No. CCLIII. TO MRS. DUNLOP. Castle Douglas, 25th June, 1794. "Thee, Caledonia, thy wild heaths among, Beneath the hallow'd turf where Wallace lies! HERE, in a solitary inn, in a solitary village, "That arm which, nerv'd with thundering fate, I am just going to trouble your critical patience with the first sketch of a stanza I have The been framing as I passed along the road. subject is Liberty: you know, my honoured friend, how dear the theme is to me. I design it as an irregular ode for General Washington's birth-day. After having mentioned the degeneracy of other kingdoms, I come to Scotland thus: Wallace statur off gretnes and of hycht, There is an anecdote in confirmation of the uncommon strength ascribed to Wallace, related by Hector Boeis. It is curious, as it affords an example of longevity, not unsimilar to that of the Irish Countess of Desmond, who attained to a still more advanced age. The date is 1430. At that time James I. was in Perth, and perhaps having heard Henry the Minstrel recite some of Wallace's exploits, he found his curiosity excited to visit a noble lady of great age, who was able to inform him of many ancient matters. She lived in the Castle of Kinnoul, on the opposite side of the river, and was probably a widow of one of the Lords of Erskine, a branch of whose family continued to be denominated from the barony of Kinnoul, till about the year 1440. "In consequence of her extreme old age, she had lost her sight; but all her other senses were entire, and her body was yet firm and lively. She had seen Sir William Wallace, and King Robert Bruce, and frequently told particulars concerning them. "The king, who entertained a love and veneration for greatness, resolved to visit the old lady, that he might hear her describe the manners and strength of the two heroes, who were admired in his time, as they now are in ours. He 3 Six feet nine inches. One quench'd in darkness, like the sinking star, No. CCLIV. TO MR. JAMES JOHNSON. Dumfries, 1794. MY DEAR FRIend, You should have heard from me long ago; but over and above some vexatious share in the therefore sent a message, acquainting her that he intended to visit her the next day. "She received the message gratefully, and gave immediate orders to her handmaids to prepare every thing for his reception in the best manner; particularly that they should dispar her pieces of tapestry, some of which were uncommonly rich and beautiful. "All her servants became busily employed, for their work was in some degree unusual, as she had not for a long time been accustomed to receive princely visiters. "The next day, when told that the king was approaching. she went down into the hall of her Castle, dressed with much elegance and finery as her old age, and the fashi the time, would permit; attended by a train of mammes many of whom were her own descendants; of which sumber, some appeared much more altered and disfigured by age than she herself was. "One of her matrons having informed her that the king was entering the hall, she arose from her seat and advanced to meet him so easily and gracefully that he doubted of her being wholly blind. At his desire she embraced and kissed him. "Her attendant assured him she was wholly blind, bet that from long custom she had acquired these easy move ments. "Robert,' said she, was a man beautiful, and of a for appearance. His strength was so great that he could easty have overcome any mortal man of his time. But in so far as he excelled other men, he was excelled by Wallace, both stature and in bodily strength: for in wrestling Ware could have overcome two such men as Robert was. "The king made some enquiries concerning his own inmediate parents, and his other ancestors; and having beart her relate many things, he returned to Perth well pleased with the visit he had made."-BOETH. HIST. 1. xvii. This lady could not have been less than one hundred an? thirty years old at the time mentioned. The Countess cí Desmond alluded to was one hundred and forty at the period of her death. - ROBERTSON'S HISTORY OF Renfrew- · SHIRE.] pecuniary losses of these accursed times, I have all this winter been plagued with low spirits and blue devils, so that I have almost hung my harp on the willow trees. I am just now busy correcting a new edition of my poems, and this, with my ordinary business, finds me in full employment. I send you by my friend, Mr. Wallace, fortyone songs for your fifth volume; if we cannot finish in any other way, what would you think of Scots words to some beautiful Irish airs? In the mean time, at your leisure, give a copy of the Museum to my worthy friend, Mr. Peter Hill, Bookseller, to bind for me, interleaved with blank leaves, exactly as he did the Laird of Glenriddel's, that I may insert every anecdote I can learn, together with my own criticisms and remarks on the songs. A copy of this kind I shall leave with you, the editor, to publish at some after period, by way of making the Museum a book famous to the end of time, and you renowned for ever. * I have got a Highland Dirk, for which I have great veneration; as it once was the dirk of Lord Balmerino. It fell into bad hands, who stripped it of the silver mounting, as well as the knife and fork. I have some thoughts of sending it to your care, to get it mounted anew. Thank you for the copies of my Volunteer Ballad.