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CHAPTER VI.

CONTENTS.-Makes three several pilgrimages in Caledonia-Lands from the first of them, after an absence of six months, amongst his friends in the "Auld Clay Biggin"-Finds honour in his own country-Falls in with many kind friends during those pilgrimages, and is familiar with the great, but never secures one effective patron-Anecdotes and SketchesLingers in Edinburgh amidst the fleshpots, winter 1787-8-Upset in a hackney coach, which produces a bruised limb, and mournful musings for six weeks-Is enrolled in the Excise-Another crisis, in which the Poet finds it necessary to implore even his friend Mrs. Dunlop not to desert him- Growls over his publisher, but after settling with him leaves Edinburgh with £500-Steps towards a more regular life.

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On the 6th of May, Burns left Edinburgh, in company with Mr. Robert Ainslie, Writer to the Signet, the son of a proprietor in Berwickshire.— Among other changes "which fleeting time procureth," this amiable gentleman, whose youthful gaiety made him a chosen associate of Burns, is now chiefly known as the author of some Manuals of Devotion.-They had formed 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 Burns was a passionate admirer.

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 good woman who threw her stool at the Dean of Edinburgh's head on the 23d of July 1637, when the attempt was made to introduce a Scottish Liturgy into the service of St. Giles's. The merits of the trusty animal have been set forth by the poet in very expressive and humorous terms, in a letter to his friend Nicoll while on the road, and which will be found entire in the Correspondence. He writes:-" My auld ga'd gleyde o' a meere has huchyalled up hill and down brae, as teuch and birnie as a vera devil, wi' me. It's true she's as puir's a sangmaker, and as hard's a kirk, and lipper-laipers when she takes the gate, like a lady's gentlewoman in a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle; but she's a yauld poutherin girran for a' that. When ance her ringbanes and pavies, her cruiks and cramps, are fairly soupled, she beets to, beets to, and aye the hindmost hour the lightest," &c. &c.

Burns passed from Edinburgh to Berrywell, the residence of Mr. Ainslie's family, and visited successively Dunse, Coldstream, Kelso, Fleurs, and the ruins of Roxburgh Castle, near which a holly bush still marks the spot on

which James II. of Scotland was killed by the bursting of a cannon. Jedburgh -where he admired the "charming romantic situation of the town, with gardens and orchards intermingled among the houses of a once magnificent cathedral (abbey);" and was struck, (as in the other towns of the same district), with the appearance of "old rude grandure," and the idleness of decay; Melrose," that far-famed glorious ruin," Selkirk, Ettrick, and the braes of Yarrow. Having spent three weeks in this district, of which it has been justly said, "that every field has its battle, and every rivulet its song," Burns passed the Border, and visited Alnwick, Warkworth, Morpeth, Newcastle, Hexham, Wardrue, and Carlisle. He then turned northwards, and rode by Annan and Dumfries to Dalswinton, where he examined Mr. Miller's property, and was so much pleased with the soil, and the terms on which the landlord was willing to grant him a lease, that he resolved to return again in the course of the summer.

The poet visited, in the course of his tour, Sir James Hall of Dunglas, author of the well known Essay on Gothic Architecture, &c.; Sir Alexander and Lady Harriet Don, (sister to his patron, Lord Glencairn), at NewtonDon; Mr. Brydone, the author of Travels in Sicily; the amiable and learned Dr. Somerville of Jedburgh, the historian of Queen Anne, &c.; and, as usual, recorded in his journal his impressions as to their manners and characters. His reception was everywhere most flattering. The sketch of his tour is a very brief one. It runs thus:—

"Saturday, May 6. Left Edinburgh-Lammer-muir hills, miserably dreary in general, but at times very picturesque.

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Lanson-edge, a glorious view of the Merse. Reach Berrywell.

The family-meeting with my compagnon de voyage, very charming; particularly the sister.

"Sunday. Went to church at Dunse. Heard Dr. Bowmaker.

"Monday. Coldstream-glorious river Tweed-clear and majesticfine bridge-dine at Coldstream with Mr. Ainslie and Mr. Foreman. Beat Mr. Foreman in a dispute about Voltaire. Drink tea at Lennel-House with Mr. and Mrs. Brydone. Reception extremely flattering. Sleep at Coldstream.

