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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1932-06-09, Page 3• ,T413', IRSIU41r'„ J,UiNE 9, '1932.,` The Browne }lull cel Carrick — Robert °!Dlhe'•B.rlree lDistant Viiew, of Ayr 1Art•aii. ni IArgyle 1The •Wal - Tape Tower—Thee Auld ,Brig orf ,AYF, &Jc, &'c. • {Lm'orvg'the bonny winding barks' Where D10 h _nip's, wimplia', iWthcre;Bnuce anloe ruled the inartiaI1 ra'tjiks, • r" .'And shook his Carrick spear. , • yBnries: At biceeo:ilclusion of my last letter awe had just comlm'enced the ascent of the "Brawn Hill, '.'of ' oarriek," once .owned •attd• orhteiv'trod by the hero ling of ,Sootl'and—the immortal Bence. To this histol ic•al ,fact. our poet refers in the above, quotatioi%,frain'his 'poem df ffllallolwe'en, the quoita'tion co•nsltitutin;g did •one of, those"beilliant flashes ,of ,genius j'!which' illumine the more cominnaniplace b;•*i descriptions :,with which the poem abounds just as a sudden discharge of ,olectrici,ty lights :up rfer an,instanrt the scn!bre sky. We realized 'the ,fact, 'however, that we were now treading onthe )ground once trccl by the mighty • Bruce as well ;as ,'by, the immortal gums, the greatest = king and the greatest poet ever 'produced by "the Sand of brawn health and shaggy woad." 'What more do we require to ,stimulate the) heart and. fire 'the soul. • We ascended the rising ground about a:quarter df a mile and'"'were so For- tunate as to oveylke a'gentl'emtan able and wi'11'inig, to show the ,various ,poinits df•'interest in the glorious scenery which now burst upon our admiring 'eyes, a view which I feel certain can- ssot, be surpassed, if in:ded equalled, in this land :so rich in bright prospects, lovely scenes and magnificent 1and- soapes. In the immediate ' foreground we beheld the monument already'' de- scribed, the "aul'd' brig" and the "Al- loway Kirk," 'while a little further on is the cottage with its thatch covered roof where our poet was born.' Con- tinuing our gaze through massive', trees away beyond the "auld clay biggin" eye beheld the town of Ayr,' sleeping iri a calm little hay, the country stretching from "bonny D'oon" to :the '"bonny banks of Ayr," being dotted with m'odest cottages for the huntble poor aid elegant mansions for the rich, the ornate grounds around the latter giving the landscape a sweet sylvan aspect in keeping with that ad- ' mired so much on the "banks and braes o' bonny Doan." Lifting our eyes above the glorious foreground and turning theist to the left we • ob- %Mem the blue Firth of Clyde, sparkl- ing and gleaiuing in the rays of the setting sun like a silver seaand stretching away as far as the eye can reacts along a coast line broken and deteed .with hamlet, town and glittcf- ing spire, till the fleecy clouds above 21,40 1' the waves of "oldocean" below became blended in one. Vision fails, and we close our weary eyes for a moment upon one df the finest sights we' have ever beheld. Curiosity at once prevails. 'We open our eyes again and ' for relief Poole behind us, where we behold the 'Brown Hill of Carrick" and the storm , beaten Ailsa ' Craig,. While aw'ay.to our eight are the Craigs •of Kyle, 'and, in the distance the Cun- sock and Mutrkir:le hills. To the left, looking straight across the. Firth, with strainin;g'eyes, we'oleserve amidst set- tling mist below and 'clouds above, the lofty :and heather -clad hulls of Air- ran in the shire' of'Argyll, bite land of rnty Iforefarehers, the only glimpse eyere got of Argyll being snatehe'd a'mid'st 'clouds and nmist,'which .•recall- ed vividly to my mind the lines of Byron o'n Loichnagar: IRo•untl, Lochnialgar' while ,the: ' stormy mist gathers, *inter ,presides fn his cold icy oar, Clouds •there enlcircie'the forms o,f • my fathers: They dwell in the tempests of ' dark ,Lochn'agar. England 1 thy- beauties are tame avid dlomeestic To o'ne!whd has ,roved on the Mountains afar, 'Oh, for the crags, that are wild •' and •ni'ajesbic The steep frowning 'glories olf dark •Tach n'agar. • ITurni•nlg from the ,Highlands to She Lowrlanrdle again, and taking another glance at "Auld Ayr," with its lofty spire and tower, we .gazed one minute at the lovely ,panorama of hill and dale that lay :between, then turning to our obliging friend who had aided" us se much, we said, "What a magnificent landscape ,for an artist to paint — if done to perfection it would be un- equalled in the world." He :told) me that a 'celebrated :Scotch artist had ar- ranged to paint Ayr from Carrick hill, but death paralyzed his hand all too soon, and that it was one of the re-' grets Of the gifted Horatio McCu'1'lac'h as he sank calmly to rest, that he would see "Brawn Carrick Hill" no more. As the shades of evening were gradually !flatting' out the grand pan- orama •which we admired SO •much, we bade our companion farewell and slowly retraced our steps down the hillside over the new bridge past the inn, the monument amid the new Al- loway Kink to my right and the auld Alloway Kirjc to my left. We paused a moment at the gate to take another look at the :grassy mound which cov- ered' the ashes. of William Burn's, "the saint, the father and the .husband" of the "Cotter's Saturday Night," which is one of the best sermons that was ever composed. Amidst night's gather- ing gloom we repeated :the well-known lines which his son, the 'famous Rob- bie, had inscribed on his father's tombstone, a worthy epitaph on a worthy man: P.1 .4 ,1•7.t15-71,11411rAfwv,F1D1' 0 ye, whose cheeks the tear of pity stains, Drew near .with piotu;s reverence Mand attend Here lie the loving: hus'band's dear remains, T,hc tender father and the gen- -erous friend; The pitying heart that Kelt for hu- man woe. • The dauntless heart that feared 410 huMan 'pride, • The friend of magi, to vice alone 'a foe, "For even 'his failings leaned to virtue's side." • THE SEAFORTH NEWS.' „Taking a parting look at ,"Aliow- ay's' auld haunted Icfrlc"—hoary' : relic" of the' past -we ,turned our b'acics upon the "banks and braes o' bonny Doon," perhaps forever; an'd •,quiekeniin'g our pdce:*e some reached the "auld clay biggin," dear to Scotchmeat and their descendants tht',wbrld over, passed it,• turned:routid and with uplifted hat bade it adieu, solemnly for the sake of hien who was born inside its 'walls. May his memory still be 'fresh and green` when the clay of, which, the cottage is composed will have 'Moulld-. Bred into dust and mixed with the kindred' soil around it. 'We doulbt it not for his is One of the few, the" inipiortal' names • 'That were- :not , born . to die: 1W'e pushed . on towards .Ayr — the road leading through a beautifulgrove —the branches of the trees overhang- ing our pathway. It artist be a delight- ful w'lailik•on a,euniener's evening when the grove is vocal: with the melodious notes' Of the feathered songsters, for whi'oli this country is so'famous, That night we needed plot the shade, for the sun lead. gone, and we heard no! the 'birds; they boo had gone to rest. As we grassed through the, grove an'd' the lights of the ,town came in view, the stillue'ss could be felt, silence reigned supreme. We'•were rather pleased than otherwise at this state .cif'things, for we were calmly med'ita'ting on what we had seen and heard during the few eventful l' hours we had been in "the land of Burns." We entered Ayr by a very fine street in wh'a't; is called the "New 'Town," there' being rows of clean,comfortable, as well as com- modious houses on each side, and sdon reached R'arn'say's Lorne :Hotel, where we had engaged )roams previous to starting on our excursion to the banks of the ,Goon. We ordered dinner, as we only had 'a hasty lunch at Kilwinning, and •our appelti.te being:' somewhat shar'p•e•ned by .the exendise olf walking as well ars by the fresh .r sea breezes blowing over the hills of Car- rick, we did fuulej.ustice to the eatables which the good lady set 'before us, in fact they disappeared before our vig- orous attaohs like snow before an April' sun. I have no doubt the good lady at first sight took elle for an ,Eng- lishman in disguise. I .had an English- man's appetite at any rate for once in my life. I wasenow nine o'clock at' night and little more could he done bp way elf sight seeing—we, haweyer, re- solved to take a short walk and see the "auld brig of Ayr" and: the new one, and the Wallace Tower. An ag- reeable Scotchunan-•and I have found all Scotsinen agreeable—a guest at the hotel, kindly volunteered to accom- pany tis and away we went for the "auld 'brig," We passed the Wallace Tower on OUT way to the old bridge, When there was as yet no monu- ment dreamt of the people of Ayr showed their gratitude to the 'Deliv- erer of the 'North" by ,building this handsome