Page 113, line 30 fr. bottom. In writing to his brother Gilbert, 11th January, 1790, Burns

says:

We have got a set of very decent players here just now. I have seen them an evening or two. David Campbell, in Ayr, wrote to me by the manager of the company, a Mr. Sutherland, who is a man of apparent worth. On new year's day evening, I gave him the following prologue, which he spouted to his audience with applause.'

Page 114, line 5. Miss Burnet, daughter of Lord Monboddo, celebrated in the Address to Edinburgh. This elegy seems to have cost the poet considerable trouble. In a letter to Mr. Cunningham, January, 1791, he says:'I have these several months been hammering at an elegy on the amiable and accomplished Miss Burnet. I have got, and can get, no farther than the following fragment

Page 115, col. 1, line 1. This epistle is supposed to have been sent to Mr. Peter Stuart, of the Star newspaper. From the remonstrance which follows, it would seem that the newspaper did not arrive with the punctuality which was desired.

Page 115, col. 1, line 25. Basil William, Lord Daer, son of the Earl of Selkirk, died in 1794, in his thirty-second year. Burns met him

at Professor Dugald Stewart's villa at Catrine. The Professor in speaking of the meeting, and of Burns' behaviour thereat, says: '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, arrogance, 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 tone of expression, and avoided, more successfully than most Scotchmen, the peculiarities of Scottish phraseology.' Lord Daer was the first man of rank whom Burns had met in society, and his poem describing the meeting is illumined by a very

natural elation.

Page 116, line 26 fr. bottom. Miss Fontenelle was an actress at the Dumfries Theatre.

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 but 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.' Page 116, line 21 fr. bottom. Var. The rights of woman claim some small attention. Page 116, line 14 fr. bottom. Var.

Our second right- -but idle here is caution. Page 116, line 8 fr. bottom. Var. Got drunk, would swagger, swear, kick up a

riot.

Page 116, line 3 fr. bottom. An ironical allusion to the saturnalia of the Caledonian Hunt.

Page 117, line 2. Var.

-

Must fall before — 'tis dear, dear admiration. Page 117, line 4. Var.

And thence that life of life-immortal Love. Page 118, line 13. Burns wrote Mr. Thomson, July, 1794-I have presented a copy of your songs to the daughter of a much-valued and much-honoured friend of mine, Mr. Graham, of Fintry. I wrote, on the blank side of the title-page, the following address to the young lady.'

Page 118, line 14. Var.

In strains divine and sacred numbers join'd. Page 118, line 22. Var.

As modest want the secret tale reveals. Page 118, line 23. Var. While virtue, conscious, all the strain endears. Page 118, col. 1, line 1. Gilbert Burns doubted whether the Poem on Pastoral Poetry was written by his brother. Few readers, we fancy, can have any doubt on the matter. Burns is, unquestionably, the author. The whole poem is full of lines which are 'like autographs,' and the four closing stanzas are in the poet's best manner.

Page 119, col. 1, line 15. With reference to these verses Burns, in 1795, wrote Mr. Thomson-Written on the blank leaf of a copy of the last edition of my poems, presented to the lady whom, in so many fictitious reveries of passion, but with the most ardent sentiments of real friendship, I have so often sung under the name of Chloris.' The lady was Miss Jean Lorimer, daughter of a farmer residing at some little distance from Dumfries. Chloris was the most unfortunate of all Burns' heroines. While very young she eloped with a gentleman named Whelpdale, and was shortly after deserted by him. She died in 1831, having lived the greater portion of her life in penury.

Page 120, line 1. Mr. Tytler had published an Inquiry, Historical and Critical, into the evidence against Mary Queen of Scots.'

Page 120, line 25. An artist, named Miers, was then practising in Edinburgh as a maker

of silhouette portraits. Burns sat to him, and to Mr. Tytler he forwarded one of Miers' performances.

Page 121, col. 1, line 1. descriptive of the family of Dunlop.

Page 121, col. 1, line 11. eral Dunlop, of Dunlop.

This sketch is Mr. Dunlop, of

Afterwards Gen

Page 112, col. 1, line 13. Miss Rachel Dunlop was making a sketch of Coila. Page 121, col. 1, line 14. Miss Keith Dunlop, the youngest daughter.

Page 121, line 8 fr. bottom. Burns and Smellie were members of a club in Edinburgh called the Crochallan Fencibles.

Page 122, line 8. Mrs. Riddel, of Woodley Park, was the lady satirized in these verses. Page 123, col. 1, line 9. Miss Jessie Lewars attended Burns in his last illness.

Page 124, line 12 fr. bottom. Mr. John Syme was one of the poet's constant companions. He possessed great talent, and Dr. Currie wished him to undertake the editing of the poet's life and writings.

Page 125, col. 1, line 15. Mr. Riddel, of Woodley Park, was the gentleman to whom these lines were addressed.

Page 127, col. 1, line 7. In enclosing these verses to Mr. Creech, Burns writes 'The enclosed I have just wrote, nearly extempore, in a solitary inn in Selkirk, after a miserable wet day's riding.'

Page 128, line 5 fr. bottom. In a MS. in the possession of the Publisher, two additional stanzas are given:

She mourns, sweet tuneful youth, thy hapless fate,

Tho' all the powers of song thy fancy fir'd,
Yet Luxury and Wealth lay by in State,
And thankless starv'd what they so much
admir'd.

This humble tribute with a tear he gives,
A brother Bard, he can no more bestow:
But dear to fame thy Song immortal lives,
A nobler monument than Art can show.

Page 129, line 1. On the 25th June, 1794, Burns sent Liberty, a Fragment,' to Mrs. Dunlop, with the following remarks. 'Here, in a solitary inn, in a solitary village, am I set by myself to amuse my brooding fancy as I may. I am just going to trouble your critical patience with the first sketch of a stanza I have been framing as I paced along the road. The subject is Liberty. You know, my honoured friend, how dear the subject is to me. I design it as an irregular ode for General Washington's birthday.'

Page 130, col. 1, line 1. Ruisseaux- - a play upon the poet's own name.

Page 130, col. 1, line 9. Mrs. Scott, of Wauchope, Roxburghshire, had sent a rhymed epistle to Burns, displaying considerable vigour of thought, and neatness of expression.

Page 132, col. 1, line 1. Regarding this poem, Burns informed Dr. Moore that, The first of my poetic offspring that saw the light was a burlesque lamentation on a quarrel between two reverend Calvinists, both of them dramatis persone in my Holy Fair." I had a notion myself that the piece had some merit; but to prevent the worst, I gave a copy of it to a friend who was very fond of such things, and told him that I could not guess who was the author of it, but that I thought it pretty clever. With a certain description of the clergy, as well as laity, it met with a roar of applause. Page 132, col. 1, line 9. Var.

These five and fifty summers past.
Page 132, col. 1, line 29. Var.
Frae Calvin's fountain-head they drank.
Page 132, col. 2, line 8. Var.

Var.

Or nobly swing the gospel club.
Page 132, col. 2, line 17.
While enemies wi' laughin' spite.
Page 132, col. 2, line 21. Var.

But chiefly thee, apostle Auld.
Page 132, col. 2, line 24. Var.
To gar them gree.
Page 132, col. 2, line 29. Var.
I trust in Heaven to see them yet.
Page 133, col. 1, line 1. Var.
Auld Wodrow lang has wrought mischief.
Page 133, col. 1, line 2. Var.

We trusted death wad bring relief. Page 133, line 18 fr. bottom. The Rev. Mr. M'Math was, when Burns addressed him, assistant and successor to the Rev. Peter Wodrow, minister of Torbolton. He is said to have been an excellent preacher.

Page 135, col. 1, line 1. Holy Willie' was William Fisher, the leading elder in the Rev. Mr. Auld's session. He was afterwards found guilty of embezzling money from the church offerings, and died in a ditch, into which he had fallen when drunk.

Page 137, col. 1, line 17. Written while Burns was on a visit to Sir William Murray, of Ochtertyre.

Page 138, col. 1, line 1. Master Tootie was a dealer in cows, who lived in Mauchline. It was his practice to disguise the age of his cattle by polishing away the markings on their horns.

Page 138, line 12 fr. bottom. The newspaper contained some strictures on Burns' poetry.

Page 139, col. 1, line 17. John Maxwell, Esq. of Terraughty and Munches. He died in 1814.

Page 141, line 1. It is very doubtful whether Burns is the author of this piece.

Page 141, line 35. The Sketch' is a portion of a work, The Poet's Progress,' which Burns meditated, but of which hardly any portion seems to have ever been written. The immediate object of his satire is said to have bean his publisher Creech.

