Mr Tait came to Edinburgh quite a lad, and entered the employment of Mr Thyne, draper. By steady, hard work he ascended the ladder until he was assumed a partner, the firm being known as Thyne & Tait, their premises being situated in Lothian Road, at the corner of Grindlay Street.

Mr Tait was a unique personality. All his life he was an ardent advocate of Temperance, so much so that at one time he kept a missionary in Fountainbridge district for the sole purpose of promoting total abstinence work.

Mr Tait's interests also included Band of Hope work, and he was to a large extent the founder of that movement. He was a member of the Scottish Temperance League and Permissive Bill Association, and of the Edinburgh Total Abstinence Society, being president of the latter body for a term.

A public-house situated at the corner of Semple Street was the haunt of coal heavers and other workers about the Canal. It was recognised as a notorious building. Learning that the lease was about to expire, Mr Tait saw his chance of removing the temptation from that quarter. He bought the property, and when the lease expired the publican was turned out. Mr Tait paid a pretty stiff price for his reform.

A characteristic of his was that he never spoke of his liberality, and few of his friends knew to what extent he opened his purse. Many of the young men who passed through his firm's hands afterwards started drapers' businesses of their own. and their old master invariably stocked their shops when they first commenced. Mr Tait was an eloquent speaker, and could be relied upon to speak to almost any motion at a moment's notice.

There were few local societies with which he was not connected. He belonged to the Society of Antiquaries, the Geological Society, and the Philosophical Society, and he was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Borderers' Union. First and foremost he was a Churchman. He was one of those fine men of the old school who could do a great deal without any show.

Mr Tait's character as a Churchman has been indicated in the foregoing paragraph, but to get a better understanding of this side of his character we quote from The Braid Church Messenger":

tributions, and a trusted adviser and helper in other branches of the church's work, he is one whose memory will be warmly cherished, while his presence will be much missed by many of us.

Mr Tait was a power in Temperance circles, as has already been indicated, and his work among the in connection with the Edinyoung burgh Band of Hope Union will have far-reaching results. To the Directors of that Association we are indebted for the use of the excellent portrait block which we reproduce as our supplement, and for the following fine appreciations of Mr Tait which appeared in their annual report :

:

The Union suffered even a heavier loss in the demise of Mr Geo. Tait, the last survivor of the little band of heroic men who founded it thirty-five years ago. The appended minute and other references give an indication of the nature and extent of the labours of the deceased and of the esteem in which he was held.

The Directors of the Edinburgh Band of Hope Union desire to place on record their deep sense of the loss sustained through the death, on 1st May, of Mr George Tait, one of its founders. They are grateful to God for His goodness in giving him such length of days, so that his invaluable services could be devoted so unremittingly to the saving of the children from the consequences of the liquor traffic.

From its formation in 1875 till his death he has been on the Directorate, in 1889 holding the office of President. Throughout, he has watched over the growth of the Union, guided its progress, worked strenuously for its extension, and rejoiced greatly in its success. He did not spare himself in the promotion of its best interests, but laid his time, his talents (and they were of no mean order), on the Altar of Service.

By pen, speech, and active effort, he worked assiduously for the promotion of the cause of Temperance amongst the young and for the consolidation and extension of the Union. He had the pen of a ready writer, and contributed a series of articles to the "Scottish Reformer," under the title of "Since Sixty Years," in which, among other interesting references to social and religious progress, he tells the story of the origin of the Edinburgh Band of Hope Union. These articles also dealt with the movement for promoting the use of unfermented wine at the Communion, giving therein some of his own personal experiences, and that of others, in connection with the controversy.

His life's record is a very full one, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He was a loving father, a wise teacher, a skilful superintendent, a faithful friend, a strenuous worker, a sagacious leader, a fluent speaker, a thorough temperance reformer, and a true and devoted Christian.

