. Huntington Library and in the National Library of Scotland, respectively, with an annotation that the manuscripts are holographs unless there is a note to the contrary (see [8], pages 965, 966 and 969). We compared the handwriting in manuscripts [1] and [2] with the handwriting in Burns’s letter to Robert Cleghorn of 12 December 1792 and in the poet’s letter to George Thomson of July 1794. There cannot be any doubt that both letters and the manuscripts [1] and [2] were written by the same hand.

Fig. 1. The first page of the Fig. 2. The first page of the Huntington Library MS. National Library of Scotland MS.

Holograph [1] consists of three octets and one quatrain. It appears that Burns started writing or copying his ballad and for some reason did not complete it. The extant part of holograph [2] consists of seven quatrains. However, it is quite obvious that originally this holograph was larger but a part is missing. Division of the ballad into octets is necessary if we consider it as a song to the tune: Fy, let us a’ to the bridal (see [8], page 777). Otherwise it is more convenient to regard the ballad as consisting of quatrains. In what follows we shall divide it into quatrains. Here are copies of both holographs in quatrains and in modern print.

15 HUNTINGTON MS. - HOLOGRAPH [1] COWIE MS. - HOLOGRAPH [2]

BALLAD SECOND - The Election. THE ELECTION - A New Song

Fy, let us a’ to Kirk – t, And there will be Douglases doughty, For there will be bickering there; New-christening towns far & near, For M----y’s light-horse are to muster, Abjuring their democrat doings- And O, how the heroes will swear. By kissing the a- of a Peer.

And there will be M----y Commander, And there will be Wigton’s new Sh-r-ff, And G----n that keenly will start; Dame Justice fu’ brawly has sped; Why shameless her lane is the lassie, She’s gotten the heart of a B-sh-y, E’en let her kind kin tak a part. But, Lord! what’s become o’ the head!

And there will be black-nebbit Johnie, And there will be C-d-n-ss Esquire, The tongue o’ the trump to them a’; Sae mighty in C-d-n-ss’ eyes; And he get na h-ll for his haddin, And wight that will weather damnation  The deil gets nae justice ava. The devil the prey will despise.

And there will be bubblie-jock Willy, And there will the isle o’ Saint Mary’s And B----y sae black at the bane: Exult in the worth of her youth: Whate’ver they may say o’ his failins, Alas, for the Isle o’ Saint Mary’s, Sure gamin & reavin are nane. In trusting to reason & truth!

And there will be W----n’s new Sherriff, But where is the Doggerbank hero Dame Justice fu’ brawly has sped; That made Hogan Mogan to sculk? She’s gotten the heart of B----y, Poor Keith’s gane to h-ll to be fuel, But lord! what’s become o’ the head. The auld rotten wreck of a Hulk.

And there will be Car-----ss Esquire, And where is our King’s Lord Lieutenant, Sae mighty in Car-----ss’ eyes; Sae fam’d for his gratefu’ return? A wight that will weather d-mn-tion, The birkie is getting his questions, The devil the prey will despise. To say in St Stephen’s the morn.

And there will be D—gl-ses doughty, And there will be Kenmore, sae generous, New-christening towns far & near, Whase honor is proof to the storm; Abjuring their democrat doings To save them frae stark reprobation By kissing the a – of a Peer.- He threw in his name in the Firm.–

Holograph [1] contains seven quatrains, all in Burns’s hand. Also holograph [2] contains seven quatrains, three of which are also contained in holograph [1], and other four quatrains that are not in holograph [1]. The eleven distinct quatrains contained in the two holographs differ from the corresponding quatrains in broadsides [3] and [4] and in Kinsley’s version in [8], and from the remaining eleven quatrains.

III. BROADSIDES. Out of three broadsides of Heron Ballad II listed by Egerer only broadsides [3] and [4] have been

16 actually located. We shall designate broadsides [3] and [4] by “E.U.L. broadside,” and by “B.M. broadside,” respectively. The E.U.L. broadside is handwritten or is a copy of a handwritten text. It is not dated, signed, or annotated. The handwriting has not been identified. It certainly is not the hand of Robert Burns. There is nothing to indicate whether it is on of the “good many copies” that Burns has privately printed and sent “among friends all about the country.” The broadside is written on four pages that contain 8, 7, 7, 1 quatrains, respectively. However, lines 23, 29-32 were inserted by a different hand. The original writer may have missed line 23, “A wight that will weather d-mn-tion,” which was inserted by another hand later. The quatrain 29-32 is in the hand of the writer of line 23. It was squeezed in at the bottom of the first page. This quatrain does not appear in any other version of the ballad. We shall ignore this addition to the ballad.

Fig. 3. First page of B.M. broadside. Fig. 4. Second page of E.U.L. broadside.

The B.M. broadside is in printed characters (see Fig. 3). It consists of eleven octets and is of the same length as the E.U.L. broadside (minus lines 29-32). The B.M. broadside also contains twenty-nine footnotes specifying names, relationships, etc. of individuals mentioned in the text in an abbreviated form. Footnote 1 on page 2 of the B.M. broadside adds to “Car-ss Esquire“ the explanation: “Now Sir Maxwell of Cardoness, Bart.” (see Fig. 4). However, it is well known that David Maxwell of Cardoness was created a Baronet on June 9, 1804, and it follows that the B.M. broadside could not have been printed before that date but was printed at least eight years after the death of Robert Burns, and it cannot be an original source, in any sense. Any speculation that the

17 text of the B.M. broadside, minus footnotes, is an exact copy of some original 1795 broadside is a pure unsupported conjecture. In a footnote on page 777 of [8] Kinsley states that the text of the ballad “The Election” is “from the 1795 broadside … collated with the Cowie MS, the Huntington Library MS, and Cunningham, 1834, iii, 264-7.” But which 1975 broadside? The B.M. broadside, or the E.U.L. broadside? Actually the texts of broadsides, and the text of the ballad [8] are alike although the three versions differ in word spelling, and in the use of majuscules, italics and lacunae. Eight of quatrains in the holographs [1] and [2] are similar to the corresponding quatrains in Kinsley’s [8]. However, two quatrains are substantially altered and one quatrain in Cowie MS. is omitted altogether. Quatrains 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 in Huntington MS. are much the same as the corresponding quatrains in the Kinsley version in [8], and quatrains 4, 6, and 7 in the Cowie MS. are very similar to quatrains 12, 10, and 8 in the Kinsley version, respectively. The first line and the first two words in quatrain 2 in the Huntington MS. and the corresponding lines in the Kinsley version are the same except for the abbreviations with lacunae for “Murray” and for “Gordon.” Why should Kinsley want to introduce lacunae at this stage is not clear. The other three lines in these quatrains are completely different. The second line in quatrain 4 in the Huntington MS. and the same line in the Kinsley are identical. The other three lines are completely different. Quatrain 5 in the Cowie MS. does not appear in the Kinsley version at all. Kinsley relegates the Huntington and the Cowie MSS. to footnotes, and does not explain why sources dating from 1804, or later, and 1834 should take precedence. Perhaps Kinsley believed that the above alterations were introduced by Burns himself but there is not a shred of evidence to support this conjecture, nor even to suggest that the poet ever saw the E.U.L. broadside. He certainly did not see the B.M. broadside nor the Cunningham edition of 1834.

IV. EARLY EDITIONS. Heron Ballad II entered the canon in 1834, nearly 38 years after the poet’s death, when it was included in “The Works of Robert Burns,” published in Glasgow by Archibald Fullarton, and Co., and edited by the Ettrick Shepherd and William Motherwell ([5]). In the same year it was included in “The Works of Robert Burns,” published by Cochrane and M’Crone, and edited by Allan Cunningham. These two editions of the ballad are nearly identical, although they differ in punctuation, use of majuscules, in spelling of Scots words words, and in few other instances. The editors of both editions filled all lacunae except the one about the Peer in line 28. We note here seven differences.

Line HOGG & MOTHERWELL ([5]) CUNNINHAM ([6]) KINSLEY ([8]) 9 black-nebbit black-lippit black-nebbit 11 his troddin his haddin his haddin 15 as to his as for his as for his 51 thoughtless thriftless thriftless 75 Wattie Walie Walie 81 Hey for the chaste Then hey the chaste Then hey the chaste

Although the changes from “nebbit” to “lippit”, or from “troddin” to “haddin”, or from “thoughtless” to “thriftless” or from “Wattie” to “Walie” do not affect the substance of the ballad, they may create doubt as to the accuracy of the three texts of the ballad, and they may draw attention to the tendency of some editors to “improve” original poems of Robert Burns. In my article [9] I examined lines 73-76 of the ballad in detail. The earliest extant edition of our ballad, that contains this quatrain, is the E.U.L. broadside. The quatrain reads:

18 And there frae the Niddisdale border Will mingle the Maxwells in droves Teuch Jockie, staunch Geordie, and Walie That greens for the fishes, and loaves.

It is generally accepted that the third line of this quatrain refers to John Maxwell of Terrauchty, to George Maxwell of Carruchan and to Welwood Maxwell of Barncleuch. Thus “Walie” in line 75 of E.U.L. broadside refers to the name “Welwood” (or “Wellwood”). Unfortunately the same nickname is rendered in the B.M. broadside as “Wattie”. The editors of eight noted editions of the ballad, published between 1834 and 1868, chose “Walie” as the nickname for “Welwood.” However, William Scott Douglas decided in his 1877 edition to insert the baptismal name “Wellwood” at the end of line 75 of the ballad, instead of a nickname. William Wallace, in the 1896 revised edition of William Chambers, reverted to the name “Walie.” Henley and Henderson in there well known edition of the same year followed suit. “Walie” (or “Wallie”) is a nickname for “Welwood” (or “Wellwood). Indeed Welwood was not a common first name for a man. Actually Welwood was the maiden name of Welwood Maxwell’s mother and it was passed to her son and later to one of her grandsons. During Welwood’s childhood, and possibly later, it may have been awkward to address the child by that name, and a diminutive name “Walie” was adopted by family members and friends. Of course, “Wattie” is a common nickname for “Walter.” Indeed Robert Burns in his letter to John MacLeod, dated 18th June 1794, [9, letter 626] used the name “Wattie” four times, referring to Walter Riddell, the husband of Maria Ridell, and a younger brother of Robert Riddell, by that time deceased. In none of the letters in [10] did William Pulteney address Welwood Maxwell as “Wattie.” Another possible explanation for the appearance of “Wattie” in some editions is that many writers, including Walter Scott, often did not cross their t’s, and thus some copiers of the ballad may not have been able to distinguish between l and t.

V. CONCLUDING REMARKS. Heron Ballad II was not included in any edition of poems of Robert Burns in his lifetime nor in 38 years after his death. Nevertheless two holographs of Burns containing parts of the ballad are extant, the Huntington MS [1] and the Cowie MS [2]. Each of these contains 28 lines of the ballad, twelve of which appear in both. The complete ballad, it is believed, consisted of 88 lines. Thus we have a half of the ballad preserved in manuscripts in the poet’s hand. The other half appeared in two broadsides, the E.U.L. broadside which may have been written in 1795 or later, and the B.M. broadside which was printed in 1804 or later. All other versions were printed in 1834 or later. It seems that the best way that Heron Ballad II of Robert Burns can be properly reproduced is by starting from the 44 lines in the two holographs and supplementing them with the other 44 lines from the broadsides. However, this simple solution was not adopted by any of the editors who included the ballad in their edition. They preferred to copy the ballad from some earlier edition and perhaps to introduce some “improvements” of their own.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to the National Library of Scotland for providing the photographs of holograph [2]. I am indebted to the Edinburgh University Library, the library of my Alma Mater, for providing photographs of broadside [3]. I am grateful to the British Museum for providing photographs of broadside [4].

19 REFERENCES [1] Manuscript of Heron Ballad II (28 lines). Henry E. Huntington Library. 1795. [2] Manuscript of Heron Ballad II (28 lines). C.R. Cowie of Glasgow Collection. National Library of Scotland. 1795. [3] The Election by Burns. Edinburgh University Library. No date. 1795. [4] The Election, A New Song. British Museum. No date. – 1804. [5] THE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited by the Ettrick Shepherd and William Motherwell. Glasgow: Archibald Fullarton, and Co. 1834. Vol. I, pp. 306-9. [6] THE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited by Allan Cunningham. London: Cochrane and M’Crone. 1834. Vol. III, pp. 264-7. [7] A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT BURNS. J. W. Egerer. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh and London. 1964. [8] THE POEMS AND SONGS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited by James Kinsley. Oxford at the Clarendon Press. 1968. Pages 777-80, 1476-9. [9] J. De Lancey Ferguson. THE LETTERS OF ROBERT BURNS. Second Edition edited by G. Ross Roy. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1985. Volume II. [10] Henryk Minc. A TALE OF THREE LETTERS. Burns Chronicle, Winter Edition 2005, pp. 37-50. ———————————— TRIBUTE TO BILL AULD Bill Auld had a remarkable life, in youth as an athlete and footballer of national standing, during wartime as a Spitfire Pilot, and professionally as an outstanding teacher, where those he mentored and guided gave him the respectful and endearing title of “Daddy” Auld. This reflected his great knowledge in Robert Burns which he imparted to many Burns gatherings with skilful oratory. He was a President of Dollar Burns Club. He will be remembered internationally for his dedication and contributions to the cause of the international language Esperanto. A lifetimes work in this cause included poetry, translations, essays, drama and textbooks. He translated much of Burns into his favourite language. His entire Esperanto collection is now held in the National Library of Scotland. For his great work for this language he was nominated for a Nobel Prize for Literature no less than three times. This outstanding man will be greatly missed, and very fondly remembered by many across the globe.

20 THE CANONGATE BURNS: MISREADING ROBERT BURNS AND THE PERIODICAL PRESS OF THE 1790’s (AN EXTRACT) Gerard Carruthers

he Canongate Burns, edited by Andrew and political consumption, there is now a Noble and Patrick Scott Hogg, presents politically correct Burns, sanitised for the left, Ta Robert Burns of impeccable radical, which equally traduces the truth.3 reformist credentials during the period following Noble and Hogg’s edition is part of a the French Revolution1. One moment in this recent hinterland of ‘new bardolatry’ that is edition especially vaunts Burns’s leftist political fictional rather than historical. Two examples heroism, a thorn in the side we are supposed to are revealing. Alistair Campsie’s The Clarinda believe of the Tory ministry of William Pitt and Conspiracy (1989) is a cleverly structured and its chief minister in Scotland, Henry Dundas. even rather witty novel that posits a conspiracy Discussing the poet’s support, expressed in theory: that the government was out to murder broadside ballads and a letter, for Patrick Heron Robert Burns.4 Campsie’s plot has Henry who was parliamentary candidate in the 1795 Dundas, frustrated as a poet and in his failure to election for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, seduce the Duchess of Gordon (an achievement Noble and Hogg savour Burns’s stance: apparently accomplished by Burns), determined to ruin the bard’s health. This Dundas manages More potent, more potentially treasonable by manipulating circumstances so that Burns anti-Pitt words, [sic] were not spoken by the is forced into Crown employment in the Excise Botany Bay bound radicals Thomas Muir, where he is driven too hard and towards an early Rev. Fysche Palmer, William Skirving or death. The busy Dundas, probably, had little Maurice Margarot. (CB, p.500) inclination to be a poet (in an idle moment he once wrote a four line poetic squib), and there The problem with this diagnosis is that is nothing at all to suggest that the Duchess of Heron was, in fact, a friend of Dundas and Gordon would ever have entertained overtures his eventual victory suited the Pitt-Dundas from Burns (though, in a Lady Chatterley interest in Scotland2. Melodramatic, historically type formulation, gossipy rumours of a liaison bereft and even, at times, truth mangling, The between the pair have long existed among Canongate Burns is an alarming sign of the Burnsians). Another fictional product should times. Where once there was a Burns trimmed, also be mentioned here a propos the recent censored and distorted for conservative cultural sentimentally leftist construction of the poet.

1 The Canongate Burns (Canongate: Edinburgh, 2001) edited by Andrew Noble and Patrick Scott Hogg. Curiously, a second edition appeared in 2003, which, although described as a ‘Revised edition published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and North America’, seems never to have appeared for sale in the UK, and retains the many mistakes dealt with in this essay from the first edition [Hereafter CB.]. I am grateful for access to the wonderful resource that is the G.Ross Roy collection of Robert Burns in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia for providing me with sight of the second edition and many of the other materials that underpin this article. 2 See, among other sources readily available to the Canongate editors, Norman R. Paton, Song O’ Liberty: The Politics of Robert Burns (Sea-Green Ribbon: Fareham, 1994), pp.119-120; & Michael Fry, The Dundas Despotism (Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1992 ), p.202. 3 For a description of the previous lamentable state of affairs, see J. De Lancey Ferguson, “They Censored Burns” in Scotland’s Magazine (January 1955), pp. 38-40. 4 Alistair Campsie, The Clarinda Conspiracy (Mainstream: Edinburgh, 1989).