Page 144, line 10.

Var.

Dim, cloudy, sunk beyond the western wave. Page 145, col. 1, line 1. This ode was first printed in a London newspaper. Page 146, col. 1, line i Burns' illegitimate daughter married Mr. John Bishop, overseer at Polkemmet, and died in 1817. She is said to have been strikingly like her father.

Page 146, col. 1, line 19. Miss Ferrier, authoress of Marriage and Destiny.

Page 147, col. 1, line 1. In 1780, Mr. John Goldie, or Goudie, a tradesman in Kilmarnock, published a series of Essays touching the authority of the Scriptures. A second edition of the work appeared in 1785. Burns' epistle to him, although written when Ayrshire was convulsed with the New Light and Auld Light controversies, was not published till 1801. It appeared first in the Glasgow edition of the poem.

Page 147, col. 2, line 11. Dr. Taylor of Norwich, the author of a work entitled, The Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin proposed to Free and Candid Examination,' which was extensively read by the New Light party in Ayrshire at the time.

Page 147, col. 1, line 15. Mr. James Tait of Glenconnor was an old friend of the poet, and was consulted by him respecting the taking of the farm of Ellisland.

Page 148, col. 1, line 19. Ellisland to his friend, Mr. Kilmarnock.

Written from Hugh Parker of

Page 149, line 1. The Esopus of this strange epistle,' says Mr. Allan Cunningham, 'was Williamson the actor, and the Maria to whom it was addressed was Mrs. Riddel.'

Page 150, line 36. These lines form the conclusion of a letter written by Burns to Mr. John Kennedy, dated August, 1786, while his intention yet held of emigrating to Jamaica.

Page 151, line 1. 'The Farewell' was written in the autumn of 1786, when the idea of emigration was firmly fixed in the poet's mind.

Page 151, line 29. A person named Glendinning, who took away his own life, was the subject of this epigram. Mr. Cunningham adds the following particulars: My friend Dr. Copland Hutchison happened to be walking out that way' to a place called the 'Old Chapel near Dumfries,' where Glendinning had been interred. 'He saw Burns with his foot on the grave, his hat on his knee, and paper laid on his hat, on which he was writing. He then took the paper, thrust it with his finger into the red mould of the grave, and went away. This was the above epigram, and such was the poet's mode of publishing it.'

Page 151, line 33. 'This was spoken,' says Mr. Allan Cunningham, in reply to a gentleman who sneered at the sufferings of Scotland for conscience' sake, and called the Solemn League and Covenant of the Lords and People ridiculous and fanatical.' It is curious as the

only expression of sympathy with the Covenanting cause which occurs in Burns. Page 155, col. 1, line 1. These verses were inscribed by Burns on the back of a windowshutter of an inn or toll-house near the scene of the devastations.

Page 156, col. 1, line 1. Major Logan, a retired military officer, fond of wit, violin-playing, and conviviality, who lived at Park, near Ayr.

Page 157, col. 1, line 9. These verses form the conclusion of a letter written to Mr. John Kennedy from Mossgiel, of date 3d March, 1786. Page 157, col. 1, line 27. These lines were preserved by Miss Louisa Laurie, and appear to have been written on the same evening with the well-known' Verses left in the room where he slept.'

Page 158, line 9. brewer in Dumfries. on a goblet, which family.

Gabriel Richardson was a The epitaph was written is still preserved in the

Page 158, line 25. Written in reply to the Minister of Gladsmuir, who had attacked Burns in verse relative to the imprudent lines inscribed on a window-pane in Stirling.

Page 159, col. 1, line 1. These verses were originally headed, To the Right Honourable the Earl of Breadalbane, President of the Right Honourable and Honourable the Highland Society, which met on the 23d of May last, at the Shakspeare, Covent Garden, to concert ways and means to frustrate the designs of five hundred Highlanders, who, as the Society were informed by Mr. Mackenzie of Applecross, were so audacious as to attempt an escape from their lawful lords and masters, whose property they were, by emigrating from the lands of Mr. M'Donald of Glengarry to the Wilds of Canada in search of that fantastic thing - LIBERTY.'

