Robert BurnsLimited World Federation

Limited

www.rbwf.org.uk

1998 The digital conversion of this Burns Chronicle was sponsored by Gatehouse of Fleet Burns Club and Kilbryde Burns Club

The digital conversion service was provided by DDSR Document Scanning by permission of the Robert Burns World Federation Limited to whom all Copyright title belongs.

www.DDSR.com URNS CHRONICLE 1998 Motto - "A man's a man for a' that" THE ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION LIMITED (Formerly THE BURNS FEDERATION) Instituted 1885 HEADQ UARTERS: DI CK INSTITUTE. ELM BANK AVENUE, KILMARNOCK. KAI 3BU. AYRS HIRE. TEL/FAX: 01563 572469. OFFICE HO URS: MONDAY TO FRIDAY9a.m.-5p.m. CLOSED FOR LU CH I p.m.-2 p.m. HONORARY PRESIDENTS Mrs. S. G. Baill ie, The Hon. Dr. Grant MacEwan, Mrs. Stella Brown. Cha rles Murray, Lew W. Reid, James Mason. George Irvine, Gordon M. Mackley. Professor G. Ross Roy, George Mudi e, Archie McArthur, Dr. Donald A. Low, May Dickie, William Wi lliamson, Murclo Morrison, James Parn ham, Lawrence Burness, Tom G. Paterson. Peter ]. Westwood. James Hempstead. Provost of East Ayrshire. Joseph Campbe ll, Professor Henryk Mine, Kenneth McKellar, Jimmy Shanel. M.B.E. OFFICIALS Chief Executive: SHIRLEY BELL, "lnveresk," Kelton , Dumfries. DG I 4UA. Tel/Fax: 01387 770283. President: BOB DALZIEL, 4 Parkside Road , Moth erwell. MLl 3DY. Tel: 01698 252225. Sen ior Vice-Pres id ent: JOE CAMPBELL, 30 Racecourse Road , Ayr. KA7 2UX. Tel: 01292 266033. Junior Vice-President: JOH SKJLLI NG , 16 Craigstewart Crescent, Doonbank , Ayr. KA7 4DB. Tel: 01292 445230. Clerical Secretary: Mrs. MARGARET CRAIG, Dick Institute, Elmbank Avenue, Kilmarnock. KAI 3BU. Ed itor: PETER J. WESTWOOD, I Cai rnsmore Road , Cast le Douglas. DG7 IBN. Tel/Fax: 01556 504448. Hon Treasurer:T. BRYAN McK.IRGAN. C.A .. J.DIP., M.A., 16 Glenlui Avenue, Burnside, Glasgow. G73 4JE. Tel: 0141 63 1 1879. Honorary Legal Adviso r: DAVID STEVENSON. CONVENERS Fin ance Conve ner: MO IRA RENN IE-DUNSMORE. 59 Beechwood Court, Dunstable, Beds. LUG !YA. 200 Club: AN DREW McKEE, 27 Balfron Road , Pai sley. PA3 AHA. Schools Compet itions: AN E GAW. 7 Highfie ld Place, Girdle To ll , Irvine. KAI I lBW. Tel: 01294 21748 1. Scottish Literature: D. WlLSO N OG ILVIE, M.A., F.S.A.Scot., 'Lingerwoocl'. 2 Nelso n Street, Dumfries. DG2 9AY. Memorials Co mmittee: JAMES GIBSON. Craigowan Cottage, 28 Brewland s Road. Symington, Ayrshire. Marketing/A cl ve1iisi ng: MU RDO M0 RRJ SO N. I I0 Campbell Street, Wishaw. M1 .2 8HU. Tel: 01698 372638. Co nference Comm ittee: SAN DY HOG G. "Reclcroft". 7 Glen fi eld Road , East, Calashiels. TD l 2AN. Tel: 01896 752 199.

PAST PRESIDENTS Mo ira Rennie Dun smore, Andrew McKee, Murdo Morrison, David C. Sm ith , John Morriso n. Charles Kennedy, Donald Urq uh art. Hutchison Sneddon. C.B.E., J.P., Ann e Gaw, Enez Anderson, J. Connor, M.D.I.R.C.P. (Ed in), L.R.F.P.S. (G las)., D. Wilson Ogilvie. M.A., F.S.A. Scot., John Ingli s, T. Mcilwraith , George Anderson. Mollie Rennie, S. K Gaw, R. A. B. McLaren.

Main Sponsor of East Ayrshire The Burns Federation ------COUNC IL BURNS CHRONICLE

Editor: PETER J. WESTWOOD, 1 Cairnsmore Road, Castle Douglas. DG7 lBN. Tel/Fax: 01556 504448. Editorial Consultant: Professor RAYMOND GRANT, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Advertising Manager: MURDO MORRISON, 110 Campbell Street, Wishaw, ML2 SHU. Tel/Fax: 01698 372638. Contents Moira Rennie-Dunsmore ...... 3 Saint and Sinner ...... 74 From the Editor ...... 4 Robert Burns' Religion: "Wistful From the Chief Executive ...... 6 Agnostic" or Orthodox Christian? ...... 80 The Burns Window at Robert Burns: The Czech Connection .... 88 Glasgow University ...... 6 The Begg Connection ...... 93 Locket containing strand of "Highland The Sons of Robert Burns in India ...... 101 Mary's" Hair, discovered in Australia, ..... 9 World Record Price for a Burns Letter from William Nicol Burns to James Aikin ...... 13 Manuscript ...... 102 Ague ...... 18 Burns's "Doctor Hornbook" ...... -...... 104 A note on poems newly attributed Long Live Francis I, King of Scots ...... 108 to Burns ...... 26 Dr. Robert Chambers' Diary I like his letters better than the poetry .... 28 on a Visit to Ayrshire ...... 111 Robert Burns commemorated in stone Alterations at Burns's Cottage ...... 114 at Makar's Court, Edinburgh ...... 29 Obituaries ...... 119 The Rape of the Sabine Women ...... 31 Friends of Ellisland ...... 128 Visiting the Mother Club, the final frontier! ...... 35 The Champion of Burns ...... 129 The Other Poet ...... 39 My Meeting with Robert Burns ...... 132 Resurrecting Rabbie? ...... 40 Toast to the Lassies ...... 133 Robert Burns and Loudoun Manse ...... 54 Robert Burns - The Immortal Memory 136 John Rankine ...... 57 Peebles Conference 1998 -An Address 141 Mossgiel Cairn ...... 61 Burns Federation Conference 1998 - An A Monody on the Fatal 29th December, Address ...... 144 1789 - A rediscovered poem by Burns? .. 62 A Bad Sort But - Lovable ...... 147 Francis Grose, F.S.A. Antiquary and Scholar ...... 70 Book Reviews.:...... 154

The Burns Federation 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. ©BURNS FEDERATION. 1 2 MOIRA RENNIE-DUNSMORE FEDERATION PRESIDENT 1997-1998

he Burns Federation is like a chain, the links are the Clubs, Districts and individual Membe rs, and like a chain our strength comes from being connected by our love of T the works and philosophies of Robert Burns. A chain is also flexible something we in the Federation must be to enable us to embrace CHANGE, whilst retaining th e basic elements of our hi storical organisation.

During my term of office the Presidential chain has been much admired, especially by CHILDR EN. They were interested in the history of the Federation and anxious to learn about Robert Burns. I must say I have been heartened by the obvious talent in our schools as demonstrated by the large number of participants in our schools competitions and I-am delighted that we now have a number of schools who are members of the Federation. Whenever 1 have been in th e presence of chi ldren I am constantly amazed at the enthusiasm that they exude in being part of an organisation whether it be during School Assembly, Church Service or participating in the National Competitions, that is why I consider them as the future of our chain.

It is refreshing to note that our youngsters are able to COMMUNICATE free from the baggage of 'HOW THINGS USED TO BE'. Change for them is exciting, and I am reminded of a quote by Edmund Burke, who lived during the time of Robert Burns, he said, and I quote "A STATE WlTHOUT THE MEANS OF SOME CHANGE IS WITHOUT THE MEANS OF CONSERVATION". During my visit to various functions I have become aware of the lack of communication within the Burns movement none more so than being told 'I WAS NEVER ASKED BY THE BURNS FEDERATION TO BECOME AN INDIVIDUAL MEMBER' even though the person concerned had been a Club Secretary for many years (see page 158).

I have mentioned the three C'S CH ANGE -CHILDREN - COMMUNICATION. We as members must surely embrace our enthusiasm for the Federation and it's future whilst remembering our beginnings over I 00 years ago.

To receive a chain of office is a very special honour and l have been privi Iedged to wear the Presidential Chain during the past year always remembering that:

"A CHAIN IS A FLEXIBLE L ENGTH OF LINKS USED F OR CO NNECTING".

Left: Presidew A1oira photoRraphed i11fro11tofthe oil painting of Bo11ie Jean and her granddaughter Sarah. Right: Moira 1rith M1: and /\frs. Drew. Lavinia DreH' is a great great great granddaughter of Robert Bums. Photos by George Grant. 3 FROM THE EDITOR

he loss of any member of the Burns Federati on is indeed sad and thi s year as can b e seen T in the Obituari es commencin g on page 11 9, it has been a tragic time w ith the passin g of so many weel-kent Burnsians. It would be remi ss of me however, as editor of the Burns Chronicle and Th e Burnsian not to comment on the passin g of Past President of the Burns Federati on, Jim Campbell. It is not known b y many t hat Jim was in fact responsible fo r a large number of the photographs, mainl y from south of the Border, that appeared in our two pub I ications. O n many occasions he persona ll y fi nanced the purchase of film and th e developin g of same fo r the annual Federati on Confe rences. To me he was a good fri end and a great source of inspi rati on in all matters relating to the production of the magazin es and I will mi ss him greatl y.

May Freedom, Harmony, and Love, Unite you in the Grand Design, Beneath th' 0111niscie11 1 £ye above - The glorious Architect divine.

Controversial aspects connected with the li fe and works of the Poet have appeared fro m ti me to time (Particul arl y around the 25th Janu ary), and recently the research work by Patri ck Scott Hogg resulting in hi s "Robert Burns: The Los! Poems" has been the s ubject of much discussion. I draw your attention to an arti cle by Gerard Camnhers (Uni versity of Strathclyde) "A Note on Poems Recently Attributed lo Burn s" (Page 26) and by C hri s Rolli e "A Monody on the Fatal 29th Dece111 be1; 1789 - A Rediscovered Poe111 by Burns?" (Page 62). I am of the opinion that Chris may have in deed fou nd a 'Lost Poe111 ' and th e noted Burns scholar, Dr James Mackay states that: - He is pre/f.\' 1l'ell convinced that it is by Burns and f urther states th at It is a pleasure lo read a piece that has been thorough/_\' researched a nd well argued.

AU LD LANG SYNE MANUSCRIPT SOLD FOR £ 103,000.

Burnsians and Scotl and in general were deli ghted to hear th e news th at the rare manusc ri pt of Auld Lang Syne in the Poet's hand and owned b y an Ameri can h ad b een purchased for Scotl and (see arti cle on p age I 02). In order to purchase the manuscript a funding package was put together in Gl asgow by the Heritage Lottery Fund, BT Scotl and, Lord Macfarl ane of Bearsden and the Sunday Mail. The successful bid had the back in g of Scotti sh S ecretary, Donald Dewar and the SNP leader Alex Salmond . The manusc ri pt will be housed in the Mitche ll Library, Glasgow who already have the world's largest coll ecti on of books and allied materi al on our Nati onal Bard . Congratul ati ons to all concerned. Peter J. Westwood

4 BTf BT Scotland

BT Scotland is delighted to be associated with the Burns Federation National Schools Competition which brings together an innovative mix of education, communication and history. . With more than 150,000 Scottish school children expected to take part in the competition in areas like poetry, singing, art and music BT Scotland hopes that their support of £10,000 will encourage more youngsters to appreciate and experience the work of Robert Burns. BT Scotland has been a long-standing supporter of Scottish culture and recently backed a Scottish consortium to bid for a single page manuscript of Auld Lang Syne with a £10,000 donation. The document, one of only seven signed by Burns was sold at Christie's in New York for £103,000 and will now be returned to Scotland to be displayed at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. (See page 102). BT Scotland is an integral part of Scottish life. As well as providing 12,000 jobs - 2000 of which have been created in the past two years - the company invests £200 every single minute in bringing a state-of-the-art voice and data communications network to the whole of Scotland. In June this year BT responded to political change by becoming BT Scotland, creating a new nine-strong Scottish Board which is bringing a sharp new focus to Scotland. Their remit is to look at everything from specific products and services to working closely with government to help bring a more accessible parliament to people throughout Scotland. The company is spending £525 million on bringing major improvements to the data network in Scotland, doubling the number of Cellnet base stations in Scotland to give 98 per cent mobile coverage by the Millennium and upgrading digital exchanges in r'ural areas. BT Scotland is pledged to making a fitting contribution to the community in which it operates as part of the BT Community Partnership Programme. It supports a variety of organisations and good causes - but one unifying factor is that it seeks to build a partnership with them. BT Scotland donates more than £1 million a year to Scottish charities. Alex Pollock BT Scotland's Community and Education Manager said: "We are delighted to be sponsoring this competition which helps to keep the much-loved work of Robert Burns alive in the minds of young people. We hope that thousands of youngsters will take up the challenge to learn more about the great bard."

5 FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

t Peebles on l 2 September 1998, Delegates to The Burns Federation Conference of the Counci l, A unanimously voted to accept the motion to approve the promotion and incorporation of a company limited by guarantee. The Company would have fu ll charitable status, and be named "The Robert Burns World Federation Ltd.'' The momentous decision recognised the changing needs, and opportunities available to our organisation, whilst maintaining the aims and objectives of The Burns Federation which have served us well for many years. "The Robert Burns World Federation Ltd.," wi ll continue to further these aims through a streamlined structure, active membership, and with adequate resources to achieve o ur objectives. Thjs is what is expected from an organisation recognised worldwide as the custodian of the works and philosophies of Scotland's National Bard, Robert Burns.

"For the future be prepar'd: Guard wherever thou can 'st guard: But, thy utmost duly done, Welcome what thou can 'st 11 01 shun ". (Verse written in Friars ' Carse Hermitage) Shirley Bell Chief Executive

THE BURNS WINDOW AT GLASGOW UNIVERSITY (ILLUSTRATED ON THE FRONT AND BACK OF COVER)

Glasgow University which domjnates Gi lmorehi ll in the west end of Glasgow was the largest public building to be built in Britain when the plans were drawn up in 1866. It was designed by Gilbert Scott, a London based architect around two quadrangles. The Gothic architectural style of the new building was unusual for G lasgow, where the classical tradition had reigned supreme. Scott also new techniques in creatin g the bui lding using extensive concrete, cast and wrought-iron columns, beams and windows. The bui lding cost over £250,000 (excl uding the cost of the land) of which half was raised by public subscriptions. The foundation stone was laid in October l 868 and the University professors and students began classes th ere in November 1870, flitting from the cramped and dilapidated "Old Coll ege" in the High Street. However, the building costs escalated and their was insufficient funds to complete the

6 building work immediately. A gift by the Marquess of Bute and a legacy from Charl es Randolph, a partner in the leading Clyde shipbuil ding firm of Randolph Elder of Govan, enabled the building work to resume on the Great Hall , to be named the Bute Hall , in which great University occasions - examin ations, church services, graduations etc. were to be held. The Hall has soaring slender cast-iron columns, stencilled with fleur-de-lis in Bute blue and gold, reaching to a decorated vaulted roof and rests on a massive open vaulted stone undercroft. A gallery runs round the east and west sides. Ascending the grand staircase to the Bute Hall the visitor today finds stained glass panels which over the years since it was built has replaced the origin al clear glass panels. The centre west windows were designed in 1893 by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, the professional name of Edward Coley Jones ( 1833-1898), Engli sh painter, designer, and illustrator. He was born in Birmingham and educated at Oxford Un iversity. Trained by the Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Burne-Jones shared the Pre-Raphaelites' concern with restoring to art what they considered the purity of form, styli zation, and high moral tone of medieval painting and design. The windows above the gallery in the centre of the west wall are two ti ered and represent scienti sts and literary figures in the top and lower tiers respectively. The Physicists on top are: Copernicus; Galileo; Kepler; and Newton. The literary fi gures are Francis Bacon ( 156 1-1626); Robert Burns ( 1759-1796); Lord Byron ( 1788- 1824) and Thomas Carl yle ( 1795- 188 1). The image of Robert Burns is holding a small posy of daisies, reflecting one of hi s most best known poems, To a mountain daisy. Lesley M. Richmond, Acting Director Archive Services, Glasgow Un iversity.

YET ANOTHER STAINED GLASS COMMEMORATIVE WINDOW

The photograph on the right was sent in by Glasgow Burnsian, Colin Hunter-McQueen who recently purchased the win dow in Fife. The window measures 20" x 14" and bears a verse of the Poet's "To a Mountain Daisy". What is not known is the hi story and in particular the name of the artist and date of manufacture. It is simil ar in design of a wi ndow in the Burns Cottage Museum, Al loway. If you have any knowledge on the window, or know of any similar wi ndows, contact the editor. 7

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FEDERATION FEDERATION Co Co LOCKET CONTAINING STRAND OF "HIGHLAND MARY'S" HAIR DISCOVERED IN AUSTRALIA

communication from Adrian Lipscombe who resides in Bellingen, New South Wales, Australia, and passed to the editor A by Dougal Mcintyre of the Trustees of Burns Monument and Burns Cottage, Alloway, reveals that his ancestor, Scots born William Simpson, an artist of great talent, obtained some of "Highland Mary's" hair while serving an apprenticeship with the Glasgow firm of Allan & Ferguson. The following report on "Highland Mary's" Bibles from the Montreal Standard, dated December, 1906 gives factual details of the arrival of Adrian Lipscolllbe the Bibles in Canada and their subsequent return to Scotland. "When Highland Mary died-cut offsudde nly byfeveratGreenock, in October, 1786 - the volumes were taken care of by her mother, who did not pass away till August, 1828. Several years before her death, Mrs. Campbell had presented the Bible to Mary's surviving sister, Anne Campbell, the wife o.l James Campbell, a stone-mason. William Anderson, son ofJames Anderson and Anne Campbell, sailed from Greenockfor New York in April, 1834, with the precious two-volume Bible in his possession. On board this vessel as a passenger was Mr. J. C. Becket, a well­ known Mon/realer. A few days after Mr. Anderson 's arriva l in New York he proceeded to Upper Canada, and settled on a piece of land in the township of Caledon, about fifty miles east of' the citr of Toronto, where he resided in 1840. Mr.

The locket containing the hair of "Highland Mary" and Betty Burns (Thomson). Elizabeth 'Betty' Burns daughter of Robert Burns and Anna Park. 9 Anderson was in poor circumstances, but apart from the hope o.lobtaining some pecuniary aid from the sale of the Bible, he entertained the laudable desire r~l seeing it placed in some fit repository. With that view, he sent it to his fellow passenger, Mr. J. C. Becket, o{Montreal. Here a subscription was opened, and the sum of £25 subscribed by the countrymen of Burns in this city, for which sum they obtained the Bible and the lock of Highland Mary's hair. At a meeting of the subscribers it was unanimously resolved that the volumes should be forwarded to the Provost o/Ayrfor the purpose of having them deposited in the Poet's Monument at Ayr. Jean Picknell, Shop Manager at Mr. Robert Weir, jnr. , a prominent Montreal Burns Cottage displaying the journalist, acted as chairman o.l the committee of historic Bibles. subscribers, and forwarded the Bible with the lock of Highland Mary's /wit; in a box, by the Mohawk, Captain Millw; bound for Glasgow, addressed to his father, Mr. Robert Weir, of that city, requesting him to forward the box to the Provost ofAyr (Provost Limond), so that the Bible might be deposited in the Monument. There is a certificate alongside of the Bible, signed by the Provost and Magistrates o./Ayr, and one or two other gentlemen, dated December 1840, bearing testimony "that the volumes had been delivered, in the presence of the parties subscribing the certificate, by Mr. Weir, snr., of Glasgow, into the hands of David Limond, Esq., of Dalbair, Provost of Ayr." (Montreal Standard, Deer. I, 1906) 1 The Bibles were duly presented to the Trustees of Burns Monument on 25 h January, 1841 at a public dinner held in the Burns Arms, Alloway. They were put on permanent display in the Burns Monument, where they remained until the mid l 980's when they were transfen-ed to the Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway. Today they attract much interest to thousands of visitors to the birthplace of Robert Burns.

HISTORY OF THE 'AUSTRALIAN' LOCKET Adrian Lipscombe reports:- "ln December 1840, Mr. Robert Weir, a paper manufacturer and wholesale Stationer in Queen Street, Glasgow, brought from Canada a two volume Bible that Robbie Burns had given to Mary Campbell (known as 'Highland Mary'). Her relatives had earlier emigrated to Canada, and Mr. Weir brought the Bible back to place in the Bums Monument at the Brig of Doon, Ayr.

The two volume Bible in the Burns Co1tage Museum, Alloway showing a strand of Mary's hair on the left. JO RELIGIOUS INSCRIPTIONS ON VOLUMES I AND II:-

Vol. II•.

Before they were sent to Ayr, the two volumes were handed to Allan & Ferguson in Glasgow to have what was still discernible of Burns' writing on the fly-leaves copied in lithography. On one of the fly-leaves a lock of 'Highland Mary's.Hair' was attached. It was William Simpson's first apprenticeship year at Allan & Ferguson, and the employees of the writing and drawing department were greatly interested in the books. Before they were returned to Mr. Weir, however, the employees had each 'abstracted' a hair. 'Our act of sacrilege was never noticed,' Simpson wrote later, 'and it is doubtful if any of the other hairs have been preserved.' Later, probably some time in the 1860s, Simpson had the opportunity to visit Bums' (illegitimate) daughter, who was then a Mrs. Thomson, living in Glasgow. She was brought up in the Burns family with the other children, and (Simpson later wrote) she spoke highly of Bums' wife, Jean Armour. Her husband was a Cotton-spinner, so they lived in humble circumstances, and they had a grown-up daughter who could sing very well - Barnum had apparently tried, at the anniversary of Bums' birthday, to engage her to go to America to sing the Songs of Burns, but she had refused. 'Mrs. Thomson had wonderful eyes', Simpson recalled, 'they were large but not projecting, and, if I recollect right, they were of a deep brown, and may have been like her father's, which have been spoken of as something that attracted attention.' Simpson had painted a picture in oils of 'Burns and Death', and he gave this to Mrs. Thomson as a present. In return, she cut off a lock of her hair for him - which he later, in 1895, placed in a locket with the hair of 'Highland Mary'."

11 WILLIAM SIMPSON William Simpson was a "Special Artist" who travelled the world last century on behalf of the Illustrated London News and various other publishers, sketching and reporting on the events of the Victorian era. He is probably best known for his watercolours (and lithographs) of the Crimean War and of India, but his interests went far beyond art; indeed, his knowledge of matters as disparate as religion, history, ethnography, archaeology, architecture and linguistics would have distinguished him today as a true polymath. Simpson's childhood was marked by poverty and deprivation, and his later erudition showed him to be a man of much ability and perseverance. Jn 1839 he was apprenticed to Allan & Ferguson, lithographers, and then came to London in 1851 to work for Day and Son. At the outbreak of the Crimean War he was commissioned by Colnaghi to make sketches at the battlefront (later published as Seat of the War in the East), and thus became the first war artist, a breed which has now yielded pl ace to the camera-man. After the Crimean War he was attached to the Duke of Newcastle's expedition in Circassia, and from 1859 to 1862 travelled in India, Kashmir and Tibet, making sketches of the architecture, archaeology and daily li fe. In 1866 he joined the staff of the Illustrated London News and travelled the world for twenty years in its service. He attended the marriage of the Czarevitch (Alexander III) at St. Petersburg, followed Napier in his Abyssinian campaign, was with the German army in the war of 1870 and in Paris during the Commune (where he was William Simpson arrested as a spy). In 1872 he was commissioned to travel to China to sketch the marriage of the Emperor; he took the opportunity to extend the trip to a round-the­ world journey resulting in a popular book, Meeting the Sun: A Journey Round the World involving, among other things, a close call with the Modoc Indians of northern California (also published in 1873 was Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days - the simi larities between the two books are notable, even though one is a work of fiction and the other of fact). He depicted the pomp and pageantry of the Prince of Wales' tour through India in 1875 - 6, and accompanied the Afghan expedition of 1878 - 9, when he had a very narrow escape in the Khyber Pass. His last long journey was in 1884, when he was with the Afghan Boundary Commission at Penjdeh. The later years of hi s life were devoted to completing a series of water-colour drawings of Glasgow in the Forties (from sketches made in his youth), and he became a painter of royalty, notably of royal funerals. He also published a number of books on anthropology and ethnography including The Buddhist Praying Wheel ( 1896) and The Jonah Legend ( 1899). He married late in life to Maria Eli za Burt, a well-known miniature painter, and they had one daughter, Ann Penelope (Grandmother of Adrian Lipscombe). Simpson died on I 7'h August, 1899 at Willesden, London, and is buried in Highgate Cemetery in his mother's grave, near that of Karl Marx.

12 LETTERS FROM WILLIAM NICOL BURNS TO JAMES AIKIN IN LIVERPOOL 1806 - 51 (By Marion M. Stewart, MA, MLitt, FSA(SCOT))

very aspect of Robert Bums' life has been researched so thoroughly, his works have been studied and analysed in such detail and his friends and contemporaries so painstakingly E traced and listed that it hardly seems possible to have new light to shed upon the poet or his circle. By a happy chance, however, a little cache of letters has come into the Archive Centre in Dumfries that speak with a quite new and fresh voice - that of the poet's second surviving son, William Nicol Bums. "Willie" (as he called himself and was called by his family and friends) was born on 9 April 1791 and named after the Edinburgh schoolmaster, William Nicol because, as Burn.s explained in a later letter, he foresaw in the infant a similar "propensity to witty wickedness and manfu' mischief' as the "striking feature of his disposition". In fact, Bums' judgement here was remarkably prescient as the character that imbues Willie's letters lives up to this early analysis. Willie was 5 when his father died and he outlived all his brothers, dying on 21 February 1872, a widower and retired Colonel living in Cheltenham, after a career in the service of the East India Company. So much for common knowledge: but now to the letters. At school in Dumfries, Willie became a firm friend ofJames Aikin a son ofJohn Aikin, a lawyer in the town, and his wife, Jean McDowall. James, who was a year younger than Willie Bums, lost his mother in 1794 and his father died when he was 14. At that stage, James was sent down to Liverpool, to lodge with a merchant, John Richardson, a distant relative, and became an apprentice in this family firm. It was at this point that his schoolfriend, Willie Burns, picked up his pen and began a correspondence that was to last for over 50 years. Thirteen of these letters survive from between 1806 and 1810 with a fourteenth written 40 years later, in 1851. There is also a letter from Burns' third surviving son, J arnes Glen cairn Bums, undated but probably written in the 1850s, phrased in the same easy, joking manner that shows him also to have been a familiar friend of Aikin's. Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Stewart Pixley and his sister, Mrs. Waterer, direct descendants ~~~~..... of James Aikin, these letters have been given to Dumfries and Galloway Archives where they can be read and handled right across the road from the house in which they were written by a lively, intelligent, humorous and yet thoughtful young schoolboy, William Nicol Burns. The first letter was neatly and carefully penned on 5 December 1806 when Willie had news of his schoolfriend's arrival in Liverpool after a voyage of 11 days (Willie wants to know if he had been seasick) and it sets the tone for the first half-dozen 13 letters in the series being full of schoolboy teasing and lively comment on mutual friends, school work and familiar events in Dumfries. 1\vo additional notes sound in this letter: Willie's pride in Scotland and his fondness for the lassies. He reports that their mutual friend, Goldie, who has gone to Edinburgh to live, has been criticising that city for its smell: "/will wager yoll any money, yoll wollld not glless what he has the impudence to say of ollr Gude auld Capital Edin bro but I will tell yoll. Ofall the stinking places, says he, ever I was in, this is the worst. ls the fellow made to abuse sweet Edin. At such a rate ... " even the new town is not excluded from this criticism although it is "allowed by travellers to be as handsome a Town as any in Europe ... Well, thank my stars, he is the first that even I heard rlln it down." Just over 2 years later, when he was in London himself, en route to the East Indies, Willie was to lament to his friend, James, that he had never visited Scotland's capital so could not compare it with his impressions of the metropolis. The patriotic note recurs. Writing on 23 May 1807, Willie teases his friend in Liverpool for speaking as "ifyou were a citizen ofDumfries now. I am glad to hear you take up the defence of old Scotland so well; hilt I would suppose you have given over speaking Scotch by this time." As to girls, the 16 year old Willie already had them in his sights. "Yoll write to me also to tell you about the lasses. Ah! Yoll are a drole dog Jemmie; Bllt I have not the gift ofdreaming like you; so that I can only tell you what I see or think. -M-W-n is very well, hilt I have neither time or room to expatiate largely on that subject; hilt I may perhaps give yoll a fllller acct of them in my next." He kept this promise, writing on 23 January 1807 to say that he has given up Miss Melville but has been dancing with Miss Williamson; the current vogue, he reports, was then to have tea parties followed by balls, adding "and I have been at most of them." Two and a half years later, in a letter of November 1809, Willie is still speaking of Miss Williamson although, by then, "to tell the truth I don't think her halfso pretty as I did once." In his letter of 4 January 1810, Miss Williamson still figures but his preference has turned to Miss Jardine for her "sense & understanding. Yoll'll hear no scandal from her. I think in short size is one of the most agreeable young ladies ever I was in company with," whilst his fancy has been taken by another, unnamed young lady for her "fine modesty & diffident way with her which is extra captivating." In June that year, Willie was writing to tease poor Jemmy for having fallen in love with a girl he had seen in church whose name he did not even know. Willie advises him "tho' yoll know I am more diffident than most people" to get himself introduced to the girl or else to forget her "for I am convinced in spite of all that novelists can say, that any person may conquer love by absence if he wishes." Willie was his father's son, and well he knew it and this letter comments revealingly on the different reactions of his father and himself to "affairs of the heart": "As for myself ever since the sweet age offourteen my heart has been the slave of some fair object or other. Like what my father said he was with regard to them, I am completely so, that his heart was completely tinder [sic.]. But I possess one thing at least in some degree which he was not very eminent for, & that is prudence: or else I am sure I would be playing the fool just now with a dear delightful black eyed girl with whom I am over head & ears; hilt that said rascal prudence comes in now & then & tells me to take care what I am abollt." As Willie grew out of his school days, the problem of finding a career began more and more to occupy his letters to James Aikin. The joking and schoolboy slang began to fade from his style though his humour pervades all but the briefest of these letters. On 1November1807, Willie first mentions the plan to send him to a counting house in Liverpool at which he had hinted the year before when he, James and their friend Douglas Welsh of Penfillan were together at the races. The plan had been for Willie to enter William Duncan's counting house without paying the customary entrance fee and there to remain for a 5 years' apprenticeship, maintained at his own expense. The Trustees had declined Mr. Duncan's offer for "they told me they could not afford to keep me so long there of [sic] the interest ofour money & that they did not 14 Examples of William's early signature taken from his lellers. wish to break into the capital if they could help it." The next plan had been to get Willie into the firm of some relation of Mr. Duncan's where, though the apprenticeship would be just as long, he would get £10 in salary for his first year, £20 the next and so on by £10 annual increments, to help towards his maintenance. After lengthy deliberation, the Trustees had turned down this offer too and given over all thought of sending him to Liverpool. To this account, Willie adds the wry comment that several people had asked him when he was going to Liverpool, though he himself had never mentioned it "but a number of our Dumfries people (with reverence be it spoken) know other people's affairs better than they themselves." James Aikin seems to have hoped that a merchant's career in Liverpool might yet prove possible for his friend for he apparently continued to raise the topic in his side of their correspondence (now, alas, lost). As late as 15 June 1810, Willie was writing to him that that was "totally out ofthe question." Even after he'd served his 5 year apprenticeship as a clerk "ten to one but I might be one all my life.for I am not so ardent as you to imagine that any house would take me into partnership without advancing a pretty round sum of money." The next career plan for Willie was first mentioned in his letter of9 January 1808. "/am going to the East Indies. I set offfor London this day eight days". He was to be a Captain's Clerk and would return with the Fleet, hoping to become a purser "which is a very lucrative situation" on a subsequent voyage. Willie's account of this experience is given at length in a letter of 4 January 1810 which actually incorporates part of the journal he kept during his passage to India. It makes enthralling reading. Having boarded his ship at Gravesend in the middle of February 1808, poor Willie had endured a wretched few weeks being cold, bored, lonely and miserable whilst the vessel lay in harbour. His letter lists the reasons why "/had no very favourable opinion ofa seafaring life while we stayed in England" in graphic detail. He had to pace the deck for 2 or 3 hours each night, whatever the weather "and not a single soul but oneself there starving of cold & wishing the tedious hours to wheel round faster that one might call up some miserable dog like oneself to ensure his share." He was shocked by the "horrible filth of one's victuals, having to take them out of dirty plates" and complained that his messmates, who had been to sea, instead of reassuring him about the voyage ahead, did nothing but jeer at him and call him "green". The account of the voyage is too rich and interesting to compress into an article but it included a terrible flogging at sea "/think I never saw anything so dreadful," a near brush with 2 French ships (Britain being then at war with France), a poetic description of phosphorescence on the water, and a comical tale of a swashbuckling but cowardly cadet. This letter alone would attest to very real literary talent. Although Willie came to enjoy this particular occupation, there was to be no future for him as 15 a Captain's clerk. In his letter to James of 7 May 1810, he says "I have been obliged to knock off the sea not having money enough, or interest enough, to go forward in that line." His next hope was a cadetship but, he relates, rather bitterly, in this same letter, his "friends" (presumably, the trustees) were too tardy in coming to a decision to support him in this endeavour and it is too late, so that I must lye by till another season if I go out in that line." He lists other options as procuring a Lieutenancy in the Marines or a berth in one of the Public Offices in London. This latter would be secure but would entail "a total annihilation of all expectation of advancement." In a rare moment of self-pity, he reflects: "It is a sad thing to want afather for there are few other people, not even your near relations sometimes, who will take tlze least extra trouble for you, so selfish is this world." As is always the case with these letters, a sombre note is always followed by some self-deprecating apology for his dullness or deliberate lightening of tone with a tum to relate local Dumfries news - mad dogs in the streets, the lamentable state of the currently visiting militia, illness caused by drinking Nith water polluted with eel spawn and dogs' corpses, or the fiddlers at a ball being got drunk by mischievous apprentices. Willie's natural ebullience and love of life, however, as evinced by these letters, seems to have gone side-by-side with a more reflective, even melancholy strain. In an early letter, written on 23 January 1807, he tells of the death of their school friend "poor Tom Boyd. Many a time wizen I begin a meditating on death, I cannot by all my efforts bring myself into a chearful train oftlwught, untill I get into some chearful company, so deep an impression does it have upon me; & so precarious does one see the life of man ... '.fivo years ago Tom was as healthy & long-life-like as any of us, & today where is he! Even my brother Francis [who died in 1803 ]-but no more ofthis or I shall lose spirits altogether." To return to the vexed issue of Willie's career, he was still hankering after the cadetship of which his trustees' tardiness seemed to have lost him the opportunity. James Aikin must have written to him saying that he believed this career held little prospect of "getting forward" for Willie replied on 15 June 1810 that he could, indeed, prosper in this line for promotion would be "wholly be seniority when one is once on the establishment". He has heard from their friend, A Gray junior, several times whilst he was in India (presumably as a Cadet) that he could manage well on his pay and keep a horse also. The last letter in this series was the first one that actually came to light and made a search for the others worth while. This is dated 18 or 19 September, 1810 and is a brief, scribbled and rather garbled note from "Ship Matilda, Portsmouth" to say that Willie had had sudden word of his imminent departure for Madras as a Cadet - to commence the career which was to occupy him until retirement. The letter continues "I could not think however to leave my Native country perhaps for ever without addressing a few lines to one of my most intimate & oldest of Friends ... Farewell: God bless you." As a comment upon this departure, there is a letter to James Aikin from Douglas Welsh at Penfillan, their mutual friend. "Poor Willy Bums went otttfor India when I was at Haddington. I was sorry I did not see him before he went; his little Brother James is going out to India also very soon, ifhe is not away already. It is no great catch a Cadets/zip in the E. India Compys Service they may live in good style but cannot save money except they remain in India for four orfive and twenty years and then they retire on halfpay which is tlze same as full pay in this country but they will have good luck if the[y] getfarther than a Lieutenancy." In fact, this gloomy prognostication was not fulfilled for both brothers did well enough to retire to modest comfort in Cheltenham, William as a Colonel and James as a Lt. Colonel. What of James? The letters do, indeed, make mention of him. When Willie was in London in February 1808 waiting to join his ship as Captain's clerk, he was clearly seeing his brothers there, Robert and James, for he says "My brothers here are both very well." Robert at that time was presumably at the Stamp Office and James at Christ's Hospital. In spite of the general belief, this sequence of letters makes it apparent that Willie himself never attended Christ's Hospital but had 16 all his schooling in Dumfries. During his February 1808 stay in London, Willie gave his address as 432 Oxford Street. One wonders if that was where Robert lived for it would be natural to assume that he boarded with his elder brother. The good health James was reported as enjoying at that time clearly did not last long. Writing from Dumfries on 4 January 1810, Willie says "Robt is still in the Stamp Office. I brought Jas. down with me " [on his way back through London, returning from his voyage to India] "his time being up at the Blue Coat School it is not settled yet what he is to be. Poor fellow he has been very unfortunate in going there - having lost sight of one of his eyes & got his constitution ruined - he was to have gone to the Navy had it not been for that - he is now at the schools here having from so much bad health been very far behind. His native air has done him a great deal of good & he now looks much better & healthier." By way of a postscript to this collection, there are 2 letters, one from James (undated) and one from Willie (3 April 185 I), both from Cheltenham to their old friend James Aikin. Willie's letter refers to a visit to the Cheltenham household from their elder brother, Robert "My brother Robt the Laird is coming here to pay us his long promised visit." Willie was obviously anxious that Robert would get lost en route and so was writing to ask James Aikin to accommodate him overnight on his arrival from Carlisle and see him safely on his way next day in the company of his daughter who would be already in the Aikin household on a visit: "[could] you receive the old chap also ... otherwise on his arrival at Birmingham, he might proceed on to London or God knows where." The letter from James, written on 18 March [no year] , speaks of a trip to the continent on which James Aikin had invited the Burns brothers and James's daughter Annie, who lived with them, to accompany him. James shares his brother's light, teasing touch: "there can be no objection to Annie going with a douce quite [sic] old chap like you, but Willie seems to doubt the propriety of two wild [illegible word] like us venturing so far away as it would be impossible for you to exercise a sufficient surveillance over the whole party." In fact, the cost of the excursion was the real deterrent and a compromise was reached with the 2 elderly Burns brothers joining the expedition at the Channel Islands which they had never before visited. One of the most endearing qualities of the poet Robert Burns was said to have been his gift for friendship. The survival of this little bundle of delightful, intimate and revealing letters shows that it was a quality inherited by at least 2 of his sons.

DESCENDANT OF "DEAR BOUGHT BESS" CELEBRATES HER lOOth BIRTHDAY

On I 7th July, 1998 Mrs. Bess Burns Weimer, a 5th generation granddaughter of Robert Burns by Elizabeth Paton (The Poet's "Dear Bought Bess") celebrated her I OOth birthday. Mrs. Weimer who lives in Texas, USA received an illuminated scroll from the Burns Federation, to which she replied as follows:- " What an extraordinary greeting that I received on my special day. I am so pleased that I am recognised by some one unknown to me and have concern by remembering me. I am so pleased and proud to have this greeting with the picture of the beloved poet and me. Thank you. This I will always cherish. Most sincerely, Bessie B. Weimer. August 8th, 1998."

17 AGUE By John G. Young

Summary Historically, Malaria or Ague as it was then called was endemic to Britain. The large low lying and poorly drained areas were particularly suitable for vector mosquitoes. Rural populations living in these zanes, especially Jann labourers, were forced to work long hours out ofdoors in poor clothing. Living in bad housing conditions, with little or no sanitation and certainly under nourished, they were particularly susceptible to attack. All illnesses, including malaria, which exhibited marked fluctuations in temperatures between fever condition and chilling, were referred to as "The Shakes" or Ague. During the 11" to 19" Centuries, the disease was widely reported in Scotland, from: the Borders, Galloway, Nithsdale, Perthshire, Angus, Aberdeen, and north to Shetland. Eventually land drainage and spraying eliminated the mosquito habitat, and thus the disease was controlled. Local remedies for "relief" were widely practised and included the extraction of mild fonns of narcotics from common native plants. Robert Burns refers to several of these in his works but omits other narcotic producing plants growing locally in South West Scotland and also some 14 other plants which produced "sedatives". It is concluded that, while Bums was no doubt aware ofsuch substances, there is no evidence to suggest that he was overly familiar with them. His references are no more than one would expect from an infonned countryman.

gue or Malaria - the disease symptoms and designations were thought to be synonymous, 1 during the late 1ih century . The title ague is now quite simply archaic. Current knowledge A now defines Ague as malaria fever or any other sever recurrent symptoms of malarial origin. "Shaking Ague" is a severe form of malarial paroxysms in which the fever is preceded by a marked chill. Malaria is a disease of birds and mammals including monkeys and humans, which is caused by infection with protozoa of the genus Plasmodium and characterised by chills and intermittent fever (ague). In 1897 an English physician, Ronald Ross, determined that the causative organisms of human malaria are transmitted by the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. It remains a major problem in all tropical and sub-tropical regions, especially in parts of Africa and in Southeast Asia. About 5 million cases of human malaria are notified each year, of which one per cent are fatal. The last recorded outbreak in the U.K., occurred in Kent, in the early 1950's, but during the last decade, some 2000 cases per annum are treated on average in the U.K. Cases of Malaria have recently increased among European travellers to Asia and Central America also because of increasing intercontinental holidays and in employment. It may also be transferred during blood transfusions from an infected donor, if the donor's malaria status is unknown. Since 1683 malaria has been treated with an extract from the bark of the cinchona tree, known as quinine, and related chemical analogues e.g. chloroquine. There is little evidence that it was imported into the U.K. during the 18th century, when the disorder was widespread here (see map). Although the map does indicate the widespread geographical distribution of the disease, there were no compulsory orders to reporting. In addition, it only indicates the parishes from where it 18 was known, not the numbers of individual people who were ill, thus it represents only an absolute minimum of cases. Mosquito, is the common name for any of the over 2000 plus species of two winged insects. They inhabit zones from the tropics to the Arctic, altitude is not a barrier, and they exploit niches from sea level to mountain tops. Males largely feed on nectar and water and have rudimentary mouthparts, females preferring the blood of warm-blooded animals. When they bite, they inject some of their salivary fluid into the wound, and eventually this causes swelling and irritation. Many also inject infectious micro­ organisms and thus transmits several diseases, notably malaria. Female mosquitoes lay their eggs usually in water and often these are slow motions moving bums, stanks or ponds, containing a proportion of stagnant water. The larvae are known as "wrigglers" due to their motions, when they hatch. Fish, birds and amphibians predate many, but natural predation fails to significantly control populations. Throughout most of Europe, their breeding places have now been destroyed, mainly by draining or covering with oils to deny oxygen and also by spraying with D.D.T., like rusecticides a chemical now banned in Britain. Elsewhere, some strains of drug-resistant parasites have occurred and some vector mosquitoes have become resistant to insecticides. As a result, cases of malaria have recently increased among European travellers to Asia and Central America. Another factor is the increasing intercontinental travel on holidays and in employment. It may also be transferred during blood transfusions from an infected donor, if the donor's malaria status is unknown. 6 Robert Bums, Scotland's National Bard, refers to ague in his famous poem "Address To The Toothache", first published in Belfast in 1797 but probably penned some two years earlier. In his third verse he wrote -

"When fevers burn, or ague freezes, Rheumatics gnaw, or colic squeezes, Our neebours sympathise to ease us, Wi pitying moan; But thee! - thou hell o a'diseases - They mock our groan!"

Burn 's reference to "freezes" obviously well describes the sometimes violent fluctuating body temperatures and general condition associated with this disease and alludes to the chill of "shaking ague". 1 The overall situation pertaining in 18 h Century Scotland was classically summarised by James Ritchie in his outstanding work - "The Influence of Man, on Animal Life in Scotland" a study in 2 fauna! evolution, published in 1920.

Ague in Scotland Of the ailments which laid hold of our forebears a couple of centuries ago, none was more prevalent or more persistent in its attacks and effects than the ague. Especially in the spring-time, when trying conditions of weather and reduced physical fitness due to bad housing and poor food and clothing, paved the way for relapses. The ague passed through Scotland like a blight. Contemporary references to the disease show that it prevailed in particular amongst the labouring classes, so that in many districts it was with difficulty that the heavy agricultural operations of the springtime could be performed. The case of the parish of Kirkden in Forfar is typical, where about 1765 the ague was "so general that many farmers found it difficult to sow and harrow their lands, in the proper season, owing to their servants being so much afflicted with it." It is said that in Berwickshire the disease so frequently laid the men aside that the bond women had to leave th~ir

19 .: •••.. :·····...... ~ ......

The distribution of reported cases of ague or malaria by parish from Richie 1920. lighter labours in the field to take up the heavy work of the ploughing. And the writer of the Old Statistical Account of the parish of Abemyte in Perthshire was assured that, about 1760 - "If a farmer in tlze spring wanted four of his cottagers for any piece of work, he generally ordered six, knowing tlze probability tlzat some oftlzem, before tlze work could be finished, would be rendered unfit for labour by an attack of the ague." Through the lowlands ad midlands of Scotland, the disease was common from Berwickshire, Kirkcudbright and Roxburghshire northwards to Forfar and Kincardine, but north of this region, ague seems to have been less prevalent. In the affected areas, the malady reached its height in certain well-defined districts. Of these the Carse of Gowrie was the chief for "scarcely a parish in the region of the flat carse-land but lamented its ravages." Now the ague gradually disappeared from the invested districts of Scotland, just as it vanished from the fens of Lincolnshire and from other districts in England. About 1734 it was still very common in Linlithgowshire while around 1740 to 1750 it abounded in Kincardineshire and Forfar. About 1760 it was "very prevalent" in Perthshire, and in 1780 161 cases occurred in Kelso district alone. Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, ague had almost disappeared from Scotland. A few cases, typical of many, will illustrate this extra-ordinary and almost simultaneous disappearance over a wide area. The parish minister of St. Vigians in Forfar, writing in 1793 or 1794, says from his own experience that:- ''for many years after 1754, agues were so common in this parish that the incumbent has often seen, in tlze months ofMarch, April and May, and sometimes in autumn from fifteen to twenty-five people in that distemper. He does not remember to have seen a single person in the ague for 20 years past." 20 A Perthshire record (1792) reads: "The ague, which used greatly to prevail here (St. Madois parish) as well as in other parts of the Carse of Gowrie, is now hardly known." In Kirkcudbrightshire, it was written in 1744 "agues formally prevailed very much. There has not, however, been one instance of this disorder for 9 to 10 years past (in the parish ofBorgue)." In Berwickshire ague has "almost totally disappeared" in 1792, and the virulence of the disease had much diminished though in some districts, "it still returns with such unexpected frequency and force as often baffles all speculation concerning it." And lastly the records of Kelso Dispensary, which I have examined, show that the number of cases treated there declined after 1781from161 in that year, to 110 in 1782, after which a gradual fall is noticeable. After 1797 they did not exceed 10 in any year, and, after 1840, completely disappear. But what has all this got to do with the influence of man upon animal life? The old writers who have recorded the facts of the prevalence of ague in Scotland and of its disappearance could not have answered the question. To them the miasma of the marsh was a sufficient cause of the disease, though some essayed other speculations. Marshiness, foggy atmosphere, mean houses, defects in cleanliness, and lack of animal food all bore the blame for the mysterious pestilence. Since marsh miasma was generally assigned the cause of ague, the decrease of the disease was generally put down to the drainage of mosses and bogs. Two interesting suggestions of the Scottish chronicles of the late eighteenth century are worth mentioning in view of later discoveries. The Rev. Mr. Samuel Smith ofBorgue parish in Kirkcudbright held that the disappearance of "intermittent fevers" could not be assigned to the disappearance of bog land since in his district "no mosses or marshes have been drained of any consequence, for many years past," and he suggests that "when land is deepened and pulverised in consequence of improvements by lime, shells and marls, it absorbs the rain more quickly and plentifully. Hence less moisture will arise in evaporation; less water will run along the swface, and stagnate in the hollows, which are here to be found in every field." To these stagnant pools he attributed the "remote cause of intermittent fevers." Even more interesting is the statement of the incumbent of Kirkbean parish in the same county of Kirkcudbright: "Fomzally many ofthe inhabitants went into Lincolnshire (an area long notedfor the prevalence ofague) for employment during the harvest, and returned infected with this disease, now they have work sufficient to employ them in the parish and the disease is seldom a complaint." In recent years science has thrown a new light on the cause of ague, intermittent fever, or malaria, as it is variously termed. The malady is due to the presence of minute parasites of low organisation in the human blood. At one stage of their existence these haemamoebae (Plasmodium) attack and bore their way into the red blood-corpuscles, in which they undergo a process of multiplication until at last the blood-cells break down and the multitudes of freshly formed parasites are set free in the blood stream. It is at this stage of the disruption of the blood-cell, that the patient has a relapse of fever, the interval between relapses - about forty-eight hours in tertian argue, seventy-two in quartan ague, and an uncertain interval in the irregular fever - depending directly on the life-cycle of the parasite. Now an interesting and vital connection excises between the tiny Plasmodium parasite of the human blood and the insect world, for the virulence of the parasite in man dwindles if it does not undergo a period of reincarnation within the body of the mosquito. The mosquito becomes infected by stealing a drop of parasitized blood from a malarial patient, and it passes on the parasites and the infection when it punctures the skin of a healthy subject. The mosquito therefore is essential to the spread of malaria or ague amongst men. The habits of mosquitoes, and by such I mean Anaophelene (female only), or, as a rule, "spot­ winged" gnats, are familiar to every naturalist. They like moist, warm humid places, and they most often frequent marshy and boggy ground, sluggish streams, and stagnant pools, large or small. On the surface of the water, often along the weedy margins of pool or ditch, the eggs are laid and the wriggling larvae and pupae develop beneath the surface. Later the fully formed pupa come to rest 21 at the surface, and from its split skin the winged mosquito flies into the air, ready, if it be a female, to do its worst to the race of men. Look again at the Scottish records of ague in the light of the discoveries of Grassi and Laveran, Manson and Ross. Where did it most prevail? In the low-lying and marshy countries bordering the east coast and the Salway, or along the lines of the great 1ivers, where spring and autumn floods left abundance of stagnant pools; and especially in the Carse of Gowrie, still characterised by its warm humidity. These represent the areas where in the days of unreclaimed marsh we should have expected to have found mosquitoes. It was apparently less common north of the Grampian Hills; but mosquitoes prefer warmth, and the lower temperatures of the northern counties may have been just sufficient to have checked the profusion of multiplication which seems to be necessary for the effective spread of mala1ia. We know that at the present day, anopheline mosquitoes still live in Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire and as far north as Sutherland, but their numbers are small. Whom did ague attack? There is scarcely a reference to the upper or a1tisan classes having suffered, and again the farm labourer is singled out on account of his susceptibility to the distemper - just the very man whose work in the fields laid him open to the attentions of the mosquito amazon. What is the last link in the chain? In the latter part of the eighteenth century in Scotland agriculture made great strides forward: regular systems of cropping began to replace the primitive and wasteful ways of the "outfields" and the "infields", and the success of the use of marl and lime upon peaty soils led to the reclamation of much marsh and bogland,. Again the thorough draining by closed conduits or open ditches, of land which previously had lain sodden with moisture throughout most of the year had a great beneficial effect. It never entered man's mind that in this way he was destroying mosquitoes, since he was destroying their breeding-places; he probably never noticed, as the years passed, that he had less often to stop to revenge the prick of the gnat. Yet unwittingly he had set in motion a chain of circumstances which was to circle and wheel till it returned to him again, when the sweat of his brow was repaid a thousand-fold in the health of his body.

22 "Man drained the marshes and the stagnant pools and so destroyed the Mosquitoes, which could multiply only there, and so he destroyed the only transmitters of the tiny Plasmodium of the human blood, and malaria or ague was no more. Man, Marshes, Mosquitoes, Malaria - steps and stages of a progress which, starting with man, re tu ms through the words of inanimate and animate nature. to heap blessings on his head." Elsewhere in Britain, ague was most prevalent in the large flat, wild and undrained areas of the Fens of Eastern England. 3 J. Wentworth-Day, in his " History of the Fens" published in 1954 recorded that in 1774, the ague was as "the raining disorder in these parts" and that the Fenmen were affected with Ague or "shakes" up to the l 800's took an ague laundanum mixture or "poppy head tea to drug their bodies of the feverish onslaughts". They also sought relief from their version of"paigle tea", a concoction produced from a mixture of cowslips and distilled potato wine, which Wentworth-Day described as "raw and potent enough to drive a train". A charming assessment! He went on to describe one of the fen dwellers - "Tom Harrison was yellow of face and racked with ague". Harrison was followed in Burwell Fen by the Bodcocks, who thought nothing of having a "mess o'water - rats" for supper (water-rats were not, any of the two rat, rattus species but waiter voles, Aviva/a terrestris) . Old Daddy Hadcock, whom he remembered as a sharp, fox like man, burnt brown by fen suns, and tough as wire nails, would sleep any summer night curled up on a litter stack or bedded down like a dog in the heart of a dry reed-bed. He drank "poppyhead tea" to ward off the ague. Poppy is the common name for a small family of herbaceous plants which grows mainly in the northern or temperate zones. There are some 120 different species, only one of which papaver soimniferwn produces an effective narcotic. Opium is produced from the dried sap or latex that is harvested from the seed capsules. Although the use of a purer form of Opium was widely used 1 in "dens" in the larger cities through Britain by the mid I 8 h century, it would not have been available to large numbers of poor Fensmen or to farm labourers in Scotland. In Scotland, the common, corn, or field poppy Papaver rhoeas was geographically widespread, a common weed in most cornfields and on disturbed earth. In the Gaelic it was known as cromlus, bent weed; fothus, corn rose; meilbheag, beilbheag, a little capsule; and haihean ruadh, red pap. 4 Tess Darwin in her, "The Scots Herbal" 1996, describes it as "only slightly narcotic but the juice was added to children's food to soothe and make them sleep and in South Uist the flowers were made into liquid for teething troubles". 5 Another authority on medicinal plants, Edmund Laurmert, also refers to its producing tannin, mucilage and traces of alkaloids. In addition he claims that in effect, it soothes coughs and is mildly expectorant. Dried poppy petals were used to "embellish" herbal tea and an infusion of 1V2 teaspoons per cup of water, taken three times a day was efficient against bronchial and nasal catarrh or coughs. The poppy was harvested by pulling the petals and "spreading" them in the sun to dry. Poet Burns was aware of both poppy and the cowslip, Primula veris, which similarly, was 6 common, certainly in southern Scotland. In his famous "Tam O'Shanter" written in 1790, he referred to the poppy thus -

"But pleasures are like poppies spread: You seize the flow 'r, its bloom is shed; " 23 Within Bums' botanical references, which extend to 446 records in total, with 240 specific ones, referring to 37 species, he only refers to the poppy on this one occasion.7 The couplet with its combination of - "pleasure" and "poppies" together with "spread" and "seizure of the flower ending its bloom", is certainly open to speculation. One could postulate why he did not use any of the other seven or so, double sounding syllable flower names, such as wallflower; bluebell; harebell; snowdrop; primrose; cowslip or gowan, all of which would have suited the verse metre well enough. My view is that there was no intended subtle connection between poppies and pleasure, given the three similes that follow -

"or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white, then melts for ever;

Or like the borealis race, That flit ere you can point their place;

Or like the rainbow's lovely Jann Evanishing amid the stonn."

