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Immortal Memory #2
The Song in the Green Thorn Tree: A Novel of the Life and Loves of Robert Burns
#2 of "His Immortal Memory: A Novel of the Life and Loves of Robert Burns" quintet. Combining the pace of a gripping novel with the meticulous detail of historical research, Barke presents us with a fully fleshed picture of Robert Burns as poet and man in all his wilful rebelliousness and impulsive passion. And at the heart of this book are the great loves of Burns's life, Jean Armour and 'Highland Mary' Campbell. Convincingly describing the inspiration for many of Burns's most celebrated lyrics - including 'To a Muse' and 'Holy Willie's Prayer' - The Song in the Green Thorn Tree takes us with Burns as he travels the difficult road to 'glorious fame'.
- GenresFiction
456 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1947
24 people want to read
About the author
James Barke
32 books7 followersJames William Barke was born in Selkirkshire in 1905 to Galloway parents. He worked on the Clyde shipyards and was involved in local and nationalist politics before starting his writing career. His first novel, The World His Pillow, was published in 1933, but he is best remembered for his five-volume novelization of the life of Robert Burns, which was published in 1946 beginning with The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
The first two books in the Robert Burns quintet (Immortal Memory) were re-published in honor of the 250th anniversary of Burns' birth in 2009 by Edinburgh's Black & White Publishing. Barke also wrote The Land of the Leal (1939), a number of plays including Gregarach, and contributed to anthologies of Burns' poetry.
The first two books in the Robert Burns quintet (Immortal Memory) were re-published in honor of the 250th anniversary of Burns' birth in 2009 by Edinburgh's Black & White Publishing. Barke also wrote The Land of the Leal (1939), a number of plays including Gregarach, and contributed to anthologies of Burns' poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 26, 2025
This is the second of Barke’s Immortal Memory sequence chronicling the life of Robert Burns. He is now in young adulthood and has moved to the farm of Mossgiel, near Mauchline, with brother Gilbert and the rest of his family. We meet Jean Armour before Burns does, and she is presented as an obedient, dutiful daughter.
Burns is in trouble with the local minister, known as Daddy Auld. He has already fathered a child to Betty Paton, but his penance for this, on the cutty stool, takes place in the nearby parish of Tarbolton since that is where the offence occurred. He was fined one guinea and his sin considered absolved. (This strikes me as akin to those indulgences of the Catholic Church which so enraged the early Protestant reformers.) It is his poems and intellect which most worry Auld, however, who realizes that the best way to undermine Burns will be through his sexual misdemeanours. To that end he enjoins two of his elders, Willie Fisher and James Lamie, to collect evidence against Burns. Fisher is that hypocritical individual about whom Burns would write Holy Willie’s Prayer. (Another long poem, about Mauchline’s Holy Fair, also excites Auld’s ire.)
Burns and his cronies disparage these prurient creatures as the houghmagandie pack, and the fascination of the Church with controlling sexuality (which seems to be the goal of all religions) is noted. “Auld had long been made aware of the peculiar fact that when any of the congregation had to appear on the sessional carpet for a sexual offence, he could count on a full attendance from his lay-shepherds. No other sin so excited their holy zeal for probing into the mystery of the passionate relationship between man and woman and the theological relationship between both and the Presbyterian conception of God.”
When Burns meets Jean he is immediately smitten (though he does have a weakness for imagining himself in love.) Jean’s father dislikes him on reputation alone and has already forbidden her to have anything to do with him. But the attraction is too strong for both of them and she and Burns sign a paper to the effect that they have married. This is without benefit of clergy but would apparently have been recognised legally. He is too poor to support a wife though. The song in the green thorn tree of the book’s title is the one Jean sings at their trysting site.
The inevitable happens and Jean’s father and mother prevail on her to disown him, paper or no. Incensed, Burns turns to Highland Mary (Campbell) for solace and resolves to leave for the Caribbean, arranging a passage for himself and Mary whom he dispatches to Greenock to hide her pregnancy. Some boy, as they say.
In the meantime his poem some of which Barke has Burns conjure up on the spot, have been gaining a reputation and it is arranged for a book of his poetry (Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect) to be published by subscription, or at least promise of payment. He wrestles over which verses to publish as some may be considered too controversial, publishers then, as now, reluctant to take too much of a risk.
Barke’s writing is workmanlike, with occasional veerings into purple prose when describing landscape. Several of the quoted poems have their verses written as speech which detracts from the ability to read them as poems but since Burns was reciting them to others I suppose that’s fair enough. The characterisation is broad brush.
