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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = John Bacon
| name = Maria Riddell
| image = File:Brownhill Inn, Closeburn - view of the old inn site and the stables, etc to the left.jpg
| image = File:Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) - Maria Woodley (1772–1808), Mrs Walter Riddell - 1257069 - National Trust.jpg
| caption = Brownhill Inn, Closeburn
| caption = Mrs Walter Riddell by Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
| birth_date = 1772<ref name="peoehdnt">{{Cite book|last=Westwood|first=Peter|year=1938|title=Who's Who in the World of Robert Burns|publisher=Robert Burns World Federation|page=119}}</ref>
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| birth_place =
| death_date = 1825<ref name="DSNT"/>
| death_date = 1808<ref name="peoehdnt"/>
| death_place =
| death_place =
| occupation = Innkeeper<ref name="peeyto">{{Cite book|last=McQueen|first=Colin|year=2009|title=Hunter's Illustrated History of the Family, Friends and Contemporaries of Robert Burns|publisher=Messrs Hunter McQueen & Hunter|isbn=978-0-9559732-0-8|page=82}}</ref>
| occupation = Poet and author<ref name="peoeneet"><ref name="peeyto">{{Cite book|last=McQueen|first=Colin|year=2009|title=Hunter's Illustrated History of the Family, Friends and Contemporaries of Robert Burns|publisher=Messrs Hunter McQueen & Hunter|isbn=978-0-9559732-0-8|page=198}}</ref>
}}
}}


'''Maria Banks Riddell''' (née '''Woodley'''; 1772&ndash;1808) was a [[West Indies]]-born poet, anthologist, naturalist, editor and travel writer, who was resident in Scotland and Wales. [[Robert Burns]] paid tribute to her as "a votary of the Muses".<ref name="Todd1987">{{cite book |author=Nancy E. Sydnor |editor=Janet M. Todd |title=A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660–1800 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbrit00redi |url-access=registration |year=1987 |publisher=Rowman & Allanheld |isbn=978-0-8476-7125-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbrit00redi/page/268 268]–9 |chapter=Maria &#91;Banks&#93; Riddell}}</ref><ref name="peoehdnt"/> She was raised in England until she was sixteen.<ref name="peoeneet"/>
'''John Bacon''' was the landlord at the important [[Brownhill Inn]] that lay to the south of [[Closeburn, Dumfries and Galloway|Closeburn]] in Nithsdale on the Ayr to Dumfries Road. From 1788 to 1791. [[Robert Burns]] spent many an evening at Bacon's inn whilst on travelling on Excise duties. A coaching stop and hostelry, the inn lay about 7 miles north of [[Ellisland Farm]], Burns's home before the family moved into Dumfries. During their tour of August–September 1803 [[Dorothy Wordsworth]], with her brother [[William Wordsworth]] and mutual friend [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] were hosted by Bacon and his wife at their inn.


==Life, family and character==
==Life, family and character==
Maria was the third and youngest daughter of William Woodley, [[Governor of the Leeward Islands|Governor and Captain-General]] of the [[Leeward Islands]] for the terms 1768–1771 and 1791–1793).<ref name="peoehdnt"/> She married Walter Riddell in the Leewards and the couple purchased the old Holm Estate in Troqueer Parish, Nithsdale, re-named Goldielea Estate, that Walter again renamed Woodley Park from 1792 to 1794<ref name="peohfyne/> in his wife's honour.<ref name="peoehdnt"/><ref name="peohfyne>{{Cite book|last=Mackay|first=James|year=1988|title=Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway|publisher= Alloway|isbn=0-907526-36-5|page=159}}</ref>
Bacon's wife and the landlady at the Brownhill Inn, was Catherine Stewart whose parents had run an inn at Closeburn Kirk Bridge.<ref name="DSNT"/> In 1803 an idea of how they kept the inn was given by [[Dorothy Wordsworth]] who wrote that "''It was as pretty a room as a thoroughly dirty one could be, a square parlour painted green, but so covered over with smoke and dirt that it looked not unlike green seen through black gauze.''" <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/journalsofdoroth027709mbp/journalsofdoroth027709mbp_djvu.txt|title=Full text of "Journals Of Dorothy Wordsworth Vol I"|website=www.archive.org|access-date=2016-04-21}}</ref><ref name="petysx>{{Cite book|last=Purdie|first=David|year=2013|title=Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia|publisher=Robert Hale|isbn=978-0-7090-9194-3|page=36}}</ref>
[[File:Robert Burns by J. Naismith.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Robert Burns]]


