GIFT OF
Mrs. W. W. Kemp
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/centenarybookofbOOburnrich
1820-1920.
Centenary Book
. OF .
THE BURNS CLUB OF
DUMFRIES
With Full Account of the Anniversary Dinner on
23rd January, 1920, and Historical Sketch of the
Club since its Formation on 18th January, 1820
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
THE COURIER AND HERALD PRESS
111-113 High Street, Dumfries
' 1920
-^t£^f ' "Zt*L,. *^ ^-. jfe*''^
FOREWORD.
' I "HE Centenary Dinner of the Dumfries Burns Club was in
* many ways an event of so much interest that the Dumfries
and Galloway Courier and Herald have decided to issue a book
from a Report of the Proceedings. There could be no more
fitting publishers, for John M 'Diarmid, the first Proprietor and
Editor of the Courier, and his son, William Ritchie M 'Diarmid,
were for more than fifty years chief among those who upheld the
honour of Burns in Dumfries. William Ritchie M 'Diarmid was
Secretary of Dumfries Burns Club for no less than 33 years.
Again, it was as Editor of the Courier that Thomas Aird gave
his poetic and gentle presence to Dumfries for 30 years, and all
lovers of Burns of the last Dumfries generation had also a tender
place for Aird.
The Burns Dinner of 1920 was a wonderful tribute to the
vitality of the love of the Poet, for the number who sat down to
the " cup of kindness " more than doubled the highest previous
record during the hundred years of the Club* s existence. It was
specially favoured by the number of distinguished guests from a
distance, who honoured the Club by joining them in paying tribute
to The Immortal Memory, and by the quality of their
speeches. Most remarkable of all was the spirit of the whole
gathering. There were 140 men present who neither spoke nor
sang, but one felt, in a way seldom experienced, that everyone
present had an active and responsive part in the spirit of the
meeting. It would have been a thousand pities had there been
no permanent record of so notable a communion of spirit.
M300638
Perhaps the Editor will allow me as Chairman of the
meeting to put on record here the deep gratitude of everybody to
the Secretary of the Club — Mr John M 'Burnie. The Burns
Club seems to have entered upon a new life, full of vigour and
enthusiasm, and of this Mr M 'Burnie is the begetter. For the
dinner itself, and all that pertained to it, his arrangements were
perfection. It is a special fortune that at this important time in
its life the Club should have such a Secretary. The members of
Committee also are entitled to warm thanks. It is significant of
their harmonious spirit that, while every member of Committee
individually worked hard to ensure success, scarcely any formal
meetings of Committee were necessary.
Another thing I should like to note with satisfaction is that
for the first time the Club had the honour of having as its guest
Mr John Maxwell, the President of the other principal Club in
the Town— the Burns Howff Club, which meets annually in the
very room where Burns was so often ' ' blithe wi' comrades-
dear.
One other thing I would like to say. Its relevancy may not be
apparent to everyone, but if this book goes, as it will, all over
the world, there are many who read it who will understand. F
want to pay a tribute to the influence of the old Edinburgh
University Dumfries and Galloway Students' Society (the " D.
& G.," as it is called), now flourishing in at least the 70th year
cf its life. Of that Society I was in my day a devoted member and
in a small way an office-bearer, but its principal relation to the
Centenary Dinner is this. The Minute Books of the Society record
that Sir James Crichton- Browne was a zealous member, and no
doubt there laid the foundations of his delightful eloquence. Sir
James Barrie, to whom the Burns Club is so much indebted, also
took his fair share in the work of the University Society, and the
honoured name of Dr George Neilson is also found on the roll
of members. John Foster's wit, in my day, played around the
walls of the Civil Law Class- Room where the Society
met, and R. W. MacKenna was just beginning there
to try his literary 'prentice hand, which has
since attained such perfection of craftsmanship. Shortly
after my time, Joseph Hunter led the Society, as he so-
well led many things in the University, and no one will readily
forget the delightful warmth and delicacy of expression with
which he welcomed to Dumfries our distinguished guests on the
23rd January. The old " D. & G." had, therefore, no small
share in the" success of our Centenary meeting.
May this book, as it goes on its journey, not only be a bond
between Dumfries, where Burns lived and died, and those who
love him everywhere, but may it also remind many far away of
the old home and kindly faces in the Queen of the South.
R. A. GRIERSON,
President,
Dumfries Burns Club.
THE
CENTENARY DINNER
Verbatim Reports of Memorable
Speeches — Gifts of Interesting
:: :: Burns Relics :: ::
The Burns Club of Dumfries, founded
on 18th January, 1820, celebrated its cen-
tenary on Friday night, 23rd January,
1920, on the occasion of the anniversary
dinner in memory of the Poet. These
anniversary dinners had been in abey-
ance during the War, and it was a happy
circumstance that their resumption under
conditions of Peace should have fallen
in the year of the centenary of the Club
which inaugurated them, and which has,
in that and other useful and signal ways,
helped to keep the memory of the National
Poet fresh and green in the old town in
which his remains rest. Elsewhere, in
this book, there will be found related at
some length the circumstances in which
the Club came into being and its history
generally during these past 100 years. A
most interesting story it is, linking up
the present with the names of those
who, as contemporary friends of the
Poet, raised soon after his death the
Mausoleum which stands over his grave
and thereafter established the Club. The
centenary dinner was in every way
worthy of the occasion. Indeed it will rank
as probably the most successful Burns
event that has ever taken place in the old
8
burgh. The company was large and re-
presentative, numbering about 160, and
including not a few Dumfriesians of note
and other distinguished guests, Among
the latter we may, without invidiousness,
mention Sheriff Morton, K.C., Sheriff of
Dumfriesshire and Galloway; Lord St.
Vigeans, chairman of the Scottish Land
Court and formerly Sheriff in this Sheriff-
dom; Sir Herbert E. Maxwell of Mon-
reith, Bart., eminent alike as a writer, a
scholar, and a sportsman; Sir James
Crichton-Browne, F.R.S., whose name is
an honoured household word throughout
his native district and far beyond ; Sir J.
Lome MacLeod, LL.D., ex-Lord Provost
of Edinburgh; Dr George Neilson, stipen-
diary of Glasgow, and distinguished
archaeologist; Dr E. W. MacKenna, of
Liverpool, author of " The Adventure of
Death " and other works of note ; Mr
Joseph Laing Waugh, Edinburgh, author
of " Thornhill and Its Worthies/' "Robbie
Doo," etc. ; Mr John Foster, Sheriff Clerk
of Elgin, author of " The Searchers " and
other successful romances; Mr Holbrook
Jackson, editor of " To-day," an able
London journalist. The speaking through-
out the evening was on a remarkably
high level of excellence, the note being
given by the unusually fine oration with
which the able and popular President of
the Club (Mr R. A. Grierson, town clerk)
proposed " The Immortal Memory/' From
first to last there was not a tedious or
uninteresting moment, and when, well
into " the wee sma' oors," the company
at length joined in singing " Auld Lang
Syne," they did so with the unanimous
feeling that the evening spent had been
one of unqualified edification and delight.
Altogether the organisers of the occasion
had every reason to be deeply gratified at
its great success, and in this connection
•special acknowledgment was made of the
valued services of the hon. secretary of
the Club, Mr John M'Burnie, Sheriff
Clerk of Dumfriesshire.
The dinner was held in the Eoyal Re-
staurant, in the new premises adjoining
the upstairs tea-room, which were opened
temporarily for the occasion, and large
as the dining-room was, all the available
space was fully taxed. The long, snow-
white tables with their complement of
glittering silver and decorations of cut
flowers presented an attractive appear-
ance. Occupying a prominent place on
the chairman's table was the punch bowl
of Spode ware which was first used at the
Club dinner in 1820, along with the four
companion jugs for carrying the toddy
round, and the snuff-mull which was
purchased at the same time. The glasses
were of % the same kind as those which
were used at the first dinner. On the
east wall of the dining-room hung the
original portrait of the Bard, presented
to the Club by Gilfillan at the 1822 meet-
ing, and a replica of the companion por-
trait of Bonnie Jean.
Mr R. A. Grierson, president of the
Club, presided. He carried the famous
Burns whistle (used in the drinking
contest celebrated in the song), with
which he regulated the proceedings.
He explained that it had been very
kindly sent for use that night from
Craigdarroch, through their friend, Mr
Irving Edgar. It was very interesting to
10
have it, and it would add a great deal to
the fascination of the evening. In addi-
tion to her kindness in lending the whistle,
Mrs Smith Cuninghame of Craigdarroch
had also presented a photograph of the
whistle to the Club. Mr Grierson was
accompanied on the right and left by-
Sheriff Morton. K.C., Sheriff of
Dumfries and Galloway; Provost Macau-
lay, O.B.E., Dumfries; Sir Herbert E. Max-
well, Bart, of Monreith ; Sir J. Lome Mac-
Leod, LL.D., ex-Lord Provost of Edinburgh ;
Colonel J. Beaufin Irving of Bonshaw,
county commandant, 3rd V.B., K.O.S.B. :
ex-Provost Nicholson, Maxwelltown ; Dr R.
W. MacKenna, Liverpool (son of the late
Rev. R. MacKenna, Dumfries) ; and Lieut.-
Colonel P. Murray Kerr, formerly officer
commanding the l-5th Battalion K.O.S.B. ' r
Mr John M'Burnie (secretary of the Club);
Lord St. Vigeans (formerly Sheriff of Dum-
fries and Galloway); Sir James Crichton-
Browne, Crindau; Mr J. W. Whitelaw, soli-
citor (a former president) ; Dr George Neil-
son, stipendiary magistrate, Glasgow; Mr Jos-
eph Laing Waugh ; Mr John Foster ; Mv John
Maxwell (president of the Burns Howff
Club). The croupiers were — Mr G. B. Car-
ruthers, Mr W. A. Hiddleston, Dr Joseph
Hunter, and Judge D. H. Hastie.
The following others were seated at the
Chairman's table: — Sheriff-substitute Ballin-
gall, Rev. J. Montgomery Campbell, Mr Jas.
Geddes, Judge O'Brien, Mr John Robson
(county clerk), Dr J. Maxwell Ross (medical
officer for the county), Mr J. E. Blacklock,
Mr R. D. Maxwell (editor of "Courier and
Herald"), Judge Smart, Bailie M'Lach-
lan, Mr Jas. Reid (editor of "Dumfries
Standard"), Mr Holbrook Jackson (London),
Mr John Maxwell (H.M. Commissioner for
the Gold Coast). .
11
There were also present : — Members
— Mr Alexander Bryson, Mr Thomas Dykes.
L.D.S., Mr Robert Austin, Mr John White,
Mr R. J. J. Sloan, Mr R. Y. Mackay. Mr
Andrew Millar, Mr Eric A. Gibson, Mr Wm.
Gibson, Mr John Henderson, Mr James
Henderson, Mr W. H. Hall, Mr W. Black,
Mr John Thomson, Bailie D. Brodie, Mr R.
Lindsay Carruthers. Mr A. Coulson, Mr
David Robertson, Mr David Manson, Mr
William J. Stark, Mr W. F. Crombie, Mr
John Johnstone, Mr James Wyllie (Tinwald
Downs), Mr Peter Biggam, Mr W. G. John-
stone, Mr Bertram M'Gowan. Mr John Gib-
son, Mr David Fergusson, Mr Robert Mor-
rin, Mr G. W. Shirley, Mr Patrick Egan, Mr
Henry B. Reid, Dr J. M, Donnan, Mr W. J.
Laurie, Mr George Will, Mr W. B. Spence,
Mr Sam Dickie, Mr Walter Henderson, Mr
Frank W. Michie, Mr Stewart Ritchie, Mr
G. B. Fraser, Mr John Barker, Mr W. Ban-
nerman, Mr Graham F. Macara. Mr R. L.
Robertson, Mr David G. Grieve, Mr Alfred
Corrigall, Mr James Arthur M'Kerrow, Mr
M. H. M'Kerrow, Mr James C. M'George, Mr
John Lennox, Mr F. J. Pidwell, Mr Robert
Dinwiddie, Mr Walter S. Johnstone. Mr J.
N. Chicken, Mr George Dougal, Mr John
Irving (solicitor) ; Mr John Irving (saddler),
Mr John Grierson (grocer), Mr Charles
M'Lelland, Mr J. M. Bowie, Mr Robert
Oughton, Mr J, A. Gibson, Mr John Hen-
derson (Shawhead), Rev. John Wilson, Mr
J. H. Chicken, Mr Irving Edgar, Mr A. D.
Robison, Mr John Dickie, Mr Robert Adam-
son, Mr James Wyllie, Mr James Wyllie,
junr., Mr Matthew S. Wyllie, Mr H. J. Robi-
son, Dean Lockerbie, Rev. Walter M'ln-
tyre, Major C. R. Dudgeon, Dr A. J. Gordon
Hunter, M.C., Mr James Kirkland, Mr John
S. Stobie, Mr John Kerr, Mr Charles
Chicken, Mr D. H. Hastie, junr., Mr D. H.
C. Higgins, Mr James Reid, Mr George Hut-
ton, Mr W. Clark, Mr George Bryson, Dr H..
12
A. G. Dykes, Dr T. S. Macaulay, Mr Philip
Mackie, Mr R. O'Connor, Mr George Gor-
don, Mi Thomas Grierson, Mr Wm. Dinwid-
die, Mr James Egans, Mr William King, Mr
Arthur Robson, Mr David M'Jerrow, Mr Dun-
can Moir, Mr Duncan Macleod, Dr Burnett,
Mi Tom Oliver, Mr James Dickie, Mr E. A.
Hornel, Mr William Johnston, junr., Mr
James A. Morrin, Mr Leslie Macdonald, Mr
G. H. Reed, Mr William Kemp, Mr D. H.
Hunter, Mr Thomas Gibson, Mr T. J. John-
slone, Mr James Houston, Mr James Flett.
Apologies for Absence.
The Secretary intimated apologies for
absence from the following: —
Sir J. M. Barrie, Bart. ; Sir George Dou-
glas, Bart. ; Sir John R. Findlay ; Professor
John Edgar, St. Andrews; Colonel R. J.
Geddes, C.B., D.S.O.; Mr H. Cavan Irving,
C.B.E., of Burnfoot ; Mr Norman M'Kinnel,
London; Mr D. M'Naught, President of the
Burns Federation ; Mr Thomas Carmichael,
S.S.C., Edinburgh; Mr Frank Miller, Annan;
Professor John H. Miller, Edinburgh; Mr
Wellwood Anderson ; Rev. J. C. Higgins,
Tarbolton; Mr Phillip Sulley, Elgin (who
acted as secretary to the 1896 Centenary
Committee) ; Mr John Mackechnie (a former
secretary of the Club) ; Mr Alexander Car-
lyle, Edinburgh; Major William Murray,
O.B.E., M.P. ; Captain R. W. Campbell, Cor-
sock ; Dr Livingston ; Dr T. Bowman Edgar,
Kirkconnel; Mr J. W. Critchley; Mr Matt.
S. M'Kerrow; Mr Alfred D. Calvert; Mr
Hugh S. Gladstone ; Mr Jas. Kissock, Banff ;
and the following ex-Presidents: — Mr J. C.
R. Macdonald, W.S. ; Sheriff Campion, Mr
John Grierson, Mr James Carmont, Right
Rev. A. Wallace Williamson, D.D. ; Mr J.
H. Balfour-Browne, K.C. ; Dr J. Maxwell
Wood ; Mr John Symons, Dr Fred H. Clarke,
Mr H. Sharpe Gordon.
13
Appended are some of the messages re-
ceived : —
Sir J. M. Barrie— "Hearty thanks to the
Burns Club for their kind invitation. I am
sorry I can't be present at this anniversary,
but social functions are somewhat out of my
line, and besides, I could not get North at
that time. My very best wishes, though, to
you all for a great and worthy evening."
Professor John Edgar: — "I have to thank
you for your kind invitation, but alas I my
time is full up with University work and
on Friday, especially, as luck would have it,
there is a most important business meeting
which I must attend. I shall be thinking
of your gTeat gathering and of the distin-
guished company of your guests, and I wish
the privilege of being present had been
granted me. May the dinner be a great suc-
cess ! I am certain that the speeches will
be worthy of the occasion, and I hope some-
one of the speakers will recall the great
words of the Poet: —
'The man o' independent mind
Is king o' men for a' that.'
The spirit of the words made Scotsmen a
power in the world, but I sometimes fear
that our countrymen are beginning to forget
them."
Mr H. Cavan Irving: — "Many thanks for
your kind invitation to the dinner to be held
on the 23rd, of which I am sorry I must de-
cline the pleasure as I do not feel up
to such entertainments in the dirty, dark
nights such as we are getting now, as a very
little upsets me after my recent illness.
Please express for me my appreciation of the
honour that the Dumfries Burns Club have
done me and my thanks for their kindness."
Mr Norman M'Kinnel : — "Will you please
convey my thanks to the Club for their very
kind invitation and my great regret that I
14
•cannot accept it? The play I am in at pre-
sent looks like running till Easter at least,
and 'nights off,' except under medical ad-
vice, are not allowed. I should like to have
revisited the auld toon under the auspices
of the Burns Club, but will have to pay the
penalty of success and bow to the inevita-
ble."
Mr D. M'Naught: — "Much as I feel hon-
oured by your kind invitation for the even-
ing of the 23rd, I regret that a family ber-
eavement compels me to decline any such
engagements this year With best
wishes for the success of your centenary
meeting and salutations to all the brethren."
Mr Thomas Carmichael: — "I have received
your kind invitation to attend the centenary
dinner of the Dumfries Burns Club on the
23rd. It would have afforded me great plea-
sure) to be present on the occasion, but I
regret to say that considerations of health
prevent me being with you at the dinner. I
regret this very much, but I hope you will
liave a most successful and enjoyable cele-
bration."
Mr Frank Miller: — "I value highly your
kindness in sending me an invitation to the
anniversary dinner of the Dumfries Burns
Club, but ,1 fear must deny myself the
pleasure of accepting it on account of the
state of my health. Will you do me the
favour to convey to your Club my thanks,
and express my regret at my inability to
attend?"
Mr Wellwood Anderson: — "I received
your pressing invitation to attend the cen-
tenary dinner. Very many thanks, but I
fear I cannot be present at this most inter-
esting gathering. The list of speakers is well
worthy of the historic occasion. Fain would
I have listened to our dear old friend's
•oration for he will, I know, shed lustre on
15
the scene, and give you a most interesting
, .and brilliant speech.
'While terra firma on her axis
Diurnal steers on,
Count on a friend in faith an' practice
In Robert Grierson.'
There will, alas! be many familiar faces
missing from the festive board, and while
honouring our beloved Burns and drinking
to his Immortal Memory, our thoughts will
surely turn to our fallen heroes in the Great
War. With best wishes for a most enjoyable
meeting.
'Lord send you aye as weel's I want ye.
And then ye'll do.' "
Mr Phillip Sulley: — "I regret very much
that it will not be possible for me to attend
the centenary meeting of Dumfries Burns
Club. Though not the oldest, it is clearly
the most important by its direct connection
with the Poet and his friends, with his sons,
and by the possession and custody of so
many important personal relics. I am very
proud of being connected with it, and send
heartiest greetings and congratulations to
the brethren."
Mr John Mackechnie: — "I shall be unable
to be present, but I hope the centenary
dinner will prove a great success, and I
have not the slightest doubt that the presi-
dent will rise to the occasion."
Mr Alexander Carlyle: — "I deeply regret
to have to inform you that I shall be un-
able to be with you on the 23rd at your
dinner owing to the state of my health.
Will you please accept my thanks and re-
grets, and express to your Club my feeling
of gratitude for the honour they have done
me in inviting me to the centenary dinner,
and my great disappointment at being
obliged to forego the pleasure of being pre-
sent on so memorable and interesting an
•occasion."
16
Major Wm. Murray: — "I am sorry to have
to fail you. I regret very much that I am
unavoidably prevented from coming to the
Burns dinner to-morrow, and beg you will
accept my most regretful apologies."
Mr J. C. R. Macdonald: — "As I am not.
going out in the evenings this winter I re-
gret that I cannot be present at the dinner
on the occasion of the centenary of the Club'
on the 23rd inst., and specially so as I be-
lieve I now stand very near the top of the
list of surviving past presidents."
Sheriff Campion: — "I much regret not
being able to put in an appearance at this
notable Burns Club gathering. Since it was
my happy fate to be appointed to Dumfries
thirty years ago, this is, I think, the first
one I have missed. With best wishes to
fellow-members and all friends."
Right Rev. Wallace Williamson: — "I have
your kind letter and invitation to the cen-
tenary meeting of the Burns Club. I should
have been glad to accept the invitation had
it been possible, but I much regret my en-
gagements will prevent my being present.
I regret this all the more as I have- most
pleasant recollections of the kind welcome
I received from the members of the Club
some years ago. I trust you will have a
happy and successful celebration."
Captain Campbell: — "I regret, indeed, that
owing to the pressure of literary and other
duties I am unable to be with you on this
historic occasion, and trust you will excuse
my inability to attend. By maintaining the
interest in Burns you do a great work. 'There
are more things in Heaven and earth' than
4 overtime ' and a pound of flesh. In recall-
ing the nobility and grandeur of Burns you
project a happy sunbeam into a
material world. We are all sickened
with militarism, dollar patriotism,.
17
and bawlmg commercialism. By uplifting
idealism and romance you may save our
souls."
Greetings From Other Clubs.
