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THE

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

LIBRARIES

CHICAGO, ILL

English Fiends

PR4329
B87

Sell V.27

PREFACE.

ANOTHER year has passed, and still the horrors of Hun warfare afflict the civilised world. The Revolution in Russia has clouded the promising portents of the immediate past, and a further call has been made upon the patience and grim determination of Britain and her Allies to keep the flag of liberty flying till the United States of America launch their forces against the common foe to secure that lasting victory, which, though postponed, is as certain as ever.

We are glad to observe that the units of the Federation still keep moving in face of the consequent difficulties, and this has greatly heartened us in the preparation of the present issue of the Chronicle, which, we trust, will be found both interesting and instructive.

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WHE

HEN arranging our notes for the above-named article, which appeared in last year's Chronicle, we overlooked an important one-inadvertently mislaidbearing on the last letter Burns received from Mrs Dunlop, which contained a reference to a letter, or copy of a letter, preserved in the University Library, Edinburgh, which put beyond doubt that the Poet did receive a communication from Mrs Dunlop a day or two before he died. We have since verified the said reference, and hasten to correct the impression left by our last year's article by laying a copy of said letter before our readers.

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MADAM,-At the desire of Mrs Burns I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, and at same time to inform you of the melancholy and much-regretted event of Mr Burns's death. He expired on the morning of the 21st., after a long and severe illness. Your kind letter gave him great ease and satisfaction, and was the last thing he was capable of perusing or understanding. The situation of his unfortunate widow and family of most promising boys, Mrs Dunlop's feelings and affection for them will much easier paint than I can possibly express, more particularly when Mrs Dunlop is informed that Mrs Burns's situation is such that she is expected to ly-in dayly. certain that a letter from Mrs Dunlop to Mrs Burns would be a very great consolation, and her kind advice most thankfully received. I am, with the greatest respect, your most obedient and very humble servant.

I am

Dumfries, 22nd July, 1796.”

JNO. LEWARS.

The letter is addressed, as its contents indicate, to Mrs Dunlop; that to which it is evidently a reply has unfortunately disappeared. John Lewars, the Poet's fellow-officer, and brother of Jessie Lewars, assisted the

widow in her distress by writing the necessary letters to her friends, including Captain Crosbie, James Burness, and Wm. Nicol.* It is satisfactory to be assured that the Dunlop correspondence continued to the very last, and that Dr Currie's statement regarding the last letter addressed to Burns by her is absolutely correct. Burns died on 21st July, and the funeral took place on the 25th -not 26th according to Currie, Lockhart, Cunningham, and others.

We were then unable to state definitely where Mrs Dunlop's remains were interred, but the following, forwarded to us by an esteemed correspondent, may be taken as settling the question:

"The Air Advertiser and Scots Magazine of 1815 both state that Mrs Dunlop, of Dunlop, died at Dunlop House on 24th May, 1815.” The place of interment is not given, but it is not at all likely that her remains would find resting-place elsewhere than in the local family buryingplace. When we visited the vault last year, we found only one large casquet and three small coffins within the walls. On enquiry we learned that, at a recent renovation of the building, the vault was cleared out and the more decayed remains removed elsewhere. The plate on the casquet bears that it contains the remains of her fifth son, Lieutenant-General Dunlop, who died in 1832, and who fought in the Peninsular War under Sir John Moore.

EDITOR.

*Nicol's reply is preserved in this collection.

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