The Hill, St Mary's Street, Dumfries

After his wife's death in 1866, Thomas Carlyle spent much time in Scotland, staying chiefly a this house.  It belonged to his sister Jean, who was the wife of James Aitken, a painter in Dumfries, and his little brother, Dr John Carlyle.  He wrote "The incomparable freshness, the air on the hillside, the luxurious beauty of these old hills... are evidently doing me day by day some little good", althoudh he added "I have sad fighting with the quasi-infernal ingredient - the railway whistle".  This was written in 1870, and The Hill was not far from the Dumfries railway station, which had opened only 20 years previously.  **Photograph, in "Birthplace of Peter Pan" exhibition file.**