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DR. DAVID SHAW.

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way through the narrow and sequestered vale, were set with the hamlets of villagers or planted with "coppice woods. The Coil then flowed with a gentle stream, but the ravages which it had made on its "banks, and which had not even spared the good "Pastor's glebe, declared that it was sometimes an impetuous torrent. Burns, the poet of Ayrshire, "and particularly of this district, his native ground, has bestowed on this river, which is often mentioned "in his works, the name of the brawling Coil.'

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"I visited with great satisfaction the reverend "minister of Coylton, who received me with the "most friendly welcome. His appearance was "venerable and patriarchal.

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His white locks waved

loosely on his shoulders; his fresh and ruddy "countenance showed that he enjoyed a vigorous old "age. In this sequestered valley he had reared with "credit a numerous family of sons and daughters. "His wife, of equal years with himself and respectable "by her virtues, was now the companion of his age. "Two sons were engaged in active life. His family "had formerly been more numerous, but he had lost "many deserving children by death. These and other "afflictions he had endured with a firm mind, and in "the adversities of life had resembled the sage in "Spenser who

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'Gently took that which ungently came.'

"I found a great pleasure in conversing with this 'worthy and venerable relation, and in tracing his quiet walks by the river side. The tranquillity of the "vale seemed to correspond with the calm and satisfied temper of its inhabitants. His family was conducted "with the most perfect order. The day began and "closed with devotion, but the religion of the good "minister was not austere, and his prayers breathed "a calm spirit of holy trust and resignation to Provi"dence.

"Like my brother, he held a farm, which added

"somewhat to his stipend, and enabled him the better "to indulge his hospitable disposition in the kind "entertainment of his guest.

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"The manse, the river banks, the village, the church, surrounded by its grove of venerable trees, "were all endeared to him, but he could not confine "himself within his parish bounds, and lived in intimate correspondence with the neighbouring gentry, by "whom he was held in particular esteem.

"From Coylton I proceeded to Ayr, where I was "entertained by my cousin, Charles Shaw, the son of "Dr. Shaw. He was by profession a writer or attorney, "was well esteemed, and at that time held the office of provost, or first magistrate of Ayr. He had made an "advantageous marriage with a well-accomplished woman, and lived in a style of elegance."

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Mr. Shaw's memoir and genealogy of the Dalrymple's of Langlands, supplies the following particulars respecting ROBERT AIKEN and some of his forefathers and descendants.

CHARLES DALRYMPLE, of Langlands (before-mentioned) born about 1650.

JAMES DALRYMPLE, Sheriff Clerk of Ayrshire, born about 1682, married Margaret Ramsay, sister of Dr. Ramsay, of Mountford.

JOHN AIKEN, Shipmaster, in Ayr, married Sarah Dalrymple, second daughter of the above James Dalrymple.

ROBERT AIKEN, their eldest son, the friend of Burns, married Janet Hunter, sister of Dr. Andrew Hunter, of Barjarg, Dumfriesshire, Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh, who married the Honourable. Mainie Schaw Napier, eldest daughter of William, sixth Lord Napier.

Another brother of Mrs. Aiken was John Hunter, of Bonnytown, in Ayrshire, who married Miss Fergusson, heiress of Doonholm.

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Mrs. Aiken's sister, GRACE HUNTER, married COLONEL MAXWELL, of the 30th Regiment, one of the Cardoness family.

Robert Aiken's eldest son, ANDREW HUNTER AIKEN, to whom Burns addressed his epistle "To a young Friend," married Mary, eldest daughter of Peter Freeland, merchant, Liverpool, by Miss Blair, of Dunrode, in Kirkcudbrightshire.

JOHN AIKEN, their second son, Captain of an East Indiaman, and afterwards an Indigo planter, married a daughter of General Green, and died in India, leaving two daughters.

GRACE AIKEN, unmarried, died at Ayr, 13th October, 1857, aged 80.

ANDREW HUNTER AIKEN had issue,

PETER FREELAND AIKEN, an Advocate in Edinburgh, and afterwards a Banker in Bristol, married CONSTANCE ELIZABETH CHETWOOD, only child of Captain Chetwood, heir presumptive of Woodbrook, Queen's County, Ireland, by Eliza, daughter of Colonel Patton, Governor of St. Helena, and has five children and seventeen' grandchildren.

