1911.

GREENOCK BURNS CLUB.

SYLLABUS-1911-1912.

Oct. 31. Annual Meeting. Election of Office-bearers, &c.

Nov. 8. Lecture," Burns-a Miracle "-Mr Walter Weir.

Nov. 30. St. Andrew's Night. Visit from Rosebery Burns Club, Glasgow.

Dec. 7. Lecture, Early Ballad Literature of Scotland "-Mr Wm.

1912.

Auld.

Jan. 10. Lecture, "The Scottish Border "-Dr Barrie.

Jan. 25. 110th Annual Celebration.

Feb. 13. Ladies' Night. Concert Party-Introduced by Mr Stuart

Mories.

Mar. 6. An evening with Allan Park Paton-Mr J. Fraser Paton.
Apr. 17. Quarterly Meeting.

SHETTLESTON BURNS CLUB.

SYLLABUS-1911-1912.

Dec. 7. Mr H. B. Sergeant.

Jan. 25. President Wm. Reid.
Mar. 7. Mr Jas. Lucas, M.A.
Oct.

Mr Andw. M'Callum.

JEDBURGH BURNS CLUB.

"

Wed

The Annual F stival was held in the pre ad Eagle Hote! nesday, 5th January, 1911. The Immortal Memory " was proposed by Bailie Walk r in an eloquent speech of exceptional merit.

Report not to hand when we went to press, but the Club is in a flourishing condition and maintaining its reputation as one of the leading Clubs in the country.

Report also not to hand, but we are glad to learn that the membership of this Club is as numerous and energetic as in former

years.

NOTES AND

AND QUERIES.

CURIOUS LOVE LETTERS BY BURNS.

Mr Carswell, of the Alexandria Burns Club, has forwarded us an old newspaper, in which the following appears :

In the neighbourhood of Dumfries, on the estate of Rockhall, some fifty years since, lived a worthy farmer, whom our great Scottish Poet, Robert Burns, was in the habit of occasionally visiting. They had spent many a merry evening together, enriched with those sallies of wit and humour which stamped the Poet's conversation with even more attraction and fascination than all the marvels of his poetry. The progress of their intercourse was varied by an event which must have afforded Burns no little amusement-the farmer fell in love. The lady was of respectable connections; and the farmer, though excellent at a song or anecdote, was unable for the task of writing a proper declaration of his passion. In this extremity he called in the assistance of the Poet. Burns furnished him with two drafts of a love letter, and the drafts are certainly curiosities in their way. They are not quite so formal and grandiloquent in tone as the famous epistle which Tom Pipes in Peregrine Pickle procured from the village schoolmaster, which commenced, "Divine empress of my soul," and implored the favourite fair one to 'let the genial rays of her benevolence melt the icy emanations of disdain." Burns's letters, however, are of the same character. His prose style was always stiff and unnatural, being in this respect the antipodes of his verse, which flowed with such inimitable grace and simplicity. On the present occasion, too, he was writing in a feigned character, without the prompting of those genial impulses which made him so thriving a wooer himself. We believe the farmer was successful in his suit. Miss G. listened to the passion so ardently proclaimed by proxy, and lived to be the happy wife of the farmer. We have no doubt that the worthy pair and the Poet often laughed over this adventure, during the few remaining years and evil days which darkened the close of the Poet's life. The originals of these curious letters are in the possession of a very successful collector of curiosities, the warm-hearted and entertaining Mr William Smith, perfumer, Dumfries.

66

"MADAM,-What excuse to make for the assume in this letter, I am utterly at a loss.

liberty I am going to

If the most unfeigned

respect for your accomplished worth-if the most ardent attachment if sincerity and truth-if these, on my part, will in any degree weigh with you, my apology is these, and these alone. Little as I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance, it has been enough to convince me what enviable happiness must be his whom you shall honour with your particular regard, and more than enough to convince me how unworthy I am to offer myself a candidate for that partiality. In this kind of trembling hope, madam, I intend very soon doing myself the honour of waiting on you, persuaded that however little Miss G. may be disposed to attend to the suit of a lover as unworthy of her as I am, she is still too good to despise an honest man, whose only fault is loving her too much for his own peace. I have the honour to be, madam, your most devoted humble servant."

“Dear Madam,—The passion of love had need to be productive of much delight; as, where it takes thorough possession of the man, t almost unfits him for anything else. The lover who is certain of an equal return of affection is surely the happiest of men; but he who is a prey to the horrors of anxiety and dreaded disappointment, is a being whose situation is by no means enviable. Of this, my present experience gives me sufficient proof. To me, amusement seems impertinent, and business intrusion, while you alone engross every faculty of my mind. May I request you to drop me a line, to inform me when I may wait on you? For pity's sake do; and let me have it soon. In the meantime, allow me, in all the artless sincerity of truth, to assure you that I truly am, my dearest madam, your ardent lover and devoted humble servant."

From The Witness, 15th August, 1840.

[We have never seen any reference to these letters, whose possessor is so pointedly named.-ED.]

THE CROCHALLAN FENCIBLES.

Burnsites, common and uncommon, who are familiar with The Merry Muses-the slim little volume of indecent verse that has done so much, with so little reason, to besmirch the name of the National, Poet-have heard of "the Crochallan Fencibles," for whose "edification the ribald muse is believed to have been invoked. But beyond the name little is known of the company of dashing fellows who regaled Burns, and by him were in turn entertained. Because of this paucity.

of information one welcomes the short account of the Fencibles included by Mr Harry A. Cockburn in his paper on "Edinburgh Clubs," contributed to the current volume of The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club. Mr Cockburn has gathered the few references to the Crochallan Fencibles that exist, and woven them into a connected narrative. The Club, he says, appears to have originated with William Smellie, about the year 1778. The last meeting was held on the 13th December, 1795. Thus its life continued only for some 17 years.

"The members met at Daniel Douglas's Tavern, near the top of the Anchor Close, which was frequented by many of the principal men of Edinburgh, and particularly by advocates, and from the fact that the landlord was in the habit of entertaining his customers by singing to them an old Gaelic song, 'Chro Challan,' or 'The Cattle of Colin,' an intimate section of his customers formed themselves into a Club, taking the name Crochallan Fencibles. The members bore some pretended military rank, such as Colonel, Major, &c., &c., William Dunbar, W.S., being Colonel; Charles Hay, afterwards Lord Newton, Major; William Smellie, Recorder; Lord Craig, Provost, in imitation of the Volunteers, or Corps of Fencible men then being formed."

Mr Cockburn tells us that all attempts to find Club minutes or a list of members have failed, and he is only able to give the names of fifteen who were actually comrades in jovial arms. In the last issue of the Burns Chronicle, Mr D. M'Naught states that Peter Hill was of the number-a name not included in Mr Cockburn's list. Burns does not appear to have been more than a visitor. He was introduced to the Club by Smellie, the printer of his poems, early in 1787. Kerr in his Memoirs of Smellie, which Mr Cockburn quotes, sets forth that-"when the members of the Club got Burns and Smellie together at their jovial meetings they always endeavoured to pit them against each other in a contest of wit and irony. On these occasions Mr Smellie used to thrash the Poet most abominably, which gave occasion to the expression in a poetical effusion by Burns, His caustic wit was biting rude.'

Among those enumerated by Mr Cockburn are the Hon. Henry Erskine, Lord Gillies, Dr Gilbert Stuart, and Captain Matthew Henderson. The beginning here made may lead the author or some other member of the Old Edinburgh Club to prosecute the subject. A coterie with so much that is characteristic must have had a lively career, the narrative of which would be entertaining, though, like The Merry Muses, it might not be suitable for maids, ministers,