as to the pieces proper for public esteem; and therefore, that he would take upon himself the task of editor. Yours truly, GEORGE THOMSON. In the Life of Allan Cunningham, by the Rev. D. Hogg (1875), Cromek is an important figure in the part of the narrative which treats of The Remains of Nithsdale and Annandale Song, which Cromek, encouraged by the success of his Reliques, published in 1810. How he was deceived by "Honest Allan," who palmed off his own compositions as veritable antiques, is well known, and the deception is made all the more heinous by the unblushing confession of the forger himself. Writing to his brother (8th September, 1810), "Honest Allan" thus unbosoms. himself : "Well, we have at last printed that volume of Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song. . . . The thing which pleases me in it, every article but two little scraps was contributed by me, both poetry and prose; you will see what the Edinburgh Review says about it, for it must be noticed, and highly too... You enquire about Cromek? Why, my dear James, he speaks as generous words as you would wish to hear from the pulpit. Oh! the bravery of the lips and the generosity of words are the current coin with which naked bards are ever paid; and as a specimen of his critical discernment, I wrote a queer song entitled A Song of Fashionable Sin,' beginning My ladie has a golden watch,' &c. Now, I inserted this in a newspaper I was at Mr Cromek's, and a lady was praising it highly. He did not know it was mine, and condemned it as a base thing and of bad Scottish. I never heeded him, but marked it down as a precept that a man may talk about the thing he does not understand, and be reckoned a wise fellow too." To his friend, George, he writes: "You edify me by your opinion on the Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song. The critics are much of the same opinion as yourself. Your conjecture is not very far wrong as to my share of the book. own land? Was it the duty of a son to show the nakedness of his No, my dear friend. I went before and made the path straight. I planted here and there a flower-dropped here and there a honeycomb-plucked away the bitter gourd-cast some jewels in the byepaths and in the fields, so that the traveller might find them, and wonder at the richness of the land that produced them. Nor did I drop them in vain. Pardon the confession, and keep it a secret." Elsewhere, to the same correspondent, he writes: "I was so extremely bashful when I came to London that I really could not utter a known falsehood above three or four times a day. Now I could assert in the face of a congregation that the sun derives his light from the moon. ... Now, you must mind one thing, and I beseech you mind it, that these songs and ballads (the Remains), being written for imposing on the country as the reliques of other years, I was obliged to have recourse to occasional coarseness," &c., &c. But he did not take everybody in ; the "Remains were ever as suspect as Macpherson's Ossian, though Cromek died in the innocent belief that they were genuine. Whatever profit accrued from the Reliques must have been swallowed up by his second venture, for Mr Hogg informs us that he was not in good circumstances in his later years, and died a poor man. No man could have accomplished what he did without the enthusiasm which Thomson credits him with; as for "profit for his own behoof," it was a necessity in his case, for travelling was expensive in those days, and his resources as a working engraver must have been limited. The recovery of the Glenriddel MSS. (not the Gribbel volumes) and the consequent exposure of his editorial misdemeanours by Mr James Dick, of Newcastle, utterly discredited that part of his work. It is charitable to suppose that his motive in taking liberties with the text was to supplement and improve the Clenriddel notes to the songs, and the excuse may be advanced that in doing so he, like Currie, was only following contemporary editorial example. If he made a collection of Burns MSS.-and there is reason to believe that he did --it would be interesting to know if they were dispersed or are still in the hands of his descendants. In an informing article on "Burns and Cromek," which appeared in the Glasgow Herald in January of the present year, the author, Mr Davidson Cook, informs us that Jean (Burns's widow) presented Cromek with the Poet's copy of Milton, in two vols., which bear the Poet's autograph and a note to the effect that they were presented to him by Lord Monboddo. Concerning these volumes, all the information given by Cromek's son is in these general terms: "Comus and Lycidas have a great number of passages marked by the Poet with inverted commas, and one word misprinted has been corrected by him." The representatives of Cromek's son (Mr Thomas Hartley Cromek) presented the volumes to the Library of St. Paul's School, London, where Milton was educated. Books annotated by Burns havé a special value in showing his critical powers and literary tastes. A reflex of his thoughts on the text of Milton would be enlightening, and we trust some Burnsian in the metropolis will take the trouble to examine the volumes and report. EDITOR. JAMES, EARL OF GLENCAIRN. STUDENTS of departments associated with that TUDENTS of Scottish history well know that in ancient realm successive holders of the Glencairn Earldom have essayed an important part. Nevertheless, though prominently and honourably known in a former day, yet, beyond the reminiscent recording page, and consonant with the common lot, their memory is gone. To this rule, however, there exists one outstanding exception along the belted line, and in all probability the name of the fourteenth Earl, and subject of our theme, will endure while the sunbeams continue to glint on Scottish braes. It is not that he excelled in any particular walk of life or public activity, for his pilgrimage was. alas, comparatively brief. The westland nobleman whose times we review owes his immortality to one circumstance alone-he befriended the Poet Burns. Such incidental allusion is, we think, amply sufficient reason for a few biographical particulars affecting one of so much concern to the Burns world-a synonymous term for those who hail the time when a fraternal economy will generally prevail. In order at the same time to associate comprehensiveness with our task, a beginning is made by inviting the reader's attention towards a certain worthy yet unpretentious brother and sister, James and Agnes Gairdner, indwellers in the latter half of the seventeenth century at the town of Ayr. James Gairdner died not very long after marriage. In course of time his daughter Isabella was wedded to a Mr Hugh M'Guire, and among others of her family there was one named Elizabeth. Agnes Cairdner, in 1674, was joined in wedlock with Adam MacRae, and to them was born a son. James MacRae, whose life is intermingled somewhat with fanciful romance. For this particular westland boy neither school nor home possessed any attractions. His heaven on earth was Ayr Harbour, and if it were possible for any From a Family Portrait in possession of R. B. Cunninghame Graham, enjoyment to exceed seeing the ships come in, it was watching them crowd sail and go. To this obsession only * By courtesy of the publishers :-Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh, by D. M'Naught. Alex. Gardner, Paisley: 1912. |