Transactions. 69 
by your bestowing upon him my best regards. I should be very happy to 
be near such chosen spirits as your club consists of, and to replenish 
my little glass from the plenitude of Burns’ china punch bowl; and: with 
best wishes'to you, sir, your president, and all your other members, I am, 
with much respect, your very faithful servant, Wm. TENNANT. 
Mr Wilson read a number of very interesting letters from 
John Mayne, which he had discovered in looking through the 
papers of the late Dr Grierson, Thornhill. Mr Wm. Grierson, 
the late Dr Grierson’s father, appeared to have carried on an 
extensive correspondence with natives of Dumfries resident 
in other parts of the country. He long acted as factor upon a 
property in Dumfries which belonged to the mother of John 
Mayne, author of the “Siller Gun” and other poems, and in 
many of Mayne’s letters to him there are passages which might 
be of interest even at this distant date. The first is highly 
interesting to this locality. 
London, 13th January, 1809. 
William Grierson, Esq., Jun.,. Dumfries. 
Dear Sir,—I received safely your kind present of a New Year’s Day 
bun, a present which calls to mind many pleasing recollections, and is a 
new proof of the kindness which influences all your conduct when writing 
to or thinking of me; and I sincerely thank you for your unceasing 
partiality ; wishing you and all your near and dear friends many happy 
returns of every festive period. 
I hope you have begun to supply poor Jock Wilson with a weekly allow- 
ance of snuff. Any other innocent luxury that you think necessary to his 
happiness I will cheerfully pay for. I wish you could learn from him his 
idea of ‘‘ Whistle o’er the lave o’t ” being the composition of John Bruce. 
You know Burns has ascribed it to him, but I believe it is of much higher 
antiquity, and that it is one of the many fine old airs that, having been 
chanted in the Cathedral service when Episcopacy prevailed in Scotland, 
were vulgarised and degraded by indecent. words at the Reformation. Any 
other information connected with minstrels or minstrelsy, especially as 
relating to the Siller Gun, will be a most acceptable service to me, and 
opportunities like the present for obtaining it will not frequently occur. 
You will readily perceive that on making this inquiry I do not mean to 
detract from the merit of John Bruce, whose memory I respect. My wish 
is to ascertain correctly if the air in question is his composition; if not, 
whether or no he was even distinguished as a composer of any other music. 
Now, my dear sir, with respect. to your queries about a new paper. It 
is impossible for me so long estranged from Dumfries to ascertain the 
probable success of such an experiment. The expense, I am confident, 
would exceed anything of which you have an idea. The responsibility is 
at all times irksome, and the labour and anxiety unremitting. Were I to 
advise you it would be to have nothing to do. with it, unless you have very 
