Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-17
AFOOT IN SCOTLAND.
How Burns. the Exciseman, Performed
His Duty and Won Popularity.
by the Granddaughter and Great
Grand daughter of the Poet.
Copyrighted, $780,

Copyrighted, $780,
AMMAN, SCOTLAND, July 1s.-Complete az Is
the identification Of the man Burns with place.
scene and memorial in old Dumfries town, thera
is a far more pleasant association to be found
between Burns the poet-farmer, Burns the
Recommendations, Burns the poet-ex sise
man, and the lovely valley of the NTH.
Burns boyhood is a legacy to the winding
Doom, in Ayr. The activities of his manhood
ave a heritage to the NTH, and the dale or vale
through which it makes its songful way to the
Solway and the sea. The ETY. m olgy 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 well as in Ireland. Neithe was the Gaelic
wster-god; hence Meth, and NTH; and a more
lovely stream could not have been found in
Scotland for honoIing, or being honored by the
name. Coming from its crystal cradle
among the mountains Eastern Ayrshire. it
wimples along in a southwesterly course,
watering the royal burgh of Sanquhar and
the ducal village of Thornhill, thence pass
ing TIE stupendous mass of Drumlanrig castle
which looks down upo n the plain with its innu-
merable windows, like great presiding idol,
the embodied genius of feudalism.'' Near this,
the sister stream and dale of the CLYDE are
reached by the lofty pass Of Enterkin. Further
to the south the bordering mountain ranges
press the NTH closely at Auldgirth bridge; and
then its vale broadens, giving place for myriads
of exquisite burns, braes and lesser dales. Soon
the NTH, after passing Eilisland, the lovely
farm-h home of Burns, is Joined by the Cluden
water-which at Irongray, but four miles to the
westward, murmurs past the grave OF Helen
Walker, whom Scott immortalized as Jennie
Deans'-beneath the sh sdows of Lincluden
abbey ruins. where 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 Solway Firth flows stately on throu Oh a
shining and spacious plain like that OF Lom-
There is not in all this fair domain ca tie,
gentleman's seat, manse, farmhouse, a
cabin, or an old roadside inn, that existed in
Burns time. which does not preserve
SOME RELIC OF THE POET,
or some memory of his actual presence. The
rich and great regard these as their most price,
the Iowly preserve the most trifiing tradition OF
what Burns did or said. or of some accidental
significance. He was essentially of the lowly.
He was ever i'll at ease among the gentry and
nobility. His great, generous heart was keenly
alive to the humble folk about him; and even as
gauger, the most dreaded and hated capacity in
which law ever took form, in the eyes of the
Scotch ofthat day. and of the Irish of q no
the valley countrywide that knew no bounds He
rode on his horses, Pegasus and Peg NiGh IL
ton. - 200 miles each week in connection with
his duties as exciseman: and, it is told with
pride, he knew by name every man. WON an and
child in all Nithsdale. 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 suffered in all the humble things in
which they had joyed and suffered; and were
not his songs the rythm, rhyme and soul of
tn cir own vague hungerings? No one who will
come among this peasantry to-day, lettering
here and there where he fingered. need go to
These people all have them in the very core of
their hearts and, with glowing faces, at their
tongues end.
Everywhere your wanderings may lead, at this
farmhouse you viii earn of unrecorded kindness.
at the NEXT, of some pleasant incident; q, an
other Of an odd adventure; OF perhaps n
forgivable registering; then. of some blessed
help in time OF need; again, of festivity Of which
he was the life; and here again, of prayer.
Prayer from Burnss Yes, prayer with the Iv-
ing and at the couch Of the dead, among those
SO lowly that somehow those spiritual excise
men" who delighted to league the poet excise
man with s.Aulo Hornie'' had no time from
their .higher'' parochiaI duties to minister
there. And 1t does one good to hear these
whose fathers before them treasured his men,
ory, tell scores of tales, like these of Burns
own tenderness; How the poet gauger. ever