BurRNs AND MOFFAT. 163. 
of the editors of the poet’s works state the place as being the inn 
or the principal inn at Moffat; others again state the Black Bull 
as the place. Mr M‘Dowall, in his “ Burns in Dumfriesshire,’’ 
gives the Black Bull, and Mr Kemp in “ Convivial Caledonia,’’ 
does the same. Mr Lowe, in his “ Scots Wanderjahre,’’ gives: 
the Spur Inn (now known as Proudfoot House) as the enchanted 
spot, and says:—“ Here it was according to local tradition— 
guide-books to the contrary—that Burns stayed briefly in the 
autumn of 1788, and it was on a window of the Spur that he 
«scrawled the impromptu verse.’’ None of the editors of Burns’ 
works, or any of the above writers on the subject, had seen the 
original pane of glass, at least while it remained in the inn 
window. However, we have the evidence of one individual who 
had seen it. I refer to the Rev. William MacRitchie, minister of 
the parish of Clunie, Perthshire, who in 1795 made a tour through 
Great Britain. During this tour he kept a diary, which was pub- 
lished in the year 1897. The diarist travelled on horseback, 
and “left the Bield, Tweedsmuir, on Friday morning, the 26th 
June, and arrived at Rae’s Inn, Moffat, to breakfast at 11 
o’clock a.m., where read the following lines written on the glass 
in one of the windows of the room where I breakfasted:—‘ On 
seeing Mrs Kemble in the character of ‘ Yarico’ at Dumfries, 
1794 :— 
“Kemble, thous cur’st my unbelief of Moses and his rod, 
At Yarico’s sweet notes of grief, the rock with tears had flow’d. 
ied 
“On being asked why God had made Miss Davies so small and 
Mrs D so big :— 
*«« Ask why God made the gem so small, and why so huge the granite ? 
Because God meant mankind should set the higher value on it.’ ”’ 
The lines regarding Mrs Kemble are rather interesting as appear- 
ing with Burns’ initials on the window of Rae’s Inn. According 
to Allan Cunningham, the poet wrote these lines in Mrs Riddel’s 
box in the Dumfries Theatre. Mrs Kemble’s first appearance at 
Dumfries Theatre was in October, 1794, and we find ‘them 
scratched by Burns on a window in Moffat on the 26th June of the 
following year; but there is no saying how long before that date 
they were inscribed. The editor of Mr MacRitchie’s tour in a 
note mentions “that in all likelihood they were written at Moffat 
7 
