Day 56
Robert Burns in Leith
The following article was written for Leith For Ever by John Paul McGroarty. It is dedicated to the memory of William ‘Billy’ Skivington, stalwart of the Leith Dockers Club, who graciously organised the first Burns Supper at the Dockers Club in 2004 and restored the tradition of Burns Suppers at the venue.
To the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns in Leith
Written by: John Paul McGroarty
The statue of Robert Burns at the corner of Constitution Street and Bernard Street has been an iconic presence in Leith since its installation by Leith Burns Club in 1898.
There are hundreds of statues of Burns around the world, I love the one in NYC Central Park and there are thousands of busts of Burns in public libraries all over the world, most of them paid for by the Scots industrialist Andrew Carnegie.
The statue at the cross roads of Constitution Street was paid for by the people of Leith, by subscriptions made to the Leith Burns Club, and is the only statue of Robert Burns in Edinburgh. It is remarkable that Edinburgh’s civic establishment honoured Walter Scott with a statue and the train station whilst the people of Leith chose to honour Robert Burns.
There are probably thousands of descendants of Robert Burns around the world. Burns had thirteen children: eight with his wife Jean Armour and five more illegitimate children.
Leith is only mentioned once in the works of Robert Burns, in the song ‘The Silver Tassie’ but I imagine he regularly walked these streets in search of a good hauf and auld Scots sang.
The Silver Tassie
Go bring to me a pint o wine,
And fill it in a silver tassie;
That I may drink, before I go,
A service to my bonie lassie:
The boat rocks at the pier o Leith,
Fu loud the wind blaws frae the Ferry,
The ship rides by the Berwick-law,
And I maun leave my bonie Mary.
The trumpets sound, the banners fly,
The glittering spears are rankèd ready,
The shouts o war are heard afar,
The battle closes deep and bloody.
It’s not the roar o sea or shore,
Wad make me langer wish to tarry;
Nor shouts o war that’s heard afar –
It’s leaving thee, my bonie Mary!
I live in Constitution Street and I take a walk down the street every day, past the graveyard site where 700 years of archaeology has been uncovered, and on past my local, The Port O’ Leith, and towards the iconic statue site; I think of Leith’s wars, plagues and pubs and I think of Robert Burns, at a table in a local hostelry, with singers and songs, contemplating a pint of wine.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this moment in time, the day that Burns’ immortal memory is celebrated through recitals of his verses and songs at Burns’ suppers, his statue is absent, removed for the tramworks.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will not be able to gather together tonight to toast the immortal memory of the Bard, in time-honoured fashion in the Leith Dockers Club, in the Moscow Burns Club or the Burns Clubs of New York.
As I look towards the place where the statue once stood a woman passes me in a hurry and casts a shadow. Her shadow evokes a memory. I was trying to remember the name of Burns’ illegitimate daughter who was born in Leith, trying to remember how this Leith part of the Burns’ story blended with the rest of his life.
The mother of Robert Burns’ illegitimate daughter, born in Leith, was Anna Park who, either died giving birth to a girl, Elizabeth (Betty) or survived and gave up the child for adoption and was pressed into domestic service.
Whatever cruel fate befell Anna Park, it was Burns himself who returned to his wife Jean with the infant Betty and it is well documented that Jean Armour adopted her husband’s illegitimate child and raised the girl Betty as her own.
It is a remarkable story full of humanity and contradiction. It is made even more remarkable considering Jean Armour was expecting at the same time and gave birth to a son (William) just nine days after Betty arrived at Jean’s home.
Anna’s plight inspired the poet to write the beautiful love song ‘Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine’, which Burns’ considered to be his very best.
Yestreen I had a pint o’ wine
Yestreen I had a pint o' wine,
A place where body saw na;
Yestreen I lay on this breast o' mine
The gowden locks of Anna.
She is the sunshine o' my e'e,
To live but her I canna:
Had I on earth but wishes three,
The first should be my Anna.
So, there is your Leith connection with Burns, his very own favourite ballad and his best love song, inspired by Anna Park who gave birth to Burns’ ‘bastart wean’ in Leith in 1791. When the statue returns, look upon it and think of Anna kindly, and the lady who cast the shadow as I stood there, could be a descendant of the gowden Anna.
Welcome To A Bastart Wean
Thou's welcome, wean! Mishanter fa' me,
If thoughts o' thee or yet thy mammie
Shall ever daunton me or awe me,
My sweet, wee lady,
Or if I blush when thou shalt ca' me
Tyta or daddie!
What tho' they ca' me fornicator,
An' tease my name in kintra clatter?
The mair they talk, I'm kend the better;
E'en let them clash!
An auld wife's tongue's a feckless matter
To gie ane fash.
Welcome, my bonie, sweet, wee dochter!
Tho' ye come here a wee unsought for,
And tho' your comin I hae fought for
Baith kirk and queir;
Yet, by my faith, ye're no unwrought for --
That I shall swear!
Sweet fruit o' monie a merry dint,
My funny toil is no a' tint:
Tho' thou cam to the warl' asklent,
Which fools may scoff at,
In my last plack thy part's be in't
The better half o't.
Tho' I should be the waur bestead,
Thou's be as braw and bienly clad,
And thy young years as nicely bred
Wi' education,
As onie brat o' wedlock's bed
In a' thy station.
Wee image o' my bonie Betty,
As fatherly I kiss and daut thee,
As dear and near my heart I set thee,
Wi' as guid will,
As a' the priests had seen me get thee
That's out o' Hell.
Gude grant that thou may ay inherit
Thy mither's looks an' gracefu' merit,
An' thy poor, worthless daddie's spirit
Without his failins!
'Twill please me mair to see thee heir it
Than stocket mailins.
And if thou be what I wad hae thee,
An' tak the counsel I shall gie thee,
I'll never rue my trouble wi' thee --
The cost nor shame o't --
But be a loving father to thee,
And brag the name o't,
Thanks to John Paul McGroarty for providing this article for Leith For Ever.
JP McGroarty as Artistic Director of Leith Festival, together with Mary Moriary, established an annual Burns Supper at the Leith Dockers Club. JP is a Burnomaniac; Burnomania is a fanatical love of the ballads and poems of Robert Burns. JP works with actors and singers actively and vividly presenting Burns’ works with the wider vision that Burns’ words and music belongs to humanity ‘the world o’er’.
JP is artistic director of Yard Heads, a Leith-based creative company working on a portfolio of theatre and film projects.