Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wordsworth, Dorothy
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Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wordsworth, Dorothy
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Diaries; Wordsworth, Dorothy, 1771-1855 -- Diaries; Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Family
_Thursday, August 18th._--Went to the churchyard where Burns is buried.
A bookseller accompanied us. He showed us the outside of Burns's house,
where he had lived the last three years of his life, and where he died.
It has a mean appearance, and is in a bye situation, whitewashed; dirty
about the doors, as almost all Scotch houses are; flowering plants in
the windows.
Went on to visit his grave. He lies at a corner of the churchyard, and
his second son, Francis Wallace, beside him. There is no stone to mark
the spot; but a hundred guineas have been collected, to be expended on
some sort of monument. "There," said the bookseller, pointing to a
pompous monument, "there lies Mr. Such-a-one"--I have forgotten his
name,--"a remarkably clever man; he was an attorney, and hardly ever
lost a cause he undertook. Burns made many a lampoon upon him, and there
they rest, as you see." We looked at the grave with melancholy and
painful reflections, repeating to each other his own verses:--
Is there a man whose judgment clear
Can others teach the course to steer,
Yet runs himself life's mad career
Wild as the wave?--
Here let him pause, and through a tear
Survey this grave.
The poor Inhabitant below
Was quick to learn, and wise to know
And keenly felt the friendly glow
And softer flame;
But thoughtless follies laid him low,
And stain'd his name.
The churchyard is full of grave-stones and expensive monuments in all
sorts of fantastic shapes--obelisk-wise, pillar-wise, etc. In speaking
of Gretna Green, I forgot to mention that we visited the churchyard. The
church is like a huge house; indeed, so are all the churches, with a
steeple, not a square tower or spire,--a sort of thing more like a
glass-house chimney than a Church of England steeple; grave-stones in
abundance, few verses, yet there were some--no texts. Over the graves of
married women the maiden name instead of that of the husband, "spouse"
instead of "wife," and the place of abode preceded by "in" instead of
"of." When our guide had left us, we turned again to Burns's house. Mrs.
Burns was gone to spend some time by the sea-shore with her children. We
spoke to the servant-maid at the door, who invited us forward, and we
sate down in the parlour. The walls were coloured with a blue wash; on
one side of the fire was a mahogany desk, opposite to the window a
clock, and over the desk a print from the _Cotter's Saturday Night_,
which Burns mentions in one of his letters having received as a present.
The house was cleanly and neat in the inside, the stairs of stone,
scoured white, the kitchen on the right side of the passage, the parlour
on the left. In the room above the parlour the poet died, and his son
after him in the same room. The servant told us she had lived five years
with Mrs. Burns, who was now in great sorrow for the death of "Wallace."
She said that Mrs.
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