Morning journal and courier., 1893-09-09
AYR, Scotland, Aug. 26

Identification of Poet With Places
 The Doom From It's Source to the
 Sea.
 AYR, Scotland, Aug. 26. Tothe Editor of the JOURNAL AND CoURIEB:
 In that broad and measureless sense in which poet of the people knits his per sonslity adorsbly into the hearts of an en- tire nation, all of grand old Scotia Is truly graphical respect, where both personality and genius have been all-pervading, and have left on every hand some memory of association and enduring reminder of the bard's actual presence, there are, provin- cially, distinctivsly two "Burns' Lands" in Bonnie Scotland
 These are Ayrshire, on the Firth of Clyde, and Dumfriesshire, on the Solwsy Firth, adjoining counties of southwest ern Scotland. From the top of Merrick mountain in the northern part of Kirk oudbrightshire, which wedges strip of glorious hill country up to the north be- tween the two former shires, to which had trsmped to wander down the Doon from its very source, the sight can tra. verse the entire breadth of both the Ayr. shire Land of Burns and the Land of Burns of Dumfriesshire. There is not another scene in all the world more fraught with glowing natural beauty; not another one more mournfully sweet and tender in gentle and pathetic memories.
 To the eye the panorama of all the love | ly land in which the brief life of the bard | was passed is practically complete. Tc | the mind all the vast host of his poetic creations; the joy and sadness of the mar In their doing; the penury, the struggle glory and despair, from birth to death are here msssed with overwhelming i'm pressiveness. To the west is Ayrshire, al | first, by the birth-spot near pleasant Ayr sunny and low beside the sea. Then, fol lowing the vale of the Doon, 1t comes al the way to your feet, in gentle uplands then in rugged hills and shadowy burns and finally in huge mountains axd ssvsg glsns. Passing over into Dumfriesshire the mountains spread into broad, luxuri oas vales. One, where the murmurinl Nth winds to the Solwsy, is 6 dream 0 opulence and rest. Then as the spires o old Dumfries town blend with the ragged
 Solwsy edge, "hoary Crifep' looms threat
 eningly. At last glint of blue show
 where is Brow We'll, from which the poet
 close to death, was carried back to the lit
 tie Dumfries cottage and his loyal Jean
 and like tiny dazzling cone of white 1 | seen the dome of the huge mausoleun ! o1d OcotJa,s da1rast hard Ia at reg
 in eternal peace.
 The two shires and their very topogra phy-the western sea and It's soft shores
 the wales, the uplsnds, the midshire rugget
 heights, the sweet valley where the bard
 most fecund and bis hsppiest hours wer
 passed at Ellisland beside the Nth, th
 lowering mountain again, the glint of tn l sea and 8 nations grave-Powerfully sus
 gest the two epochs of Burns' eventfu
 life. Ayrshire saw his youthtide; his fs
 veriah, fervent early struggles. Dunn
 friesshire gave the only blessed calm h
 knew; the sad and desperate later days
 and yet 1t was in Dumfriesshire that tn
 great heart grew still. Ayrshire glories i
 his birthplace, the scenes of his youth the unfolding of his genius, the first as knowledgement of his fame. Dumfriss
 shire Is glorified by his riper fame, hi
 better accomplishment, even by the ps
 thos of his later days, and by the prec!ou heritage of cherishing his mortal remaint Though here to wander by ths Doon, t
 which the mind unconsciousIy reverts 2 mention of the poets name, while pi griming among the countless shrines cres ted by his living presence in these tw | shires and looking down along the han , 1 ing shaft of light that links his genius an l world girdipg human love and msgnsmir } l ity to the fadeless immortality of hi 5 | name, I cannot but feel that the scene which most breath to the beholder th [ spirit of ineffable pathos and tendernes l ! belong to the second epoch of his life, an 7 lie along the Nth instead of clusterin t l about "the banks and braes O bonni 3 l Doon." True, from where you may stan 5 here with me on Merrick,s heights tt l | Ayrshire shrines, almost within the linn ! of vision, are rich and countless. Yo D may not discern each one with the make
 eye, but you can plainly see where all ma r be found in @ short days journey.
 ? The spires of Ayr seem almost heneat Q your feet. Just outside the rim of ve 0 dure shutting in the city, where a fair ' curling line of misty purple outlines tf . sinuous course of the Doom as 1t hears tt 6 sea, are the low roofed matched cotta,
 where Burns was born, beside the splel
 did seat of Roselle, on the little farm g seven acres which was rented by the poet I father, and the spot where the gipsy hi t foretold, as the father was riding in hss s for the doctor, that
 n We'll a be proud of Robin.
 Not half mile distant can be descri