Transactions. 73 
’ was conducted. Mr Jerdan made great exertions, and they were most 
deservedly successful. Enclosed are copies of a few lines of mine in com- 
memoration of Burns, but neither written for nor recited on the above 
occasion, and have no other merit than their simplicity and truth. I was 
sorry to observe what you said about the meeting of the Seven Trades in 
their hall on the King’s birthday, that so few of the heroes of 1777 were 
present. 
E’en he whose soul now melts in mournful lays, 
Shall shortly want the generous tear he pays. 
But you may depend on it that neither Deacon Threshie nor Willie 
Berry shall be forgotten in the next edition, if ever there is another edition 
of the ‘‘ Siller Gun” in my lifetime. 
Cracking his jokes, and unco kerry, 
Here’s Deacon Threshie, wise and merry ; 
And yonder’s blameless Willy Berry 
The ladies’ glover, 
At five and fifty bright as sherry, 
And still a lover. 
This is something like the manner in which these gentlemen will be 
mentioned and introduced in the poem, but as I am not certain that these 
will be the precise words, I shall be obliged by your saying very little to 
anybody about them. Any notice in the text will afford an opportunity 
of saying something handsome if you will furnish me with it in the Notes, 
—I ever am, my dear sir, yours truly, J. Mayne. 
William Grierson, Esq., Dumfries. 
The verse contained in this letter was identical with that of 
verse 13, canto 3d, of the edition of the “Siller Gun,” d&c., 
published in 1836. 
There were other letters by Mayne, but they referred to 
matters strictly private or to subjects unimportant at the present 
day. After his death, Mr Grierson appeared to have been the 
moving spirit in placing a tablet to his memory in the vestibule 
of St. Michael’s Church, Dumfries. His son wrote to him giving 
some information for the tablet :— 
My Dear Sir,—I now reply more fully to your last communication on the 
subject of the tablet proposed to be placed in the vestibule of St. Michael’s 
Church, Dumfries. I gather from what you say that your arrangements 
are now nearly complete, which being the case, I need not further 
advert to some regret which I feel at not having earlier been made 
acquainted with the design. You will readily believe that my sister and 
I are deeply sensible of the value of a testimonial of esteem for the memory 
of a parent, so dear to us, proceeding from his native townsmen, who in 
recording their appreciation of his merits will do honour to their own 
sentiments as well as to his good fame, Collectively and individually, 
