DAY STANZA VIII. LINE I. 'Stamp-Office Johnie':-Mr. John THE Syme, Writer, Dumfries, an especial friend of Burns. See post, ELECTION p. 446, Prefatory Note to To John Syme. 3. 'Cassencarry' :Colonel M'Kenzie of Cassencarry. 4. In some sets 'gleg' is inserted before 'Colonel Tam.' He was Colonel Heron, according to the Museum copy; but Colonel Goldie of Goldielea is given elsewhere. 5. 'Trusty Kerroughtree':-Mr. Heron of Kerroughtrie, the Whig candidate. STANZA IX. LINE I reads, in some sets, 'An' there will be Heron the Major -He was brother of the Whig candidate. 5. Maiden Kilkerran' :-Sir Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran. See Vol. i. p. 325, Note to The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer, Stanza XIII. Line 3. 6. 'Barskimming's guid Knight': -Sir William Miller of Barskimming, son of Sir Thomas Miller, Lord Barskimming. See Vol. i. p. 354, Note to The Vision, Duan 1. Stanza xx. Line 1. 7. 'Roaring Birtwhistle': Alexander Birtwhistle, Provost of Kirkcudbright. STANZA X. LINE 2-3 in some sets read thus : 'The Maxwells will gather in droves : Teuch Johnie, staunch Geordie, an' Wellwood.' See See Teuch Johnie' was John Maxwell of Terraughtie. ante, p. 378, Prefatory Note to To John Maxwell, Esq. 5. Logan's M'Doual' :-Colonel M'Doual of Logan. Vol. iii. Prefatory Note to Young Peggy. 8. 'Gunpowther Blair':-Major Blair of Dunskey. BALLAD THIRD: JOHN BUSHBY'S LAMENTATION FOR John Bushby see post, p. 457, Prefatory Note to Epitaph on John Bushby; and for the personages referred to in the ballad, except those denoted below, see ante, pp. 402-5, Notes to Ballad Second, STANZA 1. This Stanza is modelled after the old ballad, The Age and Life of Man (see Vol. i. p. 372). STANZA III. LINE I. 'Yerl Galloway' :-See post, p. 440, JOHN Prefatory Note to Epigrams against the Earl of Galloway. BUSHBY'S 2-4 in some sets read thus: LAMENTA- 'Made me the judge o' strife; But now Yerl Galloway's sceptre's broke, 3-4 in some sets read thus: 'And thereto was his kinsmen join'd STANZA VII. LINE 2. 'Wi' wingèd spurs' :-The reference is to Murray's elopement: a winged spur being the crest of the house of Johnstone, to which the lady—‘the auld grey yaud,' a 'Nidsdale rade,' as Burns genteelly describes her-belonged. BALLAD FOURTH: THE TROGGER WRITTEN for Heron's election for Kirkcudbright in '96. Burns died before the result was known. On this occasion Heron was opposed by the Hon. Montgomery Stewart, son of the Earl of Galloway. A trogger is a travelling hawker or packman. The Ballad was published in Cunningham (1834). There is a copy in the University Library, Edinburgh; and one of the original broadsides is at Abbotsford. For the persons, see Notes to Ballad Second. STANZA VIII. LINE 4. 'Sprawlin as a taed,' Abbotsford copy. THE DEAN OF THE FACULTY WRITTEN to the tune of The Dragon of Wantley, an old, gross, humorous ballad, entitled 'An Excellent Ballad of a most Dreadful Combat fought between Moore of Moore-hall and the Dragon of Wantley. To a pleasant tune much in request.' It begins : 'Old stories tell how Hercules A Dragon slew at Lerna, With seven heads and fourteen eyes To see and well discern-a; But he had a club this Dragon to drub, Or he had ne'er don't, I warrant you; But Moore of Moore-hall with nothing at all Old broadside copies are in the Roxburghe and Pepys Collections. 'A Burlesque Opera' was 'modernised from the Old Ballad after the Italian manner by Sig. Carini' [i.e. Henry Carey], c. 1710. Burns charged the squib on learning that Robert Dundas of Arniston-against whom he had a grudge (see post, p. 414, Prefatory Note to On the Death of Lord President Dundas)-had, on 12th January 1796, been elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates by a large majority over Henry Erskine. Dundas, the son of the Lord President, was born 6th June 1758; appointed Lord Advocate in 1789; from 1790 to 1796 sat for Edinburgh; in 1801 was made Baron of the Exchequer; and died 17th June 1819. For Erskine, see Vol. i. p. 326, The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer, Stanza xiv. Line 1; and also post, p. 430, Prefatory Note to In the Court of Session. The piece was printed in Cromek's Reliques, all but the last stanza, omitted for the reference to the King, and first set forth by Peter Cunningham in 1842. The Ms. is in the British Museum, and a few minor errors are here corrected from it. MISCELLANIES THE TARBOLTON LASSES PUBLISHED in Chambers (1851). A poor thing enough; but no doubt genuine. DEAN OF THE FACULTY THE RONALDS OF THE BENNALS PUBLISHED in Chambers (1851). The Bennals was a farm in Tarbolton parish. Miss Jean refused Gilbert Burns. The father, supposed to have 'Braid money to tocher them a', man,' went bankrupt in 1789, when Robert wrote to his brother William :- You will easily guess that from his insolent vanity in his sunshine of life, he will now feel a little retaliation from those who thought themselves eclipsed by him.' STANZA XIII. LINE 2. 'Twal' hundred':-Linen woven in a reed of twelve hundred divisions. I'LL GO AND BE A SODGER PUBLISHED in Currie (1800)—(dated April 1782)—but not As they walked forth one day, "Sweet, let me kiss thy ruddy lips, 3 APOSTROPHE TO FERGUSSON THE Copy of Fergusson bearing this passionate but Anglified and imitative protest was given by Burns, while in Edinburgh in 1787, to a young woman, herself a writer of verse :-This copy of Ferguson's Poems is |