Morning journal and courier., 1893-10-07


 mighty flames in the breasts of ordInsry Scottish folk as well As poets. to have been herself devoid of any of those mental or spiritual qualities capable of eleyatino her character to the realm of romance or her oism. She is known to have p,scsdly en- joyed, as many young women TOW do be fore entering mstrimony, & very vrta. number of love affairs; all of which seern to have been turgid and rampant on he part of her male admirers, and received and benignantly tolerated on her ozp. her "promise true" evidently ha~4-w- been rather widely distributed in southEesiern Scotland; until warned by advancing wears she became the wife of a man with no more poetry in him than ksIl-ysrd wall. but with broad acres and plenty of sssSl lei" Alexander Ferguson, laird of Craig dsrroch. Glencairn psrish, DumfrIesshIre. The whole region roundabout the scene Of this romantic episode between Annie Laurie and Doogias, and of tho iAtter's poem, is exquisitely beautiful and Ia won drously rife with poetic and historic inter est. Much of its poetic glamorI Is of course due to the personality and pen of Burns Every object you look upon from Dum- fries to Craigdarroch has been RIven al- most individuality, life and certainly un- dying interest from his personal AssociA- tion or the magic Of his muse. From inc ancisnt observatory In the MaxweIltown opposite Dumfries, which must be kept distinct in the mind from Annie LRuras's village birthplace of HAxRelltown, 6 few miles distant, one can zee sad feel the tenderness of complete identification. The eye ranges 10 the east over and beyond fair Annsndale; across Kirdcudbrfght- shire, to the west, to the noble hills skirt Ing Ayrshire; to the north, up dresmland Nithsdsle to the far, dim turrets of Drum lsnrig castle; and to the south to the vast expanse of Solway Firth, where, to the right of Nithsmouth, looms gray browed Crifel; while to Its left Is caught glesm of the ssnds at Brow We'll, st whose wa ters Burns too late struggled to rave his
 lie. Thus almost as & glance not only does the bswitching cyclorsma give the be holder the entire field Of the everyday scenes of the poets life during his last eight memorable years. but ST the game in stsut comprehension of the three most im- pressive epochs in his career of which we can have memory-the homs-hesvsn of Ellisland farm life, the wretched fight sgsinst poverty in the gray old border town beneath us, and that las. unavsillnR struggle at Brow We'll, bS Solway's shift ing sands; all made inc xpressihly more impressive by the lofty dome of the client mausoleum, over there iu that shadoEy
 
 may look for the recognition of his old time presence within the fair region round about
 There, too, in Bank street Is the "Wee Vennel, in whose upper thres little rooms the bard and his family lived when Burns was driven from the Ellislard farm by | ruinous crops to the more ruinous life of exciseman; the old ''Globs Tavern" just as 1t stood in Burns time, In which, un- happy as Is the fact for contemplation | one seems now almost tu hear his thrilling | voice, mingled with the laush Inter of Sym-, | Maxwell, Landlord Hyslop aud his wife Meg and their siren barmsid, "Anna of the gowden lockH;" the little close bshind | the "howf" or tavern, where poor Burns | brain beclouded and beWildered that bitter January night of 1796, upon the straw and refuse, iust al the edge of Shakespeare
 street. and insensible until the morn, re ceived ths chill of death that never left
 him, though he fingered conscious of his
 fate, until the 2lst of the July following:
 and there just back of this ssd spot on
 Burns street, in the poets time, Mill | street, Is the verltable cottage where he lived and died. Every square yard of Dumfries town Is aslow with some touch | ing reminder of Burns. And were this not enough to hold heart and mind to the | locality, what vivid reminders of Scottish
 history are here! Whs. kingly cayRlcsdss have passed and repassed, in despair or 1 triumph, the ancient bridge of Devout De- I vorgIlla, built in the middle of the :hir- i tssnih century, and still siAun0h the I rock b.ds out of which it's stones were | hewnI And there near where risss the | lofty spire of Greyfriar's church, once | stood the monastery of Greyfriars, in | which the averaging hand Of Bruce struck | the blow which set la march the mighty events leading to Sootland's mos. glorious | greatness and power.
 PllgrImiog from Dumfries distance of | but twelve miles 10 Crsig6arroch, the home of Auuie Laurie from the time of her marriage to Alexander Ferguson in | 1709, until her death in lsSl, st the age of | seventy-ntne years, you cross the '-new \ Brig" to the west, and are st once sInong | the brses of the DGmfries MAxwelltown. \ The shore side of this ancient hamlet re mind you Of scores of other tleepy 'tanld clsehAns of Scotland" but the streets upon the gentle heights are full of tree
 emboEtrrd vill4s, shd have sleepy, sun | shiny louk ot comfort and content. Once out upon the high wsy-ths ancient c1sch-
 road between Damfries and GlEsg0E-it
 winds over brAs and hill, through dale
 and dingle, over beck and burn, through l shadowy avenues and patches uf sun
 shine, past deserted clEchans and now
 silent old inns of cell, with the songs of
 streams and birds ever in yUur ears, a
 long and wiusOme way. When past ths
 outlying village hsbitations you will see | down there to ths right the picturesqus
 ruins of Linclud-n Abbey, but 6 few
 moments walk from the highway, ss
 beautifully situated SC thoss of Dryburgh
 on The Tweed, where repose the remains
 of Sir Walter S5ott- Beneath the sh&i- | nF Ey NNa raj
 daughter of King Robert III, of Sc1t'
 land. The fine old bridge near by s'
 which you tArry-fcr there is pretty
 scene of sheep skeRring going on beneath
 the shade of ih. willows just above
 crosses the river Cluden. small and
 tuneful stream It bounds merrily along
 through cOpse and bstween emerald
 haughs below, sweeps around the sn
 cient abbey walls, and entering the Nitf
 broAdens into deep pool or linn. Henct
 linn -Cluden, "tne Cluden pool, snd thu
 nsme of tue grand old monAst!c pile
 Lincludeu Abbey, wbich towers at iti
 edge above,
 If you proceeded five miles further ol
 this highway you would reach EllislAnd
 on the west bank of the Nith, for mAnI
 years the farm-homs of Burns, but turn
 ing to the left you enter lovely region
 ard in half sn hours walk come to Iron gray church beside Cairn water. Here you will tarry for lIt!le, for within ih grass grown church yard you will find the grave of "Jtanis Desns." immorialiZed IT
 "Hesrt of Midlothian" and the fnscrip ton on the table tombstone was written
 by Scott himself It is now but a short and a sunny distancs 10 the real Max weIltoEn of Douglas verse, 10 Monisvis l aud Craigdarrccb, a collection of coun' try seats and hamlets. most interesting