-Ŏur friend Clarke has done indeed well! 'tis chaste and beautiful. I have not met with any thing that has pleased me so much. You know I am no Connoisseur: but that I am an Amateur-will be allowed me. R. B. My prospect in the Excise is something; at least, it is, encumbered as I am with the welfare, the very existence, of near half-a-score of helpless individuals, what I dare not sport with. In the mean time, they are most welcome to my Ode; only, let them insert it as a thing they have met with by accident and unknown to me.-Nay, if Mr. Perry, whose honour, after your character of him I cannot doubt; if he will give me an address and channel by which any thing will come safe from those spies with which he may be certain that his correspondence is beset, I will now and then send him a bagatelle that I may write. In the present hurry of Europe, nothing but news and politics will be regarded; but against the days of peace, which Heaven send soon, my little assistance may perhaps fill up an idle column of a newspaper. I have long had it in my head to try my hand in the way of little prose essays, which I propose sending into the world through the medium of some newspaper; and should these be worth his while, to these Mr. Perry shall be welcome; and all my reward shall be his treating me with his paper, which, by the bye, to any body who has the least relish for wit, is a high treat indeed. † With the most grateful esteem, I am ever, No. CCLVI. TO MR. SAMUEL CLARKE, JUN. No. CCLV. DUMFRIES. Sunday Morning. DEAR SIR: I was, I know, drunk last night, but I am sober this morning. From the expressions Capt. made use of to me, had I had nobody's welfare to care for but my own, we should certainly have come, according to the manners of the world, to the necessity of murdering one another about the business. The words were such as generally, I believe, end in a brace of pistols; but I am still pleased to think that I did not ruin the peace and welfare of a wife and a family of children in a drunken squabble. Farther you know that the report of certain political opinions being mine has already once before brought me to the brink of destruction. I dread lest last night's business may be misrepresented in the same way.—You, their sympathy for his misfortunes, and in their regret that his talents were nearly lost to the world of Letters, these gentlemen agreed on the plan of settling him in London. To accomplish this most desirable object, Mr. Perry, very spiritedly, made the Poet a handsome offer of an annual stipend for the exercise of his talents in his newspaper. Burns's reasons for refusing this offer are stated in the present letter."-CROMEK.] I beg, will take care to prevent it. I tax your wish for Mr. Burns's welfare with the task of waiting, as soon as possible, on every gentleman who was present, and state this to him, and, as you please, shew him this letter. What, after all, was the obnoxious toast? "May our success in the present war be equal to the justice of our cause"- -a toast that the most outrageous frenzy of loyalty cannot object to. I request and beg that this morning you will wait on the parties present at the foolish dispute. I shall only add that I am truly sorry that a man who stood so high in my estimation as Mr. should use me in the manner in which I conceive he has done. I DARE say that this is the first epistle you ever received from this nether world. I write you from the regions of Hell, amid the horrors of the damned. The time and manner of my leaving your earth I do not exactly know, as I took my departure in the heat of a fever of intoxication, contracted at your too hospitable mansion; but, on my arrival here, I was fairly tried, and sentenced to endure the purgatorial tortures of this infernal confine for the space of ninety-nine years, eleven months, and twentynine days, and all on account of the impropriety of my conduct yesternight under your roof. Here am I, laid on a bed of pitiless furze, with my aching head reclined on a pillow of everpiercing thorn, while an infernal tormentor, wrinkled, and old, and cruel, his name I think is Recollection, with a whip of scorpions, forbids peace or rest to approach me, and keeps anguish eternally awake. Still, Madam, if I could in any measure be reinstated in the good opinion of the fair circle whom my conduct last night so much injured, I think it would be an alleviation to my torments. For this reason I trouble you with this letter. To the men of the company I will make no apology.