Robert Burns World Federation Limited

Transcription

1 Lmted Robert Burns World Federaton Lmted The dgtal converson of ths Burns Chroncle was sponsored by Dr Clark McGnn Past Presdent The Burns Club of London and The Greenock Burns Club to commemorate the re-nterment of Hghland Mary

2 ANNUAL JANUARY PRCE : Two SHLLNGS. PU~LlSHED BY THE BURNS FEDERATON KLMARNOCK. PRNTED BY J. MAXWELL & SON DUMFRES.

3 .~~----~~'~*~~.~( KLMARNOCK Burns n1onum~nt. ST71UE LBR7RY. nnd M.USEUM.. ~\ \.~ ~; VSTED by thousands from all parts of the World: vertable shrne of the mmortal Bard. The Monument occupes a commandng poston n the Kay Park. From t.he top a most extensve and nterestng vew of t.he surroundng Land of Burns o!1nbe obtaned. The magnfcent Marblt; Stat~e of the Poetl from the chsel of W. G. Stevenson A.R.S.A. Ednburgh ~ admtt.ed to be the fnest n the World. The Museum contans many relcs and mementoes of the Poet's lfe and the most valuable and nterestng collecton of the orgnal MSS~ n exstence among 'whch are the followng :-- The Death and Dyng 'Words 0' Poor Tam 0' Shanter. cottar's Saturday Nght. The Twa Dogs. The Holy Far. Address to the Dell. John Barleycorn. Scotch Drnk. The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer. Address to J. Smth. An Epstle to Davy..~ Malle.. Poor Malle's Elegy. Lasse w' the Lnt-whte Locks. Last Maya Braw Wooer cam' doon the Lang Glen.. Holy Wlle's Prayer. Epstle to a Young Frend. Lament of Mary Queen of Scots. Also a number of the Poet's Letters. The famous M'Ke Lbrary also forms part of ths collecton and comprles upwards of 800 volumes of ~urns lterature nclud~lg a' copy of the famous Frst Edton publshed n Kl- A. nlarnock}786.. '... ~ ~. j ~. The Monument s open from 10 a.m. tll dusk every day-sunday excepted. Vstors are requested to sgn ther names n the Vstors' Book. j 1

4 LECKE Wres- '.~ Saddlery Glasgow.... r GRAHAM'S.~ _.- FOR 'Phone- 673 Douglas. SCOTTSH NATONAL DRESS. Specal attenton gven to every detal and your own nstructons carred through. Klts Doulet~ Scarf ant Belted Pla'ds Sporrans (Har and Leather Shoulder Brooches Cap Brooches Skean-Dhus nrks Hose Brogues Tam ~ Sh2nters Balmorals Glengarres and al' other accessores kept n slock. Also Boys' and Crls' Hghland Costumes n Stock at Keenest Prces. Specal Quotatons gven for Ppe Bands &c. Please menton the Burns Cltr()ncle'~ f'lnt 'wrtng Us... At the Sgn of the Colden Horse 95 RENFELD STREET GLASGOW. -- ~~ AN EXACT FACSMLE OF THE FRST KLMARNOCK EDTON.. BURNS' POEMS.. PUBLSHED N /6 Nett Post Free 13/ OF Every page has been carefully photographed and compared The paper has been as closely mtated as possble the pages hand-sttched together wth a cover as near the orgnal as can be reproduced. An uncut copy of the orgnal was sold n New York recently for AN DEAL PRESENT FOR LOVERS OF BURNS. HANnSOMELY BOXED AND SEALED WTH FACSML~.. OF THE POET'S SEAL... ~... ROBERT GBSON J&. SONS (GLASGOW) LMTED. 45 QUEEN' STREET GLASGOW ---- ~ ;::... ' :.1... j '!. J ' 1:( 11 '1' ' :! : 11:. ': 'j ; ' : '.. :1. '; : t l' :l! \ \

5 ADVERTSEMENTS. -Glasgow & South-Western Ralway Full and Convenent Servce of pr- EXPRESS TRANS -w SCOTLAND &-ENGLAND VA CLASCOW and SOUTH WESTERN anj MDLAND RALWAYS From GLASGOW (St. Enoch) Greenock. Ardrossan Pasley Ayr. Klmarnock Dumfres. &c. To LONDON (St. Pancras) And the PrnCpal Englsh Towns. DlNNC CARS. CORRDOR CARR laces. SLEEPNG CARS. JRECT SERVCE TO THE CLYDE WATERNG PLACES. THE ROUTE to the LAND 0' BURNS. The.. Banks and Braes o' Bonne Doon and all the other places made Famous n hs Lfe's Story. THE GOODS TRAN SERVCE SCOTLAND and ENGLAND Serves Newcastle. Hull. Leeds Sheffeld Manchester. Lverpool Brmngham. London and England generally. : Glasgow DAVD COOPER Ceneral Manager.

6 ANN UA.L PRCE:. JANUARY Two SHLLNGS.:.PULsHED BY THE BURNS FEDERA.TON.. KLN\ARNOCK. PRNTED'f'.BY J. MAXWELL & SON. ~~~~:. DUMFRES. ~ ~'- t ;;:;;;..

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8 :. ' CONTENTS... PaCt. Robert Burns as a Volunteer: Some Fresh Facts from the Mnute Book of the Corps- Wllam Wll... Proposed Removal of the Hghland Mary Memoral:.' Further Developments Jublee Annversary Meetng of the.london Robert Burns Club (25th January 1919) The Manse of Loudoun--Helm Vallers Crawford 68 Burns and Uppermost Clydesdale-Rev. Wm. M'Ml/an M.A. F.S.A.Scot. _ 78 Shenstone and Burns-A. J. Crag 86 The Heraldry of Burns-Rev. Wm: lpml/all.m.a. F.S.A.Scol. 90 Mara Rddell's Letters to Dr James Curre ( ) -J.C.E. Francs Grose Esq. F.R.S. A.S.-A. J. Cra(fj Burns Cottage Relcs: A Spurous Collecton-J. C. Ewng... 5 :n Burns's House n Mauchlne: The Mackenze Extenson 135 Memoral to Gavn Hamlton at Mauchlne 138.mposng on Burns-Davdson Cook F.S.A.Scot. 140 Burns and the Duchesses- Pllltj> Sulley Club Notes Federaton Offce-Bearers &c. 177 Annual Meetng of Federaton 181 Club Drectory j: ' ' '..1 ~. '.'. f. 1'1! ~.! ' '~ l

9 ;'!! T:' PREFACE.! ~- THE.demands upon. the space of ths ssue of the. Ch'ronde have necesstated :some addton to ts 'bulk ; as well as the ' o'msson of the Notes and Quer6s P ; :but wehope that the nterest of the artcles sublntted wll be deemed suffcen~' excusec'fbr all'faults.' We havc. to congratulate the <;lub~ on.~;?-~ resumpt?l1 o~ ther.'>r:e-war actvtes. and trus! therlgoo~~xample extend year by year to every unt of the Federato l1... ' ''.....! r Our thanks are agar' due to all wh6!1aveasssted us n ' \ l1l the complaton of the present volume; and \~e may add ' ~~l th~t a' comprehen'svc n'(l~~' for' the; ~ho~ :' seres: s und~~ consderaton '.! :')/M'NAUGHT' ~ '! BENRG KLMAURS '..... \.. January 1st l~:!o ':X: \ >'...-- : '.. :'!.. : ~.

10 HOBE~T BURNS AS A VOLUNTEER: SOME FRESH FACTS ]'HOll 'fhe lnute nook OF THE CORPS. FEW men of genus have had to run the gauntlet of crtcsm more searchng more dverse and more prolonged than Robert Burns. n hs own tme t was drected chefly from a rgd ecclesastcal system and from the general atmosphere of self-rghteousness whch that creed encouraged. The crtcsm has been contnued n our own day from totally dfferent angles the nsantyof-genus school regardng Burns less as a conscous snner than as the vctm of hs own genus; and what may be called the curostes-of-lterature vew-pont whch fnds a fascnaton n the conflct between hs narrow materal envronment and hs spacous sprtual vson. Between all the shafts of crtcsm Burns has beconle a sorely battered target and t would need a vast volume to refute the charges that have been brought aganst hm. The harsh crtcsm to whch Burns has been subjected s due largely to hs bographers-never was man more unfortunate n hs bographers-who too readly accepted the sordd stores whch probably orgnated n the mnds of the Poet's poltcal opponents provncal scandalmongers and vndctve vctms of that wt whch!' had always the start of hs judgment. These stores handed from naccurate bographer to unsuspectng bographer have become part of the volumnous lterature that has gathered about the name of the nspred Ploughman and that has been drawn upon by those who have drected thcr shafts at hs character. More than sxty years ago the dull-lookng Excse Regster of Censures dscovered at Somerset House rescued one sde of the Poet's character and now a hundred

11 ::!: 6! ' and twenty-two years after Burns's death an obscure manuscrpt volume of the Mnutes of the Dumfres Volunteers has come to lght to confound the crtcs stll further. The great value of the new dscovery les n ths that the Volunteers set up a standard of dscplne n some ways ~ven more rgd than that of the Church and yet Burns stands the test and comes off wth flyng colours. Hs atttude to hs mltary dutes show~ that hs membershp was not as has been suggested a mere pece of hypocrsy meant tq. deceve or placate hs superors n the Excse who told hm when he sought to defend hs atttude to the French Revoluton that hs duty was to act-not to thnk. Burns's work as a Volunteer has htherto ether been mnmsed or msnterpreted. t s true that Allan Cunnngham sad that he remembered well the appearance of that respectable Corps; ;. and remember the Poet also-hs very swarthy face hs ploughman's stoop hs large dark eyes and hs ndfferent. dexterty n the handlng of hs arms.* 'Ve lmow that Colonel de Peyster the honoured Colonel to whom Burns addressed hs Ode on Lfe declared that Burns fathfully dscharged. hs solderly dutes and was the prde of hs Corps. We have been told further that Burns when On hs deathbed s reported to have jocularly pleaded wth a frend not to allow hs fellow-volunteers- the awkward squad he called them-to fre a volley over hs grave and we have also been told that that volley was fred n the stragglng manner feared by thc Poet. n Ansle's Plgrmage n the Land of B1 rns prnted at Deptford n 1822 s the followng :- Once when the Corps were exercsng n frng after a few bad dscharges the Captan asked: 's ths your erratc genusmr Burns that s spolng our fre?' 'N.J: o. ' t can 't b e me C aptan'. Sad. Burns 'for look have forgot my flnt.' t was Cunnngham who sad: t s very true that hs accesson [to the ranks] was * Honest Allan must always be taken wth a pnch of salt.

12 ...~4' 7 objected to by some of hs neghbours but these were overruled by the gentlemen who took the lead n the busness and the Poet soon became as mght have been expected the greatest possble favourte wth hs brothers. n arms. Ths statement wll be dealt wth later Ths s the gst of practcally all that has up tll now been publshed regardng Burns's lfe as a Volunteer Several of hs bographers attach so lttle mportance to hs enlstment n the Royal Dumfres Volunteers that they do not even menton t. Other wrters refer to the Poet's enlstment only as an explanaton of the exstence of the song The Dumfres Volunteers or as a proof that the Poet was a patrotc Brton despte hs sympathy wth the French people. n pont of fact as we shall see he was not only an enthusast but a leader of the movement and that too at a perod whch has frequently been regarded as the least admrable of hs short lfe. To say as has been sad by more than one essayst that Burns became a Volunteer to prove hs loyalty to the Government s an nsult to the memory of the Poet. A mltary lfe always had an attracton for Bums. Not only dd he as a chld strut n raptures up and down! after the recrutng drum and bagppe and wsh myself' tall enough to be a solder but n 1782 when hs flaxdressng venture lterally ended n smoke he consoled hmself thus :- 0 why the deuce should repne An' be an ll foreboder? 'mtwenty.three and fve feet.nne 'll go and be t sodger! Wrtng to 1\lrs Dunlop n 1787 and referrng to a suggeston made by her he sad: Would the profts of that [second and thrd edtons of hs poems] afford would take the hnt of a mltary lfe as the most congenal to my feelngs and stuaton. Agam a year later he wrote to Mss Margaret Chalmers: Your frendshp can count on though should date my letter from a marchng regment..... ~ '.'... ' \ j' t. ~ ;1 ' ~ ~ 1 ~ l jl:' : :t : ~ ' ~ ' :' r j f 1 1! '!. \\ -

13 ;.' '' {. '! ~) > ; Early n lfe and all my' lfe reckoned on a' recrutng drum as my forlorn hope. t wll thus be seen that Burns needed no great nctement to take up arms when the call came; and there can be no doubt that he became a'volunteer as so many of hs fellow-townsmen and fellow-countrymen dd because he was opposed to the turbulent crowd who would have set the mob aboon the throne and wshed to do hs part n preventng socal dsorder and because he beleved that hs country was n danger of nvason. t was such a crss as ths that would revve the flame kndled n hs breast by the story of the Lberator of Scotland whch as he explaned to Dr Moore the father of General Sr John Moore poured a Scottsh prejudce nto my vens whch wll bol along 'there tll the floodgates of lfe shut n eternal rest. Not only dd Burns jon the Dumfres Volunteers but lke Sr Walter Scott n Ednburgh he asssted n creatng the force; he attended a 'meetng summoned by the Deputy Lord-Leutenant of that part of the county Mr Davd Stag the Provost of Dumfres (and the father of Jesse Stag to whom Burns pad several poetcal complments) to dscuss how best they could serve ther natve land n the tme of crss and when the meetng resolved to form a Volunteer Company Robert Burns's name vas among the sgnatores to the petton for the necessary permsson. The frst entry n the Corps Mnute Book referred to sets out that ths meetng at whch the Dumfres Volunteer movement was naugurated was held n the Court House on 31st January 17!.l5. Wth the Deputy-Lcutenant were hs two bales and the leadng professonal and bus ness men of the town the lst and subsequent sgnatores* ncludng John Symc of Ryedale and James Gray staunchest of Burns's frends; Dr Maxwell the frend of the French Revoluton; Dr John Harley John Armstrong wrter who became secretary to the Corps; Rev. Dr Wm. Burn- * See Note A page 20.

14 9 sde* chaplan to the Corps mnster of St. Mchael's where Burns occasonally worshpped; Rev. Dr Wm. Babngton Epscopal mnster n Dumfres; Thomas Whte (probably of Dumfres Academy); Davd Newall solctor; Captan John Hamlton the Poet's landlord; Leut.-Col. A. S. de Peyster the respected Colonel of the Ode on Lfe; Captan John Fnnan n whose company Burns was later enrolled; James Grace banker the Grace thou art a man of worth; Old Q.'s chamberlan John M'Murdo wrter whose prases and those of hs daughters a bonne Jean and Phylls the Far Burns sang; Francs Shortt town clerk a leutanant n the Corps and secretary of the Loyal Natve Club whch was pllored by the Poet n the well-known quatran; Alexander Fndlater hs co-worker and superor n the Excse; John Lewars another Excse Offcer and brother of Jesse who attended Burns on hs deathbed and who s enshrned n The Toast and n several other complmentary verses; and Davd Wllamson the renderng of whose account for the dyng Poet's volunteer unform drove hm nto a paroxysm of anger and the humlatng poston of havng to beg James Thomson and hs cousn James Burness for a few pounds. The meetng on 31st January declared ts sncere attachment to the happy Consttuton of Great Brtan and our frm resoluton on every occason to protect the lves and propertes of ourselves and fellow-subjects from * At the meetng Mr Stag produced a letter from Dr Burnsde n whch the reverend gentleman sad that although he dd not thnk t perfectly accorded wth hs professonal character and engagements to enrol among the Volunteers and f he dd from hs rheumatc alments he could be of very lttle use n any actve servce yet to show hs good wshes towards so useful and laudable a desgn he was ready and wllng to subscrbe for the use of the Corps 'to be appled as they mght thnk best a sum equal to what t would cost hm to be completely accoutred and ftted out' as one of the lne. The Rev. Dr Babngton made a smlar proposal. Both were accepted and the thanks of the meetng were voted them for such a genteel offer. '\.

15 ~.1 l : 1. :: 10 every attempt of the ambtous desgnng and turbulent who threaten to overturn the laws of our country and who by anarchy sedton and bloodshed may endeavour to destroy the sacred bonds of socety. Followng ths ntatory meetng came another on the 3rd of February when the offer of servce and the rules and regulatons* were sgned by each of the sxty-three gentlemen who attended. Among the patrotc three score and three agan appears the name of the Poet and t s mportant n vew of the many statements that have been made as to hs want of loyalty to read n the Mnute Book that Burns subscrbed hs name to the followng whch substtutng Ffth for Thrd s precsely what patrotc Brtons were subscrbng to n the months mmedately succeedng the outbreak of the war n 1914:- \Ve... hereby declare our sncere attachment to the person and Government of Hs Majesty Kng George thc Thrd; our respect for the happy Consttuton of Great Brtan... As we are of opnon that the only way we can obtan a speedy and honourable peace s by the Governmcnt vgorously carryng on the present war humbly submt the followng proposals to Hs Majesty for the purpose of formng ourselves nto a Volunteer Corps n order to support the nternal peace and good order of the town as well as to gve energy to the measures of the Government. There was no hestancy or half-heartedness about the war polcy of Robert Burns and hs fellow-volunteers of Dumfres. One s not surprsed to fnd that Burns enrolled hmself n a Corps whch undertook to serve... durng the present war wthout pay and fnd our own clothng. The man who-as we hold notwthstandng Stevenson's unsupported and ungenerous suggeston-out of pure love for the lyrc repute of hs natve country contrbuted wthout fee or reward of any knd those prceless songs of hs to Thomson's collecton would have spurned any * See Noto E page 21.

16 -....'. 11 proffered fee for preparng hmself aganst the day when a foregn foe mght attempt to desecrate the sol of hs beloved Caledona. Ths and other condtons of servce suggest that the sprt f not the person of Burns was at the drawng up of the rules and regulatons. One rule for example gave the rank and fle the power whch they exercsed of selectng ther own commssoned offcers; another made t necessary for every man to run the gauntlet of the ballot by ther fellows before enrolment; whle later fnes were mposed on offcers and men who were absent from drll wthout good reason and on those gulty of beng the worse for drnk whle on parade; whle nsolent men and overbearng offcers were also subject to the censure of the Commttee and the Corps. On the 21st of February 1705 the frst electon of Captans and Leutenants was held n the Court House -Col. de Peyster had been elected Major Commandant on the prevous day*-and agan Robert Burns was present one of the seventy-fve men who votcd John Hamlton to be frst Captan ; John Fnnan to be second Captan; and Davd Newall Wellwood Maxwell Francs Shortt and Thomas Whte to be Leutenants. These commssons were gazetted 24th March 1795.t On the same day as that on whch the offcers were elected the meetng havng adjourned to the Assembly Rooms each man was separately balloted for a majorty of votes beng necessary for electon. t was here on the 21st of February 1795 that Robert Burns as an orgnal member was balloted nto the Royal Dumfres Volunteers; but he dd not as has been so often sad celebrate hs enrolment by wrtng Does haughty Gaul nvason threat? The great natonal song whch created enthusasm for the natonal cause from l\fadenkrk to John 0' Groats was not wrtten untl the month of * See Note C page 25. t War Offce March 24th [l705j-dumfresshre Corps of Volunteers-A. S. de Peyster Esq. to be major commandant; John Hamlton and John Fnnan Esq. captans; Davd Newall and 'Yellwood Maxwell gentlemen frst leutenants; Francs Shortt and Thomas 'Yhte second leutenants. '' 11 '.. \ ~..j 1.

17 t' ~ \' ~ R' t '\'\ ~ \ t J (' f ~; ~ ;:: t f ; \ ~~~ ~ ~ ~ o. '! 1.l '! ; ; ; ' 0 ; 12 Aprl. * t must not be supposed that those electons and ballots were mere formaltes for there s dsagreeable evdence n the Mnute Book that n ths as n other matters tho Commtt.ee and the Corps took ther dutes serously. The two captans havng been elected drew the names of the men who were to serve under them; and to John Fnnan the Captan of No.2 Company fell the honour of drawng for hs company the name of the most llustrous and one of the most enthusastc Volunteers whch Great Brtan's danger and Napoleon's ambton caused 'to be enrolled n these slands. Wth hm n the same Company were hs great frends Dr Harley John flyme James Grace and John Lewars. At the Old Assembly Rooms on the 28th of March Burns wth ffty-seven others took the Oaths of Allegance and sgned the Rules RegUlatons and Bye-Laws for conductng themselves n a mltary capacty.t As happens n every well-regulated household or ' Thero a1'o two versons of tho orgn of the song one beng that at n. publc dnner of tho Corps Burns gn.ve the subtle toast: Gentlomen may wo never see tho French and may the French never seo us. :Murmurs of dsapprobaton greeted the toastn partcular an Army captan took great umbrage at t-for many of the Dumfrcs people suspected Burns's loyalty becn.use of hs sympn.thy wth the Revoluton. By some the nnocent toast was consdered sedtous whch shows the nflammn.ble state of ther mnds. On returnng home he threw off the patrotc verses the appearance of whch n the Dumfres Journal must hn.ve been a's gall and wormwood to hs enemes n.nd ar marrow to~the bones of hs frends. The Poet had been at a publc meetng says Allan Ctmnngham n a note to the song where he was less joyous than usual; as somethng had been expected from hm he made these verses when he went home and sent them wth hs complments to Mr Jackson edtor of the Dumfres Journal. Hs frend Stephen Clarke set the words to musc n.nd as has been sad the song was sung from eml to end of the country helped greatly to fll the ranks of the Volunteers and dd more to str the mnd of the rustc part of the populaton than all the speeches of Ptt n.nd Dundas or the chosen Fve.and-Forty. t See Note D page 26.

18 13 socety the Royal Dumfres Volunteers had ther lttle tr~ubles and n the frst one n the hstory of the Corps we fnd Robert Burns fgurng. A pont of good taste was n dspute and naturally we fnd Burns's ndependence assertng tself. We fnd hm because hs sprt of ndependence was outraged takng serous and successful acton aganst the Commttee whch held several of hs great personal frends among them Col. de Peyster Captan Hamlton Captan. Fnnan Lcut. Whte Jamcs Grace John- Syme Wm. M'Cracken and Alexander Fndlatcr. As has been sad the Royal Dumfres Volunteers were by ther own desre an unpad Corps; but as funds were requred for nccessary outlays n -connecton wth CorpR mattcrs the Commttee at a meetng on 18th May 1705 apponted several of ther number to call on gentlemen and solct contrbutons to the Corps funds. Ths decson at once met wth keen opposton from certan members of the Companes who sent to the Commttee the follo\vng letter :- Monday Evenng. Sr-:From what we have carn~d of the proceedngs of our commttee to-day we cannot help expressng our dsapproval of the mendcant busness of askng a publc contrbuton for defrayng the expenses of our Assocaton. That our secretary should have wated on those gentlemen and others of that rank of lfe who from the frst offered pecunary assstance meets otr dea as hghly proper but that the Royal Dumfres Volunteers should go a-beggng wth the burnt-out cottager and shpwrecked salor s a measure of whch we must dsapprove. Please then Sr to call a meetng as soon as possble and.be so very good also as to put a stop to the degradng busness untl the voce of the Corps be heard.. 'Ve have the honour to bo (Here follow 24 names ncludng that of Robert Burns.) There s no external evdcnce that Burns's hand helped to frame the letter but the whole sprt of the document and of ts phrasng suggests that the Poet f he dd not actually wrte t at least had asssted n ts composton. On the. 29th May 1795 a general meetng of the

19 r d.~ :~ '<? ';~ ' ff 11 ' : ; :1' j 1 ~ l f 1 14 Corps was held to dscuss the matter and t was conceded that the exertons of the Commttee were well meant and that no reflecton could be cast aganst the members but t was agreed that no subscrptons should be taken under a gunea; and the return of all subscrptons below that sum was rccommended and the Commttee advsed to fall upon some other plan for provdng money taken from volunteerng ndvduals only. No applcaton was to be made unless to a few ndependent and wealthy nhabtants who have not come forward wth ther personal servce and who need not be ponted out as they are easly known. Whether or not Burns nstgated the opposton to the ndscrmnate collecton of money for the Corps' upkeep t s certan that he had been takng a promnent part n the work of the Corps and had become one of ts leadng members; for at the frst general meetng after ths affar he was chosen one of the eght men apponted by the rest of the Corps to manage ts affars. At the meet ng n the Assembly Rooms on 22nd August 1795 at whch Burns was elected to the Commttee sxty members of the Corps were present. Those elected to serve wth the Poet were Robert Jardne Deacon ~4.nderson John M'Morne Alexander Brown Thomas Gordon Wm. Paton and Wm. Ladlaw. Ths appontment proves that Burns was hghly respected and trusted by hs fellow.volunteers and that he took a keen and actve part n the admnstratve work of the Corps; and there s ample further evdence n ths Mnute Book that he was no slacker. The names of the members present at the meetngs are not gven regularly but on the occasons on whch the attendance roll s nscrbed Robert Burns's name always appears. But there s more conclusve proof that the Poet was steadfast n hs support of the Corps and that he was con scentous n preparng hmself for actual work n the feld. As has been sad the Corps n ts rules authorsed a system of fnes for non-attendanc? at drll unless good

20 15 and suffcent reasons for absence were gven. Noncommssoned offcers and prvates suffered penaltes of s for the frst offence and s 6d for succeedng abstentons from drll; and offcers pad 2s 6d for a frst offence and 5s for each succeedng offence. n addton as has been sad fnes were mposed for nebrety ~hcn on parade and for nsolence to superor offcers. These fnes were freely and sternly enforced by the Commttee of whch Burns was a member and by the Commttees before and after hs appontment lsts of names wth the amounts of the fnes beng gven n the l\1nute Book. Prvates and offcers appear to have been punshed wthout dstncton or favour; and one offcer pad repeatedly the penalty for absence' from parade. n March 1796 Charles Smth was sentenced by the Commttee to a reprmand at the head of the Corps at the next drll for beng absent from guard and Smth was ordered to pay a fne of los; and at the same meetng George Chrste suffered a lke punshment for beng drunk under arms and beng gulty of unsolderlke behavour. Three men who dd not turn out were each fned 5s for neglect of duty; and the Commttee to mantan ts own dgnty and round off what must have been a strenuous meetng fned Robert Granger 5s for makng dsrespectful remarks regardng the Commttee. One of these culprts (Charles Smth) sent a letter of remonstrance to a general meetng of the Corps but for hs pans was found gulty of prevarcaton and was expelled the Corps an order beng gven that the fact should be publshed n the Dumfres Journal. At one meetng-on 24th August 1795-n the busness of whch Burns took part the Commttee mposed fnes-for non-attendance onlyto the extent of 9 6s those fned ncludng Captan Hamlton 2s 6d; Leut. Francs Shortt 7s 6d; and Dr Harley s. The examples quoted prove that no favourtsm was shown by the Commttee wheh makes more mportant one outstandng fact namely that although at the date of the meetng last mentoned the Poet had been a member of the Corps for some seven months-sx workng months. ' \ :;. t '' '.:\:' -.; ~. ' '; ;1 'k' 1' p t. :. q '. \)1 A) '.llt :\' ; ' '!. '.. t :~' '\1' ' ~ r '' - <!. : ' : )! :; l ;. '... ;~ '

21 J ' =-'--= ' - L J j. ' (.f ' j : d.ll ' '!1.l jl' ' ' :1 l! ll. 1'1 t : d : : ' ll f 'l. ll :l : :! ' T : :11 H at least-not once does the name of Robert Burns appear n a lst of those gulty of absentng themselves from drll or for otherwse offendng aganst the rgdly enforced rules. By means of ths Mnute Book whose sgnfcance has been overlooked all these years we are able to trace Burns to or almost to hs fatal llness and ncdentally to nal to the counter one more of the ms-statements of Curre the Poet's frst edtor and perhaps most naccurate bographer who says: From October 1795 to the January followng an accdental complant confned 'hm to the house. We shall see that he' was attendng to the' work of the Volunteer Corps n November. t has been to all hs bographers a dffcult pont to decde when actually the Bard was sezed wth the long llness whch ended fatally. Hs own letters are somewhat contradctory; but however that may be Burns attended a Commttee Meetng-hs last recorded-on 5th November 1795 at whch he took part n the preparaton for presentaton by the Corps of a Loyal Address to the Kng. A~ the' Commttee Meetng Colonel de Peyster suggested that an address should be presented to Hs :Majesty congratulatng hm on hs happy escape from the late nsult upon hs sacred person.* A few members of the Commttee had met and made a draft whch he submtted and whch was approved by the Commttee-Burns as has been sad was a member of t and was present at the meetng-for submsson to a General Meetng held at the Court House on the same day. The address was n the followng terms and was passed wth unanmty :- To the Kng's Most Excellent Majesty the humble address of the Royal Dumfres Volunteers. Most Gracous Soveregn-\Ve your ~ajesty's most dutful and loyal subjecth composng the Corps of the Royal Dumfres Volun- * The attack on George. was made n October 17!l5 when the Kng was on hs way to the House of Lords. One result of the attack was the pn8sn~ of the Treasonahle Attempts nm.

22 17 teers penetrated by the recent mul sgnal nterposton of Dvno Provdence n the preservaton of your most sacred person from the atrocous attempt of a set of lawless ruffans humbly hope that yotr Majesty wll gracously receve our unfegned congratulatons. Permtted by you Sre to embody ourselves for the preservaton of socal tranqulty we are flled wth ndgnaton nt every attempt made to shake the venerable and we trustlastng fabrc of Brtsh Lberty. We have drected our :Major Commandant to sgn ths address n the name of the Corps assembled at Dumfres lth November So ended Robert Burns's presence at the Commttee meetngs; and t s a sngular fact n vew of hs known ant-hanovcran opnons that the Poct's last work as a Commtteeman of the Royal Dumfrcs Volunteers was to take part. n the presentaton of a loyal address n the warm terms just quoted. f there be any truth whatever n the statement by Cunnngham that Burns's accesson to the Royal Dumfres Volunteers was objected to by some of hs neghbours on account of poltcal feelng-and we have dscovered no substantaton of t-the mnutes whch have bcen quoted prove completely that the objectons were soon overcome. And f Cunnngham be rght the fact that the Poet was so soon at the head of the Corps' affars was a' great personal trumph and a trbute to hs wholeheartedness n the cause whch let t always be remembered to hs credt he was one of the frst to espouse. For the lght that t throws on the habts of the Poct at a partcularly nterestng perod of hs lfe ths Mnute Book of the Royal Dumfres Volunteers (gfted to the Ewart Lbrary by the nhertrx of Col. de Peyster's estate) s a most valuable and fortunate fnd. t s mportant for t covers part of the tme durng whch accordng to hs prncpal'detractor Henley he was because of hs vcous habts an outcast from socety; and because of those habts was burnt to a cnder. Here' Henley quotes the words reported by an old man as havng been uttered by John Syme Burns's frend and reads' nto \ 1t ' \ t '... ' ~ J

23 18 r:.. them-f ever they were spoken wheh s doubtful-a meanng that they probably never had. f Burns's work durng the year 1795 hs Volunteer year the year that ended n hs fatal llness whch hs crtcs say was the consequence of hs drunkenness be revewed we fnd how mpossble the stores are. s t concevable that a man n the condton to whch he s sad to have descended could have attended hs drlls regularly for two hours on two days n every week attended regularly hs Commttee meetngs-hs very presence there s proof that the story of socal ostracsm was a le-and asssted n transactng the mportant and exactng busness of a new Volunteer Corps when arms accoutremcnts and the general paraphernala of such a body had to be provded and mantaned? Not only s Burns by ths Mnute Book proved to have been a man of most regular habts whch concdes exactly wth hs colleague Fndlater's and hs frend Gray's testmony and the Excse Regster of Censures but durng those months he \vas hard at work on hs Excse dutes and had contrbuted to Scottsh song some of ts most brllant gems.. Durng hs perod of strenuous Volunteerng Burns contnued hs great work for Scottsh song by contrbutng generously to Thomson's work stll refusng to accept payment because he was renderng patrotc work for hs natve country. Among the numerous songs wheh he wrote n the busy months of 1795 were the great patrotc song: Does haughty Gaul nvason threat? that trumpet call to Democracy: A man's a man for a' that; one ~f thc fnest specmens of hs humour Last Maya bmw w~oer ; onc of hs mmortal love songs Ths s no my an lasse; as well as the Heron Ballads. f ths strenuous labour-actve Volunteerng exactng Excse dutes and the composton of at least three of hs greatest songs all n the compass of some ten months-be the record of a decadent we should pray that to Scotland mght be born to-day another such decadent. No; the truth s that though Burns was not a heavy

24 19 or a habtual drnker hs cravng for convval company led hm occasonally to drnk too much-whch n hs verse he glorfed and exaggcrated-:-and that he had many enemes who dd not hestate to enlarge upon hs occasonal excesses. He was a man of great ndvdualty and consequently he attracted great attenton The ferce lght that beats upon a throne was nothng to the ferceness of the local lght that searched every cranny of the lfe of the man who ded n the humble home n the Mll Vennel of Dumfres. The searchlght dscovered blemshes. t could not be otherwse. Burns was nothng f he was not open There was no hypocrsy n hs composton. He was a seer far ahead of hs fellows and consequently msunderstood by many. He was a poltcal revolutonary and therefore looked at askance and suspected by many of hs contemporares. He had a vtrolc tongue and pen whch he used remorselessly on occason on those whom he dd not lke; and those vctms of hs rough» tongue human nature even n Dumfres beng what t was lost no opportunty of. retalatng by mprovng and spreadng tales of hs dsspaton; tales so;ne of them whch were merely oral half a century after the Poet's death yet beleved n spte of the wrtten evdence of hs contemporares that he seldom drank to excess that he was deeply nterested n hs famly's welfare and educaton that he was a hghly respected ctzen and n conversaton a moral purst. That many doors n Dumfres were shut to Burns we need not doubt but the doors that were closcd to hm were not closed because of hs dsspaton. Hs poltcal opnons beng what they were hs caustc epgrams and eptaphs on men and women created a suff cent number of enemes and consequently the ground was ready for the seed sown by those who wshed to malgn hm. Because they hated hs poltcs groaned under hs castgatons and were unable to retalat{} n knd they took the arrows whch Burns hmself made put poson on the tps and drove them nto the reputaton of the greatest genus of hs day; hs bographers turned them '- _ ' t t.. f ' t. :- ' ~.. ;. r :;': ' ' j: 1J 1'1.. - ~ ;.. 1 k.. 1 ~. :. d l '.\ ' ;f ::1' t ':1. \ ' h' r: 1 : T : \ \.

