Did you know that there are more people of Scottish descent in North Carolina than there are in Scotland? It’s true, a fact backed by the U.S. Census. My relatives are included in that number.

My oldest sister and her daughter spent last weekend participating in the 1st Annual Founder’s Day Fair hosted by the Transylvania Heritage Museum in Brevard, North Carolina. Transylvania is located in
Western North Carolina which is reputed by many to greatly resemble the topography and look of Scotland, which I presume explains why so many immigrants, including my own ancestors, chose it as a place to settle.

The history of this immigration the culture, religion, and music, including many songs with lyrics by our own dear Rabbie, that came with these brave Scottish souls is extensive and something to be explored here in installments at a later date. The contribution of Scottish and Irish music to many of the later genres of Country and Bluegrass is a part of this country’s musical heritage.

In the meantime consider this:

The only museum dedicated to Scottish tartans was originally established in Highlands, NC in 1988 and moved to its current location in Franklin in 1994. The Scottish Tartans Museum was founded by The Scottish Tartans Society which was established in Scotland. The STS was created to encourage research into Highland Dress, maintain the register for all publicly known tartans, and provide a design service for new tartans. The museums purpose is to promote Scottish Highland dress and educate the public about tartan. It now serves as a general Scottish Heritage Center for the region.

Scots word of the day: Tapsalteerie – meaning topsy turvy

A Fiddler in the North

by Robert Burns – 1794
Amang the trees, where humming bees,
At buds and flowers were hinging, O,
Auld Caledon drew out her drone,
And to her pipe was singing, O:
‘Twas Pibroch, Sang, Strathspeys, and Reels,
She dirl’d them aff fu’ clearly, O:
When there cam’ a yell o’ foreign squeels,
That dang her tapsalteerie, O.

Their capon craws an’ queer “ha, ha’s,”
They made our lugs grow eerie, O;
The hungry bike did scrape and fyke,
Till we were wae and weary, O:
But a royal ghaist*, wha ance was cas’d,
A prisoner, aughteen year awa’,
He fir’d a Fiddler in the North,
That dang them tapsalteerie, O.

*The royal ghost referred to here is James I of Scotland who was imprisoned by Henry IV of England for 18 years. He was released in 1424 and was crowned King of Scotland in Scone Abby, Perthshire that same year. He was not a popular king due to his firm hand in ruling. A group of Scots led by Sir Robert Graham assassinated him in 1437. He attempted escape through a sewer, forgetting that the had ordered it blocked off a few days earlier because….tennis balls kept getting lost in it. Match point, game to Graham. Tapsalteerie indeed!

I find it amusing that Irn Bru is sponsoring, of all things, a Can Clan on September 13th in Glasgow in honor of Homecoming Scotland. The national hangover cure has a website set up so you can join them in what they hope will be a Guinness record for the most people doing the cancan at once. The participants will gather at Glasgow Green to take part and you can create your own kilt clad cartoon character to take part online. A French dance for a Scottish record breaker…..indeed.

Meanwhile, Coca Cola, has honored  Robert Burns and the year of Homecoming Scotland with a commemorative bottle. The first person  that Coca Cola has ever arranged such a tribute for because…. Rabbie is the real thing, just like Coke!

Rabbie’s Bible went for $4,420 on the auction block on Tuesday. The Auld Lang Syne manuscript is still up for auction.

A stickpin which Queen Victoria presented to John Brown’s servants, on the anniversary of his death, went for close to $10,000. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Mr. Brown and the Queen it is a lively one, him being a loyal Scotsman and all. Apparently his memory warmed the cockles of someone’s heart in the present day as well, to fetch this price!

Results of Bonham Auction

What do Robert Burns, William Wallace, Edward I “The Hammer of the Scots”, David Nelson a construction employee, David Hopes a museum curator, and the son of The Bard of Ayr, James Glencairn Burns all have in common?

A 13th Century long cross penny which was recently unearthed at an excavation site near the birthplace of  Robert Burns in Alloway, Scotland.

David Nelson found the silver coin which was minted in London and bears the head relief of Edward I. Edward Longshanks, so called for his height of 6 ft 2 in.,  was known for crushing those that opposed him. William Wallace of Scotland took him on and kept him from overtaking the country. Wallace  was a great inspiration to Burns, as to all  brave hearts everywhere. David Hopes is the curator of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum which is to be built on the excavation site where the coin was found. The museum is scheduled to open in the Summer of 2010 and since its inception several artifacts have been rediscovered. One of these is the portrait of James Glencairn Burns, Robert’s son; the painting will be part of the museum’s permanent exhibit.

Sort of a six degrees of separation situation wouldn’t you say?

13th Century Penny Excavated

A Bible purported to have been used by Robert Burns in the last few weeks of his life is headed for the auction block in Edinburgh between August 18th and the 21st.

The Bible, which is housed in a velvet lined blue Moroccan box with the words “Burns Bible” lettered in gilt is expected to bring $3,400.

