laid under contribution on both sides, and poets, from Barbour and Blind Harry to Ayton, and from Dunbar and Lindsay to Allan Ramsay and Walter Scott, were freely quoted. But it was rather strange, and perhaps saddening, that not one single quotation was made from the works of the National Bard, although several references to the flag might have been found there. Two references might, if they stood alone, be construed in favour of the National " position, as when, in "Caledonia," he refers to her as— "A lambkin in peace, but a lion in war," 66 and his first letter to the Earl of Buchan, in which he refers to those places "where Caledonia, rejoicing, saw her bloody lion borne, through broken ranks, to victory and fame." Neither quotation can be called conclusive. 66 On the other side, we have the lines of the Address to Edinburgh." When referring to Scotland's kings he writes: · "Wild beats my heart to trace your steps, Thro' hostile ranks, and ruin'd gaps, Old Scotia's bloody lion bore." And in a letter to Robert Muir from Stirling he delivers his soul thus: Two hours ago I said a fervent prayer for old Caledonia over the hole in a blue whinstone where Robert de Bruce fixed his Royal Standard on the banks of Bannockburn.' These quotations seem to put Burns's view beyond dispute. Nor is that opinion to be wondered at, seeing that he had some acquaintance with the science of heraldry, for all heraldic writers, ancient and modern, Scottish, English, and continental, agree in this, that the lion rampant of red on gold, surrounded by the double tressure flory counter-flory, was the flag of the King of Scots. It does appear strange, however, that he nowhere mentions specifically the Scottish national flag, the St. Andrew's saltier of white and blue, a fact which is all the more strange when we remember that part of the arms of the royal burgh of Ayr was this very flag. It is possible that the placing of the crook and horn in saltier on his arms was suggested by the St. Andrew's cross, but of this there is no evidence. Dr Wallace, in his edition of Chambers's Life and Works of Robert Burns, thinks the words in "The Battle of Sherramuir," 66 "And covenant true-blues, man," were suggested by the blue banner of the Covenanters. That flag was, of course, simply the National Ensign. Further, the Bard does not appear to have made any mention of the British flag, the first Union Jack, nor, though he mentions many a burgh toon," and though he was made a freeman of quite a number of them, there is not a single word in his works suggestive of the arms they used. An exception might be made in the case of Dumfries, whose arms show the archangel Michael trampling upon the serpent. In the "Address to the Deil" Michael is introduced, but Burns had not been near Dumfries when that poem was written. Considering that coats-of-arms were honours, and that they usually recalled some heroic deed, we might have expected some reference to those borne by his patrons, the Earl of Glencairn, Lord Daer, and Graham of Fintry, but no such references are to be found. Party colours came in for passing notice : he had no high regard; yet he was not a bigot on the matter of titles, for he was prepared to give one to the Scottish patriot : "A title Dempster merits it." Only one order of knighthood is specifically mentioned, that is the Order of the Garter : The ribbon of this order is blue, and this probably accounts for the words " Royal Blue" in the Epistle to W. Chalmers : "The feeling heart's the royal blue." All the British orders of Burns's day had as their insignia, star, ribbon, badge and chain, and so the remarks about the "ribbon, star, and a' that "suit any of them. It seems, indeed, likely that Burns deliberately chose to make his remarks on this matter general, for in the first draft of" A man's a man for a' that' one of the lines runs His garters, stars, and a' that." In the 18th century there were only four British Orders -Thistle, Garter, St. Patrick, and Bath, the ribbons of which were green, blue, sky blue, and red. 66 Although we have spoken of the " arms of Burns in this paper, it should be stated that legally Burns had no arms. The King alone can give a grant of arms, and this he does in Scotland through the Court of the Lyon. Indeed, by assuming arms as he did, the Bard rendered himself liable to sundry pains and penalties, for as early as 1592 the Scottish Parliament passed