25 20 n the wounu and the sore s beng 'healed up only now: s t too much to hope that the facts here presented from the manuscrpt Mnute Book of the Royal Dumfres Volunteers n the Ewart Lbrary Dumfres and the deductons therefrom wll help somewhat towards healng the wound 1 WLLAM WLL P1'esdent of the London Robert Burns Club. '.. \: : ; ' : ~\\. ADDTONAL NOTES TAKEN FROM THE MANU SCRPT MNUTE BOOK. Note A. OltGNAL MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL DUl\1FRES VOLUNTEERS. Lst of nhabtants of Dumfres who attended the naugural llleetng of the Royal Dumfres Volunteers on 31st January John Syme. John Harley. John Armstrong. Hugh M'Cornock junor. Thomas Gordon. Thomas Whte. Robert Clugston. Andrew Smth. Rev. Dr Wm. Babngton. John Kennedy George'Duncan. Smon Mackenze. John M'Morne. James Grace. ' James Dennston. Thomas Glendnnng. Wllam Paton. Davd Wllamson. James Mundell. John Atken. Benj amn Bell. Knloch Wnlaw. Henry Clnt. James Stott. Davd Newall. Captan John Hamlton. Lt.-Col. A. S. de Peyster. Captan John Fnnan.. Wllam Ladlaw. Samuel Clark jmlor. Wllam Hyslop junor. Wllam Boyd. John Hogg. James Gray. Deacon Alexander Lookup. Robert Jackson' jlllor. Robert Prmrose junor. Wllam Hyslop (1). Alexander Brown. Wllam Hyslop (2).

26 Wllam Johnston. James Greve. James Rae. George Greve. John Ferguson. RddelM'Naught. Jamcs Graham. Wllam Rchardson. Hugh l\1axwell. Wellwood Maxwell. Convener Wm. Hayland. Deacon Robert Anderson. 21 Wllam l\anderson. Davd Blount. John Brand. Wllam M'Cracken. Edward Hyslop. Ro bert Granger. John l\1'cracken. Thomas Hood. Alexander Douglas. Robert Burns. John Lawson junor. Wllam Hamlton junor. r''''-!j 11 - '.!.. ' ::1.'! :! ;..! Lst of those whose Names were adde(z on 3nZ Pebrllary 1795 to the abore and formed pm t of tlte Or(Jnnl Corps. John l\1'murdo. Francs Shortt. Thomas Wllamson. Da vd Newall. Samuel Johnston. James Spaldng. Wllam Selkrk. Frazer Rchardson. James l\'clatche. A. Fndlater. Alex. Copland. Andrew Johnstone. Wllam Wallace. John Lewars. John W. l\axm'l Edward l\axwell. John Weems junor. John Coulthard. John l\'vte. John Kerr. Thomas Boyd. Wllam Thomson. Robert Spaldng. Thomas Hallday. John Card junor. Leonard Smth. Thomas Grerson. Note B. OFFER OF SERVCE AND CONDTONS. At the meetng n the Conrt House Dumb'l's on 3rd February 1795 at whch Mr Stag presded the Offer of Servce and Rules and Regulatons passed unanmously sgned and sent to the Lord-Leutenant for the Kng's acceptance are n the followng terms :_ Offer of Servce by certan Loyal nhabtants of the 2

27 22 Town of Dumfres and Rules Regulatons and Bye-Laws framed for ther Government n a Mltary Capaety- We the subscrbers all nhabtants of the burgh and neghbourhood of Dumfres wthn the County of Dumfres do hereby declare our sncere attachment to the person and government of Hs Majesty Kng George the Thrd; onr rpspect for the happy Consttuton of Great Brtan; and our frm resoluton on every occason to protect the lves and propertes of ourselves and our fellow-subjects from every attempt of the ambtous and turbulent who thrcaten to overturn the laws of our country and who by anarchy sedton and bloodshed may endeavour to destroy the sacred bonds of socety; and as we arc of opnon that the only way we can obtan a speedy and honourable peace s by the Government vgorously carryng on the present war humbly submt the followng proposals to Hs Majesty for the purpose of formng ourselves nto a Volunteer Corps n order to support the nternal peace and good order of the town as well as to gve energy to the measures of Government to wt;- 1. That we shall form ourselves nto a Corps consstng of two companes of nfantry not exceedng ffty men each ncludng commssoned and non-commssoned offcers to serve under the Lord-Leutenant for the county of Dumfres or hs deputy for ths dstrct durng the present war wthout pay and fnd our own clothng. 2. That each person enrollng hmself nto the sad Corps shall be approved of by the Lord-Leutenant for the sad county or hs deputy and shall take the oath of allegance. 3. That each company shall have a Captan and two Subalterns and the whole commanded by a Major Commandant. 4. That the Offcers shall have a temporary rank from the Kng. 5. That the Corps shall be allowed to choose ther

28 23 own offcers who are to be approved by the Lord-Leutenant or hs deputy 6. That the Corps shall not be oblged to march more than fve mles from the town of Dumfres. 7. That Government shall furnsh arms aecoutrenwnts ppes and drums and pay one ffer one drummer and one drll sergeant for each company and' the Corps shall return ther arms and accoutrements when demanded. 8. That the members of the sad Corps engage to serve as aforesad only when wthn the burgh or neghbourhood of Dumfres and called on n ad of a' cvl ll1agstrate for the preventng or suppressng of rot tumult or dsorder. 9. That the Corps shall choose the Commssoned Offcers as aforesad by ballot; and the Non-CommssOlll'd Offcers shall be chosen n the same manner by ther respectve companes. 10. That the Corps shall tlrn out for the purpose of dscplne as often as may appear necessary to the Commandng Offcer; and shall when drawn up under arms observe the most profound slence pay all due respect to ther offcers and mplctly obey orders wthout reply.. That all persons wshng admsson nto ths Corps shall make applcaton to the Secretary who shall menton such applcaton before the Commttees of Management a majorty of whom shall have power to admt; and upon any offence or mproprety of conduct commtted by any of the members of ths Assocaton and a complant thereof made by any of the Commttee and a proof of such offence or mproprety brought the sad majorty shall have t n ther power to pass censure or even to expel from the Corps. 12. That the Corps request to be allowed to assume the name of 'The Royal Dumfres Volunteers'; and for ther unform to wear a blue coat half-lapelled wth red cape and cuffs and glt buttons wth the letters R.D.V. engraved on them; a plan whte cassmere vest wth :1'::. 1 ~ 1<1 f... '; ~. ' r:. '. '!-'. l'. j ~ : '. f'-' l;. ; : ; t!: : 11 '' ' ' J-:: '.!:' r ; ' ; ~ ~;~~\ r r )1 : 1'1 ': r :. f' ' t K; 0

29 ..1 : f ~ 1'1 11'1! ~ ~ 24 small glt buttons; whte trousers made of Russa tweelng ted at the ankle; whte stockngs; a black velvet stock; har to be worn short or turned up behnd; a rolmd hat turned up on thc left sde wth a glt button a eockade and t black feather; ther shoes to be ted wth blaek rbbon; and the only dstncton between the offeers and prvates n pont of dress s that the Major Commandant and two Captans are to wear two epaulets and the other Commssoned Offcers one. These proposals were sent to the Duke of Portland then Home Secretary who expressed hs great pleasure wth them and sad t would bc more desrable that the gentlcmen of the Corps should agree to accept a sum n leu of arms and accoutrements than that they should be suppled by the Government. 1 12s lod would be allowed for each frelock and 3s 4d for each set of accoutrements. n ths letter whch was read at a meetng n the Court House on 20th February the Duke of Portland pad a great complment to the Royal Dumfres Volunteers. t s not customary he sad to allow daly pay n a Volunteer Corpfl except to one sergeant per company but as the Dumfres Volunteers have sprtedly stept forward wth an offer of ther servces and agreed to serve wthout pay daly pay wll lkewse be granted to one drummer and onc ffer per company. The meetng accepted thc sum allowed. To fx on the shade and knd of blue cloath to be worn by the Volunteers Colonel de Peyster Messrs Davd 'Wllamson James Rae Andrew Johnstpn and Robert Granger were apponted a commttee; and drectons were gven to Messrs 'Vlamson Rae and Johnston to purchase what eloath whte eassmere and whte Russa tw{'el may be necessary for cloathng the Volunteers who all promse to purchase ther unforms from one or other of these three gentlemen and who are also ordered to purchase a suffcent number of hats at about 16s each.

30 25 Note O. COLONEL AND 1\!ns 1l~ P~YSTER. Colonel Arentz Schuyler de Peyster who commanded the Hoyal Dumfres Volunteers durng the troublous tmcs of the end of the eghteenth and openng of the nneteenth centures was descended from a Huguenot famly whch had settled n Amerca. He was n the Regular Army and durng the Seven Years' War he commanded at Detrot Mchlmacnac and n Upper Canada. t was hs great tact and decson that enabled Colonel de Peyster to break thc ndanfl from the French servce. For somc tme hc commanded the 8th Regment and as a Colonel he retred to Dumfres thc natve place of Mrs de Peyster who was a sster of Mr John j\'murdo one of Burns's great frends and fellow-volunteers and Chamberlan to the Marqus of Queensberry. To the Colonel's home Mavs Grove Burns :a's ahvays a wcleome vstor and the fact that the Colonel also courted the Muses forme~l a further lnk wth the Natonal Poet. Thc socal unrest and the threatened nvason by the French were the causes of thc old war-horse agan takng up the sword and although he was over sxty when he took command of the Dumfres Volunteers he very soon had the Regment n a state of great effcency. From the :lnute Book of the Corps whch has been so freely quoted from n ths work we take ths extract from a l\nute of 20th February 1795: That Colonel de Peyster shall be Major Commandant of the Corps who beng Jresent accepted thereof. At a meetng on the followng day called for the selecton of offcers the Colonel sad he was truly sensble of the honour done hm n electng hm 1\ajor Commandant; and to show her apprecaton 1\1rs de Peyster would provde a stand of colours to be embrodered wth such fgures and emblems of loyalty ar the Volunteers shall suggest. Mrs de Peyster requested that they would accept the flag as a free gft from her. The meetng consdered that a great honour had been conferred. on the Corps. The colours were presented wth great

31 ceremony on the Square of Dumfres on the Kng's Brthday n The Rev. Dr Burnsde after prayer congratulated the Corps on ts splendd dscplne for whch Colonel de Peyster's persstence n drllng had to be thanked. Note D.. RULES AND REGULATONS SGNED BY VOLUNTEERS ON TAKNG THE OATH. On the 28th Mareh 1795 n the Old Assembly Rooms the Deputy Lord-Leutenant Mr Davd Stag presded over a meetng of ffty-nne members (ncludng Robert Burns) who took the oath of allegance. The followng Rules Rcgulatons and Bye-laws for conductng themselves n a mltary capacty whch they fully consdered were adopted and sgned by those present :- 1st.-All resolutons of the Corps n a body are to bc decded by a majorty of votes by b!tlot. 2nd.-Evcry member admtted must take the oaths to Hs Majesty prevous to havng hs arms delvered to hm. And he s expressly debarred from wearng hs sde-arms except when called out for the purpose of drllng or upon other duty; and no member to appear at the drll n any degree the worse of lquor. 3rd.-The dress of the Corps shall reman as fxed n the offer of servce-at least no alteraton shall be made theren wthout concurrence of four-ffths of the Corpsand as an exact unformty n ths respect s obvously necessary no devaton from t can be permtted exceptng that whte cassmere breeches buckled at the knee and half-gaters conform to a pattern now shown by Colonel de Peyster shall be substtuted n place of whte Russa tweel trousers as formerly agreed on.. 4th.-The Corps shall wear ther unforms on general feld days and may wear them on Sundays or on publc

32 27 occasons such as the Kng and Queen's Brthday assembles &c. and on any other occason they may thnk proper. 5th.-The Corps may provde themselves wth short blue jackets and wth red shoulder-straps capes and cuffs to be worn n the mornngs or on ordnary occasons wth whte vests and nankeen trousers buttoned at the ankle; and the whole to be unform.. 6th.-The unform of the offcers non-commssoned and prvate shall be the same wth ths dstncton that the offcers shall wear swords and epaulets; and the sergeants drummers and ffers swords only. And when there are no mltary n town the drums and ffes to beat the mornng and evenng duty. 7th.-The colours (whch have been presented to the Corps by Mrs de Peyster) shall be placed n the custody of the l\ajor Commandant. Sth.-Every member of the Corps oblges hmself to turn out for the purpose of drllng when hs attendance s desred by the commandng offcer such musters however not to exceed two hours n each day nor two days n each week; and the hours most lkely not to nterfere wth busness to be approprated for these purposes; and the days of meetng to be Frday and Saturday at sx n the evenng. 9th.-The Corps when arrved at such a state of dscplne as to thnk themselves enttled by a majorty' of votes to demand to be revewed by an offcer of such rank as generally presdes on such occasons after beng so revewed or qualfed to meet t shall not be called above one day n each fortnght or more than two hours n th'1t day for the purpose of drllng. loth.-the Corps shall appont a new commttee consstng of the two captans and four leutenants and of eght non-commssoned offcers or prvates to be elected; the major commandment or senor offcer present to presde on all occasons and to have the castng vote n case : ' \ '. r f! t! ; ' ~ ;

33 28! of an equalty; and nne to be a quorum. The commttee to contnue three months. lth.-ths commttee shall have jursdcton n all matters of offence commtted aganst the Corps by any of ts members the punshment to extend only to fne censure or expulson from the Corps; and n certan cases may extend the punshment to publshng hs name and offence n the Dumfres Weekly Journal. 12th.-Ths commttee shall delberate on all matters respectng the Corps. n cases of fne and censure ts resolutons to pass by a majorty of votes and be decsve; but n questons of expulson &c. by the concurrence of three-fourths of the commttee or quorum present-and n ths case an appeal to lay to the whole Corps on the applcaton of the dssentng members. 13th.-When the Corps s called out on ordnary. feld days for the purpose of drllng defaulters or absentees on such musters who cannot assgn a just and necessary cause of absence to hs commandng offcer shall be fned n the followng sums vz. non-commssoned offcers and prvates one shllng for the frst offence and one shllng and sxpence for every offence thereafter; commssoned offcers of evcry rank two shllngs and sxpence for the frst offence and fve shllngs for every subsequent offence but these fnes shall not operate aganst members confned by ndsposton or on journeys of more than seven mles from Dumfres. 14th.-That the fnes so leved shall be pad to the commandng offcer of each Company and an account of ther amolmt to be kept by the sergeant-major; such amount to be submtted once a month to the nspecton of the commttee who shall drect the expendture thereof. 15th.-The commandng offcer to be bound to call a meetng of the eommttee on the applcaton of any fve mombers n wrtng. 16th.-Thc Corps n case of rot nsurrecton accdental fre publc rejocng or other necessary occasons ;

34 ' 29 to be bound to turn out ~ under arms on the call of thc commandng offcer for the tme on an applcaton to hm by the cvl magstrates of the town or on requston of the Lord-Leutenant of the County or hs deputy for ths dstrct n case the servce of the Corps s requred n the country as stated n ther offer of servce; and n cases of fre the beat of the town drum to be the sgnal for every member to repar under arms to the alarm post whch the commandant'wll appont dressed n ther mornng jackets. 17th.-Any member of the Corps gulty of nsolence to hs superor offcer whlst on duty to be subject to fne or censure or expulson f the commttee consder the case to mert t. lsth.-any offcer gulty of tyranncal behavour towards any member of the Corps whlst on duty to be punshed by fne and censure at the dscreton of the commttee. 19th.-Any centnel or prvate quttng hs post when called out upon duty to be lable to the hghest penalty that can be nflcted; and any offcer or prvat{) abandonng hs post when on duty to be subject to the same. 20th.-Any centnel or prvate sufferng hmself to be surprsed on duty or losng hs arms to be. subjected n the same manner.' 21st.-Any member exctng others to neglect ther duty or rasng cabals n the Corps to be subject to the same. 22nd.-No dscharge shall n future be granted to any member unless he pay twenty guneas towards the ncdental expenses of the Corps except such as from unavodable causes shall be oblged to remove ther resdence n whch case they are vrtually dscharged. 23rd.-Any member havng occason to be absent from town for the space of one week or more and who upon that account cannot attend the muster durng that tme shall be bolmd to gve notce thereof to the Commandng Offcer of hs Company upon pan of beng fned as n the case of unnecessary absencc. /!~.' t ~..1 (

35 '! 30 l' 24th.-ll the event of vacances happenng n the conmssoned or non-commssoned offcers' departments every member n the Corps subscrbng these regulatons and these only are elgble to the successon whatever ther rank may be. 25th.-The Commandant may gve occasonal necessary oders for the economy and good dscplne of the Corps vz. formng and szng the companes care and occasonal repar of arms and accoutrements occasonally alterng a drll day or the hour thereof and such small matters as must necessarly occur provded they do not n any wse mltate aganst the ntent of the foregong resoluton. Lastly.-The Corps reserve to themselves lberty to make such new regulatons and bye-laws or to make such alteraton on the present as a majorty of them may afterwards thnk proper. n testmony of all whch the Corps have subscrbed the foregong resoluton at Dumfres the twenty-eghth day of March n the year one thousand and seven hundred and nnety-fve havng at the same tme taken the oaths to Hs Majesty. ; ' ~.~ j '-

36 PROPOSED REMOVAL OF THE HGHLAND MARY MEMORAL... ' 1\.. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. N the Burns Chroncle (No. XXV. 1918) appeared a narratve of the proceedngs of Messrs Card & Co. Shpbulders Greenock to acqure the Old West Parsh Church and Graveyard for the purpose of securng greater facltes for the buldng of the larger vessels necesstated by the demands of modern commerce. Wth ths object n vew they approached the Hertors and Trustees of the Church but both bodes refused to entertan the proposal ; and so the project was allowed to lapse for a tme and the narratve n the Chroncle referred to ended wth the announcement of that fact. Early n 1919 the queston was taken up by the Corporaton of Greenock whch. body took steps to procure a Provsonal Order for the removal of the church and graveyard on the grounds that they were stuated n a slum localty whch ought to bo. swept away as a menace to the publc hea.lth and an mpedment n the way of the mprovement of the town. The queston came up for dscusson at the Annual Meetng of the Federaton on 6th September last a report of whch s annexed together wth other nformaton whch brngs the narratve up to date. nstead of gvng a summary of the evdence led before Lord Fortevot by the Federaton delegates we deemed t preferable to lay t before our readers n extenso lest we nadvertently left out any pont n whch our readers are nterested. t wll be observed that by a majorty the Trustees and Krk-Sesson of the Church have changed ther atttude; and we may add that certan of the more nfluental hertors and larholders have followed ther example. '.! l.!. ;! ~ t q tl ; ~ '1\ '.

37 t-:. 1! ; ~ 1! Hl. ll 32 Then the queston was reached on the agenda paper the Presdent reported on the efforts made by the Executve of the Federaton to secure the preservaton of the West Krk and Krkyard and Hghland Mary's grave and monument. n connecton therewth. he read the followng letters :- Duncan :\l'naught Bsq. Presdent of Burns Federaton Benrg Klmaurs Ayrshre. Dear Sr North of Scotland Bank Chambers 31 Cathcart Street Greenock 25th August G.eenocl~ mprovement Provsonal Order As you wll have seen from the papers the Commssoners decded aganst us n ths matter. Leavng all sentment out of the case and the methods adopted by the shpbuldng frm t s our vew that the necessty for the churchyard for shpbuldng purposes was not proved and that t s aganst usual Parlamentary procedure n any case to grant ground for the purpose of a prvate enterprse. Notwthstandng the result we thnk all the objectors are glad that the attempt was made to preserve the old church and churchyard wth ther hstorc assocatons and to have shewn that there are stll some people left n ths utltaran age wth a sense of decency and a reverence for ancent thngs. On the adjustment of the clauses referrng to Hghland Mary's grave t was arranged as a condton of the settlement that Messrs Card should gve the letter of whch we enclose a copy. t was proposed by the promoters that t should rest wth the Greenock Burns Club as to the course to be adopted but we objected to ths on the grounds that we consdered the negatve atttude adopted by the Greenock Burns Club dd not warrant any consderaton beng gven to ther vews. The letter was handed to us on behalf of the Pettoners wth the approval of the Commssoners and the Pettoners ll now be glad to have the Burns Federaton vews as to whch of the three alternatves proposed they would consder should be adopted. 'Ve have no doubt our clents wll be glad to have carred out any results whch the Burns Federaton may suggest. \ e take t there s no mmedate hurry to decde the matter but t s probably advsable that we should be n a poston to state as soon as possble what s to be done. 'Ve shall therefore be glad f you wll put the matter before the Federaton at ther frst meetng.-'ve are Yours fathfully (Sgned) l\l'nel & ROWAN.

38 Dear Srs 33 Greenock Provsonal Order!l l!l..justcary Buldngs Glasgow 12th August!l!l. Notwthstandng the terms of the above Order we agree entrely at our expense ether () to removo the remans of Hghland Mary and the monument to her memory to such a place of sepulturp or ste as may be selected by tho Executve Commttee of the Burns Federaton or (2) to leave the remans nterred as at present and to reverse the exstng monument to face Lard Street and to leave suffcent ground around t to be accessble to vstors at all tmes or (3) to remove the exstng monument and place and mantan a mural tablet n leu thereof as shown on the sketch submtted to you the remans not beng dsturbed. Falng agreement the alternatve to be adopted shall be decded by the Sherff. Substtute at Greenock after hearng all partes nterested.-yours fathfully...' '. '' \. '. \ (Sgned) To Messrs M'Ne! & Rowan Solctors. Greenock. For CARD & Co. LTD. J. ow. KEltPSTER Managng Drector. f they carred ther mnds back to 1017 they would remember that certan members of the Greenock BurnR Club assred the Federaton that there was no proposal at that tme to remove Hghland Mary's grave.. They accepted that statement but as a precauton they appont cd a small commttee to act along wth the Grcenock Burns Club should the emergency arse. Durng the year l!us the Secretary reported that the commttee had never met that they had had no news from Greenock and last year they agan remtted the whole queston to ther Executve. n the begnnng of 1919 thcy found that there was a proposal to rcmove Hghland :alary's graye. Applcaton had been madc for a Provsonal Ordcr to remove the whole of the West Krk and Krkyard ths tme not by Messrs Harland & Wolff but by the Corporaton of Greenock who held that t was a slum area. The Executve met twce and at the second meetng as thngs were urgent they apponted Mr J. C. Ewng and hmself. to attend the nqury that was held n thc Justcary Court

39 34 ; :' ~ ; Glasgow under the charmanshp of Lord Fortevot and oppose the grantng of the Provsonal Order so far as t proposed the removal of the grave of Hghland Mary. The mpresson left on hs mnd by the evdence produced n Court was that t was perfectly clear to hm that the Provsonal Order was gong to be granted. He remembered that l\fr Ewng and hmself had been sent specally to the nqury for the purpose of tryng to preserve Hghland Mary's gravc and therefore he favoured the offer made hy Mr 'Vlson K.C. counsel for the promoters that Messrs Harland & Wolff were wllng to make a recess n the wall leavng the monum~nt and the grave exactly as they Rtood. But t was a necessty that the monument whch at prescnt faccd nto the church should be turned round and made to face the street. Ths appeared to hm to he a very good soluton of the dffculty but of course h spoke n gnorance of the localty and he made t clear at the same tme that he only spoke for hmself and that he could not bnd hmself to speak for the Federaton. He had gven t as hs opnon that t would go a great length n placatng the Federaton f assurances were gven and plans drawn and lad before them to show that the grave and the monument would not be further nterfered wth. The result of the nqury was that the preamble of the Provsonal Order had been proved and snce then he had receved several communcatons from Greenock. The poston now so far as they were concerncd was that they had an offer by the promoters of three alternat-es -(1) to remove the rem~ns of Hghland Mary and the monument to such a place of sepulture as mght be selected by the executve of the F<:deraton; (2) to leave the remans nterred as at present and to reverse the exstng monument so as to face the street; or (3) to remove the exstng monument and to place and mantan a mural tablet n leu thereof the remans not beng dsturbed. He was not famlar wth the localty and would be glad to hear thej vews of the Greenock Burns Club. Personally he had qute an open mnd on the matter but he would lke to

40 35 hear an expresson of opnon on the alternatves submtted n vew of the Order recevng the assent of Parlament. Ex-Provost Wlson Pollokshaws moved that t be left to the Executve of the Federaton n conjuncton wth representatves of the Greenock Burns Club wth full powers to determne whch of the three alternatves they should accept. Mr Pollock thought they were gong a lttle bt t?o fast f they magned that the last word had been sad on ths subject. Although the preamble of the Order had been proved he had been nformed that f they could create a suffcent amount of natonal nterest n the matter they would make the House of Commons and the Houge of Lords pause before they gave ther fnal sancton and certanly they stll had two or three months to do a part. whch some of them had already tred to do. Mr Pollock moved :- That thg meetng of the Burns Federaton UR Burnsans and as Scotsmen tender ther heartest thanks to l\'[r R. L. Scott Mr J. B. Morson Mr T. B. Rowan Mr Grerson Macara and other members of the Greenock Burns Club for ther noble and patrotc' opposton to the proposal to sell and remove the ancent Greenock West Church and churchyard and that all present hereby pledge themselves to do all n ther power to oppose the passng nto law of the Greenock mprovement Provsonal Order 1919 so far as that Order threatens the preservaton of ths church and churchyard and so prevent an ndelble dsgrace beng nflcted upon the name and fame of Scotland and Scotsmen. And ths meetng further appeals to alj Scottsh Socetes to ad n ths opposton and so mantan the sacredness of all bural grounds n Scotland and the permanent valdty of the ttle deeds of all larholders whether poor or rch. Proceedng l\r Poo~k urged upon the members of the Federaton to wrte ther varous Members of Parlament and protest aganst ths proposed desecraton. f they dd that he was sure they would fnd ther legslators :'\ :~ ~ f ::. t.!' ' t..; /.'.... l~''; : f. ~. : :. ' tf L.: ~ '. \~

41 36 'j sympathetc and anxous to know all the facts. They dd not protest aganst the Provsonal Order n ts entrety but only as t affected the krkyard and as a larholder hmself he wanted to know f t was true that the promoters actually assumed that a larholder had no property n hs lar further than the bural rghts He held that the sx: feet by two of a larholder was as much hs property as f t were a thousand acres. Mr Grerson Macara as a larholder who had opposed the Provsonal Order and as a member of the Greenock Burns Club explaned that there were certan crcumstances whch had prevented the Burns Club from takng any defnte acton n ths matter. These crcumstances had been such as to cause suspcon on the part of outsders as to the ntentons of the Greenock Burns Club. The Club as such had never been called together to deal wth ths matter and therefore those of them who were members of the Club and who felt very strongly about t had never had a chance of tryng to nfluence the other members to take the acton that they would have lked them to take. As they all knew the preamble of the Order had been proyed but that dd not mean that the Order tself had been passed. The Order became a Bll and the Bll had to go through certan other stages n both Houses of Parlament before t became the law of the realm; and t was very mportant that the Burns Federaton and all others who had opposed the Order should take no steps to stultfy ther poston before the Bll came up for consderaton because t mght be possble to get a blockng moton ntroduced n Parlament. They were stll n the poston of opposers of the Order and were stll able to take such acton as was open to them to oppose t and there was no reason whatever why they should prejudce that poston. t was not at all necessary to take mmedate acton as regards the letters whch the Presdent had read. Nether the Hghland Mary statue nor the graveyard tself was gong to be nterfered wth next week or next month or even next year. The scheme was a bg scheme. t 111 :

42 ~.:l t 1... ~ :1 ~ : ' 'j 37 nvolved the removal of a slum area n the mmedate neghbourhood of the graveyard and nothng could be done to remove that slum area untl the people resdent there were put nto other houses. That could not be done untl new houses were bult and they all knew that houses could not be erected before a consderable lapse of tme so that there was really no mmedate hurry to accept or take advantage of the optons whch had been mentoned. He was sure they would all lke to Q.o the rght thng and he would suggest to them that as they dd not know the surroundngs of the place they mght take an excurson to Greenock before comng to a decson He thought they should stll adopt a watng atttude leavng the matter n the hands of the Executve and he would suggest that the Executve should co-opt some members of the Greenock Burns Club or some of the pettoners aganst the Order and they could call the Federaton.together f there should be any need to take acton quckly. But he was perfcctly sure that that emergency would not arse before they had an opportunty 6f vstng the place and seeng the surroundngs and decdng for themselves whch of the three optons would be the best to adopt. He strongly urged them not to act prccptately or to do anythng that wollld prejudce the rghts whch the larholders now possessed. After some dscusson the amendment was wthdrawn and the whole matter was remtted to the Executve along vth representatves of the Greenock Burns Club wth full powers to deal wth t n the nterests of the Federaton '/.'. j ' ' t '. '! '... ' 11 lt!\~ :1 r. j ' ~ '\! ; EVDENCE A'l' THE ENQURY. l\lr DUNCAN l\'naught 8U'OTn. Were you parsh schoolmaster at Klmaurs for ffty-two years?-yes. Are you a justce of the peace for the county of Ayr?-Yes. And also regstrar for Klmaurs?-Yes at one tme not now. thnk you have been nterested n the Bums Federaton snce.ts commencement?-snce r ' ~ 1 ~ ).

43 : ~.'_- 38 ' ~ ~ : ;U '' 'Vere you one of the founders?-the only one now. lvng. Have you been!l vce-presdent snce the foundaton?- have held offce snce the foundaton and been presdent for nne years. And:edtor of~the Burns Chroncle for twenty-seven years? -Yes. The honorary presdent s Lord Rosebery and the honorary vce-presdent Andrew Carnege?-Yes. Lord Rosebery takes a very great nterest n our Federaton. Tell us what s the Burns Federaton?-t was formed frst. of all to unfy the Burns Clubs throughout the world so that we could take unted acton when any queston cropped up. t s the central assocaton wth whch s lnked up every Burns Club throughout the world?-yes. Every one s not federated but they are comng n day by day. Last week we admtted a Bums Club from Sydney and one from Nova Scota. How many of those nterested n Bums and hs works does the Federaton represent?-t s dffcult to answer exactly but the number of Clubs n our Federaton s about 262 and takng the average thnk represent to Bumsans. That s exclusve of the Bums Clubs that are not federated. n that scnse represent or thnk the Burns Federaton started the movement for a Char of Scottsh Hstory?-We were the frst to advocate t eghteen years before t took practcal shape. You contrbuted 5000 towards the endowment of the char? -Yes out of The Corporaton of Glasgow took t over and the was rased. n recent years the Burns Federaton has been actve and n some cases successful n natonal monuments and objects of natonal nterest beng preserved?-yes. As an nstance of that you managed to save the Auld Brg of Ayr?-Yes t was entrely due to the Federaton. We approached Lord Rosebery and he came to Ayr and addressed a mass meetng and loooo was rased for the savng of the Auld Brg. thnk you also saved the G~nrddel m~nuscrpts?-ycs. \Ve threatened the drectors of the Lverpool Athemeum wth a law acton and through the gen\lrosty of 1\r Grbbel we saved these manuscrpts. That was due to the Bums Federaton. The alann as regards ths Parsh Church and churchyard and n partcular Hghland Mary's grave _ was sounded about ::\ay n17?-yes n the Glasgow Herald. 'Vhen that artcle appeared was acton taken by the Burns Federaton 1-1 was recevng letters from all quarters as to what acton the Federaton was lkely to take and my answer was that the polcy would be drected at the September meetng of 1917.

44 39 Delegates were present at that meetng from the Greenock Bums Club and they asked to be heard. We were then told that there was no proposal before Greenock or before the naton to desecrate the tomb of Hghland Mary or to remove t. thought that excecdngly strange and suggested a commttee to act along wth the Greenock representatves..called a meetng of the commttee to ascertan f there was any danger of the grave beng volated. The year 1918 passed and there was no commttee called no word havng reached us from Greenock. t came up agan last September when the secretary reported that the commttee had no meetng and therefore there was no report. Before anythng could be done to the churchyard legslatve sancton had to be obtaned 1-1 advsed the Federaton of that n Who were the representatves of the Greenock Burns Club! thnk there was a Bale l\1'callum. t was he who assured us there.was no proposal before Greenock or before the country. n 1918 when we reached the busness t was suggested tha.t the queston be now remtted to the Executve of our standng councl wth powers to take whatever steps they thought ft. At that meetng n September 1918 there were representatves prescnt from three clubs n Greenock-the Greenock Burns Club. the Crones' Club and St. John's Club. put ths moton to the meetng and there was no counter moton and no dssent. They agreed to the nstructons by the Federaton that a delegate was to come here and oppose ths Order. So far as the assocatons afflated wth the Burns Federaton are concerned the proposal to oppose the Order was unanmous; there was no dssent?-no; the feelng was very strong. thnk you and Mr Ewng were apponted to attend tho nqury and oppose the Order?-That s so. s t your desre that the grave and monument of Hghland Mary should reman n ts present surroundngs n the churchyard of the old West Parsh Church?-t s our wsh. thnk at one of your meetngs t was suggested that the monument was not to be touched; t was to be left where t was 1- Nothng offcal reached us but we heard that there were two proposals by the promoters of ths Provsonal Order. One was to surround t wth a wall. That so far as am personally concerned would not consder for a moment. The other proposal was to remove t to some other place to whatever ste the Bums Federaton should ndcate. pad great attenton to the remarks of the learned gentleman who spoke for the promoters and heard what he sad about a wal beng bult round the statue and the monument turned round the other way. would lke to know what publc aceess to the monument s proposed to be gven. speak only 1. ~ L 'f '. r ~..''':::;::::;'

45 40 for myself; cannot speak for the Federaton but that would appear to me f ths Order s carred to be the best soluton. The desre of the Federaton s that ths churchyard and m~nument and tomb of Hghland Mary should reman as they are? -Most decdedly. Wll you ndcate on the map where the tomb and monument are?-'where the black lne crosses the two lnes markng the boundary of the churchyard. And there s on the opposte wall of the churchyard a lttle tablet ndcatng that mmedately nsde the wall s the tomb of Hghland Mary?-Yes. ' :!'!!' ~' ' :.~. ' ' ~ :! l{~ tu ': Cross-examned for the Promoters. By Mr Wlson--Are you here to-day as the result of any resoluton of the Federaton authorsng you to speak on ther behalf? - run here to represent them as an accredted delegate. Who gave you the rght?-the whole queston \vas remtted at the general meetng of September 1918 and left to the Standng 'Commttee whch has snce met. At the last meetng they apponted Mr Ewng and myself to appear here. t s a delegaton from a delegated body?-'-no; from the Standng Commttee whch was nvested wth full powers. When was tho last meetng of the Federaton?-The frst Saturday of September Had they beforo them tho alternatvo proposal wheh s made on behalf of the promoters to make a roeess and leave the tombstone practcally where t s; reversed'?-that was not before us Dd you not know that the Greenock Club at varous meetngs have had before them the choce of ether adoptng that scheme or f they preferred t removng the remans and the re-erecton of the monument to some other ste?-that was hearsay to us. The Greenock Burns Club never approached us offcally. Your commttee have not been nqurng as to what was gong on 1-'Ve were watng on the Greenock Burns Club as arranged. You got no communcaton?-no. And now that you hear that the promoters are wllng f the Greenock Club prefer t to reverse the tombstone make the recess the wall and make t accessble from tho stroet outsde the shpbuldng yard altogether what do you s'ay to that?- have gven my personal opnon but at the same tme cannot speak for the Federaton. That would be the mnmum of dsturbance You have not had a chance?-a meetng wll be held on 6th September ensung \vhen the whole queston wll come up. Re-examned by Mr Fcnton-You have seen the Order that contemplates the remmral.of all the remans of Hghland Mary 1_ Yes. ~ ' '

46 41 By the Charman-Y\Tould ths proposa to revorso the monument n Lard Street romove to some extont your objecton? thnk so. Te had a moetn~ of the Executve on Saturday last and t appeared to fnd favour. Our care s Hgltland l\ary's grave and t s a personal opnon gve that that would be a good soluton to the queston f the Provsonal Order goes through. As far as Hghland l\ary's monument s concerned that wonld go to some extent to satsfy you?-yes.. You are not speakng of the church or tho James 'Yatt monument?-we have nothng whatever to do wth that. By 1\11' Sturrock-You spoke about the reversng of Hghland l\ary's monument representng the mnmum of dsturbance 1- That s precsely how look at t. The sentment attaches to the sol n whch she s bured and that would obvate any dsturbanco of the sol. Are the Burns Federaton perfectly clear that Hghland Mary s bured there?-no doubt whatever. By l\r Fenton-s t generally accepted that sho was burod there n 1786 that hor relatve Macpherson brought her there and nterred her there n that spot?-yes. There s no doubt she was bured there n [1 j '..' 'j '.. \ Mn JAMES CAMERON EWNG 8worn. Are you the lbraran of the Balle's nsttuton Glasgow 7- Yes. You are a member of the Lbrary Assocaton and the Ednburgh and Glasgow Bblographcal Socetes?-Yes. You are a vce-presdent of the Burns Federaton?-Yes. And a member of the Glasgow Burns Clubs Assocaton?-Yes. thnk you have been keenly nterested n Burns's works for a long tme?-nearly thrty years.. thnk you have collaborated n the producton and preparaton of edtons and have wrtten very extensvely on the subject?-yes. Have you been partcularly nterested n the proposal to remove to another stuaton the grave of Mary Campbell?-Yes. Have you been nstructed to como here and oppose ths Order by the Executve of the Burns Federaton?-Yes along wth 1\[1' ~l'naught. thnk we all know more or less the relatons between Burns and Hghland Mary?-Very mly. Have you any doubt tbat she was bured n 1786 by a relatve called :\acpherson?-none at all. She was bured on or about 12th October The lar had been acqured by ~eter MBCpherson and at that. '! - -.j

47 42 '. date Hghland Mary was bured?-yes or wthn a day or two afterwards. thnk n 1917 the Burns Federaton learned from newspaper artcles that t was proposed to acqure the ste of her grave for shpbuldng purposes?-yes. How do you regard the presence of such a grave so far as Greenock s concerned?- thnk the presence of that grave s an honour to the town of Greenock and ought to be respected by all and partcularly by the Corporaton and the nhabtants of Greenock. How do you regard the proposal to remove t? - A most objectonable proposal and one that should be opposed. You thnk t s a natonal duty to preserve t?- thnk so. Do you know that t has been the place to whch many people have come?-many hundreds of people ndvdually; and also many Burns Clubs have made a pont of havng an excurson to the Y!'st Krkyard to see the bural-place of Mary Campbell. t s a Bm'ns shrne?-yes one of the most nterestng. You thnk that t would be a serous thng f the monument nnd the dust or whatever remans there were removed to another 1 st!'?- do not thnk that would be desrable at all. thnk t would be a desecraton. The stone does not matter; t s the ste whch s the thng. thnk on no consderaton at all should the grave be nterfered wth. thnk n 1842 a monument was erected?-yes. Subscrptons were taken n the begnnng of 1841 and the foundaton stone wa s lad n January A parchment was placed there recordng that the monument was erected by many admrers of Scota's Bard and Mary Campbell?-That s on record. Are you aware where the contrbutons for' that monument came from?-they came from all 'over Scotland and some' from England. The contrbuton~ of the people of Greenock was very small. thnk t was the subject of comment at the tme?-yes very strong comment. Tell us what t was.-the honorary treasurer of the movement was a Mr nnes a member of Her Majesty's Customs n Greenock. Mr nnes put hmself to a great deal of trouble n collectng money and was n communcaton wth Mr John Corbet n Dundee. He wrote to hm acknowledgng recept of 20 from Dundee and n that letter he sad cannot brag much of what have got n Greenock; they are a ptful set of devls. That was n nr 'Wlson told us on the frst day n hs openng speech that Burns's remans had been removed from one part of the church yard to another?-that e the case. Burns was bured n 1796 :11

48 - t 43 n St. Mchael's Churchyard n Dumfres am hs wdow erected or caused to be erected a plan slab over hs grave. Nnetcen years afterwards n 181[; t was proposed to erect a mausoleum and an elaborate desgn was obtaned from Mr T. F. Hunt a. famous archtect n London at that tme. t was proposed to erect t n the southeast part of the churchyard. That was from one part of the churchyard to another part of the same churchyard?-yes. n an nterval of nneteen years?-yes. 'Yhen the grave was opened the coffn was ntact and they were able to put the remans n a new coffn. That of course could not be done now wth Hghland Mary's remans for the coffn and ts contents must long ago have decayed. You are nterested not only n the monument but manly n the ste where the remans are?-partculary n the ste. s t your desre as nstructed b J ' the Federaton that that monument and grave should reman n ther present surroundngs?-yes. Gross-examnaton for the Promoters. By Mr 'Vatson-Doesn't the nscrpton on the grave bear that Hghland Mary had lan there unnotced for ffty years? Unmarked do you mean? Do you not know the nscrpton by heart?-t may be so worded but cannot carry t n my mnd. The nscrpton s from Mr Hll's book; s t correct?- thnk t s a very careless use of the word unnotced. s that on the nscrpton?-t may be. s t untrue or are you n a poston to say t s?- am n a poston to Bay t s untrue. would say t s untrue to ths extent that the grave was unmarked as the grave of Hghland Mary untl t does not explan enough;. t was unmarked and therefore unnotced?-there was no stone ndcatng Hghland Mary but there was Peter Macpherson's stone ndcatng the grave whch he had bought and n whch he bured Hghland Mary. n 1842: was that about the tme the subscrpton was asked for?-t began n How much was rased altogether?-slghtly over 100. Tas that from all over the world?- understand so. ncludng the ptful subscrpton from Greenock?-Yes. f ths Order was to drop now you run the rsk of another ptful subscrpton when you next want t-?- don't know anythng about that. You agree wth the vews expressed by J\r 1t'Naught?-Yes. Entrely?-Yes! l. ' l ' L. ; l

49 ~.. ~ ;!.. 11 : :1 '[' : ~! ~!' q ' : : 1 ~ : : : ' ' :! '1\' '! ' '!:' H ;: ' '1'1 ) '' ';' 1:!: \': : l;!: '!!!: :1 ~ <'' ' :' ' ~11 :!H ': ': ' ' 11' 1' 'll \ ~' '..! '. ~ 44 Mr Hll also sa.ys about the present slab that ts artstc merts are not great; he does not seem to thnk much of what was put up for 100?-Yes. Ho examned by Mr Fenton-You are not nterested n the monument?-not muoh. Your chef nterest s n the ste?-yes the ste s everythng. By the Charman-You a.re representng the Burns Federaton. You have got here a great scheme of publc mprovement for Greenock to sweep awa.y 306 nsantary houses a.nd to develop great shpbulders whch wll be a good thng for Greenock; do you thnk that Rabbe Burns would put the nterests of ths grave above tha.t?- should not lke to aa.y what Robert Burns mght thnk. Do you agree f ths monument wa.s left n ts present stuaton that that would remove your objecton?-yes provded convenent accesl were gven to 1;. '~ 0'.:-.: j ~ : ' 11111: ; ltll '. j ~ : :1 ;~ t~ \ ''! :

50 JUBLEE ANNVERSARY MEETNG OF THE LONDON ROBERT BURNS OLUB. 25TH JANUARY un!). j: 1\ ' 11: n ;. t. '~l T HE brllant company assembled at ths meetng. whose names would extend over several pages of the Chroncle and the notable speeches delvered by emnent men present have nduced us to lay a full report before our readers as a memento of the Great War and contrbuton to the celebratons wheh marked the frst Year of Peace. The report may also serve the purpose of ntroducng the sceptcal to the mysteres of the January celebratons. The Rght Hon. Robert :Munro K.C. M.P. Secre- tary for Scotland n rsng to propose The London Robert Burns Club was loudly applauded. He sad:- Mr Presdent my Lord Lades and Gentlemen-Youhave heard from the Secretary of the varous calamtes whch have befallen ths gatherng by reason of the absence of certan guests. r hope you wll not regard my presence as a calamty rathcr than my absence-(laughter)-when r have concluded the few observatons whch r propose to addresr to you. r thnk that n submttng to you tho tonst of The London Robert Burns Club eloquence and argument lre alke superfluous. But a short lnd smple narratve may be permtted. Your Club s celebratng ths year ts jublee. r thnk you ll know what a \ealthof well-conceved and well-drected actvty s comprsed n that short and smple statement of fact. (Hear hear.) 'Ve recall to-nght the founder of the Club )[r Coln Rao Brown. re recall hm wth apprecaton and wth grattude. 'Va recall also the mportant part whch ths Club has been prvleged to play n the socnllfo of our tme. 'Va recall ts many actvtes. Te recall ts unbounded generosty towards the alng and the sufferng andthe poor and n partcular werecall ts war-tme actvtes whch h~ve been as manfold as they have been bountful. (Applause.) -. ~ - 1 r~

51 . 11. q.'.l dll. 'l : lp ~ :1 : 11!: : 'll 46 :May just add ths? The Club stands as we all know for the Burns sprt-the sprt of lberty equalty and fraternty. That sprt s of course the negaton of the hateful' and fortunately dscredted doctrnes of Prussa wth whch we have become famlar n recent years. t s on the other hand the affrmaton of those great prncples whch have been trumphantly vndcated by the Alles. (Hear hear.) Surely then there never was a tme when an nsttuton breathng and anmated by that sprt-a sprt aboundng n and so to speak aggregated wthn ts borders and radatng ts nfluen~e far and wde- repeat there never has been a tme when such an nsttuton had an opportunty so great and so frutful as s presented to ths Club. Your Club has a great past. n the greater future whose sun-capped heghts are now percng the msts of the valley do not doubt for a moment that your Club wll playa worthy and a noble part. n that uncharted future n that uncharted sea you have n your Presdent a sklled and experenced captan and an nsprng leader. t s my prvlege to couple hs name wth the toast. gve you the toast of the London Robert Burns Club coupled wth the name of l\1r Wllam Wll. The toast was receved wth muscal honours. '~ ;' J. ~': S.' ' ft :'1! ] : l h~111.. ~ j ' ' j..;'.; tt 1/ p ' 1:.. Mr Wllam Wll the Presdent of the Club n respondng sad:- :My Lord Lades and Gentlemen-Frst let me on behalf of the Club thank the Secretary for Scotland for the generous words that he has used n submttng ths toast and you for the hand~ Borne manner n whch you have receved t. We can recprocate some of the complments and congratulatons whch' Mr Munro has offered for we can congratulate hm and we can congratulate hs natve land upon hs reappontment by Hs Majesty the Kng as Secretary of State for Scotland. (Cheers.) We meet to-nght under condtons entrely dfferent from those whch last year led to the elevaton of a mserable talan decocton to the poston whch can only be satsfactorly occuped by Hs Majesty the Haggs. (Laughter.) Last year the Haggs was under control. Thanks to our nvncble Navy and Army and a determned cvl populaton behnd them the Hun and the Haggs agan occupy ther proper places-the Hun under control and the Haggs uncon trolled. (Laughter and applause.). As the Scottsh Secretary has sad ths evenng the London Robert Burns Club celebrates for the ffteth year the brth of the Poet. Ffty years ago last Hallowe'en Mr Coln Rae Brown a Scottsh mnor poet wth Samuel Lover the novelst peorge Cruckshank the artst and

52 4-7 j : t... '..;~ 't 'j. others founded ths Club and n the ntervenng half a century the members have kept the Burns cult alve n the captal of the Auld Enemy by means of lterary socal and chartable endeavour. There are dfferenc~s of opnon as to the orgn and functons of Burns Clubs. t s not the case as cyncs and others wth weak dgestons declare that Burns Clubs exst for the sole and exclusve purpose of gvng Scotsmen an excuse for once a year eatng Haggs and gettng uproarously fou for never yet met a Scotsman who f he really wanted a glass or a bottle for that matter lost any tme n searchng for an excuse for drnkng t. (Laughter.) No; the Scot s credted wth beng a hghly practcal person; and there were good reasons for the establshment of assocatons ded. cated to the memory of Robert Burns. The Poet was but a short tme n hs grave when Robert Heron the brllant dsspated lyng Scottsh lterary hack who settled and ded n poverty n London let loose upon hs country the frst Lfe of the Poet. Not for the frst or last tme was local gossp scandal and personal anmosty converted nto bography. Snce then there has raged round the Poet's head of gold and feet of clay a fercer storm than that whch roared over Cola on that never.to.be.forgotten 25th of January Heron's and subsequent attacks based on Heron's ms.statements were so unjust that the antagonsm of many men wth a sense of decency and farplay was' aroused. They banded themselves together n clubs. They had besdes the correcton of false statements to promulgate the Poet's message for Burns let t be remembered was the forerunner of Lord Grey and Presdent 'Vlson wth the dea of the League of Natons; and he was the author of what may well be the hymn of the League of Natons the Marsellase of Humanty. (Applause.) As have suggested the work of our Club s not. confned to gatherngs such as ths. 'Ve have lterary meetngs we have other socal functons and we rase consderable sums of money for chartable purposes. Ths week for example we have handed to the Harry Lauder Fund for Dsabled Scottsh Salors and Solders over 400. (Applause.) Ths Club s not a close corporaton. Men of many natonaltes come together n ts membershp. The frst enrolled member was Samuel Lover an rshman; our frst honorary member was Garbald the talan patrot; and the Father of our Club s an Englshman Past Presdent \V. Hayward Ptman a Deputy Alderman of London a ctzen of credt and renown who wth hs good lady and famly we are delghted to have wth us to.nght. (Applause.) The Presdent made further reference to the nternatonal character of the Club's membershp and concluded by agan thank. ng the company for ther hearty recepton of the toast. j l J 1. ' 'C'

53 48 ~ :1. ' '! The Rght Hon. Lord Morrs CC. LL.D. CC.M.G.. proposed the toast of The Brtsh mperal Forces. Greeted wth applause Lord Morrs sad :-:- l\r Presdent Lades and Gentlemen- should lke n the frst nstance to express my thanks to the Presdent and the members of the Burns Club n London for affordng me the opportunty of beng present here ths evenng and takng part n such a dstn gushed gatherng n celebraton of Burns. nght. n tenderng the toast of the Brtsh mperal Forces to ths gatherngt s almost mpossble not to keep before one the fact that n those mperal Forces' the Scottsh element has always taken a very mportant and outstandng place. (Applause.) To-nght we are celebratng the annversary of the great Poet Burns the peasant Poet the farmer Poet the ploughman Poet of Scotland and he s typcal n hs own sphere of what nearly every class of Scotsman s n relaton to hs sphere. We have just lstened to the strans of Scots 'Vha Hae sung n a manner dong credt to the Poet and the sentment of that great Poet and we can understand the emoton the splendd patrotc feelng that that must nspre n the breasts and hearts and mnds of a Scotsman as he marches to hatte preceded by the bagppes that we have had the advantage of hearng ths evenng. (Applause.) The Scottsh race s small n number compared. wth other portons of the Empre because after all there are only somethng lke four mllons even to-day n Scotland but we can apprecate and realse the very mportant part they have always played n our Empre especally n relaton to the mperal Forces who have won and hold that great Empre of whch we are the nhertors to-day. And when one comes to analyse the cause and the reason one cannot but come to the concluson that the reason s because they are an earnest people. (Applause.) They have always been a very sold earnest and quet but very determned get there porton of the Empre. 'Vhether t be ther schools or fghtng or ther patrotsm or ther relgon they are always n dead earnest. When the Brtsh Empre had only sx Unverstes Scotland had four and there s no part of the world to whch you may go to-day where you wll not fnd Scottsh people and Scotsmen on top. Even n London to-day from the Archbshop of Canterbury rght down you have Scotsmen occupyng the most promnent and mportant postons n the publc lfe of the country and the same s true n relaton to the whole Empre and the only concluson s that they aro absolutely n earnest n relaton to everythng. (Applause.) heard a most convncng story 011 that pont the other day. A Scottsh cabman was drvng an Amercan round Ednburgh. He '..!

54 drovo hm to Holyrood and ;llowod hm tho hstorc palaco thon took hm up )rnces Stroet and showod hm tho Scott Monumcnt and then to Arthur's Seat and showed hm tho glorous sceno from there; but the Amercan was not n any way enthttsastc and could not see eyo to eye wth the Scottsh cabman; who was tellng hm all about the beautes of Scotland and 'Valter Scott and vanhoe and so on. So the cabman took hs fare up to the Castle and told hm of ts hstorcal assocatons but tho Amercan stll dsplayed no enthusasm over t. Comng down the hll he stopped opposte John Knox's house and pontng wth great prde to t sad: There s John Knox's house. John Knox sad the Amercan 'Vho was John Knox? Damn t man sad the cabman dd you nevcr read your Bble? (Loud laughter.) That s the fath the strong fath that keeps the Scot on top. The toast submt to. you lades and gentlemen s that of The Brtsh mperll Forces. thnk for the frst tme n the hstory of the Empre we can properly and approprately call t the Brtsh mperal Force because the war n whch wo have been engaged and out of whch we have come vctorous f t has done nothng else has unted n bonds of undyng affecton tho peoples of the whole Empre. (Loud applause.) t s qute easy to understand that when war was proclamed between Great Brtan and Germany how the whole of the Brtsh Empre and the peoples of all the Domnons and the far-flung portons of the Empre responded wthout beng asked. t s mportant to remember that the Domnons and tho other portons of the Empre dd not come to the rescue of the Mother Country as t s mproperly stated. They came to co opera te to take part n the fght for tho great prncples underlyng the war as far as Great Brtan was concerned. (Applause.) The Empre tself was bult up n the frst place by tho people of these sjands--the Scottsh Englsh and rsh. When we had not a foot of land outsdo these slands men of those races rose up and penetrated to all parts of the world and by settlenent and occupaton and conquest bult up all the great Domnons that we now call the Brtsh Empre. Thc great poet Tennyson you wll remember sad :- 'Ye saled wherever shp could sal 'Ye founded many a mghty State; Pray God our greatness may not fal Through craven fear of beng great. And that s what we haye to fear to-day. -e have to fear that there may be some who do not fully apprecato the greatness of the nhertanco nto whch we have come and the wonderful and tremendous responsbltes attachng to the great nhertance. That can be well tested by the fact that four and a half years ago ths '. 1 11;;=-

55 ' 50 ' '. : 1'1:!' : ' 1 1. : ~ : ~ ' Empre lnd ths naton wa::; suddenly called to arms wthout arms or protecton and t s only be a mracle that we have got out of the dffcultes through whch we have passed. Ths Empre s greater to-nght thdn ever t was before and s entrely on a hgher plane and entrely more glorous and more free because we are not alone free ourselves but we have saved lberty and cvlsaton for the whole world. n sayng that we must not forget that we have purchased t at great prce. The graves n France and Flanders the thousands of maned and crppled men the orphans and wdows and the mourners all tell the story of the prce we have pad for the vctory for the great achevement we have won. t s due entrely to the sprt of self-sacrfce of all the branches of the mperal Forces. Frst the Navy who made t possble for us to keep the seas open to feed the people und brng the solders from the uttermost parts of the Empre to the home land and to France. Then the solders the splendd solders who went over and held the lne whle we were mbdng up n new army of mllons of men. Then all those splendd young fellows who joned our fotces and those equally noble men who manned our submarnes and fought down n the depths of the sea and thole who soared and battled up behnd the clouds and then tho army of landsmen and landswomen and the munton workers-ull who combned n ths great effort n order that the peoples of the world should be free and n order that cvlsaton and lberty should contnue n the world. (Applause.) Ye remember wth grattude those splendd fellows 'who have fauen those who have been mamed for lfe. 'Vhen shall ther glory fade o! the wld charge they made. But t s only a repetton of what the bull-dog breed amongst us has been dong for centures. We dd the same n the days when we were fghtng Span and later when we were fghtng Napoleon. Not once or twce n'ths rough sland story The path of duty. was the way to glory. t wus so n the days of Wellngton and t was so n the days of the great salor Nelson. n that great vctory of whch e ure proud to boast Nelson thought only of duty and whether the sacrfces they wero makng that day would come up to the e:-.-pectatons of England and the people at home who were watng and expectng and lookng for news. 'Ve have no glory Mr Pre sdent great enough for those valant men for the members of those servces. 'Ve can erect no monument that wll fully express the sacrfces they have made. Ths land nvolate to-nght s ther best monument and wth that sentment ask you to drnk to The Health of Hs Majesty's mperal Forces. (Loud applause.) The toast was honoured wth great enthusasm.

56 't''=' ' 1 t.. t :1 :'~ ;~~ 51 Major-General Sr Newton Moore M.P. K.C.M.G. who responded was cheered on rsng. He sad :- 1\11' Lord Lades and Gentlemen- thank you for the honour you have done me n nvtng me here to jon wth you n honourng the memory of that dstngushed Scotsman Robert Burns. That honour greatly apprecate n vew of the fact that t was not my prvlege as t s that of most of you here to-nght of havng been born n that country represented here by so many dstngushed Scotsmen and Scotswomen. can only say n extenuaton that not havng been prvleged to be born n Scotland desred to assocate myself as far as possble wth that great country. The only way could do t was by marryng a Scots grl. (Laughter and loud applause.) feel that am vocng your regret when say that t s our loss that that dstngushed salor Sr Rosslyn Wemyss the Frst Lord of the Admralty s not here to-nght but as already explaned he s at present n Pars connected wth the Peace Conference. (Applause.) The toast s The Brtsh mperal Forces and have no doubt that t s a result of my connecton wth the Australan Forces and as a recognton of the mportant part they have played n conjuncton wth the other mperal Forces of the Crown n ths terrble struggle whch has recently been brought we hope to a successful concluson that am asked to respond. At the same tme am not to detan you to-nght because we have later on n the evenng an opportunty of lstenng to a very dstngushed Scottsh solder whom we are all delghted to see here to-nght and whom am pleased to see here personally because t was under hs auspces that the Australan and New Zealand Forces receved ther baptsm of fre and made hstory as far as Australa was concerned. (Loud applause.) Germany made many mstakes n regard to the mentalty of other people but none more than n regard to the Overseas Domnons. (Hear hear.) She confdently hoped and thought that they would havo refraned from actual nterventon. On the contrary however they thought that the great freedom these communtes enjoyed carred a correlatve duty~ and cheerfully tmdertook to share the burden as well as the benefts of the Empre. The Overseas Domnons-exclusve of nda-suppled no fewer than men to the fghtng forces of the Empre to whch the Germans can at any rate bear frst-hand testmony. So far as understand the Australan and New Zealand Forces are not at all favourtes wth the German army. (Laughter and applause.) The valour courage and determnaton of the French army and the matchless men of ths sland-the frst hundred thousand-stayed the rush f.

57 54 '.! '1 future of humanty s n the keepng not of any Leagu~ of Natons but mostly and manly n the keepng of' those two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon raee_ (Loud applause_) May suggest toyoh that t 'should be on our sde our utmost endeavour to promote and to make deeper and stronger and truel'. ths Anglo-Saxo~' unty. (Applaus~.). want to say a word about the great Brtsh army \~th whch t ~~s our prde and honour to be assocated n a very humble way_ suppose you have all read-at least all ntellgent people ought to have read-the splendd hstory of the war by Buchan. ln spte of hs flne Scottsh reserye often wsh he would show us. Romethng of the pas~onwhch les behnd those quet words of hs. 'When read the story of the Brtsh frst contngent the holdng of the no at Mons wth that lttle army of aganst wth the Brtsh backed by 207 guns aganst 700 guns and how from Saturday to Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and for two. weeks they fought every day and 1OUl'ch(1(1 every nght stll holdng the lne gentlemen t made me proud. ls Hwer before to belong to the Brtsh naton. (Loud npplaus(1.) \Vhatever hls happened n the war snce then whatever glnrouh dooo. has been aeheved nothng fner has been done than thllt dono from the Mons to the Marne by tho lttle Army of mmortal Contemptbles. '\Vhen was a boy gong tohgh School remember wo used to read the story of ho\\' the gladators n the arena llsed to march about before they went to ther death chantng'some Huch song as ths pausng b~ore the Emperor's box: Ave Cwsar. moratur te salutamus. ( Hal Cresar! we;.who are apponted to death salute thee.) t seems to me that when that lttle sacrfcal army the frst hundred thousand left these shores and looked back upon.england wth.the lghts fadng n the dstance mght well have sad Ave Brtanna; ;noratur te 8alutamus'~ for they WE're apponted to death. '(Loud applause.) They gave themselyes freely gladly wthout hestaton wthout repnng for ther country's good To that Army t s our honour to drnk to t!ter undyng memory; and to ther mmo~tal glory as well as to those who came after them worthy to 'stand besde them and no greater honour can come to'a solder than that they were permtted to stand sde by sde \vth that frst lttle army on the Marne. (Loud applause.) Captan -Bruce applause sad:-. Barnsfather receved wth loud ~r Presdent my Lord Lades and' Gmtlemen-t s very l.ttle.that can add to what you have already heard from the dst.mgulshed spea kers tc-~ght blt vowd lke to sa.y how honol1l'eq.'

58 55 feel to be here. t s the frst tme have every spoken at the Robert Burns Club. am not a lttle pr~ud to be asked to reply for the Brtsh Anny the mperal Forces- am not a lttle frghtened - may say would rather go back for another day n the trenches than make a speeeh; but stll as am here on behalf of Old Bll Bert and Alf-(laughter)- would lke to thank you very very much ndeed for the 'toast you have drunk n th~r honour to-nght and also to tell you that nl 'fhr.ough those dnrk days whch you have heard about~ot 'Mons Yprcs lnd the Somme and RO on untl the lght eame-there has never' been t thought n the lves of those wonderful solders' btlt merely t' speculaton M to how long t would take. 'Yth ~hrs ~me dea they went through the whole darkness all the tme) they were there and-1 am sure Old Bll would say the same-they knew that somewhere and sometme there was t better 'ole. (Laughter ard applause.) All through those four and a half years of enduranee bloodshed; trbulaton and elm'knesr rght through all that perod of the war whch you have heard of to-nght they have faced everythng; untl they brought ls to t hetter 'ole; and All ean say nmv{s may we never never leave t. (Loud npplallr(\.) 11: '.' l.j.. A j. \ :' : ' ~ ' ) General Sr an Hamjton G.O.B. D.S.O. A.D.O. ho on rsng to propose The mmortal Memory of Robert BUr:~S had a great ovaton the audence rsng and cheerng the great solder enthusastcally. Sr' an sad :-;- ' -ere Burns present 'th us nthe sprt to-nght at our fest~al -md f6-'all kt~w he may be-'vhat would he thnk of the Commttee 'who ha~e e~trustoo the precous' prvege of dscourshg upon hs memory to a Rodger? beleve myself hs nark eyes would kndle; fear hs'frst mpulse mght'be to hurl a fe\ broad Scots e)lletves about the hall; for he hated war and all ts works worse much worse than Auld Horne for whom; by the \vay he always had a sort of sneakng regard. On the other hand the sght of the strange khak kt mght soften hs heart and these rbbons denotng far eampagns. For ~ve know he had a speeal ~ympathy wth old solders who had servoo n foregn parts. n the Jolly Beggars he gves the place of honour to the veteran who sts nest the fre n auld red ragsand makes hm spout the lnes :-. am a son of Mars; Who have been r many wars And shmv my cuts ard Rcam 'Vherever come;.1. '~.

