Robert Burns and Freemasonry (1921)

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Cornell University Library
PR4331.W94
Robert Burns and freemasonry,
3 1924 013 447 671
ROBERT BURNS AND FREEMASONRY
Cornell University
Library
The
original of
tiiis
book
is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright
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the United States on the use of the
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013447671
KOBEltT Kl'RNS.
ROBERT BURNS
AND
FREEMASONRY
BY
DUDLEY WRIGHT
SUusttations
PAISLEY:
ALEXANDER GARDNER
VobltshK bt S-fVnntmtnt
to tltt late ttattn
1^1
'
.'
Sidona
i
/
P)5034-^^
LOHDON
SiHPKiM Marbball, Hamilton, Kent
Co.,
Lmd.
PRINTBD BY ALEXANDER GARDNER, PAIBI^Y.
OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST
Robert Burns,
The
Birth-plaqe of Robert Burns,
Meeting-place of
St.
Frontispiece
Facing âge
James' Lodge in Tarbolton,
14
Burns' Chair as Depute Master, Tarbolton,
20
" Death and Dr. Hornbook,"
24
28
Professor
Dugald Stewart,
Facsimile of Letter written by Burns to St. James'
Lodge, Tarbolton,
Masonic Relics of the Poet,

Rev.
Thomas
Blacklock, D.D.,
Henry Mackenzie,
Burns in
his
30
32
40
48
54
58
64
80
" Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn,''

Robert
composing " The
Cottage
Cottar's Saturday Night,"
Inauguration of Robert Burns as Poet-Laureate of
Lodge Canongate Kilwinning,

Mrs. Burns,
House
in
Widow
of the Poet,
which Burns Died,
,,84
86
Grand-daughter and Widow of the Poet,
90
Design of Monument erected
92
102
Cast of the Skull of Burns,
Statue of Burns by Flaxman,
in Burns'
Mausoleum,
Robert Burns and Freemasonry
THE
exemplified
manner
poet,
in
in the
very strong and
is
striking
biography of Scotia's famous
Robert Burns.
In a
humble cottage on the banks of the Doon,
the district of Kyle, about two
town of Ayr, Robert
of the
25th
January,
farmer,
"
Freemasonry
influence of the Craft of
My
1759.
His
miles to
Burns
and of him the poet wrote
the south
was born on
was
father
in
peasant
father was a farmer upon the Carrick border, O,
And carefully he reared me in decency and order, O

He bade me act a manly part, though I had ne'er
farthing,
O,
For without an honest, manly heart no
man was worth
regarding, O."
That
father was, during his
reverses and misfortunes.
life,
The
the victim of
many
cottage in which the
born was a clay-built and thatched one,
poet was
on the highway which leads from Ayr to the southern
The "auld
part of the county.
clay biggin'"
whitened public-
converted into a neat,
afterwards
house, and for
was
some years was kept by a Mr. John
Goudie, who, with his wife, knew the poet intimately.
The
rooms
of two
cottage consisted
which served as kitchen, and
it
Robert Burns was born.
that
only,
was
this
in
room
There was then no
simply
humble apartment
ceiling to the
one of
the reverse
of the thatched roof,

" This
is
the cottage as
The window
was of
it
The box-bed where the
Upon
And
their
poor,
old,
four small panes, and in the wall
daylight did
first
new-born infant
fall
narrow fold
when times were hard and winds were
As they were
still
And now,
to him.
cold.
close by,
Above Corinthian columns mounted high.
The famed Choragic Tripod
"
The lumbering
Round the pedestrian
Of
Such
their dust has ceased to whir

;
silent to our ears
that maelstrom of Scottish
that poor cot

is
carriages of these dull years
Have passed away,
Is
shines in gold
men,
we count the
Time's justice
Time
this
son
kingliest one
the harvester."
W. Bell
Scott.
THIi IIIIITH-PLACE
OF nolSEKT
JililNS

The
cottage
Monument
museum
is
now
the property of the
whom
Trustees, by
for relics of the poet.
the kitchen
shown
is
the
is
it
In
Ayr Burns
set apart as
the interior of
where
recess
poet
the
was born.
The
name
William Burnes
father,
the latter end of his

stature,
countenance
was
life,
as being
bent
down
serious
and
and
thin,
so he spelled his
by one who knew him towards
described,
is
for
"above the ordinary

with
Scottish peasantry, a
lative theology."
He
Manual of Religious
Children."
1875,
The manual
it
usual
is
Belief
for
in
the
the
was of a
among
the
specu-
in
own
compiled for his
remained
It
when
and, as
good deal conversant
He
and
expressive,
scanty locks on his head were grey.

religious turn of mind,
His
labour.
"A
use
Instruction
manuscript form
of
until
was published as a Burns memento.

curious for
is
its
quaint phraseology.
William Burnes looked upon Robert as the best

house,
reader in
the
read
Bible
the
Agnes Brown,
to
and used
the
rest.
to
employ him
Burns'
to
mother was
the daughter of a race of Ayrshire
peasants.
Burns
in
his
boyhood learned grammar,
writing,
lo
arithmetic,
mathematics, some
little
He
smattering of French.
years to obtain
Latin,
and a
contrived in his earlier
some knowledge of many English
works and of the ancient poets, by means
classical
of translations.
Burns had attained
when
his sixteenth year only
he made his essay into poetry, the subject of his
muse being a comely
name
lass of the
was associated with him
after
of Nelly,
the usual
who
fashion in
the harvest-rig.
He
had acquired considerable
4th July,
781, he
Freemasonry
the
in
was
in the St.
became
fame when, on
initiated into the mysteries of
David's Lodge at Tarbolton,
twenty -third year
Freemasonry
local
to
of his
him
age.
great
After
this.
propelling
power.
Nine days prior

as
it
was termed, a "junction"
the
two
Tarbolton
No.
174,
and the
it
to Burns' initiation, a union
was
Lodges, the
St.
effected
St.
between
David Lodge,
James' Lodge, No. 178,
when
was agreed that the united Lodge should bear the
name
of
St.
David.
The Tarbolton Lodge had
been constituted by a Charter from Kilwinning

1
or,
77 1, and the St. David's
in
Lodge was formed by a
"

number of
members
disaffected
of Tarbolton
" Sedarant
Kil-
The minute
winning, with a few others, in 1773.

recording his initiation reads
ii
July 4th.
for
" Robert Burns in Lochly was entered an apprentice.

"
" Jo. Norman,
M''-
Lockhart says that he was introduced to the Lodge
by John Rankine.
Rankine
is
said to have been
a-
man
and attainments, though very
talents
of considerable
dissipated.
He
was a well-to-do farmer of the parish of Craigie,

residing near
Lochlea, or
Lochly, the poet's home,
and, on several occasions, he was the subject of the
Burns
verse.
poet's
on
his
death-bed
wrote
the
following lines, which were sent to Rankine after the
poet had passed away

"
He who of Rankine
And a green, grassy
Alas
alas
The house
in
meetings of the
sang
lies stiiF
and dead.
hillock haps his
a devilish
change indeed
Its
Tarbolton in which, from 1784, the

St.
James'
Lodge were
stands in a street which has since been

Street."
head
modern appearance
held,
named
differs
still
" Burns
from
the
12
photograph, and
within
years
recent
has been
it
renovated and slated.
whom
James Humphry, on
known epitaph
Burns wrote the well-
" Below
thir stanes lie Jamie's
Ohj Death
Thou
it's
my
banes
opinion.
ne'er took such a bleth'rin' b
tch
Into thy dark dominion,"
was
he
said' to
him
" James,
you that are a Brother of
the compass and square, can you

the
Pyramids of
puzzled
to
ready
for
how
One day
very intimate with Burns.
in early life
Egypt are ?
word
answer,
tell
James
"
his reply, but,
he
said
me what
felt
rather
seldom at a
" 'Deed,
like
loss
Robin,
broad
think they're shaped gay like your ain nose
bottom
the
at
laughed
heartily
and
at
narrow
the
at
homely
the
top."
solution
Burns
of
the
problem by which he hoped to puzzle his talkative

friend.
At
that
time
Burns
unnoticed and unknown
somewhat unpolished
was,
and,
in
his
in
it
a great measure,
must be admitted,
manners.
It
was by
contact with brethren higher in the social scale, but
who
recognised his talents and merits, that his manners

became more
refined, his
and
stimulated,
acknowledged
energies
but
gradually,
merits
his
and
intellectual
were
surely,
Freemasonry
applauded.
13
influ-
enced his thoughts, inspired his muse, and nurtured

independence and
of
love
stern
that
brotherhood
which became the predominant characteristic of his
manhood.
From
Wood, a
'
time
the
tailor,
of
his
initiation
by Alexander
of Tarbolton, he was an enthusiastic
Mason, and wherever he went he always made

his
it
immediate care to identify himself as a member
or a visitor in the local Masonic Lodge.
few exceptions,
his
all
With very
and acquaintances
patrons
were members of the brotherhood.

William Jolly says of him
keen Mason, the
"
Burns was a very
ideal philanthropy
and brotherhood
of the system being irresistible to such a mind, and
he used
to
go
to
Masonic meetings
all
the
way
to
Tarbolton and Kilmarnock."

It
has been
left to
Principal Shairp to achieve
what
might almost have been regarded as the impossible

task of writing a biography of Burns without once
mentioning
Freemasonry or
with the Craft.
the
The second and
poet's
connection
third degrees
were
14
taken by Burns on the same evening, in the month

of October following his initiation.
Dr. James Currie gives the following description

of the poet
in height,
"He
was nearly
five
feet
and of a form that indicated
as strength.
ten
inches
agility as well
His well-raised forehead, shaded with
black, curling hair, indicated extensive capacity.
eyes were large, dark,
His
face
was
uncommonly
full
of ardour and intelligence.
and
well -formed,
interesting
His
countenance
his
and expressive.
His mode
of dressing, which was often slovenly, and a certain

fullness
and bend
in
his shoulders,
some degree the
his original profession, disguised in
natural
characteristic of
symmetry and elegance of
his
form.
The
appearance of Burns was most strikingly indicative

of the character of his mind.
physiognomy had a
On
first
view his
certain air of coarseness, mingled,
however, with an expression of deep penetration and

of calm
There
perfect
thoughtfulness approaching
appeared
ease
and
in
his
first
to
melancholy.
manner and address
self-possession,
but
a stern
and
almost supercilious elevation, not, indeed, incompatible

with openness and
affability,
which, however, bespoke
a mind conscious of superior talents,"
JIKETING-l'I.ACl': Ol' ST. .lAJIEs'
LODGE TN TARHOLTON (HACK VIEW).

He
was passed and raised on
the minute runs
1781.
ist,
&
" Robert Burns in Lochly was passed
Lockhart says that immediately

Irvine,
raised.
"
" Jo. Norman,
to
October, and
ist
" Sederant, October
he removed
15
M"'-
after
initiation
his
where he resided
until
the
end of the following February.

In
the
disruption,
Lodge of
St.
following
December
and
seceders
the
reconstituted the
still
in its
Books containing three minutes
Master.
The Lodge
badge referred
of the
"
reprinted on page
13s.,
42.
which bears the date 1775, was
Bible,
Lodge
Depute
to in the "Farewell to the Brethren of
Lodge on 29th
"Bible cost
hand-
at its meetings, the silver
one of the poet's possessions.

the
in the poet's
treasures also the mallet used
James' Lodge, Tarbolton
The Lodge
old
keeping the Minute
twenty-five signed by him as
and
by Burns when presiding
St.
was again a
James, Burns also becoming a member.
St.
James' Lodge has
writing,
there
It
July, 1786;
'lettering'
the minute running:
(i.e.,
outside) cost 3s."
was purchased by
the painted
name
Professor
Stuart
J.
Blackie,
in
his
biography of
Burns, enlarges upon an innuendo, circulated in the
by
place
first
anonymous
an
scribbler,
that
his
attendance at Masonic meetings led him into excesses.
He
says
" In the latter part of the last century, in such
Mauchline,
a village as Tarbolton or
it
(Free-
masonry) meant only a convivial meeting of
jolly
which might often be without
wit,
Into
the
good
fellows,
never
but
be
could
without
mystical brotherhood at
flung himself with
ment which, next
all
drink.
Tarbolton the poet had
the ardour of social enjoy-
to love, supplied the
most potent
steam of his
soul.
But steam requires regulation,
explosion
nigh.
As an
beating
human
in
essentially social being,
every vein with an intense pulse of
kinship.
the next
place
is
Burns entered heart and soul into
company he could
and
if
find at the time
he did not always escape the con-
tagion of unworthy companionship,

all
events
and
boast
for
himself
that
he
could at
he strangled
blue devils in the most brilliant style, and, for his

fellow -boosers,
that
he turned the commonplace

of
level
intellectual
Burns, as
is
compotations
convivial
their
treat
17
an
into
highest order."
of the
weW known, enjoyed a
convivial gathering,
and doubtless wrote with sympathy and gusto the

words
" Then
And
May
Have
fill
up a bumper and make
it
o'erflow.
honours Masonic prepare for to throw.

every true Brother of the compass and square
a big-belly'd bottle
when
harass'd with care."
This was a stanza added to the song,
man am
I."
But the most
effective
"
No
Churchthe
reply to
statement of Professor Blackie, as well as to other

statements of a similar character,
is
to quote
brother Gilbert's testimony on this point.

follows
his
is
as
the end of the period under review
twenty -fourth
father's death,
year),
and soon
after
his
he was furnished with the subject
of his epistle to John Rankin.

also,
It
"Towards
(in
from his
During
this period,
he became a Freemason, which was
introduction to the
life
his first
of a boon companion.
Yet,
notwithstanding these circumstances, and the praise
he has bestowed on Scotch drink (which seems
;;
to
have misled
his historians),
during these seven years, nor

of
recollect
towards the end
till
(when
commencing author
his
do not
celebrity occasioned his often being in

to
have ever seen him intoxicated
at
all
growing
his
company),
nor was he
given to drinking."
" Judge not ye, whose thoughts are
Of
fingers.
the hands that witch the lyre
Greenland has
Etna has
its
Calculation has
its
mountain icebergs,
heart of
its
fire
plummet
Self-control has iron rules
Genius has
its
Dullness has
sparkling fountains
its
stagnant pools
Like a halcyon on the waters,

Burns's chart disdain'd a plan
In his soarings he was Heavenly,

In his sinkings he was man."
D.
The
following letter, addressed to Sir John Whitefoord,
Bart.,
of Ballochmyle,
the date, of
1782
M. Mom.
it
is
in
Burns' handwriting, and
believed to be towards the end of
is
:
" Sir,
We
members of
who
St.
subscribe
James's
to
this
are
both
Lodge, Tarbolton, and

one of us
Warden, and as we
in the office of
is
have the honour of having you

Lodge, we hope you
will
We
Master of our
for
excuse
you are the proper person to

apply.
freedom, as
this
whom we
ought to
Mason Lodge
look on our
19
be a
to
serious matter, both with respect to the character
of
Masonry
Society.
itself,
This
farther than
indeed, does not interest you
last,
its
a Charitable
is
it
a bfenevolent heart
the welfare of
who
and likewise as
fellow creatures
interested
is
but to us.
in
Sir,
are of the lower orders of mankind, to have a
fund in
depend
view, on
to
which we may with certainty
be kept from want should we be
circumstances of distress, or
old
age,
that
in
is
matter of high importance.

