Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-16
AF00T In SCOTLAND.
Nith's Valley Rich in Memories of the
Poet Burns.
NEW LIGHT ON HIS CHARACTER
Found Among the LOwly and at the Home
. Of His Crest Granddaughter.
JEAN ARMOUR BURNS BROWN VISITED
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1srATcH. !

rcoRREsPoHDENcE OF THE DIsPATcH.1
AMMAN, SCOTLAND, August S.-Com-
plete as is the identification of the man
BurHs with place. scene and memorial in
old Dumfries town, there is far more
pleasant association to be found between
Burns the poet-farmer, Burns the poet
fsrmer-eIciseman, Burns the poet-eIcise-
man, and the lovely valley of the NTH.
Burns boyhood is a legacy to the winding
Doom, in Ayr The activities of his man.
hood are heritage to the NTH, and the dale
or vale through which it makes its songfuI
way to the Solway and the sea- The ety.
mology of its name is Gaelic, as is true of
nine-tenths of the names Of natural features
of the country, and of the cities towns and
villages of to-day in Scotland as we'll as in
Ireland. Neithe was the Gaelic water-god;
hence Meth, and NTH; and a more lovely
stream could not have been found in Scot
land for honoring, or being honored by, the
name.
Coming from its crystal cradle among the
mountains of Eastern Ayrshire, it wimples
along in a southWesterly course, watering
the royal burgh of Sanquhar. and the ducal
village of Thornhill, thence passing the
stupendous mass of Drumlanrig Castle,
which looks down upon the plain with its
innumersble windows like great presid-
ing idol, the embodied genius of feudalIsm."
Near this the sister stream and dale of the
CLYDE are reached by the lofty pass of En-
terkin. Soon the NTH, after passing Ellis
land, the lovely farmhouse OF Burns is
Joined by the Cluden water-which, at
1rongray, but four miles to the westward,
murmurs past the grave of Helen Walker,
Nvhoun GnnFf 1i1od HTounio
Deans"-beueath the shadows of Lincluden
Abbey ruins. when now, broad and
melodious over glittering shadows, or
slowly moving over quiet depths, the river
sweeps under the red bridge arches of
Dumfries, and for eight miles to the Sol
way Firth flows stately on through shin
ing and spacious plain like that of Lom-
bardy in miniature
RICH IN BURNS RELICS.
Their hearts all went out to the man, for
had he not lived as they lived; had he not
known the things they knew; joyed and suf-
fered in all the humble things in which they
had loved and suffered; and were not his
songs the rhythm, rhyme and soul of their
own vague hungerings? No one who will
come among this peasantry to-day, lettering
here and there where he fingered, need go to
the books for tender things about Burns.
These people all have them in the very core
of tneir hearts and, with glowing faces, at
their tongues end. Everywhere your wan
derings may lead, at this farmhouse you
will learn of unrecorded kindness; at the
next, Of some pleasant incident; at another,
of an odd adventure; now Of perhaps a for
giyable registering; then, of some blessed
help in time of need; again. of festivity of
which he was the life; and here again, OF
prayer.
How, at the irkpatrick-Durham fair,
where be came upon another brewing, and,
having asked fercely OF the inmates of the
cabin If such had been going on, servant
cannily replied, "We hae ma license for
that" whereupon a wee lassie innocently
confessed that ''the muckle black kist
(chest) is fu' O. the bottles o. will (ale) that
mither sat a up NIGHT brewin' for the fairp'
whenlBurns instantly eyed bird hanging
in cage above the child's head, and said:
''If that bird speaks, there's no use of an
other 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 return from the fair we'll examine
the muckle black kist!' How when he had
caught 'auld widow Jenny" of Dunscore,
in possession of large stock of smuggled
tobacco. and, from public knowledge of the
case, was compelled to make a seizure, he
did it in this extraordinary fashion.
"Jenny," said Burns, gravely, 81 knew
his assistant, Here, Lewars, take note of
the number of rolls as 1 count them. Now,
Jock, did We ever hear an auld wife number
ing her threads before check-reels were
invented? 'Thou's ane, and thou's no ane,
an thou's ane out-'listenp" As he counted
and handed out the rolls, every other one
was dropped into "auld widow Jenny's"
81 lap.
THE BROW WELL.
The Solway Firth, when the tide is in or
out, is a magical arm of the sea because the
exciseman Burns bravely captured snug
glers upon it, and because its 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 topography, and since Burns time has
had the attention of LongfelIow, Words |
worth, Ruskin and CARLYLE, because Of
Just two lines he penned,
''The Nth shall run to Corsincon,
And Criffel sink to Solway-1a
before a foreign foe should be permitted to |
rally on British ground. One has not a |
hundredth part the interest in that finest &C.
eesiastical ruin in the south of Scotland, |
Sweetheart Abbey, which stands BY Niths- |
mouth at Criffefs feet, or in that other ma |
jestic ruin, Carlaverock Castle, unquestion- |
ably the choicest specimen of castellated !
architecture in the whole OF Scotland, as in |
old Brow Well, not two miles from the lat |
fer; where Burns made his last stand against |
. death, only TO be borne home to the Mill |
street cottage, in Dumfries, 20 die. And this |
Brow well has been singularly overlooked |
by lovers of Burns visiting Nithsdale. 1t |
is distant but an eight miles tramp south |
from Dumfries, on the Rnthwell road 1t
is locally called "The Broo" Brow, and |
lies at the brow of the Locher Moss, few |
hundred feet back from the SolwaY tide |
edge. An ancient sclachan" or prehistoric |
stone 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 hinds' houses. The road |
10 Ruthwell which is but mile or so dis |
tant, winds past the place; and little delv- |
lng into antiquities makes curious and not
altogether improbable the conjecture that
Ruthwell-Ruth being English for the
Gaelic Ruadh, red-was the name for the |
locality originally comprising that village,
the Red Well itselfand the clachan or stone
circle for the celebration of pagan rites and
ceremonials. For Brow Well, of whose
waters Burns for months vainlv partook is
truly a red well, being strongly impregnsted
with iron.
FIGHTING DEATH IN SOLITUDE.
Tradition, too, places Brow Well among
those possessing miraculous powers. Step
ping few feet from the roadside toward the
Solway, there is found deep pit open to
the Firth at the south. In the center of this
is the well, square, but few inches deep, |
IA L