"UBI MEL,

No. 8-NEW SERIES.]

[TWOPENCE.

THE FLY'S PICTURE GALLERY.

ROBERT BURNS AND HIS HIGHLAND

MARY.

"How sweetly bloom'd the gay green birk
How rich the hawthorn blossom,
As underneath its fragrant shade,
I clasp'd her to my bosom;

The golden hours on angel's wings
Flew o'er me and my dearie;
For dear to me as light and life,
Was my sweet Highland Mary."

MEMOIR OF ROBERT BURNS. There are few individuals who have not heard of the name of Burns. No poet ever lived more constantly and more intimately in the hearts of his countrymen. With their mirth or with their melancholy, how often do his native "wood-notes wild" affect the sons of poverty and toil, till their hearts overflow with feelings which render them happier than the opulent and proud, and more than reconcile them to the condition assigned them in life by Providence. In his poetry they see, with pride, the reflection of the sentiments and manners of their own order. Supported by this elevation of mind, the poor envy not the rich. They exult to know and to feel that they have had treasures bequeathed to them by one of themselves, treasures of the intellect, the fancy, and the imagination, of which the possession and the enjoyment are one and the same, as long as they preserve their integrity and their indepen. dence. The poor man, when he speaks of Burns, considers him as one who transcribes the griefs and joys, the hopes and fears, of his own breast. A tender thought of "Highland Mary,"-an heroic impulse of "Scots wha hae,"—and a convivial recollection of "Auld lang syne," alternately came across him; and he surrenders himself by turns to the emotions which they inspire.

Robert Burns was born on the 25th of January, 1759, in a cottage near the river Doon, about two miles from Ayr, and in the immediate vicinity of the ruins of the kirk of Alloway. His father, William Burns, was the son of a farmer in Kincardineshire, and was thrown by early misfortunes on the world at large; when, after many years of wanderings and sojournings, he at last settled as gardener to a worthy gentleman in the neighbourhood of Ayr, and in December, 1757, married Agnes Brown, who brought him seven children, of whom Robert was the eldest. In this situation he acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of his master, that, with the view of promoting his interest, he leased him a small farm on his own estate. His wife managed her family and little dairy; and in this state of unambitious content they continued for several years.

Burns was sent to school in his sixth year, where he was taught to read and write; and by the time he was ten or eleven, he was a critic in substantives, verbs, and participles.

At this time he was frequently entertained, by an old woman who resided in the family, with tales and songs concerning witches, ghosts, giants, dragons, and enchanted towers. This cultivated the latent seeds of poetry in his mind; and had a powerful effect on his imagination.

The earliest composition that afforded him real delight was "The Vision of Mirza," and hymn of Addison's, one half stanza of which was music to his boyish ear:

a

ing the crop of corn, and at fifteen was the principal labourer on the farm; for his father had no hired servant, either male or female. While employed in this manner-uniting the cheerless gloom of a hermit with the unceasing moil of a galley slave-he unconsciously fell in love with a bewitching creature, a year younger than himself. He did not know why he liked so much to loiter behind with her, when returning in the evening from their labours; why the tones of her voice made his heart-strings thrill like an Æolian harp; and particularly why his pulse beat such a furious rattan when he looked and fingered over her little hand to pick out the cruel nettle-stings and thistles. Among her other love-inspiring qualities, she sung sweetly; and it was her favourite reel to which he attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme. Thus with him began love and poetry.

He spent his nineteenth summer on a smuggling coast, some distance from home, at a noted school, to study the lower branches of the mathematics, in which he made considerable progress. Scenes of riot and dissipation were at this time new to him; and, as he was no enemy to social life, he learned to fill his glass, and to mix without fear in convivial orgies. In his twenty-third year, wishing to set about doing something in life, he joined a flax-dresser in Irvine, to learn his trade. This employment, however, agreed neither with his health nor his inclination. At the end of six months, as he and his partner were giving a welcome carousal to the new year, the shop took fire, and burnt to ashes; and he was left, like a true poet, not worth sixpence.

In the mean time his father's generous master died. The farm proved a ruinous concern, for the soil was the poorest in a state of cultivation; and, to heighten the misfortune, the factor was insolent and tyrannical. His father, however, struggled on till he reached the freedom in his lease, when he entered on

a larger farm, about ten miles further up the country. For four years the family lived comfortably here; but a difference happening with the landlord as to terms, a law-suit was com menced, during which his father was carried off by a consumption. After his death, his all went among the hell-hounds that prowl in the kennel of justice,

Burns and the rest of the family, however, made a shift to collect a little money amongst them; and, to keep them together, he and his brother took a neighbouring farm. He entered on it with a full resolution to be wise. He read agricultural books, calculated crops, and attended markets; but the first year, from unfortunately buying bad seed, the second from a late harvest, half the crops were lost. This overset all his wisdom; and his anticipations of success as a farmer were at an end. 49 He now began to be known in the neigh bourhood as a maker of rhymes. The first of his productions that saw the light was a burlesque lamentation on a quarrel between two reverend Calvinists, both of them dramatis persone in "The Holy Fair." With a certain description of the clergy, as well as laity, it met with a roar of applause. "Holy Willie's Prayer" next made its appearance, and alarmed the authorities of the kirk to such a degree that they held several meetings to look over their spiritual artillery, to ascertain whether many of it might be pointed against profane rhymers. Unfortunately, a circumstance shortly afterwards occurred which placed him within reach of their heaviest metal.

