Burn’s Night January 25th

Burn’s Night is an increasingly important date on the calendar of Scotland’s Cultural Heritage. Wikipedia says it began:

‘at Burn’s Cottage in Ayrshire by Burns’s friends, on 21 July 1801‘

This was 5 years after his death. It is now celebrated around the world, making clear the importance of Robert Burns. Burns himself would have been astonished at the spread of Burn’s Night. He was modest about his attainments, saying, in his introduction to the Commonplace Book:

‘As he was but little indebted to scholastic education, and bred at a plough-tail, his performance must be strongly tinctured with his unpolished rustic way of life. ‘

To celebrate Burn’s Night here is one of his most famous works. Also have a look at my post on his great narrative poem, Tam O’Shanter and the Cutty Shark.

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang ‘s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’ need,
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut ye up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

(for the other five verses have a wee lookie here)

The Writer’s Museum

Often bypassed by the tourists on a visit to the wonderful City of Edinburgh is the Writer’s Museum. It is in one of those remarkable Tower houses which seem unique to the High Street in Edinburgh. Inside, it gives a great introduction to the great writers of Scotland.

‘Is it not strange’ wrote philosopher David Hume in 1757 ‘that a time when we have lost our Princes, our Parliament, Independent Government …..that we shou’d really be the people most distinguish’d for literature in Europe?’ (source: Museum display panel)

See my post on Literary Edinburgh here

On This Day in Scotland

1759 – The birth of Robert Burns.

1784 – The death in Edinburgh of Alexander Webster, a writer and church minister who is best remembered for the country’s first census. The first UK census was in 1801.

1817 – The Scotsman newspaper publishes its first edition in Edinburgh.

2012 – First Minister Alex Salmond launches a consultation on the SNP Government’s proposals for a referendum on Scottish independence. on the question “Should Scotland be an independent country?”. The voters answered “No” 55.3% and 44.7% voting in favour. (for more on Scottish Independence, see my post here.)

Source www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/

First published Jan 2023, republished Jan 2024, 2025, 2026