21 Mairi Sutherland’s A Red Rose (2004) is a question, somewhat rhetorically, why has a large particularly crass film that goes even further swathe of the cultural establishment of Scotland than Campsie’s treatment.5 It depicts a ghoulish been so keen to salute this project? This would Edmund Burke personally overseeing the torture include such powerful voices as former political of Burns’s physician, William Maxwell, and, activist, Jimmy Reid and the former chair of in the face of this stress, Maxwell is ‘turned’; the Scottish Arts Council, James Boyle. Most under the guise of ministering to him, Maxwell emphatically, as I believe my critique below poisons the poet. Historically spurious, this shows, The Canongate Burns is not so much plotline gratuitously trounces Maxwell, a very a work open to interpretative difference, nor is courageous reformist intellectual during the it to be received as a matter of taste according 1790s, so that Burns, a man actually of less to political predilection, but is a demonstrably adventurous political action than Maxwell, inept and shoddy performance, frequent, wilful might enjoy superhuman radical amplitude. and purblind in its flaws. The government interest feared Burns, we are Let us undertake an empirical testing supposed to believe, and it adopted underhand of the Canongate Burns, which relates to an tactics in the attempt to destroy him. Burns, in undoubtedly interesting find by its editors. fact, depended on his government employment This is a poem, “Humanity: An Ode” which during the 1790s, was protected by colleagues they extract from the Gentleman’s Magazine for in the excise when doubts were expressed about August 1794 (CB, pp.494-497).7 Noble and his political affiliations, and his pay-masters, Hogg claim that this is ‘an updated version’ and in spite of periodic scepticism in the face of not ‘merely a variant reading’ of Burns’s poem Burns’s expressions of support for revolutionary “A Winter Night” which first appeared in 1787, France, were largely content to leave him be. here ‘published [sic] by Burns himself’ (CB, Had the government wished real harm to Burns, p.496). Much shorter than the earlier poem, it would likely have ensured more damage “Humanity: An Ode” is largely the English simply by dismissing him from its service and portion of this previous work stripped of its allowing the strong possibility of Burns and opening and concluding stanzas, written in a his family sinking thereafter into abject penury. contrasting Scots. Noble and Hogg write: While open to the charge of disrespecting The opening stanzas of A Winter Night history, The Clarinda Conspiracy and A Red Rose [sic] in Standard Habbie format are cut away are patently fictional, though the marketing of and the consolatory ending is dropped. What both products seems to imply that they are in remains is an exclusively dissident text [i.e. one some sense essentially true.6 The Canongate consonant with a contemporary anti-war mood Burns, however, is appalling in its pretence – G.C.] expressing the humanitarian sentiment to be a critical edition of Scotland’s greatest of the poem, hence the new title, Humanity: An poet, while exemplifying the same melodramatic Ode[sic]. (CB, p.496) expression and paranoid outlook as the novel As will become increasingly clear, it is always and the film. The question I wish to pose in worth checking at source any claims made by the background to what follows is: has any Noble and Hogg. For a start their rendition other poet of comparable stature, a Blake, a of the poem contains over twenty errors in Wordsworth or a Coleridge, say, been so abused transcription from the Gentleman’s Magazine, in such a forum? I would also wish to pose the when one would have expected great care to be

5 A Red Rose written and co-produced by Mairi Sutherland (Palm Tree Productions, 2004). 6 See the jacket blurb for The Clarinda Conspiracy promising, ‘the fruit of years of research and the seed of decades of controversy’. Complaining of a sinister plot to ignore her film, Mairi Sutherland is quoted as saying that it is ‘a story that was never going to be received well by the Scottish establishment’ [Scottish Standard (9th March, 2005), p.7]. 7 Gentleman’s Magazine (August, 1794), pp.748-749 (references to the Gentleman’s Magazine hereafter: GM).

22 taken in transporting to their edition a precious definitive, for the provenance of the bowdlerized ‘updated version’ they suggest to have come “A Winter Night”. In that issue a letter appears directly from the pen of Burns himself. The from a man who was, loosely, one of Burns’s most astonishing revelation at source, however, patrons, the Earl of Buchan. Buchan writes: concerns three footnotes (not found with the I have, for three or four years past, furnished earlier “A Winter Night”), which Noble and a good deal of matter for Dr. Anderson’s Journal Hogg imply to have been chosen by Burns. With in Scotland, called The Bee; which, from some each of these footnotes, from Young, Shakespeare difficulties in the circulation of it, has lately been and Thomson, they print the initials ‘R.B’ (CB, suspended by the Editor. Just attachment to my p.495). Now this seems an odd over-emphasis country induced me to give a preference to that when one first encounters this text in the Journal; but now, finding myself disengaged, I Canongate edition, but even odder is the fact chearfully reassume my literary connexion with that they do not exist at source in the Gentleman’s the Gentleman’s Magazine, that truly chaste Magazine. What actually becomes clear is that and respectable repository of erudite and useful there is no evidence whatsoever that Burns information. (GM [August 1794], p587) had anything to do with the publication of Buchan begins his ‘reassumed literary “Humanity: An Ode”, in spite of the claims of connexion’ with the Gentleman’s Magazine the Canongate editors and their massaging of the by submitting a letter by Benjamin Franklin evidence with their ‘R.B.’ plethora. Writ large in from 1783 (GM [August 1794], p.587). It is the Canongate edition is the editors’ insistence potentially much more than coincidental that that 1793-95 is an active poetic period for Burns only a month later “Humanity: An Ode” appears writing new radical works that he is contributing in the same periodical. Buchan was a man of to various periodicals. So, why then, we must radical reformist political principles, though logically ask, would he not send such a fresh aesthetically sometimes conservative and this is piece to the Gentleman’s Magazine? true in regard to literature written in Scots. His What one needs to do is examine the great wish for Burns was that he might write Gentleman’s Magazine for circumstantial evidence in ‘higher’ modes, with less emphasis upon of how it handles poetry and an interesting Scots ands more upon mainstream English. For comparison presents itself in the case of Samuel instance, he wrote to James Currie, Burns’s first Taylor Coleridge. In December 1794 his sonnet editor: “To the Honourable T. Erskine” appears in Burns appeared to me a real Makar, a the journal, presumably simply lifted from the Creator, a Poet, and I wished him to assume London Morning Chronicle where it appears on the language as well as the character of a Briton 1st December 1794 with an accompanying letter and to throw off the masquerade garb of Allan from Coleridge [GM (December 1794), p.1132]. Ramsay whom he so generally surpassed.8 The Gentleman’s Magazine excises this letter and Is “Humanity: An Ode” in fact a submission merely prints the sonnet. Periodicals at this time by Buchan? This is very likely though probably simply extracted what they fancied and were not impossible to prove. The title is very unlike slow to publish work with no real mandate from Burns, belonging in its clunking identification the author. We also have evidence of this principle of its own mode, I would suggest, to a different (or lack of it) one month before the appearance mentality from that of Burns. Buchan fancied of “Humanity: An Ode” in the July edition of the himself as a great poetic activist (and he dabbled Gentleman’s Magazine, and this presents us with in a little poor writing of his own) and one of his a hypothesis, compelling though not absolutely big projects was encouraging the appreciation

8 Lord Buchan to James Currie (14th September 1799) in the Mitchell Library collection of the correspondence of James Currie in the Cowie Collection, 101c-196c. I am grateful to Dr Rhona Brown for this reference.

23 of James Thomson whose works he so admired the only example where these editors misread (Buchan solicited a poem from Burns for a the status of their chosen texts. They make much celebration of Thomson, which the poet produced of their discovery of “Ode for Hibernia’s Sons” somewhat resentfully even as he complied with (CB, pp.819-820), which is one of a number of the rather pompous Earl’s direction of his manuscripts advertised for auction in a sales creativity). It is perhaps significant that one of catalogue in 1861. Without the manuscript text the quotations appended to “Humanity: An (now lost), but on the basis of the information Ode” is from Thomson. I would also want to proffered by the catalogue that this is a variant draw attention to the final lines of the poem: of “Ode for General Washington’s Birthday”, Noble and Hogg simply print the ‘new poem’ Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress; substituting ‘Hibernia’ for ‘Columbia’ in the A brother then relieve, and God the deed shall Washington text. Now this would be a valid bless. and interesting experiment if the editors made These replace the ending in the sequence from “A it very explicit that they were guessing at the Winter Night”: level of variation between the two texts, but they Affliction’s sons are brothers in distress; do not and they even garble the textual record A Brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss! by asserting that the “Hibernia’s Sons” piece shows that ‘Burns crucially passed commentary Although one has to be slightly impressionistic on Irish political affairs’ (CB, p.820). In fact, here, I would suggest that the pietism of the given that the sales catalogue says that this text ending in the Gentleman’s Magazine points to is an ‘early’ version of the Washington text, the possibility of interference by another hand comprising two stanzas rather than the more looking to make a grander spiritual gesture. expansive four stanzas of the later text, what we Burns’s full version of “A Winter Night” ends have clearly pointed to is a cancelled as opposed altogether less passively in its theology, more to a different text, and a situation where Burns provisionally or somewhat agnostically even, discards his initial focus on the Irish situation, with: ‘The heart benevolent and kind/The most substituting a (presumably stronger) American resembles God.’9 interest. Even leaving aside the Buchan hypothesis, For the full essay dealing with the ‘lost poems’ ‘Humanity: An Ode” looks strongly like a one by one, see the Review of Scottish Culture bowdlerized text, rather than a new one as No.18 (2006). suggested by Noble and Hogg, and this is not

9 I am grateful to Dr Ken Simpson for drawing my attention to this point.

———————————— BURNS ON THE FRINGE - THE CULTURE & THE COMIC

n invitation to join the Dumfries Burns Howff Club on their minibus outing to the Fringe- taking in two events on the one evening – was welcomed by this once resident Doonhamer. ATwo events- Robert Burns in Edinburgh and About Tam o’ Shanter, as different as chalk and cheese. Even a cursory glance at the Bard’s two winters spent in Edinburgh will confirm that his stay involved two very separate situations – the elegant decorous drawing-room meetings in the New Town

24 and the rumbustious raucous gatherings in the taverns of the Old. The two Fringe events mirrored that antisyzgy- combination of opposites- quite utterly. First to the Royal Surgeon’s Hall where Illumni Productions presented (as you would expect) a power-point presentation of the Robert’s sojourn not only in the capital but also of the family’s earlier life and the various events which led him to Capital fame. On the narrative was that doyen of the Burns circuit, Professor David Purdie, known to most, an esteemed obstretrician and honorary Howff Club member. His erudite and informative tale was amply illustrated, several of the pictures previously unseen by his audience extracted with presumably surgical precision from the national archives within weeks of the show. He gave well deserved praise to those like our good friend Tom McIlwraith, who had done a lot of recent work on several fronts to promote Burns in Edinburgh. To complement the spoken word, a selection of the best of Burns’ songs was excellently delivered by Moira and Douglas Burke of the Choir of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Walter Nimmo, also a surgeon, if I heard David correctly, at the keyboard. Normally at a Fringe performance on Burns, factual mistakes appear but here, the polished performance was significant in that not a semblance of a historical inaccuracy intruded. My only personal criticism – and if I had been doing the narration, the same would have applied- I thought David tried to cram just a little too much detail in the short hour allotted to the event. But since Robert’s life and works are so worthy of exposition, surely that’s Crichton nit- picking at its best-or worst! Then a 15 minute walk past the plaque to Clarinda on a corner of the Potterrow, Greyfriars’ Bobby and then past the White Hart Inn to the Beehive- another pub nearby. Our swarm, unsuitably attired , thought I , in suits and ties, for this kind of event, took up a good deal of the cramped seating. There, a genial comic, Bruce Fummey with a girth as huge as his guffaw greeted a much younger audience. Fummey described himself as a physics teacher from Blackford, Perthshire of Scoto/Ghanain descent- now there’s a real eclectic mix- The brochure blurb said – the finest comedian on the Afro-Celtic circuit: indeed, he may be the only one. If the Illumni show was an illuminated tour, Bruce’s expose of Tam o’ Shanter was a tour de force. Maybe even a tour de farce, given his references to his being ‘’ a true Scotsman’’ resplendent as he was in Jacobean shirt and kilt- which neither Tam nor Soutar Johnnie nor Burns himself would have been in the South of Scotland at the time. The story of the poem – from the youthful Kirkoswald episode to the meeting with Francis Grose and offer of 3 witches’ tales was explained – ultimately- with a plethora of asides of gallus irreverent humour ( the Scottish Parliament, the overt Christianity of Ghana, the No-smoking ban and the Big Brother House just a few present day topics to come under Bruce’s ‘martial’ axe ). The Burnsians thankfully did not sit in the front row- but they did not escape Bruce’s skilled eye – and ear. Ted Murray ventured, to give him the number of the London Finsbury bus- don’t ask me how he got to Finsbury from Alloway Kirk- and , following my cough – manufactured- he suggested that my‘’ Frosty Pow’ might well be old enough to have been at the American War ( of Independence). All good knock about stuff. Gales of laughter abounded and final well- merited applause for a consummate performer. How David Smith’s pint – or what remained in the glass- got to the end unscaithed will forever remain a mystery. At the end of it all, he ‘ did’ the poem. OK, he wasn’t quite word perfect. How many of us who ‘do’ it are? But the bums on seats were satisfied and he got a well merited round of applause. Although what they’ll make of it in the Jesus Christ Hair Salon in Accra, Ghana, we’ll never know. A final thought on both as the Howff gang made for the minibus ‘ Doonhame’ – since I understand David Purdie to say he hopes to re-form The Edinburgh Burns Club, could I suggest Bruce Fummey’s Tam o’ Shanter would make an excellent item on its inaugural Burns Supper programme. RONNIE CRICHTON August 2006

25 Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow No.4. In this essay, Nigel Leask, the Regius Professor of English Literature at the University of Glasgow, examines a cultural location that stands at the heart of Burns’ work. ‘THE COTTAGE LEAVES THE PALACE FAR BEHIND’: PASTORAL IDEALISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE COTTER’S SATURDAY NIGHT. Nigel Leask

n this essay I’ll be looking at Burns’ Cotter’s Saturday Night in relation to its social context, in order to underline, despite its much-praised social ‘realism’, an apparent blindness to the historical fate I of the cotter class in late 18th century Scotland.1 Our understanding of the poem hasn’t been helped by the longstanding assumption, initiated by Burns’s tutor John Murdoch, that the Cotter’s family circle represents a faithful portrait of the poet’s own cottage upbringing in Alloway. Writing about life in what he pretentiously describes as William Burnes’s ‘argillaceous fabric’ (clay cottage) Murdoch suggested that ‘there dwelt a larger portion of content [there] than in any palace in Europe. The Cotter’s Saturday Night, will give some idea of the temper and manners that prevailed.’2 But qualifying this view of The Cotter as a truthful image of Burns family life is a worry about the poem’s ‘inauthentic’ opening, the address to Robert Aiken, a middle-class Ayr lawyer; ‘The native feelings strong, the guileless ways, / What A**** [Aiken] in a Cottage would have been/ Ah! Tho’ his worth unknown, far happier there I ween!’ [PSRB p.146, ll.7-9]. Burns’ titular ‘inscription’ of the poem to Aiken plays the conventional pastoral trick of dressing up humble cottage life as the site for a fantasy performance of middle-class virtue, while sidelining its ‘real’ subject, the rural poor. The fact that Burns and his family were tenant farmers and not cotters (a detail which Murdoch simply passes over) complicates any biographical reading of The Cotter: It’s hard to avoid the implication that Burns was portraying the virtues of his cottage-dwelling social inferiors (the cotters) for the moral edification of readers of Aitken’s class, and beyond that, ‘the Edin’bro gentry’ to whom he looked for patronage. Burns was sensitive to the nuances of social difference in his rural Lowland world; take for instance the hierarchy of ‘gentry’, ‘ha’folk’ (servants), ‘tenant man’ and ‘Cot-folk’ so carefully distinguished in lines 60-70 of The Twa Dogs. Although his admiration for the virtuous cotters resonates throughout the poem, Burns of course knew far better than we do now the social difference between a tenant farmer and cotter. His realistic portrait of the cotter’s world, delivered in the robust Scots diction of the early stanzas, has often been praised, and rightly so. But as far as I’m aware, only Tom Crawford has noted that The Cotter’s Saturday Night is ‘an idealisation of a dying class’,3 who by the mid -1780’s were being swept from the face of the Scottish countryside by the rapid pace of ‘agricultural improvement’.

