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BARNARD, LADY ANNE
(1750-1825), Authoress of the ballad of 'Auld
Robin Gray,' was the eldest daughter of James Lindsay, fifth earl of
Balcarres, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Dalrymple, of
Castleton, and was born on 8 Dec. 1750. Her youth was mainly spent at
her home in Fifeshire Fifeshire, with occasional winter-flights to
Edinburgh. She early gained admission into the social circle within
which moved Hume and Henry Mackenzie, Lord Monboddo, and other
celebrities. When Dr. Johnson visited Edinburgh in 1773 she was
introduced to him. Later she and her sister Lady Margaret, the widow of
Alexander Fordyce resided in London. Her nephew, Colonel Lindsay of
Balcarres, states that she had been frequently sought in marriage; but
that it was not until Andrew Barnard, son of Thomas, bishop of Limerick
[q. v.], addressed her, that she changed her resolution of living a
maiden life. She was married in 1793. Her husband was younger than
herself; accomplished, but poor. The young couple proceeded to the Cape
of Good Hope, when Barnard was appointed colonial secretary under Lord
Macartney. Her 'Journals and Notes,' illustrated with drawings and
sketches whilst at the Cape, are printed in the 'Lives of the Lindsays'
(vol. iii.) Her husband died at the Cape in 1807, without issue, and she
returned home. Once more her sister and herself resided in Berkeley
Square, London, till the Lady Margaret was married a second time, in
1812, to Sir James Bland Burges [q. v.]. The sisters' house was a
literary centre. Burke and Sheridan, Windham and Dundas, and the Prince
of Wales, were among their habitual visitors. Lady Anne had the dubious
honour of winning the lifelong attachment of the prince regent. The
ballad of 'Auld Robin Gray,' which has given immortality to her name,
was composed by her in 1771, when she was in her twenty-first year. It
was published anonymously, and various persons claimed its authorship,
among others a clergyman. Not until two years before her death did Lady
Barnard acknowledge it as her own. The occasion has become historical.
In the 'Pirate,' which appeared in 1823, Scott compared the condition of
Minna to that of Jeanie Gray, 'the village heroine in Lady Anne
Lindsay's beautiful ballad,' and quoted the second verse of the
continuation. This led LadyAnne to write to Sir Walter and confide its
history to him. In her letter, dated 8 July 1823, she says: 'Robin Gray,
so called from its being the name of the old herd at Balcarres, was born
soon after the close of the year 1771. My sister Margaret had married,
and accompanied her husband to London. I was melancholy, and endeavoured
to amuse myself by attemptinga few poetical trifles. There was an
English- Scotch melody of which I was passionately fond. Sophy Johnstone,
who lived before your day, used to sing it to us at Balcarres. She did
not object to its having improper words, though I did. I longed to sing
old Sophy's air to different words, and give its plaintive tones some
little history of virtuous distress in humble life, such as might suit
it. "While attempting to effect this in my closet, I called to my little
sister [Elizabeth], now Lady Hardwicke, who was the only person near me,
"I have been writing a ballad, my dear; I am oppressing my heroine with
many -misfortunes. I have already sent her Jamie to sea, and broken her
father's arm, and made her mother fall sick, and given her auld Robin
Gray for a lover; but I wish to load her with a fifth sorrow within the
four lines, poor thing! Help me to one!" "Steal the cow, sister Anne,"
said the little Elizabeth. The cow was immediately lifted by me, and the
song completed. At our fireside and amongst our neighbours "Auld Robin
Gray" was always called for. I was pleased in secret with the
approbation it met with: but such was my dread of being suspected of
writing anything, perceiving the shyness it created in those who could
write nothing, that I carefully kept my own secret.' Sir Walter Scott
prepared a thin quarto volume for the Bannatyne Club (1824), which
contains Lady Anne's narrative of the composition of the ballad, a
revised version of it, and two of Lady Anne's continuations. The
continuations, as in so many cases, are not worthy of the first part.
Lady Anne Barnard died 6 May 1825, in her seventy-fourth year.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Lives of the Lindsays.] |
