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The Days of Auld Langsyne
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Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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About the author
Ian Maclaren
208 books7 followersRev. John Watson, known by his pen name Ian Maclaren, was a Scottish author and theologian. He was born in Manningtree, Essex, and educated at Stirling and at Edinburgh University, later studying theology at New College, Edinburgh, and at Tübingen.
In 1874 he became a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and assistant minister of Edinburgh Barclay Church. Subsequently he was minister at Logiealmond in Perthshire and at Glasgow, and in 1880 he became minister of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, from which he retired in 1905.
Maclaren's first stories of rural Scottish life, Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush (1894), achieved extraordinary popularity, selling more than 700 thousand copies, and were succeeded by other successful books, The Days of Auld Lang Syne (1895), Kate Carnegie and those Ministers (1896), and Afterwards and other Stories (1898). He is now considered to be one of the principal writers of the Kailyard school, characterized by sanitised and sentimental representations or rural life.
Under his own name John Watson published several volumes of sermons, among them being The Upper Room (1895), The Mind of the Master (1896) and The Potter's Wheel (1897).
In 1874 he became a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and assistant minister of Edinburgh Barclay Church. Subsequently he was minister at Logiealmond in Perthshire and at Glasgow, and in 1880 he became minister of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, from which he retired in 1905.
Maclaren's first stories of rural Scottish life, Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush (1894), achieved extraordinary popularity, selling more than 700 thousand copies, and were succeeded by other successful books, The Days of Auld Lang Syne (1895), Kate Carnegie and those Ministers (1896), and Afterwards and other Stories (1898). He is now considered to be one of the principal writers of the Kailyard school, characterized by sanitised and sentimental representations or rural life.
Under his own name John Watson published several volumes of sermons, among them being The Upper Room (1895), The Mind of the Master (1896) and The Potter's Wheel (1897).
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July 12, 2019
A delightful and charming collection of what are essentially short stories all set in the village of Drumtochty, north of Glasgow in Scotland. My hardback edition was purchased in 1897, two years after its publication, by my great grandfather. It is certainly the most challenging work I've ever read with respect to the Scottish brogue it captures with its spelling and punctuation. I now know that 'ilka' means 'each', 'muckle' means 'abundant', that a 'byre' is a shed, usually for cows, and that a 'collie-shangie' is a 'hullabaloo' to mention only a few of the more exotic terms with which I had to familiarize myself reading this work. Luckily, I was already aware the 'kirk' meant 'church', 'burn' meant 'stream' and 'canny' was something pleasant or desirable. I did find a Scottish dictionary on line (https://www.dsl.ac.uk) which helped a lot.
Maclaren was the nom-de-plume of John Watson, a free Church minister who published several other collections of stories as well as collections of his sermons. It would appear that the village of Drumtochty is fictional, although there is a Drumtochty Castle which currently operates as a tourist attraction.
Most of the stories center on the unique individuals who make up the village. Jamie Souter, Hillocks, John Baxter and his wife Jean of Burnbrae, Drumsheugh, Mary Robinson, Lily Grant, Posty (the postman, who goes by this appellation though his name is Archibald Mackittrick), Milton, a newcomer, Dr. Robinson the minister and Maclure the doctor are all very well drawn, and though they each have their own peculiarity of temperament or behavior, there exists a common bond of mutual sympathy and understanding that binds them together in a commonality peculiar to their rural village lifestyle. Indeed, when a few young people from the village move to Glasgow, they pour over each issue of the local paper which they get there for every scrap of news from home.
Dominating over all their lives is their devotion to their kirk. Be it the 'auld kirk' or the 'free kirk', they uniformly keep the Sabbath day holy, even disdaining to do any farm work that day of the week. The weekly sermon is a subject for analysis by the entire congregation, and the kirkyard the main meeting center for obtaining local news. In the most dramatic of all the stories in the work, a factor (manager) for the absent lord requires a tenant farmer whose family has worked the same farm for at least seven generations to give up his allegiance to the free kirk or surrender his farm. In this way, he is following the behavior or another factor he'd heard of 'who ran off all the Methodists'. Even the minister of the auld kirk is aghast at such a notion, and although the farmer submits to move rather than change what his conscience tells him to do, things are resolved
As the author opines, 'Church connection was universal and unalterable in the Glen', and when a newcomer finds both churches lacking in what he personally desires in religious sermons and instead 'became a separatist, and edified himself and his household in his kitchen' this results in the fact that 'he alone of all men aroused the dislike of the kindest of parishes so that one fled from before his face.' This case of social ostracism is eventually resolved is a most pleasant and warm-hearted way, which is typical of the almost saccharine like glow with which Maclaren idolized this place and its people.