Walter owned sugar plantations in the West Indies however he was forced to sell Woodley Park back to Colonel Goldie having failed to raised the final payment on the property.<ref name="peohfysy/><ref name="peoehdnt"/> The couple moved to Tinwald House<ref name="peohfysy>{{Cite book|last=Mackay|first=James|year=1988|title=Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway|publisher= Alloway|isbn=0-907526-36-5|page=160}}</ref> and then Halleaths near [[Lochmaben]].<ref name="peoehdnt"/> On the death of her husband she was left in a dire financial situation.<ref name="peoehdnt"/>
Polly Stewart, William Stewart's daughter would often stay with her aunt and uncle at the inn and she would have met Robert Burns there.<ref name="petyto">{{Cite book|last=Douglas|first=William|year=1938|title=The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns|publisher=The Scottish Daily Express|page=32}}</ref>


[[William Smellie]] published Maria's "''Voyages to the Madeira and Leeward and Caribbee Islands.''"<ref name="peohfyne/>
In 1797 Bacon had six horses that were kept in the stables on the west side of the road.<ref>[https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/historical-tax-rolls/farm-horse-tax-rolls-1797-1798/farm-horse-tax-1797-1798-volume-02/124 Scotlands Places. Farm Horse Tax.]</ref>


Burns, when asked on one occasion by a commercial traveller, surnamed Ladyman, to prove that it was really the famous poet that he was dining on bacon and beans with, Burns made up on the spot the following epigram that highlighted the habit of Bacon to sometimes overstay his welcome when serving customers:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Douglas|first=William|year=1938|title=The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns|publisher=The Scottish Daily Express|page=339}}</ref><ref name="petysn>{{Cite book|last=Purdie|first=David|year=2013|title=Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia|publisher=Robert Hale|isbn=978-0-7090-9194-3|page=37}}</ref>
<ref name="petysx>{{Cite book|last=Purdie|first=David|year=2013|title=Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia|publisher=Robert Hale|isbn=978-0-7090-9194-3|page=36}}</ref>


<ref name="petyto">{{Cite book|last=Douglas|first=William|year=1938|title=The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns|publisher=The Scottish Daily Express|page=32}}</ref>
{| cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
|-
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|


<ref name="petysn>{{Cite book|last=Purdie|first=David|year=2013|title=Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia|publisher=Robert Hale|isbn=978-0-7090-9194-3|page=37}}</ref>
''"At Brownhill we always get dainty good cheer,''<br>
''And plenty of bacon each day in the year;''<br>
''We've a'thing that's nice, and mostly in season,''<br>
''But why always Bacon — Come, tell me the reason?"''<br>
|}


<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wood|first=Rog|year=2011|title=Upper Nithsdale Folklore|publisher= Creedon|isbn=978-1-907931-03-1|page=98}}</ref>
Burns had recited the lines extempore when Bacon went out to see about fresh supplies of whisky toddy.<ref name="DSNT"/><ref name="pesxtn"/>
[[File:Closeburn old and new churches.JPG|thumb|250px|left|Closeburn Church and old kirk ruins]]
Bacon, took a keen interest in the poet and in 1798 purchased the bed that Burns was born in from [[Gilbert Burns]] at nearby Dinning Farm, He installed the bed at Brownhill and showing his business acumen, charged cutomers and others to see it. A groom at Brownhill, Joe Langhorne, slept in it for many years and in 1829 purchased it himself.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wood|first=Rog|year=2011|title=Upper Nithsdale Folklore|publisher= Creedon|isbn=978-1-907931-03-1|page=98}}</ref> Langhorne took it to Dumfries where the bed was eventually broken up by a relative and used to make snuff boxes that bore a commemorative inscription to Burns.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mackay|first=James|year=1988|title=Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway|publisher= Alloway|isbn=0-907526-36-5|page=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Wood|first=Rog|year=2011|title=Upper Nithsdale Folklore|publisher= Creedon|isbn=978-1-907931-03-1|page=98}}</ref>


