In less strenuous times, Simon Riddell had married a Miss Riddell of Newhouse (also of Roxburghshire), and to them there was born an only son, Walter, of the same fearless temperament as his father, who was destined to play a considerable part in the later rebellion of the 'Forty-five."

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As heir to his father, Walter inherited the property of Newhouse, in Roxburghshire, and is styled "Walter Riddell, of Newhouse." Following his marriage with Annie Riddell, the heiress of Glenriddell, he acquired, by right of his wife, not only Glenriddell, but the adjacent properties of Carse (Friars') and Lincluden, in the neighbouring Parish of Irongray.

Glance for a moment now at the connection of Walter Riddell with the Jacobite affair of the "Forty-five," and here it may be said that when the rebellion broke out Riddell appears to have been in trade in the neighbouring town of Dumfries, as he is referred to in the historical account of the occupation of that town by Prince Charlie, as one of the merchant councillors.

The retreat from Derby had taken place. At Longtown the rebels crossed the Esk, where they divided into two portions, one proceeding north; the other, the main body, marching upon Dumfries, which was entered without opposition.

The situation may be briefly summed up by the quotation of an extract from a letter from James Fergusson, jun., of Craigdarroch, Commissioner to the Duke of Queensberry (28th December, 1746):-" At Dumfries they behaved very rudely, stript everybody almost of their shoes, obliged the town to grant them £1000 and a considerable quantity of shoes, and carried away Provost Crosbie and Mr Walter Riddell, merchants, as hostages for £1000 more."

Ex-Provost Crosbie of Holm (afterwards known as Goldielea, and later, Woodley Park), with Walter Riddell of Glenriddell, were taken on to Glasgow. The balance of the £2000, however, soon followed, and they were then enabled to return home, not much the worse for their adventure.

To Walter and Annie Riddell, in this Dumfriesshire home of Glenriddell, several children were born, two of these destined to play a part, as we shall more fully see, in the life-story of Burns. Robert, the eldest, afterwards to become the antiquary, was born 3rd October, 1755; while Walter, afterwards of Woodley Park, was born 4th March, 1764. Allusion may also be made to a sister (Elinor or Sophy), who died unmarried in 1797, for doubtless this was the Miss- to whom Burns, after the death of Robert Riddell, wrote the touching letter from Dumfries (May or June, 1794), requesting the return of what is now the first volume of the Glenriddell MSS. This letter is regularly associated with the name of Miss Woodley, but the two sisters of Marie Riddell had been married long before-Frances in 1784, and Harriet in 1788.

Mention must also be made of a third brother, Alexander John, who died at Hampton Court, 24th June, 1804, without issue, and who was styled "Esquire of Glenriddell."

Walter Riddell, the father, survived to a good old age, dying in the year 1788. He was naturally succeeded by Robert, his oldest son, who, preferring Friars' Carse, in which he had resided since his marriage in 1784, disposed of the property of Glenriddell in 1792.

A fragment of this old home of the Riddells may still be seen. Passing from the picturesque little station of Dunscore, on the Dumfries and Moniaive Railway, the high road is left, and the Cairn crossed by the footbridge a mile away. The site will be found close to the farmhouse of Snade, almost encircled by a group of yew trees; and on the northern aspect a double row may be distinguished, indicating the original approach to the house.

Purchased by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in Edinburgh, the property now belongs to the Governors of the Trust for Education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

DR J. MAXWELL WOOD.

SHENSTONE AND BURNS

(No. III.)

IN

Na letter to Mrs Dunlop, of 7th February, 1791, Burns says:

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Any new idea on the business is not to be expected. It is well if we can place an old idea in a new light."

Such an expression of opinion on the limitations of originality and invention is interesting, as it shews how the Poet would have regarded an idea, and what literary use he would make of it, and, as a guide, it ought to be kept in mind when considering the effects of ideas and the use Burns put them to.

