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 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE: 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE LAST EIGHT YEARS 
 OF THE POET'S LIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM M^DOWALL, 
 
 AUTHOn OF "HISTORr OF THE BUKGH OF DL-MFKIES," "THE VISITORS GUIDE 
 TO DUMFRIES,'' ETC. 
 
 SECOND E.D/TIOX. 
 
 EDINBUEGH: ADAM A^D CHARLES BLACK. 
 
 1870.
 
 GLASGOW 
 TEINIED BY ROBEKT ASDEKSON, 
 2i AXX STREET.
 
 \ - " 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 In the " History of Dumfries," publislied uearly three years 
 ago, there are two chapters devoted to the life of Eobert Burns, 
 when residing in that ancient burgh. Some admirers of the poet 
 were good enough to express their approval of what had been said 
 of him in the history, and to follow up their favourable verdict 
 with a projDosal that the sketch should be reproduced in a separate 
 form. As a result of this suggestion, the present little work was 
 prepared for the press. The narrative of Burns's Dumfries 
 experiences has been carefully revised and considerably enlarged ; 
 a new chapter has been written respecting the poet's sojourn in 
 Ellisland; and some additional notes, with an Appendix, have 
 been introduced, in order to make the w^ork more locally complete. 
 
 " Burns in Dumfriesshire " is not offered to the public as an 
 original biography of the national bard, neither does it profess to 
 give an exhaustive memoir of him as an inhabitant of that countv ; 
 it is simply an outline, with illvistrations, old and new, showing 
 what he was as a Qian, and what he did as a poet, during 1788-1796, 
 the last eight years he spent on earth. 
 
 It is not necessary, for the sake of connection, to trace the 
 leading incidents in the existence of Bums prior to the beginning 
 of the Ellisland period, as tliese are so generally known. Instead 
 of this being done, let the following pregnant paragraph suffice : — 
 "Between the month of May, 1786, and the month of April, 1788 
 — that is, between the ages of twenty-seven and twenty-nine — he 
 (Burns) is deserted and disowned by Jean Armour; he is solemnly 
 
 48'
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 betrothed to Mary Campbell ; his poems, written chiefly, it may 
 be said, as well as printed, in the interval, appear ; twin childi'en 
 are born to him by Jean Armour, one of whom subsequently 
 dies ; Mary Campbell dies ; his life in Edinburgh begins ; new 
 and enlarged edition of his poems appears ; after tour through 
 the south he returns to Mauchline; Jean Armour repents, and his 
 intimacy with her is renewed ; after tour in the north he returns 
 again to Edinburgh; is introduced to Mrs. Maclehose (Clarinda), 
 with whom his celebrated correspondence begins ; returns once 
 more to Mauchline ; takes Jea^i himself secretly to Tarbolton Mill 
 for her confinement there in disgrace, where twins are again born, 
 both of whom die ; acknowledges Jean Armour for his wife ; satisfies 
 '*"'* the Church; satisfies affectionately mother, brother^ and sisters, 
 f^ out of his miraculous £500 (profit from his poems) ; and makes 
 „jj^ final arrangements for his own removal, with wife and family, to 
 Ellisland." The author from whom Ave have quoted this passage 
 (Dr. P. Hately Waddell), truly remarks in connection with it that 
 "no reader nor any writer, with unassisted memory can imagine 
 the actual amount of personal and domestic excitement — of love, 
 of sorrow, of temptation, and of triumph, that was crowded into so 
 brief a space as that of two years, at the coinmencement of this 
 epoch of his life." Immediately after the eventful period here 
 described, Burns appears as a Dumfriesshire farmer, and his career 
 in that capacity is traced in the opening chapter. 
 
 KiNGHOLMBANK, DUMFKIES, 
 
 May, mo. 
 
 Within four months the first edition of this Work has been 
 nearly exhausted, and as the demand for it continues, the Work 
 has been stereotyped. In issuing this new edition, the Author 
 tenders his thanks for tlie kindly reception given to the first one 
 by the Public and the Press. 
 
 September, 1S70.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFEIESSHIEE. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— ELLISLAND. 
 
 BURXS RESOLVES TO LEAD A RETIRED, DOMESTIC LIFE — HE MARRIES JEAN 
 ARMOUR, ASD BECOMES TENANT OF ELLISLAND— POSITION OF THE FARM 
 —LODGES AT ISLE TILL A DWELLING-HOUSE IS BUILT FOR HIM — HIS 
 AVIFE JOINS HIM, AND THEY TAKE POSSESSION OF THEIR NEW RESIDENCE 
 — THE FARM DESCRIBED — HAPPY LIFE OF THE POET DURING HIS FIRST 
 YEAR IN NITHSDALE — FOREBODINGS OF EVIL — HE BECOMES AN EXCISE- 
 MAN — SOME OF HIS CHIEF PRODUCTIONS AT ELLISLAND NOTICED: "THE 
 WOUNDED HARE," "THE WHISTLE," "ADDRESS TO MARY IN HEAVEN" 
 — ANECDOTES OF THE ESCISE31AN-P0ET — \^SITORS TO ELLISLAND — 
 CAPTAIN GROSE— PRODUCTION OF "TAM o' SHANTER"— HEROINES OF 
 THE POET: MRS. RIDDEL, DEBORAH DAVIES, JEAN LORUIER, &C. — 
 KIRSTY KIRKPATRICK SINGING THE POET's SONGS— MORE ANECDOTES- 
 ADIEU TO ELLISLAND. 
 
 When Robert Burns resolved to set up a domestic establishment 
 of his own, and settle quietly down in a ruial district, he was fresh 
 from the flattering but unprofitable caresses lavished upon him by 
 the Edinburgh "gentry;" and the acclamations of the country, 
 hailing him as the prince of Scottish poets, were yet ringing in hLs 
 ears. It was a diflficult experiment he was about to make. The 
 "Modern Athens" did not spoil the peasant bard: he withstood 
 wonderfully its intoxicating influences; but will he, after being 
 used to the blandishments of the great city; after receiving the 
 homage of the high-born, the gifted, and the fan-; be content to 
 withdraw from the public gaze, and undertake steady industrial 
 work and grave family responsibilities, the task being rendered 
 all the more difiicult from the circumstance that he is still in the 
 flush of early manhood, " wdth passions wild and strong," that have 
 never been tamed by principle, and seldom even been regulated by 
 prudence 1 He must needs try the venture. The great folks who 
 
 A
 
 b BUllNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 gazed upon him as a prodigy do nothing for him, and he must do 
 a good deal for himself and his dependants — Jean Armour, to whom, 
 after a long, fitful courtship, he has just been wedded, and the twin 
 children she had borne to him. " These moving things caad 
 wife and weans " touch his inmost heart, and demand his undivided 
 care. So the bard feels and thinks ; and, bidding the allurements 
 of fame and pleasure begone, he honestly resolves to enter upon a 
 plodding, placid life with his Bonnie Jean and their little ones, on 
 the banks of Nith at Ellisland. 
 
 The parish of Duuscore, in the east nook of which the poet re- 
 solved to pitch his tent, presents a great variety of scenery. Three 
 valleys diverging from its village capital, Cottack, stretch north, east, 
 and west, each with an en\'ii-onment of hills, some of which are soft 
 with sylvan gai'niture, while others are rugged unwooded peaks, 
 rising 1200 feet above the Solway, which is seen as a fine featui-e 
 in the view to the south. The river Nith, entering fi-om the north, 
 forms for nearly two miles the eastern fringe of the parish, as it 
 courses along in the direction of Dumfries, the alluvial soil on 
 its banks forming the most fertile portion of Burns's farm ; and 
 the district, while attractive to his poetic eye, was fitted to sustain 
 his patriotism, being rich with associations I'especting Wallace 
 wight, Bruce the hero-king, the doughty Kirkpatricks of Close- 
 burn, once lords of Ellisland, and the persecuted Covenanters, 
 to whose noble contendings for liberty he afterwards paid a 
 glowing tribute, -in the well-known lines — 
 
 " The solemn League and Covenant 
 
 Cost Scotland blood — cost Scotland tears : 
 But it sealed freedom's sacred cause — 
 If thou'rt a slave, indulge thy sneers." 
 
 A smaller stream, the Cairn, courses through the other end of 
 the parish, and in its romantic '•' meander" he would find a realiza- 
 tion of his own exquisite picture — 
 
 "WTiyles owre a linn tlie bm-nie plays, 
 
 As thro' the glen it wimpl't ; 
 Whyles round a rocky scar it strays ; 
 
 Whyles in a wiel it dimpl't ; 
 Whyles glitter'd to the nightly rays, 
 
 Wi' bickerin, dancin dazzle ; 
 Whyles cooket underneath the braes, 
 
 Below the spreading hazle. " 
 
 When Burns took the farm fi'om its proprietor — the ingenious 
 Patrick Miller, who resided at his mansion of Dalswinton, on
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 7 
 
 the opposite side of the river — there was no suitable house xipon 
 it; and, till one according to his own design should he built, he 
 lodged with the outgoing tenant,* in a very humble domicile, 
 overshadowed by the tower of Isle, once the seat of the Fergussons, 
 and one of the finest surviving specimens of a Scottish gentleman's 
 mansion in the olden time. It was at Whitsunday, 1788, that the 
 poet first set up his stafi" in Nithsdale, but the summer of that 
 year was at an end before Mrs. Burns could be invited to join 
 him; and in the interval he led a somewhat roving and unsatis- 
 factory life. Writing on the 9th of September, he says — " I am 
 busy with my harvest, but for all that most pleasurable part of 
 life called social intercoiu'se, I am here at the very elbow of exist- 
 ence ;" and a week later he indulges in a still more wailing strain — 
 " This hovel that I shelter in," he says, " while occasionally here, 
 is pervious to every blast that blows, and every shower that falls; 
 and I am only preserved from being chilled to death by being 
 sufibcated by smoke." " You will be pleased to hear," he adds, in 
 a less unhappy mood, " that I have laid aside idle eclat, and bind 
 every day after my reapers." His tedium was at times beguiled, 
 and the darkness of the "hovel" irradiated, by visits from the 
 Muse — his absent wife, however, being still more than Coila the 
 inspirer of his strains. In one famous love-laden lyric sent to her 
 
 * This was one Da^vicl Cullie, or Kelly, who was a devoted member of the 
 Auti-burger congregation in Dumfries, that had for its minister the late 
 Mr. Inglis. The examination for the district was held in CuUie's house. 
 On such high occasions a dinner was always given, Burns and his wife 
 being frequently among the giiests. The poet had thus an opportunity of 
 meeting with the minister, and formed such a high opinion of him that he 
 often attended his church afterwards. — {Mrs. Burns' s Memoranda, as 
 wi'itten down by the late INIr. M'Diarmid, and printed for the first time in 
 the appendix of P. Hately Waddell's splendid edition of Burus.) From 
 the same valuable reminiscences by tn'e~poet's ^widow Ave borrow the 
 following anecdote: — "Before this time Burns had written the 'Holy Fair,' 
 and an impression had gone abroad that he was rather a scoffer or a free- 
 thinker. David Cullie and his wife were aware of this ; and although they 
 treated him civilly as the incoming tenant, during the five months he 
 resided under their roof, still they felt for him as foi- one who Avas by no 
 means on the right path. On one occasion Nance and the bartl were sitting 
 in the spence, when the former turned the conversation on her favourite 
 topic, religion. Mr. Burns, from whatever motive, sympathised with the 
 matron, and quoted so much .Scripture that she was fairly astonished. When 
 she went ben she said to her luisband, — ' Oh ! David Cullie, how they 
 have wranged that man ; for I think he has mair o' the Bible off his tongue 
 than ]\Ir. Inglis hinisel'.' The bard enjoyed the complimeut, and about the 
 first thing he communicated to his Avife on her arrival Avas ' the lift he had 
 got from old Nance.' "
 
 8 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 he declared that " day and night my fancy's flight is ever wi' my 
 Jean;" and he prayed thus — 
 
 C»A , ."0 blaw ye 'westliu' winds, blaw saft, amang tlie leafy trees, 
 Wi' gentle gale frae muir and dale bring lianie the laden bees, 
 And bring the lassie back to me that's aye sae neat and clean ; 
 Ae blink o' her wad banish care, sae lovely is my Jean."* 
 
 
 • JL^ ^^^ it was not till "chill November's surly blast" had made 
 -v^ bare the fields of Ellisland and the neighbouring bowers of Friar's 
 Carse that Bonnie Jean in very deed tripped down to Nithsdale, 
 bringing summer to the bosom of her disconsolate lord. Then he 
 sang an exuberant song which at once gave her welcome and 
 expressed his own proud sense of independence — 
 
 "I hae a wife o' my ain, I'll partake wi' naebody; 
 I hae a penny to spend — there — thaiiks to naebody; 
 I hae naethiug to lend — I'll borrow frae naebody." 
 
 Their new house is completed, comfortable enough, it seems, 
 and, withal, sufficiently commonplace, but as their future home it 
 is sacred in the eyes of the young couple ; and when they cross its 
 threshold it begins to acquire a dignity that in the end dwarfs all 
 the big mansions of the parish. The house is finished and fur- 
 nished, and it must be taken possession of with accustomed rites 
 and in due form. The I'oad to it from the Isle, a short half-mile in 
 length, is along a high bush-fringed margin of the river; and over 
 this always beautiful and henceforth classic ground. Burns and his 
 partner, arm-in-arm, he, muscular and swarthy, she, light, hand- 
 some, and fair, travelled with solemn pace and slow, preceded by a 
 peasant girl carrying the Family Bible and a bowl of salt. With 
 such propitiatory accompaniments Ellisland was reached, and Burns 
 entered into the occupancy of what was " comparatively to him 
 
 * Mr. Andrew Nicholson, shoemaker, Dumfries, whose late wife was long 
 a servant to the poet's widow, has in his possession a letter addressed by 
 the poet to Mrs. Bnrns, dated Ellisland, 12th Sept., 1788, of which the 
 following is an extract: — "My Dear Love — I received your kind letter with 
 a pleasure which no letter but one from you could have given me. I 
 dreamed of you the whole night last; but alas! I fear it will be three weeks 
 yet ere I can hoj^e for the hapinness of seeing you. My harvest is going 
 on; I have some to cut down still, but I put in two stacks to-day, so I [am] 
 as tired as a dog." . . . The jwet proceeds to speak about table linen 
 for the house, mentioning that his old landlady, "Nance," thinks the best 
 may be got for two shillings a yard; and that he means to be some day soon 
 in Dumfries, and will ask the price there. Then follows the kindly and 
 characteristic intimation — " I expect your new gowns will be very forward 
 or ready to make, against I be home to get the baiveridge."
 
 BURNS IN DUJIFRIESSHIRE. 9 
 
 the Great Babylon that he had built."* Shoukl we not rather 
 say that, almost unconsciously to himself, he thereby inaugurated 
 a new temple of poesy, with the Nith for its Castalia 1 During 
 one of the happy days that followed, the poet, in composing another 
 song dedicated to his wife, prayed for a draught from the inspiring 
 stream and a place on Parnassus that he might suitably sing her 
 praise; but, looking to the river that ran wimpling by, to the huge 
 hill near which it rises, and, above all, to the winsome subject of 
 liis strain, he might well say as he did — 
 
 "But Nitli maun be my muse's well. 
 My muse maun be thy bonie sell ; 
 On Corsincon I'll glow'r and spell, 
 And write how dear I love thee." 
 
 A tolerably commodious house it was for a small farmer, having 
 five rooms, including the kitchen. The household consisted at first 
 of Burns and his wife, the poet's sister, and a domestic servant, 
 together with two men and two women engaged for out-door work. 
 Mrs. Burns had now only one child living, Robert, who was 
 brought up for awhile under the care of his errandfather at Moss- 
 giel, and afterwards added to the family circle at Ellisland. The 
 farm extended to 170 imperial acres, and, though generally the 
 soil was not deep, or what is called " kindly," it was moderately 
 productive, being excelled in this respect by none'^in the parish. 
 Nor was the rent heavy; for the first three years it was to be £50 
 a year, and during the remainder of the lease (which was for four 
 successive terms of nineteen years each) it was to be £70, the 
 tenant getting from the proprietor £300 for the expense of the 
 dwelling-house and offices. Burns realised a profit of about £500 
 from the Edinburgh edition of his poems, more than one-thircr of 
 which was generously given by him to help his brother Gilbert out 
 of debt, and the rest of the money was spent on household plenishing 
 and stock for the farm. 
 
 Heartily and hopefully did this agricultural Apollo enter upon 
 his duties. He was no mere gentleman-farmer : while looking 
 after others, he lent a helping hand himself at ploughing (in which 
 lie greatly excelled), harrowing, sowing, and harvest work. For a 
 series of months he was a model of laboi-ious industry, tilling his 
 acres, cultivating also at leisure hours his heaven-sent gifts, 
 relaxing at times " to beet the flame " of friendly intercourse, but 
 
 * Chambers's Life and Works of Burns, Vol. III., p. 59. 
 
 ...»
 
 10 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 rarely indulging deep, and never giving himself up to dissipation. 
 The first year of his sojourn in the new house at Ellisland passed 
 rapidly away, for it was the happiest that ever fell to his lot — a 
 bi'ief, bright year, seemingly to him but a short prolongation of the 
 honeymoon. We see him during this halcyon period as a faithful 
 husband, as a good master, as the honoured head of a decent house- 
 hold, beginning each week with a regular attendance at the parish 
 church — though he does not quite relish the E,ev. Mr. Kirkpatrick's 
 rigid Calvinism — and we see him, according to a good old custom, 
 catechising his domestics on the evening of the day of rest. With 
 his neighbours, too, gentle and simple, we find him on the best of 
 terms. No longer at "the elbow of existence," his house has become 
 the attractive centre of an ever- widening social circle. A certain 
 Highland chief said, on one occasion, that wherever he sat was the 
 head of the table; and this wonderful verse-maker and captivating 
 talker is flattered, and at times perplexed, by finding himself made 
 a lion of wherever he goes, till at length rural Ellisland allows him 
 little more rest than populous " Edina." 
 
 Under such circumstances it was no wonder, though a great 
 pity, that the farm did not pay. How sad that "the corn rigs and 
 barley rigs," to which Burns the poet had been so complimentary, 
 made such a poor return to Bums the husbandman, and that dire 
 necessity compelled him to leave his place "of glory and of joy" 
 behind the plough, in order to "search auld wives barrels" and 
 give chase to marauding smugglers. Before coming to Dumfries- 
 shire, Mr. Graham, of Fintry, had placed the poet's name on the 
 list of expectant Excise officers, and on this contingent commission 
 he, in the autumn of 1789, fell back, when his means were reduced 
 and his family expenses were increased by the birth of another 
 son. He was at once placed upon active duty as a " ganger," 
 with a salary of £50, a welcome addition to his income, though 
 the office itself, then a very unpo2:)ular one, was highly distasteful 
 to his haughty spirit. He sought for and accepted it from a sense 
 of duty, and in the hope that it Avould help him to place his house- 
 hold beyond the reach of want. 
 
 According to a new arrangement, Ellisland was to be made more 
 of a dairy than an arable farm, the poet considering that, while 
 Jean, with the assistance of some of her west country sisterhood, 
 managed the cows and their produce,* he might go on with the 
 
 * Burns at this time kept nine or ten milk cows, some young cattle, five 
 horses, and several pet sheep ; of the latter he was very fond. Statement
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 11 
 
 Excise business, and still have a sufficiency of time for the reduced 
 rural operations that would devolve upon himself. " It was," says 
 Allan Cunningham, " a good and plausible plan, but 
 
 " 'The best laid schemes of mice and men 
 Gang aft agley.' " 
 
 Though Burns thus fondly thought that he was doubly armed 
 against the shafts of fate, he was tighting a losing battle. His 
 "May of life" was over when he entered the Excise, and before the 
 third year of his lease began, "the golden days of Ellisland," as 
 Dr. Ciirrie calls them, were getting dim. But not so the fine ore 
 of the poet's genius. In spite of I'ailing crops, and sometimes in- 
 different health, hard official labour requiring him to ride about 
 200 miles a-week, and occasional heavy drinking, into which he 
 was drawn by troops of admiring visitors, the lustre of his intellect 
 shone forth with undiminished radiance, and at times with unpre- 
 cedented splendour. The products of a single year, 1789, include his 
 fine address to the Nith ; three of his famous Election Ballads ; his 
 biting satii'e, " The Kirk's Alarm ;" his beautiful l>i'ic, " Go, fetch 
 to me a pint of wine ;" his jovial di'inking song, " Willie brewed a 
 peck o' maut ;" that inimitable embodiment of connubial love, 
 " John Anderson, my Jo ;" and others, some of which require to be 
 specially though briefly noticed. 
 
 While Burns was ovit on an April morning, sowing grass seeds, 
 the crack of a shot burst upon his ears, and soon after his eye and 
 heart were pained by the spectacle of " a poor little wounded hare 
 coming crippling by." His feelings found momentary vent in a 
 muttered curse upon the sportsman, and perpetual expression in a 
 well-known poem, which closes with a characteristic reference to 
 his " fellow-mortal," the wounded "maukin" — 
 
 " Oft as by winding Nith I, musing, wait 
 The sober eve, or hail the cheerful dawn, 
 I'll miss thee sporting o'er the dewy lawn, 
 And curse the ruffian's aim, and mourn thy hapless fate. " 
 
 In the following autumn a great Bacchanalian ballad was thrown 
 off at red heat by the poet. No genius, however captivating, can 
 redeem from utter folly the incidents of the notorious Whistle 
 
 by WiUiam Clark, who Uved with him as servant daring the -winter half-year 
 (he thinks) of 1789-90.— Chambers's Burns, Vol. III., p. 140. At a Later date, 
 the poet had twelve dairy cows ; and his horses were reduced to three — two 
 for ploughing ("a pretty gray team," says Mrs, Bxu-us), and a saddle horse.
 
 12 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 contest waged on the 16tli of October, 1789. The combatants 
 were three worthy gentlemen : Burns's kind friend and neighbour, 
 Captain Riddel of Glenriddel and Friar's Carse ; Mr. Fergiisson of 
 Craigdarroch ; and Sir Robert Laurie, M.P, for Dumfriesshii-e. 
 That these respectable country squii'es, one of them an elder of the 
 Kirk, another a member of Parliament, should sit deliberately 
 down in daylight to strive who of them should imbibe most claret, 
 while at the same time retaining ability to blow on "the whistle of 
 worth" " a requiem shrill" over his prostrated rivals, seems, from 
 our modern poiut of view, the very delirium of insanity. But the 
 affair chimed in well with the high-flying humours of the age: hence 
 Burns did not disdain to become its laureate. 
 
