An interesting association between the Unionist Buchan and the Marxist/ Nationalist C. M. Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid). It was John Buchan who penned this contribution, and perhaps the following on the woollen industry in Peeblesshire, to A History of Peebleshire. The preface to volume I names him as one of the editors although to what extent is not known.
Grieve did not hold Buchan in high regard as a writer as he made clear in the chapter from The Company I’ve Kept titled ‘Queer Bedfellows’ where he writes ‘Buchan was not a poet of any consequence, nor did I think him a novelist of consequence either. I told him so and he wrote agreeing with me.’ Despite this Grieve dedicated his first book Annals of the Five Senses to Buchan; he also asked Buchan to write the introduction to his first collection of poetry as MacDiarmid, Sangshaw, published in the same year as this presentation.
Grieve/ MacDiarmid is the most important scottish poet of the 20th Century and ranks with the other great Modernist Poets of the early part of the last century.