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Alloway Kirk is now desolate and roofless, its main appurtenance in the shape of furniture being the bell at the east end. A partition wall divides the interior, one moiety being the family burial place of Lord Alloway.

The Winnock bunker in the east,

Where sate Auld Nick in shape o' beast,

is still to be seen, a small window, rather dilapidated; but the old oaken rafters and the kirk are now almost all commemorated into snuff-boxes.

In the churchyard we shall find the monuments of many unknown to fame; but among them is a small stone recording the name of William Burness, the father of the poet, together with the brief epitaph inscribed by his son:

Oh ye whose cheek the tear of pity stains,

Draw near with pious reverence and attend.
Here lie the loving husband's dear remains,
The tender father and the generous friend.

The pitying heart that felt for human woe,
The dauntless heart that fear'd no human pride.

"The friend of man, to vice alone a foe,

For even his failings lean'd to virtue's side."

In that kirkyard too, Fashion, which would have spurn'd the living man, whose memory it thinks it worships, comes from a distance to be buried! Truly, a living dog is better than a dead lion; and a dead lion is ever more esteemed than a living one.

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BUT our space, if not our time, presses, and we must now do our speedy utmost to win the key-stone of the Brig― THE AULD BRIG OF DOON - the way to which, a steep path which Meg must have found it no easy matter to surmount, especially under the peculiar circumstances of her case, is connected with the road by a sharp turn. The arch in question is a respectable specimen of old brig architecture, and the bridge is kept in tolerable repair.

The original of Tam o' Shanter is said to have been Douglas Grahame, a farmer of Carrick, a somewhat noted toper. One day, being in Ayr, he tied his good gray mare to a ring at the door of a public house, and during his stay, some mischievous urchins amused themselves by plucking the tail for the purpose of making fishing lines, till they left hardly a hair. It was not till the next day he discovered his loss, and very reasonably was it imputed to some diabolical influence. Hinc illæ lachrymæ!

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RAMBLE FROM AYR TO BURNS'S BIRTH-PLACE.

T.CILKS.

BURNS'S MONUMENT AND ALLOWAY KIRK FROM THE ROAD.

WE have before said, Burns was emphatically the poet of the people—and most truly is the fact illustrated by the humbler folk of Ayr: for when they do make holiday, it is generally to visit some of the haunts associated with the poet. We well remember on a fine Saturday morning one summer, as we were bent on meditating in these haunts; we had just turned out of the main street, and branched off to the left into the country road leading to all these hallowed localities, when we overtook a large party of lads and lasses - full of glee and merriment as good humoured as the day was beautiful—and bent upon seeing what they had evidently looked forward to for many a day; we learned they had never been there before; and as we all progressed along the road together, they passed away the time jovially

by singing, separately and in concert, many of the wellknown songs, and snatches of songs, of the poet.

The scenery is rather flat and monotonous for about a mile and a half: the country then undulates charmingly; and, passing the mansion of Roselle, about two miles from Ayr, we enter that very different mansion-the humble shieling, where Burns, on the 25th of January,

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1759, was added to the family of man; now the village ale-house, in the kitchen of which, in that recess, stood the bed in which the poet was born.

The original building was a clay bigging, comprising a "but and a ben," built by old William Burness with his own hands when he married Agnes Brown, the poet's mother, and where he resided till 1766.

It was crushed by a tempest a few days after the poet's birth, so that he had scarcely been ushered into the world, when he had to commence the struggle for a shelter.

It is now an alehouse, and contains sundry humble

BURNS'S BIRTH-PLACE.

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relics and tokens connected with his youth and infancy. The parish in which it is situated took its name from

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Coilus, king of the Picts, who lies buried, so they say, near the family seat of the Montgomeries of Coilsfield.

Old Burness, on his departure, sold the leasehold to the Corporation of Shoemakers, to whom it still belongs. As we near Alloway Kirk, the background becomes a richly wooded scene. Our little party were now overtaken by a crowded vehicle containing a batch of old folks, for whom the walk was too much; and whose day was gone by for whiling away the time by the rich laugh and noisy mirth which characterised their young relatives; but who nevertheless appeared quite young again, in the recollections of bygone times, and appeared to revel in calling up traditions of one who seemed such a part and parcel of themselves.

When we all arrived at the Brig of Doon, and were looking down on the tasteful cottage between the kirk and the bridge, which belongs to Mr. David Auld, who has devoted much zeal, as well as money, towards

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