Edited
by Frank R. Shaw, FSA Scot, Dawsonville, GA, USA
Email:
jurascot@earthlink.net
Frank Shaw
Often I have heard said, as
have all of you, that there is nothing new to say about Robert Burns. One
might be prone to think so when you consider the 5,000 books on Scotland’s
Bard in the G. Ross Roy Collection at the University of South Carolina or at
The Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Yet, that statement is not true, and this
brief look at new discoveries and current research on Burns will point
significantly to much more needing to be said and learned about him.
This paper is a synopsis of
the Immortal Memory I gave at the Burns Club of Atlanta (BCOA) in its
historic cottage. It is a wee look from my standpoint of some of the
wonderful things that have been happening in the world of Burns over the
past few years. I am indebted to and wish to thank Clark McGinn, Patrick
Scott, Chris Rollie, Jennifer Orr and Robert Crawford for the inspiration to
turn to their more current works on Burns. Each has published either a paper
or book or will do so in the near future that throws new light on the man
who is globally celebrated this weekend.
CLARK McGINN
on Burns and the Bank
Clark McGinn is the world’s
Robert Burns globe-trotter. Over the past seven years Clark has travelled
over 166,000 miles, or 6.7 times around the globe, to deliver the Immortal
Memory to various groups. During this time he has given over 100 speeches in
24 cities in 13 countries and, as the author of two books and the
collaborator on a third, Clark is one of the top Burns speakers in the world
today.
At the University of
Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference in January 2012, Clark
spoke on “Burns and the Banker”. Since Clark has spent a good portion of his
life as a banker, it was a very revealing presentation. He basically looked
at the credit worthiness of Burns by applying banking standards and
requirements to the financial situation the poet was facing toward the end
of his life. Many biographers have led us to believe that Burns really had
nothing to worry about and that he overstated his financial woes. Clark, who
is completing his PhD at the University of Glasgow, revealed that Burns had
reason to be concerned about his financial plight as he looked death in the
face. Burns actually owed much more that the few pounds some biographers
would have us believe he owed. Burns’ financial situation would have made
any banker turn him down for a loan. Burns had put himself in this position
simply because he was spending more than he was making the last few years of
his life. Is there a book in the future on this subject? I certainly hope so
since it will give us another way of understanding why Burns was so
concerned about his debt as he knew he faced imminent death.
Our Own PATRICK SCOTT
Patrick has done some
incredible “sleuthing” on a contemporary of Burns, a friend named Gavin
Turnbull. Many of us have often turned to The Burns Encyclopedia by
Maurice Lindsey to learn more about the friends of Burns. The last sentence
in the encyclopedia’s summary on Turnbull reveals that “Turnbull married an
actress and with her emigrated to America, where all trace of them has been
lost.”
Professor Scott found
information by another professor, David Hill Radcliffe, and along with some
“new” information he came across in South Carolina, notably in Charleston,
Patrick wrote an excellent paper that can be found in Chapter 159 of
Robert Burns Lives!. It is great to see Patrick have time in retirement
to do additional research, and I feel this is one of the more interesting
articles about a friend of Burns. This excellent article is entitled
“Whatever Happened to Gavin Turnbull? Hunting Down a Friend of Burns in
South Carolina.” I would like to suggest that you read Chapter 159
referenced above on Turnbull. You will marvel at the research of Patrick
Scott and the many items of interest regarding Turnbull he discovered after
Turnbull came to America. But Professor Scott is not through researching
Turnbull, and there is more to come in an article which will more than
likely appear in the pages of the Burns Chronicle. You heard it here first.
CHRIS ROLLIE’S Great
Discovery
Chris spoke at the January
2013 conference hosted by the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert
Burns Studies on a set on Burns books that has received a lot of recent
press in Scotland. He received a call from an old friend asking for help
with some material found inside a set of the Extra Illustrated W. Scott
Douglas edition of The Works of Burns dating from 1877-1879. Often
times, I and many others have been asked by friends to tell them the worth
of an old book of Burns’. There is, however, no good way to let them know
that they have a beautiful book but that it is more than likely neither rare
nor valuable. But Chris’s friend had something else to offer. Seems like
there were seven documents inside the volumes, and it took him only 15
minutes to realize he was holding in his hands original Burns manuscripts,
poems and even a letter – seven manuscripts in all!
Before you think of
mortgaging your house, be advised they have already been sold to a private
collector. For full coverage on the seven manuscripts, please check out the
University of Glasgow’s web site at
www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_256467_en.html. Chris is also the author of
Robert Burns in England, and you can take a look at a review of this
book in Chapter 52 of Robert Burns Lives!.
