by Robert Burns
1 ‘– In our world, Death deputes
Intemperance to the work of age!
And, hanging up the quiver Nature gave him,
As flow of execution, for despatch
Sends forth imperial butchers; bids them slay
Their sheep [the silly sheep they fleec’d before]
And toss him twice ten thousand at a meal.’ Young’s Consolation. R.B.
‘Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.’ Shakespeare. R.B.
2 ‘Ah, little think the gay, licentious proud,
Whom pleasure, power, affluence surround …’ Thomson. R.B.
At Dumfries Theatre
First published in The Morning Chronicle, 7th February, 1795.
KEMBLE, thou cur’st my unbelief
Of Moses and his rod: –
At YARICO’s sweet Notes of Grief
The rock with tears had flow’d.
R.B.
This was not, as is generally accepted, first published by Stuart, Glasgow, 1801, but appears in The Morning Chronicle on 7th February, 1795, designated by the poet’s initials. These lines are further proof Burns was, as promised, sending material to the Opposition press in London. Mrs Stephen Kemble (1763–1841), wife of Stephen Kemble the manager of the Edinburgh theatre, appeared at Dumfries theatre on 21st October, 1794, in the part of Yarico in the drama Inkle and Yarico by George Colman. With its potent anti-slave-trade sentiments, it was a popular drama among radicals of the period. Accordingly, these lines are an indirect political statement by Burns. They were written just after the performance. Kinsley, while drawing attention to the allusion to Exod. xviii, does not mention this political context.
The Heron Ballads
First Heron Ballad
Tune: For a’ That and a’ That
First printed as an anonymous broadside, 1795.
Wham will we send to London town, who
To Parliament, and a’ that,
Wha maist in a’ the country round, who most, all
For worth and sense may fa’ that. — be up to/do
5 For a’ that and a’ that,
Thro’ Galloway and a’ that,
Where is the Laird, or belted Knight,
That best deserves to fa’ that? do
Wha sees Kirrouchtree’s open yett, who, gate
10 And wha is ’t never saw that, who
Wha e’er wi’ Kirrouchtree met, who ever
That has a doubt of a’ that?
For a’ that and a’ that,
Here’s Heron yet for a’ that;
15 The independent Patriot,
The Honest Man, and a’ that.
Tho’ wit and worth, in either sex,
Saint Mary’s Isle1 can shaw that; show
Wi’ Lords and Dukes let Selkirk mix,
20 For weel does Selkirk fa’ that. well, do
For a’ that and a’ that,
Here’s Heron yet for a’ that;
An independent Commoner
Maun bear the gree and a’ that. shall win the day
25 To paughty Lordlings shall we jeuk, insolent, bow
And it against the law, that:
For even a Lord may be a gowk, fool/cuckoo
Tho’ sprung frae kings and a’ that. from
For a’ that and a’ that,
30 Here’s Heron yet for a’ that;
A Lord may be a lousy loon, idiot
Wi’ ribban, star, and a’ that. — ribbon
Yon beardless boy comes o’er the hills,2
Wi’s uncle’s gowd, and a’ that: with his, gold
35 But we’ll hae ane frae ‘mang oursels have one from
A man we ken, and a’ that. — know
For a’ that and a’ that,
Here’s Heron yet for a’ that;
We are na to the market come, not
40 Like nowt and naigs and a’ that. — cattle, horses
If we are to be knaves and fools,
And bought and sauld and a’ that, sold
A truant callan frae the schools lad, from
It ’s ne’er be said did a’ that.
