The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-19 00:00:00

THE ROAD GUIDE.

A very neat and useful work has just appeared
under the above title, the first number of which
is devoted to a full explanation of the road be-
tween London and Birmingham. A second
number will complete the road from Bir-
mingham to Holyhead. The work has this
especial claim to public approbation, that
the plates, of which there are four, have
been actually made from recent personal sur-
veys, and we can vouch for the correctness
with which they are delineated, having been
lately on the Birmingham road ourselves. The
work is interspersed with a number of amusing
or interesting anecdotes descriptive of the variety
of scenery and public buildings along the road,
and the traveller will find it a very useful
companion as he jogs along to relieve
the tedium -of the journey. It also possesses
this peculiar recommendation, that the traveller
can make himself acquainted with every town',
village,- and remarkable thing on the road, with-
out the trouble of asking any learned companion
for information on subjects of which he may be
as profoundly ignorant as himself. Nothing is
more agreeable than on entering a town
to have acquired by anticipation a know-
ledge which the fancy is busy in compar-
ing with the first impressions of reality—giving
each place

a local habitation and a name.

The chief inns in each town are given, and each
mile on the road accurately marked. It is in-
tended to publish similar guides to all the routes
in the kingdom, as will be seen by the following
introduction :

There are many and great objections to the existing
Road Guides : a traveller, who wishes to pass over one
route, must purchase a description of all the routes in the
country, which is just as absurd in principle, as though be
were made to pay all the coaoh fares—the descriptions which
they contain are full of errors, and the number of these
errors is increased in every subsequent edition—the dis-
tances are often inaccurately laid down—no notice what-
ever is taken of the geological structure, though that is, in
all eases, a sure guide to the kinds of indigenous plants—
and, instead of mentioning the best houses of entertain-
mert, as at present in existence, there will be found the
names of some that have been razed, and their sites so oc-
cupied, that he who goes in quest of a dinner, may be
treated with a hymn and a homily instead.
This little work is strictly what it professes to be, it de•
scribes only the road from London to Birmingham ; but it
notices every thing along that road which can increase
either the information or the comfort of the traveller. It
may not be altogether free from errors; but thus much
can, with truth, be said in its recommendation, that the
information it embodies has been gleaned from those who
have been in the habit of daily, or, at least, weekly, fre-
quenting the road for many years.
The proprietors intend, at intervals of publication, as
short as the labour of such an undertaking will admit, to
publish similar Guides for all the routes in the kingdom ;
and when a sufficient number of these have been published,
the different parts which describe the whole, or any num-
ber of the sections of a long journey, will be stitched up
together ; so that the traveller may be supplied with a
companion for the whole of his journey, whether that be
long or short.
The Guide will, of course, answer for coming up to the
metropolis, as well as going down ; only in that case the last
page must be the first consulted, and so on to the first page.

I lot ; both were subject to depression of spirits,
3
anu, from whatever cause, had contracted the
same bend or stoop of the shoulders. In other
respects, their frames were cast in a very manly and
symmetrical mould ; the profile of their counte-
nances was nearly alike ; the phrenological deve-
lopments not dissimilar ; and to sum up all in
one word, the principal disparity lay in the form
and expression of the eye, which in Gilbert was
fixed, sagacious, and steady—in Robert almost
always." in a fine phrenzy rolling." Their father
was a very remarkable man, and Gilbert was com-
pletely the archetype of his father. His piety
was equally warm and sincere ; and in all the
private relations of life, as an elder of the church,
a husband, a father, a master and a friend, there
never, perhaps, was a better man. His brother
cherished for him the warmest affection, and uni-
formly venerated the judgment of one who was
allied to him in genius as well as in blood. His
writings, it is true, want that variety, originality,
and ease, which shine so conspicuously even in
the prose works of the Poet ; but they had many
redeeming points about them ; and his excellent
letter to Dr. Currie breathes not only the purest
patriotism, but contains, we will be.bold to say,
the germ of those enlightened views and reason-
ings which Mr. Henry Brougham has so beau-
tifully enforced in his preliminary dissertation to
what is called " the Library of Useful Know-
ledge." His taste, too, was as pure as his judge-
ment was masculine, and we once heard him
mention, that the two most pleasurable moments
of his life were—first, when he read Mackenzie's
story of La Roche ; and secondly, when Robert
took him apart at the breakfast or dinner hour.
during harvest, and read to him, while seated on
a barley sheaf, the manuscript copy of the far-
famed " Cotter's Saturday Night."
When the greatest of our bards was invited by
Dr. Blacklock to visit Edinburgh, the subject of the
present imperfect memoir was struggling in the
churlish farm of Mossgiel, and toiling late and early
to keep a house over the heads of his aged mother
and unprotected sisters. In these circumstances,
the poet's success was the first thing that stemmed
the ebbing tide of the fontanel' of his family. On
settling with Mr. Creeeh, in February, 1788, he re-
ceived, as the profits of his second publication, about
5001., and with that generosity which formed a part
of his nature, he immediately presented Gilbert
with nearly the half of his whole wealth. Thus
succoured, the deceased married a Miss Breckon-
ridge, and removed to a better farm (Dinning, in
Dumfries-shire) but still reserved a seat at the fa-
mily board for his truly venerable mother, who died
a very few years ago. While in Dinning, he was
recommended to Lady Blantyre, and though our
memory doss not serve us precisely as to dates, he
must have been an inhabitant of East Lothian for
very nearly a quarter of a century. Her Ladyship's
affairs were managed with the greatest fidelity and
prudence ; the factor and his constituent were worthy
of each other; and in a district distinguished for the
skill, talents, and opulence of its farmers, no man
was more respected than Mr. Gilbert Burns. His
wife, who still survives, bore him a family of six
-lons and five daughters ; but of these one son and
four daughters predeceased their father. His means,
though limited, were always managed with enviable
frugality—as a proof of which we may state, Jhat
every one of his boys received what is called a eras-
sical education. So far as we know, they are all
upright, promising characters, and have done and
are doing so well in the world, that we would be
proud to enumerate their names and stations did
not delicacy restrain and hamper our pert.
In concluding this hurried, article, we have a fart
to communicate, which the public will learn wits,
unfeigned pleasure, and which should go down to
posterity on the same " honest page" which records
the fraternal feelings and high generosity of Robert
Burns. And it is this : the 2004 which the poet
lent to the best of brothers, so far beck as 1788, was
only repaid in 1820. Gilbert, as we have said, was
far from affluent; in early life he had to struggle
even for existence, and though fortune latterly became
more kind, lie was called on to support a numerous
family, an aged mother, and one or two sisters. The
knowledge of the fact that his aged parent was pro-
perly cared-for, was in the poet's eyes a full acquit.
tance of all claims; his children too, we believe,
viewed the matter in the same light, and repayment
under all these circumstances was dictated solely by
their uncle's scrupulous sense of justice. In 1819 he
was invited by Messrs. Cadell and Davies to revise
a new edition of his brother's works; to supply what-
ever he found wanting, and correct whatever
he thought amiss. He complied with the in-
vitation, and by appending much valuable matter
to the late Dr. Curries beautiful Biography,
at once vindicated his brother's memory front
many gratuitous aspersions east on it, and esta-
blished his own credit as an author. In regard
to remuneration, his feelings were modest and (Bi-
dent in the extreme; but a literary friend fortunately
counselled and kept him right, and on receiving
payment, the first thing he did was to balance ac-
counts to the uttermost farthing, with the widow
and family of his deceased brother. The letter
which accompanied the remittance of the money
was in the highest degree creditable to his feelings,
end should be given to the world along with a more
extended account of its author.

