--it would be interesting to know if they were dispersed or are still in the hands of his descendants. In an informing article on "Burns and Cromek," which appeared in the Glasgow Herald in January of the present year, the author, Mr Davidson Cook, informs us that Jean (Burns's widów) presented Cromek with the Poet's copy of Milton, in two vols., which bear the Poet's autograph and a note to the effect that they were presented to him by Lord Monboddo. Concerning these volumes, all the information given by Cromek's son is in these general terms: "Comus and Lycidas have a great number of passages marked by the Poet with inverted commas, and one word misprinted has been corrected by him.” The representatives of Cromek's son (Mr Thomas Hartley Cromek) presented the volumes to the Library of St. Paul's School, London, where Milton was educated. Books annotated by Burns have a special value in showing his critical powers and literary tastes. A reflex of his thoughts on the text of Milton would be enlightening, and we trust some Burnsian in the metropolis will take the trouble to examine the volumes and report.

EDITOR.

JAMES, EARL OF GLENCAIRN.

S

TUDENTS of Scottish history well know that in various State departments associated with that ancient realm successive holders of the Glencairn Earldom have essayed an important part.

Nevertheless, though prominently and honourably known in a former day, yet, beyond the reminiscent recording page, and consonant with the common lot, their memory is gone. To this rule, however, there exists one outstanding exception along the belted line, and in all probability the name of the fourteenth Earl, and subject of our theme, will endure while the sunbeams continue to glint on Scottish braes. It is not that he excelled in any particular walk of life or public activity, for his pilgrimage was, alas, comparatively brief. The westland nobleman whose times we review owes his immortality to one circumstance alone-he befriended the Poet Burns. Such incidental allusion is, we think, amply sufficient reason for a few biographical particulars affecting one of so much concern to the Burns world-a synonymous term for those who hail the time when a fraternal economy will generally prevail. In order at the same time to associate comprehensiveness with our task, a beginning is made by inviting the reader's attention towards a certain worthy yet unpretentious brother and sister, James and Agnes Gairdner, indwellers in the latter half of the seventeenth century at the town of Ayr.

James Gairdner died not very long after marriage. In course of time his daughter Isabella was wedded to a Mr Hugh M'Guire, and among others of her family there was one named Elizabeth.

Agnes Gairdner, in 1674, was joined in wedlock with Adam MacRae, and to them was born a son, James MacRae, whose life is intermingled somewhat with fanciful

romance. For this particular westland boy neither school nor home possessed any attractions. His heaven on earth was Ayr Harbour, and if it were possible for any

From a Family Portrait in possession of R. B. Cunninghame Graham,

enjoyment to exceed seeing the ships come in, it was watching them crowd sail and go. To this obsession only

* By courtesy of the publishers :-Kilmaurs Parish and Burgh,

by D. M'Naught. Alex. Gardner, Paisley: 1912.

one result could naturally follow, and so, when he attained the age of twelve," young Jamie went to sea." For thirty

long years the tide ebbed and flowed, but no word of the young sailor was heard at the Western seaport. At length, however, rumour began to get busy concerning a certain Captain MacRae of the East India Company's Service, and such was none other than the mariner enthusiast

of long ago. Amid an environment of washing waves and creaking cordage, his stout heart and iron will carried him far in the affairs of the Orient. Step by step, and hand over hand, he rose from toiling before the mast to be Governor of Madras Presidency. Ultimately, when the shadows of life were lengthening, he embarked for the homeland, bearing with him a colossal fortune. On wandering again among the scenes of boyhood he found that the hand of time was upon others as well as himself, and in all truth his was the status of a Rip Van Winkle. Both parents, besides the contemporary relatives of youth, were dead, and the weel ken'd face was gone. Advertising in the Press, he found that the grandchildren of his mother's brother were yet alive, and on one of these, the youthful Elizabeth M'Guire we have mentioned, he conferred the Barony of Ochiltree. This fortunate maiden subsequently became Countess of Glencairn, and mother to the worldwide known benefactor of Scotland's Bard.

In early times, hereditaments in the Scottish southwest effeiring to the house of Glencairn attained considerable bounds. In the days, however, of our fourteenth Earl, these were somewhat curtailed. For long, too, the ancient family seat at Kilmaurs had become a ruin, giving place, as principal residence, to Finlayston House, on the Renfrewshire shore of the Clyde. William, the ninth Earl, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, began a pretentious family mansion near the old Castle in 1662, but it never was completed, and no remains of it now exist save a few sculptured stones built here and there into other buildings. At Finlayston, in 1749, was born the subject of this

narrative, upon whom, on the early death of an elder brother, devolved the title of Lord Kilmaurs.

In following along his way, we would now centre interest in the Burgh of Dalkeith, a few miles to the southeast of Edinburgh. At the period of which we write, Mrs Creech, widow of the incumbent who had recently ministered in the neighbouring Newbattle Parish, took up abode in Dalkeith. In her bereavement she was greatly befriended by the Marchioness of Lothian, whose husband was an elder in Newbattle Church. It is extremely probable, therefore, that, through the influence of the Lothian family, Lord Kilmaurs and his younger brother, along with their tutor, Dr Robertson of Dalkeith Academy, all became members of Mrs Creech's household. Next in order of reference and prominent in consequence, as affecting biographical matters, the celebrated William Creech appears. The Dalkeith widow's only son, he, in the future days, published the Edinburgh Edition of Burns. At this point in our narrative, however, William was the attached playmate and friend of Kilmaurs. Books and bookdom were not yet, and both boys enjoyed that period of life when the sun never rose an hour too soon or brought too long a day." It so happened also, that while the lads were roaming by the banks of Esk, the sweet singer of Scotland, rescuer of both from oblivion to imperishable memory, was yet a juvenile in the Auld Clay Biggin, listening to Betty Davidson's dissertations on Fairies, Brownies, Kelpies," and other trumpery."

Now, with all the many gifts and graces adorning his personal character, it was the misfortune of the youthful nobleman of whom we write to lack the all-important endowment of a robust constitution. When educational days were over and gone he travelled extensively abroad, not so much, it may be, to act in unison with the then prevailing custom among the younger branches of the Scottish nobility as in search of elusive health. To his native shores he stood, as a consequence, very much in the way of being a stranger, and it so happened that at a time