Morning journal and courier., 1890-08-09
mR. wAKEMAN,s JoURNEYINGs.
Al Dumfrfes, Scotland Another
Chapter on Burns-Up and Down
the Songful Ntth-The House Where
BURNS Lfved-Whcrc Some OF His
Poems Were written.

Al Dumfrfes, SeOtiand - Ahothef
Chapter on Burns-UP and Down
the Songful Nith-The House where
burns Lfved-Whcre Some OF His
Poems Were Written.
DuMFRIEs, Scotland, July 10.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
To the visitor at old Dumfries town, If
he be lover of Burns, there await almost
endless pleasures within and near the an
cient burgh, in the constant, and, to the
strangers, unexpected, Identification of
place with personality. Indeed l do not
know of another spot in the whole world
where the place itself and the whole
country roundabout seem to have taken on
such an individuality and permanent col
oring from the brief presence of one man.
We place beloved, sanity Whittier at
Danvers town. But his work and person
atty are intensest in our minds along in
the dark days before the great conflict,
and in thought we see the man, Whittier,
plainest when and where his burning
words had their most aggressive power.
Good old DIR. Holmes shines along in a
beaten path upon which he has cheerily
trundled for more than quarter of q
century between Cambridge and Beacon
street, and on to the Atlantic Monthly Of
fee. Where shall we find locale for
Lowell, sweet and stately bard and mani
Those who in secret have wept and smiled
over the tender pages of "Dream Life"
and ssReveries of Bachelor" only know
in a dim way that somewhere between the
rugged Connecticut hills there is still a
doughty old farmer, ''Ik Marvel" pother-
ing among his stumps, stone walls and
early vegetables. Who can tell of one
nesting place where Willis was, save in
in the brief hours by 1.-THE Bridge" in the
little backwoods cabin; and his noble sis
ter, Fanny Fern" died, Parton tells u.s.
without being able to find the house in
Portland in which she was born, and
which she SO bitterly longed to knowi
Where is most left the seal of the person
al presence of Hawthorne-at Dingley's,
at Concord or at Salient There is but one
| spot where we can put our loving hands
on Poe; at the Fordham cottage where the
| poet, his dying wife, Virginia, and her de
voted mother starved in gloom and obscur
ity. Irvings personal presence remain,
fixed at just three places -Sunnyside, al
the old Dutch church, Tarrytown, an6
among the mist-crowned Catskills. Tn,
two Alcotts, great-souled father and drudg
ing, tender-hearted daughter, made Con
cord more famous than did Emerson
| whom we feel we can only find behind tn,
| prim, white walls, of the prim, whit,
house on the Lexington road, and beneath
the great Scotch granite boulder upon tn,
grave in Sleepy Hollow cemetery. Tn,
spirit of Thoreau, intangible and fieetin,
of communion and companionship as hi
own wanderings, seems but now and thel
to hover about and haunt the reeds o
sedgy Maiden Pond, as if finding vanish
ing embodiment in the lonely bittern'
mournful cry. Even the masters singer
Longfellow, left but four songs by whicl
we may trace his Identification with tn
first twenty years of his own life at old
Portland town; and for nearly all the re
mainder of his time and work our mind
picture of the man is with his calm fac
bent over his ibrary-desk in Cragie-house
Cambridge. Shall we look for Carlyle a
Ecclefechan, Craigenputtock or at Chel
{ sea? Where is the one shrine at which W
shall find Byrons The whole of old Eng
land and the tiny brass plate sunk in th
pave of Westminster Abbey confuse th
mind and heart concentration upon Dicl