JENNIFER ORR’S Magical Book
Dr. Orr has written what I
call a magical book because it contains an avenue of study on a subject of
Burns I have not run across before. The book is The Correspondence of
Samuel Thomson (1766-1816), Fostering an Irish Writer’s Circle,
and of the 242 pages in her account of Irish poets, 65 pages reference
Robert Burns. The Irish poets showed a lot of interest in Burns and were
constantly writing to each other about “Mr. Burns”, as they referred to him.
Samuel Thomson was their leader, and Jennifer recounts a fascinating story
about Thomson leaving Ireland and travelling 80 miles to visit Burns,
landing in Portpatrick and making his way to Dumfries. When Thomson leaves
Dumfries he carries home with him several original works of Burns, including
Clarinda, Mistress of My Soul. “Mr. Burns”, who has favored Thomson
with Robert Fergusson’s Poems, and now asks for only one thing of
him. Burns wanted a pound of Blackgard manufactured by Lundy Fool in Dublin.
What Burns wanted was a pound of snuff! Did he dip snuff or was it for
someone else? Research indicates there are two known references concerning
snuff being sent to Burns by way of a packet boat in 1791 and 1794.
Luke Mullan was another
Irish poet and sailor who spent nine weeks in Dumfries. The vivid account of
his meeting with Burns is as interesting as anything you will read about the
Bard. In a letter to Thomson, Mullan writes that Burns “…endeavored to learn
as much of his character as possible - he is not much respected in Dumfries
on account of his infidelities to his wife – but as an officer of the excise
he is said to be very humane to poor people… In short he is said to be a
fine social companion and an honest man… so little are great men thought of
in their own country and in their lifetime.” There is so much more
fascinating information to be found in Jennifer’s pages referencing Burns
for those who are willing to dig. Keep in mind that these are Irish poets,
contemporaries of Burns, who were seeking personal contact with him and as
much news about him as they could find. Do yourself a favor and find a copy
of the book to read.
ROBERT CRAWFORD and the Rev.
James Macdonald Journal
After Robert Crawford’s
The Bard was published a few years ago, it garnered much praise and he
was awarded the prestigious Saltire Society’s Book of the Year Award in 2009
along with a £10,000 prize. This recognition is a long journey from Don
Paterson’s remark to Crawford earlier that another book on Burns would “be
the world’s least necessary book.” I reviewed Crawford’s book and said then
that it would become the definitive biography on Burns in five years. Burns
scholar and friend Professor Gerard Carruthers also reviewed the book and
found it to be “the best life of the poet yet to appear.”
What I want to draw your
attention to now in Crawford’s biography on Burns is his revelation of a
manuscript of the Reverend James Macdonald which was discovered in the
archives at University of St Andrews. In describing the meeting between
himself and Burns, Macdonald maintains that Burns “looks consumptive, but in
excellent spirits.” Crawford declares that this time together “is the last
extended account of his [Burns] conversation written during the bard’s
lifetime” and he continues by saying “this is Burns the spirited rebel, Bard
of Sedition, even Blasphemy.”
Macdonald was a 24-year-old
licensed Kirk minister, an admirer of Ossian, a lover of poetry, devoted to
William Wallace, and who spoke only Gaelic during the first 12 years of his
life. According to the author, these two men “were made for each other. They
hit it off from the start...” I was fortunate enough to hold that manuscript
in my hands while visiting St Andrews on January 17, 2011, during a meeting
with Crawford, my wife Susan, and Dr. Norman Reid, Head of Special
Collection. It was quite a moving experience to hold in your hands the
original account of that 1796 meeting between Burns and Macdonald!
Macdonald wrote that “Burns
told many anecdotes of himself and others in the very best and most genuine
spirit of pleasantry.” He went on to pronounce that “the landlord of our
Inn…is also a good humored fellow…and that the two men “are staunch
republicans.” Crawford tells us that Burns “momentarily forgot his illness.
He evidently enjoyed the company of his radically minded visitor. Burns
evidently maintained his republicanism in private right up to the end of his
life.”
At the end of their time
together, Macdonald tells us that “at parting the poor poet, with tears in
his eyes, took an affectionate leave of me.”
In two months, Burns was
dead!
So let’s put to rest that
there is nothing new to be said about Burns or that you have heard all that
needs to be said about Burns. The above is only a wee bit of what is going
on in the world of Burns research today.
Please join me in toasting
our Immortal Bard, Robert Burns!
Editors Note: Keep in mind
this is a synopsis of the Immortal Memory delivered at the Burns Club of
Atlanta’s cottage. It will suffice as a brief look at some of the newer
patterns of thought of Robert Burns. Maybe it will challenge you to search
out these and other books and publications to find even more new material on
Burns.
This is the second Immortal
Memory I have been honored to deliver at the Burns Club of Atlanta. (See
http://www.electricscotland.com/music/videos/es24.htm) The
first was delivered on January 28, 2006. I wish to thank current club
vice-president Woody Woodruff for his gracious invitation to address our
membership. |