Page 160, line 1. Lord President Dundas died on the 13th December, 1787, and Burns composed the elegy at the suggestion of Mr. Charles Hay, advocate, afterwards elevated to the bench under the designation of Lord Newton. On a copy of the elegy Burns afterwards wrote: 'The foregoing poem has some tolerable lines in it, but the incurable wound of my pride will not suffer me to correct, or even to peruse it. I sent a copy of it, with my best prose letter, to the son of the great man, by the hands of one of the noblest men in God's world, Alexander Wood, surgeon. When behold! his solicitorship took no more notice of my poem or me than if I had been a strolling fiddler, who had made free with his lady's name over a silly new reel. Did the gentleman imagine that I looked for any dirty gratuity?'

Page 162, line 4 fr. bottom. 'The Grace' was repeated at St. Mary's Isle at the request of the Earl of Selkirk.

Page 163, col. 1, line 1. The mare, who was named after the insane female who attempted the life of George III., was the property of Burns' friend Mr. William Nicol.

Page 164, line 1. While Miss Lewars was attending Burns she became slightly indisposed. You must not die yet,' said the poet; and writing the four lines on a goblet he presented it, saying, This will be a companion for the "Toast."

Page 164, line 5. On Miss Lewars recovering he said There is a poetic reason for it,' and wrote these lines.

Page 165, col. 1, line 1. Mr. Chalmers was a writer in Ayr, and in love. He desired Burns to address the lady in his behalf.

Page 165, line 4 fr. bottom. This epigram, it is said, silenced a gentleman who was talking mightily of Dukes at the table of Maxwell of Terraughty.

Page 166, line 1. The note on which Burns wrote these lines is on the Bank of Scotland, dated 1st March, 1780.

Page 166, line 11. These lines-with one exception, the only attempt of Burns in blank verse-occur in his commonplace-book, April, 1783. It will be seen that the poet had not attained any considerable mastery over the most difficult of poetic measures.

Page 166, line 33. 'The Toast' was written by Burns on a goblet, and presented to Miss Lewars.

Page 167, col. 1, line 1. Burns arrived at Wanlockhead on a winter day, and was anxious to have the shoes of his mare frosted. The smith was busy, and could not attend. Burns then scribbled these verses to Mr John Taylor, a person of some importance in the place. Through Taylor's influence the smith's services were secured; and for thirty years afterwards it is said Vulcan was in the habit of boasting 'that he had never been weel paid but ance, and that was by a poet, who paid him in money, paid him in drink, and paid him in verse.'

Page 167, col. 1, line 13. In some MS. copies these stanzas conclude 'The Epistle to John Lapraik, an Old Scottish Bard.'

Page 168, line 1. These lines occur in one of the letters to Clarinda.

Page 168, line 9. printed by Cromek." Page 168, line 17. The Loyal Natives was a club in Dumfries, more distinguished,' says Cromek, 'for drunken loyalty than for respectability and poetic talent.'

These verses were first

Page 169, line 1. These lines occur in one of the letters to Clarinda.

Page 169, line 19. Mr. Cobbett, who first printed these lines, says: 'It is our fortune to know a Mr. Kennedy, an aged gentleman, a native of Scotland, and the early friend and associate of Robert Burns. Both were born in Ayrshire, near the town of Ayr, so fr quently celebrated in the poems of the bard. Burns, as is well known, was a poor peasant's son; and in

picture of what we may presume to be the family circle of his father. Kennedy, whose boyhood was passed in the labours of a farm, subsequently became the agent to a mercantile house in a neighbouring town. Hence he is called, in an epitaph which his friend the Poet wrote on him, "The Chapman." These lines, omitted in all editions of Burns' works, were composed on Kennedy's recovery from a severe illness. On his way to kirk on a bright Sabbath morning, he was met by the Poet, who, having rallied him on the sombre expression of his countenance, fell back, and soon rejoined him, presenting hun with the epitaph scrawled on a bit of paper with a pencil.' These verses, in

Page 171, col. 1, line 1. scribed to Gavin Hamilton, were printed for the first time in Pickering's edition.

Page 171, col. 1, line 25. These lines occur in a letter addressed by Burns to Mr. Robert Ainslie. Page 172, line 1. Burns in early life sketched the outlines of a tragedy, and the Tragic Fragment' was an exclamation from a great character- great in occasional instances of generosity, and daring at times in villanies. He is supposed to meet a child of misery and exclaims to himself.'

