Postcard of the Cluden Water, near Dumfries

"On the Clouden, near Dumfries" (Cluden is the standardised spelling). A colour tinted postcard from a photograph of the river, looking towards Lincluden House and showing both banks.   When Robert Burns exchanged the role of farmer for that of Exciseman he moved with his family from Ellisland Farm into a tenement flat in Bank Street, Dumfries. He developed the habit of taking walks along the banks of the River Nith, perhaps to replace the outdoor life he had previously led.   This postcard illustrates the Cluden Water, a tributary which joins the west bank of the River Nith close to Lincluden Abbey, a mediaeval ruin which captured the poet's imagination.   The postcard also reproduces two stanzas from his song, "Ca the Yowes to the Knowes", which features the Cluden and Lincluden Abbey. In September 1794 he wrote to George Thomson, his publisher, "In a solitary stroll which I took today, I tried my hand on a few pastoral lines. Here it is."