BLOG: Diane Gilbert Madsen
The DD McGil Literati Mysteries
AQUARIUS ET AL
It’s January 29th, 2012 so it’s the 11th sign of the Zodiac, Aquarius - January 20th through February 18th. Being a mystery writer, I like to think of when and under what sign famous writers are born. It’s not that I’m a believer in horoscopes, strictly speaking; but we know tides and moon phases (the Old Moon waxing crescent) have all sorts of effects on us.
One Aquarius whose birthday is celebrated world-wide on January 25th is Robert Burns, the Bard of Scotland. This year marked his 253rd birthday.
My first mystery novel, A Cadger's Curse, was about him and his connection to the Stuart Monarchy and the Acts of Union in 1707 that joined the Kingdoms England and Scotland into a single united kingdom – Great Britain. It was news a few days ago - on the anniversary of Burns birth - that the Scottish Prime Minister Alex Salmond introduced legislation to pave the way for Scottish independence. Burns, a true Aquarian, would have championed this. He was an intensely magnetic, strong willed man with strong convictions, but was unprejudiced and tolerant of others points of view.
Here's a true story of what Rabbie Burns did that almost got him arrested for treason. I read about a very interesting incident in Robert Burns life that almost got him arrested for treason. It was August 25, 1787 and he was only 28 years old when he took a tour of the countryside. He stopped in Stirling at the Golden Lion Inn on the way to Inverness. He went to see Stirling Castle, and at the sight of the ruined state of the former home of Scotland’s kings, his Jacobite feelings for the Stuarts were greatly aroused.
The next day, Burns took a diamond-tipped pen and scrawled a verse with a diamond-tipped pen on the window of his room at the Golden Lion Inn. The poem is called "Written by Somebody on the window of an inn at Stirling On seeing the royal palace in ruins."
Word of this verse spread quickly among travelers. The verse was immediately attributed to Robert Burns, who had just become an instant celebrity when his first book of poems was published. Rabbie Burns was the “rock star” of his day, but this poem was considered treasonous by the current monarchy that had come to power after the overthrow of the Stuart kings.
Burns became extremely concerned about the rumors circulating that he had written it. He was worried about being charged with treason and executed – a very real possibility. The rumors kept growing, and about a month later in October of 1787, Burns traveled back to the Golden Lion Inn. Sometime during this visit he broke the windowpane with the butt end of his riding crop to eliminate the evidence.
Burns stayed on for a few days at nearby Harveston House because of bad weather and visited Mrs. Katherine Bruce of Clackmannan, a 95 year old woman descended from Robert the Bruce, the revered 14th century Scottish ruler. Burns’ traveling companion, Dr. Adair, wrote that during this visit, Katherine Bruce “knighted” Robert Burns with the sword of The Bruce during this visit. According to the present day Lord Bruce, the Bruce family maintains to this day a portrait of Katherine Bruce as well as Robert the Bruce’s sword she used that night.
If you'd like more of the story, it unfolds in my novel, A Cadger's Curse.
One interesting point. The flower for Aquarius is the Carnation and I can't remember Burns writing a poem about carnations. I'll have to research that.
