Dunbar’s John Muir Association

Friends of John Muir’s

Birthplace
Newsletter No. 10, June 2009

Dear friends,
Summer is upon us and it looks as if it might be a good one,
here’s hoping!.
You will read in these pages that the Birthplace had a visit from
the Duke of Rothesay (for our friends outwith the UK, that is the
Scottish title of HRH Charles, Prince of Wales). This was a tremendous
honour for the Birthplace and will no doubt further boost its profile.
Several Friends were amongst those presented to the Prince including
our president, Dan Cairney; Birthplace trustees Liz McLean, Will
Collin, Jacquie Bell, Adam Gillingham and Robert Russel; and our
secretary Susan Panton, as well as Jo Moulin, Birthplace manager, and
Pauline Smeed, senior museum assistant.
There has been quite a lot of activity for Friends in the past few
months including the launch of Will’s new book, A Scotchman Comes
Home, telling of John Muir’s return to Dunbar and Scotland in 1893,
and the launch of the John Muir Odyssey as part of Scottish
Homecoming.
Our secretary, Susan has again excelled in putting together an
excellent package of talks and events for 2009/2010 so please come
along and support her. We will give you advance details if not in this
issue, certainly in the next. The first event is the very popular sand
castle competition at the East Beach on Saturday 18th July
Jim Thompson
 A SCOTCHMAN (?) Comes Home
Eyebrows have been raised and questions asked regarding the title of Will
Collin’s wee book on John Muir’s homecoming. ‘Scotsman’ surely!? ‘Scotch’
is reserved for whisky, eggs, broth, mist, pies and the like. But folk? Never!

Well, hardly ever nowadays but until 1918 the UK government department in
charge of things educational in Scotland was officially the ‘Scotch Education
Department’. Without doubt, they should have known better.

In fact, ‘Scotch’ was originally an English contraction of ‘Scottish’ and widely

used south of the border from the 17th century. It came into general usage in
Scotland in the late 18th and in the 19th centuries, but peculiarly in the Scots
(or Scotch) language. When using English, the natives in Scotland retained the
full ‘Scottish’ version, to set themselves apart from the English perhaps.

However, in Muir’s The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, he used the

adjective ‘Scotch’ around 30 times. In chapter 2 appears the wonderful
passage, “In Scotch schools only pure English was taught, although not a
word of English was spoken out of school. All through life, however well
educated, the Scotch spoke Scotch among their own folk, except at times when
unduly excited on the only two subjects on which Scotchmen get much excited,
namely, religion and politics.” Football had clearly not reached California.

We asked Will to justify the use of ‘Scotchman’ in the title. He replied, “When
Muir returned to Scotland in 1892, he wrote in his first letter to his family in
Martinez, ‘Now I am a Scotchman and at home again.’ If it was good enough
for him to use to describe himself, it’s good enough for the wee book.”

Exhibitions
‘A Scotchman Comes Home’ was launched on 25th June. It traces the journey
of Muir’s only return visit to Dunbar and his homeland as part of his European
tour of 1893. Come in to John Muir’s Birthplace and discover the people he
met and the places he had long held in his heart to visit. This is a special
exhibition for the Year of Homecoming. Open 10–5pm daily, 1–5pm Sunday.

You may also like to visit ‘Harvest of the Sea’ at Dunbar Town House
discover more about the fascinating fishing heritage of our town. Open
12.30pm – 4.30pm daily.
 A visit to Dunbar in 2009
By President Teddy Roosevelt*

It is the year 1909 and the day is 21st April. I am visiting with my good friend
John Muir to wish him a happy 71st birthday and I have taken along with me
another mutual friend, Mr H G Wells. Mr Wells had with him a huge
contraption which he told us was a time machine. Now John and I are nothing
if not adventurers of the first order and nothing would do but that we
persuaded Mr Wells to allow us to try out his machine. We decided that we
would go one hundred years into the future and by tweaking the latitude and
longtitude, land in the town of John’s birth, Dunbar in Scotland. Wonder of
wonders, we arrived just before lunch time on the Glebe in the little town.