1 Twentieth century commentators removed The Cotter from its Victorian pedestal. See Kinsley’s commentary in The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, ed. James Kinsley, 3 vols., (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1968), III-2 [henceforth PSRB] in text, and Thomas Crawford, Burns: A Study of the Poems and Songs (1960: Edinburgh: Canongate Academic 1994) pp. 174-182. 2 Cited by Dr James Currie in The Works of Robert Burns, 4 vols., (1800), I, 88. 3 Crawford, p.181.

26 Burns’ Cotter is most often studied in relation to its major literary source, Robert Fergusson’s The Farmer’s Ingle (1773) which, also employing the Spenserian stanza, describes the Lowland farmer returning from a hard day’s labour to the welcoming repose of his family circle. Another importance source for The Cotter however is Oliver Goldsmith’s great poem of social protest The Deserted Village (1770), one of the most influential pastoral poems of the late 18th century. In a letter of April 1790 Burns described the Irish Goldsmith as ‘my favourite poet’ and quoted from the Deserted Village to support his argument that the rural poor still retained vestiges of Scottish ‘native liberty’ which had been lost by the polite classes in the wake of the 1707 Act of Union with England.4 There are a number of differences between Goldsmith’s vision of the rural poor and Burns’ and Fergusson’s, however, not least the fact that, in contrast both to the hard-worked ‘farmer’ and ‘cotter’, Goldsmith’s peasant has it pretty easy; ‘For him light labour spread her wholesome store, / Just gave what life required, but gave no more’. [ll. 59-60].5 An even greater contrast, however, lies in the fact that Goldsmith’s idealisation of life in ‘Sweet Auburn’ is emphatically pitched in the past tense; ‘A time there was, ere England’s griefs began, / When every rood of land maintained its man’ [ll.57-8] The poem’s political charge lies in its lament for the fate of a whole peasant class which has been displaced by the ‘accumulation of wealth’, luxurious living, and agricultural ‘improvement’; ‘Princes and lords may flourish or may fade; /A breath can make them, as a breath has made./ But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, / When once destroyed, can never be supplied’. [ll.53-56] It’s a sentiment which Burns picks up in the final stanzas of The Cotter, but strangely enough without any acknowledgement that the process of destruction was well under way. The image of rural manners in The Cotter’s Saturday Night makes a striking contrast with Burns’ account of precariousness of the Cotters’ existence in ‘The Twa Dogs’;

A Cotter howckan in a sheugh, Wi’ dirty stanes biggan a dyke, Bairan a quarry, an’ sic like, Himsel, a wife, he thus sustains, A smytrie o’ wee, duddie weans, An’ nought but his han’-daurk, to keep Them right an’ tight in thack an raep. [ll.72-79]

However hard Burns’ own upbringing on his father’s failing Ayrshire farms, this description is based on his acute power of social observation rather than personal experience. Even the Alloway cottage in which Burns was born had little in common with the traditional cottar’s dwelling evoked in the poem, described by Gavin Sprott as ‘a basic house and byre with no developed throwe-gang, but a simple hallan or partition dividing the people from perhaps a single cow or calf’. By contrast, the Alloway cottage built by William Burnes (rather badly, because one of the gables collapsed when Robert was a child) was in the fashion of the new Midlothian dwellings, built of modern clay mortar rather than turf and timber…with a fire set into a solid stone gable hearth with a flue in the thickness of the masonry, suitable for burning coal rather than the traditional peat.7 Like the more prosperous farmsteads in which the Burns family later lived, its living space was sub-divided, with a spence or parlour beyond the ben, a private apartment where the gudeman and his wife and children slept.

4 Robert Burns: The Complete Letters, ed by James A.Mackay, (Ayrshire: Alloway Publications, 1987), p.185. Hereafter CL in text. 5 I’m citing from the text in David Fairer and Christine Gerrard, (eds), Eighteenth-Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology, (Oxford: Blackwell 1999), pp.419-429, 6 Gavin Sprott, Robert Burns: Farmer (Edinburgh, 1990), p.17. 7 ibid., p.25

27 Neither were the Burns farmhouses at Mount Oliphant, Lochlie, Mossgeil, or Ellisland anything more like the dwelling described in The Cotter’s Saturday Night. Sprott notes that the ‘spence’ in Mossgiel alluded to in The Vision ‘was not the ben room of the older Ayrshire houses, but part of a modern house built only a few years before by Gavin Hamilton who had sub-let the farm...although Burns was familiar with the old houses of the Ayrshire countryside, he did not live in them’.8 This account of Burns’s dwellings underlines his ambivalent relationship to traditional Scottish agriculture and the process of ‘improvement’ which revolutionized it in the later decades of the 18th century, and of which he was in many ways an active promoter. Much of his poetry is an elegy for the old rural way of life. In 1755 about 75 % of Ayrshire’s 59,000 inhabitants lived in the countryside; forty years later the population had increased to 73,500, but over 50% now lived in towns and villages, and it was the cotters and their kind who had been shifted off the land.9 Tom Devine has recently criticised a tendency amongst social historians to ignore the virtual destruction of the Scottish cotter class in these decades as a result of land enclosure and the consolidation of farm holdings. He identifies a process of ‘lowland clearance’ every bit as drastic as the better-known ‘Highland Clearances’, although the existence of plentiful alternative employment in the Lowlands preserved many of the cleared cotters from the appalling hardships suffered by their Highland cousins. Cotters had sub-rented their cottages and smallholdings from tenant farmers in return for seasonal labour, but this conflicted with the new agrarian order which preferred to hire full-time rather than seasonal labourers. The fact that cotters might own small plots of land and a single ‘Hawkie’ or milk cow, and hire out their children as farm servants (like The Cotter’s ‘Jenny’), provided them with a degree of independence, in stark contrast to the full-time agricultural labourers who replaced them, directly subject to the work discipline of their masters.10 The elimination of the cotters permitted the new capitalist farmer to regulate his labour force, but its effects on rural society appear in Scotland to have been every bit as dramatic as the transformation evoked by Goldsmith in The Deserted Village. Devine cites the agricultural correspondent for Lanarkshire reporting in 1798; ‘It’s vain to say anything of the ancient cottages…the former nurseries of field labourers, for they may be said to be now no more.’ The same process is recorded in the Statistical Account for Scotland; the minister of Kilmany in Fife referred to ‘the annihilation of the little cottagers’, and the reporter from Marrikie in Angus described how ‘many of the little cottages are exterminated.’ Other observers noted that ruined cottages scattered around the countryside, their stones being used to construct dikes and walls for the new farm enclosures.11 This of course recalls Goldsmith’s lines in The Deserted Village: ‘Sunk are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all, / And the long grass o’ertops the moulderning wall.’ [47-8] We look in vain for any mention of the despoliation of the cotter class in Burns’s Cottar’s Saturday Night. My brief foray into Scottish social history however makes it hard not to detect a note of irony in Burns’ patriotic benediction of the cotters (in lines 172-5): ‘O SCOTIA! my dear, my native soil! / For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! / Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil / Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!’ [PSRB I, 151]. The second stanza’s timeless image of the ‘toil-worn COTTER’ trudging back across the moor to his ‘lonely Cot’, picturesquely positioned ‘beneath the shelter of an aged tree’, brings to mind Thomas Gainsborough’s popular ‘Cottage Door’ painting of the 1770’s. Critic John Barrell has suggested that these and similar images of cottage life, ‘embody an idea of the ‘good’ poor, ‘industrious, modest, quiet, neat’…and in the process they

8 ibid. 9 John Strawhorn, ‘Everyday Life in Burns’ Ayrshire’, in Burns Now, ed. Kenneth Simpson (Edinburgh: Canongate Academic 1994), p.17 10 T.M.Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700-2000 (London: Penguin, 1999), p.149-50 11 Devine, p.147

28 define too, by their absence from the painting, an account of the ‘bad’ poor supposed to be none of these things’.12 In the fourth stanza, the Cotter’s daughter Jenny returns from work as a servant on a neighbouring farm, her ‘sair-won penny- fee’ dedicated to help out her parents if ‘they in hardship be’ [ll.35-6]. There’s no indication here that they are any poorer than most of their class, although I think Burns is reminding his readers that this cotter family, proud in its self-sufficiency, didn’t need to beg charity from the likes of Robert Aiken, let alone the Parish. After the romantic interlude when Jenny’s ‘blate and laithfu’ [l.69] young man enters the cottage, the family sit down to their ‘Cheerfu’ Supper’ of porridge with milk from their single cow, and the Dame’s ‘weel-hained kebbuck’ brought out for the special occasion. The ‘amorous stanzas’ (6-9) have posed a special problem for modern readers, and I want to look at them in more detail. The innocent courtship of Jenny and her young man, reminiscent of Allan Ramsay’s Patie and Peg, is squarely within the polite pastoral tradition, in which (as Tom Crawford somewhere quips) the only creatures to get pregnant are the livestock. But in the ninth stanza, once again signalling his distance from the cotter’s world, Burns’s narrator assumes the persona of a detached philosophical observer [ll.75-6], offering us a voyeuristic picture of ‘the youthful, loving, modest Pair’ [l.79] embracing under a hawthorn, self-consciously enforcing his moral emphasis on their innocence. The picture is however completely undercut by the following stanza;

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart – A wretch! A villain! lost to love and truth! That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art, Betray sweet Jenny’s unsuspecting youth? Curse on his perju’d arts! dissembling, smoothe! Are Honour, Virtue, Conscience all exil’d? [ll.82-7]

This is pretty fresh coming from the pen of ‘Rob o’Mossgiel’, a man with the well-founded reputation of a village libertine. Perhaps there is some intelligibility in Tom Crawford’s description of ninth stanza as ‘one of the most nauseating ever published by a reputable poet’.13 I’m less shocked than Crawford though because behind the apparent hypocrisy something rather more interesting and allusive seems to be going on in Burns’ lubricious imagining of ‘the ruined Maid’ and her distracted parents’. In part, this artificial outrage at Jenny’s seduction registers Burns’ impatience with polite pastoral, impatience more squarely, and obscenely, expressed in the burlesque song ‘When Maukin Bucks’ in The Merry Muses of Caledonia. But it seems to me that the image of Jenny’s potential ruination (which, the poem reassures us, is unlikely given the sound qualities of her young man) alludes to a passage in Goldsmith’s Deserted Village.14 At lines 327-38 Goldsmith personifies the ruination of Sweet Auburn in his tragic tale of a ‘poor houseless shivering female’, a country lass who has been tempted into prostitution in the city, but who before her fall resembled Burns’ innocent Jenny;

She once, perhaps, in village plenty blest, Has wept at tales of innocence distrest; Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn;

12 John Barrell, The Spirit of Despotism: Invasions of Privacy in the 1790’s (Oxford University Press, 2006), p.214. 13 Crawford, p.179 14 Other echoes of are detected by Kinsley at ll. at ll.80-1,165 and 169-71.

29 Now lost to all; her friends, her virtue fled, Near her betrayer’s door she lays her head.

Like Goldsmith, The Cotter challenges the sophisticated reader to contemplate Jenny as a paragon of innocent virtue, whilst at the same time opening the door to images of her seduction and ruination. To this extent Jenny’s sexual fall, following Goldsmith more explicit poem of rural complaint, might be read as a symbol of the historical fate of her own cotter class, cut down by the juggernaut of agrarian ‘improvement’. If I’m right, then Jenny’s imagined seduction signals Burns’s awareness of the duplicity of pastoral, in its ‘descriptive’ idealisation of rural worlds which already only exist in poetry, or rapidly fading from living memory. It may fairly be objected that Burns’ possible allusion to Goldsmith’s ruined maiden is still a very oblique way of figuring the social pressures currently destroying the traditional cotter world, not otherwise evident in the poem. Burns gets much nearer to describing the cotters’ fate in To a Mouse, although it’s significant that the ‘cleared’ cottager is represented in the shape of an animal, not a man, and the poet’s own ‘improving’ plough is the engine of destruction;

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! Its silly wa’s the win’s are strewin! An’ naething, now, to big a new ane, O’ foggage green! An bleak December’s wins ensuin, Baith snell an’ keen! [PSRB, I, p.127, ll.19-24].

Of course Burns’ polite patrons were hardly likely to encourage a reading of his poetry as criticism of the clearances which were destroying the cotters in the name of ‘improving’ Scottish agriculture, a process which is actively praised in The Vision. But we should also recall that his angry, explicit attack on the Highland Clearances and the Scottish landowning class in Address of Beelzebub was suppressed until 1818. Neither, especially in the revolutionary decade of the 1790’s, would such readers wish to have much truck with the political radicalism of The Cotter’s later stanzas, where Burns’ praise of the domestic virtues of the cotters modulates into a scathing attack on the aristocracy, anticipating the ‘Tom Paine politics’ of ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ that’;

Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, ‘An honest man’s the noble work of GOD:’ And certes, in fair Virtue’s heavenly road, The Cottage leaves the Palace far behind: What is a lordling’s pomp? – a cumbrous load, Disguising oft the wretch of human kind, Studied in arts of Hell, in wickedness refin’d! [ll.165-171].

It was however the poem’s image of the Old Cotter’s religious piety which held most charm for an evangelical Victorian readership. This isn’t to say that the religious stanzas (12-18), which show Burns writing at the height of his power in the sublime mode, are devoid of their own radicalism, given his preference for the Cotter’s unaffected ‘language of the Soul’ [l.152] over ‘the pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole’ [l.150] of organised Christian worship. David Hill Radcliffe has noted in a learned essay on the poem’s subsequent influence that ‘imitations of the Cotter had become a recognised genre by 1824…as Burns’ piety and patriotism… evolved into the reconstituted Tory

30 politics espoused by Blackwoods and the Lake Poets’.15 It’s rather telling that the emphasis tends to shift from Saturday night to Sunday morning in the titles of imitators such as John Struther’s The Poor Man’s Sabbath (1804), James Hyslop’s The Scottish Sacramental Sabbath, in imitation of The Cotter’s Saturday Night’ (1820), or John Gilmour’s The Sabbath Sacrament (c.1828). Duncan Macmillan, in his discussion of Sir David Wilkie’s hugely popular painting of 1837 The Cotter’s Saturday Night (representing the Cotter reading to his family from the ‘big ha’ Bible’) [l.103] recuperates some of the potential radicalism of Burns’ poem by arguing that the painting was a triumphant response to the Veto Act of 1835, which granted Presbyterian congregations the right to veto a patron’s nominee to a parish, though not themselves to elect him. It was the overturning of the Veto Act in 1843 - a triumph of the Scottish Tory landowning interest - which led directly to the Disruption and the establishment of the Free Church.16 But the radical tide of the revolutionary decades associated with the historical moment of Burns’ poetry is here channelled into the small, or at least parochial, stream of mid-19th century Kirk politics. If there is even a subdued note of social protest in Burns’ great poem, as I’ve suggested that there might be, by 1840 it has either been replaced by a purely spiritual message, or (for later generations) diverted into a sentimental image of the dignity of labour. It’s perhaps no surprise that The Cotter’s Saturday Night was deeply admired by William Wordsworth’s, the author of The Ruined Cottage and Michael, poems which (in contrast to Burns) explicitly address the tragic human consequences of loss and social dislocation in the rural community of the English Lakes. In a letter to Coleridge of 1799 which praised Burns as the great pastoral poet of his generation, Wordsworth singled out the peculiar power of pastoral poetry to represent ‘manners connected with the permanent objects of nature and participating of the simplicity of those objects. Such pictures must interest when the original must cease to exist’.17 Maybe Wordsworth here put his finger on the particular – and to modern critics often elusive – power and pathos of Burns’ Cotter as a hymn to a social class which had practically ceased to exist.

