The morning call., 1890-08-17
Special to The SUNDAY CALL,


ly@E54 IMAM, Scotland, July IS, 1S9O.-Com
,izsS plete as is the Identification of the
NAV man Burns with place, scene and
memorial in old Dumfries town, there is a
far more pleasant association to be found
between Burns the poet-farmer, Burns the
oet-farmer-exeiSeman, Burns the poet-ex-
ciseman, 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 OF vale through which it makes its
songful way to the Solway and the sea.
The etymologv Of its name is Gaelic,
as is true of nine-tenthS Of the
names of natural features of the coun-
try. and of the cities. towns and villages
of to-day in Scotland as well as in
Ireland. Neithe was the Gaelic water-god
hence Meth and NTH and more lovely
stream could not have been found in Scot
land for honoriDg or being h0n0red by the
name. Coming from its crystal cradle
among the mountains Of Eastern Ayrshire,
1t wimples along in southeastery course,
watering the Royal Burgh of SINGULAR and
the ducal village of Thornhlll. thence pass
ing the stupendous mass of Drumlanrig
Castle. which looks down upon the plain
with its innumerable windows like great
presiding idol, the embodied genius of feud-
aliSm." Near this the sister stream and dale
OF the Clyde are reached by the lofty pass of
Enterkin. Farther to the south the border
ing mountain ranges press the NTH closely
at Auldgirth Bridge, and then Its vale broad
ems. giving place for myriads of exquisite
burns, braes and lesser dales. Soon the
Min, after passing Ellisland, the lovely
farmhouse Of Burns, is Joined by the Gu
den water-whieh, at Irongray, but four
miles to the westward, murmurs past the
grave of Helen Walker whom Scott immor-
tailed as "Jennie Deans"-beneath the
shadows of Lineluden Abbey ruins, when
now. broad and melOdiOuS over glittering
shadows or slowly moving over quiet
depths, the river sweeps under the red
bTtdge-archeS of Dumfries, and for eight
miles to the Solway Firth flows stately on
through a shining and spacious plain like
that of Lombardy in miniature.
There Is not in alfthiS fair domain q cas-
tie, gentleman's seat manse, farm
house, a cabin, or an old roadside inn, that
existed in Burns time, which does not pre-
serve some relic of the poet, or some memo
~ Of his actual presence. The rich and
great regard these as their most priceless
heirlo0ms: but the tenderness with which
the loWly preserve
THE MOST THRILLING TRADITION
OF what Burns did, or said. or of some acct
dental meeting or kindly visit, possesses
the deepest significance. He was essen
TALLY of the lOWly. He was ever i'll at
ease among the gentry and nobility. His
great, generous heart was keenly alive
10 the humble folk about him; and
even. as gaugeT, the most dreaded and
hated capacity in which law ever took
form, in the eyes of the Scotch of that
day, and of the Irish of a no remote
time, there was love for Burns through
the valley countryside that knew no
~ dnuss FOaez on inis~ horses; Pegasus
and Peg Nicholson, 300 miles each week in
connection with his duties as eXciseman;
and, it is told with pride, he knew by name
every man, woman and child In all NlthS-
dale. Their hearts all went out to the man,
for had he not lived as they lived had he
not known the things they knew; ioyed and
suffered in all the humble things in which
they had jOyed 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 their hearts and, with glowing
faces, at their tongues end, wherever your
Wanderings may lead.
At this farmhouse you will learn of unre-
corded kindness, at the next Of some pleas
ant incident, at another of some odd adYen-
tuIe; now of perhaps a fOrgiYable royster-
ing 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 Burns? Yes, prayer with the living
and at the couch of the dead; among those
so lOWly that somehow those spiritual eX-
cisemen" who delighted to league the poet
exeiseman with "Auld Hornie" had no
time from their "higher" paroehial duties
to minister there. And it does one good to
hear these whose fathers before them treas
uTed 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
UhOrnhin, in the publiean's trade for
fair-day without a license, and when it was
his sworn official duty to coniscate her
goods and land her in Jail, he only said to
her with meaning wink, Kate, are We
mad ? Don't We know that the Supervisor
and l viii be in on ye in the course of forty
minutes? Good-by tye at present" How
at the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. fair, where he
came upon another brewing, aud, having
asked fercely OF the inmates of the cabin
if such had been going on, a servant can
nily replied, We hae ma license for that,
whereupon a wee lassie innocently con-
tossed that =" the muekle black kist Chest
is flu o. the bottles O. yill (ale) that mither
sat a. up NIGHT brewin' for the fairp' when
Burns instantly eyed bird hanging in
cage above the child's head, and said " If
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: Were in hurry now :;
but when we return from the fair we'll ex-
anime the muckle black kistw How when
he had caught "auld widow Jenny" of
DunscOre in possession of a large stock Of
Struggled tobacco, and, from public knowl-
edge Of the case, was compelled to make
seizure. he did it in this extraordinary fash
ion. Jenny" said Burns grayely, 81
knew this would be the upshot." Then to
Lewars, his assistant, Here Lewars, take
note of the number of rolls, as count them.
Now, Jock, did We ever hear an auld wife
numbering her threads before cheek-reeis
were invented? 'Thou's ane, an 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" lap.
And so in a larger sense, because Burns
came into loving familiarity with every
thing, object or place which he gave lasting
life from the devotion OF his poetic genius,
or made as it were part Of himself by its
mention in his rare and winsome letters to
his literary friends, those who wander here
feel almost the thrill of a personal compan-
ionship 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 SNUG
glers upon it, and because its mere name
GIBBS and flows through the measure OF his
verse Mist-crowned Criffel looming above
is now landmark in literature as well as
in topography, and since Burns time has
had the attention of a Longfellow, Words
worth, Ruskin and a Carlyle, because Of
Just two lines he peaned:
The NTH shall run to CorsIncon,
And Crifiei sink to Solway-
Before foreign foe should be permitted to
rally on British ground. One has not a
nundredth part the interest in that finest &C.
cIesastieai ruin IN the south of Scotland,
Sweetheart Abbey, which stands by Niths-
mouth, at Criffel's feet, or in that older ma
jestic ruin, CarlayerOck 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
10 his La ftairst