59 ;1. ' : '. '.' l!. l;.!... ' :! ' Ths hel'e was for a wench And that other n a trench When welcomng the French At the sound of the drum. )fy 'prentceshp past Where my leader breathed hs last 'When the bloody de was cast On the heghts of Abram; served out my trade \V'hen the gallant game was play'd And the Moro low was lad At the s01md of the drum. lastly was wth Curts Among the floatng batt'res And there left for wtness An arm and a lmb ;. Yet let my country need me Wth Ellot to lead me 'd clatter on my stumph At the sound of a drum. (Applause.) n another verse he pays the fnest trbute to the Holder that 'ever ~as pad by anyone n ths world exceptng only U;e compme\lt pad by Our Lord Jesus Chrst to the Centuron when He marvelled at ths Captan of Legonares and declared have not found so great fath no not n srael Burns mght have gone to the Church for hs example or the Medcal Professon or the Poltcans;. but. h~ dd not. He took the solder as hs type of thc rdeals~ and \Vrote:- For gold the merchant ploughs the man 'The farmer ploughs the manor; But glory s the sodger's prze The sodger's wealth s honour. (Applause.) Nor can there be any queston of Burns's sncerty. He dd not know the phrase mtaton s the sncerest form of flattery for t was not coned tll 1820; but he dd n fact gve that voucher for good fath' by hmself donnng the unform of Kng George. On the 31st January 1795 he joned the Royal Dumfres Volunteers; for although he had wrtten: unguarded' words ahout our. war wth France he was not gong to leave hs own country lmguarded; hs acts were to speak for themselves. (Loud applause.) There s a remarkable lttle book now actually n the press; a book from the pen of one whom many of yon here know well lr

60 57 Wllam Wll.to wt; at the proofs of whch have been pryleged to take a peep. The work s based on the recent dscovery of t manuscrpt copy of the Mnutes of the Dumfres Volunteers. t would not be far to expend ths trea.sure trove prematurely but 1 am free to say here that the lucky fnd has knocked some calumnl'6 on the head. The document covers the very perod durng whch Burns has too readly been supposed by some to have been lvng almost as an outcast n Dumfres; and t exhbts hm nstead as sttng 011 the Commttee of the two companes to whch he hts duly been elected by popular vote. The Volunteers are a real though tny force dong drlls for two how's at t stretch twce a week. Burns seems never to have mssed t meetng but s dscovered as a member of Commttee fnng absentees from drll. Prevarcators were fred. from the Corps but what would our poor Poet have thought had he krown th~t after hs death pre~arqators : would tako the feld and half.persuade Scotland for a perod of a hundl'ed and twenty two years that he had entered the Vohmteers as a matter of polcy or calculaton and to make a good mpresson upon the. Government; also that by 1795 he had 'become burnt to a cnder because of hs drunken habts when actually us late as the 5th November 1795 he was nether a cnder n the hearth nor t Cnderella n Socety--(laughter)-but rather a lve coal frng enthusasm and enlvenng the slackness of the slackers of Dum fres by burnng ther fngers for them. These facts come out ncdentally and Jarry therefore. twce.the weght of facts pcked out to prove a partcular theory.' (Applause.) doubt whether these statements about Burns and the low estate nto whch he had fallen would have obtaned ther exuggerated currency had not hs memory got tself. too much entangled amongst those amorous_ and convval assoc~tons whch may ndeed be attrbuted of a lve man but are not the. man's an sel'. 'Ve have concentrated ~vermuch some of us upon the many movng pctures of Jeans l\larys Nannes Pegges Clarndas; we have allowed ourselves to plunge too deeply after-burns nto the entrals of the great c~eftan of the puddn' race-:- Hey the Haggs 0' Dunbar. Hey fol de rddle Few were better mony waul' Hey fol de rddle; For to mak' that Haggs fat Hey fol de rddle ~rhey put n a stnkng cat Hey fol de rddle. (Loud laughter). That s no.t Burns_ All the same our frend dd love haggs and nappy swats usquebae tppeny whsk-y toddy t

61 ' ' j r ''. braldy und rum. So do we. 'Why not? De 'yustb U8 non cst tl-8putandum. You shouldn't qu~rrel wth a poet for hs tastes any more than YOl should confound hs poems wth hs poltcs. (Hear hear.) Take the man as se'ously as he took hmself when serous dangers were n the wnd. Pcture hm n whte kerseymere breeches and wastcoat; short blue coat faced 'wth red and a round hat sur mounted by a bearskn. Nowadays that sounds lke a descrpton of a salmon fly-(aughter)-actually t sa descrpton of the unform of the Royal Dumfres Volunteers. Then see hm as Allan Cunnngham saw hm hs very swarthy face hs plough~an stoop hs large dark eyes and hs ndfferent. dexterty n the handlng of hs arms..... '.' Burnsl roars the drll sergeant haud up yer hed man'; yc're nae howkng tattes the noo! Or else Cal you no keep stll ae meent Burns? Ye'll be nest for danclg the Helan' Flng w' Cutty.sark on Hs Majesty's parade. (Loud laughte'') am sure there was ths sort of thng and lots of't. People wth -largo dark t'yes and stoop who m'e clumsy n handlng 'ther arms have u very lvely tme of t wth the Scottsh drll nstructor. The Scots unlke the Japanese of to.day or the Normans of the tme of tho Conquest have no use for artsts n:ther wars of commerce or of conquest. A combnaton of oratory and ~dmnstratve ablty they unwllngly do admt; but once a man takesto puttng down hs thoughts on paper especally f he drops.n a few rhymes amolg them the martnets and sergeant.majors of lfe make up ther nj.nds he must be a muddlor n affars. (Laughter.) 'Vhen Oyama captured Port Arthur from the Chnese he desred hs general staff to wrte a poem on the ncdent of 11 lttle Peknese dog whch was guardng the dead body of ts late master. \Vhen he wshed to decde whch of several staff ofleershud the most quck and sympathetc perceptons he set them down to \vrto a poem as to whether the blossom of the plum or of the cherry was most beautful. By hs answer one of them may tell you gave hmself away. He was afrad of dspleasng the Feld.Marshal and so he wrote a poem sayng. both blossoms were equally lovely. He was turned down. (Laughter.) At the battle of Hastngs the hero who rode several horse lengths ahead of everyone at the head of Duke rllam's cavalry was the mnstrel named Talefer. Tossng hs sword n the ar and catchng t agan by the handle he wellt straght as a de for Kng Harold where he stood grm wth hs axemen around hm. Burstng through the sheld wall as f t had bee.n paper ths artst slew severaj of the Saxons before he hmself was chopped nto peces. Paderewsk to.day s another example of the artst turnng to. acton. But stll the Seot wll

62 5!:1' have hs theory; the thng cannot be; revolutons cltnnotbo made wth rose-water; how rdculous to suppose they can be handled by pansts! (Laughter.) Burns strugglng. earnestly wth the manual and platoon seems so extraordnary a manfestaton to several of the ctzens of Dumfres (who dd not themselves con- sder the case of the country so dangerous as to call'for any personal servce from themselves) that they nsst on ulteror motves-the Poet must be try ng to curry favour wth the Excse or to conceal dsloyalty mder a mltary cloak! (Applause.) Burns was a great Scotsman and a great ctzen of the \vdrld as well as a great Poet. Hs verses have entered nto the very vtals of Scotla)-d. The Oth Dvson the 15th Dvson the 51st Dvson and last but not least the 52nd Dvson owe some of ther. exccedng great valour beleve me to. Scots ~a Hae! (Loud applause.) The same wth Lovat's Scouts and the Scottsh Horse 4th ;ghland J\ollltan Battery or those two fne Battalons who fought wth the ncomparable 20th Dvson at Gallpol the 1st K.O.S.B.'s and the 5th Royal Scots. (Applause.) The grdle of: Scottsh camaradere cast about the world by' Burns's Auld Lang Syne goes round t faster than Shakespearo's Arel fa~ter than Marcon's wreless; nstantaneous just ono mge all-round-the-world handshake between Scotsmen. Bm'ns has sad of Scotsmen everythng of whch the race has reason to be proud and n return generatons of Scotsmen have delghted to do honour to Burns. (Applause.) As to Scotswomen they know well enough that Burns co\lld never resst a bonne lasse; the sex as a whole have appl'ecawd that vrle caress. Small wonder then that he s among the mmortals. We have t. on record that when Burns came to an nn late at nght the servants got out of 'ther beds to st and lsten to hs talk; but when talk t s the othcr way about and everyone wants to get nto ther beds..(laughter;) Thereforo wll detan you no more and wll propose to you the toast. Speakng for myself when uran my own glass shall be thnkng most of Burns the voluntary solder. (Applause.) gve you The 'mmortal Memory of Robert Burns.. The toast wa.s drunk n solemn slence. l\r John Murray C.V.O. D.L.F.S.A.; on rsmg to propose Scottsh LteratlU'e was loudly cheered. He sad :- Mr Presdent my Lord Lades and Gentlemen.~ ask for your'sympathy. Sr an Hamlton' ha.s told you you ought all to be n bed.. 'Vel have heard of bed-sde books but doubt f bed-sde speeches could' be eq~ally acceptable-(laughwr) ' '... ~. 1 \~ '.. <. t' j.~ r ~~. ' '... \ ~.. ~.....-

63 . \ ' : '1\1' 1 01: ' 1 : ' '.. ~.:1.. ; and to begn wth such u subject as. Scottsh Lterature at ths hour of the nght s can assure you a great responsblty and: must usk you to be lenent. camot attempt to deal wth the whole Hubjeet but wth your permsson wll. take ~ few steppng stones and f thoy am marked to some extent wth my' own p~rsonal experl'nees would beg YOll to bear wth me. For nearly half. century my busness has led me to deal wth bography. have been n at the brth have' conducted them through lfe and too often hnvo attended at the' obseques of nany bographes. But mllnthn that bography H one of. the most nexhaustble' and unendng sources of humhn nterest. want you to recognse that mnong bographes there. are.two whch have be~n pre emnent Hot only n the Englsh tongue. but n the whole of lterature. havo lpoken to emnent men statesmen lterary men. and others;. llul have asked them to say What do you consder the two great bogrhphl's of the world?-and.. wthout excepton they fave nhmed two Hnd.thnk you wll guess whch they are. Now why are those great books? Because the wrters of them. were n ntmhtc communcaton and assocaton wth ther subjects; hecause they We:c men who loved ther subjects and had. made constant notes of ther habts and sayngs; because they.. were dstngushed lterary men and above all because they were Scotsmen. Those two bographes are Boswell's Lfe of John8on and Lockhart's Lfe of Scott. You must pardon me f repeat a story that some of you have heard before. My dstngushed nlllllesake the edtor of the great Englsh dctonary told a frend that he had had a remarkable. dream. He sad dreamt that Dr Johnson callle back. to Oxford and the great men of the place were (eadng hm about and showng hm the changes that had taken place snce hs tme_ ' Here Dr Johnson s ths and here s that. 1)r Johnson do you know that for the frst tme your dctonary has been superseded and the edtor of the new book s a Scotsman l' D Johnson sad 'Sr n order to be faeetous t s not necessary to be absolutely ndecent.''' (Loud laughter.) The dea of a Scotsman edtng hs book was far too much for hm! 'Who can read aloud Sr 'Yalte' Scott's lfe from. the begnnng to the end? defy any man or woman '\'ho has as an old Scottsh aunt of mne used to say bowels of tender merces not made of tenpenny nals to read that last touchng volume when Scott was wearng hlnself to the death n body and n mnd to wpe off debts whch through the ndsc'oetons of a frend he had been led nto. t s oneof:the 1l0st wonderful books of all generatons. There s another Scotsman who comes not far off-thomas' Carlyle. He too remnds me of the old story of the judge who addressng a p~rverse wtness snd You have mnd so twsted that f a nal could be got nto 60'

64 one sde of your head am convnced' t would come out 11!crew at the other sde. (Loud laughter.) Carlyle hhdth~t quay and about hm wll also menton a lttle ncdent whch happened to an old frend of mne. Hs son came up to London and he s~d to hm am gong to take you to see the two greatest men of th~ day. He took hm to see Herbert Spencer and he saw al elderly man lookng lke' a gardener n hs Sunday clothes lyng on h; sofa and he sad nothng ths young lan could carry tway. '!'hen he took hm to Cheyne 'Valk and ntroduced hm to Carlyle. Ho told Carlyle the same story- hltve brought my son to see tho two grelttest men of the day. Carlyle sad 'ha s the ther man? 'Vhen he was told Herbert Spencer Carlyle allswerect Herbert Spencer! all mmeasureable ass! (Lotd 'laughtc~:) So much for bography. Menton of!cott leads us. to poetry. andhere agan thnk :\\:0. 1pay clam f(jr 0111' bl'o~l;cr Sco~s ~h:. hghest place. We may call Byron t Scotsman for was he not brought up n Aberdeen and '~vas 'not hs mother a Scotswoman? have been remnded'when thnkng' of herof the sayng wth whch you may h!jve been famlar of many Amercans when they say that such and such a thng s very good of ts knd but a damned bad knd. would say of Byron's mother that she wa~ a very bad nstance of a damn good thng for there' are very few Scottsh mothers who were as she was. Byron was stung and he came to hs own'by the Ednburgh Revew. t was Scotland that' stung hm and t was that that brought out frst of all hs Englsh Bards and Scotch Revewers n whch he made an attack on Scott. My' grandfather when he read t knowng both men sad : wll not rest untl have brought those two men together because know that when they become acquanted Byron wll never say that agan and wll repent of t. stll nhabt the house and the very rooms where those ~wo men'were ntroduced by my grand. father n 1815 and from that' moment they became the frmest of frends. have also the book a copy of Byron's own Englsh Bards and Scotch Revewers annotated n hs own handwrtng and charactersto style. Ths s much too severe (says the anno taton); ths wll never do. t s only the fact that ths book belongs to another man that prevents me from commttng ths mserable nstance of juvenleacrhnony to the flames. From that day onwards Byron and Scott newer c.::ased to be the warmest frends. (Loud applause.) Burns hardly dare menton after all that has been sad. should say Burns and Horace stand hghest n the world as the wrters of lyrcs. They nvested the everyday thngs of lfe wth a humanty and realty that can never de and Burns and Horace wll always stand at the head of the great lyrcal poets; (Applause.) '. '':~ : '. ~ ' ' '. \l''. 'j....!.-

65 62 '.t.. hold n my hand ~book that has a very curous hstory. t s a dary of Burns lnd 'n vew of what Sr an Hamlton has sad wll venture to read you a few lhes because t s characterstc. Burns was stayng at Dwnfres wth some frends and he wrote n hs dary Mss-- seems very well pleased wth my bardshp's dstngushng her and after some slght qualms vhch could easly mark she sets the ttter round at defance and kndly allows me to keep my hold; and when parted by the ceremony of my ntroducton to Mr Somervlle she met me half to resume my stuaton.. Nota Bene.-Thc Poet wthn a pont and a half of beng damnably n lovo- am afrad my bosom s ~tll nearly as much tnder as ever. (Laughter.) ask you s that not a characterstc touch of'burns? Vere there tne shouldlk~ -to talk about Stevenson and others but must menton two whom ths war has brought to'lght )lrs Jacob wth her Songs oj Angus and 'Sergeant Lee who comes from Dundee. (Applause.) He s not -only t poet but an artst and he has llustrated hs own book. He began as a prvate. Then hewlh tllken prsoner lnd whether or not he softened the hearts of hs captors wth the bagppes lke Orpheus wth hs lyre he has now returned aud to t leutenant's commsson. Among the cdtol's of new8papcr~ there' are also emnent names. For nstance )'Culloch edtor of the Scot8man. Years ago he was asked to speak at the Ltcrary Fund' dnner and he sad:. 'Why am asked to respond to ths toast? am not a man of letters. would ncver have had anythng to do wth books f t had not been for thrce letters of the alphabet and these ar~ s. d; Alexander Hussel you know was the emnent edtor of tho Scotsman and a man of great humour. He was one nght walkng through the offce and saw a yomg' man wrtng away hard and he sad 'Vhat are you 'wrtng there? The young man sad: Oh! H' J was just wrtng an obtuary notce of Bale M. s ho dead? sad Hussel. knew hm; he was a damned fool. The man sad Yes sr he was and was just brngng that oot n the paragraph. (Laughter.) A:u:ther story e am rtot ottendng the lades. Years ago when frst the queston of women's HlltTrugC was agtated Russel was!lsked: What lne wll you take n the Scotsman and he sad: Ah well 'would not gve the votet! to the women because f you gve them a vote they wll never rest ~mtl they get nto the House of COnmOllS and my ex perence s that a woman can never have the feelngs of a gentleman. (Loud laughter.) Among astronomers suppose Sr Davd Gll took really the frst place.of hs day-kndest of frends keenest of sportsmen and most eager about hs work. He sad: ' ~

66 63 was at :one tue lectllrrg to the Socety of NllvaElgneer~ and one of the ponts of my lecture was the marvellous accuracy to whch astronomcal nstruments' had been brought. told them that wth an nstrument possessed could measure the dsc of u three. pelmy pece a hundred mles' off. At the dnner whch follow~d' the charman who was a very dstngushed man proposed Sr Davd's health and sad: f we had had any doubt as to the natonaty of our good frend the lecturer to-day before hs lecture we clearly can have none now because am qute sure that nobody but a Scot'would pay the slghtcst attenton to threepenny pece a hundred mles away! (Loud laughter.) 'Another famlar name to you all s James Nasmyth. was hs exect{tor. He was o~e'of the most charmng ofcompano~s~engneer nventor lst;'on~mer hortculturst artst and a llan' full of c{trous \dld'.: fsloned Scottsh hunou': reuelllber hm sayng to mo: lr Murray to' the best of m'y knowledgo 've never dllod nybody' n 14a lfe and would not lke to kll anybody after Hm ded. f ~v~s_lmred n the grotulu; feel sure 'll get nto somebody's' ~'elf ald ;6~O hm anu SO you have just got to get mo cremated.' (Laughter.) And cremated ho ~ as. suppose Hll one of tho few lvtg now who knew that wonderful man Davd LYllgston~. Ho used to come to dnnor Ht my father's house. Ponoer mssonary' naturalst sportsman; salor he wll lve for all tme as one of He greatest wrters of travel. (Applause.) 'fhen thero WHS' l;;' Somervlle the' grcatest lady mathematcan who my fathcr md mother saw makng pont lace wthout the ad of sp~ctaclos H'the age of 89 n Naples mght go on showng you lncs of lteraturo n 'whch Scotsmen have been pre-emnent. dare not venture to speak to you to.nght of thoso dstngushed men who havorsel n lterature durng the war. You see tl;om hm:e tnd' you have heard them and t would be presumptllous for me to say mo'c;:hltt'.culd venture to ask you on ths occason to class amongst dst'ngushed Scottsh authors' ;mothor. '''0 have 0. genoral who:has comm~nded armes larger than Napoleon and 'V ellngton t~gether ever commanded and who has conducted to a successful ssue Sttch a war as the world has never known before. :He has shown by hs recent despatch that f hs vocaton n lfe had been to veld'the pen and not the sword he vould ha've been' promnent n letters. ask you wth me to acclam Sr Douglas Hag. (Lold applau~~:r To what s ths wonderful pre.cmnence of our countrymen dlle! thnk t s due to two thngs-ndependence of mnd and to a curous 'strange orgnalty; n the way of lookng at ordnary thngs. Pletlse drnk wth me to the toast Scottsh Lterature. (Loud applause.)! '1 :. t~ '... '..;:'.. \;~ '... j '.' ' 1 j :. :! ~.' : - '; j'; ~ [ ~.. ~. '. J.

67 .' 64 ~ :1 \:... ' '~ 1 '1 t~ Leutenant-Colonel John Buchan respondng to the toast was heartly cheered on rsng. He sad :~ 1\r Presdent Lades and Gentlemen- am greatly honoured at beng asked to reply to the toast whch has been so felctously and amusngly proposed by my frend 1\1:r John Murray. At ths hour of the evenng you wll not expect from me any knd of a speech t s a toast well worthy of drnkng for Scottsh lterature s one of the many grotulds we Scotsmen have for partcular prde. We hnve produced grent wrters n every brnnch of lterature and n Burns nnd Sr '''nter Scott we have produced two of the dozen greatest wrters n the hstory of the world. (Applnuse.) t seems to me rather pquant and pnradoxcal that ths toast should be }ll:oposed by one publsher and repled to by another. (Laughter.) :For' we mblshers' have been held occns6ully to bear rath(jr a b'ad 1'!'putaton by lnen of letters. There was a tme' when we wcre n knd of whppng-boy onternture; now am led to beleve that that poston s taken by the poltcan. We earn 6ur precarous profts by actng as the brokers of genus and lke other brokers we charge our small fee. ' t s not an easy'task ard would beg of you not to judge ls harshly. You remember that Davd Balfour told Alal Breck thnt he ntended to become an advocate' ana Alan repled: Man Dave that's but a weary trade and a blackguard yn forbya.' (Laughter.) am afrad that the author n hs haste's sometmes apt to make that condemnaton of the publsher thnk t s too harsh. beleve that the publsher s as honest 'and amable a man as other people and n proof would recall the fact thnt' ns a rule he bears a Scottsh name. would lke to be allowed.to say one thng before st down. A large part of our Scottsh lterature s wrtten n the vernacular. cannot call t a dalect. t s far nore t s a great and true language akn to Englsh but dfferent from t. (Applause.) A language wth all extraordnary qualty of ncsveness a language' wth great structural beauty of the rchest dom a language whch has been made classcby great wrters. Are we to allow that to decay! Are we to contemplate some tme n the future when a large part of the treasw'e of our lterature wll be shut to the ordnary reader! am afrad that to-day there are very few people even n Scotland who kno\\' and speak pure Scots. Even n the country dstrcts the old ords and doms are dyng 011 the lps of men and n the ctes tne ang.lage s becomng a barbarous jargon where there s much more Amercan and Cockney slang than the pure Dorc (Hear hear_) For that there are many reasons one of them am afrad beng a knd of preverse' genteelness workng among our people. have known well to-do men and women n Scotland whose fathers have run bare-foot who thought t unbecomng to '

68 65 admt acquantance wth Scottsh words. ' thnk t s a natonal e~lamty. (Applause.) f we are to-reman what -e are a true ra~e we cannot afford to lose our pecular speech and should lko to see good Scots used n every school-and should lke to seeevery canddate for Parlament heckled n Dorc. (Laughter.) would appeal to those who stll know the old tongue to speak t to use t and to wrte t. Happly there are stll just men n srael. There' are to-day Scots wrters lke Hugh Halburton Charles Murray Volet Jacob who wrte domatc Scottsh verse. would lke to see every Poet's Corner n every co~ntry paper fled wth experments.n the tongue of our forefathers. Do you remember 'what Sr 'Walter Scott once sad: f you unscotch us you w make us damned mschevous Englshmen and thc Scottsh wrter who dares to unseoteh hmself becomes a damned wrter. (Applause.) ;r would appeal to ths great Club to make t part of ther duty to foster the Scottsh tongue. (Applause.) ' beleve there aro stll people lvng Scottsh Mltons at present mute and nglorous who only want a certan amount of reasonable encouragement. can gve you one example of that second-rate quhlty. Some years a.go when WHS n South Afrca hhd the task of framng a new game statute for the Transvaal and among othel' provsons we made one n regard to the rhnoceros whch WHS becomng very rare. Under ths provson any man found poachng one was fned 80. That was reported n The Scot8man Hnd caught the eye of a gent.leman n Lanarkshre who perhaps by professon WaS' a poacher. Anyhow he wrote the followng :- 've stood w' bath rna pooches stuffed fou 0' pheashnts' eggs And a ten-pund satunon hngn' doon bath rna trouser legs; And 've crackt w' a keeper; but yon WHS naethn' serous ts a ver~a dfferent knd 0' job to meet a rhnocer OlS. ' mnd when me and Wlle klled a Royal n BrHemar And brocht hm doon: tao Athol by the lcht 0' mune Hnd star. 'll no deny the muckle behst contrved tae fhsh Hnd wehry us But Royals maun be chld's play compared w' rhnocerous. t \. ' ' : ~ t. ~ :' :: ~. c~:: : '.. ': ' '.' ~: :' j'l:. thocht kenned 0' pohchn' just as much as ther men But noo' see there's twa-three thngs that stll dnna ken; canna eat canna sleep 'm perfectly deleerous-. maun ava' tae Afrca and poa~h a rhnocer OUR. (Loud laughter.) Lades and Gentlemen f there ~re men lvng ~apable of'do~g as good thngs as that for heaven's sake let us have more of them. (Loud applause.) f

69 '. '. t... :: ; '~ ;! : t':! rll'l: : 'hl:. 1 11! 66 Leutenant-Colonel E.A. Ewart (Boyd Cable) who was also well receved; sad :- :;:;t gves ne the greaterpleasuret6be~vth yo~ to.nght because have been tryng for three~'ears to get here. ' For the prevous 't:\vo years have had a much more pressng md less pleasngengage. ment overseas. t s therefore an extra pleasure to.nght to ; meot the membcrs of the Burns Ohb. remember the last Burrs. Allnversary Dnllcr ate was over n France. Somebody dscovered t. was Burns nght ~ rndt beng the only' Scot n the place; was r!lllt~d upon tonake the haggs. We found rce bully beef ard A:t~Y baquts nnd w madohaggs()ut of t. (Laughter.) That ';va< nl' we had except pepper and salt. However that Rrather gong' off the subject of Scottsh Lteratlne. ~ Amongst all havo known of Burns thnk 'the one 'thng thnt frst struck me and has stuck to me all' ny lfe has been the s~ngs that :we aro all famlar wth; and t s extraol:dnary how those songs crop up n all corners of the werld; and the tremendourappcal they make not 'mly to Scots bllt to every. other Englsh. speakng person havo heard a.freman on a tramp steamer maltng tho fo'c~lc rn~ wth songs of Burns and have hearcl holt pages of Burns quotcd by a teamstcr n the back Aust~~la~'h-ush also remember hearng a Oanadan Hghlander 'n' o1).e of the'.~lages n Frllncetryng tc teach a French grl 'My lorme deare (Laughter.) may say he met wth an' astonshng' amount of mccess. (Renewed laughter.) remember a 'lttle story of the frst battle of thc Somme: t vas durng a lafe perod?f thebattle whcn you wll remember we were havng a great deal of bad weath~r Uld were lvng n mud ran and msery for weeks on end One of the Scottsh Regments was gong over the top to take a certan objectve. Just before the barrage lfted when there 'as a great deal of nose one of tle platoon commanders a leutenant met hs company commander who was crawlng along to see that every thng was all ready before they started out. The platoon com mander was shoutng somethng at the ptch of hs voce but the company commander could not hear t and all he could catch was somethng about not rememberng... lnes. Then the whstle went to go over and over they went and got ther frst objectve All the tme what was worryng ths company commander was whether the platoon commander had forgotten somethng' very mportant. He had heard a queston about lnes and he could only thnk of the lne of hs objectve and he thought f ths young ass has forgotten hs lne of objectve he s gong to throw the company n the soup. When he got nto the frst lne of shell ~oles he crawled along under a heavy fre to make hs way to ths heutenant's poston. Eventually he managed to reach the;h9le

70 here the platoon commander was lyng and he ttunbled n besde hm and asked hm: 'Vhat was t you had forgotten? The leutenant repl{e)~:. have been tryng to thnk what are the second and thrd lnes of ' Scots Wha Hae!' '; (Loud laughter.) That may sound very extraordnary but these thngs do happen sometmes. The company commander turned round and sad: ~' You and your' Scots 'Vha Hae!' 'll tell you what 'm thnkn~ about:. Have you ever heard of the' Wee cowern'. tm'rous beaste o what a panc's n thy breaste? (Loud' laughter.) was for a certan tme 'n the South Afrcan War where 1 Rerved n Lovat's Scouts; wth the ppes n my ears gettng up each mornng and lyng down each nght. r e were a mounted regment bu we' had the extraordnary prvlege of havng the ppes to~sound Revelle and Lghts Out. The ppes are great hearteners. 1 remember seeng one of o'ur Scottsh Regments comng out of acton. They had had very heavy' losses and were comng out pretty well dead beat and were 'jus~ lmpng along draggng ther feet am lookng dead to the world when they were met by half a dozen ppers. The ppers wated untl ths handful of men came along and then they struck up ther ppes and f you had seen those men throw back ther heads and brace ther shoulders and step out t would have done you good. (Loud applause.) More than once t las been my prvlege to see some of our Hghland Regments go over the top and tle men to lead them out were the ppers every tme. t s qute true that Scots 'Vha Hae has done a lot n ths war. For all 1 ~m ndebted to Burns 1 am ndebted most' to hs songs and wth all hs contrbutons to Scottsh teratute shall always feel that hs songs are the fnest we have (Loud applause.) Ths ended the toast lst and the large company formed a. great rng rbund 'the banquetng hall and sang Auld Lang Syne as t s'seldom sung at socal gatherngs. Past Presdent James' Thom. Ronsarg the frst verse :Mss l\ary Macke took 'the second verse and ~r Arche Anderson the thrd. The company jonng hands sang the verse begnnng Then here's a hand my trusty fer. When the fnal hearty cheers had been gven the company separated all agreeng that they had taken part n one of the most successful gatherngs ever held n London. The great bulk of the work fell upon the able and worthy Han. Secretary (Mr P. N. M'Farlane) whose arrangements were com plete and whose many efforts made the Festval rtln smoothly from start to fnsh. 1 : j :'o.1 t.! 1 '' ~ ~. '.

71 \ ~' ~.'' J P THE MANSE OF LOUDOUN. ' j;' 'l '1 Nthe year 1763 th~ Rev. Georg. e Laure succeeded ~drew Ross n the Parsh Church of Loudoun Ayrshre and took up hs abode n the Old Manse at Newmlns. n the followng year the mnster brought home' a young wfe and very soon lttle heads clustered round hs board. The Old Manse was small and had many nconvenences and four years later Mr Laurehs wfe and chldren moved to a more commodous resdence only a few hundred yards from the former house. The New Manse was bult on a gc'utle slope besde the road between Galston and Newmlns one of the frst roads n the country to be made by statute labour. The mnster planted the space between hs house and the hghway wth brch and chestnut trees whch n process of tme almost screened the Manse from publc vew. The nelw house had some pretensons to elegance both n ts exteror and nteror although there was a court behnd t lke that of a farmhouse; wth byre and stablng formng two sdes of the square. The country mnster long ago wth hs garden and glebe was usually a bt of a farmer and a horse was ndspensable for workng the glebe ~nd the mnster's use n the vstaton of a large parsh. He almost.nvarably kept t man to look after the glebe the garden the horse and the cow and to do odd jobs about the house..' Dr Laure's household ncluded the mnster's man as a matter of course. The new Mans'e was two storeys n heght wth. attcs. The celngs were low the wndows small wth many panes and the walls thck. For the perod however t ~as a good house and a beautful garden ~~s ~ool lad out at the back and sde of the buldng. Over the front door whch faced the road the letters G. L. and M. C. were carved -the ntals of the names of the mnster and hs wfe-!'...:

72 wth the date By-and-bye there was added th) motto.. Jehovah Jreh.. (the Lord wll provde)-words whch may have brought comfort to luany both wthout and wthn the Manse. The story of ths motto s told n th' fashon. One day the nurse from the Manse accompaned by the chldren was walkng along the road when a stranger stopped to ask whose bonny barns they were. The nurse repled that they were the mnstels ('hldren. 'rhat's LOUDOUN MANSE. a bg famly for a mnster to provde for war the reply. When the nurse went home she repeated the tor~' to her mstress and she n turn to her husband. Dr Laure sad lttle but on the lntel of the door he caused to be carved the words of trust and confdence mentoned above. The tory may be a mere tradton. for Dr Laure had but three chldren whle many a contemporary had much less of ths world's gear to start ther young people n lfe than the parsh mnster of Loudoun. The Rev. George Laure came of a race of mnsters.

73 70 ~! ~ t 1 ' 1 ':.1. ~ Hs father the Rev.' James Laure was mnster of Krkmchael; hs grandfather the Rev. John Laure had been mnster of Auchnleck;' hs great-grandfather of Newton Stewart n the Stewartry of Krkcudbrght; and hs great-great-grandfather so t s sad was one of the mnsters who went to reland and was present at the foundng of the Presbyteran Church there. The Rev. George Laure was therefore the ffth mnster n drect descent; nor dd the lne end there for hs son succeeded hm n Loudoun and hs grandson became mnster of the parsh of Monkton. Mary Campbell whom young George Laure marred was a daughter of Dr Archbald CampbellProfessor of Church Hstory n the New College of St. Andrews. n those days Newmlns was a weavng vllage and the weavers worked n ther own houses. From mornng tll nght the clckclack of the shuttle mght be heard and both men and women wrought at the loom. The low cottages of the weavers wth ther thatched roofs straggled along the sdes of the rver the church spre and the old tower beng the only outstandng features of the place. From the Manse wndows the vllage could be seen to the east whle to the south there were gently swellng hlls n the near dstance wth the rver glancng n the'sun lyng between. n those days salmon were caught n the rvne and the haughty weavers turned up ther noses when the royal fsh appeared too often on ther tables. The house already descrbed s stll the parsh manse although consderably modfed from what t was when bult almost a century and a half ago. Wngs have been added wth spacous rooms; the celngs of two fats have been heghtened and the attcs have dsappeared;' new stars have been bult wndows have been enlarged and one of the rooms has been utlsed as an entrance hall. Stll t s the old Manse wth Dr Laure's ntals above the door the Manse where he lved and worked sorrowed and joyed the restngplace of many a wayfarer on the hghway of lfe to one of whom-footsore at the very threshold of lfe's journey -t seemed a perfect haven of peace and joy..! ~ ' \...:.._...====' ~;_....

74 71 The Manse of Loudoun called St. Margaret's Hll n Dr Laure's day extended ts hosptalty to some of the best lterary socety of the tmes. Dr Laure hmself was no mean scholar. He was well read an eloquent preacher. had a fne sense of humour was a racy conversatonalst had great power of dscrmnatng character and hs word had consderable nfluence n the Church Courts. Apart fron1 the work for hs pulpt mnstratons hs specal study was the early poetry and musc of the Celts n reland and Scotland and for true poetry of every knd he had the the most keen apprecaton. Among hs frends he numbered Prncpal Robertson Dr James MacKnght Dr Blacklock Dr Hugh Blar and many others emnent n the world of letters of the day. Hs wfe was a woman of cducnton and of culture. 'fhc Manse of Loudoun thercfore must have formed a lttle centre of refnement for tlw whole parsh. ~ewmlns and Darvel were both weavng vllages and the weavers took a keen nterest n all poltcal questons. The farmers were absorbed n ther own concerns and cared for but lttle else. Many of them were descendants of Covenanters and ther relgous convcto.ns were of a cast-ron knd rgd and unbendng. Of books they knew but lttle and ther aspratons as a rule dd not rse above the socety of the lke-mnded whom t.hey met at fars and markets. Stll n every communty there are a few who burst such bonds asunder; and St. Margaret's Hll wth ts occupants of knd heart and large understandng must have been a breathng-place of wder atmosphere for all asprng souls n the neghbour.hood. One young farmer knew well ts hosptalty and the glmpses of more refned lfe he saw there made a great mpresson on hm. He was a man lke Saul head and shoulders above hs fellows n mental stature. Hs name was Robert Burns. Dr Laure had read hs poems publshed n Klmarnock and had recognsed hs genus. He nvted the Poet to hs home agan and agan. Burns went and was delghted wth the occupants of the Loudoun - ~ ;. ':':.' ' : l' '

75 '! : '!! : ' :l ll :l: ll!dl; ll ) ~ : ll l '!f' ' : fl'! 'll :!l \ j 1 ;'!1:1 '.' ; 'll '!::' :!:; 1:1 :!.. t :1 ~::: : ' :~ lll '~ '' ' :.l. ~ f :?! ' ':' :1 t \ ' ' ' +': 72 Manse.. The followng well-known lnes are from the pen of Glbert Burns:- The frst tme Robert heard the spnet played upon was whle on a vst at the house of Dr Laure then Mnster of the Parsh of Loudoun a few' mles from Mossgel and wth whom he was on terms of ntmacy. Dr Laure had several daughters; one of them played the father and mother led down the dance the rest of the ssters the brother the poet and the other guests mxed n t. t was a delghtful famly scene for our Poet then lately ntroduced to the world. Hs mnd was roused to poetc enthusasm and the stanzas WO'' l'ft n the room where he slept. The stanzas whch Glbert Burns referred to were as follows:-. 0 Thou dread Power who regn'st above know Thou wlt me hear; 'Vhen for ths scene of peace and lovo make my prayer sncere. The hoary Sro-the mortal stroke Long long be pleased to sparl' '1'0 bless hs lttle flal flock And shew whnt good mon Arl'. She who her lovely Offsprng eyes 'Vth tender hope and fears Oh hlesr her wth t ~fother's joys But spare a Mother's tl'tl's! Ther hope ther stay ther darng youth n manhood's dawnng blush Bless hm Thou God of low and truth Up to a Parent's wsh! The beauteous seraph Sster band Wth 'arnest tears pray Thou knowest the snares 011 every hand Gude Thou ther steps alway. 'hen soon or late they reach that coast O'er lfe's rough ocean drven ' ~ay they rejoce no wanderer lost A famly n Hl'aven! ::. The.. darlng youth. mentoned n tht verses was Dr Laure's son Archbald who afterwards succeeded hs.'.

76 73 father. The hoary sre'.. was Dr LaUl'e hmself who had reached the rpe age of ffty-~even ~ On the mornng after thc pleasant evenng depcted by Glbert Burns D' Laure and hs famly wated n van for Bmns's appearance at the breakfast table. Weary of watng. Archbald was sent by hs father to knock at Bums's door and ask THE ENTRANCE HALL. what detaned hm. The boy went boundng up the star but met Burns comng down.. Good mornng ;\r Burns he sad hope you slept well last nght. Sleep my young frend scarcely slept at a11-1 have been prayng all nght. f you go to my room you wll fnd my prayer upon the table. Young 1\11' Lame went to the room and found the verses already quoted. The )1.8. s pre-

77 ~ >.1 ::! ~! \1'; 74 served wth prde and pleasure n the famly of Dr Laure's descendants untl ths day. The followng letter to Archbald Laure shews hs ntmate footng wth the poet ;- Dear Sr- have along wth ths sent the two V01U1U3S of Ossan wth the remanng volume of the Songs. Ossan am not n such a hurry about but wsh the songs wth the volume of the Scotch Poets returned as soon as they can convenently be despatched. f they are left at Mr Wlson the bookseller's shop Klmarnock they wll easly reach me. :My most respectful com plments to Mr and Mrs Laure and a poet's warmest wshes for ther happness to the young lades partcularly the far muscan whom thnk much better qualfed than ever Davd was or could be to charm an evl sprt out of a Saul. ndeed t needs not the feelngs of a poet to be nterested n the welfare of one of the sweetest sccnes of domestc peace and kndred love that ever saw as thnk the peaceful unty of St. Margaret's Hll can only be excelled by the harmonous concol~ ~f the Apocalyptc Zon.- am Dear Sr Yours sncerely ROBERT BURNS. Mossgel 13th November At that tme :Burns was only twenty-seven years of age and open to mpressons of every knd. He had lved much for such a young man and the pty s that such a frendshp as that of Dr Laure had not dawned upon hm ten years sooner. The whole cllrrent of hs lfe mght have been changed by such a glmpse of better thngs but even as t was the frendshp of :Burns wth Dr Laure was the means of alterng the Poet's career. The story s almost too well known for repetton but for the sake of connecton we may glance at t here. Dr Laure' n hs admraton for the work of the young Poet sent a copy of hs poems to hs frend Dr Blacklock and warmly commended Burns to hs favour. Weeks passed and no reply came to hs letter. Burns's affars 'had reached ther acutest stage and he resolved to set sal for the West ndes hopng there to redeem hs fortune and reputaton. Every prepar~ton wa~ made. Hs trunk was packed and on ts way to G~een~ck ~nd Burns had even poured out hs soul n a farewell song when a letter came from Dr :Blacklock full of ej:couragement and good cheer and the poetc temperament whch had breathed a farewell but a few days before to frends and

78 75 foes to the bonne banks of Ayr to all the charms of Bonne Scotland suddenly bounded to the other extreme and the Poet evdently thought he had only to enter the promsed land to possess t. t was on the way to l\ossgel after what he thought was hs last vst to Loudoun Manse that the poet composed hs farewell. When the tde of Burns's fortune flowed n upon hm Dr Laure sent hm a letter of frendly counsel. Burns was n Ednburgh flattered and lonzed and Dr Laure naturally thought the young man mght lose hs head n such unwonted crcumstances. n Burns's reply he says that he had no great temptaton to be ntoxcated wth the cup of prosperty. Then he goes on to say :- By far the most agreeable hours spend n Ednburgh must be placed to the account of Mss M. Laure and her panoforte. cannot help repeatng to you and to Mrs Laure a complment that Mr Mackenze the celebrated' Man of Feelng' pad to Mss Laure the other nght at a concert. had come n at the nterlude and sat down by hm tll saw Mss Laure n a seat not very far dstant ard went up to pay my respects to her. On my return to Mr Mac kenze he asked me who she was? told hm 'twas the daughter of a reverend frend of mne n the west country. He returned there was somethng verystrkng to hs dea n her appearance. On my desrng to know what t was he was pleased to say: 'She has a great deal of the elegance of a well bred lady about her wth all the sweet smplcty of a country grl.' )y eomplments to all the happy nmates of St. Margaret's Hll. The young lady referred to was the eldest daughter of Dr Laure-Chrstna who afterwards became the wfe of lvralexander' Wlson bookseller Glasgow son of the Professor of Astronomy n the Unversty of Glasgow. The correspondence between Dr Laure and Burns s not exhausted wth the letter quoted nor was the Prayer the only memento he left n the room whch he occuped n Loudoun Manse. Burns had a damond wth whch he scratched hs sentments on more than one wndow and on the wndow of hs bedroom n the Manse he wrote : Lovely Mrs Laure she s all charms. The wrtng on the pane of glass s stll n exstence-ndeed the sash enclosng the.pane wth several others was removed to ~: ' :: ~ ):.1 ~. ~ : J.. : '. 1.t. :;C;.

79 '. ) ' ll'j ll: 1 ' '~ 76 prevent accdental breakage. Twenty years ago or so- t was on exhbton wth other Burns relcs n Glasgow. Lovely 1\1rs Laure dd not scruple occasonally to rebuke the Poet for what she consdered wrong n hs ways avd on one occason she dd so so effectually that the feelngs of the Poet were consderably wounded. Enclosed n a book of old poems whch he sent to a member of the famly shortly afterwards the followng lnes were found ;- Hustcty's unganly form may cloud the hghest mnd ; But when the heart s nobly warm the good excuse wll fnd: Proprety' cold cautous rules warm fervour may o'erlook; Bllt par() pool' Sensblty the ungentle harsh rebuke. f :Burns sometmes had reason to fear the crtcsm of. Lovely Mrs Laure there was one person n the household who had a lke wholesome dread of the Poet. John Brooke the mnster's man amon'g hs mscellaneous dutes was expected to wat at table. Once durng a vst of Burns to the Manse the nvaluable John dd not make hs appearance. An excuse was gven whch dd not satsfy the mstress of the house. Seekng hm out afterwards :Mrs Laure asked John why he had not been n hs usual place. Deed Mem sad the worthy was just fleyed to come n for fear Burns wad mak' a poem on nc. Burns was not the only poet whom Dr Laure helped to hs place n publc estmaton. James Macpherson was also ndebted to hm for brngng the poems of Ossan' before dscrmnatng crtcs a servce whch afterwards when the world had prospered wth hm Macpherson ether forgot or pretended to forget. What brought out hs apparent forgetfulness was the answer whch Dr Laure receved when he wrote to Macpherson as a member of the House of Commons over some trouble ~s brother had fallen nto as Governor of the Mosquto Shore. Dr Laure receved hs degree from the Unversty of Glasgow n Hs son Archbald succeeded hm n Loudoun Krk and Manse. Dr Laure ded n 1837 n hs sxty-nnth year and forty-fourth of hs mnstry. Hs

80 t '!... -to 77 wfe pre-deceased hm ffteen years. One daughter was marred n Glasgow --as already stated and' hs younger daughter became the wfe of the mnster of Sorn. Hs son Archbald marred Anne Adar sster of Major Adar the frend of Robert Burns. The home of the mnster's happy boyhood and youth soon resounded wth the voces and laughter of hs own chldren-three sons and three daughters grew up to manhood and womanhood wthn the brown walls of the old Manse. Hs eldest son George James became the parsh mnster of Monkton. He was very happy n hs sea-board parsh and s stll affectonately remembered n the dstrct. He was the author of varous songs but none of them ever earned the popularty of thc celebrated lyrc descrbng hs boyhood n the old Manse of St. Margaret's Hll n Loudoun- Hae ye mnd 0' Auld Lang Syne 'Vhen the smmer days were fne When the sun shone brghter far Than t's ever done sn syne?- 1.'- whch was gven n full n a former number of the Burns Ohroncle. HELEN WALTERS ORA WFORD. f ~!

81 r BURNS AND UPPERMOST CLYDESDA.E. ' ;. ' : (: f N the last Burns Chroncle there appears an excellent artcle wth a somewhat smlar ttle to the above from the pen of that well-lmown wrter on Burns topcs Mr Andrew l\f'callum. Unfortunately Mr l\'callum comes no hgher up the valley than Lamngton unaware apparently that the Natonal Bard had assocatons wth the parsh of Crawford whch forms the uppermost part of the County of Lanark. Ths parsh t may be noted n passng s one of the largest n the south of Scotland and covers an area of over one hundred square mles. t s possble to walk twenty-one mles n a straght lne wthout crossng the parsh boundares. Burns's vsts here all took place after he had settled at Ellsland n Hs dstrct as an excse offcer marched wth uppermost Clydesdale and t s not to -be wondered at' that at'tmes he went over the border. The Rev. W. C. Fraser n hs book on Crawford.relates that Burns vsted the parsh n hs capacty as an Excseman and although as have sad the parsh was outsde hs dstrct t s qute probable that he would do so because part of the parsh was-and ndeed. stll s-closely connected wth Dumfresshre. ndeed the parsh of Moffat s partly wthn the county of Lanark and the nhabtants of that porton whch extends over the boundares of the northern shre enjoy the blessngs of Lanark Law and Moffat Gospel. Glengeth Toll-house whch sts a lttle to the' south Qf Elvanfoot Staton on the sde of the Clyde s sad to have been a favourte haltngplace of the Poet's.' n hs days t was an nn and t s sad that he wrote some verses on one of ts wndow panes. f so they have been lost and all tradton of what they were has pershed ll{ewse. We have the consolaton of knowng that the verses must have been good ones for as l\r

82 79 Fraser rather quantly remarks Had they been worthless they certanly would have been preserved. Leavng now the realm of tradton we are on frmer ground when we turn to the Poet's own works and here we fnd references to at least two vsts to an outlyng corner of thc parsh. The vllages of Wanlockhead and Leadhlls are as everyone knows the two hghest vllages n Scotland. They owe ther exstence WANLOCKHEAD. to the lead mnes hch ha ve been wrought there for centures havng been dscovered n the days when England and Scotland were stll separate kngdoms. The yllage' st qute close together the one on the south and the other on the north sde of the boluldary lne between Xthsdale and Clydesdale. n 1791 we fnd Burns at Leadhll (n the month of August accordng to Scott Dougla December accordng to Wallace) probably on some duty connected wth the excse. Whle on ths vst he wrote Mrs M'Lehose (Clarnda). She had wrtten hm durng the summer wthout recevng any reply and t was n answer to a second

83 11 80 ' ~ 1 : '! ':1: r 1::1! '\1: ' : ' T j: '. r' :1';11 1 W' t:!' ' '!\ 111.'!! Jl ' '1. ' :1 letter that hc penned the epstle whch s dated at Leadhlls Thursday noon. n the course of the letter Burns states have just a snatch of tme whch seems to pont to some pressng' busness n the neghbourhood. The letter contans however the Lament of Mary Queen of Scots and concludes n rather a pathetc stran as though the bleak hllsdes had made a deep mpresson on hs sprt: ; Msfortune seems to take a pecular pleasure n dartng her' arrows aganst 'honest men and bone lasses.' Of ths you are too too just a proof but nay your future fate be a brght excepton to the remark. n the words of Hamlet-. 'Adeu adeu adeu! remember ne.' HOBERT BURNS. Ths was not however the Bard's frst vst to the dstrct for he was here more than a year before when he wrote at Ramage's the well-known lnes addressed to l\1:r John Taylor- \Vth.Pegasus upon a day Apollo weary flyng. The Poet had rdden up the Mennock Pass a road even yct n spte of mprovements one of the steepest n the south of Scotland. ~ was frosty weather and the Poet determned to get hs horse's shoes sharped before attemptng thc return journey. The blacksmth at Wanlockhead beng busy at the tme would not at frst undertake the job. Luckly Burns's companon a Mr John Sloan was ntmate wth the manager of the mnes Mr John Taylor who on beng nformed of the Poet's wshes nduced the smth to put the horse's caulkers n order. The smth's name was Hutchson and he was wont to boast n later days that he had never been so well pad for hs labour as he was by Burns who pad hm w' sller pad hm w' drnk and pad hm w' a sang. Apparently the verses though addressed to Mr Taylor had come nto the possesson of the son of Vulcan. The lnes were frst publshed n Cunnngham'S edton (1834). The '

84 S John Taylor here referred to belonged to Leadhll. where hs father's and grandfather's tombstone may stll be seen n the cemetery. The nscrpton may be consdered one of the most remarkable n the country. t reads Sacred to the memory of Robert Taylor who was durng many years an overseer to the Scotch Mnng Company at Leadhlls and ded May 6th 1791 n the 67th year of hs age. He s bured by the sde of hs father John Taylor. HGHEST NHABTED HOUSE N SCOTLAND. (Sts nenr the boundrry between Oum flesshre a nd Lnne.rkshl re) who ded n ths place at the remarkable age of 137 years. Remarkable ndeed! Ths old patrarch was of Englsh brth. havng frst >een the lght n Cumberland. HE' ded n May 1770 and. whle there s reason to doubt the' accuracy of the statement on the tombstone. there s evdence that he was consderably over the century. He clamed to remember a famous eclpse of the' sun whch artronomcal nvestgatons showed had taken place n A brother of the John Taylor who a ssted Burns was Jame Taylor. who was asrocated wth Patrck Mller of Dalswnton

85 ~ ::~ J J '! j ~ '!1 ' 11 < : '~ 1! ' 1 : j ';! d f; :1 'tl ; '' ~! '!:': :! 't! j! :1 ~~! :. : -'': H J' ' 1:: t' j'!! :.! ~\ 111 : : h ~ '! ~ ' : 1. 1 ' 'f j. 82 Burns's landlord n hs experments regardng the applcaton of steam to navgaton.' Another Leadhlls man assocated wth these experments was Wllam Symngton to whose memory a handsome monument was erected n the vllage about thrty years ago. But there s another son of Leadhlls vhose nfluence on the Bard s notceable n hs works and for whose memory Burns had great respect. Ths s Allan Ramsay Honest Allan who was born at Leadhlls n Hs father was also an overseer n the mnes but he ded at the early age of 24 and hs wdow Alce Bower soon afterwards marred a farmer of the name of Crchton whose farm was n Crawford Moor. Allan attended the old parochal school n Crawford tll hs departure for Ednburgh n Just seven years after the death of Burns ths dstrct was vsted by two of the best known of Englsh poets Wordsworth and Colerdge. They journeyed by way of the Mennock and put up at the Hopetoun Arms n hadhlls. They afterwards crossed by a hll road to Crawfordjohn and there they met wth an accdent to ther gg whch delayed them somewhat.. The two poets were accompaned by Mss Wordsworth (Dorothy) and we have a short descrpton of the country as t appeared to her: Travelled through several reaches of the glen (Glengonnar) whch somewhat resembled the valley of the Mennock on the other sde of Wanlockhead but t was not near so beautful; the forms of the mountans dd not melt so exqustely nto each other and there was a coldness and f may so speak a want of smplcty n the surface of the earth; the heather was poor not coverng a whole hllsde not n luxurant streams and beds ntervened wth rch verdure but patchy and stunted wth here and there coarse grass and rushes. t s n every way probable that Burns went through the parsh when he vsted Ednburgh n He was then resdng at Ellsland and the drect road was by way of the?alveen Pass through Crawford and Abngton and on by way of Bggar to the captal. Bggar was regarded by travellers from Md-.~

86 83 ~thsdale as the half-way house on the way to Ednburgh - a pont used to good purpose by Joseph Lang Vaugh n one of hs delghtful sketches of. Robbe Doo. n the wrter's opnon ths was the most lkely occason for the Bard's vst to the Parsh Church of Bggar though most wrters place t earlel'. Dalveen Pass s a lovely and romantc glen wth t own memores of the natonal and Covenantng Rtrugglt's. Hs mentoned ENTRANCE TO LEADHLLS. twce by Burns lmder the ttle of the lang glen and the lang loan n hs well-known song.. Last Maya braw wooer cam' down the lang glen. Orgnally the thrd lne of the fourth stanza ran He up the Gateslack to my black cousn Bess. but on Thomson objectng the Poet changed the words to He up the lang loan. Gateslack says Burns s postvely the name of a partcular place a knd of passage among the Lowther hlls on the confnes of ths count.y. The name s stll gven to one of the farms n Dursdeer parsh on the sde of the lang glen.

87 R4 - r Burns _ pad hs last vst to Edna n November He was then resdent n Dumfres and there s no evdence as to what road he took so he may have traversed Crawford agan but from a remark he makes n a letter to Alex. Cunrngham t seems more lkely that he travelled by Moffat and Tweedsmur. Ths was the coach road and the scene of the dsaster to the mal coach n the year of the bg snaw n the letter referred to he says am sorry dd not know hm (Thomson) when was n Ednburgh but wll tell you of a plot have been contrvng. You and he shall n the course of the summer meet me half way that s at the' Beld nn.' Ths meetng however never took place. The nn sts' close to the hghway opposte the parsh church of Twecdsmur about two mles south of the better-known Crook nn. From Berwck to the Beld t may be noted s the Tweedsde equvalent of the Scottsh From Madenkrk to John 0' Groats The parsh whch adjons Crawford s Crawfordjohn probably one of the most secluded n the south of Scotland so much so ndeed that men speak n proverbs sayng oot 0' the war' and nto Crawfordjohn. Burns's frend Wllam Johnstone resded at Clackcleth on the borders of Sanqnhar and Crawfordjohn. Ths s the Trusty auld worthy Clackcleth of the postcrpt to.the Krk's Alarm and as seems lkely Burns vsted the hosptable home he would be wthn a short dstance of the boundary of the parsh. There s stll extant a short letter of Burns n' whch menton s made of a Crawfordjohn man who along wth Clackcleth'~ asssted the Bar~ n hs recovery of old Scots Ars: Memorandum for Provost E-- W-- to get from john French hs sets of the fol~nvng Scots ars:- (1) The auld yowe jumpt owre the tether.. (2) Nne nchts awa welcome hame my deare. (3) A' the nchts 0' the year the chapman drnks nae water. Mr Whgham wll ether of hmself or through that ~. :;.!

88 85 worthy veteran of orgnal wt and socal nquty' Clackcleth' procure these and t wll bc extremely oblgng to R. B. Ths note must belong to a date after 1793 for t was n that year that Whgham became Provost of Sanquhar.. Tohn French belonged to a famly whch was well known n Crawfordjohn;and s stll representf'd there. John Black who acted wth Clackcleth as trustec for the credt orr of John Laprak the old Scotch bard was also a CrawfOfcjohn man. n concluson t may be added that the herone of the song Yon wld mossy mountans har been clamed for Crawford. To the wrter the scenery descrbed n the poem seems to ft the. dstrct around Elvanfoot better than that around Covngton: t s dffcult to speak of the youth of the Clyde at a pont so far down the stream. Scott Douglas s certanly n error when he refers to the nfant Clyde meanderng there. The rver at the base of Tnto s as large as many a Scottsh rver s when t enters the sea. The nfancy of the Clyde s n Crawford parsh whether the source be found n the Lttle Clyde or at the head of the Daer a rver by the way whch gave a ttle to the frst nobleman wth whom the Bard dnnered and whose whole course belongs to uppernost Clydesdale. The estates whrh led to the adorton of the ttle by the famly are now largely n the pcssesson of the Marro. ns of Lnlthgow. WNL M'l'LLAK St..eollard's DU/erlll/llc. t:... '. 6 t. '~.

89 '! ' ' >. h. ->~ 'd.. ' '' ' r.1.1 ;; lj ': l 1!1 ' 1:: : 11 ~! '! d! '; 1'1 ' '' ' :; '~! 1 1'. ' ;1: W 1~ : ' j! '~ ~h ' 1;1 11; 'W '. t l'.' 1 ' 1 't(! ' ; ' T SHENSTONE AND BURNS. o estmate the nfluence of Shenstone upon Burns t wll be necessary to recall the' poston Shenstone had acqured n the lterary world and hs standng as a poet when Burns came under the power of the bosommeltng throe wth Shenstone's art (Tlte' Vson) somewhere about the year Wrtng about hs frend and contemporary Rchard Graves says :- Few men have rsen wth so rapd a progress and on apparently so slender a foundaton from a state of the utmost obscurty to so great a degree of celebrty and repute as 1\1r Shenstone. Born to a very small paternal estate whch hs ancestors cultvated for a subsstence he embellshed t for hs amusement; and that n so good a taste as to attract the notce not only of the neghbourng gentry and noblty but almost of every person n tho kngdom who ether had or affected to have any relsh of rural beautes; so that no one came to sec the noble and delghtful seat of Lord Lyttelton at Hagley who dd not vst wth proportonable delght the humbler charms of the Leasowes. 1\r Shenstone's talents of a dfferent knd have made hm as much known and admred for hs wrtngs n the elegac and pastoral styles as he was at frst for the elegance of hs taste n rural embellshments. saac D'srael n hs Ourostes of Lterature wrtten 17!) found t necessary to enter upon a vndcaton to protect the fne natural genus of Shenstone from the fatal njures nflcted on hm by the crtcsm of hs contemporares. Evdently f Shenstono needed vndcaton n or about 1800 the perod of hs hghest fame must ndeed have been short but that perod durng whch he enjoyed hs hghest popularty would be a perod

90 87 mmedately 'precedng Burns's frst acquantance wth hs Works. The artcle n whch Shenstone s vndcated contans passages that throw lght on the consderable nfluence Shenstone must have had amongst hs contemporares and f that nfluence had been such as to affect the elder D'srael who s credted by hs son wth beng wthout a passon or a prejudce then a fortor they must have had t stronger nfluence on the susceptble tnder heart of the youthful Burns. The passages whch llnstrate ths nfluence are :- 'Vhy have the EleJe~ of Shenstone whch forty years ago formed for many of us the favourte poems of our youth ceased to delght us n mature lfe? t s perhaps that these Eleges planned wth pecular felcty have lttle n ther executon. They form a seres of poetcal truths devod of poetcal expresson; truths for notwthstandng the p:1storal romance n whch the poet has enveloped hmself the subjects arc real and the feelngs could not therefore be fcttous. f Shenstone created lttle from the magnaton he was at least perpetually under the nfluence of real emotons. Ths s the reason why hs truths so strongly operate on the juvenle mnd not yet matured; and thus we have suffcently ascertaned the fact as the Poet hmself has expressed t 'that he drew hs pctures from the spot and he felt very sensbly the affectons he communcates.' Consstent wth S:1ae D'srael's estm'1te we fnd the effect of Shenstone very cleuly m!1rked n the frst Commonplace Book of Burns (1783). Burns had told Dr 1\1oore th:tt when he was at Krkoswald (1775) hs re:1dng had bcen enlarged by the very mport:mt addton of Shenstone's works. n the Common-place Book the frst quotaton s from Shenstone- there are numbers 'n the world who do not want sense to m!1ke a fgure so much as an opnon of ther own abltes to put them upon recordng ther observatons and allowng them the same mportance whch they do to those whch appear n prnt; and the r \'!.'

91 : ~~~!. ' ' ' \! '!: ~! r :{ t f. 'll'!: ' ' '. ' f! '41' ~h' '::. ~ 1. t( : 1 1 j :1.) j :'!! :1 ; : ' ; ) : s('cond quotaton we also fnd s from Shenstonc's frst Elegy- 88 Pleasng when youth s long expr'd to trace The forms our pencl or our pen desgn'd! Such was our youthful ar and shape and face; Such the soft mage of our youthful mnd. These quotatons shew that Burns's study of Shenstone was not confncd alone to thc poems for the frst or prose quotaton s taken from Shenstonc's Egotsm XLV. n hs Essay on Man and Manners ; and agan'the quotaton staned wth gult and crmsoned o'er wth crmcs whch Burns used n connecton wth Blackguards s takl.'ll from Shenstone's XX. Elegy.. Thc references to Shenstone n Burns's Common-place Book can be supplemented by extracts from thc lctters of Burns whch almost convnce that Shenstone was one of the models whom Burns set up for hs sclf-educaton n the realms of poetry and t s not surprsng to fnd these nfluenccs at work when Burns gves hs works to the publc. n the Poet's Preface to the Klmarnock (1786) Edton of hs Poems he says t s an observaton of that celebrated poet whose dvne Eleges do honour to our language our naton and our speces that' Humlty has depressed many a genus to a hermt but never rased one to fame.' Ths quotaton about Humlty s taken from Shenstone's prose works and s the concludng observaton n the Essay on Allowng mert n others. The above references should be suffcent to shew how large a part and how strongly Shenstone worked on Burns's feelngs and t may not be overstraned when we say that one feels forced to admt that Shenstone was one of the models of thought and expresson that domnated the wrtng of the four lnes of apology wth whch Burns ntroduced the commencng poet to the publc :_ The smple Bard unbroke by rules of art He pours the wld effusons of the heart; And f nspred 'ts Nature's pow'rs nspred Her's all the meltng thrll and her's the kndlng fre.

92 8\} Smlartes of dcton to thcsc four lnes are found n Shenstone's Elcgy No.1 :- 0 lov'd smplcty! be thne the prze! Assduous art correct her page n van! Hs be the palm who gultless of dsguse Contemns the pow'r the dull resource to fegn! The frst two lnes of ths verse convey the same sentments as Burns does. Agan n Elegy No.1 s the nspraton :- 'Vrte from thy bosom-let not art controul The ready pen that makes hs edcts known. And Shenstone cmphasses the orgn of ths smplcty when he says n verse 3:- Hence! the fant verse that flows not from tho heart. Agan n verse 6 we fnd the two lnes :-. Soft as the lne of love-sck Hammond flows 'Twas hs fond heart effus'd the meltng theme. Burns's words effusons and meltng are surely t lttle more than a concdence and t s further notccd that meltng s the adjcctve that he n The Vson apples to Shenstone's art. f the wrter has not proved hs suspcons amountng to a belef that Shenstone was the man nspraton for the ntroductory Apology to the Klmarnock Edton he may surely flatter hmself that hs belef s certanly not groundless. Other smlartes n the works of Shenstone and Burns cxst whch may form subject-matter for a future paper but the foregong notes may serve as an ntroducton to the nfluences that Shcnstone exercsed on the formaton of Burns's thoughts. A. J. CHAW.. ~ '! ' j l ~

93 ' ;.' ;;.' j!! ' ' ':1 '~ <0 1 ' 1! ~ : ';'1 '! :! l! : ' ' :1 11 : T! ' : (':. ' '! 1. 1 '''~j '.!::!; j : '. ' ''!!! :! '.1 : 1 'll ~!\ ~! ' 1..'1 '' ':'! ~ THE HERALDRY OF BURNS. CAN magne that many of the admrers of the Bard wll be somewhat surprsed at the ttle of ths paper. Heraldry seems far removed ndeed from the crcle n whch Burns moved. No one could speak wth greater power than he of a' the tnsel trash 0' State yet t remans a fact that the Poet who sang A man's a man for a' that also wrote am a bt of a herald. n qute a number of hs letters and poems we have allusons to the Gentle Scence and t s to deal wth those that ths paper s wrtten. Burns lke. so many of hs contemporares used a seal and t s n connecton wth hs obtanng a new seal n 17!l4 that he makes the statement quoted above. t occurs n a letter to hs Ednburgh correspondent Alexander Cunnngham of date 3rd March 1794: There s one commsson that must trouble you wth. lately lost a valuable seal a present from a departed frend whch vexes me much. have gotten one of your Hghland pebbles whch fancy would make a very decent one; and want to cut my armoral bearngs on t: wll you be so oblgng as to enqure what wll be the expense of such a busness? do not know that my name s matrculated as the heralds call t at all but have nvented arms for myself so you know wll be chef of the name; and by courtesy of Scotland wll lkewse be enttled to supporters. These however do not ntend havng on my seal. am a bt of a herald and shall gve you.~ecundum artcm my arms :-On a feld azure a holly-bush seeded proper; n base a shepherd's ppe and crook salterwse also proper n chef. On a wreath of the colours a woodlark perchng on a sprg of bay-tree proper for crest. Two mottoes-round the top of the crest Wood-notes wld'; at the bottom of the sheld n the usual place ' Better a '

94 91 wee bush-than nae beld.' By the shepherd's ppe ard crook do not mean the nonsense of panters of Arcada but a stock arul horn and a Club such as you see at the head of Allan Ramsay n Allan's quarto edton of the Gentle Shepherd. From ths t s qute evdent that Burns had pad attenton to the grammar of heraldry for no herald could have descrbed the arms more correctly. Heraldc language s sometmes rather mystfyng to the ordnary : :..' ndvdual yet here the Poet shows that he s qute well acquanted wth the techncal terms used n these matters. The. sheld s coloured azure.e. blue. The holly-bush ppe and crook are proper.e. they are n ther natural colours; whle the two latter are placed salter-wse n chef whch means that they are placed n the form of an x n tm upper part of. the sheld. The wreath s the twsted ~. ~ '....~. \! ~-

95 j j ' '. ~' U : ~. ' t ~ ' J. j ':!; t ''!l.l 1 '.1 l~: ' :: -'. ~.!r t~ : ' 92 fllet of slk whch was formerly used to bnd the crest to the helmet of the wearer and the colours are those of the arms. Wth regard to the charges on the sheld Burns was at pans to see that they were engraved properly. Hs lettcr to Cunnngham ndcates that he was afrad that the desgner would not fashon the shepherd's ppe correctly. That hs anxety was not wthout cause s shown by the fact tha t n a sketch of those arms drawn by one of the leadng hcraldc panters n Scotland the very error whch the Poet wshed to guard aganst was made and an Arcadan ppe ntroduced. The stock and horn was n some ways a favourte nstrument of the Poet's. \Vrtng to Thomson wth regard to a plate Davd Allan (the Scottsh Hogarth) was dong for the forthcomng volume of songs he says: Tell my frend Allan that much suspect he has n hs plates mstaken the fgure of the stock and horn. have at last gotten one but t s a very rude nstrument. t s composed of three parts-the stock whch s the hnder thgh bone of a sheep such as you see n a mutton ham; the horn whch s a comlllon Hghland cow's horn cut off at the smaller end untl the aperture be large enough to admt the' stock' to be pushed up through the horn untl t be held by the thcker end of the thgh bone; and lastly an oaten reed exactly cut and notched lke that whch you see every shepherd boy have when the corn stems are green and full grown. The reed s not made fast n the bone but s held by the lps and plays loose n the smaller end of the stock whle the stock and horn hangng on ts larger end s held by the hands n playng. The stock has sx or seven ventges on the upper sde and one baek ventge lke the common lutc. Ths of mne was made by a man from the braes of Athole and s exactly what the shepherds were wont to use n that country. n another letter he suggests that n one of the other plates beng made for the volume a stock and horn should be placed n the hands of one of the fgures nstead of a pece of knttng. Thomson had not the same deas as hs correspondent for n one of hs

96 93 letters to the Bard he remarks: doubt much f t (the stock and horn) was capable of anythng but routng and roarng. A frend of mne says he remembers to have heard one n hs younger days made of wood nstead of your bone and that the sound was abomnable. Apparently Cunnngham had had a desgn prepared for Burns's seal and had sent t through Thomson to hm at Dumfres for n a letter of May 1794 to Thomson we have the followng: My seal s all well except that the holly must be a bush not a tree as n the present sheld. also enclose t and wll send the pebble at the frst opportunty. The selecton of the shepherd's ppe for the arms of a rustc poet s qute easly accounted for. Probably the same feelng suggested the crook though we mght have expected somethng suggestve of the plough for the Bard was never a shepherd n the strct sense of the word. t s not so easy to fnd a reason for the the use of the holly. t s the badge of the clans Mackenze and l\acmllan but Burns had no connecton wth ether. Apparently however he had a specal regard for the prckly leaf for n The Vson he pctures Cola wearng a wreath of ts leaves :- Green slender leaf-clad holly boughs Vere twsted gracefu' round her brows - and n the last stanza he pctures her crownng the rustc Bard wth her own garland :- And wear thou ths' she solemn sad And bound the holly round my head : The polshed leaves and berres red Dd rustlng pla.y ;.. :j And lke a passng thought she fled n lght away. At frst sght t seems dffcult to tmderstand why he should have assocated the holly wth the Scottsh muse nor does the plant strke one as furnshng the most approprate--or the most comfortable-leaves for a head-dress. The Scottsh clan badges were generally chosen from evergreen plants. Sr Walter Scott mentons that the downfall of the Stewarts was supposed to be omcncd by ther j 'l r t ; ' ~ ~f: '. ' ~. ~

97 - ' 1 J ~ j ; 11 1 ' ' ~ \1' l ~ ': ~ n - ' W t' ; r~' '.. ''0 : '' ' 1 ~:\ 1. j... 'f ~ 'j - J ' 1 J - '1 l ' ll l t! ' ':1 -' ': J - ' :. 1 ' -' havng chosen the oak whch was not an evergreen as ther dstnctve symbol and ths may have nfluenced thc Bard n the choce of the holly for hs cognzance. Judgng from hs poetry the brch was hs favourte tree. There s however another reason whch may be put forward to account for the Poet's choce. Although a natve of Kyle he was born upon the Carrck border and the holly s tradtonally assocated wth the latter dstrct. Culzean the seat of the Marqus of Alsa means The place of the holly. The arms of the rvne famly of Drum consst of three bunches of holly leaves and the tradton regardng them s that when Robert Bruce took up arms n support of hs clam to the throne of Scotland he apponted Wllam de rvn as hs personal attendant bestowng upon hm the arms whch he had borne as Earl of Carrck. The supporters of the Drum arms t may be noted are two savages. wreathed -about head and lons wth holly. The Earldom of Carrck n the Scottsh peerage s now held by the eldest son of the Kng whose chef Scottsh ttle-after that of Prnce of Scotland-s Duke of Rothesay a fact Burns alludes to n one of hs Jacobte songs ;- 94 n the rollng tde of swellng Clyde There sts an sle of hgh degree And a town of fame whose prncely name Should grace the lass of Albane. Strctly speakng armoral bearngs are confned to the contents of the sheld and heraldc wrters have regarded the appendages supporters crest motto &c. as beng of less mportance than the charges; but although such s the case these add much to the nterest and beauty of the achevement (the complete coat-of-arms). For crest Burns chose a woodlark perchng on a sprg of bay-tree a most approprate crest be t sad especally as the lark seems to have been hs favourte among the brds. n early days the crest was actually worn on the helmet and the Poet's choce was such that t could wthout much dffculty have been transferred to the head-dress. The bay or laurel has been used from tme mmemoral

98 ''~' ~. f 95 for the crowns wth whch heroes were rewarded and for the garlands wth wheh poet's were crowned. t s probable that ths ancent use accounts for ts menton here. n the epstle to James Smth the Bard says of hmself :- Then farewell hopes of laurel-bough To garland my poetc brow and t wll be remembered that he wrote an address to the shade of Thomson on crownng hs bust wth bays. Ths. he dd at the request of the Earl of Buchan who apparently wshed to honour hmself as well as the Poet. n a later poem Burns ndeates that Thomson had won the unfadng garland wthout the ad of any noble.'s patronage. n the epgram on Elphnstone we have also a reference to Laurel'd Martal. The mottoes now clam attenton. The frst s Wood-notes wld. The expresson was a favourte one wth the Bard and n at least four of hs letters he refers to Bonne Jean's wood-note wld. The phrase was used by Mlton n hs Penseroso (see lnes 131-4) :- Then to the well-trod stage anon l Jonson's learned sock be on Or sweetest Shakespeare' fancy's chld Warble hs natve' wood-notes wld.' t s qute probable that the Scottsh Poet who was an earnest student of Mlton s quotng from hs Englsh predecessor though t s equally possble that the quotaton s at second hand. The expresson was used by Henry Mackenze n the revew of the Klmarnoek edton publshed n The Lounger for 9th December The Bard's frst use of the words dates from after hs frst Ednburgh vst. The motto has a double meanng ndcatng the nature of ts user's poetry and also the sweetness of the woodlark's melody. A' very large number of ancent Scottsh mottoes have some alluson to the cres18 of the bearers and ths doubtless nfluenced the Bard n hs choce. The second motto Better a wee bush than nae beld ' '.