Page 172, line 25. These lines first appeared in the edition published at Glasgow in 1801. Page 173, col. 1, line 1. The following fragments are extracted from Burns' commonplacebook, but the authorship is doubtful. Page 174, col. 2, line 1. These lines first appeared in the edition published at Glasgow in 1801.

Page 174, col. 2, line 9. On Burns' arrival at Inverary the Castle and Inn were filled with visitors to the Duke, and the Innkeeper was too busy to pay attention to the Poet and his friend. The epigram, which was first published in the Glasgow edition, is supposed to have been written on one of the windows.

Page 174, col. 2, line 17. These lines first appeared in the edition published at Glasgow in

1801.

Page 176, col. 1, line 1. The Tailor's epistle is as follows. Burns' reply was first published at Glasgow in 1801.

EPISTLE FROM A TAILOR TO ROBERT BURNS.

What waefu' news is this I hear,
Frae greeting I can scarce forbear,
Folk tell me, ye're gawn aff this year
Out o'er the sea.

Aur lasses wham ye lo'e sae dear
Will greet for thee.
Weel wad I like war ye to stay,
But, Robin, since ye will away,
I ha'e a word yet mair to say,
And maybe twa;
May He protect us night and day
That made us a'.

Whar thou art gaun, keep mind frae me,
Seek Him to bear thee companie,
And, Robin, whan ye come to die,
Ye'll won aboon,

An' live at peace an' unity
Ayont the moon.

Some tell me, Rab, ye dinna fear
To get a wean, an' curse an' swear;
I'm unco wae, my lad, to hear
O' sic a trade.

Cou'd I persuade ye to forbear
I wad be glad.

Fu' weel ye ken ye'll gang to hell,
Gin ye persist in doin' ill-

Waes me! ye're hurlin' down the hill
Withouten dread,

An' ye'll get leave to swear your fill
After ye're dead.

There, walth o' women ye'll get near,
But gettin' weans ye will forbear,
Ye'll never say, my bonie dear,

Come, gie's a kiss

Nae kissing then-ye'll grin an' sneer, An' ither hiss.

Burns' friend,

Page 180, col. 1, line 25.

James Smith, of Mauchline. This epitaph was printed in the Glasgow Collection.

Page 181, line 5. Captain Grose was extremely corpulent. This Epigram was printed in the Glasgow Collection, 1801.

Page 181, line 15. Printed in the Glasgow Collection, 1801.

Page 182, line 1. Printed in the Glasgow Collection, 1801. In a letter to Clarinda in 1787, Burns refers to this epigram. 'Did I ever repeat to you an epigram I made on a Mr. Elphinstone, who has given a translation of Martial, a famous Latin poet? The poetry of Elphinstone can only equal his prose-notes. I was sitting in a merchant's shop of my acquaintance, waiting somebody; he put Elphinstone into my hand, and asked my opinion of it; I begged leave to write it on a blank leaf, which I did.'

Page 182, line 13. This epitaph was printed in the Kilmarnock edition. Jamie' was James Humphrey, a mason in Mauchline, who was wont to hold theological disputations with the Poet.

Page 182, line 17. 'Wee Johnie' was John Wilson, the printer of the Kilmarnock edition, in which edition Burns wickedly inserted the epitaph. Wilson printed, unconscious that he had any other interest in the matter than a commercial one.

Page 182, line 21. This, and the two following epitaphs, were printed in the Kilmarnock edition.

Page 183, line 9. Printed in the Kilmarnock edition. In a copy in the poet's handwriting the first line reads:

ye who sympathize with virtue's pains.' Page 183, line 16. Goldsmith. R. B. Page 185, col. 1, line 1. In the Kilmarnock, Edinburgh, and several subsequent editions, the first line of the Bard's Epitaph' is printed:'Is there a whim-inspir'd fool.' Page 186, line 1. These lines were inscribed on a pane of glass in Mr. M'Murdo's house.

Page 186, line 18. The Right Worshipful Master, Major-General James Montgomery. On the 24th of June (St. John's day), the Masonic Club in Mauchline, of which Burns was a member, contemplated a procession. Burns sent the rhymed note to Dr. Mackenzie, with whom he had lately been discussing the origin of morals.

Page 188, col. 1, line 1. This song was composed in honour of Miss Wilhelmina Alexander, sister of the Laird of Ballochmyle, whom Burns had met in one of his evening walks. In a letter addressed to the lady, he gives the following account of its composition:

'Madam,- Poets are such outré beings, so