Morning journal and courier., 1891-06-13

CROSSES the river Cluden, q small stream,
but tuneful one. 1t bounds along mer-
rily through copse and between emerald
haughs bellows. sweeps around the ancient
abbey walls, and, entering the NTH,
broadens into q deep pool or linn. Hence
linn-C -Cluden, ''the Cluden pool,n and the
name of the grand old monastic pile, Lin
cluden Abbey, which towers at its edge
above.
Thus all the winsome way to Ellisland
are found pastoral, historic and romantic
scenes and objects. You finally come to O
bit of almost champaign country. Com
Portable steadings with snug stone cottages
lie on either side of the highway. To the
right is an ancient gate, opening to q long
lane, hedge bordered, between well-kept
| fields, where the young grain is already
rich and green. The wagon way is thick
with the falling blossoms of the haw-
thorn. The hedge-banks are a mass of
| gladstone daisies. A tiny burn having it's
source in springs above wimples at one
side half hidden in the grass and daisies.
And at the end of this lane, Just over a
ridge of warm and yellow loan, are seen
| the low roofs of q cottage and its humble
| outbuildings, here and there half hidden
in the foliage of surrounding trees. This
is Ellisland, for four years the farm home
and home-heaven of Robert Burns: the
|
| and happiness were his
| From the highway Ellisland is disap-
| pointing. The ridge of the steading-felds
forms monotonous horizon line. But
Burns knew where to build his Nithside
| nest: From any point in the vicinity of
the onstesd or farm buildings there is a
| glorious view of the valley of the NTH
Almost the entire course of the river is
traceable. Coming from its crystal cradle
among the mountains of eastern Ayrshire,
| 1t tumbles along in southwesterly course,
watering the royal burgh of Sanquhar and
the ducal village of Thornhill, thence pass
ing the stupendous mass Drumlsnrig Cas-
tle-where Scott was crest when the first
intelligence and agony of his financial
ruin came upon him. At Auldgirth bridge
| the mountains press the stream closely.
Then the river broadens and sweeps in
gentle sinuosities through the widest ex-
panse of the valley, past Ellisland and on
| to Dumfries and the sea, heightened in its
| exquisite beauty by myriads of tiny burns
| braes and lesser dales which soften the
outlines of the greater dale until its whole
fair face breathes of sweetness and repose.
The house faces to the east and north q
gentle bend in the NTH, which murmurs
| here over the shining shadows not a hun
| dred yards distant With the outbuild-
ings and their connecting rubble walls,
sunny, nearly enclosed quadrangle is
formed The side next the distant high
way, to the west, has to the right, as you
enter the enclosure, stable and cow-house
and byre or feeding and straw-yard be-
hind. To the left is a mill-shed, a modern
structure, tiny barn, and behind the lat
ter (which with the stable and cow-house
stand precisely as Burns built them) is the
enclosed stack-yard where bonnie Jean
found her husband in that great agony of
detection which gave the world the match
less hymn to Mary in Heaven.
The house itself, into the construction
of which the poet put months of his own
labor working alongside the rustic stone
masons of the time, remains to this day
| exactly as he built it. a small kitchen
has been added on the side next the river,
which now as then is the front of the
house. The portion built by Burns is of
| rubble, about fifty five feet long and near
ly twenty in width. 1t is one story in
height, with an ample attic. There is q
large room about eighteen feet square at
each end. The entrance from the NTH
side was into hallway, from which these
two large rooms was reached. Out of this
| one could also pass to the attic above, and
| to a small kitchen which, with little bed
, | room, stand between the two larger rooms.
| OF the latter, the one at the left or north
end, which communicates with the little
bedroom, was used by Burns for the cere
monious entertainment of distinguished
{ guests. The other, at the south end, wa.
| the real heart of the home: the spence
, or.living room of the poet, his wife and
. BARNS. The family provisions were kept
here. In one end stood the bed. The
meals were eaten here. And here the
| companions that Burns loved came into
the ingle-nook glow. Beside the Fireplace
is a broad, low window. Against the side
wall stood an oaken table, and here the
poet in his sunny corner could feast his
eyes upon the flowers and vines of his OWL
little garden, let them dwell fondly upor
his cattle and pet sheep in the billowy
field beyond, or conjure glorious fanciei
I from the noble sweeps of Nithsdalei
brood southern expanse, crowded at it
: eastern edge with noble forests and tn,
8 huge gables of Dalswinton Hall. BY thi
8 little window Burns either composed o
D put into completed manuscript form tn,
: greatest amount of the greatest work o
/. his life. How We prize the least remain
i der of these royal fellows when they ar
q | gone! There are those who would pa
4 one thousand dollars each for two of tn
a tiny panes in that one sunny window
|. | On one Burns wrote with a diamond an,
: afterwards partially erased, Home b
g had not-home is the resort" on the 9th
is er he inscribed his favorite maxim, ga
g honest mans the noblest work of God.
If These inscriptions, the house and on
= buildings, and a few sturdy trees the pos
II planted, are the only visible relics of th
" bards life at Ellisland; for the spot is or
le of the few in Britain, more grace to i
1t that is not a show-place where the insi
h tsnt reminder of the endlessness of fe,
ia merges reverence and emotion into nd
lie cule and contempt
n The almost exclusive haunt of Burns
is EIlisland was within call of his bonn
10 Jeau Just below the high bank or scau
ne upon the edge of which the cottage stand
a. Between this and the NTH for a long di
IL tance to the north and south runs loyel
a river road. Out of the cottage enclosul
n a shaded path and wagon way descends
as Join the river road. Half way down tn
of almost sylvan way is a copious sprin
I'd The bank of the scaur-side in the shade
of | q mass of ferns and violets, and in Il
". sunshine a wondrous constellation of "w'
Sc crimson-tippet flowers" the daisies
I'd Scotland for which Burns felt somethir
as akin to alteration. Then came the silvel
n. shadows of the NTH. Beyond its strear
m leading to the meadow lands above, is
n haugh, a golden mass of waving brooI
an Along this dreamful way, and up al
pt down the river road, Burns ssuntered al
at dreamed. 1t was the scene of his mo
er ecstatic achievement, "Tam O'Shsnter
Fe. which the celebrated Alexander Smi
,ee thought, as it was written in day, t
nd best single days work done in Scotlal
Die since Bruce fought at Bannockburn.
es, Ellisladd originally comprised one hu
re- dred and seventy acres of land. 7
lease to the poet WAS for four terms
eh nineteen years. 1t was executed in Marc
at 1888, and would have expired by hmi
me- ton in 1854 Burns was to pay fi
we pounds per year for the first three yea
,ly and seventy pounds thereafter; and {
Ith owner allowed the poet three hundr
ost pounds towards the erection of the O
in tage and outbuildings 1 find the prese
II owner to be one DR.. J. NJ Taylor,
in. Spittleheld, Dunkeld. The steading b
III been reduced from one hundred and Sc
IN, enty to one hundred acres, and it is NJ
at leased for the usual nineteen years ter
ith fifteen of which have expired, to a fami
ns- of haId-working and Intelligent Scot
of farmers named GrieIson at a rental of o
NO hundred and fifty pounds per year. T
,d old guidwife, dame GIierson, seems
live in sort of halo of reyerential gri
iss for him who made her fsrmstead hallow
nd ground. "Puir body! puia bodyI" she
let constantly moaning beside You; "Pr
r. bodyI he was dwanged (haTrassed) to
II .--l- I-HNT