These sensitive and passive lines are but an extremely clever literary technique, calming the reader down, following the graphic thought provoking introduction. They produce a very effective and reflective diversion to stimulate and heighten tension, "the calm before the storm" syndrome. Thus ensure rapt attention as the great imaginative tale unfolds. Similarly, Bums mentions the Cowslip on four occasions7 but in none of them can one detect any other than spiritual comfort or poetic licence. This is even the case when, once more, the word pleasure is incorporated and coupled with the plant in question, as in his "The Chevalier's Lament".

"The primroses blow in the dews of the morning, And wild scatter'd cowslips bedeck the green dale: But when can give pleasure, or what can seem fair, When the lingering moments are number'd by care?"

Clearly, Bums worded these verses as if the lament had been worded and spoken by Charles Edward Stuart, following the disastrous battle of Culloden. The lines that follow the quotation - totally dispel any suggestion of alternative meaning.

No flow'rs gaily springing, nor birds sweetly singing, Can soothe the sad bosom ofjoyless despair!"

In conclusion, I am not suggesting that Bums was totally unaware of narcotics. In his "Halloween" written at Mossgiel in 1785,6 he presents a masterpiece of picturesque description, showing the manner in which the country people of that day continued to use the pagan festival as a reason for celebrating. The work contains a whole series of anecdotes and philosophical muse. In his 16th verse he refers to the use of hemp seed, cannabis saliva. Hemp was carded, combed or "heckled" in the Scots and spun to make ropes as early as 2800BC in Asia and was widely 8 1 adopted in Europe around 300BC • It remained the standard material for ropes until the 19 h century and as such it was widely grown in Scotland during the Bums era.

"Our stibble-rig was Rab M'Graen, A clever, sturdy fellow His sin gat Eppie Sim wi wean, 24 That /iv 'din Achmachalla: He gat hemp-seed, I mind it wee/, An he made unco light o't; But monie a day was by himsel, He was sae sairly frighted That vera night."

There are two significant aspects - clearly he - "gat hempseed and made unco light o't", suggesting that there was little attempt made to conceal its availability or effect. Little point in that, since hemp was so widely grown during this era. Secondly, that even this type of hemp­ seed had narcotic qualities too, is apparent in his descriptive line, - "But monie a day was by himsel". Clearly here, the inference is of one being under a narcotic influence, literally out of one's mind. The use of this variety of hemp parallels in one way the use of the poppy since the purer forms of cannabis are formed from Indian Hemp, a quite different variety which would be unavailable during that period. It is equally evident that the local people had discovered that the variety of seed that was available to produce a crop, maintained sufficient properties when taken in quantity to produce a narcotised and to them a pleasing effect. 7 Burns mentions hemp in four other works and in all of these the connotation was entirely in an agricultural or poetical vein. The ultimate conclusions are that, mild forms of narcotics were available during Burns's lifetime. Substances could easily be formed from the common available varieties of poppy, cowslip, broom and hemp, all of which he referred to. They were probably used regularly throughout Britain, by working people exposed to labouring outdoors in wet contaminated conditions, especially where they were particularly susceptible to mosquito attack and thus malaria or ague. There is however absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Burns was involved in drug taking, this is highly commendable, considering the then lack of efficient pharmaceutical development and advice. It is well documented that he suffered frequent fatigue, illnesses and depressions. There is little doubt that, had he imbibed, his early well known detractors would have been at great pains to illuminate and record the fact.

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Fiona M. Thomson for typing various drafts of this article and to A.M. MacConnachie, Principle Pharmacist, Ninewetls Hospital, Dundee for his helpful comments. To Norman Young who drew the map, and to Wilson Ogilvie who commented on an earlier draft. The photographs were by R. T. Smith.

References

I) Gemmill, Professor James Fairlie, Natural History in the Poetry of Robert burns, 1928. 2) Richie, James, The influence of Man, on Animal life in Scotland , 1920. 3) Wentworth-Day, J. History of the Fens, 1954. 4) Darwin, Tess, The Scots Herbal , 1996. 5) Laument, Edmund, Edible and Medicinal Plants, 198 1. 6) Mackay, J.A. Ed., The complete works of Robert Bums, 1986. 7) Young, John G, Robert Burns, A Man for all Seasons, 1996 8) Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia 1993 - 1995.

25 A NOTE ON POEMS NEWLY ATTRIBUTED TO BURNS Gerard Carruthers (University of Strathclyde)

ecent controversy has been raging over the claims made by Patrick Scott-Hogg in his book, Robert Burns: The Lost Poems (Cumbernauld, 1997), that he has unearthed missing R Burns' poems of a radical political nature. Mr. Scott-Hogg's daring archaeological work is most welcome, but, without attempting (as some have done) any kind of absolute dismissal of his case, I want to argue against two of his attributions. In the case of both these poems, Scott­ Hogg assigns them to a Category 'B' list of probability with regard to Burns' authorship (his Category 'A' list encompasses those poems he feels much more assured of attributing); still, he does suggest the strong possibility of Burns having penned these poems: 'Ode for the Birthday of CJ Fox' and 'To Lord Stanhope'. 1 At the recent University of Strathclyde Burns Conference in a paper, 'Burns' Contemporaries', which I will be publishing in full in the future, I suggested that a more likely author for the Fox ode is Alexander Geddes (1737-1802). Patrick Scott-Hogg has since been so kind as to say in print that he agrees with me. 2 The circumstantial evidence, I believe, points more readily to Geddes. He is known to publish a number of pieces pseudonymously and anonymously in the London Whig periodical press throughout the 1790s (most prominently, in the Morning Chronicle in which the Fox ode appears on the 25th January, 1796). As Scott-Hogg rightly notes, the 'Burns' stanza utilised in the piece marks it out as something of a rarity in the English newspapers of this period and points to the pen of a Scotsman. Geddes in the one Scot in situ in London (in close association with the Chronicle editor, James Perry) who is a considerable poet in both Scots and English; he is also the most extravagant celebrator of the day of Fox's achievements. This is not the place to rehearse Geddes' rather bizarre career, but one fact which may at first seem to sit at odds with the attribution of Geddes as author of the Fox poem is that he is a Roman Catholic priest. In this light, one stanza in particular may seem peculiar:

Enough, my muse! - with mirth and glee, Let's solemnise the Jubilee: 'tis Fox's fiftieth year! Freedom (no Papal Bull she wants) A plenary indulgence grants, To all assembled here.

That is, until we read the following lines from Geddes' Cannen Seculare (1790), a poem celebrating the French Revolution:

Let Sov'reigns hear, and tremble! - may the sound Reach ev'ry tyrant's ear, from pole to pole: Kings, emp'rors, princes, prelates, popes confound; And fill with terror each despotic soul.3

Suffice it to say that Geddes was a rather Protestant Catholic who was sometimes in trouble with his own ecclesiastical authorities over his theological and political opinions which coalesce particularly in his new translation of the Bible in 1792. Of this, the prominent English radical

26 thinker, George Dyer, wrote that it did not 'give countenance to the claims of high church authority'; nor, he attested, did it 'follow the expectations of a system'. 4 Openly sceptical about the writ of papal bulls and, at the same time, playfully drawing on a piece of Catholic doctrinal minutiae (the concept of the plenary indulgence) to forge a heroic metaphor, the Fox ode, written in the stanzaic­ form that it is, carries most credibly the distinctive signature of Geddes. With regard to 'To Lord Stanhope' my argument is again circumstantial. Patrick Scott-Hogg enters into the treacherous area of attempting to find lexical hallmarks in the poem which might point to Bums. He writes:

.... 'To Lord Stanhope' owns echoes from Bums in every line that can be found by scanning The Complete Word.finder. The words 'Hymn', 'bless'd', 'corse', moulder', 'undaunted', 'grave', 'free-born', 'virtuous', stormy', 'splendid' and 'expiring' are all found in Bums. 5

Now with the greatest respect to Patrick Scott-Hogg who has generally invested a great deal of intellectual and emotional effort in his research, this list is not impressive. It is part of a received poetic vocabulary we might find in hundreds of poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A brief scan will find such words in plentiful supply in the work of the poet I believe to be the actual author of the Stanhope piece: Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864). In his earliest work (this will come as a surprise to many who know of Landor's work throughout the best part of the nineteenth century), Landor was briefly an effervescent poet of the new republican principles spawned by the French Revolution. His first volume of poetry published early in 1795 was full of such enthusiasm though later in the year he suppressed it. Dating also from the early months of 1795, an important point to bear in mind given that 'To Stanhope' appears in the Chronicle in January 1795, is Landor's Moral Epistle, Respectfully Dedicated to Earl Stanhope. 6 Now, there are a number of possible echoes between Landor's piece and the piece Scott-Hogg unearths. Both are especially (and uniquely?) lavish in their praise of Stanhope, the republican earl, but I want to highlight one point of similarity in particular. This relates to the conceit of Stanhope sitting in the British cultural and political firmament like the sun. Lines from the Scott-Hogg piece run as follows:

0, Patriot! Still pursue thy virtuous way, As holds his course the splendid Orb of Day, Or thro' the stormy or the tranquil sky! 7

Landor, in his much longer piece, writes:

With thee, 0 Stanhope! Gazing round the scene

Hope from the summit smiles, and Halcyons play Along the glimmering pale reflected ray.

But tum we round; behold how swiftly flies The mist illusive that obscured our eyes! 8

I am not claiming to be absolutely conclusive in my attribution to Landor but in terms of its time of publication, its subject-matter and its language, 'To Lord Stanhope' can more persuasively be fixed on Landor than on Bums. · · 27 Briefly, I want to make one last point about the attribution of radical poems in English newspapers to Burns. This has especial relevance to Patrick Scott-Hogg's category 'B' list but might also apply in some cases to his category 'A: list. It is a massive task but it seems to me that for the case for Burns' authorship of many of the poems to be strengthened (and I hasten to add that I believe that this will happen in the case of some of the Scott-Hogg discoveries), the impedimenta (or a number of alternative authors) has to be more fully eliminated. A list of some of the more prominent radical poets and thinkers of the 1790s active in the south who ought to be properly eliminated would include as well as Geddes and Landor, John Aikin, George Burnett, Joel Barlow, George Dyer, Joseph Fawcett, Mary Hays, Thomas Holcroft, Robert Lovell, Robert Merry, Samuel Park, and Helen Maria Williams.

Scott-Hogg, lost Poems, seep. 231 & p. 223. See also Bums Chronicle 1996 pp. 42 - 50 for Scott-Hogg's article, 'A Briton: Burns or Poet X?'. Patrick Scott-Hogg, 'Disco1•ery ofa lost World', The Herald Saturday, January 24, 1998, p.14. Geddes, Camzen Sec11/are London, 1790. p.7 Dyer, An Inquiry illlo the Nature ofSubscription to the Thirty-nine Articles (2°d edn), London, 1792. p. 152. Scott-Hogg, lost Poems p.226. For details, see R.H. Super, \Va/ter Savage Landor, A biography New York, 1954; for the Epistle to Stanhope, see Landor's Poetical \Vorks Vol. III, edited by S Wheeler, Oxford, 1937. pp.444-451 Scott-Hogg, Ibid., p.224 Wheeler (ed), Ibid., p.446. "I LIKE HIS LETTERS BETTER THAN THE POETRY" - James Glencairn Bums

Extracts from two letters from the Poet's youngest surviving son, James Glencaim Burns to his mother in Dumfries. The first was written when he was 12 years old. The letters are reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of Burns Monument and Burns Cottage, Alloway.

My Dear Mother, London, October 25th 1806 "I write to inform you that I am very well and I hope you, William and all my friends in Scotland. I will now give you an account of the curiosities where I left off. well the next is the gun armoury here is a collection of pikes, guns, ha/berts, pistols etc. etc. all representing the sun, moon, garter etc. all of which look very fine. I now end about the Tower. I will now give you an account of the Monument which is a lofty Pillar on the top there is a gallery which commands a beautiful prospect of the River Thames and London, it was built in memory of the fire of London in 1666. I have come from the U11der Grammar to the Upper I have begun to learn Greek here. A11d 11ow my Dear Mother I hope you will grant a request which I am very sorry to ask which is would you send me some money for Christmas as soon as you get this letter and a little more than common for I am saving up my money till I get a guinea and a halfbecause I want to subscribe to a library to where there is a large collection ofbooks for people to read who pay for subscribing. I am yours etc., J.G. Bums. I hope you will excuse my writing for I was in a hurry."

My Dear Mother, Jarra Mirzapore 23rd February, 1813 An extract... "Do you know the se1·eral names which are left blank in my father's poems? Ifyou do, in your next, tell them to me as I wish very much to know. I have been reading his works very carefully lately and really like his letters better than the poetry. With what power ofexpressions they are written, my Uncle Gilbert also writes in a superior manner though his letters do not possess the fire which my father's do. What a noble defense of his conduct that letter of his to Mr. Graham* is! It is expressed nobly all the honest warmth ofan Scot- what would I give to have a part ofhis abilities".

*James Glencaim is referring to his father's letter to Robert Graham of Fintry, dated Dumfries, 5th January 1793. 28 ROBERT BURNS COMMEMORATED IN STONE AT MAKARS' COURT, EDINBURGH

akars' Court at The Writers' Museum celebrates the lives and works of Scottish writers. Selected by the Saltire Society, the first twelve writers and quotations were sponsored M by Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Ltd. (LEEL) in association with the City of Edinburgh Council. Each of the w1iters is commemorated by a quotation inscribed in stone and set in the paving which leads from both the Mound and the Lawnmarket approaches to the door of the Writers' Museum. 1 The writers, ranging in date from John Barbour in the 14 h century to Sorley MacLean who died in 1966, represent Scotland's main literary languages - Scots, Latin, Gaelic and English. The project was designed and implemented by Carter McGlynn, Landscape Architects. The enamel panel on the north wall of The Writers' Museum, overlooking Makars' Court, was designed by Kathleen Gibson and incorporates bas re lief profi les, by Tim Chalk, of Robert Bums, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. 1 The first phase of Makars' Court was opened on Tuesday, 4 h August, 1998 with a speech (reproduced below) by Iain Crichton Smith.

I ? f\ ---,

Th e .\·tonefeaturinJ? Robert Bums with appropriate quowrion:­ .. Man to Man the World O 'ershal/ brothers befora"That ..

Lord Provost, ladies and gentlemen, I fee l very honoured to have been invited to open such an imaginative project. And what a

29 wonderful constellation of Makars has been assembled - from John Barbour to Sorley MacLean. Some of these writers I knew personally, some were a little before my time! Among them is one of my great favourites, the schoolmaster Robert Henryson, who wrote the magnificent The Testament of Criseyde, with its searing moment when Troilus meets the leprous Cressida and does not know her. I can count a few schoolmasters here - Robert Garioch who was I think speaking of teaching when he wrote the poem about Sisyphus endlessly pushing a stone up a hill (I often used to feel like that!) Another schoolmaster, and indeed headmaster, was Sorley MacLean, and George Buchanan was a tutor. I can't imagine the prodigious Hugh MacDiarmid lasting long in the EIS! Nor perhaps Dunbar. It is good that this Court should open before the Scottish Parliament assembles to remind us of our wealth of literary talent - which is continuing so lavishly in the present day - and of our different languages, Scots and Gaelic as well as English and even Latin. To a great extent our writers create our view of our country over the centuries. And these little quotations suggest the qualities we think of as particularly Scottish - democracy, community, attachment to a local area, love of freedom. Thus across the centuries John Barbour, the first of these, links hands with Sorley MacLean - from "Fredome is a noble thing" to "If we had Scotland free, Scotland equal to our love". One can only feel humble in the presence of such mighty names which speak to us from the very stones of history and still resonate more loudly than our own footsteps. They have made us what we are, and none more so than Robert Bums with his wild free imagination and his piercing human songs and his sensitivity to cruelty. I suppose it is he as much as anyone who has exported us abroad, as I once heard in China a group of young Chinese girls singing Auld Lang Syne with its great lines about home and emigration, the burn in which the boys paddled and the seas that have roared between them since. He shows what Scotland is and should be, open to the world, as the humorously travelling Stevenson does, as Robert Garioch with his translations of the Italian poet Belli does, as Sorley Maclean with his poems about the Spanish Civil War does, as MacDiarmid does with his extensive translations of European poems. And yet Walter Scott reminds us with his Fne "This is my own, my native land" that internationalism begins from love of home and a positive identity, as indeed do Violet Jacob and Robert Fergusson. It is therefore with great personal humility in the presence of these immortal brilliant dead who survive all around us, and with thanks to those who were involved in this imaginative project, that I declare the Makars' Court open - tha mi toilicht cuirt nan Bard fhosgladh.

30 THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN By Lt. Col. David Mackay

(We cannot know what really happened on a particular evening long ago, but we can put a theory based on what seem to be accepted facts. Against this theory new facts can be tested. One specific point is that Walter Riddell was not in the Country at the time of Burns' banishment from the Riddell's house.) '

was interested to read the story of Friars' Carse in the 1997 Bums Chronicle. It set me thinking of an incident in Bums' life which is usually known by the title of a much later painting, the rape of the Sabine women. Earlier authors, including Hans Hecht, followed the I1 19 h Century view that the incident occurred at Woodley Park, and James Barke in the novel 'The Well of the Silent Harp', avoids the slight conflict in evidence by placing it at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ecks. However Ian Grimble is in no doubt that the scene was Friars' Carse and the superbly researched recent volumes by James Mackay and Ian Mcintyre support this. I wish to express the view that in his 'letter from Hell', Bums was not trying to "grovel", as is sometimes said. The real mystery for me lies in the actions of Robert Riddell. His friendship with Bums was genuine. Giving Bums the key to the Hermitage, their shared interests in preserving old Scottish tunes, their work togetheron public libraries, Bums was a frequent visitor. When, after Glenriddell's death, Bums asked Elizabeth's sister for the return of the Glenriddell Manuscript, he mentions "imputed improprieties" and says that the purpose of his letter is not "to oppose these prejudices which have been raised against him". If Burns thought that the improprieties were no more than imputed, why did his friend not explain the whole thing, get it sorted out as no doubt Bums had expected? . We do know situations where jokes get out of hand. A joke starts in a harmless way but then takes on a life of its own and there is no stopping it. The originators still think of it as the original joke, but others may be deeply hurt. I think of the two friends going by train to the city. One dozed off and the other, noticing the train ticket in his pocket, took it. In due course, the sleepy traveller awoke on hearing the inspector in the next carriage. When he could not find his ticket he went into a panic, what will I do, in my position, no one will believe that the ticket was simply lost, disgrace, ruin. This was far more than the friend had expected and he decided to let the joke run on a little longer, so he suggested slipping under the seat, which at that time was possible. The inspector arrived and was given two tickets. He punched one and asked who the other was for. "Oh, that's for my friend, he's under the seat ... he likes it there". A sheepish face appeared, can friendship survive such abuse? I think that Bums got caught up in such a situation but it had a definite edge to it. That December evening in 1793 Bums was a guest at a dinner party at Friars' Carse. After dinner the ladies withdrew and the men stayed to put the World to rights as the port circulated. Glenriddell had a military background and I believe that the other menfolk were local military officers, except for Bums. It was not Bums' practice to remain long, preferring to join the ladies, especially when the ladies included Maria and I think on this occasion they did, but the conversation was of special interest. The etiquette of the day demanded that you matched the drinking of your host, but Bums knew Robert Riddell well, throughout the 'whistle contest' on an earlier occasion - . fieilad 'arunk practically nothing, he could h~dle the situation without giving offence to Glenriddell. Glenriddell was a serious drinker, but I would doubt if the other officers were more than merry, not

31 feeling any pain, but by no means paralytic. The subject which had arrested Bums' attention that evening had been the Roman legend of the rape of the Sabine women. They were a group of vigorous young men. They liked a bawdy story. There is nothing unusual about this as we see with 'rugged songs' of today, or at least in my day! Eventually Robert Riddell, as the host, began to get a conscience about leaving the ladies so long and might have made a harmless suggestion like "we had better join the ladies and sweep them off their feet". He would mean it metaphorically, it would never have occurred to him that it might be taken literally. The group troop off down the corridor, Bums with the van, Glenriddell bringing up the rear, quite possibly some distance behind. I do like the Rev. George Gilfillan's 'The National Burns'. It always seems to me that he is very conscious that one of his own congregation might read his work and he wants to be sure that he has given the right slant. For instance the piece "it was about this time ... surely one of the darkest points in his whole history ... that Burns began to form a collection of his licentious songs known as the 'Merry Muses', and which is certainly the biggest literary blot on his memory". I think that is a splendid piece, the Merry Muses were, after all, selected for the use of the Crochallan Fencibles. However he makes the point that Bums suspected that it was officers belonging to a regiment in Dumfries who had spread reports against Bums' loyalty to the Board of Excise. He says "they feared his power of scathing sarcasm and covered at the flash of his dark eye". Gilfillan also says that Burns referred to the offices as 'epauletted puppies'. Taking their cue from what had been meant as an innocent remark by their host at the dinner table, I think that the young officers saw the chance to play a trick on Burns. The plot would be quickly hatched as they went down the corridor, a joke on the ladies, sweep them off their feet, just a bit offun of course, Bums' target was Elizabeth, their hostess, so nothing unusual about Bums entering the room first, but the others contrive to block the doorway. Too late Bums realises that he is on his own and his hostess, a very prim and proper lady, is humiliated and outraged. Maria did not particularly get on with her sister­ in-law but supported her, at least for a short while, in a way that she would not have done on hear­ say alone. She must have been present and seen the incident with her own eyes. But both Elizabeth and Maria would have been looking at Bums, they did not see the whole picture. The officer's wives knew their husbands only too well and when Bums entered the room, they would look to the door with apprehension to see what their husbands were getting up to. They saw the look flash between the eyes of the conspirators revealing the whole story. Miss ... saw it too and with one of the wives spoke up for Burns trying to explain how he had been set up. Into this scene came Robert Riddell and he has not the slightest idea what it is all about. He finds his wife most distressed at something Bums has said or done, and was ordering him out of the house. He has no reason to connect it with anything at the dinner table, even if he remembered by then what they had been talking about. He really was a very heavy drinker. Burns left the house and rode home. Turning now to the letter from Hell, or as Gilfillan puts it "He one day committed himself by a nameless insult to his fair hostess, in remorse for which he next morning indicted a letter to her purporting to be written in the abode of the damned". We do not actually know what was in the letter which was sent, beyond reasonable certainty that the apology was included. Dr. Currie published the letter and Maria at once wrote to him wondering how he came by it and questioning the style, not altogether a creditable one to Burns (creditable ... capable of being attributed ... if she had been the recipient, she would have known). Almost certainly this was a rough draft, where the thoughts of a consummate wordsmith took charge of his pen. Whatever he finally wrote, Burns was not writing to a mere acquaintance, he had called his youngest daughter, at that time one year old, after Elizabeth Riddell. She was a special lady, Maria even more so. Ian Grimble says that the letter contains an element of hyperbole which suggests that he was writing tongue in cheek and others say much the same thing, inject some humour etc. Bums knew that he had been set up, if they had all gone into the room it would have been taken as high spirits. He expected his friends to see it in this light at least by the next morning. He knew though that he had a genuine apology to make to Elizabeth. He claims to have been intoxicated, contracted at that too hospitable mansion, 32 but this is only given as an excuse, clearly he was not intoxicated. He remembers the details exactly and particularly mentions Miss I... a woman of fine sense and gentle and unassuming manners and Mrs. G ...... a charming woman who had spoken out for him. Bums differentiates between Elizabeth's husband, who simply insisted on him drinking too much i.e. was too hospitable, hardly a criticism and would not be taken as such, and the other gentlemen present who were partakers of his guilt. Most certainly he had nothing to apologise for to them. They would have been quite happy with the outcome of the affair. Bums made another comment in his letter to Elizabeth's sister, Eleanor, when asking for the return of Volume I of the Glenriddell Manuscript. He writes "to oppose these prejudices which have been raised against me, is not the business of this letter. Indeed it is a warfare I know not how to wage. The powers of positive vice I can in some degree calculate, and against direct malevolence I can be on my guard! But who can estimate the fatuity of giddy caprice, or ward off the unthinking mischief of precipitate folly". He was asking Eleanor for something which did not strictly belong to him and would hard! y say this if the accusation was against members of the Riddell family. Eleanor seems to have understood what he meant and sent the book. Burns was alluding to the officers present at the dinner party. They were all guests in Glenriddell's house. Whatever they may have felt privately, they would have been pleasant company. They had all enjoyed the discussion after dinner. The trick played on Bums turned out to be far more devastating than had originally been intended and left Bums deeply scarred, but the officers would have played tricks like that before on people, colleagues perhaps who did not fit in too well, and would not have lost any sleep over the incident. But Bums had a special problem, so it went much deeper than this. He had written to Eleanor four months after the event. What was really worrying him was the way the incident had been blown up out of all proportion. The 'Whispering Campaign' was the warfare he did not know how to wage. The precipitate folly had been his own, he knew that and had no quarrel with the Riddells about it, but the real mischief followed, back to reports about his loyalty, drinking, sedition trials were still taking place, rumours, stories, innuendoes. And here were guests at a private dinner party, apparently friends, playing such tricks and spreading stories, where were his enemies? He was not blaming Maria in any way for this but of course she knew of the problem and tried to defuse it when she wrote that it is only on the gem we are disturbed to see the dust, the pebble may be soiled, and we never regard it. With Bums in Dumfries and Maria still at Woodley Park, they would not anyway see a lot of each other. Gilfillan points out that, according to the etiquettes of the times, Burns would not be permitted to visit Maria (with her husband away), but would have occasionally entered her box at the theatre had it not been for what he called the 'lobster-coated puppies', officers of the local regiment. Maria could easily have misunderstood Bums lack of contact. Robert Riddell died in April, just these few months after the Sabine incident and about the time Walter returned from the West Indies having failed to raise the funds to complete the purchase of Woodley Park. At this time Bums' daughter Elizabeth Riddell became ill though she did not die until 20 months later at Mauchline when Robert was still in Dumfries by now too ill to travel. The illness and death of his little daughter was a dreadful blow to Bums. Maria and Walter sold Woodley Park, staying a time in London before Maria moved to Tinwald House some distance further from Dumfries and later to Lochmaben. Elizabeth sold Friars' Carse and moved to Edinburgh. She did not move immediately but she had no reason to contact Burns, his banishment from her house was not now a factor in her life. For Burns a special chapter had closed on the sour note of that evening at Friars' Carse in December and the trick he had fallen for. But Bums had work to do. In January he sent Graham of Fintry proposals for the complete reorganisation of the Dumfries Excise Division, in February he sent Johnson a packet containing 41 songs. He continued to supply Thomson with songs of the highest calibre and patiently engaged in considerable correspondence with him. In March he decided against contributing to the Morning Chronicle but did send Scots, wha hae. In April he was greatly distressed at the death of his friend Robert Riddell. In June he had a short break with a tour of Galloway with Syme. In August his son James Glencairn was born, named after the 33 fourteenth Earl. By November he was once more in correspondence with Maria. No wonder he was a little short, because in December Findlater was taken ill and Robert was appointed acting supervisor whose duties he carried out scrupulously in addition to his own. They must have liked his ideas for reorganisation. The year also saw a new edition of his Poems, the last to be published in his lifetime. Then ifJ. January he was a founder member of the Royal Dumfries Volunteers along with many others of his gentlemen friends and he took this service very seriously indeed. If there really was any slackening of his social life then it must have been welcome. Having said all this, it is still a pity that he did not manage to list those songs of which he wished to be called the author. It is a shame that he had to sleep. I think it is revealing that Maria had no idea that Burns' unpleasant lampoons had anything to do with her. The cap simply did not fit so far as she viewed the relationship with Burns. She would remember the incident which led to Burns leaving Friars' Carse, but not as something of particular importance, and when the terms of Robert Riddell's will were known, neither Maria nor Walter would have had much to do with their sister-in-law. We do not have all the letters, but it is reasonable to suppose that Maria did not see any split, other than a brief charitable support for Elizabeth, rather it was a temporary change in circumstances for less than a year over which they had no control. To Burns what happened towards the end of 1794 was a reconciliation with a very special friend even though he responded to it rather stiffly in the third person. It was to Maria that Burns wrote his very moving letter on the death of his little daughter Elizabeth Riddell. By the time Maria came to write her perceptive and sensitive obituary on Bums it would seem that she had realised what some of the lampoons had been about but their relationship was easily strong enough to cope. Long before he died, Robert Bums knew that he should not have written them, and on one occasion said as much to Maria, but so often we try to hurt most those who deserve it least.

Friars' Ca.rse. Ho1ne oflP.UR.obtRiclJe.U o#;• GlenriJcle./f&-his ..,; Fe. Eliz.a.kl:~ Ellis/and. Fo.nn • Ho,...<.~~ Robt Burns ""d. his wi f c.. :re. o." until tl,c~ rnouc.-lo Dv. ... fr1ts 11/lov'f/

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0 Gifl'~l ,,,i\\ . $oLWA'/ FIR.TH-==..

34 VISITING THE MOTHER CLUB THE FINAL FRONTIER! By Robert Densmore Brill

ost of our clansmen know that my first trip to Ayrshire, in May of 1997, was to investigate sites known to have been visited by the "father of American literature," Edgar Allan M Poe, and his Scots foster-father, John Allan, of Ayrshire. At that time I knew very little of our Scots' National Bard, Robbie Bums! However, Past Chief Jimmy Hamilton, who is presently the Chairman of the Literary Committee, asked me, as a member of that same committee, if I would contact as many Bums Clubs in Ayrshire as possible, while there. My wife and I not only contacted The Burns Federation in Kilmarnock, but as a consequence of that visit, with our letter of introduction, written and signed by Past Chief Jack Scott, we were heartily received by the Honorary Secretary, John Inglis, Retired Chief Inspector of the Ayrshire Constabulary. During our visit the Secretary learned of my research of Poe in Scotland, and told me of a vast collection of books about Poe in the Irvine Bums Club and Museum. I have since advised the Bums Museum that they have one of the rarest collections of first edition biographies and other works about Poe in any collection outside of those held by the larger Poe Societies, such as The Poe Shrine of Richmond, Virginia, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, of Baltimore Maryland, and others.* Unfortunately, when Grace and I arrived in Greenock, to continue our research of Poe in that famous ship-building and sea-merchant port, the Hon. Librarian of the Greenock Bums Club had very recently died, and we were not able to introduce ourselves, on behalf of the Literary committee, of the Caledonian Club of San Francisco. Nevertheless, during our two-day stay in Greenock, actually Largs, to obtain materials in the Jame11 Watt Memorial Library, now called, simply, The Museum by the local folk, I was intrigued by the controversy that existed amongst some Burns Clubs regarding the claim of the Greenock Burns Club as being "The Mother Club". Having returned with our bundles of papers, maps, illustrations, and books on or about Poe, the first draft of my manuscript of Poe in Scotland, "Mar'se' Eddie" in the Shire has been submitted to my Scots editor and publisher, in Wigtown, Wigtownshire, Scotland, for an expected end-of-year publication. This manuscript was taken with us on our November, follow-up tour of sites in Ayrshire either we had not visited, or to which I had wanted to return, for some additional facts, pictures, and research. This time we got nowhere near Greenock, though we returned to the University of Stirling, to drop off a copy of the manuscript to Professor Neil Keeble, the Chairman of the Department of English. My Clansmen might be interested to know that as a consequence of my research of Edgar Allan Poe in Scotland, the very first non-Scot to be thus interested, I have exposed long-buried facts of the biological and filial relationships amongst The Bard, Robbie Bums, his second cousin, the wealthiest slave and tobacco plantation owner at the time, John Allan, the novelist, John Galt, and most remarkably, their cousin, Edgar Allan Poe! Of course, to Cale Club members, and most non-Poe enthusiasts, such relationships are of no interest. Nevertheless, their relationships are vitally of interest to Poe Scholars, and as I learned from my, independently motivated, homage and pilgrimage to the Greenock Bums Club's Burns Supper on 23 January 1998, members of all the Burns Clubs in Scotland have an excited interest in the relationship of The Ayrshire Lads, Robbie Burns, John Galt, John Allan, and Edgar Allan Poe, and my book that brings it all together. The entire trip was decided after our November trip, but the details of what occurred thereafter

*An article on Poe and Bums appeared in the 1991 issue of the Bums Chronicle. 35 Robert Densmore Brill (centre) presenting an in scribed brass plate to John McQuarrie (lej i) and President lain Shmr (right). are as follows. I thought that as I was going to Greenock for the Annual Bums Supper, I might as well represent the Caledonian Club of San Francisco, in general, and our Literary Committee in particular. With the help of Past Chief Hamilton, speaking on my behalf at the December Business Meeting, the Club approved the funds for, and the authority to obtain, a plaque to be presented to the Greenock Mother Club. With the help of Peter Moore, Chairman of our Awards Committee, he designed and had inscribed the following on a brass plate on a block of fine black walnut, laser­ etched Club Crest, with Scottish Games' images:

Presented In Grateful Recognition of 200 Years of BURNS And In Scottish Tradition From the Literary Committee of Caledonian Club of SF - 1998

Our clansmen, who know more about the facts of the institution of Robbie Bums will notice that, in fact, the 200'h Anniversary of Bums' Clubs will not occur until 2101 ; nevertheless, there was not enough time to make the correction before my departure. However, given that Bums died in 1796, the fact of 200 years of Scottish Tradition by the Greenock, or any other club is academic: of no practical importance, but to argue about over cigars and whisky! But on to Greenock! I have always wanted to see a full year of Scottish weather, so I could fully comprehend why so many of our clansmen left Glasgow; notice, there is no one from Pitlochry in the Club! I learned this trip. Nevertheless, the ambience of The Tontine Hotel in Greenock, across the square from the Watt Memorial Library, was simply out of a Scottish postcard: dreary­ wet cold outside the graystone walls of the hotel, but warmly appointed lobby, cocktail lounge, and other rooms. My room had every comfort a man could want, except Grace! She did not accompany me! Never mind. I had a lot to do before meeting all of the officers and members of the Greenock Club, next night. 36 Given that I had not heard back from The Mother Club upon mailing my request of 15 December, asking to attend the Bums Supper, I both called Ms. Cooperwhite, of the Watt Library, and after having obtained the telephone number of the Greenock Club, I called their Vice President, John McQuarrie, who advised me that "your ticket was posted on the seventh of January". I received it the very day I left for Greenock. By that time, I knew not what to expect in Greenock ... what sort of persons were running the Club, and what my reception would be? Clansmen, may I state here, without offending anyone, what I experienced in Greenock, in the company of the Officers, Members, and their guests is the experience of which screenplays and short stores are written. From the onset, not only did John McQuarrie treat me with the greatest dignity and respect, but I was made to feel like family, perhaps closer than kinsman. V. P. McQuarrie promptly escorted me into the "VIPs Only Lounge", in which I was introduced all around. The entire room-full of Bums dignitaries, who flattered me with the mutual interests of meeting, and having pictures taken, after which they presented me with a variety of memorabilia that, in themselves made the pilgrimage worthwhile. I shed a tear when John McQuarrie presented me with a Greenock Bums Club pin, which he installed on my Day Jacket. Then he gave me a card, in which he inscribed, "To Bob. Best wishes. I hope you are successful in your quest for Burns. And signed, "John". However, the coup de theatre was his presentation of a handsomely bound volume of POEMS AND SONGS OF ROBERT BURNS, the 1975 edition by James Barke. I was humbled to tears, while John, Club President, Iain Shaw, as well as Club Bard, Mabel A. Irving, and all assembled watched, as I, in tum, removed our Caledonian Club plaque, and presented it to the Officers of the Greenock Bums Club, on behalf of the Literary Committee, and our entire Club. While the balance of the evening's six hour programme would take pages to relate, I shall summarise. If ever one wanted to see a class act of a Bums Supper, nothing I have witnessed compares to the programme the Mother Club produced. From the opening Welcome, oflain Shaw, to the food and music, intertwined with the most impressive "readings", by Jim Naismith, of anyone's, much less of the Immortal Bard's work, that I have experienced, the programme and the event were over before I knew it. Some of the more impressive highlights of that very long programme must be remembered. For example, ''The Immortal Memory", presented by the keynote speaker, John Htet Khin, formerly of Burma, and now latterly of Edinburgh, weaved a tale and recited The Bard's poetry in such a way as to keep the dining hall in rapt attention and outrageous laughter for almost forty-five minutes. Next day he would be off to The Hague, Netherlands, to give still another speech. The address to "The Mother Club", by Donald Reid, should have been video-taped; however, he made the remark that it was wonderful to be at this fine club of "policemen", as he was one of the few not so employed. I now understand why most of Greenock are not members of The Mother Club; it would be difficult to escape arrest by that lot after a night of charging one's glass to the innumerable toasts made over the six hours. The Mother Club's programme also created tension and laughter I have not experienced before when there were "Toast[s] to the Lasses", by Bert Thomson, retired Chief Constable of Greenock: "Great love I bear to all the Fairffheir humble slave an' a' that", and a "Reply", by Eleanor Walker, retired, Deputy-Chief Inspector of another constabulary: "Wi' modest face sae fu' o' grace, I replied the bonnie lady"; during which President Iain Shaw, presently a Sergeant on the Greenock Police Force, thanked both for their "duel", and installed an Honorary President. Although my own airline ticket for the UAL First Class ticket on the Triple Seven (B777) to London, and then on to Glasgow with British Midland was free, the entire effort would have been worth attending. I must include at least the poem, "The Nicht's Ongauns", by Mabel A. Irving, mother teacher to most of the male members of the club:

37 "FRATERNAL GREETINGS 1998 ... "

"Hail tae the Chieftain - as the world "We ponder ower oor poet's age, On it's au/' axis, stertled, birled Oor waeful'feelin's tae assuage, Frae ben tae ben, the echoes dirled 'Gainst men's stark seljishness we rage, Frae hearts noo free! Sic deeds are rife! Whan Scotia's banner is unfurled, Compassion's razed frae ilka page, It bears the gree! An' cheap is life!

"For ony chief, yince haggis bred, "Sae /at us celebrate the cause Maun aften tae himsel' !we said: O'Scotia's pride an' Scotia's Laws, 'This is the Lan' for whilk Scots bled!' But, for Rab's hope, /at ilk ain pause! Oor min' 1zoo turns That sense an' worth, Tae him whae, aft, oor cause has pied, An' brotherhood o' nations a's Oor Robert Burns! Thirled ower the earth Mabel A. Irving (Bard)

... who presented me, after the Supper, with a card on which the above poem was printed, and signed by the President as well. At a time when my own life and mind are in desperate need of healing, after the death of my Scots-American mother, I am indebted to the Caledonian Club for having given me the opportunity to rerresent them, and to the Greenock Burns (Mother Club) for treating me as a celebrity at their 1961 Burns Supper.

38 THE OTHER POET By Lawrence R. Burness

hile Robert Burns undoubtedly takes pride of place in his family as the acknowledged National Poet of Scotland, it must not be forgotten that he had a cousin, John, who W merits some attention for his poetic abilities. They were actually third cousins but that makes little difference - the connection is there. Both started life with the original BURNES spelling of their name and the older publications of John's works go under that name. John was born at the farm of Bogjorgan in the Parish of Glenbervie, Kincardineshire, on 23 May, 1771, so was 12 years younger than Robert and, in common with most branches of the family around that time, the name was amplified to BURNESS. Indeed, it is not widely known that Robert also used the amplified form as is evidenced by reference to the minutes of the Tarbolton Bachelors' Club's minutes in 1786 where he signed "Robt. Burness" one week and "Robt. Burns" the following week. Robert had had to admit that he was fighting a losing battle with Ayrshire pronunciation. But to get back to John, whose life was fraught with difficulties, too, although in rather different ways when compared with Robert. He was a baker to trade and served his apprenticeship in Brechin but he never seemed to be very successful. He moved around the country according to the opportunities which became available and it is known that he was employed in Arbroath and Aberdeen at various times. When he was in Angus he decided to join the Angus Fencible Volunteers about 1794. He served with them throughout Scotland, from Stranraer and Dumfries in the South to Lerwick in Shetland, but this force was disbanded at Peterhead on 1 April 1799. Falling back on his old trade, he set himself up in a bakery business in Stonehaven, but it was not a success and after four years he sold it. However, it was while he was in Stonehaven that he met Margaret Davidson and they were married there on 28 November 1801. He went back to soldiering and joined the Forfar Militia in which he served for 10 years. This force was sometimes stationed forth of Scotland and it appears that wives could go along with their soldier husbands which makes it very difficult to keep track of their families but I have been able to trace 3 sons and a daughter although I only have the scantiest details of them and, in fact, do not even know the names of one of the sons or the daughter. The Forfar Militia was disbanded at Naas, Co. Kildare, Ireland, in 1815 so once again John was at the mercy of his own devices but this time it was with a wife and children to support. Again he gravitated back to Stonehaven and what did he do? Yes, set himself up in the bakery business and yet again it failed. He then despaired of being able to make a living in Stonehaven and went North to Aberdeen where he took a house in the Hard gate. This time he decided to tramp round the countryside as a book canvasser probably selling, among other things, publications of his own works. I think he must have had quite a lot of spare time on his hands while he was soldiering but he put it to good use by writing poetry and, in addition, several plays, at least one of which was performed in Lerwick while he was stationed there. When he was in Dumfries, the opportunity was not lost on him to visit Robert to whom he showed his best known work entitled "Thrummy Cap". Robert read it through and pronounced it "the best Ghaist Story in the language". It concerns two men of entirely different character who were caught in a blizzard in the Stonehaven area one night and were in danger of perishing. They presented themselves at the door of a mansion - probably the Castle of Fiddes - and the one who wore a tattered woolly cap forced the laird to give them a night's lodging. They woke up in the middle of the night feeling very thirsty. They had been told that the house was haunted but "Thrummy" knew no fear and went out of the room to look for something to drink while his companion stayed in his bed, petrified. By great good >fortune "Thrummy" met the ghost who led him to the wine cellar. I relate the main particulars of this story as it has an ironic bearing on poor John's sad end. It was while he was out selling his 39 publications near Portlethen Kirk that he himself was overcome in a blizzard and tragically perished on the night of 12th January, 1826. He had breakfasted with his nephew, William Burness that morning and quite possibly had had nothing to eat all day. His body was found the following morning. He was buried in St. Peter's Churchyard, Aberdeen, but it was not until 27th June, 1912 that a handsome memorial stone was created to his memory by public subscription.

RESURRECTING RABBIE? Robert J. Merson 1997

everal scholars in the past have remarked on the similarities between the accounts of the disinterment of Robert Bums' body in Sketches from Nature1 by John McDiarmid, and the accounts of the exhumations of the suicides' graves in James Hogg's Private Memoirs and S 2 Confessions of a Justified Sinner • Hogg first touched on the theme of exhumation in his letter to Sir Christopher North entitled A Scots Mummy3 published under his sobriquet of 'The Ettrick Shepherd' in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine of August 1823, a large part of which he subsequently incorporated into Confession ofa Justified Sinner. Apart from the general similarities which could be said to apply to any such grisly undertaking, the two accounts correlate on a number of very specific details. Both accounts feature the exhumation of bodies in a remarkably life-like state of preservation; McDiarmid reports that on removing Burns' coffin lid:-

There, were the remains of the great poet, to all appearances nearly entire, and retaining various traces of vitality, or rather exhibiting the features of one who had newly sunk into the sleep of death - the lordly forehead, arched and high - the scalp still covered with hair, and the teeth perfectly firm and white. [SFN p.377]

The corpse of Hogg's suicide is exhumed:-

..... as fresh as the day it was laid in! I never heard of a state of preservation so wonderful, if it be true as was related to me ..... The features were all so plain, that an acquaintance might easily have known him. One of the lads gripped the face of the corpse with his finger and thumb, and the cheeks felt quite soft and fleshy, but the dimples did not spring out again. He had fine yellow hair, about nine inches long; but not a hair of it could they pull out ..... [CJS p.200)

Both cadavers are decapitated in the process of disinterment; when the workmen attempted to insert a shell beneath Bums' coffin 'the head separated from the trunk' [SFN p.377). In Hogg's account of the second exhumation of the suicide's grave in The Editor's Narrative the body is recovered, but, initially 'the head was wanting' [CJS p.204). Both corpses deteriorate rapidly after exposure. In Burns' instance:-

..... the effect was momentary ..... the whole body, with the exception of the bones, crumbled into dust. [SFN p.377) 40 - and Hogg tells us of the suicide's body, that:-

All the limbs, from the loins to the toes, seemed perfect and entire, but they could not bear handling. Before we got them returned again into the grave, they were all shaken to pieces, except the thighs, which continued to retain a kind of flabby form. [CJS pp.205-206]

Both skulls also display similar phrenological features, Bums' skull with its 'lordly forehead, arched and high' [SFN p.377], and that of the suicide's, with 'a smooth, almost perfect rotundity' [CJS p.204]. McDiarmid records the name of the four local dignitaries present at the exhumation of Bums [SFN pp.374-375]; Hogg's 'Editor' tells us that he will 'describe everything as he saw it before four respectable witnesses', whose names he 'shall publish at large if permitted' [CJS p.204]. One of the most recent studies on the question of these 'strikingly similar' descriptions comes from the American Professor Carol McGuirk of Florida Atlantic University, in her iconoclastic 4 essay Bums and Nostalgia, published in the collection of papers entitled Bums Now • In her essay, Professor McGuirk tells us that Bums' coffin was opened 'at least twice', and describes John McDiarmid as being 'a witness to the earlier exhumation of 1815' [BN p.48]. She also raises a number of interesting questions:-

Did the disinterment of 1815, described in McDiarmid's account, exert some influence on Hogg's conclusion?

Was Hogg present, or did he know some witness of it, perhaps McDiarmid himself? (She goes on to make the conjecture that, in the event of this being the same John McDiarmid as was editor of the Dumfries Courier that he very likely would.)

In short, is there, in the back of James Hogg's peculiar mind, some oblique analogy being made between the 'Scots Mummy' and the Immortal Memory'? [BN p.51]

Several aspects of McGuirk's essay are picked up on by Douglas Mack in his review of Bums Now in the Scottish Literary Journal, where he remarks that her suggestion has the potential for further exploration. Mack goes on to point out that McGuirk has omitted the fact that McDiarmid's 5 description is quoted at length in Hogg's Memoir of Burns , a book-length study that has only started to receive the serious attention it deserves6 These questions will be addressed in this paper, in which I will discuss the merits of the hypothesis that it is McDiarmid's account' of the disinterment of Robert Bums' body from Sketches from Nature on which Hogg's descriptions of the exhumations of the suicides' graves in Confessions of a Justified Sinner are based; and will examine the alternative possibilities. Although visitors to St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries are confronted by a Bums Mausoleum designed by Thomas Frederick Hunt in the style of a Greek temple, the first resting place of Robert Bums was a humble family lair in the congested north eastern comer of the graveyard. The grave was originally marked by a simple stone tablet paid for by his widow 'out of her own slender means' [SFN p.373], and it is recorded that on visiting the site in 1803, Dorothy and William Wordsworth were unable to locate the grave without the assistance of the sexton [Davies pp.237-238]. It was not until many years after Bums' death in 1796 that a fund was initiated by William Grierson and Bums' old friend, John Syme of Ryedale, for the purposes of erecting a more fitting tribute to the national Bard [McDowall p.102]. As the site of the original grave was unsuitable for the erection of such a monument, it was necessary to remove the coffins of the poet and his two sons, Francis Wallace, buried in 1799, and Maxwell, buried in 1803, for relocation to 41 the new cry~t. This, the first exhumation of Robert Burns' body, took place in the early hours of Tuesday 191 September 1815 and, according to McDiarmid's account, was supervised by four local dignitaries: Convenor James Thomson (Superintendent of the Monument), William Grierson (Secretary to the Committee), James Bogie (gardener atTerraughty), and John Milligan (the builder of the Mausoleum) [SFN pp.374-375]. Several workmen must also have been present as we are told that on the opening of the coffin 'the scene was so imposing, that most of the workmen stood bare and uncovered' [SFN p.377]. The subsequent account of the second disinterment indicates that one of the unnamed attendants must have been Andrew Crombie, who was able to assist the process of the second exhumation by identifying the exact location of the coffin; and a newspaper article of some years later also indicates that at least one of the 'workmen' was a sexton of St. 7 Michael's Church • It is this account of the first disinterment which has created the most confusion amongst Burns scholars and biographers, and as it is of fundamental consequence to the main argument, it is necessary to clarify several misconceptions which have arisen and endured over the last hundred and eighty years or so. Firstly there is the now universally held assumption, which I will prove conclusively to be erroneous, that McDiarmid was actually present at the exhumation of 1815. It is my opinion that McDiarmid only learned the particulars himself, either from Mrs. Bums, or more likely from one of the people who were actually in attendance - in all probability William Grierson. In point of fact, his report does not specifically state that he personally attended the operation, nor does he include his own name in the list of protagonists. If McDiarmid's account a feeling of immediacy and involvement, I would suggest that this owes rather more to the journalistic skills which marked him as one of the most notable newspaper editors of that era, than to his actual participation. As his own son was later to write of him:-

A tale of distress or an affecting incident was certain to acquire a thrilling interest in Mr. M'Diarmid's hands. [W.R.McDiarmid p.17]

Sketches from Nature, in which the story of the disinterment is told, was published in 1830, and is described by McDiarmid in the preface to the book as a collection of 'fragments of Scottish scenery and character'. A footnote to the story A Veteran Blacksmith on page 282 advises the reader that:-

The above and following biographical sketches {which includes the piece entitled St. Michael's Church-Yard - Disinterment of Bums} appeared originally in the Dumfries Courier; but as the subjects possess a strong local interest, I felt anxious to preserve them for the satisfaction of my townsmen. {My parenthesis}

So here we have evidence from the pen of the author that the exhumation story must have been published prior to 1830. Given this information, it would be possible to make the conjecture that it is this which could have been Hogg's source. Although the Dumfries Courier regrettably has not yet been indexed, the Local Archive of the Ewart Libr:iJ in Dumfries has an unbroken sequence of issues published between 6th December 1809 and 25 1 March 1884. I have searched these archives, and although I regret being unable to locate the exact date of publication so far, I can categorically state that it does not appear in any issue between McDiarmid's appointment and the publication of A Scots Mummy in 1823. As this places the original publication sometime between January 1825 and January 1830, it too can be eliminated as a potential source. McDiarmid makes use of the same story yet again in the Dumfries Courier of 2"d April 1834 in 42 an article headed Funeral ofMrs. Burns - Exhumation of the Poet's Skull. The Dumfries Courier article on the death of Mrs. Bums was picked up by both the Glasgow Courier of 3id April 1834, and the Glasgow Argus of the same date, the latter of which specifically ascribes the piece to John McDiarmid with the colophon:-

John McDiarmid is an old and dearly beloved cronie of ours; and we do not remember to have ever seen him to better advantage than in this feeling and tasteful sketch.

