THE SAVIOUR OF THE AULD BRIG O’ DOON
Along with thousands of visitors, many of us who live locally will have crossed “the keystane” of the auld Brig o’ Doon at one time or another. Either as a youngster or in taking our own children for a walk and telling them the tale of ”Tam o’ Shanter” and his guid horse Meg; or maybe while attending one of the many weddings now taking place at this iconic wedding venue. I’ve just moved house and now live near to the auld Brig and took a walk down there the other night. Despite being one of Rabbie’s “Honest Men”, I hadn’t visited it for years.
The recent alterations to the Brig o’ Doon Hotel have been most welcome but I was a wee bit saddened to see the removal of the old plaque above the door which contained the words from Burns’ own seal “Better a Wee Bush than Nae Bield”. That plaque had been there for generations. Oh well so much for modernisation! This phrase "better a wee bush than nae bield" literally means that it is better to have a small bush than no shelter, in other words, it is better to have something small or modest than to have nothing at all. The original seal is on display at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum.
I sauntered down to the auld Brig o’ Doon recalling the epic journey of Tam o’Shanter as he tried to force his auld horse Meg ower the Brig to get away from Nannie’s Cutty Sark! He did so eventually, alas minus Meg’s tail!
Modernisation has taken place down here to there too, and for the better, with the new entrance to Ayr Rugby Club a vast improvement for vehicular traffic. I stood on the auld Brig. What a beautiful site with the auld road to Carrick disappearing towards Newark. I then recalled the fact that had it not been for another poet we may well have had no auld Brig o’ Doon!
THE REVEREND HAMILTON PAUL
The Reverend Hamilton Paul was born in 1773 in a cottage on the Bargany Estate near Dailly, where his father John Paul was a “grieve”, a manager responsible for the colliery on the Bargany Estate. Hamilton was named after the laird of Bargany.
Hamilton Paul was educated at Dailly Parish school. Thereafter he seems to have gone direct to Glasgow University where he studied for the Ministry. Here he also pursued his interest in poetry. He became a bit of a poet and an authority on Burns and had various works published. He also held a number of ministerial charges within Ayrshire and for a time edited the Ayr Advertiser.
In 1801, Burns’ friend and patron John Ballantine (Provost of Ayr and at one time the owner of Castlehill House and Estate) asked Rev Paul to hold a supper to celebrate the life and work of Burns, who had died only five years earlier. This small gathering was to be the start of the traditional Burns Supper, now celebrated globally on or around 25 January each year. For this, we are indebted to Rev Paul. However, it could be argued that one of the best things he ever did was not to start the tradition of Burns Suppers, but to save the auld Brig o’ Doon!
SAVING THE AULD BRIG O’ DOON
In 1812, the Brig o’ Doon was sold by the Ayrshire Road Trustees to the contractor responsible for the construction of a new crossing over the River Doon. The contractor had plans to dismantle the Brig for material to build the new crossing. Rev Paul petitioned - in verse - for it to be saved! His petition was successful despite attempts to block it by the new trustees who declared the Brig o’ Doon “was only a private footpath”!
His petition was as follows
“Must I, like modern fabric of a day, decline, unwept, the victim of decay?
Shall my bold arch, which proudly stretches o’er
Doon’s classic stream from Kyle to Carrick shore,
Be suffered in oblivion’s gulf to fall,
And hurl to wreck my venerable wall?
Forbid it every tutelary power
That guards my keystone at the midnight hour;
Forbid it ye, who, charmed by Burns’s lay,
Let Nanny’s sark and Maggie’s mangled tail
Plead in my cause and in the cause prevail,
The man of taste who comes my form to see
And curious asks, but asks in vain for me,
With tears of sorrow will my fate deplore,
When he is told “the Auld Brig is no more.”
Stop then; oh, stop the more than vandal rage
That marks this revolutionary age,
And bid the structure of your fathers last,
The pride of this, the boast of ages past;
For never let your children’s children tell,
By your decree the tine old fabric fell.”
Yes we have a lot to thank the Rev Hamilton Paul for in saving our auld fifteenth century Brig o’ Doon. I wonder what he would think now if he were to look from the Brig o ’Doon, down the river, past the ‘new’ road bridge and on to the cycle path beyond. And what if he were to walk along the cycle path and through the Alloway Railway Tunnel. What would he think of the ‘portrait’ of Tam o”Shanter on the Mural?
I think he would be absolutely delighted!
Arnold Thomson
