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John Morrison Caie was born it Banchory Devenick on 20 Aagist 1878 but wis and vrocht up in the parish o Enzie in Banffshire far his fadder, Revd William Caie wis menister o the kirk. As a bairn he went tae Milne's Institute in Fochabers, Moray far he wis a contemporary of Willie Baxter (o soup fame) an Davy Reid fae Port Gordon. Richt throuw his life he hid an affa affection for the Enzie and he scrieved aboot it mony times.
Efter Milne's he went tae the Aiberdeen Varsity far he wis learnt law and agronomy; he graduatet we MA, BL an BSc. He becam a civil servant and jynt the Buird o Agriculture o Scotland in 1912. He endet up as Depute Secretar tae the Buird throughoot the Second Worl Waar far he oversaa the production of mait. He wis honoured we Companion of the Bath (CB) be King George VI. 
Enzie Kirk far Caie's fadder wis menister.
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Richt throuw his career as a civil servant, Caie wis affa weel-kent for his poems, maistly aboot rural life in the North-East, draain on his memories fae fan he wis a bairnie in Banffshire. He wis prood tae scrieve in his ain Doric tung. The Puddock is ain of his maist weel-kent and weel-loved poems. In 1940, he wis electit as a Fellow o the Royal Society o Edinburgh and awardet an Honorary Doctorate (LLD) be Aiberdeen Varsity in 1945. He deid affa sudden in Aiberdeen on 22 December 1949. |
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Lug in tae a pucklie o the bairns fae Millbank Primary Skweel in Buckie reading John Caie
COMING SEEN:
Click ablo fir The Kindly North be J.M. Caie. 
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A BANFFSHIRE LOONJM Caie is a prood Banffshire loon we the coonty aften bein the subject of his wark. We gotten Primary Seven at Millbank Skweel in Buckie tae records some o his poems, including the Puddock and Snaw as weel as some lines aboot his ain hame coonty o Banffshire.
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ELLA READS THE PUDDOCK |
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ERYN, JOEL & BETHANY READ SNAW |
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Derrick McClure spak aboot Caie in Language, Poetry and Nationhood an notit thit ‘farming life is a dominant theme of his poetry: but there is no idealisation of that life in the elegiac and often gloomy and fatalistic meditations which his characters conduct in a rich, authentic and skilfully-turned Doric.’ Caie hid an affa dry sense o humour fit can be seen short verses far he often shows jist foo contermashious fowk can be, like in his poem Heaven:
A croon, a harp, a bonnie sang,
Wi’ naething tae dee but tak’ wir ease,
An’ still-an’-on we’re loath tae gyang –
Dod, but fowk’s gey ill tae please.
His wry sense o humour nae doot contributet tae his popularity as an efter-denner spikker.
J.M. CAIE'S ENZIE
The Lairdship o the Enzie lies in the nor-west o Banffshire; it his nivver haen a weel-definet boundary an the modren parish is aften confused for the hail lairdship. It stretches fae Rathven and Finechty oweby by Buckie gye near tae Fochabers. An, of course, it gings "up the hill", the Enzie Braes taewards Aultmore be Keith. The Enzie wis it the hairt o auld Scottish Catholicism and thone legacy is still clear iday we twa historic auld Catholic kirks, St Ninian's and St Gregory's Preshome.
THE ENZIE |
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A curnie daft auld-Farrant wirds tae them that disna ken,
Bit something mair, oh something mair, tae twa auld Enzie men.
CHARLEY READS A VERSE O THE ENZIE FOWK |
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"Tae him that's been in Banffshire bred |