The life of Rabbie Burns, by John Ivison
Monday 25th January, 2021
To celebrate the birthday of Scotland’s National Bard, we are delighted to share with you a blog post on the life of Robert Burns, written by Doonhamer, John Ivision. Now living in Canada, John writes for the National Post newspaper in Canada. He recently published The Riotous Passions of Robbie Burns, a fictional account of the poet’s time in Edinburgh.
In this blog post, John reflects on his adolescence in Dumfries, his appreciation for the poet as an adult and how Burns’ life in Dumfries was among the most intriguing times of his life.
A huge thank you to John for taking the time to write this excellent blog post for us. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Happy Burns Night to you all!
My early life in Dumfries offered few signs that I’d one day write a book about Scotland’s bard.
Familiarity with the poet as a teenager bred contempt rather than adoration. Burns was a long dead poet whose incomprehensible work we were force-fed at school.
Ae Fond Kiss, considered to be the “essence of a thousand love tales” by Sir Walter Scott, was lost on my insensitive soul, even if it was conceived upstairs from where I used to get my hair cut at the bottom of Bank Street. As a teenager, my friends and I would wander past Burns’ Mausoleum and his two-storey sandstone house in what in his day was Mill Vennel on the way to the Globe Inn, oblivious to the fact that the poet had engraved a stanza to honour a barmaid of his acquaintance in a window upstairs: “O lovely Polly Stewart, O charming Polly Stewart/ There’s ne’er a flower that blooms in May/ That’s half as fair as thou art”.
But distance has offered perspective, and perhaps nostalgia. It was only when I was 3,000 miles from home that I really began to appreciate my home town and its self-taught poetic genius. For many exiled sons and daughters of Scotland, Burns represents the soul of the country – which is probably why among non-religious figures only Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus have had more statues raised in their honour around the world.
The poet’s time in Dumfries is among the most intriguing times of his life. An ardent republican, he tried to juggle his sympathies for revolutionary France while working for the British government as an excise-man. After quitting his failed farming venture at Ellisland, just outside the town, he moved with his growing family to lodgings in what is now Bank Street but was then known as the Stinking Vennel, on account of the open sewer that ran down its length. He arrived in a prosperous town with three elegant steeples, two bridges, broad streets and a recently erected windmill. Burns called it “the third town of importance and elegance in Scotland”.
It possessed several schools, a library, a new hospital, a jail, newspapers and an impressive 18th century red sandstone townhouse, the Midsteeple, which was used as the burgh’s courthouse.
Dumfries tradesmen worked leather, wove cloth, manufactured hats, milled crops and then took their pleasure in the 70 or so licensed establishments, including some familiar names like the Globe, the Coach and Horses and the Hole in the Wa’.
Burns was no stranger to their cozy firesides but, by own admission, he had steered north of the good opinion of the people of Dumfries because of politics that saw him either join in the singing of the French revolutionary anthem Ca Ira, or refuse to remove his hat during the singing of the national anthem (accounts differ). On another occasion, he proposed a mocking toast that the success of the war against France should be equal to the justice of Britain’s cause. These were dangerous sentiments at a time when political dissidents were being transported for such sympathies.
Yet, after he died on 21 July 1796, and his body was taken to the courthouse at the Midsteeple, the cult of “Scotia’s darling” was born. Uniformed soldiers lined the streets to St. Michael’s Churchyard, the town’s bells tolled and a cavalry band played Handel’s Dead March.
It is a rich history that I wish I’d relished as much as a teenager living in the town as I do now.
Burns and Dumfries are as much a part of me as my accent, which I decided to keep since I have never found a better one. We should treasure the poet, and the town where he lies.
About John Ivison
John Ivison is a Doonhamer who writes for the National Post newspaper in Canada. He recently published The Riotous Passions of Robbie Burns, a fictional account of the poet’s time in Edinburgh.
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Midsteeple Quarter Crowdfunder now LIVE
Our Crowdfunder to raise money to go towards the purchase of the remaining three High Street buildings within the Midsteeple Quarter is now LIVE! We are urging local people, Midsteeple Quarter followers and local businesses to support us to purchase 109, 111 and 121 High Street. All these buildings, including upper floors have been mostly abandoned and un-used for several years.
Thank you for any support you can give to the project – the future of our town depends on ordinary folk being prepared to make a difference!