Robert BurnsLimited World Federation Limited www.rbwf.org.uk 1977 The digital conversion of this Burns Chronicle was sponsored by The Lanarkshire Association of Burns Clubs in memory of RBWF Past President A C W Train 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 1977 BURNS CHRONICLE AND CLUB DIRECTORY INSTITUTED 1891 · FOURTH SERIES: VOLUME II CONTENTS From the Editor 5 Burns and the American War of Independence Farquhar MacKenzie 6 The President 12 The Retiring President 13 A Burns Quiz Compiled by C. C. Easton 15 Mauchline Ware J. S. Buist 16 Art Competition Winners 22 Burns's Address to the Inquisitive Exhumers W. Porter-Young 23 Coldstream's Record Wm. Jackson 24 "Our Guest Tonight Is ... " (Rev. James Currie) Dorothy K. Haynes 28 Poems from "Bairnsangs" 32,69,83,86 Ttie Mouse's Reply May Harper 33 The Burns Room at the "Mitchell" Stewart Hunter 34 "Thrummy Cap" D. Wilson Ogilvie 38 At the Cauldron Linn (Letter) Alex B. Mciver 45 Alex. MacMillan Andrew Hoed 46 Burns In Selkirk (We Stand Corrected!) 48 A Study In Coincidence W. Porter-Young 49 Modern Scottish Poetry (B9ok Note) 52 50 Years of a Good Deed (Burnbank Masonic Burns Club) 53 Under the Influence John Rundle 55 Around the Clubs (Photographic feature) 56 Lang Sandy Wood J. L. Hempstead 60 Highland Mary Memorial 65 Anderson Wilson Memorial Fund 65 A Poet Apart Jane Burgoyne 66 To Russia Again G. A. 70 A Burns Garden (Letter) Alastair M. R. Hardie 73 Irvine Lasses 75 Book Reviews Cuthbert Graham 76 Robert Burns and Dundonald Robert Kirk 84 MacDiarmid and Burns Robert Peel 87 "A' the Airts" Club's Prize-winning Tableau (Photograph) 88 The Tannock Brothers Remembered Enez Logan 89 Improving the Chronicle (Letter) J. Shearer 90 The "Gentle Poet" of Loch Leven (Michael Bruce) John A. M. Muir. 91 Airdrie Club's Dinner (Photograph) 97 Burns Federation Office-bearers 98 List of Districts , 103 Minutes of Annual Conference 109 Club Reports · 124 Numerical List of Clubs on the Roll 165 Alphabetical List of Clubs on the Roll 201 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. Price £1.25 paper bound-£1.50 cloth bound. ISSN 0307 8957 FROM THE EDITOR WITH this issue I take my leave of the Federation as Editor of the Chronicle. Called in to pilot the Chronicle through the difficult period following the sudden death of Jimmy Veitch, I have found my almost two years in the Federation an invigorating experience. One the;me constantly asserted itself. The Chronicle is unique. Could any country other than Scotland sustain for over eighty years a publication_ devoted almost solely to the life and work of one - man? A man of giant stature, certainly, nevertheless the Chronicle, too, is a phenomenon. I take leave of it with affection and regard. And to the men and women of the Burns Federation, who have offered me so much of friendliness and fellowship, I give my sincerest thanks. R. ARTHUR DAW 5 Hand to hand fighting during the struggle for Bunker Hill, overlooking Boston, in June 1775. British losses in capturing this strategic hill were so heavy that th e battle amounted to a victory for the revolutionary forces. Burns and the American War of Independence by Farquhar Mackenzie (From the very first Burns Chronicle of had not been acknowledged by the l 892 there has been shown consider­ British Parliament, Bums followed able interest in Burns's relationship intelligently the progress of the war; with America. To mark the Bi­ centennial of American Independ­ and strange indeed it would have been ence these various writings have been had Robert Burns, with his love of edited and brought together.) freedom and hatred of oppression, not been deeply affected by the great events A T the tirr.e of the Boston Tea Party, which were passing before him. Robert Burns was fourteen years The American War of Independence old- an age of maturity in the eight­ must have been the subject of consider­ eenth century. Burns was already a able study by Burns for, in 1786, he diligent reader of history, keeping wrote a satirical rhyrr.ed history in abreast of the rr_ain events in England, which he exhibited not only a compre­ on the Continent and in America. hensive grasp of military and political There is no doubt that in early man­ affairs, but also a keen insight into the hood, when the Americans had de­ personal characteristics of the soldiers clared. their independence, although it and statesmen concerned in it. This 6 The illustrations in this article are from steel of friendship and conciliation; Charles engravings in C . Mackay·s