styles of architecture, and from it rose a slender spire, which, though, by no means in exact keeping with the basement, certainly contributed to the picturesque aspect of the building. The new tower stands upon the same foundation in the High Street of Ayr. PAGE 143, NOTE 126.-The falcon, or as it is commonly called, the Gos-hawk. The imagery of this passage is as beautiful as the expression. PAGE 143, NOTE 127.-A well-known ford in the River, immediately above the Auld Brig. PAGE 143, NOTE 128.-Generally, as the rapid enlightenment of the Scottish people has dispelled the superstitions which were wont to hang about some localities, even to the charm and poetical imagery with which | such superstitions served at times to invest them, the spirits of Garpal Water are yet acknowledged to retain their supremacy, and the spot is as firmly believed to be haunted by many of the peasants, as it was of old. PAGE 144, NOTE 129.-The source of the river Ayr. PAGE 144, NOTE 130.-A narrow landing place on the upward side of the chief quay. PAGE 144, NOTE 131.-Mr. McLachlan was at that time well known, and much admired for his taste in the performance of Scottish airs on the violin. PAGE 145, NOTE 132.-A complimentary allusion to Captam Hugh Montgomery, otherwise called Sodger Hugh by Burns, (who subsequently succeeded to the Earldom of Eglinton), and whose family seat of Coilsfield is situated on the Faile, or Feal, a small stream which falls into the river Ayr, at no great distance. PAGE 145, NOTE 133.-In the foregoing notes, on the Epistle to Davie, the introduction of Burns to Mrs. Stewart, of Stair, has been detailed. The present passage is a complimentary allusion to the same lady. PAGE 145, NOTE 134.-Catrine was, as we have already had occasion to state, the seat of Dr. Stewart, the father of Professor Dugald Stewart, to whose honour, and in compliment of whom, this allusion is made. PAGE 145, NOTE 135.-" The Elegy on Captain Henderson is a tribute to the memory of a man I loved much."-BURNS. Captain Henderson was a retired soldier, of agreeable manners, and upright character, who had a lodging in Carrubber's Close, Edinburgh, and mingled with the best society of the city. Mr. Cunningham states, on the authority of Sir Thomas Wallace, who knew him, that he "dined regularly at For tune's Tavern, and was a member of the Capillaire Club, which was composed of all who inclined to the witty and the joyous." The poem was written in Dumfriesshire, in 1790. PAGE 145, NOTE 136.-Yearns-Eagles. PAGE 146, NOTE 137.—“I look on Tam oʻ Shanter as my standard performance in the poetical line."-BURns. "When my father fewed his little property near Alloway Kirk, the wall of the churchyard had gone to ruin, and cattle had free liberty of pasture in it. My father and two or three neighbours joined in an application to the town-council of Ayr, who were superiors of the adjoining land, for liberty to rebuild it, and raised by subscription a sum for enclosing this ancient cemetery with a wall: hence, he came to consider it as his burial place, and we learned that reverence for it people generally have for the burialplace of their ancestors. My brother was living in Ellisland, when Captain Grose, on his perigrinations through Scotland, staid some time at Carse-house in the neighbourhood, with Captain Robert Riddel, of Glenriddel, a particular friend of my brother's. The antiquary and the poet were 'unco pack and thick thegither.' Robert requested of Captain Grose, when he should come to Ayrshire, that he would make a drawing of Alloway Kirk, as it was the burial-place of his father, where he himself had a sort of claim to lay down his bones when they should be no longer serviceable to him; and added, by way of encouragement, that it was the scene of many a good story of witches and apparitions, of which he knew the captain was very fond. The captain agreed to the request, provided the poet would furnish a witch story, to be printed along with it. Tam o' Shanter' was produced on this occasion, and was first published in 'Grose's Antiquities of Scotland.""