[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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TA.M
THE BAIiliOCH.
Stewart required, but for which the less refined amanuensis was not disposed
to make allowance.
Returning to the Register House, he acted
for several years as a copying clerk, first under Mr Thomson, and afterwards
in that department where deeds are recorded. About this time he
married his cousin, Janet Ainslie, an amiable and sensible woman, by \
whom he has a large family.
Constant employment in copying dry legal
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writings was by no means agreeable to his temperament ; so he at length I
quitted it, and for a time occupied himself in keeping the books of his
father-in-law, who was a brewer in Edinburgh. The concern, after
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being carried on for about two years, proved unsuccessful. He now re- \
solved on emigrating to the United States of America, to which he pro-
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ceeded in July, 1822. There, after having made the necessary arrange- i
ments, he was joined by his wife and children. He acquired a property, I
to which he gave the name of " Pilgrim's Repose ;" but it did not prove to s
be the resting-place he had anticipated. On the banks of the Ohio, in the \
neighbourhood of Cincinnati, he afterwards established a brewery. His S
premises having been accidentally consumed by fire, he energetically set \
about the rebuilding of them ; but, notwithstanding all his efforts, misfortune
again overtook him, and now he resides at Louisville. In the
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summer of 1S20, he made a tour from Edinbtn-gh to Ayrshire, in com- i
pany with two friends ; and two years afterwards, when on the eve of i
emigrating, he published an account of it in a book, consisting of one vo- !
lume 12mo., entitled "A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, . . with i
numerous pieces of Poetry, original and selected."* It contains three ;
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wood-cut illustrations, from drawings taken by Ainslie, who possesses
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\ some talent as a draughtsman. The bibliographer will be surprised on \
i finding that the book proceeded from the Deptford press. This is ac- 5
counted for by the fact of the author having a friend a printer in that
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place. Owing to his not having enjoyed an opportunity to correct the
5 proof-sheets, the book is disfig-ured by lapses in grammar, and by incorrect
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the travellers figure The
i from the length of his person and the activity of his lirnbs, is called The Lang
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Linker ; and his companions, Mr John Gibson and Mr James Welstood, are respec-
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>
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! tively styled Jingling Jock and Edie Ochiltree. Welstood, who went to America (
\ about the same time as Ainslie, died lately at New York. Gilsson did not cross " the i
Atlantic's roar," as he apj)ears, from what is said at pages 2G0 and 271, to have con- i
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\ templated : he now worthily fills the office of Janitor in the Dollar Institution. (