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missioned to execute it in bronze.

A demonstration took place at the unveiling of the Statue on Thursday, 25th January, 1877. It was estimated that not less than 30,000 persons took part in the various processions and subsequent proceedings. The ceremony was presided over by Lord Houghton.

KILMARNOCK MEMORIAL. 1872-79.

The movement was originated by the late James M'Kie in the summer of 1872. The foundation stone of the Monument was laid by R. W. Cochran-Patrick, of Woodside, on September 14th, 1878, and the Statue was unveiled by Colonel Alexander, of Ballochmyle, M P., on August 9th, 1879. The sculptor selected was W. G. Stevenson, Edinburgh, and the architect of the Monument was R. S. Ingram, Kilmarnock. The total cost was £2893, the greater portion of which sum was raised through the personal exertions of Mr M Kie. Alexander Anderson ("Surfaceman,") and Alexander G. Murdoch, Glasgow, were each awarded a silver medal for the best poem on the occasion.

NEW YORK

MEMORIAL.

1880.

The City of New York was the first American City to honour Robert Burns by erecting a Monument to his memory. Since then the City of Albany, has conferred a similar honour on Scotia's Poet, and San Francisco, Chicago, and Providence, are (1892) busy organising a movement for a like purpose. The ceremony of unveiling the New York Statue took place on Saturday, 2nd October, 1880. The oration was given by George William Curtis, and was an impassioned, enthusiastic deliverance.

DUNDEE MEMORIAL. 1880.

A preliminary meeting to organise a movement for the erection of a Burns Statue in Dundee, took place on Tuesday, 30th January, 1877, when a committee was appointed, and within a few months the subscription list amounted to £700. The estimated cost, with the site and basement, was about £1600. Permission was obtained from New York, to allow Sir John Steell, R.S.A., to give a replica of the Burns Statue, at the reduced price of one thousand guineas, being exactly one half of the price agreed upon for the American contract. pedestal was erected on the 29th August, 1879, and the ceremony of unveiling the Statue took place on Saturday, 16th October, 1880. It was one of the greatest demonstrations ever held in Dundee.

DUMFRIES MEMORIAL. 1882.

The

The Queen of the South Burns Club, Dumfries, first issued subscription lists in furtherance of a proposal to erect a Statue of the Bard. The Tam o' Shanter Club, at their quarterly meeting, 5th April, 1877, resolved to raise funds for the same object. The design selected is by Mrs D. O. Hill (sister of Sir Noel Paton), of Newington Lodge, Edinburgh, and cost about £3000. The ceremony of unveiling the Statue took place on 6th April, 1882, and was performed by Lord Rosebery.

M'KIE BURNSIANA LIBRARY. 1882.

The collection of the different editions of Burns's Works made by James M'Kie, Publisher, Kilmarnock, is acknowledged to be the most complete ever brought together by one individual. Its formation extended over a period of more than forty years. In November, 1882, in response to advances made to him by the officebearers of the Kilmarnock Burns Club, Mr. M'Kie agreed to accept a sum of £350, on condition that the collection was deposited in the Museum, and the Corporation became its custodiers. The collection includes seventeen curious and interesting scrap-books, dating from 1854 till 1883.*

*For further information see "Catalogue of the M'Kie Burnsiana Library," and "Burns Holograph Manuscripts in the Kilmarnock Museum." Both volumes are on sale at the Monument.

LONDON MEMORIAL. 1884.

A bronze Statue of the Poet Burns was unveiled in London, in the summer of 1884. The Statue was presented by Mr. John Gordon Crawford, a retired Glasgow merchant, resident in London. The Statue has been given a prominent place in the gardens in the vicinity of Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment. It is the work of Sir John Steell, R.S. A., Her Majesty's Sculptor for Scotland, and is partly a replica of the New York and Dundee Statues, executed by the same artist. The ceremony of unveiling the Statue was performed by the Earl of Rosebery.

BURNS FEDERATION. 1885.

Minute of Preliminary Meeting held in London, February, 1885.--It was resolved that a Federation of the members of Burns clubs and societies throughout the world be formed, to be called the "Burns Federation"; its motto to be, "A man's a man for a' that." The circular issued by the Federation to Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies, is reprinted at the beginning of the Directory in the present volume.