'
'
We
affairs,
are
with respect to
while been
considerable
observe that our Lodge's
sorry to
in
its
finances,
have
a wretched situation.
sums
in
bills
else
belonging to
good
We
have
which lye by without
being paid, or put in execution, and
members never mind
for a
many
their yearly dues, or
our
Lodge.
separation from St. David's,
we
of our existence as a Lodge.
And
of our
anything
since
the
are not sure even
There has been a
20
Grand Lodge, but how decided,
dispute before the
or
decided at
if
'
all,
we know
not.
For these and other reasons, we humbly beg
the favour of you, as soon as convenient, to
a meeting, and
let
us consider on
retrieve our wretched affairs.
in
We
some means
John Whitefoord, or Whiteford, was
the
Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No.
and
in the following
Warden
ofifice
for
burgh
The
Lodge
in
two
George Drummond,
under
in 1765,
His eldest daughter,
years.
heroine in
"The
John Whitefoord died
Sir
Braes of
at
Edin-
1803.
first
Worshipful
after
(then Captain)
spelt "
2,
year was appointed Senior Grand
Mary Anne, was Burns'

Ballochmyle."
initiated
Grand Lodge of Scotland, which
of the
he held
to
are," etc.
Sir
the rule of Lord Provost
call
its
Master of the
reconstruction
Montgomery
Montgomerie
"
the
St.
James'
was Major -General
name
is
sometimes
scion of the noble house of
Eglintoun, and Burns, in course of time, became the
Depute Master, and, although he removed
to Mossgiel,
about three miles distant, he was a regular attendant

at
its
meetings.
Tarbolton,
although
an
obscure
KUIINS
C'HAIK AS Dlil'UTE MASTER, TAUWOLTON.

village,
was destined
place of
to
become famous
Catrine,
as the birth-
many important and permanent
Professor Dugald Stewart,
who was
21
friendships.
then resident at
was admitted as an honorary member of
this
Lodge, and the minute recording his admission

signed by "Robert Burns, D.M."
that
1784,
July,
It
is
was on 27th
Burns was elected Depute Master
of the St. James' Lodge, Tarbolton, and he held that

position until St. John's Day, 1788.
he attended,
and
in
In that capacity
1785, on 29th June, 20th July, and
8th August, 15th September, 26th October, loth
November, and
ist
attended on 7th January,

15th, 24th,
In 1786 he
and 7th December.

ist
March, 25th May,
7th,
and 29th June, i8th August, 5th October,
and loth November.
The meeting on
25th May, 1786, was eleven days
subsequent to the assumed date of the parting with
Mary Campbell.
The Lodge Minutes

curious
entry,
which
of 15th June, 1786, contain a
reads
proposed by the Lodge
that,
a Lodge-room, a proposal be
who
as
follows
as they
"It
was
much wanted
laid before the heritors,
are intending to build a steeple here, that the
Lodge
shall
contribute to the building 6f a Lodge-
ROBERT BURNS AND FREEMASONRY,
22
room here as the
basis of that steeple,
the funds of the
Lodge they allow
what
besides
will
in order that this proposal
properly laid before the heritors, five persons
Right
the
Worshipful
are
o'clock to
light
Brother
M'Math,
to lay before the heritors
first."
30th November, 1786, there was a public day-
Masonic procession,
The
namely,
appointed to meet on Saturday at one
draw up a proposal
on Friday
On
Master,
be
Brother Woodrow, Brother William
Brother Burns,
Andrew
pounds,
fifteen
be advanced from the particular
Lodge
friends of the
and that from
marched
Brethren
which Burns took
in
to
St.
Andrew's
part.
Church,
Newtown, Edinburgh, where a sermon on Brotherly
Love was preached
by
Rev.
Bro.
Wright,
A.M.,
Maybole, Grand Chaplain.
On
March,
ist
1786,
the poet's brother
took the second and third degrees, and

that both
of
was then
signed their names as Burns instead
first
Burn ess.
it
Gilbert
Until
that date
the poet had always
signed as " Robert Burness."
Chambers says
from " Burness
"
that
was
his
in the
was probably taken to
first
poem
notable
deviation
" Mossgiel," which
suit the necessities of
rhyme,

and
made
that he
the final change to
'*
23
Burns " on
14th April, 1786.

Gilbert Burns,
who
on became a
later
factor in
East Lothian, survived his brother by about forty

years.
He
has
on record that Robert was at
left it
a Masonic meeting one night

village dominie
medical
of
Dr.
parting,
made an
The
skill.
Tarbolton when the
in
ostentatious display of his
poet applied to him the epithet
Hornbook, by way of censure

his muse,
and
after
on the road home, gave vent
to
"Death and Dr. Hornbook."

Chambers' account of the incident
" In the seed-time of 1785
poet's
own
authority
the
Burns
date
as follows:
is
is
given on the
attended
Masonic
meeting at Tarbolton, at which one of the brethren

present was John Wilson, schoolmaster of the parish.
To
set
eke out a
living, as Gilbert tells us,
up a shop of grocery goods.
fallen in with
Having
Wilson had
accidentally
some medical books, and become most
hobby-horsically attached
to the
study of medicine,
he had added the sale of a few medicines to his

trade.
He
had got a
shop-bill printed, at the
own
little
bottom
incapacity,
he had
advertised that 'Advice would be given in
common
of which,
overlooking
his
"
24
On
disorders at the shop gratis.'
made a somewhat
attainments.
dispute,
ostentatious display of his medical
It is
therapeutics
too
he and Burns had a
said
that
the
schoolmaster
which
in
occasion he
this
Be
offensively.
paraded
as
this
it
his
may,
going home that night, Burns conceived and partly
composed
poem,
his
'
Death and
'These circumstances,' adds
me when he
I
'he related to
was holding the plough, and he was

field
Wilgon was
from
He
many
wrote
"
as
"M.
p. t."
the
pro
1787
on 4th and 25th
May,
1782,
the
Tarbolton
some time
until
July,
tempore,"
and
meetings
November
is
1787.
and
in
the
as
Lodge
1788 on 7th and 23rd
nth November.
from Ellisland.
his last recorded
Depute Master
third
October and November, 1788,
in
visits
Lodge, Tarbolton.
the poet attended
6th June, 21st October, and
he made flying
in
Lodge
of the Minutes and signed two of
Master
In
letting the
beside me.'
Secretary of
August,
8th
them
as
Gilbert,
Hornbook.'
repeated the verses next afternoon, as
water off the
At
Dr.
That of nth
appearance at
Burns has referred

in the lines
St.
James'
to his duties
" Oft, honoured with supreme command.

Presided o'er the Sons of Light."
" DEATH AND DU. HORNHOOK.

His
was Matthew
first initiate
long after a resident
25
Hall, a noted musician,
Newton-upon-Ayr.
in
Hugh Andrew, who
Burns'
in
time
acted
as
whipper-in to General Montgomery, was a Steward

in
Tarbolton
the
made
Lodge, and
Puir worthless
elf,
blastit
Andrew,
Coilsfield
of the
in
1833,
was
wonner,
a'
man
the Ian'."
living in a cottage in the
still
Woods, where Mary Campbell, the

"
poem
To Mary
he eats a dinner
Better than ony tenant
His honour has in
him Burns has
The Twa Dogs "
reference in his poem, "

" Our whipper-in, wee
to
in
subject
Heaven," served as a
byres-woman or dairymaid.
This Tarbolton Lodge was the subject on which
Bro. A. Glass, of the
Ayr Operative Lodge, No.
some years ago wrote

appeared
in
the
following
138,
poem, which
The Freemason of 5th August, 1871
" I've sat beneath the old rooftree
Where Bums
As happy
as a
oft spent the festive night,
king could be
Amang the honoured 'Sons of

To me it was as Mecca's shrine
To ardent Eastern
Where
Light.'
devotee.
Scotia's minstrel passed langsyne
So many hours of joyous
glee.
26

"What
hallowed recollections throng
Around that
What happy
spot^
endeared to fame?
scenes of love and song
Are conjured up in Burns'
What
name
mystic fane, however grand,
Can with the lowly Lodge compare.

Where, 'honoured with supreme command/
Presided Fame's eternal heir
" Along the corridors of Time

For ever sweep his deathless
And
lays.
Scotia's sons, in every clime.
Sing sweetly of their native braes

In fancy rove 'whaur Lugar
Where
Or
'
'
hermit Ayr
bonny Doon
'
in
'
flows,'
delights to stray.
beauty goes
Past hoary, haunted Alloway.
" Nor sylvan bower, nor tiny flower,
That blooms where wimplin' bumie
strays.
But he possessed the innate power
To twine around them
fadeless bays.
In Nature's Lodge, supreme and grand.
He
sat as
And shed
Master in the chair,
a glory o'er the land
That time nor change can
e'er impair.
" His was the keen, prophetic eye.
Could see afar the glorious birth
Of
that Great Power, whose mystic tie
Shall
make
'
One Lodge
'
of
all
the earth

27
Shall usher in the reign of light,

'
Ring out the
man
Cause
And
It
false, ring in
to walk
'
square
the
and
'
'
true,'
upright,'
wisdom's path of peace pursue."
was while acting
the capacity
in
of
Depute
Master that Burns made the acquaintance of Professor
Dugald Stewart,
He
made.
whom
2,
and afterwards befriended Burns
Professor Dugald Stewart, writing to
Edinburgh.
a friend about
this time, said
"In summer,
1787,
Ayrshire, and saw
he told
to the
me
that he
passed some weeks in
Burns occasionally.
calls
think
had an excursion that season
West Highlands, and
what Beattie
land,
reference has already been
was a member of Lodge Canongate
Kilwinning, No.
in
to
that he also visited
the Arcadian
Ground of Scot-
upon the banks of the Teviot and the Tweed.
In the course of the same season

curiosity to attend
Lodge
at
for
to
was
led
by
an hour or two a Mason
Mauchline where Burns
had occasion
make some
short,
preisided.
unpremeditated
compliments to different individuals, from

he had no reason to expect a
visit,
He
whom
and everything
he said was happily conceived and forcibly as well
28
His manner of speaking
as fluently expressed.
had evidently the marks of some practice
in public
extempore education."
in
This meeting was held on 25th July, 1787, and

is
duly recorded, in the poet's
own
a Minute of the Lodge, from which
there were also present
Claude
learn that,
Claude Alexander of Balloch-
from
Neilson
Grierson of Glasgow
miscroft
we
Depute Master and the Professor,
in addition to the
myle
handwriting, in
Paisley
George
Dr.
John Farquhar Gray of
Gil-
and Alexander Allison of Barnmuir.
Burns' opinion of Professor Dugald Stewart was
given afterwards
Mackenzie,
in
in
a letter which he wrote to Dr.
which he said: "I never spent an
noon with half that pleasure as when,

with you,
that
to
I
plain,
honest,
worthy
company
in
my
had the honour of paying

man, the
after-
devoirs
Professor.
think his character, divided into ten parts, stands
thus
two
parts, Shakespeare's Brutus."
It
friend
four parts, Socrates
was about
James
this
Smith
four parts, Nathaniel
time that
"
and
Burns wrote to a
have yet fixed on nothing
with respect to the serious business of
life.
am,
rilOl'ESSOll
miGALl) STKWAUT.
29
as usual, a rhyming, Mason-making, rattling, aimless,

idle fellow."
The meeting
a matter of
Lodge
meeting
Burns,
empower
in
Masonic
his
own house
his
members
for
is
it
the
hold a
to
stated
that
Lodges even
hel^
purpose
the
Order.
the
into
but
zeal,
Charter of
the
members
the
Tarbolton,
outside
Mauchline was, as
at
as
irregular,
fact,
not
did
Lodge
of the
of
Lodges,
admitting
new
however,
were
At
not then tied to a single meeting place as now.

that time the
meetings of the Lodge were
regular
held at an inn,
known
as
"The
was kept by a person of the
The
building
but the Lodge
Among
own.
in
still
which Burns
he used
in
Gross Keys," which
name
of
Manson.
stands and has been renovated,
now meets
its
in
in a
commodious
hall of its
treasured possessions are the chair

sat
as
ruling the
Depute Master, the gavel

Lodge, the minute book
in
which are records written and signed by him, and the

Bible,
afterwards
acquired
by
candlesticks in use at the time he was
are
preserved
There
is
and are
in
Lodge.
the
The
Depute Master
use at the present time.
also kept, as a relic, in excellent condition,
the following letter which he wrote on
one occasion
30
when he was away
in
Edinburgh and was prevented
from attending a certain meeting

"
Men and Brethren

" I am truly sorry
it
not in
is
be at your quarterly meeting.

in
I
me
body, believe
who owe
suppose those
otherwise will appear

If
you please
defaulters
and
mean
monies by
those
spirit.
or
bill
we summoned.
The Court
come home.
it
to take a note of
do not of our
to
must be absent
be present in
us
be home before
will
meantime
my power
wish you would delay prosecuting
till
If
shall
sits
down.
up
is
In the
who appear and who
faulty debtors will
be right
in
my
humble opinion and those who confess debt and

crave days
think
we should
spare them.
Fare-
well
Within your dear mansion may wayward contention
Or withered envy
ne'er enter
May secrecy round be the mystical bound.

And brotherly love be the center.
RoBT. Burns.
Edin. 23 Aug., 1787."
The
first
be
defaulters referred to
supposed,
brethren
were
in
not, as
arrear
might
with
at
their
Ja/y\\ diyji^ ^(Tfiu
JjuPdv>d<.
-kxfiyi;
in
ifiotlt.
y-mxa/n
lk
Who
OuJt
XhoJt.
uJ
<Je.
t7U>-rUJJ "*i
Jwmwjiy^,
WKwvJWt^'S^ Y**"^
<^
U/
"*^ '^ (miîuJi^t
ijsJlaJi
-Ht*^ .M^*-.
yiy^to//
a/n)eJ^
-rxjlt.
^<^<j4.
do ru,t
S^'X^'l
FACSIMILE OF LETTER WRITTEN BV BURNS TO THE
TARBOLTON.
ST.
JAMES LODGE,

The
Masonic dues.
many
with
James' Lodge, in
St.
Lodges
other
the
at
31
common
had
time,
been
victimised
by brethren borrowing money upon the
guarantee
of
borrowers upon
Lodge
the
In 1786 the
it
was
members had decided
payment of these overdue
that they would press for
amounts, and
met by the
had caused depletion of
maturity,
funds.
being
not
which,
bills
reference to these proposed
in
proceedings that the poet interposed to prevent the

resolution being
put into execution, as he thought,
too rigorously.
Many
societies
in
from St.
as to
the
Gilbert Burns had a loan
these days.
James'
which was repaid
The
Scotch Lodges were lending
letter,
Lodge
of ;^6
5s.
in
July,
1788.
in June,
framed with glass on both
show the addressing of the
Lodge -room, beyond
the
not allowed to be taken.
Gavin Hamilton, of
1787,
It
whom
epistle, is
walls
was
of
in this
sides,
so
kept
in
which
it
is
Lodge
that
collect
and
Burns wrote
" The poor man's friend in need.
The gentleman
in
suggested to the poet that
word and deed,"
he should
publish an edition of his poems, advice also tendered
32