Bacon's brother-in-law, his wife's brother, was William Stewart (1749-1812), son therefore of the innkeepers at Closeburn Kirk Bridge. William was the factor or grieve at the Dalswinton Estate of the Rev. [[James Stuart Menteith]] and a good friend of [[Robert Burns]] who often visited Closeburn Castle.<ref name="DSNT">[http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/BaconMrd1825.71.shtml John Bacon - Burns Encyclopedia]</ref><ref name="petyne"/> He was the father of "[http://www.robertburns.org/works/331.shtml lovely Polly Stewart]", and the brother-in-law to Mr Bacon the Landlord.


The couple settled in an estate in [[Kirkcudbrightshire]]
In 1788, Bacon's wife, Catherine Stewart Bacon, inspired Burns to compose the poem "''The Henpecked Husband''" upon refusing to serve her husband and the poet with more liquor when they were engaged in a drinking bout at Brownhill.<ref name="pesxtn">{{Cite book|last=Mackay|first=James|year=1988|title=Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway|publisher= Alloway|isbn=0-907526-36-5|page=16}}</ref>
Following the death of her first husband, Riddell married the Welsh landowner Phillips Lloyd Fletcher. She was buried in a family vault located in [[Chester]].


==Life==
{| cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
She accompanied him on a visit to the islands in 1788 and wrote an account of it. The book also included a [[natural history]] of the [[Leeward Islands]] written by her. <ref>''Voyages to Madeira and the Leeward and Caribbean Islands'' (Edinburgh 1792).</ref>
|-
in the historical county of [[Kirkcudbrightshire]].
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|


Maria and her husband were reconciled with Burns in 1795, when she sent a poem of appeasement.<ref name="Feminist" >''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), pp. 246–247.</ref>
''"Curs'd be the man, the poorest wretch in life,''<br>
''The crouching vassal to a tyrant wife!''<br>
''Who has no will but by her high permission,''<br>
''Who has not sixpence but in her possession;''<br>
''Who must to he, his dear friend's secrets tell,''<br>
''Who dreads a curtain lecture worse than hell.''<br>
''Were such the wife had fallen to my part,''<br>
''I'd break her spirit or I'd break her heart;''<br>
''I'd charm her with the magic of a switch,''<br>
''I'd kiss her maids, and kick the perverse bitch".''<br>
|}


She was a friend of the novelist and poet [[Helen Craik]], another admirer of Burns. She included some poems by [[Anna Laetitia Barbauld]], [[Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire]] and [[Mary Whateley|Mary Darwall]] in her 1802 anthology, ''The Metrical Miscellany''.<ref name="Feminist"/>
==Association with Robert Burns==
[[File:Brownhill Inn, Closeburn - view of the gable end of the steading.jpg|thumb|left|250px|A view of the old livery stables looking north.]]
[[File:Drinking glass engraved by Robert Burns. Owned by Sir Walter Scott.jpg|thumb|upright|The Brownhill Inn engraved tumbler.]]
The 'Ayrshire Monthly Newsletter' of 1844 reported that "At the sale of the effects of Mr Bacon, Brownhill Inn, after his death in 1825, his snuff-box, being found to bear the inscription: "''Robert Burns - Officer of the Excise''" - although only a 'cloot' or horn mounted with silver, sold for £5. It was understood to have been presented by Burns to Bacon, with whom he had spent many a merry night."<ref name="petysn">{{Cite book|last=Purdie|first=David|year=2013|title=Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia|publisher= Robert Hale|isbn=978-0-7090-9194-3|page=37}}</ref>