45 For a’ that and a’ that,
Here’s Heron yet for a’ that;
And Master Dicky, thou shalt get
A gird and stick to ca’ that. hoop, call
Then let us drink, the Stewartry,
50 Kirrouchtree’s Laird, and a’ that,
Our Representative to be,
For weel he’s worthy a’ that. well
For a’ that and a’ that,
Here’s Heron yet for a’ that;
55 A House of Commons such as he,
They wad be blest that saw that. would
The election for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, a significant part of Galloway, took place in the Spring of 1795. Burns decided to give unqualified support to his friend and new found patron Patrick Heron (1736–1803), the Whig candidate, from Kirroughtree (this is now the accepted spelling), near Newtown Stewart (then named Newtown Douglas). Burns had probably met Heron prior to this either at Edinburgh or the Caledonian Hunt races in Dumfries, but in June 1794 he was Heron’s guest at Kirroughtree. The song The Banks of Cree was written for Lady Elizabeth Heron. The Tory candidate opposing Heron was Thomas Gordon of Balmagie; he, and almost all of his local aristocratic supporters are lampooned in the four Heron ballads.
In a letter to Patrick Heron, Burns admits to circulating this and the second ballad as printed broadsides: ‘I have privately printed a good many copies of both ballads, and have sent them among friends all about the country’ (Letter 660). They were written as ephemeral verse, specific to one purpose; to assist the return of Heron to Parliament. Burns boasted to Heron, his satire would:
… pillory on Parnassus the rank reprobation of character, the utter dereliction of all principle, in a profligate junto which has not only outraged virtue, but violated common decency; which, spurning even hypocrisy as paltry iniquity below their daring; – to unmask their flagitiousness to the broadest day – to deliver such over to their merited fate, is surely not merely innocent but laudable; is not only propriety, but virtue. – You have already, as your auxiliary, the sober detestation of mankind on the heads of your opponents; and I swear by the lyre of Thalia to muster on your side all the votaries of honest laughter, and fair, candid ridicule (Letter 660).
More potent, more potentially treasonable anti-Pitt words, were not spoken by the Botany Bay bound radicals Thomas Muir, Rev. Fysche Palmer, William Skirving or Maurice Margarot. But Burns, without the protection of the influential (deceased) Lord Glencairn, saw in Heron a potential ally, a powerful friend who might be of some use to him in the future. He spells this out to Heron, wishing that one day he might gain promotion in the Excise to the level of Collector, where richer, he would have free time to pursue literary activities:
I am on the supervisor’s list, and as we come on there by precedency, in two or three years I shall be at the head of that list, and be appointed, of course. Then, a FRIEND might be of service to me in getting me into a place in the kingdom which I would like. A supervisor’s income varies from about a hundred and twenty, to two hundred per year; but the business is an incessant drudgery, and would be nearly a complete bar to every species of literary pursuit. The moment I am appointed supervisor, in the common routine, I may be nominated on the collector’s list; and this is always a business purely of political patronage. A collectorship varies much, from better than two hundred a year to near a thousand…. besides a handsome income, a life of compleat leisure. A life of literary leisure with a decent competence, is the summit of my wishes (Letter 660).
However regrettable that this wish was never fulfilled, Burns may have won one partly influential friend with his Heron Ballads, but the Whigs were in Opposition and although Burns told Richarld Oswald of Auchincruive he had lately ‘come forward with my services, as poet laureate’ to the Whig Party (Letter 662), they were impotent to repay his services.
It mattered litt
le that all of the individuals in the ballads had their names partly dashed out in the original publication, leaving only one or two letters as a hint of the satirical target. It was obvious who the individuals were, given the naming of places associated with the Tory candidate and his supporters. After the eulogy to Heron (ll. 1– 24) as a somwhat idealised independent patriot, ll. 25–32 are a biting attack on Tory Landlordism, sharper in tone than the revolutionary A Man’s A Man, particularly the treasonable ‘For even a Lord may be a gowk, / Tho’ sprung frae kings and a’ that’. Giving voice to the voiceless peasant, ll. 39–42 hit on the brutal inequalities of the rural feudal system ‘We are na to the market come,/ Like nowt and naigs and a’ that. —/ If we are to be knaves and fools, / And bought and sauld and a’ that’. It was probably evident to many readers that Burns was the author, despite his apparent loyalty to King and country in The Dumfries Volunteers. The Heron Ballads represent Burns’s deliberate political intervention in an election, albeit cloaked in anonymity, which would have lost him both his liberty, his job as an Excise officer and his family income if he was discovered as the author and, accordingly, found guilty on a charge of sedition.
