24/01/2021
Enjoy Burns Night! 🎉
On Monday 25th January 1759 Robert Burns was born. On this day every year people come together and celebrate his life & work with some haggis, neeps & tatties.
He came from a humble background, born into a poor Ayrshire farmer family. He wasn’t happy there. He had an illegitimate daughter already when he got his future wife pregnant…something the locals didn’t approve of much. 😬
A lot of people in his time would have tried to make their fortunes in the new world. And Robert accepted a job on a Jamaican plantation. But he never went. So we can only hope that had he went, and then been confronted with the slave economy more directly, he would have been absolutely appalled. The growing success of his poetry in Scotland made him stay though.
Often called his best poem, Tam o’Shanter, tells the story of drunk Tam, who, on his way home, comes across witches partying with the devil.
He watches for a while, and particularly loves how a witch called Nannie is dancing. He is so bewitched that he shouts: “well done, cutty-sark!” (i.e. short nighty)
Therewith revealing his presence and realising what he had done, he jumps on his horse Maggie trying to get to the key stone of the bridge after which the witches won’t be able to get to him. He just about makes it, but Nannie get a hold of poor Maggie’s tail and rips it off just before they pass the key stone.
If you have been to Greenwich, London, you will have seen the world’s only surviving extreme clipper - Cutty Sark!
Commissioned by John Willis & son, she was built in Dumbarton and launched in 1869. On her maiden voyage she brought spirits, wine and beer from London to Shanghai and returned with 1.3 million pounds of tea. 🫖
John Willis senior, born 1788 in Eyemouth, Scottish Borders, was a self-made man. He ran away to sea as a boy, working his way up to commanding his first vessel and eventually making enough money to be able to start his own company. His John Willis took over after his death in 1862 and was the man in charge when Cutty Sark was built.
Check out Cutty Sark’s figurehead, the witch Nannie, from Burns’ poem, still holding on Maggie’s tail!