 TJie tournay took place in the spacious dining-hall of Friar's 
 
 Carse — a hoiise built about 1774, on a piece of rising ground round 
 
 which the Nitli makes a graceful curve, separating into two parts 
 
 the holm that stretches out above and below the mansion, the flat 
 
 land in either case being hemmed in by lofty tree-covered banks, 
 
 and the whole constituting a scene of unusual beauty. Over a 
 
 I portion of this charming landscape, lying between Ellisland and 
 
 l.t Carse, our poet passed to the drinking arena, invited thither to be 
 
 the umpire and chronicler of the fray. Seated at the south-east 
 
 7-' window, with rum and brandy before him, and pen in hand, he 
 
 f marked the progress and recorded the incidents of the mighty 
 strife, Avhich terminated, need we say 1 in the triumph of Craig- 
 »K darroch, whom Burns thus apostrophised in the closing verse of his 
 completed poem — 
 
 jyt^ V " Thy line, that have struggled for freedom -ndth Bnice, 
 
 ^it^ Shall heroes and ^mtriots ever produce : 
 
 , *j So thine be the laurel, and mine be the bay; 
 
 The field thou hast won, by yon bright god of day !" 
 
 The Whistle poem is a wonderful production, especially in having 
 been written under such circumstances as have been narrated, but 
 Bui-ns would have been better we think without the " bay " it 
 brought him. 
 
 On the thu'd or fourth evening after the Friar's Carse saturnalia, 
 Burns, while sitting by the fireside, was observed by his wife to 
 grow " very sad about something." Soothing words from her lips 
 lost their wonted influence; and he " refused to be comforted." 
 Alas for the poor bard ! he was in sorrowful communion with the 
 "dear de2)arted shade" of Mary Campbell, summoned up by his 
 excited fancy on this the third anniversary of her death. Her image
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 13 
 
 ■when he last parted from her, glowing -with, health and beauty, 
 came vividly before him; " the golden hours" spent with her by the 
 "gurgling Ayi'" making darker by contrast her early gx-ave and 
 the desolate heart over which the fair Highland girl still reigned 
 supreme. Frenzied with grief, he hastened out of the hoitse to the 
 barn-yard, followed by j\Irs. Burns, who entreated him to return, as 
 the night was cold. The poet, though promising compliance, still 
 remained outside, striding up and down, and gazing on the starry 
 heavens. Then, as if overpowered by the bui'den of his woe, he 
 threw himself down on a heap of straw. In this plight Mrs. 
 BiUTis found the unhappy mourner, with his eyes still directed 
 upwards to a planet of unusual brilliancy — "the ling'ring star" 
 whose beams linger still to illumine the poet's brightest page. 
 He now readily returned, his gi-eat grief having abated under the 
 influence of the poetical afflatus which had come down upon him 
 with exalting power, yet soft as dew upon the gi-ass, and bringing 
 to his tortured bosom " a sweet oblivious antidote." Givinsx full 
 vent to his feelings, he immediately put upon paper in a complete 
 and perfect form the sublime ode to "Mary in Heaven," the 
 divinest of all his poems. Shall we say that such anguish as Bums 
 experienced in these few autumn hours at Ellisland was more than 
 compensated to him by the glorious production to which it gave 
 birth? 
 
 Burns disliked the excisemanship ; yet, besides the much-needed 
 money it brought to him, it had its redeeming featux'es, providing 
 as it did adventurous rides over ten parishes, whicli, however, he 
 would have enjoyed the more had the work been less exactive. 
 He proved to be a zealous and efficient officer; but the man who 
 mourned over the poor wounded " wanderer of the wood and field," 
 over the other "wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie," when its 
 nest was ruined by the ploughshare, who pitied the " wee, modest, 
 crimson-tipped flower " Avhen " ciiished beneath the fuiTows," and 
 wdio did not even put "auld Nickie-ben" beyond the range of his 
 benevolence, could not be hard upon his weak fellow-mortals Avhen 
 they sinned against the Excise. Faithful in all material matters 
 to the Government, he could sometimes close his eyes and shut his 
 ears against small infringements of the law, especially when the 
 transgi-essors were humble folks, and when little Avould have been 
 gained in any way by treating them harshly. Burns's fellow- 
 dalesmen of the present gcnei'ation are almost as fond of 
 dwelling upon this merciful ingredient in his character as upon the 
 poems by which he has cast a glory over their district. With
 
 14 BUKNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 them, tlierefore, such anecdotes as the following are extremely 
 popular. 
 
 One day, Allan Cunningham tells us, the poet and a brother 
 officer entered the shop of a widow woman in Dunscore, and 
 made a seizure of smuggled tobacco. "Jenny," said the bai'd, "I 
 expected that this would be the upshot. Here, Lewars, take note 
 of the number of rolls as I count them. Now, Jock, did ye ever 
 hear an auld wife numbering her threads before check -reels were 
 invented? Thou's ane, and thou's no ane, and thou's ane a' out — 
 listen." As he handed out the rolls he went on with his humorous 
 reckoning, all the while dropping every other I'oll into Janet's 
 lap. Lewars made the desired memorandum with commendable 
 gravity, seeing, as if he did not see, the considerate conduct of 
 his colleague. 
 
 The late Professor Gillespie of St. Andrews remembered seeing 
 Burns on a fair day in August, 1790, at the village of Thornhill, 
 where a poor woman named Kate Watson had taken up the 
 publican's trade for that occasion without a licence. " I saw the 
 poet," he says, " enter her door, and anticipated nothing short of 
 an immediate seizure of a certain grey-beard and baiTel which, to 
 my personal knowledge, contained the contraband commodities our 
 bard was in search of. A nod, accompanied by a significant move- 
 ment of the fore-finger, brought Kate to the doorway, and I was 
 near enough to hear the following words distinctly uttered: — 
 'Kate, are you mad 1 Don't you know that the Super\'isor and 
 I will be in upon you in the course of forty minutes. Good-bye 
 t'ye at present,' I had access to know that the friendly hint was 
 not neglected. It saved a poor widow from a fine of several 
 pounds for committing a quarterly offence, by which the revenue 
 was probably subject to an annual loss of five shillings."* 
 
 Jean Dunn, a suspected trader in the neighbouring parish of 
 Kii-kpatrick-Durham, observing Burns and another Exciseman 
 named Robertson drawing near her house on the morning of a 
 fair, slipped out by the back-door, as if to evade their scrutiny, 
 leaving in the cabin her attendant for the day, and a little girl, 
 her daughter. " Has there been any brewing for the fair here 
 to-day," demanded our poet, on entering. " O no, sir," said the 
 servant, "we hae nae licence for that." "That's no true," 
 exclaimed the child, " the muckle black kist is fu' o' the bottles 
 o' yill that my mother sat up a' nicht brewing for the fair." 
 
 * Edinburgli Literary Journal, 1S29.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 15 
 
 " Does tliat bird speak," said Robertson, pointing to one hanging 
 in a cage. "There is no use for another speaking bird in this 
 house," said Burns, " while that little lassie is to the fore. "VVe 
 are in a hurry just now; but as we return from the fau' we'll 
 examine the muckle black kist." As a matter of course, when 
 they did return the witnessing bottles had vanished from the 
 chest. 
 
 During the closing months of 1789, and for a year and a half 
 aftei-^vards. Burns was overtasked. The greatest genius of his day 
 went through an amount of drudgery that would have killed any 
 common man; and hard work, incomparably more than hard 
 drinking, began to tell upon his constitution, making him look 
 older than he ought to have done at the age of thirty -two. He was 
 "frequently to be seen at an early hour in the fieltls with his 
 sowing sheet;* and Mrs. Burns records that she has "walked with 
 a child in her arms on the banks of the Nith, and seen him sow 
 after breakfast two bags of corn for the folk to harrow through the 
 day."t After such a preliminary spell, he would mount one of his 
 horses, " Pegasus " or " Peg Nicholson," and scoiu' through two or 
 more of the upland parishes, stopping at all the public houses, 
 grocery shops, tanneries, and breweries in his round, taking a note 
 of their excisable stock, and entering the same in his memorandum- 
 book, such routine official duties being curiously interlaced vnih 
 exalted musings that, coursing through his busy brain, kept him 
 steeped in poetry even when his work was most prosaic. Returned 
 after a rough ride of thu'ty miles, he dines late, "vviites three or four 
 of those marvellous prose letters, which help to make up the most 
 imique correspondence ever penned, finishing ofi" perhaps with a 
 rhymed epistle to Dr. Blacklock, the one, it may be, in which the 
 poet points out to his friend the motive-power of all his laboui-s — 
 
 ' ' I hae a wife and twa wee laddies, 
 They maun hae brose and brats o' duddies; 
 Ye ken yersels my heart right proud is — 
 
 I need na vaunt, 
 But I'll sned besoms, thraw saugh woodies, 
 
 Before they want. " 
 
 Then comes tea, with pleasant family table-talk, followed possibly 
 by a glass of toddy, and almost certainly by the pei-usal of some 
 favourite author. Then — to bed] Not so, reader, for hasn't the 
 
 * Testimony of his servant William Clark. 
 + Mrs. Burns's Memoranda.
 
 16 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 bard fai-miiig business to ai-range for the morrow, an Excise report 
 to make up, and some little work to do in connection with the 
 local book society, of which he is at once "treasurer, librarian, and 
 'censor;' "* and hasn't he, besides, two or three old ditties to dress 
 up anew and an original one to compose for " Johnson's Musical 
 Museum" — work which must be done, and cannot wait? If a diary 
 had been kept at Ellisland for the eighteen months ending March, 
 1791, it would, we feel persuaded, have recoi'ded a large proportion 
 of days and nights spent in this exactive fashion. But then the same 
 document would just as surely have contained many entries of a 
 different nature, respecting seasons devoted to social intercoui'se, to 
 festive pleasure, and to avocations which afforded little enjoyment, 
 and were in no way profitable. The great facts would still remain, 
 however, that the tenant of Ellisland went all that time through 
 an amount of work, mental and physical, sufficient, as Robert 
 Chambers says, for " a plurality of men," and that, though crossed 
 with many cares, he did not seek to " drown them in the bowl," 
 and was to strong drink anything but a slave. 
 
 A certain amount of " gaugering" required to be done eveiy 
 week, if not every day, which was rarely neglected, and that only, 
 we believe, on the score of sickness ; but as regards other matters. 
 Burns was left very much at the mercy of visitors and of friends, 
 who pi'essed him to return their visits, and would not be said nay. 
 Strangers from a distance as well as neighbours were drawn to 
 Ellisland by the magnetic influence of his genius ; and he, hospit- 
 able, warm-hearted, impulsive, impassioned, panting for sympathy 
 not less than fame, could not, Timon-like, eschew "all feasts, 
 societies, and throngs of men;" yet it was only by some such course 
 of cynicism and self-denial that he could have made his income 
 cover his outlay, and given fair play and full development to his 
 intellectual powei'S. During his first summer at Ellisland he 
 planned an elaborate work to be called " The Poet's Progress," 
 and at a later pexiod he projected a national drama, with Bruce 
 for its hero. Need we wonder that of tlie former nothing but a 
 scrap or two was produced, and of the latter not a line ; but we 
 may well wonder, and be thankful, that his Nithsdale effusions, 
 though all, with one notable exception, brief, were at once so 
 numerous and so brilliant. In addition to those already mentioned, 
 the names, or suggestive firsi; lines of a few others may here be 
 quoted: — the pathetic Lament which he puts into the mouth of 
 
 * Letter by Captain Eiddel to Sir John Sinclair, Bart., regarding the 
 Dunscore Parish Library, founded by him with the assistance of Burns.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 17 
 
 Mary Stuart; the not less affecting Lament which expresses his 
 own sorrow for the death of the Earl of Glencaim ; his line conti'i- 
 butions to the Jacobite Minstrelsy of Scotland — " My Harry Ls a 
 gallant gay," and " There'll never be peace till Jamie comes 
 tame;" one of his best English pieces, the "Address to the shade 
 of Thomson;" one of his best non-amatory lyrics, "My heart's in 
 the Highlands;'' the song, "Thine am I my faithful fair," about 
 the last he ever wrote upon Clarinda; that other beautiful little 
 song, the sole one in which he paid homage to another heroine, the 
 daughter of his friend Masterton, " Bonie Ann;" the song, " Tarn 
 Glen," which, for quiet, pawky humour, he never excelled; the four 
 pregnant epistles to Graham of Fintry; the poem, " On Captain 
 Matthew Henderson," brimful of charming rural images; and the 
 laboured ode, wiitten in Friar's Carse Hermitage,* in which, how- 
 ever, the bard imitates Gray, and acts the part of a moralizing 
 anchorite with but indiffei'eut success. 
 
 Sii" Egei-ton Brydges, who spent an evening at Ellisland in the 
 autumn of 1790, tells us that Burns " did not merely appear to be 
 a poet at casual intervals, but that at every moment a poetical 
 enthusiasm seemed to beat in his veins." " I thought I perceived 
 in Burns," he adds, " the symptoms of an energy which had been 
 pushed too far ; and he had this feeling himself. Every now and 
 then he spoke of the gi-ave as soon about to close over him." 
 When, in the same month, his friend, Dr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, 
 accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Stewart of Luss, paid him a visit, he 
 was in a more cheerful mood. Having met the poet riding rapidly 
 near Closeburn village, he sent them on to Ellisland, and, after 
 hurriedly completing his professional journey, he exclaimed, on 
 rejoining them, " I come, to use the words of Shakspeare, ' stewed 
 in haste.' " Mr. Ramsay was charmed " with his uxor Sahina 
 qualis, and his modest mansion, so imKke the habitation of ordinary 
 rustics." He spoke of his projected melodrama, which he was to 
 
 * The Hermitage, situated in the embowei-ing woods between Ellisland 
 and Friar's Carse, has long been a prey to neglect. In the time of Biu-ns it 
 was a snug little stone bvuldiug, measuring IQi feet by S, and supplied with 
 a window and a fire-place. Captain Eiddel gave him a key, so that he could 
 go in and out as he pleased. The poet, with his habitual fancy for writing 
 on glass, inscribed the first six lines of the ode on the window of the Her- 
 mitage. Only the gable wall and the foundatiou of the other walls now 
 remain. It would have shown a fine feeling if this little structure, so 
 closely associated with Burns as "Bedesman of Nith-sidc," had been pre- 
 served entire, and it is perhaps not yet too late to ask that it may be 
 restored.
 
 18 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 call "Eob M'Quechan's Elshin," from a tradition that when King 
 Robert Bruce was fleeing after a defeat on the Water of Cairn, the 
 heel of his boot became loosened, and he applied to one Robert 
 M'Quechan to fasten it ; who, to " mak siccar," ran his awl nine 
 inches up the hei-o's heel ! " We were now," says Mr. Ramsay, 
 " going on at a great rate, when Mr. Stewart popped in his head, 
 which put a stop to our discourse. Yet in a little while it was 
 resumed'; and such was the force and versatility of the bard's 
 genius, that he made the tears rvin do^vn Mr. Stewart's cheeks, 
 albeit unused to the poetic strain." 
 
 Of all Burns's visitors no one was so congenial to him as Captain 
 Grose, famous as a learned antiqiiarian, but still better known as 
 the " fine, fat, fodgel wight " who figures gi-otesquely, yet lovingly, 
 in the poet's verse. They "forgathered" at Friar's Carse, and at 
 once became swoi'n friends. Wliat cracks they would have anent 
 the old-world times and " h owlet-haunted biggins!" for Burns had 
 a genial sympathy with the antiquarianism of his guest, and would 
 be able to recount to him some of the traditions which, like wood- 
 bine and wallflower, hung about the Friar's house at Carse, the 
 Isle, the Tower of Lag, the Castle of the Red Comyn at Dalswin- 
 ton, the stronghold of the Kirkpati'icks of Closeburn, and other 
 ruins which made the district rich for the " chiel " that was " takin 
 notes " of all such objects with the intent of printing them. An 
 old witch story about Alloway Kirk, in Ayrshire, attracted the 
 special attention of Grose when told to him by Burns, and, at the 
 request of the antiquary, the poet agreed to put the legend into 
 a versified form . 
 
 The engagement was more than fulfilled; just as when the 
 promise of a silver crown-piece is munificently redeemed by the gift 
 of a piu'se of gold. For one day at least all prosaic business must 
 be set aside, that the poet may, by doing full justice to his theme, 
 gratify his friend. He is seen in the forenoon pacing to and fro along 
 his favourite walk soutliward of the house, beside the river. Some 
 hours afterwards Mrs. Burns, with her two children, Robert and 
 Francis Wallace, join him ; but perceiving that he is deeply absorbed 
 — " busy crooning to himsel " — she, guided by true womanly tact, 
 retires with her little prattlers, and from behind some " lang 
 yellow broom" growing upon the bank, she keeps a loving look-out, 
 unperceived by the poet. He becomes increasingly excited; his 
 manner is that of a pythoness, so strange and wild are his gesticu- 
 lations, and, though now at the remote end of the promenade, she 
 can perceive that he is ^'■agonized with an ungovernable access of
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 19 
 
 joy." It is his masterpiece of Tarn o' Slianter with which he is busy. 
 He is so far advanced with it that heroic Tarn has been bi-onght in 
 full sight of the fantastic dancers, and then the poet bursts out with 
 the apostrophe so loud that his listening wife hears every line — 
 
 "Now, Tarn ! Tarn! liad tliae been queans, 
 A' plump and strapping in their teens, 
 Their sarks, instead o' creeshie flannen, 
 Been snaw- white seventeen hunder linnen ! 
 Thir breeks o' mine, my only pair. 
 That ance were plush o' guid bhie hair, 
 I wad hae gi'en them off my kurdies 
 For ae bhnk o' the bonie burcbes !" 
 
 The "fine frenzy" cf Burns continued till the poem was completed, 
 and, lest the glow of his fii'st fresh conceptions should in any degree 
 cool do%vn, he, with a sod-dyke for desk, committed the poem 
 to paper. Then, returning to the house, he read it in triumph to 
 Bonnie Jean. Even as the farm-yard of Ellisland witnessed the 
 agonizing throes in which the poet's most patlietic effusion was 
 produced, so this walk of his, since trodden by hosts of admiring 
 visitors, was the scene of his most joyful ecstacy and of his proudest 
 achievement. "Tarn o' Shanter," says Alexander Smith, with 
 pardonable exaggeration, " was written in a day — since Bruce 
 fought Bannockburu, the best single day's woi*k done in Scotland."* 
 
 At Friar's Carse Burns became acquainted with two ladies 
 whose friendship he valued still more perhaps than that of Captain 
 Grose. These were the accomplished Maria Woodley, daughter of 
 a governor of Berbice, who had been married, at a very early age, 
 to Mr. Walter Ptiddel, a younger brother of Glenriddel; and 
 Deborah Davies, a young handsome Englishwoman, also related to 
 the Riddels. Mrs. Walter Biddel attracted the bard by her 
 vivacity and wit ; and such were the beauty and grace of JMiss 
 Davies that she became the object of his idolatry and the theme of 
 some of his finest efiiisions. Tiny in stature, the epithet "wee," 
 which is often used by the Scotch as a term of endearment, was 
 doubly expressive when applied by him to this little queen of the 
 fairies; and surely it was never made to sound more musically than 
 when he thus addressed her — 
 
 " Bonie wee thing, canuie wee thing, 
 Lovely wee thing, wast thou mine, 
 I wad wear thee in my bosom, 
 Lest my jewel I should tine. 
 
 * Preface to Works of Burns, Vol. I. , p. xc.
 
 20 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 Wistfully I look and languisli 
 
 In that bonie face o' thine; 
 And my heart it stounds wi' anguish, 
 
 Lest my wee thing be na mine." 
 
 One day wlien the poet was at the pretty watering-place of 
 Mofilit, two ladies rode past — one tall and portly, and the other 
 " the bonie wee thing " of his muse. A friend asked him why 
 God had made Miss Davies so little while her companion was so 
 large, and he at once produced the epigram — 
 
 " Ask why God made the gem so small, 
 An' why so huge the granite ? 
 Because God meant mankind should set 
 The higher value on it. " 
 
 This impromptu was afterwards written by the poet on a window 
 pane of tlie Black Bull Inn at Moffiit, but the piece of glass which 
 it emblazoned has long since disaj)peared. 
 
 Near the village just named there is a romantic spot called 
 Craigieburn Wood, which is famous as the birth-place of Burns's 
 Chloris, Jean Lorimer. When the poet went to EUisland, her father, 
 an opulent farmer and merchant, resided two miles further down 
 the river, on the opposite bank, at Kemmis Hall. Mr. Lorimer 
 being a dealer in excisable commodities. Burns had to visit him 
 professionally; but erelong the inspii-ed ganger was on intimate 
 terms with all the members of the family. " The Lorimers," says 
 Mr. Chambers, " scarcely ever had company at their house without 
 inviting him, they often sent him delicacies from their farm; and 
 whenever he passed their way, on his professional tours, Mrs. 
 Lorimer was delighted to minister to his comforts with a basin of 
 tea, or whatever else he might please to have."* Lovely, indeed, 
 must have been the eldest daughter of Mr. Lorimer, if worthy, as 
 we understand she was, of the praises lavished by the poet on her 
 charms. To celebrate them he composed no fewer than eleven 
 songs, including "The lassie wi' the lint-white locks," "Craigieburn 
 Wood," and "^She says she lo'es me best of a';" which last pro- 
 duction embodies one of the finest portraitures of female beauty 
 ever drawn — 
 
 "Sae flaxen were her ringlets, 
 Her eyebrows of a darker hue, 
 Bewitchingly o'er-arching 
 Twa laughing een o' bonie blue. 
 
 * Life and Works of Burns, Vol. IV., p. 103.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 21 
 
 Her smiliug, sae wyling, 
 
 Wad make a \^Tetcli forget his woe ; 
 What pleasure, what treasure, 
 
 Unto these rosy lips to grow! 
 Such was my Chloris' bonie face, 
 
 When first her bonie face I saw, 
 And aye my Chloris' dearest charm, 
 
 She says she lo'es me best of a'." 
 
 Burns's worsliip of Chloris, like that oifered up to his other 
 Ell island idols, was purely Platonic. In her case lie did his best 
 to promote the suit of a brother-exciseman, named John Gillespie, 
 who was deep in love with Miss Lorimer. Disappointing him, she 
 married a dissipated young Cumberland farmer, named Whelpdale, 
 who resided at BarnluU, near Moffat, and the unhapjjy Chloris was 
 doomed to expiate by a life of misery the folly of an hour. * 
 
 During his journeyings over the district, Burns met with another 
 lady, whose eyes of blue gave him (poetically) a deadly wound, and 
 purchased immortality for herself; for, did he not say of her 1 — 
 
 "I gaed a waefu' gate j^estreen, 
 A gate, I feai', I'll dearly rue; 
 I gat my death frae twa sweet een, 
 Twa lovely een o' bonie blue. 
 
 'Twas not her golden ringlets bright, 
 
 Her lips like roses wat wi' dew 
 Her heaving bosom lily-white; — 
 
 It was her een sae bonie blue." 
 