The Poet may possibly have been aware that, as a matter of scientific fact, there is not such a thing possible as Invention in the vulgar understanding of the word. All inventions are but a recombination of what has already been, and any attempt to seek to invest Burns with a halo of metaphysical glory is doing the intensely human Burns an injustice, and detracting from the social man, whose fondest and constant wish through life was to see all tears wiped away from all eyes." Burns's life is not like Shakespeare's, "unguessed at." It has been ' weel ryped" open, and after all his imperfections have been exposed he still lives in the hearts' core of humanity.

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At any rate, Burns's admission that he can only place an old idea in a new light, takes the sting out of any charge of pilfering that critics of the Henley order have insistently drawn attention to.

Shenstone, in his first Essay on "Man and Manners," remarks:

"It is with real concern that I observe many persons of true poetical genius endeavouring to quench their native fire, that they may exhibit learning without a single spark of it."

It is not far-fetched to say that Burns must have had this in his mind when he wrote the lines :

This is only one of the many instances where the sense of a passage by Shenstone is transmuted into the pithier expression of Burns, and sometimes with added beauty, as in the case of the somewhat "mean lines from Shenstone's Elegy XII. :

"The star of Venus ushers in the day,

,,

When other stars their friendly beams resign."

This becomes in Burns's poetry :

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'Thou ling'ring star, with less'ning ray
That lov'st to greet the early morn,
Again thou usher'st in the day.”

If the object of true literature is to interpret feeling and convey emotion, the above two passages illustrate degrees of emotion that characterise utterances by Shenstone and Burns.

Another striking similarity may be found when comparing the lines in Shenstone's Elegy I. with Burns, page 1, Elegy X.

"At noon the poor mechanic wanders home,

Collects the square, the level, and the line ".

with the picture of

"The toil-worn cottar from his labour goes,

Collects his spades, his mattocks, and his hoes."

Logie Robertson, in his Furth of Scotland, draws attention to Elegy VII., and particularly to the passage:

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Stranger, amidst this pealing rain,

Benighted, lonesome, whither wouldst thou stray?

Does Wealth or Power thy weary step constrain ?"

Also in Man was made to mourn," the phrase "Manhood's active might" is to be found in Shenstone's Eleventh Elegy.

This Seventh Elegy was commented upon by Isaac D'Israeli :

"This fanciful subject was not chosen capriciously, but sprang from an incident. Once, on his way to Cheltenham, Shenstone missed his road, and wandered till late at night among the Cotswold Hills; on this occasion he appears to have made a moral reflection, which we find in his Essays:

'How melancholy is it to travel late upon any ambitious project on a winter's night, and observe the light of cottages, where all the unambitious people are warm and happy, or at rest in their beds.'"

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This fanciful idea or moral reflection must have been very dear to Burns's heart, and Dugald Stewart's remarks upon Burns add interest to the reflection :

"The variety of his engagements while in Edinburgh, prevented me from seeing him so often as I could have wished. In the course of the spring he called on me once or twice, at my request early in the morning, and walked with me to the Braid Hills, in the neighbourhood of the town, when he charmed me still more by his private conversation than he had ever done in company. He was passionately fond of the beauties of Nature; and I recollect once he told me, when I was admiring a distant prospect in one of our morning walks, that the sight of so many smoking cottages gave a pleasure to his mind, which none could understand who had not witnessed, like himself, the happiness and worth which they contained."

In fact, the whole motif of the Seventh Elegy finds an echo in the execution of the "Cottar's Saturday Night."

Again, this elegy is in the Poet's mind when he writes to Mrs Dunlop on the 15th January, 1787. Burns, then in the zenith of his popularity in Edinburgh, and fearful of the fate that the future had in store for him, introduces a reflection to remarks by a line from this same elegy. The quotation is :—

"And when proud Fortune's ebbing tide recedes,' you will bear me witness that, when my bubble of fame was at the highest,