POET'S COTTAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1938, Page 5

POET'S COTTAGE

NATIONAL SHRINE

THE ST. ANDREW CLUB

The "immortal memory" of Robert Bums, Scotland's national poet, was celebrated last evening. The occasion was the 179 th anniversary of the poet's birth and local Scots did the occasion full justice.

There was a crowded attendance at the function held by the St. Andrew Burns Club in, the Masonic Hall, The Terrace. The president, Mr. James Torrance, who proposed the principal toast, welcomed visitors. He said that the object of the club was to study the works of Burns and encourage Scots song and story. The membership was now nearing the 200 mark. He extended the club's congratulations to the first president, Mr. Robert Hogg, and his wife, on the celebration of their golden wedding. '

The opening ode was "There Was a Lad." The lighted haggis was . piped in with full honours. Mr. J. B. Thomson recited the "Ode to the Haggis" and followed with the 'Epistle to Davie."

Mr. Torrance said that this was the 179 th anniversary of the birth,, of Robert Burns. The two-roomed cottage in Alloway was still a national shrine that attracted fervent Burnsians from all parts of the world. No building in Scotland was held in deeper reverence than this clay cottage.

With the passing'of the years liurns had to some extent become a legendary figure, but when this glamour was put aside one thing stood out in his character and that was his humanity. He spoke to the common people then, as he did now, in their own language. He knew, even if the historians did not, that his own peasant stock was the basis of Scots life. After the union with England he made his countrymen proud of their nationality. No intimate details of the life and character of Burns had been left untouched, said Mr. Torrance. He was commonly i -\sed of intemperance, but the recorded observations of his intimate associates in the excise, and even| the official records in London, cleared | him from this oft-repeated charge. Medical evidence, particularly that of Sir James Crichton Browne, shattered the tradition .that Burns died through intemperance by showing that death was caused by rheumatism with heart complications. The faults of Burns were similar to those of the average man of today. USE OF THE DIALECT. The poems of Burns were the culmination of a literary movement commenced at the beginning of the 18th century by Allan Ramsay and other |

writers. The works of many of Burns's immediate predecessors were really more English than Scots and it was Burns alone who raised the dialect to a level with English as a means of literary expression. Emerson considered that.Burns's use of the vernacular furnished the only example in history of a language made classic by the' genius of a single man. The poet was intensely nationalistic, said Mr. Torrance, but with a nationalism that contained as its chief component a love of liberty and independence. The tide of material prosperity which overran Scotland after the union in 1707 had almost made men forget their national existence, but fortunately for the separate existence of Scotland Burns once more installed in all her sons and daughters their birthright and made them proud of it.

In. the religious dispute at the time between Calvinism and Moderatism, Burns threw the weight of his opinion against the hard and fast Calvinism that characterised part of the Church. Several of his poems were instrumental in making those guiding the religious life in Scotland adopt a more humane and tolerant attitude. Burns was not irreligious; his views were ahead of the time and more in line with the outlook of the present day. A LIVING FORCE. Mr. Torrance concluded by quoting a poem by the first president of the club, Mr. Robert Hogg ("Robin Blochairn") and the tribute of Burns's most recent biographer, Professor Plans Hecht, a German, as follows:—"Burns has been granted the happiest lot that can fall to any poet—he is enshrined forever in the hearts of his fellow countrymen and has become such an essential part of their spiritual possessions that it is impossible to imagine Scotland without Robert Burns. He has remained a living force in the nation. The sun- that rose over the grave by the churchyard in Dumfries was the sun of immortality."

Other toasts were honoured as follows:—"The Burns Federation," proposed by Mr. W. B. Mcllveney and replied to by Mr. A. Hogg, and "Wellington Association of Scots Societies and Affiliated Clubs," proposed by Mr. J. R. Baird and replied to by Mr. J. G. MacKenzie.

Songs were given by Mesdames Wiltshire and McLean, Miss Una Thomas, and Messrs. Douglas Stevens, P. Isbister, and W. McNa'ir. The accompanist w,as Mrs. F. W. London and the piper and song leader was Mr. A. Barclay. Proceedings concluded with a dance.