BONNY LASSES. 115 has changed for the worse the independent spirit, the prudent and economical habits of the working classes, who too often spend in drink and in luxury, what they used before to save to provide for their aged parents and their children, who are now left to be maintained by poor rates at an expense seven or eight times greater than formerly. The academy was in high repute, and the cost of good education there for boys living with their friends, did not exceed a few guineas a year. The classics were taught fairly, and French very thoroughly by foreign masters. The Rector's classes for Euclid, geography, elements of astronomy, and English grammar and composition, were also well taught. As to the bonny lasses, Lord Cockburn wrote in 1844, in his memorials, "I find that Ayr still boasts of its "peculiar female beauty; I scarcely ever knew a pro"vincial town that did not. Ayr is not behind hand: "but though on the look out, I can't say my eyes were "particularly dazzled. There was one fair figure, however, that haunted my memory; that of her who "in former days was Marion Shaw, and is now the "widow of Sir Charles Bell. Beauty such as hers was enough for one city. That portion of it which belongs to the mind is as bright and as graceful as 64 ever; and there are few forms with which time has "dealt so gently. But the place knows her no more." With some allowance for the lapse of thirty years since Lord Cockburn thus wrote of the friend and relation of my grandfather's family, and my own much valued and esteemed friend from early youth till now, I can still confirm his statement. 46 46 Beloved and respected by many in London and elsewhere, among other worthy employments of her prolonged life, she has promoted the circulation of the valuable scientific works of her distinguished husband Sir Charles Bell, who ranks with the Hunters, the Harveys, the Jenners of his noble profession. Not long ago on the publication of a volume of his correspondence, chiefly with his also eminent brother George Joseph Bell, advocate, author of a work of first-rate authority on commercial law, a principal clerk of session, and professor of Scotch law in the university of Edinburgh, Lady Bell contributed to it a well written pleasing memoir of her late husband; and in 1874 she published the ninth edition of his "Bridgwater Treatise on the Hand," with his own beautiful_illustrations, and preceded by an account of his "Discoveries on the Nervous System," by her brother Mr. Alexander Shaw. Miss Shaw was not, however, the sole representative of female loveliness in Ayr before her marriage. Among her fair compeers at that time may be mentioned two daughters of Mr. Richard Campbell, who, with his wife and handsome family, lived in Ayr before he succeeded by the death of his brother, to his fortune and fine estate of Craigie, near Ayr. We were often there, and the reputation of the old city was fully sustained by Miss Jane Campbell, who married Sir Thomas Monro, Governor of Madras, and her sister Margaret, who became Lady Gordon by her first marriage, and by her second, Madame de Barnevelt. I had the pleasure of meeting them both again after they returned from India as widows, but neither of them survive. Their eldest brother, James Campbell, advocate, the friend of Lords Jeffrey and Cockburn, inherited Craigie from his father. The town and county of Ayr, its fine rivers and beautiful scenery; Alloway Kirk, and the "Auld brig of Doon," attract innumerable visitors since Burns made them famous. Genius such as his imparts a certain degree of notoriety to persons as well as to places. Hence the interest felt by the admirers of his works in memorials of those whose names and characters he has made memorable. Although the subject has been almost exhausted by his biographers, especially by Mr. Robert Chambers, I find that the taste for such information, at least with Scotchmen, still survives, and it may yet be gratified by some few particulars not generally known. When Burns was born, his father, William, was MR. FERGUSSON AND DESCENDANTS. 117 overseer and gardener to Mr. Fergusson of Doonholm, who, when young, so greatly admired the rare beauty of the place, that he then cherished the wish which his future success enabled him to gratify, by purchasing and making it his residence. He was a very amiable and kind man, and his daughter, Mrs. Hunter, to whom he left Doonholm, inherited also her father's good and estimable qualities, and they both had that tender love of animals which was characteristic of Burns. When his father removed to Mount Oliphant (the farming profits on which were insufficient to maintain his family) Mr. Fergusson assisted him with £100; and the death of their kind landlord was a great misfortune, for they fell into the hands of a stern factor. Mr. Fergusson had three other daughters, one of whom married Colonel Kelso, of Dankeith, in Ayrshire, another, Mr. Fleming, of Barochan, in Renfrewshire, who kept up the ancient sport of falconry. His estate, which came to him through a long line of ancestors, was left by a son to a distant