 This fair creature was Miss Jeffrey, daughter of the minister of 
 Lochmaben. Many years after the bard had actually succumbed 
 to worse assailants than the " twa sweet een," she, aAvidow in New 
 York, but still retaining those orbs of blue in all their bewitching 
 beauty, furnished a delightful reminiscence of his visits to the 
 manse in " auld lang syne." "Many times," she said, "have I seen 
 Burns enter my father's dwelling on a cold rainy night, after a long 
 ride over the dreary moors. On such occasions one of the family 
 
 * As an evidence of the great respect entertained for both Mr. Gillespie 
 and the fair object of his affection by Burns, he inscribed their names 
 on the window of his parlour at EUisland, the same -wandow also haWng 
 scratched upon it by the poet's hand his favourite line from Pope, "An 
 honest man's the noblest work of God." On visiting the house last March, 
 we were shocked to lind that the poetic line and the names had been so 
 deeply and closely scored, seemingly with a piece of flint, as to be rendered 
 aU but illegible. The writing constituted one of the chief attractions of the 
 house, and its disgraceful obliteration must for over be deplored. / 

 
 22 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 would help to disencumber liim of his dreadnought and boots, while 
 others brought him a pair of slippers, and made him a warm cup 
 of tea. It was during these visits that he felt himself perfectly 
 happy, and opened his whole soul to us, repeated and even sang 
 many of his admirable songs, and enchanted all who had the good 
 fortune to be pi-esent with his manly, luminous observations and 
 artless manner. I never could fancy that Burns had ever followed 
 the rustic occupation of the plough, because everything he said 
 had a gx-acefvdness and charm that was in an extraordinary degree 
 engaging." 
 
 Yet another of the poet's Dumfriesshire heroines remains to be 
 noticed — "Lovely Polly Stewart." Her father was factor to the 
 Rev. James Stuart-Menteth, Rector of Barrowby in Lincolnshii'e, 
 who bought the estate of Closeburn from the Kirkpatricks in 
 1783. '■■ Burns met with Mr. Stewart on one occasion at Brown- 
 hill Inn, near Thornhill, which hostelry was kept by his sister and 
 her husband, Mr. John Bacon ;| and by way of honouring his arrival, 
 the poet wrote three vei-ses on a tumblei", the first of which 
 runs thus — 
 
 "You're welcome, Willie Stewart, 
 
 You're welcome, Willie Stewart ; 
 There's ne'er a flower that blooms in May, 
 
 That's half sae welcome's thou art." 
 
 The landlady, according to Loekhai-t, was very wroth at what she 
 considered the disfigurement of her glass, and, in order to appease 
 
 * Dr. Eamage of Wallace Hall, Closeburn, a zealous antiquarian and man 
 of letters, communicates to "Notes and Queries," fourth series, Vol. V., an 
 interesting account of Mr. Stewart and his daughter Polly, from which we 
 quote the following passage : — "Closeburn Hall had been destroyed by fire in 
 1754, and had never been rebuilt, so that there was no proper dwelling- 
 house on the estate. The old castle, the keep of the Kirkpatricks, and said 
 to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, had been fitted up as a 
 temporai-y abode ; and here Mr. Stewart, on the removal of the old family, 
 ensconced himself to look after the property and to watch the building of 
 the new mansion which Mr. Menteth set about erecting. It was at this 
 time that Burns seems to have been on intunate terms with Mr. Stewart, 
 and used to visit him at the castle, where they were accustomed to sit late, 
 and often see the sun below the horizon before the company dispersed. An 
 old man, Eobert Anderson (only lately dead), was the boy in attendance on 
 the guests, and he said Burns never took more than his head could carry, 
 and that the poet used to assist those less able to take care of themselves 
 up the narrow stairs of the keep ; and after he had seen them all safe iu 
 bed, would order llobertto bring out his pony and set off homewards. " 
 
 + A Mr. Ladyman, an English commercial traveller, alighting one day at 
 Browuhill Inn, found that he should have to dine with a company in which
 
 BURXS IX DUMFRIESSHIRE. 23 
 
 her, a gentleman present payed clown a .shilling and can-ied off the 
 relic, which eventually found its way to Abbotsford, the residence 
 of Sir "Walter Scott. Comj)limentary to the father, our poet paid 
 a heartfelt homage to the daughter, who was just sixteen when 
 he first felt the influence of her extraordinary charms. Devoutly 
 did he pray that her lines might fall in pleasant places, that 
 the darling of his verse might obtabi a worthy husband. But 
 his petition 
 
 "May he whose arms shall fauld thy charms, 
 Possess a leal and true heart ; 
 To him be given to ken the heaven 
 He grasps in Polly Stewart" 
 
 seems to have been answered unfavourably. She was twice 
 married, inauspiciously on the fii'st occasion; her own imprud- 
 ence led to a separation from her second husband; and when 
 residing at Maxwelltown in 1806 she formed an acquaintance with 
 a Swiss prisoner of war, in the French service, named Fleitz, with 
 whom she went to the Continent. After his death the mind of 
 "Lovely Polly" gave way, and, sad to tell, she died in an asylum 
 at Florence in 18-47. 
 
 Of Biirns's '-howf" in Dumfries everybody has heard; and what 
 the Globe Tavern was to him during his town life, Brownhill Inn 
 was, though in a lesser degree, during his residence in upper 
 Nithsdale. Sometimes, when out on his official rides, he made a 
 lengthened stay at Mr. Bacon's place of entertainment, and occa- 
 sionally, when the labours of the day were over, or purposely 
 abridged, he spent an evening there, drawing around him all the 
 " right good fellows " of the country side. On one occasion he 
 was told by one of the company that a young woman named 
 Christina Kirkpatrick, who lived near at hand, was a delightful 
 
 was Eobert Burns. The dinner at which the landlord, Bacon, presided, 
 passed off well, the principal dish being the well-known namesake of the 
 host. The man had retii'cd for a few minutes to see after a fresh supply of 
 toddy, when some one called upon Burns to give the j'ouug Englishman 
 proof of his beuig really Burns the poet, l)y composing some verses on the 
 spur of the moment ; and it was Avith hardly an interval for reflection that 
 the bard pronounced as follows :— 
 
 "At Browidiill we always get dainty good cheer, 
 And plenty of bacon each day in the year ; 
 We've all things that's nice and mostly in season ; 
 But why always i^acow— come give me a reason?" 
 
 Chambers's Burns, Vol. IV., 2'- 'i^-
 
 24 BURNS IX DUMFRIESSHinE. 
 
 singer of his songs. Burns thereupon expressed a wish to see and 
 hear this ISTithsdale ''lintie;" and, after the girl's natural "blate- 
 ness" had been overcome, she made her appearance, and fascinated 
 the bard by the way in which she lilted forth the products of his 
 fancy. Kirsty was a songstress of Nature's own school, with a 
 voice of great compass, a capital ear, and a heartfelt appreciation 
 of the old national music. She was, moreover, v/onderfully well 
 versed for a rustic in historical matters; and it is said that her 
 memory was so retentive that she coxild repeat sermons nearly 
 verbatim years after she had heard them preached. The talents of 
 this humble country lass were turned to good accoimt by Burns. 
 Though " weel faured " enough to captivate the heart of honest 
 William Flint, a mason from the Highlands, she possessed no s\ich 
 perilous beauty as inspired the poet's lyre; but the songs that he 
 I^enned in honour of Deborah Davies, Jean Lorimer, and his other 
 heroines, were subjected by him to the ordeal of Kii'sty Kirk- 
 pa trick's fine musical taste and rich voice, whereby he was able to 
 detect and correct any harsh word or bad rhythm that might ha\e 
 crept into the verses. 
 
 Some little time after being introduced to Burns, Kirsty was 
 married to Mr. Flint, and they commenced housekeeping in a small 
 cottage, built Avith his own hands, that is still " to the fore," a few 
 hundred yards above Closeburn Adllage. Our poet, who was fond 
 of all rural festivities, attended as one of the wedding guests. 
 Right merrily were the revels kept up; and when, soon after the 
 retii'ement of the young couple, a girl present, who could sing 
 nearly as well as the bride, was asked to give a specimen of her 
 vocal powers, she started " Highland JMary." The mirth of the 
 company was checked by the plaintive strain, and its effect upon 
 the morbid sensitiveness of Burns was pitiful to witness. Before 
 the singer could finish the stanza that closes with the lines 
 
 "For dear to me as light and life 
 Was my sweet Highland ilary," 
 
 he started to his feet, prayed the young singer in God's name to 
 forbear, then, hastening to the door of the wedding chamber, he 
 knocked, and entreated the bridegroom to let the bride come " but" 
 the house, and quiet his mind with a verse or two of " Ye banks 
 and braes o' bonie Doon." This rather untimely request was 
 complied with, and, under the soothing influence of Kirsty Flint's 
 vocalism, the poet regained his equanimity. 
 
 The late Professor Gillespie, when a schoolboy at "Wallace Hall
 
 BUKXS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 25 
 
 Academj', was ear and eye-witness to one of tlie many conferences 
 liekl by tlie great master of Scottisli song witli his \'illage critic and 
 exponent. He noticed Bnrns's horse tied by the bridle to the sneck 
 of a cottage door, and, listening at the window, and also looking 
 in at times, he heard the mistress of the house, Christina Flint, 
 singing with "a pipe of a most overpowering pitch,'' while the 
 poet sat, an attentive hearer, in an arm-chair by the fireside. 
 According to the Professor, she was very liberal with her singing, 
 warbling away, " even to us laddies, ' There's nae luck aboot the 
 house,' and •' Braw, braw lads o' Gala "Water ' most inimitably." 
 
 In course of time, "Willie Stewart," retii-ing from the Close- 
 burn factorship, went to reside at Lauglit, one of the Duke of 
 Buccleuch's farms, which he held on lease. Durmg a visit paid to 
 him by Burns, Mr. Stewai't's ploughman called to say that he had 
 a young child at the point of death, and asking liLs master to go 
 down to the cottage and offer up pirayer. Burns, on request, 
 accompanied his friend to the house of mourning, in which he 
 found many of the neighbours gathered, and he had no difficulty 
 in discovering that an unseen Presence was there also, hovering 
 over the pallet of the little sufferer. " Mr. Burns," said the 
 tenant of Laught, "it's you that maun put up the prayer; ye can 
 do a' thing o' that kind better than me." The poet, deeply affected 
 by the hopeless aspect of the child and the gi-ief of its parents, 
 conn)lied -svith the request. After the usual prelude, " Let us 
 pray," said "with solemn air," he proceeded to lead the devotions 
 of the company in language that touched the hearts of all. Before 
 he closed, every one present was in tears, and some of the women, 
 quite overcome, " lifted up their voices and wept." The manner 
 in which the author of " The Cotter's Saturday Night " prayed for 
 the ploughman's dying child made a deep impression at tiie time, 
 and is spoken of as something wonderful in the district till this day. 
 The anecdote was related to the two daughters of the poet's sister, 
 Mrs. Begg, in August last, "who," says our informant, ■•' "were 
 
 * Mr. Joliu Coltart, a worthy x^arishioner of Closcbiu-n. We are indeljtecl 
 to liun for the two preceding anecdotes of Burns ; and for the following 
 further reniinisceuces. About the time that the poet died, his l)rothcr 
 Gilbert came to Dinning farm in Closeburn : he was one of the tirst to 
 commence the Ayrshire dairy system in the district, and his cheeses were 
 so good that, when suld at Dumfries, they passed for Cheshire. He tenanted 
 the farm about ten years, and then suljlet it and went to lyaii.arkahire. One 
 of his out-houses, on being repaired, was occupied by AVilliam Fluvfand his 
 musical spouse for two years, during which time the jioet's mother and 
 Kirsty were often together. ISIrs. Fhut, who died within the last thirty
 
 2G BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 proud to hear of sucli a case, as tliey said people in general were 
 apt to suppose that their uncle had no religion about him. But 
 they had often heard their mother tell that, after their father's 
 death, Robert was left in charge of the rest ; and the ploughman 
 at Mossgiel stated that, while he remained there, Robert constantly 
 'took the Book' (conducted family worship), and that he never 
 heard a minister using more sublime language than the poet 
 employed on such occasions." 
 
 Enough for the present of Burns's acquaintances and heroines : let 
 us turn again to the hero-bard himself, and see how he fares. While 
 conferring immortality Tipon the latter, and creating a fund of inex- 
 haustible enjoyment for his countrymen, he was oppressed with 
 the consciousness that, struggle as he might with hands and brain, 
 poverty would be his portion. How manfully he did labour we 
 have already seen, yet we find him in January, 1791, dilating upon 
 " the supreme curse of making three guineas do the business of 
 five;" and, from his own experience, apostrophising poverty as the 
 " half-sister of death " and "the cousin-german of hell." In the 
 following April, by the fiill of his horse under him, his right arm was 
 broken ; and about the same period his wife presented him with 
 another son, who was named William Nicol. Now is the time, ye 
 patrons of Burns, Commissioners of the Excise, and members of 
 the Ministry, to step in and make the " three guineas " six, by 
 either giving him a supervisorship, which he has well earned, or 
 in some other way, commensura,te with his services, and inoffen- 
 sive to his delicacy, placing him above the dread of want; or, better 
 still, securing to him "the glorious privilege of being independent." 
 The farm he cannot cling to; another year's tenancy will bring 
 him to ruin; and he resolves to give up his lease, that he may avoid 
 bankruptcy. If, during this crisis of the poet's fate, a portion of 
 the Government patronage, that was sometimes freely showered on 
 dolts and boobies, had fallen to his lot, what thankfulness woidd 
 he have felt for it; how creditable it would have been for "the 
 heaven-born Minister" who then presided at the helm of affairs; 
 how gratifying it would have proved to the poet's admirers then 
 
 years, told Mr. Coltart that old Mrs. Biu'iis possessed a great fund of know- 
 ledge, and that, even in the way of ordinary conversation, she was very 
 imaginative— " Meet nurse for a poetic child." The Flints, on leaving 
 Dinning, removed a few hundred yards up the brae, to a small farm called 
 Hatrees ; and while William farmed the ground antl drove cattle, Christina 
 kept a school, which the Misses Begg attended when spending their youthful 
 days at Dinning; and not a few of her pupils still survive.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 27 
 
 and now ; and what a prosperous sliape it might have given to his 
 future destiny ! For four years or more he has been recognized as the 
 greatest poet of his day, and at the end of that period his gauger- 
 ship is rewarded by .£70 a-year, instead of £50, as before ; his. 
 district beino" at the same time changed from Ellisland to Dumfi-ies. 
 Twenty pounds of additional salary to the great exciseman-poet I 
 Grateful he is, however, for the " small mercies" meted out to him, 
 especially as they are magnified by the promise of future prefernj^nt ; 
 and, sad at heart, yet still hopeful, he prepares to bid farewell to 
 Ellisland, the scene of much connubial joy, the birth-place of his 
 children, and of many deathless products of his heart and brain. 
 
 How thankful Burns was for this new appointment is shown in 
 his Fourth Epistle to Mr. Graham, of Fintry, through whom it was 
 obtained, and of whom he warmly speaks as " the friend of his 
 life." After the necessary business arrangements had been com- 
 pleted, he seems to have recovered his serenity ; and we get rather 
 a pleasant sketch of him late in the summer from the pen of Dr. 
 Curi'ie, at a time when two English gentlemen, who had before 
 met with the poet in Edinburgh, paid him a visit. 
 
 On calling at tlie house they were told that lie had walked out 
 alongside the river. While searching for him a singular object 
 attracted their attention. Standing on a rock that projected into 
 the stream was a man busy rod-fishing, who had for dress a loose 
 gi'eatcoat, fixed round him by a belt, from which hung an enormous 
 Highland broadsword, while a fox's skin made into a cap served 
 for head-geai\ The angler was none other than our poet, whom 
 they had some difiiculty in recognizing. Invited to share his 
 hospitality, they dined on broth and boiled beef, with vegetables, 
 of wliich they partook heartily. After dinner the bard frankly 
 told his friends he had no wine to offer them — nothing better 
 than Highland whisky, a bottle of which Mrs. Burns set on the 
 board, together with the famous punch-bowl of black Inveraiy 
 marble,* wliich the poet received as a present from his father-in- 
 law. Burns brewed the toddy, inviting them to drink. The 
 travellers were in haste, and, besides, the flavour of the whisky to 
 their soutliron palates was scarcely tolerable, but the generous poet 
 offered them his best, and his ardent hospitality they found it im- 
 
 * The bowl was formed of lapls-oUaris, the stone of which luverary Castle 
 is built, and it was fashioned IJy Mr. Armour. Eventually it fell into the 
 hands of Mr. Hastic, M.P. for Paisley, who is said to have refused 300 
 guineas for it; "a sum," says Robert Chambers (rather questionably), 
 ' ' that would have set Burns on his legs for ever. "
 
 28 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 possible to resist. Burns was in liis happiest mood, and the charms 
 of his convei'sation were altogether tascinating. He ranged over a 
 great variety of topics, illuminating whatever he touched. He 
 related the tales of his infancy and his youth; he recited some of 
 the gayest and some of the tenderest of his poems; in the wildest 
 of his strains of mirth he threw in some touches of melancholy, 
 and spread around him the electric emotions of his mind. The 
 Highland whisky improved in its flavour ; the marble bowl was 
 again and again emptied and replenished ; the guests of our poet 
 forgot the flight of time and the dictates of prudence : at the hour 
 of midnight they lost theii* way in returning to Dumfries, and 
 could scarcely distinguish it when assisted by the morning's dawn. 
 
 ]Mr. Miller, after taking back the lease of Ellislaud, sold the 
 farm to Mx. Morine, a neighbouring proprietoi*, for £2000. The 
 stock and crop of the out-going tenant brought good prices, whereby 
 lie was enabled, not only to discharge all his liabilities, but to 
 acquire a trifle of ready money with which to face the difliculties 
 of his new position. Amid the bustle which preceded the " flitting," 
 Burns wrote his magnificent battle-piece, " The Song of Death" — 
 his last poetical production on the battle-ground of his own defeat. 
 With a tearful eye he bade a final adieu to pleasant Ellisland, 
 " leaving nothing there," says Allan Cunningham, " but a putting- 
 stone, with which he had loved to exercise his strength, a memory 
 of his musings that can never die, and £300 of his money sunk 
 beyond redemption in a speculation from which all had augiired 
 happiness." 
 
 Here we drop the curtain; and when it is again raised we shall 
 see how the poet looked as an adopted son and subject of the 
 *' Queen of the South."
 
 CHAPTER II.— DUMFRIES. 
 
 SKETCH OF BURNS AS HE FIRST APPEARED IX DUJIFRIES — HE IS MADE A 
 FREEMAN AND BURGESS — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INH.\:BITANTS 
 IN BURNS'S TIME: THEIR POLISH, CONVmALITY, AND TORYISM — THE 
 poet's CONNECTION WITH THE DUMFRIES PUBLIC LIBRARY — HE ASSISTS 
 IN SEIZING A SMUGGLING VESSEL, AND SENDS FOUR OF THE CAPTURED 
 GUNS AS A PRESENT TO THE FRENCH CONVENTION — HE GETS HIMSELF 
 INTO TROUBLE ON ACCOUNT OF HIS POLITICS— HE FALLS INTO DISFAVOUR 
 — HLS PECUNIARY CIRCUMSTA^"CES ^VHEN AN INH^VBITANT OF THE TOWN. 
 
 Towards the close of 1791, Dumfries could number among its 
 citizens a man who had already made some noise in the world, and 
 who came to be recognized as one of Scotland's most illustrious 
 sons. His figure was remarkable; so that even a cursoiy observer 
 must ha^-e at once seen that it was the outward framework of an 
 extraordinary individual. Five feet ten inches in height, firmly 
 built, symmetrical, with more of the roughness of a rustic than the 
 polish of a fine gentleman, there was a something in his bearing that 
 bespoke conscious pre-eminence; and the impress thus communi- 
 cated was confirmed by his swai'tliy countenance, every lineament 
 of which indicated mental wealth and power : the brow broad and 
 high ; the eyes like orbs of flame ; the nose well formed, thougli a 
 professional physiognomist would have said that it was deficient 
 in force; the mouth impassioned, majestic, tender, as if the social 
 affections and poetic muse had combined to take possession of it; 
 and the full, rounded, dimpled chin, which made the manly face 
 look more soft and lovable. When this new denizen of the burgh 
 was followed from his humble dwelling in Bank Street to some 
 favourite friendly circle where the news of the day or other less 
 fugitive topics were discussed, his superiority became more appa- 
 rent. Then eye and tongue exercised an irresistible sway : the one 
 flashing wdth emotional warmth and the light of genius — now 
 scathing with its indignant glances, anon beaming with benignity 
 and love; the other tipped with the fii*e of natural eloquence, 
 reasoning abstrusely, declaiming finely, discoursing delightfully, 
 satii-izing mercilessly, or setting the table in a roar with verses
 
 30 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 thrown off at red lieat to annihilate an nnworthy sentiment, or 
 cover some unhicky opponent with ridicule. Need it be said that 
 these remarks apply to the ex-tenant of EUisland, Robert Burns'? 
 
 His first appearance in Dumfries was on the 4tli of June, 1787, 
 two months after the second edition of his poems had been pub- 
 lished. He came, on invitation, to be made an honorary bui'gess; 
 neither the givers nor the receiver of the privilege dreaming, at 
 that date, that he was destined to become an inhabitant of the 
 town. All honour to the Council that they thus promptly recog- 
 nized the genius of the poet. Provost William Clark shaking 
 hands with the newly-made burgess, and wishing him joy, when 
 he presented himself in the veritable blue coat and yellow vest 
 that Nasmyth has rendered familiar, would make a good subject 
 for a painter able to realise the characteristics of such a scene. 
 The burgess ticket granted to the illustrious stranger bore the 
 following inscription: — "The said day, 4th June, 1787, Mr. 
 Kobert Burns, Ayrshire, was admitted burgess of this burgh, with 
 liberty to exercise and enjoy the whole immunities and privileges 
 thereof as freely as any other does, may, or can enjoy; who, being 
 present, accepted the same, and gave his oath of burgess-ship to his 
 Majesty and the burgh in common form.'' Whilst tenant of Ellis- 
 land, Burns became, by frequent visits to the town, familiarly known 
 to its inhabitants. Soon after Martinmas, 1791, accompanied by 
 Bonnie Jean, with their children, Robert, Francis, and William, 
 he took up a permanent residence in the burgh, and there spent 
 the remainder of his checkered life; so that Dumfries became 
 henceforth inseparably associated with his latest years. He had 
 just seen thirty-one summers when he entered upon the occu- 
 pancy of three small apartments of a second floor on the north side 
 of Bank Street (then called the Wee Vennel).* After residing 
 
 * Eobert Chambers tlius describes the accommodation of the poet's Bank 
 Street premises: — "The small central room, about the size of a bed-closet, 
 is the only place he has in which to seclude himself for study. On the ground 
 floor immediately underneath, his friend, John Syme, has his office for the 
 distribution of stamps. Overhead is an honest blacksmith, called George 
 Haugh, whom Burns treats on a familiar footing as a neighbour. Ou the 
 opposite side of the street is the poet's landlord, Captain Hamilton, a gentle- 
 man of fortune and worth, who admires Burns, and often asks him to a 
 family Sunday dinner." — Vol. III., p. 266. Nearly all the contemporaries 
 of Burns in Dumfries have passed away. Of the two or three who still 
 remember him, one is John Brodie, now a veteran of 91 years. John, when 
 a ' ' callant, " was often about the house in Bank Street, and used to run 
 messages for ' ' Jean. " He distinctly recollects seeing the poet burning a 
 "barrowful" of written papers soon after coming from EUisland.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 31 
 
 there about eighteen months, or, according to another account, two 
 years and a half, he removed to a self-contained house of a higher 
 grade in Mill Street, which became the scene of liis untimely death 
 in July, 1796. 
 
