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Welcome to Wellwood By JOAN BIGGAR Ayrshire Writer joanbiggar@ayrshireroots.com The article first appeared in the Scots Magazine in January 1979 The
Saltire was fluttering above the
Burns Museum at Wellwood
in Irvine’s Eglinton Street when I called. But any illusions that it might be
in my honour faded when I remembered that the date was November 3oth, the day
dedicated to Scotland’s patron saint. Wellwood
is the headquarters of Irvine Bums Club, and an Aladdin’s cave of treasures,
all in the capable charge of steward Mr David Smith and his charming wife Madge.
It was she who welcomed me warmly and showed me round the place, which is a
source of endless interest not only to Burns lovers-but to students of Scottish
life and literature ; and of graphology too, for reasons which soon became
apparent. “
We are open to the public every Saturday between 2.30 and 5 p.m., and at other
times by appointment,” Madge told me. “ We often get visits from Burns
clubs, school parties and foreign delegations, and various local clubs and
societies meet here in the evenings.
Yet strangely enough, I sometimes suspect more people would visit us if there
was an admission charge. People tend to appreciate things they have to pay
for.”
Although
admission to Wellwood is free, the Museum Fund donation box, strategically
placed in the entrance hall, bears a gentle reminder that all contributions will
be gratefully received. “ Wha does the utmost that he can will whiles dae
mair,” coaxes the slogan. Irvine Burns Club was formed in 1826, and of the twelve founder members, some had been personal friends of the poet. The
first president was Dr John McKenzie, near whose Mauchline
residence Robert and Jean first set up house as man and wife in a single room
which, nevertheless, was big enough to contain a magnificent, red-curtained,
mahogany bed. In that bed, on a mattress filled with seabirds’ down, Jean was
delivered of twins with Dr McKenzie’s help, and during my visit to Wellwood,
Madge showed me a small wooden box the treen ware for which Mauchline is
well known, made from the bedstock of the famed four-poster.
David
Sillar, a well-loved crony of Burns, and a man after his own
heart, was vice-president. Referred to by the poet as “ dainty Davie ” and
“ ace o hearts,” David Sillar, too, wrote verse and published two volumes of
it. He was also a fine fiddler, and Burns envied this musical talent, as his own
attempts to master the violin were unsuccessful. From
the small group who celebrated their first Burns supper at the Crown Hotel,
Irvine, on January 25,
1827,
the club has grown and now has some 500 members, and many literally priceless
possessions. “ It may not be the oldest Burns club,” Madge said, “ but it
is certainly the one with the longest continuous records.” Although
the fact that she is English means she has to take some teasing, Madge could
riot be more proud of the Irvine Burns Club and Museum if she was an Ayrshire
lassie born and bred. The first thing that impressed me about Wellwood was its
light, bright atmosphere. The house was a bequest from Messrs Robert and J.
Graham Paterson, and thanks to other bequests the Irvine Burns Club had
funds to form the museum and have a steward’s house built behind it. Far from
being fusty, dusty or musty, the entrance hall of Wellwood is decorated in white
and Wedgwood blue which forms the perfect background for the fresh, lively
paintings of Glasgow artist Angus Scott, depicting scenes from Tam
0’ Shanter. “
My husband says I posed for that one,” smiled Madge, indicating Tam’s wife,
“ nursing her wrath to keep it warm, ” as she waited for her husband’s
return to Shanter Farm. The
tasteful decor of the hall is continued in the cosy reference librarv, which
invites study and 2000
books,
only a tenth of which are directly concerned with Burns and his work. There is a
collection of old Scottish chapbooks, and sections devoted entirely to three
other famous writers with Ayrshire connections : John Gait, Edgar Allan Poe
and James Montgomery, known in his time as “ the Christian poet.” Still more books are treasure-trove for the student of Scottish life at the time of Burns. All of the books were donated to the club over the past century and a half, by friends at home and abroad, including a Japanese ambassador. Two recent donations came from the late Russian poet David Marshak, and the very much alive Scots one, Maurice Lindsay.
