Fays, Spunkies, Kelpies, a', they can explain them,

obdurate-stroke

And even the very deils they brawly ken them.) well know
Auld Brig appeared of ancient Pictish race,
The very wrinkles Gothic in his face :
He seemed as he wi' Time had warstl'd lang,
Yet, teughly doure, he bade an unco bang.
New Brig was buskit in a braw new coat,
That he at Lon'on, frae ane Adams, got;
In's hand five taper staves as smooth's a bead,
Wi' virls and whirlygigums at the head.
The Goth was stalking round with anxious search,
Spying the time-worn flaws in every arch;
It chanced his new-come neebor took his e'e,
And e'en a vexed and angry heart had he!
Wi' thieveless sneer to see his modish mien,
He, down the water, gies him this guid-e'en :-

AULD BRIG.

:

spited

I doubt na, frien', ye 'll think ye 're nae sheepshank,' Ance ye were streekit o'er frae bank to bank,

But gin ye be a brig as auld as me—

Though, faith, that day I doubt ye 'll never see;

stretched

There'll be, if that date come, I'll wad a boddle, bet a doit
Some fewer whigmaleeries in your noddle.

NEW BRIG.

Auld Vandal, ye but shew your little mense, civility Just much about it wi' your scanty sense;

Will your poor, narrow footpath of a street

Whare twa wheel-barrows tremble when they meet-
Your ruined, formless bulk o' stane and lime,
Compare wi' bonny Brigs o' modern time?

There's men o' taste would tak the Ducat Stream,2
Though they should cast the very sark and swim,
Ere they would grate their feelings wi' the view
Of sic an ugly Gothic hulk as you.

AULD BRIG.

Conceited gowk, puffed up wi' windy pride!
This monie a year I've stood the flood and tide;
And though wi' crazy eild I'm sair forfairn,
I'll be a Brig when ye 're a shapeless cairn!
As yet ye little ken about the matter,
But twa-three winters will inform

ye

1 No contemptible or worthless thing.

better.

2 A noted ford just above the Auld Brig.-B.

fool

age-enfeebled

When heavy, dark, continued, a'-day rains,
Wi' deepening deluges o'erflow the plains;
When from the hills where springs the brawling Coil,
Or stately Lugar's mossy fountains boil,

flood

Or where the Greenock winds his moorland course,
Or haunted Garpal' draws his feeble source,
Aroused by blustering winds and spotting thowes,
In monie a torrent down his snaw-broo rowes;
While crashing ice, borne on the roaring speat,
Sweeps dams, and mills, and brigs a' to the gate; way
And from Glenbuck' down to the Ratton-key3
Auld Ayr is just one lengthened tumbling sea-
Then down ye'll hurl, deil nor ye never rise!

And dash the gumlie jaups up to the pouring skies. muddy waves
A lesson sadly teaching, to your cost,

That Architecture's noble art is lost!

NEW BRIG.

Fine Architecture, trowth, I needs must say 't o't!
The L-be thankit that we 've tint the gate o't! lost
Gaunt, ghastly, ghaist-alluring edifices,

Hanging with threatening jut, like precipices;
O'erarching, mouldy, gloom-inspiring coves,
Supporting roofs fantastic, stony groves:

Windows, and doors in nameless sculpture drest,
With order, symmetry, or taste unblest;
Forms like some bedlam statuary's dream,
The crazed creations of misguided whim;
Forms might be worshipped on the bended knee,
And still the second dread command be free,
Their likeness is not found on earth, in air, or sea.
Mansions that would disgrace the building taste
Of any mason reptile, bird or beast;
Fit only for a doited monkish race,

Or frosty maids forsworn the dear embrace;

Or cuifs of latter times, wha held the notion

doting

fools

That sullen gloom was sterling true devotion;
Fancies that our good Brugh denies protection!"
And soon may they expire, unblest with resurrection!

AULD BRIG.

Oh ye, my dear remembered ancient yealings, coevals
Were ye but here to share my wounded feelings!

'The banks of Garpal Water is one of the few places in the west of Scotland where those fancy-scaring beings, known by the name of ghaists, still continue pertinaciously to inhabit.-B. 2 The source of the river Ayr.-B.

* A small landing-place above the large key.—B.

4 An allusion to the moderatism of the Ayr clergy.

2

Ye worthy Proveses, and monie a Bailie,
Wha in the paths o' righteousness did toil aye;
Ye dainty Deacons and ye douce Conveeners,
To whom our moderns are but causey-cleaners;
Ye godly Councils wha hae blest this town;
Ye godly brethren o' the sacred gown,
Wha meekly ga'e your hurdies to the smiters;
And (what would now be strange)' ye godly writers;
A' ye douce folk I've borne aboon the broo,
Were ye but here, what would ye say or do!
How would your spirits groan in deep vexation,
To see each melancholy alteration;

And agonising, curse the time and place
When ye begat the base degenerate race!

Nae langer reverend men, their country's glory,

In plain braid Scots hold forth a plain braid story!
Nae langer thrifty citizens and douce,

Meet owre a pint, or in the council-house;
But staumrel, corky-headed, graceless gentry,
The herryment and ruin of the country;

Men three parts made by tailors and by barbers,
Wha waste your weel-hained gear on d-

Harbours!