Burns acted on
by Aiken, Goudie and Ballantine.
the advice, and a collected edition of the
poems was
published in Kilmarnock in 1786, dedicated to Gavin
Of him Burns wrote
Hamilton.
" The poor man weeps, here Gavin
Whom
sleeps.
canting wretches blamed
Wi' such as he, where'er he be.
May
be saved or damned."
Gavin Hamilton died on 8th February, 1805, aged
No
fifty -two.
tombstone marks his
Auld Kirkyard, the reason
affectionately
the
own
He
request.
by his countrymen as "the
"How
puir man's friend."
in
the omission being,
for
according to local tradition, at his
Was known
grave
did he get that
name?"
asked Mr. William Jolly of Willie Patrick, the Mossgiel herd,
who,
in
his
younger days, had worked
for
both the poet and Gavin
Hamilton, when visiting
He
was aye kind to the puir
Mauchline
in
1859.
man, and aye took
"
his pairt,"
Of Gavin Hamilton Burns
was the ready
also wrote
" But if (which powers above prevent)
That iron-headed
carl.
Want,
Attended in her grim advances
By
sad mistakes and black mischances.
reply.
CANDLESTICKS AT TAniiOLTON
IIURNS
TARBOl-TON MALLET.
miHNS
IN'
liURNS'
TIME AND
IIUHNS
DUMFRIES MALLET.
STILI,
IN USE.
TARBOL'ION JEWEL.
"

While hopes and joys and pleasures
Make you
dog
as poor a
^j,
fly hiiUj
am.
as 1
Your humble servant then no more
For who would humbly serve the poor,
But by a poor man's hopes
While
humble
If in the veil of
The
I
power
recollection's
is
heaven
given.
life.
victim sad of fortune's strife,
thro' the tender
If friendless, low,
Then,
Sir,
gushing
my
Should recognise
tear,
master dear.
we meet
my
your hand,
Gavin Hamilton was a
later
also initiated in that lodge
on 25th October,
together.
Friend and Brother
member
Lodge, No. 240, Mauchline.
son,
in
Mungo
of the St.
His three sons were
John Hamilton,
1797.
He
died
his eldest
in
August,
1863, at the age of 84, and had been a factor in the
service of the
Marquess of Hastings and of the Duke
of Portland.
Alexander Hamilton, the second son,
was
on 4th December,
initiated
W.M.
in
initiated
the
1808.
^^ became
on nth June, 1808, and became W.M.
He
following year.
an
Dr. Dugald Stewart Hamilton was
Lodge, Tarbolton,
took
1805
active
in
the
interest,
also joined the
St.
in
James
management of which he
resigning
the
Mastership

34
the
in
June,
late
He
fifties.
died
in
1863.
The
site of the
erected in the
appropriate, as
Burns Monument
Kay Park
it
is
very
overlooks what was once the
little
edition of his poems.
in
August, 1879,
first
Kilmarnock
John Wilson was
initiated in
John Kilwinning Lodge,
St.
He
April, 1784.
Kilmarnock,
at
printing office of the printer of the
the
Mauchline
at
No.
22,
on
13th
suggested to Burns the placing of
a piece of a grave nature at the beginning of his
poems, and
marnock
in
Another member of the
Dogs."
night from Kil"
Burns composed
Mossgiel
to
home one
the walk
Lodge was Begbie, of
"
" Then aff to
The
'
John Kilwinning
St.
Ordination
Begbie's
'
The Twa
"
poem
in a raw.
An' pour divine libation,"
He
was
initiated
in
that lodge
on 22nd December,
1786, and, as will be gathered from these lines,
was
an inn-keeper.
There
Burns,
scripts.
is
in the
and
in
Kay Park
museum
which are deposited
There are
one believed
to
for relics of
several
manu-
also several portraits of Burns,
be by Nasmyth
but
Nasmyth's

original portrait of
at
Burns
the National Gallery
in
is
35
Edinburgh.
It
was
made
in
the St. James'
Lodge
the acquaintance of Dr. John
Burns
also that
Mackenzie, who.
married one of the celebrated " Mauchline Belles."

" In Mauchline there dwells
The
proper young belles,
six
pride of the place, and
neighbourhood
its
a';
Their carriage and dress, a stranger would guess.

In London or Paris they'd gotten
Miss Miller
is fine,
it a'.
Miss Markland's divine,
Miss Smith she has wit, and Miss Betty
is
braw
There's beauty and fortune to get wi' Miss Morton,
But Armour's the jewel
It
for
me
of
them
a'."
was Miss Miller who became the wife of Dr.
Mackenzie.
Miss Markland married Mr. Findlay, an
excise officer at Tarbolton,

the
in
Mr.
of
art
Candlish, a
who
Smith
Miss
gauging;
teacher at
instructed the poet
Edinburgh
married
University,
and became the mother of Dr. Candlish, the eminent

Free Church Divine.
Mr.
Miss Betty
Templeton, of Mauchline
Miller
while Miss
married
Morton
married a Mr. Patterson, a cloth merchant, also of

Mauchline.
Dr.
John
>
Mackenzie
was
character, broad sympathies,
man
and good
of excellent
social position.
36
He
to
; ;;
was one of those
whom
friends possessing literary taste
Burns submitted
his
whose
poems, and
discerning appreciation of their genius
was of the
highest encouragement to the poet, and of eminent
muse and making
service in developing his
He
to the world-
some of the
the
known
himself had written pamphlets on
religious controversies of the time

"
pseudonym of
Common
the Origin of Morals"

lines
it
quoted below
hence
to
Sense
"
under
and one
"
On
the reference in the
"Johnnie's
Morals."
The
annual meeting of the St. James Lodge was always

held on St. John the Baptist's Day, 24th June, and on
one occasion Burns addressed a note to Dr. Mackenzie,
who had expressed a

might prevent
fear that his professional duties
his attendance at that festival, in
following words
" Friday
first's
the day appointed,
By the Right Worshipful Anointed,

To hold our grand procession,
To get a blad of Johnnie's Morals,
An' taste a swatch
o'
r the way of our
Manson's Barrels,
profession
The Master and the Brotherhood

Would
For me,
To
a'
be glad to see you
would be mair than proud
share the mercies wi' you
the
37
It Deatbj then,
Wi' skaith then,
Some mortal
heart
is
hechtin';
Inform him
And
storm him.
That Saturday
you'll fecht
him."
This anniversary was always borne
and on one occasion, when

he wrote
in
mind by Burns,
in
a despondent mood,
" Tarbolton, twenty-fourth

You'll find
me
in
o'
June,
a better tune."
Another important friendship formed was that with
John Ballantine,
inscribed.
whom
to
22nd
Ayr " was
was to the exertions of John Ballantine
It
Ayr was indebted
that
" Brigs of
the
November,
demonstration,
for the
1796,
when
the
with
New
Brig,
opened on
grand
Masonic
Grand Lodge
of Scotland
was represented by William Campbell of

It
was
to
John Ballantine that Burns was indebted
for the publication of the
When
Fairfield.
second edition of his poems.
he heard that the poet was prevented from
publishing a second edition owing to want of

to
pay
for
the
paper,
he
generously
offered
accommodate Burns with the sum needed
place for publishing.
to
;^27
but advised him to go t6 Edinburgh as the

,
money
fittest
38
This
was
advice
Blacklock
another
by
seconded
to
offices of his
and
profitable
ment
letter
of
Masonic Brethren, he made a quick

with
acquaintance
the
nobility
and
of the Scottish capital, obtained an appoint-
in the Excise,
of a farm.
wrote
Burns
However, through the
pocket.
his
in
good
literati
and
Edinburgh, but without a single
introduction
Dr.
Masonic Brother, but one who
suffered from the infirmity of blindness
went
Rev,
the
and was placed
in the possession
In connection with this journey,
Burns
my
"I had taken the last farewell of
my
chest was on the road
composed the
Caledonia,
when
'
last
song
Greenock
to
is
me
so
much
had
Gathering Fast';
Dr. Blacklock's opinion that
edition fired
should ever measure in
The Gloomy Night
with encouragement in
few friends
Edinburgh
that
would meet
for
a second
posted away to that
city."
The Rev. George

to
Dr.
Lawrie, of Loudoun, transmitted
Blacklock a copy of the Kilmarnock edition
of Burns' poems.
ledging the
gift,
In writing to Mr. Lawrie acknow-
Dr. Blacklock said

"
and
Many
instances have
beneficence
formidable disadvantages
seen of nature's force
exerted
;
39
and
numerous
under
but none equal to that
with which you have been kind enough to present
There
me.
is
a pathos and a delicacy
humour
serious poems, a vein of wit and
of a
more
admired nor too warmly approved.
increased.
think
never open the book without feeling
wished, for the sake
in those
which cannot be too much
festive turn,
ment renewed and
his
in
my
shall
astonish-
were much to be
It
of the young man, that a
second edition, more numerous than the former,

could immediately be printed, as
that
intrinsic
its
merit,
author's friends, might

circulation
it
appears certain
and the exertion of the

give
it
more universal
than anything of the kind which has
been published within
my
When
Edinburgh, says Dr. Currie,
Burns arrived
" Blacklock
received
affectionate
admiration
in
him
;
memory."
with
all
the
upon him
all
of
he eagerly introduced him
to the respectable circle of his friends
his interest
ardour
he emblazoned
his
fame
he consulted
he lavished
the kindness of a generous and feeling

40
heart,
into
which nothing
envious
or
selfish
ever
found admittance."
Burns himself wrote to Dr, Lawrie,

been
whom
Edinburgh some time
in
see very often,
have expected
in
" In
after
Dr. Blacklock,
have found what
our friend
he had
could
head and an
clear
excellent heart."
In
80 1
Ballantine
instituted
Allowa'
the
Club,
with the view of celebrating regularly the anniversary

of the poet's birth.
John Ballantine of
initiated in the
Lodge
Castlehill,
St.
Provost of Ayr, was
David Edinburgh, No.
36,
and afterwards became Worshipful Master of Ayr

Kilwinning Lodge
Lodge erected
On
Mother Kilwinning Lodge.

initiation,
Robert Aiken was
James Rankine, of
whom
o'
night of his
Burns wrote
- - - - -,
cocks for fun and drinkin',"
was another member, as was

Adamhill, a great humorist,
panion of the poet.
the
1765 by the
affiliated.
" Oh, rough, rude, ready-witted
The wale
in
also
John Rankine of
who became
the
com-
REV. THOMAS BI.AC'KI.OCK, D.D.

The Lodge
is
possession
in
Sir Walter Scott, as follows

Sir,
am much
portrait of
poet only once, and that
from
a letter
gratified
Robert Burns.
of
41
by the sight of the
saw
that distinguished
many
years since, and
being a bad marker of likenesses and recollecter

of faces,
to offer
as
should in an ordinary case have hesitated
an opinion upon the resemblance, especially
make no
pretension to judge of the fine arts.
But Burns was so remarkable a man
that
his
features remained impressed on
my mind
seen him only yesterday, and
could not hesitate
as
had
to recognise this portrait as a striking resemblance
of the poet, though
amid a whole
had been presented
it
exhibition.
am.
to
me
Sir,
Your obedient
servant,
Walter
Scott.
Edinburgh, 14 November [1829].

I
me
will
accept of the inscription which you
tell
the proprietors intend putting to the engraving
as a great honour.
When
the conviction
had been forced upon the
poet that his farming speculation at Mossgiel would

42
not

be
altogether.
farewell
he
successful,
He
decided
Brethren of
bolton, in the following
" Adieu
St.
words
James Lodge, Tar-
a heart-warm^ fond adieu
Dear Brothers of the mystic
tie
favoured, ye enlighten'd few.
Companions of
my
social joy
must
hie.
Pursuing Fortune's slidd'ry
ba',
Tho'
to foreign lands
With melting
I'll
mind you
Oft have
And
and brimful eye,
heart,
tho' far awa'.
still,
met your
social
band
spent the cheerful, festive night
Oft honoured with supreme command.

Presided o'er the Sons of Light
And by
that Hieroglyphic Bright,
Which none but

Strong Mem'ry on
Craftsmen ever saw
my
heart shall write
Those happy scenes, when
May Freedom, Harmony, and
far awa'.
Love,
Unite you in the Grand Design,
Beneath
The
th'
Omniscient Eye above
glorious Architect Divine
That you may keep

Still rising
Till
Scotland
secured a post in Jamaica, and bade
to the
Ye
leave
to
ORDER
Shall be
th'
Unerring Line,
by the Plummet's Law,

bright completely shine,
my
pray'r
when
far awa'.

And
you,
FAREWELL!
43
whose merits claim
Justly the Highest Badge to wear
Heav'n bless your honour'd, noble
To Masonry and
last
me
request permit
When
NAME,
Scotia dear.
here,
yearly ye assemble
a'.
One round, I ask it with a tear.

To him, the Bard that's far awa'."
It is said that, in
of the Lodge,
poem
reading this
when he got
to the
members
to the last stanza the tears
were rolling down the cheeks of many of the Brethren.

Happily the eternal disgrace which would have rested
upon Scotland had want compelled Burns

native land was saved
mainly
to leave his
through the Masonic
tie.
On
26th
October,
1786,
Honorary Member of the

Kilmarnock.
The Master
St.
Burns was
made an
John Lodge, No.
of this
22,
Lodge was Major
William Parker, a banker, who became one of his

principal friends
of the
first
and a subscriber
for thirty-five copies
edition of his poems.
In 1802, he suc-
ceeded to the estate of Assloss, about two miles out

of Kilmarnock.
"Ye
He
is
the
Sons of Auld Killie"
marnock,
The song
is
"Willie"
in the song,
contraction for Kil-
said to have been
composed
44
by Burns on the occasion of
his
admission as an
Honorary Member of the Lodge.