On leaving our time machine, we saw that it had changed shape into a little car
to blend into its surroundings. We found a little group of children having a
picnic and they told us that they were celebrating the birthday of the great
conservationist, John Muir. John and I thought that this was quite a hoot. I told
them that the gentleman with me was in fact Mr Muir, but I’m not sure that
they believed me. Now, John had returned to Dunbar and Scotland for a short
visit in 1893 and one of the adults with the children, a Mr Will Collin, told us
he had just had published a book chronicling that visit. So John and I shared
the picnic with the children and John read excerpts of the book to them. Mr
Collin also told me that this was not my first visit to the town which I found
strange as I could not remember doing so.

He then told me that in 2003, the 100th anniversary of the camping trip that
John and I shared in Yosemite Valley, our spirits had been seen in the town,
John showing me the sights of his boyhood and in fact a photograph of us had
been taken The photograph seemingly can be seen on something called the
internet. All too soon it was time to return to the time machine. And in a
twinkle we were back in Mr Muir’s house in 1909 with Mr Wells waiting for
us.

I am arranging for this little tale that I have just written to be kept safely for
100 years and then sent to Dunbar to confirm that our time travel really did
happen.

*actually Jim Thompson!

 100 Years Ago
Stickeen: The Story of a Dog was published by Houghton Mifflin. It was an
instant success and is probably still Muir’s most successful book. The story of
John Muir’s 1880 night adventure with Rev Hall Young’s mongrel dog,
Stickeen, on an Alaskan glacier first appeared in print in Century magazine in
1897. Before then Muir had recounted the story innumerable times and,
whenever he did, it left a lasting impression. In a letter to Louie from Boston
in June 1893 he wrote, “here and at many other places I had to tell the story of
the minister’s dog … I must have told it at least a dozen times at the request of
RUJ [‘Century’ editor Robert Underwood Johnson] and others who had heard
it.” “It was so popular,” he continued, that there were “servants listening
from behind screens, half closed doors, etc …”

The story crossed the Atlantic with him. When he arrived in Edinburgh he
visited publisher David Douglas. Muir wrote to Louie, “In the evening I dined
with him, and had a glorious time. He showed me his literary treasures and
curiosities, told endless anecdotes of John Brown, Walter Scott, Hugh Miller,
etc., while I, of course, told my icy tales until very late - or early - the most
wonderful night as far as humanity is concerned I ever had in the world.” The
two kept up an occasional correspondence and in 1894, Douglas wrote, “I
have been looking in vain in ‘Scribner’ and ‘Century’ for your ‘dog story’. Do
give it to the world …” Eventually Muir committed it to paper. For him it was
more than a straightforward adventure for it demonstrated in spectacular form
the oneness of Creation’s “earth-born companions and fellow mortals”. For
Johnson, it was simply an exciting story and he heavily edited Muir’s account
for Century.

The 1909 publication was Muir’s full version, or rather ‘fuller’ version for
over the years he had expanded the lessons he had learned and the message he
wanted to convey to others. The story appeared in print in yet another form for
an abbreviated version appeared as Stickeen: an Adventure with a Dog and a
Glacier in Travels in Alaska, on which Muir was working at his death on
Christmas Eve 1914 and which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1915.

There have been numerous subsequent retellings. The Birthplace stocks

Stickeen: John Muir and the Brave Little Dog (1998) by Donnell Rubay with
illustrations by Christopher Canyon, aimed at young folk. For more serious
Muir scholars, Ronald H Limbaugh’s John Muir’s “Stickeen” and the
Lessons of Nature (1996) is worth a read.
 Duke of Rothesay Visits John Muir’s Birthplace
On June 3rd the Duke of Rothesay – HRH Prince Charles – fulfilled a long-
held wish to visit John Muir’s Birthplace museum.

Many of the spectators who turned out to give Prince Charles a warm welcome
had also stood in the same spot when the Prince’s younger brother, HRH
Prince Edward, visited the Birthplace last February [Editor’s note: see
Newsletter No. 8 for the report on Prince Edward’s visit.] As patron of the
John Muir Trust since 1984, Prince Charles made sure that he took his time
while touring the museum and meeting with trustees of the John Muir
Birthplace Trust, museum staff, local school children, members of the Friends
of John Muir’s Birthplace, local councillors and other guests.

