\. \ 1, 37 THE PROSE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS, WITH THE NOTES OF CURRIE AND CROMEK, AND MANY BY THE PRESENT EDITOR. EDINBURGH: • PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS AND W. S. ORR AND COMPANY, LONDON. 1839. ^^^-b^^ EDUfBUROH : Peintbd by W. and R. Chambsks, 19, Waterloo Place. $0Ja»03 PREFACE. The first examples of the Prose of Burns, besides the Prefaces to the various Editions of his Poems, were given to the world, in the Edition of his Works published by Dr Currie, in 1800. They consisted of about one hundred and twenty letters, addi-essed to various correspondents ; fifty-five addressed to Mr George . Thomson, exclusively on the subject of Scottish Song ; and some Extracts from Common-Place Books, which the Poet had kept at various periods of his life. Burns's prose made from the first a considerable impression on the public mind. By many, the Letters were considered as even more wonderful compositions than the Poems ; and we learn that Dr Aiken, then at the head of critical literature in England, pronounced them superior to any thing of the kind in the language. This praise would now, perhaps, be generally considered as too high ; yet, notwithstanding some specimens of bad taste, occurring here and there, they are certainly entitled to no mean place in the department of literature to which they belong. They display, in general, all that vigour of thought and expression which shines in the verse of Burns. They contain many striking views of life and manners, and some deeply solemn and touching speculations on the topics which most nearly concern the human bosom. Above all, they throw a most interesting light on the character and history of the Poet himself, who is here seen in the undisguise of his veritable nature— full of generous feeling towards all whom he loved— sternly, and often, it may be, coarsely, indignant at those whom his jealous irritability taught him to regard as enemies^ — sometimes elated by the joy of his fame, and the pride of his talents— but more frequently brooding in gloom over his unworthy lot and dismal prospects, or writhing in repentance over follies which the better part of his nature in vain contended. with. The facts of the life of Burns are chronicled by others ; but the history of his feel- ings — his truest and most genuine biography — is to be found in his own Letters. In consequence of the estimation in which the prose part of Dr Currie's publication was held, further specimens of that class of Burns's compositions were afterwards brought before the world. In 1802, a series of his letters was published in Glasgow, by the same Mr T. Stewart who had given to the world his J0II3' Beggars, and other poems, overlooked by Currie. They were twenty-five in number, and had been •written by the Poet chiefly during his confinement with a bruised limb, in Edinburgh, in the winter of 1787-8, the sole person addressed being a lady, poetically named Clarinda, for whom he had contracted a I'omantic feeUng of attachment, in consequence of conversing with her but once in the house of a friend, immediately before the occurrence of his accident. The originals of these letters had been obtained surreptitiously, and their pub- lication was rendered illegal by the claim which Burns's executors had over all his compositions during the currency of their term of copyright. They were therefore interdicted, at the instance of these executors, and soon vanished^from the open market. The force of the interdict is now, we presume, exhausted, along with the term of the copyright ; but the letters are still suppressed, in consequence of the non-consent of the lady herself to their publication. Mr Cromek's volume of Reliques, published in 1808, added seventy -two letters of Burns to the General Correspondence printed by Currie ; and we were further presented on this occasion with a series of strictures on Scottish songs and ballads, with anecdotes of their authors, which the Poet had drawn up for the illustra- tion of Johnson's Musical Museum — besides a more complete edition of his Common-Place Books than that given by Currie. Since then, additional letters of Bums have been published in Morrison's Edition of the Poems, in Mr Lockhart's Life of Burns, in Mr Allan Cunningham's Edition of the Poet's Works, and other publications. To Mr Cunningham the public is Ukewise indebted for a complete set of the Poet's Memoranda of his Border and Highland Tours. In the present Edition of the Prose Works of Burns, are combined all the letters, and other composi- tions, enumerated, as having appeared in these various publications ; namely : — The one hundred and twenty General Letters, published by Currie ; The Correspondence >vith Mr Thomson ; The seventy-two General Letters, published by Mr Cromek ; All the other Letters, more recently pubUshed ; The Common-Place Books, in their entire form ; The Memoranda of Tours ; and The Strictures on Scottish Songs and Ballads, with Anecdotes of their Authors. Besides which, all the Notes of Currie and Cromek, with many new ones by the Editor, are given ; so that the present Fasiculus, with the two accompanymg publications, may be said to form as complete a set of the Life and Writings of Burns as any in existence. > R. C. CONTENTS. ^:^* The Italic letters in the following list of contents are dcbigneil to indicate in wliieh of the above enumerated iiublica- tions the various letters respectively made their appearance. Those marked a were published by Dr Currie ; those marked 6 appeared in Cromek's volume ; those marked c were published in jMorison's edition of the poems ; d marks those incorporated in Mr Lockhart's Memoir ; c those published in Cunningham's edition of the poet's works ; / those in Hogg and JMotherwcll's edition ; and g those in the present edition ; an asterisk being added whei-e the letter had previously appeared f ugitively. General Cop^respondence Page 9 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Id. 17. 18. id. 20. 21. 26 27, 1783. To . Loelilee. A love-letter - - a To . A love-letter - ~ a To . A love-letter - - -a To . On her rejection of liis hand - a To Mr John Murdoch, schooiniaster. Jan. 15. Giving an account of his present studies and temper of mind - - - - -a To Mr James Burness, Montrose. June 21. State of the country - - - - d 1784. To the same. Feb. 17. Mentioning the death of his father - - - - - - d To the same. Aug. Gives an account of the Buchanites - - - - - - d 1786. To Mr John Richmond. Feb. 17. Giving an account of some of his compositions - b To Mr Jolm Kennedy. INIar. 3. Invitation to Maucliline ------ e To Mr Robert Muir, Kilmarnock. Mar. 20. Encloses " Scotch Drink " - - - e To Mr Aiken. Apr. 3. Sends thanks for a lady's approbation ----- *e To Mr M'Whinnie, writer, Ayr. Apr. 17. Sends the prospectus of his poems - - - ''b To Mr Jolm Kennedy. Apr. 20. Encloses " The Mountain Daisy"' e To Mons. James Smith, Ivlauchline. His in- tended voyage to the West Indies delayed b To Mr David Brice. June 12. Jean Armour's return — her perjiu-y. Is printmg his poems 6 To John Ballantyne, of Ayr. June. Encloses prospectus of his poems. JMr Armour's de- struction of his marriage certificate - e To Mr John Richmond, Edinburgh. July 9. Condolence. Forbidden by the Armours to visit tlieir house - 1 - . _ g To Mr David Brice, Glasgo-w. July 17. Jean Armour. Has done penance in church e To Mr John Richmond. July 30. Is about to sail for the West Indies. Threatened with a jail ---.__. e To Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop. Thanks for her no- tice. Praise of her ancestor, Sir William AVallace ..-a To Mr John Kennedy. Aug. Farewell e To Mr Burness, Montrose. Sept. 26. Domestic affections. Uncertain of his departure *g To Mr Robert Muir, Kilmarnock. Sept. Birth of his first twin children. " The Calf" e To Mr Robert Aiken. Scheme for obtaining him an excise appointment. Expresses his belief in the immortality of tlie so'al. Disclaims misanthropy ---__« To Dr IMackenzie, Mauchline. Enclosing verses on dining with Lord Daer. Character of Mr Dugald Stewart b To Mrs Stewart, of Stair. Encloses " The Bonny Lass of Ballochmyle" - - - - a Proclamation in the name of the Muses - a To Gavin Hamilton. Esq. ]Mauchline. Edin- burgh, Dec. 7. Rising fame. Patronage b 14 15 16 Page 30. To John Ballantyne, Esq. Ayr. Dee. 13. A host of patrons and patronesses - - 6 16 31. To Mr WiUiam Chalmers, writer, Ajt. Dec. 27. A humorous sally b 17 1787. 32. To the Earl of Eglinton. Jan. Thanlis for his patronage "" al7 33. To John Ballantyne, Esq. Jan. 14. Offered a farm by Mr Miller. Complimented in a mason lodge - - - - - -.&17 84. To the same. Encloses " The Banks of Doon" 6 17 35. To Mr Dunlop. Jan. 15. Account of his situa- tion in Edinburgh - - - - -al7 36. To James Dairy mple, Esq. Orangefield. Ap- proves of Mr D.'s verses. Praise of Lord Glencairn - - - - - - a 18 37. To Dr Moore. Jan. Grateful acknowledgments of Dr M.'s notice of him in letters to Mrs Dunlop - - - - - - -a 18 38. To the Rev. G. Lowrie. ThaiJvs for advice. Reflections on his situation. Compliments paid to Miss L by Mr Mackenzie - - a 19 39. To Dr Moore. Feb. 15 - - - - a 19 40. To John Ballantyne, Esq. Feb. 24. Second edition of his poems about to appear - 6 20 41. To the Earl of Glencairn. Grateful acknowledg- ments of kindness - - - - a 20 42. To the Earl of Buchan. In reply to a letter of advice a 20 43. To Mr William Dunbar. Thanks for a present of Spenser. Soon to leave Edinbiirgh / 20 44. To Mr James Caudlish. Mar. 21. Return from scepticism to religion. Still " the old man with his deeds" & 20. 45. To . Mar. On Fergusson's headstone a 21 46. To Mrs Dunlop. Mar. 22. Respecthig his pro- spects on leaving Edinburgh - - - 21 47. To Miss . A kind of love-letter - b 22 48. To IMrs Dunlop. Apr. 15. Gratitude - a 22 49. To Dr Moore. Apr. 23. About to leave Edin- burgh - - « 22 50. To Mrs Dunlop. Apr. 30. Reply to criticisms a 23 51. To the Rev. Dr' Blau\ May 3. Written on leaving Edinburgh. Thanks for his kindness 23 52. To James Johnson. May 3. Promises assist- ance for the Scots Musical Museum - / 23 53. To William Creech, Esq. Selkirk, May 13. Ilis tour of the Border. " Willie's Awa" b 23 54. To Mr Pattison, bookseller, Paisley. Receipt of paymeiit for ninety copies of his poems, sold at Paisley f '2i 55. To Mr W. Nicol, Carlisle, June 1. A ride de- scribed in broad Scotch - - - 6 24 56. To the same. Mauchline, June 18. IMilton's Satan his favourite. Misfortune of the poetic character. Estimate of his friends and ac- quaintance - - - - - -6 24 57. To Mr James Candlish. Scots Musical Mu- seum -- 25 58. To Mr W. Nicol. Auchtertyre, June. His liapi)!- ness in that mansion - - - - e 25 59. To Mr William Cruickshank. Auchtertyre, June. His late peregrinations - - - e 25 60< To John Richmond. July 7. Richmond's master. His highland ramble - - - - e 25 CONTENTS. Page To Robert Ainslie. July 23. Sets high value upon his friendship - - - - e 25 To the same. July. Sufferings from savage hos- pitality. Farming e 26 To Robert Muir. Aug. 26. Stirling. Bannock- bum. Compliments - - - - e 26 To Gavin Hamilton. Aug. 28. Mr H.'s family at Harvieston - - - - - -&26 To Mr Walker. Sept. 5. Bruar water. Duke of Athole's children - - - - « 27 To Gilbert Bums. Sept. 17. Account of his Highland journey - - - - - a 27 To Miss Chalmers. Sept. 26. Determined to pay a poetic compliment to Miss Hamilton. Joim Skinner. Mr Miller - - - 6 27 To the same. Farming. Charlotte Hamilton h 28 To Rev. John Skinner. Oct. 25. Thanks for a poetical compliment. Johnson's Museum e 28 To James Hoy. Oct. 30. Mr Nieol. Johnson's Museum _-----e28 To the same. Nov. 6. Song by the Duke of Gordon - e 29 To Robert Ainslie. Nov. 23. Declines an invi- tation - - & 29 To the Earl of Glencaim. Requesting his aid hi getting into the excise- - - - - a 29 To Cliarles Hay, Esq. Enclosing verses on the Death of the Lord President - - *^ 29 To Miss M n. Compliments a Greenland expression - ' - - - - - *6 29 To Miss Chalmers. Nov. 21. Charlotte Hamil- ton, &c. The Wabster's Grace - - 6 30 To the same. Dec, 12, His bruised limb. Praise of the Bible - 6 30 To th.e same. Dec. 19. On stilts, not poetic but oaken. His motto, I dare. His enemy moimcme - - - - - - &30 To the same. Dee. Complimentary poems on Miss C. A severe letter of hers to b 30 To Sir John Whitefoord. Dec. Thanks for friendship. Reflections on the poetical cha- racter a 31 To Miss Williams. Dec. A critique on her poem of " Tlie Slave Trade" - - - ''e 31 To Mr Richard Brown, Irvine. Dec. 30. Re- collections of early life. Same will-o'-wisp being as ever - - - - - c 32 To Mr Gavin Hamilton. Dee. Prayers for his health. Advices e 1788. To Mrs Dunlop. Jan. 21. Low spirits after recovering from sickness - - - a To Miss Chalmers. Anger at Creech. Miser- able prospects b m. To Mrs Dunlop: Feb. 12. Religion - a 87. To Robert Graham, Esq. Asks an appoint- ment to the excise - - - - -a 88. To the Rev. John Skinner. Feb. 14. Second volume of Johnson published - - e 89. To Richard Brown. Feb. 15. Appointment to meet in GlasgoAv ----- c To Miss Chalmers. About to commence far- mer, and has entered into the excise - b To Mrs Rose, of Kilravock. Feb. 17. Recol- lections of his residence at Kilravock - e To Richard Bro^\Ti. Mauchline, Feb. 24. Friendship. Resolved to enjoy the present c To air W. Cruikshanks. Mar. 3. Negotiations for farm of Ellisland - - - - e To Robert Ainslie, Esq. Mar. 3. Ellisland. Jean Armour. Message to Clarinda - e To Richard Brown. Mar. 7. An honest passion a good stimulus - - - - - c To Mr Muir. Notions on human destiny *b To Mrs Dunlop. Mar. 17. Disclaims having 84. 85 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. ridiculed her 98. To Miss Chalmers. lease of Ellisland. K. 99. To Richard Brown. 100. To Mr Robert Cleghorn, in the farmer - - - _ _ ^ 101. To Miss Chalmers. Apr. 7. Thanks for her making him acquainted ^vith Miss Kennedy. Has lately made some sacrifices. - & Mar. 14. Has taken a Good resolutions. Miss b Mar. 26. Apologies - c Mar. 31. Poet sunk 32 Pac-e 102. To Mrs Dunbar. Apr. 7. Forgoes poetry and the world of wits, for business - - / 37 103. To Mrs Dunlop. Apr. 28. Giving an account of his prospects - - - a 37 104. To Mr James Smith. Apr. 28. Jocular allu- sions to his marriage - - - - 6 37 105. To Professor Dugald Stewart. May 3. Thanks a 38 106. To Mrs Dunlop. May 4. Remarks on Dryden's Tirgil and Pope's Odyssey - - a 38 107. To Mr Robert Ainslie. May 27. His marriage 6 38 108. To Mrs Dunloj?. May 27. Bitter remark^ on hauteur towards domestics - - - a 38 109. To the same. June 13. Qualities of his wife a 39 110. To Mr R. Ainslie. June 14. Apprehends an imperfection in his mental sight. Resolves to be gxave. His marriage - - - b 39 111. To the same. Juno 23. Respectinsj' a profile of Dr Blacklock ---.''- g 39 112. To the same. June 30. Death of Mr Ainslie's master. Praise of prudence. Defence of the piudent 6 39 113. To Mr George Lockhart. July 18. Admiration of the Misses Baillie - - - - 6 40 114. To Mr Peter Hill. With a present of a cheese a 40 115. To Mr W. Cruikshanks. Aug. Nicol, Creech, A ; friendly wishes - - - - e 41 115. To Mrs Dunlop. Aug. 2. Condolences. Lines on a hermitage. Address to Mr Graham of Fintry - - - - - a 41 117. To the same. Aug. 10. Further account of his marriage. Contempt of accomplished young ladies - - - - - a 41 118. To the same. Aug. 16. Dinner at Mr Miller's. The many unhappy. Religion - a 42 119. To Mr Beugo, engraver. Sept. 9. Farming and poetry - - - - - 6 42 120. To Miss Chalmers. Sept. 16. Touching recol- lections of happy days spent in her company. Has married Jean, and become farmer and exciseman. Lines on Friars' Carse - h 43 121. To Mr Morrison, Mauchline. Sept. 22. Urges the preparation of his household furniture b 43 122. To Mrs Dunlop. Sept. 27. Grateful for her criticisms. Verses on a mother's less of her son - - - - - & 44 123. To Mr P. Hill. Oct. 1. Criticism on an " Ad- dress to Loch Lomond" - - a 44 124. To the Editor of the Star. Nov. 8. Pleading for the Stuart family - - - a 45 125. To Mrs Dimlop. Nov. 13. Flatteries of la- dies ------- a 4,5 126. To Mr James Johnson. Nov. 15. The Mu- seum - - - - - 6 46 127. To Dr Blacklock. Nov. 15. Poetical labours. Pleased witli his marriage - - & 46 128. To Mrs Dunlop. Dec. 17. Condolences. Sends " Auld Lang Syne" and " My Bonnie Mary" a 46 129. To Miss Davies. Dec. Enclosing a ballad a 46 130. To Mr John Tennant. Dec. 22. Praises his whisky - - - - - *e 47 178.9. 131. To Mrs Dunlop. New-year's day. Reflections suggested by the day - - a 47 132. To Dr Moore. Jan. 4. Account of his situation and prospects - - - - a 47 133. To Mr Robert Ainslie. Jan. 6. Mr A.'s com- mencement of a i)rofessional career - J 48 134. To Professor Dugald Stewart. Jan. 20. En- closes some poems for his criticism - a 48 1'35. To Bishop Geddes. Feb. 3. Account of his situation and prospects - - a 49 136. To Mr James Burness. Feb.. 9. Esteem. Ac- count of his recent affairs. Relatives - c? 49 137. To Mrs Dunlop. Mar. 4. Indignant sense of his poverty. Lines by J\Irs Dunlop, improved by Bums - - - - a 49 138. To Rev. Mr P. Carfi'ae. Poem by a Mr Mylne a 50 139. To Dr Moore. Mar. 23. Enclosing a poem a 50 140. To Mr Hill. Apr. 2. Apostrophe to' frugality. Orders for books - - - - a 51 To ]\Irs Dimlop. Ajir. 4. Encloses sketch of C. J. Fox - - - - a 52 142. To Mrs M'Murdo, Drumlanrig. May 2. Gra^ titude for her attentions. Encloses song of " Bonnie Jea.n" - . - p e;o CONTENTS. 143. To ]\Ir Cunninghcam. May 4. Encloses poem 182. on a wounded hare. Praises Cruikshanks a 52 144. To Mr Samuel Brown. May 4. Ailsa fowling e 63 145. To Richard Brown. May 21. Hopes they will meet in another world - - c 53 14G. To Mr James Hamilton. May 26. Sympathises with Mr H.'s misfortunes - - - 6 53 147. To William Creech, Esq. May 30. Toothache. Encloses some new pieces. Requests three copies of his poems - - - 6 53 148. To Mr M'Auley, of Dumbarton. June 4. An accoimt of his situation - - - a 53 14.9. To Mr R. Ainslie. June 8. Overwhelmed with business. Serious counsel - - - 6 54 150. To Mr M'Murdo. .Tune 19. Encloses a song e 54 151. To Mrs Dunlop. June 21. Reflections on re- ligion - - - - - a 54 152. To Mr . In answer to a letter in which there was some account of Fergusson - a 55 153. To Miss Williams. Enclosing a criticism on a poem of hers - - - - a 55 154. To Mr John Logan. Aug. 7. " The Kirk's Alarm" - - - - e 56 155. To Mrs Dunlop. Sept. 6. Religion. Praise of Zeluco - - a 5Q 156. To Captain Riddel, Carse. Oct. 16. Day of the contention for the whistle. Requests two franks ___._ . 6 56 157. To the same. Gratitude - - - h 57 158. To Mr R. Ainslie. Nov. 1. Apology for his entering the excise - - - & 57 159. To Mr Richard Brown. Nov. 4. Account of his excise duties and emoluments - c 57 160. To Robert Graham, Esq. of Fin try. Dec. 9. Encloses some of his poems - - - a 57 161. To Mrs Dunlop. Dec. 13. Ill with a nervous headache. Reflections on immortality a 58 162. To Lady Winifred Maxwell Constable. Dec. 16. An effusion of Jacobinism - - - c? 58 163. To Provost Maxwell, of Lochmaben. Dec. 20. Is at a loss for a subject. Wishes to hear of an election at Lochmaben - - - e 59 1790. 164. To Sir John Sinclair. Account of a book society among the farmers in Nithsdale - - a 59 165. To Charles Sharp, Esq. of Hoddam. Under a fictitious character enclosing a ballad - a 59 166. To Mr Gilbert Bums. Jan. 11. Discontented with his farm. Players at Dumfries - a 60 167. To Mr Sutherland, player. Enclosing a pi'o- logue 60 168. To Mr W. Dunbar. Jan. 14. Anxious to keep up correspondence. Excise business. His children. Hopes of a better world - / 60 169. To Mrs Dunlop. Jan. 25. Some account of Falconer, author of " The Shipwreck." Touch- ing stanzas from old Scottish ballads - a 61 170. To Mr P. Hill. Feb. 2. Hurry of excise busi- ness. Case of Miss Burns. Poem of " The Village Curate." Order for books - b 171. To Mr W. Nicol. Feb. 9. Nicol's mare dead. Theatricals __._-- 5 172. To Mr Cunningham. Feb. 13. Apologies for his poor paper. Is there a science of life ? Obliged to break the Sabbath. After all, his chief fears refer to this world - - a 173. To Mr P. Hill. Mar. 2. Orders for books. Thinks mankind naturally benevolent - a 174. To Mrs Dunlop. Apr. 10. Love of his coun- try. Conduct of statesmen. Admires the Mirror and Lounger. Minds of sensibility not fitted for the world - - - a 175. To Collector Mitchell. Obscure allusions to a meeting of the county gentlemen - - e 176. To Dr Moore. July 14. Thanks for a present of Zeluco. Mrs C. Smith's sonnets - a 177. To Mr Murdoch. July 16. Respecting his brother William - - _ _ _ 6 178. To Mr M'Murdo. Aug. 2. Encloses a poem 179. To Mrs Dunlop. Aug. 3. Some one has wounded his pride - . _ - a 180. To Mr Cunningham. Aug. 8. Aspirations after independence - - _ _ _ « 181. To Dr Anderson. Apologises for inability to aid iu a literary work - - - - fe 66 j^ 183. 184. 185. 186. 187. 188. 189. 190. 191. 192. 193. 194. 195. 196. 197. 198. 199. 200. 201. 202. 203. 204. 205. 206. 207. 61 208. 62 209. 210. 62 63 2ir. 212. 63 213. 64 214. 64 215. 65 65 65 216. 65 217. Page To Crawford Tait, Esq. Oct. 15. Introduces a Mr Duncan. Appeals to his generosity m behalf of Mr D. b (SG To . Dr M'Gill's case - - - h GG To Mrs Dunlop. Nov. Congratulates her on the birth of her grandchild. Stanzas on the same occasion - - , _ - a 67 1791. To Lady W. M. Constable. Jan. 11. Thanks for the gift of a box which had belonged to Queen Mary a 67 To Mr W. Dunbar. Jan. 17. Not yet dead. Good wishes. Encloses a poem - - 67 To Mr P. Hill. Jan. 17. Tirade on poverty a 68 To Mr Cunningham. Encloses " Tarn o' Shan- ter," &c. - a 68 To A. F. Tytler, Esq. Feb. Reply to Mr T.'s criticisms on Tam o' Shanter - , - a 68 To Mrs Dunlop. Feb. 7. Hurt arm and hand. Encloses " Elegy on Miss Burnet." Good wishes for Mrs D.'s daughter and grandchild a 69 To the Rev. Mr A. Alison. Feb. 14. Doctrine of association of ideas. Praises Mr A.'s work on Taste a 69 To the Rev. G. Baird. Respecting the poems of M. Bruce a 69 To Dr Moore. Feb. 28. Enclosing some re- cently composed poems. Has been ranked as supervisor, though not yet employed as such a 70 To Mr Cunningham. Mar. 12. Encloses two songs - - - - - -'-a 70 To Mr Alex. Dalzel. Mar. 19. Death of Lord Glencaim ------ jjl To Mrs Graham of Fintry. '. Enclosing " Queen Mary's Lament." His poverty - - a 71 To Mrs Dunlop. Apr. 11. Birth of a third son. Health of the mother. Appreciates her homely simplicity of character - a 71 To . Apology for delay in writing - a 71 To Quaint invective on a pedantic critic 72 To Mr Cunningham. June 11. Pleads in be- half of Mr Clarke, a persecuted schoolmaster a 72 To the Earl of Buchan. Reply to an invitation to celebrate the birth-day of Thomson a 72 To Mr Thomas Sloan. Sept. 1. Apology for not writing. Strange scene at the public sale of his crop ------6 73 To Colonel Fullarton, of FuUarton. Oct. 3. Sends poems. Anxious to be known to one he respects so much - - - - ^ 73 To Lady E. Cunningham. Encloses his " La- ment for the Earl of Glencairn" - - « 73 To Mr Ainslie. Miserable state of his mind a 73 To Miss Davies. Apology for neglecting her commands. Railings at fortune. Wishes to reform the world - - - - - « 73 To Mrs Dunlop. Dec. 17. Enclosing the " Song of Death" - - - - - - « 74 1792. To Mr William Smellie, printer. Jan. 22. In- troduces Mrs Riddel. Contrast between the character of Mr S. and Mrs R. - - a 74 To Mr W. Nicol. Feb. 20. Ironical thanks for advice - - - - - - -«74 To Francis Grose, Esq. ' Requesting him to visit Mr Dugald Stewart, whose character he ■^ourtrays - - '- - - - b 75 To the same. With legends respecting Allow- way Kirk - - - - *& 75 To Mr J. Clarke, Edinburgh. July 26. Hu- morous invitation to come to the country to teach music - - - - 6 76 To Mrs Dunlop. Aug. 22. Miss Lesley Baillie. Regrets separation from friends - a 70 To Mr Cunningham. Sept. 10. Wild apostro- phe to a spirit. The conjugal state - a 7V To Mrs Dunlop. Sept. 24. Condoles on Mrs Henri's situation in France. Life of a farmer, unless on his own property, vsretched. His own increasing family - - a 77 To the same. Condoles on the death of Mrs Henri - - - - - o 78 To the same. Dec. 6. Melancholy reflections on the death of friends. Birth of his daugh- ter. Poetical quotations - " a 78 CONTENTS. Page 78 78 222. 223. 224. 218. To R. Graham, Esq. of Fintiy, Dec. Distress in consequence of an order to inquire into his political conduct. Appeal for protection h 219. To Mrs Dunlop. Dec. 31. Resolutions against hard drinking. No hope of promotion at pre- sent. Forswears politics - - - & 1793. 220. To the same. Jan. 5. Board of excise ap- peased respecting his political principles. Execrates informers. Thanks for a cup pre- sented by Mrs D. - - - - « 221. To Mr Cunningham. Mar. 3. Orders a seal to be engraved ----- a To Miss Benson. Mar. 21. Pleasure he had had in meeting with her - - - - a To Patrick Miller, Esq. Apr. Sends a present of the new edition of his Poems - & To John Francis Erskine, Esq. of Mar. Apr. 13. Gratitude for his friendship. The inquiry into his political conduct. Pathetic appeal against his supposed degradation by being an exciseman - - - - ^ ^0 225. To Mr R. Ainslie. Apr. 26. Spunkie his tute- lary genius. Possibility of scholarcraft being caught by the touch of books - - 6 81 226. To Miss Kennedy. A letter of compliment b 81 227. To Miss Craik. Aug. Wretchedness of poets a 82 228. To Lady Glencaim. Gratitude. Defence of the business of the excise. Dramatic compo- sition -------& 82 22.9. To John M'Murdo, Esq. Dee. Pays a debt which has for some time kept him out of Mr M.'s company. Sends a perusal of a collec- tion of Scottish songs - - - - a 83 230. To the same. A present of his Poems - 83 233. To Captain . Dec. 5. Compliments him as father of Scottish county reform. Encloses « Bruee's Address" - - - *e 83 232. To Mrs Riddel. Envies her going to a party of choice spirits - - - - - a 83 1794 233. To a Lady. In favour of a player's benefit a 83 234. To the Earl of Buchan. Jan. 12. Enclosing " Bruee's Address." Apostrophe to liberty *e 83 235. To Captain Miller, Dalswinton. Enclosing " Bruee's Address" - - - 236. To Mrs Riddel. Execration of one of her mi- litary friends - * - 237. To the same. Gin-horse class of men. His own irritability - - - - a 238. To the same. Recals her late severe look on meeting him, but assures her of his admira- tion and esteem - - - a 239. To the same. Renewal of interrupted friend- ship ----- a 240. To the same. Bewails their estrangement a 241. To John Syme, Esq. Enclosing a son^ - a 242. To Miss . Obscure allusions to liis disre- pute. Requests the return of MSS. lent to a deceased friend ----- a 243. To Mr Cunningham. Feb. 25. His miserable hypochondria. Requests consolation. Mag- nanimity. Religion . _ . « 244. To the Earl of Glencairn. May. . With a pre- sent of his Poems - - - - i 245. To David MaccuUoch, Esq. June 21. Arrange- ment respecting a journey in Galloway e 246. To Mrs Dunlop. June 25. Melancholy fore- bodings about his health. Encloses first stanzas of an Ode on Liberty - - 6 247. To Mr James Johnson. Poetry interrupted by mental suffering. Sends songs for the Museum. Has got Lord Balmerino's dirk - - 6 248. To Mr Samuel Clarke, jun. Allusions to a quarrel with Captain , occasioned by a toast, and which might have ended in a duel. Anxiety to prevent its Jbeing misrepresented to his disadvantage - - _ - 5 249. To Peter Miller, jun. Esq. Nov. Deelmes veriting for the Morning Chronicle - 6 250. To Mrs Riddel. As from the other world, apo- logising for misconduct when intoxicated a 1795. 251. To the same. Too busy at present for any literary pursuit - - ' - a 84 a 84 84 85 86 86 86 87 Page 252. To Mr Heron of Heron. Enclosing ballads on Mr H.'s election contest - - - 6 88 253. To Miss Fontenelle. Compliments her as an actress, and encloses an address for her benefit night 6 88 254. To Mrs Dunlop. Dec. 15. Anxiety about his family. Dumfries theatricals. Cowper's "Task" - a 88 255. To Mr Alex. Findlater. Schemes. Good wishes 6 89 256. To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle. For a friend — complaining of the non- transmission of the paper - - - - - -6 89 257. To Mrs Dunlop. Dec. 20. Mr Thomson's col- lection of songs. Has been appointed super- visor temporarily. Good wishes. Dr Moore a 89 258. Address of the Scotch Distillers to the Right Hon. W. Pitt - - - - 6 90 259. To the Hon. the Provost, Bailies, and Town Council of Dumfries. Requesting the privi- lege of sending his son to the burgh schools, on the footing of a burgess's son - - 6 90 1796. 260. To Mrs Riddel. Jan. 20. « Anacharsis's Tra- vels." Lost health - - - - a 90 261. To Mrs Dunlop. Jan. 31. Deplores the appa- rent loss of her friendship. Is the victim of a rheumatic fever a91. 262. To Mrs Riddel. June 4. His health forbids his attending the birth-night assembly a 91 263. To Mr Clarke, schoolmaster, Forfar. Fears he is dying. Bewails the prospects of his chil- dren *g 91 264. To Mr James Johnson. July 4. The Museum. Anticipations of death - - - 6 91 265. To Mr Cunningham. July 7. Account of his illness and his poverty. Anticipation of death - - - - - a 91 266. To Mr Gilbert Bums. July 10. Anticipations of death. His debts - - - - 92 267. To Mrs Burns. From Brow. Sea-bathing af- fords little relief - - - - a 92 268. To Mrs Dunlop. July 12. Bewails her lost friendship. A la^t farewell - - - 92 269. To Mr James Burness. July 12. Requests the loan of ten pounds - - - - d 92 270. To James Gracie, Esq. July 16. Declines the offer of a coach to bring him home - e 92 271. To James Armour. July 18. Begs Mrs A. may come to attend his wife. His strength gone e 92 CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR GEORGE THOMSON. 1792. 1. Mr Thomson to Burns. Desiring the bard to furnish verses for some of the Scottish airs, and to revise former songs - - - 93 2. Bums to Mr T. Promising assistance - 93 3. Mr T. to Bums. Sending some tunes - 94- 4. Burns to Mr T. With " The Lea-Rig," and " Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary ?" - 94 5. Burns to Mr T. With " My wife's a winsome wee thing," and " Oh saw ye bonnie Lesley ?" 94 6. Burns to Mr T. With " Highland Mary" - 95 7. Mr T. to Burns. Thanks, and critical observa- tions -------95 8. Burns to Mr T. With an additional stanza to "The Lea-rig" ----- 95 9. Burns to Mr T. With " Auld Rob Morris," and " Duncan Gray" - - - 96 10. Bums to Mr T. With « Oh poortith cauld," &c., and " Galla Water" - - - - 96 1793. 11. Mr T. to Bums. Jan. Desiring anecdotes on the origin of particular songs. Tytler of Woodhouselee. Pleyel. Sends Peter Pindar's " Lord Gregory." Postscript from the Hon. A. Erskine 96 12. Bums to Mr T. Has Mr Tytler's anecdotes, and means to give his own. Sends his own " Lord Gregory" 96 13. Burns to Mr T. With "Mary Morison" - 97 14. Burns to Mr T. With « Wandering Willie" - 97 15.* Mr T. to Bums. With a list of songs, and " Wandering Willie," altered - - 97 OONTENTa Page 16. Burns to Mr T. Voice of Coila. Criticism. Origin of " The Lass o' Patie's Mill" - .98 17. Mr T. to Bums . - - - 99 lo. Bums to Mr T. Simplicity requisite in a song. One poet should not mangle the works of an- other 99 19. Burns to Mr T. " Farewell thou stream that winding flows." Wishes that the national music may preserve its native features - 99 20. Mr T. to Burns. Thanks and observations 99 21. Burns to Mr T., with " Blithe hae I been on yon hill" 100 22. Burns to Mr T. With " Oh Logan, sweetly didst thou glide." " Oh gin my love were yon red rose," &e. - - _ - _ _ IQO 23. Mr T. to Burns. Enclosing a note. Thanks 100 24. Burns to Mr T. With " There was a lass and she was fair" _-_.__ 101 25. Burns to Mr T. Hurt at the idea of pecuniary recompense. Remarks on songs - - 101 26. Mr T. to Bums. Musical expression - 101 27. Burns to Mr T. For Mr Clarke - - 101 28. Burns to Mr T. With " PhiUis the fair" - 101 29. Mr T. to Burns. Mr Allan. Drawing from " John Anderson, my jo" _ _ _ 101 30. Burns to Mr T. With " Had I a cave," &c. Some airs common to Scotland and Ireland - 102 31. Burns to Mr T. With "By Allan stream I chanced to rove" ------- 102 32. Burns to Mr T. With « Whistle and I'll come to you, my lad," and " Awa wi' your belles and your beauties" ----- 102 33. Burns to Mr T. With " Come let me take thee to my breast" ------ 102 34. Burns to Mr T. " Daintie Davie" - - 103 35. Mr T. to Burns. Delighted with the productions of Burns's muse 103 36. Burns to Mr T. With " Bruce to his troops at Bannockburn" ----- 103 37. Bums to Mr T. With "Behold the hour, the boat arrive" - 103 38. Mr T. to Burns. Observations on " Bruce to his troops" ------- 103 39. Bums to Mr T. Remarks on songs in Mr T.'s list. His own method of forming a song. " Thou hast left me ever, Jamie." " Where are the joys I hae met in the morning." " Auld lang syne" -_-.-_ 104 40. Burns to Mr T. With a variation of " Bannock- burn" 105 41. Mr T. to Burns. Observations - - - 105 42. Bums to Mr T. On " Bannockburn." Sends "Fair Jenny" ----- 105 43. Burns to Mr T. With « Deluded swain, the plea- sure." Remarks ----- 106 44. Burns to Mr T. With " Thine am I, my faithful fair." " Oh condescend, dear charming maid." " The Nightingale." " Laura." The three last by G. TurnbuU . - - - 106 45. Mr T. to Burns. Apprehensions. Thanks 107 1794. 46. Mr T. to Burns. Melancholy comparison be- tween Burns and Carlini. Allan's sketch from the " Cotter's Saturday Night" - 107 47. Burns to Mr T. Praise of Mr Allan. « Banks of Cree" - - 107 48. Burns to Mr T. Pleyel in France. " Here, where the Scottish Muse immortal lives," pre- sented to Miss Graham of Fintry, with a copy of Mr Thomson's Collection - - 108 49. Mr T. to Burns. Does not expect to hear from Pleyel soon, but desires to be prepared with the poetry - - - - - - 108 m. Burns to MrT. With "On the seas and far away" 108 51. Mr T. to Burns. Criticism - - - 108 52. Bums to Mr T. With " Ca' the ybwes to the knowes" 108 53. Bums to Mr T. With " She savs she lo'es me best of a." « Oh let me in," &c. Stanza to Dr Maxwell 108 54. Mr T. to Burns. Advising him to write a Musical Drama ------- 109 55. Mr T. to Burns. Has been examining Scottish collections. Ritson. Difficult to obtain an- cient melodies in their original state - 109 56. Burns to Mr T. Recipe for producing a love- song. "Saw ye my Phely.?" Remarks and anecdotes. "How long and dreary is the night !" " Let not woman e'er complain." " The Lover's morning salute to his mistress." "The Auld Man" - - - - 110 57. Mr T. to Burns. Wishes he knew the inspiring fair one. Ritson's historical essay not inte- resting. Allan. Maggie Lauder - - 111 58. Burns to Mr T. Has begun his anecdotes, &e. " My Chloris, mark how gi-een the groves." Love. " It was the charming month of May." " Lassie wi' the lint- white locks" - - 111 59. Burns to Mr T. " Farewell thou stream." Miller. Clarke. The black keys. Instance of the difficulty of tracing the origin of an- cient airs --- _ _ -112 60. MrT. to Bums. With three copies of the Scottish airs 112 61. Burns to Mr T. With " Oh Philly, happy be that day." Starting-notat " Contented wi' little, and cantie wi' raair" - - - - 112 62. Bums to Mr T. With " Canst thou leave me thus, my Katy." Stock and horn, &c. - - 113 63. Mr T. to Burns. Praise. Desires more songs of the humorous cast. Means to have a picture from " The Soldier's Return" - - 113 64. Burns to Mr T. With " My Nannie's awa" - 114 1795. 65. Bums to Mr T. With " For a' that and a' that," and " Sweet fa's the eve on Craigieburn" 114 66. Mr T. to Burns. Thanks - - - - 114 67. Burns to Mr T. Diatribe on Ecclefechan - 114 68. Mr T. to Burns. Thanks - - - 114 69. Burns to Mr T. "Address to the Woodlark." " On Chloris being ill." " Their gToves o' sweet myrtle." " 'Twas na her bonnie blue ee" 1 14 70. Mr T. to Burns. With Allan's design from " The Cotter's Saturday Night" - - - 115 71. Burns to Mr T. With " How cmel are the pa- rents," and " Mark yonder pomp" - - 115 72. Burns to Mr T. Thanks for Allan's designs 115 73. Mr T. to Burns. Compliment - - - 115 74. Burns to Mr T. With an improvement in " AVhistl e and I'll come to you, my lad." " Oh this is no my ain lassie." " Now spring has clad the grove in green." " Oh bonny was yon rosy brier." " 'Tis friendship's pledge, my young fair friend" 115 75. Mr T. to Burns. Introducing Dr Brianton - 115 76. Bums to Mr T. " Forlorn my love, no comfort near" ------- 116 77. Bums to Mr T. " Last May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen." " Why, why tell thy lover," a fragment - - - - -116 78. Mr T. to Burns 116 1796. 79. Mr T. to Burns. After an awful pause - 116 80. Burns to Mr T. Thanks for P. Pindar, &c. "Hey for a lass wi' a tocher" - - - - 1 16 81. Mr T. to Burns. Allan has designed some plates for an octavo edition - - - - 116 82. Burns to Mr T. Afflicted by sickness, but pleased with Mr Allan's etchings - - 116 83. Mr T. to Burns. Sympathy. Encouragement 117 84. Burns to Mr T. With " Here's a health to ane I lo'e dear" ----- - II7 85. Burns to Mr T. Introducing Mr Lewars. Has taken a fancy to review his songs - - 117 86. Burns to Mr T. Dreading the horrors of a jail, solicits the advance of five pounds, and en- closes " Fairest maid on Devon Banks" - 117 87. Mr T. to Burns. Sympathy. Advises a volume of poetry to be published by subscription. Pope published the Iliad so - - - 117 Common-Place Books — ' First Common-Place Book, begun in April 1783 118 Second Common-Place Book, begun in Edinburgh, April 1787 122 Memoranda of Tours— Border Tour, May 1787 . - - - 126 Highland Tour, August and September 1787 - 128 Notes to Johnson's? Scots Musical Museum - 130 GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. No. I. TO * LocMea, 1783. I VERILY believe, my dear E., that the pure genuine feelings of love are as rare in the world as the pure genuine principles of virtue and piety. This, I hope, will account for the uncommon style of all my letters to you. By uncommon, I mean their being written in such a hasty mannex-, which, to tell you the truth, has made me often afraid lest you should take me for some zealous bigot, who conversed with liis mistress as he would con- verse with his minister. I don't imow how it is, my dear, for though, except your company, there is nothing on earth gives me so much pleasure as writing to you, yet it never gives me those giddy raptures so much talked of among lovers. I have often thought that if a well- grounded affection be not really a part of virtue, 'tis some- thing extremely aldn to it. Whenever the thought of my E. warms my heart, every feeling of humanity, every principle of generosity, Idndles in my breast. It extin- guishes every dirty spark of malice and envy, which are but too apt to infest me. I grasp evei-y creature in the arms of universal benevolence, and equally participate in the pleasures of the happy, and sympathise with the miseries of the unfortunate. I assure you, my dear, I often look up to the divine disposer of events with an eye of gratitude for the blessing which I hope he intends to bestow on me in bestowing you. I sincerely wish that he may bless my endeavours to make your life as comfortable and happy as possible, both in sweetening tlie rougher parts of my natural temper, and bettering the unkindly circumstances of my fortune. This, my dear, is a passion, at least in my view, Avorthy of a man, and, I will add, worthy of a Christian. The sordid eax'th- worm may profess love to a woman's person, whilst in reality his affection is centered in her pocket ; and the slavish drudge may go a-wooing as he goes to the horse- market, to choose one who is stout and firm, and, as we may say of an old horse, one who will be a good drudge and draw Idndly. I disdain their dirty, puny ideas. I would be heartily out of humour with myself, if I thought I were capable of having so poor a notion of the sex, which were designed to crown the pleasures of society. Poor devils ! I don't envy them their happiness Avho liave such notions. For my part, I propose quite otlier pleasures with my dear partner. R. B. No. 11. TO THE SAME. LocMea, 1783. My Dear E — I do not remember, in the course of your acquaintance and mine, ever to have heard your opinion on the ordinary way of falling in love, amongst people of our station m life. I do not mean the persons who proceed in the way of bargain, but those whose af- fection is really placed on the person. Though I be, as you knov/ very well, but a very awk- ward lover myself, yet as I have some opportunities of observing the conduct of others who are much better skilled in the affair of courtship than I am, I often think it is owing to lucky chance more than to good manage- ment, that there are not more unhappy mari'iages than usually are. * [The name of the female addressed in this and the subsequent letters is not known.] It is natural for a young fellow to like the acquain- tance of the females, and customary for him to keep them company when occasion serves : some one of them is more agreeable to him than the rest — there is some- thing, he knows not what, pleases him, he knows not how, in her company. This I take to be what is called love with the greater part of us ; and I must own, my dear E., it is a hard game such a one as you have to play when you meet with such a lover. You cannot re- fuse but he is sincere, and yet though you use him ever so favourably, perhaps in a few months, or at farthest in a year or two, the same unaccountable fancy may make him as distractedly fond of another, whilst you are quite forgot. I am aware, that perhaps the next time I have the pleasure of seeing you, you may bid me take my own lesson home, and tell me that the passion I have professed for you is perhaps one of those tran- sient flashes I have been describing ; but I hope, my dear E., you will do me the justice to believe me, v/hen I assure you that the love I have for you is founded on the sacred principles of virtue and honour, and by con- sequence so long as you continue possessed of those amiable qualities which first inspired my passion for you, so long must I continue to love you. Believe me, my deal*, it is love like this alone which can render the ! marriage state happy. People may talk of flames and raptures as long as they please — and a warm fancy, with I a flow of youthful spirits, may make them feel some- thing like what they describe ; but sure I am, the nobler j faculties of the mind, with kindred feelings of the heart, can only be the foundation of friendship, and it has al- ways been my opinion that the married life was only friendship in a more exalted degree. If you Avill be so good as to grant my Avishes, and it should please Pro- vidence to spare us to the latest period of hfe, I can look forward and see that even then, though bent down I with wrinkled age — even then, when all other worldly j circumstances will be indifferent to me, I will regard my E. with the tenderest affection, and for this plain reason, because she is still possessed of those noble qualities, improved to a much higher degree, which first inspired my affection for her. Oh ! happy state, when souls each other draw, AVhen love is liberty, and nature laAv. I know were I to speak in such a style to many a girl^ who thinks herself possessed of no small share of sense, she would think it ridiculous ; but the language of the heart is, my dear E,, the only courtship I shall ever use to you. When I look over what I have written, I am sensible it is vastly different from the ordinary style of court- ship, but I shall make no apblogy — I know your good nature will excuse what your good sense may see amiss. KB. No. III. TO THE SAME. LocJilea, 1783. I HAVE often thought it a peculiarly unlucky circum- stance in love, that though, in every other situation in life, telling the truth is not only the safest, but actually by far the easiest way of proceeding, a lover is never tinder greater difiiculty in acting, or more puzzled for expression, than when his passion is sincere, and his intentions are honourable. I do not think that it is very difficult for a person of ordinary capacity to talk 10 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS, of love and fonaness which are not felt, and to make vows of constancy and fidelity which are never intended to be performed, if he be villain enough to practise such detestable conduct ; but to a man whose heart glows with the principles of integrity and truth, and who sin- cerely loves a woman of amiable person, uncommon re- finement of sentiment and purity of manners — to such a one, in such circumstances, I can assure you, my dear, from my own feelings at this present moment, courtship is a task indeed. There is such a number of foreboding fears and distrustful anxieties crowd into my mind when I am in your company, or when I sit down to write to you, that what to speak or what to write I am altogether at a loss. There is one rule which I have hitherto practised, and which I shall invariably keep with you, and that is, honestly to tell you the plain truth. There is some- thing so mean and unmanly in the arts of dissimulation and falsehood, that I am surprised they can be acted by any one in so noble, so generous a passion, as vir- tuous love. No, my dear E., I shall never endeavour -to gain your favour by such detestable practices. If you will be so good and so generous as to admit me for your partner, your companion, your bosom friend through life, there is nothing on this side of eternity shall give me greater transport ; but I shall never think of purchasing your hand by any arts unworthy of a man, and, I will add, of a Christian. There is one thing, my dear, which I earnestly request of you, and it is this, that you would soon either put an end to my hopes by a peremptory refusal, or cure me of my fears by a ge- nerous consent. It would obhge me much if you would send me a line or two when convenient. I shall only add further, that, if a behaviour regulated (though perhaps but very im- perfectly) by the rules of honour and virtue, if a heart devoted to love and esteem you, and an earnest endea- vour to promote your happiness— if these are qualities you would wish in a friend, in a husband, I hope you shall ever find them in your real friend and sincere lover, " R. B. No. IV. TO THE SAME. Lochlea, 1783. I OUGHT, in good manners, to have acknowledged the receipt of your letter before this time, but my heart was so shocked with the contents of it, that I can scarcely yet collect my thoughts so as to write you on the sub- ject. I will not attempt to describe what I felt on re- ceiving your letter. I read it over and over, agaih and again, and though it was in the politest language of refusal, still it was peremptory : " you were sorry you could not make me a return, but you wish me" — what, without you, I never can obtain — " you wish me all kind of happiness." It would be weak and unmanly to say that without you I neyer can be happy ; but sure I am, that sharing life with you would have given it a relish, that, wanting you, I can never taste. Your uncommon personal advantages, and your supe- rior good sense, do not so much strike me ; these, possi- bly, may be met with in a few instances in others ; but that amiable goodness, that tender feminine softness, that endearing sweetness of disposition, with all the charm- ing offspring of a warm feeling heart — these I never again expect to meet with, in such a degree, in this world. All these charming qualities, heightened by an education much beyond any thing I have ever met in any woman I ever dared to approach, have made an impression on my heart that I do not think the world can ever efface. My imagination has fondly flattered myself with a wish, I dare not say it ever reached a hope, that possibly I might one day call you mine. I had formed the most delightful images, and my fancy fondly brooded over them ; but now I am wretched for the loss of what I really had no right to expect. I must now think no more of you as a mistress ; still I presume to ask to be admitted as a friend. As such I wish to be allowed to wait on you j and as I expect to remove in a few days a little farther off, and you, I suppose, will soon leave this place, I wish to see or hear from you soon : and if an expression should perhaps escape me, rather too warm for friendship, I hope you will pardon it in, my dear Miss— (pardon me the dear expression for once) * * * * R. B. No. V. TO MR JOHN MURDOCH, SCHOOLMASTER, STAPLES INN BUILDINGS, LONDON. Lochlea, 15th January, 1783. Dear Sir — As I have an opportunity of sending you a letter without putting you to that expense which any production of mine would but ill repay, I embrace it with pleasure, to tell you that I have not forgotten, nor ever will forget, the many obligations I lie under to your kindness and friendship. I do not doubt. Sir, but you will wish to know what has been the result of all the pains of an indulgent father and a masterly teacher, and I wish I coUld gratify your curiosity with such a recital as you would be pleased with ; but that is what I am afraid will not be the case. I have, indeed, kept pretty clear of vicious habits, and, in this respect, I hope my conduct will not disgrace the education I have gotten ; but, as a man of the world, I am most miserably deficient. One would have thought that, bred as I have been, under a father, who has figured pretty well as tin homme des affaires, I might have been what the world calls a pushing, active fellow ; but to tell you the truth. Sir, there is hardly any thing more my reverse. I seem to be one sent into the world to see and observe ; and I very easily com- pound with the loiave who tricks me of my money, if there be any thing original about him, which shows me human nature in a different light from any thing I have seen before. In short, the joy of my heart is to " study men, their manners, and their ways ;" and for this dar- ling subject, I cheerfully sacrifice every other conside- ration. I am quite indolent about those great concerns that set the bustling, busy sons of care agog ; and if I have to answer for the present hour, I am very easy with regard to any thing further. Even the last, worst shift of the unfortunate and the wretched* does not much terrify me : I know that even then, my talent for what country folks call a " sensible crack," when once it is sanctified by a hoary head, would procure me so much esteem, that, even then, I would learn to be happy. However, I am under no apprehensions about that ; for though indolent, yet so far as an extremely delicate con- stitution permits, I am not lazy, and in many things, es- pecially in tavern matters, I am a strict economist — not, indeed, for the sake of the money, but one of the principal parts in my composition is a kind of pride of stomach ; and I scorn to fear the face of any man liv- ing — above every thing, I abhor as hell the idea of sneaking in a corner to avoid a dun — ^possibly some pitiful, sordid wretch, who in my heart I despise and detest. 'Tis this, and this alone, that endears economy to me. In the matter of books, indeed, I am very pro- fuse. My favourite authors are of the sentimental kind, such as Shenstone, particularly his " Elegies ;" Thom- son ; " Man of Feeling" — a book I prize next to the'Bible; " Man of the World ;" Sterne, especially his " Senti- mental Journey ;" Macpherson's " Ossian," &c. ; these are the glorious models after which I endeavour to form my conduct, and 'tis incongruous, 'tis absurd, to sup- pose that the man whose mind glows with sentiments lighted up at their sacred flame — the man whose heart distends with benevolence to all the human race — he " who can soar above this little scene of things" — can he descend to mind the paltry concerns about which the terreefilial race fret, and fume, and vex themselves ! Oh how the glorious triumph swells my heart ! I forget that I am a poor, insignificant devil, unnoticed and un- known, stalking up and down fairs and markets, when I happen to be in them, reading a page or two of man- kind, and " catching the manners living as they rise," * [Vagrant mendicancy.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 11 whilst the men of huslness jostle me on every side, as an idle incumbrance in their way. But I dare say I have by tliis time tired your patience ; so I shall con- clude with begging you to give JMrs Murdoch — not my compliments, for that is a mere commonplace story, but ray warmest, kindest wishes for her welfare — and accept of the same for yourself, from, dear Sir, yours, R. B. No. VI. TO MR JAMES BURNESS, W^RITEB, MONTROSE.* Lochlea, 2\st June, 1783. Dear Sir — My father received your favour of the 10th current, and as hd has been for some months very poorly in health, and is in his own opinion (and, indeed, in almost every body's else) in a dying condition, he has only, with great difficulty, written a few farewell lines to each of his brothers-in-law. For this melancholy reaof liffe allowed, and walked half a dozen of miles to pay my respects to the Leglen wood, with as much devout enthusiasm as ever pilgrim did to Loretto ', and as I cx- i plored every den and dell where I could suppose my heroic countryman to have lodged, I recollect (for even then I was a rhymer) that my heart glowed with a wish to be able to make a song on him in some measure equal to his merits. R. Jj. No. XXII. TO MR JOHN KENNEDY. Kilmarnock, August, 1786. My Dear Sir — Your truly facetious epistle of the 3d instant gave me much entertainment. I was only sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you as I passed your way, but we shall bring up all our lee-way on Wednes- day, the 16th current, when I hope to have it in my power to call on you, and take a land, very probably a last adieu, before I go for Jamaica j and I expect orders to repair to Greenock every day. I have at last made my public appearance, and am solemnly inaugurated into the numerous class. Could I have got a carrier, you should have had a score of vouchers for my authorship ; but, now you have them, let them speak for themselves. Farewell, dear friend ! may guid luck hit you, And 'mang her favourites admit you. If e'er Detraction shore to smit you, May nane believe him. And ony deil that thinks to get you. Good Lord, deceive him. R. B.. No. XXIII. TO MR BURNESS, MONTROSE. My Dear Sir — I this moment receive yours — receive it with the honest hospitable warmth of a friend's wel- come. Whatever comes from you wakens always up the better blood about my heart, which your kind little recollections of my parental friends carries as far as it will go. 'Tis there that man is blest ! 'Tis there, my friend, man feels a consciousness of something within him above the trodden clod ! The grateful reverence to the hoary (earthly) author of his being — the burning glow when he clasps the woman of his soul to his bosom — the tender yearnings of heart for the little angels to whom he has given existence — these nature has poured in milky streams about the human heart ; and the man who ; never rouses them to action, by the inspiring influences of their proper objects, loses by far the most pleasurable part of his existence. My departure is uncertain, but I do not think it will be till after harvest. I will be on very short allowance of time indeed, if I do not comply with your friendly invitation. When it will be, I don't know, but if I can make my wish good, I will endeavour to drop you a line some time before. My best compliments to Mrs ; I should [be] equally mortified should I drop in when she is abroad ; but of that I suppose there is little chance. What I have wrote Heaven knows ; I have not time to review it : so accept of it in the beaten way of friend- ship. With the ordinary phrase — perhaps rather more than the ordinary sincerity — I am, dear Sir, ever yours. Mossgiel, Tuesday noon, Sept. 26, 1786. No. XXIV. TO MR ROBERT MUIR, KILMARNOCK. Mossgiel, Friday Morning, [Sept. 1786.] My Friend, my Brother — Warm recollection of an absent friend presses so hard upon my heart, that I send him the prefixed bagatelle (The Calf), pleased with the thought that it will greet the man of my bosom, and be a kind of distant language of friendship. You Aviil have heard that poor Armour has repaid me double. A very fine boy and a girl have awakened a thought and feelings that thrill, some with tender pressure, and some with foreboding anguish, through my soul. The poem was nearly an extemporaneous produc- tion, on a wager with Mr Hamilton, that I would not produce a poem on the subject in a given time. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 15 If you think it wortli while, read it to Charles and Mr W. Parker, and if they choose a copy of it, it is at their service, as they are men whose friendship I shall be proud to claim, both in this world and that which is to come. I believe all hopes of staying at home wUl be abor- tive ; but more of this when, in the latter part of next week, you shall be troubled with a visit from, my dear Sir, your most devoted, R. B. No. XXV. TO MR ROBERT AIKEN.* Ayrshire, 1786. Sir— I was with Wilson my prmter t'other day, and settled all our bygone matters between us. After I had paid him all demands, I made him the offer of the se- cond edition, on the hazard of being paid out of the fii-st and readiest, which he declines. By his account, the paper of 1000 copies would cost about twenty-seven pounds, and the printing about fifteen or sixteen ; he offers to agree to this for the printing, if I wdll advance for the paper, but this, you know, is out of my power ; so farewell hopes of a second edition till I grow richer ! an epocha which I think wiU arrive at the payment of the British national debt. There is scarcely any thing hurts me so much^ in being disappointed of my second edition, as not having it in my power to show my gratitude to Mr BaUantine, by publishing my poem of The Brigs of Ayr. I would detest myself as a wretch, if I thought I were capable in a very long life of forgetting the honest, warm, and tender delicacy with which he enters into my interests. I am sometimes pleased with myself in my grateful sensations ; but I believe, on the whole, I have very little merit in it, as my gratitude is not a virtue, the consequence of reflection, but sheerly the instinctive emotion of my heart, too inattentive to allow worldly maxims and views to settle into selfish habits. I have been feeling all the various rotations and movements within, respecting the excise. There are many things plead strongly against it ; the uncertainty of getting soon into business ; the consequences of my follies, which may perhaps make it impracticable for me to stay at home ; and besides, I have for some time been pining under secret wretchedness, from causes which you pretty well know — the pang of disappoint- ment, the sting of pride, with some wandering stabs of remorse, which never fail to settle on my vitals like vultures, when attention is not called away by the calls of society, or the vagaries of the muse. Even in the hour of social mirth, my gkiety is the madness of an intoxi- cated criminal under the hands of the executioner. All these reasons urge me to go abroad, and to all these reasons I have only one answer — ^the feelings of a father. This, in the present mood I am in, overbalances every thing that can be laid in the scale against it. You may perhaps think it an extravagant fancy, but it is a sentiment wliich strikes home to my very soul ; though sceptical in some points of our current belief, yet, I think, I have every evidence for the reality of a life beyond the stinted bourne of our present existence : if so, then, how should I, in the presence of that tre- mendous Being, the Author of existence, how should I meet the reproaches of those who stand to me in the dear relation of cliildren, whom I deserted in the smil- ing innocency of helpless infancy 1 Oh thou great un- known Power ! — thou Almighty God ! who hast hghted up reason in my breast, and blessed me with immor- tality !— I have frequently wandered from that order and regularity necessary for the perfection of thy works, yet thou hast never left me nor forsaken me ! Since I wrote the foregoing sheet, I have seen some- thing of the storm of mischief thickening over my folly- devoted head. Should you, my friends, my benefactors, be successful in your appUcations for me,f perhaps it * This letter was evidently written under the distress of mind occasioned by our poet's separation from Mrs Bums.— Currie. t [An effort was now making to obtain an excise appointment for Burnd.] may not be in my power in that \vay, to reap the fruit of your friendly efforts. What I have written in the preceding pages is the settled tenor of my present reso- lution; but should inimical circumstances forbid me closing with your kind offer, or enjoying it only threaten to entail further misery — — To teU the truth, I have little reason for complaint ; as the world, in general, has been kind to me fully up to my deserts. I was, for some time past, fast getting into the pining, distrustful snarl of the misanthrope. I saw myself alone, unfit for the struggle of life, shrinking at every rising cloud in the chance-directed atmosphere of fortune, while, all defenceless, I looked about in vain for a cover. It never occurred to me, at least never with the force it deserved, that this world is a busy scene, and man a creature destined for a progressive struggle ; and that, however I might possess a warm heart and inoffensive manners (which last, by the bye, was rather more than I could well boast), still, more than these passive qualities, there was something to be done. When all my school-fellows and youthful com- peers (those misguided few excepted, who joined, to use a Gentoo phrase, the "hallachores" of the human race) were striking off with eager hope and earnest intent, in some one or other of the many paths of busy life, I was " standing idle in the market-place," or only left the chase of the butterfly from flower to flower, to hunt fancy from whim to whim. You see. Sir, that if to know one's errors were apro- babihty of men^g them, I stand a fair chance ; but according to the reverend Westminster divines, though conviction must precede conversion, it is very far from always implying it. R. B, No. XXVI. TO DR MACKENZIE, MAUCHLINE ; ENCLOSING HIM VEKSES ON DINING WITH LORD DAER. Wednesday morning. Dear Sir — I never spent an afternoon among great folks with half that pleasure, as when, in company with you, I had the honour of paying my devoirs to that plain, honest, worthy man, the professor [Dugald Stewart]. I would be delighted to see him perform acts of kind- ness and friendship, though I were not the object ; he does it with such a grace. I think his character, divided into ten parts, stands thus — four parts Socrates — ^four parts Nathaniel — and two parts Shakspeare's Brutus. The foregoing vei'ses were really extempore, but a httle corrected since. They may entertain you a little, with the help of that partiality with which you are so good as to favour the performances of, dear Sir, your very humble servant, R. B. No. XXVII. TO MRS STEWART, OF STAIR. 1786. j\Iadam — The hurry of my preparations for going abroad has hindered me from performing my promise so soon as I intended. I have here sent you a parcel of songs, &c., which never made their appearance, ex- cept to a friend or two at most. Perhaps some of them may be no great entertainment to you, but of that I am far from being an adequate judge. The song to the tune of Ettrick Banks [The Bonnie Lass of BaUoch- myle] you will easily see the impropriety of exposing much, even in manuscript. I think, myself, it has some merit, both as a tolerable description of one of nature's sweetest scenes, a July evening, and one of the finest pieces of nature's workmanship, the finest indeed we know any tiling of, an amiable, beautiful young woman ;* but I have no common friend to procure me that pemussion, without which I would not dare to spread the copy. I am quite aware. Madam, what task the world would assign me in this letter. The obscure bard, when any * Miss Alexander. 16 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. of the great condescend to take notice of him, should heap the altar with the incense of flattery. Their high ancestry, their own great and god-like qualities and ac- tions- should be recounted with the most exaggerated description. This, Madam, is a task for which I am altogether unfit. Besides a certain disquaHfying pride of heart, I know nothing of your connexions in life, and have no access to where your real character is to be found — the company of your compeers ; and more, I am afraid that even the most refined adulation is by no means the road to your good opinion. One feature of your character I shall ever with grate- ful jileasure I'emember — the reception I got when I had the honour of waiting on you at Stair. I am little ac- quainted with politeness, but I know a good deal of benevolence of temper and goodness of heart. Surely did those in exalted stations know how happy they could make some classes of their inferiors by conde- scension and affability, they would never stand so high, measuring out with every look the height of their ele- vation, but condescend as sweetly as did Mrs Stewart of Stair. R. B. No. XXVIII. In the name of the NINE. Amen. We, Robert Burns, by virtue of a warrant from Na- ture, bearing date the twenty-fifth day of January, anno domini one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nme,''' Poet Laureat, and Bar d-in- Chief, in and over the dis- tricts and countries of Kyle, Cunningha-m, and Carrick, of old extent. To our trusty and well-beloved William Chalmers and John M'Adam, students and pi^actitioners in the ancient and mysterious science of confounding right and wrong. Right TRUSir — Be it known unto you. That whereas in the course of our care and watchings over the order and police of all and sundry the manufacturers, retainers, and venders of poesy ; bards, poets, poetasters, rhymers, jinglers, songsters, ballad-singers, &c. &c. &c.&c., male and female — We have discovered a certain nefarious, abominable, and wicked song or ballad, a copy whereof We have here enclosed ; Our Will therefore is, that ye pitch upon and appoint the most execrable individual of that most execrable species, known by the appella- tion, phrase, and nickname of The Deil's Yell Nowte :f and after having caused him to kindle a fire at the Cross of Ayr, ye shall, at noon-tide of the day, put into the said wretch's merciless hands the said copy of the said nefarious and wicked song, to be consumed by fire in presence of all beholders, in abhorrence of, and ter- rorem to, all such compositions and composers. And this in nowise leave ye undone, but have it executed in every pomt as this our mandate bears, before the twenty- fourth current, when in person We hope to applaud your faithfulness and zeal. Given at Mauchline this twentieth day of November, anno domini one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six. God save the Bard ! No. XXIX. TO GAVIN HAMILTON, Esq., MAUCHLINE. Edinburgh, Dec. 7tli, 1786. Honoured Sir — I have paid every attention to your commands, but can only say, what perhaps you will have heard before this reach you, that IMuirldrklands were bought by a John Gordon, W. S., but for whom I know not; Mauchlands, Haugh Miln, &c., by a Frederick Fotheringham, supposed to be for Ballochmyle Laird ; and Adam-hill and Shawood were bought for Oswald's folks. This is so imperfect an account, and will be so late ere it reach you, that were it not to discharge my conscience I would not trouble you with it ; but after all my diligence I could make it no sooner nor better. For my own affairs, I am in a fair way of becoming as eminent as Thomas a Kempis or John Bunyan ; and * Ilis birth-day. t [Old bachelore.] you may expect hencofoi'th to sec my birth-day inserted among the wonderful events, in the Poor Robin's and Aberdeen Almanacks, along with the black Monday, ami the battle of Bothwell-bridge. My Lord Glencairn ancf the Dean of Faculty, Mr H. Erskine, have taken me under their wing ; and by all probability I shall soon be the tenth worthy, and the eighth v/ise man of the world. Through my lord's influence, it is uiseii;ed in the records of the Caledonian Hunt, that they univer- sally, one and all, subscribe for the second edition. My subscription bills come out to-morrow, and you shall have some of them next post. I have met in Mr Dalrymple of Orangefield, what Solomon emphatically calls " a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." The warmth with which he interests himself in my af- fairs is of the same enthusiastic kind which you, Mr Aiken, and the few patrons that took notice of my earlier poetic days, showed for the poor unlucky devil of a poet. I always remember Mrs Plamiltonand Miss Kennedy in my poetic prayers, but you both in prose and verse. May eauld ne'er catch you but a hap,'" Nor hunger but in plenty's lap ! Amen! R. B. No. XXX. TO JOHN BALLANTINE, Esq., BANKER, AYP^ Edinburgh, Uth Dec. 1786. My Honoured Friend — I would not write you till I could have it in my power to give you some account of myself and my matters, which, by the bye, is often no easy task. I arrived here on Tuesday was se'nnight, and have suffered ever smce I came to town with a miserable head-ache and stomach complaint, but am now a good deal better. I have found a worthy warm friend in Mr Dalrymple of Orangefield, who introduced me to Lord Glencairn, a man whose worth and bro- therly kindness to me I shall remember when time shall be no more. By his interest it is passed in the " Cale- donian Hunt," and entered in their books, that they are to take each a copy of the second edition, for which they are to pay one guinea. I have been introduced to a good many of the noblesse, but my avowed patrons and patronesses are, the Duchess of Gordon — the Coun- tess of Glencairn, with my Lord, and Lady Bettyf — the Dean of Faculty — Sir John Whitefoord. I hav© likewise warm friends among the literati ; Professors Stewart, Blair, and Mr Mackenzie — the " Man of Feel- ing." An unknown hand left ten guineas for the Ayr^ shire bard with Mr Sibbald, which I got. I since have discovered my generous unknovm friend to be Patrick Miller, Esq., brother to the Justice Clerk ; and drank a glass of claret with him by invitation at his own house yeslernight. I am nearly agreed with Creech to print my book, and I suppose I will begin on Mon- day. I will send a subscription bill or two, next post ; when I intend ^vriting my first kind patron, Mr Aiken. I saw his son to-day, and he is very Avell. Dugald Stewart, and some of my learned fi'iends, put me in the periodical paper called the Lounger, J a copy of which I here enclose you. I was. Sir, when I was first honoured with your notice, too obscure ; now I tremble lest I should be I'uined by being dragged too suddenly into the glare of polite and learned observa- tion. I shall certainly, my ever-honoured patron, write you an account of my every step ; and better health and more spirits may enable me to make it something better than this stupid matter-of-fact epistle. I have the honour to be, good Sir, your ever grateful humble servant, R- B. If any of my friends write me, my direction is, care of Mr Creech, bookseller. * [Without a cloak or upper coat.] t Lady Betty Cunningham. X The paper here alluded to was written by Mr Mackenzie, taa author of the •' Man of Feeling." GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 17 XXXI. TO MR WILLIAM CHALMERS, WRITER, AYR. Edinburgh, Dec. 21th, 1786. ^ My Dear Friend — I confess I have sinned the sin for which there is hardly any forgiveness — ingratitvide to friendship — in not writing you sooner ; but of all men living, I had intended to have sent you an entertaining letter ; and by all the plodding, stupid powers, that in nodding conceited majesty preside over the dull routine of business — a heavily-solemn oath this ! — I am and have been, ever since I came to Edinburgh, as unfit to write a letter of humour as to write a commentaiy on the Revelation of St John the Divine, who was banished to the Isle of Patmos by the cruel and bloody Domitian, son to Vespasian and brother to Titus, both emperors of Rome, and who was himself an emperor, and raised the second or third persecution, I forget which, against the Christians, and after throwing the said Apostle John, brother to the Apostle James, commonly called James the Greater, to distinguish him from another James, who was on some account or other known by the name of James the Less — after throwing him into a caldron of boiling oil, from which he was miraculously preserved, he banished the poor son of Zebedee to a desei't island in the Archipelago, where he was gifted with the second sight, and saw as many wild beasts as I have seen since I came to Edinburgh ; which, a circumstance not very uncommon in story-telling, brings me back to where I set out. To make you some amends for what, before you reach this paragraph, you will have suffered, I enclose you two poems I have carded and spun since I passed Glenbuck. One blank in the Addi'ess to Edinburgh — " Fair B ," is heavenly Miss Burnet, daughter to Lord Monboddo, at whose house I have had the honour to be more than once. There has not been anything nearly like her in all the combinations of beauty, grace, and goodness, the great Creator has formed, since Milton's Eve on the first day of her existence. My direction is — care of Andrew Bruce, merchant. Bridge Street. R. B. No. XXXII. TO THE EARL OF EGLINTON. Edinburgh, Januarij, 1787. My Lord — As I have but slender pretensions to philosophy, I caimiot rise to the exalted ideas of a citizen of the world, but have all those national prejudices, which I believe glow peculiarly strong in the breast of a Scotchman. There is scarcely any thing to which I am so feelmgly alive as the honour and welfare of my country ; and as a poet, I have no higher enjoyment than singing her sons and daughters. Fate had cast my station in the veriest shades of life ; but never did a heart pant more ardently than mine to be distinguished, though till very lately I looked in vain on every side for a ray of light. It is easy, then, to guess how mvich I was gratified with the countenance and approbation of one of my country's most illustrious sons, when Mr Wau- chope called on me yesterday on the part of your lord- ship. Your munificence, my lord, certainly deserves my very grateful acknowledgments ; but your patron- age is a bounty peculiarly suited to my feelings. I am not master enough of the etiquette of life to know, whether there be not some impropriety in troubling your lordship with my thanks, but my heart whispered me to do it. From the emotions of my inmost soul I do it. Selfish ingratitude, I hope, I am incapable of; and mercenary servility, I trust, I shall ever have so much honest pride as to detest. R. B. No. XXXIII. TO JOHN BALLANTINE, Esq. Edinburgh, Jan. \Uh, 1787. My Honoured Friend — It gives me a secret comfort to observe in myself that I am not yet so far gone as B Willie Gaw's Skate, " past redemption ;"* for I have still this favourable symptom of grace, that when my conscience, as in the case of this letter, tells me I ara leaving something undone that I ought to do, it teazes me eternally till I do it. I am still " dark as was chaos" in respect to futurity. My generous friend, Mr Patrick Miller, has been; talk- ing v/itli me about a lease of some farm or other in an estate called Dalswinton, which he has lately bought near Dumfries. Some life-rented embittering recollec- tions whisper me that I will be happier any where tham in my old neighbourhood, but Mr Miller is no judge of land ; and though I dare say he means to favour me,„ yet he may give me, in his opinion, an advantageous, bargain that may ruin me. I am to take a tour by- Dumfries as I return, and have promised to meet Mr Miller on his lands some time in May. I went to a mason-lodge yesternight, where the most Worshipful Grand Master Chartres, and all the Grand Lodge of Scotland, visited. The meeting was numerous and elegant ; aU the different lodges about town wei-e present, in all their pomp. The Grand Master, who pre- sided with great solemnity and honour to himself as a gentleman and mason, among other general toasts, gave " Caledonia, and Caledonia's Bard, Brother Burns,'* which rang through the whole assembly with multiplied honours and repeated acclamations. As I had no idea such a thing, would happen, I Avas downright thunder- struck, and, trembling in every nerve, made the best return in my power. Just as I had finished, some of the grand officers said so loud that I could hear, with a most comforting accent, " Very well, indeed !" which set me something to rights again. I have to-day corrected my 152d page. My best good wishes to Mr Aiken. I am ever, dear Sii'^ your much indebted humble servant, R. B. No. XXXIV. TO THE SAME. January, 1787. While here I sit, sad and solitary, by the side of a fire in a little country inn, and drying my wet clothes, in pops a poor fellow of a sodger, and tells me he is going to A}T. By heavens ! say I to myself, with a tide of good spirits which the magic of that sound, auld toon o' Ayr, conjured up, I will send my last song to Mr Ballantuie. Here it is^ — Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon, How can ye blume sae fair ; How can ye chant, ye httle birds, And I sae fu' o' care ! — &c. No. XXXV. TO MRS DUNLOP. Edinburgh, I5th January, 1787. Madam — Yours of the 9th current, which I am this moment honoured with, is a deep I'eproach to me for ungrateful neglect. I will tell you the real truth, for I am miserably awkward at a fib, I wished to have written to Dr Moore before I wrote to you ; but, though every day since I received yours of December 30th, the idea, the wish to write to him has constantly pressed on my thoughts, yet I could not for my soul set about it. I know his fame and character, and I am one of " the sons of little men." To write him a mere matter- of-fact affair, like a merchant's order, would be disgrac- ing the little character I have ; and to write the author of " The View of Society and Manners" a letter of sen- timent — I declare every artery runs cold at the thought. I shall try, however, to write to him to-morrow or next day. His kind interposition in my behalf I have already experienced, as a gentleman waited on me the other day, on the part of Lord Eglinton, with ten guineas, by way of subscription for two copies of my next edition. * [This is one of a great number of old saws, which Burns, when a lad, had picked up from his mother, who had a vast collection of such fragments of traditionary wisdom.] 18 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. The word you object to in the mention I have made of my glorious countryman and your immortal ancestor, is indeed borrowed from Thomson ; but it does not strike me as an improper epithet. I distrusted my own judgment on your finding fault with it, and applied for the opinion of some of the hterati here who honour me with their critical strictures, and they all allow it to be proper. The song you ask I cannot recollect, and I have not a copy of it. I have not composed any thing on the great Wallace, except what you have seen in print, and the enclosed, which I will print in this edi- tion.* You will see I have mentioned some others of the name. When I composed my Vision long ago, I had attempted a description of Kyle, of which the addi- tional stanzas are a part as it originally stood. My heart glows with a wish to be able to do justice to the merits of the "• saviour of his country," which, sooner or later, I shall at least attempt. You are afraid I shall grow intoxicated with my pro- sperity as a poet : alas ! Madam, I know myself and the world too well. I do not mean any airs of affected modesty ; I am wilhng to beheve that my abilities de- serve some notice ; but in a most enlightened, informed age and nation, when poetry is and has been the study of men of the first natural genius, aided with all the powers of polite learning, polite books, and polite com- pany — to be dragged forth to the full glare of learned and poHte observation, with all my imperfections of awkward rusticity and crude unpolished ideas on my head — I assure you. Madam, I do not dissemble when I tell you I tremble for the consequences. The novelty of a poet in my obscure situation, without any of those advantages which are reckoned necessary for that cha- ractex', at least at this time of day, has raised a partial tide of public notice which has borne me to a height, where I am absolutely, feeUngly certain, my abihties are inadequate to support me ; and too surely do I see that time when the same tide will leave me, and recede, perhaps, as far below the mark of truth. I do not say this in the ridiculous affectation of self-abasement and modesty. I have studied myself, and know what ground I occupy ; and however a friend or the world may differ from me in that particular, I stand for my o^vn opinion, in silent resolve, with all the tenaciousness of property. I mention this to you once for all, to disburden my mind, and I do not wish to hear or say more about it. But, When proud fortune's ebbing tide recedes, you will bear me witness, that when my bubble of fame was at the highest, I stood unintoxicated, with the in- ebriating cup in my hand, looking forward with rueful resolve to the hastening time, when the blow of calumny should dash it to the ground, with all the eagerness of vengeful triumph. Your patronising me, and interesting yourself in my fame and character as a poet, I rejoice in — it exalts me in my own idea — and whether you can or cannot aid me in my subscription, is a trifle. Has a paltry sub- scription-bill any charms to the heart of a bard, com- pared with the patronage of the descendant of the im- mortal Wallace 2 KB, No. XXXVI. TO JAMES DALRYMPLE, Esq. ORAJ^GEFIELD. Edinburgh, 1787. Bear Sir — I suppose the devil is so elated with his success with you, that he is determined, by a coup de main, to complete his purposes on you all at once, in making you a poet. I broke open the letter you sent me — hummed over the rhymes — and as I saw they were extempore, said to myself, they were very well ; but when I saw at the bottom a name that I shall ever value with grateful respect, " I gapit wide, but naething spak." I was nearly as much struck as the friends of Job, of affliction-bearing memory, when they sat down * Stanzas in The Vision, beginning, " By stately tower or palace fair," and ending with the first Duaa. with hhn seven days and seven nights, and spake not a word. I am naturally of a superstitious cast, and as soon as my wonder-scared imagination regamed its conscious- ness, and resumed its functions, I cast about what this mania of yours might portend. My foreboding ideas had the wide stretch of possibiUty ; and several events, great in their magnitude, and important in their eon- sequences, occurred to my fancy. The downfall of the conclave, or the crushing of the Cork rumps— a ducal coronet to Lord George Gordon, and the Protestant in- terest — or St Peter's keys to * * * * *. You want to know how I come on. I am just in statu quo, or, not to insult a gentleman with my Latin, in "auld use and wont." The noble Earl of Glencairn took me by the hand to-day, and interested himself in my concerns, with a goodness like that benevolent being whose image he so richly bears. He is a stronger proof of the immortahty of the soul than any that philosophy ever produced. A mind like his can never die. Let the worshipful squire H. L., or the reverend Mass J. M. go into their primitive nothing. At best, they are but ill-digested lumps of chaos, only one of them strongly tinged with bituminous particles and sulphureous efflu- via. But my noble patron, eternal as the heroic swell of magnanimity, and the generous throb of benevolence, shall look on with princely eye at " the war of elements, the wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds." R.B. No. XXXVII. TO DR MOORE.* Edinburgh, Jan. 1787. Sir— Mrs Dunlop has been so kind as to send me extracts of letters she has had from you, where you do the rustic bard the honour of noticing him and his works. * [Dr Moore's letter, to which the above was a reply, is as fol- lows :— " Cliford Street, January 2M, 1787- Sir — I have just received your letter, by which I find I have reason to complain of my friend Mrs Dunlop, for transmitting to you extracts from my letters to her, by much too freely and too carelessly written for your perusal. I must forgive her, however, in consideration of her good intention, as you will forgive me, I hope, for the freedom I use with certain expressions, in consider- ation of my admu-ation of the poems in general. If I may judge of the author's disposition from his works, with all the other good qualities of a poet, he has not the irritable temper ascribed to that race of men by one of their own number, whom you have the happiness to resemble in ease and curious felicity of expres- sion. Indeed, the poetical beauties, however original and bril- liant, and lavishly scattered, are not all I admire in your works ; the love of your native country, that feeling sensibility to all the objects of humanity, and the independent spirit which breathes through the whole, give me a most favourable impression of the poet, and have made me often regret that I did not see the poems, the certain effect of which would have been my seeing the author, last summer, when I was longer in Scotland than I have been for many years. I rejoice very sincerely at the encouragement you receive at Edinburgh, and I think j'ou peculiarly fortimate in the patronage of Dr Blair, who, I am informed, interests himself very much for you. I beg to be remembered to him ; nobody can have a warmer regard for that gentleman than I have, which, independent of the worth of his character, would be kept alive by the memory of our common friend, the late Mr George B e. Before I received your letter, I sent enclosed in a letter to a sonnet by Miss "Williams, a young poetical lady, which she wrote on reading your ' Mountain-Daisy ;' perhaps it may not displease you :— While soon ' the garden's flaunting flowers' decay And scatter'd on the earth neglected lie. The ' Mountain-Daisy,' cherish'd by the ray A poet drcAv from heaven, shall never die. Ah, like that lonely flower the poet rose ! 'Mid penury's bare soil and bitter gale ; He felt each storm that on the mountain blows. Nor ever kncAv the shelter of the vale. By genius in her native vigour nurst. On nature with impassion'd look he gazed ; GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 19 Those who have felt the anxieties and solicitudes of authorship, can only knov/ what pleasure it gives to be noticed in such a mannei', hy judges of the first charac- ter. Your criticisms. Sir, I receive with reverence ; only I am sorry they mostly came too late ; a peccant passage or two that I would certainly have altered, were gone to the press. The hope to be admired for ages, is, in by far the greater part of those even who are authors of repute, an unsubstantial dream. For my part, my first ambition was, and still my strongest wish is, to please my corn- peel's, the rustic inmates of the hamlet, while ever-chang- ing language and manners shall allow me to be rehshed and understood. I am vex*y willing to admit that I have some poetical abilities ; and as few, if any Avriters, either moral or poetical, are intimately acquainted with the classes of mankind among whom I have chiefly mingled, I may have seen raen and manners ia a different phasis from what is common, which may assist origioality of thought. Still I know very well the novelty of my cha- racter has by far the greatest share in the learned and poUte notice I have lately had ; and in a language where Pope and Churchill have raised the laugh, and Shen- stone and Gray draAvn the tear ; where Thomson and Beattie have painted the landscape, and Lyttleton and Collins described the heart, I am not vain enough to hope for distinguished poetic fame, R. B. No. XXXVIII. TO THE REV. G. LAWRIE, KEWMILLS, NEAR KILJIARNOCK. Edinburgh) Feb. oth, 1787. Reverent) axd Dear Sib — When I look at the date of your kind letter, my heart reproaches me severely with ingratitude in neglecting so long to answer it. I will not trouble you with any account, by way of apo- logy, of my hunied life and distracted attention ; do me the justice to beheve that my delay by no means pro- ceeded from want of respect. I feel, and ever shall feel for you, the mingled sentiments of esteem for a friend, and reverence for a father. I thank you. Sir, with all my soul, for your fi'iendly hints, though I do not need them so much as my friends are apt to imagine. You are dazzled with newspaper accounts and distant reports ; but, in reaUty, I have no great temptation to be intoxicated with the cup of pro- sperity. Novelty may attract the attention of mankind a w^hile ; to it I owe my present eclat ; but I see the time not far distant when the popular tide which has borne me to a height of which I am perhaps unworthy, shall recede with silent celerity, and leave me a barren waste of sand, to descend at my leisure to my former station. I do not say this in the affectation of modesty ; I see the consequence is unavoidable, and am prepared for it. I had been at a good deal of pains to form a just, impartial estunate of my intellectual powers be- fore I came here ; I have not added, siace I came to Edinburgh, any thmg to the account ; and I trust I shall take every atom of it back to my shades, the coverts of my unnoticed early years. In Dr Blacklock, whom I see very often, I have found what I would have expected in our friend, a clear head and an excellent heart. By far the most agreeable hours I spend in Edin- burgh must be placed to the account of Miss Lawrie and her piano-forte. I caimot help repeating to you and Mrs Lawi-ie a compHment that Mr JNIackenzie, the celebrated " Man of Feeling," paid to Miss Lawrie, the other night, at the concert. I had come in at the in- terlude, and sat down by hun till I saw jNIiss Lawaue in Then through the cloud of adverse fortune burst Indignant, and in light unborrowed blazed. Scotia ! from rude afiSiction shield thy bai-d ; His heaven-taught numbers Fame herself will guard. I have been trying to add to the number of your subscribers, but find many of my acquaintance are already among them. I have only to add, that, with every sentiment of esteem, and the most cordial good ■wishes, I am, your obedient hiunble servant, J. MoOKIi." a seat not very distant, and went up to pay my respects to her. On my return to Mr Mackenzie, he asked me who she was ; I told him 'twas the daughter of a reve- rend friend of mine in the west country. He returned, there was something very striking, to his idea, in her appearance. On my desii'ing to know what it was, he was pleased to say, " She has a great deal of the ele- gance of a well-bred lady about her, with all the sweet simpHcity of a country girl." My compliments to ail the happy inmates of St Mar- garet's. I am, my dear Sir, yours, most gratefully, Robert Burns. No. XXXIX. TO DR MOORE. Edinburgh, \Bth February^ VJ^I . Sir — Pardon my seeming neglect in delaying so long to acknowledge the honour you have done me, in your kind notice of me, January 23d. Not many months ago I knew no other employment than following the plough, nor could boast any thing higher than a distant ac- quaintance with a country clergyman. Mere greatness never embarrasses me ; I have nothing to ask from the great, and I do not fear their judgment ; but genius, polished by learning, and at its proper point of elevation in the eye of the world, this of late I frequently meet with, and tremble at its approach. I scorn the affec- tation of seeming modesty to cover self-conceit. That I have some merit, I do not deny; but I see with frequent wTingings of heart, that the novelty of my character, and the honest national prejudice of my countrymen, have borne me to a height altogether untenable to my abilities. For the honour Miss Williams has done me, please, Sir, return her in my name my most grateful thanks. I have more than once thought of pacing her in kind, but have liitherto quitted the idea in hopeless despon- dency. I had never before heard of her ; but the other day I got her poems, which, for several reasons, some belonging to the head, and others the offspring of the heart, give me a great deal of pleasure. I have little pretensions to critic lore ; there are, I think, two cha- racteristic features in her poetry — the unfettered wild flight of native genius, and the querulous, sombre ten- derness of " time-settled sorrow." I only know what pleases me, often without being able to tell why. R. B.* * The anffwer of Dr Moore to the foregoing was as follows : — " Clifford Street, 28th February, 1787- Dkar Sir — Your letter of the 15th gave me a great deal of pleasure. It is not surprising that you improve in correctness and taste, considering where you have been for some time past. And I dare swear there is no danger of your admitting any polish which might weaken the vigour of your native powers. I am glad to perceive that you disdain the nauseous affectation of decrying your o^ti merit as a poet, an afifectation which is dis- played Avith most ostentation by those who have the greatest share of self-conceit, and which only adds imdeceiving falsehood to dis- gusting vanity. For you to deny the merit of yoiu: poems, would be arraigning the fixed opinion of the public. As the new edition of my ' View of Society' is not yet ready, I have sent you the former edition, Avhich I beg you will accept as a small mark of my esteem. It is sent by' sea to the care of Mr Creech ; and, along with these four volumes for yom'self , I have also sent my ' Medical Sketches' in one volvmie, for my friend 31rs Dimlop of Dunlop ; this you will be so obliging as to transmit, or, if you chance to pass soon by Dimlop, to give to her. I am happy to hear that your subscription is so ample, and shall rejoice at every piece of good fortvme that befalls you. For you are a very great favourite in my family ; and this is a higher compliment than perhaps you are awai-e of. It includes almost all the professions, and, of course, is a proof that your writings are adapted to various tastes and situations. My youngest son, who is at Winchester school, -WTites to me, that he is translating some stanzas of your ' Hallowe'en' into Latin verse, for the bene- fit of his comrades. This union of taste partly proceeds, no doubt, from the cement of Scottish partiality, with which they are all somewhat tinctured. Even your translator, who left Scotland too early in Ufe for recollection, is not without it. I remain, with great sincerity, your obedient servant, J. Moore." 20 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. No. XL. TO JOHN BALLANTINE, Esq. Edinburgh, Feb. 24, 1787. My Honoured Friend — I will soon be with you now, in guid black prent — in a week or ten days at farthest. I am obliged, against my own wish, to print subscribers' names ; so if any of my Ayr fi'iends have subscription bills, they must be sent into Creech directly. I am getting my phiz done by an eminent engraver, and if it ean be ready in time, I will appear in my book, looking, like all other fools, to my title-page. R. B. No. XLI. TO THE EARL OF GLENCAIRN. Edinburgh, February, 1787. My Lord — I wanted to purchase a profile of your lordship, which I was told was to be got in town ; but I am truly sorry to see that a blundering painter has spoiled a " human face divine." The enclosed stanzas I intended to have written below a pictm'e or profile of your lordship, could I have been so happy as to procure one with any thing of a likeness. As I will soon return to my shades, I wanted to have something like a material object for my gratitude ; I wanted to have it in my power to say to a friend, there is my noble patron, my generous benefactor. Allow ine, my lord, to publish these verses. I conjure your lordship, by the honest throe of gratitude, by the gene- rous wish of benevolence, by all the powers and feelings which compose the magnanimous mind, do not deny me this petition. I owe much to your lordship : and, what has not in some other instances always been the case with me, the weight of the obligation is a pleasing load. I trust I have a heart as mdependent as your lordship's, than wliich I can say nothing more : and I would not be beholden to favours that would crucify my feelings. Your dignified character in life, and manner of support- ing that character, are flattering to my pride ; and I would be jealous of the purity of my grateful attach- ment, where I was under the patronage of one of the much favoured sons of fortune. Almost every poet has celebrated his patrons, parti- cularly when they were names dear to fame, and illus- trious in their country ; allow me, then, my lord, if you think the verses have intrinsic merit, to tell the Avorld how much I have the honour to be, your lordship's highly indebted, and ever gi'ateful humble servant, R. B. No. XLII. TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN. ]\Iy Lord — The honour your lordship has done me, by your notice and advice in yours of the 1st instant, I shall ever gratefully remember : — , Praise from thy lips 'tis mine vni\\ joy to boast, They best can give it Avho deserve it most. Your lordship touches the darling chord of my heart, when you advise me to fire my muse at Scottish story and Scottish scenes. I wish for nothing more than to make a leisurely pilgrimage through my native country ; to sit and muse on those once hard-contended fields, v/here Caledonia, rejoicing, saw her bloody lion borne through broken i*anlvs to victory and fame ; and, catch- ing the inspiration, to pour the deathless names in song. But, my lord, in the midst of these enthusiastic reveries, a long-visaged, dry moral- looking phantom strides across my imagination, and pronounces these emphatic words : — " I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence. Friend, I do not come to open the ill-closed wounds of your follies and misfortunes, merely to give you pain : I wish through these wounds to imprint a lasting lesson on your heart. I will not mention how many of my salutary advices you have despised ; I have given you line upon line and precept upon precept ; and while I was chalking out to you the straight way to wealth and character, with audacious effrontery you have zigzagged across the path, contemning me to my face : you know the con- sequences. It is not yet three months since home was so hot for you that you were on the wing for the wes- tern shore of the Atlantic, not to make a fortune, but to hide your misfortune. Now that your dear-loved Scotia puts it in your power to return to the situation of your forefathers, will you follow these will-o'-wisp meteors of fancy and whim, till they bring you once more to the brink of ruin ? I grant that the utmost ground you can occupy is but half a step from the veriest poverty ; but still it is half a step from it. If all that I can urge be ineffectual, let her who seldom calls to you in vain, let the call of pride, prevail with you. You know how you feel at the iron gripe of ruthless oppression : you know how you bear the galling sneer of contumelious greatness. I hold you out the conveniences, the comforts of life, in- dependence, and character, on the one hand ; I tender you servility, dependence, and wretchedness, on the other. I will not insult your understanding by bidding you make a choice." This, my lord, is unanswerable. I must return to my humble station, and woo my rustic muse, in my wonted way, at the plough-tail. Still, my lord, while the drops of life warm my heart, gratitude to that dear- loved country in which I boast my birth, and gratitude to those her distinguished sons, who have honoured me so much with their patronage and approbation, shall, while stealing through my humble shades, ever distend my bosom, and at times, as now, draw forth the swelling tear. R. B. No. XLIIL TO MR WILLIAM DUNBAR.* Lawn-market, Monday morning. Dear Sir — Injustice to Spenser, I must acknowledge that there is scarcely a poet in the language could have been a moi'e agreeable present to me ; and in justice to you, allow me to say. Sir, that I have not met with a man in Edinburgh to whom I would so willingly have been indebted for the gift. The tattered rhymes I here- with present you, and the handsome volumes of Spen- ser for which I am so much indebted to your goodness, may perhaps be not in proportion to one another ; but be that as it may, my gift, though far less valuable, is as sincere a mark of esteem as yours. The time is approaching when I shall return to my shades; and I am afraid my numerous Edinburgh friend- ships are of so tender a construction, that they will not bear carriage with me. Yours is one of the few that I could wish of a more robust constitution. It is indeed very probable that when I leave this city, we part never more to meet in this sublunary sphere ; but I have a strong fancy that in some future eccentric planet, the comet of happier systems than any with which astro' nomy is yet acquainted, you and I, among the harum- scarum sons of imagination and whim, with a hearty sliake of a hand, a metaphor and a laugh, shall recog- nise old acquaintance : Where wit may sparkle all its raj's, Uncurst with caution's fears ; That pleasure, basking in the blaze, Rejoice for endless years. I have the honour to be, with the warmest sincerity, dear Sir, &c. R. B. No. XLIV. TO MR JAMES CANDLISH, STUDENT IN PHYSIC, GLASGOW COLLEGE. Edinburgh, March 2\st, 1787. My Ever Dear Old Acquaintance — I was equally surprised and pleased at your letter, though I dare say you will think, by my delaying so long to write to you, that I am so drowned in the intoxication of good fortune * [Writer to the signet in Edinburgh, and the subject of the song ' ' Rattling, Roaring Willie."] GENEHAL COKRESPONDENCE. 21 as to be indifferent to old, and once dear connexions. | The truth is, I was determined to ^\Tite a good letter, j full of argument, amplification, erudition, and, as Bayes says, all that. I thought of it, and thought of it, and bv my soul I could not ; and, lest you should mistake the cause of my silence, I just sit down to tell you so. Don't give yourself credit, though, that the strength of your logic scai-es me : the truth is, I never mean to meet you on that ground at all. You have shown me one thing which was to be demonstrated : that strong pride of reasoning, with a Uttle affectation of singulai'ity, may mislead the best of hearts. I lilvewise, since vou and I were fii'st acquainted, in the pride of despisuig old women's stories, ventured in "the daring path Spi- nosa trod ;" but experience of the weakness, not the strength, of human powers, made me glad to grasp at revealed reUgion. I am still, in the Apostle Paul's phrase, " The old man with his deeds," as when we were sporting about the " Lady Thorn." I shall be four weeks here yet at least, and so I shall expect to hear from you ; welcome sense, welcome nonsense. I am, with the warmest sincerity, R. B. No. XLV. TO , ON fergusson's headstone. Edinburgh, March, 1787. Mr Dear Sir — You may think, and too justly, that I am a selfish, ungrateful fellow, ha\'ing received so many repeated instances of kindness from you, and yet never putting pen to paper to say thank you ; but if you knew what a devil of a life my conscience has led me on that account, your good heart would think yourself too much avenged. By the bye, there is nothing in the whole frame of man which seems to be so unaccountable as that thing called conscience. Had the troublesome yelp- ing cur powers efficient to prevent a mischief, he might be of use ; but at the beginning of the business, his feeble efforts are to the workings of passion as the in- fant frosts of an autunmal morning to the unclouded fervour of the rising sun : and no sooner are the tumul- tuous doings of the wicked deed over, than, amidst the bitter native consequences of folly in the very vortex of our horrors, up starts conscience, and haiTOWs us with the feehngs of the damned. I have enclosed you, by way of expiation, some verse and prose, that, if they merit a place in your truly en- tertaining miscellany, you are welcome to. The prose extract is Kterally as Mr Sprott sent it me. The inscription on the stone is as follows : — " HERE LIES ROBERT FERGUSSON, POET, Bom, September 5th, 1751— Died, 16th October, 1774. No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay, ' rso storied urn, nor animated bust ;' This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust." On the other side of the stone is as follows : — " By special grant of the managers to Robert Bums, who erected this stone, this burial-place is to remain for ever sacred to the memory of Robert Fergusson." Some memorial to direct tlie steps of the lovers of Scottish song, when they wish to shed a tear over the ' narrow house' of the bard who is no more, Ls sui*ely a tribute due to Fergussou's memory — a tribute I wish to have the honour of paying. I petition you then, gentlemen, to permit me to lay a simple stone over his revered ashes, to remain an uu- aUenable propei-ty to his deathless fame. I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your very humble servant, (sic subscrihitur ) Robert Burns." Therefore the said managers, in consideration of the laudable and disinterested motion of Mr Burns, and the propriety of his request, did, and hereby do, unani- mously, grant power and hberty to the said Robert Burns to erect a headstone at the grave of the said Robert Fergusson, and to keep up and preserve the same to his memory in all time coming. Extracted forth of the records of the managers, by William Sprott, Clerk. Session-house ivithin the kirk ofCanongate, the twenty- second day of February, one thousand sevenhun- dred eighty-seven years. Sederunt of the IVIanagers of the Kirk and Kii'k-yard fimds of Canongate. Which day, the treasurer to the said funds produced a letter from 31 r Robert Burns, of date the 6th current, which was read and appointed to be engrossed in their sederunt book, and of which letter the tenor follows : — " To the honourable bailies of Canongate, Edinburgh. — Gentlemen, I am sorry to be told that the remains of Robert Fergusson, the so justly celebrated poet, a man whose talents for ages to come will do honour to our Caledonian name, he in your church-yard among the ignoble dead, unnoticed and unkno\Mi. No. XLVI. TO MRS DUNLOP. Edinburgh, March '21d, 1787. Madam — I read your letter with v%atery eyes. A little, very httle while ago, I had scarce a friend but the stubborn pride of my own bosom ; now I am dis- tinguished, patronised, befriended by you. Your friendly advices, I will not give them the cold name of criticisms, I receive with reverence. I have made some small al- terations in what I before had printed. I have the ad- vice of some very judicious friends among the literati here, but with them I sometimes find it necessary to claim the privilege of thinking for myself. The noble Earl of Glencairn, to whom I owe more than to any man, does me the honour of giving me liis strictures ; his hints, with respect to impropriety or indelicacy, I follow implicitly. You Idndly interest yourself in my future A-iews and prospects ; there I can give you no light. It Is all Dark as was chaos ere the infant sun . "Was roll'd together, or had tried his beams Athwart the gloom profoimd. The appellation of a Scottish bard is by far iny high- est pi'ide ; to continue to deserve it is my most exalted ambition. Scottish scenes and Scottish story are the themes I could wish to sing. 1 have no dearer aim than to have it in my power, unplagued with the routine of business, for which. Heaven knows, I am unfit enough, to make leisurely pilgrimages through Caledonia ; to sit on the fields of her battles, to wander on the romantic banks of her rivers, and to muse by the stately towers or venerable ruins, once the honoured abodes of her heroes. But these are all Utopian thoughts ; I have dallied, long enough with life ; 'tis time to be in earnest. I have a fond, an aged mother to care for, and some otheir bosom ties perhaps equally tender. Where the indi- Aadual only sufiers by the consequences of his own thoughtlessness, indolence, or folly, he may be excus- able — nay, shining abilities, and some of the' nobler vir- tues, may half sanctify a heedless cliaracter ; but v^here God and nature have intrusted the welfare of others to liis care — where the trust is sacred, and the ties are dear — that man must be far gone in selfishness, or strangely lost to reflection, whom these connexions \\-ili not rouse to exertion. I guess that I shall clear between two and three hun- dred pounds by my authorship ; \^-ith that sum I intend, so far as I may be said to have any intention, to return to my old acquaintance, the plough, and, if I can meet with a lease by which I can Uve, to commence farmer, I do not intend to give up poetry ; being bred to labour secures me independence, and the muses are my chief, sometimes have been my only enjo^-ment. If my prac- tice second my resolution, I shaiT have principally at heart the serious business of Hfe ; but v.-lule follo\ving my plough, or building up my shocks, I shall cast a leisure glance to that dear, that only feature of ray cha- 22 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. racter, which gave me the notice of my country, and the patronage of a Wallace. Thus, honoured Madam, I have given you the bard, his situation, and his views, native as they are in his own bosom. R. B. No. XLVII, TO MISS My Deae Countrywoi\ian— I am so impatient to show you that I am once more at peace with you, that I send you the book I mentioned directly, rather than wait the uncertain time of my seeing you. I am afraid I have mislaid or lost CoUins's Poems, which I promised to Miss Irvin. If I can find them, I wdll forward them by you ; if not, you must apologise for me. I know you'will laugh at it when I tell you that your piano and you together have played the deuce somehow about my heart. My breast has been widowed these many months, and I thought myself proof against the fascinating witchcraft ; but I am afraid you will " feel- ingly convince me what I am." I say, I am afraid, Ibecause I am not sure what is the matter with me. I 3iave one miserable bad symptom ; when you wliisper, or look kindly to another, it gives me a draught of dam- nation. I have a kind of wayward wish to be with you ten minutes by yourself, though what I would say, Heaven above knows, for I am sure I know not. I have no formed design in all this, but just, in the naked- ness of my heart, WTite you down a mere matter-of-fact story. You may perhaps give yourself airs of distance on this, and that will completely cure me ; but I wish you would not — ^just let us meet, if you please, in the old beaten way of friendship. I will not subscribe myself your humble servant, for that is a phrase, I think, at least fifty miles off from the heart ; but I will conclude with sincerely wishing that the Great Protector of innocence may shield you from the barbed dart of calumny, and hand you by the covert snare of deceit. R. B. No. XLVIII. TO MRS DUNLOP. Edinburgh, \6th April, 1787. Madam — There is an affectation of gratitude which 1 tlislike. The periods of Johnson and the pauses of Sterne may hide a selfish heart. For my part, Madam, I trust I have too much pride for servility, and too little prudence for selfishness. I have this moment broken open your letter, but Rude am I in speech. And therefore little can I grace my cause In speaking for myself— so I shall not trouble you with any fine speeches and hunted figures. I shall just lay my hand on my heart and say, I hope I shall ever have the truest, the warm- est sense of your goodness. I come abroad, in print, for certain on Wednesday. Your orders I shall punctually attend to ; only, by the way, I must tell you that I was paid before for Dr Moore's and Miss Williams's copies, through the me- dium of Commissioner Cochrane in this place, but that ■we can settle when I have the honour of waiting on you. Dr Smith t was just gone to London the morning be- fore I received your letter to him. R. B. * [IVIr Cromek supposed this letter to have been written in 1784, and probably to the Peggy mentioned in the poet's common- place book. There are reasons for doubting this, and, amongst others, the allusion to the piano, which instrument, we are told by Gilbert Bums, Robert did not hear played till autumn 1786, %vhen he was spending an evening in the house of Dr Lawrie at Loudon. It seems to the present Editor more likely that this letter was addressed, in 1787, to the lady whom the poet alludes to in his letter to James Smith, descriptive of his first Highland tour, and inserted in Dr Currie's Memoir— p. 39 of the accom- panying reprint of that work.] i The author of the «* Wealth of Nations," &c. No. XLIX. TO DR MOORE. Edinburgh, 23d April, ITBT". I RECEIVED the books, and sent the one you mentioned to Mrs Dunlop. I am ill sldlled in beating the coverts of imagination for metaphors of gratitude. I thank you, Sir, for the honour you have done me, and to my latest hour will warmly remember it. To be highly pleased Avith your book, is what I have in common with the world, but to regard these volumes as a mark of the author's friendly esteem, is a still more supreme grati- fication. I leave Edinburgh in the course of ten days or a fort- night, and, after a few pilgrimages over some of the classic ground of Caledonia, Cowden Knowes, Banks of Yarrow, Tweed, &c., I shall return to my rural shades, in all likelihood never more to quit them. I have formed many intimacies and friendships here, but I am afraid they are all of too tender a construction to bear carriage a hundred and fifty miles. To the rich, the great, the fashionable, the polite, I have no equivalent to offer ; and I am afraid my meteor appearance will by no means entitle me to a settled correspondence with any of you, who are the permanent lights of genius and literature. My most respectful compMments to Miss Williams. If once this tangent flight of mine were over, and I were returned to my wonted leisurely motion in my old cu'cle, I may probably endeavour to return her poetic compli- ment in kind. R. B.* * [The answer of Dr Moore was as follows :— " Clifford Street, May 23, 1787. Dear Sir— I had the pleasure of your letter by Mr Creech, and soon after he sent me the new edition of your poems. You seem to think it incumbent on you to send to each subscriber a num- ber of copies proportionate to his subscription money, but you may depend upon it, few subscribers expect more than one copy, whatever they subscribed ; I must inform you, however, that I took twelve copies for those subscribers, for whose money you were so accurate as to send me a receipt, and Lord Eglinton told me he had sent for six copies for himself, as he wished to give five of them as presents. Some of the poems you have added in this last edition are very beautiful, particularly the * Winter Night,' the * Address to Edinburgh,' ' Green grow the rashes,' and the two songs imme- diately following- the latter of which is exquisite. By the way, I imagine you have a peculiar talent for such compositions, which you ought to indulge. No kind of poetry demands more delicacy or higher polishing. Horace is more admired on account of his Odes than all his other writings. But nothing now added is equal to your ' Vision' and ' Cotter's Saturday Night.' In these are united fine imagery, natural and pathetic description, with su- blimity of language and thought. It is evident that j-ou already possess a great variety of expression and command of the English language ; you ought therefore to deal more sparingly for the future in the provincial dialect— why should you, by using that, limit the number of your admirers to those who understand the Scottish, when you can extend it to all persons of taste who un- derstand the English language ? In my opinion, you should plan some larger work than any you have as yet attempted. I mean, reflect upon some proper subject, and arrange the plan in your mind, without beginning to execute any part of it tUl you have studied most of the best English poets, and read a little more of history. The Greek and Roman stories you can read in some abridgement, and soon become master of the most brilliant facts, which must highly delight a poetical mind. You should also, and very soon may, become master of the heathen mythology, to which there are everlasting allusions in all the poets, and which in itself is charmingly fanciful. What will require to be studied with more attention, is modem history ; that is, the his- tory of France and Great Britain, from the beginning of Henry VII. 