Monthly Archives: January 2013

New Farm Primary’s Burns Visit

by bmcuser

New Farm Primary’s lovely P7 class visited the Burns Monument Centre recently in preparation for their Burns Supper. The class looked at our Burns Collection, including the numerous translations of Burns. They were also very keen on the digital Kilmarnock Edition, where they could turn pages and listen to audio versions of some of the poems. ‘To a Louse’ was a particular favourite!

Copy of New Farm Primary Burns Visit 2013(2)

The class also had a peek inside the Archive Store, and learned about the kind of material that’s kept there and why. We spoke about the Kirk Session records, and why young “rantin’ rovin’ Robin” featured in the Mauchline records.

The P7s had already done some research into Burns and the Kilmarnock Edition. They knew all about John Wilson and the subscribers to the book. We had a look at some photographs of the location of Wilson’s press, near Waterloo Street. The pupils also planned a visit to The Dick Institute to see the replica of Wilson’s printing press. We looked at some old maps of Kilmarnock town centre to work out where this and other Burns-related places were located, for example Tam Samson’s house.

Copy of Waterloo Street2

Copy of Braeside Street1

With great care the pupils then had a look at some of our rare books, printed by John Wilson in Kilmarnock in the 1780s. For example, the bard’s friend David Sillar’s Poems, which was of particular interest to one pupil who hailed from Tarbolton. And the Wilson print of Milton’s Paradise Lost, which was apparently a favourite of Burns.

Copy of New Farm Burns Visit 2013(6)

The pupils also learned a lot about the history of our Burns Monument, and looked at material relating to its opening in 1879, including newspaper reports and town council records.

Copy of AA-DC-212-9-1-1a

Finally, we made excellent use of the Centre’s family history resources, which staff used to show the class how to create a Robert Burns family tree. The picture below shows Registration staff demonstrating the Scotland’s People website.

Copy of New Farm Primary Burns Visit 2013(5)

The class had a fantastic time, and we were thrilled that they engaged so easily with some very old books, maps and records, and of course, the poetry of Robert Burns.

The Kilmarnock Monument (and haggis) on film

by bmcuser

When every day is Burns Day, January 25th can be an opportunity to look at things differently. We were delighted to find the wee film below from British Pathe, featuring the old Burns Monument in Kilmarnock in 1959. The lasting memory of the film isn’t the rich poetic legacy, or the beautiful songs, or even the finely chiselled statue. It is, inevitably, haggis.

ROBERT BURNS BI-CENTENARY [sic]

A few years earlier, in January 1955, the cameras were on hand to capture the International Burns Festival. Part of the international delegation visited the Kilmarnock Monument, including Anna Elistratova, who wrote the first biographical study of Burns to be published in the Soviet Union. We don’t have footage of this, but the story was captured in the Kilmarnock Standard (and the Kilmarnock Standard Annual, image reproduced below).

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From the Kilmarnock Standard Annual, 1955 -

“During their Kilmarnock visit, the delegates went to the monument in the Kay Park where Mme. Elistratova of the Soviet Union assisted Provost W. B. Gilmour to lay a wreath in the poet’s memory. At the civic reception in the Grand Hall, Mr. Leonard W. Brockington proposed a toast to ‘Auld Killie’ – a friendly, neighbourly and brotherly town,’ he called it.”

Copy of KSA Cover 1955

Coincidentally, this issue of the Annual also contains a very early poem by William McIlvanney in Poets’ Corner!

There is also a lovely film of 1920s Kilmarnock on the Scotland on Screen website, featuring the Monument as one of the landmarks of the town.

In January 2013 we have a busy schedule of school visits, learning about Burns and his Kilmarnock connections in particular. More posts showcasing these visits will follow soon. On the 25th we have Hopscotch Theatre Company performing Tam O’ Shanter for primary schools, and tonight we have The Songs of Burns performed by Anne Lewis and Bill Taylor.

Silverwood Primary’s Jacobite Research

by bmcuser

We recently hosted the impeccably behaved P6/7 pupils from Silverwood Primary, who were researching Kilmarnock’s links with the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The overwhelming local story linked to the Jacobites is that of William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock.

