In the year MDCCCXXV a few kindred spirits instituted the Dalry Burns Club. In an amusing collection of manuscripts of the late Andrew Crawford of Courthill, Dalry,
we find that he discharged the duties of Croupier at the first Anniversary meeting held at Dalry in honour of the "High Chief of Scottish Song"
and in proposing a toast to all the admirers of Burns, he said:- "This is the first time that our village attempted to celebrate the birth-day of our Ayrshire Bard,
Robert Burns, and certainly it reflects very little honour on our village, famed for song, that the neighbouring shires have been celebrating his worth for more than twenty years,
and before this night we have been mute, but better late than never."
The following facetious lines in verse embody the regulations of the Club:-
Dalry, Eighteen Hundred and Twenty-Six,
Assembled a few friends of Burns
To make regulations and yearly fix
What's to be done when his birth day returns.
This year in Montgom'rie's it first shall take place,
Where drink of the best shall be got,
With a Haggis and Bannocks the table to grace
And a slice from the hip of a stot.
Political questions all banished shall be;
The song it shall circle in turns;
Each shall have a glass of the Barley-bree,
To drink to the memory of Burns.
No insulting language our lips shall defile,
A neighbour's good humour to cross;
So that every face shall be gay with a smile,
While round go the song and the toast.
The members of the Club have continued to hold Burns' Anniversary in "Montgomerie's Inn", Courthill, from the year
MDCCCXXVI till MDCCCLX,
which is sufficient reason to believe that though
"It's just theeket wi' strae, and but laigh o' the ceiling,
That we scarce can stn' up straight within;
But there's aye something guid, baith for eating and drinking
To be had in Montgomerie's Inn".
William Logan, 1860.