Another long one as I seem incapable of being succinct! Here are two references to Robert Burns and a ‘nebulous’ association with Thomas Clint and his son Henry Clint, both vintners/innkeepers. Thomas and Henry operated the King’s Arms Hotel, Dumfries and then Thomas ran the Carlingwark Inn, Carlingwark. Unfortunately, Henry went bankrupt and lost the King’s Arms Hotel, but not before he likely had at least a nodding acquaintance with Robert Burns (whose place as Scotland’s national poet has not been usurped). It is very likely too that Henry Clint’s father might have known Robert Burns, and if nothing else, made sure that his horses were taken care of! #1 Reference “On 25th June 1794 Burns set out on a second tour of Galloway. He left Dumfries in the afternoon and reached Castle Douglas that evening. He stayed in the High Street in the main hostelry, then named Carlingwark Inn, after the town’s earlier name. This was a staging post where the horses were changed for the stagecoaches travelling between Dumfries and Stranraer.” #2 Reference To John McMurdo, a friend of Burns: 'I think I once mentioned something of a collection of Scots songs I have for some years been making: I send you a perusal of what I have got together. I could not conveniently spare them above five or six days, and five or six glances of them will probably more than suffice you. When you are tired of them, please leave them with Mr. Clint, of the King's Arms. There is not another copy of the collection in the world; and I should he sorry that any unfortunate negligence should deprive me of what has cost me a good deal of pains....' Here is where I wish it were even far less nebulous for me to glue Thomas Clint and his children Henry, John and Margaret on my ‘tree.’ The Clint name is rather scarce in Southwest Scotland, with the name far more common in Yorkshire (England). However, as my great-great grandfather William Clint presumably was born in Carlingwark, Kelton Parish, I jumped at a possible connection with Thomas Clint of Carlingwark (via York.) Quite a few years ago a lister sent me a fine epitaph on the flatstone for Thomas Clint that she found online. Later, Irene Macleod sent me photos of both headstone, such a find! Two sons and a daughter were mentioned on the flatstone in Terregles Cemetery (Kirkcudbrightshire), but unnamed, with only the actual name of a deceased son, a namesake, was indicated. Alongside this grave is one for Margaret Grierson (aka McGrigor), his first wife who was R.C. (important detauil when following the trail of the children). Thomas Clint’s second wife was Isabella Robertson Marshall (Robison Marishall on some documents). They were married in the Presbyterian Church, Castle Douglas. A lot of sleuthing over the years, with the unstinting help of Malcolm Lockerbie and Irene Macleod, as well as others, finally reinforced my ‘gut’ feeling that this Thomas Clint just had to come from Yorkshire, as this is where I had found a ‘ton’ by this name in reference sources years ago. Yes! He was married to Margaret Grierson (aka McGrigor) in St. Michael’s C of E, Oursebridge, York, and their daughter Margaret Clint was born in England. We have no documentation as yet to show where the sons Henry and John were born. At some point Thomas is up over the border and running the King’s Arms Hotel, Dumfries, with Henry at his elbow, who later took over and somehow lost the inn. John was a farmer and horse dealer at Hightae, near Carlingwark. I have nicknamed him the ‘pollinator’ as we know of at least two children ‘pollinated’ by him whose mothers he had no interest in marrying, it would seem. One of them took him to the Court of Session Edinburgh, but for what purpose, I don’t know as I balked at paying £15/$23 r.o.e per half an hour for further research. The thought is that maybe the mother of the child was trying to have his name legitimised or she was trying to dun him for some money! Jumping to conclusions, with no documentation found, it is my gut feeling that John Clint may have sired my great-great grandfather. The frustrating thing is that this John Clint’s offspring of the ‘misbegotten child’ have been documented all the way to a present generation. Why can’t I be so successful with my antecedent? The last foray might be Kirk Session minutes. They are not available online and it would likely take a personal visit to Edinburgh to do further research. Can’t be done from California. It’s the last resort, perhaps, to try to find the parentage of my great-great grandfather William Clint. Robert Burns would pen: '”...and forward though I cannot see, I guess and fear....” Not to be pessimistic as I have ben able to fill in many gaps from William Clint, his progeny and theirs, all of whom came from Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire, until my grandfather Peter Clint left his roots in Kirkcudbrightshire to come to Glasgow. Of his eight grandchildren born in Glasgow, there has been a bit of a diaspora with only one of my brothers left in Glasgow, two of whose daughter went to England and another to the USA. Only one has remains in Lanarkshire. One brother went to England, taking his children with him; two sisters ended up in Haddington, East Lothian (near Edinburgh) with their children, some of whose offspring hied it to Australia. One brother went to Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, where all of his children continue to have roots, but with USA calling a granddaughter. When Peter Clint left Kirkcudbrightshire, so too did his siblings, so that when I tracked down two ‘far-out’ cousins in Auchencairn when I was home one year, and where this great-great grandfather William Clint had settled down, they were the only two left that I knew of with any family connections. My grandfather’s widower father buzzed off to England where he married an English woman and started up another family with her, most of whom were born in Wales. He did all right for himself as captain of mines and lived in what is now a ‘listed’ house. Not that you’ve been following the thread, but at least the ‘pollinator’ has one descendant and his offspring with family still within shouting distance where this frisky fellow was a farmer/horse dealer. Would it be a kick if I were to be another of them! For those still ‘guddling along,’ my little essay might encourage you to ‘keep right on to the end of the road,’ for you never know what is round the bend! Maisie