Kilmarnock Earl of Kilmarnock age 42

Boyd joined Bonnie Prince Charlie’s men and fought at Culloden, where he was captured and imprisoned at Tower Hill, London. The pupils looked at history books and articles, which give a variety of possible reasons for Boyd’s ‘treacherous betrayal of the Crown’.

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As well as the politics of the era, the pupils were particularly interested in Boyd’s family and the background story of their home, the Dean Castle. The Dean was almost destroyed by a fire in 1735, worsening the family’s financial situation. After the fire, they lived in Kilmarnock House. The pupils used old maps of the town to work out where Kilmarnock House was located. They were also interested in the house’s later use, as Kilmarnock’s Industrial School in the late 19th century.

Kilmarnock House 2

Using the maps, the pupils could see that the old house was located near what is now the Howard Park. In our local history books they read of Boyd’s wife, Lady Kilmarnock, and her walks along the river while she awaited the fate of her imprisoned husband. This became known as The Lady’s Walk, which forms part of the Howard Park today.

The Ladys Walk1

The Earl of Kilmarnock’s role in the town was discussed. From the Archives we looked at the Kilmarnock Town Council minutes from the 1740s, which show the Earl’s signature (simply, ‘Kilmarnock’). We pointed out the changes in the minutes from mid 1745, when the Earl had joined the Rebellion. In September of that year the Council agree that given the town is ‘threatened with ane invasion into the neighbourhood’, the town guard is to be supported ‘by a sufficient number of men.’ From October 1745 the Council refers to Mr William Boyd rather than the Earl of Kilmarnock. The picture below shows the pupils studying the minute book.

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The pupils were fascinated by the first-hand accounts of Boyd’s trial and eventual execution for treason in August 1746. These accounts were printed in book or pamphlet form in 1746. We have copies in our Special Collection, and under the appropriate conditions, the pupils were able to look at them in detail.

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Included in this collection is the book below, which records the trial and sentencing of the Earl of Kilmarnock.

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Although officially sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered (graphically described for the Earl’s benefit in the above book), Boyd’s sentence was reduced to a more straightforward execution shortly before his death.

There is more on the history of the Boyd family and the Dean Castle, including images of artefacts held there, on the Future Museum site.

The Songs of Burns

by bmcuser

Join us for a Burns Night celebration in an evening of Scottish songs with Mezzo-soprano Anne Lewis and musician Bill Taylor.

The performance will include a programme of traditional Scots songs and airs, many of which are taken from the Scots Musical Museum, by James Johnson and Robert Burns, published between 1787 and 1803.  Other pieces in the recital will come from a variety of historical sources and include different melodies, lyrics and settings from 17th-18th century collections for lute, mandore, fiddle and keyboard.

There will be plenty of familiar Burns favourites and also some less well-known, along with some beautiful Scots airs played on the Highland wire-strung clarsach and a copy of an early 18th-century gut-strung hook harp.    

Tickets priced £10/£8 concession are available from the Dick Institute on or the Burns Monument Centre on .

To a Louse

by bmcuser

This advert appeared in St Marnock magazine in January 1899.

There were lots of chemists and druggists in the area, many of whom advertised their own remedies for head lice and other ailments. It is impossible to say what Alexander Davidson’s Niticide was made of as chemists made up their own mixtures. Some common remedies for head lice in the nineteenth century were mercurial or sulphuric ointments, lard, alcohol, kerosene, and ground seeds of various herbs (some of which is detailed in Hartshorne’s Household Cyclopedia of 1881 – http://archive.org/details/Household_Cyclopedia).

Of course, Robert Burns was writing about the wonders of head lice in the previous century, in ‘To a Louse’ (1786).

“Ye ugly, creepan, blastet wonner,
Detested, shunn’d, by saunt an’ sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her,
                   Sae fine a Lady!
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner,
                   On some poor body.”
 

He even suggests some of the common remedies of the time -

“O for some rank, mercurual rozet,
                   Or fell, red smeddum,
I’ll gie you sic a hearty dose o’t,
                   Wad dress your droddum!”

Mercurial resin or red, strong (or deadly) powder must have been the remedy of choice in 18th century Ayrshire!