CAPTAIN CHETWOOD having died early, JONATHAN CHETWOOD bequeathed Woodbrook to Mrs. Aiken's cousin, EDWARD WILMOT, who took the name of CHETWOOD and married LADY JANET ERSKINE, daughter of the EARL OF MAR.

RICHARD, who married his cousin, Mary Blair, daughter of Captain Blair, of the Dunrode family. ANDREW died at the age of nineteen.

MARY married GENERAL BARON DE DRIESEN and died in 1876. Her eldest son is now General Baron de Driesen, commanding a Cavalry Brigade in the Russian army, and her three surviving daughters are Alexandrine Baroness de Kaulbars; ELLEN, Baroness de Krüdner (a widow); and Mary, wife of General de Meyer.*

My parents lived in Rodney Street, Liverpool, named after the gallant Admiral in whose fleet the stratagem of breaking the enemy's line was first practised. Mr. John *Abridged from "Dalrymples, of Langlands,” by John Shaw, Esq.

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DR CURRIE, LIVERPOOL.

Gladstone and Mrs. Gladstone, who lived in the same street were their kind friends, and it was the birth place of his son, the eminent statesman and orator, and scholar, and also of Lord Cardwell. My earliest recollections are of Dr. Currie, the first editor of Burns; for having put two small fingers into the cog wheel of a mangle, my old and faithful nurse carried me off to him to have the wounds dressed, and his kindness in trying to divert my attention with picture books from his library, I still remember. He attended my father when ill of fever, and it was in accordance with his practice that a shower bath was brought into the house, which my eldest sister and I, both very young, made a plaything of an ark into which we carried our toys, resolved to be happy; till fatal curiosity tempted us to pull the cord, when down came a deluge. Cries of terror brought help, and more laughter than pity for our self-inflicted misery. Rodney Street was then newly built and almost in the country, and I walked through fields to a school, the master of which was unmerciful in the use of the cane and the rod to bigger boys, by whom he was detested; and not without reason, for his abuse of those instruments was such, that he lost all his pupils a few years after I left his school to go to Ayr to be taught at the academy there, with a younger brother, before I was eight years old.*

My grandfather was confined to the house and chiefly to bed, by illness which proved fatal, several months afterwards, and he was attended by his devoted wife and daughter. From the passages already quoted concerning him it may be inferred that the domestic affections flourished under his roof. There is a pleasing union and concord between age and infancy, when the grandsire's love descends unabated in lively sympathy with the fresh feelings and bright hopes and guileless ways of his children's children. He took me to his warm heart as his "darling Englishman," and during those last months of his life I spent many hours happily in the bed-chamber of that dying christian, and many

* See Appendix, Note I.

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words of kind and wise instruction I heard from his eloquent lips. I remember his teaching me the first psalm, and his impressive comments upon it. One day the house became a house of mourning, and his daughter told us that his immortal spirit had fled, leaving the lifeless body to be buried, and that we must not fear to look upon the cold, calm, placid face of him we had loved so well. Then she led us into the death chamber, and we were very sorrowful, but not afraid to remain, or to go there again. In a few days we two little boys, as sincere and chief mourners, went with many more to lay in the grave the head of him for whom his departed friend and Scotland's greatest poet had written this epitaph.

"Know thou, O stranger to the fame

“Of this much loved, much honoured name!

(For none that knew him need be told)

"A warmer heart death ne'er made cold."

A granddaughter of Robert Aiken, my eldest sister, had rather a remarkable history. Her ability was beyond her years, and being well educated and accomplished in music, painting and languages, handsome, amiable and agreeable, she early gained the affections of a young and distinguished Russian nobleman, of a German family, who was educated at the court of the King of Prussia, amiable and courteous as well as brave, and of similar tastes and accomplishments with herself. He is referred to in the following extracts, from the published correspondence of Sir. Charles Bell, already mentioned.

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"May 21, 1814.

"I have received a letter by the Russian General the "Baron Driesen, from the physician of the Emperor 'Alexander, conveying his Majesty's command, shall I say, to pay the greatest attention to the Baron." "He has a ball in his thigh bone."

"I met the Count Lieven and told him I should call "in Sir Everard Home."

"As the Russian Ambassador strongly recommended