's reign. I know very well you have a mind capable of at- taining knowledge by a shorter process than is commonly itsed, and I am certain you are capable of making a better use of it, when attained, than is generally done. , ~ I beg you will not give yourself the trouble of writing to me when it is inconvenient, and make no apology when you do write for having postponed it— be assured of this, however, that I shall always be happy to hear from you. I think my friend Mr told me that you had some poems in manuscript by you, of a satirical and humorous nature (in which, by the way, I think you very strong) , which your prudent friends prevailed on you to omit, particularly one called * Somebody's Confession ;' if you GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. sa Ko. L. TO MRS DUNLOP. Edinburgh, ^Oth April, 1787. ■ Your criticisms, Madam, I vmderstand very Well, and could have wished to have pleased you better. You are right ia your guess that I am not very amen- able to coimsel. Poets, much my superiors, have so flattered those who possessed the adventitious quahties of wealth and power, tliat I am determined to flatter no created being, either in prose or verse. I set as little by princes, lords, clergy, critics, &c., as all these respective gentry do by my hardship. I know what I may expect from the world by and bye — iUiberal abuse, and perhaps contemptuous neglect. I am happy, ]\Iadam, that some of my ovm favourite pieces are distinguished by your particular approbation. For my " Dream,"* which has unfortunately incurred your loyal displeasure, I hope in four weeks, or less, to have the honour of appearing, at Dunlop, in its defence in pei-son. R. B. No. LI. TO THE REV. DR HUGH BLAIR. Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, ?)d May, 1787. Rev. axd much-respected Sir — I leave Edinburgh to-morrow morning, but CQuld not go without troubling you with half a Hue, sincerely to thank you for the kind- ness, patronage, and friendship, you have shown me. I often felt the embarrassment of my singular situation ; drawn forth from the veriest shades of life to the glare of remai'k, and honoured by the notice of those illus- trious names of my country, whose works, wliile they are applauded to the end of time, will ever instruct and mend the heart. However the meteor-like novelty of my appearance in the world might attract notice, and honour me with the acquaintance of the permanent lights of genius and Hterature, those who are truly be- nefactors of the immortal nature of man, I knew very well that my utmost merit was far unequal to the task of preserving that character when once the novelty was over ; I have made up my mind that abuse, or almost even neglect, will not surprise me in my quarters. I have sent you a proof impression of Beugo's work^* for me, done on Indian paper, as a trifling but sincere testimony with what heart-warm gratitude I am, &e. R. B.J will entrust me with a sight of any of these, I will pawn my word to give no copies, and will be obliged to you for a perusal of them. I imderstand you intend to take a farm, and make the useful and respectable business of husbandry your chief occupation : this I hope will not prevent your making occasional addresses to the nine ladies who have shown you such favour, one of whom visited you in the "• auld clay biggin.' Virgil, before you, proved to the world that there is nothing in the business of husbandry inimical to poetry ; and I sincerely hope that you may afford an example of a good poet being a successful farmer. I fear it will not be in my power to visit Scotland this season ; when I do, I'll endeavour to find you out, for I heartily -n-ish to see and converse with you. If ever your occasions call you to this place, I make no doubt of your pajing me a visit, and you may depend on a very cordial welcome from this family. I am, dear Sir, your friend and obedient servant, J. Moore."] * [The well-kno'wn poem, beginning, " Guid morning to your majesty." Mrs Dunlop had probably recommended its being omitted in the second edition, on the score of prudence.] t The portrait of the poet after Nasmyth. % [The answer of Dr Blair was as follows :— " ArgyU Square, Edinburgh, Ath May, 1787. Dear Sir— I was favoured this forenoon with your very oblig- ing letter, together •ndth an impression of j'our portrait, for which I return you my best thanks. The success you have met vrifh I do not think was beyond your merits ; and if I have had anj' smaU hand in contributing to it, it gives me great pleasure. I know no way in which literary persons who are advanced in years can do more service to the world, than in forwarding the efforts of rising genius, or bringing fort'a imkno-v\-n merit from obscurity. I was the first person who brought out to the notice No. LII. TO JAMES JOHNSON, EDITOR OF THE SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM. LawnmarTcet, Friday noon, M May, 1787. Dkvr Sir — I have sent you a song never before known, for your collection ; the air by M'Gibbon, but I know not the author of the words, as I got it from Dr Blaeklock. Farewell, my dear Sir ! I ^^•ished to have seen yon, but I have been dreadfully throng,* as I march to-mor- row, f Had my acquaintance vdih you been a Uttle older, I would have asked the favour of your corres- pondence, as I have met with few people whose com- pany and conversation gave me so much pleasure, because I have met with few whose sentiments are so congenial to my own. When Dunbar and you meet, tell him that I left Edinburgh with the idea of him hanging somewhere about my heart. Keep the original of this song till we meet again, whenever that may be. R. B. No. LIII. TO WILLIAM CREECH, Esq., EDINBURGH, Selkirk, Uth May, 1787. My Honoured rRTE>T> — The enclosed I have just wrote,^ nearly extempore, in a soHtary inn in Selkirk, of the world the poems of Ossian ; first, by the ' Fragments of ancient Poetry,' which I published, and afterwards, by my set- ting on foot the undertaking for collecting . and publishing the ' Works of Ossian ;' and I have always considered this as a meri- torious action of my life. Your situation, as you say, was indeed very singular ; and in being brought out, all at once, from the shades of deepest privacy to so great a share of public notice and observation, you had to stand a severe trial. I am happy that you have stood it so weU ; and, as far as I have kno^vn or heard, though in the midst of many temptations, without reproach to your character and be- haviour. You are now, I presume, to retire to a more private walk of life ; and I trust -will conduct yourself there with industry, prudence, and honour. You have laid the foundation for just public esteem. In the midst of those emplojTnents which your situation will render proper, you ■^\-iU not, I hope, neglect to promote that esteem, by cultivating j'our genius, and attending to such pro- ductions of it as may raise your character still higher. At the same time, be not in too great a haste to come forward. Take time and leisure to improve and mature your talents ; for on any second production you give the world, your fate, as a poet, wiU very much depend. There is no doubt a gloss of novelty, which time wears off. As you very properly hint 30urself, you are not to be surprised, if in your rural retreat you do not fini yourself surrounded with that glare of notice and applause which here shone upon you. No man can be a good poet without being some- what of a philosopher. He must lay his account, that any one, who exposes himself to public observation, wiU occasionally meet with the attacks of illiberal censure, which it is always best to overlook and despise. He will be inclined sometimes to court retreat, and to disappear from public \ie\v. He will not affect to shine always, that he may at proper seasons come forth with more advantage and energy. He will not think himself neglected if he be not always praised. I have taken the liberty, you see, of an old man to give advice and make reflections, which your own good sense will, I dare say, render unnocessarj-. As you mention your being just about to leave town, you aro going, I should suppose, to Diunfriesshire, to look at some of Mr MiUer's farms. I heartily wish the offers to be made you there may answer, as I am persuaded you will not easily find a more generous and better-hearted proprietor to live under than 3Ir Miller. When you return, if you come this way, I will be happy to see you, and to know concerning your future plans of life. You will find me by the 22d of this month, not in my house in Argjie Square, but at a country-house at Restalrig, about a mile east from Edinburgh, near the Musselburgh road. Wishing you all success and prosperity, I am, with real regard and esteem, dear Sir, yours sincerely, Hugh Blair."] * [Busy.] t [On his tour of the Border.] :; [The poetical address to Mr Creech, beginning, " Auld chuckle Reekie's sair distrest." See the accompanying reprint of the Poetical Works, p. 6?.] 24 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. after a miserably wet day's riding. I have been over most of PJast Lothian, Bermck, Roxburgh, and Selkirk shires, and next week I begin a tour through the north of England. Yesterday I dined with Lady Harriet, sis- ter to my noble pati'on, * Quern Dens conservet ! I would write till I would tire you as much with dtdl prose, as I daresay by tliis time you are with wretched verse ; but I am jaded to death ; so, with a grateful farewell, I have the honour to be, good Sir, yours sincerely, R. B. No. LIV. TO MR PATISON, BOOKSELLER, PAISLEY. Berry-well, near Dunse, May 17th, 1787. Dear Sir — I am sorry I was out of Edinburgh, mak- ing a slight pilgrimage to the classic scenes of this country, when I was favoured with yours of the 11th "instant, enclosing an order of the Paisley banking com- pany on the Royal bank, for twenty -two pounds seven shillmgs sterling, payment iu full, after carriage de- ducted, for ninety copies of my book I sent you. Ac- cording to your motions, I see you will have left Scotland before this reaches you, other-nise I would send you "Holy Willie" with all my heart. I was so hurried that I absolutely forgot several things I ought to have minded, among the rest, sending books to Mr Cowan ; but any order of yours will be answered at Creech's shop. You will please remember that non-subsci'ibers pay six shil- lings, this is Creech's profit ; but those who have sub- scribed, though their names have been neglected in the pi'iuted list, which is very incorrect, are suppUed at the subscription price. I was not at Glasgow, nor do I in- tend for London ; and I tliink Mrs Fame is very idle to teU so many Hes on a poor poet. When you or Mr Cowan Avrite for copies, if you should want any, direct to j\Ir Hill, at Mr Creech's shop,t and I Avi-ite to Mr Hill by this post, to answer either of your orders. Hill as Mr Creech's first clerk, and Creech himself is pre- sently in London. I suppose I shall have the pleasure against your return to Paisley, of assuring you how mucli I am, dear Sir, your obliged humble servant, R. B. No. LV. TO MR W. NICOL, MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, EDINBURGH. Carlisle, June 1, 1787. Kind Honest-hearted Willie — I'm sitten down here, after seven and forty miles ridin', e'en as forjesket and forniaw'd as a forfoughteu cock, to gie you some notion o' my land-lowper-Uke stravaguin sin' the sorroA\'fu' hour that I sheuk hands and parted wi' Auld Reekie. My auld, ga'd gleyde o' a meere has huchyall'd up hill and dowTi brae, in Scotland and England, as teugh and birnie as a very devil wi' me. It's true she's as poor's a sangmaker and as hard's a kirk, and tipper- taipers when she taks the gate, first like a lady's gentle- woman in a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle ; but she's a yauld, poutherie giri'an for a' that, and has a stomack like Wilhe Stalker's meere that wad hae dis- geested tumbler- wheels, for she'll whip me afF her five stimparts o' the best aits at a down-sittin, and ne'er fash her thumb. When ance her ringbanes and spa\'ies, her crucks and cramps, are faii'ly soupl'd, she beets to, beets to, and aye the hindmost hour the tightest. I could wager her price to a threttie pennies, that for twa or i^hree wooks ridin' at fifty mile a-day, the deil-sticket a five gallopers acqueesh Clyde and Whithorn could cast jsauton her tail, j * James, Earl of Glencairn. t [Mr Peter Hill, afterwards in business for himself as a book- seller, and honoured by the poet's correspondence. Reared with Mr Creech, he was in his turn master to Mr Constable. He died at an advanced age in 1836.] ± [This wonderful beast had been named Jenny Geddes by the poet, in honour of the old vroman to whom tradition assigns the er£dit of having cast the first stool at the dean's head in St Giles's cfearch, July 23, 1637, when the litufgy imposed on Scotland by Charies I. was first read.] I hae dander'd o\ATe a' the kintra frae Dumbar to Sel- craig, and hae forgather'd wi' mony a guid fallow, and mony a weelfar'd hizzie. I met wi' twa dink quines iu particlar, ane o' them a sonsie, fine, fodgel lass, baith braw and bonnie ; the tither was a elean-shankit, straught, tight, weel-far'd winch, as blythe's a lintwhite on a flowerie thorn, and as sweet and modest's a new-blawn plum- rose in a hazle shaw. They were baith bred to mainers by the beuk, and onie ane o' them had as muckle smed- dum and rumblegumption as the half o' some presbj'tries that you and I baith ken. They play'd me sick a deevil o' a sha\de, that I daur say, if my harigals were turn'd out, ye wad see twa nicks i' the heart o' me hke the mark o' a kaU-whittle in a castock. I was gaun to A\Tite you a lang pystle, but, guid forgie me, I gat mysel sae noutouriously bitchify'd the day, after kail-tune, that I can hardly stoiter but and ben. My best respecks to the guidwife and a' our common friens, especiall Mr and ]\Irs Cruilcshank, and the ho- nest guidman o' Jock's Lodge. I'll be in Dumfries the morn gif the beast be to the fore, and the brauks bide hale. Guid be \W you, Willie ! Amen! R. B. No. LVI. TO THE SAME. Mauchline, June 18, 1787. My Dear Friexd-— I am now arrived safe m m}- na- tive country, after a very agreeable jaunt, and have the pleasure to find all my friends well. I breakfasted with your grey-headed, reverend friend, Mr Smith ; and was highly pleased both with the cordial welcome he gave me, and his most excellent appearance and sterling good sense. I have been with Mr Miller at Dalswinton, and am to meet him again in August. From my view of the lands, and his reception of my hardship, my hopes in that business are i-ather mended ; but still they are but slender. I am quite charmed Avith Dumfries folks — Mr Burn- side, the clerg}Tnan, in particular, is a man whom I shall ever gratefully remember ; and his wife, guid for- gie me! I had almost broke. the tenth commandment on her account. Simplicity, elegance, good sense, sweet- ness of disposition, good humour, kind hospitahty, are the constituents of her manner and heart : in short — but if I say one word more about her, I shall be directly in love with her. I never, my friend, thought mankind very capable of any thing generous ; but the stateliness of the patricians in Edinburgh, and the civiUty of my plebeian brethren (who perhaps formerly eyed me askance) since I re- turned home, have nearly put me out of conceit alto- gether with my species. I have bought a pocket Milton, which I carry perpetually about with ^me, in order to study the sentiments, the dauntless magnanimity, the in- trepid, unyielding independence, the de.sperate daruig, and noble defiance of hardship in that great personage, Satan. 'Tis truCj I have just now a little cash ; but I am afraid the star that hitherto has shed its mahgnant, pur- pose-blasting rays full in my zenith ; that noxious planet, so baneful in its influences to the rhj-ming tribe, I much dread it is not yet beneath my horizon. Misfortune dodges the path of human life ; the poetic mind finds it- self miserably deranged in, and unfit for the walks of business ; add to all, that thoughtless follies and hair- brained wliims, like so many ignes fatui eternally di- verging from the right line of sober discretion, sparkle with step-bewitcliing blaze in the idly-gazing eyes of the poor heedless bard, till pop, " he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." God grant this may be an um-eal pic- ture with respect to me ! but should it not, I have very little dependence on mankind. I will close my letter with this tribute my heart bids me pay you — the many ties of acquaintance and friendsliip wliich I have, or think I have in life, I have felt along the lines, and, damn them, they are almost all of them of such frail contexture, that I am sure they would not stand the breath of the least adverse breeze of fortune ; but from GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 25 you, my ever dear SIi*, I look with confidence for the apostoh'c love that shall wait on me " through good re- port and bad report" — the love w^liieh Solomon empha- tically says " is strong as death.'' IMy compliments to Mrs Nicol, and all the circle of our common friends. P. S. I shall be in Edinburgh about the latter end of July. R. B. Ko. LVII. TO MR JAMES CANDLISH. Edinburgh, 1787. _ My Dear Friend — If once I were gone from this scene of hurry and dissipation, I promise myself the pleasvire of that correspondence being renewed wliich has been so long broken. At present 1 have time for no- thmg. Dissipation and busmess engross every moment. I am engaged m assisting an honest Scotch enthusiast,* a friend of mine, who is an engraver, and has taken it into his head to publish a collection of all our songs set to music, of which the words and music are done by Scotsmen, This, you \n\l easily guess, is an undertaking exactly to my taste. I have collected, begged, borrowed, and stolen, all the songs I could meet with. Pompey's Ghost, words and music, I beg from you immediately, to go into his second number — the first is already pub- lished. I shall show you the first number when I see you in Glasgow, which wiil be in a fortnight or less. Do be so kind as to send me the song in a day or two — you cannot imagine how much it will obhge m.e. Du-ect to me at Islv W. Cruikshank's, St James's Square, New Town, Edinburgh. R. B. No. LVIII. TO WILLIAM NICOL, Esq. AucMertyre^ Monday, June, 1787. My Dear Sir — I find myself very comfortable here, neither oppressed by ceremony, nor moitified by ne- glect. Lady Augusta is a most engaging woman, and very happy in her family, which makes one's outgoings and incomings very agreeable. I caUed at Mr Ram- say's of Auchtertyre^: as I came up the country, and am so delighted with him, that I shall certainly accept of his invitation to spend a day or two with him as I return. I leave this place on Wednesday or Thursday. Make my kind compliments to Mr and Mrs Cruik- shank and Mrs Nicol, if she is returned. I am ever, dear Sir, your deeply indebted R. B. No. LIX. TO WILLIAM CRUIKSHANK,§ ST JAilES'S SQUARE, EDI>-BURGn. Auclitertyre, Monday, June, 1787. I HAVE nothing, my dear Sir, to write to you, but that I feel myself exceedingly comfortably situated in this good family — ^just notice enough to make me easy but not to embarrass me. I was storm-staid two days at the foot of the Ochill Hills, with I\Ir Tait of Hervey- ston and Mr Johnston of Alva, but was so well pleased that I shall certainly spend a day on the banks of the Devon as I return. I leave this place I suppose on Wednesday, and shall devote a day to j\Ir Ramsay at Auchtertyre, near Stirhng — a man to whose worth I cannot do justice. ^My respectful kind compliments to * Jolinson, the publisher and proprietor of the Musical IMu- Beum. t [The seat of Sir William Murray, Bart. — delightfully situated in Stratheam, two miles from Crieff. Sir \V. and Lady Augusta Murray were the parents of Sir George Murray, at one time se- cretary for the colonies.] ± [AuchtertjTe, on the Teith, near Stirling. Mr Ramsay was an enthusiast in classical literature, somewhat after the manner of the Baron of Bradwardiue, joining to it a keen relish of the homely literature of his native country.] § [Of the High School, Edinburgh, and father of " the Rose- bud,"] Mrs Cruikshank, and my dear little Jeanie, and if you see Mr Masterton, please remember me to him. I am ever, my dear Sir, &c. R. B. No. LX. TO MR JOHN RICHMOND. Mossgiel, 7th Jul?', 1787. My Dear Richiiond — I am aU impatience to hear of your fate since the old confounder of right and v*Tong has turned you out of place, by his journey to answer his indictment at the bar of the other world. He will find the practice of the court so difi'erent from the prac- tice in which he has for so many years been thoroughly haclaieyed, that his friends, if he had any connections truly of that kind, which I rather doubt, may well tremble for his sake. His chicane, his left-handed wis- dom, wiiich stood so firmly by him, to such good pur- pose, here. Like other accomplices in robbery and plunder, will, now the piratical business is blown, in all probability turn king's evidences, and then the devil's bagpiper will touch him ofl" " Bundle and go 1" If he has left you any legacy, I beg your pardon for all this ; if not, I know you will swear to every word I said about him. I have lately been rambling over by Dumbarton and Inverary, and running a drunken race on the side of Loch Lomond •with a wild Highlandman ; his horse, which had never known the ornaments of iron or leather, zigzagged across before my old spavin'd hunter,' whose name is Jenny Geddes, and down came the Highlandman, horse and all, and do'mi came Jenny and my hardship ; so I have got such a skinful of bruises and wounds, that I shall be at least four weeks before I dare venture on my journey to Edinburgh. Not one new thing under the sun has happened in IMauchline since you left it. I hope this will find you as comfoi'tably situated as formerly, or, if Heaven pleases, more so ; but, at aU events, I trust you will let me know, of course, how matters stand with you, well or iU. 'Tis but poor consolation to tell the world when matters go %\Tong ; but you know very well your con- nection and mine stands on a different footing. I am ever, my dear friend, yours, R. B. No. LXI. TO ROBERT AINSLIE.* Mauchline, 22d July, 1787. My Dear Aixslie — There is one thing for which I set great store by you as a friend, and it is this, that I have not a friend upon earth, besides yourself, to whom I can talk nonsense A\ithout forfeiting some degree of his esteem. Now, to one like me, who never cares for speaking any thing else but nonsense, such a friend as you is an invaluable treasure. I was never a rogue, but have been a fool all my hfe ; and, in spite of all my endeavours, I see now plainly that I shall never be wise. Now it rejoices my heart to have met -nith such a fellow as you, who, though you are not just such a hopeless fool as I, jet I trust you wiU never listen so much to the temptations of the devil as to grow so very wise that you ^^ill in the least disrespect an honest fel- low because he is a fool. In short, I have set you down as the staff of my old age, when the whole list of my friends will, after a decent share of pity, have forgot me. Though in the mom comes sturt and strife. Yet joy may come at noon ; And I hope to live a merry merry life When a' thir days are done. Write me soon, were it but a few hues just to tell me * [Mr Ainslie, who had been Bums's travelling companion through a great part of his Border excursion, was at this time little more than twenty years of age. He subsequently became a writer to the signet in Edinburgh, where he died, April 11, 1833, at the age of seventy-two.] 26 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. how that good sagacious man your father is — that iind dainty body your mother — that strapping chiel your brother Douglas — and my friend Rachel, who is as far before Rachel of old, as she was before her blear-eyed Bister Leah. R. B. No. LXII. TO ROBERT AINSLIE, Esq. Mauchline, July, 1787. My Dear Sir — My life, since I saw you last, has been one continued hurry; that savage hospitality which knocks a man down with strong liquors, is the devil. I have a sore warfare in this world ; the devil, the world, and the flesh, are three formidable foes. The first I generally try to fly from ; the second, alas ! generally flies from me ; but the third is my plague, worse than the ten plagues of Egypt. I have been looking over several farms in this coun- try ; one in particular, in Nithsdale, pleased me so well, that, if my offer to the proprietor is accepted, I shall commence farmer at Whitsunday. If farming do not appear eligible, I shall have recourse to my other shift ;* but this to a friend. I set out for Edinburgh on Monday morning ; how long I stay there is uncertain, but you will know so soon as I can inform you myself. However I determine, poesy must be laid aside for some time ; my mind has been vitiated with idleness, and it will take a good deal of effort to habituate it to the routine of business. I am, my dear Sir, yours smcerely, R. B. No. LXIII. TO MR ROBERT MUIR. Stirling, 26th August, 1787. My Dear Sir — I intended to have written you fi-om Edinburgh, and now ^vrite you from Stirling to make an excuse. Here am I, on my way to Inverness, with a truly original, but very worthy man, a Mr Nicol, one of the masters of the High-school in Edinburgh. —I left Auld Reekie yesterday morning, and have passed, besides by-excursions, Linlithgow, Borrowstou- ness, Falkirk, and here am I undoubtedly. This morn- ing I knelt at the • tomb of Sir John the Graliam, the gallant friend of the immortal Wallace ; and two hours ago I said a fervent prayer for old Caledonia over the hole in a blue whinstone, where Robert de Bruce fixed his royal standard on the banks of Bannockburn ; and just now, from Stirling Castle, I have seen by the set- ting sun the glorious prospect of the windings of Forth through the rich carse of Stirling, and skirting the equally rich carse of Falkirk. The crops are very strong, but so very late that there is no harvest except a ridge or two perhaps in ten miles, all the way I have travelled from Edinburgh. I left Andrew Bruce t and family all well. I will be at least three weeks in making my tour, as I shall return by the coast, and have many people to call for. My best compliments to Charles, our dear kinsman and fellow-saint ; and Messrs W. and H. Parkers. I hope Hughoc J is going on and prospering with God and Miss M'Causlin. If I could think on any thing sprightly, I should let you hear every other post ; but a dull, matter-of-fact business like this scrawl, the less and seldomer one writes the better. Among other matters-of-fact I shall add this, that I am and ever shall be, my dear Sir, your obliged R. B. * [The excise.] t [Of the North Bridge, Edinburgh.] t [The Hughoc of " Poor Mailie."] No. LXIV. TO GAVIN HAMILTON, Esq. Stirling, 28th August, 1787. My Dear Sir — Here am I on my way to Inverness. I have rambled over the rich, fertile carses of Falkirk and StMing, and am delighted with their appearance : richly waving crops of wheat, barley, &c., but no har- vest at all yet, except in one or two places an old-wife's ridge. Yesterday morning I rode from this town up the meandering Devon's banks, to pay my respects to some Ayrshire folks at Harvieston. After breakfast, we made a party to go and see the famous Caudron-linn, a remarkable cascade in the Devon, about five miles above Harvieston ; and after spending one of the most pleasant days I ever had in my life, I returned to Stir- ling in the evening. They are a family, Sir, though I had not had any prior tie — though they had not been the brother and sisters of a certain generous friend of mine — . I would never forget them. I am told you have not seen them these several years, so you can have very Uttle idea of what these young folks are now. Your brother is as tall as you are, but slender rather than otherwise ; and I have the satisfaction to inform you that he is getting the better of those consumptive symptoms which I suppose you know were threatening him. His make, and particularly his manner, resemble you, but he will still have a finer face. (I put in the word still, to please Mrs Hamilton.) Good sense, modesty, and at the same time a just idea of that respect that man owes to man, and has a right in his turn to exact, are striking fea- tures in his character ; and, what with me is the Alpha and Omega, he has a heart that might adorn the breast of a poet ! Grace has a good figure, and the look of health and cheerfulness, but nothing else remarkable in her person. I scarcely ever saw so striking a likeness as is between her and your little Beenie ; the mouth and chin particularly. She is reserved at first ; but as we grew better acquainted, I was delighted with the native frankness of her manner, and the sterling sense of her observation. Of Charlotte I cannot speak in common terms of admiration : she is not only beautiful but lovely. Her form is elegant ; her features not re- gular, but they have the smile of sweetness and the settled complacency of good nature, in the highest degree ; and her complexion, now that she has happily recovered her wonted health, is equal to Miss Burnet's. After the exercise of our riding to the Falls, Charlotte was exactly Dr Donne's mistress : — ■■ '■ Her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought. That one would almost say her body thought. Her eyes are fascinating ; at once expressive of good sense, tenderness, and a noble mind.* I do not give you all this account, my good Sir, to flatter you. I mean it to reproach you. Such relations the first peer in the realm might own with pride ; then why do you not keep up more correspondence with these so amiable young folks ? I had a thousand questions to answer about you. I had to describe the little ones with the minuteness of anatomy. They were highly delighted when I told them that Johnf was so good a boy, and so fine a scholar, and that Willie was going on still very pretty : but I have it in commission to tell her from them that beauty is a poor silly bauble without she be good. Miss Chalmers I had left in Edinburgh, but I had the pleasure of meeting with Mrs Chalmers, only Lady Mackenzie being rather a little alarmingly ill of a sore throat, somewhat marred our enjoyment. I shall not be in Ayrshire for four weeks. My most respectful compliments to Mrs Hamilton, Miss Kennedy, and Doctor Mackenzie. I shall probably write him from some stage or other. I am ever. Sir, yours most gratefully, R. B. * [Miss Charlotte Hamilton was celebrated by Bums in hig song, " The Banks of the Devon." She became the wife of Dr Adair, physician in Harrowgate, and has been for some years dead.] t [Son of Mr Hamilton— the *' wee cnrlie Johnnie" of TJic Dc- dioation,'} GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 27 No. LXV. TO MR WALKER, BLAIR OF ATHOLE.*^ Inverness, 5th September, 1787. My Dear Sir — I have just time to write the forego- ing,+ and to tell you that it was (at least most part of it) the eflFusion of a half-hour I spent at Bruar. I do not mean it was extempore, for I have endeavoured to brush it up as well as Mr Nicol's chat and the jogging of the chaise would allow. It eases my heart a good deal, as rhyme is the coin with which a poet pays his debts of honour or gratitude. What I owe to the noble family of Athole, of the first kind^ I shall ever proudly boast — what I owe of the last, so help me God in my hour of need ! I shall never forget. The "little angel-band !" I declare I prayed for them very sincerely to-day at the Fall of Fyers. I shall never forget the fine family-piece I saw at Blair ; the amiable, the truly noble duchess,J with her smiling little seraph in her lap, at the head of the table — the lovely " olive plants," as the Hebrew bard finely says, round the happy mother — the beautiful Mrs G — ; the lovely, sweet Miss C, &c. I wish I had the powers of Guide to do them justice ! My Lord Duke's kind hospitality — markedly kind indeed. Mr Graham of Finti-y's channs of conversation — SirW. Murray's friendship. In short, the recollection of all that polite, agreeable company raises an honest glow in my bosom. No. LXVL TO MR GILBERT BURNS. Edinburgh, 17th September, 1787. My Dear Brother — I arrived here safe yesterday evening, after a tour of twenty-two days, and travelling near 600 miles, windings included. My farthest stretch was about ten miles beyond Inverness. I went through the heart of the Highlands by Crief, Taymouth, the fa- mous seat of Lord Breadalbane, down the Tay, among cascades and Druidical circles of stones, to Dunkeld, a seat of the Duke of Athole ; thence across Tay, and up one of. his tributary streams to Blair of Athole, another of the duke's seats, where I had the honour of spending nearly two days with his grace and family ; thence many miles through a wild country among cliffs grey with eternal snows and gloomy savage glens, till I crossed Spey and went down the stream through Strathspey, so famous in Scottish music ;§ Badenoch, &c. till I reached Grant Castle, where I spent half a day with Sir James Grant and family ; and then crossed the country for Fort George, but called by the way at Cawdor, the an- cient seat of Macbeth ; there I saw the identical bed in which tradition says king Duncan was murdered; lastly, from Fort George to Inverness. I returned by the coast, through Nairn, Forres, and so on, to Aberdeen, thence to Stonehive,|| where James Burness, from Montrose, met me by appointment. I spent two days among our relations, and found our aunts, Jean and Isabel, still alive, and hale old women. John Caird, though born the same year with our father, walks as vigorously as I can — they have had several letters from his son in New York. V/illiam Brand is likewise a stout old fellow ; but further particulars I delay till I see you, which will be in two or three weeks. * [Mr Walker was tutor to the children of the Duke of Athole, at whose house of Blair, Bums had formed his acquaintance a few days before the penning of this letter. He afterwards became Professor of Humanity (classical literature) in the University of Glasgow, and died in 1831.] t CThe Address of Bruar Water to the Duke of Athole.] Hf. CJane, daughter of Charles, ninth Lord Cathcart. The " little angel hand" consisted of Lady Charlotte Murray, aged twelve, afterwards the wife of Sir John Menzies of Castle-Menzies ; Lady Amelia, aged seven, now Viscountess Strathallan ; and Lady Elizabeth, an infant of five months, now Lady Macgregor Mur- ray of Lanrick.] § [A quick kind of dancing tunes are called Strathspeys, from this vale, the place of their nativity.] U [Stonehaven.] The rest of my stages are not worth rehearsing ; warm as I was from Ossian's country, where I had seen his very grave, what cared I for fishing-towns or fertile carses ? I slept at the famous Brodie of Brodle's one night, and dined at Gordon Castle next day, with the duke, duchess, and family. I am thinliing to cause my old mare to meet me, by means of John Ronald, at Glasgow ; but you shall hear farther from me before I leave Edinbui'gh. My duty and many compliments from the north to my mother ; and my brotherly compli- ments to the rest. I have been trying for a bei'th for William, but am not likely to be successful. Farewell. R. B. ^ No. LXVII. TO MISS MARGARET CHALMERS.* Sept. 26, 1787. I SEND Charlotte the first number of the songs ; I would not wait for the second number ; I hate delays in little marks of fx^iendship, as I hate dissimulation in the language of the heart. I am determined to pay Charlotte a poetic compliment, if I could hit on some glorious old Scotch air, in number second .+ You will see a small attempt on a shred of paper in the book ; but though Dr 'Blacklock commended it very highly, I am not just satisfied with it myself. I intend to make it a description of some kind : the whining cant of love, except in real passion, and by a masterly hand, is to me as insufferable as the preaching cant of old Father Smeaton, whig-ncnnister at Kilmaurs. Darts, flames, Cupids, loves, graces, and all that farrago, are just a Mauchline a senseless rabble. I got an excellent poetic epistle yesternight from the old venerable author of " TuUochgorum,"^ " John of Badenyon," &c.J I suppose you know he is a clergy- man. It is by far the finest poetic compliment I ever got. I will send you a copy of it. I go on Thursday or Friday to Dumfries, to wait on Mr Miller about his farms. Do tell that to Lady Mac- kenzie, that she may give me credit for a little wisdom. " I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence." What a blessed fire-side! How happy should I be to pass a winter evening under their venerable roof; and smoke a pipe of tobacco, or drink water-gruel with them ! With solemn, lengthened, laughter-quashing gravity of phiz ! What sage remarks on the good-for-nothing sons and daughters of indiscretion and folly ! And what frugal lessons, as we straitened the fire-side circle, on the uses of the poker and tongs ! Miss N. is very well, and begs to be remembered in the old way to you. I used all my eloquence, all the persuasive flourishes of the hand, and heart-melting modulation of periods in my power, to urge her out to Harvieston, but all in vain. My rhetoric seems quite to have lost its effect on the lovely half of mankind. I have seen the day — but this is a " tale of other years." In my conscience I beHeve that my heart has been so oft on fire that it is absolutely vitrified. I look on the sex mth something like the admiration with which I regard the starry sky in a frosty December night. I admire the beauty of the Creator's workmanship ; I am charmed with the wild but graceful eccentricity of their motions, and — wish them good night. I mean this with respect to a certain passion dont fai eu Vhonneur d'etre un miserable esclave: as for friendship, you and Char- lotte have given me pleasure, permanent pleasure, " which the world cannot give, nor take away," I hope, and which will outlast the heavens and the earth. R. B, * [The youngest daughter of the deceased James Chalmers, Esq. of Fingland. She married, December 9, 1788, Lewis Hay, Esq., of the banking firm of Sir William Forbes, James Hunter, and Company, Edinburgh. Mrs Hay now resides at Pau, in the south of France.] t [Of the Scots Musical Museum.] ^ [The Rev. John Skinner, episcopal minister at Longside, near Peterhead.] 28 BURNSS PROSE WORKS. No. LXVIII. TO THE SAME. Without date. 1 HAVE been at Dumfries, and at one visit more shall be decided about a farm in that county. I am rather hopeless in it ; but as my brother is an excellent farmer, and is, besides, an exceedingly prudent sober man (qua- lities which are only a younger brother's fortune in our family), I am determined, if my Dumfries business faU me, to remove into partnership with him, and at our leisure take another farm in the neighbourhood. I assure you I look for high compliments from you and Charlotte on this very sage instance of my unfa- thomable, incomprehensible wisdom. Talking of Char- lotte, I must tell her that I have, to the best of my power, paid her a poetic compliment now completed.* The air is admirable ; true old Highland. It was the tune of a Gaelic song which an Inverness lady sang me when I was there ; I was so charmed with it, that I begged her to write me a set of it from her singing, for it had never been set before. I am fixed that it shall go in Johnson's next number ; so Charlotte and you need not spend your precious time in contradicting me. I won't say the poetiy is first-rate, though I am con- vinced it is very well ; and, what is not always the case with compliments to ladies, it is not only sincere, but just. R. B. No. LXIX. TO THE REV. JOHN SKINNER. Edinburgh, October 25, 1787. Reverend and Venerable Sir — Accept, in plain dull prose, my most sincere thanks for the best poetical com- pliment I ever received. I assure you. Sir, as a poet, you have conjured up an airy demon of vanity in my fancy, which the best abilities in your other capacity would be ill able to lay. I regret, and while I live I shall regret, that when I was in the north, I had not the pleasure of paying a younger brother's dutiful re- spect to the author of the best Scotch song ever Scot- land saw — " Tullochgorum's my delight !" The woi'ld may think slightingly of the craft of song-making, if they please ; but, as Job says, " Oh that mine adversary had written a book !" — let them try. There is a cer- tain something in the old Scotch songs, a wild happi- ness of thought and expression, which peculiarly marks them, not only from English songs, but also from the modern efforts of song-wrights, in our native manner and language. The only remains of this enchantment, these spells of the imagination, rest with you. Our true brother, Ross of Lochlee, was likewise " owre can- nie" — " a wild warlock" — but now he sings among the " sons of the morning." I have often wished, and will certainly endeavour, to form a kind of common acquaintance among all the genuine sons of Caledonian song. The world, busy in low prosaic pursuits, may overlook most of us ; but " reverence thyself." The world is not our peers, so we challenge the jury. We can lash that world, and find ourselves a very great source of amusement and happiness independent of that world. There is a work going on in Edinburgh just now, which claims your best assistance. An engraver in this town has set about collecting and publishing all the Scotch songs, with the music, that can be found. Songs in the English language, if by Scotchmen, are admitted, but the music must all be Scotch. Drs Beattie and Blacklock are lending a hand, and the first musician in town presides over that department. I have been ab- solutely crazed about it, collecting old stanzas, and every information remaining respecting their origin, authors, &;c. &c. This last is but a very fragment business ; but at the end of his second number — the first is already published — a small account will be given of the authors, particularly to preserve those of latter times. Your * [The song of •♦ The Banks of the Devon."] three songs, « Tuilochgorum," "John of Badenyon,*' and « Ewie wi' the Crookit Horn," go in this second number. I was determined, before I got your letter, to write you, begging that you would let me know where the editions of these pieces may be found, as you would wish them to continue in future times ; and if you would be so kind to this undertakmg as send any songs, of your own or others, that you would think proper to publish, your name will be inserted among the other authors— " Nill ye, will ye." One-half of Scotland al- ready give your songs to other authors. Paper is done. I beg to hear from you ; the sooner the better, as I leave Edinburgh in a fortnight or three weeks. I am, with the warmest sincerity, Sii-, your obliged humble ser- vant, li, B. No. LXX. TO JAMES HOY, Esq., GORDON CASTLE.* Edinburgh, SOth October, 1787. Sir — I will defend my conduct in giving you this trouble, on the best of Christian principles — " Whatso- ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even. so unto them." I shall certainly, among my legacies, leave my latest curse to that unlucky predicament which hurried — tore me away from Castle Gordon. May that obstinate son of Latin prose [Nicol] be curst to Scotch mile periods, and damned to seven league paragraphs ; while Declension and Conjugation, Gender, Number, and Tense, under the ragged banners of Dissonance and Disarrangement, eternally rank against him in hostile array. Allow me. Sir, to strengthen the small claim I have to your acquaintance, by the following request. An engraver, James Johnson, in Edinburgh, has, not from mercenary views, but from an honest Scotch enthu- siasm, set about collecting all our native songs, and set- ting them to music, particularly those that have never been set before. Clarke, the we'll- known musician, pre- sides over the musical arrangement, and Drs Beattie and Blacklock, Mr Tytler of Woodliouselee, and your humble servant to the utmost of his small power, assist in collecting the old poetry, or sometimes, for a fine air, make a stanza when it has no words. The brats, too tedious to mention, claim a parental pang from my hardship. I suppose it will appear in Johnson's second number — the first was published before my acquaint- ance with him. My request is — " Cauld Kail in Aber- deen" is one intended for this number, and I beg a copy of his Grace of Gordon's words to it, which you were so kind as to repeat to me.'f' You may be sure we wont prefix the author's name, except you like, though I look on it as no small merit to this work that the names of so many of the authors of our old Scotch songs, names almost forgotten, will be inserted. I do not well know where to write to you — I rather write at you ; but if you will be so obliging, immediately on receipt of this, as to write me a few lines, I shall per- haps pay you in kind, though not in quality. Johnson's terms are : — each number a handsome pocket volume, to consist at least of a hundred Scotch songs, with basses for the harpsichord, &c. The price to subscribers 5*. ; to non-subscribers 6s. He will have three numbers, I conjecture. My direction for two or three weeks will be at Mr William Cruikshank's, St James's Square, New Town, Edinburgh. I am, Sir, yours to command, R. B. * [Hoy was librarian to the duke for forty-six years antecedent to his death in 1828. He was a simple, pure-hearted man, of the Dominie Sampson genus, and had attracted the regard of Burns during the short stay of the poet at Gordon Castle.] t [Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, who entertained Bums at Gordon Castle, possessed considerable abilities for song-writing, though few of his verses have been made public The song alluded to by Bums seems to have been obtained from Mr Hoy, as it ap- pears in .Johnson's second volume.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 29 No. LXXI. TO JAMES HOY, Esq., GORDON CASTLE, Edinburgh, 6(h November, 1787. De.vr Sir — I would have A\Tote you immediately on receipt of your kind letter, but a mixed impulse of gra- titude and' esteem whispered to me that I ought to send you something by way of return. When a poet owes any thing, particularly when he is indebted for good offices, the paj-ment that usually recurs to him— the only com indeed in which he is probably conversant — is rhyme. Johnson sends the boolcs by the fly, as directed, and begs me to enclose his most grateful thanks ; mv return I intended should have been one or two poetic baga- telles which the world have not seen, or, perhaps, for ob\'ious reasons, cannot see. These I shall send you before I leave Edmburgh. They may make you laugh a little, which, on the whole, is no bad way of spending one's precious hours and stiU more precious breath ; at any rate, thev will be, though a small, yet a very sin- cere, mark of my respectful esteem for a gentleman whose farther acquaintance I should look upon as a pecuhar obligation. The duke's song, independent totally of his dukeship, charms me. There is I know not what of ^\ild happi- ness of thought and expression pecuUarly beautiful in the old Scottish song style, of which his Grace, old ve- nerable Skinner, the atithor of *•' Tullochgorum," &c., and the late Ross, at Lochlee, of true Scottish poetic memory, are the only modern instances that I recollect, since Ramsay vdih his contemporaries, and poor Bob Fergusson, went to the world of deathless existence and truly immortal song. The mob of mankind, that many-headed beast, would laugh at so serious a speech about an old song ; but as Job says, " Oh that mine ad- versary had NVTitten a book !" Those who think that composing a Scotch song is a trifling business, let them try. I wish my Lord Duke would pay a proper attention to the Christian admonition — " Hide not your candle under a bushel," but " Let your light sliine before men." I could name half a dozen dukes that I guess are a devilish deal worse employed ; nay, I question if there are half a dozen better : perhaps there are not half that scanty number whom Heaven has favoui'ed with the tuneful, happy, and, I will say, glorious gift. I am, dear Sir, your obliged humble servant, R. B. No. LXXII. TO ROBERT AINSLIE, Esq., EDINBURGH. Edinburgh, Sunday morning, Nov. 23, 1787. I BEG, my dear Sir, you would not make any appoint- ment to take us to Mr Ainslie's to-night. On looking over my engagements, constitution, present state of my health, 'some little vexatious soul concerns, &c., I find I can't sup abroad to-night. I shall be in to-day till one o'clock, if you have a leisure hour. You will think it romantic when I tell you, that I find the idea of vour friendship almost necessary to my existence. You assume a proper length of face in my bitter hours of blne-devihsm, and you laugh fully up to my highest wishes at my good things. I don't know, upon the whole, if you are one of the first fellows in God's world, but you are so to me. I teU you this just now, in the conviction that some inequalities in my temper and maimer may perhaps sometimes make you suspect that I am not so warmly as I ought to be vour friend, R. B. No. LXXIII. TO THE EARL OF GLENCAIRN. Edinburgh, 1787. My Lord — I know your lordship will disapprove of my ideas in a request I am going to make to you ; but I have weighed, long and seriously weighed, my situation, my liopes, and tui'n of mind, and am fully fixed to my scheme, if I can possibly effectuate it. I wish to get ihito tlie Excise : I am told that your lordship's interest \d\\ easily procure me the grant from the commissioners ; and your lordship's patronage and goodness, which have already rescued me from obscurity, wretchedness, and exile, embolden me to ask that interest. You have likewise put it in my power to save the little tie of home that sheltered an aged mother, two brothers, and three sis- ters, from destruction. There, ray lord, you have bound me over to the highest gratitude. Sly brother's farm is but a wretched lease, but I think he will probably weather out the remaining seven years of it ; and after the assistance which I have given, and will give him, to keep the family together, I think, by my guess, I shall have rather better than tAvo hundred pounds, and instead of seeking, what is almost impossible at present to find, a farm that I can certainly five by, with so small a stock, I shall lodge this sum in a bank- ing-house, a sacred deposit, excepting only the calls of uncommon distress or necessitous old age. These, my lord, are my views : I have resolved from the matui'est deliberation ; and now I am fixed, I shall leave no stone imturned to cairy my resolve into exe- cution. Your lordship's patronage is the strength of my hopes ; nor have I yet applied to any body else. In- deed, my heart sinks within me at the idea of apphing to any other of the great who have honoured me with their 'countenance. I am ill quahfied to dog the heels of greatness with the impertinence of sohcitation, and tremble nearly as much at the thought of the cold pro- mise as the cold denial ; but to your lordship I have not only the honour, the comfort, but the pleasure of being your lordship's much obhged and deeply indebted humble servant, R. B, No. LXXIV. TO CHARLES HAY, Esq., ADVOCATE.* (e>TLOSIXG verses ox THE DEATH OF THE LORD PRESIDENT.) Sir — The enclosed poem was wTitten in consequence of your suggestion, last time I had the pleasure of see- ing you. It cost me an hour or twD of next morning's sleep, but did not please me ; so it lay by, an ill-digested efi'ort, till the other day that I gave it a critic brush. These kind of subjects are much hackneyed ; and, be- sides, the wailings of the rh\-ming tribe over the ashes of the great are cursedly suspicious, and out of all cha- racter for sincerity. These ideas damped my muse's fire ; however, I have done the best I could, and, at all events, it gives me an opportunity of declaring that I have the honour to be, Sii-, vour obhged humble servant, R, B. No. LXXV. TO MISS M— -N. Saturday noon, No. 2, St James's Square, New Toii-n, Edinburgh. Here have I sat, my dear Madam, in the stony alti- tude of perplexed study for fifteen vexatious minutes, my head askew, bending over the intended card ; my fixed eye insensible to the very light of day poured around'; my pendulous goose-feather, loaded with ink, hanging over the future letter, all for the important purpose of writing a complimentary card to accompany your trinket. Comphment is such a miserable Greenland expres- sion, lies at such a chiUy polar distance from the torrid zone of my constitution, that I cannot, for the very soul of me, use it to any person for whom I have the twen- tieth part of the esteem every one must have for you who knows you. As I leave towTi in three or four days, I can give my- seK the pleasure of calhng on you only for a minute. * [Ultimately a judge, under the designation of Lord Newton. He died, Octolier 19, 1811, leaving a strong reputation for his bacchanalianism, of which many whimsical anecdotes are told.] 30 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. Tuesday evening, some time about seven or after, I shall wait on you for your farewell commands. The hinge of your box I put into the hands of the proper connoisseur. The broken glass, likewise, went under review ; but deliberative wisdom thought it would too much endanger the whole fabric. I am, dear Ma- dam, with all sincerity of enthusiasm, your very obe- dient servant, H, B. No. LXXVI. TO MISS CHALMERS. Edinburgh, Nov. 21, 1787. I HAVE one vexatious fault to the kindly welcome, well-filled sheet which I owe to your and Charlotte's* goodness — it contains too much sense, sentiment, and good-spelUug. It is impossible that even you two, whom I declare to my God I will give credit for any degree of excellence the sex are capable of attaining, it is im- possible you can go on to coiTespond at that rate ; so, like those who, Shenstone says, retire because they have made a good speech, I shall, after a few letters, hear no more of you. I insist that you shall write whatever comes first : what you see, what you read, what you hear, what you admire, what you dislike, trifles, baga- telles, nonsense ; or to fill up a corner, e'en put down a laugh at full length. Now, none of your polite hints about flattery ; I leave that to your lovers, if you have or shall have any ; though, thank Heaven, I have found at last two girls who can be luxuriantly happy in their own minds and with one another, without that com- monly necessary appendage to female bliss — a lovee. Charlotte and you are just two favourite resting- places for my soul in her wandei'ings through the weary, thorny wilderness of this world. God knows, I am ill- fitted for the struggle : I glory in being a poet, and I want to be thought a wise man — I would fondly be ge- nerous, and I wish to be rich. After all, I am afraid I am a lost subject. "Some folk hae a hantle o' fauts, and I'm but a ne'er-do-weel." Afternoon. — To ;close the melancholy reflections at the end of last sheet, I shall just add a piece of devotion, commonly known in Carrick by the title of the " Wab- ster's grace :" — Some say we're thieves, and e'en sae are we, Some say we lie, and e'en sae do we ! Oude forgie us, and I hope sae will he ! •-— — Up and to your looms, lads ! 11. B. No. LXXVII. TO THE SAME. Edinhu7^h, Dec. 12, 1787. I AM here under the care of a surgeon, with a bruised limb extended on a cushion ; and the tints of my mind vying with the livid horror preceding a midnight thun- der-storm. A drunken coachman was the cause of the first, and incomparably the lightest evil ; misfortune, bodily constitution, hell, and myself, have formed a *^ quadruple alHance" to guarantee the other. I got my fall on Saturday, and am getting slowly better. I have taken tooth and nail to the Bible, and am'got through the five books of Moses, and half way in Jo- shua. It is really a glorious book. I sent for my book- binder to-day, and ordered him to get me an octavo Bible in sheets, the best paper and print in town, and bind it with all the elegance of his craft. I would give my best song to my worst enemy — I mean the merit of making it — to have you and Char- lotte by me. You are angelic creatures, and would pour oil and wine into my wounded spirit. I enclose you a proof copy of the " Banks of the De- von," which present with my best wishes to Charlotte. The " Ochil-hills"+ you shall probably have next week for yourself. None of your fine speeches I R. B. * [Miss Hamilton.] t [The song in honour of Miss Chalmers, beginning «' A\Tiere "braving angry winter's storms."] No. LXXVIII. TO THE SAME. Edinburgh, 19th Dec. 1787. I BEGIN this letter in answer to yours of the 17th cur- rent, which is not yefc cold since I read it. The atmo- sphere of my soul is vastly clearer than when I wrote you last. For the first time, yesterday I crossed the room on crutches. It would do your heart good to see my hardship, not on my poetic, but on my oaken stilts ; throwing my best leg with an air ! and with as much hilarity in my gait and countenance, as a May frog leap- ing across the newly harrowed ridge, enjoying the fra- grance of the refreshed earth, after the long-expected shower ! I can't say I am altogether at my ease when I see any where in my path that meagre, squalid, famine- faced spectre, poverty ; attended as he always is, by iron fisted oppression, and leering contempt; but I have sturdily withstood his bufifetings many a hard-laboured day already, and still my motto is — I dare ! My worst enemy is moi meme. I lie so miserably open to the in- roads and incursions of a mischievous, Hght-armed, well- mounted banditti, under the banners of imagination, whim, caprice, and passion ; and the heavy-armed vete- ran regulars of wisdom, prudence, and forethought move so very, very slow, that I am almost in a state of per- petual warfare, and, alas ! frequent defeat. There are just two creatures I would envy ; a horse in his wild state traversing the forests of Asia, or an oyster on some of the desert shores of Europe. The one has not a wish without enjoyment, the other has neither wish nor fear, R. B, LXXIX. TO THE SAME. Edinburgh, Dec. 1787. My Dear Madam — I just now have read yours. The poetic compliments I pay cannot be misunderstood. They are neither of them so particular as to point you out to the world at large ; and the circle of your ac- quaintances will allow ail I have said. Besides, I have compHmented you chiefly, almost solely, on your mental charms. Shall I be plain with you ? I will ; so look to it. Personal attractions. Madam, you have much above par ; wit, understandiog, and worth, you possess in the first class. This is a cursed flat way of telUng you these truths, but let me hear no more of your sheepish timidity. I know the Avorld a little. I know what they will say of my poems — ^by second sight, I suppose — ^for I am seldom out in my conjectures ; and you may be- lieve me, my dear Madam, I would not run any risk of hurting you by any ill-judged compliment. I wish to show to the world the odds between a poet's friends and those of simple prosemen. More for your infor- mation, both the pieces go in. One of them, "Where braving angry winter's storms,'* is already set — the tune is Neil Gow's Lamentation for Abercairny ; the other is to be set to an old Highland air in Daniel Dow's collec- tion of ancient Scots music ; the name is ^'Ha a Chail- lich air mo DheithJ^ My treacherous memory has forgot every circumstance about Les Incas; only, I think you mentioned them as being in Creech's possession. I shall ask him about it. I am afraid the §ong of "Somebody" will come too late — as I shall for certain leave town in a week for Ayrshire, and from that to Dumfries, but there my hopes are slender. I leave my direction in town ; so any thing, wherever I am, will reach me. I saw yours to ; it is not too severe, nor did he take it amiss. On the contrary, like a whipt spaniel, he talks of being with you in the Christmas days. Mr has given him the invitation, and he is deter- mined to accept of it. Oh selfishness ! he owns, in his sober moments, that from his own volatility of inclina- tion, the circumstances in which he is.«ituated, and his knowledge of his father's disposition, the whole affair is chimerical — yet he will gratify an idle penchant at the enormous, cruel expense, of perhaps ruining the peace of the very woman for whom he professes the generous GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 31 passion of love ! He is a gentleman in his mind and manners — tant pis! He is a volatile school-boy — the heir of a man's fortune who well knows the value of two times two ! Perdition seize them and their fortunes, before they should make the amiable, the lovely , the derided object of their purse-proud contempt ! I am doubly happy to hear of Mrs 's recovery, because I really thought all was over with her. There are days of pleasure yet awaiting her : — As I came in by Glenap, I met with an aged woman ; She bade me cheer up my heart. For the best o' my days was comin'.* This day will decide my affairs with Creech. Things are, hke myself, not what they ought to be ; yet better than what they appear to be. Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself— That hideous sight— a naked human heart. Farewell ! remember me to Charlotte. E. B. No. LXXX. TO SIR JOHN WHITEFOORD. Edinburgh, December, 1787. Sib — Mr Mackenzie, in Mauchline, my very warm and worthy friend,+ has informed me how much you are pleased to interest yourself in my fate as a man, and (what to me is incomparably dearer) my fame as a poet. I have. Sir, in one or two instances, been patronised by those of your character in life, when I was introduced to their notice by ***** friends to them, and ho- noured acquaintances to me ; but you are the first gentle- man in the country .whose benevolence and goodness of heart has interested himself for me, unsolicited and un- known. I am not master enough of the etiquette of these matters to know, nor did I stay to inquire, whether formal duty bade, or cold propriety disallowed, my thanking you in this maimer, as I am convinced, from the light in which you kindly view me, that you will do me the justice to believe this letter is not the manoeuvre of the needy, sharping author, fastening on those in up- Eer Ufe, who honour him with a little notice of him or is works. Indeed, the situation of poets is generally such, to a proverb, as may, in some measure, palliate that prostitution of heart and talents they have at times been guilty of. I do not think prodigahty is, by any means, a necessary concomitant of a poetic turn, but I beheve a careless, indolent attention to economy is al- most inseparable from it ; then there must be in the heart of every bard of Nature's making a certain mo- dest sensibility, mixed with a Idnd of pride, that mil ever keep him out of the way of those windfalls of for- tune which frequently light on hardy impudence and foot-licking servihty. It is not easy to imagine a more helpless state than his whose poetic fancy unfits him for the world, and whose character as a scholar gives him some pretensions to the politesse of life — ^yet is as poor as I am. For my part, I thank Heaven my star has been kinder ; learning never elevated my ideas above the peasant's shed, and I have an independent fortune at the plough- tail. I was surprised to hear that any one who pretended in the least to the manners of the gentleman, should be so foolish, or worse, as to stoop to traduce the morals of such a one as I am, and so unhumanly cruel, too, as to meddle with that late most unfortunate, unhappy part of my story. With a tear of gratitude, I thank you, Sir, for the warmth with which you interposed in * [This is an old popularrhyme— a great favoiurite, Blr Lock- hart tells us, with the poet. Glenap is in the south of Ayrshire.] t [This excellent man afterwards practised for many years as a surgeon in Irvine, where he attained the highest honours of the magistracy. In 1827, he retired to Edinburgh, where he died, January 11, 1837, at an advanced age. It will be recollected that Burns was introduced by Dr Mackenzie to the notice of IMr Dugald Stewart. See the accompanying reprint of Currie's Me- moir, p. 32.] behalf of my conduct. I am, I acknowledge, too fre- quently the sport of whim, caprice, and passion ; but reverence to God, and integrity to my fellow-creatures, I hope I shall ever preserve. I have no return. Sir, to make you for your goodness but one — a retm*n which, I am persuaded, will not be unacceptable — the honest, warm wishes of a grateful heart for your happiness, and every one of that lovely flock, who stand to you in a fihal relation. If ever calumny aim the poisoned shaft at them, may friendship be by to ward the blow ! R. B. No. LXXXI. TO MISS WILLIAMS,* ON READING THE POEM OF THE SLAVE TRADE. Edinburgh^ Dec. 1787. I liNOW very Httle of scientific criticism, so all I can pretend to in that inti-icate art is merely to note, as I read along, what passages strike me as being uncom- monly beautiful, and where the expression seems to_be perplexed or faulty. The poem opens finely. There are none of those idle prefatory lines which one may skip over before one comes to the subject. Verses 9th and 10th in particu- lar. Where ocean's unseen bound Leaves a drear world of waters round, are truly beautiful. The simile of the hurricane is like- wise fine ; and, indeed, beautiful as the poem is, almost all the similes rise decidedly above it. From verse 31st to verse 50th is a pretty eulogy on Britain. Verse 36th, *' That foul drama deep with wrong," is nobly expres- sive. Verse 46th, I am afraid, is rather unworthy of the rest ; " to dare to feel," is an idea that I do not alto- gether like. The contrast of valour and mercy, from the 46th verse to the 50th, is admirable. Either my apprehension is dull, or there is something a little confused in the apostrophe to Mr Pitt. Verse 55th is the antecedent to verses 57th and 58th, but in verse 58 th the connection seems ungrammatical :— - Powers * * * * * * * With no gradations mark'd their flight. But rose at once to glory's height. Ris'n should be the word instead of rose. Try it in prose. Powers — their flight marked by no gradations, but [the same powers] risen at once to the height of glory. Likewise, verse 53d, " For this," is evidently meant to lead on the sense of the vex'ses 594il, 60th, 61st, and 62d ; but let us try how the thread of connection runs — For this * * * * * * * The deeds of mercy, that embrace A distant sphere, an alien race. Shall virtue's lips record, and claim The fairest honours of thy name. I beg pardon if I misapprehend the matter, but this appears to me the only imperfect passage in the poem. The compai'ison of the sun-beam is fine. The compliment to the Duke of Richmond is, I hope, as just as it is certainly elegant. The thought, Virtue * * * * -St * * Sends from her unsullied source. The gems of thought their purest force, is exceeding beautiful. The idea, from verse 81st to the 85th, that the " blest decree" is lilfe the beams of morning ushering in the glorious day of liberty, ought * [Miss Williams had in the previous June addressed a letter of compliment to Burns, which may be found in the Edinburgh MagazineioT September 1817, where the above letter also appeared for the first time, along with the following note by the editor, Mr Thomas Priugle :— " The critique, though not without some traits of his usual sound judgment and discrimination, appears on the whole to be much in the strain of those gallant and flatter- ing responses which men of genius usually find it incumbent to issue, when consulted upon the productions of their female ad- mirers."] 32 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. not to pass unnoticed or nnapplauded. From verse 85th to verse 108th, is an animated contrast between the un- feehng selfishness of the oppressor on the one hand, and tlie misery of the captive on the other. Verse 88th might perhaps be amended thus : — *' Nor ever quit her narrow maze." We are said to pass a bound, but we quit a maze. Verse 100th is exquisitely beautiful: — They, whom wasted blessings tire. Verse 1 10th is I doubt a clashing of metaphors ; " to load a span" is, I am afraid, an unwarrantable expression. In verse 114th, " Cast the universe in shade," is a fine idea. From the 115th verse to the 142d is a striking description of the wrongs of the poor African. Verse r20th, " The load of unremitted pain," is a remarkable, strong expression. The address to the advocates for abolishing the slave-trade, from verse 143d to verse 208th, is animated with the true Ufe of genius. The picture of oppression — While she links her impious chain,. And calculates the price of pain ; Weighs agony in sordid scales, And marks if death or life prevails— is nobly executed. What a tender idea is in verse 180th ! Indeed that whole description of home may vie with Thomson's de- scription of home, somewhere in the beginning of his Autumn. I do not remember to have seen a stronger expression of misery than is contained in these verses : — Condemned, severe extreme, to live When all is fled that life can give. The comparison of our distant joys to distant objects is equally original and striking. The character and manners of the dealer in the infer- nal traffic is a well done though a horrid picture. I am not sxu'e how far introducing the sador was right ; for though the sailor's common characteristic is generosity, yet, in this case, he is certainly not only an unconcerned witness, but, in some degree, an efficient agent in the business. Verse 224th is a nervous . . . expressive — " The heart convulsive anguish breaks." The descrip- tion of the captive wretch when he arrives in the West Indies, is carried on with equal spirit. The thought that the oppressor's sorrow on seeing the slave pine, is like the butcher's regret when his destined lamb dies a natural death, is exceedingly fine. I am got so much into the cant of criticism, that I begin to be afraid lest I have nothing except the cant of it ; and instead of elucidating my author, am only benighting myself. For this reason, I will not pretend to go through the whole poem. Some few remaining beautiful lines, however, I cannot pass over. Verse 280th is the strongest description of selfishness I ever saw. The comparison in verses 285th and 286th is new and fine ; and the line, " Your arms to penury you lend," is excellent. In verse 317th, "like" should certainly be "as" or " so j" for instance — His sway the hardened bosom leads To cruelty's remorseless deeds : As (or, so) the blue lightning when it springs With fury on its livid wings, Darts on the goal with rapid force. Nor heeds that ruin marks its course. If you insert the word " like" where I have placed " as," you must alter "darts" to "darting," and "heeds" to " heeding," in order to make it grammar. A tem- pest is a favourite subject with the poets, but I do not remember any thing, even in Thomson's Winter, supe- rior to your verses from the 347th to the 351st. In- deed, the last simile, beginning with " Fancy may dress," &c., and ending with the 350th verse, is, in my opinion, the most beautiful passage in the poem ; it would do honour to the greatest names that ever graced our pro- fession. I will not beg your pardon, Madam, for these stric- tures, as my conscience tells me, that for once in my life I have acted up to the duties of a Christian, in do- ing as I would be done by. R. B. No. LXXXIL TO MR RICHARD BROWN, IRVINE.* Edinburgh, SOth Dec. 1787. My dear Sir — I have met with few things in life which have given me more pleasure than Fortune's kindness to you since those days in which we met in the vale of misery ; as I can honestly say, that I never knew a man who more truly deserved it, or to whom my heart more truly wished it. I have' been much indebted since that time to your story and sentiments for steeling my mind .against evils, of which I have had a pretty decent share. My will-o'-wisp fate you know : do you recollect a Sun- day we spent together in Eglinton woods ? You told me, on my repeating some verses to you, that you Avondered I could resist the temptation of sending verses of such merit to a magazine. It was from this remark I de- rived that idea of my own pieces which encouraged me to endeavour at the character of a poet. I am happy to hear that you will be two or three months at home. As soon as a bruised limb will permit me, I shall return to Ayrshh'e, and we shall meet; "and faith, I hope we'll not sit dumb, nor yet cast out !" I have much to tell you " of men, their manners, and their ways," perhaps a httle of the other sex. Apropos, I beg to be remembered to Mrs Brown. There, I doubt not, my dear friend, but you have found substantial happiness. I expect to find you something of an altered but not a different man ; the wild, bold, generous young fellow composed into the steady aff"ectionate husband, and the fond careful parent. For me, I am just the same will-o'-wisp being I used to be. About the first and fourth quarters of the moon, I generally set in for the trade wind of wisdom ; but about the full and change, I am the luckless victim of mad tornadoes, which blow me into chaos. Almighty love still reigns and revels in my bosom ; and I am at this moment ready to hang my- self for a young Edinburgh widow,f who has wit and Avisdom more murderously fatal than the assassinating stiletto of the Sicilian bandit, or the poisoned arrow of the savage African. My highland dirk, that used to hang beside my crutches, I have gravely removed into a neighbouring closet, the key of which I cannot com- mand in case of spring-tide paroxysms. You may guess of her wit by the following verses, which she sent me the other day : — TaUc not of love, it gives me pain, For love has been my foe ; He bound rae with an iron chain. And plimged me deep in woe ! But friendship's pure and lasting joys, My heart was formed to prove- There, welcome, win and wear the prize. But never talk of love ! Youi' friendship much can make me blest— Oh, why that bless destroy ? Why urge the odious one request, You know I must deny ? My best compliments to our friend Allan. Adieu \ R. B. No. LXXXIII. TO MR GAVIN HAMILTON. Edinburgh, Dec. 1787. My DEAR Sir — It is indeed with the highest pleasure that I congratulate you on the return of days of ease and nights of pleasure, after the horrid hours of misery in which I saw you suffering existence when last in Ayrshire. I seldom pray for anybody — " I'm baith dead- sweer and wretched ill o't ;" but most fervently do I beseech the Power that directs the world, that you may * [This was the individual whom Burns, in his autobiographi- cal letter to Dr Moore, describes as his companion at Irvine — whose mind was fraught with every manly virtue, and who, nevertheless, was the means of making him regard illicit love with levity. See the accompanying reprint of Currie's JMemoir, p. 14.] t [Clarinda.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 33 live long and be happy, but live no longer than you are happy. It is needless for me to advise you to have a reverent care of your health. I know you will make it a point never at one time to drink moi'e than a pint of wine (I mean an English pint), and that you will never be witness to more than one bowl of punch at a time, and that cold drams you will never more taste ; and, above all things, I am convinced, that after drinking perhaps boiling punch you will never mount your horse and gallop home in a chill late hour. Above all things, as I understand you are in the habits of intimacy with that Boanerges of gospel powers. Father Auld, be ear- nest with him that he will wrestle in prayer for you, that you may see the vanity of vanities in trusting to, or even practising, the casual moral works of charity, hvmaauity, generosity, and forgiveness of things, which you practised so flagrantly, that it was evident you delighted in them, neglecting, or perhaps profanely despising, the whole- some doctrine of faith ^\-ithout works, the only author of salvation. A h^-mu of thanksgiving would, in my opinion, be highly "^becoming from you at present, and in my zeal for your well-being, I earnestly press on you to be diligent in chaimting over the two enclosed pieces of sacred poesy. My best compUments to Mrs Hamil- ton and Miss Kennedy. Yours, &c. R. B. No. LXXXIV. TO MRS DUNLOP. Edinburgh, January 21, 1788. After six weeks' confinement, I am beginning to walk across the room. They have been six horrible weeks ; anguish and low spirits made me unfit to read, write, or think. I have a liundred times wished that one could resign life as an officer resigns a commission : for I would not take in any poor, ignorant wretch, by selling out. Lately I was a sixpenny private, and, God knows, a miserable soldier enough ; now I march to the campaign, a starv- ing cadet — a little more conspicuously wretched. I am ashamed of all this ; for though I do want bravery for the warfare of life, I could wish, like some other soldiers, to have as much fortitude or cunning as to dissemble or conceal my cowardice. As soon as I can bear the journey, which will be, I suppose, about the middle of next week, I leave Edin- burgh ; and soon after I shall pay my grateful duty at DunJop-House. R. B. No. LXXXV. TO MISS CHALMERS. No date. Now for that wayward, unfortunate thing, myself. I have broke measures with Creech, and last week I wrote him a frosty, keen letter. He replied in terms of chastisement, and promised me upon his honour that I should have the account on ^Monday ; but this is Tues- day, and yet I have not heard a word from him. God have mercy on me ! a poor damned, incautious, duped, unfortunate fool ! The sport, the miserable victim of rebellious pride, h}'pochondriac imagination, agonising sensibility, and bedlam passions ! " I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to die !" I had lately "a hairbreadth 'scape in th' imminent deadly breach" of love too. Thank my stars, I got off heart-whole, " waur fleyd than hurt." — Interruption. I have this moment got a hint; I fear I am some- thing like — undone — but I hope for the best. Come, stubborn pride and unshrinking resolution ; accompany me through this, to me, miserable world ! You must not desert me. Your friendship I think I can count on, though I should date my letters from a marching regiment. Early in life, and all my life, I reckoned on a recruiting drum as my forlorn hope. Seriously though, life at presents me with but a melancholy path : but — my limb will soon be sound, and I shall struggle on. R. B. No. LXXXVI. TO MRS DUNLOP. Edinburgh, February 12, 1788. Some things in your late letters hurt me : not that you say them, but that you mistake me. Religion, my ho- noured Madam, has not only been all my life my chief dependence, but my dearest enjoyment. I have, indeed, been the luckless victim of wayward folUes ; but, alas 1 I have ever been " more fool than knave." A mathe- matician without rehgion is a probable character ; an irrehgious poet is a monster.. R. B. No. LXXXVII. TO ROBERT GRAHAM, Esq. OP FIIsTRAY. Sir — When I had the honour of being introduced to you at Athole-house, I did not think so soon of asking a favour of you. When Lear, in Shakspeare, asked old Kent why he wished to be in his service, he answers, " Because you have that in your face which I would fain call master." For some such reason. Sir, do I now sohcit your patronage. You know, I dare say^ of an appUcation I lately made to your Board to be admitted an officer of Excise. I have, according to form, been examined by a supervisor, and to-day I gave in his cer- tificate, with a request for an order for instructions. In this affair, if I succeed, I am afraid I shall but too much need a patronising friend. Pi'opriety of conduct as a man, and fidehty and attention as an officer, I dare en- gage for ; but with any thing like business, except manual labour, I am totally unacquainted. I had intended to have closed my late appearance on the stage of life in the character of a country farmer ; but after discharging some filial and fraternal claims, I find I could only fight for existence in that miserable manner, which I have lived to see throw a venerable parent into the jaws of a jail ; whence death, the poor man's last and often best friend, rescued him. I know. Sir, that to need yotu" goodness, is to have a claim on it ; may I, therefore, beg your patronage to forward me in this affair, till I be appointed to a di-\i.- sion — where, by the help of rigid economy, I will try to support that independence so dear to my soul, but which has been too often so distant from my situation. R. B. No. LXXXVIII. TO THE REV. JOHN SKINNER. Edinburgh, Uth February, 17 8S* Reveren'd and dear Sir — I have been a cripple now near three months, though I am getting vastly bett3r, * [Mr Skinner's letter, to which the above was a reply, was as follows :— " Litisheaj-t, Uth November, 1787. Sir — Your kind return without date, but of post-mark October 25th, came to my hand only this day ; and, to testify my punc- tuality to my poetic engagement, I sit down immediately to an- swer it in kind. Your acknowledgment of my poor but just encomiimas on your surprising genius, and j'our opinion of my rhj-miag excursions, are both, I think, by far too high. The difference between our two tracks of education and ways of life is entirely in your favour, and gives you the preference every manner of way. I know a classical education will not create a versifying taste, but it mightily improves and assists it; and though, where both these meet, there may sometimes be ground for approbation, yet where taste appears single, as it were, and neither cramped nor supported by acquisition, I will always sus- tain the justice of its prior claim to applause. A small portion of taste, this way, I have had ahnost from childhood, especially in the old Scottish dialect : and it is as old a thing as I remember, my fondness for ' Christ-kirk o' the Green,' which I had by heart ere I was twelve years of age, and which, some years ago, I at- tempted to turn into Latin verse. While I was young, I dabbled a good deal in these things ; but, on getting the black gown, I gave it pretty much over, tUl my daughters grew up, who, being all good singers, plagued me for words to some of their favourite times, and so extorted these effusions, which have made a public 54 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. and have been very much hurried besides, or else I would have wrote you sooner. I must beg your par- don for the epistle you sent me appearing in the Maga- zine. I had given a copy or two to some of my inti- mate friends, but did not know of the printing of it till the publication of the Magazine. However, as it does great honour to us both, you will forgive it. The second volume of the songs I mentioned to you in my last is published to-day. I send you a copy, which I beg you will accept as a mark of the veneration I have long had, and shall ever have, for your character, and of the claim I make to your continued acquaintance. Your songs appear in the third volume, with your name in the index ; as I assure you, Sir, I have heard your " Tullochgorum," particularly among our west-country folks, given to many different names, and most com- monly to the immortal author of " The Minstrel," who, indeed, never wrote any thing superior to " Gie's a sang, Montgomery cried." Your brother has promised me your verses to the Marquis of Huntly's reel, which cer- tainly deserve a place in the collection. My kind host, Mr Cruikshank, of the high-school here, and said to be one of the best Latins in this age, begs me to make you his grateful acknowledgments for the entertainment he has got in a Latin publication of yours, that I borrowed appearance beyond my expectations, and contrary to my inten- tions, at the same time that I hope there is nothing to be found in them uncharacteristic, or imbecoming the cloth, which I would always wish to see respected. As to the assistance you propose from me in the imdertaking you are engaged in,* I am sorry I cannot give it so far as I could wish, and you perhaps expect. My daughters, who were my only intelligencers, are all fmns-famUiate, and the old woman their mother has lost that taste. There are two from my own pen, which I might give you, if worth the while. One to the old Scotch time of ' Dumbarton's Drums.' The other, perhaps, you have met with, as your noble friend the duchess has, I am told, heard of it. It was squeezed out of me by a brother parson in her neighbourhood, to accommodate a new Highland reel for the marquis's birth-day, to the stanza of • Tune your fiddles, tune them sweetly,' &c. If this last answer your purpose, you may have it from a bro- ther of mine, Mr James Skinner, writer in Edinburgh, who, I believe, can give the music too. There is another humorous thing, I have heard said to be done by the Catholic priest Geddes,t and which hit my taste much :•— There was a wee wifeikie, was coming frae the fair, Had gotten a little drapikie, which bred her meikle care. It took upo' the wifie's heart, and she began to spew. And co' the wee Avifeikie, I wish I binna fou. I wish, &c. &c. I have heard of another new composition, by a young plough- ' man of my acquaintance, that I am vastly pleased with, to the tune of ' The humours of Glen,' which I fear won't do, as the music, I am told, is of Irish original. I have mentioned these, such as they are, to show my readiness to oblige you, and to con- tribute my mite, if I could, to the patriotic work you have in hand, and which I wish all success to. You have only to notify your mind, and what you want of the above shaU be sent you. Meantime, while you are thus publicly, I may say, employed, do not sheath your osvn proper and piercing weapon. From what i have seen of yours already, I am inclined to hope for much good. One lesson of virtue and morality, delivered in yoiir amusing style, and from such as you, will operate more than dozens would do from such as me, who shall be told it is our employment, and be never more minded : whereas, from a pen like yours, as being one of the many, what comes wiU be admired. Admiration will produce regard, and regard will leave an impression, especially when example goes along. Now binna saying I'm ill bred, Else, by my troth, I'U no be glad ; For cadgers, ye have heard it said. And sic like fry. Maim aye be harland in their trade, Andsaemaiml. Wishing you, from my poet-pen, all success, and, in my other character, aU happiness and heavenly direction, I remain, with esteem, your sincere friend, John Skinner."] * A plan of publishing a complete collection of Scottish Bongs, &c. t [Geddes is now believed not to have been the author of this poem.] for him from your acquamtance and much respected" friend in this place, the Reverend Dr Webster.* Mr Cruikshank maintams that you write the best Latin since Buchanan. I leave Edinburgh to-morrow, but shall return in three weeks. Your song you mentioned in your last, to the tune of " Dumbarton Drums," and the other, w'hich you say was done by a brother in trade of mine, a ploughman, I shall thank you for a copy of each. I am ever, reverend Sir, with the most respect- ful esteem and sincere veneration, yours, R. B. No. LXXXIX. TO RICHARD BROWN. Edinburgh, February/ 15th, 1788. My dear Friend — I received yours with the greatest pleasure. I shall arrive at Glasgow on Monday even- ing ; and beg, if possible, you will meet me on Tuesday. I shall wait you Tuesday all day. I shall be found at Davies's Black Bull inn. I am hurried, as if hunted by fifty devils, else I should go to Greenock ; but if you cannot possibly come, Avrite me, if possible, to Glasgow, on Monday ; or direct to me at Mossgiel by Mauch- line ; and name a day and place in Ayrshire, within a fortnight from tliis date, where I may meet you. I only stay a fortnight in Ayrshire, and return to Edinburgh. I am ever, my dearest friend, yours, R. B. No. XC. TO MISS CHALMERS. Edinburgh, Sunday. To-morrow, my dear Madam, I leave Edinburgh. I have altered all my plans of future life. A fann that I could Kve in, I could not find ; and, indeed, after the necessary support my brother and the rest of the family required, I could not venture on farming in that style suitable to my feelings. You will condemn me for the next step I have taken. I have entered into the Excise. I stay in the west about three weeks, and then return to Edinburgh for six weeks' instructions ; afterwards, for I get employ instantly, I go oil il plait a Dieu — et mon Hoi. I have chosen this, my dear friend, after mature dehberation. The question is not at what door of fortune's palace shall we enter in, but what doors does she open to us ? I was not likely to get any thing to do. I wanted un but, which is a dangerous, an un- happy situation. I got this without any hanging on, or mortifying solicitation ; it is immediate bread, and though poor in comparison of the last eighteen months of my existence, 'tis luxury in comparison of all my preceding life : besides, the commissioners are some of them my acquaintances, and aU of them my firm friends. R. B. XCI. TO MRS ROSE, OF KILRAVOCK. Edinburgh, February 17 th, 1788. Madam — You are much indebted to some indispen- sable business I have had on my hands, otherwise my gratitude threatened such a return for your obliging favour as would have tired your patience. It but poorly expresses my feelings to say, that I am sensible of your kindness : it may be said of hearts such as yours is, and such, I hope, mine is, much more justly than Addison applies it — Some souls by instinct to each other turn. There was something in my reception at Kilravock so different from the cold, obsequious, dancing-school bow of politeness, that it almost got into my head that friendship had occupied her ground without the inter- mediate march of acquaintance. I wish I could tran- scribe, or rather transfuse into language, the glow of my heart when I read your letter. My ready fancy, with colours more mellow than life itself, painted the beautifully wild scenery of Kih'avock ; the venerable * [A clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Edin- burgh.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 35 grandeur of the castle ; the spreading woods ; the wind- ing river, gladly leaving his unsightly, heathy source, and lingering with apparent delight as he passes the fairy walk at the bottom of the garden ; your late dis- tressful anxieties ; your present enjoyments ; your dear little angel, the pride of your hopes ; my aged friend, venerable in Avorth and years, whose loyalty and other virtues will strongly entitle her to the support of the Almighty Spirit here, and his peculiar favour in a hap- pier state of existence. You cannot imagine, Madam, how much such feelings delight me ; they are my dear- est proofs of my own immortality. Should I never re- visit the north, as probably I never will, nor again see your hospitable mansion, were I, some twenty years hence, to see your little fellow's name making a proper figure in a newspaper paragraph, my heart would bound with pleasure. I am assisting a friend in a collection of Scottish songs, set to their proper tunes ; every air worth pre- serving is to be included : among others, I have given " Moragj" and some few Highland airs which pleased me most, a dress which will be more generally known, though far, far inferior in real merit. As a smallmark of my grateful esteem, I beg leave to present you with a copy of the work, as far as it is printed ; the Man of Feeling, that first of men, has promised to transmit it by the first opportunity., I I beg to be remembered most respectfully to my ve- nerable friend, and to you]? little Highland chieftain. When you see the "two fair spirits of the hill," at Kil- drummie,* tell them that I have done myself the ho- nour of setting myself down as one of their admirers for at least twenty years to come, consequently they must look upon me as an acquaintance for the same period ; but, as the Apostle Paul says, " this I ask of grace, not of debt." I have the honour to be, Madam, &c. R. B. No. XCII. TO RICHARD BROWN. Mossgielj litJi February, 1788. My dear Sir — I cannot get the proper direction for my friend in Jamaica, but the following will do : — To Mr Jo. Hutchinson, at Jo. Brownrigg's, Esq., care of Mr Benjamin Henriquez, merchant. Orange Street, Kingston. I arrived here, at my brother's, only yes- terday, after fighting my way through Paisley and Kil- marnock against those old powerful foes of mine, the devil, the world, and the flesh — so terrible in the fields of dissipation. I have met with few incidents in my life which gave me so much pleasure as meeting you in Glasgow. There is a time of life beyond which we can- not form a tie worth the name of friendship. "Oh youth! enchanting stage, profusely blest." Life is a fairy scene : almost all that deserves the nanle of en- joyment or pleasure is only a charming delusion ; and in comes repining age, in all the gravity of hoary wis- dom, and wretchedly chases away the bewitching phan- tom. When I think of life, I resolve to keep a strict look-out in the course of economy, for the sake of worldly convenience and independence of mind; to cultivate intimacy with a few of the companions of youth, that they may be the friends of age ; never to refuse my liquorish humour a handful of the sweet- meats of life, when they come not too dear; and, for futurity—^ The present moment is our ain, The neist we never saw ! How likeuyou my philosophy ? Give my best com- pliments to Mrs B., and believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours most truly, R. B.f * Miss Sophia Brodie, of L , and Miss Rose of Kilravock. t [" The letters to Richard Brown, written at a period when the poet was in the full hlaze of reputation, showed that he was at no time so dazzled with success as to forget the friends who had anticipated the public hy discovering his merit."-rWAi'KEB.] No. XCIII. TO MR WILLIAM CRUIKSHANK. Mauchline, March M, 1788- My dear Sir — Apologies for not writing are fre- quently like apologies for not singing — the apology bet- ter than the song. I have fought my way severely through the savage hospitality of this counti-y, to send every guest drunk to bed if they can. I executed your commission in Glasgow, and I hope the cocoa came safe. 'Twas the same price and the vei'y same kind as your former parcel, for the gentle- man recollected your buymg there perfectly well. I should return my thanks for your hospitality (I leave a blank for the epithet, as I know none can do it justice) to a poor, wayfaring bard, who was spent and almost overpowered fighting with prosaic wicked- nesses in high places ; but I am afi'aid lest you should burn the letter whenever you come to the passage, so I pass over it in silence. I am just returned from visit- ing Mr Miller's farm. The friend whom I told you I would take with me* was highly pleased with the farm ; and as he - is, without exception, the most intelligent farmer in the country, he has staggered me a good deal. I have the two plans of fife before me ; I shall balance them to the best of my judgment, and fix on the most eligible. I have written Mr Miller, and shall wait on him when I come to town, which shall be the beginning or middle of next _week : I would be in Lsooner, but my unlucky knee is rather worse, and I fear for some time will scarcely stand the fatigue of my Excise in- structions. I only mention these ideas to you ; and, indeed, except Mr Ainshe, whom I intend writing to to-morrow, I will not write at all to Edinbui'gh till I return to it. I would send my comphments to Mr Nicol, but he would be hurt if he knew I wrote to any body and not to him ; so I shall only beg my best, kind- est, kindest compliments to my worthy hostess, and the sweet little rose-bud. So soon as I am settled in the routine of life, either as an Excise-officer, or as a farmer, I propose myself great pleasure from a regular correspondence with the only man almost I ever saw who joined the most atten- tive prudence with the warmest generosity. I am much interested for that best of men, Mr Wood ; I hope he is in better health and spirits than when I saw him last. I am ever, my dearest friend, your obliged, humble servant, R. B. No. XCIV. TO ROBERT AINSLIE, Esq. Mauchline, M March, 1788. My dear Friend — I am just returned from Mr Miller's farm. My old friend whom I took with me was highly pleased with the bargain,' and advised me to accept of it. He is the most intelligent sensible farmer in the county, and his advice has staggered me a good deal. I have the two plans before me : I shall endea- vour to balance them to the best of my judgment, and fix on the most eligible. On the whole, if I find Mr Miller in the same favourable disposition as when I saw him last, I shall in all probability turn farmer. I have been through sore tribulation, and under much buff'etting of the wicked one, since I came to this country. Jean I found banished, forlorn, destitute, and friendless; I have reconciled her to her fate, and I have reconciled her to her mother. I shall be in Edinburgh the middle of next week. My farming ideas I shall keep private till I see. I got a letter from Clarinda yesterday, and she tells me she has got no letter of mine but one. Tell her that I wrote to her from Glasgow, from Kilmarnock, from Mauchline, and yesterday from Cumnock as I returned from Dum- fries. Indeed, she is the only person in Edinburgh I have written to till this day. How are your soul and body putting up ? — a little like man and wtfe, I suppose, R. B. * [James Tennant of Glenconner, in Ayrshire, to whom the poet addresses a metrical epistle. See accompapyipg edition of his Poetical Works, p. 74-] 36 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. xcv. TO RICHARD BROWN. Mav^hline, 1th March, 1788. I HAVE been out of the country, my dear friend, and have not had an opportunity of writing till now, when I am afraid you will be gone out of the country too. I have been looking at farms, and, after aU, perhaps I may settle in the character of a farmer. I have got so vicious a bent to idleness, and have ever been so little a man of business, that it will take no ordinary eftbrt to bring my mind properly into the routine ; but you will say a " great effort is worthy of you." I say so myself j and butter up my vanity with all the stimulating com- pliments I can think of. Men of grave, geometrical minds, the sons of " which was to be demonstrated," may cry up reason as much as they please ; but I have always found an honest passion, or native instinct, the truest auxiliary in the warfare of this world. Reason almost always comes to me like an unlucky wife to a poor devil of a husband, just in sufficient time to add her re- proaches to his other grievances. I am gratified with your kind inquiries after Jean ; as, after all, I may say with Othello — Excellent wretch ! Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee ! I go for Edinburgh on Monday. Yours, R. B. No. XCVI. TO MR MUIR. Mossgiel, 7th March, 1788. Dear Sir — I have partly changed my ideas, my dear friend, since I saw you. I took old Grlenconner with me to Mr Miller's farm, and he was so pleased with it, that I have wrote an offer to Mv Miller, which if he accepts, I shall sit down a plain farmer, the happiest of lives when a man can live by it. In this case, I shall not stay in Edinburgh above a Aveek. I set out on Monday, and would have come by Kilmarnock, but there are several small sums omng me for my first edi- tion about Galston and Newmills, and I shall set off so early as to dispatch my business and reach Glasgow by night. When I return, I sliaU devote a forenoon or two to make some kind of acknowledgment for all the kindness I owe your friendship. Now that I hope to settle with some credit and comfort at home, there was not any friendship or friendly correspondence that pro- mised me more pleasure than yours ; I hope I will not be disappointed. I trust the spring will renew your shattered frame, and make your friends happy. You and I have often agreed that life is no great blessing on the whole. The close of life, indeed, to a reasoning age, is Dark as was chaos, ere the infant sun • Was roU'd together, or had tried his beams Athwart the gloom profound. But an honest man has nothing to fear. If we lie down in the grave, the whole man a piece of broken machinery, to moulder with the clods of the valley, be it so ; at least there is an end of pain, care, woes, and wants : if that part of us called mind does survive the apparent destruction of the man — away mth old-wife prejudices and tales ! Every age and every nation has had a different set of stories ; and as the many are always weak of consequence, they have often, perhaps always, been deceived : a man conscious of havmg acted an honest part among his fellow-creatures — even grant- ing that he may have been the sport at times of passions and instincts — he goes to a great unknown Being, who could have no other end in giving him existence but to make him happy, who gave him those passions and in- stincts, and well knows their force. These, my worthy friend, are my ideas ; and I know they are not far different from yours. It becomes a man of sense to thinlc for himself, particularly in a case where all men are equally interested, and where, indeed, all men are equally in the dark. Adieu, my dear Sir ; God send us a cheei-ful meet- ing! R. B. No XCVI I. TO MRS DUNLOP. Mossgiel, \1th March, 1788. Madam — The last paragraph in yours of the 30th February affected me most, so I shall begiu my answer where you ended yom' letter. That I am often a sinner, with any little wit I have, I do confess: but I have taxed my recollection to no purpose, to find out when it was employed against you. I hate an ungenerous sarcasm a great deal worse than I do the devil, at least as Milton describes him ; and though I may be rascally enough to be sometimes guilty of it myself, I cannot endure it in others. You, my honoured friend, who cannot appear in any light but you are sure of being respectable — ^you can afford to pass by an occasion to display your wit, because you may depend for fame on your sense ; or, if you choose to be silent, you know you can rely on the gratitude of many, and the esteem of all ; but, God help us, who are wits or witlings by profession, if we stand not for fame there, we sink un- supported ! I am highly flattered by the news you tell rae of Coila. I may say to the fair painter who does me so much honour, as Dr Beattie says to Ross the poet of his muse Scota, from which, by the bye, I took the idea of Coila ('tis a poem of Beattie's in the Scottish dialect, which perhaps you have never seen) : — Ye shak your head, but o' my fegs, Ye've set auld Scota on her legs : Lang had she lien wi' beflFs and flegs, Bumbaz'd and dizzie. Her fiddle wanted strings and pegs, Wae's me, poor hizzie. R. B. No. XCVIII. TO MISS CHALMERS. Edinburgh, March Mth, 1788. I KNOW, my ever dear friend, that you will be pleased with the news when I tell you, I have at last taken a lease of a fai'm. Yesternight I completed a bargain with Mr MiUer of Dalswinton for the farm of Ellisland, on the banks of the Nith, between five and six miles above Dumfries. I begin at Whitsunday to build a house, dx'ive lime, occ. ; and Heaven be my help ! for it will take a strong effoi't to bring my mind into the rou- tine of business. I have discharged all the army of my former pursuits, fancies, and pleasures — a motley host ! and have literally and strictly retained only the ideas of a few friends which I have incorporated into a life- guard. I trust in Dr Johnson's observation, *' Where much is attempted, something is done," Firmness, both in sufferance and exertion, is a character I would wish to be thought to possess ; and have always despised the whining yelp of complaint, and the cowardly, feeble resolve. Poor Miss K. is ailing a good deal this winter, and begged me to remember her to 'you the first time I wrote to you. Surely woman, amiable woman, is often made in vain. Too delicately formed for the rougher pursuits of ambition ; too noble for the dirt of avai'ice, and even too gentle for the rage of pleasure ; formed indeed for, and highly susceptible of, enjoyment and rapture ; but that enjoyment, alas ! almost wholly at the mercy of the caprice, malevolence, stupidity, or wickedness of an animal at all times compai'ativelv un- " " " R.*B. XCIX. TO RICHARD BROWN. Glasgow, 26th March, 1788. I am monstrously to blame, my dear Sir, in not ^vrit- iug to you, and sending you the Directory. I have been getting my tack extended, as I have taken a farm, and I have been racking shop accounts with Mr Creech ^ both of which, together with watching, fatigue, and a load GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 37 6f care almost too heavy for my shoulders, have in some degree actually fevered me. I really forgot the Directory yesterday, which vexed me ; hut I was convulsed witli rage a great part of the day. I have to thank you for the ingenious, friendly, and elegant epistle from your friend Mr Crawford. I shall certainly write to him, but not now. This is merely a card to you, as I am posting to Duni- friesshire, where many perplexing arrangements await me. I am vexed about the Directory ; but, my dear Sir, forgive me : these eight days I have been positively crazed. My compliments to Mrs B. I shall write to YOU at Grenada. I am ever, my dearest friend, yours, R. B. No. C. TO MR ROBERT CLEGHORN. Mauchline, ?>lst March, 1788. Yesterday, my dear Sir, as I was riding through a track of melancholy, joyless muirs, between Galloway and Ayrshire, it being Sunday, I turned my thoughts to psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs ; and your favourite air, " Captain O'Kean," coming at length into my head, I tried these words to it.* You will see that the first part of the tune must be repeated. I am tolerably pleased with these verses, but as I have only a sketch of the tune, I leave it with you to try if they suit the measure of the music. I am so harassed with care and anxiety, about this farming project of mine, that my muse has degenerated into the veriest prose-wench that ever picked cinders, or followed a tinker. When I am fairly got into the routine of business, I shall trouble you with a longer epistle ; perhaps with some queries respecting farming : at present, the world sits such a load on my mind that it has effaced almost every trace of the poet in me. My very best compliments and good wishes to Mrs Cleghorn. R. B. No. CI. TO MISS CHALMERS. Mauchline, 1th April, 1788. I AM indebted to you and Miss Nimmo for letting me know Miss Kennedy. Strange ! how apt we are to in- dulge prejudices in our judgments of one another ! Even I, who pique myself on my skill in marking characters — because I am too proud of my character as a man to be dazzled in my judgment for glaring wealth, and too proud of my situation as a poor man to be biassed against squalid poverty — I was unacquainted with Miss K.'s very uncommon worth. I am going on a good deal progressive in mon grand but, the sober science of hfe. I have lately made some sacrifices, for wliich, were I viva voce with you to paint the situation and recount the circumstances,f you would applaud me. R. B. No. CII. TO MR WILLIAM DUNBAR, EDINBURGH. Mauchline, 1th April, 1788. I HAVE not delayed so long to write you, my much re- spected friend, because I thought no farther of my pro- mise. I have long since given up that kind of formal correspondence, where one sits down irksomely to write a letter, because we think we are in duty bound so to do. I have been roving over the country, as the farm I have taken is forty miles from this place, hiring servants and preparing matters ; but most of all, I am earnestly busy to bring about a revolution in my own mind. As, till within these eighteen months, I never was the wealthy master of ten guineas, my knowledge of busi- ness is to learn ; add to this, my late scenes of idleness and dissipation have enervated my mind to an alarm- ing degree. Skill in the sober science of hfe is my most serious and hourly study. I have dropt all conversa- tion and all reading (prose reading) but what tends in * [The Chevalier's Lament.] t [He here alludes to his marriage.] some way or other to my serious aim. Except one worthy young fellow, I have not one single correspon- dent in Edinburgh. You have indeed kindly made me an offer of that kuad. The world of wits, and gens comme ilfaut which I lately left, and with whom I never again will intimately mix — from that port. Sir, I expect your Gazette : what les beaux esprits are saying, what they are doing, and what they are singing. Any sober m- telligence from my sequestered walks of Ufe ; any droll original ; any passing remark, important forsooth, be- cause it is mine ; any little poetic effort, however em- bryoth ; these, my dear Sir, are all you have to expect from me. When I talk of poetic efforts, I must have it always understood, that I appeal from your wit and taste to your friendship and good nature. The first would be my favourite tribunal, where I defied censure ; but the last, where I declmed justice. I have scarcely made a single distich since I saw you. When I meet with an old Scots air that has any face- tious idea in its name, I have a peculiar pleasure in following out that idea for a verse or two. I trust that this wiU find you in better health than I did last time I called for you. A few lines from you, directed to me at Mauchline, were it but to let me know how you are, will set my mind a good deal [at rest]. Now, never shun the idea of writing me because per- haps you may be out of humour or spirits. I could give you a hundred good consequences attending a dull letter; one, for example, and the remaining ninety nine some other time — it will always serve to keep in countenance, my much respected Sir, your obliged friend and humble servant, R. B. No. CIII. TO MRS DUNLOP. Mauchline, 2^th April, 1788. Madam — Your powers of reprehension must be great indeed, as I assure you they made my heart ache with penitential pangs, even though I was really not guilty. As I commence farmer at Whitsunday, you will easily guess I must be pretty busy ; but that is not all. As I got the offer of the Excise business without solicitation, and as it costs me only six months' attendance for instruc- tions, to entitle me to a commission — which commission lies by me, and at any future period, on my simple pe- tition, can be resumed ; I thought five-and-thirty pounds a-year was no bad dernier resort for a poor poet, if for- tune in her jade tricks should kick him down from the little eminence to which she has lately helped him up. For this reason, I am at present attending these in- structions, to have them completed before Whitsunday. Still, Madam, I prepared with the sincerest pleasure to meet you at the Mount, and came to my brother's on Saturday night, to set out on Sunday ; but for some nights preceding I had slept in an apartment, where the force of the winds and rains was only mitigated by being sifted through numberless apertures in the win- dows, walls, &c. In consequence I was on Sun^iay, Monday, and part of Tuesday, unable to stir out of bed, with all the miserable effects of a violent cold. You see. Madam, the truth of the French maxim, le vrai n^est pas toujour s le vraisemblable ; your last was so full of expostulation, and was something so like the language of an offended friend, that I began to tremble for a correspondence, which I had with grateful plea- sure set down as one of the greatest enjojTnents of my future life. Your books have delighted me ; "Virgil, Dryden, and Tasso, were all equally strangers to me ; but of this more at large in my next. R. B. No. CIV. TO MR JAMES SMITH, AVON PRINTFIELD, LINLITHGOW. Mauchli7ie, April 28, 1788, Beware of your Strasburgh, my good Sir ! Look on this as the opening of a correspondence, like the open- ing of a twenty-four gun battery ! 38 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. There is no understanding a man properly, without knowmg something of his previous ideas — ^that is to say, if the man has any ideas ; for I know many who, in the animal -muster, pass for men, that are the scanty masters of only one idea on any given subject, and by far the greatest part of your acquaintances and mine can barely boast of ideas, 1*25 — 1*5 — 1'75 (or some such fractional matter); so, to let you a little into the secrets of my pe- ricranium, there is, you must know, a certain clean- limbed, handsome, bewitching young hussy of your ac- quaintance, to whom I have lately and privately given a matrimonial title to my corpus. Bode a robe and wear it, Bode a pock and bear it, isays the wise old Scots adage ! I hate to presage ill- luck ; and as my girl has been doubly kinder to me than even the best of women usually are to their part- ners of our sex, in similar circumstances, I reckon on twelve times a brace of children against I celebrate my twelfth wedding day: these twenty-four will give me twenty-four gossipings, twenty -four christenings (I mean one equal to two), and I hope, by the blessing of the God of my fathers, to make them twenty-four dutiful children to their parents, twenty-four useful.members of society, and twenty-four approved servants of their God t * * ^' "Light's heartsome," quo' the wife when she was stealing sheep. You see what a lamp I have hung up to lighten your paths, when you are idle enough to ex- plore the combinations and relations of my ideas. 