Antiquarian Gaelic Correspondence Course

This is a collection of correspondence in the form of a Distance Learning Course of Gàidhlig between two students and their respective teachers.  The items were found in the Bulstrode Park country house, Gerrard’s Cross, Bucks in the 1950s when the house was cleared for new occupants.  This was one of many estates owned by the Duke of Somerset[1], whose grand-daughter Hermione Charlotte Ramsden (17/6/1867 – 4/6/1951) was one of the correspondent students of this course.  There were two tutors; P C Macfarlane, Glenquaich, Perthshire, and Adam Gunn, Strathy, Sutherland.

The first park of this book is related to the other of the two students, Miss Tumblanque of whom there is little information, though at the beginning of the notes it is stated that the course cost £2 0s 0d for 12 lessons with Mr P C MacFarlane, who died on 13^th April 1887.  There is a letter from Mr MacFarlane dated 10^th April 1886, written in Wester Kinloch, Glenquaich, and another dated 17^th April 1886 from the same location.  Each letter contains advice and instruction in the language and it appears that the lessons were based on the book “Practical Lessons in Gaelic” by Donald C MacPherson (MacLachlan & Stewart, 1879).  There is little information available about Mr MacFarlane, though it appears he studied for the ministry and contributed to “The Celtic Magazine”, though died relatively young:-

DEATH OF MR P C MACFARLANE.  It is with much regret that we announce the death of Mr P C MacFarlane , which took place at this father’s house in Glenquaich, Perthshire on 13^th April.  In our last number he had an article on the “Possessive Pronoun in Gaelic”, and, although we knew he was low in health, we had not anticipated that his end was near.  Mr MacFarlane was a divinity student of much promise, and a Gaelic scholar of great attainments and success.  He passed his Arts’ course in Glasgow, and went to Edinburgh for Divinity, where, in the 1883-84 session, he won the med in the Celtic Class, in the first year of its existence.  In a letter of a few days ago to “Fionn,” Professor Mackinnon says:- “In Gaelic scholarship he really had no competitor in my class.  His enthusiasm for Gaelic and Celtic matters was unbounded, while his common sense and humour kept his imagination in due restraint.  But rarely was such an example found of one whose passion was so strong for Gaelic.  I do not know that such a promising Gaelic scholar has passed away since Pattison died.”[2]

The second and larger part of the book consists of letters and exercises in correspondence with the Hon. Hermione Charlotte Ramsden and her teacher Mr Adam Gunn, who charged 10/- each month for tuition.

Hermione Ramsden was the second daughter of Sir John William Ramsden, 5^th Baronet (who gave conditional support to the Crofters’ Bill of 1886[3]) and Lady Helen Guendolen Seymour, daughter of the 12^th Duke of Somerset.[4]  The Ramsden family held several estates throughout the United Kingdom, including Bulstrode[5] Park in Buckinghamshire, Byram[6] in Yorkshire, and Ardverikie[7] in Inverness-Shire, and the correspondence includes letters from each of these locations.  The first letter from Adam Gunn to Miss Ramsden is dated 1^st July 1887 in which terms are agreed, with several others containing advice and comments on the grammar exercises, written from Strathy in Sutherland or from New College, Edinburgh.

Adam Gunn was a Minister of the Church of Scotland, although not ordained at the time of this correspondence.  He was born in Strathy, Sutherland on 15^th August 1859[8].  He attended Grammar School in Aberdeen, then University in St Andrews and later New College Edinburgh where he won the first prize in the Gaelic class,[9]  obtaining his Licence to Preach in 1888 and subsequently being appointed Minister in the church at Durness, Sutherland.  He contributed to the magazine “The Celtic Monthly” and “Transactions of the Inverness Gaelic Society”, writing on subjects such as Dialects of Sutherland[10] and Gaelic songs and legends.[11]  and also wrote the book “Sutherland and the Reay Counties” about the history, legends, poetry and music, and topography of Sutherland, which was published in 1897.  He died in Golspie on 29^th October 1925.

Also within this item are letters and other papers not directly connected to the correspondence course:-

There is a letter written by Mr Angus MacPherson, Ardverikie, 11^th January 1890 to the Hon. Miss Hermione Ramsden at Bulstrode, Gerrard’s Cross, Bucks.  In this letter Mr MacPherson thanks Miss Ramsden for presents she has sent for his children and expresses regret that she has none of her own with whom she may speak Gaelic.  He sends his regards to Mr Ramsden “who has grown so big” and Miss Rosamund (perhaps Sir John Frescheville Ramsden, 07/01/1877 – 06/10/1958, brother of Hermione, and Rosamund Isabel Ramsden, 12/12/1872 – 05/11/1911, her sister).[12]  The letter also mentions that Ardverikie has now been occupied by Sir Edward Guinness.  There is little information about Mr MacPherson, though he signs the letter “I am your humble servant, Angus MacPherson”

Also there is another letter telling of the apparent recovery of a mermaid from the Gulf of Stanchio, Turkey in 1764, with a copy of a pen and ink drawing, and another image of an unusual dwelling occupied by Margaret Dingwall, the Isle of Skye, 1862. Both of these images are photocopies, the originals not being in the Library’s possession.