Dennistoun is an area located to the east of Glasgow’s City Centre. (For more information about this area, see Ian R. Mitchell’s article, ‘Dennistoun: No Mean Streets‘ on the Glasgow West End website).

There is not much currently known about this Burns club.  It was a small group, having only 25 members at the end of the nineteenth century. Its meetings were held at Loudoun Arms Hotel, Duke Street, Dennistoun. (For more information on the history of this hotel, see John Gorevan’s article, ‘The Loudoun Arms Hotel‘ on the Old Glasgow Pubs website.)

Date of Existence

1886-1909; 1914-? Federated 1889

Source of Information

1. Memorial Catalogue of the Burns Exhibition. Held in the Galleries of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 175 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, From 15th July till 31st October, 1896 (Glasgow: William Hodge & Company and T. & R. Annan & Sons, 1898), p. xvi (MLSC, Mitchell (AL), 14A MEM 472108);

2. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies, for 1892’, in BC, ed. by John Muir, No. I (Kilmarnock: D. Brown & Co., 25 January 1892), p. 130;

3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1894’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. III (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, February 1894), p. 195;

4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1898’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1898), p. 139

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)

National Library of Scotland (NLS)

Reference Number

Mitchell (AL), 14A MEM 472108 (MLSC) (Memorial Catalogue)

General Reading Room (stored offsite) X.195.a (NLS) (Memorial Catalogue)

BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)

General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)

Additional Notes

Where there are breaks in the dates of a club’s existence, it was the case that the directories listed them as ‘dormant’ during the intervening years.

‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available through the Robert Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.

This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.

Dennistoun is an area located to the east of Glasgow’s city centre. (For more information about this area, see Ian R. Mitchell’s article, ‘Dennistoun: No Mean Streets‘ on the Glasgow West End website).

There is not much currently known about this Burns club. The 1912 Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory gives its objects in the ‘Special features of Club’:

‘The objects of the Club shall be the celebration of the birth of Robert Burns, occasional re-union for the cultivation of social and intellectual intercourse amongst members and friends, and the encouragement of Scottish literature.’

(‘No. 203–DENNISTOUN Jolly Beggars Burns Club’, Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1912′, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1912), p. 186)

The meetings were held at 8pm on the last Thursday of the month at the Loudoun Arms Hotel, Duke Street, Dennistoun. (For more information on the history of this club, see  John Gorevan’s article, ‘The Loudoun Arms Hotel‘ on the Old Glasgow Pubs website.)

Date of Existence

25 January 1911-? Federated 6 June 1911

Source of Information

‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1912’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XXI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1912), p. 186

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC)

National Library of Scotland (NLS)

Reference Number

BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)

General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)

Additional Notes

‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available through the Robert Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.

This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.

Dowanhill is an area in the West End of Glasgow. (For a brief summary of its history, see ‘History of Byres Road. The birth of the West End‘ on the Visit West End website). This literary society was composed of young men and women from the area, or ‘adherents of Dowanhill Church’, which was located on Hyndland Street. (For a brief history of the church, see ‘Dowanhill UP Church‘ on The Glasgow Story website). The subscription fee was one shilling for the year, which was cheaper than the average for literary societies during this period (2s 6d).

The group met on the last Monday of each month to discuss three pre-selected books (members were only required to read one of these, or even part of one), and a paper was given on each book. It had very strict rules for reading: each member was to read (at least) half-an-hour a day, or three hours a week in total, the Sabbath excluded. In fact, a fee was incurred for not reading for this prescribed amount of time.

Date of Existence

1898-?

Source of Information

(Society brochure with ‘Objects’ and ‘Rules’)

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference Number

Glasgow Scrapbooks, No. 23, p. 234

Additional Notes

Also includes a list of office bearers and committee members.

Members of this society were most likely members of the congregation of St. Ninian’s Episcopal Church, which is located in Pollokshields, an area in the south side of Glasgow. (For more information about the area, see ‘Pollokshields, Glasgow. Origins & History‘ on the ScotCities website, and for a brief history of the church, see ‘St Ninian’s Church‘ on The Glasgow Story website. The church also has its own website with details on its twenty-first-century congregation and is available here.)

The People of St. Ninian’s 1872-1972 (1972) offers a good overview of the church’s historic literary society from its formation in 1899 until 1934. Among the group’s activities were debates, socials, dances, drama performances and concerts. In addition, the society had its own library, and games were on offer.

Date of Existence

1899-1934?

Source of Information

1. (Mentioned in: Dell, Richard F., The People of St. Ninian’s 1872-1972: A Centenary Essay on a Congregation of the Episcopal Church, Glasgow ([Glasgow]: [The Church], 1972, pp. 8-10) (ML, Mitchell (GC) 283.41443 STN);

2. St. Ninian’s Episcopal Church, ‘Debating and Literary Society’, Monthly Magazine, Vol. XI, No. 2, February 1921 (Note: this magazine is found inside back cover of following material at Heritage Hub, Hawick: Melrose Literary Society, Melrose Literary and Debating Society Manuscript Magazine, Vol. 12, 1917-20 (HH, D/54/8/3))

Repository

Mitchell Library (ML)

Heritage Hub, Hawick (HH)

Reference Number

(See Source of Information)

Additional Notes

This society should not be confused with the Literary Society of St. Ninian’s Parish Church (1890?-?).