NEW BRIG.

water

half-witted

new Brigs and

Now haud you there, for faith you've said enough,
And muckle mair than ye can mak to through;"
As for your Priesthood I shall say but little,
Corbies and Clergy are a shot right kittle;
But, under favour o' your langer beard,
Abuse o' magistrates might weel be spared:
To liken them to your auld-warld squad,
I must needs say comparisons are odd.
In Ayr, wag-wits nae mair can hae a handle
To mouth a citizen,' a term o' scandal;

Nac mair the Council waddles down the street,

In all the pomp of ignorant conceit;3

Men wha grew wise priggin' owre hops and raisins,
Or gathered liberal views in bonds and seisins,

make good

A sly hint at the easy professions of the Ayr writers or lawyers now known to Burns.

* Inserted in MS. copy:

Variation in MS.:

That's aye a string auld doited Graybeards harp on,
A topic for their peevishness to carp on.'

Nao mair down street the Council quorum waddles,
With wigs like mainsails on their logger noddles;
No difference but bulkiest or tallest,
With comfortable dulness in for ballast:
Nor shoals nor currents need a pilot's caution,
For regularly slow, they only witness motion."

If haply Knowledge, on a random tramp,

offered

Had shored them with a glimmer of his lamp,
And would to Common-sense for once betrayed them,
Plain, dull Stupidity stept kindly in to aid them.

What further clish-ma-claver might been said, palaver
What bloody wars, if Sprites had blood to shed,
No man can tell; but all before their sight,
A fairy train appeared in order bright;
Adown the glittering stream they featly danced;
Bright to the moon their various dresses glanced:
They footed o'er the watery glass so neat,
The infant ice scarce bent beneath their feet:
While arts of minstrelsy among them rung,
And soul-ennobling bards heroic ditties sung.
Oh had M'Lachlan,' thairm-inspiring sage,
Been there to hear this heavenly band engage,
When through his dear strathspeys they bore with Highland

rage;

Or when they struck old Scotia's melting airs,

The lover's raptured joys or bleeding cares;
How would his Highland lug been nobler fired,

cat-gut

ear

And even his matchless hand with finer touch inspired!
No guess could tell what instrument appeared,
But all the soul of Music's self was heard;
Harmonious concert rung in every part,

While simple melody poured moving on the heart.

The Genius of the stream in front appears,

A venerable chief advanced in years;
His hoary head with water-lilies crowned,
His manly leg with garter tangle bound.

Next came the loveliest pair in all the ring,
Sweet Female Beauty hand in hand with Spring;
Then, crowned with flowery hay, came Rural Joy,
And Summer, with his fervid-beaming eye:
All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn,

Led yellow Autumn, wreathed with nodding corn;

James M'Lachlan, a

A well-known performer of Scottish music on the violin.-B. Highlander, had been once footman to Lord John Campbell at Inverary. He came to Ayrshire in a fencible regiment, and was patronised by Hugh Montgomery of Coilsfield (afterwards Earl of Eglintoune), who was himself both a player and a composer. Matthew Hall, who was lately living in extreme old age at Newton-upon-Ayr, used to accompany M'Lachlan over a wide extent of country, for the purpose of playing at gentlemen's houses, and even in Edinburgh and Glasgow on great occasions. In one week, to use Hall's words, they have passed twenty-six parish kirks, and returned to Ayr on Friday to a ball, never getting to bed till Saturday night.-Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire.

Then Winter's time-bleached locks did hoary show,
By Hospitality with cloudless brow.

Next followed Courage, with his martial stride,
From where the Feal wild woody coverts hide;'
Benevolence, with mild, benignant air,

3

2

A female form, came from the towers of Stair: "
Learning and Worth in equal measures trode
From simple Catrine, their long-loved abode : 3
Last, white-robed Peace, crowned with a hazel wreath,
To rustic Agriculture did bequeath

The broken iron instruments of death;

At sight of whom our Sprites forgat their kindling wrath.

All through this summer, while he was in his local, social, and domestic character a wretched and unfortunate man, while yet that was preparing by which he was to be ultimately raised to the pinnacle of literary glory, the singular episode of Highland Mary remained unaccomplished. Yet, notwithstanding rueings of affection about Jean, and poetical gallantries towards the Bonnie Lass of Ballochmyle, and perhaps others, his mind must have been all the time charged in its deeper and more mystic recesses with the idea of the simple girl, who, after pledging her love to him in his hour of bitter humiliation, had gone to see her friends in the West Highlands, preparatory to their contemplated union. Burns makes no reference to this affair in his letters or poems; he observed entire silence about it in the Mossgiel household. There is therefore such a want of direct evidence on the subject, that we might almost justifiably set it out of sight, if there were not overpowering circumstantial proof that it was an affair actually going on at this time. The circumstances are here presented in the best arrangement which the case admits of.

Mary, we are to presume from the narration of the poet, had proceeded, immediately after their parting, to Campbelton, where her parents then resided. She had spent the summer there; but there is no evidence that she had taken any steps in arranging matters for a union with Burns, although it is believed that she received letters from him. After having spent the summer at home, she agreed, at the recommendation of her former patroness, Mrs Isabella Campbell, to accept a new situation for the term

We have here a compliment to Montgomery of Coilsfield—Soger Hugh—alluded to in the preceding note. Coilsfield is situated on the Feal, or Faile, a tributary of the Ayr. "A compliment to his carly patroness, Mrs Stewart of Stair. See notes to Epistle to Davie. A compliment to Professor Dugald Stewart.