Note 31 — ROBERT BURNS.

I must mention one fact regarding the neighborhood of Ayr. Never, sure, Wales not excepted, was there a country so infested with toll-bars. In going to Mauchline, twelve miles, including a slight divergence to take a view of Mount Oliphant, and thus going out of Ayr by one road and coming in by the other, I paid at nine bars, five of them sixpence each. At no one did they give you a ticket to another. New bars were, moreover, building! "How did you like the country?" asked my landlord, on my return. "Oh!" said I, "it is a most barbarous country." "Barbarous?" "Yes; there is nothing but bars. I must send Rebecca to you." "True," said he, "Rebecca never found any thing more abominable."