The Waverley Gazette

The Haggis Mystery

The poem which we know as ’Address to a Haggis’ was written in 1786 - one of Burns's most famous and regularly performed poems.

Researching ‘AN OLD FARMER'S NEW YEAR'S MORNING SALUTATION’ we were distracted by a reference to the ‘Address to a Haggis’ which entitled it: ‘An Address To A Scotch Haggis on New Year’s Day’.

In 1806, it was part of a chapbook pamphlet published by Charles Randall, Stirling, with the title ‘An Address To A Scotch Haggis on New Year’s Day’, as a ‘filler’ supporting ‘The Auld Farmer’s Salutation To His Auld Mare Maggy’.

Burns didn’t call it ‘An Address To A Scotch Haggis on New Year’s Day’.

Where did that come from?

There are various stories linked to the writing of 'Address To A Haggis’.

• The first found, was contained in a caption relating to an engraving:

Archibald Prentice of Covington Mains, near Lanark, farmer, and friend of the Poet, known as "The Gudeman o' the Mains."

Mr. Prentice subscribed for 20 copies of the Edinburgh edition of the poems.

Burns, when on his way to Edinburgh in 1778, stayed overnight with Prentice. A sheet hoisted on a stack in the yard was the signal of the Poet's arrival, and all the neighbours assembled. To them, at supper time, the Poet recited the ‘Address to a Haggis’, composed for the occasion.

• Other accounts of the evening at Covington Mains make no mention of ‘Address to a Haggis’ but do however recount a telling of the ’Jolly Beggars’.

‘Robert Burns, in his itinerary to Edinburgh (per Mr Thomas Somerville LLD, nephew of Archibald Prentice) spent a night at the farmhouse of Mr Prentice, Covington Mains, near Carnwath. Archibald Prentice informed his brother farmers that Burns was expected at the Mains and a white sheet hoisted on a cornstack was to be a notice of his arrival and for all to assemble. Rev Briye Little, minister of the parish, Lang the schoolmaster and his brother the minister of Leadhills were present. Burns’s wonderful conversational powers drawn out by intelligent gentlemen and congenial friends carried all by storm. Songs and recitations, now grave, now gay, melted and cheered them by turns. In their excitement Burns said he would give the best yet after Mrs Prentice had left the room. She told him to go on – she would not leave the room that night. Burns then said, “Here is for the ‘Jolly Beggars’ (which was not published till after his death). Next morning accompanied by Prentice and the two Lang brothers, Burns breakfasted at Mr John Stoddart’s bank. On the way Mr Lang, of Leadhills asked Burns for a repetition of the ‘Jolly Beggars’. He replied ‘Na, na, Mr Lang, the inspiration is gone.’

• The Edinburgh Literary Journal, 1829 : “About 16 years ago, there resided at Mauchline, a Mr Robert Morrison, cabinet-maker. He was a great crony of Burns and it was in Mr Morrison's house that the poet usually spent the ‘mids o’ the day’ on Sunday. It was in this house that he wrote his celebrated ‘Address To A Haggis’ after partaking liberally of that dish, as prepared by Mrs Morrison.

• According to Robert Chambers, Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd has, on the contrary, averred that the poem was written in the house of Mr Andrew Bruce of Castle Hill, Edinburgh after in like manner partaking of the dish, but declares that it was first published in the Scots Magazine for January 1787. It was indeed published then, but it was actually first published on Tuesday December 19^th 1786 when the poem appeared in The Caledonian Mercury with the heading :

FOR THE CALEDONIAN MERCURY

ADDRESS TO A HAGGICE.

BY R. BURNS

[NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED]

But there’s a difference to the last verse that we are familiar with.

The Caledonian Mercury has, as the last verse :

Ye Pow’rs wha gie us a’ that’s gude,
Still bless auld Caledonia’s brood
Wi’ great John Barleycorn’s heart’s blude
In strowps or luggies;
And on our board that king o’ food,
A glorious Haggice!

The last verse – as we know today is :

Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

• The Life & Works of Robert Burns, 1852, edited by Robert Chambers, features the original last verse as an impromptu Grace given by Burns :

EXTEMPORANEOUS GRACE ON A HAGGIS

It has been stated, that being present at a party where a haggis formed part of the entertainment, and being asked to say something appropriate on the occasion, Bums produced this stanza by way of grace; which being well received, he was induced to expand it into the poem entitled ‘To a Haggis’, retaining the verse in an altered form as a peroration. [The concluding part of a speech, typically intended to inspire enthusiasm in the audience.]

Robert Crawford’s The Bard, in which Crawford states “The best new poem Burns added (to the Edinburgh Edition) was ‘To a Haggis’. Perhaps composed in Mauchline for a ‘Haggis Club’ harvest supper in 1785 (as John Richmond claimed) the poem was certainly ready in time for 19 December’s Caledonian Mercury – a ‘taster’ for his second edition.

It seems unlikely that Burns composed a poem of 48 lines with 267 words ‘there and then’ at dinner on Castle Hill.

Perhaps it began at Mauchline, in Mr Morrison's house, and Robert Burns worked away at it and was perhaps able to perform it at Castle Hill – from memory.

Available from Waverley Books :

The last verse was to cause some problems in later years.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis !

A typographical error was introduced : ‘Auld Scotland wants nae stinking ware,’

The Stinking Edition

The 'London Edition' is also sometimes confusingly known as the 'Stinking Edition' or 'Stinking Burns' because the original spelling mistake in the partial second impression of the 'Edinburgh Edition' was used in error for the text of the true 'London Edition'.

This error came about because Creech’s printer William Smellie, Creech’s business partner from 1782, had printed a first run of pages as far as the gathering or signature 'M' when he discovered that he had insufficient copies to cover all the subscribers. Due to a shortage of type he was forced to reset the printing type and repeat the run as a partial second impression.

In the haste to reset, a large number of errors were introduced, the most famous of which is the substitution of a 't' for a 'k' that converted the Scots word 'skinking' (meaning watery) into 'stinking'.

This error has resulted in the term Stinking Burns or the Stinking Edition being applied to this rarer impression as well as the 'London Edition', and the errors were perpetuated in a number of later unlicenced editions.

(Apparently the Duke of Boxburgh was unimpressed as a listed subscriber.)

Here is the poem as we know it today :

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect scunner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis !