This is Your Site
The study of Robert Burns is never ending. The wealth of information is limitless.
I have, therefore, split this site into sections dealing with different aspects of the poet and aimed at specific spheres of knowledge.
The aim of this site is first and foremost to be user friendly. To encourage newcomers to Burns to wish to learn more, to inspire the experts and to foster international relationships.
If you like what you see or if any aspect has been particularly useful and helpful, please let me know. A word of encouragement (or criticism) is appreciated. If you do reply would you let me know how you found my site, and which town or country you are from.
This is Your Site
Help me develop this by giving you the information you want to read.
Be amazed at the Historical Facts of Burns Time, read an Essay on Burns, laugh with ChuckleBurns, be annoyed at AstrologyBurns, but most of all enjoy
Robert Burns
Scotland's National Bard
The Bard of all Humanity
the first poet to Transcend Poetry.
Enjoy Your Site
Just now I've ta'en the fit o' rhyme
My barmie noddle's working prime
My fancy yerkit up sublime
Wi' hasty summon
Hae ye a leisure - moment's time
To hear what's comin?
The Beginning.
I have always had an interest in Robert Burns, presumably because I am a descendant, on my mother's side, of John Murdoch who was Burns Tutor at an early age. However, the interest was a latent one until I joined The Glasgow Haggis Club. This club was founded in 1873 ( no! I am not a founder member! ) and affiliated to the Burns federation in 1886, being number 33 on the roll of Burns Clubs.
Growth
This club has a speaker each month on various middleics but also provides it's entertainment from within. When I joined, there were two gentlemen who were the main reciters of Burns words, and when I heard them I was enthralled. I really believe that Burns uses a language which is better heard out loud than read silently to oneself. From that time on I devoured his poems and his letters and although I knew his life story, I read about the life and times in which he lived.
The Past Presidents at Lawrence's 50th Year as a member of our club.
I remember making my debut at the club's spring outing where everybody is encouraged to perform something, no matter how small. There is an unwritten rule that you do not steal someone else's party piece and the main poems ( Tam o'Shanter, To a Mouse, To a Louse, The Address to the Unco Guid, etc.,) were all taken up so I had to find a less well known poem. I learned On The Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland, and from that I was up and running. Epistles followed, other Scots poets too and the mantle of the Club's Bard gently fell upon my shoulders. The muse had entwined me.
The Mantle
The members were very encouraging and my first Immortal Memory followed. That was in 1983 and more than 250 Suppers ago.
I have spoken at relatively small affairs of 50 guests right up to The Lord Provost's Burns Supper which had over 800. Some have been prestigious affairs - on board the Royal Yacht Britannia and Bridgeton Burns Club ( approx 700 all male. )
I have been president of The Glasgow Haggis Club and The Glasgow and District Burns Association, the latter in 1996 which was the bi-centennial of Burns death. The celebrations that year were very exciting and I have always found that the more you try to put something back into a club, the more enjoyment you receive from it.
The Glasgow and District opened doors to become a director of the Jean Armour Burns Houses Ltd and Burns House (Mauchline) Tryst Ltd. The former are homes for elderly ladies ( situated in the field where Burns turned up the mouse ) where they can enjoy a rent free roof over their heads and the latter is now a museum. The museum comprises of three properties which were formerly Nance Tinnocks Inn. The house where Burns installed Jean Armour when she was thrown out by her parents and the house next door which was the surgery of Dr McKenzie, Burns doctor and friend.
The Future
It is my hope that this website will further enhance his reputation, will reach a wider audience of Burns and may also encourage new interest. We can still all learn from his philosophies, his dislike of cant and hypocrisy, his wit and his fun. If, in some way, it helps to keep his memory alive, promotes Scotland, and makes people more aware and proud of their heritage, then I will be more than satisfied.
At the end of the day Burns should be fun. Let's all enjoy the friendship and cameraderie along the way.
I now also have a CD of Burns poems
The Greatest Poems in the World.
See the video of Parcel of Rogues, To a Mouse, Auld Lang Syne, and Red Rose here too.
To read more about this Click Here.
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