62 FRESH FIELDS 



flowers, the people, the farm occupations, etc. ; 

 going one afternoon to Scotsbrig, where the Carlyles 

 lived after they left Mainhill, and Avhere both father 

 and mother died; one day to Annan, another to 

 Repentance Hill, another over the hill toward Kir- 

 tlebridge, tasting the land, and finding it good. It 

 is an evidence of how permanent and unchanging 

 things are here that the house where Carlyle was 

 born, eighty-seven years ago, and which his father 

 built, stands just as it did then, and looks good for 

 several hundred years more. In going up to the 

 little room where he first saw the light, one ascends 

 the much-worn but original stone stairs, and treads 

 upon the original stone floors. I suspect that even 

 the window panes in the little window remain the 

 same. The village is a very quiet and humble one, 

 paved with small cobble-stone, over which one hears 

 the clatter of the wooden clogs, the same as in Car- 

 lyle's early days. The pavement comes quite up 

 to the low, modest, stone-floored houses, and one 

 steps from the street directly into most of them. 

 When an Englishman or a Scotchman of the hum- 

 bler ranks builds a house in the country, he either 

 turns its back upon the highway, or places it sev- 

 eral rods distant from it, with sheds or stables 

 between; or else he surrounds it with a high, mas- 

 sive fence, shutting out your view entirely. In the 

 village he crowds it to the front; continues the 

 street pavement into his hall, if he can; allows no 

 fence or screen between it and the street, but makes 

 the communication between the two as easy and 



