John Muir's Dunbar [jmd] | 130

This property is next to John Muir House on the north, being one of the largest buildings on the street. It also has been altered over the years (this is a refrain repeated throughout) and has gained a full second storey, where in John's day there were dormer windows. A large garden to the rear provided a safe, if limited, playground for the family. Their father was very protective of his youngsters and disliked their association with the 'common elements' of the town. John and his brothers soon learnt to scale the wall and regain their freedom. Such adventures were at a price, because their father was capable of inflicting fearsome punishments. His stern discipline and strict religious views dominated family life. John's mother and his other relatives were able to do little in the home to alleviate this. The boys, at least, grew to regard their punishments as routine. The privations to which they were subjected bonded the children closely all their lives.

Early signs of John's affinity with nature appear in his book "The Story of my Boyhood and Youth". Back in the garden, songbirds' nests were to be found in the shrubs and elm trees. This was of some advantage to John, as status amongst his peers depended on the number of nests and eggs seen in a season. It seems Bob Richardson, in wilder Belhaven, was often the winner; he declared


130-134 High Street

'...he kenned mair nests than onybody, for he kenned twenty-three, with about fifty eggs in them and mair than fifty young birds ... some of them naething but raw gorblings but lots of them as big as their mithers and ready to flee. And aboot fifty craw's nests and three fox dens...'

(all the rest agreed the latter did not count!). When Dragoons, whose horses were billeted in the Muir stable, robbed the young from a robin's nest John relates

'...a' the bairns' hearts were broken over the robbing of the nest in the elm...'

The house itself proved perfect for scootchers, or dares. One was to venture into the spooky, old, 'Doctor's Laboratory', a relic of a previous owner. The best was to explore beyond the bedroom dormer window onto the roof itself where once John

'...hung myself out over the slates, holding on to the sill, while he wind was making a balloon of my nightgown...'

'...playing voyages around the world. Burrowing like moles, we visited France, India, America, and all the places we had ever heard of; our travels never ending until we fell asleep.'

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130 - 134 High Street