150 Field Meetings. 



Carlyle. Here are one of his arm chairs, a little couch, his 

 reading lamp — with ponderous white glass globe — a very small 

 hanging bookcase with copies of Chapman & Hall's shilling edition 

 of his work, a letter rack, some pieces of china set into a wall 

 recess, a curious cofFee-pot for use over a spii'it lamp, and his 

 tobacco -cutter —a substantial implement, with long blade, and 

 worked like the old-fashioned single-knife turnip-cutter — a small 

 " wag-at-the-wa' " clock, presumably a family heirloom, and the 

 kitchen tea-caddy. Here also are two of the philosopher's hats — 

 the veritable straw, of ample rim, with which we were accustomed 

 to see him perambulate the outskirts of Dumfries on a warm 

 summer day, and an equally wide-spreading soft felt. On the 

 wall are groups of photographs shewing Carlyle and his wife at 

 different periods ; a tiny portrait of the pet dog which was the 

 innocent cause of Mrs Carlyle's death, through the shock which 

 she received by seeing it in immediate danger from the wheels of 

 a carriage in Hyde Park ; a photographic group taken on the 

 steps of the residence of the late Provost Swan at Kirkcaldy, the 

 parties being Carlyle, his brother, the doctor ; his niece, Mrs 

 Mary Carlyle ; and their host. There is a wonderfully regular 

 stream of visitors to the liouse. The number of signatures 

 entered in the book since the beginning of the year is 145. This 

 visitors' book is a gift of Joseph Cook, of Boston, who visited 

 Ecclefechan in March, 1881, the month following Carlyle's death. 

 The room itself is just as it was in Cailyle's childhood, with the 

 exception that the door has been renewed, and that, of course, 

 painting and papering has been done. 



Burnswark hill was the next and last object of interest which 

 had a place in the itinerary, and it is one of itself well worth a 

 special journey. At its base is the lai-gest of all the camps which 

 testify to the three centuries or more of occupation of lowland 

 Scotland by the Roman armies ; and it is understood to be the 

 best preserved of any in the whole country except the one on 

 Moor of Ardoch, in Perthshire, near where Agricola inflicted the 

 sanguinary defeat on Galgacus and the Caledonian army. Burns- 

 wark itself is one of the most conspicuous and best-known 

 features in the landscape, its well-marked individuality command- 

 ing attention over a tract of country which extends far into 

 Cumberland, over into Liddesdale, and to the head of the Annan 

 valley. This prominence it owes less to its height, which is only 