Some of the words of Job, contained in the 29th chapter of that wonderful book, could be most appropriately applied to him. He was eyes to the blind, and feet was he to the lame. He was a father to the poor-the cause which he knew not he searched out. When the ear heard him then it blessed him, and when the eye saw him it gave witness to him. Because he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had

none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him, and he caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

The Directors desire to convey to his sorrowing family their deep sympathy in their irreparable loss.

For him they do not mourn. He has gone to be with the Saviour whom he loved and served. He has entered through the gates into the city and has received the "well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

"Servant of God well done,

Rest from thy loved employ,
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."

One who knew Mr Tait long and well has borne the following testimony to the value and varied character of his Christ-like service:

The Temperance cause has lost one of its most devoted adherents and foremost workers in Edinburgh for nearly sixty years, in the person of Mr George Tait, who died on Sabbath morning, the 1st of May, aged 78 years. George Tait, who was born at Oakwood Mill, near Selkirk, was a Borderer to the heart's core, revelled in Border lore, and was a life-long student of Border literature, of which he collected a pretty copious library. The exigencies of the family required him to go to work at an earlier age than that at which lads now leave school, but his love of books, together with his good natural gifts, led him to spend much of his leisure time in carrying on his education; so that he became in process of time a man of well-stored mind, and very considerable culture. At an early age he became a Band of Hope boy, and all through his long life he was an enthusiastic Temperance worker, doing yeoman service in connection with the Edinburgh Total Abstinence Society, the Band of Hope Union, the Temperance League, the Scottish Permissive Bill Association, and Church Temperance Societies.

When an elder in the Barclay Free Church he was greatly exercised about the use of alcoholic wine at the Communion, and by and by his conscientious convictions in this matter became so strong that he declined to take part in the distribution of alcoholic wine at the Communion service. Not being able to satisfy the Session of the reasonableness of his position, he had to withdraw from the eldership. He, then, along with likeminded elders who had a similar difficulty in other Sessions the brothers Pirret, John and Thomas, and John Jeffrey, and others-formed the nucleus of a congregation, on the basis of unfermented wine at the Communion, which met first in the Literary Institute, and then in the Oddfellows' Hall, and then after a somewhat prolonged controversial struggle, issued in the Argyle Place United Presbyterian Church. Here George Tait did some of his best work, giving unlimited of his time and means and best thoughts, to the building up of a congregation, which for its numbers and resources was not excelled in liberality and Christian service by any in the denomination. George Tait was now over head and ears in public work-religious, philanthropic, municipal, and political. He was a man of great resource, a strenuous worker, a keen fighter, wise in counsel and resolute in purpose, and withal a most kindly

man, generous to opponents, and entirely free from self-seeking. He fought for great causes and never for personal advantage.

Mr Tait, remembering his own early difficulties, was ever on the look-out for promising young men whom he could befriend and help on; young business men with more ability than capital, whom a little timely aid would set on their feet; struggling young students who were rather short of means to carry them through; out-of-works of all sorts. Many such could speak of generous aid quietly bestowed, as if it were more gratifying to the giver than to the receiver. And among those that he generously helped were many that had brought their trouble on themselves. He had a wonderful faculty for seeing good in some who had fallen by the way, and extending to them not only sympathy and material help, but that confidence which put them on their metal, to recover by the help of God their lost manhood. Where he had a hopeful case in hand, it was no matter to him whether it was £5 or £50 that had to be advanced. Only the "great day "will reveal what is to his credit in this department, for he never spoke of it.

In his hospitable home he loved to be surrounded with young men, and he never lectured them. He was the young man among young men, leading them to speak freely of their ambitions and their difficulties, and cloaking in genial banter very helpful lines for their guidance.

He was the same with his own family, who lost their mother early-making all their schemes and interests his own, entering into the freest intercourse with them as if he were just a helpful elder brother among younger brothers and sisters.

His was an honest day's work of which the nob. lest and best might justly be proud. And now the night has fallen and he has gone to his rest. He sleeps well and will have a glad awaking.

