with a descriptive title, which is "The Death of Stella." In the opening stanzas the unhappy poet, who in a previous piece has described how he killed his beloved's brother with his "shrinking sword," reproaches himself for being alive, and mourns his Stella in the words :

"Oh! she is gone for whom the valiant strove !

For whom the Graces pour'd their choicest store!
For whom the Muse her fairest garlands wove!
My friend, my lovely Stella, is no more!"

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That Burns did not write the so-called Elegy on Stella" is demonstrated beyond dispute, and that being so it may have seemed of comparatively little consequence to probe further, but Gallowegians and others wanted to know who "Gallovidianus was. Unfortunately I was not able to enlighten them, as I could find no clue to the identity of the poet, in spite of much seeking in the pages of The Scots Magazine. Ultimately, after following many a blind trail, Mr John A. Fairley, author of the Bibliography of Robert Fergusson, &c., made me aware of the fact that "Gallovidianus" had also contributed to the Dumfries Weekly Magazine, and kindly suggested that Mr G. W. Shirley, the Librarian of Dumfries and Maxwelltown Ewart Public Library, might be able to furnish details. I accordingly wrote to Mr Shirley asking for particulars of these contributions of Gallovidianus," at the same time emphasising the importance of sifting for any possible clue to the identity of Stella's bard.

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As the result of Mr Shirley's researches, he informs me that the name Galovidian us (sic) first appears in the Dumfries Weekly Magazine of April 30th, 1773, attached to a letter to the Editor exposing a piece of plagiarism of which the latter had been made the victim. issue of 19th May, 1773, appears an article on bearing," signed Juvenis Galovidianus," whose habit was given as the "Banks of Cairn.' The third appear

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In the

"Tale

ance is on 14th August, 1773, when an Elegy was printed, beginning" Far from the noisy world apart," and dated

at "

P-t Patrick, 14th August," signed

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Galovidianus

(sic). Evidently these three efforts were not from the pen of the real" Gallovidianus," for the following indignant letter from that poet appeared in the issue of 12th October, 1773

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Gentlemen,-You will inform such of your readers as may think it of any consequence, that the Gentleman who appeared in one of your late magazines under the signature of Gallovidianus' (sic) is not the author who wrote lately under that signature in The Scots Magazine. Intreat that Gentleman that he will have the humanity to spare other people's signatures and that he will date his melancholy endeavours from some other place than P-t Patrick. Beg of him that he will adopt a signature of his own; and assure him that if he does this nobody will probably interfere with it.

M."

An editorial footnote ran :

"We are assured that the real Gallovidianus' will favour us with some of his performances soon."

Sure enough, on 26th October, 1773, appears a poem "On the Death of George Marshall, late Vintner in Dumfries," signed "Gallovidianus."

Mr Shirley writes :

Considering the sarcastic letter above, I came to the conclusion that the real Gallovidianus' had felt himself insulted by the Elegy, and lived in Portpatrick, and that his name began with 'M.' Chancing to be working with Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, I turned up Portpatrick and found a note on John Mackenzie, and a book entitled Ocean, Stella, and other Poems, 1816. Shortly afterwards I asked Mr A. E. Hornel, the artist, who bought the collection my note was taken from, if he had the book, and if the author was Gallovidianus.' He said, curiously enough, he had handled it that same morning, and the author was the Gallovidianus' of The Scots Magazine."

It will thus be seen that, though hinging on my investigations, the credit of establishing the identity of "Gallovidianus " belongs to Mr Shirley. His communication sent me to Scott's Fasti, where I found that John Mackenzie, son of Niven Mackenzie, Clayholes, Stranraer, had studied theology under Dr Traill, in the

University of Glasgow.

It is stated that while residing

at Logan he was licensed by the Presbytery 4th September,

OCEAN, Galg Ja

Stella,

AND

OTHER POEMS.

BY JOHN MACKENZIE, D.D.
MINISTER OF PORTPATRICK,

AND ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S CHAPLAINS IN ORDINARY
IN SCOTLAND.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by Juda Muir, Royal Beak Close,

FOR MACHEDIE, SKELLY, AND MUCKERSY,

PRINCES STREET.

1815.

(Photo by Donald Macbeth, London.)

FACSIMILE TITLE PAGE OF JOHN MACKENZIE'S POEMS.
(From the copy in the British Museum.)

1771 (his blank year in The Scots Magazine), and ordained Minister of Portpatrick on 18th March, 1773. He died the father of the Synod, on 21st December, 1836, in the

ninety-third year of his age, and the sixty-fourth of his ministry. He published a volume of Sermons in 1800, to which I turned in the hope of finding a portrait of "Gallovidianus," but unfortunately the book has no such embellishment.

Scott's Fasti is a year wrong with the date of Ocean, Stella, and other Poems, as will be seen by the title page which we reproduce in facsimile. This vital volume of

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158 pages (British Museum copy, 994, e. 26), though it does not once mention The Scots Magazine, nor hint at the name of Gallovidianus," affords ample evidence that he and its author, the Rev. John Mackenzie, are one and the same. In addition to the Dumfries Weekly Magazine poem (page 101), it contains no fewer than eight of the fifteen poems published by and signed “Gallovidianus" in The Scots Magazine.

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The minister-poet of Portpatrick does not include in "Stella," as published in four parts in his volume of Poems, the to us all-important- Elegy on Stella" which won the appreciation of Burns. I was not surprised at the omission, for it must be obvious to all who read the poem analytically that the title favoured in most editions of Burns is a misnomer. Though not included in "Stella," Mackenzie's volume of verse does contain (page 93), under the title" Incognita," the very poem transcribed by, and ascribed to, Burns-the identical twenty stanzas published in The Scots Magazine of March, 1769, and composed by "Gallovidianus" (a young poet of twenty-five) in the little Wigtownshire coast village of Port-Logan :

"At the last limits of our isle,

Washed by the western wave,

Touched by thy fate a thoughtful bard
Sits lonely on thy grave.

Pensive he eyes, before him spread,
The deep, outstretched and vast;
His mourning notes are borne away
Along the rapid blast."

The 1815 volume has a few trifling variations, but nothing worth noting till we come to the last verse, which is recast thus :

There remains the question as to the personality of Stella, and the reality or otherwise of the Poet's lovetragedy the killing of her brother, and the death of

Stella. Fortunately all speculation on these matters is ended by Doctor Mackenzie's preface (page 7), in which he remarks:

"In Stella, though he speaks in the first person, he hopes it is unnecessary to say that the author is not the hero. It was composed at an early period, when the passions are in their strength. The only competent question is, whether he has given a true delineation of the passion he describes, and of the sentiments and feelings which arise out of the situation. For this, and this only, he considers himself responsible."

So the Stella of "Gallovidianus," as explained by Mackenzie, was a poetic creation, and the poet's pen was