4
Bonnie
Annie Laurie
AND THE MAN WHO DID NOT
'LAY DOUN AND DEE'
OR 114 years the world has been singing "Annie Laurie." singing of her beauty and her love, and of her promise true tom who vowed to die if she ever gave · him up.
4
Of all the millions who still sing of her, how many know who she really was? How many, in fact, know that she ever existed?
Yet
an Annic Laurie. She knew the bonnie brucs of Maxwelton as her own hume.
there
WIN
She loved tenderly. Sho married and had many children. of sur- And she WAS u lass passing beauty.
Sho died about 200 years ago, at the age of 81.
Breaking through the legend
Hifting family letters, journals and miniatures, My Gordon Irving tells her story in
the first time in full for
il
A portrait of Annie Laurie
which hangs in the dining
room at Maxwelton.
It was desperately in love with Annie. So desperately, indeed, that outside the Laurie mansion he wrote a poem to her beauty that pledged him to lay down my head and die",
should she reject him.
him.
Annie, then sweet 16, did reject
Perhaps
of bis it was because fiery temper, perhaps because of his slender little book ("Annie ks. for Willlun Douglas had
squint that became worse when he Laurie," published by Robert
grow angry. Dinwiddie and Co., Ltd.. Dam- fries, price 2s. 6d.).
BLUE-EYED
Annie was christened Anna and was born in 1682. She was the fourth daughter of Sir Robert Laurie, Laird of Max- welton House, n while mansion still standing among the bonnie braes (hillsides) of the song "where early fa's the dew."
Maxwelton-ber home She had dark brown hair, pale akin, and dark blue eyes which, "looked recurds, Mr Irving straight at you with a shy and winsome beauty, but behind them you could detect a spirit of haughty mischief that seemed to say: I am the mistress of Maxwelton,'"
But he did not "lay me doun unit! dec." Instead he ran off with the daughter
of a prosperous Lamark- shire merchant and married her in Edinburgh.
Some say Antite Orst met Douglas
at a ball. Others, that theirs was a chance encounter in a country lase beneath the bram, when the dashing Soldier came through on horseback, Atmie appears to have encouraged his attentions,
JILTED HIM
Douglas even claims In his poem that they "marle up their bargain
true."
Their
nasociatiun
lasted some
years, and the local belief is that she Boully pited him.
there was another
It is certain
He was a local boy, young STARFS.
of Fergusson,
Craig- Alexander
larroch
The Fergussons and the Laurie were on visiting terms and the chil-
sat near
dren had for years other in church.
family
was
each
began. in 25 and
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1948.
A
Bright idea of yours-taking them, to the circus-wasn't it?"
real heatwave
is
on
way...
THE burst of fine weather
TH
has prompted a reader to tell me in a profound sort the of way that he'd noticed summers came earlier now than they used to do in his youth.
Annie's new romance
So I've been looking at my earnest when she Alexander 22. This time her sweet-books, and I fud that, if he was heart was handsome and rich, hla 8,000 years old, he probably At different oldest in the would be right. one of the
times in the past, say the books, shire.
full Annie's loveliness
was at
we have experienced just about bloom, her hair now a deep hazel,
climate known to the world. lent beauty, her full eyes postessing a transcen-
The rejected Douglas had four years before this run off and wed. then, of his premature No fear, suicide if Annie broke their bargain made by the bonnie brnes. IDEAL COUPLE And so, In 1710, when she was 28, of Craigdanoch became couple.
Perhaps she inherited some of her immerlousness from her father, who Fergusson was undisputed lord of his hearth, her husband. and a man among men.
The
In the Laurie family was ten ebony whistle, the property of a gigantic Dane who had a drinking capacity best Hard to equal. Whoever was able to blow the whistle at the end of a carousal was styled "champion of the whistle."
Sir Robert defeated the Dane after three days and nights of hard drink- Ing. left him under the table, and then blew on the whistle his re- quiem shrill,"
Amile's first lover was William Douglos, aged 22, a hot-tempered ex- captain of the Royal Scots, quick to draw his sword and fearsome in a duél.
an made
ideal
Every
We think the one we've got now is changeable enough, but a journey if you could make through time you might find yourself in a land as tropical as India, in another as arid as the Sahara, or a third us icy as
Memories of Douglas were erased Greenland, from her heart, and Annie devoted herself to raising her children and lending the lay-out of the splendid gardens of Craigdarroch.
She lived to see one of her sons
the
BUT IT MAY
TAKE 40,000
YEARS SAYS:
And they know about the
In the Arctic because found fosolls of plants
wave
inve
sea life there that could only lived in a temperate climate.
