No. XLIX.

To R. GRAHAM, Esq. FINTRAY.

December, 1792.

SIR,

I HAVE been surprised, confounded, and distracted, by Mr. Mitchel, the collector, telling me that he has received an order from your Board to enquire into my political conduct, and blaming me as a person disaffected to Govern

ment.

1786. It was communicated to the Editor of that work by Mr. Gilchrist of Stamford, with the following re

mark.

"In a collection of miscellaneous papers of the Antiquary Grose, which I purchased a few years since, I found the following letter written to him by Burns, when the former was collecting the Antiquities of Scotland: When I premise it was on the second tradition that he afterwards formed the inimitable tale of "Tam O'Shanter," I cannot doubt of its being read with great interest. It were "burning day-light" to point out to a reader, (and who is not a reader of Burns?) the thoughts he afterwards transplanted into the rhythmical narrative."

O. G.

ment. 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 respected, and left
almost without the necessary support of a miser-
able existence. Alas, Sir! must I think that such,
soon, will be my lot! and from the d-mned, 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 allega-
tion, whatever villain has made it, is a lie! To
the British Constitution, on revolution princi-
ples, next after my God, I am most devoutly at-
tached! You, Sir, have been much and generous-
ly my
friend. Heaven knows how warmly I have
felt the obligation, and how gratefully I have
thanked you.-Fortune, Sir, has made you pow-
erful, and me impotent; has given you patron-
age, and me dependance. I would not, for my
single self, call on your humanity; were such
my insular, unconnected situation, I would de-
spise 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 my latest breath I will say it, I have not deserved.

No. L.

To MR. T. 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 honor of writing Mr. C. respecting coming out to the country, to give a little 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.

1

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 awefully 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 hours of slumb'rous repose, in the arms of his dearly-beloved elbowchair, 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 very happiest of mortals.

No. LI.

To MRS. DUNLOP.

Dec. 31, 1792.

DEAR MADAM,

A HURRY of business, thrown in heaps by my absence, has until now prevented my returning my grateful acknowledgements to the

good

good family of Dunlop, and you in particular, for that hospitable kindness which rendered the four days I spent under that genial roof, four of the pleasantest I ever enjoyed.-Alas, my dearest friend! how few and fleeting are those things we call pleasures! On my road to Ayrshire, I spent a night with a friend whom I much valued; a man whose days promised to be many; and on Saturday last we laid him in the dust!

Jan. 2, 1798.

I HAVE just received yours of the 30th, and feel much for your situation. However, I heartily rejoice in your prospect of recovery from that vile jaundice. As to myself, I am better, though not quite free of my complaint.You must not think, as you seem to insinuate, that in my way of life I want exercise. Of that I have enough; but occasional hard drinking is the devil to me. Against this I have again and again bent my resolution, and have greatly succeeded. Taverns I have totally abandoned: it is the private parties in the family way, among the hard drinking gentlemen of this country, that do me the mischief-but even this, I have more than half given over.*

Mr.

*The following extract from a letter addressed by Mr. Bloomfield to the Earl of Buchan, contains so interesting

an