Local and national press reported on this event in detail and this has helped
greatly to raise the profile of Muir, his hometown of Dunbar in general, and
the museum in particular. The following report gives a bystander’s view of the
Duke of Rothesay’s historic visit to Dunbar.

Prince Charles leaving the Birthplace with museum manager Jo Moulin (left),
and Liz McLean (right), chair of the John Muir Birthplace Trust.
Clockwise from above:

1. A large crowd follows Prince Charles

on his ‘walkabout’ to see the statue of
John Muir and the refurbishment of
Dunbar Town House.

2. It’s a sunny day in Dunbar as HRH 3. …and the inscription on

takes a closer look at the statue… its plinth of local sandstone
Counter-clockwise from above:

1.The refurbished Dunbar Town

House tower.

2. Michael Green from Alaska had

made a special trip to visit Muir’s
birthplace. Meeting Prince Charles
was an added bonus!

3. Prince Charles is introduced to

Gordon Easingwood (left), and
Pauline Smeed (right), Chairman
and Secretary of the Dunbar &
District History Society
respectively.

Text & Photos: Duncan Smeed

 Visitor Book Survey 2008/9
The visit of Prince Charles coincided with the end of a volume of visitor’s
entries in the Birthplace visitors book and so his was the first entry in our new
book – or the first two entries for he dated the first 4 June 2009 and signed the
second page with the correct date! A trawl has been done of the last 12
months to find out the countries of origin of those signing the ‘old’ book and it
is hoped that similar information will now be obtained for previous years.

Of course, not all visitors sign the Birthplace visitors book, and those who do
may not be a representative sample. However, a total of 587 entries were
made covering an estimated 1,200 – 1,500 visitors for usually one person signs
for a couple, family or even group of friends. As would be expected, the
greatest number came from Scotland – almost 50%, with around 20% of these
from East Lothian. England provided a further 18% from 30 different counties
and the total from the British Isles was 401 or 68%.

North American visitors in the book totalled 102 or 17% and they came from
28 US states and 5 Canadian provinces. By far the largest contingent – 31 or
more than 5% of the overall total – came from California. [Virtually all came
to Dunbar specifically visit John Muir’s Birthplace but one visitor from San
Francisco wrote that she was going to pay her first visit to Martinez on her
return home having learned about Muir over here.] All continents bar
Antarctica, and 28 countries, are represented in the visitors book over the last
12 months. Perhaps surprisingly, German visitors form the fourth largest
group behind Scotland, England and the USA.

During the same period, there have been 76 group visits totalling around 1,750
visitors, 21 coming from outwith East Lothian. School classes, particularly
from primary schools, account for 48 out of the total as an increasing number
of pupils are encountering John Muir in their curriculum or are undertaking the
John Muir Award. This year, for the first time, all 103 pupils from Skye’s
primary schools spent time in the Birthplace as part of their out-of-school
project.

Will Colin
 Did the earth move for you?
Did the earth move for you? It did for me! In fact, it shook with volcanic
thunder. The ground quivered like jelly. It shuddered, splitting open, gushing
vents of hot steam with unstoppable force. Red-hot eruptions of molten rock
projected upwards a thousand feet and more. The strained tensions had been
wracked up for eons. Their release took twenty minutes or so.

To have been witness to these events, would probably been the last thing that
you ever did. And still, this was Dunbar. Dangerous and unpredictable Dunbar,
in the birth-throes of its formation, two hundred and eighty million years ago!
Such was the lucidity and portrayal of a landscape long since past, by Dr.
Angus Miller, of ‘GEOWALKS’, that if you sniffed the air that evening, you
could almost smell the sulphur.

All in attendance were dumbstruck, as ancient evidence of a violent past, there

today, before our eyes, was pointed out by the learned-one. Minds wrestled
with the sheer scale of it all, in both dimensions of physical form and time.
Images conjured themselves; layer upon layer, much like the landforms we
saw. And through it all, the deafening cracks from erupting volcanic
explosions, of un-measurable tectonic proportions.

As we viewed the signs of a volcanic past at the old and new harbours, we
were encouraged to train our eyes on rocks of different colour, shape and size;
distinguishing agglomerates stone-smattered composition, with the crystalloid
beauty of hexagonous columns of basalt. Rain-wetted pebbles on the shoreline
too, told their testimony of the forming landmass.

