The poetical works of Robert Burns, ed. by C. Kent

2. Dr. James Currie (Life and Works, 4 vols.).

3. James Storer and John Greig (Illustrated Works, with Sketch of Life)

4. Robert Hartley Cromek (Reliques of Burns)

5. Lord (Francis) Jeffrey (Edinburgh Review) 6. Sir Walter Scott (Quarterly Review)

7. Dr. David Irving (Life of Burns)

8. Professor (Josiah) Walker (Life and Poems, 2 vols.) 9. Rev. Hamilton Paul (Life and Poems).

10. Gilbert Burns (Additions to Dr. Currie's 8th Edition)
11. Hew Ainslie (Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns)
12. Archibald Constable (Life and Works, 3 vols.)
13. Alexander Peterkin (Life and Works, 4 vols.)
14. John Gibson Lockhart (Life of Burns).
15. Thomas Carlyle (Edinburgh Review)

16. Allan Cunningham (Life and Works, 8 vols.)

17. James Hogg and William Motherwell (Memoir and Works, 5 vols.)
18. Professor (John) Wilson (Essay on Genius and Character)

19. W. C. McLehose (Correspondence between Burns and Clarinda)
20. Samuel Tyler (Burns as a Poet and as a Man)
21. Robert Chambers (Life and Works)

22. George Gilfillan (Memoir and Works, 2 vols.)

23. Rev. James White (Robert Burns and Walter Scott: Two Lives) 24. Rev. Peter Hately Waddell (Life and Works)

25. John and Angus Macpherson (Centenary Edition)

31. William Michael Rossetti (Memoir and Works)
32. Charles Cowden Clarke (Memoir and Works, 2 vols.)
33. James Gibson (Robert Burns and Masonry).
34. Rev. Stopford Brooke (Theology in the English Poets)
35. Henry Bright (Account of the Glenriddel MSS.)

36. William Scott Douglas (Kilmarnock Edition, 2 vols.)
37. P. F. Aiken (Memorials of Burns and his Contemporaries)

1797

SEVEN EPOCHS IN BURNS' LIFE.

FIRST EPOCH-ALLOWAY.

Seven years were passed in the Auld Clay Biggin at Alloway, from the 25th of January, 1759, until the Whitsuntide of 1766.

SECOND EPOCH-MOUNT OLIPHANT.

Eleven years (from his seventh to his eighteenth year) were passed in the farm at Mount Oliphant, from the Whitsuntide of 1766 until the Whitsuntide of 1777.

THIRD EPOCH-LOCHLEA.

Six years (from his eignteenth to his twenty-fourth year) were passed in the farm at Lochlea, from the Whitsuntide of 1777 until the Martinmas of 1783.

FOURTH EPOCH-MOSSGIEL.

Three years (from his twenty-fourth to his twenty-seventh year) were passed at Mossgiel, from the Martinmas of 1783 until the Martinmas of 1786,

FIFTH EPOCH-EDINBURGH.

Nearly two years (from his twenty-eighth on into his twenty-ninth year) were passed in Edinburgh, or in tours to the south, and into the West Highlands.

SIXTH EPOCH-ELLISLAND.

Three years (from his twenty-ninth to his thirty-second year), from the Whitsuntide of 1788, until nearly the end of 1791, were passed at the farm of Ellisland.

SEVENTH EPOCH-DUMFRIES.

Five years, from the end of 1791, until the 21st of July, 1796, when he died (at the age of thirty-seven years and six months, all but four days), were passed in the town of Dumfries, first in the Wee Vennel, now known as Bank Street, and finally in a narrow street near the church, now called Burns Street, in memory of its having been the last place of residence of the National Poet of Scotland.

BURNS AT MOSSGIEL,*

BRIGHT dews of labour on his brow,

Warm passion in the ruddy glow, Deep-flushing lustrous eyes below

What love flames back

Where thro' green leaves the white gleams flow That mark her track!

