Morning journal and courier., 1890-08-16

good to hear these whose fathers before them treasured his memory, tell scores of tales, like these of Burns own tenderness: How the poet gauger, ever leaning to the side of mercy, once came to ''auld Kate Watson, of. Thornhill, in the publican's trade for fair-day without license, and when it was his sworn official duty to con fiscate her goods and land her in gaol, he only said to her with a meaning wink, Kate, are ye mad. Don't ye know that the supervisor and will be in on ye in the course of forty minutes. Goodbye t'ye at present." How, at the Kirkpatrick Durham fair, where he came upon another brewing, and, having asked fiercely of the inmates of the cabin if such had been go- ing on, servant cannily replied, ''We hae ma license for that" whereupon a wee lassie innocently confessed that ''the muc- kle black kist (chest) is fu' O the bottles O yill (ale) that mither sat a up nicht brew in for the fair!"-when Burns instantly eyed bird hanging in cage above the child's head, and said: 'sf that bird speaks, there's no use of another speaking bird in this house while that lassie's to the fore;" and left the cabin with the remark
 We're in hurry now; but when we re- turn from the fair we'll examine the muc- kle black kist." How when he had caught ''auld widow Jenny," of Dunscore, in pos session of a large stock of smuggled tc- bacco, and, from public knowledge of the case, was compelled to make seizure, he did it in this extraordinary fashion. SJen- n.y." said Burns gravely, ''I knew this would be the upshot." Then to Lewars, his assistant, 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, an thou's no | ane, an thou's ane out-'isteni" As he
 counted and handed out the rolls, every other one was dropped into ''auld widow Jenny's" lap.
 And so in larger sense, because Burns came into loving familiarity with every
 thing, object or place which he gave last
 ing life from the devotion of his poetic
 genius, or made as it were a part of him. | self by its mention in his rare and win
 some letters to his literary friends, those
 who wander here feel almost the thrill of a | personal companionship with not only the past but the man. The Solway Firth, \ when the tide is in or out, is a magical arm | of the sea because the exciseman Burns
 bravely captured snugglers upon it, and
 becauses it's mere name ebbs and flows through the measure of his verse. Mist
 crowned Criffel looming above is now a landmark in literature as well as in topo-
 graphy, and since Burns time has had the
 attention of a Longfellow, Wordsworth,
 two lines he penned,
 | 'sThe Nth shall run to Corsincon.
 | And Criffel sink to Solway-"
 before foreign foe should be permitted
 to rally on British ground. One has not a H.. T T. ~t,oAE ecclesiastical ruin in the south of Scot land, Sweetheart Abbey, which stands by Nithsmouth at Criffers feet, or in that other majestic ruin, Carlaverock castle,
 unquestionably the choicest specimen of castellated architecture in the whole of
 Scotland, as in old Brow Well, not two
 miles from the latter; where Burns made
 his last stand against death, only to be
 borne home to the Mill street cottage, in Dumfries, to die. And this Brow Well
 has been singularly overlooked by lovers of Burns visiting Nithsdale. It is distant
 but an eight miles tramp south from l Dumfries, on the Ruthwell road. It is To- cally called ''The Broo" QBrowl, and lies at
 the brow of the Locher Moss, a few hun
 dred feet back from the Solway tide-edge.
 An ancient ''clachan" or prehistoric stone
 circle once stood near. and the half dozen
 stone houses of the neighborhood have | taken the name of ''the auld clachan O
 the Broo." These houses, as in Burns
 time, are rude structures, merely minds
 houses. The road to Ruthwell, which Ii
 but mile or so distant, winds past tho
 place; and little delying into antiquitie,
 makes curious and not altogether imprOba
 ble the conjecture that Ruthwell-Ruti
 being English for the Gaelic Ruadh, red
 was the name for the locality original,
 comprising that village, the Red-Well it
 self and the clachan or stone circle for ths
 celebration of Pagan rites and ceremoni | als For Brow Well, of whose water:
 Burns for months vainly partook, is truly
 a red we'll, being strongly impregnated
 with iron. Tradition, too, places Brow
 Well among those possessing miraculous
 powers. Stepping few feet from the
 roadside towards the Solway, there is l found a deep pit open to the Firth at the
 south In the center of this is the well square, but few inches deep, and perhaps
 five feet across; altogether more a .ston'
 basin than well, to which three ston'
 steps descend. The water filling il
 trickles through spout from the base o
 the bank ''brow" above; and its overflow
 forms tiny burn which, wimpling anC
 broadening in its descent, is reinforced bl
 other half hidden rills from Locher Moss
 until it cuts clear and distinct wa!
 through the reddish gray sands of the Sol
 way. In this drcary place Burns re
 mained, taking the waters of 1.-The Broo,
 from the middle of April until the middl of July, 1198. His only companions wer , his thoughts add his ''worn pocket-Bible His eyes could rest upon but one scene
 the roaring or sobbing Solway and tn
 darkening range of the English hills O , the Cumberland side of the Firth. R, 3 membering it all, that is one line of EnI fish shore whose mystic mists to my eye
 seem endlessly fraught with tinge of d'
 Tor and sadness.
 Far pleasanter associations and mem, ries than those of Brow We'll cluster abol v the upper Nithskale region. Here, n, two miles from Dumfries, is that lovel ivy-grown ruin, Lincluden Abbey, at u e confluence of Cluden water and the Nitl n Just beyond. to the east, is Dalswinto - Hall, where lived the generous and ingcl
 ious Patrick Miller, notable not only f' his connection with the earliest exper J. ments in steam navigation, but as the bil & hearted owner of Ellisland, the farm Burr . took when fresh from his laurels at Edil '' burgh. This little of farm, now con !, prisina one hundred and thirty-five acr :, of land, lies to the west of the Nth, upC e its very banks, about five miles north
 Dunifries: and it is here that Burns, aft :, building the cottage which to this d d stands embedded in reses and ivy, broug ,r his bonnie Jean to live with her the on IF happy days he ever knew. I never sa .x quite so songful and idyllic a spot-son {, full in every field and copse bird that bC l. der Scotland knows, and wonderful a. songful in the waters of the Nth whic ,- between banks white with daisies, b.
 dered closer down with yellow brooi A spreads wide across gleaming shallews, o- if its mission here was to sing endless al at tender melodies in honor of the spot whe Q. the inspired ploughman sang in his cle' h. est, purest, grandest strains. For here ,d this farmhouse were produced amo ss scores of lesser poems, 'Tam O Shantel .h written in day and denominated by i- exander Smith "since Bruce fought R. of nockburn, the best single days work do if. in Sootland,n his magnificent battle-pie' as ssThe Song of Death" his wonderful ;u tire, 'sThe Kirk's Alarm,n his matchl " embodiment of connubial affection, "Jo va Anderson, my Jo," 70 blaw ye west an winds" 1" his Address to the Nth, '' .a- seeing Wounded Hare" that grand "l ha dress to the Shade of Thomson" .-Of ba the airts the winds can blaw," and Sat va yinest of all his odes. ''To my Mary de heaven"
 ,is Getting to this Ellisfand farm broul NO rrne. in a singular and fortuitous VI on within the radius of certain associati' is few have had the good fortune to enl. ry As they link the living with thrill le. closeness and emphasis to the dead, br ior account of this unusual experience V lot have interest to all lovers of Burns nd America. At late hour of recent ev ch ing was standing near the noble sia' ,ot of Burns. erected in 1877, n Gnu Inf Place. Dumfries. The only other oc - | -. as r,hnrcb place at that time was