Scotland will operate, if better motives do not prevail, and excite a liberal patronage in favour of the Caledonian Bard." In its issue dated 28th to 30th July, the London Chronicle, a quarto broadsheet published at intervals, and devoted to gazette notices, trials and circuit proceedings, has more than a page of an appreciation, which must have been written by someone acquainted with the Poet's career. The writer who assigns the Kilmarnock, “a coarse edition," to Dumfries concludes with a parallel between Burns and Fergusson. The Morning Chronicle, in spite of its more direct connection, has only a note on 30th July: "Poor Burns, in the first edition of his Poems, inserted an Epitaph on a Bard which we have always understood he meant for himself. The following verse, which we quote from memory, expresses at once the consciousness of genius, and the sense he entertained of his own frailty'The poor inhabitant below,' etc." On Monday, August 1st, it adds: "We do not wish to reflect on the liberality of the Patrons of Burns, but they surely discovered a want of judgment in the situation which they allotted him. It was exceptionally unfortunate to make the Poet an Exciseman. Poor Burns all his life was but too apt to be led away by the temptation of good spirits. What, then, must have been the case when it became his daily occupation to fathom the cask?"

Very different is the appreciation by Peter Stuart, in The Star of 1st August, along with the account of the funeral, copied from the Edinburgh Advertiser :—

"His manly form and penetrating eye strikingly indicated extraordinary mental vigour.

For originality of wit, rapidity of conception, and fluency of nervous phraseology, he was unrivalled.

Animated by the fire of nature, he uttered sentiments, which, by their pathos, melted the heart to tenderness, or expanded the mind by their sublimity; as a luminary, emerging from behind a cloud, he arose at once into notice ; and his works and name can never die while divine poesy shall agitate the chords of the human heart."

A century and a quarter have passed, and this, the first true appreciation and eulogy of Robert Burns,. by one who knew him in the flesh, and could understand him in the spirit, has never been surpassed. The name of Peter Stuart, one of the earliest, most enterprising, and notable of Scottish journalists, should never be forgotten wherever the Bard is known and loved.

PHILIP SULLEY.

BLACKLOCK AND BURNS.

A BELATED TRIBUTE.

PARTICULAR interest belongs to the last resting

A places of all who were intimately or even casually

associated with the Poet Burns. In varying degrees they are shrines deserving to be visited, because they recall the affection which was borne to the man, the splendour of whose genius and the depth of whose humanity have held the universal heart for more than a century. The graves of all who loved the sweet singer of Scotland while he lived are worthy to be kept green and fragrant with the breath of flowers. And above all others, the tomb of the blind poet, Dr Blacklock, who rescued Robert Burns from exile and probable oblivion, should be preserved from mildew and decay. It is sad to think that this national duty was long forgotten. It is regrettable to reflect that in the forlorn graveyard of Buccleuch Parish Church, Edinburgh, the monumental memorial of the man who saved Burns from being a literary castaway, who was in the truest sense his friend and benefactor, should have been allowed to moulder unheeded, and the modest epitaph upon it to become illegible.

Could Burns have seen the neglected condition of his friend's grave as it appeared in the summer of 1911, who will doubt that he would have hastened to restore it with a greater outflow, perhaps, of that passionate gratitude and poetic fervour which prompted him to do his duty to a dead poet whose memory seemed to be forgotten in the city of his birth? Who can forget the disinterested devotion of Robert Burns to the memory of his poetical forerunner, Robert Fergusson? Yes, had Burns but seen the desolate aspect of Dr Blacklock's tomb in the summer

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of 1911, what would have been his emotion; would he not have felt a rush of sorrowful indignation, and an instant call to reclaim his friend's resting-place from cold • neglect ? We need hardly ask what Burns would have done in such a case.

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At the time alluded to, the grave of Dr Blacklock was overrun with a rank growth of tangled grass. The memorial tablet, described by Sir William Forbes as elegant," was so defaced by time-so worn and wastedthat it crumbled to the touch; the name Blacklock and the letters "D. D.," were all that could be read upon the marble. So wretched was the appearance of the hallowed spot, that when the matter was made fully known to the public much interest was aroused, and keen regret expressed, at the flagrant disregard for the memory of one whose name should be, as Lord Rosebery advised, upon the toast list of every Burns Club throughout the world. Acting upon immediate instructions from the writer, a practical builder prepared a report which showed that the outcry was more than justified. The whole of the monument-save only the freestone stiles-was in an extreme state of dilapidation. Something had to be done, and done quickly and effectively, to remove the stigma.

But, eager as the Club was to act, it was evident that the burial-place could not be interfered with without the consent of the representatives of the Blacklock family. To trace the Doctor's descendants did not prove so easy as might have been expected; and considerable delay was caused in the endeavour. The Purchase Book of Buccleuch Burying Ground was found to contain the following entry :—

"Edinburgh, August 23rd, 1791.

"Mrs Sarah Johnston, widow of the Revd. Doctor Thomas Blacklock. Her property of two graves, measuring sixteen feet in length, running immediately east from the west dyke of the Chapel Yard by four feet in breadth from said dyke. Bounded by Mr Thos. Cranston's pro

perty on the South and by empty ground immediately on the North and East."

Judging from information relative to the Blacklocks given in The Book of Robert Burns, by Dr Rogers, who seems to have been indebted for details to M'Dowall's Memorials of St. Michael's Churchyard, it appears that Mrs Blacklock died at Edinburgh on 6th May, 1809, and that as there was no issue of her marriage with Dr Blacklock, his race was then represented by the descendants. of his only sister, Mary, who married, sometime prior to the year 1745, William M'Murdo, a merchant of the "guid auld toun o' Dumfries," and connected with an old and notable family there. Mr and Mrs M'Murdo had a numerous offspring, most of whom died in infancy. A son, James, became a merchant in Barbadoes. Mrs M'Murdo died on 25th September, 1764; her daughter, Susan M'Murdo, died in June, 1810, a date which coincided with one on the panel placed to the memory of Mrs Blacklock, who was interred beside her worthy spouse.

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A propos of the M'Murdo family, readers of the Poet's letters will remember a communication sent by Burns, in December, 1793, to John M'Murdo, Esq., presumably resident in Dumfries, and a gentleman for whose friendship and literary culture the Poet seems to have had a high regard. The letter intimates repayment of a money obligation, and is accompanied by a packet of Scotch songs, a collection of which Burns was patriotically making at the time. "A very few of them," he writes, are my own. When you are tired of them, please leave them with Mr Clint of the King's Arms. There is not another copy of the collection in the world, and I shall be sorry that any unfortunate negligence should deprive me of what has cost me a good deal of pains." It would be interesting to learn whether this gentleman in whom Burns confided was of the same family as William M'Murdo who married Dr Blacklock's sister. Mr John M'Murdo was for many years Chamberlain at Drumlanrig-a position which was held by his father before him; and an