Speaker John Campbell

Friday 15th July 2016

Friday was the second meeting to be chaired by new President Alan Rankin.

Sandy Leven told of a sizeable grant available to augment the efforts the club make in enhancing Stirling Railway Station, mainly from floral displays.       Scotrail have combined with   “Keep Scotland Beautiful”  to sponsor a project at the station which is required to improve the area, demonstrate “green” credentials, and involve local voluntary organisations.  The idea was adopted enthusiastically by members and it was thought that the club might join with a local school or other organisation to further this.  Initial thoughts were that a rather untidy piece of sloping ground to the east of the new Shore Road bridge might be a suitable candidate for beautification.

Our speaker, introduced by Faye Macpherson, was John Campbell, an ex- soldier having served 28 years in the Scots Guards, who originally hails from Doune.   He is one of these amazing people who can toddle through “Ye banks and braes” or gallop through “Tam o’ Shanter on demand,  in other words he is a Burnsian and his subject was indeed - Robert Burns.

While assuring us that Burns didn’t actually drink that much, citing his long term shortage of cash, his prodigious and time consuming literary output, and, incidentally, the great amount of time he spent “wooing”,  nonetheless John took us on a crawl of the pubs Burns is known to have frequented beginning with Poosie Nansies’s in Mauchline, where he is said to have met Jean Armour and where he wrote “The Jolly Beggars”.

At The Globe in Dumfries he met and wooed Anna Parks (Anna of the Gouden Locks) who was later to bear him a daughter,  Elizabeth.

The only Edinburgh pub still extant with Burns connections is the White Hart in the Grassmarket.  Burns’ sojourns in Edinburgh brought him into contact with divorcee and aspiring poetess Agnes (Nancy) Craig.  The two corresponded using the Arcadian names   Clarinda and Sylvaner and although the relationship was said to be platonic Burns sent her the wistful poem “Aye Fond Kiss”.

In Inverness he ensconced himself at the Kingsmill Hotel. There is no indication here of a serious romantic liaison and it may be that he had time for a pint!     On his way south called at the Kenmore Hotel, then known as the Taymouth Inn, and left a poem describing the delights of the area on the chimney breast of what is now called the Poet’s Bar. It is there - behind glass -  to this day.

Which leaves the Wingate Inn, better known as our beloved Golden Lion Hotel, in Stirling.  While in Stirling Burns was taken aback by the dilapidated state of the Castle and etched some lines on the window of a public room using a diamond - tipped pen. The poem amounted to a bitter rant at the demise of the Stuart dynasty and appears to have caused him considerable subsequent embarrassment, so much so that he returned some time later to shatter the pane with his riding crop.

John’s talk was very enthusiastically received by his audience and the official vote of thanks consisted of a very clever minor poetic masterpiece by our very own bard John Rankin.


Crawford Gordon.

Rotary VoT, 15.07.16

So, what do you do, when out of the blue,
The President asks you to speak?
You must sit in the ranks and think how to give thanks
To the Speaker who's spoken this week.

Now, some folk are good, when they speak after food,
And some folk will find it quite hard,
But you're no' near the brink, when you talk about drink,
And the habits of our National Bard.

John Campbell was braw, and he kent lots an' a',
As he talked of our Bard's delectation,
So, to show that we're glad for the talk that we've had,
So will you please give him our usual ovation

John Rankin