—Your husband, who insisted on my drinking more than I chose, has no right to blame me; and the other gentlemen were partakers of my guilt. [In the song alluded to, there are some fine verses. "And now your banks and bonnie braes But waken sad remembrance' smart: Now strike fresh anguish to my heart: But to you, Madam, I have to apologize. Your good opinion I valued as one of the greatest acquisitions I had made on earth, and I was truly a beast to forfeit it. There was a Miss I- , too, a woman of fine sense, gentle and unassuming manners—do make, on my part, a miserable d-mned wretch's best apology to her. A Mrs. G- , a charming woman, did me the honour to be prejudiced in my favour: this makes me hope that I have not outraged ber beyond all forgiveness.—To all the other ladies please present my humblest contrition for my conduct, and my petition for their gracious pardon. O all ye powers of decency and decorum! whisper to them that my errors, though great, were involuntary-that an intoxicated man is the vilest of beasts-that it was not in my nature to be brutal to any one-that to be rude to a woman, when in my senses, was impossible with me-but MR. BURNS'S compliments to Mrs. Riddelis much obliged to her for her polite attention in sending him the book. Owing to Mr. B. being at present acting as supervisor of excise, a department that occupies his every hour of the day, he has not that time to spare which is necessary for any belle-lettre pursuit; but, as he will, in a week or two, again return to his wonted leisure, he will then pay that attention to Mrs. R.'s beautiful song, "To thee, loved Nith"-which it so well deserves.* When "Anacharsis' Travels" come to hand, which Mrs. Riddel mentioned as her gift to the public library, Mr. B. will feel honoured by the indulgence of a perusal of them before presentation it is a book he has never yet seen, and the regulations of the library allow too little leisure for deliberate reading. Friday Evening. P.S. Mr. Burns will be much obliged to Mrs. Riddel if she will favour him with a The flowers of spring how gay they bloom'd For wintry horrors dark and drear. Is now in icy fetters lock'd Cold as my false love's frozen breast."] In such a bad world as our's, those who add to the scanty sum of our pleasures are positively our benefactors. To you, Madam, on our humble Dumfries boards, I have been more indebted for entertainment than ever I was in prouder theatres. Your charms as a woman would ensure applause to the most indifferent actress, and your theatrical talents would ensure admiration to the plainest figure. This, Madam, is not the unmeaning or insidious compliment of the frivolous or interested; I pay it from the same honest impulse that the sublime of nature excites my admiration, or her beauties give me delight. Will the foregoing lines be of any service to you in your approaching benefit night? If they will I shall be prouder of my muse than ever. They are nearly extempore: I know they have no great merit; but though they should add bat little to the entertainment of the evening, they give me the happiness of an opportunity to declare how much I have the honour to be, &c. No. CCLX. TO MRS. DUNLOP. R. B. 15th December, 1795. MY DEAR FRIEND, As I am in a complete Decemberish humour, gloomy, sullen, stupid, as even the Deity of Dulness herself could wish, I shall not drawl out a heavy letter with a number of heavier apologies for my late silence. Only one I shall mention, because I know you will sympathize in it these four months, a sweet little girl, my youngest child, has been so ill that every day, a week, or less, threatened to terminate her existence. There had much need be many pleasures annexed to the states of husband and father, for, God knows, they have many peculiar cares. I cannot describe to you the anxious, sleepless hours these ties frequently give me. I see a train of helpless little folks; me and my exertions all their stay and on what a brittle thread does the life of man hang! If I am nipt off at the command of fate! even in all the vigour of manhood as I am-such things happen every day—Gracious God! what would become of my little flock! 'Tis here that I envy your people of fortune.-A father on his death-bed, taking an everlasting leave of his children, has indeed woe enough; but the man of competent fortune leaves his sons and daughters independency and friends; while I-but I shall run distracted if I think any longer on the subject! To leave talking of the matter so gravely, I shall sing with the old Scots ballad— SPOKEN BY MISS FONTENELLE ON HER BENEFIT-NIGHT, DEC. 4, 1795, AT THE THEATRE, DUMFRIES. "Still anxious to secure your partial favour, &c." (Vide p. 320.) 25th, Christmas Morning. This, my much-loved friend, is a morning of wishes; accept mine-so heaven hear me as they are sincere!-that blessings may attend your steps, and affliction know you not! In the charming words of my favourite author, "The Man of Feeling," May the Great Spirit bear up the weight of thy grey hairs, and blunt the arrow that brings them rest!" 66 Now that I talk of authors, how do you like Cowper? Is not the "Task" a glorious poem?