15 ‘Imitation, Popular Literacy, and “The Cotter’s Saturday Night” in Critical Essays on Robert Burns, ed. Carol McGuirk, (New York: G.K.Hall & Co., 1998), p.264 16 Duncan Macmillan, Painting in Scotland: The Golden Age (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1986), p.181. 17 The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. E.De Selincourt, 2nd ed., I, The Early Years 1787-1805, rev. C.L.Shaver, (1967), pp.255-6. ———————————— BURNS AND ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

statue of Burns stands now in the forecourt of the State Library of South Australia. It was presented to the City of Adelaide by the South Australian Caledonian Society in 1894. It is Amounted on a pedestal of locally quarried (Monarto) granite and carved from Angaston marble by William Maxwell, a sculptor who came to Australia from Glasgow. (Angaston is a town named after Sir George Fife Angas, a South Australian pioneer). He had previously made a statuette of Burns for a competition in Kilmarnock and it is possible that this was the model for his Adelaide sculpture. It is said to represent Burns reading his poem ‘A Winter Night’ in the Duchess of Gordon’s salon. Artistically it is reputed to be one of the best memorial statues among the 56 or so that have been established in cities all round the world. The statue was unveiled on 5th May 1894 by the Caledonian Society Chieftain, and Member of the Legislative Council, John Darling who was accompanied in all dignity and style by the Lieutenant Governor Sir Samuel Way. Sitting among the dignitaries when the statue was unveiled was Annie Burns Vincent Scott, Burns’ legitimate great grandaughter. Her mother Sarah the daughter of Burns’ son James Glencairn Burns

31 had married an Irish doctor Berkeley Hutchinson. They migrated to Australia in 1852. The good doctor failed to make much of a living, travelled from one place to another even trying his hand unsuccessfully at farming; finally Sarah fed up with the travel, the hard life and no doubt the high mortality among her children went back to join her father and his second wife in Cheltenham. The 14 year old youngest daughter Annie stayed on in Australia with her father. Dr. Hutchinson continued his peripatetic medical practise and ended up as surgeon to the copper mines at Moonta and Kadina in South Australia but retired to Melbourne where he died in 1889. Annie married James Scott, a son of a naval officer who had vineyards in the colony and they settled in Semaphore, a suburb of Adelaide where Annie died in 1935. Thus ended one line of Burns’ Australian descendants in Australia. However, there is another line.

“Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine, A place where body saw na; Yestreen lay on this breast o’ mine The gowden locks of Anna.” And so on through another four giddy stanzas ending with an exhortation to Night to: “…bring an Angel-pen to write My transports with my Anna!”

Anna was Helen Anne Park niece of the wife of the owner of the Globe Tavern in Dumfries. The result of Burns’ “transports” with her was a daughter Elizabeth known as Betty. Betty married a John Thomson and they had eight children two of whom at least came to Australia. Sarah Thomson married Ben Cameron who found work on the River Murray boats and they settled in Milang. Sarah named her daughter Jean Armour after Burns’ wife. This Jean married Harry Harben. I can’t tell you much about Harry Harben except that he took 10 wickets for 36 runs when Milang beat Mt Barker at cricket. They had children and grandchildren who have scattered over Australia and anyone with the surname Harben in Australia is likely to be a descendant of Burns from this left side of the blanket. The other of golden-locked Anna’s grandchildren who came to South Australia was Elizabeth (born in 1830) who married James McLennan. They had a good Victorian age number of children – twelve including a set of twins. Elizabeth Burns Thomson McLennan was also seated together with Annie Scott among the guests at the statue’s unveiling. She died in 1899 at Goodwood and lies buried in West Terrace cemetery. I have been able only to trace records of one of her descendants – Robert Burns Thomson McLennan who married Annie Anderson in August 1901. Records show that the birth of a Robert Anderson McLennan, presumably their son, was registered on 14.12.1901. Acknowledgement: Much of this material comes from a booklet “The Two Sarahs” compiled and written by the late John W Begg a direct descendant of Burns’ sister Isabella Begg. The booklet was published in Sydney after his death by his daughters in 1990. Submitted by Dr Michael Sorokin Aldgate, South Australia

“YEAR of the HOMECOMING” ROBERT BURNS 2009 250th ANNIVERSARY Burns Cottage Alloway of BIRTH

32 in Whitburn, West Lothian – and she herself ROBERT BURNS died just two weeks before the birth of her twin granddaughters. BANFFSHIRE What was Mary McLean’s connection sith Burns? The Poet’s first child, Elizabeth (1784- CONNECTION 1817), was his illegitimate daughter by Elizabeth By Evelyn Duncan Paton, his mother’s servant. Burns went to Edinburgh to settle Elizabeth Paton’s claim and I am a member of Aberdeen Burns Club, admit that the baby was his daughter. She was and in 2004 our annual outing was to the brought up as Elizabeth Burns on the family’s Cabrach area of Banffshire. Several years ago, a farm of Mossgiel. She married John Bishop gentleman from Newcastle was in the ANESFHS in 1807 and the couple had five children, Family History Centre, where I help out, he including Helen born in 1813. Helen married told me that he had been visiting Cabrach James Pender at Whitburn – and their children churchyard, where he had passed the time of included Mary, who was born in 1845. day with the gravedigger, who told him about Mary Pender married James Walker McLean the great-granddaughter of Robet Burns who in Whitburn, and their three children were was buried there. all born in Lanark. Twins Jemima and David I thought no more about it, imagining that were born in 1878, and James in 1880. In the it was common knowledge; but the information 1901 census, James was a student in Strachur, stayed at the back of my mind. Before our where his brother David was a schoolmaster outing, I looked up the unpublished Cabrach before entering the ministry, having studied at MIs, which we have in draft form in our library. Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities. I believe Great! There she was on the first page! that James also became a schoolmaster, in Edinburgh. In loving memory of JAMES WALKER McLEAN interred in Whitburn Cemetery and his wife MARY MILLAR PENDER great-granddaughter of Robert Burns the poet. Died at the Manse, Cabrach, age 71. Erected by the family. [On side panel:] On 6 Oct 1968, age 90, their daughter JEMIMA HELEN WALKER McLEAN, wife of Dr JOHN MILLER HOPKINS CALDWELL.

A visit to the churchyard seemed a good idea, to see the headstone. We trooped into the graveyard, which is small. I knew the location of the gravestone, which did make it easier to find, and took photographs of the gravestone, it was a worthwhile visit. I decided to look up Mary’s death certificate, she died in 1916, at Cabrach Manse. Why was she in Cabrach? Further investigation showed Charles Beaton, Secretary of Aberdeen Burns that David McLean was the minister of Cabrach Club with member Evelyn Duncan at the grave Church and that he was Mary’s son, with whom of Mary Millar Pendar. Since the photograph was she was living. Her husband had died in 1911 taken the stone has been cleaned.

33 SAINT ANDREWS SOCIETY OF MILAUKEE BRICKS REQUIRED BURNS COMMON BRICK SUBSCRIPTION

FOR POET’S STATUE Name:______

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, USA Address:______

The statue of Robert Burns at Knapp and ______Prospect needs continual maintenance and repair. In order to raise money for this purpose, Phone:______the St. Andrew’s Society of Milwaukee has partnered with the Milwaukee County Parks E-mail:______Department to install an apron of bricks around the base of the statue. The memorial bricks Inscription______will be a fundraiser. Only two other statues like ours exist, in Chicago and Glasgow. Bricks $50.00 Standard Brick 4”x8” up to 3 lines with start at $50.00 and may be engraved with an 12 letters and spaces per line. organization and/or personal name. £150.00 8”x16” brick up to 6 lines. Engrave a 4x8 brick with information $260.00 for 16”x16” brick up to 12 lines. given. Each brick will be able to capacitate 12 characters per line with a maximum of 3 lines. All proceeds raised from this subscription include All letters will be painted black. Bricks will sell placement of your individual memorial brick for $50.00 each. on the Burns Common, and include funding Engrave a 8x16 brick with information dedicated to the maintenance and preservation given. Each brick will be able to capacitate 20 of the Burns monument. characters per line, including punctuation and spaces with a maximum of 5 lines. An additional Make cheque out to: Saint Andrews Society Brick 2 lines may be engraved on these bricks for an Subscription. extra $30.00 per line. All letters will be painted Mail to: Saint Andrews Society, c/o Tom black. Bricks will sell for $150.00. Westgaard, P.O. Box 210288, Milwaukee, WI Engrave a 16x16 brick with information 53221-8005. given. Each brick will be able to capacitate 20 characters per line, including punctuation and spaces with a maximum of 7 lines. An additional SUPPORT THE AIMS OF THE 3 lines may be engraved on these bricks for an ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION additional $40.00 per line. All letters will be BY PURCHASING A SHARE/S IN painted black . Bricks will sell for $250.00. Company logos can be engraved on both THE 200 CLUB larger sized bricks. There is an additional charge A single share in the Club of $80.00 for photo ready art work and $140.00 costs £12 per annum. for non photo ready art work on 8x16 bricks. Cash prizes to the lucky winner are paid On 16x16 bricks the charge is £100.00 for photo out three to four times a year ready art work and £175.00 for non photo ready For further details contact: art work. Moira Rennie Dunsmore, The bricks will need 1 month to complete 5 Southwark Close, engraving. Stevenage, Herts. SG1 4PG. Telephone: 01438 228366

34 The FAMILY, RELATIONS and CLOSE FRIENDS of ROBERT BURNS A Genealogical list of members of the family and friends of Robert Burns by the late LAWRENCE R. BURNESS, a distant cousin of the Bard, compiled by the Editor.

Chronicle Editor (Standing) at a ‘Genealogical’ meeting with the late Lawrence R. Burness and Lavinia Drew, Great, Great, Great, Granddaughter of Robert Burns. ARMOUR Jean (1765-1834) - Wife of Robert Burns, born in the Cowgate, Mauchline on 25th February. First born daughter of James Armour and Mary Smith. Married to the Poet (for the second time) on 3rd May, 1788. When Jean became pregnant in 1786 as a result of her association with the Poet, together they signed a paper to confirm their partnership a – Certificate of Marriage – which according to Scots Law at that time was legal and binding. Jean’s father had the “Piece of paper” destroyed being the only evidence of their marriage which he totally opposed. When Jean became pregnant again in 1788 they were officially married in the home or office of their friend Gavin Hamilton of Mauchline. This marriage was recognised by Mauchline Church Session on 5th August, 1788. Jean died in the family home in Dumfries on 26th March, 1834 and was laid to rest beside her husband in the Mausoleum, St. Michael’s Churchyard, Dumfries. Family – Robert, Jean, Twin Girls, Francis, William Nicol, Elizabeth Riddell, James Glencairn and Maxwell. BURNES James (1656-1734) – Second generation, was the 3rd son of Walter Burnes of Bogjordan. He and his wife Margaret Falconer were Great Grandparents of Robert Burns. Rented Bogjordan and raised their family of five sons and two daughters. Their second son Robert Third generation, married

35 Isobel Keith of Criggie, and they rented the Farm of Clochnahill, and were the Grandparents of the Poet. The third son of Robert Burns was William Burnes Fourth generation the father of the Poet. BURNES William (1721-1784) – Father of the Poet, born at Clochnahill farm, Dunnottar, Kincardineshire. Trained as a gardener leaving home to work in Edinburgh which he left in 1750 to work in Ayrshire. Married Agnes Broun (Brown) on 15th December, 1756 and in Alloway built the Cottage where the Poet was born on 25th January, 1759. In 1765 he obtained the lease of Mount Oliphant farm which proved unproductive, moving to Lochlea farm in 1777 where he died on 13th February, 1784 and was buried in the Auld Kirkyard, Alloway. Family – Robert, Gilbert, Agnes, Annabella, William, John and Isabella. BROUN (Brown) Agnes (1732-1820) – Daughter of Gilbert Broun, eldest of three children, born at Craigenton farm. At the age of ten her mother died and she was brought up by her Grandmother. Met her husband William Burnes during the Maybole Fair and they were married on 15th December, 1756 by the Rev James McKnight. Commenced family life in the Cottage at Alloway built by her husband. After the death of her husband in 1784 she spent the remainder of her life living with her son, Gilbert in his various homes. It was at Grant’s Braes, Haddington that she died on 14th January, 1820 and was buried in Bolton Churchyard. Family – Robert, Gilbert, Agnes, Annabella, William, John and Isabella. BURNS Gilbert (1760-1827) – Brother of the Poet, born in the Cottage at Alloway on 28th September. Second son of William Burnes and Agnes Broun (Brown). Married Jean Breckenridge at Craigie, Ayr on 21st June, 1789 while living at Mossgiel farm. Died at Grant’s Braes, Haddington, East Lothian on 8th April, 1827 and was buried in the family lair in Bolton Churchyard. Family – William, James, Thomas, Robert, Janet, Agnes, John, Gilbert, Anne, Jean and Isabella. BURNS Agnes (1762-1834) – Eldest sister of the Poet, born in the Cottage at Alloway on 30th September. First born daughter of William Burnes and Agnes Broun (Brown). Married William Galt at Dinning, Dumfriesshire in 1804. She was a dairymaid on the Fortescue Estate, Stephenstown where her husband was Estate manager. She died in the Estate cottage and was buried in St. Nicholas Churchyard, Stephenstown, Dundalk, Ireland. Family – No family from this marriage. BURNS Annabella (1764-1832) – Sister of the Poet, born in the Cottage at Alloway on 14th November, second daughter of William Burnes and Agnes Broun (Brown). She never married and spent her entire life living like her mother with Gilbert and his family. She died on 2nd March at Grant’s Braes and was buried in the family lair in Bolton Churchyard. BURNS William (1767-1790) – Brother of the Poet, born at Mount Oliphant farm on 30th July. Third son of William Burnes and Agnes Broun (Brown). A saddler to trade moved to London working in the Strand, where he died some months later as the result of a fever and was buried in the Churchyard of St. Mary-le-Strand, London on 24th July. Owing to developments in that part of the City affecting his burial place he was later re-interred in the Necropolis Cemetery at Woking. He was unmarried. The Poet’s teacher John Murdoch attended the funeral. BURNS John (1769-1784) - Youngest brother of the Poet. Born at Mount Oliphant farm on 12th July. Last born son of William Burnes and Agnes Broun (Brown). An apprentice weaver was frequently ill, he died in his teens on 28th October and was buried in Mauchline Churchyard, the site of his grave is unknown. BURNS Isabella (1771-1858) - Youngest sister of the Poet, born at Mount Oliphant farm on 27th June. Last born daughter of William Burnes and Agnes Broun (Brown). Married John Begg at Mossgiel farm on 9th December, 1793. Died at Bridgehouse Cottage, near Ayr on 4th December, and was buried beside her father in the Auld Kirkyard, Alloway. Her husband John died in 1813 after being thrown from his horse. Family – William, Robert Burns, John, Agnes, Gilbert Burns, Jane, Isabella, James Hope and Edward Hamilton.

