Page:Alloway Kirk or Tam o Shanter a tale and man was made to mourn a poem with a sketch of burnss life.pdf/4

4 the scene of action with Tam o' Shanter and the Witches. The Kirk stands without a roof in the midst of the Burying ground. The walls of the Kirk were repaired a few years ago, by some of the heritors, with a view to keep up the name of the place. The old bridge on which Tam's Mare lost her tail, is still standing, although condemned by the road Trustees, not for age, but for the rising ground, on both sides of the river, and another magnificient [sic] bridge is built, about a gun shot from it. The friends of Burns who meet annually in the cottage, to celebrate his birth day, subscribed a sum adequate to the value put on it, as old material, were it taken down; the auld brig of Doon now stands as a monument to the poet's memory.

In infant days he owed much to an old woman, who resided in his father's family, remarkable for her ignorance, credulity and