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(32) TO MRS. DUNLOP, OF DUNLOP.

(CURRIE, 1800.)

[DUMFRIES, 17th December 1791.*]

I

MANY thanks to you, Madam, for your good news respecting the little floweret and the mother-plant. hope my poetic prayers have been heard, and will be answered up to the warmest sincerity of their fullest extent; and then Mrs. Henri will find her little darling the representative of his late parent, in everything but his abridged existence.

I have just finished the following song which, to a lady the descendant of Wallace, and many heroes of his truly illustrious line-and herself the mother of several soldiers, needs neither preface nor apology.

Scene-A field of battle-time of the day, evening; the wounded and dying of the victorious army are supposed to join in the following

SONG OF DEATH.

Farewell thou fair day, thou green earth, and ye skies,
Now gay with the bright setting sun;

Farewell loves and friendships, ye dear, tender ties—

Our race of existence is run! &c.-See page 82, supra.

The circumstance that gave rise to the foregoing verses was-looking over with a musical friend M'Donald's collection of Highland airs, I was struck with one, an Isle of Sky tune, entitled Oran an Aoig, or "The Song of Death," to the measure of which I have adapted my stanzas. I have of late composed two or three other little pieces, which, ere yon full

* Dr. Currie dated this letter from "Ellisland," which must be a mistake if his date be correct. The immediately preceding letter to Mrs. Dunlop, dated 11th April 1791, speaks of young Henri having the small-pox, and the "good news" here spoken of probably refer to the mother and child's safe arrival in France, at the invitation of the deceased Mr. Henri's relatives.

orbed moon, whose broad impudent face now stares at Mother Earth all night, shall have shrunk into a modest crescent, just peeping forth at dewy dawn, I shall find an hour to transcribe for you. A Dieu je vous commende. ROBT. BURNS.

A.D. 1792.

(1) TO MR. JAMES CLARKE, SCHOOLMASTER,

MOFFAT.

(CHAMBERS, 1852.)

DUMFRIES, 10th January 1792.

I RECEIVED yours this moment, my dear Sir. I sup with Captain Riddell in town to-night, else I had gone to Carse directly. Courage, mon ami! The day may, after all, be yours: but at any rate, there is other air to breathe than that of Moffat, pestiferously tainted as it is with the breath of that archrascal JThere are two quotations from two poets which, in situations such as yours, were congenial to my soul. Thomson says:

"What proves the hero truly great

Is never, never to despair."

And Dr. Young

"On Reason build Resolve,

That column of true Majesty in man.”

To-morrow you shall know the result of my consultation with Captain Riddell. Yours,

R. B.

Captain Riddell, of Carse and Glenriddell, had a younger brother, Mr. Walter Riddell, who possessed an estate in the Island of Antigua, and had recently returned to his native country to enjoy, in a more temperate climate and in more agreeable society, the proceeds of his possessions. His wife, a

gay young Creole, under twenty, although already a mother, was blessed with personal beauty, agreeable manners and many accomplishments, to which were superadded a taste for natural history and polite literature. It appears that Burns was introduced to her on taking up his residence in Dumfries, and as she delighted in the society of men of talent and spirit he soon became a frequent visitor at Woodley Park, the residence of her husband, situated about four miles south from the town. The name thus given to their newly acquired residence, formerly called "Goldielea," was bestowed in honor of the lady's family name, her father being Mr. Woodley, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of St. Kitts, and the Leeward Islands.

In course of her voyage to this country, Mrs. Riddell had passed some time at the Leeward Isles, and at Madeira, where she made scientific observations and notes of their natural history; these notes were now arranged in form of a volume which she resolved on publishing.* Having learned that Mr. William Smellie, of Edinburgh, author of a work on natural history, was the printer of Burns's Edinburgh edition, she applied to the poet to give her a letter of introduction to the scientific printer, which was promptly acceded to, in the following amusing fashion.

(1) TO MR. WILLIAM SMELLIE, PRINTER,

EDINBURGH.

(CURRIE, 1800.)

DUMFRIES, 22d January 1792.

I SIT down, my dear Sir, to introduce a young lady to you, and a lady in the first ranks of fashion too: What a task! to you-who care no more for the herd of animals called young ladies, than you do for the herd of animals called young gentlemen. To youwho despise and detest the groupings and combinations of fashion, as an idiot painter that seems indus

* Mrs. Riddell's work is thus announced in the Scots Magazine of November, 1792, as just published:-"Voyages to Madeira and Leeward Caribee Islands; with Sketches of the Natural History of these Islands. By MARIA R Cadell, London; Hill, Edinburgh."

trious to place staring fools and unprincipled knaves in the foreground of his picture, while men of sense and honesty are too often thrown in the dimmest shades. Mrs. Riddell, who will take this letter to town with her and send it to you, is a character that, even in your own way, as a naturalist and a philosopher, would be an acquisition to your acquaintance. The lady too is a votary of the muses; and as I think myself somewhat of a judge of my own trade, I assure you that her verses, always correct, and often elegant, are much beyond the common run of the lady poetesses of the day. She is a great admirer of your book, and hearing me say that I was acquainted with you, she begged to be known to you, as she is just going to pay her first visit to our Caledonian capital. I told her that her best way was, to desire her near relation, and your intimate friend, Craigdarroch, to have you at his house while she was there; and lest you might think of a lively West Indian girl of eighteen, as girls of eighteen too often deserve to be thought of, I should take care to remove that prejudice. To be impartial, however, in appreciating the lady's merits, she has one unlucky failing! a failing which you will easily discover, as she seems rather pleased with indulging in it; and a failing that you will as easily pardon, as it is a sin which very much besets yourself-where she dislikes or despises, she is apt to make no more a secret of it, than where she esteems and respects.

I will not present you with the unmeaning "compliments of the season," but I will send you my warmest wishes and most ardent prayers that Fortune may never throw your subsistence to the mercy of a Knave, or set your character on the judgment of a Fool; but that, upright and erect, you may walk to an honest grave, where men of letters shall say :"Here lies a man who did honor to science," and

men of worth shall say :-"Here lies a man who did honor to human nature." ROBT. BURNS.

(2) TO MR. PETER HILL, BOOKSELLER.

(CHAMBERS, 1852.)

DUMFRIES, 5th Feb., 1792.

MY DEAR FRIEND, -I send you by the bearer, Mr. Clarke, a particular friend of mine, six pounds and a shilling, which you will dispose of as follows :—£5, IOS. per acct., I owe to Mr. Robt. Burn, architect, for erecting the stone over poor Ferguson. He was two years in erecting it after I commissioned him for it, and I have been two years in paying him after he sent his account, so he and I are quits. He had the hardness to ask me interest on the sum; but, considering that the money was due by one Poet for putting a tombstone over another, he may, with grateful surprise, thank Heaven that ever he saw a farthing of it.

Send

With the remainder of the money, pay yourself for the "Office of a Messenger" that I bought of you; and send me by Mr. Clarke a note of its price. me, likewise, the fifth volume of the "Observer," by Mr. Clarke; and if any money remain, let it stand to

account.

My best compliments to Mrs. Hill. I sent you a Maukin by last week's Fly which I hope you received. Yours most sincerely, ROBT. BURNS.

The original MS. of the above letter is now in possession of Thomas Arnott, Esq., Laurel Bank, Partick, Glasgow, and the architect's account referred to is preserved in the poet's monument at Edinburgh. The following is a literal transcript:

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