The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
A dreich day brightened by reminders of one of our most celebrated writers
Words were his seed corn. If this characterisation was never attributed to Lewis Grassic Gibbon in his lifetime, it jolly well should have been. Last Monday, you may remember, the rain was coming down in stair rods – dreich, Grassic Gibbon would have called it for he was a son of the soil, and he’d have been right. We all have lightbulb moments when unbidden memories flash into our minds. As I gazed at the teeming rain the thought came, unbidden, into my mind that it had been a long time since I’d visited the Lewis Grassic Gibbon Centre and museum at Arbuthnott commemorating the life and work of the man.
Driving to the venue I was conscious of leaving the rich, brown earth of Angus as it changed to the red Mearns clay. I’ve walked those red clay fields when they’ve been sodden with rain. The glaur sticks to your boots, accumulating with every step until they are so heavy you can hardly lift one foot past the other. Clarty it’s called in the local speak, and you don’t want to let your clarty dog run through the house or you’ll be surprised at how robust your wife’s opinions can be.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pen name of writer James Leslie Mitchell (1901-1935), the north east’s most celebrated 20th Century writer. His best and most enduring work is the harshly authentic trilogy A Scots Quair. Set in his native Mearns it is regarded as one of the defining works of the 20th Century Scottish Renaissance, containing some of the most graphic and responsive descriptions of the Mearns and the north east.
The centre is a purpose-built, bright, attractive building adjoining Arbuthnott village hall and is run by the local community on a not-for-profit basis. Admission is free with a charge only for the exhibition. The museum contains not just Grassic Gibbon’s personal items such as his overcoat, but also items of daily living which help us understand his childhood life and how it influenced, in part, the way he looked at the world and how he wrote about it.
The young Mitchell, aged seven, came with his family to live at Bloomfield Farm at Arbuthnott. He attended the local primary school where the head teacher recognised his writing ability and encouraged it. He went on to complete his education at Mackie Academy in Stonehaven.
Grassic Gibbon began writing full-time in 1929 and gained the attention of celebrated author HG Wells for his earliest attempts at fiction. But it was the trilogy A Scots Quair, and in particular the first book, Sunset Song, with its combination of stream-of-consciousness, lyrical use of dialect and social realism, which brought him true recognition.
To complete the Grassic Gibbon story you need to go down the brae to 13th Century St Ternan’s Kirk where Mitchell is buried. Few pre-Reformation churches are still in use for regular worship and this peaceful building has survived down the centuries in good condition. But I’ve heard whispers that the building is on the Church of Scotland’s list for closure. There’s something shocking at the thought of this place of worship, imbued with so much history and heritage, just closing its doors.
James Mitchell’s headstone, in white marble, is in the shape of an open book and is inscribed with a text from the Book of Revelation in the Bible: And I will give you the morning star.
Also inscribed is a quotation from Sunset Song – The Kindness of Friends, The Warmth of Toil, The Peace of Rest. The words are from the village minister’s address at the unveiling of a memorial to Ewan Tavendale, Chris Guthrie’s husband, killed with three comrades in the First World War.
The Whitson family have our own particular connection with Lewis Grassic Gibbon. The BBC were filming Cloud Howe, the second book of the trilogy and part of the filming was in Logie Pert Church. We lived in the former manse at the time and our children attended Logie Pert School. The schoolchildren were all recruited as extras and dressed in character in old-fashioned long shorts and tackety boots. Son James had a fleeting cameo appearance and if we’d blinked we’d have missed him.
A new film of Sunset Song was made several years ago and Glenesk farmer Peter Myles was engaged to drive a flock of sheep through the red sandstone Fettercairn Arch, erected in memory of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s overnight stay in the Ramsay Arms Hotel. He had to take about half a dozen shotties because sheep just don’t understand film directors’ directions. Several of the sheep panicked and ran into Encore Dress Agency, scaring all the ladies.
Amanda Cowie had welcomed me to the Grassic Gibbon Centre. She is in charge of the restaurant and I can’t finish without mentioning that she bakes the biggest and best homemade shorties in the district.
You don’t want to let your clarty dog run through the house