Robert Burns and Dunblane
What did Robert Burns write from when he visited Dunblane?
There are a number of connections between Robert Burns and Dunblane, including poems and songs written from when he visited Dunblane
Robert Burns visited Dunblane in 1787
Robert Burns visited Dunblane in 1787 (describing Dunblane Cathedral as magnificent in his diary), as well as penning verses including the poems about Highland Harry (inspired by singing he heard in Dunblane), and about Dunblane’s Battle of Sheriffmuir.
Robert Burns stated in a letter he heard the original song "The Bob o' Dunblane" (on which Burns said Allan Ramsay had based his version) from the hostess of the principal inn in Dunblane (now known as The Riverside) in 1787. Burns wrote "Ramsay, as usual, has modernized this song. The original, which I learned on the spot, from my old hostess in the principal inn there."
In the year that he died Burns had earlier been offered and accepted the post of Excise-man in Dunblane but had died before he had been able to take up the post. Had he lived, Robert Burns was scheduled to have become Supervisor at Dunblane.
This artwork (a pen and watercolour work of Dunblane created in 1788-80 by artist Francis Grose in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh) depicts Dunblane as Burns would likely have seen it.
Battle of Sheriffmuir
One of the most famous songs written by Robert Burns is his song about Dunblane's Jacobite 1715 Battle of Sheriffmuir.
He originally wrote it in 1787, having visited Dunblane that year, and it was first published in the Scots Musical Museum, appearing in volume III, 1790. Burns, however, was dissatisfied with the first published version of the song, and he revised it. He didn't get to see his revised version in print as it wasn't published until after his death by his editor, James Currie in "The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns: With Explanatory and Glossarial Notes; And a Life of the Author" in the year 1800. In July 2007 the original manuscript containing the revisions and amendments in Burns' own handwriting came up for auction, and acquired by an anonymous collector, but in 2009 was acquired by the National Library of Scotland. In his notes for the revision Burns dropped the chorus line of the original and made significant changes to stanza five and stanza six.
Sheriffmuir - the Battle of Sherramoor
Here is local Dunblane bard Paraig MacNeill performing the song by Robert Burns about Dunblane's Jacobite 1715 Battle of Sheriffmuir (he wrote it in 1787, having visited Dunblane that year, and it was published in 1790). This recording scrolls the text, by Robert Burns, on screen. The Battle of Sheriffmuir was originally called the Battle of Dunblane, and Dunblane Museum displays a medal minted by the Hanoverians
The song was first published in the Scots Musical Museum, appearing in volume III, 1790. It was written to be sung to the "Cameronian Rant".
The account of the battle in the song is by two shepherds taking contrary views. One of the shepherds believes that "the red-coat lads wi' black cockades" routed the Jacobites, while the other shepherd is just as convinced that the Jacobites "did pursue / The horsemen back to Forth, man" with the eventual result that "... mony a huntit, poor Red-coat / For fear amaist did swarf, man."
Robert Burns used the word Sherra-moor (Sheriffmuir) to mean turmoil
The poem entitled "Hallowe'en" by Robert Burns has a connection to Dunblane in that the word Sherramoor is referred to by Robert Burns in one stanza of his "Hallowe'en" poem. And that word, variously defined as any turmoil or tumult or row, is derived from the Battle of Sheriffmuir (also referred to as the Battle of Dunblane) which marked an end to the first Jacobite uprising of 1715. It's not a word in usage nowadays but in 18th century Scotland was sufficiently well known for Robert Burns to include it in this stanza:
"Ae hairst afore the Sherra-moor,
I mind't as weel's yestreen-
I was a gilpey then, I'm sure
I was na past fyfteen:
The simmer had been cauld an' wat,
An' stuff was unco green;
An' eye a rantin kirn we gat,
An' just on Halloween
It fell that night."
You can find the full text of the poem here:
Visit to Dunblane Cathedral inspired Robert Burns to write “Epitaph on Grizzel Grim”
Just as recently as 2015 a manuscript in the hand of Robert Burns was discovered, "Epitaph on Grizzel Grim", which was considered to be the basis for his bawdy ballad "Grim Grizell is a mighty dame" and was inspired by a visit of Robert Burns to Dunblane Cathedral (the nave of which at the time was roofless, having been left to ruin following the Reformation, and which Burns and others at the time sometimes referred to interchangeably as Cathedral or Abbey).
In the Rosebery manuscript, Robert Burns writes of his recollection of copying the lines from a tombstone in Dunblane Cathedral:
"Passing lately through Dunblane, while I stopped to refresh my horse, the following ludicrous epitaph, which I pickt up from an old tombstone among the ruins of the ancient Abbey, struck me particularly, being myself a native of Dumfriesshire"
"Epitaph
Here lyes withe Dethe, aulde Grizzel Grim,
Lincluden's uggely witche
O Dethe & whatt a taist haste thou
Canst lye withe suche a bitche!"
The Bob o’ Dunblane
Robert Burns started collecting song material from 1787 (the year he visited Dunblane) to send to James Johnson's "The Scots Musical Museum." Robert Burns sent "The Bob o' Dunblane" to James Johnson late in 1795 for the fifth volume of "The Scots Musical Museum" but it was omitted from that volume on grounds of indelicacy!
Robert Burns was aware of the song of the same name with similar text by Allan Ramsay (1686–1758). Robert Burns stated he himself heard the original song (on which Burns said Allan Ramsay had based his version) from the hostess of the principal inn in Dunblane (now known as The Riverside) in 1787.
Burns wrote "Ramsay, as usual, has modernized this song. The original, which I learned on the spot, from my old hostess in the principal inn there, is,”
“Lassie, lend me your braw hemp-heckle,
And I'll lend you my thripplin' -kame;
My heckle is broken, it canna be gotten,
And we’ll gae dance the bob o’ Dumblane.