Angus took on board a great many questions from the group, some to illicit the
response ‘we just do not know’. What IS good to know, is that the full history
of the forces involved in the landscaping of our sweet and blessed land, are
there to be explored by generations of geologists to come. To the uninitiated,
the landscapes of our Dunbar coastline, cannot fail to stir the imagination. To
quiz the minds of young and old, with questions of it’s metamorphosis. And,
as a boy, John Muir must surely have been posed such questions, in his
boyhood experience of such a dramatic environment. No doubt, the same
questions returned to his mind in Yosemite, as he formed his theories of how
glaciation can shape and hue the landscape.

Jim Panton
 Wherever a Scotsman Goes...
John Muir and Robert Burns Poetry Competition

The winners were announced at a special celebration at John Muir's Birthplace

on 21st April '09. See http://tinyurl.com/muir-burns-poetry for further entries.

Winner - Over 16's: William E Horne, Airts Burns Club, Prestonpans

'Muir Paidlin' in Burns'

As young John Muir glow'red tae the North,
Oot owre the wide expanse o' Forth,
He little kend whit airt the course
His life would steer,
As wayward as the yellow gorse
In less a year.

To travel far would be his fate,

To Wisconsin, the Badger State.
And for the passage, his first mate,
The Ayrshire Bard.
To see him owre what life dictate,
An' be his guard.

Just as Burns did, so then he now,

Wi' bendit back ahint the plough,
An' honest sweat upon his brow
Loved nature's flowers,
Like spring-time buds upon the bough
Loves evening showers.

Muir walked the 'states wi' n'er a fear

The songs o' Burns he sang oot clear,
An' all God's creatures did revere,
Baith great an' sma'.
An' by his side, a frien', a seer
Aboon them a'.

An' so, where'er a Scotsman goes,

O'er crystal streams, through mountain snows,
An' a' the airts that cauld win' blows,
Tak' Robert Burns.
He'll be your frien' with verse an' prose,
Till life adjourns.
Winner - Under 16: Hugh Panton age 13

'Ma Hame Toon'

Dunbar's ma hame toon
Whaur thon wither cheenges in a knick
Frae scorchin tae fresting

In the simmer when its roastit

Me and ma Billies gae tae the beach
Jimpin, Dooking, Spruntin in tae the tide
Daen' henners aff the dyke

scooring alang thon gowden saun

Seing wha can jimp the fordest
Scomprin ower the craigs
The claiks snelling at oor baiters

Then when the sin soes doon

We all slaff awa tae oor hames
with oor claes happit in glour
But we'll be oot the morn
Playing the same games!

Winner - Under 11: Pippa Carter age 5

'Pippa's Robert Burns Song'

It was long, long ago when Robert Burns died

in an old coffin but nothing could be seen long ago.
And when he was in the coffin, every body knew where he died,
he was in a coffin in heaven.
and every single angel sang in the sky so long ago.
And the angels took him to heaven
and the whole world was missing Robert Burns songs,
which were so nice and we wished he didn't die.

But Scottish fairies magicked him alive and he came

down from heaven but he didn't come alive.
So every body could open up the coffin and see him dead inside
but everybody wished Robert Burns to come alive.
 Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace
4th Annual Sand Sculpture Competition!

Saturday 18th July

2 – 5pm
East Beach
Dunbar

Look out your buckets and spades!

Get your thinking caps on and come up with a plan

…mermaid…sea monsters…Half Dome…Titanic…

£2 per adult, £1 per child, Family/ Group £5

All welcome
Prizes!
Special prize for best John Muir themed sculpture!

Notes:
Please phone 01368 865899 to confirm if weather is poor or beach
covered with kelp.
All proceeds to FoJMB Scottish Charity No. 022857

FRIENDS CONTACTS
Official address: Friends of John Muir’s Birthplace, John Muir’s Birthplace,
126 High Street, Dunbar EH42 1JJ: tel: 01368 865899
Friends Website: www.muirbirthplacefriends.org.uk
Birthplace Email: info@jmbt.org.uk Website: www.jmbt.org.uk
Convener: Jim Thompson, Secretary: Susan Panton, Membership Sec: Duncan
Smeed, Treasurer: Will Collin. All can be contacted through the Birthplace.