The following greetings from other clubs
were intimated: —
Burns Clubs :— Coquetdale, Hamilton, Allo-
way, Hawick, Govan ("Ye Cronies"), Irvine,
Govan Fairfield, Glasgow Albany, Gareloch-
head, Hamilton Mossgiel ; Thornllebank,
Birmingham, Cupar, Hamilton Junior, Dun-
dee, Bridgeton, Hull, Dunfermline United,
Gourock, Stane Mossgiel, Derby, Galashiels,
Kilmarnock ("Jolly Beggars"), Portobello,
Dalmuir, Port Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Kelso,
London, East. Stirlingshire, Mid-Argyll,
Montrose, North Berwick, Gourock ("Jolly
Beggars"), Edinburgh ("Ninety"), Elgin,
Liverpool, Birtley, Annan, Glencraig, Charle-
ston, Paisley, Howff (Dumfries), St. James'
(Paisley), St. John's (Greenock), and New-
castle and Tyneside. The Burns Federation :
and the following: — Ballarat and District
Caledonian Society; Caledonian Society of
Sheffield; The Saint Andrews Society, Glas-
gow; Leeds Caledonian Society; North Staf-
fordshire and District Caledonian Society;
Birmingham and Midland Scottish Society;
Jesmond Constitutional Club. From Mr
Walter Scott, New York, a life member of
the Club, was received the following cable,
"Star of Robert Burns in brilliancy is greater
than ever."
Grace having been said by the Rev. J.
Montgomery Campbell of St. Michael's,
dinner was served. While it was being
partaken of music was discoursed by an
orchestra led by Mr J. Cheadle; and by
pipers, under Pipe-Major T. H. B'oyd,
who played Burns airs,
IS
In the service of the dinner the Royal
Restaurant firm excelled itself. All
the time-honoured dishes found a place
on the menu. The haggis, " Great chief-
tain o' the puddin' race," was ushered in
to the tune of the pipes, and having been
carried aloft round the dining-room, was
finally placed in front of the Chairman,
who with uplifted hands recited Burns'
address : —
Fair fa' your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin' race.
Aboon them a' ye tak' yer place,
Painch, tripe, and thairm,
Weel are ye worthy o' a grace
As lang's ma' airm.
The menu card and toast list was a
work of art, designed by Major W. F.
Crombie, and printed by Messrs Maxwell
and Son, High Street. A facsimile is
reproduced elsewhere. The greeting sent
to other clubs, which was printed on the
back of the menu, consisted of lines
written by Mr William Grierson, the first
secretary of the Club, and afterwards
found among the papers of General
M'Murdo of Mavisgrove, now lodged in
the Public Library.
The musical programme, detailed on
the toast list, was very much enjoyed,
all the artistes having a hearty reception.
The pianoforte accompaniments were
ably played by Mr J. Johnstone.
The toast of " The King " was proposed
from the chair, and was received with
cheers, followed by the singing of the
National Anthem. " The Queen, the
Queen Mother, and other Members of
the Royal Family " was also proposed
by the Chairman, and was pledged with
enthusiasm.
19
Sheriff Morton, K.C., proposed the
toast of the " Imperial Forces." He re-
membered, he said, that when he was in
the habit of going first to public dinners
the toast that he had the honour to pro-
pose that night was worded as the " Navy,
Army, and Reservo Forces." Ho thought
Sheriff Morton, K.C.
that the reason why the designation of
that toast had had to be altered was due
to the fact that our fighting forces, with-
in the last twenty years at any rate,
had assumed a complexity that they
did not possess previously and an ex-
tension beyond the territory from which
they were drawn that, he thought, the
oldest or the youngest of them there
never expected to see. (Applause.) The
first occasion upon which anybody could
have expected that the British Empire
20
would be able to rally any more than-
the sons born in Great Britain was dur-
ing the South African war, but even
there the contingent sent by our Colonies
was small indeed compared with what
was sent during the last tremendous
struggle. There was one thing certain
now, it was plain to every nation upon
the globe that when they engaged in
arms with the British Empire they en-
gaged with all its sons in that very far-
flung dominion. (Applause.) One
thing he thought they were entitled to
take out of that struggle was that the
prestige and the power that brought us
our Empire lived in the descendants of
the farthest part of it at this present
time. In the newspapers as they read
them from day to day during the last
struggle they found sometimes that a
contingent from Canada was getting the
praise of the day, at another time a con-
tingent from Australia, und at another
time some battalion or some division or
the home forces, and they were not only
united in the determination with which
they went into this struggle but they
were united as brothers in arms in re-
spect that each contingent from wherever
it was drawn proved itself to be worthy
of the comrades with whom it fought
side by side. We had great cause to
take courage for the future of the British
Empire when we considered that our
Imperial Forces were not only more num-
erically than they were before, but that
they were imbued with the very same spirit
that had brought our Empire to its high
pitch among civilised peoples. Even in the
Navy, where we did not expect we would
21
have a contingent from the Dominions,
we found that when they were chasing
the " Emden " there was one battleship
sent by Australia, not only manned but
provided by the Commonwealth, and it
was within the recollection of all how
worthily indeed that contingent did its
work. (Applause.) There was this
further to be said, not only had we ex-
tended the territory from which we drew
our fighting forces but we had also ox-
tended the nature of the fighting arm
that defended this Imperial. Dominion.
(Applause.) For the first time in the
history of civilisation or of the globe our
fighting forces had included an Air Ser-
vice. He was not really competent to
discuss the Air Service, but one thing
that struck him was this, that the great
thing that seemed to be absolutely per-
manent among the British people from
wherever drawn was the power of initia-
tive and the power of utilising science for
the benefit of the British people. There
was this further to be said of the fighting
forces — they were not in any way bound by
mere tradition. They were willing to ac-
cept service from wherever it came, will-
ing even to accept new ideas which some
Government departments did not' seem
to be over-willing to accept, and from
whatever quarter they came the fighting
forces were willing to utilise all the help
they could get. What had brought this
Empire to its present pitch was the in-
domitable courage of our people, and if
the last war demonstrated anything it
had shown to the whole of Europe and
the whole of mankind that that indomit-
able courage was as great at the present
time as it ever had been. (Applause.)
Colonel J. Beaufm Irving of Bonshaw,
in responding, said the Navy had
fought three important battles, the
Battle of the Bight, the Battle of
Falkland, and the Battle of Jutland. In
the days of Waterloo the Army were said
to be chiefly ploughmen, but in this
Colonel J. Beaufin Irving.
great war they were of every possible
sort from dukes to labourers, and
professional men of all kinds. Even
the parsons took up a rifle to do
their duty to their God, their King, and
their country, and quite right too. (Ap-
plause.) The whole Empire as a body
had pulled together in the most wonder-
ful way, and every Colony, even the very
smallest as well as the biggest, gave
something in money and men to help
the Mother Country. He knew of one
small colony that was an illustration of
23
this — New Guinea — which had formed
just a company and five or six officers,
but still had shown goodwill in trying to
pull together and help. It was marvel-
lous the numbers we were able to put in
the field. He read somewhere that *re
put altogether six million men in the
Colonel P. Murray Kerr.
field, and the way they had fought was
never surpassed in any war we had ever
been engaged in. (Applause.)
Colonel P. Murray Kerr, who also
responded, paid a tribute to Colonel
Irving. Perhaps some of the younger
men present were unaware that Colonel
Irving as a young soldier began his
fighting career in the Abyssinian cam-
paign, and was very seriously wounded
there. In conclusion, he said that in
the recent war, as on all previous occa-
sions in history, the British Army had
covered itself with glory. (Applause >
24
" THE IMMORTAL MEMORY."
Burns' Charter of Manhood.
The President, in rising to propose "The
Immortal Memory," was warmly cheered.
He said: — We are, in this room in Dum-
fries to-night, very specially near to
Mr R. A. Grierson, President.
Robert Burns. For we are met
to mark that, on the 25th day of January
in the year 1820, some 40 Dumfries men,
most of whom had known Burns in life,
sat down in the old King's Arms Inn for
the first time as a Burns Club. Rather
I should say we are here in continuity of
that meeting — in unity ol heart and
thought with those men whose love for
Robert Burns has lived in the brother-
hood of this Club throughout a hundred
years. That meeting in 1820 — which was,
even in Dumfries, not actually the first,
but was among the first held anywhere —
was the beginning of the fulfilment of
those oft-quoted words of Burns: — "Don't
be afraid ; I'll be more thought of a hund-
red years after my death than I am to-
day." But could even his poetic,
prophetic eye have foreseen the fulness
of the realisation that to-night— 100 years
after that little gathering of his own
townsfolk — it should be, that by
his genius, " the whole round earth
is everyway bound with a gold
chain" of common love and common
thought? (Applause.) There is
no land, however remote, where there are
not a few faithful met to think of home
and Robert Burns. (Applause.) And the
eyes of men everywhere are turned to-
night, not to the stately Cathedrals where
lie the great statesmen of the days when
Burns lived, but to that old Churchyard
where lies a man who died in a little
room, in a poor house, in a mean street,
of a small Scotch burgh. That is to me
one of the very wonderful things of the
world. (Applause.) And here, at the
joining place of that golden chain, linked
up for us as it is by the traditions of these
100 years, and in the presence of so many
of our distinguished guests, I do honestly
feel how difficult it is to say for you what
you would wish me to say. It is not pos-
sible for any ordinary man at this time
of day to say anything new, which is
true, of Burns. For myself, I have
neither the knowledge nor the skill to do
more than follow him along the main
road. And perhaps it is as well. For
Burns — and when I say Burns, I mean
not alone the man who lived and died at
26
the end of the eighteenth century, not
alone the Burns who has lived after
death, but the Burns who lived and died,
and the Burns who lives still, one and
indivisible — Burns has walked down the
broad highway of life among common
men and women. He has created for
them by the wayside no poetic and im-
aginary Island Valleys of Avilrom
Rather he has gathered as he
went, because they were also his
own, all their thoughts and loves
and hopes and fears, and their
faults and frailties too. He has faced
w^th them the blast and the cold, he has
stumbled and fallen with them on the
muddy road, but has stood up with them
and rejoiced, when it shone, in the
honest warmth of the good Scots sun.
(Applause.) That is why Burns has lived
throughout the century.
Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire,
That's a' the learnin' I desire,
Then tho' I drudge thro' dub and mire
Wi' plough or cart ;
My Muse, tho' namely in attire,
May touch the heart.
(Applause.) But the broad road has been
broken and washed away by the tides
of war. We have struggled through,
and stand, rather doubtfully, on
the other side, while from a red
sky the wild wind blows, shaking
the old watch towers which we thought
used to guard the way. And the question
is, has Burns as a vital force gone from
us, and are we but taking to-night "a
cup of kindness yet for the days of Auld
Lang Syne "? Or has he crossed with u&
and is he still the companion of our
27
journey? I think he is. And this is why.
Burns would, I suppose, be called a man
of letters, a literary man. But all letters
which are immortal, imperishable, are
so. in so far as they have ceased to be
" Letters," and have become of the ful-
ness of the lives of men. Not in a blind
spirit of hero-worship — for years ago when
I began the study of Burns, I was then
something of a sceptic — and accepting for
the moment the worst that his critics,
moral and literary, can say, I do soberly
believe, with a people's voice down the
century and over the world for witness,
that Burns was not only great as a poet,
but was one of the few whom Heaven has
sent to speak the truth from the hearts
of men. (Applause.) He formulated no
new systems of government, he set forth
no fresh creeds, he taught no new rules
of life. He sang because he must. Every
one of us feels the joy of the strength of
life and the beauty of its tenderness and
all the majesty and soft sweetness of
Nature, and we know somehow that these
things have in their fuller development
a deeper and more lasting meaning than
what we immediately see and feel, but
we cannot express what that is. We are
dumb. We feel, Scotsmen not least,
almost with pain sometimes, that we can-
not speak even to ourselves of what are
our deepest emotions. Burns is the
tongue of the eternal thoughts of ordi-
nary men and women. (Applause.) He
does not preach to us. He sings for us the
songs of our own hearts. (Applause.)
I have used the figure of the road, and it
is interesting to note how much in litera-
ture, which has the claim to be great and
lasting, is the story of a pilgrimage or a
journey, beginning with the early story
of Moses' march in the desert. In our
own land there are many instances, from
the days when Chaucer travelled with
his pilgrims from the Tabard at South-
wark to the Shrine at Canterbury, to the
modern times when Stevenson wandered
with his donkey in the Cevennes. And
it has struck me that in aH of them, ac-
cording to the form of their story, there
is either the promised land or the lights
of the city or the warmth of the inn and
the end of the road. Burns, as I have
said, was a wayfarer too. He did not
write at a study desk nor look from a col-
lege window. The Muse was his com-
panion as he followed the plough. He
wrote "To Mary in Heaven" lying on his
back in the stackyard at Ellisland. "Tarn
o' Shanter" came to him as he wandered
by the banks of the Nith at Dumfries.
And clearly he, too, saw the lights at the
end of the road. It is an old hope, but
it had seemed something rather transcen-
dental and unattainable for a work-a-day
world. Burns tells us of it in the Scot-
tish tongue straight to our Scottish
hearts : —
For a' that and a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man the warld o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
(Applause.) He seems to make it more
possible for ordinary folk, and especially
as he gives us in the same song the simple
Charter of our right of way to it—
A man's a man for a' that.
(Applause.) This song is sometimes used
in a limited and political sense, and
29
therefore some people are rather afraid
of it. But it is our own Charter, and we
cannot be afraid of it. (Applause.) It is
the common Charter, and no one can
limit it. It is a declaration of unity and
and not of division. (Applause.) This
may be noticed. There were dining
clubs at the beginning of last century,
many of them political, Pitt Clubs and
Fox Clubs. No Tory would have sat at
a Fox dinner, and no Whig would have
eaten with the Pittites. But although
the concrete theme of " A man's a man for
a' that " was an attack upon what Burns
saw as the pretensions of the aristocracy
and upper classes of his own day, yet to-
night, here and everywhere, men from
castle, villa, and cottage sit together at
the feast. (Applause.) Because, though
it is a legitimate practical weapon when-
ever and wherever arrogance and pre-
tence are found, the essential meaning
is deeper and more lasting than its ap-
plicability to the special conditions of
any particular time. Had Burns at-
tacked, however powerfully, only the
immediate questions of his own time in
Church or State, he would to-day have
been buried on the forgotten shelves of
old libraries. He does a great deal more
than attack. He distils the perpetual
essence of that manhood which has the
right to possess the road. It is not Con-
servatism nor Liberalism nor Socialism,
nor social rank nor the want of it. It is
a simple thing, but very great. It is
"pith o' sense and power o' worth/' (Ap-
plause.)
Then let us pray that come it may, —
As come it will for a' that, —
30
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, and a' that.
(Applause.) It is this "pith o' sense and
power o 5 worth" which has saved this
nation in times past. (Applause.) It is
the great need to-day. (Applause.) It
is the Charter of plain men of whatever
degree. The world is not to be won by
men with their heads in the intellectual,
political, financial, or social clouds, often
with feet of clay, and never by what Car-
lyle calls "shrill and wire-drawing men."
It will be won by men with their heads
set square on broad shoulders, and their
feet, with the joy of life, ringing on the
hard road — men in whom the red blood
flows warm and clean and strong to
the steady beat of honest hearts.
(Loud applause.) These are the men
whom Burns elsewhere places in the cen-
tre of the King's highway and gives
royal honours : —
For thus the royal mandate ran
Since first the human race began, —
The social, honest, friendly man,
Whate'er he be,
'Tis he fulfils great Nature's plan,
And nonei but he.
{Applause.) This declaration of manhood
does not stand alone. The whole of
Burns' work, and not least his song,
if we read it aright, is woven
round it. It is the centre of the com-
plete web of life. There is no time to say
more of that to-night, except that the
qualities of manhood as Burns defines
them are not self-grown and solitary
things. They are sown in the home, they
blossom and bear fruit in the market
place. And Burns is often in the market
31
place, and there his humour, among the
deepest and most pervading of all his
gifts, has play. He lived in a time of
famous wits who were verbal epicures.
But his wit is never on the surface; it
is a full, deep human sense which seeks
right into the springs of life. (Applause.)
Sometimes so keen and true is it that it
approaches to something akin to sadness.
There is no quality, in the sense in which
Burns had it, which is a more real part
of the nature of full statured men. It is
a thing of wisdom, the solvent of the
rasping wheels of life: —
O wad some power the gifiie gie us
To see oorsels as ithers see us,
It wad frae mony a blunder free us
Or foolish notion.
And Burns' humour is always human—
about people, never about the machine.
It seldom touches the political machine,
and, when it does, it is, as in the Elec-
tion Ballads, more about men than mat-
ters. Though he lived in Dumfries, he
hardly ever speaks of the municipal
machine, for which the Provosts,
Bailies, and Town Clerks of his day were
no doubt profoundly thankful. (Laugh-
ter.) But he gossips at the Cross about
ministers and doctors, lairds and far-
mers, schoolmasters and lawyers, all in
some relationship to that grimly humor-
ous old gentleman, " Auld Hornie, Satan,
Nick, or Clootie." (Laughter.) But, far
beyond these things, he brings out from
all the homely scenes of life that richness
of humour which is not jest but fulness
of insight and sympathy.
The luntin' pipe and sneeshin' mull
Are handed oot wi' richt guid-will ;
32
The canty auld folk crackin' crouse,
The young anes rantin' thro' the house ;
My heart has been sae fain to see them
That I for joy hae barkit wi' them.
But when we speak of Burns' Charter of
manhood, the question is asked, did he
uphold it himself? I would not trouble
to speak of that, did it not honestly dis-
turb so many people. After all, do those
things which the kindly earth has
covered for 125 long years really matter
now? But Burns is entitled to be tried,
not by a judge in the white robes of
justiciary, but by a jury of his peers.
(Applause.) He sums it all up himself: —
Thou know'st that Thou hast formed me
With passions great and strong,
And listening to their witching voice
Hag often led me wrong.
Where human weakness has come short,
Or frailty crept aside,
Do Thou, All Good ! for such Thou art,
In shades of darkness hide.
And when Burns has thus submitted
himself with confidence at the great
Judgment seat, why need we bring our
petty police court complaints against
him? (Applause.) He had many faults,
but of the great master sin of hypocrisy,
which I think may be the most difficult
to answer for at the Day of Judgment, he
was free. He was open as the day. (Ap-
plause.) There is no offence he com-
mitted, hardly any morbid thought of
his mind, which he does not in his poems
or his letters confess to the world.
How many of us are of sufficient
stature to dare do that? He opened
the windows of his soul that the
sun's rays might search out the dark
33
places and the soft winds cleanse and
purify. And reading again, as I have
done closely, his Life and his poems— his
poems in all their varying moods, and
his Life in all its fitful phases — I do be-
lieve that whenever the Lantern-bearer
stood at the door and knocked, the por-
tal of Burns' soul flew open wide. And
in the dark days he was himself a lan-
tern-bearer, letting the light shine on
"puir auld Scotland." (Applause.) Can
we think that this light, which shines so
free and bright even to-day, could come
from a vessel which was essentially im-
pure? No, to the jury of plain men,
Burns is in right of his Charter, the
qualities so mixed in him that Nature
might stand up and say to all the world,
" Here was a Man !" (Loud applause.)
There is nothing more simple and touch-
ing than the part which Burns himself
hoped he might take in the working out
of " great Nature's plan." In the troub-
lous days when Burns lived the people
were faced, though in somewhat different
outward form, with the same great pro-
blems which are ours to-day. There is
this difference, that in those days of Lord
Braxfield and his contemporaries many
thought that things were as they were,
because it was the way of the world and
so must always be. To-day we are all
agreed that the great social evils should
be removed, and that there should be a
fuller, freer, more beautiful and more
equal life for us all. (Applause.) We
still differ bitterly, and perhaps legitim-
ately, about the methods. To-night is
not the time to discuss these differences,
34
nor are we here to forget these
great questions. We are here with
Burns, to try for a moment to realise
the great common measure of hope and
purpose. Burns did not ask to drive the
chariot of wealth and power, or to ride
on the whirlwind of revolution. He
wanted to do a very simple, loyal and
loving thing.
That I for puir auld Scotland's sake
Some useful plan or book might make,
Or sing a sang at least.
(Applause.) It is ours in this new and
complex world to make and do some
" useful plan" to help men's progress.
It was his to sing. If there be contro-
versy as to his life or literary criticism
of some of his other work there is none
as to his place as a lyric poet. If there
be dispute as to the meaning of the
" Divine Right " of Kings or the limits of
the Voice of the People as the Voice of
God, this is sure, that the songs of a
people are their divine inheritance. (Ap-
plause.) There were songs and singers
in Scotland long before Burns. Had
there not been so, there would have been
no Scotland and no Burns. But he
breathed into the nation's minstrelsy a
newer, sweeter, stronger voice, and left
it to us. our heritage for ever. He sang,
and to this day all Scottish hearts are
vibrant with his melody. (Applause.) I
shall not quote; you will hear his songs
to-night from voices sweeter than mine.
These songs are not descriptive of
Nature. They are Nature — themselves
the note of the song of the birds, the
very sound of running waters. (Ap-
35
plause.) They are not apart from the
manhood and womanhood of which we
have been speaking, but rather the sweet-
ness which comes from their strength,
the power which comes from their tender-
ness.
And they are carolled and said,
On wings are they carried.
Although the maker is dead
And the singer is buried.
And with these songs singing in their
hearts the people go, not singly, but to-
gether. A social system there must be,
organisation there must be, high politics
and even party politics are needful, but
neither aristocracy nor democracy,
neither monarchy nor republicanism,
neither labour nor capital, neither
socialism nor individualism, will take us
to the end of the road unless the motive
power within it is manhood, brave, sin-
cere and free. (Applause.) Free it must
be above all — not kept down by powerful
men or deadened by the overweight of the
organisation. Freedom is but the full
realisation of manhood.
Upon that tree there grows such fruit,
Its virtues a' can tell, man;
It raises man aboon the brute,
It makes him ken himsel', man.
And only when the mass of men in all
lands bear God's " guinea stamp " of
*' pith of sense and power of worth " —
when " sense and worth o'er a' the world
do bear the gree for a' that" — then, and
only then, will the gates of the nations
be lifted up and the people shall pass
through, from the rough highway, over
36
the streets of the City of Peace to the
warmth and brotherhood of the world's
great inn. (Applause.) Is it a dream?
I cannot and may not discuss that in a
religious or mystical sense except to say
this, that it has been the hope of all
nations since the world began, the cen-
tral points of all faiths, even those which
were non-theistic and material. Our
forefathers in the uplands of Dumfries-
shire and Galloway read from the big
ha' Bible as they looked towards the
gateways of their hills —
Lift up your heads, o ye gates! and bo
ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors ! that the
King of Glory may enter in.
But let us look at it in relation to Burns.
During the five years of war since last we
met, when all our minds were troubled,,
it sometimes occurred to me, when I was
thinking of the possibility of presiding on
the next Burns birthday — Is it any use
meeting about Burns and speaking of his
memory as nothing less than " immor-
tal/' if the central part of his message
to us was a vain delusion, and men are
to go out for ever, without hope, spin-
ning the same ** weary pun' o' tow"?
Men of " pith of sense " will not travel
a road which leads them nowhere.
Burns' life, despite the joy of existence
which a man with so great and free a
spirit must have had, was a tragedy.
Without saying that the tragedy was
necessary to the message, the two are in
our minds inseparably bound together.
Was all this agony of this great spirit
only to sing to us, in however ' magic-
music, of a false hope? We ourselves
37
have seen, what none before us have, the
fulfilment of Burns' hope and prayer
that, when need came, " a virtuous popu-
lace would stand a wall of fire around
our much-loved isle." (Applause.)
Those who stood in that " wall of fire "
did not guard for us a Slough of
Despond, but a Highway of Hope.
And the souls of the brave will surely
go with us to the end of the way and will
pass with us or those who come after
us through the uplifted gates into the
Promised Land. It may be a long way
to go, but, come it soon or late, we re-
member that Burns first began to pray
for it and then changed his note and fore-
told it with confidence —
Then let us pray that come it may, —
As come it will for a' that, —
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree and a' that.
For a' that and a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man the world o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
<Loud applause.) In the silence, there-
fore, not of sorrow, but of fulness of
knowledge of what he has been and is
for Scotland and for us, we drink " The
Immortal Memory of Robert Burns."
The company then rose and pledged
the Memory in solemn silence. After-
wards there was a spontaneous and pro-
longed outburst of cheering in tribute to
the eloquence and power of Mr Grierson's
oration.
38
''DUMFRIES BURNS CLUB."
Sir J. Crichton-Browne Presents Yaluable
Relic From Sir James Dewar.
Sir James Crichton-Browne, who was
heartily received on rising to propose the
toast of " The Burns Club of Dumfries/'
said: — I am a mere satellite this evening
Sir J. Crichton-Browne.
to our central orb, Mr Grierson, who has
so worthily and eloquently proposed the
familiar but ever-inspiring toast of " The
Immortal Memory of Burns," and I shall
be glad if I can in any degTee reflect his
luminous enthusiasm in submitting to
you the kindred toast of " The Dumfries
Burns Club," which has reached its
hundredth birthday, and exists in order
to keep the immortal memory bright and
untarnished. It has fallen to Mr Grier-
son's lot to revive, after an interval, those
delightful symposia of our Dumfries
Burns Club which reach away so far into
the past and have been, I might say, red-
letter days in the annals of Dumfries. It
is his, I hope, to inaugurate this evening
a new series of these symposia which will
stretch away down uninterruptedly into
the peaceful future which is, we are told,
in store for us, and keep alive in our
children, and our children's children, the
proud and grateful feelings which they
never fail to arouse in us. (Applause.)
For four years — terrible, harrowing, woe-
ful, glorious years — our Burns Club festi-
vals have been in abeyance, but I do not
think that during these years Burns has
been less in our thoughts than he would
have been had our celebrations continued,
for to those of us, early steeped in his
poetry, throughout all the changeful
vicissitudes of the war his words have,
I am sure, recurred to us from time to
time as the best possible expression of
our surging emotions. (Applause.)
Like us, Burns passed through troublous
times, and his life indeed was one long
warfare — a tragic conflict with adverse
forces which, notwithstanding his cour-
ageous resistance, wounded and crippled
and finally overwhelmed him though vic-
tory came after he was no more. Apart
altogether from the difficulties in which
his own indiscretions involved him,
" affliction was enamoured of his parts
and he was wedded to calamity/' Failure
dogged the footsteps of this greatly-gifted
man, and it is impossible to scan his
biography without almost shuddering at
the dark destiny that pursued him from
his very boyhood, frustrating all his
40
manly endeavours for that modest com-
petency which would have enabled him
to give free play to his genius. Hard
work and frugal living availed not to
compensate for the poor soil and high
rent of the farm of Mount Oliphant from
which his father was ejected. The work-
shop in Irvine, in which he had started
flax-dressing, was burnt down and left
him without a sixpence. The farm at
Lochlea was a ruinous venture under a
hard and grinding factor, and so was
Mossgiel, to which he and his brother
removed, for there backward seasons and
bad crops again stranded them.
Throughout the sudden and brilliant
triumphs of Edinburgh he was harassed
by the problem what he was to do to make
a livelihood, and when he emerged from
these and settled at Ellisland, bent on
persevering industry, fresh trouble con-
fronted him. There was no success. The
very nag he had bought and got into good
condition for the Dumfries Fair died sud-
denly of an unsuspected affection of the
spine ; the farm didn't pay its way, and
even with his hard-earned stipend of £50
a year as an exciseman, he could not
make both ends meet. When launched
on purely official life in our town of Dum-
fries, he was threatened with ruin be-
cause of some unguarded words which
would to-day be described as mildly de-
mocratic. Even on his death-bed he was
haunted by a dun. Burns was indeed a
man whom,
Unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster,
and looking back on his career it is now
impossible to say whether the disasters
that befel him blunted or whetted his
poetic powers. Clouds as well as sun-
shine are necessary for the fruitful land.
Of men, as well as of trees exposed to
storms, it is sometimes true that " the
firmer they root them the louder it
blows." Had Burns enjoyed comfortable
days and smug respectability we might
never have had " Man was made to
mourn," or " The Jolly Beggars." (Ap-
plause.) Some of the sweetest of his
songs were crooned in moments of the
deepest despondency. His humour was
the complement of his melancholy. His
satiric wit was a protest against hypo-
crisy and the slights put upon him. His
tenderness and sympathy would have
been impossible but for the sufferings he
endured. Perhaps, on the other hand, he
might have risen to still higher nights
in the empyrean than those he achieved
had he not been clogged by earthly
cares; and this seems certain, that the
hardships and disappointments he passed
through and the anodynes to which they
drove him cut ^hort his days and cur-
tailed the volume of his production. He
was only 37 when he died, and " full
surely his greatness was a-ripening."
(Applause.) The splendid elasticity of
Burns' spirit and the inexhaustible good-
ness of his heart are shown forth by the
way in which through all his troubles he
rallied from their crushing effects, poured
forth again his stream of poesy, limpid
and sparkling as ever, and exercised a
personal charm and witchery that fasci-
nated all who came within his sphere.
As Syme, who knew and loved him, said,
f He was burnt to a cinder;" but even
42
then he glowed with the old radiance, for
within a few weeks of his death he com-
posed that exquisite song which Men-
delssohn caught up into heavenly har-
mony, " O, wert thou in the cauld
blast," and that witty election squib,
"Who will buy my troggin?" (Applause.)
There was one misfortune that befel
Burns that had no redeeming quality or
wholesome reaction, but was all evil, and
that was the death in 1791, at the age of
42, of his patron, the Earl of Glencairn,
who was not only hig patron, but I ven-
tuie to think, the best, the wisest, the
most constant and helpful of his friends.
(Applause.) Burns was introduced to
Lord Glencairn, the 14th Earl, who took
his title from one of the most picturesque
upland valleys in our country, by his
cousin-german, Mr James Dalrymple of
Orangefield, Ayr, who also furnished
Burns with the pony on which he jour-
neyed to Edinburgh. Lord Glencairn
had artistic tastes and a love of poetry,
inherited, no doubt, from his mother — the
daughter of a poor violinist and music
master in Ayr, but adopted and enriched
by an Indian Nabob — and so he at once
appreciated Burns' merits, to use Burns'
own words, " took him in hand," and
carved out whatever success marked his
future career. He it was who secured
Burns' entrance to the best set of Edin-
burgh society, who made him known to
Dugald Stewart, Mackenzie, Blair, Mon-
boddo, and all the men of light and lead-
ing in the Scotland of the period, who
introduced him to Creech, the publisher,
who persuaded the Caledonian Hunt to
subscribe for 400 copies of the Edinburgh
43
edition, who interested the Scottish
nobility in the work, and who was in-
strumental in securing the appointment
in the Excise. He believed in Burns, and
from first to last showed him steadfast
kindness, and it was therefore a sad and
ill-fated day for Burns when, in 1790, just
when he and Jean were happy for a little
at Ellisland, and when he had excelled
himself in " Tarn o' Shanter," Lord
Glencairn was attacked by illness which
necessitated his wintering abroad, and
carried him off in the prime of his life in
January, 1791. No one who studies the
relations between them will doubt that,,
had Lord Glencairn survived, the last
five critical years of Burns' life would
have been very diffeient from what they
were. Lord Glencairn was a man of high
and upright character, and of a generous
nature. He had great influence with
Burns, who deferred to his judgment, and
was deeply attached to him. Had he
lived, he might have swayed him in the
right direction; he would most probably
have secured for him that promotion in
the Excise which he desired and which
would have freed him from sordid
anxiety, and he would certainly never
have allowed the pecuniary embarrass-
ment and abject misery of his dying days
But what Lord Glencairn's life might
have prevented, his death precipitated.
Burns felt the blow acutely, and it no
doubt contributed to the recklessness of
his later years. Burns liberally acknow-
ledged his obligations to Lord Glencairn,
and gave fervid utterance to the affection
and gratitude with which he regarded
him. During his lifetime he wrote to
44
him : — " Your Lordship's patronage and
goodness have rescued me from obscurity,
wretchedness, and exile/' and in the
Lament on his death, amongst its elegiaic
strains he dwelf on the same theme: —
In Poverty's low barren vale,
Thick mist obscure, involved me round,
Tho' oft I turned the wistful eye
Nae ray of fame was to be found ;
Thou found'st me like the morning sun
That melts the fogs in limpid air;
The friendless Bard and rustic song
Became alike thy fostering care.
The bridegroom may forget the bride
Was made his wedded wife yestreen ;
The monarch may forget the crown
That on his head an hour hath been ;
The mother may forget the child
That smiles sae sweetly on her knee ;
But I'll remember thee, Glencairn,
And a' that thou hast done for me.
In a letter to Glencairn's sister, Lady
Elizabeth Cunningham, in 1791, Burns
wrote : — " If among my children I shall
have a son that has a heart, he shall hand
it down to his child as a family honour
a,nd a family debt, that my dearest exist-
-ence I owe to the noble heart of Glen-
cairn." He named his fourth son, born
12th August, 1794, three years after the
Earl's death, James Glencairn Burns,
and that son, who became Colonel Burns,
now perpetuates the name of Glencairn
on his tombstone on the wall of the mau-
soleum in St. Michael's Churchyard.
(Applause.)
I think you will agree with me that
Burns' association with Lord Glencairn
was a moving and memorable episode in
his history. Well, of that episode it is
my privilege to present to the Burns Club
45
this evening what will, I think, be re-
garded as an interesting and valuable
souvenir. In Paterson's edition of
Burns, published in Edinburgh in six
volumes in 1891, and edited by Scott
Douglas, I find the following under date
January 25th, 1787.— "On this the Poet's
birthday the Earl of Glencairn presented
to him a silver snuffbox. The lid shows
a five-shilling coin of the Reign of Charles
I., dated 1644. On an inner and carved
bottom of the box Burns has, with his
own hand, recorded the fact and the date
of presentation." That silver snuffbox
presented to Burns by Lord Glencairn on
his birthday exactly 133 years ago, at a
dinner of the Caledonian Hunt, lies on
the table before me, and I am commis-
sioned by the owner, one of the most dis-
tinguished men of science of the age, Sir
James Dewar, to offer it to the acceptance
of the Dumfries Burns Club. (Loud ap-
plause.) On the 12th of July, 1894, at the
close of the season, Sir James Dewar
Jooked in at Christie's showroom in Lon-
don, and noticed amongst other silver
articles and coins this box. which at-
tracted him by its artistic quality. On
picking it up to look at it, he found that
it had a double bottom, and on removing
the outer casing he read this inscription,
unmistakably, as regards the signature at
any rate, in Ihe hand-writing of Burns: —
Presented
By my highly esteemed
Patron and Benefactor,
the Earl of Glencairn.
25 January, A.D., 1787,
Robt. Burns.
Remuneratio ejus cum
Altissimo.
46
Sir James had not seen the catalogue in
which the box was correctly described as
having belonged to Burns, and so he went
back to the sale next day thinking that
perhaps its special significance was not
known, but determined anyhow to ac-
Sir Jam<>s Dewar, F.R.S., LL.D., Etc.
Donor of the Glencairn Snuff-box.
quire the precious relic, for he is a pro-
found and reverent admirer of Burns.
(Applause.) The box was put up at a
small figure, but was rapidly run up, and
ultimately Sir James found that he had
one competitor left, a man on the oppo-
site side of -the room, who went on per-
sistently bidding against him. But Sir
James was more persistent still, and fin-
ally the box was knocked down to him
Silver Snuff-box presented to Burns by the Earl of Glencairn on the Poet' s birthday,
1787 ; acquired by Sir James Dewar and gifted by him to the Club, through Sir
James Crichton-Browne.
48
at a very large price. (Applause.) When
the sale was over, Sir James went to the
man who had been bidding against him
and said, " I suppose you are a Burns
worshipper like me and are sorry to have
missed the box?" " Burns !" the man re-
plied, " I didn't know the box had any-
thing to do with Burns. I have been
bidding on behalf of a Scottish nobleman
(naming him) who very much wants the
rare Carolus coin let into the lid of the
box to add to his collection!" (Laugh-
ter.) And that leads me, parenthetically,
to say that apart from its Burns connec-
tion, this box is very valuable because of
this coin, which is generally known to
collectors as the " Oxford Crown," of
which only eleven specimens are known
to exist, and as all are in fine condition
it most probably was never put into cir-
culation, and is therefore a pattern. The
dies for this coin were made by Thomas
Rawlins, Chief Engraver to the King,
who, when the Tower Mint was seized by
the Parliament in 1642, removed to Ox-
ford and produced this extremely fine
piece of work, all the details of which
are, as you will see, executed with much
care. But, for us, the inscription is more
curious and alluring than the coin.
Burns had a partiality for scratching on
glass, and many window panes have
borne traces of his diamond ring, but
here we have him scratching on silver
and essaying a Latin motto — " Remuner-
atio ejus cum Altissimo " — which means,
"his recompense is with the Most High,"
and is a graceful compliment to the
donor of the box. Burns was fond ot
using scraps of French in his correspond-
49
ence, and says in his autobiography that
he and his brother Gilbert studied Latin
with John Murdoch, but he could hardly
have written of his own accord, " Remun-
eratio ejus cum Altissimo," which looks
like a quotation, but has not been found
in any concordance, and which it has
been suggested was perhaps supplied to
him by his friend William Nicol, who was
a classical master in the Edinburgh High
School.
What has been the history of this snuff-
box since Burns' death in 1796 till it ap-
peared in Christie's saleroom in 1894?
We may be sure that Burns never parted
with so dear a memento, and it is un-
likely that his widow would do so. She
was left in poverty, but subscriptions
were immediately got up on her behalf,
and she continued to live in the house in
which her husband died until her own
death in 1834. Then it was ,that Burns'
household effects, furniture, linen, china,
etc., were brought to the hammer, and
that, as Burns' fame had by that time
risen by leaps and bounds, extraordinaiy
prices were realised, a tin tea kettle
bringing £2, an eight-day clock £35, and
a small wooden chair £3 7s. Then, no
doubt, it was at that sale that this snuff-
box was sold, and I think I have dis-
covered a clue to the purchaser. About
the date of the sale at Christie's (just
before it) a newspaper paragraph ap-
peared in which the reporter said : — " At
the house of Mr Robert Hepburn, 9 Port-
land Place, was found a silver snuffbox
which had been presented to the Poet
Burns by the Earl of Glencairn." Nov/,
Hepburn is a Dumfries name. There
50
was a Mr John Hepburn selling land in
the burgh in 1564, and a Mr Hepburn
apparently in the Town Council in 1715,
and I can distinctly remember that in
1854 — that is to say, just 20 years after
the Burns sale — there was a family of the
name of Hepburn, a branch, I believe, of
the Buchan-Hepburns of Haddington-
shire, who were the owners of Castle-
dykes. There can be little doubt, I think,
that some member of that family bought
the box at the Burns' sale and that it
remained in the possession of that family
until 1894. (Applause.) Since 1894 the
box has been in the hands of Sir James
Dewar, and has been an object of interest
and veneration to the many distinguished
people who have frequented Lady Dewar's
salon. But Sir James recently made up
his mind that it should go to some public
body for permanent preservation, and he
has happily decided on the Burns Club
of Dumfries. (Loud applause.) He has
been urged to bestow it on the British
Museum, on South Kensington, on the
Edinburgh Portrait Gallery, on the Anti-
quarian Society, and in other quarters,
but has felt that it should go to the place
where the Poet's ashes rest and where his
memory is kept green. (Applause.)
When he hinted to me that he thought
of our Club, you may depend upon it
that I did not discourage the notion.
(Applause.) Sir James Dewar has visited
Dumfries more than once, has with me
lingered by the grave of Burns, and by
the
Lonely heights and howes,
Where he paid Nature tuneful vows
Or wiped his honourable brows.
Redeemed with toil —
51
he has felt the Burns glamour of
Dumfries, and now pays his tri-
bute to the memory of the Bard. (Ap-
plause.) I wish Sir James could have
been here this evening, but he writes
to me — " The last thing I want is
any notoriety about this presentation.
It is because of my love for you
that I wish to see the box located
in your native town." (Applause.) Sir
James may shrink from notoriety, but
he cannot escape our heartfelt acknow-
ledgment of his gift. (Loud applause.)
The box is really a national treasure
and will be an heirloom in our Club.
A new value is, I think, added to
it by the fact that it comes to us from
an illustrious man of science, the suc-
cessor of Davy, and, Faraday, and Tin-
dall, who, while enlarging the boundaries
of knowledge, has kept in communion
with poetry, music, and art, and who is
a countryman of Robert Burns. (Loud
applause.)
The toast was honoured with great en-
thusiasm.
The Chairman, in calling upon Mr
J. W. Whitelaw, said it was a very
great pleasure to him and to all
the old members of the Club to
think that one who had been so
long associated with the Club, not
only personally but in a hereditary
way as Mr Whitelaw had been, was
there to acknowledge the toast of the
Club and to speak for them in acknow-
ledging this gift. (Applause.)
52
Mr J. W. Whitelaw, in respond-
ing to the toast, said: — I have a
very pleasant duty to perform,.,
namely, to tender our sincere thanks
to Sir James Crichton-Browne foT
the able manner in which he has pro-
posed the toast of the Dumfries Burns
Mr J. W. Whitelaw.
Club. He has alluded to the forma-
tion of the Club 100 years ago, and
I would venture in reply to add
to what Sir James has so well
said a few remarks regarding those three
gentlemen who were the original office-
bearers of the Club. They were Mr John
Commelin, Mr John Syme, and Mr
William Grierson. Mr Commelin was
a native of the Stewartry, and was
proprietor of King's Grange, in the
53
parish of Urr. He was for a
time in business as a writer in Kirk-
cudbright, but afterwards came to Dum-
fries, and ultimately became agent
of the British Linen Bank here.
He was a man of excellent liter-
ary taste and a good classical
scholar. Mr William Grierson was
a successful draper in Dumfries, and
lived in Irish Street, where his son, th«
late Dr Grierson, of Thornhill, was born.
He seems also to have been interested in
agricultural matters, as he was tenant of
the farm of Boatford, near Thornhill, and
on retiring from business in Dumfries he
went to reside at Grovehill, which is quite
near Boatford. He was a Justice of the
Peace for the county of Dumfries, and
seems to have taken a somewhat promin-
ent part in the public life of the town and
district. It was Mr John Syme, how-
ever, who had most intimate relations
with the Poet. He also was connected
with the Stewartry, although not, I think,
a native of it. His father was a success-
ful Writer to the Signet, and owned the
property of Barncailzie, in the parish of
Kirkpatrick-Durham. John Syme at first
studied law, but gave that up and joined
the Army, and ultimately took up farm-
ing at Barncailzie. Subsequently
that property had to be sold on ac-
count of the failure of the Ayr Bank, in
which his father was involved. John
Syme then came to Dumfries and took up
residence at Ryedale, when he became
distributor of stamps for the district.
