to them tidings that make their hearts swim in joy, and their imaginations soar in transport-such, so delighting and so pure, were the emotions of my soul on meeting the other day with Miss Lesley Baillie, your neighbour. Mr. Baillie, with his two daughters, accompanied by Mr. H. of G., passing through Dumfries a few days ago on their way to England, did me the honour of calling on me: on which took my horse (though God knows I could ill spare the time,) and accompanied them fourteen or fifteen miles, and dined and spent the day with them. 'Twas about nine, I think, when I left them; and riding home, I composed the following ballad."

It is to be hoped that Mr. Findlater will read this note, and feel that when he charged the editor with misrepresentation, he was, in fact, accusing Burns. If the Poet had no horse while he lived in Dumfries, as the supervisor avers, how came he to mount one and ride to Annan with Miss Lesley Baillie? His words are plain and to the point; and the editor must continue to believe that Burns mounted his horse, though it has pleased Mr. Findlater to say otherwise.-ED.]

No. VI.

BURNS TO G. THOMSON.

HIGHLAND MARY.

Tune-" Katharine Ogie."

I.

YE banks, and braes, and streams around The castle o' Montgomery,

Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie !

There simmer first unfauld her robes,
And there the langest tarry ;
For there I took the last fareweel

O' my sweet Highland Mary.

II.

How sweetly bloom'd the gay green birk,

How rich the hawthorn's blossom,

As underneath their fragrant shade
I clasp'd her to my bosom !
The golden hours, on angel wings,
Flew o'er me and my dearie ;
For dear to me, as light and life,

Was my sweet Highland Mary!

III.

Wi' mony a vow, and lock'd embrace,

Our parting was fu' tender;

And, pledging aft to meet again,

We tore oursels asunder;

But oh! fell death's untimely frost,
That nipt my flower sae early!—
Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay,
That wraps my Highland Mary!

IV.

O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kissed sae fondly!
And clos'd for ay the sparkling glance,
That dwelt on me sae kindly!
And mouldering now in silent dust,
That heart that lo'ed me dearly-
But still within my bosom's core
Shall live my Highland Mary!

14th November, 1792.

MY DEAR SIR:

I agree with you that the

song, "Katharine Ogie," is very poor stuff, and unworthy, altogether unworthy, of so beautiful an air. I tried to mend it; but the awkward sound, Ogie, recurring so often in the rhyme, spoils every attempt at introducing sentiment into the piece. The foregoing song

pleases myself; I think it is in my happiest manner: you will see at first glance that it suits the air. The subject of the song is one of the most interesting passages of my youthful days; and I own that I should be much flattered to see the verses set to an air which would ensure celebrity. Perhaps, after all, 'tis the still glowing prejudice of my heart that throws a borrowed lustre over the merits of the composition.

I have partly taken your idea of "Auld Rob Morris." I have adopted the two first verses, and am going on with the song on a new plan, which promises pretty well. I take up one or another, just as the bee of the moment buzzes in my bonnetlug; and do you, sans ceremonie, make what use you choose of the productions.-Adieu, &c.

[In the notes to "My Highland Lassie, O," and "To Mary in Heaven," as well as in the Life of Burns, not a little has been said of Mary Campbell, of whose loveliness and too early death the Poet sung with so much beauty and pathos. More, and much that is interesting, can be added my friend, John Kerr, Esq., writer in Glasgow, has communicated the following particulars :

"The parents of Highland Mary lived in Greenock, and she crossed the firth of Clyde to visit some relations in Cowal, previous to her marriage. Her father was a mariner; had two sons, Archibald and Robert; and, besides Mary, a daughter, named Anne, who married James Anderson, a stonemason. All these individuals

are now dead: Mary was not long outlived by her father and brothers: her mother died in great poverty in the year 1828. The representatives of Highland Mary, therefore, now consist of Anderson's children-two sons and two daughters. Mary, it appears, was not hurried to the grave immediately after her return from Cowal: she lived several weeks with her father, and every week received a letter from her lover. The circumstance of a girl in her humble condition receiving a letter weekly excited the curiosity of the neighbours: the secret was carefully hunted out, and one of the gossips informed her father and mother that Mary was in the habit of receiving letters from a person named Burns, who was known to be a strange character, and a great scoffer at women.' Mary was questioned on the subject, and admitted the correspondence, laughing heartily at the description of her lover, whose scoffing, she said, she was ready to trust to. After this, Mary was allowed to receive her letters openly one of them, it appears, contained the song of 'The Highland Lassie, O;' for her mother got it by heart from the Poet's correspondence, and, in her declining years, soothed her grand-children with strains which recorded the charms of her favourite daughter,

"It is to be regretted that none of these letters are now in existence. After Mary's death, her father disliked all allusions to her or to her lover; and when Burns wrote a moving letter, requesting some memorial of her he loved so dearly, the stern old man neither answered it, nor allowed any one to speak about it in his presence. His grand-children can sing some scraps of the songs which he wrote in praise of their aunt; and these, save the Bible presented to her by the Poet, are all that the rela