One summer evening in 1793 whilst at the inn with Dr Purdie of [[Sanquhar]] and another friend,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mackay|first=James|year=1988|title=Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway|publisher= Alloway|isbn=0-907526-36-5|page=16}}</ref> Burns met a weary soldier and upon listening to his story of the adventures he had lived through was inspired to write his famous song "[http://www.robertburns.org/works/401.shtml The Soldier's Return]"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcewanfraserlegal.co.uk/properties/town_Dumfriesshire/brownhill_closeburn/74012|title=Brownhill/ Closeburn Thornhill Dumfriesshire {{!}} McEwan Fraser Legal|website=Mcewan Fraser Legal Solicitors and Estate Agents|access-date=2016-04-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Watson|first=R.|year=1901|title=Closeburn (Dumfriesshire). Reminiscent, Historic & Traditional|publisher= Inglis Ker & Co.|page=132}}</ref><ref name="pesxtn"/>


==Works==
Burns once angered Bacon's wife by engraving in 1791 the lines "''You're Welcome, Willie Stewart''"<ref name="peeyto"> on a glass tumbler with his diamond point pen.<ref name="Watson, Page 137">Watson, Page 137</ref> Catherine sold the glass for a shilling to a customer who purchased it as a memento and soothed her anger.<ref>[http://www.brilliantglass.com/about_abcg/engraving_2.html Brilliant Glass] Retrieved : 2012-11-24</ref> Another version of the story places the event at the Closeburn Kirk Inn where the landlady was Catherine Stewart Bacon's mother.<ref name="petyne">{{Cite book|last=Mckay|first=James|year=1988|title=Burns-Lore of Dumfries and Galloway|publisher=Alloway Publishing|page=25}}</ref>
*''Voyage to the Madeira and Leeward and Caribbean Isles, with Sketches of the Natural History of these Islands'', Edinburgh, 1792
*''The Metrical Miscellany, consisting chiefly of poems hitherto unpublished'', 1802 (as editor), 2nd ed., 1803


==See also==
{| cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
*[[Lydia Byam]]
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|
''Chorus''


''You're welcome, Willie Stewart'',<br>
''You're welcome, Willie Stewart'',<br>
''There's ne'er a flower that blooms in May'',<br>
''That's half sae welcome's thou art''!


''Come, bumpers high, express your joy'',<br>
''The bowl we maun renew it'',<br>
''The tappet hen, gae bring her ben'',<br>
''To welcome Willie Stewart, &c.''


''May foes be strang, and friends be slack'',<br>
''Ilk action, may he rue it'',<br>
''May woman on him turn her back'',<br>
''That wrangs thee, Willie Stewart'',<br>
|}


The tumbler became a treasured part of [[Sir Walter Scott]]'s collections<ref>{{Cite book|last=Watson|first=R.|year=1901|title=Closeburn (Dumfriesshire). Reminiscent, Historic & Traditional|publisher= Inglis Ker & Co.|page=137}}</ref>


Burns also wrote verses in honour of 'Polly Stewart', William Stewart's daughter.<ref>[http://www.futuremuseum.co.uk/collections/people/key-people/burns/manuscripts/a-letter-from-robert-burns-to-mr-wm-stewart,-closeburn.aspx Future Museum] Retrieved : 2012-11-24</ref><ref>[http://www.eddireader.net/tracks/erWSMR.htm Polly Stewart] Retrieved : 2012-11-24</ref><ref name="petyto"/>


==Association with Robert Burns==
{| cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
Prior to moving into Woodley Park, Maria and Walter stayed at Friars' Carse and it was there that she first met Burns circa December 1791, by which time he had moved to [[Dumfries]] and was an infrequent visitor.<ref name="peohfyne/>
|-

At the December 1793 date of the 'Rape of the Sabine Women' incident Walter Riddell was in the West Indies, returning in March 1794.<ref name="peohfysy/>

<ref name="petysn">{{Cite book|last=Purdie|first=David|year=2013|title=Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia|publisher= Robert Hale|isbn=978-0-7090-9194-3|page=37}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite book|last=Watson|first=R.|year=1901|title=Closeburn (Dumfriesshire). Reminiscent, Historic & Traditional|publisher= Inglis Ker & Co.|page=132}}</ref><ref name="pesxtn"/>
A depressed and spiteful Burns wrote some unpleasant epigrams on Maria, such as "''Monody on a Lady Famed for her Caprice:''"<ref name="peohfysy/>

