Name/Title
Speech ' Scotch Men' about Sir Walter Scott and Robert BurnsEntry/Object ID
1986.18.43Scope and Content
Fifteen page draft of speech titled "Scotch Men". Talks about Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns. Both were significant men in both literature. Sir Walter Scott was also was a significant player in Canadian history.
Transcription of artifact is as follows:
[starting on page a]
I.
“SCOTCH [“AUTHORS” is crossed out] men”
I might speak to you [“tonight” is crossed out] to-day about Sir Walter Scott, his poetical and other literary works; [“I mention” is crossed out] the bankruptcy of a firm which involved him in a debt of $750,000; how he refused to compromise with his creditors saying that if he had health and strength he would owe no man anything; how [“he abandoned his home, took a room and” is crossed out] by his pen in two years earned and paid $200,000. Of his indebtedness.
I might speak to you of another Scotchman, Thomas Carlyle, some of whose literary productions are placed amongst the great classics of all ages.
I might give you some incidents in the life of a Scotch lad who was sent out by The Hudson’s Bay Co. to Labrador and who performed his duties so satisfactorily that he was elevated to the position of Chief Factor in Canada of that great Corporation. I
[the following is written on page b]
The task of [“develop” is crossed out] developing, holding, and extending the boundary [unknown word] and its advantages.
Might mention the part he took in the negotiations that transferred the right of The Hudsons Bay Co. to The Dominion of Canada, the half breed rebellion, his imprisonment by Riel, the incidents connected with the murder of Scott, his efforts to restore order, the manner in which he acquired the foundation for his great wealth and this part would sound like a fairy tale. How he displayed the typical Highland Scotsman in his great execution ability. How this ability enabled him with others to link the Atlantic to the Pacific by two lines of steelwhich many able men in in Canada at the time considered fantastic. He was typical of the race from which he sprang. He was in the pioneer work but his name will go down in Canada as the man who helped to develop hold and extend the territory [unknown word] and its advantages. Chosen for the position of High Commissioner for Canada, honored by his Sovereign, blessed with health and strength to perform his duties, Lord Strathcona [“was a great man. He” is crossed out] died some time ago [“a few days ago” is crossed out] mourned by Royalty and the people of Canada. He loved
[the following is written on page c]
3.
Scotland but he loved Canada, his adopted country. He looked upon all Canadians including himself as one great family and defended and worked for them and their interests [“her interests’ is crossed out]
I am however going to speak to you of a man who lived in the 18th Century. During the 18th Century a great revolution or change commenced in Europe. The thinking public and the human mind changed and whilst these changes took place a new literature sprang up. Modern monarchies had permitted the middle classes to develop [“themselves” is crossed out]. A new world, a world of citizens and plebeians henceforth occupies the ground, imposes its form on manners and stamps its image on minds. With the grand application of science, democracy appears. The steam engine and the spinning jenny [“make” is crossed out] in England make a hamlet a Town, a town a city and create cities of 200 to 500,000 souls. The rising tide of wealth raised the best of the poor to comfort and the best of the well-to-do to opulence. It also caused the middle class to resent the position the aristocracy held and to demand new rights [“and receive a better education” is crossed out]. In 1709 the first daily newspaper
[the following is written on page d]
4.
Was published, no bigger than a man’s hand. From their poverty the poor exerted themselves the rise disposed to reform or destroy. The lower classes became possessed of revolutionary ideas. Towards the close of the century a sudden concurrence of events brings this new world of citizens to the light and sets it on an eminence unknown to any previous age. The dominant character was no longer the aristocrat, the man of the drawing room whose position in society was settled and whose fortune was made, elegant and careless with no employment but to amuse himself and to please, who passed his life amidst the pleasures of this world, but it was the man who works, who gathers in the harvest or wades or tills or keeps the wheels [“of the mercantile and” is crossed out] manufacturing establishments moving or assists in the transportation of the world’s commodities. It was the gradual uplifting of the poorer class of citizens where their abilities would have full scope.
The new spirit flowed from the continent and broke out in Scotland first in a Scottish peasant Robert Burns. In fact the man and the circumstances were suitable. Scarcely ever were seen together more of misery and talent. Scotland owns no name of which it has greater reason to be
[the following is written on page e]
5.