In the opening passages of Chapter XIII of Hogg's Memoir [H&M p.246], he categorically attributes the passage on the death of Mrs. Burns as being from the Dumfries Courier 'at the time of her death' {My emphasis}. What becomes obvious as a result of further research is that the attribution also extends to the passage immediately following, on the subject of the exhumation. A word-for-word comparison of the essay with the newspaper article also reveals that a number of lexical and syntactical differences exist which make it possible to confirm that the excerpts quoted by Hogg in his Memoir are from the newspaper article, and not from Sketches from Nature. Regardless of whichever publication is taken as the source, the report is written entirely in the third person, whereby the author informs us that 'it was fortunate that their plans were so well laid' 8 [SFN p.375 ], and that the 'persons above named discharged most sternly their duty as sentinels' 9 [SFN p.376 ] {My emphasis}. McDiannid again repeats the details of the exhumation in an abridged version of his story in Picture of Dumfries which he published in 1832, but which gives us no clearer indication of his involvement. McDiarmid's account in the Dumfries Courier of 2"d April 1834, however, expressly says:-

Ever since we became acquainted with what occurred on the 19lh September, 1815 ..... {My emphasis}

If we compare this to the account later in the same essay of a subsequent visit to the Bums Mausoleum with a notable actor of the day, McDiarmid clearly states his own presence with the comment that 'the writer of this article accompanied Mr. Mathews' [SFN p.378]. Several biographers of Bums who have touched on the subject of the exhumations describe McDiarmid as the 'founder' of the Dumfries Courier, which would place him in Dumfries as early as 1809. However, it was not until late in the January of 1817, two years after the first exhumation, that John McDiarmid assumed the editorship of the Dumfries Courier. In fact, the announcement of his appointment as editor can be found in the open letter of resignation of his ~redecessor, the founding editor Henry Duncan, on the front page of the Dumfries Courier of 28 January 1817. As late as 1816, McDiarmid was still resident in Edinburgh, where he held a senior position in the Head Office of the Commercial Bank. During that same period it is known that he was also heavily involved with Charles McLaren and William Ritchie on the formation of a new weekly journal, 10 subsequently launched as The Scotsman on 25lh January 1817 [Armstrong pp.4-5 ]. Although the distances concerned make it feasible that McDiarmid could have made journeys from Edinburgh to Dumfries, it is very unlikely that his commitments in Edinburgh at this time could have facilitated regular visits. It is also very improbable, therefore, that he could have acquired such status in the community of Dumfries as to merit his participation in such an exclusive event. Finally, and most irrefutably, there is the incontrovertible statement of his own son, William R. McDiarmid, who succeeded his father as editor of the Dumfries Courier, and wrote in his Memoir ofJohn McDiannid that:-

He (John McDiarmid) was not connected with the erection of Burns' mausoleum as has been stated. That edifice was completed in 1815, two years before he knew Dumfries. {My emphasis} [W.R. McDiarmid p.18] 43 This having been said, there is no doubting the degree of accuracy which McDiannid would have pursued. On hearing that McDiarmid was contemplating producing his own biography of Bums (which was never published if ever completed), Allan Cunningham wrote:-

..... I am glad of this. He will set the world right in many important matters regarding the genius and fortunes of the Poet. So solicitous was he, I have heard, about the truth, that he actually sat beside Mrs. Bums with an interleaved copy of my Life [of Robert Bums] for two days questioning her ..... [James Wilson p.28]

In the plethora of 'Bumsiana' produced in the years which followed, particularly during the Victorian period, many subsequent biographers of Bums quote McDiarrnid's account at length. Several, such as Robert Chambers in his Posthumous History of Bums11 (cited by McGuirk as corroboration), interlace quotations with such remarks as 'says Mr. McDiannid' [Chambers p.284 & Wallace [p.295], but others do not. I would propose that it is these ambiguous statements, wrongly interpreted, which have served to reinforce the impression that McDiannid was present, when in actuality they are simply an attribution of source. Subsequent verification of the facts might also have been impaired in no small way by the epidemic of Asiatic Cholera which struck Dumfries on 15th September 1832, just two years after the publication of Sketches from Nature. Hundreds of citizens fled the town, some never to return, and from a population of a little over ten thousand people, there were one thousand and fifty-five cases of cholera reported within just seventy days. Five hundred and thirty-one victims died, most of whom were buried seven deep, in the mass plague pit which was excavated in the very churchyard which houses the Bums Mausoleum. A second epidemic of the same disease struck Dumfries in 1848, with over three hundred deaths [W.R. McDiarmid p.14 & McDowall pp.135-137]. The statistics for natural mortality in the area were so greatly augmented by the effects of the epidemic, that by the time ofMcDiannid's own death in 1852, the Glasgow Herald speculated that there was 12 perhaps only one inhabitant of Dumfries still living who could recollect Robert Burns personally • It is also worth remembering that the desperation to acquire the kudos of some form of association with Robert Bums following his death amounted to something of a 'feeding frenzy' on the part of certain elements of society. Seen in this light, the perpetuation of the impression that he had actually been present at such a momentous occasion, particularly when 'dignified' by the distance of time, might not have been an entirely unwelcome one for McDiarrnid, and may even have enjoyed his passive compliance. Carol McGuirk's observation that the poet's coffin was opened 'at least twice' is correct. In fact, it was opened at least three times 13 [McDowall p.106], what serves to further cloud the issue for modern readers is that McDiarrnid was undoubtedly present at the second exhumation, which took place on the night of Monday 31 st March 1834 - the eve of Jean Bums' funeral [Blacklock p.4]. McDiannid had become an acquaintance of Bums' widow, Jean, shortly after his arrival in Dumfries in 1817, and a friendship developed which was to last for the rest of her life. Mrs. Bums was a regular visitor to the McDiarmid household and developed such a trusting relationship with 14 Jean McDiarmid that she nominated him as executor of her estate • By the time of Jean Bums funeral, McDiannid had been editor of the Dumfries Courier for seventeen years and his reputation was established as one of the leading citizens of Dumfries. It is no surprise, therefore, on the strengths of both his personal connection to Jean Armour Bums, and of his elevated position in the community, that he should be present at the exhumation of 1834. It was during this period that the pseudo-science of Phrenology was in vogue, and a number of interested parties had expressed regret that the opportunity had not been taken at the time of Bums' first disinterment to make a plaster cast of the poet's skull for phrenological study. It was to this end that the perpetrators extracted the 'reluctant and conditional consent' of Jean's brother, Mr. 44 Armour, to exhume the poet's skull during the preparations for his sister's funeral. On this occasion, the presence of McDiarmid is clearly recorded, as are the names of Archibald Blacklock the phrenologist, Adam Rankine, James Kerr, and also those of Andrew Crombie and James Bogie, 15 who were both present at the 1815 exhumation • Unfortunately, several biographers have confused these two events, separated as they are by some nineteen years, and merged them into one. Robert Chambers' Posthumous History ofBurns, published in 1886, has the disinterment of 1815 quite clearly reported, and ignores the exhumation of 1834 [Chambers pp.284-285]. Ten years later, however, the volume edited by Robert Chambers and revised by William Wallace reads as if McDiarmid's account of the first exhumation was synchronous to George Coombe and Archibald Blacklock's report on the phrenology of Bums' skull, which was carried out at the second exhumation [Wallace p.296]. This confusion persists as far as the present day - James Mackay's otherwise exceptionally well-researched biography of 1992 does a great deal to dispel many of the fanciful myths surrounding the memory of the Bard, but it is misleading in so much as it attributes McDiarmid's description of the first exhumation to the later disinterment of 1834 [Mackay p.681]. In contrast to McDiarmid's graphic description of the first disinterment, the Dumfries Courier of Tuesday 26 September 1815, covers the event with a spartan seven line entry (which is at considerable variance with McDiarmid's later version of affairs), where it appears sandwiched, without caption, between the reports of the election of four new councillors, and the accidental capsizing of a clergyman's gig:-

The remains of Bums were removed last Tuesday from the place in which they had been deposited 19 years ago, in the N.E. comer of St. Michael's churchyard, to the vault prepared for them under the new mausoleum. This operations was effected with more ease than had been expected, the coffin having undergone but little change from decay.

The Dumfries Weekly Journal of 19th September 1815 - the very day of the exhumation - is even less explicit:-

This morning, the remains of Robert Bums, the celebrated Scots Bard, were removed to the vault of the Mausoleum now erecting [sic] to his memory in St. Michael's Churchyard of this place.

It is precisely this situation which creates the paradox of the whole exhumation story. Why do we find so little information in the newspaper reports of the day - and why do they differ so much from McDiarmid's subsequent accounts? According to the Dumfries Courier article of the day, Bums coffin had undergone 'but little change from decay'. McDiarmid tells us that it had been believed that the Bard's coffin had been made from oak, but that 'this hope proved fallacious' and that 'it was found to be composed of ordinary materials, and ready to yield to the slightest pressure' [SFN p.376]. This latter version of events is corroborated by a much later story in the Dumfries Courier of 1 4 h September 1832, where an English visitor to the Mausoleum proclaimed to the sexton that he owned a snuffbox made from the wood of Burns' original coffin:-

.... .'O, Burns's coffin!, said the astonished sexton, 'Begging your pardon, Sir, that's as big a lee as ever was tell't, though am no saying you made it. I was present the hale time the grave was opened, and though some say the coffin was made of oak, it turned outjuist to be common fir-and sae rotten, that the only fresh bitin't was a crumb no muckle bigger than my forefinger, which Mr. Grierson, ane o our elders, took awa and got made into a cross, which Mrs. Grierson whiles wears round her neck.' 45 This account also contradicts McDiarmid's statement that the participants of the first exhumation:-

..... discharged most sternly their duty as sentinels, by repressing all attempts at obtaining relics, and collecting and removing with the most scrupulous fidelity the whole contents of the respective coffins, down to the minutest portion of what had once been animated dust. {SFN p.376]

It could be contended that one reason for the lack of media attention to the exhumation at the time was that the country was still recovering from the aftermath of the war against France and victory at Waterloo. The newspapers were filled with column after column of the details of those dead, wounded, or missing in action, military decorations being awarded, troop movements in Europe, and the exile of Napoleon. It certainly cannot have been squeamishness on the part of the Press with led to the dearth of contemporary reports of the exhumation. Newspaper stories of this period demonstrate that the Scottish public had an unquenchable thirst for ghastly tales. As the stories of the Napoleonic War slowly dried up after the Battle of Waterloo, the newspapers and journals once again concentrated their attentions on alternative sources for their gory anecdotes. Situated as they were in the early part of the Industrial Revolution with the introduction of new technology in the form of huge steam-driven power plants, belt-driven machinery and large numbers of unskilled labourers, the potential for horrific accidents was legion - and the newspaper reported them to the curious public in graphic detail. The media of the day was also lacking in discretion, and where modern publications tend to minimise the reporting of violent crime for fear of being branded tasteless, their forerunners in the early nineteenth century rejoiced with a ghoulish delight in providing the particulars of every murder, maiming and tragic suicide of the day. It may be that McDiarmid himself gives us a more likely insight to the reason for the silence when he observes that 'to disturb in any way the sanctity of the tomb is a proceeding most revolting to Scottish feeling' [SNF p.375]. Although Hogg may be exonerated from the crime of disturbing the sanctity of the tomb by virtue of the fact that the raison d'etre of the suicide's grave is precisely that it is on unhallowed ground; he echoes McDiarmid's sentiment inA Scots Mummy when he say that:-

..... it never once occurred to me as an object of curiosity, to dig up the mouldering bones of the culprit, which I considered the most revolting of all objects. [Ibid. P.188]

While it could be said that the protagonists of the first exhumation were executing a morally justifiable exercise in the civic interest, they may well nonetheless have also been perturbed that their grisly undertaking might be met with an element of criticism. Perhaps the distinguished gentlemen of Dumfries who conducted the operation were reluctant to broadcast the particulars to the local Press at the time for that very reason. If so, they were well justified. In the account of the second exhumation, McDiarmid confesses that they might be subjected to ridicule for their part in the proceedings. In the event they were mercilessly lampooned by both The Spectator and the 16 Glasgow Herald which immediately picked up and reprinted the story • Certainly the necessity of the first disinterment was a distressing experience for Burns' widow, and McDiarmid informs us that Jean Burns 'was so much disturbed on the occasion, that she retired to the country for a fortnight or more' [SFN p.375]. The modern reader must also remember that these events are taking place against the background of the development of anatomicat science and surgical technique, and all their associations with the abhorred 'resurrectionists' - the infamous body-snatchers. The graveyards of this period were 46 being constructed with 'mort-houses' where the corpses of the dearly departed could be stored under lock and key until such time as the natural process of decomposition rendered them useless for anatomical study. The Dumfries Courier of 16th January 1827 carries an article which reports on the success of these mort-houses and opens with the admission:-

It is in general reported, that the bodies of the dead are made a common merchandise of in this neighbourhood, and taken from their places of rest, which is distressing to the friends left behind them .....

It is during the lacunar silence which occupied the void between the first exhumation and John McDiarmid's eventual publication of the story many years later, that Hogg wrote and published the Confessions ofa Justified Sinner. While it is true to say that Hogg was undeterred in publishing his novel under these conditions of social taboo, it was notably under the cloak of anonymity that he 17 first did so; and exactly for the reason of 'it being a story replete with horrors' • His precaution failed almost immediately, however, when an article in the Noctes Ambrosianae in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine June 1824 edition exposed him as the author. Hogg immediately refuted the allegation, and arranged for Black.wood's to publish a retraction the following month. Whether or not the critics perceived Hogg as the author, the initial reception of the novel was far from enthusiastic, and it was described as being 'uncouth and unpleasant'. IfHogg's source for the exhumation scenes of his novel published in 1824 was the disinterment of Bums' body, then plainly it could not have come from McDiarmid's account in Sketches from Nature published in 1830, as Douglas Mack seems to imply, nor from the Dumfries Courier article of 1834 cited in his Memoir. As this is clearly not the case, what then, are the alternatives? Professor McGuirk questions whether it could be that Hogg was himself present at Burns' exhumation, but there is absolutely no evidence to support this either. In fact, it may very well be that Hogg was not even in the area at the time. In a letter of invitation dated September 1815, John Wilson exhorted the Ettrick Shepherd to come and visit him, and it is known that Hogg accepted 18 that invitation and spent part of the autumn of that year at Wilson's estate in Elleray in Cumberland • It is my suspicion that any implication of Hogg's presence at the exhumation, which McGuirk is not the first to suggest, arises from wrongly attributing McDiarmid's account, which is quoted at length in Hogg's Memoir of Burns, as being from the pen of James Hogg himself. Hogg's Memoir of Burns appears in Volume V of The Work of Robert Burns, edited by The Ettrick Shepherd and William Motherwell. The catalogue in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, describes the work as being 'Published by Archibald Fullerton & Co., Glasgow, 1834-1836, 5 volumes'. Edith Batho tells us that the edition did not, in fact, appear until 1838, and that although Hogg was known to be working on it from as early as 1832, none of it was published during his lifetime [Batho p.42]. This would seem to be a logical premise, as obviously the published account of the second exhumation in 1834 could not post-date the publication of Hogg's Memoir in which it is quoted at length. It is therefore interesting to note that an advertisement for Part I of the edition appears in the Glasgow Herald of 1st April 1834, the very day of Mrs. Bums' funeral, and less than twenty-four hours after the second exhumation took place. The advertisement indicates that the edition was to be published in a series of twelve parts, making five volumes in all, rather than as a full set. It is also known that Hogg suffered a serious illness in 1832, from which he never fully recovered before his death on 30th November 1835. What we can deduce from this is that at least part of the Memoir must have been written by Hogg under conditions of poor health. It is perhaps partly for that reason that when we examine Hogg's Memoir ofBurns more closely, it becomes apparent that a very large proportion of the text is little more than a collage of biographies gleaned from the works of other authors, predominantly those of Currie and Lockhart [Batho p.43]. Hogg also makes reference to the biographies of Cunningham, Peterkin, Wordsworth, Gray, Paul, Morrison, Walker and Heron in addition to comments by Gilbert Bums and lengthy excerpts from 47 Robert Burns' own correspondence. There would seem to be little doubt that the decision to invite Hogg and Motherwell, a minor poet of the day, to edit the work, was a purely financial one on the part of the publishers, who would have felt that the association of the three names would lend the venture a higher degree of commercial viability. The second chapter of the Memoir in its entirety, which is attributed in the text to 'a friend' of Hogg's, I have identified as an abridged version of the essay by John Wilson on Bums and the 19 Ettrick Shepherd taken from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine of February 1819 • Hogg simply removes the references to his own work, so that the focus of the essay is moved to concentrate on the talents of Burns. Although I have not found this source attributed in any subsequent text or bibliography, it may well be that the connection would not have been lost on the Scottish literary fraternity of the day. Throughout his lifetime, Hogg had suffered quite badly at the hands of his critics and detractors. Even his practical discourses on the subject of animal husbandry met with critical response, with one particularly vituperative critic suggesting that he was 'away with the fairies' in more senses 20 that the merely literary • Hogg is known to have been very sensitive to such criticism, so the inclusion of Wilson's essay could well have been construed as Hogg taking the opportunity to give the contemporary reader a subtle reminder that his own talent had been thought sufficient to merit comparison with that of the genius of Robert Burns. Hogg generally acknowledges quotations throughout the Memoir, frequently without attribution, by the syntactical convention of using inverted commas at the commencement of each paragraph. If the careless reader overlooks these indicators, confusion will inevitably result. John Davies, who edited the diaries of William Grierson in Apostle to Bums [Ibid. P.241], makes a similar mistake by attributing McDiarmid's account to William McDowall, who also quoted it at length in his own book, Memorials ofSt. Michael's. If Hogg was actually present at eitherof the exhumations, it would seem inconceivable, even making allowances for his failing health, that he should resort to quoting other witness's accounts at such length rather than produce his own; especially given that he had already utilised so much extraneous material, verbatim, in his text. If we accept that Hogg was not present, McGuirk next questions whether Hogg might have known some witness of the exhumation, and here at least we can substantiate that he did. Although I have established that McDiarmid definitely was not a first-hand witness of the exhumation of 1815, there is no question that he was fully conversant with the circumstances of the incident, and also that he and Hogg were old friends. Hogg demonstrates a familiarity with McDiarmid's style when he states in his Memoir of Bums that:- ·

The following more detailed account of this interesting woman [Mrs. Burns] appeared in the Dumfries Courier at the time of her death; and bears internal marks of being from the eloquent pen of Mr. McDiarmid. [H&Mp.246]

This evidence of a comfortable familiarity is strengthened to one of actual association later in the Memoir where Hogg expressly refers to 'my old and valued friend M'Diarmid' [H&M p.261]. There is also documentary evidence that both Hogg and McDiarmid were friends in common with at least one witness who is recorded as being present at the exhumation of 1815, and whom I certainly suspect as being the most likely source for McDiarmid's account. William Grierson was a local merchant and founder member of the campaign to build the Burns Mausoleum. He was also an elder of St. Michael's Church from 1811, and a founder member of the Dumfries Burns Club to which he was elected Secretary. On a subscription list to commission a china punch bowl for that club which was initiated at the meeting of25th January 1819, the name of William Grierson appears with that of John McDiarmid, Editor of the Courier. These two gentlemen, both of whom were office-bearers of the Club at various times, are recorded as being present on an annual basis for several years thereafter. 48 The records of the Dumfries Bums Club document the admission of 'Mr. Jas. Hogg the Etrick 1 Shepherd (sic)' on 25 h January 1820, although there is no indication that he was present on that 1 occasion. However, on the 25 h January 1822 the Cub Minutes, signed by William Grierson, also record that John McDiarmid was in the Chair as President, and that he was accompanied at the top 21 table by 'James Hogg (The Elrick Shepherd)' • We can therefore conclude that the Ettrick Shepherd had spent time in the company of at least one first-hand witness of Burns' exhumation, prior to writing Confessions of a Justified Sinner. The Dumfries of the early 1800's was a small and tightly-knit community in which the same names recur time and time again in the local news of the day. Just two days after they were 1 admiring the mortal remains of Robert Bums, the Dumfries Weekly Journal of 26 h September 1815 divulges that William Grierson and James Bogie would have been admiring each other's 2 garden produce at the first anniversary meeting of the Dumfries and Galloway Horticultural Societ/ • Grierson was the Secretary to the Society, which McDiarmid also joined just two months after his arrival in Dumfries. Most of the participants of Bums' disinterment, and John McDiarmid, were also members of the congregation of St. Michael's Church, and indeed now lie within a stone's throw of the Mausoleum. Hogg's acknowledged friendship with the Editor of the Dumfries Courier would almost certainly guarantee his introduction to those with whom he kept social company, including the protagonists of the exhumation. There is little doubt, given his prominence in the literary world, his artistic affinity with Robert Bums, and his notable penchant for the macabre, that the particulars of the exhumation, had he known of them, would not have escaped Hogg's interest. Whether this can be taken as an indication that he was necessarily made privy to the details of that night in 1815 is another story. There is little question that those involved were upstanding citizens and God-fearing men, imbued with a sense of deep-rooted Calvinist guilt at their disturbing the sanctity of the tomb. During the period January 1794 to December 1809, William Grierson maintained a set of diaries which give a valuable insight to his character at least. They reveal a sedate and serious-minded man who married late in life and whose consuming interest, other than in horticulture and the weather, was to visit the various churches of the area and make critical comparisons of the 23 incumbents' sermons • Grierson may have felt inclined to share his confidences with his long­ term friend McDiarmid, but it is doubtful that he would have been so familiar with Hogg. Even in the event that Hogg was made party to the details of the 1815 exhumation, we must return once again to the question of why an author, who might have been in possession of the material facts for some years, should resort to quoting the work of another. If Hogg had heard the story from any one of these potential sources, would not the natural inclination of a writer be to pen his own version of the event; or at the very least to paraphrase the details of the conversation? There was a wide variety of topical sources for the theme of preservation and exhumation with which Hogg may have been familiar. Despite my earlier description of the closeness of the community of Dumfries, it would be a serious error to assume that it was in any way a parochial one. The local newspapers carried a very high proportion of news from abroad, and their readerships would be well informed in current affairs at both national and international level. The Dumfries 51 Courier of the 1 September 1818 carries the story 'from a Paris newspaper' of an expedition to the interior of an Egyptian pyramid and the exhumation of the mummified remains of the sarcophagus. The explorer Giovanni Belzoni was also in Egypt in 1815, plundering the tombs of the Pharaohs. He returned to Europe in 1819 and displayed his trophies, including mummified remains, at a widely-reported exhibition in London the following year. A poem in the Poet's Corner of the Dumfries Courier of the 21 st August 1821 (which is coincidentally monogrammed 'H') takes the form of an Address to the Mummy in Belzoni's Exhibition. While I do not in any way suggest the poem to be Hogg's, it does serve to trigger the thought that his specific description of the suicide's corpse as a 'mummy' is an intriguing one. 49 Certainly, the theme of perfectly-preserved bodies in Hogg's work is not unique to the Confessions ofa Justified Sinner. He returns to a very similar image in Some Remarkable Passages in the Life ofBaron St. Gio, first published in the Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine of June 1830:-

The freshness of the bodies was remarkable, and viewed by the country people as miraculous; but I am persuaded, that if they had lain a century in that mineral puddle, they would have been the same. The bodies were pure, fair and soft; but when handled, the marks of the fingers remained. [Ibid. p.898]

Perhaps the real answer to the enigma surrounding Hogg's possible source is that he was party to an even more traumatic experience than hearing of Bums' exhumation second hand. It has generally been perceived in modem times that Hogg's article on The Scots Mummy was an integral part of an elaborate hoax, planned to lend credence to the story of the suicide's grave on the eventual publication of his novel. Hogg, as the anonymous 'Editor', intrigues us with this idea himself when he says:-

God knows! Hogg has imposed as ingenious lies on the public ere now. [CJS p.201]

Edith Batho, however, suggests that:-

It is impossible to make out whether Hogg had the whole story in his mind then or whether it developed afterwards by degrees. [Batho p.201]

I would argue I support of the latter theory. Many critics of the Confessions of a Justified Sinner, including Professor George Saintsbury, Andrew Lang and Earle Welby, have gone so far as to express their doubts of Hogg's authorship on the grounds of its uncharacteristic levels of professionalism and complexity [Carey p.xiii]. It has also been suggested that Lockhart may have been involved in its production, at least in some form of advisory or editorial capacity. Batho discounts this possibility in consequence of the novel clearly demonstrating fundamental elements of Hogg's style. She is also uncompromisingly objecting in pointing out that there are several lexical errors in evidence, some of which she cites and asserts that Lockhart would never have passed in revision, far less in commission [Batho p.123]. If, being similarly objective,. we accept the observations on the uncharacteristic levels of complexity as being valid criticism, it is difficult to conceive that Hogg could have purposefully employed quite such an ingenious device as to fabricate The Scots Mummy letter to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine the year before. In the Oxford World Classic edition of Confessions ofa Justified Sinner the editor, John Carey, remarks in his Notes [p.261] that 'a 2' x 1' stone slab, rather like a grave-stone, still stands on top of a cairn on Fall Law'. Douglas Mack picks up on this in an article in the newsletter of the James Hogg Society of May 1982, and goes on to detail new evidence in support of the theory that the story of the suicide's grave was 'an accurate account of events which did in fact take place in the summer of 1823'. In his article, Mack quotes from an undated fragment of a letter apparently sent to Hogg's youngest daughter, Mrs. Mary G. Garden, who by then was resident in New Zealand. The letter was written by 'Wm. Amos', whom Mack has identified as a former acquaintance of Hogg's. In it, Amos reiterates the story of the suicide's grave and confirms that he:-

..... knew William Sheil very well, who was a shepherd in Berry bush-he & a neighbour shepherd were the first that disturbed the Suicide, they kept his bonnet (a Tam o'Shanter) they also found a small toothed comb & a pocket knife. The ground being of a black 50 mossy character the body was not quite decayed away but when it got in contact with the fresh air it hastened its decomposition. Your father having heard what had been done, went up a few days afterwards. William Shiel accompanied him to the grave & had it dug up again, but there was little to be seen .... [Ibid. p.10]

David Groves followed on the same track when he reported in 1989 [Groves pp.240-242] of his discovery that John Burnett, a former 'herd-boy' in the employ of the Ettrick Shepherd during the 1820's had recounted to a local minister many years later, ofHogg's having given him 'an old bonnet of the Glengarry sort and some pieces of woollen cloth' to wash in the burn. These, Hogg told him, had come from the body of the suicide buried in the hills of which he had written. Hogg had gone on to explain that he had first heard the story of the suicide's grave from his grandfather, but than on the publication of the tale 'some of the Edinburgh folk' had visited the site and expressed their scepticism. In view of their reaction Hogg had determined to verify the story by exhuming the corpse himself. The circumstances related by John Burnett, while not corresponding exactly to those which are described in the conclusion of the Editor's Narrative of the Confessions of a Justified Sinner, are not dissimilar. Indeed, making allowances for the fictionalisation of Hogg's account, and the passage of time between the incident and John Burnett's report, any higher degree of material accuracy could be deemed suspicious. My own recognition of the similarity between the account of Burns' exhumation and that of the suicides' graves came as a spontaneous response to reading Hogg's novel for the first time in 1995. When, as a result of further reading, I realised that I was not alone in my suspicion ofHogg's debt to John McDiarmid, I decided that it would be an interesting project to attempt to substantiate that theory. The results of my initial research, in confirming McDiarmid 's friendship with Hogg, seemed to move in the direction of consolidating the theory of the debt - and yet for some reason, I found myself becoming instinctively less convinced. It was at this stage that I read the apparently authentic evidence of the Mack/Groves papers, and found myself favouring that option. As the pendulum swung in that direction, my research on McDiarmid simultaneously began to produce results, eventually to the point of proving it to be impossible that his accounts could have been Hogg's source. It may therefore be concluded that James Hogg owes no debt to any ofMcDiarmid's published accounts for his stories of the exhumation of the suicides' graves.

N.B. The nature of this paper is such that the details and dates of the publications cited are frequently of significance to the argument, and as such are acknowledged within the text. As several primary sources are involved, quotations from primary texts are cited by the initials of the title, and page number. Secondary texts are acknowledged by the convention of author/ editor surname and page number. Additional information is supplied by end note.

[I] John McDiarmid, Sketches/mm Nat11re (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1830) is a primary text, and quotations from it are denoted by the initials 'SFN'. [NB] In B11ms No11: p.48 (ref. note 20, p.650 Carol McGuirk cites Sketches from Nat11re as being published in Dumfries, but comments on the fact that it was in fact published in Edinburgh. In so doing, she follows an error on the part of James Mackay, from whose book she quotes. Possibly the original error arose due to the fact that, although published in Edinburgh, Sketches fmm Nat11re was printed by John McDiarmid's own company, John McDiarmid & Co., Dumfries. [2] James Hogg, The l'riwlfe Memoi1:1· and Co11fessio11s of a J11stijied Sinner (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1991 ), hereafter referred to in the text as Confessions ofa J11stijied Simie1; is the primary text from which quotations will be denoted by the initials 'CJS'. [3] James Hogg, 'A Scots Mummy', in Blackwood'.< Edinb11rgh Maga:ine, 14 (August 1823), 188-190. [4[ Carol McGuirk, 'Burns and Nostalgia', in Kenneth Simpson, Ed., B11111s Now (Edinburgh: Canongate Academic, 1994) is a primary text from which quotations will be denoted by the initials 'BN'. [5] Hogg'sMemoirq{B11ms, hereafter referred to in the text as theMemoh; appears as VolumeV in The Ettrick Shepherd 51 and William Motherwell, Eds., The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow: Archibald Fullerton & Co., 1836), and is a primary text from which quotations will be denoted by the initials 'HFM'. [6] Douglas Mack, 'Review of Burns Now' in the Scollish Literary Journal, 43 (Winter 1995), 18. [7] Dumfries and Galloway Courier, hereafter referred to as the Dumfries Courier, 4th September 1832. [8] Cf. 'their measures were so wisely taken', Dumfries Courier2nd April 1834. [9] Cf. 'the i11dfriduals alluded to discharged, with the greatest of stern-ness, their duty as sentinels', Dumfries Courier 2ndApril 1834. [I 0] Corroborated by the Glasgow Herald article of 22nd October 1852, and W.R. McDiarmid pp.7-8. [I I] Robert Chambers, 'Posthumous History of Bums' in The Complete Works of Robert Bums (Self /11terpreti11g) (Philadelpia: Gebbie & Co., 1886). [12] Glasgow Herald 22nd November 1852. [13] The third known disturbance of Burns' body took place on May 1857, at the funeral of his eldest son, when McDowall tells us that the poet's skull was 'reverentially seen and handled by other visitors to the vault'. [ 14] Glasgow Herald 22nd November 1852. [ 15] Dumfries Courier 2nd April 1834. [16] 'The Skull of Robert Burns and the Skulls of Ten Dumfries Men' in The Spectator, cited by the Glasgow Herald3rd April 1834. [17] James Hogg, 'Autobiography of the Author' in The Works ofthe Ell rick Shephenl (London: Blackie & Son, 1874), p. 459. [18] Rev. Charles Rogers, 'Life of James Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd' in Tales and Sketches of the Eurick Shepherd (Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo & Co., 1882) p.xxvii. [19] Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 4 (Feb 1819) 521-528, attributed to John Wilson by Strout pp. 420 & 520. [20] Dumfries Courier 28th September 1824. [21] Mi11111es of the Dumfries Bums Club, cited by Davies pp.304-310. [22] Dumfries Courier 28th September 1824. [23] John Davies Ed., Apostle to Bums: The Diaries of William Grierson (Edinburgh Blackwood, 1981). Bliography

Primary Texts James Hogg, 'A Sc9ts Mummy', from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 14 (August 1823), 188-190.

James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions ofa Justified Simzer: Writ1e11 by Hiinselfwith a Detail ofCurious Traditio11ary Facts, and Other Evidence, by the Editor (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1991 ).

The Ettrick Shepherd and William Motherwell, Eds., The Works ofRobert Burns (Glasgow): Archibald Fullerton & Co., 1836).

John McDiannid, Sketches from Nature (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1830). Carol McGuirk, 'Burns and Nostalgia', in Kenneth Simpson, Ed., Bums Now (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1994).

Secondary Texts Armstrong, A. J., 'Life of John McDiarmid: Poet, Journalist & Author' [Transcript of manuscript] (Dumfries: Undated).

Batho, Edith C., The Eurick Shepherd (New York: Greenwood Press, 1969).

Blacklock, Archibald, & Combe George, The Phrenological Developmelll of Robert Burns (Edinburgh: W.&A.K. Johnstone, 1834).

Carey, John, Preface and Notes from: James Hogg, The Primte Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Simzer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).

Davies, John, Ed., Apostle to Burns: The Diaries of William Grierson (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1981)

Duncan, Ian, 'The Upright Corpse: Hogg, National Literature and the Uncanny' in Gillian Hughes, Ed., Studies in Hogg and His World, 5(1994), 29-54.

Groves, David, 'James Hogg's Confessions: New Information' in Review of English Studies, Oxford, 40: 158 ( 1989), 240-242.

Hogg, James, 'Some Remarkable Passages in the Remarkable Life of the Baron of St. Gio' in Blac/Mood's Edinburgh Magazine, 26 (June 1830), 891-905.

Hogg, James, 'Autobiography of the Author' in The Works of the Ell rick Shepherd (London: Blackie & Son, 1874).

52 Rogers, Charles, 'Life of James Hogg' in The Ettrick Shepherd [James Hogg], Tales and Sketches (Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo & Co., 1882).

Lockhart, John Gibson, The Life of Robert Bums (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1904).

McDiarmid, John, Picture of Dumfries (Edinburgh: John Gellatly, 1832).

McDiarmid, W.R., 'Memoir of John McDiarmid, Editor of the Dumfries and Galloway Courier', reprinted from the Dumfries and Galloway Courier of 30th November and ?'h December 1852 (Dumfries: 1852).

McDowall, William, Bums i11 Dumfriesshire (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1870).

McDowall, William, Memorials of St. Michael's - The Old Parish Church-Yard of Dumfries (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1870).

Mack, Douglas S., 'The Suicide's Grave in Confessions of a Justified Sinner' in The Newsletter of the James Hogg Society, I (May 1982), 8-11.

Mack, Douglas S., Hogg 's Prose -A11 Annotated Listing (Stirling: The James Hogg Society, 1985).

Mack, Douglas, Review of Bums Now' in Scottish Literary Journal 43 (Winter 1995) 16-20.

Mackay, James, A Biography of Robert Bums (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1992).

Mason, Michael York, 'The Three Burials in Hogg's Justified Simzer', in G. Ross Roy, Ed., Stlldies i11 Scottish Literature (Columbia: University of Carolina Press, 1978) 15-23.

Strout, Alan Lang, The Life and Letters of James Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd: Volume I (1770-1825) (Lubbock: Texas Tech Press, 1946).

Strout, Alan Lang, A Bibliography of Articles i11 'B/ackwood's Magazine' Volumes 1-XVIII (1817-1825) (Lubbock: Texas Technological College Press, 1959).

Urquhart, James, 'A Local Index of the Dumfries and Galloway Advertiser and its Predecessors over 200 Years: Volume I - The Dumfries Weekly Journal' (Dumfries: 1980).

(Wallace, William - revised by), Chambers, Robert, Ed., The Life and Works of Robert Bums (Edinburgh: W.&R. Chambers Ltd., 1896).

Welsh, Alex, Ed., Handbook of the Dumfries Bums Club (Dumfries: Robert Dinwiddie & Co. Ltd., 1955)

Wilson, James R., 'The Story of the Mausoleum' in The A11nual Bums Chro11ic/e, 9 (1900), 26.

Wilson, John, 'Some Observations on the Poetry of the Agricultural and that of the Pastoral Districts of Scotland, illustrated by a Comparative View of Bums and the Ettrick Shepherd' in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 4 (February 1819), 521-529)

Newspapers Cited

Dumfries & Galloway Courier 26th Sep. 1815 Dumfries & Galloway Courier 7th Dec. 1852 Dumfries & Galloway Courier 28th Jan. 1817 Dumfries Weekly Journal 19th Sep. 1815 Dumfries & Galloway Courier IOth Jan. 1827 Dumfries Weekly Journal 26th Sep. 1815 Dumfries & Galloway Courier 4th Sep. 1832 Glasgow Argus 3rd Apr. 1834 Dumfries & Galloway Courier 2nd Apr. 1834 Glasgow Courier lstApr. 1834 Dumfries & Galloway Courier 9th Apr. 1834 Glasgow Herald 3rd Apr. 1834 Dumfries & Galloway Courier 30th Nov. 1852 Glasgow Herald 22nd Nov. 1852

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance rendered to me in my research for this project by the staff of the Burns Collection at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow; and of the Local Archive Section of the Ewart Library, Dumfries. I am also extremely grateful for the guidance, enthusiasm and encouragement given to me by J. Derrick McClure, my former Adviser of Studies at the University of Aberdeen, though he cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions on my part. 53 ROBERT BURNS AND LOUDOUN MANSE

ot far from the town of Newmilns, within a few miles of Mossgiel, a snug, old-fashioned house, almost buried among trees and shrubbery, stands on a gentle eminence to the left of N the public road. The "Loudoun's bonnie woods and braes" of Tannahill's well-known song rise up behind; while in front, with a meadow between, the Irvine wimples and gurgles on its way to overtake the Bumawn and the Cessnock and other streams which have been immortalised in Scottish song. This is Loudoun manse, for many years the home of the Rev. George Lawrie, one of the earliest friends of Bums. The manse is now being altered to an extent that will probably efface much of the interest attraching to it; and, in the circumstances, it seems desirable to call the camera to our aid, and tell exactly what was the poet's connection with the house. And, first, a few words about Dr. Lawrie. The late Charles Rogers, who was a born genealogist, made out that the worthy man was connected in some way with the family of the "bonnie Annie Laurie" of the song. Springing from that Dumfriesshire house, there was the Rev. John Lawrie, who, in 1692, became minister of Auchinleck, Jamie Boswell's parish. This divine had a son (Hames), who, in his tum, became a divine; he, too, had a son, and that son was the Lawrie of Bums' acquaintance. Before going further, let us complete the ministerial chain. Dr. Lawrie had a son (Archibald), who, in 1793, was made assistant and successor to his father at Loudoun. Archibald died in 1837, leaving a son (George James), who, in 1843, was admitted minister of Monkton, in Ayrshire, in succession to the Rev. Thomas Bums, the poet's nephew, who chose to throw in his lot with the Free Kirk. Thus we have five successive generations ofLawries all parsons - a remarkable instance, surely, or hereditary devotion to the manse. The last Lawrie remained at Monkton till 1877, and when he died a year later it was to leave a name as the writer of "Lang, Jang syne" and "The auld manse," two of the best-known of what may be called the minor songs of Scotland. How Bums became acquainted with Lawrie of Loudoun does not precisely appear; but no doubt the introduction came about through Lawrie's literary tastes. Lawrie was the friend of Blair, of Robertson, Blacklock, and of other notable Scottish men of letters. Above all, he had read through the newly-issued Kilmarnock Bums. Of that work he though so well that he sent a copy to Blacklock in Edinburgh, with a hint that he might show it to Dr. Blair. And so, perhaps, it turned out that Bums set off for Loudoun manse. There is no need to say that he was received with the utmost cordiality. The family at this time consisted of the doctor and his wife, a son, three grown­ up daughters, and a fourth-quite a young girl. One of the daughters played the spinet, the precursor of our piano, and quite charmed the poet with her music. Indeed, he remarked afterwards, that she would have rivalled David with his harp in trying to soothe the sorrows of Saul. Dr. Lawrie, like "Jupiter" Carlyle, loved a good dance; so, when the company had dined, after Bums' arrival, the "light fantastic" was set in progress, and a rare evening was spent. Bums had followed the plough too long to be a neat dancer, but one of the Lawrie girls declared that he "kept time admirably." At anyrate, he tired himself out and went upstairs to bed. Morning came, but no Bums came to the breakfast table. Young Lawrie proceeded to call him, and met him on the stair. "How have you slept?" was the conventional query. Slept! The poet had hardly slept at all: he had been "praying half the night"; the young man would find his prayers on the table. What the young man did find was the well-known "O Thou dread Power who reign'st above," which the poet subsequently published with the descriptive title, "Lying at a reverend friend's house one night, the author left the following verses in the room where he slept." Nor was this the only tribute which the poet paid to the Lawrie household. Louisa Lawrie had long in her possession a scrap which he wrote in further celebration of the manse festivities. Being only a scrap we may quote it in full. 54 Here it is:

The night was still, and o'er the hill The moon shone on the castle wa'; The mavis sang, while dew-drops hang Around her on the castle wa '.

Sae merrily they danced the ring, Frae e 'enin' till the cock did craw; And aye the ower-word o' the spring Was lrvine's bairns are boonie a'.

The locality, according to a relative of the Lawrie family, corresponds perfectly: the old castle of Newmilns, visible from the manse windows in those days, before the trees had grown up; the hills opposite, to the south; and the actual scene of enjoyment - all standing on the very banks of the Irvine. Of course some little poetic licence must be allowed the poet in lengthening the domestic dance so far on into the morning. It would never do for a minister to dance until he heard the cock crow - even in the company of a poet. The best of friends must part, and the time soon came when Loudoun manse had to lose its distinguished visitor. Bums at this time, let us remember, was thinking seriously of expatriating himself to the West Indies. Lawrie knew of the intention and deeply deplored its cause, but he could propose nothing better for the poet, and the two said their farewells as if they might not meet again. To get home Bums had to pass over a wide stretch of moor. Very likely he crossed the Irvine opposite the manse and ascended the slopes of Lanfine, which at that time were simply a range of bleak uplands. At anyrate, it was a gloomy scene and a gloomy night, and the traveller's prospects were in keeping. What more natural than that he should drop into poetry? ''The gloomy night is gathering fast" was the outcome of his cogitations. He thought of embarking in a few days for Jamaica, and this song he meant to be his farewell dirge to his native land. As it turned out, it was nothing of the kind. Nor must we forget the part which the genial minister of Loudoun had in upsetting the poet's plans. Blacklock had by this time read the Kilmarnock volume sent him by Lawrie; and he now wrote to Loudoun to suggest that a second edition should at once be printed "more numerous than the first." Lawrie sent the letter to Gavin Hamilton; Gavin passed it on to Bums; and the result was that the intending emigrant gave up his idea ofJamaica, set off for Edinburgh, and there was lionised to such an extent that poetry and song were hence-forward, to all intents and purposes, the objects of his existence. Upon such slight threads of circumstance does one's fate sometimes hang! As Chambers in his "Life ofBurns" remarks: What is here presented regarding the connection of the poet with the minister of Loudoun, is arranged from the narrative of Professor Walker ("Life of Burns"), Gilber Burns (Currie, vol. iii., Appendix), and statements made by Mr. Lawrie's family. The date assigned by Walker for Bums's visit is the "end of autumn"; but this is not compatible either with the date of Dr. Blacklock's letter, afterwards received, not with the accounts we have of Burns's intentions in other quarters. That degree of determination for the West Indies which alone could have prompted the "Farewell, the bonie Banks ofAyr," had certainly ceased before September was far advanced, though the plan was not wholly abandoned till October had expired. The song itself describes autumn objects and circumstances, though under an intrusion of wintry weather. Severe cold blasts are certainly not uncommon at any period of a Scottish autumn, but it did happen that there was a violent storm, accompanied by rain and lightning, in the west of Scotland on the two last days of August and the first of September of that year. It would be tedious to trace in detail the personal and literary intercourse which took place between Burns and Dr. Lawrie. One more point may just be noticed. In the year 1793, the poet had 55 a visit from the Rev. Archibald Lawrie, who, as we have seen, was this year appointed assistant and successor at Loudoun. He reached Dumfries on the 19th of June, and he kept a journal of his doings. A single extract will suffice:

Before supper I sent for Mr. Burns the poet, who came soon after I sent for him, but would not sup with me. He came into the room where I was supping, with a number of strangers, and there sat from eleven at night till three next morning. I left them about twleve, and had a most confounded and extravagant bill to pay next morning, which I grudged exceedingly, as I had very little of Burns 's company; he was half drunk when he came, and completely drunk before he went away in the morning.

From a press article. circa June 1898.

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56 JOHN RANKINE By James L. Hempstead

ohn Rankine was tenant of the prosperous farm of Adarnhill, which lay in the Parish of Craigie, about two miles west of Lochlie, then farmed by William Burnes, the poet's father, from JWhitsunday, 1777 until his death on 13 February, 1784. It would appear that Robert Bums and John Rankine became acquainted during the latter part of the Lochlie period. Rankine was then about fifty years of age and father of a grown-up family. He was quick-witted, fun loving and a practical joker. Although rough in his ways, he was intensely human and as a notorious wag he lived on good terms with many of the livelier county gentlemen. Bums and he had taken to each other, no doubt finding that they shared a love of fun and a common interest on many aspects of life. Burns must have looked forward to his visits to Adarnhill, as a welcome escape from the melancholy atmosphere ofLochlie, where his father was beset with worries oflitigation and declining health. Rankine's youngest daughter, Annie, recalled the poet's first visit to Adarnhill. When he / came into the parlour he avoided treading on a small carpet which was in the centre of the floor. Obviously he was not accustomed to such luxury at Lochlie. While at Lochlie Bums had a passionate chapter 2, verse 10, 'For whosoever shall keep affair with one of his father's servants named the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is Elizabeth Paton. In a letter to Robert Chambers, guilty of all'. The second stanza, however, is Miss Isabella Begg, the poet's niece records what revealing: her mother had told her about Elizabeth Paton:2 I hae been infor't ance or twice, She was an exceedingly handsome And winna say o'er far forthrice, figure, but very plain looking; so active, Yet never met wi' that surprise - honest and independent a creature, that That broke my rest, she had become a great favourite with But now, a rumour's like to rise - her mistress ... She was rude and A whaup's i'the nest! uncultivated to a great degree; a strong masculine understanding with a It seems to imply that it was not Bums's first thorough contempt for 'every sort of essay in seduction, though the first time that refinement. pregnancy had resulted. On the other hand it may be just a case of sexual bravado, or 'he was When the Burnes household at Lochlie was simply brazening out his humiliation' .3 broken up, following William Bumes's death, The metaphor was continued shortly Elizabeth Paton returned to reside at her own thereafter with the much more significant house at Lairgieside, which was near John 'Epistle to John Rankine enclosing some Poems' Rankine's farm at Adarnhill. Bums continued (CW 82-84). It was also a response to the Paton to visit her and in November, 1784, the result of affaire. Rankine's character is set forth at the her liaison with him became apparent. It appears beginning of the poem as a rude, hard-drinking that Rankine heard about her 'condition' and old sinner: forwarded the news to Bums, which provoked the poetic response entitled 'Reply to an 0 rough, rude, ready-witted Rankine, Announcement by Jq_hn Rankine' (CW 85). The The wale o 'cocks for fim an' drinkin' two stanzas beginning 'I am a keeper of the law' There's many godly folks are thinkin' are not without interest. The last lines of the Your dreams and tricks first verse, 'The breaking of ae point, tho sma' Will send you, Korah-like, a-sinkin' Breaks a' the gither', are a paraphrase of James, Straight to Auld Nick's 57 Ye hae sae monie cracks an' cants, is understood, I find, to convey an And in your wicked drucken rants, indecent meaning: tho' in reading the Ye mak a devil o' the saunts, poem, I confess, I took it literally, and An fill them Jou: the indecency did not strike me. But if And then their failings, flaws, an' wants, the Author meant to allude to an affair Are a' seen thro'. with a Woman, as it is supposed, the whole Poem ought undoubtedly be left In the third and fourth verses he appeals to out of the new edition. Rankine to spare 'The lads in black', lest his 'curst wit' will uncover their hypocrisy and leave Although the epistle would be considered them like 'ony unregenerate heathen/Like you indecent to many in eighteenth century Scotland, or I'. In the fifth verse he tells Rankine that he it would hardly raise an eyebrow now in our has enclosed some 'rhymin' ware' and reminds modern free-thinking society. It must be him to let him have a copy of the sang which remembered that it was addressed to Rankine, Rankine had promised. It is only in the seventh who was just the type of person to enjoy verses verse that the main theme of the epistle develops recounting a sexual adventure. It is, however, - the poet's affaire with Elizabeth Paton, another example of Burns's ability to produce couched in humorous allegory of a poacher brilliant verse out of a very earthy subject. bringing a partridge to the ground: In the first verse of the Epistle Burns refers to Rankine's 'dreams and tricks', and in a 'Tivas ae night lately, in my fim, footnote explains that 'a certain humorous dream I gaed a rovin' wi' the gun, of his was then making a noise in the country An' brought a paitrick to the grun ' - side'. One writer has stated that 'At this time A bonie hen; the dreams ofRankine were of greater local fame 5 And, as the twilight was begun, than the verses ofBurns'. Thought nane wad ken. On one occasion he had been invited to a dinner-party at a manse where a number of Unfortunately for Burns somebody told the ministers were present. Some of them were 'poacher-court' (Kirk Session) 'The hale affair' taking him to task on his foibles. He fenced for which he was fined a guinea. This is the with them for a little while, but then became very only indication that Burns and Elizabeth Paton silent, from which they assumed that he had been were disciplined by the church, as no records bested. One of the company, however, exist that either of them were officially censured endeavoured to rouse him and enquired in a very at that time. sympathetic tone why he looked so serious - had any calamity befallen him? Rankine replied Snyder considered the epistle as outstanding: that on the previous night he had been troubled with a rather serious dream, which kept running Burns rarely wrote with more verve in his mind and dampened his spirits. He said, than when composing the thirteen 'I dreamed I was dead and went to Heaven, and stanzas of this clever but blackguardly there I met the Archangel Gabriel who speired epistle. Never again was he so whaur I cam frae and I telt him frae Ayrshire in successful in this vein. Scotland. He then asked me what news I brought frae that part o' the world, and I said there was The poem was included in the Kilmarnock naething worthy o' special notice, except that volume and in subsequent editions, despite the recently there had been an unco number o' deaths advice of the Revd. Dr Hugh Blair, who advised amang the clergy there'. Gabriel seemed Burns to exclude it from the first Edinburgh puzzled and replied, 'I'm sorry indeed to hear 4 Edition on the grounds of indecency: such sad news, but not one of them has made his appearance here'. 6 The Description of shooting the hen A story in similar vein is told about Lord 58 Karnes who was in the habit of calling all his them loaded on to an open cart and familiar acquaintances, brutes, 'Well, ye brute, dropped off at their homes in Tarbolton, how are ye to-day?' was his usual form of in full view of the public. salutation. Once in company, his lordship, having indulged in his rudeness more than usual, There may have been some truth in the turned to Rankine and asked, 'Brute, are ye complaint against McMath, as he was obliged dumb? Have ye no queer sly stories to tell us?' to demit his charge in 1791 because of his 'I have no story', replied Rankine, 'but last night excessive drinking. I had an odd dream. I dreamed I was dead, and About the same time as he wrote the Epistle, for keeping other than good company on earth, Bums also penned 'Lines Addressed to Mr. John I was sent downstairs. When I knocked at the Rankine' (CW 85) by way of an epitaph, the low door, wha should open it but the deil; he theme of which has a striking similarity to one was in a rough humour, and said 'Wha may ye of Rankine's dreams, In it he compliments be, and whaur do ye come frae" 'My name is Rankine as the one 'honest man' in a 'mixi-maxi John Rankine and my dwelling-place was motley squad'. Adamhill'. 'Gae awa wi' ye', replied Satan, 'ye canna come in here; ye're one o' Lord Kames's Ae day, as Death, that gruesome earl, brutes - hell's four o' them already' .7 Was driving to the tither war!' Some ofRankine's tricks and practical jokes A mixtie-maxtie motley squad, have, fortunately, survived. The special prank And monie a guilt-besotted lad: which Burns refers to in the first verse of the Black gowns of each denomination, Epistle, and which no doubt amused him, was And thieves of every rank and station, the one which Rankine played on an From him that wears the star and garter, unsuspecting 'sanctimonious professor', whom To him that wintles in a halter: he had invited to a jorum of toddy in his Asham'd himself to see the wretches, farmhouse. The hot-water kettle had, by He mutters, glowrin at the bitches:­ prearrangement, been primed with proof whisky, 'By God I'll not be seen behint them, so that the more 'water' Rankine's guest added Nor 'mang the sp'ritual core present them, to his toddy for the purpose of diluting it, the Without at least ae honest man, 8 more potent the liquor became. To grace this damn'd infernal clan!' A B Todd, who was the editor of the By Adamhill a glance he threw, Cumnock Advertiser for over 30 years and a 'Lord God!' quoth he, 'I have it nmv, close friend of John Rankine's grandson, Hugh There's just the man I want, ifaith!' Merry, gives the following account of an evening And quickly stoppit Rankine's breath. at Adamhill, as handed down to Merry:9 Annie Rankine, who was the youngest Tarbolton Kirk Session were daughter of the family, claimed that she was the informed that the local Assistant heroine of Bums's son 'The Rigs o'Barley'. It Minister, the Revd John McMath, had is one of his most successful love songs and was got drunk at Adamhill in the company included in the Kilmarnock edition of 1786. It of John Rankine and Robert Burns. The is reported that following its publication, she met Session arranged to visit the farm to Burns and told him that she had not expected to enquire into the incident and Rankine be celebrated in print; and he had replied, 'Oh plotted to save McMath. He gave the aye, I was just wanting to give you a cast amang visitors refreshments which he the lave' (rest). 10 Annie married John Merry, an repeatedly topped up with 'hot water' innkeeper in Old Cumnock, where she died in from a kettle by the fire. Unknown to 1843. the visitors he had filled the kettle, not Burns presented Rankine with a silver­ with water, but with whisky. Eventually, mounted snuff box, and he was the recipient of when all the Session were drunk, he had several poems, apart from those addressed to 59 him. While it must be admitted that 'rough, rude, Other writers, however, have contended that ready-witted' Rankine was not the most this 'mock epitaph' probably dates from the desirable companion for a young man of 25, he Lochlie/Mossgiel period and that Burns was, nevertheless, very appreciative ofBums's anticipated Rankine's survival of himself. burgeoning talents and encouraged him to court the muse. He was so different in character from Bums's father, that it is not surprising that the of Robert young poet should be attracted to someone who Chambers/Wallace. The Life and Works Bums, 1896, Vo! Ip 120 was so fun-loving as himself. 2 Ibid, p119 Rankine's memory was long respected in the 3 J DeLancey Ferguson, Pride a11d Passio11, 1964, p 77 district. He outlived the poet by almost fourteen 4 Donald A Low, The Critical Heritage, 1974, p81 Lowe, Bums 's Passionate Pilgrimage, 1904, p32 1810 and was buried 5 David years, dying on 2 February, 6 Ibid, pp 33-34 in Galston churchyard. There is no evidence 7 Chambers/Wallace, op cit, p. 120 that the poet kept up his association with his old 8 Chambers/Wallace, op cit, p 120 1906, p 47 friend after he moved to Dumfries, although it 9 A B Todd, Reminiscences of a Long Life, I 0 Chambers/Wallace, op cit, p 98 is claimed that he wrote the following lines, 11 Thomas Stewart, ed Poems ascribed to Robert Bums, while on his death-bed and they were forwarded the Ayrshire Bard, 180 I, p 60 11 to Rankine immediately after his death: N.B. The letters CW refer to The Complete Works of Robert Bums, 1986, edited by James A Mackay. He who ofRankine sang, lies stiff and deid, And a green grassy hillock hides his heid: Alas! Alas! A devilish change indeed! (CW 86)

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY NATIONAL SCHOOLS COMPETITION FINALS

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PRIMARY SCHOOLS - 22 MAY 1999 SECONDARY SCHOOLS - 5 JUNE 1999

lif 160,000 SCHOOLCHILDREN BTtf' ENTERED FEDERATION SCHOOLS COMPETITIONS IN 1998 BT Scotland

60 MOSSGIEL CAIRN

ollowing the successful Burns' Bi-Centenary Horse Ploughing Competition held in March 1996 at MOSSGIEL Farm and despite the fact that we did not charge an entrance fee , a F substantial sum of money was left over from the sponsorship and the sale of programmes. The Ayrshire Association of Burns Clubs and the Ayrshire Ploughing Association Joint Committee met to wind up the affairs of the Ploughing Event and to discuss what to do with the surplus. John Caldwell of Moorfield Farm suggested a Cairn be built to commemorate that day when 16 pairs of horse ploughing in the field where Burns turned up that famous mouse drew a crowd of about 10,000 people. On 28 March I wrote to Sir Claude Alexander of Kingencleugh House, Mauchline, for permission to erect the Cairn on the edge of the field. His son, who lives in Canada now owns the farm and he readily agreed. Lindsay Clark of Daldilling Farm, Sorn, spoke to Mr. John Barr of Barr construction and they donated all of the stone for the Cairn, its dais, surrounding wall and bottoming for a lay-by. Jimmy Gibson of Sorsen Farm did our digging out and stone moving. Mr. Barr introduced us to Bob Heath, Architect and Stone Consultant to the National Trust for Scotland who did the plans and detailed drawings free of charge for submission to the East Ayrshire Planning Department. Mr. Andy Bradley, Stone Mason with National Trust for Scotland, who was working at Culzean, built the Monument. As well as the Cairn on its plinth we put in a substantial cast iron park bench and a fence behind a low stone wall. We also had to provide a lay-by for all of the visitors expected but East Ayrshire Council kindly made a cash donation towards our costs. At the end of the day the Cairn and ancillaries cost about £4,500. And so - in March 1998 Sir Claude Alexander unveiled the Bums Cairn at Mossgiel before a crowd of about 150 Burnsians, farmers, locals and dignitaries.

Pictured jivm leji to right: Jim Gibson ( President Ay rshire Association), Tom Currie (Past President Avrshire Ploughing Association), John Skilling (Junior Vice- President), Jim Boyd (Deputy Provost, Kilmarnock and Loudoun Council) and Moira Rennie- Dwwnore (Preside/I/ The Bums Federation).

This is a substantial monument to Robert Burns, who farmed Mossgiel from I 784 - 1786, when he passed his interest to his brother Gilbert, and to that day in 1996 when 10,000 people enjoyed a day in the sun remembering that Mouse and the Cruel Culter still cleaving the soil behind the horse. John Skilling Past President Ayrshire Association of Bums Clubs.