—Gilbert BURNS. It was while spending his nineteenth summer in the parish of Kirkoswald, in Carrick, that the poet became acquainted with the characters and circumstances afterwards introduced into Tam o' Shanter. The hero was an honest farmer, named Douglas Graham, who ham, who lived at Shanter, between Turnberry and Colzean. His wife, Helen M'Taggart, was much addicted to superstitious beliefs. Graham, dealing much in malt, went to Ayr every market day, whither he was frequently accompanied by a shoemaking neighbour, John Davidson, who dealt a little in leather. The two would often linger to a late hour in the taverns at was considerably to the west of the present one, which, nevertheless, has existed since before the time of Burns. Upon a field about a quarter of a mile to the north-west of the kirk, is a single tree enclosed with a paling, the last remnant of a group which covered -the cairn Where hunters faud the murdered bairn ;' and immediately beyond that object is the ford, the market town. One night, when riding home more than usually late by himself, in a storm of wind and rain, Graham, in passing over Brown Carrick Hill, near the Bridge of Doon, lost his bonnet, which contained the money he had drawn that day at the market. To avoid the scolding of his wife, he imposed upon her credulity with a story of witches seen at Alloway Kirk, but did not the less return to the Carrick Hill, to seek for his money, which he had the satisfaction to find, with his bonnet, in a plantation near the road. Burns, hearing Graham's story told between jest and earnest among the smugglers of the Carrick shore, retained it in his memory, till, at a comparatively late period of his career, he wove from it one of the most admired of his poems. Douglas Graham and John Davidson, the originals of Tam o' Shanter and Souter Johnnie, have long reposed in the churchyard of Kirkoswald, where the former had a handsome monument, bearing a very pious inscription.-'Mungo's mither,' committed suicide, apCHAMBERS. PAGE 146, NOTE 138.-The village where a parish church is situated is usually called the Kirkton in Scotland. A certain Jean Kennedy, who kept a reputable public-house in the village of Kirkoswald, is here alluded to. PAGE 147, NOTE 139.-"Alloway Kirk, with its little enclosed burial ground, stands beside the road from Ayr to Maybole, about | two miles from the former town. The church has long been roofless, but the walls are pretty well preserved, and it still retains its bell at the east end. Upon the whole, the spectator is struck with the idea, that the witches must have had a rather narrow stage for the performance of their revels, as described in the poem. The inner area is now divided by a partition-wall, and one part forms the family burial-place of Mr. Catchcart, of Blairston. The winnock bunker in the east,' where sat the awful musician of the party, is a conspicuous feature, being a small window, divided by a thick mullion. Around the buiding are the vestiges of other openings, at any of which the hero of the tale may be supposed to have looked in upon the hellish scene. Within the last few years the old oaken rafters of the kirk were mostly entire, but they have now been entirely taken away, to form, in various shapes, memorials of a place so remarkably signalised by genius. It is necessary for those who survey the ground in reference to the poem, to be informed that the old road from Ayr to this spot, by which Burns supposed his hero to have approached Alloway Kirk, Where in the snaw the chapman smoor'd;' namely, a ford over a small burn (which soon after joins the Doon), being two places which Tam o' Shanter is described as having passed on his solitary way. The road then made a sweep towards the river, and, passing a well which trickles down into the Doon, where formerly stood a thorn, on which an individual, called in the poem proached Alloway Kirk upon the west. These circumstances may here appear trivial, but it is surprising with what interest any visitor to the real scene will inquire into, and behold every part of which can be associated, however remotely, with the poem of Tam o' Shanter. The churchyard contains several old monuments, of a very humble description, marking the resting-places of undistinguished persons. Among those persons rest William Burness, father of the poet, over whose grave the son had piously raised a small stone, recording his name and the date of his death, together with the short poetical tribute to his memory, which is copied in the works of the bard. But, for this monument, long ago destroyed and carried away piecemeal, there is now substituted one of somewhat finer proportions; and the churchyard of Alloway has now become fashionable with the dead, as well as the living. Its little area is absolutely crowded with modern monuments, referring to persons, many of whom have been brought from considerable distances, to take their rest in this doubly consecrated ground. Among these is one to the memory of a person named Tyrie, who, visiting the spot some years ago, happened to express a wish that he might be laid in Alloway churchyard, and, as fate would have it, was interred in the spot he had pointed out within a fortnight. Nor is this all; for even the neighbouring gentry are now contending for departments in this fold of the departed, and it is probable that the elegant mausolea of rank and wealth will soon be jostling with the stunted obelisks of humble worth | harp on the willow trees, except in some and noteless poverty."