PREFATORY NOTE. I FEEL very confident that this little volume will be welcomed everywhere, as the contents are both interesting and readable. The romantic and solemn parting of the lovers on that memorable Sabbath in May; Mary's return from the Highlands; her sudden death at Greenock; the poet's anguish on receiving the intelligence of her death, and the immortal Lament which he afterwards gave to the world, have always been fascinating incidents in the life of Burns to me. While I have carefully studied the connection of the lovers in all its details, and have eagerly read all that I could find on both sides of the question, I have never had reason to doubt that Mary Campbell was other than the warm hearted, pure, noble-minded girl which the poet described her to be. The reader will here find a few of the best papers and poems, original and otherwise, regarding Highland Mary that have come under my notice. It is, however, quite probable that there are even better papers and poems on the subject (Burns's pieces of course excepted) which I have not seen, and this being the case, gives me the opportunity of saying in the words of worthy old Cotton Mather, "The writer has done as well and as much as he could that whatever was worthy of a mention might have it; and if this collection of matters be not complete, yet he supposes it may be more complete than any one else hath made: and now he hath done, he hath not pulled up the ladder after him : others may go on as they please with a completer composure." JOHN D. Ross. 126 Palmetto Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A. HIGHLAND MARY. THE POET'S IMMORTAL WREATH. HIGHLAND LASSIE. NAE gentle dames, tho' e'er sae fair, Within the glen sae bushy, O, Oh, were yon hills an' valleys mine, |