Free Gardeners

The Ancient order of Free Gardeners leased offices in Oddfellows Hall in Forrest Road, Edinburgh and used the facilities there. In most towns and villages round about the gardeners had a favoured meeting place. In Haddington it was the Gardeners Arms public house, which the fraternity had owned for most of the 19th century.

Free gardeners often secured for themselves a privileged role in public ceremonies. Just as Masonic lodges turned out when a foundation stone was laid, gardeners paraded when commemorative trees were planted. Many lodges kept their profile in the public eye by an annual celebration.

In Penicuik the lodge paraded through the streets accompanied by 'Old Adam' and a number of 'Virgins'. Members produced extravagant 'buskits o' floo'ers', for which the best was awarded a cash prize. Although women could not join the lodge, the annual walk was a family event, open to all.

This is the said "Gardeners Arms" in Haddington in the early 1900's. The proprietor, James McKemmie, and his wife had a family tragedy while living in Edinburgh when their toddler daughter fell out of a third floor window in Jeffrey Street. A year later my father-in-law was born to them. They moved to Haddington to take over the pub, and lived there the rest of their lives.

730 today! Tempus fugit!!! (The phrase comes from Virgil - and the full phrase said something like - "But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail." I like that.