The tragically unrealized love of one of the main characters for a girl who married another, the erstwhile attempt of another to bring a sick daughter home to her grandmother, the heroic efforts sacrifice of one to save the daughter of another when the young girl was carried off in a raging stream and the semi-humorous abilities of one character to burst the pompous bubble of anyone who carries on in too grand a manner all exemplify the highly engaging narrative patterns of this delightful work.
I have a strong aversion to any concept by which one can yearn for the 'good old days' - I think such amounts to fantasizing rather than accurate remembering. As Hobbes so eloquently put it, for the majority of mankind for the majority of history, life has been 'nasty, brutish, and short'. However, the common bonds these people shared in their religious beliefs, in their delight in the natural splendor of their surroundings, in their care and concern for one another and in their sharp witted approach to human interactions all allowed this work to make me feel a wistful yearning for a simplicity and common understanding I truly feel is forever unattainable in our modern urban environment.
Recommended, but only for those non-Scottish readers who know how to read slowly and to sound out the strange spellings until they ultimately make sense. It is well worth the effort to do so.
Maclaren was the nom-de-plume of John Watson, a free Church minister who published several other collections of stories as well as collections of his sermons. It would appear that the village of Drumtochty is fictional, although there is a Drumtochty Castle which currently operates as a tourist attraction.
Most of the stories center on the unique individuals who make up the village. Jamie Souter, Hillocks, John Baxter and his wife Jean of Burnbrae, Drumsheugh, Mary Robinson, Lily Grant, Posty (the postman, who goes by this appellation though his name is Archibald Mackittrick), Milton, a newcomer, Dr. Robinson the minister and Maclure the doctor are all very well drawn, and though they each have their own peculiarity of temperament or behavior, there exists a common bond of mutual sympathy and understanding that binds them together in a commonality peculiar to their rural village lifestyle. Indeed, when a few young people from the village move to Glasgow, they pour over each issue of the local paper which they get there for every scrap of news from home.
Dominating over all their lives is their devotion to their kirk. Be it the 'auld kirk' or the 'free kirk', they uniformly keep the Sabbath day holy, even disdaining to do any farm work that day of the week. The weekly sermon is a subject for analysis by the entire congregation, and the kirkyard the main meeting center for obtaining local news. In the most dramatic of all the stories in the work, a factor (manager) for the absent lord requires a tenant farmer whose family has worked the same farm for at least seven generations to give up his allegiance to the free kirk or surrender his farm. In this way, he is following the behavior or another factor he'd heard of 'who ran off all the Methodists'. Even the minister of the auld kirk is aghast at such a notion, and although the farmer submits to move rather than change what his conscience tells him to do, things are resolved
As the author opines, 'Church connection was universal and unalterable in the Glen', and when a newcomer finds both churches lacking in what he personally desires in religious sermons and instead 'became a separatist, and edified himself and his household in his kitchen' this results in the fact that 'he alone of all men aroused the dislike of the kindest of parishes so that one fled from before his face.' This case of social ostracism is eventually resolved is a most pleasant and warm-hearted way, which is typical of the almost saccharine like glow with which Maclaren idolized this place and its people.
The tragically unrealized love of one of the main characters for a girl who married another, the erstwhile attempt of another to bring a sick daughter home to her grandmother, the heroic efforts sacrifice of one to save the daughter of another when the young girl was carried off in a raging stream and the semi-humorous abilities of one character to burst the pompous bubble of anyone who carries on in too grand a manner all exemplify the highly engaging narrative patterns of this delightful work.
I have a strong aversion to any concept by which one can yearn for the 'good old days' - I think such amounts to fantasizing rather than accurate remembering. As Hobbes so eloquently put it, for the majority of mankind for the majority of history, life has been 'nasty, brutish, and short'. However, the common bonds these people shared in their religious beliefs, in their delight in the natural splendor of their surroundings, in their care and concern for one another and in their sharp witted approach to human interactions all allowed this work to make me feel a wistful yearning for a simplicity and common understanding I truly feel is forever unattainable in our modern urban environment.
Recommended, but only for those non-Scottish readers who know how to read slowly and to sound out the strange spellings until they ultimately make sense. It is well worth the effort to do so.
Displaying 1 of 1 review