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BANKS OF THE DOON.

Oft hae I roved by bonnie Doon,

To see the rose and woodbine twine;
And ilka bird sang o' its luve,

And fondly sae did I o' mine.
Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,
Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree;
And my fause luver stole my rose,

But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.

21

It has been said that all the earlier songs of Burns were founded upon truth-the one above quoted, upon the fatal love of Miss Kennedy of Dalgarrock for M'Dowall of Logan; so all the images and associations of these, and of all his compositions, were wrought from actual and deep-felt experience.

MOUNT OLIPHANT.

BOUT two miles from the Cottage is the farm of Mount Oliphant, whither old Burness removed when Robert had passed his sixth year, and where he superintended the education of the young poet. There, when the youth had just reached the age of fourteen, adverse seasons and the natural deficiences of a hungry and sterile farm ruined the old man; and a stern factor's cruel and threatening letters drove him out of house and home. This factor has been married to immortal verse in the satire of the Twa Dogs:

I've noticed on our Laird's court-day,
An' mony a time my heart's been wae,
Poor tenant bodies, scant o' cash,
How they maun thole a factor's snash.
He'll stamp and threaten, curse and swear,
He'll apprehend them, poind their gear;
While they maun stand with aspect humble,
And hear it a', and fear and tremble.

BURNS AT KIRKOSWALD.

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URNS spent his nineteenth summer on this bleak coast of the Frith of Clyde ; studying there, under Hugh Rodger, the arts of land-surveying and mensuration, and, under the rose, some other arts which left a more lasting impress upon his mind and habits. Here was the original of Kirton Jean; of Tam o' Shanter and Souter Johnnie; for here flourished Douglas Graham, a hearty Carrick farmer and a bit of a smuggler, and his wife, Helen M'Taggart, who, it is hoped, somewhat exaggerated her gude man's failings, if she

"Tauld him he was a skellum,

A bletherin, blusterin, drunken blellum;
That frae November till October,

Ae market day he was na sober;

though doubtless, in those migrations between the farms of Duquhat and Shanter, where "Burns, an observant boy, inspected the actions of his dotard seniors," he did observe many things well fitted to justify "the sulky

sullen dame, nursing her wrath to keep it warm," till it got comfortable vent on the devoted head of the reeling yeoman.

At Kirkoswald, too, Burns encountered the Peggy who inspired the song, beginning

-Now westlin winds, and slaught'ring guns,

Bring Autumn's pleasant weather;
The moorcock springs, on whirring wings,
Amang the blooming heather:

Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain,

Delights the weary farmer;

And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night,
To muse upon my charmer.

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W

COVES OF COLZEAN.

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E must not leave the associations of Kirkoswald without introducing the traveller to the Coves of Colzean and Cassilis Downans the lands of the Kennedies, Earls of Cassilis, ennobled in the fifteenth century, but long before that period the leading families of the Carrick Border. Still more famous now are those scenes as the haunts of the visionary beings to whom the muse of Burns, in the poem of Halloween, has given these rocks and streams as their habitation.

Upon that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance:
Or for Colzean the route is ta'en,

Beneath the moon's pale beams;

There, up the Cove, to stray and rove

Amang the rocks and streams,

To sport that night.

Colzean Castle, underneath which are the six coves of Colzean above referred to, is about two miles from Kirkoswald. It is now the principal seat of the Marquis of Ailsa, Earl of Cassilis, and is a fine specimen of the modern baronial architecture, with its range of castellated roofs, its Gothic windows, and terraced gardens, overhanging the ocean, on the verge of a lofty cliff. It was built in 1777, on the site of the more ancient "Old House of the Cove."

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