Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE EARLDOM OF GLENCA1RN 327
Being whose image he so richly bears ;" and adds, " he
is a stronger proof of the immortality of the soul than
any that philosophy ever produced. A mind like his
never dies." And when the Earl had gone over to the
majority, and the honours of the family had passed to
his brother, Burns sent the latter a copy of the new
edition, just issued, with a letter in which he said —
" The generous patronage of your late illustrious brother
found me in the lowest obscurity ; he introduced my
rustic muse to the partiality of my country ; and to
him I owe all. My sense of his goodness, and the
anguish of my soul at losing my truly noble protector
and friend, I have endeavoured to express in a poem to
his memory, which I have now published." This was
the famous " Lament for James Earl of Glencairn "
that closes with the touching and beautiful stanza : —
" The bridegroom may forget the bride
Was made his wedded wife yestreen,
The monarch may forget the crown
That on his head an hour has been,
The mother may forget the child
That smiles sae sweetly on her knee,
But I'll remember thee, Glencairn,
And a' that thou hast done for me."
In 1786 the Earl had disposed of the estate of
Kilmaurs to the Marchioness of Titchfield. In 1790,
owing to declining health, he was advised to winter at
Lisbon, but, finding that the change of residence failed
to renew his waning energies, he resolved to return
home ; and he died January y>, 1791, soon after landing
at Falmouth, and was buried in the church there.
The Earl, who was unmarried, was succeeded by
his brother John, the fifteenth Earl of Glencairn, who
died in 1796, also unmarried, and with him the male
line of the main stem of this ancient family became
extinct, and the long famous Earldom of Glencairn was
dormant. Whether it may ever be resuscitated must be
left for time and for those immediately concerned to
determine. There have been many branches of the