I note that the Church’s strictures against houghmagandie seem to have been spectacularly unsuccessful as several instances of compearing are mentioned in the book – including that of a couple who married before the evidence blossomed, though their marriage did not in any way mitigate the offence. When Burns has to stand for his “fornication” with Jean Armour there is no room on the cutty stool. He is one of five people, including Jean, arraigned on the same day.
Burns is in trouble with the local minister, known as Daddy Auld. He has already fathered a child to Betty Paton, but his penance for this, on the cutty stool, takes place in the nearby parish of Tarbolton since that is where the offence occurred. He was fined one guinea and his sin considered absolved. (This strikes me as akin to those indulgences of the Catholic Church which so enraged the early Protestant reformers.) It is his poems and intellect which most worry Auld, however, who realizes that the best way to undermine Burns will be through his sexual misdemeanours. To that end he enjoins two of his elders, Willie Fisher and James Lamie, to collect evidence against Burns. Fisher is that hypocritical individual about whom Burns would write Holy Willie’s Prayer. (Another long poem, about Mauchline’s Holy Fair, also excites Auld’s ire.)
Burns and his cronies disparage these prurient creatures as the houghmagandie pack, and the fascination of the Church with controlling sexuality (which seems to be the goal of all religions) is noted. “Auld had long been made aware of the peculiar fact that when any of the congregation had to appear on the sessional carpet for a sexual offence, he could count on a full attendance from his lay-shepherds. No other sin so excited their holy zeal for probing into the mystery of the passionate relationship between man and woman and the theological relationship between both and the Presbyterian conception of God.”
When Burns meets Jean he is immediately smitten (though he does have a weakness for imagining himself in love.) Jean’s father dislikes him on reputation alone and has already forbidden her to have anything to do with him. But the attraction is too strong for both of them and she and Burns sign a paper to the effect that they have married. This is without benefit of clergy but would apparently have been recognised legally. He is too poor to support a wife though. The song in the green thorn tree of the book’s title is the one Jean sings at their trysting site.
The inevitable happens and Jean’s father and mother prevail on her to disown him, paper or no. Incensed, Burns turns to Highland Mary (Campbell) for solace and resolves to leave for the Caribbean, arranging a passage for himself and Mary whom he dispatches to Greenock to hide her pregnancy. Some boy, as they say.
In the meantime his poem some of which Barke has Burns conjure up on the spot, have been gaining a reputation and it is arranged for a book of his poetry (Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect) to be published by subscription, or at least promise of payment. He wrestles over which verses to publish as some may be considered too controversial, publishers then, as now, reluctant to take too much of a risk.
Barke’s writing is workmanlike, with occasional veerings into purple prose when describing landscape. Several of the quoted poems have their verses written as speech which detracts from the ability to read them as poems but since Burns was reciting them to others I suppose that’s fair enough. The characterisation is broad brush.
I note that the Church’s strictures against houghmagandie seem to have been spectacularly unsuccessful as several instances of compearing are mentioned in the book – including that of a couple who married before the evidence blossomed, though their marriage did not in any way mitigate the offence. When Burns has to stand for his “fornication” with Jean Armour there is no room on the cutty stool. He is one of five people, including Jean, arraigned on the same day.
September 28, 2023
2 1/2 stars.
Almost quit this in the first 50 pages but by page 60 had a better understanding of the lingo and pushed through.
This is the story of young (late 20s) Robert Burns. His father recently passed, he is trying to provide for his mother, brothers and sisters as a tenant farmer in western Scotland. He is also promoting his poetry. Robert is a charming fellow and this makes for situations with the ladies, the town, the church and friends.
I picked this up as a “stand-alone” read but it is book 2 of 5 detailing Robert Burns life. The story became a bit too “soap opera-esque” for me. If I started with the first book it might’ve been better.
Almost quit this in the first 50 pages but by page 60 had a better understanding of the lingo and pushed through.
This is the story of young (late 20s) Robert Burns. His father recently passed, he is trying to provide for his mother, brothers and sisters as a tenant farmer in western Scotland. He is also promoting his poetry. Robert is a charming fellow and this makes for situations with the ladies, the town, the church and friends.
I picked this up as a “stand-alone” read but it is book 2 of 5 detailing Robert Burns life. The story became a bit too “soap opera-esque” for me. If I started with the first book it might’ve been better.
July 31, 2021
Although it's quite a long book, it brings to life some of the characters from Burns' poems, especially 'Holy Willie's Prayer'. It also relates how much power the Church had in those days. It is hard to imagine people being made to sit on the cutty stool to be lambasted in front of the congregation for sins such as fornication.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews