THE CROWD:

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/ Gang aft agley,” goes a more than 200-year-old Scottish prayer by the legendary Robert Burns.

The English translation, familiar to all, simply states, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”

Tuesday evening at The Balboa Bay Club & Resort, Newport Beach, hotelier Henry Schielein invited the community to the annual Robert Burns dinner in the Grill Room.

The celebration has become a staple on the Newport social calendar; a chance to revel in Scottish tradition. Jesse Chisholm came in his kilt to emcee the evening.

Part spiritual journey, part history lesson, part toast master over fine European and American blends of Scotch-whiskey — Chisholm held the evening together with great care and attention to detail.

From the first charge of the glasses to the final singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” Chisholm escorted the dinner crowd on a sentimental journey.

The famous Scottish saying about mice and men comes from a prayer that tells the story of a farmer unearthing the winter nest of a mouse, leaving the poor creature without shelter in the harshest of times during the year.

The farmer expresses his sincere remorse for the accidental harm he has brought upon God’s creature. Ah, but the best laid plans often go astray.

On the culinary side of the evening, Chef Josef Lagader and his staff did a masterful job preparing the traditional Haggis, a form of liver sausage made with potato and vegetables.

The dish, as explained by Chisholm, was the first meal prepared by the Scotts following the butcher of the sheep.

The liver could not be cured, or kept in any fashion for more than 24 hours — hence it was cooked for the meal of that evening.

The Haggis was ceremoniously served to the crowd including Aloha Air exec Tom Nelson in from Honolulu, Lesley Hall, Roger Lathrop, George and Mary Ann Wentworth, Sharon and former Costa Mesa Mayor Peter Buffa, Vicki and Daily Pilot Publisher Tom Johnson, and in from New Jersey Maxine and Burton Hobson.

Also in the crowd were Dave Martel, new clubhouse exec for The Balboa Bay Club, Lido Isle’s Anne and John Wortmann, Kirsten and Eddie Prosser, Dorcas Preston, Gael Lauritzen, Cameron Jacques, Carolyn and Bob Clarke, Glenn Thompson, Myrna Frazier, Gregson Hall with fiancee Dalita MacNeil, Traute Huycke, Jean Warren, Max Patel and Anita Kartic.

A four-course dinner followed this Haggis service, all prepared with attention to Scottish tradition. Blessings accompanied each course.

The English translation of the Scottish prayer over the meat exemplified the subtle message of the evening:

“Some have meat but cannot eat.

Some have none but want it.

But we have meat. And we can eat,

So let the Lord be thanked.”

Indeed Robbie Burns, who died in 1796, would smile at a dining room full of Americans from every imaginable ancestry, among the gents, men in kilts, raising a glass and saying a prayer of thanks for surviving the best laid plans gone astray.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.