Robert BurnsLimited World Federation Limited www.rbwf.org.uk 1984 The digital conversion of this Burns Chronicle was sponsored by Alexandria 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 BURNS CHRONICLE 1984 BURNS CHRONICLE AND CLUB DIRECTORY INSTITUTED 1891 FOURTH SERIES: VOLUME IX PRICE: Paper £3.50, Cloth £4.25, (Members £2.50 and £3.00 respectively). CONTENTS George Anderson 4 From the Editor 6 Obituaries 8 Heritage James S. Adam 13 Book Reviews 14 Facts are Cheels that winna Ding J.A.M. 17 Burns Quiz 21 Afore ye go ... remember the Houses! John Riddell 22 Bi-Centenary of Kilmarnock Edition 23 Personality Parade 24 John Paul Jones and Robert Burns James Urquhart 29 Junior Chronicle 34 Mossgiel William Graham 46 Sixteen Poems of Burns Professor G. Ross Roy 48 Broughton House, Kirkcudbright 58 'Manners-Painting': Burns and Folklore Jennifer J. Connor 59 A Greetin' Roon the Warl' 63 Henryson's 'The Tail! of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges Mous' and Burns's 'The Twa Dogs' Dietrich Strauss 64 Anecdotal Evidence R. Peel 74 Nannie's Awa' J. L. Hempstead 77 The Heart of Robert Burns Johnstone G. Patrick 78 Rob Mossgiel, Bard of Humanity Pauline E. Donnelly 81 The Lost Art of saying 'Thank you' David Blyth 89 Answers to the Quiz 91 The Burns Federation Office Bearers 92 List of Districts 97 Annual Conference Reports, 1982 101 Club Notes 114 Numerical List of Clubs on the Roll 211 Alphabetical List of Clubs on the Roll 257 The title photograph is from the Nasmyth portrait of Burns and is reproduced by courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Published by the Burns Federation, Kilmarnock. Printed by Wm. Hodge & Co. Ltd, Glasgow ISBN 0307 8957 4 GEORGE ANDERSON A Glaswegian by birth and up-bringing and a lithographic printer by profession, George Anderson is no stranger to the Burns movement, having worked indefatigably as the Federation's Publicity Officer for the past decade. His interest in the Poet goes back to his schooldays. Like Burns, he became an ardent Freemason and at the age of 23, in 1960, he became a member of the Glasgow Masonic Burns Club, thus combining his two lifelong interests. In April 1961 he was elected a club steward and in 1964 joined its executive committee. He was successively Vice-President (1965-7) and President (1967-8), the youngest holder of that office and has subsequently completed a second term as President. When the GMBC celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1969 George served as Master of Cere­ monies, a function he has fulfilled with great professionalism at the annual dinners since then. In 1968 he became his club's representative to the Glasgow and District Burns Associa­ tion and thereafter he moved rapidly up the hierarchy of the Association, becoming Senior Vice-President and one of its representatives on the Executive of the Burns Federation. Despite these duties he still found time to become President of the Torrance Masonic and Social Club in 1974 and also, in the same year, to found the Milton Com­ munity Burns Club, becoming the club's first Honorary President. On the international scene George played a prominent part in the early Burns Suppers in Moscow and in 1976 broadcast on Soviet radio and television about Burns. In 1980 he proposed the 'Immortal Memory' in Leningrad and Moscow. Nearer home, he has been a tireless worker for the furtherance of the Burns movement at all levels, whether it be pro­ posing the 'Immortal Memory' at a club anniversary dinner or judging a children's poetry competition, or keeping Burns in the forefront of the cultural developments in Scotland. For a man who is used to banging the drum and blowing the trumpet on behalf of the Burns movement, George is extraordinarily reticent about his own achievements. He could not be coaxed into writing his curriculum vitae for the Chronicle, generally one of the more congenial duties of the incumbent President, and consequently this inadequate tribute has had to be composed from press reports. George resides in Rutherglen with his wife Maureen and two sons, one of whom is at Glasgow University. His son, Graeme, took the excellent photograph which appears opposite. At the age of 45 George is the Federation's youngest President, and is particularly proud of the fact that this honour has come to him in the Centenary Year of the Boys Brigade, through whose ranks he rose to become an officer. George comments, 'I do not think it incorrect to say that, but for my Brigade training, I would never have become President of the Burns Federation.' 