The Poet’s House

The Poet’s House, Burngrains, Alvah, Banffshire.

“The black and white photograph shows a two storeyed nineteenth century house with dormer windows to the front. The house is built of stone and has a slate roof. To the right hand side is an outbuilding with a door. By the door of the house is a liquid manure or fertiliser distributor, with the liquid held in the barrel-shaped container and the two metal tubes used to spread the contents once they were at the horizontal. At the doorway itself stands a woman and three children. To the right of the manure distributor is a man in working clothes wearing a cap and near him, another man, perhaps a minister in a dark suit, white collar and a dark hat. In the foreground a man wearing a suit and hat is sitting on a wooden cuddy. The garden in front of the house is very untidy and there is a wash line tied to only one pole. The photograph was found in a book of poems and songs by John S. Rae, crofter’s son. The wooden cuddy in the photograph on which the man, perhaps the poet, is sitting was used for cutting up wood and logs. John S. Rae was born on 25 January 1859 at Corsegight, New Deer parish, Aberdeenshire. He moved to Burngrains with his parents when still young. When his book of poems was published, in 1881, he worked as a draper in London.”

Ordnance Survey, 1869: