on her youngest daughter, Isabella, who had now attained to womanhood, and was a very able and fluent letter-writer, the duties of "family correspondent," and from this custom she seems only once afterwards to have deviated.

Immediately after returning from a visit to her son at Kinross, she had occasion to write to him on 6th April, 1834, in regard to an effort he was then making to secure for her in her advancing years some fixed and reliable provision in the shape of an annuity under a Mid-Lothian endowment for ladies of straitened means. It may be stated that the effort was successful, and that Mrs. Begg continued to enjoy the small annuity awarded to her for

several years, when, owing to her improved circumstances, she felt herself enabled to relinquish it for the benefit of some probably more claimant :

necessitous

"I presented your letter to Mr. Henderson, and he is most willing to do everything in his power to forward your wishes. He understands the matter perfectly, and the first thing to be done is to get an extract of my age, which he wishes to have immediately, so you must write to Ayr. I was born in 1771, and remember the name is Burness. Your sisters are very indignant at this application, but I am impelled by strong necessity's supreme command to conquer these feelings, however bitterly they may be felt. I reached home that day I left you very much fatigued indeed. I was very sick from the time I left the North Ferry until I came to Edinburgh, when I grew better, and pursued my journey with more ease. You will have seen the death of your aunt [her sister-in-law, Jean Armour] in the newspaper. I had a letter from Robert [the

poet's eldest son] on Monday, with the intelligence of her demise, and, not less distressing information to me, that my sister [Agnes, Mrs. Galt] was reduced to a state of insensibility by a shock of paralysis; but I trust it is not true, as he speaks of it as report only. I had a visit from your aunt from Grantsbraes [her brother Gilbert's widow] on Thursday. Her family are all well, but not a word of Robert. Poor fellow! He had the warmest heart in the family, and he seems to be cast out and forgotten.

"I hope you will make no delay in writing to Ayr, as Mr. H. wishes to have the petition got up as soon as possible, that he may have time to strengthen it as far as he can before going to Edinburgh in May, when he intends putting it into the hands of Principal Baird. Farewell, and may the blessing of God rest on every member of your family is the sincere wish of your affectionate mother."

The letter from Robert Burns, the eldest son of the poet, announcing the death of his mother, to which Mrs. Begg refers in the letter above quoted,

she carefully preserved. It is written on the back of a printed card conveying formal intimation of the death as follows:

"Mrs. Robert Burns died here this evening at half-past eleven o'clock.-Burns Street, 26th March, 1834."

Robert's letter is in the following

terms:

"DUMFRIES.

"MY DEAR AUNT,-You will perceive by the other side that my mother is no more. I was at Glasgow when I received intelligence of her having had another shock of paralysis on Saturday evening last, and I hastened home. I arrived in sufficient time to find her in life, and to be certain that she knew me, which was a great consolation to me. She never spoke again after the shock. I received the intelligence on Monday last, just when I was preparing to come to Edinburgh by the canal to see you and my

That

aunt Burns [his uncle Gilbert's widow]. pleasure, however, I shall yet have as early as possible. I have addressed the notice to my aunt Burns to your care because I do not know her direction. I am sorry to have to add that I have accidentally heard that your sister Agnes in Ireland is reduced to a state of insensibility by a paralytic shock. I shall be happy to hear from you as early as possible. Give my love to my cousins. Pardon the confused style in which this letter is written, and believe me, my dear aunt, yours affectionately,

"R. BURNS."

For the reasons already indicated, the experiences of the later period of Mrs. Begg's life cannot be gleaned from her own vigorous graphic utterances, but, fortunately, these can, in a certain measure, be supplied from the personal recollections of the writer of this Memoir. These recollections extend