-Chambers's Journal. PAGE 148, NOTE 140.-It is well known that witches, or any other evil spirits, have no power to follow a poor wight any further than the middle of the nearest running stream. And, at the some time, it may not be superfluous to hint to the benighted traveller, that when he is unfortunate enough to fall in with the wierd sisters, or with bogies on his road,-whatever be the danger of going forward, it is far less than that of retreat.-BURNS. lucid intervals, in one of which I composed these lines."-BURNS. PAGE 149, NOTE 145.-The "Prayer," and the "Stanzas," were composed when fainting fits, and other alarming symptoms of a pleurisy, or some other dangerous disorder (which indeed still threatens me) first put nature on the alarm."-Burns. PAGE 149, NOTE 146.-Ruisseau, is the French, as Burn is the Scottish, term for stream. Ruisseaux is the plural of Ruisseau, as Burns is of Burn; and hence the humorous translation of his own name in the Elegy of Robert Burns. PAGE 150, NOTE 147.-The Rev. James Steven, afterwards one of the Scotch clergy in London, and ultimately minister of Kilwinning, in Ayrshire, was the hero of this piece of levity. The tradition in the family of Mr. Gavin Hamilton is, that the poet, in passing to the church at Mauchline, called at Mr. Hamilton's, who, being confined with the gout, could not accompany him, but desired him, as parents do with children, to bring home a note of the text. At the con PAGE 148, NOTE 141.-"In my early years nothing less would serve me than courting the tragic muse. I was, I think, about eighteen or nineteen when I sketched the outlines of a tragedy, forsooth: but the bursting of a cloud of family misfortunes, which had for some time threatened us, prevented my farther progress. In those days I never wrote down any thing; so, except a speech or two, the whole has escaped my memory. These lines, which I most distinctly remember, were the exclamation from a great character-great inclusion of the service, Burns called again, occasional instances of generosity, and daring at times in villanies. He is supposed to meet with a child of misery, and to burst out into this rhapsody." BURNS. PAGE 148, NOTE 142.-"There is scarcely any earthly object gives me more-I do not know if I should call it pleasure-but something which exalts me--something which enraptures me-than to walk on the sheltered side of a wood or plantation, in a cloudy winter's day, and hear the stormy wind howling amongst the trees, and raving over the plain. It is my best season of devotion; my mind is rapt up in a kind of enthusiasm to Him, who in the pompous language of the Hebrew bard, "Walks on the wings of the wind." In one of these seasons, just after a train of misfortunes, I composed Winter, a Dirge.-BURNS. According to BURNS. According to Gilbert Burns, this is one of Burns's earliest pieces, and he has assigned 1784 as its date. PAGE 148, NOTE 143.-A quotation from Young. PAGE 149, NOTE 144.-" There was a period of my life that my spirit was well nigh broken by repeated losses repeated losses and disasters, which threatened, and indeed effected, the utter ruin of my fortune. My body, too, was attacked by that most dreadful distemper, a hypochondria, or confirmed melancholy. In this wretched state, the recollection of which makes me yet shudder, I hung my and, sitting down for a minute at Mr. Hamilton's business table, scribbled these verses, by way of a compliance with the request. From a memorandum by Burns. himself, it would appear that there was a wager with Mr. Hamilton as to his producing a poem in a certain time, and that he gained it by producing The Calf. PAGE 150, NOTE 148.-"At the time when Burns was beginning to exercise his powers as a poet, theological controversy raged amongt the clergy and laity of his native country. The prominent points related to the doctrines of original sin and the Trinity; a scarcely subordinate one referred to the right of patronage. Burns took the moderate and liberal side, and seems to have delighted in doing all he could to torment the zealous party, who were designated as the Auld Lights. The first of his poetic offspring that saw the light, was a burlesque lamentation on a quarrel between two reverend Calvinists, which he circulated anonymously, and which, "with a certain description of the clergy, as well as laity, met with roars of applause." This was the Twa Herds. The heroes of the piece were the Rev. Alexander Moodie, minister of Riccarton, and the Rev. John Russell, minister of a chapel of ease, at Kilmarnock, both of them eminent as leaders of the Auld Light