JAMES PAGAN, of the Glasgow Herald Newspaper in Glasgow. WILLIAM MOSSMAN, Sculptor of the Monument. The ceremony being completed, the Grand Master, with the other Office-bearers again ascended the platform, the band at the time playing the Masons' Anthem, after which Mr. Stewart spoke as follows:-As Provincial Grand Master, it becomes my duty to address to you a few words -and they shall be very few-for judging of you by myself, I am certain that any observations must prove a hindrance to that flow of memory, and of heartfelt feeling, which this scene and ceremony are so much calculated to inspire. My first acknowledgements are due to the gentlemen of the Committee who suggested this monument, and to whom we are indebted for its now approaching completion. They have great merit; Greenock owes them much-Scotland owes them more; and their best reward will be in the success of their tasteful and patriotic undertaking. I thank you all, brethren of all orders and denominations, for your zealous and able assistance on this occasion. Many of you have journeyed far to do homage to the memory of "Highland Mary," and none of you, I believe, will grudge having done so much towards the success of this day's outward ceremony-for, peculiarly interesting we must all confess it to be! The memory of the young, the beautiful, the pious -Mary Campbell, is inseparably linked with that of our immortal Poet-Robert Burns; and it is the irresistible power of the combined attractiveness of their memories, that has brought you from your homes and fire-sides, to assist in distinguishing this grave-where Lies mouldering now in silent dust, For half a century this spot has remained neglected, although "Highland Mary" has been admired, and loved by every one, of which you are here the witnesses; and thus has her memory been preserved, and her character transmitted to us by the simple medium of one of those "legends of the heart," which, Burns said, he never polished for fear of defacing. Some, unthinkingly, wondered that we concerted to lay this stone with Masonic honours. For my part I felt that the occasion was peculiarly entitled to our regard. I have ever understood our fraternity to be " a peaceable association, formed for the exercise of mutual benevolence; and for the purpose of patronizing and executing those structures which have contributed to the amusement or admiration of succeeding ages "—and, if so, what more becoming occasion on which to assemble with one mind, and one heart, could there be than the present? If the ceremony of laying the foundation stones of colleges and custom-houses and bridges is entitled to Masonic Observance, that of founding monuments to departed genius or virtue is not less so; and while we have the memory of our great townsman, James Watt, enshrined among us, we cannot forego the humbler work of expressing our delight and proper pride, in holding within our circle the mortal remains of Burns's "Highland Mary." Thus I feel, that as lovers of beauty and purity, of poetry and nature, we are here worthily employed; and as we journey onwards, the remembrance of this day's ceremony must ever be a welcome inmate in our pensive bosoms. Again, I thank you, brethren of all denominations, for your assistance; and to the gentlemen of the Committee, I repeat that we are mainly indebted for this national and interesting under taking, which must prove equally a most attractive ornament of our town and a trophy in the country of Robert Burns. According to the published programme, the Chairman of the Committee should have returned thanks, but this duty was performed by Mr. Wallace, M.P., who proposed thanks to the Provincial Grand Master for his attendance on the occasion, and for his very eloquent address. He concluded by proposing three cheers to the Committee. His address was much applauded, and at the conclusion the Queen's Anthem was played by the military band. The procession was then reformed in its previous order, and, leaving the Churchyard, proceeded along Ropework and Dalrymple Streets, up William Street to Cathcart Square, where after cheering, the various bodies, with the exception of the Mason Lodges, dispersed. The latter accompanied the Grand Lodge to the Assembly Rooms, at the approach to which they opened up as before, and the Grand Lodge walked up the centre. In the evening a large party dined together in the Coffee-Room, Cathcart Square. P. M. Stewart, Esq., M.P., in the Chair, and Robert Weir, Esq., Glasgow, and John Wharton, Esq., Greenock, Croupiers. The Grand Lodge met in the Assembly Rooms between eight and nine o'clock, presided over by the Provincial Grand Master. The Odd-Fellows supped in the Buck's Head Hall, with Mr. Wallace, M.P., in the Chair, and the Foresters met in the evening in the Gardener's Arms. During the evening the streets continued crowded, bands of music paraded about and the boys amused themselves with discharging fire-works. PROFESSOR BLACKIE'S TRIBUTE. So much for Bonnie Jean. CONTEMPORARY with this affair, and so closely interwoven with it that it has been called "an episode," is the romantic and tragic story of the poet's love for " Highland Mary." The most natural, as well as the most charitable, way of interpreting the interlineation of these two loves, is to suppose with Chambers, that while his heart was bleeding sorely from what appeared to him the ungenerous and ungrateful disownment of their connubial bond by bonnie Jean one of his old flames-for their name was legion-who had formerly fluttered about him in an easy way, now came to the front, with the healing power, so strong in woman, and poured the balm of tender sympathy into his wounds. It is difficult for any man, especially a man like Burns, to resist the thrill that passes through him at the touch of a loving hand on such an occasion. Mary Campbell, a Highland girl, from the neighbourhood of Dunoon on the Clyde, "a most sprightly, blue-eyed creature, of great modesty and self-respect," had been in the service of his friend, Gavin Hamilton, and was still in the neighbourhood of Mauchline when that unfortunate affair with Jean was setting the village in a blaze; and in administering comfort to the widowed heart of the Robert who had lost his Jean, she presented him as a more than worthy surrogate for the loss, with Mary, her beautiful self; and this Mary had so much faith in the unfortunate young farmer that she agreed to plight herself to him for life, and follow him to the Indies, or whithersoever his broken fortunes might lead him. It was agreed between them that she should give up her place, go to the Highlands, where her father was a sailor in Campbeltown, and arrange matters there for her formal union with the poet. The poetical union had already been completed in a most sentimental and pious fashion. On the banks of the Ayr, or in the adjoining valley of the Faile, the lovers had a meeting on the second Sunday in May, 1786, where they made the most solemn vows of faithful adherence. Standing on each side of a slow-running brooklet, and holding a Bible between them the two swore themselves to be one till death. Mary presented her lover with a plain small Bible in one volume, while Burns responded with a more dainty one in two volumes. The day of this solemn act of devout self-dedication was the last time that Burns saw his Highland Mary. No wonder that it remained in his soul for life a picture of pure affection, more sacred than any with which his large experience of female favours had furnished him. Mary Campbell, after visiting her parents, was returning to Glasgow, when, stopping on the road at Greenock to attend a sick brother, she caught fever from him and died. This was early in the month of October of the same year in which her faith was plighted to the poet. She was buried in the West Kirkyard of the town, a spot where all who love the Scottish Muse never fail to drop their fervent tear. |