Monday 16th August 1819
Monday August 16th Left Carlisle and proceeded through a flat country to Longtown changing horses we soon welcomed ourselves to Scotland at Gretna Green we stopped at the house where the marriages are solemnised if it may be called so our driver telling us if we would give the priest (Mr
Lang) some ?burgundy? he would come and “?crach? with us a little” which he did and informed us that a couple had been married two days ago, again changing horses at Annan we arrived at 5 o’clock at Dumfries a large well built town the Kings Arms is a good Inn we walked after dinner to the churchyard which is filled with curious monuments it not being the custom in Scotland to place them in the church at one corner of the churchyard is a handsome monument erected to Burns the poet the thistles and weeping willows are planted all around it in the evening we went to the theatre which is very small.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Longtown: nearby were the Battles of Arfderydd in 573 and Solway Moss 1542. Its sheep market was at the centre of the 2001 UK foot-and-mouth crisis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longtown,_Cumbria
2008: Longtown Bridge over the River Esk by Alexander P Kapp. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Alexander P Kapp and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longtown_Bridge_over_the_River_Esk.jpg
Gretna Green was historically the first village in Scotland, following the old coaching route from London to Edinburgh. It sits alongside the main town of Gretna. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Green
2006: The old blacksmiths shop at Gretna Green by Niki Odolphie from Frome, England. This image was originally posted to Flickr by odolphie at https://www.flickr.com/photos/99962592@N00/237506046 and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gretna_Green.jpg
Marriages at Gretna Green: It has usually been assumed that Gretna's famous "runaway marriages" began in 1754 when Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act came into force in England. Under the Act, if a parent of a minor (i.e., a person under the age of 21) objected to the minor's marriage, the parent could legally veto the union.
The depiction below is of Lord Hardwicke signing the Act from a display at the Famous Blacksmith Shop Museum https://www.gretnagreen.com/the-famous-blacksmiths-shop-a1034
The Act tightened the requirements for marrying in England and Wales but did not apply in Scotland, where it was possible for boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12 with or without parental consent. It was, however, only in the 1770s, with the construction of a toll road passing through the hitherto obscure village of Graitney, that Gretna Green became the first easily reachable village over the Scottish border. Scottish law allowed for "irregular marriages", meaning that if a declaration was made before two witnesses, almost anybody had the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony. The blacksmiths in Gretna became known as "anvil priests", culminating with Richard Rennison, who performed 5,147 ceremonies. The local blacksmith and his anvil became lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings. Two in particular, The Old Blacksmith's Shop, built around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmith's Shop (1710) became, in popular folklore at least, the focal tourist points for the marriage trade.
The Old Blacksmith's Shop opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, when Lydia Bennet elopes with George Wickham she leaves behind a note stating that their intended destination is Gretna Green, though later they are found co-habiting in London, having not in fact travelled to Scotland. In Austen's Love and Freindship (sic), the main characters convince an impressionable girl to elope with an acquaintance to Gretna Green. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretna_Green
According to the museum, Joseph Paisley did enjoy a drink, as shown in his portrait. Below is a portrait of David Lang, the priest who hosted the Coplands, though Lucy clearly did not approve of “the house where the marriages are solemnised if it may be called so.”
SEE https://www.gretnagreen.com/the-famous-blacksmiths-shop-a1034 . This is the site that Lucy and her family visited, with its fascinating museum and from where we obtained the portrait of Mr Lang, above.
Annan’s public buildings include Annan Academy, of which the writer Thomas Carlyle was a pupil, and a Georgian building now known as "Bridge House".
In Port Street, some of the windows remain blocked up to avoid paying the window tax. Nearby Bruce's Well is a natural spring that lies on the edge of the River Annan just downstream of the Gala Burn and Glen and it is associated with Robert the Bruce as recorded by Historic Environment Scotland.
During his retreat from Derby, Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed in the High Street at the inn where Back to the Buck now stands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annan,_Dumfries_and_Galloway
Dumfries: The district around Dumfries was for several centuries ruled over and deemed of much importance by the invading Romans.
1793: Dumfries by J. Walker from an original drawing by A. Reid. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SEDumfries1793.jpg
Dumfries looking East. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dumfries_looking_east.jpg
The apostle Paul claimed rank and privilege as a Roman citizen on account of his birth at Tarsus; the Caledonian tribes in the south of Scotland were invested with the same rights by an edict of Antoninus Pius. The Romanized natives received freedom (the burrows, cairns, and remains of stone temples still to be seen in the district tell of a time when Druidism was the prevailing religion). Before becoming King of Scots, Robert the Bruce slew his rival the Red Comyn at Greyfriars Kirk in the town on 10 February 1306.