 What varjTLUg scenes of weal and woe, of social enjoyments, of 
 literary triumphs, of worldly misery and moral loss, were crowded 
 within the Dumfries experiences of the illustrious poet! There he 
 suffered his severest pangs, and also accomplished many of his 
 proudest achievements. If the night watches heard at times his 
 sorrowful plaint, and the air of the place trembled for a moment 
 with his latest sigh, it long burned and breathed with the immoi-tal 
 products of his lyre; and when the striking figure we have faintly 
 sketched lay paralysed by death, its dust was borne to old St. 
 Michael's, and the tomb of the national bai'd became a priceless 
 heritage to the town for ever. 
 
 Dr. Burnside says of his parishioners, at the time when Burns 
 became one of them : — "In their private manners they are social 
 and polite; and the town, together with the neighbourhood a few 
 miles around it, furnishes a society amongst whom a person with a 
 moderate income may spend his days with as much enjoyment, per- 
 haps, as in any part of the kingdom whatever."-' Other evidence 
 tends to showthatthe society of the burgh was more intellectual than 
 that of most other towns of the same size in Scotland. Soon after 
 Burns came to reside in it, various cii'cumstances combined to make 
 it more than at any former period, perhaps, a gay and fashionable 
 place of resort. A new theatre was opened, which received liberal 
 patronage from the upper classes of the neighbourhood ;+ several 
 regiments were at intervals stationed in the burgh, the officers of 
 winch helped to give an aristocratic tone to its society; and the 
 annual races in October always drew a concourse of nobles, squires, 
 and ladies fair to the County town. 
 
 * MS. History of Dumfries. 
 
 + Burns, -svi-iting to his friend Nicol, under date, Ellisland, Feb. 2, 1790, 
 says: — " Our theatrical company, of which you must have licard, leave us 
 this week. Their merit and character are indeed very great, both ou the 
 stage and in private life, not a worthless creature among them; and their 
 enco\iragement has been accordingly. Their usual run is from eighteen to 
 twenty pounds a night ; seldom less than the one, and the house will hold 
 no more than the other. There have been repeated instances of sending 
 away six and eight and ten pounds a night for want of room. A new 
 theatre is to be built liy subscription; the first stone is to be laid on Friday 
 first to come. Three hundred guineas have been raised by thirty subscribers, 
 and thirty more might have been got if wanted."
 
 32 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 How tliG rein was given to fasliionable dissi2:)ation and animal 
 enjoyment, during the racing season, in tliese exuberant days, is 
 graphically described by the Dumfries Journal. " The entertain- 
 ments of the hunting, races, balls, and assemblies, by the Caledonian 
 and the Dumfries and Galloway Hunts, being now over (October 
 30th, 1792), we embrace tlie earliest opportunity of informing 
 the public that they have been conducted with the utmost propriety 
 and regularity, and, we believe, have given general satisfaction. 
 The sports of the field in the morning were equal to the wishes of 
 the gentlemen of the chase ; the diversions of the turf through the 
 day afforded the highest satisfaction, not only to those immediately 
 interested, but to thousands of spectators, and the performances of 
 the stage in the evening gave high entertainment to crowds of 
 genteel people collected at the Theatre. Lady Hopetoun's box 
 on Thursday evening, being the play asked by the Caledonian 
 Hunt, exhibited an assemblage of nobility rarely to be seen in one 
 box in the theatres of the metropolis. Besides, the noblemen and 
 gentlemen of the Caledonian Hunt had drawn together almost all 
 the genteel families in the three southern counties of Dumfries, 
 Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown, and we believe it may be safely 
 affirmed that there never was on any occasion such an assemblage 
 of people distinguished for their rank, fortune, and elegance of 
 jnanners seen in this place, or perhaps in any provincial town in 
 Scotland. Besides the daily entertainments at the ordinaries, 
 there was a ball and supper given by each of the Caledonian and 
 Dumfries Hunts, which, for the number and distinguished rank of 
 the company, the splendour of the dresses, the elegance and sump- 
 tuousness of the entertainments, the richness and variety of the 
 wines, exceeded everything of the kind ever seen here." 
 
 Lest it should be thought tliat the local journalist, from a feeling 
 of partiality, sliould be overcolouring the picture, let us see how it 
 looked in tlie eyes of a comparative stranger. It so happened 
 that Robert Heron, the topographical writer and historian, visited 
 Dumfries in the very week of these festivities, and put upon record 
 his impressions of the burgh. '^ " It is perhaps," he says, "a place 
 of higher gaiety and elegance than any other town in Scotland of 
 the same size. The proportion of the inhabitants who are des- 
 cended from respectable families, and have received a libei-al educa- 
 tion, is greater here than in any other town in this part of the 
 island. These give, by consequence, a more elevated and polished 
 
 * Observations made in a Journey through the Western Counties of Scot- 
 land, by R. Heron, 1792, Vol. II., pp. 72-7G.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 33 
 
 tone to the manners and general character of this city. The 
 manner of living which prevails here is rather sliowy than 
 luxurious. To be esteemed genteel, not to sit down to a board 
 overloaded with victuals, is the first Avish of every one." After 
 sketching at greater length, in the same style, the normal con- 
 dition of the burgh, he goes on to describe its holiday aspect. 
 " Both the Dumfries and Galloway and the Caledonian Hunts," 
 he says, "were assembled here at this time. Every inn and ale- 
 house was crowded with guests. In the mornings the streets 
 presented one busy scene of haii'-dressers, milliners' apprentices, 
 grooms and valets, carriages driving and bustling backwards and 
 forwards. In the forenoon almost every soul, old and young, high 
 and low, master and servant, hastened out to follow the hounds 
 or view the races. At the return of the crov/d they were all 
 equally intent, with the same bustle and the same ardent anima- 
 tion, on the important concerns of appetite. The bottle, the song, 
 the dance, and the card table, endeared the evening, and gave social 
 converse power to detain and to charm till the return of morn. 
 Dunifiies itself could not aflbrd ministers of pleasure enougli for 
 so great an occasion. There Avere waiters, pimps, chairmen, hair- 
 dressers, and ladies, the priests and priestesses from all those more 
 favourite haunts where Pleasure ordinarily holds her court. Not 
 only all the gayer part of the neighbouring gentry were on this 
 occasion assembled in Dumfries ; but the members of the Caledonian 
 Himthad repaired hither from Edinburgh, from England, and from 
 the more distant counties of Scotland. The gay of the one sex 
 naturally drew together the gay and the elegant of the other. 
 There was such a show of female beautv and eleaiance as, I should 
 suppose, few country towns, whether in Scotland or England, are 
 likely to exhibit on any similar occasion." 
 
 A gay, refined, intellectual town enough, truly; and quite suit- 
 able, therefore, as a place of sojourn for Burns, the sentimental 
 bard. But inasmuch as it was fashionable, aristocratic, courtly, 
 given up in no small measure to the idolatry of rank, and fanatic- 
 ally afraid of anything that could be called ungenteel or demo- 
 cratic, it was no congenial home for the man who dared to say — 
 
 " Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, 
 
 Wlia struts, and stares, and a' tliat ; 
 Thougli hundreds A^'orsliip at his ■\\"ord, 
 
 He's but a coof for a' that : 
 For a' that, and a' that. 
 
 His riband, star, and a' that. 
 The man of independent mind, 
 
 He looks and laughs at a' that."
 
 34 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 In anotlicr respect, tlie town was but too congenial to the poet's 
 tastes and habits. " John Barleycorn," to use his own metaphor, 
 bore potential sway within it. " The curse of country towns," 
 says Ilobert Chambers, writing in 1852, "is the partial and entire 
 idleness of large classes of the inhabitants. There is always a 
 cluster of men living on competencies, and a greater number of 
 tradesmen whose shop duties do not occupy half their time. Till 
 a very recent period, dissipation in greater or less intensity was 
 the rule, and not the exception, amongst these men; and in Dum- 
 fries, sixty years ago, this rule held good."'-" Thrown into 
 comjiany of this kind, sought after and lionized by all casual 
 visitors, is it at all wonderful that a man of Burns's temperament 
 should have often indulged too deeply? It was no disgrace then 
 for cither lords or commoners to fall clrunk below the Bacchanalian 
 board. More's the pity that poor Burns, so supreme in many 
 things, was not superior to the jovial drinking customs of his day. 
 Had he lived in a discreeter age, he would have been a better and 
 hap])ier man. Whilst the burgh had its full share of jovial 
 fellows, who habitually caroused and sang, in a doubtful attempt 
 " to drive dull care away," and called the marvellous ganger, 
 nothing loath, to their assistance, he had frequent opportunities, 
 which he Avillingly embraced, of breathing a purer atmosphere, and 
 enjoying a higher communion than theirs. Burns was a man of 
 many moods; he was mirthful and gloomy by turns; the pride and 
 paragon of a refined circle at Woodley Park,t Friar's Carse, or 
 Mavis Grove, one day; and on some not distant night, the hero 
 of a merry group, fuddling madly in tlie Globe Tavern, singing in 
 all tipsy sincerity the challenge of his own rollicking song : — 
 
 " Wha last frae aff his chair shall fa', 
 He is the king amang us three." 
 
 * Life and Works of Burns, Vol. III., p. 209. 
 
 t A fine old mansion, beautifully situated, four miles south-west of Dum- 
 fries, and originally called Holm. It belonged to Anch-ew Crosbie, the Whig 
 ex-Provost of Dumfries, whom the Pretender carried off, in 1745, as one of 
 the securities for the payment of money levied by him on the town. Mr. 
 Crosbie's son was a distinguished advocate, the prototype of Counsellor 
 Pleydell in Guy Mannering, and he spent miich of his leisure at the family 
 mansion. Afterwards the house was bought by a gentleman named Goldie, 
 who caUed it Goldielea, a combination of his own name and that of his wife, 
 who Avas called Leigh. Mr. Walter Eiddel haAdug become possessed of the 
 house, named it Woodley Park in honour of his spouse, with whom, as has 
 already been stated. Burns was on iutimate terms.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 35 
 
 At Ellisland, as we have seen, Le liad never lost the reputation of 
 being a sober man, though he was fond of company and sometimes 
 drank to excess. He indulged more freqiiently, however, when he 
 ceased altogether to be a tiller of the soil, " turning down no more 
 <laisies," "binding" no more " after his reapers," tied to town-life 
 and an uncongenial occupation. More exposed to temptations, and 
 less able to resist their influence, he too often sank deeply in the 
 mire; but he did not wallow in it. In spite of all that has been 
 said to the contrary, we feel justified in stating that he never 
 became habitually intemperate, or a lover of the bottle for its own 
 sake. His extreme sociality often led him into excess : none can 
 tell how often he drained the intoxicating cup in order to purchase 
 a momentary forgetfulness of his disappointments and his cares. 
 And when Burns sinned in these respects, how he did sufier ! the 
 very poetry of his nature giving a keener edge to his remorse. 
 
 " See Social Life and Glee sit down, 
 All joyous and uutliiukiug, 
 Till quite transmogrified they've grown 
 Debauchery and Drinking." 
 
 One summer morning, while Burns, after an experience of this 
 sad kind in the King's Arms, was proceeding homeward, he met 
 with his neighbour, Mr. Haugh, who had risen to his work some- 
 what earlier than usual: " O, George!" said the poet, more penitent 
 than elated, "you are a happy man; you have risen from a 
 refreshing sleep, and left a kind wife and children; while I am 
 returning like a condemned wretch to mine." 
 
 Dumfries had ceased to be the Whig town which it was during 
 the troubles of 1745. When a cry arose in favour of Parlia- 
 mentary reform, the municipal body voted addresses to the King 
 against it, and brimful of devoted loyalty; and when news of the 
 French Revolution reached the town, it excited a general feeling 
 of alann. Provost Staig and his colleagues looked iipon the 
 British Constitution as perfection itself, and their reverence for it 
 was only erpialled by their horror at the doings of the French 
 democracy. In the following extracts from the Dumfries Journal 
 we find the loyal, anti-democratic, anU orthodox condition of the 
 town faithfully mirrored. " On Tuesday, June 4th, 179.3 [King 
 George the Third's birth-day], an unusual dis])lay of loyalty 
 eminently manifested itself through all ranks of people in this 
 place. In addition to what we observed last week, it is but 
 justice to notice the ardent loyalty of the rising generation, who,
 
 36 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIKE. 
 
 havincj procured two effigies of Tom Paine, paraded witli tliem 
 tlirougli the different streets of this burgli; and at six o'clock in 
 the evening consigned them to the bonfires, amid the patriotic 
 applause of the surrounding crowd." After a general description 
 of the enthusiastic mode in which the anniversary of his Majesty's 
 birth-day Avas celebrated that year, special notice is taken by this 
 sympathising journalist of the proceedings in which the gentlemen 
 of the Loyal Native Club"' manifested " their attachment to the best 
 of sovereigns on this joyous day." This association, formed on the 
 18th of January, 1793, "for Preserving Peace, Liberty, and Pro- 
 perty, and for Supporting the Laws and Constitution of the 
 Countiy," included among its members many influential in- 
 habitants, their president being Commissary Goldie, and theii' 
 secretary, Mr. Prancis Shortt, town-clerk. "A few ladies," we 
 are told, "on the morning of the auspicioiis day, brought bandeaux 
 of blue satin ribbon, embroidered by themselves with the words 
 'God save the King!' '' which were presented in their name by the 
 president to the members, and worn all day by the latter round 
 their hats. " The club met at three o'clock afternoon, in the 
 King's Arms Tavern, and after partaking of an elegant dinner*, no 
 less than foui'teen loyal and well adapted toasts were drunk; and 
 a fifteenth bumper toast of ' God bless every branch of the Royal 
 Family!' was given by way oi finale to this species of toasts. The 
 club also drank bumpers to the loyal town of Dumfries, and to the 
 magistrates; and in like manner to each of the ladies who had 
 contributed so obligingly and attentively to the decoration of 
 the members. At six o'clock the club adjourned in a body to the 
 Town Hall, where they joined in the loyal and distinguished 
 rejoicings which took place there in the evening. At eight o'clock 
 they went to the assembly, and wore their bandeaux across their 
 breasts." 
 
 Burns, unlike most of his fellow-townsmen, did not deplore the 
 Prench Pv,evolution ; on the contrary, he heartily symjiathised with 
 it, and was not the man to conceal his sentiments on any question 
 at the dictate of prudence. " He was," says Lockhart, " the 
 standing marvel of the place; liis toasts, his jokes, his epigrams, 
 his songs, were the daily food of conversation and scandal; and he, 
 
 * Burns's impromptu satire cu this ckib is well known : — 
 
 "Ye true, loyal natives attend to my song; 
 In uproar and riot rejoice the night long : 
 From envy and hatred j'our corps is exempt, 
 But where is your shield from the darts of contempt?"
 
 BUKNS IX DUMFRIESSHIRE. 37 
 
 open and careless, and thijiking he did no great liarm in sayin"- 
 and singing wliat many of liis superiors Lad not the least objection 
 to hear and applaud, soon began to be considered, among the local 
 admu-ers of the good old King and his minister, as the most 
 dangerous of all the apostles of sedition, and to be shunned accord- 
 ingly."''" A curious and characteristic illusti'ation of the way in 
 which the poet gave vent to his political views may here be 
 recorded. A public library was opened in the burgh, towards the 
 close of 1792; and Bums, who had assisted in establishing it, was 
 admitted a member on the 5tli of March, 1793; the minute of the 
 proceedings stating that the committee had, " by a gi-eat majority, 
 resolved to offer him a share of the library free of the usual admis- 
 sion money (10s. 6d.), out of respect and esteem for his merits as a 
 literary man." Reciprocating this kindness, Bums, on the 30th of 
 the same month, presented four books to the library — " Humphrey 
 Clinker," " Julia de Roubigne," " Knox's History of the Reforma- 
 tion," and "De Lolme on the British Constitution." 
 
 The last-named volume contained a frontispiece portrait of the 
 author, the back of which displayed these Avords, written in the 
 poet's bold, upright hand : — " Mr. Burns presents this book to the 
 libi-ary, and begs they will take it as a creed of British liberty 
 till they find a better. — R. B." Very simple, innocent words in 
 themselves; but awfully daring at that time, and excessively im- 
 prudent when proceeding from a Government officer. Burns, on 
 reflection, quailed before the danger he had thus rashly incurred ; 
 and, hurrying next morning to the house of Mr. Thomson (after- 
 wards provost of the tov/n), with whom the books had been left, 
 he expressed an anxious desii-e to see De Lolme, as he Avas afraid 
 he had written something upon it "which might bring him into 
 trouble." On the volume being produced, he, before leaving, 
 pasted the fly-leaf to the back of the engi-aving, in order to seal up 
 his seditious secret; but any one holding the double leaf up to the 
 light may easily find it out, the volume being still in the library, 
 and its value immeasurably enhanced by this inscription. 
 
 In the same library, now the property of the Dumfries and 
 Maxwelltown Mechanics' Institution, there is another book, the 
 thii'teenth volume of Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of 
 Scotland, which reveals another glimpse of the poet in Dumfries. 
 Under the head "Balmaghie," a notice is given of several mart\Ted 
 Covenanters belonging to that parish, and the nide yet expressive 
 
 * Life of Burns, pp. 211-212. 
 c
 
 ■38 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 lines engraved on tlieir tombstones are quoted at length. The 
 pathos of the simple prose statement, and the rugged force of the 
 "vei'sification, seem to have aroused the fervid soul of Burns ; for 
 there appears, in his bold handwriting, the following verse pen- 
 cilled on the margin by way of foot-note : — 
 
 ' ' The Solemn League and Covenant 
 
 Now brings a smile, now brings a tear j 
 But sacred Freedom, too, was theirs : 
 If tliou'rt a slave indulge thy sneer." 
 
 We had occasion, in Decembei", 1859, to consult this volume ; and, 
 on discovering the lines, recognized the poet's caligraphy at once, 
 and had no difficulty in concluding that they constituted the first 
 rough draft of his well-known epigram in praise of the League and 
 the Covenant, quoted in a preceding chapter. The matured lines 
 are usually represented as an impromptu rebuke by Burns to some 
 scoffer at the Covenant; but this precious holograph demonstrates 
 the real cu'cumstances under which thev were oriijinated. 
 
 Burns identified himself by more than rash words with the 
 democrats across the Channel. A vessel engaged in the contraband 
 traffic from the Isle of Man having entered the Solway, was 
 watched by a party of Excise officers, including the poet. She 
 became fixed in the shallows, but her crew were so numerous and 
 well-ai'med that the party durst not attempt her capture unaided; 
 •and Mr. Lev/ars, the poet's friend and brother-exciseman, was sent 
 to Dumfries for a guard of dragoons. Burns, with a few men 
 under his orders, was meanwhile left on the look-out in a wet salt 
 marsh ; and as the time thus passed wearily away, Lewars was 
 blamed by the impatient watchers for his seeming tardiness, one 
 of them going as far as to wish that the devil had him in his 
 keeping. Burns saw a humorous ingredient in the irreverent 
 desire, and in a few minutes expanded it into the well-known ditty, 
 " The Deil's awa wi' the Exciseman," with which he diverted his 
 colleagues till Lewars arrived with the soldiers. Our poet could, 
 when occasion required, play the part of Captain Sword as well as 
 Captain Pen. Putting himself at the head of the force, he waded 
 sword in hand to the vessel's side, and was the first to board her 
 and call upon her lawless crew to surrender in the King's name. 
 Though outnumbering the assailing party, the smugglers quietly 
 submitted. The vessel was condemned, and, with all her arms 
 and stores, sold at Dumfries. 
 
 Had the matter ended here, the poet's services might have
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 39 
 
 secured his promotion; but unfortunately he sinned them all 
 away, by purchasing four of the captured carronades, and sending 
 tliem, Avitli a eulogistic epistle, as a present to the French. Conven- 
 tion. The carronades and letter were intercepted at Dover ; and 
 forthwith the Commissioners of Excise ordered an inquiry to be 
 made into the conduct of their officer. Burns, in a letter to his 
 patron, INIr. Graham of Fintry, stated that he was " surprised, 
 confounded, and distracted" on hearing of the threatened investi- 
 gation. He warmly repudiated the interpretation put upon his 
 behaviour, declared his devout attachment " to the British Con- 
 stitution on Revolution principles ;" and closed Avith the touching 
 appeal : "I adjure you to save me from that misery which, threatens 
 to overwhelm me, and which, with my latest breath, I will say I 
 have not deserved.'' 
 
 It was long believed that the poet's official pros2:)ects were 
 utterly blighted by the inquiry; and that, as a consequence, he 
 ])ecame more dissipated and reckless. Some of his biographers 
 have gone further, and attributed his early death to the same 
 cause ; but what says Burns's superior in the Dumfries Excise 
 district, Mr. Findlater? In a letter on the subject, that gentle- 
 man says : — " I may venture to assert that when Burns was accused 
 of a leaning to democracy, and an inquiry into his conduct took 
 place, he was subjected in consequence thereof to no moi-e than 
 j^erhaps a verbal or private caution to be more circumspect in 
 future. Neither do I believe iiis promotion was thereby affected, 
 as has been stated. That, had he lived, would, I have every reason 
 to think, have gone on in tlie usual routine. His good and steady 
 friend, Mi*. Graham, would have attended to this. What cause, 
 therefore, was there for depression of spirits on this account 1 or 
 how should he have been hurried thereby to a premature grave 1 I 
 never saw his spirit fail till he was borne down by the pressure of 
 disease and bodily weakness ; and even then it would occasionally 
 revive, and, like an expiring lamp, emit bright flashes to the last." 
 
 Besides, Burns, the very year before he died, actually offi- 
 ciated as a supervisor; and there is every reason to conclude that 
 lie would soon have been permanently promoted to that rank 
 had not death intervened. Whilst we think that the charge 
 against the Excise Board, of neglecting or ill-using Burns, is 
 undeserved, we are decidedly of opinion that the treatment he 
 received from the superiors of the Board and the Government of 
 the day was infamous. It was a disgrace to them, and niust ever 
 be a source of the deepest regret to all admirers of the poet, that
 
 40 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 they allowed a few random specks of disaffection to rise np 
 between them and the lustre of his genius; and that, too, when it 
 was pervaded and intensified hj the purest patriotism. When 
 the war between Britain and Prance broke out, in 1793, Bui^ns 
 joined a volunteer company that was formed in Dumfries; and, 
 according to the testimony of his commanding officer. Colonel De 
 Peyster, he faithfully discharged his soldierly duties, and was the 
 pride of the corps, whom he made immortal by his verse, especially 
 by the vigorous address beginning — 
 
 " Does Imuglity Gaul invasion threat? 
 