61 A MONODY ON THE FATAL 29TH DECEMBER, 1789. A REDISCOVERED POEM BY BURNS? by Chris Rollie

n the Glasgow Herald for Saturday 8 March 1919 appears the first of three interesting articles entitled 'Bumsianna' by Dr George Neilson 1. These articles were built around a little quarto I manuscript volume containing 172 pages and measuring about eight by six inches, with a watermark ruling of eight lines, which had come into the Doctor's possession some years beforehand. About twenty pages of the volume were in what Dr Neilson described as "the principal hand'' of Miss Helen Craik, the daughter of William Craik of Arbigland, and friend of Robert Burns. Miss Craik is now often styled as the 'Salway Muse' on account of her rhyming habits, and it was in this regard that Burns wrote to her on 9 August 1790 enclosing two of his 'late Pieces' in return for the pleasure he had received in perusing 'a certain manuscript volume of poems [ie by Helen Craik] in the possession of Captain Riddell'. Indeed the term 'Sol way Muse' was taken from the first line of a poem she addressed to Captain Riddell, and it is generally held that she composed and perhaps inscribed the lines on the title page of the Glenriddell Manuscript, the remainder of which Burns produced for the Captain. In the manuscript volume belonging to Dr Neilson (which may or may not be the volume referred to by Burns), the initial poem in the hand of the authoress, Helen Craik, was 'The Maid of Enterkin', whilst elsewhere in the volume appeared Burns's lines on the Stewarts from the inn at Stirling, together with Rev George Hamilton of Gladsmuir's rejoinder (details of which also appear in the Glenriddell manuscript). Some 141 pages of the manuscript were in a 'rather inferior copyist's hand' and the remainder blank. However, by far the most interesting material was covered in the third (and last) of Dr Neilson's articles, 'Burnsianna III', in the Glasgow Herald of Saturday 22 March 1919. This was predicted by Dr Neilson himself in a letter to James Walter Brown (author of Round Carlisle Cross, 1921-29) of 9 March 1919, in which he wrote that a poem in his manuscript book was 'almost certainly by a genius; it seems to bear R.B. his mark! You will judge when Article Ill follows before long.' In this third article Dr Neilson wrote: 'A larger problem arises with a poem which the copyist, here a good deal more careful than usual, has taken evident pains to render distinctly and exactly. It is a piece that may require some critical construing, for its relationships to Bums in general diction, special vocabulmy and easy epistolmy style are patent, however they are to be explained. The subject ofthe "Monody" affords room for speculation, and perhaps it is as well to say that "the fatal 29tlz Decembe1; 1789" does not seem to be a date writ large and deep in the calendarofhisto1y. Inferentially its fatality is to be understood ll'ith reference to some private accident or episode of which "Dm•ie" was the unlucky cause.' The poem referred to was given (unsigned) in its entirety in facsimile and is now here reproduced below:

62 A Monody on the Fatal 29th December, 1789. 'Arms and the man I scom to sing, The thread-bare tale is common Coila thy chiefest succours bring, My Theme is lovely Woman 0 Muse! if e'er ye heard my prayer If e'er I dearly prized ye Had to my hand wi' rhymin ware To sing that fatal Tyseday

Not for your fauts, ye bony twa This Sair mishap ye've got it Your Virginfonns like Virgin Snaw Are taintless and unspotted; For your sweet Sakes it cou'd na be; But thou, Unlucky Davie, Thy Sins and Siiifu' Companie Brought a' this Cursed Shavie. -

Dispel your fears, ye lovely Pair, For a' the ills that's near ye Angels are Heaven's peculiar Care Misfortunes dare na Steer ye But Davie lad do thou repent E'er out again ye v_eiuure, Or Korah like ye' II meet a rent Will send ye to the centre.-

Had but the wheel within the wheel Of our administration Run wi their cargo to the deil It wad been less vexation; But such a precious freight nae less Than lovely Virgin Beauty How cou'd even senseless iron and brass Refuse to do its duty'

In support of his implication that Bums might be the author of this poem, Dr Neilson states that the 'writer proclaims himself as one who knows that on other occasions than this the Muse has heard his prayer and may hear it again.' He also points to the 'unique phrase Korah-like - Bums et practerea nihil' and rather cryptically claims that 'center is used with obvious knowledge of the history ofthat fascinating word in mediaeval cosmogeny and the derivative concepts oflater natural philosophy.' In this vein he perhaps more reasonably concludes: 'The "Monody" apart from an obscurity oftheme is a bit offirst class composition and can fearlessly encounter the cut and thrust of criticism to which it is now definitely committed.' A search of letters to the editor in subsequent editions of the Glasgow Herald did not reveal any correspondence in relation to the Monody, and neither to my knowledge does the poem appear in any subsequent edition ofBurns's works nor is it referred to in the Bums Chronicle. In Burns A­ Z: The Complete Won/finder (1990) James A. Mackay comprehensively lists 111 different pieces

63 attributed to Bums, some of which are shown to be written by others, but does not include the Monody. However, before personally embarking on a detailed, critical examination of the text in relation to Bums's known works, and an investigation into the poet's circumstances around the alleged period of composition, it is perhaps worth returning to Dr Neilson's correspondent, James Walter Brown, himself author of nine series of 'Old Stories Retold' in Round Carlisle Cross (1921-29). In article II of the fourth series of the latter publication (pp120-123) Brown deals with the Monody and includes the following extracts from a letter he addressed to Doctor Neilson on 23 March 1919: The internal evidence bears strongly in favour of Burns having been its author, indeed it is convincing. Even the most sedulous ape could hardly have so closely followed his peculiarities of style and diction, besides which there is from the first line to the last the broad sweep that can only come from a master hand' 'Has not the copyist made a mistake in the penultimate line, in writing "iron"? Surely this should be aim, both because it comes most naturally, and because Bums's sense of rhythm would have led him to use a monosyllable there and not a disyllable.' 'The question arises- how soon after the fatal 29th December, 1789, were the lines penned? You will remember that it was within a fortnight of that date when Bums wrote to his brother Gilbert about the "horrid hypochondria" from which he was suffering. He also told him "We have gotten a set of very decent players here just now. David Campbell, in Ayr, wrote to me by the manager of the company, a Mr Sutherland, who is a man of apparent worth. On New-year-day evening I gave him the following prologue, which he spouted to his audience with applause." ( CW377) 'Now, in the ninth line from the end of t/zat prologue, you will find these words written­ " Angelic forms, high Heaven's peculiar care.'' 'Compare that line with the third line of the fourth stanza of the Monody­ "Angels are Heaven's peculiar care," and with stanza 2, line 3- "Your Virgin forms, like Virgin Snaw.'' 'Does not it occur to you that Monody and Prologue were written about the same time? And may not the Davie of the Monody be "David Campbell ofAyr," and the "bony twa" be two of Mr Sutherland's company, the incident having reference to a mishap at Ayr, as they left that town for Dumfries? It would seem as though they opened at the latter place on I st January, and Sutherland may have told the story to Burns as a joke against his friend Campbell' 'The "senseless iron and brass" might be part of the vehicle conveying the Virgin forms, and the first four lines of the last stanza might have both a political and a topical allusion.' '!feel sure you have dropped on a hitherto unknown poem by Burns, and I heartily congratulate you on your good fortune.' In a reply to Brown, Dr Neilson agreed with the former's analysis and stated that he also intended sending Brown's letter to the Herald. Superficially, Brown's suggested scenario involving Sutherland's company of players seems quite plausible, but a closer examination of the composition and movements of the players at this time seems to rule out an incident on the road at or from Ayr. Firstly, Sutherland's company did not open on 1 January 1790; they had played at the Old Assembly Room in Dumfries on a weekly basis since 16 December 1789, including a production of Shakespeare's King Henry IV in the evening of Monday 28 December, followed by Richard 111 on Wednesday 30 December, Friday 1 January 1790 (when Bums's prologue was recited) and Monday 4 January 1790. This rather rules out a mishap on a journey from Ayr (or anywhere else) on Tuesday 29 December. In addition, a scan of the company's personnel fails to immediately identify two likely candidates as either 'angels', 'Virgin Forms' or a 'lovely pair' of 'virgin beauty'. According to the contemporary Dumfries Weekly Journal there were up to five females in the company, namely Mrs Sutherland (the company leader's wife), Mrs Newbound (whose husband also played), Mrs Day, Mrs Wilson 64 and a Miss Cavendish. Around this time these ladies alternately played queens, mayoresses, duchesses or princes (!), although of course Burns could simply have been engaged in a satiric parody in characterising two of these relatively mature ladies as 'taintless and unspotted' virgins - which it is fair to allow was not beyond his humour. Continuing to follow the assumption that the Monody might be by Burns, from the text one is almost bound to conclude that it falls into the category of parochial squibs in relation to local, and often minor, events which he fired off to various friends from time to time. Internal evidence also points to the poem having been sent to an acquaintance called Davie, who with his 'Sinfu' Companie' was the cause of a certain mishap involving two females. There are various possibilities with regard to 'Davie', including the little known David Campbell of Ayr (mentioned in the letter to Gilbert re Sutherland's company), David McCulloch (of Ardwall) and Davie Sillar (of Ayrshire). Perhaps, though, it is more likely that a 'Dumfries David' was the recipient, raising the possibility of Provosts Staig, Blair or Procurator Fiscal, David Newall. At any rate, in the absence of corroborating evidence in Bums's letters or contemporary accounts and newspapers, it is now virtually impossible to ascertain what exactly was the substance of the 'sair mishap' - even assuming Burns was indeed the author. Unfortunately, there is a gap in the Ewart Library's collection of the Dumfries Weekly Journal beginning the week immediately following 29 December 1789, thereby significantly reducing the chances of unearthing a record of any possible mishap, although it is fair to say that in any case 'local' journals of the time mostly included accounts from afar - probably on the reasonable assumption that local stories were already well circulated, and the Dumfries Weekly Journal was certainly no exception. From his letters it is clear that Burns attended the production of Richard lll on Wednesday 30 December 1789, and began putting together the prologue for George Sutherland during his ride home to Ellisland later that night. Since he attended St Andrew's Lodge in Dumfries on Monday 28th, it is unlikely that he attended the performance of Henry IV on the same evening, if at all, though it is possible that he saw one of the two shows the previous week. There appear to be no obvious parallels in the text of the Monody with either Richard lll or Henry IV, which one would have thought there might have been had the mishap involved either the company or these productions in any way. Such plays often ran well beyond midnight (Davies, 1981), and if Dumfries was indeed the scene of the mishap then it is conceivable that it occurred in the early hours of Tuesday 29 December 1789 following the end of the show. From this distance the only certainties would appear to be that two females failed to successfully complete on schedule an intended journey somewhere by coach/chaise and horses (viz 'Iron and brass'), and that Davie was the 'unlucky' culprit in the affair. Further speculation, though interesting, would inevitably be fruitless and so I'll confine myself to the following flight offancy for a possible scenario involving David Staig, the most likely candidate as a 'wheel within the wheel of our administration' - if ever there was one. Staig was without question the most powerful and influential figure in the local administration of Dumfries burgh for over forty years. He was first elected Provost in 1783 and from then until 1817 he was elected to the post on nine separate occasions, and would almost certainly have held it continuously during the period if rules had allowed this (McDowall, 1906). Through his guidance and energy Dumfries benefited in many ways, including obtaining paving, lighting, cleansing, a new Academy, a new bridge and the first regular mail-coach linking Edinburgh, Dumfries and Portpatrick. He was a very shrewd yet well-liked 'wheel within the wheel' of the Dumfries administration at the time of the 'sair mishap' on the 'fatal 29 December 1789', having again been elected Provost on October 6th of that year. He also became President of the Police Commissioners around that time. '" Staig was a regular attender of the theatre and indeed on 1 March 1790 Bums wrote to him enclosing a copy of the Scots Prologue for Mrs Sutherland's benefit night. In 1793 (most probably 65 on January lOth) Bums again wrote to David Staig imploring him, his 'amiable Lady & lovely daughters' (Jessie and Lilias) to attend Mr Guion's benefit night at the new theatre (CL 551). In 1793 he sent Jessie his complimentary verses 'Young Jessie' (CW 486), whilst in 1794 he again referred to Jessie in his lines to Dr William Maxwell: (CW 519)

'Maxwell, if merit you crave, That merit I deny: YOU save fair Jessie from the grave/­ An Angel could not die!

The Staigs then resided at Hallidayhill, near Auldgirth, and were thus near neighbours of the poet when he lived at Ellisland in December 1789; indeed Ellisland would be on their route to and from Dumfries. If Burns was the author of the Monody, then I believe it is quite possible that its subject was a 'sair mishap' which occurred on a coach/chaise journey by the young 'virginfonns' of the Staig sisters, who would be a relatively 'taintless and unspotted' eleven and fourteen years old respectively, to or from Dumfries on Tuesday 29 December 1789; and that father 'Davie' and his 'sinfu companie' (possibly even including Bums himself) was partly responsible for the vehicle getting stuck, being late or somehow else going wrong. Having got this far, it is not too difficult to imagine Staig and Bums picking up the sisters at the theatre following the masonic meeting! However, returning to the facts, the case that Bums was indeed the author is surely strengthened by the following parallels between the Monody and some ofBums's known works.

Monody Parallels in Burns's works

Arms and the man I scorn to sing, The man in anns 'gains! female charms' Lovely Davies (1791 ?) CW423 The thread-bare tale is common Coila thy chiefest succours bring, Some nine refs to 'Coila' in CW

My Theme is lovely Woman '0 Woman lovely, Woman fair' She's Fair and Fause CW 467 40 out of 56 refs to 'lovely' involve women. 0 Muse! if e'er ye heard my prayer If e'er I dearly prized ye Had to my hand wi' rhymin ware An trowth my rlzymin ware's nae treasure' Epistle to Major Logan 1786 CW258

'And hae a swap o' rhymin-ware' Epistle to Lapraik 1785 CW 103

'I've sent you here some rhymin ware' Epistle to John Rankine 1785 CW83 To sing that fatal Tyseday

Not for your fauts, ye bony twa 'and in he gets the bony twa' The Mauchline Wedding 1785 CW158 Three additional lines contain 66 twa and bonie, but not consecutively. This Sair mishap ye've got it Your Vrrgin forms like Virgin Snaw Are taintless and unspotted; For your sweet Sakes it cou'd na be; But thou, Unlucky Davie, Thy Sins and Sinfu' Companie Brought a' this Cursed Shavie.-

Dispel your fears, ye lovely Pair, For a' the ills that's near ye Angels are Heaven's peculiar Care 'Angelic fonns, high Heaven's peculiar care!' Prologue sent on 31 December 1789 (ie two days after the Monody event!) to G.Sutherland, & spoken by him at Dumfries Theatre on 1 January 1790 CW377

Misfortunes dare na Steer ye 'Misfortune sha'na steer thee' Saw ye Bonie Lesley 1792 CW 436

'And then the Deil, he dauma steer ye!' Epistle to John Maxwell 1791 CW417

'As for the Deil, he daur na steer him' On Captain Grose 1791 CW415

But Davie lad do thou repent 'But Davie, lad, I'm red ye 're glaikit;' Second Epistle to Davie 1786 CW 214

'But Davie, lad, ne'er fash your head' Epistle to Davie 1785 CW 86 E'er out again ye venture, Or Korah like ye'll meet a rent 'Will send you, Korah-like, a sinkin' Epistle to John Rankine 1785 CW 82 Will send ye to the centre.-

Had but the wheel within the wheel Of our administration Run wi their cargo to the deil It wad been less vexation; But such a precious freight nae less Than lovely Virgin Beauty How cou'd even senseless iron and brass Refuse to do its duty

67 Given these compelling parallels, the use of 'Coila' (Bums's own muse) and the evident skill of composition, it is clear that if Burns was not the author of these lines (and of course always assuming that the manuscript was genuine), then someone (poetic) in the late 18th/early 19th century was going to quite extraordinary lengths to imitate Bums in referring to a now-forgotten, parochial and very minor real or imagined incident in the life of the bard. Finally, a brief search of some of Bums's known reading provided two additional parallels with the Monody. The beginning of the latter, namely 'Anns and the man I scorn to sing, the thread-bare tale is common' derives from Dryden's translation of Virgil's Aenid (i.i.):

'Arms and the man I sing, who forced by fate, And haughty Juno 's unrelenting hate'.

Writing to Mrs Dunlop on 4 May 1788, Burns said: (CL 145)

'Dryden's Virgil has delighted me ..... and has filled my head with a thousand fancies of emulation .... I own I am disappointed with the Eneid . ... I think Virgil, in many instances, a SERVILE Copier of Homer.'

'The thread-bare tale is common' indeed! It is possible, too, that the opening line of the Monody's final stanza: 'Had but the wheel within the wheel', derives from Ezekiel X.10:

'As if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel'

Thus, in addition to the strong connections between the Monody and Burns's known works and style, there is at least one classical and one biblical reference in the former from sources with which he was very familiar and which similarly served him on many such occasions. I haven't yet attempted to trace the manuscript volume containing the Monody, but there must be a very good chance that it is still extant. Any help in locating it would be gratefully received, as would any thoughts on the above text.

Chris Rollie, Moorglen, St John's Town of Dairy, Kirkcudbrightshire DG7 3UW

Note

1. Dr George Neilson FSA (SCOT.)(1858 - 1923) was the son of Captain Edward Neilson and was born at Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, in 1858. After schooling at Ruthwell he went to King William College on the Isle of Man before entering the legal profession in Dumfries. In 1879 he went to Glasgow University and became Prizeman in Scots Law and Conveyancing before graduating in 1881. He became a partner in Messrs. Stoddart & Neilson, but in 1891 was appointed Procurator-Fiscal and ultimately Procurator-Fiscal of the Dean of Guild Court. In 1909 he became Glasgow's first Stipendiary Magistrate.

Dr Neilson was a great student of archaeology and made many valuable contributions including a study of 'John Barbour, Poet and Translator' and 'Annals ofthe So/way until A. D. 1307'. In addition to his many books on all mannerof antiquarian, literary and philological subjects, he was also a great essayist and wrote the brilliant 'Cauda/us Ang/icus', dealing with the mediaeval slander that Englishmen had tails, for the Glasgow Archaeological Society!

He was a past president of the Juridical, the Archaeological, and the Royal Philosophical Societies of Glasgow, and of the Sir Walter Scott Club. In 1903 he was conferred the degree of LL.D by Glasgow University. He was a member of Dumfries Bums Club and gave the final spirited toast to the chairman (R.A. Grierson) at the club's celebrated centenary dinner in 1920, which finished after 2.00 am!

68 (extracted from James Walter Brown's Rou11d Carlisle Cross, 4th Series, 1924 pp 117, 119, Thurnam & Sons, Carlisle; and Ce11te11ary Book of the Dumfries Burns Club, Courier & Herald Press, Dumfries, 1920)

NB I have adopted the system of referring to Bums·s works and letters as CW and CL respectively, followed by their page numbers in the respective publications: The Complete Works of Robert Burns ( 1986) and The Complete Letters of Robert Bums ( 1987), both edited by James A. Mackay and published by the Burns Federation.

Acknowledgements I am very grateful to Dr W. ' Patt' Honeyman of Carlisle who was responsible for my first sight of the Monody and related information. Patt has very kindly passed on a veritable treasure-trove of information on l 8th century Carlisle and its environs, which has been of great assistance to me in my re search of Burns in England.

I am also grateful to Donald Watson, James A. Mackay and John Adair for commenting o n the manuscript.

References/Bibliography Brown, J.W., 1924. Old Stories Retold (in Round Carlisle C ross)(4th Series). Thumam & Sons, Carlisle. Burns Chronicles for the years 191 8, 191 9 & 1920. Burns Federation. Centenary Book of the Dumfries Burns Clu b: 1820 - 1920. 1920. Courier & Herald . Dumfries. Davies, J., 198 1. Apostl e to Burns: The diaries of William Grierson. Blackwood. Edinburgh. Dumfries Weekly Journal. (October-December, 17 89) Edited by Robert Jackson. Ewart Library, Dumfries. Glasgow Herald . (March &April, 19 19)(Mitchell Library, Glasgow) Lindsay, M., 1959. The Burns Encyclopedia. Hale, London. Mackay, J.A. (Editor), 1986. The Complete Works of Robert Burns. All oway, Ayr. Mackay, J.A. (Editor), 1987. The Complete Letters of Robert Burns. Alloway, Ayr. Mackay, J.A .. 1988. Burns-Lore of Dumfries and Gall oway. All oway, Ayr. Mackay, J.A .. 1990. Burns A - Z: The Complete Word Finder. Mackay. Dumfries McDowall, W.. 1906. History of the Burgh of Dumfries. Hunter. Dumfries. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 1948. Oxford Uni versity Press.

ROBERT AND JEAN RETURN TO ELL ISLAND The oil painting (right) by James Drysdale of Robert Burns at the age of 29 with his wife Bonie Jean at 23 outside Ellisland farm, Dumfries, 1788. The property of Peter J. Westwood it is now on permanent loan to the Friends of El/island, and can be viewed in the kitchen at Ellisland. The pa inting is one of a number of new acquisitions. (See page 128).

69 FRANCIS GROSE, F.S.A. 1731-1791 ANTIQUARY and SCHOLAR By Bryan Booth (member of Irvine Burns Club)

"That dainty chield, Captain Francis Grose, the fine fat, fodgel wight (dumpy fellow), 0 'stature short but genius bright"

aptain Francis Grose was a stocky and a much corpulent pencil sketcher, and the son of a rich Swiss jeweller from Berne. His father had settled in Richmond, Surrey, a subsidiary C of London. It was after completing four volumes of drawings for the Antiquities of England and Wales in 1787 which influenced him to take a further searching journey, and found for himself a most welcome port of call seven miles north of Dumfries, 'Glenriddell' the turreted mansion­ house belonging to Captain Robert Riddell, and named Friars' Carse, Nithsdale, whereupon he used as his headquarters and took notes and ventured outdoors to sketch Lag Castle, Closeburn Castle and numerous other landmarks in the neighbourhood, all for his second volume of Antiquities of Scotland, and a Provincial Dictionary, 1787. Robert Riddell, himself a local antiquarian, having retired very early in life from the Prince of Wales Light Dragoons in 1783, and there fol lowed his marriage to Elizabeth Kennedy at Manchester Cathedral a year later on 23'd March, 1784. By 1768 Francis Grose had published his first book entitled Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He was halfway through his adventurous life before a change of circumstances resulted in him becoming a member of the Incorporated Society of British Artists at the Royal Academy. There followed employment with the Richmond Herald, Surrey. About this period of his career, he would have given financial consideration to his grown-up family, by, at one time, mentioning to Robert Burns, the poet, that they had since found respectable positions for their future. But fatefully, for him the fo1tune left by his own father soon diminished. Moving on to an army service in the Hampshire Militia as a paymaster and adjutant, he by then raised his rank to Captain in 1778. But strangely from then on his untidy distribution of expenses led him to think that his army career had little future to continue with, whereby falling back on his

Captain Grose'.1· grave in Drumcondra Churchyard, Dublin. 70 Drumcondra Church, Dublin. much superior productive artistry merit, would now be the only way to profit forward. Proceeding in the direction of old passions with pen, pencil and chalks, and an exquisite talent for engraving his drawing work he resumed the work he adored mostly, that was sketching landmarks and monumental buildings throughout the British Isles, for eventual inclusion in separate volumes, successfully begun on his travels in England and Wales. Many jovial meetings took place at Friars' Carse between an occasional number of respected gentlemen, of which, on invitation, the poet Bums, diarist Farrington, the factor of Drumlanrig Castle, John McMurdo and Robert Riddell himself were present. Friars' Carse, being in a very sequestered position, bounded by the river Nith, from where any open window, its pretty murmuring sound must have been audible within its tranquil rooms.

Dear Bard "To ride this day in vain for it will be a steeping rain, so come and sit with me; we'll twa or three leaves fill up with scraps, and whiles fill up the time with cracks, and spend the day with glee." Robert Riddell That summer, whilst Grose resided at Glenriddell, the Poet walked to the mansion alone by the river, running briskly towards the Solway, where the salt water estuary would receive its descent, for he was determined to make the most of the antiquarian's short stay. Looking ahead towards continuing with discovering further models of antiquity in the south west of Scotland, Grose found the Poet and the host, Captain Robert Riddell most attentive. Sitting amongst the library's shelves, decorated by leather bound books- "enjoying more pleasant evenings, said Burns, than at all the houses offashionable people put together:" On one or more occasions, to place Grose's name into Scots verse, Burns pondered with equal enthusiasm, taking advantage of these visits to Friars' Carse, for dedicating future rhymes in favour of the antiquarian humour­ it just had to be. Also Bums discussed at least three variations of a witchcraft story from his youthful days in Kirkoswald, where long since he had layed aside his pen to write prose into verse, 71 some other day. For these valuable hours together, Grose and he would study the plausibility of a double creative duet. He was much influenced by the Poet's fascinating remarks about the local tale of Alloway's roofless ruined Kirk, near Ayr, where his father was laid to rest in 1784. Soon they would both compare their related philology. "Unco pack and thick tegither", for Captain rose to make his journey to scenic Ayrshire, and make a drawing of the Kirk for the possible inclusion in the pending volume two of the Antiquities of Scotland. On the condition, the Poet would rhyme some verses to place alongside the picture. Saying a fond farewell to the several residents of Friars' Carse, Captain Grose departed along the delightful shaded avenue, beneath the abounding, mighty tall, beech and Scots fir trees, never more to return. A gracious letter wrote by the Poet to Mrs. Anna Dunlop, it maybe that he was still chuckling at Francis Grose being in ''full good humour and good nature and an inimitable boon companion" and ending "/have directed him among other places to Dunlop House, an old building worthy ofa place in his collection" " ... a cheerful looking grig ofan oldfat fellow wheeling about your avenue in his own carriage with a pencil and a pen in his hand, you may conclude, Thou art the man!" Later in the year when Captain Grose was still in Scotland, the Poet wrote to professor Dougal Stewart in Edinburgh.

"Sir; I will be extremely happy ifthis letter shall have the honour ofintroducing you to Captain Grose, a gentleman whose acquaintance you told me you so much coveted. The satire verses written in the wrapper enclosing the letter of introduction to the professor were ...

But please transmit th' enclosed letter; Igo and ago which will oblige your Humble debtor !raw, Coram, dago. So may ye hae auld stanes in store, Igo and agfo, The very stanes that Adam bore, /raw, Corum, dago. So may ye get in glad possession, Igo and ago The coins o'Satan's coronation! /ram, Coram dago.

The Adam of the verse was Edinburgh's antiquary, Adam de Cardonnel Lawson, who assisted the Captain on his arrival in the capital, writing descriptive notes to detail the drawings. He was also the author of Numismata Scotiae, a monograph for the first of Scottish coins. Bums began to commemorate his friend with -

"Here, Land O'Cakes, and brither Scots, Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat's; If there's a hole in a' your coats I rede you tent it A chief's among you, takin' notes, And,Jaith, he'll prent it! Captain Grose had started something big, greater than the sketch on Mauchline Castle, his next assignment, having finished the drawings of Alloway's 'haunted' Kirk, Culzean Castle, Dunure Castle and Crossraguel Abbey. It was late autumn, 1790 when the Poet's imagination took on a brilliant lease of life, and by the river Nith, at Ellisland farm, the immortal tale of Tam O'Shanter was finally put into verse. Captain Grose and the Poet should both take a share of this stupendous production, adding equal important to one another's work. The best narrated tale in verse since Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the top ofBums's achievement. By April 1791 the second volume of Antiquities of Scotland was published. Acknowledging his obligation to Burns, he had inserted the Alloway Kirk, and the complete verses of Tam 0 'Shanter. An introduction note read:- "To my ingenious friend, Mr. Robert Burns, I have been seriously 72 obligated: he was not only at the pains of making out what was most worthy of notice in Ayrshire, the country honoured by his birth, but he also wrote expressively for this work the pretty tale annexed to Alloway Church". This "pretty tale" being "Tam O'Shanter!". Inscribed in the Glenriddell Manuscripts but ignored in the Poet's first biography, it was prefaced in the Scots Magazine. Mr. Grose was exceedingly corpulent and used to rally himself with the greatest of good humour on the singular rotundity of his figure. The following epigram, written in a moment offestivity by the celebrated Bums, the Scottish poet, was so much relished by Grose, that he made it serve as an excuse for prolonging the convivial occasion to a very late hour.

On Captain Francis Grose

The Devil got notice that Grose was a-dying, So, Whip! At the summons old Satan came flying; But when he approached where poor Francis lay groaning, And saw each bed-post with its burden a-groaning, Astonished, confounded, cried Satan, by God! "I'll want him, ere I take such a damnable load!"

It may. be worthy of note, that it could have been one of those late hours of conviviality, where Francis Grose and Robert Riddell's wife Elizabeth had a disagreement. In the presence of the Poet, a quarrel broke out, and months later, a letter arrived from Francis Grose to Bums, dated 3rd January, 1791 declaring:- "After the scene between Mrs. Riddell Junr and your humble servant, to which you was witness, it is impossible I can ever come under her roof again." Having left his recently scribed drawings for a second volume in Edinburgh for eventual publication, Captain Francis Grose then had in mind to embark on a final journey, which would complete a full circle of Great British ancient and noble landmarks. However, that was not to be experienced until some twelve months later. James Boswell, the famed biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, included in his Journal, that sadly having missed the antiquarian in Ayrshire during the summer of 1789, he took time to call on Captain Grose at his London home on 21•1 December, 1789, perhaps to discuss his merits and encourage further drawings of those places which meant a good deal to Boswell, namely his family home, Auchinleck House and the nearby family old Parish Church. His health must have given him cause for concern. He had, by now covered countless miles throughout England, Wales and Scotland, sometime under fatigue brought on by difficult terrain and changeable climate. Even the National Bard remarked in a letter to Dougal Stewart that the Captain's health was "Precarious". Ireland was no short measure for his tiring limbs, but his dreams still fell short of reaching a conclusion. The castellated architecture of Ireland was foremost on his mind, supported by a few agreeable companions in Dublin. Grose engaged himself in drawing illustrations to be etched by him for one volume at least, on the Antiquities of Ireland. Although his powers weren't flagging, the tell-tale signs of uninterrupted employment over several years, he must have been aware of his weakening. It was while making merry with his acquaintances, when he became distraught and collapsed. To the onlookers, it was diagnosed an apoplexy fit, and the end came soon. Looking back on both the poet Bums and the antiquary artist, Francis Grose, both immortal memories will live on together, will they not?

73 SAINT AND SINNER By Raymond Grant

Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more ... whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

1 very year, in time for January 25 h, an Anglican priest in British Columbia sends me a card which reads, "On this great and glorious day in the life of every Scotsman, I wish you a E happy Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul." And, indeed, January 25th is so celebrated by the Christian church. My colleagues in the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University could not quite understand why I was so fixated on the Conversion of Svati Pavel that I insisted so strongly upon returning from Prague to Edmonton in time for January 25th. Bringing light to these gentiles, I told them of the true significance of January 25th, the celebration 1 of the 239 h anniversary of the birth of Robert Bums. "Ah! Robert Bums," they said reverently, and asked their inevitable question, "Was Robert Bums a Christian?" To which I gave them a direct, authoritative and unequivocal answer "Yes - and no. Bums had a firm faith in the divine creator whose love pervades and permeates the universe, but his expression of that faith was not so much Christian as Pauline." And they did question me further, saying unto me, "Is Robert Bums, then, Scotland's patron saint?" To which I did make reply, saying unto them, "No - much more important than that, he is the whole world's patron sinner." I must confess to being much amused when I see that patron sinner smiling down on me from stained glass windows. He gazes benignly on his universe from the two lovely windows installed in the Bums Museum in Alloway right next to the auld clay biggin' in which he was born. At the Jean Armour Cottages in Mauchline, another splendid window is in an inner wall of the W. Page Burgess Common Room, while in the Kirk at Alloway the Rev. McGinty takes pride in his new Bums window. On this Sunday, January 25th it is appropriate to consider just how appropriate it is to have stained glass windows of that patron sinner. Saints we have aplenty, of course, even in the Church of Scotland. As Professor Gordon Rupp once pointed out, we Protestants have as many saints as the Roman Church; the difference is - publicity. But it is not easy to identify oneself with a saint, because saints seem remote from our experience of universe. Saints are better off dead, because then they become part of a vast body of historiography and hagiography. While they are alive, they simply make us uncomfortable by their apparently unassailable virtue and the visionary certitude of their steadfast faith. Scotland's patron saint of old was St. Columba, then with the departure of the Columban clergy veneration passed to St. Peter, until in 736 he was suddenly supplanted as patron saint by his brother Andrew. It is Andrew's representation with his saltire cross that we are now accustomed to seeing in our stained glass windows. How much better, though, to have a patron sinner,_ someone acquainted with human weakness and temptation, yet able to see clearly how the universe revolves around the loving and merciful God. With such a person as ourselves we can identify, share in his anguish about sin and in the radiance of his conviction that our redemption from sin is guaranteed us by the blood of that loving and merciful God streaming throughout the firmament. Mankind is separated from its God by the gulf of sin, a vast abyss of pain and grief and misery and death occasioned by the original sin of Adam. But that gulf has been bridged for us by Christ Jesus, who paid for all our sins ·on ·his felon's cross and who vanquished death forever on our eternal behalf. As St. Paul puts it, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself ... As in 74 Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." [I Corinthians 14.22] Christ was the second Adam come to repay the debt of the first and to reconcile mankind and deity to one another again. Sin and sanctity are therefore the extremes of moral possibility in the continuum of human life, and we all hover between these two poles as we make the fateful choices which will determine our eternal destinies. Christ did not come to earth to spend his time with saints, to heal those that were not sick in the first place. No, he came to spend his time with sinners, with the halt and the lame and the sick, with the beggars and the lepers and the felons and the villains and the prostitutes for whose sins he was to pay, willingly, such a terrible price. His attitude towards sin and sinners is made clear to us in this morning's story from St. John's gospel:

He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst ... And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

In this cameo, we stand with the scribes and Pharisees, convicted by our own conscience; we can do nothing else unaided by Christ, for we all bear the stain of sin in a universe separated from its Creator. But Jesus does not condemn us, for he is come to reconcile universe and Creator by his supreme act of love upon the cross - "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." An expectant universe awaits its salvation from sin and its reconciliation with deity, and we go forth with the woman into a new and wonderful dispensation in which there is not more suffering from sin, no more judgement, no more death, only an infinitely loving Father God awaiting us with the open arms of grace and love. It is of this grace and love that Robert Bums speaks in his poetry so movingly- who is better equipped for the task than the whole world's patron sinner? Theologians cannot tell us what Christ wrote on the ground- that was the task of the great sinner poet of the human race. Bums and the 18th century viewed the universe as a vast, hierarchical structure in which sinful mankind hovered between the angel and the brute, stood on that narrow isthmus of the middle state, walked the via dolorosa between sin and grace. The patron sinner of this world placed himself philosophically, artistically and theologically on this via dolorosa as he sang of human weakness coming short, of the kinship of man and nature, of the infinite value of the individual human soul under the aspect of eternity. When Burns sang of his auld mare Maggie, of the wounded hare, of his pet sheep Mailie, of the mountain daisy crushed beneath his plough, he painted a picture of a universe in which man is merely primus inter pares, first among equals with whom a close kinship binds mankind and nature. It is in the context of that kinship, nature's social union, that Bums could compare himself to a wee mouse to the mouse's advantage:

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In provingforesiglzt may be vain: The best-laid schemes o'Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An'lea'e us nought but grief an'pain, For promis'djoy!

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me! The present only toucheth thee: But Och! I backward cast my e'e, On prospects drear! 75 An' forward, tho' I canna see, I guess an' fear!

Similarly, a louse climbing up Jenny's fine new Easter bonnet so reminiscent ofLunardi 'shot­ air balloon can be used to emphasise the kinship of man and best in order to castigate human pride:

0 wad some Pow'r the fitie gie us To see oursels as others see us!

And this parity of man and beastie is no mere poetic or artistic conceit - this is a sound and an integrated theological system. This is not just pantheism, but the very immanence of God in his creation. In this middle state, mankind is by its very nature sinful and alienated from God by sin, yet can reach upward to its deity and sue for grace because, as St. Paul said, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Bums's conviction that the gulf between mankind and God has been bridged by love shines through his love poems, his satires, his versions of the psalms, and his anthems to life and liberty; and this conviction of reconciliation is purely Pauline. This is where the link between Bums and St. Paul makes perfect sense. In his military armour, Saul the persecutor and sinner is knocked off his horse and blinded by a flash of lightning on the Damascus road, and St. Paul picks himself up and puts on the new and whole armour of God in a moment of fearful epiphany. A fearful winter storm blows in the gable end of the auld clay biggin' in Alloway as Bums comes crying into the world and the spae wife foretells that he will be the great poet of the human heart. St. Paul was very much aware of his human weakness and sin, having a thorn in his side of whose specific nature we are uncertain. Bums was also very much aware of his human weakness and sin, having a taste for the ladies of whose specific nature we are most certain. Both saint and sinner fought with their problems, took strength from them, built thereon a sure and certain hope of salvation and resurrection to come. Paul in prison fell back upon his conviction for strength, and Bums did the same as he felt the lash of Calvinist rebuke on the cutty stool in Mauchline. At the beginning of the /Eneid, Virgil tells us, Sunt lacrimae re rum, et mentem mortalia tangunt, "Human deeds have their tears, and mortality touches the heart." This quality of bringing the tears to the universal eye, of taking us all right into the lacrimae re rum is shared by St. Paul and Robert Bums as together they show how love can ward off the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or as they sing the anthem of the common man, St. Paul tells the Romans:

Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God. [Romans 8.38]

And the poet puts the matter thus: Life is but a day at most, Sprung from night, in darkness lost; Hope not sunshine every hour, Fear not clouds will always lower ..... Thus resigned and quiet, creep To the bed of lasting sleep; Sleep, whence thou shalt ne'er awake, Night, where dawn shall never break, 76 Till future life, future no more, To light and joy the good restore, To light and joy unknown before. Stranger, go! Heaven be thy guide! Quod the beadsman of Nith-side.

Both St. Paul and Robert Bums have the power of poetry in their words about the sanctity of human love and the infinite worth of the individual human soul:

Thou I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling symbol .... And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. [I Corinthians 13.1, 13]

Then let us pray that come it may, As come it will for a'that, That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth Shall bear the gree, and a' that. For a' that, and a' that, Its comin yet for a' that, That Man to Man the warld o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that.

Alle menschen werden Bruder, the theme of Schiller's Ode to Joy, of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, but how eloquently and simply stated by St. Paul and Robert Bums. So both St. Paul and Robert Bums preached the brotherhood of man, and did so in the context of the fatherhood of God in which they both so passionately believed, a God who died to forgive their sins and who as an ever-loving parent waits with open arms to receive his erring children unto himself. Bums wrote to Robert Muir [Mossgiel, 1788]:

But an honest man has nothing to fear ... even granting that he may have been the sport, at times, of passions and instincts; he goes to a great unknown Being who could have no other end in giving him existence but to make him happy; who gave him those passions and instincts, and well knows their force.

He wrote to Mr. Hill [Ellisland, 1789]:

God knows I am no saint; I have a whole host of follies and sins to answer for; but ifl could, and I believe I do it as far as I can, I would wipe away all tears from all eyes.

And writing from Ellisland in 1790 he ended his letter as follows:

Finally, Brethren, farewell! Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are gentle, whatsoever things are charitable, whatsoever things are kind, think on these things and think on Robert Bums.

Quaecumque vera, quaecumque pudica, quaecumquejusta, quaecumque sancta, quaecumque amabilia ... the message of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, the motto of the University ofAlberta, our patron sinner's closing words to us all. There is a final stained-glass window of Bums to be mentioned, the one in St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. The dark, full figure of Bums looks upward from the darkness of this world to the 77 fantastic sunburst of the great west window. Theologically the artist has hit the nail right on the head, for the patron sinner struggles to rise to his God for forgiveness and grace. At winnock bunker more to the east is a black, touzie tyke of a statue of a black, touzie tyke of a man, John Knox of the glaring eyes, busy rebuking sin. One glaring eye tries to bum into the back of the image of Bums, but the patron sinner of the world is oblivious to all but the magnificent sunburst high over his head, the sunburst of poetic inspiration, the sunburst of God's immanence in His creation, the sunburst of that individual moment of epiphany by which the human soul is led upward to the Father, the sunburst of eternal love pledged in the Celtic cross:

0 Thou, Great Governor of all below! If I may dare a lifted eye to thee, Thy nod can make the tempest cease to blow, Or still the tumult of the raging sea; With that controlling pow'r assist ev'n me, Those headlong, furious passions to confine; For all unfit I feel my powers to be, To rule their torrent in th' allowed line: O' aid me with Thy help, Omnipotence Divine!

And from high above the azure blue of the empyrean comes the word of reply and reconciliation to give quietus to the patron sinner of all the world:

Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more ... whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there by any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. AMEN

78 1937 "'GLOBE INN JUBILEE"' 1997

n 1937, Mr. Matthew McKerrow, a Dumfries solicitor and Burns enthusiast, later to become a distinguished president of the Burns Federation, seized an opportunity to purchase the Globe I Inn in Dumfries, "Burns' Favourite Howff', in order to preserve the historic association with Robert Sums. There was at that time, a real danger that the unique collection of Burns memorabilia would be sold off and disposed world-wide. In the intervening 60 years, the Globe has remained with the McKerrow family. Matthew's son George, also a past president of the Burns Federation, took over the reins in the 1950's and in due course handed over the management to his son Gordon and daughter-in-law Maureen, the present licensee. 1 To commemorate the 60 h anniversary of the purchase, the Burns Howff Club, based in the 1 Globe, organised a Jubilee dinner on October 8 h, 1997. Guests of honour were Bunty and George McKerrow and during the evening, a tribute to the McKerrow family was proposed by Joe Campbell, Junior Vice-President of the Burns Federation. Gordon McKerrow replied and a toast to "Drouthie Cronies" then and now, was submitted by Howff Club past president, Peter Kormylo. Members sported dress of the 1930's and a feature of the evening was the place mats made from pages of the "Dumfries and Galloway Standard" from 1937, covering news stories of the day including the fortunes of Queen of the South, then in the Scottish First Division. After dinner entertainment included a hilarious sketch written and performed by Howff Club members, set in 1937, featuring the discovery of the "hidden room" upstairs in the Globe, which eventually became the club committee room. Entertainment was supplied by club members and guest artistes Max Houliston, Ian Kirkpatrick, Ian Austin, Alex Pool and Ian Rodger. Later, the proceeds of the evening were donated to "Salway Sound", the talking newspaper for the blind in Dumfries and Galloway who received a cheque for £200.00. Photo shows - seated - Bunty and George McKerrow. Standing left to right - Joe Campbell, Jim McCambley (President), Maureen McKerrow, David Smith, (Hon. Secretary). Sadly, Past President George died in October, 1998 see under obituaries. 79 ROBERT BURNS' RELIGION: 1 "WISTFUL AGNOSTIC"[ J or ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN? By Ian A. Hunter

"The grand end of human life is to cultivate an intercourse with that Being to whom we owe our life ... "[2].

iven the universal appeal of Robert Bums and his frequent biblical allusions, it is not surprising that Bums can be quoted " ... in support of nearly every variant of religious G belief'.[3] The Reverend Dr. William Peebles denounced Burns for treating "the sacred truths of religion [with] levity" and for glorifying "the song of the drunkard and the abandoned profligate".[4] By contrast, Mr. A. B. Jarnieson's book, Burns and Religion (1931), purports to discover in Burns a covert Calvinist, a secret sympathizer with the likes of the Reverend "Daddy" Auld (1709-1791) and "Holy Willie" Fisher (1737-1809). Between such fanciful extremes lies the truth; but (as Pilate once memorably asked) what is truth? Maurice Lindsay calls Burns a "wistful agnostic". From Burns' own commonplace book, his poems and letters, the fragment of autobiography (Letter to Dr. John Moore, 22 August, 1787), and from accounts of his brother, Gilbert, and other contemporaries, I shall attempt to show that Burns was an orthodox Christian, one who affirmed all of the central tenets of Christianity, albeit with some lingering reservations about immortality. Robert, and his younger brother Gilbert, common sense, a view Burns accepted and were taught for a time by John Murdoch, an contrasted satirically (in the Epistle to John eighteen year old itinerant teacher, engaged by Goldie) with the benighted supersititions of the William Burnes and some of the neighboring "Auld Lichts". Of course, Burns knew the Bible farmers. Robert was then 7, Gilbert 6. Murdoch intimately, and he told John Murdoch that he later recalled having taught his pupils "... the prized Thomson's Man of Feeling "next to the New Testament, the Bible, Mason's Collection Bible"[8], from which may be inferred that the of Prose and Verse, and Fisher's English Bible retained pride of place throughout the Grammar. They committed to memory the poet's life. Burns' younger sister, Isabella, said hymns, and other poems of that collection, with that when she was a child Robert had taught her uncommon facility ... "[5]. Burns told Dr. Moore the Scriptures.[9] that among the "earliest compositions" he The next logical place to seek evidence of remembered was a hymn by Addison: "How are Burns' religion is his commonplace book. This they servants blest, 0 Lord"[6]. holograph manuscript records Burns' earliest Burns' father maintained a small home observations, before any thought of publication. library; among the earliest books the poet The first page of the commonplace book carries remembered having read were Stackhouse's the descriptive title: "Observations, Hints, History ofthe Bible (which came by installments Songs, Scraps of Poetry &c. by Robt. Burnes ... " to subscribers, including William Burnes) and [the poet having not yet adopted the surname Taylor's Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin.[1] Burns], a man who had little heart in making The latter work, a favourite of the "New Lichts", money, and still less in keeping it; but was, contended that biblical interpretation required however, a man of some sense, a great deal of the acceptance of nothing contrary to reason or honesty, and unbounded good-will to every 80 creature ... ". The first entry was made in April, When human weakness has come short, 1783 when Bums was 24, living and working Or frailty stept aside; on his father's farm at Lochlie. The last entry, Do Thou, All-Good, for such Thou art, two and a half years later, is dated October 1785 In shades of darkness hide. at Mossgiel. "Handsome Nell" is the first poem in Bums' The next significant autobiographical source Commonplace Book (April 1783), but it is is Bums' letter to Dr. John Moore, followinz the noteworthy that the next poems are religious in poet's first visit to Edinburgh. Burns wrote nature, written around March 1784 when Bums promising Moore "an honest narrative" and "a was mourning the death of his father - worn out, faithful account of what character of a man I bankrupt, and prematurely old - the previous am".[12] Given the poet's lack of ancestral month. While these are not among Bums' best pretension {"My ancient but ignoble blood/Has poems, they are revealing about his religious crept through scoundrels since the flood"}, beliefs: [ 10] Bums would appear to be that rarest of authorial flora - a truthful autobiographer. Concerning "O Thou great Being! What Thou art religion, Bums told Dr. Moore that as a boy he Surpasses me to know:: practiced "an enthusiastic, idiot piety".[13] Yet sure I am that known to Thee The Presbyterian church of Burns' youth had Are all affairs below. fractured into "Auld Lichts" - strict Calvinists who preached original sin, divine election, and Thy creature here before Thee stands, predestination - whom Burns lampooned All wretched and distrest; whenever occasion permitted, and the more Yet sure those ills that press my soul liberal "New Lichts"~ whom Bums could tolerate Obey Thy high behest." if not support. Many commentators seem to have deduced from Burns contempt for the hypocrisy The following month (April 1784) Bums of the "Auld Lichts "', like "Holy Willie" Fisher, thus described himself: " ... my mind is rapt up -a contempt for religion generally. Bums wrote in a kind of enthusiasm to Him who, in the to Dr. Moore: "Polemical divinity about this time pompous language of Scripture, 'walks on the was putting the country half-mad; and I... wings of the wind".[11] In August he turned used ... to puzzle Calvinism with so much heat again to poetry, prefacing these verses with a and indiscretion that I raised a hue and cry of note: "A prayer, when fainting fits and other heresy against me, which has not ceased to this alarming symptoms of a Pleurisy or some other hour.[' 14]". From Burns' evident scorn of "Auld dangerous disorder, which indeed still threaten Licht" Calvinism, it is a mistake to deduce me, first put Nature on the alarm:[12] heresy, yet the charge of heresy echoes down the years. 0 Thou, Unknown, Almighty Cause The poet's father, William, and his mother, Of all my hopes and fear, Agnes, appear to have been affectionate, dour In whose dread presence ere an hour Calvinists (what Calvinist would not fit the Perhaps I must appear. description "dour"?), still worshipping, perhaps restlessly, among the "Auld Lichts". In a letter If I have wandered in those paths to his cousin, Bums described his father as Of life I ought to shun, " ... the best of friends and ablest of instructors ... As something loudly in my breast whose memory I will ever honour and Remonstrates I have done. revere".[15] Despite his father's antipathy to dancing, which led to a row over Robert Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me attending dancing classes in Tarbolton, to judge With passions wild and strong, from The Cotter's Saturday Night, father and son And listening to their witching voice shared orthodox Christian beliefs. From the Has often led me wrong. poet's brother, Gilbert, we know: "The cotter in 81 the 'Saturday Night' is an exact copy of my "That thus they all shall meet in future days: father in his manners, his family devotion, and There ever bask in uncreated rays, exhortations ... "[16]. Among the cotter's several No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, exhortations to the "yonkers" is this: "Be sure Together hymning their Creator's praise, to fear the Lord always". The children are told: In such society, yet still more dear; While circling time moves round in an "Implore His counsel and assisting might; eternal sphere. They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright." To such devout innocence Bums contrasts the "pompous strains" of the institutional church The family devotion after the evening meal, as its rapscallion ministers: which Bums describes with skill and tenderness, was a common ocurrence in many Scottish "Compared with this, how poor Religion's homes, my own included: pride, In all the pomp of method, and of art, "The cheerfu 'supper done, wi' serious face, When men display to congregation's wide, They round the ingle fonn a circle wide; Devotion's every grace, except the heart!" The sire turns o'er wi' patriarchal grace, The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride: The imagery of the poem concludes with the His bonnet rev 'rently is laid aside, children of the family going their several ways, His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare; while father and mother kneel beside their bed Those strains that once did sweet in Zion and "proffer up to Heaven the warm request" glide, that God might for them, and for their children, He wales a portion with judicious care; provide- "But, chiefly, in their hearts with grace And 'Let us worship God!' he says, with divine preside." solemn air." Even among the metaphysical or specifically Christian poets (like John Donne), it would be The next four stranzas describe Old and New difficult to find a more robustly orthodox Testament characters and themes with a poet's Christian poem than The Cotter's Saturday skill and a preacher's knowledge. No one reading Night. It was written in 1785 and first published these verses can doubt Bums' understanding of in the Kilmarnock edition. Gilbert Bums wrote the Bible, proof of what he told Mrs. Dunlop: "I of its origin: "Robert had frequently remarked am a very sincere believer in the Bible, but I am drawn to it by the conviction of a man, not by to me that he thought there was something the halter of an ass ... ".(17] particularly venerable in the phrase 'Let us Denominational quibbles aside, the central worship God' used by a decent, sober head of a tenets of orthodox Christianity are the divinity, family, introducing family worship."[18] sacrificial death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Cotter's benevolence toward family and Bums categorically affirms the first two: fellow-man were mirrored in the poet's life, which exemplified what Christ called "the first "How guiltless blood for guilty man was and great commandment", namely to love God shed; and one's neighbour as oneself[19]: How He, who bore in Heaven the second name, "But deep this truth impress'd my mind­ Had not on earth whereon to lay his head." Thro' all his works abroad, The heart benevolent and kind Bums appears to be less certain about the The most resembles God." resurrection, with it's consequent promise of personal immortality for believers, although the One critic has called The Cotter's Saturday following lines would seem to affirm the cotter's Night "rustic posturing ... gaucherie ... too hopeful prayer: pretentious and too patronizing ... [and] over- 82 blown Scottish sentimentality". Raymond Grant belief He, who is our Author and Preserver, and declaims: "It is not from poems like this that will one day be our Judge, must be (not for his Burns earns his reputation as Scotland's national sake in the way of duty, but from the native poet"[20]. Well, perhaps not, but the poem is impulse of our hearts,) the object of our instructive of Burns' religious views. reverential awe and grateful adoration: He is At some point in his life Burns considered almighty and all-bounteous, we are weak and other sort that he became a skeptic, for he told his boyhood dependent; hence prayer and every that any should friend, James Candlish, that he " ... ventured in ofdevotion. - "He is not willing come to everlasting 'the daring path Spinoza trod', ... despising old perish, but that all should it must be in every one's women's stories".[21] But he went on to tell life" [23]; consequently His offer of'everlasting life'; Candlish that this phase lasted only a short time, power to embrace not, injustice, condemn those until "experiences of the weakness, not the otherwise he could not. A mind pervaded, actuated and strength, of human powers made me glad to who did by purity, truth and charity, though it grasp at revealed religion". Ten months before govemed does not merit heaven. Yet it is an absolutely his letter to Candlish (March 21, 1787), Burns necessary pre-requisite, without which heaven had included in his advice to young Andrew can neither be obtained nor enjoyed; and, by Aiken: Divine promise, such a mind shall never fail of attaining 'everlasting life': hence, the impure, When ranting round in pleasure's ring, the deceiving, and the uncharitable, extrude Religion may be blinded; themselves from etemal bliss, by their unfitness Or if she g'ie a random sting, for enjoying it. The Supreme Being has put the It may be little minded; immediate administration of all this, for wise But when on life we 're tempest-driven and good ends known to Himself, into the hands conscience but a canker- A of Jesus Christ, a great Personage, whose fixed wi' Heaven A correspondence relation to Him we cannot comprehend, but Is sure a noble anchor! whose relation to us is a Guide and Saviour; and who, except for our own obstinacy and Agnes McLehose Burns first met Mrs. misconduct will bring us all, through various 4, 1787. (Clarinda) in Edinburgh on December ways and by various means, to bliss at last." [24] The passionate and verbose correspondence which followed reveals a posturing Burns, one It is difficult to find heterodoxy in this striving to impress a woman upon whom he had statement. While Burns says nothing of the amorious designs. But there is no reason to doubt divinity of Christ, settling instead for "great Burns' sincerity in this passage, written within Personage", elsewhere he does; for example, in a month of their acquaintance: a letter to Mrs. Dunlop he says simply: "Jesus Christ was from God"[25]. In our day, when the "My definition of worth is short: Truth and Moderator of Canada's largest Protestant Humanity respecting our fellow-creatures; denomination publicly repudiates both the Reverence and Humility in the presence of that divinity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Being, my Creator and Preserver, and who, I when Anglican Bishops ordain practicing have every reason to believe, will one day be homosexuals, and the Jesus Seminar in my Judge." [22] California decides on orthodoxy by casting coloured beads in a bowl - at such a time Burns' It would appear that this did not satisfy orthodoxy would qualify him to be Archbishop Clarinda; she wanted a fuller statement. Four of Canterbury, if not Pope! days later Burns provided her with the most Burns rejected the Calvinistic belief in extensive statement of his religious beliefs that original sin (the one element of Christian dogma we have: which G. K. Chesterton considered required no proof, being self-evident daily); to Mrs. Dunlop "[/] will lay before you the outlines of my Burns wrote: 83 "I am in perpetual warfare with that doctrine of our Reverend Priesthood, that 'we "Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames, are born into this world bond slaves of iniquity Tied up in godly laces, and heirs of perdition ... ' I believe in my Before ye gi'e poor Frailty names, conscience just the contrary. We came into this Suppose a change o' cases; world with a heart and disposition to do good A dear-loved lad, convenience snug, for it, until by dashing a large mixture of base A treacherous inclination - Alloy called Prudence, alias Selfishness, the too But, let me whisper i'your lug, precious Metal of the Soul is brought down to Ye're aiblins nae temptation. the blackguard Sterling of ordinary currency ... "[26] Then gently scan your brother man, Still gentler sister woman; Burns scorn for the Calvinism of the "Auld Though they may gang a kennin" wrang, Lichts" is also illustrated by his treatment of the To step aside is human." Devil. The Calvinist Devil, going about here and there, up and down the earth, a raging lion On only one issue of orthodox Christianity seeking whom he may devour, is tamed by does Burns appear to have been doubtful; that Burns, transmuted into "Auld Hornie" or issue is immortaility. In The Cotter's Saturday "Clootie"; as Raymond Grant aptly puts it "a Night Bums expressed "hope-exulting" that in melodramatic Devil set amidst the trappings of a better place all should once again meet "while comic opera"[27]. But even here it should be circling time moves round in an eternal sphere". noted that while Bums mocked the Devil, he did And to Mrs. Dunlop, he wrote: [30] not doubt him. In Tam O' Shanter, Holy Willie's Prayer, and the Address to the Deil, Burns "The voice ofNature lovely cries conceives of a humbler, more fallible Devil, one And many a message from the skies whose existence is less in the nether regions of That something in us never dies". Hell, more in the labyrinthine passages of the human heart: In two poems occasioned by the death of his children, Burns affirms a belief in "Whyles, in the human bosom pryin, immortality; On the Death ofa Favourite Child Unseen thou lurks."[29] purports to mourn the death of the poet's daughter, Elizabeth, who died age two; I say Of course some would contrast Burns' "purports" because James Mackay has cast some licentious personal conduct with his professed doubt on this poem's authenticity.[31] If beliefs, and it must readily be admitted that authentic, this stanza is instructive: Burns is not a candidate for sainthood. But several rejoinders are in order. First, few of us "My child, thou are gone to the home ofthy live up to our noblest professions, just a few rest, demand of themselves the unflinching obedience Where suffering no longer can hann thee: to principle of a Socrates. Second, Christianity Where the songs of the Good, where the is pre-eminently a religion for sinners, a religion hymns of the Blest of forgiveness, not perfection. It asks of us Through an endless existence shall charm awareness of shortcomings and contrition; Burns thee!" frequently demonstrated both. Moreover those who judge Burns by his conduct ignore the On the Poet's Daughter, Who Died 1795, is Biblical story of the man with a beam in his eye included in most standard Burns' anthologies, who yet complains about the mote in his although Mackay suggests that Shenstone may brother's eye[29]. Has anyone expressed this have been the true authort.[32] If the poem is by point more beautifully than Burns in his Address Burns, he employs the image of a rose to to the Unco Guid? represent a child yet in bud, and he writes: 84 "To those who for her loss are grieved, indeed which divides it from orthodoxy. The This consolation's given - same year that Burns wrote those words to She'sfrom a world of woe relieved, Robert Muir, he wrote to Clarinda: "The And blooms, a rose, in Heaven." dignified and dignifying consciousness of an honest man, and the well-grounded trust in All of these references suggest a man with a approving Heaven, are the two most substantial firm conviction about immortality. But Bums sources of happiness."[35] also wrote to Mrs. Dunlop: [33]. As Bums own premature end grew near, it is clear that he continued to harbour some doubts "Jesus Christ, thou amiablest ofcharacters, about immortality. This is a near-universal I trust Thou art no Imposter, and that thy human experience, as common to Christians as revelation of blissful scenes ofexistence beyond to non-believers. Christ Himself, in the final death and the grave, is not one of the many agonizing moments of crucifixion, cried out: impositions which time after time have been "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken palmed on credulous manking." me?"[36] Eighteen months before his death, Bums Just six weeks before Bums' friend, Robert wrote to Mrs. Dunlop: Muir, died, the poet wrote a letter to him expressing the hope that "Spring will renew your ' ... / congratulate myself on having had in shattered frame", but Bums went on: early days religion strongly impressed on my mind. I have nothing to say to any body as, to "You and I have often agreed that life is no which Sect they belong, or what Creed they great blessing on the whole. - The close of believe; but I look on the man who is firmly life indeed, to a reasoning eye, is persuaded of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness 'Dark as was chaos, ere the infant sun superintending and directing every circumstance Was roll'd together; or had try'd his beams that can happen in his lot - I felicitate such a Athwart the gloom profound" man as having a solid foundation for his mental enjoyment; afinn prop and sure stay, in the hour But an honest man has nothing to fear. - If of difficulty, trouble and distress: and a never­ we lie down in the grave, the whole man a piece ! ailing anchor of hope, when he looks beyond of broke machinery, to moulder with the clods the grave."{37) of the valley, - be it so at least there is an end of pain, care, woes and wants: if that part of us If this were a courtroom, where a verdict called Mind, does survive the apparent must be based upon evidence, I submit that only destruction of the man - away with old wives one conclusion is tenable: namely, that Robert prejudices and tales!. .. a man, conscious of Burns was born into a Christian home, and that having acted an honest part among his fellow he lived and died an orthodox Christian believer. creatures; even granting that he may have been Raised on the Bible ("really a glorious book", the sport, at times, of passions and instincts; he he told Margaret Chalmers[38]), in his poems goes to a great unknown Being who could have and letters he affirmed all the central teachings no other end in giving him existence but to make of orthodox Christianity, while mocking the him happy; who gave him those passions and narrow, crabbed strictures of "Auld Licht" instincts, and well knows their force.-"[34] Calvinism. Towards the doctrine of personal Even this passage, the nearest I can find immortality, he maintained "hope exulting", which might.merit the description "agnostic", tinged with doubt, and what honest man affirms a destiny beyond death, ordered by a surveying the human condition and the great "Great Being" to whom reverence is due. A unknown can do otherwise? theme running through all Bums' writing, poetry It is impossible to know, but I suspect that and prose, is "trust - the Universal Plan, will all Burns' Prayer in the Prospect of Death best protect". If this be agnosticism, it is a thin line summed up his state of mind in July, 1796 when 85 he gave up that spark of life it was his art and 16. Lindsay, op. cit., n. I at 82. his unique gift to celebrate:[39] 17. Le tiers, op. cit., n. 6, at 164. Letter to Mrs. Frances Anna Dunlop, Newyearsday morning, 1789. 18. Lindsay, op. cit., n. I at 82. "Where with intention I have err'd, 19. Mai/hew 22: 37-9. No other plea I have, 20. The Laughter of Love: A Study of Robert Bums, Raymond J. S. Grant, Detsilig Enterprises Ltd., Calgary, But Thou art good; and Goodness still Alberta, 1986, 77-8. Delighteth to forgive." 21. Letters, op. cit. n. 6 at 272. Letter to James Candlish, 21 March 1787. 22. Ibid. at 376. Letter to Mrs. Frances Anna Dunlop, 4 References January 1758. 23. John 3: 16, misquoted. I. The term is Maurice Lindsay's; The Bums 24. Lel/ers, op. cit., n. 6 at 378-9. Letter to Mrs. Agnes E11cyc/opaedia, Robert Hale, 3d ed., 1980, 299, McLehose, 8 January 1788. borrowed in tum from C. E. M. Joad. 25. Ibid. at 174. Letter to Mrs. Frances Anna Dunlop, 22 2. Robert Bums Commonplace Book, 1783-1785, June 1789. Facsimile Ed., Centaur Press, Southern Illinois 26. Lindsay, op. cit., n. I at 297-8. University Press, 1965, 17. 27. The Laughter of Love, op. cit. n. 20 at 84. 3. Lindsay, op. cit., n. I at 296. 28. Address to the De'il. 4. Id. 29. Matthew 7: 3-6; Luke 6: 41-2. 5. The Man Robert Bums, Grant F. 0. Smith, Ryerson 30. The Man Robert Bums op. cit. n. 5 at 145. Press, Toronto, 1940, 40. 31. Robert Bums A-Z. The Complete Wordfi11der, ed. James 6. Robert Bums: The Complete Letters, ed. By James A. Mackay, Alloway Publishing, 1990, p. 727. Mackay, Alloway Publishing, 2nd ed., 1990. Letter to 32. Ibid. at 729. Dr. John Moore; August 2, 1787, p. 249. 33. Le tiers, op. cit., n. 6 at 182. Letter to Mrs. Frances Anna 7. Idi b., 251. Dunlop, 13 December 1789. 8. Ibid., Letter to John Murdoch, 15 January 1783, 55. 34. Letters, op cit., n. 6 at 90. Letter to Robert Muir, 7 March 9. The Man Robert Bums, op, cit., n. 5, at 147. 1788. 10. Commonplace Book, op. cit., n. 2, at 8. 35. The Man Robert Bums, op. cit., n. 5 at 147. II. Ibid., 9. 36. Mark 15:34. 12. Ibid., 18-19. 37. Lel/ers, op. cit., n. 6 at213. Letter to Mrs. Frances Anna · 13. Letters, op. cit., n. 6 at 249. Dunlop, I January 1795. 14. Ibid., 250. 38. Lel/ers, op. cit., n. 6 at 234. Letter to Margaret Chalmers, 15. Lel/ers, op. cit., n. 6, at 59. Letter to James Burness, 17 12 December 1787. February 1784. 39. Co111111011place Book, op. cit., n. 2 at 19.