Proud than that of Robert Burns. He had no pretentions by birth beyond that of being the son of a poor but honest man.. He was born on the 25th of January, 1859. And in his early years he was noted for a retentive memory, a sturdy independence and a thoughtful turn of mind. When a boy He had an excellent teacher, [“when a boy” is crossed out] who took great pain to make his pupil understand the meaning of every word he read and to assist him in this made him turn verse into its natural prose order and from this system Robert Burns early bacame remarkable for the fluency and correctness of his expression. His father was very poor and while very desirous of giving his children the best education possible he was compelled to take his son while young from school to help on the farm. It was customary in harvest time to have a boy and girl paired as reapers. Burns’ partner unwittingly initiated him into that delicious passion which formed ever after his ruling passion in life Love and poetry often go together and rhyme became the language of his heart. [“He liked society.” is crossed out] he was of a melancholy disposition a keen observer [“and” is crossed out] a good conversationalist. And writ so wily He possessed the two qualities necessary for a good conversationalist.
[the following is written on page f]
6.
He expressed himself clearly and was a good listener, [“two” is crossed out] qualities few possess. These qualities made him a welcome guest at every social gathering. As I have said he was very fond of the fairer objects of Nature’s creation. None of his early attachments equalled that of his Highland Mary. She was a beautiful Scotch Lassie and as good as she was beautiful a deep and sincere attachment sprang up between them. At their last meeting the stood on opposite sides of a small brook and holding a Bible between them exchanged vows of fidelity. They then exchanged Bibles. The lovers never met again. A few weeks after, Mary Campbell died suddenly. Years after the remembrance of it was so vivid as to give birth to the beautiful lines which he addressed to Mary in Heaven, the last verse of which is,
“Still o’er these scenes my memory wakes,
And fondly broods with miser care,
Time but the impression stronger makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.
My Mary! Dear departed shade,
Where is thiy place of blissful rest,
[the following is written on page g]
7.
See’st thou the lover lowly laid,
Hears’t thou the groans that rend his breast.”
Burns [“was” is crossed out] not a success as a farmer he applied for the position of excuse [spelling uncertain] officer [“gauger” is crossed out] and was appointed at a salary of [pound sign] 50. A year. It was at his time that he wrote Tam O’Shanter which Burns considered one of the best of his productions. It was begun and ended in one day. Burns became acquainted with Captain Grose and he requested the Captain to make a drawing of Alloway Kirk where his father was buried. The Captain agreed provided the poet would furnish a witch story. Tam O’Shanter was accordingly produced.
“O Tam ! hadst thou but been sae wise,
As taen thy ain wife Kate’s advice,
She tauld the weel thou wast a skell [“um” is crossed out],
A blethering blustering drunken blellum.
She prophesied that late or soon,
Thou wouldst be found deep drowned in Doon.”
[the following is written on page h]
8.
“Ah, gentle dames ! it gars me greet,
To think how mony counsels sweet,
How mony lenthen’d sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises.”
Burns did not go to his desk and calculate how he was to write his verses. His passions when once lighted up raged within him till the went into rhyme and them coming over his verses they soothed him into quietness. This was natural poetry. It came from the heart. It was not a hot house plant but a plant taken from his surroundings and his subjects were everyday life. He thought and composed without premeditation and he spoke as he thought and he conveyed these thoughts to others. [“If a public speaker expressed himself believing every word he utters he gets the sympathy of his audience Burns was kind.” is crossed out] While ploughing one day he observed a mouse running across the field. The man who was working with Burns commenced running after it to kill it. Burns checked him and asked him what ill the poor mouse had ever done him. During the afternoon while
[the following is written on page i]
9.
Plowing, he composed the verses to a mouse.
“Wee sleekit, cowrin’, timerous beastie,
O what a panic’s in thy beastie
Though need not start awa so hasty,
Wi bickering brattle,
I wad be laith to rin and chase thee,
With murdering pattle.”
……………………
Still thou are blest compared with me,
The present only touchest thee,
But och! I backward cast me e’e
On prospects drear,
And forward thou I canna see,
I guess and fear.”
Burns has been accused of dissipation but we must remember that the customs of the people in the 18th Century were totally different from the customs and habits of the present day. It was
[the following is written on page j]
10.
The social custom for the host to offer mountain dew to his guest and a refusal by the guest to partake was looked upon as an insult. Burns was an entertaining talker and in consequence was at many social gatherings. Entering a tavern and looking into a room he found three gentlemen there. He was retiring when one called out, “Come in, Johnny Peep.” He entered and made himself at home. When the fun grew fast and furious, it was proposed that each should write a piece of poetry, deposit it on the table with a half crown and the one who wrote the best piece should get his money back and the other three should go towards the expense of the entertainment. Needless to say, Burns won.
