intended to establish. When Burns became first acquainted with Mary Campbell cannot be fixed with great precision. It is not likely to have been earlier than 1784, when he went with the rest of the family to reside in her neighbourhood. Mary Campbell is presumed at this time to have been in the service of Burns' friend, Gavin Hamilton, in Mauchline, but removed, it is thought, afterwards to Coilsfield, where, it is also surmised, she resided during the summer of 1785. Wherever living, she would seem to have left Ayrshire about Whitsunday, 1786, the term day that year being the day following the parting with Burns-"the second Sunday in May." The date of this parting can otherwise be fixed with reasonable accuracy. The Bible itself is of date 1782, and, in addition to the verses quoted, bears the signature, "Robert Burns, Mossgiel," a place with which Burns had no connection till 1784, as mentioned above. In the absence of positive information about the closing days of Mary Campbell, the Bibles are not the least important link in the chain of evidence. Their history has been singular enough. On the death of "Highland Mary" at Greenock, as we think in October, 1786, the volumes were treasured by her mother, Burns being a forbidden subject with her father. Mrs. Campbell died in extreme poverty at Greenock, in 1828. Some time before this date the old woman had presented the Bibles to her daughter, Mrs. Anderson, from whom they passed through two sisters to her son, William Anderson, mason, Renton, Dumbartonshire. On emigrating to Canada, in 1834, the volumes were taken with him, and for a time lost trace of; but, being heard of accidentally by a few of the poet's admirers in Montreal, the precious relics were secured for £25, and handsomely restored to the old country for the purpose of being placed in the monument at Brig o' Doon, where they are now to be seen in fitting company with other memorials of the bard. There are other discrepancies not easily reconciled in the account given by Burns of Highland Mary. He writes of her as proceeding to the Highlands "to arrange matters among her friends for our projected change of life." Very little appears to have been known about Mary in the household at Mossgiel. Mrs. Begg recollected no sort of reference being made to her more than once when the poet remarked to John Blane, gaudsman, that Mary had refused to meet him in the old castle-the dismantled tower of the priory near Coilsfield House. Even presuming that Burns as well as the Armours acted under a sincere though erroneous impression that a complete and valid separation had been effected, it is difficult, from what we know of Mary's character, to see how the sad position of Jean Armoura position as painful as it was notorious-could be accepted by her as a reason for hastening on in any way a union to which she was previously averse. With his passage taken out, his chest on the road to Greenock, and the sails filling with the breeze that was to waft him from old Caledonia, matrimony, one would have said, was the last thing likely to be thought of by the poet, either for his own advantage or the comfort of her on whom he had again set his changing affections. There is still another particle of proof militating strongly against a marriage at this dark period in Burns's history. On the 22nd July of the year in question-1786-the poet executed a deed investing his brother Gilbert with all his "goods, gear, and moveable effects," profits from poems included, to be held by him in trust for the upbringing of his illegitimate daughter, known as "Sonsie, smirking, dear-bought Bess." In particular, provision was made by the same deed for continuing his daughter's exclusive interest in the copyright after she had reached the age of fifteen years. With what then was he going to endow Mary Campbell in the way of worldly goods? Marriage in such circumstances was as indiscreet as after events proved it improper. Months after the first blast of the Armour strife was over, early in January, 1787, when being caressed by the rank, fashion, and learning of Edinburgh, he wrote to his friend Hamilton at Mauchline, "To tell the truth, among friends, I feel a miserable blank in my heart for the want of her," referring to Jean Armour. All these relations and responsibilities are alluded to in the touching "Farewell," wherein, however, Mary, whom he may be presumed to have just asked if she would "go to the Indies," is not once mentioned : Farewell, old Scotland's bleak domains, Where rich annanas blow; My Jean's heart-rending throe! A faithful brother I have left, My part in him thou 'lt share. Adieu, too, to you too, My Smith, my bosom frien', Oh then befriend my Jean! What bursting anguish tears my heart! All hail then, the gale then I'll never see thee more! Instead of returning from the Highlands after arranging, as the poet writes, "for our projected change in life," Dr. R. Chambers (to whom all inquirers on this point are under great obligations), thinks Highland Mary had agreed, at the recommendation of a former