82
RIDDELLS OF GLEN-RIDDELL, SCOTLAND.
Riddell, who are the nearest male heirs if the male line of Glen-Riddell
terminated with the first Robert in 1771, as Walter Riddell-Carre says.
Mr. Riddell's death seems to have taken place at a residence of the Glen-
Riddell family, called "Friars' Carse," in Dunscore parish, also in Dumfrie-
shire, a property acquired by his grandfather, who died there in 1771.*
Burns was a frequent visitor at the homes of the Riddell family at Glen-
Riddell and Friars' Carse, and seems to have been intimate with them from
the time Robert Riddell succeeded. The following verses were composed
for the anniversary of the wedding-day of Captain Riddell of Glen-Riddell,
and set to the air of "A Musical Gentleman":
"The day returns, my bosom burns,
The blissful day we twa did meet;
Though winter wild in tempest toiled,
Ne'er summer's sun was half sae sweet.
Then a' the pride that loads the tide,
And crosses o'er the sultry line,
Than kingly robes, than crows and globes,
Heaven gave me more, it gave thee mine.
While day and night can bring delight,
Or nature aught of pleasure give,
While joys above my mind can move,
For thee, and thee alone, I live!
When that grim foe of life below
Comes in between to make us part,
The iron hand that breaks our band,
It breaks my bliss, it breaks my heart."
The poet Burns seems to have deeply lamented the death of his friend,
and to have greatly missed his company and entertainment after his de-
parture. He commemorates the virtues of his early friend and patron in
the following lines:-
-
"No more, ye warblers of the wood, no more!
Nor pour your descant, grating on my soul;
Thou young-eyed Spring, gay in thy verdant store,
More welcome were to me grim Winter's wildest roar.
* FRIARS' CARSE, in Nithsdale, Dumfrieshire, Scotland, was once a cell dependent
upon the rich abbey of Melrose, which at the Reformation was granted by the
Commendator to the Laird of Elliesland, a cadet of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn.
It passed to the Maxwells of Tinwald, and from them to the Borncleugh family,
also cadets of the Lords of Maxwell. From these last owners it went into posses-
sion of the Riddells of Glen-Riddell. The old refectory, or dining-room, had walls
eight feet thick, and the chimney was twelve feet wide. This ancient building hav-
ing become ruinous by lapse of time, was pulled down about a hundred years ago
by Robert Riddell, to give place to the present house known as Friars' Carse, now
owned by Thomas Nelson, Esq. Near the house is a loch, which was the fish-pond
of the friary, in the middle of which is a very curious island, artificial in construc-
tion, founded upon large piles and planks of oak, where the monks are supposed to
have lodged their valuables when the English made an inroad into the Strathnith.
(See plate in this work.) The estate was purchased latterly by the well-known Dr.
Crichton, a very rich man and great benefactor to his country, and after the Crich-
ton purchase, the poem entitled "The Whistle," was found there in the poet's own
handwriting. The poet traced the lines "Riddell, much-lamented man," with a dia-
mond on a window of Friars' Carse the first time he visited it after the death of
his friend, the Laird of Carse; the lines read thus:
"To Riddell, much-lamented man,
This ivied cot was dear;
Reader, dost value matchless worth?
This ivied cot revere."
