BURNS'S INTERVIEW WITH LORD DAER. "This wot ye all whom it concerns, I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns, October twenty-third : A ne'er-to-be-forgotten day, Sae far I sprackled up the brae — In the hasty and happy little poem, of which these lines form a part, Burns intimates the rustic embarrassment and ludicrous alarm which he experienced when he stood for the first time in the presence of a lord. He lived, however, to overcome these emotions, which perhaps he never seriously felt, and to exclaim with the collier, when he snatched a drink from an earl's cup, "We're a' God's creatures." Yet it would appear that the bashfulness which he felt in the presence of Lord Daer returned upon him when, in after life, he visited the noble house of St. Mary's Isle, for he desired the company of his friend Syme to see him well through an interview which he felt would be embarrassing. Lord Daer lived to be a man, but he did not live to be an earl: had that happened, he might have held out his hand to a Poet whose genius he acknowledged, for he was of a generous nature, and had that love of literature which seems hereditary in the family we cannot, therefore, class him with the patrons of Burns, of whom we may reckon eight. 1st. John Ballantine, a banker in Ayr: a worthy and kind gentleman, who, it is said, extended the pecuniary protection of his house to the bard when pressed by demands for which he was not, as a farmer, always prepared. "The Brigs of Ayr," first published in the second edition of his poems, was inscribed to him, and while in the press, he reminds him, in a letter dated 13th December, 1786, how obscure and unknown he was when first honored with his notice. 2d. Gavin Hamilton, of Mauchline, a gentleman of old blood, and a lawyer in good practice; whose door was ever open, and whose table was ever spread for the Poet; and whose skill in his profession, and it was sometimes required in delicate matters, was constantly at his command. He applauded his poems, too, as they were composed, and cheered him onward, when there were few to cheer him in the paths of fame. 3d. Mrs. Stewart, of Stair and Afton, a lady distinguished by the sweetness of her nature and the excellence of her taste, was perhaps one of the first who perceived the Poet's high merit. She overheard, it is said, one of her maids singing a song, quite new to her, and of more than common beauty; and inquired who made it. The girl said it was written by a young man of the name of Burns, whom she now and then saw. "I should like to see him too," said Mrs. Stewart; and accordingly, on his next visit, they were made known to each other. He loved afterwards to talk of the embarrassment which he felt, and of the courtesy and kindness of the Lady,the Female Form of the "Towers of Stair," mentioned in one of his poems. 4th. Dugald Stewart, the accomplished philosopher, had a seat at Catrine, and here he was to be found when released from his duties in Edinburgh. He took much pleasure in the Poet's company, and was the entertainer when Burns met Lord Daer at dinner with Mr. Mackenzie. The impression which the Poet's conversation, as well as his vigorous and impassioned verse, made on the philosopher, was not untold in Edinburgh, and smoothed the way for the éclat with which he was received into its polished circles. 5th. The Duchess of Gordon, when she opened her doors, and held out her hand to the Poet, did more than many other ladies of rank did; she went farther: she introduced him to her wide circle of friends in the North: she wrote to the South in his favor, and formed parties in which he might exhibit his all but miraculous gifts of conversation to those who had the power, if they had had the inclination, to do him a kindness with the Govern ment. 6th. Mrs. Dunlop, who, charmed in a fit of illness by the exquisite moral truth and beauty of the Cotter's Saturday Night, became from that moment his friend, and endeavored to promote his fortunes. The Poet esteemed her, for she was a poetess; was descended too from a line of heroes, the Wallaces; and was courteous, and tolerant, and kind. He felt the influence of her regard, when others, towards the close of his course, grew estranged or cold. 7th. Henry Mackenzie, the author of the "Man of Feeling;" the first true critic who, in spite of classic predilections, placed Burns on that high eminence afterwards claimed as his inheritance through nature by the accomplished Currie. 8th. James Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn, was no poet, nor has any one said that he was much of a lover of literature. He was, however, good and generous; he took Burns at once by the hand; subscribed largely to his poems; introduced him to his own friends, who were numerous, and to the gentlemen of the Caledonian Hunt, a band of the élite of Scotchmen, and to whom the Poet inscribed the Edinburgh Edition of his Poems. The Earl died soon afterwards: the title is dormant, and the name has vanished from the northern peerage. BURNS met Francis Grose at the Friar's Carse, on the banks of the Nith, the residence of a brother antiquarian, Mr. Riddell, and was pleased with his manners and his wit, and listened alike to his Southland jokes, and his old world lore. It is said, nevertheless, that though they were brothers in humor and in the social cup, the haughty Englishman disliked the Scot's sallies about the rotundity of his person, and was mortified rather than pleased when he found himself described as a "fine, fat, fodgel wight," small of stature, though bright in genius. It is likely that the Poet was not ignorant of this; and hence his jocular epigram, in which he represents Satan as eager for the soul of the antiquary, but dreading to encounter the immense load with which he heard his sick-bed creaking and groaning. Indeed, he seldom omitted an opportunity of having a fling at him; even in the envelope which enclosed the inimitable Tam o' Shanter to Cardonnel, another of the northern antiquaries, he makes sarcastic inquiries. "Ken ye ought o' Captain Grose Is he drowned in the Forth? Or wandered mang the Highland bodies? |