"Clarinda" (Mrs. M'Lehose, of Edinburgh); two Bibles presented by Burns to Mary Campbell, that Highland Mary whom he loved with such singular and unalterable devotion, and which had been recovered in America; the romantic document drawn up by Burns himself, and on which he and Mary Campbell record their eternal fidelity to each other, this document bearing their signatures, and also some hieroglyphics which I took to be Masonic, and do not understand. I need scarcely say with what inexpressible interest I gazed on these saddening memorials of beings for ever endeared to all the true-hearted of our race. In a little cottage, in the grounds surrounding the monument, and which grounds by-the-by are very neatly and trimly kept, I found the statues, by Thom, of Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnny-the first the rollicking, deep-drinking Douglas Graham, a farmer of Carrick Shore, the other his " trusty, drouthy crony," John Davidson, a shoemaker in Ayr. These statues had been widely exhibited both in Scotland and England, and had proved serviceable in raising a goodly portion of the £2,000 expended in the erection of the monument. Even yet they occasionally prove so magical, I have been told, that well-bred ladies have been found, and this more than once, to have surmounted the obstacle of getting over an iron railing in front of the statues—this railing three and a half or four feet high-and have been actually detected in the act of embracing and kissing these icy, soulless representatives of two of the great Bard's immortal heroes. WAT YE WHA'S IN YON TOWN? It is well known that this fine song was originally written as a tribute of the poet's admiration for the beautiful Lucy Johnston, wife of Richard A. Oswald, of Auchencruive, at the time residing in Dumfries, and that when Burns sent it for insertion in Johnson's Museum, he had altered the name of "Lucy" to Jean " and "Jeanie probably meant for Jean Lorimer, the poet's "Chloris " and "Lassie wi' the lint-white locks." 66 In May, 1795, Burns enclosed the song in a letter to John Syme, asking him whether he thought he might venture to present it to Mrs. Oswald. This also is well known to readers of Burns's correspondence; but no mention, so far as I have been able to ascertain, has been made by any editor of his works of the interesting fact that the song was first printed in the Glasgow Magazine for September 1895-a copy of the first volume of which has been recently acquired for the Glasgow Mitchell Library; strange to say, it is not in the British Museum or the Advocates' Library-with "Jean" and "Jeanie" substituted for "Lucy" and a few other necessary modifications. The song will be found on page 155 of that scarce Glasgow periodical under the heading of "Song, by Robert Burns (never before published)." In the copy written for Mrs. Oswald the third line of the chorus reads― The fairest dame's in yon toun in the version printed in Glasgow Magazine The fairest maid's in yon toun. Line 2 of the third verse (not reckoning the chorus, with which the song begins)— And on yon bonnie banks of Ayr; line 4 And dearest bliss, is Lucy fair; these read thus in G. M.— Amang the broomy braes sae green; Next verse, third line, for Lucy," "Jeanie ; next verse, fourth line, for "tend," "tent; " last verse but one, fourth line, for "Lucy," Jeanie ; " and first line of last verse 99.66 For while life's dearest blood is warm. reads in G. M. For while life's dearest blood runs warm. Mr Scott Douglas, in his edition of the works of Burns, appends a long note to this charming song, in which he re www marks that "it was no unusual thing with Burns to shift the devotion of a verse from one person to another," but, like preceding commentators on the poet's writings, he evidently believed that the song of "Wat ye wha's in you toun was first printed in Johnson's Museum. THE LAST ILLNESS OF ROBERT BURNS. A QUESTION has arisen as to the cause of the death of the poet Burns. In those days no accurate life histories of disease were written or possibly even thought of. The data for diagnosis of the poet's last malady or of his constitutional type consist, therefore, merely of the statements, somewhat colored, of his friends respecting his symptoms or the opinions of his medical advisers. Nevertheless there is enough to justify the bringing forward a suggestion on a subject which is not without interest in connection with the later advances of medical knowledge. Two points are prominent in the physical state of Robert Burns, as far as it has been recorded, and these are evident throughout his life-great development of muscular strength and a sympathetic excitability of unusual acuteness. Proofs of this latter state appeared as early as the age of 13 in a tendency to melancholy headache. Before 30 was reached palpitation, with threatened attacks of syncope, had become common. It is to be noted that this symptom showed itself after a period of celebrity and luxurious dissipation in Edinburgh. At 35 we find him complaining to a friend that he "suffers for the follies of youth," and that "flying gout " has attacked him; also that he has been seized with an accidental complaint." But he still appears to have passed for a vigor ous man. 66 Here we trace the entrance of another element or elements of disease unobserved until then. A year later, after a deep potation, he was chilled, suffered from fever with rheumatic joint symptoms, followed by emaciation, muscular tremors, and death in seven months. In this recital, then we find, first, a strongly neurotic basis for the action of disease, a nervous system very active, overwrought, and we may suppose at times over-nourished, within the verge of morbid congestion. Serious disease need not have followed by this alone in a constitution so elastic; but on this system so tried is cast the burden of continued dissipation, and subsequently that of actual acute disease. Is it remarkable that it should have proved unequal to the triple strain? All are aware how badly the neurotic type resists the effect of convivial indulgence. The professional mind will recognize, moreover, the readiness with which structures overtaxed by exercise become the selected seats of inflammation. We cannot forget these facts in estimating the meaning of "flying gout" and "rheumatism" as applied to the illness of Burns. While, therefore, it is impossible to gauge exactly the casual influence of gout, rheumatism, or the follies of youth," the final and only grave illness of the poet presents to our mind a history and features further indicative of inflammatory mischief in the spinal cord. 66 WHITTIER AND BURNS. THE following pointed letter from John G. Whittier was read at a Washington Burns Festival. It was addressed to Mr. M. S. Morris. AMESBURY, 1st month, 18th day, 1869. DEAR FRIEND-I thank the club represented by thee for remembering me on the occasion of its annual festival. Though I have never been able to trace my ancestry to the land o' Cakes, I have—and I know it is saying a great deal -a Scotchman's love for the poet whose fame deepens and broadens with years. The world has never known a truer singer. We may criticise his rustic verse and compare his brief and simple lyrics with the works of men of longer scrolls and loftier lyres; but after rendering to Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning the homage which the intellect owes to genius, we turn to Burns, if not with awe and reverence, with a feeling of personal interest and affection. We admire others, we love him. As the day of his birth comes round I take down his well-worn volume in grateful commemoration, and feel that I am communing with one whom living I could have loved as much for his true manhood and native nobility of soul as for those won derful songs of his which shall sing themselves forever. They know little of Burns who regard him as an aimless versifier" the idle singer of an idle lay." Pharisees in the Church, and oppressors in the State know better than this. They felt those immortal sarcasms which did not die with the utterer, but lived on to work out the Divine commission of Providence. In the shout of enfranchised millions, as they lift the untitled Quaker of Rochdale into the British Cabinet, I seem to hear the voice of the Ayrshire poet "For a' that an' a' that, It's comin' yet for a' that, That man to man the world o'er Shall brithers be for a' that." With hearty sympathy and kind greetings for the Burns GLEANINGS FROM THE POETS ON SCOTIA'S THE waning suns, the wasting globe, -Oliver Wendell Holmes. For he whose mortal clay, and marvellous worth, Fair Ellisland! thou dearest spot And winding river, Sheer from my thought may memory blot, All trace forever. -Prof. Blackie. |