36 BURNS Elizabeth (1781-1817) Acknowledged daughter of Robert Burns, born in Mauchline, Ayrshire on 22nd May. Illegitimate daughter by Elizabeth Paton who resided with her mother at Largieside. After her birth she was brought up by the Poet’s mother and sisters at Mossgiel farm. Married John Bishop and died at Polkemmet on 8th January and laid to rest in Whitburn Churchyard. She was the subject of the Poet’s composition “A Poet’s Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter.” Family – Elizabeth, Thomas, Jane, Helen and Mary. BURNS Robert (2nd) (1786-1857) – Eldest son of the Poet, born one of twins at Mauchline on 3rd September. First born son of Robert Burns and Jean Armour. After schooling became a Clerk at Somerset House, London where he remained until retiring. Married Ann Sherwood on 24th March, 1809 in London. Family – Elizabeth (Eliza). Had a Common-Law wife, Emma Bland with whom he had a family – Robert Burns (3rd), Jessie, Francis and Jane Emma. He died in Dumfries on 14th May and was buried in his father’s Mausoleum, St. Michael’s Churchyard, Dumfries. BURNS Jean (1786-1787) - Twin sister to Robert, eldest son of Robert Burns and Jean Armour, born at Mauchline on 3rd September. Died at 13 months and buried in Mauchline Churchyard. BURNS (Twin Girls) (1788) - Born in Mauchline during the first week in March. Daughters of Robert Burns and Jean Armour. Died within a week and were buried in Mauchline Churchyard. BURNS Robert (Clow) (1788- ) – Acknowledged son of Robert Burns, born in Edinburgh during November. Illegitimate son by Jenny Clow. Believed to have married and prospered in London. Date and place of death unknown. The Poet writing to Agnes M’Lehose from Dumfries on 23rd November, 1788 on the subject of Jenny Clow stated - “A Jenny Clow, who had the misfortune to make me a father” and later “I would have taken my boy from her long ago but she would never consent.” BURNS Francis Wallace (1789-1803) – Second son of Robert Burns and Jean Armour, born at Ellisland farm, Dumfries on 18th July. Named after the Poet’s early Patron, Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop. Died in Burns House, Dumfries on 9th July and buried in the family lair in St. Michael’s Churchyard. Later re-interred in the Mausoleum. BURNS Elizabeth “Betty” (1791-1873) – Acknowledged daughter of Robert Burns, born at Leith on 31st March. Illegitimate daughter by Ann Park (Hislop) who worked in the Globe Inn, Dumfries. From the age of two brought up by the Poet’s wife until her marriage in Dumfries on 4th June, 1808 to John Thomson. Died in Glasgow on 22nd February and buried in Pollokshaws Graveyard, Glasgow. Family – William, Elizabeth, Jean Armour, Robert Burns, Sarah, James Glencairn, Margaret and Agnes. BURNS Colonel William Nicol (1791-1872) - Third son of the Poet, born on 9th April at Ellisland farm, Dumfries. Married Adelaide Crone in Bangalore, India in 1824. Died at Berkeley Street, Cheltenham, England on 21st February and was buried in his father’s Mausoleum, St. Michael’s Churchyard, Dumfries. Family – None from this marriage. BURNS Elizabeth Riddell (1792-1795) – Last born daughter of the Poet and Jean Armour, born at Bank Street, Dumfries on 21st November, and baptised by the Rev William McMorine who also offici- ated at the Poet’s funeral in 1796. Died at the age of three while staying with relations in Mauchline, Ayrshire. Buried in Mauchline Churchyard. The Poet was unable to attend the funeral owing to illness. Named after Mrs Riddell of Friars’ Carse, Dumfries a friend of the Poet. BURNS Lt. Colonel James Glencairn (1794-1865) – Fourth son of the Poet and Jean Armour, born in his father’s house, Burns Street, Dumfries on 12th August. Married Sarah Robinson in Meerut, India in 1818 who died in 1821. Married Mary Beckett in Nasirabad, India in 1928. Died at Berkeley Street, Cheltenham, England 18th November and was buried in his father’s Mausoleum, St. Michael’s Churchyard, Dumfries. Family – Jean, Isabella, Robert Shaw and Sarah Maitland Tombs. With Mary Beckett – Annie Burns.

37 BURNS ALIVE !

Robert Burns returned to his old haunt, the Theatre Royal, Dumfries, on 4th November, 2006 when Professor David Purdie, well known to Burns lovers worldwide, delivered his Illustrated Memory his narration of the poet’s life and times, to an enthusiastic audience. Prof. Purdie’s narration featured projected images of Burns, his contemporaries and those locations throughout Scotland which are associated with the Bard. Many of the spectacular illustrations, which included drawings, paintings maps and engravings are taken from the Scottish National Archive Collection, many of which had never been seen in public before. A highlight of the event was the insertion into David Purdie’s narrative of a broad Selection of Burns’s songs from the glorious voice of Sheena Wellington, one of Scotland’s greatest traditional singers, who delighted the audience with a wide repertoire of numbers, some to familiar tunes and others to traditional or original settings. Professor Purdie followed a broad chronology from the land of Burns’ forebears in Kincardineshire, his father’s work in laying out the Meadows in Edinburgh and the poet’s birth in Alloway. He continued by tracing out his early life and education, the hardships of farm labour and his early attempts at rhyme and song. The Mauchline years were well covered, the first meeting with Jean Armour and subsequent “matrimonial vows” leading to the first triumph of the “Kilmarnock Edition” in July 1786. Numerous striking images of 1780s Edinburgh and his patrons among the “Literati” featured strongly, as did the entry of Burns into high society and his friendship and correspondence with Nancy McLehose (Clarinda). Ellisland and Dumfries produced a wealth of material which David Purdie brought to vivid life, including the famous scenes at our very Theatre Royal itself in 1792 when Burns and others reportedly refused to stand for “God Save the King” and the strains of “Ca Ira” that great song of the French Revolution, were heard. The final years were illustrated with images from Burns’ excise work, his membership of the Dumfries Volunteers and the tragic scene of the dying poet at the Brow Well. David concluded with the famous illustrations of the vast funeral procession in July 1796 from the Midsteeple to his interment in St. Michael’s Kirkyard. Sheena Wellington contributed, unaccompa- nied, some 19 songs ranging from the doleful “The Slaves Lament ” Burns’s cry of protest at the slave trade, to the haunting “Ay waukin’ O” , the timeless Red Rose and Ae Fond Kiss, and those two masterpieces of his Dumfries years; “Ca’ the Yowes” and “O wert Thou in the cold Blast.” She finished with a rousing version of “A Man’s a Man for a’ that”, that great Anthem for the Common Man which, at the invitation of Donald Dewar - then the First Minister – she famously sang in Edinburgh before the Queen at the inauguration of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. “No one who heard her do that “ said David Purdie “will ever forget it.” The audience’s most enthusiastic response to Sheena’s “Ca Ira”, reflected the fact that ,except for the bicentenary in 1996, it had probably not resounded through the Theatre Royal since Burns sang it himself there in 1792. The event was produced by the Burns Howff Club, of which Prof Purdie is an honorary member. Judging from the reaction of the audience, the images, narration and songs brought Robert Burns very much alive and one member, on retiral, was heard to say simply, “Jings, it was a privilege to have been here the nicht”. The show deserves a wide exposure and hopefully “Sheena and the Prof” will go on to take it on a countrywide tour. They will do so with the warm encouragement of the Burns Howff Club – and the people of Dumfries.

38 ROBERT BURNS DIAMOND STYLUS

y article in the Federation’s Spring Chronicle about Robbie’s 22 day Highland tour in 1787 Mprompted a number of queries from Burns enthusiasts. One point questioned was a reference I made to Burns using a diamond stylus, presented to him by the Earl of Glencairn, to write his version of graffiti on various window panes. This has been referred to in a number of books but the specific reference I quoted was taken from Dr. John Cairney’s ’On The Trail of Robert Burns’ published by Luath Press Ltd. first in 2000. The query was whether Burns used a diamond ring, as some works state, or a pen /stylus, does the object still exist and if so where? That set me off on a search, the kind of mission that I am sure is very familiar to Burnsians, to answer and hopefully find this holy grail. I e-mailed and telephoned quite a number of experts in the ’Burns World’ and had a reply from all of them including Dr Cairney but none knew the answer.Then followed a fascinating visit to Ellisland Farm where the curator, Les Byers, was very generous with his time and expertise. (By the way I would recommend a visit to any Burns enthusiast. Les has a treasure trove of knowledge which he is only to keen to share.) He was sure that it was a stylus and thought it was in a museum, perhaps the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. I tried there, the Mitchell in Glasgow and the Burns Museum in Alloway without success. I was about to give up my search or face divorce proceedings from my own ’Bonny Jean‘, when James, a regular contributor to the Federation’s web site discussion group, (access on - www. worldburnsclub.com::ViewForum) pointed me to a reference about articles in the Rozelle Museum in Alloway, just up the road from Burns Cottage. There, I not only hope to have found my grail but have held the stylus, albeit with white protective gloves which I am sure Robbie was not required to don. The object is described as ‘Robert Burns Diamond Cutter’ and was part of a collection in Ayrshire’s original Tam O’Shanter museum. Photographs can be viewed on the web site as follows - Search for - Future Museum South West Scotland [address - www.futuremuseum.co.uk ] Then - People/Key People - Burns - Robert Burns - scroll 29 lines down. There you will find the following information and photograph -

Robert Burns’ Diamond Cutter Period: 18th Century Description: This tool is made up of a cylindrical, hollow wooden handle with a metal protrusion at one end and a wooden one at the other. There is a diamond inserted into the tip of the metal piece and it was this that was used to cut glass. The original catalogue record for the object states that it is an “old glass cutting diamond used by Robert Burns”. Burns was known for scratching verse onto windows when inspiration took him. A number of such window panes survive. Materials/Media: wood, metal and diamond In the collection of: Rozelle House Galleries Accession Number: AYRTOS:100346 Digital Number: SABN001n Copyright: South Ayrshire Council Further Information The museum have asked me to state the following - Accession No AYRTOS 100346 is part of the collections from the former Tam O’Shanter Museum in Ayr, currently under the care of South Ayrshire Council. Research is required into the provenance and ownership of these collections, some of which were on loan from private collectors.

39 I have also been asked to say that if anyone would like more information, or wish to see the cutter, please contact - Elinor Clark, Collections Management Officer, South Ayrshire Council, Rozelle House Galleries, Monument Road, Ayr, KA 7 4NQ. Tel - 01292 445447/443708 Fax - 01292 442 065 E-mail - Elinor. [email protected]

Elinor also suggested that Burnsians looking for artefacts may find the following web site useful - www.burnsscotland.com which includes a link to Burns collections held throughout Scotland. My own opinion, for what it is worth, tallies with others including Dr. Cairney, that Robert Burns did use a stylus to be able to write so neatly. I, of course, have no proof that this was the actual object he used rather than one of the facsimiles that have appeared but, unless anyone comes up with a better idea, I will claim that I have found and held my grail. I will also look forward with interest to what Rozelle manage to unearth about ownership and provenance. Many thanks to all those who helped me in my search including Dr John Cairney, Peter Westwood, John Manson of the Alloway Museum and in particular to Les Byers, James and of course Elinor from Rozelle. Ian MacMillan, Fernbank, Wester Ross, IV22 2NB ———————————— Sir Bobby Robson writing in The Mail on Sunday on Sir Alex Ferguson’s twenty years as Manager of Manchester United -- “On the desk ROBERT BURNS in his office was a book of Robert Burns’ poems. He will read one to start the day. They are often and MANCHESTER about hard work and hardship -- the life of the working man. Whatever the situation at United, UNITED the poems put life in perspective and make him realise football is a fantastic world, and why he loves every minute of it.” IMPORTANT NOTICE In an effort to reduce our production costs would all future contributors of articles and photographs for inclusion in the magazine submit them in the form of an attachment to an e-mail, or on a floppy disc (if they have the facility) and forward for the attention of Ian at [email protected] (our printers) with a ‘Hard Copy’ to the Editor.

40 CONFERENCE HELD AT NORMANDY HOTEL, RENFREWSHIRE 8 – 10 SEPTEMBER 2006

s delegates arrived at the hotel on Friday, registration and shop were very busy. Lots of ‘gossip’ Abetween new and old friends over a welcome cup of tea or coffee. Prior to Dinner and Social Evening a large number gathered to view and compete on the new ‘Bard Game’, now on sale. Lots of fun and chatter. After dinner a very successful evening was enjoyed with delegates participation, interspersed with dancing. Saturday after breakfast saw our Annual General Meeting with a larger attendance of delegates than usual. All Overseas Delegates were welcomed each one giving greetings from their respective Clubs or Areas. The programme with reports from Directors and Convenors continued in a very affable manner. After Lunch, the Seminar was extremely popular. Our guest speakers - Donald Reid & Ian Shaw with the assistance of illustrations made their successful contribution to an enthusiastic audience. This was followed by our Senior Vice-President John Haining who enthralled the audience with his subject. The Inaugural Dinner – The evening commenced with pre Dinner Drinks the courtesy of Renfrewshire Council hosted by Provost Ronnie Burns JP. Prior to Dinner the formal installation of the new President, Vice & Junior Vice took place. Dinner was followed by dancing to Callum Wilson & his Scottish Dance Band from Biggar. The official guests were Provost Ronnie Burns JP of Renfrewshire, Provost Ciano Rebecchi of Inverkip. Provost Ken Cameron OBE – Dumfries & Galloway and Deputy Provost Tommy Farrell of East Ayrshire together with their consorts. The weekend culminated with our Service of Worship on Sunday Morning led by the Rev Douglas Hamilton from Greenock. Our pianist, who tinkled the ivory keys to some rousing hymns was Anne Donnan from Sunderland. Harry McGuffog Conference Convenor

A section of the top table.

41 to The Holy Fair in Muchline, Irvine Lasses A MESSAGE FROM Club, The Yorkshire Assoc. 50 years Celebration and Lanarkshire Assoc. of Burns Club. Various PAST PRESIDENT School’s competitions to witness the efforts of children, teachers and our own school’s JOHN PATERSON committee. My thank go to the Board of Directors for My year as President will stay with me for the making my term as President so pleasurable. rest of my life. The reason for this is because of May I also say a big thank you to my wife Joan the people whom I have met and mixed with at who has accompanied me when she could and home and around the world. tolerated my absence when she could not. I would like to start with my visits abroad. Finally I now wish President Angus the My first visit was as SVP to Budapest where I best wishes and I am sure that he will relish the took part in a Burns Supper. Jock McKenzie was opportunity and be a credit to all Burns lovers. a wonderful host and the owner of the hotel was Major (Rtd) J. C. Paterson most welcoming and was a Scot. On to Milwaukee (USA) hosted by Jack ———————————— Jackson and his family as well as Dr. David Murray and his spouse, in Toronto. In Milwaukee “THE BARD AT THE met among other Scots – Jock Smith and his wife who came from Clackmannan. BBC” A visit to Australia met with Jim and Jan Millar, Ina and Bill Grahame, Mr. & Mrs. Morse, By Michael Ough Mr. & Mrs. Burness (from Fiji) and many others. Plymouth Robert Burns Club President John My visit to The Scotch College was a good Munro recently took to the airwaves, courtesy of experience. The first on the very packed itinerary BBC Radio Devon, to recruit members for the was the Civic Reception where I was welcomed Club and talk about the Scottish Bard. Originally by the Mayor of Bendigo and Jim O’ Lone. from Glasgow, John said “I was a little nervous Jock and Molly Greig travelled far to attend the at having to talk on live radio, but the presenter, function in Bendigo. Also I visited Melbourne, Gordon Sparks, and staff at BBC Radio Devon Perth and Fremantle. put me at ease and I thoroughly enjoyed the I was invited to take part in the Burns experience, talking about the Club and Robert Celebrations in Kiev, Ukraine. Organised by Burns.” In addition to John talking on BBC the Lions Club and the Past President Stuart Radio Devon, Club Vice President and Secretary, McKenzie from Helensburgh made me feel very Michael Ough, was doing his bit to promote the welcome. The event was for charity and attended Scottish Bard on the BBC News Online website. by 397. Michael said, “Lynne French, who works at BBC Canada and Halifax Nova Scotia to attend Online, in Plymouth, is the daughter of Fergus RBANA Celebrations, and meet Angus and Mrs. Millar, one of our Club committee members, McDonald, Jean (bow) & Jim Cunningham as and was keen to help us recruit new members. well as Jim Carrigan, all well known to many folk She came along to our September committee back home. I hope to be able to visit Winnipeg meeting with Fergus and spoke to John Munro in 2007. and myself, after the meeting, about the Club Attended wreath laying functions in Ayr, and Burns’ life. The radio interview arose from Dumfries, Kilmarnock, Brow Well, Wellwood, one of the BBC Radio Devon producers picking Alloway and Paisley. The Church Service in up what Lynne had put on the BBC News Online Greenock run by the Mother Club. Further visits website.”

