222 Transactions. 



enthusiastic, but as he has a large family and his circumstances com- 

 paratively moderate, I am not sure that it would be light to make any 

 call on his purse. Alexander Houston, Esq. of Clerkington, M.P. for 

 Glasgow in the last Parliament, has shewn me more obliging and useful 

 attention than any other great man in this country, but though his 

 subscription will not be wanting if applied for, yet, I suppose he would 

 not like to solicit subscriptions. I have thought it right to mention these 

 gentlemen to you that Mr Duncan may judge how far it will be jjroper 

 to apply to any of them. A Mr Eichardson, merchant in North Shiels, 

 once left a letter for me at the King's Arms, Dumfries, inclosing some 

 poems of his own. As I had many communications of that kind from 

 people I knew nothing of, I never thought of taking any notice of them. 

 1 hajjpened lately, however, to meet an English clergyman who is inti- 

 mately acquainted with Mr Richardson, who sjDoke in high terms both 

 of his talents and worth, and that he had risen from a low beginning to 

 con.siderable eminence and success in life. I may likewise mention to 

 you that he is a leading member of a Marygold Society in North Shiels. 

 I should think him a person very likely to interest himself in promoting 

 the subscription. 



Gilbert Burns. 



And George Thomson, Edinburgh, the correspondent of Burns, 

 wrote to Mr Syme of Eyedale of date 10th May following : — 



Edinburgh, 10th May, 1814. 



It gives me the greatest pleasure to find that there is now a cer- 

 tainty of a monument being erected to the memory of the greatest poet 

 our country has produced. May I request that you will put down my 

 name for five guineas 1 



I cannot he]2) feeling some anxiety that a design should be obtained 

 worthy of the illustrious dead, and honourable to those who take charge 

 of it. This will depend entirely on the artist to whom you apply, and 

 'tis of the utmost importance, therefore, to fix upon one who is decidedly 

 eminent for invention, knowledge, and classical taste, and to be guided 

 entirely by him. For if gentlemen get various designs and then exercise 

 their own judgment upon them, the chance of their chusing the worst is 

 much greater than that they would chuse the best ; for this obvious 

 leasou — that there is no art or science in which our countrymen are so 

 utterly ignorant as that of architecture or sculpture. The fine arts do 

 not make a part of the studies either of our men of fortune or of those 

 educated for the libei'al jjrofessions. And if they acquire a smattering 

 of knowledge after they leave the University, it is generally so superficial 

 that it only sei'ves to give them pretensions and to mislead them. Even 

 those who live by the profession of architectui'e in Scotland are notori- 

 ously uneducated and ignorant, and since the recent death of the truly 

 ingenious Mr Stark, I do not know one of our countrymen who deserves 