'Tis now as plain as a pike-staff why a twenty-four gun battery was a metaphor I could readily employ. Now for business. I intend to present Mrs Bums with a printed shawl, an article of which I dare say you have variety : 'tis my first present to her since I have irrevocably called her mine, and I have a kind of ■whimsical wish to get her the first said present from an old and much valued friend of hers and mine, a trusty Trojan, on whose friendship I count myself pos- sessed of as a life-rent lease. Look on this letter as a " beginning of sorrows ;'* I will write you till your eyes ache reading nonsense. Mrs Burns ('tis only her private designation) begs her best compliments to you. R. B. No. CV. TO PROFESSOR DUGALD STEWART. MauchUne, M May, 1788. Sm— I enclose you one or two more of my bagatelles. If the fervent wishes of honest gratitude have any in- fluence with that great, unknown Being who frames the chain of causes and events, prosperity and happiness ■will attend your visit to the continent, and return you safe to your native shore. Wherever I am, allow me, Sii', to claim it as my pri- Tilege to acquaint you with my progress in my trade of rhymes ; as I am sure I could say it with truth, that, next to my little fame, and the having it in my power to make fife more comfortable to those whom nature has made dear to me, I shall ever regard your counte- nance, yom' patronage, your friendly good offices, as the most valued consequence of my late success in life. R. B. No. CVI. TO MRS DUNLOP. MauchUne, Ath May, 1788. Madam— Dryden's Virgil has delighted me. I do not know whether the critics will agree with me, but the Georgics are to me by far the best of Virgil. It is indeed a species of writing entirely new to me, and has filled my head with a thousand fancies of emulation : but, alas ! when I read the Georgics, and then survey my own powers, 'tis like the idea of a Shetland pony, dra^vn up by the side of a thorough-bred hunter, to start for the plate. I owTti I am disappointed in the ^neid. Fault- less coi'rectness may please, and does highly please, the lettered critic : but to that awful character I have not the most distant pretensions. I do not know whether I do not hazard my pretensions to be a critic of any kind, when I say that I thinlc Virgil, in many instances, a servile copier of Homer. If I had the Odyssey by me, I could .parallel many passages where Virgil has evidently copied, but by no means improved. Homer. Nor can I think there is any thing of this o^ving to the translators ; for, from every thing I have seen of Dry- den, I think him, in genius and fluency of language, Pope's master. I have not perused Tasso enough to form an opinion — in some future letter you shall have my ideas of him ; though I am conscious my criticisms must be very inaccurate and imperfect, as there I have ever felt and lamented my want of learning most. R. B. No. CVII. TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE. MauchUne, May 26th, 1788. My dear Friend— I am two kind letters in your debt ; but I have been from home, and horridly busy, buying and preparing for my farming business, over and above the plague of my excise instructions, which this week will finish. As I flatter my wishes that I foresee many future years' correspondence between us, 'tis foolish to talk of excusing dull epistles ; a dull letter may be a very kind one. I have the pleasure to tell you that I have been extremely fortunate in all my buyings and bargainings hitherto — Mrs Burns not excepted ; which title I now avow to the world. I am truly pleased with this last affair ; it has indeed added to my anxieties for futurity, but it has given a stabihty to my mind and resolutions unknown before ; and the poor gu'l has the most sacred enthusiasm of attachment to me, and has not a wish but to gratify my every idea of her deportment. I am in- terrupted.— Farewell ! my dear Sir. R. B. No. CVIII. TO MRS DUNLOP. 27th May, 1788. Madam — I have been torturing my philosophy to no purpose, to account for that kind partiality of yours, which has followed me, in my return to the shade of life, \\dth assiduous benevolence. Often did I regret, in the fleeting hours of my late will-o'-wisp appearance, that " here I had no continuing city ;" and, but for the consolation of a few sohd guineas, could almost lament the time that a momentary acquaintance with wealth and splendour put me so much out of conceit with the sworn companions of my road through life — insignifi- cance and poverty. There are few circumstances relating to the unequal distribution of the good things of this life that give me more vexation (I mean in what I see around me) than the importance the opulent bestow on their trif- ling family affairs, compared with the very same things on the contracted scale of a cottage. Last afternoon I had the honour to spend an hour or two at a good woman's fire-side, where the planks that composed the floor were decorated with a splendid carpet, and the gay table sparkled with silver and china. 'Tis now about term-day, and there has been a revolu- tion among those creatures, who, though in appear- ance partakers, and equally noble partakers, of the same nature with Madame, are from time to time — their nerves, their sinews, their health, strength, wis- dom, experience, genius, time, nay a good part of their very thoughts — sold for months and years, not only to the necessities, the conveniences, but the ca- prices, of the important few. We talked of the insig- nificant creatures ; nay, notwithstanding their general stupidity and rascality, did some of the poor devils the honour to commend them. But light be the turf upon his breast who taught, " Reverence thyself." We looked down on the unpolished wretches, their impertinent GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 3a wives and clotiterly brats, as the lordly buU does on the | and anxieties, but I_ hate the language of^complaint- little dirty ant-hill, whose puny inhabitants he crushes '' -■> ■ i- j- -n « --i i^ in the carelessness of his ramble, or tosses in the air in the wantonness of his pride. R. B. No. CIX. TO THE SAME, AT JIB DUNLOP's, HADDINGTON. EUisland, Uth June, 1788. Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, My heart, untravell'd, fundi}' turns to thee ; Still to my frfend it turns with ceaseless pain, And drags, at each remove, a lengthen'd chain. Goldsmith. This is the second day, my honoured friend, that I have been on my farm. A solitary inmate of an old, smoky spence ; far from every object I love, or by whom I am beloved ; nor any acquaintance older than yester- terday, except Jenny Geddes, the old mare I ride on ; while uncouth cares and novel plans hourly insult my awkward ignorance and bashful inexperience. There is a foggy atmosphere native to my soul in the hour of care, consequently the dreary objects seem larger than the life. Extreme sensibility, irritated and prejudiced on the gloomy side by a series of misfortunes and dis- appointments, at that period of my existence when the soul is laying in her cargd of ideas for the voyage of life, is, I believe, the principal cause of this uiihappy frame of mind. The valiant, in himself, what can he suffer ? Or what need he regard his dngle woes ? &e. Your surmise, Madam, is just; I am indeed a husband. * * * * To jealousy or inlideHty I am an equal stranger. My preservative from the first is the most thorough con- sciousness of her sentiments of honour, and her attach- ment to me : my antidote against the last is my long and deep-rooted affection for her. In housewife matters, of aptness to learn and activity to execute, she is eminently mistress : and during my absence in Nithsdale, she is regularly and constantly apprentice to my mother and sisters in their dairy and other rural business. The muses must not be offended when I tell them, the concerns of my wife and family will, in my mind, always take the pas; but I assure them their ladyships will ever come next in place. You are right that a bachelor state would have in- sured me more friends' ; but, from a cause you v*ill easily guess, conscious peace in the enjojTnent of my owti mind, and unmistrusting confidence in approachiiig my God, would seldom have been of the number. I found a once much-loved and still much-loved fe- male, Uterally and truly cast out to the mercy of the naked elements ; but I enabled her to purchase a shel- ter — there is no sporting with a fellow-creature's hap- piness or misery. The most placid good-nature and sweetness of dispo- sition ; a warm heart, gratefully devoted with all its powers to-love me ; vigorous health and sprightly cheer- fulness, set off to the best advantage by a more than commonly handsome figure ; these, I think, in a woman, may make a good wife, though she should never have read a page but the Scriptures of the Old and New Tes- tament, nor have danced in a brighter assembly than a penny pay wedding. R. B. Job, or some one of his friends, says well—" Why should a U\'ing man complain ?" I have lately been much mortified with contemplat- ing an unlucky unperfection in the very framing and construction of my soul ; namely, a blundering inaccu- racy of her olfactory organs in hitting the scent of craft or design in my fellow-creatures. I do not mean any compliment to my ingenuousness, or to hint that the defect is bx consequence of the unsuspicious sim- phcity of conscious ti'uth and honour : I take it to be, in some way or other, an imperfection in the mental sight ; or, metaphor apai-t, some modification of dull- ness. In two or three instances lately, I have been most shamefully out. I have all alon^, hitherto, in the warfare of life, been bred to arms among the Ught-horse — the piquet-guards of fancy — a kind of hussars and Highlanders of the brain ; but I am firmly resolved to sell out of these giddy battaUons, who have no ideas of a battle but fighting the foe, or of a siege but storming the town. Cost what it will, I am determhied to buy in among the grave squadrons of heavv'-armed thought, or the artil- lery corps of plodding contrivance. What books are you reading, or what is the subject of your thoughts, besides the great studies of your pro= fession? You said something about religion in your last. I don't exactly remember what it was, as the letter is in Aj-rshire ; but I thought it not only prettily said, but nobly thought. You will make a noble fellow if once you were married. I make no reservation of your being well married : you have so much sense, and knowledge of human nature, that though you may not realise, perhaps, the ideas of romance, yet you will never be iU man*ied. Were it not for the ten'ors of my ticklish situation respecting provision for a family of children, I am de^ cidedly of opinion that the step I have taken is vastly for my happiness.* As it is, I look to the Excise scheme as a certainty of maintenance ; a maintenance !— luxury to what either Mrs Bums or I were born to, Adieu I R. B. No. ex. TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE. EUisland, June Ut7i, 1788. This isnow the third day, my dearest Su-, that I have sojourned in these regions ; and during these three days you have occupied more of my thoughts than in tliree weeks preceding : in AjTshire I have several variations of friendship's compass, here it points invariably to the pole. My farm gives rae a gogd many uncouth cares TO No. CXI. THE SAME. Mauchline, 2M June, 1788. This letter, my dear Sir, is only a business scrap. Mr Miers, profile painter in your town, has executed a profile of -Dr Blacldock for me ; do me the favour to caU for it, and sit to him yourself for me, which put in the same size as the doctor's. The account of both profiles will be fifteen shillings, which I have given to James Connel, our Mauchline carrier-, to pay you when you give him the parcel. You must not, my friend, refuse to sit. The time is short ; when I sat to Mr Miers, I am sure he did not exceed two minutes. I propose hanging Lord Glencaim, the doctor, and you, in trio over my new chunney-piece that is to be. Adieu. R. B. No. CXII. TO THE SAME. EUisland, SOth June, 1788, ^Iy dear Sir— I just now received your brief epistle J and, to take vengeance on your laziness, I have, you see, taken a long sheet of ^\Titing-paper, and have be- gun at the top of the page, intending to scribble on to the very last comer. I am vexed at that affair of the * * *, but dare not enlarge on the subject until you send me your direction, as I suppose that will be altered on your late master and friend's death.f I am concerned for the old fel- low's exit, only as I fear it may be to your disadvantage in any respect — for an old man's dving, except he have * [His marriage.] t [Mr Samuel MitehelsoE, W. S., ter ; he died, June 21, 1788.] had been Mr Ainslie's mas- 40 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. been a very benevolent cliaractei', oi» in some particular situation of life that the welfare of the poor or the help- less depended on him, I think it an event of the most trifling moment to the world. Man is naturally a kind, ■benevolent animal, but he is dropped into such a needy situation here in this vexatious world, and has such a ^hore-son, hungry, growling, multiplying pack of ne- cessities, appetites, passions, and desires about him, ready to devour him for want of other food, that in fact he must lay aside his cares for others that he may look properly to himself. You have been imposed upon in paying Mr Miers for the profile of a Mr H. I did Slot mention it in my letter to you, nor did I ever give Air Miers any such order, I have no objection to lose the money, but I will not have any such profile in my possession. I desired the carrier to pay you, but as I mentioned •only fifteen shillings to him, I will rather enclose you .a guinea-note. I have it not, indeed, to spare here, as 1 am only a sojourner in a strange land in this place ; but in a day or two I return to Mauchline, and there I jhave the bank-notes through the house like salt permits. There is a great degree of folly in talking unneces- sarily of one's private affaii's. I have just now been interrupted by one of my new neighbours, who has made liimself absolutely contemptible in my eyes, by his silly, garrulous pruriency. I know it has been a fault of my own, too ; but from this moment I abjure it as I would the service of hell ! Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence ; but 'tis a squalid vagabond gloi-y- ing in his rags. Still, imprudence respecting money matters is much more pardonable than imprudence re- specting character. I have no objection to prefer pro- digality to avarice, in some few instances ; but I appeal to your observation if you have not met, and often met, with the same disingenuousness, the same hollow-hearted insincerity, and disintegritive depravity of principle, in Ihe hackneyed victims of profusion, as in the unfeeling children of parsimony. I have every possible reverence for the much talked-of world beyond the grave, and I wish that which piety believes, and virtue deserves, may be all matter of fact. But in things belonging to and terminating in this present scene of existence, man has serious and interesting business on hand. Whether a man shall shake hands with welcome in the distinguished elevation of respect, or shrink from contempt in the abject corner of insignificance ; whether he shall wan- ton under the tropic of plenty, at least enjoy himself in the comfortable latitudes of easy convenience, or starve in the arctic circle of dreary poverty ; whether he shall irise in the manly consciousness of a self-approving mind, or sink beneath a galling load of regret and remorse — these are alternatives of the last moment. You see how I preach. You used occasionally to sermonise too ; I wish you would, in charity^ favour me with a sheet full in your own way. I admire the close of a letter Lord Boliugbroke writes to Dean Swift : — " Adieu, dear Swift ! with all thy faults I love thee entirely ; make an eff'ort to love me with all mine!" Humble servant, and all that trumpery, is now such a prostituted business, that honest friendship, in her sin- cere way, must have recourse to her primitive, simple, farewell ! ' R. B. No. CXIII. TO MR GEORGE LOCKHART, MERCHANT, GLASGOW. Mauchline, ISth July, 1788. My dear Sir — I am just going for Nithsdale, else I would certainly have transcribed some of my rhyming things for you. The Miss Baillies I have seen in Edin- burgh. " Fair and lovely are thy woi'ks, Lord God Al- mighty ! Who would not praise thee for these thy gifts in thy goodness to the sons of men!" It needed not your fine taste to admire them. I declare, one day I had the honour of dining at Mr Baillie's, I was almost in the predicament of the children of Israel, when they could not look on Moses' face for the glory that shone in it when he descended from Mount Sinai. I did once write a poetic address from the Falls of Bruar to his Grace of Athole, when I was in the High- lands. When you return to Scotland, let me know, and I will send such of my pieces as please myself best. I return to Mauchline in about ten days. My compliments to Mr Purden. I am in truth, but at present in haste, yours, R. B. No. CXIV. TO MR PETER HILL. My dear Hill — I shall say nothing to your mad present* — you have so long and often been of impor- tant service to me, and I suppose you mean to go on conferring obligations until I shall not be able to lift up my face before you. In the meantime, as Sir Roger de Coverley, because it happened to be a cold day in which he made his will, ordered his servants' great- coats for mourning, so, because I have been ihis week plagued with an indigestion, I have sent you by the carrier a fine old ewe-milk cheese. Indigestion is the devil ; nay, 'tis the devil and all. It besets a man in every one of his senses. I lose my appetite at the sight of successful knavery, and sicken to loathing at the noise and nonsense of self-important folly. When the hollow-hearted wretch takes me by the hand, the feeling spoils my dinner ; the proud man's wine so offends my palate that it chokes me in the gul- let ; and the pulvilised, feathered, pert coxcomb, is so disgustful in my nostril that my stomach turns. If ever you have any of these disagreeable sensations, let me prescribe for you patience and a bit of my cheese. I know that you are no niggard of your good things among your friends, and some of them are in much need of a slice. There, in my eye, is our friend Smel- lie ; a man positively of the first abilities and greatest strength of mind, as well as one of the best hearts and keenest wits that I have ever met with ; when you see him — as, alas ! he too is smarting at the pinch of dis- tressful circumstances, aggravated by the sneer of con- tumelious greatness — a bit of my cheese alone will not cure him, but if you add a tankard of brown stout, and superadd a magnum of right Oporto, you will see his sorrows vanish like the moi'ning mist before the sum- mer sun. Candlish, the earliest friend, except ray only brother, that I have on earth, and one of the worthiest fellows that ever any man called by the name of friend, if a luncheon of my cheese would help to rid him of some of his superabundant modesty, you would do well to give it him. Davidjt Avith his Courant, comes, too, across my re- collection, and I beg you will help him largely from the said ewe-milk cheese, to enable him to digest those be- daubing paragraphs with which he is eternally larding the lean characters of certain great men in a certain great town. I grant you the periods are very well turned ; so, a fresh egg is a very good thing, but when thrown at a man in a pillory, it does not at all improve his figure, not to mention the irreparable loss of the egg. My facetious friend Dunbar I would wish also to be a partaker ; not to digest his spleen, for that he laughs off, but to digest his last night's wine at the last field- day of the Crochallan corps.J Among our common friends I must not forget one of the dearest of them — Cunningham.§ The brutality, insolence, and selfishness, of a world unworthy of hav- ing such a fellow as he is in it, I know sticks in his stomach, and if you can help him to any thing that will make him a little easier on that score, it will be very obliging. * [Mr Hill had sent the poet a present of books.] t [Mr David Ramsay, printer of the Edinburgh Evening Courant.] t [A club of choice spirits, already frequently alluded to-] § [Mr Alexander Ciuininghaxn, jeweller.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 41 As to honest John Sommerville, he is such a con- tented, happy man, that I know not what can annoy him, except, perhaps, he may not have got the better of a parcel of modest anecdotes which a certain poet gave him one night at supper, the last time the said poet was in town. Though I have mentioned so many men of law^ I shall have nothing to do with them professionally—the faculty are beyond my prescription. As to their clients, that is another thing ; God knows, they have much to digest ! The clergy I pass by ; their profundity of erudition, and their liberality of senthaent, their total want of pride, and their detestation of hypocrisy, are so prover- bially notorious, as to place them far, far above either my praise or censure. I was going to mention a man of worth, whom I have the honour to call friend, the Laii'd of Craigdarroch ; but I have spoken to the landlord of the King's- Arms- inn here, to have at the next county meetmg a large ewe-milk cheese on the table, for the benefit of the Dumfriesshii-e Whigs, to enable them to digest the Duke of Queensberry's late political conduct. I have just this moment an opportunity of a private hand to Edinbm-gh, as perhaps you woidd not digest double postage. R. B. No. CXV. TO MR WILLIAM CRUIKSHANKS. EUisland, August, 1788. I HAVE not room, my dear friend, to answer all the particulars of your last' land letter. I shall be in Edm- burgh on some business very soon ; and as I shall be two days, or perhaps three, in towa, we shall discuss matters vivcL voce. My knee, I believe, will never be entirely well : and an unlucky fall this winter has made j it still worse. I well remember the circumstance you aUude to, respecting Creech's opinion of Mr Nicol ; but | as the first gentleman owes me still about fifty pounds, I dare not meddle in the aflFair. It gave me a very heavy heart to read such accounts of the consequence of your quarrel with that puritanic, rotten-hearted, hell-commissioned scoundrel, A . If, notwithstanding your unprecedented industry in public, and your irreproachable conduct in private life, he still has you so much in liis power, what ruin may he not bring on some others I could name ? Many and happy returns of seasons to you, with your dearest and worthiest friend, and the lovely little pledge of your happy union. jMay the great Author of life, and of every enjojuient that can render Ufe delightful, make her that comfortable blessing to you both, which you so ardently wish foi', and which, allow me to say, you so well deserve ! Glance over the foregoing verses, and let me have your blots. Adieu. R. B. No. CXVI. TO MRS DUNLOP. ** Mauchline, August \ld, 1788. HoNOUBED Madam — Your kind letter welcomed me, yesternight, to Ayrshire. I am, indeed, seriously angry with you at the quantum of your luckpenny ; but, vexed and hurt as I was, I could not help laughing very heartily at the noble lord's apology for the missed nap- kin. I would write you from Nithsdale, and give you my direction there, but I have scarce an opportunity of calling at a post-office once iu a fortnight. I am six mUes from Dumfries, am scarcely ever in it myself, and, as yet, have Uttle acquaintance in the neighbour- hood. Besides, I am now vei-y busy on my farm, build- ing a dwelling-house ; as at present I am almost an evangelical man in Nithsdale, for I have scarce "where to lay my head." There are some passages in your last that brought tears in my eyes. ** The heart knoweth its owti sorrows, and a stranger intenneddleth not therewith." The re- pository of these " sorrows of the heart" is a kind of sanctum sanctorum: and 'tis only a chosen fi'iend, and that, too, at particular, sacred times, who dares enter into them : — Heaven oft tears the bosom-chords That nature finest strung. You will excuse this quotation for the sake of the author. Instead of entering on this subject farther, I shall transcribe you a few lines I wrote in a hermitage, belonging to a gentleman in my Nithsdale neighbour- hood. They are almost the only favours the muses have conferred on me in that country. * * * Since I am in the way of transcribing, the following were the production of yesterday as I jogged through the v.ild hUls of New Cumnock. I intend insertmg them, or something like them, in an epistle I am going to write to the gentleman on whose friendship my Excise hopes depend, ^Ir Graham of Fintray, one of the wor- thiest and most accompUshed gentlemen, not only of this country, but, I will dare to say it, of this age. The following are just the first crude thoughts "unhousel'd, unanoiuted, unaneal'd :" — Pity the tuneful muses' helpless train ; Weak, timid landsmen on hfe's stormy main : The world were blest, did bliss on them depend ; Ah, that " the friendly e'er should want a friend !" The little fate bestows they share as soon ; Unlike sage, proverb'd wisdom's hard-wTung boon. Let Prudence number o'er each sturdy son, Who life and wisdom at one race begun ; Who feel by reason and who give by nde ; Instinct's a brute and sentiment a fool ! Who make poor will do wait upon / should; We own they're prudent, but who owns they're good ? Ye wise ones, hence I ye hurt the social eye ; God's image rudely etch'd on base alloy ! But come * * * -is- * Here the muse left me. I am astonished at what you tell me of Anthony's writing me. I never received it. Poor fellow ! you vex me much by telling me that he is unfortunate. I shall be in Ayrshire ten days from this date. I have just room for an old Roman farewell. E. B. No. CXVII. TO THE SAME. j\[auchline, August lOtJi, 1788. My Mccr HoNOirRED Friend — Yours of the 24th June is before me. I found it, as well as another valued friend — my wife— waiting to welcome me to Ayrshire : I met both with the sincerest pleasure. When I wTite you. Madam, I do not sit down to an- swer every paragraph of yours, by echoing every senti- ment, like the faithful Commons of Great Britain in ParUament assembled, answering a speech from the best of kings ! I express myself in the fulness of my heart, and may, perhaps, be guilty of neglecting some of your kind inquiries ; but not from your very odd rea- son, that I do not read your letters. All your epistles for several months have cost me nothing, except a swelling throb of gratitude, or a deep-felt sentiment of veneration. When Mrs Bums, !Madam, first found herself " as women wish to be wlao love their lords," as I loved her nearly to distraction, we took steps for a private mar- riage. Her parents got the hint ; and not only forbade me her company and their house, but, on my rumoured West Indian voyage, got a warrant to put me in jail, till I should find security in my about -to-be paternal relation. You know my lucky reverse of fortune. On my eclatant return to Mauchline, I was made very wel- come to visit my girl. The usual consequences began to betray her ; and as I was at that time laid up a cripple in Edinburgh, she was turned, literally turned, out of doors, and I wTote to a friend to shelter her till my return, when our maxuiage was declared. Her 42 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. happiness or misery were in my hands, and who could trifle with such a deposit ? I can easily fancy a more agreeable companion for my journey of life ; but, upon my honour, I have never seen the individual instance. Circumstanced as I am, I could never have got a fe- male partner for life, who could have entered into my favourite studies, relished my favourite authors, &c., without probably entailing on me, at the same time, ex- pensive living, fantastic caprice, perhaps apish affecta- tion, with all the other blessed boarding-school acquire- ments, which (pardonnez moi, Madame) are sometimes to be found among females of the upper ranks, but almost universally pervade the misses of the would-be gentry. I like your way in your churchyard lucubrations. Thoughts that are the spontaneous result of accidental situations, either respecting health, place, or company, have often a strength, and always an originality, that would in vain be looked for in fancied circumstances and studied paragraphs. For me, I have often thought of keeping a letter, in progression by me, to send you when the sheet was written out. Now I talk of sheets, I must tell you, my reason for writing to you on paper of this kind is my pruriency of writing to you at large. A page of post is on such a dis-social, narrow-minded scale, that I cannot abide it ; and double letters, at least in my miscellaneous reverie manner, are a monstrous tax in a close correspondence. R. B. No. CXVIIT. TO THE SAME. ElUsland, I6th August, 1788. I AM in a fine disposition, my honoured friend, to send you an elegiac epistle, and want only genius to make it quite Shenstonian :— Why droops my heart with fancied woes forlorn ? Why sinks my soul beneath each wintry sky ? My increasing cares in this, as yet, strange country- gloomy conjectures in the dark vista of futurity — con- sciousness of my own inability for the struggle of the world — ^my broadened mark to misfortune in a wife and children ;— I could indulge these reflections, till my hu- mour should ferment into the most acid chagrin, that would corrode the very thread of life. To counterwork these baneful feelings, I have sat down to write to you J as I declare upon my soul I al- ways find that the most sovereign balm for my wounded spirit. I was yesterday at Mr Miller's to dinner, for the first time. My i-eception was quite to my mind : from the lady of the house quite flattering. She sometimes hits on a couplet or two, impromptu. She repeated one or two to the admiration of all present. My suffrage as a professional man was expected : I for once went ago- nizing over the belly of my conscience. Pardon me, ye, my adored household gods, independence of spirit, and integrity of soul ! In the course of conversation " Johnson's Musical Museum," a collection of Scottish songs with the music, was talked of. We got a song on the harpsichord, beginning. Raving winds aromid her blowing. The air was much admired : the lady of the house'asked me whose were the words. *' Mine, Madam — they are indeed my very best verses :" she took not the smallest notice of them ! The old Scottish proverb says well, " King's caff is better than ither folks' corn." I was going to make a New Testament quotation about " cast- ing pearls," but that would be too virulent, for the lady is actually a woman of sense and taste. After all that has been said on the other side of the question, man is by no means a happy creature. I do not speak of the selected few, favoured by partial heaven, whose souls are tuned to gladness amid riches, and honours, and prudence, and wisdom. I speak of the neglected many, whose nerves, whose sinews, whose days, are sold to the minions of fortune. If I thought you had never seen it, I would transcribe for you a stanza of an old Scottish ballad, called " The Life and Age of Man ;" beginning thus :— i 'Twas in the sixteen hundredth year Of God, and fifty-three Frae Christ was bom, that bought us dear. As writings testifie. I had an old grand-uncle, with whom my mother lived a while in her girlish years ; the good old man, for such he was, was long blmd ere he died, during which time his highest enjoyment was to sit down and cry, while my mother would sing the simple old song of « The Life and Age of Man." It is this way of thinking ; it is these melancholy truths, that make religion so precious to the poor, miserable children of men. If it is a mere phantom, existing only m the heated imagination of enthusiasm, What truth on earth so precious as the lie? My idle reasonings sometimes make me a little scep- tical, but the necessities of my heart always give the cold philosophisings the lie. Who looks for the heart weaned from earth; the soul affianced to her God; the correspondence fixed with heaven ; the pious sup- plication and devout thanksgiving, constant as the vi- cissitudes of even and morn ; who thinks to meet with these in the court, the palace, in the glare of pubhc life ? No : to find them in their precious importance and divine efficacy, we must search among the obscure recesses of disappointment, affliction, poverty, and dis- I am sure, dear Madam, you are now more than pleased with the length of my letters. I return to Ayrshire middle of next week: and it quickens my pace to think that there will be a letter from you wait- ing me there. I must be here again very soon for my harvest. R. B. No. CXIX. TO MR BEUGO, ENGRAVER, EDINBURGH. Ellisland, 9th Sept. 1788. My dear Sir — There is not in Edinburgh above the number of the graces whose letters would have given me so much pleasure as yours of the 3d instant, which only reached me yesternight. I am here on my farm, busy with my harvest ; but for all that most pleasurable part of life called social COMMUNICATION, I am here at the very elbow of existence. The only things that are to be found in this country, in any degree of perfection, are stupidity and canting. Prose, they only know in graces, prayers, &c., and the value of these they estimate, as they do their plaiding webs — by the ell ! As for the muses, they haVe as much an idea of a rhinoceros as of a poet. For my old ca- pricious but good-natured hussy of a muse- By banks of Nith I sat and wept When Coila I thought on. In midst thereof I hung my harp The willow trees upon. I am generally about half my time in Ayrshire with ray " darling Jean ;" and then I, at lucid intervals, throw my horny fist across my be-cobwebbed lyre, much in the same manner as an old wife throws her hand across the spokes of her spinning-wheel. I will send you the " Fortunate Shepherdess" as soon as I return to Ayrshire, for there I keep it with other precious treasure. I shall send it by a careful hand, as I would not for any thing it should be mislaid or lost. I do not wish to serve you from any benevolence, or other grave Christian virtue ; 'tis purely a selfish gra- tification of my own feelings whenever I think of you. If your better functions would give you leisure to WTite me, I should be extremely happy ; that is to say, if you neither keep nor look for a regular correspondence. I hate the idea of being obliged to ^^Tite a letter. I sometimes write a friend twice a-week, at other times once a-quarter. I am exceedingly pleased with your fancy in making the author you mention place a map of Iceland instead of his portrait before his works : 'twas a glorious idea. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 43 Could you conveniently do me one thing ? — whenever you finish any head, I should like to have a proof copy of it. I might tell you a long story about your fine genius ; but, as what every body knows cannot have escaped you, I shall not say one syllable about it. R. B. No. CXX. TO MISS CHALMERS, EDINBURGH. ElUsland, near Dumfries, Sept. \Qth, 1788. Where are you ? and how are you 1 and is Lady Mackenzie recovering her health ? for I have had but one solitary letter from you. I will not think you have forgot me, Madam ; and, for my part — When tUee, Jerusalem, I forget. Skill part from my right haxid ! " My heart is not of that rock, nor my soul careless as that sea." I do not make my progress among man- kind as a bowl does among its fellows — ^rolhng through the crowd without bearing away any mark or impression, except where they hit in hostile collision. I am here, driven in with my harvest-folks by bad weather ; and as you and your sister once did me the honom' of interesting yourselves much a Vegard de moi, I sit down to beg the continuation of your goodness. I can truly say that, all the exterior of life apart, I never saw two whose esteem flattered the nobler feelings of my soul — I will not say more, but so much, as Lady Mackenzie and Miss Chalmers. When I think of you —hearts the best, minds the noblest of human kind — unfortunate even in the shades of Hfe — when I think I have met with you, and have lived more of real life with you in eight days than I can do with almost any body I meet with in eight years — when I think on the improbability of meeting you in this world again — I could sit down and cry like a child ! If ever you ho- noured me with a place in your esteem, I trust I can now plead more desert. I am secure against that crush- ing grip of iron poverty, which, alas ! is less or more fatal to the native worth and purity of, I fear, the no- blest souls ; and a late important step in my life has kindly taken me out of the way of those ungrateful iniquities, which, however overlooked in fashionable licence^ or varnished in fashionable phrase, are indeed but Ughter and deeper shades of villany. Shortly after my last return to Ayrshire, I married " my Jean.'* This was not in consequence of the attach- ment of romance, perhaps ; but I had a long and much- loved fellow-creature's happiness or misery in my de- termination, and I durst not trifle with so important a deposit. Nor have I any cause to repent it. If I have not got pohte tattle, modish manners, and fashionable dress, I am not sickened and disgusted with the multi- form curse of boarding-school affectation : and I have got the handsomest figure, the sweetest temper, the soundest constitution, and the kindest heart, in the county. Mrs Burns believes, as firmly as her creed, that I am le plus hel esprit, et le plus honnete homme in the universe ; although she scarcely ever in her life, ex- cept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the Psalms of David in metre, spent five minutes together on either prose or verse. I must except also from this last a certain late publication of Scots poems, which she has perused very devoutly ; and all the ballads in the country, as she has (oh, the partial lover ! you will cry) the finest « wood note wild" I ever heard.* I am the more particular in this lady's character, as I know she will henceforth have the honour of a share in your best wishes. She is still at Mauchhne, as I am building my house; for this hovel that I shelter in, while occasionally here, is pervious to every blast that blows, and every shower that falls ; and I am only pre- served from being chilled to death by being suffocated with smoke. I do not find my farm that pennyworth I was taught to expect, but I beUeve, in time, it may be a saving bargain. You will be pleased to hear that * [Mrs Biims was in reality a good singer, her voice rising with ease to B natural.] I have laid aside idle eclat, and bind every day after my reapers. To save me from that horrid situation of at any time going down, in a losing bargain of a farm, to misery, I have taken my Excise instructions, and have my com- mission in ray pocket for any emergency of fortune. If I could set all before your view, whatever disrespect you, in common with the world, have for this business, I know you would approve of my idea. I will make no apology, dear Madam, for this egotis- tic detail ; I know you and your sister mil be interested in every circumstance of it. What signify the siUy, idle gewgaws of wealth, or the ideal trumpery of greatness ! When fellow-partakers of the same nature fear the same God, have the same benevolence of heart, the same nobleness of soul, the same detestation at every thing dishonest, and the same scorn at evei-y thing un- worthy — if they are not in the dependence of absolute beggary, in the name of common sense, are they not EQUALS ? And if the bias, the instinctive bias of their souls run the same way, why may they not be friends ? When I may have an opportunity of sending you this, Heaven only Imows. Shenstone says, '* When one is confined idle within doors by bad weather, the best an- tidote against ennui is to read the letters of, or write to, one's friends ;" in that case then, if the weather con- tinues thus, I may scrawl you half a quire. I veiy lately — to wit, since harvest began — wrote a poem, not in imitation, but in the manner, of Pope's Moral Epistles. It is only a short essay, just to try the strength of my Muse's pinion in that way. I will send you a copy of it, when once I have heard from you. I have likewise been laying the foundation of some pretty large poetic works : how the superstructure will come on, I leave to that great maker and marrer of projects — time. Johnson's collection of Scots songs is going on in the thu'd volume ; and, of consequence, finds me a consumpt for a great deal of idle metre. One of the most tolerable things I have done in that way is two stanzas I made to an air a musical gentleman of my acquaintance composed for the anniversary of his wedding-day, which happens on the 7th of November, Take it as follows :— " The day returns — my bosom burns — The bUssful day we twa did meet," &c. I shall give over this letter for shame. If I should be seized mth a scribbling fit, before this goes away, I shall make it another letter ; and then you may allow your patience a week's respite between the two, I have not room for more than the old, kind, hearty fare- well! To make some amends, mes cheres Mesdames, for dragging you on to this second sheet, and to relieve a Httle the tiresomeness of my unstudied anduncorrectible prose, I shall transcribe you some of my late poetic bagatelles ; though I have, these eight or ten months, done very little that way. One day, in a hermitage on the banks of Nith, belonging to a gentleman in my neighbourhood, who is so good as give me a key at pleasure, I wrote as follows, supposing myself the se- questered, venerable inhabitant of the lonely mansion, lines written in friars-carse hermitage. " Thou whom chance may hither lead," &c. B. B. No. CXXI. TO MR MORRISON, MAUCHLINE.* ElUsland, September 22d, 1788. My dear Sir — Necessity obliges me to go into my new house even before it be plastered. I will inhabit the one end until the other is finished. About three weeks more, I think, will at farthest be my time, beyond which I cannot stay in this present house. If ever you wish to deserve the blessing of him that was ready to perish ; * [A cabinetmaker, who had imdertaken to furnish the poet's house at Ellisland.] 44 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. if ever you were in a situation that a little kindness v'ould haA'e rescued you iTom many evils ; if ever you hope to find rest in future states of untried being — get these matters of mine ready. My servant will be out in the beginning of next week for the clock. My com- pliments to Mrs Morrison. I am, after all my tribula- tion, dear Sir, yours. R. B. No. CXXII. TO MRS DUNLOP, OF DUNLOP. MauchUne, 27 th Sept 1788. I HAVE received twins, dear Madam, more than once ; but scarcely ever with more pleasure than when I re- ceived youi's of the 12th instant. To make myself un- derstood ; I had Avrote to Mr Graham, enclosing my poem addressed to him, and the same post which fa- voured me with yours brought me an answer from him. It was dated the very day he had received mine ; and I am quite at a loss to say whether it was most polite or kind. Your criticisms, my honoured benefactress, are truly the work of a friend. They are not the blasting de- predations of a canker-toothed, caterpillar critic ; nor are they the fair statement of cold impartiality, balancing with unfeeling exactitude the pro and con of an author's merits ; they are the judicious observations of animated friendship, selecting the beauties of the piece. I am just arrived from Nithsdale, and will be here a fort- night. I was on horseback this morning by three o'clock ; for betAveen my wife and my farm is just forty-six miles. As I jogged on in the dark, I was taken with a poetic fit as follows : " Mrs Fergusson of Craigdarroch's lamentation for the death of her son — an uncommonly promising youth of eighteen or nineteen years of age. Fate gave the word — the arrow sped, And pierced my darling's heart," &c. You will not send me your poetic rambles, but, you see, I am no niggard of mine. I am sure your im- promptus give me double pleasure ; what falls from your pen can neither be vmentertaining in itself, nor indifferent to me. The one fault you found is just, but I cannot please myself in an emendation. What a life of solicitude is the life of a parent ! You interested me much in your young couple. I would not take my folio paper for this epistle, and now I repent it. I am so jaded with my dirty long journey that I was afraid to drawl into the essence of dulness with any thing larger than a quarto, and so I must leave out another rhyme of this morning's manu- facture. I will pay the sapientipotent George most cheerfully, to hear from you ere I leave AjTshire. R. B. No. CXXIII. TO MR PETER HILL. MauchUne, \st October, 1788. I HAVE been here in this country about three days, and all that time my chief reading has been the " Ad- dress to Lochlomond" you were so obliguig as to send to me.* Were I impannelled one of the author's jury, to determine his ci'iminality respecting the sin of poesy, my verdict should be " GuUty ! A poet of nature's mak- ing !" It is an excellent method for improvement, and what 1 beUeve every poet does, to place some favourite classic author in his own walks of study and composi- tion, before him, as a model. Though your author had not mentioned the name, I could have, at half a glance, guessed his model to be Thomson. Will my brother- poet forgive me, if I venture to hint that his imitation * The poem, entitled " An Address to Lochlomond," is said to be written by a gentleman, now one of the masters of the High School at Edinburgh, and the same who translated the beautiful story of the " Paria," as published in the •' Bee" of Dr Ander- son. — CURRIB. of that immortal bard is in two or three places rather more servUe than such a genius as his required : — e. g. To soothe the maddening passions aU to peace. Address. To soothe the throbbing passions into peace. Thomson. I think the "Address" is in simplicity, harmony, and elegance of versification, fully equal to the " Sea- sons." Like Thomson, too, he has looked into nature for himself: you meet with no copied description. One particular criticism I made at fii'st reading ; in no one instance has he said too much. He never flags in his progress, but, like a true poet of Natiu'e's maldng, kindles in his course. His beginning is simple and modest, as if distrustful of the strength of his pinion ; only, I do not altogether like — Truth, The soul of every song that's nobly great. Fiction is the soul of many a song that is nobly great. Perhaps I am A\-rong : this may be but a prose criticism. Is not the phrase in line 7, page 6, " Great lake," too much vulgarised by every-day language for so sublime a poem 1 Great mass of waters, theme for nobler song, is perhaps no emendation. His enumeration of a com- pai-ison with other lakes is at once harmonious and poetic. Every reader's ideas must sweep the Winding margin of an himdred miles. The perspective that follows mountains blue — the im- prisoned billows beating in vain — the wooded isles — the digression on the yew-tree — ^" Benlomond's lofty, cloud- envelop'd head," &c. are beautiful. A thunder-storm is a subject which has been often tried, yet our poet in his grand picture has interjected a circumstance, so far as I know, entirely original : — The gloom Deep seam'd with frequent streaks of moving fire. In his preface to the storm, " the glens how dark between," is noble highland landscape ! The " rain ploughing the red mould," too, is beautifully fancied. '"' Benlomond's lofty, pathless top," is a good expres- sion ; and the surrounding view from it is truly great : the silver mist, Beneath the beaming sun, is well described ; and here he has contrived to enliven his poem with a little of that passion which bids fair, I think, to usurp the modern muses altogether. I know not how far this episode is a beauty upon the whole, but the swain's wish to carry " some faint idea of the vision bright," to entertain her "partial listening ear," is a pretty thought. But, in my opinion, the most beau- tiful passages in the whole poem are the fowls crowding, in wintry frosts, to Lochlomond's " hospitable flood ;" their wheeling round, their lightmg, mixing, diving, &c. : and the glorious description of the sportsman. This last is equal to any thing in the " Seasons." The idea of " the floating tribes distant seen, far glistering to the moon," provoking his eye as he is obliged to leave them, is a noble ray of poetic genius. " The howling winds," the "hideous roar" of "the white cascades," are all in the same style. I forget that while I am thus holding forth with the heedless warmth of an enthusiast, I am perhaps tiring you with nonsense. I must, however, mention that the last vei'se of the sixteenth page is one of the most ele- gant compHments I have ever seen. I must likewise notice that beautiful paragraph beginning "The gleam- ing lake," &ic. I dare not go into the particular beau- ties of the last two paragraphs, but they are admirably fine, and truly Ossianic. I must beg your pardon for this lengthened scrawl. I had no idea of it when I began — I should lilce to know who the author is ; but, whoever he be, please present him with my grateful thanks for the entertainment he has afforded me. A friend of mine desired me to commission for him two books, " Letters on the Religion essential to Man," a book you sent me before ; and "The World Unmasked, or the Philosopher the gi-eatest Cheat." Send me them GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 45 by the first opportunity. The Bible you sent me is truly elegant ; I only wish it had been ia two volumes. R. B. No. CXXIV. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE STAR."* November Sth, 1788. Sir — Notwithstanding the opprobrious epithets with which some of our pliilosophers and gloomy sectarians have branded our nature — the principle of universal selfishness, the proneness to all evil, they have given us — still, the detestation in which inhumanity to the distressed, or insolence to the fallen, are held by all mankind, shows that they are not natives of the human heart. Even the unhappy partner of our kind who is imdone — the bitter consequence of his follies or his crimes — who but s}Tapathises with the miseries of this ruined profligate brother ? We forget the injuries, and feel for the man. I went, last Wednesday, to my parish church, most cordially to join in grateful acknowledgment to the Author of all Good, for the consequent blessings of the glorious Revolution. To that auspicious event we owe no less than our hberties, civil and religious ; to it we are like\\-ise indebted for the present royal family, the mling features of whose administration have ever been mildness to the subject, and tenderness of his rights. Bred and educated in revolution principles, the prin- ciples of reason and common sense, it could not be any siliy political prejudice which made my heart revolt at the harsh, abusive manner in which the reverend gen- tleman mentioned the House of Stuart, and which, I am afraid, was too much the language of the day. We may rejoice sufficiently in our deliverance from past e\-ils, ^vithout cruelly raking up the ashes of those whose mis- fortune it was, perhaps as much as their crime, to be the authors of those evils ; and we may bless God for all his goodness to us as a nation, without at the same time cursing a few ruined, powerless exiles, who only harboured ideas, and made attempts, that most of us would have done, had we been in their situation. " The bloody and tyrannical House of Stuart" may be said with propriety and justice, when compared with the present royal family, and the sentiments of our days ; but is there no allowance to be made for the manners of the times ? Were the royal contemporaries I of the Stuarts more attentive to their subjects' rights? Might not the epithets of "bloody and tjTarmical" be, with at least equal justice, applied to the House of Tudor, of York, or any other of their predecessors ? The simple state of the case. Sir, seems to be this : — At that period, the science of government, the know- ledge of the true relation between king and subject, was, like other sciences and other knowledge, just in its infancy, emerging from dark ages of ignorance and barbarity. The Stuarts only contended for prerogatives which they knew they predecessors enjoyed, and which they saw their contemporaries enjoying; but these prero- gatives were inimical to the happiness of a nation and the rights of subjects. In this contest between prince and people, the con- sequence of that light of science which had lately dawned over Europe, the monarch of France, for example, was victorious over the struggling hberties of his people : with us, luckily, the monarch tailed, and his unwarrant- able pretensions feU a sacrifice to our rights and hap- piness. Whether it was owing to the wisdom of leading individuals, or to the justling of parties, I cannot pre- tend to determine ; but, likewise, happily for us, the * [Dr Currie thought it probable that this letter was addressed to the Editor of the Edinburgh Evening Courant ; but Mr Cunning- ham superscribes it as above, and we prefer his authority. TheStar was a London priut, then conducted by IMr John 3Iaj-ne, author of the " Siller Gun." The preacher, -n-hose sentiments drew forth the communication,was the Rev. Mr Kirkpatrick of Dun- Bcore, the parish in v.hich ElUiland is situated.] kingly power was shifted into another branch of the family, who, as they owed the throne solely to the call of a free people, could claim nothing inconsistent with the covenanted terms wliich placed them there. The Stuarts have been condemned and laughed at for the folly and impracticability of their attempts in 1715 and 1745. That they failed, 1 bless God, but can- not join in the ridicule against them. Who does not know that the abihties or defects of leaders and com- manders are often hidden until put to the touchstone of exigency ; and that there is a caprice of fortune, an omnipotence in particular accidents and conjunctures of circumstances which exalt us as heroes, or brand us as madmen, just as they are for or against us? Man, Mr PubHsher, is a strange, weak, inconsistent being : who would believe, Sir, that in this our Augustan age of Hberahty and refinement, while we seem so justly sensible and jealous of our rights and liberties, and animated with such indignation against the very me- mory of those who would have subverted them that a cenain people under our national protection should complain, not against our monarch and a few favourite advisers, but against our whole legislative body, for similar oppression, and almost in the very- same terms, as our forefathers did of the House of Stuart ! I will not, I cannot, enter into the merits of the case ; but I dare say the American Congress, in 177'v, '^ill be allowed to be as able and as enlightened as the English Conven- tion was in 1688 ; and that their posterity will celebrate the centenary of their dehverance from us, as duly and sincerely as we do ours from the oppressive measures of the -ftTong-headed House of Stuart. To conclude, Sir ; let every man who has a tear for the many miseries incident to humanity, feel for a family illustrious as any in Europe, and unfortunate be- yond historic precedent ; and let ever}' Briton (and par- ticularly every Scotsman), who ever looked Avith reve- rential pit}' on the dotage of a parent, cast a veil over i the fatal mistakes of the kings of his forefathers. R. B. No. CXXV. TO MRS DUNLOP, AT MOREHAM MAINS. Mauchline, 13/A November, 1788. ]Mada3I — I had the very great pleasure of dining at Dunlop yesterday, ilen are said to flatter women be- cause they are weak — it it be so, poets must be weaker stiU ; for Misses R. and K. and Miss G. ^M'K. \\-ith their flattering attentions, and artful compUments, absolutely turned my head. I o^v-n they did not lard me over as many a poet does his patron, but they so intoxicated me I uitb their sly insinuations and dehcate inuendos of com- phment, that if it had not been for a lucky recollection j how much additional weight and lustre your good opi- nion and friendship must give me in that circle, I had 1 certainly looked upon myself as a person of no small j consequence. I dare not say one word how much I I was charmed with the major's friendly welcome, elegant j maimer, and acute remark, lest I shoidd be thought to balance my orientalisms of applause over-against the finest quey* in Ayrshire which he made me a present I of to help and adorn my farm-stock. As it was on hal- I low-day, I am determined annually as that day rettums, to decorate her horns with an ode of gratitude to the family of Dunlop. So soon as I know of your arrival at Dunlop, I will take the first conveniency to dedicate a day, or perhaps two, to you and friendship, under the guarantee of the major's hospitality. There -nill soon be threescore and ten miles of permanent distance between us ; and now that your friendship and fiiendly correspondence is en- twisted with the heart-strings of my enjoj-ment of life, I must indulge myself in a happy day of " The feast of reason and the flow of soul." R. B. * Heifer. 46 BUENS'S PROSE WORKS. No. CXXVI. TO MR JAMES JOHNSON, ENGRAVER. Mauchline, November 15th, 1788. My dear Sir — I have sent you two more songs. If you have got any tunes, or any thing to correct, please send them by return of the carrier. I can easily see, my dear friend, that you will very probably have four volumes. Perhaps you may not find your account lucratively in this business ; but you are a patriot for the music of your country, and I am certain posterity will look on themselves as highly in- debted to your public spirit. Be not in a huri'y ; let us go on correctly, and your name shall be immortal. I am preparing a flaming preface for your third vo- lume. I see every day new musical pubhcations adver- tised ; but what are they ? Gaudy, painted butterflies of a day, and then vanish for ever : but your work will outlive the momentary neglects of idle fasliion, and defy the teeth of time. Have you never a fair goddess that leads you a wild- goose chase of amorous devotion ? Let me know a few of her quahties, such as whether she be rather black or fair, plump or tliin, short or tall, &c. ; and choose your air, and I shall task my muse to celebrate her. KB. No. CXXVII. TO DR BLACKLOCK. Mauchline, November 15th, 1788. RE^^rRE^'D and dear Sir — As I hear nothing of your motions, but that you are, or were, out of town, I do not know where this may find you, or whether it ^viU find you at all. I "vvrote you a long letter, dated from the land of matrimony, in June ; but either it had not found you, or, what I dread more, it found you or Mrs Blacklock in too precarious a state of health and spii'its to take notice of an idle packet. I have done many little things for Johnson, since I had the pleasure of seeing you ; and I have finished one piece in the way of Pope's " Moral Epistles ;" but, from your silence, I have every thing to fear, so I have only sent you two melancholy things, wliich I tremble lest they should too well suit the tone of your present feel- ings. In a fortnight I move, bag and baggage, to Nithsdale ; tiU then, my direction is at this place ; after that period, it wOl be at Ellisland, near Dumfries. It would ex- tremely obhge me were it but half a line, to let me know how you are, and where you are. Can I be indifierent to the fate of a man to whom I owe so much — a man whom I not only esteem, but venerate ? My warmest good -nishes and most respectful com- pliments to Mrs Blacklock, and Miss Johnston, if she is with you. I cannot conclude without telling you that I am more and more pleased with the step I took respecting " my Jean." Two things, from my happy experience, I set down as apophthegms in life. A wife's head is imma- terial, compared with her heart; and — "Vii'tue's (for wisdom what poet pretends to it ?) ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Adieu ! R. B. [Here follow " The mother's lament for the loss of her son," and the song beginning " The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill."J No. CXXVIII. TO MRS DUNLOP. Ellisland, 17th December, 1788. My dear honoured Friend — Yours, dated Edinburgh, which I have just read, makes me very unhappy. "Al- most bhnd and wholly deaf," are melancholy news of human nature ; but Avhen told of a much-loved and ho- noiired friend, they carry misery in the sound. Good- ness on your part, and gratitude on mine, began a tie which has gradually entwisted itself among the dearest chords of my bosom, and I tremble "at the omens of your late and present ailing habit and shattered health. You miscalculate matters widely, when you forbid my waiting on you, lest it should hurt my worldly concerns. My small scale of farming is exceedingly more simple and easy than what you have lately seen at Moreham Mains. But, be that as it may, the heart of the man and the fancy of the poet are the two grand considera- tions for which I live : if miry ridges and dirty dung- hills-are to engross the best part of the functions of my soul immortal, I had better been a rook or a magpie at once, and then I should not have been plagued with any ideas superior to breaking of clods and picking up grubs ; not to mention barn-door cocks or mallards, creatures with which I could almost exchange Hves at any time. If you continue so deaf, I am afraid a visit \viU be no great pleasure to either of us ; but if I hear you are got so well again as to be able to relish conversation, look you to it. Madam, for I will make my threatenings good. I am to be at the New-year-day fair of Ayr : and, by all that is sacred in the w^orld, friend, I \vill come'and see you. Your meeting, which you so well describe, with your old schoolfellow and friend, was truly interesting. Out upon the Avays of the world ! They spoil these " social offsprings of the heart." Two veterans of the " men of the world" would have met with little more heart-work- ings than two old hacks worn out on the road. Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase, " auld lang syne," exceedingly expressive ? There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scotch songs. I shall give you the verses on the other sheet, as I suppose Mr Ker will save you the postage. Should auld acquaintance be forgot ? &c. Light be the turf on the breast of the Heaven-in- spired poet who composed this glorious fragment ! * There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern EngHsh Bacchanalians ! Now I am on my hobby-horse, I cannot help inserting two other old stanzas, which please me mightily :— Go fetch to me a pint o* wane, &c.* R.B. No. CXXIX. TO MISS DAVIES. December, 1788. Madam — I understand my very worthy neighbour, Mr Riddel, has informed you that I have made you the subject of some verses. There is something so pro- voking in the idea of being the l)urden of a ballad, that I do not think Job or Moses, though such patterns of patience and meekness, could have resisted the curio- sity to know what that ballad was ; so my worthy friend has done me a mischief, which I dare say he never in- tended^ and reduced me to the unfortunate alternative of leaving your curiosity ungratified, or else disgusting you with foolish verses, the unfinished production of a random moment, and never meant to have met your ear. I have heard or read somewhere of a gentleman who had some genius, much eccentricity, and very con- siderable dexterity with his pencil. In the accidental group of life into which one is thrown, wherever this gentleman met with a character in a more than ordi- nary degree congenial to his heart, lie used to steal a sketch of the face, merely, he said, as a nota bene, to point out the agreeable recollection to his memory. What this gentleman's pencil was to him, my muse is to me ; and the verses I do myself the honour to send you are a memento exactly of the same kind that he in- dulged in. It may be more owing to the fastidiousness of my caprice than the delicacy of my taste, but I am so often tired, disgusted, and hurt, with the insipidity, affecta- tion, and pride of mankind, that when I meet with a person " after my own heart," I positively feel what an orthodox Protestant would call a species of idolatry, * [It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that these songs are both of Burns's owti composition.] GENERAL CORRESPONDEXCE. 47 which acts on my fancy like inspiration ; and I can no | more desist rhj-ming on the impulse, than an -dEoHan j harp can refuse its tones to the streaming air. A dis- j tich or two would he the consequence, though the ob- j ject which hit my fancy were grey-bearded age ; but i whei-e my theme is youth and beauty, a yovmg lady | whose personal charms, \dt, and sentiment, are equally \ striking and unaffected — by Heavens ! though I had j lived threescore years a married man, and threescore vears before I was a married man, my imagination would hallow the very idea : and I am truly sorry that the enclosed stanzas have done such poor justice to such a subject R. B. No. CXXX. TO MR JOHN TENNANT. December 22d, 1788. I rESTERDAY tried my cask of whisky for the first time, and I assure you it does you great credit. It will bear five waters, strong, or six, ordinary toddy. The whisky of this countrj- is a most rascally Hquor ; and, by co'nsequence, only drunk by the most rascally part of the inhabitants. I am persuaded, if you once get a footing here, you might do a great deal of busi- ness, in the way of consumpt ; and should you com- mence distiller again, this is the native barley country. I am ignorant if, in your present way of dealing, you would think it worth your while to extend your busi- ness so far as this country' side. I write you this on the accoimt of an accident, which I must take the merit of ha^'ing partly designed to. A neighbour of mine, a John Currie, miller in C arse-mill — a man who is, in a word, a " very"' good man, even for a £500 bargain — he and his wife were in my house the time I broke open the cask. They keep a countr\- pubUe-house and sell a great deal of foreign spirits, but all along thought that whisky would have degraded this house. They were perfectly astonished at my whisk}', both for its taste and strength ; and, by their desire, I write you to know if you could supply them with Kquor of an equal qua- lity, and what price. Please write me by first post, and direct to me at F.ll island, near Dumfries. If }'ou could take a jaunt this way youireelf, I have a spare spoon, knife, and fork, revy much at your sers-ice. !My compliments to Mrs Tennant, and all the good folks in Glenconner and Barqnharrie. R. B. No. CXXXI. TO MRS DUXLOP. Ellisland, Xevc-year-day Morning^ 1789. Teus, dear Madam, is a morning of wishes, and would to God that I came under the apostle James's descrip- tion ! — the prayer of a righteous man avaxleth much. In that case, Madam, you should welcome m a year full of blessings : eveiy thing that obstructs or disturbs tran- quiUity and seif-enjo%TQent, should be removed, and ever>' pleasure that fi.'ail humanity can taste, should be yours. I own myself so httle a Presbyterian, that I approve of set times and seasons of more than ordinary acts of devotion, for breaking in on that habituated routine of life and thought, which is so apt to reduce our existence to a kind of instinct, or even sometimes, and A%-ith some minds, to a state very little superior to mere machinen,'. This day ; the first Sunday of ^May ; a breezy, blue- skied noon some time about the beginning, and a hoarv morning and calm sunny day about the end, of autumn'; these, time out of mind, have been with me a kind of hohday. I believe I owe this to that glorious paper in the Spec- tator, " The Vision of ^Mirza,'' a piece that struck my young fancy before I was capable of fixing an idea to a word of three syllables : " On the 5th dayof the moon, ■which, according to the custom of my 'forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed' myseh' and of- fered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hiU of Bagdat, in order to pass the rest of the day In meditation and prayer." We know nothing, or next to nothing, of the substance or structure of our souls, so cannot account for those seeming caprices in them, that one should be particu- larly pleased with this thing, or struck with that, which, on minds of a different cast, makes no extraordinary impression. I have some favourite flowers in spring, among which are the moiintain-daisy, the harebell, the fox-glove, the wild-brier rose, the budding birch, and the hoary hawthorn, that I view and hang over with particular delight. I never hear the loud, sohtary whistle of the curlew in a summer noon, or the wild mixing cadence of a troop of grey plovers, in an au- tumnal morning, without feeling an elevation of soul nke the enthusiasm of devotion or poetrj-. Tell me, my dear friend, to what can this be owing \ Are we a piece of machinery, which, like the ^Eolian harp, passive, takes the impression of the passing accident ? Or do these workings argue something within us above the trodden clod ? I own myself partial to such proofs of those awful and important realities — a God that made all things — man's unmaterial and inmiortal nature— and a world of weal or woe beyond death and the grave. R. B.* Xo. CXXXII. TO DR MOORE. EUisIand, 4.th Jan. 1789. Sifi — As often as I tbinlc of writing to you, which has been three or four times every week these six months, it gives me something so like the idea of an ordinary- sized statue offering at a conversation with the Rhodian colosstis, that my mind misgives me, and the affair always miscarries somewhere between purpose and re- solve. I have at last got some business ydxh you, and business letters are written by the stjie-book. I say my business is %vith you. Sir, for you never had any with me, except the business that benevolence has 'in the mansion of poverty. The character and employment of a poet were for- merly my pleasure, but are now my pride. I know that a ver^- great deal of my late eclat was owing to the singularity of my situation, and the honest prejudice of Scotsmen ; but still, as I said in the preface to my first edition, I do look upon myself as having some preten- sions from nature to the poetic character. I have not a doubt but the knack, the aptitude, to learn the muses* trade, is a gift bestowed by Him '•' who forms the secret bias of the soul ;" — but I as firmly beheve, that excel- lence in the profession is the fruit of industry, labour, attention, and pains. At least I am resolved to try my doctrine by the test of experience. Another appear- ance from the press I put off to a very- distant day, a day that may never arrive — but poesy I am deter- mined to prosecute T^ith all my vigour. Xature bq.g given ver>- few, if any, of the profession, the talents of shining in everj' species of composition. I shall try (for until trial it is impossible to know) whether she has qualified me to shine in any one. The worst of it is, by the time one has finished a piece, it has been so often viewed and reviewed before the mental eye, that one loses in a good measure the powers of critical discrimination. Here the best criterion I know is a * [The piety of this letter receives a harmonious reponse from the fcllowing, addressed on the same day by Gilbert Bums to his poetical brother :— " Mossgid, \st Jan. 1789. Dear Brother — I have just finished my new-year's-day breakfast in the usual form, which naturally makes me call to mind the days of former years, and the society in which we used to begin them; and when I look at our family Ticissinides, ' through the dark postern of time long elapsed," I cannot help remarking to you, my dear brother, how good the God of Sea- i soxs is to MB, and that, however some clouds may seem to lower I over the portion of time before us, we have great reason to hopa that aU wiU turn out welL Your mother and sisters, with Robert the second, join me in the compliments of the season to you and Mrs Bums, and beg you will remember us in the same manner to William the first time you see him. I am, dear brother, yours, Gilbert Bl'bxs,'" 48 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. friend — not only of abilities to judge, but with good-na- ture enough, hke a prudent teacher with a young learner, to pi'aise perhaps a httle more than is exactly just, lest the thin-sldnned animal fall into that most deplorable of all poetic diseases — heart-breaking despon- dency of himselt'. Dare I, Sir, already immensely in- debted to your goodness, ask the additional obligation of your being that friend to me ? I enclose you an essay of mine, in a walk of poesy to me entirely new ; I mean the epistle addressed to R. G. Esq., or Robert Graham of Fintry, Esq., a gentleman of uncommon worth, to whom I he imder very great obligations. The story of the poem, Hke most of my poems, is connected with my own story, and to give you the one I must give you something of the other. I cannot boast of Mr Creech's ingenuous fair dealing to me. He kept me hanging about Edinburgh from the 7th August 1787, until the 13th April 1788, before he would condescend to give me a statement of affairs ; nor had I got it even then, but for an angry letter I wrote him, which irritated his pride. " I could" not a "tale" but a detail "unfold ;" but what am I that should speak against the Lord's anointed Bailie of Edinburgh ?* I believe I shall, in whole, £100 copy-right included, clear about £400 some httle odds ; and even part of this depends upon what the gentleman has yet to settle with me. I give you this information, because you did me the honour to interest yourself much in my w^elfare. I give you this information, but I give it to yourself only, for I am still much in the gentleman's mercy. Perhaps I injure the man in the idea I am sometimes tempted to have of him — God forbid I should ! A Httle time will try, for m a month I shall go to town to wind up the business if possible. To give the rest of my story in brief, I have married " my Jean," and taken a farm : with the first step I have every day more and more reason to be satisfied ; with the last, it is rather the reverse. I have a younger brother, who supports my aged mother ; another stiU younger brother, and three sisters, in a farm. On my last return from Edinburgh, it cost me about £180 to save them from ruin. Not that I have lost so much — I only interposed between my brother and his impend- ing fate by the loan of so much. I give myself no airs on this, for it was mere selfishness on my part : I was conscious that the A\T.'ong scale of the balance was pretty heavily charged, and I thought that throwing a little fiHal piety and fraternal aflFection into the scale in my favour, might help to smooth matters at the grand reckoning. There is still one thing would make my circumstances quite easy: I have an excise officer's commission, and I live in the midst of a country divi- sion. My request to Mr Graham, who is one of the commissioners of excise, was, if in his power, to procure me that division. If I were very sanguine, I might hope that some of my great patrons might procure me a treasury wari'ant for supervisor, surveyor-general, &c. Thus, secure of a liveliliood, " to thee, sweet poetry, delightful maidj" I would consecrate my future days. R. B. No. CXXXIII. TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE. Ellisland, January 6th, 1789. Many happy returns of the season to you, my dear Sir ! May you be comparatively happy up to your comparative worth among the sons of men ; which ^^ish would, I am sure, make you one of the most blest of the human race. I do not know if passing a " writer to the signet " be a trial of scientific merit, or a mere business of friends and interest. However it be, let me quote you my two * [Those who publish books for authors are not in general the most prompt in rendering returns, and for this there is some rea- son, as well as excuse, in the forms and circumstances of the book-trade ; but Sir Creech was remarkable for his reluctance to settle accoimts of any kind, and of this the poet seems to have •been eminently a victim.] favourite passages, which, though I have repeated them ten thousand times, stUl they rouse my manhood and steel my resolution like inspiration. On Reason build resolve, That column of true majesty in man. — Young. Hear, Alfred, hero of the state, Thy genius heaven's high will declare ; The triumph of the truly great. Is never, never to despair ! Is never to despair. Masque of Alfred. I grant you enter the Hsts of life to struggle for bread, business, notice, and distinction, in common with hun- dreds. But who are they ? Men like yourself, and of that aggregate body your compeers, seven-tenths of them come short of your advantages, natural and acci- dental ; while two of those that remain, either neglect their parts, as flowers blooming in a desert, or misspend their strength like a bull goring a bramble bush. But to change the theme : I am stUl catering for John- son's publication ; and among others, I have brushed up the foUowing old favourite song a Httle, with a view to your worship. I have only altered a word here and there ; but if you like the humour of it, we shaU think of a stanza or two to add to it.* R, B. No. CXXXIV. TO PROFESSOR DUGALD STEWART. Ellisland, 20th Jan. 1789, Sir — The enclosed sealed packet I sent to Edinburgh, a few days after I had the happiness of meeting you in Ayrshire, but you were gone for the continent. I have now added a few more of my productions, those for which I am indebted to the Nithsdale Muses. The piece inscribed to R. G. Esq. is a copy of verses I sent Mr Graham of Fintry, accompanying a request for his assistance in a matter to me of very great moment. To that gentleman I am already doubly indebted ; for deeds of kindness of serious import to my dearest interests, done in a manner grateful to the deHcate feelings of sensibility. This poem is a species of composition new to me, but I do not intend it shall be my last essay of the kind, as you wiU see by the " Poet's Progress." These fragments, if my design succeed, are but a small part of the intended whole. I propose it shall be the work of my utmost exertions, ripened by years ; of course I do not wish it much known. The fragment beginning " A Httle upright,' pert, tart," &c. I have not shown to man living, till I now send it you. It forms the postulata. the axioms, the definition of a character, which, if it appear at all, shall be placed in a variety of lights. This particular part I send you merely as a sample of my hand at portrait-sketching ; but, lest idle conjecture should pretend to point out the original, please to let it be for your single, sole inspection. Need I make any apology for this trouble, to a gen- tleman who has treated me with such marked benevo- lence and peculiar Idndness ; who has entered into my interests with so much zeal, and on whose critical de- cisions I can so fully depend ? A poet as I am by trade, these decisions are to me of the last consequence. My late transient acquaintance among some of the mere rank and file of greatness, I resign with ease ; but to the distinguished champions of genius and learning, I shall be ever ambitious of being known. The native genius and accurate discernment in Mr Stewart's cri- tical strictures ; the justice (iron justice, for he has no bowels of compassion for a poor poetic sinner) of Dr Gregory's remarks, and the deHcacy of Professor Dal- zel's taste, I shall ever revere. I shall be in Edinburgh some time next month. I have the honour to be, Sii', your highly obliged, and very humble servant, R. B. * [The nan^e of the song here alluded to has not been ascer- tained.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 49 No. CXXXV. TO BISHOP GEDDES.* Ellisland, M Feb. 1789. Venerable Father — As I am conscious that, wher- ever I am, you do me the honour to interest yourself in my welfare, it gives me pleasure to inform you, that I am here at last, stationary in the serious business of life, and have now not only the retired leisure, but the hearty inclination, to attend to those great and impor- tant questions — what I am ; where I am ; and for what I am destined. In that first concern, the conduct of the man, there was ever but one side on which I was habitually blame- able, and there I have secured myself in the way pointed out by nature and nature's God. I was sensible that, to so helpless a creature as a poor poet, a wife and fa- mily were incumbrances, which a species of prudence would bid him shun; but when the alternative was, being at eternal warfare with myself, on account of habitual follies, to give them no worse name, which no general example, no licentious wit, no sophistical inli- delity, would, to me, ever justify, I must have been a fool to have hesitated, and a madman to have made another choice. Besides, I had in "my Jean" a long and much-loved fellow-creature's happiness or misery among my hands, and Avho could trifle with such a de- posit 1 ^ In the affair of a livelihood, I think myself tolerably secure : I have good hopes of my farm ; but should they fail, I have an excise commission, which, on my simple petition, will at any time procure me bread. There is a certain stigma affixed to the character of an excise officer, but I do not pretend to borrow honour from my profession ; and though the salary be comparatively small, it is luxury to any thing that the first twenty-five years of my life taught me to expect. Thus, with a rational aim and method in life, you may easily guess, my I'everend and much honoured friend, that my characteristical trade is not forgotten. I am, if possible, more than ever an enthusiast to the muses. I am determined to study man and nature, and in that view incessantly ; and to try if the ripening and corrections of years can enable me to produce something worth preserving. You will see in your book, which I beg your pardon for detaining so long,f that I have been tuning my lyre on the banks of Nith. Some large poetic plans that are floating in my imagination, or partly put in execution, I shall impart to you when I have the pleasure of meet- ing with you, which, if you are then in Edinburgh, I shall have about the beginning of March. That acquaintance, worthy Sir, with which you were pleased to honour me, you must still allow me to chal- lenge ; for with whatever unconcern I give up my tran- sient connection with the merely great, I cannot lose the patronising notice of the learned and good, without the bitterest regret. R. B. No. CXXXVI. TO MR JAMES BURNESS. EUisland, 9th Feb. 1789. My dear Sir — Why I did not write to you long ago is what, even on the rack, I could not answer. If you * [Alexander Geddes, bom at Arradowl in Banffohire in 1737, was reared as a Catholic clergyman, and long officiated in that capacity in his native county, and elsewhere. As humbly born as Burns, he possessed much of his strong and eccentric genius, and it is not surprising that he and the Ayrshire bard should have become friends. After 1700, his life was spent in London, chiefly under the fostering patronage of a generous Catholic noble- man, Lord Petre. The heterodox opinions of Dr Geddes, his ex- traordinary attempts to translate the Bible, and his numerous fugitive publications on controversial divinity, made much noise at the time ; but he is now only remembered for some successful Scotch verses. This singular man died in London, February 20, 1802, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.] t [A copy of Burns's Poems, belonging to Dr Geddes, into which the poet had transferred some of his more recent verses. The volume is now in the possession of Mrs Hislop, Finsbpry Square, London. : • " can in your mind form an idea of indolence, dissipation, hui'ry, cares, change of country, entering on untried scenes of life, all combined, you will save me the trouble of a blushing apology. It could not be want of regard for a man for whom I had a high esteem before I knew him — an esteem which has much increased since I did know him ; and this caveat entered, I shall plead guilty to any other indictment with which you shall please to charge me. After I parted from you, for many months my life was one continued scene of dissipation. Here at last I am become stationax'y, and have taken a farm and — a wife. The farm is beautifully situated on the Nith, a large river that runs by Dumfries, and falls into the Solway Frith. I have gotten a lease of my farm as long as I pleased ; but how it may tui'n out is just a guess, and it is yet to improve and enclose, &c. : however, I have good hopes of my bargain on the whole. My wife is my Jean, with whose story you are partly acquainted. I found I had a much-loved fellow-crea- ture's happiness or misery among my hands, and I durst not trifle with so sacred a deposit. Indeed, I have not any reason to repent the step I have taken, as I have attached myself to a very good wife, and have shaken myself loose of every bad failing. I have found my book a very profitable business, and with the profits of it I have begun life pretty decently. Should fortune not favour me in farming, as I have no great faith in her fickle ladyship, I have provided my- self in another resource, which, however some folks may affect to despise it, is still a comfortable shift in the day of misfortune. In the heyday of my fame, a gentleman, whose name at least I dare say you know, as his estate lies somewhere near Dundee, Mr Graham of Fintry, one of the commissioners of Excise, offered me the commission of an excise-officer. I thought it prudent to accept the offer ; and, accordingly, I took my instructions, and have my commission by me. Whe- ther I may ever do duty, or be a penny the better for it, is what I do not know ; but I have the comfortable assui'ance, that, come whatever ill fate will, I can, on my simple petition to the Excise-board, get into employ. We have lost poor uncle Robert this winter. He has long been very weak, and with very little alteration on him : he expired 3d January. His son William has been with me this winter, and goes in May to be an apprentice to a mason. His other son, the eldest, John, comes to me, I expect, in summer. They aro both remarkably stout young fellows, and pro- mise to do well. His only daughter, Fanny, has been with me ever since her father's death, and I purpose keeping her in my family till she be quite woman grown, and tit for better service. She is one of the cleverest girls, and has one of the most amiable dispositions, I have ever seen.* All friends in this county and Ayrshire are well. Remember me to all friends in the north. My wife joins me in compliments to Mrs B. and family. I am evei', my dear cousin, yours sincerely, R. B. No. CXXXVII. TO MRS DUNLOP. EUisland, ith March, 1789. Here am I, my honoured friend, returned safe from the capital. To a man who has a home, however humble or remote — if that home is like mine, the scene of do- mestic comfort — the bustle of Edinburgh will soon be a business of sickening disgust. Vain pomp and gloi-y of this world, I hate you ! When I must skulk into a corner, lest the rattling equipage of some gaping blockhead should mangle me in the mire, I am tempted to exclaim, " What merits has he had, or what demerit have I had, in some state of pre-existence, that he is ushered into this state of * [This estimable woman became the wife of Adam Armour, mason, a brother of Mrs Robert Burns. She still lives in Mauch- linc, 1838.] 50 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. being with the sceptre of rule, and the key of riches in his puny fist, and I am kicked into the world, the sport of folly, or the victim of pride V I have read some- where of a monarch (in Spain I think it was), who was so out of humour with the Ptolemean system of astro^ nomy, that he said, had he been of the Creator's council, he could have saved him a great deal of labour and ab- surdity. I will not defend this blasphemous speech ; but often, as I have ghded Avith huinble stealth through the pomp of Princes' Street, it has suggested itself to me, as an improvement on the present human figure, that a man, in proportion to his OAvn conceit of his con- sequence in the world, could have pushed out the lon- gitude of his common size, as a snail pushes out his horns, or as we draw out a perspective. This trifling- alteration, not to mention the prodigious saving it would be in the tear and wear of the neck and limb-sinews of many of his Majesty's liege-subjects, in the way of toss- ing the head and tiptoe strutting, would evidently turn out a vast advantage, in enabling us at once to adjust the ceremonials in making a bow, or making way to a great man, and that too within a second of the precise spherical angle of reverence, or an inch of the particu- lar point of respectful distance, which the important creature itself requires ; as a measuring-glance at its towering altitude would determine the affair like in- stinct. You are right. Madam, in your idea of poor Mylne's poem, which he has addressed to me. The piece has a good deal of merit, but it has one great fault — ^it is by far too long. Besides, my success has encouraged such a shoal of ill-spawned monsters to crawl into public no- tice, under the title of Scottish poets, that the very term Scottish poetry borders on the burlesque. When I write to Mr Carfrae, I shall advise him rather to try one of his deceased friend's English pieces. I am pro- digiously hurried with my own matters, else I would have requested a perusal of all Mylne's poetic perform- ances, and would have offered his friends my assistance in either selecting or correcting what would be proper for the press. What it is that occupies me so much, and perhaps a little oppresses my present sjJirits, shall fill up a paragraph in some future letter. In the mean- time, allow me to close this epistle with a few lines done by a friend of mine. ***** I give you them, that, as you have seen the original, you may guess whe- ther one or two alterations I have ventured to make in them be any real improvement. Like the fair plant that from our touch withdraws. Shrink, mildly fearful, even from applause. Be all a mother's fondest hope can dream. And all you are, my charming * * * * seem. Straight as the fox-glove, ere her bells disclose. Mild as the maiden-blushing hawthorn blows. Fair as the fairest of each lovely kind, Your form shall be the image of your mind ; Your manners shall so true your soul express. That all shall long to know the worth they guess ; Congenial hearts shall greet with kindred love, And even sick'ning envy must approve.* " R. B. No. CXXXVIII. TO THE REV. P. CARFRAE. 1789. Rev", Sik — I do not recollect that I have ever felt a severer pang of shame, than on looking at the date of your obliging letter which accompanied Mr Mylne's poem. I am much to blame: the honour Mr Mylne has done me, greatly enhanced in its value by the endear- ing, though melancholy circumstance of its being the last production of his muse, deserved a better return. I have, as you hint, thought of sending a copy of the poem to some periodical publication ; but, on second thoughts, I am afraid that, in the present case, it would be an improper step. My success, perhaps as much accidental as merited, has brought an inundation of * These beautiful lines, we have reason to believe, are the pro- duction of the lady to whom this letter is addressed.— Cuhrxk. nonsense under the name of Scottish poetry. Subscrip- tion-bills for Scottish, poems have so dunned, and daily do dun the public, that the very name is in danger of contempt. For these reasons, if publishing any of Mr Mylne's poems in a Magazine, &c. be at all prudent, in my opmion it certainly should not be a Scottish poem. The profits of the labours of a man of genius, are, I hope, as honourable as any profits whatever ; and Mr Mylne's relations are most justly entitled to that honest harvest which fate has denied himself to reap. But let the friends of Mr Mylne's fame (among whom I crave the honour of rankiog myself) always keep in eye his respectability as a man and as a poet, and take no mea- sure that, before the world knows any thing about him, would risk his name and character being classed wi^h the fools of the times. I have. Sir, some experience of publishing ; and the way ia which I would proceed with Mr Mylne's poems, is this : — I will publish, in two or three English and Scottish public papers, any one of his EngUsh poems which should, by private judges, be thought the most excellent, and mention it, at the same time, as one of the productions of a Lothian farmer of respectable character, lately deceased, whose poems his friends had it in idea to publish soon by subscription, for the sake of his numerous family ; not in pity to that family, but in justice to what his friends think the poetic merits of the deceased ; and to secure, in the most effectual man- ner, to those tender connexions, whose right it is, the pecuniary reward of those merits. R, B.* No. CXXXIX. TO DR MOORE. EUisland, 1M March, 1789. Sir — The gentleman who will deliver this is a Mv Neilson, a worthy clergyman in my neighbourhood,t * [The following letter from Mr Carfrae explains the subject of the above epistle of Burns :— " 2d January, 1789. Sir— If you have lately seen Mrs Dunlop of Dunlop, you have certainly heard of the author of the verses which accompany this letter. He was a man highly respectable for every accomplish- ment and virtue which adorns the character of a man or a Chris- tian. To a great degree of literature, of taste, and poetic genius, was added an invincible modesty of temper, which prevented, in a great degree, his figui-ing in life, and confined the perfect knowledge of his character and talents to the small circle of his chosen friends. He was imtimely taken from us a few weeks ago, by an inflammatory fever, in the prime of life ; beloved by all who enjoyed his acquaintance, and lamented by all who have any regard for virtue or genius. There is a woe pronoimced in Scripture against the person wh(»n all men speak well of ; if ever that woe fell upon the head of mortal man, it fell upon him. He has left behind him a considerable number of compositions, chiefly poetical, sufficient, I imagine, to make a large octavo vo- lume. In particular, two complete and regular tragedies, a farce of three acts, and some smaller poems on diflferent subjects. It falls to my share, who have lived in the most intimate and un- interrupted friendship with him from my youth upwards, to transmit to you the verses he wrote on the publication of your incomparable poems. It is probable they were his last, as they were found in his scrutoire, folded up with the form of a letter addressed to you, and, I imagine, were only prevented from being sent by himself, by that melancholy dispensation which we still bemoan. The verses themselves I will not pretend to criticise, when writing to a gentleman whom I consider as entirely qualified to judge of their merit. They are the only verses he seems to have attempted in the Scottish style ; and I hesitate not to say, in general, that they will bring no dishonour on the Scottish muse ; and allow me to add, that, if it is your opinion they are not unworthy of the author, and^vill be no discredit to you, it is the inclination of Mr Mylne's friends that they should be imme- diately published in some periodical work, to give the world a specimen of what may be expected from his performances in the poetic line, which, perhaps, will be afterwards published for the advantage of his family. * * * I must beg the favour of a letter from you, acknowledging the receipt of this, and to be allowed to subscribe myself, with great regard, Sir, your most obedient servant, P. Carfrak."] t [The Kev. Edward Nielson, minister of KiiTcbean, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.] " GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 5K and a very particulai' acquaintance of mine. As I have troubled him with this packet, I must turn him over to your goodness, to recompense him for it in a way in which he much needs your assistance, and where you can effectually serve him. JNIr Nielson is on his way for France, to wait on liis Grace of Queensberry, on some little business of a good deal of importance to him, and he wishes for your instructions respecting the most eligible mode of travelling, &c. for huu, when he has crossed the channel. I should not have dared to take this liberty with you, but that I am told, by those who have the honour of your personal acquaintance, that to be a poor honest Scotchman is a letter of recommen- dation to you, and that to have it in your power to serve such a character, gives you much pleasure. The enclosed Ode is a compliment to the memory of the late Mrs Oswald of Auchencruive. You probably knew her personally, an honour of wliich I cannot boast ; but I spent my early years in her neighbourhood, and among her servants and tenants. I know that she was detested with the most heartfelt cordiahty. However, in the particular part of her conduct which roused my poetic wi-ath, she was much less blameable. In Janu- ary last, on my road to Ayrsliire, I had put up at Bailie Whigham's, in Sanquhar, the only tolerable inn in the place. The frost was keen, and the grim evening and howling wind w^ere iishering in a night of snow and drift. My horse and I were both much fatigued Avith the labours of the day, and just as my friend the Bailie and I were bidding defiance to the storm, over a smok- ing bowl, in wheels the funeral pageantry of the late great Mrs Oswald, and poor I am forced to brave all the horrors of the tempestuous night, and jade my horse, my young favourite horse, whom I had just christened Pegasus, twelve miles farther on, through the wildest moors and hills of Ayrshire, to New Cum- nock, the next inn. The powers of poesy and prose sink under me, when I would describe Avhat I felt. Suffice it to say, that when a good fire at New Cumnock had so far recovered my frozen sinews, I sat down and vn:ote the enclosed Ode. I was at Edinburgh lately, and settled finally -with. Mr Ci'eech ; and I must own, that at last he has been amicable and fair with me. R. B." * [Dr Moore's answer to this letter was as follows :— " Clifford Street, lOth June, 1789. Dear Sir— I thank you for the diflferent communications you have made me of your occasional productions ia manuscript, all of which have merit, and some of them merit of a different kind from what appears in the poems you have published. You ought carefully to preserve all your occasional productions, to correct and improve them at your leisure ; and when you can select as many of these as will make a volume, publish it either at Edin- burgh or London by subscription : on such an occasion, it may be in my power, as it is very much in my inclination, to be of service to you. If I were to offer an opinion, it would be, that, in yoiu: fu- ture productions, you should abandon the Scottish stanza and dialect, and adopt the measure and language of modem English poetry. The stanza which you use in imitation of ' Christ Kirk on the Green,' with the tiresome repetition of ' that day,' is fatiguing to English ears, and I should think not very agreeable to Scottish. All the fine satire and himiour of your ' Eoly Fair,' is lost on the English ; yet, without more trouble to yom-self, you could have conveyed the whole to them. The same is true of some of yoirr other poems. In your Epistle to J. Smith, the stanzas from that beginning with this line, ' This Ufe, so far's I understand,' to that which ends mth, ' Short while it grieves,' are easy, flow- ing, gaily philosophical, and of Horatian elegance — the language is English, with a few Scottish words, and some of those so hai-- monious as to add to the beauty ; for what poet would not prefer gloaming to twilight 9 I imagine, that by cai'efuUy keeping, and occasionally polish- ing and correcting those verses which the miise dictates, you vriW, within a year or two, have another volume as large as the first, ready for the press ; and this, without diverting you from every proper attention to the study and practice of husbandry, in which I understand you are very leai-ned, and which I fancy you will choose to adhere to as a wife, while poetry amuses you from time to tune as a mistress. The former, like a prudent ynfe, must not No. CXL. TO MR HILL. Ellisland, 2d April, 1789. I WILL make no excuse, my dear Bibliopolus, (God forgive me for murdering language !) that I have sat down to Avi'ite you on this vile paper. It is economy. Sir ; it is that cardinal virtue, pru- dence ; so I beg you will sit down, and either compose or borrow a panegyric. If you are going to borrow, apply to ^ '• * "t to compose, or rather to compound, something vei'y clever on my remarkable frugality; that I write to one of my most esteemed friends on this wretched paper, which was originally intended for the venal fist of some drunken exciseman, to take dirty notes in a miserable vault of an ale-cellar. Oh Frugahty ! thou mother of ten thousand bless- ings — thou cook of fat beef and dainty greens ! — thou manufacturer of warm Shetland hose, and comfortable' surtouts ! — ^thou old housewife, darning thy decayed stockings with thy ancient spectacles on thy aged nose ! — lead me, hand me in thy clutching palsied fist, up those heights, and through those thickets, hitherto in- accessible and impervious to my anxious, weary feet — not those Parnassian crags, bleak and barren, where the himgry worsliippers of fame are, breathless, clam- bering, hanging between heaven and heU, but those guttering cliffs of Potosi, where the all-sufficient, all- powerful deity, wealth, holds liis immediate court of joys and pleasures ; where the sunny exposure of plenty, and the hot walls of profusion, produce those blissful fruits of luxury, exotics in this world, and natives of paradise ! Thou withered sibyl, my sage conductress, usher me into thy refulgent, adored presence ! The power, splendid and potent as he now is, was once the puling nursling of thy faithful care and tender arms ! Call me thy son, thy cousin, thy kinsman, or favourite, and adjure the god, by the scenes of his infant years, no longer to repulse me as a strangei', or an aUen, but to favour me \vith his pecuhar countenance and protec- tion ! He daily bestows his greatest Idndness on the undeserving and the worthless — assure him that I bring ample documents of meritorious demerits ! Pledge yourself for me, that, for the glorious cause of lucre, I will do any thing, be any thing, but the horse-leech of private oppression, or the vulture of pubhc robbery ! But to descend from heroics. I want a Shakspeare ; I want likewise an EngEsli dictionary — Johnson's, I suppose, is best. In these and all my prose commissions, the cheapest is always the best for me. There is a small debt of honour that I owe j\Ir Robert Cleghorn, in Saughton ]\Iills, my worthy friend, and your well-Avisher. Please give him, and urge him to take it, the first time you see him, ten shillings' worth of any thing you have to sell, and place it to my account. The Ubrary scheme that I mentioned to you is already begun, under the direction of Captain Riddel. There is another in emulation of it going on at Closeburn, under the auspices of Mr Monteath of Closeburn, which will be on a greater scale than ours. Captain Riddel gave his infant society a great many of his old books, else I had written )t>u on that subject ; but, one of these days, I shall trouble you with a commission for " The Monkland Friendly Society." A copy of The Specta- show ill humour, although you retain a sneaking kindness to this agreeable gipsy, and pay her occasional visits, which in no man- ner alienates your heart from your lawful spouse, but tends, on the contrary, to promote her interest. I desked Mr Cadell to write to JMr Creech to send you a copy of Zeluco. This performance has had great success here ; but I shall be glad to have your opinion of it, because I value your opi- nion, and because I know you are above saying what you do not think. I beg you will offer my best wishes to my very good friend Mrs Hamilton, who, I understand, is your neighbour. If she is as happy as I wish her, she is happy enough. Make my compli- ments also to Mrs Bums; and believe me to be, Avith sincere esteem, dear Sir, yom-s, &;c."] t [Probably, the word required to fill up this blank is Creech.} 52 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. tor, Mirror, and Lounger, Man of Feeling, Man of the World, Guthrie's Geographical Gi'amraar, with some religious pieces, will likely be our first order. When I grow richer, I will write to you on gilt-post, to make amends for this sheet. At present every guinea h^s a five guinea errand with, my dear Sir, your faith- ful, poor, but honest friend, R. B. No. CXLI. TO MRS DUNLOP. EUisland, Ath April, 1789. I NO sooner hit on any poetic plan or fancy, but I wish to send it to you ; and if Imowing and reading these give half the pleasure to you, that communicating them to you gives to me, I am satisfied. I have a poetic whim in my head, which I at present dedicate, or rather inscribe, to the Right Hon. Charles James Fox ; but how long that fancy may hold, I can- not say. A few of the first lines I have just rough sketched as follows : — " SKETCH. How wisdom and folly meet, mix, and unite ; How virtue and vice blend their black and their white ; How genius, the illusti'lous father of fiction. Confounds rule and law, reconciles contradiction — I sing : if these mortals, the critics, should bustle, I care not, not I, let the critics go whistle. But now for a patron, whose name and Avhose glory. At once may illustrate and honour my story. Thou first of our orators, first of our wits. Yet whose parts and acquirements seem mei'e lucky hits; With knowledge so vast, and with judgment so strong. No man A\'ith the half of 'em e'er went far wrong ; With passions so potent, and fancies so bright. No man with the half of 'em e'er wert quite right ; A sorry, poor misbegot son of the muses, For using thy name off'ers fifty excuses." On the 20th current I hope to have the honour of assuring you, in person, how sincerely I am, R. B. No. CXLII. TO MRS M-MURDO, DRUMLANRIG.- Ellisland, 2d Maij, 1789. Madabi — I have finished the piece which had the happy fortune to be honoured with your approbation ; and never did little Miss with more sparkling pleasure show her applauded sampler to partial Mamma, than I now send my poem to you and Mr M'Murdo, if he is returned to Drumlanrig, You cannot easily imagine what thin-skinned animals, what sensitive plants, poor poets are. How do we shrink into the embittered corner of self-abasement, when neglected or condemned by those to whom we look up ! — and how do we, in erect importance, add another cubit to our stature, on being noticed and applauded by those whom we honour and respect ! My late visit to Drumlanrig has, I can tell you. Madam, given me a balloon waft up Parnassus, where on my fancied elevation I regard my poetic self with no small degree of complacency. Surely, with all their sins, the rhyming ti'ibe are not ungrateful crea- tures. I recollect your goodness to your humble guest — I see Mr M'Murdo adding to the politeness of the gentleman the kindness of a friend, and my heart swells as it would burst, with A\'arm emotions and ar- dent wishes ! It may be it is not gratitude — it may be a mixed sensation. That strange, shifting, doubling animal man is so generally, at best, but a negative, often a worthless creature, that we cannot see real goodness and native worth without feeling the bosom glow with sympathetic approbation. With every sentiment of grateful respect, I have the honour to be, Madam, your obHged and grateful humble servant, R. B. * [The husband of this lady was chamberlain to the Diike of Queensberry, at whose house of Drumlanrig the family conse- quently lived. The beautiful daughters of Mr and Mrs M' IMurdo are the heroines of several of Burns's songs.] No. CXLIII. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. EUisland, 4th May, 1789. My Dear Sir— Your duty-free favour of the 26th' April I received two days ago ; I will not say I perused it Avith pleasure — that is the cold compliment of cere- mony— I perused it. Sir, with deUcious satisfaction ; in short, it is such a letter, that not you, nor your friend, but the legislature, by express proviso in their postage laws, should frank. A letter informed with the soul of friendship is such an honour to human nature, that they should order it free ingress and egress to and from their bags and mails, as an encouragement and mark of distinction to supereminent virtue. I have just put the last hand to a little poem, which I think will be something to your taste. One morning lately, as I was out pretty early in the fields, sowing some grass seeds, I heard the burst of a shot from a neighbouring plantation, and presently a poor little wounded hare came crippling by me. You will guess my indignation at the inhuman fellow who could shoot a hare at this season, when all of them have young ones. Indeed, there is something in that business of destroy- ing for our sport individuals in the animal creation that do not injure us materially, which I could never reconcile to my ideas of virtue. " Inhuman man ! curse on thy bai'b'rous art. And blasted be thy murder-aiming eye ! May never pity soothe thee with a sigh, Nor ever pleasure glad thy cruel heart ! Go live, poor wanderer of the v/ood and field. The bitter little that of life remains ; No more the thickening brakes or verdant plaine. To thee a home, or food, or pastime yield. Seek, mangled innocent, some wonted form ; That wonted form, alas ! thy dying bed. The sheltering rushes whistling o'er thy head, The cold earth with thy blood-stain'd bosom warm. Perhaps a mother's anguish adds its woe ; The playful pair crowd fondly by thy side ; Ah ! helpless nurslings, who will now provide Thaklife a mother only can bestow ? Oft as by winding Nith, I, musing, wait The sober eve, or hail the cheerful dawn, I'll miss thee sporting o'er the dewy lawn. And curse the ruthless wretch, and mourn thy hapless fate." Let me know how you like my poem. I am doubtful whether it would not be an improvement to keep out the last stanza but one altogether. Cruikshank is a glorious production of the author of man.* You, he, and the noble Colonel f of the Croch- allan Fencibles are to me Dear as the ruddy drops which warm my heart. I have got a good mind to make verses on you all, to the tune of " Thi'ee guid fellows ayont the glen." R. B.: * [Mr Cniikshank of the High School. We know a gentleman in mature life, who lived as a boarder and pupil with Cruikshank, and to whom the character of the man, in consequence of the severity of his discipline, appeared in a very diflPerent light from what it did in the eyes of boon-companion Burns.] t [Mr William Dunbar, W. S.] :; [The poem in the above letter had also been sent by our bard to Dr Gregory for his criticism. The following is that gentle- man's reply : — " Edinburgh, M June, 178P. Dear Sir— I take the first leisure hour I could command, to thank j'ou for your letter, and the copy of verses enclosed in it. As there is real poetic merit, I mean both fancy and tenderness, and some happy expressions in them, I think they well deserve that you should revise them carefully, and polish them to the utmost. This I am sure you can do if you please, for you haAe great command both of expression and of rhymes : and you may judge, from the two last pieces of Mrs Hunter's poetry that I gave you, how much correctness and high polish enhance the value of such compositions. As you dcbirc it, I shall, with groat frccdum. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 53 No. CXLIV. TO MR SAMUEL BROWN. Mossgiel, ith May, 1 789. De.\.r Uncle — This, I hope, will find you and your conjugal yoke-fellow in your good old way ; I am impa- tient to know if the Ailsa fowling be commenced for this season yet, as I want three or four stones of feathers, and I hope you will bespeak them for me. It would be a vain attempt for me to enumerate the various trans- actions I have been engaged in since I saw you last, but this know, I am engaged in a smuggling trade, and God knows if ever any poor man experienced better returns, two for one ; but as freight and deUvery have turned out so dear, I am thinldng of taking out a li- cence and beginning in fair trade. I have taken a farm on the borders of the Nith, and, in imitation of the old patriarchs, get men-servants and maid-servants, and flocks and herds, and beget sons and daughters. Your obedient nephew, R- B. No. CXLV. TO RICHARD BROWN. Mauchline,2lst May, 11^9. My dear Friend — I was in the country by accident, and hearing of your safe arrival, I could not resist the temptation of wishing you joy on your return — wishing you would wTite to me before you sail again — wishing you would always set me down as your bosom friend — wishing you long life and prosperity, and that every good thing may attend you — wishing Mrs Brown and vour little ones as free of the evils of this world as is consistent with humanity — wishing you and she were give you my most rigorous criticisms on your verses. I wish you would give me another edition of them, much amended, and I will send it to Mrs Hunter, who, I am sure, vviU have much plea- sure in reading it. Pray give me likewise for myself, and her too, a copy (as much amended as you please) of the * Water Fowl on Loch Turit.' « The Wounded Hare' is a pretty good subject ; but the mea- sure or stanza you have chosen for it is not a good one ; it does not How weU ; and the rhyme of the fourth line is almost lost by its distance from the first, and the two interposed close rhymes. If I were you, I would put it into a diflFerent stanza yet. Stanza 1. The execrations in the first two lines are too strong cr coarse ; but they may pass. ' Murder-aiming' is a bad com- pound epithet, and not very intelligible. ' Blood-stained in stanza iii. line 4, has the same fault : Bleeding bosom is infinitely better. You have accustomed yourself to such epithets, and have no notion how stifiF and quaint they appear to others, and how incongruous with poetic fancy and tender sentiments. Suppose Pope had written, ' AMiy that blood-stained bosom gored,' how would you have liked it ? Form is neither a poetic, nor a digni- fied, nor a plain common word : it is a mere sportsman's word ; unsuitable to pathetic or serious poetry. ' Mangled' is a coarse word. ' Innocent,' in this sense, is a nursery word, but both may pass. Stanza 4. ' Who will now provide that life a mother only can bestow ?' will not do at all : it is not grammar— it is not intelli- gible. Do you mean, ' provide for that life which the mother had bestowed and used to provide for ?' There was a ridiculous slip of the pen, ' Feeling' (I suppose) for ' Fellow,' in the title of your copy of verses ; but even fellow would be wrong ; it is but a colloquial and vulgar word, imsuit- able to your sentiments. ' Shot' is improper too. On seeing a person (or a sportsman) wound a hare ; it is needless to add with what weapon ; but if you think otherwise, you should say, with a fowling-piece. Let me see you when you come to town, and I will show you some more of Mrs Hunter's poems." It must be admitted, that this criticism is not more distin- guished by its good sense, than by its freedom from ceremony. It is impossible not to smile at the manner in which the poet may be supposed to have received it. In fact it appears, as the sailors say, to have thrown him quite aback. In a letter which he wrote soon after, he says, " Dr Gregory is a good man, but he crucifies me." And again, " I believe in the iron justice of Dr Gregory ; but, like the devils, I believe and tremble." However, he pro- fited by these criticisms, as the reader will find by comparing this first edition of the poem witU that elsewhere published.— CURRTE.] to make two at the ensuing lying-in, with which Mrs B. threatens very soon to favour me — wishing I had longer time to write to you at present ; and, finally, wishing that, if there is to be another state of existence, Mr B., Mrs B., our little ones, and both families, and you and I, in some snug retreat, may make a jovial party to all eternity ! My direction is at EUisland, near Dumfries. Yours, R. B. No. CXLVI. TO MR JAMES HAMILTON.