 Then let the loans beware, sir; 
 There's wooden walls upon onr seas, 
 
 And volunteers on shore, sir. 
 The Nitli shall run to Corsincou, 
 
 And Criffel sink in Solway, 
 Ere we permit a foreign foe 
 
 On British ground to I'ally ! " 
 
 Burns was the laureate of the company, " and in that capacity," 
 says Lockhart, " did more good service to the Government of the 
 country, at a crisis of the darkest alarm and danger, than perhaps 
 any one person of his rank and station, Avith the exception of 
 Dibdin, had the power or the inclination to render." 
 
 " His ' Poor and Honest Soger,'" says Allan Cunningham, " laid 
 bold at once on the public feeling; and it was everywhere simg 
 with an enthusiasm which only began to abate wlien Campbell's 
 ' Exile of Erin' and ' Wounded Hussar' were published. Dum- 
 fries, which sent so many of her sons to the wars, rung with it 
 from port to port; and the poet, wherever he went, beard it 
 echoing from house and hall. I wish this exquisite and useful 
 song, with ' Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled,' the ' Song of 
 Death,' and ' Does haughty Gaul invasion threat 1' — all lyrics 
 which enforce a love of country, and a martial enthusiasm into 
 men's breasts— had obtained some reward for the poet. His 
 perishable conversation was remembered by the rich to his preju- 
 dice : his imperishable lyrics were rewarded only by the admiration 
 and tears of his fellow-peasants." 
 
 In the spring of 1793, Burns addi-essed the following letter 
 " To the Hon. the Provost, Bailies, and Town Council of Dum- 
 fries." " Gentlemen, — The literary taste and liberal spii'it of 
 your good town has so ably filled the variovis departments of your 
 schools, as to make it a very great object for a parent to have his 
 children educated in them. Still, to me, a stranger, to give my
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 41 
 
 young ones that education I wisb, at tlie High School, fees which 
 a stranger pays will bear hard upon me. Some years ago, your 
 good town did me the honour of making me an honoi-ary burrress. 
 Will you allow me to request that this mark of distinction may 
 extend so far as to put me on the footing of a real freeman of the 
 town in the schools] If you are so very kind as to grant my 
 request, it will certainly be a constant incentive to me to strain 
 every nerve where I can officially serve; and will, if possible, 
 increase that grateful respect with which I have the honour to be, 
 gentlemen, ikc, — Egbert Burns." ••' The request was at once 
 complied with, to the great gratification of the poet, who was 
 devotedly attached to his children, and desirous above all things 
 to give them a liberal education. " In the bosom of his family," 
 says Mr. Gray, one of the teachers in the Academy, " he spent 
 many a deHghtful hour in du-ecting tlie studies of his eldest son, a 
 boy of uncommon talents. I have frequently found him explaining 
 to this youth, then not more than nine years of age, the English 
 poets from Shakes})eare to Gray ; or storing his mind with 
 examples of heroic virtue, as they live in the pages of our most 
 celebrated English historians. I would ask any person of com- 
 mon candour, if employments like these are consistent with 
 habitual drunkenness." 
 
 But though not systematically intemperate, his habits were too 
 lax and irregular for the community in which he lived, convivial 
 
 * "As to Burns," says Mr. CaiTuthers of Inverness, wi-iting to us on the 
 27th of January, 1866, " I have one scrap for you. You will most likely 
 print the short letter which the poet addressed to the Provost, Bailies, and 
 Town Council of Dumfries, respecting the education of his children. The 
 original draft of the letter, in Burns's handwriting, is in the British 
 Museum ; and when there lately, I copied a part of it which was omitted 
 in publication. After the second paragraph of the printed letter, ending 
 with the words, ' put me on the footing of a real freeman of the town ' of 
 Dumfi-ies, there occurs this passage: — 'That I may not appear altogether 
 unworthy of the favour, allow me to state to you some little services I have 
 lately done a branch of your revenue, the two pennies exigiltle on foreign 
 ale vended within your limits. In this rather neglected article of your 
 income, I am ready to show that within these last few weeks my exertions 
 have secured for you of those duties nearly the sum of ten pounds; and in 
 this, too, I am the only one of the Excise (except Mr. jNIitchell, whom you 
 jyay for his trouble) w'ho took the least conceru in the business.' It will be 
 worth your Avhile seeing," continues Mr. Carruthers, " if the letter is 
 preserved among the Town Council pajicrs, w'hether Burns himself omitted 
 the above passage (which is certainly not in good taste), or whether it was 
 thrown out by Currie." We have been unal)Ie to discover the original, and 
 suspect that the interesting question raised by our esteemed correspondent 
 must continue to remain unanswered.
 
 42 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 tbougli it was ; and many wbo disliked him on otlier grounds 
 magnified his excesses, and made these a pretext for " sending him 
 to Coventry." On one Avell-known occasion our errant poet 
 received the cut direct from some of the i)atrician citizens. 
 During an autumnal evening, in 1794, High Street was gay with 
 fashionable groups of ladies and gentlemen, all passing down to 
 a County ball in the Assembly Eooms.'"' One man, well fitted to 
 be the cynosure of the party, passed up on the shady side of the 
 thoroughfare, and soon found himself to be doubly in the shade. 
 It was Burns. Nearly all knew him, but none seemed willing to 
 recognize him; till Mr. David M'Culloch of Ardwell, noticing the 
 circumstance, dismounted from the horse on which he rode, politely 
 accosted the poet, and proposed that he should cross the street. 
 " Nay, nay, my young friend," said the bard pathetically; " that's 
 all over now!" and, after a slight pause, he quoted two verses of 
 Lady Grizel Bailie's touching ballad : — 
 
 "His bonnet stood aince fu' fair on liis brow, 
 His auld ane looked better than mony ane's new ; 
 But now he lets't wear ony way it will liing, 
 And casts himsel' dowie upon the corn-bin^;. 
 
 "0 ! were we young, as we ainco hae been, 
 We sud liae been galloping doun on j'on green ; 
 And linking it over the lily-white lea ; 
 And wercua my heart light I wad dee. " 
 
 This incident has been adduced as a proof that Burns at this 
 period (admittedly the darkest in his career) had become an object 
 of "imiversal rejection." Never Avas thei'e a greater mistake; and 
 it woidd be even wrong to suppose that the dejection that he felt, 
 and expressed in Lady Grizel's verse, was more than momentary, 
 or otherwise than semi-dramatic. One who is overcome by real 
 heai't distress does not seek to give it vent by measured poetical 
 quotations. Half an hour after the rencontre, Burns and Mr. 
 M'Culloch had some cheerful chit-chat over a glass of punch in 
 the bard's own house, the latter having thoroughly recovei'ed his 
 spirits; and so charming was his discourse, and so sweetly did 
 Bonnie Jean sing some of his recent eft'usions, that the Laiixl of 
 Ardwell left the couple with reluctance to join his fashionable 
 friends in Irish Street. 
 
 Mr. Gray, referriiig to the poet about this time, states that 
 
 * At the foot of the George Inn Close, Irish Street, and now occupied by 
 Mr. Gemmill as an Academy.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 45 
 
 tliougli malicious stories were circulated freely against him, liis 
 early friends gave them no credit, and clung to him through good 
 and bad report. " To the last day of his life," he says, " his judg- 
 ment, his memory, his imagination, were fresh and vigorous as 
 when he composed the ' Cotter's Saturday Night.' The truth is, 
 that Burns was seldom intoxicated. The diamkard soon becomes 
 besotted, and is shunned even by the convivial. Had he been so, 
 he would not long have continued the idol of every party." We 
 have the testimony of the poet's widow that her husband " never 
 drank by himself at home," and that he still continued to attend 
 church, two facts which, apart from other more decided evidence, 
 tell against the stigma that he had become recklessly dissipated in 
 his latest years.* 
 
 Burns's circumstances whilst in Dumfries were humble, but not 
 poverty-stricken. His official income was .£50, extra allowances 
 L . / usually bringing it up to £70; and his share in fines averaged an 
 '^'^ additional £10. "Add to all this," says Chambers, "the solid per- 
 rVU^ quisites whicETie derived from seizures of contraband spirits, tea, 
 and other articles, which it was then the cvistom to divide among 
 the officers, and we shall see that Burns could scarcely be con- 
 sidered as enjoying less than £90 a year."t 
 
 If the i)oet would have accepted money pa3"ment for the glorious 
 coinage of his fancy, he might easily have doubled tliLs income or 
 more; but, with a magnanimity which, however mistaken, illus- 
 trates the unselfishness of his nature, he steadily refused all offers 
 of pecuniary reward for his Iji'ical productions. Of George Thom- 
 son's "Musical Miscellany" Bui-ns was the chief minstrel, but he 
 scorned to barter his melodious contributions for worldly gear, 
 even when " one pound one he sairly wanted." Thomson having 
 ventured to send some cash to the bard on one occasion, drew down 
 upon himself this rebuke, dated Jidy, 1793: — "I assure you, my 
 
 * "When at Ellisland he went pretty often to Dimscore Church. In Dum- 
 fries he went to church frequently in the forenoon, went oftenest to Mr. 
 Inghs's, the Dissenting clergyman. The family had one seat there. Some- 
 times went to St. Michael's Church, which thcAvidow attended regularly. — 
 Mrs. Burns's Memoranda in P. H. Waddell's Burns, Appendix, p. xxiii. 
 — The pew in St. Michael's occupied by the poet and his family was situated 
 in the south-west portion of the church. It was removed in 1869, when the 
 lower part of the venerable fabric was re-seated. It is in the possession of 
 Mrs. Colonel Campbell, daughter of the late Professor James Buchanan, of 
 Edinburgh, by whom it was purchased for ,£7 10s., and it is now at that 
 lady's residence, Hetland, Dumfriesshire. 
 
 t Life and Works of Burns, Vol. IV., p. 124.
 
 44 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 dear Sir, that you truly hurt me with your pecuniary parcel. It 
 degrades me in my own eyes. However, to return it would savour 
 of affectation; but as to any more traffic of that debtor and creditor 
 kind, I swear by that Honour which crowns the upright statue of 
 Robert Burns's Integrity, on the least motion of it, I will 
 indignantly spurn the bypast transactions, and from that moment 
 commence entii'e stranger to you." 
 
 According to the testimony of the bard's eldest son, given to 
 Mr. Chambers, and amply corroborated by others, the house in 
 Mill Sti'eet was of a good order, such as were occupied at that time 
 by the better class of burgesses ; and his father and mother led a 
 life that was compai-atively genteel. " They always had a maid- 
 servant, and sat in their parlour. That apartment, together with 
 two becU'ooms, was well furnished and cai'peted ; and when good 
 company assembled, which was often the case, the hospitable board 
 which they suiTOunded was of a patrician mahogany. There was 
 much rough comfort in the house, not to have been found in those 
 of ordinary citizens; for, besides the spoils of smugglers, as above 
 mentioned, the ])oet received many presents of game and country 
 prodvice from the rui-al gentlefolk, besides occasional barrels of 
 oysters from Hill, Cunningham, and other friends in town; so that 
 he possibly was as much envied by some of his neighbours, as he 
 has since been pitied by the general body of his countrymen."* 
 
 * Lifeaud Works of Burns, Vol. IV., p. 125.
 
 CHAPTER III.— DUMFRIES. 
 
 NOTICE OF BUENS'S CHIEF PRODUCTIONS WHILST RESIDING IN THE TOWN, 
 OF THE LOCALITIES ASSOCIATED WITH HIM, AND OF THE PERSONS COM- 
 MEMORATED IN HIS POEJIS — HIS EVERY-DAY LIFE IN THE BURGH — HIS 
 LAST ILLNESS — HE GOES TO BROW O^^ THE SEA-SIDE IN A VAIN SEARCH 
 FOR HEALTH — ANECDOTES OF HIS SOJOURN THERE — DEATH OF THE 
 BARD — HIS FUNERAL — HIS WIDOW AJ^D CHILDREN — ERECTION OF A 
 MAUSOLEUM OVER HIS GRA\T:— EXHUMATION AND REBUBIAL OF HIS 
 REMAINS — OPENING OF THE MAUSOLEUM VAULT AT THE FUNERAL OF 
 MRS. BURNS — A CAST TAKEN FROM THE SKULL OF THE POET. 
 
 Amid all Biu-ns's changes of mood and condition tlie Muse never 
 long deserted him; and were he tested by his productions in 
 Dumfries, exclusive of his pre^dous poems, he would still be recog- 
 nized as our greatest l3n.ical bard. Indeed, considering the time 
 absorbed in the faithful performance of his w^ork as an exciseman, 
 and of his family duties, and the time spent by him in company, 
 good, bad, or indifferent, we cannot but wonder at the teeming 
 wealth which his mind disclosed during his latest years. 
 
 Fully a himdi-ed songs are the fruit of this period, the list 
 including his most humorous ditties, many of his finest amatory 
 effusions, and all his best battle lyrics. " Willie Wastle," " Auld 
 Rob Morris," and " Duncan Gray," are referable to it ; so are 
 " Contented wi' little and cantie wi' mair," " Cauld kail in 
 Aberdeen," " Meikle thinks my luve o' my beauty," " Ken ye 
 what Meg o' the Mill has gotten T' "What can a young lassie do 
 wi' an auld mani" and " Last May a braw wooer cam doon the 
 lano' glen." With these mirth-moving creations mingle many per- 
 vaded by the soul of pathos, and which one can scarcely name 
 without tearful emotion, such as. " Thou hast left me ever, 
 Jamie," " The lovely lass o' Inverness," " O mirk, mirk is this 
 midnight hour," " My heart is sair, I daurna tell," " How lang 
 and dreary is the night," " Here awa', there awa', wandering 
 Willie," " Farewell ! thou stream that winding flows," " Ye banks 
 and braes o' bonie Doon," "Canst thou leave mc thus, my 
 Katy," " Ae fond kiss, and then we sever," " O wcrt thou
 
 46 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 in the caxxld blast, on yonder lea, on yonder lea." Then, what 
 images of female beauty, warm lieart-afFection, and pictures of 
 rural life, are suggested by the mere titles of others on the list : — 
 " Lovely Polly Stewart,'' " The lassie wi' the lint-white locks," 
 " The fairest maid on Devon's bank," " My wife's a winsome 
 w'ee thing;" with other heroines, to whom the poet promises, " I'll 
 meet you on the lea rigg;" or petitions, "Wilt thou be my dearie 1" 
 or depicts, whilst mixing up other congenial ideas in the verse, 
 " Sae flaxen were her ringlets," " O wat ye wha's in yon toun 1" 
 " Flow gently, sweet Afton," " 'Twas na her bonie blue een was 
 my ruin," " My love is like a red, red rose," *' Love vn\l venture 
 in where it daurna weel be seen," " Yestreen I had a pint o' wine, 
 a place where body saw na'." The catalogue of soft, tender, 
 amatory effusions is enriched also by " The braw, braw lads on 
 Yarrow braes," " There was a lass and she was fail'," " True- 
 hearted was he, the sad swain of the Yarrow," and others having' 
 a sprightlier aii', such as, " My wife's a winsome wee thing," and 
 " O whistle and I'll come to ye, my lad." Sparkling with surpas- 
 sing brilliancy in this galaxy of song are the charming patriotic 
 ballad of "The Soldier's Return;" the noble martial ode, "Brace's 
 Address ;" the lay in which love and patriotism blend beautifully 
 together, "Their groves o' sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon;" 
 the proud lyric of the honest man, though poor, " A man's a 
 man for a' that ;" and the best exponent of what Scotchmen feel 
 towards friends, home, and country, "Auld Langsyne.'' 
 
 Such are a few of the matchless sougs composed by Burns in 
 his little chamber in Bank Street; in his more stylish parlour or 
 closet in the street since honoured with his name; on the Dock 
 meadow, " adown winding Nith," along the side of the river 
 towards ]\Iartinton-ford, or among the ruins of Lincluden Abbey 
 on the opposite bank. While thus employed, he was not only 
 fulfilling his chief mission as a poet, but performing a gi'eat moral 
 work. Many a line was written by Burns which, " dying he might 
 wish to blot ;" but, let it be borne in mind to his everlasting 
 lionour, that he blotted from the book of Scottish Song many 
 foolish and licentious pieces, and that, after divorcing his country's 
 airs from improper company, he matched them with verses that are 
 in eveiy way worthy of such glorious music. 
 
 All the localities in Dumfries, as elsewhere, mentioned in the 
 poet's verse, acquired an interest, however commonplace before — 
 such is the influence of genius; and many scenes or objects in 
 themselves sweet, look more lovely since he sang their praise.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 47 
 
 The river tliat flows past the town was always picturesque; but it 
 seems a finer stream since the words of Burns were penned — 
 
 " Adown winding Nith I did wander, 
 Of Phillis to muse and to sing;" 
 
 and these other lines, 
 
 " As on the banks o' wandering Xith, 
 Ae smiling simmer morn I strayed, 
 And traced the bonie howes and haughs. 
 Where linties sang and lambkins play'd;" 
 
 and since he declared that, as compared with the proudly-swelling 
 Thames, 
 
 " Sweeter far's the ISTith to me, 
 
 Where Comyns aince had high command." 
 
 The huge hill that overlooks the river's conflux with the sea 
 appears to rear a loftier crest since he patriotically protested that 
 before an invading foe should be allowed to desecrate our shores, 
 
 *' The Nith shall ria to Corsincon, 
 And Criffel sink in Solway;" 
 
 and Tobias Bachup's rare old spire was more than ever taken 
 from the categoiy of ordinary buildings, when the loyal bard 
 doomed King George's enemies to 
 
 " Hang as high's the Steeple."* 
 
 Even the King's Arms Inn was no longer quite prosaic, after 
 one of its window panes had scratched upon it the well-known 
 epigram of the gifted and sometimes irreverent ganger — 
 
 " Ye men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering 
 'Gainst poor excisemen? Give the cause a hearing. 
 What are your landlords' rent-rolls? Taxing ledgers ! 
 What premiers, what ? even monarchs' mighty gangers ! 
 Nay, what are priests, those seeming godly wise men ? 
 What are they, pray, but sph-itual excisemen?" 
 
 The Parliamentary elections for the Dumfries Burghs acquired 
 more than a political or local interest as soon as he etherialized 
 them, and rendered the Five Carliiis classical by his fiimous 
 
 * This is the Mid-Steeple in High Street, built in 1707, from a desigu Ijy 
 Mr. Tobias Bachup of Alloa.
 
 48 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 ballad regarding a contest in 1790, when the two I'ival candidates* 
 songlit to cuny favour with " Maggy by the banks o' Nith," 
 " Blinkin' Bess o' Annandale," " Whisky Jean," " Black Joan/' 
 and " Marjory o' the mony lochs," than whom 
 
 " Five wighter carlins wema foun' 
 The South countrie within." 
 
 " Yon roofless tower," the ruined Lincluden Abbey or " Anld 
 College," seems more eerie and romantic since Burns described his 
 nocturnal " vision " beside its shattered walls : — 
 
 " By heedless chance I turned mine eyes, 
 And, by the moonbeam, shook to see 
 A stern and stalwart ghaist arise, 
 ^ Atth'd as minstrels wont to be. 
 
 Had I a statue been o' stane, 
 
 His daiin look had daunted me ; 
 And on his bonnet grav'd was plain, 
 
 The sacred posy — Libertie. " 
 
 And the honoured Nithsdale family get fresh lustre from the 
 *' welcome home " which he gave them — 
 
 " The noble Maxwells and their powers 
 
 Ai'e coming o'er the border. 
 And they'll gae bigg Terreagles' towers 
 
 An' set them a' in order. 
 And they declare Terr eagle's fair, 
 
 For their abode they choose it ; 
 There's no a heart in a' the land 
 
 But's lighter at the news o't."+ 
 
 It would have been well for the bard if he had had no drinkins 
 
 * James Johnstone of Westerhall, the "Border Knight," and Captain 
 Mnier, younger of Dalswinton, the " Sodger Lad." "The Laddies by the 
 Banks o' Nith" and "Epistle to Mr. Graham of Fintry" were written on 
 the same contest ; it ended in the defeat of Johnstone, the Tory canchdate. 
 Three other Election Ballads were wTitten by Burns after he went to Dum- 
 fries, two of them respectmg a contest for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 
 in which the cancbdates were JNIr. Hei-on, of Heron and Kerrouchtrie, Whig, 
 and Mr. Gordon, of Balmaghie, Tory; and a third on a contest for the same 
 seat between jNIr. Heron and the Hon. Montgomery Stewart, which resulted 
 in the return of the former, but he was unseated on petition. 
 
 + The small poem from which this extract is taken was written when Lady 
 Winifred Maxwell, descended from the forfeited Earl of Nithsdale, returned 
 to Scotland, and rebuilt Terreagles House, three miles distant from Dumfries. 
 In the old mansion which it superseded, Mary Queen of Scots rested for a
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 49 
 
 "Iiowf" like the Globe, "with its syren-servant, Anna of the 
 " gowden locks;"* but who without emotion can visit this 
 famous Dumfries tavern — once too familiar with his presence, and 
 often vocal with his song; or sit in the old-fashioned chair, that 
 still continues in " Bnrns's cornei*," and trace his chai'ming lines 
 on the window of its upper parlour — 
 
 "0 lovely PoUy Stewart, 
 
 charmhig Polly Stewart, 
 There's not a flower that blooms in j\Iay 
 That's half so fair as thou art."+ 
 
 night after her defeat at Langside; and a portion of the bed she occupied 
 is still preserved at the seat of the Maxwells. Mrs. Burns says, in her 
 memoranda, that during the EUisland period Burns dined ouce or twice at 
 Terregles House, that the family lived in great style, and she recollects of 
 her husband talking with wonder of the number of wax candles he had seen 
 lighted at siipper. Lady Winifred had a great liking for the j)oet, and called 
 once at the house in Bank Street. She presented him with a sj)lendid snuff 
 box, of oriental mauufactiu-e, on the lid of which w^as a likeness of Queen 
 Mary from an original portrait. AVhen William Nicol Burns went to India 
 he took the box with him, and it was unfortunately broken to pieces soon 
 after he landed. 
 
 * "Annie wi'' the gowden locks" M'as Helen Ann Park, barmaid at the 
 Globe, and niece to its laudladj', Mrs. Hyslop. Burns's admiration of her 
 was more than Platonic. During a vdsit paid by his wife to JNIauchline, he 
 contracted a discreditable liaison with the girl, which resulted in the birth 
 of a daughter. Mrs. Burns adopted the child as a "neibour's bairn," 
 and it was rocked in the same cradle with her own infant. Elizabeth Burns, 
 as she was called, grew up to be one of the bonniest lasses of the town, and, 
 when woman -grown, was wedded to a soldier named Thomson. She is now, 
 we believe, residing, as a widow, at PoUokshaws, in Eenfrewshire. 
 