WESTMINSTER

BUST.
1885.

Poet's Corner.

ALBANY MEMORIAL. 1888.

On Saturday, the 7th March, 1885, the Bust of Burns in the Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, was unveiled by the Earl of Rosebery in presence of a large and distinguished gathering. The bust, which is by Sir John Steell, R.S.A., is erected on a corbel in the

Among the many objects of interest with which the city of Albany abounds, is the Burns Statue in Washington Park, which was unveiled September 30th, 1888, but not completed in all its features till the insertion in the pedestal of four tablets, on the 20th of April, 1891. Mary M'Pherson, an eccentric old maid resident in Albany, died on the 6th February, 1886, leaving the bulk of her fortune (40,000 dollars) to be devoted to the erection of a monument to Robert Burns. The sculptor selected was Mr. Charles Calverley.

AYR MEMORIAL. 1891.

On Thursday, 8th July, 1891, the town of Ayr fulfilled a long incumbent duty. Twelve Scottish sculptors were invited to submit models for a Statue, and, these having been obtained, the committee, who had the valuable guidance of Mr. Hamo Thorneycroft, R.A., in making their selection, unanimously chose the design sent in by Mr. G. A. Lawson, H. R.S.A., sculptor, London.

BURNS

CLUB

DIRECTORY,

1891.

Mr.

A meeting of the Executive Council of the Burns Federation was convened in Kilmarnock on FRIDAY, CHRONICLE AND 4th September, 1891. Ex-Provost STURROCK, late M.P. for the Kilmarnock Burghs, presided. COLIN RAE-BROWN moved that the Burns Federation should issue an annual Burns Chronicle, the first number of which to appear in January next: which was agreed It was further agreed that the first Chronicle should be issued in an octavo magazine form, of such dimensions as the Editor may determine, full power being left to the Editor to conduct the journal as a Burnsiana repository, and introduce any original literary matter or correspondence which he may consider worthy of publication.

to.

THE ABERDEEN MEMORIAL.

1892.

A Statue of the Poet was unveiled in Aberdeen on September 15th, 1892, in presence of an immense concourse of spectators. The ceremony was performed by Professor Masson, of Edinburgh. The sculptor was Henry Bainsmith, a native of Aberdeen, resident in London.

Gilbert

THE POET'S DESCENDANTS.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

.born....28th September, 1760......died.... 8th April, 1827.

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Gilbert Burns married Jean Breckenridge, (a relation of Sir James Shaw), who was born in Kilmarnock, 6th February, 1764. and had issue :—

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John Begg, eldest son of Robert Burns Begg, Schoolmaster of Kinross, became partner in Kinneil Ironworks, Linlithgow, and died 28th September, 1878.

Robert Burns Begg, fourth son of Robert Burns Begg, born 1st May, 1833, is a Solicitor in good practice in Kinross.

THE POET'S ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN.

Elizabeth Burns (dear-bought Bess), daughter of Elizabeth Paton, was born in November, 1784; married John Bishop, overseer at Polkemmet, and died on January 8th, 1817, leaving several children.

Elizabeth Burns, daughter of Ann Park (a niece of Mrs. Hyslop of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries), was born on 31st March, 1791; married John Thomson, a retired soldier; and had issue :

Jean Armour Thomson,
Robert Burns Thomson,

Agnes Thomson,

James Thomson,

Eliza Thomson,

Sarah Thomson,
Maggie Thomson.

Agnes became Mrs. Watson; Eliza became Mrs. M'Lellan; and Maggie, the wife of

Mr. David Wingate, the well-known Scottish Poet.

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OBERT BURNS was by nature a scrupulous stickler

for truth. He has told us himself that, though he

could sin, he could not lie; and the boast is justified by the tenor of his writings about himself. Not only was he truthful; he was frank to a fault. Those who have had occasion to examine, the accounts Poets have given of themselves, must agree that Burns's autobiography, as communicated in 1787 to Dr. Moore, attains an almost unique nobility in its straightforwardness and independence. Even with regard to his "fillettes," as he terms his sweethearts, he usually displays a candour that is surprising. The autobiography and the other statements of more fragmentary character in which Burns makes his confessions, roundly tell the story of nearly every one of his love affairs. Where his indications were slight, they have been generally supplemented by information afforded by his relatives, or by evidence proudly gathered by the friends of the girls whom he courted.