86 1759-1796---- You'll always Th e Cottage - Birthplace of Robe1t Burns. Come and embrace the

warmth 1 romance and genius of Scotland's greatest literary figure, Robert Burns. Share with us the unique atmosphere of 811 ms Cottage, w here Burns want was born. Th e Museu m - A treasure of manuscripts Burns Collage. 71J e Burns and memorahiUa. Museum, a treasure of manuscripts, books, paintings and artefacts. And o nly a few minutes walk away - the superb Tam O'Sbanter i:'Cperie11ce to come with its audio-visual Th e Tam O'Shanter Experie nce - Bums epic poem brougbt to life. theatre, extensive gift shop and mouth-watering 'Taste of Burns Coun11y' restaurant. All set within the splendour of The Burns Nationa l He ritage Park, home o f the famous Brig 0 Duun, Kirk Alloway and 8 11rns 1\1011ume11t. back. The Burns National Kirk Alloway and Burns Monument - Robert Burns Bih/e. A.few minutes walk away. Heritage Park - You "// always 1.m11t to come back.

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87 ROBERT BURNS: THE CZECH CONNECTION BY RAYMOND GRANT (LITERARY EDITOR)

Wherever Deity hath set Her signet on our human clay; Wherever honour, truth, and love Shall hold united sway: Wherever Independance stem The spangled minion spurns, There - find embalmed in every breast The name of ROBERT BURNS!

ith these words of James Macfarlan Horacek, a lawyer and an honest man." it was again my pleasure and my "Mummy, here's a grave with three men in it!" W privilege in January to bid our guests Some other Czech jokes are similar to our welcome to the University of Alberta Faculty own, such as the Czech variant of the Carnegie Club and to our celebration of the great poet of Hall joke: "How do I get to the Rudolfinum?" the human heart. "Practice, practice, practice ..." We went to buy It was a particular pleasure for Pauline and a table - the legs were extra; we went to buy a me to be back in Alberta after our first term of sandwich - the bread was extra. We went to work in the Czech Republic, where we had been meet the doctor at the Canadian Health Centre teaching at Charles University in Prague and - Dr. Hudi took one look at me, then handed me working for the Evangelical Church of Czech a prescription, it read, "Get a dog!" A Czech Brethren (the Presbyterian Church). "Vazeni friend told me one morning, "I've just doubled hoste, Damy a Panove, dobry vecer! Honoured the value of my Skoda." "How did you do that?" guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening!" I asked. "I filled the tank with petrol;' he replied. I began boldly, secretly glad to be home for On the Charles Bridge, A Czech vegetarian haggis, neeps and tatties instead of Czech counsellor passed a derelict with hand kloubasa sausages, sauerkraut and knedliky. outstretched. "I feel bad about not giving him Returning from the Czech Republic, Pauline anything," she observed, "but I'm so afraid he'll was asked, "Did you have a good time?" "Yes, just go straight off and spend it all on meat." excellent," she said. "Did you have any Some subjects are simply not understood in problems with the language?" "No," said the Czech Republic. Czechs do not use credit Pauline, "I didn't, but the Czechs did." Certainly, cards, nor do they write cheques, thus sparing Czech presents some problems, such as telling readers a whole series of bad jokes. Political the difference between vychod, which means correctness has hit the UK, where "Manchester" "entrance," and vjchod, which means "exit." We has been renamed "Personchester" and where went to the graveyard by Vysehrad to see the the bouncer in the bar is a "customer integration graves of Dvorak and Smetana, and saw on so executive;' but n_ot the Czech Republic - there many tombs "Here lies Rodina" that we is simply no Czech word for "gender studies." imagined Rodina must be a popular Czech name Germaine Greer visited Prague a few years ago, - until we were informed that Rod'ina means and in the course of her talk complained that "family!" A wee girl and her mother were when she goes in a shop and makes a purchase, reading one of the graves too: "Here lies Otto the assistant smiles at her; but she doesn't know 88 if the smile is because she is a woman or because concerned stress patterns. When Jakub Trojan she has handed over her money. Whatever this stumbled over the word "abyss" and said he was feminist point was, it was lost on the Czech going to dangle over an abess, I had to tell him audience, for their shop assistants never smile this would be unacceptable in the Church of at all! Scotland. The names of foreign women are given Even sweeter revenge was the importation Czech endings, so Pauline was Pavlina Grantova. into Prague during the Christmas break of our Supposedly the -ova ending means "property son Andrew and his bagpipes, or "duday." True, of' the masculine name, but this stretched the the Czechs, being Celts like ourselves originally, imagination somewhat when the stores carried play a type of pipe called the "Bohemian buck," books about Margaret Thatcherova and Brigitte pumped up by a bellows like the Northumbrian Bardotova (whose property where they?), but version, but with only one drone; the fingering Agatha Christie's name was left alone. is entirely different from that of the Scottish The Czech police spend all their time issuing bagpipe. True, annual piping competitions are traffic tickets and not pursuing criminals. When held in Strakonice, and the tradition of Schwanda a message was broadcast that a certain Bohumil the bagpiper lives on. But the volume produced Gregor was armed and suicidal, they merely by the native instruments is nothing like that of concluded that was a problem that would look the Great Highland Bagpipe, and when Andrew after itself, and attached another wheelclamp. invaded the unsuspecting Czech Republic for The Czechs have their own sense of humour, Xmas and New Year various churches, breweries of course, and the daily newspaper Dnes is a and pubs will never be quite the same again ... fruitful source of examples. "In a Moscow The tune most in demand was ''Amazing Grace," hospital yesterday, blood was found in Boris which in Czech is "Uz z hor zni zvon," = "The Yeltsin's alcohol stream." "Hold a breast implant bell sings from the mountains still." to your ear and you can hear Baywatclz." "Let Of course, my final act of vengeance was me propose a toast to Karl Marx!" - "No, here's the importation into Prague of a couple of haggis. to all the Marx brothers!" Reuters called the Remembering that when haggis was first fall of Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus "The Velvet imported into Vancouver by Inglis-Reid it could Defenestration." But the best I came across was not clear customs as a foodstuff and had to enter unintentional; according to its cover, a Neil Canada as fertiliser, I secured a couple of haggis Diamond CD on sale in the Kotva store carried from MacSween's in Edinburgh and imported a track entitled, "He ain't heavy, he's my them to Prague via the British Embassy's mother." diplomatic bag. Language problems now reared The opening of the fall term at the Arts their ugly heads. Mashed tatties were easy Faculty of Charles University was delayed so enough - "bramborova kase" - but the bashed that the heating ducts could be replaced; now neeps were more difficult, as no-one knew the the building is cold, because they ran out of Czech word for a neep, the generic term "i'epa" budget and cannot afford to heat it! It opened really means beets, and "vodnice" is a white on Monday, October 27 and then closed again turnip. Eventually an old dictionary produced on Tuesday, October 28 which was a public the word "tunn or a Swede, so we now had holiday. Dnes referred to this as a triumph of "tui'inova ka8e." I decided to leave "haggis" and Czechnology which was as much use as an the Address to the great chieftain o'the pudden obstetrician in the Vatican. race untranslated, letting the proof of the In the Theology Faculty, classes start~d on pudding being in the eating thereof, and I was time - except I couldn't at frr§.t locate the room generous with the whisky. for my Wednesday afternoon seminar. It had When I insisted so strongly upon returning been scheduled in Room 406, which I found was from Prague to Edmonton in time for January marked "Muzi" = the gents' toilet. To get my 25th, my colleagues in the Protestant Theological own back, I corrected their English Faculty thought immediately of the Feast of the pronunciation, especially where their errors Conversion of St. Paul, and could not quite 89 understand why I was so fixated on the pi'es to vse a pi'es to vse. Conversion of Svati Pavel. Bringing light to Stane se clovek cloveku these gentiles, I told them of the true significance Na zami bratrem pi'es to vse. 1 1 of January 25 \ the celebration of the 239 h anniversary of the birth of Robert Bums. "Ah! ..... For a' that, and a'that, Robert Bums," they said reverently, and asked Its comin yet for a' that, their inevitable question, "Was Robert Bums a That Man to Man the warld o'er Christian?" To which I gave them a direct, Shall brothers be for a' that. authoritative and unequivocal answer "Yes - and no. Bums had a firm faith in the divine creator Alie menschen werden briider - the words whose love pervades and permeates the universe, of Schiller's Ode to Joy and of Beethoven's 9th but his expression of that faith was not so much symphony whose great hymn to freedom was Christian as Pauline." And they did question played outdoors in Berlin as the wall was torn me further, saying unto me, "Is Robert Burns, down and oppression was itself trodden then, Scotland's patron saint?" To which I did underfoot. And in Prague, a giant, 100-meter­ make reply, saying unto them, "No - much more high statue of Joseph Stalin was blown to important than that, he is the whole world's smithereens, "A Man's a Man For a' That" was patron sinner." one poem ofBums's which touched the Czech For that international quality to be apparent souls as it was read aloud in a beautiful room abroad, the Vulgate text of Burns needs to be overlooking in one direction the Josefov Jewish translated into the local tongue. From the U of Cemetery with its many victims of oppression A Library I took along texts from a volume of and in the other namesti Jana Palacha, the former Bums's poems in Czech, DarebneVer5e Roberta Red Square now renamed in honour of the Burnse1 turned out to mean "Wicked or martyred student Jan Palach. And the Czechs Scurrilous Verses of Robert Burns," a somewhat joined arms to sing "Auld Lang Syne" in the strange title, as the volume contained alongside original - there was no need for the translation "Holy Willie's Prayer" and "Tam o'Shanter" as "Zelene sftiny," for this poem, too, proved to translations of such poems as "Auld Lang Syne" be know11 as well there as here and all round the and "Is there for honest poverty," that great world: anthem to independence of spirit and indomitable courage of those who resist Auld Lang Syne/Zelene Sftiny, first and last oppression. In Czech as in Scots, the first and verses, with chorus: final stanzas are magnificent: Na svete v kazdechvff je For a'That and a'That/Pres to Vse k zoufalstvf tolik pi'ff Copak si clovek uzije, Bojf se nam jft na oci kdyby nebylo dfvcin? Poctivec, jenz je bez grose? ''At' zbabelec si otroCf, Zelene sftiny. Nemej strach z bfdy pi'es to vse! zelene sftfny Pi'es lopotu a prokletf nejsladsf chvfle v zivote Pres to vse a pi'es to vse, mi daly svarne dfvciny Hodnost je jenom pecetf A muz je zlatem pi'es to vse ... Vzdyt' o to dba i pi'frodaf pro ni muz nenf nicfm. Toz modli se, at' skoncfse Jf slouzil muz jen za pokus Odveka nase pi'e, pred vytvoi'enf dfvcin. At' poctivost a moudra ctnost jsou postaveny nade vse! Zelene sftiny. Takje to psaod veku zelene sftfny 90 nejsladsf chvfv zivote nightingales on a May night. The birds mi daly svame dfvciny are singing gently under the lid. I listen to their trills. Then somebody pulls the But I was in for surprises, too, for not only plug. A wild boar runs down the toilet the poems about human dignity and bowl, grunting in the morning twilight. independence were known but also the gentle Then silence. A moment later, a twitter nature poems and the tender love poems. Many again. Then a second one and a third of my colleagues were imprisoned and degraded one. The nightingales are back: on the and tortured for signing Charter 77 in 1977. The blossoming branches, under the dark dissidents meeting in the Slavia Cafe produced skies of a warm evening. Those who their charter to assert Czech sovereignty along hear the song of the nightingale grow the lines of the Scots Declaration of Arbroath. younger in their soul. And the The outstanding philosopher Ladislav Hajdanek nightingales sing. In the toilet bowl. had to support himself for many years as a furnace stoker, as did the pastor and thinker Jan Alas! It's no thy neebor sweet, Sims who in addition spent long months in The bonie Lark, companion meet! prison despite serious illness. For his Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet! participation in Charter 77 Milan Balaban, Wi's spreckl'd breast, Professor of OT lost his job and was forced to When upward-springing, blythe, to greet wait on tables and later to clean out the sewers; The purpling East. lecturing his fellow prisoners on Kirkegaard and Heidegger he also recited Bums: There, in thy scanty mantle clad, Thy snawie bosom sun-ward spread, Ye banks and braes o'bonie Doon, Thou lifts they unassuming head How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair; In humble guise; How can ye chant, ye little birds, But now the share uptears they bed, And I sae weary, fu' o' care! And low thou lies! Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons thro' the flowering thorn: Such is the fate of artless Maid, Thou minds me o'departedjoys, Sweetjlow'ret of the rural shade! Departed, never to return. By Love's simplicity betray'd, And guileless trust, And I very greatly treasure a presentation Till she, like thee, all soil' d, is laid copy of Jakub Trojan's theological reflections Low i' the dust. and dialogues under the title And the Nightingales Sing. He explained that his I don't think I shall ever be able to read To A favourite Bums poems are the gentle nature Mountain Daisy without thinking of a Czech poems about the wee mouse, or the mountain theologian it has been my privilege to get to daisy, or the limping hare, or the pet lamb Mailie. know. Oh, and what of the Cafe Slavia? It re­ With him, it was nightingales that helped him opened last November, and Vaclav Havel and stay sane in his dark prison cell. When the other former political prisioners and dissidents interrogators had finished with him, he lay in met once again for coffee. the darkness and thought of the gentle world of I expect many readers have seen the film nature from whose memory he drew a hidden, Kolya which won the Oscar in 1997 for the best spiritual strength: foreign-language film. The author, Zdenek In the corner of the room, there Sverili also acted the part of Louka in the film. stands a toilet bowl, it is incredibly dirty. There are some scenes I did not understand until A small trickle of water is continuously our experiences in the Czech Republic, and one running down it. Its murmur is of these concerns the tramping movement. One reminiscent of the singing of of my students, Alice Brabcova, invited Pauline, 91 Andrew and myself to her home in Plzeii to meet that struggled so long with oppression and now her parents. During the oppression, they like is struggling to take firm control of its destiny, thousands of others from that Western Bohemia but I hope these few I have adduced will serve town would go into the forests and valleys to the present purpose. I learned which ofBurns's live like tramps in tents and express their poems spoke to the Czech soul best, and which opposition to the regime in defiant song. These did not seem too relevant. My slide­ camps were given names that spoke of freedom, accompanied reading of Tam o'Shanter was and the camp Alice's parents attended was called appreciated and enjoyed, but the Czechs have "Alberta." After Andrew played "Amazing their own folk-tales of Baba Jaga. The dialect Grace" on his pipes, the parents sang to their poems present obvious difficulties, as do the guitar songs like "Battle Hymn of the Republic" particularly Scottish poems and the satires. The and what sounded to my ears like country­ poems of independence and freedom fare much western, bluegrass songs of the Johnny Cash better, as do the love poems and the nature variety. And now the camp scene in Kolya makes poems. sense as Sveriik says, As we interacted with the sort of people just On his back Louka looks at the tent mentioned, as we gazed with the International canvas through which comes the glow Women's Club of Prague and the Bohemia Corps of their neighbours' fire. 'We shall on the flood-stricken Olomouc area of Moravia, overcome, we shall overcome,' promises as we confronted dignified poverty in the streets the spiritual. But it is overlaid by the of the capital, I realised how much we in the speaker of some radio station: 'He who West take so easily for granted. I realised, too, sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind, that we Scots and Scots-Canadians must share the workers of the Tlak factory declare our national bard with other nations when they in their resolution. We will not let are in dire need of the great poet of the human anyone undermine our Republic ... heart. In his verse he has bequeathed to all Back in Prague, when we held the ceilidh nations on the earth a resource of love and after the Bums Supper and Alice took her turn strength from which both individuals and to recite, she chose a Burns poem she learned at peoples draw what they need to go on living, to Alberta Camp, "The seventh of November." hold their heads high as part of the brotherhood and sisterhood of mankind. Robert Burns was The day returns, my bosom burns, not just the national poet of Scotland; he was The blissful day we twa did meet: also the patron sinner of all people, everywhere Tho' Winter wild, in tempest toil'd, and everywhen. Ne'er simmer-sun was half sae sweet Than a' the pride that loads the tide, Wherever Deity hath set And crosses o'er the sultry Line; Her signet on our human clay; Than kingly robes, than crowns and globes, Wherever honour, truth, and love Heaven gave me more - it made thee mine. Shall hold united sway: Wherever lndependance stem While day and night can bring delight, The spangled minion spurns, Or Nature aught of pleasure give; There - find embalmed in every breast While Joys Above, my mind can move, The name of ROBERT BURNS! For Thee and Thee alone I live! When that grim foe of life below 1 Darabne Verse Roberta Bumse ("Wicked or Comes in between to make us part; Scurrilous Verses of Robert Bums") trans. The iron hand that breaks our Band, Bozena Kollnova from the 1955 Collins It breaks my bliss - it breaks my heart! edition (London & Glasgow, 1955) and published in Prague in 1963. Examples could be multiplied of the effect of Robert Burns's poetry on the Czech nation 92 THE BEGG CONNECTION By Henryk Mine (Hon. President The Bums Federation)

1. INTRODUCTION

he Bums cult has not been limited to the bard himself but it has embraced also other individuals who influenced him, especially members of his immediate family. Indeed his Tfather, mother, siblings, his wife and sons are dramatis personae in most biographies of Robert Bums. The family member who was of special importance to biographers of Bums was his youngest sister Isobel (or Isabella). Robert and Isobel were particularly devoted to each other. Her recollections of the poet remained vivid throughout her long life although they were limited to her youth. She had a fine memory, and she was able to recall various incidents in her brother's life, and recite many of his verses. This paper is about Isobel Bums (Mrs. Begg) and her family. While attending the 1998 Bums Federation Conference in Peebles I acquired two books with autograph inscriptions by Agnes Brown Begg and by her sister, Isabella Bums Begg, daughters oflsobel: the pamphlet A MANUAL OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF, composed by William Burnes, the poet's father, and published by M'Kie & Drennan in 1875 (Fig. l); and the massive book CHRONICLE OF THE HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY OF ROBERT BURNS, collected and edited by James Ballantine, and published in 1859 by A. Fullarton & Co., Edinburgh (Fig. 2). In what follows the two books will be referred to as the Manual and the Chronicle, respectively.

A MANUAL CIIRON!CLE

RELIGIOUS BELIEF, THE HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY

WILLIAM llURNES, ROBERT BURNS. (THE POETS FATIIEk.)

FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF HIS CHILDREN 1

BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE. BY J.\llES B.\LL.\NTINE,

lfOW FIRST P~HTEO.

f;ILMARNOClt: A. FULLARTO~ l CO, PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY M'ltlE & DRENNAN, tDINIUROR AND LONDON. rl7J.

Fig. I. The title page of the Manual. Fig. 2. The engraved titled page of the Chronicle. 93 The original manuscript of the Manual is in of Robert Burns, is derived from memoir [B] the handwriting of John Murdoch, the teacher (see References below), written by her grandson, of Robert and Gilbert. Indeed there have been Robert Burns Begg. Isobel was born on 27th some speculations that Murdoch may have co­ June 1771. She was over 12 years younger than authored the pamphlet. The manuscript Robert, but she still spent the first seventeen remained in the family of Gilbert Burns, years of her life under the same roof as her famed William's second son. In the 1870's it was in brother. When she was six years old the family the possession of his youngest son, Gilbert Burns moved to the farm of Lochlee where they ( 1803-1881) of Dublin, who gave permission to remained until her father's death. ln spite of print a limited edition of the Manual. Six rather difficult conditions and legal threats to her hundred copies of the book were printed in 1875. father, these years remained a happy memory The book contains a letter in facsimile, written for Isobel. by William Burnes and addressed to Thomas Oare, a biographical preface, and "A Manual of Religious Belief in a dialogue between father & son." The publication of the Manual must have been especially gratifying to descendants of William Burnes. The inscribed copy, at present in the Mine Collection, was originally in the possession of William's granddaughter, Agnes Brown Begg, who presented it in 1875 to her nephew, Rev. Bruce B. Begg (1837-1923). The Chronicle is a record of 872 meetings that took place in 1859 throughout the world, to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Robert Burns. The book is not a family relic but rather a world memorial to the bard. Nevertheless it must have had a special meaning to Burns's descendants and relatives. There are two copies of the Chronicle in the Mine collection. According to the inscription on its flyleaf (see below) the copy acquired at Peebles was presented in 1872 by Mr. Fullarton of Edinburgh to Agnes and Isabella Begg. The sisters accepted the gift, and four years later donated the book to Fig. 3. Mrs. Isobel Bums Begg. their grandnephew, Andrew Yannan Begg. Pai111ed in 1847 by Robert Taylor. when Mrs. Begg was in her 77th year. The main purpose of this paper is to introduce the two autograph inscriptions written According to lsobel ' s grandson and by the nieces of Robert Burns, together with a biographer, apart from the intellectual culture brief history of Burns's youngest sister and her imparted by her father and her eldest brother, family. It is hoped that these pages will help to and a brief period of systematic tuition under show that Mrs. Begg, her sons and daughters John Wilson, schoolmaster of Tarbolton, her were truly remarkable people who deserve mental development was entirely self-acquired. admiration rather than the usual condescending However, just as in the case of Robert, the and grudging approval emphasizing their meager amount of formal education did not limit "humble and unlettered station." Isobel's intellectual activity. Indeed the education that she was able to pass on to her 2. ISOBEL BURNS (MRS. BEGG) children, her interaction with them during their Much of the available information about childhood and in their adulthood, her success in Isobel Burns (Mrs. Begg), the youngest sister running a school for girls, her relations with 94 prominent people, her conversational ability, and Mrs. Begg managed to support her family her extraordinary gifts as a letter writer, stamp by operating a school for girls in the village of her as a woman of exceptional ability and Kirkmuirhill, and by means of a small temporary intellect. grant from Mr. Hope Vere. William, her eldest Dr. Robert Chambers in compiling his son, had to abandon his plans for entering the edition of the poet's life and works made use of medical profession, and became an assistant Mrs. Begg's recollections of her life with her teacher in Dalmeny Academy. In 1817 he famous brother. That led to a correspondence secured the appointment of parish schoolmaster between Chambers and Mrs. Begg that extended at Ormiston, and he took his mother and her over two years. It was Isobel who reported ([C], other children to reside with him in the I, p.29) that her father took note, from a very schoolhouse. Isobel conducted a female school early period, of the bright intellect of his eldest at Ormiston, and her daughters engaged in born, saying to his wife: "Whoever may live to dressmaking to help to support the household. see it, something extraordinary will come from Isobel's third son, Robert, succeeded his that boy!" It appears ([B], p. 28) that William eldest brother as assistant teacher at Dalmeny appreciated highly some of Robert's early Academy, and later became a schoolmaster in creations; in particular, he expressed a hearty Kinross. From 18th April 1819 to 1834 Mrs. admiration of the song "My Nanny, O" ([C-W], Begg wrote many letters to him, at irregular I, p. 101). intervals. The letters were found after Robert's lsobel's recollections of several other death on 25th July, 1876, in the schoolhouse at incidents have been much quoted by Burns's Kinross. Sixteen of the letters, mostly from the biographers: the episode in the winter of 1781- period 1819-1823 are quoted in part in [B]. They 82 between Robert and his father concerning are of great interest, and they show that Mrs. Robert's journey homewards from a tryst with Begg's epistolary talent was exceptional, not Ellison Begbee ([B], pp. 29-30), the scene merely for a person of her "station in life" but around William's deathbed (ibid. p. 32), lsobel's as compared with her "superiors," and even, in interest in her brother's early poetry, (ibid, pp. the present writer's opinion, with university 41-43); etc. No letter from Robert to his youngest students and similarly educated individuals in sister is extant. our times. We can give here only two samples Robert Burns left Mauchline to settle in of the correspondence. We quote excerpts from Ellisland in June 1788. Isobel remained in Mossgiel with her mother, her brother Gilbert two letters from Mrs. Begg to her son Robert. The first, dated 28th May 1820 deals with her and the rest of the family until 1793 when she married John Begg. The Beggs lived in daughters' education: Mauchline until 1800 when John took over the "/ have read your letter for the management of the farm of Dinning in twentieth time, and I am grateful to you Dumfriesshire leased by his brother-in-law, indeed for your kind exertions in favour of Gilbert Bums. After the expiration of the lease your sisters, ... The room, therefore, is the in 1810 John Begg was appointed land-steward plan to be adopted, and your idea of on the estate of Blackwood in Lanarkshire which sending them both is surely very proper; as belonged to Mr. James Hope Vere. they could attend to different branches of On 24th April, 1813, John Begg was killed education at the same time, and improve in an accident, leaving Isobel a widow with nine one another after their return, and they will children: William who was nearly nineteen, John be much happier together; but if we think seventeen, Robert fifteen, Agnes nearly thirteen, of sending them both, it must be deferred Gilbert eleven, Jane nine, Isabella six and half, till the spring, as it would be injuring James four and Edward who was barely two Isabella very much to take her from school years old. Three of Begg children, Jane, James just now. She is learning arithmetic and and Edward, died young. The oldest four sons French, and, I think, with tolerable success, and two daughters survived their mother who and they are both branches of the utmost lived to a ripe age. utility to hJ!r; and she never can acquire 95 them under an abler teacher. Jeannie, too, is attending French. She, poor girl, has been much afflicted with that nervous headache for this week past, and I am afraid the confinement of a school would increase it. So from all these considerations, ifyou had made no positive engagement about the room, we had better put it offfor some time." The second excerpt is from a letter written several years later. Mrs. Begg wrote it for the joint benefit of her son and hi s youngest sister, Isabella, who was then on a visit to him in Kinross schoolhouse:- " I see you are enjoying yourselves well. I am afraid Isabella will feel a sad void when she returns to the still life we lead in Ormiston after so much gaiety, and I fancy she will put her return asfar offas possible. However, she may make her own time for anything that I see; but I understand there is a meeting of the schoolmasters in Edinburgh on Saturday, which probably you will attend, and if she is able to travel the day after the ball, to which she seems to look forward with so much delight, she will Fig. 4. Robert Burns Begg. Grandnephew of Robert Burns. Portrait from a photograph have a brother's protection at both ends of by Marshall Wange, Kinross. the journey as William is going to the meeting. But do as you shall judge proper, prose. Among his publications were memoir [B] and let her take care of her health." and "History of Lochleven Castle," which Mrs. Begg's daughter Jane, mentioned in the includes details of the imprisonment and escape first excerpt, died in 1822 aged 18 , and her of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1888 Begg instituted youngest son Edward died in 1824 before he "The Jolly Beggars" club in Kinross, and was reached the age of thirteen. One of her other unanimously appointed its perpetual president. sons , James, en li sted as a private in the 26th In 1832 William resigned his position in Regiment. He saw active service in India and in Ormiston. Mrs. Begg, who kept house for him , China, and died at Chusan on the 2nd November, took abode with her daughters, Agnes and 1840, in his 22nd year. Isabella, who had established themselves as Of Mrs. Begg's nine children only John and dressmakers in the village of Tranent. In 1834 Robert were married. They both raised large William left Scotland for America. He settled in families. Robert's third son (Fig. 4) bore his Canada, first as a teacher and later as an assistant father's name, Robert Burns Begg. He was an to medical practitioner. Mrs. Begg's fourth son, exceptionally gifted man (see [BG].) He settled Gilbert, retired as a petty officer with a pension, in Kinross in 1860 as a solicitor, was appointed after a long service in the Royal Navy. as a factor for several estates, and eventually In 1842, by the efforts of Lord Houghton, became Sheriff Clerk of Kinrossshire. He was Thomas Carlyle, Robert Chambers, and others, an active Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries a fund was provided which, with addition of a of Scotland, and a member, and later Chairman, pension granted by the Queen at the solicitation of the School Board of Kinross; where he was a of Lady Peel, secured for Mrs. Begg an income strong advocate of secondary education. Robert sufficient for the comfort of her old age. In June Burns Begg was very proficient in verse and in 1843 Mrs. Begg and her two daughters left 96 Fig. 5. Medal commemorating the Burns Banquet held in the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, in connection with the Grand Festival.

(a) Obverse: The Muse crowning the poet. (b) Reverse: The Monument. Caption from '"The Vision." Caption '"In Commemoration of the Burns Banquet, August 6. 1844." Tranent and returned to Ayrshire. They were Burnsians of every description. Although her placed there in a picturesque cottage near the daughters Agnes and Isabella were born after banks of Doon, adjoining the road leading from their uncle's death, they were called, even during Ayr to the Burns monument. their mother's lifetime, to answer inquiries about On 6th August 1844 a Grand Festival (Fig. the poet and later about their mother. Indeed the 5) in honour of the three sons of Burns was held only available information about Elizabeth in a field near the Alloway Kirk. The crowd was Paton, the mother of Burns's first child, is estimated at over 80,000. Mrs. Begg, her contained in letter from Isabella to Dr. daughters, Agnes and Isabella, and her son Chambers, in which she records what her mother Robert took part in the Festival, and were had told her about the girl (lC-W], I, p. 119- assigned prominent places in the ceremonial of 120.) Isabella also supplied some interesting the day. biographical details of Bess, the daughter of Mrs. Begg lived in Bridge House with her Burns and Elizabeth Paton (ibid). It appears that daughters for the remaining fourteen years of Burns offered to take the little girl to his home her life. These were years of peace and comfort. in Ellisland. However, Bess came to live with The cottage was much frequented by visitors Bums's mother in Mossgiel, where she remained from all over the world. She died on Saturday, till the poet's death. the 4th December 1858, in the eighty-eighth year The following notes are based mainly on an of her Ii fe, a few weeks before the Centenary of article by John Dick, 1 .P. [DJ, in which he the birth of her brother, Robert Burns. Her describes his yearly meetings with the Agnes remains were deposited by her sons, John and and Isabella Begg. After their mother's decease Robert, and six of her grandsons, in a grave at the sisters remained at Bridge House. Dick the side of her father's in the Alloway kirkyard. visited the two sisters in September 1877. He describes Isabella as rather above the medium 3. THE MISSES BEGG height, very erect, with all the marks of having Mrs. Begg survived her brother Robert by been handsome in her younger days. Her sixty-two years. During her long lifetime she complexion was swarthy, and her hair was often gave the benefit of her recollections of her slightly tinged with gray. What struck Dick most brother to his biographers, writers, and were her large, glowing, dark eyes, just like her 97 illustrious uncle's. Agnes, according to Dick, mother, sculpted by D. Harvey. The Liverpool was more active than her sister, and her eyes Mercury reported that the bust "was pronounced "almost looked you through." She had dark, by the Misses Begg, and by all who knew the rather than gray, hair (at the age of 77). Her deceased, to be perfect, so far as likeness is conversation was at once kindly and shrewd. She concerned." had a keen sense of humour as well as genuine The sisters were visited at least once a week wit. Both sisters spoke in good, broad, Scottish by the Rev. Marcus Dill, parish minister of accent, and Agnes showed an intimate Alloway, who later wrote to Dick: "I knew the knowledge of Scots as it was spoken in her Misses Begg well. They were in many respects uncle's days. In conversation she would often remarkable women. Isabella was the finer bring in Scottish sayings and proverbs, in a character, and she had great caution, combined cogent way. with great quickness of perception, and while The Misses Begg were visited by many in many ways severe, she was most kind and distinguished visitors from Great Britain and sympathising." other parts of the world. The sisters spoke with From 1877 Dick visited the sisters every year particular enthusiasm about Christopher North in September. Agnes, the elder of the two sisters and Dr. Robert Chambers. Christopher North, took over almost the entire management of the of course, was the pen-name of John Wilson house. Isabella was somewhat delicate, and (1785-1954), a novelist, poet and editor, whereas Agnes watched over her with unusual and tender Robert Chambers (1802-1871) was a bookseller, solicitude. Often she said to Dick: "Ye ken, author, publisher, and also an important !sable is no strong, an' she is but a bairn!" When biographer and editor of Burns. It was Chambers he was parting from the sisters, Agnes used to who had set on foot the collection of a fund for say: "If we're a' spared, we'll be seein' ye next Mrs. Begg which was moderately successful. He year at the races; an', as for Isabel an' me, if also generously handed over to the Misses Begg we're no here ye will find us in Alloway the profits of the Chambers edition, amounting kirkyard." Agnes died on lst May, 1883, aged to two hundred pounds (three hundred, eighty-three. In September of 1883 Dick visited according to [B].) the Bridge House once more. Isabella told him The following biographical details about that her sister had but a short illness, and she Isobel Begg and her brother Robert are quoted remained sensible up to the last. As Isabella said: by Dick on the direct authority of the Misses "Agnes died in perfect peace with, and charity Begg ([D]). Mrs. Begg had, from girlhood, to, the whole world." The remains ofAgnes were strong literary tastes, and she often stole up to followed to Alloway kirkyard by many mourners her brother's little garret in his absence to read and laid beside those of her grandfather, William his latest poetic creations. Robert, at that time, Burnes, and her mother, Mrs. Isobel Begg. was very fond of going out in the winter evenings Isabella continued to live in peace and she to a rustic ball, and on these occasions he always remained cheerful to the last. Dick saw her for called on his favourite sister to tie his hair for the last time in November 1886. For some time him, and sometimes to sing one of his own songs before then she had ceased to come down to the to him while doing it. parlour, and occupied a bedroom upstairs which The two sisters admired the fine statue of commanded a beautiful view of the surrounding their uncle by W. Grant Stevenson, R.S.A., country. Isabella was in the full possession of erected in the Kay Park, Kilmarnock. On the all her faculties. Her last illness, like her sister's, other hand, they disliked the Bums statue in was short, and she died on the 27th December, Glasgow. Agnes thus expressed their views: 1886, after a well spent life of 80 years. "Stevenson's statue o' my uncle is a fine piece The remains of the loving sisters, Agnes o' wark, but as for the ane in Glasgow, I'll join Brown Begg and Isabella Bums Begg, lie side ye in a subscription for gunpowther tae blow't by side in Alloway kirkyard, beside those of their up!" In 1859, the Bums Centenary year, the mother and their grandfather. They lived with sisters were consulted about a bust of their late each other through life in unbroken affection and 98 assumption is harmony, and in death they are not divided. They Mrs. Isobel Begg. The in the were Scots to the core, and at the same time corroborated by the fact that the signature signature citizens of the world ([D].) fifth line (see Fig. 6) matches Agnes's in the inscription in the Chronicle (see Fig. 7,) 4. THE AUTOGRAPH and her signature in facsimile on page 25 of [W]. alia by INSCRIPTIONS Her handwriting is characterized inter the use of English majuscule A, with a flourish The front flyleaf in the Manual is inscribed cross-stroke (except in "Affectionate" in the in ink (Fig. 6): third line, where the initial letter may have been meant to be a minuscule script a) and by the Rev" Brnce B. Begg distinctive minuscule r in English script, resembling a script minuscule letter v. Manse Abbots-hall. The front flyleaf in the Chronicle carries the From his Affectionate following inscription in ink (Fig. 7):

Aunt Fram [sic] rom. Agnes Begg Mr. Fullarton 7 Oct' 1875 Edinburgh

It is safe to assume that the inscription was To Agnes & Isabella Begg written by Agnes Begg, the eldest daughter of

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flyleaf Fig. 6. The inscription on the·f!yleaf Fig. 7. The inscription on the of the Ma1111a/. of the Clzro11ic/e. 99 Bridge House ladies by their names, without an appropriate title, such as "Misses." In 1872 Agnes and Ayr Isabella were 72 and 66 years old, respectively. They were well known and highly respected. The awkward and discourteous mode of address Presented to appears to be a strong faux pas, if indeed the dedication was written by "Mr. Fullarton." Andrew Vannan A more puzzling aspect of the inscription concerns the handwriting. Lines 1-7 appear to with the warmest esteem have been written by the same hand as lines 8- of his Affectionate Aunts, 11 and 13-16. All minuscule r's are of the French script variety, except the single English script r Agnes Brown Begg in Agnes's signature in line 12. The corresponding letters in "Isabella Begg" in line and 4 and line 14 are identical. Letters I-s-a and Isabella Burns Begg letters l-l-a in "Isabella" are not connected in either line, whereas the letters a-b-e-l are Bridge House connected in both. The numerals I -8-7 in line 7 and the corresponding numerals in line 16 are 3n1 November I876 by the same hand. The minuscule letters o in "To" (line 4) and in "to" (line 8) are both simple Andrew Vannan Begg (1857-1935) was, slanting ovals unconnected to the preceding according to [W], a grandson of Robert Bums letters. The double l's in "Fullarton" (line 2) Begg, the third son of Isobel Begg. Agnes and and in "Isabella" (line 14) are identical. The Isabella Begg were actually his grandaunts. majuscule />(sin "Agnes" and in "Ayr'' (lines 4 It appears from the context that lines 1-7 and 6) and those in "Andrew;' and "Affectionate were written by a Mr. Fullarton, whereas lines Aunts" (lines 9 and 11) are all identical informal 8-16 were written either by Agnes or by Isabella script majuscules (that is, enlarged minuscule Begg, or by both. Clearly line 12 contains an script a's.) The minuscule letters s in "Agnes" autograph signature of Agnes. The names and "Isabella" (line4) seem to have been penned "Agnes" and "Begg" in this line are almost by the same hand as the s's in "Presented," copies of the signature in the Manual and in [W], "warmest esteem," "his" and "Aunts" (lines 8, and "Brown" is penned in the same style: the 10, 11.) majuscule Bis the same as the B in "Begg", Since lines 8-12, 13-16 were definitely and the minuscule r is the half-open English penned by Isabella, the most likely conclusion script r, which seems to be characteristic of is that lines 1-7 were written by her hand as well. Agnes's handwriting. On the other hand, the But why should she write the dedicatory lines handwriting in lines 8-11 and in lines 13-16 is from Mr. Fullarton to herself and her sister? It quite different from that in the inscription penned may be that Agnes the Isabella cherished the by Agnes in the Manual. These lines must have copy of the Chronicle which was presented to been written by Isabella. Indeed the signature them by the publishers, and wanted to record in line 14 matches exactly her signature in [W]. the provenance of this special copy before Lines 1-7 were written ostensibly by Mr. presenting it to Andrew Vannan. Fullarton. However, there are two singular aspects of this inscription that make this References attribution uncertain. The writer, apparently either John A. Fullarton or another member of [BJ BEGG, ROBERT BURNS. ISOBEL BEGG (MRS. the publishing firm A. Fullarton & Son, describes BEGG). A Memoir by her grandson. Alexander Gardner, Paisley. 1894. himself very formally, but in a curt manner, as "Mr. Fullarton," whereas he addresses the two [CJ THE UFE AND WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS. JOO Edited by Robert Chambers. In four volumes. [DJ DICK, JOHN. REMINISCENCES OF THE Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers. 1951- NIECES OF BURNS. In A1111ual Bums Chro11icle, 52. No. X. January, 1901. Pp. 41-46. [C-W] THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited by Robert Chambers. Revised by William [W] GENEALOGICAL CHARTS OF THE FAMILY OF Wallace. In four volumes. W. & R. Chambers, ROBERT BURNS. Also the families of Gilbert Edinburgh and London. [ 1896]. Bums and Isabella Bums. Edited and compiled by Peter J. Westwood. A Burns Federation Production [CG] CONSTABLE, GEO. W. ROBERT BURNS BEGG. 1997. In Memoriam. In A11nual Bums Chronicle, No. X. January, 1901. Pp. 68-77. THE SONS OF ROBERT BURNS IN INDIA (By Ron McAdam)

t is a somewhat forgotten fact that there is quite a strong connection with Robert Bums (Scotland's National poet) and India, a land he never visited. He was, however, aware of India as indicated by these words taken I from a letter to a friend: "O could I give thee India's wealth, as I this trifle send, because the joy in both would be, to share them with a friend."

The connection in fact was through two of his sons, William and James. Both had been educated through the kind charity of friends of the poet, after which (at an early age) they were sent to India as cadets in the East India Company. William Nicol Bums, the elder of the two, was born atEllisland Farm, Dumfries on 9 April, 1791. He was the third son of Robert Bums and was five years old when his father died. He was educated at Dumfries Academy and when he was 16, sailed to India as a midshipman. Soon after his arrival he obtained an Indian cadetship. He then went on to serve with the 7th Madras Native Infantry Regiment. During this time he saw action in the Third Mahratta War (1817-1819). He retired in 1843 as a Lt. Colonel, afterultimately commanding his Regiment. He did marry, but had no children, and lived out his final years in Cheltenham as a widower (staying in the same house as his brother, James). James Glencaim Bums was born in Dumfries on 12 August, 1794. He too was educated at Dumfries Academy, and also Christ's Hospital, London. He went out to India in June of 1811. He eventually joined the 15th Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry, and also served during the Third Mahratta War. He was involved in many interesting campaigns, including operations in the Jodhpur Territory in 1823. He was present at the capture ofLamba Fort and was Brigade Major of the 4th Infantry Brigade Rajputana. In 1833 he was appointed Judge and Collector of Cachar. He returned to Britain in 1839 with the rank of Major, but obtained the brevet rank of Lt. Colonel in 1855. He achieved a reputation as an expert in Hindustani and taught this language to young men prior to their departure to India. James had married in 1818 and had three children - two daughters and a son. Only his daughter, Sarah, survived into adulthood, and in fact ended up being responsible for carrying the Burns name down through the years to the present time. After her marriage she took the name Hutchinson, but was always known as Sarah Bums Hutchinson. It is quite interesting to note that Sarah's brother, Robert Shaw* Bums, died in 1821 at the age of 18 months, and is buried in Neemuch Cemetery. This boy was in fact the Grandson of the poet, and had he lived, married and had a son there might well have been a direct male descendant of Robert Bums alive today. James Glencaim Bums remarried and had another daughter who also survived adulthood. On their retirement both James and William shared a house in Cheltenham where they became highly respected members of the community until their deaths.

*After Sir James Shaw, Lord Mayor of London, a benefactor to the poet's family. 101 WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A BURNS MANUSCRIPT

AT THE SALE OF PRINTED BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS HELD IN NEW YORK, USA DECEMBER 1998, BY CHRISTIE'S OF 502 PARK AVENUE AT 59th STREET THE MANUSCRIPT IN THE POET'S HAND OF AULD LANG SYNE WAS SOLD FOR $170,000 (£103,000) see editorial comment. Details in Sale Catalogue Lot 149:- BURNS, ROBERT (1759-1796). Autograph manuscript of the song ''Auld Lang Syne," comprising five four-line stanzas and four-line chorus, titled at the head of the sheet, the stanzas numbered and the chorus indicated, with four words neatly lined through and corrected by the poet in two lines. N.p., n.d. [after 1788?]. J page.folio, 323x199 mm. ( 12%x 7% in), rectangular piece cut from top right-hand margin (repaired with old paper), a few small stains along old folds, small hole at fold intersection in upper portion resulting in loss of one word ("be") in third line offirst stanza.

