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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1932-06-30, Page 3THE SEAFORTH NEWS. PAGE THREE, The Land of Burns The Brown Hi111 of 'Carrick- Robert The Bruce --{Distant View of Ayr, -{Arran in :Argyle-Thelace Tower -Tile Auld ,Brig •of• Ayr, kic, arc. iAfnouvg the bonny winding banks !Where Doan rins, ,clear; 1Wh re Bruce anoe ruled the martial ranks, And shook his Carrick spear, --Burns, Alt the co.nclasion-of m' last letter we had just comunenced the ascent of the "Brown ` IHi10 <of Carrick," once owned and often trod by the 'hero king of Scotland -the Memorial Bruce. To this historical fact our poet refers in the above quotation .from his p'oe!m df Hallowe'en, the qu.otatio,n constituting one of those 'brilliant flashes -of genius' high illumine the more conemoniplace. csscription's with which the poem abounds, just as a sudden discharge of electricity fights .up'fior an instant the sombre sky. We realized the fact, however, that we were ,now treading on theground once trod by.the mighty Bruce as .well.as try :the. 'immortal Burns, the ;greatest king and . the greatest poet ever produced' by "the land of brawn . heath i and shaggy wood, What snore. do We require to stimulate the heart and fire the soul. We ascended the rising ground about a quarter df a mile aied were so for- tunate as to ,overtake a gentleman able and willing to show the various points of interest. in the ` glorious scenery .which now burst upon our admiring eyes, a view, which I feel certai-n can- not be surpassed, if hided equalled, in this land so rich' in bright ,prospects, lovely scenes and magnificent land-, soapes. In the immediate foreground we beheld the monument already de- scribed, the "auld brig" and the "Al- loway Kirk," while a little further on is the cottage with its thatch oovered roof where our p'oet was born. Con- tinuing our gaze through massive trees biggin" beyond the "auld clay we beheld the town o'f Ayr, sleeping en a calm little bay, the country stretching from "bonny Doon" to the "bonny banks of Aiyr," being dotted with modest cottages for the humble poor and elegant mansions for the rich, the ornate grounds around the'. latter giving the landscape a sweet 1 sylvan aspect in keeping with that ad- mired so much on the "banks and braes o' bonny ' Doon." Lifting our eyes above the • glorious foreground and turning thein to the left we ob- serve the, blue Firth of Clyde, sparkl- ing and gleainifg in the rays of the setting sun like a silver sea and stretching away as far as the eye can reach along a coast line 'broken and dotted •with hamlet, town and glitter- ing spire till the fleecy clouds above ', said the waves of "old ocean" below 1S home blended to one. Vision fails, and we close our weary eyes for a moment upon one olf the finest sights we have ever beheld -Curiosity at once prevails. We open our eyes again, and for relief look behind us, where we behold the "Brown Hill of Carrick" and thestorm beaten Ailsa Craig, while -away to our right are the Craigs of Kyle, and: in the distance the Cam - nocie and Muirkirk hills. To the left, looking straight across the Firth, with straining eyes, we observe amidst set- tling 'mist below and clouds above, the lofty a•nd.heather-clad hill's of Ar - ram .in the shire of Argyll, the laird of. my 'forefathers, the only glimpse I ever got of Argyll being snatched amidst clouds and mist, which recall-. ed vividly to my milled the lines of Byron an Lochnagar:', . , (Round Loobnagar while the stormy. mist gathers, Winter presides in his oo.ld.icy oar, ,Clouds there encircle the forms of. my fathers; They dwell in the tempests of dark 'Lochn'agar. •:England 1 thy beauties are tante ,and domestic •i 'o o'ne -who has roved 'on the.. mountains. afar, Oh, for the crags that are wild and majestic ! • 'Theateelp frowning glories' of dark Lobhtragar. !Turing from the Highlands to the Lowlands 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 so much, we said, "What a magnificent lau'dspa'pe 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 elf the gifted Horatio McCulloch as he sank calmly to rest, that he would see "Brown Carrick Hill" no more: As the shades of evening were gradually blotting out the grand pan- orama which we admired so much, we bade " our 'companion farewell and slowly retraced our steps .clown the hillside s e aver the new past.t bridge the inn, the monument and the new Al- loway Kink to my right and the au.ld Alloway Kirk to