66 chased in gold " of Sir Walter Scott, might have roused his muse, more especially as Fergusson, whom Burns regarded as his master, had already celebrated the most prominent in lines of beauty. Scott Douglas conjectures that Burns must have paid a visit to the Fifian coast through the medium of the pleasure smacks that plied betwixt Leith and Pettycur." Such trips seem to have been the "correct thing" for visitors to Edinburgh in the latter end of the 18th century, but, as I have already said, we have no evidence that Burns followed the fashion. It was not until after his second visit to Edinburgh that we find any reference to Fife in the works of Burns. In the diary he kept when on his Highland tour we find the following under date 25th August, 1787: "Pleasant distant view of Dunfermline, and the rest of the fertile coast of Fife as we go down to that dirty, ugly place, Borrowstouness." Burns, it will be noticed, mentions the fertility of Fife, a fertility which was at that time proverbial. Pennant, who visited the county just fifteen years earlier, writes thus: "The peninsula of Fife, a county so populous that, excepting the environs of Loudon, scarce one in South Britain can vie with it, fertile in soil, abundant in cattle, happy in collieries, in iron, stone, lime, and freestone, blest in manufactures, the property remarkably well divided, none insultingly powerful to distress and often depopulate a county-the most of the fortunes of a useful mediocrity." It was not long till the Bard was on the borders of the "Kingdom." The entry in his diary for 27th August reads: "Go to Harvieston, Mrs Hamilton and family, Mrs Chalmers, Mrs Shields. Go to see Cauldron Linn and Rumbling Brig and the Deil's Mill. Return in the evening to Stirling." Harvieston lies in the valley of the Devon in Clackmannanshire, and the Mrs Hamilton whom the Poet met there was the stepmother of his friend and landlord, Gavin Hamilton, of Mauchline. The short notice in the dairy is supplemented somewhat by a letter written to Gavin Hamilton from Stirling. There is little in the 66 66 letter about the scenery, though there is a good deal about the persons he had met, and he sums up his experiences in the words, One of the most pleasant days I ever had in my life.” On his return from this tour Burns passed through the "Kingdom." He left Perth on Saturday, September 15, and passing by Endermay, where he dined, he came that evening to Kinross, where he spent the night. Next morning he left there and travelled to North Queensferry, where he crossed the Forth. The extract from his diary runs: "Pass through a cold, barren country to Queensferry-dine-cross the ferry, and on to Edinburgh." The extract shows us that the Poet had realised the truth of King James' words regarding this part of Scotland, Fife is a beggar's mantle with a fringe of gold." Doubtless the Bard would follow the old highway still known as the Great North Road. It was then in a very different condition to what it is now, for, writing just a few years after the Poet's visit, Dr Thomson, of Markinch (a nephew of the Poet of "The Seasons ") declares that the wretched conditions of the road was among the chief obstacles to improvement in the county. The road runs from North Queensferry through the ancient burgh of Inverkeithing (a burgh in the days of Alexander I., 1107-1124), and heads in a north-easterly direction. It does not touch the burgh of Dunfermline, though for some distance it forms the eastern boundary of the parish, evidence of its ancient origin. So far then, our National Poet does not appear to have been greatly impressed by our county, and though in the letters written from Edinburgh after his return there are references to many of the places he visited, there do not appear to be any regarding the places immediately north of the Firth, although it is possible we have one in the lines 66 'Not Gowrie's rich valley, nor Forth's sunny shores, It was no great time, however, till the Poet was across the Forth again. In Dr Currie's Life" there is an account given of a visit paid by Burns to Harvieston and Ochtertyre in company with Dr Adair, the son of a physician in Ayr. Dr Adair (who was related to Mrs Dunlop) places this visit in August, 1787, but a somewhat later date must be assigned to it. Most probably it took place in the following October. This proved a rather eventful journey for the Doctor, for at Harvieston he was introduced by Burns to Miss Charlotte Hamilton, whom he married in 