We will next proceed to the house which Burns took for Jean in their second dilemma. The reader will see from the plan of Mauchline (specially sketched for this article by my friend, Mr. Charles Heberer, artist, a native of St. Louis, America, who has, for these last few months, been studying Burns for art purposes) in what position the house exactly stands. At present the house has two apartments, kitchen and room. I am informed that the Poet only rented the kitchen. It is in its original form, but nothing else remains of interest. This house Burns rented for Jean in the month of February, 1788, and it was in this house she gave birth to the second twins, on the 3rd of March, previous to the month of August, when, according to the Kirk Session records, she and the Poet were publicly rebuked and possibly re-married (but there is no proof of the fact) according to the ecclesiastical law. This statement may surprise many who hold that these twins were born at Willie's Mill, where Burns had procured an asylum for Jean with his friend, William Muir; but from a poem by Alexander Tait, in a collection of poems and songs printed and sold by the author only, of date 1790, I quote the following lines, which point in the same direction :

"Mackenzie he does her deliver

In Mauchline 'Toun.""

:

Mackenzie was then a doctor in the village, and is identified with the "Common Sense" of the Holy Fair, and the correspondence of the Poet.

Proceeding along the Back Causeway and across Grey's Brig, which spans the River Chalk, which was running in Burns's time, a large house of two storeys is seen on the right, and it was here, I have been informed, that the widow of "Clinkum Bell" (the grandfather of the late Hugh Gibb) lived and died. Right opposite was the residence of Clinkum's successor, Jasper Henderson, who is mentioned by Hew Ainslie. In close proximity is the Knowe, a place associated with James. Humphrey, the "blethering b——." It was here this worthy, who died as late as 1844, contradicted the Burgher preacher in connection with a verse of Scripture he had quoted. An old pump (wooden) used to stand in the centre of this open space, but it has long since disappeared. James Humphrey's burial place is alongside of the Armour's burying place, of which a

photograph is given, showing in the immediate distance, through the railings, the window of the house Burns rented for Jean.

The little stone in the foreground is that from which I copied the inscription bearing on the family of Jean Armour's mother.

James Humphrey's remains lie just alongside the base on the left of the picture.

There are only other two places remaining worthy of remark, viz., the Elbow Tavern and the Bleaching Green. Their relative positions can be seen from the plan, of which I have made previous mention.

Tavern, I have little to say.

With regard to the Elbow

The fact of its existence in

Burns's day was well known in Mauchline, but no report of anything connecting the Poet with it was current here, up to the recent unearthing of Joseph Train's gossiping communication on the subject to Sir Walter Scott. It is sufficient to

say that no serious argument, in my opinion, can be founded on such an unstable and flimsy premise as the one indicated. That such a place existed cannot be denied, and its situation in relation to Castle and Church can be seen from the accompanying photograph.

The tavern stood where the ruined wall is seen in the picture. As for the Bleaching Green, the story that Burns had here his first conversation with his future wife is well known, and needs no rehearsing. It occupied a part of the extent of ground lying between Netherplace House, or Cockleshaw, as it used to be called, and the Castle and Churchyard. It was contiguous to Netherplace, and bounded on the west by the

then main road between Kilmarnock and Dumfries, and on the east by what was, in later days, a rope factory and tanning yard.

I may be allowed to say, by way of conclusion, that I will be glad to answer any Burnsiana query addressed to me in elucidation of this article, or explain, in propria persona, the topography of the Mauchline district to any enthusiastic visitor.

BURNS AND UPPER NITHSDALE.*

Embilt ERY memorable to us was our drive from Sanquhar to Thornhill by the Drumlanrig policies, and back by the Queen's Highway. A friend accompanied us, and the conclusion come to was decided and hearty, that few drives in all broad Scotland could equal this one. On the return journey, the course of the Nith was followed the whole way, and we had glorious views of that silvery stream; at one stage almost hidden by lichen-draped cliffs and rocks, at another its entire breadth fully exposed as it flowed through the fertile valley. The bed of the river, with its rich fringe of natural wood, must be very much as it was in the days of our great National Poet, to whom the whole of this charming district was very familiar; but the farther banks and braes, during his life-time, suffered a great transformation. They were stripped of their noble trees, and to this day we can well fancy the folk of Upper Nithsdale loathing the memory of the man who did it. This was the last Duke of Queensberry, the owner at that time of the Drumlanrig estate; and it is said he committed such an outrageous act of vandalism to spite the next heir, whom he hated. There is another explanation of the matter, however, and it is to the effect that all the available timber here, as at Neidpath in Peeblesshire, he sold in order to enrich the Countess of Yarmouth, whom he considered to be his daughter. Burns, as might be expected, mourned over this wholesale destruction of beautiful sylvan groves, and, taking up his pen, wrote a poem of six verses on the subject. Singular to say, the lines were first found written on the window shutter of a small inn in the district. They are very beautiful, but we shall quote only the last verse, in which, after bewailing the "wofu' chance" that 'tyned ye o' your stately trees," the Poet makes the genius of the stream say-

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* Illustrated from photographs kindly supplied by Mr. T. Ferguson, Kilmarnock; and Mr. J. M. Wilson, Prestwick.