Tuesday 17th August 1819
Tuesday August 17th left Dumfries from Brown Hill we passed through a pretty country
the river Nith winding by our side over which there are thrown several fine bridges we likewise past several fine seats, among which was Drumlanesh the Duke of Buccleuch’s we next arrived at Leach Hill where we drank tea and continued through a fine country to Douglas Mills where we hoped of procuring accommodation it then being 1 o’clock but we were obliged to proceed to Lanark 10 miles further where we arrived at 3 both Inns however were full but we ?got? some beds in the town being very much fatigued.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Brownhill Inn, now just called Brownhill, is an inn approximately 1 mile south of Closeburn. Built in approximately 1780, this old coaching inns facilities used to include the once-extensive livery stables on the west side of the road, but these have been sold and converted to farm buildings. The inn was the first changing place for horses hauling coaches from Dumfries. Robert Burns was purported to have spent many an evening at the inn, which lies about 7 miles north of his once time home, Ellisland Farm.
2017: Brownhill Inn, Closeburn by Rosser1954- This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brownhill_Inn,_Closeburn_-_view_of_the_old_inn_site_and_the_stables,_etc_to_the_left.jpg
2017: Brownhill Inn, Closeburn - view of the gable end of the steading looking towards Closeburn by Rosser1954- This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brownhill_Inn,_Closeburn_-_view_of_the_gable_end_of_the_steading.jpg
The landlord at the time, Mr John Bacon, took a keen interest in the poet and even bought the bed from Gilbert Burns at nearby Dinning Farm in 1798 that Burns was born in and installed it at Brownhill, charging people to see it. His groom, Joe Langhorne, slept in it for many years and in 1829 purchased it himself. He took it to Dumfries where the bed was eventually broken up by a relative and used to make snuff. It is also reported that one summer evening whilst at the inn with Dr Purdie of Sanquhar and another friend, Burns met a soldier and upon listening to his story of the adventures he had lived through was inspired to write his famous song "The Soldier's Return" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownhill_Inn
River Nith rises in the Carsphairn hills and for most of its course flows in a generally southern direction through Dumfries and Galloway, before spilling into the Solway Firth at Ards point.
2017: The River Nith as it runs through Dumfries by Darrenfrazerphotography, the copyright holder of this work. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:River_Nith.jpg
2007: The estuary of the River Nith, Scotland, at low tide; opening into Solway Firth. This is a view of the Nith estuary from the north-east. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:River_Nith_estuary.jpg
The territory through which the river flows is called Nithsdale (historically known as "Stranit" from Scottish Gaelic. Its estuary is an internationally important winter feeding site for waders, geese and other wildfowl, and is protected at an international level as part of the Upper Solway Flats and Marshes Ramsar site and Special Protection Area. The SPA supports virtually the entire Svalbard population of barnacle geese during winter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Nith
Drumlanesh: The 'Pink Palace' of Drumlanrig (not Drumlanesh), constructed between 1679 and 1689 from distinctive pink sandstone, is an example of late 17th-century Renaissance architecture and the home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
1880. Drumlanrig Castle, unknown artist. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castelodedrumlanrig.jpg
2006: Garden and W and S sides of Drumlanrig Castle 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:Drumlanrig_Castle_Garden.jpg
The castle is home to part of the Buccleuch art collection which includes Rembrandt’s An Old Woman Reading, and Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumlanrig_Castle
Craig Leach lies slightly beyond and higher than Dunain Hill. https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4230
Douglas Mills: Douglas village was shaped by the Industrial Revolution, which brought woollen mills and coal mining (in common with other villages in this part of Scotland). There is a heritage museum in Douglas that charts the history of the area. Within the village stands a monument to the Covenanter James Gavin, a local tailor, who had his ears cut off with his own tailoring scissors for refusing to renounce his Presbyterian principles. After suffering this humiliation, he was transported to a life of slavery in the West Indies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas,_South_Lanarkshire
Lanark has served as an important market town since medieval times, and King David I made it a Royal Burgh in 1140, giving it certain mercantile privileges relating to government and taxation.
The Print below from 1825 shows Lanark as an industrial centre and this is the view that would have greeted the Coplands had they not not arrived very fatigued at 3 o’clock in the morning.
1825: The Town of Lanark, drawn and engraved by John Heaviside Clark & published by Smith & Elder, 65 Cornhill, London http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/16047
King David I decided to create a chain of new towns across Scotland. These would be centres of Norman civilisation in a largely Celtic country, and would be established in such a way as to encourage the development of trade within their area. These new towns were to be known as Burghs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanark
2006: Lanark, Scotland, by R Pollack at English Wikipedia. This work has been released into the public domain by its author, R Pollack at English Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lanark06.jpg
Can you help us?
Transcription problems: As untrained transcribers we sometimes experience problems interpreting some of Lucy’s writing. We have a problem deciphering a section today:
full but we ?got? some beds . I don’t think the word “got” sounds right for the time. Help please!
Drumlanesh or Drumlanrig?: Has Lucy just got this wrong or are the names interchangeable?
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?