He clamb the tow'ring Pyrenees, Where frosts 'neath smiles of summer freeze, "Thout star or moon, The foeman's tents he set ableeze To licht him doon. See half-way up Sebastian's wa's, His right the horn, And charge them hame! he loudly blaws Ay, mony a fearfu' siege and storm, In mony a clime baith cauld and warm, The maist o's life, Yet ne'er till now he durst him harm Wi' dirk or knife." Beginning life as a hand-loom weaver, Robert Burns Thomson afterwards became a power-loom tenter in Thornliebank and Glasgow, and was ultimately appointed manager of the factory in the east-end of the city owned by Messrs Scott. Retiring from this position, he founded the firm known to-day as Messrs R. B. Thomson & Coy., brush manufacturers, 38 Stockwell Street, Glasgow. He died at Shawlands on 14th April, 1887, aged sixty-nine years, and was interred in the family lair in the Vennel, in fulfilment of the desire expressed in one of his poems"Bear me quietly to the 'Shaws And lay me by my mother's side." James Glencairn Thomson, a a younger brother, followed his father's trade until it ceased to be profitable. He next adopted the occupation of a pattern-maker, working in Thornliebank and Glasgow until 1900, when he retired. In 1899 he was presented with a public subscription amounting to £175, and six years later he received a further sum of £200. He was also granted a small pension from the Government, in recognition of the eminence of his grand father. The last survivor of the family, he died at Crossmyloof on 9th July, 1911, at the age of eighty-four, and was also laid to rest in the Vennel. At the centenary celebration of the birth of Robert Burns, held in the King's Arms Hall, Trongate, Glasgow, in 1859, a function presided over by Hugh M'Donald, Robert Burns Thomson was seated on the right, and James Glencairn Thomson on the left, of the chairman. Robert sang "Scots Wha Hae" and James sang "A Man's a Man for a' that," and the former replied to the toast of "The Surviving Members of the Burns Family," proposed by Mr William W. Scott, of The Daily Bulletin.* Betty Burns was not forgotten during the general rejoicings. A proposal had been made to raise subscriptions for the two nieces of the Poet, the Misses Begg, and in a letter to the Glasgow Herald "Locksley Locksley" (Mr William Watson, Pollokshaws) suggested that something of a similar kind should be done for Mrs Thomson. The suggestion was adopted, and a sum of £260, which helped to comfort the declining years of Betty and her husband, was raised. Margaret Thomson, the youngest of Betty's daughters, was the second wife of David Wingate, the poet, who was born at Cowglen, near Pollokshaws. After the death of her husband she lived with her brother James at Crossmyloof, and she died there on 23rd November, 1898, in the sixty-third year of her age. She was interred in the family burying-place, which also contains the dust of Gilbert Burns Begg, the poet's nephew, who died at Pollokshaws on 11th January, 1885, aged eighty-three. ANDREW M'CALLUM. *Chronicle of the Hundredth Birthday of Robert Burns. BURNS AT A "DRUID'S TEMPLE." IN N Burns's notes of his Northern Tour of 30th August, 1787, there is an entry which indicates that he said prayers in a Druid's Temple, and Lockhart, in his Life of Burns, naturally surmises from the context of the Memorandum, in which Glenlyon House and the Lyon River are mentioned in juxtaposition, that the Temple itself was in Glenlyon. About a quarter of a mile from Glenlyon House there stands Fortingal Church, celebrated for its ancient yew-tree. On a field on the opposite side of the road from the Church there stands the remains of a Stone Circle; the remaining stones standing might indicate that there were three stone rings, but the Circle itself is in no way in a good "state of repair." From Burns's notes one might conclude that this might be the position of the Druid's Temple mentioned by Burns. Guide Books and Lives of Burns have ignored that spot that should have been dear to the Burns enthusiast. However, on Ainslie's Map of Scotland (published 1789) about four miles from Aberfeldy, on the Kenmore Road, there is located a "Druid's Temple." Burns, on the 29th of August, had come from Crieff to Kenmore, where he stayed all night at the inn, and inscribed with his pencil over the chimneypiece of the inn some verses descriptive of Taymouth, and also very possibly indicative of the particular feelings that were in his mind on the occasion. In the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1888-89, Mr Alexander Hutcheson, F.S.A.(Scot.), describes the Stone Circle at Croft Morag :-" Four miles west from Aberfeldy, and about fifty yards south of the public road leading from the latter place to Kenmore. The circles are concentric, three in number, and occupy a little plateau-which may be artificial, as the outer circle just covers it on the gentle slope which here rises towards the GROUND PLAN OF CIRCLE AT CROFT MORAG. The next or second circle presumably has fallen inwards. generally with their larger axes in the direction of the rampart.... If, as has been suggested, the two large blocks A and B formed the entrance to the circles, then the entrance faced towards the south-east." This description tallies so closely in particulars with that given by Burns, that there is little if any doubt in recognising in the Stone Circle at Croft Morag the "Druid's Temple" in which Burns said his prayers. Burns's CROFT MORAG, KENMORE-30th August, 1787. description, from his notes, is as follows:-" (30th August) -Druid's Temple-three circles of stones, the outermost sunk, the second has thirteen stones remaining; the innermost has eight, two large detached ones, like a gate, to the south-east-say prayers in it." A recent visit to the Croft Morag confirmed the description, and an opinion already expressed by Professor Watson of Edinburgh. Thus the spot where Burns said prayers was easily identified. A. T. CRAIG, Galashiels. |