The following sketch appeared in the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 18th May, 1910

Mrs Alexander Mowat, Ivy Bank, Drumlithie, has lived under six Sovereigns. Mrs Mowat, whose maiden name is Catherine Burness, was born at Midtown, Barras, 1816, the year following the battle of Waterloo. Her Father, James Burness (third cousin of our National Bard), was one of the largest farmers in Kincardineshire. A man of considerable prominence throughout the county as a valuator, his advice was freely asked by rich and poor alike. It had been his custom to pay one guinea to the Crown annually for the honour of wearing a wig and knee-breeches, with brass buttons having the Crown embossed on them. In these days, very few in the land could pay for such honour, and those fortunate persons who were able to do so were invited annually to dine with Lord Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott House, an event "Old Middy," as he was familiarly called, seldom missed.

The subject of our sketch has lived, as stated, under six Sovereignsnamely, George III., George IV., William IV., Queen Victoria, Edward VII., and George V. Of the events still fresh in her memory are the death of George IV. in 1830, the ascension of William IV. to the Throne, and his death in 1837. The Coronation of Queen Victoria looks like an event of yesterday to the old lady, so to speak, and she remembers well Queen Victoria's first visit to Balmoral, and the soldiers, when on their march to Balmoral, being billeted on the inhabitants of the district, who were compelled to keep them, or pay for their maintenance elsewhere. Mrs Mowat also recollects the operations of the press gang, and of her father being called upon to lend his services to Queen and country, but eventually he paid the tax of £60 to the Government to be relieved- "A gey sum in thae days," remarked the old lady. Mrs Mowat remembers well the messenger being sent to Balmoral on horseback to give Queen Victoria the tidings of the fall of Sebastopol. One great catastrophe still fresh in her mind was the wreck of the Oscar and William in Aberdeen Bay, in which a number of lives were lost. The old lady remembers the first policeman being appointed in the county town-a man M'Robb, whose forebears tenanted the farm of Ferniebrae. It was the custom (as at present) for the policeman to go through the county district and get his book signed by the leading farmers. M'Robb, who was attired in a uniform consisting of a blue coat and brass buttons, was a terror to the country, and the people ran to hide until he had passed. Mrs Mowat, who resides with her son, Mr James Mowat, Ivy Bank, has been a widow for over 46 years, and is much cared for by her family. Although 94 years of age, Mrs Mowat is as fresh and as nimble as many who are only half her age, and attends to the duties of her son's household.

ROBERT MURDOCH-LAWRANCE, Aberdeen.

"PRICE OF THE SKIRVING BURNS.-As announced in the Glasgow Herald of yesterday, the Skirving drawing of the National Bard has been acquired for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The price paid for the drawing, which was in the possession of the executors of the late Sir Theodore Martin, was £500."-August 24th, 1910.

JOHN BURNESS ("THRUMMY CAP").

The following paragraph was contributed by the writer to the Aberdeen Weekly Journal "Notes and Queries " column, 27th April, 1910 :—

It is agreed by at least two able editors of County Anthology that the author of the wonderful story of "Thrummy Cap" was born at Bogjorgan, a farm in the parish of Glenbervie, on 23rd May, 1771, but the date of his death is erroneously given by a well-known local author as having taken place in 1824.

Determined to

probe the matter to the bottom, in order to satisfy myself and other gentlemen interested in Burnsiana, I searched the burial records of the Spital Burial ground, Aberdeen, and failed to find the name recorded in the year mentioned, but on 17th January, 1826, I found the entry-" John Burness, 53 years, baker, Stonehaven," which settles the question beyond all further doubt.

My friend, Mr Alan Reid, F.S.A. (Scot.), in his excellent Bards of Angus and Mearns makes, on page 17, the following suggestion, which could easily be carried out :- Might not the Burns Clubs of the counties combine to mark the grave of the poetic kinsman of the most distinguished scion of the Mearns?" John Burness's burial lair, in the old days, the superintendent of the Cemetery informs me, would be 32/24-now converted into a walk. But a suitable memorial could easily be placed adjacent, and reference made on the stone to that effect.

ROBERT MURDOCH-LAWRANCE.

BLACK RUSSEL AND THE MASONS.

Collectors of Barnsiana and Burnsites generally who are keen to amplify their knowledge of the National Poet and of those who live in the shadow of his fame, cannot fail to be interested in the note concerning Black Russel, which appears in the Stirling Sentinel of Tuesday, March 8, 1910. When the ranting Highland “herd” (and what herd like Russel tell'd his tale?) relinquished his oversight of the "brutes" in Kilmarnock he was translated to Stirling.

For many years he was prominent in the affairs of that good old