This ballad first entered the canon with Hogg and Motherwell, 1834, then the same year, in Cunningham.
1 The seat of the Earl of Selkirk, home of the poet’s friend Lord Daer.
2 Thomas Gordon of Balmagie, the Tory candidate. His wealthy ‘uncle’ was James Murray of Broughton.
SECOND HERON BALLAD:
The Election – A New Song
Tune: Fy, Let Us a’ to the Bridal
First printed as an anonymous broadside, 1795.
Fy let us a’ to Kirkcudbright, now, go
For there will be bickerin there; a scrimmage
For Murray’s light horse are to muster,1
And O, how the heroes will swear!
5 And there will be Murray commander,
An’ Gordon the battle to win;2
Like brothers they’ll stan’ by each other, stand
Sae knit in alliance and kin. so
And there’ll be black-nebbit Johnie,3 -nosed
10 The tongue o’ the trump to them a’; Jew’s harp/spokesman
An he get na Hell for his haddin, not, dwelling
The Deil gets nae justice ava. devil, no, at all
And there’ll be Kempleton’s birkie,4 lively fellow
A boy no sae black at the bane; not so, bone
15 But as to his fine Nabob fortune,
We’ll e’en let the subject alane. even, alone
An’ there’ll be Wigton’s new Sheriff,5
Dame Justice fu’ brawly has sped; bravely
She’s gotten the heart of a Bushby,
20 But Lord! what’s become o’ the head?
An’ there’ll be Cardoness, ESQUIRE,6
Sae mighty in Cardoness’ eyes;
A wight that will weather damnation,
The Devil the prey will despise.
25 And there’ll be Douglasses doughty,7
New-christening towns far and near;
Abjuring their democrat doings
By kissing the arse of a Peer.
An’ there’ll be Kenmure sae gen’rous,8 so
30 Whase honour is proof to the storm; who’s
To save them from stark reprobation,
He lent them his name to the Firm.
But we winna mention Redcastle,9 will not
The body, e’en let him escape:
35 He’d venture the gallows for siller, money
An’ ‘twere na the cost o’ the rape. rope
An’ whare is our King’s Lord Lieutenant,10 where
Sae famed for his gratefu’ return? so
The billie is gettin his questions, lad
40 To say in St. Stephen’s the morn. Westminster, tomorrow
An’ there will be Lads o’ the gospel,
Muirhead, wha’s as gude as he’s true:11 who is, good
An’ there’ll be Buittle’s Apostle,12
Wha’s mair o’ the black than the blue; who is more
45 An’ there’ll be Folk frae Saint MARY’s,13 from
A house o’ great merit and note;
The deil ane but honours them highly, devil a one/no-one
The deil ane will gie them his vote. give
An’ there’ll be wealthy young RICHARD14—
50 Dame Fortune should hing by the neck hang
For prodigal thriftless bestowing —
His merit had won him respect.
An’ there’ll be rich brither Nabobs,15
Tho’ Nabobs, yet men o’ the first:
55 An’ there’ll be Collieston’s whiskers,16
An’ Quinton — o’ lads no the warst.17 not, worst
An’ there’ll be Stamp-office Johnie,18
Tak tent how ye purchase a dram: be careful
An’ there’ll be gay Cassencarry,19
60 An’ there’ll be gleg Colonel Tam;20 quick-witted
An’ there’ll be trusty KIRROUCHTREE,21
Whase honour was ever his law;
If the VIRTUES were packt in a parcel
His WORTH might be sample for a’. all
65 And can we forget the auld MAJOR,22
Wha’ll ne’er be forgot in the Greys;
Our flatt’ry we’ll keep for some other,
Him only it’s justice to praise.
