trades and other public bodies, filed
past towards the rendezvous of the great Procession. This was on what is
called the Low Green; and the admirable arrangements made by the
committee of management--of which Mr Ballantine of Castlehill was
convener, and Messrs Bone and Gray secretaries--were manifest. Mr
Thwaites undertook the marshaling of the whole. Here, first, the
grandeur of the National Festival was displayed, while the immense
multitudes that had come trooping in from all quarters stood
congregated in orderly muster, a mighty host, bound in unity by one
soul, stretching far and wide from the towers of Ayr to the sea.
Suddenly, at signal given, the Procession began to deploy, in admirable
order, with streaming banners and crashes of music, and shouts from the
accompanying thousands that rent the sky; and we were warned that it was
time to proceed, if we wished to obtain a place upon the Platform
erected on the banks of Doon.

A unit in the stream of population, we skirted the noble race-course,
and reached the Platform just before the head of the Procession had
arrived. It was erected in a magnificent situation. Behind was the
monument of Burns, and the sweet habitation of Mr Auld, with old Alloway
Kirk a little further off. Before it was the immense Pavilion erected
for the banquet, all gay with flags and streamers. To the right, were
the woods that fringe the romantic Doon, at that point concealed from
sight; but not so the Old Bridge, which spans it, with its arch of
triumphal evergreen. Every slope beyond was studded with groups of
people, content to view the spectacle from afar. The Carrick hills
reached far away beyond; and, on the other side, were the town and broad
bay of Ayr, and Arran with all its mountains. But we had little leisure
then to look around us. On the Platform were collected many of the
Ladies and Gentlemen of the county--Sir David Hunter Blair; James
Campbell, Esq. of Craigie; W. A. Cunninghame, Esq. of Fairlie; A. Boyle,
Esq. of Shewalton, &c.; Archibald Hastie, Esq. M.P.; A. Buchanan, Esq.,
Charles Neaves, Esq. Mr Sheriff Campbell, Mr Sheriff Bell, Mr
Carruthers, &c. &c.; some of the most distinguished of those who had
come from afar, and conspicuous in front the surviving Kindred of Burns.
There stood, with his beautiful Countess, the noble and manly Eglinton,
_preux chevalier_ of his day, and fitting representative of that ancient
house of Montgomery, so famous in the annals and peer