THE ONLY MANUSCRIPT OF THE IMMORTAL "AULD LANG SYNE" STILL IN PRIVATE HANDS

s the Bums scholar G. Ross Roy has written, a case may be made that "Auld Lang Syne is the best known 'English' song in the world, and perhaps the best known in any language A if we except national antherr.is. The song is certainly known throughout the English-speaking world, including countries which were formerly part of the British Empire. It is also known in most European countries, including Russia, as well as in China and Japan". Usually, the song functions as a dissmissory, a song of parting, evoking remembrance tinged with melancholy. The origins of the song, whose refrain and title mean, literally, "old long since," remain obscure. A song using the phrase was published by Allan Ramsay in his Tea-Table Miscellany (1724), and some similarities exist to a ballad found in the Bannatyne Manuscript, compiled about 1568. Bums, an enthusiastic collector of traditional Scots song, claimed to have collected it from the singing of an old man on one of his several trips about Scotland in 1787-1788, but is is more likely that he wrote the song, incorporating the pre-existing phrase "auld Jang syne", which he found particularly moving. "Song­ verse married to music-was Burns' earliest, his latest, his strongest, and his most enduring poetic interest". "There is," Bums wrote, "a noble sublimity, a heart-melting tenderness in some of these ancient fragments which show them to be the work of a masterly hand." Elsewhere, he spoke of finding "a certain something in the old Scotch songs, a wild happiness of thought and expression which peculiarly marks them." Bums undertook to edit, for the Edinburgh publisher James Johnson, a collection of Scottish songs entitled The Scots Musical Museum. It was in the first part of this anthology (1787) that the verses "Auld Lang Syne" first appeared, set to a different tune than that to which it is today inextricably linked. Of the several hundred Scots songs Bums edited, refurbished or composed, "Auld Lang Syne" was clearly a particular favourite. In 1788, in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, he asked, "Is not the Scotch phrase "auld Jang syne" exceedingly expressive? There is an old song and tune which have often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scotch songs. I shall give you the verses ... " The verdict of posterity would seem to be in agreement with Burns, who, after carefully writing out "Auld Lang Syne" for Mrs. Dunlop, exclaimed: "Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it, than in half a dozen modem English bacchanalians." 102 Six manuscripts of"Auld Lang Syne" are extant, all exhibiting some variation in text (1) Alloway, Scotland, Bums Cottage Museum. Autograph manuscript (2) Alloway, Bums Cottage Museum. Autograph manuscript (a fragment, comprising only lines 9-24). (3) The present manuscript. (4) New York, Pierpont Morgan Library. Autograph manuscript, part of a letter to George Thomson, September 1793. (5) Bloomington, Indiana. Lilly Library. Autograph manuscript. (6) Washington, D.C., Library of Congress. Autograph manuscript, part of a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, 7 December 1788). Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000

103 BURNS'S "DOCTOR HORNBOOK" Career of John Wilson, Dominie at Tarbolton By The Late J.C. Ewing, Hon. Editor "Burns Chronicle"

arbolton has numerous and close The son of a weaver in Glasgow, John associations with Robert Bums, who Wilson was born in (or about) 1751. He T lived in its neighbourhood - at Lochlie matriculated at the University of his native city farm - for seven years. Here in 1780 he and in 1768, but appears not to have graduated. other young men of the district formed Excepting that he was married at Riccarton in themselves into a debating society, the 1774, we have no further information regarding "Bachelors' Club". Here in 1781 Bums was him until 1781, when was acting as schoolmaster "entered an apprentice" and was "passed and of Craigie (Ayrshire). On December 20 of that raised" as a member of Lodge St David. Here, year he was appointed parochial schoolmaster contemporaneously with him, dwelt Alexander ofTarbolton, and this position he held for eleven Tait, tailor and poetaster, some of whose broad years. He was also session-clerk for a time and effusions throw interesting light upon Bums's secretary to the local Lodge of Freemasons from life. And here also lived John Wilson, parochial 1782 till 1787. schoolmaster and prototype of the "Doctor Burns's Satire Hombook" who figures in one of Bums's best Wilson's name, however, would probably known satires. not have won perpetuity by appearing in the record of Burns' s life but for an incident which took place at a masons' meeting in the spring of 1785, and led to Wilson's being immortalised as "Doctor Hombook". Both incident and sequel are recounted by Burns's younger brother Gilbert in a letter, containing "some particulars of the history of the poems", which he addressed to Dr. James Currie, prospective biographer and editor of the poet, on April 2, 1798. The poem "Death and Doctor Hombook", wrote Gilbert, Though not published in the Kilmarnock edition, was produced early in the year 1785. The Schoolmaster of Tarbolton parish, to eke up the scanty subsistence allowed to that useful class of men, had set up a shop of grocery goods. Having accidentally fallen in with some medical books and become most hobby­ horsically attached to the study ofmedicine, he had added the sale ofa few medicines to his little trade. He had got a shop-bill printed at the bottom ofwhich, overlooking his own incapacity, he had advertised that 104 "Advice would be given in common In Bums's favour it may be suggested that disorders at the shop gratis". Robert was as he published the piece in the Edinburgh at a mason-meeting in Tarbolton when the (1787), but not in the Kilmarnock (1785), edition Dominie unfortunately made too of the "Poems", he did not think that "Doctor ostentatious a display of his medical skill. Hombook" would be recognised. It may have As he parted in the evening from this been, too, that the accusations mentioned in mixture ofpedantry and physic,, at the place verses 26, 27, and 28 were a matter of dry, local where he describes his meeting with death, jests taken in good part. At all events, Gilbert one ofthose floating ideas ofapparition he Bums records that Wilson himself thought the mentions in his letter to Dr. Moore crossed poem on the whole "rather a compliment". his mind: this set him to work for the rest of Various circumstances combined to make the way home. Wilson none too happy at Tarbolton. The author J. G. Lockhart's Version of "Bums's Passionate Pilgrimage" states that In his "Life of Burns" (1828), John Gibson much of the trouble was due to a chronic state Lockhart repeated Gilbert's story, adding the of unfriendliness towards the dominie on the part rather sensational information that of the parish minister, the Rev. PatriGk Wodrow. John Wilson, alias Dr. Hombook, was A more material cause of Wilson's resolve to not merely compelled to shut up shop as an seek a change probably lay in the fact that his apothecary, or druggist rather, by the satire salary was small and his family large - his first which bears his name; but so irresistible wife bore him eleven children between 1775 and was the tide of ridicule that his pupils one 1793. by one deserted him, and he abandoned his The Poet's Sympathy schoolcraft also. He proposed applying for a position in the Dramatic as this tale is, it is none the less Excise or removing to Edinburgh., there to good to know that Lockhart was mistaken in become a lawyer's clerk, and communicated saying that Bums's satire drove Wilson from with Bums, then at Ellisland, for assistance in Tarbolton. As subsequent events show, neither these directions. The poet expressed himself the circulation locally (in manuscript) ofBums's most sympathetically towards the dominie, and "true story" nor its publication in the second furnished him with an introduction to his lawyer edition (1787) of his "Poems" caused Wilson to friend, "honest John" Somerville in the Cowgate discontinue the sale of medicines and the giving of Edinburgh: of advice or to close his school. On the contrary, I am truly sorry, my dear Sir (he wrote he continued his apothecary's shop, and acted on September II, 1790), that you find as parochial schoolmaster of Tarbolton for yourself so uncomfortably situated in several years longer - until Martinmas of 1792. Tarbolton., the more so as I fear you will Though described by Gilbert Bums as a "mixture find on trial that the remedy you propose is of pedantry and physic", Wilson appears to have worse than the disease. The life of an been a harmless enough person, whose general Edinburgh Quill-driver at twopence a page character was that of a decent-living "man of is a life I know so well that should be very ability and education superior to his situation". sorry any friend of mine should ever try it. "Rather a Compliment" Pardon me, my dear Sir, this freedom: I wish It seems clear that Bums was hardly fair to only to keep you, as far as my knowledge Wilson in portions at least of the satire. of life can, from being misled by that Flattering as it the irony of the earlier part, the seducing slut, Fancy, under the mask of last seven verses are far otherwise, and in modem Hope. The Excise is impracticable to you. eyes would amount to sheer libel. Satire was, No man above thirty, or who has more than however, looked at differently in those days. Wit two children, is admissible. and liveliness excused must that to us seems Accepting this advice, Wilson did not go to mere abuse, and there is a sparkling, strutting Edinburgh, as he had proposed. He appears, vitality in "Death and Doctor Hombook". instead, to have obtained some employment for 105 his quill at home, for in the Mitchell Library at suspension, craving interdict against the heritors Glasgow are preserved two quarto volumes, and the kirk-session, prohibiting them from entitled "Lectures on Moral Philosophy, electing a schoolmaster in his place. His was delivered at the College of Glasgow by Mr. inter alia that the proceedings at the meeting on Archibald Arthur, and written by John Wilson, December 15,1791, were "most unjust, illegal, Schoolmaster of Tarbolton, in the year of our and injurious" to him, and that Lord 1790". It is not unlikely that he also did The complaint was only a fabrication some clerical work for Bums himself. ofa junto and an inconsiderable part ofthe Wilson's departure from Tarbolton was, parishioners, whose object was merely to however, only delayed. With the passing of the defeat a sentence that had been passed by years his position there appears to have become the heritors augmenting the school wages. more uncomfortable, and in September 1792 On these alleged grounds interdict was newspaper advertisements of "A Schoolmaster granted "till the bill should be advised". On Wanted at Martinmas first for the Parish of February 19, 1793, the heritors petitioned for Tarbolton, Airshire", announced that the trouble recall of the interdict, and on March 9 the Lord had come to a head. A further announcement in Ordinary (Craig) recalled the interdict, and March 1793, that authorised the heritors to "proceed to the election The Heritors ofthe Parish ofTarbolton of a schoolmaster in place of the suspender with being now authorized, by a decision of the all convenient speed". Court of Session, to elect a Schoolmaster Wilson's Glasgow School in the room of John Wilson, formerly So John Wilson was compelled to shake the Schoolmaster oftlzat place, will proceed to dust of "the clachan" from his shoes and seek such election in the house ofJames Manson pastures new, which he found in his native city. in Tarbolton, upon Monday, the 15th day He had had more than his share of trouble, but ofApril 1793, his subsequent history appears to have been Indicates that the supreme civil court of the comparatively uneventful. In Glasgow he land had been asked to decide the issue. continued that "school-craft" which Lockhart Court of Session Action alleges he abandoned. He taught in the High The beginning of the end of Wilson's Street, having succeeded there to a school kept connection with Tarbolton was on December 15, by William Meikleham before the latter obtained 1791, when a meeting of heritors, parishioners, a professorship in the College of Glasgow. and kirk-session, called to consider Afterwards, like Dr. Johnson, he "keeped a a petition and complaint signed by schule and ca'd it an acadamy" in Buchan Street above a hundred of the heads offamilies (burgh of Gorbals ), on the south side of the city. and other inhabitants ofthis parish against While superintending his "commercial Mr. Wilson as Schoolmaster, academy" (which he discontinued about 1827) resolved to dispense with his services as he was appointed session-clerk of the parish of from Martinmas 1792. At that meeting several Gorbals. This increasingly lucrative office he charges were brought against Wilson: held for 30 years from 1809 till his death, which He is neglectful of his school, follows took place at his home, 64 South Portland Street, other professions, appoints at times some when he was in his 88th year. He is buried in of his scholars to teach in his room who the Old Gorbals Cemetery, Rutherglen Road, are totally unfit for that office, and in Glasgow. The inscription on the stone does not general that he is a very unfit and improper identify "John Wilson" with the former teacher schoolmaster of Tarbolton or the "Doctor Following upon that resolution, intimation Hombook" ofBums's lively and vigorous satire. was duly made in church that the heritors would Portrait meet on November 3, 1792, to elect a new The portrait of the quondam "Jock schoolmaster. Four days before, however, Hombook i' the clachan" which accompanies Wilson raised in the Court of Session a bill of this article is the only representation of Wilson 106 that is known: a silhouette, size 31/z x 2 inches, Sale, Portland Street, Glasgow; it is an painted in black ink upon white paper, the artist Excellent one; he was the Veritable Dr. unknown. Accompanying it is a note to the effect Hornbook of Burns the poet. April 30, that 1844. (signed) Peter Smith. This profile was Bought at Mr. Willson 's BURNS TAUGHT LESSONS AT MOSSGIEL EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY OF JAMES MURRAY OF OLD CUMNOCK CHURCH

November 2"ct 1854

esterday having been one of our fair days or market days, and we have a goodly number of them, I was making my way through a bye street when I was touched on the elbow and Y when I turned round I was confronted by one of our parishioners, David Meikle by name who informed me that his mother Janet Hutcheson had been taken ill and wished to see me. Poor woman she is upwards of 80 years of age and can scarcely hope to get better. I feel a sort of extra interest in her on account of her early connection with the family of Robert Burns the poet. Her father was one of his ploughmen at Mossgiel, and 'Wee Davock', whose precocity is chronicled in the "Inventory", was her brother. I do not talk to her much, indeed not at all about these matters, but her son frequently mentions her recollections of the Burns family and those of them, especially, which refer to Burns himself are well worthy of preservation as they are very much to the poet's credit in every respect. Her father and mother, it would appear, caught a fever and died when the former was in Burns' service. About this time Janet was not beyond 15 years of age and yet she was left, as being the eldest child, with the care of the whole family. She therefore removed from the farm into the village of Mauchline in the immediate vicinity. Whether the cares which devolved on her were the cause of her falling into bad health I cannot say; but it so happened that she was threatened with a very serious affection of the lungs and was indeed in a very critical condition for some time. The benevolent hearted poet hearing that she was ill and that warm milk had been recommended gave orders that she should have the necessary supplies from his dairy; but hearing that she continued to droop and suspecting that the exercise of walking between the village and the farm every morning might be of service to her he gave orders that unless she came daily for her supply she should have no more. She accordingly went and rapidly got better. All this while 'Wee Davock', who was not the length of acting as a servant was Burns' close companion. He appears to have been one of those little old men who take a fancy for people three times their own age and Burns had taken equally towards him. Davock was to be seen perched upon the "Fur akin" when the poet went to and from his labour and even when he was actually ploughing the urchin kept his seat. I am not sure that it has ever been mentioned in print that Burns about this time formed a class of young persons whom he taught in his own house - gratis of course - after the labours of the day were over, and many a time he carried "Wee Davock" home after his lessons were over upon his own broad shoulders! Honour to this memory, this I think should be known. "Wee Davock" died young. He did not long survive the poet. When he was on his death bed several letters were received simply containing lucky £ note. They were supposed to be sent by Mr. Gilbert Burns. - Received from Hector McAndrew (Prestwick Burns Club) 107 Nor think to lure us as in days of yore! LONG LIVE We solemnize this sorrowing natal day, To prove our loyal truth - we can no more - And, owning Heaven's mysterious sway, FRANCIS I, Submissive, low, adore ..... Pausing for admiring references to John Graham of Claverhouse (Viscount Dundee) and KING OF Arthur Elphinstone (Lord Balmerino), the poem then calls for Vengeance' arm to lay low the pride SCOTS of the usurper, the Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg: Perdition, baleful child of night, n December 31, 1787 Robert Burns Rise and revenge the injured right attended a dinner in Edinburgh whose Of Stewart's royal race! 0 purpose was to toast "the King o'er Lead on the unmuzzled hounds of Hell, the water" on the occasion of his birthday. That Till all the frightened echoes tell the toast was not particularly efficacious was The blood-notes of the chase! demonstrated by the death of Bonnie Prince Full on the quarry point their view, Charlie a month later. Full on the base, usurping crew, Mentioning the Edinburgh birthday dinner, The tolls of faction and the nation's curse! James A. Mackay, editorofThe Complete Works Hark how the cry grows on the wind; ofRobert Burns, notes on page 303 the genesis They leave the lagging gale behind; of Burns's Birthday Ode with the help of a Their savage fury, pityless, they pour; quotation from Currie: With murdering eyes already they devour! Those present did not seriously entertain See Brunswick spent, a wretched prey, 'any hope ... the restoration His life one poor despairing day, of the house of Stewart; but over their Where each avenging hour still ushers in a sparkling wine, they indulged worse! the generous feelings which the recollection Such Havoc howling all abroad, of fallen greatness is Their utter ruin bring, calculated to inspire ... [Burns] took upon The base apostates to their God, himself the office of poet- Or rebels to their King! laureate.' (Currie vol. I 181-2). This is, to say the least, not one of the Bard's The resulting poem was Birthday Ode for best poems. With its frequent personifications 31'' December, 1787 which reads, in part, as and its unrelenting bombast it reeks of insincerity follows: and of sentimentality in the place of true Afar the illustrious Exile roams, sentiment. By the overblown rhetoric of the Whom kingdoms on this day should hail, hunting imagery one is irresistibly reminded of An inmate in the casual shed, the unfortunate words written on the window of On transient Pity's bounty fed, an inn at Stirling which refer to the House of Haunted by busy Memory's bitter tale! Hanover as "grovelling reptiles ... a race Beasts of the forest have their savage homes, outlandish ... An idiot race, to honour lost". But He, who should imperial purple wear, Mackay rightly notes that the sentimental Owns not the lap of earth where rests his royal attachment to the House of Stuart was the extent head: of Burns's Jacobitism. For expression of the His wretched refuge, dark despair, sentiment that rings truer one has to turn to While ravening wrongs and woes pursue, simpler and more genuine poems of the calibre And distant far the faithful few of The Chevalier's Lament, It was a' for our Who would his sorrows share! Rightfu King and The Highland Widow's Lament; False flatterer, Hope, away, but the Birthday Ode serves today to remind 108 loyal Stuart supporters to raise a celebratory Bavaria and his wife, Duchess Marie glass annually in honour of "the King o'er the Gabriele. He was a Wittelsbach, the water". To this day, the Royal Stuart Society Bavarian ruling family. hold an annual dinner in London at which they The Wittelsbachs were traditionally indeed toast the monarch in exile. brilliant, eccentric and wayward. To their There are those who note that Prince Charles beneficent rule the whole of Germany owes 1 Edward Stuart died in Rome on January 31, 1788 the enlightened l 6 h -century law of and who assume that a toast to "the King o'er Reinheitsgebot, the "pledge of purity" the water" is merely a sentimental reminiscence which decrees that German beer may of Bonnie Prince Charlie and a Jacobite contain no ingredients other than hops, salutation to the memory of the House of Stuart. water, yeast and sugar. It is the strict But there are others who maintain that the direct enforcement of this law to this very day line of descent from King James I comes down which ensures the renowned freshness and to the Bavarian royal family, the House of natural sparkle of German beer. Wittelsbach; Scotland and Bavaria therefore Among Albrecht's distinguished share the same King, and Scotland's true Stuart ancestors were Elector Friedrich V, the descendant is "the King o'er the water" who is "Winter King" of Bohemia and father of alive and well and living in the environs of Prince Rupert the Cavalier, and Ludwig I Munich. who built the magnificent Nymphenburg It is, I think noteworthy that while English Palace on the outskirts of Munich. An monarchs have always been "King or Queen of ancestral uncle, Otto (1815-67), was King England", that is, of the country, Scottish of Greece for thirty years, but wore monarchs are rulers of their people, as was threadbare clothes, while the eccentric "Mary, Queen of Scots". The difference of royal Ludwig II, patron of Wagner and builder focus is a significant one. of the castles of Neuschwanstein, Prince Charles Edward had no issue with Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof, was an his wife Louise, Princess of Stolberg, but he had ancestral cousin. a daughter, Charlotte, by his mistress Clementina Crown Prince Rupprecht, Albrecht's Walkinshaw. Charlotte was legitimated under father, commanded the German Sixth Army the title of "Duchess of Albany" by a deed at the Battle of the Marne and famously registered by the Parliament of Paris in 1784 (see (and correctly) disagreed with von Moltke's Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopaedia, faulty tactics, which led to the German 347). Charlotte is the subject of Burns's The defeat. King Otto I of Bavaria was mad Bonnie Lass ofAlbanie, which refers to Prince but was still alive during Prince Albrecht's George (later George IV) as "a witless youth" childhood. During that time the and "a false usurper ... who now commands the octogenarian Prince Luitpold, a man with towers and lands, the royal right of Albanie". a splendid white beard, was Regent. After Charlotte Stuart died in 1789 but did have issue. his death in 1912 at the age of 91, the It was unfortunate in Burns bi-centennial regency was assumed by Albrecht's year to have to note the death of Duke Albrecht grandfather, Ludwig, a cattle-breeder. He ofBavaria, "theKingo'erthewater". TheDuke deposed Otto in 1913 and took over the was born in Munich on May 3, 1905, and died throne as King Ludwig III, causing many at SchloB Berg on the Starnbergersee near in Bavaria to deem him a usurper, Munich on July 8 at the age of 91. Albert I, considering his accession a bad omen. He King of Scots, is dead-long live Francis I, King proved the last King of Bavaria, losing his of Scots! throne to the communists in November I quote from the excellent obituary published 1918. in The Times on Thursday, July 11, 1996: The royal family fled to Hungary where Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, was the Ludwig III died in 1921 and was succeeded second son of Crown Prince Rupprecht of as head of the family by Prince Ruppr~cht. 109 He, in tum, was succeeded by his son in Sachsenhausen, Flossenburg, and Dachau before 1955. Prince Albrecht Luitpold Ferdinand being interned in the Austrian 'fyrol and arrested Michael thus became head of the royal next by the Americans! A retiring man with an house. international reputation in the field of forestry, As such, he was also "representative Duke Albrecht lived quietly in an apartment in and heir-general of King Charles I''. He Nymphenburg Palace in Munich and in his was twelfth in direct line of descent from modest castle on the Stambergersee. He was King James I, which made him the Stuart married twice, to Marita (daughter of Count pretender to the British throne ... But the Dionys Draskovich de Trakostjan) who died in duke himself neither pressed nor denied the 1969, and to Maria-Jenke (daughter of Count claim and tended to give a wide berth to Stephan Heglevich de Buzin) who was killed those sentimental Jacobites who hailed him 1983 in a motor accident. as their king. The duke was on civil terms The duke is succeeded by his elder son from with the British Royal Family and the his first marriage, Prince Franz, who was born Queen visited him during her state visit to in 1933. I am not aware of any earlier member Germany in 1965. of the direct Jacobite descent having the same name, so I assume that Prince Franz is now de Duke Albrecht was heir to the Bavarian .ll@. "Francis I, King of Scots". The King is throne when Germany's collapse at the end of dead - long live the King! Or, as Bums put it WW I ended the Wittelsbachs' 738-year reign. regarding Charlotte Stuart: In WW II, Duke Albrecht defied Hitler's rule, We'll daily pray, we'll nightly pray, had his property confiscated by the Nazis, and On bended knees most fervently, with his wife was arrested in Hungary. The two The time may come, with pipe and drum survived what the duke characterised as "a grand We'll welcome hame fair Albanie. tour of the concentration camps" of Raymond J. S. Grant

110 DR. ROBERT CHAMBERS' DIARY ON A VISIT TO AYRSHIRE An extract from Dr. Chambers' diary which commenced in 1824 resulting from a visit to the 'Land of Bums'. The extract is taken from the Chambers' Touma[ (sixth series) 11 circa 1901 by his grandson, under the date October 6' , 1837.

r. Tennant of Ayr, whom I visited today, has a perfect recollection of Bums. He is a wealthy man, without a cultivated intellect, but able to convey clear and correct M impressions of what has fallen under his observation. He first knew Bums when attending Mr. Murdoch's school at Ayr, he then fifteen, Bums about a year and a halfolder. Mr. Tennant used to visit Bums at Mount Oliphant, and stay over night with him, sleeping in the same bed. The father of the poet was intelligent; and, having acquainted himself with some scientific principles of farming, attempted improvements, but without success. When he died, Burns, his brother, and his sisters saved themselves from utter ruin by making up claims for their services, which, being preferable, left scarcely anything for the creditors. This enabled the family to begin on their own account in Mossgiel, but injured their character in the country. Gilbert Bums was refused by a Miss Ronald, living at Bennals, near Tarbolton, in consequence of her disapproval of the action and the talk which it occasioned. Mr. Tennant afterwards lived in the neighbourhood ofMauchline; and from his twentieth to his twenty-fifth year his most intimate friend was Robert Bums. When Bums returned to Mauchline from Edinburgh, and married Jean, they were shunned by persons of character. Bums himself was then looked upon with horror on account of the ridicule he had thrown on their sanctimonious system of religion, and his profligacy among women. The people of Mauchline were, perhaps, the last to allow his merits. Yet Mr. Tennant says "The Holy Fair" is only a fair description of the scene of the sacrament at Mauchline; and here, as in his other poems respecting the clergy, Bums has treated them with remarkable leniency considering the conduct of the men. Moodie of Riccarton, Russell of the Chapel of Ease in Kilmarnock, Peebles of the Newton of Ayr, and - were the four great persecutors of Dr. McGill; and a set of hypocrites and bigots they were, according to Tennant. Mr. Tennant speaks in enthusiastic terms of the wonderful intellectual gifts of the poet. Robert had read much, borrowing books from many. He read quickly, but remembered all that was interesting in what he read. Mr. Tennant was more impressed in his youth by the powers of discourse shown by Bums than afterwards by his poetry. His elocution, he says, was like that of Kean: so deep, so thoughtful, in tones so emphatic. Whenever he entered into controversy he carried everything before him. Mr. T. Says that Bums never could endure business. If Mr. T. spoke of any such thing to him, he would say, "Oh, talk to my brother about that". Neither, however, was Gilbert a good business-man. He did not succeed in any farm he ever had. Mr. Alexander of Ballochmyle said he was a man of words and not of deeds; meaning that he could talk well, but not act well up to his own ideas. He ~!so said he was a good farmer in his arm-chair. Referring to the Tennant family, Mr. Hamilton Paul, minister of Broughton, writes Dr. Chambers; 'John Tennant, farmer in Glenconner, parish of Ochiltree, had at least four sons, all men of respectability. John married an heiress; David went to India as a regimental chaplain, and wrote Indian Recreations; Charles had an immense manufactory at Glasgow called St. Rollox; James was miller in Ochiltree, and married Miss MacClutchie, a lady with a wooden leg, but amazingly active. I was intimate with them all'. Dr. Chambers' diary continued: 111 'Ayr, Monday, Oct, 9, 1837 - Called upon Miss Alexander of Ballochmyle. Fine-looking old lady of eighty-two. Woman of superior intellect and the finest natural character. Unaffected old­ fashioned manners. Story is that she walked out after dinner along the braes behind the house, when suddenly she came upon a man who was standing musing. Startled by the unexpectedness of seeing any stranger in such a place in dusk of evening, passed on with more than looking at the stranger, whose personal appearance was not very prepossessing. Bums was supposed to have been on his return from-, where he had been fishing. He was taking a short cut, and was trespassing. Some months later Miss Alexander received the letter, which concluded by mentioning that he wished to print it in the second edition of his poems, but would not do so without her permission.' [See letter to Mrs Stewart of Stair.] 'She, knowing nothing of him but that he was a village poet of indifferent character, did not think proper to take any notice of it. A grotto erected at the place of the meeting as near as she could recollect. ;Miss Alexander uses rouge, and probably used it when young too. Droll to think of the share this might have in exciting Bums's admiration'. Wilhelmina Alexander died unmarried at Glasgow in 1843, at the age of eighty-nine. Reference has been made in the extract from Mr. Tennant's narrative to certain members of the clergy satirised by Bums; and in this connection I include the following stories, supplied to Dr Chambers by the Rev. Hamilton Paul, minister of Broughton, whose name appeared on the title­ page of an edition of Bums's poems published in 1821. This publicity brought Mr. Paul into collision with the Evangelical party of the Church of Scotland, and he was cited to appear before the General Assembly. The citation was, however, afterwards withdrawn, it having been certified by John Gibson Lockhart, and afterwards by Professor Wilson, that Mr. Paul was not personally responsible for the contents of this reprint, but had merely furnished a short sketch of the poet's life. Mr. Paul, in a letter dated April 10, 1835, says he 'is convinced that there is not an individual on the earth, at present, that can furnish such authentic information with respect to the characters that figure in the poems of Bums that were published previous to his leaving Ayrshire. Dr. William Macquhae minister of St. Quivox' [referred to in 'The Holy Tuilzie' as 'that curs'd rascal ca'd Macquhae'], 'was a most amiable man and an enlightened divine. A lady said to me one day after coming out of his church, "You might print every word that comes out of Dr Macquhae's lips without correction". What Bums says is exceedingly characteristic: "Macquhae's pathetic, manly soul", etc. He pied the cause of Dr McGill in the General Assembly in a most powerful manner. He played me a trick one Sunday when I went to his church to hear him preach, and to dine with him afterwards. The service was begun when I entered the church in the forenoon. In his concluding prayer he addressed the Lord on behalf of the servant who was to officiate in the afternoon. I had no intention of preaching, having no sermon with me, and in the afternoon I attempted to get off. "No, no, my lad", says he; "ye are not to make me a liar to the Almighty". So I had to mount the pulpit in the afternoon. 'There were three brothers of the name of Wodrow, descended from the Church historian, at Eastwood, at Stewarton, and at Tarbolton. Dr Peter Wodrow, minister of Tarbolton, is the one named in this poem' [The Holy Tuilzie, or the Twa Herds'], 'The Auld Licht gentry were beginning to suspect him of joining the opposite party. He had an ordained assistant who was intended for his successor, whom Bums here calls "Gude Macmath". He (Mr Macmath) was an admirable preacher, and decidedly of the Moderate party. He was a favourite with Hugh Montgomerie of Coilsfield, afterwards Earl of Eglinton, and he was also the companion of Burns. Feeling himself rather in a dependent and subordinate position, he at last resigned his office and became tutor to a family in the Western Islands, where I saw him thirty years ago. 'In Kilmarnock there were two parochial churches and three officiating clergymen. Messrs Mutrie and Robieson were colleagues in the Laigh Kirk, both on the unpopular side of the Church. Dr Mackinlay was presented to the second charge. This appointment is the subject of the poem 112 "The Ordination". Robieson was learned, polished, read his sermons, and made morality his theme, and consequently was not popular. Mackinlay possessed every qualification to ensure popularity. He was tall and well proportioned, had a handsome countenance, with a sonorous voice and an elegant address. Dr Mackinlay, being the idol of the multitude, entered into a track at first from which he dared not afterwards deviate, either to the right hand or the left. He had but one sermon - that is to say, every discourse which he delivered from the pulpit comprehended the whole of the Calvinistic system of divinity. The language might vary, but the sentiments were the same in all. Had he been able to free himself from the trammels in which he was yoked, and introduced a little more of what Burns calls "curst common-sense", he would have been one of the first divines of the age. He still survives [1835], and was ordained so far back as 1786, and "The Ordination" appeared in the Edinburgh edition of Burns's poems, 1787'. Mr. Hamilton Paul sent Dr Chambers a large amount of anecdotal information, all of which is in the possession of the present writer. A great deal of it is, for obvious reasons, unsuitable for general reading, and was wisely left unpublished by Dr Chambers. If the narrative, which so far as we are aware has never been drawn upon, can be regarded as true, many of those eighteenth century clergy who incurred the displeasure of Burns, and are satirised in his writings, were only treated according to their deserts. Returning to Dr Chambers' diary, we find that on July 6, 1838, he visited Mrs. Thomson, formerly Jessy Lewars, celebrated as the heroine of the song 'Jessy'. The following is an account of the interview: 'Mrs Thomson (Jessy Lewars) still survives, as kindly and amiable as ever. It was interesting to hear her speak of Burns from personal acquaintance, and it is remarkable with what warmth of attachment and respect she speaks of Mrs Burns. She first became acquainted with Burns at Ellisland. When they were about to remove to Dumfries he expressed a hope that she would be kind to his wife when they came to reside there. Mrs Burns had few acquaintances in Dumfries, and any little attention that Jessy could show to her was therefore much prized. Mrs Thomson has also a most kindly feeling towards Burns himself. She admired his amiableness towards his wife and children. His own simplicity of taste was remarkable. Mrs Burns, not being sure that he was to be at home, would perhaps prepare no dinner for him. He was then quite contented with a slice of their Ayrshire cheese. She has often seen him sitting at this repast with a book in his hand, reading while he ate - an old habit of his, as we know. 'One day Burns called upon her father, Mr Lewars, when Jessy was at home unwell. Lewars said, "Burns, you have often spoken of an epitaph on Jessy. You might do it now, for you see she's dying" Gocularly). Burns immediately wrote on a pane: Ye Powers above say what on earth Can turn Death's dart aside? It is not purity or worth, Else Jessy had not died. Burns suffered in reputation by the acquaintance he kept with Jean Lorimer. Indeed, there seems to have been no doubt entertained of the levity of his character even then. Mrs Thomson remembers her coming to Burns's house on a Sunday and going to church with the poet and his wife, the wife and Chloris being dressed exactly alike. 'Burns had a set of breast-pins, each containing a small black portrait. Of four of these, there was one of himself, another of the Earl of Glencairn, a third his wife, and a fourth Mrs M' Lehose. Each had a motto on the back: "When I forget thee may my right hand forget its cunning" and "My God and Thee" were the mottoes on his wife's and Mrs M'Lehose's. The box with Queen Mary's portrait on the lid, which Lady W. Maxwell presented to Burns, was broken by Mr Wm. Burns in India, in leaping from a boat against a vessel - having it in his breast-pocket. After Burns 's death Mrs M'Lehose reclaimed all the letters she had sent to the poet'. We may fittingly conclude these vef):'. random jottings with an extract from one of Carlyle's 113 early letters to Robert Chambers, now printed for the first time. In sending thanks for a present of the first volume of the Life and Works of Bums, Carlyle says: 'You surely do well to collect in an authentic form, while it is yet time, whatever particulars can be gathered concerning a man who is likely to be memorable so long. There is everywhere a genial recognition of your subject and your hero: in short, the whole is altogether good and pleasant reading, and contains, for me at least, a great many biographic traits and elucidations which were not known before. It is a bold and genial notion that of intercalating Bums 's poems into the prose narrative of his life, and treating them as little bursts of musical utterance in the grand unrhymed poetical Tragedy which he enacted under this Sun! Beyond doubt such is their real character, and into that category they must ultimately come with all readers. I shall heartily wish you good speed in this pious adventure, and hope to see it triumphantly finished by-and-by'.

ALTERATIONS AT BURNS'S COTTAGE THE COTTAGE IN 1825 and MILLER GOWDIE

isitors to the birthplace of Robert Bums, Scotland's national bard, at Alloway, from this date (1901) will find the appearance of the property much changed from what it has been V for many years past. The Trustees some time ago considered the advisability of carrying out such alterations as would make the Cottage what it was when the memorable "blast of Janwar' win' blew hansel in on Robin:' and at the same time remove as far as possible the risk to which such a valuable and historical property was exposed from danger by fire, risk which was considerably' enhanced by the existence of modem additions which have been made to the original "biggin' ." As a result the Trustees took what will be recognised as a very wise decision the outcome of which is now apparent. The transformation has been going on for the past twelvemonth. The actual cottage and its attached buildings, as they existed at the time of the poet's birth, and as they certainly were at the beginning of last century, appear to have been - the cottage itself consisting of a but and a ben, then a byre, and lastly a barn, all running parallel with the present public road. A contemporary engraving, bearing the date was at first suggested to place the monument 1805, shows these buildings as they then existed, that now occupies a picturesque site on the banks and as above specified. Subsequently to that of the Doon between the "Auld Brig" and the date, however, and between that and 1819, new bridge, in the ground behind the cottage. shown in the reproduction of a plan bearing that With this view a plan of the cottage and the date the small slated addition attached to, and grounds was prepared by James Milligan, immediate!y to the south of the cottage, appears surveyor, Ayr, and engraved and published by to have been built, and, therefore, not to have W. & D. Lizars, Edinburgh. The plan is entitled formed part of the buildings owned by the poet's - "Sketch of the grounds on which it is proposed father. It is perhaps not generally known that it to build a monument in memory of Robert

114 Burns, the Ayrshire bard, by James Milligan, have been filled up. Wooden floors and ceilings surveyor, Ayr." The plan shows the cottage had been put in. These have been removed, and grounds to be co-extensive with the boundaries the floors and rafters, with their thatch, revealed. of the present day, about four acres, and, on a Stalls for cows and one horse, such as were in small scale, it clearly shows what the engraving use a hundred years ago, have also been put in, of 1805 does not show, viz., the addition in and the result has been to as nearly as possible question to the south, conclusively proving that restore the appearance of the interior to that the addition was built between those dates. The which it presented when first built. To obtain plan indicates the point in the ground marked this effect old cobble and settle stones were B, where it was at first suggested to erect a requisitioned from an old byre in the vicinity, monument, which was at some little distance now a ruin, and probably of contemporary date, immediately behind the cottage. and the rafters, where missing or decayed, have At a later date (to be exact, in 1847) was put been replaced with others of similar appearance. up a hall which then served as a concert room The barn, which had been used as a store, and and accommodated the members of the Ayr had not been transformed to any great extent, Burns Club on each succeeding "Twenty-fifth" has also been restored to its original state. Not in their celebrations of the natal day of the poet, only has the front entrance to the cottage been and which later was used as a drinking saloon, closed to the public, but the back door has also when the cottage carried a license, and more been closed. Access to the cottage, which is now recently, when the license was taken away, for from the grounds at the back, is gained from the the purveying of temperance refreshments, and outside first by and through the barn, then as a museum. Among the most important of the through the byre, then through the best room, alterations has been the clearing away of this and then into the kitchen, which, with its box hall, which has been entirely removed, together bed, is the actual room in which Burns first saw with various out-houses, and the site sown down the light. It was in the best room where the in grass. The demolition of the hall has been trinkets and photographs were exposed for sale. the only material external change in the These have all been cleared out and transferred precincts. Some important internal alterations elsewhere, and a few relics, guarded by an iron have, however, been made within the cottage fence, have taken their place. Prior to the present buildings. Principal among those has been the order of things, the visitor was introduced first clearing out of the turnstiles within the front into the kitchen, and passed thence into the best entrance to the cottage through which visitors room; but now, after having reached the kitchen, had to pass to gain access to the cottage and through barn, byre, and best room, he returns by grounds, and the front entrance to the cottage the way he came to get to the grounds again. has been permanently closed. The turnstiles There is no other outlet from the kitchen, the have been removed to a new range of buildings previous door direct from the turnstiles to the to the north of, and altogether separate from, the kitchen, which was not in the original cottage, cottage buildings. Direct access from the road having been closed to visitors. One other is therefore now not through the cottage to the important alteration, designed to safeguard the grounds, but from the grounds to the cottage. cottage against the risk of fire, is that a system As already pointed out, the original buildings of hot water pipes has been introduced consisted of dwelling-house, byre, and barn in throughout for heating purposes, the water being their order. The barn and byre had been for long heated at a safe distance from the cottage. previously diverted from their former use, and To find house room for the numerous Burns the byre, which was next to the best-roof of the relics which the old hall contained and others cottage, had been converted into two bedrooms, for which there was not room, a new and larger with a door entering into them from the dwelling hall had to be provided. This occupies the house. From that use they have been diverted, principal part of a new picturesque range of and as nearly as possible restored to the original buildings running parallel and at right angles to form. Windows had been knocked out. These the public road, and which also includes a 115 dwelling-house of five rooms for the caretaker, along with Mr. Stewart of Dunearn and several Mr. Mitchell, and his family, as well as store­ other gentlemen, and in another an admirable rooms and hot water heating apparatus. The hall painting of Bums, which is 5 feet 8 inches on is of considerably larger dimensions than that the canvas, by 3 feet across, and which was which was abolished, but it is already evident presented to the house above 20 years ago by that it does not err on the side of being too Provost Ballantine. This completes Mr spacious, for the walls are already almost Gowdie's task. Not a single anecdote does he completely occupied by numerous tell of Burns; he makes no pretensions to reproductions, engraved and otherwise, of literature; and after an hour's conversation, a portraits of the poet and friends, and scenes person leaves him, doubtful whether he ever read connected with his poems. This collection even a line of the poet's works. During the last consists of the various manuscripts and articles three years there has been a great increase in the that were in the building which has been taken number of visitors. The cottage is the property down, and, in addition, about 120 framed prints of the Corporation of Shoemakers in A yr. They which had been collected by the late Mr. Craibe have also about 4V2 acres of excellent ground Angus, the well-known Bums enthusiast, and adjacent, which is let by public roup along with which were bought by the Trustees recently. the house on a 19 years' lease. It was first Here a stall has been fitted up for the sale of converted into a change-house by a Deacon, photographs and other souvenirs, the Trustees Mathew Dick, who had a lease of it for £10 a from experience finding that visitors are year. He took another lease of it at £17 a year, disappointed if they are unable to purchase such but dreading it would not pay he gave up his articles at the cottage. The walks in the open bargain. It was then taken for two tacks of 19 ground have been asphalted, and an unusual air years each by a Mr Maitland. Mr Gowdie being of neatness and interest has been imparted to disappointed in a farm he expected to get, gave the cottage and its surroundings, which was not Mr Maitland £30 for his bargain, and for the possible under the old regime. cottage grounds and licenses he pays £49 a year. Burns's Birthplace in 1825 A late visitor observed to Mr Gowdie, that the In connection with the above it will be Irish Counsellor Curran had stated that he had a interesting to read the following description of strong partiality for the "chief o' spirits, whisky". the cottage and its surroundings, as given in the "Wee!, wee!," replied Mr Gowdie, "he wasna "Glasgow Chronicle", December 5, 1825:- for wrang there; I ay took a drap, I do't yet, and The cottage in which Robert Bums, the Poet, will do sae as lang's I live, or at least sae Ian's I was born is about two miles from Ayr, on the can get it. He cam' here awa at the race time, as old Maybole road. It is a neat, clean and it's enow, and I let him see the bed, and then I comfortable thatched house, consisting of three brought him in here, and showed him Robin rooms and a kitchen. One of the rooms was built there (pointing to the picture), and he stood for a few years ago. The signboard states that a wee, and looked at him, and the tears cam' "Robert Bums was born under that roof on the running owre his cheeks. There were mair fouk 25th of January, 1759". On entering the house, in the room at the time, and I was cried to taste the first enquiry is naturally for the landlord, and wi' this ane and that ane, and there's nae doubt I forthwith appears Mr John Gowdie, better was ree ways, as I'm enow; but when I showed known in that part of the country by the him a' I cou'd, what was his business wi' that. appellation of "the Miller", as he had been a Sae when he turned frae Robin, I conveyed him miller for a number of years in one of the mills to the door, and he gaed aff; but I troo I drank on the Doon. He is a plain well-bred little man, nane the mair o' him. He didna weet his mooth about 60 years of age, and has been in the cottage or birl a bawbee in the house. Na, it was ill for twenty-two years. He points out the bed in done in him baith to put me to trouble, and gie which the poet was born - shows a small bust me naething and misca' me too; but a' he said he keeps in one room, which was presented by has ne'erput a gill by my door; nal whiles think Elias Cathcart, Esq., when he visited the cottage he did me gude, for there have been mae and 116 ij

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mae strangers here every day sin' synt". The the bard's father lies interred. It has been broken cottage is near the little village of Alloway, and and the pieces carried off by inconsiderate it is rather singular that there has been only one individuals. Surely that man must possess a house erected at it for a number of years. About marvellous power of face who could, in presence half a mile beyond the cottage is Alloway Kirk, of intelligent people, say without colouring, now in ruins - the outside walls and the bell "There's a fragment which I broke from the alone remain. On entering the churchyard, the headstone of Robert Bums, the poet's father". eye of the visitor is attracted by a stone near the As this species of vandalism has been in a great gate, which is sadly dilapidated, and he regrets measure abandoned this summer, it is in to find that this stone marks the spot in which contemplation to erect a new stone, so far as

117 circumstances will permit, the counterpart of the pointed to the corner on one side of the fire, and one which has been so wantonly destroyed. A with a most mal-a-propos laugh observed, 'there little to the left is an elegant little square pillar, is the very spot where Robert Burns was born'. with an inscription stating that it was erected by The genius and the fate of the man were already Mr. John Hutcheson, merchant, Ayr, to the heavy on my heart; but the drunken laugh of the memory of his father-in-law, "David Watt, the landlord gave me such a view of the rock on last person baptised in Alloway Kirk, who died which he foundered, I could not stand it, but burst the 2"d October 1823, aged 67 years". To the into tears". - Letter of Curran in his life by his right is the burying place of "Thomas Blair, late son. farmer at Slaphouse, who died 4th December As confirming Curran's account of Miller 1820, aged 92 years, and who is believed to be Gowdie we give the following extracts from the last man whose marriage was proclaimed in letters of John Keats, written on his walking tour Alloway Kirk. The oldest stone in the through the Burns Country in 1818:- churchyard deserves notice. Round the edges it "We went to Kirk Alloway - 'A prophet is intimates that "Here lyis an honest man, John no Prophet in his own country'. We went to the Neil, on Nethertown, who departed on the 5th cottage and took some whisky. I wrote a sonnet day of Apryl, 1623." for the mere sake of writing some lines under A few yards further on is the Old Bridge of the roof. They are so bad I cannot transcribe Doon, in attempting to gain "the key-stane" of them. The man at the cottage was a great bore which, honest Tam O' Shanter' s braw grey mare, with his anecdotes. I hate the rascal. His life Meg, lost her tail, by the witches. Distant a gun consists of fuz, fuzzy, fuzziest. He drinks glasses shot is "the well, whar Mungo's mither hang'd for the quarter and twelve for the hour. He is a hersel' ,"and some other spots of equal celebrity, mahogany-faced old jackass who knew Burns - but the object which deserves particular notice -he ought to have been kicked for having spoken is the splendid new monument, erected in this to him. He calls himself 'a curious old bitch', place to the memory of the poet. It is eighteen but is a flat old dog. I should like to employ feet inside. The dome is supported by nine Caliph Vathek to kick him. 0 the flummary of a massy columns, fifteen feet high, and it birthplace! Cant! Cant! Cant! It is enough to overlooks a number of the scenes celebrated in give a spirit the guts-ache. Many a true word, the writings of Burns. they say, is spoken in jest. This may be because MILLER GOWDIE his gab hindered by sublimaty: the flat dog made "We got to Ayr; it was the first day of the write a flat sonnet." races. Poor Burns! - his cabin could not be This article was copied from one of many passed unvisited or unwept; to its two little 'scrapbooks' on the life and works of Robert thatched rooms, kitchen and sleeping place, a Bums held by the Trustees of Bums Monument slated sort of parlour is added, and it is now an and Bums Cottage at Alloway. ale-house. We found the keeper of it tipsy; he

118 in his life and gathered to pay their OBITUARIES respects at Dullator Crematorium , Glasgow. Danny's Elza E. Dunlop life was a life which may be considered full and diverse and t is with much a life which in so sadness that we many ways enriched ·ecord the I al I those who had pass ing of Elza, the privilege of earlier this year at knowing him well. the age of 90. Born He was a wee! kent in Glasgow she was face in Burnsian circles and a man of many parts a graduate of and talents with an unswerving love for family, Glasgow the work of Robert Burns and his native University. Her Scotland. late husband My personal friendship with this mild Thomas, born in mannered man over many years stemmed from Irvine was a great­ our mutual love and understanding of the works nephew of John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the of Robert Burns. A love which began for Danny pneumatic tyre. Elza and John with their two in his early and formative years, when as a young sons and daughter moved to Manchester in boy during the last war, his youthful education January, 1951 and shortly afterwards joined the was unfortunately interrupted and he found Bolton Burns Club, serving the club loyally as a himself an evacuee to Ayrshire, in particular to committee member and President of the club on Mauchline, where he spent much of his time on two occasions. She represented North Western Montgarswood Farm, the farm formerly England on the Executive of the Burns belonging to Willie Fisher, satirised by the poet Federation for 35 years. Her interests in Holy Willie 's Prayer. encompassed every aspect of Scottish culture He was quite rightly proud of these early and its promotion. None more so than in country beginnings and I have fond memories of him dancing, which she taught, and was a regular regaling myself and others, with his farmyard participant in Scottish country dance festivals. tales of those early boyhood days and how Burns Together with her husband they performed at became a huge part of his life. 35 - 45 functions every year. She provided Over the years that were to follow as a man entertainment for handicapped children, the and boy, in addition to serving his apprenticeship mentally retarded, geriatrics and the sufferers as a Decorator Sign Writer and national Service from Multiple Sclerosis, Old Age Pensioners the in the Royal Artillery, he found time to become list seems endless. Her dedicated service to her heavily involved with the City Farm club and to the Burns movement in general will Organisation, travelling far and wide promoting long be remembered but greatly missed. inner city farms and fund raising for the organisation. His love of the great outdoors and green fingered skills, earned himself a reputation Daniel Kilpatrick as a horticulturist, where he was regularly found among the prize winners, but Danny never forgot 1930 - 1998 his first love and became not only a he untimely death of Daniel Kilpatrick knowledgeable man on the works of Robert 1 on the l 4h April 1998 deeply shocked Burns but equally a tireless worker for the Burns T and saddened all who knew him, shared Federation. 119 His vigorous effort and ability through this In life he lived much and earned the esteem love of poetry, music and song, saw him rise to and praise of all who knew him and we extend become President of the Rosebery Bums Club, our sympathy to his wife Connie, his seven Glasgow and on his move to the new town of daughters and their families. Erskine, a founder member and President of the Andrew J. McKee Erskine Trusty Feres Bums Club and ultimately, President of the Renfrewshire Association and a place on the Bums Federation Executive. Rev. Roderick However his prime interest and one which many a young person may have cause to be grateful for, lay in promoting the works of the Macdonald, MA, TD. poet through his contact with schools. It became he world of Gaelic and the world of his passion and he derived much pleasure from Bums are mourning the loss of a person devoting many hours and much of his valuable who was very special to both. Reverend free time to assisting teachers and acting as an T Roderick Macdonald died in June at Insch, adjudicator at school competitions in and around Aberdeenshire where he had served until his Erskine and beyond as a member of the retirement. Renfrewshire School's Committee. Born on the 14th June, 1920 he received his His talent in this direction was readily primary education in North Uist Schools and recognised by the Federation when he was made then went to the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. schools convenor in 1994, whereby he carried In 1938 he studied at Glasgow University and out his duties in the same resolute manner as he completed his divinity course having obtained did everything he became involved with-110% the degree of Master of Arts. being the norm. Following a period in Dunvegan, Skye he The Bicentennial year of 1996 was I believe then went to St. Columba's Church in Stornoway his zenith, for in that special year he not only and subsequently to Insch. Wherever he served saw but participated in his dream of a Bums his congregations and in the Ministry in which Federation Commemorative Concert in Glasgow he was so involved he always remained the same. as a member of Glasgow's Philharmonic choir, A listening ear to anyone experiencing difficulty a concert which he himself had initiated and and a kind and compassionate adviser in times tirelessly worked to see become a reality, a of stress. As a preacher in Gaelic and in English concern which will forever remain a tribute to he inspired and encouraged and the depths of his effort. his research and knowledge was evident in his In 1997 when I was President of the Bums inspirational sermons. Federation, I had the privilege of presenting He had a deep love for poetry and for his Danny with an award, marking his achievements native language and both these came together in promoting Bums and the Federation. Even when he was crowned the Bard of the National though he was suffering from severe illness at Gaelic Mod. An inspired poet in Gaelic and that time, I can recall the look of pride on his English his works covered many subjects face as he accepted it, that look will forever ranging from the light humour which caused remain a lasting memory for me, as I am sure it mirth and merriment to the darker and heavier will for all those who were in attendance on that side of life in the tragedy interwoven into life special occasion and were privileged to witness itself. it. He particularly distinguished himself with I could in all probability, say a great deal translations into Gaelic across a wide range of more about this remarkable man and not even interests. Hymns, songs, poems, stories the sheer begin to scratch the surface of such a unique skill of his pen had to be admired. Whether his individual, but what I can say, knowing Danny own compositions or that of others the Gaelic Kilpatrick was a rare privilege indeed as a friend was always accurate and written with a flow and and fellow Bumsian. rhythm and none more so that the translations 120 of the Complete Works of Robert Bums. known as a church builder. In his first two This was the master at work and the gentle charges in Northumberland and Newcastle­ beauty of the love songs, the meanings of the upon-Tyne he directed reconstruction and martial poems and the route and the race and refurbishing programmes and at Watford in rambles of Tam 0 'Shanter could make one think Hertfordshire organised the building of a new that the originals were written in Gaelic. church and community centre and united his This ambassador, diplomat, friend, congregation with another. During his 10 years companion and distinguished scholar is no there he was chaplain to the Royal Caledonian longer with us but he lives on in his many works Schools in Bushey for children whose parents and inspired activities in Gaelic and in English. were serving abroad with the armed forces. M.M. Always keen to work with people of other denominations, he was invited while in England to join a team which planned, set up and directed Reverend an Ecumenical Institute of Christian Studies under the auspices of Cambridge University Extra-Mural Board in St. Albans Abbey. John Pagan His appointment to St. Michael's, the parish ?til his retirement as a parish minister church of Dumfries, in 1979 brought him back JUSt over three years ago, 72 year old to the land of his forebears who until recently U Mr. Pagan was in charge for 16 years had worked the same farm for over 700 years. of St. Michael's Church, Dumfries, where During his time in Dumfries, he became Robert Bums once worshipped. He himself was associated with most of the religious and social a stalwart of the Bums movement. He was a events in the town. He conducted the inaugural former president of Dumfries Bums Club and and valedictory services which opened and an honorary member of the Howff Club and closed the burgh's octocentenary celebrations in during his tenure of St. Michael's he conducted 1986. the annual remembrance service at the poet's Besides being burgh chaplain, he held a mausoleum in the kirkyard and was greatly in similar post with the Scottish Southern Counties demand as a proposer of the "Immortal Bums Association; the local festival group, the Memory". Guid Nychburris Association; the Comets' Club, During the last 10 years, he also became and the South-West of Scotland Royal British known for officiating at weddings at what the Legion. Church termed "non-religious venues" including In 1987, he was a member of a delegation Comlongan and Caerlaverock Castles and , more which went to Maryland, USA, to forge a link controversially, the Gretna Green smiddies. between Nithsdale, where John Paul Jones, a In the late 1980s, he became the first minister founding father of the US Navy, was born, and to perform a Christian wedding at the famous Annapolis where his tomb stands in the US Old Blacksmith's Shop and started a trend. Naval Academy. Despite opposition from the local presbytery, John was a larger-than-life character, known he robustly defended his right to perform the for his strong convictions and strength of ceremonies, pointing out ifhe or other ministers character combined with a wry sense of humour. did not marry the couples, they would be likely He had been in indifferent health for about three to wed outside the church. months but was still active and regularly Father of three John Pagan trained for the officiated at marriages and funerals. ministry of the English Presbyterian Church in He is survived by his widow Freda, sons Westminster College, Cambridge, and served for Gavin and Gregor and a daughter Alison. 21 years south of the border, where he became

121 Albert attended Victoria Drive Secondary School Bill where his interest in English literature and poetry was fostered. Following his apprenticeship to Dawson & Sutherland Downie an engineering firm in the area, he served with the Royal Artillery during his embers of the national service, based in Catterick, Luton and Burns Howff of Don. In 1950 he joined Yarrow Club were Bridge M being promoted to Shipbuilers subsequently shocked at the sudden foreman and then to assistant training manager. death of their Honorary Apart from a 2 year spell abroad, he remained Librarian, Bill Sutherland, there until a major operation for cancer forced shortly after returning home from the club's him to take early retirement in 1991. Hallowe' en Supper on 31 " October, 1997. Having Mr. Sutherland who served with distinction originally met his as club president in 1991 - 92, was a well known future wife at authority on Robert Burns and in recent years Glasgow University had developed the club's coll ection of Burns Union, Albert and memorabilia. He compiled the Centenary book Betty married in the marking the club's centenary year in 1988 and Unitarian Church, was the driving force behind the scheme to place Glasgow in 1966. commemorative plaques at the graves of Burns' The first 2 years of contemporaries in St. Michael's Kirkyard for the married life were 1996 Bicentenary. He was a regular member of spent abroad in Lima on a Peruvian Government the club team which welcomed countless parties naval contract and it was here they both made of visiting Burnsians to Dumfries. some lifelong friends. Bill was active in a wide range of local In 1968 Albert and Betty returned to activities. The Citizens Advice Bureau, Scotland, setting up home in Blanefield followed Dumfries Bowling Club, the Crichton Museum, by the subsequent birth of their daughters - chairman of Friends of Dumfries Archives and Heather and Hazel. treasurer and elder of St. Mary's Church, As a mechanical engineer, he had a lifelong Dumfries. Until hi s retiral, he was Chief Internal passion for cars which he inherited from his Auditor with Dumfries and Galloway Health father. Among his many interests were ballroom Board. But it was his association with the Burns and Scottish country dancing and in his early Howff Club that he will best be remembered. days he was also keen on long distance cycling, Bill was one of the best loved and enthusiastic camping, hillwalking and he generally loved the members and his passing was felt by a very wide outdoor li fe and Scotland. circle of friends. He is survived by his wife Having joined the Wolf Cubs at an early age, Eunice, sons Andrew and Murray and daughter his involvement with the Scout movement lasted Minna, to whom we offer condolences. until the age of 36 when he relinquished his duties as a leader. It was however Burns' work which brought Albert Johnstone out a latent talent in Albert. As a founder member lbert Johnstone died suddenly and of Blane Valley Burns Club in 1980, he was very unexpectedly from a heart attack on quickly in demand for Burns Suppers throughout A 3rd September 1998 whilst out walking the area and every year his diary for January and in his home village of Blanefield. The youngest beyond was always packed with engagements. of 3 brothers, he was born in Scotstoun, Glasgow He is perhaps best remembered for his on 14th July 1928. Three years later his family outstanding performances in reciting and acting moved permanently to Knightswood, Glasgow. out Tam o' Shanter in period dress, latterly 122 accompanied by Meg in the form of a hobby bought the poet's horse. However it was not just the popular poems "favourite howff' he recited but often the less well known ones the Globe Inn, in too. He served as President from 1983 to 1986 1937 and was and again this year. president of the Albert was instrumental in Blane Valley Burns Federation Burns Club joining the Burns Federation. during World War 2. Thereafter he attended most Burns conferences George's and events within geographical reach. He was ambition was to be an enthusiastic member of the Stirling, a stockbroker and on Clackmannan and West Perthshire Area of the leaving school he Burns Federation, and at the time of his death joined a Glasgow firm. From there he went to he was also Area President. London and returned to Dumfries where he A man who lived and enjoyed life to the full , establi shed his own firm. He became a member he was an example to others in not allowing a of the Stock Exchange in 1938. major operation for cancer and an ear operation On his return home after war service, he was to get in the way of living. A big man who ordered by his father to fill the vacant position immediately filled a room with his presence, he of secretary of Dumfries Burns Club and quickly was never happier than when in the company of became one of the most prominent Burnsians in like minded people. Albert will be sadly missed the district. He began a long association with by his many friends and acquaintances within the Burns Federation becoming convenor of the and outwith the world of Burns. Finance Committee where he served for many Our deepest sympathy is extended to his wife years, and was elected president in 1961. Betty, daughters Heather and Hazel, son-in-law In 1989 his services to the Burns Federation Philip and to the two grandchildren whom he were recognised by the award of the MBE in dearly loved - Cameron and Matthew. the Queen's Birthday Honours List. George McKerrow was a respected and If there 's another world, he lives in bliss; popular honorary president of Dumfries Burns If there is none, he made the best of this. Howff Club and until his health failed, regularly enjoyed the fellowship of the club gatherings in Mrs. Betty Johnstone wishes to thank all the Globe Inn, which he took over from his father those who have sent expressions of sympathy in the I 950's and is still managed by the and support. McKerrow family. A.M. For over 50 years, Mr. McKerrow was involved in voluntary and charitable work. He was secretary and treasurer of the local branch Henry George of RSSPCC for40 years, governor of the former Loch vale Boys Home for 30 years and chairman of the Scottish Veterans Garden City Association McKerrow, MBEJP which provides cottages for disabled ex­ serv1cemen. 1911-1998 George McKerrow was a member of the former ne of the giants of the Burns Federation, Dumfries Town Council from 1947 to 1967 serving George McKerrow, passed away on two terms as Burgh Treasurer and was appointed 24th October, a week after his 87th a Justice of the Peace in 1955. 0 He was an enthusiastic supporter of the town's birthday, following a long illness. Guid Nychburris Festival (Good Neighbours) A retired Dumfries stockbroker, George from his appointment as Cornet for the Riding McKerrow inherited his life long interest in of the Marches in 1937 and was successively Burns from his father Matthew, a solicitor who secretary, treasurer and chairman of the Comet's 123 Club and also for many years was chairman of the Guid Nychburris Festival Association's finance and ceremonial committees. A life long rugby enthusiast, Mr. McKerrow was an honorary president of Dumfries Ru gby Club and also an elder of St. Michael's Kirk where Burns once worshipped. ' But it is for hi s love of Burns that Georcre McKerrow will best be remembered, and for hls unfailing courtesy, his gentlemanly manner and his many acts of kindness. His loss to the Burns Federation in incalculable. He is survived by hi s w ife Bunty, son Alan and Gordon and daughter Margaret. No more fitting epita ph to George McKerrow can be found in Burns "Epitaph To my own Friend"

"As ev'r God in His image blest; Thefriend of Man, thefriend of truth, The friend ofAge, and guide of youth: Few heart like His - with virtue wa rm 'd, Few heads with knowledge so inform 'd: If there's another world, He li ves in bliss; If there is none, He made the best of this."

