Morning journal and courier., 1893-10-07
wXKEMAN,s WaNDRnrNGs.

 Where "NIax~e eIton's Braes are Bon-
 nier-The Heroine and scene Of
 William DougIas' Immortal Love
 Song-Annie Laurie a Genuine, Un-
 romantic Parsonage Instead of a
 Poetic Myth - PreferrIng Broad
 Acres and Broad Scotch 10 the
 Doubtful Fortunes Of a Jacobite
 Poet, She Became a Commonplace
 Country Lady, and Lived and Died
 the Mistress Of Craisdarroch House
 -Winsomc Scenes and RemfnIs-
 eences.
 MoSIAvIE, Scotland, Sept. 2l. Tothe Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Two of the most fadeless songs of hu man affection were written by Scotehmen in the eighteenth century. These are: "John Anderson, My io, John" and "An nie Laurie" Both were written near the banks of ths songtui Nth in Dumfries- shire. Both were written by almost stran- gers to their temporary environment. Both were written as true peans of joy out of almost inexpressible human happiness. And both gained tteIr deathlessness from their directness, brevity and simplicity, which ever most powerfully appeal to the universal human heart.
 Robert Burns wrote "John Anderson, my jo, Jchn," from hint he received out of the old doggerel rhyme upon one John Anderson, the town pipsr of ancient Ksl- so, preserved ia Bishop Percy's old man uscript of about 1560 The fret two lines of the rhyme were:
 John Anderson, my jo, John, cum in as ze gas
 by,
 And ze shall get sheep's held weel baken in a
 pye;"
 but its matchless picture and lesson of changeiess connubisl affection and loyalty was the legitimate outgrowth of his own noble and contented life with "bopnie Jean" on the Ellislsnd farm. shortly sf- ter Burns removal from Ayrshire, beside the river Nth, about eight miles above the city of Damfries. The few years passed by the bard and his family here were years of unalloyed happiness and content; and this poem, written h 17s9, is the clearest, sweetest note to reach us out of the brief Eden of that idyllic time. Annie Laurie" was written little more than half century earlier, in Maxwelltown, in Nithsdale, by William Douglas, to a real flesh and blood Annie Laurie, on the occasion of his departure from Msxwelltown, after a period of steal thy trysting and wooing, which left the Annie Laurie of the song his bstrothed. This William Douglas, who never wrote other immortal lines, WAS 8 native of Fling land, wild little district of the parish of Carsphairn, in the northern part of the adjoining shire, or stewsrtry, of Kirkcud- bright. There is little known of his peo- pie. However, through his native talents he became cadet to the noble Queensbury family, and their patronage and support gained for him the position and associA- | ton of gentleman of rank. At sn Edin- burgh ball he met and became enamored with Annie Laurie, daughter of Sir Rob | ert Laurie, bsronst, of Maxwelltown. | She was born at the old manor house of the latter place in 1882. Sir Robert, not | fancyipg the prospects of young Douglas | as a dependent of the Queensbury family, \ and noticing that the love affair bstEeen him and Annie was becoming serious, sud denly left Edinburgh and returned with his family to Maxwelltown in Nithsdals, | hoping thus to separate the lovers and end an unfortunate attachment.
 Had everything gone 10 ths liking of the bsronet the world would have missed the | sweet old sopg. Douglas shortly learned | of the whereabouts of his inamorita and promptly followed. He remained secretly at Maxwelltown for months. and the love making went on fsmcusly betImes among the glens, brses woods and shadowy ruins with which the locality sbounds. Douglas possessed Jscobite afiiliaiion, and rumors suddenly coming from the north of an i'm pending Stuart uprising, he hsstened to Edinburgh to bs near the sesne of action. ! But before quitting the eide of his Niths. dale love he secured Cher promise true. n Ia the elaiion of joy upon this achieve
 ment he wrote, and left with his bstrothed
 the immortal lines, as imperishable ss any
 that Robert Burns ever left to Scotland
 and the world, beginning:
 MaxwelItown's braes are bonnie, | Where early fas the dew:
 | And twas there that Annie Laurie | Gied me her promise true:
 | Gied me her promise true
 And for bonnie Annie Laurie
 | I'd lay me down and dee!
 | But, save In reGniniscence, 1t was not 10
 happen that "ber prnmisa true ns'er forgot
 wsd be-" and William Douglas declined to
 "lie down aud dee' on account of Annie
 Laurie or any other Scottish lsdy fair.
 Douglas adherence to the Stuart cause
 brought him under the ban of the author.
 ities, and he was soon compelled to escape
 to France, where he remained in exile for | a few years, until he could secure, through
 the powerful Queensbury family, his par
 don from the government. There Is no
 proof that either ''jGted" the other. Per
 hsps Annie Laurie was ss csnny as her
 father, Sir Robert, who was a staunoh Ja.
 cobite hater. Perhaps Douglas found in
 terestipg temporary attachments In Paris.
 Perhaps each unconsoiously drifted away
 from the other through the deadly politi.
 cal and religious rancor of the time. It is
 doubtful If Annie Laurie ever received an
 other missive from her impassioned poet
 lover after the one containing the ballad
 which must ever preserve the memory oi
 both. And 1t Is certain that the pair never
 again met after the sadly blissful parting
 which gave birth to this sweetest and ten derest of songs. It is said that 1t was frs
 given to the public by Lady John Scott sister of the late Duke of Buccleugh, wht ! slightly rearrsnged the words and the mu sic, and who secured their publication fol the benefit of some charity in behalf O widows and orphans of the Crimean war but there is no substantial proof that tn 5 words and the tune are not now precisel, l as they came from the soul and the pen O 3 the ardent Jaoobite lover.
 The portraits of Annie Laurie, pre- served at Craigdarroch and Mansfield, seat 3 of her descendants, chow her to have beei l 8 woman of slender physique, with a pc culiarly slight and willowy figure. Upol l, this was set 6 head whose profile is 8 B markedly classic as ever was shown upol D ancient carving or modern coin. Tn 6 neck was long, with that graceful swellin l. from breast to throat 90 loved of the ar
 fists; the chin was almost sharp thcugl
 roundly pointed; the lips. though closed
 were beautifully rounded, full and widel
 parted at their edges; the nose, and th o arehings from It's bridge, strong, full an = as exquisitely moulded as the most refine Grecian type; the forehead high, wide an
 straight from the nose-tip; and the eye u large, full and tender; while this remarks
 ble face and head were crowned by a ma d of wsyy, golden-brown hair. With a