His office was on the ground floor of the
house near the foot of Bank Street — then
known as the Wee Vennel — on the first
54
floor of which Burns occupied three or
four rooms when he came to Dumfries
from Ell island. A great friendship
sprang up between the two men, and-
Burns was very frequently at Kyedale ;
it was with Syme that he made his
famous tour through Galloway, and Mr
Syme showed many acts of kindness to
the Poet during his lifetime, and to his
widow and family after his death. Mr
Syme seems to have had very consider-
able literary ability, and there was at
one time a question as to whether
he should be the editor of the "Work
and Life of Burns," published after
the Poet's death . for the benefit of
his widow and family, and which
produced quite a considerable sum.
In the end Dr Currie, of Liverpool,
who was a Dumfriesshire boy, was
chosen as editor, and Mr Syme was
at very considerable trouble in col-
lecting material for and in otherwise
assisting Dr Currie, who was a per-
sonal friend of his own. Those
three gentlemen to whom I have
referred were the leaders of a coterie
of Burns enthusiasts in Dumfries
who, before the formation of the Club,
used to meet every 25th of January and
celebrate the Poet's birthday ; it was that
coterie who initiated the movement
which resulted in the building of the
mausoleum; and at the dinner of 25th
January, 1819, held in the Globe Inn, they
resolved to purchase a punch bowl for
use by the subscribers on similar occa-
sions. I mention this fact as it was the
nucleus out of which the Club sprang.
The bowl was obtained from a well-known-
55
manufacturer of the time, Spode of
Staffordshire, at a cost of £15, and was
exhibited at a business meeting of the
subscribers on 18th January, 1820; and at
that meeting it was resolved to form the
subscribers, whose names are given on
the bowl, into a society to be called the
Burns Club of Dumfries — (applause) —
and Mr Commelin was appointed presi-
dent, Mr Syme vice-president, and Mr
Grierson secretary and treasurer of the
Society. At the dinner held a week later
in the King's Arms Inn, the bowl was
' han'selled," and it became a great
feature of the annual dinner for
many years. It still exists, though
in a rather dilapidated condition, and
I am glad to see it on the table to-
night. Such was the origin of the
Dumfries Burns Club, and it is well
that we should have in our memories
to-night the three gentlemen who
acted as sponsors for us at our
nativity. I wonder if these gossips
" keekit in the loof " of the baby club and
in their imagination foresaw that their
original number of thirty-five would a
century later expand to a membership of
176, and that many Burns Clubs would
spring up not only in this coun-
try but all over the world wher-
ever a little band of Scotsmen
were gathered together. (Applause.)
In addition to proposing this toast, Sir
James has, with his well-known charm of
phraseology, made a very valuable and
interesting presentation on behalf of Sir
James Dewar. This is of such import-
ance that I think it warrants full official
recognition, and as our secretary is also
I
56
to say a few words in reply, I leave him
to deal with the matter. I think, Mr
Secretary, I have kept within the time
limit you set me, but if you will bear
with me a minute longer I would also
like to make a presentation to the Club,
although on a much lower plane that the
one I have just referred to. When
Mr Syme's effects were distributed
by public roup after his death, my
father purchased at the sale a wooden
toddy ladle, and the tradition of the
time was that this ladle was fre-
quently in use on the occasion of
Burns' visits to Ryedale. Therefore it
may possibly be a link with the Poet,
and it undoubtedly is one with, his
friend, Mr John Syme, who was one of
the authors of our existence. I beg that
the Club will become custodiers of it, if
they will condescend to accept so humble
a gift. (Applause.) Sir James, I have
again to thank you for your proposal of
this toast. (Applause.) To the Burns
Club my personal thanks are due for the
very great honour they have done me in
asking me to respond to their toast on
this the centenary meeting of the Club.
(Applause.) Long may the Dumfries
Burns Club continue to nourish, to keep
green the memory of the Bard, and to
preserve that spirit of Scottish nationality
of which he was the embodiment, and
which, fused to a white heat by the fire
of his immortal genius, shines through
and illuminates his Works. (Loud ap-
plause.)
The Chairman, in calling upon Mr
M'Burnie, referred to him as the " heart
and marrow of Dumfries Burns Club."
57
Mr M'Burnie, in reply, said: — It is
scarcely fair that an ex- Dean of the
Faculty of Procurators should pass on
the important duty of thanking, in name
of the Club, the generous donors of the
gifts which have been presented to us
this evening, but I shall endeavour to do
Mr J. M'Burnie.
so briefly. It is not often in the history
of our club that such a valuable relic
comes our way unsought. I think
you will all agree that the snuff-box
which you see on the table is a hand-
some gift, and the unassuming way in
which Sir James Dewar has asked it
should be given to us stamps it with the
true spirit which should animate
every gift, in that it is the spon-
taneous freewill offering of the giver.
(Applause.) Sir James Crichton-Browne
58
has truly said, however, that the fact of
this gift being presented to us cannot
remain hidden, and I am certain that our
friends of the Press will see that Sir
James Dewar's generosity to us is known
from John o' Groats to Land's End, aye^
and also in those Dominions beyond the
seas where our National Poet's name
and works are loved, honoured, and re-
vered as warmly and as worthily as they
are in the old town of Dumfries. (Ap-
plause.) The gift is doubly valuable to
us, coming as it does through one
of our oldest surviving vice-presidents,
our illustrious townsman, Sir James
Crichton-Browne. (Applause.) I should
like to draw your attention to Sir James
Crichton-Browne's own modesty in con-
nection with this matter. I think if he
had told his own part as fully as he has
given us the history of the gift, we should
find that, but for his friendship with the
giver and his judicious mention of our
Club, we might very possibly now be
hearing that some one of those other in-
stitutions which he mentioned was glory-
ing in being the proud possessor of this
wonderful prize. I think you gentlemen,
who know Sir James so well, and appre-
ciate his persuasive eloquence, will not
forget to connect him in our thoughts
with that other Sir James when you
think of our good fortune, and I im-
agine I can hear some of you saying
" They're a worthy pair." (Applause.)
One might enlarge indefinitely on this
theme, but the time at my disposal to-
night forbids, so we can only con-
gratulate ourselves and mark our grati-
tude to the giver as best we may. (Ap-
59
plause.) Mr Whitelaw is one of our-
selves, and his bringing with him some
tangible: token of his affection for the
Club, of which he is now one of the old-
est members, is only what we might ex-
pect. (Applause.) But, gentlemen, we
do not always get what we expect, or
^ven what* we sometimes consider w&
might justly claim as our due, more
especially in the way of Burns relics,
and his action to-night is therefore all
the more to be commended as an ex-
ample for others to emulate. (Applause.)
The article he has handed over to-night
was the property of a gentleman who was
not only one of the first members of our
Club, but who was also one of the clos-
est friends of the Poet during these last
trying years in Dumfries. It therefore
serves to remind us both of Burns and
of Syme, and so will prove an interesting,
addition to that collection in the Burns
House, which we are anxious to enrich.
(Applause.) I have now to hand over to the
Club, on behalf of Mr James Craik, Dal-
grange, Cambuslang, an old son of Dum-
fries, a bread basket said to have been
the property of " Bonnie Jean," and an
old banner which was carried in the pro-
cession on the occasion of the Dumfries
Centenary celebrations in 1859. Mr
Craik narrates that the bread basket was
given by Jean Armour to an old woman:
who used to work for her, called Mary
Burnie, and was given by the latter to
a member of his own family. He states
that his father had many times gone
messages for " Bonnie Jean," as their
houses were not far apart. The history
of the banner he does not know quite
so well, but he is aware of the fact that it
was some time in the Wilson family, one
of the members of which, Alex. Wilson,
cabman, died recently in Dumfries, and
that it was carried in the 1859 proces-
sion, which he states he well remembers,
because in his anxiety to see his father,
who was in the company, he overbal-
anced himself, and fell on his head on
to the pavement below, necessitating a
close acquaintance with sticking plaster,
this fact impressing the matter in his
memory. (Laughter.) Some of you
gentlemen may remember Mr Craik,
as I myself recollect a brother
who carried on business at the
Pent House End. He wishes to
present these gifts to us in name of his
late mother, who resided at the Pent
House End for over half a century.
(Applause.^ I have already thanked Mr
Craik in your name, but I am sure you
will wish him to know that you appre-
ciate his kindness in returning these
articles to Dumfries, and making them
over to your care. (Applause.) You
have before you to-night, I think, the
first gift made to our Club, the portrait
of Burns, painted by J. Gilfillan, minia-
ture painter, who joined our Club in 1821,
and who presented this portrait to the
Club, along with a companion portrait of
" Bonnie Jean," the following year.
These portraits graced the dinner in
1822, and while only one of them is here
to-night, it is accompanied by a replica
of its companion, the original being now
in the National Portrait Gallery in Edin-
burgh. How it came there is a story too
long to tell to-night, but we are satisfied
61
that in the replica before you, which
was presented to the Club by Sir John
Findlay, Edinburgh, in amicable settle-
ment of a long standing dispute, we have
secured a work of art well worthy of
hanging in the place from which the
original has been removed. (Hear,
hear.) In addition to those brought
under your notice by Mr Whitelaw, I
should like to mention only one of those
original members whose name is on
the old punch bowl, Mr G. W. Boyd,
W.S., a brother of the Mrs Maxwell of
Gribton of that day. It had been lon^
thought that the last survivor of our
original members was the late, Mr
William Gordon, writer, father of Mr
Henry Gordon, sheriff clerk, and Mr H.
Sharpe Gordon of Glense, who both some-
time held the office of secretary of our
Club, but I find a minute in Mr Henry
Gordon's handwriting stating that at
the time of his father's death he had dis-
covered Mr Boyd was then surviv-
ing, and resident at that time in the Isle
of Man. I find Mr Boyd survived
until 1887, so that he was a member of
this Club for no less than 67 years, and
at the time of his death was not only our
oldest member but was also the oldest
member of the W.S. Society, of which
he had been a member for the long period
of 71 years. I do not know his age at the
time of his death, but you will see from
the figures given that his membership of
these societies had certainly not impaired
his vitality. (Laughter.) Mr Whitelaw
has mentioned the house in Bank Street,
and it may therefore be fitting to read at
this stage a communication dealing with
62
this subject, sent to me by Dr J. Maxwell
Wood, Edinburgh, a former president of
the Club, with a request that I should
bring it before you in the course of our
proceedings to-night. His letter is ad-
dressed to the chairman and members of
the Dumfries Burns Club at the Centen-
ary celebrations 1920, and is as follows: —
May I, as a life-member, be privileged to
express the deep pleasure I feel at the very
immediate prospect of the Dumfries Burns
Club attaining its centenary? Much water
has flowed underneath Devorgilla's bridge
since the 18th January, 1820, when the
Club came into existence, which, expressed
as a century of consistent and useful ex-
istence, must give us pause. And now the
question arises— at least for those of us not
in immediate touch — of how this happy com-
pletion of years is to be notched in the post
of practical appreciation. For myself, it has
been a cherished thought for many years
that some day, not alone would the house
where the Poet died have its doors thrown
wide to the Burns Pilgrim, but also that the
house in Bank Street, where the Bard dwelt
on retiring from Ellisland, would come to be
an additional shrine in Dumfries for his
devotees. In a word, is it not possible for
the Dumfries Burns Club to acquire posses-
sion of the Bank Street House, restore it as
far as possible to the semblance of its ori-
ginal condition, and so preserve and throw
open to the public an important landmark
of the Dumfries period of Burns's life? A fur-
ther elaboration of the scheme might be the
restoration of Syme's tax-office below, which
could be utilised as a repository for such
things as would appeal to the visitor, much
as the "Old Edinburgh" bookseller's shop at
the base of John Knox's house here. It may
be,however,that other plans have been made,
63
or that great difficulties are in the way.
Nevertheless, I take this unique opportunity
of making the suggestion.
I hold in my hand the original minute
book of the Club, which contains
most interesting information, but time
forbids us going into it at any
length to-night. One is, however,
impressed with the care with which
the then secretary recorded that
"the company was highly respect-
able," all the more that he concludes
his report of several of those early din-
ners with the note, " three of the Club
glasses were broken at the dinner table
by accident." (Laughter.) Gentlemen,
I think we may feel quite entitled to
class ourselves under the description
given by that secretary of his company
— (laughter and hear, hear> — but I am very
certain that your present secretary will
have no occasion to add a note to his
minute reporting any disaster to our
table appointments to-night. (Laughter.)
It is interesting to recall that one
of those present at the Club din-
ner in 1822 was James Hogg, the
"Ettrick Shepherd," who was then
an honorary member of the Club,
and that he was one of the singers
who on that occasion entertained
the company. At that same din-
ner there were admitted as honorary
members rather a famous group,
and it might not be amiss to give
their names— Robert, William, and
James Glencairn Burns, sons of the
Poet; Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Moore,
Thomas Campbell, James Montgomery,
Allan Cunningham, George Thomson,
General Dirom of Mount Annan,
W. R. Keith Douglas, M.P., and
Professor William Tennant, Dollar.
(Applause.) Before sitting down I
might mention two other recent gifts to
the Club, the one by Sir J. M.
Barrie when he purchased for a hand-
some figure the items on exhibition in the
Burns House which had belonged to the
late Provost James Lennox, and the other
by our good friend and fellow-member,
Walter Scott, of New York, who pur-
chased, also for a very considerable sum,
and again restored to our custody, the
MSS. connected with the Dumfries Cen-
tenary celebrations in 1896. Mr Scott
is a gentleman who never forgets
to send us a greeting as each
Christmas and anniversary day
comes round, and one who does
much more good work for Burns Clubs
and other societies of every description
than ever comes to the knowledge of the
majority of our members. (Applause.)
These have already been fully brought
to your notice, but as this is our
first dinner since they were received
I may be pardoned for recalling
them to your memory on this his-
toric anniversary. Gentlemen, I must
now conclude, and I ask you to
accord your hearty thanks to the
donors of the valuable and interesting
gifts by which the Club has to-night been
enriched, and I shall thereafter endea-
vour to convey your appreciation to them
in suitable form. (Loud applause.)
The Chairman suggested that Dr Max-
well Wood's letter be remitted to the Com-
65
mittee for their sympathetic considera-
tion, and this proposal was adopted.
The Chairman, in calling upon Lord
St. Vigeans, said the fact that that
gentleman had been Sheriff of Dumfries-
shire and Galloway brought to his mind
one sentence he was sure they would all
wish him to say. There were a great
many people there that night, but there
was one vacant place which all of them,
and especially the older members of the
Club, felt created a great blank. In all
his membership of the Club he had not
seen the place of Sheriff Campion once
vacant. Unfortunately that night
Sheriff Campion was not present. He
could conceive of no man who more fully
met Burns' conception of simple, true,
courteous, and gentle manhood than
Sheriff Campion. • (Applause.) They
hoped that before very long he would
again be restored to his place in the
Court, where he not only had the appre-
ciation of all who practised before him
but the confidence of every member of
the public. (Applause.) He had already
taken upon himself, in anticipation of
what he knew was the desire of the
members, to convey to Sheriff Campion
by letter, so that he would receive it at
the time the dinner was beginning, an
expression of their sympathy with him
and their feeling of regret that he was
not able to be present. (Applause.) It
was a great honour to them that Lord
St. Vigeans should have come so far to
renew at that board of friendship his
associations with Dumfries. (Applause.)
E
"SCOTTISH LITERATURE. "
Lord St. Vigeans, in proposing the
toast of "Scottish Literature*/' said: —
The importance and wide range of such
a subject might well appal the stoutest
heart, but my task becomes all the more
onerous when I see the distinguished
names of the men who are to reply — men
Lord St. Vigeans.
who have made their mark in the world
of Letters, and have helped to swell the
stream of Scottish Literature, which has
flowed down to us from early times, in
such rich and copious volume. Scot-
land geographically is a small country,
and was little known to Continental
nations even in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries, except through the
gallant bearing of her soldiers and the
breadth of the erudition of her scholars
67
who sought glory and learning in the
■Courts and Universities of Europe; but
it early made its mark in history as the
home of a shrewd and far-seeing race,
gifted with no mean talent for grasping
and expounding the eternal verities ot
life. (Applause.) If we surveyed the
whole arena of Scottish literature, ana
-could claim no other names than those
of Burns and Scott, Carlyle and Steven-
son, Scotland might proudly say that
she had made a memorable contribution
to the roll of names of imperishable
power and genius. (Applause.) The
earlier literature of Scotland, from its
archaic form, and its many obsolete
words and phrases, is apt to repel the
general reader, but it well repays perusal.
In Barbour, Dunbar, Gavin Douglas and
Sir David Lindsay, you find a genuine
touch of the true spirit of poetry, in
spite of the mediaeval forms in which
their works are cast. Barbour's Brus
may be taken as the earliest example of
cur vernacular literature; and if noth-
ing else in the Brus lived, his Apostrophe
to Liberty is worthy of a place in our re-
membrance-—
Ah, Fredome is a noble thing,
Fredome maks man to have liking,
Fredome all solace to man gives;
He lives at ease, who> freely lives ;
A noble heart may have nane ease,
Na ellys nocht that may him please,
Giff Fredome faille ;
He sulci think Fredome mair to prize
Than all the gold in warld that is."
(Applause.) That sentiment, ex-
pressed by a poet who wrote in
71375, has rung through the centuries in
the hearts of Scotsmen, and even
in our own day has inspired our
men to stern deeds of valour. (Ap-
plause.) But Barbour did more than
bequeath to us these stanzas. He did for
the Scots language what Chaucer did for
English. He made it a living language,,
fit for expressing all shades of emotion,.
and capable of becoming a literary
vehicle of thought. What is noteworthy
of these early makaris is that they
founded before the sixteenth century a
distinctive national school of Scottish
literature, created by men who had not
only the power of vivid description, but
also possessed the sacred gift of im-
agination, besides being imbued with a
lofty sense of patriotism and a love for
the dignity and well-being of Scotland—
that patriotism which has been called
the most genuine, the most intense, and
the most illogical thing in the world.
(Laughter and applause.) These char-
acteristics are further developed in the
Scottish Ballads, which display so much
genuine feeling, and exhibit, in its rar-
est form, the depth and intensity of
human emotion. As a distinguished
critic has said, they are ardently poetic,
and are inspired by a Homeric power of
rapid narration. In Sir Patrick Spens
you have a vivid description of a storm
at sea: —
They hadna gaen a league, a league,
A league, but barely three,
When the lift grew dark, the wind blew
loud,
And guiiy grew the sea.
The anchors brak and the topmast lap,
It was sic a deadly storm,
69
And the waves cam' o'er the broken ship.
Till a' her sides were torn.
Or take another aspect in a Ballad
which is native to the South Country,
"Fair Helen of Kirkconnell" :—
Oh Helen fair, beyond compare,
I'll weave a garland of thy hair,
Shall bind my heart for evermair
Until the day I dee.
The years between what may be
termed the ancient and modern writers
in Scotland were, unfortunately, years
of sturt and strife, filled with persecu-
tions, polemical controversies, and sad
bickerings on ecclesiastical questions.
Those years produced much controver-
sial literature which showed great learn-
ing and an intricate knowledge of eccle-
siastical subtleties, not unmixed with
vicious bitterness. These controversies
are, happily, in a large measure forgot-
ten, and with them much if not all of
"the literature to which they gave birth.
Those years are unrelieved by any light-
some spirit of poetry, save the homely
pastorals of the gentle and joyous Allan
Ramsay, and the outburst of song that
centred round the person of the brave
and handsome but unfortunate young
Chevalier — touching and pathetic as be-
came a lost cause. Their intensity is
■only equalled by some of the later poems
of the Highlands in which you hear the
exile's passionate yearning for the lone
sheiling of the misty Isle.
Modern Scottish literature may be
said to begin with Burns; but, of course,
that subject is not permitted, and if it
70
were permitted, it would be perfectly un-
necessary to add a single word to the elo-
quent tribute which you have heard
from your Chairman to-night. (Ap-
plause.) Burns was followed by Scott
and the coterje of brilliant intellectuals,
such as Jeffrey, Cockburn, Francis Hor-
ner, and Brougham, who, in the early
part of the nineteenth century made
Edinburgh as a centre of literature and
erudition famous the world over. (Ap-
plause.) But it would be presumption
for me to say anything of Scott and his
contemporaries, who only need to be-
mentioned to remind you of all their
glorious literary achievements. (Ap-
plause.)
Then a gigantic figure looms out of
the darkness of a smoky den in Chelsea
— Thomas Carlyle — (cheers) — who domi-
nated the latter part of the century, and
whom you may justly claim as a product
of Dumfriesshire. (Applause.) It is
sometimes said that Carlyle's day is-
past, and that he is not read now as our
fathers read him. But that criticism is
beside the mark. He was above air
things a prophet with a message, and I
venture to think that his mission was
accomplished. (Applause.) His philo-
sophy, so far as it was sound, has sunk
into the consciousness of the nation, and
has become part of the intellectual pro-
cesses of the individual. (Applause.)
There let him rest — a great figure, a
powerful intellect, and a mighty force
which moved the nations to consider
their ways and be wise. (Applause.)
