The

the favorite haunts of my muse, on the banks of the Ayr, to view nature in all the gayety of the vernal year. evening sun was flaming over the distant western hills: not a breath stirred the crimson opening blossom, nor the verdant spreading leaf. It was a golden moment for a poetic heart. Such was the scene, and such the hour, when in a corner of my prospect, I spied one of the fairest pieces of Nature's workmanship that ever crowned a poetic landscape, or met a poet's eye. Had Calumny and Villainy taken my walk, they had at a moment sworn eternal peace with such an object." The song is conceived in a free style, and in a strain of luxurious, some have added, presumptuous, fervor.

The bonnie Lass of Ballochmyle, however, noticed neither song nor letter; and Burns resented her silence, it is said, with some bitterness: indeed in the book into which he copied both, he complains that they were unhonored with any notice. Currie and Lockhart have defended the propriety of the lady's conduct, as chivalrous gentlemen should; but they lay too much stress on the little that was known of Burns-and that little, evil-when he wrote his letter; surely they must have forgot that the Poet was then no unknown person, for his poems were before the world, and he was the correspondent of Mrs. Stewart of Stair, and others of equal name. The impression which Miss Alexander's neglect made on the mind of Burns was long uneffaced: when his friend Mrs.. Dunlop, to whom he complained, excused the conduct of the Lass of Ballochmyle, he bitterly answered, “Had a half-witling Lord written the poem, Madam, would she have left it unanswered ?" But Miss Alexander has lived to make some reparation; she has treasured up the letter, and its precious enclosure, and entrusts them in no hands

save her own: she points out to the admirers of Burns the spot among the Braes where the Poet met her, and shows them a little rustic temple or grotto, commemorative of the subject, the song, and the Author.

[Who the John Kennedy was to whom Burns addressed this note enclosing "The Cotter's Saturday Night," it is now, perhaps, vain to inquire: the Kennedy to whom Mr. Cobbett introduces us was a Thomas- perhaps a relation.]

SIR,

Mossgiel, 3rd March, 1786.

I HAVE done myself the pleasure of complying with your request in sending you my Cottager.-If you have a leisure minute, I should be glad you would copy it, and return me either the original or the transcript, as I have not a copy of it by me, and I have a friend who wishes to see it.

"Now, Kennedy, if foot or horse," *

ROBT. BURNESS.

* Poem LXXV.

II.

TO MR. AIKEN.

[Robert Aiken, the gentleman to whom the "Cotter's Saturday Night" is inscribed,, is also introduced in the "Brigs of Ayr." This is the last letter to which Burns seems to have subscribed his name in the spelling of his ancestors.]

DEAR SIR,

Mossgiel, 3rd April, 1786.

I RECEIVED your kind letter with double pleasure, on account of the second flattering instance of Mrs. C.'s notice and approbation, I assure you I

"Turn out the burnt side o' my shin,"

as the famous Ramsay, of jingling memory, says, at such a patroness. Present her my most grateful acknowledgment in your very best manner of telling truth. I have inscribed the following stanza on the blank leaf of Miss More's Work : — *

My proposals for publishing I am just going to send to press. I expect to hear from you the first opportunity.

I am ever, dear sir,

Yours,

ROBT. BURNESS.

* See Poem LXXVIII.