"
Ye Sons of Auld Killie, assembled by

To follow the noble vocation
Willie,
Your
thrifty old
mother has scarce such another,
To
sit in that
honoured
station.
I've little to say, but only to pray.
As
praying's the ton of your fashion,
prayer from the muse, you well

'Tis
may
excuse,
seldom her favourite passion.
Ye powers who
Who mark
Who formed
preside, o'er the
frame with beneficent aim,

statute
dear mansion
this
tide,
each element's border;

this
Whose sovereign
Within
wind and the
is
order.
may wayward
contention.
Or withered envy ne'er enter;

May secrecy round be the mystical bound.
And brotherly love be the center."
The
of this
original
attached to
it
"
was sung by him

Lodge,
in
1786,
who was Master
song has
the
following
This song, wrote by Mr.

in
the
Kilmarnock
and given by him

of the Lodge."
to
note
Burns,
Kilwinning
Mr. Parker,

The minute
marnock,
follows
"
of the St. John Lodge, No. 22, Kil-
26th
for
October,
1786,
concludes
as
:
Robert Burns, poet, from Mauchline, a member
of St. James', Tarbolton,
member
was made an honorary
of this Lodge.
"(Sgd.)
This was the

the
45
first
Lodge
to distinguish
" Poet,"
designation
Will Parker."
Burns with
and to honour him with
The Lodge met on
honorary membership.
premises
which afterwards formed part of the old Commercial

Inn,
in
Croft Street,
years ago to
Walker
&
merchants.
Kilmarnock, demolished some
make room
the
Co.,
was
It
acquaintance of
for the offices of Messrs.
well
at
known
this
Scotch
John
Whisky
Lodge he made
Thomas Samson,
the
the nurseryman and
seedsman, at whose house he was ever welcomed with
genuine
cordiality.
"The
May
Of him he wrote
Brethren
o'
in the
the mystic 'level'
hing their head in wofu' bevel,
While by their nose the
tears will revel
Like ony bead

Death's gien the Lodge an unco devel,
Tain Samson's dead."
Elegy
46
This elegy was composed
When
not die until nine years afterwards.

that
Burns had written
made him
poet and
finished
his epitaph,
repeat
Tarn exclaimed
I'm worth ten dead fowk

that
in a
am
Tarn heard
he sent
no dead
it
was
Robin,
yet,
wherefore should ye say
Burns withdrew to a window, and
dead."
minute or two returned with the following

" Go, Fame, and canter
Through
a'
like a
lines:
filly.
the streets and neuks
Tell every social, honest
To
for the
When
to him.
it
" I'm
Samson did
1786, but
in
o'
Killie,
billie.
cease his grievin'.
For yet unskaithed by Death's gleg
gullie.
Tarn Samson's leevin'."
with
Tam
which
unconsciously,
rubbed
delighted
so
hands,
his
doha! ha!that'll
"That'll
Tam
was
that
and
he rose
exclaimed,
do."
was elected Treasurer of the Lodge on 22nd
December, 1779.
He
was buried
at Kilmarnock, a plain slab

his ashes
repose,
on
which
epitaph written by Burns

"
in the
marking the spot where

appears
the
Tam Samson's weel-worn clay here

Ye canting zealots spare him.
If
honest worth in heaven

Ye'll
mend
Churchyard
or ye
rise,
win near him."
lies.
following

The
interior
Samson's house has been
of Tarn
preserved almost intact by his descendants
&
of
Nurserymen.
Co.,
Tam
Another member of the
Kilmarnock.
was
premises
Sandy
a by-lane at the head of the Forgate,
in
Lodge
"
of
landlord
the
Tavern, a "howf" of Burns, which was
Patrick's"
situated
Samson
Alexander Patrick, son-in-law
was
Samson,
47
Greenshields,
Bailie
now
are
by
occupied
St.
John's
Brewer,
whose
Kilmarnock
the
Brewery.
Robert Muir was another trusty friend and Brother,
name appears on
whose
seventy-two
copies
of
the
the
subscription
Kilmarnock
for
list
of
edition
Burns' poems, and afterwards for forty copies of the
Edinburgh
John Wilson,
edition.
was
publisher,
member
sometimes mistaken
The
epitaph.
Mauchline.
for
latter
printer
his
of
the
Lodge,
the "
Wee
Johnnie
and
who
"
of the
was a worthless character
Gavin Turnbull, the
poet,
is
in
was another
member.
Previous
joining
the
St.
John's
Kilwinning
Kilmarnock, however, Burns had become a
Lodge,
member
milns,
to
of the
now No.
Loudoun Kilwinning Lodge, New51,
and
this
was the
first
Lodge out

48
This was a purely
of Tarbolton which he joined.
Kilwinning Lodge, having been warranted in
and
The minute
Lodge
under Grand
coming
not
which
of his admission,
1747,
1808.
until
dated 27th
is
March, 1786, reads:
Much
"
the
to
of
satisfaction
Lodge,
the
Mr. Robert Burns, Mossgiel, Mauchline, introduced
by
Right
the
member
was
Worshipful,
admitted
"
was the
poet's friend,
Hamilton, Writer, of Mauchline, and
merchant
responsible for the
Burns arrived
1786,
of this Lodge."
This " Right Worshipful
that
as
and went
in
in
it
suggestive
made
Newmilns
payment of the
is
Gavin
himself
poet's dues.
Edinburgh on 28th November,
to live with
John Richmond, a law
student from Mauchline, in the house of Mrs. Carfrae,

Baxter's Close, Lawnmarket.
John Richmond occu-
pied the singular position of being

friends on
whom
line of verse.
testimony
that
he does not seem
to
Richmond has
behind him the
" Burns,
though
company, usually returned

soberly
to
bed,
one of Burns'
at
left
have written
frequently
out
in
good hours and went
where he would prevail
upon
his
HENUY MACKENZIE.

companion, by
little
bribes, to read to
him
Henry Mackenzie, of Lodge
asleep."
Kilwinning, No.
announced
2,
49
he
till
fell
Canongate
The Lounger, upon
in
Edinburgh, that a new poet was
Burns' arrival in
born to Scotland.
To
the issue of that paper for 9th December,
he contributed a review of Burns' Poems,
in
786,
which
he described the poet as "a genius of no ordinary
rank"
Mackenzie,
who
afterwards became a close Masonic
friend of the poet,
was the author of The
Feeling, which Burns read with avidity,
work he used
carrying
I
it
Henry
"a heaven-taught plowman."
and
to say
of
and of which
he had worn out two copies by
in his pocket.
prize next to the
Man
He
Bible."
described
it
as
"a book
Mackenzie shared with
Sterne the honour of being denominated a
"bosom
favourite."
Burns visited the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge,

Edinburgh, on 7th December,
786,
and on that night
the Earl of Errol, the Hon. William
Gordon
(after-
wards Earl of Kenmure), John Newal of Earlston, and

Captain Gillespie were initiated
Fairfield
was
officiated
as
also
affiliated.
Grand Warden
Mr.
The
at
the
W. Campbell
of
last-named had
laying
of
the
50
foundation-stone of the Harbour of Ayr, and
improbable that he had met Burns
The same
Hamilton
"
Burns wrote
night
his
friend,
Gavin
My
Lord Glencairn and the Dean of Faculty,
me
Mr. H. Erskine, have taken
and by
probability,
all
shall
under their wing

soon be the tenth
worthy and the eighth wise man of the world.
have met
Mr. Dalrymple of Orangefield what
in
Solomon emphatically
calls
closer than a Brother,'
Alexander Ferguson
and
not
Ayr Lodges.
in the
to
it is
Assessor
of
the
'a friend that sticketh
"
Advocate
Craigdarroch,
of
Burgh
of
Canongate, was
R.W.M." of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge from

June,
1784, to June,
1782
and 1783,
Warden
of the
the
filled
descendant
office
Grand Lodge of
Ferguson, "so famous for

a
He
1787.
of
the
wit,
great
had previously,
of Senior
Scotland.
mirth,
Sir
in
Grand
Alexander
and law," was
Robert
Lawrie of
Maxwelton, whose exploits were commemorated by
Burns
in
the ballad, "
father of the Right
The
Whistle."
He
was the
Hon. R. Cutlar Ferguson, M.P.,
also an initiate of the
Canongate Kilwinning Lodge,

who became
the possessor of the celebrated heirloom,
Alexander
the ebony whistle, referred to in the song.
Ferguson was thrown from
months
before
the
and died three
his horse
account
Burns'
poet.
was as follows
history of the whistle
Anne
" In the train of
came
51
Denmark, when she
of
to Scotland with our
the
of
James
VI., there
came
over also a Danish gentleman of gigantic stature
and great prowess and a matchless champion of
He
Bacchus.
the
had a
commencement
table,
little
ebony
of the orgies, he laid upon the
and whoever was the
everybody
whistle, which, at
last able to
blow
it,
by the potency of
else being disabled
the bottle, was to carry off the whistle as a trophy
of victory.
The Dane
the alternative
of
challenged the
trying
acknowledging their
his
inferiority.
prowess,
Scots to
or
many
After
else
over-
throws on the part of the Scots, the Dane was

encountered by Sir Robert Lawrie of Maxwelton,
who, after three
days'
and
contest, left the Scandinavian
"And
blew on the whistle
three
nights'
under the
his
requiem
table,"
shrill."
hard
52
When
Burns
made
first
Earl of Glencairn, he wrote
took
in
me by
my
the acquaintance of the

"
The
noble Glencairn
the hand to-day, and interested himself
being,
concerns with a goodness like that benevolent
whose image he so
richly
He
bears.
is
stronger proof of the immortality of the soul than any

that philosophy ever produced.
mind
like his
can
never die."
The
Earl of Glencairn
married,
and so was the
brother-in-law
Earl of Buchan and the Hon. H. Erskine.
was no
on
issue of the marriage the title
his death,
Lady
1785,
David Henry, loth Earl
Isabella Erskine, daughter of
of Buchan,
in
of
As
became
the
there
extinct
which took place near Edinburgh on
24th September, 1791.
The
following quotation from Burns' diary
of interest
"
The
noble Glencairn has
to the quick here, because
and love him.
He
is
also
wounded me
dearly esteem, respect,
showed so much
attention,
en-
grossing attention, one day to the only blockhead at

table (the
whole company consisted of his lordship,
dunderpate, and myself), that

of throwing
down my gage
but he shook
my
was within half a point
of contemptuous defiance
hand, and looked so benevolently

good
God
at parting.
never see him more,
bless
shall
him
Though
love
him
to
53
should
my
dying
day."
Burns never did forget him
he put on mourning
and afterwards named one of
at his death,
his sons
James Glencairn Burns.
Of Dalrymple
he wrote
also
"
have found a
worthy warm friend
in
Mr. Dalrymple of Orangefield,
me
to
Lord Glencairn, a man whose
who
introduced
worth and brotherly kindness to
when time
shall
me
shall
remember
be no more."
James Dalrymple
is
described as " a warm-hearted
man, an enthusiastic Freemason, a too enthusiastic

sportsman, and an occasional writer of verses."
was connected with John Ballantine

the foundation-stone of the
honours.
Henry
He
new Ayr
in
He
the laying of
brig with Masonic
was also introduced by Dalrymple
to
Erskine, the famous advocate, Whig, and wit,
who was
a Past Master of the Lodge.
Burns afterwards wrote

the flow'r of them
a' "
"
They have
Of Dalrymple
ta'en awa'
and of the Earl of Glencairn
" The Bridegroom may forget the bride
Was made his wedded wife yestreen;

The monarch may forget the crown
That on
his
Jamie
head an hour has been
54
The mother may
forget the child
That smiles sae sweetly on her knee

But
I'll
And
According
remember
a'
thee, Glencairn,
that thou hast done for me."
Burns walked
to the majority of opinion
from Mauchline to Edinburgh, but Richmond said

"
The
poet was so knocked
up
by
from
ride
his
Mauchline to Edinburgh, that he could not leave his
room
two days."
for
Kilwinning, which takes
a bishop of the
seventh
traditionally as the place
name from
its
century,
St.
Winning,
distinguished
is
where Freemasonry was
first
introduced into Scotland.

R.
Heron, Burns'
poet ere he had been

himself
courted
and
with
biographer, says that the
many weeks
object
the
admiration,
first
of
universal
He
fondness.
attentions
Edinburgh found
in
curiosity,
was
most
the
assiduous, feasted, flattered, caressed
the
first
boast of the country,
favour,
sought
after,
respectful
by
whom
it
all
and
ranks, as
was scarcely
possible to honour and reward to a degree equal to

his merits.
In
January,
Edinburgh
St.
1787,
at
Edinburgh,
Andrew, No.
48,
in
the
Lodge
Burns was toasted
LAMENT
lOll
JAMES, EARL OF GLENCAIliX.

Grand
by the
and
Master
Caledonia's
toast
the poet
the
Burns,"
Writing
described
to
to
which
his
friend
occasion
the
in
the
words:
following
went
Robert
responded.
Burns
Ballantine,
"
Bard,
"Caledonia
words,
the
in
55
Most
to a
Mason Lodge
Grand
Worshipful
[Charteris] and
all
the
yesternight,
Master
Charters
Grand Lodge of Scotland
The meeting was numerous and
visited.
where
elegant
the different Lodges about town were present in

all
The Grand
pomp.
their
Master,
who
presided
with great solemnity and honour to himself as a
gentleman
toasts,
and
gave
'
Mason, among other general
Robert Burns,' which

assembly
with
rang
As
I
the
my
power.
Grand
through
the
Bard,
whole
had no idea such a thing
was downright thunderstruck, and,
made
trembling in every nerve,

in
Caledonia's
honours and repeated
multiplied
acclamations.
would happen,
and
Caledonia
Just as
the best return
had finished some of
Officers said, so loud that
could hear
with a most comforting accent, 'Very well, indeed!'
which
set
me something
to rights again."
;
;
56
Among those who were present at this gathering were

Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations
Chairman of the Caledonian
the Earl of Glencairn,
Hunt and
brother-in-law of the Hon. H. Erskine
the
Rev. Dr. Robertson; the Rev. Dr. Blair; Dr. Gregory,
powder fame
of stomachic
Tytler of Woodhouselee
Through the
member
for a
Lord Monboddo
Eraser
and Ramsay of Ochtertyre.
influence of the Earl of Glencairn, each
of the Caledonian
Hunt subscribed a guinea
copy of the second edition of Burns' poems.
The
last
verse of Burns' song, "Caledonia," runs:
" Thus bold, independent, unconquered, and
Her
free.
bright course of glory for ever shall run
For brave Caledonia immortal must be

I'll
prove
from Euclid as clear as the sun
it
Rectangle-triangle the figure we'll choose
The upright
is
Chance, and old Time
is
the base;
But brave Caledonia's the hypothenuse
Then
ergo, she'll
match them, and match them
Charteris was the 36th
and held
office in
Mastership
Lord Elcho,
of
Wemyss.
in
he
his father
He
Grand Master of Scotland
1786 and 1787.
1787
did
always.''
During
his
succeeded to the
Grand
title
of
having inherited the Earldom

not live
Earldom as he predeceased
to
his father
succeed to the
by ten months.

He
belonged to the Lodge Haddington
was
also
an
member
afifiliated
St.
57
John, and
of the Canongate Kil-
winning Lodge, which he joined on 3rd March, 1779.

In each of these two Lodges he carried a motion to
members
the effect that the
regarded as
members of
full
James Dalrymple
be mentioned
an
was
Edinburgh and
the
of the one should be
the other.
enthusiastic
first
to introduce
it
may
welcome Burns
to
him
Mason,
to
to th? social life of
Auld Reekie.
He
his old friend,
William Wallace, Sheriff of Ayrshire
had hoped
Law
and Professor of Scots
meet
to
in
Edinburgh
University, but he
in the
passed away suddenly on the very day of Burns'

arrival.
Of Edinburgh, Burns
" Edina
wrote
Scotia's darling seat
All hail thy palaces and tow'rs^
Where once beneath a monarch's
feet
Sat Legislation's sovereign powers
From marking
mildly-scatter'd flow'rs^
As on the banks of Ayr
And
I
I stray'dj
singing; lone, the ling'ring hours,
shelter in thy honour'd shade."
Three of Burns'
Masonic
contemporaries
were
Major William Logan, the Rev. William M'Gill, and
58
the Rev. William Dalrymple,
Ayr Kilwinning.
of Lodge
who were
members
all
Major Logan has been
immortalised as " thairm-inspirin'
In
rattlin' Willie."
1787 Dr. M'Gill published an "Essay on the Death

of Christ,"
which was afterwards denounced by his
colleagues as heretical.
Burns, Gavin Hamilton, and Robert Aiken were

all
on the side of M'Gill and Dalrymple who were
suspected of holding heterodox opinions on several
Sin and
points, particularly the doctrines of Original
the
M'Gill published an essay which was
Trinity.
the cause of his arraignment before the Synod.
The
acrimonious and uncharitable
spirit
shown
in
the subsequent prosecution of Dr. M'Gill caused the
poet to write in
"The
Kirk's
Alarm":
" Dr. Mack, Dr. Mack, you should stretch on a rack.
To
To
strike evil-doers wi' terror;
join faith
Is heretic,
Of
M 'Gill's
and sense upon ony pretence.
damnable
colleague,
error.''
Dalrymple,
who was
pected of holding similar views, Burns wrote

" D'rymple mild, D'rymple mild, though your heart's
And your
life's like
the new-driven snaw.
Yet that winna save ye, and Satan must have ye.
For preaching that three's ane and twa."
sus-
like a child.
ROBERT BURNS IN HIS COITAGE COMPOSING "THE COTTARS SATURDAY NIGHT.

