Show WAKEMANS wanderings copyright 1891 by edgar L wakeman Wakema nl scotland june 2 pilgrim ing among the countless shrines created by the living presence of robert burns in southwestern scotland and looking down along the flaming shaft of light that links his bis genius and his bis world girding human love and magnanimity to the fadeless immortality of his memory and name I 1 have always felt that the one among amdee them all which most breathes to the beholder the spirit of ineffable pathos and tenderness was tw the bards farm home of ellis land in the period between may 1786 at the age of twenty seven years and the end of the year 1791 when he came from this Ell island farm to the three rooms in the wee vennel in dumfries a period of but four and one half years more personal hope and disappointment joy and suffering anguish from impulsive wrong doing and heaven of the purest domestic bliss temptation and victory agonized despair and triumph were crowded into the poets experiences than fall to the lot of most great men in their entire lives in this brief time first he was disowned and deserted by jean armour through the bitter and ever unreasoning opposition of her father he was then betrothed to highland mary campbell the heroine of his immortal ode to mary in heaven wh shortly died of malignant fever at green ock about of his most characteristic poems were already written and the now priceless first edition of the same been issued from the rural press of kilmarnock in the county of dumbarton twin children had been born to him out of wedlock by jean armour of whom robert in after years a man of rare character and worth survived the poet fifty eight years his bis decease occurring at dumfries in 1857 and his body being interred in the burns mausoleum in that city burns local fame having attracted the attention of the literary coterie at edinburgh he was invited to that city where he was affiliated at the famous lodge of freemasons Free masons which till still meets in the veritable room then used and subsequently inaugurated as its poet laureate the latter event being the subject of a celebrated painting while he was made the literary lion of the day as new and enlarged editions of his poems appeared he then made a tour of the border counties of england and Scot scotland laud and untarnished by fame returned to mauchline the old home spot in ayr drawn there by his true love for his bis jean who repented here renunciation and with whom the former intimacy was renewed the tour of the north was then made burns burna returned to greater edinburgh literary triumphs he was introduced to mrs maclehose the clarinda of his famous correspondence and again returning to his bis beloved jean took her secretly to tarbolton Tar bolton mill where twins both of which died were again born to them being now independent of scandalous opposition burns publicly and proudly acknowledged jean armour as his wife then as sacred and binding a marriage in scotland as any other and in this instance necessary only because de barred formal marriage by the cifes parents who thus were solely responsible for the cloud upon the poets marital record burns also satisfied the church which in those days was not so very difficult of satisfaction he was also I 1 in a position to satisfy raddy jeans parents for on settlement with Creeo fathi edinburgh publisher isber the thou theu astounding sum of 2500 was found to be at his disposal then came the brief bright days magnanimously nani nant unanimously generous always much of this sum the first and last good fortune burns barns ever knew went to jeans parents and to assist his bis brother gilbert burns in averting disaster in the lat tatters farm life efforts his lucky meeting with the ingenious and kindly patrick miller of Da Dal kwinton swinton hall had bad occurred it had been settled that the tb poet who hated bated the city with a royal hatred should return to the plow the nobility of the day never quite forgave thip thi plebeian longing and love the source of ahle hi grandest inspirations this beautiful farm of Ell island five miles above dumfries was taken at a rental of fifty pounds per year burns unaided began his farm labors the first monday after whitsunday 1788 he toiled manfully until the autumn of that year meantime singing many a lusty song to his absent wife and built the lovely cottage which stands here ered in roses to this day and then was celebrated the simple but glorious home coming when with rustic rites and his bonny jean upon his arm preceded by a peasant girl carrying the family bible and a bowl of salt he marched proudly into his bis little home heaven beside the winding awing nith all evidences agree that in the brief period of a trifle over two years between whitsunday 1788 and 1791 burns and his good jean experienced an eden of labor and love despite their final enforced departure it was also the period of burns best and greatest poetic fecundity cund ity but more children came to them these must be supported the crops failed and inevitable ruin was approaching it was then that to save his bis wife and chil dren from actual want he was forced to accept the government position of at the beggarly pittance of RM 50 per yearl yeal the five remaining years of his bis life after the poet his jean and their three children robert francis wallace and william nicol removed to the humble lodgings their first home in Dam dumfries fries checkered sad pathetic beyond compre hension are known to all leaving the quaint old city of dumfries you cross the new brig to the west and are at once in the pretty braeside hamlet of maxwelltown Maxwell town famous wherever heart songs are sung for that one inexpressibly tender ballad equal to any that burns himself gave the world matchless annie laurie then the highway the ancient coach road between dumfries and glasgow winds over brae and hill bill through dale and dingle over beck and burn through shadowy avenues and patches of sunshine past deserted cla chans and now silent olden inns of call with the songs of streams and birds ever in your ears all the distance to Ell island once past the outlying habitations of maxwelltown Maxwell town you will see dowa there to the right the picturesque rains of Linc luden abbey but a few mo ments mental walk from the highway beneath the shadows of its majestic walls lies mir mar garet daughter of robert III king of scot landl land if yon will wander but a little distance around the ancient abbey walls and entering the nith broadens