Collins, 1949, 669 p, including 2 p Note, 5 p Contents and 6 p List of Characters.

The title of this book is, these days, liable to a different interpretation to the one it would have received on first publication. It is, of course, the third in the author’s Immortal Memory sequence of novels about the life of Robert Burns.

Here, after the printing of the Kilmarnock Edition of his poems, Burns sets out for Edinburgh – the gay world referred to above – to seek a second edition, this one printed in the capital, and finds his fame has preceded him. He is lionised and feted as the ploughman poet and Scotland’s bard in most quarters but still largely looked down on because of his origins.

Most of the intrigue revolves around Edinburgh bookseller and publisher William Creech who is quite clearly intent on exploiting him, offering Burns what to the poet is a large sum – fifty pounds – for his copyright. Even the offer’s swift increase to one hundred pounds then one hundred and fifty guineas does not arouse any suspicion. Only the inordinate amount of time to pay him the sums he is due from the publishing does that, by which juncture Burns has travelled through Scotland, at one point scribbling anti-government sentiments on a pub window in Stirling using his diamond pen, a transgression he later removes.

Burns doesn’t take much time settling in to his womanising habits. Within about a week, it seems, he is disporting with Peggy Cameron, a serving-girl in the Cowgate, on a shakedown under a table in her workplace and he takes up with various others of the fair sex, entering into a relationship with the woman he will write to as “Clarinda” while bedding her servant girl, Jenny Clow, on the side.

Among other luminaries he meets the Duchess of Gordon, a woman of some reputation – it is said none of her various children were sired by her husband – but no intimacy between them is implied. (How likely is that, given both their reputations?)

Peggy Chalmers is  otherwise the only woman in the book who spurns Burns’s allures (though she is attracted to him and Barke conveys that his intentions were honourable.) She tells him, “Where a woman’s concerned men are never content with friendship – and you are no exception … which is a gey pity.”

On the after Sunday Service proclivities of the church-going, Barke ascribes to Burns’s thoughts the idea that, “never, since John Knox came thundering out of Geneva, had the Scots, as a race, been able to imbibe their Presbyterian theology without the aid of strong drink”

He also describes the securing of the then reasonably recent Union of the Parliaments as unparalleled bribery, which had “enraged the Scottish people at the time; and the stench had lingered in their nostrils ever since.”

Barke also takes the opportunity to delve into the political situation in Scotland at the time where Henry Dundas “ruled Scotland on behalf of William Pitt” and made sure his cronies were able to ensure there were no obstacles to his will being observed.

On those wanderings about Scotland, travelling first south – as far as Newcastle – before returning to Mauchline via Dumfries to look over the land he might rent for farming at Ellisland and later a journey north to Inverness and Moray, during which he enjoys the playing of Fiddler Niel Gow, and comes back to Edinburgh via Aberdeenshire, he conceives the idea of reviving the fortunes of Scottish song. “In the songs of Scotland do we not find enshrined in words and in melody something of this essential goodness, simplicity and harmony that is essential to the ordinary, unlettered folk of our country? Our national songs have not been written by the learned and mighty, but by the humble and the unpretentious – by simple men and simple women” – in them are to be found the old truths and the old satisfaction of living. He notes that after the defeat of the Jacobites – still an aching wound – “Deadness and defeatism ate into what vitals remained of the old Gaelic economy.”

Barke does not wear his research lightly. Almost every gathering Burns goes to is attended by an extensive list of those present and their standing in Edinburgh society. This makes for trying reading at times. The Edinburgh scenes – and even the travelling ones – do not have the same immediacy as the accounts of Burns’s life in Ayrshire in the previous two volumes. It is only when he returns there, to be among his old cronies and reconciled with Jean Armour that the same sense of authority prevails.

Pedant’s corner:- Barke still spells Mauchline as Machlin. Otherwise; the customary commas are missing between words that form lists, “the bench of judges were thrown into variance” (the bench … was thrown,) “since all men are not corrupt all the time” (since not all men are corrupt all the time,) “had been mowed down” (mown down,) “who had rode away” (ridden away,) staunch (stanch,) the text can be read as if it was Edward I, Hammer of the Scots, whom Bruce defeated at Bannockburn, as he was mentioned in the previous paragraph, but “the final utter rout of Edward” was of Edward II, Calgacius (usually spelled Calgacus,) Mons Grampius  (Mons Graupius,) sunk (sank,) “the ruins of Elgin abbey” (it’s actually a cathedral’s ruins in Elgin.) “He would liked to have spent more time” (He would have liked to have spent more time,) “the Ochills” (It’s Ochils,) Calvanistic (x 2, it’s Calvinistic – used a few pages later!) “since he had rode put of Edinburgh” (ridden out,) the Ahasuerus’ sceptre” (Ahasuerus’s.)

Collins, 1950, 510 p, including 2 p Note, 3 p Contents and 4p list of Characters.

This is the second of Barke’s Immortal Memory sequence chronicling the life of Robert Burns. He is now in young adulthood and has moved to the farm of Mossgiel, near Mauchline, with brother Gilbert and the rest of his family. We meet Jean Armour before Burns does, and she is presented as an obedient, dutiful daughter.

Burns is in trouble with the local minister, known as Daddy Auld. He has already fathered a child to Betty Paton, but his penance for this, on the cutty stool, takes place in the nearby parish of Tarbolton since that is where the offence occurred. He was fined one guinea and his sin considered absolved. (This strikes me as akin to those indulgences of the Catholic Church which so enraged the early Protestant reformers.) It is his poems and intellect which most worry Auld, however, who realizes that the best way to undermine Burns will be through his sexual misdemeanours. To that end he enjoins two of his elders, Willie Fisher and James Lamie, to collect evidence against Burns. Fisher is that hypocritical individual about whom Burns would write Holy Willie’s Prayer. (Another long poem, about Mauchline’s Holy Fair, also excites Auld’s ire.)

Burns and his cronies disparage these prurient creatures as the houghmagandie pack, and the fascination of the Church with controlling sexuality (which seems to be the goal of all religions) is noted. “Auld had long been made aware of the peculiar fact that when any of the congregation had to appear on the sessional carpet for a sexual offence, he could count on a full attendance from his lay-shepherds. No other sin so excited their holy zeal for probing into the mystery of the passionate relationship between man and woman and the theological relationship between both and the Presbyterian conception of God.”

When Burns meets Jean he is immediately smitten (though he does have a weakness for imagining himself in love.) Jean’s father dislikes him on reputation alone and has already forbidden her to have anything to do with him. But the attraction is too strong for both of them and she and Burns sign a paper to the effect that they have married. This is without benefit of clergy but would apparently have been recognised legally. He is too poor to support a wife though. The song in the green thorn tree of the book’s title is the one Jean sings at their trysting site.

The inevitable happens and Jean’s father and mother prevail on her to disown him, paper or no. Incensed, Burns turns to Highland Mary (Campbell) for solace and resolves to leave for the Caribbean, arranging a passage for himself and Mary whom he dispatches to Greenock to hide her pregnancy. Some boy, as they say.

In the meantime his poem some of which Barke has Burns conjure up on the spot, have been gaining a reputation and it is arranged for a book of his poetry (Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect) to be published by subscription, or at least promise of payment. He wrestles over which verses to publish as some may be considered too controversial, publishers then, as now, reluctant to take too much of a risk.

Barke’s writing is workmanlike, with occasional veerings into purple prose when describing landscape. Several of the quoted poems have their verses written as speech which detracts from the ability to read them as poems but since Burns was reciting them to others I suppose that’s fair enough. The characterisation is broad brush.

I note that the Church’s strictures against houghmagandie seem to have been spectacularly unsuccessful as several instances of compearing are mentioned in the book – including that of a couple who married before the evidence blossomed, though their marriage did not in any way mitigate the offence. When Burns has to stand for his “fornication” with Jean Armour there is no room on the cutty stool. He is one of five people, including Jean, arraigned on the same day.

Pedant’s corner:- Barke still spells the town Machlin rather than Mauchline, “womankind were crowding in” (womankind is singular; ‘womankind was crowding in’.) Surgeoners! (it was possessive not plural; ‘Surgeoner’s!’,) “knit his brows” (knitted.) “The company were soon in a grand mood” (The company was soon in a grand mood,) staunched (stanched.)

A Novel of the Life and Loves of Robert Burns.

Collins, 1946, 382 p including 2 p Note.

This is the first in Barke’s series of books covering the life of Robert Burns, known collectively as The Immortal Memory. I gather Burns scholars did not look kindly upon them.

This one is a strange concoction, seemingly well researched – in a foreword Barke says he did not want to get anything wrong – yet in parts it does not read like a novel. But it is also not a biography, containing scenes that must be imagined, with dialogue certainly so, and larded with a wheen of Scots words and usages that might be off-putting to those furth of Scotland.

I assume Barke has evidence for his family calling their eldest child Robin unofficially – as do some of his intimates – but it was an odd decision to render throughout the town of Mauchline as Machlin.

The young Robert very early in his life becomes aware that the well-off have it their way and there is little to no justice in the world. This is particularly so in the case of his father, William Burns, a staunch Presbyterian – of the Auld Licht persuasion – passionately opposed to fornication, whose position as tenant farmer on successive poor soils which he did much to improve is taken advantage of by unfeeling (or downright criminal) lessors. William recognizes in Robert an innate potential to make a mark but a tendency to passion which he fears will undo him but strives mightily to ensure his two elder sons, Robert and Gilbert, both gain a good education for themselves.

There is a divagation to Irvine where Robert is set to learn heckling as a prelude to growing linen and entering that trade. It is here he gains his first sexual experience with one of the many Jeans – not to mention other lasses – with whom he will be associated but his sojourn is cut short when the linen shop burns down and it is back to the plough and the land. Robert of course imagines himself in love with all the girls with whom he dallies but does not consider any of them marriageable. Not that he has much to offer them anyway beyond a glad eye and the odd verse.

This first instalment goes up to the point of William Burns’s vindication in the eyes of the law, and final death, worn out by a life of toil; toil which has already taken its toll on Robert.

Barke is not a fine novelist. His prose gets the job done but lacks sparkle and there are occasional passages of purple prose. And at the end I did not feel the text had inhabited Robert as a person. Then again, rendering a fictional account of a real person is the hardest job in writing.

Pedant’s corner:- “Jock Richards’ back room” (x 4, Richards’s,) riccochetted (ricocheted,) “vocal chords” (vocal cords.)

Since we were nearby, myself and the good lady thought we’d take a look at Mauchline in Ayrshire. She has a great interest in the fashioned wooden objects known as Mauchline Ware since the town was a locus for its manufacture.

The town has a big Burns connection though, including Poosie Nansie’s Tavern:-

Plus there is a statue of Mauchline lass Jean Armour who became Burns’s wife:-

The Kirkyard contains a few notables. Poosie Nansie’s grave:-

Willie Fisher’s grave. Fisher was the prototype of ‘Holy Willie’ in Rober Burns’s ‘Holly Willie’s Prayer’ :-

Grave of Robert Burns’s infant children:-

We did not explore much more then the centre of Mauchline, so it seems we missed this.

Burns’s Cottage is in fact a classic Scottish but’n’ben with two rooms. On entering you first go through the area where the cattle would have been kept. It was very dark there and had mainly agricultural implements so I didn’t bother photographing it.

Living space. One room, very small, a few paces either way:-

Bed recess. The gowns represent the children who slept there:-

Since we were in the area we thought we’d have a look at Burns’s Cottage again – only this time we would go inside.

Cottage from road:-

Tam O’Shanter planter outside Burns’s Cottage, Alloway:-

Cottage from rear:-

Burn’s Cottage sign on Poet’s Path:-

This information board says how Burns’s father planned to develop the field beyond:-

In the field is this wicker sculpture of Burns’s most famous character, Tam O’Shanter, on his mare, Meg:-

Silhouettes in wall of field:-

In the centre of Ayr there is a statue of Scotland’s bard Robert Burns. I referred to it in my post showing the Odeon Cinema there. Naturally enough the statue is in Burns Statue Square:-

Another Burns related place of interest in Ayr is the Tam O’Shanter Inn, the oldest pub/restaurant in the town I believe. Tam O’Shanter is perhaps Burns’ best known poem. The inn is from where Douglas Graham, the inspiration for Tam, set off on the journey which the poem chronicles:-

Merchiston Publishing, 2013, 235 p, plus i p Acknowledgements, iii p iv p Introduction by Yvonne mcCleery, iii p Afterword by Alistair McCleery, ii p About the author, ii p Discussion Questions. First published 1919.