Then comes a tall, gaunt figure, wasted
71
by illness, but sustained by all the in-
domitable spirit of his ancestors — Robert
Louis Stevenson. (Applause.) Whether
you travel with him from the inhospit-
able shores of Mull across broad Scotland
in company with vain-glorious but lov-
able Allan Breck, or take a hand at the
cartes with the fugitive Cluny Mac-
pherson, in the cave on lonely Ben Alder,
whether you float leisurely down the
Flanders rivers listening to his shrewd
comments on life and customs on the
banks, or take a more, venturesome
voyage to the South Seas to fight the
pirates of Treasure Island, Stevenson is
always delightful, an ideal expositor of
style, and a past master of his craft.
(Applause.) I am not going to dilate
upon the work of J. M. Barrie, who is
also one of the brilliant sons of Dum-
friesshire, beyond saying that he has not
only idealised the patient, humble vir-
tues of the Scots peasantry, but by his
plays has added to the gaiety of
nations. (Applause.) On the man who
has made famous the scenery of Gallo-
way and its wild life in the olden days I
will not venture to speak in a company
like the present, in case I should, by
some literary solecism, betray the fact
that, after all, I am only an outsider —
(laughter 1 ) — whose official connection
with Dumfries and Galloway was all too
short to enable me to be thoroughly im-
bued with the spirit of the Moss-Haggs,
but none too short to enable me to ap-
preciate the all-pervading kindness and
exquisite sympathy of their indwellers
(Applause.) Now, I am done. One
might be tempted to imitate the advo-
72
cate, who was prosing on in the forenoon,
and when the visitor returned in the
afternoon was still at it. When the visi-
tor asked a bystander whether the advo-
cate was not taking a long time : " Time/'
said he, " he has long since exhausted
time; he is now encroaching on eternity/*
(Laughter.) I have not attempted to
give any general characterisation of
Scottish literature. I leave that to the
more able hands of those who are to re-
ply.
I have to couple this toast with the
names of Sir Herbert Maxwell and
Joseph Laing Waugh. (Applause.) With
regard to the first I will only quote the
lines of Chaucer:
He was a very parfit gentil Knight,
And like the clerk of Oxenford,
For him was leifer han at his beddes head
A twenty bokes, cladde in black or red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophic
Than robes rich, ridel, or sautrie,
But albeit that he was a philosophre.
(Applause.) Sir Herbert Maxwell has
discoursed delightfully upon men, man-
ners, and nature, and has taken you on
entrancing expeditions in pursuit of the
elusive salmon, but besides all that he
has done great and enduring work in
archaeology and history, particularly in
connection with Dumfries and Gal-
loway. (Applause.) Mr W^augh
has followed the footsteps of some
of his great predecessors, and has
cast the halo of romance round
the lives and sayings of a Dumfries-
shire village, which, for obvious reasons,
will be nameless. (Laughter and ap-
73
plause.) These gentlemen are worthy
successors of a Jong line of literary-
Scotsmen, and are carrying on the best
traditions of Scottish literature. (Ap-
plause.) There is an old story in the
Saga of Gisli, the outlaw, about Thor-
grim, who was slain, like many other
Scandinavians, in a blood feud. He was
buried, as was then usual, in his ship,
and preparatory to his journey to Val-
halla, the hell shoon were bound securely
on his feet according to the then sacred
ritual, and the earth was heaped upon
his howe or burial mound. In after
years it was noticed that one side of
Thorgrim's burial howe was never
touched by frost or snow, but always re-
mained green all through the Arctic
winter of Iceland. The reason is ex-
plained by the Sagaman to be that the
Sun God Frey so loved his soul that he
would never allow any frost or snow to
come between them to chill their friend-
ship. I never look across the cemetery
of Dumfries but I think that as each
year goes by, you, too, perform the same
good offices for the spirit of Burns as
did the Sun God Frey. Your annual
festival keeps green the memory of the
Immortal Bard. (Applause.) Gentle-
men, I give you the toast of Scottish
Literature. (Loud applause.)
The toast was pledged with much cor-
diality.
The Chairman, in calling upon Sir
Herbert Maxwell to respond, said he did
so with feelings of grateful pride in the
compliment Sir Herbert had done them
in being present. (Applause.)
Sir Herbert Maxwell said:— In rising
to respond to the toast which has been
proposed with such graceful eloquence
by Lord St. Vigeans, I am torn between
three emotions. The first is a sense of
grave responsibility in having to repl>
on behalf of Scottish Men of Letters,
Sir Herbert E. Maxwell.
past, present, and to come. The second
is a feeling of deep diffidence at having
my name associated with the great names
which Lord St. Vigeans has brought to
our recollection; and the third, and per-
haps the most serious of all, is a dread
lest I should, unconsciously, overstep
the boundary of eternity. (Laughter.) I
can assure you I shall do no such thing.
My words will be very brief. There is
only a single particular in which I may
claim — and I do so proudly — to stand on
75
an equal footing with any of the great
names in literature of the past. It is
many years since I sent my first con-
tribution to the " Times " newspaper and
received the first remuneration I ever
did for anything I had written. It was
exactly the same in amount, namely £5,
as Milton's publisher paid him for the
first edition of " Paradise Lost."
(Laughter.) There the parallel ceases.
(Laughter.) Burns made a better start
than Milton and I— (laughter)— I like
that copula — (laughter) — because I believe
Burns received £20 for the first edition
of his first book, published at Kilmar-
nock in 1786. If I am not mistaken that
little volume brought a few years ago at
a sale a sum close upon, if not up to,
£1000. Perhaps you may think it sordid
to dwell on these mercenary details, but
after all poets, although they are not
made on the principle of the penny-in-the
slot machine, have to live, and there are
many melancholy instances of their hav-
ing been pretty hard put to it to do so,
and prose writers also, which probably
was in Dr Johnson's mind when he said
that no one but a blockhead ever wrote
except for money. (Laughter.) That
was too sweeping a generality, and he in
whose honour we are assembled to-night
was a conspicuous instance of the con-
trary. It is true that he received sub-
stantial sums from Creech, the Edin-
burgh publisher, but he never received a
penny for the songs he wrote. It is a
remarkable fact that is often overlooked
that those imperishable lyrics which
have endeared him above everything
else to his countrymen and have made
"6
his name radiant throughout the world,
were flung gratuitously upon the public.
(Applause.) It would have been well
had it been otherwise, for in spite of
what my friend, Sir James Crich ton-
Browne has said about disaster dogging
Burns' footsteps, I think if he had taken
a more practical view he might have es-
caped many of his misfortunes. (Hear,
hear.) He told a friend, "I will be
•damned if I ever write for money."
Would that he had realised that money
is necessary to independence and may be
earned as honourably by the pen as by
the plough or by any other form of
human energy. (Applause.) In bio-
graphical literature there are two works
which, by common consent, stand out
above all others in the English language
in that class, and both were written by
Scotsmen. I refer to BoswelFs "Life of
Johnson" and Lockhart's "Life of Scott."
I do not know what Boswell received for
his inimitable work, but it was some-
thing certainly considerable, because he
refused £1000 for the copyright of the
second edition. But to Lockhart's last-
ing honour be it said that, although the
sale of Scott's Life was enormous and
the profits very large, every penny of it
he handed over to the creditors of his
father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott. (Ap-
plause.) An allusion has been made to
Thomas Carlyle as the most eminent
prose writer in Dumfriesshire, and I do
not suppose anybody is prepared to chal-
lenge it. But, unfortunately, there
seems to have been overlooked a propo-
sal which Carlyle made, I suppose in all
seriousness, and it is really very disap-
77
pointing that it has never gone through.
"There is a great discovery," he said,
"still to be made in literature, that of
paying literary men by the quantity they
do not write. Nay, in sober truth, is not
this actually the rule in all writing; and,
moreover, in all conduct and acting? Not
what stands above ground, but what lies
unseen under it, as the root and subter-
rene element it sprang from and em-
blemed forth, determines its value."
Therefore, gentlemen, I will apply
that to the poor substitute for
oratory which I have to offer you. I
must ask you to take for granted a great
deal I would have said had time per-
mitted. I thank you very cordially foi
the honour you have done me in coup-
line: my name with such an honourable
toast. (Applause.)
Mr Joseph Laing Waugh, who also re-
plied, said it was very fortunate for
him that Sir Herbert Maxwell had pre-
ceded him, because he had relieved him
of considerable responsibility. In what
he had so well said, Sir Herbert had pro-
vided the substance — what a good
mutton bone was to Scotch broth;
and all that was expected of him (Mr
Waugh) was a contribution of odd snip-
pings of "namely kail." (Laughter.)
He thought we had every reason to be
proud of the contribution Scotsmen had
made to literature. Since the days of
"Blind Harry" scarce a generation had
been without its historian, its balladlst
or romancer, and from the latter part of
the eighteenth century to the middle of
the nineteenth we had in Scotland a con-
78
stellation of literary stars which, it
might be truly affirmed, made Edinburgh
the hub of the then literary world. (Ap-
plause.) The lamp burned at its
brightest then; it had often flickered
since; but, thank God, it had never been
allowed to go out; and never would it
Mr Joseph Laing Waugh.
be as long as there was an ear open and
attuned to the sweetness of the mavis'
song, or the whispering of the wind in the
wispy birches, an eye seeing aright the
glorious beauty of purple hills, meander-
ing streams and flower-flecked meadow
land, and a heart, warm-pulsing, appre-
ciating to the full the rugged kindliness of
heart, the humour, the emotion, and the
sentiment which were the acknowledged
characteristics of our race. (Applause.)
We could not all be sweet-singing poets
79
and successful writers, but some of us
might feel at times that we had a message
to deliver, a sentiment to express, and
if we approached our subject whole-
heartedly with understanding and sym-
pathy, if we spoke from the heart
to the heart, then whatever our
message might be and however
simply garbed, it would not be denied a
hearing. And in this expression not
only might we be doing our little to keep
the lamp burning, but we might be the
humble medium of conveying to some poor
home-sick exile a whiff of homeland air,
a few stray notes of the mavis' song, of
bringing once more to his mind's eye a
bickering burn in a red cleugh side,
a mist-wreathed glen 'mong his own
Hills of Home, and visualising for
him a lovable type of a lovable race, a
replica of some old worthy he once knew
and loved in the halcyon days of auld
lang syne. (Applause.)
Robert Burns, whose memory they kept
green that night, in his vehemence and
earnestness breathed this prayer: —
Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire,
That's a' the learnin' 1 desire,
Then tho' I drudge thro' dub and mire,
Wi' plough or cart;
My Muse, tho'hamely in attire,
May touch the heart.
Many since the days of Robert Burns
had prayed for that "ae spark o'
Nature's fire," without which all writings
and all speech were as nothing. The
greater the spark the greater the
warmth and illumination, and whatever
comes from warm pulsing hearts
80
goes direct to other receptive hearts,
gladly welcomed and treasured there as a
classic. He had many such old-world
works in his heart, many treasured
friends on the shelves of his modest
library at home. Among contemporary
writers he gave pride of place to J. M.
Barrie, Neil Munro, John Buchan, and
his old friend, John Foster, to whose two
later works he gave a very high place
indeed. (Applause.) Mr Waugh pro-
ceeded to refer to other literary notabili-
ties, including Charles Murray, Violet
Jacobs, Robert Wanlock, and Roger
Quinn, and concluded by reciting with
great elocutionary power the poem, "Me
and Andra," by Robert Couston, which
he described as a fine example of modern
versification. The " Andra " of the
verses is understood to refer to the late
Mr Carnegie.
We're puir bit craturs, Andra, you an' me.
Ye hae a bath in a marble tub, I dook in
the sea;
Cafe au lait in a silver joog for breakfast
gangs to you;
I sup yit brose wi' a horn spuin an' eat till
I'm fu'.
An' there's nae great differ. Andra —
hardly ony,
My sky is as clear as yours, an' the
cluds are as bonnie,
I whussle a tune thro' my teeth to mysel'
that costs nae money.
The bobolink pipes in the orchards white in
your hame on the ither side ;
Gray whaups cry up on oor muir t' me, white
seamaws soom on oor tide.
81
An organ bums in your marble hall wi'
mony a sough an' swell;
I list to the roar o' the wind. an' the sea in
the hollow o' a shell.
An there's nae great differ. Andra—
hardly ony ava',
' For the measure that throbs thro' eternal
things to me is as braw,
An' it wafts me up to the gate o' God to
hear His choir ana'.
We are draglit bit craturs Andra, plowterin'
i' the glaur,
Paidlin' ilk in oor ain bit dub, and glowerin'
ilk at his star;
Rakin' up the clert o' the trink till oor
Faither airts us hame,
Whiles wi' a strap, whiles wi' a kiss, or
carryin' us when we're lame.
An' there's nae great differ, Andra, we're
sib as peas in a pod,
Ill-faured weans at the best — the draglit
wi' the snod;
An' we'll a' get peyed what we're ocht,
Andra, when we gang hame to God.
What if I win fame or gear, Andra, what if
I fail,
Be gleg as a fumart whittrork, or dull as a
snail ?
It'll be a' ane in a hunder year whether I
sally or slide —
The nicht sits as dark on a brawlin' linn as
it broods on a sleepin' tide.
An' there's nae great differ, Andra,
whether ye bum or bizz;
If no a wheel we may be a clink — If we
canna pull we can bruiz;
We maun tak' the world as we find it,
lad, an' content wi't as it is.
"DUMFRIES AND DUMFRIESIANS."
Sir J. Lome MacLeod said: — I rise to
propose the toast of r< Dumfries and
Dumfriesians." Well, at this hour of the
night it is a most comprehensive toast,
including as it does burgh and county,
town and shire, in-dwellers and out-
Sir J. Lome MacLeod.
dwellers, all connected with the county
or burgh of Dumfries at home and
abroad. I do not feel, gentlemen, that I
can do adequate justice to the proposal.
If it were pursued in a certain direction
it might result in what I know none cf
you desire, the promotion of a spate of
mere self-congratulation, self-satisf action,
and self-approval. Still on the night of
Burns' celebration a certain expansion and
exuberance is permissible. (Laughter.)
We would be very far lacking in a proper
83
appreciation of the spirit of the great
Poet whom we are commemorating to-
night if we did not profess a most intense
feeling of local patriotism, pride of race,
pride of home, and pride of country.
(Applause.) Burns, if I may just make
this remark, demonstrated to the world
that a spirit of this kind, intensity of
local patriotism, is not at all inconsistent
with larger nationality and universal
brotherhood. A3 the Chairman so well
brought out to-night pride of nationality
and communion and brotherhood of the
races of the world is founded upon local
patriotism, local pride, local esteem, and
local self-respect. (Applause.) If these
qualities are not possessed by any com-
munity they are not in a position to re-
cognise the same rights and privileges
of others! Dumfries, we all know, is a
wonderful county, and the Dumfriesians
are a wonderful people. (Applause.) I
would not venture to say that it is the
first of the counties or that they are the
first of the peoples within this country.
Still, it would be exceedingly difficult in
the rivalry and stress and competition
which we know exists between community
"and community, and county and county,
to dispossess the county of Dumfries, or
the burgh of Dumfries, from a place in
the very front rank among the communi-
ties and peoples of this little country of
Scotland, which has gained such a
high place of eminence and prestige
among the nations of the world. (Ap-
plause.) It is no flattery to make an
observation of that kind, because in
Church, in State, in Law, in Literature,
in Art, in Medicine, in Science, in the
*4
sphere of Arms whether on land or sea,
in trade and commerce — in these-
and in all other directions which
have promoted the general progress, ad-
vancement, and prosperity of this country,
the county and burgh of Dumfries have
made a distinct, eminent, and unchal-
lengeable contribution. (Applause.) One
need not at this hour begin to specify .
names which are so well known to you
all, but I think it would be difficult in-
deed for any other county of Scotland,
or of the United Kingdom, or any simi-
lar area within the British Empire, to pro-
duce a list of men of such talent and
eminence in all the different walks of
life as has been produced throughout
centuries from this area. (Applause.) The
people of Dumfries in the whole history
of Scotland have cut and carved their
names in every incident, and in every
epoch of importance in our national
affairs, going back to the earliest days,
during the Wars of Independence, during
the time of the Covenanters, and even
possessing memories of the '45. In these
great incidents in Scottish history Dum-
fries played a notable part. In literature,
which has been referred to already, the
names of Carlyle and others have been
given, and if I may just draw a blade
with the distinguished speaker, Lord St.
Vigeans, in his reference to Thomas Car-
lyle, I am one of those who believe that
his teaching of an apostolic character
is the kind of message which has
to be delivered to the people of this
country to-day with increasing power, in
his condemnation of mere material pros-
perity as compared with the advancement
85
of things of the mind and of the soul.
(Applause.) I know Lord St. Vigeans en-
tirely approves of what I say at this
moment, that Thomas Carlyle, notwith-
standing the fact that he fell upon evil
and flat and chill scientific days which
discarded him, will once again assume
his proper place as a man with a message
to deliver, a message which will be of
great importance and advantage to the
people of this country to receive and
digest. (Applause.) I am not going to
trouble you further except to say that it
is a very great pleasure indeed to be
associated in some ways with the burgh
of Dumfries, a connection of which I
am veiy proud. I am very glad to associ-
ate the toast with the name of my old
municipal colleague, Provost Macaulay,
who is held in the very greatest respect,
and towards whom the greatest esteem
is felt by his colleagues in municipal life
throughout the country. (Applause.) I
am glad to take this opportunity of mak-
ing that observation to you gentlemen of
Dumfries. I associate the toast with his
name and also with the name of Dr
MacKenna, who is one of the distin-
guished products of Dumfries, and who is
carrying on its fame and its greatness in
the sphere of medicine. (Applause.)
The Provost, in responding to the toast,
thanked Sir John Lome MacLeod for the
flattering remarks he had made regarding
the burgh of Dumfries. He thought that
during the last five years of war the burgh
of Dumfries had done its duty. In the
field of battle the young men of Dumfries
had shown the true Border spirit. (Ap-
86
plause.) He thought the burgh of Dum-
fries would compare very favourably with
any other burgh in the numbers and ill
the gallantry of the men who had gone
out to fight their country's battles. (Ap-
plause.) All of them had covered them-
selves with glory. The record that had
Provost Xacaulay, O.B.E., Dumfries.
been set up by the K.O.S.B. was second
to none, and the deeds of their Terri-
torials would never be forgotten. (Ap-
plause.) We had been called a nation of
shopkeepers, but he thought the shop-
keepers had shown that they could "lick"
even soldiers who were trained for noth-
ing else but fighting. The young men
of Dumfries had followed in the foot-
steps of Burns, who joined the Volun-
teers to take his part in repelling the
French when they threatened to invade-
87
this country. (Applause.) Men from
Dumfries had made a name for them-
selves all over the world. Wherever one
went men from Dumfries and Dumfries-
shire were to be found in the most re-
sponsible positions. (Applause.) He
hoped Dumfries would always retain tht>
great name it had acquired among the
sister burghs of Scotland. (Applause).
Dr MacKenna, in replying, said : — I feel
it a very high honour that I have been
chosen to respond for the Dumfriesians
to the toast proposed with so much elo-
quence, with such felicities of phrase,
and with such kindly sentiments by Sir
John Lome MacLeod. But kind as be
was to Dumfries and the Dumfriesians,
I would put Dumfries and the Dumfries-
ians even higher than he did, for it is
probably within the recollection of some
of you, though apparently he has for-
gotten it, if he ever knew it, that some
twenty years ago a publicist, not, I be-
lieve a Dumfries man, went to the trouble
of preparing a pamphlet to discover, to
analyse, and to work out from whence
the famous men of Great Britain came.
The method upon which he proceeded
was to take, I think, one thousand names,
chosen from jists such as are found in
" Who's Who/' and from other reposi-
tories of the so-called greatness of man-
kind. He made a careful analysis, and
his conclusion, after something like a
hundred pages of carefully worked out
statistics, was this> that Dumfries town
produced more famous men than any
other town in the United Kingdom, and
was run very closely by the county of
Dumfries. (Laughter and applause.)
Aberdeen was a very bad second.
(Laughter.) Now, you may wonder why
this should be, and I hope to explain to
you very shortly: why this gentleman, who
worked out these statistics, came to that
conclusion. T know no town which for
Dr MacKenna.
its size, and no county which for its acre-
age, sends so many of its sons furth its
borders. One may wonder why that may
he, and may discover some explanation
of it in the ancient gibe attributed to
Samuel Johnson, who is reputed to have
said that "the pleasantest prospect a
young Scotsman could see was the road to
England." (Laughter.) As one of the
main roads to England runs through
the burgh of Dumfries, it is perfectly
•easy to understand why so many Dum-
fries boys and Dumfriesians migrate
South of the Border. (Laughter.) And
"there is something in Dumfries and Dum-
friesshire that endows its sons with, I
think, more than the ordinary proportion
of commonsense. They are endowed with
the " pith of sense " which our Bard was
so fond of eulogising. In addition to
that, they have a high sense of duty and
they are not afraid of work, so that when
they get outside their own township and
outside their own country where they
would have to compete with men
of equal intellectual gifts with
themselves, and where they might
have a difficulty in making a
living — (laughter) — they have absolutely
no difficulty, when competing with other
people who are not fortunate enough to
be born here, in going rapidly to the
top of the tree. (Laughter and applause.)