† The religion of the "Task," bating a few scraps of Calvinistic divinity, is the religion of God and Nature; the religion that exalts, that the frequency of the praise it appears that the English bard was a great favourite. This precious volume was after the death of the poet placed in the library at Dunlop; but the family carrying it with them one winter to Edinburgh, it was unfortunately destroyed by fire, along with other volumes which had been in the hands of Burns, and which attested equally his feelings and his taste.-CUNNINGHAM.] ennobles man. Were Lot you to send me your my I have lately collected, for a friend's perusal, all my letters; I mean those which I first sketched, in a rough draught, and afterwards wrote out fair. On looking over some old musty papers, which, from time to time, I had parcelled by, as trash that were scarce worth preserving, and which yet at the same time I did not care to destroy; I discovered many of these rude sketches, and have written, and am writing them out, in a bound MS. for my friend's library. As I wrote always to you the rhapsody of the moment, I cannot find a single scroll to you, except one, about the commencement of our acquaintance. If there were any possible conveyance, I would send you a perusal of my book. No. CCLXI. R. B. TO MR. ALEXANDER FINDLATER,* SUPERVISOR of excise, dumfries. You will see by your subscribers' list that I have been about nine months of that number. I am sorry to inform you that in that time seven or eight of your papers either have never been sent me, or else have never reached me. To be deprived of any one number of the first newspaper in Great Britain for information, ability, and independence, is what I can ill brook and bear; but to be deprived of that most admirable oration of the Marquis of Lansdowne, when he made the great, though ineffectual, attempt (in the language of the poet, I fear too true,) "to save a SINKING STATE"-this was a loss that I neither can nor will forgive you.-That paper, Sir, never reached me; but I demand it of you. I am a BRITON; and must be interested in the cause of LIBERTY:-I am a MAN; and the RIGHTS of HUMAN NATURE cannot be indifferent to me. However, do not let me mislead you: I ENCLOSED are the two schemes. I would am not a man in that situation of life which, as not have troubled you with the collector's one, your subscriber, can be of any consequence to but for suspicion lest it be not right. Mr. you, in the eyes of those to whom SITUATION Erskine promised me to make it right, if you OF LIFE ALONE is the criterion of MAN.—I will have the goodness to show him how. As am but a plain tradesman, in this distant, obI have no copy of the scheme for myself, and scure country town: but that humble domicile the alterations being very considerable from in which I shelter my wife and children is the what it was formerly, I hope that I shall have CASTELLUM of a BRITON; and that scanty. access to this scheme I send you, when I come hard-earned income which supports them is as to face up my new books. So much for schemes. truly my property as the most magnificent for--And that no scheme to betray a FRIEND, or tune of the most PUISSANT MEMBER of your mislead a STRANGER; to seduce a YOUNG HOUSE of NOBLES. GIRL, or rob a HEN - ROOST; to subvert LIBERTY, or bribe an EXCISEMAN; to disturb the GENERAL ASSEMBLY, or annoy a GOSSIPING; to overthrow the credit of ORTHODOXY, or the authority of OLD SONGS; to oppose SIR, * [This gentleman died at Glasgow, on the 4th of December, 1839, at the advanced age of eighty-five.] T[James Perry, editor and proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, was one of the most intelligent and enterprising of British Journalists. He considered himself to be a sound old Whig, and by his satiric sallies and sharp scrutiny of public men and motives, was as a thistle and a thorn to the Tories for a full quarter of a century. He was one of the first in giving interest and importance to "The folio of four pages," which it has maintained, and more than maintained, since. Perry was a native of Aberdeen: he was social and friendly, and held fast by his integrity during very trying and changeful times.-CUNNINGHAM.] ["This letter," says Cromek, "owes its origin to the following circumstance. A neighbour of the Poet, at Dum These, Sir, are my sentiments; and to them fries, called on him and complained that he had been greatle Burns tore a leaf from his excise book, and instantly produced the sketch which I have transcribed, and which is here printed. The poor man thanked him, and took the letzer home. However, that caution which the watchfulness of ha enemies had taught him to exercise prompted him to the prudence of begging a friend to wait on the person for whom it was written, and request the favour to have it returned This request was complied with, and the paper never appeared in print."-CROMEK.] |