1789. Miss Hamilton was a half-sister of Gavin Hamilton, and it was in her honour that the Bard wrote the lines— "How pleasant the banks of the clear winding Devon, It is interesting to note that in the last days of his life the Bard's thoughts turned to the few days spent on Devon's banks, and the last poem he ever wrote was one in praise of Miss Hamilton, then Mrs Adair While at Harvieston the two visitors were storm-stayed, but apparently the great floods did not keep them indoors, for Dr Adair records excursions to Castle Campbell at Dollar, the Cauldron Linn, and Rumbling Brig. He expresses some surprise that none of these scenes should have called forth the exertions of Burns's muse. "I doubt," he adds, "if he had much taste for the picturesque." It was while on this tour that the famous visit was paid to Mrs Bruce, of Clackmannan, who claimed-not that she was sprung from the family of the hero King of Scotland-but that the latter was sprung from her family. She possessed what were alleged to be the helmet and two-handed sword which belonged to King Robert, and with the latter she conferred the order of knighthood on the Poet, doubtless pleasing him greatly with the remark that she had a better right to confer that title than " some people." The old lady was the last of her particular line (which, it may be mentioned, was descended from a Sir Robert Bruce whom David II., in a charter, designated "his beloved and faithful cousin "). When she died it was found that she had bequeathed the sword and helmet to the then Earl of Elgin—also a Bruce-and they are still preserved at the family seat at Broomhall, Dunfermline. Ere they returned to Edinburgh the two travellers, Burns and Adair, visited the city of Malcolm and Margaret. They travelled via Kinross, where it has been conjectured Burns wanted to see once again the island fortress which had been the prison of Queen Mary. "At Dunfermline," says Dr Adair, we visited the ruined Abbey and the Abbey Church, now consecrated to Presbyterian worship. Here I mounted the cutty stool, or stool of repentance, assuming the character of a penitent for fornication, while Burns from the pulpit addressed to me a ludicrous reproof and exhortation, parodied from that which had been delivered to himself in Ayrshire, where he had, as he assured me, been one of seven (the Mauchline Session Records say five) who had mounted the seat of shame together. In the churchyard two broad flag-stones mark the grave of Robert Bruce, for whose memory Burns had more than common veneration. He knelt and kissed the stone with sacred fervour, and heartily (suus ut mos erat) execrated the worse than Gothic neglect of the first of Scottish heroes. The portion of the Abbey Church then in use was that now known as the Old Abbey. It was originally the Parish Church of Dunfermline, and continued to be so until the opening of the new church in 1821. The new portion covers the site of the former Abbey Church, for it has to be remembered that in pre-Reformation times there were two churches here, though both were under the one roof. The Parish Church formed the nave, and the Conventual or Abbey Church formed the choir of the building. After the Reformation there was no need for the Abbey Church, as the monks had all gone; and as the lands which provided the funds for its upkeep were seized by neighbouring landlords, it soon fell into ruins, though had there been a Carnegie one hundred years ago it might have been restored. The last portions of the Abbey Church (with the exception of St. Margaret's Shrine, which is still in existence) were removed in 1818 to make room for the present church. The pulpit from which Burns addressed his friend has disappeared, though I have heard that it was still to the fore comparatively recently. The seats, &c., in the older building were disposed of by auction. in 1822. The Royal Gallery, which was in the church when Burns visited it, is still preserved in the new portion. The remains of King Robert were re-interred with considerable ceremony during the rebuilding of the edifice, and the grave is now marked with a handsome brass of mediæval style bearing the figure and arms of the Bruce. Above the grave stands the arched pulpit, one of the finest in Scotland. Burns returned to Edinburgh on 20th October, travelling by the road which is associated with memories of Queen Margaret, to Queensferry. In Burns's Common-place Book there are two references to the "Kingdom." The first is given thus in Currie : |