BARRIE'S THRUMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20626, 26 July 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

BARRIE'S THRUMS.

HONOUR GAINED AND GIVEN.

BT W. D. MORIUSON-SUTHERLAWD.

Kirriemuir, better known to the outside world as Thrums, is a laug little town nestling on a nethor slope of the Gram piuns, in one of the most beautiful countrysides in Scotland. To Kirriemariaris overseas, and there ore a good many of them, it is a demi-paradise. It has been in existence for more than seven hundred years, but, like Peter Pan, it has never grown up; its population is aa small today as it wfiß a generation ago —somewhere about four thousand. Some enthusiasts trace its history as far back as 934, when Athelstano, King of Wessex, ravaged Scotland ao far north as the Grampians. It is cortainly rcferrod to as early as 1201, when the Earl of Angus made a grant of its church to the Abbey of Arbroath, More than a century later the grant was confirmed by David the Second in a beautifulliy-written deed, faced with silk or some other transparent substance, a fine example of the marvellous penmanship of tho monks. The deed may be seen to this day.

Its name has been variously spelt as Killemuro, Ivylymure, and Kerimore. Its own folk speak of it affectionately as Kirrie. Weaving has for generations been its staple industry, and, though it has had two large weaving factories for many years, the hand loom lingered longer in it than in any other town or village in Scotland; and well for the world that it did, or there would have been no " Auld Liclit Idylls " or " Window in Thrums." It has two curious features: it is built in the form of an anchor, and tho backs of its houses face the street, like the houses of which Mark Rutherford tells us m tho seaside town where Mary Marden arid hor father went to look for lodgings. All around it aro great mansions and magnificent castles, some of them hoary with ago. One of the latter—Airlie Castle —is enwrnpt in a halo of Iloyalist glory, in which wo catch the gleam of the white cockade, for there is 110 house in Scotland that was more loyal to the Stuarts or more blind to their faults. Another is Glainis Castle—pronounced Glahms —one of the most beautiful buildings in tho United Kingdom, with its great doinotoworing turrets, its old battlements, its weird traditions of Malcolm and Macbeth, arid its melancholy share in tho disaster at Flodden—no fewer than three of its sons lie buried on Brankstone Muir. To most people Glamis is best known as the ancestral homo of the Duchess of \ork, where she spent most of her girlhood. Birthplace ol Great Men.

Kirriemuir has the distinction of being tho birthplace of a number of very able and even famous men, as, for example, Sir Charles Lyell, tho geologist, Dr. Alexander YVhyte, tho Edinburgh divine, and Sir James Barrie, whose novels and plays are as unique and whimsical as his speeches, and about whoso eminence in literaturo there is no question. An American critic has such an admiration for this " Hans Andersen of the stage" that he says of " Peter fan," "It is one of the most profound, original, and universal plays of our epoch. It is tho rapturo of children, tho joy of old age, and it ought to have its place with ' Robinson Crusoa, 1 ' Gulliver's Travels,' ' The I'ioQ Piper, arid ' Alice in Wonderland.' Barrio's fellow townsmen, however, did not have anything like such an admiration for him as that until very recently. They had by no meai.s tho proud proprietary interest in hirn that, they have been showing lately. There was a time when tho writer was far from suro of their feelings toward Barrio, and when he found it discreot not to refer too much to one who was remembered and referred to by many as " a decvil o' a kiddie." Ho had dubbed Kirrie by a name indicative of oddments of yarn, and yet, though ho had so written of it and its people a3 to make not only himself but it and them famous, throwing a halo of romance and glory over it, and making their forbears immortal, the suspicion took hold of them that he had not only exploited thern, but had given it out to the world that they were ' gey ordinar'," and that people who did not know them would think they were a colony of Tamrnas Haggarts, Lisbeth Whamonds, Jeemsy Todds, and Snecky Hobarts, with blue 6lengarry bonnets for their headgear, along with other quaint articles of attire, and with their faces washed only on a Sunday. The Pavilion cm the Hill.

It took them a good many years to make up their minds about Sir James, by which lime he had almost reached three score and ten, and it came about in this way. Some time ago he intimated to then) that he desired to erect a pavilion on the Hill, otherwise the Domain, for cricket and other sports. It Is not known whether ho gave any indication of it, but the cost was to be well on to £3OOO. At any rate, the intimation helped Kirrie, from the provost downward, to realise that Sir James was a genius, and that, when he had reached his seventieth birthday, by which time the pavilion would crown their spacious and famous Hill, they might signalise the fact by making him their first burgess. Other cities had dowered him with the honour of their freedom, great Universities like St. Andrews and Edinburgh and Cambridge had recognised his genius. Even His Mujesty himself had bestowed royal honours 011 him. Was not their proud motto, " Jamais Arriere" (never behind)? They would live up to it! So it was that the idea took hold of all Kirrie. Sir James was duly offered the freedom of his native town, and accepted the offer and gladly acceded to the request to come north to receive his burgess ticket, and open tho building when it was completed. Everything was ready by the first Saturday of last month, and so was their distinguished fellow townsman. It was thirty-seven years since he hud last been with them in a public capacity. Then he had performed the opening ceremony at a sale of work on behalf of the building fund of the Auld Licht Ivirk, on which occasion he had stood with his hands thrust deep into his pockets, a favourite attitude, and delivered an amusing and humorous speech.

A Day of Days. The 7th of June was a great arid me tnorable day in the history of Kirriemuir It had never seen such a day before, and it may bo that it will never see such a day again. The town and countryside were thronged with people of every degree from far and near Newspaper and camera men wore there by the score, representing all the leading newspapers from as far south as London, arid there was a lady representative from the Now York Times. The day began with a luncheon in the Town Hall, the guests including the Earl of Airlie, clad in his favourite Highland garb. Then there was the Freedom of the Town ceremony, when the provost do livered an oration that must, nave been a revelation to the strange newspaper men, and presented the chief guest with n silver casket, which contained, he assured him, riot only his burgess ticket, but tho heart of Kirriemuir. Arid then there was the ceremony on the Hill, tho appearance of the distinguished visitor being heralded by the town band playing " See the Ton quering Hero Comes.' And, last of all, there was a cricket match on the Hill, Sir James spinning the coin.

Sir James made several characteristic speeches, whimsical, amusing, and humorous. in his favourite attitude He slipped away at the end of it all into the cerno tery, one of the most beautiful and pic turesqne in all Scotland, separated from the Hill by a stonewall, and stood with bared head and tear-dimmed eyes before the List renting place of David Barrio and Margaret " Ogilvy; " —his father and mother.