the parting of Burns and Highland Mary is believed to have taken place. Mr James Arthur, of Montgomerie Castle, on being interviewed, very generously granted the site free of any charge, and plans were thereafter prepared by Mr Hay, architect, Kilmarnock, without fee, and the

contract let by the Executive to Mr A. Calderwood, builder, Kilmarnock, the operations to be begun as soon as possible, after approval of the plans by Mr Arthur.

The accompanying illustration, from a drawing by Mr Hay, conveys a good idea of the Memorial, which will be a prominent object in the landscape. The unveiling ceremony will take place probably early in 1921, on a date to be fixed by the Executive.

AT MARY'S SHRINE.

Come, Mary, with approving smile,
From radiant realms divine;
Light thou this consecrated grove,
Where rests thy second shrine.

We tell of thee with burning words
In love's most hallowed page;
Thy tale of fated love is now

The nation's heritage.

The spell still haunts Montgomery's holms,
And Ayr's song-laden stream;
And there the mystic music floats,
Of love's unending dream.

There, in the sanctitude of love,
When every path was hard,

Love found thee stronger than the fate
That crushed the hopeless Bard.

He marvelled at thee, but he swayed
To thine imperious fire,

And, startled into greatness, seized

And swept his mighty lyre.

Still in these changed, distracted days,
When olden faiths depart,

Thy love, a constant power, prevails,
And stays the troubled heart.

Not to thy dust, now doubly dear,
Our throbbing hearts respond;
But 'tis thy passionate, fadeless vow
That holds the world in bond.

"Tis ours to know November glooms,
And naked woods and plains;
For thee, in fairer, stainless climes,
Eternal summer reigns.

MARIA RIDDELL'S LETTERS TO

DR JAMES CURRIE, 1796-1805.

IN

PART II.

N pursuance of the announcement made in the last issue of the Chronicle in the preface to this most interesting collection placed at our disposal by its owner, Mr Charles R. Cowie, of Glasgow, we now submit a second instalment from November, 1797, to December, 1799.

J. C. E.

No. XII.

Christ Church, Hants, 16th November, 1797.

...

But to be serious. In answer to yours of the 3rd ult., I have no information to afford you relative to such writings of Our Bard's as you have found in Pleyel's selection; his name is prefixed at full length to his own songs there. I can not give you the information you desire as to Johnson's Miscellany [Museum] neither, just at present, because I am not worth a copy of that publication here; but my Sister has it at Bloxworth, and I will send you all I can afford from thence in the course of a week or ten days. The printed poems you, like a perfidious Doctor (of, I believe, a very perfidious science), still have in your custody, so I cannot refer conveniently, as you request me, to any of them. If I can borrow a copy on my return to Dorsetshire I will do so nevertheless. Have you got among Burns's MS. Letters the copy of one he wrote to old Smellie, dated the 22nd January, 1792? Because it has been thought a very good one, the concluding sentiment, that is to say, is perhaps sufficiently striking to give sanction to the rest of the letter, which is certainly less interesting to the public because relative personally to your humble Servant only. It was an introductory letter he gave me when I first went to Edinburgh to that Naturalist, with whom I was anxious to become acquainted. I could procure you the original letter, if you desired it. Perhaps it was false modesty to suppress it when I gave you his other MSS., but I thought it would appear like wishing to introduce myself to you under the auspices of a too partial narrator if I put it into your hands at that time exactly. Of my own letters you need not be

surprised that you have not yet discovered any among the papers, because they were all returned to me at my particular request before I left Scotland. You might see from the tenour of Burns's billets and letters to me that there was no shining correspondence between us ; we lived so near, and were so constantly together, that we seldom had recourse for the communication of our thoughts or sentiments to the medium-the cold imperfect medium-of paper. His language might bestow grace to the most trivial subjects, but I did not think my own worth preserving. I regret that the print should be executed by the hand of any artist except the one Roscoe employed for his Lorenzo. Have you seen any specimen of this volunteer engraver's performance? Now, do not let us mar the The price of the sub

66

volumes with an indifferent frontispiece. scription is considerable, and the print of Burns's head seems an object, I observe, to many of those who are pledged to me as subscribers. You have taken an impression of the seal, too, have you not? It will make a small vignette for the title page. Will you let me know when and where the subscription is open in Edinburgh, and I shall immediately write to Erskine and some of my friends there to patronize it. There are certain Lords of Justiciary there, too, whom I think I have yet some interest with; these will be of use. You need not be anxious for Bankes's name. I shall set that down without even asking his leave. Among the Peers and Commons I hope to do a good deal. Lewis espouses it warmly, and so will her Grace of Gordon. She wrote me a volume a few days ago, perfectly raving about Roscoe; his ' Vine cover'd hills and gay vallies of France" have deified him with her. She wished extremely to see him while he was in town, and I do not know if he told you how wickedly he gave her, and gave me indeed, the slip about that. However, I have pledged myself, as an encouragement to her activity in our cause, that she shall positively have that gratification when he visits the Capital next. You may tell him this if you like it. I find by a letter I had lately from his son that Dr Moore and you have not corresponded on the arrangements in town yet. be set agoing in January, and early in that month. settled how and by whom it is to be conducted there? me know if there will be any thing on certain topics, as politics, and so forth, that might render indelicate my requesting persons of any party or persuasion to subscribe. I think if we got the Prince of Wales's name, for instance-I mean by way of ornament, for he will never pay the money. . . .

It should

Have you

Pray let

Kingston Hall, 20th.

I now attend to you again, my dear Sir... Well! but of Clarinda's correspondence! I declare I know not how to act in it,