Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-09-21
enArE OF "HIenL4vD MAnr."
where Rests the Remains of the Sweet
heart OF Burns.

The pilgrims in Burnsland will find
no shriiies more touchingly, pathetically
impressive than those associated with
that most famous heroine of modern
poetry, the Highland Mary" of Burns
sweetest and tenderest stanzas. Fifteen
miles up the coast from "auld Ayr" is
ArdrOssan and her birthplace in the hut
of common sailor, says the Ladies'
Home Journal From the narrow street
we look across the firth and beyond
Dunoon TO the heights of the west high
lands, where she grew to young woman
hood. In the port of Cantire, behind
ABRAMS mountain isle," we find the
site Of the poor abode where she spent
the last summer of her short life in
preparation for her expected wedding
with Burns. AT. Coilsfield we see the
great rambling, white pillared mansion
where she was employed when the poet
| first saw and loved her, and abont it we
wander by wood and stream amid the
scenes where she loitered with her
lover, and where after lone day of part
ing love" the pair "tore themselves
asunder" never to meet more.
BY Alloway's haunted kirk" we find
a memento of that paIting-the Bible
Burns gave Ter that day and upon
which their VOWS were said, and the
tress of her shining hair which she gave
to him. Here also is her spinning wheel.
Near the church of 1.-THE Holy Fair at
Mauchline is the sombre old house of
| Hamilton, of which she was sometime
an inmate, where she and the bard often
met and where, according to his niece,
Miss Pegg, his mother saw Mary and
| ~ t,I
dents which Miss Pegg has heard the
mother repeat. At Grcenock, in dingy
side street, was the humble dwelling of
Mary's maternal aunt-wifc to Peter
| Mcpherson, ship carpenter-.where
Mary, stopping on her way TO new
| place ynf Sservice, found hor brother
| stricken with contagious fever, hravely
nursed him to convalescence and then
succumbed to his INDEPENDENTLY
saved by the fever from dying OF .
broken heart.
Not far away is the spot where the
heroic girl is laid in death. 1t is in the
burial plot Of her uncle, in the west
kirkyard, near Crawford street. A
pathway, beaten in the turf by the feet
of many visitors, leads TO and ends at
her grave. All about it is so pitiabiy
different from the scenes she loved in
! life--the heather clad slopes of hel
highland home, the woodland braes
aud brooks where she fingered in dial
lance with her poet lover. Scant foliage
is about her, few birds may MARBLE
above her here. She lies by the wall; mar
row and noisy streets closely invest the
enclosure; the air is sullied by smoke
from factories and from steamers pass
ing within stones throw on the
crowded river;. SCOT from 100 chimney
blackens glass blade and leaf; thu
clangor and din of hammers and steam
whistles, of machinery and traffic, re
sound through sacred place and assai
our ears as we reverently stand abov,
the ashes of the fair haired lassie."
Two or three faded wreaths rest upoi
the grave; one of them (placed by tn,
loving hands of an American) has laii
there since the last anniversary o
Mary's death and of the composition o
the exquisite and imprisoned lines "1'
Mary in Heaven" The devoted girl ha
here ''lnouldered in silent dust" TO
more than century. During half tina
. period her grave was unsought ant
neglected; now it is found necessary t
protect it from the depredations Q
tourists by an iron railing. Fifty year
ago resident lovers of Burns procured b
subscription the erection of a monumen
. over the mound 1t is of marble, /
/ feet in height. 1t bears a sculptures
i medellion representing in relief Burn
, and Mary, with clasped hands, plight
ing their VOWS. Beneath is the inscrip
f ton: ..
= | . -,
r.; Erected over the Grave of
HIGHLAND MARY
1872
any Mary, dear departed shade,
a Where is thy place of blissful rest"