heart, Jean Armour; William and his sweetheart, Nelly Miller; and 'anither lad or twa and their sweethearts. Robin himsel' was in unco glee. He kneelit ontil a chair in the middle o' the room, wi' his elbows on the back o't, and read owre "The Holy Fair" frae a paper i' his han'—and sic laughin'! we could hardly steer for laughin'; an' I never saw himsel' in sic glee.' It must be observed, however, that both the quantity and the quality of refreshment' on this, as on other similar occasions, were very moderate indeed'three ha'penny yill, twa or three bottles for the company' being the average reckoning, with a glass or two of whisky at most. Miss Brown, Mauchline, states that her father well remembered Robert Burns, and has seen him frequently at Nanse Tannock's after his marriage, carrying his eldest son aloft on his hand, balancing and tossing the child in paternal pride towards the kitchen ceiling. Very beautiful indeed is this homely picture; and Jean herself undoubtedly would be there." The house in which Burns resided is nearly opposite that of Nanse Tannock. It is a substantial two-storied thatched building containing several apartments. The one up stairs on the left is that in which the Poet and his darling Jean spent their honeymoon- a fact which induces many visitors to call and stare with a kind of reverence at the walls of the room and at the set-in-bed in which the happy pair slept; indeed some strangers-but more especially Americanare so enthusiastic that they beg pieces of the wood, and several, I was informed, were so foolish as to get into it altogether. Holding along a path which skirts the churchyard wall, and winds round the back of what was the residence of Gavin Hamilton, the early friend and patron of the poet, I crossed a rude bridge which spans a trickling narrow stream at the base of the hoary remnant of the priory already mentioned, and after some little difficulty entered a shady lane. This brought me to the gate of the neatly laid out grounds which front the now celebrated and almost classic abode which is quaint and old-fashioned in appearance and highly picturesque from its situation. Gavin Hamilton was a legal practitioner of high respectability, and is described as having been a “man of spirit and Gilbert intelligence-generous, affable, and enlightened." Burns says "The farm of Mossgiel, at the time of our coming to it, was the property of the Earl of Loudoun, but was held in tack by Mr. Gavin Hamilton, writer in Mauchline, from whom we had our bargain; who had thus an opportunity of knowing and showing a sincere regard for my brother before he knew that he was a poet. The Poet's estimation of him, and the strong outlines of his character, may be collected from the dedication to this gentleman. When the publication was begun, Mr. H. entered very warmly into its interests and promoted the subscription very extensively." It is almost unnecessary to add that he and Burns were on the most intimate terms, and that he had the poet's warmest sympathy when subjected to the petty annoyances of the kirksession for digging a few potatoes in his garden on a Sabbath morning. In his office-which is still shown Burns was married to Jean Armour, not in a ceremonial way, but according to the law of the land and as surely as if the contract had received the sanction of a benchful of bishops. It appears from the session record that the ceremony was performed on the 3rd August, 1788, and also that the poet generously gave a guinea to the poor of the parish on being told that it was customary for the bridegroom to pay a small fine when an irregular marriage was contracted. This room is also memorable as that in which "The Calf" was committed to paper. Burns called on his friend one day when going to church, and finding him suffering from gout, jocularly promised to return and give him the text. He did so, and the humorous satire was the result. Upon leaving what is commonly termed "Gavin Hamilton's house," I found my way to the gate of the churchyard, which is close by, and luckily found it open. The church is a handsome edifice in the Gothic style, with a turreted square tower ninety feet in height. It occupies the site of the old barn-looking building in which "Daddy Auld" held forth. Hew Ainslie describes it in his Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns as having been as ugly an old lump of consecrated stone as ever cumbered the earth. "It seems," he says, ("if one might judge by the arched lintels that attempted to peep through the rough plaster), to have been set up by Gothic hands; and if so, Presbyterianism has really been tolerably successful in beating it into its favourite model-a barn. The interior is, if possible, more dismal. Cold, damp, dark, and dirty, looking dissolution, and smelling decay, and a fitter place one could hardly imagine for crying tidings of damnation' in. Besides the ground floor it contains two wonderful looking things called lofts. One stretches from the east gable down into the body of the kirk; the other sticks out from the wall opposite the pulpit, supported by two wooden pegs, which gives it quite the dangerous look of that cunning engine, the mouse trap. Beneath this queer canopy, Jasper pointed out the 'cutty stool' where Burns sat when 'Mess John, beyond expression, fell foul o' him;' But,' said the bellman, tho' that's the bit whar he sat, it's no the seat. It's been made into a twa-armed chair, for behoof o' a society here wha haud his birthday.' It is stated in Spottiswood's Church History