The side of the door facing the hall was painted like the others in bright blue, but on the reverse it resembled a door of the late eighteenth century. On stepping over the threshold I found myself back in 1781, the year Burns came to Irvine seeking his fortune as a flax dresser. Murals
entirely covering the walls depicted the important events of the poet’s
life while in the town, and had a three-dimensional effect which made the scenes
and characters spring to life. It was an eventful period for the young man,
during which he made many friends, including Willie Templeton, an Irvine
bookseller, who gave the then budding poet the freedom of his shop. But the work
of heckling flax took its toll of Burns’ health, and by- his own admission,
the only emotion he felt on seeing his business premises go up in flames after a
New Year party to welcome in 1782, was relief. It
was easy to realise how dreary and distasteful the tedious task of raking tow
must have been when I examined the heckling gear displayed in the room. The
rough flax fibres, appropriately called “ the weary pun o’ tow,” had to be
drawn again and again through beds of nails resembling giant pincushions until
the flax was rendered fine as silk. The murals include a picture of the poet at
work. The paintings are the inspired creations of Mr and Mrs H. E. Odling,
a husband and wife team of artists, and I fancied I could see the whiskers of a
mouse in the corner twitching, so lifelike are the scenes. “ When we have
children in the museum I sometimes ask one of them to pass me the key,” said
Madge, referring to the large iron key which appeared to hang by the fireplace
but is, in fact, painted on the wall. “ They are enchanted by the paintings,
and can hardly believe some of the objects - like the books on the table there -
aren’t the real thing !”
When I returned to the 20th century I was glad to have the opportunity of studying other attractions, in a tranquil room where the only sounds were the ticking of a grandfather clock and the rustle of turning pages. Amongst
the greatest treasures of Wellwood are the original manuscripts of poems
submitted to the printer for Burns’ Kilmarnock edition of 1786.
The
manuscripts include that of The Cotter’s Saturday Night, which in 1953
was loaned to the British Council for display at ” Le Livre Anglais ”
exhibition in Paris and insured for £20,000.
The idea
of that very Scottish work being regarded as an example of “ the English Book
” might have amused Burns -or
would it? Looking
at the Bard’s handwriting I reflected that a graphologist would probably see
the poet’s idealism in the soaring, upward strokes and the fact that ranting,
roving Robin had a good conceit of himself in the elaborate capitals he formed
with “ old Stumpie ” as he called his quill. The signatures of the many
world famous honorarv members of Irvine Burns Club might also disclose some
secrets. The practice of offering honorary membership to a chosen few began with the founders and the first men selected were two writers who were natives of Ayrshire, namely John Galt and James Montgomery. Their letters of delighted acceptance were preserved, and followed by many more, resulting in a truly amazing collection of holograph letters spanning a century and a half. Everyone
in the news was soon also in the Irvine Burns Club. Poets such as Bridges,
Browning, Tennyson, Masefield and Longfellow ; Dickens, Hardy, Thackeray,
Compton Mackenzie, A. Conan Doyle, S. R. Crockett and all the other popular
novelists whose books were best sellers ; playwrights including George
Bernard Shaw ; servicemen and war heroes ranging from Douglas Haig to Douglas Bader, and not only British ones like Montgomery, Mountbatten and Jellicoe, but Marshall Foch, Garibaldi and General Eisenhower, later to become president. Many other presidents and Prime Ministers are here, too, including Churchill, Chamberlain, Home, Macmillan, Wilson, Lloyd George, and Roosevelt. The Ayrshire discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, has not been forgotten, nor have explorers like Hunt and Hillary, and there are also the signatures of famous actors and musicians. The
letters gave the distinct impression that however successful a man appeared to
be, he hadn’t really made it to the top until he was an honorary member of
Irvine Burns Club. Amongst more recent acceptances are those from
Willy Brandt, James Callaghan and Henry Kissinger. It
must be admitted that supporters of Women’s Lib and sex equality would see
strong evidence of male chauvinism in the holograph letters. They would seek for
the names of women in vain, whether distinguished writers like the Brontes,
war heroines such as Edith Cavell, or anyone who made political historv
like Christabel Pankhurst. The sole ladv honorary member is the late Miss
Margaret Hogg, a benefactor of the club and for many years custodian of
its treasures. While
I was perusing the letters, Madge placed two volumes of Burns’ poems on the
big mahogany table. One of these was richly bound in scarlet leather and inlaid
with gold. The other was a facsimile of the Kilmarnock Edition as it
first appeared, in paperback, in 1786. “
The gold embellished copy came from America and cost £4,000,” Madge told me.