"The
Burns'
inscribed
Ayr
to
Cottar's
Night"
Saturday
59
was
Aiken, a Writer of Edinburgh,
R,
who was
in Burns' time,
member
in
of Canongate
and Leith and Leith and Canongate Lodge, and who,

in
1772 or 1773, was made an honorary
member
of
the St. Andrew's Lodge, attached to the Scots Greys

or Royal
Regiment of North
British Dragoons.
His
mother Lodge was Leith Kilwinning.

Burns, in one of his poems, refers to the stupid
notion
believed in by
still
Freemasons are
in the habit of conjuring
at their meetings.
says
some credulous
people, that
up the Devil
In his "Address to the De'il" he
"
When
Masons' mystic word and grip.
In storms an' tempests raise you up.
Some cock
or cat your rage
Or strange
The youngest
maun
stop.
to tell
brither ye wid
whip
AfF straucht to hell."
Among
those holding office in Edinburgh
at that time, all of
whom
Burns met,
Masonry
in addition to the
names already mentioned, were the Duke of
Atholl,
the Earls of Buchan, Balcarres, Morton, and Eglinton
Lords Napier, Torphichen, Haddo, Binning,
and Eldin
Sir William
Cringletie,
Forbes, Sir James Hunter
6o
Thomas Hay
Colonel James Murray,
Blair,
of Hays-
Grant of Monymusk,
ton,
Campbell
Dr.
Nathaniel Spens, Stewart of Allanbank, William
of
Shawfield,
Smellie, the printer of the second edition of Burns'
poems, William Creech, and others.

David, sixth Earl of Buchan, born in 1742, aided
in the
formation of the Antiquarian Society and con-
tributed to
its
essays on the
lives
Canongate
Torphichen was
Lodge on
first visit.
He
poet.
was Grand Master
1782 and 1783, and was a frequent
of Scotland in
at
published a volume of
of Fletcher of Saltoun and of
James Thomson, the
visitor
He
lectures.
Kilwinning
initiated
in
Lodge.
Canongate Kilwinning
7th December, 1786, the night of Burns'
He
was shortly afterwards nominated as
Depute Grand Master but never rose
command.
Lord
In June 1787, he was elected
to
supreme
R.W.M.
of
Lodge Canongate Kilwinning.

Sir
Mason
He
&
William
Forbes, afterwards
in the
Master
of Scotland, was a liberal patron of the poet.
was a partner
Co.,
Grand
and was
in the
also
banking firm of John Coutts
Professor of Moral Philosophy
University of Aberdeen.
William Smellie was the eminent naturalist and

In
writer.
1780 he entered into
until
acquaintance with Burns began in 1787.
His
1789.
He
printed
poems and an immediate
and permanent intimacy between the two took
owing doubtless
place,
to their similar social dispositions
mutual relish of each other's

was, earlier in
He
He
with
partnership
William Creech, which continued
the Edinburgh edition of the
6i
tutor
life,
wit.
and
William Creech
the Earl of Glencairn.
to
afterwards became Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
purchased the copyright of the poems, and
warm and
along proved himself a
all
true friend of the
poet.
On
of the
Lodge Canongate Kilwinning No.

Henry
introduced by the Hon.
Lodge
in
Many
1780.
with literature figure

'
being
Erskine, the famous
in
William
the Registers of this Lodge,
Edmonstoune
Gibson Lockhart, Dr.
Lord Brougham.
The
of
other names associated
including those of John Wilson
J.
2,
who became Right Worshipful Master
advocate,
the
member
February, 1787, Burns became a
St
" Christopher
Aytoun,
Hugh
D.
Blair,
M.
North
"
Moir,
and Henry,
ten stanzas which D.
M. Moir
wrote for the Burns Festival are said to form one of

his
best
pieces.
Thomas Aird
describes
them
as
62
by
being characterised
intertissued with
" burly
power,
picturesque
generous appreciation, and
all
the
moral softnesses of charity and love."

" Born within the lowly cottage
To
a destiny obscure,
Doom'd through youth's exulting spring-time

But to labour and endure
Yet Despair he elbow'd from him

Nature breath'd with holy joy,
In the hues of
morn and evening.
On the eyelids of the boy

And his country's Genius bound him
Laurels for his sunburnt brow,
When
inspired and proud she found him.
Like Elisha, at the plough."
Mom.
D. M.
Lodge Canongate Kilwinning possesses the most

ancient
Lodge-room
in
the world.
It
is
most active Masonic Lodges of the
one of the
present
keeping alive the traditions of nearly 800 years.

the
Chapel of
this
Lodge-room
is
a beautiful
organ with a wonderful sweet tone, which

at the meetings of the
is
Lodge.
probably the oldest organ
existing instrument
played
in
It
was
is still
day,
In
old
used
built in 1754,
in Scotland,
and the only
on which the songs of Burns were
the presence of the poet.
The
entry in

the minute book of the
Lodge recording the admission
of Burns reads as follows
"
well
late
The Right Worshipful Master having observed

was present
that Brother Burns

is
63
known
Lodge,
who
as a great poetic writer and for a
publication
universally
in the
of his
works which have been
Commended, Submitted
be assumed a member of
this
that he should
Lodge which was
unanimously agreed to and he was assumed accordingly.

" (Sgd.)
Alexr. Ferguson, M.
D.M.
Chas. More,
Millar,
Jo.
Bro.
this
J.W."
Charles More, the Depute Master,
who signed
minute, was also present at the meeting of the
Lodge
then
in
June, 181 5,
passed
when he seconded a
concerning
Lodge's
the
resolution
subscription
towards the mausoleum of the poet.
Among
Lodge
the
brethren
Canongate
expressed a
liking,
whom
Kilwinning,
Burns
and
for
met
at
whom
he
was William Woods, an
so popular as to be called "
The
actor,
Scottish Roscius."
64
Concerning the Hon. Henry Erskine, who died
in
October, 1817, Burns wrote:

" Collected, Harry stood awee,
Then open'd out
His lordship sat wi' ruefu'
And
man;
his arm,
e'e
ey'd the gathering storm,
Like wind-driv'n
hail,
Of torrents owre a
The Bench, sae wise,
it-
did
linn,
lift
man;
assail.
man
up
their eyes.
Half wauken'd wi' the din, man."
On
March, 1787, Burns
1st
invested as the
said to
is
Poet- Laureate of
have been
Lodge Canongate
In the following verse, written 3rd
Kilwinning.
May,
Burns called himself Laureate, as indeed he
1786,
often did:
" To please you and praise you.
Ye ken your Laureate

The prayer
Of
There
is
still
scorns
you share
still
grateful minstrel Burns."
reproduced here an historic picture of
the inauguration of Robert Burns as Poet -Laureate,
but
it
Grose
The
does
did
not
not
represent
become
portly individual
in
the
actual
Freemason
the extreme
scene,
until
right
and
1791.
of the

picture
Grose
poet's
Captain
visited Scotland in 1789 to collect information
regarding
Burns.
Grose, the famous antiquarian.
is
65
its
when he was introduced
antiquities,
They were kindred
own
To
thick thegither."
his
and, to use the
spirits,
phrase, they at once
to
became
"
pack and
work on the Antiquities of
Scotland, Burns contributed the material for his native
county of Ayrshire, and
"Tarn
o'
also
which
Shanter,"
best of his productions.
his
inimitable
poem,
Burns regarded as the
was of Grose he wrote
It
poem commencing
the well-known
" Hear, Land
o'
Cakes and brither Scots,
Frae Maidenkirk to John
o'
Groat's,
If there's a hole in a' your coats,

I
rede you tent
chiel's
And,
amang
it
ye, taking notes.
faith, he'll
prent
it."
Burns requested Captain Grose, when he should
come
to Ayrshire, that
Alloway Kirk, as
it
he should make a drawing of
was the
where he himself had a
burial-place of his father,
sort of claim to lay
down
bones when they should be no longer serviceable

him.
his
to
Grose agreed, providing Burns would furnish a
witch story to be printed along with
it.
"
Tam
o'

66
Shanter" was the
result,
and
poem was
this
first
published in Grose's Antiquities of Scotland.
On
loth December, 1879, at Coale's Auction
Room,
Toronto, what was described as the oldest Masonic

relic in
the world was sold to Bro.
The Evening Telegram.
of
Souter
of
certificate
Ross Robertson,
J.
was
It
Johnny, of
Masonic
the
Burns'
"
Tarn
o'
Shanter," which was issued by the St. James Lbdge,
Pinned to the corner of the diploma
Ayr, in 1790.
was a lock of Highland Mary's
sold for 179 dollars.

to
Toronto solely
sale
and
this
Hamilton
"
relic
was
purpose of attending the

relic.
time Burns wrote to his friend, Gavin
am
for the
The
number of people went
the hope of securing the
in
About
large
hair.
Thomas
in
fair
way
of becoming as eminent as
^ Kempis or John Bunyan, and you
my
may
birthday inserted
expect
henceforth
among
the wonderful events in the Poor Robbins
to
see
and Aberdeen Almanacs, along with the
Monday and
William
Petrie,
Black
the Battle of Bothwell Bridge."
who was
serving brother to the
Lodge
during the greater part of the time when Burns was
"
; ;;

a member, was asked by one
if
his
who
he remembered Robert Burns.
great age, he exclaimed with vigour
Mind Rabbie!
I'll
no'
fellow
Eh, but he was the
life
John Lauchlan, a shoemaker
Newton
St.
Tyler of Ayr
founded
in
in
1799
Paul
by
He
Lodge,
No. 204
serving
portrayed in the famous poem,
Shanter
"
to
v^
tale
A'e
market
nicht,
got planted unco jight,
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,
Wi' reaming swats that drank divinely,
And
at his elbow Souter Johnnie,
His ancient, trusty, drouthy, cronie
Tam
lo'ed him like a very brither.

They had been fou for weeks thegither.
The night drove on wi' sangs and clatter.
And
aye the ale was growing better
The Landlady and Tam grew
gracious,
Wi' secret favours, sweet and precious
The Souter told his queerest stories

The Landlord's laugh was ready chorus
The storm without might rair and rustle,

Tam did na mind the storm a whustle."
Lodge
in
the
" Souter
be the
"
Tam had
became the
165,
Johnnie
" But to our
puir
Ayr and a member
Militia.
Rabbie
Lodge
Ayrshire
said
1845
him,
the
o'
Freemasons
is
"
forget
James Lodge, No.

St.
in
Notwithstanding
Burns!
of
him
visited
67
"
Tam
o'
68
The
future Souter
was born
the parish of Alloway,
in
and he and the poet were close companions
boy-
in
Afterwards he removed with his parents to
hood.
Ayr, where he was bound apprentice to a shoemaker.
He
was known
and about Ayr as
in
"
Souter Johnnie
"
to his dying day.
His remains were interred with
Masonic honours.
His son, John Lauchlan, died at
Ayr on
James Lodge, No.
St.
a Freemason of
initiated
the
in
which
in
163,
eighty-sixth
his
in
and was
standing,
years'
sixty-five
also,
1862,
The younger Lauchlan was
year.
Ayr
September,
i6th
Lodge,
he received the degrees of the Royal Arch and
Knight
He was
Templary.
members of the Ayr

delegated
by
Edinburgh
his
to
one
Paul's
St.
receive
from
the
This document he carried
of that
town,
consecration
early
in
office-bearers
Lauchlan
of the
became
and
to
Grand Lodge of
knapsack
the
in
the year
1800,
Renfrew
Lodge Ancient,
R.W.M.
proceed
to
was poured out upon the
Lodge of the Ayr and
was
newly-formed Lodge.
in his
Militia then lay,
original
Lodge, and
brethren-in-arms
Scotland the Charter of the
where the
of the
of the
to Stirling,
Court Hall
the
oil
altar of
Militia
by
Stirling.
Lodge
in
of
the
the
Bro.
1805,

and the
honour was
like
other periods of
services appreciated that
him
So highly were
history.
its
upon
conferred
69
at
his
1808 he was presented
in
with a handsome silver medal,
the
in
name
of the
Lodge, "as a tribute of esteem and mark of respect

towards him
for his
for his attention
for
and maintaining
his
its
interests
exertions
spirited
his
to
laudable conduct while Master,
its
in
and prosperity, and
supporting
He
independence."
dignity
its
bequeathed
diplomas and Masonic papers, together with the
Masonic
relics
of his father, to Bro.
a Past Master of
Ayr
St.
Paul's
Andrew
Lodge.
Glass,
He
was
buried in Alloway Kirkyard, near to the "winnock
bunker
in
the east," and within a few yards of the
resting-place of the poet's father.
Canongate Kilwinning Lodge possesses a Master

Mason's apron of Burns' Mother Lodge
apron
worn
him
by
after
the
completion of
admission to the Order.
Burns mark
in
the
the
Lodge Book
is
first
his
70
In
the
Bible
each
twice,
being partly
the obliterated parts being indicated
obliterated,
dots
appears
it
by
/..
..
\
On
the apron, as
page
64,
it
is
appears
it
the photograph on
in
as
V
made a member
After being
added the
his
to
title
"
Bard
Masonic mark
their farewell
Can
To
The
in
and appended
meeting on the
" That sacred hour can
When
Lodge, he
the Bible which he presented
in
Highland Mary at
banks of the Ayr
of this
" to his signature,
forget
forget the hallowed grove.
by the winding Ajrr we met

live
one day of parting love."
Bible given to Highland
Mary by Burns was
two volumes, each containing on the
fly-leaf his

name and
Masonic
contained
the
not swear by
The
sign.
Leviticus
text:
my name
and the second the text
not forswear thyself,
shalt
Lord thine oaths."
the
"Ye
am
but
This
and was sent home
Monument
at
Doon, where
the
Lord
33
"
Thou
shalt
perform
unto
Bible,
after
v.
in
passing
Canada
be deposited
to
shall
"
through many hands, was purchased

;^2 5,
also
12-
xix.
Matthew
volume
first
falsely,
71
in
for
the
Alloway Kirk, on the banks of the
may be
it
seen.
" Ye banks and braes and streams around
The
castle of
Montgomerie,
Green be your woods and
fair
Your waters never drumlie

There simmer first unfauld her
And
your flowers.
robes,
there the longest tarry.
For there
took
my
last farewell
Of my sweet Highland Mary."

