MRS BURNS AND HER GRANDCHILD.

We have here, from the delicate pencil of Samuel Mackenzie, S. A., what the present writer can testify to be a very faithful likeness of the widow of Burns in latter life, together with a portrait of one of his descendants, the child of his son, Captain James Glencairn Burns, of the East India Company's service. It is a trying situation for a face which has been so much celebrated; yet who would not rather see the lineaments of that face, altered as they are by age, than hear of the muse of so much fine poetry going from earth altogether undepicted?

An obituary notice of Mrs Burns, by Mr M'Diarmid, of Dumfries, informs us that she was born in the year 1765, and was consequently six years younger than her distinguished husband. She was the daughter of a respectable mason in the village of Mauchline, who had other children. She was just twenty when Burns became acquainted with her, a blooming girl of handsome figure, and amiable temper, the best dancer in the district, and as light-hearted "as ony lammie on the lea.". The particulars of her history, about this period, are already well known. Her regular matrimonial life commenced at Ellisland in November, 1788, previous to which period she had twice borne twins to the poet, though all the infants were not then living. Five children, born subsequently, one of them on the day of their father's funeral, completed her family, of which, however, only three individuals reached maturity-Robert, William, and the James Glencairn abovementioned. A public subscription, the profits of the poet's works, and the kindness of several friends, enabled the widow of the poet to rear her family in the house which he had occupied at Dumfries; but her income, we are informed, never exceeded sixty pounds per annum, until the year 1818, when the good fortune and liberality of her children greatly increased it, and enabled her to spend the remainder of her days in comparative affluence. She survived her husband nearly thirty-eight years, and died of paralysis, on the 26th of March, 1834, in the 70th year of her age.

In Dumfries, and wherever she was known, the character of Mrs Burns was much respected. Without natural pretension to any superiority over the ordinary matrons around her, she had the merit of remaining quite unaffected by those circumstances in her situation which were accidental and extraordinary. She was simply a modest, kindnatured woman, nor could those who approached her in the absurd expectation of finding some lofty poetical character, be altogether disappointed when they became acquainted with her genuine worth and good sense. According to the report of Mr M'Diarmid, who had ample opportunities of judging, as he had known her intimately for many years"Hers was one of those well-balanced minds, which cling instinctively to propriety and a medium in all things; and such as knew the deceased, earliest and latest, were unconscious of any change in her demeanour and habits, excepting, perhaps, greater aitention