Looking Back: Child in the Manger

From December 1963

“Child in the Manger”

Where Mary MacDonald Is Remembered

Close by the roadside between Bunesan and Finaphort on the island of Mull there stands a modern-looking stone of pale pink granite, bearing the words:- “Mary MacDonald, Poetess”. Underneath are the dates of her birth and death, and at the bottom, “Child in the Manger, Infant of Mary”.

Such is the simple but dignified memorial to the writer of one of our best-loved Christmas hymns.

Mary MacDougall was born at Ardtur in 1799 and early in the nineteenth century was widely recognised as a poetess of considerable talent. She had no education in English, but was well-versed in the scriptures and was deeply religious. She belonged to the Baptist Church.

She was practical as well as poetic and, according to her fellow-islanders, was wont to sing her own songs and hymns while working busily at her spinning wheel.

Her husband was Neill MacDonald, a crofter, and one of her poems was written specially for him – it was a satire on tobacco, of which, she thought, he smoked too much!

Of all her work, “Child in the Manger” is outstanding. The tune to which we sing it, ‘Bunessan’ is appropriately also Highland. It was noted down by Alexander Fraser from a wandering Highland minstrel and has the bold sweeping movements typical of the freedom shown in all Gaelic song and wistfulness and mystery of the islands themselves.

-Muriel C. Easton

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