And there’ll be maiden Kilkerran,23
70 And also Barskimming’s gude Knight;24 good
And there’ll be roaring Birtwhistle,25
Yet, luckily roars in the right.
And there frae the Niddlisdale border, from
Will mingle the Maxwells in droves;
75 Teugh Jockie, Staunch Geordie, and Walie,26 tough
That girns for the fishes and loaves. cries
An’ there’ll be Logan M’Doual,27
Sculdud’ry — an’ he will be there; skulduggery
An’ also the Wild Scot o’ Galloway,
80 Sogering, gunpowther Blair.28 soldiering, gunpowder
Then hey the chaste Interest o Broughton,
And hey for the blessin ‘twill bring;
It may send Balmaghie to the Commons,29
In Sodom ’twould mak him a King.
And hey for the sanctified Murray,30
Our land wha wi’ Chapels has stor’d: who
He founder’d his horse among harlots,
But gied the auld naig to the Lord! gave old horse
For the original context of this ballad, see notes to the first Heron ballad. This, the second Heron ballad, is based on an old song The Blythesome Wedding which Burns probably saw in The Orpheus Caledonius (1733). Henderson and Henley record that a broadside copy of this ballad exists in the British Museum, marked ‘Printed for private distribution by James Hill, Esq., W.S., 1795’ (Vol. II, p. 402). This ballad first entered the canon in 1834, printed in Hogg and Motherwell, followed the same year by Cunningham’s edition.
Unlike the oblique slight at the idle gentry’s ‘whoring’ and squandering money playing cards, subtly interwoven in the dialogue of The Twa Dogs, these blatant acerbic verses probably had the effect of indiscriminate machine gun fire among Pittite Tory supporters throughout Galloway. The various personal failings, idiosyncrasies and hypocrisy of local Tory aristocrats are mocked in this broadside of biting polemical satire, which rings out not the titled but colloquial names for the landed families, thus reducing their importance to the level of local inn gossip. It exposes, then attacks the closed-shop alliance of political, economic and legal power controlled by landed families in the south west. That birth was the prerequisite to position and power in semi-feudal Scotland, profoundly irritated Burns, not primarily because he was envious of his so-called social superiors, but because it bred nepotism and corruption and allowed many people of rank into places of power their intellect or ability did not merit. This process, most radicals believed, acted as a barrier to social, economic and politic
al progress. Political reform, though was not enough for Burns, as he commented to Deborah Duff Davies:
DOWN, immediately, should go FOOLS from the high places where misbegotten CHANCE has perked them up,
& through life should they sculk, ever haunted by their native insignificance, as the body marches accompanied by its shadow … But the hand that could give, I would liberally fill (Letter 556A).
While the underlying egalitarian values of Burns were often his impetus to satirical verse, an apologia for the Heron Ballads might argue that his hopes for a better, more enlightened society were destroyed by the disintegration of political freedom under Pitt’s oppressive government.
There is, though, no substantive evidence that Burns was widely known to be the author of these verses during his lifetime, nor is it known how widely they penetrated the local peasant or aristocratic culture of Galloway during the election. What is known is that the Rev. James Muirhead (l. 42; footnote 11) replied in verse. His reply branded Burns a ‘… shabby son of a whore’ and a ‘… rhymster, gauger, pimp’. Speaking as one of the dominant Tory hierarchy then ruling Galloway, Muirhead’s libel became part of the black Tory gossip that marred Burns’s character before and after his death. The lines which probably stung Muirhead, the minister at Urr near Castle Douglas, are in the fourth Heron Ballad (ll. 29–32), where Burns compares him unfavourably to a sour crab apple. The personal and political virulence of the backlash against Burns can be gauged from The Young Ms. in Edinburgh University. Alexander Young of Harben was a student friend of James Currie and Heron’s Tory lawyer. His memoir in the form of a commentary on Currie’s biography is reprinted in Professor Robert Fitzhugh’s Robert Burns, his Associates and Contemporaries (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1943).