The Brownhill Inn was a lodging house in Scotland founded in the late 18th century by Mr. John Bacon, a Scottish vintner and landowner. The coaching house was popularized by one of its notable patrons, Robert Burns, wdiely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. Spending many an evening warmed by the inn's hearth, Burns referred to the establishment as his 'local,' often serving as the muse or backdrop for his clever (and occasionally drunken) witticisms. One brief quip complimented the abundance of bacon at the inn while also complaining of the excessive abundance of 1. Mr. Bacon who would never leave his customers to themselves. Another complained of Mrs. Bacon's conservative hospitality, as she was rightly refusing to continue pouring liquor for the undoubtedly extremely inebriated Burns and Mr. Bacon ("Curs'd be the man, the poorest wretch in life, / The crouching vassal to a tyrant wife!"). While Robert Burns seems to have fallen in love with the humble Brownhill, Dorothy Wordsworth isn't sold. While she compliments the corn fields, she criticizes the nakedness of the landscape and lack of cleanliness of the building's interior, only slightly encouraged by the thought of Burns' prior presence at this establishment.

"Brownhill is about seven or eight miles from Ellisland. I fancied to myself, while I was sitting in the parlour, that Burns might have caroused there, for most likely his rounds extended so far, and this thought gave a melancholy interest to the smoky walls. 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" (Wordsworth).