my - left. We paused a moment at the gate totake another look at the grassy mound which cov- ered the ashes of William Burns, "the sant, the father and the husband" of the "Cotter's Saturday Night," which is ane 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:- 0 an: 0 ye, whose cheeks the tear al pity stains, !Draw near with pious reverence and attend Here lie the loving husband'a dear remains, The tender father and the gen- erous friend; The pitying heart that 'felt for 'hit - elan woe. The dauntless heart that feared no human pride, The friend of man, to vice alone a foe, ' "For. even this failings leaned to virtue's side." Take parting a part ng look at "Allow -1 ay's auld haunted kirk" -hoary relic of the past we turned our backs upon the "banks and braes or' bonny 7joon," perhaps forever, and cciiickening our pace we soon reached the "auld clay biggin," dear to Scotchmen and their descendants the 'world over, passed it, turned round and- with , uplifted ;. hat. bade it adieu, solemnly for the sake of him who was born inside its twat's. May his memory still'' be fresh and green when the clay sof which the cottage is composed will hays mould- ered into dust and nixed with the kindred soil aronsd it.'We.doulbt it not for his is One of the• few, the iinnnortal names That were not barn to die. We pushed on towards Ayr - the road leading through a be'autiful grove -the branches.' of the trees overhang- ing our:p$bway. It must be a delight- 'ful,w'ailk on a summer's evening, when the grove is vocal with the melodious notes of the feathered .songsters, ' for whish this country is so 'famous. That night we needed not the shade, for the elm had. gone and we heard not the birds; " they too had gone to rest. As we p'assed through the grove and the lights of the ,town came in view, the stillness could be felt, silence reigned supreme. We were rather pleased than otherwise at this state of things, for we were calmly Meditating' on what we ,had seen and heard during the few eventful hours we had been in "the lana df Burns." We entered Ayr by a very fine 'street in what is called 'the "New. Town," there being rows of clean, comfortable, as well as com- modious houses on. each ,side, and soon reached R'amsay's L'orhe 'Hotel, where we had engaged zooms previous, to starting on our excursion to the banks I of the, ,boon. We ordered dinner, as we only had 'a hasty lunch at Kilwinning, ( and our appetite being somewhat sharpened by the exercise olf walking as well as by the fresh ,:sea breezes •blo,winlg over the 'hills' of b rick, We w,e did full justice to the eatables which the good lady set 'before us, in fact they disappeared before our vig- orous attacks like- Snow before pan April sun, I have no doubt the good lady at first sight•took•me for an Eng_ lishman»in disguise. h had an English- mate's appetite at any rate for once in my life. 'It was now nine o'clock at night 'and little more could be done by way df sight seeing -we, however, 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 Scotchman-and I have found all Scotsmen agreeable -a guest at the hotel, kindly volunteered to accom- pany us and away we. went 'for the "auld brig." We passed - the Wallace Tower on our way td 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 11153 'feet high and supports a. statue of Wallace, by Thom. On the corner of the street opposite is an- other. statue Of Wallace, of a ruder kind, but which evinces the same grateful feeling to the' brave patriot of whom Burns sings in the following line's: !We'll sing auld Coila's plains and fells, Her moors red brown wi' hea- ther Bells, Her 'books 'and braes, her dens and dells, Where glorious Wallace ;Aft bore the gree, as story tells Free Southern Billies. At Waliace'sname, what Scottish blood, (But boils up he a springtide flood, Oft have oar fearless 'Fathers strode' By 'Wallace's side, Still 'pressing onward, red-wat shod, Or glorious died. The Wallace Tower, we were told by ourfriend, is built on the very spot' where the house stood in which ' the hero was once Imprisoned :and the spot is also shown, marked by a round stone in the 'sidewalk where his head struck when he was thrown out of a window ,by the English soldiers. Our Scotoh friend was a great admirer df Wallace and 'Bruce as well as • of. Burns. He quoted a verse or.two from "Scots, ,wha hae wi' •Wallace bled," and asked what I thought elf that as a war ode. I said that if it :night becall- ed an ode, it was the .grandest one out of the