 + In some of the editions of Burns's Poems, the subjoined verse is given 
 as one of his inscriptions on a window of the Globe : — 
 
 "The grey -beard. Old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures, 
 Grant me "svith gay Folly to live. 
 I grant him his calm-blooded, time-settled pleasures ; 
 But PoUy has raptures to give. " 
 
 Mr. David Dunbar, Dumfries, a great admirer of the poet, possesses a pane 
 of glass on which the following four lines of the charming lyric, "Sae flaxen 
 were her ringlets," are inscribed in the unmistakeable caligraphj'- of the 
 poet : — 
 
 "Her's are the willing chains of love, 
 
 By conquering beauty's sovereign law. 
 But stni my Chloris' dearest charm, 
 She says she lo'es me best of a'." 
 
 An attestation in these terms accompanies the relic:— "The above manu- 
 script, from the hand of the immortal Burns, written on a pane of glass on
 
 50 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 Preserved in the amber of liis imperisliable verse are the names 
 of many persons — some to honour, others to shame — most of 
 which would have been utterly forgotten save for theii- casual 
 association with his own. When Provost Staig's daughter re- 
 covered from a fever under the care of a distinguished Dumfries 
 physician, he canonized the lady in the following lines: — 
 
 "Maxwell, if merit here yoii crave, 
 That merit I deny. 
 Yoa save fair Jessie from the grave! 
 An angel could not die." 
 
 While the same fair lady was being wooed by the swain whom 
 she afterwards wedded — Major William Miller, younger of Dal- 
 swinton, Burns again complimented her, and commemorated the 
 courtship in the charming lyric which begins — 
 
 "True-hearted was he, the sad swain o' the Yarrow, 
 
 And fair are the maids on the baidis o' the Ayr; 
 But by the sweet side o' the Nith's winding river. 
 
 Are lovers as faithful, and maidens as fair: 
 To equal young Jessie, seek Scotland all over ; 
 
 To equal young Jessie, you seek it in vain ; 
 Grace, beauty, and elegance fetter her lover. 
 
 And maidenly modesty fixes the chain." 
 
 And when another Jessie, Miss Lewars, proved a " ministering 
 angel " to liim whilst suffering from his last illness, he expressed 
 his gratitude, and performed for her a similar service, by making 
 her the subject of some of his sweetest I^tIcs and of his best 
 impromptus. Taking up a crystal goblet containing wine and 
 Avater, he wrote upon it the following toast, and then presented to 
 her the brimming chalice : — 
 
 "Fdl me with the rosy wine, 
 Call a toast, a toast divine ; 
 Give the poet's darhng flame. 
 Lovely Jessie be the name : 
 Then thou mayest freely boast, 
 Thou hast given a peerless toast. " 
 
 On Miss Lewars complaining of indisposition, Burns, with the 
 pleasantry which rarely forsook him, said that to provide for the 
 
 one of the windows of the Globe Inn, Dumfries, is presented by John Thom- 
 son, writer in Lockerbie, to jSIr. John Spiers, Glasgow, in token of his 
 friendship and regard, loth Sept., 1824."
 
 BURNS IN DUMFKIESSHIRE. 51 
 
 worst, he would furnish her with an epitaph as companion to the 
 
 toast : — 
 
 "Say, sages, what's the charm ou earth 
 Can turn Death's dart aside ? 
 It is not purity and worth, 
 Else Jessie had not died." 
 
 And when she recovered a little, the poet, saying there was " a 
 poetic reason for it," wrote as follows: — 
 
 "But rarely seen since Nature's birth. 
 The natives of the sky ; 
 Yet still one seraph's left on earth, 
 For Jessie did not die."* 
 
 John Bushby of Tinwald-Downs, who raised himself from 
 humble circumstances to wealth and position, first as a solicitor 
 and then as a banker in Dumfries, was long on friendly terms 
 with Burns; but a quarrel between them brought down upon his 
 head some bitter diatribes, which he scarcely merited; and it 
 would have been better every way had " black-lippit Johnnie " 
 never been made to figure iai the poet's pages. More creditable to 
 Burns are the epigrams by which he has rendered John Syme of 
 Ryedale famous. Mr. Syme is still well remembered in the town 
 as a fine specimen of the old Scottish gentleman, clear-headed, 
 wai-m-hearted, well-cultivated, courteous, full of anecdote and wit; 
 and, as the fashion then went, devoted to the pleasures of the table, 
 which he never relished so much as when Burns was his cronie. 
 AVith them was sometimes associated Dr. William Maxwell of 
 Dumfries;! though, when the trio met, it was generally less as 
 
 * Miss Lewars was afterwards married to Mr. James Thomson, wi-iter, 
 Dumfries. She died in 1855, at the age of seventy-seveu, aud lies interred 
 in the immediate vicinity of the mausoleum. 
 
 f Buras's fervid, emotional nature, strong sense of nationality, and, let us 
 add, animus against the Presbyterian clergy, made him at times a Jacobite; 
 and his abhorrence of arbitrary rule, his sense of justice, and respect for man's 
 natural rights, conspired to make him almost a Jacobin. His friend. Dr. 
 Maxwell, had also sympathies of the same seemingly conflicting nature. A 
 son of the gallant Kirkconuell Maxwell, who went out with Prince Charles 
 in 1745, and became the historian of his expedition, he had a hereditary 
 tendency towards Jacol)itisni ; but, when studying medicine in France, ho 
 caught the rcvolutiouary spirit that was rampant there in 1793, aud ever 
 afterwards retained the imprcssiou which it produced upon his ardent, 
 youthful mind. A more congenial companion Burns could not have 
 possessed, aud no doubt MaxAvell's masculine intellect exercised a large 
 -amount of influence over the poet. lu a notice of Dr. Maxwell's death.
 
 52 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 " tlii'ee meny boys" than as the leading AVhigs of the place (for as 
 snch they were recognized), to discuss politics over a brimming 
 bowl. Among Burns's hapj^iest impromptiis were those addressed 
 by him to his friend Mr. Syme. On the poet sending a dozen of 
 porter from the Jerusalem Tavern to Eyedale, he accompanied his 
 present with the lines : — 
 
 " 0, had the uicalt thy strength of mind, 
 Or hops the flavour of thy wit, 
 'Twere drink for first of human kind, 
 A gift that e'en for Syme were fit." 
 
 On one occasion, when Bums Avas about to take leave of his host 
 at Ryedale, he was pressed to take another glass ; and he fortliwith 
 wrote on the tumbler an answer of consent: — 
 
 " There's death in the cup — sae beware ! 
 
 Nay, more — there is danger in touching ; 
 But wha can avoid the fell snare? 
 
 The man and his wine's sae bewitching !" 
 
 Towards the close of 1795, the poet, when sulfering from declining 
 health, wrote in a less mirthful mood, and paid Syme the finest 
 compliment of all, by declining a tempting invitation to dinner at 
 Ryedale, in the following terms : — 
 
 " No more of your guests, be they titled or not. 
 And cook'ry the fu-st in the nation ; 
 Who is proof to thy personal converse aud wit, 
 Is proof to all other temj)tation. " 
 
 A man of rare worth, Colonel Arentz Schulyer de Peyster, of 
 Mavis Grove, finds merited commemoration in the poet's verse. 
 After honoui-able service in North America, he I'etii'ed to Dumfries, 
 the native town of Mrs. De Peyster; and at the stormy period of 
 the Prench Revolution he turned his military talents to account, 
 by embodying and training the 1st Regiment of Dumfries Volun- 
 
 which appeared in the Z)ea?i/'/7'e.s Times oi 2'2nd October, 1834, it is remarked: 
 — " His intimacy with Burns, whose friend as well privately as professionally 
 he was, aud of whose last illness he was a faithful and affectionate soother 
 in both capacities, has in some measure rendered the name of Maxwell 
 literary property ; while the liberal priuciples of the deceased, his visit to 
 Paris during the early days of the first Revolution, and the well-known 
 denouncement of him and his presumed designs by Burke, gave him a i^er- 
 mauent place in the political history of the country." It was to this gentle- 
 man that Burns, when on his death-bed, presented a pair of pistols as a 
 memorial of their friendship.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 53 
 
 teers, of whicli Burns was a member. " In his person he was tall, 
 soldier-like, and commanding ; in his manners easy, affable, and 
 open; in his affections warm, generous, and sincere."''" He died 
 in 1822, at the advanced age of ninety-six years or more, re- 
 gi-etted by the entire community. The reader will recollect the 
 rhymed epistle which Burns, early in 1796, sent to his commander 
 in answer to some kind inquii-ies regarding his health. No better 
 thing of the kind has the bard produced than the letter beginning — 
 
 " My honoured Colonel, deep I feel 
 Your interest in the poet's weal; 
 Ah! how sma' heart hae I to speel 
 
 The steep Parnassus, 
 Surrounded thus by bolus pill, 
 
 And potion glasses." 
 
 When John Maxwell of Munches,t the greatest agricultural 
 improver of his time near Dumfries, attained to his seventy-first 
 birth-day, Burns closed a complimentary address to him with six 
 lines, which have as much of the bard's peculiar manner as any 
 other product of his muse within so small a compass : — 
 
 "Farewell, auld birkie — Lord be near ye ! 
 And then the Devil he daurna steer ye ; 
 Your friends aye lo'e, your foes aye fear ye : 
 
 For me, shame fa' me, 
 If neist my heart I dinna wear thee, 
 
 While Burns they ca' me." 
 
 In Burns's time the principal brewer at Dumfries was Mr. 
 Gabriel Richardson (provost of the town in 1802 and 1803). 
 Between the poet's family and that of Mr. Richardson there was 
 a good deal of intimacy, and the eldest sons of both were sent on 
 the same day to Mr. Gray's gi'ammar school together. The pro- 
 vost's son grew up and became a great traveller and natui-alist;:}: 
 but, as we have heard him humorously stating, the first notable 
 expeditions he ever made were on the back of the quadruped that 
 
 * Dumfries Courier. 
 
 t "Mr. Maxwell," says Robert Chambers, "was grandson's grandson to 
 theHerries of Queen Mary's day. One cannot learn without a pleasing kind 
 of siirprise, that a relation in the fifth degree of one who was Warden of the 
 West Marches in 1544, should have lived to the close of the French revolu- 
 tionary war, which was the case of Mr. Maxwell, for he died in June, 1814." 
 — Life and Works of Burns, Vol. III., p. 205. 
 
 t Sir John Pdchardsou, born at Nitli Place, Dumfries, in 1787, died iu 
 1865. 
 
 D
 
 64 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 drove a small cotton mill then in full activity at Dumfries, and 
 whicli Burns notices as follows in a letter to the lady of Woodley 
 Park: — "There is a species of the human genus tliat I call the 
 gin-horse class: what enviable dogs they are! Round, and rovmd, 
 and round they go. Mundell's* ox that drives his cotton mill is 
 their exact prototype: without an idea or a wish beyond their 
 circle— fat, sleek, stupid, patient, contented; while here I sit 
 altogether JSTovemberish, a melange of fretfulness and melancholy 
 — not enough of the one to rouse me to passion, nor of the other 
 to repose me in torpor." Burns long predeceased Mr. Gabriel 
 Richardson; but he kept the memoiy of a worthy man green by 
 writing his epitaph beforehand : — 
 
 "Here brewer Grabriel's fire's extinct, 
 And empty all his barrels : 
 He's blest — if as lie brew'd he drink — 
 lu upright, honest morals." 
 
 The poet's daily life in Dumfries is very graphically and fairly 
 described by Robert Chambers in the following passage: — "So 
 existence flows on with Burns in this pleasant southern town. 
 He has daily duties in stamping leather, gauging malt-vats, noting 
 the manufacture of candles, and granting licenses for the transfer 
 of spirits. These duties he performs with fidelity to the king, and 
 not too much rigour to the subject. As he goes about them in the 
 forenoon, in his respectable suit of dark clothes, and with his little 
 boy Robert pei'haps holding by his hand and conversing with him 
 on his school exercises, he is beheld by the general public with 
 respect, as a person in some authority, the head of a family, and 
 also as a man of literary note; and people are heard addressing 
 liim as Mr. Burns — a form of his name which is still prevalent in 
 Dumfries. At a leisure hour before dinner he will call at some 
 house where there is a piano — such as Mr. Newall, the writer's — 
 and there have some young Miss to touch over for him one or two 
 of his favourite Scotch airs, such as the ' Souter's Daughter,' in 
 order that he may accommodate it to some stanzas that have been 
 humming throiigh his brain for tlie last two or three days. For 
 another half-hour he will be seen standing at the head of some 
 cross street, with two or three young fellows — bankers' clerks or 
 
 * This was Dr. Mundell, who, on retiring from professional service in the 
 Eoyal Navy, started, in company with some other gentleman, a cotton 
 factory, which flourished for a number of years, till it was injured by the 
 war with America. He was uncle to the present Mr. Mundell of Bogrie>«
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 55 
 
 'writer chiels' commencing business — whom lie is regaling with 
 sallies of his bright but not always innocent wit; indulging there, 
 indeed, in a strain of conversation so different from what had 
 passed in the respectable elderly writer's mansion, that though he 
 were not the same man, it could not have been more different. 
 Later in the day he takes a solitary walk along the Dock Green 
 by the river side, or to Lincluden, and composes the most part of 
 a new song : or he spends a couple of hours at his folding-down 
 desk, between the fire and window in his parlour, transcribing in 
 his bold round hand the remarks which occur to him on Mr. 
 Thomson's last letter, together with some of his own recently com- 
 posed songs. As a possible variation upon this routine, he has 
 been seen passing along the old bridge of Devorgilla Baliol, about 
 three o'clock, with his sword-cane in his hand, and his black beard 
 unusually well-shaven, being on his way to dine with John Sjone 
 at Eyedale, where young Mi\ Oswald of Avichencruive is to be of 
 the party — or may be in the opposite direction, to partake of the 
 luxuries of John Bushbj'- at Tinwald-Downs. But we presume a 
 day when no such attraction invades. The evening is passing 
 quietly at home, and pleasant-natured Jean has made herself neat, 
 and come in at six o'clock to give him tea — a meal he always 
 takes. The post comes into Dumfries at eight o'clock at night. 
 There is always a group of gentlemen on the street eager to hear 
 the news. Burns saunters out to the High Street, and waits 
 among the rest. The intelligence of the evening is very interest- 
 ing. The Convention has decreed the annexation of the Nether- 
 lands, or the new treason bill has passed the House of Lords, with 
 only the feeble protest of Bedford, Derby, and Lauderdale. These 
 things merit some discussion. The trades lads go off to strong ale 
 in the closes; the gentlemen slide in little groups into the King's 
 Arms Hotel or the George. 
 
 "As for Burns, he will just have a single glass, and a half- 
 hour's chat beside John Hyslop's fire [at the Globe Tavern], and 
 then go quietly home. So he is quickly absorbed in the little 
 naiTow close where that vintner maintains his state. There, how- 
 ever, one or two friends have already established themselves, all 
 with precisely the same virtuous intent. They heartily greet the 
 bard. Meg or John bustles about to give him his accustomed 
 place, which no one ever disputes. And somehow the debate on 
 the news of the evening leads on to other chat of an interesting 
 kind. Then Burns becomes brilliant, and his friends give him 
 the applaiise of their laiighter. One jug succeeds another — mirth
 
 56 BURNS IN DUMrEIESSHIRE. 
 
 aljouuds — and it is not till Mrs. Hyslop has declared tliat they are 
 going beyond all bounds, and she positively will not give them 
 another drop of hot water, that our bard at length bethinks him 
 of retui'ning home, where Bonnie Jean has been lost in peaceful 
 slumber for three hours, after vainly wondering ' what can be 
 keeping Robert out so late the nicht.' Burns gets to bed a little 
 excited and worn out, but not in a state to provoke much remark 
 from his amiable partner, in whom nothing can abate the venera- 
 tion with which she has all along regarded him. And though he 
 beds at a latish hour, most likely he is up next morning between 
 seven and eight,* to hear little Robert his day's lesson in Caesar; 
 or, if the season invites, to take a half-hour's stroll before break- 
 fast along the favourite Dock Green, "f 
 
 Early in January, 179G, the poet's stay at the Globe was pro- 
 tracted far into the morning. There was a fell frost in the air, 
 and a deep snow on the ground, as he passed up the close on his 
 homeward way. Hours elapsed, however, before he reached 
 J home. Affected by the liquor he had taken, and the freezing cold 
 /T*'' of the atmosphere, a drowsiness — dread prelude of the sleep of 
 s ' death — overpoAvered him, and he lay long insensible at the head of 
 the close, where it joins with Shakspeare Street. He had been 
 suffering previously from what Dr. Currie calls "an accidental 
 complaint," Avhich, with the strong medicine given to counteract 
 "^ it, disarmed his constitution, so that the merciless air of the month 
 which, thirty-seven years before, " blew handsel in on Robin," 
 pierced through his frame with unresisted and fatal influence. But 
 for this casual incident, the thread of his existence might possibly 
 have been much prolonged; and better fortune was in store for 
 ' .', M . him had he lived to enjoy it. The political ferment from wliicli 
 ^ ^f*i. he suffered had subsided ; he was acquiring a higher social position 
 ^ #* j4— was no longer a suspected pex'son — was in the fair way of obtain- 
 j,j^mg professional advancement— and was being consoled, in some 
 < I ., degree, for present poverty by rich foretastes of future fame, which 
 ^^! must have been most welcome balm to his proud and womided 
 , . spirit. Burns was never fairly himself after that dreadful morning, 
 though, swan-like, he kept singing under the shadow of death. 
 
 ^- Tlie time should have beeu a httle later. Burus had full sympathy 
 with the sentiment of the old song — 
 
 "Up in the morning's no for me, 
 Up in the morning early." 
 
 f Life and Works of Burns, Vol. IV., pp. 130-132.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 57 
 
 In a letter addressed some time afterwards to his kind friend 
 and patroness, Mrs. Dinilop, he says — " I have lately drank deep 
 of the cup of affliction. The autumn robbed me of my only 
 daughter and darling child. T had scarcely begun to recover from 
 that shock, when I became myself the victim of a most severe 
 rheumatic fever, and long the die spun doubtful ; until, after many 
 weeks of a sick bed, it seems to have turned up life, and I am be- 
 ginning to crawl across my room, and once indeed have been before 
 my door in the street." Wliat an object of interest to his sym- 
 pathising neighbours — the invalided poet, leaning painfully on his 
 staff, yet glad to get a glimpse of the blue heavens once more, and 
 to feel the radiance of the sun, however faint. 
 
 Some time in the following month of March, Miss Grace 
 Aiken, daughter of Bui^us's early patron, Mr. Robert Aiken, 
 of Ayr, when proceeding along the streets of Dumfries to 
 visit her friend Mrs. Coupland, passed by a tall, gaunt, rather 
 slovenly-looking person of sickly aspect, who Tittered an ex- 
 clamation which made her pause. The voice was the voice of 
 Burns, but the figure seemed to her that of quite another man : 
 so altered was he since, ten years before, she had seen him at her 
 father's house. On being lu-gently solicited to accompany her to 
 the residence of Mrs. Coupland, Burns consented, and there con- 
 versed with Miss Aiken and their hostess of other and happier 
 days spent on the banks of Ayr and Doon. Spring came and went 
 without bringing any relief to the doomed bard; and summer found 
 him lying almost hopelessly prostrate in a humble cottage at Brow, 
 ten miles from Dumfries, on the shores of the Solway, whither he 
 had gone in search of health.'^ 
 
 * He liad some intervals of better health, during one of which, in 
 the middle of Aprd, he was present at a meetiug of the St. Andrew's Mason 
 Lodge to which he belonged. The record of the Lodge contains the fol- 
 lowing among its entries: 25tli Dec, 1791 — Burns present. 6th Feb., 
 1792 — Burns present. Philip Ditcher, Esq., of 3rd Regiment of Dragoons, 
 now quartered at Dumfries, admitted apprentice. 14th March, 1792 — Burns 
 present. Chas. Pye, Captains Walker, Watson, and Pearslow, of 3rd Regi- 
 ment of Dragoons, all admitted as apprentices. 31st May, 1792 — Burns 
 present. Stli June, 1792 — Burns present. Ed. Andrews, of the Dragoons, 
 and John Syme, Esq., of Barncailzio, admitted brethren without fees. 22ncl 
 Nov., 1792 — Bm-us present. 30th Nov., 1792 — Burns present, and elected 
 Senior Warden. 30th Nov., 1793 — Burns preseut as Senior Warden. 
 Sam. Clarke, jun., admitted a member. His name does not appear again 
 till 2yth Nov., 1794, and only twice loug afterwards, as follows: 2Sth Jan., 
 1796— on which night Mr. James CTCorgeson, merchant in Liverpool, appeared, 
 and who, being reoommcnded by Brother Burns, was admitted apprentice; 
 14th April, 1796, tlie last minute in which the poet's name occurs.
 
 58 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 Before proceeding thitlier lie told Mrs. Burus that lie thouglit 
 lie was dying, adding the remarkable words — " Don't be afraid; 
 I'll be more respected a hnndred years after I am dead than I am 
 at the i^resent day." On Monday, the 4tli of July, he wrote as fol- 
 lows to theEditor of the " Scots Musical Museum:" — "Mauy a merry 
 meeting this publication has given us, and possibly it may give us 
 more, though, alas ! I fear it. This proti-acting, slow-consuming 
 illness, which hangs over me, will, I doubt much, my ever-dear 
 friend, ai'rest my sun before he has reached his middle career. 
 However, hope is the cordial of the human heart, and I endeavour 
 to cherish it as well as I can." This was the last letter save one 
 that the poet dated from Dumfiies. After writing it he proceeded 
 to Brow, then a hamlet numbei'ing about a dozen houses, the chief of 
 which was an inn, kejit by a Mr. Davidson, who willingly allotted 
 the "chaumer en' " of his little hostelry to Burns as a lodger. ''' There 
 was a chalybeate well about a hundred yards from the poet's 
 residence, that then, as now, drew invalids to the place ; but Brow 
 being, eighty years ago, a station on the route between Dumfries 
 and Carlisle, was less sequestered than it is at the present day. 
 Often great herds of cattle going south rested for a night in the 
 neighbouring nierse, while their drovers proved the best customers 
 that the clachan inn possessed. Fresh air, sea-bathiag, and a 
 powerful medicinal spring were now 2:>laced ^vitliin the reach of the 
 sorely-stricken bard; and they apjieared for a day or two to exercise 
 a beneficial influence upon him. "Would that the effect were 
 lasting and decided! Winds of the South, play with reviving power 
 upon his haggard cheek ; tide of the Sol way, whose praise he sweetly 
 sang, give vigom' to his wasted frame; waters of the Well distill your 
 strongest anodyne to save from an early death the illustrious sufferer, 
 and become ever after famous in his song ! But a power stronger 
 than theirs is at work, with which their healing virtues cannot cope. 
 Mrs. Burns states in her memoranda that her husband used to 
 read the Bible to their boys, and that after his death William was 
 in the habit of remarking, " Mother, I cannot see those sublime 
 things in the Bible that my father used to see." During the last 
 sickness of the bard he often pored over the pages of the Sacred 
 Volume, and said once to his wife, "If the rest of them" — meaning 
 Syme and Maxwell — '' knew that I was so religious, they would 
 
 * The little cabin was remorselessly removed iu 1863, as if it had never 
 been associated with the great poet, and was of no more account than so 
 much \ailgar stone and cla\'.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 59 
 
 laugb. at me."''" One of the few tilings he took with him to Brow 
 was an old pocket Bible; and who shall rashly venture to say that 
 when studying it, as he did, he found "no balm in Gilead" when 
 all medicinal influences proved in vain? 
 
