Burns's Mausoleum at Dumfries.

LONG had the genius of Burns been universally acknowledged, and his poems been read and admired, from the Land's End to John o'Groat's, before there was any tribute to his memory. While living, he had been treated with the most cruel neglect, and insulted with the situation of an exciseman, for, to a man of his genius and feeling, such an office was an insult, when death released him from the fangs of poverty on the 22nd of July, 1796, in the 38th year of his age. He died poor, but " owing no man;" for the independence of his spirit, and the exemplary prudence of his wife, not only preserved him from debt, but from every sort of meanness.

Eighteen years had his fame, like a rolling snow-ball, continually augmented, when two gentlemen stepped forth to erect a monument to his memory. Their names deserve record. It was to William Guerson, Esq. of Baitford, Dumfrieshire, and Alexander Key, Esq. of Golden-square, London, that the memory of Burns and the public are indebted for the Mausoleum, of which we this week give an engraving. When once projected,

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funds were soon supplied to complete it. It is a beautiful sepulchral monument, which, for symmetry and chasteness of design, has scarcely its equal in any age or country. An inscription in Latin was deposited in the first stone, of which the following is a translation :—

In perpetual honour of
ROBERT BURNS,
decidedly the first Scottish poet of his age,
whose exquisite verses in the dialect
of his country,
distinguished for the strength and fire
of native genius,
more than for the acquired accomplish-
ments
of polish and erudition,
are admired by all men of letters
for their humour, pleasantry, elegance,
and variety;
his townsmen and others, who love polite
literature,
and cherish the memory of so eminent
a genius,
caused this Mausoleum to be erected
over the mortal remains of
THE BARD.
Of this edifice,

129

LONG had the genius of Burns been universally acknowledged, and his poems been read and admired, from the Land's End to John o'Groat's, before there was any tribute to his memory. While living, he had been treated with the most cruel neglect, and insulted with the situation of an exciseman, for, to a man of his genius and feeling, such an office was an insult, when death released him from the fangs of poverty on the 22nd of July, 1796, in the 58th year of his age. He died poor, but "owing no man;" for the independence of his spirit, and the exemplary prudence of his wife, not only preserved him from debt, but from every sort of meanness.

In perpetual honour of
ROBERT BURNS,
decidedly the first Scottish poet of his age,
whose exquisite verses in the dialect
of his country,
distinguished for the strength and fire
of native genius,
more than for the acquired accomplishments
of polish and erudition,
are admired by all men of letters
for their humour, pleasantry, elegance,
and variety;
his townsmen and others, who love polite
literature,
and cherish the memory of so eminent
a genius,
caused this Mausoleum to be erected
over the mortal remains of
THE BARD.
Of this edifice,

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Yale Center for British Art, 2017