a son of William Menzies, third last laird of Pitfodels-she being Pitfodel's granddaughter, who was one of the leading men, and head of the oldest of the Aberdeenshire Clans. His ancestors were Lord Provosts of Aberdeen from about 1411 to 1635 almost continuously. Through a reference which was made in a paper to The Red and White Book of Menzies by Sir David Menzies, Bart. of Plean Castle, Larbert, a descendant of bonnie Mary Menzies was brought to light. She is Mrs Edith Menzies Young, 13 Wigom Road, Bearwood, Birmingham, who has given the greater part of the foregoing information. She traces the family thus: William Menzies of Pitfodels had two sons, John, and the second Nathaniel Menzies, who married the daughter of the miller of Dye about 1760, who was also one of the beauties in her time. Nathaniel's father was a Roman Catholic, and of course he was brought up the same; but having met Lord Peterborough, a man of many adventures, who married Miss Fraser, the heiress of the Laird of Durris, and after a year's residence at Durris seems to have got tired of the quiet life, and being of a roving disposition, and having charmed a number of the class young men of the shire, he left on a roving expedition, and was joined by Nathaniel Menzies. After many years of adventure Nathaniel came back, having, as they said, "lost his religion,” and fell in love with the miller's daughter of Dye, and became the father of Burns's bonnie Mary Menzies. He had a son, John Menzies, who married Margaret Knowles, and their daughter, Barbara Menzies, married John Gallow, and had a daughter, Isabella, who married Jas. Anderson, and had a daughter, Edith, who married Jas. Young, Perth. So that Mrs Edith Menzies Young is the lineal descendant of Bonnie Mary Menzies. DAVID MENZIES, 9th Baronet, A LINK WITH BURNS. PASSING OF CLYDE TRUST VETERAN. THE Mr HUGH KILLIN. HE passing of Mr Hugh Killin has severed one of the few remaining associations with the period and personages of Robert Burns. His mother was Mary Lees, daughter of Mrs William Lees, who was Jenny Armour, younger sister of Jean, the Poet's wife. Mary Lees was intimate with another Mauchline young lady, Jean Wilson, a niece of "The Gallant Weaver," Robert Wilson, who showed great kindness to Jean Armour in Paisley. "Jean Wilson," writes Mr Thomas Killin, 66 went to Australia over eighty years ago as a lady's help with a family named Ranken, from Sorn. Going to Australia in those days was a great event, and anyone going usually got keepsakes from their friends. Mrs William Lees (Jenny Armour and Mary Lees' mother) said to Jean Wilson, I shall give you something worth prizing,' and she gave her a small lock of Burns's hair which Jean Armour had cut from the Poet's head when he died in Dumfries, her sister Jenny being with her in Dumfries at the death. Jean Wilson took this hair to Australia, got married to an Englishman named Maukett, and died within a couple of years of their marriage after having a little boy. Mr Maukett returned the hair to his wife's friends in Mauchline with a letter saying his wife put more value on this lock of hair than anything else she possessed, and he thought the proper place for it was back among her friends. This was very much prized by them. Mrs M'Ewan, a sister of Jean Wilson, on one occasion was so overcome with the persuasion of an American for three hairs that she gave him them, which he said he would for ever prize. On the death of Mrs M'Ewan, on behalf of the family I got £50 from Mr Dunlop of Doonside for the relic, and it is now in the Burns Cottage Museum at Ayr in the wee pasteboard box in which it was sent back from Australia." The late Mr Hugh Killin lost his parents when very young and was brought up by his grandmother, and he well remembered her speaking of the Poet, whom she knew personally. had seen three of the Poet's sons at the house of Mrs Lees. She was their aunt, and they came occasionally to visit her. He Mr Killin came to the Clyde in 1860, residing in Glasgow, where he was married in 1862. The aged couple celebrated their golden wedding in 1912. He joined the Clyde Trust when he came to Glasgow, and retired a few years ago, after forty-five years' faithful service, for a wellearned rest, on pension granted by the Clyde Trust. He had seen some great alterations and improvements on the Clyde, and had assisted at the making of all the large docks which are now such a boon to our Mercantile Marine, and a great asset to the Clyde and the nation. He rarely went into company, and I do not think the Royal Burgh of Renfrew realised that in their midst they had a relation of the Scottish Poet, who had done so much to learn Scotsmen the world o'er the great birthright of freedom and straight living as depicted by Robert Burns. And so, after those long years of strenuous toil, Mr Hugh Killin was laid quietly to rest in that old-fashioned churchyard of Renfrew Parish, followed to his last resting place by a large gathering of his family and friends, hy whom he was much esteemed and respected. Thus ends a life well spent. Mr Killin is survived by his wife, three sons, three daughters, and twenty grandchildren. AUTHORSHIP OF THE "VERSES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WOODS NEAR DRUMLANRIG.” IN N the Scots Magazine for February, 1803 (vol. LXV., pp. 129-130) there were printed-for the first time, it is believed-twelve four-line Verses Written on a window shutter of a small country Inn, in Dumfriesshire, supposed to be by R. Burns.” The verses are those beginning "As on the banks o' winding Nith and are now better known as "Verses on the Destruction 1 (vol. 4, 1897), who add that “ one could credit Mackenzie with them far more easily than one could credit Burns.' It is a satisfaction to be able now to say that the "Verses on the Destruction of the Woods near Drumlanrig "ascribed to Burns and printed as his, though sometimes with hesitation on the part of his editors, for over a century-were indeed written by Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling. Included in a valuable collection of letters from friends and acquaintances of Burns that has lately been acquired by Mr Charles R. Cowie, J.P., Glasgow, are two from Mackenzie to Dr James Currie, editor of Burns's Works (1800). The earlier of the two was written while Mackenzie and Currie were personally unknown to each other, and is here given verbatim. Thanks are due to Mr Cowie for generously placing the letter at our disposal. TO DOCTOR CURRIE, LIVERPOOL. Office of Taxes, Edinburgh, 22nd October, 1802. SIR, Tho' I have not the honor of your Acquaintance, yet there is a Sort of Relation between literary Men which makes me feel as if I were not unknown to Dr Currie. It is on a literary Subject, tho' a very trifling one, that I trouble him with this Letter. I have just learn'd, by accident, that you lately received from this Country a little Poem, said to be the production of poor Burns (to whose Memory and Compositions, as well as to his family, you have done so much Service), and to have been found by me written on a window of a Country Inn in Dumfriesshire. I think it but justice to you, as well as Burns, to tell you candidly how the fact stands. Having occasion last year to make a Journey thro' Nithsdale, accompany'd by my eldest Daughter, We could not but feel the strongest regret, and some little resentment, at the miserable Devastation which the Banks of that beautiful River had suffered from the Cutting down of the Trees with which they had been cloth'd. My Daughter observ'd to me that if Burns were alive it would afford an excellent Subject for the Feeling and Indignation of his Muse to work upon. Catching the Hint, I wrote, almost impromptu, the little Poem in question, and read it next day at a Gentleman's House where we vizited, from the pencilled copy in my Note-Book, which I pretended to have taken from the Window |