LOGAN WATER.

(From Chambers's History of Peeblesshire).

Beyond Stanhope, in proceeding up the valley, is the ancient property of Polmood, or, as it was commonly called, Powmuid. In the present day it is known as Patervan, that being the name of the farm of which it now consists. In a field, the second north from the steading of Patervan, and within about fifty yards of the Tweed, are seen four lonely trees, which are said to mark the site of a hamlet, now entirely gone, called Lincumdoddie. What kind of a place it was no one can now tell, but its name is likely to be preserved through all time in one of the humorous songs of Burns." Within the property--that is, Mossfennan-Logan Burn pours its tribute to the Tweed, not far from the spot, on the opposite side of the river, where stood the hamlet of Lincumdoddie. We presume it was this sparkling streamlet which afforded Burns an opportunity of saying in regard to Willie Wastle's wife, that

66

Her face wad fyle the Logan Water."

But the "Logan Water" which is sung in the wellknown lyric of Mayne is a river in the parish of KirkpatrickFleming, Dumfriesshire, with which this pretty Peeblesshire burn must not be confounded.

(From Songs of Scotland, by George Farquhar Graham, Vol. III.-Appendix, page 180.)

"LOGAN WATER "--Vol. I., pages 70-71.

In a letter of 9th February, 1849, to the Editor, from Thomas Thorburn, Esq., Ryedale, by Dumfries, the following remarks are obligingly communicated:

"In Peeblesshire, and about midway between the "Crook Inn and the village of Broughton, 'Logan Burn'

46

66

-so called in the old song and in the locality-comes rushing out of a mountain glen, and mingles with the "Tweed. A short way up the glen the ruins of Logan "Kirk may still be seen, surrounded by a clump of tall 6 trees. Bushes are still there, upon which you may gather slaes, and the banks of the Tweed, where the 'Logan joins it, are still called 'Logan Braes.' The "words of the old song are corroborative—thus :—

666

66

66

'At Logan burn, on Logan braes,' &c.

"These facts, I think, are conclusive-but Burns remarks that his native county of Ayr (and, I will add, "Lanark) has no claims to any old song."

(From Songs of Scotland, by George Farquhar Graham. Vol. I.-Appendix, page 164.)

"LOGAN WATER "-pages 70 and 71.

Burns does not appear to have known more than two lines of Mayne's song to this air, and these he incorporated in his own song, which he sent to Mr George Thomson, 25th June, 1793, with the following observations:

666

66

"Have you ever, my dear Sir, felt your bosom ready to burst with indignation on reading of those mighty "villains who divide kingdom against kingdom, desolate "provinces, and lay nations waste, out of the wantonness "of ambition, or often from still more ignoble passions? "In a mood of this kind to-day I recollected the air of Logan Water,' and it occurred to me that its querulous melody probably had its origin from the plaintive "indignation of some swelling, suffering heart, fired at "the tyrannic strides of some public destroyer, and over"whelmed with private distress, the consequence of a "country's ruin. If I have done anything at all like 'justice to my feelings, the following song, composed in "three-quarters of an hour's meditation in my elbow'chair, ought to have some merit."

66

66

A. T. CRAIG, Galashiels.

BURNS'S HOUSE.

MEMORIAL TO THE POET AND BONNIE JEAN.

INAUGURAL CEREMONY.

M

AUCHLINE was the Mecca of Burns enthusiasts in the West of Scotland on the afternoon of Saturday 28th August, 1915. The occasion was the formal inauguration of Burns's House as a public shrine and memorial of the Poet and Jean Armour. It was in this house that Burns and Bonnie Jean started housekeeping after their irregular marriage in 1786 by a Justice of Peace, or his friend Gavin Hamilton. For some time the property, which is of two storeys with thatched roof, situated in the old Back Causeway now known as Castle Street - had been standing empty, and it was falling into a serious state of disrepair. The matter was taken up by the Glasgow and District Association of Burns Clubs and and Kindred Societies, and the building was lately acquired on their behalf, the purchase price having been generously provided by Mr Charles Rennie Cowie, President of the Partick Burns Club, who has also very kindly borne the expense of a restoration scheme and the execution of necessary repairs. The single apartment in which Burns and Jean Armour began their wedded life remains in very much the same state as it is believed to have been at that time, and anything that was considered needful to restore it to its old simplicity has been done, while an adjoining room has been set aside as a Museum, and three other apartments are being used for the accommodation of several aged and infirm people—a feature of the scheme which is thoroughly