Gbe 3. C* Saul Collection or IRineteentb Century ^literature puvcbaseo in part tbrougb a contribution to tbe Xibrarp jfunos ma&e b^ tbe Department of Bnglisb in Hlmversitp College. She pilgrimage Scries THE BURNS COUNTRY AGENTS AMERICA: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64 and 66 Fifth Avenue, New York AUSTRALASIA : THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 205 Flinders Lane, Melbourne CANADA : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. St Martin's House, 70 Bond Street, Toronto INDIA: MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. Macmillan Building, Bombay 809 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta ROBERT BURNS From the Painting by Alexander Nastnyth in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. THE BURNS COUNTRY BY CHARLES S. DOUGALL, M.A. SKCOND EDITION CONTAINING THIRTY-TWO FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS LONDON > ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK First Edition published in 1904 Second Edition published in 1911 M334 TO WEANS AND WIFE a 2 " This little Valclusa Fountain will also arrest our eye : for this also is of Nature's own and most cunning workmanship, bursts from the depths of the earth, with a full gushing current, into the often will the traveller turn aside to drink of light of day ; and its " clear waters, and muse among its rocks and pines ! CARLYLE. PREFACE " " I HAVE no dearer aim," said Burns, than to make leisurely pilgrimages through Caledonia ; to sit on the fields of her battles to wander on ; the romantic banks of her rivers and to muse ; on the stately towers or venerable ruins, once the honoured abodes of her heroes." This volume is the result of such leisurely pilgrimages as Burns desired to make. I have wandered on the banks of the rivers and streams which owe much of their to him I have romance ; visited his homes and haunts in Ayrshire and Nithsdale and I on the ; have picked up, way, stories of himself and his friends, and facts and traditions concerning the people who lived and fought and suffered in his country. The land of Burns can also claim to be the land of Bruce and Wallace. It was the home of Lollards and Covenanters ; it witnessed centuries of feudal strife Gait and Ainslie and ; Boswell, Cunning- ham, Burns and Scott, are among those who have invested it with the charm of literary associations. I have tried to set down the fruits of my gleanings in this rich field simply and clearly, in the hope that those things which interested me will prove interesting to all who vii viii PREFACE share my admiration of the poet and my love for his native land. Paterson's History of Ayrshire and its Families and Dr Wallace's edition of Chambers's Burns have been my constant companions in my travels. I owe something also to the Rev. Roderick Lawson's books on Carrick, the Rev. J. H. Pagan's Annals of Ayr, M 'Kay's History of Kilmarnock, M'Dowall's History of Dumfries, Gray's Nithsdale, and The Burns Chronicle. I have paraphrased Blind Harry and Barbour for the stories I have given of Wallace and Bruce. I would express my gratitude for the unfail- ing kindness and courtesy which have met me at every turn in my wanderings through the Burns Country. My thanks are especially due to the Rev. C. Tarbolton Duncan J. Higgins, ; Mr Kilmaurs the Rev. B. R. M 'Naught, ; W. Wilson, Dollar and the Rev. Walter ; Scott, Stirling. More than all, I am indebted to Mr Thomas Ferguson, Kilmarnock, who not only placed at my disposal the whole of his unique collection of photographs of the Burns Country, but also was at the pains to take several views expressly for this work. CHARLES S. DOUGALL. DOLLAR, May 1904. NOTE TO SECOND EDITION ADVANTAGE has been taken of the issue of a second edition to make a few corrections rendered necessary by the passage of time. C. S. D. DOLLAR, March 1911. CONTENTS CHAP. FAOK I. AULD AYR ...... I II. WALLACE IN AYRSHIRE . .21 III. TAM O' SHANTER'S RIDE . .30 IV. ALLOWAY AND MOUNT OLIPHANT . 42 V. THE CASTLES BY THE DOON . -53 vi. "GIRVAN'S FAIRY-HAUNTED STREAM" . 75 VII. THE COAST OF CARRICK . .87 VIII. BRUCE IN CARRICK ..... 99 IX. THE AYR ...... 109 X. TARBOLTON AND LOCHLEA . .126 XI. MAUCHLINE AND MOSSGIEL . .141 XII. THE BRAES OF BALLOCHMYLE . .154 xni. "WHERE LUGAR LEAVES HIS MOORLAND PLAID" . 171 xiv. "LOUDOUN'S BONNIE WOODS AND BRAES" . 187 xv. "THE STREETS AND NEUKS o' KILLIE" . 206 xvi. IRVINE ....... 224 xvii. "ADOWN WINDING NITH" .... 244 XVIII. ROUND ABOUT ELLISLAND . .267 XIX. THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH . .293 APPENDIX ....... 323 INDEX ........ 327 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS IJY THOMAS FERGUSON Robert Burns (Nasmyth Portrait) . Frontispiece KACISi: I'AOK Auld Brig, Ayr ....... 