D.C.S. of Fleet Club sought out: "There is nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love Hugh Fingland offriends ". Hugh was a policeman by profession having urnsians at Gatehouse of Fleet and much joined Pai sley Burgh Police as a constable in further afield were very saddened at the 1946 and the n moving on to the traffic loss of Hugh Fingland - a much B department (where he is recorded as having respected member of the Burns society in the driven a Riley a t over I 00 m.p.h. - just to see west of Scotland. For the past few years he held what it could do!). Although Hugh moved up the posi ti on of ' Poetlaureate' of the Burns Club through the ranks to Inspector after the Paisley at Gatehouse of Fleet and hi s main duty each Force had amalgamated with Renfrew and Bute year was to select extracts of the Bard's verses when was always noted for hi s caring attitude to to match up with the various speakers and fellow human beings. This rather lovely side of entertainers on the programme card at the annual Hugh gained national publicity following an su pper. incident in July 1963 during a visit to Paisley by Hugh's enthusiasm for everything 'Burns' H.M. The Queen. Just as the royal car rubbed off on everyone he met as also did his approached, 2 year old Graham Mitchell escaped keen sense of humour. There is no doubt that hi s mother' s notice and wandered up the during his long li fetime he must have introduced cordoned off road to welcome the royal visitor. many friends and work colleagues to joy of Sergeant Hugh slipped out quietly and with a belonging to the wider 'family of Burns' . In big smile picked Graham up and returned him search of a quotati on to sum up Hugh himself, to his mother's a rms. This was the dominant James Finlay, past president of the Gatehouse picture in all national newspapers next day. 124 The loss of Hugh is mourned also by the himself as a 'regular' on the programmes at the Paisley Tannahill I MacDonald Club and friends Bums Suppers. In 1982 he was elected President in the Isle of Lewis where he stayed for a few and in 1989 was elected Honorary Vice President years after his retirement in 1971. Hugh had just in recognition of his outstanding service. In the moved from Gall oway to Cardross before the long history of Dumbarton Bums Club his name short illness which preceded his death. He is will certainly stand out as one of its most survived by his loving wife, Jean and family. illustrious members. George McCulloch Although essentially a Burns man, his repertoire was extensive and he was always ready to answer a call to entertain. He has recited Bill Hendry at all sort of functions and in all sorts of places, from the most humble howff to the Palace of is many friends - and he had many - Westminster. were saddened to learn of the death of If Bill had been asked to sum up his life, Bill Hendry on 25th January, 1998, after H apart from the final years, there is not doubt he a long illness. Bill was very proud that he was would have used one of his favourite expressions Newton born and bred and a Son of the Rock. to describe it as 'a grand enjoy'. As one of his cronies wrote of him: There was a large congregation of mourners at a service of thanksgiving for his life in Newton bred they ca'd him Bill, Riverside Parish Church on 30th January. A fine A lad o'pairts and unco skill. tribute was paid by the Rev. John Cairns and a Of decent, honest, hardy stock, moving part of the service was when the organist A true son o' Dumbarton Rock. played some of Burns's well-loved melodies. Bill certainly was a lad o' pairts, his activities in his more youthful days included cycling and ballroom dancing. He was an accomplished Mauri Rose bowler and was four times singles champion of auri Rose, Past President of the the Rock Bowling Club. When he moved house Robert Bums Society of Annapolis, to the Townend area he joined Townend Bowling M was piped to rest on 24th November, Club, where he registered another victory as 1998 at St. Ann's Episcopal church, on Church senior singles champion. Circle, Annapolis, Maryland. Bill will best be remembered, however, for Mauri was born on May 20, 1922 in Sydney, his interest in the life and works of Robert Bums. Nova Scotia, the oldest of six children. His As an interpreter of the bard's poems he was parents were from Newfoundland. Hi s father second to none. He was blessed with a very worked in a steel mill and was a lobster retentive memory and it was unknown for him fisherman. to forget his lines. His rendering of 'Tam o' Mauri enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Shanter' was a masterpiece and his portrayal of Force during World War 11, became a pilot, and ' Holy Willie's Prayer' was unsurpassed. No Holy served in England for four years. Willie himself he Mauri was president of the Robert Burns was blessed with a Society of Annapolis from 1990-1992. The keen sense of Society flourished under Mauri 's leadership. Hi s humour and had a good looks, pleasing smile and warm personality gift of repartee that pulled the Society together in a special way. brought forth many a During his term of office the Society hosted smile. He joined The North American Conference of Federated Dumbarton Burns Bumsians, the Glasgow Phoenix Concert Choir, Club in 1960 and YMCA visitors from Dumfries, the Scotia soon establi shed Dancers and the Alexander Brothers in concert.

125 Mauri and Julie opened the week-long Robert Bums Festival in Dumfries, Scotland JAMES BLAIR where he was instrumental in arranging the "Twinning" of the City of Annapolis and Dumfries. CAMPBELL, by Resolution No. R-7-92, introduced C.Eng., F.l.Mech.E. Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins of the city of Annapolis, was adopted by the City Council and signed on February 10, 1992. It designated and Nithsdale District, Dumfries, Scotland, and the City of Annapolis as sister Cities. A "Twinning" ceremony was celebrated July 18 at Kirkbean JEAN and Dumfries. Mauri loved music and during his term the CAMPBELL Society presented Peter Morrison in concert. Mauri liked to sing and play his guitar which t is with much sadness that we record the we loved for him to do at various ceilidhs. ''I'll passing of Jean Campbell on 20th Give You A Daisy A Day" was one we all I September, 1998 and some five weeks later particularly remember. husband Jim Past President of the Burns Mauri was an excellent dancer; the ladies Federation. Both well-known Bumsians and stood in line to dance with him. A poet, he also active members of clubs South of the Border. wrote several poems dealing with the Society. Jim was born in Port Glasgow in 1925 and He was an avid supporter of the Jolly Beggars educated in Port Glasgow, Isle of Bute and and took an active role in their performance of Glasgow. Trained as a railway engineer in the "The Jolly Beggars," the only Cantata Bums St. Rollex Works of the London Midland and wrote. Scottish Railway Company, a Chartered Mauri was a worker. Many times he served Engineer and· Fellow of the Institution of behind the counters at the Navy Stadium when Mechanical Engineers. the Robert Bums Society of Annapolis sold After training he held a number of positions refreshments to make money for the RBSA in the Scottish Region of British Rail until Scholarship Fund. He always helped at the moving to the Swindon Works of British Rail in Renaissance Festival. the Western Region. Held posts in various Besides seeing that the Society functioned workshops until 1970 when he moved to British well, Mauri made sure we held our Annual Rail Headquarters in London as Rolling Stock Picnics, Bums Dinners, Hogmanay, K.irkin', Maintenance Engineer. In 1974 joined private Tartan Ball, and the various Ceilidhs. Being a industry and subsequently operated as an golf pro and avid fan, Mauri took great pleasure independent Railway Engineering Consultant. in setting up the Robert Burns Society of Jim retired in 1988 and both settled in Upper Annapolis' Annual Golf Tournament. Poppleton, York. In 1998 they celebrated their A gentleman of charm, wit and talent, Mauri Golden Wedding. Jim and Jean had a life-long will be sorely missed by all his friends. interest in the life and works of Robert Bums, and after moving to England joined a number of Scottish Societies, including those in Derby, Billingham, Wakefield, Leicester and the St. Andrew's Society of York. Jim was a Past President of the Wakefield Society 1978-79 and 1980-82. Secretary and treasurer of the Yorkshire District Bums Federation 1981-82. Publicity Officer of Leicester Caledonian Society 1983- 86. Representative on the Executive Committee

126 for North and Burns culminated in his election as President of East England the Bums Federation in 1990. on the Burns During his year in office Jim travelled Federation for extensively with Jean, promoting the Federation many years. and Robert Burns. Unfortunately, Jean suffered At the Perth a heart attack and a stroke in the midst of that Conference in year but, with sheer grit and determination, she 1990 Jim fought back and was soon back where she became the belonged - by Jim's side. Their natural friendly President of manner and love of people won them friends the Burns Federation. On becoming Past wherever they travelled, at home or abroad. President of the Federation he was appointed Throughout the years since then Jim Finance Convener and organiserofthe 200 Club. continued to work unstintingly for the Federation Not only was Jim heavily involved in the and was a strong supporter of the proposed Bums Movement but took a leading part in the changes to the structure of the Federation. In community affairs of Poppleton and was spite of hi s final illness Jim continued to organise responsible for organising the annual concerts the '200 club' until August and was still given by the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra held in Convener of the Finance Committee at the time Poppleton which attracted an audience from of his death. Yorkshire and the surrounding counties. Jean and Jim took a great interest in young Both tireless workers for the Burns people and in the work of the Schools Movement, this has been evidenced by the Committee, donating a trophy to the National number of official Federation and social events Secondary Schools Festival. They were very they attended on behalf of the Movement, supportive of Irvine Royal Academy Burns Club involving many hours travelling both throughout and Jim was thrilled when the young club made England, Scotland and overseas. him an Honorary Member in 1993. He kept in There was a large attendance of Bumsians regular touch with them and was always from both sides of the border for both funerals, delighted to hear of their achievements. including the President, Chief Executive and In Upper Poppleton, where they settled in members of The Burns Federation. retirement, Jim set up his own little oases of Scottish culture. He invited the Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra to the village some eight years ago and such was the success of that first visit that it JIM and JEAN has now become an annual event with strong friendships being formed between the young fiddlers and their village hosts. He also started a CAMPBELL Burns Supper in the village which goes from he Bums Federation was dealt a sad blow strength to strength each year. These events will with the recent deaths of Past President keep the name of Jim Campbell alive in years to T Jim Campbell and his wife Jean. Both come. were patients in York District Hospital where The number ofBurnsians and villagers who Jean died on 20th September and Jim on 25th packed the Methodist Church in Poppleton to October. over capacity for both funeral services was an During their 50 years of marriage Jean and indication of the high regard and affection in Jim lived in many parts of the country, mainly which both Jean and Jim were held. I feel south of the border, and wherever they went they privileged to have had Jean and Jim Campbell forged links with their local Scottish Society. as close personal friends and, after the sadness Jim held various offices in many of these has passed, 1 will look back in gladness at the societies and hi s li fe long interest in Robert laughter and happiness we shared. Together they wouldn't want it any other way.

127 A total of £1,250 was donated in memory are- "If there's another world, he lives in bliss, of Jean and Jim and this was disbursed equally if there is none, he made the best of this." to the Gastro-enterology unit and the No one would deny that Jean and Jim Haematology Fund (both at York District Campbell made the best of this world but one of Hospital) and Yorkshire Cancer Research. the many things they shared was a strong faith The Rev. D. F. Daniel Mwailu and Mr. Denis in God and a firm belief in the existence of that Wilson paid glowing tributes to both Jean and other world. Who could doubt that they are now Jim at the respective funeral services with together in that eternal bliss? particular reference to Jim's courage over the Our thoughts and sympathy are with their latter months. son, Jim and daughter-in-law Mij in their tragic The Burns influence was promiment at the loss. service for Jim. Recalling the occasion when Jim A.G. played the role of the Earl of Glen cairn at a soiree Jim and Mij Campbell would like to thank in Finlaystone House appropriate lines were read the many Burnsians who sent letters of sympathy from the poet's lament for his patron. on the deaths of Jim's parents, Jean and Jim Printed on the order of service was the Campbell. The numerous tributes have been a Epitaph for Wm. Muir, the last lines of which great comfort to them in the midst of their grief.

FRIENDS OF ELLISLAND n 1922 John Wilson Williamson, Edinburgh Wool Merchant, bequeathed, on the death of his brother and himself, the land and buildings at Ellisland to Trustees for the purpose of the I property being set aside for the British nation. Recently in 1994/95 the Trustees invested £350,000 in a major refurbishment of Ellisland. This included restoration work to the main farmhouse, general repairs to the outbuildings and the formation of a video presentation display area in the Granary Museum,. Visitors can now enjoy a guided tour of the farmhouse, browse through the interesting artefacts, view the excellent video presentation of Bums' association with Ellisland and enjoy the peaceful tranquil setting on the banks of the River Nith along Bums' Walk. During 1998 the Trustees set up an association called the Friends ofEllis land. This association, which is made up of local Burns enthusiasts, now has the responsibility for the day to day management of Ellisland and, more importantly, its long term strategic development. It is planned that Ellisland will become an important venue for various events and gatherings associated with the life and works of Bums, other Scottish Literature and Scottish culture. If you would like to support the objectives of the Friends ofEllisland you can join the association as a member for a small contribution.

Ordinary Member £5/annum Family Member £8/annum (includes 2 adults+ any children under 18 years old) Corporate Member £50/annum

Members of the association will be entitled to visit Ellisland free of charge at any time when it • is open to the public and at other times through agreement with the Curator - Les Byers. Corporate membership, which is targeted at Bums Clubs and the business sector, entitles groups to visit Ellisland free of charge.

SECRETARY: JIM McCAMBLEY, 38 KIRKLAND ROAD, CALSIDE, DUMFRIES. DGl 4EZ. Tel: 01387 256885 128 THE CHAMPION OF BURNS The friend of Robert Bums in life: His vindicator after death.

hat prouder epitaph could any Scotsman wish for? What better call to honour and W revere the memory of a fellow countryman? It is above the grave of Alexander Findlater, supervisor of Excise at Dumfries from 1791 to 1797, that a memorial was unveiled in March, 1923 in North Street burial-ground, Glasgow. The task was undertaken by the Sandyford Burns Club, after attention had been drawn in "The Glasgow Herald" to the identity of "Burns's Gauger Champion." It was found that the headstone of the grave where he and members of his family are interred was so worn that the inscription was almost illegible. A worthy monument of grey granite was erected in its stead. Findlater is a place name: that rocky fastness near Cullen, on the Banffshire coast, which gave the title of Earl of Findlater to the Ogilvies of Deskford, successors to the original holders, the Sinclairs. One cannot trace the connection between Burns's champion and the lords ofFindlater, but he derives from that part of Scotland. There is a tradition amongst the Lanarkshire Findlaters of descent or ancient association with the Earls of the name, while the Banffshire Finlaters (they spell the name in the old-time way, without the "d") have a separate, and doubtless older, tradition that they lost their ancestral estates after a great battle with the Ogilvies, in which most of the adult males of the Finlater name were slain. Is it possible that these traditions have some substance, and that the Findlaters and Finlaters are directly connected with:- "The holefu' laird o'Finlater, Erle Huntley's gallant son" An old ballad, preserved by Professor Aytoun, descriptive of the Battle of Correchie (1562), thus refers to John Gordon, son of the Earl of Huntly, who was executed as a rebel at Aberdeen after the battle. Now, Sir Alexander Ogilvy, laird of Findlater (died 1554), had married as his second wife Elizabeth Gordon, a niece of the second Earl of Huntly. He disinherited James, his son by his first wife, and settled his estates on the John Gordon referred to. This led to the great Ogilvy-Gordon feud. After John Gordon's execution Queen Mary assigned the estates and barony of Deskford and Findlater to Sir James Ogilvy, the dispossessed heir. A nephew of our Collector of Excis'e -Alexander Findlater, founder of two great wine businesses in Dublin, and London - made in his lifetime, 1797 - 1873, a record of the family. He quoted the following extract from an old Bible for its direct and undoubted origin:- In the parish of Dyke, in the county of Murray, Alexander Findlater married, before the middle of the seventeenth century, Christina Brodie, daughter of the Brodie of Brodie. They had a large family of sons, some of whom settled in the North, and others went to the West Indies to settle. One of the sons, Alexander, studied divinity (born 1666), and became minister of Hamilton immediately after the Revolution (where he died). He married Jane, daughter of Thomas Kirkaldy, minister, a descendant of Kirkaldy of Grange. It has not been possible to trace any other record of this marriage at Dyke, the parish in which Brodie Castle was situated, but there is substantial confirmation of the existence of an Alexander Findlater connected by marriage with the Brodie family and apparently a brother-in-law of Sir Alexander Brodie of Brodie, Lord of Session (1617 - 1680). In the famous diary of that worthy there is no mention of Findlater's name, but his son James, who married Lady Mary Ker, Lord Lothian's youngest daughter, wrote in his diary in reference to his fati)er's death:-

129 This day my wiffe and Air. Finlater and I put the bodie of my dear father in his cerecloth, and cans anoint with oyls and pouders and spices. The body was the cask which keipd a nob! jewal. There is at any rate no uncertainty about the minister of Hamilton, particulars of whose ministry and family are given in "Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae." He was a native ofMorayshire, and married Jane Kirkaldy. The Rev. Thomas Kirkaldy, her father, graduated, M.A. at Edinburgh in 1636, and must have been the brother of Robert Kirkaldy, who in March, 1631, had the barony of Grange confirmed to him as the "first begotten lawful son of William Kirkaldy of Grange and Margaret Hamilton his spouse, and the heirs of his body, whom failing to Thomas Kirkcaldie his brother." This William Kirkaldy was the son of Sir James, brother of the champion of Queen Mary and heroic defender of Edinburgh Castle. Sir James fought by the side of his more famous brother, and was hanged along with him when the Regent Morton satisfied his private vendetta after the surrender. These warrior brothers were sons of Sir James Kirkaldy, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland under JamesV. The Rev. Alexander Findlater had ten children, six of them sons. The descendants of only two sons have been traced, but there were Findlaters living in the Hamilton district with branches in Australia and Canada, not to mention other parts of Scotland, who claim descent from the Rev. Alexander. Thomas, the second son, was minister of Newlands, and had two sons, Alexander and Charles. Alexander died in 1756, in his thirteenth year. (Rev. C. Rogers in his "Book of Robert Bums" wrongly identified this boy as Alexander Findlater, the friend of Bums, and this error was adopted by Dr. William Wallace when revising Chambers's "Life and Work of Burns.") Charles succeeded his father as minister of New lands, and died unmarried at Glasgow at the age of 84. James, the youngest son of the Rev. Alexander Findlater, had a large family. His fifth child, Alexander, born in 1754, is the subject of this article. Not much is known about him, except for his association with the National Bard. It is known, however, that he was admitted to the Excise at the age of 20; was designated an officer of Excise, stationed at Coupar Angus in 1778; was appointed examiner in 1790; and in the following year was settled as supervisor at Dumfries. In 1797 he was one of the general supervisors for the county of Edinburgh, in 1806 collector at Haddington, and in 1811 he was made collector of Excise at Glasgow. He retired in 1825, but continued to live in Glasgow (at 7 North Wellington Place, now part of Sauchiehall Street), where in died in 1839, aged 85. Alexander Findlater was twice married. In 1778, when he was 24, he wedded Susan (or Susanna) Forrester, daughter of John Forrester, writer, Falkirk. She died not long before Findlater's appointment to Glasgow. The Findlater genealogical tree already referred to gives the names of six children by this marriage - John, Alexander, Napier, James, William, and Helen. There are two errors here. James was the eldest, and Alexander Napier were the names of the third son. A tombstone in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh, has the following inscription, which suggests that a son of Alexander Napier emigrated to New Zealand:- The burial ground of Alexander Findlater, Otago, New Zealand, 1858. Under this stone lie the remains of Susan Forrester, wife of Alexander Findlater, Collector of Excise. Born 31'1 December, 1749, died lOth March, 1810. Also Alexander Napier Findlater, her third son; born 19th October, 1785, died 2"d November, 1849. James Findlater went to Greenock, and died there on August 14, 1826. John, who is buried in the North Street ground, died at Glasgow in 1856, aged 75. Helen, the daughter of the Collector, married some one of the name of Wilkes, for John's death was registered by his nephew, Alexander F. (?Findlater) Wilkes. In this connection be it noted that on the Greyfriars gravestone is a reference to the remains of Susanna Worthington Wilkes, who died in 1807 at the age of two - apparently a granddaughter of Alexander Findlater. 130 In the North Street ground are buried three sisters of the Collector - Miss Helen Findlater, Miss Grace Findlater, and Mrs. Janet Stewart, widow of Duncan Stewart. They all died, at an advanced age, in their brother's house within a space of a little more than two years (May, 1832 - July, 1834). Findlater's second marriage was to Catherine Anderson, the date of which is not on record. There were three children by it-Charles, Caroline, and Jane. One Charles Findlater who entered Glasgow University in 1826, is described as "fil natu minimus Alexandri, publicani, Glasgow." If this was the collector's youngest son, he could not have been much more than 14 years of age. Caroline was married in 1841 to James Edington, a Glasgow merchant. She perished at sea less than two years later, from on board the Pegasus, off Holy Island. Her husband died within a year thereafter. After the death of Alexander Findlater his furniture and personal effects were auctioned at his home. Among the items of furniture was the "original organ made for St Andrew's Church, Glasgow." Some interest attaches to this instrument. Its introduction caused considerable commotion among the religious folk of Glasgow, and how it came into the possession of Findlater, unless he was a leading office-bearer in the kirk, it would be hard to say. It is a supposition worth bearing in mind in reference to Findlater's attitude towards Robert Bums. Burns was made an examiner of Excise in 1790, and by the time he had moved into Dumfries from Ellisland, Findlater had arrived to act as supervisor. The post of examiner was a preliminary to that important office, and Bums acted as Findlater' s deputy during his illness between December, 1794, and April, 1795. Dr. Currie's "Life" of Bums was originally published in 1800. It became known that Peterkin was writing a more just appreciation of the poet in 1814, and it was on that account that Findlater wrote his vindication, which did so much to clear Bums's memory of the unjust aspersions. He protested against the severity ofCurrie's strictures, amplified and exaggerated as these had been by succeeding commentators, some of whom had "strained every nerve to throw all kinds of obloquy on his memory." Findlater was proud to testify that he had seen Bums almost every day about his business in Dumfries, and he never saw him unable to discharge his duties, except when laid aside by his last illness. Not only so, but he had seen him in his convivial moments and in the bosom of his family, and never saw anything like the enormities of which these early commentators accused him. His friendship with Bums continued to the very hour of his death, for it is known that he sat up by the bedside of the poet the last night he spent on earth. Peterkin, it will be remembered, attached the utmost importance to Findlater's letter. He wrote:- lt cannot be impertinent to mention that this gentleman stands so high in the confidence of the Board of Excise as to hold the highest office which it is in their power to bestow ... Mr. Findlater's testimony is, without any exception, the very best perhaps that exists with respect to the general tenor of Bums's conduct during the whole time he was officer of Excise. In the records of Somerset House Bums is entered as a diligent, active officer. That probably represents the official report made by Findlater, who in the letter to Peterkin referred to the poet as "exemplary in his attention ... even jealous of the least imputation on his vigilance." The collector also wrote of Burns's "convivial habits, his wit and humour, his social talents, and his independent spirit" as having been perverted into fictions of viciousness; but one hardly needs to read between the lines to see how human and loveable Burns was in Findlater's eyes. Findlater, at any rate, was no Bacchanalian acolyte, but a man of real religious feeling and brotherly sympathy. His published words and his actions prove it. Indeed, if it were not so, he would not h;ive been attracted so closely by Bums. "I have seen Bums in all his various phases;' he wrote: "in his convivial.moments, in his sober moods, and in the bosom of his family; indeed I saw more of him than any other individual." 131 I have written of Earls and Knights and other famed Scots from whom Alexander Findlater might have claimed descent, but "a man's a man for a' that," and this champion of Bums was a man of whom Scotsmen are proud for his own sake alone. Thomas Bain

MY MEETING WITH ROBERT BURNS By SIR WALTER SCOTT

saw him one day at the late venerable Professor Fergusson's where there were several gentlemen of literary reputation, among whom I remember the celebrated Mr. Dugald Stewart. Of course, I we youngsters sat silent, looked and listened. The only thing I remember which was remarkable in Bums's manner, was the effect produced upon him by a print of Bunbury's, representing a soldier lying dead on the snow, his dog sitting in misery on one side - on the other, his widow, with a child in her arms. These lines were written beneath: "Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden's plain, Perhaps that mother wept her soldier slain; Ben o'er her babe, her eye dissolved in dew, The big drops mingling with the milk he drew Gave the sad presage of his future years, The child of misery baptised in tears." Bums seemed much affected by the print, or rather by the ideas which it suggested to his mind. He actually shed tears. He asked whose the lines were; and it chanced that nobody but myself remembered that they occur in a half-forgotten poem of Langhome's called by the unpromising title of "The Justice of Peace." I whispered my information to a friend present; he mentioned it to Bums, who rewarded me with a look and a word, which though of mere civility, I then received and still recollect with very great pleasure. His person was strong and robust; his manners rustic, not clownish; a sort of, dignified plainness and simplicity, which received part of its effect perhaps from one's knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His features are represented in Mr. Naysmyth's picture: but to me it conveys the idea that they are diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his countenance was more massive than it looks in any of the portraits. I should have taken the poet had I not known what he was, for a very sagacious country farmer of the old Scotch school, i.e., none of your modem agriculturists who keep labourers for their drudgery, but the douce gudeman who held his own plough. There was a strong expression of sense and shrewdness in all his lineaments; the eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament. It was large, and of a dark cast, which glowed (I say literally glowed) when he spoke with feeling or interest. I never saw such another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most distinguished men of my time. His conversation expressed perfect self-confidence, without the slightest presumption. Among the men who were the most learned of their time and country, he expressed himself with perfect firmness, but without the least intrusive forwardness; and when he differed in opinion, he did not hesitate to express it firmly, yet at the same time with modesty. I have only to add, that his dress corresponded with his manner. He was like a farmer dressed in his best to dine with the laird. I do not speak in ma/am partem, when I say, I never saw a man in company with his superiors in station or information more perfectly free from either the reality of the affectation of embarrassment. From Scott's Letter to Lockhart, 1827. 132 When first I saw fair Jeanie's face, THE TOAST TO I couldna tell what ail'd me: My heart went fluttering pit-a-pat, My een they almost fail'd me. THE LASSIES She's aye sae neat, sae trim, sae tight, (Given to Edmonton Bums Club, All grace does round her hover! Ae look deprived me o my heart, Canada) And I became her lover. By Raymond Grant 0 happy love! Where love like this is found: 0 heart-felt raptures! Bliss beyond compare! Gentlemen: I've paced much this weary, mortal round, And sage experience bids me this declare, t is my privilege and my pleasant duty this 'If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, evening to propose the time-honoured Bums One cordial in this melancholy vale, I Night toast to the lassies. I begin 'Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair appropriately enough with Creation, with In other's arms, breathe out the tender tale, Burns 's gentle emendation of the text proposed Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the in Genesis by his "elder [Hebrew} brother in ev'ning gale.' the Muse:" The world's literature is redolent with pairs When Nature her great masterpiece design'd, of fortunate lovers in whose relationship the real And fram'd her last, best work, the human mind, approaches so closely to the ideal that the Her eye intent on all the wondrous plan, observer perceives their virtual identity - Hero She form'd of various parts the various Man. and Leander, Lancelot and Guenevere, Tristan and Isolde, Dante and Beatrice, Petrarch and The order'd system fair before her stood: Laura, Eloise and Abelard, Shakespeare and Nature, well pleas'd, pronounc'd it very good: Anne Hathaway, Romeo and Juliet, Faust and Yet ere she gave creating labour o'er, Gretchen, Beethoven and the Immortal Beloved, Half-jest, she tried one curious labour more ..... Robert Burns and Jean Armour:

Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears Then come, sweet Muse, inspire my lay! Her noblest work she classes, 0: For a' the lee-Jang simmer's day Her prentice han' she try'd on man, I couldna sing, I couldna say, And then she made the lasses, 0. How much, how dear I love thee. I see thee dancing o'er the green, Although this textual variant suggested for Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean, the Bard's Vulgate exemplar brings a smile to Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een - our lips, it contains nevertheless the germ of By Heav'n and Earth I love thee! Burns's solemn credo that it is our divinely­ appointed and pleasant obligation to respect and In these words, "By Heav'n and Earth I love cherish our lassies. thee," one sees most clearly the poet's genuine When we fall in love, not merely in lust, we belief in the divine nature of his immortal seek to capture, embrace and possess the beloved. This is the sort of love that binds lad divinely-wrought ideal we perceive in our and lassie, that binds husband and wife, that lasts lassies, and we are indeed fortunate if the "till a' the seas gang dry ... and the rocks melt corporeal reality approaches propinquity with wi the sun," that keeps the universe running: the envisioned idea. This peril-fraught hiatus between the real and the ideal is, of course, the By night, by day, a-field, at hame, territory occupied by the poet of the laughter of The thoughts o thee my breast inflame, love, Robert Bums: And ay I muse and sing thy name - 133 I only live to love thee. images fades and dissolves into its successor Tho I were doom'd to wander on, until, at last, it finds and holds a rock-steady Beyond the sea, beyond the sun, focus on Jean Armour. Till my last weary sand was run, Burns finds something of his divinely­ Till then - and then - I'd love thee! wrought ideal in each lady with whom he enjoys dalliance. We see Burns the teenager, in Of course, there is sexual attraction in this adolescence, that awkward stage between relationship, but there is more to love than lust, puberty and adultery, working on the farm, as Bums knows perfectly well. There must be harvesting with Nellie Kilpatrick and "first also an unspoken intertwining of souls. The committing the sin of rhyme" in his fascination surviving portrait of Jean Armour is not that of with Handsome Nell. We see him attending a raving beauty-but this was the lady who loved Hugh Roger's" school in Kirkoswald, where he Bums from the moment that she met him past is less interested in mathematics than in the his death to the end of her days, who bore him curves of Peggy Thomson. We hear him sing of his children, who took his bastards into her the wiles of the Mauchline Belles whom he home, who fed him and clothed him and cautions against reading 181h-century novels. mourned his passing and loved him for ever. As The parting of Sylvander and Clarinda is a he tells Dr. Blacklock: sophisticated literary game of"sensibility;" but with Mary Campbell there is more, much more To make a happy fireside clime - as the two lovers part at Failford, doomed never To weans and wife, to see one another again in this life, they That's the true pathos and sublime exchange hearts and bibles in a spot rendered Of human life ..... sacral by their love:

Poets are tormented with a whole host of That sacred hour can I forget? fancies unperceived by ordinary people. Poets Can I forget the hallow'd grove, are of necessity forever on a quest for the ideal Where, by the winding Ayr, we met, - in religion, in philosophy, in society, in the To live one day of parting love? infinite value of the individual human soul, and Eternity cannot efface in the human love relationship. The quest for Those records dear of transports past, the ideal leads to Bums's satires and to his Thy image at our last embrace - intention through gentle, correcting humour to Ah! Little thought we 'twas our last! emend the behaviour of real society, the quest for the ideal leads to Bums's ennobling the It is because of his ability to see into the indomitable spirit of his fellow mortals - heart of each lover to find this divinely-wrought whatever their station - for "a man's a man for ideal that Bums can look with his gentle humour a' that." And the quest for the ideal leads to on the efforts of others to find their ideals. We Bums's life-long search for the ideal lassie he are invited to laugh at the grotesque gargoyle was to find in Jean Armour. who captures the heart of Willie Wastle of When I rehearsed that bead roll of famous Linkumdoddie on Tweed: lovers, its climax was, quite fittingly, Robert Bums and Jean Armour. But it could have so She's bow-hough'd, she's hem-shin'd, easily been otherwise - Bums and Highland Ae limpin leg a hand-breed shorter; Mary, Bums and Elizabeth Paton, Anne Park, She's twisted right, she's twisted left, Mrs. Dunlop, Peggy Chalmers, the Bonnie Lass To balance fair in ilka quarter; of Ballochmyle, Burns and Maria Riddell, She has a lump upon her breast, Sylvander and Clarinda, etc., etc. The questing The twin o that upon her shouther: poet tries on one vision of his perfect lassie for Sic a wife as Willie had, size, then rejects it for the next; the vision of the I wad na gie a butten for her. immortal beloved keeps altering its focus as one 134 Burns "wadna gie a button for her" - but our hearts. And the love of the right lassie lasts Willie Wastle obviously does. The deformed as we grow old together, and the best is yet to creature who is the butt of our laughter is Willie's be: immortal beloved, and he sees beyond her outward lack of physical attraction to the gold John Anderson, my jo, John, of soul beneath. A love such as Willie's for his When we were first acquent, ugly wife must not only be smiled at, but it must Your locks were like the raven, also be tolerated, ennobled, and even envied. Your bonie brow was brent; And what of that other lassie who brings a But now your brow is beld, John, wry smile to our lips, the sulky, sullen dame Your locks are like the snaw, awaiting with furrowed brow the advent of Tam But blessings on your flosty pow, o'Shanter? I am sure I am not the only one John Anderson my jo! present here tonight who is going home in the wee, small hours of tomorrow to face such a John Anderson my jo, John, nagging as awaited the wretched Tam. But such We clamb the hill thegither, a nagging is born of concern and of love of the And monie a cantie day, John, kind for which Bums seeks continually. Kate We've had wi ane anither; would, indeed, be "a woefu woman" if aught Now we maun totter down, John, were to befall Tam, for the love of Kate and Tam And hand in hand we'll go, must not only be smiled at, but it must also be And sleep thegither at the foot, tolerated, ennobled, and even envied. When I John Anderson my jo! get home tomorrow to my lassie and have to face the sermon she is unfortunately so well equipped When in July 1996 I laid a wreath at the to deliver, I shall take strength from the thought Mausoleum in Dumfries on behalf of the that the sermon is born of love in the heart of Edmonton Burns Club, it was to honour the my lassie, my immortal beloved. May it be so memory of the poet of the laughter of love, the for all of us in the afterglow of this night of poet who above all others loved, cherished and Burns. respected the lassies. The unthinking often ponder the wisdom of So the toast, gentlemen, is to the lassies - to our practice of drinking the health of the lassies Burns 's lassies, to my lassie, to your lassies, to who are not physically present with us in this all our immortal beloveds. So please charge banqueting hall. What these unfortunates fail your glasses, be upstanding, and join me in the to remember is that our lassies are here with us, Toast to the Lassies - God bless 'em! for they are always with us, wherever we go, in

135 ROBERT BURNS The Immortal Memory By ALEX TYRRELL (Given at the Robert Bums Club of Melbourne Bums Supper 1998)

ver the years that I have attended Burns Suppers I have observed several ways of beginning the toast. Very commonly the speaker notes the size and splendour of the gathering. I can 0 certainly do that and in doing so give my thanks for the invitation to my wife and myself. But tonight I can contribute a distinctive beginning, and typically it comes from my 18 year old daughter. My daughter has a very Scottish name, 'Catriona', but she has no interest in things Scottish - a point she makes to me with great frequency and vehemence. 'Where was I going tonight', she asked? 'Was I going to one of these Burns suppers where people have to eat these horrible haggises'. Clearly, in her mind haggis eating at Burns Suppers is some sort of masochistic Scottish national exercise. It has been in vain over the years that I have tried to persuade her that haggis eating is one of the delights of Scottish cuisine. She has an attitude to Scottish cuisine that reminds me of a conversation described by that great nineteenth-century Edinburgh man, Robert Chambers: Question. 'What is Scottish cuisine? Answer. 'Scottish cuisine consists of eating each and every part of an animal with the possible exception of the wool'. Well, of course, we all know much better there hadn't been time to change the shingle than this. As we have learned from Robert Bums above the door. Melboume's multiculturalism himself, the haggis one of the great delights of has many delights for the Scottish expatriate, life. You've heard the words already tonight: but in this case there was a definite downside. What I want to do tonight, apart from Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware enjoying my haggis, is to talk about the reasons That jaups in luggies; for the quite extraordinary popularity of these But, if ye wish her gratefu 'pray'r, Bums suppers. There is nothing quite like them Gie her a Haggis! - no comparable Shakespeare, Tolstoy or Dante cult. I'm a historian, and, I am sure you will But Scottish cuisine, I would warn you, is a forgive me if go back in time to see where this delight that produces its problems if you go in truly remarkable cult came from. search of it in Melbourne. A few years ago, with It would, of course, be possible to say a great some friends, I went on exactly such a search to deal about the Melbourne tradition of Burns a restaurant that advertised itself as 'The Robert suppers, because they began very shortly after Bums'. We entered with high expectations of the founding of the Port Phillip settlement, and Cockaleekie soup and the haggis itself, but we they began in great style. They were called were startled to be offered a menu replete with 'Bums Festivals' then. The second, which was dishes such as paella and gazpacho. What, we held in 1846, was particularly well written up in sarcastically asked the very Spanish waiter, had the colonial press; far from being some little hole happened to Robert Bums whose name appeared in the corner affair in a brash new frontier above the door? Quick as a flash came the settlement, it was obviously a great occasion answer: "Senor, Robert Bums, he no here no beyond anything we would contemplate more". This, it turned out, meant that the nowadays. The organisers took over the entire restaurant had passed into new ownership and Queen's Theatre, boarded over the orchestra pit

136 and set out tables for 300. the Scotland of the 1840s where the Bums cult There were several characteristics of this was very much a thriving phenomenon. Very 'Bums Festival' that would strike us as strange recently, for a historical project in which I am nowadays. One was that the tables were for men involved, I had occasion to read the Edinburgh only; women were admitted to the dress circle newspaper, the Scotsman, between the years from where they could witness the men eating. 1838 and 1846. I was genuinely surprised to But I want to linger over another feature that find how much there was about Robert Burns. would also strike us as strange. Only those who After all, Bums had died in 1796, and yet here were Scots or the undoubted descendants of was a newspaper that obviously found him of Scots were allowed to attend. The reason was great interest fifty years later. Why was this? It provided by the guest speaker, the Rev. Dr. J.D. became obvious to me that part of the reason Lang: the function of a Burns Supper in was that it was still possible for original material Melbourne, he insisted, was not only to honour of great importance to be found. In 1843 the Robert Bums but to provide a rallying point for correspondence between Bums and Clarinda Scottish emigrants. And, according to the was first published, shedding a great deal of light newspapers, they rallied with more enthusiasm on a significant episode in his life. Clarinda, of than discretion that night; the guests of honour course, was Nancy McLehose, to whom Bums left at 1. am, and the other guests left long had dedicated that most beautiful of songs Ae afterwards. There was no doubt as to the fond kiss: meaning of Robert Bums and Scottishness for This is a hauntingly beautiful song, but the many of those who attended that night; above Scotsman was not concerned with any such airy the chair imbedded in thistles was a scene from fairy nonsense. The way that its reviewer one of Bums's poems, Willie brewed a peck reported the literary find struck me as very much o'Mau't. of a piece with a type of writing that has often As they reeled home in the wee sma' hours, passed muster for those who write about Robert those Melbourne Scots had every reason to feel Bums; it was essentially a piece of sexual pleased with themselves. Dr Lang, was one of titillation travelling under a veil of morality. Had the most powerful speakers of his day, and he that kiss been too fond? Had it been transacted had told them exactly what any Scot wants to in conditions of the strictest propriety? Bums hear. Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, could not resist Nancy, but had she resisted him? Germans, Turks and Tartars were all very well You will be pleased to know that all was well, in their way, but there was no nation like the or nearly so. The Scotsman's reviewer was able Scottish nation. Scots should get down on their to report that the newly published knees and thank God for giving them so much correspondence showed that the sexual purity to be proud of: "intelligence, industry, of Clarinda, had triumphed over the experience perseverance, and that spirit of economy, so of meeting Robert Bums. This man had been necessary for the laying the groundwork of 'fascinating beyond conception' to women, and society in a colony'. It followed as a understandably she had 'been drawn to the brink consequence that the 'most earnest wish' of of a fearful precipice', but she had not actually Australia must be: 'oh, for men from Scotland'. succumbed to temptation. She had been weak, We ought to arrange for a republication of his but 'Surely the tear of the recording angel will speech now at a time when Mr Kennett is calling drop and expunge the memory of such a frailty!' for a boost in the migrant intake - 'oh, for men So there we have it, a typical response by some from Scotland' could be a good slogan. So, there of those who have claimed to be Burns's is one function for a Bums Supper - it gives admirers over the years -you don't need to read expatriate Scots a chance to come together and the poems; just concentrate on the sex. celebrate their Scottishness. But, as I read the news stories in the But what I want to do tonight is to ask you Scotsman about the Bums cult, I was struck by to come back with me in time to the Scotland another phenomenon that was early to emerge from which these early Melboumians had come, and is still with us - the commercialisation of 137 his cult. What was this like in the 1840s? Let's the Oddfellows and the Ancient Order of go and find out. The year is 1843 and the railway Foresters. When we march off, our procession system is brand new. The Edinburgh and is a mile in length. Carried in front of us is a Glasgow Railway Company has been quick to massive Scotch thistle, and as we pass the see the existence of people like us, and it has platform party the guests of honour seize it and arranged for us to join one of the first large scale hold it to their heart. Afterwards we join the excursions to Ayrshire which is already called banquet in a specially erected pavilion and we the land of Bums. There are 150 of us, and we hear speeches by various notables including the sit back for four hours of railway travel from Earl of Eglinton and Professor Wilson of Edinburgh to Ayr. We are well looked after. At Edinburgh University. But very quickly we find the Ayr railway station gigs and coaches are ourselves puzzled. The Robert Bums that is waiting for us; we are provided with guide books being celebrated in the speeches is not the Robert to the places associated with Bums and we Bums so many of us know. The Robert Bums receive pocket copies of his poems. We then being celebrated that day is a very old fashioned have a good time going round Ayr looking for Tory. In the chair we see the Earl of Eglinton the places mentioned in the poems. So, as you who was so out of step with the changes of the can see, the story of Robert Burns and the day that he had recently organised a full scale Scottish tourist industry is an old one. As the medieval tournament complete with knights in Scotsman put it, by the 1840s the Burns country shining armour to show how much better things had become 'a district more hallowed by deed had been for the upper classes in the middle ages. and song, and more sacred in the esteem of And soon we find ourselves listening to a toast Scotsmen, than perhaps any other portion of our 'to the peasantry of Scotland' given by a Colonel country'. Mure who praises the Scottish lower orders for As we go reading the Scotsman we find that their industry, frugality and contentment at a time our railway excursion is only a small beginning; when their counterparts in England are being a year later we are invited to join in a tourist led on by the 'demon of discontent' to join the extravaganza of almost Hollywood proportions. Chartists and demand a democratic government. We are invited to attend what was called 'the Robert Bums according to Mure, had none of great national festival in honour of the memory this democratic nonsense in mind when he wrote of Robert Bums, our foremost Scottish poet'. his Cotter's Saturday Night to celebrate the Of course, we go along! We are in good pious, hardworking peasantry of Scotland. For company. The Scotsman's reporter later tells us Mure and a whole host of conservatives that most that it looked as if nearly the whole Scottish charming of evocations of Scottish peasant life population was in the town of Ayr that day. We became a text for instructing the lower orders in mingle with large crowds of people, many of the beauties of humble submission. It was a whom are wearing medallions of Robert Burns. highly selective reading of the poem as Bums The town's bells are ringing, flags are flying, himself made clear in the closing stanzas where ships are festooned in Bunting, the banners of his democratic sentiments asserted themselves. the trades and the Masonic Lodges flutter Later on when we buy our copy of the everywhere, triumphal arches have been erected. Scotsman we find out that we are not the only It is easy to see the poem to which they respond people who have been puzzled that day. We read most easily: special tableaux display scenes from an account of another ceremony, this time in Tam o 'Shanter. You can almost hear the closing Edinburgh. The foundation stone of a great words of the poem that day as Tam and his mare monument has just been erected on the Carlton race for the bridge with the witches in hot Hill called the Martyrs' Monument. It has strong pursuit. Australian connections, because it So these are the words in our minds as we commemorates a group of Scottish democrats are swept along in a great procession including in Robert Bums's day who had been rounded a military band, the Town Council, the trades, up, put on trial and sent off to Botany Bay. A bagpipers in Highland costume, the Freemasons, number of speeches were given when the 138 foundation stone was laid, including one by the reality by finding his surviving relatives and Rev. Patrick Brewster, a Church of Scotland celebrating him in their presence. They sought minister, who roundly condemned Lord out a sister who was living in obscure poverty; Eglinton's Burns Festival as a Tory they found nieces and nephews; and when demonstration. Robert Burns, Brewster, Burns's two sons returned from serving the reminded his audience had celebrated the French British Raj in India they put them on show all Revolution like the Scottish Martyrs; Robert over the country. Scotland might be changing - Bums had penned those great egalitarian lines: the fear was sometimes expressed that it was vanishing - but Robert Bums lingered on in the That man to man, the warld o'er flesh of his family as a symbol of that old Shall brothers be for a' that Scotland. He was not the only possible candidate as 1 When we come back to the late 20 h century the symbol of an old Scotland. The Scotsman and think about these 19th century invocations reported in the 1840s the building of the Sir of Robert Bums, inevitably we wonder what to Walter Scott monument in Edinburgh, and when make them. Here are two people: Robert Bums Queen Victoria paid her first visit to Scotland in the old Tory and Robert Burns the radical 1842 she said that she was going there primarily democrat. When I think about this I see to see the scenes described in his novels. In other something that has become a fixed pattern from words she saw Scotland as something like a Rob early on, a pattern that you can see at many a Roy theme park, and, as you know, nineteenth Bums Supper and one that helps to explain his century Scotland was given a heavy dose of this great popularity. Bums had been turned into a treatment. Large areas were 'Balmoralised' and man for all seasons. He has been made all things dressed up in tartan as the backdrop of an to all men. If I may plagiarise a distinguished aristocratic playground. Many of you must have historian, I find speakers playing a game that I seen the recent film, 'Mrs Brown'. To a great will call 'the game of selective Bumsianism'. extent Scottish culture was made over in this The rules are few and flexible: you start off with image. your own preconceived idea - Toryism, Robert Burns has often been made over in democracy, Bolshevism, Thatcherism - and then this Balmoralised image, and we can see you ransack Bums's collected works for bits and something of this in the great Ayr festival that I pieces that fit in. I am sure that you have all described a few moments ago. He has been been to Bums Suppers where you have seen this taken as the symbol of an old Scotland that has done, and by the time I have finished you may subsequently been buffeted and threatened with well feel that this is exactly what I have done. extinction by the forces of modernity and For what I want to do now is to think, again London-based Englishness. Perhaps my with the help of my reading of the Scotsman daughter was not so wrong after all. during the 1840s, of the close connection of Scottishness, has often been presented merely Robert Bums with Scottishness - something as something that others do not do; Robert everyone agrees about, even if they disagree on Burns, like haggis-eating, is a Scottish what they mean by Scottishness. I was struck phenomenon that Englishmen, thank goodness, when reading the Scotsman about how do not comprehend. It is enough to say his name; tenaciously the Scots of that generation held to you don't need to read the poems or know much Bums, not so much as a literary figure, but as a about Scottish history. representative of an old Scotland that seemed to So what would I say about the Burns cult be vanishing. A Scottish historian has written now as we head towards a new century and a recently that Bums had lived during 'the last new millennium? There are signs that the old truly Scottish age'. Scottish life and culture defensive reliance on Burns as the symbol of an rapidly changed after his death as the influences endangered nation will decline. Scottishness is of the new industrial economy poured in. I was alive and well in the 1990s, and it is shown in a struck by the apparent need of people in the variety of ways. 1840s to hold to Bums as something like a living Some of you may have read a book that came 139 out a couple of years ago by the American author, What then of his international reputation? Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island. In that Perhaps it is here that we still need Bums, not book Bryson tells his experiences when only as a great poet, but as a great symbol. Let travelling round Britain. There is a section on me hark back to the Robert Burns who was Edinburgh:- invoked at the Martyrs' Monument celebration "To a surprising extent, and far more than in 1844. Note the poem that was chosen to typify in Wales, Edinburgh felt like a different country. his thought: For A' That And A' That. This has The buildings were thin and tall in an un-English often been quoted to show that Burns was a fashion, the money was different, even the air 'citizen of the world'. Let's turn that expression and light felt different in some ineffable northern 'citizen of the world' into modern language. way. Every bookshop window was full of books Burns was speaking of what we call about Scotland or by Scottish authors. And of 'globalisation'. But, before you groan with course the voices were different. I walked along, despair, let me assure you that his globalisation feeling as if I had left England far behind, and was not the sort of thing that is being served up then I would pass something familiar and think to us at the moment. The globalisation we are in surprise, 'Oh, look, they have Marks & offered is an economic phenomenon in which Spencer here,' as if I were in Reykjavik or impersonal forces called 'the free market' are Stavanger and oughtn't to expect to find British unleashed by some people to turn other people things. It was most refreshing." into powerless individuals whose lives can be Note the sense of difference that he finds diminished and debased in the name of from England, and note especially that reference 'flexibility' and 'downsizing'. We live in a time to Bookshops 'full of books about Scotland or when the political and social rights won by the by Scottish authors.' There has been a Scottish successors of the Scottish Martyrs are being cultural renaissance. And add to that the political whittled away. We have been told that we must developments that have recently occurred. A think of ourselves, not as citizens, but as new self-governing Scotland will soon emerge customers. It is a time when we need to be with its own parliament in Edinburgh. There is reminded of Burns's very different form of a sense of national self-confidence that was quite globalisation, - the brotherhood of man; the lacking when I was a child in Edinburgh. celebration of a form of international humanity; Scottishness is less and less presented as an old­ and the reminder that men and women are social fashioned, defensive and quirky fabrication that beings living in something called a community amounts to little more than anti-Englishness. that ought to consist of more than an economic But, if I seem to be ushering Robert Burns bottom line. off the stage, I do not wish to do so. Perish the thought! He will always have a special place for Scots, but in the future I see him becoming less of a symbol and more of a poet. He will be I. Alex Tyrrell. Born Edinburgh 1937. First degree Edinburgh University. Four years teaching at secondary released from the burden of carrying the weight schools Kirkcaldy and Dundee. Post graduate scholarship of the Scottish past and the problems of the to MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. 1965 Scottish present. He is more likely to be read lecturer in History University of New England, Australia, for his own sake if the task of saving a nation currently senior lecturer in History La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Specialist area Modern British from extinction is removed from him. In Burns's History (Victorian era to ''Thatcher's Britain". Research own day, which was something of a Scottish West Indian and Australian History, Freetrade movement golden age, he travelled to Edinburgh and took in Britain, Monarchy and people in Britain 1837 - 61. Has published three books, also a variety of papers. his place amongst a distinguished coterie of Married, wife Ria, and has two teenage children. literary and intellectual figures with a European­ 2. The poems "Willie Brewed a peck o'rnaut", "Ae fond wide reputation. In our day we can hope to see kiss", ''Tam O'Shanter", "Cotters Saturday Night", are him and his present-day successors returning to not included due to space. Non Burnsians should refer to the poems in a volume of Burns Poems. that status.