* EUisland, 26th May, 1789. Dear Sir — I send you by John Glover, carrier, the above account for Mr TurnbuU, as I suppose you know liis address. I would fain offer, my dear Sir, a word of s}Tnpathy with your misfortunes ; but it is a tender string, and I know not how to touch it. It is easy to flourish a set of high-flown sentiments on the subjects that would give great satisfaction to — a breast quite at ease ; but as ONE observes w^ho was very seldom mistaken in the theory of life, " The heart knoweth its own sorrows, and a stranger intermeddleth not therewith." Among some distressful emergencies that I have ex- perienced in Ufe, I ever laid this down as my foundation of comfort — That he ivho has lived the life of an honest man, has by no means lived in vain I With every wish for your welfare and future success, I am, my dear Sir, sincerely yours, R. B. No. CXLVII. TO WILLIAM CREECH, Esq. EUisland, bOth May, 1789. Sir — I had intended to have troubled you with a long letter ; but at present the delightful sensations of an omnipotent toothache so engross all my inner man, as to put it out of my power even to write nonsense. How- ever, as in duty bound, I approach my bookseller with , an off'ering in my hand — a few poetic clinches, and a song : — to expect any other kind of off'ering from the rhyming tribe would be to know them much less than you do. I do not pretend that there is much merit in these morceaiix, but I have two reasons for sending them ; primo, they are mostly ill-natured, so are in uni- son with my present feelings, while fifty ti'oops of in- fernal spirits are driving post from ear to ear along my jaw-bones ; and, secondly, they are so short, that you cannot leave off" in the middle, and so hurt my pride in the idea that you found any work of mine too heavy to get through. I have a request to beg of you, and I not only beg of you, but conjure you, by all your wishes and by all I your hopes, that the muse will spare the satiric wink in the moment of your foibles ; that she will warble the song of rapture round your hymeneal couch ; and that she will shed on your turf the honest tear of elegiac gratitude ! Grant my request as speedily as possible — • send me by the very first fly or coach for this place, three copies of the last edition of my poems, which place to my account. Now may the good things of prose, and the good things of verse, come among thy hands, until they be filled with the good things of this life, prayeth R. B. No. CXLVIII. TO MR M'AULEY, of DUMBARTON. EUisland, 4th June, 1789. Dear Sir — Though I am not without my fears re- specting my fate, at that grand, universal inquest of right and wrong, commonly called The Last Day, yet I trust there is one sin, which that arch- vagabond, Satan, who I understand is to be king's evidence, cannot throw in my teeth, I mean ingratitude. There is a certain * [A gi-ocer in Glasgow.] 54 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. pretty large quantum of kindness for which I remain, and from inabiUty, I fear must still remain, your debtor ; but though unable to repay the debt, I assure you. Sir, T shall ever warmly remember the obligation. It gives me the sincerest pleasure to hear by my old acquain- tance, Mr Kennedy, that you are, in immortal Allan's language, " Hale, and weel, and living ;" and that your charming family are well, and promising to be an ami- able and respectable addition to the company of per- formers, whom the Great Manager of the Drama of Man is bringing into action for the succeeding age. With respect to my welfare, a subject in which you once warmly and effectively interested yourself, I am here in my old way, holding my plough, marking the growth of my corn, or the health of my dairy ; and at times sauntering by the delightful windings of the Nith, on the margin of which I have built my humble domi- cile, praying for seasonable weather, or holding an in- trigue with the Muses, the only gipsies with whom I have now any intercourse. As I am entered into the holy state of matrimony, I trust my face is turned com- pletely Zion-ward ; and as it is a rule with all honest fellows to repeat no grievances, I hope that the little poetic licences of former days will of course fall under the oblivious influence of some good-natured statute of celestial prescription. In my family devotion, which, like a good Presbyterian, I occasionally give to my household follcs, I am extremely fond of the psalm, *' Let not the errors of my youth," &c., and that other, " Lo ! children are God's heritage," &c., in which last Mrs Burns, who, by the bye, has a glorious " wood-note wild" at either old song or psalmody, joins me with the pathos of Handel's Messiah. R. B. No. CXLIX. TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE. Ellisland, Sth June, 1789. My dear Friend — I am perfectly ashamed of myself when I look at the date of your last. It is not that I forget the fi'iend of my heart and the companion of my peregrinations ; but I have been condemned to drudgei'y beyond sufferance, though not, thank God, beyond re- demption. I have had a collection of poems by a lady put into my hands to prepare them for the press ; which horrid task, with sowing corn with my own hand, a parcel of masons, wrights, plasterers, &c., to attend to, roaming on business through Ayrshu-e — all this was against me, and the very first dreadful article was of itself too much for me, 13th. — I have not had a moment to spare from inces- sant toil since the 8th. Life, my dear Sir, is a serious matter. You know by experience that a man's indivi- dual self is a good deal, but believe me, a wife and family of children, whenever you have the honour to be a husband and a father, will show you that your present and most anxious hours of solitude are spent on trifles. The welfare of those who are very dear to us, whose only support, hope, and stay we are — this, to a generous mind, is another sort of more important object of care than any concerns whatever which centre merely in the individual. On the other hand, let no young, unmarried, rakehelly dog among you, make a song of his pretended liberty and freedom from care. If the relations we stand in to king, country, kindred, and friends, be any thing but the visionary fancies of dreaming metaphysicians ; if religion, vk'tue, magnani- mity, generosity, humanity, and justice, be aught but empty sounds ; then the man who may be said to live only for others, for the beloved, honourable female, whose tender faithful embrace endears life, and for the helpless little innocents who are to be the men and women, the worshippers of his God, the subjects of his king, and the support, nay the very vital existence, of his COUNTRY, in the ensuing age — compare such a man with any fellow whatever, who, whether he bustle and push in business among labourei*s, clerks, statesmen ; or whether he roar and rant, and di'ink and sing in tciverns — a fellow over whose grave no one will breathe a single heigh-ho, except from the cobweb-tie of what is called good fellowship — who has no view nor aim but what terminates in himself — if there be any groveUing earth-born wretch of our species, a renegado to com- mon sense, who would fain believe that the noble crea- ture man is no better than a sort of fungus, generated out of nothing, nobody knows how, and soon dissipating in nothing, nobody knows where ; such a stupid beast, such a crawling reptile, might balance the foregoing unexaggerated comparison, but no one else would have the patience. Forgive me, my dear Sir, for this long silence. To make you amends, I shall send you soon, and more en- couraging still, without any postage, one or two rhymes of my later manufacture. R. B. No. CL. TO MR M'MURDO. Ellisland, I9th June, 1789. Sir — A poet and a beggar are, in so many points of view, alike, that one might take them foj^ the same in- dividual character under different designations ; were it not that though, with a trifling poetic licence, most poets may be styled beggars, yet the converse of the proposition does not hold, that every beggar is a poet. In one particular, however, they remarkably agree ; if you help either the one or the other to a mug of ale, or the picking of a bone, they Avill very wilhngly repay you -svith a song. This occurs to me at present, as I have just dispatched a well-lined rib of John Kirkpat- rick's Highlander — a bargain for which I am indebted to you, in the style of our ballad printers, " Five excel- lent new songs." The enclosed is nearly my newest song, and one that has cost me some pains, though that is but an equivocal mark of its excellence. Two or three others, which I have by me, shall do themselves the honour to wait on your after leisure : petitioners for admittance into favour, must not harass the con- descension of their benefactor. You see. Sir, what it is to patronise a poet. 'Tia like being a magistrate in a petty borough ; you do them the favour to preside in then' council for one year, and your name bears the prefatory stigma of bailie for life. With, not the compliments, but the best wishes, the sincerest prayers of the season for you, that you may see many and happy years with Mrs M'Murdo, and your family ; two blessings, by the bye, to which your rank does not, by any means, entitle you — a loving Avife and fine family being almost the only good things of this life to which the farm-house and cottage have an exclusive right. I have the honour to be, Sir, your much indebted and very humble servant, R. B. No. CLI. TO MRS DUNLOP. <^ Ellisland, 2\st June, 1789. Dear Madam — Will you take the effusions, the miser- able effusions of low spirits, just as they flow from their bitter spring 1 I know not of any particular cause for this worst of all my foes besetting me ; but for some time my soul has been beclouded with a thickening at- mosphere of evil imaginations and gloomy presages. Monday Evening. I have just heard Mr Kirkpatrick preach a sermon. He is a man famous for his benevolence, and I revere him ; but from such ideas of my Creator, good Lord, deliver me ! Religion, my honoured friend, is surely a simple business, as it equally concerns the ignorant and the learned, the poor and the rich. That there is an incomprehensible Great Being, to whom I owe my ex- istence, and that he must be intimately acquainted with the operations and progress of the internal machuiery, and consequent outward deportment of this creature which he has made — these are, I thmk, self-evident propositions. That there is a real and eternal distinc- tion between virtue and vice, and, cohsequently, that I GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. am an accountable creature ; that from the seeming na- ture of the human mmd, as well as from the evident imperfection, nay, positive injustice, in the administra- tion of affairs, both in the natural and moral worlds, there must be a retributive scene of existence beyond the grave must, I think, be allowed by evei-y one who will give himself a moment's reflection. I will go far- ther," and affirm, that from the sublimity, excellence, and purity of his doctrine and precepts, unparalleled by all the aggregated wisdom and learning of many preceding ages, though, to appearance, he himself was the obscurest and most illiterate of our species — there- fore Jesus Christ was from God. Whatever mitigates the woes, or increases the hap- piness of others, this is my criterion of goodness ; and, whatever injures society at large, or any individual in it, this is my measure of iniquity. What thmk you, Madam, of my creed 1 I trust that I have said nothing that will lessen me in the eye of one whose good opinion I value almost next to the ap- probation of my ovra. mind. R. B. No. CLIL TO MR 1789. My dear Sir — The hurry of a farmer in this parti- cular season, and the indolence of a poet at all times and seasons, will, I hope, plead my excuse for neglect- ing so long to answer your obliging letter of the 5th of August. That you have done well in quitting your laborious concern'in * * * *, I do not doubt ; the weighty rea- sons you mention, were, I hope very, and deservedly indeed, weighty ones, and your health is a matter of the last importance ; but whether the remaining pro- prietors of the paper have also done well, is what I much doubt. The * * * *, so far as I was a reader, exhibited such a briUiancy of- point, such an elegance of paragraph, and such a variety of inteUigenee, that I can hardly conceive it possible to continue a daUy paper in the same degree of excellence : but if there was a man who had abihties equal to the task, that man's as- sistance the proprietors have lost. When I received your letter I was transcribing for * * * * my letter to the magistrates of the Canongate, Edinburgh, begging their permission to place a tomb- stone over poor Fei'gusson, and their edict in conse- quence of my petition, but now I shall send them to * tThe following is the letter to which the above was an answer. Dr Currie has unfortunately suppressed the name of this corre- spondent of our poet :— " London, 5th August, 1789. JIy Dear Sir— Excuse me when I say, that the uncommon abilities which you possess must render your correspondence very acceptable to any one. I can assure you I am particularly proud of your partiality, and shall endeavour, by every method in my power, to merit a continuance of your politeness. * * * *~ When you can spare a few moments, I should be proud of a letter from you, directed for me, Gerard Street, Soho. * * * * I cannot express my happiness sufficiently at the instance of your attachment to my late inestimable friend, Bob Fergusson, who was particularly intimate with myself and relations.* AYhile I recollect with pleasure his extraordinary talents, and many amiable qualities, it affords me the greatest consolation that I am honoured with the correspondence of his successor in national simplicity and genius. That Mr Burns has refined in the art of poetry, must readily be admitted ; but notwithstanding many favourable representations, I am yet to learn that he inherits his convivial powers. There was such a richness of conversation, such a plenitude of fancy and attraction in him, that when I call the happy period of our intercourse to my memory, I feel myself in a state of deli- rium. I was then younger than him by eight or ten years, but his manner was so felicitous, that he enraptured every person arotmd him, and infused into the hearts of the young and old the spirit and animation which operated on his own mind.— I am, dear Sir, yours, &c.] * The erection of a moniunent to him. . Poor Fergusson ! If there be a life beyond the grave, which I trust there is ; and if there be a good God presiding over all nature, which I am sure there is — thou art now enjoying existence in a glorious world, where worth of the heart alone is distinction in the man ; where riches, deprived of all their pleasure-purchasing powers, return to their native sordid matter; where titles and honours are the disregarded reveries of an idle dream : and where that heavy virtue, which is the negative consequence of steady dulness, and those thoughtless, though often destructive follies, which are the unavoidable aberrations of frail human nature, will be thrown into equal obHvion as if they had never been ! Adieu, my dear Sir ! So soon as your present views and schemes are concentered in an aim, I shall be glad to hear from you ; as your welfare and happiness is by no means a subject indifferent to, yours, R. Bi No. CLIII. TO MISS WILLIAMS.* Ellisland, 1789. Madam— Of the many problems in the nature of that wonderful creature, man, this is one of the most extra- ordinary, that he shaU go on from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, or perhaps from year to year, suffering a hundred times more in an hour from the impotent consciousness of neglecting what he ought to do, than the very doing of it would cost him. I am deeply indebted to you, first for a most elegant poetic comphment ; then, for a poHte, obliging letter ; and, lastly, for your excellent poem on the slave-trade ; and yet, wretch that I am ! though the debts were debts of honour, and the creditor a lady, I have put off and put off even the very acknowledgment of the obhga- tion, until you must indeed be the very angel I take you for, if you can forgive me. Your poem I have read with the highest pleasure. I have a way whenever I read a book — ^1 mean a book in our ovm trade. Madam, a poetic one — and when it is my own property, that I take a pencil and mark at the ends of verses, or note on margins and odd paper, little cri- ticisms of approbation or disapprobation as I peruse along. I will make no apology for presenting you with a few imconnected thoughts that occurred to me in my repeated pei'usals of your poem, I want to show you that I have honesty enough to tell you what I take to be truths, even when they are not quite on the side of approbation ; and I do it in the firm faith that you have equal greatness of mind to hear them with pleasure. I had lately the honom' of a letter from Dr Moore, where he tells me that he has sent me some books ; they are not yet come to hand, but I hear they are ou the way. Wisliing you all success in your progress in the path of fame, and that you may equaUy escape the danger of stumbling through incautious speed, or losing gx-ound through loitering neglect. R. B.f * [Helen Maria Williams, to whom Bums had been introduced by Dr Moore] t [To the above letter the follo'wing is Miss Williams's answer : " 1th August, 1789. Dear Sir— I do not lose a moment in returning you my sincere acknowledgments for your letter, and your criticism on my poem, which is a very flattering proof that you have read it with attention. I think your objections are perfectly just, ex- cept in one instance. You have indeed been very profuse of panegyric on my little performance. A much less portion of applause from you would have been gratifying to me ; since I think its value depends en- tirely upon the source from whence it proceeds— the incense of praise, like other incense, is more grateful from the quality than the quantity of the odour. I hope you stm cultivate the pleasures of poetry, which are precious even independent of the rewards of fame. Perhaps the most valuable property of poetry is its power of disengaging the mind from worldly cares, and leading the imagination to the richest springs of intellectual enjoyment ; since, however fre- quently life may be chequered with gloomy scenes, those who truly love the muse can always find one little path adorned with flowers and cheered by sunshine, "J 56 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. No. CLIV. TO MR JOHN LOGAN.* Ellisland, near Dumfries, 1th Aug. 1789. Dear Sir — I intended to have written you long ere now, and as I told you I had gotten three stanzas and a half on my way in a poetic epistle to you ; but that old enemy of all good works, the devil, threw me into a prosaic mire, and for the soul of me I cannot get out of it. I dare not write you a long letter, as I am going to intrude on your time with a long ballad. I have, as you will shortly see, finished " The Kirk's Alarm ;" but now that it is done, and that I have laughed once or twice at the conceits in some of the stanzas, I am de- termined not to let it get into the public ; so I send you this copy, the first that I have sent to Ayrshire, except some few of the stanzas, which I wrote off in embryo for Gavin Hamilton, under the express provision and request that you will only read it to a few of us, and do not on any account give, or permit to be taken, any copy of the ballad. If I could be of any service to Dr M*Gill, I would do it, though it should be at a much greater expense than irritating a few bigoted priests ; but I am afraid serving him in his present embarras is a task too hard for me. I have enemies enow, God knows, though I do not wantonly add to the number. Still, as I think there is some merit in two or three of the thoughts, I send it to you as a small, but sincere testimony how much, and with what respectful esteem, I am, dear Sir, your obliged humble servant, R. B. No. CLV. TO MRS DUNLOP. Ellisland, 6ih Sept 1789. Dear Madam — I have mentioned in my last, my ap- |)ointment to the Excise, and the birth of little Frank ; who, by the bye, I trust will be no discredit to the honourable name of Wallace, as he has a fine manly countenance, and a figure that might do credit to a little fellow two months older ; and likewise an excel- lent good temper, though when he pleases he has a pipe, only not quite so loud as the horn that his im- mortal namesake blew as a signal to take out the pin of StirUng bridge.* I had some time ago an epistle, part poetic and part prosaic, from your poetess, Mrs J. Little, a very inge- nious, but modest composition.f I should have written her as she requested, but for the hurry of this new business. I have heard of her and her compositions in this country ; and, I am happy to add, always to the honour of her character. The fact is, I know not well how to write to her ; I should sit down to a sheet of paper that I knew not how to stain. I am no dab at fine-drawn letter-writing ; and, except when prompted by friendship or gratitude, or, which happens extremely rarely, inspired by the muse (I know not her name) that presides over epistolary writing, I sit down, when necessitated to write, as I would sit down to beat hemp. Some parts of your letter of the 20th August, struck me with the most melancholy concern for the state of your mind at present. Would I could write you a letter of comfort, I would sit down to it with as much pleasure, as I would to write an epic poem of my own composition, that should equal the Iliad. Religion, my dear friend, is the true comfort ! A strong persuasion in a future state of ex- istence ; a proposition so obviously probable, that, set- ting revelation aside, every nation and people, so far as investigation has reached, for at least near four thousand years, have, in some mode or other, firmly believed it. * [Of Knockshinnoch, in Glen Afton, Ayrshire.] t [This child, named Francis Wallace after Mrs Dunlop, died at the age of fourteen, lie is described as having been, to all ap- pearance, the most promising of Burns's children.] t [Dr Ciu-rie has thought proper to print this effusion in the volume of the poet's general correspondence. Mrs Little was one of the domestics of Mrs Henry, the daughter of Mrs Dunlop, at Loudon Castle] In vain Avould we reason and pretend to doubt. I have myself done so to a very daring pitch ; but when I re- flected that I was opposing the most ardent wishes, and the most darling hopes of good men, and flying in the face of all human belief, in all ages, I was shocked at my own conduct. I know not whether I have ever sent you the follow- ing lines, or if you have ever seen them ; but it is one of my favourite quotations, v/hich I keen constantly by me in my progress through life, in the language of the book of Job, Against the day of battle and of war- spoken of religion : 'Tis this, my friend, that streaks our morning bright, 'Tis this that gilds the horror of our night. When wealth forsakes us, and when friends are few ; When friends are faithless, or when foes pursue ; 'Tis this that wards the blow, or stills the smart. Disarms affliction, or repels his dart ; Within the breast bids purest raptures rise. Bids smiling conscience spread her cloudless skies. I have been busy with Zeluco. The doctor is so ob- liging as to request my opinion of it ; and I have been revolving in my mind some kind of criticisms on novel- writing, but it is a depth beyond my research. I shall, however, digest my thoughts on the subject as Avell as I can. Zeluco is a most sterling performance. Farewell ! A Dieu, le ban Dieu,je vous commende! No. CLVI. TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL, CARSE. Ellisland, IGth Oct. 1789. Sir — Big with the idea of this important day at Friars Carse, I have watched the elements and skies in the full persuasion that they would announce it to the astonished world by some phenomena of terrific por- tent. Yesternight until a very late hour did I wait with anxious horror for the appearance of some comet firing half the sky ; or aerial armies of sanguinary Scandina- vians, darting athwart the startled heavens, rapid as the ragged Ughtning, and horrid as those convulsions of nature that bury nations. The elements, however, seem to take the matter very quietly ; they did not even usher in this morning with triple suns and a shower of blood, symbolical of the three potent heroes, and the mighty claret-shed of the day. For me, as Thomson in his Winter says of the storm — I shall " Hear astonished, and astonished sing" The whistle and the man ; I sing The man that won the whistle, &c. Here are we met, three merry boys. Three merry boys, I trow, are we ; And mony a night we've merry been. And mony mae we hope to be. Wha first shall rise to gang awa, A cuckold cowax'd loun is he : Wha last beside his chair shall fa'. He is the king amang us three. To leave the heights of Parnassus, and coix|e to the bumble vale of prose. I have some misgivings that I take too much upon me, when I request you to get your guest. Sir Robert Lawrie, to frank the two enclosed covers for me, the one of them to Sir William Cunning- ham, of Robertland, Bart, at Kilmarnock — the other, to Mr Allan Masterton, writing-master, Edinburgh. The first has a kindred claim on Sir Robert, as being a brother Baronet, and likewise a keen Foxite ; the other is one of the worthiest men in the world, and a man of real genius ; so, allow me to say, he has a fi-aternal claim on you. I want them franked for to-morrow, as I cannot get them to the post to-night. I shall send a servant again for them in the evening. Wishing that your head may be crowned with laurels to-night, and free from aches to-morrow, I have the honour to be, Sir, your deeply indebted humble sex'vant, R. B. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 57 No. CLVII. TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL. EUisland, 1789. Sir — I wish from my inmost soul it were in my power to give you a more substantial gratification and return for all the goodness to the jjoet, than ti-anscribing a few of his idle rhymes. However, " an old song," though to a proverb an instance of insignificance, is generally tlie only coin a poet has to pay with. If my poems which I have transcribed, and mean still to transcribe, into your book, were equal to the gi-ateful respect and high esteem I bear for the gentle- man to whom I present them, they would be the finest poems in the language. As they are, they will at least be a testimony with what sincerity I have the honour to be, Sir, your devoted humble servant, R. B. No. CLVIII. TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE. EUisland, 1st Xov. 178P. My de.vr Friend — I had ^^ritten you long ere now, could I have guessed where to find you, for I am sure you have more good sense than to waste tlie precious days of vacation time in the dirt of business and Edin- burgh. Wherever you are, God bless you, and lead you not into temptation, but dehver you from evil ! I do not know if I hav-e informed you that I am now- appointed to an Excise division, in the middle of which my house and farm he. In this I was extremely lucky. Without ever having been an expectant, as they call their journev-men excisemen, I was directly planted down to all mtents and purposes an officer of Excise, there to flourish and bring forth fruits — worthy of re- pentance. I know not how the word exciseman, or still more opprobrious, ganger, will sound in your ears. I too have seen the day when my auditory nerves would have felt very dehcately on this subject ; but a wife and chil- dren are things which have a wonderful power in blunt- ing these kind of sensations. Fifty pounds a-year for life, and a provision for widows and orphans, you wiU allow is no bad settlement for a poet. For the ignominy of the profession, I have the encouragement which I once heard a recruiting serjeant give to a numerous, if not a respectable audience, in the streets of Kilmarnock. *•' Gentlemen, for your further and better encourage- ment, I can assure you that our regiment is the most blackguard corps under the crown, and consequently ■with us an honest fellow has the surest chance of pre- ferment." You need not doubt that I find several very unplea- sant and disagreeable circumstances in my business ; but I am tired with and disgusted at the language of complaint against the evils of life. Human existence in the most favourable situations does not abound with pleasures, and has its inconveniences and ills ; capricious foolish man mistakes these inconveniences and ills as if they were the peculiar property of his particular situa- tion ; and hence that eternal fickleness, that love of change, which has ruined, and daily does ruin, many a fine fellow, as well as many a blockhead, and is almost without exception a constant source of disappointment and miser-y. I long to hear from you how you go on — not so much in business as in life. Are you pretty well satisfied with your own exertions, and tolerably at ease in your in- ternal I'eflections ? 'Tis much to be a great character as a lawyer, but beyond comparison more to be a great character as a man. That you may be both the one and the other is the earnest wish, and'that you tcill be both is the firm persuasion of, my dear Sir,'&c. R. B. No. CLIX. TO MR RICHARD BROWN. EUisland, ith November, 1789. I HAVE been so hurried, my ever dear friend, that though I got both your lettei's, I have not been able to command an hour to answer them as I wished ; and even now, you are to look on this as merely confessing debt, and craving days. Few things could have given me so much pleasure as the news that you \vei*e once more safe and sound on terra firma, and happy in that place where happiness is alone to be found — in the fire- side circle. May the benevolent Director of all things peculiarly bless you in all those endearing connections consequent on the tender and venerable names of hus- band and father ! I have indeed been extremely lucky in getting an additional income of £50 a-year, while, at the same time, the appointment will not cost me above £10 or £12 per annum of expenses more than I must have inevitably incurred. The worst circumstance is, that the Excise division which I have got is so exten- sive, no less than ten parishes to ride over ; and it abounds besides with so much business, that I can scarcely steal a spare moment. However, labour en- dears rest, and both together are absolutely necessary for the proper enjo^Toent of human existence. I can- not meet you any where. No less than an order from the Board of Excise, at Edinburgh, is necessarj- before I can have so much time as to meet you in AjTshire. But do you come, and see me. We must have a social day, and perhaps lengthen it out with half the night, before you go again to sea. You are the earliest friend I now have on earth, my brothers excepted ; and is not that an endearing cn-cumstance ? When you and I first met, we were at the green period of human life. The twig w^ould easily take a bent, but would as easily return to its former state. You and I not only took a mutual bent, but, by the melancholy, though strong influence of being both of the family of the unfortunate, we were entwined with one another m our growth towards ad- vanced age ; and blasted be the sacrilegious hand that shall attempt to undo the union ! You and I must have one bumper to my favourite toast, " May the compa- nions of our youth be the friends of our old age 1" Come and see me one year ; I shall see you at Port-Glasgow the next, and if we can contrive to have a gossiping between our two bed-feUows, it will be so much addi- tional pleasure. Mrs Burns joins me in kind compli- ments to you and Mrs Brown. Adieu ! I am ever, my dear Sir, yours, R. B. No. CLX. TO ROBERT GRAHAM, Esq. OF FIN TRY 9th Deccmler, 1789. Sir — I have a good while had a wish to trouble you with a letter, and had certainly done it long ere now — but for a humiliating something that throws cold water on the resolution, as if one should say, '•' You have found yiv Graham a very powerful and kind friend indeed, and that interest he is so kindly taking in your concerns, you ought, by every thing in your power, to keep alive and cherish." Now, though since God has thought proper to make one powerful and another helpless, the connection of obligor and obliged is all fair ; and though my being under your patronage is to me highly honour- able, yet, Sir, allow me to flatter myself, that,*as a poet and an honest man, you first interested yourself in my welfare, and principally as such, still you permit me to approach you. I have found the Excise business go on a great deal smoother with me than I expected, owing a good deal to the generous friendship of Mr ^litchel, my collector, and the Idnd assistance of Mr Findlater, my supervisor, I dai'e to be honest, and I fear no labour. Nor do I find my hurried life greatly inimical to my correspon- dence with the Muses, Their visits to me, indeed, and I believe to most of their acquaintance, like the visits of good angels, are short and far between ; but I meet them now and then as I jog through the hills of Niths- dale, just as I used to do on the banks of Ayr, I take the liberty to enclose you a few bagatelles, all of them the productions of my leisure thoughts in my Excise rides. If you know or liave ever seen Captain Grose, the 58 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. antiquary, you will enter Into any humour that is in the verses on him. Perhaps you have seen them be- fore, as I sent them to a London newspaper. Though I dare say you have none of the solemn-league-and- covenant fire, which shone so conspicuous in Lord George Gordon, and the Kilmarnock weavers, yet I think you must have heard of Dr M'Gill, one of the clergymen of Ayr, and his heretical book. God help him, poor man ! Though he is one of the worthiest, as well as one of the ablest, of the whole priesthood of the Kirk of Scotland, in every sense of that ambiguous terai, yet the poor Doctor and his numerous family are in imminent danger of being thrown out to the mercy of the winter- winds. The enclosed ballad on that busi- ness is, I confess, too local, but I laughed myself at some conceits in it, though I am convinced in my con- science that there are a good many heavy stanzas in it too. The election ballad, as you will see, alludes to the present canvass in our string of boroughs. I do not believe there will be such a hard I'un match in the whole general election. * * * * I am too little a man to have any political attachments ; I am deeply indebted to, and have the warmest vene- ration foi', individuals of both parties ; but a man who has it in his power to be the father of a country, and who * * * * *,f is a character that one cannot speak of with patience. Sir J. J. does " what man can do," but yet I doubt his fate. R. B. TO No. CLXI. MRS DUNLOP. ElUsland, IZth December^ 1789. Many thanks, my dear Madam, for your sheetful of rhymes. Though at present I am below the veriest prose, yet from you every thing pleases. I am groan- ing under the miseries of a diseased nervous system — a system, the state of which is most conducive to our happiness, or the most productive of our misery. For now near three weeks I have been so ill with a ner- vous headache, that I have been obliged for a time to give up my Excise-books, being scarce able to lift my head, much less to ride once a-week over ten muir parishes. What is man ? To-day, in the luxuriance of health, exulting in the enjoyment of existence ; in a few days, perhaps in a few hours, loaded with conscious painful being, counting the tardy pace of the lingering moments by the repercussions of anguish, and refusing or denied a comforter. Day follows night, and night comes after day, only to curse him with life which gives him no pleasure ; and yet the awful, dark termination of that life is something at which he recoils. Tell us, ye dead ; will none of you in pity Disclose the secret ^ • What 'tis you are, and toe must shortly be ? 'tis no matter : A little time will make us leam'd as you are. Can it be possible, that when I resign this frail, fever- ish being, I shall still find myself in conscious existence ? When the last gasp of agony has announced that I am no more to those that knew me, and the few who loved me ; when the cold, stiffened, unconscious, ghastly corse is resigned into the earth, to be the prey of unsightly reptiles, and to become in time a trodden clod, shall I be yet warm in life, seeing and seen, enjoying and en- joyed ? Ye venerable sages, and holy flamens, is there probability in your conjectures, truth in your stories, of another world beyond death ; or are they all ahke baseless visions, and fabricated fables? If there is another life, it must be only for the just, the benevo- lent, the amiable, and the humane ; what a flattering idea, then, is a world to come ! Would to God I as firmly believed it as I ardently wish it ! There I should meet an aged parent, now at rest from the many buf- t [Dr Carrie has here ohviously suppressed a bitter.allusion to the Duke of Queensberry.] fetings of an evil world, against which he so long and so t^ravely struggled. There should I meet the friend, the disinterested friend of my early life ; the man who rejoiced to see me, because he loved me and could serve me. Muir, thy weaknesses were the aberx'ations of human nature, but thy heart glowed with every thing generous, manly, and noble; and if ever emanation from the All-good Being animated a human form, it was thine ! There should I, with speechless agony of rapture, again recognise my lost, my ever dear Mary ! whose bosom was fraught with truth, honour, constancy, and love. My Mary, dear departed shade ! Where is thy place of heavenly rest? Seest thou thy lover lowly laid ? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast ? Jesus Christ, thou amiablest of characters ! I trust thou art no impostor, and that thy revelation of bliss- ful scenes of existence beyond death and the grave, is not one of the manj^ impositions which time after time have been palmed on credulous mankind. I trust that in thee ^' shall all the famiHes of the earth be blessed," by being yet connected together in a better world, where every tie that bound heart to heart, in this state of ex- istence, shall be, far beyond our present conceptions, more endearing. I am a good deal inclined to think with those who maintain, that what are called nervous affections are in fact diseases of the mind. I cannot reason, I can- not think ; and but to you I would not venture to write any thing above an order to a cobbler. You have felt too much of the ills of hfe not to sympathise with a diseased wretch, who has impaired more than half of any faculties he possessed. Your goodness will excuse this distracted scrawl, which the writer dare scarcely read, and wliich he would throw into the fire, were he able to write any thing better, or indeed any thing at all. Rumour told me something of a son of yours, who was returned from the East or West Indies. If you have gotten news from James or Anthony, it was cruel in you not to let me know ; as I promise you, on the sincerity of a man, who is weary of one world, and anxious about another, that scarce any thing could give me so much pleasure as to hear of any good thing be- falling my honoured friend. If you have a minute's leisure, take up your pen in pity to le pauvre miserable ' . R. B. No CLXII. TO LADY W[INIFRED] M[AXWELL] CONSTABLE.^^ ElUsland, \Qth December, 1789. ]\Iy Lady — In vain have I from day to day expected to hear from Mrs Young, as she promised me at Dal- swinton that she would do me the honour to introduce pie at Tinwald ; and it was impossible, not from your ladyship's accessibility, but from my own feelings, that I could go alone. Lately, indeed, Mr Maxwell of Car- ruchen in his usual goodness offered to accompany me, when an unlucky indisposition on my part hindered my embracing the opportimity. To court the notice or the tables of the great, except where I sometimes have had a little matter to ask of them, or more often the plea- santer task of witnessing my gratitude to them, is what I never have done, and I trust never shall do. But with your ladyship I have the honour to be connected by one of the strongest and most endearing ties in the whole moral world. Common sufferers, in a cause where even to be unfortunate is glorious, the cause of heroic loyalty ! Though my fathers had not illustrious honours and vast properties to hazard in the contest, though they left their humble cottages only to add so many units more to the unnoted crowd that followed their leaders, yet what they could they did, and what they had they lost : with unshaken firmness and uncon- cealed political attachments, they shook hands \vith ruin for what they esteemed the cause of their king and their * [Representative of the ancient family of Nithsdale.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 59 countrj*. This language and the enclosed verses* are for your ladyship's eye alone. Poets are not very famous for their prudence ; but as I can do nothing for a cause which is now nearly no more, I do not wish to hurt myself. I have the honour to he, my lady, your ladyship's obliged and obedient humble servant, K. B. No. CLXIII. TO PROVOST MAXWELL, OF LOCHMABEN. Ellisland, 20ih December, 1789. De.ir Provost — As my friend, i\Ir Graham, goes for your good town to-morrow, I cannot resist the tempta- tion to send you a few lines, and as I have nothing to say, I have chosen this sheet of foolscap, and begun, as you see, at the top of the first page, because I have ever observed, that when once people have fairly set out, they know not where to stop. Now that my first sen- tence is concluded, I have nothing to do but to pray Heaven to help me on to another. Shall I write you on pohtics or reMgion, two master subjects for your sayers of nothing 1 Of the first I dare say by this tune you are nearly surfeited ;t and for the last, whatever they may talk of it, who make it a kind of company concern, I never could endure it beyond a soliloquy. I might write you on farming, on buUding, on marketing ; but my poor distracted naind is so torn, so jaded, so racked and bedeviled with the task of the superlatively damned to make one guinea do the business of three, that I detest, abhor, and swoon, at the very word busi- ness, though no less than four letters of my very short surname are in it. Well, to make the matter short, I shall betake myself to a subject ever fruitful of themes — a subject the turtle feast of the sons of Satan, and the delicious secret stjgar plum of the babes of grace— a subject sparkling with all the jewels that wit can find in the mines of genius, and pregnant with aU the stores of learning from Moses and Confucius to Franldin and Priestley — in short, may it please your lordship, I intend to write * * * [_He)-e the poet inserted a song, the specification of which could he of no benefit to hisfame.^ If at any time you expect a field-day in your town, a day when dukes, earls, and knights, pay their court to weavers, tailors, and cobblers, I should like to know of it two or three days before-hand. It is not that I care three skips of a cur dog for the politics, but I should like to see such an exhibition of human nature. If you meet with that worthy old veteran ia religion and good fellowship, Mr Jefirey, or any of his amiable family,J I beg you wUl give them my best compliments. E. B. ^ No. CLXIV. TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. 1790. Sir — The following circumstance has, I believe, been omitted in the statistical account, transmitted to you, of the parish of Dunscore, in Nithsdale. I beg leave to send it to you, because it is new, and may be useful. How far it is deserving of a place in your patriotic pub- lication, you are the best judge. To store the mmds of the lower classes v/ith useful knowledge, is certainly of very great importance, both to them as individuals, and to society at large. Giving them a turn for reading and reflection, is giving them a source of innocent and laudable amusement, and, besides, raises them to a more dignified degree in the scale of rationahty. Impressed -vvith this idea, a gen- tleman in this parish, Robert Riddel, Esq. of Glenriddel, set on foot a species of circulatmg Hbrary, on a*plan so * [Those addressed to Mr William Tytler.] t [The provost, as the leading voter in Marjorie of the Mony Lochs, must have recently had a sufficiency of politics.] ± [Mr Jeffrey Avas minister of Lochmaben. One of his daugh- ters was celebrated by Burns in the song, «* I gaed a waefu' gate yestreen."] simple as to be practicable in any corner of the country; and ,80 useful as to deserve the notice of every country gentleman, who thinks the improvement of that part of his own species, whom chance has thrown into the humble walks of the peasant and the artizan, a matter worthy of his attention. Mr Riddel got a immber of his own tenants, and farming neighbom-s, to form themselves into a society for the purpose of having a hbrary among tliemselves. They entered into a legal engagement to abide by it for three years ; with a saving clause or two, in case of re- moval to a distance, or of death. Each member, at his entry, paid five shillings; and at each of their meetings, which were held every fourth Saturday, sixpence more. With their entry -money, and the credit which they took on the faith of their future funds, they laid in a toler- able stock of books at the commencement. What authors they were to purchase, was always decided by the ma- jority. At every meeting, all the books, under certain fines and forfeitures, by way of penalty, were to be pro- duced; and the members had their choice of the volumes in rotation. He whose name stood for that night first on the list, had his choice of what volume he pleased in the whole collectioh ; the second had his choice after the first ; the tliird after the second ; and so on to the last. At next meeting, he who had been first on the Ust at the preceding meeting, was last at this ; he who had been second was first ; and so on through the whole three years. At the expiration of the engagement, the books were sold by auction, but only among the mem- bers themselves ; and each man had his share of the common stock, in money or in books, as he chose to be a purchaser or not. At the breaking up of this little society, which was formed under Mr Riddel's patronage, what with bene- factions of books from him, and what with their own purchases, they had collected together upwards of one hundred and fifty volumes. It will easily be guessed that a good deal of trash would be bought. Among the books, however, of this little Hbrary, were — Blair's Ser- mons, Robertson's History of Scotland, Hume's His- tory of the Stuarts, The Spectator, Idler, Adventurer, Mirror, Lounger, Observer, Man of Feeling, Man of the World, Chrysal, Don Quixote, Joseph Andrews, &c. A peasant who can read, and enjoy such books, is cer- tainly a much superior being to liis neighbour who per- haps stalks beside his team, very little removed, except in shape, from the brutes he drives. Wishing your patriotic exertions their so much merited success, I am, Sir, 5'our humble servant, A Peasaist.* No. CLXV. TO CHARLES SHARPE, Esq. OF HODDAM,t UNDER A FICTITIOUS SIGXATURE, ENCLOSING A B.VILAD. 1790 or 1791. It is true, Sir, you are a gentleman of rank and for- tune, and I am a poor devil — you are a feather in the * [The above is extracted from the third volume of Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, p. 598.— It was en- closed to Sir John by 31 r Riddel himself in the following letter, also printed there :— " Sir John— I enclose jou a letter, written by Mr Bums, as an addition to the account of Dunscore parish. It contains an accoimt of a small library which he was so good (at my desire) as to set on foot, in the barony of Monkland, or Friars Carse, in this parish. As its utility has been felt, particularly among the younger class of people, I think, that if a similar plan were esta- blished in the different parishes of Scotland, it would tend greatly to the speedy improvement of the tenantry, trades-people, and work-people. Mr Burns was so good as to take the whole charge of this small concern. He was treasurer, librarian, and censor, to this little society, who will long have a grateful sense of his public spirit and exertions for their improvement and infoi-ma- tion. I have the honour to be, Sir John, yours most sincerely, Robert Riddei.." — CuRRis, Mr Cunningham adds, that the minister of Dun- score probably omitted to notice the Monkland library scheme, from disUke to the kind of literature patronised by it.] t [Dumfrie'-shire.] CO BtJRNS'S PROSE WORiCS. cap of society, and I am a very liobuail in his shoes ; }et I have the honour to belong to the same family Mith you, and on that score I now address you. You will perhaps suspect that I am going to claim affinity with the ancient and honourable house of Kirkpatrick : No, no. Sir ; I cannot indeed be properly said to belong to any house, or even any province or Idngdom ; as my mother, who for many years was spouse to a marching regiment, gave me into this bad world, aboard the pac- ket-boat, somewhere between Donaghadee and Port- patrick. By our common family, I mean. Sir, the family of the muses. I am a fiddler and a poet ; and you, I am told, play an exquisite violin, and have a standard taste in the belles lettres. The other day, a brother catgut gave me a charming Scots air of your composition. If I was pleased with the tune, I was in raptures with the title you have given it ; and, taking up the idea, I have spun it into the three stanzas en- closed. Will you allow me. Sir, to present you them, as the dearest oflfei-ing that a misbegotten son of poverty and rhjone has to give ! I have a longing to take you by the hand and unburden my heart by saying, " Sir, I honour you as a man who supports the dignity of human nature, amid an age when frivolity and avarice have, between them, debased us below the brutes that perish !" But, alas. Sir ! to me you are unapproach- able. It is true, the muses baptised me in Castalian streams ; but the thoughtless gipsies forgot to give me a name. As the sex have served many a good fellow, tlie Nine have given me a great deal of pleasure ; but, bewitching jades ! they have beggared me. Would they but spare me a little of their cast-lmen ! were it only to put it in my power to say that I have a shirt on my back ! But the idle wenches, lilce Solomon's lilies, "they toil not, neither do they spin ;" so I must e'en continue to tie my remnant of a cravat, hke the hangman's rope, j'ound my naked throat, and coax my galligaskins to Jceep together theii* many-coloured fragments. As to the affair of shoes, I have given that iip. My pilgrim- ages in my ballad -trade, from town to town, and on your stony-hearted turnpikes too, are what not even the hide of Job's behemoth could bear. The coat on my back is no more ; I shall not speak evil of the dead. It would be equally unhandsome and ungrateful to find fault with my old surtout, which so kindly supplies and conceals the want of that coat. J\Iy hat, indeed, is a great favourite ; and though I got it literally for an old song, I would not exchange it for the best beaver in Britain. I was, during several years, a kind of facto- tum servant to a country clergyman, where I picked up a good many scraps of learning, particularly in some branches of the mathematics. Whenever I feel in- clined to rest myself on my way, I take my seat xmder a hedge, laying my poetic wallet on the one side, and my fiddle-case on the other, and, placing my hat be- tween my legs, I can by means of its brim, or rather brims, go through the whole doctrine of the conic sec- tions. However, Sir, don't let me mislead you, as if I would intei'est your pity. Fortune has so much forsaken me, that she has taught me to live without her ; and, amid all my rags and poverty, I am as independent, and much more happy, than a monarch of the woi-ld. According to the hackneyed metaphor, I value the several actors in the great drama of life, simply as they act their parts. I can look on a worthless fellow of a duke with unqua- lified contempt, and can regard an honest scavenger with sincere respect. As you, Sir, go through your role with such distinguished merit, permit me to make one in the chorus of universal applause, and assure you, that, with the highest respect, I have the honour to be, &c.* R. B. * [The gentleman to whom this letter was addressed was the father of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., the friend of Sir Walter Scott, and a contributor of original ballad poetry to the Border Minstrelsy.] No. CLXVi. TO MR GILBERT BURNS. Ellisland, Wth Jamiary, 1790. Dear Brother — I mean to take advantage of the frank, though I have not in my present frame of mind much appetite for exertion in writing. My nerves ai'e in a state. I feel that boi'rid hypochondria pervading every atom of both body and soul. This farm has undone my enjojTnent of myself. It is a ruinous affair on all hands. But let it go to ! I'll fight it out, and be off with it. We have gotten a set of very decent players here just now. I have seen them an evening or two. David Campbell, in Ayr, wrote to me by the manager of the company, a Mr Sutherland, who is a man of apparent worth. On New-year-day evening I gave him the fol- lowing prologue, which he spouted to his audience with applause : — " No song nor dance I bring from yon great city," &c. I can no more. If once I was clear of this damned farm, I should respire more at ease. CLXVII. TO MR SUTHERLAND, PLAYER, ENCLOSING A PROLOGUE. Monday morning. I AVAS much disappointed, my dear Sir, in wanting your most agreeable company yesterday. However, I heartily pray for good weather next Sunday ; and what- ever aerial Being has the guidance of the elements, may take any other half dozen of Sundays he pleases, and clothe them with Vapours, and clouds, and storms. Until he terrify himself At combustion of his own raising. I shall see you on Wednesday forenoon. In the greatest hurry, R. B. No. CLXVIII. TO WILLIAM DUNBAR, W.S. Ellisland, lUh January, 1790. Since we are here creatures of a day, since " a few summer days, and a few winter nights, and the life of man is at an end," why, my dear much-esteemed Sir, should you and I let negligent indolence, for I know it is nothing woi'se, step in between us and bar the enjoy- ment of a mutual correspondence ? We are not shapen out of the common, heavy, methodical clod, the elemen- tal stuff of the plodding selfish I'ace, the sons of Arith- metic and Prudence ; our feelings and hearts are not benumbed and poisoned by the cursed influence of riches, which, whatever blessing they may be in other respects, are no friends to the nobler qualities of the heart : in the name of random sensibility, then, let never the moon change on our silence any more. I have had a tract of bad health most pai*t of this winter, else you had heard from me long ei'e now. Thank Heaven, I am now got so much better as to be able to partake a little in the enjojTiients of life. Our friend, Cunningham, will perhaps have told you of my going into the Excise. The truth is, I found it a very convenient business to have £50 per annum, nor have I yet felt any of these mortifying circumstances in it that I was led to fear. Feb. 2d. — I have not, for sheer huriy of business, been able to spai'e five minutes to finish my letter. Besides my farm business, I ride on my Excise matters at least 200 miles every week. I have not by any means given up the Muses. You will see in the 3d vol. of Johnson's Scots songs that I have contributed my mite there. But, my dear Sii', little ones that look up to you for paternal protection are an important charge. I have already two fine healthy stout little fellows, and I wish to throw some light upon them. I have a thousand reveries and schemes about them, and tlieir future des- GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 61 tiny. Not that T am a Utopian projector in these things. I am resolved never to breed up a sou of mine to any of the learned professions. I know the value of inde- pendence ; and since I cannot give my sons an indepen- dent fortune, I shall give them an independent line of life. What a chaos of hurry, chance, and changes is this world, when one sits soberly down to reflect on it ! To a father, who himself knows the world, the thought that he shall have sons to usher into it must fill him with dread ; but if he have daughters, the prospect in a thoughtful moment is apt to shock him. I hope Mrs Fordyce and the two young ladies are well. Do let me forget that they are nieces of yours, and let me say that I never saw a more interesting, sweeter pair of sisters in my life. I am the fool of my feelings and attachments. I often take up a volume of my Spenser to reaUse you to my imagination,* and think over the social scenes we have had together. God grant that there may be another world more congenial to ho- nest fellows beyond this. A world where these rubs and plagues of absence, distance, misfortunes, ill health, &c., shall no more damp hilarity and divide friendship. This I know is your throng season, but lialf a page wUl much oblige, my dear Sir, yours sincerely. R. B. No. CLXIX. TO MRS.DUNLOP. Eilislandf 25th January, 1790. It has been owing to unremitting hurry of business that I have not written to you, Madam, long ere now. My health is greatly better, and I now begin once more to share in satisfaction and enjo;)Tnent with the rest of my fellow-creatures. Many thanks, my much-esteemed friend, for your kind letters ; but why will you make me run the risk of being contemptible and mercenary in my own eyes? When I pique myself on my independent spirit, I hope it is neither poetic licence, nor poetic rant : and I am so flattered with the honour you have done me, in maldng me your compeer in friendship and friendly correspondence, that I cannot without pain, and a de- gree of mortification, be reminded of the real inequality between our sitiiations. Most sincerely do I rejoice with you, dear ]\Iadam, in the good news of Anthony. Not only your anxiety about his fate, but my own esteem for such a noble, warm-hearted, manly young fellow, in the little I had of his acquaintance, has interested me deeply in his for- tunes. Falconer, the unfortunate author of the " ShipAvreck," which you so much admire, is no more. After witness- ing the dreadful catastrophe he so feelingly describes in his poem, and after weathering many hard gales of fortune, he went to the bottom with the Aurora frigate ! I foi-get what part of Scotland had the honour of giving him birth, but he was the son of obscurity and misfortune. He was one of those daring adventurous spirits, which Scotland, beyond any other country, is remarkable for producing. Little does the fond motlier think, as she hangs delighted over the sweet little leech at her bosom, where the poor fellow may hereafter wander, and what may be his fate. I remember a stanza in an old Scottish ballad, + which, notwithstand- ing its rude simpHcity, speaks feelingly to the heart : — Little did my mother think. That day she cradled me. What land I was to travel in, ' Or what death I should die ! Old Scottish songs are, you know, a favourite study and pursuit of mine ; and now I am on that subject, allow me to give you two stanzas of another old simple ballad, which I am sure will please you. The catas- * [The poet's copy of Spenser was a present from Mr Dunhar.] t [Queen INIary had four attendants of her own Christian name. In the hallad mentioned by Bums, one of these gentlewomen is described as murdering her illegitimate child, and suffering for the crime ; and the verse quoted is one of her last expressions at the place of execution.] trophe of the piece is a poor ruined female, lamentmg her fate. She concludes with this pathetic wish : — Oh that my father had ne'er on me smil'd ; Oh that my mother had ne'er to me sung ! Oh that my cradle had never been rock'd ; But that I had died when I was yoimg ! Oh that the grave it were my bed ; My blankets were my winding-sheet ; The clocks and the worms my bedfellows a' ; And oh sae sound as I should sleep ! I do not remember in all my reading to have met with anything more truly the language of misery, than the exclamation in the last line. Misei'y is like love ; to speak its language truly, the author must have felt it. I am every day expecting the doctor to give your little godson* the small-pox. They are rife in the country, and I tremble for his fate. By the way, I can- not help congratulating you on his looks and spirit. Every person who sees him acknowledges him to be the finest, handsomest child he has ever seen. I am myself delighted with the manly swell of his little chest, and a certain miniature dignity in the carriage of his head, and the glance of his fine black eye, which pro- mise the undaunted gallantry of an independent mind. I thought to have sent you some rhymes, but time forbids. I promise you poetry until you are tired of it, next time I have the honour of assuring you how truly lam, &c. R. B. No. CLXX. TO MR PETER HILL, BOOKSELLER, EDINBURGH. Ellisland, 2d Feb. 1790. No I . I will not say one word about apologies or ex- cuses for not writing — I am a poor, rascally ganger, condemned to gallop at least 200 miles every week to inspect dirty ponds and yeasty barrels, and where can I find time to write to, or importance to interest any body ? The upbraidings of my conscience, nay the up- braidings of my wife, have persecuted me on your ac- count these two or three months past. I wish to God I was a great man, that my correspondence might throw light upon you, to let the world see what you really are : and then I would make your fortune, without putting my hand in my pocket for you, which, like all other great men, I suppose I would avoid as much as possible. What are you doing, and how are you doing i Have you lately seen any of my few friends ? What has be- come of the BOROL'GH REFORM, or liow is the fate of my poor namesake Mademoiselle Burns decided ? Oh man ! but for thee and thy selfish appetites, and dishonest artifices, that beauteous form,' and that once innocent and still ingenuous mind, might have shone conspicuous and lovely in the faithful wife, and the affectionate mother ; and shall the unfortunate sacrifice to thy pleasures have no claim on thy hmnanity If I saw lately in a review some extracts from a new poem, called the " Village Curate ;" send it me. I want likewise a cheap copy of " The World." Mr Arm- strong, the young poet, who does me the honour to mention me so kindly in his works, please give him my best thanks for the copy of his book. I shall write him, my first leisure hour. I Hke his poetry much, but I think his style in prose quite astonishing. Your book came safe, and I am going to trouble you Avith further commissions. I call it troubling you — because I want only, books ; the cheapest way, the best ; so you may have to hunt for them in the evening auc- tions. I want Smollett's Works, for the sake of his in comparable humour. I have already Roderick Random, and Humphrey Clinker. Peregrine Pickle, Launcelot Greaves, and Ferdinand Count Fathom, I still want ; but as I said, the veriest ordinary copies will serve me. * [The bard's second son, Francis.] t [The frail female here alluded to had been the subject of some rather oppressive magisterial proceedings, which took their character from Creech, and roused some public feeling in her behalf.] 62 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. I am nice only In the appearance of my poets. I for- get the price of Cowper's Poems, but I believe I must have them. I saw the other day proposals for a publi- cation, entitled, " Banks's new and complete Christian's Family Bible," printed for C, Cooke, Paternoster Row, London. He promises at least to give in the work, I think it is three hundred and odd engravings, to which he has put the names of the first artists in London.* You will know the character of the performance, as some numbers of it are published : and if it is really what it pretends to be, set me down as a subscriber, and send me the published numbers. Let me hear from you, your first leisui'e minute, and trust me you shall in future have no reason to complain of my silence. The dazzling perplexity of novelty will dissipate, and leave me to pursue my course in the quiet path of methodical routine. R. B. No. CLXXI. TO MR W. NICOL. Ellislandy Feb. 9, 1790. My dear Sir — That — — mare of yours is dead. I would freely have given her price to have saved her ; she has vexed me beyond description. Indebted as I was to your goodness beyond what I can ever repay, I eagerly grasped at your offer to have the mare with me. That I might at least show my readiness in wish- ing to be grateful, I took every care of her in my power. She was never crossed for riding above half a score of times by me or in my keeping. I drew her in the plough, one of three, for one poor week. I refused fifty -five shillings for her, which was the highest bode I could squeeze for her. I fed her up and had her in fine order for Dumfi'ies fair ; when four or five days before the fair, she was seized with an unaccountable disorder in the sinews, or somewhere in the bones of the neck; with a weakness or total want of power in her fillets, and, in short, the whole vertebrae of her spine seemed to be diseased and unhinged, and in eight and forty hours, in spite of the two best farriers in the country, she died, and be ■ to her ! The farriers said that she had been quite strained in the fillets beyond cm'e before you had bought her ; and that the poor devil, though she might keep a little flesh, had been jaded and quite worn out with fatigue and oppression. While she was with me, she was under my own eye, and I assure you, my much-valued friend, every thing was done for her that could be done ; and the accident has vexed me to the heart. In fact I could not pluck up spirits to write to you, on account of the imfortunate business. There is little new in this country. Our theatrical company, of which you must have heard, leave us this week. Their merit and character are indeed vei-y great, both on the stage and ui pi'ivate life ; not a worthless ci'eature among them ; and their encouragement has been accordingly. Their usual run is from eighteen to twenty-five pounds a-night : seldom less than the one, and the house will hold no more than the other. There have been repeated instances of sending away six, and eight, and ten pounds a-night for want of room. * Perhaps no set of men more effectually avail themselves of the easy credulity of the public, than a certain description of Paternoster Row booksellers. Three hundred and odd engrav- ings ! — and by the fii-st artists in London, too !— no wonder that j^ums was dazzled by the splendom- of the promise. It is no unusual thing for this class of impostors to illustrate the Holy Scriptures by plates originally engraved for the History of Eng- land, and I have actually seen subjects designed by our celebrated artist Stothard, from Clarissa Harlowe and the Novelist's Maga- zine, converted, with incredible dexterity, by these bookselling- Breslaws, into Scriptural embellishments ! One of these venders of *' Family Bibles" lately called on me, to consult me profes- sionally about a folio engraving he brought with him. It repre- sented JMons. Buffon, seated, contemplating various groupsof a;nimals that surrounded him : he merely wished, he said, to be informed, whether by unclothing the naturalist, and giving him a rather more resolute look, the plate could not, at a triflipg expense, be made to pass for "Daniel in the Liona' Den!"— Crombk. A new theatre is to be built by subscription ; the first stone is to be laid on Friday first to come. Three hun- dred guineas have been raised by thirty subscribers, and thirty more might have been got if wanted. The manager, Mr Sutherland, was introduced to me by a friend from Ayr ; and a worthier or cleverer fellow I have rarely met with. Some of our clergy have slipt in by stealth now and then ; but they have got up a farce of their own. You must have heard how the Rev. Mr Lawson of Kirkmahoe, seconded by the Rev. Mr Kirkpatrick of Dunscore, and the rest of that faction, have accused, in formal process, the unfortunate and Rev. Mr Heron of Kirkgunzeon, that in ordaining Mv Nielsen to the cure of souls in Kirkbean, he, the said Heron, feloniously and ti*easonably bound the said Niel- sen to the confession of faith, so far as it zoas agreeable to reason and the word of God! Mrs B. begs to be remembered most gratefully to you. Little Bobby and Frank are charmingly well and healthy. I am jaded to death with fatigue. For these two or three months, on an average, I have not ridden less than 200 miles per week. I have done little in the poetic way. I have given Mr Sutherland two Prologues ; one of which was delivered last week. I have likewise strung four or five barbarous stanzas, to the tune of Chevy Chase, by way of Elegy on your poor unfortunate mare, begiiming (the name she got here was Peg Nichol- son) Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare. As ever trode on airn ; But now she's floating down the Nith, And past the mouth o* Cairn. See Poetical JVorks, p. 78. My best compliments to Mrs Nicol, and little Neddy, and all the family ; I hope Ned is a good scholar, and will come out to gather nuts and apples with me next harvest. R. B. No. CLXXII. TO MR CUNNINGHAM.* Ellisland, 13th February/, 1790. I BEG your pardon, my dear and much- valued friend, for writing to you on this very unfashionable, unsightly sheet. My poverty but not my will consents. But to make amends, since of modish post I have none, except one poor vddowed half -sheet of gilt, which lies in my drawer, among my plebeian foolscap pages, like the widow of a man of fashion, whom that unpolite scoundrel. Necessity, has driven from Burgundy and Pineapple, to a dish of Bohea with the scandal-bearing help -mate of a village-priest; or a glass of whisky- toddy with a ruby-nosed yoke-fellow of a foot-padding exciseman — I make a voav to enclose this sheet-full of epistolai'y fragments in that my only scrap of gilt-paper. * [Mr Cunningham had recently \vritten in the following terras to Burns : — " 28th January, 1790. In some instances it is reckoned unpardonable to quote any one's own words ; but the value I have for your friendship, no- thing can more truly or more elegantly express than Time but the impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear. Having written to you twice without having heard from you, I. am apt to think my letters have miscarried. My conjecture is only framed upon the chapter of accidents turning up against me, as it too often does, in the trivial, and, I may -with truth add, the more important affairs of life ; but I shall continue occasionally to inform you what is going on among the circle of your friends in these parts. In these days of merriment, I ha?e frequently heard your name proclaimed at the jovial board, under the roof of oiu: hospitable friend at Stenhouse-mills ; there were no Lingering moments number'd with care. I saw your * Address to the New-year' in the Dumfries Journal. Of your productions I shall say nothing ; but my acquaintances allege that when your name is mentioned, which every man of celebrity must know often happens, I am the champion, the Mendoza, against all snarling critics and narrow-minded reptiles, of whom a few on this planet do a'atvl. With best compliments to your Avife, and her black-eyed sister, I remain yours, &c."] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 63 I am indeed your unworthy debtor for three friendly letters. I ought to have written to you long ere now ; but it is a literal fact, I have scarcely a spare moment. It is not that I will not write to you : Miss Burnet is not more dear to her guardian angel, nor his grace the Duke of Queensberry to the powers of darkness, than my friend Cunningham to me. It is not that I cannot write to you ; should you doubt it, take the following fragment, which was intended for you some time ago, aud be convinced that I can antithesize sentiment, and circumvolute periods, as well as any coiner of phrase in the regions of philology. December, 1789. My dear Cunningham — Where are you ? And what are you doing ? Can you be that son of levity, who takes up a friendship as he takes up a fashion ; or are you, like some other of the worthiest fellows in the world, the victim of indolence, laden with fetters of ever- increasing weight? What strange beings we are ! Since we have a por- tion of conscious existence, equally capable of enjoyiiig pleasure, happiness, and rapture, or of suffering pain, wretchedness, and misery, it is surely worthy of an inquiry, whethor there be not such a thing as a science of life ; whether method, economy, and fertility of ex- pedients, be not applicable to enjoyment ; and whether there be not a want of dexterity in pleasure, which ren- ders our little scantling of- happiness still less ; and a profuseness, an intoxication in bliss, which leads to sa- tiety, disgust, and self-abhorrence. There is not a doubt but that health, talents, character, decent competency, respectable friends, are real substantial blessings ; and yet do we not daUy see those who enjoy many or all of these good things, contrive, notwithstanding, to be as unhappy as others to whose lot few of them have fallen ? I beUeve one great source of this mistake or misconduct is owing to a certain stimulus, with us called ambition, which goads us up the hill of life ; not as we ascend other eminences, for the laudable curiosity of viewing an ex- tended landscape, but rather for the dishonest pride of looking down on others of our fellow-creatures, seem- ingly diminutive in humbler stations, &c. &c. Sunday, \Uh February, 1790. God help me ! I am now obliged to join I^ight to day, and Sunday to the week. If there be any truth in tlie orthodox faith of these churches, I am past redemption, and, what is worse, to all eternity. I am deeply read in Boston's Four-fold State, Marshal on Sanctificatiou, Guthrie's Trial of a Saving Interest, &e. ; but " there is no balm in Gilead, there is no physician there" for me ; so I shall e'en turn Arminian, and trust to " Sia- cere though imperfect obedience." Tuesday, \Gth, Luckily for me, I was prevented from the discussion of the knotty point at which I had just made a full stop. All my fears and cares are of this world : if there is another, an honest man has nothing to fear from it. I hate a man that wishes to be a deist ; but, I fear, every fair, unprejudiced inquirer must in some degree be a sceptic. It is not that there are any very staggering arguments against the immortality of man ; but, hke electricity, phlogiston, &c., the subject is so involved in darkness, that we want data to go upon. One thing frightens me much : that we are to live for ever, seems too good news to be true. That we are to enter into a new scene of existence, where, exempt from want and pain, we shall enjoy ourselves and our friends without satiety or separation — how much should I be indebted to any one who could fully assure me that this was cer- tain 1 My time is once more expired. I will write to Mr Cleghorn soon. God bless him and all his concerns ! And may all the powers that preside over conviviality and friendship be present with all their kindest influ- ence, when the bearer of this, Mr Syme, and you meet ! I wish I could also make one. Finally, brethren, farewell ! Whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are gentle, whatsoever things are charitable, whatsoever things are kind, think on these things, and think on R. B. No. CLXXIII. TO MR HILL. Ellisland, Id March, 1790. At a late meeting of the Monkland Friendly Society, it was resolved to augment their library by the follow- ing books, which you are to send us as soon as possible : — The Mirror, The Lounger, Man of Feeling, Man of the World (these, for my own sake, I wish to have by the first carrier), Knox's History of the Reformation ; Rae's History of the Rebellion in 1715 ; any good His- tory of the Rebellion in 1745 ; A Display of the Seces- sion Act and Testimony, by Mr Gib ; Hervey's Medita- tions ; Beveridge's Thoughts ; and another copy of Watson's Body of Divinity. I wrote to Mr A. Masterton three or four months ago, to pay some money he owed me into your hands, and lately I wrote to you to the same purpose, but I have heard from neither one nor other of you. In addition to the books I commissioned in my last, I want very much An Index to the Excise Laws, or an Abridgement of all the Statutes now in force relative to the Excise, by Jellinger Symons ; I want three copies of this book ; if it is now to be had, cheap or dear, get it for me. An honest country neighbour of mine wants, too, a Family Bible, the larger the better, but second-handed, for he does not choose to give above ten shillings for the book. I want likewise for myself, as you can pick them up, second-handed, or cheap, copies of Otway's Dramatic Works, Ben Jonson's, Dryden's, Congreve's, Wycherley's, Vanbrugh's, Gibber's, or any Dramatic Works of the more modern Macklin, Garrick, Foote, Colman, or Sheridan. A good copy, too, of MoUere, in French, I much want. Any other good dramatic authors in that language I want also ; but comic authors chiefly, though I should wish to have Racine, Corneille, and Voltaire too. I am in no hurry for all, or any of these, but if you accidentally meet with them very cheap, get them for me. * And now, to quit the dry walk of business, how do you do, my dear friend % — and how is !Mrs Hill ? I trust, if now and then not so elegantly handsome, at least as amiable, and sings as divinely as ever. My good wife too has a charming " wood-note wild ;" now could we four . I am out of all patience with this vile world, for one thing. Mankind are by nature benevolent creatures, except in a few scoundrelly instances. I do not think that avarice of the good things we chance to have is born with us : but we are placed here amid so much nakedness, and hunger, and poverty, and want, that we are under a cursed necessity of studying selfishness, in order that we may exist ! Still there are, in every age, a few souls, that all the wants and woes of life cannot debase to selfishness, or even to the necessary alloy of caution and prudence. If ever I am in danger of vanity, it is when I contemplate myself on this side of my disposition and character. God knows, I am no saint ; I have a whole host of follies and sins to answer for ; but if I could, and I believe I do it as far as I can, I would wpe away all tears from all eyes. Adieu ! R. B. No. CLXXIV. TO MRS DUNLOP. . Ellisland, 10th April, 1790. I HAVE just now, my ever-honoured friend, enjoyed a very high luxury, in reading a paper of the Lounger. You know my national prejudices. I had often I'ead * [A letter to Lady Harriet Don, quoted by JNIr Cunningham in his edition of Burns, shows that the poet was now contemplat- ing dramatic composition, and, with that view, was anxious to study the best dramatic authors, English and French, being the only languages with which he was acciuainted.] 64 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. and admired the Spectator, Adventurei', Rambler, and World ; but still with a certain regret that they were BO thoroughly and entirely English. Alas ! have I often said to myself, what are all the boasted advantages which my country reaps from the union, that can coun- terbalance the annihilation of her independence, and even her very name ! I often repeat that couplet of my favourite poet, Goldsmith — States of native liberty possest, Tliough very poor, may yet be very blest. Nothing can reconcile me to the common terms, English ambassador, English court, &c. And I am out of all patience to see that equivocal character, Hastings, impeached by " the Commons of England." Tell me, my friend, is this weak prejudice ? I believe in my conscience such ideas as " my country ; her in- dependence ; her honour ; the illustrious names that mark the history of my native land ;" &c. — I believe these, among your men of the world, men who, in fact, guide for the most part and govern our world, are looked on as so many modifications of wrong-headedness. They know the use of bawling ont such terms, to rouse or lead the rabble ; but for their own private use, with almost all the able statesmen that ever existed, or now exist, when they talk of right and wrong they only mean proper and improper ; and their measure of conduct is not what they ought, but what they dare. For the truth of this I shall not ransack the history of nations, but appeal to one of the ablest judges of men that ever lived — the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield. In fact, a man who could thoroughly control his vices whenever they interfered with his interests, and who could com- pletely put on the appearance of every virtue as often as it suited his purposes, is, on the Stanhopian plan, the perfect man; a man to lead nations. But are great abilities, complete without a flaw, and polished without a blemish, the standard of human excellence ? This is certainly the staunch opinion of men of the world ; but I call on honour, virtue, and worth, to give the Stygian doctrine a loud negative ! However, this must be allowed, that, if you abstract from man the idea of an existence beyond the grave, then the true measure of human conduct is, proper and improper; virtue and vice, as dispositions of the heart, are, in that case, of scarcely the same import and value to the world at large, as harmony and discord in the modifications of sound ; and a delicate sense of honour, like a nice ear for music, though it may sometimes give the possessor an ecstacy unknown to the coarser organs of the herd, yet, considering the harsh gratings, and inharmonic jars, in this ill-tuned state of being, it is odds but the individual would be as happy, and certainly would be as much respected by the true judges of society as it would then stand, without either a good ear or a good heart. / You must know I have just met with the Mirror and Lounger for the first time, and I am quite in raptures with them ; I should be glad to have your opinion of some of the papers. The one I have just I'ead, Lounger, No. 61, has cost me more honest tears than any thing I have read of a long time,* Mackenzie has been called the Addison of the Scots, and, in my opinion, Addison would not be hurt at the comparison. If he has not Addison's exquisite humour, he as certainly outdoes him in the tender and the pathetic. His Man of Feeling (but I am not counsel learned in the laws of criticism) I estimate as the first perfoi-mance in its kind I ever saw. From what book, moral or even pious, will the susceptible young mind receive impressions more congenial to humanity and kindness, generosity and benevolence — in short, more of all that ennobles the soul to herself, or endears Jier to others — than from the simple affecting tale of poor Harley ? Still, with all my admiration of Mackenzie's writings, I do not know if they are the fittest reading for a young man who is about to set out, as the phrase is, to make his way into life. Do not you think. Madam, that among the few favoured of Heaven in the structure of their minds * [This paper relates to attachments between servants and masters, and concludes with the story of Albert Bane.] (for such there certainly are), there may be a purity, a tenderness, a dignity, an elegance of soul, which are of no use, nay, in some degree, absolutely disqualifying, for the truly important business of making a man's way into life ! If I am not much mistaken, my gallant young friend, A******,t is very much under these dis- qualifications ; and for the young females of a family I could mention, well may they excite parental solicitude, for I, a common acquaintance, or as my vanity will have it, a humble friend, have often trembled for a turn of mind which may render them eminently happy, or peculiarly miserable ! I have been manufacturing some verses lately ; but as I have got the most hurried season of Excise busi- ness over, I hope to have more leisure to transcribe any thing that may show how much I have the honour to be. Madam, yours, &c. R. B. No. CLXXV. TO COLLECTOR MITCHELL. Ellisland, 1790. Sir — I shall not fail to wait on Captain Riddel to-night — I wish and pray that the goddess of justice herself would appear to-morrow among our hon. gentlemen, merely to give them a word in their ear that mercy to the thief is injustice to the honest man. For my part, I have galloped over my ten parishes these four days, until this moment that I am just alighted, or rather, that my poor jackass-skeleton of a horse has let me down ; for the miserable devil has been on his knees half a score of times within the last twenty miles, teUing me, in his own way, " Behold, am not I thy faithful jade of a horse, on which thou hast ridden these many years !" In short. Sir, I have broke my horse's wind, and almost broke my own neck, besides some injuries in a part that shall be nameless, owing to a hard-heai'ted stone of a saddle. I find that every offender has so many great men to espouse his cause, that I shall not be surprised if I am notj committed to the strong-hold of the law to-morrow for insolence to the dear friends of the gentlemen of the country. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble R. B. No. CLXXVI. TO DR MOORE. Dumfries, Excise-Office, lilh July, 1790. Sir — Coming into town this morning to attend my duty in this office, it being collection-day, I met Avith a gentleman who tells me he is on his way to London ; so I take the opportunity of writing to you, as franking is at present under a temporary death. I shall have some snatches of leisure througli the day, amid our horrid business and bustle, and I shall improve them as well as I can ; but let my letter be as stupid as * * * * ^'', as miscellaneous as a newspaper, as short as a hungry grace-before-meat, or as long as a law-paper in the Douglas cause ; as ill-spelt as country John's billet- doux, or as unsightly a scrawl as Betty Byre-Mucker's answer to it ; I hope, considering circumstances, you will forgive it ; and as it will put you to no expense of postage, I shall have the less reflection about it. I am sadly ungrateful in not returning you my thanks for your most valuable present, Zeluco. In fact, you are in some degree blameable for my neglect. You were pleased to express a wish for my opinion of the work, which so flattered me, that nothing less would serve my overweening fancy, than a formal criticism on the book. In fact, I have gravely planned a com- parative view of you. Fielding, Richardson, and Smol- lett, in your different qualities and merits as novel writers. This, I own, betrays my i-idiculous vanity, t [Probably Anthony, a son of Mrs Dimlop, is here meant.] + [Though the allusions in this letter are somewhat obscure, we can scarcely doubt that there should be but one negative Jii the above sentence] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 65 and I may probably never bring the business to bear ; but I am fond of the spirit young Elihu shows in the book of Job — " And I said, I will also declare my opi- nion." I have quite disfigured my copy of the book mth my annotations. I never take it up without at the same time taking my pencil, and marking with aste- risms, parentheses, &c., wherever I meet with an ori- ginal thought, a nervous remai'k on life and manners, a remarkable, well-turned pei^iod, or a character sketched with uncommon precision. Though I should hardly think of fairly writing out my " Comparative View," I shall certainly trouble you with my remarks, such as they are. I have just received from my gentleman that horrid summons in the book of Revelation — " That time shall be no more ! " The little collection of sonnets have some charming poetry in them. If indeed I am indebted to the fair author for the booli,* and not, as I rather suspect, to a celebi-ated author of the other sex, I should certainly have written to the lady, with my grateful acknowledg- ments, and my own ideas of the comparative excellence of her pieces. I would do this last, not from any vanity of thinking that my remarks could be of much conse- quence to Mrs Smith, but merely from my own feelings as an author, doing as I would be done by. R. B. No. CLXXVII. TO MR MURDOCH, TJiAClIER OF FRENCH, LONDON. Ellisland, July IQth, 1790. My dear Sir — I received a letter from you a long time ago, but unfortunately, as it was in the time of my peregrinations and journeyings through Scotland, I mislaid or lost it, and by consequence your direction along with it. Luckily, my good star brought me ac- quainted with Mr Kennedy, who, I understand, is an acquaintance of yours : and by his means and mediation I hope to replace that link which my unfoi'tunate negli- gence had so unluckily broke in the chain of our cor- respondence. I was the more vexed at the vile accident, as my brother William, a journeyman saddler, has been for some time in London, and wished above all things for your direction, that he might have paid his respects to his father's friend. His last address he sent to me was, *' Wm. Burns, at Mr Barber's, saddler. No. 181, Strand." I writ him by Mr Kennedy, but neglected to ask him for your address ; so, if you find a spare half minute, please let my brother know by a card where and when he will find you, and the poor fellow will joyfully wait on you, as one of the few surviving fi'iends of the man whose name, and Christian name too, he has the honour to bear. The next letter I write you shall be a long one. I have much to tell you of " hair-breadth 'scapes in th' imminent deadly breach," with all the eventful history of a life, the early years of which owed so much to your kind tutorage ; but this at an hour of leisure. My kindest compliments to Mrs Murdoch and family. I am ever, my dear Sir, your obliged friend, R. B.f * [This book was the Sonnets of Charlotte Smith.] t This letter was communicated to the Editor (Cromek) by a gentleman, to whose liberal advice and information he is much indebted, Mr John Murdoch, the tutor of the poet, accompanied by the following interesting note : — " London, Hart Street, Bloomsbury, 28th Dec. 1807. DisAR Sir— The folloAving letter, which I lately foimd among my papers, I copy for your perusal, partly because it is Burns's, partly beca^use it makes honourable mention of my rational Chris- tian friend, his father ; and likewise because it is rather flatter- ing to myself. I glory in no one thing so much as an intimacy with good men — the friendship of others reflects no honour. When I recollect the pleasure (and I hope benefit) I received from the conversation of William Burns, especially when on the Lord's day we walked together for about two miles to the house of prayer, there publicly to adore and praise the giver of all good, I entertain an ardent hope tliat together we shall ' re- No. CLXXVin. 'to MR M*MURDO. Ellisland, 2d August, 1790. Sir — Now that you are over with the sirens of Flat- tery, the harpies of Corruption, and the furies of Ambi- tion — these infernal deities, that on all sides, and in all parties, preside over the villanous business of politics — permit a mstic muse of your acquaintance to do her best to soothe you with a song. You knew Henderson* — I have not flattered his me- mory. I have the honour to be. Sir", your obliged hum- ble servant, R. B. No. CLXXIX. TO MRS DUNLOP. Wi August, 1790. Dear Madam — After a long day's toil, plague, and care, I sit down to write to you. Ask me not why I have delayed it so long ? It was owing to hurry, indo- lence, and fifty other things ; in short, to any thing but forgetfulness of la plus amiable de son sexe. By the bye, you are indebted your best courtesy to me for this last compliment, as I pay it from my sincere conviction of its truth — a quality rather rare in compliments of these grinning, boAving, scraping times. Well, I hope writing to you will ease a little my trou- bled soul. Sorely has it been bruised to-day ! A cl- devant friend of mine, and an intimate acquaintance of yours, has given my feelings a wound that I perceive will gangrene dangerously ere it cure. He has wounded my pi'ide ! R. B. No. CLXXX. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. Ellisland, 8th August, 1790. Forgive me, my once dear, and ever dear friend, my seeming negligence. You cannot sit down and fancy the busy life I lead. I laid down my goose feather to beat my brains for an apt simile, and had some thoughts of a country gran- num at a family christening — a bride on the market- day before her marriage, or a tavern-keeper at an election dinner ; but the resemblance that hits my fancy best is, that blackguard misci-eant, Satan, who roams about like a roai'ing lion, seeking, searching whom he may devour. However, tossed about as I am, if I choose (and who would not choose ?) to bind down with the cram- pets of attention the brazen foundation of integrity, I may rear up the superstructure of independence, and from its daring tui-rets bid defiance to the storms of new the glorious theme in distant worlds,' with powers more adequate to the mighty subject, the exubisrantbeneficenck OK THE GREAT CREATOR. But to the leiiQv:—\_U.ere follows tlte letter relative to young William Burns.'] I promised myself a deal of happiness in the conversation of my dear young friend; but my promises of this nature generally prove fallacious. Two visits were the utmost that I received. At one of them, however, he repeated a lesson which I had given him about twenty years before, when he was a mere child, con- cerning the pity and tenderness due to animals. To that lesson (which it seems was brought to the level of his capacity) he de- clared himself indebted for almost all the philanthropy he pos- Let not parents and teachers imagine that it is needless to talk seriously to children. They are sooner fit to be reasoned with than is generally thought. Strong and indelible impressions are to be made before the mind be agitated and ruffled by the nume- rous train of distracting cares and unruly passions, whereby it is frequently rendered almost unsusceptible of the principles and precepts of rational religion and sound morality. But I find myself digressing again. Poor AVilliam ! then in the bloom and vigour of youth, caught a putrid fever, and, in a few days, as real chief mourner, I followed his remains to the land of forgetfulness. John Murdoch." —Cromek. * [The poem enclosed was the Elegy on Captain Matthew Henderson.] 66 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS, fate. And is not this a " consummation devoutly to be wished ?" Thy spirit, Independence, let me share ; Lord of the lion-heart, and eagle-eye ! Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky ! Are not these noble verses ? They are the introduc- tion of Smollett's Ode to Independence : if you have not seen the poem, I will send it to you. How wretched is the man that hangs on by the favours of the great ! To shrink from every dignity of man, at the approach of a lordly piece of self-consequence, who, amid all his tinsel ghtter and stately hauteur, is but a creature formed as thou art — and perhaps not so well formed as thou art — came into the world a puling infant as thou didst, and must go out of it as all men must, a naked corse. R. B,* No. CLXXXI. TO DR ANDERSON. Sir — I am much indebted to my worthy friend, Dr Blacldock, for introducing me to a gentleman of Dr Anderson's celebrity ; but when you do me the honour to ask my assistance in your proposed publication, alas. Sir ! you might as well think to cheapen a little honesty at the sign of an advocate's wig, or humility under the Geneva band. I am a miserable hurried devil, worn to the marrow in the friction of holding the noses of the poor publicans to the grindstone of the excise ! and, lilie Milton's Satan,' for private reasons, am forced To do ivhat yet though damn'd I would abhor. —and, except a couplet or two of honest execration No. CLXXXII. TO CRAUFORD TAIT, Esq., EDINBURGH. Ellisland, 15th October, 1790. "' Dear Sir — Allow me to introduce to your acquaint- ance the bearer-, Mr Wm. Duncan, a friend of mine, whom I have long known and long loved. His father, whose only son he is, has a decent little property in Ayrshire, and has bred the young man to the law, in which department he comes up an adventurer to your good town. I shall give you my friend's character in two words : as to his head, he has talents enough, and more than enough, for common life ; as to his heart, when nature had kneaded the kindly clay that composes it, she said " I can no more." You, my good Su", were born under kinder stars ; but your fraternal sympathy, I well know, can enter into the feelings of the young man who goes into life with the laudable ambition to do something, and to be something, among his fellow-creatures, but whom the consciousness of friendless obscurity presses to the earth, and wounds to the soul ! Even the fairest of his virtues are against him. That * *' The preceding letter to Mrs Dunlop explains the feelings under which this was written. The strain of indignant invective goes on some time longer in the style which our bard was too apt to indulge, and of which the reader has already seen so much." — CURRIE. t [This fragment, first published by Cromek, is placed by him and subsequent editors under 1794, and by Mr Cunningham is bupposed to be addressed to Dr Robert Anderson, the editor of the British Poets. We have little doubt that the gentleman ad- dressed was Dr James Anderson, a well-known agricultural and miscellaneous writer, and the editor of a weekly miscellany en- titled " The Bee." This publication was commenced in Edin- burgh, December 1790, and concluded in January 1794, when it fomied eighteen volumes. The above letter by Burns, from the allusion it makes to his extreme occupation by business, as well as from the bitterness of its tone, seems to have been written in the latter part of 1790, immediately after the poet had com- menced exciseman ; it was an answer, probably, to an applica- tion for aid in the conduct of " The Bee," then about to be started. For these reasons, the present editor has shifted its place in the poet's correspondence.] I independent spirit, and that ingenuous modesty, quali- ties inseparable from a noble mind, are, with the million, circumstances not a little disqualifying. What pleasure is in the power of the fortunate and the happy, by their notice and patronage, to brighten the countenance and glad the heart of such depressed youth ! I am not so angry with mankind for their deaf economy of the purse : the goods of this world cannot be divided without being lessened— but why be a niggard of that which bestows bliss on a fellow-creature, yet takes nothing from our own means of enjoyment? We wrap ourselves up in the cloak of our own better fortune, and turn away our- eyes, lest the wants and woes of our brother-mortals should disturb the selfish apathy of our souls ! I am the worst hand in the world at asking a favour. That indirect address, that insinuating implication, which, without any positive request, plainly expresses your wish, is a talent not to be acquired at a plough- tail. Tell me then, for you can, in what periphrasis of language, in what circumvolution of phrase, I shall envelope, yet not conceal, this plain story — " My dear Mr Tait, my friend Mr Duncan, whom I have the plea- sure of introducing to you, is a young lad of your own profession, and a gentleman of much modesty, and great worth. Perhaps it may be in your power to assist him in the, to him, important consideration of getting a place, but, at all events, your notice and acquaintance will be a very great acquisition to him ; and I dare pledge myself that he will never disgrace your favour." You may possibly be surprised, Sir, at such a letter from me ; 'tis, I own, in the usual way of calculating these matters, more than our acquaintance entitles me to ; but my answer is short : Of all the men at your time of life, whom I knew in Edinburgh, you are the most accessible on the side on which I have assailed you. You are very much altered, indeed, from what you were when I knew you, if generosity point the path you will not tread, or humanity call to you in vain. As to myself, a being to whose interest I believe you are still a well-wisher, I am here, breathing at all times, thinking sometimes, and rhyming now and then. Every situation has its share of the cares and pains of life, and my situation, I am persuaded, has a full ordinary allow- ance of its pleasures and enjoyments. My best compliments to your father and Miss Tait. If you have a-n opportunity, please remember me in the solemn-league-and-covenant of friendship to Mrs Lewis Hay.* I am a wretch for not writing her ; but I am so hackneyed with self-accusation in tliat way, that my conscience lies in my bosom with scarce the sensibility of an oyster in its shell. Where is Lady M'Kenzie ? wherever she is, God bless her ! I likewise beg leave to trouble you with compliments to Mr Wm. Hamilton, Mrs Hamilton and family, and Mrs Chalmers, when you are in that country. Should you meet with Miss Nimmo, please remember me kindly to her, R. B. No. CLXXXIII. TO Ellislmid, 1790. Dear Sir — Whether in the way of my trade, I can be of any service to the Rev. Doctor,t is, I fear, very doubtful. Ajax's shield consisted, I think, of seven bull hides, and a plate of brass, which altogether set , Hector's utmost force at defiance. Alas! I am not a || Hector, and the worthy Doctor's foes are as securely * ] armed as Ajax was. Ignorance, superstition, bigotry, stupidity, malevolence, self-conceit, envy — all strongly bound in a massy frame of brazen impudence. Good God, Sir ! to such a shield, humour is the peck of a sparrow, and satire the pop-gun of a school-boy. Crea- tion-disgracing scelerats such as they, God oidy can mend, and the devil only can punish. In the compre- hending way of Caligula, I wish they all had but one neck. I feel impotent as a child to the ardour of my * [Formerly Miss Margaret Chalmers.] t [Probably to ftir Gavin Hamilton.] ICDrM'Uill, of Ayr.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 67 wishes ! Oh for a with emg curse to blast the germins of their wicked machinations. Oh for a poisonous tornado, winged from the torrid zone of Tartarus, to sweep the spreading crop of their villauous contrivances to the lowest hcU ! R. B. No. CLXXXIV. TO MRS DUNLOP.* EUisland, November, 1790. " As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Fate has long owed me a letter of good news from you, in return for the many tidings of sorrow which I liave received. In this mstance I most cordially obey the apostle — ^" Rejoice with them that do rejoice" — for me to sing for joy, is no new thing ; but to preach for joy, as I have done in the commencement of this epistle, is a pitch of .extravagant rapture to which I never rose before. I read your letter — I literally jumped for joy. How could such a mercurial creature as a poet lumpishly keep his seat, on the receipt of the best news from his best friend. I seized my gilt-headed Wangee rod, an instrument indispensably necessary, in my left hand, iu the moment of inspiration and rapture ; and stride, stride — quick and quicker — out skipt I among the broomy banks of Nith to muse over my joy by retail. To keep within the bounds of prose was impossible. Mrs Little's is a more elegant, but not a more sincere compliment to the sweet little fellow, than I, extempore almost, poured out to him in the following verses :— " Sweet flow'ret, pledge o' meikle love, And ward o' mony a prayer, What heart o' stane wad thou na move, Sae helpless, sweet, and fair! November hirples o'er the lea Chill on thy lovely form ; And gane, alas I the shelt'ring tree Should shield thee frae the storm. * [This letter was called forth by the intelligence of the birth of a grandchild of Mrs Dunlop. Susan, one of Mrs D.'s daughters, had married a French gentleman of good birth and fortune, M. Henri, or Hendrey. They lived at Loudoun Castle in Ayrshire, where, June 22, 1790, M. Henri was cut off by a cold, caught in consequence of exposure to wet. His son and heir, born in the subsequent November, was the subject of the above letter, and of the fine verses enclosed in it, which are usually included amongst the Poems, under the title of *' Stanzas on the Birth of a Posthumous Child, bom under peculiar circumstances of family distress." In a subsequent letter of the present series. Burns deplores the dangerous and distressing situation of Mrs Henri in France, exposed to the tumults of the Revolution; and he has soon after occasion to condole with his venerable friend, on the death of her daughter in a foreign land. When this sad event took place, the orphan child fell under the imme- diate care of his paternal grandfather, who, however, was soon obliged to take refuge in Switzerland, leaving the infant behind him. Years passed— he and the Scotch friends of the child heard nothing of it, and concluded that it was lost. At length, when the elder Henri was enabled to return to his ancestral domains, he had the unspeakable satisfaction of finding that his grandson and heir was alive and well, having never been removed from the place. The child had been protected and reared with the greatest care by a worthy female, named Mademoiselle Susette, formerly a domestic of the family. This excellent person had even contrived, through all the levelling violences of the inter- veaing period, to preserve in her young charge the feelings ap- propriate to his rank. Though absolutely indebted to her industry for his bi-ead, she had caused him always to be seated by himself at table, and regularly waited on, so that the otherwise plebeian circumstances in which he lived did not greatly afiect him. The subject of Burns's stanzas is now proprietor of the family estates ; and it is agreeable to add, that Mademoiselle Susette still ( 1838) lives in his paternal mansion, in the enjoyment of that grateful respect to which her fidelity and discretion so eminently entitle her. Such is the somewhat extraordinary history of this <' Sweet flow'ret, pledge o' meikle love, And ward o' mony a prayer."] May He, who gives the rain to pour, And wings the blast to blaw, Protect thee frae the driving show'r. The bitter frost and snaw ! May He, the friend of woe and want. Who heals life's various stounds. Protect and guard the mother -plant, And heal her cruel wounds ! But late she flourish'd, rooted fast. Fair on the summer morn ; Now, feebly bends she in the blast, Unshelter'd,and forlorn. Blest be thy bloom, thou lovely gem, Unscath'd by ruffian hand ! And from thee many a parent stem Arise to deck our land!" I am much flattered by your approbation of my " Tarn o' Shanter," which you express in your former letter ; though, by the bye, you load me in that said letter with accusations heavy and many, to all which I plead not guilty ! Your book is, I hear, on the road to reach me. As to printing of poetry, when you prepare, it for the press, you have only to spell it right, and place the capital letters properly — as to the punctuation, the printers do that themselves. I have a copy of " Tam o' Shanter" ready to send you by the first opportunity — it is too heavy to send by post. I heard of Mr Corbet* lately. He, in consequence of your recommendation, is most zealous to serve me. Please favour m^^jDn with an account of your good folks ; if Mrs H.'t's i'ecovering, and the young gentle- man doin^ well. ' » -' R. B. No. CLXXXV. TO LADY W. M. CONSTABLE. Ellisland, Wth January , 1791. My Lady — Nothing less than the unlucky accident of having lately broken my right arm, could have pre- vented me, the moment I received your ladyship's ele- gant present t by Mrs Miller, from returning you my warmest and most grateful acknowledgments. I assure your ladyship, I shall set it apart — the symbols of reli- gion shall only be more sacred. In the moment of poetic composition, the box shall be my inspiring genius. When I would breathe the comprehensive wish of benevolence for the happiness of others, I shall recollect your ladyship ; when I would interest my fancy in the distresses incident to humanity, I shall remember the unfortunate Mary. R. B No. CLXXXVI. TO WILLIAM DUNBAR, W.S. Ellisland, 17 th January, 1791. I AM not gone to Elysium, most noble colonel,J but am still here in this sublunary world, serving my God by propagating his image, and honouring my king by begetting him loyal subjects. Many happy returns of the season await my friend. May the thorns of care never beset his path ! May peace be an inmate of his' bosom, and rapture a fre- quent visitor of his soul ! May the blood-hounds of misfortune never ti'ack his steps, nor the screech-owl of sorrow alarm his dwelling ! May enjoyment tell thy hours, and pleasure number thy days, thou friend of the bard I " Blessed be he that blesseth thee, and cursed be he that curseth thee ! ! !" As a further proof that I am still in the land of ex- * [One of the general supervisors of excise.} t [A box, containing, in the lid, a supposed original portrait of Queen Mary. Some years ago, one of the sons of the poet, in leaping on board a vessel in India, had the misfortune to break this box, and irreparably damage the portrait.] ± [So styled as president of the convivial society, called the Crochallan Fencibles. 68 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. istence, I send you a poem, the latest I have composed. I have a particular reason for wishing you only to show it to select friends, should you think it worthy a friend's perusal; but if, at your first leisure hour, you will favour me with your opinion of, and strictures on the performance, it will be an additional obligation on, dear Sir, your deeply indebted humble servant, K. B. No. CLXXXVII. TO MR PETER HILL. Ellisland, 17th January, 1791. Take these two guineas, and place them over against that damned account of yoiu's, which has gagged my mouth these five or six months ! I can as little write good things as apologies to the man I owe money to. Oh the supreme curse of making three guineas do the business of five ! Not all the labours of Hercules ; not all the Hebrews' three centuries of Egyptian bondage, vv^ere such an insuperable business, such an infernal task ! ! Poverty ! thou half-sister of death, thou cousin- german of hell ! — where shall I find force of execration equal to the amplitude of thy demerits ? Oppressed by thee, the venerable ancient, grown hoary in the prac- tice of every virtue, laden with years and wi'etchedness, implores a little, little aid to support his existence, from a stony-hearted son of Mammon, whose sun of l^rosperity never knew a cloud, and is by him denied and insulted. Oppressed by thee, the man of senti- ment, whose heart glows with independence, and melts with sensibility, inly pines under the neglect, or writhes, in bitteiuiess of soul, under the contumely of arrogant, tmfeeHng wealth. Oppressed by thee, the son of genius, whose ill-starred ambition plants him at the tables of the fashionable and polite, must see, in suffering silence, his remark neglected, and his person despised, while shallow greatness, in his idiot attempts at wit, shall meet with countenance and applause. Nor is it only the family of worth that have reason to complain of thee — the children of folly and vice, though in common with thee the offspring of evil, smart equally under thy rod. Owing to thee, the man of unfortunate disposi- tion and neglected education, is condemned as a fool for his dissipation, despised and shunned as a needy wretch, when his follies as usual bring him to want ; and when his unprincipled necessities drive him to dishonest practices, he is abhorred as a miscreant, and perishes by the justice of his country. But far other- wise is the lot of the man of family and fortune His early follies and extravagance are spirit and fire ; — his consequent M^ants are the embarrassments of an honest fellow ; and when, to remedy the matter, he has gained a legal commission to plunder distant provinces, or massacre peaceful nations, he returns, perhaps, laden with the spoils of rapine and murder ; lives wicked and respected, and dies a scoundrel and a lord. Nay, worst of all, alas for helpless Avoman ! — the needy prostitute, who has shivered at the corner of the sti'eet, waiting to earn the wages of casual prostitution, is left neglected and insulted, ridden down by the cha- riot wheels of the coroneted rip, hurrying on to the guUty assignation — she who, without the same necessi- ties to plead, riots nightly in the same guilty trade. Well ! divines may say of it what they please ; but execration is to the mind what phlebotomy is to the body — the vital sluices of both are wonderfully relieved by their respective evacuations. R. B. No. CLXXXVIII. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. JEliisland, 2Sd January, 1791. Many happy returns of the season to you, ray dear friend ! As many of the good things of this life, as is consistent with the usual mixture of good and evil in the cup of being ! I have just finished a poem (Tam o' Shanter), which you will receive enclosed. It is my first essay in the way of tales. I have these several months been hammering at an elegy on the amiable and accomplished Miss Burnet. I have got, and can get, no farther than the following fragment, on which please give me your strictures. In all kinds of poetic composition, I set great store by your opuiion ; but in sentimental verses, in the poetry of the heart, no Roman Catholic ever set more value on the infallibility of the Holy Father than I do on yours. I mean the mtroductory couplets as text verses. " ELEGY ON THE LATE MISS BURNET OF MONBODDO. Life ne'er exulted in so rich a prize, As Burnet lovely from her native skies ; Nor envious death so triumph'd in a blow, As that which laid th' accomplish'd Burnet low." — &c. Let me hear from you soon. Adieu ! R. B. No. CLXXXIX. TO A. F. TYTLER, ESQ.* EUisland, February 1791. Sir — Nothing less than the unfortunate accident I have met with could have prevented my grateful ac- * [In answer to the following letter from Mr Tytler :— " Dear Sir— Mr Hill yesterday put into my hands a sheet of ' Grose's Antiquities,' containing a poem of yours, entitled ' Tam o' Shanter, a tale.' The very high pleasure I have received from the perusal of this admirable piece, I feel, demands the warmest acknowledgments. Hill tells me he is to send off a packet for you this day ; I cannot resist, therefore, putting on paper what I must have told you in person, had I met with you after the recent perusal of your tale, which is, that I feel I owe you a debt, which, if undischarged, would reproach me with ingratitude. I have seldom in my life tasted of higher enjoyment from any work of genius, than I have received from this composition ; and I am much mistaken, if this poem alone, had you never written an- other syllable, would not have been sufficient to have transmitted your name dov/n to posterity with high reputation. In the in- troductory part, where you paint the character of your hero, and exhibit him at the alehouse ingle, with his tippling cronies, you have delineated nature. with a himiour and naivete that would do honour to Matthew Prior ; but when you describe the infernal orgies of the witches' sabbath, and the hellish scenery in which they are exhibited, you display a power of imagination that Shakspeare himself could not have exceeded. I know not that I have ever met with a picture of more horrible fancy than the following :— ♦ Coffins stood round like open presses, That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses ; And, by some devilish cantrip sleight. Each in his cauld hand held a light.' But when I came to the succeeding lines, my blood ran cold within me : — ' A knife, a father's throat had mangled, Whom his ain son of life bereft ; The (jrey Jiairs yet stack to the lieft.' And here, after the two following lines, ' Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu',' &c., the descriptive part might perhaps have been better closed, than the four lines which succeed, which, though good in themselves, yet, as they derive all their merit from the satire they contain, are here rather misplaced among the cir- cumstances of pure horror.