lour and bed-room of the happy pair. This gentleman possessed great natural talents, which, with his rank and fortune, gave him considerable political importance. It was to him, after the rebellion of Viscount Dundee against the revolution settlement, that the ministers of King William entrusted the sum of twenty thousand pounds for the purpose of purchasing the peace of the disaffected Highland chiefs. His answer, when afterwards called upon for an account of the disposal of the money, is yet remembered: "Gentlementhe money is spent, the Highlands are at peace, and that is the only way of accounting among friends." In 1716, when advanced to his eighty-first year, he was described by Mackay, a government spy, in these words-" he has the gravity of a Spaniard, is as cunning as a fox, wise as a serpent, and slippery as an eel." The late John, fourth Earl of Breadalbane, was created a British marquis at the coronation of William IV., in 1831.

The interior of Taymouth castle is remarkable for a fine picture gallery. Of the portraits of Jamieson, an eminent Scottish artist, of the reigns of James VI. and Charles I., the largest collection in existence is to be found here. There are also two beautiful Vandykes-the Earl of Holland and his brother, father and uncle of the lady above mentioned. Among the other pictures, a few pieces by Guercino and Annibal Caracci, are the most remarkable.

BURNS'S COTTAGE,

EXTERIOR.

THE scene of the poet's birth was, as is generally known, a cottage about two miles from Ayr, on the road from that ancient burgh to Maybole, and at a little distance from Alloway Kirk and the "Auld Brig o' Doon." From the information of Gilbert Burns, Dr Currie gave the following account of the first settlement of the poet's father upon the place. It was while in the service of Mr Crawford of Doonside, that William Burnes (so he spelt his name,) "being desirous of settling in life, took a perpetual lease of seven acres of land from Dr Campbell, physician in Ayr, with the view of commencing nursery-man and public gardener, and, having built a house upon it with his own hands, he married, in December 1757, Agnes Brown, the mother of our poet. Before William Burnes had made much progress in preparing his nursery, he was withdrawn from that undertaking by Mr Ferguson, who purchased the estate of Doonholm, in the immediate neighbourhood, and engaged him as his gardener and overseer; and this was his situation when our poet was born. Though in the service of Mr Ferguson, he lived in his own house, his wife managing her family and little dairy, which consisted of two, sometimes of three milch cows; and this state of unambitious content continued till the year 1766."

In this humble cottage, which, from its humble materials, was familiarly recognized in the district under the name of the Clay Bigging, Robert Burns was born on the 25th of January, 1759. It consisted of two apartments, that towards the south being the kitchen and usual residence of the family, while the other was a superior kind of room, such as is usually called in Scotland a spence or ben-end, with what was then a rare accommodation in such places, a fire-place containing a grate :—

"Ben i the spence, right pensivelie,
I gaed to rest,"

THE VISION.

It was in the former of the two apartments that the poet was born. A view of its interior accompanies the present print, and will give all further information that is desirable, respecting the appearance of the place.

Two anecdotes, which would be trifling if they bore reference to a less distinguished person, but respecting Burns cannot be listened to without some degree of interest, have been related. One bears that, when the mother of the poet felt her time approaching, the father took horse, and set out, through the darkness of a stormy January night, for Ayr, in order to bring the necessary female attendant. When he approached a rivulet which crosses the road, and which was not then provided with a bridge, he found it so deep in flood, that a wayfaring female sat on the other side, unable to make her way across on foot. Notwithstanding his haste, he listened to the prayer of this poor woman, and conveyed her through the stream on his horse. When he returned with the woman of skill from Ayr, he found that the gipsey, as she proved to be, had made good her quarters beside his cottage fireside, where she was waiting anxiously for the happy hour of Agnes Burns. It is said that, on the child being placed in her lap, she inspected his palm, after the manner of her profession, and made the predictions which the poet himself has embodied in a whimsical song, not printed in most collections of his works:

"The gossip keekit in his loof,

Quo scho, wha lives will see the proof,
This waly boy will be nae coof;

I think we'll ca' him Robin.

"He'll hae misfortunes great and sma',

But aye a heart aboon them a';

He'll be a credit till us a'—

We'll a' be proud o' Robin.

"But sure as three times three mak nine,

I see by ilka score and line,

This chap will dearly like our kin'
So leeze me on thee, Robin."

While the reader must be left to give this story any degree of credit to which he may think it entitled, the other can be presented upon such authority as renders doubt impossible. Dr Currie had heard a report that the poet was born in the midst of a storm, which blew down a part of the house, and, hinting at this rumour in a letter to Gilbert Burns, he received an answer of which the following is a part :-" When my father built his 'clay