It has officially been two months since my last update and the launch of our great new website, and Project Fergusson is picking up speed! I am still continuing with my reading, with the aim of creating a comprehensive descriptive bibliography of editions of Fergusson’s poetry. I hope to be able to share this resource soon!
Rhona and I have commenced our event planning for what we are calling ‘The Year of Robert Fergusson’. Keep checking back here for more information on events taking place to celebrate Fergusson. We have a real varied mix of events being planned, from exhibitions to object handling sessions, to talks on an array of Fergusson-related subjects. We also have an academic symposium planned at the University of Glasgow on Friday 6th September 2024, which will be open to the public to attend. Similarly, if you’re thinking of running any Fergusson celebrations this year, please do let us know!
The project has been well-publicised during Burns season too! Rhona recently gave an invited talk entitled ‘Memorialising Robert Fergusson: Commemorating Fergusson’s Legacies at the 250th Anniversary of his Death’ at the Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference on Saturday 20th January.
At this event we met a lot of Fergusson fans, including Matt and Adam, two of The Real Mary King’s Close’s official ‘Fergussons’. Excitingly, The Real Mary King’s Close, the Edinburgh tourist attraction, use Fergusson as a character on their historic tours to enable attendees to discover more about the history of Edinburgh. We hope to collaborate with Matt, Adam, and The Real Mary King’s Close moving forwards – watch this space!
Alongside speaking at the Conference, Rhona appeared on BBC Radio Scotland on Burns Night, to discuss Fergusson, his use of Scots, and what we can learn from Fergusson. You can listen to Rhona on the radio here, (from 1:34:20).
We have also launched a call for your help! The last time a newly discovered Fergusson manuscript came to light, it was found in an attic in the USA in 2012. We would like to be as comprehensive as possible with our edition of Fergusson’s poems, and for this we do need you! If you have any of Fergusson’s poetry books, particularly his earliest works from the late 1700s and early 1800s, we would love to know if there are any loose scraps of paper with poems on them hidden within, or tucked away in your bookshelves. It might sound farfetched, but sometimes manuscripts can be hidden in the most unlikely of places!
We are particularly keen to find as many of Fergusson’s manuscripts as possible as there are not actually that many still extant. It appears that as Fergusson worked primarily in the periodical press, with his works appearing there regularly, his manuscript poems seem to have been discarded by workers at the Weekly Magazine. There are only eight poems that can be found in manuscript form, and these are held within the Edinburgh University Library and the National Library of Scotland. Most of the manuscript poems that are located in archives are also focused on the Cape Club, of which Fergusson was a member. His nickname and occasional penname was ‘Sir Precenter’ (so look out for this on your manuscript hunts too!). The Cape Club was a society, known mainly for its celebrated members, which included artists, poets, and musicians. They were also famous for their carousing, so many of Fergusson’s manuscripts are on this topic!
I was very excited on a recent research trip to the National Library of Scotland to see this most recently discovered Fergusson manuscript in person. It’s a comical poem, that (like many of Fergusson’s works) discusses food and drink in depth, alongside providing humorous portraits of Edinburgh’s inhabitants – in this case, members of the Cape.
Some of my favourite lines are these, which state that the Cape Club was doing very well indeed, noting the society’s abundance before describing a ‘feast of Eels’ alongside ‘much drink & Sacrificing/ to Bachus’:
The Cape still flourishes anon
In day & Generation
New Knights new Titles still Increase
Our Sovereigns Levee to grace
And daily Festivals abound
With Mirth & Witt the Table Round
As with any trip to Edinburgh, it would not have been complete without heading to Canongate Kirk and seeing Fergusson’s statue and grave in person. We are very pleased the statue is back in situ after its recent restoration, and looking good ready for all the selfies that will undoubtedly be a feature of the ‘Year of Fergusson’!
As ever, if you would like to get in touch with us to discuss anything Fergusson-related, we would love to hear from you! Please get in touch via the website here.
All the best,
Amy