99 . '~ ~ 1 ; j : ' ' ' :. J 'l ' '/l '\ ' l :'11 : ' t '!f! : ~ ':'': 1 ~.' '..! j; ' ' ; t ~! ' ~ r 1 )! j' \' ~ ' ': j : s a proverbal cxpresson stll current n the south-west of Scotland. Whether ts use here was suggested by the bush n the arms or whether the bush'n the arms was suggcsted by the motto s a problem we have no means of solvng. n vcw of the fact however that he nssted on a bush n hs arms and not a' tree t appears more probable that thc prncpal charge was suggested by the motto md not vce versa. t wll be observed that n the descrpton of hs arms Burns says of the second motto. that t was to be put at the' bottom of the sheld n the usual place. Now the usual place for a motto n Scottsh heraldry s above the crest whle on the other hand n Englsh heraldry the motto s usually placed below the sheld. Ths s one of the dfferences between the practces of the two countres. The mstake of placng a Scottsh motto accordng to Englsh use s one that s often made even n quarters where one would expect a better knowledgc of these ponts. Not many years ago one of the Royal Burghs whch had conferred ts freedom upon the Bard nvested n a chan of offce for ts Provost yet despte the fact that ths Royal Burgh prdes tself upon ts patrotsm t had ts arms marshalled accordng to the Englsh usage. Whle the usual rule n Scotland s to place the motto above the crest t s qute legtmate to put a second motto below the sheld. ndeed ths s the usual place for a second motto.. Sr George :Mackenze the Bloody Mackenze of Covenantng tmes s one of the earlest authortes on Scottsh heraldry and accordng to hm the motto should be placed accordng to the porton of the arms sheld crest or supporters to whch t relates Accordng to ths wrter therefore Burns even f he had only had the longer motto would have been qute n order n placng t beneath the sheld. Another dfference between the practce of Scotland and England may be noted as t throws some lght on another part of the letter relatng to the Poet's arms. n the southern country n Burns's day'the only persons enttled to supporters for ther arms were peers of the realu Knghts of the Garter and

100 ~.: 97 a few specally prvleged baronets and commoners n Scotland on the other hand the lst of such persons s much larger. t ncludes not only the classes mentoned above but also representatves of the mnor barons of Scottsh hstory who sat n Parlament prevous to 1587 chefs of clans and persons who can prove usage prcvom; to Burns menton!> that as he has nvented the arms for hmself he w be chef of the name and thus by the courtesy of Scotland w lkewse be enttled to supporters. These he adds do not ntend havng on my seal The one. thng whch strkes everyone wth' a knowledge of the Gentle scence s the correctnerr of the Bard's words regardng hs arms. n a techncal subject such as heraldry t s very easy to make mstakcr but n ths case as has already been stated there s nothng whch could be objected to. When comparson s made wth the coats-of-arms taken out undcr offcal auspces n the end of the 18th and begnnng of the 19th century Burns's desgn does not n any way suffer by the comparson. All wrters are agreed that the average heraldry of the perod was anythng but good. ndeed one Englsh wrter says that n the years n queston the fnal degradaton of heraldry s to be seen and the present Lyon Kng-of-Arms whle not gong so far yet states that then heraldc art was at rather a low ebb. t cannot be dened however that the arms nvented for the Poet by hmself are qute good and n accordance wth the better practce of earler days. The arms gve us another example of the thoroughness wth whch the Bard dd all that he set hs hand to and afford evdence-f such be requred -aganst the down grade theory of hs lfe at Dumfres. The descrpton of the seal was sent to Ednburgh n 1794 but Burns dd' not receve the completed artcle untl 1796 just two months or so before hs death. n Aprl of that year he ntes to Thomson that l\rs Hyslop (of the Globe Tavern) to whom hs letter had been entrusted wll be a very proper person to brng back the seal you ~.! \ ~ :' ~ :'

101 .!! 1 : ' 11 J ~ : ' 98 ; ~. : ' 'l'! ' '.r l j ' ' 1 ' 1!! talk of. Apparently a letter from Thomson s amssng. On 4th July n a postscrpt Thomson remarks Mrs Hyslop doubt not delvered the gold seal to you n good condton and n the next letter from Dumfres we learn that t had arrved' safely the last lne beng many many thanks for the beautful seal. Ths seal passed to hs eldest son Robert and from hm to the Bard's great-granddaughter Mrs Thomas wth whom t remaned tll her death. There s another seal however (descrbed n Burns Chroncle No.4) n the possesson of another branch of the fu.mly. Ths s a pencl seal wth the woodlark perchng on a branch and the motto Wood-notes wld. {t s not mentoned whether the crest s set on a wreath.) t s cut n a yellow topaz set n slver to screw ou the top of pencl case and bears the appearance of age as f havng been well used. Ths seal my father told me was the Poet's. feel convnced t s thc one the Poet spoke of losng t s just the sze for sealng letters. My father set very great value upon t... as beng a genune relc of my greatgrandfather. Ths extract s from a letter dated Adelade October 10th 1894 wrtten by Anne Vncent Burns Scott daughter of Mrs Hutchson who was agan the daughter of the Poet's son James Glencarn. Burns used at least two other seals n hs correspondence. The earlest was of no heraldc desgn beng oval and showng a fgure wth harp n hand_ t was used as early as The second s of more nterest. t bears a heart transfxed by two arrows. The frst letter to whch t was affxed s one relatng to the brth of the Poet's thrd son Wllam Ncol. Scott Douglas draws attenton to the seal wth ts symbolc mpresson as pregnant wth meanng. For nne days before the date of the brth of Wllam Ncol the Poet's 'Anna of the gowden locks' was' delvered of a daughter who was afterwards brought up by Mrs Burps. t s possble that the seal was desgned by the Bard n vew of the poston he found hmself n but t s hardly lkely. The heart s a common charge on arms ns cot - 1 '

102 1::.: t; t - ~.. ~: r r;.;. '.4 99 land owng doubtless to ts assocaton wth the Douglas famly. :No fewer than seventy coats bearng the heart are recorded n the Publc Regster of Scottsh Arms. One of the coats regstered thcre s very lke Burns's seal. Alexander Yeoman has for arms argent a heart g1tles perced wth two darts. Dd Burns use a smlar desgn to ndcate that he was also a yeoman? ' Heraldry n Scotland s regulated by the Lyon Offce at the head of whch s Lyon Kng-of-Arms commonly though ncorrectly styled the Lord Lyon. n that offce are kcpt the heraldc rccords genealoges &c. belongng to the kngdom of Scotland and on the occason of hs frst vst to Ednburgh Burns called there n order to dscover f possble partculars regardng hs famly. n the atuobography whch he wrote for Dr Moore the followng occurs: have not the most dstant pretence to what the pye-coated guardans of escutcheons call a gentleman. When at Ednburgh last wnter got acquanted at the Herald's Offce and lookng through the granary of honours there found almost every name n the kngdom. But for me- :\y ancent but gnoble blood Has crept thro' scolmdrels snce the flood.' Gules purpure argent &c. qute dsowned me. At the tm'e of hs vst the Lyon Kng-of-Arms was John Hooke Campbell of Bangeston; but t s questonable whether he would take much nterest n the offce at all for n the latter end of the 18th century the offce of Lyon was treated as a snecure. 1\1ost f not all of the work was done by the Lyon-Depute an offce abolshed n The Lyon Depute of Burns's day was Robert Boswell a wrter to the sgnet who also held the offce of Lyon-Clerk. n ths offce he also had a deputy one Robert Rankn a solctor n the cty and the latter probably would be the person who helped the Poet n hs researches. t may not be out of place to say that the foregn-lookng words (Jules purpure ar(jent or whch occur here and n a ~' 'j ':. ~.' 1.! \ ': 1~ : r ~ 4~. ~ ~ r ~' r '..: \: ~' ; -..: :..:.. ; ' ' :11' ; ~ r T f 1:1 ~ ' ~ ~ '. - '\ lr fj. ~ 1j t 1 lr l. 11 l f' 1 : :t :!. '.

103 1 ~!. ; :1 j : ~ ~ 'J <1 :~ j L '!t!.'. - t'. J.~: f ;.J ';~ : ' t:: ' ' ':1 j'l' '~ 1 ~\ h ~.~. ~ ~ ' : ~ 1 \' '!; r ~! 100 letter to l\rs Dunlop are the heraldc.terms for red purple whte (or slver) yellow (or gold). The pye-eoated guardans were n addton to the Lyon and hs depute the heralds and pursuvants all Of whom bore ttles of some antquty: The heralds had as ttles Albany slay l\archmont Ross Rothesay and' Snowdon; whle the pnrsuvants ere Bute Carrck Dngwall Kntyre Ormond and Uncorn. There are now only three of each the other offces havng been abolshed n Pyecoated refers of course to the tabards whch form the offcal dress of the heraldc executve. and whch bear the Royal Arms n full colour. n pre-unon days the ta bards were quartered n accordance wth the Scottsh form of the Royal Arms but n Burns's day as n our own the Englsh form was used. The Bard n a letter to Mrs Dunlop declared that nothng could reconcle hm to the common terms Englsh Ambassador Englsh Court the Commons of England and we can well beleve that n ths matter also he ~ould not be pleased to see Scottsh forms thrust asde for Englsh ones. That Bums knew somethng of the procedure of the Lyon Offce s shown n hs works. The proclamaton of hs early days n name of the nne s as correctly formal as any herald could have made t. Matthew Henderson held hs patent for hs honours mmedately from Almghty God a phrase whch ganed the admraton of Carlyle. n a letter to an unknown correspondent from Ellsland he Htes: When matrculate n the Herald's Offce ntend that my supporters shall be two sloths my crest a slow-worm and the motto'del tak' the foremost' (he was apologsng for delay n answerng a letter). The only reference to the' head of the Lyon Offce s n that remarkable letter whch Scott Douglas has termed Lterary Bllngsgate where he addresses hs correspondent as Thou Lyon herald to slly etymology. Of actual eoats-of-arms we have been able to dscover references to four only each however belongng to a dstngushed Scottsh famly. n the note~ 1

104 101 whch Burns added to the copy of Scots wha hae presented to Dr Hughes he relates that well-known ncdent n Scottsh hstory when Bruce struck down Comyn n the Greyfrars' Church n Dumfres and then rushed out cryng doubt have slan the Comyn. Do you doubt? cred Sr Roger de Klpatrck one of hs companons 'll mak' sccar whereupon he entered the church and slew the enemy of hs kng as he lay besde the altar. Burns quotes Klpatrck's words as 've sekered hm and adds untl lately ths was the motto of the Closeburn famly but the late Sr Thomas changed t nto ''ve made sure.' The crest s stll the bloody dagger. The second reference s to the arms of the house of Douglas arms ':hch probably fgure more promnently n the lterature of Scotland than those of any other famly. The old ballad depcts the Douglas banner :- The blodye herte n the Douglas arms Hs standard stood on he That every man mght full we knowe Besyde stood starres three. Sr\Valter Scott n Marmon wrtes of the sheld carved over the doorway of Tantallon :- Of sculpture rude a stony sheld The bloody heart was n the feld And n the chef three *mullets stood The 'cognzance of Douglas blood. Burns's reference s not so explct but t s qute clear : But cautous Q.ueensberry left the war The unmanner'd dust mght sol hs star; Besdes he hated tbleedng. The last word has a double'reference-(a) to the bloody heart on the arl11s (b) to ts wearer's penurous habts. The Douglas arms orgnally conssted of a sheld argent wth a chef azure bearng three whte stars. After the dc'ath of the Good Sr J.ll11eS the bloody heart wns ullet s the heraldc term for a star. t talc!'! Burns'~. 7 ~ t' r ~.. ' l '. ' : r '.. l ;

105 J j l' r ~ :l!. ') ; 't 102 added to commemorate the msson he undertook \vth a vew to carryng the heart of the Bruce to the Holy Land-a msson whch as everyone knows he dd not lve to fulfl. Wllam;'Duke of Queensberry succeeded tqthat ttle n 1778 and just two years before that Wllam the last Earl of Nthsdale; had ded. The latter's arms conssted of a double-headed eagle bearng on ts breast a sheld wth' the St. Andrew's Cross thereon. Does ths explan the lnes?- Drumlanrg's towers hae tnt the powers That kept the lands n awe man; The eagle's dead and n hs stead Ve've gotten a hoody craw man. t s true that Burns could not have known the Earl but as the Earl was t Maxwell a famly whch n the person of ts veteran chef the Bard admred t s at least possble that he s alluded to here. The last reference s rather dfferent. t occurs n the Electon Ballad :- The Murray on the auld grey yaud V' wnged spurs dd rde. Murray of Broughton had eloped wth a lady of the name of Johnston and ths s the<p.oet's ple~~ant' way of alludng to the crcumstance. The wnged' spur v!1s the crest of the famly and there s a tradton n 'the famly that ts use was due to the fact that t was a Johnston who warned Bruce (whle he 'YM stll at the Court of the Kng of England) of Edward's resentment by sendng hm a par of spurs to whch grouse feathers were attached a hnt whch was not lost on the hero. At' any rate the flvn~ spur s the 0 crest of the Johnstons to ths day whle for ther arms they use the salter and chef of the Bmees wth dfferent eolollff;. The -home:of the J ohnstons was Ann.llluale and probably n no dstrct n all Scotland- s the flmblem of the leadng famly to be seen so frequently as the ' wnged spur.. s to be seen there. One of the mnsters mentoned n -the Electon Ballads

106 lol was l\urhead of Urr who clamed to be chef of the clan Murhcad and who s sad to have been gven to boastlg of hs lang pedgree. He was not content to st stll under the attacks of the Bard 'and n a lttle brochurc publshed n Ednburgh he gave Burns a stngng reply. t took the form of a quotaton fromlllartaz's Epgrams followed by a free translaton and of ts smartness there can be no doubt. Burns repled to the mnster about a year later n hs Buy Braw Troggn :- Here's armoral bearngs Frae the lanse 0' Urr ;. The crest an auld crab-apple Rotten at the core. ;... j ~.. '11..'. ~. ~ ;. ;.. (The Murhead arms conssted of three acorns.) The word bearngs n an armoral sense s found n the 1790 Electon Ballads where the Poet summonses to thc Whg sde the muffled murtherer of Charles who- The Magna Charta flag unfurls. All deadly gules t's bearng whch-as gules s the heraldc term for red-gves'the Red Flag of the revolutonary a greater antquty than s usually clamed for t. n the Ednb1trgh Journal the frst lnes of the Eptaph ~n Fe rguson ; are gven thus:~. No pagean t bearngs here nor pompous lay No stored urn or anmated bust.' n the poemr of Burns we have qute a ll\~lhberof references to natonal emblems. Naturally we WOlllel expect the thstle to lead the way but. t R nterestng to note that whereas he mentons that emblem. four tn~e~ he mentons the rose forty-threc. ndee~ judgng from hs yerses the rose appears to have been hs favourte flnn''; n ts capacty as the floral symbol of Englanrf howe '0(';:. the rosc docs not appear 'so very often thc nlost strkng lne beng that n The Banks of Deyon :- And England trump.hapt dsplay her proud rose

107 : l 104 The whte rose was also the badge of the Jacobtes and therefore pleasng to the Poet :- And here's the flower that 1 lo'e best The rose 1:hat's lke the snaw. As the symbol of Scotland the thstle appears three tmes _.! The rough burr-thstlu spreadng wde Amang the bearded bear- 1 turn'd the weeder clps asde An' spared the symbol dear. Agan he pants Scotland greetn' owre her thrssle ; whle n the thrd nstance he jons the emblems of the two countr rs Our thrssles floursh'd fresh and fur And bone bloom'd our roses;. But Whgs cam' lke a frost n June An' wther'd a' ollr poses. The only other floral symbol he mentons' s the Lly of ]?ranee the Fleur.de-l8 :~ Let Bourbon exult n hs gay glded lles. n Caledona we meet' wth qute a number of natonal emblems although not all of them 'are enttled to be called heraldc. Here we have the ROtuan eagle the Norse hoar the Dansh raven as well as the Anglan and Caledonan lons. The latter are stll to be seen n the Royal Arms of Brtan. The black-headed eagle as keen as a beagle the Austran successor of the eagle of mperal Rome has also a lne n the verses of the Poet. Everyone knows that of late years there has hren some' dspute as to whether the Lon Rampant s a Royal or Natonal flag. n the summer of l!h9 a newspaper correspondence of more than usual nterest went on regardng ths subject n the columns of the Gla8rJOW Herald Scottsh lterature was

108 105 lad under contrbuton on both sdes and poets; from BarbOur and Blnd Harry to Ayton and from Dunbar and llndsay to Allan Ramsay and Walter Scott were freely quoted. But t was rather strange and perhaps saddenng that.not one sngle quotaton was made from the works of the Natonal Bard although several references to t'he flag mght have bcen found there. Two references mght f they stood alone be construed n favour of the Natonal poston as when n Caledona he refers to her as- A lambkn n peace but a lon n war and hs frst letter to the Earl of Buchan n whch he refer:; to those places where Caledona rejocng saw her bloody lon borne through broken ranks to vctory and fame. Xether quotaton can be called conclusve. On the other sde we have the lnes of the Address to Ednburgh. When referrng to Scotland's kngs he wrtes :- Vld boat; lly heart to trace your steps '''hose ancestors n days of yore Thro' hostle ranks and run'd gaps Old Scota's bloody lon bore. And n a letter to Robert Mur from Strlng he delvers hs soul thus: Two hours ago sad a fervent prayer for old Caledona over the hole n a blue whnstore where Robert de Bruce fxed hs Royal Standard on the banks of Bannockburn. These quotatons seem to put Burns's vew beyond dspute. Nor s that opnon to be wondered at seeng that he had some acquantance wth the scence of heraldry for all heraldc wrters ancent and modern Scottsh Englsh and contnental agree n ths that the lon rampant of red on gold surrounded by the doublc trcssure flory counter-flory was the flag of the Kng of.scots. t does appear strange however that he nowhere mcntons spccfcally the. Scottsh natonal flag the St. Andrew's salter of whte and blue a fact whch s all the more strange when we remember that part of the arms of the royal burgh of Ayr was ths very flag. t s possble

109 1 ' ' ' '/' ' \ j! j ~.1 'J ~ ' J 'f ~ L.. 1..' J; 'f ~ : ' 1!! :.1 ~..J 1 'fll j' ' ' ''';.f ~ : ''j '~. ~:\ 1. ol/ \ [. ~!! ' ' 1 t' ' : 10'6 that the placng of the crook and'horn n salter on hs. arms was suggcsted by the St Andrew's cross btt of ths there s no evdence Dr 'Vallace n hs edton of Chambers's LJe ajul TV orks oj Robert Burns thnks / the words' n The Battle of Sherramur And covenant true~blues man were suggested by the blue banner of the Covenanters That flag was. of course smply the Natonal Ensgn Further the Bard does not appear to have made any menton of the Brtsh flag the frst Unon Jack nor though he mentons llanya burgh toon and though he was made a freeman of qutc a number of them there s not a sngle word n hs works suggestve of thc arms they used. An excepton mght be made n the case of Dunfres whose arms show the archangel Mchael tramplng upon the serpent. n the Address to the De! Mchael s ntroduced but Burns had not been near Dumfres when that poem was wrtten. Consde'rng that coats-of-arms were honours and that they usually recalled some heroc deed we mght have expected some reference to those borne by hs patrons the Earl of Glenearn Lord Daer and Graham of Fntry but no such references are to be found. Party colours came n for passng notce :- As Queensberry buff and blue unfurled.'~ '. ts gude to support Caledona's cause And bde by the buff and the blue. Burns's atttudetow~rds ttles s well known. For '~ marqus duke an' a' that he had no hgh regard; yet he was not a bgot on the matter of ttles for he was prepared to gve one to the Scottsh patrot :- A ttle De)1pster merts t. Only one order of knghthood s specfcally mentoned that s the Order of the Garter :~ A garter gae to\rlle Ptt. : \ ' '' J

110 .. ' The rbbon of ths order s blue and ths probably accounts for the words H.oyal Blue n n the Epstle to W. Chalmers :-. The feelng heart's the royal blue. Hs garters. stars and a' that... ~.. t' ~ ' 4 ;... ~ ';... ~'. All the Brtsh orders of Burns's day had as thel' ll~gtla star rbbon.badge and chan and so the remarks about the rbbon star and a' that sut any of them. t ~ecllls ndeed lkely that Burns delberately chose to make hs remarks on ths. matter general for n the frst draft of A man's a man for a' that one of the lnes runs- n the 18th century there were only four Brtsh Order~ -Thstle Garter St.. Patrck and Bath the rbbons of whch were greenblue sky blue and red. Although we have spoken of the arms of Burns n ths paper t should be stated that legally Burns had no arms.~ The Kng alone can gve a grant of arms and ths he does n Scotland through the Court of the Lyon. ndeed by assumng arms as he dd the Bard rendered hmsclf lable to sundry pans and penaltes for as early as 1592 the Scottsh Parlament passed an Act dcclarng that so far as those who have not the rght to do so arc concerned. nane of thame presume 01'- tak' upon hand to bear or use ony armes n tyme comng under pan of fne or mprsonment together wth the confscaton of all artcles upon whch the assumed arms'have been placed. Ths s stll the law n Scotland and although ts ad s not always nvoked t can be put nto use at any tme.. -Qute recently the Treasury actng on the advce of the Lord Advocate authorsed the prosecuton of the magstrates of a Scottsh Royal Burgh-well known to all admrers of the Bard-who were. usng arms whch had not been offcally recorded. The Lyon Kng s cmpowen d-:md ndeed: requred-to grant arms to all vrtuous and \\'e11- deservng ctzens who may apply for the same. Xone of Burns's sons took up ther father's arms offcally although both Col. Wllam Xcol Burns and Col. James Glencarn. 1'..f. <

111 '. ' :! 1.: '!' j 1! 108 Burns had enlarged gravngs of them put on several relcs. The earlest use of them was. on the ttle page of Curre's edton of Burns 1800 where enclosed n an oval border they rest upon two branches one of oak and the other of laurel. A somewhat smlar example occurs n Allan Cunnngham's cdton of the Poet's works under the slhouettc portrat of the Bard.. Fully forty years after Burns's death hs arms found a place on the r~gster n the Lyon Offce when Dr James Burnes the eldest son of a cousn of the Poet a Knght of the Order of Hanover and a dstngushed East nda servant appled for and receved a grant of armoral bearngs. 'rhese aruls were granted to Dr Burnes and to the lawful descendants of hs paternal grandfather and n the base of the sheld was placed what was ter'med by the Lyon Clerk. the well-known dcvce of the Poet Burns. The crest was ssuant from an eastern crown an oak shvered rcnewng ts folage and there were two mottoes Revrescmus and Runam salutarunt pro rege. The frst Ulotto t wll be notced (we are revvng) s an alluson to the crest. n 1841 Dr Burnes's two brothers Sr Alexander and Charles both solders (the on~ a Leut. Colonel altd the other a Leutenant) fell n the dsastrous massacre of the Brtsh at Cabul and ten years later the Doctor re~eved a new grant of arms whch may be quoted n full: Arms.-Ermne on a bend azure an escutcheon or charged wth a holly-bush surmounted by a crook and bugle horn salter-wse all proper beng the devce of the Poet Burns; and on a chef gules the whte horse of Hanover between two eastern crowns n alluson to the Guelphc order conferred on James Burnes K.R. by Kng 'Vlam V. and to the dstngnshed servces of hm and hs brothers n nda. Crests.-On the dexter sde one of augmentaton n alluson to the devoton to ther country of Leut.-Colonel Sr Alexander Burnes C.B. and Leut. Charles Burnes out of a mural crown per pale vert and gules the rm nscrbed CABOOL n letters argent a dem-eagle dsplayed transfxed by a javeln n bend snster proper. On the snster sde '

112 u 109 that prevously borne vz. ssuant from an eastern crown or an oak tree sheered renewng ts folage proper Motto -ob patram vulnera pmsl (sufferng for one's natve land). n 1895 Kenneth Glencarn Burns the great-grandson and drect descendant of Glbert Burns the brother of the Poet matrculated arms. Ermne on a bend azure an esoutcheon or charged n base wth a holly-bush n chef wth a shepherd's ppe surmounted by a crook n salter all proper. Crest on a wreath azure and argent an oak tree shvered renewng ts folage proper. Mantlng azure and argent. MottO-Ob patram' vulnera pass. t wll be observed that n both eoats the colour of the Poet's sheld has been changed from azure to or (from blue to gold). n the engravng n Curre's edton the feld s correctly represented by horzontal lnes as blue. n concluson t may be stated that no person or club s enttled to use the arms of the Bard (except of eourse those who have matrculated arms as above). Any Burns Club nscrbng ts note-paper for example wth the Poet's devce s lable to be called n queston by the authortes. There s n~objecton however to the varous parts-bush horn crook &c.-beng used for decoratve purposes or to the whole devce beng placed on any memoral to the. Bard. REV. W. M'MLLAN M.A. F.S.A. (Scot.) Dunfermlne..... \- '- ; '.. ; ~.( ~ Jj tj ~ : -. ~ ;: :1.. - \..! ~ ':1 ': ~ j' 1' k. J ; :! ; r - 1'1 '' ' 1- l 'r' ' :jj. F r! - '- t' : '..' ). '1 '. ~ '~ - l ---.:. '

113 ' 1 ' j J j.' V ' j \11 J} \ ; : ~ :' '.. r! 'J ' J } : 1 ' 'j ~ 'j j j '. ~ ' '! :. j1 MAmA RDDELL'S LETTERS 1'0 DR JA11ElS CURRE PART. ON Wednesday 24th July 1918 there was offered at aucton n the galleres of l\essrs Sotheby \Vlknson & Hodge New Bond Street London an nterestng collecton of autograph letters and documents by and relatng to. Robert Burns. The prnted catalogue of the sale dd not tel to whom the collecton belonged; but as most of the documents were addressed to Dr James Curre of Lverpool probably t came from a descendant of Burns's bographer and edtor. One of the most valuable lots (No. 929) n the collecton was A seres of thrty.sx autograph letters sgned from Mrs Mara Hddell. That lot was purchased by l\r Charles R. Cowe of Glasgow and as none of the letters appears ever to have been prnted he has kndly consented to the publcaton here of those portons of them whch refer to Burns. Unfortunately however these letters-a nearly complete sequence-are only one sde of the correspondence. Curre's letters to Mrs Rddell are not known now to exst; not one of them s prnted n the J.l.emor oj James Curre edted by hs son and publshed n 1831-ndeed the lady herself appears not to be even mentoned n that work. The portons of the letters now prnted are extracted from tho frst eleven of the seres: No. T. s dated HaUeath: by Lockerby 15th October 1796 and No. XL Bloxworth 28th September These eleven letters fll no fewer than 57 quarto pages n l\rs Rddel's neat scrpt. They are full of nterest for the wrter was ntmately acquanted wth very many promnent persons of her tme and many of these are named n. the letters. They exhbt nrs Rddell as desrous that Curre should wrte the Lfe of Burns and edt hs wrtngs; and after Curre had decded to take up the work as assstng hm n several ways. Attenton may be drected to her references to the letters she was recevng from Clarnda and to her own sketch apparently the trbute to Burns whch had been prnted n the DumjresJournal shortly after the death of the Poet-to Glbert Burns who remnded me of our Bard n voce and even n the sentments t conveyed 80 much so that hs converse was at the juncture happened to partake of t absolutely panful to me ; and does he not bear qute an uncomfortable resemblance to our Bard partcularly n hs manner of speakng?-and fnally to her opnon of Nasmyth's earlest bust portrat of the Poet as an excellent resemblance. J.C.E.

114 ' Correspondence betwe~n Mara Rddell and Dr Curre. No.. Halleaths by Lockerby N.B. 15th Oct 'fo have ndulged the wsh (that has however frequently sprung up on former occasons) of addressng Dr Curre and procurng myself the pleasure Aof hs acquantance mght' have been presumptuous; to neglect the openng hs flatterng complment n desrng Mr Syme to transmt to me the elegant stanzas on the death of Burns has now afforded me were surely ngrattude. Permt me then Sr to return you my warmest acknowledgments for the honour you have done me by presentng me wth a copy of 11r Roscoe's anmated trbute to the memory of our late ever-to-beregretted Bard a favour to whch could have no ttle except ndeed that of my long correspondence and ntmacy wth the object of am well assured our mutual regret. You have had the condescenson to desre my opnon of the poem. cannot venture to gve a more. partcular one than by sayng admre t equally for the elegant pathos wth whch t s so frequently replete as for the ndgnant energy that glows n the kndred bosom' of Burns's accomplshed panegyrst where he touches on hs unfortunate crcumstances n the ll-adapted staton he was doomed to fll throughout lfe and the scanty trbute pad to hs talents by those even who aspred to the honor of beng thought Burns's Patrons and Protectors. Farther than ths dare not venture on a crtque; can easly perceve some few passages may admt of mprovement thout actually reqnrng t; and t would be a darng hand that offered to superadd one grace where Mr Roscoe has assembled so many; f there s to be addtonal ones they can only be looked for from hmself. Dr Curre unless my frend Syrne flattered me has n a recent letter to hm expressed an ntenton of gvng me the opportunty of beng personally known where have been so earnestly desrous of that gratfcaton ever snce had frst the pleasure of an acquantance wth several of Dr Curre's lterary productons. p~opose travellng to the South country n the course of the ensung week and f can be allowed to entertan a hope of passng one evenng n hs socety the trflng crcut of thrty or forty mles shall be no obstacle to my takng Lverpool n my road to the CaptaL have yet tme to receve a lne from Dr Curre should be so fortunate as to be favoured wth one and f can. ~ : ;' ~.. :. '!..... :!

115 . f ;.! '1 J 1 J :1 \ t f Jlatter myself wth the expectaton of meetng wth hm t wll decde me on bendng my steps farther west than shall otherwse do. shall hope too n that case that chance or opportunty wll ndulgeme so far as to permt my conveyng to l\r Roscoe my sentments upon hs havng engaged hs Muse n so eloquent yet delcate a monody on a frend so ardently loved and esteemed. have promsed Syme to bear' hs commands to you should ha\'e the pleasure of assurng you n person how truly- am Sr Yours wth respect and grattude No.. :MARA RDDELL. 4 Baker Street Portman Square London 23rd Nov fear my dear Sr that f you have condescended to thnk of me at all t has been to reproach me wth nattenton n not havng lvuled myself earler of the pleasure you offered to yeld me by a correspondence whch am we!l ussured wll be productve of so much gratfcaton to me. dd not conclude my travels so soon us expected; purt of the Saturday and Monday whch succeeded those very agreeable days passed at Lverpool devoted to the socety of Dr Darwn.... can wrte you nothng of the news of London as have not been n London yet-that s to say have seen none but my own famly and have not once set my foot beyond my threshold. Capt. Rddell s orde;ed abroad and my head s yet qute dstracted wth' the nvestgatons requste for me to make nto the labyrnth of affars must now agan assume the management of durng hs absence and assure you ths quart d'heure steal to enqure after you s the frst n \vhch have been able to abstract myself from the dull realtes of lfe wth whch have been too long occuped. However hope soon to be more comfortable and to hear from you that my frends n Lverpool are all as wsh them f that s possble. wrote fully to Syme upon our arrangements-plans rather-for Burns's publcatons; have not yet receved an answer but conclude he has corresponded wth you or you wth hm on the nterestng subject. must now conclude. Receve then my best wshes and regards and assure ~1rs Curre of them whose attentons and goodne~s to me durng my seour n Lverpool-and your own- can n~ver forget... f l\1r R. comes soon to London you can return me the 1\188. left wth you by hm. Farewell my dear Sr and contnue to beleve me wth fathful regard-your truly oblged &c. l\larua RDDELL. ~ - ; \ ' '...

