farm was after this, in a great measure abandoned to servants, while he betook himself to the duties of his new appointment.

He might indeed still be seen in the spring, directing his plough, a labour in which he excelled; or with a white sheet containing his seed-corn slung across his shoulders, striding with measured steps, along his turned up furrows, and scattering the grain in the earth. But his farm no longer occupied the principal part of his care or his thoughts. It was not at Ellisland that he was now

in general to be found. Mounted on horseback, this high-minded poet was pursuing the defaulters of the revenue, among the hills and vales of Nithsdale, his roving eye wandering over the charms of nature, and muttering his wayward fancies as he moved along.

"I had an adventure with him in the year 1790," says Mr. Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, in a letter to the editor," when passing through Dumfries-shire, on a tour to the South, with Dr. Steuart of Luss. Seeing him pass quickly, near Closeburn, I said to my companion, that is Burns. On coming to the inn, the hostler told us he would be back in a few hours to grant permits; that where he met with any thing seizable, he was no better than any other gauger; in every thing else,

that

that he was perfectly a gentleman. After leaving a note to be delivered to him on his return, I proceeded to his house, being curious to see his Jean, &c. I was much pleased with his uxor Sabina qualis, and the poet's modest mansion, so unlike the habitation of ordinary rustics. In the evening he suddenly bounced in upon us, and said as he entered, I come, to use the words of Shakespeare, Stewed in haste. In fact he had ridden incredibly fast after receiving my note. We fell into conversation directly, and soon got into the mare magnum of poetry. He told me that he had now gotten a story for a Drama, which he was to call Rob Macquechan's Elshon, from a popular story of Robert Bruce being defeated on the water of Caern, when the heel of his boot having loosened in his fight, he applied to Rob Macquechan to fix it; who, to make sure, ran his awl nine inches up the King's heel. We were now going on at a great rate, when Mr. S popped in his head, which put a stop to our discourse, which had become very interesting. Yet in a little while it was resumed, and such was the force and versatility of the bard's genius, that he made the tears run down Mr. S's cheeks albeit unused to the poetic strain. From that time we met no more, and I was grieved at the reports of him afterwards. Poor Burns! we shall hardly ever see his like again. He was, in truth, a sort of comet

***

in literature, irregular in its motions, whi chdid not do good proportioned to the blaze of light it displayed."

In the summer of 1791, two English gentlemen, who had before met with him in Edinburgh, paid a visit to him at Ellisland. On calling at the house, they were informed that he had walked out on the banks of the river; and, dismounting from their horses, they proceeded in search of him.On a rock that projected into the stream, they saw a man employed in angling, of a singular appearance. He had a cap made of a fox's skin on his head, a loose great-coat fixed round him by a belt, from which depended an enormous Highland broad-sword. It was Burns. He received them with great cordiality, and asked them to share his humble dinner—an invitation which they accepted. On the table they found boiled beef, with vegetables, and barley-broth, after the manner of Scotland; of which they partook heartily. After dinner the bard told them ingenuously that he had no wine to offer them, nothing better than Highland whiskey, a bottle of which Mrs. Burns set on the board. He produced at the same time his punchbowl, made of Inveraray-marble, and, mixing the spirit with water and sugar, filled their glasses,

and

and invited them to drink.* The travellers were in haste, and besides, the flavour of the whiskey to their suthron palates, was scarcely tolerable; but the generous poet offered them his best, and his ardent hospitality they found it impossible to resist. Burns was in his happiest mood, and the charms of his conversation were altogether fascinating. He ranged over a great variety of topics, illuminating whatever he touched. He related the tales of his infancy and of his youth; he recited some of the gayest and some of the tenderest of his poems; in the wildest of his strains of mirth, he threw in some touches of melancholy, and spread around him the electric emotions of his powerful mind. The Highland whiskey improved in its flavour; the marble-bowl was again and again emptied and replenished; the guests of our poet forgot the flight of time, and the dictates of prudence at the hour of midnight they lost their way in returning to Dumfries, and could scarcely distinguish it when assisted by the morning's dawn.

Besides

*This bowl was made of the stone of which Inveraray-house is built: the mansion of the family of Argyle.

+ Given from the information of one of the party.

Besides his duties in the excise and his social pleasures, other circumstances interfered with the attention of Burns to his farm. He engaged in the formation of a society for purchasing and circulating books among the farmers of his neighbourhood, of which he undertook the management; and he occupied himself occasionally in composing songs for the musical work of Mr. Johnson, then in the course of publication.— These engagements, useful and honourable in themselves, contributed no doubt to the abstraction of his thoughts from the business of agriculture.

The consequences may be easily imagined. Notwithstanding the uniform prudence and good management of Mrs. Burns, and though his rent was moderate and reasonable, our poet found it convenient, if not necessary, to resign his farm to Mr. Miller, after having occupied it three years and a half. His office in the excise had originally produced about fifty pounds per annum. Having acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the Board, he had been appointed to a new district, the emoluments of which rose to about seventy pounds per annum. Hoping to support himself and his family on this humble income till promotion should

* See vol. 11, p. 280.