riod, the following account has been given by Mr Stewart, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, in a letter to the editor, which he is particularly happy to have obtained permission to insert in these memoirs.

"THE first time I saw Robert Burns was on the 23d of October, 1786, when he dined at my house in Ayrshire, together with our common friend Mr John Mackenzie, surgeon, in Mauchline, to whom I am indebted for the pleasure of his acquaintance. I am enabled to mention the date particularly, by some verses which Burns wrote after he returned home, and in which the day of our meeting is recorded--My excellent and much lamented friend, the late Basil, Lord Daer, happened to arrive at Catrine the same day, and by the kindness and frankness of his manners, left an impression on the mind of the poet, which never was effaced. The verses I allude to are among the most imperfect of his pieces; but a few stanzas may perhaps be an object of curiosity to you, both on account of the character to which they relate, and of the light which they throw on the situation and feelings of the writer, before his name was known to the public*.

This poem is as follows:

This wot ye all whom it concerns,
I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns,

October twenty-third,

A ne'er-to-be forgotten day.

Sae far I sprackled† up the brae,

I dinner'd wi a Lord

+ Clambered..

"I cannot positively say, at this distance of time, whether, at the period of our first acquaintance, the Kilmarnock edition of his poems had been just pub

I've been at druken writers † feasts
Nay, been bitch-fou 'mang godly priests,
Wi' reverence be it spoken.
I've even join'd the honour'd jorum,
When mighty Squireships of the quorum,
Their hydra drouth did sloken.
But wi' a Lord-stand out my shin,
A Lord-a Peer-an Earl's son,
Up higher yet my bonnet;

An' sic a Lord-lang Scotch ells twa,
Our Peerage he o'erlooks them a',
As I look o'er my sonnet.

But, oh! for Hogarth's magic pow'r!
To show Sir Bardy's willyart glowr‡,
And how he star'd and stammer'd
When goavan §, as if led wi' branks ||,
An' stumpan on his ploughman shanks,
He in the parlour hammer'd.

I sidling shelter'd in a nook,

An' at his Lordship steal't a look,
Like some portentous omen;
Except good-sense and social glee,
An' (what surprised me) modesty,
I marked nought uncommon.

I watch'd the symptoms o' the Great,
The gentle pride, the lordly state,

The arrogant assuming;

The feint a pride, nae pride had he,
Nor. sauce, nor state, that I could see,

Attorneys.

Mair than an honest ploughman.

Frighted stare-Wild, strange, timid, stare. E.
Goavan-looking round with a strange
A kind of bridle.

§ Walking stupidly. inquiring gaze. E,

lished, or was yet in the press. I suspect that the latter was the case, as I have still in my possession copies in his own hand-writing, of some of his favourite performances; particularly of his verses "on turning up a Mouse with his Plough;"-" on the Mountain Daisy ;" and "the Lament." On my return to Edinburgh, I shewed the volume, and mentioned what I knew of the author's history to several of my friends; and, among others, to Mr Henry Mackenzie, who first recommended him to public notice in the 97th number of The Lounger.

"At this time Burns's prospects in life were so extremely gloomy, that he had seriously formed a plan of going out to Jamaica in a very humble situation, not however without lamenting that his want of patronage should force him to think of a project so repugnant to his feelings, when his ambition aimed at no higher an object than the station of an exciseman or gauger in his own country.

"His manners were then, as they continued ever afterwards, simple, manly, and independent; strongly expressive of conscious genius and worth; but without any thing that indicated forwardness, arro

Then from his Lordship I shall learn,
Henceforth to meet with unconcern,
One rank as well's another;

Nae honest worthy man need care,

To meet with noble youthful DAER,

For he but meets a brother.

These lines will be read with no common interest by all who remember the unaffected simplicity of appearance, the sweetness of countenance and manners, and the unsuspecting benevolence of heart, of Basil, Lord Daer.

gance, or vanity. He took his share in conversation, but not more than belonged to him; and listened with apparent attention and deference on subjects where his want of education deprived him of the means of information. If there had been a little more of gentleness and accommodation in his temper, he would, I think, have, been still more interesting; but he had been accustomed to give law in the circle of his ordinary acquaintance; and his dread of any thing approaching to meanness or servility, rendered his manner somewhat decided and hard. Nothing,

perhaps, was more remarkable among his various attainments, than the fluency, and precision, and originality of his language, when he spoke in company; more particularly as he aimed at purity in his turn of expression, and avoided more successfully than most Scotchmen, the peculiarities of Scottish phraseology.

"He came to Edinburgh early in the winter following, and remained there for several months. By whose advice he took this step, I am unable to say. Perhaps it was suggested only by his own curiosity to see a little more of the world; but, I confess, I dreaded the consequences from the first, and always wished that his pursuits and habits should continue the same as in the former part of life; with the addition of, what I considered as then completely within his reach, a good farm on moderate terms, in a part of the country agreeable to his taste.

"The attentions he received during his stay in town from all ranks and descriptions of persons, were such as would have turned any head but his own. I

cannot say that I could perceive any unfavourable effect which they left on his mind. He retained the same simplicity of manners and appearance which had struck me so forcibly when I first saw him in the country; nor did he seem to feel any additional selfimportance from the number and rank of his new acquaintance. His dress was perfectly suited to hist station, plain and unpretending, with a sufficient attention to neatness. If I recollect right he always wore boots; and, when on more than usual ceremony, buck-skin breeches.

1

"The variety of his engagements, while in Edinburgh, prevented me from seeing him so often as I could have wished. In the course of the spring he called on me once or twice, at my request, early in the morning, and walked with me to Braid-Hills, in the neighbourhood of the town, when he charmed me still more by his private conversation, than he had ever done in company. He was passionately fond of the beauties of nature; and I recollect once he told me, when I was admiring a distant prospect in one of our morning walks, that the sight of so many smoking cottages gave a pleasure to his mind, which none could understand who had not witnessed, like himself, the happiness and the worth which they contained.

"In his political principles he was then a Jacobite; which was perhaps owing partly to this, that his father was originally from the estate of Lord Mareschall. Indeed he did not appear to have thought much on such subjects, nor very consistently. He had a very strong sense of religion, and expressed