parody of a psalm in which the public thanksgiving for the recovery of the King from mental trouble-a business regarded by Burns as "a solemn farce of pageant mummery -was thoroughly ridiculed. Little wonder that, in sending a copy of the verses which begin "O sing a new song to the Lord," to Mrs Dunlop, Burns wrote: "You must know that the publisher of one of the most blasphemous party London newspapers is an acquaintance of mine, and as I am a little tinctured with Buff and Blue myself, I now and then help him to a stanza." That Stuart fully appreciated the efforts of his contributor is undoubted, as witness the following extract from a letter which he sent to Burns in August of the same year 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.” The reader is left to infer whether the politeness was manifested to Stuart or to the objects of criticism. CONTEST WITH LONDON NEWSMEN. In the spring of 1789 a remarkable hoax was perpetrated on The Star, in the columns of which Burns was made to appear as the author of some rather indelicate verses on his patroness, the Duchess of Gordon. For information on the subject students of the Poet are very much indebted to the researches of Dr William Wallace, who, in the third volume of Chambers's Life, printed the main particulars which are available.* On Friday, 27th March, an anonymous paragraph, headed "The Duchess of Gordon," was published in The Star, alluding to the appearance of her Grace at an Edinburgh ball, attired in a dress of a chalky colour. "Mr Burns, the ploughing poet, who," it was stated, owes much of his good fortune to her Grace's 66 * See also Henley Henderson's Centenary Edition. critical discernment and generous patronage, made this elegant stanza on that occasion : She was the mucklest of them aw; Like Saul, she stood the Tribes aboon ; Her face was redder than the moon.` This item of news was, of course, talked about, and four days later it was followed by another paragraph, in which the editor of The Star informed his readers, on the authority of "a correspondent who calls himself the friend of Mr Burns, . that the Bard says not a word of King Saul nor her Graces' auld gown, but celebrates her well-known faculty of reel-dancing, which, in spite of some late insinuations to the contrary, she still possesses in perfection. He sends the following specimen of Mr Burns's performance, and offers to produce the entire poem, if required, in evidence : "She kiltit up her kirtle weel, To show her bonny cutes sae sma'; The lightest louper o' them a,' And gart the floor their backsides rub. De'il tak' me, since I was a calant, Gif e'er my een beheld the like." In a matter associated with the names of two such eminent persons as the Duchess of Gordon and Robert Burns an animated controversy was inevitable. The discussion did not clear up the disputed points, and in a short time, as was obvious from another paragraph which' Stuart printed in The Star, things had got into a pretty bad tangle. Our first correspondent," said Stuart, "has called at the office and obstinately supported the 66 authenticity of his communication. With commendable spirit he has even left his name, with full liberty of publication. He styles himself Dr Theodore Theobald Theophilus Tripe, and, we understand, he belongs to the honourable body of peripatetic physicians. He affirms that the poem in dispute was given him by the author last summer, at Mauchline, a town in Ayrshire. Our opinions," concluded Stuart, "on this interesting subject are once more thrown into perplexity; and nothing is left us but to solicit, which we earnestly do, the authority by letter of Mr Burns himself, to remove the anxiety of the Public by a certain and final decision.” All this time, in remote Ellisland, Burns was ignorant of the controversy in which he was a leading figure, and he knew nothing about it until his friend, Alexander Cunningham, sent him a copy of The Gazetteer, another London paper, which had copied the first of the two paragraphs from the columns of The Star. On the 11th of April Burns wrote the editor of The Gazetteer denying the authorship of the "four disrespectful lines on the Duchess of Gordon. It is indeed true that I have the honour to be deeply indebted to the Duchess of Gordon's goodness, and for that reason I now write to you; had you only forged dullness on me I should not have thought it worth while to reply, but to add ingratitude, too, is what I cannot in silence bear." The editor of The Gazetteer-for editors were just as infallible then as they are to-day-defended himself in the following footnote to the letter of Burns: "Mr Burns will do right in directing his petulance to the proper delinquent, the Printer of The Star, from which paper the stanza was literally copied into The Gazetteer. We can assure him, however, for his comfort, that the Duchess of Gordon acquits him both of the ingratitude and the dullness. She has with much difficulty discovered that the Jeu d'Esprit was written by the Right Honourable the Treasurer of the Navy, on her Grace's dancing at a ball given by the Earl of Findlater; this has been found out by the industry and penetration of Lord Fife. The lines are certainly not so dull as Mr Burns insinuates, and, we fear, he is jealous of the poetical talents of his rival, Mr Dundas." The temper of Burns would not be improved by the information that he had been played such a trick by Henry Dundas. The Poet was hoping for promotion in the Excise, and it was clear that "the uncrowned King of Scotland" would not bestow his patronage on one whom he treated in such a way. But the disrespect was mutual; Burns admitted that he never saw "the name Dundas in the columns of a newspaper but his heart seemed straitened for want of room in his bosom." (6 No further Two days after the appearance of his letter in The Gazetteer Burns learned that the second set of verses had also been published in The Star, and on the following day he addressed a long letter to Peter Stuart, begging him to do justice to his injured character by informing the public that he was 'guiltless of either the one or the other miserable piece of rhyme." Whether Stuart complied with this reasonable request does not emerge. newspaper correspondence on the subject has been discovered. Only once did Burns again allude to it, and that was on the 4th of May in a letter to Alexander Cunningham. "Thank you, my dearest Sir," he said, 66 for your concern for me in my contest with the London News Men. Depend on it that I will never deign to reply to their petulance. The publisher of The Star has been polite. He may find his account in it; though I would scorn to put my name to a newspaper poem. Burns, however, admitted that one exception was the stanzas on the lady whom Cunningham had unsuccessfully courted, and which he sent to the editor of The Star as a bribe in his earnestness to be cleared from the foul aspersions respecting the Duchess of Gordon." 66 Peter Stuart did not faithfully fulfil his promise to send Burns a copy of his paper regularly-otherwise he would have heard earlier of the Duchess of Gordon para 66 graph-and he had occasion to remonstrate in lines written to a gentleman who had sent the Poet a newspaper, and offered to continue it free of expense," a poem in which the events of the day are humorously but not too delicately introduced. Stuart again forgot his obligation, and another complaint in the following terms came from Burns: "Dear Peter, dear Peter, We poor sons of metre Are often negleckit ye ken; For instance, your sheet, man (Though glad I'm to see't, man), I get it no' ae day in ten." 66 THE BEE." When The Bee, a weekly magazine which aimed at combining instruction and entertainment, was projected in 1790 by Dr James Anderson, a well-known Edinburgh writer on agriculture, political economy, and other topics, the assistance of Burns as a contributor was sought. Dr Anderson did not know the Poet; but he secured the good offices of Dr Blacklock, who broached the subject in a poetical letter, dated 66 Edinburgh, 1st September, 1790. |