Until recently there
the country
all
now
has
"
still
stood the thorn, called by
Highland
entirely disappeared
and successive generations of

of
it
Mary's Thorn," but
it
by the action of time
relic hunters.
has been deposited in the Burns'
portion
Monument
Museum.
On
i8th June,
1855,
Bro. Davidson Ritchie pre-
sented to Bro. William R. Clapp of
Ayr a
section
72
of hawthorn underneath which
Burns
"
time
that
Auld
Clay
the
golden hours on angel wings
Flew
At
in
and where
habit of meeting Highland Mary,
"The
was
him and
o'er
was the occupier of the
Bro. Ritchie
Biggin
"
his dearie."
where
bard
the
drew
first
This section of the Trysting Thorn was
breath.
presented by Bro.
W.
R. Clapp to the Connecticut
Masonic
Historical
There
also a section of
is
Society
it
on
in
23rd
1861.
July,
the Burns' Tavern,
Tarbolton.
It
is
Ettrick
of interest
Shepherd,
to
note that James Hogg, the
was a Poet-Laureate of Lodge
Canongate Kilwinning, No.
2,
in later years,
minute recording his appointment to
was an honorary one, speaks of

had been
brother,
in
it
and the
this office,
which
as one " which
abeyance since the death of the immortal
Robert Burns."
Shortly after the publication of the second edition

of his poems.
Burns set out with his
brother- Mason, Robert Ainslie, on a tour.
friend
and
At Eye-
niouth they stayed at the house of a brother-Mason,
William Grieve,
whom Burns
described as
"a joyous,

warm-hearted,
connection
with
Lodge
the
was afterwards Clerk
Ainslie
became known
also
came
Templar Encampment held
Knights
across
and they
clever fellow,"
jolly,
73
of St.
Ebbe.
Robert
He
Signet.
the
to
in
author of an essay
in later years as the
on Evidences of Christianity, and some devotional
He
tracts.
Of
this
member.
follows
died in April, 1838.*
Burns was elected an honorary
Chapter,
The minute
recording
event
this
as
is
"Eyemouth, May
"
At a general encampment held
following brethren were
19, 1787,
this day, the
made Royal Arch Masons
namely, Robert Burns, from the Lodge of St. James,

Tarbolton,
the
Lodge of
Carmichael,
Clay,
paid
Ayrshire,
St.
and Robert
William Grieve,
Robert Grieve,
One Guinea
of Robert
Edinburgh, by
Luke,
etc.,
Daniel
etc.
from
Ainslie,
James
Dow, John
Robert Ainslie
admission dues, but on account
Burns' remarkable
poetic genius,
the
A Pilgrimage to the Land of Bums : containing anecdotes

of the Bard and the characters he immortalized; together with
* See
Scottish Songs, Ballads, and Poems.
Edited, with Memoir, by
Thomas
C.
By the
late
Hew
Ainslie.
Latto (Alex. Gardner, Paisley).

74
encampment unanimously agreed

gratis,
and
considered
to
honoured by
themselves
having a man of such shining
admit him
one of
abilities for
their companions."
Burns' entry in his diary for this date

1
787
19th
May,
reads
"
made a Royal
Spent the day at Mr. Grieve's
Arch Mason of
Abb's Lodge.
St.
Wm.
Mr.
Grieve,
the oldest brother, a joyous, warm-hearted, jolly,

clever fellow
good song.
in trade, a
after
takes
a hearty glass, and sings a
Mr. Robert, his brother, and partner
good
dinner
fellow,
fishing
but says
of
all
little
take
sail
kinds, pays tithes at
Eyemouth."
Alfred A. Arbuthnot Murray,
Bro.
of the
land,
Grand Sc.E.
Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scot-
speaking from his knowledge of the old working
of the Scottish Royal

all
probability
as
well
as a
Arch Chapters, thinks
that in
Burns was made a Knight Templar

Royal Arch Mason
in
Eyemouth, as
under the old regime the two were
always given
together.
bodies
The
last
of the
Old Arch and Temple
came under the Supreme Grand Royal Arch

Chapter of Scotland only
ago there was one Lodge
Arch
which the
with
191
in
and
Until ten years
1.
Scotland
in
75
in
connection
Temple degrees were
worked without a Charter.
Some
of the
of the proceeds of the Edinburgh edition
poems published
1787 were allotted to the
in
erection of a tombstone over the remains of Robert
Fergusson,
who
died on i6th October, 1774, and was

"
buried in Canongate Churchyard,

Burns, referring to his removal to
given
but
up,
Poems,'''
meeting
strung
with
Rhyme," wrote
Fergusson's
anew my wildly-sounding
emulating vigour."
"
Irvine,
visited
it
he
lyre with
Fergusson's grave remained un-
uncovered
his
characteristic enthusiasm, kneeling
the venerated clay.
had
Scottish
distinguished until Burns went to Edinburgh.
he
He
magistrates to erect a
head
and,
When
with
down, he embraced
obtained permission from the
monument
to
Fergusson on
which he inscribed the following stanza:

"
No
'
sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay,
No
storied urn, nor animated bust,'
This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way,
To pour her sorrows
o'er her poet's dust."
* See The Poems of Robert Fergmson. Edited with Memoir and

etc., by Robert Ford (Alex. Gardner, Paisley).
Notes,
76
On
the
inscription
"
monument
reverse of the
By
the following
special grant of the
who
Burns,
is
managers
to
Robert
erected this stone, this burial-place
ever to remain sacred to the
memory
is
of Robert
Fergusson."
Burns also inscribed the following
a copy of
lines in
Fergusson's works which he presented to a young

lady,
on 19th March, 1787

" Curse on ungrateful
And
my
By far my
With tears
Why
is
elder brother in misfortune.
pity thy
following entry
Mason.
'idle,'
unhappy
fate
the bard unfitted for the world.
Lodge, Tarbolton,
that can be pleased.
elder brother in the Muses,
Yet has so keen a
Chambers
man
yet can starve the author of his pleasure
Oh, thou,
The
is
relish of its pleasures
in
"
?
the books of St.
James'
proof of the statement of Robert
that "
Burns never neglected his duties as
He
might be 'rhyming,' 'aimless,' and
but he was also 'Mason-making.'"
"Mauchline, 25th July, 1787.

" This night the Deputation of the
Lodge met
at
Mauchline, and entered Brother Alexander Allison,

of Barnmuir,
an apprentice.
77
Likewise admitted
Bro. Professor Stuart [Stewart], of Cathrine, and
Claude Alexander, Esq., of Ballochmyle
Claude
Neilson, Esq., Paisley, John Farquhar Gray, Esq.,
of Gilmiscroft, and Dr. George Grierson, Glasgow,
Honorary Members of the Lodge.
"RoBT. Burns, D.M."
On
27th December, 1788, Burns was "unanimously
assumed, being a Master Masson," a member of the
Andrew's
St.
No.
Lodge,
179,
The
Dumfries.
Secretary wrongly described him as of "
St.
David's
Strabolton Lodge, No. 178," instead of "St. James'
Lodge, Tarbolton,
No,
178."
present at the meetings, and

to
filled
He
was frequently
the office of S. W.
which he was elected on 30th November, 1792
during the year 1793.
His attendances
at this
Lodge,
as recorded in the Attendance Book, were as follows

1791, 27th
31st
December; 1792,6th February, 14th and
May, 5th June, 23rd and 30th November; 1793,
30th November,
when he
officiated as
S.W.
he attended the Lodge on 29th November
In 1794
to
take
part in the election of officers, and on 28th January,

1796,
he attended in order to become sponsor
for
78
James Georgeson, a merchant, of Liverpool, who was

His
a candidate for membership.
last
attendance was
on 14th April, 1796, three months before his death,

but, strangely to
in the
relate,
decease
his
The Lodge
Minutes.
ceased to meet in 1805,
though an attempt was made

but
it
ended
in
failure,
erased from the Roll.
Book
in
The
in
Stewart, the
18 16 the
Lodge
it,
Lodge was
Burns' time
in
a public sale by Sir Michael
Shaw
Grand Master Mason of Scotland
at the
at
and were by him presented
of Scotland,
181 5 to revive
in
Gavel, Apron, and Minute
use in St. Andrew's
were purchased
time,
and
not recorded
is
the
in
Museum
Grand Lodge
to the
of
which
were
they
deposited.
In 1795 two companies of volunteers were raised

in
The English army was
Dumfries.
part in service abroad,
for the
most
and the French Convention
threatened to land troops in England.
Burns
at
once
joined the corps and published his political opinions

in the song,
About
"The Dumfries
this
time
Chronicle, offered
in
Mr.
Volunteers."
Perry,
him ^50 a year
that paper, which
of
T/ie
for a
Morning
poem weekly
would have been a substantial
addition to his income, had he accepted
it.
Burns,
79
however, from the peculiar feeling he entertained of

the sacredness of poetry, and thinking probably that
if
he became what he so much dreaded, " the hireling
of a party," his
muse would
refuse to give her aid,
so he declined the proposal.
the performance
In
of his duties as Exciseman,
Burns was severe on the regular smuggler, though

not unwilling to turn a blind eye to occasional relapses.
One
of the smuggling fraternity, not knowing Burns
personally, offered one night to sell

"
whisky.
the
Bard.
fellow
You've lichted on a bad merchant," said
stared,
then impudently replied;
"Aye, but
Robert Burns the poet
mak
too, sae ye'll shurely ne'er ruin
the exciseman, and

right
you have
a brither poet."
friend," said Burns, "the poet in
superior
The
"I'm Robert Burns the gauger."
ye're likewise
to
him some smuggled
me
or no sangs, the seizure was
"Why,
has been sacrificed
should like to
exemption
to
sangs,
"
know what
and,
made then and
sangs
there.
In his last illness, unable to remunerate his medical
attendant in the
usual
manner,
Burns
asked
the
doctor's acceptance of his pair of pistols as a memorial
of their friendship.
Dr. William Maxwell,
who
died
on the 13th October, 1834, proved a generous friend
8o
widow and
to the bard's
pistols
were
presented
his sister,
Museum
Scotland, in whose
now kept
in
an
and on her death they
Society of Antiquaries
the
to
and retained these
which they were preserved
his death, after
till
some years by
for
children,
elegant
in
of
Edinburgh they are
coffer,
but
open to the
inspection of the public.
Allan
Cunningham
gives
a description
of
this
Burns, he said, looked
interview with Dr. Maxwell.
up one day and saw Dr. Maxwell standing by

" Alas " he said, "
side.
I
am
them
what has brought you here
pistols,
took them
in his
hand, and gave
to Maxwell, saying they could not
keeping and he should never
He
but a poor crow and not worth plucking."
pointed to his
his
be
in
worthier
more have need of
them.
Early in January, 1796, Burns contracted the

chill
He
which brought on an attack of rheumatic
was
able,
fatal
fever.
however, to attend the Lodge on the
28th of that month.
About the same time he met
in
the street an old acquaintance, and in the course of
a conversation about his health he made use of the
remarkable expression
like
fool,
but he
"
find that a
man may
will scarcely die like one."
live
.Mils.
millNS,
WIDOW
01'
TIIK
I'OliT.
8i
Mrs. Burns once told James Innes-Kerr Mackenzie,

a
contributor
TAe
to
Scots
Cunningham was wrong

his last illness
in
the open
Magazine, that
in stating that
Burns incurred
by being inebriated and

" In all her
air.
Allan
falling asleep
knowledge of him, she
emphatically stated, either before marriage or
Never once did
she never once saw him intoxicated.

she
know him
be 'seen hame,' or
to
difficulty as to disposal of himself
When
the least
in
when he
arrived."
Burns thought he was dying, he
wife his fears, adding
" Don't
be
respected a hundred years after
afraid.
I
after,
am
told
I'll
his
be more
dead than
am
at the present day."
One
of
the
admirers
ardent
poet's
was Allan
Cunningham, whose sympathetic biography

the most interesting of the
many
life
stories of Scotia's
national poet that has been written.
be
wondered
Cunningham,
Burns
first
for
at,
it
recited
at
that
This
not to
is
the table of John
farmhouse
the
in
was
one of
is
glorious
of
Sandbed,
epic,
that
"Tam
o'
Shanter," at the same time that one of his best future
biographers stood in the ingleneuk listening with eager
and sympathetic
it
rolled
interest to the eloquence with
from the
lips
of
its
great author.
which
It is to
82
this
biographer,
Cunningham,
Allan
we
that
are
indebted for a graphic description of the closing days

of the poet's
"The
time
last
"was on
He
life
come without bringing
He
lived,
reached his
with
health
think,
and when he alighted
which he
in
he says,
it.
He
had
and he returned worse.
ill,
was brought back,

cart,
life,"
and summer had
ailing all spring,
gone away very
in
from the Brow-well of Solway.
his return
had been
saw Burns
He
a covered spring
in
at the foot of the street
he could scarce stand upright.
own door
with
He
difficulty.
stooped much, and there was a visible change in

his looks.
know
that he
coat, with
volunteers,
to
the
Some may
was
think
at the
it
not unimportant to
time dressed
in
a blue
the undress nankeen pantaloons of the
and that
his neck,
which was inclining
be short, caused his hat to turn up behind,
in
manner of the shovel hats of the Episcopal
clergy.
Truth obliges
fastidious
about
his
me
to
dress,
add that he was not

and
that
an
officer,
curious in the personal appearance and equipments
of his company, might have questioned the military

nicety of the
clothes
poet's
and arms.
83
But
his
Colonel was a maker of rhyme, and the poet had
more
to display
charity for his commander's verse
than the other had to exercise when he inspected

the clothing and arms of the careless bard.
"
From
the day of his return
home
till
the hour
of his untimely death, Dumfries was like a besieged

palace.
It
was known he was dying, and
anxiety, not of the rich
and
mechanics
Wherever two
talk
and learned
only, but of
exceeded
peasants,
family
of
of
his
approaching
which
will
his person
fate,
of
and
fame
belief
of
his
his
they spoke
worksôf his
untimely and
with a warmth and enthusiasm
ever endear Dumfries to
he
brance.
All
opinions
of the physicians
kind and
all
or three people stood together their
was of Burns, and of him alone
of his history
the
that
skilful one)
said
or
(and
my remem-
was saying
the
Maxwell was a
were eagerly caught up and
reported from street to street, and from house to

house."
Another hero-worshipper of Burns was Sir Walter

Scott, a brother poet
and a brother Mason.
Scott

84
was a boy of sixteen when he met Burns
He
of one of his friends.
had read
his
as a strong and robust person, with
but not clownish
knowledge of
from one's
his
Scott adds that, had he not
would have taken him
'
who
manners
for
held his
its
perhaps,
effect,
known who he
was, he
a very sagacious country
own
that
plough.
is,
the
'
douce
There was a
strong expression of sense of shrewdness in
lineaments
rustic,
extraordinary tafents.
farmer of the old Scottish school
guidman
described
a kind of dignified plainness and
which derived part of
simplicity,
house
poems, and
He
desired eagerly to meet their author.
him
at the
all
his
the eye indicated the poetical character
and temperament.
It
was large and of a cast which
glowed when he spoke with
feeling or interest.
Scott
says that he never saw such another eye in a
human
head, though he had seen the most distinguished
men
of the time.
On
the 2ist July, 1796, the poet's earthly career
terminated, the death being announced in
newspaper
in the following
"Died
and
here,
in the
words
the local
on the morning of the 21st
inst.,
38th year of his age, Robert Burns, the
Scottish Bard.
His manly form and penetrating
HOUSE IN WHICH BURNS DIED.

eye
strikingly
For
vigour.
ception,
by
Animated by the
of con-
of nature,
fire
tenderness,
As
their sublimity.
or
expanded the mind
a luminary emerging from
behind a cloud, he rose at once into notice

his
he
sentiments which, by their pathos, melted
heart to
the
rapidity
and fluency of nervous phraseology he was
unrivalled.
uttered
of wit,
originality
mental
extraordinary
indicated
85
works and
name can never
his
and
die while living
divine Poesy shall agitate the chords of the
human
heart."
And
Allan
the funeral of Burns
Cunningham
descriptipn
for
the
Again, one turns to

best
and
most
vivid
"The
who accompanied Burns
multitude
to the
grave went step by step with the chief mourners

they might amount to ten or twelve thousand.
a word was heard
near,
and, though
and many could not
all
see,
Not
could not be
when
the earth
closed on their darling poet for ever, there was no
rude impatience shown, no
fierce
disappointment
was an impressive and mournful
expressed.
It
sight to see
men
of
all
ranks and persuasions and
86
opinions mingling as brothers, and stepping side by

side
down
the streets of Dumfries, with the remains
who had sang
of him
of their loves, and joys, and
domestic endearments, with a truth and a tenderness which none perhaps have seen equalled.
the
away
procession
military honours
love
wished the military part of
indeed, have
could,
simplicity
and
scarlet
measured
for
because
in
gold
step,
all
that
the
he was
buried
with
am one
of those
who
The
regards genius.
banners
and the military
displayed
the
with the
array,
sound of the martial instruments of music, had no

share in increasing the solemnity of
spot of ground in St. Michael's Churchyard,
Dumfries, where
deposited
selected
on
him using
all
grave,
that
in
July,
had been
1796,
the North- East corner of the
In one of his published letters

this
I
proud language
"
When
wish to be stretched at
may occupy every
right to,"
was mortal of the Bard was
Monday, 25th
by himself
cemetery.
my
burial
and had no connection with the poet."
scene,
The
the
am
full
we
find
laid in
length, that
inch of ground that
have a
CAST or THE SKULL OF BURNS.