He had a strong attachment to a young woman named Jean Armour. His love was har tender and sincere, and if he was hurried by its ardour beyond the limits of propriety, he was anxious to shield his partner from the consequences of their imprudence. It was, therefore, agreed between them, that they should make a legal acknowledgment of a pri

vate marriage; that he should go to Jamaica to push his fortune; and that she should remain with her father till it was in his power to support a family. Her father, however, refused his assent to this arrangement; for, notwithstanding her unfortunate situation, he thought she might still look to a better connexion than that of a friendless and unhappy poet. Burns was obliged to yield to his wishes, but his feelings on the occasion were of the most distracting nature.

In this state of mind, he wished to leave the country as soon as possible. He gave up his part of the farm to his brother, and made what little preparation was in his power for Jamaica. But before leaving his native land, he resolved to publish his poems. He weighed them as impartially as was in his power; he thought they had merit; and it was to him a delicious idea, that his abilities should be applauded, even though the applause should never reach his ears.

He threw off six hundred copies, of which he had procured subscriptions for three hundred and fifty, and was highly gratified by the reception they met with from the public. As Aoun as they appeared, old and young, high and low, grave and gay, were alike delighted, agitated, and transported. They found, by

turn, satire to gratify malignity; ridicule of fanaticism to captivate the fancies of the profane; and even hymns for the pious, in which the language of devotion came with fresh in. spiration from his pen. After defraying all expenses, he cleared twenty pounds. When he was master of nine guineas, the price of a passage to the torrid zone, he took a place in the steerage of the first vessel that was to sail from the Clyde, for

'Hungry ruin had him in the wind."

In the mean time, he was skulking from covert to covert under the terrors of a gaol, as the emissaries of the kirk had uncoupled the merciless pack of the law at his heels, to make him find security for the maintenance of the twin-children, whom his future father-in-law would not permit him to legitimate. He had taken the last farewell of his few friends; his chest was on the road to Greenock; and he had composed the last song which he thought he should ever measure in Caledonia, The gloomy night is gathering fast," when a letter from Dr. Blacklock opened new prospects to his view. The doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause he had not dared to hope; and he expressed an opinion that he might meet with encouragement in Edinburgh for a second edition. This hint changed his intention of going abroad; and he set out for that city, without a single acquaintance, or a single letter of introduction.

He arrived there in November, 1786. In a few days he became an object of general curiosity and admiration. His society was courted by men of all ranks; and had their liberality been equal to their ostentation they might have rendered him independent for life. But their sordid minds were incapable of rewarding the merit they acknowledged. They knew not how to call genius from obscurity, and place it where it might profit and delight

the world.

The new edition of his poems was attended with considerable success; but no one interposed to prevent him from returning to the plough. He was invited to the tables of the great, not as a man of genius, but as a prodigy. They solicited his company that they might enjoy the spectacle of his inebriation, and afterwards reproach him with the intemperance which they had urged. Burns, at first, was not aware of this; but he soon discovered the nature and extent of their kindness. "When the hollow-hearted wretch," says he, "takes me by the hand, the feeling spoils my dinner; and the proud man's wine so offends my palate that it chokes me in the gullet."

one

In February, 1788, after settling with his publisher, he found himself in possession of four hundred pounds, including one hundred for copyright. With this sum he hastened to Ayrshire, and immediately advanced hundred and eighty to his brother, who was struggling to support their aged mother, a younger brother, and three sisters, on the farm which he had previously relinquished. His generous heart next turned to the object of his attachment; and he entered into a permanent union with her by a regular marriage. But before he was admitted to the fellowship

of the kirk, he was obliged, along with his wife, to do penance on the Stool of Repentance. In his own words

"Before the congregation wide,
Lpass'd the muster fairly;
My handsome Jeanie by my side,
We gat our ditty rarely."

With little more than two hundred pounds

he again entered into the humble and laborious pursuits of agriculture, without any other prospect than constant personal exertion, and

a

frugality approaching to extreme penury, He was in consequence occasionally subject to a depression of spirits. The heart of the man," said he, "and the fancy of the poet are the two great considerations for which I live. If miry ridges and dirty dunghills are to engross the best part of the functions of my soul immortal, I had better been a rook or a magpie at once; and then I should not have been plagued with any ideas superior to breaking of clods and picking up grubs; not to mention barn-door cocks and mallards, creatures with which I could almost exchange lives at any time." He endeavoured, however, to with draw his mind from his cheerless situation by composing songs for Johnson's "Scots Musi cal Museum," then in the course of publication.

(To be continued.)

not a tributary to the East India Company, War in the East.-Runjeet Sing, though has nevertheless agreed to furnish a contingent of 50,000 men to repel the insidious designs of Russia upon Afghanistaun and Northern India. Some people wonder at this-but can Runjeet Sing ever forget the advantage to his wounded followers, derived from Holloway's Ointment, which was first received by Company? It is well known that the Comhim, with other presents, from the East Indis pany now supply all their surgeons with this invaluable preparation.

Penetration.-Many people pretend to this quality who never made a fortunate guess into character in their life. They who possess great penetration into character, who can trace the secret springs of action, and peep behind the curtain of manoeuvring and affectation, do not enjoy the drama of human life half so much as the ignorant spectator, who merely gates on the stage, and admires the passing splen dour of the show.

Parsley.In the hieroglyphie language of flowers, the gift of parsley implies a wish of the person's death to whom it is presented; for parsley has ever been the herb with which the Greeks decorate their graves and tombe; and hence to want parsley was an expression applied to a person in his last extremity.

This stool was fashioned like an arm-chair, than the other seats, directly frouting the pulpit. and raised on a pedestal, nearly two feet higher Here the culprit was exposed and admonished for three Sundays successively, during divine service. The rigour of this penalty has of later years beca relaxed; and in many places it has been/.commuted for a small fine and private admonition.