36 'Traiisactioiis. 



said to have bueii used as a baptismal font. In another corner 

 is an interesting relic of the old church, a stone bearing the 

 words, "How amiable are Thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts !" 

 and the date 1649. 



Of the chapel and churchyard at Glenesslin no authentic 

 traces remain except in the name of the farm called "Chapel." 



It was at Ellisland — himself being umpire — that Burns wrote 

 the best of his poetry, and there he spent the happiest period of 

 his short life. Those three years and a half were full of promise. 

 The wild oats seemed to have been sown, and unsettled youth 

 developed into full, strong manhood. There was fierce piiysical 

 energy displayed in the building of the new house and the 

 reclaiming of the untilled fields ; and the teeming brain was no 

 less active. Memories of the past in Ayrshire were often with 

 him, causing his heart to sing of tlie " Banks of Doon " and " Auld 

 Langsyne." Afl'ectionate sadness over friendships interrupted 

 by death inspired the " Lament for the Earl of Glencairn " and 

 the ode ''To Mary in Heaven." Then the keen, irrepressible 

 Scottish humour broke out again in " Tam o' Shanter," "The 

 Jolly Beggars," " The Whistle," and many a song in praise of 

 that good fellowship, which brought about his ruin in the end. 



Visitors to Ellisland are told that the house is that which the 

 poet built, but this is doubtful. Mr Taylor, into whose hands 

 the property passed in 1805, dismantled and remodelled the 

 whole steading. The site is a beautiful one on the western 

 bank of the Nith. From the river the ground slopes gently 

 back to a lofty ridge more than a mile away, on one of the 

 highest points of which Springfield Hill Camp is perched. A 

 mile to the south of Ellisland stands the ivied tower of Isle, side 

 by side with the modern mansion house. It was to one of the 

 cottages at the Isle that Burns brought Jean Armour from her 

 home in Mauchline, and there they lived till the house at 

 Ellisland was ready, and the} went forth with much ceremony 

 to take possession. Scarcely as far up the stream is Friars' 

 Carse, so nained from its former possessors, the Monks of 

 Melrose. In Burns's time it was the residence of Riddel of 

 Glenriddel, who took a great interest in the farmer poet. Here 

 Burns met Captain Grose, at whose suggestion he wrote " Tam 

 o' Shanter," to be printed in the famous antiquary's book 

 opposite an engraving of Alloway Kirk. Here, too, was the 

 Hermitage, in a secluded ooi-ner of the woods, with memorials of 



