good counsels and active friendship as a man, as the public is sensible he was to his good taste and judgment as a critic." "Of the unbiassed opinion of such a highly respectable gentleman and accomplished scholar as Lord Woodhouselee, I certainly feel not a little proud: it is of itself more than sufficient to silence the calumnies by which I have been assailed, first anonymously, and afterwards, to my great surprise, by some writers who might have been expected to possess sufficient judgment to see the matter in its true light. "TO ROBERT CHAMBERS, Esq., Waterloo Place."

To this letter of my excellent friend Mr Thomson, little can be added. His work, the labour of his lifetime, has long been held the classical depository of Scottish melody and song, and is extensively known. His own character, in the city where he has spent so many years, has ever stood high. It was scarcely necessary that Mr Thomson should enter into a defence of himself against the inconsiderate charges which have been brought against him. When Burns refused remuneration from one whom he knew to be, like himself, of the generation of Apollo rather than of Plutus, and while his musical friend was only entering upon a task the results of which no one then could tell, how can Mr Thomson be fairly blamed? If a moderate success ultimately crowned his enterprise and toil, and the success has probably been much more moderate than Mr Thomson's assailants suppose-long after the poor bard was beyond the reach of money and all superior consolations, who can envy it, or who can say that it offers any offence to the manes of the unhappy poet? The charge was indeed never preferred but in ignorance, and would be totally unworthy of notice if ignorant parties were not still apt to be imposed upon by it.

NEW BRIG OF DOON,

WITH BURNS'S MONUMENT.

In this print the spectator is supposed to stand on the left or south bank of the Doon, immediately below the place where the river is crossed by the road from Ayr to Maybole. The "New Bridge" is one which has been built since the time of Burns, about a hundred yards below the Old: all the other artificial objects, except Alloway Kirk, are likewise modern. The cottage between the Kirk and the Bridge is one built within the last few years, and adorned with great taste, by Mr David Auld, of Ayr. Close beside the end of the bridge is a neat inn, also erected of late years, being designed for the accommodation of parties visiting this interesting place. Directly over the bridge, the Monument raises its beautiful form-and to this object the remainder of the present article is to be devoted.

NEW BRIG OF DOON-WITH BURNS'S MONUMENT.

43

The credit of originating a monument to Burns on the spot of his birth-place, is due to the late Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck,-a man who will long be remembered in his own country for his social and amiable character, his lively talents, and hearty sympathy with all that concerned his country's weal, whatever may be thought of the unfortunate circumstances which brought his existence to a close. Mr Boswell, (for he had not then attained his baronetcy), in concert with one other individual, being deeply impressed with the claims of Burns upon his countrymen, ventured to call a public meeting in Ayr for a particular day, to consider the propriety of acknowledging those claims by the erection of a suitable monument. The day arrived-Mr Boswell and his friend went to the place appointed-but, to their great surprise, not a single person came to join them. To all appearance, they had miscalculated the public feeling on the subject; and, under such circumstances, the most of men would have retired from the field, and thought no more about the matter. Mr Boswell and his friend thought differently; they believed that accidental circumstances might be in a great measure the cause of the failure of the meeting-that even in Ayr there was no want of feeling on the subject— but that, should local sympathy fail, there were Scottish hearts under all latitudes which would throb at the idea of rearing a suitable mark of the fame of Burns beside the banks and braes of bonnie Doon. Accordingly, Mr Boswell was voted by his friend into the chair: a resolution to commence a subscription for the monument was moved by the same friend, and passed, we need not say, unanimously-a minute of the proceedings was drawn up and signed by the chairman; and the meeting was then dissolved. It then depended entirely on the vigour with which the resolution was advertised, and the subscription pushed, whether the monument should be reared or not. Much was done for the object in Scotland by Mr Boswell, and still more in London and in the East Indies, chiefly through the instrumentality of Sir James Shaw and Mr William Fairlie, both of that city. At the beginning of 1820, the sum of £1600 was collected, and it was resolved to commence the building on the anniversary of the poet's birth-day, that year.