Bible. I told him I had recited Bruce's address standing on the "Bore stave" on the field of Bannockburn and tried to realize the situation, the two armies Pacing' each other fn order of battle. It was life or death with the Scots.:I,n the deathlike repose before the onset, Bruce's voice is heard clear, shr41, loud as a truiiipet- • "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, It was enough to fan the platriotic flamewithin there into a devouring fire, and it did it. The result was, the oppressors were overthrown, Scotland was. free! But a few paces•'fairther on and we stood ;upon the, "auld brig df Ayr." Our informant gave us the fol- lowing history of this edifice. It was built in" 1'48$.by,'fy.'o sisteds,'near what was known as the Ducat stream, a ford just 'above it. It 'narrow, rough' ly causewayed,_ and still wears the look of sturdy . independence which P drew forth the admiration of Burne. It• was insufficient, however, to meet the growing requirements of the in- creasing ,population, and in 1788 the new bridge .was compl'e'ted at an ex- pense of £'5;000.. During some heavy floods in 1877 it gave, way and a mare capacious bridge was erected in 1879 on the satne site at a cost of £15,000. This, we were told, is also giving way on account of being built on a'found- ation partly composed of a sort of quicksand. However, even if this fine structure stands the floods and ,storms, Burns' prophetic words have already been fulfilled, namely: "I'll be a brig when ye're a shapeless cairn." As our enthusiastic Scotch friend and I stood on the "auld brig" gazing towards the new, which stands about 100 yards off, he recited part of Burns' poem on the twa brigs. ;Conceited gawk! '•puff'd, up wi' 'windy pride1 ,This many a year I've stood the flood and tide, And the' wi' crazy eild I'm• sair forfairn I'll be a brig when ye're a shape- less cairn! t C 0 We /Ire Selling Quality Books Books are Well Made, Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. styles, Carbon. Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. All Get e Seaforth News SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Services We Can Render In the time of need PROTECTION is yam best :friend. Life Insurance -To protect your LOVED ONES. Auto Insurance - To protect you against LIABILITY to PUBLIC and their PROPERTY. Fire Insurance • - To protect your HOME and its. CONTENTS, Sickness and Accident Insurance - To protect your INCOME. Any of the above lines we can give you in strong and reliable companies. Ff interested, call or write, E. C. CHArIBERLAIN INSURANCE AGENCY Phone 334 Seaforth, Ont. 0 As yet ye little ken about the matter, Mut two, three winters will inform ye better, 'When. heavy, dark, continued a'- day rams, ; IWi' dehe plainepening sdeluges o'erflow t When ' from ,the hills where springs the ,brawling Coil, Or stately Lugar's mossy faun - Or bpii ,Or where •thd 1Gr' eennck winds his, moorland course, lOr haunted Ganpaldraws his 'feeble .source, Aroused* by blustering whirs and spouting thowes, In many a torrent down the snaw- broo rowel; !While crashing ice, borne on the roaring spate; (Sweeps duns, an' miiIs, an' brigs a' to the gate, !And 'from 'Glenlbuok down to the I .1Ratten-key, Auld Ayr lbliis jngustseaone-• lengthened' ,tum 'Then down, ye'1l hurl, dell nor ye never rise! And dash the gumlie jaups u'p to the pouring skies. Complete in itself, Mother Graves' Worm Exterminator does not require the assistance of any other medicine to 'make it effective. It does not fail to do its work. and There rnere Exports of. Canadian wheat during the month of March totalled 9,020,634 bushels, of which only 71,288' bushels were routed through ,ports.United States Atlantic seaboard Canada's butter exports to the British Isles and other countries totalled 10,680,000 pounds in 1931„ as compared with only 1,180,400 pounds in 1930. 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 362 tons per day in February and 382 in January. W. G. Chester, dean of Canadian railroad veterans, has just retired, in Winnipeg, after 25 years in the service of the Canadian Pacific • Railway and another 26 with the Brotherhood of Railway Conduc- tors. 