patroness, to accept for the Martinmas term a new situation at Glasgow in the family of Colonel M'Ivor. This careful biographer also mentions as a tradition that the illness under which the fair girl suffered at Greenock was superstitiously believed to have been inflicted by the cast of an evil eye, and friends, therefore, seriously recommended her father to go to a spot where two burns met, select seven smooth stones from the channel, boil them in new milk, and give her the same to drink. Mary's illness was far too serious for either charms or skill. Burns's "Highland Lassie" sickened of fever, died in a few days, and was buried in a lair at the West Church belonging to a distant relative of her mother, thus closing what the impassioned poet described in after years as "one of the most interesting episodes of my youthful days." KILMARNOCK. A HANDY and useful addition was made to local literature by the issue of a new or fourth edition of the late Archibald M'Kay's well-known "History of Kilmarnock." It was somewhat over thirty years since the first appeared, and two have been issued in the interim. Admirably arranged as the book is, and full of information, it is yet hardly full enough, and not quite so fresh in details as the year on the title-page would lead one to infer. The new preface is dated last June, yet among the worthies who figured in "Auld Killie," of whom brief-too brief-notice is given, no mention is made of the fact that John Kelso Hunter died so far back as February, 1873. It is just between seven and eight years since J. K., "John Kobbler," otherwise "The Cobbler Artist," was taken away from his "last" as well as his easel, to the regret of many friends, aged a little over seventy. Neither the "Retrospect" nor "Life Studies of Character," nor "Memorials of West Country Men and Manners," is so much as mentioned, and yet it is not to be disputed that Hunter's writings have fully more to do with such fame as he enjoys than any labour he ever undertook in connection with the "Kilmarnock Drawing Academy," important as that institution might be in the history of art. Hunter's portraits were in the main looked upon as wonders, the feeling generally being, not that they should be done so well, but that in the circumstances they could be done at all. His books, on the other hand, were the man all over, surrounded by portraits of another kind, coloured like those on canvas, with the airy imagination of the artist. These must long continue to be enjoyed by all who esteem graphic accuracy with a strong dash of Doric tincture. James Paterson, too, another Kilmarnock worthy by residence, thoroughly Ayrshire also by birth and work, receives only a brief mention, suggested apparently by his experiences on the local "Chronicle." And yet James Paterson wrote the "History of Ayr," and transcribed "The Obit Book of St. John the Baptist," not to speak of much miscellaneous work in the way of compilation. Neither is it indicated in any way that such an industrious labourer in the literary vineyard has been dead for two or three years. Nobody can grudge the ample space devoted to Sir James Shaw, an exceptionally prominent and worthy native of the town; but one pre-eminent duty of a local historian, and one on which even readers beyond the bounds of the locality look to him as an authority, is to give a reasonably complete account of those who in the world of enterprise or thought did some good work in their day, but probably not sufficient to merit any reminder in the way of a public monument. The prominent can easily be held in remembrance; but local history, to be properly written, must be made up of many people not reaching a very high standard of effort, just as on the other it must deal with many events having only a parochial significance. The general historian requires so often to be indebted to the special or local that disappointment is experienced when details are found to be less full than might be reasonably expected, especially when opportunity has been afforded for increased care by four editions. As slips occur in the way of omitting to mention death, so on the other hand persons still living might have been described. An otherwise excellent notice of Mr. Templeton, vocalist, is slightly marred by an absence of any information that he is still (1880) living, and must be about, if not over, eighty years of age. The date of birth, instead of being only an inference from certain other facts, should have been stated with distinctness. In the mere arrangement of his matter no less than in simple directness of expression, Mr. M'Kay must be judged to merit very high praise. There is some mention of the earliest notices of the burgh, though, from the absence of ecclesiastical or municipal records, these cannot be expected in very great detail, nor might they be considered as adding to the usefulness of the book for popular purposes. The town books extend no further back than 1686, and the earliest entry in the register of baptism is of date 1644. For its erection as a parish, for the date |