Sweet glimpse but of a rustic girl

With tartan veiled, whence streams one curl,
Where fluttering witcheries unfurl

Love's springe of hair

Of ringlets, yea! the pink, the pearl,
His heart to snare!

Among the rippling wheat he stands,
A tawny reaper with brown hands,

That swathe ripe sheaves with crackling bands,
Or with keen blade

Sweep gold waves back from stubble-strands
With shocks arrayed.

Rough, sunburnt, stalwart son of toil,
To till, to sow, to glean the soil,
How fair for thee that ringlet's coil

That lures thy gaze!

Not rudest lot thy fame shall foil

To chant her praise !

One moment there, one moment gone, Quenched seems the arrowy beam that shone That twinkling golden tress upon

In trills of light

Hope's shadowy mist of dreamings drawn Before thy sight!

Seen thro' which tremulous haze of hope, Spread wide before thy fancy's scopeAs when o'er midnight's mystic cope

God's gems are seenStrange visionary splendours ope And shine serene.

A young athletic peasant, thou!

Full soon Fame's crown shall gird thy brow Thick gemmed with scarlet berries' glow, 'Mid bristling leaves,

Thy sceptre, but a sickle now,

Sway souls for sheaves.

That wondrous sceptre of thy song
Shall ever to thy land belong,
While every rapture, every wrong,

That thrills thy breast,

By sympathy shall thrill the throng

Thy woes have blest.

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The bonniest lass of blithest charms
Thou e'er didst win with wooing arms,
To soothe thee 'midst the world's alarms
In home's dear rest,
With looks whose merest memory warms
Thy manly breast.

The fairest of them all was she

Yon "lass that made the bed for thee!"
To whom thy trust in grief may flee,

By anguish riven-
When Highland Mary e'en shall be
Still loved in heaven!
Unheard as yet Fame's trumpet-call
From yonder lowly labours' thrall
To grand Walhalla's deathless hall,
Where waits his throne-
Yon Peasant-Poet counts worth all
Her love alone!

Around him thus the day-beams shine
O'er locks more black than raven's crine,
O'er glittering orbs of light divine,

* From "Dreamland, and other Poems." By Charles Kent. Longmans, 1862.

WILLIAM BURNESS' FAMILY.

William Burness, born at Clockenhill, 11th of November, 1721. (Died 13th of February, 1784, ætat. 63.)

Agnes Brown, his Wife, born in Carrick district, 17th of March, 1732. (Married 15th of December, 1757.)

Children

1. Robert, born 25th of January, 1759.
(Died 21st of July, 1796, ætat. 37.)

2. Gilbert, born 28th of September, 1760.

3. Agnes, born 30th of September, 1762.

4. Anabella, born 14th of November, 1764.

5. William, born 30th of July, 1767.

6. John, born 10th of July, 1769.

7. Isabel, born 27th of June, 1771.

ROBERT BURNS' FAMILY.

Robert Burns, born 25th of January, 1759.

(Died at Dumfries, 21st of July, 1796, ætat. 37.)

Jean Armour, his Wife, born at Mauchline, February, 1765. (Died at Dumfries, 26th of March, 1834, ætat. 69.)

Children

Twins-boy and girl-born 3rd of September, 1786. 1. Robert. (The girl died in infancy.)

Twins again, born 12th of March, 1788.

(Both died soon after their birth.)

2. Francis Wallace, born 18th of August, 1789. (Died 9th of July, 1803, ætat. 14.)

3. William Nicol, born 9th of April, 1791.

4. Elizabeth Riddel, born 21st of November, 1792. (Died September, 1795, ætat. 2 years, 10 months.) 5. James Glencairn, born 12th of August, 1794. (Died in 1865.)

6. Maxwell (posthumous), born 25th of July, 1796.

(Died 25th of April, 1799, ætat. 2 years, 9 months.)

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