42 THE MOOSIE’S PATRONS of the PRAYER ROBERT BURNS A puir wee kirk moose ae forlorn Its furry coat fair sairly worn WORLD FEDERATION Sank doon upon its bony knees And prayed - for just a wee bit cheese. The tears ran doon its wee thin cheeks But nane could hear the saddest squeaks That drifted on the cauld nicht air Till whiles it couldnae pray nae mair Syne daylight cam, the kirk bells rang The doors swung open wi a bang Communion day had come oan by Wi wine and plates of breid piled high The wee moose lay as still as daith And watched it as wi bated braith Then thocht - “If I keep awfu quate A bit might just fa aff a plate” And so it gazed as roon they went Then jist as tho’ twas heaven sent Whit landed right upon its heid But twa lumps o communion breid The staff o life lay on the flair Then, bounteous answer tae his prayer Just as he thocht “it looks fell dry” A body couped some wine forbye Wee moosie stoated up the aisle Wearing sic a boozy smile DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY The folk stopped singin, fair aghast BURNS TRUST Tae see a drunken moose walk past The organist fell aff her chair The meenister could only stare Tae see this drunken, sinfu moose Cavortin in His sacred hoose Mrs. ELMA CONNOR LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA At last it staggered up the nave Then turned and gied a happy wave “I ken noo when it’s time tae pray I’ll dae it on Communion day”. Anon HORNBOOK MEDIA Submitted by member M. Gilbert

43 The same day we visited the State Museum VISIT TO to see the Exhibition of Leningrad in the Second World War and to hear about the Leningrad ST. PETERSBURG Siege. This was where over a million people died By Anne Fawbert and we were told how the women of Coatbridge and Airdrie made up an album of letters of e arrived in St. Petersburg, it looked support, these letters were sent underground wonderful with the Neva River during the siege, and it was these letters which Wcovered in snow, and you certainly kept the women of Leningrad from not giving knew you were in Russia, we were treated like in, as they could not believe that anyone in the Royalty by our guides. outside world cared enough. So Scotland is held Our first visit was to the Shovolov Palace in very high regard by the St. Petersburgers. where The Knowledge of Scotland Competition A big highlight for me was giving “The was being held. This is where the students gave a Immortal Memory” at a Burns Supper. I gave my presentation of a famous Scottish character; this introduction in Russian and they loved it that was a joy to behold. The children, who win, get got me off to a good start! And things just got a holiday in Scotland. I presented prizes to the better as I had the most wonderful interpreter, winners of The Robert Burns World Federation Irina Shabunina we just blended in, the speech Essay Competition. Having judged the students was as one. essays before I went, so it was lovely to meet the At the Burns Supper I spoke to Galina who students who participated in the competition. I is involved in palliative care. She was telling am delighted to say that for the first time the me that there has been more Hospices opened winner of the Robert Burns World Federation in St. Petersburg but the people still need the Essay competition is coming to Scotland this aftercare. At present we are looking to get the year. bacup leaflets translated and put on the Web, as There was also an Art competition for the first more Russians are getting access to computers time by Russian Students, which was amazing, and feel this would be an easier way to get the May McMaster who is a Scottish Artist and also a information. trustee of the Forum judged the competition. I gave a talk about The Women in Burns Life I was so looking forward to meeting the to an English Speaking Union in the Russian children in the orphanage, as we had all bought National Library and the Director asked for a toys for them and knew the fundraising was copy to be displayed in the Library. The Russian helping them. The children danced for us and People know about Burns but did not know so were so thrilled to meet us. They were well looked much about his relationships, so this was of great after by the nurses, they had eyesight problems interest to them. We saw a Russian Ballet, which and some also had Down Syndrome, but they was wonderful to see the dancer’s just melt into were just fabulous and loved to entertain us, the music. and we danced with them what a happy day. Alan and I were invited into a home of a The money raised goes to providing vitamins, Russian family Marina and Costa Urik and equipment and helps with the running of the family who were delightful; they entertained us orphanage. We hope to become more involved wonderfully, everything including Russian Vodka with the orphanage, as problems arise for the which was a first! one’s who don’t get adopted. We also visited The Hermitage which housed We visited Catherine the Great’s Palace the most beautiful paintings, and artefacts. My which was dripping with Gold; this was a sight to lasting memory was of the last painting before see. What a wonderful setting, we were allowed we left which was of “The Prodigal Son” by into all Palaces and Museums before the tourists Rembrandt what a work of art. came, so that we would have the best views of I would like to thank everyone who gave so everything. willingly, in this worthwhile project.

44 ALEXANDER PUSHKIN - ROBERT BURNS EVENING

On Wednesday 20th September 2006 thirty-two Russians spent the day being shown round Alloway and the surrounding Ayrshire countryside by John and Margaret Skilling. The visitors were treated to a Civic Lunch Reception at the Tam o’ Shanter Experience where Provost Winifred Sloan gave a speech of welcome and made a presentation to Margarita Mudrak, the group leader, who in turn replied before presenting South Ayrshire with a lovely Russian picture. The sixteen or so young people included the three winners of our Burns Federation Essay Competition and the Winners of the ‘Knowledge of Scotland Competition’ and Art Competition. Everyone enjoyed the Pushkin/ Burns Evening which followed hosted by Anne Fawbert and sponsored by Greenock Burns Club. Entertainment after the meal was supplied by artistes and students from St Petersburg and by Alison McNeill, a former winner of our Scottish Schools Singing Competition. During the evening, Dr. Ken Simpson spoke on the Works of Pushkin, and a “Fellowship” poem by Mabel Irving. Pictured above at the Pushkin/Burns Evening left to right: Margaret Skilling (Schools Convener), Angus Middleton (President of the Robert Burns World Federation), Anna Alexandrovna Kokoshinskaya (Winner of the 2006 St Petersburg Essay Competition) and Helen Morrison (Schools Committee Member - Overseas Competitions). Margaret Skilling CAN YOU HELP? USED FOREIGN AND BRITISH POSTAGE STAMPS REQUIRED FOR SALE FOR FEDERATION FUNDS. RECENT DONATIONS: JIM ROBERTSON, J. SKILLING, H. McGUFFOG, T. MURRAY, LEON CADMAN, GORDON NEELY. OLD POSTCARDS ARE ALSO ACCEPTABLE, FORWARD TO THE EDITOR.

45 26th ANNUAL R.B.N.A. CONFERENCE HALIFAX N.S. – June 30-July 2 2006 By Joan Turner

Halifax Burns Club hosted this years Conference and A.G.M. and Angus McDonald was the chairman of the Conference Committee. The venue was the Delta Barrington & Delta Halifax Hotels in beautiful Downtown Halifax N.S. Those arriving by air were met by members of the Halifax Burns Club and transported to the Hotel. There were over 50 guests and delegates registered. Guests included Shirley Bell, C.E. of RBWF and John Paterson, President of RBWF along with 9 others from the U.K. Friday evening was a Ceilidh in the Bluenose room of the Delta Halifax Hotel and everyone was in great form. After a buffer of “pub fare” The Celtic Fayre Band and the Thistle Scottish Country Dancers entertained those present. Bill Foster of the Halifax Burns Club was the MC for the evening. Afterwards several of the delegates and guests had their own “wee ceilidh” in the room of RBANA President Joan Turner and Elma Connor. The A.G.M. was held Saturday morning in the Barrington Room of the Delta Barrington Hotel with 43 in attendance, representing 12 Clubs and 3 Individual/Family members. The final item of business on the Agenda was the Election of officers for the 2006/2008 term. Following is the new Board: President Jim Carrigan, Winnipeg Burns Club. Secretary/Treasurer Colin Harris, Winnipeg Burns Club, Vice President: Frank Campbell, Family Members/Florida, U.S. Directors Byron Adams Individual and Jock Smith, Milwaukee Burns Club, were all acclaimed. There was an election for Canadian Director – nominated were Christine Ballantyne, Halton/Peel Burns Club, Tony Grogan, Winnipeg Burns Club, Gary Clarke Robert Burns Society of Kilmarnock, Canada and Jack Jackson, Halton/Peel Burns Club. Jack Jackson was the unsuccessful nominee. At the Directors meeting immediately following the A.G.M. Ted Hirtz of the Heather & Thistle Society of Houston was appointed as the 3rd U.S. Director. Joan Turner is the immediate Past President. The Jim Connor Memorial Quiz was held on Saturday afternoon with Leslie Strachan, from Virginia as the winner, afer a tie breaking round with Bill Molloy of Niagara Falls. The Saturday evening Banquet was held in the Baronet Room of the Delta Halifax. After the piping in of the Haggis, it was ably addressed by David Glover of the Halifax Burns Club. The RBANA Chain of office was transferred from President Joan to new President Jim Carrigan and there were speeches and toasts throughout the evening. After dinner, there was music for dancing and listening pleasure provided by the Chebucto Big Band. The view from the windows overlooking Halifax Harbour provided an excellent view of the Canada Day Fireworks. Elma Connor presented The Jim Connor Memorial Quiz Trophy to Leslie Strachan who graciously thanked her and stated how honoured he was to receive this prestigious trophy. At intermission there were draws for several prizes, including a kilt, compliments of Little Scotland, Kiltmakers and Bagpipers, Darmouth N.S., a trip for two on Zoom Airlines to Scotland from Canada, weekend for two at the Delta Halifax Hotel, a Bottle of Johnnie Walker’s Kilmarnock Whisky from Bill Dawson, Scotland and two “Robbie Burns” T-shirts, from London (Ont) Burns Club. The Sunday Church Service was held at St. David’s Presbyterian Church in Halifax and 43 delegates and guests swelled the congreations. Rev. Nancy Cox conducted the service. Rev. Cox had spent three years working in the Iona Community. Wilson Ogilvie, a Past President OF RBWF read the scripture lesson from the New Testament written in the auld Scots tongue. After the service, delegates walked or were driven to the Robert Burns Statue and at the gathering

46 around the Statue, Wilson Ogilvie again read suitable selected passages from the New Testament in Scots. On Sunday afternoon delegates and guests enjoyed brunch at the World Trade Centre and were then guided to their appropriate seating for a performance of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. What a fantastic Show, well worth the price of admission (and even the air fare to Halifax!) All in all a good time was had by all and those guests who remained in Halifax after the Conference enjoyed the hospitality of many of the Halifax Burns Club Members with trips to Peggy’s Cove and other interesting sights in the Halifax area. A hearty “Vote of Thanks” to the Halifax Burns Club and in particular Angus McDonald, – as the saying goes – “Good things come in small packages.”

Back row from left to right:- Byron Adams, Virginia, US Director; Ted Hirtz, Houston, US Director; Colin Harris, Winnipeg, Secretary/Treasurer; Jock Smith, Milwaukee, US Director; Gary Clarke, Merrickville Ont, Canadian Director. (Front row) Christine Ballantine, Halton-Peel, Canadian Director; Joan Turner, London Ont, Immediate Past President; Jim Carrigan, Winnipeg, President; Tony Grogan, Winnipeg, Canadian Director. Missing Frank Campbell, Florida, Vice-President. ———————————— LASSES LUNCH AT STRANRAER

At the end of October thirty lady members of Stranraer & District Burns Club met for a Lasses Lunch at North West Castle Hotel. This event was the brainchild of Elizabeth Pate who, with six fellow-members of the Club attended a National Lasses Lunch organised by the Burns Federation earlier this year, and it was decided that there should be a local lunch organised as it hadn’t been possible for most of the members to travel a long distance. After Elizabeth welcomed everyone to this inaugural lunch and invited them to move to different seats between courses if they so wished, she asked Doreen Love to say a Grace which had been penned by Robert Burns. A satisfying meal was served by a very helpful staff and no-one was in any hurry to leave which proved that Elizabeth had achieved her goal in bringing the Lasses together to get to know each other better in a convivial social gathering. The vote of thanks was proposed by Betty McLean and the general feeling conveyed was that this would indeed be an annual event. Mona H. Paterson

47 ALLOWAY BURNS CLUB VISIT GREENOCK

we paid tribute to the knowledge and help of EDUCATIONAL VISIT Margaret McKay of Greenock who brought the whole story of the Kirk alive for us. Our photo TO GREENOCK stop at Custom House allowed the company to Saturday 2nd September saw members imagine what it must have been like as ships heading north to explore some of the less familiar made their preparations to make the long associations with Robert Burns. The weather did journeys of the past. A stiff climb for the not not at first favour the expedition but nonetheless, too faint hearted brought the party to Highland we were able to stop at Bonnie Leslie monument Mary’s grave in Greenock Cemetery. Here we in Stevenston where our President, Dr. Robbie were able to muse on the effect she obviously McMahon recited the poem which is featured had on Burns and also to consider that the around the base of the statue. Following lunch, momument to James Watt is right beside her we visited the Old West Kirk in Greenock where monument!

48 ALLOWAY BURNS CLUB’S FRIENDSHIP EVENING

On a beautiful summer’s evening in July a for Alloway’s Friendship Evenings – held in July good representation of members accompanied on the Saturday nearest the date of the poet’s by Major John Paterson and his wife enjoyed an death – is clootie dumpling made by one of the evening of friendship. Proceedings began in the club members. This was enjoyed by all when the grounds of Burns Cottage where the opportunity company moved across the road to the Public was given to explore the cottage and museum. Hall in Alloway. Musical entertainment and Toasts to Burns and family members were given recitations from club members rounded off a and a wreath laid at the bust of Burns now most enjoyable evening. situated in New Gardens. The traditional fayre ————————————

but never as Robbie. He was Deputy Master of St. “SOME NOTABLE James Lodge Tarbolton but never at Mauchline to my knowledge and it is fairly well documented MASONS and that he died of endocarditis secondary to chronic rheumatic heart diesese possibly the result of ANTIMASONS” having suffered from rheumatic fever as a child. Yours sincerely and fraternally, Robbie Harris. Dear W. Bro. Kennedy, Under the heading “Some The above copy of a letter was sent in by Notable Masons and Antimasons” in issue Federation member, John MacMillan, who I am number 26 of Lincolnshire Link with Robert pleased to say has replied and corrected the false Burns was referred to as Robbie. It also stated statements. As readers will know the Poet should that he was Deputy Master at Mauchline and never be referred to as “Rabbie”, he did refer that he had died of the Pox in 1796. He is in fact to himself as “Rab Mossgiel”, re the Masonic generally referred to as Rabbie or Robert Burns connection see article on Page 53. The Editor.

49 STATUE UNVEILED TO JAMES THOMSON

On Sunday, 1st October, basking in warm sunshine Margaret and I were guests of the Hawick Burns Club and attended along with some hundred enthusiasts the unveiling of the statue to James Thomson, the man who penned ‘The Star of Robbie Burns’. Ian Landles paid a moving tribute to Thomson prior to the statue being unveiled by Thomson’s great, great grandson James Thompson from Kilmarnock. The club piper, Pipe Major Brian Gilles then played a specially written tune entitled ‘The James Thomson Bridge’ to mark the occasion. This magnificent statue, sculpted by local octogenerian Bill Landles (who gave his time and skills free of charge), is situated to the rear of and facing the Hawick Burns Club on the east side of the new footbridge bearing his name. On the base plinth itself there are four plaques each featuring the work of Thomson and each facing in the relevant direction his writings depict. After the ceremony President Jim Nelson invited the guests to retreat to Hawick Burns Club where they were treated to a wonderful afternoon of friendship, hospitality and harmony. Robert Dalziel, (Past President) (SEE ALSO FRONT COVER)

50 BURNS NIGHT IN LAMANERE By Sylvia Wood

o there we were, sipping aperitifs, sitting on a shady, vine-covered terrace, avoiding the baking August sun of the southern French Pyreness, when the professor from Toulouse leaned over Svery conspiratorially and asked, “You will keep two places at the Burns Supper for me?” And no, even in France, Burns Night is still in January. We are now “booking” for 2007. You might wonder at a Burns Supper in a village of about 30 permanent residents, 800 metres up in the French Pyrenees. The village, Lamanere’s sole claim to fame is being the most southern commune in France. Many delivery van drivers think it’s the most inaccessible too: others just sit and admire the view. And being Catalans, they need very little excuse for a jolly in the salle polyvalent (village hall). Our Burns Supper had its origins a few years ago when we arrived, as comparative strangers, to a Supper in a nearby French casino, only to find the “do” being organised by someone we hadn’t seen since Dundee Uni days, many years ago. At three days notice she’d been given the task or organising the Supper, and when we arrived she was somewhat trauchled. The poor Frenchman, who had been inveigled into both wearing the kilt and addressing the haggis got cold feet (perhaps knees would be more appropriate) so it was a matter of “Hello!” and “You’ll have addressed a haggis before?” This was not a question! “Oh and you’ll help with the eight-some” was the second command, to me this time, and so we both swung into action. The eight-some was interesting as only four people in the group had any notion of it. So aha! thought the old Dundonians, flushed with success from the casino (the Supper, not the tables) Lamanere is just the place for a Burns Supper. At the time it seemed one of the less than bright ideas, as we’re often deep in snow with sub-zero temperatures in January-February, as Burns would have it “loud blow the frosty breezes, the snows the mountains cover”; and even, grossly optimistically we thought our 30 inhabitants just might swell to 40-ish if friends from neighbouring valleys could be persuaded to venture out. The first year, 90 booked so we had to erect a canopy outside, where the piper happily piped a welcome, and thanks to a plentiful supply of mulled wine and whisky… the price of which makes our Scottish friends weep… no-one actually froze to death, even though the outside temperature was minus double figures. In fact we had three bites of Burns that year. “Roll back the carpets” he said “and we can have a practice for those whose eight-some is a bit rusty” However since most of the participants were Catalan, this was somewhat of an understatement. So, we counted steps, hopped and reeled in his den, fortified by haggis and whisky. You musn’t get the idea its all frivolity here, there was a very serious discussion, during the evening, as to whether sanglier (wild boar) could be made into haggis. During the season, sanglier is made into just about everything, and as potted sanglier is the French cousin of potted hough it seemed a possibility. Then “Eh bien” said the mayor, herself of a lovely singing voice, “If you’re going to sing in public you must practise”. So bribed by the offer of a cup of civic cocoa, six of us spent an unusual evening practising songs in Scots. Those Catalans who know English found it no help at all! Our haggis, or boudin ecossaise… and you try explaining the contents of a haggis in French!… is made by the local, renowned charcuterie. The first year it was… different, now thanks to our cousins Dumfries butcher’s recipe it is perfect. Martine who runs the bar/restaurant/creperie.shop gamely prepares food of cock-a-leekie, neeps and tatties, shortbread and oatcakes. Not helped, I might add by various passers-by’s suggestions. Now neeps/swedes/turnips whatever you want to call them, defied the French greengrocers, but the first year it was quite amazing what Martine achieved with white