{|cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|
''How cold is that bosom which folly once fired'',<br>
''How pale is that cheek where the rouge lately glisten’d'';<br>
''How silent that tongue which the echoes oft tired'',<br>
''How dull is that ear which to flatt’ry so listen’d''!<br>


''"The flower it blaws, it fades,it fa's,''<br>
''If sorrow and anguish their exit await'',<br>
''And art can ne'er renew it;''<br>
''From friendship and dearest affection remov’d'';<br>
''But worth, and truth, eternal youth ''<br>
''How doubly severer, Maria, thy fate'',<br>
''Will gie to Polly Stewart."''<br>
''Thou diedst unwept, as thou livedst unlov’d''.<br>
|}
|}


Another unkind epigram was "''Pinned to Mrs Walter Riddell's Carriage:''"
It is also recorded that 'One Monday even' Burns sent a rhymed epistle to William Stewart from Brownhill Inn, probably in January 1793, beginning :

{| cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
{|cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
|-
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|
''If you rattle along like your Mistress' tongue'',<br>
''Your speed will outrival the dart'';<br>
''But a fly for your load, you'll break down on the road'',<br>
''If your stuff be as rotten's her heart''.<br>
|}


Burns also wrote an epistle "''Esopus to Maria:''"
''"In honest Bacon's ingle-neuk,''<br>
{|cellpadding=10 border="0" align=center
''Here maun I sit and think; ''<br>
| bgcolor=#f4f4f4|
''Sick o' the warld and warld's fock,''<br>
''What scandal call'd Maria's janty stagger''<br>
''And sick, d-amn'd sick o' drink!"''<br><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/StewartWilliam1749-1812.828.shtml|title=Robert Burns Country: The Burns Encyclopedia: Stewart, William (1749? - 1812)|website=www.robertburns.org|access-date=2016-04-21}}</ref><ref name="petysn"/>
''The ricket reeling of a crooked swagger''?<br>
''What slander nam'd her seeming want of art''<br>
''The flimsy wrapper of a rotten heart'';<br>
''Whose spite e'en worse than Burns' venom when''<br>
''He dips in gall unmixed his eager pen'',<br>
''And pours his vengeance in the burning line''?<br>
''Who christen'd thus Maria's Lyre divine'',<br>
''The idiot strum of vanity bemused'',<br>
''And e'en the abuse of Poesy abused''?<br>
''Who called her verse a parish workhouse'', made<br>
''For motley foundling Fancies, stolen or strayed''?<br>
|}
|}
[[File:Friars' Carse, Auldgirth, Nithsdale in 1805.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Friars' Carse in 1805]]
On 3 July 1796 Burns went to the [[Brow, Dumfries and Galloway|Brow Well]] on the [[Solway Firth]] for medical treatment and after his initial three week stay stated that he intended to continue taking the treatment for the whole summer whilst ''"staying at a friend's house"'', presumably an offer made by [[Maria Riddell]].<ref>[http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/TheRomanticLettersOfRabbie.pdf The Romantic Letters of Robert Burns] Retrieved : 2014-01-12</ref> On 5 July 1796, Maria sent her carriage to collect him so that he could dine with her at [[Lochmaben]]. She recorded that he had the ''"stamp of death"'' on his face and was ''"touching the brink of eternity"'' and his greeting to her was "''Well madam, have you any commands for the other world''".<ref name=son/>


In December 1794 Maria sent Burns a book, signalling a slow reconciliation.<ref name="peohfysy/> He responded with a stilted letter written in the third person, however the friendship was restored and proved to continue after Burns's death with staunch support for his memory.<ref name="peohfysy/>
[[File:The Soldier's Return. Robert Burns. 'The Meeting'. John Faed RSA.jpg|left|thumb|250px|The Soldier's Return by Robert Burns.]]
[[File:Closeburn Castle 1889 (14785120145).jpg|thumb|upright|Closeburn Castle]]
In the ''Ladies' Own Journal'' of 3 September 1870, published in [[Glasgow]] and [[Edinburgh]], an article was published that claimed that Burns had engraved on some window panes certain verses that even best friends were ashamed of.<ref name=tfz>Douglas, Page 340</ref> The article claimed that Sir Charles D. Stuart-Menteith, Bart of Closeburn had these window panes carefully removed and packed away. Following his father's death Sir James is said to have examined these artefacts and was so shocked that he destroyed them in order to preserve Burns's reputation.<ref name=tfz/> Watson, a local man, records in 1901<ref name="Watson, Page 135">Watson, Page 135</ref> that the poem concerned was the "''The Henpecked Husband.''"


