another an admirable painting of Burns, which is 3 feet 8 inches on the canvas, by 3 feet across, and which was presented to the house above 20 years ago by Provost Ballantine. This completes Mr. Gowdie's task. Not a single anecdote does he tell of Burns; he makes no pretensions to literature; and after an hour's conversation, a person leaves him, doubtful whether he ever read even a line of the poet's works. During the last three years there has been a great increase in the number of visitors. The cottage is the property of the Corporation of Shoemakers in Ayr. They have also about 4 acres of excellent ground adjacent, which is let by public roup along with the house on a 19 years lease. It was first converted into a change-house by a Deacon, Matthew Dick, who had a lease of it for £10 a year. He took another lease of it at £17 a year, but dreading it would not pay he gave up his bargain. It was then taken for two tacks of 19 years each by a Mr. Maitland. Mr. Gowdie being disappointed in a farm he expected to get, gave Mr. Maitland £30 for his bargain, and for the cottage grounds and licences he pays £49 a year. A late visitor observed to Mr. Gowdie, that the Irish Counsellor Curran had stated that he had a strong partiality for the "chief of spirits, whisky." * Weel, weel," replied Mr. Gowdie, "he MILLER GOWDIE. "We got to Ayr; it was the first day of the races. Poor Burns!his cabin could not be passed unvisited or unwept; to its two little thatched rooms, kitchen and sleeping place, a slated sort of parlour is added, and it is now an ale-house. We found the keeper of it tipsy; he pointed to the corner on one side of the fire, and with a most malapropos laugh observed, 'there is the very spot where Robert Burns was born.' The genius and the fate of the man were already heavy on my heart; but the drunken laugh of the landlord gave me such a view of the rock on which he foundered, I could not stand on it, but burst into tears."-Letter of Curran in his life by his son. As confirming Curran's account of Miller Gowdie, we give the following extracts from letters of John Keats, written on his walking tour through the Burns country in 1818 : "We went to Kirk Alloway—'A prophet is no Prophet in his own country.' We went to the cottage and took some whisky. I wrote a sonnet for the mere sake of writing some lines under the roof. They are so bad I cannot transcribe them. The man at the cottage was a great bore with his anecdotes. I hate the rascal. His life consists of fuz, fuzzy, fuzziest. He drinks glasses for the quarter, and twelve for the hour. He is a mahogany-faced old jackass who knew Burns-he ought to have been wisna far wrang there; I ay took a drap, I do't yet, and will do sae as lang's I live, or at least sae lang's I can get it. He cam' here awa at the race time, as it's enow, and I let him see the bed, and then I brought him in here, and showed him Robin there (pointing to the picture), and he stood for a wee, and looked at him, and the tears cam' rinning owre his cheeks. There were mair fouk in the room at the time, and I was cried to taste wi' this ane and that ane, and there's nae doubt I was ree-ways, as I'm enow; but when I showed him a' I cou'd, what was his business wi' that. Sae when he turned frae Robin, I conveyed him to the door, and he gaed aff; but I troo I drank nane the mair o' him. He didna weet his mooth or birl a bawbee in the house. Na, it was ill done in him baith to put me to trouble, and gie me naething and misca' me too; but a' he said has ne'er put a gill by my door; na I whiles think he did me gude, for there have been mae and mae strangers here every day sin' syne." The cottage is near the little village of Alloway, and it is rather singular that there has been only one house erected at it for a number of years. About half a mile beyond the cottage is Alloway Kirk, now in ruins the outside walls and the bell alone remain. On entering the churchyard, the eye of the visitor is attracted by a stone near the gate, which is sadly dilapidated, and he regrets to find that this stone marks the spot in which the bard's father lies interred. It has been broken, and the pieces carried off, by inconsiderate individuals. Surely that man must possess a marvellous power of face who could, in presence of intelligent people, say without colouring, "There's a fragment which I broke from the headstone of Robert Burns, the poet's father." As this species of vandalism has been in a great measure abandoned this summer, it is in contemplation to erect a new stone, so far as circumstances will permit, the counterpart of the one which has been so wantonly destroyed. A little to the left is an elegant little square pillar, with an inscription stating that it was erected by Mr. John Hutcheson, 6 kicked for having spoken to him. He calls himself a curious old bitch,' but he is a flat old dog. I should like to employ Caliph Vathek to kick him. O the flummery of a birthplace! Cant! Cant! Cant! It is enough to give a spirit the guts-ache. Many a true word, they say, is spoken in jest. This may be because his gab hindered my sublimity: the flat dog made write a flat sonnet." merchant, Ayr, to the memory of his father-in-law, "David Watt, the last person baptised in Alloway Kirk, who died the 2nd October, 1823, aged 67 years." To the right is the burying place of "Thomas Blair, late farmer at Slaphouse, who died 4th December, 1820, aged 92 years," and who is believed to be the last man whose marriage was proclaimed in Alloway Kirk. The oldest stone in the churchyard deserves notice. Round the edges it intimates that "Here lyis an honest man, John Neil, on Nethertown, who departed on the 5th day of Apryl, 1623." A few yards further on is the Old Bridge of Doon, in attempting to gain the "key-stane" of which, honest Tam O'Shanter's braw grey mare, Meg, lost her tail, by the witches. Distant a gun shot is "the well, whar Mungo's mither hang'd hersel'," and some other spots of equal celebrity, but the object which deserves particular notice is the splendid new monument erected in this place to the memory of the poet. It is 18 feet inside. The dome is supported by nine massy columns, 15 feet high, and it overlooks a number of the scenes celebrated in the writings of Burns. MEMORIAL TO "THE LASSIE WI' THE LINT-WHITE LOCKS.' AFTER the lapse of seventy years, a memorial stone has been erected under the auspices of the Edinburgh Ninety Burns Club to mark the grave of Burns's "Chloris" in Preston Street burial-ground there. The stone, designed and executed by Messrs. Stewart M'Glashan & Son, is modelled on the lines of the old sculptured crosses of Iona, the characteristic features of which are carefully preserved. The cross is of light grey granite, resting on a die and base of the same material. The upper and lower portions of the cross are decorated with interlacing Celtic patterns, and in a panel on the shaft the Burns crest and coat of arms are carved in relief. The monument bears the following inscription : "This stone marks the grave of JEAN LORIMER, the 'Chloris' and Lassie wi' the Lint-white Locks' of the Poet Burns. Born 1775; died 1831. Erected under the auspices of the On the afternoon of Saturday, 25th May, 1901, the cross was unveiled by the Rev. George Murray, B.A., chaplain of the Ninety Club, in the presence of a large assemblage of members and subscribers. Among those present were Mr. William Lawson, president; Mr. John Irving (a grand-nephew of "Bonnie Jean"), vice-president; Messrs. John A. Clues and D. Lawson Johnstone, joint secretaries; Mr. Adam M. Mackay, treasurer; Mr. Peter Smellie, solicitor; Parish Councillor James Gibson; Major M'Cartney, Queensberry House; Messrs. Thomas Macpherson, Walker, and Davidson Gray, Leith Burns Club; Mr. A. Morgan, Commercial Burns Club; Mr. W. R. Murray, Corstorphine Burns Club; Mr. W. M. Gilbert, Scotsman; Mr. Stewart M'Glashan, sculptor, &c., &c. Apologies were received from representatives of the Edin |