Being offered at  same auction, held at Bonhams annual Scottish sale, is the sponsorship of the manuscript and lyrics of Auld Lang Syne which Burns wrote in 1788. The winner of the sponsorship will help to safeguard the manuscript within the planned Robert Burns Birthplace Museum to be built in Alloway, Scotland. The building will be part of the National Trust for Scotland’s holdings. The sponsorship is expected to fetch a hefty $85,000.

If either of these items are a bit out of your price range you can participate in the campaign to Put On A Pound for Rabbie by donating 1 pound ($1.70) to the museum building fund.

Go to: http://www.worldwidetoasttorobertburns.com/content/view/87/and click on Make a Donation at the bottom of the page.

Do it for Rabbie!

Scotland’s motto is “Nemo me impune lacessit” which means “No one provokes me with impunity”. The latest rendition may become” Nemo me rapio meus haggis impune lacessit” ,which loosely translated (with deepest apologies to my former Latin major roommate in college) means, “No one steals my haggis with impunity.”

Catherine Brown, a food historian, has found references to haggis in a cookbook of sorts entitled The English Hus-Wife by Gervese Markham which dates from the 1600’s. She asserts that haggis was originally an English dish as the first mention of Scottish haggis she found was 1747.

Of course this is all speculation, those borders saw a lot of crossings and one wonders if good recipes weren’t shared with neighbors then, just as they are now, at “church potlucks” and family gatherings. Robert Burns wrote his poem Address to a Haggis in 1786 in response to the French cuisine that was all the rage in Edinburgh among the upper eschelon of society. The poem sealed the delicacy’s place as a Scottish dish and made it forever a part of the Burn’s supper menu.

James Macsween, of Edinburgh’s famous haggis producer Macsween’s, who has been turning out authentic and award winning haggis for over 50 years put it best, and very succinctly, I believe,when he stated that it will remain a Scottish icon whatever its origin.

He added: ‘Haggis is now renowned as Scotland’s dish largely due to Robert Burns, who made it famous. That’s not to say that, prior to Burns, haggis wasn’t eaten in England, but Scotland has done a better job of looking after it.

‘I didn’t hear of Shakespeare writing a poem about haggis.’

Address to a Haggis

A new acquaintance of mine once asked me how on earth I had become so enamored of Burn’s night, an admittedly obscure holiday in America.

Thinking back I finally pieced together how it happened. I was about 15 years of age when my Scots-Irish ancestry became known to me, or at least that was when I claimed it for my own, I suppose.

A series of events that all happened within a few years fueled my desire to know more about the Scottish side of my heritage. My sister presented me with a small female West Highland White Terrier, which I promptly named Thistle, and she sent me on a quest to learn more about the Scottish Highlands, home to this brave little breed. I was introduced to Robert Burn’s poetry in my high school English class and I immediately fell in love with the rhyme, the meaning, and the Scottish lowland dialect. Learning that my ancestors hailed from the southwest of Scotland, just south of Robert Burns home, made the connection more personal.  My father died; something about losing a parent seems to beckon a child to know more about where they came from – maybe it is a way of dealing with our own place in the march of time.

I was then married to a man that loved to tease me about my pride in my Scots-Irish ancestors; he truly did not know much about his ancestry but when I would rousingly celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day he would laugh and tell me he was going to have a Saint Swithin’s Day party. I’m not sure he even knew who Saint Swithun was, or that it was an English holiday, but he claimed it as his own personal holiday. Somewhere around this time I decided that if the Irish had a national holiday surely the Scots did as well, and then I remembered having read of Burn’s night.

I started researching Burn’s night, but this was long before the handy thing called an internet with even handier search engines, so I had to rely on library books. Somehow living in a Southwestern state, as I did by then, there just weren’t that many books in our library with information on Scottish holidays! It was during this era that I was finally able to afford a Dandie Dinmont Terrier; I had seen these sweet dogs at a dog show when I was in college and wanted one for my own. I bought a female whom we named Bluebell and she became our beloved family dog. Again this fueled the quest for ever more information about Scotland ( Dandie’s are a Scottish breed as well, the stuff of Sir Walter Scott’s writings in Guy Mannering.)

Decades later, once my education was completed, children were grown and marriage over, I decided to start having an annual Burn’s night supper. I had a lot of information in my head but it took more research to plan such an evening, fortunately by now the world wide web made things much easier. My family thought I had gone a bit balmy I believe. I had always been a rather introverted person and here I was planning a dinner for ten people, serving whisky, and reciting poems aloud in a practiced Scottish tongue! But they soon embraced it and discovered just how much fun this night could be. Now friends and family alike save the Saturday night closest to January 25th and await their invitations to yet another evening celebrating Rabbie and all things Scottish.

If you have a story about how you became a Burn’s night fan I invite you to share it here. I look forward to hearing your tales.