After Burns's death Maria wrote a perceptive and detailed memoir that was published by [[James Currie (physician)|Dr James Currie]] after appearing in the "''Dumfries Weekly Journal''".<ref name="peohfysy/>
==See also==

{{Portal|Scotland}}
==Correspondence with Robert Burns==
{{refbegin|2}}
On 12 January 1794 Burns wrote saying "''If it is true, that 'Offences come only from the heart' - before you I am guiltless: To admire, esteem, prize and adore you, as a most accomplished of women, & the first of friends - if these are crimes, I am the most offending thing alive.''"<ref name="peoehdnt"/>
*[[Robert Aiken]]
*[[Jean Armour]]
*[[Lesley Baillie]]
*[[John Ballantine (merchant and banker)|John Ballantine]]
*[[Alison Begbie]]
*[[Nelly Blair]]
*[[Isabella Burns]]
*[[May Cameron]]
*[[Mary Campbell (Highland Mary)]]
*[[Jenny Clow]]
*[[Gavin Hamilton (lawyer)]]
*[[Helen Hyslop]]
*[[Nelly Kilpatrick]]
*[[Jessie Lewars]]
*[[Anne Rankine]]
*[[Isabella Steven]]
*[[Peggy Thompson]]
*[[James Smith (draper)]]
*[[John Murdoch (teacher)]]
{{refend}}


==References==
==References==
Line 161: Line 135:
{{Refend}}
{{Refend}}


==External links==
==External links==]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlZ52FVXT6Y Video footage of Brownill Inn and its history]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvKyqHslxsk Video footage of the 'Soldier's Return' site at Millmannoch]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJ1mH4clzU You're Welcome, Willie Stewart performed by Driftwood.]]
*[https://www.facebook.com/groups/554450588374356/ Researching the Life and Times of Robert Burns]
*[https://www.facebook.com/groups/554450588374356/ Researching the Life and Times of Robert Burns]
{{Robert Burns |state=autocollapse}}
{{Robert Burns |state=autocollapse}}


[[:Category:1772 births]]
{{coord|55.201796|N|3.725779|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=title}}
[[:Category:Coaching inns]]
[[:Category:1808 deaths]]
[[:Category:18th-century naturalists]]
[[:Category:18th-century Scottish writers]]
[[:Category:18th-century Scottish women writers]]
[[:Category:19th-century Scottish writers]]
[[:Category:19th-century Scottish women writers]]
[[:Category:18th-century women scientists]]
[[:Category:British Leeward Islands people]]
[[:Category:Scottish travel writers]]
[[:Category:Caribbean writers]]
[[:Category:British women travel writers]]
[[:Category:Scottish women poets]]
[[:Category:People associated with Dumfries and Galloway]]
[[:Category:Anthologists]]
[[:Category:Women anthologists]]
[[:Category:Women naturalists]]
[[:Category:Scottish naturalists]]
[[:Category:Buildings and structures in Dumfries and Galloway]]
[[:Category:Buildings and structures in Dumfries and Galloway]]
[[:Category:Robert Burns]]
[[:Category:Robert Burns]]
{{authority control}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, John}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riddell, Maria}}

Latest revision as of 09:33, 9 May 2021

Maria Riddell
Mrs Walter Riddell by Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
Born1772[1]
Died1808[1]
Occupation(s)Poet and authorCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Maria Banks Riddell (née Woodley; 1772–1808) was a West Indies-born poet, anthologist, naturalist, editor and travel writer, who was resident in Scotland and Wales. Robert Burns paid tribute to her as "a votary of the Muses".[2][1] She was raised in England until she was sixteen.[3]

Life, family and character

[edit]