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, receiviiig the gold -headed cane, presented annually by the'Rarbor 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 r passengeshtip to arrive in Mont- real. Thus the C. P. R. claims double honors for the 1932 season. Liverpool witnessed an unique event on April 5, when 760 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 estrays written on the trip. Some weird stories have been told of feline sagacity, but the open record would appear to be held by a Siamese 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 chow herself when the ship was half -way through her .long. trip. The Empress got a rousing welcome in New York, when her trip was over, and the much -travelled cat was delivered to its owner, in the Southern States. (837) 2,. FROM4.LALIy,S OF SPACE Donne Natnro Plays One of Her Litt* dokee of Which Sho Is So Pond. No sooner does roan triumphantly, announce that he had harnessed some great force for his own use than Dame Nature plays one of her iitt1c jokes of which' she is so fond, says a contributor to Tit -Bits. Recently experim:Nets in long ass. taneo television have .been conducted between the United States and Aus- tralia. So far as . could be seen be- fore the tests began, there was no' reason why success should not be achieved, just as it had been oven shorter• distances. But when the, images came through they were blur- red and muzzy, Closer inspection disclosed that this was due to the presence 01 - ghosts! In the viewing lens the image of the sitter appeared, Mil' close beside it was .a second faint, image, and sometimes a third. These ghosts come from the depths df 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 from the experiences of operators on long- distance wireless services, for they, too, are very much troubled. The ghosts that worry them are not visible forms, but queer echoes of signals. What .happens is thla:' Supposing that a Morse dash is sere out, it arrives at the receiving end, and at intervals ranging from one- seventh of a second to as much as, thirty seconds, echoes of the dash, are received. These arrive on top of other signals and cause confusion. For long-distance wireless, what Is known as the beam system is largely used, for, like light rays, wireless: waves can be focused jnto a beam. Most, but not all of the waves, cans 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 Lei 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 waves which have, leaked from the back of the trans- mitter and gone the other way round. theworld. 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. ghosts? Wireless waves travel at the dizzy' speed of 1 P 186,000 miles a ee conn.. Some of the echoes occur at intervals• just about long 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 its 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 thlrty' seconds wireless waves travel 5,580,-•. 000 miles. They must, therefore, go out from the earth for over two and i a half million miles and then be re- flected back. PRINCE OF 'ELEPHANTS. 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 Ir•oma the prying eyes of the white hunter., "The Crown Prince, as he has been named, states F'l'ank L. Puxley, ins his recently published book, "In MIS -- can Game Tracks," "has : become a legendary figure, even during hitt lifetime. He has never been seen by a white man, so far as I' know, but the natives claim for him a pair o1 tusks that exceed 300 pounds in weight apiece, - An elephant's height is nearly proportionate to the dimensions of his 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 2932. 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 hirn, "And no white man ever will," be. added, explaining that the Crown Prince maintained an escort of Pe-• males, who encircle him at P. distance of a mile, They wore there for the> purpose of giving his lordship time- ly warning," he said. THINGS TO LEARN.. Learn to laugh. A good laugh' is • better than medicine. When you. smile or 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 you =i cannot see any good in this world keep the bad to yourself. Learn to greet your friends with a amile. They carry too many frowns in their own hearts to be bothered.:, with any of yours Wool. The raising 01 sheep fox 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, because the de- mand for wool is continuo is It is the principal industry of Australia, and one of Canada's leading sources • of revenue. The romance of sheep tending on the hills of Judea, Inter-• woven as it is with the stories -'of'. David, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of the shepherds who tended their flocks near Bethlehem -all this -basil become commercialized into dollars and cents. But the gentle sheep re, main the same . -Animal Life,