“ The other was priced at three shillings, which was a vast amount in 1786.
The greatest proof of Burns’ popularity in Ayrshire is that people clubbed
together to buy a copy.” It
certainly was, for in 1786 many folk had to bring up young families on a wage of
five shillings a week ; and this was considered sufficient with cod at a penny a
pound, beef fourpence
a pound, and chickens sixpence a pair. But a book was a luxury beyond most
pockets. How many readers of today would spend the best part of a week’s wages
on a paperback? Especially when the poems it contained were by a hitherto
unpublished writer. The
name of Robert Burns had already appeared in print though. During the year 1783
The Glasgow Mercury carried amongst columns of small type the names
of those who had paid a premium for flax raising and the fact that “ Robert
Burns, Lochlie ” was amongst them has made the newspaper a collector’s
item which the museum considered a bargain buy at £150. Another
place in which his name was entered was Dr Fleming’s daybook. While
Burns was in Irvine he visited the local surgeon four times in one week, which
shows how bad he must have been feeling. The medicines prescribed were the usual
stock mixtures of the time, and provide no clue as to the exact nature of the
bard’s illness, consisting of aloes, tincture of rhubarb, which in 1781
had
something of the mystique ascribed to ginseng, and Peruvian bark today. Probably
the poet found a trip to Templeton’s book shop more of a tonic than any
of these remedies. Darkness was falling by the time I left Wellwood to call on a local Burns enthusiast, Mr Andrew Hood. A plumbing contractor to trade, Andrew was the last burgess of Irvine in 1977, and also the secretary of the Burns Club. By a strange coincidence the president that year was Alexander Rubie, the last Provost of the burgh of Irvine, so Alex and Andrew are likely to go down in history. “
One of the things which keeps the club thriving,” Andrew told me, “ is the
interest it holds for Irvine children. During the Marymass week in August
there are three evenings when prize-winners of competitions organised by all the
local schools entertain the public at concerts held in Wellwood. Admission to
these events is entirely free and everyone is welcome.” The
schools’ projects in preparation for Marymass are not confined to the works of
Burns, but cover creative writing by the pupils, and Scots songs and poems “The
book Bairnsangs is a popular source,” Andrew told me. “We used to
find we were getting half a dozen classes reciting extracts from Tam 0’
Shanter, but now the scope has widened greatly. Greenwood Academy in
particular show a keenness for creative writing by the pupils. No
doubt the youngsters will follow their parents into the Irvine Burns Club and
its feminine spin-off, “ The Lassies,” who meet regularly at Wellwood. For
this is a town in which traditions never die. On the contrary, they strengthen
and the Marymass fair of the Middle Ages has developed into a ten-day carnival
with not only the crowning of the Marymass queen and horse racing on the moors
above the town, but a welter of events ranging from dog shows and discos to the
whammy diddling championship, something unique to Irvine. If you visit the town during the third week of August you’ll be able to join in the fun, and by no means the least of it could be a visit to Wellwood for a fascinating look back at Scotland’s past and the life and times of one of her most famous sons. Wellwood still has free admission and is open from Easter to September on Mon. Wed. Fri. Sat. from 2.30 till 4.30 and in winter months on Saturday 2.30 till 4.30. There is a most enjoyable audio video presentation on the time Burns spent in Irvine, an expanded museum area and a small concert hall as well as the areas described here. What was Madge's accommodation is now also part of the Museum. David Smith or Norman Smith are there to guide you around the various rooms and exhibits. See also the website for the Irvine Burns Museum
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