5 FROM THE EDITOR As readers of this column will know by now, I like to give my Editorial an exotic flavour-and this is no exception. Last summer I was sitting on the front seat of a Katy bus, somewhere on the road between Muskogee and Krebs en route to Dallas. I wasn't 'getting my kicks on Route Sixty-Six' which lay some way off to the northwest, but I was getting on fine on Route Sixty-Nine and chatting to the driver, as is my custom in these foreign parts. Across the aisle sat an elderly black gentleman who must have been in­ trigued by my outlandish accent for, at a break in the conversation, he leaned over to me and enquired: 'Say, mistuh. Where is y'all originated from?' 'Scotland', I replied. Without pausing he rejoined, 'Is that Scotland, California or Scotland, South Dakota?' I was so taken aback at this, having heard of neither place, that I answered, 'Neither-just Scotland. Scotland.' I could see by the way he furrowed his brow that this answer was not as enlightening as I had imagined, and he commented with a note of puzzlement in his voice: 'I ain't heard of no Scotland, Scotland!' The existence of these towns named after my native land was forcibly demonstrated some weeks after my return from America when postcards to my wife belatedly arrived with postmarks of California and South Dakota, whither they had been missent. As if to compound the error, relatives subsequently reported having received cards missent to Aberdeen (South Dakota again) and Glasgow, Kentucky. As if to add insult to injury the card intended for a relative in the Granite City had been endorsed 'Not known at Aber­ deen, South Dakota-try Aberdeen, Washington.' To my mind this illustrates two things. First of all, it indicates the part which Scots have played in the development of the United States of America, a matter in which I take some pride; but, secondly, it shows a measure of insularity in the New World and an ignorance of that Old World whence so many of its placenames and institutions and cultural tradi­ tions were derived. In Illinois they pronounce 'Elgin' as if it were spelled 'Eljin' and, to my utter chagrin, in Idaho they pronounce 'Mackay' as if it rhymed with 'motorway'. Virginia boasts towns named after Scotland's two largest cities, but while Glasgow is made to rhyme with 'cow', Edinburg (sic) has even changed its spelling. Scottish Americans please note: you will have an uphill struggle trying to educate your fellow countrymen. A few years ago, when the Annual Conference was about to take place in London, Ontario, I took the opportunity to write about the strong bonds that linked Scotland and Canada. The bonds that link Scotland and the United States are too numerous and all­ pervasive to need a detailed catalogue. Scottish exports to America have been going on now for more than three centuries. Of late this has been taken to its logical conclusion and we have been re-importing Scottish exports, whether it be the controversial head of the coal industry or a ubiquitous chain of fast-food joints. 6 So, too, in the matter of Robert Burns. The oldest Burns club in North America, now affiliated to the Federation, the Burns Society of the City of New York, dates from 1871, but long before that there were active Burns clubs. There was a Burns club in Andover, Massachusetts in 1857 and undoubtedly clubs existed in Boston and New York even before that time, though I cannot trace any exact date for their foundation. When the centenary of the poet's birth was celebrated globally in 1859 no fewer than 61 anniversary celebrations were recorded as having taken place in every part of the United States, second only to England and far outnumbering the combined total for Ireland and the British Empire. On the evening of 25th January Scots from Adrian, Michigan to West Farms, New York sat down to a centenary dinner. They ranged from modest affairs to the mammoth celebration in New York's Cooper Institute where the renowned orator, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, delivered the 'Immortal Memory' before a multitude of over three thousand people. What the Boston Burns Club of the day lacked in numbers it more than made up in the quality of the fare, including a haggis 'which had been made for the occasion in the cottage in which Burns was born', and the principal speaker-none other than Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated poet. Emerson referred to himself in a self­ deprecatory manner as 'the worst Scotchman of all' before delivering a brilliant oration. I imagine that Emerson's Scottish blood was well diluted, but of his sincere admiration for Burns there can be no doubt.