Bruce was subsequently excommunicated and from Greyfriars began his campaign by force for the independence of Scotland and the burial ground of the Monastery became the theatre of battle. Bruce and his party then attacked Dumfries Castle. The English garrison surrendered and for the third time in the day Bruce and his supporters were victorious. He was crowned King of Scots barely seven weeks after. Bruce later triumphed at the Battle of Bannockburn and led Scotland to independence. After the English overran Dumfries Bruce's brother in law was condemned and executed by hanging and then beheading at the site of what is now St Mary's Church. In 1659 ten women were accused of diverse acts of witchcraft by Dumfries Kirk Session although the Kirk Session minutes itself records nine witches. The Justiciary Court found them guilty of the several articles of witchcraft and on 13 April between 2 pm and 4 pm they were taken to the Whitesands, strangled at stakes and their bodies burnt to ashes. The Young Pretender had his headquarters in Dumfries towards the end of 1745. £2,000 was demanded by the Prince, together with 1,000 pairs of brogues for his kilted Jacobite rebel army, which was camping in a field not one hundred yards distant. A rumour that the Duke of Cumberland was approaching, made Bonnie Prince Charlie decide to leave with his army, with only £1,000 and 255 pairs of shoes having been handed over. Robert Burns moved to Dumfries in 1791, living there until his death on 21 July 1796. On 14 October 1788 Inventor William Symington carried out a trial on Dalswinton Loch near Dumfries that demonstrated that a steam engine would work on a boat without the boat catching fire and Symington went on to become the builder of the first practical steamboat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumfries
Kings Arms Hotel was at 80 High Street https://canmore.org.uk/site/159520/dumfries-high-street-kings-arms-hotel
St Michael’s is a steepled church built of local sandstone, between 1741 and 1746. The churchyard itself is worth a visit due to its age, number and style of many of the gravestones. There is much of interest, both local and historical, to see within the church and churchyard. The poet Robert Burns, his wife and some members of his family are interred in an Italian style Mausoleum in the churchyard.
2010: Mausoleum of Robert Burns located in the yard of St Michael's Church, Dumfries by MSDMSD. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.Source. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Burns_Mausoleum,_Dumfries.jpg
This site is much visited by Burns fans from all over the world. The churchyard itself is worth a visit due to its age, number and style of many of the gravestones. https://scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk/church/st-michaels-and-south-parish-church-dumfries/ Burns Mausoleum was finished in September 1817, ready for Lucy’s visit https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dumfries/burnsmausoleum/index.html
The Theatre Royal, Dumfries is considered to be the oldest Theatre in Scotland.
2007: A view of Shakespeare Street in Dumfries, showing the Theatre Royal and the spire of the old St Andrew's Cathedral. The rest of the cathedral was destroyed by a fire in 1962, and subsequently replaced by a modern church on the same site. Copyright by Contains Mild Peril and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare_St,_Dumfries.jpg
It was first opened in 1792, although the foundation stone was laid in 1790. Robert Burns helped promote fundraising by subscription to build a proper Theatre in the town. The Theatre was built at a cost of £800 and designed by local architect Thomas Boyd in a style said to have been based on that of the Theatre Royal, Bristol and the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/DumfriesTheatres.htm
Robert Burns, (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, the National Bard, Bard of Ayrshire and the Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.
1787: This half-length portrait of Burns at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery by Alexander Nasmyth, framed within an oval, has become the most well-known and widely reproduced image of the famous Scottish poet. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PG_1063Burns_Naysmithcrop.jpg
Nasmyth's painting, above, commissioned by the publisher William Creech, was to be engraved for a new edition of Burn's poems. He is shown fashionably dressed against a landscape, evoking his rural background in Alloway, Ayrshire. Burns and Nasmyth had become good friends, having been introduced to one another in Edinburgh by a mutual patron, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. Nasmyth, pleased to have recorded Burns' likeness convincingly, decided to leave the painting in a slightly unfinished state.
Burns is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.
As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose", "A Man's a Man for A' That", "To a Louse", "To a Mouse", "The Battle of Sherramuir", "Tam o' Shanter" and "Ae Fond Kiss".ived here, in the house below, with his family from 1793 until his death in 1796.
Can you help us?
Transcription problems: As untrained transcribers we sometimes experience problems interpreting some of Lucy’s writing. We have a problem deciphering one section today:
Lang) some ?burgundy? he would come and “?crach? with us a little” - Probably Scottish dialect? Help please!
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?