into a deep pool or linn hence linn cluden chuden the cluden chuden pool and the name of the grand old monastic pile U abbey which towers at its edge above you finally come to a bit of almost champaign country comfortable with snug stone cottages lie on either side of the highway to the right is an ancient gate opening to a long lane lan hedge bordered between well kept fields where the young grain is already rich ani green the wagon way is thick with the falling blossoms of the hawthorn the hedge bedge banks area are a mass of gladsome daisies A tiny burn having its source in springs above wimples dimples at one side half hidden bidden in the grass and daisies and at the end of this lane just over a ridge of warm and yellowy loam are seen the low roofs of a cottage and its humble outbuildings buildings out here and there half hidden in the foliage of surrounding trees this is Ell island for four years the farm home and home heaven of robert burns barns the only spot on all a this earth where comfort and happiness were his bis from the highway Ell island is amp disappointing the ridge of the fields forms a monotonous horizon line but burns knew where to build his Nith side nest from any point in the vicinity of the or farm buildings there is a glorious view of the valley of the nith the house bouse faces to the east and north a gentle bend in the nith which murmurs here over the shining shallows not nob a hundred yards distant with the outbuildings buildings out and their connecting rubble walls a sunny nearly quadrangle is formed the side next the distant highway to the west has to the right as you enter the inclosure a stable and corhouse cow house and a byre or feeding and straw yard behind to the left is a mill shed a modern structure a tiny barn and behind the latter which with the stable and corhouse cow bouse house stand precisely as burns built them is the where bonnie jean found her husband in that great agony of dejection which gave the world the matchless hymn to mary in heaven the house bouse itself into the construction of which the poet put months of his own labor working alongside the rustic stonemasons of the time remains to this day exactly as he built it A small kitchen has bas been added on the side next the raver which now as then is the front of the house houa the portion built by burns is of rubble about 55 feet long and nearly ad 20 in width it is one story in height with an ample attic there is a large room about IS 18 feet square at each end the entrance from the Nith side was into a hallway from which these two large rooms were reached out of this ibis one could also pass to the attic above and to a small kitchen which with a little bedroom stands 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 ceremonious entertainment of distinguished distin guised guests the other at the south end was the real heart of the hoole home the spence or living room of the poet his wife and baarns the family provisions were kept here in one end stood the bed the meals were wece eaten here and here the companions that burns loved came into the inglenook ingle nook glow beside the fireplace is a broad low window against the side wall stood an oaken table and here the poet in this sunny corner could feast his eyes upon the flowers and vines of his own little garden let them dwell fondly upon his bis cattle and pet sheep in the billowy field beyond or conjure glo rilous fancies from the noble sweeps of broad southern expanse crowded at its eastern edge with noble forests and the huge gables of swinton dalswinton Dal hall bathis by this little window burns either composed r put into completed manuscript form the greatest amount of the greatest work of his life how we prize the least reminder of these royal fellows when they are gonel gone I 1 there jare axe those who would pay 1000 each for two of the tiny panes in that one sunny window on one burns wrote with a diamond and afterward partially erased home he be bad not home is the resort 19 on the other he be inscribed his favorite maxim an honest mans the noblest work of god these inscriptions the house and out buildings and a few sturdy trees the poet planted are the only visible relies relics of the bards life at Ell island for the spot is one of the few in britain more mom grace too to ik it that is not a show place where re 4 the insistent reminder of the endlessness of few fees merges reverence and emotion into ridicule and contempt F the almost exclusive haunt of burns ati at Ell island was within call of his bis bonnie jean just below the high bank or upon the edge of which the cottage stank stands between this and the nith for a long distance to the north and south runs a lovely river road out of the cottage inclosure a 4 shaded path and wagon way descends tt t join the river road half way down thin chii almost sylvan way is a copious spring the bank of the side in the shade is a 4 mass of terns ferns and violets and in the sun shine a wondrous constellation of wes wee crimson tippet flowers the daisies of scotland pd for which burns felt something akin to adoration then came the silvery shallows of the nith beyond its stream leading to the meadow lands above is a 4 haugh a golden mass of waving broom along af way and up and down the river road burns sauntered ant and dreamed it was the scene acene of his mo most ecstatic achievement tarn tam ol 01 0 which the celebrated alexander smith thought as it was written in ft A day th IF best single days work donee done in scotland since bruce fought at bannockburn Ell island originally comprised aclei of land the lease to the poet was el foj four terms of nineteen years it was e exa caged in march 17 1788 and would have ex es aired by limitation in 1854 burns was waste to pay ZW 50 per year tor for the first three years and 70 thereafter and the owner allowed the poet am toward the he erection of tao ta cottage and outbuildings buildings out I 1 find the pre ent owner to be one dr J M taylor of 0 Sp ittlefield dunkeld the has been reduced from acres to acres acreal and it is now leased for the usual nineteen years term fifteen of which have expired to a family of hard working and intelligent scotch farmers named grierson at a rental of per year the old guid wife D dame me Grier grierson sou seems to live in a sort of halo of reverential grief for him who made her farmstead hallowed ground pair bodyl body cuir body she is constantly moaning be side you pair body he be was harassed to his bis dede ill mortal sickness EDGAR L WAKEMAN |