On
25th
birth, at
January,
Kirk Alloway, was
his birthplace.
foundation stone of a
Robert Burns.
When
suggested,
Monument
to the
Monument which
the
of
idea
was arranged
it
matter.
is
laid
the
Memory
of
not generally
Monument was
the
the Clerk
that
County should convene a meeting

the
of his
Dr. John Foulds has related a story
with reference to this
known.
the anniversary
1820,
87
in
This was done, but
Ayr
only
of
the
to discuss
Alexander
Boswell of Auchinleck, Rev. H. Paul of Broughton,
and the Clerk put
in
an appearance.
He
upset Boswell's equanimity.
That did not
calmly elected him-
Chairman, proposed that a Monument be erected,
self
declared the motion carried, and instructed the Clerk

to
send
out
subscription
sheets
heartiest
reception,
met with the

that
the
Monument was
erected.
These
forthwith.
with
the
result
This Alexander
Boswell was the son of James Boswell, the biographer
He was
of Dr. Johnson.
and was shot
in
a duel
created a Baronet in 1821,

in
James Stewart of Dunearn.
the following year by

In private
life
and
in
the circle of his friends he was one of the most social
and amusing companions.

Freemasonry, and
in
He
was much attached to
a Lodge none could
"preside
; ;
88
o'er the
more
On
in
Sons of Light" with greater propriety or

the
spirit
of
" the
privileged few."
the occasion of the laying of the foundation
stone of the
Monument
Chapters took part
the following
Lodges and
Mother Kilwinning
lo Maybole
24 St. John's, Kilmarnock
I
46 Newmills
64 Partick Kilwinning, Glasgow

123 Ayr Kilwinning
124 St. James,
Newton Ayr;
125 St. Andrew, Kilmarnock;
126 Thistle, Stewarton

131
St.
David, Tarbolton
147 St. Andrew, Irvine;

163 Royal Arch, Ayr;
167 Thistle and Rose, Stevenston
197 Royal Arch, Maybole

200 St. Thomas, Muirkirk
201 St. Clement, Riccarton
203 St Paul, Ayr and Renfrew
209
St.
Andrew, Ayr Newton
221 Moira, Fenton
Cumnock
230
St.
Barnabas, Old
240
St.
Mungo, Mauchline
270
St.
James, Kilmarnock.

89
Alexander Boswell was Worshipful Depute Grand

Master of the most ancient Mother Lodge Kilwinning,
and
in
response
subscriptions from
in,
including a
the appeal
to
all
which he sent
parts of the country
out,
had flowed
handsome donation from the Prince
Regent, afterwards George IV.

In 1807,
it
may be
Lodge renounced the

was placed
at the
stated, the
Mother Kilwinning
right of granting warrants,
head of the
roll
and
of Scottish Lodges
by the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
The Lodges and Chapters having formed themselves into an extensive circle, the stone
into position
by Alexander Boswell, who
also deposited
a plate bearing the following inscription

"
fifth
By
the favour of Almighty God, on the twenty-
of January,
MDCCCXX.,
A.D.
Masonry, 5820, and
in
His Royal
Highness George,
Regent
of
the
of the era of
the sixteenth year of the
reign of our beloved Sovereign,
being
was placed
United
George the Third,

Prince of Wales,
Kingdom and a
munificent subscriber to the edifice, the foundation
stone of this Monument, erected by public subscription in
honour of the genius of Robert Burns, the
90
Ayrshire Poet, was laid by Alexander Boswell, Esq.,
Worshipful
M.P.,
of Auchinleck,
Depute Grand
Master of the Most Antient Mother Lodge Kilwinning (attended by
all
the
Mason Lodges
in
the
antient
usages
of
Ayrshire),
according
Masonry.
Thomas Hamilton,
architect
to
John Connell,
junior,
Edinburgh,
builder
junior,
and con-
tractor."
Then
the
and wine
Depute Grand Master exhibited

in
Masonic
true
following address
style,
corn,
oil,
and delivered the
may
" Brethren,
may
all
that
amongst us
is
useful
corn,
oil,
and wine abound
and ornamental be cultivated
and may
all
that can invigorate the
body, or elevate the soul, shed their blest influence
on our native land.

"
We
have at length assembled
to
pay a
grateful,
though a tardy, tribute to the genius of Robert

Burns, our Ayrshire Poet, and the Bard of Coila.
There surely
phlegmatic,
emotion.
lives not the
who would
But
man
so dull, so
flinty,
or
witness this event without
to those
thrilled responsive to the
whose heart-strings have

chords of the poet's lyre
GUA^'l)-UAUîHT^:ll
and avidow ov
'iHE poet.

whose bosoms have swelled
friendship,
91
and
like his, with love
tenderness and sympathy, have
with
glowed with patriotism, or panted
for glory
this
Whether we
hour must be an hour of exaltation.
consider the time, the place, or the circumstances,

at once in operation
his muse, alas
is
on our feelings and our fancies
mute
who
could alone have
dared to paint the proud breathings of such an
assembly at such a moment.
"When we
that this
day
consider the time,
is
we cannot
the anniversary of that which gave
our poet the light of heaven.
Bleak
around us
hawthorn,
the
birken shaw
wood,
the
are leafless
'
forget
is
the prospect
not a thrush
and
'
has yet
essayed to clear the furrowed brow of winter

this,
we know,
shall pass
the
but
away, give place, and be
succeeded by the buds of spring and the blossoms

of summer.
natal
day
sprang, as
Chill
and cheerless was our
poet's
but soon the wild flowers of poesy
it
were, beneath his boyish tread
they
opened as he advanced, expanded as he matured,

until
he revelled
in all the richness of luxuriance.
Poverty and disappointment hung frowning around
him
and
haunted
his
path
but,
soothed
and
92
charmed by the
fitful
visits of his native
muse, and
he
crowned, as
in a vision, with the holly wreath,
wantoned
a fairy land, the bright creation of his
own
in
have been our
and of
men
His musings
vivid and en wrapt imagination.
Men
delight.
taste the
most
of the loftiest talents,
refined,
have praised them
of strong and sterling, but untutored, intellect,
have admired them
the poet of the heart
is
the
poet of mankind.
"
When we
consider the place,
in
his
youthful
us
we now
that those very scenes which
awakened
let
remember
look upon,
breast that animating
spark which burst upon the world with a blaze of

In yonder cottage
inspiration.
in that depository of the
humble,
now
he
first
drew breath
lowly dead sleeps the once
immortal, model of the cottage
there rests his pious father
ând there
it
life
was
his
fond and anxious wish that his dust should have
been mingled with the beloved and kindred ashes.
Below us flows the Doon, the
made
classic
classic
Doon, but
by his harmony; there, gliding through
the woods, and laving his banks and braes, he rolls

his
clear
Before
us
and 'far-fetched waters'

stands
the
ruins
of
to
the ocean.
Kirk AUoway,
DESIGN or MONUMENT ERECTED IN THE HUIINS MAUSOLEUJI.

shrouded
in all the
mystic imagery with which
enveloped by his magic
name
to
it,
is
93
spells
'
it is
Kirk Alloway
'
enough.
and place are so congenial
"If, then, the time
with our fond impressions, the circumstances which
have enabled
us
to
carry
into
effect
memoration of our Bard must give delight

mind.
enthusiastic
language
is
In
to every
every region where our
heard, the song of Burns gives rapture
and from every region, and
from climes the most
remote, the votive offerings pour in to aid
undertaking
com-
this
and the
edifice,
all
our
which we have now
begun, shall stand a proud and lasting testimony of

the world's admiration.
Doon
Not on
the banks of the
alone, or hermit Ayr, or the romantic Lugar,
echo repeats the songs of Burns, but amid the

wild forests of Columbia, and scorching plains of
Hindustan, on the banks of the Mississippi, the

St.
Lawrence, and the Ganges, his heart-touching
melody
floats
upon the breeze.
"This monument
our warriors of old
in
over
rises like the piled cairn
each
man
casts a stone
and
honour of him, the son of a cottager, and himself
a ploughman, our prince, with the true feelings of

94
true greatness,
and more
illustrious
by
this act of
generosity, pays here his tribute at the shrine of
May
genius.
the work prosper
may
completed, then
tell
it
and when happily
to future generations
which could produce a Burns was
that the age

also in those
who
who, while they
rich
could appreciate his talents, and

felt
and owned the power of
his
muse, have honoured his name."
The Rev. H.
ceremony with
Paul,
of Broughton, concluded the
suitable
prayer,
and
the
whole
Masonic body, joined by an immense crowd of spectators,
gave three heathy cheers, and the procession
returned to the town of Ayr.

In the evening deputations arrived at the
Grand
Lodge, when the Rev. H. Paul recited the following
ode
"
Thy
sorrows, Ayr, are like the
dews of night.
In pearly drops, o'er Nature's cheek descending.
To bid her
The
tear
vernal beauty
and smile
For like the
hymn
beam more
in lovely
bright.
union blending;
of gratitude ascending
With incense ever pleasing
to the skies.
Thine and thy darling poet's fame extending.
Thou
hear'st the voice of gratulation rise.
"

" And,
lo
on
The Sons
95
this auspicious holiday.
of Light, in bright array,
With many
To
a.
mystic streamer flying,
minstrelsy with measured steps advance.
And
At
seem, at times, to weave the festive dance.
times, to shake the spear, or couch the lance.
To feet unhallow'd all access denying

The while they place, by plummet, rule, and
The corner-stone, predestined to bear
The
precious
Of Ayr
"Though
The
monumental
pile.
the glory, and the boast of Kyle.
frail
poet's
the fabric which you raise
memory
to prolong,
Compar'd with that which speaks
The
Yet
square.
his praise.
energy divine of song
still
our gratitude
is
due.
Thrice lov'd, thrice honour'd friends, to you
Who
bid the beauteous structure rise
And so our fond regrets were one.

When Coila wept her favourite son.
So in your joys we sympathise.
When
the whole world of taste and feeling turns
Its gaze,
with rapture ever new, on Burns
Alexander Boswell also sang the following song, composed by himself, with great power and
" Vain thought
Of souls so
The wild flow
Ah
effect
But had Burns witness'd a meeting

congenial, and
warm'd with such
fire.
of fancy in ecstasy greeting.
what might have been the bold notes of
his lyre
96
" As rays by
doubled and doubled.
reflection are
His bosom had swell'd to your cheering reply

Soft
sympathy soothing the heart that was troubled

smile for his mirth
for his sorrow a sigh.
" Admir'd, but unaided, how dark was

His struggles we know, and his
From murky
He
''
rose, self-embalm'd,
Had
all his
And, snatching
''To rank and to
We
and destruction
prize
defies.
would that smiles of
never decoy'd him from
taught
we
efforts
neglect, as the flame bursts to glory.
ploughman he was
And
his story
home and
false favour
his
team
hopes and his wishes to waver.
reality, left
title,
him
a dream.
due deference owing.
bow, as befitting society's plan
But, judgment awaken'd, and sympathy glowing.
We
"
pass all distinctions, and rest upon
And from
With
the poor hind, who, his day's task completed.
industry's pride to his hovel returns.
To him who
in royalty's splendour is seated.
If soul independent
be found
" His birthright, his muse
How
blithely
'twas
in
Like the lark
Bums.
in the
he caroU'd in praise of the
With nature enraptur'd, and
How
man.
morning.
fair;
artifice scorning.
sweet were his notes on the banks of the Ayr

"And
97
near to that spot where his kindred dust slumbers.
And mark'd by the

And near the thatch'd
bard on the tablets of fame.
shed where he
first lisp'd
in numbers.
We'll raise a proud tribute to honour his name."
The
poet's
mother died
in
January, 1820, thus sur-
viving her son nearly twenty-four years.

died on
March,
26th
1834.
At
His wife
death Robert
his
Burns
left
four sons,
and on the day of his interment
son was born,
who was named Maxwell, named
fifth
after
who attended
the doctor
illness,
and who died on 25th
the poet in
April,
his last
Robert,
1799.
the eldest and favourite son of the poet, was born at
Mauchline
in
was
twenty-nine years
for
the Legacy Department of Somerset House.
retirement he
In
He
1786.
in
addition
to
resided
for
being an
some years
excellent
at
On
Dumfries.
linguist
and an
accomplished musician, he also was a poet of no mean

merit.
He
died
year of his age.
in
May, 1857,
in
the seventy-first
Francis Wallace, the second son, was
born at EUiesland on 9th April, 1789, but died
in 1803.
William Nicol, the third son, was born at Dumfries
on 2ist November, 1792, and James Glencairn, the

fourth,
was born on
12th
August,
1794.
The two
last-named, through the influence of Sir James
Shaw
93
and the Marchioness of Hastings, entered the service

of the East India
Colonel
and
The former
Company.
the
to
latter
rose to be
be Lieutenant-Colonel.
William Nicol died on 21st February, 1872, and James
The
Glencairn on i8th November, 1865.
latter left
two daughters, Sarah and Annie.
The
former married
Dr. Hutchinson, and on her death
left
three daughters
and one
son,
and there are
On
ants of the poet.
still
living direct descend-
17th September, 1831, Captain
he then was) James Glencairn Burns, who had
(as
just returned
visit
to
home from
Walter
Sir
India, paid, with his wife,
Scott,
and spent the day under
his roof, shortly before the death of the great Scottish
Gilbert,
novelist.
the brother of the poet, died
on
owner of EUiesland, son
of
27th April, 1827.