party. In riding home together they got into a warm dispute regarding some point of doctrine, or of discipline, which led to a rupture that appeared nearly incurable. They appear to have afterwards quarrelled about a question of parish boundaries; and when the point was debated in the Presbytery of Irvine, in presence of a great multitude of the people (including Burns), they lost temper entirely, and 'abused each other," says Mr. Lockhart, "with a fiery vehemence of personal invective such as has been long banished from all popular assemblies, wherein the laws of courtesy are enforced by those of a certain unwritten code." Allan Cunningham gives a popular story of this quarrel having ultimately come to blows; but if such had been the case, the poet would certainly have adverted to it:CHAMBERS. PAGE 150, NOTE 149.-Russell is described as a "large, robust, dark-complexioned man, imperturbably grave, fierce of temper, and of a stern expression of countenance." He preached with much vehemence, and at the height of a tremendous voice, which, in certain states of the atmosphere, caught the ear at the distance of more than a mile. He subsequently became minister at Stirling, where he died at an advanced age. PAGE 150, NOTE 150.-Dr. Robert Duncan, minister of Dundonald. Excepting in his limbs, which were short, he bore a strong personal resemblance to Charles to Charles James Fox. PAGE 150, NOTE 151.-Rev. William Peebles, of Newton-upon-Ayr. See notes to Holy Fair, and Kirk's Alarm. PAGE 150, NOTE 152.-Rev. William Auld, minister of Mauchline. PAGE 150, NOTE 153.-Rev. Dr. Dalrymple, one of the ministers of Ayr. He died in 1814, having enjoyed his charge for the uncommon period of sixty-eight years. PAGE 150, NOTE 154.-Rev. William M'Gill, one of the ministers of Ayr, colleague of Dr. Dalrymple. See note to Kirk's Alarm. PAGE 150, NOTE 155.-Minister of St. Quivox, an enlightened man, and elegant preacher. He has been succeeded in the parish by his son. PAGE 150, NOTE 156.-Dr. Andrew Shaw, of Craigie, and Dr. David Shaw of Croylton. Dr. Andrew was a man of excellent abilities, but extremely diffidenta fine speaker and an accomplished scholar. Dr. David, in personal respects, was a respects, was a prodigy. He was ninety-one years of age before he required an assistant. At that period of life he read without the use of glasses, wrote a neat small hand, and had not a furrow in his cheek or a wrinkle on his brow. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1775. He had a fine old clergymanly-kind of wit. In the house of a man of rank, where he spent the night, an alarm took place after midnight, which brought all the members of the family from their dormitories. The doctor encountered a countess in her chemise, which occasioned some mutual confusion. At breakfast next morning, a lady asked him what he thought when he met the countess in the lobby. Oh, my lady," said he, "I was in a trance.” Trance in Scotland signifies a passage or vestibule, as well as a swoon. This amiable man died, April 26, 1810, in the ninetysecond year of his age, and sixty-first of his ministry. PAGE 150, NOTE 157.-There were three brothers of this name, descended from the church historian, and all ministers—one at Eastwood, their ancestor's charge, the second at Stevenston, and the third, Dr. Peter Woodrow, at Tarbolton. Dr. Peter is the person named in the poem. The assistant and successor, mentioned in the verse, was M'Math, elsewhere alluded to. PAGE 151, NOTE 158.-The Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Smith, who figures in the Holy Fair as one of the tent preachers. PAGE 151, NOTE 159.-The hero of this daring exposition of Calvanistic theology, was William Fisher, a farmer in the neighbourhood of Mauchline, and an elder in Mr Auld's session. He had signalised himself in the prosecution of Mr. Hamilton, elsewhere alluded to; and Burns appears to have written these verses in retribution of the rancour he had displayed on that occasion. Fisher was, probably, a poor narrow-witted creature, with just sufficient sense to make a show of sanctity. When removed to another parish, and there acting as an elder, he was found guilty of some peculations in the funds of the poor-to which Burns alludes in the Kirk's Alarm. Ultimately, coming home one night from market in a cart, in a state of intoxication, he fell from the vehicle, and was found lifeless in a ditch next morning. PAGE 151, NOTE 160.-These essays were published in exposition of the doctrines of Dr. Mc Gill, so violently persecuted by the heroes of orthodoxy. PAGE 152, NOTE 161.-Dr. Taylor of Norwich, whose doctrines were advocated by Goudie and McGill. PAGE 152, NOTE 162.