An Auld Licht Community

Description

This is Barrie's first article on the Auld Lichts, which he sent unsolicited to Frederick Greenwood's St James's Gazette. It is based on his mother's reminiscences of the Kirriemuir of her childhood, which Barrie called "Wheens" in these articles before later hitting on the name "Thrums". Although he utilised much of this and subsequent articles in the Auld Licht Idylls, they also have a freshness and zest of their own.

According to Roger Lancelyn Green, "The essential truth of Barrie's picture of Thrums is vouched for by Alexander Whyte, famous in his day as a preacher in Edinburgh, who was born at Kirriemuir of humbler parentage than Barrie himself: “Mr Barrie has thoroughly grasped the characters of the little community, with all their humour and pathos. Thrums is a true picture of my native place.“ Margaret Ogilvy, who was also responsible for so much of the dialect, which was already dying out when Barrie was a boy, was herself brought up as a member of the Auld Licht Community, her father being one of the leading followers of the “Old Light“ in Kirriemuir. The sect believed in a return to the early Church, as described in the New Testament; the church was little more than a barn; music, hymns, and written sermons were forbidden, and they chose their own ministers: the Auld Licht character 'was austere and fervent, but it lacked the graces'“.

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With many thanks to The British Newspaper Archive for their kind permission to reproduce this image.