TRANSACTIONS. 221 
with Dr Duncan, Dumfries, as convener. The raising of subserip- 
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, 1814 :— 
I am favoured with your packet enclosing proposals for erecting by 
subscription a mouument to the memory of Burns, and I am very much 
obliged to you for affording me an opportunity of testifying my high 
veneration for the Ayrshire 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 rule 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 occasion. 
We have to regret the loss of Mr Stark, the only architect in Scotland, 
as I greatly fear, who could have given a plan of simplicity and dignity 
corresponding to the genius of the author. I presume it is only meant 
to inclose, not to alter or violate, the stone which Mrs Burns placed over 
her husband. The situation is in 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. 
Watrer Scorv. 
Edinburgh, 14th January, 1814. 
On 29th of same month the poet’s brother Gilbert wrote to Mr 
Grierson from Grant’s Braes :— 
Grant’s Braes, 29th January, 1814. 
I received yours of the 12th inst. covering resolutions of a meeting 
at Dumfries of the 6th curt. You will readily believe that I was much 
gratified with the exertions of a meeting so respectable to make so great 
a public testimony of their 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 in my expectations of aid to the subscription in this neighbour- 
hood. I believe my brother was personally known to David Anderson, 
Esq., St. Germains, near Tranent, a most respectable gentleman, and a 
man of taste, but of too shy and delicate a cast for bringing the subscrip- 
tion much forward. Robert Stewart, Esq. of Alderston, near Hadding- 
ton, was in India, I believe, at the time of my brother’s death, and has 
been more successful in the pursuit of wealth than of literary taste, in 
which he has not been much engaged, but I have heard him talk empha- 
tically of heaven-born genius, &c. His near neighbour, Robert Veitch, 
Esq., Hawthornbank, is himself a votary of the muses, and sufliciently 