relation. Miss Fergusson lived with Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, and in summer many friends and relatives enjoyed their hospitality at Doonholm. Mrs. Hunter died there, beloved and much regretted, 4th July, 1838. My two brothers and I through their kindness, generally spent the most of our happy holidays there every week and during the vacation. The name is descriptive of the holms or meadow lands through which the Doon's dark, clear stream flows over its rocky, pebbly bed to the sea. Its course is there overshadowed by trees, and its banks and braes slope upwards to the higher ground on which the house stands. The other neighbouring proprietors were Messieurs Crawford of Doonside, Cathcart, afterwards Lord Alloway, of Blairstone, or Auchendrain; Fergusson of Monkwood; William Fullerton of Skeldon, advocate, who married Miss Whiteside, granddaughter of Dr. Dalrymple. The river has its source in Loch Doon, near to the village of Dalmellington, and to the estate of Craigengillan, to whose owner Burns addressed some verses. 118 DALRYMPLES OF LANGLANDS. Several persons mentioned by Burns were descendants of the Ayrshire family of ĎALRYMPLE, OF LANGLANDS, an estate on which a considerable part of Kilmarnock is built. I have a copy of a genealogical history of the Dalrymples, of Langlands, prepared with great assiduity and skill by Mr. John Shaw, an attorney of the High Court of Madras; a son of Mr. David Shaw, writer to the Signet in Ayr and a grandson of the Rev. Dr. Shaw, of Coylton. It was privately printed, chiefly for those to whom it refers. The career of one individual mentioned in the narrative is a remarkable instance not uncommon in British annals of a rapid rise from poverty and obscurity to high rank and great wealth by energy, talent and perseverance. CHARLES DALRYMPLE, of Langlands, writer in Kilmarnock, in 1688, was born about 1650. His younger son, JAMES DALRYMPLE, born about 1682, married Margaret Ramsay, of Mountford, and had issue; 2nd Sarah, who married JOHN AIKEN, shipmaster, in Ayr, 4th, CHARLES, who succeeded his father as sheriff clerk of Ayrshire, and afterwards became Charles Dalrymple, of Orangefield; 5th, William, the REV. WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, D.D., who was minister of Ayr from 1746 to 1814, and married Susannah, daughter of Dr. Hunter, minister of Ayr. He died in the 91st year of his age and 68th of his ministry. He had the estate of Mount Charles near Ayr, which he sold in 1789 to Captain Robert Gairdner. Dr. SHAW, of Coylton, married Marion Dalrymple, sister of Dr. Dalrymple. CHARLES DALRYMPLE, was born in 1721 and died 1781. He married in 1743, Macrae, third daughter of Hugh Mc Guire, of Drumdow, and had issue, 1st, JAMES DALRYMPLE, of Orangefield. 2nd, GLENCAIRN, who married her second cousin, General Stair Park Dalrymple. Mrs. Dalrymple's father, Hugh Mc Guire, of Drumdow, was originally a carpenter in Ayr, in poor circumstances, from which he was raised to great wealth by his wife's cousin, JAMES MACRAE, who lived in a JAMES MACRAE. 119 thatched cottage near Ayr with his widowed mother, an honest washerwoman and laundress, who was able by her industry to give him some education. When very young he left the port of Ayr, as a sailor, and when next heard of was mentioned in the records of the Madras government as Captain Macrae. It was supposed that he had risen to be Captain of a vessel in the country trade, and he won the confidence of the government, who sent him to reform abuses at the English settlement on the West Coast of Sumatra; and for his conduct in that successful mission he was still further promoted. He effected financial savings to the amount of £25,000 a year, and did other good and profitable service. Therefore the directors appointed him Deputy Governor of port St. David, and on his return from the West Coast in 1724, he took his seat as second Member of Council at Fort St. George. In January 1725, the son of the Ayr washerwoman took his place as Governor of the Madras Presidency, which at that time and for nearly fifty years afterwards was the chief British settlement in India. The proceedings are thus recorded:— 66 Monday, 18th January, 1725. The President, James Macrae, Esq., opened this consultation by telling the Board that as this was the first time of their meeting since his taking the chair, he thought it would not be improper to acquaint them of his resolutions, of which the principal was that he would prosecute the Company's interest to the utmost, and endeavour to retrieve the abuses that had crept into the management of their affairs. He added that he was determined not to interrupt in any manner the commerce of the place, but that all the inhabitants, both whites and blacks, the free merchants as well as the Company's servants, should have free liberty of trade, and that he should expect the same freedom from interruptions in what he should undertake; that he would endeavour to be as agreeable to the gentlemen as any of his predecessors, but that he was determined to maintain the privileges and immunities |