"Tuesday. Breakfast at Kelso-charming situation of the town-fine oridge over the Tweed. Enchanting views and prospects on both sides of the river, especially on the Scotch side. Visit Roxburgh Palace -fine situation of it. Ruins of Roxburgh Castle-a holly bush growing where James the Second was accidentally killed by the bursting of a cannon. A small old religious ruin and a fine old garden planted by the religious, rooted out and destroyed by a Hottentot, a maitre d' hotel of the Duke's!-Climate and soil of Berwickshire, and even Roxburghshire, superior to Ayrshire-bad roads-turnip and sheep husbandry, their great improvements. . . . Low markets, consequently low lands-magnificence of farmers and farm-houses. Come up the Teviot, and up the Jed to Jedburgh, to lie, and so wish myself good night. "Wednesday. Breakfast with Mr. Fair. Charming romantic situation of Jedburgh, with gardens and orchards, intermingled among the houses and the ruins of a once magnificent cathedral. All the towns here have the appearance of old rude grandeur, but extremely idle.—Jed, a fine romantic little river. Dined with Capt. Rutherford, Jedburgh. Walked up the Jed with some ladies to be shown Love-lane, and Blackburn, two fairy scenes. Introduced to Mr. Potts, writer, and to

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Mr. Somerville, the clergyman of the parish, a man, and a gentleman, but sadly addicted to punning.

"Jedburgh, Saturday. Was presented by the Magistrates with the freedom of the town. Took farewell of Jedburgh, with some melancholy sen

sations.

"Monday, May 14, Kelso. Dine with the farmer's club - all gentlemen talking of high matters-each of them keeps a hunter from £30 to 150 value, and attends the fox-hunting club in the country. Go out with Mr. Ker, one of the club, and a friend of Mr. Ainslie's, to sleep. In his mind and manners, Mr. Ker is astonishingly like my dear old friend Robert Muir -Every thing in his house elegant. He offers to accompany me in my English tour.

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Tuesday. Dine with Sir Alexander Don; a very wet day. Sleep at Mr. Ker's again, and set out next day for Melrose-visit Dryburgh, a fine old ruined abbey, by the way. Cross the Leader, and come up the Tweed to Melrose. Dine there, and visit that far-famed glorious ruinCome to Selkirk up the banks of Ettrick. The whole country hereabouts, both on Tweed and Ettrick, remarkably stony."

He wrote no verses, as far as is known, during this tour, except a humorous Epistle to his bookseller, Creech, dated Selkirk, 13th May. In this he makes complimentary allusions to some of the men of letters who were used to meet at breakfast in Creech's apartments in those days—whence the name of Creech's Levee; and touches, too, briefly on some of the scenery he had visited.

"Up wimpling stately Tweed I've sped,
And Eden scenes on crystal Jed,
And Ettrick banks now roaring red,
While tempests blaw."-

Burns returned to Mauchline on the 8th of July. It is pleasing to imagine the delight with which he must have been received by the family after the absence of six months, in which his fortunes and prospects had undergone so wonderful a change. He left them comparatively unknown, his tenderest feelings torn and wounded by the behaviour of the Armours, and so miserably poor, that he had been for some weeks obliged to skulk from the Sheriff's officers, to avoid the payment of a paltry debt. He returned, his poetical fame established, the whole country ringing with his praises, from a capital in which he was known to have formed the wonder and delight of the polite and the learned; if not rich, yet with more money already than any of his kindred had ever hoped to see him possess, and with prospects of future patronage and permanent elevation in the scale of society, which might have dazzled steadier eyes than those of maternal and fraternal affection. The prophet had at last honour in his own country: but the haughty spirit that had preserved its balance in Edinburgh, was not likely to lose it at Mauchline; and we have him writing from the auld clay biggin on the 18th of June. in terms as strongly expressive as any that ever came from his pen, of that jealous pride which formed the groundwork of his character; that dark suspiciousness of fortune, which the subsequent course of his history too well justified; that nervous intolerance of condescension, and consummate scorn of meanness, which attended him through life, and made the study of his species, for which nature had given him such extraordinary qualifications, the source of more pain than was

ever counterbalanced by the exquisite capacity for enjoyment with which he was also endowed. There are few of his letters in which more of the dark traits of his spirit come to light than in the following extract :— "I never, my friend, thought mankind capable of any thing very generous; but the stateliness of the patricians of Edinburgh, and the servility of my plebeian brethren, (who, perhaps, formerly eyed me askance), since I returned home, have nearly put me out of conceit altogether with my species. I have bought a pocket-Milton, which I carry perpetually about me, in order to study the sentiments, the dauntless magnanimity, the intrepid unyielding independence, the desperate daring, and noble defiance of hardship, in that great personage-Satan. The many ties of acquaintance and friendship I have, or think I have, in life-I have felt along the lines, and, d—n them, they are almost all of them of such frail texture, that I am sure they would not stand the breath of the least adverse breeze of fortune."