This novel is set on the Home Front during the Great War. David Grant has been invalided out of the Army and has returned home to Castlerig near Edinburgh to convalesce and build himself up. His path crosses with that of the Sutherland sisters, Effie, Nannie, Marion and Jullie.

Marion is unobtrusive and divides men into Bounders (too objectionable,) Selfish Lumps (too absorbed in their conversation to thank you when you passed them tea,) Silly Asses (attempting either to be funny or, worse, sentimental,) Nice Boys (foolish beyond expression) and Dear Old Things (usually friends of Uncle Alexander.) Only her brother Pat was an exception and she realises David Grant too doesn’t fit any of the bills.

Nothing very out of the ordinary occurs in the book: it is a quiet examination of ordinary lives carried on in uncommon circumstances. As soon as David encounters Marion it is obvious where the story will lead but there are complications along the way. “There is nothing more bitter than to have the sweetness of a friendship turned sour by a few interfering words, or the jests of thoughtless outsiders.” However, David’s early thought that “Life is a thing too glorious to be enjoyed” is not borne out except in the circumstances of Nannie’s fiancé’s death in the war and her subsequent attempt to find solace via spiritualism.

This sits somewhat at odds with David’s musings on “the artistic temperament” which he conceives “is a real and wonderful thing; nothing less than the power to understand and love the eternal beauty of the world.” Of course, it is; but the eternal beauty of the world can be an elusive thing to grasp.

The blurb describes Orr as a true hidden gem on the Scottish literary scene. Hidden certainly. I had never heard of her until a recent (though well pre-lockdown) visit to the Scottish Writers’ Museum in Edinburgh; an institution dedicated mainly to Burns, Scott and Stevenson but on one of whose walls was a description of Orr’s career – enough to spur me on to seek her writings out. Unfortunately most are long out of print; and scarce.

Despite being set during the Great War, The Glorious Thing still has a kind of Victorian sensibility – much like the Findlater sisters’ Crossriggs, but better written, and underneath it all, with the prevalence of women in the narrative, a sense of the changes the war wrought.

Pedant’s corner:- Minnie Grant says, ‘Aren’t I swanky?’ (The Scottish form is ‘Amn’t I?) Chambers’ (Chambers’s.) “‘I wonder what be thinks of us’” (what he thinks,) a missing comma before or after a piece of direct speech (a few times,) shrunk (shrank.) “All telegrams do not bring bad news.” (Not true; some telegrams did. What Orr meant was, “Not all telegrams bring bad news,) a speech which was carried over into the next paragraph had an end quotation mark before the paragraph break, “hearts tae break and nine tae sell” (“hearts tae break and none tae sell” makes more sense,) appall (appal.)

Dumfries is the old county town of Dumfriesshire long since absorbed into the larger Dumfries and Galloway region.

It is famous, among other things, for its connection to Robert Burns who at one time worked a farm a few miles north of the town.

A statue of the poet occupies a prominent position in the town centre.

By the river Nith there is an artwork commemorating Lady Devorgilla, after whom the older of Dumfries’s two bridges over the Nith is named. This plaque is set into the paving by the river:-

You have to go down some steps towards the river itself to see the figures in relief:-

The Birks (birches) of Aberfeldy is a local beauty spot lying just outside that Perthsire town encompassing the Falls of Moness.

They inspired Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, to write a poem/song called The Birks of Aberfeldy.

We dondered up there in February. The path is steep in places and there was snow and ice lying at the time.

The Falls of Moness:-

A statue of a seated Burns has been situated at the spot where he is supposed to have derived inspiration. I doubt it’s much of a likeness:-

And this is said view:-

More falls:-