tower in the centre of their town. It is 11113 'feet high and supports a statue of Wallace, by Thom. On the corner of the street opposite is an- other statue of ,Wallace, :df a .ruder kind, hut which evinces the same grateful feeling to the brave patriot of whom Burns sings in the following lilies: PAGE 'TIH1R E (Wc'll sing auld 'OGila's plates' _'old feld's, Herr moors red, brown wi' hera- ther lbellist 'Her' banks and braes, 'her' dens .. and dells, 'Where glorious Wallace Aft bete `the � gr ee„as•:stpry•tells Free Southern 'billies. IAt Wallace's name, what Scotttish b'loo'dy :But bolls ep in a springlide flood,. !Oft have . our fearless lathers sibrode IBy.•Wal:l'aoe's side, Still pressing •onward, redewat shod, 1, Or glorious died. The Wallace Tower,' we were told by our friend, is built on the very`s,pot where the house stood in which the hero was once imprisoned and the spot is also drown, marked by a round stone in the sidewalk where his head struck when he was thrown out of a w'indo'w by the English soldiers. Our Scotch friend was a great admirer of Wallace and 'Bruce as well as . of Burns, He quoted a verseor two from "Slco!ts; rwha hae wi' Wallace bled, and, asked what I thought elf that as a war ode. I said that ifit might be call ed an ode, it was ,the grandest one out of the Bible. I told him I had recited Bruce's'a'ddres's standing on the "Bore stave” an the field of Bannockburn and tried to realize the situation, the two armies facing each other in order of ,battle. It was life or death with the Scots. In the deathlike 'repose before the onset, Bruce's voice is heard clear, shrill; loud as a trulhpe:t— • 'Scots wha hae wu' Wallace bled, • It was enough to 'fan. the platriotic flame within then into a dev'ouring fire, and it did it. The result was, the oppressors were overthrown, Sco'tland. Was free! Rut a few paces further on and we stdodupon. the "auld brig ell Ayr." Our informant gave us the fal- lowing hisltory of this edifice, ]it was built in 14185 by two sisters, near what bun's known' as the Ducat stream, a ford just above it. I.t is narrow, rough- ly causeway'ed, and still wears the look of sturdy independence which drew forth the admiration o•f Burns, It was insufficient, however, to meet the growing re'quirement's of the in- creasing ,population, aml,in 1788 the new bridge was completed at an ex- pense of £5,000. Dfurin•gsome heavy floods in. 1877 it gave way and a more capacious bridge was erected in 1879 on the sante site at a cost of £15,000. This, we were bold, is also giving way on account of being built on a found- ati,on partly composed of a sort of quicksand. Horwever, even if this fine structure stand's the floods .and .stornus, Burns' prophetic words have already Ince fulfilled, namely: "111 be a brig when ye're a shapeless cairn." As our enthusiastic Scotch friend and I stood an the "auld brig" gazing towards the new, .which stands about 100 yards off, he recited part o8 Burns' poem on the twa brigs. IConceite'd.go'wkl 'p.uff'd up wi' 'windy pridel )This mony a year I've stood the flood and tide, And tho' wi' crazy eild I'm sair forfairn 1'11 be a brig when ye're a shape- less cairns ounter eckBooks We Are Selling Quality Books Books, are Well Made, Carbon' is Clean .and Copies Readily. All styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Get Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. eaforth SEA1IORT1i, QNTARIO. News Services We Gan Render In the time of need PROTE.CTION is your` best lfrieed. Life Insurance 1—To 'protect your: LOVED ONES. Auto Insurance— To protect you against LIABIUITY. to, PUBLIC and their PROPERTY, Fire Insurance— To protectour HOME y and its OONTENTS. Sickness and Accident Insurance— To protect your INC'OM•E. Any of the above lines we can give you in strong and reliable companies. If interested, call or write, E, C. CHAMBERLAIN INSURANCE AGENCY Phone 334 Seaforth, Ont, As yet ye' little ken about the matter,. Mut two, three winters will inform ye better, When heavy, dark, continued &- day ,rain's, IWi' 'deepening deluges o'erflow the plains; iWheni from the . hills where springs the brawling Coil, Or stately Lugar's mossy foun- tains bell, Or where :the .Greenock winds his moorland course, lOr haunted Ganpal draws his 'feeble source, Aroused by blust'ring winds and spouting thowes, In mony a torrent down the snow bnoo rowel;, iWhile crashing ice, borne on the roaring spate; Swedes dans, an twills, an' brigs a' to the gate, And 'from rGlenbuok down to the 1Ratten-key, 'Auld Ayr is just one ,lenlgthen''d tumbling sea— Then 'dawn ye'll burl, dell nor ye never rise! And ,dash the gentle jaups op to the pouring skies. -Complete in itself, Mother Graves' Worm Eo,terminator does not require the assistance of any other medicine to make it erffective. It does not fail to do its work. 