Bumper Crops Will Bring World Peace
E
By Gaynor Maddox
NORMOUS grain crops all
over the world may prevent another major war, in the opinion of Harry A. Bullis, n director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States,
If war can be avoided for a few more months. Bullis says, big crops now maturing will do more to preserve peace than all the diplomatic double talk an milliary sabre rattling can de- complish.
The prospect
crops, he thinks, to do with
of these bumper
may have much the more optimistic reports now coming out of Europe on the Ber!in situation. in much better psychological and Men are emotional mood to sit down around
a table and talk over their differen- ces in friendly fashion, he suggests, when they are adequately fed know that their families and their constituents are getting enough to
cat
Mother Nature's Hand "It looks to me." sald Bullis, "as If old Mother Nature is taking band in healing our warton world. This year she is preparing to give mankind enough to cat.
that,
I hope
s a result, we can now make Barry A. Buills:
Towards reconciling
some progress
the idealugles of East and West.
What I saw in Europe last year,
at thi time.
what and
I
...old Mother
Nature is taking a band.”
millions from hayc
the beginning of
learned since from every Informedt 1944 to the first of this year, source. convinces
me that
from
The B4
number of the
hogs fell has millions to only 55 millions. The that number of sheep and lambs on the If range declined from 51 millions to 35 millions and the number on
lex feeding from 6.5 millions to than five millions.
European diplomatic picture been improved by new crops heut
are almost up to prewar level. they we got by this calendar year with- andout war, then we will be headed des have initely towards international peace
for a long time."
Meat Backlog
The peak of the American grain Short grain export programme was renched in and export needs have contributed July, says Bullis, whose company to this
The lippus and turtles and Hons
ni dif- is one of the biggest that have lived in Britain
soldiers in
the skeleton of an elephant.
crops, high prices,
weakening of the
of buyers
meat
of
up
be
ferent times have left their bones raw food materials and sellers backlog, and the big new crops are building to prove their visits. During the processed fonds. Less of America's expected to encourage a
of the food animal populations, #lent-record War before last some
sent crop will abroad this year than was the case
as well as that of poultryć. Kent dug a trench right through last year.
With a wheat crop, of more than goes Why
the n billion bushels in sight, and climate change? One yields of other gralus, the [alling theory is that the sun off in exports will make much more doesn't always give available for both human and out the same amount animal consumption at home. of heat, and according
BERNARD WICKSTEED
speaking, that time is only a couple of stations further on from now.
It is not more than a 00,000-year journey backwards to the Inst warm period in Britain, when there were lions in Kent and antelopes grazing in Sussex.
to another, there are cold patches In space, and when we pass through onc we get an lee-age,
There's
But Bullis points out that it taktes time to build up the herds. big and flocks, and meat prices cannot be expected to drop substantially until that is done.
Bulls is anxious to see the world food market stabilised for the sake of both the industry and its
cua- tomers, But he is opposed to the International Wheat Agreement proposed by
President thrac Truman for
reasons: First, because Russia and Argen-
world's tina, among the
greatest The reason in that America's whent growers, are not parties to animal population has been cut by the proposed agreement.
and tie Second, because the plan involves the high price of ment high cost of feeding. Department price-fixing.
doubtful Third, because ho is of Agriculture figures show that the
the number of cattle on
rango whether it would stabilise prices in 10 78 the United States. dropped from 85 millions
Animal Population Nevertheless, Bullis does not ex- Five-Year peet meat prices to decline for At Ife does not dispute others who say it will be longer than that.
a third suggestion-that || least a year. the atmosphere changes from time to time, and during periods when there is less carbon dioxido than usual the temperature drops,
But none of these explanations is that's proved, and the only thing A few stutions further
back in really certain about our weather is time and you'd find the Thames that whatever it does someone is
swamp with was
going to grumble.. and turiles swhaming about.
odorous nu
crocodiles
These are just local journeys. If ou took a non-stop express and back about a travelled
hundred million years to the days when the cliffs of Dover got their chalk, you could bathe in British seas that were
bluer than they are at Capri today.
And all without moving a foot from your present position. Just at the moment we are in Volcanoes in Scotland
ก
win the drinking whistle, and she a temperate period between the died in 1784.
cold of the last ice-age and possible era of sub-tropical
i was 70 years later that Lady John Scott of Buccleuch, * COM- poser of poetic taste, discovered warmth ahead. William Douglas's passionate verses, softened them, added a third, and wrote the melody which is today the most widely known love song in all the world.
If you got a comfortable chair and sat by the Thames for long enough you might see the hippos come back
Barking 10
Creek and elephant Strand. Geologically
Sidney Rodin herds in the
GOLDEN GIRL
by Charles Graves
IF you look up Ennis in the guide book you will read: "A. queer small town with Its narrow streets and courts. modern attractions are a very good classic court house built of- grey marble (1852), a new and handsome church, and a lunatic. #sylum."