Twa gaed to the wood, to the wood, to the wood,
Twa gaed to the wood - three came hame:
An' it be na weel bobbit, weel bobbit, weel bobbit,
An' it be na weel bobbit, we'll bob it again.”
“I insert this song to introduce the following anecdote, which I have heard well authenticated:—In the evening of the day of the Battle of Dumblane (Sheriff-Muir), when the action was over, a Scots officer, in Argyll's army, observed to his Grace that he was afraid the rebels would give out to the world that they had gotten the victory. "Weel, weel," returned his Grace, alluding to the foregoing ballad, "if they think it be na weel bobbit, we'll bob it again."
The battle of Dunblane, or Sheriffmuir, was fought on 13 November, 1715, between the Earl of Mar, for Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and the Duke of Argyll, for the Government. Both sides claimed the victory, the left wing of each army being routed.
The song was published in 1810 in London, after the death of Robert Burns, in "Select Scottish Songs, Ancient and Modern with critical observations and biographical notices by Robert Burns"
The Scots Musical Museum project was one of the greatest achievements of Robert Burns as a songwriter and collector. He is considered to have contributed a third (220) of his own compositions to the Museum of 600 songs. Robert Burns collected these songs from a wide variety of sources, often revising or expanding them, including much of his own work. Burns was effectively the editor, Johnson was the official editor, engraver, printer and publisher; Stephen Clarke (1735–97) was the musical editor and William Clarke was the musical editor for Volume VI.
Robert Burns penned song “Highland Harry” based on chorus he heard in Dunblane
The song “Highland Harry” written by Robert Burns was based on a chorus he heard sung in Dunblane.
The melody for his "Highland Harry" (also known as Highlander's Lament) appeared in the 'Scots Musical Museum' - a major eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collection of Scottish songs of which Robert Burns was contributor and editor.
Burns commented, in his notes for the 'Museum', that the oldest title to this melody he had encountered was 'The Highland Watch's farewell to Ireland'. He goes on to say that 'the chorus I picked up from an old woman in Dunblane; the rest of the song is mine'.
The tune is generally considered to have originally been a composition for the bagpipes. It was published in 1762 in Edinburgh by Neil Stewart in his "Collection of the Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances."
The song, which Scottish folk duo The Corries recorded as "My Harry was a gallant blade", tells the tale of the love of "Highland Harry"(who was a Harry Lunsdale) by Jeanie Gordon, a daughter of the Laird of Knockhaspie in Aberdeenshire.
Thomson, the publisher of the poems of Robert Burns, corresponded with Beethoven (1770-1827) over commissioning the composer to make an arrangement of this melody with the text by Robert Burns. After asking Thomson to describe what the song was about, Beethoven created different settings.
Robert Burns wrote the song “Allan Water” which is the river which flows through Dunblane
Robert Burns wrote the song “Allan Water” which is the river which flows through Dunblane, the opening lines of which are: “By Allan-side I chanc'd to rove, While Phebus sank beyond Benledi;”
In a letter to George Thomson dated 19 August 1793, Robert Burns wrote, "I walked out yesterday evening with a volume of the Museum in my hand, when turning up ‘Allan Water’... It appeared to me rather unworthy of so fine an air: and recollecting that it is on your list, I sat, and raved, under the shade of an old thorn, till I wrote one to suit the measure. I may be wrong; but I think it not in my worst style."
Dunblane’s historic Leighton Library has an Edinburgh First Edition of 1787 of "Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect" by Robert Burns
Dunblane's historic Leighton Library (Scotland's oldest purpose-built library, which would have been exactly 100 years old when Robert Burns visited Dunblane) has an Edinburgh First Edition of 1787 of the book "Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect" by Robert Burns, who visited Dunblane that year, 1787.
The first Edinburgh Edition of Robert Burns’ works was published by William Creech in 1787, having been first advertised on 17 April 1787. The edition contained an additional 17 poems and 5 new songs, in addition to most of the poems present in the 1786 Kilmarnock Edition.
This edition saw the first publication of a number of poems and songs including "To a Haggis" and "Green grow the Rashes" which didn't appear in the Kilmarnock edition of the previous year.
In 2010 Dunblane Burns Club funded conservation work on this volume – from the Edinburgh edition and known colloquially as the “Creech edition” from its publisher, William Creech
Best-known image of Robert Burns was created in year Robert Burns visited Dunblane
This portrait of Robert Burns by artist Alexander Nasmyth is the best-known image of Scotland’s national bard. Alexander Nasmyth and Robert Burns were good friends. The portrait was commissioned by the publisher William Creech to be engraved for a new edition in 1787 of poems by Robert Burns - the Edinburgh edition and known colloquially as the “Creech edition” from its publisher, William Creech. Dunblane's historic Leighton Library has this Edinburgh Creech 1787 edition of his "Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect." Robert Burns visited Dunblane that same year, 1787. Dunblane Burns Club, at its dissolution in 2010, funded conservation work on this volume. So this gives the closest likeness of how Robert Burns looked when he visited Dunblane.
This portrait is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. Portraits of Robert Burns created by Alexander Nasmyth can also be seen in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Musuem and Art Gallery, and London’s National Portrait Gallery. A number of other artists depicted Robert Burns in artwork, and still do to this day
In year Robert Burns died he’d accepted offer of post of Excise-man at Dunblane
In the year that he died, Robert Burns had earlier been offered and accepted the post of Excise-man in Dunblane but had died before he had been able to take up the post. Had he lived, Robert Burns was scheduled to have become Supervisor at Dunblane
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