On the appointed day, a number of masonic bodies, headed by Mr Boswell as Deputy Grand Master, marched in procession from Ayr to the place selected between the New and Old Bridges over the Doon, accompanied by a vast concourse of spectators. The foundation-stone bore a plate containing the following inscription: "By the favour of Almighty God, on the 25th day of January, A.D. MDCCCXX; of the Era of Masonry 5820, and in the sixtieth year of the reign of our beloved sovereign George the Third, His Royal Highness George Prince of Wales being Regent of the United Kingdom, and a munificent subscriber to the edifice, the Foundation-stone of this Monument, erected by public subscription in honour of the genius of Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Poet, was laid by Alexander Boswell, Esq. of Auchinleck, M. P., Worshipful Depute Grand Master of the most ancient Mother Lodge Kilwinning, (attended by all the masonic lodges in Ayrshire), according to the ancient usages of Masonry. Thomas Hamilton, Jun., Edinburgh, architect; John Connel, Jun., builder and contractor." An address from Mr

Boswell and a prayer from the Rev. Hamilton Paul, of Broughton, concluded this interesting rite.

The Monument was finished on the 4th of July 1823, when Mr Fullarton of Skeldon, in the presence of a numerous assemblage of free masons and subscribers, placed the tripod on the summit, and delivered an appropriate address. The building recalls the purest days of Grecian architecture. It was meant by Mr Hamilton to be in some measure a revival of the celebrated monument of Lysicrates at Athens; and it also, we believe, bears some resemblance to the church San Pietro in Mantoris at Rome. The edifice consists of a triangular basement (representative of the three divisions of Ayrshire, Carrick, Kyle, and Cunningham), upon which rises a circular peristyle supporting a cupola. The peristyle consists of nine pillars, representative of the number of the Muses, thirty feet in height, and of the Corinthian order. They were designed from the three remaining columns of the Comitium in the Forum at Rome. Above the cupola rises a gilt tripod, supported by three inverted dolphins,—fishes sacred to Apollo, and hence selected as ornaments proper to the monument of a poet. The whole building, the cost of which was about £2000, is sixty feet in height from the platform within the peristyle. The view embraces not only Alloway Kirk, the Old Bridge, the banks of the Doon, and other objects consecrated by the genius of the poet, but a track of country of unsurpassed beauty and richness, and one of the noblest inland seas connected with our Scottish shores. About an acre of shrubbery surrounds the Monument; and it is not unworthy of notice that the gardeners of the district, led by an admiration of the genius of their gifted countryman, assemble once every year, and give this spot a day's labour. In the interior chamber, there are exhibited several articles appropriate to the place a copy, by Mr Steven of Edinburgh, of the original portrait of Burns by Naismyth-a range of various editions of the poet's works-a snuff-box made from the wood-work of Alloway Kirk— eight chairs made from the beam which supported the bell in the old steeple of Ayr (the bell of "the Dungeon Clock")-and some oil illustrations of scenes in the poems of Burns. In a grotto hard by, are shown the two matchless statues of Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnnie, by Mr James Thom of Ayr.

Burns's Monument, beautiful in itself as an architectural object, and surrounded by so many things which a Scottish heart delights to ponder on, is a favourite place of resort for parties of pleasure of almost every kind. A Kilmarnock weaver brings his bride to it, by way of giving her a marriage jaunt. The gentry of Ayrshire bring their visitors to it, as to a place which no one would be within thirty miles of, without going to see. The trades lads of the neighbouring towns of Ayr and Maybole come to it to enjoy their weekly half holidays on the Saturday afternoons. Even the children learn to wander to "the Monument," and to point out scenes and spots, which have attained an importance in their eyes before they know for what. We have learned that, during the finer season of the year, there is a remarkable out-pouring of the "nations" of Kilmarnock to this place. They come in carts and in cars, twelve or eighteen to a party; and occasionally