140 ·PEEBLES CONFERENCE 1998 ADDRESS TO THE DELEGATES BY ANDREW L. TULLEY, M.B.E., J.P.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen

t is my very pleasant task to welcome you all, on behalf of Scottish Borders Council, to Peebles and the Scottish Borders for this year's Burns Federation International ,Gathering. And what I better place to come for a Gathering in celebration of Scotland's bard? For indeed the Borderland is a place from which the very stuff of poetry is made. Poetry is made of dreams; of emotions transferred onto paper. Poetry expresses the romance of our souls and it is born of our most evocative experiences. The Borders have a natural beauty unsurpassed in the land, which, with its history of feuding and romance, have made it rich soil indeed for the fertile mind. Poets and writers from many centuries have left us with a vast storehouse of song and story. For hundreds of years the Borderland was an almost constant battleground and when its people weren't actually fighting they were licking their wounds or preparing for the next foray. Occasionally, in the interests of cross-border peace and politicking, the King would come down from Edinburgh and sort them out a bit. James IV and James V in turn took it out on not a few Border worthies: Johnny Armstrong, Cockburn, Scott ... These fiery encounters inspired some of the finest ballads and poems, nearly all of it shrouded in sorrow: "The Widow's Lament", "The Douglas tragedy", "Willie's drowned in Yarrow" and "The Flowers of the Forest". The sadness is with us all today. You only have to witness the moving ceremonies at the Common Ridings throughout the Borders and feel the lump in your throat to know that this sadness dwells within the bones of every Borderer. Yet many of these ballads and songs would aye have been lost had it not been for the work of the great Border writers, most notably James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd and Sir Walter Scott, of whom Hogg said: "For war thy broadly frame was born For battle shout and bugle horn; Chance marred the path, or Heaven's decree; How blessed for Scotland and for me." Indeed how blessed for all mankind. The great English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote that: "Poets are ... the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire ... Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Without the Border ballads, the songs and minstrelsy; would the Borders be the place it is? Some have said that when the ballads and the songs of the minstrels were written down by Scott, Leyden and others, it was the end of the memorising, of the singing and the passing on of the Border heritage down the generations. That may be, but in their writings, Scott and Leyden and all the others have ensured that the true poetry of our Borderland is laid before all who care to partake, and will be for all time. No less a poet than William Wordsworth, wrote: "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity and the Borderland reflects Wordsworth's hypothesis exactly. The majesty and wildness of the landscape is wont to stir the emotions of even the most world­ weary. Small wonder that so many great poets have found their inspiration in the Borderland. Indeed, Wordsworth himself, more famous for his evocative poetry of the English Lakeland, was fond indeed of the Scottish Borders, although he wrote as a man looking in at the Border landscape as through a window. "And is this - Yarrow?- the stream Of which my fancy cherished?" He had obviously been fed on the milk of the Borderland by Scott long before he came to see the Valley.

141 He visited Scotland at least three times. On the first occasion, accompanied by his sister Dorothy, he came within hailing distance of Yarrow, but never ventured past Clovenfords. He wrote the poem "Yarrow Unvisited" with its longings and hopes of another day. On the second occasion, in 1814, this time in the company of the Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg, he did come to the Valleys and wrote "Yarrow Visited". Again, a third time, escorted by Sir Walter Scott he paid a visit to the valley in 1832. Scott was dying and Wordsworth could feel it. The sadness pervades the verses of "Yarrow Revisited". The Yarrow valley clearly affected the great man. He wrote: "I see, but not by sight alone, Loved Yarrow, have I won thee; A ray of fancy still survives - Her sunshine plays upon thee! Thy ever youthful waters keep A course of lively pleasure; And gladsome notes my lips can breathe, Accordant to the measure." The Borderland still weaves its magic spell over all who come here. Small wonder that those who are born here are oft likely to write verse. Indeed, many Borderers who travel abroad are wont to write, in reflective mood of their homeland. J B Selkirk, as an exile from Borders writing to a friend in Ettrick in his "epistle to Tammus", writes with passion for his homeland: "Ah, Tam! Gie me a Border bum That canna rin wi'out a tum, A wi' its bonnie babble fills The glens amang oor native hills. How men that ance have ken'd aboot it Can leeve their after lives wi'outit, I canna tell, for day and nicht It comes unca'd for to my sicht. I see't this moment, plain as day, As it comes bickerin' o'er the brae Atween the clumps o' purple heather, Glistenin' in the summer weather, Syne divin' in below the grun', Where, hidden frae the sicht and sun, It gibbers like a deed man's ghost That clamours for the licht it's lost, Til oot again the loupin' limmer Comes dancin' doon through shine and shimmer At headlang pace, till wi' a jaw It jumps the rocky waterfa' And cuts sic cantrips in the air, The picture-pentin' mans despair; A rountree bus' oot o'er the tap o't, A glassy pule to kep the lap o't While on the brink the blue harebell Keeks o'er to see its bonnie sel', And sittin' chirpin' a' its lane A water-waggy on a stane. Ay, penter laid, thraw to the wund Your canvas, this is holy grund: Wi' a' its highest airt achieevin, The picter's deed and this is leevin'. J B Selkirk was a real son of the Borders. His actual name was James B Brown. He was born in Galashiels in 1832, the year Sir Walter Scott died. Henry Brown, his father was co-founder of the Ettrick Tweed Mills in Selkirk. James was a great lover of nature and had an abiding passion for the Border countryside; the Yarrow valley in particular. Early in his life his pen was busy, poetry flowed easily from him. The music of the Border tongue is kept alive in his work. He described the Border ballads as "Scotland's richest poetical heritage". Poetry has a special place in the hearts of all men throughout history. Aristotle said: "Poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history." I believe that must be true of the Border poets. Without poetry, our history would be the poorer. Throughout our long and eventful history, ballads have been written of the heroic exploits of the men of Border legend. No wonder then that wherever in the world a Border man travels, he finds himself drawn back to his homeland in the words of poetry. John Leyden, born in. Denholm in 1775, the son of a humble shepherd, became a great scholar. In those days, not many from such a humble home aspired to University life. When at home in the Borders, Leyden was constantly out in the countryside: he seemed to draw strength from it. He roamed with Scott in search of Border ballads and spent long hours in his company, along with James Hogg and Willie Laidlaw. Scott said that they returned home from these trips "loaded with treasures of oral tradition". In 1803, John Leyden left the Borders for ever. In India his appetite for study remained insatiable and, even when down with fever, he would put in ten hours work a day. Throughout his short lifetime he acquired a command of thirty-four languages and some acquaintance with no less than forty-five, but he never forgot his Border home: "Playmate of boyhood's ardent prime! Rememberest thou, in former time, How oft we bade in fickle freak, Adieu to Latin terms and Greek, To trace the 142 banks where blackbirds sung, And ripe brown nuts in clusters hung-Where tangled hazels twined a screen Of shadowy boughs in Denholm's mazy Dene? W H [Will] Ogilvie was not a man to write from the cosy atmosphere of leather bound books and an armchair by the fire. A Kelso man who emigrated to Australia in 1889, he spent eleven years in the bush, sampling sheep station life. But he was drawn back; returning to his native soil in 1900. Whilst in Australia he wrote a prodigious amount of verse and was much admired, both in Australia and elsewhere. But he reserved his finest words for his homeland: "Across the world hope's bridges bear The wanderer's never-resting feet, But peace and rest are mingled where Earth's fairest rivers, mingling, meet. On pillars twined with water-weed Your silver tide is ceaseless hurled; So beats my love of home, 0 Tweed! Against the barriers of the world. It is Ogilvie who recognises that the Border landscape can be at once the source of our sorrows and our solace in times of sorrow and that, as such; poetry and the landscape from which inspiration so often springs, are inextricably entwined: "Heart! If you've a sorrow Take it to the hills! Lay it where the sunshine Cups of colour spills! Hide it in the shadow of the folding fem; Bathe it in the coolness of the brown hill bum; Give it to the west wind Blowing where it wills; Heart! If you've a sorrow, Take it to the hills!" Roger Quin was a poet by hereditary right, his father a poet before him. He was the only son in a family of twelve and was born in a house overlooking the graveyard in which Robert Bums was buried. Often referred to as "The Tramp Poet," Quin gave us a racier view of the Borderland, fairly bubbling with enthusiasm for "Scotland's Eden, from the spur of Gala Hill." He goes on, rapturous in his praise for the Border landscape: ''Ah me! Shall I recapture The early joyous rapture Which shook my being's pulses when that scene first met my eye? Steeped in old Border story It stretched in radiant glory. To where the filmy Cheviots hung along the southern sky!" Quin too, although he spent his last years at the Yair in the heart of the Borderland, felt the call of the Borders for all exiles: the final verse of "The Borderland"; "The spell - the dream - is over: I awake, but to discover, The city's rush, the jostling crowds -the din on every hand; But on my ear soft falling, I can hear the curlew's calling, And I know that soon I'll see them in the dear old Borderland." But perhaps it is James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, who most epitomises the attachment of the Borderer to his native heath: "Farewell, green Ettrick, fare-thee-well! I own, I'm unco laith to leave thee; Nane kens the half of what I feel, Nor half the cause I hae to grieve me. There first I saw the rising morn; There first my infant mind unfurled, To ween that spot where I was born, The very centre of the world." And indeed it is, for Borderers whether here at home or spread the world over. The centre of the world. Of course, men will say that the land of their birth is the land of the home of their heart wherever they hail from but for the Borderer it is more than just pride in their homeland and history. It is because they are bound to it, it is built in within them and they are at once part of their poetry and legend. So, Mr. President, it is with justification that I can recommend the Borderland as a place of homage to Scotland's greatest poet, for the Borders can claim a fair heritage of poetry of its own, and besides, Robert Bums was himself a man for whom the Borders held sway in his heart and his poetry. "It ne'er was wealth, it ne'er was wealth, That oft contentment, peace or pleasure; The bands and bliss o' mutual love, Oh, that's the chiefest warld's treasure." · With heartfelt pleasure, I welcome you here to Peebles. I know that in the time you spend here, you may find yourselves drawn in by the lure of the Borderland, as many have in poetry and verse from time immemorial, and that being drawn to the pleasure of the poetry reflected from your own experiences here, you will return again, as have the hearts and minds of so many in the past. Poets all over the world have discovered a truth: To quote from Shelley just once more: "Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds." May I wish you the best and happiest of moments here this weekend. 143 Bums Federation Conference 1998 ADDRESS TO THE DELEGATES BY RIDDELL GRAHAM (DIRECTOR SCOTTISH BORDERS TOURIST BOARD)

In the closing verse of his famous poem "To a Louse'', Robert Bums asks a higher authority -

"O wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us"

I would like you to use some of that special power to which Bums refers not to look at yourselves but to look instead to the future and to visualise the following pictures ......

t is the year 2059, the celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of the Birth of Robert Bums are in full swing. The Bums Federation, or to give it its new name The Scottish TV Robert I Bums World Federation PLC (anything Murdoch can do we can do better) has just recruited its 10,000th club into membership from the lesser known township of Jinghai just outside China's capital city Beijing. There are now an estimated 1 million members of federated clubs throughout the world and many millions more reading and appreciating Bums' work. The Scottish Parliament's Minister for Education - Angus Scott-Bums (no relation to either writer) SNP Ayr - has just announced a further £10 million budget allocation to the federation to continue its pioneering work using the internet to expand the teachings of Burns to every comer of the globe. The work of Bums and indeed every other prominent Scottish literary figure, both past and contemporary, are now the keystones of a rejuvenated Scottish education system. The use of the Scots tongue is actively encouraged in schools and no one between the ages of 8 and 18 can fail to be touched by the innovative and integrated approach to teaching - Bums and his philosophies feature in every subject taught in the curriculum, from English (now Scots) to Science and History to Physical Education. The year 2059 marks the opening of a new and much expanded International Bums Heritage Park, the one opened in 1996 was simply not big enough to cope with visitor numbers. A new "virtual reality" Bums Trail provides the "stay at home" tourist with an incredible real life experience of the attractions that mark the poet's life in South West Scotland from the comfort of their armchair. The world's biggest Bums Supper attracting 25,000 Bums enthusiasts from all over the world has been held in Glasgow's Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre and McSweens the Haggis maker have had to employ an extra 100 staff to cope with increased production. Concerts, exhibitions, unveilings, talks, festivals and video conferences are being held in every comer of the world to pay homage to the man himself. Oh yes and let's not forget the Federation which, quite rightly, has returned to its Scottish roots this year for its annual conference and is to welcome a massive "ballot only" turnout of 1000 delegates - half from overseas. Bums has led Scotland's social, cultural and economic revival as a nation, using as its springboard the plans hatched and the foundations set by the Bums Federation when it launched its Millennium Concordat away back in the year 2000.

144 Far fetched, ridiculous, a pure fantasy - the man does not know what he is talking about. He doesn't understand- he is trivialising something that is so important to us - it will never happen! Well Jet me take you back to that now famous stroll through the London gardens in 1885 which by chance remark amongst Provost David Mackay, Captain Sneddon and Colin Rae Brown led to the establishment of this your Federation. Can you honestly say that those three men could ever have imagined that over the next 113 years over 1000 clubs would have affiliated to the Federation's aims and objectives, that there would be Bums Clubs in every continent from Manitoba to Moscow and Montrose to Melbourne and that the Federation would be playing a major role in Bums events all over the world. Would these same three men have believed we would be sitting here tonight in Peebles at the 1998 conference with such an impressive support from delegates. How far fetched would it have been to them to imagine a funny grey box called a computer plugged into a wall with wires that could suddenly, at the flick of a switch bring the life and works of Bums into the homes of 50 million people all over the world. Could they possibly have imagined, using that same computer and the rapidly developing internet technology, would open up 1 million web pages dedicated to Robert Bums. Could they comprehend the multi-million pound tourism industry in Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway that is sustained through direct links to Burns' life and writings. The Bums National Heritage Park in Ayr which attracts 350,000 visitors a year would be way beyond their ken. Yes they may well have found trivial the 99p Bums colouring book available at Bums Cottage and what their reaction to the Turkey Dinosaurs on sale as part of the children's menu in the Tam O' Shanter Experience Restaurant at Alloway - well I dread to think! They do however exist and meet the needs of a growing number of younger people who today are reawakening a fondness for the Bard and his writings. Far fetched, ridiculous, trivial, a pure fantasy- I'm sure would have been their response - but as we all know everything I have described has happened or actually exists. So Jet me return to my picture of the future and the year 2059 which I painted earlier - are all those ideas so fanciful? So unattainable? Actually, with the speed of chang_e and massive growth in communications and information technology and people's desire to travel, explore and experience I believe it isall possible and may even happen in a shorter timescale. Revival of interest in all things Scottish and in particular Scottish language, cultural and literary heritage is bound to happen with the opening of the Scottish Parliament next year. And of course the year after - the year 2000 - the Millennium provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to mark Bums' profound influence on Scotland and indeed the rest of the world in some unique and lasting way. The Millennium Commission, set up to assist communities mark the close of the 2"d and the start of the 3n1, has earmarked over £10 million to support the very best ideas for celebrating the millennium in Scotland during the year 200. All of the criteria laid down by the Commission could very easily apply to this organisation and its objectives in promoting the memory of Robert Bums and his works. Even forgetting the Millennium Festival and funding, wouldn't it be so appropriate if the year 2000 could be used as a launch pad to work towards those outrageous ideas I painted earlier. 113 years have passed since the Federation was established in Kilmarnock and its primary aim, that of establishing a world-wide and all embracing brotherhood of man, has undoubtedly been achieved. What better way though to build on this strong foundation and enhance your objectives than by using the dawn of a new century, a new Millennium, to create an even higher profile for Burns and his teachings on the international arena and allow many more people to appreciate the wonderful things he wrote. 145 The challenge then to you as a Federation is not to stand still but to move forward- to grasp the opportunity of the millennium and use it to make Bums more accessible and understandable (and appreciated) to all. To explain Bums the man, Bums the poet, Bums the songwriter, Bums the philosopher - to share his profound thoughts and teachings on religion, love, friendship, liberty and brotherhood. And to do all of this not in a stuffy academic manner that appeals only to aficionados but in an interesting, lively and challenging fashion and in a language that every age and interest group can understand without trivialising the message. Be true to your original objectives and indeed strengthen and modernise them and if you are still sceptical about such an approach let me share with you our millennium plan for the Borders which is about to be submitted to the NM Company for funding next week. It is a massive year long celebration of our literary heritage and takes the form of an innovative programme of events, festivals, trails, tours and promotions highlighting the best of what we have in the way of writers and creative talent and how our very special landscape here in the Borders has had such a profound influence on so many literary characters. The programme represents a total spend of £1 million and we are asking the NMC to contribute a mere £250,000! We have been brave, we have taken a risk, we have gone for the biggest and best and we have said this is what we think is special and important to us - we want others to share in our vision of, the future and we are going to make it work and create a legacy for future generations. What better opportunity for the Bums Federation to do the same using its unique position and raw material - the life and works of Robert Bums. And if you needed inspiration look no further than the words of Bums himself who said "That I for poor auld Scotland's sake Some usefu plan or beuk Could make Or sing a song at least! Ladies and gentlemen I urge you to rise to that challenge and make your plan for the future a reality. Can I ask you all now to be upstanding and charge your glasses and toast the Burns Federation.

146 A BAD SORT BUT- LOVABLE! Catherine Carswell's Life of Robert Bums and the Daily Record Furore

(A paper presented to the Bums Federation at their Annual Conference, Peebles Hydro, September 1998)

've chosen today to talk about the Life of Robert Burns by Catherine Carswell and the furore which broke out when excerpts from it were serialised in the Daily Record in September 1930 I at the time of its publication. The title of the talk 'A Bad Sort But - Lovable' is one of the headings from the correspondence pages of the Record. First of all, however, let me say something about Catherine Carswell herself for those of you who may not know about her. Catherine Roxburgh Macfarlane was born in Glasgow in 1879 and belonged to a generation of women who were beginning to make a professional reputation in the arts in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She herself studied music for two years at the Frankfurt Conservatoire and then in 1901 entered Glasgow University to study literature, where she was in the honours class taught by the scholar Walter Raleigh. She became drama and literature critic for the Glasgow Herald and was famously dismissed from that post after she slipped a review of D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow into the paper without showing it to the editor - Lawrence's novel was published in 1914 and attracted as much vituperation - probably more - than Carswell's later biography of Burns was to attract. By that time she had already left Glasgow for London and was drama critic for the Observer. In 1915 she married Donald Carswell, a Scot who had also worked for the Glasgow Herald and like Catherine had left Glasgow for London. In the 1920s and 1930s both were working in the metropolis as freelance writers. Catherine Carswell met D. H. Lawrence as a result of reviewing his novels and they struck up a lasting friendship. His letters to her form a large part of his collected correspondence. And it was Lawrence who encouraged her to begin working on a Life of Bums in 1925. Apparently Lawrence himself had thought of writing about Bums, for he greatly admired him and thought that he wasn't properly appreciated for the artist he was in his home country. He eventually decided, however, that he did not have sufficient background knowledge to do this, and not being a Scot, he couldn't instinctively enter into Bums's Scottishness, so he encouraged Catherine Carswell to do it instead. Which she did, with much enthusiasm but also some trepidation. While she was working on her Life, Carswell entered into correspondence with Professor de Lancey Ferguson, an American scholar who was at that time editing a collection of Bums's letters. Her letters to Professor Ferguson - but unfortunately not his replies - are held in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, which has a splendid collection of Bums material. And these letters show how seriously she took her job of biographer and how carefully she pieced together the jigsaw ofevidence about Burns's life. The reaction to the book, however, when it was serialised in the Daily Record paid no attention to such care. Headlines in the correspondence pages shouted: SUCH TRASH; WOMANHOOD DEGRADED; BETTER UNWRITTEN. Some readers suggested that the art of biography was beyond her, describing her as 'an ant endeavouring to consume Vesuvius by nibbling at its base'; other charged her with 'keeping an eye on a certain present-day demand for the sordidly sensational products of literary muckrakers' - that seems a familiar complaint to us today also! James Mackay, Bums's recent biographer, has described the reaction to her book in the Daily Record correspondence pages and elsewhere as 'an unprecedented campaign of vituperation equalled in modem times only by the reception of Salmon Rushdie 's Satanic Verses'. 1 That Mackay 's comment is not an exaggeration can be seen from the fact that among her letters to S. S. Koteliansky, a friend ofD:H. Lawrence, is one·dated 23rd September 1930 where after saying how glad she is

147 that Koteliansky thinks well of her Bums book, she writes: This morning (through the newspaper where it was serialised) I had an anonymous letter containing a bullet, which I was requested to use upon myself that the world might be left 'a brighter cleaner and better place'. So evidently the fun has started. Oh Scotland, oh my country !2

Previously, on 19th September, using a metaphor which anticipated the bullet letter, Mr. J. Stewart Seggie, the President of the Edinburgh Ninety Bums Club, had proclaimed in the pages of the Daily Record: 'If this book is published this year, it will be killed at the Bums festivals in January'. The Bums Federation itself took up arms against the book, attempting to get the publisher Chatto to withdraw it and the Bums Chronicle, having ignored it for a considerable time, eventually published a damning criticism of it by the Revd. Lauchlan MacLean Watt in January 1932 calling it 'an undocumented libel on the dead'. Carswell said half-jokingly, perhaps, when she set out on a speaking tour of Bums Clubs in January 1931 that she had been advised that 'chain mail may be necessary' !3 So - what was the problem with this book? - what could have been in it to arouse such fury among so many very different readers? One of the problems was the manner in which it was written. Carswell did not write like a scholar, weighing up facts, giving information. She herself had published two successful novels in 1920 and 1922, Open the Door! and The Camomile which dealt with the attempt of the heroines in the narratives to free themselves from the restrictive social and sexual mores of tum-of-the-century Scotland. Carswell used her novelist's skill to create her Life of Bums, using an omniscient narrator's voice to bring him and his family background before us; sometimes using a kind of interior monologue style to allow us to enter into the thoughts and feelings of the principal characters. In addition, she depicted Bums in relation to the many women he had sexual relations with and she depicted these women as being willing lovers. James Mackay has referred caustically to some parts of Carswell's narrative as 'fanciful'4 and she is certainly inventive in her bringing Bums's women to life. She tells us, for example, in relation to the attraction Bums held for the local girls: 'It began to be whispered that an hour with him in the dark was worth a daytime with any other lad'. Lizzie Paton, to whose baby Bums wrote: 'Welcome! my bonie, sweet, wee dochter', is described by Carswell's narrator as admitting that 'she had not been taken advantage of or misled by promises; she had merely been heartily, perhaps hopefully in love'. Jean Armour in this account is the one who started up the relationship with Bums and remained loving and faithful to him despite his treatment of her. We are told: 'she wanted him even more than she wanted marriage' and the narrative voice adds - 'which was very loveable of her. Besides she was inbued with the most endearing common sense. As she must pay, why should she not have her fill oflove? Somehow she had managed at parting to convey this view to him, and it was a view in which it was impossible for him not to rejoice'. (Life 103, 119, 163). Little wonder the pages of the Daily Record erupted! Another Jean Armour of Ayr was one of the leading complainers and she urged the banning of Carswell's book in the issue of29th September under the headlines: WOMANHOOD DEGRADED and PIECE OF FICTION which - in a sense - the dialogue was, although perhaps Carswell's female intuition had correctly pointed her towards the feeling of Bums's women. Many of the protesters were women and they seemed uncertain whether they should condemn Carswell for depicting Bums as a womaniser or condemn her for suggesting that the women actually enjoyed being seduced. Most of these correspondents seemed to have given Bums a special place as a man set apart from normal human intercourse - yet surely his songs should have suggested otherwise? How could she write in this way of the poet who praised woman as 'Nature's noblest work'? asked one female correspondent, who clearly could not imagine that this view was reconcilable with active, enjoyable sexual relations with real women. Male readers were on the whole much more straightforward in their response to the biography. 148 A few, such as Mr. John Muir, a former editor of the Burns Chronicle, confessed to 'having greatly enjoyed the 'Life of Burns series' and praised the Daily Record for making the story of Bums available to a wider, non-specialist reading public - a view that coincided with Carswell's own, for she wrote about how pleased she was at having brought Bums before the common people of her country in a way that had not been done in previous accounts of the poet's life. Most male readers were not so open-minded as Mr. Muir, however, and seemed to incline to the view that in sexual matters we all know that 'a man's a man for a' that', but it's much better not to talk about it. 'Why', asked one male reader, 'couldn't Mrs. Carswell, in writing her Life have called to mind the following:

Then gently scan your brother man Still gentler sister woman Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang To step aside is human?'

One 'gentler sister woman', on the other hand, did praise Carswell's book. This woman congratulated Carswell for the way in which her interpretation of the details of Burns's life had brought a convincing pattern to previous uncertainties in it. The woman signed herself 'A Highland Woman' - and I find it interesting that the newspaper headline transformed this into 'Highland Lady' which seems to smack a little more of that 'Nature's noblest work' view of women. She wrote:

I am astonished that so many of your readers express themselves as profoundly shocked or disillusioned by the extracts you have published from Mrs Carswell's Life ofBurns. My own reactions were entirely different and I cannot believe I am alone in this respect. So far from being a 'catalogue of peccadillos', her study struck me as unusually sympathetic and understanding. It is so splendidly free from moralising - the vice of nineteenth century biographers. Of course, by YMCA standards, Bums was a bad, sad young fellow - but how lovable.

Another positive reader in the same issue, signing herself 'Truth's Best' praised Carswell's handling of the Mary Campbell story - which her letters to Professor de Lancey Fergusson show that she took a great deal of time and thought over. This sympathetic reader said she had 'always felt that there was an element of mystery attached to the parting of Bums and Mary Campbell' and that she was 'indebted to Mrs. Campbell for publishing what I myself felt was [sic] the real facts'. Whatever the accuracy of the version Carswell produced- and James Mackay has recently researched this in a way suggests we will probably never know the exact truth of what happened in the relationship between Bums and Mary - I myself found that her account made me aware in a new way of the problems of communication at that time; of how difficult it must have been to keep in touch without the transport and telephones we take for granted; how easy it must have been to lose contact, even if one had not meant to do so. One of the positive features of this biography, not only in relation to Burns and his women, but in relation to the story of his father and grandfather, his own experiences in Edinburgh and later in Dumfries, is the way in which Carswell's narrative method brings Burns and the period in which he and his forefathers lived so vitally before us. Carswell did get some praise for her Life. Edwin Muir, William Power and Hugh MacDiarmid all wrote approvingly about it. John Buchan singled out the historical vitality of the account in his praise. He wrote to her on 9th October 1930: 'Your account of eighteenth century Scotland is as true as it is vivid' .5 Another letter of praise came from John Anderson of Harrow who had been Joint Secretary along with William Will of the London Bums Club in the early 1920s at the time of the flyting with MacDiarmid - or C. M. Grieve as he still was at that time - in relation to the Vernacular Circle's attempt to foster the Scots Language. John AndeFson had allowed Carswell to 149 consult his extensive collection of Bums books and papers when she was preparing her Life and he wrote to her pointing to the sense of history in her account and putting his finger on the novelistic nature of her narrative. Thanking her for sending him an inscribed copy in thanks for his help, he wrote: Your brilliant narrative of the poet's life has fascinated me like a novel. I have just :finished my first reading of it - practically at a single sitting ... He continued: That picture of old Scotland, in your opening chapters, is a masterpiece of concise, critical writing. It makes the great background on which the life of the poet is silhouetted with amazing fidelity. Its lights and shadows, its theology and bawdry, its Calvinism and Jacobitism, its poverty, and its pride and its heroism are so sympathetically treated in the true historical perspective. The picture and your sketch of the poet's origins will help modem readers to a better understanding of that strange complex Scot - Robert Bums. I find it interesting, on the other hand, that John Anderson, after his praise, comments on the lack of attention to the poetry in Carswell's Life. He says: 'Ifl may venture to call my first impressions criticism, I should say you have not given your readers enough of the poet's particular genius, his amazing verse fertility; his gift of scathing searing satire in terse vivid stanzas; his humour and his lilting songs, might have had more emphasis.'6 I think this is fair criticism, and I myself certainly find that the lack ofany real attention to the poetry is one of the disappointments of Carswell's Life. Later in the thirties she was to review for the Spectator a book by the artist Keith Henderson called Bums by Himself in which Henderson composed a portrait of Bums through his poems and letters and other prose writings. Praising Henderson's book, Carswell calls Burns 'the most autobiographical of poets'7 and suggests that this poems document his daily life, his friends, his loves. In particular she relates his love songs to his love for particular women and this is similar to her position in her biography where she argues that in her view the relationship between Burns and Clarinda, Mrs. McLehose, was actually consummated at their final meeting before she left to join her husband in the West Indies; advancing as part of her evidence for this view the song 'Ae Fond Kiss' and what she sees as the new emotion in it, the direct feeling. Anyone who has tried to sing 'Ae Fond Kiss' to the Rory Dall fiddle tune, on the other hand, will, I think, agree that this song with its melodic leaps and grace-notes is no simple outpouring of passionate farewell, but a very cleverly crafted expression of a leave-taking and meditation on a relationship. I would myself argue that - like many of Burns's songs - it is as much of an art song as the songs of Schubert, despite the fact that Bums worked from tune to writing words and not by composing melody and accompaniment for existing words as did classical lieder composers. And this wish to relate life to song in a one-to-one basis is what she does also in her Keith Henderson review, and to the small extent that she deals with the poetry in the biography. There seems to be little understanding here by Carswell that poets, like fiction writers, invent personae and scenarios, that their poems have an impersonal, objective quality, even if they are informed by living experiences. We should not take at face value Burns's self-deprecating description of himself as 'a Rhymer like by chance' .8 What I'd like to do now is leave aside the Daily Record view of Bums as 'a bad sort but - lovable' and take up some of the aspects of Carswell's biography which won praise from John Buchan and John Anderson - her portrait of Burns in eighteenth-century Edinburgh and his final years in Dumfries. Let's begin with the account of Bums in Edinburgh on pages 181-81 of the biography. In this section we notice Carswell the noveslist's hand in the way the Edinburgh scene is presented to us. We find Burns's friend Richmond, who has fled to the capital city to escape a young woman he has left in the family way, now awaiting Bums's arrival in his lodgings in the Lawnmarket and negotiating with his landlady to accommodate the poet in addition to himself. One gets a real sense of the glamour and the downside of city life in this narrative, especially in the ironic account of the 'flourishing establishment of Mr. William Brodie, cabinetmaker and Town 150 Councillor who had lately (though he did not advertise the fact) started a profitable side-line in wholesale burglary;' and in the Augustan balance of the description of his 'ancient stone house, with little mullioned windows, and large panelled rooms, beautifully proportioned and fairly verminous' (my italics). There are also the "gandy-goings" of certain "base jades" occupying the second floor - they being neither more nor less than common whores who, unfortunately, pursued their avocation in an independent manner'; more 'genteel inhabitants' having unfortunately deserted the Old Town for the New - 'with their houses that looked like New Light Greek temples'. All through this Edinburgh section one has the sense of following Bums as if he were a character in a novel. We see him arriving on his 'jaded pony [which] stumbled down the rought causeway stones of the Grassmarket ... a heavy, round-shouldered, short-necked, swarthy young fellow, in buckskin breeches that were obviously new [who] dismounted and stared about him, much as another round-shouldered and swarthy man of the same age had stared about him on first entering the capital thirty years before'. Carswell keeps the link she has already established between the generations of the Bums family and leads us to compare and contrast present fortunes with past. We experience with Burns his interest and excitement at the happenings in the capital, 'the overhanging bulk of the Castle rock and the advertisements of Balloon Ascents and Learned Pigs, so far as these famous things were visible in the November gloom'. We see the square crowded, 'for Edinburgh was all agog for the first arrival of that miracle of speed, Palmer's mail coach from London, which was already some hours overdue'. On the other hand, we experience also through this novelistic approach Bums's sense of alienation, his prickly diffidence in relation to attempting to approach those in his positions to see if they could do anything for him and we empathise with the embarrassingly devious yet obvious begging letters he eventually sends out. And in the end we feel Burns 's disillusionment as he realises that he is being viewed as something of a freak, like the performing pig in the Lawnmarket, and that he will never be treated by Edinburgh society as the professional poet he knows himself to be. This is an ironic and often amusing as well as informative portrait of late Enlightenment Edinburgh where eccentricity has replaced the genuine innovation of the period of David Hume, for example. The narrator tells us that Edinburgh at this time lacked a really Great Man. David Hume had been dead these ten years - a misfortune for Robert, who would have loved his boyish nature and admired his manly intellect. Adam Smith, though still technically alive, was debarred from playing a part by chronic stoppage of the bowels; and though the widow Dunlop had written to him about the new poet, the author of The Wealth ofNations was too busy thinking about a prospective trip to London (where he was going to try a cure at the hands of his sapient countryman Dr John Hunter) to take any notice. Principal Robertson was handicapped by his innense importance and his ear-trumpet. Still High Street and Parliament Square were rich in figures conscious and striking - 'old originals', who, if not great men, were well accustomed to playing the great man's part to their own satisfaction and the enjoyment of everybody else. The narrative continues: Their own clique and their own claque, they were in love with themselves, with one another, with Edinburgh. (Life 186). There is nothing of substance that is untrue here, but what one notices is the ironical tone of the omniscient narrator more commonly found in fiction, guiding and conditioning the reader, as opposed to the detached, objective voice of the historian or biographer. Carswell is very convincing also in the way she shows Bums at a loss with the higher class Edinburgh women who are delighted to flirt with him and admire this new phenomenon, the 'Heaven-taught ploughman', but who quickly put him in his social place when he attempt more intimacy: 'Mr Bums was too familiar'. Her account of his pastoral dalliance with Clarinda is convincing too, although here one wishes for stronger narrative irony or even outright condemnation by the narrator of his role-playing with Mrs McLehose while Jean was bearing his illegitimate children in Ayrshire and May Cameron and Jenny Clow were performing the same function in Edinburgh! This author and narrator, however, like many 151 fictional authors and narrators, at times loses her objectivity when dealing with her charismatic principle character. On the other hand, what we understand from Carswell's account is the extent to which Bums as artist was caught between worlds. One of her supporters in the Daily Record correspondence, refuting charges by earlier correspondents that Bums had an 'abnormal psychology' - at least in relation to Carswell's depiction of his sexual liaisons - had made the point that 'the only sign of abnormal psychology in Bums was his ability to make immortal songs'. Carswell's account of Bums in Edinburgh makes us aware that his outstanding creative talent did make him 'abnormal', an outsider in the hierarchical society of his time which could not find a place for him other than that of his farming origins. It is little wonder that he soon forsook the high society of Edinburgh for the singers and musicians and lower life of the pubs, a move which led to the splendid song­ collecting final phase of his poetic career - where self-preservation was as much involved in his work as national song-preservation. Although she passed over Burns's many careless sexual liaisons without moral comment, Carswell is more severe with Bums when it comes to his political inconsistency in his Dumfries period. Again she is very good at creating a sense of Bums in Dumfries, a much more public figure in his Excise work than in his earlier employment as farmer. We catch the feeling of the uncertainties and excitement in relation to the French Revolution, the debates about the abolition of the slave trade in America. Yet Carswell's narrative also brings out the weaker side of the poet, especially when he had committed himself to the Excise for a living. Writing of his radical views and his political indiscretions in his talk, she comments: Unmistakable convictions with constant indiscretions do not invariably imply courage. How did the poet behave when he learned, as he did for the first time at the end of 1792, that there was to be an inquiry by the Excise into his political conduct? There is only one reply. He flew into a humiliating panic. He abased himself in disingenuous disclaimers and needless apologies. In the same breath he was innocent of all disaffection, begged to be forgiven, and promised that it should not occur again. His letters on the subject, with their Micawberish protestations of 'manly' independence and domestic sentiment, make pitiful reading. It was by the wickedness of 'some scoundrel enemy' that he had been maligned. He was a husband. He was a father. Near half a score of innocent being and 'prospect of many more' were dependent upon him. What would become of them, if his Excise promotion were denied or delayed? What, still more, ifhe were discharged? (Life 341). The novelist Neil Gunn wrote in the 1930s to F. Marion McNeill complaining about a review Carswell had written of his novel Morning Tide and complaining even more about her justifications of her position to him in the letters which passed between them. Gunn refers in his letter to Carswell's 'two besetting sins: honesty & sincerity' and laments: An these Scots Puritans ... '9 I think I sense a little of the Scots Puritan in these comments about Bums and politics in Dumfries, a time when it was only too easy for a careless tongue to result in transportation to the colonies or worse. And is there not once again evidence ofBums's 'putting on a persona' in these comments about being a husband and a father? 'Decorum' was important in eighteenth-century letters; one adopted the style and register appropriate to the matter of the communication. One only needs to read Bums's letters to understand how ably he could handle this literary requirement, and I would suggest that he employed it fully in his pleadings with his official superiors in Dumfries in the attempt to escape censure for his too outspoken opinions. As with her direct linking of life and work elsewhere in her writings about Bums, Carswell appears to ignore the possible 'decorum' explanation for Burns's outpourings here. On the other hand, her account of Bums's last weeks: his brave but futile attempt to carry out doctor's orders - orders which to our contemporary eyes seem destined to cut short as opposed to prolong life - his agitation at the debts he was leaving behing him and his worries over Jean and his children, is convincing and very moving and in itself provides a reason and to a large extent an 152 excuse for political vaccilation. And although she does not herself make the point, the love song 'O Wert thou in the Cauld Blast, I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee' which he wrote apparently for Jessie Lewars, who had come to help Jean with the house, is another example of how Burns the poet transformed real-life experience in his songs, making artistic as opposed to autobiographical works. For this poet could no longer shelter anyone in the cauld blast; he was the one in need of shelter and his song offers the vision of what could be in a different world, not what was the actuality of his daily life. Although it has now been surpassed in relation to the extent of scholarly research carried out and source documents examined, Catherine Carswell's biography remains relevant because of the humanity of the portrait she gives of Burns and the vitality of her depiction of the times in which he lived. And this is to a large extent due to her approach as a novelist to the writing of the biography and to the way she brought her whole being to the writing of the work - for she very much believed, as did D. H. Lawrence, that intellect must be united with feeling, that to think was to involve the emotions, not to intellectualise in an objective, impersonal way. In describing the work like this, however, I do not intend to suggest that Carswell's Life of Bums is itself a fictional work, not a properly researched account that is as 'true' as any biography - or for that matter, autobiography - may be (for to some extent at least, we all misremember, or order the facts of a life with the hindsight of later happenings and insight). As I said at the beginning of this paper, a reading of her letters contemporaneous with the writing of the Life demonstrates just how much scholarly research went into the book; how careful she was not to falsify known facts. She was perhaps a little before her time in her understanding that she could communicate these researched facts in a way that would attract readers more familiar with fiction reading. Like her own two novels, Carswell's Life of Bums is in my view a book which wears well. It is a pleasure to recommend it to present-day readers. Dr. Margery Palmer McCulloch, University of Glasgow.

References

I. James Mackay, Burns: A Biography of Robert Burns (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1992), p. 197. 2. Catherine Carswell, letter to S.S. Koteliansky 23 September 1930, British Library, London, Add. 48975, No. 174, p. 2. 3. Catherine Carswell, letter to Professor de Lancey Ferguson 11 November 1930, Mitchell Library Glasgow, Ms 53/6, p. 3. 4. Mackay, p. 24. 5. John Buchan, letter to Catherine Carswell 9 October 1930, National Library of Scotland, Acc. 6571. 6. John Anderson, letter to Catherine Carswell JO October 1930, private collection Mrs. Olive Russell. 7. Catherine Carswell, Spectator? October 1938, p. 576. 8. Robert Bums, 'Epistle to John Lapraik', Burns: Complete Poems and Songs, ed. James Kinsley (1969) paperback ed (Oxford: OUP, 1971), p. 67. 9. Neil Gunn, letter to F. Marian McNeill 30 March 1931, p. 3, NLS 26195.

153 The author traces Bum's life through BOOK REVIEWS boyhood, youth and manhood on the three Ayrshire farms Mount Oliphant, Lochlie and Mossgiel. Edinburgh, and the part that his SCOTLAND'S BARD­ sojourn there played in his publications and circulation of his poems is made clear. The A Concise Biography of importance of his Dumfries days in producing his great song contribution is emphasised. "A Robert Bums Man's a Man for a' That" the most revolutionary of his songs (never published in his lifetime) By Norman R. Paton reflects the political stand that Bums had come Reviewed by James McCallum to take. Referring to the fact that Bums was now an exciseman, a government official in the Published by: Sea-Green Ribbon Publications, employ of a repressive government dominated 22 Beverley Road, Fareham, Hampshire. by the Monarchy and Aristocracy, Norman Paton P0142NS. points out that reconciling his job as an exciseman while writing democratic song and ISBN: 0 9522944 4 3 Price £5.95 verse inspired by the French revolution was a Obtainable at most bookshops, or direct from marvellous feat of tightrope walking. the publishers, address above, post free. Bums life was complex and eventful. His character was equally complex. Paton's book, any Biographies of Robert Burns taking the Bard's life story stage by stage have been written. Not so many have succeeds in presenting a convincing picture of M been read other than by Burns people and places interwoven with poetry and scholars. The great merit of Norman Paton's song. For instance the tangled strands of the Concise Biography is that it really is concise and poet's personal life, involving his relationship yet contains the essential facts of the poet's life with Jean Armour and her hostile parents, are in a form easily grasped and retained in the clearly but briefly explained. Many readers will memory. It could be read "in a wanner" if you appreciate this unbiased account of the most were willing to forego a couple of nights' T.V. perplexing period in Bums' life. goggling. But what is a book about "The Bard" without Short though it is it is the classic example controversy? Some may be startled by the of the old Scots adage, "Guid gear goes into wee author's claim, backed by facts, that more of his buik." The author, a former Clydeside shipyard love songs were inspired by Jean Lorimer (the worker is an accomplished Bums scholar. He lassie with the lint white lock) than by any other has done his homework and out of a close study woman. of the best of the Bard's biographers has skilfully The book is an important contribution to the extracted a splendid life of Bums. His own view on-going task of keeping alive the study of Bums oh the farmer/exciseman's life and works enliven and the under-standing of why he occupies such his narrative with incisive comment. For an important place in Scottish Cultural heritage. example, "Bums was a democrat when those around him wereµ't quite sure what democracy was." Or again, "Very few famous persons have AN ILLUSTRATED had their drinking habits so thoroughly examined HISTORY OF SCOTLAND as Robert Bums." In his introduction Norman paints a vivid imaginary picture of Burns having By Elisabeth Fraser a guid dram in congenial company and concludes. "Those who deny this image of Burns Available from most Bookshops, or direct deny him his hale and hearty fellowship and from the Publishers, Jarrold Publishing, larger than life personality. Whitefriars, Norwich, NR3 1TR 154 ISBN: 0-7117-0856-9 Price £12.99 of Burns, or nearly as possible to how he or his contemporaries would have spoken them. Over 200 illustrations mostly in colour, Robert Pate is a retired dorninie with an abiding a superb production interest in Scots, with particular reference to the rom Jarrold Publishing comes a lavish dialect of West Central Scotland where he was excursion into the mystery and romance brought up and where he taught. of Scottish history. Illustrated with over F The book opens with Robert Pate's two hundred specially selected photographs and phonetical version of the poet's well-known illustrations, this is the story of one of the world's letter - the only one we have in Scots - written most fascinating countries. to William Nicol from Carlisle in June, 1787. Written in an easy-to-follow, accessible It's opening phrase shows the system used - style, the plot of Scotland's development unfolds "Kine oanist-hertit Wullie." from the mists of prehistory through the We read, in the introduction, of the efforts turbulence of the Covenanters and J acobites and to keep the Scots tongue alive, with particular the glory of the Scottish Enlightenment to the mention made of the "Manual of Modern Scots" present day. Wallace and Bruce, Burns and (1921) and the then very significant Vernacular Scott, Rob Roy and Mary, Queen of Scots are Circle of the Burns Club of London. In the more all covered in detail. specialised field of Burns works, however, Why was the wearing of tartan once banned? Robert is full of praise for Sir James Wilson's Where did the traditional bagpipes originate? books and research on the "dialect" of Robert What was the true story behind Edinburgh's Burns. The most significant of Wilson's works notorious grave robbers, Burke and Hare? And -which inspired this publication -was "Scottish where do you go today to find original Scotch Poems of Robert Burns in his Native Dialect." whisky? (1925) Everything you ever wanted to know about Not unpredictably, the poet's works are Scotland-and more - is covered in this exciting spoken by a huge range of voices from the doric title. Special features include coloured panels of my native Central Aberdeenshire to slightly highlighting points of interest, colour maps adapted B.B.C. English, with varying degrees showing everything from Scotland in the time of success. However, if we wish to give serious of the Romans to North Sea oil, and detailed thought to the "genuine article" - the poem as inserts focusing on intriguing anomalies such spoken in the Ayrshire of the 1790s - I commend as marriages at Gretna Green. this book to you. · The book is available from the author - 120 SCOTCH POEMS OF Robert Pate, Minnigaff, Newton Stewart, ROBERT BURNS IN HIS Wigtownshire DG8 6PL Cost is £7.95 + £ p&p £1.50 OWN DIALECT An accompanying tape has also been produced in recent months. For the book and By ~obert Pate tape the cost is £10.00 + £1.50. D.W.O. 1997 - Published by G.C. Book Publishers, Ltd., Wigtown STILL FLOWS THE BURNS Available from most Bookshops, or direct from the Publishers, 1992 - Hugh J. Waters ISBN: 1 872350 32 1 - 180 pp- hard covers ISBN 1 - 870978 - 50 - 1 his fascinating book should interest many Published by Keith Murray Publishing - Burnsians, being a collection of almost £6.95 - 112pp. T 130 Burns poems written phonetically. copy of this book, of which 2,000 By this method readers should manage to speak copies were printed in 1992,_ reached the lines, of virtually all the best known works A me some time ago. The covenng letter 155 from Hugh Waters of Renfrewshire asked for THESCOTSLANGUAGE­ "the considered opinion of your Federation regarding my intrusion into the Burns cult." ITS PLACE IN The Federation being a "broad church", such EDUCATION judgement is difficult but I am happy to comment on the book with its 25 pieces of verse, and 1998 - Edited by Liz Niven & appendix on alternative Burns Nights. Robin Jackson Hugh is a professional in the world of communication, having served S.T.V. for 30 Published by years, until his retirement, as a scriptwriter. With Watergaw - £11.95. some time on his hands he turned to versifying ISBN 0 952 9978 51146 pp and this book is the result. It is indeed entertaining with the verse divided into four his significant book is a stimulating sections - "A Toast to Rab" followed by a group collection of 16 essays on the current of five poems, parodies of well known Burns T use of Scots, particularly in the field of poems, the most entertaining being "Tam the education. It is an in-depth look at the correct Bunnet". The Remaining two sections are position of our Scots language, and is edited by "Lines Scribbled" - a set of epigrams, epitaphs two very appropriate individuals - Liz Niven and other short pieces in the style of Burns, but and Robin Jackson - both highly regarded in on contemporary subjects, ranging from blood the world of literature and education. Liz has transfusion to hire purchase agreements. Finally recently been appointed Writer in Residence by we are given "Superficial Burns". This is a set Dumfries and Galloway Council, while Robin of nine pieces using stanza forms favoured by - born in Hampshire - had his "enthusiasm for the Bard, and again these are entertaining and Scots language ignited" when he enrolled on the contemporary. I particularly like this verse about a fruit Certificate in Scottish Studies course at machine in a historic Ayrshire pub - Aberdeen University. "What's this I see afore my e'en? For a number of years, many enthusiasts Some hellish, heathen, Fruit Machine, became pessimistic about the future of Scots, That spoils the image o' this scene, but in more recent times the mood has changed An' brings tae scorn in many quarters and this volume could become This haven o' my dearest freen', a milestone in the development, and teaching, John Barleycorn. of our language. That verse is a real "taster" for a book which The list of contributors is as varied as it is should appeal to many readers, who enjoy good impressive and as well as professors and an H.M. down to earth poetry in an easily manageable Inspector of Schools I was delighted to note a Scots. S.W. chalk-face herdie and an Ayrshire English Some Burns purists might be a little less teacher. The said teacher's essay is written in enthusiastic about the alternative Burns Night Scots, while-significantly-I think my dominie suggestions in the appendix, but Hugh - now friend is the only contributor who mentions the wheelchair-bound - assures me that they are highly successful and happy affairs. Bums Federation in the entire book. This is a I strongly feel that if they reinforce our great pity, but possibly some of the blame lies interest in the use of Scots, provide evenings of at our door. good fellowship and point some participants I commend the book to all serious minded towards a true appreciation of Burns, they can Burnsians, especially those in education or with only do good for the Burns cult. a particular interest in it. It should be pre~cribed This book is available, direct from Hugh reading for all who influence policy in our Waters, who can be contacted by phone on 0141 schools D.W.O. 880 6475. D.W.O. 156 SANGS, REELS AND HIGH Though this is being sold chiefly as a school pack, it will be of interest to many people, some JINKS of whom have not seen the inside of a classroom 'A UNIQUE PACKAGE' for a wheen o' years! How they will enjoy the youngsters singing. "A gaitherin o sangs, games, rhymes and dances A number of much respected adults were Jae the auldfolk o Gallowa 'brocht the gither wi also involved in this production. Research for pleesure an fir passin on our tradition tae the the songs and games was undertaken by the four young folk." ladies of Galloway who make up the famous his description of what a unique package Stravaig group. They also sing and provide the contains manages to say it all. Published helpful notes for the songs. Music was set by by Dumfries and T Galloway Arts June Pringle, while instruction for games and Association, Ltd., with assistance from Dumfries dances are the work of Karin Ingram. The and Galloway Council and the Scottish Arts accordian music is by famous band leader Council, this strong ring folder containing Freeland Barbour who also edited the pack. around 70 sheets is an exciting production. It is something of which everyone involved Its principal purpose is as a teachers' pack, deserves to be proud. I am happy to recommend the sheets being accompanied by a CD of 33 it. tracks. The first 25 - the sangs and high jinks - It is available for £15.00 from D.G.A.A., are a delightful collection of songs and games, Dumfries. Telephone 01387 260446. some of the latter with the appropriate song and music. Instruction and diagrams are also included for the games. TWENTY MOST The final 8 tracks give the appropriate music for 8 dances - reels, jigs and waltz - with the FAVOURITE SONGS OF text giving dance instructions and terminology. BURNS These dances range from very old to recent, and By Andrew Winton though they originated mainly in the SW of Scotland they would be equally appropriate for ISBN: 0-85683-1751 dancers anywhere in Scotland or beyond. Published by Shepherd-Walwyn (Publishers) Amongst the "sangs and high jinks" many Ltd., 26 Charing Cross Road (Suit 34), older Bumsians will feel nostalgic about "Katie London WC2H ODH Bairdie" and "Bee Baw Babbity" ! And I wonder Tel: 0171240 5992 how many readers have played and sung "Jews £19.95 (Plus post & packing) From Spain"? One of the great strengths of this pack is his book is unique in that every word is that many of these songs and games have been reproduced in calligraphy by the author collected - very much in the style of Walter T and is easily read with most pages Scott, James Hogg and of course Robert Bums adorned with his beautiful drawings in full - from a number of older residents in Dumfries colour of flowers and grasses, which were so and Galloway. Thanks to the publication, and familiar to Robert Bums, and appropriate to the the use of primary pupils from Lorebum School, songs illustrated. The twenty songs are all well­ Dumfries, whose choir sing most of the songs known favourites and while all the songs are on the CD, many old songs and games have been illustrated my favourite is the author's rendering passed on to a new generation. This, of course of The Red, Red Rose (see illustration). Needless is in the spirit of Bums and of the aims of the to say the quality of the book is equal to the Bums Federation. contents and by today's standards well worth

157 the price. The historical notes add to the pleasure of reading (or singing) of the songs. Burnsian Andrew Winton was born in Lanarkshire in 1917. Attended Edinburgh College of Art where he studied calligraphy. During the last war spent a great deal of time escaping from POW camps, always accompanied by his battered volume of the works of Robert Bums. He says:- 'I had a great desire to pass on some of the pleasures I got from the songs of Burns. To do this I would lay aside the cold hard print of the many books of his words and I would try to develop a hand to write to suit the subjects; I would search for the music that is known because he gave us words to sing; I would endeavour to draw and paint all the flowers and grasses that inspired him; and I would write a word or two about the lasses to whom the songs were written.' This Andrew has accomplished in his colourful and unique presentation. P.J.W.

Can I become a member of the ROBERT BURNS WORLD FEDERATION LTD (Formerly the Bums Federation) and support the aims of the Federation?

You CAN become a FEDERATED MEMBER

By applying to the Secretary at

The Dick Institute, Elmbank Avenue, Kilmarnock, KAl 3BU, Scotland. Tel/Fax: 01563 572469.

Annual membership fee £15 Which includes an illuminated scroll, copies of The Burnsian and the Burns Chronicle Discount on a n_~mber of items sold by the Federation.

158 159 A MORNING AN EVENING MEDITATION MEDITATION By John Burness How beauteous must it be to view How pleasant must it be to spy The field~ when light with morning dew, The clear unclouded ev 'ning sky, An' hear the sky larks sing, And yonder setting sun. The sootie blackbirds and the thrush, Look how he shines serenely bright, Mellow their pipe in every bush, Tho'just upon the verge of night, And flowers around you spring. And day's course almost run. If any thus on nature gaze, See how he darts his setting rays And all its beauties view, On yonder liquid main; We surely must its Author praise The water seems all in a blaze, An' render what is due, Reflected back again. With wonder, wi'ponder, Still shining, entwining And lose oursel's in thought, Along the curling streams; Still dancing, and glancing ~ Imploring, adoring, Him who made all of nought. Through Phoebus' golden beams. Can any view these flowers and plants, Here let me pause, and think on Him An' warblers chinning o'er their rants, Who puts all nature thus in trim, And not affected be? And made the golden ball; What power and wiSdom here is shown; Likewise the moon to rule the night, God will be praised by His own; And all the lesser orbs of night, His works Him glorify. Obedient to his call. How vast must be His power! How great! So soon as Sol is out of view, Who did this fabric raise, And hid his golden face, And by His work did all create, Pale Cynthia's tum approaclzeth now, And finish in six days. To fill his vacant place. Him praise then, and raise then Each star, too, does glare now, Your voices upon high, And sparkle wond'rous bright; Who reigns still, a King still, The expanse, too, immense now, In glory 'yond the sky. Isfill'd with orbs of light. Sure none on earth can be so bold Here let me with the Psalmist say, As Atheist principles to hold, What's man, that worthless lump of clay? If he this scene but view; Or pray what is his son? Nature cries out "there is a God". That all these things are for his use, Ye wicked dread His threat'ning rod, Yet of these gifts he makes abuse, Vengeance awaits for you. And backwards still does run. Look on the grass, here view the bees, Ungrateful wretches that we are! Which fly from flower to flower; God's mercies thus to slight, Thefeather'd tribe upon the trees And openly his vengeance dare, Are chanting every hour: And put Him from our sight; All joining, combining, Ne' er heeding, nor dreading, Their voices high to raise: Thinking we've nought to fear, Let us, then, rejoice then, Esteeming, and deeming And still our Maker praise. Is little worth our case. John Burness (1771-1826) distant relative of Robert Bums. 160 Salway Offset the Printers, Heathhall, Dumfries. ADDITIONAL PLATES FOR PRESIDENT'S CHAIN

Thirteen additional gold plates have been added to the Burns Federation's Presidential Chain of Office, al a cost of £2,700. The work was caiTied out by Greig Thinsmith, Goldsmith 's Workshop, Dumfries. and was necessary as there was no room left on the o ri ginal plates for the names of the Presidents. There is now room for the names of a further 26 Presidents. Past President of the Burns Federation, Andrew Mc Kee is working on an hi storic account of this most valuable and often admired President's Chain of Office. As its early hi story is a little vague anyone with any information on the subject should contact Andrew at 27 Balfron Road, Paisley. PA3 AHA. THE GOLDSMITHS WORKSHOP AWARD WINNING GOLDSMITHS Makers and repairers of fine jewellery 43 BUCCLEUCH STREET, DUMFRIES. DG I 2AB. SCOTLAND.Tel : 01387 25571 I

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