Burns and Highland Mary.

Southland Times, Issue 13504, 22 July 1896, Page 3

Burns and Highland Mary.

The following paragraph bearing on the question of a national monument to Higb< land Mary has been forwarded to us for publication in connection with the extracts from a private letter which we also pxfit below. No date is given for the paragraph, nor the name of the paper from which it was taken, but it appears to have been an Auckland journal, and, presumably, of a date some considerable time back. The matter was referred to by tho President of the local Burns Club at the meeting on Monday night. ‘ . “A movement is on foot in Scotland to erect a statue to the memory of ‘ Highland Mary/ immortalised in Robert Burna s poems. That Scotchmen and admirers of Burns in New Zealand may have an opportunity to contribute towards the cost of the statue, it has been determined to open subscription lists in the various centres of population. The Hon. Wm. McCullough, of Auckland, and Dr Stcnhouse, of Dunedin, have been nominated patrons of the Fund, and entrusted with the arrangements for collecting funds in this colony, and local committees have been formed. For the purpose of enabling the Burns Club ofAuckland to send a ten guinea subscription for the statue fund, a meeting of Scotchmen and others desirous of having the City of Auckland represented at the great gatherin at Dunoon, which will be of world-wid importance, will be held in the Masonic Hall, Newton on Thursday evening next, the 20th instant. Mary Campbell was born at the farmhouse of Achamoro, situated near the high road which runs behind the remains of the ancient strongbo'd known aa Dunoon Castle on the Firth of Clyde. It is now intended to use a portion of the rocks skirting the beach, in front of the noted ruins, as the site for a commanding statue of Highland Mary. It is intended that this tribute to the bard’s immortal memory shall be unveiled on July 21st, 1896, the centenary of his death-day, and that on the occasion there should take place a great national demonstration at Dunoon. Extracts from a lottex* addressed to a member of the Invercargill Burns Club by J. Kennedy Brown, Esq., lately a visitor to Southland : —

I know your enthusiasm in all that concerns the immortal Robbie. My special object, however, is to correct an error, and I think at this juncture it is important to do so. The notice (a paragraph enclosed in the letter) says that Mary Campbel), Burns's Highland Mary, was born at Achamore. Although I am a native of Dunoon, strange to say, I never heard the subject mentioned but on one occasion, and I can never forget it. It was a fine autumn afternoon, when the busy summer had come to an end and the saut-water folks had left, when a quaint, eccentric, and reserved old man, named Duncan Downie, invited me for a walk round West Bay. He had been a friend of my late father’s, and I was then a Jad at school. Reaching the Castle Rocks, he proposed a dip in the briny, and we were both soon swimming round the rocks. I have seen most animals in the water, but never one that swam with the eccentricity of my old friend. Only his head was visible above water, and he puffed away like a grampus. I could swim round him. A shake, and our clothes on again, and wo pursued our walk—or. as he called it, “ a dauner. His talk was quaint and original, and I esteemed him a perfect vade mecum. We passed several places of interest as we strolled round the beautiful bay, till soon we came in sight of several thatched buildings, irregularly situated on tho sloping hills between the Bullwood and Achamore. “Do you see those buildings on tho hill?” “ Yes. * V\ell, that is Kilbride, and it was there that Burns’s Highland Mary was born.” Many years after, when I revisited Dunoon, I walked out to the sacred spot with my wife. All was changed. The crofters’ homes had vanished, and in their stead, was a pretty church—a I’useyite church, they said. There too I found the grave of an old friend and patron of my boyhood. He had been buried some years,but that day fresh flowers had been sprinkled over the lovely spot. . . It will come ns a revelation to our residents of Bonny Dunoon that the birth-place of Highland Mary was anywhere in their neighbourhood. As I have said, I only heard the subject mentioned on that one occasion. The evidence of my quaint old friend is all I have to offer —it suffices for me, so accustomed to the accuracy of such men. ... I rejoice that this great distinction has fallen to my native place. The writer of the paragraph is inaccurate also m locating the farm of Achamore. I know the place well, as I also knew the farmer and hta family. It was at Achamore barn in the old cays the annual dance was held, succeeded by tho total abstainers’ soiree, oyer which our venerable and esteemed friend, Mr McHutcheson, usually presided. Achamore barn and the social farmers were famous. Wo had our local poet, John Morton, a fine old gentleman, whose pretty mansion was separated by the country road, going inland, from Professor Buchanan’s spacious grounds and dwelling. “Logic Bob” you will remember. John Morton never failed to recite his annual ode on the great occasions of our meeting at the barn, and the chorus was generally—

The Barn o’ Achamore, O ! The Barn o’ Achamore. Mary Campbell—So far as I know no memory of this Mary lingered in Dunoon. I think it highly improbable that she could have been born at Achamore House. The shepherds and farni'servants, when married, lived either in the village or at Kilbride, the nearest cottiers’ settlement—a few rough huts, thatched roofs, rubble walls, no chimneys. Poor Mary 1 Her birth must have been humble. Her eyes must have often been dimmed by the peat smoke which filled the hut ere escaping from the roof. Tho hillside as far down as Toward Point bad such rude clusters of huts occupied by the hardy cottiers.