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ing this connexion are certainly of a very singular nature.*

The reader will perceive, from the foregoing narrative, how much the children of William Burnes were indebted to their father, who was certainly a man of uncommon talents; though it does not appear that he possessed any portion of that vivid imagination for which the subject of these memoirs was distinguished. In page 44, it is observed by our poet, that his father had an unaccountable antipathy to dancing-schools, and that his attending one of these, brought on him his displeasure, and even dislike. On this observation Gilbert has made the following remark, which seems entitled to implicit credit." I wonder how "Robert could attribute to our father that lasting "resentment of his going to a dancing-school a"gainst his will, of which he was incapable. I "believe the truth was, that he about this time

began to see the dangerous impetuosity of my "brother's passions, as well as his not being amenable

*In pages 55, and 56, the poet mentions his"skulking from covert to covert, under terror of a jail.” -The "pack of the law" were "uncoupled at his "heels," to oblige him to find security for the maintenance of his twin-children, whom he was not permitted to legitimate by a marriage with their mother!

"menable to counsel, which often irritated my "father; and which he would naturally think a

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dancing-school was not likely to correct. But " he was proud of Robert's genius, which he be"stowed more expense in cultivating, than on "the rest of the family, in the instances of sending him to Ayr, and Kirk-Oswald schools; and " he was greatly delighted with his warmth of "heart, and his conversational powers. He had "indeed that dislike of dancing-schools which "Robert mentions; but so far overcame it dur"ing Robert's first month of attendance, that he "allowed all the rest of the family that were fit "for it, to accompany him during the second "month. Robert excelled in dancing, and was "for some time distractedly fond of it."

In the original letter to Dr. Moore, our poet described his ancestors as "renting lands of the "noble Keith's of Marischal, and as having had "the honour of sharing their fate. I do not," continues he, " use the word honour with any re"ference to political principles; loyal and disloyal, "I take to be merely relative terms, in that anci"ent and formidable court, known in this coun

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try by the name of Club-law, where the right "is always with the strongest. But those who "dare welcome ruin, and shake hands with in

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famy, for what they sincerely believe to be the

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"cause of their God, or their king, are, as Mark "Anthony says in Shakespeare, of Brutus and "Cassius, honourable men. I mention this cir"cumstance because it threw my father on the "world at large."

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This paragraph has been omitted in printing the letter, at the desire of Gilbert Burns, and it would have been unnecessary to have noticed it on the present occasion, had not several manuscript copies of that letter been in circulation. "not know," observes Gilbert Burns, 66 my brother could be misled in the account he "has given of the Jacobitism of his ancestors."I believe the Earl Marischal forfeited his title "and estate in 1715, before my father was born; "and among a collection of parish certificates in "his possession, I have read one, stating that the "bearer had no concern in the late wicked rebellion." On the information of one who knew William Burnes soon after he arrived in the county of Ayr, it may be mentioned, that a report did prevail, that he had taken the field with the young Chevalier, a report which the certificate mentioned by his son, was perhaps intended to counteract. Strangers from the North, settling in the low country of Scotland, were in those days liable to suspicions, of having been, in the familiar phrase of the country, "Out in the forty-five," (1745) especially

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when they had any stateliness or reserve about them, as was the case with William Burnes. may easily be conceived, that our poet would cherish the belief of his father's having been engaged in the daring enterprise of Prince Charles-Edward. The generous attachment, the heroic valour, and the final misfortunes of the adherents of the House of Stewart, touched with sympathy his youthful and ardent mind, and influenced his original political opinions.*

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*There is another observation of Gilbert Burns on his brother's narrative, in which some persons will be interested. It refers to pages 39, and 40, where the poet speaks of his youthful friends. "My brother," says Gilbert Burns, "seems to set off his early com"panions in too consequential a manner. The princi"pal acquaintance we had in Ayr, while boys, were "four sons of Mr. Andrew M'Culloch, a distant re"lation of my mother's, who kept a tea-shop, and had "made a little money in the contraband trade, very 66 common at that time. He died while the boys 66 were young, and my father was nominated one of "the tutors. The two eldest were bred shopkeepers, "the third a surgeon, and the youngest, the only sur"viving one, was bred in a counting-house in Glas66 gow, where he is now a respectable merchant. I be"lieve all these boys went to the West Indies. Then "there were two sons of Dr. Malcolm, whom I have " mentioned in my letter to Mrs. Dunlop. The eldest,

The father of our poet is described by one who knew him towards the latter end of his life, as above the common stature, thin, and bent with labour. His countenance was serious and expressive, and the scanty locks on his head were grey. He was of a religious turn of mind, and, as is usual among the Scottish peasantry, a good deal conversant in speculative theology. There is in Gilbert's hands, a little manual of religious belief, in the form of a dialogue between a father and his son, composed by him for the use of his children, in which the benevolence of his heart seems to have led him to soften the rigid Calvinism of the Scottish

"a very worthy young man, went to the East Indies, "where he had a commission in the army; he is the "person whose heart my brother says the Munny-Be

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gum scenes could not corrupt. The other, by the interest "of lady Wallace, got an ensigncy in a regiment, "raised by the Duke of Hamilton, during the American war. I believe neither of them are now (1797) "alive. We also knew the present Dr. Paterson, of cc Ayr, and a younger brother of his now in Jamaica, "who were much younger

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than us.

I had almost forgot to mention Dr. Charles, of Ayr, who was a little "older than my brother, and with whom we had a "longer and closer intimacy than with any of the "others, which did not however continue in after "life."

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