116 . ~.: ' 113 No.. London 9th Dec am happy to fnd my dear Sr you have recovered your tranqullty and lesure snce they have procured me the pleasure of. hearng from you.... Dr Darwn questoned me very much about the late 'llam Smelle the Author of the Phlosophy of Natural Hstory wth whom he knew had been n habts of ntmacy and correspondence. He seemed dsposed to do justce to Smelle's genus but expressed hmself very ndgnantly upon that author's attempt at defeatng hs favourte system of sexualsm 'n the vegetable world... 'hat do you mean by desrng me to correct any thng of Burns's? 'Ts askng me to pant the lly and add a perfume to the volet. have heard nothng from Syme or Max \el1 yet. doubt you msunderstand each other somehow or the rest of the Bard's MSS. had been remtted to you are ths tme. r had a most nmtable letter from Clarnda lately. f you and l\r Roscoe are B.'s bographers must obtan permsson to entrust some of those letters to you. They contan treasures relatve to hm. She wrote to me last by Dr Moyes who had desred an ntroducton; but fnd t s not easy for a blnd phlosopher hs nclnaton be what t wll to make rendezvous. He called on me was absent;. he wrote or rather hs secretary dd and never sgnfed hs place of abode. could not dscover t and fear he s now gone to Bath as he proposed and no ntervew has taken place...-beleve me much and truly yours MARA RDDELL. :: ~~.. \ ;;'.' 1!1 ;..... 'l. \.. ~... No. V. 13 Brdge Street 'Yestmnster 12th Jan stl thnk of poor old Smelle wth regret; never dd an outsde so rough and manners so unpolshed cover a warmer and more excellent heart... Clarnda s stl a fathful corres pondent and her letters full of the most nestmable anecdote for Burns's bographers. must and wll demand permsson to com muncate to you when requred. Syme has wrtten me a volume of acknowledgments for the effect of my supposed nfluence wth you and your frend. The dmdum anmal. relatve to the undertakng of hs publcaton &c. By what he wrtes me con elude the materals are chez vous ere ths and there s great joy n srael at the prospect of ther passng such a crucble. Let me know f you have them yet... Adeu! yhat shall call you n return for the happy-com-..

117 ..- ' ~ ' J ' j.. j ~ :! ; ~ 1' ' 1.1 'J ~. J 1 ~ :.j j.:.114 pound-epthets you have affxed to my desgnaton? Be what you wll and let me reman your truly oblged and affectonate No. V. MARA RDDELL. Duke Street St. James's 18 19th Jan have just sent to Cadell and Daves to desre an nter. vew and get some of the proposals. How can you- 0 you: of lttle fath -suppose would traverse any arrangement of yours? Depend my good frend on my dscreton wth regard to Creech. wsh zealously to promote and never could volun tarly traverse what you are desrous should be effected ether n the object the means agents or measures. Cadell publshed a lttle volume of mne a few years ago but dare say 1\ trfle so unmportant wll scarcely recall me to hs memory. Perhaps t s AS well we should recommence our acquantance on a fresh score. can settle wth hm what to do wth my growng lst of subscrbers' nllmes. read the passages relatve to her last nght to the Duchess of GoTdon. She lllughed and was flattered at them; your eulogum on her benevolence and affablty and your panegyrc on her hand some leg and nkle delghted her excessvely. She says her leg s ls good and well.proportoned she beleves as when you followed her across the brdge at Ednburgh and can answer for the other attrbutes beng equally unmpared. n addton to hers the l\arqusses of Abercorn and Lorne Lord Westmorland Lord Charles Bentnck Lord John Campbell Duchesses of Hamlton Keppel Craven the l\argrame of Anspach's son Col. Erskne Lews and hs father and a few more names of less note make up my present lst. t s trflng htherto but wll spare nothng to ncrease ts magntude.... wrote yesterday to Clarnda to contnue her communcatons. conceved t cruel to trespass on her sensblty unless they ere lkely to be of servce to you. send wth ths packet contanng her letters. Most of them contan some nterestng passages relatve to our Poet those that dd not have destroyed. declare thnk after all the packet wll be scarcely worth.ts postage to you even and there was no such thng as reasonably desrng ether peer or commoner to frank so many at a tme. Ths hob absolutely be-en the dscreet cause of my wthholdng them so long from you. have just number'd them n order for your perusal and as you asked me once before have enclosed the copes of some of my letters to Clarnda relatve to Burns's death... pnd them to you just ls she got t hem coped; f had once l~oke4 over the-m Am Bure should hll\~e put them nt~ the fre. Clarldll's..

118 115 are perceve too enthusastc to be perused when one s de sang frod and mne were wrtten under the mmedate and powerful mpresson of crcumstances and scenes that affected me extre~ely most of them wrtten wth great dspatch much feelng and lttle reflecton and -at the tme of poor B-'s death. -Clarnda was from her talents msfortunes and ther mutual attachment a very nterestng object to all B-'s frends. Now pray do not dsplay all ths nonsenscal correspondence but when you have made what use you can of t lay t asde to send me back agan; entrust t to you on that condton only. ]' have not tme to take extracts 80 rely on your fdelty n ths respect... ; Adeu! Beleve me fathfully yours MARA RDDELL. [A letter from Mrs Rddell to Dr Curre wrtten on 6th January 1797 s mssng from the seres. t s referred to n No. :rr.j No. V. Pluvose septd 2 de decade London..... My letter of the 6th ult. whch must have passed yours upon the road wll have explaned all ths busness and hope shall now be receved nto your good grace and favor agan and that the mld beams of your approbaton wll once more shne upon your fathful and devoted dscple. answered you fully n all partculars relatve to Col. Fullarton so have nothng new to add on the subject of Burns's affars....-al Ds della Lbera. MARA RDDELL. t was yesterday only that became apprzed of 11r Roscoo's arrval and the pleasure and gratfcaton experenced n recevng hm were not a lttle enhanced by hs presentng me wth your most welcome packet. As know Syme to be a careless and a very unsuspcous character am the less surprzed by what you relate to me relatve. to the unguarded manner n whch he suffered the Bard's papers to be transmtted to you. Our frend Syme fnds hs own occupatons press so heavy on hm that dare Bay he actually had lttle f any tme to dedcate to the arrangement of Burns's papers. He has a good head unted to an excellent heart but know that n matters of busness he wanff; method; he s always n' a labyrnth of papers'and accolmts and somewhat lke the cuttled ' :!.. ' ~ 11 ''! ~ L.' L : : r - ~ ~ ~ \~'. j...' No. V. London 17th Feb '

119 J j.' j.. '. j. J t ~ j 1! 11 r L' 1 ~:: [ 1! j 1 11: ' ; '1..1' t ' 1 ) '; '11 :~ f 1 ' t 1 t'; 1.. p. ' j ~:\ h'.j 1'. ~ ;.. ~ fsh he obscures hmself altogether n a mst of hs own creatng. have nothng to offer farther than what have dw~lt amply upon on former occasons relatve to your assumng the task of bo. graphsng Burns. You must of course judge for yourself. can only say am certan t can be transferred to no better hands than yours and trust you wll not at all events resgn the Crtque you medtated to any other person... shall attend to your counsels relatve to such of the Bard's MSS. as am possessed of. As for the lnes to Clarnda unless anecdotes were crculated wth thorn calculated to attach the sentments to hmself own do not see why they can be thought to affx more censurablty upon Burns than the Epstle of Elouseto Abelard dd upon Pope. Pray lay those sketches of mne upon the shelf; somethng better may be made of them f they contan materals worth workng upon but n the present state you have them wth all ther mperfectons on ther head some of whch are very glarng ndeed. What have you done wth the copy of B-'s Poem8 lent you to refer to? f you know of no prvate opportunty lkely to occur shortly shall request you to forward them to me by the ordnary channel; tho two volumes are a necessary vade mecum wth me. Clarnda's letters tell you canddly wll entrust to no bographer of Burns except yourself nor do ' esteem my yeldng the perusal to you justfable on any other score. do not know Mr Alson even by name but Burns's bographer must be a lberal and even an ndependant man. These qualfcatons are not frequent among the Scots Clergy...-Beleve me your sncere and fathful No. V. :l\ara RDDELL. 1~ Brdge Street 'Yestmnster 22nd Aprl Dr Moore has been extremely attentve to me. We talk together of men and books the Jvng and the dead very frequently of poor Burns of Roscoe and shall say not less frequently of Dr Curre? 'Yhy should say t; for he needs not the assurance of a constant recollecton from every one who has once had the satsfacton of knowng hm. Moore has just presented me wth a copy of hs Edward whch never met wth before. do not recognze the author of Zeluco n ths last producton. He raves about Burns and so does Sherdan. beleve they both sought my acquantance for no other purpose than to talk of hm and what a socety s Sherdan's!... Do you know you appear to us n town to be coquettng n ths busness of Burns's lnd we ral at ~'ou a lttle for t. :HoRcoa wll tell you thl\t... Sherdan and Dr ; 1 ~. '!

120 \ 17 Moore are both clearly of opnon that ths task s calculated for you and you for t; that you lose tmo by all ths rresoluton; 10W tho papers aro ll your possesson you cannot retract; and that your talents do not tally more perfectly wth the brllancy of the luldertakng than your character rendcrs the ~electon completely elgble. Nothng but cnthusasm prevals now for Bums's wrtngs und memory; see lttlo danger of ts fulng to extend to hs bogrupher am f t was a servce of danger your heart und head ure equully ftted for the support of such an one. No mun resdng n Scotland should venture on t that we admt. Moore s just engaged n somewhat of a smlur employment wth Smollett's wrtngs. long to hear you are embarked--<lecdedly and ntrepdly embarked. By the way convey to me pray you the two volumes left wth you of. the poor Bard's works; there remans too a :.\S. or two yet unreturned; let t be soon as leave town next month... Shall not hear from you soon?-vale-valete. MARA HDDELr Ths delghtful creature has gven ths smull spuce my' Deal' Dr to tell you that your Graham s well at l'ortsmouth wth hs crew at large wth whom he has nfluence enough to keep clear of ths awful mutny. My complments to Hoscoe and hs Hb.-Adeu. J. :.\100U:. No. X. 1.. [Undated; but franked 'Vmborne 14th June H. Bankes.].... have had a letter from Syme snce wrote to you last. :'\y earnest solctatons my pettonary vehemence whle ther success was yet dubous may satsfy you more than anythng could now say of the pleasure your resoluton respectng the undertakng of Burns's publcaton must afford mo; the grattude and approbaton of your fellow ctzens and the sprt of Burns hoverng over you wll be a reward or trbute worthy such a mnd as yours. Pray do not depend too much on Syme's comng to Lverpool; wth all the bon camr and bonne volontj n the world you know hm to be a lttle mutabltes and varatons as Capt. Fluellen says and hs tme s not always hs own. wsh you could see G. Burns; he remnded mo of our Bard n voce and even n the sentments t con:veyed so much so that hs converse was at the juncture happened to partake of t ubsolutely panful to me. t s very strange but ths sad Song of the Dyng never even heard of; should lke to see t_ However wll be quet and have patence and desre my frends to be quet and 8.. ; )' 1...

121 118 ' t pa-tent and 'reasonable V ths satsfy you? One more such montoll and.. st lke lly gl'uncsrj cut n alabaster tll 'you' condescend once 110re to authorse my beng accessble to a lttle of thllt eager lvdty for the effusons of Genus or the acqurements of Scence whch few lre better calcrulated to encourllge and gratfy wth me than yourself...-yours very fathfully No. X. l\ara RDDELL. Kngston Hall 'mborne 14th June l9. 1 hllve scrawled out the verses promsed you my dear Dr nc fear almost llegbly. have enclosed at the same tme 1\ poem 011 Burns whch was '\Ttten by a lady n Scotland. You must retul'll t to me (whether you wrte by the same opportunty lnd at that tme or not) n two or three days as t s not my own and promsed slcredly to return t to the person who entrusted me wth t very shortly. t s by stealth lend t to you. lke t; f you thnk well of t perhaps you wll eause t to bo coped nc have t nscrted wth Roscoo's (f any other trbute wll not uppollr as super/luous homage after ls to departed Genus) at the begnnng of Burns's Poems as these knd of recommendatory poems often arc. Ths s ad lbtum but you wll at all rates return t to me.-addo. YOUl'S (n haste) t t No. X. B1oxworth 28th Sept. 9. lmost fearetl my dollr Dr should nen!' hear from you gan. You can not conccve what a blank your slence Cl'olltes n my nurro\\' crcle-for t s become so now - of ntellectual pleasurc's. have just had a volume lkewse from Syme. So yon 11we hlld Glbert Burns wth you! Does he not bear qute an lt/comfor/able rc'scmblnnoe to our Bard partculnrly n hs mllner of 8(lellkng! Dd Smyth slh'w you my llst letter to hm! or lt 1'18t rend you l )lllrlj.graph thllt requested hm to communcatc to you relath'e to somo ery ellptnl poetry of the Bard's nserted -not n ny ('(lloll of hs own works-but n Johnson' 8('0/.'1.11 lacal.1l8cellatly P/CU/] ls wc'1 a8'~0l1e n l S'C'CtolJ of Scottsh Songs hy 'C'yC'1! f you hll hlld thc'ro pont('(1 out to you t s l'ry well: f not l'c'turn me l lne hy thc' next l'ost wll copy nnd trnllmt them nl to you wthout O&~ of tll1c' ls BUnls marked ~ ~

122 119 all hs own n my Copes of those works hmself and there dre severnl wthout hs name prefxed to them at all. Now be ~'ou n evcr so ndolent a mood persuade yourself to let me know about ths busness as by neglectng ths acquston you not only render your Collecton of the Songs ncomplete but lose some that thnk may be esteemed among hs very best. conclude you have had the portrat by Nasmyth brought up to Lverpool whch s an excellent resemblance as t were dong the prnt njustce to take t from the former engravng. suppose your artst wll.be the same who executed the frontspece of Lorenzo de Medc. For ths same subscrpton am less a partee to be of llse even n the offerng of advce than f happened to be n the Metropols. shall menton to Syme my deas for the arrangement of the suhscrpton n Scotland; t must be launched out from Ednburgh n many other channels. should conceve n all the prncpal towns as Glasgow [wc] Aberdeen &c. persons should be apponted to receve subscrptons. The same n England. n London should thnk Moore or any lterary person could pont out a fashonable and perhaps an honest and lberal bookseller. Cadell or Edwards or some of these people would receve them. could have spoken to Edwards had been n town but Roscoe or Moore must know ths part of the busness better than myself. Do you propose confnng the recepton of subscrptons to London? should thnk at Bath Derby York Exeter and these places somethng not nconsderable mght be made. You may depend (at least f know anythng of myself) on my actvty and of the full exerton of ull my nfluence us far' as t extends or can be extended. n ths place-that s a soltary lttle Jenne ornje of my youngest Sster's- C!ln do nothng and from hence go n a few days to Chrstchurch n Hampshre a retred sea-bathng quarter wth my Daughter and two of my Neces and there bansh myself for fve weeks. n fne shall lve amongst waves and woods tll Xmas after whch go to London where wll postvely lay all and everyone of my Vassals under contrbuton or n plan Englsh and modester terms wll engage all my frends (who wll suffer me to nfluence them) nto settng down ther names to ths subscrpton. There s not a soul n London at present or wll be tll near the Wnter Brthday so nothng could be effected that way even f were n town. \Vhat then you have to do wth egard to settng me n tran s to let me know who s apponted to receve SubRcrptons n London.and can get a parcel of proposals to dspose of more readly from thence or send me a few n separate covers by two or three dfferent day's posts f you thnk t necessary. n the meantme keep ths one for myself. My frend the Duchess of Gordon wll assst me powerfully know n London and perhaps we have stll some nterest even n the North. Do not therefore t ; l~!1. 't

123 ! ' j t ~. j 'J J '11 ~ ' J l' 1 J... j l' :1 '1' 'f f!~ l!; '1!1 : ' ' :1 j '1 \ ~ ~ ~ t': k j'~' 1 ' :1;1 ' 11- l' ' j.' 'w J 1 (' ': \ l ' ~ '!. j. ' >--.- :1 delay my' good frend to acquant me whether the proposals a\'~ handed about n Ednburgh yet and where you arrange that the Subscrbers shall set down ther names &c. both there and n London (t cannot be u u prvate houe of courss) an the nstant [ mn altjat n these necessary partculars shall apply to my frends whch can do by letter and set down ther names for you even before go myself to the great cty. have great hopes that can be of use to the cause there and wll neglect nothng to beneft t lnd partake wth Burns's generous benefactors n Lverpool the trouble and the honor of patronsng hs survvng famly... ' As to my assstng you n the Bography have more zeal doubt than capacty. You know the nature of Clarnda's letters; do not know f she could not afford you some assstance. wll look over her letters to me agan. left them at Kngston Hall. Yet after all they are of so prvate a nature am not clear 'you could make anythng of them for your purpose. dd not menton the lttle sketch you got from me because thought t probable you would suffer t to re'man n Oblvon but snce you declare so postvely you wll keep t must be suffered to nterfere as to the usc you may chuse to put t to. gave t to you n a state of ncorrectness for whch feel no toleraton (on lookng over the dupl. cllte) to my own complasance n lettng you have t but shall n futuro mstrust my facultes of puttng a negatve on anythng you desre. f you only propose makng use of some passages and nterweavng them n your own language you shall have them all to dssect and put together agan your own way but f you mean to put them n my terms you must-mnd swear by all my Godsnpprze me of the plan and let me send them to you n a less mperfect form. hope to be at least qualfed to correct Scottcsms after a twelvemonth's resdence south of the Tweed. Now remember 11m nflexble on ths pont.... was happy to hear from Syme t good account of Mrs C. and your lttle Olve branches... bd you farewel wth regret.-ever fathfully yours MARA R--. : ';

124 FRANCS GRO 'E E8Q.. F.R.S. A.S. T H]~ two portrats of ('apt. (;1OS( h('l'( reprodtl(('d are taken from The Olo- a ('ollt'cton of Essays An('cdotrs Parodes Bon )lots. Epgrams. Epstlrs &c: FRt\.~ClS GROSF..E~ FR ~..\S. London Ths }('dlc~ ' b. the ('held 11l1lan rr Ye takn' not('s.. was carefully explored n order to s('e f t contan('d any dr('ct reference to Burns. Perusal fa\rd to produc ( anythng nearer the subject sought for than.a dalogtl( bet\\'((11 a traveller from Lonclon and a wat('r at a :-.;cotc'h nn whch took place about ~() mle from Dtlmfres. ''ll('

125 ;! ' l' '' j'1. ). ;&.' P 1 ' ~~ 1. \ j j ~! 1 J 'f!. l!! j: ' dalogue was ntended to brng out the droll specmen of Scotch dom. Though success was dened the search for any passages that mght have any connecton wth Burns The Olo s ntprpstng to the Burns student as t brngs out n the fgure and character of Grose ponts thn lad been commcnted on by Burns. Qne of the portrats page!)( s t carcature by the Author hmself 'who:;ve are told by Burns was unco slght 0' caulk and keel Ths sketch reprcsents Burns's fne fat fodgel wght as a paymaster n the Surry Regment; whch post dd not pay Grose as hs methods of cush-keepng were confned to no books; and the money transactons we are told; were conducted by the meda of two trousers pockets!-a me'thod of bookkecpng that even wth a less generous soul would have. proved unremuneratve. To the two portrats wc fnd descrptons one by l\fr Davs of 'Vandsworth and the other by Grose hmself. n the former Grose's pcture s tllll:;; pol'trtyed:- Grose to lny pen a theme supples Wth lfe and laughter n hs eyes Oh! how can survey wth pleasure H8 breast and shoulders' ample measure; Hs dmpled chn hs rosy cheek Hs skn from nward lnng sleek. 'hen to my house he degns to pass Through mry ways to take t glass How gladly ent.'rng n see Hs belly's vast rotundty! For though so fat he beats the lenner n ease fmd bodly demeanour; And n that mass of flesh so droll RE'sdes a socal gen'rous soul. Humble-and modest to excess Xor conscous of hs worthness He's yet too proud to worshp State And haunt wth Courtly bend the great; He draws not for an dle word Lkc modern duellsts hs sword But shows \tpon a gross affront The valour of 1\ Bellamont.!

126 :. 'j. 123 The valour of a Bellamont confrms Burns's character as one that wad rathcr fa'n than fled. The. lnes of the pcture leave us n no doubt as to Burns's accuracy about the unweldy proportons of hs knd and funny frend.:' Grose's mvn descrpton of hmself tells us that the yast rotundty was both fore and aft when he says (page 07) :- How wll the gapng rabble star~ At mltary pet-en-l'ar! \Ythout hs joke not ono wll pass )y huge rotundty of a--e ; \Vhat food for each sarcastc snubber Thl'< load ofadventtolls blllhher! The confrmatons of rotundty may excllse Burns's' reference to Grose nhsepgram when Satan after yewng Grose a-dyng exel~ms:'::'.' By G-<l 'U want hm ere take such a damnahle load...: Tho'ugh The Olo'corrQboratel'l Burns's jestng remarks about Grose t does)lotbear out Grose n the character of Antquary thatbu~hs pants hm n as a collector of useless artcles of ve$.fh such as The cons of Satan's coronaton and '~th:e' Fouth of auld nck-naekets descrbed n the late C~pt. Grose's PereJrnaton ThrOltJh Sea. land. From The Olo we learn that Grose shewed dscreton n hs collectng and one feels forced to the concluson that most of what Burns sad about ths adopter of the antquaran trade was by way of good-natured f exaggerated jestf! whch would be eneollraged by the socal Grose. Amongst the contrbutons to The Olo are three short essays on 'The Sketch of a :l\odern Connosseur Complant of a wfe at her husband's rage for Antqutes The rratonal Pursuts of Vrtu. The connosseur s held up to rdcule because of the means he adopts to become dstngushed as an amateur and captal collector. He purchases at enormous prces not the best peces but the scarce~t of each master. The complants! : ~~. ;~: ~.!! H.. ; ' ;' : : 1 ~ ' ' ~. '1 : 'f: :j r ' y-. 0' ;. t'.. ~ ~t

127 124 of th<' l'f<' s that h<'r husband har by hs roll<'rton~. ~llt()\l1d('rl wr by <'Y<'rythng that can ]'f'mnd one of l1ortalt. and that 11(' s an <'xhbto]' to th<' focrty of AnteQ<'<'\( lnes. The collector of l'l'atonaj al'tcl<'k of v<'l'tu Mr Jack ('o('kh \\'HK from hk nfancy a 10\' <'1' of rart('s. At school E P STLE' 1' 11'1'!lGHT HO :-;. L OTl D o~-\y ~. L('RO J YOl R frt:n~) n f.ld co dtoo; 1:- '' fell YGur kn.! nt(:-pnfto!) '1 d (lt an mptud ln; nl.. l\rn~ 1S r.ol~ y to th Devl; hr would gve half h;;; wf'eks allowance for a double wall nut a wht<' mouse or a taw of any uncommon sze or colour- n short everythng uncommon whether natural or artfcal. As he grew up hs taste dlated and monstrous hrth~ and anatomcal pr<'paratons \\'ere added to the eataloguf' of h~ researches whch ncldf'd t ktten wth thr<'<' <'Yf'S and a pg wth one ear. Ths sngular collector (Jot nto trouble by hs too strenuously nvestgatng the

128 125 person of a lady who report had t was one of the remanng descendants of people wth tals. Grose holds each of these thrce collectors up to rdcule and as some of ther fobles are akn to those that Burns has charged Grose wth one s agan forced to the concluson that Burns's descrptons may have been largely chaff. And also that the ncongrutes that Grose related n socal ntercourse may have becn taken by Burns as contanng a substratum of truth that sutcd hs poetc pu'l~ose. A. J'. CRAG. f. ~!' : \~! ~...~ ;1 - \'1 :' ;: :; :~ j.~. '. t ' '. ~ to J.~. '. ~ '. ~ ;~.. j. ~

129 fl' 'j ' BURNS COTTAGE RELCS. A SPUROUS COLLECTON. j' j f ~! AT one of the galleres n one of the most famous streets n the world-at Agnew's Bond Street London to be precse-there s now beng publcly exhbted The Burns Cottage Collecton comprsng the furnture of the Cottage n whch the poet Robert Burns was born on January Thus reads the ttle-page of the prnted catalogue. The wqrdng of the ttle s not ngenuous for t gves no ndcaton of the perod at whch ths collecton was n the Cottage though of course the furnture of the Cottage at any tme between 1757 when t was bult and 1918 may qute correctly be termed a Burns Cottage collecton. But the foreword to the catalogue supples what the ttle lacks for t statcs that certan outstandng artcles n the collecton were acqured from the Poet's father. and as such were shown to vstors for many years by John Goude tenant of the Cottage so that the collecton clams to nclude a consderable porton of the furnshng.o. tj~'cottage at the tme when Robert Burns was born. '~':'Bt;evng that the sole nterest -and t s very lttle-attachng to the collecton now exhbtng n Bond Street s that of havng belonged to one who ran the Cottage as a common publc-house propese brefly to examne the clam made on ts behalf and to show cause why t cannot be accepted. The exhbton note wth regret s under the specal patronage of a Royal personage who has vsted the show and t has been organsed by the London Robert Burns Club whch has faled n ts very obvous duty. The world-famous Cottage at Alloway-bult by Wllam Burnes hmself on land that he had leased to whch n 1757 he brought home hs brde and n whch n 1759 hs l. j t1

130 ';.: '. ' eldest son was born-was the home of the Burnes famly from 1757 tll n the latter year Wllam Burnes; wth the assstanee of hs master Provost 'Wllam Fergusson of Doonholm ventured on a small farm at Mount Olphant two mles dstant from Alloway. But though he had ceased to nhabt the auld clay bggn he remaned lessee of the land and propretor of the house. There s good reason-from doeuments stll exstng-to beleve that both house and land were let by hm to Joseph Norman seedsman n Ayr and that afterwards the house havng been put (1779) nto a good and tennable condton was occuped by Davd and Wllam Calbreth wrghts n Alloway. n 1781 Wllam Burnes's land and house beng n the market were purchased by the ncorporaton of Shoemakers n Ayr at the prce of 160 sterlng. The records of. that ncorporaton show that the quondam Burnes house was occuped-at a rental of 10 -by Matthew Dck shoemaker n Ayr from 1782 tll Dck-the man who turned the Burns Cottage nto a publehouse-was succeeded n the tenancy by John Matland flesher n Ayr who had made offer to the trade of 25 los of yearly rent for a 38 years' tack from' Martnmas 1801 of ther houses and land presently possest by Matthew Dck. Matland appears to have oeeuped the house for only two years-for what reason s unknown-and n 1803 he sub-let to John Goude. From l\fartnmas 'untl hs death n lr42 Mller Goude for so he was known ran the Burns Cottage as a publc-house: hmself-as John Keats recorded on hs vst to the place n a mahogany-faced old jackass who knew Burns; he drnks glasses fve for the quarter and twelve for the hour. After Goude's death the busness at the Cottage was carred on by hs wdow untl her death n 1843; after her death t was contnued by ther daughter (Mrs Hastngs) and her husband untl l\artnmas 1845 when the Cottage was let to Davdson Rtche who had offered a larger rental than Davd Hastngs. These are plan statements of fact mostly from the ~ '!:.... '...1

131 ; 1. l j. k ~~! ' ' j ) '' w!q :! j'~ ~. 1 h~ )' \ * ~ 'J 1 J j [ t :/ :j.1 j '! ' :1 :1 128 Book pertanng to the Shoemakers' Trade of A)T whch the wrter was prvleged to examne some years ago and they downa be dsputed t s necessary that they should be stated before consderng the clam made for the Burns Cottage Collecton. After the death of Mrs Goude the whole houschold furnture and other effects stuated wthn Burns' Cottage and other premses lately possessed by]\fr and Mrs Goude were sold by publc roup on September ; and two years later (1845) the effects of the Hastngs were dsposed of. Certan of the artcles ncluded n the Hastngs sale were purchased by or for Mr James Esdale of Manchester: theso artcles form the Burns Cottage Collecton wheh s the subject of these notes. Some personal effects and relcs of the Poet were subsequently acqured by the gentleman and these eke out the show n Bond Street These personal effects and relcs as lsted n the prnted catalogue by the way seem questonable lot but they do not concern us at present. That Esdale was none too happy n the possesson of hs treasures may be gathered from the fact that they were exhbted n publc on several occasons but wthout fndng a purchaser And so the owner took to offerng them prvately; n 1866 to James Vf'Ke the Burns col lector and publsher at Klmarnock the prce beng 100 ; and n 1870 to the Trustees of the Burns Monument at Allo. way- have fxed on these rare artcles the moderate prce of 50 wrote Esdale Doubtless other persons also were offered these rare artcles but none would look at them ; and ol. the death of James Esdale they passed to hs son George Esdale of Rusholme Manchester. Lke hs father George Esdale was a man of easy fath. He brought hmself to beleve that he had nherted a large porton of the furnture that had been n the Cottage when Robert Burns was born n 1759 and he spent a large part of hs lfe n attempts to get rd of hs Burns nhertance at a contnually ncreasng prce. He advertsf'd frf'f'ly and as freely offered 300 to the agent who would fnd hm

132 129 a purt;:haser for the gootls. wsh the naton would take up the matter he once waled and restore the Cottage Collecton to the Cottage; what s n the Cottage now s not that whch was n the possesson of the Goudes snce 17!l2. t s all spurous. He proposed that a company should be formed to acqure hs collecton. He offered t to any whom he consdered a possble purchaser. f the promoters lke wll construct a facsmle Burns Cottage and put my collecton nto t n Glasgow for the sum of sx thousand pounds and the relcs wll sell for much more after he wrote to the secretary of the Glasgow Burns Centenary (1896) Exhbton. But nothng was dong. An offer to sell hs gatherng to the Corporaton of Ednburgh gave Esdale an unexpected advertsement though not exactly of the knd he would have desred and led to the run of hs hopes. Ednburgh had not had tme to forget the scandal of the Burns forgeres (1892) when the offer from Manchester came to t and was promptly declned. That decson was mmedately followed by the rrefutable exposure of Esdale's clam on behalf of hs collecton n the columns of the Ednburgh Evenng Dspatch (July-October 1895) by the late Mr Crabe Angus of Glasgow. Thereafter lttle was heard of the dscredted Burns Cottage Collecton ; varous attempts to explot t came to nothng and George Esdale recently passed to the majorty. What the Esdales-father and sonhad faled to do n 73 years the son's executors succeeded n dong n. a few months' tme. They decded to get rd of the Esdale whte elephant and t s betrayng no secret to tell now that an offer was made to the Trustees of the Burns Cottage; of course t was turned down.. Subsequently'-:'the catalogue tells us- an acceptable offer was receved from a dstngushed resdent of the Unted States -snd to be 1\1r Schwabe- and t appeared probable that the collecton would cross the Atlantc. Fortunately however Mr Harry l\aconoche a Scottsh gentleman made a counter-offer to that receved from Amerca and ths offer was accepted. As a result these

133 --- : '~ ;' ' j : ' t \ j \' 'j 1 'J ~.j. ~ 1! j 'j! ' 1 ~:~ 1 11 j-' ~ 130 fascnatng relcs and mementoes' of the Poet -agan to quote the catalogue-are now exhbted n Bond Street as kndly lent by Nl' Harry Naconoche. The purchase prce t s whspered was round about Wrtng n 1866 and agan n 1870 James Esdale stated that ths furnture purchased at the sale of the effects of the then occupant of the auld clay bggn Davd Hastngs n But Esdale's son tme and agan repeated that the Burns relcs comprsng vrtually the entre contents of the Cottage as the great Poet lmew t were bought at the Goude sale n These statements cannot be reconcled. Whch s correct? To that there can be but one answer. Undoubtedly the statement of the father who purchased the furnture s correct; and t s a far nference that the son desred that the furnture he wshcd to sell should be assocated not wth the lttleknown Davd Hastngs who had lved n the Cottage for only two or three years; but wth the well-known John Goude who had lved n t for 40 years. t s not unlkely however that Hastngs had acqured some porton of the Goude furnture sold n Esdale consstently refused to produce hs guarantees of authentcty of the furnture although he perssted that he had them and that they would be furnshed to a buyer at the settlement. Challenged to prove that anyone tem n hs possesson had ever belonged to 'Vllam Burnes assert and can prove he wrote that the Cot.tage collecton was n the Cottage when the Souters of Ayr bought t from the father of the Poet that such furnture became the property of the mller Goude n 1792 that t was Goude's tll hs death n 1842 that lly father bought t and that have t now. He asserted-but he nfver proved hs asserton. At another tme he offered a certfcate gven by the Goude people. whch carres us back to 1792 and whch states that the furnture was the furnture of the Cottage n whch Robert Burns was born and where our fathcr resded for 50 years. But the records of the ncorporaton of Shoemakers prove that Goude resded n the Cottage not for 50 years but for

134 years so that' the certfcate-even f t were worth anythng- carres us back only to What of thc 37 years' nterval between 1766 and' Are wc to beleve that Wllam Burneswhen he l~loved from Alloway to :Mount Olphant left behnd hm certan mportant peces of furnture- vrtually the entre contents of the Cottage 1 That J~seph Norman had the use of them and the two Calbreths 1 That the ncorporaton of Shoemakers purchased them n 1781 though ther records speak only of houses and land 1 That Matthew Dck got them n 1782 handed them on (n 1801) to John Matland who n tl1'n passed them on to Goude n Absurdty could go no further than that. t s doubtful f Goude ever stated that any artcle of furnture n the Cottage of hs tme had belonged to the Poet's father; had he done so the fact would almost certanly have been recorded somewhere n prnt. But no such statement s mown. On the contrary several books publshed whle Goude was yet alve contan references to the Burns Cottage; all of them ncludng the mportant New Statstcal Account of Scotlmul-{)ontanng an account of the parsh of Ayr drawn up by one of ts mnsters n 1837-agree n statng that no part of Wllam Burnes's furnture was then n the Cottage. Mr Crabe Angus ponted out that the Esdale furnture s of the character common n cquntry nns of the early nneteenth century and does not at all resemble the type found n the home of a peasant lke Wllam Burnes. ' And f the Esdale story were true why was the furnture left n the Cottage 1 Why should Wllam Burnes-the poorest of men n ths world's gear-at hs frst flttng leave behnd hm hs eght-day clock hs corner cupboard hs tables and chars }vheh he had provded less than nne years before 1 No serous Burnsan beleves that any artcle n the Esdale collecton had the slghtest personal assocaton wth Wllam Burnes or wth any member of hs famly. t s all spurous to quote George Esdalc's own words j ~ ~! 1 >.'.' ~ ' ~ 1.. '' :... ~l.t '... 'j ' j j.