an Act declaring that, so far as those who have not the right to do so are concerned, "nane of thame presume or tak' upon hand to bear or use ony armes in tyme coming," under pain of fine or imprisonment, together with the confiscation of all articles upon which the assumed arms have been placed. This is still the law in Scotland, and although its aid is not always invoked, it can be put into use at any time. Quite recently the Treasury, acting on the advice of the Lord Advocate, authorised the prosecution of the magistrates of a Scottish Royal Burgh-well known to all admirers of the Bard-who were using arms which had not been officially recorded. The Lyon King is empowered-and indeed required-to grant arms to all virtuous and welldeserving citizens who may apply for the same. None of Burns's sons took up their father's arms officially, although both Col. William Nicol Burns and Col. James Glencairn Burns had enlarged gravings of them put on several relics. The earliest use of them was on the title page of Currie's edition of Burns, 1800, where, enclosed in an oval border, they rest upon two branches, one of oak and the other of laurel. A somewhat similar example occurs in Allan Cunningham's edition of the Poet's works under the silhouette portrait of the Bard. 66 66 Fully forty years after Burns's death his arms found a place on the register in the Lyon Office, when Dr James Burnes, the eldest son of a cousin of the Poet, a Knight of the Order of Hanover and a distinguished East India servant, applied for and received a grant of armorial bearings. These arms were granted to Dr Burnes and to the “lawful descendants of his paternal grandfather," and in the base of the shield was placed what was termed by the Lyon Clerk the well-known device of the Poet Burns." The crest was Issuant from an eastern crown, an oak shivered renewing its foliage," and there were two mottoesRevirescimus and Ruinam salutarunt pro rege. The first motto, it will be noticed (we are reviving), is an allusion to the crest. In 1841 Dr Burnes's two brothers, Sir Alexander and Charles, both soldiers (the one a Lieut.Colonel and the other a Lieutenant), fell in the disastrous massacre of the British at Cabul, and ten years later the Doctor received a new grant of arms, which may be quoted in full: Arms.-Ermine, on a bend azure, an escutcheon, or, charged with a holly-bush surmounted by a crook and bugle horn saltier-wise, all proper, being the device of the Poet Burns; and on a chief, gules, the white horse of Hanover between two eastern crowns, in allusion to the Guelphic order conferred on James Burnes, K.H., by King William IV., and to the distinguished services of him and his brothers in India. Crests.-On the dexter side, one of augmentation, in allusion to the devotion to their country of Lieut.-Colonel Sir Alexander Burnes, C.B., and Lieut. Charles Burnes, out of a mural crown per pale vert and gules, the rim inscribed CABOOL in letters argent, a demi-eagle displayed transfixed by a javelin in bend sinister, proper. On the sinister side, that previously borne, viz., Issuant from an eastern crown, or, an oak tree sheered renewing its foliage, proper. Motto -ob patriam vulnera passi (suffering for one's native land). In 1895 Kenneth Glencairn Burns, the great-grandson and direct descendant of Gilbert Burns, the brother of the Poet, matriculated arms. Ermine, on a bend azure, an escutcheon, or, charged in base with a holly-bush in chief, with a shepherd's pipe surmounted by a crook in saltier, all proper. Crest on a wreath azure, and argent an oak tree shivered renewing its foliage, proper. Mantling, azure and argent. Motto-ob patriam vulnera passi. It will be observed that in both coats the colour of the Poet's shield has been changed from azure to or (from blue to gold). In the engraving in Currie's edition the field is correctly represented by horizontal lines as blue. In conclusion, it may be stated that no person or club is entitled to use the arms of the Bard (except, of course, those who have matriculated arms as above). Any Burns Club inscribing its note-paper, for example, with the Poet's device, is liable to be called in question by the authorities. There is no objection, however, to the various parts-bush, horn, crook, &c.-being used for decorative purposes, or to the whole device being placed on any memorial to the Bard. REV. W. M'MILLAN, M.A., F.S.A. (Scot.), Dunfermline. |