that George Wishart, the celebrated martyr of the Scottish Reformation, was invited to preach in Mauchline Church in 1554. "On his arriving at the place it was found that the Sheriff of Ayr, an enemy to the new faith, had placed a guard of soldiers in the church to keep him out. Some of the country people offered to force an entrance for him, but he would not suffer them, saying: 'It is the word of peace I preach unto you; the blood of no man shall be shed for it this day; Christ is as mighty in the fields as in the church; and he himself, when in the flesh, preached oftener in the desert and upon the sea shore than in the temple of Jerusalem.' Then walking along to the edge of the moor, on the south side of Mauchline, he preached for three hours and upwards to the multitude that flocked about him." At one time "tent preachings " and common fairs were held in the churchyard of Mauchline, but it has undergone an alteration for the better, and is now enclosed by a high wall, and compares favourably with the best kept village burying-grounds in the shire. After inspecting the church, I began to stray among the grass-covered graves, and conjure up the scene so graphically described by the poet-a by no means difficult task when one is acquainted with the incidents of The Holy Fair and remaining landmarks. The back of Gavin Hamilton's house forms part of the boundary. A little further along, the upper portion of Nanse Tannock's house, and two or three old rickets, serve the same purpose; but the first has the accommodation of a back door which, in the good dame's time, opened into the churchyard, and through which droves of drouthy saints poured, "To gie the jars and barrels In front, the Cowgate retains a streak or two of its original appearance, for the house which Poosie Nansie occupied is but little changed, and that in which Jean Armour's father lived has undergone no very great alteration. The same, however, cannot be said of "the holy spot," for it is thickly studded with modern tombstones, and very few specimens of ancient sculpture are to be met with. Despite this it is interesting to ramble among the hillocks and scan the memorials of individuals who were associates of the bard or themes of his muse. Entering a gravelled walk that winds round the church, I turned to the left, and at a short distance from the tower paused before a plain upright stone which bears the following inscription :--" IN MEMORY OF A. D. J. JOHN MORRISON, OF THE 104TH REGIMENT, WHO DIED AT MAUCHLINE, 16TH APRIL, 1804, IN THE 80TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. ALSO, HIS DAUGHTER, MARY, THE POET'S BONNIE MARY MORRISON, WHO DIED 29TH JUNE, 1791, AGED 20; AND HIS SECOND SPOUSE, ANN THOMLIESON, WHO DIED SEPTEMBER, 1831, AGED 76." So this is the resting place of the amiable girl who made such an impression on the youthful poet's heart when attending the dancing school at Tarbolton, thought I, and yet she is pronounced unknown. The song in Mary's honour was a juvenile production, but notwithstanding it is considered to be the most pathetic of the poet's love effusions. "Oh Mary, at thy window be, It is the wished, the trysted hour! A little to the south of the church "Holy Willie's weel-worn clay" has "ta'en up its last abode." Nothing marks the spot, but the best and most enduring memorial of this individual is his well-known prayer; it will survive the wreck of many things, and keep his memory green when obliteration has wiped the inscription off every stone in the yard. The holy man was no better than the poet said he was : that he was an arrant hypocrite the events of his life testify. After being convicted of pilfering money from the church offerings, his morals did not improve, and he ultimately ended his days in a roadside ditch, having been jolted out of a cart which was conveying him and other inebriates home from a country fair. The carter-who appears not to have been altogether compos mentis himself— never missed Willie, or knew of the accident, until the dead body of the unfortunate man was discovered next morning. So ended the life of a practical dissembler; but, unfortunately, specimens of his class are not rare, for individuals are still to be found who 66 display to congregations wide, Devotion's every grace, except the heart." A short distance from Willie's narrow bed the remains of Nanse Tannock and Racer Jess are stowed away under the sward. The first died in comfortable circumstanees, and, like a judicious browster wife, maintained to the last that Burns never drank twa half-mutchkins in her house in a' his life, and that what he stated in his poems was just a wheen "leein' blethers." Perhaps she was right after all, for it is evidentat least to the writer-that he exercised the poetic license in the matter of dram-drinking. Jess, poor lass, closed her mortal race somewhat suddenly on the 15th February, 1813. She was the daughter of Poosie Nansie, a dame of whom something will be presently said, and was remarkable for her pedestrian powers and the running of errands: hence her cognomen. In an out-of-the-way corner of the churchyard, which appears to be a repository for rubbish, I stumbled across a massive stone tablet. Having my attention attracted by the name Auld, I set to work and cleared the moss and dirt from the inscription, and made out the following:-"THE REVEREND MR. WILLIAM AULD, MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT MAUCHLINE, DIED 12TH DECEMBER, 1791, IN THE 50TH YEAR OF HIS MINISTRY, AND THE 81ST OF HIS AGE." Little need |