But the
date.
of
gulde hok is out of attraction For the greatest Ennis today is the nearby Shannon airport, one of the great
cross-roads of the world.
From being quiet little hamlet. Ennis has become the most
pros- Ireland. One pervilla place in all
hotel alone the Old Ground, has had to build a complete new wing of forty bedrooms and bathrooms. which are permanently engaged by American Overseas Airlines for
uir
their air their kostesses.
and crews
froi
AR OR
only by
CREWS RELAX
twelve miles Ennis,
is used Shannon Airport,
1101 village. overnight
captains, but also by the VIPS.
the and
rest of the navigators
air- the transatlantle of craft coming and going from New
crews
from
MISS OREGAN.
She ruler with a walle
The inhabitants of Ennio
Or further still, when the red rocks of Devon were laid, the sky- line was lit by the glare of volcanoes In Scotland, and the countryside, such as it was, looked more Arizona than Britain,
like
If it's not one thing with weather It's another, and the big- gest grumble the inhabitants of this country have ever had was during the ice-age, when. there were ginciers as far south as Suffolk.
wero
We generally talk about the ice- age as if it was a single period, but dene-in North-West Europe there fit in many ways from their unique four of them within a short time of
title each other. position. Every room in the town is taken: 60 new houses arc being
wireless bullt. A hundred
Shannon at operators employed Airport have settled in Ennia with their wives. Now the advance guard Refuelling Depart- of the Flight ment of BOAC have also appeared on the scene.
The local
Geologists call them Cunz, Mindel, Itiss and Wurm. The inst one Wus the Wurm, which happily seems to have turned, and we should be set fair for a slow worming-up."
We can expect this because It has happened three times before. After each ice-age there was a sub-tropical period when Blackpool was us sunny as Nice
do a roaring shops trade in Irish tweeds, Irish shirts Irish ties and Irish souvenirs of every sort and kind. The bars, as they call pubs in Ireland, do o Local garages roart trade, too.
the local arc booming; 50 Rre
I hlatory repeats itself, and we livery stables that hire out horses.
alr Four
hostesses are per- are now at the start of a fourth resident at the Old inter-glacial period, our progeny enn manently Ground Hotel, commuting between look forward to thirty or forty to Germany be thousand years of gradually rising Shannon airport cause they know the languego,
temperatures and the slow cooling
CROQUET TOO
·
The American air crew's
have
A wonderful time at Eants,
They
wear red plald
shirts over
their
trousers. They say: "The top of the mornin' to ye," and "Begorra" expressions used
Ice-caps
by stage
There are people who study this sort of thing for a living, and they
Irishmen, but no other kind.
beaten-up white of eggs
But still they call for "Flaming reckon that the Ice-caps round the Alaska," dish consisting of ice- Foles are retreating at the rate of trifle and the 500ft, a year, which is .00001 m.ph. cream with sherry
tansted Steady progress, but not what you'd with granulated sugar and then set call speeding. alight with brandy,
on the lawn They play croquet
During one interval between ice- the day and nursery
caps of the polar ages so much York and Atopping at Shannon She la golden haired, beautiful and Curing
up ten Germany 24. She keeps careful accounts. games, like charades, at night.
cat nothing meiled that the sea came Airport en route
She tells me that her monthly At first they would and London.
O'Regan has fest higher than now, and it was Members of the atr crews have ment-bill for May WIR £422; her but steak, buf Miss two days' break before and after poultry bill was £200; her bill for now introduced them to veal and us warm in the Arelle Circle, as It Atlantic. Owing to fish was £00; general provisions taught them to like lamb chops for in England today. flying the
and heating, breakfast. weather conditions, they arrive at were £1,200; fuel
nights the far end On Saturday
How do people know these things? night. 100; and electricity 100.
of the restaurant is turned
Well, they found out about the The meat bill alone must be a night club..
extracts implicit depth of the water. by discovering able for all the 24 hours to grost
more than, that of all Miss O'Hagan
with that all over the world there is a them; cook for them and look after infinitely them..
shake of her golden series of raised beaches ten foot The proprietress
all hours of the day
nnd
A complete staff has to be avati-
the first-class hotels In London obedience from everyone of the Old put together for the same period, milo and
Ground in the youngest and and all of it is bought locally. So, locis. She le the queen prottlost hotel
into
1
of Over-above sea level Examination showed '
keeper in Ireland. 100 are all the provisions and other right Village: and nobody disputed they were all made about the same her sovereignty. Ifer name is Miss Josetto O'Regan, edibles.
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