or

No anecdote conversational fragment of that memorable night in the parlour of the farmer of Covington Mains has been preserved. The late Rev. Thomas Somerville, D.D., Minister of Blackfriars, Glasgow, said, in the chapter on Robert Burns in his book, George Square, Glasgow, that "it is stated that on this occasion he (Burns) made his address to a haggis

'Great chieftain o' the puddin' race!' "

But Dr Somerville does not support the statement, and there are other traditions as to the circumstances under which that famous piece was composed. According to James Hogg, it was written at dinner in the house of Mr Andrew Bruce, Castlehill, Edinburgh, and Robert Chambers says that the last stanza, as originally printed—

"Ye Powers wha gi'e us a' that's gude,
Still bless Auld Caledonia's brood,

Wi' great John Barleycorn's heart's blude

In stoups and luggies,

And on our board that King o' Food,

was extemporised as a grace to a dinner, of which a haggis formed a part, in the house of a friend, said to be a Mr Morison, cabinetmaker in Mauchline. The one thing clear is that the poem was published for the first time in The Caledonian Mercury on 19th December, 1786, and that it was reprinted in The Scots Magazine in January of the following year.

The festivities of the Covington people did not end with the night; they were resumed next morning at the breakfast table of Mr and Mrs James Stodart-the couple so highly eulogised by the Poet-Hillhead Farm, less than half a mile distant. But before Burns left Covington Mains there occurred an incident of which he probably never heard, and which seems to have been first made public by Dr Somerville (who was a great-grandson of Archibald Prentice) in his Glasgow volume. Dr Somerville wrote: "I have heard James Stodart's son (a James Stodart also)

say, when nearly eighty, that he remembered passing the Mains that morning, with other companions, on his way to school. The pony was waiting at the door for the owner to start on his journey. The stalwart Bauldy' came out and ordered him and the other boys to stop and haud the stirrup for the man that was to mount, adding 'You'll boast of it till your dying day.' The boys said, 'We'll be late, and we're fear'd for the maister.' 'Stop and haud the stirrup; I'll settle wi' the maister!' They took courage, as well they might, for Prentice was six-feet-three, and the dominie but an ordinary mortal. That boy Stodart (almost an octogenarian at the time he spoke to me) said, 'I think I'm prouder of that forenoon frae the schule than a' the days I was at it.'

There is no record of the party at Hillhead Farm. All that Archibald Prentice, jun., says is that it was large; but it is not difficult to imagine that, however many newcomers there may have been, most of the company of the previous evening were present. Those who had spent

66

"a nicht wi' Burns" would not willingly forego a morning in the same delightful and invigorating society. It is a tradition at Hillhead, which was then a clachan,* and still contains several houses, that while the Poet rested there his pony was shod by the local blacksmith, who, we may be sure, did not spend more time on the job than was absolutely necessary. He would want to join the com-` pany in the spacious parlour, situated, like the similar apartment at Covington Mains, on the left-hand side of the entrance. The meal was not a hurried one, and the whole forenoon seems to have been passed at the table. We learn from the narrative of young Prentice that by lunch time Burns had proceeded only as far as the Bank Farm, about a mile away as the crow flies, and reached by crossing

*It may be noted that "the farm and hamlet of Hillhead " find a place in The Red Hose, a tale of Upper Clydesdale in the days of George the Fourth, by William Scott. At the period of the story the tenant was Archibald Stodart, whose kirn, one of the most celebrated in the district, is described,

a ford on the Clyde.

The tenant of the Bank, which is in the neighbouring parish of Carnwath, was John Stodart, the father of the gudewife of Covington Mains, who had also invited a large party to meet the eminent visitor. That evening Burns rode into Edinburgh, where he was in a short time to become the lion" of the season, and a few days later he returned the pony to Reid by John Samson, brother of the immortal Tam.