* The initiation of the young witch is most happily described— the effect of her charms exhibited in the dance of Satan himself— the apostrophe, ' Ah, little thought thy reverend grannie !' — the transport of Tam, who forgets his situation, and enters completely into the spirit of the scene— are all features of high merit in this excellent composition. The only fault it possesses, is, that the Nvinding up, or conclusion of the story, is not commensurate to the interest which is excited by the descriptive and characteristic painting of the precediug parts. The preparation is fine, but the result is not adequate. But for this, perhaps you have a good apology— you stick to the popular tale. And now that I have got out my mind, and feel a little re- * [The four lines were as follow :— Three lawyers' tongues turned inside out, Wi' lies seemed like a beggar's clout, And priests' hearts rotten, black as muck. Lay stinking, vile, in every neuk. The poet expunged them, in obedience to the recommendation of Jir Tytlur. j GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 69 knowledgments for your letter. His own favourite poem, and that an essay in the walk of the muses en- tirely new to him, where consequently his hopes and fears were on the most anxious alarm for his success in the attempt— to have that poem so much applauded by one of the first judges, was the most delicious vibration that ever thrilled along the heart-strings of a poor poet. However, Providence, to keep up the proper proportion of evil \\'ith the good, which it seems is necessary in this sublunary state, thought proper to check my exultation by a very serious misfortune. A day or two after I received your letter, my horse came down with me and broke my right arm. As this is the first service my arm has done me since its disaster, I find myself unable to do more than just, in general terms, thank you for this additional instance of your patronage and friend- ship. As to the faults you detected in the piece, they are truly there ; one of them, the hit at the lawyer and priest, 1 shall cut out ; as to the falUng off in the catas- trophe, for the reason you justly adduce, it cannot easily be remedied. Your 'approbation. Sir, has given me such additional spirits to persevere in this species of poetic composition, that I a^n already revolving two or three stories in my fancy. If I can bring these floating ideas to bear any kind of embodied form, it will give me an additional opportunity of assuring you how much I have the honour to be, &c. R. B. No. CXC. TO MRS DUNLOP. Ellisland, 1th Feb. 1701. When I tell you. Madam, that by a fall, not from my horse, but with my horse, I have been a cripple some time, and that this is the first day my arm and hand have been able to serve me in wTiting, you will allow that it is too good an apology for my seemingly un- grateful silence. I am now getting better, and am able to rhjTne a little, which implies some tolerable ease, as I cannot think that the most poetic genius is able to compose on the rack. I do not remember if ever I mentioned to you my having an idea of composing an elegy on the late Miss Burnet of Monboddo. I had the honour of being pretty well acquainted with her, and have seldom felt so much at the loss of an acquaintance, as when I heard that so amiable and accomplished a piece of God's work was no more. I have, as yet, gone no farther than the follow- ing fragment, of which please let me have your opinion. You know that elegy is a subject so much exhausted, that any new idea on the business is not to be expected : 'tis well if we can place an old idea in a new hght. How far I have succeeded as to this last, you will judge from what follows : * * * I have proceeded no farther. Your kind letter, with your land rememhrmice of your godson, came safe. This last. Madam, is scarcely what my pride can bear. As to the little fellow, he is, par- tiaUty apart, the finest boy I have for a long time seen. He is now seventeen months old, has the small-pox and measles over, has cut several teeth, and never had a grain of doctors' drugs in Ms bowels. I am truly happy to hear that the " little flow'ret " is blooming so fresh and fair, and that the " mother plant " is rather I'ecovering her drooping head. Soon and well may her " cruel wounds" be healed! I have wTitten thus far with a good deal of difficulty. When I get a little abler, you shall hear farther from, Madam, yours, R. B. lieved of the weight of that deht I owed you, let me end this de- sultory scroll by an advice :— You have proved your talent for a species of composition in which but a very few of our own poets have succeeded. Go on — write more tales in the same style — you will eclipse Prior and La Fontaine; for, with equal wit, equal power of numbers, and equal naivete of expression, you have a bolder and more vigorous imagination."] No. CXCI. TO THE REV. ARCH. ALISON. EUisland, near Dumfries^ \ith Feb. 1791. Sir — You must by this time have set me down as one of the most ungrateful of men. You did me the honour to present me with a book, which does honour to science and the intellectual powers of man, and I have not even so much as acknowledged the receipt of it. The fact is, you yourself are to blame for it. Flattered as I was by your telling me that you wished to have my opinion of the work, the old spiritual enemy of mankind, who knows well that vanity is one of the sins that most easily beset me, put it into my head to ponder over the performance with the look-out of a critic, and to di'aw up forsooth a deep learned digest of strictures on a com- position, of which, in fact, until I read the book, I did not even know the first principles. I own. Sir, that at first glance several of your propositions startled me as paradoxical. That the martial clangour of a trumpet had something in it vastly more grand, heroic, and su- blime, than the twingle twangle of a Jew's harp : that the dehcate flexure of a rose-twig, when the half-blown flower is heavy A\-ith the tears of the dawn, was infinitely more beautiful and elegant than the upright stub of a burdock ; and that from something innate and inde- pendent of all associations of ideas — these I had set do^vn as irrefragable, orthodox truths, until perusing your book shook my faith. In short. Sir, except EucUd's Elements of Geometry, which I made a shift to unravel by my father's fire-side, in the winter evenings of the first season I held the plough, I never read a book which gave me sUch a quantum of inlormation, and added so much to my stock of ideas, as your " Essays on the Principles of Taste." One thmg, Su', you must forgive my mentioning as an uncommon merit in the work — I mean the language. To clothe abstract philo- sophy in elegance of style sounds something lilie a con- tradiction in terms, but you have convinced me that they are quite compatible. 1 enclose you some poetic bagatelles of my late com- position. The one in print is my first essay in the way of telling a tale. I am, Sir, &c. R. B." No. CXCII. TO THE REV. G. BAIRD.f EUisland, 1791. Reverend Sir — Why did you, my dear Sir, write to me in such a hesitating style on the business of poor Bruce ? Don't I know, and have I not felt, the many ills, the peculiar ills, that poetic flesh is heir to ? You shall have your choice of all the unpublished poems I * [This is the letter which Jlr Dugald Stewart, in his commu- nication to Dr Currie respecting Burns (printed in the memoir Nvritten by that gentleman), says he read with surprise, as evinc- ing that the unlettered Ayrshire bard had formed " a distinct conception of the general principles of the doctrine of association." (See the accompanying edition of Dr Currie's Memoir of Burns, p. 34, 35.) The doctrine here alluded to is one peculiar, we believe, to the Scotch school of metaphysicians, and mainly consists in an assertion that our ideas of beauty in objects of all kinds arise from our associating -with them some other ideas of an agreeable kind. For instance, our notion of beauty in the cheek of a pretty maiden arises from our notions of her health, innocence, and so forth ; our notion of the beauty of a Highland prospect, such as the Trosachs, from our notions of the romantic kind of life for- merly led in it ; as if there were no female beauty independent of both health and innocence, or fine scenery where men had not formerly worn tartans and claymores. The whole of the above letter of Bums is, in reality (though perhaps unmeant by him), a satire on this doctrine, which, notwithstanding the eloquence of an Alison, a Stewart, and a Jeffrey, must now be considered as amongst the dreams of philosophy.] T [This respectable and benevolent person, since Principal of the University of Edinburgh, liad written to Burns, requesting his aid in revising Bruce's poems, and a contribution to swell the volume. It does not appear that the edition which subsequently appeared contained any poem by Burn? ] n 70 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. have ; and had your letter had my direction so as to have reached me sooner (it only came to my hand this moment), I should have directly put you out of suspense on the subject. I only ask, that some prefatory adver- tisement in the book, as well as the subscription bills, may bear, that the publication is solely for the benefit of Bruee's mother. I would not put it in the power of ignorance to surmise, or malice to insinuate, that 1 clubbed a share in the work from mercenary motives. Nor need you give me credit for any remarkable gene- rosity in my part of the busmess. I have such a host of peccadilloes, failings, follies, and backslidings (any body but myself might perhaps give some of them a worse appellation), that by way of some balance, how- ever trifling, in the account, I am fain to do any good that occurs in my very limited power to a fellow-crea- ture, just for the selfish purpose of clearing a little the vista of retrospection. R. B. No. CXCIIL TO DR MOORE. Ellisland, 2^th February, 1791. I DO not know. Sir, whether you are a subscriber to Grose's Antiquities of Scotland. If you are, the enclosed poem will not be altogether new to you. Captain Grose did me the favour to send me a dozen copies of the proof sheet, of which this is one. Should you have read the piece before, still this will answer the principal end I have in view — it will give me another opportunity of thanking you for all yoiu? goodness to the rustic bard ; and also of showing you, that the abilities you have been pleased to commend and patronise are still em- ployed in the way you wish. The Elegy on Captain Henderson is a tribute to the memory of a man I loved much. Poets have in this the same advantage as Roman CathoUcs ; they can be of service to their friends after they have passed that bourne where all other kindness ceases to be of avail. Whether, after all, either the one or the other be of any real service to the dead, is, I fear, very problema- tical, but I am sure they are highly gratifying to the living : and as a very orthodox text, I forget where in Scripture, says, " whatsoever is not of faith is sin ;" so say I, whatsoever is not detrimental to society, and is of positive enjoyment, is of God, the giver of all good things, and ought to be received and enjoyed by his creatures with thankful deUght. As almost all my re- ligious tenets originate from my heart, I am wonder- fully pleased with the idea, that I can still keep up a tender intercourse with the dearly beloved friend, or still more dearly beloved mistress, who is gone to the world of spirits. The ballad on Queen Mary was begun while I was i)usy with Percy's Reliques of English Poetry. By the way, how much is every honest heart, which has a tincture of Caledonian prejudice, obhged to you for your glorious story of Buchanan and Targe ! 'Twas an unequivocal proof of your loyal gallantry of soul, giving Targe the victory. I should have been mortified to the ground if you had not. I have just readt)ver once more of many times, your Zeluco. I marked with my pencil, as I went along, every passage that pleased me particularly above the rest ; and one or two, which, with humble deference, I am disposed to thinlc unequal to the merits of the book. I have sometimes thought to transcribe these marked passages, or at least so much of them as to point where they are, and send them to you. Ori- ginal strokes that strongly depict the human heart, is your and Fielding's province, beyond any other novehst I have ever perused. Richardson indeed might, per- haps, be excepted ; but unhappily, his dramatis personce are beings of another world ; and however they may captivate the inexperienced, romantic fancy of a boy or a girl, they will ever, in proportion as we have made human nature our study, dissatisfy our riper years. As to my private concerns, I. am going on, a mighty tax-gatherer before the Lord, and have lately had the interest to get myself ranked on the list of excise as a supervisor. I am not yet employed as such, but in a few years I shall fall into the file of supervisorship by seniority. I have had an immense loss in the death of the Earl of Glencairn, the patron from whom all my fame and fortune took its rise. Independent of my grateful attachment to him, which was indeed bo strong that it pervaded my very soul, and was entwined with the thread of my existence : so soon as the prince's friends had got in (and every dog you know has his day), my getting forward in the excise would have been an easier business than otherwise it will be. Though this was a consummation devoutly to be wished, yet, thank Heaven, I can live and rhyme as I am ; and as to my boys, poor little fellows ! if I cannot place them on as high an elevation in hfe as I could wish, I shall, if I am favoured so much by the Disposer of events as to see that period, fix them on as broad and indepen- dent a basis as possible. Among the many wise adages which have been treasured up by our Scottish ances- tors, this is one of the best — Better be the head o' the commonalty, than the tail o' the gentry. But I am got on a subject which, however interest- ing to me, is of no manner of consequence to you ; so I shall give you a short poem on the other page, and close this with assuring you how sincerely I have the honour to be, yours, &c. R. B. No. CXCIV. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. Ellisla?id, 12th March, 1751. If the foregoing piece be worth your strictures, let me have them. For my own part, a thing that I have just composed always appears through a double por- tion of that partial medium in which an author will ever view his own works. I believe, in general, novelty has something in it that inebriates the fancy, and not un- frequently dissipates and fumes away like other intoxi- cation, and leaves the poor patient, as usual, with an aching heart. A striking instance of this might be adduced, in the revolution of many a hymeneal honey- moon. But lest I sink into stupid prose, and so sacri- legiously intrude on the office of my parish priest, I shall fill up the page in my own way, and give you another song of my late composition, which will appear perhaps in Johnson's work, as well as the former. You must know a beautiful Jacobite air, " There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame." When poli- tical combustion ceases to be the object of princes and ;r patriots, it then, you know, becomes the lawful prey of I historians and poets. f *' By yon castle wa', at the close of the day, I heard a nmn sing, tho' his head it was grey ; And as he was singing, the tears fast down came — There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame," &c. If you like the aii', and if the stanzas hit your fancy, you cannot imagine, my dear friend, how much you would oblige me, if, by the charms of your delightful voice, you would give my honest effusion to " the me- , mory of joys that are past," to the few friends whom j you indulge in that pleasure. But I have scribbled on j till I hear the clock has intimated the near approach of " That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane." So, good night to you ! Sound be your sleep, and delectable your dreams ! Apropos, how do you like this thought in a ballad I have just now on the tapis ? " I look to the west when I gae to rest. That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be ; Far, far in the west is he I loe best, The lad that is dear to my babie and me !'* Good night once more, and God bless you ! R. B. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 71 No. CXCV. TO MR ALEXANDER DALZEL,* FACTOR, FINDLAYSTON. Ellisland, 19th March, 1791. _ My dear Sir — I have taken the liberty to frank this letter to you, as it encloses an idle poem of mine, which I send you ; and, God knows, you may perhaps pay dear enough for it if you read it through. Not that this is ray own opinion ; hut the author, by the time he has composed and corrected his work, has quite pored away all his powers of critical discrimination. I can easily guess, from my own heart, what you have felt on a late most melancholy event. God knows what I have suffered at the loss of my best friend, my first and dearest patron and benefactor ; the man to whom I owe all that I am and have ! I am gone into mourn- ing for him, and with more sincerity of grief than I fear some will, who, by nature's ties, ought to feel on the occasion. I will be exceedingly obliged to you, indeed, to let me know the news of the noble family, how the poor mother and the two sisters support their loss. I had a packet of poetic bagatelles ready to send to Lady Betty, when I saw the fatal tidings in the newspaper. I see, by the same chaimel, that the honoured remains of my noble patron are designed to be brought to the family burial-place. Dare I trouble you to let me know privately before the day of interment, that I may cross the country, and steal among the crowd, to pay a tear to the last sight of my ever revered benefactor ? It will oblige me beyond expression. R. B. No. CXCVI. TO MRS GRAHAM OF FINTRY. Ellisland, 1791. Madam — Whether it is that the story of our Mary Queen of Scots has a pecuHar effect on the feelings of a poet, or whether I have in the enclosed ballad suc- ceeded beyond my usual poetic success, I know not, but it has pleased me beyond any effort of my muse for a good while past ; on that account I enclose it parti- cularly to you. It is true, the purity of my motives may be suspected. I am already deeply indebted to Mr Graham's goodness ; and what, in the tisual ways of men, is of infinitely greater importance, Mr G. can do me service of the utmost importance in time to come. I was born a poor dog ; and, however I may occasion- ally pick a better bone than I used to do, I know I must live and die poor : but I ^vill indulge the flattex'ing faith that my poetry will considerably outlive my poverty ; and without any fustian affectation of spirit, I can pro- mise and affirm, that it must be no ordinary craving of the latter shall ever make me do any thing injurious to the honest fame of the former. Whatever may be my failings — for failings are a part of human nature — may they ever be those of a generous heart and an inde- pendent mind ! It is no fault of mine that I was born to dependence, nor is it Mr Graham's chiefest praise that he can command influence : but it is his merit to bestow, not only with the Idndness of a brother, but with the politeness of a gentleman, and I trust it shall be mine to receive with thankfulness, and remember with undiminished gratitude. R. B. * This gentleman, tlie factor, or steward, of Burns's noble friend, Lord Glencaim, with a view to encourage a second edition of the poems, laid the volume before his lordship, with such an account of the rustic bard's situation and prospects as from his slender acquaintance vnih. him he could furnish. The result, as communicated to Bums by Mr Dalzel, is highly creditable to the character of Lord Glencairn. After reading the book, his lord- ship declared that its merits greatly exceeded his expectation, and he took it with him as a literary curiosity to Edinburgh. He repeated his wishes to be of service to Burns, and desired ]Mr Dalzel to inform him, that in patronising the book, ushering it with efifect into the world, or treating with the bookseUers, he would most willingly give every aid in his power ; adding his re- quest, that Bums would take the earliest opportunity of letting him know in what way or manner he could best further his in- terests.— Cromeic, No. excviL TO MRS DUNLOP. Ellisland, Uth April, 1791. I AM once more able, my honoured friend, to return you, with my own hand, thanks for the many instances of your friendship, and particularly for your kind anxiety in this last disaster that my evil genius had in store for me. However, life is chequered — ^joy and sorrow — for on Saturday morning last, IMrs Burns made me a pre- sent of a fine boy ; rather stouter, but not so handsome as your godson was at his time of life. Indeed, I look on your little namesake to be my chef d'ceuvre in that species of manufacture, as I look on Tam o' Shanter to be ray standard performance in the poetical line. 'Tis true, both the one and the other discover a spice of roguish waggery, that might perhaps be as well spared ; but then they also show, in my opinion, a force of genius, and a finishing poHsh, that I despair of ever excelling. Mrs Burns is getting stout again, and laid as lustily about her to-day at breakfast, as a reaper from the corn-ridge. That is the peculiar privilege and bless- ing of our hale, sprightly damsels, that are bred among the hay and heather* We cannot hope for that highly polished mind, that charming dehcacy of soul, which is found among the female world in the more elevated stations of life, and which is certainly by far the most bewitching charm in the famous cestus of Venus. It is indeed such an inestimable treasure, that where it can be had in its native heavenly purity, unstained by some one or other of the many shades of affectation, and unalloyed by some one or other of the many species of caprice, I declare to Heaven I should think it cheaply purchased at the expense of every other earthly good ! But as this angelic creature is, I am afraid, extremely rare in any station and rank of life, and totally denied to such an humble one as mine, we meaner mortals must put up with the next rank of female excellence ;— - as fine a figure and face we can produce as any rank of life whatever ; rustic, native grace ; unaffected modesty and unsulHed purity ; nature's mother- wit, and the rudi- ments of taste ; a simplicity of soul, imsuspicious of, because unacquainted with, the crooked ways of a selfish, interested, disingenuous world ; and the dearest charm of all the rest, a yielding sweetness of disposition, and a generous warmth of heart, grateful for love on our part, and ardently glowing with a more than equal return ; these, with a healthy frame, a sound vigorous constitution, which your higher ranks can scarcely ever hope to enjoy, are the charms of lovely woman in my humble wallc of life. This is the greatest effort my broken arm has yet made. Do let me hear, by first post, how cher petit Monsieurf comes on with his small-pox. May Almighty goodness preserve and restore him ! R, B. No. CXCVIII. TO . Ellisland, 1791. Dear Sir— I am exceedingly to blame in not writing you long ago ; but the truth is, that I am the most indolent of all human beings, and when I matriculate in the Herald's Office, I intend that my supporters shall be two sloths, my crest a slow-worm, and the motto, " Deil tak the foremost." So much by way of apology for not thanking you sooner for your land execution of my commission. I would have sent you the poem ; but somehow or other it found its way into the public papers, where you must have seen it. I am ever, dear Sir, yours sincerely, R. B. * [To illustrate what the poet says here, it may be mentioned that the accouchement had taken place (as we learn from his family bible) only two days before, namely, April 9th. This child was named. William Nicol, after the eccentric teacher of the Edinburgh High School.] t [Mrs Henri's child, and the grandchild of Mrs Danlop. See note to Letter CLXXXIV.] 72 BURNS-S PROSE WORKS. No. CXCIX. TO . Ellisland, 1791. Thou eunuch of language ; thou Englishman, who never was south the Tweed ; thou servile echo of fashionable barbarisms ; thou quack, vending the nos- trums of empirical elocution; thou marriage-maker between vowels and consonants, on the Gretna Green of caprice ; thou cobbler, botching the flimsy socks of bombast oratory; thou blacksmith, hammering the civets of absurdity ; thou butcher, embruing thy hands in the bowels of orthography; thou arch-heretic in pro- nunciation ; thou pitch-pipe of affected emphasis ; thou carpenter, mortising the awkward joints of jarring sen- tences ; thou squealdng dissonance of cadence ; thou pimp of gender ; thou Lion Herald to silly etymology ; thou antipode of grammar ; thou executioner of con- struction ; thou brood of the speech-distracting builders of the Tower of Babel ; thou lingual confusion worse confounded ; thou scape-gallows from the land of syn- tax ; thou scavenger of mood and tense ; thou murde- rous accoucheur of infant learning ; thou ignis fatuus, misleading the steps of benighted ignorance; thou pickle-herring in the puppet-show of nonsense; thou faithful recorder of barbarous idiom ; thou persecutor of syllabication; thou baleful meteor, foretelling and facilitating the rapid approach of Nox and Erebus. R. B. No. CC. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. 11^/^ Jiine, 1791. Let me interest you, my dear Cunningham, in behalf of the gentleman who waits on you with this. He is a Mr Clarke, of Moffat, principal schoolmaster there, and is at present suffering severely under the persecution of one or two powerful individuals of his employers. He is accused of harshness to boys that were placed Hnder his care. God help the teacher, if a man of sen- sibility and genius, and such is my friend Clarke, when a booby father presents him with his booby son, and insists on lighting up the rays of science in a fellow's head whose skull is impervious and inaccessible by any other Avay than a positive fracture with a cudgel — a fellow, whom, in fact, it savours of impiety to attempt making a scholar of, as he has been marked a block- head in the book of fate, at the Almighty fiat of his Creator. The patrons of Moffat -school are the ministers, ma- gistrates, and town-council of Edinburgh, and as the business comes now before them, let me beg my dearest friend to do every thing in his power to serve the in- terests of a man of genius and worth, and a man whom I particularly respect and esteem. You know some good fellows among the magistracy and council, but particularly you have much to say with a reverend gentleman to whom you have the honour of being very nearly related, and whom this country and age have had the honour to produce. I need not name the histo- rian of Charles V.* I tell him, through the medium of his nephew's influence, that Mr Clarke is a gentleman who will not disgrace even his patronage. I know the merits of the cause thoroughly, and say it, that my friend is falling a sacrifice to prejudiced ignorance. God help the children of dependence ! Hated and persecuted by their enemies, and too often, alas ! almost unexceptionably, received hy their friends with disre- spect and reproach, under the thin disguise of cold civility and humiliating advice. Oh ! to be a sturdy savage, stalking in the pride of his independence, amid the solitary wilds of his deserts, rather than in civilised life helplessly to tremble for a subsistence, precarious as. the caprice of a feilow-creature ! Ever3'^ man has his virtues,* and no man is without his failings ; and curse on that privilege*^ plain -dealing' of friendship^ which, in the hour of my calamity, cannoj reach forth the helping hand, without, at the same time, pointing out * [Mr Cunningham was nephew to Dr Robertson.] those failings, and apportioning them their share in procuring my present distress. My friends, for such the world calls ye, and such ye think yourselves to be, pass by my vu'tues if you please, but do, also, spare my follies — the first will witness in my breast for them- selves, and the last will give pain enough to the inge- nuous mind without you. And since deviating more or less from the paths of propriety and rectitude must be incident to human nature, do thou. Fortune, put it in my power, always from myself, and of myself, to bear the consequence of those errors ! I do not want to be independent that I may sin, but I want to be independent in my sinning. To return in this rambling letter to the subject I set out with, let me recommend my friend, Mr Clarke, to your acquaintance and good offices ; his worth entitles him to the one, and his gratitude will merit the other. I long much to hear from you. Adieu ! R. B. No. CCL TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN. Ellisland, 1791. My Lord — Language sinks under the ardour of my feelings when I would thank your lordship for the honour you have done me in inviting me to make one at the coronation of the bust of Thomson. In my first enthusiasm in reading the card you did me the honour to write me, I overlooked every obstacle, and deter- mined to go ; but I fear it will not be in my power. A week or two's absence, in the very middle of my har- vest, is what I much doubt I dare not venture on. I once already made a pilgrimage up the whole course of the Tweed, and fondly would I take the same de- lightful journey down the windings of that delightful stream. Your lordship hints at an ode for the occasion ; but who would write after Collins ? I read over his verses to the memory of Thomson, and despaired. I got in- deed to the length of three or four stanzas, in the way of address to the shade of the bard, on crowning his bust. I shall trouble your lordship with the subjoined copy of them, which, 1 am afraid, will be but too con- vincing a proof how unequal I am to the task. How- ever, it affords me an opportunity of approaching your lordship, and declaring how sincerely and gratefully I have the honour to be, &c. R. B. No. ecu. TO MR THOMAS SLOAN. Ellisland, Sept. 1 5^, 1791. My dear Sloan — Suspense is worse than disappoint- ment ; for that reason I Imrry to tell you that I just now learn that Mr Ballantine does not choose to inter- fere more in the business. I am truly sorry for it, but cannot help it. You blame me for not writing you sooner, but you will please to recollect that you omitted one little ne- cessary piece of information — your address. However, you know equally well my hurried life, indolent temper, and strength of attachment. It must be a longer period than the longest life " in the world's hale and undegenerate days," that will make me forget so dear a friend as Mr Sloan. I am prodigal enough at times, but I will not part with. such a treasure as that. I can easily enter into the embarras of your present situation. You know my favourite quotation from Young : — On reason build Retsolvk ! That column of true majesty in man. And that other favourite one from Thomson's Al- fred :— What proves the hero truly great. Is, never, never to despair. Or, shall I quote you an author of your acquaintance ? Whether doing, suffering, or forbearing. You may do miracles by— persevering. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 73 I have nothing new to tell you. The few friends we have are t'oing on in the old way. I sold my crop on tliis day se'ennight, and sold it very well. A gumea an acre, on an avei-age, above value. But such a scene of drunkenness was hardly ever seen in this country. After the roup was over, about thirty people engaged in a battle, every man for his own hand, and fought it out for three hours. Nor was the scene much better in the house. No Mghting, indeed, but folks lying drunlv on the floor, and decantmg, until both my dogs got so drunk by attending them," that they could not stand. You will easily guess how I enjoyed the scene, as I was no farther over than you used to see me. Mi-s B. and family have'been in Ap'shire these many weeks. Farewell ! and God bless you, mv dear friend ! R. B. No. CCIII. TO COLONEL FULLARTON OF FULLARTON.^ Ellisland, October 3d, 1791. Sir — I have just tliis minute got the franlv, and next mmute must send it to post, else I purposed to have sent you two or three other bagatelles that might have amused a vacant hour, about as weU as '•' Six excellent new Songs," or the " Aberdeen prognostications for the year to "come."f I shall probably trouble you soon with another packet, about " the gloomy month of No- vember, when the people of England hang and drown themselves — any thing generally is better than one's own thoughts. Fond as I may be of my own productions, it is not for their sake that I am so anxious to send you them. I am ambitious, covetously ambitious, of being known to a gentleman, whom I am proud to call my country- man ;:J: a gentleman, who was a foreign ambassador as soon as he was a man ; and a leader of armies as soon as he was a soldier ; and that with an eclat unkno\\Ti to the usual minions of a court — men who, with all the adventitious advantages of princely connections, and princely fortimes, must yet, like the caterpillar, labour a whole lifetime before they reach the wished-for height, there to roost a stupid chrysahs, and doze out the remaining glimmering existence of old age. If the gentleman that accompanied you when you did me the honour of calling on me, is with you, I beg to be respectfully remembered to him. I have the honour to be your highly obliged and most devoted humble servant, R. B. No. CCIV. TO LADY E. CUNNINGHAM.§ My Lady — I would, as usual, have availed myself of the privilege your goodness has allowed me, of sending you any thing I compose in my poetical way ; but as I had resolved, so soon as the shock of my irreparable loss would allow me, to pay a tribute to my late bene- factor, I detei-mined to make that the first piece I should do myself the honour of sending you. Had the wing of my fancy been equal to the ardour of my heart, the enclosed had been much more worthy your perusal : as it is, I beg leave to lay it at your ladyship's feet.|| As all the woi'ld knows my obligations to the late Earl of Glencaim, 1 would wish to show, as openly, that my * [This gentleman, it •will be recollected, is honourably men- tioned in " The Vision." The letter first appeared in the Paisley Magazine, 1828.] t [A conspicuous branch of popular literature in Scotland till a recent period consisted of coarse brochures of four leaves, sold at a halfpenny, and generally containing something appropriate to the title of " Six Excellent New Songs, viz." &c. The other branch of popular literature mentioned in the text consisted of almanacks, published at Aberdeen, at the price of a penny.] ^ [Meaning, probably, a native of the same county.] § [Sister of the recently deceased, and of the then existing, Earls of Glencairn. Her ladyship died unmarried, August 1804.] !1 [The poem enclosed was the Lament for James Earl of Glen- caim.] heart glows, and shall ever glow, with the most grate- ful sense and remembrance of his lordship's goodness. The sables I did myself the honour to wear to hLs lordship's memory, were not the " mockery of woe." Nor shall my gratitude perish with me ! If among my cliildi-en I shall have a son that has a heart, he shall hand it down to his child as a family honour, and a family debt, that my dearest existence I owe to the noble house of Glencairn ! I was about to say, my lady, that if you think the poem may venture to see the hght, I would, in sorab May or other, give it to the world. R. B. No. CCV. TO MR AINSLIE. Ellisland, 1791. ^Iy dear Ainslie — Can you minister to a mind dis- eased ? — can you, amid the horrors of penitence, regret, remorse, headache, nausea, and all the rest of the d hounds of hell, that beset a poor wretch who has been guilty of the sin of drunkenness — can you speak peace to a troubled soul ? JMiserable perdu that I am, I have tried every thing that used to amuse me, but in vain : here must I sit, a monument of the vengeance laid up in store for the wicked, slowly counting every chick of the clock as it slov/ly, slowly niunbers over these lazy scoundrels of hours, who, * * * *, are ranked up before me, every one following his neighbour, and every one with a burden of anguish on his back, to pour on my devoted head — and there is none to pity me. ily wife scolds me, my business torments me, and my sins come staring me in the face, every one telling a more bitter tale than his feUow. When I tell you even * * * has lost its power to please, you vaW guess something of my hell within, and aU around me. I began EHbanks and Elibraes, but the stanzas fell imenjoyed and un- finished from my listless tongue : at last I luckily thought of reading over an old letter of yoiu^, that lay by me in my book-case, and I felt something, for the fii'St time since I opened my eyes, of pleasurable exist- ence. Well — I begin to breathe a little, since I began to vnc'iie to you. How are you, and what are you doing ? How goes law ? Apropos, for connexion's sake, do not address to me supervisor, for that is an honour I cannot pretend to ; I am on the list, as we call it, for a supervisor, and will be called out, by and bye, to act as one ; but at present I am a simple guager, tho' t'other day I got an appointment to an excise division of £25 per annum better than the rest. My present income, down money, is £70 per annum. I have one or two good fellows here, whom you would be glad to know. R. B. No. CCVI. TO MISS DAVIES.* It is impossible, ]\Iadam, that the generous warmth and angelic purity of your youthful mind can have any idea of that moral disease under which I unhappily must rank as the chief of sinners ; I mean a torpitude of the mora,l powers, that may be called a lethargy of conscience. In vain Remorse rears her horrent crest, and rouses all her snakes : beneath the deadly fixed eye and leaden hand of Indolence, their wildest ire is charmed into the toi'por of the bat, slumbering out the rigours of winter in the chink of a ruined wall. No- thing less. Madam, could have made me so long neglect your obliging commands. Indeed, I had one apology — the bagatelle was not worth presenting. Besides, so strongly am I interested in Miss Davies's fate and wel- * [Mr Cunningham, in his edition of Bums, gives a very inte- resting note respecting the " charming lovely Davies;" from -which we learn that she was the yomigest daughter of Dr Davies of Tenby in Pembrokeshire, and a relative of the Riddels of Friars' Carse. She died yovmg, under the distress of mind con- sequent on the neglect of a lover.] 74 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. fare in the serious buslneiss of life, amid its chances and changes, that to make her the subject of a silly ballad is downright mockery of these ardent feelings ; 'tis like an impertinent jest to a dying friend. Gracious Heaven! why this disparity between our >vishes and our powers ? Why is the most generous wish to make others blest, impotent and ineffectual, as the idle breeze that crosses the pathless desert ? In my walks of life I have met with a few people to whom how gladly would I have said, "Go! be happy! I know that your hearts have been wounded by the scorn of the proud, whom accident has placed above you — or, worse still, in whose hands are perhaps placed many of the comforts of your life. But there ! ascend that rock. Independence, and look justly down on their littleness of soul. Make the worthless tremble under your in- dignation, and the foolish sink before your contempt ; and largely impart that happiness to others, which, I am certain, will give yourselves so much pleasure to bestow^." Why, dear Madam, must I wake from this delightful reverie, and find it all a dream ? Why, amid my ge- nerous enthusiasm, must I find myself poor and power- less, incapable of wiping one tear from the eye of Pity, or of adding one comfort to the friend I love ! Out upon the world ! say I, that its affairs are administered so ill ! They talk of reform; good Heaven! what a reform would I make among the sons, and even the daughters, of men ! Down, immediately should go fools from the high places where misbegotten chance has perked them up, and through life should they skulk, ever haunted by their native insignificance, as the body marches accompanied by its shadow. As for a much more formidable class, the knaves, I am at a loss what to do with them : had I a world, there should not be a knave in it. But the hand that could give, I would liberally fill : and I would pour delight on the heart l^at could kindly forgive, and generously love. , Still, the inequalities of Hfe are, among men, compa- ratively tolerable — but there is a delicacy, a tender- ness, accompanying every view in which we can place lovely woman, that are grated and shocked at the rude, capricious distinctions of Fortune. Woman is the blood-royal of life : let there be slight degrees of pre- cedency among them — but let them be all sacred. Whether this last sentiment be right or wrong, I am not accountable ; it is an original component feature of my mind. R. B. No. CCVII. TO MRS DUNLOP. ElUsland, 17th December, 1791. Many thanks to you, Madam, for your good news respecting the little floweret and the mother plant. I hope my poetic prayers have been heard, and will be answered up to the warmest sincerity of theu' fullest extent ; and then Mrs Hem-i will find her little darling the representative of his late parent, in every thing but his abridged existence. I have just finished the following song, which, to a lady, the descendant of Wallace, and many heroes of his truly illustrious line — and herself the mother of several soldiers — needs neither preface nor apology. [Here foUows the " Song of Death."] The circumstance that gave rise to the foregoing verses, was — looldng over with a musical friend McDo- nald's collection of Highland airs, I was struck with one, an Isle of Skye tune, entitled " Oran an Aoig," or " the Song of Death," to the measure of which I have adapted my stanzas. I have, of late, composed two or three other Httle pieces, wliich, ere yon full-orbed moon, whose broad impudent face now stares at old mother earth all night, shall have shrunk into a modest cres- cent, just peeping forth at dewy dawn, I shall find an hour to transcribe for you. 4 Dieu je vous commende. R. B. No. CCVIII. TO MR WILLIAM SMELLIE, PRINTER. Dumfries, 22d January, 1792. I SIT down, my dear Sir, to introduce a young lady to you, and a lady in the first ranks of fashion, too. What a task ! to you — who care no more for the herd of animals called young ladies, than you do for the herd of animals called young gentlemen. To you — who de- spise and detest the groupings and combinations of fashion, as an idiot painter that seems industrious to place staring fools and unprincipled knaves in the fore- ground of his picture, while men of sense and honesty are too often thrown in the dimmest shades. Mrs Riddel,^ who will take this letter to town with her, and send it to you, is a character that, even in your own way, as a naturalist and a philosopher, would be an acquisition to your acquamtance. The lady, too, is a votary to the muses ; and as I think myself somewhat of a judge in my own trade, I assure you that her verses, always correct, and often elegant, are much beyond the com- mon run of the lady-poetesses of the day. She is a great admirer of your book ;t and hearing me say that I was acquainted with you, she begged to be known to you, as she is just going to pay her first visit to our Cale- donian capital. I told her that her best way was, to desire her near relation, and your intimate friend, Craigdarroch, to have you at his house while she was there ; and lest you might think of a lively West Indian girl of eighteen, as girls of eighteen too often deserve to be thought of, I should take care to remove that pre- judice. To be impartial, however, in appreciating the lady's merits, she has one unlucky failing — a failing which you will easily discover, as she seems rather pleased with indulging in it — and a faihng that you will easily pardon, as it is a sin which very much besets yourself — where she dislikes, or despises, she is apt to make no more a secret of it than where she esteems and respects. I will not present you with the unmeaning compli- ments of the season, but I will send you my warmest wishes and most ardent prayers, that Fortune may never throw your subsistence to the mercy of a knave. or set your character on the judgment of a fool ; but that, upright and erect, you may walk to an honest grave, where men of letters shall say, "Here lies a man who did honour to science," and men of worth shall say, " Here lies a man who did honour to human nature." R. B. No. CCIX. TO MR WM. NICOL. 20th February, 1792. Oil THOU, wisest among the wise, meridian blaze of prudence, full moon of discretion, and chief of many coui^sellors !t How infinitely is thy puddle-headed, rattle-headed, wrong-headed, round-headed slave in- debted to thy super-eminent goodness, that from the luminous path of thy own right-lined rectitude, thou lookest benignly down on an erring wretch, of whom the zig-zag wanderings defy all the powers of calcula- tion, from the simple copulation of units, up to the hidden mysteries of fluxions ! May one feeble ray of that light of wisdom which darts from thy sensorium, straight as the arrow of heaven, and bright as the meteor of inspiration, may it be my portion, so that I may be less unworthy of the face and favour of that father of proverbs, and master of maxims, that anti- pode of folly, and magnet among the sages, the wise and witty Willie Nicol ! Amen ! Amen ! Yea, so be it ! For me ! I am a beast, a reptile, and know nothing ! From the cave of my ignorance, amid the fogs of my dulness, and pestUential fumes of my political heresies, * [Maria Woodleigh, by marriage Mrs Riddel, resided at Woodleigh Park, near Dumfries. She is to be carefully distin- guished from Mrs RiddeLof Friars' Carse, another friend of the poet.] t [The Philosophy of Natural History.] t [Mr Nicol had addressed a letter of advice to the poet,] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 75 I look np to thee, as doth a toad through the iron- barred kxcerne of a pestiferous duugeon, to the cloud- less glory of a summer sun ! Sorely sighing in bitterness of soul, I say, when shall my name be the quotation of the wise, and my countenance be the delight of the godly, like the illustrious lord of Laggan's many hills?* As for him, his works are perfect— never did the pen of calumny blur the fan.* page of his reputation, nor the bolt of hatred fly at his dwelling. Thou muTor of purity, when shall the elfine lamp of my glimmerous understanding, purged from sensual appetites and gross desires, shine like the constellation of thy intellectual powers ! As for thee, thy thoughts are pure, and thy lips are holy. Never did the un- hallowed breath of the powers of darkness, and the pleasures of darkness, pollute the sacred flame of thy sky-descended and heaven-bound desires; never did the vapours of impurity stain the unclouded serene of thy cerulean imagination. Oh that Hke thine were the tenor of my life, like thine the tenor of my conversa- tion !— then should no friend fear for my strength, no enemy rejoice in my weakness! Then should I lie down and rise up, and none to make me afraid. May thy pity and thy prayer be exercised for, oh thou lamp of Avisdom and mirror of morality ! thy devoted slave, R. 'B. No. CCX. TO FRANCIS GROSE, Esq., F.S.A.+ Dumfries, 179'2. Sir— I believe among all our Scots literati you have not met with Professor Dugald Stewart, who fills the moral philosophy chair in the University of Edinburgh. To say that he is a man of the first parts, and, what is more, a man of the first worth, to a gentleman of your general acquaintance, and who so much enjoys the luxui'y of unencumbered freedom and undisturbed pri- vacy, is not perhaps reconamendation enough : but when I inform you that Mr Stewart's principal characteristic is your favourite feature — that sterling independence of mind, wliich, though every man's right, so few men have the courage to claim, and fewer still the magna- nimity to support : when I tell you, that unseduced by splendour, and undisgusted by wretchedness, he appre- ciates the merits of the various actors in the great drama of life, merely as they perform their parts — in short, he is a man after your own heart, and I comply with his earnest request in letting you know that he wishes above all things to meet with you. His house, Catrine, is within less than a mile of Sorn Castle, which you proposed visiting ; or if you could transmit him the enclosed, he would, with the greatest pleasure, meet you any where in the neighboui'hood. I write to AjTshire to inform Mr Stewart that I have acquitted myself of my promise. Should your time and spirits permit your meeting with Mr Stewart, 'tis well ; if not, I hope you will forgive this liberty, and I have at least an opportunity of assuring you with what truth and respect I am, Sir, your great admirer, and very humble servant, R. B. * [Mr Nicol had piu-chased a small piece of ground, called Laggan, on the Nith. There took place the bacchanalian scene which called forth ' ' Willie brewed a peck o' maut."] t [Mr Grose, in the introduction to his " Antiquities of Scot- land," acknowledges his obligations to Burns in the following paragraph, some of the terms of which will scarcely fail to amuse the modem reader :— " To my ingenious friend,' Mr Robert Bums, I have been seri- ously obligated : he was not only at the pains of making out what was most worthy of notice in Ayrshire, the country honoured by his birth, but he also wrote, expressly for this work, the prettij tafe -annexed to Alloway Church." Thia " pretty tale" being " Tam o' Shanter !"] No. CCXI. TO THE SAME. Dumfries, 1792. Among the many witch stories I have heard, relat- ing to Alloway kirk, I distinctly remember only two or three. Upon a .stormy night, amid whistling squalls of wind, and bitter blasts of hail — in short, on such a night as the devil would choose to take the air in — a farmer, or farmer's servant, was plodding and plashing homeward with his plough-irons on his shoulder, having been get- ting some repairs on them at a neighbouring smithy. His way lay by the kirk of Alloway ; and being rather on the anxious look-out in approaching a place so well known to be a favoui'ite haunt of the devil, and the devil's friends and emissaries, he was struck aghast by discovering through the horrors of the storm and stormy night, a hght, which on his nearer approach plainly showed itself to proceed from the haunted edifice. Whether he had been fortified from above on his devout supplication, as is customary witli people when they suspect the immediate presence of Satan, or v/hethei', according to another custom, he had got courageously drunk at the smithy, I wUl not pretend to determine ; but so it was, that he ventured to go up to, nay into the very kirk. As luck would have it, liis temerity came off'unpunished. The members of the infernal junto were all out on some midnight business or other, and he saw nothing but a kind of kettle or caldron, depending from the roof, over the fire, simmering some heads of unchris- tened cliildren, limbs of executed malefactors, &c., for the business of the night. It was, in for a pemiy, in for a pound, with the honest ploughman : so without cere- mony he unhooked the caldron from ofi" the fire, and, pouring out the damnable ingredients, inverted it on his head, and carried it fairly home, where it remained long in the family, a living evidence of the truth of the story. Another story, which I can prove to be equally authentic, Avas as follows :— On a market day in the town of Ayr, a farmer from Carrick, and consequently whose way lay by the very gate of Alloway kirk-yard, in order to cross the river Doon at the old bridge, which is about two or three hundred yards farther on than the said gate, had been detained by his business, till by the time he reached Alloway it was the wizard hour, between night and morning. Though he was terrified with a blaze streaming from the kirk, yet as it is a well-known fact that to turn back on these occasions is running by far the greatest risk of mischief, he prudently advanced on his road. When he had reached the gate of the kirk-yard, he was sur- prised and entertained, through the ribs and arches of an old Gothic window, which still faces the highway, to see a dance of A\itches merrily footing it round their old sooty blackguard master, who was keeping them all alive with the power of his bagpipe. The farmer, stop- ping his horse to observe them a httle, could plainly descry the faces of many old women of his acquaintance and neighbourhood. How the gentleman was dressed, tradition does not say, but that the ladies were all in their smocks : and one of them happening unluckily to have a smock which was considerably too short to an- swer all the purpose of that -piece of dress, our farmer was so tickled, that he involuntarily burst out, with a loud laugh, " Weel luppen, Maggy wi' the short sark !" and recollecting himself, mstantly spurred his horse to the top of his speed. I need not mention the univer- sally known fact, that no diabolical power can pursue you beyond the middle of a running stream. Lucky it was for the poor farmer that the river Doon was so near, for notwithstanding the speed of his horse, which was a good one, agamst he reached the middle of the arch of the bridge, and consequently the middle of the stream, the pursuing, vengeful hags, were so close at his heels, that one of them actually sprang to seize him : 1 but it was too kite j notlung' was on her side of the stream 76 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. but the horse's tail, which immediately gave way at her infernal grip, as if blasted by a stroke of lightning ; but the farmer was beyond her reach. However, the un- sightly, tail-less condition of the vigorous steed, was, to • the last hour of the noble creature's life, an awful warn- ing to the Carrick farmers not to stay too late in Ayr markets. The last relation I shall give, though equally true, is not so well identified as the two former, with regard to the scene ; but as the best authorities give it for Allo- way, I shall relate it. On a summer's evening, about the time nature puts on her sables to mourn the expiry of the cheerful day, a shepherd boy, belonging to a farmer in the immediate neighbourhood of Alio way kirk, had just folded his charge, and was returning home. As he passed the kirk, in the adjoining field, he fell in with a crew of men and women, who were busy pulling stems of the plant Ragwort. He observed that as each person pulled a Ragwort, he or she got astride of it, and called out, " Up horsie !" on which the Ragwort flew off, like Pegasus, through the air with its rider. The foolish boy likewise pulled his Ragwort, and cried with the rest, *' Up horsie !" and, strange to tell, away he flew with the company. The first stage at which the cavalcade stopt, was a merchant's wine cellar in Bourdeaux, where, without saying by your leave, they quaffed away at the best the cellar could afford, until the morning, foe to the imps and works of darkness, threatened to throw light on the matter, and frightened them from theii' carousals. The poor shepherd lad, being equally a stranger to the scene and the liquor, heedlessly got himself drunk ; and when the rest took horse, he fell asleep, and was found so next day by some of the people belonging to the merchant. Somebody that understood Scotch, asking him what he was, he said such-a-one's herd in Alloway, and, by some means or other", getting home again, he lived long to tell the world the wondrous tale. R. B.* No. CCXII. TO MR J. CLARKE, EDINBURGH. July 16, 1792. Mr Burns begs leave to present his most respectful compliments to Mr Clarke. Mr B, some time ago did himself the honour of wi'iting Mr C. respecting coming out to the country, to give a httle musical instruction in a highly respectable family, where Mr C. may have his own terms, and may be as happy as indolence, the devil, and the gout, will permit him. Mr B. knows well how Mr C. is engaged with another family ; but cannot Mr C. find two or three weeks to spare to each of them % Mr B. is deeply impressed with, and awfully conscious of, the high importance of Mr C.'s time, whether in the winged moments of symphonious exhibition, at the keys of harmony, while listening seraphs cease their own less delightful strains ; or in the drowsy arms of slum- b'rous repose, in the arms of his dearly beloved elbow- chair, where the frowsy, but potent power of indolence, circumfuses her vapours round, and sheds her dews on the head of her darling son. But half a line conveying half a meaning from Mr C. would make Mr B. the happiest of mortals. R. B. No. CCXIIL • TO MRS DUNLOP. Annan Water-foot, 22rf August, 1792. Do not blame me for it, Madam — my own conscience, hackneyed and weather-beaten as it is, in watching and reproving my vagaries, follies, indolence, &c., has con- tinued to punish me sufficiently. Do you think it possible, my dear and honoured * [This letter was communicated by Mr Gilchrist of Stamford to Sir Egerton Bridges, by whom it was published in the " Cen- siua Literaria," 1796.] friend, that I could be so lost to gratitude for many, favours, to esteem for much worth, and to the hones kind, pleasurable tie of, now old acquaintance, and hope and am sure of progressive, increasing friendship — as for a single day, not to think of you — to ask the Fates what they are doing and about to do with my much-loved friend and her wide scattered connexions, and to beg of them to be as kind to you and yours as they possibly can ? Apropos ! (though how it is apropos, I have not lei- sure to explain) do you know that I am almost in love with an acquaintance of yours ? Almost ! said I — I am in love, souce, over head and ears, deep as the most unfathomable abyss of the boundless ocean ! — but the word love, owing to the intermingledoms of the good and the bad, tlie pure and the impure, in this world, being rather an equivocal term for expressing one's sentiments and sensations, I must do justice to the sacred purity of my attachment. Know, then, that the heart-struck awe ; the distant humble approach ; the delight we should have in gazing upon and listening to a messenger of Heaven, appearing in all the unspotted purity of bis celestial home, among the coarse, polluted, far inferior sons of men, to deliver to them tidings that make their hearts swim in joy, and^their imaginations soar in transport — such, so delighting and so pure, were the emotions of my soul on meeting the other day with Miss Lesley Baillie, your neighbour, at M . Mr B. with his two daughters, accompanied by Mr H. of G., passing through Dumfries a few days ago, on their way to England, did me the honour of callmg on me ; on which 1 took my horse (though, God knows, I could ill spare the time), and accompanied them fourteen or fifteen miles, and dined and spent the day with them. 'Twas about nine, I think, when I left them, and, rid- ing home, I composed the following ballad, of which you will probably think you have a dear bargain, as it will cost you another groat of postage. You must know that there is an old ballad beginning with — My bonnie Lizzie Baillie, I'll rowe thee in my plaidie, &c. So I parodied it as follows, which is literally the first copy, " unanointed, unanneal'd," as Hamlet says — Oh saAv ye bonnie Lesley, &c. So much for ballads. I regret that you are gone to the east country, as I am to be in Ayrshire in about a fortnight. This world of ours, notwithstanding it has many good things in it, yet it has ever had this curse, that two or three people, who would be the happier the oftener they met together, are, almost without excep- tion, always so placed as never to meet but once or twice a-year, which, considering the few years of a man's life, is a very great " evil under the sun," which I do not recollect that Solomon has mentioned in his catalogue of the miseries of man. I hope and believe that there is a state of existence beyond the grave, where the worthy of this life will renev/ their former intimacies, with this endearing addition, that " we meet to part no more !" Tell us, ye dead, Will none of you in pity disclose the secret Wliat 'tis you are, and we must shortly be ? A thousand times have I made this apostrophe to the departed sons of men, but not one of them has ever thought fit to answer the question. " Oh that some courteous ghost would blab it out!" But it cannot be; you and I, my friend, must make the experiment by ourselves, and for ourselves. However, I am so con- vinced that an unshaken faith in the doctrines of reli- gion is not only necessary, by making us better men, but also by making us happier men, that I should take every care that your little godson, and every little creature that shall call me father, shall be taught them. So ends this heterogeneous letter, written at this wild place of the world, in the intervals of my labour of discharging a vessel of rum from Antigua. R. B. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 77 No. CCXIV. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. Dumfries^ Idth September, 1792. No ! I will not attempt an apology. Amid all my hurry of business, grinding the faces of the publican and the sinner on the merciless wheels of the Excise ; making ballads, and then drinking, and singing them ; and, over and above all, the correcting the press-work of two different publications ; still, still I might have stolen five minutes to dedicate to one of the first of my friends and fellow-creatures. I might have done, as I do at present, snatched an hour near " witching time of night," and scrawled a page or two. I might have con- gratulated my friend on his marriage ; or I might have thanked the Caledonian archers for the honour they Lave done me (though, to do myself justice, I intended to have done both in rhyme, else I had done both long ere now.) Well, then, here is to your good health ! — for you must know, I have set a nipperkin of toddy by me, just by way of spell, to keep away the meilde horned deil, or any of liis subaltern imps, who may be on their nightly rounds. But what shall I write to you ? " The voice said, cry," and I said, " what shall I cry ?" Oh, thou spirit ! whatever thou art, or wherever thou makest thyself visible ! Be thou a bogle by the eerie side of an auld thorn, in the dreary glen through which the herd-cal- lan maun bicker in his gloamin route frae the fauld ! Be thou a brownie, set, at dead of night, to thy task by the blazing ingle, or in the solitary barn, where the re- percussions of thy iron flail half affright thyself, as thou performest the work of twenty of the sons of men, ere the cock-crowing summon thee to thy ample cog of sub- stantial brose. Be thou a kelpie, haunting the ford or ferry, in the starless night, mixing thy laughing yell with the howling of the storm and the roaring of the flood, as thou viewest the perils and miseries of man on the foundering horse, or in the tumbling boat ! Or, lastly, be thou a ghost, paying thy nocturnal visits to tlie hoary ruins of decayed grandeur ; or performing thy mystic rites in the shadow of the time-worn church, while the moon looks, without a cloud, on the silent, ghastly dwellings of the dead around thee ; or taldug thy stand by the bedside of the villain, or the murderer, portraying on his dreaming fancy, pictures, dreadful as the horrors of unveiled hell, and terrible as the Avrath of incensed Deity ! Come, thou spirit, but not in these horrid forms ; come mth the milder, gentle, easy in- spirations, which thou breathest round the wig of a prating advocate, or the tete of a tea-sipping gossip, while their tongues vxvn at the light-horse gallop of cUshmaclaver for ever and ever — come, and assist a poor devil who is quite jaded in the attempt to share half an idea among half a hundred words ; to fill up four quarto pages, while he has not got one single sentence of recollection, infoi'mation, or remark, worth patting pen to paper for. •K- * -ir -X- •«■ Apropos, how do you like — I mean really like — the mari'ied life \ Ah, my friend ! matrimony is quite a different thing from \^hat your love-sick youths and sighing girls take it to be ! But marriage, w^e are told, is appointed by God, and I shall never quarrel with any of his institutions. I am a husband of older stand- ing than you, and shall give you my ideas of the con- jugal state (en passant; you know I am no Latinist, is not conjugal derived from jugum, a yoke !) Well, then, the scale of good wifeship I divide into ten parts. Good- nature, four; Good Sense, two; Wit, one; Personal Charms, viz. a sweet face, eloquent eyes, fine limbs, graceful carriage (I would add a fine waist too, but that is soon spoilt you know), all these, one ; as for the other qualities belonging to, or attending on, a wife, such as Fortune, Connections, Education (I mean edu- cation extraordinary). Family blood, &c., divide the two remaining degrees among them as you please ; only, remember that all these minor properties must be expressed by fractions, for thei'e is not any one of them, in the aforesaid scale^ entitled to the dignity of an integer. As for the rest of my fancies and reveries — how I lately met with Miss Lesley Baillie, the most beautiful, elegant woman in the world — how I accompanied her and her father's family fifteen miles on their journey, out of pure devotion, to admire the loveliness of the works of God, in such an unequalled display of them — how, in galloping home at night, I made a ballad on her, of which these two stanzas make a part — " Thou, bonnie Lesley, art a queen, Thy subjects we before thee ; Thou, bonnie Lesley, art divine. The hearts o' men adore thee. The very deil he could na scathe Whatever wad belang thee ! He'd look into thy bonnie face And say, ' I canua wrang thee' " — ■ Behold all these things are written in the chronicles of my imagination, and shall be read by thee, my dear friend, and by thy beloved spouse, my other dear friend, at a more convenient season. Now, to thee, and to thy before-designed bosom-coTa- panion, be giveri the precious things brought forth by the sun, and the precious things brought forth by the moon, and the benignest influences of the stars, and the living streams which flow from the fountains of life, and by the tree of life, for ever and ever ! Amen ! R. B. No. CCXV. TO MRS DUNLOP. Dumfries, 2ith September, 1792. I HAVE this moment, my dear Madam, youi's of the 23d. All your other kind reproaches, your news, &c., are out of my head, when I read and think on Mrs Henri's situation. Good God ! a heart-wounded helpless young woman — in a strange, foreign land, and that land convulsed with every horror that can harrow the human feelings — sick — looking, longing for a comforter, but finding none — a mother's feelings, too— but it is too much : he who wounded (he only can) may He heal !* I msh the farmer great joy of his new acquisition to his family. ****** l cannot say that I give him joy of his life as a farmer. 'Tis, as a farmer paying a dear, unconscionable rent, a cursed life! As to a laird farming his own property ; sowing his own corn in hope ; and reaping it, in spite of brittle weather, in gladness ; knowing that none can say unto him, " what dost thou ?" — fattening his herds ; shearing his flocks ; rejoicing at Christmas ; and begetting sons and daugh- ters, until he be the venerated, grey- haired leader of a little tribe — 'tis a heavenly life ! but devil take the life of reaping the fruits that another must eat. Well, your kind wishes will be gratified, as to seeing me when I make my Ayrshire visit. I cannot leave Mrs B. until her nine months' race is run, which may, perhaps, be in three or four weeks. She, too, seems determined to make me the patriarchal leader of a band. However, if Heaven will be so obliging as to let me have them in the proportion of three boys to one girl, I shall be so much the more pleased. I hope, if I am spared with them, to show a set of boys that will do honour to my cares and name ; but I am not equal to the task of rearing girls. Besides, I am too poor — a girl should always have a fortune. Apropos, your little godson is thriving charmingly, but is a very devil. He, though two years youngei", has completely mastered his bi-other. Robert is indeed the mildest, gentlest, creature I ever saw. He has a most surprising memory, and is quite the pride of his schoolmaster. You know how readily we get into prattle upon a subject dear to our heart — you can excuse it. God bless you and yours ! K,. B. * [See note to Letter CLXXXIV.] 78 BURNS'S PEOSE WORKS. No. CCXVI. TO THE SAME.* I HAD been from home, and did not receive your letter until my return the other day. What shall I say to comfort you, my much-valued, muchrafflicted friend ! I can but grieve with you ; consolation I have none to ojGFer, except that which religion holds out to the chil- dren of affliction — {children of affliction! — ^liow just the expression!) — and lilie every other family, they have matters among them which they hear, see, and feel in a serious,, all-important manner, of which the world has not, nor cares to have, any idea. The woi'ld looks indifferently on, makes the passing remark, and pro- ceeds to the next novel occurrence. Alas, Madam! who would wish for many j^ears? What is it but to drag existence until our joys gradually expire, and leave us in a night of misery — like the gloom which blots out the stars, one by one, from the face of night, and leaves us, without a ray of comfort, in the howling waste ! I am interi'upted, and must leave off. You shall soon hear from me again. R. B. No. CCXVII. TO THE SAME. Dumfries, 6th December, 1792. I SHALL be in Ayrshire, I tliink, next week ; and, if at aU possible, I shall certainly, my much-esteemed friend, have the pleasure of visiting at Dunlop-house. Alas, Madam ! how seldom do we meet in this world, that we have reason to congratulate ourselves on accessions of happiness ! I have not passed half the ordinary term of an old man's life, and yet I scarcely look over the obituary of a newspaper, that I do not see some names that I have known, and which I, and other acquaintances, little thought to meet with there so soon. Every other instance of the mortality of our kind, makes us cast an anxious look into the dreadful abyss of uncertainty, and shudder with apprehension for our own fate. But of how different an importance are'the lives of different individuals ! Nay, of what importance is one period of the same life more than another ? A few years ago I could have lain down in the dust, " careless of the voice of the moi'ning ;" and now not a few, and these most helpless individuals, would, on losing me and my exertions, lose both their " staff and shield." By the way, these helpless ones have lately got an addition : Mrs B. having given me a fine girl since I wrote you. There is a charming passage in Thomson's " Edward and Eleanora :" The valiant, in himself, what can he suffer? Or what need he regard his single woes ?— &c. As I am got in the way of quotations, I shall give you another from the same piece, peculiarly — alas ! too pe- culiarly — apposite, my dear Madam, to your present frame of mind : "Who so unworthy but may proudly deck him With his fair-weather virtue, that exults Glad o'er the summer main ? The tempest comes, The rough winds rage aloud ; when from the helm This virtue shrinks, and in a corner lies Lamenting. Heavens ! if privileged from trial. How cheap a thing were virtue ! I do not remember to have heard you mention Thom- son's dramas. I pick up favourite quotations, and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defen- sive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence. Of these is one, a very favourite one, from his " Alfred :" Attach thee firmly to the virtuous deeds And ofi&ces of life ; to life itself. With all its vain and transient joys, sit loose. Probably I have quoted some of these to you formerly, as indeed, when I write from the heart, I am apt to be guilty of such repetitions. The compass of the heart, * [Mrs Henri, daughter of Mrs Dunlop, died at Muges, near Aiguillon, September 15, 1792. The above letter is one of condo- lence on this melancholy event. See note to Letter CLXXXIY.] in the musical style of expression, is much more bounded than that of the imagination, so the notes of the former are extremely apt to run into one another ; but in return for the paucity of its compass, its few notes are much more sweet. I must still give you another quotation, which I am almost sure I'^have given you before, but I cannot resist the temptation. The subject is religion — speaking of its importance to mankind, the author says, 'Tis this, my friend, that streaks our morning bright. I see you are in for double postage, so I shall e'en scribble out t'other sheet. We in this country here, have many alarms of the reforming, or rather the re- pubUcan spirit, of your part of the kingdom. Indeed, we are a good deal in commotion ourselves. For me, I am a placeman, you know ; a very humble one, indeed. Heaven Imows, but still so much as to gag me. What my private sentiments are, you will find out without an interpreter. I have taken up the subject, and the other day, for a"" pretty actress's benefit night, I wrote an address, which I will give on the other page, called " The Rights of Woman." I shall have the honour of receiving your criticisms in person at Dvmlop. R. B, No. CCXVIII. TO R. GRAHAM, Esq. FINTRY. December, 1792. Sir — I have been surprised, confounded, and dis- tracted, by Mr Mitchell, the collector, telling me that he has received an order from your Board* to inquire into my political conduct, and blaming me as a person disaffected to government. Sir, you are a husband, and a father. You know what you would feel, to see the much-loved wife of your bosom, and your helpless, prattling little ones, turned adrift into the world, degraded and disgraced from a situation in which they had been respectable and re- spected, and left almost without the necessary support of a miserable existence. Alas, Sir ! must I think that such soon will be my lot ! and from the d , dark insinuations of hellish groundless envy too ! I believe. Sir, I may aver it, and in the sight of Omniscience, that I would not tell a deliberate falsehood, no, not though even worse horrors, if worse can be, than those I have mentioned, hung over my head ; and I say, that the allegation, whatever villain has made it, is a lie I To the British Constitution, on revolution principles, next after my God, I am most devoutly attached. You, Sir, have been much and generously my friend; Heaven knows how warmly I have felt the obligation, and how gratefully I have thanked you. Fortune, Sir, has made you powerful, and me impotent — has given you patron- age, and me dependence. I would not, for my single self, call on your humanity ; were such my insular, unconnected situation, I would despise the tear that now swells in my eye — I could brave misfortune, I could face ruin, for at the worst, " Death's thousand doors stand open ;" but, good God ! the tender concerns that I have mentioned, the claims and ties that I see at this moment, and feel around me, how they unnerve courage and wither resolution ! To your patronage, as a man of some genius, you have allowed me a claim ; and your esteem, as an honest man, I know is my due. To these. Sir, permit me to appeal ; by these may I adjure you to save me from that misery which threatens to overwhelm me, and which, with ray latest breath I will say it, I have not deserved. R. B. No. CCXIX. TO MRS DUNLOP. Dumfries, 'dist December, 1/92. Dear Madam-^A hurry of business, thrown in lieaps * [The commissioners of the Scottish Boai-d of Excise were at this time George Brown, Thomas Wharton, James Stodart, Ilobert Graham (of Fintrv), and John Grieve, Es■ much I ad- mired her abilities and valued her worth, and how very fortunate I thought myself in her acquaintance. For this last reason, my dear Madam, I must entertain no hopes of the very great pleasure of meeting with you again. Miss Hamilton tells me that she is sending a packet to you, and I beg leave to send you the enclosed sonnet : though, to tell you the real truth, the sonnet is a mere pretence, that I may have the opportunity of declaring with how much respectful esteem I have the honour to be, &c. R. B. * [A seal with these fanciful bearings was actually cut for the poet, and used by him for the remainder of his life. Its impres- sion is represented under a profile of the poet, in Mr Cunning- ham's edition of Burns, vol. viii. p. 163.] t [The poet here alludes to David Allan, painter, usually called the Scottish Hogarth. He was born at Alloa in 1744, and edu- cated through the kindness of some generous ladies. His serious paintings are not much admired ; but he had a happy knack at hitting off Scottish rustic figures. At his death in 179(J, he left a series of drawings illustrative of Burns'^ works.] No. CCXXIII. TO PATRICK MILLER, Esq., OP DALSWINTON. Dumfries, April, 1793. Sir — My poems having just come out in another edi- tion, will you do me the honour to accept of a copy ? A mark of my gratitude to you, as a gentleman to whose goodness I have been much indebted ; of my respect for you, as a patriot who, in a venal, sliding age, stands forth the champion of the liberties of my country ; and of my veneration for you, as a man whose benevolence of heart does honour to human nature. There was a time. Sir, when I was your dependent : this language then would have been like the vile incense of flattery — I could not have used it. Now that that connexion* is at an end, do me the honour to accept of this honest tribute of respect from, Sir, your much indebted humble servant, R. B, No. CCXXIV. TO JOHN FRANCIS ERSKINE,t Esq., OF MAR. Dumfries, \^th April, 1793. Sir — Degenerate as human nature is said to be — and in many instances, worthless and unprincipled it is — still there are bright examples to the contrary ; exam- ples that, even in the eyes of superior beings, must shed, a lustre on the name of man. Such an example have I now before me, when you, Sir, came forward to patronise and befriend a distant obscure stranger, merely because poverty had made him helpless, and his British hardihood of mind had provoked the arbitrary wantonness of power. My much esteemed friend, Mr Riddel of Glenriddel, has just read me a paragraph of a letter he had from you. Accept, Sir, of the silent throb of gratitude ; for words would but mock the emotions of my soul. You have been misinformed as to my final dismission from the Excise ; I am still in the service. Indeed, but for the exertions of a gentleman who must be known to you, Mr Graham of Fintry — a gentleman who has ever been my warm and generous friend — I had, with- out so much as a hearing, or the slightest previous in- timation, been turned adrift, with my helpless family, to all the horrors of want. Had I had any other re- source, probably I might have saved them the trouble of a dismission ; but the little money I gained by my publication, is, almost every guinea, embarked, to save from ruin an only brother, who, though one of the worthiest, is by no means one of the most fortunate of men. In my defence to their accusations, I said, that what- ever might be my sentiments of republics, ancient or modern, as to Britain I abjured the idea, that a con- stitution, which, in its original principles, experience had proved to be every way fitted for our happiness in society, it would be insanity to saci'ifice to an untried visionary theory — that, in consideration of my being situated in a department, however humble, immediately * [Alluding to the time when he held the farm of EUisland, as tenant to Mr Miller.] t [This gentleman most obligingly favoured the Editor with a perfect copy of the original letter, and allowed him to lay it be- fore the public. It is partly printed in Dr Currie's Edition. It will be necessary to state, that in consequence of the poet's freedom of remark on public measures, maliciously misrepre- sented to the Board of Excise, he wa8 represented as actually dismissed from his office. This report induced Mr Erskine to propose a subscription in his favour, which was refused by the poet with that elevation of sentiment that peculiarly characte- rised his mind, and which is so happily displayed in this letter. See letter to R. Graham of Fintry, December 1792, written by Burns, with even more than his accustomed pathos and eloquence, in further explanation.— Cromek. Mr Erbkine of Mar, at all times of his life a noted Whig, became Earl of Mar in 1824, in ccinsequence of the reversal of his grandfather's attainder. He died August 20, Vi2o, aged eighty -four.] GENERAL COKRESPGNDENCE. 81 in the hands of people m power, I had forborne taldng any active part, either personally or as an author, in the present busuiess of REioiiM. But that, -where 1 must declare my sentiments, I would say there existed a system of corruption between the executive power and the representative part of the legislature, which boded no good to our glorious cg.vsiitutiox, and which evei'y patriotic Briton must wish to see amended. Some such sentiments as these, I stated in a letter to my gene- I'ous patron, j\Ir Graham, which he laid before the Board at large, where, it seems, my last remark gave great offence ; and one of our supervisors general, a Mr Cor- bet, was instructed to inqun-e on the spot, and to docu- ment me, "that my business was to act, not to think; and that, whatever might be men or measures, it was for me to be silent and obedient.''^ Mr Corbet was likewise my steady friend ; so between Mr Graham and him, I have been partly forgiven : only I understand that all hopes of my getting oiiicially forward are blasted. Now, Sir, to the business in which I would more im- mediately interest you. The partiahty of my couxtky- MEx has brought me forward as a man of genius, and has given me a character to support. In the poet I have avo^^'ed manly and independent sentiments, which I trust will be found in the max. Reasons of no less weight than the support of a wife and family, have pointed out as the eligible, and, situated as I was, the only eligible, Une of life for me, my present occupation. Still my honest fame is my dearest concern; and a thousand times have I trembled at the idea of those degrading epithets that mahce or misrepresentation ?nay affix to my name. I have often, in blasting anti- cipation, listened to some future hackney scribbler, with the heavy mahce of savage stupidity, exulting in his hk-eling paragraphs — " Burns, notwithstanding the fan- faronade of independence to be found in his works, and after having been held forth to public view, and to pubhc estimation, as a man of some genius, yet, quite destitute of resources within himself to support his borrowed dignity, he dwindled into a paltry exciseman, and slimk out the rest of his insignificant existence in the meanest of pursuits, and among the vilest of manldnd." In your illustrious hands, Sir, permit me to lodge my disavowal and defiance of these slanderous falsehoods. Burns was a poor man from birth, and an exciseman by necessity ; but — I will say it ! — the sterling of his honest worth no poverty could debase, and his inde- pendent British mind oppression might bend, but could not subdue. Have not I, to me, a more precious stake in my country's welfare, than the richest dukedom in it ? I have a large family of children, and the prospect of many more. I have three sons, \\\\o, I see already, have brought into the world souls ill quahfied to inhabit the bodies of slaves. Can I look tamely on, and see any machination to wrest from them the birthi'ight of my boys — the little independent Britons, in Avhose veins runs my own blood ? No ! I will not, should my heart's blood stream around my a,ttempt to defend it ! Does any man tell me, that my full efforts can be of no service, and that it does not belong to my humble station to meddle with the concern of a nation ? I can tell him, that it is on such individuals as I, that a nation has to rest, both for the hand of support, and the eye of intelKgence. The uninformed mob may swell a nation's bullc; and the titled, tinsel, courtly throng may be its feathered ornament ; but the num- ber of those v.ho are elevated enough in life to reason and to reflect, yet low enough to keep clear of the venal contagion of a com-t — these are a nation's strength ! I know not how to apologise for the impertinent length of this epistle ; but one small request I must ask of you farther — When you have honoured this letter with a perusal, please to commit it to the flames. Burns, in whose behalf you have so generously interested yourself, I have here, in his native coloui-s, drawn as he is ; but should any of the people in whose hands is the very bread he eats, get the least knowledge of the picture, it icould ruin the poor bard /or ever! My pcems having just come out in another edition, 1 F beg leave to present you with a copy, as a small mark of that high esteem and ardent gratitude with whixih I have the honour to be, Sir, your deeply indebted and ever devoted humble servant, R. B. No. CCXXV. TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE. April 26, 1793. I AM out of humour, my dear Ainslie, and that is the reason why I take up the pen to t/ou : 'tis the nearest way {probatwn est) to recover my spmts again.. I received your last, and was much entertained witlx it ; but I will not at this time, nor at any other time^ answer it. Answer a letter ! — I never could answer a- letter in my life. I have written many a letter in return for letters I have received; but then — they were original matter — spurt-away ! zig, here ; zag, there ; as if the devil, that my granrue (an old woman, indeed) often told me, rode on will-o'-wisp, oi', in her more classic phrase, Spunkie, were looking over vay elbow. Happy thought that idea has engendered in my head ! Spunkie, thou shalt henceforth he my symbol, signature, and tutelary genius ! Like thee, hap-step- aud-loup, here-awa-there-awa, liigglety-pigglety, pell- mell, Mther-and-yont, ram-stam, happy-go-lucky, up tails-a'-by-the-hght-o'-the-moon — has been, is, and shall be, my progress through the mosses and moors of, tins vile, bleak, barren wilderness of a life of ours. Come, then, my guardian spirit ! like thee, may 1 skip away, amusing myself by and at my own light ; and if any opaque-souled lubber of mankind complain that my eixine, lambent, glimmerous wanderings have misled his stupid steps over precipices or into bogs, let the tliick-headed Blimderbuss recollect that he is not Spunkie : — that Spunkie's wanderings could not copied be ; Amid these perils none durst walk but he. * * * I have no doubt but scholarcraft may be caught, as a Scotsman catches the itch, by friction, Hoav else can you account for it, that born blockheads, by mere dint of handling books, grow so wise that even they them- selves are equally convinced of and sui'prised at their own parts ? I once carried this philosophy to that degree, that in a knot of country folks who had a library amongst them, and who, to the honour of their good sense, made me factotum in the business ; one of our members, a little, wise-looking, squat, upright, jabber- ing body of a tailor, I advised him, instead of turning over the leaves, to bind the book on his back. Johnnie took the hint, and as our meetings were every fourth Saturday, and Pi-icklouse having a good Scots mile to walk in coming, and, of course, another in returning. Bodkin was sure to lay his hand on some heaA'y quarto or ponderous folio, with, and under which, wrapt up in his grey plaid, he grew wise, as he grew weary, aU the way home. He carried this so far, that an old musty Hebrew concordance, Avhich we had in a present from a neighbouring priest, by mere dint of applying it, as doctors do a bhstering piaster, between his shoulders. Stitch, in a dozen pilgrimages, acquu-ed as much rational theology as the said priest had done by forty years' perusal of the pages. Tell me, and tell me truly, what you think of this theory. Yours, Spunkie. No. CCXXYI. TO MISS KENNEDY. Madaji — Permit me to present you with the enclosed song, as a small though grateful tribute for the honour of your acquaintance. I have, in these verses, attempted some faint sketches of your portrait in the unembellished simple manner of descriptive truth. Flattery I leave to your LOVERS, whose exaggerating fancies may make them imagine you btill nearer perfection than you really are. 82 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. Poets, Madam, of all mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of beauty ; as, if they are really poets of nature's making, their feelings must be finer, and 'their taste snore delicate, than most of the world. In the cheerful bloom of SPRING, or the pensive mildness of autumn, the grandeur of summer, or the hoary majesty of winter, the poet feels a charm unknown to the rest of his species. Even the sight of a fine flower, or the company of a fine woman (by far the finest part of God's works below), have sensations for the poetic heart that the herd of men are strangers to. On this last account, Madam, I am, as in many other things, indebted to Mr Hamil- ton's kindness in introducing me to you. Your lovers may view you with a wish, I look on you with pleasure ; their hearts, in your presence, may glow with desire, mine rises with admiration. That the arrows of misfortune, however they should, as incident to humanity, .glance a slight wound, may never reach your heart — that the snares of villany may never beset you in the road of life — that innocence may hand you by the path of honour to the dwelling of peace — is the sincere wish of him who has the honour to be, &c, K. B. No. CCXXVII. TO MISS CRAIK.* Dumfries, August, 1793. Madam — Sorae'rather unlooked-for accidents have prevented my doing myself the honour of a second visit to Arbigland, as I was so hospitably invited, and so positively meant to have done. However, I still hope to have that pleasure before the busy months of harvest begin. I enclose you two of my late pieces, as some kind of return for the pleasure I have received in perusing a certain MS. volume of poems in the possession of Cap- tain Riddel. To repay one with an old song, is a pro- verb, whose force, you, Madam, I know, will not allow. What is said of illustrious descent is, I believe, equally true of a talent for poetry — ^none ever despised it who had pretensions to it. The fates and characters of the rhyming tribe often employ my thoughts when I am disposed to be melancholy. There is not, among all the martyrologies that ever were penned, so rueful a narrative as the lives of the poets. In the comparative viewiof wretches, the criterion is not what they are doomed to suffer, but how they are formed to bear. Take a being of our kind, give him a stronger imagina- tion and a more delicate sensibility, which between them will ever engender a more ungovernable set of passions than are the usual lot of man ; implant in him an irre- sistible impulse to some idle vagary, such as arranging wild flowers in fantastical nosegays, tracing the grass- hopper to his haunt by his chirping song, watching the frisks of the little minnows in the sunny pool, or hunt- ing after the intrigues of butterflies — in short, send him adrift after some pursuit which shall eternally mislead him from the paths of lucre, and yet curse him with a keener relish than any man living for the pleasures that lucre can purchase ; lastly, fill up the measure of his woes by bestowing on him a spurning sense of his own dignity — and you have created a wight nearly as miserable as a poet. To you, Madam, I need not re- count the fairy pleasures the muse bestows, to counter- balance this catalogue of evils. Bewitching poetry is like bewitching woman ; she has in all ages been accused of misleading mankind from the councils of wisdom and the paths of prudence, involving them in difficulties, baiting them with poverty, branding them with infamy, and plunging them in the whirUng vortex of ruin ; yet, Avhere is the man but must own that all our happiness on earth is not worthy the name — that even the holy her- mit's solitary prospect of paradisiacal bliss is but the glitter of a northern sun rising over a frozen region, compared with the many pleasures, the nameless rap- tures, that we owe to the lovely queen of the heart of man! R. B, * [Daughter of Mr Craik of Arbigland, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.] No. CCXXVIII. TO LADY GLENCAIRN.* My LADY—The honour you have done youi* poor poet, in writing him so very obliging a letter, and the pleasure the enclosed beautiful verses have given him, came very seasonably to his aid amid the cheerless ; gloom and sinking despondency of diseased nerves and \ December weather. As to forgetting the family of' Glencairn, Heaven is my witness with what sincerity I could use those old verses, which please me more in their rude simplicity than the most elegant lines I ever \ saw. If thee, Jerusalem, I forget, Skill part from my right hand. My tongue to my mouth's roof let cleave. If I do thee forget, Jerusalem, and thee above My chief joy do not set. When I am tempted to do any thing improper, I dare not, because I look on myself as accountable to your ladyship and family. Now and then, when I have the honour to be called to the tables of the great, if I happen to meet with any mortification from the stately stupidity of self-sufficient squires, or the luxurious in- solence of upstart nabobs, I get above the creatures by calling to remembrance that I am patronised by the noble house of Glencairn ; and at gala-times, such as New-year's day, a christening, or the kirn-night, when my punch-bowl is brought from its dusty corner, and filled up in honour of the occasion, I begin with — The Countess of Glencairn ! My good woman, with the enthusiasm of a grateful heart, next cries. My Lord! and so the toast goes on until I end with Lady Har- riets little angel! f whose epithalamium I have pledged myself to write. When I received your ladyship's letter, I was just in the act of transcribing for you some verses I have lately composed ; and meant to have sent them my first leisure hour, and acquainted you with my late change of life. I mentioned to my lord my fears concerning my fann. Those fears were indeed too true ; it is a bar- gain would .have ruined me, but for the lucky circum- stance of my having an excise commission. People may talk as they please of the ignominy of the excise ; £50 a-year will support my wife and chil- dren, and keep me independent of the world : and I would much rather have it said that my profession borrowed credit from me, than that I borrowed credit from my profession. Another advantage I have in this business, is the knowledge it gives me of the various shades of human character, consequently assisting me vastly in my poetic pursuits. I had the most ardent enthusiasm for the muses when nobody knew me but myself, and that ardour is by no means cooled, now that my Lord Glencairn's goodness has introduced me to all the world. Not that I am in haste for the press. I have no idea of publishing, else I certainly had con- sulted my noble generous patron ; but after acting the part of an honest man, and supporting my family, my whole wishes and views are directed to poetic pursuits. I am aware that though I were to give performances to the world superior to my former works, still if they were of the same kind with those, the comparative reception they would meet with would mortify me. I have turned my thoughts on the drama. I do not mean the stately buskin of the tragic muse. Does not your ladyship think that an Edinburgh theatre would be more amused with affectation, folly, and whim of true Scottish growth, than manners, which by far the greatest part of the audience can only know at second hand ? I have the honour to be, your ladyship's ever devoted and grateful humble servant, R. B. * [Widow of William, thirteenth Earl of Glencairn, and mother of the patron of Burns.] t [Lady Harriet Don was the daughter of Lady Glencairn. Her child was the late accomplished Sir Alexander Don, of Newton- Don, Bart.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 83 No. CCXXIX. TO JOHN M'MURDO, Esq. Dumfries, December, 1793. Sir— -It is said that we take the greatest liberties with our greatest friends, and I pay myself a very high compUment in the manner in which I am going to apply the remark. I have owed you money longer than over I owed it to any man. Here is Ker's account, and here are six guineas,; and now, I don't owe a shil l ing to man — or woman either. But for these d du-ty, dog-ear'd Httle pages,* I had done myself the honour to have waited on you long ago. Independent of the obligations your hospitaUty has laid me under, the con- sciousness of your superiority in the rank of man and gentleman, of itself was fully as much as I could ever make head against ; but to owe you money too, was more than I could face. I think I once mentioned something of a collection of Scots songs I have for some years been making — I send you a perusal of what I have got together. I could not conveniently spare them above five or six days, and five or six glances of them yvWH. probably more than BuflBce you. A very few of them are my own. When you are tired of them, please leave them with Mr Clint, of the King's Arms. There is not another copy of the collection in the world ; and I should be sorry that any unfortunate negUgence should deprive me of what has cost me a good deal of pains. R. B. No. CCXXX. TO JOHN M'MURDO, Esq., DRUMLANRIG. Dumfries, 1793. Will Mr M'Murdo do me the favour to accept of these volumes ;-}- a trifling but sincere mark of the very high respect I bear for his worth as a man, his man- ners as a gentleman, and his kindness as a friend. However inferior now, or afterwards, I may rank as a poet, one honest virtue to which few poets can pretend, I trust I shall ever claim as mine — to no man, what- ever his station in life, or his power to serve me, have I ever paid a compliment at the expense of truth. The Author. No. CCXXXI. TO CAPTAIN — Dumfries, 5th December, 1793. Sir — Heated as I was with wine yesternight, I was perhaps rather seemingly impertinent in my anxious wish to be honoured with your acquaintance. You 'ndll forgive it — it was the impulse of heart-felt respect. *' He is the father of the Scottish county reform, and is a man who does honour to the business, at the same time that the business does honour to him," said my worthy friend Glenriddel to somebody by me who was talking of your coming to this country with your corps. " Then," I said, " I have a woman's longing to take him by the hand, and say toliim, ' Sir, I honour you as a man to whom the interests of humanity are dear, and as a patriot to whom the rights of your country are sacred.' " In times like these, Sir, when our commoners are barely able, by the glimmering of their own twilight understandings, to scrawl a frank, and when lords are what gentlemen would be ashamed to be, to whom shall a sinking country call for help 1 To the independent country gentleman. To him who has too deep a stake in his country not to be in earnest for her welfare ; and who, in the honest pride of man, can vievr, with equal contempt, the insolence of office, and the allure- ments of corruption. I mentioned to you a Scots ode or song I had lately *tScotti8h bank notes.] t [A copy of the edition of the poet's works published in 1793.] ± [Not unlikely, Captain Robertson of Lude.] composed,* and which, I think, has some merit. Allow me to enclose it. When I fall in with you at the theatre, I shall be glad to have your opinion of it. Accept of it, Sir,'as a very humble, but most sincere, tribute of respect for a man who, dear as he prizes poetic fame, yet holds dearer an independent mind. I have the honour to be, R. B, No. CCXXXII. TO MRS RIDDEL, IVIio was about to bespeak a Play one evening at the Dumfries Theatre. I am thinking to send my " Address" to some pe- riodical pubhcation, but it has not got your sanction, so pray look over it. As to the Tuesday's play, let me beg of you, my dear Madam, to give us " The Wonder, a Woman keeps a Secret !" to which please add, " The Spoilt Child" — you will highly oblige me by so doing. Ah, what an enviable creature you are ! There now, this cursed gloomy blue-devil day, you are going to a party of choice spirits — To play the shapes Of frolic fancy, and incessant form Those rapid pictures, assembled train Of fleet ideas, never join'd before, "Where lively loit excites to gay sui-prise ; Or folly-painting humour, grave himself. Calls laughter forth, deep shaking every nerve. But as you rejoice with them that do rejoice, do also remember to weep with them that weep, and pity your melancholy friend, R. B.+ No. CCXXXIII. TO A LADY, IN FAVOUR OF A PLAYER's BENEFIT. Dumfries, 1794. ALiDAM — You were so very good as to promise me to honour my friend with your presence on his benefit night. That night is fixed for Friday first : the play a most interesting one — ^"The Way to Keep Him." I have the pleasure to know Mr Gr. well. His merit as an actor is generally acknowledged. He has genius and worth which would do honour to patronage : he is a poor and modesty man ; claims which, from their very silence, have the more forcible power on the generous heart. Alas, for pity ! that from the indolence of those who have the good things of this life in their gift, too often does brazen-fronted importunity snatch that boon, the rightful due of retiring, humble want ! Of all the qualities we assign to the author and director of Nature, by far the most enviable is, to be able " to wipe away ail tears from all eyes." Oh what insignificant, sordid wTetches are they, however chance may have loaded them with wealth, who go to their graves, to their mag- nificent mausoleums, with hardly the consciousness of having made one poor honest heart happy. But I crave your pardon. Madam ; I came to beg, not to preach. R. B. No. CCXXXIV. TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN. Dumfries, I2th January, 1794. JIy Lord — Will your lordship allow me to present you with the enclosed little composition of mine,J as a small tribute of gratitude for the acquaintance with * [Bruce's Address to his Troops.] \ The lady to whom the bard has so happily and justly ap- plied the above quotation, paid the debt of nature a few months ago. The graces of her person were only equalled by the singular endownaents of her mind, and her poetical talents rendered her an interesting friend to Burns, in a part of the world where he was in a great measure excluded from the sweet intercourse of literary society.— Gilbert Burns, 1820. ; [Bruce's Address.] 84 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. which you have been pleased to honour me. Indepen- dent of my enthusiasm as a Scotsman, I have rarely met with any thing in history which interests my feel- ings as a man, equal with the story of Bannockburn. On the one hand, a cruel, but able usurper, leading on the finest army in Europe to extinguish the last spark of freedom among a greatly-daring and greatly-injured people ; on the other hand, the desperate rehcs of a gallant nation, devoting themselves to rescue their bleeding country, or perish with her. Liberty ! thou art a prize truly, and indeed invalu- able, for never canst thou be too dearly bought ! If my little ode has the honour of your lordship's approbation, it will gratify my highest ambition. I have the honour to be, &c. R. B. I No. CCXXXV. TO CAPTAIN MILLER, DALSWINTON. Dear Sib — The following ode* is on a subject which I know you by no means regard with indifference. Oh, Liberty, Thou mak'st the gloomy face of nature gay, Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. It does me much good to meet with a man whose honest bosom glows with the generous enthusiasm, the heroic daring of liberty, that I could not forbear send- ing you a composition of my own on the subject, which I really think is in my best manner. I have the honour to be, dear Sir, &c. R. B. No. CCXXXVI. TO MRS RIDDEL.t Dear Madam — I meant to have called on you yes- ternight 5 but as I edged up to your box-door, the first object which greeted my view was one of those lobster- coated puppies, sitting like another dragon, guarding the Hesperian fruit. On the conditions and capitula- tions you so obligingly offer, I shall certainly make my weather-beaten rustic phiz a part of your box-furniture on Tuesday, when we may arrange the business of the visit. Among the profusion of idle compliments, which insidious craft, or unmeaning folly, incessantly offer at your shrine — a shrine, how far exalted above such adoration — permit me, were it but for rarity's sake, to pay you the honest tribute of a warm heart and an independent mind ; and to assure you, that I am, thou most amiable, and most accomplished of thy sex, with the most respectful esteem, and fervent regard, thine, &c. R. B. No. CCXXXVII. TO THE SAME. I WILL wait on you, my ever* valued friend, but whe- ther in the morning I am not sure. Sunday closes a period of our curst revenue business, and may pro- bably keep me employed with my pen until noon. Fine employment for a poet's pen ! There is a species of the human genus that I call the gin-horse class: what enviable dogs they are ! Round, and round, and round they go. Mundell's ox, that drives his cotton mill, is their exact prototype — without an idea or wish be- yond their circle — fat, sleek, stupid, patient, quiet, and contented; while here I sit, altogether Noveraberish, a d melange of fretfulness and melancholy ; not enough of the one to rouse me to passion, nor of the other to repose me in torpor ; my soul flouncing and fluttering round her tenement, like a wild finch, caught * [Bruce's Address.] t [The following letters to Mrs Riddel, and those marked 250 and 251, evidently relate to the poet's quarrel with that lady ; but Dr Currie has inextricably confused them. Probably Nb. 250 should go first, and tjia rest after an in- terval, as woU as in a diifercnt arrangement.] amid the horrors of winter, and newly thrust into a cage. Well, I am persuaded that it was of me the Hebrew sage prophesied, when he foretold — " And, behold, on whatsoever this man doth set his heart, it shall not prosper !" If my resentment is awaked, it is sure to be where it dare not squeak ; and if — * * * Pray that wisdom and bliss be more frequent visi- tors of R. B. No. CCXXXVIII. TO THE SAME. I HAVE this moment got the song from Syme, and I am sorry to see that he has spoilt it a good deal. It shall be a lesson to me how I lend him any thing again. I have sent you " Werter," truly happy to have any the smallest opportunity of obliging you. 'Tis true. Madam, I saw you once since I was at Woodlee ; and that once froze the very life-blood of my heart. Your reception of me was such, that a wretch meeting the eye of his judge, about to pronounce sentence of death on him, could only have envied ray feelings and situation. But I hate the theme, and never more shall write or speak on it. One thmg I shall proudly say, that I can pay Mrs R. a higher tribute of esteem, and appreciate her amiable worth more truly, than any man whom I have seen approach her. R. B. No. CCXXXIX. TO THE SAME. I HAVE often told you, my dear friend, that you had a spice of caprice in your composition, and you have as often disavowed it ; even perhaps while your opinions were, at the moment, irrefragably proving it. Could any thing estrange me from a friend such as you 1 No ! To-morrow I shall have the honour of waiting on you. Farewell, thou first of friends, and most accomplished of women, even with all thy little caprices ! R. B. •I No. CCXL. TO THE SAME. Madam — I return your common-place book. I have perused it with much pleasure, and would have con- tinued my criticisms, but as it seems the critic has for- feited your esteem, his strictures must lose their value. If it is true that "ofi'ences come only from the heart," before you I am guiltless. To admii'e, esteem, and prize you, as the most accomplished of women, and the first of friends — if these are crimes, I am the most offend- ing thing alive. In a face where I used to meet the kind complacency of friendly confidence, now to find cold neglect, and con- temptuous scorn — is a wi'ench that my heart can ill bear. It is, however, some kind of miserable good luck, that while de haut-en-bas rigour may depress an unof^ fending wretch to the gi'ound, it has a tendency to rouse a stubborn something in his bosom, which, though it cannot heal the wounds of his soul, is at least an opiate to blunt their poignancy. With the profoundest respect for your abilities ; the most sincere esteem, and ardent regard, for your gentle heart and amiable manners ; and the most fervent wish and prayer for your welfare, peace, and bliss — I have the honour to be, Madam, your most devoted humblo servant. R. B. No. CCXLI. TO JOHN SYME, Esq.* You know that among other high dignities, you have * [This gentleman held the office of distributor of stamps at Dumfries. Burns, who at first lived in the floor above his ofiice, formed an intimacy with him, which lasted till the death of tho poet. Mr Syme was an agreeable table companion, and pos- sessed considerable wit, the effusions of which were sometimes mistaken for Burns's. He died at his house of Ryedale, near Dumfries, November 24, l«ai, in his bcvent^'-seventh year.] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. the honour to be my supreme eoui*t of critical judica- ture, from which there is no appeal. I enclose you a song which I composed since 1 saw you, and I am going to give you the history of it.* Do you know that among much that I admire in the characters and man- ners of those great folks whom I have now the honour to call my acquaintances, the Osv/ald family, there is nothing charms me more than Mr Oswald's unconceal- able attachment to that incomparable woman. Did you ever, my dear Syme, meet with a man who owed more to the Divine Giver of all good things than Mr 0. ? A fine fortune ; a pleasing exterior ; self-evident amiable dispositions, and an ingenuous upright mind, and that informed too, much beyond tlie usual run of young fel- lows of his rank and fortune : and to all this, such a woman ! — but of her I shall say nothing at all, in de- spair of saying any thing adequate : in my song, I have endeavoui'ed to do justice to what would be his feelings, on seeing, in tlie scene I have drawn, the habitation of his Lucy. As I am a good deal pleased with my per- formance, I in my first fervour thought of sending it to Mrs Oswald, but on second thoughts, perhaps what I offer as the honest incense of genuine respect, might, from the well-known character of poverty and poetry, be construed into some modification or other of that servility which my soul abhors. R. B. No. CCXLII. TO MISS . Dumfries, 1794. Madam — Nothing short of a kind of absolute neces- sity could have made me trouble yon with this letter. Except my ardent and just esteem for your sense, taste, and worth, every sentiment arising in my breast, as I put pen to paper to you, is painful. The scenes I have passed with the friend of my soul, and his amiable con- nexions ! the wrench at my heart to think that he is gone, for ever gone from me, never more to meet in the wanderings of a weary world ! and the cutting reflec- tion of all, that I had most unfortunately, though most undeservedly, lost the confidence of that soul of worth, ere it took its flight ! These, Madam, are sensations of no ordinary anguish. However, you also may be offended with some imputed improprieties of mine ; sensibility you know I possess, and sincerity none will deny me. To oppose those prejudices which have been raised against me, is not the business of this letter. Indeed, it is a warfare I know not how to wage. The powers of positive vice I can in some degree calculate, and against direct malevolence I can be on my guard : but who can estimate the fatuity of giddy caprice, or ward off" the unthinking mischief of precipitate folly ? I have a favour to request of you. Madam ; and of your sister Mi's , through your means. You know that, at the wish of my late friend, I made a collection 'of all my trifles in verse which I had ever written. They are many of them local, some of them puerile and silly, and all of them unfit for the public eye. As I have some little fame at stake — a fame that I trust may live when the hate of those who " watch for my halting," and the contumelious sneer of those whom accident has made my supei'iors, will, with themselves, be gone to the regions of oblivion — I am uneasy now for the fate of those manuscripts. Will Mi's have the goodness to destroy them, or return them to me 1 As a pledge of friendship they were bestowed ; and that circumstance, indeed, was all their merit. Most unhappily for me, that merit they no longer possess ; and I hope that Mrs 's goodness, which I well know, and ever will revere, will not refuse this favour to a man whom she oncfe held in some degree of estimation. With the sincerest esteem, I have the honour to be, Madam, &c. R. B. * [The song was that beginning, " Oh wat ye wha's in yon town ;" composed on Mrs Oswald of Auchincrnive. See Poetical Works.] No. CCXLITT. TO MR CUNNINGH/VM. 25ih Februmy, 1794. Canst thou minister to a mind diseased? Canst thou speak peace and rest to a soul tost on a sea of troubles, without one friendly star to guide her course, and dreading that the next surge may overwhelm her? Canst thou give to a frame, tremblingly alive as the tortures of suspense, the stability and hardihood of the rock that braves the blast ? If thou canst not do the least of these, why wouldst thou disturb me in my miseries, with thy inquiries after me ? For these two months I have not been able to lift a pen. My constitution and frame were, ab originey blasted with a deep, incurable taint of hypochondria, which poisons my existence. Of late a number of do- mestic vexations, and some pecuniary share in the ruin of these cursed times — losses which, though trifling, were yet what I could ill bear — have so irritated me, that my feelings at times could only be envied by a reprobate spii-it listening to the sentence that dooms it to perdition. Are you deep in the language of consolation ? I have exhausted in reflection every topic of comfort. A heart at ease would have been charmed with my sentiments and reasonings; but as to myself, I was like Judas Iscariot preaching the gospel : he might melt and mould the hearts of those around him, but his own kept its native incorrigibility. Still, there are two great pillars that bear us up, amid the wreck of misfortune and misery. The one is com- posed of the different modifications of a certain noble, stubborn something in man, known by the names of courage, fortitude, magnanimity. The other is made up of those feelings and sentiments, which, however the sceptic may deny them, or the enthusiast disfigure them, are yet, I am convinced, original and component parts of the human soul ; those senses of the mind — if I may be allowed the expression — which connect us; with, and link us to, those awful obscure realities — an all-powerful, and equally beneficent God ; and a world to come, beyond death and the grave. The first gives the nerve of combat, while a ray of hope beams on the field : the last pours the balm of comfort into the wounds which time can never cure. I do not remember, my dear Cunningham, that you and I ever tallced on the subject of religion at all. I know some who laugh at it, as the trick of the crafty FEW to lead the undiscerning many ; or, at most, as an uncertain obscurity, which mankind can never know any thing of, and with which they are fools if they give themselves much to do. Nor would I quarrel with a man for his irreligion, any more than I would for his want of a musical ear. 1 would regret that he was shut out from what, to me and to others, were such superla- tive sources of enjoyment. It is in this point of view, and for this reason, that I will deeply imbue the mind of every child of mine with religion. If my son should happen to be a man of feeling, sentiment, and taste, I shall thus add largely to his enjoyments. Let me flatter myself, that this sweet little fellow, who is just now running about my desk, will be a man of a melting, ar- dent, glowing heart ; and an imagination delighted with the painter, and rapt with the poet. Let me figure him wandering out in a sweet evening, to inhale the balmy gales, and enjoy the growing luxuriance of the spring ; himself the while in the blooming youth of life. He looks abroad on all nature, and through nature up to nature's God. His soul, by swift, delighting degrees, is rapt above this sublunai-y sphere, until he can be silent no longer, and bursts out into the glorious enthu- siasm of Thomson — These, as they change, Almighty Father, these Are but the varied God. The rolling year Is full of thee ;— and so on, in all the spirit and ardour of that charming hymn. These are no ideal pleasures, they are real delights ; and I ask, what of the delights among the sons of men are superior, not to say equal, to them ? And 86 BUENS'S PROSE WORKS. they have this precious, vast addition, that conscious virtue stamps tliem for her own, and lays hold on them to bring herself into the presence of a witnessing, judging, and approving God. K. B. No. CCXLIV. TO THE EARL OF GLENCAIRN. Ma^, 1794. 3Iy Lord — When you cast your eye on the name at the bottom of this letter, and on the title-page of the book I do myself the honour to send your lordship, a more pleasurable feeling than my vanity tells me, that it must be a name not entirely unknown to you. 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 me- mory, which I have now published. This edition is just from the press ; and in my gratitude to the dead, and my respect for the Uving (fame belies you, my lord, if you possess not the same dignity of man, which was your noble brother's charactex'istic feature), I had des- tined a copy for the Earl of Glencairn. I learnt just now that you are in town : allow me to present it you. I know, my lord, such is the vile, venal contagion which pervades the world of letters, that professions of respect from an author, particularly from a poet to a lord, are more than suspicious. I claim my by-past conduct, and my feelings at this moment, as exceptions to the too just conclusion. Exalted as are the honours of your lordship's name, and unnoted as is the obscurity of mine j with the uprightness of an honest man, I come before your lordship, with an offering, however humble, 'tis all I have to give, of my grateful respect ; and to beg of you, my lord, 'tis all I have to ask of you, that you will do me the honour to accept of it. I have the honour to be, R. B. No. CCXLV. TO DAVID MACCULLOCH, Esq.* Dumfries, 21st June, 1794. My DEAR Sir-— My long projected journey through your country is at last fixed ; and on Wednesday next, if you have nothing of more importance to do, take a saunter down to Gatehouse about two or three o'clock ; I shall be happy to take a draught of M^Kune's > best with you. Collector Syme will be at Glens about that time, and will meet us about dish-of-tea hour. Syme goes also to Kerroughtree, and let me remind you of your kind promise to accompany me there ; I will need all the friends I can muster, for I am indeed ill at ease whenever I approach your honourables and right ho- nourables. Yours sincerely, R. B. No. CCXLVI. TO MRS DUNLOP. Castle Douglas, 25th Jime, 1794. Here:, in a solitary inn, in a solitary village, am I set by myself, to amuse my brooding fancy as I may. Soli- tary confinement, you know, is Howard's favourite idea of reclaiming sinners ; so let me consider by what fata- lity it happens that I have so long been exceeding sin- ful as to neglect the correspondence of the most valued friend I have on earth. To tell you that I have been in poor health will not be excuse enough, though it is true. I am afraid that I am about to suffer for the follies of my youth. My medical friends threaten me with a flying gout ; but I trust they are mistaken. I am just going to trouble your critical patience with the first sketch of a stanza I have been framing as I passed along the road. The subject is liberty: you * [Now deceased. A sister of this gentleman became the wife of Mr Thomas Scott, brother of Sir Walter Scott.] know, my honoured friend, how dear the theme is to me. I design it as an irregular ode for General Washington's bii'th-day. After having mentioned the degeneracy of other Idngdoms, I come to Scotland thus : " Thee, Caledonia, thy wild heaths among, Thee, famed for martial deed and sacred song, To thee I turn with swimming eyes ', Where is that soul of freedom fled? Immingled with the mighty dead. Beneath the hallowed turf where Wallace lies J Hear it not, Wallace, in thy bed of death, Ye babbling winds in silence sweep, Disturb ye not the hero's sleep." With the additions of " That arm which nerved with thundering fate, Braved usurpation's boldest daring ! One quenched in darkness like the sinlting star. And one the palsied arm of tottering, powerless age." You will probably have another scrawl from me in u stage or two. R. B. 4 No. CCXLVIL TO MR JAMES JOHNSON. Dumfries, 1794. My dear Friend — You should have heard from me long ago ; but over and above some vexatious share in the pecuniary losses of these accursed times, I have all this winter been plagued with low spirits and blue devils, so that / have almost hung my harp on the wil' low trees. B I am just now busy correcting a new edition of my f I poems, and this, with my ordinary business, finds me ^ in full employment. I send you by my friend, Mr Wallace, forty-one songs for your fifth volume ; if we cannot finish it any other way, what would you think of Scots words to some beautiful Irish airs ? In the meantime, at your leisure^ give a copy of the "Museum" to my worthy friend, Mr Peter Hill, bookseller, to bind for me, interleaved with blank leaves, exactly as he did the Laird of Glenrid- del's, that I may insert every anecdote I can learn, together mth my own criticisms and remarks on the songs. A copy of this kind I shall leave with you, the editor, to publish at some after period, by way of mak- ing the "Museum" a book famous to the end of time, and you renowned for ever. I have got a Highland dirk, for which I have great veneration, as it once was the dirk of Lord Balmerino. It fell into bad hands, who stripped it of the silver mounting, as well as the knife and fork. I have some thoughts of sending it to your care, to get it mounted i anew. Thank you for the copies of my Volunteer Ballad. Our friend Clarke has done indeed well ! — 'tis chaste and beautiful. I have not met with any thing that has pleased me so much. You know I am no connoisseur ; but that I am an amateur will be allowed me. R. B. No. CCXLVIII. TO MR SAMUEL CLARKE, Jun., DUMFRIES. Sunday moriiing. Dear Sir — I was, I know, drunk last night, but 1 am sober this morning. From the expressions Capt. made use of to me, had I had nobody's welfare to care for but my own, we should certainly have come, ac- cording to the manners of the world, to the necessity of murdering one another about the business. The words were such as, generally, I beUeve, end in a brace of pistols ; but I am still pleased to think that I did not ruin the peace and welfare of a wife and family of chil- dren in a drunken squabble. Farther, you know th.at the report of certain political opinions being mine, has already once before brought me to the brink of de- GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. m struction. I dread lest last night's business may be misrepresented in the same way. You, I beg, will take care to prevent it. I tax your wish for Mr Burns's welfare with the task of waiting, as soon as possible, on every gentleman who was present, and state this to him, and, as you please, show him this letter. What, after all, was the obnoxious toast ? " May our success in the present war be equal to the justice of our cause" — a toast that the most outrageous phrensy of loyalty can- not object to. I request and beg that this morning you will wait on the parties present at the foolish dispute. I shall only add, that I am truly sorry that a man who stood so high in my estimation as Mr , should use ine in the manner in which I conceive he has done. K. B. No. CCXLIX. TO PETER MILLER, Jun,, Esq.^ OF DALSWI^JTOX. Dumfries, Nov. 1794. Dear Sir — Your offer is indeed truly generous, and most sincerely do I thanli you for it ; but in my pre- sent situation, I find that I dare not accept it. You well^know my poHtical sentiments ; and were I an in- sular individual, unconnected with a wife and a family of children, with the most fervid enthusiasm I would have volunteered my services : I then could and would have despised all consequences that might have ensued. My prospect in the Excise is something ; at least, it is, encumbered as I am with the welfare, the very exist- ence, of near half-a-score of helpless individuals — what I dare not sport with. In the mean time, they are most welcome to my Ode ; only, let them insert it as a thing they have met with by accident, and unknown to me. Nay, if Mr Perry, whose honour, after your character of him, I cannot doubt, if he will give me an address and channel by which any thing will come safe from those spies with which he may be certain that his correspondence is beset, I will now and then send him any bagatelle that 1 may write. In the present hurry of Europe, nothing but news and poUtics will be regarded ; but against the days of peace, which Heaven send soon, my little assist- ance may perhaps fill up an idle column of a newspaper. I have long had it in my head to try my hand in the way of Httle prose essays, which I propose^ending into the world through the medium of some newspaper ; and should these be worth his while, to these ]\Ir Pei'i'y shall be welcome : and all my reward shall be, his treating me with his paper, which, by the bye, to any body who has the least relish for wit, is a high treat indeed. With the most grateful esteem, I am ever, dear Sir, R. B. No. CCL. TO MRS RIDDEL. Supposes himself to be wriiiJig from the dead to the living, Madasi — I dare say that this is the first epistle you ever received from this nether world. I write you from the regions of hell, amid the horrors of the The time and manner of my leaving your earth I do not exactly know, as I took my departure in the heat of a fever of intoxication, contracted at your too hospi- table mansion ; but, on my arrival here, I was fairly tiied, and sentenced to endure the purgatorial tortures of this infernal confine for the space of ninety-nine years, * In a conversation with his friend IMr Perry (the proprietor of " The Morning Chronicle"), Ikir Miller represented to that gentleman the insufficiency of Burns's salary to answer the im- perious demands of a numerous family. In their sympathy for his misfortunes, and in their regret that his talents were nearly lost to the world of letters, these gentlemen agreed on the plan of settling him in London. To accomplish this most desirable object, Mr Perry, very spiritedly, made the poet a handsome offer of an annual stipend for the exercise of his talents in his newspaper. Burns's reasons foj; refusing this offer are stated in the present letter — Cromek. eleven months, and twenty-nine days, and all on account of the impropriety of my conduct yesternight under your roof. Here am I, laid on a bed of pitiless furze, \vith my aching head reclined on a pillow of ever-piercing thorn, while an infernal tormentor, -wrinkled, and old, and cruel, his name I think is Recollection, with a whip of scorpions, forbids peace or rest to approach me, and keeps anguish eternally awake. Still, Madam, if I could in any measure be reinstated in the good opinion of the fair cu'cle whom my conduct last night so much injured, I think it would be an alleviation to my torments. For this reason, I trouble you with this letter. To the men of the company I will make no apology. Yoiu- husband, who insisted on my drinking more than I chose, has no right to blame me ; and the other gentlemen were partakei's of my guilt. But to you, Madam, I have much to apologise. Your good opinion I valued as one of the greatest acquisitions I had made on earth, and I was truly a beast to forfeit it. There was a Miss I , too, a woman of fine sense, gentle andimassuming manners — do make, on my part, a miserable — ^^Tetch's best apology to her. A Mrs G , a charm- ing woman, did me the honour to be prejudiced in my favour ; this makes me hope that I have not outraged her beyond all forgiveness. To all the other ladies please present my humblest contrition for my conduct, and my petition for their gracious pardon. Oh all ye powers of decency and decorum ! whisper to them that my errors, though great, were involuntary — that an intoxicated man is the vilest of beasts — that it was not in my nature to be brutal to any one — that to be rude to a woman, when in my senses, was impossible with me — ^but ■s * * * * Regret ! Remorse ! Shame ! ye three hell-hounds that ever dog my steps and bay at my heels, spare me ! spare me! Forgive the offences, and pity the perdition of, Ma^ dam, your humble slave, R. B. No. CCLI* TO THE SAME* Dumfries, 179o. Mr Burns's compliments to Mrs Riddel — is much obhged to her for her pohte attention in sending him the book. Owing to ]\Ir B. at present acting as super- visor of excise, a department that occupies his every hour of the day, he has not that time to spare which is necessary for any belle-lettre pursuit ; but as he will in a week or two again return to liis wonted leisure, he will then pay that attention to Mrs R.'s beautiful song, *' To thee, loved Nith," which it so well deserves.* When " Anacharsis' Travels" come to hand, which Mrs Riddel mentioned as her gift to the pubhc library, Mr B. will feel honoui-ed by the indulgence of a perusal of them before presentation : it is a book he has never yet seen, and the regulations of the hbrary allow too little leisure for deUberate reading. Friday evening. P. S. Jlr Burns wiU be much obliged to Mrs Riddel if she will favour him with a perusal of any of her poeti- cal pieces which he may not have seen. * [Two verses of this song have been given to the public :— • And now your bariks and bonnie braes But waken sad remembrance smart ; The very shades I held most dear Now strike fresh anguish to my heart : Deserted bower ! where are they now — Ah ! where the garlands that I wove With faithful care, each mom to deck The altars of ungrateful love ? The flowers of spring, how gay they bloomed When last ■svith him I wandered here ! The flowers of spring are passed away For wintry horrors dark and drear. Yon osier'd stream, by whose lone banka Sly songs have lulled him oft to rest. Is now in icy fetters locked — Cold as jny false love's frozen breast.] 85 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. No. CCLII. TO MR HERON, OF HERON * [Dumfries, 1795.] Sm — I enclose you some copies of a couple of politi- cal ballads, one of which, I believe, you have never seen.f Would to Heaven I could make you master of as many votes in the Stewartry — but — Who does the utmost that he can, Does well, acts nobly— angels could no more. In order to bring my humble efforts to bear with more effect on the foe, I have privately printed a good many copies of both ballads, and have sent them among friends all about the country. To pillory on Parnassus the rank reprobation of cha- racter, the utter dereliction of all principle, in a profli- gate junto, which has not only outraged virtue, but violated common decency ; which, spurning even hypo- crisy as paltry iniquity below their daring — to unmask their flagitiousness to the broadest day — to deliver such over to their merited fate — is surely not merely innocent, but laudable ; is not only propriety, but virtue. You have already as your auxiliary, the sober detestation of mankind on the heads of your opponents ; and I swear by the lyre of Thalia to muster on your side all the votaries of honest laughter, and fair, candid ridicule ! I am extremely obliged to you for your kind mention of my interests in a letter which Mr Syme showed me. At present my situation in life must be in a great mea- sure stationary, at least for two or three years. The statement is this — I am on the supervisors' list, and as we come on there by precedency, in two or three years I shaU be at the head of that list, and be appointed of course. Then, a friend might be of service to me in getting me into a place of the kingdom which I would like. A supervisor's income varies from about a hun- dred and twenty to two hundred a-year ; but the busi- ness is an incessant drudgery, and would be nearly a complete bar to every species of literary pursuit. The moment I am appointed supervisor, in the common routine, I may be nominated on the collector's list ; and this is always a business purely of political patronage. A coUectorship varies much, from better than two hundred a-year to near a thousand. They also come forward by precedency on the list ; and have, besides a handsome income, a life of complete leisure. A life of literary leisure, with a decent competency, is the summit of my wishes. It would be the prudish affectation of silly pride in me to say that I do not need, or would not be indebted to, a political friend ; at the same time. Sir, I by no means lay my affairs before you thus, to hook my dependent situation on your benevolence. If, in my progress of life, an opening should occur where the good offices of a gentleman of your public character and political consequence might bring me forward, I shall petition your goodness with the same frankness as I now do mvself the honour to subscribe myself, R. B. No. CCLIII. TO MISS FONTENELLE. Dumfries, 1795, Madam — In such a bad world as ours, those who add to the scanty sum of our pleasures are positively our benefactors. To you. Madam, on our humble Dumfries boards, I have been more indebted for entertainment than ever I was in prouder theatres. Your charms as a woman would ensure applause to the most indifferent actress, and your theatrical talents would ensure ad- miration to the plainest figure. This, Madam, is not the unmeaning or insidious compliment of the frivolous or interested ; I pay it from the same honest impulse that the sublime of nature excites my admiration, or her beauties give me delight. * [Sometimes styled ♦' of Kerroughtree," but properly as above.] t [For these ballads, which regarded Mr Heron's contest for the representation of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, see Poeti- cal Works.] I Will the foregoing lines* be of any sel'vlce to you your approaching benefit night ? If they will, I shall be prouder of my muse than ever. They are nearly ex- tempore : I know they have no great merit ; but though they should add but little to the entertainment of the evening, they give me the happiness of an opportunity to declare how much I have the honour to be, &c. R. B. No. CCLIV. TO MRS DUNLOP. \Bth December, 1795. My dear Friend — As I am in a complete Decem- berish humour, gloomy, sullen, stupid, as even the Deity of Dulness herself could wish, I shall not drawl out a heavy letter with a number of heavier apologies for my late silence. Only one I shall mention, because I know you will sympathise in it : these four months, a sweet little girl, my youngest child, has been so ill, that every day, a week or less threatened to terminate her exist- ence. There had much need be many pleasures annexed to the states of husband and father, for, God knows, they have many peculiar cares. I cannot describe to you the anxious, sleepless, hours these ties frequently give me. I see a train of helpless little folks ; me and my exertions all their stay ; and on what a brittle thread does the life of man hang ! If I am nipt off at the com- mand of fate, even in all the vigour of manhood, as I am — such things happen every day — Gracious God! what would become of my little flock ! 'Tis here that I envy your people of fortune. A father on his death- bed, taking an everlasting leave of his children, has indeed woe enough ; but the man of competent fortune leaves his sons and daughters independency and friends ; while I — but I shall run distracted if I think any longer on the subject ! To leave talking of the matter so gravely, I shall sing with the old Scots ballad — Oh that I had ne'er been married, I would never had nae care ; Now I've gotten wife and bairns, They cry crowdie evennair. Crowdie ance, crowdie twice, Crowdie three times in a day ; An ye crowdie ony mair, Ye'll crowdie a' my meal away. December lith. We have had a brilliant theatre here this season ; only, as all other business does, it experiences a stagna- tion of trade from the epidemical complaint of the country, want of cash. I mentioned our theatre merely to lug in an occasional Address, which I wrote for the benefit-night of one of the actresses, and wliich is as follows: — * * * IBth, Christmas morning. This, my much-loved friend, is a morning of wishes ; accept mine — so Heaven hear me as they are sincere ! — that blessings may attend your steps, and affliction know you not ! In the charming words of my favourite au- thor. The Man of Feeling, " May the Great Spirit bear up the weight of thy grey hairs, and blunt the arrow that brings them rest !" Now that I talk of authors, how do you like Cowper ? Is not the " Task" a glorious poem % The religion of the " Task," bating a few scraps of Calvinistie divinity, is the religion of God and Nature — the religion that exalts, that ennobles man. Were not you to send me your " Zeluco," in return for mine ? Tell me how you like my marks and notes through the book. I would not give a farthing for a book, unless I were at liberty to blot it with my criticisms. I have lately collected, for a friend's perusal, all my letters ; I mean those which I first sketched, in a rough draught, and afterwards wrote out fair. On looking * [An address beginning— " Still anxious to secure your partial favour." * See Poetical Works, p. 79- J GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. over some old musty papers, which from time to time 1 had parcelled by, as trash that were scarce worth preserving, and which yet, at the same time, I did not cai-e to destroy, I discovered many of these rude sketches, and have written, and am writing them out, in a bound MS. for my friend's library. As I wrote always to you the rhapsody of the moment, I cannot find a single scroll to you, except one, about the commence- ment of our acquaintance. If there were any possible conveyance, I would send you a perusal of my book. R. B. No. CCLV. TO MR ALEXANDER FINDLATER,* SUPERVISOR OP EXCISE, DUMFRIES. Sir — Enclosed are the tv/o schemes. I would not have troubled you with the collector's one, but for sus- picion lest it be not right. Mr Erskine promised me to make it right, if you will have the goodness to show him how. As I have no copy of the scheme for myself, and the alterations being very considerable from what it was formei'ly, I hope that I shall have access to this scheme I send you, when I come to face up my new books. So much for schemes. And that no scheme to betray a friend, or mislead a stranger ; to seduce a YOUNG GIRL, or rob a hen-roost ; to subvert liberty, or bribe an exciseman ; to disturb the general assembly, or annoy a gossipping ; to ovei'throw the credit of or- thodoxy, or the authority of old songs ; to oppose your wishes, or frustrate mij hopes — may prosper — is the sincere wish and prayer of R. B. No. CCLVI. TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE. Dumfries, 1795. Sir — You will see, by your subscribers' list, that I have been about nine months of that number. I am sorry to inform you, that in .that time seven or eight of your papers either have never been sent me, or else have never reached me. To be deprived of any one number of the first newspaper in Great Britain for information, ability, and independence, is what I can ill brook and bear ; but to be deprived of that most admirable oration of the Marquis of Lansdowne, when he made the great, though ineffectual attempt (in the language of the poet, I fear too true) " to save a sink- ing state" — this was a loss that 1 neither can, nor will forgive you. That paper. Sir, never reached me ; but I demand it of you. I am a Briton, and must be in- terested in the cause of liberty ; I am a man, and the RIGHTS OF HUMAN NATURE caunot be indifferent to me. However, do not let me mislead you — I am not a man in that situation of life, which, as your subscriber, can be of any consequence to you, in the eyes of those to whom SITUATION OF LIFE ALONE is the Criterion of man. I am but a plain tradesman, in this distant, obscure country town ; but that humble domicile in which I shelter my wife and children, is the Castellum of a Briton ; and that scanty, hard-earned income which supports them, is as truly my property, as the most magnificent fortune of the most puissant member of your house of nobles. These, Sir, are my sentiments, and to them I sub- scribe my name ; and were I a man of ability and con- sequence enough to address the public, with that name should they appear. I am, &c.t * [This gentleman now resides at Glasgow in retirement, 1833.] t " This letter owes its origin to the following circumstance. A neighbour of the poet's at Dumfries called on him, and com- plained that he had been greatly disappointed in the irregular delivery of the paper of ' The Morning Chronicle.' Burns asked, * "Why do not you write to the editors of the paper ?' ' Good God, Sir, can / presume to write to the learned editors of a newspa- per ?' ♦ Well, if you are afraid of v/riting to the editors of a newspaper, / am not ; and, if you think proper, I'll draw up a sketch of a letter which you may copy.' Bums tore a leaf from his exci;;e book, and instantly produced No. CCLVII. TO MRS DUNLOP, in LONDON. Dumfries, 20th December, 1795. I have been prodigiously disappointed in this London journey of yours. In the first place, when your last to me reached Dumfries, I was in the country, and did not return until too late to answer your letter ; in the next place, I thought you would certainly take this route ; and now I know not what is become of you, or whether this my reach you at all. God grant that it may find you and youi's in prospering health and good spirits ! Do let me hear from you the soonest possible. As I hope to get a frank from my friend Captain Miller, I shall, every leisure hour, take up the pen, and gossip away whatever comes first, prose or poetry, ser- mon or song. In this last article I have abounded of late. I have often mentioned to you a superb publica- tion of Scottish songs, which is making its appearance in your great metropolis, and where I have the honour to preside over the Scottish verse, as no less a person- age than Peter Pindar does over the English. December Idth. Since I began this letter, I have been appointed to act in the capacity of supervisor here, and I assure you, what with the load of business, and what with that busi- ness being new to me, I could scarcely have commanded ten minutes to have spoken to you, had you been in town, much less to have written you an epistle. This appointment is only temporary, and during the illness of the present incumbent ; but I look forward to an early period when I shall be appointed in full form — a consummation devoutly to be wished ! My political sins seem to be forgiven me. This is the season (New-year's-day is now my date) of wishing ; and mine are most fervently offered up for you ! May life to you be a positive blessing while it lasts, for your own sake ; and that it may yet be greatly prolonged, is my wish for my own sake, and for the sake of the rest of your friends ! What a transient busi- ness is life 1 Very lately I was a boy ; but t'other day I was a young man ; and I already begin to feel the rigid fibre and stiffening joints of old age coming fast o'er my frame. With all my follies of youth, and, I fear, a few vices of manhood, still I congratulate myself on having had, in early days, religion strongly impressed on my mind. I have nothing to say to any one as to which sect he belongs to, or what creed he believes ; but I look on the man who is firmly persuaded of in- finite wisdom and goodness superintending and direct- ing every circumstance that can happen in his lot — I felicitate such a man as having a solid foundation for his mental enjoyment — a firm prop and sure stay, in the hour of difficulty, trouble, and distress — and a never-failing anchor of hope, when he looks beyond the grave. January \1th. You will have seen our worthy and ingenious friend, the doctor, long ere this. I hope he is well, and beg to be remembered to him. I have just been reading over again, I dare say for the hundred and fiftieth time, his View of Society and Manners ; and still I read it with dehght. His humour is perfectly original — it is neither the humour of Addison, nor Swift, nor Sterne, nor of any body but Dr Moore. By the bye, you have de- prived me of Zeluco; remember that, when you are disposed to rake up the sins of my neglect from among the ashes of my laziness. He has paid me pretty compliment, by quoting me in his last publication.* R. B. the sketch Which I have transcribed, and which is here printed. The poor man thanked him, and took the letter home. How- ever, that caution which the watchfulness of his enemies had taught him to exercise, prompted him to the prudence of begging a friend to wait on the person for whom it was written, and re- quest the favour to have it returned. This request was complied with, and the paper never appeared in print."— Cromkk. * [The novel entitled " Edward.""] 90 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. No. CCLVIII. ADDRESS OP THE SCOTCH DISTILLERS TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM PITT. Sir — While pursy burgesses crowd your gate, sweat- ing under the weight of heavy addresses, permit us, the quondam distillers in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, to approach you, not with venal approbation, but with fraternal condolence ; not as what you are just now, or for some time have been, but as what, in all probability, you will shortly be. We shall have the merit of not deserting our friends in the day of their calamity, and you will have the satisfaction of perusing at least one honest address. You are well acquainted with the dissection of human nature ; nor do you need the assistance of a fellow-creature's bosom to inform you, that man is always a selfish, often a perfidious being. This assertion, however the hasty conclusions of superficial observation may doubt of it, or the raw inexperience of youth may deny it, those who make the fatal experiment we have done, will feel. You are a statesman, and consequently are not ignorant of the traffic of these corporation compliments. The little great man who drives the borough to market, and the very great man who buys the borough in that market, they two do the whole business; and you well know, they, likewise, have their price. With that sullen disdain which you can so well assume, risej illustrious Sir, and spurn these hireling efibrts of venal stupidity. At best they are the compliments of a man's friends on the morning of his execution : they take a decent farewell ; resign you to your fate ; and hurr-y away from your approaching hour. If fame say true, and omens be not very much mis- taken, you are about to make your exit from that world ■where the sun of gladness gilds the paths of prosperous men : permit us, great Sir, with the sympathy of fellow- feeling, to hail your passage to the realms of ruin. Whether the sentiment proceed from the selfishness or cowardice of mankind, is immaterial ; but to point out to a child of misfortune those who are still more unhappy, is to give him some degree of positive enjoy- ment. In this Hght, Sir, our downfall may be again useful to you : though not exactly in the same way, it is not perhaps the first time it has gratified your feel- ings. It is true, the triumph of your evil star is ex- ceedingly despiteful. At an age when others are the votaries of pleasure, or underhngs in business, you had attained the highest wish of a British statesman ; and with the ordinary date of human life, what a prospect was before you ! Deeply rooted in royal favour, you overshadowed the land. The birds of passage which follow ministerial sunshine through every clime of po- litical faith and manners, flocked to your branches; and the beasts of the field (the lordly possessors of hills and valleys) crowded under your shade. " But behold a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven, and cried aloud, and said thus : Hew down the tree, and cut off" his branches ; shake oS" his leaves, and scatter his fruit ; let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches !" A blow from an un- thought-of quarter, one of those terrible accidents which •peculiarly mark the hand of Omnipotence, overset your career, and laid all your fancied honours in the dust. But turn your eyes. Sir, to the tragic scenes of our fate. An ancient nation, that for many ages had gallantly maintained the unequal struggle for independence with her much more powerful neighbour, at last agrees to a union which should ever after make them one people. In consideration of certain circumstances, it was cove- nanted that the former should enjoy a stipulated alle- viation in her share of the public burdens, particularly in that branch of the revenue called the Excise. This just privilege has of late given great umbrage to some interested, powerful individuals of the more potent part of the empire, and they have spared no wicked pains, under insidious pretexts, to subvert what they dared not openly to attack, from the dread which they yet entertained of the spirit of their ancient enemies. In this conspiracy we fell ; nor did we alone suffer — I our country was deeply wounded. A number of (we will say) respectable mdividuals, largely engaged ia trade, where we were not only useful, but absolutely necessary, to our country in her dearest interests ; we, with all that was near and dear to us, were sacrificed without remorse to the infernal deity of political expe- diency ! We fell to gratify the wishes of dark envy, and the views of unprincipled ambition ! Your foes. Sir, were avowed ; were too brave to take an ungenerous advantage : you fell in the face of day. On the contrary, our enemies, to complete our overthrow, contrived to make their guilt appear the villany of a nation. Your downfall only drags with you your private friends and partisans : in our misery are more or less involved the most numerous and most valuable part of the commu- nity — all those who immediately depend on the culti- vation of the soil, from the landlord of a province down to his lowest hind. Allow us. Sir, yet further, just to hint at another rich vein of comfort in the dreary regions of adversity the gratulations of an approving conscience. In a certain great assembly, of wMch you are a distinguished mem- ber, panegyrics on your private virtues have so often wounded your delicacy, that Ave shall not distress you with any thing on the subject. There is, however, one part of your pubHc conduct which our feelings will not permit us to pass in silence ; our gratitude must trespass on your modesty : we mean, worthy Sir, yout whole behaviour to the Scots distillers. In evil hours, when, obtrusive recollection presses bitterly on the sense, let that, Sir, come, like a healing angel, and speak the peace to your soul which the world can neither give nor take away. We have the honour to be. Sir, your sym- pathising fellow-sufferers and grateful humble servants, John Barleycorn, Prseses. No. CCLIX. TO THE HON. THE PROVOST, BAILIES, AND TOWN COUNCIL OF DUMFRIES. Gentlemen — The literary taste and liberal spirit of your good town has so ably filled the various depart- ments of your schools, as to make it a very great object for a parent to have his children educated in them. Still, to me, a stranger, with my large family, and very stinted income, to give my young ones that education I wish, at the high-school fees which a stranger pays, will bear hard upon me. Some years ago your good town did me the honour of making me an honorary burgess. Will you allow me to request that this mark of distinction may extend so far as to put me on a footing of a real fi-eeman of the town, in the schools ? If you are so very kind as to grant my request, it will certainly be a constant incentive to me to strain every nei-ve where I can officially serve you; and will, if possible, increase that grateful respect with which I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your devoted, hum- ble servant, R. B.* No. CCLX. TO MRS RIDDEL. Dumfries, 20th January, 1796. I CANNOT express my gratitude to you for allowing me a longer perusal of " Anacharsis." In fact, I never met with a book that bewitched me so much ; and I, as a member of the library, must warmly feel the obligation you have laid us under. Indeed, to me the obUgation is stronger than to any other individual of our society ; as " Anacharsis " is an indispensable desideratum to a son of the muses. The health you wished me in your morning's card, is, I think, flown from me for ever. I have not been able to leave my bed to-day till about an hour ago. These wickedly unlucky advertisements I lent (I did *'The request was immediately complied with.— Ckomek. GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. 91 wrong) to a friend, and 1 am ill able to go in quest of him. The muses have not quite foi'saken me. The follow- ing detached stanzas I intend to interweave in some disastrous tale of a shepherd. R. B. No. CCLXI. TO MRS DUNLOP. Dumfries, 2>\st January, 179G. These many months you have been two packets in my debt — what sin of ignorance I have committed against so highly valued a friend, I am uttei'ly at a loss to guess. Alas ! Madam, ill can I aiford, at this time, to be deprived of any of the small remnant of my plea- sures. I have lately drunk deep of the cup of affliction. The autumn robbed me of my only daughter and dar- ling child, and that at a distance, too,* and so rapidly, as to put it out of my power to pay the last duties to her. I had scarcely begun to recover from that shock, when I became myself the victim of a most severe rheumatic fever, and long the die spun doubtful ; until, after many weeks of a sick-bed, it seems to have turned up hfe, and I am beginning to crawl across my room, and once indeed have been before my own door in the street. ■\Mien pleasure fascinates the mental sight. Affliction purifies the visual ray, Religion hails the drear, the untried night, And shuts, for eyer shuts ! life's doubtful day. R. B. No. CCLXII. TO MRS RIDDEL, Who had desired him to go to the Birth-day Assembly on that day to show his loyalty. Dumfries, iih June, 1796. I AM in such miserable health as to be utterly inca- pable of showing my loyalty in any way. Racked as I am with rheimiatisms, I meet evei'y face with a greet- ing, like that of Balak to Balaam — " Come, curse me, Jacob ; and come, defy me, Israel !" So say I — Come, curse me that east wind ; and come, defy me the north ! Would you have me in such circumstances copy you out a love-song ? I may perhaps see you on Saturday, but I will not be at the ball. Why should 1 1 — " man dehghts not me, nor woman either !" Can you supply me with the song, " Let us all be imhappy together"— -do if you can, and obUge le pauvre miserable, R. B. No. CCLXIII. TO MR CLARKE, SCHOOL:iIAST£R, FORFAE. Dumfries, '26th June, 1796. Mt dear Clabke — Still, still the victim of affliction ! Were you to see the emaciated figm*e who now holds the pen to yon, you would not know your old friend. Whether I shall ever get about again, is only kno'u'n to Him, the Great Unknown, whose creature I am. Alas, Clarke ! I begin to fear the worst. As to my indivi- dual self, I am tranquil, and would despise myself if I were not ; but Burns's poor widow, and half-a-dozen of his dear httle ones — ^helpless orphans ! — there I am weak as a woman's tear. Enough of this ! 'Tis half of my disease. I duly received your last, enclosing the note. It came extremely in time, and I am much obHged by your punctuahty. Again I must request you to do me the same kindness. Be so very good as, by retiu'n of post, to enclose me another note. I trust you can do it without inconvenience, and it will seriously oblige me. If I must go, I shall leave a few friends behind me, whom I shall regret while consciousness remains, I * [The child died at Mauchline.] know I shall live in their remembrance. Adieu, dear Clarke. That I shall ever see you agaui, is, I am afraid, highly improbable. R. B. No. CCLXIV. TO :MR JAMES JOHNSON, EDINBURGH Dumfries, Ath July, 1796, How are you, my dear friend, and how comes on your fifth volume I You may probably think that for some tine past I have neglected you and your work ; but, alas ! the hand of pain, and soiTOw, and care, has these many months lain heavy on me. Personal and domes- tic affliction have almost entirely banished that alacrity and life with which I used to woo the rural muse of Scotia. You are a good, worthy, honest fellow, and have a good right to Hve in this world — because you deser\^e it. ]\Iany a merry meeting this pubhcation has given us, and possibly it may give us more, though, alas ! I fear it. This protracting, slow, consuming illness which hangs over me, will, I doubt much, my ever dear friend, arrest my sun before he has well reached his middle career, and will tm-n over the poet to far more impor- tant concerns than studying the brilliancy of wit, or the pathos of sentiment. However, hope is the cordial of the human heart, and I endeavour to cherish it as well as I can. Let me hear from you as soon as convenient. Your work is a great one ; and now that it is finished, I see, if we were to begin again, two or three things that might be njended ; yet I will venture to prophesy, that to future ages yom- publication will be the text-book and standard of Scottish song and music. I am ashamed to ask another favour of you, because you have been so very good already ; but my wife has a very particular friend of hers, a young lady who singa well, to whom she wishes to present the " Scots Musi- cal ^Museum." If you have a spare copy, will you be so obliging as to send it by the very first /y, as I am anxious to have it s(*Dn.* *Yours ever, R. B. No. CCLXV. TO MR CUNNINGHAM. Brow, sea-bathing quarters, 7th July, 1796. My dear Ci::s'>TXGHAM — I received yoiu's here this moment, and am indeed lughly flattei-ed Avith the ap- probation of the literary circle you mention — a Hterary circle inferior to none in the two kingdoms. Alas ! my friend, I fear the voice of the bard will soon be heard among you no more. For these eight or ten months I have been aihng, sometimes bedfast, and sometimes not ; but these last three months I have been tortured with an excruciating rheumatism, which has reduced me to nearly the last stage. You actually would not know me if you saw me. Pale, emaciated, and so feeble as occasionally to need help from my chau^ — my spirits fled! fled! — but I can no more on the subject; only the medical folks tell me that my last and only chance is bathing, and country quartei's, and riding. The deuce of the matter is this ; when an exciseman is off" duty, his salary is reduced to £35 instead of £50. What way, in the name of thi'ift, shall I maintain myself, and keep a horse in country quarters, with a wife and five chil- dren at home, on £35 ? I mention this, because I had intended to beg your utmost interest, and that of all the friends you can muster, to move our commissioners of Excise to grant me the fuU salary ; I dare say you know them aU personally. If they do not grant it me,t I * In this humble ana delicate manner did poor Bums ask for a copy of a work of which he was principally the foimder, and to which he had contributed, gratuitously, not less than 184 ori- ginal, altered, and collected songs .' The editor has seen 180 tran- scribed by his own hand for the Museum.— Cro:)Iek. t [It is truly painful to mention that the request was not gi-anted.] 92 BtJRNS*S PROSE WORKS. must lay my account with an exit truly en pocte — if I die not of disease, I must perish with hunger. I have sent you one of the songs ; the other my me- mory does not serve me with, and I have no copy here ; but I shall be at home soon, when I will send it you. Apropos to being at home ; Mrs Burns threatens in a week or two to add one more to my paternal charge, which, if of the right gender, I intend shall be intro- duced to the world by the I'espectable designation of Alexander Cunningham Burns. My last was James (rlencairn, so you can have no objection to the company of nobility. Farewell. R. B. No. CCLXVI. TO MR GILBERT BURNS. IQth July, 1796. Dear Brother — It will be no very pleasing news to you to be told that I am dangerously ill, and not likely to get better. An inveterate rheumatism has reduced me to such a state of debility, and my appetite is so totally gone, that I can scarcely stand on my legs. I have been a week at sea-bathing, and I Avill continue there, or in a friend's house in the country, all the summer. God keep my wife and children : if I am taken from their head, they will be poor indeed. I have contracted one or two serious debts, partly from my illness these many months, partly from too much thoughtlessness as to expense when I came to town, that ^vill cut in too -much on the little I leave them in your hands. Remember me to my mother. Yours, R. B. No. CCLXVII. TO MRS BURNS. BroWf Thursday. My dearest Love — I delayed writing until I could teU you what effect sea-bathing was likely to produce. It would be injustice to deny that it has eased my pains, and I think has strengthened me ; but my appetite is still extremely bad. No flesh nor fish can I swallow : pori'idge and milk are the only thing I can taste. I am very happy to hear, by Miss Jess Lewars, that you are all well. My very best and kindest compliments to her, and to all the children. I will see you on Sunday. Your affectionate husband, R. B. CCLXVIII. TO MRS DUNLOP. Brow, Saturday, \2th July, 179(). Madam — I have written you so often, without receiv- ing any answer, that I would not trouble you again, but for the circumstances in which I am. An illness which has long hung about me, in all probability will speedily send me beyond that bourn whence no traveller returns. Your friendship, with which for many years you ho- noured me, was a friendship dearest to my soul. Your conversation, and especially your correspondence, were at once highly entertaining and instructive. With what pleasure did I use to break up the seal ! The remem- brance yet adds one pulse more to my poor palpitating heart. Farewell ! ! ! R. B.* * Bums had, however, the pleasure of receiving a satisfactory explanation of his friend's silence, and an assurance of the con- tinuance of her friendship to his widow and children ; an assur- ance that hasheenamolv fulfilled.— Currik. No. CCLXIX. TO MR JAMES BURNESS, WRITER, MONTROSE. Dumfries, 12th July. My DEAR Cousin — When you offered me money assistance, little did I think 1 should want it so soon. A rascal of a haberdasher, to whom I owe a considerable bill, taking it into his head that I am dying, has commenced a process against me, and will infallibly put my emaciated body into jail. Will you be so good as to accommodate me, and that by return of post, with ten pounds ? Oh, James ! did you know the pride of my heart, you would feel doubly for me ! Alas ! I am not used to beg. The worst of it is, my health was coming about finely ; you know, and my physician assured me, that melancholy and low spirits are half my disease — guess, then, my horrors since this business began. If I had it settled, I would be, I think, quite well in a manner. How shall I use the language to you, oh do not disappoint me ! but strong necessity's curst com- mand. I have been thinking over and over my brother's affairs, and I fear I must cut him up ; but on this I will correspond at another time, particularly as I shall [require] your advice. Forgive me for once more mentioning by return of post — save me from the horrors of a jail !* My compliments to my friend James, and to all the rest. I do not know what I have written. The subject is so horrible, I dare not look it over again. Farewell ! R. B. No. CCLXX. TO JAMES GRACIE, Esq. Brow, Wednesday morning, 16th July, 1796. My dear Sir — It would [be] doing high injustice to this place not to acknowledge that my rheumatisms have derived great benefits fi'om it already ; but, alas ! my loss of appetite still continues. I shall not need your kind offer this weeh,'Y and I return to town the beginning of next week, it not being a tide week. I am detaining a man in a burning hurry. So, God bless you ! R. B. No. CCLXXI. MASON, MAUCHLINE. Dumfries, l^th July, 1796. My dear Sir — Do, for Heaven's sake, send Mrs Armour here immediately. My wife is hourly expect- ing to be put to bed. Good God ! what a situation for her to be in, poor girl, without a friend ! I returned from sea-bathing quarters to-day, and my medical friends would almost persuade me that I am better, but I think and feel that my strength is so gone, that the disorder will prove fatal to me. Your son-in-law, R.B.§ * [The request was immediately complied with by this gene- rous relative.] t [Mr Gracie, who was a hanker in Dumfries, had offered to bring Bums home in a post-chaise.] X [The father of Mrs Burns.] § [This is the last ascertained piece of Burns's composition, being written only three days before his death.] ( 03 ) CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR GEORGE THOMSON. [The following branch of Burns's Correspondence took its rise in the circumstances referred to in the first and second letters. Mr George Thomson, of Edinburgh, having designed a more than usually elegant collection of the national music of Scotland, applied to the poet for his aid in improving the songs, many of which were imworthy of publication. Bums, with that enthu- siasm which he entertained on the subject of Scottish music, entered heartily into Mr Thomson's views, and contributed about sixty songs to the work. The letters which passed between the poet and Mr Thomson are here given, as prepared for publication by the latter individual, and presented to the public in the vo- lumes of Dr Currie, who prefaced them with the following note : — ' ' The undertaking of Mr Thomson is one in which the public may be congratulated in various points of view,* not merely as having collected the finest of the Scottish songs and airs of past times, but as having given occasion to a number of original songs of our bard, which equal or surpass the former efibrts of the pas- toral muses of Scotland, and which, if we mistake not, may be safely compared with the lyric poetry of any age or country. The letters of Mr Burns to Mr Thomson include the songs he presented to him, some of which appear in diflferent stages of their progress ; and these letters will be found to exhibit occasionally his notions of song-writing, and his opinions on various subjects of taste and criticism. These opinions, it will be observed, were called forth by the observations of his correspondent, Mr Thomson ; and without the letters of this gentleman, those of Burns would have been often vmintelligible. He has therefore yielded to the earnest request of the trustees of the family of the poet, to suffer them to appear in their natural order ; and, independently of the illus- tration they give to the letters of our bard, it is not to be doubted that their intrinsic merit will ensure them a reception from the public far beyond what Mr Thomson's modesty would permit him to buppose."] No. I. MR THOMSONt TO BURNS. E'dinburgh, September, 1702. Sir — For some years past 1 have, with a friend or two, employed many leisure hours in selecting and col- lating the most favourite of our national melodies for publication. We have engaged Pleyel, the most agree- able composer living, to put accompaniments to these, and also to compose an instrumental prelude and con- clusion to each air, the better to fit them for concerts, both public and private. To render this work perfect, we are desirous to have the poetry improved, wherever it seems unworthy of the music ; and that it is so in many instances, is allowed by every one conversant with our musical collections. The editors of these seem, in general, to have depended on the music provmg an excuse for the verses ; and hence, some charming me- lodies are united to mere nonsense and doggrel, while others are accommodated with rhymes so loose and * [Mr Thomson's work is entitled, " A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice : to which are added, Intro- ductory and Concluding Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Piano-Forte and Violin, by Pleyel and Kozeluch ; with select and characteristic Verses, by the most admired Scottish Poets," &c. London : printed and sold by Preston, No. 97, Strand. It has been completed in five volumes— one edition being in folio and another in 8vo.] t [Mr George Thomson was bom at Limekilns in Fife, about the year 1759, and educated at Banfi", his father being a school- master successively at these two places. Through the recom- mendation of Mr Home, the author of " Douglas," he was ad- mitted, in 1780, to the ofiice of the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Manufactures in Scotland, as their junior clerk ; and he is now (1838), after a service of fifty-eight years, principal clerk to the Board. His natural taste for music was cultivated, in his early years, at the meetings of the St Cecilia Society in Edinburgh— an amateur body, whose performances used to attract no inconsiderable share of notice in those days. Mr Thomson's Collection of Scottish Airs, first designed about 1792, was not completed for many years : it has been , in fact, the employment of the leisiue hours of the better part of his life.] indelicate, as cannot be sung in decent company. To remove this reproach would be an easy task to the author of the " Cotter's Saturday Night ;" and, for the honour of Caledonia, I would fain hope he may be induced to take up the pen. If so, we shall be enabled to present the public with a collection, infinitely more interestmg than any that has yet appeared, and ac- ceptable to all persons of taste, whether they wish for correct melodies, delicate accompaniments, or charac- teristic vei'ses. We will esteem your poetical assistance a particular favour, besides paying any reasonable price you shall please to demand for it. Profit is quite a secondary consideration with us, and we are resolved to spare neither pains nor expense on the publication. Tell me frankly, then, whether you will devote your leisure to writing twenty or twenty-five songs, suited to the particular melodies which I am prepared to send you. A few songs, exceptionable only in some of their verses, I will likewise submit to your consideration ; leaving it to you, either to mend these, or make new songs in their stead. It is superfluous to assure you that I have no intention to displace any of the sterling old songs ; those only will be removed which appear quite silly or absolutely indecent. Even these shall be all examined by Mr Burns, and if he is of opinion that any of them are deserving of the music, in such casts no divorce shall take place. G. Thomson. No. II. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Dumfries, 16 th Sept 1792. Sir — I have just this moment got your letter. As the request you make to me will positively add to my enjoyments in complying with it, I shall enter into your undertaldng with all the small portion of abilities I have, strained to their utmost exex'tion by the impulse of enthusiasm. Only, don't hurry me — "Deil tak the hind- most " is by no means the cri de guerre of my muse. Will you, as I am inferior to none of you in enthusiastic attachment to the poetry and music of old Caledonia, and, since you request it, have cheerfully promised my mite of assistance — will you let me have a list of your airs with the first line of the printed verses you intend for them, that I may have an opportunity of suggesting any alteration that may occur to me ? You know 'tis in the way of my trade ; still leaving you, gen- tlemen, the undoubted right of publishers to approve or reject, at your pleasure, for your owai publication. Apropos, if you are for English verses, there is, on my part, an end of the matter. Whether in the simplicity of the ballad, or the pathos of the song, I can only hope to please myself in being allowed at least a sprinliling of our native tongue. English verses, particularly the works of Scotsmen, that have merit, are certainly very eligible. " Tweedside i" " Ah ! the poor shepherd's mournful fate !" " Ah ! Chloris, could I now but sit," &c., you cannot mend ; but such insipid stuff as " To Fanny fair could I impart," «Scc., usually set to " The Mill, Mill, ! " is a disgrace to the collections in which it has already appeared, and would doubly disgrace a collection that will have the very superior merit of yours. But more of this in the further prosecution of the business, if I am called on for my strictures and amendments — I say amendments, for I will not alter except where I my- self, at least, think that I amend. As to any remunex'ation, you may think my songs either above or below price ; for they shall absolutely be the one or the other. In the honest enthusiasm witii which I embark in your undertaking, to talk of money, wages, fee, hire, &c., would be downright prostitution * * [We have been informed that Burns marked his loathing of remuneration by the use of even a stronger term than this, which was bubstituted by the originiil editor.] 94 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. of sowl 1 A proof of each of the songs that I compose or amend, I shall receive as a favour. In the rustic phrase of the season, "Gucle speed the wark!" I am, Sir, your very humble servant, R. Burns. No. III. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, I3th Oct. 1792. Dear Sir — I received with much satisfaction your pleasant and obliging letter, and I return my warmest acknowledgments for the enthusiasm with which you have entered into our undertaking. We have now no doubt of being able to produce a collection highly de- serving of public attention in all respects. I agree with you in thinking English verses, that have merit, very eligible, wherever new verses are neces- sary, because the Enghsh becomes every year, more and more, the language of Scotland ; but if you mean that no English verses, except those by Scottish authors, ought to be admitted, I am half inclined to differ from you. I should consider it unpardonable to sacrifice one good song in the Scottish dialect, to make room for English verses ; but if we can select a few excellent ones suited to the unprovided or ill-provided airs, would it not be the very bigotry of literary patriotism to reject such, merely because the authors were born south of the Tweed ? Our sweet air, " My Nannie, !" which in the collections is joined to the poorest stuff that Allan Ramsay ever wrote, beginning, " While some for plea- sure pawn their health," answers so finely to Dr Percy's beautiful song, " Oh Nancy, wilt thou go with me ?" that one would think he wrote it on purpose for the air. However, it is not at all our wish to confine you to English verses : you shall freely be allowed a sprinkling of your native tongue, as you elegantly express it ; and, moreovei', we will patiently wait your own time. One thing only I beg, which is, that however gay and spor- tive the muse may be, she may always be decent. Let her not write what beauty would blush to speak, nor wound that charming delicacy which forms the most precious dowry of our daughters. I do not conceive the song to be the most proper vehicle for mtty and brilliant conceits; simplicity, I believe, should be its pro- minent feature : but, in some of our songs, the writers have confounded simplicity with coarseness and vulga- rity ; although, between the one and the other, as Dr Beattie well observes, there is as great a difference as between a plain suit of clothes and a bundle of rags. The humorous ballad, or pathetic complaint, is best suited to our artless melodies ; and more interesting, indeed, in all songs, than the most pointed wit, dazzling descriptions, and flowery fancies. With these trite observations, I send you eleven of the songs, for which it is my wish to substitute others of your writing. I shall soon transmit the rest, and, at the same time, a prospectus of the whole collection ; and you may believe we will receive any hints that you are so kind as to give for improving the work, with the greatest pleasure and thankfulness. I remain, dear Sir, .Sec. No. IV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. My dear Sir — Let me tell you, that you are too fas- tidious in your ideas of songs and ballads. I own that your criticisms are just ; the songs you specify in your list have, all but one, the faults you remark in them ; but who shall mend the matter ? Who shall rise up and say, " Go to ! I will make a better ?" For instance, on reading over "The- Lea-rig," I immediately set about trying my hand on it, and, after all, I could make nothing more of it than the following, which, Heaven knows, is poor enough. [Here follow the two first stanzas of " My ain kind dearie O !" for which see Poetical Works, p. 116.] Your observation as to the aptitude of Dr Percy's ballad to the air, " Nannie, O !" is just. It is besides. perhaps, the most beautiful ballad in the English lan- guage. But let me remai'k to you, that in the sentiment and style of our Scottish airs, there is a pastoral sim- plicity, a something that one may call the Doric style and dialect of vocal music, to which a dash of our na- tive tongue and manners is particularly, nay pecuharly, apposite. For this reason, and, upon my honour, for this reason alone, I am of opinion (but, as I told you before, my opinion is yours, freely yours, to approve or reject, as you please) that my ballad of " Nannie, 1'* might perhaps do for one set of verses to the tune. Now don't let it enter into your head, that you are under any necessity of taking my verses. I have long ago made up my mind as to my own reputation in the busi- ness of authorship, and have nothing to be pleased or oflFendedat, in your adoption or rejection of my verses. Though you should reject one half of what I give you, I shall be pleased with your adopting the other half, and shall continue to serve you with the same assiduity. In the printed copy of my " Nannie, O !" the name of the river is horridly prosaic. I will alter it : " Behind yon hills where Lugar flows.'* Girvan is the name of the river that suits the idea of the stanza best, but Lugar is the most agreeq,ble modu- lation of syllables. I will soon give you a great manymore remarks on this business ; but I have just now an opportunity of conveying you this scrawl, free of postage, an expense that it is ill able to pay : so, with my best compUments to honest Allan, Gude be wi' ye, &c. Friday Night. Saturday Morning, As I find I have still an hour to spare this morning before my conveyance goes away, I will give you " Nannie, !" at length. Your remarks on " Ewe-bughts, Marion," are just ; still it has obtained a place among our more classical Scottish songs; and what with many beauties in its composition, and more prejudices in its favour, you will not find it easy to supplant it. In my very early years, when I was thinking of going to the West Indies, I took the following farewell of a dear girl. It is quite trifling, and has nothing of the merits of " Ewe-bughts ;" but it will fill up this page. You must know that all my earlier loye-songs were the breathings of ardent passion, and though it might have been easy in after-times to have given them a polish, yet that polish, to me, whose they were, and who perhaps alone cared for them, would have defaced the legend of my heart, which was so faithfully inscribed on them. Their uncouth simplicity was, as they say of wines, their race. [Here follows the song " Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary ?'• for which see Poetical Works, p. 116. Mr Thomson did not adopt the song in his collection.] « Gala Water," and " Auld Rob Morris," I think, will most probably be the next subject of my musings. However, even on my verses, speak out your criticisms with equal frankness. My wish is, not to stand aloof, the uncomplying bigot of opinidtrete, but cordially to join issue with you in the furtherance of the work. No. V, BURNS TO MR THOMSON. November 8th, 1792. If you mean, my dear Sir, that all the songs in your collection shall be poetry of the first merit, I am afraid you will find more difficulty in the undertaking than you are aware of. There is a peculiar rhythmus in many of our airs, and a necessity of adapting syllables to the emphasis, or what I would call the feature-notes of the tune, that cramp the poet, and lay him under almost insuperable difficulties. For instance, in the air, " J\Iy wife's a wanton wee thing," if a few lines smooth and pretty can be adapted to it, it is all you can expect. The following were made extempore to it ; and though, on further study, I might give you something more CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 95 profounil, yet It might not suit the light-horse gallop of the air so well as this random clink : — [Here follows " My -wife's a winsome wee thing," for which Eee Poetical Works, p. 116.] I have just heen looldng over the " Collier's bonny dochter ;" and if the following rhapsody, which I com- posed the other day, on a charming Ayi-shire girl, Miss Lesley Bailhe, as she passed through this place to England, will suit your taste better than the " ColUer Lassie," fall on and welcome : — [Here follows " Bonnie Lesley," for which see Poetical "Works, p. 116.] I have hitherto deferred the sublimer, more pathetic airs, until more leisure, as they will take, and deserve, a greater effort. However, they are all put into your hands, as clay into the hands of the potter, to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour. Farewell, &c. No. VI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. \ith November^ 1792. f After transcribing " Highland IMary," for which see Poetical Works, p. 116, the poet thus proceeds :— ] My dear Sir — I agree with you that the song, « Katharine Ogie," is very poor stuff, and unworthy, altogether unworthy, of so beautiful an air. I tried to mend it ; but the awkward sound, Ogie, recurring so often in the rhyme, spoils every attempt at introducing sentiment into the piece. The foregoing song pleases myself; I think it is in my happiest manner : you will see at first glance that it suits the air. The subject of the song is one of the most interesting passages of my youthftii days, and I own that I should be much flattered to see the verses set to an air which would ensure celebrity. Perhaps, after all, 'tis the still glow- ing prejudice of my heart that throws a borrowed lustre over the merits of the composition. I have partly taken your idea of " Auld Rob Morris." 1 have adopted the two first verses, and am going on with the song on a new plan, which promises pretty well. I take up one or another, just as the bee of the moment buzzes in my bonnet-lug; and do you, sans ceremonie, make what use you choose of the productions. Adieu, &e. No. VII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, Nov. 1792. Dear Sir — I was just going to write to you, that on meeting with your Nannie, Ihad fallen violently in love with her. I thanlc you, therefore, for sending the charming rustic to me, in the dress you wish her to appear before the public. She does you great credit, and will soon be admitted into the best company. I regret that your song for the "Lea-rig" is so short; the air is easy, soon sung, and very pleasing : so that, if the singer stops at the end of two stanzas, it is a pleasure lost ere it is well possessed. Although a dash of our native tongue and maimers is doubtless pecuHarly congenial and appropriate to our melodies, yet I shall be able to present a considerable number of the very Flowers of English song, well adapted to those melodies, which, in England at least, will be the means of recommending them to still greater attention than they have procured there. But, you will observe, my plan is, that every air shall, ia the first place, have verses wholly by Scottish poets ; and that those of Enghsh \vriters shall follow as additional songs for the choice of the singer. What you say of the "Ewe-bughts" is just ; I admire it, and never meant to supplant it. All I requested was, that you would try your hand on some of the inferior stanzas, which are apparently no part of the original song ; but this I do not urge, because the song is of sufficient length, though those inferior stanzas be omitted, as they will be by the singer of taste. You must not think I expect all the songs to be of super- lative merit ; that were an unreasonable expectation. I am sensible that no poet can sit down doggedly to pen verses, and succeed well at all times. I am highly pleased with your humorous and amorous rhapsody on " Bonnie Lesley :" it is a thousand times better than the " Collier's lassie." " The deil he cou'd na scaith thee," &c., is an eccentric and happy thought. Do you not think, however, that the names of such old heroes as Alexa^nder sound" rather queer, imless in pompous or mere burlesque verse? Instead of the line, " And never made anither," I would humbly suggest, " And ne'er made sic anither ;" and I would fain have you substitute some other line for " Return to Caledonie," in the last verse, because I think this alteration of the orthography, and of the sound of Caledonia, disfigures the word, and renders it Hudi- brastic. Of the other song, " My wife's a winsome wee thing," I think the first eight lines very good ; but I do not admire the other eight, because four of them are a bare repetition of the first verses. I have been trying to spra a stanza, but could make nothing better than the following : do you mend it, or, as Yorick did with the love letter, whip it up in your o'W'n way : — Oh leeze me on my wee thing. My bonnie blythesome wee thing ; Sae lang's I hae my wee thing, I'll think my lot divine. Tho' warld's care we share o't. And may see meikle mair o't, Wi' her I'll blythely bear it, And ne'er a word repine. You perceive, my dear Sir, I avail myself of the libei'ty, which you condescend to allow me, by speaking freely what I think. Be assured, it is not my disposi- tion to pick out the faults of any poem or picture I see : my first and chief object is to discover and be dehghted with the beauties of the piece. If I sit down to examine critically, and at leisure, what, perhaps, you have written in haste, I may happen to observe careless lines, the reperusal of which might lead you to improve them. The wren will often see what has been over- looked by the eagle. I remain yours faithfully, &c. P. S. Your verses upon "Highland Mary" are just come to hand : they breathe the genuine spirit of poetry, and, like the music, will last for ever. Such verses, united to such an air, with the delicate harmony of Pleyel superadded, might form a treat worthy of being presented to Apollo himself. I have heard the sad story of your Mary ; you always seem inspired when you write of her. No. VIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Dumfries, 1st Dec. 1792. Your alterations of my *' Nannie, O !" are perfectly right. So are those of "My wife's a ^\'insome wee thing." Your alteration of the second stanza is a positive improvement. Now, my dear Sii', with the freedom which characterises our correspondence, I must not, can not alter "Bonnie Lesley." You are right; the word " Alexander " makes the line a little uncouth, but I think the thought is pretty. Of Alex- ander, beyond all other heroes, it may be said, in the subHme language of Scripture, that "he went forth conquering and to conquer.' ■ For nature made her what she is, And never made anither. (Such a person as she is.) This is, in my opinion, more poetical than " Ne'er made sic anither." However, it is immaterial : make it either way. " Caledonie," I agree wth you, is not so good a word as could be wished, though it is sanctioned in three or four instances by Allan Ramsay; but I cannot help it. In short, that species of stanza is the most difficult that I have ever tried. 96 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. The " Lea-rig" is as follows : — [Here the poet repeats the first two stanzas, adding a third. The whole are inserted in his Poetical Works, p. 116.] I am interrupted. Yours, &c. No. IX. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Ath December, 1792. The foregoing [" Auld Rob Moi'ris" and " Duncan Gray," for .which see his Poetical Works, p. 117] I submit, my dear Sir, to your better judgment. Acquit them, or condemn them, as seemeth good in your sight. " Duncan Gray" is that kind of hght-horse gallop of an air, which precludes sentiment. The ludicrous is its ruling feature. No. X. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. [Prefatory to this letter, Burns transcribes the songs " Puu-tith Cauld'*and " Gala Water," for which see his Poetical Works, p. 117.] Jan. 17S3. Many returns of the season to you, my dear Sir. How comes on your publication ? — will these two fore- going be of any service to you 1 I should like to know what songs you print to each tune, besides the vei'ses to which it is set. In short, I would wish to give you my opinion on all the poetry you publish. You know it is my trade, and a man in the way of his trade may suggest useful hints that escape men of much superior parts and endowments in other things. If you meet with my dear and much-valued Cunning- ham, greet him, in my name, with the compliments of the season. Yours, &c. No. XI. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, Jan. 20, 1793. You make me happy, my dear Sir, and thousands will be happy, to see the charming songs you have sent me. Many merry returns of the season to you, and may you long continue among the sons and daughters of Caledonia, to delight them and to honour yourself. The four last songs with which you favoured me for " Auld Rob aiorris," " Duncan Gray," " Gala Watei'," and " Cauld Kail," are admirable. Duncan is indeed a lad of grace, and his humour will endear him to every body. The distracted lover in " Auld Rob," and the happy shepherdess in " Gala Water," exhibit an excellent contrast : they speak from genuine feeling, and power- fully touch the heart. The number of songs v/hich I had qi'iginally in view was limited, but I now resolve to inclu^fe every Scotch air and song worth singing ; leaving nonetbehind but mere gleanings, to Avhich the publishers of omne gatherum are welcome. I would rather be the editor of a collection from which nothing could be taken away, than of one to which nothing could be added. We intend presenting the subscribers with two beautiful stroke engravings, the one characteristic of the plaintive, and the other of the lively songs ; and I have Dr Beattie's promise of an essay upon the subject of our national music, if his health will permit him to write it. As a number of our songs have doubtless been called forth by particular events, or by the charms of peerless damsels, there must be many curious anecdotes relating to them. The late Mr Tytler of Woodhouselee, I believe, knew more of this than any body ; for he joined to the pursuits of an antiquary a taste for poetry, besides being a man of the world, and possessing an enthusiasm for music beyond most of his contemporaries. He was quite pleased with this plan of mine, for I may say it has been solely managed by me, and we had several long conversations about it when it was in cnibi'} o. If I could sunply mention the name of the heroine of each song, and the incident which occasioned the verses, it would be gratifying. Pray, will you send me any in- formation of this sort, as well with regard to yoi^r own songs as the old ones ? ^ To all the favourite songs of the plaintive or pastoral kind, will be joined the deHcate accompaniments, &c., of Pleyel. To those of the comic and humorous class, I thuik accompaniments scarcely necessary ; they are chiefly fitted for the conviviality of the festive board, and a tuneful voice, with a proper delivery of the words, renders them perfect. Nevertheless, to these I propose adding bass accompaniments, because then they are fitted either for singing, or for instrumental perform- ance, when there happens to be no singer. I mean to employ our right trusty friend Mr Clarke to set the bass to these, which he assures me he will do con amore^ and with much greater attention than he ever bestowed on any thing of the kind. But for this last class of airs I will not attempt to find more than one set of vei'ses. That eccentric bard, Peter Pindar, has started I know not how many difficulties about writing for the airs I sent to him, because of the peculiarity of their measure, and the trammels they oppose on his flying Pegasus. I subjoin, for your perusal, the only one I have yet got from him, being for the fine air, " Lord Gregoi'y." The Scots verses printed Avith that air are taken from the middle of an old ballad, called " The Lass of Lochroyan," which I do not admire. I have set down the air, therefore, as a creditor of yours. Many of the jacobite songs are replete with wit and . i humour — might not the best of these be included in our \ I volume of comic songs ? \ I POSTSCRIPT. 1 1 FROM THE HON. ANDREW ERSKINE.* Mr Thomson has been so obliging as to give me a perusal of your songs. " Highland Mai'y" is most enchantingly pathetic, and " Duncan Gray" possesses native genuine humour — " Spak o' lowpin' o'er a linn," is a line of itself that should make you immortal. I sometimes hear of you from our mutual friend Cun- nmgham, who is a most excellent fellow, and possesses, above all men I know, the charm of a most obHging disposition. You kindly promised me, about a year j ago, a collection of your unpublished productions, reli- j gious and amorous. I know, from experience, how : irksome it is to copy. If you will get any trusty person i in Dumfries to write them over fair, I will give Peter j Hill whatever money he asks for his trouble, and I i certainly shall not betray your confidence." I am your 'i hearty admirer, Andrew Ebskine. No. XII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. IQth January, 1793. I APPROVE greatly, my dear Sir, of your plans. Dr Beattie's essay will, of itself, be a treasure. On my part I mean to draw up an appendix to the Doctor's essay, containing my stock of anecdotes, &c., of our- Scots songs. All the late Mr Ty tier's anecdotes I have by me, taken down in the course of my acquaintance with him, from his own mouth. I am such an enthu- siast, that in the course of my several peregrinations, tlu'ough Scotland, I made a pilgrimage to the individual spot from which evei'y song took its rise, " Lochaber,"^ and the " Braes of Ballenden," excepted. So far as the locality, either from the title of the aii", or the tenor of the song, could be ascei*tained, I have paid my devotions at the particular shrine of every Scots muse. I do not doubt but you might make a very valuable * [Third son of Alexander, fifth Earl of Kellie, by -Janet, daugh- ter of the celebrated physician and wit, Dr Pitcairn. Mr Erskino was a v>'it and a poet, and the author in part of a curious and rare volume, entitled " Letters between the Hon. Andrew Erokine and James Boswell, Esq. London, 17()3 " — an amusing specimen of youthful frolic and vivacity. Mr Eddied ia llOo.} . CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 97 collection of jacobito songs ; but would it give no offence i In the meantime, do not you think that some of tliem, particularly " The sow's tail to Geordie," as an air, with other words, might be well worth a place in your collection of hvely songs ? If it were possible to procure songs of merit, it would be proper to have one set of Scots words to every air, and that the set of words to which the notes ought to be set. There is a naivete, a pastoral simplicity, in a slight interadxture of Scots words and phraseology, which is more in unison (at least to my taste, and, I will add, to every genuine Caledonian taste) with the simple pathos, or rustic sprightliness of our native music, than any English verses whatever. The very name of Peter Pindar is an acquisition to your work.* His " Gregory*' is beautiiul. I have tried to give you a set of stanzas in Scots, on the same subject, wliicii are at your service. Not that I intend to enter the lists vdih Peter — that would be presimip- tion indeed. My song, though much inferior in poetic merit, has, I think, more of the ballad simplicity in it. [Here follows " Lord Gregorj-," as inserted in the Poetical Works, p. lia] No. XIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. 20thJ]rarck, 1793. My dear Sir — The song prefixed [" Mary ilorison"] is one of my juvenile works. I leave it in your hands. I do not think it very remarkable, either for its merits or demerits. It is impossible (at least I feel it so in my stinted powers) to be always original, entertaining, and ^dtty. What is become of the list, &c., of your songs ? I shall be out of all temper with you by and bye. I have always looked on myself as the prince of indolent cor- respondents, and valued myself accordin^y ; and I wiU not, can not, bear rivalship from you, nor a^y body else. No. XIY. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. March, 1793. WANDERING WILLIE. Here awa, there awa, wandering Wilhe, Now tired v.-ith wandering, baud awa harae ; Come to my bosom, my ae only dearie. And teU me thou bring'st me my Willie the same. Loud blew the catdd %vinter ^vinds at our pai-tiug ; It was na the blast brought the tear in my ee : Now welcome the simmer, and welcome my Willie, The simmer to nature, my WilHe to me. Ye hurricanes, rest in the cave o' your slumbers ! ' Oh how your Wild horrors a lover alarms ! Awaken, ye breezes ! blow gently, ye billows ! And waft my dear laddie ance mair to my arms. * The song of Dr Wolcot (Peter Pindar), on the same subject, is as follows : — " Ah oi)e. Lord Gregorj", thy door ! A midnight wanderer sighs ; Hard rush the rains, the tempests roai". And lightnings cleave the sides." " Who comes with woe at this drear night— A pilgrim of the gloom ? If she whose love did once delight, r.Iy cot shall yield her room." " Alas ! thou heard'st a pilgrim mourn. That once was priz'd by thee : Think of the ring by yonder biu-n Thou gav'st to love and me. But should'st thou not poor 3Iarion know, m turn my feet and part ; And think the storms that round me blow. Far kinder than thy heart." It is but doing justice to Dr "Wolcot to mention, that his song is the original. Mr Burns saw it, liked it, and immediately wrote the other on the same subject, which is derived from the old Scottish ballad of uncertain origin.— Cur.r.iK, G But if he's forgotten his faithfuUest Nannie, Oh still How between us, thou wide-roaring main ; May I never see it, may I never trow it. But, dj-ing, beUeve that my Willie's my ain ! I leave it to you, my dear Sir, to determine whether the above, or the old " Thro' the lang muir,"* be the best. [The two next letters of Bums to Mr Thomson, as published by Dr Currie, consist only of the two songs, " Oh open the door to me, O 1" and " Jessie," for which see Poetical Works, p. 120.] No. XY. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, 2d April, 1793. I WILL not recognise the title you give yourself, "'the prince of indolent correspondents;" but if the adjective were taken away, I think the title would then fit you exactly. It gives me pleasure to find you can furnish anecdotes with respect to most of the songs : these \\t11 be a hterary curiosity. I now send you my list of the songs, which I believe will be found nearly complete. I have put do^\-n the first lines of all the English songs v.hicli I propose giving in addition to the Scotcli verses. If any others occur to you, better adapted to the character of the airs, pray mention them, when you favour me with your strictures upon every thing else relating to the work. Pleyel has lately sent me a number of the songs, with his s\-mphonies and accompaniments added to tliem. I wish you were here, that I might serve up some of them to you with your own verses, by way of dessert after dinner. There is so much delightful fancy in the SATnphonies, and such a delicate simplicity in the accompaniments — they are indeed beyond all praise. I am very much pleased with the several last pro- ductions of your muse : your '■' Lord Gregory," in my estimation, is more interesting than Peter's, beautiful as his is. Your " Here awa, Willie," must undergo some alterations to suit the air. Mr Erskine and I have been conning it over ; he will suggest what is necessary to make them a fit match.f The gentleman I have mentioned, whose fine taste * [An old song, commencing with the two following stanzas :— Here awa, there awa, here awa, Willie, Here awa, there awa, here awa hame ; Lang have I sought thee, dear have I bought thee, Xow I hae gotten my WtUie again. Through the lang muir I have followed my Willie, Through the lang muir I have followed him hame, "VMiatever betide us, nought shall divide us. Love now rewards all mj' sorrow and lain.] t " AVandering Willie," as altered by Sir Erskine and 3Ir Thomson. Here awa, there awa, wandering Willie, Here awa, there awa, baud awa hame ; Come to my bosom, my ain only dearie. Tell me thou bring'st me my WDIie the same. Winter winds blew loud and caul' at our parting, Fears for my Willie brought tears in my ee ; Welcome now simmer, and welcome my Willie, As simmer to nature, so "VTillie to me. Rest, ye wild storms, in the cave o' your slumbers, How your dread howling a lover alarms ! Blow soft, ye breezes ! roll gently, ye billows ! And waft my dear laddie ance mair to my arms. But oh, if he's faithless, and minds na his Xannie, Flow still betvreen us, thou dark-hea\lng main ! 3Iay I never see ir, may I never trow it, TSTiile, dying, I think that my WUlie's my ain. Our poet, with his usual judgment, adopted some of these al- terations, and rejected others. The last edition is as follows : — Here awa, there awa, wandering Willie, Here awa, there awa, baud awa hame ; Come to my bosom, my ain only dearie. Tell me thou bxing'st me my WUUe the samo. BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. you are no stranger to, is so well pleased, both with the musical and poetical part of our work, that he has volunteered his assistance, and has already written four songs for it, which, by his own desire, I send for your [The next communication of Burns to Mr Thomson, marked No. XVni. in Currie's publication of their correspondence, con- sisted merely of the songs, " The Soldier's Return," and " Meg o' the Mill," respectively to be foimd at pp. 118 and 120 of the ac- companying edition of Burns's Poetical Works.} No. XVI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. 7th April, 1793. Thank you, my dear Sir, for your packet. You cannot imagine how much this business of composing for your publication has added to my enjoyments. What with my early attachment to ballads, your book, &c., ballad-making is now as completely my hobby-horse as ever fortification was Uncle Toby's ; so I'U e'en canter it away till I come to the Hmit of my race — God grant that I may take the right side of the winning post ! — and then cheerfully looking back on the honest folks with whom I have been happy, I shall say or sing, ** Sae merry as we a' hae been ! " and, raising my last looks to the whole human race, the last words of the voice of " Coila"* shall be, " Good night, and joy be wi' you a' ! " So much for my last words : now for a few present remarks, as they have occurred at random, on looking over your list. The first Hues of " The last time I came ^o'er the moor," and several other hues in it, are beautiful ; but, in my opinion — pardon me, revered shade of Ramsay ! — the song is unworthy of the divine air. I shall try to make or mend. " For ever, fortune, wilt thou prove," is a charming song ; but " Logan burn and Logan braes" is sweetly susceptible of rural imagery: I'll try that likewise, and, if I succeed, the other song may class among the English ones. I remember the two last lines of a verse in some of the old songs of " Logan Water" (for I know a good many different ones) which I think pretty : — Now my dear lad maun face his faes. Far, far frae me and Logan braes. " My Patie is a lover gay," is unequal. "His mind is never muddy," is a muddy expression indeed. Then I'll resign and marry Pate, And syne my cockernony — This is surely far unworthy of Ramsay, or your book. Winter winds blew loud and cauld at our parting. Fears for my Willie brought tears in my ee ; Welcome now simmer, and welcome my WUlie, The simmer to nature, my Willie to me. Rest, ye wild storms, in the cave of your slumbers How your dread howling a lover alarms ! Wauken, ye breezes ! row gently, ye billows ! And waft my dear laddie ance mair to my arms. But oh, if he's faithless, and minds na his Nannie, Flow still between us, thou wide-roaring main ! May I never see it, may I never trow it. But, dying, believe that my Willie's my ain. Several of the alterations seem to be of little importance in themselves, and were adopted, it may be presumed, for the sake of suiting the words better to the music. The Homeric epithet for the sea, dark-heaving, suggested by Mr Erskine, is in itself more beautiful, as well perhaps as more sublime, than wide-roar- ing, which he has retained, but as it is only applicable to a placid state of the sea, or, at most, to the swell left on its surface after the storm is over, it gives a picture of that element not so well adapted to the ideas of eternal separation, which the fair mourner is supposed to imprecate. From the original song of ' ' Here awa, Willie," Burns has borrowed nothing but the second line and part of the first. The superior excellence of this beautiful poem v/ill, it is hoped, justify the different editions of it which we have given.— CuRRiE. * Burns here calls himself the " Voice of Coila," in imitation of Ossian, who denominates himself the " Voice of Cona." " Sae merry as we a' hae been !" and " Good night, and joy be wi' you a'!" are the names of two Scottish tunes.— CuBras. My song, " Rigs of barley," to the same tune, does not altogether please me ; but if I can mend it, and thrash a few loose sentiments out of it, I will submit it to your consideration. " The lass o' Ratio's mill" is one of Ramsay's best songs; but there is one loose sentiment in it, which my much-valued friend Mr Erskine will take into his critical consideration. In Sir John Sinclair's statistical volumes, are two claims — one, I think, from Aberdeenshire, and the other from Ayrshire — for the honour of this song. The following anecdote, which I had from the present Sir WilHam Cunningham of Robertland, who had it of the late John Earl of Loudon, I can, on such authorities, believe: — ■ Allan Ramsay was residing at Loudon-castle with the then Earl, father to Earl John ; and one forenoon, riding, or walking, out together, his lordship and Allan passed a sweet romantic spot on Irvine water, still called " Ratio's mill," where a bonnie lass was "tedding hay, bareheaded on , the green." My lord. observed to Allan, that it would be a fine theme for a song. Ramsay took the hint, and, lingering behind, he composed the first sketch of it, which he produced at dinner. " One day I heard Mary say," is a fine song ; but, for consistency's sake, alter the name " Adonis." Were there ever such banns pubhshed, as a purpose of mar- riage between Adonis and Mary ! I agree with you that my song, " There's nought but care on every hand," is much superior to "Puirtith cauld." The original song, "The mill, mill, 0!" though excellent, is, on account of delicacy, inadmissible ; still I like the , title, and think a Scottish song would suit the notes ' best ; and let your chosen song, which is very pretty, follow as an English set. " The banks of the Dee" is, you know, literally " Langolee," to slow time. The song is well enough, but has some false imagery in it : for instance, And sweetly the nightingale sang from the tree. In the first place, the nightingale sings in a low bush, but never from a tree ; and in the second place, there never was a nightingale seen or heard on the banks of the Dee, or on the banks of any other I'iver in Scotland. Exotic rural imagery is always comparatively flat. If I could hit on another stanza, equal to ^' The small birds rejoice," &c., I do myself honestly avow, that I think it a superior song.* "John Anderson, my jo" — the song to this tune in Johnson's Museum, is my compositiouj and I think it not my worst : if it suit you, take it, and welcome. Your collection of sentimental and pathetic songs is, in my opinion, very complete ; but not so your comic ones. Where are " Tulloch- gorum," " Lumps o' puddin," " Tibbie Fowler," and several others, which, in my humble judgment, are well worthy of preservation ? There is also one sentimental song of mine in the Museum, which never was known out of the immediate neighbourhood, until I got it taken down from a country girl's singing. It is called " Cra- gieburn wood," and, in the opinion of Mr Clarke, is one of the sweetest Scottish songs. He is quite an enthusiast about it ; and I would take his taste in Scottish music against the taste of most connoisseurs. You are quite right in inserting the last five in your list, though they are certainly Irish. " Shepherds, I have lost my love ! " is to me a heavenly air — what would you think of a set of Scottish verses to it ? I have made one to it, a good while ago, which I think * '^' *, but m its original state it is not quite a lady's song. I enclose an altered, not amended copy for you, if you choose to set the time to it, and let the Irish verses follow.'t' * The bard did produce a second stanza of "|The Chevalier's La- ment" (to which he here alludes), worthy of the first. — Currib. t Mr Thomson, it appears, did not approve of this song, even in its altered state. It does not appear in the correspondence ; but it is probably one to be found in his MSS. beginning, Yestreen I got a pint of wine A place where body saw na Yestreen lay on this breast of mine. The gowden locks of Anna. It is highly characteristic of our bard, but the strain of sentiment does not correspond with the air to which he proposes it should, be allied,— CuRRiE. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 99 Mr Erskinc's songs are all pretty, but his " Lone vale" is divine. Yours, &c. Let me know just how you like these random hints. No. XVII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, April, 1793. I REJOICE to find, my dear Su', that ballad-making continues to be your hobby-horse. Great pity 'twould be were it otherwise. I hope you will amble it away for many a year, and "witch the world with your horsemanship." I know there are a good many lively songs of merit that I have not put down in the list sent you ; but I have them all in my eye. "My Patie is a lover gay," though a Uttle imequal, is a natural and very pleasing song, and I humbly think we ought not to displace or alter it, except the last stanza.*' No. XVIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON April, 1793. I HAVE yours, my dear Sir, this moment. I shall answer it and your former letter, in my desultory way of saying whatever comes uppex'most. The business of many of our tunes wanting, at the beginning, what fiddlers call. a starting-note, is often a rub to us poor rhymers. " There's braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes. That wander through the blooming heather," you may alter to " Braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes, Ye wander," &c. My song, " Here awa, there awa," as amended by Mr Erskine, I entirely approve of, and return you.+ Give me leave to criticise your taste in the only thing in which it is, in my opinion, reprehensible. You know I ought to know something of my own trade. Of pathos, sentiment, and point, you are a complete judge ; but there is a quality more necessary than either in a song, and which is the very essence of a ballad — I mean simpHcity : now, if I mistake not, this last feature you are a little apt to sacrifice to the foregoing. Ramsay, as every other poet, has not been always equally happy in his pieces ; still I cannot approve of taking such liberties with an author as Mr W. proposes doing with " The last time I came o'er the moor." Let a poet, if he chooses, take up the idea of another, and work it mto a piece of his own ; but to mangle the works of the poor bard, whose tuneful tongue is now mute for ever, in the dark and narrow house — by Heaven, 'twould be sacrilege ! I grant that Mr W.'s version is an improvement ; but I know Mr W. well, and esteem him much ; let him mend the song, as the Highlander mended his gun — he gave it a new stock, a new lock, and a new barrel. I do not, by this, object to leaving out unproper fetanzas, where that can be done without spoiling the whole. One stanza in " The lass o' Patie's mill " must be left out : the song will be nothing worse for it. I am not sure if we can take the same liberty with " Com rigs are bonnie." Perhaps it might want the last stanza, and be the better for it, " Cauld kail in Aberdeen," you must leave with me yet a while. I have vowed to have a song to that air, on the lady whom I attempted to celebrate in the verses, " Puirtith cauld and restless love." At any rate, my other song, " Green grow the rashes," will never suit, That song is current in Scot- land under the old title, and to the merry old tune of that name, which, of course, would mar the progress of * The original letter from Mr ThotQSOn contains many obser- vations on the Scottish songs, and on the maimer of adapting the words to the music, which, at his desire, are suppressed. The subseqiient letter of Mr Bums refers to several of these observa- tions.— Cubrie. + The reader has already seen that Burns did not finally adopt all of Mr Erskine'a alterations.— Cux^uii;. your song to celebrity. Your book will be the standard of Sc(rts songs for the future : let this idea ever keep your judgment on the alarm. I send a song on a celebrated toast in this country, to suit " Bonnie Dimdee." I send you also a ballad to the " Mill, Mill, !"* " The last time I came o'er the moor," I would fain attempt to make a Scots song foi", and let Ramsay's be the EngHsh set. You shall hear from me soon. When you go to London on this business, can you come by Dumfries? I have still several MS. Scots airs by me, which I have picked up, mostly from the singing of country lasses. They please me vastly ; but your learned lugsf would perhaps be displeased with the very feature for which I like them. I call them simple ; you would pronounce them silly. Do you know a fine air called " Jackie Hume's Lament ?" I have a song of consider- able merit to that air. I'll enclose you both the song and tune, as I had them ready to send to Johnson's Museum.^ I send you likewise, to me, a beautiful Httle air, which I had taken down from viva voce. § Adieu, No. XIX. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. [Here the poet inserts the song, beginning " Farewell, thou streams that winding flows"— Poetical Works, p. 125.] April, 1793. Mr DEAR Sir — I had scarcely put my last letter into the post office, when I took up the subject of " The last time I came o'er the moor," and ere I slept drew the outlines of the foregoing. How far I have succeeded, I leave on this, as on every other occasion, to you to decide. I own my vanity is flattered, when you give my songs a place in your elegant and superb work ; but to be of service to the work is my first wish. As I have often told you, I do not in a single instance wish you, out of comphment to me, to inseii; any thing of mine. One liint let me give you — whatever Mr Pleyel does, let him not alter one iota of the original Scottish au's, I mean in the song department, but let oiu* national music preserve its native features. They are, I own, frequently wild and unreducible to the more modern rules ; but on that very eccentricity, perhaps, depends a great part of their effect. No. XX. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinhxrgh, 26th April, 1793. I HEARTILY thank you, my dear Sir, for your last two letters, and the songs which accompanied them. I am always both instructed and entertained by your obser- vations ; and the frankness with which you speak out your mind, is to me highly agreeable. It is very pos- sible I may not have the true idea of simphcity in composition. I confess there are several songs, of Allan Ramsay's for example, that I think silly enough, wliich another person, more conversant than I have been with country people, would perhaps call simple and natural. But the lowest scenes of simple nature wiU not please generally, if copied precisely as they are. The poet, like the painter, must select what will form an agreeable, as well as a natural picture. On this subject it were easy to enlarge ; but, at present, suffice it to say, that I consider simplicity, rightly understood, as a most essential quality in composition, and the gx'oundwork of beauty in all the arts. I will gladly * The song to the tune of " Bonnie Dundee" is that named " Jessie." The ballad to the " JMill, Jlill, O I" is that beginning, " When wild war's deadly blasts are blawn."— Cuerie. t Ears. i: The song here mentioned is that given in No. XVni., " O ken ye what Meg o' the mill has gotten ?" This song is surejy Mr Bm-ns's OAvn writing, though he does not generally praise his own songs so much.— A'ote by Mr Thomson. § The air here mentioned is that for which he wrote the ballad of " Bonnie Jean." 100 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. apnropriate your most interesting new ballad, " When wild war's deadly blast," &c. to the « Mill, Mill, O !" as well as the two other songs to their respective airs ; but the third and fourth lines of the first verse must undergo some little alteration in order to suit the music. Pleyel does not alter a single note of the songs. That would be absui'd indeed! With the airs which he introduces into the sonatas, I allow him to take such liberties as he pleases ; but that has nothing to do with the songs. P.S. I wish you would do as you proposed with your " Rigs of barley." If the loose sentiments are thrashed out of it, I will find an air for it ; but as to this there is no hurry. No. XXI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. June, 1793. When I tell you, my dear Sir, that a friend of mine, in whom I am much interested, has fallen a sacrifice to these accursed times, you will easily allow that it might unhinge me for doing any good among ballads. My own loss, as to pecuniary matters, is trifling ; but the total ruin of a much-loved friend is a loss indeed. Pardon my seeming inattention to your last commands. I cannot alter the disputed lines in the " Mill, Mill, O !"* What you think a defect, I esteem as a positive beauty ; so you see how doctors differ. I shall now, with as much alacrity as I can muster, go on with your commands. You know Frazer, the hautboy -player in Edinbui'gh — ^lie is here, instructing a band of music for a fencible corps quartered in this county. Among many of his airs that please me, there is one, well known as a reel, by the name of " The Quaker's Wife ;" and which, I remember, a grand-aunt of mine used to sing, by the name of " Liggeram Cosh, my bonnie wee lass." Mr Frazer plays it slow, and with an expression that quite charms me. I became such an enthusiast about it, that I made a song for it, which I here subjoin, and enclose Frazer's set of the tune. If they hit your fancy, they are at your service ; if not, return me the tune, and I will put it in Johnson's Museum. I think the song is not in my worst manner. [Here Bums inserts the song " Blytlie hae I been on yon hill," for which see Poetical Works, p. 119.] I should wish to hear how this pleases you. No. XXII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. June 25th, 1793. Have you ever, my dear Sir, felt your bosom ready to burst with indignation, on reading of those mighty villains who divide kingdom against kingdom, desolate provinces, and lay nations waste, out of the wantonness of ambition, or often from still more ignoble passions ? In a mood of this kind to-day I recollected the air of "Logan Water," and it occurred to me that its querulous melody probably had its origin from the plaintive indig- nation of some swelling, suffering heart, fired at the tyrannic strides of some public destroyer, and over- whelmed with private distress, the consequence of a country's ruin. If I have done any thing at all like justice to ray feelings, the following song, composed in * The lines were the third and fourth :— AVi' mony a sweet babe fatherless, xVnd mony a widow mourning. As our poet had maintained a long silence, and the first number of Mr Thomson's musical work was in the press, this gentleman ventured, by Mr Erskine's advice, to substitute for them in that publication. And eyes again with pleasure boam'd That had been bleared with mourning. Thongh better suited to the music, these lines are inferior to the original. This is the only alteration adopted by Mr Thomson, which Burns did not approve, or at least assent to.— Cukiuk. 1 111 , si three-quarters of an hour's meditation in my elbow- chair, ought to have some merit : — [Here is inserted the song, " Logan Braes," for which see Poetical Works, p. 119.] Do you know the following beautiful little fragment, in^ Witherspoon's collection of Scots songs ? Air—" HugUe Graham:' Oh gin my love were yon red rose, That grows upon the castle wa' ; And I myseV a drap o' dew. Into her bonnie breast to fa' ! Oh there, beyond expression blest, I'd feast on beauty a' the night, Scal'd on her silk-saft faulds to rest, Till fiey'd awa by Phoebus' light ! This thought is inexpressibly beautiful ; and quite, so far as I know, original. It is too short for a song, else 1 would forswear you altogether, unless you gave it a place. I have often tried to eke a stanza to it, but in vain. After balancing myself for a musing five minutes, on the hind-legs of my elbow-chair, I produced the following. The verses are far inferior to the foregoing, I frankly confess ; but if worthy of insertion at all, they might be first in place ; as every poet who knows any thing of his trade, will husband his best thoughts for a conclud- ing stroke. Oh were my love yon lilac fair, Wi' purple blossoms to the spring ; And I, a bird to shelter there. When weai'ied on my little wing ! How I wad mourn, when it was torn By autumn wild, and winter rude ! But I wad sing on wanton wing. When youthfu' May its bloom renewed. No. XXIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Monday, \st July, 1 793. I AM extremely sorry, my good Sir, that any thing should happen to unhinge you. The times are terribly out of tune, and when harmony will be restored, Heaven knows. The first t)ook of songs, just published, will be dis- patched to you along with this. Let me be favoured with your opinion of it, frankly and freely. I shall certainly give a place to the song you have written for the " Quaker's Wife ;" it is quite enchanting. Pray, will you return the list of songs, with such airs added to it as you think ought to be included? The business now rests entirely on myself, the gentlemen who originally agreed to join the speculation having requested to be off. No matter, a loser I cannot be. The superior excellence of the work will create a general demand for it, as soon as it is properly knov/n ; and were the sale even slower than it promises to bo, I should be somewhat compensated for my labour, by the pleasure I shall receive from the music. I cannot express how much I am obliged to you for the exquisite new songs you are sending me ; but thanks, my friend, are a poor return for what you have done — as I shall be benefited by the publication, you must suffer me to enclose a small mark of my gratitude,* and to repeat it afterwards when I find it convenient. Do not return it, for, by Heaven ! if you do, our coi'respondence is at an end ; and though this would be no loss to you, it would mar the publication, which, under your auspices, cannot fail to be respectable and interesting. Wednesday morning. I thank you for your delicate additional verses to tho old fragment, and for your excellent song to " Logan water" — Thomson's truly elegant one will follow ior the English singer. Your apostrophe to statesmen is admirable, but I am not sure if it is quite suitable to the supposed gentle character of the fair mourner -«vhc>, speaks it. * Five pounds. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 101 No. XXIV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Juhj Id, 1793. ]\Iy bear Sir— I have just finished the foUowmg ballad, and, as 1 do think it iu my best style, I send it you. Mr Clarke, who Avrote down the air from Mrs Burns's wood-uote wild, is very fond of it, and has given it a celebrity by teaching it to some young ladies of tlie first fashion here. If you do not like the air enough to give it a place in your collection, please return it. The song you may keep, as I remember it. [Here follows the song of " Bonnie Jean," inserted iu the Poetical Works, p. 119.] I have some thoughts of inserting in your index, or in my notes, the names of the fair ones, the themes of my songs. I do not mean the name at full ; but dashes or asterisms, so as ingenuity may find them out. The heroine of the foregoing is Miss M., daughter to Mr M., of D., one of yom' subscribers. I have not painted her in the rank which she holds in life, but iu the dress and character of a cottager. foretell and affirm, that your great-grand-child will hold up your volumes, and say, with honest pridu, "This so much admired selection was the work of my ancestor !" MR No. XXV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. July, 1793. I ASSURE you, my dear Sir, that you truly hurt me with your pecuniary parcel. It degrades me in my own eyes. However, to return it would savour of affectation ; but, as to any more traffic of that debtor and creditor kind, I swear, by that Honour which crowns the upright statue of Robert Burns's Integrity — on the least motion of it, I will indignantly spurn the bypast transaction, and from that moment commence entire stranger to you ! Burns's character for genero- sity of sentiment and independence of mind, will, I trust, long outlive any of his wants which the cold unfeeling ore can supply ; at least, I will take care that such a character he shall deserve. Thank you for my copy of your pubUcation. Never did my eyes behold in any musical work such elegance and correctness. Your preface, too, is admirably written, only your partiality to me has made you say too much : however, it will bind me down to double every effort in the future progress of the Avork. The following ai'e a few remarks on the songs in the list you sent me. I never copy what I write to you, so I may be often tautological, or perhaps contradictory. " The Flowers o' the Forest," is charming as a poem, and should be, and must be, set to the notes ; but, though out of your rule, the three stanzas beginning, I hae seen the smiling o' fortune beguiling, are worthy of a place, were it but to immortalise the author of them, who is an old lady of my acquaintance, and at this moment living in Edinburgh. She is a Mrs Cockburn, I forget of what place, but from Roxburgh- shire.