51 navets and pumpkin. This year a spy saw a few in the Bio shop down in Perpignan. So I hastened to buy their entire stock, and ordered kilos more, much to the amazement of the proprietors who assumed I’d just brought my cattle down from the mountains for winter feeding. There was a run on tartan, only one pattern, from the big fabric shop in Perpignan… and for reasons which still elude me, our German artist friend made pompoms. There was a wee panic the first year, at least I panicked, Martine remained frenchly cool, when the restaurant oven packed in. But when I went down early in the morning to collect our baguette, and offer to bake shortbread and oatcakes, I was greeted by a French friend bemusedly chewing on an oatcake, and sure enough, there were oatcakes and shortbread spread and cooling on every available surface. Last year, the week before the event, we were snowed in for several days and hopping around to bagpipes was not uppermost on anyone’s mind. However, a few days’ sun, and we were back on course. Our Dumfries cousins, Elma and Jim Scott, flew over with bunting and posters and the hall was gaily decorated. Jim, at a few days notice, he had after all said, “Sure, I’ll do something” before going off on holiday, gave a brilliant Immortal Memory, in fluent French, emphasising the parallels between Burns and Catalans. Purists may flinch, but we bill our Supper as a Soiree Catalan-Ecossaise (never Franco in these parts… but that’s another story) in honour of Robert Burns, to ensure a fully participative ceilidh. So, Catriona did To A Mouse in French and Danielle rendered Joe Anderson in Scots. A well-known Catalan singer led the songs and Alastair, from Ullapool via Barcelona, piped the Gay Gordons as French, Spanish, Americans, Dutch, Germans, Portuguese, Polish, English… oh and Scots waltzed and reeled together. Maybe not traditional, but I feel sure Burns would have approved and been with us in spirit or spirits. So, here’s tae us, and despite the braud seas between us we’ll be bringing to mind auld acquaintances and giving them a right guide willie-waulk again this year. My thanks to Liz Kilpatrick ———————————— WREATH LAYING AT BURNS MONUMENT

Pictured at the wreath laying ceremony at the Burns Monument, Alloway on 23rd July, 2006. Left to right:- Joe McGinty (President Ayrshire Association), John Paterson (President RBWF), Mrs. Winifred Sloan (Provost of South Ayrshire Council and Trustee) and Dr. Robbie McMahon (President Alloway Burns Club).

52 HISTORIC MUSEUM LODGE TARBOLTON (KILWINNING) St. JAMES No. 135 (The Lodge of Robert Burns)

he Lodge Museum situated in the village of Tarbolton was officially opened on 11th April, 2004 and contains many artefacts related to Robert Burns during his time as Deputy Master T1784-1788. He was entered as an Apprentice on 4th July, 1781 and on 27th July, 1784 became Deputy Master of the Lodge. Today visitors to the Lodge and Museum can sit on the chair occupied by the Poet and hold the very mallet with which he conducted the meetings. His time as Deputy Master was in many ways a happy one “Oft honoured with Supreme Command presided o’er the Sons of Light.” One of Burns’ poems, the one which is perhaps held dearest to the Brethren of Lodge 135, and which is known to all Masonic brethren, is The Farewell to the Brethren of St. James’ Lodge, Tarbolton. Composed by Burns when he was planning to emigrate to Jamaica, the final lines form the historical basis for the toasting that is seen at Burns Suppers all over the world.

“Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu; May Freedom, Harmony, and Love, Dear Brothers of the Mystic Tie! Unite you In the Grand Design, Ye favoured, ye enlighten’d few Beneath th’ Omniscient Eye above - Companions of my social joy! The glorious Architect Divine, Tho I to foreign lands must hie, That you may keep th’ Unerring Line, Pursuing Fortune’s slidd’ry ba’; Still rising by the Plummet’s Law, With melting heart and brimful eye, Till Order bright completely shine, I’ll mind you still, tho far awa. Shall be my pray’r when far awa.

53 Oft Have I met your social band, And you farewell! whose merits claim And spent the cheerful, festive night: Justly that Highest Badge to wear: Oft, honour’d with supreme command, Heav’n bless your honour’d, noble name, Presided o’er the Sons of Light; To Masonry and Scotia dear! And by that Hieroglyphic bright, A last request permit me here Which none but Craftsmen ever saw! When yearly ye assemble a’, Strong Mem’ry on my Heart shall write One round, I ask it with a tear, Those happy scenes, when far awa. To him, the Bard that’s far awa.”

The following are the items in the Museum related to the Poet – The Kilwinning Charter. Letter written by Burns to the Lodge. Copper plate used to send the printed invitations. Minute Book indicating Burns becoming a Mason. Entry in Minute Book the Poet as Deputy Master. Entry in Minute Book which indicated when the Poet changed his name from Burness to Burns. The Bible purchased by Burns. Master’s Jewel worn by the Poet as Deputy Master. Mallet used by the Poet when presiding over Lodge meetings. Candlesticks used during the meeting. Burn’s Masonic Apron and the Master’s Chair used by him. It is of interest to note that Lodge members are interested in raising funds for a Statue to Robert Burns in Tarbolton. Also in the village is the historic Bachelor’s Club like the Lodge Museum open to the public.

R.B.W.F. & A.S.L.S. – PRIZE WINNERS – 2005

Over the past few years the Robert Burns World Federation in partnership with the Association for Scottish Literary Studies have promoted a writing competition for S1/2 classes in schools throughout Scotland. A maximum of three entries per school are allowed although some schools send less. Part of the Federation’s contribution to the awards is that the work of the winners will be published in the Burns Chornicle and the latest winners appear below.

FIRST PRIZE NORSEMEN IN ALBA by Reginald MacDonald

he longships ran aground, ploughing wet furrows in the cold gravel. Larger stones with shanks of dark calloused seaweed were pushed aside by the scarred wooden hulls. The Norsemen Thad come. A pale morning broke through the coastal fog, wan spears of light pierced the sullen mist that lay close to the water and ground alike. It smothered the cries of birds and grunts of the forest animals that had already started to forage in the leaf-mould and dappled ferns. The tell-tale whisps of smoke spiralled into the sky marking a small fortified village. All shrouded from the men on the shore.

54 The shale coast was the unintentional landing-point of a host of Vikings. The Norsemen had erected several pelt-covered tents for their thanes, although most of the Vikins had spent the remainder of the storm huddled in the shelter of the Longships, despite the fierceness of the hail and wind. In the largest tent, fourteen men conversed. The guttural tones of their language befitted their harsh faces and hulking forms. Most of them wore the pelts of wild animals over their leather and mail. All of them had lustrous beards and moustaches of varying length which they plaited and decorated with small trinkets of gold. Two of them had left their arms bare except for a series of thick bands of gold and silver. “We strike inland!” roared Murin - the elected leaders of the Norse warband. He had a thick blue-grey beard that was plaited and stuffed into his gem-studded belt. Murin habitually wore a jerkin of leather upon which was sewn large, tarnished bronze scales. Murin was cloaked in a giant wolf-pelt, its skull resting on his broad shoulder. Despite his age, Murin was gesturing vigorously with a long-hafted axe. “Inland I say! We may have been tossed on the cursed shores of Alba but the Scots are as good a foe to slay as any Saxon!” Murin tugged at his long whiskers and glared at his captains, until they turned down their eyes and mumbled assent. Casting aside the flap of his make-shift tent Murin stood before his warband and brandished his axe. “We march! For the glory of the dead, Dammaz-Uzkul!” The three-score of Norse marauders cheered and echoed his chant, waving their axes and swords and smashing them against their shields in a frenzy of blood-lust. The Vikings quickly formed into a ragged column and shambled through the mist. Over a gently sloping hill dotted with slate and through a dense oak wood the warband trudged, startling a small herd of deer. As the deer sprinted away five of the leading men, more alert than the others unlimbered their bows and loosed at the fleeing hinds. The frenzy had been replaced by hunger. As the host breasted yet another hillock, Murin was greeted by a most welcome sight. Beneath them, lay a small, weakly fortified village of about thirty thatched houses. With a single cry the war- host flung itself toward the village as a single beast. They soon overran the defences hacking down the towns folk with berserk savagery. Murin grabbed a smouldering torch and hurled it at a thatched roof. He was confronted by a tall, young man wielding a notched sword. Murin screamed the names of fallen forefathers as he bulled into the man and brought down the axe in a silver arc, cleaving the scalp and skull with the hideous sound of metal on bone. Murin stared at the crimson axe. “For the glory of the dead, Dammaz-Uzkul!”

SECOND PRIZE TWIN TROUBLE by Megan Irving

wanted tae be my maself. Didnae want tae talk tae ma da just noo. Didnae want tae tell him how I rotten it hud been. The first day. I’d been looking forward tae it for ages. We all hud. Joe came round for me at eight o’clock this morning. I’d been up since hauf past six. Ma da couldnae believe it. Usually he has tae drag me oot ma bed and their I wis on the first day Aw ready. I wis in a class wae naebody I kent. I hated it. Only if Joe wis in ma class, it wid be gid.

55 I wis in the hoose getting ma dinner, just me and ma da when I asked ma da about ma maw. “Da’. whit was ma maw like?” “She wis a very braw wuman, bonnie blue een, like yours. Gemma yer mau hud long braw blonde herr like yers.” he replied while I tried tae picture her in ma heid. “Dae I look like her?” I asked. “Aye, ye’re the spitten image o’ her!” Naebody said oniethin fur about five meenits. “Da, whar did ma maw go!” I asked. “Well I dinnie ken whar she is noo,” he said. Efta ma dinner I went up tae ma room tae go on msn, tae talk to ma freens fur a wee while. Eventually, I went tae ma bed thinking about ma maw. “Come on David git up noo, time fur scuil!” I got up, got washt and pit ma scuil claithes on. Joe came roon et eight o’clock. I’d just dun wi ma breakfast and then we git talkin and walkin when I said. “Joe.” “Aye.” “In ma class I huv naebody I ken aw I hate it.” Naebodie! Are ye sure?” he asked. “Aye, an I hate Sean and his weans. They ur aw hatters!” When reached the scuil. Sean came up tae me and… “Gadse look at ye. David ya jake. Ye smell hah!” Sean shouted. “Lee him alone, whit did he dae tae yi?” Joe asked. “Who ur ye talking tae?” Sean growled. Ring! Ring! Therrs the bell. “Thank God fur that bell,” Joe exclaimed. I didnae go tae ma register class. Insteid I went tae ma Guidy to tell her about Sean. I git therr then… Sean wis therr! I muttered tae maself “Oh naw!” Sean left and hit me with his shouder, but it wisnae that sair. The wuman in the room asked. “Whits yer name! I’m Miss Chalmers. “My name is David Higgins,” I said starring at her. I recognised her bit couldnae think whaur. “Is you da Paul Higgins?” she asked, starring at me. “Aye, why dae ye wantae ken that for?” “I’m yer mither!” she said. I fainted. I woke up in ma hame. Ma da asked, “What happened?” “Da, ma maw works in the scuil, she is ma Guidy!” I said. “Is she!” he said, in total shock. “Aye!” I said. Ma da came up tae the scuil and wis talking tae ma maw. Later yon nicht, I wis talking tae ma da and I fun out what I hud a twin brother! Ma da said he didnae tell me cos he hud a big argument with ma maw aboot it, because ma maw said that they couldnae afford two and she wanted tae pit one of us up for adoption, bit ma da said naw so my da took ane and ma maw took ane. About a week later m maw and da decided tae muive awa tae the country and ma maw wi gaunie hame teach us. I hudny saw ma twin sae I wis very excited aboot it. We arrived at the new house and

56 I ran intae the hoose tae see ma twin when… Sean wis sitting there on the sofa! “Whit are you daein here?” I asked. “Same thing as you!” he replied. “You are ma twin?” I asked. “Aye,” he said. He wis in total shock. So wis I. The boy that bullied me turned oot tae be ma twin. Anyways, we said our sorries and noo we are dain awryt in the country.

THIRD PRIZE MOON WALKER by Alice Johnson

“There are no wolves her Zach!” his mother persisted. Zach was tired of nobody listening to him nobody believing that he was special. “I was never meant to be like you! I was always meant to be something different, more powerful. You will regret your ignorance when you realise!” His parents just laughed, they always did. He was sick of it, and needed some space! The woods in this part of Scotland were thick and dark, so when Zach first entered, he was almost too frightened to go in, but somehow he plucked up the courage and strode through the trees. However, he had not gone far when he abruptly stopped. He felt different, enchanted almost. He was attracted to the noise of the babbling burn which ran through the forest, falling over stones and clumps of earth. Something then caught his attention. There was a man. A man who was bent over the water, drinking like an animal. He was messy and covered in scratches where the blood had dried in clots and his hair was matted and long. Whoever he was, he must have sensed the boy’s presence, for his head was raised suddenly and he turned to gaze behind him. The eyes! They were cold and large, but not at all normal… they were red! Terrified by the creature’s stare. Zach ran and ran in the direction he thought was the best way out. What was that? He was out of breath quickly but escaped. What an encounter! Zach just hoped he wouldn’t run into anything else! That night, there was a terrible storm. The wind seemed to howl and the rain came down as if it had the will to collapse the roof! It wasn’t surprising that Zach couldn’t sleep! Not only because of the storm, but that he couldn’t get the picture of those horrible red eyes, glaring at him, out of his head. He was disturbed, but felt something strange, as if he was being called back into those woods. They were calling him in a magnetic way. He sat up. He did not know why, but he had to go in there again. He got out of bed and slipped out of his room. He jumped when the clock in the hall struck twelve. He was edgy. The floorboards creaked under his feet and he just hoped that his parents wouldn’t appear to find out what the noise was. He managed to tiptoe out the door to a night dotted with stars and a full moon. “It’s almost as if I were born to be a night-walker!” He thought to himself as he ran the route to the woods. He had no shoes on, but was unaware of this as he strode among the trees. He could already hear the burn again, but the enchantment he had sensed earlier was stronger now. He heard

57 whispers through the trees as he went. He arrived at the burn. The man wasn’t there, but had been replaced by a dog or bear or something? There was a resemblance. The same shaggy hair, the same scratched and… Zach was suddenly chilled. Not… or was it… a werewolf? It was terrifying! Zach’s breaths were short and quick, but the wolf must have heard because its head turned to reveal those horrible crimson eyes again. Eyes like blood, the substance it was so hungry for. It moved towards him, so he could smell its warm breath, the metallic smell of an earlier kill. It pounced on its prey, so strong, and Zach slowly felt the magic of the moon overpower him.

The winning pupils with their certificates with representatives of the ASLS and Schools Convener Margaret Skilling. ———————————— NEW SCHOOLS’ CONVENER Retired school teacher MARGARET D. H. SKILLING, Doonbank, Ayr was appointed Schools’ Convener at the Annual General Meeting of the Robert Burns World Federation, Normandy Hotel, Renfrew on 8-10th September, 2006, taking up the position on the retiral of Past President, Bob Dalziel. Margaret’s knowledge of teaching and pupils in Secondary Schools on both sides of the Border span some 35 years. A Past President of the Ayrshire Association of Burns Clubs of which she is also secretary and Senior Vice President of the Alloway Burns Club and Minute Secretary to the Burns Monument Trustees, add to her enthusiasm for the life and works of the Bard coupled with her zeal and determination to encourage the young children in the interest in Robert Burns through the Federation’s Schools Competitions.

58 PLANS APPROVED FOR KAY PARK MONUMENT

A multi-million pound refurbishment of the building which houses the statue of Robert Burns in Kay Park, Kilmarnock has been given planning permission. The historic building had been badly damaged by fire during November, 2004. A Council official stated “This is an excellent new development for the town, which will bring together many of our registration, local history and heritage functions.” The news of the go-ahead was received with great disappointment by residents of the town, over 6,000 signatures objecting to the Council’s proposals had been gathered on the grounds that “Not to commit to full restoration was miss-guided for it failed to acknowledge the Monument’s importance to local residents and the significance of Robert Burns and his place in the historic and cultural heritage of Kilmarnock.” The statue of the Poet and in fact the building has long been regarded as the finest of the many statues of the Poet in the world and symbolic of Burns and his associations with the town.

