seven in the
evening
But perhaps he thought most of all of that Admirable Crichton who was born at Sanquhar , not in the castle of his wild and brilliant family , but at Eliock House . Burns would maybe have liked him not so much for taking his degree at St. Andrews when he was twelve , or for knowing ten languages and many sciences , as for wandering adventurously over the world , winning tilting matches at the Louvre , and the love of ladies at Padua and Venice . Mrs. James had bought a book with quotations from a diary of Burns , and she read out to us while the car stopped at Sanquhar what he had written about one specimen day : `` Left Thornhill at five in the morning . Rode four miles to Enterkinfoot and made a call : thence three miles to Slunkerford with another call : thence six miles to Sanquhar , where there were twenty official visits to be made : thence two miles to Whitehall , with two more calls : and a return journey to Sanquhar , finishing the day 's work at seven in the evening . '' Poor poet . But he had always his glowing fancies to keep his heart warm . We felt almost guilty because we had no horrid calls to make , as he had ; nothing to do but enjoy the scene made magical by his love of it : the valley with its near green hills and distant peaks of Galloway and Lowther ; the river girdling wooded reaches with a belt of silver , or burrowing through deep rocky channels , purple as heather petrified .