68 IN CARLYLE'S COUNTRY. 



much about the neighborhood, noting the birds, the 

 wild flowers, the people, the farm occupations, etc. : 

 going one afternoon to Scotsbrig, where the Carlyles 

 lived after they left Mainhill, and where both father 

 and mother died ; one day to Annan, another to Re- 

 pentance Hill, another over the hill toward Kirtle- 

 bridge, 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 hun- 

 dred 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 Carlyle'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 humbler ranks builds a house 

 in the country, he either turns its back upon the high- 

 way, or places it several rods distant from it, with 

 sheds or stables between ; or else he surrounds it 

 with a high, massive 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, 



