The Royal Mile in Edinburgh is a very popular tourist destination. Near the top of the Royal Mile, is Lady Stair’s Close. Here can be found Edinburgh’s Makars' Court - makar is the Scots word for poet or author - and the Writers’ Museum. One of the first things you will see on entering Lady Stair's Close is this paving slab commemorating author John Galt with the words birr and smeddum.
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| John Galt slab in Makars' Court, Edinburgh |
Birr and smeddum are Scottish words often used by Galt in his writing. Birr usually means energy or enthusiasm and smeddum can mean strength.
Galt uses the term “birr and smeddum” in Annals of the Parish when describing a book by the son of a parishioner -
“And his mother had the satisfaction, before she died, to
see him a placed minister, and his name among the authors of his country; for
he published at Edinburgh a volume of Moral Essays, of which he sent me a
pretty bound copy, and they were greatly creditable to his pen, though lacking
somewhat of that birr and smeddum that is the juice and flavour of books of
that sort.”
Galt uses the words individually. In his work The Annals of the Parish, when Mrs Craig states to Mr Snodgrass –
“For my part, it’s a very caldrife way of life to dine every day on coffee; broth and beef would put mair smeddum in the men.”
The word caldrife can mean, cold, cheerless. In The Provost, one of the characters is called “Mr Smeddum”. Also in the Provost is an account of a council meeting when the Provost relates -
“Mr Keelevine made an endeavour to dissuade me; but I set him down with a stern voice, striking the table at the same time with all my birr, as I said “Sir, you have no voice here.”
The courtyard called Makars' Court contains many other slabs commemorating Scottish writers and poets. The Writers' Museum faces the courtyard and has fabulous exhibits of the life and works of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Unfortunately, there is nothing inside concerning John Galt – surely a great omission.