Maria was the third and youngest daughter of William Woodley, Governor and Captain-General of the Leeward Islands for the terms 1768–1771 and 1791–1793).[1] She married Walter Riddell in the Leewards and the couple purchased the old Holm Estate in Troqueer Parish, Nithsdale, re-named Goldielea Estate, that Walter again renamed Woodley Park from 1792 to 1794[4] in his wife's honour.[1][4]

Robert Burns

Walter owned sugar plantations in the West Indies however he was forced to sell Woodley Park back to Colonel Goldie having failed to raised the final payment on the property.[5][1] The couple moved to Tinwald House[5] and then Halleaths near Lochmaben.[1] On the death of her husband she was left in a dire financial situation.[1]

William Smellie published Maria's "Voyages to the Madeira and Leeward and Caribbee Islands."[4]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9] 


The couple settled in an estate in Kirkcudbrightshire

Following the death of her first husband, Riddell married the Welsh landowner Phillips Lloyd Fletcher. She was buried in a family vault located in Chester.

Life

[edit]

She accompanied him on a visit to the islands in 1788 and wrote an account of it. The book also included a natural history of the Leeward Islands written by her. [10] 

in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire.

Maria and her husband were reconciled with Burns in 1795, when she sent a poem of appeasement.[11]

She was a friend of the novelist and poet Helen Craik, another admirer of Burns. She included some poems by Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and Mary Darwall in her 1802 anthology, The Metrical Miscellany.[11]


Works

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  • Voyage to the Madeira and Leeward and Caribbean Isles, with Sketches of the Natural History of these Islands, Edinburgh, 1792
  • The Metrical Miscellany, consisting chiefly of poems hitherto unpublished, 1802 (as editor), 2nd ed., 1803

See also

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Association with Robert Burns

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Prior to moving into Woodley Park, Maria and Walter stayed at Friars' Carse and it was there that she first met Burns circa December 1791, by which time he had moved to Dumfries and was an infrequent visitor.[4]

At the December 1793 date of the 'Rape of the Sabine Women' incident Walter Riddell was in the West Indies, returning in March 1794.[5]

[8] [12][13] A depressed and spiteful Burns wrote some unpleasant epigrams on Maria, such as "Monody on a Lady Famed for her Caprice:"[5]

How cold is that bosom which folly once fired,
How pale is that cheek where the rouge lately glisten’d;
How silent that tongue which the echoes oft tired,
How dull is that ear which to flatt’ry so listen’d!

If sorrow and anguish their exit await,
From friendship and dearest affection remov’d;
How doubly severer, Maria, thy fate,
Thou diedst unwept, as thou livedst unlov’d.

Another unkind epigram was "Pinned to Mrs Walter Riddell's Carriage:"

If you rattle along like your Mistress' tongue,
Your speed will outrival the dart;
But a fly for your load, you'll break down on the road,
If your stuff be as rotten's her heart.

Burns also wrote an epistle "Esopus to Maria:"

What scandal call'd Maria's janty stagger
The ricket reeling of a crooked swagger?
What slander nam'd her seeming want of art
The flimsy wrapper of a rotten heart;
Whose spite e'en worse than Burns' venom when
He dips in gall unmixed his eager pen,
And pours his vengeance in the burning line?
Who christen'd thus Maria's Lyre divine,
The idiot strum of vanity bemused,
And e'en the abuse of Poesy abused?
Who called her verse a parish workhouse, made
For motley foundling Fancies, stolen or strayed?

Friars' Carse in 1805

On 3 July 1796 Burns went to the Brow Well on the Solway Firth for medical treatment and after his initial three week stay stated that he intended to continue taking the treatment for the whole summer whilst "staying at a friend's house", presumably an offer made by Maria Riddell.[14] On 5 July 1796, Maria sent her carriage to collect him so that he could dine with her at Lochmaben. She recorded that he had the "stamp of death" on his face and was "touching the brink of eternity" and his greeting to her was "Well madam, have you any commands for the other world".[15]

In December 1794 Maria sent Burns a book, signalling a slow reconciliation.[5] He responded with a stilted letter written in the third person, however the friendship was restored and proved to continue after Burns's death with staunch support for his memory.[5]

