THIS
SECTION (Objects & Projects) |
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Paintings & artefacts |
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OTHER
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The Club owns much of value and of importance, apart from the manuscripts mentioned on another page, such as the 1781 daybook recording the visits by the young Robert Burns to the local doctor, or the superbly crafted gavel carved by an Irvine artist as his homage to the poet in 1996, the Bicentenary year of Burns' death.
This section gives only an indication of the wealth of interest in the Club's possessions. Only by visiting us, will you be able to really enjoy the items on display, and hear all the stories behind them.
Surgeon Fleeming's Day-Book was a unique find in 1956 (175 years after Burns was in Irvine) by Mr Charles Balcombe, a club member and by profession a pharmaceutical chemist.
Its first entry is dated 1759; it details patients, prescriptions and fees charged. The entries for November 1781 include Robert Burns, lint dresser, Irvine, showing that Surgeon Charles Fleeming (Fleming) had visited the Poet on five occasions in a period of eight days.
It was always known that Robert Burns had been very ill during his stay in Irvine and that his father William had travelled from Lochlie Farm, Tarbolton, to visit him.
Here for the first time was documentary proof of the poet's illness.
The Club also possesses a copy of The Glasgow Mercury Newspaper dated January, 1783. On the front page appears a list of farmers who had gained a premium from the Government which shows that Robert Burns, farmer, Lochlie Farm, Tarbolton, Ayrshire, had been awarded a premium of £3 for growing 3 acres of flax.
In
purchasing this newspaper the club received an unexpected bonus. There
is an advert for a concoction called "Maredant's Drops"; it
contains a letter from Mr Fleeming, describing how the drops had cured
the "most corrosive ulcer I had ever seen, and other sores",
and thus authenticating this "recent and most extraordinary Cure".
This grandfather clock with brass face made by John Brown, Machline (old spelling for Mauchline) for an unknown person William Logan (named on the brass).
John Brown was a contemporary of Robert Burns and appears in the poem "The Libel Summons", a satire about a fictional Court of Equity where a number of the village rakes, including Brown are summoned to answer for their alleged crime of fornication.
In the poem Burns refers to Brown as 'Clockie Brown' no doubt because he was a clockmaker. Burns further indites Brown in his satire "Epitaph For A Wag In Mauchline".
Lament
him, Mauchline husbands a', Ye
Mauchline bairns, as on ye pass |
Known
throughout the world, the painting titled Burns in Edinburgh is on display
to our visitors. Painted in 1887 by C M Hardie, it commemorates Burns'
stay in Edinburgh, and depicts many of the eminent people whom the poet
met in Scotland's capital.
< click to enlarge
Also
in the Burns Museum is The Vision, by J E Christie, inspired by the poem
in which Burns describes seeing his Muse, Coila, the spirit of Kyle, the
district in which he was born. Other paintings include portraits of Archibald,
13th Earl of Eglinton (see below for more details),
who organised the last medieval tournament held in the British Isles in
1839 at Irvine, of Bailie Fullarton, the character on whom John Galt's
novel The Provost was based, and of Provost Paterson, whose sons donated
Wellwood (our premises) to the Club.
In
our entrance hall, there is a set of five large oil paintings of scenes
from Tam O Shanter, commissioned by the Club from Angus Scott. The same
poem is illustrated in a set of small attractive panels, carved from oak,
on one side of the main staircase.
The portrait of Archibald, 13th Earl of Eglinton, 1821-1861, is a copy of the original. This painting formerly embellished the new Town House of 1862. We are indebted to the late Col G P Wood MC DL, of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, for the following notes, prepared in Dec 1999, using records of the Stirlingshire Militia, his own experience as a Deputy Lieutenant, and a life-long interest in military history, and to his daughter, Fiona Lee, for passing them on to us. [The italics show where Col Wood indicated that we need to add or check details.] In the portrait we see the Earl dressed in the uniform of a Lord Lieutenant (Ld Lt), in this case Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1852 and 1858 (he held that dignity on two occasions). (The Earl also (prob. 1843) became Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire.) The original painting can be seen at [X]. The Earl’s uniform In this portrait, the 13th Earl of Eglinton wears a Lord Lieutenant’s uniform, which was (and still is today) the same as a Major General’s uniform. However, although the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, and other military campaigns were happening when the Earl’s portrait was painted, he wears no medals. This confirms he had no military connections. It was fashionable at the time to wear military uniform at social occasions, as can be seen in the painting downstairs in the Club; it depicts an Edinburgh drawing room full of guests listening to Burns, and Lord Glencairn is shown wearing uniform. The Earl wears a scarlet coatee, which had long tails at the back, similar to a modern tailcoat. Military fashion follows civilian fashion. As a style, the Victorian coatee with its high collar comes between the Georgian cutaway coat and the later longer length jackets. The buttons are embossed with the Royal crest. The cocked hat has white swan feathers, and is still worn by Guards Major Generals today on ceremonial duties in London. At each end of the hat are crimson and gold bullion tassels. A Scottish Lord Lieutenant has a thistle on his epaulets. But the Earl, as a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, would probably have had a harp on his epaulets, although we cannot see this on the portrait. He wears a decorative gold waist sash with tassel, and also a sword belt with buckle. The sword is “the 1831 pattern scimitar” or Mameluke sword, a copy of an Arab scimitar, with a white ivory handle. This is still carried today by Generals wearing full dress uniform. The rôle of the Lord Lieutenant and the Militia The administration of Ireland at the time of the portrait may be different to the present day. Was Eglinton the only Ld Lt or one of many? There are now 8 Ldx Lt in Northern Ireland, one per county. There are 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland – did they each have a Ld Lt before 1919? Or was there only one Ld Lt of Ireland? Each County had (and still has to this day) one Lord Lieutenant, who was (and is) the monarch’s representative. At the time of this portrait, the monarch was Queen Victoria. The Earl was therefore the most senior person in Ireland after the Queen. His main rôle would be to take over local administration if the government broke down, and he would be, as now, assisted in his duties by several Deputy Lieutenants (DLs). DLs, and presumably Ldx Lt become ‘inactive’ at the age of 75. Each Lord Lieutenant was also responsible for raising his county’s Militia by Ballot. Only a certain number of men were required to be attested into the Militia for five years, so the names of the men that were eligible would be drawn. Those men who wished to avoid the commitment, and who could afford to do so, found and paid a substitute to stand in for them if they were balloted. Militia Clubs developed, and if a member’s name was drawn, the club funds paid for a substitute. As an example, the Stirlingshire Militia was only called out for training four times between 1820 and 1831. But they were mobilised at the time of the Crimean War to replace regular garrison regiments. Militia Acts were passed and dropped as required, the last one being passed in 1852. This Act introduced voluntary enlistment into the Militia, although the Ballot could still be used in the event of an emergency and there continued to be a laid-down quota from each County. At the time of this Act, the Irish Militia were amalgamated with those of Great Britain, and the Militia were renumbered. The various Volunteer regiments date from 1859, with the rise of military patriotism in Britain, but they have no connection with the Militia. The civilian Home Office controlled the Militias until the Cardwell army reforms of 1870, when they passed to the War Office. Thereafter, the Ldx Lt ceased to be responsible for the Militia. The Militia came into the Regiments in 1881, and the Militia Battalions of regular regiments served, for example, in the South African War 1899-1902, and served as reinforcing units for the British Expeditionary Force in WW1. The Militia then vanished in 1918. Connections The 13th Earl is descended from the Earl that raised the Montgomery’s Highlanders (the 77th Regiment) in Stirling in 1757 to fight in the American Wars and the West Indies. The Regiment was recruited from the defeated Jacobite clans, and when it disbanded in Canada in 1763, they were offered a return passage home, or land for themselves in Canada. In the course of a long speech in Parliament in 1766, William Pitt the Elder praised the men of the then new Highland regiments. Paraphrased, he said: “I sought for merit wherever it was to be found…and found it in the mountains of the North. I drew into your service a hardy and intrepid race of men… they fought with valour and conquered for you in every part of the world.” |
Two
of our most recent possessions are by craftsmen of today. Colin
Hunter McQueen of Glasgow sculpted the bust of Burns,
pictured here - Colin has also enhanced our collection by re-gilding the
frames of several of our paintings.
click to enlarge >
A
smaller piece, but much loved by visitors, is a gavel carved by
Bill Parkinson of Irvine as his homage to the Bard and a gift
to the Club on the occasion of the Bicentenary of the poet's death in
1996. The handle, with mouse running up an ear of corn, is carved from
one piece of Beechwood, and the end to be used to tap the table is carved
from Australian Red Gum.
click picture to enlarge
One of the more unusual artefacts from the past, also on permanent display, are toddy ladles which once belonged to Robert Burns, and which were shown at the Burns Centenary Exhibition in Glasgow in 1896.
Upstairs in the Concert Room display cases are fine Parian Ware figures of Tam O Shanter, Souter Johnny, and John Anderson (with wife, cat and dog; all in exquisite detail), produced in the second half of the 19th century.
Used in the Annual Celebration, the Loving Cup from Sheffield was given to the Club in 1869 in recognition of its purchase of the house where James Montgomery was born in 1771 and lived until 1776. The journalist, reformer and poet had revisited Irvine at the age of 70. The inscription under its base reads:
PRESENTED
TO THE
IRVIN BURNS CLUB
BY
Mr John Rhodes
OF SHEFFIELD THROUGH
Mr Robert McTear
GLASGOW
TO COMMEMORATE THE PURCHASE
BY THE CLUB
OF THE HOUSE IN IRVIN IN WHICH
James Montgomerie
THE CHRISTIAN POET WAS BORN
1869
The cup inscription is as shown here (not as in McJannet's "Royal Burgh of Irvine"), including the mis-spelling of the town name. John Rhodes was probably the eldest son of Sheffield Master Cutler Ebenezer Rhodes, a conspicuous member of a debating society named the Society of Friends of Literature. Its meetings were held in a Sheffield pub and, like other such societies, it was later proscribed - regarded as a hotbed of sedition. Ebenezer Rhodes was an intelligent and fluent participant, and something of a poet. James Montgomery was one of its other prominent members. Rhodes made many excurions to the Derbyshire Dales with Montgomery, and published books on scenery, including a four-part work on the Peak District. When his business failed in 1827, his remaining years were made comfortable through the help of his friends, including Montgomery, so we think that the Cup represents his son's appreciation of the help given to his father by a good friend. John Rhodes presented the Cup in person at the supper in the Kings Arms in 1870. The property transaction mentioned is obscure, for the Club did not in fact purchase the house. The 1869 minutes record that it was purchased by Maxwell Dick who would retain a half-interest, the other half-interest being shared by a group of other members. We do not know why Robert McTear, the Glasgow auctioneer, is named in the inscription; he was also involved in obtaining an honorary member acceptance from Garibaldi in 1869.
These are only a few of the many artefacts housed on the Club premises for the interest of members and visitors alike.
The
favourite pipe of renowned Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid, given to his
friend and fellow poet Henry Mair by his widow Valda, was gifted to Irvine
Burns Club in January 2005 - it had, said Henry, "been sitting in
a jar in my house for 24 years; now future generations will have it as
a reminder of a great man". To raise money for the Children's Hospice,
Henry had decided to sell it, and was delighted when the winning bidders,
Irvine firm Lindsay Fencing and MSP Tommy Sheridan, in turn donated it
to the safe keeping of Irvine Burns Club.
The photo (reproduced by courtesy of the 'Irvine Herald'; photo ref. IH022305) shows the presentation in the Burns Club - click it to enlarge - in the back row are Sam Gaw (Past Pres.), John Inglis (Past Pres.), Henry Mair (International Poetry Competition), Jim Burns (Vice-Pres. at the time) and Hugh Hutchison (Secretary). At the front are President Willie Boyd and Alan Black of Lindsay Fencing. The pipe sale raised £500 for the Children's Hospice Association.
Upstairs, in the Music Room, you can hear, at different times, the best of opera from post-graduate students, and the most enthusiastic of primary school pupils reciting from the works of Burns. The post-graduate students present a spring concert as part of a programme of music events, while primary and secondary children take part in a children's poetry evening at Irvine's annual Marymass festival.
The International Poetry Competition, organised by Henry Mair, makes use of the room each spring. The room, which seats 100 and has a small kitchen nearby, is sometimes let out to other organisations for similar events.
The Music
Room houses a Bechstein rosewood over-size grand piano once owned by Mr.
Don Whyte, and lent in 1978 to Irvine Burns Club in memory of his father
Dr. Ian Whyte (1901-1960), noted Scottish composer, conductor and pianist
and leader of the B.B.C. Scottish Orchestra.
The piano was made in Berlin c.1910 and was purchased by Dr Whyte in 1931.
Installed
in his home in Edinburgh and Glasgow, it was played by many celebrities,
including Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Arthur Bliss.
The illustration here, of Cutty Sark pulling off the tail of Tam O'Shanter's mare, Maggie, is one of the panels in the Music Room central window. These panels were saved from the now demolished Lauder's Tearooms in Kilmarnock.
click to enlarge