In the case of "Highland Mary" alone, this candour of Burns and his friends, as well as the friends of his sweetheart, is strikingly absent. If Mary was a paragon of rustic gentleness, we should expect to find that her contemporaries would have been loud in their praises of her. Even had it been necessary for Burns silently to conceal the warmth of his devout attachment to Mary, her character must have impressed itself on others so markedly that impressions of her sayings and doings would be committed to lasting tradition, if not to writing. Her own relations, at any rate, would be intensely proud of their "tight, outlandish hizzie's" being elevated by the Poet to a throne in literature, and in the hearts of men. If the story of Mary's brief love affair was as it has been represented, it would have been the most natural thing in the world for her mother, or her sister, or her brothers, to come forward, at Burns's death, if not before, with a full and reliable account of their Mary, now so famous. Instead of receiving from Burns, or his relatives, or Mary's relatives, a clear account of her who inspired "To Mary in Heaven," we find that all concerned in Mary's story have exhibited the most manifest

anxiety to conceal the facts, and prevent posterity from gaining any certain knowledge of them. As for the part that Burns himself took in wilfully shrouding the case in mystery, it is sufficient to say here that for once he forsook candour, inasmuch as he omitted to refer to Mary when we should most have expected him to mention her; and for once he did not tell the whole truth, inasmuch as, when at length he did venture to refer to this sweetheart, he threw out a hint intended to deprive her of the part she really played in the greatest crisis of his life.

First, then, let us venture to examine Burns himself about Mary Campbell. It is not disputed by any of his recent biographers that in April, 1786, Burns and the Armours had a quarrel; that within a few days of the quarrel Jean went away to Paisley; that thereafter Burns had frequent meetings with Mary Campbell; that in this period he wrote about Mary Campbell the poem entitled "Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary?" "Afton Water," and "My Highland Lassie O;" and that on the second Sunday of May (the 14th) Burns and Mary exchanged Bibles, plighted their troth, and bade each other what proved to be their last farewell. We likewise know that during this very period Burns was preparing his poetry for publication at Kilmarnock. At the time when his estrangement with the Armours was at its bitterest-that is to say, at the end of July— the Kilmarnock edition of the poems appeared. Did "Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary?" find a place in this book, or “Afton Water,”* or "My Highland Lassie"? With the keenest

* Modern editors print this exquisite song as "Sweet Afton." I cannot imagine why they have abandoned the title given to it by Burns (see "Johnson's Museum and Currie's Edition)-" Afton Water," surely as sweet a name as ever made a luxury for the lips. I am almost certain that in the original draft Burns wrote Ayr Water, not Afton Water. Gilbert says the song was written about "Highland Mary," who dwelt by the Ayr, which was (as the song informs us) the "theme of his lays." Burns had no sweetheart near the Afton; nor had he any association at all with the Afton; nor does the Afton "wind" as the song says. We know that when in the neighbourhood of Stairaird, Burns visited Mrs Stewart of Stair, who had a property at Glen Afton, near New Cumnock. He would hear the name " Afton" at Stair, and instantly appropriate it for future use, being a lover of euphonious names. When he contributed the song to the "Museum," it suited him to veil the connexion of Mary with the neighbourhood of the Ayr: here was an additional reason for changing Ayr Water to Afton Water. In Burns's correspondence we find one of several instances in which he abandoned exact geography for fine sound; this instance is apposite, inasmuch as it deals with the name of the Girvan, a stream near the Ayr, and the Lugar, a stream very near the Afton. Burns writes-"In the printed copy of 'My Nannie, O!' [where the name Stinchar originally occurred] the name of the river is horridly prosaic. I will alter it :

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Girvan is the river that suits the idea of the stanza best; but "Lugar" is the most agreeable modulation of syllables." Accordingly Lugar was adopted. (See Chambers's 1856 edition, in which that editor treats "Afton Water" as a poem about Mary.)

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