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Among those who now appeared sufficiently ready to court his society, were the family of Jean Armour. Burns's regard for this affectionate young woman had outlived his resentment of her father's disavowal of him in the preceding summer; and from the time of this reconciliation, it is probable he looked forward to a permanent union with the mother of his children. Burns at least fancied himself to be busy with serious plans for his future establishment; and was very naturally disposed to avail himself, as far as he could, of the opportunities of travel and observation, which an interval of leisure might present. Moreover, in spite of his gloomy language, a specimen of which has just been quoted, we are not to doubt that he derived much pleasure from witnessing the extensive popularity of his writings, and from the flattering homage he was sure to receive in his own person in the various districts of his native country; nor can any one wonder that, after the state of high excitement in which he had spent the winter and spring, he, fond as he was of his family, and eager to make them partakers in all his good fortune, should have, just at this time, found himself incapable of sitting down contentedly for any considerable period together, in so humble and quiet a circle as that of Mossgiel. His appetite for wandering appears to have been only sharpened by his Border excursion. After remaining a few days at home, he returned to Edinburgh, and thence proceeded on another short tour, by way of Stirling, to Inverary, and so back again, by Dumbarton and Glasgow, to Mauchline. Of this second excursion, no journal has been discovered; nor do the extracts from his correspondence, printed by Dr. Currie, appear to be worthy of much notice. In one, he briefly describes the West Highlands as a country "where savage streams tumble over savage mountains, thinly overspread with savage flocks, which starvingly support as savage inhabitants:" and in anotner, he gives an account of Jenny Geddes running a race after dinner with a Highlander's pony-of his dancing and drinking till sunrise at a gentleman's house on Loch Lomond; and of other similar matters.." I have as yet," says he, "fixed on nothing with respect to the serious business of life. I am, just as usual, a rhyming, mason-making, raking, aimless, idle fellow. However, I shall somewhere have a farm soon."

In the course of this tour, Burns visited the mother and sisters of his friend, Gavin Hamilton, then residing at Harvieston, in Clackmannanshire, in the immediate neighbourhood of the magnificent scenery of Castle Campbell, and the vale of Devon. Castle Campbell, called otherwise the Castle

Mr. Somerville, the clergyman of the parish, a man, and a gentleman, but sadly addicted to punning.

"Jedburgh, Saturday. Was presented by the Magistrates with the freedom of the town. Took farewell of Jedburgh, with some melancholy sen

sations.

Monday, May 14, Kelso. Dine with the farmer's club - all gentlemen talking of high matters-each of them keeps a hunter from £30 to £50 value, and attends the fox-hunting club in the country. Go out with Mr. Ker, one of the club, and a friend of Mr. Ainslie's, to sleep. In his mind and manners, Mr. Ker is astonishingly like my dear old friend Robert Muir -Every thing in his house elegant. He offers to accompany me in my English tour.

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Tuesday. Dine with Sir Alexander Don; a very wet day. Sleep at Mr. Ker's again, and set out next day for Melrose-visit Dryburgh, a fine old ruined abbey, by the way. Cross the Leader, and come up the Tweed to Melrose. Dine there, and visit that far-famed glorious ruin— Come to Selkirk up the banks of Ettrick. The whole country hereabouts, both on Tweed and Ettrick, remarkably stony."

He wrote no verses, as far as is known, during this tour, except a humorous Epistle to his bookseller, Creech, dated Selkirk, 13th May. In this he makes complimentary allusions to some of the men of letters who were used to meet at breakfast in Creech's apartments in those days-whence the name of Creech's Levee; and touches, too, briefly on some of the scenery he had visited.

"Up wimpling stately Tweed I've sped,

And Eden scenes on crystal Jed,
And Ettrick banks now roaring red,
While tempests blaw."-

Burns returned to Mauchline on the 8th of July. It is pleasing to imagine the delight with which he must have been received by the family after the absence of six months, in which his fortunes and prospects had undergone so wonderful a change. He left them comparatively unknown, his tenderest feelings torn and wounded by the behaviour of the Armours, and so miserably poor, that he had been for some weeks obliged to skulk from the Sheriff's officers, to avoid the payment of a paltry debt. He returned, his poetical fame established, the whole country ringing with his praises, from a capital in which he was known to have formed the wonder and delight of the polite and the learned; if not rich, yet with more money already than any of his kindred had ever hoped to see him possess, and with prospects of future patronage and permanent elevation in the scale of society, which might have dazzled steadier eyes than those of maternal and fraternal affection. The prophet had at last honour in his own country: but the haughty spirit that had preserved its balance in Edinburgh, was not likely to lose it at Mauchline; and we have him writing from the auld clay biggin on the 18th of June, in terms as strongly expressive as any that ever came from his pen, of that jealous pride which formed the groundwork of his character; that dark suspiciousness of fortune, which the subsequent course of his history too well justified; that nervous intolerance of condescension, and consummate scorn of meanness, which attended him through life, and made the study of his species, for which nature had given him such extraordinary qualifications, the source of more pain than was

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