You find Dumfries men and Dumfries-
ians represented and holding positions of
rionour and opportunity, not only all over
England, but, what is a much more diffi-
cult job, all over Scotland and right
through the British Empire, and even in
parts of the universe where the Union
Jack does not yet fly. (Applause.) They
are all very proud of their heritage, and
they have every reason to be proud, be-
cause I do not think there is any town or
any county whose history is so indis-
solubly linked up with the glorious his-
tory of Scotland as the history of this
burgh and the county of which it is the
capital. (Applause.) When I was in
France I frequently came across men
whose tongue betrayed them, and having
90
a kindly ear for the Dumfries accent, I
was invariably able to spot a lad front
Dumfries as soon as he had opened his
mouth. I used to say to him — just out of
curiosity because, unfortunately, I have
lived long enough south of the Border to
have lost some of my Dumfries accent,,
though I thank God I have lost none of
my Dumfries backbone — (applause) — I
used to say, " Where do you come from,
my lad?" and invariably the lad would
straighten himself up and say, " I come
from a wee place in Scotland ca'ed
Dumfries." (Applause.) And he said
it with a pride that betokened that
he felt he was " a citizen of no
mean city." (Applause.) Anyone whose
heritage it is to be a son of Dum-
fries is proud of the fact. Burns
once said of Ayr —
Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a toon surpasses
For honest men and bonnie lassies.
But that was before he came to Dumfries.
(Laughter.) When he came to Dumfries
he had to modify his sentiments, and he
said in a beautiful poem: —
Fair are the maids on the banks of the Ayr,
But by the sweet side of the Niih's wind-
ing river,
Are lovers as faithful and maidens as fair.
(Applause.) If you ever discover a Scots-
man out of Scotland, who has come to the
top of the tree in his own particular line,
whether it be in the Church, at the Bar,
in Medicine, in Arts, or in Science, and
you find he is not a Dumfries man, you
are almost certain to find that his mother
was a Dumfries woman or that he married
91
a Dumfries girl. (Applause.) We Dum-
friesians are all enormously proud of our
country. Probably many of you have
heard the famous story of the K.O.S.B.
soldier who was sitting beside an English
soldier in a picture house in London at
the time the Somme Battle picture was
being exhibited. When the zero moment
came and the young lieutenant threw
down his cigarette and leapt over the
parapet he was followed in a great wave
by his faithful men. Well, in that pic-
ture the regiment which was shown going
over the top was an English regiment,
I believe Che Bedfordshires. The English-
man gave the K.O.S.B. man a nudge and
said, " Jock, do you see those fellows
going over the top?" and Jock, taking his
pipe out of his mouth, replied, " Aye,
what aboot it?" The Englishman said,
"They are English. Don't you see
it?" And Jock said, "Aye." The-
Englishman said, "I thought nobody
was doing any fighting in this war
except you Scotch fellows. That
is an English regiment. What do
you make of it?" And Jock took
his pipe out of his mouth again
and said calmly in a good Dum-
fries accent, "Well, I hae nae doot
oor lads are away up in the Ger-
man trenches haudin* the enemy back
while you lads get your photographs
ta'en." (Much laughter.) At this
hour of the night I do not wish
to detain you. I have to get to-
bed some time to-night because I
am being honoured with the duty
of proposing "The Immortal Memory"
at the Liverpool Burns Club to-
92
morrow night, and I have got some
inspiration to-night from the most admir-
able speech delivered by my old friend
Mr Grierson. But before I sit down I
should like to refer to the debt we all
owe to those Dumfriesians who, when the
country was in dire need, came gladly
forward, giving up all they held dearest,
to go and strike a blow, as Burns would
have had them do, for liberty when it was
threatened by the arrogant and armed
might of the Central Powers. Some of
them have come back from the in-
ferno unscathed, some, unfortunately,
have come back maimed and wounded,
and will to their dying day carry
upon them the scars of what they
have suffered, scars which ought to
be for them the inalienable pass-
port to your affection and enduring
admiration. And there are others, I
am sure, whom you would wish to
have in memory, who made the great
sacrifice and who are sleeping on
the shell-tom heights of Gallipoli, in
the holy earth of Palestine, or amid
the mud and clay of Flanders un-
der a simple wooden cross. These
men made the great sacrifice in
order that those people who live
here in Dumfries and in the county
of Dumfries might have freedom
and the right to live maintained for
them. (Applause.) They have left be-
hind them a great memory and a great
stimulus, and I hope that in years to
come a generation of Dumfries boys and
Dumfriesians yet unborn will find in
their great example something worthy of
emulation. (Applause.)
93
" OUR GUESTS."
Dr Hunter, proposing the toast of "Our
Guests," said: — There can be little doubt,
I think, that, in the long and splendid
history of the Dumfries Burns Club, this
gathering is the largest, the most repre-
sentative, and the most enthusiastic that
Dr Hunter.
has ever come together to do honour to
the illustrious memory of Robert Burns.
Some part of that is due, as we have
heard, to the fact that this meeting cele-
brates the centenary of the Club; not a
little is due to the popularity and recog-
nition of the public service of our cul-
tuied and eloquent Chairman — (ap-
plause) — but I am confident that you will
agree with me when I say that a very
large part is due to the presence of our
distinguished and most welcome guests.
94
{Applause.) Some of them we have al-
ready had the pleasure of hearing. Others
equally accomplished are to follow, and,
when the evening is over and the morrow
comes for reflection and the later days for
reminiscence and happy memories, I am
sure we will all be able to look back on
a " feast of reason and a flow of soul "
such as it has been rarely our fortune to
experience. (Applause.) Well, gentle-
men, we have brought you here to a cer-
tain extent under false pretences. It is
usual to provide entertainment for one's
guests, but to-night the position is re-
versed. We are the recipients of the en-
tertainment from you. It may be of some
interest to you to know why your names
so readily suggested themselves to us
when we thought of celebrating this occa-
sion in a manner out of the common. In
the first place, because most of you got
your first glimpse of the light of day in
one or other of these lovely southern
shires, and those few of you who did not,
have become bound to them by t : es of
close association or long personal friend-
ship. (Applause.) Second, because we
knew you were all Burns lovers, and that,
if you were able, you would find joy in
paying tribute to his memory where his
precious ashes are laid. (Hear, hear.)
Third, because you all had won distinc-
tion in various walks of life, and seme
of you have reputations which extend far
beyond these island shores. (Applause.)
But, gentlemen, we did not ask you only
because you are clever and famous. We
asked you chiefly because we knew that
for a long time you had all been walking
with love through the garden of know-
95
ledge — that you pursued beauty only for
beauty's sake, and that by the labours of
your brain and hands you had enriched
science and art and the literature of our
native land. (Applause.) We are glad
to see you, Lord St. Vigeans, because
you are President of the Land Court, and
were formerly our Sheriff, and because
you are known through the country
as a great lawyer and a good,
kind man. (Applause.) We welcome
you, Sir Herbert Maxwell, because you
are a statesman, a scholar, a historian,
a naturalist, and a sportsman. (Ap-
plause.) We look upon you with pride
and affection as one of the truly great
Scotsmen of your generation. (Loud ap-
plause.) Sir James Crichton-Browne
needs no introduction to an audience m
Dumfries or indeed anywhere in the
British Isles. (Applause.) His name is
a household word, and in addition to his
scientific attainments, his extraordinary
power of speech has earned him fame
with all classes of the people. We are
proud to have him as our townsman
— (loud applause)— and glad that he
comes so often to gather inspiration from
the Nith as it gently flows past Crindau.
(Applause.) We welcome Sir John
MacLeod as a man of affairs, and as an
ex-Lord Provost of the great city of Edin-
burgh, where Robert Burns was so hos-
pitably received, and which through all
the centuries has been the spiritual home
of thousands of students from the south-
western counties. (Applause.) And
what of the Irvings' veteran chief— the
picturesque and stalwart Bonshaw? (Ap-
plause.) Had you lived, sir, in the days
96
of Burns he would without a doubt have
immortalised you in an ode, an epistle,
or a songj and although I am
afraid there are none of us
now gifted enough to pay you
such a compliment, we would like to as-
sure you that there is no more honoured
name than yours in all the broad acres
of this county, and we wish you many
years of strength to serve your King as
loyally and faithfully as you have done
in the past. (Loud applause.) You, Sheriff
Morton, we look upon as one of ourselves,
though you did not have the fortune to
be born anywhere between Queensberry
and the Mull of Galloway. As the head
of the legal profession in Dumfriesshire
and Galloway, your name is held in the
highest repute^ not only because of your
professional eminence, but by the un-
assuming and gracious kindliness which
marks the true Scottish gentleman. (Ap-
plause.) Mr Joseph Laing Waugh, we
are delighted to see you because we are
proud of what you have done for Scottish
literature. (Applause.) After relating a
story from one of Mr Waugh's
books, Dr Hunter continued: — Well,
we think you have been with the
lighted candle of genius, up through and
down through the character of the Low-
land Scot, his quiet humour, his grit, his
intense kindliness, the pathos which
hovers over many of the domestic hap-
penings of his lot. (Applause.) These,
and his every other natural characteris-
tic, you have put down with the hand of
• a master, and to all the Scots exiled in
foreign lands you must have made to
live again the joys and sorrows and the
97
haunting beauty of their early home.
(Applause.) You, Dr Neilson, historian
and archaeologist, we are proud to have
with us to-night. (Applause.) As an
authority on the Feudal period, you stand
"facile princeps." Your reputation as a
historical student is European, and we are
glad to think that your observation of
the storied ruins of the South' first stimu-
lated the love of research which has
brought you the eminence you so richly
deserve. (Applause.) Dr MacKenna,
we welcome you as the son of one
of our most respected citizens, as a poet,
an essayist, and a man of science. (Ap-
plause.) You have attained a distin-
guished professional position, but as one
of your oldest friends, I know that litera-
ture is your true love, and those who
have followed your recent career predict
for you a high place among the writers
of this country. (Applause.) You, Mr
John Foster, though you were born by
the gently flowing Nith, found your in-
spiration in the rushing Spey, and your
brilliant work within recent years has
placed you far up in the ranks of modern
novelists. We are proud of you, sir, as
a son of the South. (Applause.) You, Mr
Holbrook Jackson, I mention last, not
because your reputation in letters does
not entitle you to the highest place, but
because you are the only Englishman
among our guests, and on that account, I
wish to accord you, in the name of this
company, an especially hearty welcome.
(Applause.) Ben Johnson found the jour-
ney to Scotland a long and arduous one
when he made his pilgrimage of love to
visit Drummond of Hawthornden, and
G
98
Samuel Johnson, as you know, was not
very favourably impressed with the
natives or their ways or their food.
(Laughter.) I hope you have to-night
formed a better opinion of us. A hund-
red years ago, if you had come, we might
have offered you a different type of hos-
pitality — (laughter) — but the days have
changed, and in the modern, milder way
we hope you have enjoyed yourself, and
we consider it a great honour to enter-
tain so distinguished a representative of
modern English letters as yourself. (Ap-
plause.) Well, gentlemen, we are
charmed to have you here, not only for
your attainments but for yourselves. It
is now 123 years ago since Robert Burns
alighted from his friend's dogcart at the
Pent House End, and made his last few
feeble steps, leaning heavily on the lov-
ing arm of Jessie Lewars, up the little
incline to his home. But though so long
dead, his spirit still haunts the town, and
if, through the ether, his magic voice
might speak to us to-night, surely it
would say, "These, your guests, are men
after my own heart." (Loud applause.)
I ask you to drink to "Our Guests,"
coupled with the names of Mr John Fos-
ter and Mr Holbrook Jackson.
The toast was heartily pledged, and the
company sang " They are jolly good fel-
lows."
Mr John Foster responded in a racy
speech. He said that by a singular — or per-
haps he ought to say plural — accident of
fortune, his link with the South-west was
doubly strong, for although his happy
boyhood was passed within sound of the
Steeple bell, he originally hailed from
near the Cross of Castle-Douglas, in the
old Free Province of Galloway. He
differed from Dr Hunter's generous view
that the guests had done the lion's share
of the entertaining. The Club had en-
tertained their guests nobly. As the
Mr John Foster.
Lochaber fox said when he ate the bag-
pipes, "Ye hae gi'en me baith meat and
music." (Laughter.) The more he spoke
and the more he dined, the stronger the
conviction grew that dinners and speeches
ought to be divorced, or, rather, never be
joined. (Laughter.) If his hearers would
forgive the unpoetic image, dinners and
speeches resembled whisky and oysters,
good things in themselves, which, how-
ever, through their distressing struggle
for precedence, frequently injured each
100
other's gracious qualities. (Laughter.)'
But he could not truthfully suggest that
his attention to the toast list had un-
duly handicapped his interest in the
more carnal joys of the evening. Their
haggis — true food of poesy — would be, he
was sure, the herald of happy dreams —
(laughter) — or, at all events, of dreams !
He only wished he could fashion his words
into such a shape as would translate — be
it ever so roughly — his feelings in being
present that night, in seeing so many old
friends, in such a distinguished company,
and on so notable an occasion. It was a
great pleasure to hear Dr Hunter, who,
among his many other accomplishments,
must have devoted some time to kissing
the " Blarney Stone." (Laughter.) Dr
Hunter had been good enough to touch
upon his ventures into literature, but he
only claimed to be a humble craftsman.
The difficult and crowded business of
fiction-writing was not his trade, but a
by-product, so to speak, and in conse-
quence he had little to say founded on
the knowledge and experience of a pro-
fessional story-writer. They could, how-
ever, be well assured of his thanks and
gratitude. Everyone, craftsman or
artist, welcomed — indeed required —
words of good cheer and encouragement,.,
and they did not always get them !
Authors, like other people, had set-backs.
The arrival of publishers' cheques had
not the uncanny precision of Income Tax
notices and butchers' bills. (Laughter.)*
They had many first aids to humility;
they had their candid friends who gave
them words in season, and frequently out
of it. (Laughter.) He was often tempted:
101
to quote a sacrilegious rendering of our
Bard's immortal couplet —
Oh wad some power tjhe giftie gie us
Tae see oor freens — before they see us.
(Laughter.) He had known some of his
friends performing the miraculous feat of
reading his books without cutting the
leaves. (Laughter.) The Scottish Sheriff
Clerks were quite a respectable body —
(laughter) — he was one — but they were
agreed that he was a mere novelist, and
novelists with disconcerting unanimity
had arrived at the conclusion that he was
a mere Sheriff Clerk. (Laughter.) Mr
Laing Waugh, whom he had met long ago
at football on, literally, many a bloody
field — (laughter) — had put it better than
he could when he referred to the com-
pensations of authors. To his (Mr
Foster's) mind not the least of these was
that a writer, even an amateur, dared to
hope that he had written something
which perhaps had lightened an hour or
two in the evening to some tired, bored,
worried, or dispirited man or woman.
(Applause.) Mr Foster went on to refer
in happy manner to the characteristics
of the people of the north country, re-
marking that in many ways they resem-
bled those of the people in the south,
especially in their masculine speech and
outlook, in their instinct for adventure
and colonisation, in their love for the
arts, in their hospitality, in the dry
vintage of their humour, and not least,
in their passionate love of their home
counties. There were " honest men "
there and " bonriie lassies." (Applause.)
He asked them, however, to discount
some of the legends told of the north.
102
For instance, they ought sternly to con-
tradict the rumour which was gaining
currency, that the low death-rate last year
in Aberdeen was due to the increased cost
of the funerals. (Loud laughter.) Many
thinking people took the view that this
was a loose statement, if not actually
without foundation. (Laughter.) It was
the very kindest thought that had
prompted the Bums Club to bid him
there that night, for not only was it a
signal honour, but it gave him the oppor-
tunity of seeing old friends, old haunts
and landmarks. His links with the old
place were getting fewer as the years,
went on. Memories were stirred, which,
as they would readily understand, he
could not give expression to. Many kind
things had been said that might — he
hoped not — induce a little swelling of the
head, but he did not envy the man who
could regard these things — old friends
and school-fellows, old faces, well-
remembered voices— or look upon the-
dear and familiar landmarks of Dumfries
and Dumfriesshire without a swelling of
the heart. (Loud applause.)
An amusing incident occurred at the
conclusion of Mr Foster's speech, when
the Chairman gravely intimated that he
had rather a serious communication to
make ; he had kept it over, he said, as late
as possible in the evening so that it might
not spoil their enjoyment very much.
He had received a telegram which stated :
— "Wanted for desertion from Elgin
Burns Club dinner, John Foster, novelist,,
native of Dumfries. Arrest if found."
(Much laughter.) He was glad they had
the Chief Constable present, but he did
103
not know exactly what the jurisdiction
was. (Laughter.) They had a Lord of
Session, a Sheriff, a Sheriff-substitute,
and Police Magistrates present, but he
was at school with Mr Foster, and judg-
ing from the imaginative and construc-
tive genius of that gentleman's early
crimes, he thought it was a case for the
High Court. (Loud laughter.)
Mr Holbrook Jackson, who also acknow-
ledged the toast, expressed his apprecia-
tion of the honour that had been done
him in being invited to attend that im-
portant celebration. He had listened
with such joy and interest to the speeches
that had been made that he did not know
how to thank them He had learned
more in one single evening than he had
ever learned in a similar space of time in
his life before. He had always liked
Dumfries, and had been a lover of Burns
since boyhood, but his only association
with Burns was the fact that he was born
in Liverpool, where Dr Currie, the first
biographer and editor of Burns' Life and
Work, also lived He had learned that
night that Dumfries was the hub of the
universe, that Dumfries won the war —
(laughter) — that Dumfriesshire produced
the greatest poet and the greatest
prose-writer in the world; he had
learned that practically every citizen
of Dumfries was eminent, and that every
eminent citizen of Dumfries was more
eminent than any other citizen of the
British Empire. (Laughter.) But he
yielded to no Scot in his love of know-
ledge. (Laughter and applause.) He had
learned also that the Dumfries Burns
Club had a famous history, so famous
104
that he thought it ought to be written
down in words and published in book
form. He had learned that the Club was
baptised in a punch bowl— (laughter) —
and its Centenary, as they had seen that
night, was celebrated in a snuff-box.
(Applause.) He must confess they had
Mr Holbrook Jackson.
made him jealous of Dumfries and jealous
of Scotland, and in the heat of his
jealousy he said with absolute truth that
such a gathering as that was impossible
in his own country. He had a long and
varied experience of public banquets and
public meetings of all kinds in England,
and the one result of these experiences
was that his fellow-countrymen had never
on any single occasion, and many of
those had been eminent, shown the
general love of poetry and general en-
105
thusiasm for the great men of a
locality, or of a nation, as they
had shown there that night. (Ap-
plause.) He did not think that he could
pay them a higher compliment. (Ap-
plause.) They had had both wit and
humour that night, and he was a great
believer in Scottish humour. These
things had given him an insight into
Scottish character which he had not
hitherto possessed. He hoped that one
of these days England would awaken to
that great love of great literature that
Scotland had always shown for its own
literature, and that, perhaps, they, poor
English, would become as great, as emi-
nent, and as powerful as the Scots.
•(Laughter and applause.) He joined with
Mr Foster in thanking them on behalf
of the guests for the generous entertain-
ment they had given them, and for the
enlightened speeches they had enabled
them to listen to. (Applause.) He
thanked them on behalf of the guests and
of- himself, the one Englishman among
them, which he looked upon as an hon-
our to his country. He could say with
his hand on his heart,"Am I not Shakes-
peare's countryman, and are not you my
friends?" (Applause.)
Election of Honorary Members.
The following gentlemen were at this
stage elected honorary members of the
<Club, on the proposal of the President: —
The Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery,
K.G., K.T., Hon. Lord St. Vigeans, Right
Hon. Sir Herbert E. Maxwell, Bart., Right
Hon. John W. Gulland, Sir John Lome Mac-
Leod, LL.D., Professor Sir James Dewar.
106
F.R.S., Sir John R. Findlay, Right Rev. A.
Wallace Williamson, D.D., Sheriff Morton.
K.C., Sheriff Campion, Major William Mur-
ray, O.B.E., M.P., Colonel J. Beaufin Irv-
ing, Provost Macaulay, O.B.E., Mr Joseph
Laing Waugh, Mr John Foster, Mr Thomas
Carmichael, S.S.C., Dr R. W. MacKenna, Mr
Mr W. A. Hiddleston.
Holbrook Jackson, and Mr Norman M'Kin-
nel.
[The lamented death of Mr John W.
Gulland, formerly M.P. for Dumfries
Burghs, has occurred since the above
election took place.]
Mr J. E. Blacklock proposed the health
of "The Croupiers/' and coupled the
toast with the name of Mr W. A. Hiddles-
ton, who, he said, had done a great
amount of work for the Club, especially
during the last month or two. (Applause.)
107
Mr Hiddleston, in acknowledging the-
toast, threw out the suggestion for the
Committee that two or three social func-
tions might be held in the course of the
winter instead of one annual dinner.
(Applause.)
Lord St. Vigeans said it would be a
very grave mistake if they parted with-
out drinking the health of the Secretary.
He was indefatigable in all his under-
takings, and to him in great measure was
due the success of that evening. He had
had a good deal officially to do with Mr
M'Burnie, who had always represented
to him what was the best and finest in
Dumfries. He was one of the salt of the
earth. ( Applause.)
The toast was cordially honoured, and
followed by the singing of "He's a jolly
good fellow."
Mr M'Burnie, in reply, said he desired
to thank all very heartily indeed for the
way in which they had received that
toast. It wa3 a great honour to him to
have it responded to in that fashion, and
it had been enhanced by its spontaneous
proposal by his old chief and very good
friend, Lord St. Vigeans. (Applause.)