'Hereand There e I l 1 Exports of Canadian • wheat during the month of March totalled 9,920,634 bushels, of which only 71,288 bushels were routed through United States Atlantic seaboard ports. • Canada's butter exports to the British Isles and other countries totalled 10,681:,000 pounds in 1931, as compared with only 1,180,400 pounds in 1930. 'ss Canada's bread and bakery pro- ducts industry showed production to a value of $73,594,894 during 1930, through 2,698 establishments of which 1,071 are located in Ontario and 868 in Quebec. March was the year's best month, to date, for pig iron pro- duction in Canada, with a total of 17,989 tons, at a rate of 580 tons per day, as compared: with 862 tons per day in February and 332 in January. W. G. Chester, dean of Canadian railroad veterans, has just retired, in Winnipeg, after 25 years in thbe, service •of the Canadian Pacifib Railway and another 25 with the Brotherhood of Railway Conduc- etors. Excursions run by the Canadian Pacific Railway between various. points in Eastern Canada have met with unqualified success. To date, some 17,000 persons have been carried on visits and holidays, over different week -ends, by this means. The 1931 census shows 728,244 occupied farms in Canada, or 17,154 more than were shown when the count was taken in 1921. Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia are responsible for the increase, with the last-named in the lead. Navigation opened in Montreal on April 18 with the Canadian Pacific freighter Beaverburn the first trans-Atlantic ship in port. Her master Captain E. Landy, receiving the gold -headed cane,. presented annually by the Harbor Commissioners, for this exploit. Passenger honors in the trans- Atlantic service also fell to the Canadian Pacific, when the liner Montclare docked on the afternoon of Tuesday April 19, as the first passenger ship to arrive in Mont- real. Thus the C. 1'. R. claims double honors for the 1982 season. Liverpool witnessed an unique event on April 5, when 750 British boys and girls disembarked from the Canadian Pacific liner Mont- rose, after a special cruise in the Mediterranean. A great London daily newspaper has offered prizes for the best essays, written on the trip. Some weird stories have teen told of feline sagacity, but the open record would appear to be held by a Siaihese cat, which "stowed away" on the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Britain; when she left England to go to New York to begin - her , world cruise last winter. Pussy finally deigned to show herself when the ship was half -way through her long trip: The Empress got a rousing welcome in New York when her tripwas over, and the much -travelled cat was delivered to its owner, in the Southern States, ' (887) F WM REALMS OF SPACE , Dame Naturo s nIclle Jolts af'PlayWhichOe Sheof Iser Litt So Fond. No sooner does Wren triumphantly, announce that he has harnessed some great force for his awn ,use than. Dame Nature plays one of her littler jokes of which she isso fond, says a'> contributor to Tit -Bits; ,Recently expos-ilaents in long - d1s- tance television have been conducted/ between the United States and Aus tralia. So far as could be seen be- fore the tests began, there was ne' reason why success • should not be. achieved, just as it had been over shorter distances._ But when the images came through they were blur- red and muzzy, Closer ,.inspection disclosed' tbal this was due to the presence of ghosts! In the viewing lend the image pf the sitter ' appeared, but close beside it was a second faint image, and sometimes a third. These ghosts come from the depths of space. The waves which cause them have travelled something more than two million miles out from the earth and'. back again. The key to the presence of tele- vision ghosts was discovered frons the experiences of operators on long- distance wireless services, for they,. too, are