Transactions. 67 
an active interest in securing subscriptions towards the erection 
of the mausoleum. He was probably connected with Lord 
Monboddo, father of Miss Burnett, to whom Burns in his 
“ Address to Edinburgh” pays one of his most inspired 
compliments— 
Fair Burnet strikes the adoring eye, 
Heav’ns beauties on my fancy shine ; 
I see the sire of love on high, 
And own his work indeed divine. 
They were in the following terms :— 
Edinburgh, 12th Feb., 1814. 
Sir,—I had some time ago a letter from you and your brother secretary 
for the committee of gentlemen who are raising a fund for erecting a monu- 
ment to my much-admired friend, Mr Burns, and take this opportunity of 
expressing my most earnest wishes for the success of a measure which will 
do that country which produced one of its greatest ornaments in poetry 
very great honour. The subscription paper I have given to Mr Goldie, 
bookseller, Princes Street, to hang up in his shop, but as Kincardineshire 
was the county of Mr Burns’ father’s birth, and still contains a number of 
his relations, I submit to you the propriety of sending me a few additiona] 
copies of the proposals that I may distribute them in that county and 
Aberdeenshire.—With my hearty wishes for success, I am, sir, your most 
obedient servant, K. W. Bugnert. 
My D. daughter, whom you took charge of to Dumfries, is in good 
health, and very sensible of your polite attention to her. 
Edinburgh, 26th Dec., 1814. 
Dear Sir,—As soon as I received your letter I had some communication 
with Mr Scott, and have ever since been making great progress in collect- 
ing the subscription money for poor Burns’ monument, most of which I 
_ have now received; but until our Court meet again I cannot complete 
them, as I shall to-morrow set out for St. Andrews for about a fortnight 
or more. In a few days after my return to town I shall send you the 
whole, with a statement of their amount. Here I cannot boast of much 
success, having only procured a guinea from Mr Jeffrey, the celebrated 
lawyer, and put down myself for two. The play produced only £39 l4s 
neat, but there was short warning, and on Tuesdays the house is generally 
thin. I believe when all shall be collected I shall have to transmit to you 
£60 14s or thereby. My endeavours in the north country totally failed. 
Indeed, I could not discover in the How of the Mearns where Mr Burns? 
father had been born, and must have had many relations, a single person who 
counted kin with him, the last that could be recollected having removed 
about a score of years ago to Aberdeenshire. He was a farmer of the name 
of Burness, and, I haye heard, the poet’s cousin. I blush for the in- 
difference of Scotland to a genius that did her so much honour, and hope 
that your success in England will make some amends, however painful the 
reflection that Burns’ native country pays so little respect to his memory. 