After Burns's death Maria wrote a perceptive and detailed memoir that was published by Dr James Currie after appearing in the "Dumfries Weekly Journal".[5]

Correspondence with Robert Burns

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On 12 January 1794 Burns wrote saying "If it is true, that 'Offences come only from the heart' - before you I am guiltless: To admire, esteem, prize and adore you, as a most accomplished of women, & the first of friends - if these are crimes, I am the most offending thing alive."[1]

References

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Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Westwood, Peter (1938). Who's Who in the World of Robert Burns. Robert Burns World Federation. p. 119.
  2. ^ Nancy E. Sydnor (1987). "Maria [Banks] Riddell". In Janet M. Todd (ed.). A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660–1800. Rowman & Allanheld. pp. 268–9. ISBN 978-0-8476-7125-0.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference peoeneet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d Mackay, James (1988). Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway. Alloway. p. 159. ISBN 0-907526-36-5.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Mackay, James (1988). Burns Lore of Dumfries and Galloway. Alloway. p. 160. ISBN 0-907526-36-5.
  6. ^ Purdie, David (2013). Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia. Robert Hale. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-7090-9194-3.
  7. ^ Douglas, William (1938). The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns. The Scottish Daily Express. p. 32.
  8. ^ a b Purdie, David (2013). Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia. Robert Hale. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7090-9194-3. Cite error: The named reference "petysn" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ Wood, Rog (2011). Upper Nithsdale Folklore. Creedon. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-907931-03-1.
  10. ^ Voyages to Madeira and the Leeward and Caribbean Islands (Edinburgh 1792).
  11. ^ a b The Feminist Companion to Literature in English, eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), pp. 246–247.
  12. ^ Watson, R. (1901). Closeburn (Dumfriesshire). Reminiscent, Historic & Traditional. Inglis Ker & Co. p. 132.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference pesxtn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ The Romantic Letters of Robert Burns Retrieved : 2014-01-12
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference son was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Further reading

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  1. Brown, Hilton (1949). There was a Lad. London : Hamish Hamilton.
  2. Burns, Robert (1839). The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. The Aldine Edition of the British Poets. London : William Pickering.
  3. De Lancey Ferguson, J. (1931). The Letters of Robert Burns. Oxford : Clarendon Press.
  4. Douglas, William Scott (Edit.) 1938. The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Glasgow : The Scottish Daily Express.
  5. Hecht, Hans (1936). Robert Burns. The Man and His Work. London : William Hodge.
  6. Mackay, James A. (2004). Burns. A Biography of Robert Burns. Darvel : Alloway Publishing. ISBN 0907526-85-3.
  7. Mackay, James A. (1988). Burns-Lore of Dumfries amd Galloway. Ayr : Alloway Publishing. ISBN 0-907526-36-5.
  8. McIntyre, Ian (2001). Robert Burns. A Life. New York : Welcome Rain Publishers. ISBN 1-56649-205-X.
  9. McNaught, Duncan (1921). The Truth about Robert Burns. Glasgow : Maclehose, Jackson & Co. ISBN 9781331593317
  10. McQueen, Colin Hunter (2008). Hunter's Illustrated History of the Family, Friends and Contemporaries of Robert Burns. Messsrs Hunter McQueen & Hunter. ISBN 978-0-9559732-0-8
  11. Purdie, David, McCue & Carruthers, G (2013). Maurice Lindsay's The Burns Encyclopaedia. London : Robert Hale. ISBN 978-0-7090-9194-3
  12. Ross Roy, G. (1985). Letters of Robert Burns. Oxford : Clarendon Press.

==External links==]

Category:1772 births Category:1808 deaths Category:18th-century naturalists Category:18th-century Scottish writers Category:18th-century Scottish women writers Category:19th-century Scottish writers Category:19th-century Scottish women writers Category:18th-century women scientists Category:British Leeward Islands people Category:Scottish travel writers Category:Caribbean writers Category:British women travel writers Category:Scottish women poets Category:People associated with Dumfries and Galloway Category:Anthologists Category:Women anthologists Category:Women naturalists Category:Scottish naturalists Category:Buildings and structures in Dumfries and Galloway Category:Robert Burns


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