Morning journal and courier., 1890-08-09


sleep must be entered, looks, ghost-like,
from the windows of Coniston Hall, upon
fair Coniston water, and, in all he has
done and written, how many have discov-
cred his Lancashire environment Even
the shrine of Shakespeare is in a meager
church, beside pinched theater, in an in
significant town that knows only his ashes
and the gratuities they bring. Burns and
Scott, of all the luminous host of the great
and good in prose and verse, living and
dead, had their actual everyday being in,
and gave the palpable and imperishable
hfe-throb of their personalities to, an en-
vironment of place and people, which
thus became mausoleum infinitely greater
and grander than the loftiest column or
eenotaph that ever pierced the clouds.
But come with me in and out of old
Dumfries, and up and down the songful
NTH, or if your legs are not s'braw and
weel eneuch" climb with me to the an
cient observatory, over here in Maxwell
town, the Maxwelton whose "braes are
bonnie, where early fa's the dew" and we
can from this one place see and feel the
tenderness of the Identification. From
this point the eye may range, to the east,
over and beyond fair Annandnle. across
Observation-Disclosures, to the west, to the
noble hills skirting Ayr; to the north, up
the dreamland Nithsdale 10 the far grim
turrets of Drumlanrig castle; and, to the
south, tn the vast expanse of Solway
Firth, where, to the right of Nithsmouth,
looms gray-browed Criffel, and, to the
left, IL caught n CLEAN of the sands by
Brow Well, at whose waters Burns too late
struggled to save his life. Thus Mt
glance not only does the bewitching cyclo-
rama give the beholder the entire field of
the everyday scenes of the poets life dur
ing his last eight memorable years, but at
the same instant, comprehension of the
three most impressive epochs in his career
OF which we can have memory-the home
heaven of Ellisland farm-life, the wretch
ed fight against poverty in the gray old
border-tovn beneath us, and that last una
vailing struggle at Brow Well, by Solway's
shifting sands; all made inexpressibly
more impressive by the lefty dome of the
silent mausolenm over there in that shAd-
owy kirk-yard, looming before us wher-
ever We may look for the recognition of
his old time presence within the fair re-
gion roundabout.
In Dumfries itself one cannot look upon
a single olden structure, or follow with
the eye any close, wynd, vennell or street,
without knowing that at some time it was
more familiar to Burns than any portion
of the old city is to any one of its inhabi-
tants to-day. In the ancient Bank street
house where he first lived in Dumfries in
the three tiny apartments, more than one
third of the more than one hundred po-
ems he produced in Dumfries were com
posed. Then in the Mill, now Burns,
street home, which was his last, the re-
mainder were given birth. Among these
We're, .sAuld Langsyne, my wife's win
some wee thing. s'The Soldiers Return. y
ssWillie Wastie." 'sContented WI little.
and cantie wi mair," "Thou hast left me
ever, Jamie, !" eye banks and braes o. bon
ME Doom" ''My love is like red, red
rose, "."My heart is sair, 1 daurna tell, !"
80 vert thou in the cauld blast, !" Duncan
Gray" 'sFlow gently sweet .Afton," and
that grand martial ode, 'sBruce's Address" p"
The old, though still spruce, Kings Arms
Inn could never have so long stood the as
saults of time and tobrists had not Burns,
in a forgivably irreverent and delicious
mood, scratched upon its vindow-pan
''Ye men-of wit and wealth. why all this sneer-
'Giainst poor excisemens Give the cause a hear
What are your landlords rent-rollss Taxing
What premfers. whats even monarchs' mighty
Nay, what are priests, those seeming eOdly wise
menf
What are they, pray. but spiritual excisemsa,,'
Set squarely in the paiaa,..s Of High
street is Qpa->k>khe oldest old structures
to basgound in all Scotland. 1t is now
called the Mid-Steeple. When built, two
hundred years ago, it was known as the
Iron Steeple At that time. on the sale at
auction of the customs and excise of Scot
land, the Dumfries town council took a
large share in the plunder; in turn sold it
to fellow burgher. one Sharpe. SO by
name and fine in dealing. The citizens re
yolted; and, on compnomise, Burgher
Sharpe was permitted to retain his tack
on payment of twenty thousand merls,
Scots, with which the outlandish structure
was erected. In it's upper isncouthness IL
contains the town-clock and a peal of
bells, and a complaining weather-cOck sur
mounts the spire. Middle Spire. clock
and bells and all, is an unreliable old
''tongue of the town" to this day. But
the ridiculous relic of an ancient canny
deal would have been RACED to the ground
one hundred years ago, were il not the
treasure-house of stacks of rusty war
pixies ready for valiant service, when the
exciseman-pOet reused everybody in Great
Britain with,
Does naughty Gaul invasion threats
Then let the looms beware, sir,
Tteres wooden walls upon our seas
| And volunteers on shore. sir.
The NTH shall run to CorSincon.
The Criffel sink in Solway.
Ere we permit a foreign foe
On British ground TO rally
The s.auld brig" built by the devoui
| Devorgilla over seven hundred years ago
when London's population did not exceed
| thirty-five Thousand souls, and which still
| spans the NTH below the new bridge, tbs
l latter completed before Burns death. doe,
1 not possess n tithe the interest because oi
1 its having sustained wondrous kingly cay
1 alcades and been fought over by counties,
| Border legions. that it does for having in
4 numerable times been the haunt of thi,
| one man, and because. sin his suit of plair
| dark clothes with his sword-cane in hand
| and his children by his side, he loved tc
loiter upon it, or wander about near it
upon the white sands, or near its western
/ approach along Marvellous sunny braes
Not stones throw from Its last red old
l arch is the spot where Burns, ON his frs
appearance in Dumfries, clad in the ia
| m;i;ar blue and yellow vest which Nasmrtl
has made ms nnconsciouslv associate viii
his sturdy figure. inst after the publica
| t;on of t6e second edition of his poems
| was made AN honorary burgess: the bur
pess-ticket to the already illustriou
9louphman reading: .The said day. 4tl
1 lime 17SY Mr. Robert Rurns AYRSHIRE
.,,as ,d,a;.t.5 b,,,.,sss ,se th;, b,,,-,h ,,-;.l
1;ta,.,, =, On, a., -,
rn;;;as 81 ,a,;,;Ise,as ,I,a,.ane a. f,..I, II,
as any other does may or can enjoy. who
being present. accepted the same. and gay
his oath of burgess-ship to his maiest-
| and burph in common FORM But fo
Il n