Dr George Neilson, in proposing the
health of "The Chairman," referred in
interesting manner to Burns' reception
when he first arrived in Dumfries, and ex-
pressed gratification that the reception of
the toast of his memory in 1920 had been
so impressively given. Proceeding, Dr
Neilson said it was 47 years since he en-
tered the office in which he served his
apprenticeship, and in which Mr John
Grierson, his dear old friend and their
108
'-Chairman's father, was the managing
clerk, and it was not without emotion
that he had seen Mr R. A. Grierson
that night, and listened enraptured to his
great speech. (Applause.) The speech
was the speech of an adequate spokes-
man of the Club, an adequate spokes-
Dr George Neilson.
man of Dumfries, and an adequate
spokesman of the homage of the Scot, not
only to the genius but to the personality
and the heart of Robert Burns. (Ap-
plause.) There were many qualities of
the speech that he could dwell upon, but
they would allow him just to say that
tie admired its dashing and vivid style.
He shared entirely the feelings which Mr
Grierson expressed in the political in-
terpretations which he gave. They were
seething with explosives, of course —
109
(laughtex)-r-but in recognising that Burns
sang the song of liberty, he thought
Mr Grierson had singled out the great
quality which had made Robert Burns
not only the immortal singer, but, as-
he ventured to call it, the immortal
political force. (Applause. "> They would
remember that Burns was a great singer
of reform, and that political reform was
really the basis of a great part of his most
impressive work. In that connection ob-
servations which had fallen from some
of the speakers regarding Carlyle were
not to be forgotten, because the more one
looked at Carlyle as a whole he was to
be considered fundamentally as a politi-
cian. The last quality of Mr Grierson's
speech on which he would like to say one-
word was the brilliancy of many of his
phrases. That term, the "verbal epicure,"
was one of the most toothsome pieces
from the banquet speech he had given
them that night. (Applause. He noticed
that for rive years there had been no
speech. They had waited five years for
Mr Grierson's speech, and it was well
worth while. (Applause.) Not only had
he been a most eloquent speaker, but he
had shown far higher gifts. It was a
tremendous .programme that he had put
them through. He had conducted them
through time ; as some speakers had said
he had conducted them far into the
confines of eternity. (Laughter.) (The
hour was now 2 a.m.) For his part
he was prepared to say that if one
could be quite sure that eternity would
be no worse than they had experienced
that evening he was perfectly willing to
go on. (Laughter.) But it was a pity to-
110
run any unnecessary risks, and for that
reason he asked them to bring the pro-
ceedings very near to a termination by
drinking the health of the Chairman.
(Applause.)
The toast was pledged with enthusiasm,
and the singing of " He's a jolly good
fellow."
The Chairman thanked the company
for drinking his health, and Dr Neilson
very specially for the way in which he
had proposed it. It was, indeed, a very
proud thing, he said, for any man to be
Chairman of Dumfries Bums Club, and
as the fortunes of war had brought him
into the chair on that historic occasion, it
was an experience he would remember all
his days. (Applause.) It was a very great
thing to him that this toast should have
been proposed by Dr Neilson, because al-
though he had not had so many opportuni-
ties of meeting him as he would have liked
to have had, he had all his life heard his
father speaking of- Dr Neilson with much
affection. (Applause.) There was no one
in his father's early days in the legal pro-
fession of whom he spoke with more
affection than George Neilson. (Ap-
plause.) Mr Grierson went on to say
that he felt always a deep pride in being,
not a Dumfries man by adoption,
but a Dumfries man by a long, if not dis-
tinguished, descent. There was one re-
lationship he would like to mention, and
it was this — that two of his great-grand-
fathers were regular attenders, pillars he
might call them, at the old anti-Burgher
Church in Loreburn Street, which Burns
.attended on Sunday evenings, and it was
Ill
pleasant to think that the voices of his
ancestors and the voice of Burns joined
in singing the old Scotch psalms. It was
to him a source of great gratification that
when he did happen to be in the chair
of the Burns Club so many of his towns-
men should be gathered around him. (Ap-
plause.) His loyalty to Dumfries, he
trusted, would grow as the years went on,
and he hoped that he might still be of
some little usefulness to the town. (Ap-
plause.) In conclusion, to show that the
race was not degenerate he must blow the
whistle once again. (Laughter and ap-
plause.)
Mr Grierson then blew a hearty blast
on the whistle and pronounced the part-
ing formula —
"Happy to meet, sorry to part, happy to
meet again."
The proceedings were brought to a close
with the hearty singing of " Auld Lang
Syne."
112
MEMBERS OF COMMITTEE.
Mr A. C. Penman,
Motor Manufacturer.
Judge Hastie,
Clothier.
Mr G. B. Carruthers, Mr David Fergusson,
Solicitor. Solicitor.
Chairman
John CommElin.
Banker,
8,20-i®
Chairman
r.a.grjerson
Town Clerk
Centenary Dinner
Dumfries Duqn; Club
Croupiers
G. B. Carr uthers Es<9
W.A. HlPOLESTON ESQ
p* J. Hunter l. ,3
P.H.Hastie Esq
Office- Bearers of the Club,
1820.
President:
JOHN COMMELIN, Banker.
Vice-President :
JOHN SYME of Ryedale.
Committee :
Major WM. MILLER of Dalswinton.
ADAM RANKINE. Merchant.
JOHN MeDIARMID, Editor of Courier.
JAMES SPALDING, Jr., Surgeon.
WM. GORDON, Jr., Writer.
Secretary and Treasurer:
WM. GRIERSON, Merchant, Dumfries.
DON T BE AFRAID; ILL BE MORE RESPECTED
A HUNDRED YEARS AFTER I AM DEAD THAN
I AM AT THE PRESENT DAY.
— Burns.
Lm.
SOME HAE MEAT AND CANNA EAT.
AND SOME WAD EAT THAT WANT IT.
BUT WE HAE MEAT. AND WE CAN EAT.
AND SAE THE LORD BE THANKIT."
— -Burns.
HARE SOUP.
COCKIE-LEEKIE.
" They sit i' the neuk suppin' hen-broo.'
COD. PARSLEY SAUCE.
FILLETS OF WHITING AU GRATIN.
" Wae worth the loou wha wadna eat
Sic halesome, dainty cheer, man."
ROYAL SCOTCH HAGGIS.
" And on our hoards that king o' food,
A gnid Scotcli Haggis."
ROAST BEEF. ROAST TURKEY.
BOILED HAM.
And aye a rowth roast beef a»id claret
Sync wha wad staivc?"
VEGETABLES.
" Food fills the waine, and keeps us livin."
PLUM PUDDING.
COMPOTE OF FRUIT.
SWISS PASTRIES.
" Aft he ca's it guid.'
COFFEE.
You've gien us wealth for horn and knife.
Xae heart could wish for more."
ROYAL RESTAURANT.
DUMFRIES.
IP ©AST? M^
A CHIELS AMANC YOU TAKIN - NOTES.
AND. FAITH. HE'LL PRENT IT."
THE KING
" While we ling God save tlie Kintr.
We'll ne'er forget the People."
National Anthem.
The Queen, the Queen Mother, and other Members of
the Royal Family M
Chair.
Chair.
The
mperial Forces " .
"They've lost
Sheriff Morton. K.C
'in.- gallant gentlemen."
Replies : — Col. J. Beaufin Irving.
Lieut.-Col. P. M. Kerf, V.D,
Song — " Scots wha hae " . . Mr F. J.
The Immortal Memory '*...'.
" He'll be u credit tae us a ,
We'll a' be prood o' Robin."'
PlDWELL
Chair.
Song — " There was a Lad "
Mr D. O'Brien.
Dumfries Burns Club" . Sir James Crichton-Browne, F.R.S.
" Mony a nielit we've merry been.
And mony mae we hope tae h*.
Replies : — Mr JaS. W. Whitelaw.
Mr John M'Burnie.
Song — " Doon the Burn " Mr David Fergusson.
Scottish Literature
" O for a spunk o' Allan's glee
Lord St. Vigeans.
I >r Fergusson 'a, the bauld and slee."
Replies : — Sir Herbert E. Maxwell. Bart.
Mr Joseph Laing Waugh.
Recitation ... Mr Leslie Macdonald.
Dumfries and Dumfriesians " . Sir J. Lorne MacLeod. LL.D.
•• There was Maggy by the Banks o' Nith,
A dame wi' pride eneugh."
Replies: — Provost Macaulay, O.B.E.
Dr R. W. MacKenna.
Vocal Duet-
Our Guests "
-Mr G. H.
Reed and Mr J. Gibson.
Dr Joseph Hunter.
" Each passing year
Knits others close in friendship's ties.
Replies : — Mr John Foster.
Mr Holbrook Jackson.
10.
Song — " Gae
bring tae me " Mr J. M.
Bowie.
The Croupiers
" Mr J.
' Here are we met, kouii merry boys.
Fouk merry boys, I trow, are we."
E. Blacklock.
Reply :
—Mr W. A. Hiddleston.
Song — " Ae
Fond Kiss . . Mr G. H
Reed.
The Chairman
" Geo.
Neilson, LL.D.
Reply :
—Mr R. A. Grierson.
'• Wi' merry sangs an friendly cracks.
I wat we dinna weary."
Auld Lang Syne.
FRIDAY. 23rd JANUARY. 1920.
DUMFRIES BURNS CLUB,
PRESIDENTS.
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1870
1871
1872
1873
John Commelin
Major Miller
" Immortal Memory proposed by
John Commelin
John McDiarmid
General Dirom
William Gordon. Jr.
John Syme
William Gordon, Jr.
John McDiarmid
No Dinner
David Armstrong
John McDiarmid
No Dinner
No Dinner
No Dinner
John McDiarmid
No Dinner
David Armstrong
No Dinner
David Armstrong
James Stuart Menteith
Thomas Aird
Sheriff Trotter
Dr McLellan
Dr W. A. F. Browne
C T. Ramage
John McDiarmid
Sheriff Trotter
W. Bell Macdonald
J. Macalpine Leny
Cholera in Dumfries, and no
Meeting held
E. Hepburn
Sheriff Trotter
John McDiarmid
J. Macalpine Leny
Dr W. A. F. Browne
W. Bell Macdonald
Major Scott of Gala
Sheriff Trotter
W. R. McDiarmid
Dr W. A. F. Browne
Captain Noake
William Straehan
Adam Skirving
Thomas H. M'Gowan
Rev. W. Buchanan
Rev. David Hogg
R. B. Carruthers
John Symons
David Dunbar
Captain Noake
George Whitelaw
William Wallace
Rev. James Barclay
James Cranstoun
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1913
1914
1915
Donald Mitchell
Sheriff Nicholson
Rev. Thos. Underwood
Thomas McKie
David Barker
No Meeting in respect of the
general distress and depression
prevalent in the Country
Rev. J. A. Campbell
J. C. Ross
Jos. Ewing
Jas. MacDonald
John Clerk
A. C Thomson
Henry Gordon
J. B. A. McKinnell
Provost D. Lennox
Rev. D. C. Bryce
W. H. Scott
J. C. R. Macdonald *
Sir J. Criehton-Browne
Sheriff Campion
J. W. Whitelaw
W. A. Dinwiddie
Sir R. T. Reid. Q.C.. M.P.
Provost J.J. Glover
John Grierson
James Carmont
Rev. A. Wallace Williamson
No Dinner — ■ Death of Queen
Vietoria
Thomas Watson
J. H. Balfour Browne. K.C.
Francis R. Jamieson
A. Douglas Thomson
James A. Fleming
Dr J. Maxwell Wood
Dr J. Maxwell Ross
W. A. Dinwiddie
"Immortal Memory" proposed by
J. Hepburn Millar
William Dickie
John Symons
"Immortal Memory " proposed by
Geo. Neilson, LL.D.
Dr Fred H. Clarke
"immortal Memory" proposed by
Rev. J. C. Higgins
James Geddes
H. Sharpe Gordon
Immortal Memory" proposed by
Sir George Douglas, Bart.
•20 . R. A. Grierson
No Dinner held in years 7915.
1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919
owing to War
Centenary Dinner of Club, 1920
SECRETARIES.
1820
1829
1834
1843
1876
1891
William Grierson
David Armstrong
John Thorburn
W. R. McDiarmid
Donald Mitchell
Henry Gordon
H. Sharpe Gordon
W. M. Maxwell
Dr A. D. MacDonald and W.
Dinwiddie (Joint Seeys.)
W. A. Dinwiddie
J. Maekechnie
John McBurnie
Office- Bearers of the Club,
1920.
President :
R. A. GRIERSON, Town Clerk.
Committee :
C B/CARRUTHERS. Solicitor.
DAVID FERGUSSON. Solicitor.
DAVID H. HASTIE, Clothier.
W. A. HIDDLESTON. House Factor.
Dr JOSEPH HUNTER, Burgh Medical Officer
A. C PENMAN, Motor Manufacturer.
Secretary and Treasurer:
JOHN McBURNIE, Sheriff Clerk of Dumfriesshire.
Greeting sent to other Clubs.
O ! his was the fancy that soar'd in its flight-
Like the eagle sublime, when she basks in the light ;
And his was the spirit no tyrant could bend.
So dark to the foe, yet so warm to the friend ;
So impassioned in love, which our nature adorns.
Then, in rapture, fill high. — 'tis the birthday of BURNS
O BURNS! thy dear name e'er remember'd shall be,
While heaves the green wave round the Isle of the free ;
Thy fame we shall cherish, and honour thy bust.
That seems, like a Phoenix, to rise from thy dust ;
Strew with wild flowers thy grave, where each Muse sadly mourns.
Then, in silence, let's drink — TO THE MEMORY OF BURNS.
Front lines sung at the Anniversary Dinner m 1820.
DESIGNED BY
UOR W. F. CROMBIE,
DUMFRIES.
PRINTED BY
1AXWELL 4 SON.
DUMFRIES.
CEREMONY AT
THE MAUSOLEUM
Sir J. Lome Macleod and the
:: :: Poet's Message. ::
Following the usual custom on the an-
niversary of the birth of Robert Burns,
the Provost, Magistrates, and Town
Councillors of Dumfries assembled in
St. Michael's Churchyard on Satur-
day afternoon (the 24th January), and
proceeding to the Mausoleum laid a
wreath on the Poet's tomb. The
weather was bleak and cold, and rain fell
at intervals. Fortunately the rain kept
off during the ceremony, but no doubt
the weather conditions affected the at-
tendance of the general public, though
that was considerable. The mem-
bers of the Burns Club and others
formed in processional order within the
vestibule of the church, and included Mr
R. A. Grierson, president of the Club ; Mr
John M'Burnie, secretary; * Miss Jean
Armour Burns Brown, great-grand-
daughter of the Poet; Miss Carlyle
Aitken, Miss M'Burnie, Lord St. Vigeans,
Sir J. Lome MacLeod, Sheriff Morton,
Colonel J. Beaufin Irving of Bonshaw, Mr
Holbrook Jackson, Mr D. H. C. Higgins,
London; Mr Arthur M'Kerrow, Calcutta;
Rev. J. Montgomery Campbell, Dr Joseph
Hunter, Mr James Geddes, Mr G. R
Carruthers, Mr W. F. Crombie, Mr A. D.
H
114
Eobison, Mr David Fergusson, Mr W. J.
Stark, Mr Thomas Dykes, Mr James
Wyllie, Elmbank; Mr John Irving, sad-
dler; Mr David Hunter, Mr James Reid,
and Mr Thomas Laidlaw, secretary of
Burns Howff Club. Headed by Mr Grier-
son, Sir J. Lome MacLeod, and Miss Jean
Armour Burns Brown, and preceded by
Pipe-Major Boyd, they proceeded to the
Mausoleum and took up a position within
the enclosing railing around the tomb.
Following the first procession came the
members of the Town Council and burgh
officials, who had also assembled in the
vestibule of the church. Those present
included Provost Macaulay (who wore his
robe and chain of office), Bailie Con-
nolly, Dean Lockerbie, Mr W. Adam, Mr
Robert Kerr, Mr A. Millar, Mr Steven-
son, Mr D. Findlay, Mr William Black,
chief constable; Mr M. H. M'Kerrow,
town chamberlain; Mr John Barker, •
burgh surveyor; Mr F. Armstrong,
master of works; and Mr Sam. Dickie,
gas manager; followed by members of
the public. Halberdier Stoba preceded
the civic procession, which was headed
by the Provost, who carried the wreath,
composed of arum lilies, chrysanthe-
mums, erigerons, white narcissus, and
bronze mahonia.
The Provost reverently placed the
wraith on the Poet's grave, after which
" The Land o' the Leal " was played by
the piper.
Addressing the company, the Provost
expressed the hope that the simple tri-
bute which they had paid that day to the
memory of our national Poet would be
continued by the Town Council of Dum#
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116
fries for all time coming. Burns, he said,,
was thought a great deal more of to-day
than when he lived in Burns Street in
their burgh. All over Scotland and
wherever Scotsmen were to be found that
anniversary would be remembered and
celebrated. If Burns had been alive in
the days of war now closed he would
have been one of the first to have gone
to the defence of the Empire. When this
country was threatened with invasion by
the French, Burns was one of the first to
join Volunteers for the defence of our
shores. (Applause.)
Mr Grierson, in accepting the wreath
as president of Dumfries Burns Club,
which has the honour of caring for the
Poet's grave, said it had been the custom
for the president to move a vote of thanks
to the Provost, Magistrates, and Coun-
cillors of Dumfries on a day such as that.
That day marked the centenary of the
Burns Club, and as that wreath had been
placed on the tomb of the Poet by the
Town Council, not only for themselves
and the community of Dumfries, but for
Scotland and Burns lovers the world
over, they thought it right that the vote
of thanks for the wreath which had just
been accepted by him should be moved
by Sir John Lome MacLeod, because Sir
John until only a few weeks ago was Lord
Provost of the capital city of Scotland,
and he would thus be entitled clearly to
speak for Scotsmen at large. (Applause.)
They had always had this vote of thanks
moved by a Lowlander, but on this oc-
casion he thought they would appreciate
that it should be proposed by a man of
the purest Highland blood. (Applause.)
117
He would formally ask Sir John MacLeod
to perform that office. (Applause.)
Sir J. Lome MacLeod said: — Ladies
and gentlemen, — It is a high honour and
privilege for me to have the opportunity
on behalf of those here assembled and on
behalf of the far larger number of lovers
and admirers of the Poet and man, Burns,
scattered throughout this country and in
•every quarter of the globe, to return
thanks to you, Provost Macaulay, for
laying, as you have done, upon this tomb
which is a national heritage a wreath on
behalf of the community of Dumfries,
.you being the authorised and official in-
strument of the community for this pur-
pose upon this day — a day which, in
many respects, symbolises the life,
•career, and experiences of the man we
commemorate, bleak, in cloud and
shadow, with glimpses of sunshine. Sir,
we are moved on a touching occasion of
this kind with the highest emotion
towards one who has proved himself to
be, and will, with continuing strength
and greatness, remain a potent
teacher and educator in this world.
A lover of freedom, a friend of humanity,
a man of universal sympathy, of the
highest patriotism, intense in spirit, sin-
cere and truthful always in his utter-
ance, a hater of shams, and an assessor
of true worth and right, he comes to us
in these days with a special and par-
ticular message, which we all realise and
deeply appreciate. It is a pious and
reverent act of recollection and homage
which you, Provost Macaulay, have now
paid to the national Poet in the name of
the community of Dumfries, who are the
118
custodians and possessors of this
national heritage. This glorious spirit is
not dead. He is more truly alive in these
later days, and his light will shine forth
as a beacon of hope and courage and con-
fidence to aspiring but weak and frail
mortals in the midst of the turmoil and
the clash and the warring of confused
ideas and actions which prevail at this
time. And we shall always seek from
this source inspiration and receive new
strength, encouragement, and stimula-
tion from his lofty and inspired teaching
and precepts for the benefit and pros-
perity of mankind. I tender you, Provost
Macaulay, in the name of the lovers and
admirers of Burns our grateful thanks for
this respectful act which you have now
paid to the memory of our national Poet,.
and we know that the same spirit which
to-day has animated you in continuing
the practice of the past in this respect
will continue to animate the community
of Dumfries and the Town Council as its
authoritative instrument of government
to pay like tribute and homage in the
future. (Applause.)
Before dispersing the company was
photographed in front of the Mausoleum,
and on the way from the church to the
grave of the Poet the processions were
photographed with cinematograph
cameras.
Two wreaths were placed on the statue
of the Poet in High Street, one by the
Dumfries Burns Club and the other by a
private individual.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE CLUB.
Events and Personalities of the
:: :: Early Days. ::
The Burns Club of Dumfries, one of
the oldest of the many such institu-
tions scattered throughout the world,
was founded on 18th January, 1820. The
circumstances in which it came into
being are of historic interest. It fol-
lowed upon the movement which was
started in Dumfries some years after the
Poet's death to erect a mausoleum over
his remains. This project was first
mooted at a meeting of " the friends and
admirers of the late Scottish bard,
Robert Burns "—so runs the early record
— which was held in the George Inn,
Dumfries, on 16th December, 1813. John
Syme of Ryedale, a good and
staunch friend of the Poet, who
occupied as distributor of stamps
the ground floor of the house
at the foot of Bank Street, to which Burns
came on leaving Ellisland, and who
was the latter's frequent hospitable host,
presided over the gathering. This meeting
resulted in the appointment of a Commit-
tee to carry forward the mausoleum pro-
posal. On 6th January, 1814, the Com-
mittee met under the chairmanship of
General Dunlop, M.P., son of Mrs
Dunlop of Dunlop, the Poet's kind
120
friend and patroness, when it was
intimated that " a large number of
noblemen and gentlemen highly approved
of opening a public subscription for the
mausoleum." William Grierson, draper
The Mausoleum, St. Michael's Churchyard.
in Dumfries, was appointed secretary to
the Committee, and associated with him
in this capacity was the Rev. Dr Duncan
of Ruthwell. The name of Dr Duncan is
well remembered still as that of a gentle-
man prominently identified with every
121
■enlightened and progressive movement in
the district in his day, and
founder of the Savings Bank move-
ment. William Grierson, whose memory
has been less well preserved, oc-
cupied in his time an influential posi-
tion in the community. A J. P. of the
county and a prominent elder of St.