[VISUAL OF RESEARCH CENTRE]

59 [PLAN OF THE NEW KAY PARK MONUMENT] PARK [PLAN OF THE NEW KAY

60 WINNIPEG 2007

The Winnipeg Robert Burns Club will host the Annual General Meeting of the 2007 Robert Burns World Federation - August 3-5, 2007 and has selected the Fairmont Hotel as the location. The AGM of RBANA will also take place at this time. The Fairmont Hotel, one of Winnipeg’s finest hotels, is located at the very heart of Winnipeg and is within walking distance of the Forks Market at the intersection of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers - a historic meeting place complete with restaurants, the Manitoba Children’s Museum and market shops, as well as the remains of Upper Fort Garry, The Winnipeg Club has been able to obtain excellent room rates for 2007 - approximately one third below current 2006 rates for “Moderate Guestrooms”! These rooms come with Double, Queen, or King size beds. Upgrades are available at similarly reduced rates. Conference Cost for Residential Delegates: £165 GB $330 CDN – Based on double occupancy. *Single Occupancy - £223 GB $446 CDN* Accommodation plus breakfast Friday and Saturday. The Friday evening Dinner and Ceilidh will be held in the Fairmont Hotel, with entertainment provided by the attendees. The Saturday “Presidential Investiture Dinner” will be held in the “Winnipeg Convention Centre” a few blocks away, with transportation provided. Entertainment will be provided by a small orchestra - for dancing, and Native/Metis traditional dancers who will ensure a unique experience for those from foreign soil. 1. Historic Site - Air Conditioned Coach to and from Lower Fort Garry (intended for Sunday afternoon) including our group’s own Guided Tour can be pre-booked at an inclusive cost of $20.00 Canadian. 2. Transportation to and from the Sunday Church Service (and the Burns Statue/Legislative Building) will be provided at no cost to delegates. 3. Winnipeg’s 2 week long Annual Folklorama Festival of 43 nations begins Sunday, August 5/07. In recognition of the Winnipeg Robert Burns Club’s 100 years, the planned theme of the Scottish Pavilion will be “Burns”, with a special evening for attendees of the Winnipeg Conference. Transportation will be arranged for that evening. Folklorama will continue until Saturday, August 18, in 2007. 4. The Winnipeg Club can arrange private or individual excursions on the “Prairie Dog Special” train with a 3-1/2 hour round trip. Meals may be purchased at the turnaround point. 5. Excursions can be arranged on one of Winnipeg’s “Paddlewheel” River Boats. 6. For additional opportunities, visit ‘Destination Winnipeg”, or Travel Manitoba websites. **The Fairmont will honour the rates below for 3 nights before and after the event** - “Moderate Guestroom” $101.00, all taxes included - “Fairmont Guestroom” $124.00, all taxes included - “Fairmont Gold Guestroom” $203.00, all taxes included. The above rates do not include breakfast. Book Direct: 204 985 6234 (UK Prefix 001) Zoom Airlines have agreed on a generous discount of 20% off base fares on all Zoom operated flights between 1 July 2007 and 30 August 2007. Bookings must be made online and booked before June 30 2007 using the following Promotional code. RBANA111406. To access, visit www.flyzoom.com There is a Promotional code field located to the bottom of the page. Booking forms for Conference are included

61 THE TREASURES OF THE CHRONICLE AND AN INDEX TO HELP FIND THEM

he Burns Chronicle commenced publication in 1892 to fulfill the ambitions of the recently formed Burns Federation for a vehicle for “narrating the Burnsiana events of the year” and to Tcarry important articles on Burns Clubs and the developing Federation, along with contributions from “Burnessian scholars of prominence and recognized ability.” The lasting value of the research featured in the annual publication indicated the need for an index to these, the 1908 edition carried an index to the first few years, and a great work by Mr. Albert Douglas of Washington USA, in 1921, produced an index to volumes 1 to 30 in “the hope that it will be found useful as a key to the treasures of the Chronicle”. In 1935 the Federation produced an index to 1892 – 1925 [First Series: 34 Volumes] followed by one for the Second Series 1926 – 1945. These indices are very rare items and are seldom found, scarcer even than early Chronicles. Over the years since, some great Burnsians have attempted a continuation of the indexing but nothing has made it to publication. Chronicles are essential references for a Burnsian, particularly if one wishes to examine particular details of the Poet’s life or works. They are the cornerstones of any Burns library. In many instances the details that are found in the articles of the Chronicle do not readily come to hand from other sources generally available to us. I have long been a Chronicle collector and I have used the early indices but felt the need for a continuation of these, or indeed for a complete index in a single volume. I raised the matter many years ago at the Literature Committee, and the Convener of the time, Cliff Parr, took up the proposal. Initially we examined the previous Federation indices, these are simple A-Z lists of titles, and Cliff scanned the pages and made them searchable by computer. As we looked at expanding and incorporating the editions after 1945, I felt that it would be more user friendly to split these lists and identify the articles by the topic, to enable a researcher to turn immediately to the subject matter under consideration and find all the relevant articles. For a while I attempted to process the scanned data into the format I had in mind but a satisfactory method eluded me. In 2000 John Paterson became Convener of Lit and he took a little convincing about the merit or requirement for a further index. In late 2002 in an effort to restart the project and to illustrate the advantages of the format I envisaged, I indexed the issues from 1945 to 1991, (when the Chronicle changed to a quarterly) and had four copies printed and bound. I reckoned that if the project never went beyond this point, then at least that additional indexing would be useful to future Burnsians. The categories I have divided the articles into were really snap decisions of mine made at that time. The topics are sub-divided under the following main headings, Biography and Criticism, People Around Burns, Aspects of Burns Life, Topography, Relics Commemorations Anniversaries, Reviews of Books and Publications etc, Other Literature, Miscellany and Author Index. There are many pieces, which are not particularly specific, as well as those on easily identifiable subjects, and I attempted to categorize these into the few headings I had laid out, producing the prototype for consideration and comment. Several senior Burnsians within the Federation acclaimed this, however assistance to re-compile the 1892-1945 volumes was not easily found as very few had access to the early Chronicles. While many well-read Burnsians could see the advantage of this Index, the Federation would not proceed with the publication on grounds of cost. I have now produced this privately with the grand title “Directory to the Articles and Features in The Burns Chronicle 1892 – 2005”. This book has not been printed in great numbers and will always be a rarity. Those who have taken it have been very favourable in their comments, citing it as most useful when looking up any particular subject. It was not published as a commercial venture, its value is not monetary. Should anyone like one of the few copies, please contact me or you may source through Amazon or other bookshop. ISBN 1-84685-268-4 I sincerely hope that enthusiasts and scholars of Burns will find this directory of assistance to them in tracing the varied articles of value that have appeared in the Chronicle over the 114 years covered, and that many others will discover the hidden gems that are in the past Chronicles. Bill Dawson

62 CLUB REPORT FELLOWSHIP Derby Scottish Association & Burns Club – Annual Report (Federation No.: 55 - Our membership at 1 March 2006 stood at 203 (11 - Life, 136 - Full, 56 - Associate). During the (SEE STORY ON PAGE 45) year we gained 5 new Members (2 - Full, 3- Associate) but lost 18 (14 - Full, 4 - Associate). Regrettably 5 of our Full Member Whan Rabbie walked this turnin’ earth losses were through death (‘Torrey’ Cooper, ‘Anne’ Buchan, Jim Brown, Marjorie Bates and Bill McLean) while 2 left the A lad tae a’ his comrades dear, district. Under the auspices of the Talks & Entertainments He was nae son O’ noble birth, Committee, a very active year has been enjoyed. The Spring/ Summer period saw a very interesting behind the scenes To ordinary fowk a fiere. tour of Sudbury Hall while a wet night did not dampen our spirits at the ‘Barbecue and Blether’ held in Nan Macfarlane’s garden. We scraped an away win in the Annual Quiz Match He tilled the soil O’ barren land v. The Derby Welsh Society (making the score 10-6) while, at the EMASS Summer Outing, we yet again retained our An’ mony a day he want hae kent hold on the Quiz Trophy. The President’s Reception was a An mony a prayer his hert hae found wonderful evening with the Dance Demonstration Team again performing a new dance (‘The Kettlehill Jig’) in the President’s To ask the Maister whit it meant. honour and the skit ‘Who Wants to be President?’causing much laughter. The St Andrews Dinner/Dance also went well with excellent entertainment interspersed with dance But still wi’ boldness day by day while, for the annual St Andrew’s church service, we again succesfully joined with the morning congregation of Central His poet’s sowl new courage fand United Reformed Church. The Burns Anniversary Dinner was of course the winter highlight with the Immortal Memory An’ hert tae hert, he’d greet wi joy being proposed by our own Mr Gordon Mitchell. The The sowls sae true, frae unkent ground. ovation with which this was received reflected the pleasure which Gordon’s brand of humour gives – if only he too wrote poetry! The monthly Talks evenings were very well attended in the excellent venue of the Mickleover Methodist Centre An’ so do we, Ilk hert is pent, and with a varied range of speakers/subjects. The January Wi‘ thouchts o joy an hope sae true. ‘entertain ourselves’ event again revealed the great diversity of talent within the Association and especially the number An tae your land, kind thoughts are sent ‘with the Doric’. The Autumn Ball, with Calum Wilson’s Band, and the Tartan Dance, with Ian Slater, were not only Wi a’ the fellowship that’s due. thoroughly enjoyed but were financially successful. The Mabel Irving, Dance Class has had a very successful year with numbers significantly up. The Demonstration Team again took part Editor in the Ashbourne Highland Games and performed at several other venues. A dancing/singing/musical troupe has been ———————————— established to entertain elderly people in local venues. The Bridge Club had a successful year with numbers increasing following a change of venue to Allestree. 6 Sunday walks were BURNS WRITING enjoyed by participants but conditions ranged from excellent to muddy. On one occasion a friendly donkey tried to join COMPETITION but its Membership credentials were suspect!. Stewart B L Wilson, Hon. Secretary “The Vision” Writing Contest for writers and ———————————— lovers of the works of Robert Burns from all over the world. The Prize is the James Turnbull FRIARS’ CARSE WINDOW Memorial Award - $500 (Cdn) to be presented at the Burns Federation Conference in Winnipeg FOR SALE in 2007, and publication in the Celtic Faerie INSCRIBED BY BURNS Magazine. Choose your favorite poem/song by On 12th August, 1871 the Scotsman carried an Robert Burns, and tell why you like it, what you advertisement for the sale of furniture at Dunesk House, believe Robert Burns was trying to convey to his Lasswade which had belonged to Dr Peter Smith who is readers, and any appropriately relevant history or believed to have owned Friars’ Carse in 1794. Included in the sale was “a pane of glass, cut out documentation of interest. Entry fee: $10 (Cdn). of a window at Friars’ Carse, Dumfries containing verses Word maximum: 2000. Deadline for entries: holograph of the Poet Burns.” May 1, 2007. Entrants are strongly encouraged Today, there is a framed pane of glass inscribed by the to contact the contest trustee at ilmoore@mts. Poet at Friars’ Carse on display. Could it be the one referred net or phone: (Canada) 204-482-8271; or visit to above? It is also recorded that the Poet inscribed on a pane of glass at the Hermitage:--“To Riddell, much lamented man, the website of the Winnipeg Robert Burns Club: This ivied cot was dear: Wand’rer, dost value matchless worth? www.winnipegrobertburns.org This ivied cot revere.” “Strive in thy humble sphere to shine.”

63 JOCK McGOVERN OBITUARIES On 9th May, 2006 there was a memorial service for Jock McGovern at Balboa Park in San JOHN DONALDSON Diego, California organised by Balboa Park’s House of England. Jock was warmly remembered CLARKE for his 93 years of life starting with his birth in Fife, for his service in the British military including service as a piper and a regimental (1928 – 2006) sergeant in Burma during WWII, and for years of involvement in the Robert Burns Club of San John was a Past President, Life Member and Diego where he curried a fond reputation for Trustee of Derby Scottish Association & Burns discourse on the ladies in Burns’ life and for Club and a keen Burnsian who rarely missed a his beautiful framed portraits of Burns’ portraits ‘Burns Conference’. and memorabilia. Club piper Robert Burns Though he lived most of his life in Derby, piped some appropriate tunes but the lock on John was born in Kirkcaldy and was extremely talent decidedly went to Veronica McGowan, proud of his roots. He often spoke of the the Club’s first female member and a lassie from hardships encountered in the past by the Fife Edinburgh, who wrote and recited the following mining communities and, as a result, throughout fine poem during the service! Burnsians have his life he was always concerned for the welfare suffered a great loss. of others. After obtaining an engineering degree at Edinburgh University, John served two years TAE THE LADDIE National Service in the RAF followed by one year Our great wee lad is gone at Glasgow University studying thermodynamics. And left us all from forlorn Like many of his generation, he joined the Rolls- No more witty comments Royce Aero-Engine Division in Derby in the mid- Or soulfoul storied moments. 1950’s where he worked until his retirement in He came from Leven Scotland the early 1990’s. And worked with great Aunt Nellie In his youth he was a keen hockey player I tell you we would laugh of this and also represented the RAF as a marksman Cause the toon was very smelly. at Bisley. In addition to Burns, he had many interests And on he went to notoriety including walking, watercolour painting, The military and all society allotment gardening and taking language courses How honored we were to know him in German, Italian and Spanish. He loved All of us from Britain adored him. to travel and, besides Scotland, his favourite He loved to toast the Lassies destination was Australia which he visited on So ceverly he chose his verses many occasions (including being a member of As he toasted them with such fervor the Derby group who went to Melbourne even How enjoyable to hear him deliver. though the planned AGM and Conference had been cancelled)! Now he’s gone to hear the pipes John loved pipe music and was a founder In the heavens high above member of the Derby Piping Society which And lead the songs of Robbie later became the Mickleover British Legion Pipe To the angels that he’ll love. Band, now unfortunately defunct. John married his wife, Vera, in 1957 and we Tae the Laddie… express our sincere condolences to her and their with love, Veronica McGowan 3 children and their families. Robert Burns Club of San Diego A E R Marshall (First female member)

64 President AngusMiddleton (2006-2007) ITEMS FROMTHEFEDERATION SHOP PLUS POSTANDPACKING) BURNS NAVY TIE BURNS CHECKTIE DOWER HOUSE, KILMARNOCK.KA3 1XB. (ALL ITEMS DEAN CASTLE COUNTRYPARK, THE BURNSFEDERATION, Tel: 01563 572469. £10 £10 POSTCARDS (PACK OF8) CHRISTMAS CARDS SONG SHEETS...... FRIDGE MAGNETS...... MOUSE MATS. TIES...... BURNS CHECKBOW TARTAN PAPER...... ARMORIAL BADGES...... POSTERS (SMALL)...... POSTERS (LARGE)...... BURNS NAPKINS PLACE CARDS (100)...... MENU CARDS (100)...... SCHOOLS...... RESOURCES PACK FOR LOST POEMS...... GENEALOGY BOOK SONGS...... MINIATURE TARTAN POEM& LIFE OFBURNS...... BICENTENARY CHRONICLES...... LIFE OFJEANARMOUR...... A MANFORALLSEASONS...... ROBERT BURNSTHEFARMER...... BURNS FORBAIRNS...... BAIRNSANGS...... 3 VOLUME SET 2 VOLUME SET COMPLETE LETTERS...... DELUXE CASEBOUND EDITION COMPLETE WORKS COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS. TAM O’ SHANTERBALLET)...... (SCENES FROM (PACK OF10)...... (BLUE/WHITE) (250)...... (TARTAN SLIPCASE)...... (TARTAN PAPERBACK)...... STOCK LIST ...... £10.00 £19.00 £30.00 £29.50 £24.95 £19.50 £75.00 £49.00 £3.00 £4.00 £0.15 £1.00 £3.00 £9.00 £1.50 £1.00 £2.00 £8.00 £4.00 £5.00 £4.00 £5.00 £1.95 £8.00 £5.00 £6.00 £1.50 £6.50 £3.00 £9.95

Solway Offset the Printers, Heathhall, Dumfries. Tel. 01387 262960 BURNS CHRONICLE WINTER 2006

A ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION PUBLICATION