Patrick
Sir
the
Miller,
Thomas
Miller,
was
initiated in
winning Lodge, on 12th February,
Canongate Kil1765.
He
had
been brought up as a banker, but applied himself to

scientific
pursuits
and was the
application of steam
power
first
to
propose the
to navigation.
After Burns' death a Liverpolitan Freemason and a

compatriot. Dr. Currie, obtained the poet's manuscripts

and
letters,
from
and, purely as a labour of love, compiled
that
pecuniary
chaotic
benefit
material
of
the
biography
widow
and
Morgan afterwards made a
Pierpont
99
little
bid
the
for
ones.
for
the
papers, but, happily, he was not successful in securing
them.
In
made
tation
1868 a number of Masons met together and

all
the preliminary arrangements for the resusci-
of
the
Tarbolton, No. 125.

in
Mother Lodge,
poet's
due form presented
St.
David's,
petition with that object
to the
Grand Lodge of Scotland
and a sum of money deposited with the
petition,
the Lodge, which was chartered originally in
then struck off the
was
and
1773,
Roll in 1843, was re-opened in
Mauchline on 8th November, 1869, when the number

133 was assigned to
It is interesting to
it.
record that one of the unwritten
by-laws of the Scots Lodge, No. 2319, London,

"
That every January,
meeting, the
'
is:
after the business of the regular
harmonie
'
of the evening shall be de-
voted to the hero-worship of paying homage at the

shrine of Burns' immortal fame."

loo
Caroline
Fox
in
her Journals has
on record an
left
interesting account of an afternoon spent with

Carlyle, in
which she says
" Burns was the
Scotch patriot was

did he sketch
care
Thomas
last
of our heroes, and here our
Most graphically
in his element.
some passages
with which his good
in the poet's life
father
educated him,
The
teaching him to read his Bible and to write.

family was in great poverty, and
the
deeply did
so
anxiety about rearing his children prey on the mind

Burns, that he died of a broken
of old William
heart.
He was
a sincere man,
and, like
He
sincere man, he lived not in vain.
Knox and
the precepts of John

immortality.
When
Robert's
every
acted up to
trained his son to

talents
developed
themselves, the rich and the great espoused

cause, constantly sent for
his
him when they would be
amused, and drew him out of his simple habits,

greatly to his
own woe.
this perpetual lionising
in
He
unblighted
every sense, and he died.
this of
Robert Burns
could not long stand

;
it
What
his father
broke him up
a tragedy
is
dying of a broken
heart from dread of over-great poverty
the son

from contact with the great, who would
loi
flatter
him
two and then leave him unfriended.
for a night or
Amusement they must
have,
it
seems,
any
at
expense, though one would have thought they were
amused
sufficiently
in
they were like the
grandees ride
the
common way
we
Indians
read
but no,
of whose
in their palanquins at night,
and are
not content with torches carried before them, but
must have instead

spears.
fireflies
He
stuck at
the
end of
[Carlyle] then told us he had
more than occupied our
time,
and rushed down-
stairs."
Burns
is
by
described
Professor Craik as " the
greatest peasant poet that has ever appeared.

in
Horace,
in
excels what
the
we
way
Nothing
of curious felicity of phrase,
find in the compositions of this
Ayr-
shire ploughman,"
Some have doubted

of the Canongate
his investiture as Poet- Laureate
Kilwinning Lodge, owing to the
absence of certain documentary proofs.
he was more than
that.
He
was, and
But, after
is,
the Laureate
of the Scottish race, of the Masonic Craft, and of
who
toil.
One
all,
all
writer has given Burns a chapter to
I02
himself in a book he has written, entitled
have failed.
in
Whatever may have been the
Burns' career,
that
he was a
who
will
failure
world with his songs.
have revelled
in
in his verse.
Men who
side-tracks
venture upon the assertion
He
has thrilled the whole
Generation after generation

*
Not
in
Scotland alone, but
every country of each hemisphere his verses and
epigrams are quoted as freely and as frequently as

passages from the Sacred Scriptures.
ROBERT BURNS ARMORIAL BEARINGS.
STATUE OF UUftNS y
I'l.AXJlA.V.
The
Spirit of Bro. Robert
Burns
The
Bro. Robert Burns.
Spirit of
Address delivered by Bro. Rev. Dr. Fort Newton,

Past Grand Chaplain, Iowa, U.S.A., in proposing
the toast "
Burns"
To
Immortal Memory of Bro. Robert

Burns Meeting of the Scots Lodge,
the
at the
No. 2jig, English Constitution, on 2^th January,

igi8.
We
are
met
this evening, as
understand
love Robert Burns and one another.
Burns would
that
rejoice to
be here,
for
was half a
feast
where joy and goodwill were guests.

his spirit
and we
to this day,
feel
it
found
way
its
for
any man than
gentler and
that
Higher
frolic
and the
The
social
into his songs,
for his
in
the fellowship
tribute there
to say, justly,
more joyous
feel
and he was nowhere more
happy, nowhere more welcome, than

of his Masonic Brethren.
he loved more
all
magnetism of
just to
Somehow
than
else that festival that
it,
is
none
that the world
having lived
was true of Burns, whose very name
is
is
and
an emblem
io6
And
of pity, joy, and the genius of fraternity.
we
therefor that
weakness as
love Robert Burns, as
for his strength,
and
the
all
much
more
he was such an unveneered human being.

a sinner, he was
a
little
good and a
strong, foolish
to
few
and,
men
little
bad, a
feared he was foolish.
memory
of Burns
Yes, more than a fragrance,
many
is
lands,
little
wise,
and wise,
It is
given but
;
a certain
Mark Twain,
a living force uniting
by a kind of Freemasonry, into a

pity.
fitness in
man
Memory
proposing this toast to the
of
my
country
of Robert Burns.
the Lincoln of our literature, used to
say that our American Civil
War was
Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns.
an exaggeration, but none the

of stating a
wots,
a sweet perfume.
is
it is
league of liberty, justice, and
There
God
from Ayr to Sidney, from Chicago to
to-day,
of
he was
thus to live in the hearts of their fellows
Calcutta, the
men
for that
weak and a
little
is
for his
If
akin to ourselves, as
when he thought he was
when he
often,
in that
it
fact.
We
less
a fight between
Of course,
it
was
a picturesque
way
of the South read Sir Walter
Scott for his pride of blood and extraction, for his
grace and charm of courtesy, for his pictures of an old
romantic feudalism
and,
may
add, for the strength

and sweetness of
for all its culture
Our Southern
his genius.
and
transplanted to the
hospitality,
New
107
society,
was the old feudalism
The Yankees
World.
Robert Burns, who said that " a man's a man
say, our Civil
War was
and struggling
new
to
be
a clash of
God-endowed
prophet.
is
to
each growing
an old feudalism against a
free,
democracy
uprising
ideals,
for a'
That
whether white or black or brown.
that,"
read
Burns was the
of which
And
so
the
was
conflict
inevitable.
About the
walls of Troy, as
Homer saw
it,
two
one on the earth between Greeks and
battles raged,
Trojans, one in the viewless air between gods and
So
goddesses.
ragged
the
battle of
peace
live together
on
and
this earth
civilisation
and keep the
to decide
shape the destination of mankind.
and aims and
ideals,
and now,
winding,
battle of ideals.
life
and we are struggling together
ideal shall
long,
wars, two battles
guns and a
a conflict of two conceptions of
which cannot
arts
above
lines of the greatest of all
are raging
It is
to-day,
at last,
one
which
One
in
in
arms,
the land of Lincoln and the land of Burns are fighting

for the fundamental
lasting music.
truths which Burns set to ever-
io8
Some
who dream
there are
cosmopolitanism, in which
He
Burns.
striking
was
all local
distinctively
deep roots into his native
blur of
loyalties, all heroic
forgotten.
Not
a national
poet,
merged and
national genius shall be
so
of a vague
and, for that
soil,
very reason, touching a chord so haunting that
When
echoes for ever.
Burns appeared the
fire
Her
almost quenched.
blushed to be convicted of a Scottism
was
at such a time that
spirit of
Her people were crushed
Scotland was at a low ebb.
and her ancient
scholars
in speech.
stirring
him
like
life
of his nation
He
language.
and
a passion, his soul attuned to
the ancient ballads of love and
simple
It
Burns came, inspired by the
history of his people, the traditions of Wallace
Bruce
it
in
daring, singing
their
vivid
the
and simple
struck with a delicate but strong hand
the deep and noble feelings of his countrymen, and
somewhere upon
his variegated robe of
found embroidered the
He made
people.
man.
him,
his
It
as,
is
it
life,
song
will
the faith, the genius of his
a double honour to be a Scots-
therefor that the
men
of Scotland love
perhaps, never people loved a poet, and
home
at
be
make
once a throne of melody and a shrine of
national glory.

"
The Memory
of Burns," cried Emerson, "
The west winds
to leave us anything to say.
murmuring
Open
it.
the
hearken to the incoming
The doves
perching on the eaves of a stone chapel
of Burns
every
The Memory
it.
man's, every boy's, every
what
is
girl's
head
and they say them by
carries snatches of his songs,
and,
are
what the waves say of
tide,
may know something about
it
windows behind you and
opposite
heart
am
heaven and earth have taken too good care of
afraid
it.
109
of
strangest
all,
them from a book, but from mouth
never learned
They
to mouth.
are the property and the solace of mankind."

If
ever of any one,
it
can be said of Robert Burns,
that his soul goes marching on, striding over continents
and
years, trampling tyrannies
He
down.
was the
harbinger of the nineteenth century, the poet of the

rights
been
and reign of the common people, whom,
said,
God must
of them.
The
love because
earth was
Washington when
fresh
had Burns reached
known our
it
known him by fame and warm
many
discovered
infinite regret.
his four-score years,
peasant-President
so
has
upon the tomb of
was born;
that century
Lincoln and buried him with
He made
it
Indeed,
he might have
he surely must have

appreciation.
In this
no ROBERT BURNS AND FREEMASONRY

way Lincoln knew him and
stanzas of "
fondly repeated the sombre
Man was made
Mourn," because
to
suited the temper of his melancholy spirit.
melody of the age of Lincoln
victorious
voice
in
the songs
of Burns, as
inspired Petrarch with the

ence,
and out of the
created
modern
all
in
first
Middle Ages
of the
when Taine came
So,
its spirit
a Scotch peasant, Robert Burns "
men most
give
fitted to
it
found
Greek singer
the
account for that age he found that

first
But the
that forced the Renas-
fire
inertia
times.
it
"
to
broke
man
of
voice, because " scarcely
ever was seen together more of misery and of talent."
This
literary
is
not the time to rattle the dry bones of
criticism
dreary business at best, and a
dismal business at worst.
Robert Burns was a
lyric
It
is
by
poet of the
agreed that
all
first
Draw
the greatest song-writer of the world.
from Shakespeare to Browning, and he

few
tall
enough
to touch
it.
The
humour
and
still
more
rarely blended.
and
his
fame
rests
write letters, and
is
fire,
if
one of the
Burns
sweet-toned
qualities rare
enough
But he was a man
upon verses written
not
a line
qualities of
are simplicity, naturalness, vividness,

pathos, and rollicking
order,
swiftly, as
first,
men
upon songs that were as spontaneous,

as artless,
and as lovely as the songs of
the spirit of Burns was not merely local.
his
But
birds.
His passion
for liberty, his affirmation of the nobility of
sense of the dignity of labour,
iii
man, his
pictures
of the
beauties of nature, of the pathos and hard lot of the

lowly, of the joys
find response in
and woes and
pieties of his people
every breast where beats the heart of
Man
Surely no one, since the Son of
a man.
lodged
with the fishermen by the sea, has taught more clearly

the brotherhood of
man and
the kinship of
all
breathing
things.
That which
while
human
Robert Burns, and
lives in
nature
is
the same,
is
will
live
his love of justice,
of honesty, his touch of pathos, of melting sympathy,

his
in
demand
God
for liberty, his faith in
all
and
in nature,
His poems were
pity
finding their
jets of love
and
way out through
the
little
fissures in the granite-like theology of his day.
came
a
fresh from the heart of a
man whom
life
is
woven of
the death of
beauty, mystery, and sorrow.
flower crushed in the budding, a field
out of
They
bird set dreaming of the meaning of a world
little
wherein
and
uttered with simple speech and the golden
voice of song.
liberty
man,
its
home by a
ploughshare, a
mouse turned
wounded hare
112
memory
limping along the road to dusty death, or the

of a tiny bird
him
He
was a
songs there
his
for
him
days agone, touched
in
His poems did not grow
to tears.
complete.
all
who sang
child of the
open
an outdoor
is
they awoke
air,
and about
He
feeling.
Nature with the swift glances of a child
saw
lilt
game
immortal
glint of flowing waters, in the
beauty
the
in the fold of clouds, in the slant of trees, in
and
saw
of
hide-and-seek played by sunbeams and shadows, in the

mists trailing over the
the forest
filled
The
hills.
sigh of the wind in
him with a kind of
wild, sad joy,
and
mountain daisy was
like
the
thought of one much loved and long dead.
So
the
tender face of a
the
throb of his heart

heart
He
in
warm
in his
life
and a
soul of
the midst of hard poverty
else
we do
was a
pity.
yet he lived with
folly,
know Burns
not
bubbling joyousness, a
in the
it
the instincts of an
fire,
dash and daring, sometimes with
add
words, and
which he carried an alabaster box of
in
had a sad
angel
is
and,
with
lyric glee as of
we must
a certain
a bird singing
boughs.
Such
was
passionate and
the
spirit
piteous,
of
Robert Burns
compact of
light
and beauty, capable of withering scorn
man
and flame
of
wrong.
"

quickly shifting from
the ludicrous to the horrible,
poised between laughter and tears
we
could send
pity
it
into all the
and joy would return
Long
live the Spirit of
and glow
and
by some
if
art
dark places of the world,
to the
common ways
May
Robert Burns.
the confounding of
to
113
all
of man.
it
grow
unkindness,
all
injustice, all bitterness.
"
He
haunts his native land
As an immortal youth;
his
hand
Guides every plough.

His presence haunts this room to-night
form of mingled mist and light
From
His
feet
hood
is
may be
in the furrow,
in his heart,
melody, and
I
that far coast."
on
but the nobility of man-
his lips the voice of eternal
in his face the light of the
give you the toast,
Robert Burns
"To
morning
the Immortal
star.
Memory
of
THE SONGS OF BURNS.

'Tis
little
land that claims his birth.
But over the world wide.

His songs are sung
By
old
and young;
In the melting strains of the Scottish tongue.
With hallowed mirth are
At every
his
sweet songs sung
Scot's fireside.
There's never a land on the earth's broad breast,
From Clyde
to the farthest sea.
But loves the sound
Of his name renowned.

And as oft as his natal day comes round
Wet eyes in the West to the Doon's green ground
Look homeward
wistfully.
There's never a voice so sweet, so glad,

Floats over the lone sea-foam,
As the woodland wile
Of the Bard
Whose notes
of Kyle,
can the mourner's grief beguile,
Till eyes that are sad
wear a welcome smile
At a glimpse of the
hills
of home."
Kelso
"S
Kelly.
4 S?

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I

Ofotncll IttittctBttg ffiihtars

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

must registhe library to borrow

books for home

''^" ''^ ""' be returned at end of college

Limited books must be

and not renewed.

Students must return all

For special pur-

poses they are given out for

Borrowers should not use

the benefit of other persons.

Readers are asked to reall cases

not deface books by marks and writing.

Cornell University Library

3 1924 013 447 671

ROBERT BURNS AND FREEMASONRY

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

the United States on the use of the

to tltt late ttattn

PRINTBD BY ALEXANDER GARDNER, PAIBI^Y.

Birth-plaqe of Robert Burns,

James' Lodge in Tarbolton,

Burns' Chair as Depute Master, Tarbolton,

" Death and Dr. Hornbook,"

Facsimile of Letter written by Burns to St. James'

Masonic Relics of the Poet,

" Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn,''

composing " The

Cottar's Saturday Night,"

Inauguration of Robert Burns as Poet-Laureate of

Lodge Canongate Kilwinning,

which Burns Died,

Grand-daughter and Widow of the Poet,

Design of Monument erected

Cast of the Skull of Burns,

Statue of Burns by Flaxman,

Robert Burns and Freemasonry

very strong and

biography of Scotia's famous

humble cottage on the banks of the Doon,

the district of Kyle, about two

town of Ayr, Robert

influence of the Craft of

and of him the poet wrote

father was a farmer upon the Carrick border, O,

And carefully he reared me in decency and order, O

For without an honest, manly heart no

man was worth

father was, during his

reverses and misfortunes.

cottage in which the

ROBERT BURNS AND FREEMASONRY

born was a clay-built and thatched one,

on the highway which leads from Ayr to the southern

part of the county.

converted into a neat,

house, and for

some years was kept by a Mr. John

Goudie, who, with his wife, knew the poet intimately.

which served as kitchen, and