39 ftfnss of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, anfc <3un 



elevated on the lecture bench to talk of Burns. He 

 had the key of a sympathetic fellow feeling to all the 

 phases of Burns' life. No one who listened but admitted 

 that a shrewder, more instinctive apprehension of that 

 life, had seldom been produced. When he came to 

 offer selections of the favourite poems, his warm loving 

 admiration of the verses knew no bounds. ' Here awa, 

 there awa, wandering Willie,' he designated the tenderest 

 and most beautiful love song which ever came from the 

 lips of man ; and as his voice repeated several of the 

 stanzas, the tributary tears of emotion coursed down his 

 cheek." 



The lecture was delivered in most of the towns and 

 villages in the Border district, and the proceeds were 

 sufficiently respectable to promise that, by the extension 

 of his tour, he might net a sum sufficient for the wants 

 of his advancing years. A number of his Border friends 

 resident in Glasgow invited him to the western me- 

 tropolis to deliver the lecture there. He was able to 

 accomplish the visit, but with unfavourable results to 

 himself. Exposure to extremely severe weather during 

 his movements brought on an attack of rheumatism 

 which prostrated him, and he was confined to his lodgings 

 for several weeks. The attendant expense of this 

 misfortune melted away most of his gains, and he 

 reached Lessudden as poor as ever. 



His health now began to break up. An attempt was 

 made by one of his friends to enlist the sympathy of 

 a noble duke in behalf of the poet-angler-shoemaker. 

 His Grace made no reply to the appeal perhaps it 

 never reached him. When John was told of it, and one 