-A hearty partisan of the heterodox theological school, remarkable amongst his fellow-farmers of the neighbourhood, as a jolly companion and humorous, though somewhat coarse satirist of the orthodox heroes. He occupied a farm called Adam hill, near Tarbolton. PAGE 152, NOTE 163.—“A certain humorous dream of his was then making some noise in the country-side."-Burns. Mr. Cunningham gives the following account of the dream --" Lord K., it is said, was in the practice of calling all his familiar acquaintances brutes. Well, ye brute, how are ye to-day?' was his usual mode of salutation. Once in company, his lordship, having indulged in this rudeness more than his wont, turned to Rankine and exclaimed, 'Brute, are ye dumb? have ye no queer sly story to tell us?' 'I have nae story,' said Rankine; but last night I had an odd dream.' 'Out with it, by all means,' said the other. 'Aweel, ye see,' said Rankine, 'I dreamed I was dead, and that for keeping other than gude company on earth, I was sent down stairs. When I knocked at the low door, wha should open it but the deil; he was in a rough humour, and said, 'Wha may ye be, and what's your name?' 'My name,' quoth I, 'is John Rankine, and my dwelling-place was Adam-hill.' 'Gae wa' wi' ye,' quoth Satan, 'ye canna be here; ye're ane o' Lord K.'s brutes-hell's fou o' them already.' "" This sharp rebuke, it is said, polished for the future his lordship's speech. PAGE 152, NOTE 164.-Some occurrence is evidently here alluded to. We have heard the following account of it, but cannot vouch for its correctness :-A noted zealot of the opposite party (the name of Holy Willie has been mentioned, but more probably, from the context, the individual must have been a clergyman), calling on Mr. Rankine on business, the latter invited him to take a glass. With much entreaty, the visitor was prevailed on to make a very small modicum of toddy. The stranger remarking that the liquor proved very strong, Mr. Rankine pointed out, as any other landlord would have done, that a little more hot water might improve it. The kettle was accordingly resorted to, but still the liquor appeared over-potent. Again he filled up. Still no dimunition of strength. All this time he was sipping and sipping. By and bye, the liquor began to appear only too weak. To cut short a tale, the reluctant guest ended by tumbling dead-drunk on the floor. The trick played upon him, requires, of course, no explanation.-CHAMBERS. PAGE 152, NOTE 165.-An allusion to some song which had been promised by John Rankine to Burns. PAGE 152, NOTE 166.-This epistle was first published by Lapraik himself amongst his own works. PAGE 153, NOTE 167.-At that time enjoying the appointment of assistant and successor to the Rev. Peter Woodrow, minister of Tarbolton. He was an excellent preacher, and a decided moderate. He enjoyed the friendship of the Montgomeries of Coilsfield, and of Burns; but unhappily fell into low spirits, in consequence of his dependent situation, and became dissipated. After being for some time tutor to a family in the Western Isles, it is said that this unfortunate man ultimately enlisted as a common soldier. PAGE 153, NOTE 168.-Gawn, Gawin, Gavin. Alluding to Gavin Hamilton. PAGE 154, NOTE 169.-All the allusions contained in this poem are of such a nature and refer to such public events as will be readily understood: and there is something exceedingly humorous in the exposition of the views and remarks of the peasantry respecting the great leaders, or great events, which happen to become matters of notoriety. PAGE 154, NOTE 170.-An allusion to the unanticipated return of a considerable majority of Scottish members in support of William Pitt, upon the election incidental to the opening of his administration. PAGE 156, NOTE 171.-An incident which actually occurred, and which was witnessed by Burns, at Mauchline, in December 1785. PAGE 156, NOTE 172.-Lunardi Bonnet. The fashions in those days, as in these, were apt to receive denominations from persons or events which had created general sensation. In our time we have our Kossuth, or Klapka hats and the like. Lunardi had made several balloon ascents during the summer of 1785, in Scotland, and as these excited much interest at the time, Lunardi's name was suivant les regles, appended to various articles of dress, and to bonnets amongst others. PAGE 156, NOTE 173.-In May 1785, Mr. Pitt made a considerable addition to the number of taxed articles, amongst which were female servants, in order to liquidate ten millions of unfunded debt. The poem seems to have been called forth by the receipt of the next annual mandate from Mr. Aiken, of Ayr, surveyor of taxes for the district. PAGE 156, NOTE 174.-The off fore horse, or leader, in the plough. PAGE 156, NOTE 175.-The off draught horse in the plough. |