BURNS COUNTRY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20543, 11 May 1932, Page 16

BURNS COUNTRY.

A VISIT TO AYR. EARLY LIFE OF THE POET. (By T.C.L.] Forty miles south-west of Glasgow is the ancient and "royal'? burgh of Ayr. Lik-a most of the older towns in Scotland, Ayr has been drenched in history. The Eomans made the locality the termination of a main road and a principal military outpost. Seawards and landwards came foes, who seem to have fought as much for the love of fighting as for loot. Wallace and Bruce fought there, and that maker of ecclesiastical history, John Knox, preached in its churches. . , But it is not its ancient history that is the magnet which draws visitors to Ayr. It is because of its close association with "Bobbie" Burns that Ayr is one of the places no oversea visitor overlooks in a tour of Scotland. Not that the burgh is not proud of its records and its other sons who have helped to make history. All the same, it is long odds that if a stranger arrives by railway he will be shown) almost as soon as he leaves the station, the statue of Burns, first. . It, stands quite near, in w,hat was the market place when Bobbie was a small lad. In the sanid square there .are memorials to fighting men, but it is "Burns first." Tam-o-Shanter's Inn. So in the town itself.. In..the wain street, still a mixture of old and new buildings, you are pretty certain to be shown Tam-o-Shanter's Inn.first. The dd parlour of Burns' day has gone, but thelow ceilings and dimly-lit rooms still speak of times long gone. Having absorbed the introduction to the Burns; country and traditions, the stranger,,may .or may. not be'gi'ven the history-of the most ancient building in Ayr, the old' tower-of St.;; John's. He will most assuredly'be given the story of the "Auld Brig," the one-time solo road connexion between the', old. and new Ayr. Tradition says the bridge was built -as a memorial by two sisters wiiosc lovnrs were drowned in-the nearby ford to. visit thetn.. But Burns has"made the old.bridge. famous, 'and though the quaint-old structure is no longer safe for''traffic, .its v c.are '". is. noV one of'the, best regarded .civic duties. " ' ' ..*.-•"■ • Incidentally . the need to recast one's ideas of municipal progress is ; awakened 'when one learns that thV Newtown at Ayr is older than the time of Wallace and that its freemen claim privileges as a reward for.deeds-wrought at Banuoekburn! The Poet's., Birthplace. Almost, *histo.ry is | assimilated*tfie brief journey;jlo'tAlloway,% the poet's' ; bittfiplace, ■ completed."„.The.r.ip£:just, a mile,or.two from tho ancient,burgh,-is the'"humble clay cottage with byre and;barn, adjoining," built by William Burns. Here .he brought,,his'bride, [Agnes Brown, in 1757, and,l3 months later Koberfc Burns was .born; aiid in the cottage- spent his first eight: years of happy, childhood.! The family, left fdr. Mount .Oliphant farm and William Burns Sold the cottdge .in 1781; < nearly a century it was'a'public! house!.but in 1881 the property,-was. acquired by the trustees of the Burns monument. They restored the cottage to its state in 1759, and in it and the adjoining museum are preserved, furniture,, .manuscripts, and engravings, all relics, of ..the, poet. Vi sitors enter ithe, building, through the barn and pass through the byre and the "parlour" into "the'kitchen) where they are ; shown the' bed- in which ■ Kobert Burns wa'svEprn.-' , ;;"-'■. i . Not .'.^iif.away; is,'another... of , the: bridges poet) the: "Auld derful monument, to'his genius. The monument coirsislfs' of' Corinthian pillars 'upon a massive triangular base. Above them is a cupola crowned by a gilt tripod. In the basement is a room in which, memorials of the poet are shown, and in 'the' house which shares the beautiful grounds surrounding the monument th'bse who so desire are al-. lowea to see a sculptor's representation of "Tarn" o' Shdnter" and "Soute'r; Johnny," Yarns'; ntatchless pair of "doughty brith*erss 'Opposite the monument is the ruined "Auld Kirk" of Alloway, and' in its graveyard;is the tomb of the poet's father, visited by thousands who Tea'd with; reverent admiration the,.tribute paid by to worth and humility, in William Burns' epitaph.

A.. Change of Abode. ; ; "With .ttio. .growth: of .the, fitoiljr.. the cottage aid;: Jiolding' proved; insufficient, and the transfer came "to Mount Oliphant, few miles, away. It was an unhappy choice. "The situation," says a. contemporary, "was of. the best, but"thfc Soil of the poorest." Especially was this so in the. days when scientific husbandry was unknown. The lo* one-storeyed farmhouse seen there to-day is probably that which was occupied by the "Burns family, but with the response to better methods of farming that is evident it is difficult to think oneself back into the hungry days which had such marked effect upon' Robert .Burns. , "For, many .years, he, lived hard and worked hard at Mount Oliphant. It was there that the first glimpses* of his j genius 'were perceived, there he began his higher school work. But despite a mother who never allowed- the keen pressure -of; poverty -to ove'rcpme her nature, the days on the sterile farm at Mount Oliphant were hajrd- and gloomy. They had their effect for good and' ill npon. the spirit. of Burns," and there is little doubt ;but that the, physical effect of those toil-worn days had its share in hastening his death. The Search for Song. I But the formative days were not all gloom. He had begun that search,for Scottish song and' folk-lore he so richly endowed. ''Blind Harry," the Min.strel's record \of >Wallace's acts ilnd : . deeds, was, ho says, his first book. -The Minstrel's record has been proved' 4u owe more to tradition than to truth, -but it ntade*fine stories and, as Burns puts it, "poured a Seottish> prejudice ,uito my veins." His mother's singing awoke his love 6f iScottish song, to his old friend Betty.Dayidson he. owed his. the "devils ghost's, 1 'fairies, 'witches an'd v warlocks" with:! which so many traditions, we re peopled. J Above all, the beginnings of the wis-' -ctom that characterise His writings just' as markedly as his wit, were found in "the counsels of his father. His schoolmaster taught him grammar, and from friends he was able to borrow books. ft was at Mount Oliphant that his admiration for a lassie inspired his first song, though he IS- years qlcLand the lassie a year younger. A Hopeless Task. But frugality arid hard work could' not overcome soil impoverishment. William Burns' old landlord and friend ..died, . His. estate >was administered by an unfeeling agent, the "family had grown to seven, the father's infirmities w<ire increasing and the burden of ..toil,, was still heavier upon Robert and his brothers. * SmaH£woiid<sr it isitiiat they gave up hopeless task and- sought! fresh paituras'- hew.'*'- ; >was i' a farm pome miles north-west of Ayr, not far (.fr-pm ..the grillage. qf,,Tar|)oJtQn. ... Tlve f homestead to-day is" a comfortable larly attractive about it. As at Mount