10 Auld Brig o' Doon ...... 25 Alloway Monument ...... 32 Kirk Alloway . .41 Burns's Cottage, Alloway ..... 48 Mount Oliphant ...... 49 Loch Doon Castle ...... 56 Auchendrane . .81 OldDailly 88 Dunure Castle ....... 97 Kirkoswald ....... 104 Castle . Turnberry . .113 Stair House . .120 Tarbolton . .129 Lochlea ........ 136 Mossgiel ... ... 145 Gavin Hamilton's House, Mauchline . .152 Poosie Nansie's ...... 161 Burns's House, Mauchline ..... 168 River Ayr at Barskimming ..... ^77 Sorn Castle ....... 184 River Lugar ....... 225 xi xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Kilmarnock, Waterloo Street . 232 Kilmarnock Monument . 241 River Afton .248 Sanquhar Castle 273 Ellisland 280 Dumfries 289 Lincluden Abbey 296 Burns's House, Dumfries 305 Burns's Mausoleum 312 Robert Burns . On the Cover From, the Xasmyth 2'ortrait in the Rational Gallery, London. THE BURNS COUNTRY CHAPTER I AULD AYR " Low, in a sandy valley spread, ancient rear'd her head An Borough ; Still, as in Scottish story read, She boasts a Race To ev'ry nobler virtue bred, And polish'd grace." ONE naturally turns to Ayr as a starting-point for a tour in the land of Burns. It was the town of his boyhood, and it is the gateway to his country. Through the gently sloping uplands that stretch away to the east, "auld hermit Ayr" steals to the shore past many a country-seat deep set amid ancient trees. Southward, the Doon "pours down his far-fetch'd floods," sweeping past Kirk Alloway and the "auld clay biggin" in which Burns was born. The seaward view is magnificent. From the Mull of Cantire, past the mighty mass of Arran, round by Bute and the Cumbraes, and down a ] ong the coast, with its busy towns Ardrossan, Saltcoats, Irvine, Troon on to the bold Heads of Ayr, seems one un- A 2 THE BURNS COUNTRY broken line. Far off, a clear eye may catch a glimpse of the Irish Coast, and the black bulk of Ailsa is set between, like an enormous watch- tower in the middle of the wide lane of waters, Scotland's great highway of commerce. It is not surprising that a town in such a situation should have become a fashionable place of residence. It lies on the outskirts of a golfer's it is neither so that one is in paradise ; large danger of losing one's identity in it, nor so small that one cannot repel the advances of inquisitive its neighbours ; manufactures, though important, are not obtrusive, the most objectionable public works, from the point of view of a resident, being confined to the north side of the river. Moreover, it is a town with an enormous wealth of historic associations. Romans and Norsemen knew it Wallace and Bruce were its ; frequent visitors and Knox and Welsh from its ; preached pulpits. Auld Ayr is proud of her sons. She prefers a doubtful claim to Erigena (Johannes Scotus), foremost among the writers of the Middle Ages. There is no doubt about her claim to Andrew Ramsay, named the Chevalier, tutor to bonnie Prince Charlie, and author of The Travels of Cyrus. John Loudon MacAdam, whose method of road-making gave a new word to the English tongue, was born in Ayr. In her ancient and excellent Academy were trained not a few of the greatest ornaments of the Scottish Bar, as in more recent days was also the author of The House ivitk the Green Shutters. She has pro- duced a host of local bards and historians, of whom the last, the author of the Kings of AULD AYR' 3 Carrick, is not the least. She is proud of General " Neill, her hero of the Mutiny, who fell gloriously at the relief of Lucknow," as is set forth on the statue to his honour, which stands opposite that of Lord Eglinton in Wellington Square. She is proud, too, of those who upheld her fair name in South Africa, to whom the other day she erected a monument, bearing the appropriate inscription words spoken by Burns of Wallace : " Ye babbling winds, in silence sleep, Disturb not ye the hero's sleep." , Proudest of all her memories are those of Robert Burns. Hither, on fine Sundays, a dark- eyed, serious-faced lad of six or seven, he trotted by his father's side to worship in the Auld Kirk that still stands between the High Street and the Water of Ayr. During the twelve years he spent at Mount Oliphant, he paid the town many a visit. He says himself: "My vicinity to Ayr was a great advantage to me." Even from Mossgiel, some ten miles distant, Burns, now a man of mark in the county, found time to ride across to Ayr. It is easy to picture such a visit the start in the early morning, the ride down through Tarbolton, along the slopes of the valley, and across the Auld Brig into the town. Some buying and selling has first to be done in the Mealmarket at the bend of the High or at the Fauldbacks and then he is Street, up ; free to call on his lawyer friends.