* What a charmmg apostrophe is Oh fickle fortune, why this cruel sporting, AVhy, why torment us, poor sons of a day ! The old ballad, " I wish I were where Helen lies," is silly, to contemptibility. My alteration of it, in Johnson's, is not much better. Mr Pinkerton, in his, what he calls, ancient ballads (many of them notorious, though beautiful enough, forgeines), has the best set. It is full of his own interpolations — but no mattei*. In my next I will suggest to your consideration a few songs which may have escaped your hurried notice. In the meantime allow me to congratulate you now, as a brother of the quill. You have committed your cha- racter and fame, which will now be tried, for ages to come, by the illustrious jury of the Sons and Daughters OF Taste — all whom poesy can please, or music charm. Being a bard of nature, I have some pretensions to second sight; and I am warranted by the spirit to * [Katherine Rutherford of Femilee in Selkirkshire, by mar- riage 3Tr3 Patrick Cockburn. She died in 1704, ut an advanced age.] No. XXVI THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, \st August, 1793. Dear Sir — I had the pleasure of receiving your last two letters, and am happy to find you are quite pleased with the appeai-ance of the fii-st book. When you come to hear the songs sung and accompanied, you will be charmed with them. " The bonnie brucket lassie " certainly deserves bet- ter verses, and I hope you will match her. " Cauld kail in Aberdeen," " Let me in this ae night," and several of the livelier airs, wait the muse's leisure ; these are peculiarly worthy of her choice gifts ; besides, you'll notice, that iu airs of this sort the singer can always do greater justice to the poet, than in the slower airs of " The bush aboon Ti'aquah-," " Lord Gregory," and the like ; for in the manner the latter were frequently sung, you must be contented with the sound, without the sense. Indeed, both the airs and words are dis- guised by the very slow, languid, psalm-singing style in which they are too often performed ; they lose animation and expression altogether, and instead of speaking to the mind, or touching the heax't, they cloy upon the ear, and set us a-yawning ! Your ballad, " There was a lass, and she was fair," is simple and beautiful, and shall undoubtedly grace my collection. No. XXVII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. August, 1793. My dear Thomson — I hold the pen for our friend Clarke, who at present is studying the music of the spheres at my elbow. The Georgium Sidus he thinks is rather out of tune ; so, until he rectify that mattei', he cannot stoop to terrestrial affairs. He sends you six of the rondeau subjects, and if more are wanted, he says you shall have them. Confound your long stairs ! S. Clarke. No. XXVIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Augtist, 1793. Your objection, my dear Sir, to the passages in my song of " Logan Water," is right iu one instance ; but it is difficult to mend it : if I can, I will. The other passage you object to does not appear in the same light to me. I have tried my hand on " Robin Adair," and, you will probably think, with little success ; but it is such a cursed, cramp, out-of-the-way measure, that 1 despair of doing any thing better to it. [Here follows " Phillis the Fair," for which see Poetical Works, p. 120.] So much for namby-pamby. I may, after all, try my hand on it in Scots verse. There I always find myself most at home. I have just put the last hand to the song I meant for " Cauld kail in Aberdeen." If it suits you to insert it, I shall be pleased, as the heroine is a favourite of mine ; if not, I shall also be pleased; because I wish, and will be glad, to see you act decidedly on the business. 'Tis a tribute as a man of taste, and as an editor, which you owe youi'self. No. XXIX. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. August, 1793 My good Sir — I consider it one of the most agree- able cii-cumstances attending this publication of mine. 102 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. that it has procured me so many of your much- valued epistles. Pray make my acknowledgments to St Stephen for the tunes ; tell him I admit the justness of his com- plaint on my staircase, conveyed in his laconic postscript to your jeu (V esprit, which I perused more than once, without discovering exactly whether your discussion was music, astronomy, or politics ', though a sagacious friend, acquainted with the convivial habits of the poet and the musician, ofiered me a bet of two to one you were just drowning care together ; that an empty bowl was the only thing that would deeply afiFect you, and the only matter you could then study how to remedy ! I shall be glad to see you give "Robin Adair" a Scottish dress. Peter is furnishing him with £^n English suit for a change, and you are well matched together. Robin's air is excellent, though he certainly has an out-of-the-way measure as ever pooi,' Parnassian wight was plagued with. I wish you would invoke the muse for a single elegant stanza to be substituted for the concluding objectionable verses of " Down the burn Davie," so that this most exquisite song may no longer be excluded from good company. Mr Allan has made an inimitable drawing from your " John Anderson, my jo," which I am to have engraved as a frontispiece to the humorous class of songs ; you will be quite charmed with it, I promise you. The old couple are seated by the fireside. Mrs Anderson, in great good humour, is clapping John's shoulders, while lie smiles and looks at her with such glee, as to show that he fully recollects the pleasant ,days and nights when they were "first acquent." The drawing would do honour to the pencil of Teniers. No. XXX, BURNS TO MR THOMSON. August, 1793. That erinkum-cranlcum tune, " Robin Adair," has run so in my head, and I succeeded so ill in my last attempt, that I have ventured, in this morning's walk, one essay more. You, my dear Sir, will remember an unfortunate part of our worthy friend Cunningham's story, which happened about three years ago. That struck my fancy, and I endeavoured to do the idea justice as follows :■ — [Here follows " Had I a cave," inserted in Poetical Works, p. 121.] By the way, I have met with a musical Highlander in Breadalbane's Fencibles, which are quartered here, who assures me that he well remembers, his mother singing Gaelic songs to both, " Robin Adair" and "Gra- machree." They certainly have more of the Scotch than Irish taste in them. This man comes from the vicinity of Inverness : so it could not be any intercourse with Ireland that could bring them ; except, what I shrewdly suspect to be the case, the wandering minstrels, harpers, and pipers, used to go frequently errant through the wilds both of Scotland and Ireland, and so some favourite airs might be common to both. A case in point — they have lately, in Ireland, published an Irish air, as they say, called " Caun du delish." The fact is, in a publi- cation of Corri's, a great while ago, you will find the same air, called a Highland one, with a Gaelic song set to it. Its name there, I think, is " Oran Gaoil," and a fine air it is. Do ask honest Allan, or the Rev. Gaelic parson, about these matters. No. XXXI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. August, 1793. My dear Sir— *' Let me in this ae night" I will reconsider. I am glad that you are pleased with my song, " Had I a cave," &c., as I liked it myself. I walked out yesterday evening with a volume of the Museum in my hand, when, turning up " Allan Water," "What numbers shall the muse repeat," &c., as the words appeared to me rather unwoi'thy of so fine an air, and recollecting that it is on your list, I sat and raved under the shade of an old thorn, till I wrote one to suit the measure. I may be wrong ; but I thmk it not in my worst style. You must know, that in Ramsay^s Tea-table, where the modern song first appeared, the ancient name of the tune, Allan says, is " Allan Water," or "My love Annie's very bonnie." This last has certainly been a line of the origmal song ; so I took up the idea, and, as you will see, have introduced the line in its place, which I presume it formerly occupied ; though I likewise give you a choosing hue, if it should not hit the cut of your fancy : [Here follows " By Allan stream I chanced to rove," for which see Poetical Works, p. 121.] Bravo I say I ; it is a good spng. Should you think so too (not else), you can set the music to it, and let the other follow as English verses. Autumn is my propitious season. I make more verses in it than all the year else. God bless you ! No. XXXII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. August, 1793. Is " Whistle and I'll come to you, my lad," one of your airs ? I admire it much ; and yesterday I set the following verses to it. Urbani, whom I have met with here, begged them of me, as he admires the air much ; but as I understand that he looks with rather an evil eye on your work, I did not choose to comply. How- ever, if the song does not suit your taste, I may possibly send it him. The set of the air which I had in my eye is in Johnson's Museum. [Here follows " Oh whistle, and I'll come to you," inserted in Poetical Works, p. 121.] Another favourite air of mine is, " The muckin' o' Geordie's byre." When sung slow with expression, I have wished that it had had better poetry ; that I have endeavoured to supply as follows ; — [Here he gives the song " Adown winding Nith," as inserted in Poetical Works, p. 121.] Mr Clarke begs you to give Miss Phillis a comer in your book, as she is a particular flame of his. She is a Miss Phillis M'Murdo, sister to " Bonnie Jean." They are both pupils of his. You shall hear from me, the very first grist I get from my rhyming-mill. No. XXXIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. August, 1793. That tune, "Cauld kail," is such a favourite of yours, that I once more roved out yesterday for a gloamin-shot at the muses ;* when the muse that pre- sides o'er the shores of Nith, or rather my old inspiruig dearest nymph, Coila, whispered me the following. I have two reasons for thinking that it was my early, sweet simple inspirer that was by my elbow, " smooth gliding without step," and pouring the song on my glowing fancy. In the first place, since I left Coila's native haunts, not a fragment of a poet has arisen to cheer her solitary musings, by catching inspiration from her, so I more than suspect that she has followed me hither, or, at least, makes me occasional visits; secondly, the last stanza of this song I send you, is the very words that Coila taught me many years ago, and which I set to an old Scots reel in Johnson's Museum. [Here follows " Come, let me take thee:" see Poetical Works, p. 121.] If you think the above will suit your idea of your favourite air, I shall be highly pleased. " The last time I came o'er the moor" I cannot meddle with, as to mending it ; and the musical world have been so long accustomed to Ramsay's words, that a dififerent * Gloamin— twilight, prohably from glooming. A beautiful poetic word, which ought to be adopted in England. A gloamin- shot, a twilight interview.— CuRR IK. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 103 song, tlioiigli positively superior, would not be so well received. I am not fond of choruses to songs, so I have not made one for the foregoing. No. XXXIV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. August, 1793. [The poet inserts the song of " Dainty Davie," which it seems to have been the purpose of this letter to communicate. See Poe- tical Works, p. 121. Bums had previously communicated, for Johnson's Museum, a song nearly the same, the stanzas of which conclude with the awkward expression, " The gardener wi' his paidle," and to which he makes allusion in the brief prose text of this epistle.] So much for Davie. The chorus, you know, is to the low part of the tune. See Clarke's set of it in the Museum. N. B. In the Museum they have drawled out the tune to twelve lines of poetry, which is non- sense. Four lines of song, and four of chorus, is the way, . No. XXXV. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, 1st Sept. 1793. My dear Sir — Since writing you last, I have received half a dozen songs, with which I am delighted beyond expression. The humour and fancy of " Whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad," will render it nearly as great a favourite as " Duncan Gray." " Come, let me take thee to my breast," " Adown winding Nith," and "By Allan stream," &c., are full of imagination and feeling, and sweetly suit the airs for which they are intended. " Had I a cave on some wild distant shore," is a striking and affecting composition. Our friend to whose story it refers, reads it with a swelling heart, I assure you. The union we are now forming, I think, can never be broken ; these songs of yours will descend, with the music, to the latest posterity, and will be fondly cherished so long as genius, taste, and sensibility, exist in our island. While the muse seems so propitious, I think it right to enclose a list of all the favours I have to ask of her — no fewer than twenty and three ! I have burdened the pleasant Peter with as many as it is probable he will attend to : most of the remaining airs would puzzle the 'English poet not a little — they are of that peculiar measure and rhythm, that they must be familiar to him who writes for them. No. XXXVI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Sept. 1793. You may readily trust, my dear Sir, that any exer- tion in my power is heartily at your service. But one thing I must hint to you; the very name of Peter Pindar is of great service to your publication, so get a verse from him now and then ; though I have no objec- tion, as well as I can, to bear the burden of the business. You Ivnow that my pretensions to musical taste are merely a few 6f nature's instincts, untaught and untu- tored by art. For this reason, many musical composi- tions, particularly where much of the merit lies in counterpoint, however they may transport and ravish the ears of you connoisseurs, affect my simple lug no otherwise than merely as melodious din. On the other hand, by way of amends, I am dehghted with many little melodies, which the learned musician despises as silly and insipid. I do not know whether the old air " Hey tuttie taitie," may rank among this number ; but well I know that, with Frazer's hautboy, it has often filled my eyes with tears. There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places in Scotland, that it was Robert Bruce's march at the battle of Bannockburn. This thought, in my solitary wanderings, warmed me to a pitch of enthusiasm on the tlieme of liberty and independence, which I threw into a kind of Scottish ode, fitted to the air, that one might suppose to be the gallant Royal Scot's address to his heroic followers on that eventful moi'ning. BRUCE TO HIS MEN AT BANNOCKBURN., Tune — He^ tuttie taitie. Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, Welcome to your gory bed, Or to victory ! Now's the day, and now's the hour : See the front o' battle lour : See approach proud Edward's power— => Chains and slavery Wha will be a traitor-knave ? Wha can fill a coward's grave ? Wha sae base as be a slave ? Let him turn and flee ! Wha for Scotland's king and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or freeman fa'. Let him follow me ! By oppression's woes and pains By your sons in servile chains ! We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free ! Lay the proud usurpers low ! Tyrants fall in every foe ! Liberty's in every blow ! — Let us do or die ! ^ So may God ever defend the cause of truth and liberty, as he did that day ! Amen. P. S. I showed the air to Urbani, who was highly pleased with it, and begged me to make soft verses for it,; but I had no idea of giving myself any trouble on the subject, till the accidental recollection of that glorious struggle for freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient, roused my rhjoning mania. Clarke's set of the tune, with his bass, you will find in the Museum, though I am afraid that the air is not what will entitle it to a place in your elegant selection. No. XXXVIL BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Sept. 793. I DARE say, my dear Sir, that you will begin to think my correspondence is persecution. No matter, I can't help it; a ballad is my hobby-horse, which, though otherwise a simple sort of harmless idiotical beast enough, has yet this blessed headstrong property, that when once it has fairly made off with a hapless wight, it gets so enamoured with the tinkle-gingle, tinlde-gingle of its own bells, that it is sure to run poor pilgarlick, the bedlam jockey, quite beyond any useful point or post in the common race of men. The following song I have composed for ^^Oran-gaoil," the Highland air that, you tell me in your last, you have resolved to give a place to in your book. I have this moment finished the song, so you have it glowing from the mint. If it suit you, well ! — If not, 'tis also well! [Here follows "Behold the hour," inserted in Poetical Works, p. 122.] No. XXXVIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, 5th Sept. 1793. I BELIEVE it is generally allowed that the greatest modesty is the sure attendant of the greatest merit. While you are sending me verses that even Shakspeare might be proud to own, you speak of them as if they 104 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. ^ were ordinary productions ! Your heroic ode is to me the noblest composition of the kind in the Scottisli language. I happened to dine yesterday with a party of your friends, to whom I read it. They were all charmed with it ; entreated me to find out a suitable air for it, and reprobated the idea of giving it a tune so totally devoid of interest or grandeur as " Hey tuttie taitie." Assuredly your partiality for this tune must arise from the ideas associated in your mind by the tradition concerning it, for I never heard any person, and I have conversed again and again with the greatest enthusiasts for Scottish airs — I say, I never heard any one speak of it as worthy of notice. I have been running over the whole hundred airs, of which I lately sent you the list ; and I think " Lewie Gordon " is most happily adapted to your ode ; at least with a very slight variation of the fom-th line, which I shall presently submit to you. There is in "Lewie Gordon " more of the grand than the plaintive, parti- cularly when it is sung with a degree of spirit, which your words would oblige the singer to give it. I would have no scruple about substituting your ode in the room of " Lewie Gordon," which has neither the inte- rest, the grandeur, nor the poetry, that characterise your verses. Now, the variation I have to suggest upon the last line of each verse, the only line too short for the air, is as follows : — Verse 1st, Or to glorious victory. 2d, Chains — chains and slavery. 3d, Let him, let Mm turn and flee. 4th, Let him bravely follow me. 5th, But they shall, they shall be free. 6th, Let us, let us do or die ! If you connect each line with its own verse, I do not think you will find that either the sentiment or the expression loses any of its energy. Theonly line which I dislike in the wliole of the song is, " Welcome to your gory bed." Would not another word be preferable to *' welcome ?" In your next I will expect to be informed whether you agree to what I have proposed. The little alterations I submit with the greatest deference. The beauty of the verses you have made for " Oran- gaoil " will ensure celebrity to the air. No. XXXIX. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Sept. 17C3. I HAVE received your hst, my dear Sir, and here go my observations on it.* " Down the burn Davie." I have this moment tried an alteration, leaving out the last half of the third stanza, and the first half of the last stanza, thus : As down the burn they took their way, And thro' the flowery dale ; His cheek to hers he aft did lay, And love was aye the tale. With " Mary, when shall Ave return, Sic pleasure to renew ?" Quoth Mary, " Love, I like the burn. And aye shall follow you."f " Thro' the wood laddie" — I am decidedly of opinion that both in this, and " There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame," the second or high part of the tune being a repetition of the first part an octave higher, is only for instrumental music, and would be much better omitted in singing. " Cowden-knowes." Remember in your index that the song in pure English to this tune, beginning, When summer comes, the swains on Tweed, * Mr Thomson's list of songs for his publication. In his re- marks the bard proceeds in order, and goes througli the whole ; but on many of them he merely signifies his approbation. All his remarks of any importance are presented to the reader.— CURRIB. t This alteration Mr Thomson has adopted (or at least intended to adopt), instead of the last stanza of the original song, which is objectionable in point of delicacy.— CuRurR, is the production of Crawford. Robert was liis Chris* tian name. " Laddie, lie near me," must lie by me for some time. I do not know the air ; and until I am complete master of a tune, in my own singing (such as it is,) I can never compose for it. My way is : I consider the poetic sen- timent coi-respondent to my idea of the musical expres- sion ; then choose my theme ; begin one stanza : when that is composed, which is genei-ally the most difficult part of the business, I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison and harmony with the cogitations of my fancy, and workings of my bosom ; humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. When I feel my muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fire-side of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper ; swinging at intervals on the hind-legs of my elbow-chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures as my pen goes on. Seriously, this, at home, is almost invariably my way. What cui'sed egotism ! " Gill IMorice " I am for leaving out. It is a plaguy length ; the air itself is never sung ; and its place can well be supplied by one or two songs for fine airs that are not in your list — for instance, "Craigieburn wood" and " Roy's wife." The first, beside its intrinsic merit, has novelty ; and the last has high merit, as well as great celebrity. I have the original words of a song for the last air, in the handwriting of the lady Avho com- posed it ; and they are superior to any edition of the song which the public has yet seen. " Highland-laddie." The old set will please a mere Scotch ear best ; and the new an Italianised one. There is a third, and what Oswald calls the old " Highland laddie," which pleases me more than either of them. It is sometimes called "Ginglin Johnnie ;" it being the air of an old humorous tawdry song of that name. You will find it in the Museum, " I hae been at Crooldeden," &c. I would advise you, in this musical quandary, to offer up your pi"ayers to the muses for inspiring direc- tion ; and in the meantime, waiting for this direction, bestow a libation to Bacchus ; and there is not a doubt but you will hit on a judicious choice. Probatum est. " Auld Sir Simon" I must beg you to leave out, and put in its place " The Quaker's wife." " Blythe hae I been o'er the hill," is one of the finest songs ever I made in my life, and, besides, is composed on a young lady, positively the most beautiful, lovely woman in the world. As I purpose giving you the names and designations of all my heroines, to appear in some future edition of your work, perhaps half a centui-y hence, you must certainly include " The bonniest lass in a' the warld," in your collection. " Dainty Davie" I have heard sung nineteen thou- sand nine hundred and ninety-nine times, and always with the chorus to the low part of the tune ; and nothing has surprised me so much as your opinion on this subject. If it will not suit as I proposed, we will lay two of the stanzas together*, and then make the chorus follow. " Fee him, father :" I enclose you Frazer's set of this tune when he plays it slow : in fact, he makes it the language of despair. I shall here give you two stanzas, in that style, merely to try if it will be any improvement.* Were it possible, in singing, to give it half the pathos which Frazer gives it in playing, it would make an admirably pathetic song. I do not give these verses for any merit they have. I composed them at the time in which " Patie Allan's mither died — that was, about the back o' midnight ;" and by the lee-side of a bowl of punch, which had overset every mortal in company except the hautbois and the muse. [Here follows " Thou hast left me ever," inserted in Poetical Works, p. 122.] "Jackie and Jenny" I would discard, and in its place * [It is very surprising that Burns should have thouglit it ne- cessary to substitute new verses for the old song to this air, which is one of the most exquisite effusions of genuine natural sentiment in the whole range of Scottish lyrical poetry. Its merit is now fiiUy appreciated, while Uurnij's substitute song is never sung.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 105 would put " There's nae luck about the house," which has a very pleasant air, and wliich is positively the finest love-ballad in that style in the Scottish, or perhaps in any other language, " When she came ben she bobbit," as an air, is more beautiful than either, and in the andante way would unite with a charming senti- mental ballad. " Saw ye my father ? " is one of my greatest favour- ites. The evening before last, I wandered out, and began a tender song, in Avhat I think is its native style. I must premise, that the old way, and the way to give most efiect, is to have no stai-ting-note, as the fiddlers call it, but to burst at once into the pathos. Every country girl sings " Saw ye my father ?" &c. My song is but just begun ; and I should lilce, before I proceed, to know your opinion of it. I have sprinkled it with the Scottish dialect, but it may be easily turned into cox'rect English.* " TodHn hame." Urbani mentioned an idea of his, which has long been mine, that this air is Mghly sus- ceptible of pathos : accordingly, you -\\\\\ soon hear him at your concert tiy it to a song of mine in the jMuseum, " Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon." One song more, and I have done ; " Auld lang syne." The air is but mediocre ; but the following song, the old song of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man's singing, is enough to recommend any air. [Here the poet gives " Auld lang syne,'" as printed in the Poe- tical Works, p. 122, and which, it is needless to observe, was his own composition.] No^^', I suppose, I have tired your patience fairly. You must, after all is over, have a number of ballads, properly so called. "Gill Morice," " Tranent Muh-," " i\lacpherson's farewell," " Battle of Sheriff-muir," or, " We ran, and they ran" (I know the author of this charming ballad, and his history), " Hardiknute," " Barbara Allan" (I can furnish a finer set of this tune than any that has yet appeared) ; and besides do you know that I really have the old tune to which " The cherry and the slae " was sung, and which is mentioned as a well-known air in " Scotland's Complaint," a book published before poor Mary's days ? It was then called, " The banks o' Helicon ;" an old poem which Pinkerton has brought to light. You will see all this in Tytler's Histoi-y of Scottish Music. The tune, to a learned ear, may have no great merit ; but it is a great curiosity. I liave a good many original things of this kind. No. XL. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Septevrber, 1793. I AM happy, my dear Sir, that my ode pleases you so much. Your idea, "honour's bed," is, though a beau- tiful, a hackneyed idea ; so, if you please, we will let the line stand as it is. I have altered the song as follows : — BANNOCKBURN. ROBERT BRUCE's ADDRESS TO HIS AR:MY. Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, Scots, wham Bruce has aften led, ^"elcome to your gory bed ! Or to glorious victory ! Now's the day, and now's the hour ; See the front o' battle lour ; See approach proud Edward's power — Edward ! chains and slaver-y Wha will be a traitor knave? Wha can fill a coward's gi-ave ? Wha sae base as be a slave ? Traitor ! coward ! turn, and flee ! * [The song here alluded to is one which the poet afterwards sent in an entire form. It begins, Y^Tiere are the joys I hae met in the morning. Here also Burns has completely failed to supplant the old song.} Wha for Scotland's king and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Freeman stand, or freeman fa', • Sodger ! hero ! on wi' me ! By oppression's woes and pains ! By your sons in servile chains ! We will drain our dearest veins. But they shall be — shall be free ! Lay the proud usurpers low ! T}Tants fall in every foe ! Liberty's in every blow ! Forward ! let us do or die ! N. B. I have borrowed the last stanza from the common stall edition of Wallace — A false usurper sinks in every foe. And liberty returns with every blow. A couplet worthy of Homer. Yesterday you had enough of my correspondence. The post goes, and my head aches miserably. One comfoi't ! I suffer so much, just now, in this world, for last night's joviality, that I shall escape scot-free for it in the world to come. Amen. No. XLI. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. \2th September, 1793. A THOUSAND thanks to you, my dear Sir, for your observations on the list of my songs. I am happy to find your ideas so much in unison with my own, re- specting the generality of the airs, as well as the verses. About some of them ^\e diffei", but there is no disputing about hobby-horses. I shall not fail to profit by the remax'ks you make, and to re-consider the whole with attention. " Dainty Davie" must be sung, two stanzas together, and then the chorus: 'tis the proper way. I agree witii you, that there may be something of pathos, or tenderness at least, in the air of " Fee him, father," when performed with feeling : but a tender cast may be given almost to any lively air, if you sing it very slowly, expressively, and with serious words. I am, however, clearly and invariably for retaining the cheer- ful tunes joined to their own humorous verses, wher- ever the vei'ses are passable. But the sweet song for " Fee him, father," which you began about the back of midnight, I will publish as an additional one. Mr James Balfour, tlie king of good fellows, and the best smger of the lively Scottish ballads that ever existed, has charmed thousands of companies with " Fee him, father," and Avith " Todlin hame" also, to the old words, which never should be disunited from either of these airs. Some bacchanals I would wish to discard. " Fy ! let's a' to the bridal," for instance, is so coarse and vulgar, that I think it fit only to be sung in a company of drunken colliers ; and " Saw ye my father ?" appears to me both indelicate and silly. One word more with regard to your heroic ode. I think, with great deference to the poet, that a prudent general would avoid saying any thing to his soldiers which might tend to make death more frightful than it is. " Gory " presents a disagreeable image to the mind ; and to tell them " Welcome to your gory bed," seems rather a discouraging address, notwithstanding the alternative which follows. I have shown the song to three friends of excellent taste, and each of them objected to this line, which emboldens me to use the freedom of bringing it again under your notice. I would suggest, Now prepare for honour's bed. Or for glorious victory ! No. XLII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. September, 1793. " Who shall decide when doctors disagree ?" My nde pleases me so much that I cannot alter it. Your 106- BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. proposed alterations would, in my opinion, make it tame. I am exceedingly obliged to you for putting me on reconsidering it, as I think I have much improved it. Instead of " sodger ! hero 1" I will have it " Cale- donian ! on wi* me !" I have scrutinised it over and over ; and to the world, some way or other, it shall go as it is. At the same time it will not in the least hurt me, should you le"ave it out altogether, and adhere to your first intention of adopting Logan's verses.* I have finished my song to "Saw ye my father ?"» and in English, as you will see. That there is a syllable too much for the expression of the air, is true ; but, allow me to say, that the mere dividing of a dotted crotchet into a crotchet and a quaver, is not a great matter : however, in that I have no pretensions to cope in judgment with you. Of the poetry I speak with coirfidence ; but the music is a business where I hint my ideas with the utmost diffidence. The old verses have merit, though unequal, and are popular : my advice is to set the air to the old words, and let mine follow as English verses. Here they are: — [Follows the song " Where are the joys," inserted in Poetical Works, p. 122.] Adieu, my dear Sir ! the post goes, so I shall defer some other remarks until more leisure. No. XLIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. September, 1793. I HAVE been turning over some volumes of songs, to find verses whose measures would suit the airs for which you have allotted me to find English songs. * Mr Thomson has very properly adopted this song (if it may be so called) as the bard presented it to him. He has attached it to the air of " Lewie Gordon," and perhaps among the exist- ing airs he could not find a better ; but the poetry is suited to a much higher strain of music, and may employ the genius of some Scottish Handel, if any such should in future arise. The reader ■nill have observed, that Burns adopted the alterations proposed by his friend and correspondent in former instances, with great readiness ; perhaps, indeed, on all indifferent occasions. In the present instance, however, he rejected them, though repeatedly urged, with determined resolution. With every respect for the judgment of Mr Thomson and his friends, we may be satisfied that he did so. He who, in preparing for an engagement, attempts to withdraw his imagination from images of death, will probably have but imperfect success, and is not fitted to stand in the ranks of battle, where the liberties of a kingdom are at issue. Of such men the conquerors of Bannockburn were not composed. Bruce'a troops were inured to war, and familiar with all its sufferings and dangers. On the eve of that memorable day, their spirits were, without doubt, wound up to a pitch of enthusiasm suited to the occasion : a pitch of enthusiasm, at which danger becomes attractive, and the most terrific forms of death are no longer terrible. Such a strain of sentiment this heroic "welcome" may be supposed well calculated to elevate— to raise their hearts high above fear, and to nerve their arms to the utmost pitch of mortal exertion. These observations might be illustrated and siipported by a reference to the martial poetry of all nations, from the spirit-stirring strains of Tyrtffius, to the war-song of General Wolfe. Mr Thomson's observation, that •' ' Welcome to your gory bed,' is a discouraging address," seems not sufficiently considered. Perhaps, indeed, it may be admitted, that the term gory is somewhat objectionable, not on account of its presenting a frightful but a disagreeable image to the mind. But a great poet, uttering his conceptions on an interesting occasion, seeks always to present a picture that is vivid, and is uniformly dis- posed to sacrifice the delicacies of taste on the altar of the ima- gination. And it is the privilege of superior genius, by producing a new association, to elevate expressions that were originally low, and thus to triumph over the deficiencies of language. In how many instances might this be exemplified from the works of our immortal Shakspeare :— Who vrovldfardels bear, To groan and sweat under a weary life — When he himself might his quietus make With a hare bodkin ? It were easy to enlarge, but to suggest such reflections is-probably eufiicient.— CuRRiE, For " Muirland Willie," you have, in Ramsay's Tea- table, an excellent song, beginning, "Ah, why those tears in Nelly's eyes ?" As for " The collier's dochter," take the following old bacchanal : — [Here follows *' Deluded swain, the pleasure," inserted in Poe- tical Works, p. 122.] The faulty line in Logan- Water, I mend thus: " How can your flinty hearts enjoy The widow's tears, the orphan's cry ? " The song otherwise will pass. As to " M'^Gregorla Rua-Ruth," you will see a song of mine to it, with a set of the air superior to yours, in the Museum, vol. ii. p. 181. The song begins, " Raving winds around her blowing." Your Irish airs are pretty, but they are downright Irish. If they were like the " Banks of Banna," for instance, though really Irish, yet in the Scottish taste, you might adopt them. Since you are so fond of Irish music, what say you to twenty-five of them in an additional number % We could easily find this quantity of charming airs ; I will take care that you shall not want songs ; and I assure you that you would find it the most saleable of the whole. If you do not approve of "Roy's wife," for the music's sake, we shall not insert it. "Deil tak the wars" is a charming song; so is, " Saw ye my Peggy?" " There's nae luck about the house" well deserves a place. I cannot say that " O'er the hills and far awa" strikes me as equal to your selection. " This is no my ain house" is a great favourite air of mine ; and if you will send me your set of it, I will task my muse to her highest eff'ort. What is your opinion of " I hae laid a herrin' in saut 1" I like it much. Your Jacobite airs are pretty, and there are many others of the same kind pretty; but you have not room for them. You cannot, I think, insert "Fy ! let's a' to the bridal," to any other words than its own. What pleases me, as simple and naive, disgusts you as ludicrous and low. Fortius reason, "Fy! gie me my coggie, Sirs," " Fy ! let's a' to the bridal," with several others of that cast, are to me highly pleasing ; while, "Saw ye my father, or saw ye my mother?" dehghts me with its descriptive simple pathos. Thus my song, " Ken ye what Meg o' the mill has gotten ?" pleases myself so much, that I cannot try my hand at another song to the air, so I shall not attempt it. I know you will laugh at all this ; but " ilka man wears his belt his ain gait." No. XLIV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. October, 1793. YotTR last letter, my dear Thomson, was indeed laden with heavy news. Alas, poor Erskine !* The recollec- tion that he was a coadjutor in your publication, has till now scared me from writing to you, or turning my thoughts on composing for you. I am pleased that you are reconciled to the air of the " Q,uaker's wife ;" though, by the bye, an old Highland gentleman, and a deep antiquarian, tells me it is a GaeHc air, and known by the name of " Leiger m' choss." The following verses, I hope, will please you, as an English song to the air. [Here follows ' ' Thine am I, my faithful faif :" Poetical Works, p. 122.] Your objection to the English song I proposed for " John Anderson, my jo," is certainly just. The fol- lowing is by an old acquaintance of mine, and I think has merit. The song was never in print, which I think is so much in your favour. The more original good poetry your collection contains, it certainly has so much the more merit. * The Honourable A. Erskine, whose melancholy death Mr Thomson had communicated in an excellent letter, which he has suppressed.— CuRRiE. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 107 eONG.— By Gavin Turnbull.* Oh condescend, dear charming maid, My Mrretched state to view ; A tender swain to love betray'd, And sad despair, by you. While here, all melancholy, My passion I deplore, Yet, xirg'd by stem resistless fate, I love thee more and more. I heard of love, and -with disdain The urchin's power denied ; I laugh'd at every lover's pain, And mock'd them when they sigh'd. But how my state is alter'd ! Those happy days are o'er ; For all thy unrelenting hate, I love thee more and more. Oh yield, illustrious beauty, yield ! No longer let me mourn ; And though victorious in the field. Thy captive do not scorn. Let generous pity warm thee, My wonted peace restore ; And, grateful, I shall bless thee still. And love thee more and more. The following address of, Turnbull's to the Nightin- gale will suit as an English song to the air, " There was a lass, and she was fair." "By the bye, TurnbuU has a great many songs in MS., which I can command, if you like his manner. Possibly, as he is an old friend of mine, I may be prejudiced in his favour ; but I like some of his pieces very much. THE NIGHTINGALE. Thou sweetest minstrel of the grove. That ever tried the plaintive strain. Awake thy tender tale of love. And soothe a poor forsaken swain. For though the muses deign to aid. And teach him smoothly to complain ; Yet Delia, charming, cruel maid, Is deaf to her forsaken swain. All day, with fashion's gaudy sons, In sport she wanders o'er the plain : Their tales approves, and still she shuns The notes of her forsaken swain. When evening shades obscure the sky. And bring the solemn hours again, Begin, sweet bird, thy melody. And soothe a poor forsaken swain. I shall just transcribe another of Tumbuil's, which would go charmingly to " Lewie Gordon." LAURA. Let me wander where I will. By shady wood, or winding riU ; Where the sweetest May-bom flowers Paint the meadows, deck the bowers ; TNTiere the linnet's early song Echoes sweet the woods among : Let me wander where I will, Laura haunts my fancy still. tf at rosy dawn I choose To indulge the smiling muse } If I court some cool retreat. To avoid the noontide heat ; If beneath the moon's pale ray. Thro' unfrequented wilds I stray; Let me wander where I will, Laura haunts my fancy still. When at night the drowsy god Waves his sleep-compelling rod. And to fancy's wakeful eyes Bids celestial visions rise ; While with boundless joy I rove Thro' the fairy land of love : Let me wander where I will, Laura haunts my fancy still. * [Gavin TumbuU was the author of a now forgotten volume, published at Glasgow in 1788, imder the title of . " Poetical Essays." Bums's over-praise of the pieces he quotes from this ** old acquaintance" must be obvious.] The rest of your letter I shall answer at some other opportunity. No. XLV. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. 7th November i 1793. My good Sir — After so long a silence, it gave mo peculiar pleasure to recognise your well-known hand, for I had begun to be apprehensive that all was not well with you. I am happy to find, however, that your silence did not proceed from that cause, and that you have got among the ballads once more. I have to thank you for your English song to " Leiger m' choss," which I think extremely good, although the colouring is warm. Your friend Mr Turnbull's songs have doubtless considerable merit; and as you have the command of his manuscripts, I hope you may find out some that will answer as English songs, to the airs yet unprovided. [The next commimication of Bums to Mr Thomson, marked No. XLIX in Currie's publication of their correspondence, merely consists of the songs, " Husband, husband, cease your strife," and " Wilt thou be my dearie ?"] No. XLVI. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, 17th April, 1794. My dear Sir — Owing to the distress of our friend for the loss of Ms child, at the time of his receiving your admirable but melancholy letter, I had not an opportunity, till lately, of perusing it.* How sorry I am to find Bums saying, " Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased ?" while he is deUghting others from one end of the island to the other. Like the hypochon- driac who went to consult a physician upon his case— " Go," says the doctor, " and see the famous Cai'lini, who keeps all Paris in good hmnour." " Alas ! Sir," replied the patient, " I am that unhappy Carlini !" Your plan for our meeting together pleases me greatly, and I trust that by some means or other it will soon take place ; but your bacchanalian challenge almost frightens me, for I am a miserable weak drinker ! Allan is much gratified by your good opinion of his talents. He has just begun a sketch from your " Cot- ter's Saturday Night," and, if it pleases himself in th'e design, he will probably etch or engrave it. In sub- jects of the pastoral and humorous land, he is, perhaps, unrivalled by any artist living. He fails a little in giving beauty and grace to his females, and his colour- ing is sombre, otherwise his paintings and drawings would be in greater request. I hke the music of the " Sutor's dochter," and will consider whether it shall be added to the last volume ; your verses to it are pretty ; but your humorous EngHsh song, to suit " Jo Janet," is inimitable. What think you of the air, " Withm a mile of Edinburgh ?" It has always struck me as a modem English imitation, but it is said to be Oswald's, and is so much liked, that I believe I must include it. The verses are little better than namby-pamby. Do you consider it worth a stanza or two ? , No. XL VII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Mai/, 1794. My dear Sir— I return you the plates, with which I am highly pleased ; I would humbly propose, instead of the younker knitting stockings, to put a stock and horn into his hands. A finend of mine^ who is positively the ablest judge on the subject I have ever met with, and though an unknown, is yet a superior artist with the burm, is quite channed with Allan's manner. I got him a peep of the " Gentle Shepherd ;" and he pronounces Allan a most original artist of great ex. cellence. * [A Letter to Mr Cnnninghara. to be found at p. 85,] 10^ BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. I For my part, I look on Mr Allan's choosing my favourite poem for liis subject, to be one of the highest compliments I have ever received. I am quite vexed at Pleyel's being cooped up in France, as it will put an entire stop to our work. Now, and for six or seven months, I shall be quite in song, as you shall see by and bye. I got an air, pretty enough, composed by Lady Elizabeth Hei'on of Heron, which she calls " The banks of Cree." Cree is a beautiful romantic stream ; and as her ladyship is a particular friend of mine, I have written the following song to it. [Here follows the song entitled *« The Banks of Cree :" see Poetical A^' orks, p. 123.] • No. XLVIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Juhj, 17.04. Is there no news yet of Pleyel ? Or is your work to ])e at a dead stop, until the alHes set our modern Orpheus at liberty from the savage thraldom of dem^o- crat discords ? Alas the day ! And woe is me ! That auspicious period, pregnant with the happiness of millions.* * * * * I have presented a copy of your songs to the daughter of a much-valued and much-honoured friend of mine, Mr Graham of Fintry. 1 wrote on the blank side of the title-page the following address to the young lady : "Here, where the Scottish muse immortal lives. In sacred strains and tuneful numbers join'd, Accept the gift ; tho' humble he who gives, Rich is the tribute of the grateful mind. So may no ruffian-feeling* in thy breast. Discordant jar thy bosom-chords among ; But peace attune thy gentle soul to rest, Or love ecstatic wake his seraph song. Or pity's notes, in luxury of tears, As modest want the tale of woe reveals : • AVhile conscious virtue all the strain endears, And heaven-born piety h'er sanction seals." No. XLIX. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinhurgh, 10th August, 1794. My DEAii Sir — I owe you an apology for having so long delayed to acknowledge the favour of your last. I fear it will be as you say, I shall have no more songs from Pleyel till France and we are friends ; but never- theless, I am very desirous to be prepared with the poetry ; and as the season approaches in which your muse of Coila visits you, I trust I shall, as formerly, be frequently gratified with tlae result of your amorous and tender interviews ! No. L. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. ?>Oth August, 1794. The last evening, as I was straying out, and thinking of " O'er the hills and far away," I spun the following stanza for it ; but whether my spinning will deserve to ]je laid up in store, like the precious thread of the silk- worm, or brushed to the devil, like the vile manufac- tui-e of the spider, I leave, my dear Sir, to your usual candid criticism. I was pleased with several lines in it at first, but I own that now it appears rather a flimsy business. This is just a hasty sketch, until I see whether it be worth a critique. We have many sailor songs, but as far as I at present recollect, they are mostly the effu- * A portion of this letter has been left out, for reasons that Avill be easily imagined. t It were to have been wished, that instead of " niffian-feel- in?;," the bard had used a less rugged epithet, e.g. " ruder."— sions of the jovial sailor, not tlie waillngs of his love- lorn mistress. I must hei-e make one sweet exception — " Sweet Annie frae the sea-beach came." Now for the song : — [" On the seas and far away."— Poetical Works, p. 123.1 I give you leave to abuse this song, but do it in the spirit of Chi'istian meekness. No. LI. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinhurgh^ I6th Sept. 1794. My dear Sir — You have anticipated my opinion of " On the seas and far away ;" I do not think it one of your very happy productions, though it certainly con- tains stanzas that are worthy of all acceptation. The second is the least to my liking, particularly, "Bullets, spare my only joy." Confound the bullets ! It might, perhaps, be objected to the thix'd verse, " At the starless midnight hour," that it has too much gran- deur of imagery, and that greater simplicity of thought \ would have better suited the character of a sailor's } sweetheart. The tune, it must be remembered, is of ; the brisk, cheerful kind. Upon the whole, therefore, > in my humble opinion, the song would be better adapted ; to the tune, if it consisted only of the first and last ; verses, with the choruses. i No. LII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. ^ Sept. 1794. I SHALL withdraw my " On the seas and far aAvay " altogether: it is imequal, and umvorthy the work. IMaking a poem is like begetting a son : you cannot know whether you have a wise man or a fool, until you produce him to the world to try him. For that reason I send you the offspring of my brain, aboi-tions and all ; and, as such, pray look over them and forgive them, and burn them.* I am flattered at your adopting " Ca' the yowes to the knowes," as it was owing to me that ever it saw the light. About seven years ago I was Avell acquainted with a worthy little fellow of a clergyman, a IMr Clunie, who sang it charmingly ; and, at my request, Mr Clarke took it down from his singing. When I gave it to .Johnson, I added some stanzas to the song, and mended others, but still it wdll not do for you. In a solitary stroll which I took to-day, I tried my hand on a few pastoral linesj following up the idea of the chorus, which I would preserve. Here it is, with all its crudities and impei-- fections on its head. [Here follows " Ca' the yowes," for which see Poetical Works.] I shall give you my opinion of your other newly adopted songs my first scribbling fit. No. LIIL BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Sept. 1 794. Do you know a blackguard Irish song called "Onagh's Waterfall ?" The air is charming, and I have often regretted the want of decent verses to it. It is too much, at least for my humble rustic muse, to expect that every effort of hers shall have merit ; still I think that it is better to have mediocre verses to a favoui-ite air, than none at all. On this principle I have all along proceeded in the Scots Musical Museum ; and as that pubUcation is at its last volume, I intend the following song, to the air above mentioned, for that work. If it does not suit you as an editor, you may be pleased * ThisVirgilian order of the poet should, I think, be disobeyed with respect to the song in question, the second stanza excepted. —A^oie by Mr Thomson. Doctors differ. The objection to the second stanza does not strike the editor.— CiRRfE. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON 109 to have verses to it that you can sing in the company of ladies. [Here follows " She says she Ices me best of a':" Poetical Works, p. 12;i.] Not to compare small things with great, my taste in music is like the mighty Frederick of Prussia's taste in painting: we are told that he frequently admired what the connoisseurs decried, and always Avithout any liypocrisy confessed his admii'ation. I am sensible that my taste in music must be inelegant and vulgar, because people of undisputed and cultivated taste can find no merit in my favourite tunes. Still, because I am cheaply pleased, is that any reason why I should deny myself that pleasure ? Many of our strathspeys, ancient and modern, give me most exquisite enjoyment, whei'e you and other judges would probably be showing disgust. For instance, I am just now making verses for " Rothemurche's rant," an air which puts me in rap- tures ; and, in fact, unless I be pleased with the tune, I never can make verses to it. Here I have Clarke on my side, who is a judge that I will pit against any of you. "Rothemurche," he says, " is an air both original and beautiful ;" and, on his recommendation, I have taken the first part of the tune for a chorus, and the fourth or last part for the song. I am but two stanzas deep in the work, and possibly you may think, and justly, that the poetry is as little worth your* attention as the music. [Here follow two stanzas of the song, beginning ' '• Lassie wi' the lint-white locks."] I have begun anew, " Let me in this ae night." Do you think that we ought to retain the old choi'us ? I think we must retain both the old chorus aiid the first stanza of the old song. I do not altogether like the third line of the first stanza, but cannot alter it to please myself. I am just three stanzas deep in it. AVould you have the denoutment to be successful or otherAvise ? — should she "let him in" or not? Did you not once propose " The sow's tail to Geordie " as an air for your work ? I am quite delighted with it ; but I acknowledge that is no mark of its real excellence. I once set about verses for it, which I meant to be in the alternate way of a lover and his mistress chanting together. I have not the pleasure of knowing Mrs Thomson's Christian name, and yours, I am afraid, is rather burlesque for sentiment, else I had meant to have made you the hero and heroine of the little piece. How do you like the following epigram, which I wrote the other day on a lovely young girl's recovery from a fever ? Doctor ]\Iaxwell was the physician who seemingly saved her from the grave ; and to him I addi'ess the following :— TO DR max"s\t:ll, ON MISS JESSIE STAIG's RECOVERY. iMaxwell, if merit here you crave. That merit I deny : You save fair Jessy from the grave I — An angel could not die ! God grant you patience with this stupid epistle ! No. LIV. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. I PERCEIVE the sprightly muse is now attendant upon her favoiu'ite poet, whose woodnotes wild are become as enchanting as ever. " She says she loes me best of a'," is one of the pleasantest table songs I have seen, and henceforth shall be mine when the song is going round. I'll give Cunningham a copy ; he can more powerfully proclaim its merit. I am far from under- valuing your taste for the strathspey music ; on the contrary, I thinlc it highly animating and agreeable, and that some of the strathspeys, when graced with such verses as yours, will make very pleasing songs, in the same way that rough Christians are tempered and softened by lovely woman, without whom, you know, they had been brutes. I am clear for having the " Sow's tail," particularly as your proposed vei'ses to it ai'e so extremely promis- ing. Geordie, as you observe, is a name only fit for burlesque composition. Mrs Thomson's name (Katha- rine) is not at all poetical. Retain Jeanie, therefore, and make the other Jamie, or any other that sounds agreeably. Your " Ca' the ewes" is a precious little morceau. Indeed, I am perfectly astonished and charmed with the endless variety of your fancy. Here let me ask you, whether you never seriously turned your thoughts upon dramatic writing ? That is a field woi'thy of your genius, in which it might shine forth in all its splen- dour. One or two successful pieces upon the London stage would make your fortune. The rage at present is for musical dramas : few or none of those which have appeared since the " Duenna," possess much foetical merit ; there is little in the conduct of the fable, or in the dialogue, to interest the audience : they are chiefly vehicles for music and pageantry. I think you might produce a comic opera in three acts, which would live by the poetry, at the same time that it would be proper to take every assistance from her tuneful sister. Part of the songs, of course, Avould be to our favourite Scottish airs ; the rest might be left to the London composer — Storace for Drury-lane, or Shield for Co- vent-garden, both of them very able and popular musi- cians. I believe that interest and manoeuvring are often necessary to have a drama brought on ; so it may be with the namby-pamby tribe of flowery scribblers : but were you to address j\Ir Sheridan himself by letter, and send him a dramatic piece, I am persuaded he would, for the honour of genius, give it a fair and can- did trial. Excuse me for obtruding these hints upon your consideration.* No. LV. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, lith Oct. 1794, The last eight days have been devoted to the re- examination of the Scottish collections. I have read, and sung, and fiddled, and considered, till I am half blind, and wholly stupid. The few airs I have added, are enclosed. Peter Pindar has at length sent me all the songs I expected from him, which are, in general, elegant and beautiful. Have you heard of a London collection of Scottish airs and songs, just published by INIr Ritson, an Englishman ? I shall send you a copy. His intro- ductoiy essay on the subject is curious, and evinces great reading and research, but does not decide the question as to the origin of our melodies ; though he shows clearly that Mr Tytler, in his ingenious disser- tation, has adduced no sort of proof of the h}q)othesis he wished to establish, and that his classification of the airs according to the eras when they were composed, is mere fancy and conjecture. On John Pinkerton, Esq., he has no mercy, but consigns him to damnation. He snarls at my publication, on the score of Pindar being engaged to write songs for it ; uncandidly and unjustly leaving it to be inferred, that the songs of Scottish writers had been sent a-packing to make room for Peter's ! Of you he speaks with some respect, but gives you a passing hit or two, for daring to dress up a little some old foolish songs for the Museum. His sets of the Scottish airs are taken, he says, from the oldest collections and best authorities : many of them, however, have such a strange aspect, and are so unlike the sets Avhich are sung by every person of taste, old or young, in town or country, that we can scarcely recognise the features of our favourites. By going to the oldest collections of our music, it does not follow that we find the melodies in their original state. These melodies had been preserved, we know not how long, by oral communication, before being collected and printed ; and * Our bard had before received the same advice, and certainly took it so far into consideration, as to have cast about for a sub- ject.— Currie. 110 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. as different persons sing the same air very diflferently, according to their accurate or confused recollection of it, so, even supposing the first collectors to possess the industry, taste, and discernment, to choose the best they could hear (which is far from certain), still it must evidently he a chance, whether the collections exhibit any of the melodies in the state they were first composed. In selecting the melodies for my own col- lection, I have been as much guided by the Hving as by the dead. Where these dilBfered, I preferred the sets that appeared to me the most simple and beautiful, and the most generally approved : and without meaning any compliment to my own capability of choosing, or speaking of the paias I have taken, I flatter myself that my sets will be found equally free from vulgar errors on the one hand, and affected graces on the other. No. LVI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. I9th October, 1794. My dear Friend — By this morning's post I have your list, and, in general, I highly approve of it. I shall, at more leisure, give you a critique on the whole. Clarke goes to your town by to-day's fly, and I wish you would call on him and take his opinion in general : you know his taste is a standard. He will return here again in a week or two, so please do not miss asking for him. One thing I hope he will do — persuade you to adopt my favourite, " Craigieburn wood," in your selection : it is as great a favourite of his as of mine. The lady on whom it was made is one of the finest women in Scotland ; and in fact {entre nous) is in a manner to me what Sterne's EHza was to him — a mistress, or friend, or what you will, in the guileless simplicity of Platonic love. (Now, don't put any of your squinting constructions on this, or have any clishmaclaver about it among our acquaintances.) I assure you that to my lovely friend you are indebted for many of your best songs of mine. Do you thinlc that the sober, gin-horse routine of existence could inspire a man with life, and love, and joy — could fire him with enthusiasm, or melt him with pathos, equal to the genius of your book ? No ! no ! Whenever I want to be more than ordinary in song — to be in some degree equal to your diviner airs — do you imagine I fast and pray for the celestial emanation ? Tout au contraire! I have a glorious recipe ; the very one that for his own use was invented by the divinity of heaUng and poetry, Avhen erst he piped to the flocks of Admetus. I piit myself in a regimen of admiring a fine woman; and in proportion to the adorabUity of her charms, in proportion you are delighted with my verses. The lightning of her eye is the godhead of Parnassus, and the witchery of her smile the divinity of Helicon ! To descend to business ; if you like my idea of "When she cam ben she bobbit," the following stanzas of mine, altered a little from what they were formerly, when set to another air, may perhaps do instead of worse stanzas : — [Here follows " Saw ye my Phely :" Poetical Works, p. 124.] Now for a few miscellaneous remarks. " The Posie" (in the Musemn) is my composition ; the air was taken down from Mrs Burns's voice.* It is well known in the west country, but the old words are trash. By the bye, take a look at the tune again, and tell me if you do not think it is the original from which '' Roslin Castle" is composed. The second part, in particular, for the first two or three bars, is exactly the old air. " Strathallan's Lament" is mine ; the music is by our right trusty and deservedly well-beloved Allan Master- ton. "Donocht-Head" is not mine; I would give ten pounds it were. It appeared first in the Edinburgh Herald, and came to the editor of that paper with the * This, and the other poems of which he speaks, had appeared in Johnson's Museum, and Mr T. had inquired whether they were our bard's.— CunniK. I Newcastle post-mark on it.* " Whistle o'er the lave o't" is mine : the music said to be by a John Bruce, a celebrated violin player in Dumfries, about the beginning of this century. This I know, Bruce, who was an honest man, though a red- wud Highlandman, constantly claimed it ; and by all the old musical people here is believecl to be the author of it. " Andrew and his cutty gun." The song to which this is set in the Museum is mine, and was composed on Miss'Euphemia Murray, of Lintrose, commonly and deservedly called the Flower of Strathmore. " How long and dreary is the night !" I met with some such words in a collection of songs somewhere, which I altered and enlarged ; and to please you, and to suit your favourite air, I have taken a stride or two across my room and have arranged it anew, as you will find on the other page. [Here follows «* How long and dreary is the night :" Poetical Works, p. 124.] Tell me how you like this. I differ from your idea of the expression of the tune. There is, to me, a great deal of tenderness in it. You cannot, in my opinion, dispense with a bass to your addenda airs. A lady of my acquaintance, a noted performer, plays and sings at the same time so charmingly, that I shall never bear to see any of her songs sent into the world, as naked as Mr What-d'ye-call-um has done in his London collec- tion.f These English songs gravel me to death. I have not that command of the language that I have of my native tongue. I have been at "Duncan Gray," to dress it in English, but all I can do is deplorably stupid. For instance : — [Here follows <' Let not woman e'er complain:" Poetical Works, p. 124.] Since the above, I have been out in the country taking a dinner with a friend, where I met witji the lady whom I mentioned in the second page in this odds-and-ends of a^letter. As usual, I got into song ; and returning home I composed the following : — * The reader will be ciu^ious to see this poem, so highly praised by Bums. Here it is :— " Keen blaws the wind o'er Donocht-Head,* The snaw drives snelly through the dale. The gaberlimzie tirls my sneck, And, shivering, tells his waefu' tale. * Cauld is the night, oh let me in. And dinna let your minstrel fa'. And dinna let his >vinding-8heet Be naething but a wreath o' snaw. Full ninety winters hae I seen. And pip'd where gor-cocks whirring flew, And mony a day I've danc'd, I ween, To lilts which from my drone I blew.' My Eppie wak'd, and soon she cried, ' Get up guidman, and let him in ; For weel ye ken the winter night Was short when he began his din.* My Eppie's voice, oh wow it's sweet, Even though she bans and scaulds a weo ; But when it's tun'd to sorrow's tale. Oh, haith, it's doubly dear to me ! ' Come in, auld carl, I'll steer my fire, I'll make it bleeze a bonnie flame ; Your bluid is thin, ye've tint the gate, Ye should na stray sae far frae hame. * Nae hame have I,' the minstrel said, ' Sad party-strife o'erturned my ha' ; And, weeping at the eve of life, I wander through a wreath o' snaw.* " This affecting poem is apparently incomplete. The author need not be ashamed to own himself. It is worthy of Burns, or of Macneill.— CuRRiK. [It was written by a gentleman of New- castle, named Pickering.] t Mr Ritson. * A mountain in the north. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. Ill THE LOVER'S MORNING SALUTE TO HIS MISTRESS. Tone — Deil tak the Wars. Sleep'st thou, or wak'st thou, fairest creature ; Rosy morn now lilts his eye, Numbering ilka bud which nature Waters wi' the tears o' joy : Now thro' the leafy woods, And by the reeking floods, WUd natm'e's tenants, freely, gladly stray ; The lintwhite in his bower Chants o'er the breathing flower ; The lav'rock to the sky Ascends wi' sangs o' joy. While the sun and thou arise to bless the day. Phoebus gilding the brow o' morning. Banishes ilk darksome shade. Nature gladd'ning and adorning ; Such to me my lovely maid. When absent frae my fair, The murky shades o' care With starless gloom o'ercast my sullen sky ; But when in beauty's light. She meets my ravished sight, When through my very heart Her beaming glories dart ; 'Tis then I wake to life, to light, and joy !* If you honour my verses- by setting the air^to them, I will vamp up the old song, and make it English enough to be understood. I enclose you a musical curiosity, an East Indian air, which you would swear was a Scottish one. I know the authenticity of it, as the gentleman who brought it over is a particular acquaintance of mine. Do preserve me the copy I send you, as it is the only one I have. Clarke has set a bass to it, and I intend putting it into the Musical Museum. Here follow the verses I intend for it. [This song, beginning " But lately seen in gladsome green," is inserted in Poetical Works, p. 112.] I would be obliged to you if you would procure me a sight of Ritson's collection of English songs, which you mention in your letter. I will thank you for another information, and that as speedily as you please : whether this miserable drawling hotchpotch epistle has not completely tired you of my correspondence I suit the respective airs charmingly. I am perfectly of your opinion with respect to the additional airs. The idea of sending them into the world naked as they were born, was imgenerous. They must all be clothed and made decent by our friend Clarke. I find I am anticipated by the friendly Cunningham in sending you Ritson's Scottish collection. Permit me, therefore, to present you with his English collection, which you will receive by the coach. I do not find his historical essay on Scottish song interesting. Your anecdotes and miscellaneous remarks wUl, I am sure, be. much more so. Allan has just sketched a charming design from " Maggie Lauder." She is (iancmg with such spirit as to electrify the piper, who seems almost dancing too, while he is playing with the most exquisite glee. I am much inclined to get a small copy, and to have it engraved in the style of Ritson's prints. P. S. Pray what do your anecdotes say concerning " Maggie Lauder ?" — was she a real personage, and of what rank ? You would surely " spier for her, if you ca'd at Austruther town." No. LVII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, 27th October, 1794. I AM sensible, my dear friend, that a genuine poet can no more exist without his mistress than his meat. I wish I knew the adorable she, whose bright eyes and witching smiles have so often em'aptured the Scottish bard, that I might drink her sweet health when the toast' is going round. " Craigieburn wood" must cer- tainly be adopted into my family, since she is the object of the song ; but, in the name of decency, I must beg a new chorus verse from you. " Oh to be lying beyond thee, dearie," is perhaps a consummation to be wished, but will not do for singing in the company of ladies. The songs in your last will do you lasting credit, and '^ Variation :— Now to the streaming fomitain. Or up the heathy mountain, The hart, hind, and roe, freely, T/ildly-wanton stray ; In twining hazel bowers His lay the linnet pours ; The lav'rock to the sky Ascends -wi' sangs o' joy. While the sim and thou arise to bless the day. When frae my Chloris parted, Sad, cheerless, broken-hearted, The night's gloomy shades, cloudy, dark, o'ercast my skj'. But when she charms my sight. In pride of beauty's light ; When through my very heart Her beaming glories dart ; 'Tis then, 'tis theu I wake to life and joy I—Currie. No. LVIII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. November, 1794. Maxy thanks to you, my dear Sir, for your present ; it is a bopk of the utmost importance to me. I have yesterday begun my anecdotes, &c., for your work. I intend drawing them up in the form of a letter to you, which will save me from the tedious dull business of systematic arrangement. Indeed, as all I have to say consists of unconnected remarks, anecdotes, scraps of old songs, &c., it would be impossible to give the work a beginning, a middle, and an end, which the critics insist to be absolutely necessary in a woi'k. In my last, I told you my objections to the song you had selected for "My lodging is on the cold ground." On my visit the other day to my fair Chloris (that is the poetic name of the lovely goddess of my inspiration), she sug- gested an idea, which I, on my return from the visit, ■wrought into the following song. " My ChloriSj mai-k how green the groves." [Poetical Works, p. 124.] How do you lilce the simplicity and tenderness of this pastoral ? I think it pretty well. I like you for entering so candidly and so Idndly into the story of "ma chere amie.'' I assure you I was never more in eai'nest in my life, than in the account of that affair which I sent you in my last. Conjugal love is a passion which I deeply feel, and highly vene- rate ; but, somehow, it does not make such a figure m poesy as that other species of the passion. Where love is liberty, and nature law. Musically speaking, the first is an instrument of which the gamut is scanty and confined, but the tones inex- pressibly sweet, while the last has powers equal to all the intellectual modulations of the human soul. Still, I am a very poet in my enthusiasm of the passion. The welfare and happiness of the beloved object is the first and inviolate sentiment that pervades my soul ; and whatever pleasures I might wish for, or whatever might be the raptures they would give me, yet, if they inter- fere -with that first principle, it is ha-ving these pleasures at a dishonest price ; and justice forbids, and generosity disdains, the purchase ! * Despairing of my own powers to give you variety enough in English songs, I have been turning over old collections, to pick out songs, of which the measure is something similar to what I want ; and, vAih a little alteration, so as to suit the rhj-thm of the air exactly, to give you them for your work. Where the songs have hitherto been but little noticed, nor have ever been set to music, I think the shift a fair one. A song, which, under the same first verse, you will find in * [The lady here in question was Mrs Whelpdale, formerly Miss Jean Lorimer, respecting whom see notes ia Poetical Works, pp. 89 and 128.] 112 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. Ramsay's Tea-table Miscellany, I have cut down for an English dress to your " Dainty Davie," as follows. " It was the charming month of May." [Poetical Worts, p, 124.] You may think meanly of this, but take a look at the bombast original, and you Avill be sui-prised that I have made so much of it, I have finished my song to " Rothemurche's rant," and you have Clarke to consult as to the set of the air for singing. [Here follows ♦' Lassie wi' the lint-white locks :" sec Poetical Works, p. 125.] This piece has at least the merit of being a regular pastoral : the vernal morn, the summer noon, the autumnal evening, and the winter night, are regularly rounded. If you Uke it, well ; if not, I will insert it in the Museum. No. LIX. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. I AM out of temper that you should set so sweet, so tender an air, as " Deil tak the \vars," to the foolish old verses. You talk of the silliness of " Saw ye my father?"* — by Heavens! the odds is gold to brass ! Be- sides, the old song, though now pretty well modernised into the Scottish language, is originally, and in the early editions, a bungling low imitation of the Scottish manner, by that genius Tom D'Urfey, so has no pre- tensions to be a Scottish production. There is a pretty English song by Sheridan, in the "Duenna," to this air, which is out of sight superior to D'Urfey's. It begins, "VSTien sable night each drooping plant restoring. The air, if I understand the expression of it properly, is the very native language of simplicity, tenderness, and love. I have again gone over my song to the tune as follows.t Now for my English song to " Nancy's to the green- \vood," &c. [Here follows the song " Farewell tuou stream :" see Poetical Works, p. 125.] There is an air, " The Caledonian Hunt's delight," to which I wrote a song that you will find in Johnson, " Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon :" this air, I think, might find a place among your hundred, as Lear says of his knights. Do you know the history of the air? It is curious enough. A good many years ago, JMr James Miller, writer in your good town, a gentle- man whom possibly you know, was in company with our friend Clarke ; and talking of Scottish music. Miller expressed an ardent ambition to be able to compose a Scots air. Mr Clarke, partly by way of joke, told him to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, and pre- serve some kind of rhythm, and he would infallibly compose a Scots air. Certain it is that, in a few days, Mr Miller produced the rudiments of an air, which Mr Clarke, with some touches and corrections, fashioned mto the tune in question. Ritson, you know, has the same story of the black keys ; but this account which I have just given you, Mr Clarke informed me of several years ago. Now, to show you how difficult it is to trace the origin of our airs, I have heard it repeatedly asserted that this was an Irish air ; nay, I met with an Irish gentleman Avho affinned he had heard it in Ireland among the old women ; while, on the other hand, a countess informed me, that the first person who intro- duced the air into this country, was a baronet's lady of her acquaintance, who took down the notes from an itinerant piper in the Isle of Man. How difficult, then, to ascertain the truth respecting our poesy and music ! I, myself, have lately seen a couple of ballads sung through the streets of Dumfries, with my name at the * [Mr Thomson must have completely misunderstood the cha- racter of this old song. It is a most romantic one, clothed in the most poetical language.] t See the song in its first and best dress in page 111. Our bard remarks upon it, "I could easily throw this into an English mould ; but, to ray taste, in the simple and the tender of the pastoral song, a sprinkling of the old Scottish has an inimitable effect."— CURRIE. head of them as the author, though it was the first time I had ever seen them. I thank you for admitting " Craigieburn wood ;" and I shall take care to furnish you Avith a new chorus. In fact, the chorus was not my work, but a part of some old verses to the air. If I can catch myself in a more than ordinarily propitious moment, I shall write a new " Cragieburn wood " altogether. My heart ia much in the theme. I am ashamed, my dear fellow, to maJtc the request ; 'tis dunning your generosity ; but in a moment when I had forgotten whether I was rich or poor, I promised Chloris a copy of your songs. It wrings my honest pride to write you this ; but an ungracious request is doubly so by a tedious apology. To make you some amends, as soon as I have extracted the necessary information out of them, I will return you Ritson's volumes. The lady is not a little proud that she is to make so distinguished a figui-e in your collection, and I am not a little proud that I have it in my power to please her so much. Lucky it is for your patience that my paper is done, for when I am in a sci'ibbling humour, I know not when to give over. No. LX. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. loth November, 1794. My good Sir — Since receiving your last, I have had another interview with Mr Clarke, and a long consulta- tion. He thinks ~the " Caledonian Hunt" is more bacchanahan than amorous in its nature, and recom- mends it to you to match the air accordingly. Pray, did it ever occur to you how peculiarly well the Scottish airs are adapted for verses in the form of a dialogue ? The first part of the a,ir is generally low, and suited for a man's voice ; and the second part, in many instances, cannot be sung, at concert pitch, but by a female voice. A song thus performed makes an agreeable variety, but few of ours are written in this form : I wish you would think of it in some of those that remain. The only one of the kind you have sent me is admii'able, and will be a universal favourite. Your verses for " Rothemurche" are so sweetly pas- toral, and your serenade to Chloris, for " Deil tak the wars," so passionately tender, that I have sung myself into raptures Avith them. Your song for " My lodging is on the cold ground," is likewise a diamond of the first water: I am quite dazzled and delighted by it. Some of your Chlorises, I suppose, have flaxen hair, from your partiahty for this colour — else we differ about it ; for I should scarcely conceive a woman to be a beauty, on reading that she had lint-white locks ! " Farewell thou stream that winding flows," I think excellent, but it is much too serious to come after " Nancy" — at least it would seem an incongruity to provide the same air with merry Scottish and melan- choly English verses ! The more that the two sets of verses resemble each other, in their general eharactei', the better. Those you have manufactured for " Dainty Davie" will answer charmingly. I am happy to find you have begun yo«r anecdotes : I care not how long they be, for it is impossible that any thing from your pen can be tedious. Let me beseech you not to use ceremony in telling me when you wish to present any of your friends with the songs : the next carrier will bring you three copies, and you are as welcome to twenty as to a pinch of snuff". No. LXL BURNS TO MR THOMSON. \9th November, 1794. You see, my dear Sir, what a punctual correspondent I am ; though, indeed, you may thank yourself for the tedium of my letters, as you have so flattered me on my horsemanship with my favourite hobby, and have praised the grace of his ambling so much, that I am CORRESPONDENCE WITH ^IR TH031S0N. 113 scarcely ever off his back. For instance, this morning, though a keen blowing frost, in ray walk before break- fast, I finished my duet, Avhicli you were pleased to praise so much. Whether I have uniformly succeeded, I will not say ; but here it is for you, though it is not an hour old. [Here follows the song " Philly and "Willy:" Poetical AVorks, p. 125.] Tell me honestly how you like it, and point out what- ever you think faulty. I am much pleased with your idea of singing our songs in alternate stanzas, and regret that you did not hint it to me sooner. In those that remain, 1 shall have it in my eye. I remember your objections to the name Philly, but it is the common abbreviation of Phillis. Sally, the only other name that suits, has, to my ear, a vulgarity about it, which unfits it for any thing except burlesque. The legion of Scottish poetasters of the day, whom your brother editor, JNIr Ritson, ranks •with me as my coevals, have always mistaken vulgarity for simplicity ; whereas, simplicity is as much eloignee from vulgarity on the one hand, as from afi'ected pomt and puerile conceit on the other. I agree with you as to the air, " Craigieburn wood," that a chorus would, in some degree, spoil the effect, and shall certainly have none in my projected song to it. It is not, however, a case in point with " Rothe- murche ;" there, as in " Roy's wife of AldivaUoch," a chorus goes, to my taste, well enough. As to the chorus going first, that is the case with " Roy's wife," as w^ell as " Rothemurche." In fact, in the first part of both tunes, the rhythm is so peculiar and irregular, and on that irregularity depends so much of their beaut}^, that we must e'en take them with all their A\alduess, and humour the verse accordingly. LeaAing out the starting note, in both tunes, has, I think, an effect that no regu- larity could covmterbalance the want of. rOh Roy's wife of Aldivalloeh. ^' "^ Oh lassie wi' the lint-white locks. and compare with, i ^^OJ''^ ^^ «f Aldivalloeh. (^ Lassie wi' the lint-white locks. Does not the tameness of the prefixed syllable strike you \ In the last case, with the true furor of genius, you sti'ike at once into the wild originahty of the air ; whereas, in the first insipid method, it is like the grating screw of the pins before the fiddle is brought into tune. This is my taste ; if I am wTong, I beg pardon of the cognoscenti. " The Caledonian Hunt" is so charming, that.it would make any subject in a song go down; but pathos is cei1:ainly its native tongue. Scottish bacchanalians we certainly want, though the few we have are excellent. For mstance, " Todhn hame," is, for wit and humour, an unparalleled composition ; and " Andrew and his cutty gun" is the Avork of a master. By the w'ay, are you not quite vexed to think that those men of genius, for such they certainly were, who composed our fine I Scottish lyrics, should be unknown ? It has given me i many a heart-ache. Apropos to bacchanalian songs in j Scottish, I composed one yesterday, for an air I like ! much — " Lumps o' pudding." [Here follows " Contented wi' little :" Poetical AVorks, p. 125.] If you do not relish this air, I will send it to Johnson No. LXII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Since yesterday's penmanship, I have framed a couple of English stanzas, by way of an EngHsh song to " Roy's wife." You will allow me, that in this instance my English coi'responds in sentiment vdih. the Scottish. [Here follows " Canst thou leave me thus, my Katy ?" See Poetical AVorks, p. 125.] Well ! I think this to be done in two or three turns across my room, and with two or three pinches of Irish blackguard, is not so far amiss. You see I am deter- mined to ha-\e my quantum of applause from somebody. H Tell my friend Allan (for I am sure that we only want the trifling circumstance of being known to one another, to be the best friends on earth), that I much suspect he has, in his plates, mistaken the figure of the stock and horn. I have, at last, gotten one, but it is a very rude instrument. It is composed of three parts ; the stock, which is the hinder thigh-bone of a sheep, such as you see in a mutton ham ; the horn, which is a com- mon Highland cow's horn, cut oft' at the smaller end, until the aperture be large enough to admit the stock to be pushed up through the horn untU it be held by the tliicker end of the thigh-bone ; and lastly, an oaten reed exactly cut and notched like that which you see every shepherd boy have, when the corn-stems are green and full-groA\ai. The reed is not made fast in the bone, but is held by the lips, and plays loose in the smaller end of the stock ; while the stock, with the iiorn hanging on its larger end, is held by the hands in playing. The stock has six or seven ventiges on the upper side, and one back-ventige, like the common flute. This of mine was made by a man from the braes of Athole, and is exactly what the shepherds wont to use in that country. However, either it is not quite properly bored in the holes, or else we have not the art of blowing it rightly ; for we can make Kttle of it. If Mr Allan chooses,' I will send liun a sight of mine, as I look on myself to be a kind of brother-brush A\'ith him. " Pinde m poets is nae sin ;" and I will say it, that I look on Mr Allan and ]\Ir Burns to be the only genuine and real painters of Scottish costume in the wox'ld. No. LXIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. 2^th Xovember, 1794. I ACKNOWLEDGE, mv dear Sir, you are not only^the most punctual, but the most delectable correspondent I ever met with. To attempt flattering you never entered into my head ; the truth is, I look back with surprise at my impudence, in so frequently nibbhng at lines and couplets of your incomparable lyrics, for which, perhaps, if you had served me right, you would have sent me to the devil. On the contrary, however, you have aU along condescended to invite my criticism with so much com'tesy, that it ceases to be wonderful if I have some- times given myself the airs of a reviewer. Your last budget demands unqualified praise : all the songs are charming, but the duet is a chef d'oeuvre. " Lumps o' pudding" shall certainly make one of my family dishes ; you have cooked it so capitally, that it Avill please all palates. Do give us a few more of this cast when you find yourself in good spirits ; these convivial songs are more w^anted than those of the amorous kind, of which we have great choice. Besides, one does not often meet with a singer capable of giving the proper effect to the latter, while the former are easily sung, and acceptable to every body. I participate in your regret that the authors of some of our best songs are unkno^AOi ; it is provoking to every admirer of genius. I mean to have a picture painted from your beautiful ballad " The Soldier's Return," to be engraved for one of my fi'ontispieces. The most interesting point of time appears to me, when she first recognises her ain dear Willy, "She gaz'd,she redden'd like a rose." The thi-ee hues immediately following are no doubt more impres- sive on the reader's feelings ; but were the painter to fix on these, then you'll observe the animation and anxiety of her countenance is gone, and he could only represent her fainting in the soldier's arms. But I submit the matter to you, and beg your opinion. Allan desires me to thank you for yoiu* accurate description of the stock and horn, and" for the very gratifying compliment you pay him in considermg hiru Avorthy of standing in a niche by the side of Burns in the Scottish Pantheon. He has seen the rude instrument you describe, so does not want you to send it; but wishes to know whether you believe it to have ever been generally used as a musical pipe by the Scottish shepherds, and when, and in v.hat part of the country 114 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. chiefly. I doubt much if it was capable of any thing but routing and roaring. A friend of mine says he remembers, to have heard one in his younger days, made of wood instead of your bone, and that the sound was abominable. Do not, I beseech you, return any books. No. LXIV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. December f 1794. It is, I assure you, the pride of my heart to do any thing to forward or add to the value of your book; and as I agree with you that the Jacobite song in the Museum to " There'll never be peace till Jamie comes hame," would not so well consort with Peter Pindar's excellent love-song to that air, I have just framed for you the following : — •• My Nannie's awa." [See Poetical Works, p. 125.] How does this please you ? As to the point of time for the expression, in your proposed print from my " Sodger's Return," it must certainly be at — ^" She gaz'd." The interesting dubiety and suspense taking possession of her countenance, and the gushing fond- ness, with a mixture of roguish playfulness in his, strike me as things of which a master will make a great deal. In great haste, but in great truth, yours. No. LXV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. January i 1795, I FEAR for my songs ; hoA\ ever, a few may please, yet originality is a coy feature in composition, and in a multiplicity of efforts in the same style, disappears altogether. For these three thousand years, we poetic folks have been describing the spring, for instance; and as the spring continues the same, there must soon be a sameness in the imagery^ &c., of these said rhyming folks. A great critic (Aikin) on songs, says that love and wine are the exclusive themes for song-writing. The foUoAving is on neither subject, and consequently is no song ; but will be allowed, I think, to be two or three pretty good prose thoughts inverted into rhjine. " For a' that, and a' that." [See Poetical Works, p. 125.] I do not give you the foregoing song for your book, but merely by way of vive la bagatelle ; for the piece is not really poetry. How will the following do for " Craigie-burn wood?" — *' Craigie-burn wood." [See Poetical Works, p. 126.] Farewell ! God bless you ! No. LXVI. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinbui'gh, ?>^th January, 1795. My dear Sir — I thank you heartily for " Nannie's awa," as well as for " Ci'aigieburn," which I think a very comely pair. Your observation on the difficulty of original writing in a number of efforts, in the same style, strikes me very forcibly ; and it has, again and again, excited my wonder to find you continually sur- mounting this difficulty, in the many delightful songs you have sent me. Your vive la bagatelle song, " For a' that," shall undoubtedly be included in my list. [In Burns's next communication to Mr Thomson, marked No. LXIX. in Currie's series of their correspondence, he merely transcribes the compound song, inserted in his Poetical Works, pp. 126, 127, under the title of "Oh lassie, art thou sleeping \ yet?** and adds '• I do not know whether it will do."] No, LXVII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Ecclefechauj 1th February, 1795. Mr DEAR Thomson — You cannot have any idea of the predicament in which I write to you. In the course of my duty as supervisor (m which capacity I have acted of late), I came yesternight to this unfortunate, wicked, little village.-^* I have gone forward, but snows, of ten feet deep, have impeded my progress : I have tried to «gae back the gate I cam again," but the same obstacle has shut me up within insuperable bars. To add to my misfortune, since dinner, a scraper has been torturing catgut, in sounds that would have insulted the dying agonies of a sow under the hands of a butcher, and thinks himself, on that very account exceeding good company. In fact, I have been in a dilemma, either to get drunk, to forget these miseries ; or to hang myself, to get rid of them : like a prudent man (a character congenial to my every thought, word, and deed), I, of two evils, have chosen the least, and am very drunk, at your service ! I wrote you yesterday from Dumfries. I had not time then to tell you all I wanted to say ; and, Heaven knows, at present I have not capacity. Do you know an air — 1 am sure you must know it— " We'll gang nae mair to yon town ? " I think, in slowish time, it would make an excellent song. I am highly delighted with it ; and if you should think it worthy of your attention, I have a fair dame in my eye, to whom I would consecrate it. As I am just going to bed, I wish you a good night. No. LXVIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. 2bth February, 1795. I HAVE to thank you, my dear Sir, for two epistles, one containing " Let me in this ae night ;" and the other from Ecclefechan, proving that, drunk or sober, your "mind is never muddy.'* You have displayed great address in the above song. Her answer is excel- lent, and, at the same time, takes away the indelicacy j that otherwise would have attached to his entreaties. | I like the song, as it now stands, very much. j I had hopes you would be arrested some days at Ecclefechan, and be obliged to beguile the tedious fore- noons by song-making. It will give me pleasure to I receive the verses you intend for " Oh wat ye wlia's iu | yon town V J No. LXIX. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. May, 1795. [The poet transcribes the " Address to the woodlark," (Poetical Works, p. 127), and adds—] Let me know, your very first leisure, how you like this song. [He then commimieates the song " On Chloris being ill,'* (Poetical Works, p. 127), and adds—] How do you like the foregoing ? The Irish air, " Hu- mours of Glen," is a great favourite of mine, and as, except the silly stuff in the ''- Poor Soldier," there are not any decent verses for it, I have wxitten for it as follows :— [Follows the fine IjTic, " Their groves o* sweet mjTtle," (Poe- tical Works, p. 127) ; after which, having transcribed " 'Twaa na her bonnie blue es was my ruin," (Poetical Works, p. 127), he concludes with — ] Let me hear from you. * [Dr Currie, who was a native of the neighbourhood, remarks that the poet must have been tipsy indeed, to abuse sweet Eccle- fechan at this rate.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. l]j No. LXX. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. You must not think, my good Sir, that I have any intention to enhance the value of my gift, when I say, in justice to the ingenious and woi-thy artist, that the design and execution of the " Cotter's Saturday Night" is, in my opinion, one of the happiest productions of Allan's pencil. I shall be gi'ievously disappointed if you are not quite pleased with it. The figure intended for your portrait, I think strik- ingly like you, as far as I can remember your phiz. This should make the piece interesting to your family every way. Tell me whether Mrs Burns finds you out among the figures. I cannot express the feeling of admiration with which I have read your pathetic "Address to the Wood- lark," your elegant panegyric on Caledonia, and your affecting verses on Chloris's illness. Every repeated perusal of these gives new delight. The other song to " Laddie, lie near me," though not equal to these, is vei'y pleasing. No. Lxxr. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. [The poet transcribes " How cruel are the parents" and " Mark yonder pomp of costly fashion" (Poetical Works, p. 127), and adds—] Well ! this is not amiss. You see how I answer your orders — your tailor could not be more pimctual. I am just now in a high fit for poetising, provided that the strait jacket of criticism don't cure me. If you can, in a post or two, administer a little of the intoxicating potion of your applause, it will raise your humble servant's phrensy to any height you want. I am at this moment " holding high converse" with the Pluses, and have not a word to throw away on such a prosaic dog as you are. No. LXXII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. May^ 1795. Ten thousand thanks for your elegant present — though I am ashamed of the value of it being bestowed on a man who has not, by any means, merited such an instance of kindness. I have shown it to two or three judges of the first abilities here, and they all agree with me in classing it as a fii"st-rate production. My phiz is sae kenspeckle, that the very joiner's apprentice, whom Mrs Burns employed to break up the parcel (I was out of town that day), knew it at once. My most grateful compliments to Allan, who has honoured my rustic muse so much with liis masterly pencil. One strange coincidence is, that the Uttle one who is making the felonious attempt on the cat's tail, is the most strilcing lilceness of an ill-deedie, d — n'd, wee, rumble- gairie urchin of mine, whom, from that propensity to witty wickedness, and manfu' mischief, which, even at twa days' auld, I foresaw would form the striking fea- tures of his disposition, I named Willie Nicol, after a certain friend of mine, who is one of the masters of a grammar-school in a city which shall be nameless. Give the enclosed epigram to my much-valued friend Cunningham, and tell him, that on Wednesday I go to visit a friend of his, to whomjiis friendly partiality in speaking of me, in a manner introduced me — I mean a well-known mihtary and literary character, Colonel Dirom. You do not tell me how you liked my two last songs. Are they condemned 1 No. LXXIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. \%th May, 1795. Ix gives me great pleasure to find that you are aU so well satisfied with Mr Allan's production. The chance resemblance of your little fellow, Avhose promig- iug disposition appeared so very early, and suggested whom he should be named after, is curious enough. I am acquainted with that person, who is a prodigy of learning and genius, and a pleasant fellow, though no saint. You really make me blush when you tell me you have not merited the drawing from me. I do not think I can ever repay you, or sufiiciently esteem and respect you, for the hberal and kind manner in which you have entered into the spirit of my undertaking, which could not have been perfected without you. So I beg you would not make a fool of me again by speaking of obligation. I Mke your two last songs very much, and am happy to find you are in such a high fit of poetising. Long may it last ! Clarke has made a fine pathetic air to Mallet's sujperlative ballad of " William and Margaret," and is to give it to me, to be enrolled am.ong the elect. No. LXXIV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. In '- Whistle, and I'll come to ye, my lad," the itera- tion of that line is tiresome to my ear. Here goes what I think is an improvement : — " Oh %vhistle, and I'll come to ye, my lad ; Oh wliistle, and I'll come to ye, my lad ; Tho' father and mother and a' should gae mad, Thy Jeanie will venture wi' ye, my lad." In fact, a fair dame, at whose shrine I, the Priest of the Nine, offer up the incense of Parnassus — a dame whom the Graces liave attired in witchcraft, and whom the Loves have armed with Hghtning — a fair one, herself the heroine of the song, msists on the amendment, and dispute her commands if you dare ! [Here follows " This is no my ain lassie :" see Poetical Works, p. 128.] Do you know that you have roused the toi-pidity of Clarke at last \ He has requested me to Avrite three or four songs for him, which he is to set to music him- self. The enclosed sheet contains two songs for him, which please to present to my valued friend Cunningham. I enclose the sheet open, both for your inspection, and that you may copy the song " Oh bonnie was yon rosy brier." I do not know whether I am right, but that song pleases me ; and as it is extremely probable that Clarke's newly-roused celestial spark wiU be soon smothered in the fogs of indolence, if you like the song, it may go as Scottish verses to the air of '' I wish my love was in a mire ;" and poor Ersldne's English lines may follow. I enclose you a " For a' that and a' that," which was never in print : it is a much superior song to mine. I have been told that it was composed by a lady. [The poet adds, as addressed to ]\Ir Cunningham, the song, " Now spring has clad the grove in green:" like-\\ise, " Oh honnie was yon rosy brier." See Poetical Works, p. 128.] Written on the blank leaf of a copy of the last edition of my poems, presented to the lady whom, in so many fictitious reveries of passion, but with the most ardent sentiments of real friendship, I have so often sung under the name of Chloris : — " To Chloris." [See Poetical Works, p. 39.] Une hagatelle de I'amitie. Coila. No. LXXV. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Edinburgh, dd Augusi, 1795. Mv DEAR Sir— This will be deUvered to you by a Dr Brianton, who has read your wox'ks, and pants for the honour of your acquaintance. I do not know the gentleman ; but his friend, who applied to me for tins introduction, being an excellent young man, I have no doubt he is worthy of all acceptation. i\Iy eyes have just been gladdened, and my mind 116 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. feasted, with }our last packet — full of pleasant things indeed. What an imagination is yours ! — it is super- fluous to tell you that I am deUghted with all the three songs, as well as with your elegant and tender verses to Chloris. 1 am sorry you should be induced to alter " Oh Avhistle and I'll come to ye, my lad," to the prosaic line, " Thy Jeanie will venture wi' ye, my lad," I must be permitted to say that I do not think the latter either reads or sings so well as the former. I wish, therefore, you would in my name petition the charming Jeanie, whoever she be, to let the hne remain unaltered, I should be happy to see Mr Clarke produce a few airs to be joined to your verses. Every body regrets his writing so very little, as every body acknowledges his ability to write well. Pray was the resolution formed coolly before dinner, or was it a midnight vow made over a bowl of punch with the bai'd ? I shall not fail to give Mr Cunningham what you have sent him. P.S The lady's " For a' that, and a' that," is sensible enough, but no more to be compared to yours than I to Hercules. No. LXXVI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. [The poet transcribes the song, ' ' Forlorn my love, no comfort ear :" Poetical AVorks, p. 128.J I publish a collection of all our favourite airs and songs in octavo, embellished with a number of etchings by our ingenious friend Allan ; what is your opinion of this ? No. LXXX. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. February, 1796. I\IA^a• thanks, my dear Sii*, for your handsome, elegant present to Mrs Burns, and for my remaining volume " of P. Pindar. Peter is a delightful fellow, and a first favourite of mine. I am much pleased with your idea of publishing a collection of our songs in octavo with etcliings. I am extremely willing to lend every assist- ance in my power. The Irish airs I shall cheerfully undertake the task of finding verses for. I have already, you know, equipt three with words, and the other day I strung up a kind of rhapsody to another Hibernian melody, which I admire much. [Here follows " Hey for a lass wi' a tocher," for which see Poetical Works, p. 128.] If this will do, you have now four of my Irish en- gagement. In my by-j)ast songs I dislike one thing ; the name Chloris — I meant it as the fictitious name of a certain lady : but, on second thoughts, it is a high incongruity to have a Greek appellation to a Scottish pastoral baUad. Of this, and some things else, in my next : I have more amendments to propose. What you How do you like the foregoing? I have written it j «^f mentioned of "flaxen locks" is just : they cannot within this hour: so much for the Ipeed of my Pegasus ; ! ffl^L'f *?_^;.\^^tS!l ^ff f^^^^^^ ""^ ^^^''^^' ^^ *^'^ but what say you to his bottom ? No, LXXVI I. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. [The poet transcribes " Last May abraw wooer ;" which, with the notes appended to it by Dr Currie, is inserted in the Poetical Works, p. 129. He then adds the fragment, " Why, why, tell thy lover ?" which is also inserted in the Poetical Works, p. 129, and proceeds—] Such is the peculiarity of the rhythm of this air, that I find it impossible to make another stanza to suit it. I am at present quite occupied with the charming sensations of the toothache, so have not a word to spare. No. LXXVIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. 3d Jnne, 1795. JMy dear Sir — Your English verses to " Let me in this ae night," are tender and beautiful ; and your ballad to the " Lothian Lassie " is a master-piece for its humour and naicete. The fragment for the " Cale- donian Hunt" is quite suited to the oi'iginal measure of the air, and, as it plagues you so, the fragment must content it. I would ratliei', as I said before, have had bacchanalian words, had it so pleased the poet; but, nevertheless, for what we have received, Lord, make us thankful ! No. LXXIX. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. bth Feb. 179G. Oh Robby Burns, are ye sleeping yet ? Or are ye wauking, I would wit ? The pause you have made, my dear Sir, is awful ! Am I never to hear from you again ? I know and I lament how much you have been afilicted of late ; but I trust that returning health and spirits will now enable you to resume the pen, and delight us with your musings. I have still about a dozen Scotch and Irish airs that I wish " married to immortal verse." We have several true-born Irishmen on the Scottish list ; but they are now naturalised, and reckoned our own good subjects. Indeed, we have none better. I believe I befoi-e told you that I have been much urged bv some friends to also again — God bless you No. LXXXI. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Your " Hey for a lass wi' a tocher" is a most excel- lent song, and with you the subject is something new indeed. It is the first time I have seen you debasing the god of soft desire into an amateur of acres and guineas. I am happy to find you approve of my proposed octavo edition. Allan has designed and etched about twenty plates, and I am to have my choice of them for that work. Independently of the Hogarthian humour with which they abound, they exhibit the character and costume of the* Scottish peasantry with inimitable feli- city. In this respect, he himself says, they will far exceed the aquatinta plates he did for the Gentle Shepherd, because in the etching he sees clearly what he is doing, but not so with the aquatinta, which he could not manage to his mind. The Dutch boors of Ostade are scarcely more cha- i-acteristic and natural than the Scottish figures in those etchings. No. LXXXII. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. April, 1796. Alas ! my dear Thomson, I fear it will be some tune ere I tune my lyre again ! " By Babel streams I have sat and wept" almost ever since I wrote you last; I have only known existence by the pressure of the heavy hand of sickness, and have counted time by the reper- cussions of pain ! Rheumatism, cold, and fever, have formed to me a terrible combination. I close my eyes in misery, and open them without hope. I look on the vernal day, and say with poor Fergusson, Say wherefore has an all-indiilgent heaven Light to the comfortless and wretched given ? This will be delivered to you by a Mrs Hyslop, land- lady of the Globe Tavern here, which for these many years has been my howff, and where our friend Clarke and I have had many a merry squeeze. I am highly de- lighted with Mr Allan's etchings. " Woo'd an' married an' a'," is admirable ! The grouping is beyond all praise. * Our poet never explained what name he would have substi- tuted for Chloris.— Mn Tho.mson. CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR THOMSON. 117 The expression of the figm'es, conformable to the story in the ballad, is absolutely faultless perfection. I next admire " Tui'nimspike." What I like least is " Jenny said to Jocky." Besides the female being in lier appear- ance *****, if you take her stooping into the account, she is at least two inches taller than her lover. Poor Cleghorn ! I sincerely sympathise with him. Happy I am to think that he yet has a well-grounded hope of health and enjoyment in this world. As for me — but that is a sad subject ! No. LXXXIII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. AthMay, 1796. I NERD not tell you, my good Sir, what concern the receipt of your last gave me, and how much I sjinpa- thise in your sufferings. But do not, I beseech you, give yourself up to despondency, or speak the language of despair. The vigour of your constitution, I trust, will soon set you on your feet again ; and then, it is to be hoped, you will see the v/isdom and the necessity of taking due care of a life so valuable to your family, to your friends, and to the world. Trusting that your next will bring agreeable accounts of your convalescence and retui'ning good spirits, I remain, with sincere regard, yours. P.S. Mrs Hyslop, I doubt not, delivered the gold seal to you in good condition. No. LXXXIV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. My dear Sir — I once mentioned to you an air which I have long admired — " Here's a health to them that's awa, hiney," but I forget if you took any notice of it. I have just been tidying to suit it with verses, and I beg leave to recommend the air to your attention once more. I have only begun it. [Here follow the three first stanzas of the song : the fourth was found among his MSS. after his death. For the entire song, see Poetical Works, p. 129.] No. LXXXV. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. This will be delivered by a Mr Lewai's, a young felloAV of uncommon merit. As he will be a day or two in town, you will have leisure, if you choose, to -\\Tite me by him : and if you have a spare half hour to spend with him, I shall place your kindness to my account. I have no copies of the songs I have sent you, and I have taken a fancy to review them all, and possibly may mend some of them ; so, when you have complete leisure, I will thank you for either the originals or copies.* I had rather be the author of five well-written songs than of ten otherwise. 1 have great hopes that the genial influence of the approaching summer will set me to rights, but as yet I cannot boast of returning health. I have now reason to believe that my com- plaint is a fl}Ting gout — a sad business ! Do let me know how Cleghorn is, and remember me to him. This should have been delivered to you a month ago. I am still very pooi'ly, but should like much to hear from you. No. LXXXVI. BURNS TO MR THOMSON. Brow, on the Solway-frith, I2th July, 1796. After all my boasted independence, curst necessity compels me to implore you for five pounds. A cruel wretch of a haberdasher, to whom I owe an account, taking it into his head that I am dying, has commenced a process, and will infallibly put me into jail. Do, for God's sake, send me that sum, and that by return of post. Forgive me this earnestness, but the horrors of a jail have made me half distracted. I do not ask all * It is needless to gay that this revisal BiU'ns did not liye to perform.— CuRRi k. this gratuitously ; for, upon returning lieaith, I hereby promise and engage to furnish you with five pounds' worth of the neatest song-genius you have seen. I tried my hand on " Rothennirche" this morning. The measure is so difficult that it is impossible to infur.e much genius into the lines ; they are on the other side. Forgive, forgive me ! [For the song alluded to, entitled " Fairest Maid on Devon's Banks," see Poetical "Works, p. 129. Dr Currie adds the follow- ing note: — " Tliese verses, and the letter enclosing them, are written in a character that marks the very feeble state of Burns's bodily strength. I\Ir Syme is of opinion that he could not have been in any danger of a jail at Dumfries, where certainly he had many firm friends, nor under any such necessity of imploring aid from Edinburgh. But about this time his reason began to be at times unsettled, and the horrors of a jail perpetually haunted his imagination. He died on the 2lst of this month."] No. LXXXVII. MR THOMSON TO BURNS. Uth July, 1796. My dear Sir — Ever since I received your melan- choly letters by Mrs Hyslop, I have been ruminating in what manner I could endeavour to alleviate your suf- ferings. Again and again I thought of a pecuniary offer, but the recollection of one of your letters on this subject, and the fear of offending your independent spirit, checked my resolution. I thank you heartily, therefore, for the frankness of youi* letter of the 12tla, and, with great pleasure, enclose a draft for the very sum I proposed sending.