July"; and in Virtue's 1838-39 edition (vol. I., page XLIV.), he remarks: "The burial of Burns, on the 25th of July, was an impressive and mournful scene." The Curious Book (Edinburgh, 1826) has an article on "The Last Moments of Burns," by Allan Cunningham, but in that no date or day of the week is mentioned in connection with the funeral.

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So Scott Douglas's statement stands to be rectified by drawing the pen through Cunningham's name, but the words " and others" should be left in, as witness the following list of Volumes which bury Burns on the 26th of July :

Many editions escape figuring in this list because the sketch of Burns's career which they print either makes no mention of his funeral or gives no date for the event.

Mistakes are still being made, and a very glaring one occurs in a modern edition of Letters to Clarinda, a volume without date, but bearing the imprint " Sisleys, Ltd., Makers of Beautiful Books, London." The introduction, signed M. Y. Bankart, has this passage: "It was only on the publication of his first volume of poems, in 1793, that the Poet adopted the present spelling of his surname."

DAVIDSON COOK, F.S.A.,Scot.

ROBERT BURNS AND UPPER

•CLYDESDALE.

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T has been frequently observed that "the Land of Burns," like "the Land of Scott," is of much wider extent than the area which is generally meant when the expression is used. It is not unreasonable to include in the Land of Burns not only the districts in which he resided and the scenery and the inhabitants of which formed the theme of many of his poems and songs, but also places which he visited in the course of his travels— and he was a well-travelled man-and some of which were made famous, or had their fame extended, by the notice I which he took of them. If this definition of the phrase is accepted, "the Land of Burns" will comprehend a very large part of Scotland, and also the English counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, and it must also comprise the upper portion of the valley of the Clyde, where the Burns connection, though not of great extent and at times elusive, is of deep interest, and worth setting forth in full and consecutive form, a task which, so far as I am aware, has not hitherto been attempted.

In

The association of Burns with Upper Clydesdale is chiefly concerned with the visit which he made while travelling from Mossgiel to Edinburgh, in the winter of 1786, to publish the second edition of his poems. dealing with this part of the subject there is clear and reliable material to work upon. It is different when subsequent visits come to be considered; then the investigator is to a considerable extent in the region of doubt and speculation, and little help is obtained from anything which is to be found in the writings of the Poet.

The journey from Mossgiel to Edinburgh occupied two days, and the intervening night was spent in Upper Clydesdale. Through his friend George Reid, tenant of

Balquharrie Farm, Ochiltree, and a son-in-law of John Tennant, Glenconner

Burns was introduced to Archibald Prentice, another farmer, who occupied Covington Mains, on the left bank of the Clyde, about half-way between Biggar and Carstairs. Prentice was a great admirer of Burns-he subscribed for twenty copies of the Edinburgh edition-and he spoke about him in terms of the warmest enthusiasm to his fellow-agriculturists. It is probable that he was the means of making them first acquainted with the poems, and there is no doubt that it was through him that they were introduced to the author of them. Burns travelled to Edinburgh on horseback, and not on foot as stated by Currie, an error corrected by Gilbert Burns. He was mounted on a pony-the immortal" Jenny Geddes," which carried him on his Border and West Highland tours, had not yet been discovered—which was lent to him by Reid, who arranged that he should pass the night at Covington Mains. Burns would travel along the valley of the Ayr and enter Upper Clydesdale at Glenbuck, and then follow the Douglas Water to Hyndford Bridge, where he would join the main road to the south, which would take him to Thankerton, from which Covington Mains is only about a mile distant.

Archibald Prentice knew the social qualities as well as the poetical abilities of Burns, and he was too unselfish a man to reserve to himself and family the pleasure to be derived from meeting one who had already been hailed as the National Poet of Scotland. The way in which he received his distinguished guest was related by his son, Archibald Prentice, who is known to journalists as the founder and editor of the Manchester Times, in a letter addressed to Professor Wilson ("Christopher North") under date, 8th March, 1841:-" All the farmers in the parish had read with delight the Poet's then published works,

and were anxious to see him.

They were all asked to meet him at a late dinner, and the signal of his arrival was to be a white sheet attached to a pitchfork, and put on the top of a corn stack in the barnyard. The parish is a beautiful amphitheatre, with the Clyde winding through it, with Wellbrae Hill to the west, Tinto and the Culter Falls to the south, and the pretty, green, conical hill, Quothquan Law, to the east. My father's stackyard, lying in the centre,

was seen from every house in the parish. At length Burns arrived, mounted on a pownie borrowed of a Mr Dalrymple, near Ayr. Instantly was the white flag hoisted, and as instantly were the farmers seen issuing from their houses, and converging to the point of meeting. A glorious evening, or rather night which borrowed something from the morning, followed, and the conversation of the Poet confirmed and increased the admiration created by his writings." Burns, in a letter addressed from Edinburgh to George Reid, returning the pony-a letter which

shows that the farmer's son had been mistaken as to the ownership of the animal-described the meeting as "a most agreeable little party," and he mentioned "a Mr Lang, a dainty body of a clergyman; a Mr and Mrs Stodart a glorious fellow, with a still more glorious wife."

The present tenant of Covington Mains is Mr Thomas Johnstone, whose wife received me very courteously on a recent visit to the farm. The room in which the Poet was entertained is on the left hand of the front entrance. Mrs Johnstone had no doubt as to the identity of the apartment, but when I asked if she could show me the room in which Burns slept her confidence departed. Perhaps," she said-and the remark may have been made to soothe my disappointment-" Perhaps the party did not get to bed at all."

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That Burns was thoroughly at home in the society. of the farmer of Covington Mains is evident from the following further extract from the letter of young Prentice : My father was exactly the sort of man to draw forth all the higher powers of Burns's mind. He combined physical and moral strength in an extraordinary degree; had a great deal of practical knowledge; had read and thought much; had a high relish for manly poetry; much benevolence; much indignation at oppression, which nobody dared to exercise within his reach; and no mean conversational powers. Such was the person to appreciate Burns-aye, and to reverence the man who penned 'The Cotter's Saturday Night'; and accordingly, though a strictly moral and religious man himself, he always maintained that the virtues of the Poet greatly predominated over his faults. I once heard him exclaim with hot wrath, when somebody was quoting from an Apologist: What! do they apologise for him? One-half of his good, and all his bad, divided amang a score o' them, would make them a' better men!' The opinion which Burns formed of his host was equally high. "No words," he wrote in the letter already quoted, "can do him justice. Sound, sterling sense and plain, warm hospitality are truly his."

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