Crochallan Fencibles
A drinking club which met in Daniel Douglas's Tavern in Anchor, Edinburgh, Scotland. Its title came from Douglas's favourite Gaelic song Crodh Chailein ('Colin's Cattle'), which he was in the habit of singing to his customers, and from the voluntary raising of 'fencibles' or armed citizenry during the American War of Independence. Each member of the club was given a pseudo-military title. The printer William Smellie was a prominent member of the club, to which he introduced Robert Burns in 1787. Burns composed much of the bawdry in The Merry Muses Of Caledona for the club, and for its president William Dunbar, an Edinburgh lawyer, he wrote the song Rattling, roaring Willie.
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