Transactions. 221 



with Dr Duncan, Dumfries, as couveuer. The raising of subscrip- 

 tions, Mr Wilson said, had apparently been gone about in a most 

 energetic manner, and he proceeded to read the following letter 

 written by Mr (afterwards Sir) Walter Scott to the secretaries 

 from Edinburgh on 14th January, 181-i : — 



I am favoured with your packet encloslDg proposals for erecting by 

 subscription a mouument to the memory of Burns, and I am very much 

 obliged to you for affording me an oijportunity of testifying my high 

 veneration for the Ayi-sliire Bard. My society is very limited, but I 

 hope to get some subscriptions, and would be much obliged to you to 

 send me a list of such as have been already procured that I may have 

 some general iiile for assisting my friends, for I have observed that it is 

 often advantageous to have an idea of what would be thought liberal 

 and handsome. I beg you will put my name down for ten guineas, without 

 limiting myself to that sum, however, should there be further occasiou. 

 We have to regret the loss of Mr Stark, the only architect in Scotland, 

 as I greatly fear, who could have given a plau of simplicity and dignity 

 corresponding to the genius of the author. I presume it is onlj' meant 

 to inclose, not to alter or violate, tiie stone which Mrs Burns placed over 

 her husband. The situatiou is iu all respects highly striking. 



I will take the liberty to send one of the papers you have sent me to 

 Mr Constable, the bookseller here, whose influence is considerable, and 

 opens some avenues to which I have not personally any access. 



Walter Scott. 



Edinburgh, 14th January, 1814. 



On 29th of same month the poet's brother Gilbert wrote to Mr 

 Griersou from Grant's Braes : — 



Grant's Braes, 29th January, 1814. 

 I received yours of the 12th iust. covering resolutions of a meetiug 

 at Dumfries of tlie 6th curt. You will readily believe that I was much 

 gratified with the exertions of a meeting so respectable to make so gi-eat 

 a public testimouy of thtir regard for my brother's memory. It will 

 readily occur to every gentleman concerned that however much I might 

 be inclined it is a matter I cannot stir or be seen in. I am not very 

 sanguine iu my expectations of aid to the subscriptiou iu this neighbour- 

 hood. I believe my brother was personally known to David Andei-son, 

 Esq., St. Germaius, near Tranent, a most respectable gentleman, and a 

 man of taste, but of too shy and delicate a cast for biiugiug the subscrip- 

 tiou much forward. Eobert Stewart, Esq. of Alderstou, uear Hadding- 

 ton, was in India, I believe, at the time of my brother's death, and has 

 been tnore successful iu the pursuit of wealth than of literary taste, iu 

 which he has not been much engaged, but I have heard him talk empha- 

 tically of heaven-born geuius, &c. His near neighbour, Robert Veitch, 

 Esq., Hawthorubauk, is himself a votai-y of the muses, and sufficieutly 



