MRS BRUCE OF CLACKMANNAN.

Most of the admirers of Burns will have fresh upon their minds an interview with which he is described, in Dr Currie's memoir, as having been honoured at Clackmannan in the course of a short tour, by a Jacobite lady of venerable age, who conferred on him the honour of knighthood in sport, with a sword which had belonged to King Robert Bruce. For the sake of those who may not remember this adventure distinctly, the account of it given by Dr Adair, the poet's fellow traveller, is here subjoined:

"A visit to Mrs Bruce of Clackmannan, a lady above ninety, the lineal descendant of that race which gave the Scottish throne its brightest ornament, interested his feelings more powerfully [than the sight of the romantic scenery of Glendevon, which he had just been visiting]. This venerable dame, with characteristical dignity, informed me, on my observing that I believed she was descended from the family of Robert Bruce, that Robert Bruce was sprung from her family. Though almost deprived of speech by a paralytic affection, she preserved her hospitality and urbanity. She was in possession of the hero's helmet and two-handed sword, with which she conferred on Burns and myself the honour of knighthood, remarking, that she had a better right to confer that title than some people. You will, of course, conclude, that the old lady's political tenets were as Jacobitical as the poet's, a conformity which contributed not a little to the cordiality of our reception and entertainment. She gave, as her first toast after dinner, Awa' Uncos, or, Away with the Strangers. Who these strangers were, you will readily understand. Mrs A. [Charlotte Hamilton] corrects me by saying it should be Hooi, or Hooi Uncos, a sound used by shepherds to direct their dogs to drive away the sheep."

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It will not be, we trust, without interest that the reader beholds a genuine portrait of this fine old country gentlewoman, engraved from a painting executed in 1777, when she was eighty-one years of age, and which is now the property of Robert Scott Moncrieff, Esq., of Edinburgh.

Catherine Bruce was the daughter of Alexander Bruce, Esq., of the family of Newton, and in early life became the wife of Henry Bruce, Esq., of Clackmannan, the acknowledged chief of the family in Scotland. It is a pity that her superb boast as to ancestry is not supported by historical antiquaries. By these scrupulous gentlemen, the descent of her father, husband, and other landed men of the name, cannot be traced farther back than to a Sir Robert Bruce, who lived in the age following that of the restorer of Scottish independence, and whom King David II., in a charter bestowing on him the lands of Clackmannan and others, styles as his cousin. Douglas, indeed, in his Baronage, states that this first Bruce of Clackmannan was descended of John Bruce, a younger son of Robert, usually styled the Competitor, and consequently uncle of King Robert; but this, being unsupported by any authority, has been dropped by Wood: nor, even though proved, would

it make out the king to have been less than the chief of a race, of which the house of Clackmannan were cadets. There is little reason, however, to doubt that from Sir Robert, first of Clackmannan, were descended the families of Airth, Kennet, Kinnaird (of whom came the Abyssinian traveller), Kinloss (of whom are the Earls of Elgin), Kinross, Carnock (of whom were the Earls of Kincardine), and many other honourable houses, productive of eminent historical men.

On the death of Henry Bruce of Clackmannan, July 8, 1772, without surviving issue, the main line of his family became extinct. His widow continued to reside in the massive old tower of the family, situated on a hill at the west end of the town of Clackmannan, where she kept the sword and helmet said to have been worn by king Robert at the battle of Bannockburn. The vigour of body and enthusiasm of mind, which she retained in old age, are strikingly indicated in the fine erect carriage of the accompanying figure, and by the white rose planted in her bosom. She survived to the 4th of November, 1791, when she had reached the age of ninety-five. The sword and helmet then passed, by her will, to the Earl of Elgin, whom she had regarded as the chief of the family since her husband's death, and who still preserves these curiosities with great care at his seat of Broomhall. The tower where the family flourished so long, and where Burns was entertained, has, since the death of Mrs Bruce, fallen into ruin.

FOYERS,

FROM ABOVE THE FALL.

THE fall, or rather falls, of Foyers, in Inverness-shire, were visited, and poetically described by Burns, September 5, 1787, in the course of his Highland tour in company with Mr Nicol.

The river Foyers, after a short course along the table land of Stratherrick, anciently the country of the Frasers, approaches the precipitous hills bordering Loch Ness on the south-east, down which it is thrown in two distinct leaps, a quarter of a mile apart, thus forming the natural curiosities which have given its otherwise humble name so much. celebrity, and caused it to be visited every summer by whole hosts of tourists of all imaginable kinds.

The upper fall is about seventy feet high, but twice broken in its descent. Immediately below it, a bridge, two hundred feet above the surface of the stream beneath, connects the opposing rocks on the two sides of the ravine through which the river has forced its way.