THE AULD BRIG O' AYR. HE preservation work at the Auld Brig has been proceeding satisfactorily during the year under the superintendence of Mr J. Wilson, C.E., Glasgow, and Mr Morris, architect, Ayr. The underfooting of the defective arches has been nearly completed, and a temporary wooden bridge has been erected for the convenience of passengers. The work has not turned out so difficult as was expected, and there is every prospect of a surplus balance after it is completed. The result is highly flattering to the national spirit which responded so generously to Lord Rosebery's appeal. "Mr Punch's" kindly advocacy is worthy of preservation : THE AULD BRIG O' AYR. [Lord Rosebery has appealed for £10,000 to save this famous structure from being demolished, on account of its unsafe condition. The anniversary of Burns's birthday is on the 25th, and his immortal memory will be toasted at numerous haggis-and-whisky feasts. "Mr Punch's" advice for Burns's Nicht is that his worshippers should pass round the hat and let their saxpences gang bang into it.] Meant for a poet, born an Earl, In gowden thoughts and words o' pearl, Ye brither Scots, frae Perth to Denny! Row in your pound, birl up your penny, Five hunder years, in foul and fair, I've knelt upon the banks of Ayr, And, by yon Sun, five hunder mair Could ye but see the mighty thrang My frien's, you'd say I did sma' wrang Ladies and Lords frae yont the toun, And Princes rested on my croon, But, King amang them a' by right The while he preened his fancy's flight And shall these stanes where Rabbie stood, A shapeless mass beneath the flood The King o' Scotland's rhyming brood All ye who warm at Rabbie's flame, Ye daffin' ca' me Be his the sorrow, yours the shame, By all the guid his sangs hae done, While greenwood grows and rivers run, It shall na be! From Punch, by permission. [It is needless to say that Mr Punch's advice was followed, and the £10,000 exceeded.-ED.] IF REVIEW S. A PRIMER OF BURNS. Mr F the Merchandise Trade Mark Act had extended so far to literature as to include the titles of books, we fear the author of the volume with the above title would have found himself in trouble. About ten years ago a book dealing with the works of Burns was published with the same designation, the author being. Mr Wm. A. Craigie, then a lecturer in St. Andrews University, afterwards transferred to Oxford, where we believe he is still on duty. The two treatises, however, differ entirely in conception and treatment of the subject. So well has Mr Craigie executed his task that we have no hesitation in saying that no book on Burns of the same dimensions can compare with it for the outstanding ability which is conspicuous in its every chapter. M'Gown, schoolmaster, Corstorphine, who is the author of the second primer, happily provokes no comparison. His volume is essentially a text book for schools, and he attempts nothing further than the presentation of a pure text with accompanying notes, historical, explanatory, and philological. The pieces selected are "To a Mouse," "The Cottar's Saturday Night," "To a Mountain Daisy," and "A Winter Night," the text being abridged in the longer pieces for economic reasons intended to appeal to the book market. This is quite excusable in the production of a schoolbook competing for public favour, but we fail to appreciate Mr M'Gown's "obvious reasons for omitting the sixth stanza of the "Mountain Daisy." Much of Burns, we admit, is not spoonmeat for babes, but so far as we remember, this is the first time we have seen any objection taken to the stanza in question. The notes appended are very elaborate— perhaps too elaborate for children in the senior and supplementary classes of our public schools for whose benefit the work has been specially compiled. Mr M'Gown has, however, aimed at completeness, linguistic and literary, and if the notes err in the particulars of length and inclusiveness, the author's prefatory apology "that his object is not so much to meet a demand as to create one," must be deemed sufficient explanation. To many it may seem superfluous to explain at length what is meant by a "clean hearth stane," and to many more the following paraphrase of the second stanza of "To a Mouse" may appear a mere overloading of the page:-"I am indeed sadly grieved to think that man's power over animals has rendered it impossible for them to live together without the latter having a feeling of dread and distrust of the former." But it must be borne in mind that Mr M'Gown is addressing, not men and women, but the senior pupils of a school. His definitions of the Scottish words and idioms are commendably correct and pithily expressed. In stating the facts of the Poet's life, an author cannot be too careful in these days of hypercriticism of everything that relates to Burns. Burns may or may not have been descended from a Highland family in Argyleshire, but when Mr Crawford, of Doonside, is meant, he must not be described as a mythical Laird of Crawford whom nobody ever heard of. The book is printed and bound with Mr Gardner's usual good taste, and may be had at the modest price of one shilling net. The Homes and Haunts of Scott and Burns. By George Eyre Todd. This beautiful little booklet is by no means an example of the conventional railway guide book with which we are perhaps too familiar. It professes to describe the scenery along the route of the Caledonian Railway in the Burns and Scott countries, and this is accomplished by Mr Eyre Todd with most commendable correctness and rare literary grace. The numerous finelyexecuted photogravures lend an additional charm to the brochure which ought to find a place in the library of every Burns collector. PETER HILL AND BURNS'S EDINBURGH FRIENDS. PET ETER HILL was four years Burns's senior, and he survived the Poet forty years. Burns came to Edinburgh in November, 1786. The Edinburgh edition of the poems was published by Creech in April, 1787, Hill being then in Creech's employment. The first letter from Burns to Hill is dated 17th May, 1787, showing that the acquaintance between them began soon after Burns came to Edinburgh, and no doubt in Creech's office, Burns being then in his twenty-ninth and Hill in his thirty-third year. The last letter is dated 29th January, 1796, five months before the Poet's death. Of the 534 letters by Burns indexed by the late Wm. Scott Douglas in the last published edition of the Poet's writings, 56 are to George Thomson, 48 to Clarinda, 42 to Mrs Dunlop, 18 to Mrs Riddell, and 16 to Peter Hill. The letters to Thomson are rather business than friendly in their character. Those to Clarinda were "episodical," so that in point of number of letters to him that have been preserved, Hill comes third in the list of Burns's friendly correspondents and first among the friends of his own sex. Of these sixteen letters I have the originals, of ten of which I had a hundred copies photo-lithographed a few years ago with the intention of distributing them to such persons as I thought would sufficiently value their possession. The first two letters of May and July, 1787, are formal, but that of a year later-the first of those of which have the originals-shows that the intimacy had rapidly developed. It is, like many others of the Poet's letters, very unreserved, so much so as inevitably to raise the question whether it ought to have been published.* 66 Mademoiselle Burns," *One of the most "unreserved" of these letters, on |