 Some time before the poet's illness his friendly intercourse Avith 
 Mrs. Walter Biddel was interrui^ted ; but it was renewed on Sol way 
 side under cii'cumstances which she has herself naiTated. The lady 
 of Woodley Park was at this time residing in the vicinity of Brow 
 for the benefit of her health; and on the second day of the poet's 
 sojourn there she sent her carriage, with a request that he would 
 favour her with a visit— all her coldness towards him having 
 vanished when she heard of his dangerous condition. When he 
 came, she says, "the stamp of death was imprinted on his features; 
 and his first salutation was, ' Well, madam, have you any commands 
 for the other world !' " to which she replied, that it seemed a doubt- 
 ful case which of them should be there soonest, though she hoped 
 he would get time to "svrite her epitaph. He showed great concern 
 about his literary fame, lamenting that he had not put his 
 tinpublished papers in a state of arrangement, a task which he 
 could not now undertake. JNIrs. Riddel " had seldom seen his 
 mind greater or moi'e collected " than on this occasion. Her 
 account of the interview closes with the sorrowful intimation — 
 " The next day I saw him again, and we parted to meet no 
 more." Mr. James Gracie, banker, Dumfries,! having inquired 
 after the poet's health, and offered to send a carriage to bring 
 him home, received an answer which breathed a scintillation of 
 hope. "It would be doing injustice to this place," says the 
 invalid, " not to acknowledge that my rheumatisms have derived 
 great benefits from it ah-eady; but, alas! my loss of appetite stUl 
 
 * Memoranda, p. xxiv. 
 
 t Mr. Gracie was on terms of great intimacy with Burns, and in reference 
 to liis burghal rank as Dean of Guild, Avas complimeuted l)y the poet in the 
 foUoM'ing "rough and ready" epigram: — 
 
 " Gracie, thou art a man of worth. 
 Oh be thou Dean for ever ! 
 
 May he be to hell henceforth 
 
 vVho fau'ts thy weight or measure." 
 
 On a warm summer day the friends met at a funeral in St. Michael's church- 
 yard. When the company were about to separate, Mr. Gracie said, "Burns, 
 as the Aveather is so hot, I shall be liappj' to treat you to a glass of porter." 
 "Take away the final r," replied the poet, with his usual readiness, "and 
 I'll accept your offer."
 
 (50 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 continues." He added that lie wonld not requii'e to take advantage 
 of Mr. Grade's kind offer till tlie beginning of the following week. 
 Next day he wrote a letter to his wife — the last of countless com- 
 munications in prose and verse sent by him to the faithful sharer of 
 his fortunes. Beautiful in sentiment and diction, it is addressed 
 to "My Dearest Love," tells her that he has reaped benefit from his 
 stay at Brow, expresses happiness on learning fi-om Miss Jessie 
 Lewars that the family are all well, and closes with saying that he 
 would see her on Tuesday next; altogether a beautiful, though 
 unconscious, winding-up of the poet's written intercourse with 
 his Bonnie Jean, 
 
 Burns being off duty, his salary was slightly redviced, and, 
 like the "puii- tenant bodies" spoken of in "The Twa Dogs," he 
 was sometimes rather " scant o' cash" at Brow. The " halesome 
 parritch, chief o' Scotia's food," was the only dish he could 
 take ; and port wine was prescribed for the purpose of recruit- 
 ing his sti-ength. His landlord, Mr. Davidson, did not deal 
 in wines, and on one occasion, it is said, when the bard's stock 
 of money as well as of port was exhausted, he, though ill-fitted 
 for the journey, travelled the distance of a mile to Clarence- 
 field, in order to see if Mr. John Burney, who kept an inn there, 
 and who was married to a daughter of Mr. Davidson's, would help 
 him in his time of need. Placing an empty bottle on the counter, 
 he asked for a bottle of port wine ; and when that was handed to 
 him, he whispered to Mr. Burney that " the muckle deil had got 
 into his pouch, '^ and was its only occupant;" but, taking liis watch 
 seal in his hand (the veritable seal on which his armorial bearing 
 was engravedt), he tendered it to the landlord as a security. The 
 
 * The same idea is expressed in the poem addressed to Collector Mitchell, 
 "Alake, alake, the meikle Deil 
 
 Wi' a' liis -witches 
 Are at it, skelpin ! jig and reel, 
 
 In my poor ponclies. " 
 
 f When Burns, ui March, 179.i, commissioned Mr. Cunningham to get a 
 Highland pebble converted into a watch seal, his directions about the en- 
 graving of it were as follows: — "On afield, azure, a hoUy-busli, seeded, 
 proper, in base ; a shepherd's pipe and crook, saltier-wise, also, proper in 
 chief, on a wreath of the colours, a woodlark perching on a sjorig of bay- 
 tree, proper, for crest. Two mottoes : round the top of the crest, Wood 
 Notes Wild ; at the bottom of the shield, in the usual place. Better a icee 
 bush than nae hlekV We are indebted for the above anecdote to Mr. Scott, 
 the inteUigent schoohnaster of Clareucelield, to whom it was related by 
 Mrs. Burney, some years before her death, which happened about twenty -five 
 years ago. She also gave to Mr. Scott the copy of the Bible used by Burns
 
 BURNS IX DUMFRIESSHIRE. Gl 
 
 landlady, who was standing by, observing that Burns was abont 
 to unfasten the seal, stamped indignantly with her foot by way 
 of protest, wliile her husband, in the same generous mind as her- 
 self, pushed the poet gently to the door, making liim welcome to 
 the wine without money and without pledge. 
 
 Assuming that this anecdote is true, as it has been furnished on 
 good authority, it would be wrong to infer from it that Burns 
 could not have readily obtained as much -svine as he requii'ed in a, 
 different way. A word from him to Mrs. lliddel, or to any one of 
 a dozen friends in Dumfries, would have been promptly responded 
 to with a plentiful supply of port, or any other cordial of which 
 he stood in need. It is right for us further to state that when 
 Mr. Graham of Fintry heard of the poet's illness, though un- 
 acquaiuted with its dangerous nature, he offered his assistance 
 towards procuring him the means of preserving his health, but 
 that the letter, dated on the 15tli July, reached its destination 
 when too late to be of service. And it is also worth mentioning, 
 on the authority of ]\Ir. Fiudlater, that Commissioner Graham, 
 regretting his inabiKty to continue the poet's full salary, sent him 
 a private donation of £5, which nearly or totally made up the 
 deficit. 
 
 Many kindly attentions were paid to the poet by the people of 
 the neighbourhood. He was invited one evening to tea by Mrs. 
 Craig, the wife of the Rev. John Craig, minister of the parish; and 
 he made an effort to appear at the manse, and to converse in his 
 usual animated manner. Mr. Ci'aig being laid aside at the time 
 by ill health, the honours of the house, afterwards so renowned for 
 its hospitality, were done by Mrs. Craig and her daughter, Miss 
 Agnes Craig, who subsequently became the wife of the Eev. 
 Henry Duncan,'" her father's successor. Miss Craig, who had a fine 
 literary taste, was a warm admii-er of the poetry of Bui'ns, and 
 had manifested the deepest interest in the poet since he came to 
 reside in the parish. She was much struck with the debilitated 
 feme and melancholy au* of the great man, who was too visibly 
 hastening to the grave; and she remembered ever afterwards the look 
 
 when lodging at Brow, saying that "it was much used by him when there." 
 Mr. Burney is still remembered at Clarencefield as a worthy, benevolent 
 gentleman. His house is the fifth in the village ; and besides occupjang 
 it as a respectable hotel, he was tenant of a large farm in the parish. A 
 slightly ditl'ercnt version of the anecdote about his kindness to Burns was 
 recently communicated to a ucwsi)aper by Mr. R. P. Drummond of I'erth. 
 
 * Afterwards Dr. Henry ■ Duncan, distinguished as the origiuator of 
 Sa\angs Banks, and for his high literary and scientific attainments.
 
 62 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 and tone with which he described himself to her mother as " a poor 
 pktcked pigeon." In the desperate game of life, which he had 
 played often wildly and not well, he had been a loser; and he felt 
 himself utterly bankrupt. Such at least was the moui'nful feeling 
 of the hour. In the course of the evening the declining summer 
 sun happened to shine in strongly through the window, and Miss 
 Craig, to save him from supposed annoyance, hastily rose to pull 
 down the blind ; but the dying poet prevented her, saying, " Let 
 the sun shine in upon us, my dear young lady; he has not now 
 long to shine for me." 
 
 Had the poet's mind been kept at ease as regards worldly matters, 
 his case might possibly have been redeemed from utter desperation ; 
 but during the critical second week of his residence at Brow 
 he received a letter from a Dumfries solicitor, Mr. Matthew 
 Penn, reqiiiring payment of a bill, amounting to £7 4s., due to 
 Ml'. "Williamson, draper, for his volunteer imiform. It had been 
 simply placed with other over-due accounts in the hands of the 
 legal gentleman, as that seemed the best mode for getting them 
 discharged. It contained no threat; but Burns's mind was sa 
 unhinged by disease that the missive appeared to him the very 
 language of menace. Had he been in health, his knowledge of 
 business would have enabled him to see the real meaning of Mr. 
 Peun's letter: as matters stood, it told upon him with overwhelming 
 force. " A rascal of a haberdasher" — thus he wrote to his cousin 
 Mr. James Burnes, at Montrose — " to whom I owe a considerable 
 bill, taking it into his head that I am dying, has commenced a 
 process against me, and will infallibly put my emaciated body 
 into jail. Will you be so good as accommodate me, and that by 
 return of post, with ten pounds." On the same day (12th July) 
 he used similar language in a letter to Mr. George Thomson : — 
 " After all my boasted independence, curst necessity compels me 
 to implore you for five pounds. A cruel scoundrel of a haberdasher, 
 to whom I owe an account, taking it into his head that I am 
 dying, has commenced a process, and will infallibly put me into 
 jail. Do, for God's sake, send me that sum, and that by return of 
 post." Both of the gentlemen promptly responded to the poet's 
 heartrending appeal. Burns's health, as we have seen, had 
 slightly improved, and he had penned at Brow the charming lyi'ic 
 — alas that it was his last! — "Faii-est maid on Devon's banks," 
 when the receipt of this la"\vyer's letter provoked a dangerous 
 relapse, "Home, home, home — if only to die!" Such was now 
 the language of his heart.
 
 r^Y~.*0\ • ■'•-■-'^^ BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 63 
 
 Allan Cunningham, wlio was then residing at or near Dumfries,* 
 says: — "The poet returned on the 18th in a small spring-cart. 
 The ascent to his house was steep, and the cart stopped at the foot 
 of the Mill-hole Brae: when he alighted he shook much, and stood 
 with difficulty; he seemed unable to stand upright. He stooped 
 as if ill pain, and walked tottering towards his own door : his looks 
 were hollow and ghastly, and those who saw him then expected 
 never to see him in life again."t The same author has given an 
 affecting picture of the state of public feeling in the town during 
 the brief interval between Burns's return and " the last scene of 
 all." Dumfries, he says, "was like a besieged place. It was known 
 he was dying, and the anxiety, not of the rich and the learned 
 only, but of the mechanics and peasants, exceeded all belief. 
 Wherever two or three people stood together their talk was of 
 Burns, and of him alone. They spoke of his history, of his person, 
 of his works, of his family, of his fame, and of his untimely and 
 approaching fate, with a warmth and an enthusiasm which will 
 ever endear Dumfries to my remembrance. All that ho said or 
 was saying — the opinions of the physicians (and JMaxwell was a 
 kind and skilful one) were eagerly caught up and reported from 
 street to street. . . . As his life drew near to a close, the eager 
 yet decorous solicitude of his fellow-townsmen increased. It is the 
 practice of the young men of Dumfries to meet in the street 
 during the hours of remission from labour, and by these means I 
 had an opportunity of witnessing the general solicitude of all 
 ranks and of all ages. His differences with them on some import- 
 ant points were forgotten and forgiven : they thought only of his 
 genius, of the delight his compositions had diffused; and they 
 talked of him with the same awe as of some departing spirit whose 
 voice was to gladden them no more."| 
 
 The dying bard was laid in the room to the south on the second 
 floor. Upon the scenes which have, so to speak, localised this 
 little dormitory in the hearts of all the poet's loving votaries, 
 tearful memory often "broods:" his return to it from Brow, so 
 terribly shattered that Mrs. Burns was struck nearly dumb with 
 grief; the letter written by him to his father-in-law on the same 
 day — the last words he ever penned — praying for Mrs. Armour's 
 
 * Cunningliam was little more than twelve years of age at this time, and 
 had come to Dumfries to leara the trade of a mason. When in his appren- 
 ticeship, the future poet and noveHst helped to build the Burgh Academy 
 and the Episcopal Chapel in Buccleuch Street, nowoccupied by the Wesleyans. 
 
 t Lockhart's Life of Bums, p. 279. t Ibid, p. 279.
 
 64 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 presence, as Mrs. Burns was daily expecting to be confined, and 
 lie felt that Lis own end was drawing nigh; the fitful flashes of 
 kindly humour which escaped from him, as, when he prayed a 
 brother volunteer not to let the awkward squad fire over him ; the 
 hopeless symptoms that set in on the 1 9th — a tremor that shook 
 his bodily system, a fever that fired his blood and touched his 
 brain; the dawn of the 20th, bringing no relief, so that Maxwell 
 begins to despair — Jessie Lewars, however, bearing up heroically 
 while ministering to the dying patient, and Bonnie Jean stealing in 
 every now and then from her own bedroom opposite to see how he 
 fares ; while Syme, Findlater, and others pass up stairs to take a fare- 
 well look of their illustrious friend; the ensuing night, forerunner of 
 the long, starless night of the grave; the morning of the 21st, Avhen 
 his life came to be measured by moments, for long before meridian 
 tlie spirit of Burns, recalled from earth, had passed forever away — 
 his last Avords, according to the testimony of his eldest son, having 
 been a muttered execration on the legal agent by whom his closing 
 days had been unintentionally embittered and curtailed. 
 
 The local newspaper, published a few days afterwards, contained 
 the following intimation of the mournful event: — "Died here, on 
 the morning of the 21st inst., and in the thirty-eighth year of his age, 
 Egbert Burns, the Scottish bard. His manly form and pene- 
 trating eye strikingly indicated extraordinary mental vigour. For 
 originality of wit, rapidity of conception, and fluency of nervous 
 phraseology, he was unrivalled. Animated by the fire of nature, 
 he uttered sentiments Avhich by their pathos melted the heart to 
 tenderness, or expanded the mind by their sublimity. As a lumin- 
 ary emerging from behind a cloud, he arose at once into notice; and 
 his works and his name can never die while living divine Poesy 
 shall agitate the chords of the human heart." 
 
 These words but inadequately express the loss which Scotland 
 and the world sustained by the premature demise of this gifted, 
 and, with all his defects, still glorious son of song. A sympathy 
 for the varied sufferings he had undergone, a regret for the neglect 
 he had experienced, now mingled with and intensified the homage 
 given to his genius, and caused his faults of life to be over- 
 looked, if not forgotten. Intense was the feeling of sorrow that 
 prevailed in Dumfries and neighbourhood when it was known 
 that the mighty heart of the man Avho had long given life and 
 lustre to the locality was throbless. He had been, generally 
 speaking, honoured and appreciated by the people of the place ; 
 but when he lay hushed in the sleep of death, he became to
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. G5 
 
 them doubly dear. All deplored the loss of such a distinguished 
 citizen, and shared in the general lamentation that so little had 
 been done by the dignitaries and rulers of the nation to keep 
 him in worldly comfort and economize his precious life. And 
 yet, whilst we share this painful feeling, we are inclined to think 
 that Bums's fame has benefited by the pity which his fate 
 awakens. If he had received a greater share of "good things" 
 in this life, been feted, caressed, and pensioned, the world might 
 have not the less admired his productions, but he would have 
 awakened fiir less of personal interest. We might in that case 
 have liked Burns's poems equally well (though even this is 
 doubtful), but we would not have loved or heeded so much 
 Burns himself Thus, if this theory be true, his earthly crosses 
 and poverty enriched the heritage of his endless fame, and 
 dowered it as well " by the tears " as by " the praises of all 
 time." 
 
 The remains of the bard were removed to the Trades' Hall, 
 in High Street, on the evening of Sabbath, the 24th of July, 
 preparatory to the funeral, which, at the request of his brother 
 volunteers, it was resolved shoiild be conducted with military 
 honours. A regiment of the Cinque Ports Cavalry, and the 
 Fencible Infantry of Angusshire, then quartered in Dumfries, 
 offered their assistance on the solemn occasion; and the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood signified a 
 wish to take part in the procession. On Monday, the 25th, in 
 the presence of an immense crowd of tearful symjjathizers, the 
 funeral train moved slowly down to St. Michael's cemetery. 
 A party of the volunteers appointed to perform the requisite 
 military service at the interment were stationed in front, with 
 their ai'ms reversed ; the other members of the company sup- 
 ported or surrounded the coffin, on which were placed the hat 
 and sword of their illustrious fellow-soldier ; the civilians were 
 ranged in the rear. In this order the procession moved onward ; 
 whilst the streets through which it passed were lined by the 
 horse and foot soldiers, and the accompanying band played the 
 " Dead March " in " Saul." Arrived at the place of sepulture, the 
 body was committed to the tomb ; three volleys of musketry 
 fired over the grave completing the affecting ceremony. "The 
 spectacle," says Dr. Curric, "was in a high degree grand and 
 solemn, and accorded with the general sentiments of sympathy 
 and soiTOw which the occasion had called fox'th." On the 
 forenoon of this sad day the newly-made widow was seized with
 
 66 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. 
 
 the pains of labour, and, just as the grave closed over her husband's 
 dust, gave birth to a son, who died in infancy. 
 
 Of the other members of the bard's family, only one survives, 
 William Nicol. Both he and his broth ei*, James Glencairn, 
 obtained commissions in the East India Company's army ; and, 
 after a highly honourable career, each attained the rank of 
 lieutenant-colonel. They resided together for many years at 
 Cheltenham, honoiired and beloved for their benevolence and 
 amiability. The eldest son, Robei-t, went to London in 1804, 
 where he held a clerkship in the Stamp Office till 1833, at 
 which date he retired to Dumfries. He possessed a considerable 
 amount of poetical genius, was a good musician, an excellent 
 mathematician and linguist ; and whilst he mentally resembled 
 his father more than either of his brothers, he was the only one 
 of the family in whom the features of the bard were distinctly 
 traceable, llobert's conversational powers were also of a high 
 order, and his company, as may be well supposed, was much 
 sought after and relished by such strangers as his father's fame 
 attracted to Dumfries. He died in 1857; his brother James, in 
 1805; and both were laid beside their father's dxist, under the 
 mausoleum. 
 
 Mrs. Burns continued to reside till her death in the house 
 which has been hallowed by her husband's presence, an object of 
 universal respect on account of her many virtues, and the 
 interest which attached to her as the " Bonnie Jean " of his 
 verse — the imcomjilaining, fond, and faithful companion of his 
 wedded life. By the proceeds of a fund raised for the widow, 
 she was enabled to bring up her sons in a creditable way. 
 In 1817, the Hon. W. Maule (afterwai'ds Lord Panmure) settled a 
 pension on Mrs. Burns of £50 a year, after a vain attempt to 
 obtain for her a Government annuity : this she enjoyed about 
 eighteen months, when her son James, having been promoted to a 
 situation in the Indian Commissariat, made such arrangements 
 for her comfortable maintenance as allowed her to resign the 
 pension, which, if so disposed, she might have retained for life.* 
 
 * The i^oet, by liis wife Jean Armour, had nine children — five sous and 
 four daughters ; two of the former, and the whole of the latter, died in 
 childhood. Robert, the eldest son, left a daughter, Eliza, who married 
 Dr. Everitt, a surgeon in the East India Company's service. She has been 
 long a ■«'idow, and now resides, with her only daughter, Miss Everitt, in 
 Belfast. Colonel William N. Burns is a widower, without issue. Colonel 
 James G. Burns left a daughter by his first marriage, who married Dr.
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. - 67 
 
 For maay years, a simple slab of freestone, placed over the 
 poet's grave by his widow, was his only material monument. 
 Eventually, however, a general movement was made for the 
 erection of a mausoleum in some degree worthy of his genius ; 
 and as money flowed in liberally for the scheme, from almost 
 every quarter, and from lowly peasants and mechanics up to 
 Majesty itself, the work was proceeded with and completed in 
 1815. The mausoleum, in form like a Grecian temple, was de- 
 signed by Mr. T. F. Hunt of London ; and a mural sculpture for 
 the interior was supplied by an Italian artist named Turnerelli, 
 intended to embody one of the poet's own conceptions — the 
 genius of Coila finding her favourite son at the plough, and 
 throwing her inspiring mantle over him. The figures were 
 critically inspected by a committee of geirtlemen, including the 
 poet's brother, Gilbert, who signified his high satisfaction with the 
 graceful appearance of Coila, and the etherial lightness of her 
 mantle ; and under the guidance of his correct eye and tenacious 
 memory, the sculptor was enabled to render more faithful the 
 likeness of the pi'incipal figure. As a whole, however, the 
 statuary is not of the highest class, though it has been sometimes 
 greatly underrated. This much may be said in its favour, that 
 its meaning is intelligible ; and that if it does not satisfy fastidious 
 art-critics, it appeals successfully to the popular eye and heart. 
 
 There being no room at the north corner of the churchyard 
 where Burns was at first buried for the erection of a bulky 
 structure, the mausoleum was built on a site in the south-east, 
 so that the body had to be transjjorted thither — a delicate duty, 
 which was performed with as much privacy as possible. On the 
 19th of September, Mr. William Grierson of Boatford, the zealous 
 secretary to the committee, Mr. James Thomson, superintendent 
 of the monument, Mr. Milligan, builder, and Mr. James Bogie, 
 gardener, TeiTaughty, " proceeded to the spot before the sun had 
 risen, and made so good use of their time that the imposing cere- 
 mony was well-nigh completed before the public had time to 
 assemble, or in fact were aware of the important duty in which 
 the other's had been engaged."''' Two sons of the poet had been 
 laid beside him — Maxwell Burns, the posthumous child, who 
 
 Berkeley Hutchinson. They had a son and three dauf,'htcrs, who, with their 
 mother, still survive. By a second marriage he had one child, Miss Burns, 
 who also survives. Such are the existing descendants of the national bard 
 in 1870. 
 