* Would I were Chancellor of the Exchequer but for one day, for your sake ! Pray, my good Sir, is it not possible for you to muster a volume of poetry ? If too much trouble to you, in the present state of your health, some literary friend might be found here, who would select and arrange from your manuscripts, and take upon him the task of editor. In the meantime, it could be advei^tised to be published by subscription. Do not shun this mode of obtaining the value of your labour : remember. Pope published the Ihad by subscription. Think of this, my dear Bui'ns, and do not reckon me intrusive with my advice. You are too well convinced of the respect and friendship I bear you to impute any tiling I say to an unworthy motive. Yours faithfully. The verses to " Rothemurche" will answer finely. I am happy to see you can still tune your lyre. * [The pecimiary circxmastances attending Mr Thomson's con- nection with Bums, appear liable, at the present day, to much mis- apprehension. This gentleman, whose work has iiltimately met with a good sale, seems to be regarded by some as an enriched man who measm-ed a stinted reward to a poor one, looking for a greater recompense; and several writers have on this ground spoken of him in a very ungracious manner. AMien we go back to the time of the correspondence between the two men, and consider their respective circumstances, and the relation in which they came to stand towards each other, the conduct of Mr Thomson assumes quite a different aspect. He and Bums were enthusiasts, the one in music, the other in poetry; they were both of them servants of the government, on limited salaries, with rising families. Mr Thomson, with little prospect of profit, engaged in the preparation of a work, which was designed to set forth the music of his native land to everj' possible advantage, and of which the paper and print alone were likely to exhaust his very moderate resources. For literary aid in this labour of love, he applied to the great Scottish poet, who had already gratuitously assisted Johnson in his Scottish Musical Museum. Mr Thomson offered reasonable remuneration, but the poet scorned the idea of recompense, and declared he would write only because it gave him pleasure. Nevertheless, Mr Thomson, in the course of their correspondence, ventured to send a pecuniary present, which, although not forming an adequate recompense for Burns's services, was still one which such men might be apt, at that period, to offer and accept from each other. This Bums, with hesitation, accepted, but sternly forbade any further remittance, protesting that it would put a period to their correspondence. Yet Mr Thomson, from time to time, expressed his sense of obligation by presents of a different nature, and these I the poet accepted. Burns ultimately, on an emergency, requested i a renewal of the foi-mer remittance, using such terms on the j occasion as showed that his former scorn of all pecuniary remu- 118 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. COMMON-PLACE BOOKS. II FIRST COMMON-PLACE BOOK. BEGUN IN APRIL, 1783. In rummaging over some old papers, I lighted on a MS. of my early years, in which I had determined to write myself out, as I was placed by fortime among a class of men to whom my ideas would have been nonsense. I had meant that the book should have lain by me, in the fond hope that some time or other, even after I was no more, my thoughts would fall into the hands of somebody capable of appreciating their value. Its sets off thus — Sums to Mr Riddel of Friars' Carse. " Observations, Hints, Songs, Scraps of Poetry, &c., by Robert Burness — a man who had little art in making Deration was still a predominant feeling in his mind. Mr Thom- son, therefore, sent the very sum asked, believing, if he presumed to send more, that he would run a greater risk of offending than of gratifying the poet in the then irritable state of his feelings. In all this we humbly conceive that no xmprejudiced person at the time would have seen groimds for any charge against Mr Thomson. It may fm-ther be remarked, that, at the time of the poet's death, though many songs had been written, only six had been published, namely, those in the first half volume, so that, dur- ing the life of the poet, the publisher had realised nothing by the songs, and must have still been greatly doubtful if he should ever recover what he had already expended on the work. Before many more of the songs had appeared in connection with his music, the friends of the poet's family had resolved to collect his works for publication ; upon which Mr Thomson thought it a duty incumbent on him to give up the manuscripts of the whole of the songs, together with the poet's and his own letters, to Dr Currie, that they might form part of the edition of Bums's works. The full benefit of them, as literary compositions, was thus realised for the poeVs family, Mr Thomson only retaining an exclusive right to publish them afterwards in connection with the music. And hence, after all, the debtor side of his account with Burns is not so great as it is apt to appear. No further debate could arise on this subject, if it were to be regarded in the light in which the parties chiefly interested have regarded it. We see that Burns himself manifests no trace of a suspicion that his correspondent was a selfish or niggardly man ; and it is equally certain, that his sur- viving family always looked on that gentleman as one of the poet's and their own kindest friends. Here, we trust, the mat- ter will at length rest. It is a curious fact, not hitherto known to the public, nor even to Mr Thomson himself, that the five pounds sent by him to Bums, as well as the larger sum which the poet borrowed about the same time from his cousin, Mr Burness of Montrose, was not made use of on the occasion, but that the bank orders for both sums remained in Bums's house at the time of his death. This is proved by the following document, for which we are indebted to Mr Alexander Macdonald, of the,ptemher. I entirely agree with that judicious phi ,fopher, Mr Smith, in his excellent Theory of Mora r'lentiments, that remorse is the most painful sentim ^^ that can embitter the human bosom. Any ordimry pitch of fortitude may bear up tolerably well under those cala- mities, in the procurement of which we ourselves have had no hand; but when our own follies, or crimes, have made us miserable and wretched, to bear up with manly firmness, and, at the same time, have a proper penitential sense of our misconduct is a glorious effort of self-command. Of all the numerous ills that hurt our peace, That press the soul, or wring the mind with anguish. Beyond comparison the worst are those That to our folly or our guilt we owe. In every other circumstance, the mind Has this to say — " It was no deed of mine ;" But when to all the evil of misfortune This stmg is added— "Blame thy foohsh self!" Or worser far, the pangs of keen remorse ; The torturing, gnawing consciousness of guilt — Of guilt, perhaps, where we've involved others ; The young, the innocent, who fondly lov'd us, Nay, more, that very love their cause of ruin !— Oh burning hell ! in all thy store of torments. There's not a keener lash ! Lives there a man so firm, who, while his heart Feels all the bitter horrors of his crime, Can reason down its agonising throbs ; And, after proper purpose of amendment, Can firmly force his jarring thoughts to peace ? Oh, happy ! happy ! enviable man ! Oh glorious magnanimity of soul ! March, 1784. I have often observed, in the course of my experience of human life, that every man, even the worst, has something good about him ; though very often nothing else than a happy temperament of constitution inclining him to this or that virtue. For this reason, no man can say in what degree any other person, besides himself, can be, with strict justice, called wicked. Let any of the strictest character for regularity of conduct among us, examine impartially how many vices he has never been guilty of, not from any care or vigilance, but for want of opportunity, or some accidental circumstance intervening — ^how many of the weaknesses of mankind he has escaped, because he was out of the line of such temptation ; and, what often, if not always, weighs more than all the rest, how much he is indebted to the world's good opinion, because the world does not know all — I say, any man who can thus think, mil scan the failings, nay, the faults and crimes, of manldnd around him, with a brother's eye. I have often courted the acquaintance of that part of mankind, commonly known by the ordinary phrase of blackguards, sometimes farther than was consistent with the safety of my character ; those who, by thought- less prodigaUty or headstrong passions, have been driven to ruin. Though disgraced by folUes, nay, sometimes stained with guilt, I have yet found among them, in not a few instances, some of the noblest virtues — ^mag- nanimity, generosity, disinterested friendship, and even modesty. April, As I am what tlie men of the worW, if they knew such a man, would call a whimsical mortal, I have various sources of pleasure and enjoyment, which are, m a manner, peculiar to myself, or some here and there such other out-of-the-way person. Such is the peculiar pleasure I take in the season of winter, more than the rest of the year. This, I beheve, may be partly owing to my misfortunes giving my mind a melancholy cast ; but there is something even in the Mighty tempest, and the hoary waste, Abrupt and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth, which raises the mind to a serious subHmity, fayourable to every thing great and noble. There is scarcely any earthly object gives me more — I do not know if I should call it pleasure — but something which exalts me, something which enraptures me — than to walk in the sheltered side of a wood, or high plantation, in a cloudy winter-day, and hear the stormy wind howling among the trees, and raving over the plain. It is my best season for devotion ; my mind is wrapt up in a kind of enthusiasm to Him, who, in the pompous language of the Hebrew bard, " walks on the wings of the wind." In one of these seasons, just after a train of misfor- tunes, I composed the following : — " The wintry west extends his blast," &c.* Shenstone finely observes, that love-verses, writ without any real passion, are the most nauseous of all conceits ; and I have often thought, that no man can be a proper critic of love-composition, except he himself, in one or more instances, have been a warm votary of this passion. As I have been all along a miserable dupe to love, and have been led into a thousand weak- nesses and follies by it, for that reason I put the more confidence in my critical skill, in distinguishing foppery and conceit from real passion and nature. Whether the following song will stand the test, I will not pretend to say, because it is my own : only I can say it was, at the time, genuine from the heart : — *' Behind yon hills where Lugar flows," &c.t March, 1784. There was a certain period of my life that my spirit was broke by repeated losses and disasters, which threatened, and indeed effected, the utter min of my fortune. My body, too, was attacked by that most dreadful distemper, a hypochondria, or confirmed me- lancholy. In this wretched state, the recollection of which makes me yet, shudder, I hung my harp on the willow trees, except in some lucid intervals, in one of which I composed the following : — « Oh thou Great Being ! what thou art," &c. J April. The following song is a wild rhapsody, miserably deficient in versification ; but as the sentiments are the genuine feeUngs of my heart, for that reason I have a particular pleasure in conning it over. " My father was a farmer Upon the Carrick border, 0," &c. § April. 1 think the whole species of young men may be naturally enough divided into two grand classes, which I shall call the grave and the merry; though, by the bye, these tenns do not with propriety enough express my ideas. The grave I shall cast into the usual division of those who are goaded on by the love of money, and those whose darling wish is to make a figure in the world. The merry are the men of pleasure of all denomina- tions ; the jovial lads, who have too much fire and spirit to have any settled rule of action, but, without much deliberation, follow the strong impulses of nature : the thoughtless, the careless, the indolent — in particular, he who, with a happy sweetness of natural temper and a cheerful vacancy of thought, steals through Ufe— generally, indeed, in poverty and obscurity ; but poverty * [See Poetical Works? p. 54.] ± [The same, p. 54.] t [The same, p. 96.1 § [The same, p. 130,] 120 BURNS'S PROSE AVORKS. and obscurity are only evils to liim who can sit gravely down and make a repining comparison betweexi his own situation and that of others ; and lastly, to grace the quoinun, such are, generally, those whose heads are capable of all the towerings of genius, and whose hearts are warmed with all the delicacy of feeling. I August. The foregoing was to Imve been an elaborate disser- tation on the various species of men ; but as I cannot please myself in the arrangement of my ideas, I must wait till' further experience and nicer observation throw more light on the subject. In the mean time, I shall set down the following fragment, which, as it is the genuine language of my heart, will enable any body to determine which of the classes I belong to : — " There's nought but care on ev'ry ban'. In ev'ry hour that passes, 0," &c.* As the grand end of human life is to cultivate an intercourse with that Being to w^hom we owe life, with every enjojinent that renders life deUghtful, and to maintain an integritive conduct towards our fellow- creatures — that so by forming piety and virtue into habit, we may be fit members for that society of the pious and the good, which reason and revelation teach us to expect beyond the gi'ave — I do not see that the turn of mind and pursuits of such a one as the above verses describe ; one who spends the hours and thoughts which the vocations of the day can spare with Ossian, Shakspeare, Thomson, Shenstone, Sterne, &c. ; or, as the maggot takes him, a gun, a fiddle, or a song to make or mend ; and at all times some heart's-dear bonnie lass in view — I say, I do not see that the turn of mind and pursuits of such a one are in the least more inimical to the sacred interests of piety and virtue, than the even lawful bustling and straining after the wox'ld's riches and honours : and I do not see but he may gain heaven as well — which, by the bye, is no mean con- sideration — who steals thi'ough the vale of life, amusing himself with every little flower that fortune throws in his way, as he, who, straining straight forward, and per- haps spattering all about him, gains some of life's little eminences, where, after all, he can only see and be seen a little more conspicuously than what, in the pride of his heart, he is apt to term the poor, indolent devil he has left behind him. Atigust. A Prayer, when fainting fits, and other alarming symptoms of a pleurisy, or some other dangerous dis- order, which indeed still threatens me, first put nature on the alarm : — " Oh thou unlaiown, Almighty cause Of all my hope and fear ! " &c.t' Misgivings in the hour of despondency, and prospect of death : — " Why am I loth to leave this earthly scene !" &c. J \ being deficient in what Sterne calls " that understrap- ping virtue of discretion."^ I am so apt to a lapsus ImgiicB, that I sometuues tliiuk the character of a cer- tain great man I have read of somewhere is very much apropos to myself — that he was a compound of great talents andgi-eat folly. N. B. — To try if I can discover the causes of this wretched infirmity, and, if possible, to mend it.* August. However I am pleased with the works of our Scotch poets, particularly the excellent Ramsay, and the still more excellent Fergusson, yet I am hurt to see other places of Scotland, their towns, rivers, Avoods, haughs, &c,, immortalised in such celebrated performances, while my dear native country, the ancient bailieries of Carrick, Kyle, and Cunningham, famous both in ancient and modern times for a gallant and warlike race of inhabitants — a country where civil, and particularly religious liberty, have ever found their first support, and then.' last asylum — a country, the bu'th-place of many famous philosophers, soldiers, and statesmen, and the scene of many important events recorded in Scottish history, particularly a great many of the actions of the glorious Wallace, the Saviour of his country ; yet, we have never had one Scotch poet of any eminence, to make the fertile banks of Irvine, the romantic Avood- lands and sequestered scenes on Ajt, and the heathy mountainous source and winding sweep of Doon, emu- late Tay, Forth, Ettrick, Tweed, &c. This is a com- plaint I would gladly remedy, but, alas ! I am far unequal to the task, both in native genius and educa- tion. Obscui'e I am, and obscure I must be, though no young poet, nor young soldier's heart, ever beat more fondly for fame than mine — And if there is no other scene of being \Miere my insatiate wish may have its fill— This something at my heart that heaves for room, INIy best, my dearest part, was made in vain. A utjust. A FRAGMENT. Tu.vE — / had a horse, I had nae mair. When first I came to Stewart Kyle, i\Iy mind it was nae steady. Where'er I gaed, where'er I rade, A mistress still I had aye. But when I came roun' by ]\Iauchline toun, Not dreadin' any body, My heart was caught before I tliouglit, And by a Mauchline lady. EGOTISMS FROM MY OWN SENSATION'S. Mag. I don't well know what is tlie reason of it, but some how or other, though I am, when I have a mind, pretty generally beloved, yet I never could get the art of commanding respect.§ I imagine it is o\\ing to mj- * [See Poetical Works, p. 97-] t [See Poetical Works, p. 55.] t [See Poetical Works, p. 55.] § " There is no doubt," says Cromek, " that if Bums at any time really laboured under this infirmity, he was successful in inquiring into its causes, and also in his efforts to amend it. When he was, at a later period of life, introduced into the siipe- rior circles of society, he did not appear then as a cypher, nor did j a great orator— an original and very versatile genius. September. There is a great irregularity in the old Scotch songs, a redundancy of syllables with respect to that exactness of accent and measure that the English poetry requires, but which glides in, most melodiously, with the respec- j tive tunes to which they are set. For instance, the fine old song of " The MHl, Mill, 0," to give it a plain, prosaic reading, it halts prodigiously out of measure : on the other hand, the song set to the same tune in ! Bremner's collection of Scotch songs, which begins, I judge of human character, bears an honourable testimony to the I habitual firmness, decision, and independence of his mind, which constitute the only solid basis of respectability. ' Bmns was a very singular man in the strength and variety of his faculties. I saw him, and once only, in the year 1792. We conversed together for about an hour in the street of Dumfries, and engaged in some very animated conversation. We differed in our sentiments sufficiently to be rather vehemently engaged ; and this interview gave me a more lively as well as forcible impression of his talents than any part of his writings. He was he, by any violation of the dictates of common sense, give any occasion, even to those who were superciliously disposed to look upon him with contempt. On the contrary, he was conscious of his own moral and intellectual worth, and never abated an inch of his just claims to due consideration. The following extract of a letter from his great and good biographer, who was an excellent 3d October, 1799.' " * [At this place are inserted tlie song, " Though cruel fate should bid us part ;" the fragment, beginning, " One night as I did wander ;" the song, " There was a lad was born in Kyle ;" and the " Elegy on the death of Robert Ruisseaux ;" for which see his Poetical ^^'orks,] FIRST COM]\[ON-PLACE BOOK. 121 " To Funny fair conld I impart," &c., it is most exact measure, and yet, let them both be sung before a real critic, one above the biasses of prejudice, but a thorough judge of nature, how Hat and spiritless will the last appear, how trite, and lamely methodical, compared with the wild-warbling cadence, the heart-moving melody of the first ! This is particularly the case with all those airs which end with a hypermetrical syllaljle. There is a degree of wild irregularity in many of the compositions and fragments which are daily sung to them by my compeers, the common people — a certain liappy arrangement of old Scotch syllables, and yet, very frequently, nothing, not even like rhyme, or same- ness of jingle, at the ends of the lines. This has made me sometimes imaguie that perhaps it might be pos- sible for a Scotch poet, with a nice judicious ear, to set compositions to many of our most favourite airs, parti- cularly that class of them mentioned above, independent of rhyme altogether. There is a noble sublimity, a heart-raeltiug tenderness, in some of our ancient ballads, which show tliem to be the work of a masterly hand : and it has often given me many a heart-ache to reflect that such glorious old bards — bards who very probably owed all their talents to native genius, yet have described the exploits of lieroes, the pangs of disappointment, and the meltings of love, with such fine strokes of nature — that theu' very names (oh how moi'tifymg to a bard's vanity ! ) are now " bui'ied among the AVTeck of things which were." Oh ye illustrious names unknown ! who could feel so strongly and describe so well : the last, the meanest of the muse's train — one who, though far inferior to your flights, yet eyes your path, and with trembling wing would sometimes soar after you — a poor rustic bard unknown, pays this sj-mpathetic pang to your memory ! Some of you tell us, Avith all the charms of verse, that you have been unfortunate in the world — unfortunate in love : he, too, has felt the loss of liis little fortune, the loss of friends, and, worse than all, the loss of the woman he adored. Like you, all his consolation was his muse : she taught him in rustic measures to com- plain. Happy could he have done it wiih your strength of imagination and flow of verse! May the turf lie lightly on your bones ! — and may you now enjoy that solace and rest which this world rarely gives to the heart tuned to all the feelings of poesy and love ! Sept. The folloAving fragment is done something in huita- tion of the manner of a noble old Scottish piece called " jM'AIillan's Peggy," and sings to the tune of " Gala Water." My Montgomerie's Peggy was my deity for six or eight months. She had been bred (though, as the woi'ld says, without any just pretence for it) in a style of life rather elegant ; but as Vauburgh sajs, m one of his comedies, " My ■ star found me out" there too ; for though I began the affair merely in a gaiete de coeur, or to tell the truth, which will scarcely be believed, a vanity of showing my parts in courtship, particularly my abilities at a billet-doux, which I always piqued myself upon, made me lay siege to her ; and when, as I always do in my foolish gallantries, I had battered myself into a very warm affection for her, she told me one day, in a flag of truce, that her fortress had been for some time before the rightful property of another ; but, with the greatest friendship and polite- ness, she offered me every alliance except actual pos- session. I found out afterwards that what she told me of a pre-engagement was really true ; but it cost me some heart-aches to get rid of the affau*. 1 have even tried to imitate, in this extempore thing, that u'regulax'ity in the rhyme, which, when judiciously done, has such a fine effect on the ear. PRAGMEXT. ** Although my bed were in yon rauir," &c.* * [See Poetioal Works, p. W.] September. There is a fragment in imitation of an old Scotcli song, well known among the country ingle sides. I camiot tell the name, neither of the song nor the tune, but they are in fine unison with one another. By the way, these old Scottish airs are so nobly sentimental, that when one would compose to them, to " south the tune," as our Scotch phrase is, over and over, is the readiest way to catch the inspiration, and raise the bard into that glorious enthusiasm so strongly characteristic of our old Scotch poetry. I shall here set down one vex'se of the piece mentioned above, both to mark the song and tune I mean, and likewise as a debt I owe to the author, as the repeating of that verse has lighted up my flame a thousand times : — When clouds in skies do come together To hide the brightness of the weather. There will surely be some pleasant weather When a' their storms are past and gone.* Though fickle fortune has deceived me, She promis'd fair and perform'd but ill ; Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav'd me. Yet I bear a heart shall support me stilU I'll act with prudence as far's I'm able. But u. success I must never find, Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome, I'll meet thee -with an undaunted mind. The above was an extempore, under the pressure of a heavy train of misfortunes, which, indeed, threatened to undo me altogether. It was just at the close of that dreadful period mentioned p. viii. ;f and though the weather has brightened up a little with me, yet there has always been since a tempest brewing round me in the grim sky of futurity, which I pretty plainly see will some time or other, perhaps ere long, overwhelm me, and drive me into some doleful dell, to pine in solitary, squahd wretchedness. However, as I hope my poor country muse, who, all rustic, awkward, and unpolished I as she is, has more charms for me than any other of I the pleasures of life beside — as I hope she will not then desert me, I may even then learn to be, if not happy, at least easy, and south a sang to soothe my misery. 'Twas at the same time I set about composing an air in the old Scotch style. I am not musical scholar enough to prick down my tune properly, so it can never see the light, and perhaps 'tis no great matter, but the following were the verses I composed to suit it : — Oh raging fortune's withering blast Has laid my leaf full low, O ! Oh ragmg fortune's withering blast Has laid my leaf full low, ! My stem was fair, my bud was green, My blossom sweet did blow, ; The dew fell fresh, the sun rose mild, And made my bi^anches grow, 0. But luckless fortune's northern storms Laid a' my blossoms low, 0, But luckless fortune's northern storms Laid a' my blossoms low, 0. The tune consisted of three parts, so that the above verses just went tlirough the whole air. October, 1785. If ever any young man, in the vestibule of the world, chance to throw his eye over these pages, let him pay a wai'm attention to the following observations, as I assure him they are the fruit of a poor devil's dear-bought experience. I have literally, like that great poet and great gallant, and, by consequence, that great fool Solomon, " turned my eyes to behold madness and folly." Nay, I have, with all the ardour of lively, fanciful, and whimsical imagination, accompanied with * Alluding to the misfortunes he feelingly laments before this verse. (This is the author's note.) I t [Reference is here made to that part of the poet's manuscript 1 dated .March 1734.] 122 BURNS^S PROSE WORKS. » warm, feeling, poetic heart, shaken hands with their intoxicating friendship. In the first place, let my pupU, as he tenders his own peace, keep up a regular, warm intercourse with the Deity. * -^ * [Here the MS. closes abruptly.'] SECOND COMMON-PLACE BOOK, BEGUN IN EDINBURGH, APRIL 1787. As I have seen a good deal of human life in Edinburgh, a great many characters which are new, to one bred up in the shades of life as I have been, I am determined to take down my remarks on the spot. Gray observes, in a letter to Mr Palgrave, that " haK a word fixed upon or near the spot, is worth a cart-load of recollection." I don't know how it is -n-ith the world in general, but with me, making my remarks is by no means a solitary pleasure. I want some one to laugh with me, some one to be grave with me, some one to please me and help my discrimination with his or her own. remark ; and at times, no doubt, to admire my aeuteness and pene- tration. The world are so busied with selfish pursuits, ambition, vanity, interest, or pleasure, that very few think it worth their while to make any observation on what passes around them, except where that observa- tion is a sucker or branch of the darling plant they are rearing in their fancy. Nor am I sure, notwithstanding all the sentimental flights of novel-writers, and the sage philosophy of moraUsts, whether we are capable of so intimate and cordial a coalition of friendship, as that one man may pour out his bosom, liis every thought and floating fancy, his very inmost soul, with unreserved confidence to another, without hazard of losing part of that respect which man deserves from man ; or, from the unavoidable imperfections attending human nature, of one day repenting his confidence. For these reasons, I am determined to make these pages my confidant. I will sketch every character that any way strikes me, to the best of my power, with un- shrinking justice. I will insert anecdotes, and take down remarks, in the old law phrase, zoithout feiid or favour. Where I hit on any thing clever, ray own applause will in some measure feast my vanity ; and, begging Patroclus' and Achates' pardon, I think a lock and key a security at least equal to the bosom of any friend whatever. My owTi private story likewise, my love-adventures, my rambles ; the frowns and smiles of fortune on my hardship ; my poems and fragments that must never see the hght, shaU be occasionally inserted. In short, never did four shillings pui'chase so much friendship, since confidence went first to market, or honesty was set up to sale. is dm; he meets at a great man's table a Squire Some- thmg, or a Sir Somebody; he knows the noble landlord, at heai-t, gives the bard, or whatever he is, a share of his good wishes beyond perhaps any one at table ; yet how will it mortify him to see a fellow, whose abilities would scarcely have made an eightpenny ta ilor, and whose heart is not worth three farthmgs, meet with attention and notice, that are withheld from the son of genius and poverty ? The noble Glencairn has wounded me to the soul here, because I dearly esteem, respect, and love him. He showed so much attention, engrossing attention, one day, to the only blockhead at table (the whole company consisted of his lordship, dunderpate, and myself), that I was within half a point of throwing down my gage of contemptuous defiance ; but he shook my hand, and looked so benevolently good at parting. God bless him I though I should never see him more, I shall love him until my d;ying day ! I am pleased to think I am so capable of the throes of gratitude, as I am miserably deficient in some other virtues. With Dr Blair I am more at ease. I never respect him with humble veneration; but when he kindly interests himself in my welfare, or still more, when he descends from liis pinnacle, and meets me on equal groimd in conversation, my heart overflows with what is called liking. When he neglects me for the mere carcase of greatness, or when his eye measures the difference of our points of elevation, I say to myself, with scarcely any emotion, what do I care for him, or his pomp eilJier? It is not easy forming an exact judgment of any one ; but, in my opinion, Dr Blair is merely an astonishing proof of what industry and appheation can do. Natural parts like his are frequently to be met with ; his vanity is proverbially knowm among his acquaintance : but he is justly at the head of what may be called fine writmg ; and a critic of the first, the very first, rank in prose ; even in poetry, a bard of Nature's making can only take the pas of him. He has a heart, not of the very finest water, but far from being an ordinary one. In short, he is truly a worthy and most respectable character. To these seemingly invidious, but too just ideas of human friendship, I would cheei'fully make one excep- tion — the connection between two persons of different sexes, when their interests are united and absorbed by the tie of love — "VSTien thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part, And each warm wish springs mutual from the heai-t. There, confidence, confidence that exalts them the more in one another's opinion, that endears them the more to each other's hearts, imreservedly "reigns and revels." But this is not my lot, and in my situation, if I am wise (which, by the bye, I have no great chance of being), my fate should be cast with the Psalmist's sparrow, " to watch alone on the house-tops"— Oh, the pity ! I never spent an afternoon among great folks with half that pleasure as when I had the honour of paying my devoirs to that plain, honest, worthy man, the pro- fessor (Dugald Stewart). I would be dehghted to see him perform acts of kindness and friendship, though I were not the object — he does it with such a grace. I think his character, divided into ten parts, stands thus : four parts Socrates, four parts Nathaniel, and two parts Shakspeare's Brutus. There are few of the sore evils under the sun give me more uneasiness and chagrin, than the comparison how a man of genius, nay, of avowed worth, is received ever)- where, with the reception w^hich a mere ordinary character, decorated with the trappings and futUe dis- tinctions of fortune, meets. I imagine a man of abiUties, his breast glowing with honest pride, conscious that men are born equ'al, still giving honour to ivhom honour The whining cant of love, except in real passion, and by a masterly hand, is to me as insufferable as the preaching cant of old father Smeaton, whig-minister at Kilmaurs. Darts, flames, Cupids, loves, graces, and all that farrago, are just a Mauchline . . . . — a senseless rabble. I glory in being a poet, and I want to be thought a wise man. I would fondly be generous, and I wish to be rich. After all, I am afraid I am a lost subject. " Some folk hae a hantle o' fauts, and I'm but a ne'er- do-weel." To close this melancholy reflection, I shall just add a piece of devotion conmaonly known in Garrick by the title of the « Wabster's Grace"— Some say we're thieves, and e'en sae are we ! Some say we lie, and e'en sae do we ! Gude forgie us ! and I hope sae will he ! Up .'—and to your looms, lads ! I have this moment got a hint « ♦ * * ♦ I fear I am something hke undone ; but I hope for the best. Come, stubborn pride and unshrinking re- solution ! accompany me through this, to me, miserable world ! You innst Sint r|p<;ert me. Your friendship, SECOND COMMON-PLACE BOOK. 123 I tliink, I can count on, though I should date my letters | from a marching regiment. Early in life, and all my life, I reckoned on a recruiting drum as my forlorn hope. Life at present pre^nts me with but a melan- choly path. I have lately been much mortified with contemplating an unlucky imperfection in the very framing and con- struction of my soul ; namely, a blundering inaccuracy of her olfactory organs in hitting the scent of craft or design in my fellow-creatures. I do not mean any compliment to my ingenuousness, or to hint that the defect is in consequence of the unsuspicious simpHcity of conscious truth and honour. I take it to be, in some way or other, an imperfection in the mental sight ; or, metaphor apart, some modification of dulness. In two or three small instances, lately, I have been most shame- fully out. An old man's dying, except he has been a very bene- volent character, or in some particular situation of Hfe, that the welfare of the poor or the helpless depended on him, I think an event of the most ti'ifling moment to the world. Man is naturally a kind, benevolent ani- mal ; but he is dropt into such a needy situation here in this vexatious world, and has such a whoreson, hungry, growling, multiplying pack of necessities, ap- petites, passions, and desires about him, ready to devour him for want of other food, that, in fact, he must lay aside Ms cares for others, tliat he may look properly to him- self. I am more and more pleased with the step I took respecting my Jean. Two things, from my happy ex- perience, I set down as apophthegms in life. A wife's head is immaterial compared with her- heart;* and virtue's (for wisdom, what poet pretends to it ?) " ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." brother-moi"tals should disturb the selfish apathy of our souls ! I have every possible reverence for the much-talked- of world beyond the grave ; and I wish that which piety believes, and virtue deserves, may be all matter of fact. Strong pride of reasoning, with a little aflfectation of singularity, may naislead the best of hearts. I, likewise, in the pride of despising old women's stories, ventured in " the daring path Spinosa trod ;" but experience of the weakness, not the strength, of human powers, made me glad to grasp at revealed religion. Poets, of all mankind, feel most forcibly the powers of beauty. If they are really poets of Nature's making, their feelings must be finer, and their taste more deli- cate, than those of most of the world. In the cheerful bloom of spring, or the pensive mildness of autumn, the grandeur of summer, or the hoary majesty of winter, the poet feels a charm unknowTi to the rest of his species. Even the sight of a fine flower, or the company of a fine woman (by far the finest part of God's works below), have sensations for the poetic heart that the herd of mankind are strangers to. I like to have quotations for every occasion : they give one's ideas so pat, and save one the trouble of finding expression adequate to one's feelings. I think it is one of the greatest pleasures attending a poetic genius, that we can give our woes, cares, joys, loves, &c. an embodied form in verse ; which, to me, is ever immediate ease. Goldsmith says finely of his muse— - ThOTi soiirce of all my bliss and all my woe : That found me poor at fibrst, and keep'st me so. What pleasure is in the power of the fortunate and happy, by their notice and patronage, to brighten the countenance and glad the heart of depressed worth ! I am not so angry >vith mankind for their deaf economy of the purse. The goods of this world cannot be divided %vithout being lessened ; but why be a niggard of that which bestows bless on a fellow-creature, yet takes nothing from our o\vn means of enjojTnent? We wrap ourselves up in the cloak of our own better fortune, and turn away our eyes, lest the wants and woes of our * [It is really amusing to observe how anxious the poet has been to reconcile himself and his friends to his marrjing a woman of homely understanding and rustic manners. In a letter to Mrs Dunlop, it drives him into a frantic tirade against all those refinements which constitute the lady— refinements of which he had practically expressed his admiration by his relish of the society of Miss Chalmers, Mrs M'Lehose, Miss Hamilton, Mrs Dimlop, and many others. His whole conduct on this point only manifests, that when, after some experience of Edinburgh society, he had to content himself vnth his village mistress, he did not make up his mind to the union without some degree of soreness, and that the cause of this soreness was his preference of those very elegances in the female character which he affected to con- demn. Under no other feeling, perhaps, could so sensible a man as Bums have expressed disregard for so important a matter as the intellect of the woman who was to be his wife and the mother of his children.] What a creature is man ! A little alarm last night, and to-day, that I am mortal, has made such a revolu- tion in my spirits ! There is no philosophy, no divinity, that comes half so much home to the mind. I have no idea of courage that braves Heaven : 'tis the wild ra\dng3 of an imaginary hero in Bedlam. aiy favom'ite feature in ]\Iilton's Satan, is his manly fortitude in supporting what cannot be remedied — iu short, the wild, broken fragments of a noble, exalted mind in ruins. I meant no more by saying he waa a favourite hero of mine.* I am just risen from a two-hours' bout after supper, with sUly or sordid souls, who could relish nothing in common with me — but the port. " One." — 'Tis now " witching time of night ;" and whatever is out of joint in the foregoing scrawl, impute it to enchantments and spells ; for I can't look over it, but will seal it up directly, as I don't care for to-morrow's criticisms on it. We ought, v.hen we wish to be economists in happi- ness, we ought, in the first place, to fix the standard of our own character; and when, on fuU examination, we know where we stand, and how much groimd we occupy, let us contend for it as property ; and those who seem to doubt, or deny us what is justly ours, let us either pity their prejudices, or despise their judg- ment. I know you will say this is self-conceit ; but I call it self-knowledge : the one is the overweening opinion of a fool who fancies himself to be what he wishes himself to be thought ; the other is the honest justice that a man of sense, who has thoroughly examined the subject, owes to himself. Without this standard, this column, in our mind, we are perpetually at the mercy of the petulance, the mistakes, the prejudices, nay, the very wealcness and wickedness, of our fellow-creatures. Away, then with disquietudes! Let us pray with the honest weaver of Kilbarchan, " L — d, send us a guid conceit o' Qursel I" Or in the words of the auld sang, AVho does me disdain, I can scorn them again. And I'll never mind any such foes. Your thoughts on rehgion shall be welcome. You may perhaps distrust me when I say 'tis also ?ny favourite topic ; but mine is the reUgion of the bosom. I hate * [This, and some of the ensuing paragraphs, appear to be the first draughts of certain passages in the poet's letters to Clarinda ' and others.] 124 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. I the very idea of a controversial divinity ; as I firmly believe that every honest, upright man, of whatever sect, will be accepted of the Deity. I despise the super- stition of a fanatic, but I love the religion of a man. Why have I not heard from you ? To-day I well ex- pected it ; and before supper, when a letter to me was announced, my heart danced with rapture : but behold ! 'twas some fool who had taken it into his head to turn poet, and made me an offering of the first fruits of his nonsense. I believe there is no holding converse, or carrying on correspondence, with an amiable fine woman, without some mixture of that delicious passion, whose most de- voted slave I have more than once had the honour of being : but why be hurt or offended on that account ? Can no honest man have a prepossession for a fine woman, but he must run his head against an inti'igue? Take a little of the tender witchcraft of love, and add to it the generous, the honourable sentiments of manly friendship ; and I know but one more delightful morsel, which few, few in any rank ever taste. Such a compo- sition is like adding cream to strawberries — it not only gives the fruit a moi'e elegant richness, but has a peculiar deliciousness of its own. Nothing astonishes me more when a little sickness clogs the wheel of life, than the thoughtless career we run in the hour of health. " None saitli where is God, my maker, that giveth songs in the night : who teacheth us more knowledge than the beasts of the field, and more understanding than the fowls of the air." I had a letter from my old friend a long while ago, but it was so dry, so distant, so like a card to one of his clients, that I could scarce bear to read it. He is a good, honest fellow ; and can write a friendly letter, which would do equal honour to his head and his heart, as a whole sheaf of his letters I have by me will witness ; and though fame does not blow her ti'umpet at my ap- proach now, as she did then, when he first honoured me with his friendship,* yet I am as proud as ever ; and when I am laid in my grave, I wish to be stetched at my full length, that I may occupy every inch of ground which I have a right to. You would laugh, were you to see me where I am just now: — Here am I set, a solitary hermit in the solitary room of a solitai'y inn, with a solitary bottle of wine by me — as grave and as stupid as an owl — but like that owl, still faithful to my old song ; in confirmation of which, my dear * * * *^f here is your good health ! May the hand-wal'd benisons o' Heaven bless your bonnie face ; and the wratch wha skellies at your weel- fare, may the auld tinkler deil get him to clout his rotten heart ! Amen ! I mentioned to you my letter to Dr Moore, giving an account of my life : it is truth, every word of it ; and will give you the just idea of a man whom you have honoured with your friendship. I wish you to see me as I am. I am, as most people of my trade are, a strange tvill o' wisp being, the victim, too frequently, of much imprudence and many follies. My great constituent elements are pride and passion. The first I have endeavoured to humanise into integrity and honour; the last makes me a devotee to the warmest degree of enthusiasm, in love, religion, or friendship — either of them, or all together, as I happen to be inspired. What trifling silliness is the childish fondness of the every-day children of the world ! 'Tis the unmeaning toying of the younglings of the fields and forests ; but where sentiment and fancy unite their sweets, where * Alluding to the time of his first appearance in Edinburgh. I [Mrs M'Lehose is here meant.] taste and delicacy refine, where wit adds the flavour, and good sense gives strength and spirit to all, what a delicious draught is the hour of tender endearment !— beauty and grace in the arms of truth and honour, in all the luxury of mutual love ! Innocence Looks gaily-smiling on ; while rosy Pleasure Hides young Desire amid her flowery wreath, And pours her cup luxuriant ; mantling high The sparkling heavenly vintage. Love and Bliss ! Those of either sex, but particularly the female, who are lukewarm in that most important of all things, religion — " Oh my soul, come not thou into their secret !" I will lay before you the outlines of my belief. He, who is our author and preserver, and will one day be our judge, must foe (not for his sake in the way of duty, but from the native impulse of our hearts) the object of our reverential awe and grateful adoration : He is almighty and all-bounteous ; we are weak and dependent : hence prayer, and every other sort of devotion. " He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to everlasting life ;" consequently it must be in evei'y one's power to embrace his offer of " everlasting life ;" otherwise he could not, in justice, condemn those who did not. A mind pervaded, actuated, and governed by purity, truth, and charity, though it does not merit heaven, yet is an absolutely necessary prerequisite, without which heaven can neither be obtained nor en- joyed ; and, by divine promise, such a mind shall never fail of attaining " everlasting life :" hence the impure, the deceiving, and the uncharitable, exclude themselves from eternal bliss, by their unfitness for enjoying it. The Supreme Being has put the immediate administra- tion of all this, for wise and good ends known to himself, into the hands of Jesus Christ, whose relation to him we cannot comprehend, but whose relation to us is a Guide and Saviour ; and who, except for our own ob- stinacy and misconduct, will bring us all, through various ways, and by various means, to bliss at last. These are my tenets, my friend. My creed is pretty nearly expressed in the last clause of Jamie Dean's grace, an honest weaver in Ayrshire : " Lord grant that we may lead a guid life ! for a guid life makes a guid end, at least it helps weel !" I am an odd being : some yet unnamed feelings, things, not principles, but better than whims, carry me farther than boasted reason ever did a philosopher. There's naething like the honest nappy ! Whaur'U ye e'er see men sae happy, Or women sonsie, saft, an' sappy, 'Tween morn an' morn, As tliem wha like to taste the drappie In glass or horn ? I've seen me daez't upon a time : I scarce could wink or see a styme ; Just ae hauf mutchkin does me prime, Ought less is little, Then back I rattle on the rhyme As gleg's a whittle ! Coarse minds are not aware how much they injure the keenly-feeling tie of bosom -friendship, when in their foolish officiousness they mention what nobody cares for recollecting. People of nice sensibility and generous minds have a certain intrinsic dignity, that fires at being ti'ifled with, or lowered, or even too nearly approached. Some days, some nights, nay some hours, like the " ten righteous persons in Sodom," save the rest of the vapid, tiresome, miserable months and years of life. To be feelingly alive to kindness and to unkinduess, is a charming female character. SKCOND COMMOxX-PLACE BOOK. 125 I have a Httlc infinnity in my disposition, that where I fondly love or highly esteem, I cannot bear reproach. If I have robbed you of a friend, God forgive me : but be comforted : let us I'aise the tone of our feelings a little higher and bolder. A fellow- creature who leaves us, who spui'us us without just cause, though once our bosom friend — up with a little honest pride — let him A decent means of livelihood in the world, an ap- proving God, a peaceful conscience, and one firm ti-usty friend ; — can any body that has these be said to be unhappy ? The dignified and dignifying consciousness of an ho- nest man, and the well-grounded trust in approving Heaven, are tAvo most substantial sources of happiness. Give me, my Maker, to remember Thee ! Give me to feel *' another's woe ;" and continue with me that dear-loved friend that feels with mine ! Your religious sentiments I revere. If you have, on some suspicious evidence, from some lying oracle, learned that I despise or ridicule so sacredly important a matter as real religion, you have much misconstrued your friend. " I am not mad, most noble Festus !" Have you ever met a perfect character ? Do we not sometimes rather exchange faults than get rid of them ? For instance ; I am pex-haps tired Avith and shocked at a life, too much, the prey of giddy inconsistencies and thoughtless follies ; by degrees I groAv sober, prudent, and statedly pious — I say statedly, because the most unaffected devotion is not at all inconsistent with my first character. I join the world in congratulating myself on the happy change. But let me pry more narrowly into this affair ; have I, at bottom, any thing of a secret pride in these endoAvments and emendations ? have I nothing of a presbyterian sourness, a hypercri- tical severity, when I survey my less regular neighbours % In a Avord, have I missed all those nameless and num- berless modifications of indistinct selfishness, Avhich are so near our own eyes that Ave can scarce bring them within our sphere of vision, and which the known spot- less cambric of our character hides from the ordinary observer ? My definition of worth is short : truth and humanity respecting our fellow-creatures ; reverence and humility in the presence of that Being, my creator and pre- server, and who, I have every reason to believe, Avill one day be my judge. The first part of my definition is the creature of unbiassed instinct; the last is the child of after-reflection. Where I found these two essentials, I would gently note, and sligh^ mention any attendant flaws — flaws, the marks, the consequences of human nature. HoAv Avretehed is the condition of one Avho is haunted with conscious guilt, and trembling under the idea of dreaded vengeance ! And what a placid calm, Avhat a chai'ming secret enjoyment, it gives, to bosom the kind feelings of friendship, and the fond throes of love ! Out upon the tempest of anger, the acrimonious gall of fretful impatience, the sullen frost of loAvering resent- ment, or the corroding poison of Avithered envy ! They eat up the immortal part of man ! If they spent their fury only on the unfortunate objects of them, it Avould be something in their favour; but these miserable passions, master. like traitor Iscuriofc, betray tli-jir lord and Thou, Almighty Author of peace, and goodness, and love ! do thou give me the social heart that kindly tastes of every man's cup ! Is it a draught of joy ? — warm and open my heart to share it Avith cordial, unen vying re- joicing ! Is it the bitter potion of sorrow? — melt my heart Avith sincerely sympathetic Avoe ! Above all, do thou give me the manly mind, that resolutely exempli- fies, in life and manners, those sentiments which I would wish to be thought to possess ! The friend of my soul — there may I never deviate from the firmest fidehty, and most active kindness ! There may the most sacred, inviolate honour, the most faithful, kindling constancy, ever Avatch and animate my every thought and imagi- nation ! Did you ever meet with the folloAving lines spoken of religion : — 'Tis this, my friend, that streaks our morning bright ! 'Tis this that gilds the horror of our night ! When wealth forsakes us, and when friends are few ; AVhen friends are faithless, or Avhen foes pursue ; 'Tis this that wards the bloAv, or stills the smart, Disarms affliction, or repels its dart ; Within the breast bids purest raptures rise, Bids smiling conscience spread her cloudless skies. I met Avith these verses very early in life, and Avas so delighted Avith them that I have them by me, copied at school. I have heard and read a good deal of philosophy, benevolence, and greatness of soul : and Avhen rounded Avith the flourish of declamatory periods, or poured in the mellifluence of Parnassian measure, they have a tolerable effect on amusicalear ; butAvhenall these high- sounding professions are compared Avith the very act and deed, as it is usually performed, I do not think there is any thing in, or belonging to, human nature so badly disproportionate. In fact, were it not for a very few of our kind, among Avhom an honoured friend of mine — Avhom to you. Sir, I Avill not name — is a distinguished instance, the very existence of magnanimity, generosity, and all their bindred virtues, Avould be as much a question Avith metaphysicians as the existence of Avitch- craft. There is no time Avhen the conscious, thrilling chords of love and friendship giA^e such delight, as in the pensive hours of Avhat Thomson calls " philosophic melancholy." The family of misfortune, a numerous group of brothers and sisters ! They need a resting-place to their souls. Unnoticed, often condemned by the Avorld, in some de- gree, perhaps, condemned by themselves, they feel the full enjoyment of ardent love, delicate tender endear- ments, mutual esteem, and mutual reliance. In this light I have often admired religion. In pro- portion as we are Avrung Avith grief, or distracted Avith anxiety, the ideas of a compassionate Deity, an Almighty Protector, are doubly dear. I have been, this morning, taking a peep through, as Young finely says, " the dai'k postern of time long elapsed ;" 'tA\'as a rueful prospect ! What a tissue of thoughtlessness, weakness, and folly ! My life reminded me of a ruined temple. What strength, what propor- tion in some parts ! — what unsightly gaps, Avhat prostrate ruins in others ! I kneeled down before the Father of Mercies, and said, " Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." I rose, eased and strengthened. 126 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. MEMORANDA OF TOURS. BORDER TOUR: May 6— JuxNE 1, 1787.* Left Edinburgh (May 6, 1787) f — Lammermuir-hills miserably dreary, but at times very picturesque. Lanton- edge, a glorious view of the Merse — Reach Berry well J old Mr AinsUe an uncommon character; — his hobbies, agriculture, natural philosophy, and pohtics. In the iirst he is unexceptionably the clearest-headed, best- informed man I ever met with ; in the other two, very intelligent : — as a man of business he has uncommon merit, and by fairly deserving it has made a very decent independence. Mrs Ainslie, an excellent, sensible, cheer- ful, amiable old woman. Miss Ainslie — her person a little embonpoint J but handsome ; her face, particularly her eyes, fuU of sweetness and good humour — she unites three qualities rarely to be found together ; keen, sohd penetration; sly, witty observation and remark; and the gentlest, most unaffected female modesty. Douglas, a clever, fine, promising young fellow. The famUy- meeting with their brother, my compagnon de voyage, very charming; particularly the sister. The whole fanuly remarkably attached to their menials — Mrs A. fuU of stories of the sagacity and sense of the little girl in the kitchen. Mr A. high in the praises of an African, his house servant — all his people old in his service — Douglas's old nurse came to Berrywell yesterday to remmd them of its being his birth-day. A Mr Dudgeon, a poet at times, § a worthy remarkable character — natural penetration, a great deal of infor- mation, some genius, and extreme modesty. Sunday — Went to church at Dunseil — Dr Bowmaker a man of strong lungs and pretty judicious remark, but ill skilled in propriety, and altogether unconscious of his want of it. Monday, May 8. — Coldstream — went over to England — CornhUl — glorious river Tweed — clear and majestic • — fine bridge. Dine at Coldstream Avith Mr Ainslie and Mr Foreman — beat Mr F in a dispute about Vol- taire. Tea at Lennel House with Mr BrydoneU — Mr Brydone a most excellent heart, kind, joyous, and bene- volent, but a good deal of the French indiscriminate complaisance — from his situation past and present, an admirer of every thing that bears a splendid title, or that possesses a large estate — Mrs Brydone a most elegant woman in her person and manners ; the tones of her voice remarkably sweet — my reception extremely flattering — sleep at Coldstream. Tuesday. — Brealcfast at Kelso — charming situation of Kelso — fine bridge over the Tweed — enchanting views and prospects on both sides of the river, particularly * [Some extracts from the memoranda of this toiu" appear in the life of the poet by Dr Currie.] t [Bums was accompanied on this occasion by his young friend, Mr Robert Ainslie. The pair journeyed on horseback.] X [The residence of Sir Ainslie's father, a truly respectable person, who acted as land-steward on the estates of Lord Douglas, in Berwickshire.] § The author of the song, " The maid that tends the goats." II " During the discourse Bums produced a neat impromptu, conveying an elegant compliment to Miss Ainslie. Dr Bow- maker had selected a text of Scripture that contained a heavy denunciation against obstinate sinners. In the course of the sermon Bums observed the young lady turning over the leaves of her Bible, with much earnestness, in search of the text. He took out a slip of paper, and with a pencil wrote the following lines on it, which he immediately presented to her :— " Fair maid, you need not take the hint, Nor idle texts pursue : 'Twas guilty sinners that he meant— Not angels snch as yon \" Ceomek. . ^ [Patrick Brydone, Esq., author of the well-known tour in Sicily and Malta. His wife was a daughter of Principal Robert- son.] the Scotch side ; introduced to Mr Scott of the Royal Bank, an excellent modest fellow — fine situation of it ruins of Roxburgh Castle — a holly-bush growing where James II. of Scotland was accidentally killed by the burstmg of a cannon. A small old religious ruin and a fine old garden planted by the reHgious, rooted out and destroyed by an EngUsh Hottentot, a maitre d' hotel of the duke's, a Mr Cole — climate and soil of Berwickshire, and even Roxburghshire, superior to Ayrshire ^bad roads. Tm-nip and sheep husbandry,' their great im- provements — ]VIr M'Dowal, at Caverton Mill, a friend of Mr Ainslie's, with whom I dined to-day, sold his sheep, ewe and lamb together, at two guineas a-piece— wash their sheep before shearing — 7 or 81b. of washing wool in a fleece — low markets, consequently low rents — fine lands not above sixteen shillings a Scotch acre— mag- nificence of farmers and farm-houses — come up Teviot and up Jed to Jedburgh to lie, and so wish myself a good night. Wednesday. — Breakfast with Mr in Jedburgh a squabble between Mrs , a crazed, talkative slat- tern, and a sister of hers, an old maid, respecting a rehef minister — Miss gives Madam the lie ; and Madam, by way of revenge, upbraids her that she laid snareslo entangle the said minister, then a widower, in the net of matrimony — go about two miles out of Jedburgh to a roup of parks— -jneet a pohte soldier-like gentleman. Captain Rutherford, who had been many years through the wilds of America, a prisoner among the Indians- charming, romantic situation of Jedburgh, with gar- dens, orchards, &c. intermingled among the houses — fine old ruins — a once magnificent cathedral, and strong castle. All the towns here have the appearance of old, rude grandeur, but the people extremely idle — Jed a fine romantic little river. Dine with Captain Rutherford — ^the captain a polite fellow, fond of money in his farming way ; showed a particular respect to my hardship — ^his lady exactly a proper matrimonial second part for him. Miss Ru- therford a beautiful girl, but too far gone woman to expose so much of a fine swelling bosom — her face very fine. Return to Jedburgh — walk up Jed with some ladies to be shown Love-lane and Blackburn,two fairy scenes. Introduced to Mr Potts, writer, a very clever fellow ; and Mr Somerville, the clergyman of the place, a man, and a gentleman, but sadly addicted to punning. The walking party of ladies, Mrs and Miss her sister, before mentioned. N. B. — These two appear still more comfortably ugly and stupid, and bore me most shockineh^. Two Miss tolerably agreeable. Miss Hope, aTolerably pretty girl, fond of laughing and fun. Miss Lindsay, a good-humoured, amiable girl; rather short et embonpoint, but handsome, and extremely graceful — beautiful hazel eyes, full of spirit, and spark- ling with deUcious moisture — an engaging face — un tout ensemble that speaks her of the first order of female minds — her sister, a bonnie, strappin, rosy, sonsie lass. Shake myself loose, after several unsuccessful efforts, of Mrs and Miss , and, somehow or other, get hold of Miss Lindsay's arm. My heart is thawed into melting pleasure after being so long frozen up in the Greenland bay of indifierence, amid the noise and non- sense of Edinburgh. Miss seems very well pleased with my hardship's distinguishing her, and after some slight qualms, which I could easily mark, she sets the titter round at defiance, and kindly allows me to keep my hold ; and when parted by the ceremony of my in- troduction to Mr Somerville, she met me half, to resume my situation. Nota Bene — The poet within a point and a half of being in love — I am afraid my bosom its still nearlv as much tinder as ever. MEMORANDA OF TOURS. 127 The old, cross-grained, wliigglsh, ugly, slanderous Miss » , with all the poisonous spleen of a disappointed, ancient maid, stops me very unseasonably to ease her bursting breast, by falling abusively foul on the Miss Lindsays, particularly on my Duleinea ; — I hardly re- frain from cursing her to her face for daring to mouth her calumnious slander on one of the finest pieces of the workmanship of Almighty Excellence ! Sup at Mr 's ; vexed that the Miss Lindsays are not of the supper pai'ty, as they only are wanting. Sirs and Miss > still improve infernally on my hands. Set out next morning for Wauchope, the seat of my correspondent, Mrs Scott — breakfast by the way with Dr Elliot, an agreeable, good-hearted, climate-beaten, old veteran, in the medical line, now retired to a ro- mantic, but rather moorish place, on the banks of the ExDole — he accompanies us almost to Wauchope — we traverse the country to the top of Bochester, the scene of an old encampment, and Woolee Hill. Wauchope — Mr Scott exactly the figure and face commonly given to Sancho Panza — very shrewd in his farming matters, and not unfrequently stumbles on what may be called a strong thing rather than a good thing. Mrs Scott all the sense, taste, intrepidity of face, and bold, critical decision, which usually distinguish female authors. Sup with Mr Potts — agreeable party. Break- fast next morning with Mr SomervUle — the bruit of Miss Lindsay and my hardship, by means of the inven- tion and mahce of ]\Iiss . Mr Somerville sends to Dr Lindsay, begging him and family to breakfast if convenient, but at all events to send Miss Lindsay ; ac- cordingly. Miss Lindsay only comes. I find JMiss Liud- say would soon play the devil with me — I met ^vith some little flattering attentions from her. Mrs Somerville an excellent, motherly, agreeable woman, and a fine family. Mr Ainslie and Mrs S , junrs., with Mr , Miss Lindsay, and myself, go to see Esther, a very remarkable woman for reciting poetry of all kinds, and sometimes making Scotch doggerel herseK — she can repeat by heart almost every thing she has ever read, particularly Pope's Homer from end to end — has studied EucHd by herself, and, in short, is a woman of very extraordinary abilities. On conversing mth her, T find her fully equal to the character given of her.* She is very much flattered that I send for her, and that she sees a poet who has put out a book, as she says. She is, among other things, a great florist^ and is rather past the meridian of once celebrated beauty. I walk in Esther^s gai'deu with Miss Lindsay, and after some httle chit-chat of the tender kind, I presented her with a proof print of my nob, which she accepted with something more tender than gratitude. She told me many little stories which INIiss had retailed concerning her and me, mth prolonging pleasure — God bless her ! Was waited on by the magistrates, and presented with the freedom of the burgh.* Took farewell of Jedburgh, with some melancholy, disagi'eeable sensations. Jed, pure be thy crystal streams, and hallowed thy sylvan ban^! Sweet Isa- bella Lindsay, may peace dwell in thy bosom, unin- terrupted, except by the tumultuous throbbings of rapturous love ! That love-kindling eye must beam on another, not on me — that graceful form must bless another's arms, not mine ! Kelso. — Dine with the farmers' club — all gentlemen, talking of high matters — each of them keeps a hunter * This extraordinary woman then moved in a very humble walk of life— the wife of a common working gardener. She is still living ; and, if I am rightly informed, her time is principally occupied in her attentions to a little day-school, which not being sufficient for her subsistence, she is obliged to solicit the charity of her benevolent neighbours. ' •' Afi, who would love the lyre !" —Cromek, 1808. t [On this occasion the usual burgal treat of a riddU of claret was bestowed upon the bard, in the inn. Always jealous of his independence, he left the room before the feast was over, and endeavoured to induce the landlord to accept of pajTaent of the bill from liim. It is scarcely necessary to say that mine host knew too well what was befitting the dignity of the burgh, to take Burns's money.] from £30 to £50 value, and attends the fox-huntings in the county — go out with Mr Ker, one of the club, and a friend of Mr Ainslie's, to lie — Mr Ker, a most gentlemanly, clevei', handsome fellow, a widower with some fine children — his mind and manner astonishingly like my dear old friend Robert Muir, in Kihnamoclc — every thing in Mr Ker's most elegant — he ofiera to accompany me in my English tour. Dine with Sir Alexander Don — a pretty clever fellow, but far from being a match for his divine lady.* A very wet day * * *. Sleep at Stodrig again, and set out for Meh-ose — ^visit Dryburgh, a fine old ruined abbey — still bad weather — cross Leader, and come up Tweed to Melrose dine there, and visit that far-famed, glorious ruin — come to Selkirk, up Ettrick — the whole country hereabout, both on Tweed and Ettrick, remarkably stony. Monday. — Come to Inverleithing, a famous shaw, and in the vicinity of the palace of Traquair, where, having dined, and drunk some Gralloway-whey, I here remain till to-morrow — saw Elibanks and Elibraes, on the other side of the Tweed. Tuesday — Drank tea yesternight at Pirn, mth Mr Horsburgh. Breakfasted to-day ^vith Mr BaUantyne of HoUowlee. Proposal for a four-horse team, to con- sist of Mr Scott of "Wauchope, Fittieland ; Logan of Logan, Fittiefur ; Ballant;)Tie of HoUowlee, Forewynd ; Horsburgh of Horsburgh. Dine at a country inn, kept by a miller, in Earlston, the birth-place and residence of the celebrated Thomas a Rhymer — saw the ruins of his castle — come to Berrywell. Wednesday. — Dine at Dunse with the farmers' club company — inapossible to do them justice— Rev. Mr Smith a famous punster, and Mr Meikle a celebrated mechanic, and inventor of the thrashing-mill. Thurs- day, breakfast at BerryweU, and wallv into Dunse to see a famous knife made by a cutler there, and to be presented to an Itahan prince. A pleasant ride with my friend Mr Robert AinsHe, and his sister, to Mr Thomson's, a man who has newly commenced farmer, and has married a Miss Patty Grieve, formerly a flame of IMr Robert Ainslie's. Company — ]\Iiss Jacky Grieve, an amiable sister of Mrs Thomson's, and Mr Hood, an honest, worthy, facetious farmer in the neighbourhood. Friday. — Ride to Berwick — an idle town, I'udely picturesque. ]\Ieet Lord Errol in walking round the walls — his Lordship's flattering notice of me. Dine with Mr Clunzie, merchant — nothing particular in company or conversation. Come up a bold shore, and over a -wild country, to Eyemouth — sup and sleep at Mr Grieve's. Saturday. — Spend the day at Sir Grieve's — made a royal arch mason of St Abb's Lodge.f Mr Wilham Grieve, the eldest brother, a joyous, warm-hearted, jolly, clever fellow — takes a heaity glass, and sings a good song. Mr Robert, his brother, and partner in trade, a good fellow, but says little. Take a sail after diimer. Fishing of all kinds pays tythes at Eyemouth. Sunday. — A Mr Robinson, brewer at Ednam, sets out with us to Dunbar. The Miss Grieves very good girls. My hardship's heai-t got a brush from Miss Betsy. Sir William Grieve's attachment to the family-circle ; so fond, that when he is out, which by the bye is often the case, he cannot go to bed till he see if all his sisters are sleeping well. Pass the famous Abbey of Cold- ingham, and Pease-bridge. Call at Mr Sherifi"'s, where * [Lady Harriet Don, sister of the Eai-1 of Glencaim.] t The entry made on this occasion in the Lodge books ia as follows : — '• Eyemouth, mh Blay, 1787- At a general encampment held this day, the following brethren were made Royal Arch Masons, viz.— Robert Burns, from thu Lodge of St James's, Tarbolton, Ayrshire, and Robert AinsUe, from the Lodge of St Luke's, Edinburgh, by James Carmichael, Wm. Grieve, Daniel Dow, John Clay, Robert Grieve, &c. &c. Robert Ainslie paid one guinea admission dues ; but on accoimt of R. Burns's remarkable poetical genius, the encampment una- nimously agreed to admit him gratis, and considered themselves honoured by having a man of such shining abilities for one of their companions." 128 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. Mr A. and I dine. Mr S. talkative and conceited. I talic of love to Nancy the whole evening, while her brother escorts home some companions like himself. Sir James Hall of Dunglass, having heard of my being in the neighboui'hood, comes to Mr Sheriff's to break- fast — takes me to see his fine scenery on the stream of Dunglass — Dunglass the most romantic sweet place I ever saw — Sir James and his lady a pleasant happy couple. He points out a walk for which he has an uncommon respect, as it was made by an aunt of his, to whom he owes much. Miss will accompany me to Dunbar, by way of making a parade of me as a sweetheart of hers, among her relations. She mounts an old cart-horse, as huge and as lean as a house ; a rusty old side-saddle without girth, or stirrup, but fastened on with an old pillion- girth — herself as fine as hands could make her, in cream-coloured riding clothes, hat and feather, &c. I, ashamed of my situation, ride like the devil, and almost shake her to pieces on old Jolly — get rid of her by refusing to call at her uncle's with her. Passed through the most glorious corn country I ever saw, till I reach Dunbar, a neat little town. Dine with Provost Fall, an eminent merchant, and most respect- able character, but undescribable, as he exhibits no marked traits. Mrs Fall a genius in painting ; fully more clever in the fine arts and sciences than my friend Lady Wauchope, without her consummate as- surance of her own abilities. Call with ]\Ir Robinson (who, by the bye, I find to be a worthy, much respected man, very modest ; warm, social heart, which with less good sense than Ms would be, perhaps, with the children of prim precision and pride, rather inimical to that respect which is man's due from man) — with him I call on Miss Clarke, a maiden, in the Scotch phrase, " guid enough, but no brent new ;" a clever woman, with toler- able pretensions to remark and wit ; while time had blown the blushing bud of bashful modesty into the flower of easy confidence. She wanted to see what sort of raree shoiv an author was ; and to let him know, that though Dunbar Avas but a little town, yet it was not destitute of people of parts. Breakfast next morning at Skateraw, at Mr Lee's, a farmer of great note. Mr Lee an excellent, hospi- table, social fellow, rather oldish — Avarm-hearted and chatty — a most judicious, sensible farmer. Mr Lee detains me till next morning. Company at dinner — My rev. acquaintance Dr Bowmaker, a reverend, rat- tling old fellow. Two sea lieutenants ; a cousin of the landlord's, a fellow whose looks are of that kind which deceived me in a gentleman at Kelso, and has often deceived me : a goodly handsome figure and face, which incline one to give them credit for parts which they have not. Mr Clai'ke a much cleverer fellow, but whose looks a little cloudy, and his appearance rather ungainly, with an every-day observer may prejudice the opinion against him. Dr Brown, a medical young gentleman from Dunbar, a fellow whose face and man- ners are open and engaging. Leave Skateraw for Dunse next day, along with collector , a lad of slender abilities, and bashfully diffident to an extreme. Found Miss Ainslie, the amiable, the sensible, the good-humoured, the sweet Miss Ainslie, all alone at Berrywell. Heavenly powers, who know the weakness of human hearts, support mine ! What happiness must I see, only to remind me that I cannot enjoy it ! Lammer-muir hills, from East Lothian to Dunse, very wild. Dine with the farmers' club at Kelso. Sir John Hume and Mr Lumsden there, but nothing worth re- membrance- when the following circumstance is con- sidered — I walk into Dunse before dinner, and out to Berrywell in the evening with Miss Ainslie — how well- bred, how frank, how good she is ! Charming Rachael ! may thy bosom never be wrung by the evils of this life of sorrows, or by the villany of this world's sons ! Thursday. — IMr Ker and I set out to dinner at Mr Hood's, on our way to England. I am taken extremely ill with strong feverish symp- toms, and take a servant of JMr Hood's to watch me all night — embittering remorse kicares my fancy at the gloomy forebodings of deatli. I am determined to live for the future in such a manner as not to be scared at the approach of death — I am sure I could meet him with indifference, but for " the something beyond the grave." Mr Hood agrees to accompany us to England if we will wait till Sunday. Friday — I go with Mr Hood to see a roup of an un- fortunate farmer's stock — rigid economy, and decent industry, do you preserve me from being the principal dramatis persona in such a scene of horror ! Meet my good old friend Mr Ainslie, who calls on Mr Hood in the evening to take farewell of my bard- ship. This day I feel myself warm with sentiments of gratitude to the Great Preserver of men, who has kindly restored me to health and strength once more. A pleasant walk with my young fi-iend, Douglas Ainslie, a sweet, modest, clever young fellow. Sunday — Cross Tweedy and traverse the moors, through a wild country, till I reach Alnwick — Alnwick Castle, a seat of the Duke of Northumberland, fur- nished in a most princely manner. A Mr Wilkin, agent of his grace's, shows us the house and policies. Mr Wilkin a discreet, sensible, ingenious man. Monday. — Come, still through by-ways, to Wark- worth, where we dine. Hermitage and old castle. Warkworth situated very picturesque, with Coquet Island, a small rocky spot, the seat of an old monas- tery, facing it a little in the sea, and the small but romantic river Coquet running through it. Sleep at Morpeth, a pleasant enough little town, and on next day to Newcastle. Meet with a very agreeable, sensible fellow, a Mr Cha.ttox, who shows us a great many civilities, and who dines and sups with us. Wednesday — Left Newcastle early in the morning, and rode over a fine country to Hexham to breakfast — from Hexham to Wardrue, the celebrated Spa, where we slept, Thursday— resich. Longtown to dine, and part there Avith my good friends, Messrs Hood and Ker. A hiring day in Longtown. I am uncommonly happy to see so many young folks enjoying life. I come to Car- lisle. (]\Ieet a strange enough romantic adventure by the way, in failing in with a girl and her married sister — the girl, after some overtures of gallantry on my side, sees me a little cut with the bottle, and offers to take me in for a Gretna-green affair. I, not being quite such a gull as she imagines, make an appointment with her, by way of vive la bagatelle, to hold a conference on it when we reach town. I meet her in town, and give her a brush of caressing, and a bottle of cider ; but finding herself un pen trompe in her man, she sheers off".) Next day I meet my good friend, Mr Mitchell, and Avalk with him round the town and its environs, and through his printing-woi'ks, &c, — four or five hun- dred people employed, many of them women and chil- dren. Dine with Mr Mitchell, and leave Carlisle. Come by the coast to Annan. Overtaken on the wa}'^ by a curious old fish of a shoemaker, and miner, from Cumberland mines. [Here the manuscript abruptly terminates. 1 HIGHLAND TOUR: Aug. 25— Sept. 16,1787. 25th August, 1787. I LEAVE Edinburgh for a northern tour, in company witl> my good friend, Mr Nicol, whose originality of humour promises me much entertainment, Linlithgow — a fertile improved country — West Lothian. The more elegance and luxury among the farmers, I alway.s observe, in equal proportion, the rudeness and stupidity of the peasantry. This remark I have made all over the Lothians, Merse, Roxburgh, &c. For this, among other reasons, I think that a man of romantic taste, a " Man of Feeling," will be better pleased with the poverty, but intelligent minds of the peasantry in Ayi"- shire (peasantry they are all below the justice of peace) than the opulence of a club of Merse farmers, when at the same time he considers the vandalism of their plough-folks, &c, I carry this idea so far, that an unenclosed, half-improven country is to me actually MEMORANDA OF TOURS. 129 more agreeable, and gives me more pleasure as a pro- spect, than a country cultivated like a garden. Soil about Linlithgow light and thin. The town carries the appearance of rude, decayed grandeur — charmingly rural, retii'ed situation. The old royal palace a toler- ably fine, but melancholy ruin — sweetly situated on a small elevation, by the brink of a loch. Shown the room where the beautiful injured Mary Queen of Scots was born — a pretty good old Gothic church. The infa- mous stool of repentance standing, in the old Romish way, on a lofty situation. What a poor, pimping business, is a Presbyterian place of worship ; dirty, narrow, and squalid ; stuck in a corner of old popish grandeur such as Linlithgow, and much more ^lelrose ! Ceremony and show, if judi- ciously thrown in, absolutely necessary for the bulk of mankind, both in religious and civil matters. Dine. Go to my friend Smith's at Avon print-field — find nobody but Mrs Miller, an agreeable, sensible, modest, good body, as useful but not so ornamental as Fielding's Miss Western — not rigidly polite a la Francais, but easy, hospitable, and housewifely. An old lady from Paisley, a Mrs Lawson, whom I promise to call for in Paisley — like old lady W , and still more like Mrs C , her conversation is pregnant with strong sense and just remark, but like them, a certain air of self-importance and a duresse in the eye, seem to indicate, as the. Ayrshire wife observed of her cow, that " she had a mind o' her ain." Pleasant view of Dunfermline, and the rest of the fertile coast of Fife, as we go down to that dirty, ugly place, Borrowstoness — see a horse-race, and call on a friend of Mr Nicol's, a Bailie Cowan, of whom I know too little to attempt his portrait. Come through the rich carse of Falkirk to pass the night. Falkirk nothing remarkable except the tomb of Sir John the Graham, over which, in the succession of time, four stones have been placed. Camelon, the ancient metropolis of the Picts, now a small village in the neighbourhood of Falkirk. Cross the grand canal to Carron. Come past Larbert, and admire a fine monument of cast-iron erected by Mr Bruce, the African traveller, to his wife. Pass Dunipace, a place laid out with fine taste — a charming amphitheatre bounded by Denny village, and pleasant seats down the way to Dunipace. The Carron running down the bosom of the whole, makes it one of the most charming little prospects I have seen. Dine at Auchinbowie — Mr Monro an excellent worthy old man — Miss Monro an amiable, sensible, sweet young woman, much resembling Mrs Grierson. Come to Ban- nockburn. Shown the old house where James III. finished so tragically his unfortunate life. The field of Bannockburn — the hole where glorious Bruce set his standard. Here no Scot can pass uninterested. I fancy to myself that I see my gallant, heroic country- men, coming o'er the hill and down upon the plunderers of their country, the murderers of their fathers ; noble revenge, and just hate, glowing in every vein, striding more and more eagerly as they approach the oppressive, insulting, blood-thirsty foe ! I see them meet in glori- ously-triumpliant congratulation on the victorious field, exulting in their heroic royal leader, and rescued liberty and independence ! Come to Stirling. Monday. — Go to Harvieston, Go to see Caudron Linn, and Rumbling Brig, and Deil's Mill. Return in the evening. Supper — Messrs Doig, the schoolmaster ; Bell ; and Captain Forrester of the castle — Doig a queerish figure, and something of a pedant— Bell a joyous fellow, who sings a good song. Forrester a merry swearing kind of man, with a dash of the sodger, Tuesday morning Breakfast with Captain Forrester — Ochil hills — Devon river — Forth and Teith — Allan rivei' — Strathallan, a fine country, but little improved — Cross Earn to Crieff" — Dine and go to Arbruchil — cold reception at Arbruchil — a most romantically plea- sant ride up Earn, by Auchtertyre and Comrie, to Ar- bruchil — Sup at Crieff'. Wednesday morning. — Leave Crieff" — Glen Amend — Amond River — Ossian's grave — Loch Fruoeh — Glen- I quaich — Landlord and landlady remarkable characters — Taymouth — described in rhyme — Meet the Hon. Charles Townshend. Thursday Come down Tay to Dunkeld — Glenlyon House — Lyon river — Druid's Temple — three circles of stones — the outermost sunk — the sec^md has thirteen stones remaining — the innermost has eight — two large detached ones like a gate, to the south-east — say prayers in it — pass Taybi-idge — Aberfeldy — described in rhyme — Castle Menzies — Inver — Dr Stewart — Sup. Friday. — Walk with Mrs Stewart and Beard to Bir- nam top — fine prospect down Tay — Craigieburn hills — hermitage on the Branwater, with a picture of Ossian — breakfast with Dr Stewart — Neil Gow plays — a short, stout-built, honest Highland figure, with his greyish hair shed on his honest social brow — an interesting face, marking strong sense, kind openheartedness, mixed with unmistrusting simplicity — visit his house — MargetGow. Ride up Tummel river to Blair — Fascally a beauti- ful romantic nest — wild grandeur of the pass of Killi- crankie — visit the gallant Lord Dundee's stone. Blair — Sup with the Duchess — easy and happy from the manners of the family — confirmed in my good opi- nion of my friend Walker. Saturday. — Visit the scenes round Blair — fine, but spoiled with bad taste — Tilt and Gaii'ie rivers — Falls on the Tilt — heather seat — ride in company with Sir William Murray, and Mr Walker, to Loch Tummel — meanderings of the Rannach, which runs through quon- dam Struan Robertson's estate from Loch Rannach to Loch Tummel — dine at Blair. Company — General Murray Captain Murray, an honest tar Sir William Murray, an honest, worthy man, but tormented with the hypochondria — Mrs Graham, belle et aimable — Miss Cathcart — Mrs Murray, a painter — Mrs Kmg — Duchess and fine family, the Marquis, Lords James, Edward, and Robert — Ladies Charlotte, Emilia, and children dance — sup — JMr Graham of Fin try. Come up the Garrie — Falls of Bruar — Daldecairoch — Dalwhinnie — dine — snow on the hills 17 feet deep no corn from Loch-gairie to Dalwhinnie — cross the Spey, and come down the stream to Pitnin— straths rich — les environs picturesque — Ci-aigow hill — Ruthven of Badenoch — barracks — wild and magnificent — Rothe- murche on the other side, and Glenmore — Grant of Rothemurche's poetry — told me by the Duke of Gordon — Strathspey, rich and romantic — breakfast at Avie- more, a wild spot — dine at Sir James Grant's — Lady Grant, a sweet, pleasant body^^ome through mist and darkness to Dulsie, to lie. Tuesday. — Findhorn river — rocky banks — come on to Castle Cawdor, where Macbeth murdered King Dun- can — saw the bed in which King Duncan was stabbed — dine at Kilravock — Mrs Rose, sen., a true chieftain's wife — Fort George- — Inverness. Wednesday. — Loch Ness — Braes of Ness — General's hut — Fall of Fyers — Urquhart Castle and Strath. Thursday. — Come over Culloden JMuir — reflections on the field of battle — breakfast at Kilravock — old Mrs Rose, sterling sense, warm heart, strong passions, and honest pride, all in an uncommon degree — Mrs Rose, jun., a little milder than the mother : this, perhaps, owing to her being younger — Mr Grant, minister at Calder, resembles Mr Scott at Inverleithing — Mrs Rose and Mrs Grant accompany us to Kildrummie — two young ladies — Miss Rose, who sang two Gaelic sqngs, beautiful and lovely — Miss Sophia Brodie, most agree- able and amiable — both of them gentle, mild ; the sweetest creatures on earth, and happiness be with them ! Dine at Nairn — fall in with a pleasant enough gentleman, Dr Stewart, who had been long abroad with his father in the forty-five ; and Mr Falconer, a spare, irascible, warm-hearted Norland, and a nonjuror — Brodie-house to lie. Friday. — Forres — famous stone at Forres — Mr Brodie tells me that the muir where Shakspeare lays Macbeth's witch-meeting is still haunted — that the country folks won't pass it by night. * * * « • Venerable ruins of Elgin Abbey — a grander effect 130 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. at first glance, than Melrose, but not near so beautiful — cross Spey to Fochabers — fine palace, worthy of the generous proprietor — dine. Company — Duke and Duchess, Ladies Charlotte and IMagdeline, Col. Aber- crombie and Lady, Mr Gordon, and Mr , a cler- gynaan, a venerable aged figure — the Duke makes me happier than ever great nian did — noble, princely, yet mild, condescending, and affable ; gay and kind — the Duchess wttty and sensible — God bless them ! Come to Cullen to lie — hitherto the country is sadly poor and unimproven. Come to Aberdeen — meet with Mr Chalmers, printer, a facetious fellow — Mr Ross, a fine fellow, like Pro- fessor Tytler — Mr Marshall, one oi the poetce minores — Mr Sheriffs, author of " Jamie and Bess," a little decrepid body, with some abilities— Bishop Skinner, a nonjuror, son of the author of " Tullochgctrum," a man whose mild, venerable manner, is the most marked of any in so young a man — Professor Gordon, a good- natured, jolly-looking professor — Aberdeen, a lazy town — near Stonehive, the coast a good deal romantic — meet my relations — Robert Burns, writer in Stonehive, one of those who love fun, a gill, and a punning joke, and have not a bad heart — his wife a sweet, hospitable body, without any affectation of what is called town- breeding. Tuesday — Breakfast with Mv Burns— lie at Law- fence-kirk — Album library — Mrs , a jolly, frank, sensible, love-inspiring wid'ow — Howe of the Mearns, a rich, cultivated, but still unenclosed country. Wednesday. — Cross North Esk river and a rich country to Craigow. * ' * * * Go to Montrose, that finely situated handsome town — breakfast at Muthie, and sail along that wild, rocky coast, and see the famous caverns, particularly the Gairiepot — land and dine at Arbroath — stately ruins of Arbroath Abbey — come to Dundee, through a fertile country — Dundee a low-lying, but pleasant town — old steeple — Tayfrith — Broughty Castle, a finely situated ruin, jutting into the Tay. Friday. — Breakfast with the INIissScotts — Miss Bess Scott like Mrs Greenfield — my hardship almost in love with her — come through the rich harvests and fine hedge-rows of the Carse of Gowrie, along the romantic margin of the Grampian hills, to Perth — fine, fruitful, hilly, woody country round Perth. Saturday morning. — Leave Perth — come up Strath- earn to Endermay — fine, fruitful, cultivated Strath — the scene of " Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" near Perth — fine scenery on the banks of the May — Mi's Belches, gawcie, frank, affable, fond of rural sports, hunting, &c — Lie at Kinross — reflections in a fit of the colic. Sunday [Sep. 16] Pass through a cold, barren country to Queensferry — dine — cross the ferry, and on to Edinburgh. NOTES TO JOHNSON'S SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM, 1 [In the latter part of his life, Burns procured an interleaved copy of Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, for the purpose of con- centrating in that place his remarks on Scottish songs and airs, and all that he knew of their authors. The copy thus annotated he presented to Captain Riddel of Glenriddel, whose niece, Eliza Bayley, of Manchester, now possesses it. Most of the notes are merely indications of an author's name, or of a simple fact re- specting the locality or origin of the song. Such of them as possess any general interest, are here presented.] OH OPEN THE DOOR, LORD GREGORY. It is somewhat singular, that, in Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries shires, there is scarcely an old song or tune, which, from the title, &c., can be guessed to belong to, or be the production of, these counties. This, I conjecture, is one of these very few ; as the ballad, which is a long one, is called, both by tradition and in printed collections, " The Lass of Lochryan," which I take to be Lochryan, in Gal- loway. CLOUT THE CALDRON. A tradition is mentioned in the " Bee," that the second Bishop Chisholm, of Dunblane, used to say, that if he were going to be hanged, nothing would soothe his mind 90 much by the way, as to hear " Clout the Caldron" played. I have met with another tradition, tliat the old song to this tune Hae ye ony pots or pans. Or ony broken chanlers? was composed on one of the Kennmre family, in the cavalier times ; and alluded to an amour he had, while under hiding, in the disguise of an itinerant tijiker. The air is also known by the name of " The Blacksmith and his Apron," which, from the rhythm, seems to have been a line of some old song to the tune. SAW YE MY PEGGY? This chaiining song is much older, and, indeed, supe- rior to Ramsay's verses, " The Toast," as he calls them. There is another set of the words, much older still, and which I take to be the original one ; but though it has a very great deal of merit, it is not quite ladies' reading. The original words, for they can scarcely be called verses, seem to be as follow ; a song familiar from the cradle to every Scottish ear : — Saw ye my Maggie, Saw ye my Maggie, Saw ye my Maggie Liukiu' o'er the 1 High kilted was she, High kilted was she, High kilted was she, Her coat aboon her knee. What mark has your Maggie, What mark has your Maggie, What mark has your Maggie, That ane may ken her be ? Though it by no means follows that the silliest verse.*? to an air must, for that reason, be the original song, yet I take this ballad, of which I have quoted part, to be old verses. The two songs in Ramsay, one of them evidently his own, are never to be met with in the fire- side circle of our peasanti'y ; while that which I take to be the old song is in every shepherd's mouth. Ram- say, I suppose, had thought the old verses unworthy of a place in his collection. I THE FLOWERS OF EDINBURGH. This song is one of the many effusions of Scots Jacobitism. The title, '- Flowers of Edinburgh," hiis no manner of connection with the present verses, so I suspect there has been an older set of words, of which the title is all that remains. NOTES TO JOHNSON'S MUSEUM. 131 By the bye, it is singular enough that tlie Scottish Muses were all Jacobites. I have paid more attention to every description of Scots songs than perhaps any body living has done, and I do not recollect one single stanza, or even the title, of the most triHing Scots air, which has the least panegyrical reference to the families of Nassau or Brunswick, while there ai'e hundreds satirising them. This may be thought no panegyric on the Scots poets, but I mean it as such. For myself, I would always take it as a compliment to have it said that my heart ran before my head — and surely the gallant though unfortunate house of Stuart, the kings of our fathers for so many heroic ages, is a theme * *•' * FYE, GAE RUB HER O'ER WI' STRAE. It is self-evident that the first four lines of this song are part of a song more ancient than Ramsay's beauti- ful verses which are annexed to them. As music is the language of nature ; and poetry, particularly songs, are always less or more localised (if I may be allowed the verb) by some of the modifications of time and place, this is the reason why so many of our Scots airs have outlived their original, and perhaps many subse- quent sets of verses, except a single name, or phrase, or sometimes one or two lines, simply to distinguish the tunes by. To this day, among people who know nothing of Ramsay's verses, the following is the song, and all the song that ever I heard : — Gin ye meet a bonnie lassie, Gie her a kiss and let her gae ; But gin ye meet a dirty hizzie, Fye, gae rnb her o'er wi' strae. Fye, gae rub her, rub her, rub her, Fye, gae rub her o'er wi' strae : And gin ye meet a dirty hizzie, Fye, gae rub her o'er wi' strae. THE LAST TIME I CAME O'ER THE MOOR. [The last time I cam o'er the muir, I left my love behind me ; Ye gods, what pains do I endure, When saft ideas mind me, &c.] Ramsay found the fii'st line of this song, which had been preserved as the title of the charming air,^' and then composed the rest of the verses to suit that line. This has always a finer effect than composing' English words, or words with an idea foreign to the spirit of the old title. Where old titles of songs convey any idea at all, it will generally be found to be quite in the spirit of the air. HIGHLAND LADDIE. As this was a favourite theme with our later Scot- tish muses, there are several airs and songs of that name. That which I take to be the oldest, is to be found in the " Musical Museum," beginning, " I hae been at Crookie-den." One reason for my thinking so is, that Oswald has it in his collection by the name of " The auld Highland Laddie." It is also known by the name of " Jinglan Johnnie," which is a well-known song of four or five stanzas, and seems to be an earlier song than Jacobite times. As a, proof of this, it is little known to the peasantry by the name of " Highland Laddie," while every body knovvs " Jinglan Johnnie." The song begins, Jinglan John, the meickle man, He met wi' a lass was blythe and bonnie. Another " Highland Laddie" is also in the " Museum," vol. v., which I take to be Ramsay's original, as he has borrowed the chorus, " Oh my bonnie Highland lad," &c. It consists of three stanzas, besides the chorus, * [The title of this air in the Skene manuscript, circa 1620, is " Alace that I cam o'er the muir, and left my love behind me "] and has humour in its composition — it is an excellent, but somewhat licentious song. It begins, As I cam o'er Cairney-Jlount, And down amang the blooming heather. This air, and the common " Highland Laddie," seem only to be different sets. Another " Highland Laddie," also in the " Museum," vol. v., is the tune of several Jacobite fragments. One of these old songs to it, only exists, as far as 1 know, in these foiir lines — Whare hae ye been a' day, Bonnie laddie. Highland laddie ? Down the back o' Bell's brae, Courtin' Maggie, courtin' Maggie. Another of this name is Dr Arne's beautiful air, called the new " Highland Laddie." FAIREST OF THE FAIR. It is too barefaced to take Dr Percy's charming song, and, by means of transposing a few English words into Scots, to offer to pass it for a Scots song. I was not acquainted with the editor until the first volume was nearly finished, else, had I known in time, I would have prevented such an impudent absurdity. THE BLAITHRIE O'T.* The following is a set of this song, which was the earliest song I remember to have got by heart. When a child, an old woman sang it to me, and I picked it up, every word, at first hearing : — Oh Willy, weel I mind, I lent you my hand To sing you a song which you did me command ; But my memory's so bad, I had almost fni-got That you called it the gear and the blaithrie o't. I'll not sing about confusion, delusion, or pride, I'll sing about a laddie was for a virtuous bride ; For virtue is an ornament that time will never rot. And preferable to gear and the blaithrie o't. Tho' my lassie hae nae scarlets or silks to put on, We env}' not the greatest that sits upon the throne; I wad rather hae my lassie, tho* she cam in her smock. Than a princess wi" the gear and the blaithrie o't. Tho' we hae nae horses or menzie at command. We will toil on our foot, and we'll work wi' our hand ; And when wearied without rest, we'll find it sweet in any spot, And we'll value not the gear and the blaithrie o't. If we hae ony babies, we'll count them as lent; Hae we less, hae we mair, we will aye be content ; For they say they hae mair pleasure that wins but a groat, Thf.n the miser wi' his gear and the blaithrie o't. I'll not meddle wi' th' aifairs o' the kirk or the queen ; They're nae matters for a sang, let them sink let them swim ; On your kirk I'll ne'er encroach, but I'll hold it still remote, Sae tak this for tSfe gear and the blaithrie o't. MAY EVE, OR KATE OF ABERDEEN. '- Kate of Aberdeen" is, I believe, the work of poor Cunningham the player, of whom the following anec- dote, though told before, deserves a recital: — A fat dignitary of the church coming past Cunningham one Sunday, as the poor poet was busy plying a fishing-rod in some stream near Durham, his native county, his reverence reprimanded Cunningham very severely for such an occupation on such a day. The poor poet, with that inoffensive gentleness of manners which was his peculiar characteristic, replied, that he hoped God and his reverence would forgive his seeming profanity of that sacred day, " as he had no dinner to eat, but what lay at the bottom of that poolP^ This, Mr Woods, the player, who knew Cunningham well, and esteemed him much, assured me was true. * [" Shame fall the gear and the blad'rj' o't," is the turn of an old Scottish song, spoken when a young handsome girl marries an old man, upon the account of his ^wealth.— Kelly' s Scots Proverbs, p. 296.] 132 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. TWEED-SIDE. [What beauties doth Flora disclose ! How sweet are her smiles upon Tweed ! Yet Mary's, still sweeter than those, Both nature and fancy exceed. Nor daisy, nor sweet blushing rose. Nor all the gay flowers of the field. Nor Tweed gliding gently through those, Such beauty and pleasure does yield— &:c.] In Ramsay's " Tea-table Miscellany," he tells us that about thirty of the songs m that publication were the works of some young gentlemen of his acquaintance, which songs ai'e marked with the letters D, C, &c. Old Mr Tytler, of Woodhouselee, the worthy and able defender of the beauteous Queen of Scots, told me that the songs marked C, in the " Tea-table," were the com- position of a Mr Crawford, of the house of Aclinames, who was afterwards unfortunately drowned coming from France. As Tytler was most intimately acquamted with Allan Ramsay, I think the anecdote may be depended on. Of consequence, the beautiful song of Tweed-side is Mr Crawford's, and, indeed, does great honour to his poetical talents. He was a Robert Craw- ford ; the Mary he celebrates was a Mary Stewart, of the Castle-Milk family, afterwards married to a Mr John Ritchie. I have seen a song, calling itself the original Tweed- side, and said to have been composed by a Lord Yester. It consisted of two stanzas, of which I still recollect the first. When Maggie and I was acquaint, I cai-ried my noddle f u' hie ; Nae lintwhite on a' the green plain. Nor gowdspink sue happy as me: But I saw her sae fair, and I loed : I woo'd, but I cam nae great speed; So now I maun wander abroad, And lay my banes far frae the Tweed. THERE'S NAE LUCK ABOUT THE HOUSE. This is one of the most beautiful songs in the Scots, or any other language. The two lines, And will I see his face again ! And will I hear him speak ! as well as the two preceding ones, are unequalled almost by any thing I ever heard or read; and the lines, The present moment is our ain. The neist we never saw, are worthy of the first poet. It is long posteinor to Ramsay's days. About the year 1771, or 72, it came first on the streets as a ballad, and, I suppose, the com- position of the song was not much anterior to that period. MARY SCOTT, THE FLOWER OF YARROW. Mr Robertson, in his statistical account of the parish of Selkirk, says, that Mary Scott, the Flower of Yarrow, was descended from the Dryhope, and married into the Harden family. Her daughter was married to a pre- decessor of the present Sir Francis Elliot of Stobs, and of the late Lord Heathfield. There is a circumstance in their contract of marriage that merits attention, and it strongly marks the pre- datory spirit of the times. The father-in-law agrees to keep his daughter for some time after the marriage, for which the son-in-law binds himself to give him the profits of the first Michaelmas moon ! THE BONNIE BRUCKET LASSIE. [The bonnie brucket lassie. She's blue beneath the een ; She was the fairest lassie That danced on the green: A lad he loed her dearly, She did his love return ; But he his vows has broken, And left her for to uiouin- &C.1 The two first lines of this song are all of it that is old. The rest of the song, as well as those songs in the " Museum" marked T, are the works of an obscure, tippling, but extraordinary body of the name of Tytler, commonly known by the name of Balloon Tytler, from his having projected a balloon — a mortal who, though he drudges about Edinburgh as a common printer, with leaky shoes, a sky-lighted hat, and knee-buckles as unlike as George-by-the-grace-of-God, and Solomon-the- son-of-David, yet that same unknown drunken moi'tal is author and compiler of three-fourths of Elliot's pom- pous Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he composed at half-a-ffuinea a- week ! CROMLET'S LILT. [Since all thy vows, false maid. Are blown to air, And my poor heart betray'd To sad despair. Into some wilderness. My grief I will express, And thy hard-heartedness. Oh cruel fair !] The following interesting account of this plaintive dirge was communicated to Mr Riddel by Alexander Eraser Tytler, Esq., of Woodhouselee : — " In the latter end of the sixteenth century, the Chisholms were proprietors of the estate of Cromlecks (now possessed by the Drummonds). The eldest son of that family was very much attached to a daughter of Sterling of Ardoch, commonly known by the name of Fair Helen of Ardoch. At that time the opportunities of meeting betwixt the sexes were more rare, consequently more sought after, than now; and the Scottish ladies, far from priding themselves on extensive literature, were thought suffi- ciently book-learned if they could make out the Scrip- tures in their mother tongue. Writing was entirely out of the line of female education. At that period, the most of our young men of family sought a fortune, or found a grave, in France. Cromlus, when he went abroad to the war, was obliged to leave the management of his correspondence with his mistiness to a lay-brother of the monastery of Dumblain, in the immediate neigh- bourhood of Cromleck, and near Ardoch. This man, unfortunately, was deeply sensible of Helen's charms. He artfully prepossessed her with stories to the disad- vantage of Cromlus, and, by misinterpreting or keeping up the letters and messages entrusted to his care, he entirely irritated both. All connection was broken off betwixt them : Helen was inconsolable, and Cromlus has left behind him, in the ballad called ' Cronilet's Lilt,' a proof of the elegance of his genius, as well as the steadiness of his love. When the artful monk thought time had sufficiently softened Helen's sorrow, he proposed himself as a lover. Helen was obdurate : but at last, overcome by the per- suasions of her brother, with whom she Uved, and who, having a family of thirty-one children, was probably very well pleased to get her off" his hands, she sub- mitted, rather than consented, to the 9eremony ; but there her compliance ended : and, when forcibly put into bed, she started quite frantic from it, screaming out, that after three gentle taps on the wainscot, at the bed-head, she heard Cromlus's voice, crying, ' Helen, Helen, mind me !' Cromlus soon after coming home, the treachery of the confidant was discovered — her marriage annulled — and Helen became Lady Crom- lecks." N. B. — Marg. Murray, mother to these thirty-one children, was daughter to Murray of Strewn, one of the seventeen sons of TuUybardine, and whose youngest son, commonly called the Tutor of Ardoch, died in the year 1715, aged HI years. NOTES TO JOHNSON'S MUSEUM. 133 LEWIS GORDON. [Oh ! send Lewie Gordon hame. And the lad I maunna name ; Tho* his back be at the \va'. Here's to him that's far awa ! Oh hon ! my Ilighlandman, Oh my bonnie Ilighlandman ! Weel would I my true-love ken, Amaiig ten thousand Ilighlandmen— &:c.] This air is a proof how one of our Scots tunes comes to be composed out of another. I have one of the earliest copies of the song, and it has prefixed, Tune of Tarry Woo. Of which tune a different set has insensibly varied into a different air. To a Scots critic, the pathos of the line, Tho' his back be at the wa', must be very striking. It needs not a Jacobite pre- judice to be affected with this song. The supposed author of " Lewis Gordon " was a Mr Geddes, priest, at Shenval, in the Ainzie. TRANENT-MUIR. [The Chevalier, being void of fear, Did march up Birsley Brae, man, And through Tranent, ere he did stent. As fast as he could gae, man — &c.*] " Tranent-Muir " was composed by a Mr Skirving, a very worthy respectable farmer near Haddington. I have heard the anecdote often, that Lieut. Smith, whom he mentions in the ninth stanza, came to Haddington after the publication of the song, and sent a challenge to Skirving to meet him at Haddington, and answer for the unwoi-thy manner in which he had noticed him in his song. " Gang away back," said the honest farmer, " and tell Mr Smith that I hae nae leisure to come to Haddington ; but tell him to come here, and I'll tak a look o' him, and if I think I'm fit to fecht him, I'll fecht him ; and*f no, I'll do as he did — Pll rin aiva." STREPHON AND LYDIA. [AH lonely on the sultry beach, Expiring Strephon lay, No hand the cordial draught to reach, Nor cheer the gloomy way. Ill-fated youth ! no parent nigh, To catch thy fleeting breath, No bride to fix thy swimming eye. Or smooth the face of death. Far distant from the mournful scene, Thy parents sit at ease. Thy Lydia rifles all the plain. And all the spring to please. Ill-fated youth ! by fault of friend. Not force of foe depress'd, Thou fall'st, alas ! thyself, thy kind. Thy country, unredress'd !] The following account of this song I had from Dr Blucklock. The Strephon and Lydia mentioned in the song were perhaps the loveliest couple of their time. The gentle- man was commonly known by the name of Beau Gibson. The lady was the " Gentle Jean " celebrated somewhere in Hamilton of Bangour's poems. Having frequently met at pubhc places, they had formed a reciprocal attachment, which their friends thought dangerous, as their resources were by no means adequate to their tastes and habits of life. To elude the bad consequences of such a connection, Strephon was sent abroad with a commission, and perished in Admiral Vernon's expedi- tion to Carthagena. The author of the song was William Wallace, Esq. of Cairnhill, in Ayrshire. * [The subject of this song is the battle of Preston, fought Sep- tember 174.5, between the government forces under General Cope, and the Highland army under Prince Charles Stuart.] DUMBARTON DRUMS. [Dumbarton's drums beat bonnie, O, When they mind me o' my dear Johnnie, O. How happy am I, With my soldier sitting by, When he kisses and blesses his Annie, O— &c.] This is the last of the West Highland airs ; and from it over the whole tract of country to the confines of Tweed-side, there is hardly a tune or song that one can say has taken its origin from any place or transaction in that part of Scotland. The oldest Ayrshire reel is " Stewarton Lasses," which was made by the father of the present Sir Walter Montgomery Cunningham, alias Lord Lysle ; since which period there has indeed been local music in that county in great plenty. " Johnnie Faa " is the only old song which I could ever trace as belonging to the extensive county of Ayr. KIRK WAD LET ME BE. [I am a puir silly auld man, And hirpling o'er a tree. Yet fain, fain kiss wad I, An the kirk wad let me be — &c.] Tradition in the Avestern parts of Scotland tells that this old song, of which there are still three stanzas extant, once saved a covenanting clergyman out of a scrape. It was a little prior to the revolution, a period when being a Scots covenanter was being a felon, that one of their clergy, who Avas at that very time hunted by the merciless soldiery, fell in by accident with a party of the military. The soldiers were not exactly acquainted with the person of the reverend gentleman of whom they were in search ; but, from suspicious circumstances, they fancied that they had got one of that cloth and opprobrious persuasion among them in the person of this stranger. '• Mass John," to extricate himself, assumed a freedom of manners very unlike the gloomy strictness of his sect ; and among other convivial exhibitions, sang (and some traditions say, composed on the spur of the occasion), " Kix-k wad let me be," with such effect, that the soldiers swore he was a d honest fellow, and that it was impossible he could belong to those hellish conventicles, and so ga-ve him his liberty. The first stanza of this song, a little altered, is a favourite kind of dramatic interlude acted at country weddings, in the south-west parts of the kingdom. A young fellow is dressed up like an old beggar ; a peruke, commonly made of carded tow, represents hoary locks ; an old bonnet ; a ragged plaid, or surtout, bound with a straw rope for a girdle ; a pair of old shoes, with straw ropes twisted round his ancles, as is done by shepherds in snowy weather : his face they disguise as like wretched old age as they can. In this plight he is brought into the wedding house, frequently to the astonishment of strangers, who are not in the secret, and begins to sing— Oh, I am a silly auld man, My name it is auld Glenae,* &c. He is asked to drink, and by and bye to dance, which, after some uncouth excuses, he is prevailed on to do, the fiddler playing the tune which here is commonly called " Auld Glenae ;" in short, he is all the time so plied with hquor that he is understood to get intoxi- cated, and, with all the ridiculous gesticulations of an old drunken beggar, he dances and staggefs imtil he falls on the floor ; yet still in all his riot, nay, in his rolling and tumbling on the floor, with some other drunken motions of his body, he beats time to the music, till at last he is supposed to be carried out dead drunk. * Glenae, on the~ small river Ae, in Annandale; the seat and designation of an ancient branch, and the present representative, of the gallant and unfortunate Dalzels of Carnwath. (This is the Author's note.) 134 BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. TUNE YOUR FIDDLES. ~ [Tune your fiddles, tune them sweetly, Play the Marquis' reel discreetly, Here are we a band completely. Fitted to be jolly. Come, my boys, be blythe andgaucy, Every youngster choose his lassie, Dance wi' life, and be not saucy. Shy nor melancholy— &c.] This song was composed by the Rev. .John Skinner, Nonjuror Clergyman at Linshart, near Peterhead. He is likewise author of " Tulloehgorum," " Ewie wi' the Crooked Horn," " John o' Badenyond," &c., and what is of still more consequence, he is one of the worthiest of mankind. He is the author of an ecclesiastical history of Scotland. The air is by Mr Marshall, butler to the Duke of Gordon, the first composer of strathspeys of the age. I have been told by somebody, who had it of ]\Iarshall himself, that he took the idea of his three most cele- brated pieces, " The Marquis of Huntley's Reel," his " Farewell," and " Miss Admiral Gordon's Reel," from the old air, " The German Lairdie." GIL MORICE. This plaintive ballad ought to have been called Child Maurice, and not Gil Morice. In its present dress, it has gained immortal honour from Mr Home's taking from it the ground- work of his fine tragedy of Douglas. But I am of opinion that the present ballad is a modern composition ; perhaps not much above the age of the middle of the last century : at least I should be glad to see or hear of a copy of the present words prior to 1650. That it was taken from &^ old ballad, called " Child Maurice," now lost, I am inclined to believe ; but the present one may be classed with " Hardyknute," "Kenneth," "Duncan, the Laird of Woodhouselie," " Lord Livingston," " Binnorie," " The Death of Mon- teith," and many other modern productions, which have been swallowed by many readers as ancient fragments of old poems. This beautiful plaintive tune was com- posed by Mr M'Gibbon, the selector of a collection of Scots tunes. R. B. In addition to the observations on Gil INIorice, I add, that of the songs which Capt. Riddel mentions, " Ken- neth" and "Duncan" are juvenile compositions of Mr M'Kenzie, " The IMan of Feeling." M'Kenzie's father showed them in MS. to Dr Blacklock, as the produc- tions of his sonj from which the doctor rightly prog- nosticated that the young poet would make, in his more advanced years, a respectable figure in the world of letters. This I had from Blacklock. TULLOCHGORUM. [" Come, gis's a sang," Montgomery cried, " And lay your disputes all aside ; AVhat signifies't for folks to chide For what was done before them ; Let Whig and Tory all agree, Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory, Whig and Tory all agree, To drop their V/hig-mig-morum. Let Whig and Tory all agree To spend the night wi' mirth and glee. And cheerful sing alang wi' me, The reel o' Tulloehgorum "— &c.] This first of songs is the masterpiece of my old friend Skinner. He was passing the day, at the town of Cullen, I think it was,* in a friend's house, whose name was Montgomery. Mi's Montgomery observing, en passant, that the beautiful reel of" Tulloehgorum " wanted words, she begged them of Mr Skinner, who gratified her wishes, and the wishes of every lover of Scottish song, in this most excellent ballad. These particulars I had from the author's son, Bishop Skinner, at Aberdeen. A SOUTHLAND JENNY. [A Southland .Jenny that was right bonnie, She had for a suitor a Norlan' Johnnie ; But he was sicken a bashfu' wooer, That he could scarcely speak unto her. But blinks o' her beauty, and hopes o' her siller, Forc'd him at last to tell his mind till 'er ; " My dear," quo' he, " we'll nae longer tarry. Gin ye can love me, let's o'er the muir and marry"— fee] This is a popular Ayrshire song, though the notes were never taken down before. It, as well as many of the ballad tunes in this collection, was written from Mrs Burns's voice. O'ER THE MOOR AMANG THE HEATHER, [Comin' thro' the craigs o' Kyle, Amang the bonnie blooming heather, There I met a bonnie lassie. Keeping a' her yowes thegither. O'er the moor amang the heather. O'er the moor amang the heather. There I met a bonnie lassie, Keeping a' her yowes thegither— &c.] This song is the composition of a Jean Glover, a girl who was not only a , but also a thief ; and, in one or other character, has visited most of the correction houses in the West. She was born, I believe, in Kil- marnock — I took the song down from her singing, as she was strolling through the country, with a sleight-of- hand blackguard. THE TEARS I SHED MUST EVER FALL. This song of genius was composed by ^ Miss Ci-an- ston.f It wanted four lines to make all the stanzas suit the music, which I added, and are the four first of the last stanza. No cold approach, no alter'd mien, Just what would make suspicion start ; No pause the dire extremes between. He made me blest— and broke my heart ! BOB 0' DUMBLANE. ^ Ramsay, as usual, has modernised this song. The original, which I learned on the spot, from my old hostess, in the principal inn there, is — Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle. And I'll lend you my thripplin-kame ; My heckle is brokejj, it canna be gotten. And we'll gae dance the bob o' Dumblane, &c. I insert this song to introduce the following anecdote, which I have heard well authenticated. In the even- ing of the day of the battle of Dumblane (Sheriff- muir) when the action was over, a Scots officer in Argyle's army observed to his Grace, that he was afraid the rebels would give out to the world that they had gotten the victory. " Weel, weel," returned his Grace, allud- ing to the foregoing ballad, " if they think it be na weel bobbit, we'll bob it again." * [hi reality, the town of Ellon, in Aberdeenshire.] t [Afterwards Mrs Dugald Stewart.] END OF BURNS'S PROSE WORKS. Edinburgh; rrinte^i by W. & R. Chambers, Id, Waterloo Place. L^^' I L. C. Bindery 1904 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS iiliill 014 154 884 & 'mmm