them, indeed, were very early productions. The most important additions were, "Death and Doctor Hornbook," "The Brigs of Ayr," "The Ordination," and the "Address to the Unco Gude." "In this edition also, " When Guildford good our Pilot stood," made its first appearance, on reading which, Dr. Blair uttered his pithy criticism, "Burns's politics always smell of the smithy." It ought not to be omitted, that our poet bestowed some of the first fruits of this edition in the erection of a decent tombstone over the hitherto neglected remains of his unfortunate predecessor, Robert Fergusson, in the Canongate churchyard. The evening before he quitted Edinburgh, the poet addressed a letter to Dr. Blair, in which, taking a most respectful farewell of him, and expressing, in lively terms, his sense of gratitude for the kindness he had shown him, he thus recurs to his own views of his own past and future condition :-"I have often felt the embarrassment of my singular situation. However the meteor-like novelty of my appearance in the world might attract notice, I knew very well that my utmost merit was far unequal to the task of preserving that character when once the novelty was over. I have made up my mind, that abuse, or almost even neglect, will not surprise me in my quarters." To this touching letter the amiable Blair replied in a truly paternal strain of consolation and advice:-"Your situation," says he, "was indeed very singular; you have had to stand a severe trial. I am happy that you have stood it so well. . . . You are now, I presume, to retire to a more private walk of life. You have laid the foundation for just public esteem. In the midst of those employ 1 ... [This remarkable poem, "Address to the Unco Gude," is believed, on good grounds, to have been composed in Edinburgh, while the printing of the new edition was in progress."] ments, which your situation will render proper, you will not, I hope, neglect to promote that esteem, by cultivating your genius, and attending to such productions of it as may raise your character still higher. At the same time, be not in too great a haste to come forward. Take time and leisure to improve and mature your talents; for, on any second production you give the world, your fate as a poet will very much depend. There is, no doubt, a gloss of novelty which time wears off. As you very properly hint yourself, you are not to be surprised if, in your rural retreat, you do not find yourself surrounded with that glare of notice and applause which here shone upon you. No man can be a good poet without being somewhat of a philosopher. He must lay his account, that any one who exposes himself to public observation, will occasionally meet with the attacks of illiberal censure, which it is always best to overlook and despise. He will be inclined sometimes to court retreat, and to disappear from public view. He will not affect to shine always, that he may at proper seasons come forth with more advantage and energy. He will not think himself neglected if he be not always praised." Such were Blair's admonitions. "And part was heard, and part was lost in air." Burns had one object of worldly business in his journey; On the same occasion, the poet addressed Lord Glencairn in these terms; the letter is here first made public: : "My Lord, I go away to-morrow morning early; and allow me to vent the fulness of my heart in thanking your Lordship for all that patronage, that benevolence, and that friendship, with which you have honoured me. With brimful eyes I pray, that you may find in that Great Being, whose image you so nobly bear, that Friend which I have found in you. My gratitude is not selfish design-that I disdain—it is not dodging after the heels of greatness-that is an offering you disdain. It is a feeling of the same kind with my devotion.-R. B." namely, to examine the estate of Dalswinton, near Dumfries, the proprietor of which had, on learning that the poet designed to return to his original calling, expressed a strong wish to have him for his tenant. CHAPTER VI. 66 Ramsay and famous Fergusson, While Irvine, Lugar, Ayr, and Doon, N the 6th of May, Burns left Edinburgh, in company 1 well, in Berwickshire, with the design of perambulating the picturesque scenery of the southern border, and in particular of visiting the localities celebrated by the old minstrels, of whose works he was a passionate admirer; and of whom, by the way, one of the last appears to have been all but a namesake of his own.2 1 Afterwards Clerk to the Signet. Among other changes "which fleeting time procureth," this amiable gentleman, whose youthful gaiety made him a chosen associate of Burns, is chiefly known as the author of an Essay on the Evidences of Christianity, and some devotional tracts. [He survived till April, 1838, when he had reached the age of seventyone. He married about two years after the death of Burns.] 2 [Nicol Burne lived about the middle of the sixteenth century. Bred a priest in connection with the Abbeys of Dryburgh and Melrose, he pretended to side with the Reformers in 1558, and was appointed Professor of Philosophy at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrew's; but he afterwards recanted and rejoined his Mother Church. At Paris in 1581 he published "Ane admonition to the antichristian ministers of the Deformit Kirk of Scotland." Lockhart here supposes "Priest Burne" to have been the author of a song preserved in the Tea-table Miscellany of Allan Ramsay, called “Leaderhaughs and Yarrow," in the last verse This was long before the time when those fields of Scottish romance were to be made accessible to the curiosity of citizens by stage-coaches; and Burns and his friend performed their tour on horseback, the former being mounted on a favourite mare, whom he had named Jenny Geddes, in honour of the zealous virago who threw her stool at the Dean of Edinburgh's head, on the 23rd of July, 1637, when the attempt was made to introduce a Scottish Liturgy into the service of St. Giles's; the same trusty animal whose merits have been recorded by Burns, in a letter which must have been puzzling to most modern Scotsmen, before the days of Dr. Jamieson.1 Burns passed from Edinburgh to Berrywell, the residence of Mr. Ainslie's family, and visited successively Dunse, of which he designs himself "Minstrel Burne," and seems to lament the ravages in his youthful neighbourhood caused by the violence of those times, thus: "The bird that flees thro' Reedpath trees, And Gledswood banks ilk morrow, But Minstrel Burne can not assuage To see the changes of this age, That fleeting time procureth; For mony a place stands in hard case, Where blythe folk kenn'd nae sorrow, 1 “My auld ga’d gleyde o' a meere has huchyall'd up hill and down brae, as teuch and birnie as a vera deevil wi' me. It's true she's as poor's a sangmaker, and as hard's a kirk, and tipper-taipers when she taks the gate, like a lady's gentlewoman in a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle; but she's a yauld poutherie girran for a'that. When ance her ringbanes and spavies, her cruiks and cramps, are fairly soupled, she beets to, beets to, and ay the hindmost hour the lightest," &c. &c.-Letter to William Nicol, Reliques, p. 28. L |