British Collector kin visit Ooty

Ooty: Descendants of erstwhile British Collector-cum-poet Percy Macqueen, who administered Nilgiris in the past, visited Ooty and handed over some of his rare collections on the Nilgiris to the Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC).

Frank James, grandson of former Collector Percy Macqueen, his son James and daughter-in-law Anne from UK came here on a maiden trip of personal discovery. The Ooty veteran Dr Dharmalingam Venugopal, director of NDC, who welcomed the trio here on Tuesday, said that Percy Macqueen was Collector of Nilgiris from 1936 to 1938 and again 1938 to 1940. He also served as Collector of Madras, Tiruchy and Tirunelveli.

The Macqueens lived at Sedgemore near the Thamilagam guest house in Ooty. Macqueen collected over 3,000 folk songs of the Madras Presidency, often paying one anna for each line from labourers, farm workers and rural women, he noted and added that the collection was later edited by noted Tamil scholar Ki.Va. Jaganathan and published by the Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur in 1958 under the title 'Malaiaruvi'.

Macqueen, who was born on November 13, 1883 and died on 8 March 1970, was also curator of the Madras Record Office. He presented to the Cambridge University Library a collection of Tamil, Malayalam and Badaga (Nilgiris) folk poetry in his own transcription and with English translations, gathered during a period of 38 years residence in South India.

His poetic contribution to the Nilgiris was his 1939 poem “Todaland”. Running into 250 lines, the poem traces the history of the Nilgiris from the ancient times of the Todas to the British days.

Mr. James said that they visited Sedgemore cottage on Tuesday to see the house where Macqueen had lived during his days in Ooty. “This is our first visit to the Nilgiris, but it will not be our last,” said Mr. James.”