135 ' _ ~ j ; j! ' J ; j' ~ j '!. 1 ' j. 't! 11! ~' ' J ~f ~ ~ - ~ t.....:~ {.! \ ; ; ~~ ;.. '.. r~ [ 132 the relcs are Hastngs'-may even be Goude's-furnturc but they are nothng more. The Esdale collecton has had a past; but what of ts future? The foreword of the prnted catalogue of the exhbton n London announces that these fascnatng relcs and mementoes of the Poet wll fnd a homc n the county of hs brth. f that means only that they are to be a prvate possesson no one may offer objecton but f t means that they are to be handed over for publc exhbton n the county of the Poet's brth-surely that would be addng nsult to njury? Kyle Carrck and Cunnngham may be trusted to sec to the protest. J. C. EWNG. '. 1 ~! ~.

136 TO THE EDTOR THE GLASGOW HERALD.. Ben rg (1malll'H th DE'cemhl'r 1!lS. SR~T}w thanks of Burmlans evprywhere are due to y.)u f' ~ gmntng space n these pressng tmes for ~r Ewng's opportull artcl on the above subject whch has now assumed a somewhat serous nspeet. For over 35 years' ths Esdale Collpcton hnh been to me what the head of Charles. 'as to Uncle Dck Scarp a year hns passed but have receved mol''' than one nqury \~ to ts gem;npnpsr from prvate ndvduals speculators auctoneers or publc bodes both hpre lnd n Amerca nccesstlltng my settng forth the condemnatory evdence so often that now tho mere menton of t nducps a sort of men tll nausell. Every sort of blllndshment has been trpd to nduce me to Rsst n ts salc. my ofl1clll poston n the Burns Federaton conferrng stppose a pecunary vahw on my name. The most recent nqures havc bppn from Lverpool nnd London among the latter beng one from th London Hobprt Burns Club to hch lost no tme n replyng to put th mcmbers on thcr guard. n fnce of my communcaton alll loath to belevc thllt that Club has delberately countenanced ln exhbton no artcle of whch as Mr 'Ewng conclusvcly proves has the slghtest personnl assocaton wth 'Wllam BurneR or any of hs famly. f the London Club and the royal pe'rsonllge who vsted the show have been.. nobbled t would be nterestng to know lp art altogether from the evdence of the recorded fllcts how they manllged to swlllow the trllnsparent absurdty of \Yllllm Burnes's furnture havng been handed down as herlooms by the suceessve tenllnt of the Cottage from 17(Hl to 183 even on the supposton thllt he (a poor mlln who requred to borrow 100 to stock :Mount Olphllnt) left hs furnture behnd hm then only some eght years n use for behoof of queue of chnnce stl'llngers wth or wthout the usual consderaton. True he hnd son nllmed Robert ged seven yellrs n 66 of whom the world never henrd tll twenty years afterwll'ds. )11' Ewng's extrllcts from the prnted cntllogue camouflaged ls thllt document appellrs to be leaves the mpresson that the show s of a nature whch can only be charactersed n terms whch one hestates to use n a publc journll. Should the show come to Ayrshre the Burns Federaton wll lk(>ly He to t that t gets the rec(>pton t m(>rts.- 11m &e. (Sgned) D. )['XAl;GHT Presdent Burns Federaton. v j' j' 1 ~..! ' l~ t j'.. ' M..~

137 ~_ L. ;' 134 ' ' 1 > r ':~.'. ' ~ : l' J' )1 ;? \ ~! '.!. 7 Stewfll'ton' Drve Cambuslang 7th December Sm- have been much nterested n readng the artcle on (lyc n to day'r Hcmld by Mr.J. C. Ewng. t puts very clearly tho mpossblty of tho furnture at present beng shown n London ah havng belonged to the l~oet Burns's father. n 18!)!) had many communcntons n conn('cton wth an offer from llr George' ERdale nnd latterly from nn ngent on hs behalf to sell the fur. nture and reles ncludng the frst fve vstors' books wth names from 182!l to 1840 of those vstng the Cottnge to the Mauchlne Burns Memoral Museum. The Collecton was then beng Hhown at Stratford.on.Avon nnd comprred the whole of the orgnal furnture of the Cottage wth the excepton of the bedstead whch fell to peces on removal and was thrown out as useless. n an nvtaton to vew the Cottage Collecton sent to me by :\lr EHdnle besdes statng that the Collecton wns sold n 1843 nt the Cottage Brthplace he- also says: At the sale t was Rtuted thnt the furnture wus that left n the Cottnge by the father of the Poet on hs sellng t n Ths stat('ment s corro. borated by numerous documents and declaratons. 1\1r Ewng proves the Cottage was not sold tll 'th regard to the present exhbton n London another tem n the cutnloguc seems curous to me- No. 18 ' Souter Johnne's' char wth the drnwers n whch he kept hs tool1'. Now n S!lfl was ennbled through a hnt from 1\1r James Tennant now of Ayr and a grandson of l\r John Tennant Gud Auld Glen Burns's frend to get- Souter Johnne's (John Davdson's) workstool and tools for the l\auchlne BurnR Memoral l\useum. The donors were :Messrs John G. Hazel DtUldee and D. Cowan lfaybole lnd they fully authentcated ther prerentatoll whcj s onsho\\' lt tje l\emoral.- am &c. ' (Sgned) THO. KLLN Hon. 'l'rea~urel''- Natonal Burns llel/loral and 'Cottagc Homes Jlallchlllle ~=~~...

138 BURNS'S HOUSE N MAUCHLNE. THE ~ACKENZm EX';E~SON. By the purchase an4 restoraton of the house n whch Robert Burns and Jean Armour began marred lfe a notable addton to Scottsh natonal shrnes was made nearly fve years ago. That house s at the core of Burns assocatons. Drectly opposte stands the sc~ne of thc Holy Far -Mauchlne parsh krkyard where le four of tle Poet's chldren and many of hs frends and acquantanccs. Close at hand are Mauchlnc Castle and Gavn Hamlton's resdence Xanse Tnnock's the Cowgate nnd Poose-Nanse's n whch the Jolly Beggars Held the splore To drnk ther orra duddes. Only a mle away les l\1ossgel and wthn easy reach are Lochlea and Largesde Tarbolton and Falford Catrnc and Ballochmyh. Bult of red sandstone and rooted vth thatch Burns's House faces what for many years was the Back Causeway but now s named Castle Street. (By the way mght'not the old pcturesque name of the strect be restored 1) From ts propretor and tenant Archbald Mekle talor n the vllage Burns n February or March 1788 rented one of ts upper rooms for Jean Armour and' hcre'mrs Burns lved untl near the close of that year when the new farmhouse on the banks of Xth at Elsland was 'ready for her; n the nterval her husband records she was regularly and constantly apprentce to my mother and ssters n ther dary and other rural busness at }lossgel. The house n Back Causeway remaned prvate property untl Whtsunday 1915 when t was acqured by the Glasgow and Dstrct Burns Assocaton. After necessary repars had been carred out the ~urns room was ;. '( ~ 1.t ~. ~ {. ' '0..

139 '. r;w. 1 t.'. 11 l ~. \ ' '... l'.. '!!~ \' '. ~ ~ 'J 1 ~. 'j'l!: ~... '! :! : l3g opened to vstors the adjonng apart.ment was utlsc'd as a museum and the remanng three rooms were prepa!'('d to accommodate derervng old folks. Snce t was pubcl.~; opened n August H1l5 the house has been vsted by large nllmbers of people many of them from dstant p'uts of the world; and exceptonal nterest has been shown n th(\ Burns room and n the contents of the museum. The orgnal schem~ of the Burns Assocaton was lmted to the acq uston and utlsaton of Burns's House bllt the members soon found that an extenson of that scheme was desrable f not nevtable. The former Back Causeway of l\auehlne holds other houses that mert specal attenton from Burnsans. One of these adjonllg the Poet's house was long known as the Doctor's Shop and local tradton has t that Dr John Mackenze medcal advser patron and frend of the Poet ether resded or had hs consultng-room there. That tradton may or may not be correct; but the ttle deeds show that a bond over the property-whch had been purch'l8ed n 1778 from James A'd junor merchant n Glasgow by Wllam Xclde or Xcol80n merchant n l\auchlne' at the prce of 47-wa8 gven to Dr Mackenze n return for the sum of 100 borrowed from hm by Ncolson n Prncpal and arrears of nterest havng n 1815 amounted to l3u Xcol80n Mackenze and a second bondholder named Robert Paterson entered nto a prvate agreement to sell the property to Mackenze; and Common-Sense fls the author of thc Holy Far named hm held the property untl Whtsunday of 1831 when he sold t to Wllan1 Ronald merchant n l\auchne. The Book of Robert Burns tells that when Mackenze entered on professonal busness at l\auchne he rented a small shop whch served as hs drug store and eonsultngroom. t s mpossble to prove relaton between Charles Hogers's small shop and the property n ~hck Causeway but t s suggestve that one of the four tenants named n )[ackenze's dsposton of 1831 s Dugald Stewart Hamlton (a son of Gavn Hamlton) who had qualfed as a physcan

140 r: '. t { -'1 ~ 'J' 137 and was then n practce at hs natve place. Nether s t known that Mackenze at any tme between hs marrage n 1791 and hs removal to rvne n 1801 resded n the house on whch he held t bond though t s known that pror to hs marrage wth Helen Mller-one of the sx belles of Mauchlne -he lodged at the Sun nn tenanted by her father Auld John Trot of Burns's Mauehlne \Veddng. For 43 years Dr Mackenze had an nterest n' the ownershp of the property and he may have lved and had hs consultng-room n the buldng; at that the queston must reman for the present. A fre some years ago had so damaged the quolldam Mackenze buldng that t waseonsdered unsafe for habtaton and report had t that ts owner would not be averse from sellng. The Glasgow Burns Assocaton accordngly entered nto negotatons wth hs agent and these ended n ther acqurng the property as from Whtsunday At that tme t was decded on account of condtons arsng from the war to delay restoraton of the property. That work however has snce been taken n hand and s nov complete: the buldng has been dvded nto separate dwellng-houses and four old people have been placed n possesson free of rent and rates. At the same tme the opportunty was' taken to extend the 'accommodaton orgnally provded for a museum n Burns's House. Many nter~stng artcles have been presented to the Assocaton or purchased by ts Museum Commttee and so an addtonal' room has been ftted up and the entre collecton re.arranged. The work of restoraton and alteraton has been carred out n a most satsfactory manner by Messrs Thomas Fndlay & Sons of :l\auchlne to the nstructons of 1\1r Nnan l\acwhannell F.R..B.A. who has agan freely gven hs servces to the Assocaton and the entre cost of purchase and restoraton has been found by the clubs whch compose the Glasgow and Dstrct Burns Assocaton asssted by ndvdual members. The formal openng of' the Mackenze' extenson of Burns's House took place on Saturday 12th Aprl ' 1 :. j ~ ' 1 0 t: ~ :..' ;' '! ' t ~ -:

141 ... <! < F ~'!'.'. l j h ' :! \1' l' 1 ~ MEMOJ1AL TO GAVN HAMLTON AT MACCHLNE. KO\DSTONE or slab marks the last restng-place n H l\auchlnc parsh krkyard of many of Burns's frends and acquantances but none ponts that of the truest of them all. For more than a century Gavn Hamlton wrter and notary n l\auchlne has lan n an unmarked grave though tradton attrbutes ths regrettable fact to hs own desre. Burns and Hamlton appear to have become acquanted n the wnter of 1783 when antcpatng trouble wth ther father's landlord at Lochlca the brothers Burns (or Burness rather) took a sub-let of thc farm of l\tossgel from Hamlton who had rentcd t from thc Earl of Loudoun. At that tme the elder Burns was not yet even Cola's Bard -he was only a farmer son of the luckless tenant of Lochlea. The two mcn had much n common and became fast frends; and both n hs poetry and n hs prose the Poet bcars testmony to the generous-hearted uprght lawyer who patronsed and befrended hm partcularly at a dark perod of hs career. t was n return for that patronage and frendshp that the Poet dedcated to the lawyer hs frst volume the slm paper-covered Poems chefly n the Scottsh dalect whch ssued from the prntng press n the summer of The poetcal Dedcaton to G-- H-- Esq. s unque even among poets' dedca~ tons and t flls no fewer than seven pages of prnt. 'Twas nae daft vapour the author tells hs patron- But maturely thought t proper 'hen s' my works dd revew To dedcate them Sr to you: Because (ye need ns tak t ll) thought them somethng lke yoursel'. The record of such a frendshp provokes a strong feelng that the bural-place of such a man ought to be at

142 . ' \ ~: ~ ~ 139 least ndcated even at the dsregard of hs declared wsh (f such was ever made). And so wth the COurtCOS permsson of the present representatves of the Hamlton famly and of l\1auchlne Parsh krk-sesson a whte marble tablet has been affxed to the ron ralng whch encoses the famly bural-plaee.. The tablet s the trbute of Partck (Glasgow) Burns Club and has been desgned and cut by l\lr Wllam Vckers of Glasgow. t carres ths bref nscrpton n leaded letters :- The bural place of Gavn Hamlton (horn November 1751; ded 5th February 1805) the Patron and Frend of Robert Burns.. The poor man's frend n need The gentleman n word and deed. Erected by the Partck Burns Club Hlll. The tablet was unveled by the Presdent of Partck Burns Club on Saturday 12th Aprl H)l9 and handed over to the Glasgow and Dstrct Burns Assocaton whch has agreed to accept custody. Ths wll ensure the future care of a memoral earned by more wse congenal' and long-sustaned frendshp than that whch colllmemorates any member of the wderangng Burns crcle. 01' '!.... '.' '.. l. f 4 t ' ''f l '!.. 1'1.~ ;

143 .: 1.. : '.~ j- ~ ~! J 1 J ; ' 1 Na MPOSNG ON BURNS. letter whch ho wrote to Mrs Dunlop n June 1793 Burns ncluded hs Epgram on Mss Daves :- Ask why God made the GEM so small Any why so huge the Grante 1- Because God meant manknd should set That hghervalue on t.. ~' :.l ''!. : ~~ 1. ' * '. He contnues :- Though thnk ths last 1\ pretty enough thought yet 11we been lately outdone by an humble acquantance of mne who s reckoned a very clever fellow among hs fellow-tanners; for that s hs tmde. do not remember to have heard anythng for 1\ good whle that hns pleased me so much. EPGRAM Slence n love shows deeper woe Than words tho' e'er so wtty; A beggar that s dumb you know Deserves the greater pty. n a Burns Manuscrpt n the Brtsh Museum entted Lbel Summons &e. a poem too free' for general publcaton ocour the lnes :- Hunter a hearty wllng brother 'Yeel skll'd n *dehd Hnd lvng leather. n the edton of The ~llerry ~1u8e8 publshed by the Burns Federaton as A Vndcaton of Robert Burns Hunter s twce (pp ) alluded to as a shoemaker; but n the Brtsh Museum nlanuserpt Burns has boldly wrtten on the margn opposte the lne wth the astersk * A Tanner. The poem belongs to the Mallehlne perod but t s not mpossble that the tanner of Burns's

144 t..:.. l' {':.. 0 J~. ' k ~! 'j 141 astersk and the clever fellow of the Epgram on Slence are one and the same. Whether Hunter or another the clever tanner was_ n hs humble way a lterary mpostor for hs Epgram s n The Scots Magazne for 1740 (volume. p. 463) where t s thus prnted :- ON SLENCE N LOVE. (Wrtten by a young lady.) Slence n love betrays more woe Than words tho' ne'er so wtty; A beggar that s dumb you know Deserves a double pty... ~ :~ ~ ':1 ' The same lnes headed On Slence appear agan -nearly half a century later-n the same Vlagazne (October 1787 p. 510). t was probably here or n The Unversal Magazne for July 1758 where they bob up agan that the man of leather found the lnes whch he passed off as hs own decevng hs fellow-nobodes-and Burns. Such lterary mpostures are not unheard of even n these days but n the eghteenth century they were stll more common as wtness the followng Acknowledgements to our Conespondents taken from The Unversal 111agazne for 1774 :- 'The Modern Fne Lady' though publshed n a mornng paper as a new producton appeared ~any years ago n Dodsley's l1scellanes. The paper on 'Jealousy' by D.D. s flched from Addson's Spectator and 'would be mmedately detected by every reader acquanted wth that celebrated Englsh Classc. The mathematcal queston by Tyro was nserted and solved n The Lades Dary for the year The 'Ode to Health' s tnken verbatm from )r Smart's Poems. The' Elegy on the late Parlament' s a servle copy of Dr Arbuthnot's celebrated pece on Colonel Chartres. The Verses nclosed by Tyro are below medocrty and havo already appeared n an evenng pper..

145 ' j.. \11.1 J 1 J' ; j h '1 1 '~! 't ~ J ' t j ; ' k 1 ~ t A ~' j ' ~.. 1 -'~ t '. ;' l.t; 1'1' ' 4 t!. 1 :. r! ~ \..... ~.!' ; ' 1 ' l' ~ ;.! \ 1 r ~:' ' ' : ' ' ; : 142 All Burnsans are famlar wth the song lnked wth the name of Laprak whch Burns n hs frst Epstle to that Old Scottsh Bard sngled out thus :-'- There was ae sang amang the rest Aboon them a' t pleas'd me best That some knd husband had addrest To some sweet wfe: t thrl'd the heart-strngs thro' the breast A' to the lfe. 've scarce hcard ought descrb'd sae weel 'hat gen'rous manly bosoms feel; Thought ' Can ths be Pope or Steele Or Beatte's wark?' They tald me 'twas an odd knd chel About Murkrk. The song n queston s thus prnted n Laprak's Pooms (1788) '- 'hen upon thy bosom lean Enraptured do cnll thee m;e ; glory n those sacred tes That made us one who once were twan; A mutual flame nspres us both- The tender look the meltng kss; Even years shall ne'er destroy our love Some sweet sensa ton new wll rse. Have a wsh? 'ts all for thee; know thy wsh s me to please; Our moments pass so smooth away That numbers on us look and gaze. 'Well pleased to see our happy days They bd us lve and stll love on ; And f some cares shall chance to rse Thy bosom stll shall be my home. 'll lull me there and take my rest; And f that aught dsturb my far 'll bd hcr laugh her cares all out And beg her not to drop a tear. Have a joy? 'ts a.ll her own; Her heart and mne are all the same; They're lke the woodbne round the tree That's twned tll death shall us dsjon. d

146 143 There s not!!> pecularly Scots word n these lnes but Burns n wrtng t out for The Scots.Muscal Museum (No. 205 vol ) ftted the song wth vernacular klts and made varous alteratons whch we render kenspeckle by the use of talcs n the verson about to follow. The Poet's Manuscrpt s n the Brtsh Museum. On the reverse there s a song begnnng There's a youth n ths cty whch s also n Burns's holograph. Turnng to the other sde of the sheet agan we fnd that Burns has wrtten at the top and then deleted the words From Laprak's Poems. The MS. reads :- \Vhen ~pon thy bosom lean And fondly clasp thee a' my an glory n the sacred tes That made us ane wha ance were twan: A mutual flame nspres us bath The tender look the meltng kss: Even years shall ne'er destroy our love But ge us only change 0' blss. Hae a wsh? t's a' for thee ken thy wsh s me to please; Our moments pass sae smooth away That numbers on us look and gaze. \Yeel pleas'd they see our happy days Nor Envy's sel' fnds aught to blame - And ay when ('as' deleted) weary cares arse Thy bosom stll shall be my hame. 'll lay me there and take my rest. And f that aught dsturb my Dear 'll bd her laugh her cares away And beg her not to drap a tear: Hac a joy? t's a' her an ; Unted stll her heart and mne - They're lke the woodbne round the trcc' That's twn'd tll Death shall them dsjon. n the Preface to hs volume La.prak says: n consequence of msfortunes and dsappontments he (the author) was some years ago torn from hs ordnary way of lfe and shut up n retrement whch he found at frst panful

147 1'1 144 ; :~ j j '.'! ~ ; and dsagreeable. magnng however thathe had a turn for rhymng n order to support hs soltude he set hmself to compose the followng peces. Thus delcately does he allude to a perod he spent n Ayr Jal as a sequence to fnancal dffcultes resultng from the falure of the Douglas and Heron Ayr Bank n June The transactons of the bank-whch are fully dealt wth n The Scots.Magazne of the tme-were not fnally closed tll August t has been stated that Laprak was a drector of the bank but hs name does not fgure on the lst. have not been able to put a date to hs retrement but t must have been some tme subsequent to June Some dsturber of the ghosts of the Muses n old l\'agaland dscovered a song wonderfully lke Laprak's jtc bured n the -pages of an old magazne. t was naturally concluded that Laprak was an mpostor and had deceved Burns as to the authorshp of the song. Henley and Henderson however n the Centenary Edton (vol.. p. 380) nclne to the opposte vew. Ther note reads :- Laprak's song... closely resembles one n Ruddman's Weekly ~lagazne 11th October 1773 'When on thy bosom reclne' dated Ednburgh 11th October and sgned' Happy Husband.' t has been too rashly nferred that Laprak plagarsed from ths lyrc: he may have Ttten t hmself. The Ettrck Shepherd charactersed La prak as a very ndfferent poet-ndeed no poet at all. But fortunately we are able to deal wth hs clams to ths ae sang apart from the consderaton of hs poetcal merts. Of course as far as the dates gven go he could have \\Ttten the song as he states n prson and therefore not earler than the summer of 1772 and publshed t as Henley and Henderson suggest n The Weekly ~llagazne or Ednburgh Amusement n October However am n a poston to supplement the Centenary Edton's nformaton wth data that undoubtedly brands Laprak as one of the great gang of song-snatchers. '!.1 ~ c'

148 145 have found the Magazne verson of the poem n The Scots Magazne for Aprl 1772 p. 207 prnted anonymously and headed Sonnett by a Husband. Stll earler gct what take to be the orgnal publcaton n Tlte Unversal Magazne of Knowledge and Pleasure for Octobcr 1771 p. ::on. Here t s verbatm :- SONNE'r. By a Husband but not a modern one. 'hen on thy bosom reclne Enraptur'd stll to call thee mne To call thee mne for lfe glory n the sacred tes (Whch modern wts and fools despse) Of husband and of wfe. One mutual flame nspres our blss The tender look-the meltng kss Ev'n years have not destroy'd ; SUlue s\veet sensaton ever nc\v Sprngs up-and proves the maxm true That love can ne'er be cloy'd. Have a wsh 'ts all for thee; Hast thou a wsh 'ts all for me So soft our moments move That angels look wth ardent gaze 'Yell pleas'd to see our happy days And bd us lve-and love. f cares arse (and cares wll come) Thy bosom s my softest home lull me there to rest; And s there aught dsturbs my far bd her sgh out all her care And lose t n my breast... Have' a joy 'ts all her own Or her's and mne are all but one: Our hearts are so ntwn'd That lke the vy round the tree Bound up n closest amty ''fb death to be dsjon'd. 'CLO.' ~..!

149 : l r~ 71' 1 '. j j~. ; :! '.f 11 j! ' Obvously all that Laprak dd was to alter-and certanly not for the better-ths song of the unknown bard whose dentty s shrouded n the pseudonym Clo. Whatever merts Laprak's effort dsplays are here down to the very deas words and phrases n prnt at least eght months before lke Bunyan he was shut up n retrement and turned to the solace of the qull. DAVDSON COOK F.S.A. Scot. } ;! :. ~ '.

150 '..' 1 r.... ~\ 'p ; BURNS AND THE DUCHESSES. ANYONE who seeks a knowledge of Burns must study carefully not merely hs poems and letters bnt the opnons remarks and crtcsms actually passed on hm n hs own day. One realses the true character of the man by learnng how he appeared to how he affected those wth whom he came n personal contact. t s by these sdelghts that real nformaton can be ganed and the Chroncle and ts Edtor have done monumental work n.sftng the true from the false brngng facts nto promnence and exposng baseless fabrcatons. No stronger lght was thrown than the vews of those who met hm n the heght of hs fame when as a mere ploughman a peasant by comparson wth the refned but affected socety of Auld Reeke he stepped straght nto the lmelght and for: a bref whle became the central fgure of the stage the nnversally accepted Bard of hs natve country. n one fortnght after hs arrval n the Captal he was able to announce th~t hs avowed patrons and patronesses were the Duchess of Gordon the Countess of Glencarn wth my Lord (Glencarn) and Lady Betty (Cunnngham). Son of a gardener turned farmer brought up n the narrowest crcumstances owng such educaton as he possessed manly to hs own efforts-how dd ths man conduct hmself n crcumstances so alen so unexpected? Hmself he says: At Ednburgh was n a new world. mngled among many classes of men but all of them new to me ; and was all attenton to catch the manners as they rse. Keen to observe; far more keenly observed. What was the verdct? Entrely favourable. Possbly the. best testmony was that of the Professor of Greek who lttle dreamng that hs words would be known and quoted wrote: 'Ve have got a poet n town whom everybody takes notce of a ploughman from Ayrshre.; ~ ~.' j ';:' ' ~ '. t: ~.! ;:!./... :!.. ~ 1.j - ' -. '4. ~.. j - '.:

151 ~ ~. 1 ~' J j..!. - ~ ~ ' ' )!. ~' '. J :~ j 1 ' - l~ ~ ~\ J... :' '! ~ j J! ~ '!:- 1 1! r;'::.7..- '!. 1 :! ' ' 148 who has produced admrablc verses mostly n the Scottsh dalcct 'though some of them are nearly n Englsh. He s a fellow of strong commonsense and by hs own ndustry has read a good deal of Englsh both prose and verse Sr Walter Scott carres greater weght and hs remarks to Lockhart are obvously based on what he had heard as well as the one bref ntervew: A sort of dgnfed planness and smplcty. Hs conversaton expressed pcrfect self-confdence wthout the slghtest presumpton. Hs address to females was extremely deferental and always wth a turn to the pathetc or humorous. have heard the Duchess of Gordon remark ths. And Mrs Alson Cockburn poetess and a Queen of socety: The town s agog wth the ploughman Poet who receves adulaton wth natve dgnty. The man wll be spolcd f he can spol; but he keeps hs smple manners and s qutc sober. Prnces Burns never met but next to them there was no one of the tme who held a greater poston welded more nfluence n Court poltcs and Socety than the young Duchess of Gordon whose approval gave the cachet to Burns as the Lon of the Day n Ednburgh. She was a pennless lass but of a lang pedgree-a Maxwell of l\onreth noted from chldhood for her wld and charmng waywardness and hgh sprt. Her early marrage brought her nto hgh place where she had full scope. A contemporary remarks that she was a favourte of George. whose domestc crcle she delghted and amused by vvd personfcatons and delneatons of peculartes and dalects. Mstress of the Dorc and Aberdonan the jargon of Yorkshre the humour of the Emerald sle the Kng found her a key to museums of natural hstory and of natonal peculartes. Her nfluence and popularty proved of great servce to natves who appealed to her for preferment. Ptt carred captve by her wt and mportlmtes always resolved to gve her next appeal a flat rcfm;al ; but unnvted she nvaded hs sanctum and opl'nng her budget of wt proceeded to earry her l11oton. Her t

152 .: husband Alexander fourth Duke who succeeded n 1762 content for awhle to follow hs gay Duchess n a lfe of pleasure and exctement was descrbed as the grcatest subject.n Brtan not from hs rent roll but froul thc number of people whom Provdcncenad put under hs government and protecton. Hs rent roll proved unequal to the stran; troubles arose; and contnued. n realty the Duke a lang lang-nebbt northcrner' was no ft match for ths amar.ng woman. '. What he rcally cared for was sport-a horse a dog; and a gun. Stll he dd well for hs country by rasng four regments of Fcncbles bctween 175\) and 179\). t was the 17\)3 battalon n whch hs Duchess so keenly nterested hcrself and t was to her recrutng efforts and methods that the name of Gay Gord~ns s attrbutable. He also planted large areas and beautful country-sdes. t chanced that Jean Maxwell was not to be the only Duchcss to entertan the Poet nor yet the frst.. n the course of the Hghland tour 25th August to 16th Septemher Burns rode up Tummc RYer to Blar Castle on Frday 31st August to present a letter of ntroducton to Hs Grace of Atholl. The Duke was from home but expected next day so the Duchess nssted that he should stay overnght.. Blar-sup wth the Duchess-easy and happy from the manners of that famly. Josah Walker son Of the Mnster of Dundonald had made Burns's acql1antance n Ednburgh and was now resdent-tutor to the young Marqus of Tullbardne. Lke others the tutor later dlated on hs curosty to see how the Poet would conduct hmself n such august company. Of hs favourablc opnon t s only necessary to quote one sentence: He tred to exert h abltes because he knew t was ablty alone gave hm t ttle to be there. Rememberng Allan Cunnngham and hs nventons one gets to doubt the accuracy of these post-mortem recollectons. Anyone who hael met BurnR n lfe founel keen audtors.to hr talc whether far or fonl l'! and the tale grew n the.tellng as dd the narrator's self- ~~ ro ; /1 '. ~. '. ~ 11.'.!~... jl' '. '1 ' t (

153 1!.: f t ~.j J r!..f :' '\'! P L 1 t! : : 150 mport.ance. Lat.er t was to Walker that. Burns sent a letter enclosng the verses on Bruar Water. The jottngs n Burns's dary are qute vvd:- Saturday. Vst the scenes round Blar.' Rde n company wth Sr' Wllam Murray. and Mr Walker to Loch Tumme!. Dne at Blar-Company: General Murray Oren; Capt. Murray an honest tar; Sr Wllam Murray an honest worthy man; Mrs Graham belle et amable; Mss Cathcart; Mrs :Murray a panter; 'Duchess and fne famly. Dance-sup-Duke; Mr Graham of Fntry; 1\r l\l'laggan; }\fr and Mrs Stewart. Jean Duchess of Atholl eldest of the three beautful daughters of Lord Cathcart marred n 1774 had at ths tme seven ehldren- the youngest sx months old the smlng lttle seraph ; the others the lovely olve plants. The Duchess noted for her happy home lfe s descrbed by one of her descendants as a gentle kndly woman well read and wth muscal and artstc tastes. There are many traces of her booksmusc and sketches at Blar. mght specally menton a small book of manuscrpt musc n whch she has drawn a delghtful lttle coloured skctch of her chldrcn dancng to the strans of Nel Gow's fddle. Lke her sster the beautful Mrs Graham she ded of consumpton n 171)0_ Nel Gow was at that tme volnst at Blar. He had played the day prevous for Burns at Dr Stewart's and Burns descrbes hs nterestng face-hs honest socal brow. John the fourth Duke who had succeeded n 1774 s vel rcmembered for hs management of hs estates and tree plantng. The present Duke thus pthly descrbes hm: The 4th Dukc was a' parteul~rly go-ahead man for hs date and he dd more for agrculture than almost any man n Scot~and. He ntroduced a proper system of farmng n Atholl lad out the farms on lnes whch are a model at the present day bult good houses (whch are stll good) and farm buldngs ntroduced a proper tenancy system whch stll obtans dd away wth all' hopeless crofts and n ther place put small proftable farms and '1! ':...---=-~~

154 151 dd so much n the way 6f forestry that he was known as Johnthe Planter. The woods that he planted have proved of great value durng the war to the country. Hs treatse on larch plantng s stll a standard work. He was a great sportsman and a man of much energy. He was also a strkngly handsome man; hs portrat appears n the engravng The Death of a Stag n Glentlt: Ths two-day vst mght well be descrbed by BurnR as one of the happest events n hs lfe. Wlle Ncol war there-'valker calls hm a robust but clumsy person and Burns descrbed hm as a loaded blunderbuss at full cockbut he appears to have kept n the background and caused no trouble. Next day Sunday they journeyed by Dalwhnne Rothemurehus and the Carngorms and pad a vst to Bruar Water whch nspred The Humble Petton to the Noble Duke of Athole a petton promptly gven effect to. Burns wrote lttle about chldren save n hs farmhouse sketches so the last verse n prase of these hghly-born he had so lately seenh worth quotng :- So may old Scota's darlng hope Your lttle angel band Sprng lke ther fathers up to prop Ther honoured natve land. So may thro' Albon's farthest ken To socal flowng glasses The grace be-' Athole's honest men And Athole'A bonne lasses.' t was a week later that Burns and Xcol drove by way of Forres and Elgn from Brode House to Foehabers. At the Gordon Arms the chase was put up and Burns proceeded alone to the Castle to pay hs respects to the Duchess. Hs jottng s :- Frday. Cross Spey to Fochabers-fne palace worthy of the generous propretor. Dne-company: Duke and Duchess Vldes Charlotte and :Madelne; Colonel Abercrombe and L'ldy; )lr Gordon and )lr-- a clergyman a venerable aged fgure'; and )r Hoy a clergyman suppose a pleasant open manner. The Duke makes me. 'l j.. ~ 11..' : '~ ~ ' ~< j. \ t ';1' <~ 1 ~ 1...

155 l52 happ(' tban ('vel' great llan dd-noble prncely; :ret llld condes('c'ndng and affable gay and knd The DuC'hrf;H charmng wtty and sensblr-god blrss them Hoy \\'a:-: not a c]c'rgyman but the lbraran The elc'l'gyman ma~ ' havc' been Rev Dr Couper parsh mnsh'' who later suppl ed tl(' dc'tals of thc' unfortlmate endng of the vst. Dd Burns actually gvc' hfl travellng com panon thr Hlp? Xrol lmrw thr~ ' \\'rrr come to Gordon CORDON CASTLE FOCHABERS C'a:-:t1( thc' Dlchr:-:s the ft'st patron. t lookfl remal'kabl\' lkr t. Possbl)' Xeol. though unobtl'lls\'c' at Blal' had not pl'ovrd :-:ltc'd to such company. Possbly wth Brode of Brod(''the nght beforr somethng had gone \\Tong to makr that knd host only tl'llly poltr but not just thl' Hghland cordalty. Anyw<1\'. alonr he went wth or wthout ( xplnnaton. Lookng at the calls on the road. t llllst lmvl' h('rn pa:-:t!loon when ~o chaben was re<lchrd nne! thr Po('t <ll'l'n'd at the CaHUp jll:-:t as the famly \nls sttng dolln to thc' early aftrl'l1oon dnner. ::Ural o\'rl'. and a glass 01' t \\0 of wnc' drunk he conld no longrr detan