passing panther and cotter bard

robert burns

A weak crescent moon peeks flittingly from scudding gaps in a storm filled sky. High above the St Lawrence River, General Wolfe leads his troops onto the Heights of Abraham. Montcalm is soon to be swept from Quebec, but the French are not to be so easily removed. Britain, under George lll is engaged in the Seven Year war. The Empire is aflame, battles are fought and won at Minden, Queberon, Lagos and beyond. The year is 1759.

In Portugal the Jesuits are expelled, Catherine the Great rules Russia, North America sees the unstoppable flood of European immigrants as they spread and settle across the plains and mountains of that vast continent. A flood, that will not only destroy the traditions of, but the actual peoples of once proud nations. Iraquois, Algonquins, Miantunnomoh, Shawnee, Sioux and more will soon be reduced to refugees in their own land, to second billing in second feature movies.

Scotland is on the threshold of great change. The Jacobites with their fleeing figurehead have been vanquished, soon to expire. A whole way of life, from feudal tything of land to clan stewardship is on the wane. The first stirrings of Industrial Revolution are about to bring fundamental and far reaching changes to society. Changes, that were to herald a new economic emphasis. In thirty short, frantic, years of evolution Scotland will be brought abreast of developments in England that they have managed over a leisurely century or two.

Into such a melting pot of influences was born Robert Burns, eldest in a family of seven. He was born into a farming family and while they were not in poverty, life was hard and they certainly were not rich. By modern standards he had a sketchy education. He could read however and he read all he could lay his hands on, understanding what he read. He had emotion, awareness, sensibility and a vision that took far beyond his limited physical boundaries. Despite his upbringing of never ceasing toil, he could laugh.

Burns knew the nature of people, of man, of woman, opposed to the bare elements of existence. Elements of existence that was fundamental and universal. Such qualities of understanding that made him the people’s poet. Burns embraced, no, embraces all humanity.

‘The Unco Guid’, The Rigidly Righteous’, Holy Willie, Twa Dugs, Man Made to Mourn, examples of his observation skills, his vision and his social awareness, none exclusive to eighteenth century Scotland. Burns was timeless and universal. He was born on a subsistence farm in Ayrshire and he enriched the world.

Dawn creeps over the grey, drizzle drenched, Spaylaywitheepi. A fragile bark canoe crosses the bow of the lead trader’s keelboat. A musket cracks, the ball splashing harmlessly short of the paddling Shawnee. The shot heralds a frenzy of strokes as the canoe lurches forward in a desperate race to outdistance the pursuing flotilla. It skims the surface of the water as it rounds a welcome bend. A swirling tell-tale wake betrays its curving flight into the mouth of the smaller tributary, the Licking River. Hell bent on their murderous pursuit the traders’ swing their craft after their fast tiring prey. The bait has been taken.

Astern of the unsuspecting traders the mouth of the Licking fills with war canoes. Both banks suddenly swarm with warriors. The deadly trap is sprung.

Just another skirmish in a land where opposing cultures struggle for dominance.

It is also the era of George Washington, famous for his honesty, for felling a cherry tree, for being the first President of the United States of America, for his role in humbling and destroying the Iroquois nation and for penning his pleasure at that barbarous act.

Into such a cauldron, fate was to introduce a human being of humility and vision. Someone of power and charisma, whose birth in a Shawnee wegiwa was marked by the brilliant death of a meteorite. A happening that was to inspire his name, ‘The Panther Passing Across’, Tecumseh of the Shawnee. Who through his strength of character, his humanity and vision, against all great odds, had a dream, a dream of a great nation, bound by a racial brotherhood that would supersede all barriers of rivalries and hatred.

tecumseh

Like Burns he was born with little possessions and like Burns he died a young man. But he managed to pack into his short life an understanding of humanity that was to transcend his troubled life. Circumstances were not to present Tecumseh with the universal platform that was to so widely immortalise the ploughman poet, but that did not diminish his greatness.

Scotland continued to change and throughout the life of Burns, 1759 to 1796, many people and events of note were to emerge:

Telford, the brilliant civil engineer, responsible for the revolutionary, ‘Iron Bridge’ over the Severn in Shropshire, still standing to this day. The improvements in steam power brought about by Watt, with his local connections at Bo’ness.

It was the time of the Forth and Clyde Canal, that marvel of engineering opened to shipping in 1790. The creation of iron works, notably Carron Foundry, whose ‘carronades’ were to sound their thunder in the faces of the Empire’s enemies in many a battle location. Early developments in our transport saw the Turnpike Trust set up.

In 1776 Adam Smith penned, ‘The Wealth of Nations’. World trade was blossoming and the ‘East India Company’ flourished. All was not plain sailing however and that ghastly phenomenon, that haunts us to this very day, took its toll, inflation. It led to the demise of Douglas, Hern and Company, notable bankers of that time.

North America, kick started by tax problems, fought the Britain at the battle of Bunkers Hill, Boston, the start of a struggle that led to independence and George Washington donning the mantle, first President of the United States of America. That great British institution, ‘The Times’ was born, Frederick the Great died, the Great War began, yes these were troubled times.

The age of Burns saw the birth of Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Carlyle, a rich vein of talent. It was also when two of the greatest Scottish portrait painters, Ramsey and Raeburn were to capture many famous figures on canvass. Burns lived in a country at a time of change, when many famous people and events were to shape our destiny.

None however captured the admiration, the imagination, the unashamed universal acclaim, than did the Ayrshire crofter, poet. In late January every year celebrations to his memory encircle the globe, keeping pace with the rising and setting sun. His genius and humanity is embraced the world over, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Americans have claimed him as their own. The Ayrshire poet has certainly left his mark.

Tecumseh’s dream was never to be fulfilled, as the inevitability associated with the spread of a more powerful mass was to take its toll on his nation as they were overwhelmed by the development of a New World. Or was it the rape of a culture?

Two centuries on, the splendid Spaylaywitheepi is no more, now the ordinary Ohio River. The site of the ‘skirmish’ overlooked by the city of Cincinnati and the Riverfront baseball stadium.

Tecumseh, is revered and celebrated amongst his own people, Burns has a wider reverence, only fate and circumstances set their limits.

I wish they had met on earth: Perhaps they were destined to meet on another plain.