tributing four and Dublin three. Of various other Irish editions particulars will be found by the curious in previous Chronicles, where also will be obtained (in Mr M'Naught's masterly articles on the Merry Muses) details of Ireland's connection with editions of that notorious work.

Celebrated Irishmen and Irishwomen have written in whole-hearted terms of their veneration for Scotia's Bard. A few illustrations will suffice. Moore said that

"Scots wha hae' would, in a great national crisis, be of more avail than all the eloquence of Demosthenes."

And again he wrote:

"The rare art of... wedding verse in congenial union with melody... has ... by him... been exercised with so workmanly a hand, as well as so rich a variety of passion, playfulness, and power, as no song-writer has ever yet displayed."

Mrs S. C. Hall says:

"How little did the exhausted mother, when she thanked God that a man was born into the world, imagine what a strong, yet tender heart beat within the shelter of that little bosom, or what fearful throes and lofty imaginings were cradled in the head that nestled in her bosom."

Mrs Jameson says:

They (the lines of 'Ae fond kiss') are the Alpha and Omega of feeling, and contain the essence of an existence of pain and pleasure distilled into one burning drop."

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Sarah Parker Douglas writes :

Ah, who would say the minstrel failed his mission to fulfil ;
Sought rest inglorious on his lees, or let his harp lie still?

He laid him with the early dead, for brief his span of life,

Yet stored the world with deathless song, whilst battling with its strife."

Among the Centenary tributes may be quoted the following. Sir Samuel Ferguson said at Dublin :

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Ulysses did not conceive that skill in manual labour detracted in aught from his position as a prince and chieftain; nor, in the case

of Burns, has it aught detracted from his pre-eminence as a leader among the intellects of his country."

Professor G. L. Craik, speaking at Belfast, said:

"The Scotchmen, on the whole, of most world-wide renown are -George Buchanan, John Napier, Robert Burns, and Walter Scott, and of the four Burns is perhaps the most famous. He is at least the most thoroughly and intensely Scotch. He has done the most for Scotland-most for her language, most for her people.”

J. JEFFREY HUNTER.

DR JOHN MACKENZIE.

TH

HE close friendship between Burns and Dr John Mackenzie, whose practice in Mauchline included the surrounding district, seems to have begun at the date of the illness which ended in the death of Burns's father at Lochlea, and it continued without interruption till the death of the Poet. Though he is not so much in evidence in the life story of the Bard as some other of his Mauchline associates, his friendly hand can be detected at almost every stage of the early struggle when he was poor and nameless. Dr Mackenzie was among the first admirers of his genius, and he had the highest opinion of the whole of the Burns family. He introduced the Poet to Professor Dugald Stewart, Sir John Whitefoord of Ballochmyle, Hon, Henry Erskine, and he also brought the Kilmarnock volume under the notice of Dr Blair. Indeed, as a true and active friend of Burns he takes his place alongside Gavin Hamilton, whose efforts to advance the Poet's interests found in him an effective, unostentatious seconder. He stood by Burns through good report and evil report ; and Jean Armour had good reason to bless his kindly heart in her hour of need. The late Dr Wm. Findlay, in his Burns and the Medical Profession, has said almost all that can be said on the worthy doctor's long, exemplary, and uneventful life. He left Mauchline about 1801, and removed to Irvine for the reason in the letter given below. We extract the following from Dr Findlay's work:

"On leaving Mauchline, with which he was doubly associated inasmuch as he was married to one of its six proper young belles -Helen, daughter of John Miller of Millockshill-he commenced practice in Irvine.* After a long and honourable career in that ancient and royal burgh, in the course of which he not only attained the highest honours of the magistracy, but, towards its close in 1824, received from his Alma Mater the degree of M.D., he retired in 1827 to Edinburgh, where he died 4th (not 11th) January, 1837, at an advanced age. The well-known literary and antiquarian * See letter infra.

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collector, the late John Whitefoord Mackenzie, W.S., Edinburgh, was his son.

As a convincing proof that the doctor's interest in Burns had not cooled after he left the atmosphere of Mauchline and its neighbourhood, it is recorded of him that, on the founding of the Irvine

a

Burns Club in 1827, the year of his retiral, he presided at the opening dinner on 25th January, with the well-known David Sillar, brither poet,' as vice-chairman."

The following letter speaks for itself:

THOMAS YULE, Esq., to Mr J. JEFFREY HUNTER.

16th February, 1916.

DEAR SIR, I am favoured with your letter of yesterday inform

ing me that your committee have accepted Dr John Mackenzie's Portrait as a gift from me, and conveying the thanks of the Association for the donation. I can assure you and the Association that it is with the greatest of pleasure that I have handed over the portrait, as I feel that it is now in safe keeping and will be carefully preserved.

It may be of interest to the Association to know the history. of this portrait. The original portrait by James Tannock was for. many years in the possession of Mr John Whitefoord Mackenzie, W.S., Edinburgh (the only son of the doctor), until his death in November, 1884. It was, upon the division of his effects, delivered to his two surviving daughters, Misses Helen Miller Mackenzie and Elizabeth Mackenzie. Before it was handed over to them, a copy was made for Mr John Mackenzie, W.S., Edinburgh, the only son of Mr Whitefoord Mackenzie, and it hung in his dining room at 16 Royal Circus, Edinburgh, till his death in April, 1911. This copy

is the portrait gifted by me. It was made in 1885 by Mr James Douglas, a well-known Edinburgh artist of his day, and it was considered in every way an excellent copy, fully as good and artistic as the original. On the death of Mr John Mackenzie, who was my partner in business, I took over the portrait rather than allow it to be put up to auction. Mr Mackenzie left no relatives who had any interest in it. It has remained in my possession since. The original portrait continued to be the property of the Misses Mackenzie, and latterly of the survivor, who died in 1911. Her executors sent it for sale, by auction, to Dowell, Edinburgh, and it was sold shortly afterwards, being catalogued as "Portrait of a Gentleman." I saw it by the merest chance in a saleroom. I preferred my copy

to it.

The sketch which is prefixed to Dr William Findlay's work on Robert Burns and the Medical Profession purports to be after the oil painting in the possession of the Misses Mackenzie. This statement is scarcely accurate, as I know that the sketch was made

from a photograph of this copy. The Misses Mackenzie, I was informed by Mr John Mackenzie, were applied to for permission to have the sketch made from the original, but they did not see their way to comply with the request.

The account of Dr John Mackenzie's life given in Dr Findlay's work is somewhat brief, but I fear very little further information can now be obtained regarding him. There is one mistake made, I notice. He is said to have died on 11th January, 1837, but he died at 4 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, on 4th January, 1837, and was buried within the new Calton Burying-ground, Edinburgh, on 9th thereafter. There is one additional fact which I have ascertained regarding him which may be of interest to your Association and to Mauchline. It is the reason for his leaving Mauchline