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Andro Gouk,* Andro Gouk,

Ye

may slander the book,

And the book not the waur, let me tell ye;

Ye are rich, and look big,

But lay by hat and wig,

And ye'll ha'e a calf's head o'sma' value.

Barr Steenie,† Barr Steenie,
What mean ye, what mean ye?
If ye'll meddle nae mair wi' the matter,
Ye may ha'e some pretence

To havins and sense,

Wi' people wha ken ye nae better.

Irvine side, Irvine side,

Wi' your turkey-cock pride,
Of manhood but sma' is your share,

And

Ye've the figure, 'tis true,

Even your faes will allow,

your friends they dare grant you nae mair.

Muirland Jock,§ Muirland Jock,

When the L-d makes a rock

To crush Common Sense for her sins,
If ill manners were wit,

There's no mortal so fit

To confound the poor Doctor at ance.

* Dr. A. M-11.
Mr. Sh, G-

Mr. S-n Y—, B-r.

§ Mr. S-d.

*

Holy Will, Holy Will,

There was wit i' your skull,

When ye pilfer'd the alms o' the poor;

The timmer is scant,

When ye're ta'en for a saint,

Wha should swing in a rape for a hour.

Calvin's sons, Calvin's sons, Seize your spir❜tual guns, Ammunition you never can need;

Your hearts are the stuff,

Will be powther enough,

Ard your skulls are storehouses o' lead.

Poet Burns, Poet Burns,

Wi' your priest-skelping turns, Why desert ye your auld native shire? Your muse is a gipsie,

E'en tho' she were tipsie,

She could ca' us nae waur than we are.

The history of the "Kirk's Alarm" is curious :-" Macgill and Dalrymple," says Lockhart, "the two ministers of the town of Ayr, had long been suspected of entertaining heterodox opinions on several points, particularly the doctrine of Original Sin and the Trinity; and the former at length published an essay, which was considered as

*An Elder in Mauchline.

demanding the notice of the church courts. More than a year was spent in the discussions which arose out of this and at last, Dr. Macgill was fain to acknowledge his errors, and promise that he would take an early opportunity of apologizing for them to his congregation from the pulpit, which promise, however, he never performed. The gentry of the country took, for the most part, the side of Macgill, who was a man of cold unpopular manners, but of unreproached moral character, and possessed of some accomplishments, though certainly not of distinguished talents. The bulk of the lower orders espoused with far more fervid zeal the cause of those who conducted the prosecution against this erring doctor. Gavin Hamilton, and all persons of his stamp, were, of course, on the side of Macgill-Auld and the Mauchline elders, with his enemies. Robert Aiken, a writer in Ayr, a man of remarkable talents, particularly in public speaking, had the principal management of Macgill's cause before the Presbytery, and, I believe, also before the Synod. He was an intimate friend of Hamilton, and through him had about this time formed an acquaintance which soon ripened into a warm friendship with Burns. Burns was, therefore, from the beginning, a zealous, as in the end he was, perhaps, the most effective partizan of the side on which Aiken had staked so much of his reputation."

The eloquence of Aiken and the wit of Hamilton were deeply felt and resented by the partizans of the Old Light. The hue and cry against the latter drew these words of condolence from Burns:-" You have erredyou have committed the blasphemous heresies of squaring religion by the rules of common sense, and attempting to give a consistent character to Almighty God, and a rational account of his proceedings with the sons of men."-" Mr. Hamilton," says Chambers, "lived in a half-fortified old mansion near the church, form

ing the only remains of the ancient priory. He was the son of a gentleman who had practised the same profession in the same place, and was, in every respect, a most estimable member of society-generous, affable, and humane. Unfortunately, his religious practice did not square with the notions of the then minister of Mauchline, the 'Daddy Auld' of Burns' Poems, who, in 1785, is found in the session-records to have summoned him for rebuke, on the four following charges: 1. Unnecessary absence from church, for five consecutive Sundays; 2. Setting out on a journey to Carrick on a Sunday; 3. Habitual, if not total, neglect of family worship; 4. Writing an abusive letter to the session in reference to some of their former proceedings respecting him. Strange though this prosecution may seem, it was strictly accordant with the right assumed by clergymen at that period to inquire into the private habits of parishioners." The Poet speaks of his own "priest-skelping turns;" probably he alludes rather to what he said, than what he wrote." Polemical divinity," he says, when speaking of this period to Dr. Moore, "was putting the country half-mad, and I, ambitious of shining in conversation parties on Sundays, at funerals, &c., used to puzzle Calvinism with so much heat and indiscretion, that I raised the hue and cry of heresy against me, which has not ceased to this hour." Nor has it yet subsided.—" His morals, sir," said a peasant of the land of Burns to an anxious inquirer, "werena very gude; and as for religion, I'll uphaud he was a rank Unitarian." Some of the names of the persons in this satiric drama are printed in full in the notes; others are purposely left in obscurity.

THE TWA HERDS.

OR,

THE HOLY TULZIE.

O' a' ye pious godly flocks,
Weel fed on pastures orthodox,

Wha now will keep you frae the fox,

Or worrying tykes,

Or wha will tent the waifs and crocks,

About the dykes?

The twa best herds in a' the wast,
That e'er ga'e gospel horn a blast,
These five and twenty simmers past,

O! dool to tell,

Ha'e had a bitter black out-cast

Atween themsel.

O, Moodie, man, and wordy Russell,
How could you raise so vile a bustle,

Ye'll see how New-Light herds will whistle,

And think it fine:

The Lord's cause ne'er got sic a twistle

Sin' I ha'e min'.

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