OWER FRAE AUCHTERARDER

Notes from PCAA's exhibition: Penicuik Looking Back, organised with Penicuik Historical Society and Midlothian Council in May 1997 at the Cowan Institute (Penicuik Town Hall)

For more than a century the Penicuik Free Gardeners were the town's best-known benevolent organisation, parading annually with special songs, baskets and floral regalia, and attracting support and admiration from less active Gardener lodges elsewhere in this country and abroad. Like many other benevolent organisations in Scotland a century ago (the Shepherds, the Good Templars, the Rechabites, the Oddfellows, the Foresters, and the Buffaloes, to name a few) it echoed some of the forms of freemasonry and was dedicated to the brotherhood of man. In Penicuik, its practical purpose as a self-governing insurance society combined with its role as social focus for the exclusively male membership and their families in the town.

In his 1910 booklet about the Gardeners, Penicuik's journalist-historian Bob Black (himself an enthusiastic office-bearer) writes that the Penicuik Free Gardeners were formed in 1822 from the remnants of Penicuik's Hand Papermakers' Society. Two local men, James Cochrane and James Hooper, had been made Apprentice Gardeners at a lodge elsewhere and were keen to establish a Penicuik friendly society on the same regular footing. Failing to get support from neighbouring Gardener Lodges in Midlothian, they enlisted the help of the Thistle Free Gardeners Lodge at Auchterarder, whose office-bearers travelled from Perthshire to formally inaugurate the new Lodge here. This supportive journey is commemorated in the Penicuik Gardeners' most famous song. To the tune "O but ye've been lang o' comin'", it was sung heartily as a Penicuik anthem for over a century:

Ower Frae Auchterarder:

Ye're welcome brethren tae oor Lodge,
Ye've had a lang an' weary trudge,
I hope that ye will no begrudge
Although frae Auchterarder.

(Chorus.)

O, but ye've been lang o' comin',
Lang, lang, lang o' comin',
Oh but ye've been lang o' comin'
Ower frae Auchterarder.

Did ye get safe across the Forth?
Hoo's a' oor brethren in the North?
Thrice welcome ye that hae come forth
Tae mak us a' Free Gardeners.

(Chorus)

Oor neibors thocht tae keep us back,
But we'll be wi' them in a crack,
For Auchter lads hae come tae mak
Us a' Free Maister Gardeners.

(Special Chorus.)

O' but we hae lang'd tae see ye,
Lang'd, lang'd, lang'd tae see ye,
O' but we hae lang'd tae see ye
Ower frae Auchterarder.

Then here's tae him that doth preside,
An' here's tae them that's at his side,
An' here's tae them that he doth guide
Ower by at Auchterarder.

(Chorus.)

Meetings were held quarterly, and office bearers elected each year just before the July "walk" or procession. The Penicuik Gardeners' Charter described the Friendly Society as "a kind of terrestrial Eden" devoted to "friendship, that mysterious cement of the soul, sweetener of life and solder of society". Quarterly subscriptions were the equivalent of 71/2p for the sick and funeral fund and 21/2p towards the costs of the annual dinner and procession. Benefits were 25p per week for the first 15 weeks of sickness, 171/2p for the second 15 weeks, and 10p a week thereafter, £4 on the death of a member and £2 on the death of a wife. The lodge regalia in the early years consisted of a flag and ornament (probably the thistle), a silver level, cross keys, spade and rake, reel and line, 3 hammers, 5 batons, 14 aprons, 14 sashes, a sword sheath and belt. For their dinners the Gardeners kept a stock of 160 small plates, 13 ashets, and 23 large plates.

Annual processions were kept up almost continuously from 1822, usually on the second Friday in July. It was a big day for Penicuik, with the annual meeting, procession, dinner and dancing covering a period of 24 hours. Bands were engaged and visiting delegations entertained. For the 1850 dinner, no less than 260 lbs. of meat (half lamb, half beef) were ordered, a committee appointed to see the meat weighed and supervise John Moffat of Moffat's pie shop as he made ready the dinner and seasoned the pies. The carrying of "buskit" flowers was a regular feature of the walks, flower dressing beginning the night before and often accompanied by pranks and practical jokes by Penicuik youngsters. There was a very special and distinctive Lodge Basket, often dressed with flowers given from the gardens of Penicuik or Beeslack House. Sometimes the procession included the character of Old Adam (in a tam-o-shanter) accompanied by four, six or ten Virgins (dressed in white and carrying baskets of flowers).

As well as "Ower frae Auchterarder" familiar Penicuik Free Gardeners' songs included "The Gairdner and his paidle Jean", "The Thistle Lodge O' Free Gard'ners", and "The Free Gardener's Song" including the following lines:

Then Adam - to show he a Gardener was known -
The sweet fig leaf apron that instant put on;
Not indented it was, and hung down to his knee;
Then who would not wish a Free Gardener to be?

Then Eve, when created, transported did see
A Garden so sweet and a Gardener so free;
She says to the Gardener, Deal kindly with me -
O pray, do admit me a Free Gardener to be.

The Grand Lodge representing Free Gardeners throughout Scotland was based at the Oddfellows Hall in Bristo Place, Edinburgh, with The People's Bank next door. Penicuik members customarily took a large part in this national organisation. In Penicuik itself the Gardeners had premises in the High Street next to the Railway Tavern, and at the end of West Street where the Penicuik Community Arts building now stands. A big Centenary Year Walk was held in 1922. More details of the Free Gardeners' final years in Penicuik would be very welcome.