MET by a kilted piper, a colourful display of Scottish flags and a glowing array of 100 candles, guests gathered at Eggar’s School in Holybourne at the weekend for the 25th Alton Burns Night supper, knowing it would be a special occasion to be savoured.

With a skilled chef in charge of an all-Scottish menu and talented musicians on hand, the event took place with a Scottish swing – Alton style – in aid of Bushy Leaze Children and Families Centre.

Supper chairman Alison Tubman warmly welcomed guests and friends new and old, reminding them of the community basis of the event. She said that she and other Scottish participants were proud and encouraged by the popularity down the years of Alton’s very own Burns supper.

Alton county councillor Andrew Joy and his wife, Kate, were special guests and praised the involvement of so many Friends of Bushy Leaze who had volunteered to cook and serve this special Burns supper.

Reflecting on the problems facing Hampshire County Council in Winchester, Mr Joy said he would always work hard to locate and win grants and support for the children’s centre. He acknowledged the high quality of the support provided by Bushy Leaze, offering particular praise for its headteacher, Patti Snook, and her team.

Alton’s celebration of the birthday on January 25 of the great Scottish poet and song-writer Robert Burns was launched by his famous ‘Grace before Meat’. Known as the ‘Selkirk Grace’, its sharp meaning was not lost on guests aware that we live in an age of foodbanks.

Launching the main course, a fine haggis was paraded by chef Jill Worth and honoured by the bagpipes of John Todd, while Burns enthusiast Luath Grant Ferguson performed Burns’ famous comic monologue, the ‘Address tae the Haggis’.

The Friends of Bushy Leaze, four of them aged only 13, then showed their skills with an excellent set of menu choices, with a vegetarian haggis and a delicious Scottish chicken alternative. This year’s generous choice of desserts celebrated the supper’s 25th birthday by including Ecclefechan Tart, a traditional speciality from Burns country in south-west Scotland.

Closing the meal with a toast to ‘the immortal memory of Robert Burns’, the chairman invited guests to join her in thanking the team of volunteers as Mr Joy presented chef Jill Worth and maître d Martin Wells with gifts for the team. Jill also received a bouquet of flowers from four-year-old Eada Grant-Turton.

Entertainment followed, consisting of two of Burns’ most famous songs on the theme of love – ‘Ye Banks and Braes o Bonnie Doon’ about love disappointed, and ‘Ha, Ha, the Wooin’ o’t’, a warning against playing hard to get! Guests clapped and stamped their appreciation of the beautiful performances given by Barbara Rayner and Susie Deane.

Between the songs, and before performing Burns’ celebrated poem ‘To a Mouse’, Luath Grant Ferguson told a tale of two Gilberts. One, the Reverend White of Selborne, identified the harvest mouse as a separate species (‘mus minimus’) when Burns, still a child, was working on his father’s farm in Ayrshire. The other, Gilbert Burns, recalled his brother as a grown man falling silent having seen a harvest mouse chased from her nest by a plough-share, and next morning reciting his acknowledged masterpiece.

“Like so much of Burns’ poetry,” said Luath, “‘To a Mouse’ can be read time and again and still provide new, deeper meanings. It contains one of the most famous lines in English: ‘The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley!’ Burns was warning us two-and-a-half centuries ago of the dire consequences of messing with nature.”

The band – John Tubman (accordion), Toni Goffe (double-bass) and Luath Grant Ferguson (drums) – then took over to accompany a wide selection of Scottish country dances. These were performed, it has to be said, in a variety of modes, ranging from safe and civilised to wild abandon – though which was truly Scottish and which was Altonian freestyle would be hard to distinguish.

Guests were delighted to be joined by the teenage volunteers, and amazed how quickly they picked up the dances.

Between the dances, the table quiz prize went to Mark Wakling and his guests, and Mr Joy, Mick Neeve and Fiona Sinclair teamed up to draw the winning raffle tickets.

As guests circled for an enthusiastic rendering of Burns’ ‘Auld Lang Syne’, Luath, who with his wife Helen has attended all 25 Alton Burns suppers, reminded guests of the next fundraising event in support of Bushy Leaze – an early spring concert at Alton Methodist Church on Saturday, March 3.

He also thanked the Bushy Leaze volunteers – in the kitchen, chef Jill Worth, Peter and Oliver Penfold and Kim Woolford; serving at table, Maitre d’ Martin Wells, Anna Bevan, Vicki Blythe, Laura Nash, Livvy Penfold, Jade Veck, Abi Woolford, Chloe Bevis, Emma Hornsby and Carenza Worth.

The event raised more than £1,000 for the Bushy Leaze Community Support Fund.