408 
Here'too there is not a fingle public foun- 
tain, no inftitution for the inftruction of 
youth, no regulations for preferving the 
health of the inhabitants. eal 
The drift-fand is very dangerous to this 
track of country, efpecially during the 
prevalence of north-north-weft winds, 
Cultivated fields, mills, whole villages and 
their inhabitants have been overwhelmed 
by it in one night, fo that not a trace of 
them is left. Many other parts of the 
department are in danger of being covered 
m the fame manner: the greateft atten- 
tion and exertions only can fave them. 
The ftates of Britany maintained at a con- 
fiderable expence a high dyke, planted 
with broom, and 600 toifes in length, at 
the foot of which the fand accumulates. 
But as this dyke is eafily conftru@ed, fo 
likewile is it as eafily broken down 5 when 
hothing can prevent the fand from being 
Grifted through the breach, and covering 
all the adjoining country. From the fide 
of Lefneven in particular a dreadful fand- 
hill threatens deftruction to the commune 
of St. Pol. . But this caufes no great alarm 
to the inhabitants, who confide in the pro- 
tection of their great patron-faint, St. Pol. 
We pity them, if they fhould carry their 
blind confidence fo far as to negleét to 
employ more effe€tual means for their fe- 
curity. 
Lanneur, the chief place of a canton, 
contains 2400 inhabitants, and is diftin- 
guifhed by nothing. but its dirtinefs, and 
the total want of public wells, market- 
places, and manufactures. —On the con- 
trary, the church-yard is in the centre cf 
the town. Near this place is St. fean du 
Doigt: 1800 inhabitants formerly gained 
a livelihood from the flocks of pilgrims 
who came to venerate the miraculous fin- 
ger-of St. John. ‘Though the roads be 
exceedingly bad, more than 20,000 devo- 
tees annually pilgrimed thither barefoot- 
ed. ; 
SS 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIRs 
EING lately on~a pedeftrian excur- 
fion to Airfhire, curiofity, or per- 
haps a little enthufiafm, prompted me to 
vifit the birth place of Burns. On my ar: 
rival, my companion pointed out feveral of 
the objects which the poet has ‘* embalm- 
ed innever-dying verfe;’” and, by turns, 
as the fubjeéts happened to have been lu- 
dicrous, plaintive, or fublime; they excited 
in Cur bofoms much mirth, much melan- 
choly, and much admiration. The tout- 
enfemble of the furrounding fcenery is 
Vifit to the Birth-place of Burns. 
[Junes, 
ftrikingly beautiful; and, when we re- 
flected it had been the prolific fource of the 
choiceft imagery of the Bard’s imagination, 
we viewed it with fuperddded intereft and 
pleafure. It is not indeed to be-wonder- 
ed at, that Burns has fo exquifitely de- 
{cribed the beauties of nature. 
endowed with /rength of mind, a glowing 
fancy, and keen penetration, nature may 
be faid to have formed him for the'place 
where fortune fixed his bisth and the ear- 
lier period of his life. The exuberant 
Phyfically 
beauty of. the fcenes which abound in it 
are admirably fuited to infpire poetical 
ideas, and the imagination cf Burns was 
fupereminently qualified to imbibe the in- 
{fpiration. After feafting. on the fcenic 
beauties of the country, we withdrew to 
the cottage in which Burns had been ufh- 
ered into exiftence. “The landlord con- 
duéted us into an apartment, where the 
firft object that caught our attention was 
a portrait of the Bard as large as the life, 
painted on a board. Having inquired for 
what ufe it was intended, we were inform- 
ed it had been done at the expence, and 
under the direction, of feveral gentlemen 
in the neighbourhood for the purpofe of 
being exhibited ‘on a fign-poft at the door, 
for the benefit of the cottage as an ale- 
houfe, at the fame time that it was meant 
as an elegont tribute to the memory of the 
poet! Although, for my own part, I 
could not but applaud the prudence, which 
had dictated this {cheme of blending a 
work of tafe and beueficence, with the ufe- 
ful and charitable purpofe of pufling the 
ale, &c. vended in the cottage, yet, the 
elegance of the firft idea was fo miferably 
diminifhed by the meannefs of the laft, 
and in the whole defign there was exhibited 
fuch a poverty of intelle&t, fuch a de- 
plorable beggary of tafle, and fuch a woe- 
ful difplay ci ignorance and felly, that, 
for a moment, I was unable to decide 
whether it was moft deferving of laugh- 
ter, ridicule, indignation, or contempt. 
Imagination, however, was not ‘flow 
in diftinguifhing the proper medium 
threugh which the pitiful apotheofis de- , 
ferved to be viewed; and affuredly, had 
-an opportunity offered, we would have 
committed the painting to the flames, 
as a facrifice due to the infulted me- 
mory of the poet. Our indignant feelings, - 
however, could only be vented in execrat- ~. 
ing the barbarous tafte, and more than 
Gothic ignorance, which could’ thus de- 
vote him, whofe fame even 
*¢ Storied urn or animated buf”? 
could: not’ poflibly enhance, to the fame 
- vile - 