Michael's Church, he was a man of cul-
tivated tastes and enthusiasms. His wife
was a daughter of the Rev. Dr Sibbald,
first of Johnstone parish and afterwards
of Haddington, and one of his
sons was Dr Grierson of Thornhill,
whose museum in the ducal village re-
mains an interesting memorial of a most
interesting worthy. William Grierson
purchased the small residential property
of Grovehill, in the parish of Penpont,
and took a lease of the neighbouring lands
of Boatford, which he occupied as a led
farm. He died in 1852, aged 80 years, and
was buried in Penpont Churchyard. His
wife, who survived till 1862, was also
buried there ; likewise their son, Dr
Grierson, who died in 1889. The latter
used to relate that the punch bowl, which
the Burns Club (as hereafter to be re-
lated) acquired at the opening of its his-
tory, was " handselled " by the Commit-
tee in his father's house at 102 Irish
Street, when he, being then an infant a
month old, was placed in it! To return:
William Grierson and his Committee ap-
pear to have gone about the raising of
subscriptions for the mausoleum in a
very energetic manner, and friends and
admirers of the Poet were canvassed in
all parts of the world. One of the hearti-
est responses was that of Sir Walter Scott,
122
who not only subscribed handsomely
himself, but influenced others to do so,
procuring also the celebrated Mr and Mrs
Siddons to give a benefit dramatic per-
formance in Edinburgh in behalf of the
fund.
We need not go into the history of the
actual erection of the mausoleum. It is
a curiously troubled story, not, however,
without its amusing side. The founda-
tion stone was laid with Masonic honours
on "the King's birthday," 5th June,
1815, when " a grand procession took
place." The total cost seems to have
been well up to £2000.
We come now to the actual formation
of the Club. The Mausoleum Committee
appear from the minutes to have cele-
brated the anniversary of the Poet's
birthday by dining in the King's Anns
Hotel on 25th January, 1817. For this
initial occasion W. S. Walter, London, a
native of Nithsdale and contributor of
various poetical pieces to the " Nithsdale
Minstrel," composed by request some
spirited verses, from which we may quote
the concluding apostrophe of the Poet by
the Genius of Coila : —
Yes — long as Criffel on his ample breast
Reflects the golden glories of the west;
Long as old Queensberry's gigantic form
Shall brave the summer heat, the winter
storm;
Long as the Nith from mountain urn shall
flow
And health and plenty on these vales be-
stow ;
So long, my son — nor can the Muse deceive —
So long thy name and memory shall live.
123
No dinner seems to have taken place in
1818; but on 25th January, 1819, the event
was celebrated in the Globe Inn. At that
meeting it was agreed to open a subscrip-
tion for the purchase of a china punch
bowl, to be used on all similar occasions.
This purchase was carried Out as well as
that of a silver punch spoon, mugs, and
three dozen glasses, and the whole were
produced at a meeting of the subscribers
on 18th January, 1820, " and very much
admired." The bowl was of excellent
workmanship, with elegant emblematic
devices, capable of holding thi^e gallons,,
and engraved on it were the names of the
original subscribers. -The bowl, mugs, and
spoon, still to the fore, were on exhibition
at Friday night's centenary meeting, but
the glasses have long since fallen vic-
tims, by two's and three's (as the minutes
scrupulously record), of the convivial
table. — At this meeting on 18th January,.
1820, it was resolved, in order to give
effect to the celebration of the birthday
of the Bard, to form the subscribers to
the bowl into a Society to be named
" The Burns Club of Dumfries." John
Commelin (banker with the British Linen
Company^ was chosen president,
John Syme, vice-president, and
William Grierson secretary, and minute
regulations were drawn up for an annual
dinner. On the 25th January, accord-
ingly, the newly-formed Club dined in the
King's Arms, when about forty gentlemen
were present, under the presidency of Mr
Commelin, with Mr Syme as croupier.
At this meeting Thomas White, mathema-
tician, and James Hogg, " the Ettrick
Shepherd " (then resident in the district),.
124
weie elected honorary members. The
meeting also resolved to purchase, as
soon as the funds permitted, a " snuff
mull," and to have a portrait of the Bard
painted for the Club by an eminent artist.
Sir J. M. Barrie, Bart.,
Life Member of the Club, who purchased and
presented the James Lennox Collection of
Burns relics.
It had been arranged that Major W.
Miller (of Dalswinton, who married one
of the Jessies of Burns' muse, a daughter
of Provost Staig) should preside at
the dinner on 25th January, 1821, but in
his absence Mr Commelin again presided,
with W. Gordon, jun. (grandfather of Mr
H. S. Gordon of Glense), as croupier.
'This meeting took place in the Com-
125
mercial Hotel (now the County), and
thirty-seven sat down to dinner, which is
described as " excellent " — " the wines
were good, the large china bowl was often
filled with good whisky toddy, and the
company enjoyed the entertainment to a
late hour." In the course of the evening
Gilbert Burns, the brother of the Poet,
then residing at Grant's Braes, Hadding-
ton, was elected an honorary member.
So also was John Mayne, editor of the
London " Star," a native of Dumfries,
and author of the " Siller Gun " ; Mayne
died in London in 1836, aged 77. and
William Grierson was instrumental in
having a tablet to his memory placed in
the vestibule of St. Michael's Church.
Mr Gilfillan, a new member of the Club
and an artist of some note, intimated at
this dinner that he would paint and
present to the Club the portraits of Burns
and his widow, " an intimation which
was received with much pleasure." In
the following year, at the annual dinner,.
Mr Gilfillan duly presented the two por-
traits, " decorated with wreaths of
laurel taken from the shrubbery at the
Poet's tomb." It may be mentioned here
that, through lack of vigilance on the
part of the earlier members of the Club,
the portrait of Mrs Burns found its way
in course of time into the hands of the
National Gallery in Edinburgh. The fate
of the portrait is the subject of many re-
ferences in the Club minutes. Eventually
Sir John R. Findlay, Edinburgh, one of
the Trustees of the National Gallery,
generously offered to have a replica of the
portrait painted for the Club by a com-
petent artist, if the Club on its part
126
-would accept his gift in amicable settle-
ment of the dispute, and without further
disputation to leave the original picture
in the hands of the National Gallery-
authorities, and to this proposal the
Club agreed, though not without re-
luctance. This replica, with Gilfillan's
original portrait of Burns, has its habitat
in Barns House. Both were on exhibi-
tion at Friday night's dinner.
The dinner of 1822, when John
M'Diarmid of the " Courier " pre-
sided, was of special interest by
reason not only of the, presentation
of the Gilfillan portraits, but of the
addition to the roll of honorary members
of a number of important and illustrious
names. The new honorary members in-
cluded the three sons of the Poet— Robert
Burns, William Burns, and James Glen-
cairn Burns; also Sir Walter Scott and
Tiis poetical contemporaries, Thomas
Campbell, James Montgomery, and Allan
Cunningham ; William Tennant, professor
of Oriental Languages at St. Mary's
College, St. Andrews, author of " Anster
Fair " ; and George Thomson, of Edin-
burgh, the correspondent of Burns, for
whom the latter wrote " some of his
finest words for the old Scottish airs."
Sir Walter Scott, acknowledging his elec-
tion as an honorary member, wrote to
William Grierson: —
23rd January, 1822.
I am honoured by the intimation that the
Dumfries Burns Club have distinguished
me by admitting me an honorary member,
to which I am not otherwise entitled, ex-
cepting my sincere and heartfelt admiration
•of the great national poet, whose memory
127
it is the purpose of the institution to cele-
brate.
I beg you will make my respectful thanks
acceptable to the members.
Walter Scott.
The original of this letter is preserved in
Dr Grierson's museum at Thornhill; it
is interesting as containing the first
notice of Burns as " the great national
poet." At this 1822 dinner a letter was
read from James Glencairn Burns from
India stating that " the account of the
formation of the Club had made his very
heart dance for joy, and that not even
the concentrated rays of a thousand
Indian suns could ever dry up the
fountain of his Scottish feelings, which
seemed to flow more freely as his ab-
sence increased." At his request, -"a
strong bottle was filled with punch
from the bowl to be sent out to
him to India," the carriage of which to
London cost 7s 8d. The minutes record
that James Hogg 1 " sang several fine
songs"; the Shepherd was ever a con-
vivial soul.
The president for the year 1823 was
General Dirom of Mount Annan. Among
the honorary members elected were two
of the three famous " Knights of Esk-
dale," Sir John Malcolm and Sir
Pulteney Malcolm. A letter was
read on this occasion from Allan
Cunningham acknowledging his elec-
tion the previous year as an honorary
member. " Honest Allan," as our
readers .know, was born on Blackwood
estate, near Auldgirth, served as a youth
and in his early manhood as a stone
mason, and going to London became
128
eventually secretary to Chantrey, the dis-
tinguished sculptor, and by his poetical
and prose writings achieved considerable
celebrity. He wrote:
I will thank you to express my acknow-
ledgments to the Bums Club of Dumfries
for having elected me an honorary mem-
ber. Such a distinction was as much beyond
my hopes as it was unexpected and wel-
come. To obtain the notice of our native
place is a pleasure which befalls few, and
I have the proverbial intimation of its rarity
to warrant me in thanking you with as
much warmth as delicacy will allow me to
use. To the most gifted it seems honour
enough to be named with Burns, and I
know not that such honour is enhanced by
electing me along with some of our most
inspired spirits. . . I am not sure if you have
safe accommodation in your club room
for works of art. I ask this because
I wish the Burns Club to ac-
cept from me the bust of a poet, one living
and likely to live in his chivalrous poems
and romantic stories as long, perhaps, as
British literature shall live — the production,
too, of the first sculptor of the Island— the
bust of Sir Walter Scott by my friend Mr
Chantrey. If such a thing can be accepted
be so good as tell me, and I shall gladly
confide its presentation to your hands.
The Chantrey bust of Scott was duly dis-
patched, and on 25th December, 1823, in
a cordial letter to William Grierson,
Cunningham again wrote: —
I have long felt how much all owe to-
your discreet and active enthusiasm in
other matters as well as those of song. . .
To render our native town distinguished,
to make it as far known and famed as
prouder cities, ought, and I trust has been,
129
the wish of all her sons. For my own
part, though living in a distant place and
out of the way, too far to be with you in
person, I feel not the less solicitude for
the fame and name of Dumfries than those
who have the happiness of dwelling in her
streets.
Colonel Walter Scott, of the New York
Scottish,
Life Member of the Club, who purchased and
presented the 1896 Centenary MSS.
This is more in consonance with the
warm-hearted and kindly nature of
Allan than another letter which, though
it belongs to the year 1834, we may as well
allude to here. Cunningham had appar-
ently got into trouble with some local
Burnsians for comments of a slighting
kind which, following upon a visit to the
130
mausoleum, he had allowed to escape
him. In this letter he returns to the
charge. The design of the mausoleum he
admits to he " elegant " though lacking
in " massive vigour," but of the sculp-
ture he says, " I most heartily and con-
scientiously dislike it." " It is," he says,
" ill conceived and worse executed, and
indeed the sentiment is beyond the power
of sculpture to express. Who can carve
an inspired or rather an inspiring
mantle?" However, "you did your
best to have the Poet honoured, and
who can do more?" He goes on to say
he also had done his best (in his edition
of Burns then recently published),
though, says he, "I understand that my
labours have not been quite acceptable
to sundry persons in the vale of the
Nith." Rather bitterly he concludes: —
I am not much mortified at this reception
in my native valley ; so long as it is remem-
bered that I wore an apron and wrought
with a scabling hammer in the Friars' Ven-
nel, so long will my works not have "fair
play," but time renders justice to all, and
the day is not distant when I shall either
be forgotten altogether or be more honoured
than at present on the banks of Nith.
The Shade of the worthy Allan has no
cause to complain that Time has been
niggardly in the justice rendered to him.
At the dinner of 1824, the president was
Mr William Gordon, jun., to whom allu-
sion has already been made, and whose
son and grandson in subsequent years
also filled the chair. The venerable John
Syme, now seventy years of age, was the
president in 1825. He made a brief
speech reaffirming his devotion to the
131
memory of the Bard. " Were I standing
amidst a company of foreigners," he said.
" I might indeed tell them that Burns was
the most extraordinary man I had ever
known — that the lightnings of his eye, the
tones of his voice, the smile that played
round his lips, or the frown that occa-
sionally shaded his brow, were all and
each indicative of a mind of prodigious
power; so much so that even the proud
and titled felt themselves awed by the
high bearing of the peasant poet." Syme
never varied in his expression of the high-
est admiration for the character as well
as the genius of his friend. " Let me,
sir," he said at an earlier dinner, " who
have often and often enjoyed Burns's in-
timacy — who have seen him in every
phase, and have heard his lowest note
and the top of his compass — let me, sir,
declare that in all these situations there
was never a sentiment or expression that
fell from his lips which did not gild my
imagination while it warmed my heart,
and which evidently flowed from a fine
and benevolent fountain of morality and
religion. For the former, refer to his
conduct to his brother; on the other
topic, instead of being what I may call
liberal, I deemed him rather restrained
by a sort of superstitious awe and dread.
. . . A verse of Burns has ever struck
me as the type of his mind, and it may
be applicable to his justification: —
'I saw thy pulse's maddening play,
Wild, send thee pleasure's devious way.
Misled by fancy's meteor ray,
By passion driven ;
Yet still the light which led astray
Was light from Heaven.' "
132
Mr Gordon was again president in 1826,
and in 1827 John M'Diarmid occupied
the chair. In 1828 no dinner at all ap-
pears to have been held. A feature of
those early dinners, by the way, was the
extraordinary length and variety of the
toast-list. For example, that for 1826 ran
to no fewer than thirty-four toasts — one of
them duplicated ! Compare this with the
modest ten toasts which comprised the
list at last Friday night's function. But
in those days there was a wide catholicity
observed in the compilation of the toast-
list, which we find, on another occasion,
included Milton, Homer, and the Liberty
of Greece ! The new members admitted
to the Club at the 1826 dinner, and whose
healths were pledged, included Sir Eobert
Laurie of Maxwelton; Mr R. Cutlar Fer-
gusson of Craigdarroch ; Collector Whar-
ton, Professor Wilson (" Christopher
North "), and Messrs W. Graham and
Joseph Train (the latter the well known
antiquarian correspondent of Scott).
The Club sustained an irreparable loss
in November, 1831, when John Syme
passed away. It is on record as remark-
able that " his last evening on earth was
spent with Captain James Glencairn
Burns, just returned from India, in con-
versation and reminiscences of the
Poet/'
Again no dinner was held in 1831, but
for the 1832 celebration Sir Walter Scott
was invited to preside. The novelist,
however, was unable to attend, and once
more the social observance of the anni-
versary was pretermitted. Apologising
for his inability to accept the Club's in-
vitation, Scott wrote: —
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134
I am very much flattered with the invita-
tion of the Burns Club of Dumfries to take
their chair upon the 26th of January next,
and were it in my power to do myself so
great honour it would give me the most sin-
cere satisfaction. But my official duty de-
tains me in close attendance on the Court
of Session during its sittings, besides which
I am not now so equal as at a former part of
my life either to winter-journeys or to social
exertion. The severe illness to which I was
subjected some years ago obliges me to ob-
serve great caution in these particulars.
I beg to express my sincere wishes for the
conviviality of the meeting, and to express
my most respectful thanks for the honour
which the Club have conferred upon
Walter Scott.
Abbotsford, 29th December, 1831.
We have now related, at some length,
the main features of the early history of
the Club. Of its later history, we have
not space to do more than give a sum-
marised narration. Its proceedings for
some years about this period do not call
for much remark. The annual dinner
would appear to have been held irregu-
larly. For the third year in succession,
there was none in 1833, and there was
none in 1835 and 1837. Thenceforward,
however, as the minutes attest, the func-
tion was observed with unbroken regu-
larity, save on three occasions, for which
the explanation is recorded. The first
occasion was in 1849 — the year of the
cholera outbreak in Dumfries j the second
was in 1879, on account of " the general
distress and depression prevalent in the
country " ; and the third was in 1901,
Queon Victoria having died on 22nd
135
January of that year. During the late
war, also, the dinners, in common with
all festive observances throughout the
country, were, of course, suspended,
though the long-established custom of the
Club to visit the Mausoleum on each re-
curring 25th January and meet the Town
Council when they placed their tribute on
the Poet's tomb has been regularly main-
tained.
Two outstanding events in which the
Club bore a part were the celebration of
the centenary of the Poet's birth in 1859,
and that of the centenary of his death in
1896. With regard to the former, it was
on the Club's initiative that the Town
Council and the citizens generally took
the matter up and with great heartiness
made of the occasion a memorable suc-
cess. A feature of the day was a repre-
sentative public procession, organised by
the committee of the Mechanics' Insti-
tute, who had arranged to carry out on
the anniversary the laying of the founda-
tion stone of their new lecture hall. The
stone was laid by Bro. Stewart, Provincial
Grand Master, with full Masonic . cere-
monial; and Dr Browne, superintendent
of the Crichton Institution (father of Sir
James Crichton-Browne and Mr J. H.
Balfour-Browne, K.C.), who was president
of the Institute at the time, recalled in a
speech that Burns founded and carried
out a parish library at Friars' Carse called
the Monkland Friendly Society. The
Burns Club held their anniversary and
centenary dinner at four o'clock in the
afternoon, when a company of 220 gentle-
men gathered in the Assembly Rooms.
136*
Thomas Carlyle had been invited to pre-
side, but declined, and Dr Browne occu-
pied the chair and proposed the Immortal
Memory. The croupiers were J. M. Leny
of Dalswinton; James Mackie of Bargaly,
M.P. for the Stewartry; Thomas Aird, the
poet, editor of the " Dumfries Herald " ;
and W. Bell Macdonald of Rammerscales.
Colonel William Nicol Burns, the eldest
surviving son of the Poet, was present,
and other guests were Colonel M'Murdo of
Mavisgrove ; Mr William Gordon ; Mr H.
Fuller, editor of the " New York Mirror " ;
Mr George F. Train, New York (who intro-
duced tramways into Britain); Mr Dud-
geon of Cargen; Sir William Broun, etc.
Colonel W. Nicol Burns, responding to the
toast of " The Sons of the Poet," attri-
buted his own success and that of his
brother with the Army in India to the
fame of Burns, which pursued them in
good fortune and raised up kind and in-
fluential friends for them. " Wherever
the sons of Burns had appeared, even at
thai late period — wh ether in England,
Scotland, or Ireland — they had always
been received with most affectionate en-
thusiasm." Dr Adam proposed " The
Literature of Scotland," coupled with the
name of Thomas Aird. Dr Car-
ruthers, of Inverness, proposed " English
Literature," and Dr Ramage, of Wallace
Hall, proposed " The Biographers of
Burns." A great " town dinner," to
which a thousand persons sat down, was
held in the Nithsdale Mills, then newly
finished and without machinery, and de-
putations representative of the two gather-
ings exchanged visits in the course of the
evening. A concert in the Theatre and a
137
series of balls were other features of the-
celebration.
Chronologically, the next event of note-
was the unveiling of the Burns Statue in
the High Street, which took place on 6th
Burns Monument, High Street, Dumfries.
April, 1882, but with this the Burns Club
was not officially connected. In connec-
tion with the imposing celebration of the
centenary in 1896 of the Poet's death,
however, it took a very active part. Soon
after the anniversary dinner of that year,,
it began the preparation of arrangements
138
for suitably commemorating the date —
21st July. With the committee which it
appointed were afterwards associated
some other representative gentlemen of
the town and district, and with the active
assistance of Sir Robert Reid, M.P. (now
Lord Loreburn), who was president of the
Club that year, the cordial sympathy of
the Earl of Rosebery was enlisted, and
the movement acquired widespread and
most influential support. The late Pro-
vost Glover, as the official head of the
town, filled the position of chairman of
the executive ; and the secretary was Mr
Phillip Sulley, of the Inland Revenue,
now in Elgin. Lord Rosebery took a
leading part in the day's proceedings,
and delivered a memorable oration on
the Bard. The celebration, however, will
still be in the recollection of many, and
a full record of it has been published,
so that we need not further enlarge
upon it.
To-day the Burns Club of Dumfries is
in as vigorous health as at any time in
its 100 years' history. Its membership
is greater than it has ever been. Its
enthusiasm for the Bard and his works
and its devotion to his memory shoAv
no abating with the passage of the
years. It has never been more com-
petently officered than now, and than
Mr R. A. Grierson and Mr John M'Burnie
it could have no more zealous president
and secretary. The Club has in recent
years sought to stimulate interest in the
Poet's works among the young by offering
prizes for competitions in the schools,
and this effort has met with gratifying
success. At the Burns House, which
139
with the Mausoleum, is in the care and
keeping of the Club, an interesting and
valuable collection of relics is being built
up, thanks to the contributions of in-
terested friends.
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