The History of the James Fox, gamester and opponent of United States of America and we are in­ the debted to Edinburgh University Library for war-these and others pass in review. the reproductions. Only a man widely read in contem­ porary history could have written, to the tune of Killiecrankie, the ten-verse poem is usually entitled A Fragment: poem beginning: When Guildford good, but in some "When Guildford good our Pilot stood, editions of his poems it is called The An' did our hellim thraw, man, American War. Tracing the trend of Ae nicht, at tea, began a plea, events from the Boston Tea Party in Within America, man. 1773, to the election victory of William Then up they gat the maskin-pat, Pitt in 1784, Burns wielded his poetic And in the sea did jaw, man; brush with devastating skill. The An' did nae less, in full Congress, historical personages mentioned in the Than quite refuse our law, man." poem include North, second Earl of Earlier, in a letter dated 21st June, Guildford, on whose motion the 1783, Burns wrote to his cousin, James Cabinet decided to retain the duty on Burness: "Since the unfortunate begin­ tea; Richard Montgomery, the gallant ning of this American War, and its as American general whose attack on unfortunate conclusion, this country Quebec resulted in his death; George has been, and still is, decaying very Montague, Duke of Manchester, fast." In the American and French who upheld the American cause; revolutions, there is no doubt where Edmund Burke, champion of a policy Burns's sympathies lay. Washington crossing the ice-strewn Delaware. General Howe had put his forces into winter quarters at Trenton. An attack across the river on Christmas night, 1776, took him by surprise and cost him 1,000 prisoners. " 7 Burns believed-and his opinion was Burns never wavered in his estimate not an isolated one-that the real object of either the King or the American of Great Britain was to crush those cause and, a few years after peace came principles of liberty which were spread­ and the United States settled down to ing throughout the country, and which republican independence he, by way of were so dear to the Poet. Regarding a birthday salutation, could thus accuse inequality of opportunity as he did, the King and claim that by the stupidity Burns resented nepotism and abuse of of greedy taxation he had lost the New power. He bitterly felt and opposed World and left the impoverished the favours which were showered on Motherland with scarcely a sixpence . incompetents of high birth, whilst ("tester"). brilliant men of lower birth were doom­ Two years later, on the 22nd Novem­ ed to menial tasks. Although he upheld ber, 1788, Burns defended the American the monarchical system, he opposed cause and wrote thus in the Edinburgh the stupidity and greed of the Hano­ Evening Courant: varians. The parasitical conduct at Court and the restrictive electoral "I will not, I cannot, enter into the merits of the (Stuart) cause; but I dare say the system were anathema to him. American Congress, in 1776, will be The American War of Independence allowed to have been as able and as was therefore a source of hope and enlightened and, as a whole empire will inspiration to Burns. At its beginning, say, as honest, as the English Convention so had been the French Revolution. in 1688; and that the Fourth of July will But when the Bonapartists denied free- be as sacred to their posterity as the Fifth dom and equality to minorities and the of November is to us." excesses of the revolutionaries dimin- In the same vein, Edward Pinnington ished his hopes of the brotherhood of quotes a letter to the London Star, of man, Burns could look only to America 8th November, 1788, in which Burns for the realisation of freedom and takes up the American cause and con­ democracy · demns the British Government for Throughout his life Burns was a oppression. Burns goes on to predict political being and living in a country it possible that the posterity of the confronted by the American colonists, Colonials who fought for and won by France and by Spain, it was indeed independence "will celebrate the cen­ a most difficult time in which to criticise tenary of their deliverance from us, as the Monarch and to hound the Govern- duly and sincerely as we do ours from ment. Yet, from as early a time as the the oppressive measures of the wrong­ Kilmarnock Edition, Burns continued headed House of Stewart". the American th~me and, in the poem, In the closing years of his life Burns A Dream, ~e directly reproached the .