“Here am I, Johnny Peep,
I saw three sheep,
And these three sheep saw me,
Half a crown a piece,
Will pay for their fleece,
And so, Johnny Peep gets free.”
[the following is written on page k]
11.
It was said at another time he was in a public house with some friends, amongst them, one Andrew Turner. Turner claimed to be as good a poet as Burns. It was proposed that Burns and Turner should each at once compose a piece of poetry and that the loser pay for the night’s entertainment, the subject for the poetry to be given by one of those present. The subject given was “In Se’enteen Hundred and Forty-nine”. Turner was asked first. Turner said “In Se’enteen Hundred and Forty-nine” and repeating it several times, finally said “No person can get anything to rhyme with that”. Then Burns was asked and he immediately replied,
“In Se’enteen Hundred and Forty-nine,
Satan took stuff to mak a swine,
And cast [“cuist” is crossed out] it in a corner,
But willingly he changed his plan
And shaped it something like a man,
And ca’d it Andrew Turner.”
A person would not think that a man who could produce so much humour in rhyme would be subject at times to fits of sadness. But
[the following is written on page l]
12.
He had a great struggle to keep want from the door. In the evening he was all animation, in the morning melancholy and depressed. In no man were the two extremes so manifest. At one time the greatest exultation, at another time the deepest depression. He had the experience of the rapid passing of pleasure and no man has ever described its fleeting nature [“of pleasure” is crossed out] better than he has done in Tam O’Shanter.
“Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, the bloom is shed,
Or like the snawfall in the River,
A moment white then melts forever.
Or like the borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place,
Or like the rainbow’s lovely form,
Evanishing amid the storm.”
The Cottar in the collars Saturday Night is said to be an exact copy of his father in his manners, his family devotions, and exhortations.
[the following is written on page m]
13.
It is one of his [“truly a” is crossed out] finer poems (When he was composing Tam O’Shanter, he passed his wife and children without seeing them “ his brow flushed and his eyes shining. I wish you had seen him “ said his wife. He was in such ecstacy that the tears were happing down his cheeks.) As I have said Burns did not write from hearsay but from sight and experience. It is the scenes he has lived and labored amongst he describes. Let him who would move and convince others be first convinced and moved himself. We are all knit together by the tie of sympathy and if the words are earnest and sincere they will find some response within us.
Burns constitution gave way. He was burning [“racked” is crossed out] with fever and racked with panic. He had lost the friendship of some of his friends. [“Suffering from pining” is crossed out] He was sent to the seaside to restore if possible his health. Not receiving any benefit he returned home. He had been harassed by a person to whom he owed a small account, and he was threatened with imprisonment for non-payment of it. He fretted about the future of his wife and children. On the fourth day after he returned, we are told, when his attendant held a cordial to his lips, he swallowed it eagerly, rose almost wholly up, spread out his hands, sprang
[the following is written on page n]
14.
Forward nigh the whole length of the bed fell on his face and expired.
As usual men began to realize what they had lost when it was too late. An immense concourse followed to the grave. Burns was a true prophet when he said to his wife: “Dont be afraid. I’ll be more respected a hundred years after I am dead than I am at present. His prediction became true. He was the champion of democracy. He advocated the equality of man.
“What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin gray and a’ that
Gie fools their silks and knaves their wine
A man’s a man for a’ that.”
“You see yon birkie ca’d a Lord,
Wha struts and stares a’ that,
Though hundreds worship at his word
He’s but a coof for a’ that.”
[the following is written on page o]
15.
“A king can make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke and a’ that,
But an honest man’s above his might,
Guid faith he mauna fa’ that.”
But I must close.
“Nae man can tether time nor tide,
The hour approaches, I [“Tam” is crossed out] maun ride.”
[the following is written on the back of the page]
Address Edward [spelling uncertain
At Lanark July 19th 1914Cataloged By
Paul, NancyLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
SpeechNomenclature Sub-Class
Literary WorksNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsLOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
WarSearch Terms
Scotland, Hudson's Bay Company, Lord Strathcona, World War OneArchive Details
Date(s) of Creation
Jul 19, 1914Location
Date
November 7, 2023Location
Container
Archives Box 1Room
Collections RoomBuilding
M.V.T.M.Category
PermanentLocation
Container
Archives Box 1Building
Archives Box 1Category
PermanentLocation
Container
Archives Box 1Building
Archive Box 1Category
PermanentRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Scott, WalterPerson or Organization
Burns, RobertGeneral Notes
Note
Notes: Sheets are not attached
Status: OK
Status By: Blades, Alexandra
Status Date: 2010-04-02Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
May 9, 1986Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
November 12, 2023