66

66

That Burns returned to Covington Mains does not admit of doubt. Archibald Prentice kept a diary, preserved by his son John, and under date May 1st, 1787, we read: Cold; Mr Burns here." It is evident from the dates of Burns's correspondence that the visit was of short duration. On 30th April he wrote from his lodgings in the Lawnmarket to William Dunbar, and on 3rd May he addressed a letter to the Rev. Dr Hugh Blair from the same quarter. According to Robert Chambers, this was one of several excursions, having generally "some

obscurity, if not mystery, resting upon them," which Burns made from Edinburgh into Upper Clydesdale. Chambers suggested that Burns may have become enamoured with a peasant girl, whom he secretly went to see, and that she is celebrated in the song, "Yon wild, mossy mountains,” of which the first three verses may be quoted :

"Yon wild, mossy mountains sae lofty and wide,
That nurse in their bosom the youth o' the Clyde,
Where the grouse lead their coveys thro' the heather to feed,
And the shepherd tends his flock as he plays on his reed.

Not Gowrie's rich valley, nor Forth's sunny shores,
To me hae the charms o' yon wild, mossy moors;
For there, by a lanely, sequestered stream,
Resides a sweet lassie, my thought and my dream.

Amang thae wild mountains shall still be my path,
Ilk stream foaming down its ain green, narrow strath,
For there, wi' my lassie, the day lang I rove,

While o'er us unheeded flee the swift hours o' love.

Other biographers and critics have also attempted to account for the song, and to identify the maid whose charms had caught the fancy of the Poet. Scott Douglas had no hesitation in assigning the close of 1786 as the date of its composition, and that it was produced on the journey between Mossgiel and Edinburgh. He wrote: "Composing on horseback was a favourite occupation of his (Burns's) mind a few years afterwards, when passing through wild, sequestered scenery, and it may reasonably be supposed that the muse accompanied him during this solitary ride through those moors, where the infant Clyde meanders, and is fed by rills from Tintock and the Culter Fells. The Rev. Dr P. Hately Waddell went a step further. He observed: "Death had by this time dissolved the bond between him (Burns) and Mary, and circumstances for a time had alienated his affections from Jean. Some country beauty in the moors of Tintock must have attracted his attention there, and he has immortalised the nameless beauty accordingly." William Stenhouse concluded that

66

Highland Mary must have inspired the production, though it is well known that she had no connection by residence or otherwise with the district. Allan Cunningham's opinion was that the heroine was either Nannie, who dwelt near the Lugar, or Highland Mary-most likely the former, for he (Burns) always spoke out when he alluded to Mary Campbell." Dr Wallace says that the song "may refer to one of Burns's mysterious excursions to Lanarkshire in 1787 "; and Henley and Henderson, taking their cue from Chambers, remark that "Burns occasionally visited a peasant girl near Covington." All this speculation has been provoked by the silence of Burns on the subject. His note in the interleaved copy of Johnson's Museum is, "This song alludes to a part of my private history which it is of no consequence to the world to know.” What Burns refused to reveal will, it is safe to say at this date, never be known. The only comment the present writer would make is that the lines,

"Not Gowrie's rich valley, nor Forth's sunny shores,

To me hae the charms o' yon wild, mossy moors,"

suggest that the song was not composed until after the Highland tour, which made Burns familiar with the Carse of Gowrie and the Firth of Forth.

It was, probably, while on his second call at Covington that Burns passed through Biggar, an incident which all his biographers have, curiously, overlooked. Mention of the fact was made in Biggar and the House of Fleming by William Hunter, who disposed of it in a single sentence: "Robert Forsyth, the bellman, used to state that Robert Burns, the Poet, to whom he showed the church, reverentially took off his hat on entering, and, evidently impressed with devotional feelings, remained uncovered all the time he examined the sacred edifice." The Rev. W. S. Crockett, Tweedsmuir, in his Biggar: Historical, Traditional and Descriptive, gives 1787 as the date of the visit of Burns to the town, and adds that "he is said to have been much impressed with the stately solemnity of the parish kirk."