 * M'Diarmid's Picture of Dumfries, p. 85.
 
 68 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE, 
 
 died in 1799, and Francis Wallace Burns, wlio died in 1803, 
 aged fourteen. " On opening the grave the coffins of the boys 
 were found in a tolerably entire state, placed in shells, and 
 conveyed to the vault with the greatest care. As a report had 
 been spread that the principal coffin was made of oak, a hope was 
 entertained that it would be possible to transport it from the 
 north to the east corner of St. IMichael's without ojiening it, 
 or disturbing the sacred deposit it contained. But this hope 
 proved fallacious. On testing the coffin, it was found to be 
 composed of the ordinary materials, and ready to yield to 
 the sliglitest pressure ; and the lid removed, a spectacle was 
 unfolded which, considering the fame of the miglity dead, has 
 rarely been witnessed by a single human being. There were 
 the remains of the great poet, to all appearance nearly entii'e, and 
 I'etaining various traces of vitality, or rather exhibiting the 
 features of one who had newly sunk into the sleep of death : 
 the lordly forehead, arched and high, the scalp still covered with 
 hair, and the teeth perfectly firm and white. The scene was so 
 imposing that most of the workmen stood bare and uncovered — as 
 the late Dr. Gregory did at the exhumation of the remains of the 
 illustrious hero of Bannockburn — and at the same time felt their 
 frames thrilling with some undefinable emotion, as they gazed on 
 the ashes of him whose fame is as wide as the world itself. But 
 the effect was momentary; for when they proceeded to insert a 
 shell or case below the coffin, the head separated from the trunk, 
 and the whole body, with the exception of the bones, ciiimbled 
 into dust."* When the remains had been religiously gathered 
 up, they were placed in a new coffin, and interred beside the dust 
 of the two boys. The vault was then closed ; and the party, 
 solemnized by their close communion with "the bviried majesty " 
 of this Coila-crowned king of song, left the place. 
 
 Nineteen years passed by, and the vault of the mausoleum was 
 opened to receive a new inmate — the poet's widow, who died after 
 sui'viving liim the long period of thirty-eight years. How, on the 
 night preceding the interment (30th March, 1834), a number of 
 gentlemen, after receiving due authority, descended into the vault, 
 and obtained a cast of the poet's skull for a phrenological purpose, 
 is well known.! Dr. Blacklock of Dumfries, one of the party, 
 
 * 
 
 Picture of Dumfries, p. SQ. 
 t It was Mr. James Fraser (afterwards Bailie Fraser) wlio took the cast, 
 and he still retains the original matrix. A cast of the skull having been
 
 BURNS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE. G9 
 
 drew up a report of the appearance of tlie cranium, from whicli 
 it appears that it was found to be in a high state of preservation. 
 "The bones of the face and palate," he says, "were also sound; 
 and some small portions of black haii', with a very few gray haii's 
 intermixed, were observed wliUe detaching some extraneous matter 
 from the occij)ut." When the vault was once more opened, for 
 the interment of Burns's eldest son, in May, 1857, the skull of the 
 bard was found to have altered very little since the cast had been 
 taken from it. To secure its better preservation, the vacant space 
 of the enclosing casket Avas filled with pitch, after wliich the 
 precious " dome of thought '' was restored to its position, to be no 
 more disturbed, we trust, till the day of doom. 
 
 transmitted to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, Mr. George Combe 
 drew up from it au elaborate paper on the cerebral development of the 
 poet. He laid great stress upon its size, 22} inches in circumference, and 
 upon the extreme actiAdty of brain, indicated by other data. Commenting 
 upon the whole, Mr. Combo said: — " Xo phrenologist can look upon this 
 head, and consider the circumstances in which Bums was placed, ■\\"itliout 
 Aavid feelings of regi'et. Burns must have wallied the earth with a conscious- 
 ness of great superiority over his associates, in the station in which he Avas 
 placed — of powers calculated for a far higher sphere than that which he was 
 able to reach — aud of passions which he could with difiBculty restrain, and 
 wliich it was fatal to indulge. If he had been placed from infancy in the 
 higher ranks of life, liberally educated, and employed in pursuits corres- 
 ponding to his powers, the inferior portion of his nature would have lost its 
 energy, while his better qualities would have assumed a decided and perma- 
 nent superiority.'* 
 
 s
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 EUR-VS AND THE REV. MR. KIRKPATRICK — THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 When Buru.s came to reside at Ellisland he soon found that the parish 
 minister, the Rev. Joseph Kirkpatrick, entertained very different sentiments 
 from his own in regard to the Stuart dynasty; yet he not infrequently 
 made his appearance in the parish church. A day of thanksgiving for the 
 mercies conferred by the Eevohition having been appointed by the General 
 Assembly to be observed on the 5th Nov., 17SS, Mr. Kirkpatrick took occasion, 
 during the service in the church, to stigmatise the persecutions that disgraced 
 the reigns of Charles II. and his brother James. The poet was present, and 
 was highly indignant at the language employed by the worthy minister. 
 On his return from church he actually wrote a letter to a London newspaper, 
 the Star, complaining of the treatment which the Stuarts received on such 
 occasions. Burns never could have approved of the persecutions of the 
 Covenanters under the Stuart family, for he has told us what he thought of 
 the Solemn League and Covenant ; but from national sentiment, more than 
 from anything like deliberate conviction, he was a sort of Jacobite. When 
 we look to his strong love of constitutional liberty, we must admit that his 
 Jacobitism was an inconsistency in his character. 
 
 It may here also be noticed, as one of those incidents or coincidences which 
 often occur in biography, that about forty years after Burns came to dwell 
 in Duuscore, there took up his abode iu the same parish a man who has 
 done more perhaps than any other critic to fling a splendid light on the true 
 characteristics of the poet's genius. In 1S27, Thomas Carlylc, then newly 
 married, came to reside at Craigenputtock, a smaU estate belonging to his 
 wife, daughter of Dr. Welsh, and a lineal descendant of John Knox. It was 
 at Craigenputtock that Carlyle wrote for the Edinburgh Review that 
 magnificent essay on Burns that has given the tone to most of the Burns 
 criticism that has since appeared, Carlyle also frequently attended the
 
 72 APPENDIX. 
 
 parisli church, and was on good terms with the minister, the late Dr. Brydon. 
 Two ministers had come between Mr. Kirkpatrick and Dr. Brydon, namely, 
 the late Dr. Inglis, of Lochrutton, and the Rev. Cunningham Burnside, 
 father of the late George Burnside, minister of Urr. 
 
 BURNS AND WORDSWORTH. 
 
 Cumberland may be called the near neighbour of Dumfriesshire, though 
 the Solway rolls between the two counties. The bold Cumberland moun- 
 tains may be seen from almost every part of the Scottish shire, while the 
 higher ranges of that shire, crowned with Galloway Criffel to the west, are 
 as conspicuous from the English coast. But apart from material or geo- 
 graphical considerations, what a poetic tie might have been formed between 
 Cumberland and Dumfriesshire during the ijeriod embraced in our narrative! 
 AVhile the genius of Burns was rapidly burning to its socket in Dumfries- 
 shire, there frequently dwelt in contiguous Cumberland the greatest of all 
 her sons, a tall and somewhat ungamly young man, simple in manners and 
 in garb, but full of fine imagination and poetic enthusiasm, not quenched, 
 but only fanned by high literary culture. This was William Wordsworth, 
 only eleven years younger than Burns, and destined to rival the Scottish 
 bard himself as a ga-eat and original jDoetic genius. Both from native tem- 
 perament and carefully formed opinions, Wordsworth was just the man to 
 appreciate and enjoy a poet like Burns, and we have his own authority both 
 in prose and verse for saying that he did admire that poet exceedingly, and 
 eagerly entered on the original path he had opened up. Burns and Words- 
 worth, the one turned of thirty and the other little above twenty, were for 
 a considerable period so near each other that their eyes may frequently have 
 rested at the same moment upon the summit of Skiddaw or of Criffel; yet 
 they never met, and it is likely enough that the elder poet never heard of 
 the existence of the younger one. But had they met and conversed together, 
 or formed a friendship based on kindred genius, what precious additions to 
 literary history and the biography of Burns might have been the result. 
 The younger, yet more sober bard, might have soothed and restrained the 
 fervent spirit of the elder, while cheering him with his admiration and 
 sympathy. That elder bard, again, might have given a fresh stimulus, and 
 probably a better direction, to the genius of the young Cumbrian, who was 
 girding himself, somewhat perversely, for a war with the critics of his age 
 on behalf of simplicity and nature in poetry, qualities which at first were 
 often caricatured rather than illustrated by his own example. 
 
 When Wordsworth and his sympathetic sister Dorothy visited Dumfries,
 
 APPENDIX. 73 
 
 seven years after Burns's death, he mused mournfully over the grave of his 
 mighty departed brother, whom he had so passionately admired but had 
 never seen. The three poems he wTote on the occasion were worthy of the 
 great author and his great subject. We just quote the following lines as 
 illustrating some of our remarks : — 
 
 Alas ! where'er the current tends, 
 Regret pursues, and with it blends, — 
 Huge CrifFel's hoary top ascends. 
 
 By Skiddaw seen — 
 Neighbours we were, and loving friends 
 
 We might have been. 
 ****** 
 
 The tear will start, and let it flow; 
 Thou poor inhabitant below. 
 At this dread moment, even so. 
 
 Might we together 
 Have sat and talked where gowans blow, 
 
 Or on wild heather. 
 
 We also give the following, as showing how the one great genius appreciated 
 and followed the other : — 
 
 Fresh as the flower whose modest worth 
 He sang, his genius "glinted" forth. 
 Rose like a star that, touching earth, 
 
 For so it seems. 
 Doth glorify its humble birth 
 
 With matchless beams. 
 
 ****** 
 
 I mourned with thousands, but as one 
 More deeply grieved, for he was gone 
 Whose light I hailed ivhen first it shone, 
 
 And shewed my youth 
 How verse may build a jyrincely throne 
 On humble truth. 
 
 These verses, not so well known as they deserve to be, form one of the 
 finest tributes to the genius of Burns that has yet been given to the world. 
 
 Dumfries being an old historical town, and surrounded by fine scenery, 
 presents considerable attractions to the tourist, but its associations with 
 Burns, and the memorials it possesses of the national bard, draw to it more 
 travellers than anything scenic or archteological of which the burgh can 
 boast.
 
 74 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE HOUSE IN BURNS's STKEET. 
 
 The house in which Burns spent his latest years and breathed his last 
 adjoins the premises of the Ragged School, in a niche of which may be 
 seen a memorial bust of the bard, placed there by a most worthy gentleman, 
 the late INIr. William Ewart, M. P. for the Dumfries Burghs, with the words, 
 " In the adjoining house to the north lived and died the Poet of his Country 
 and of Mankind, Eobert Burns." Ascending three steps at the front door, 
 we are soon within the walls of the modest little mansion. There are, in 
 the lower story, a "but" and "ben," in other words, a kitchen and 
 parlour, both used as such when inhabited by Burns, and the latter, a fine 
 commodious room, the best in the house : above are two rooms of an unequal 
 size; the smaller of them, an oblong low-ceilinged apartment, measuring 
 fifteen feet by nine and a-half, beiug the one in which he expired. Two 
 attic apartments, used as bedrooms for the children, and a closet nine feet 
 square between the rooms on the second floor, complete the accommodation 
 of the poet's house. Burns could write, and often did, with his boys 
 frohckiug around him; but sometimes in his inspired moments he withdrew 
 to this closet-sanctum, making it the birth-place of effusions that first 
 soothed or gladdened his own heart, and then going forth into the outer 
 world made the atmosphere thereof musical for ever. Dumfries and vicinity 
 abound with relics of Burns, in the form of holograph poems, scraps of 
 writing, pieces of furniture, and such like; his dwelling-house, however, 
 contains none, but it is itself, with the solitary exception, perhaps, of 
 the " auld clay biggin" on the banks of Doon, the greatest and best material 
 memento of the national j)oet. 
 
 THE GLOBE TAVERN. 
 
 Writing to Mr. George Thomson in April, 1796, Burns states "that his 
 letter would be deUvered by a Mrs. Hyslop, landlady of the Globe Tavern 
 here, which for these many years past has been my howf, and v/here our 
 friend Clarke and I have had many a merry squeeze." This hostelry, 
 still kept as a pubhc-house, is situated in one of tlie High Street closes, 
 number 44, opposite the head of Assembty Street. It is of three stories, 
 with about a dozen good apartments; and eighty years ago it must have been 
 one of the best middle-class tenements of the town. Except for necessary 
 repairs to keep it in its present condition, it has undergone Httle change 
 since the time when it was the poet's favourite rendezvous : windows, doors, 
 flooring, wood -panelling, stair-railings, remaining for the most part unaltered. 
 The howf proper of the bard is a little snuggery on the ground-floor, entered
 
 APPENDIX. 75 
 
 through the kitchen, measuring fourteen feet by twelve, and panelled on 
 every side by painted Memel : one of its cosy nooks displays the words 
 "Burns's Corner," and contains an arm-chair, in which it is said he used to 
 sit when enjoying with a bosom cronie or two his " nipperkiu " of whisky 
 punch. Above the fire-place is a tolerably fair cartoon representing Coila 
 casting over her favourite son her mantle of uispiratiou ; while on each side 
 is a picture of the "rough bur thistle," from wliich he turned aside his 
 weeding hook "to spare the symbol dear." Two small panes of glass in the 
 window of a room on the second Hoor bear the marks of his diamond ; and 
 it is known that other panes, emblazoned with similar sketchings, made 
 floral and classical other windows of this famous tavern. One of the existing 
 inscriptions is, as we have ab-eady seen, in praise of Lovely Polly Stewart ; 
 the second is a new rendering of part of an old song — 
 
 " Gin a body meet a body 
 Coming tlirough the grain : 
 Gin a body l\iss a body, 
 The thing's a body's ain." 
 
 THE MAUSOLEUM. 
 
 Those who feel a melancholy pleasure in meditating with Hervey among the 
 tombs, will find in no provincial town throughout the kingdom anythiag to 
 match the extensive necropohs of St. Michael's, which has been used as a 
 burial-place for more than seven hundred years ; and is crowded with tomb- 
 stones, from the inscriptions on which much of the annals of the town might 
 be -written, while many of the monuments have a wider significance, and 
 some are of universal interest. Overtopping them aU, and attracting 
 greater attention than any, stands the Mausoleum, already described, reared 
 over the dust of Burns— a shrine to which hundreds of pilgrims from a 
 distance every year repair. A Latin inscription was prepared to tell that 
 the monument was "Inasternum honorem Roberti Burns;" but it was never 
 used, and no other was put in its stead. It is just as well, neither epitapli 
 nor popular inscription being needed by the man whose name and fame are 
 impressed on the hearts of all his countrymen — 
 
 "... Thou need'st no epitaph : wliile eartli 
 Hath souls of melody and hearts of worth, 
 Thine own proud songs, through distant ages sent, 
 Shall form at once thy dirge and monument." 
 
 As already noticed, there are uumerous mementos of the poet in Dumfries j
 
 76 APPENDIX. 
 
 the following list includes a large proportion of these and of others in the 
 district. 
 
 RELICS OF BCmNS IN DUMFRIES AND DISTRICT. 
 
 "De-Lolme on the Constitution," with Inscription in Burns's handwriting. 
 —Dumfries Public Library, Mechanics' Institution. 
 
 "Statistical Account of Scotland," with "The Solemn League and 
 Covenant" (1st draft) written in pencil at page 652. — Dumfries Public 
 Library. 
 
 Kilmarnock Edition of Poems.— Mr. W. Pi. M'Diarmid. 
 
 CoUins's Poems, with Inscription, and Poem in pencil > to Jean Lorimer, 
 "The lassie wi' the lint- white locks."— Mr. W. E. M'Diarmid. 
 
 Letter to Provost Staig, Dumfries. — Mr. W. R. M'Diarmid. 
 
 Mrs. Burns's Door-knocker. — Mr. W. R. M'Diarmid. 
 
 "Holy Willie's Prayer. "—Mr. R. A. Dickson. 
 
 " Holy Willie's Prayer."— Mr. Wm. Brown. 
 
 "Holy WiUie's Prayer. "—Observatory. 
 
 Draft of a Letter to Mrs. M'Murdo, Drumlanrig, with deletions and 
 alterations. — Observatory. 
 
 Finished Copy of same Letter. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Jacobite Song, "It was a' for our rightfu' Kiug." — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Verse written with diamond on pane of glass taken from window of the 
 Globe Inn, Dumfries. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Signature of Bomiie Jean (his) to document, witnessed by Wm. Hyslop, 
 of the Globe.— Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Odd Volume of Spenser, with Burns's Autograph Signature. — Mr. D. 
 Dunbar. 
 
 Odd Volume of " Spectator," which belonged to Burns's father, was often 
 read by the poet, and has an Autograph of William Buniess. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Chair which belonged to Burns. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Tea Cup and Saucer which belonged to Burns. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Teapot which belonged to Burns. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Wine Glass which belonged to Burns. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Lace Collar worn by Mrs. 'Burns. — ]\Ir. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Piece of Bedstead on which Burns died. — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Copy of Tax-pa]Der, on which Burns wrote the Inventory, signed by Robert 
 Aiken, to whom he inscribed the "Cotter's Saturday Night." — Mr. D. Dunbar. 
 
 Portions of Burns's Land-measuring Chain. — ]\Irs. Corson M'Gowau. 
 
 Linen Toilet Cover used at Ellisland. — Mrs. Corson M'Gowan, 
 
 Testament which belonged to Mrs. Burns. — Mrs. Corson M'Gowan. 
 
 Chair used iu parlour at Ellisland. —Mrs. Corson M'Gowan.
 
 APPENDIX. 77 
 
 Round Table used in parlour at Ellisland. — !Mr. A. Nicholson, 
 
 Five Chairs used in parlour at EUisland. — ilr. A. Nicholson. 
 
 Small pair of Tongs used in parlour at EUisland. — Mr. A. Nicholson. 
 
 Iron Fender used in parlour at EUisland. — Mr. A- Nicholson. 
 
 Wooden Ladle which belonged to Burns. — Mr. A. Nicholson. 
 
 Two Leaves of Excise Book in Burns's handwriting. — Mr. A. Nicholson, 
 
 Letter to Mrs. Burns, dated from EUisland a few days prior to her arrival 
 there. — Mr, A. Nicholson. 
 
 Fragment of Song. — !Mr. J. Johnstone. 
 
 Fragment of Song. — Mr. J. Johnstone. 
 
 Letter to Dr. Mundell, Dumfries. —'Mr. A. Crosbie. 
 
 Burns's ^Masonic Apron. — Mr. T. Thorbum. 
 
 Burns's JIasouic MaUet. — Mr. T. Thorbum. 
 
 Minute Book of St. Andrew's Masonic Lodge, showing Burns's admission, 
 27th December, 17SS.— Mr, T. Thorbum, 
 
 Tea Tray which belonged to Burns. — ilr. T. Aird. 
 
 Ashet which belonged to Bums. — Rev. D. Hogg. 
 
 Vol. III. of "Scots Musical MisceUany," with handwriting of Burns on 
 page 213.— Rev. D. Hogg. 
 
 Curd Cutter which belonged to Bums. — ]Mr. Lockerbie. 
 
 " The Five Carlius," one of the Election Ballads. — Mr. Finlayson, Kirkcud- 
 bright. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Gracie, Dumfries, written from Brow a few days before the 
 poet died. — Mr. Fiulayson, Kirkcudbright. 
 
 The Poem of "The Whistle."— Crichton Institution. 
 
 Pair of Kid Gloves worn by Mrs. Burns. — Mrs. Brown. 
 
 Large Tumbler which belonged to Burns. — !Mrs. Brown. 
 
 Gold Brooch worn by Jlrs. Burns : the pebble was picked up by Burns in 
 Braemar in 17S6. — Mrs. M'Kenzie. 
 
 Song, " Bonnie Jean. " — Mrs. M'Kenzie. 
 
 Love Letter vrritten for a friend, in the Holograph of Burns. — Mrs. 
 M'Kenzie. 
 
 Cradle which belonged to Burns. — Mrs. Welsh. 
 
 Bread Basket which belonged to Burns. — Mrs. Welsh. 
 
 Wine Decanter which belonged to Burns. — ^Irs. Welsh. 
 
 Wiue Glass which belonged to Burns. — Mrs. Welsh. 
 
 Cup and Saucer which belonged to Bums. — 'Mia. Welsh. 
 
 Tliree Pictures which hung in the parlour at Ellisland. — Mrs. J. Gracie. 
 
 Chair which belonged to John Syme of Ryedale, always occupied by the 
 poet on his visits. — !Mrs. Rankiue. 
 
 Links of Measuring Chain. — Mr. T. A. Cun-ie. 
 
 V
 
 78 APPENDIX. 
 
 Old Bible used by the poet at Brow. — Mr. Scott, Clareiicefield. 
 
 The Church Pew occupied by the poet and his family in St. Michael's, 
 Dumfries. — Mrs. Colonel Campbell. 
 
 Chair in " Burns' s Corner," Globe Tavern; also, Window Panes, with 
 Holograph verses. — Mrs. Murray, proprietrix and occupier of the Globe. 
 
 The suhjolned Relics of the Poet are in the very extensive and valuable Museum 
 of Dr. Grierson at Thornhill:— 
 
 Original Cast of the Skull of Burns, moulded at Dumfries, 31st March, 
 1834. 
 
 Cross formed from a fragment of the Coffin of Burns, which was 
 obtained by the late Mr. William Grierson, when i^resent at exhuraing the 
 remains of the poet from the original place of interment to be deposited in 
 the Mausoleum, September, 1815. 
 
 Portion of the Trunk of a Laburnum Tree that overhung the Hermitage 
 at Friar's Carse. 
 
 The Poem of "The Whistle'' in the handwriting of Burns, with a Letter 
 written by the poet's brother, Gilbert Burns, addressed to the late Mr. 
 Grierson when presenting him with the poem. 
 
 Letter written by Sir Walter Scott relating to Burns, of date 28th January, 
 1822, addressed to the late Mr. W. Grierson. 
 
 Printed Circular calling a Meeting in Dumfries, to take into consideration 
 the erecting of a Mausoleum for Burns, of date 29th November, 1813, with 
 a list of those who attended the said Meeting. 
 
 Drinking Glass that belonged to Bums. This glass, after the death of the 
 poet, was given by his mother to Mrs. Flint, Closeburn. 
 
 Portion of the Flooring of the Parlour at Mossgiel. 
 
 Portion of the Bedstead on which Burns died. 
 
 Tumbler that belonged to Burns, which was given by him to Mr. Gracie 
 of Dumfries. 
 
 An Excise Permit drawn out and Signed by Burns, dated at Dumfries, 
 12th November, 1793. 
 
 Original and Working Plans of Burns's Mausoleum by Mr. Hunt, its 
 architect. 
 
 Various Documents relating to the poet. 
 
 GLASGOW: PKISIED BY KOBEKT ANDERSON, 22 ANN STREET,
 
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