"Now the labourer's task is o'er,
Now the battle day is past,
Now upon the further shore
Lands the voyager at last.

Father, in Thy gracious keeping,
Leave we now Thy servant sleeping."

ADDITIONS TO THE SELKIRK MUNGO PARK MONUMENT. -The Committee of the subscribers to the Mungo Park Monument at Selkirk have decided to devote the rest of the money they have in hand to the completion of the monument by the addition of four small figures at each corner of the base of the monument, representing natives of Nigeria, and the provision of a much more ornate railing to surround the monument. Some years ago funds were raised to add two handsome bronze panels to the monument. These were designed by Mr T. Clapperton, a Galashiels sculptor, and depicted scenes in the life history of Mungo Park. The panels were unveiled by Sir Harry Johnston. Funds remained in hand, the original suggestion being that it might be possible to found a Mungo Park bursary for the scholars of Selkirkshire. It has now been found that there will not be sufficient money for that purpose, and by a large majority the Committee have decided to devote it to the completion of the monument in the manner indicated. Mungo Park was born at Foulshiels, which is four miles from Selkirk, in the Yarrow Valley.

Both Tytler and Ritson consider the music of "Ay waukin, Oh!"-from its intrinsic evidence as one of our oldest melodies, and with the exception of the first stanza the words are older than Burns. We first find two stanzas of it printed in "A Dissertation on the Scottish Music" in the appendix to Arnot's "History of Edinburgh" (1779); and the language in which it is there treated shows its popularity at the time. The writer is none other than William Tytler, of Woodhouselee, the friend of Robert Burns, and the "revered defender of the beauteous Stuart. This paper was reprinted in the first volume of the Proceedings of the "Society of Antiquaries for Scotland," 1792, the year of the writer's death. above dissertation was republished at Perth in 1827, in his 1783 collection of poems by James I.

The

lesqued songs used by the rabble of the Reformation to the most favourite hymns in the Latin service. Stenhouse does not uphold this doctrine; still, there may be some truth in the tradition, and Bishop Percy quotes from the "Book of the Universal Kirk" in support of

his argument. "Green sleeves and pudding pies seems to be the original title, and a modernised version is not uncommon on the streets of Edinburgh yet:

Green peas an' mutten pies,
Tell me where my Jonnie lies;
I'll be there before he dies,
Come cuddle in my bosom."

In addition, Allan Reid gives another version with original air-"Castle Bells "-in part five of the "Rymour Club, Edinburgh Miscellanea."

Robert Burns did much good work in the preservation of our grand old Scottish airs; remember his enthusiasm in writing Mrs Dunlop on the recovery of " Auld Lang Syne." "Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment. There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half-a-dozen of modern English bacchanalians."

There's no country in the world equally crystallised in romantic sunshine like Scotland! The land of the mountain and flood, and a clouded age of its past history, has bequeathed us a collection of airs in unison with the country. Thus Robert Burns holds a unique niche in preserving its lyric pathos and wedding them to a muse unequalled in the history of the world since the shepherd King of Israel lived with the goat and the cony. The photographs have been submitted to an expert, and no doubt is left as to the original being genuine. It would be interesting to know the subsequent history of the manuscript from R. A. Smith to the present possessor, and the donor to the Edinburgh Burns Collection of another link with Scotland's cottar-king.

DEATH OF A PEEBLESSHIRE PROPRIETOR.-William Allan Woddrop, of Dalmarnock, died on 1st January, 1911, at his Peeblesshire residence, Garvald House, in the parish of West Linton. Born in 1829, the deceased, as a young man, joined the Scots Greys, serving through part of the Crimean campaign, and retiring with the rank of major. After his retirement from the Army, he held high rank in the Lanarkshire Volunteers. For some forty years at least he has resided at Garvald. where, in addition to managing his own estate, he took an active part in most of the duties falling to a country gentleman.