very much troubled. The ghosts that worry them ares not visible forms, but queer echoes of signals. What happens is this Supposing that a Morse dash is sent out, it arrives at the receiving end,. and at intervals ranging front one- seventh of a second to as much as thirty seconds, echoes of the dash. are received. These arriye on top vi% other signals and cause confusion. For long-distance wireless, vrbatin known as the beam system is largely used, for, like light rays, wireless waves can be focused into a beam. Most, but not all of the waves, cam be directed forwards towards the re- ceiving station; there is always a lit-, tle leakage from behind. Now, sup-• pose that a station in England 18: transmitting to America, the signal' duly spans the 3,000 odd miles of: land and water, but about one-sev-• enth of a second later there follows' an echo caused by were which have leaked from the back of the trans- mitter and gone the other way round the world. We can understand these echoes,, since they are caused by waves which: keep pretty close to the earth and travel round it. But what are the echoes which occur at longer inter- vals and cause faint ghests? Wireless waves travel at the dizzy speed of 186,000 miles a second;. Some of the echoes occur at intervals just about Iong enough to allow of a: • journey to the moon and 'back. It' may be, then, that the moon acts as - a kind of gigantic mirror and that' some of the ghost images or the- ghostly echoes may be caused by ita reflection. The moon, though, cannot be re-• sponsible for the echoes occurring at' twenty-five or thirty seconds, or for the faintest of the ghosts. In thirty' seconds wireless waves travel 5,580,-- 000 miles, They must, therefore, go' out from the earth for over two andl a half million miles and then be re- flected back, PRINCE OF I LEPIIAN;1'S. Has a Bodyguard of Females to. Protect Him. Somewhere in the wilds of the East African jungle there lives a giant elephant, whose bodyguard of female elephants protects -him From the prying eyes of the white hunter,. "The Crown Prince, as hs has been, named," states Frank L. Puxley, his recently published book, "In Afri— can Game Tracks," "has become a'; legendary figure, even during his • lifetime, He has never been seen by a white man, so far as I know, but the natives claim for him a pair of tusks that exceed 300 pounds In weight apiece. An elephant's height is nearly - proportionate to the dimensions of ' hts feet. Thus a 19 -inch spoor - would point to an animal 'approxi mately 12 feet in height, "What must be the size of this, monster? That he exists there is no doubt whatever. I have myself meas— ured these giant footmarks, and have • found that they scale 29ys. They cannot be mistaken, for one of the toenails is missing Early this year a well-known game ranger con- firmed my belief that no white man. has ever seen htrn, "And no white man ever will," he added, explaining that the Crown Prince maintained an escort of fe- males, who encircle him ata distance of a mile, They were there for the:• purpose of giving his lordship time•, ly warning,"he said, THINGS TO LEA RN.. • „ Learn to laugh. A good laugh is better than medicine. When you smile qr laugh, your brain for a mo- ment is freed from the load that it ordinarily carries. Learn to tell a helpful story. A. well -told story is as welcome as a sunbeam in a sick -room, Learn to , keep your troubles to yourself; the world is too busy .to linger over your ills and sorrows. Learn to stop croaking, If youe cannot see any good in this world, , keep the bad to yourself. Learn to greet your friends with a smile. - They carry too many frowns in their own hearts to be bothered.e with any of yours. Wool. The raising 01 sheep Mt their wool• and mutton is as ancient as the ,early' Scriptures. They were the earliest form of wealth. The industry has continued down through the centur- ies.: It never fails, becauso the de- mand for wool is continuons. It is the principal industry of Australia and one 'of Canada's leading sourcesa of revenue. The romance of sheep tending on the hills of Judea, inter woven asit is with the stories 0f' David, of Abraham; Isaac and Jacob;; of the shepherds' who tended'. their• flocks near Bethlehem—all this hast become commercialized into dollars, and cents. But the gentle sheep re main: the sate: Animal Life, 11'