Peace to the manes of Gilbert Burns! Years
inorrecollection ; and we
may say of him finally, what his early tutor said of
have rolled on since we were honoured by the friendly
aanndce
pressure of his hand, but his patriarchal appear.
a rdee
smtiel al nfroeusrh, ,
sterlingu sense, . integrity,
his father " 0 for a world of men of such disposi-
tion ! I have often wished, for the good of man-
kind, that it were as customary to honour and per-
petuate the memory of those who excel in moral
rectitude as it is to extol what are called heroic ac-
tions,—then would the mausoleum of the friend of
my youth overtop and surpass most of those we see
in Westminster Abbey I'

On Monday
fonmorning some one walked into
the parlour
No. 10, Brewer-street, Pim-
lico, and stole two gold watches. A short stout man is
strongly suspected, who was seen in the neighbourhood
oadfary W. Flint,
.
without a coat with a basket upon his arm.

The Eclipse, of Cardiff, John Davies, master,
from London for Bristol, with a general cargo, was unfor-
tunately capsized yesterday morning, about six miles to the
eastward Of Ilfracombe, by a sudden squall of wind off the
land, and immediately went down, by which event the
master and one man were drowned. The rest of the crew,
live in number, including the mate, were enabled to reach
come planks that had floated from the vessel,onbrwouhgic:t they
o
the it bl
remained for three hours, and were providentially picked
tup byf
Mumbles.--Cambrian.
etsyaanmdbriNaaren.cy, of Kinsale, and

BONN, APRIL 9.—The Prussian Minister
of Ecclesiastical Affairs has given a fresh proof of the liberal
protection afforded by the Government to the sciences in
general, and to the branches of philosophy and history in
particular, by the support given to a great literary enter,
prise now in progress in this city, viz. a new edition of the
collection of the Scriptores Historic Byzantine, now
publishing under the direction of the Privy Councillor of
State Niebuhr. Besides other encouragements to the
happy completion of this great work, the Government has
been pleased to order it to be subscribed for, for all the pub-
lie libraries in the Pruss an dominions, as well those of
the Universities as of all the Gymnasia and other learned
institutions.

HEART-RENDING OCCURRENCE.---•AbOUt
six o'clock on Wednesday evening Mr. Poole, of Culmore,
was, with his usual kindness, taking home some of his neigh-
bours, who had been at the market in Londonderry, in his
Norway yawl. They had only reached a part of the Foyle
called the Crook, when, owning to some mismanagement of
the sail, by a pertion to whom Mr. Poole had given (Erec-
tions, it back-filled and capsised the 'yawl, by which, of
nine persons who went sn board, seven were drowned.
The two survivors (Mr. Poole, Ludo man named M'Gandy)
saved themselves by clinging to the kiel, until they were
relieved-by a boit,'whith the Very Rev. Dean Gotigh had
sent to their assietance.—...Dotblits Morning Register.