MISS DEBORAH D. DAVIES TO ROBERT

BURNS.

(DOUGLAS, 1877.)

SIR,-How can I return you thanks for one favor, when I mean to solicit another?-which is, that you will be so indulgent as to send me a copy of the song you shewed to me at Woodley Park-copied by your own hand, to render it more valuable. I might get it from the Collection,* but that is not what I wish; as you flattered me by saying that you had some faint idea of my insignificant person when you wrote it. You will laugh at my credulity, as it might have been written on one more worthy of the encomiums you have bestowed in it upon the person you had in view. If this is the case, I still think it has so much merit and simplicity in it, and the thoughts altogether so new, that I cannot help admiring it.

And now give me leave to thank you for the favors I this morning received by Mr. Gordon, which I shall carefully keep in remembrance, as a flattering proof of your attention that can never be obliterated from the mind of D. D. DAVIES.

FONTAINBLEAU, March 14, 1793.

The foregoing reached the hands of Mr. Douglas while his edition of 1877 was in course of publication, see page 271 supra. Accompanying the lady's letter is the Epitaph in the handwriting of Mr. Gordon, together with a lock of brown hair, supposed to be that of "Lovely Davies." See also page 38

supra.

(1) TO MISS BENSON, YORK.†

(CURRIE, 1800.)

DUMFRIES, 21st of March 1793.

MADAM,-Among many things for which I envy those hale long-lived old fellows before the flood, is

* Johnson's Museum, song 341, or "Lovely Davies," song 349.

† Afterwards Mrs. Basil Montague.

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343

this in particular, that when they met with anybody after their own heart, they had a charming long prospect of many, many happy meetings with them in after-life.

Now in this short, stormy winter day of our fleeting existence, when you now and then, in the Chapter of Accidents, meet an individual whose acquaintance is a real acquisition, there are all the probabilities against you, that you shall never meet with that valued character more. On the other hand, brief as this miserable being is, it is none of the least of the miseries belonging to it, that if there is any miscreant whom you hate, or creature whom you despise, the ill-run of the chances shall be so against you, that in the overtakings, turnings and jostlings of life, pop! at some unlucky corner, eternally comes the wretch upon you, and will not allow your indignation or contempt a moment's repose. As I am a sturdy believer in the Powers of darkness, I take these to be the doings of that old author of mischief, the Devil. It is wellknown that he has some kind of short-hand way of taking down our thoughts, and I make no doubt that he is perfectly acquainted with my sentiments respecting Miss Benson; how much I admired her abilities and valued her worth, and how very fortunate I thought myself in her acquaintance. For this last reason, my dear Madam, I must entertain no hopes of the very great pleasure of meeting with you again. Miss Hamilton* tells me that she is sending a

* Daughter of Captain Hamilton, his landlord, a connexion of Mr. Craik of Arbigland, see page 366, Vol. III. It was at Arbigland that the poet met with Miss Benson, who thus recorded a reminiscence of that meeting :-"I dined with Mr. Burns at Arbigland; he was witty, drank as others drank, and was long in coming to the tea-table. It was then the fashion for young ladies to be busy with something-I was working a flower, and asked the poet if he would do a bit of my work. 'Oh,' said he, 'you think my hand is unsteady with wine, I cannot work a flower, Madam, but I can thread a needle.' He pulled the thread from the needle, and re-threaded it in a moment-'Can a tipsy man do that?' He talked to me of his children, particularly his eldest boy, whom he praised as a lad of promise. And yet, Madam,' he said with a sarcastic glance, 'I hope he will turn out a glorious blockhead, and so make his fortune.'"

packet to you, and I beg leave to send you the enclosed Sonnet,* though, to tell you the real truth, the sonnet is a mere pretence, that I may have the opportunity of declaring with how much respectful esteem I have the honor to be, &c., R. B.

(') TO THE HON. THE LORD PROVOST, BAILIES, AND TOWN COUNCIL OF DUMFRIES.

(CROMEK, ISOS.)

March 1793.

MY LORD AND Gentlemen,—The literary taste and liberal spirit of your good town has so ably filled the various departments of your schools, as to make it a very great object for a parent to have his children educated in them. Still, to me, a stranger, with my large family, and very stinted income, to give my young ones that education I wish, at the high schoolfees which a stranger pays, will bear hard upon me.

Some years ago your good town did me the honor of making me an Honorary Burgess.-Will your honors allow me to request that this mark of distinction may extend so far, as to put me on the footing of a real Freeman of the Town, in the schools?

That I may not appear altogether unworthy of this favor, allow me to state to you some little services I have lately done to a branch of your revenue. The two-pennies exigible on foreign ale vended within your limits in this rather neglected article of your income. I am ready to shew that, within these few weeks, my exertions have secured for you of those duties nearly the sum of Ten pounds; and in this too, I was the only one of the gentlemen of the Excise (except Mr.

The Sonnet was probably that on his own birthday, 1793.

ÆT. 35.] PRESENTATION COPIES OF NEW EDITION.

345

Mitchell, whom you pay for his trouble) who took the least concern in the business. *

If you are so very kind as to grant my request, it will certainly be a constant incentive to me to strain every nerve where, in that or any other way, I can officially serve you; and will, if possible, increase that grateful respect with which I have the honor to be,

My Lord and Gentlemen, your devoted, humble servt. ROBT. BURNS.

The prayer of the petition was immediately granted, and the poet's eldest boy Robert, then seven years old, was received into the Academy or Grammar School of the burgh.

(3) TO MR. WHITE, TEACHER, DUMFRIES ACADEMY,

WITH THE NEW EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S POEMS.

MR. WHITE will accept of this Book as a mark of the most sincere Friendship from a man who has ever had too much respect for his Friends, and too much contempt for his enemies, to flatter either the one or the other, THE AUTHOR.

(') TO PATRICK MILLER, ESQ., OF DAL

SWINTON,

WITH THE NEW EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S POEMS.

(CROMEK, 1808.)

DUMFRIES, April, 1793.

SIR,-My poems having just come out in another edition, will you do me the honor to accept of a copy?

This paragraph, which perhaps is not in the best of taste, had been omitted by previous editors till Dr. Waddell inserted it. Our collation has been made from the original MS. in the British Museum, London.

346

PRESENTATION COPIES OF NEW EDITION. [1793.

A mark of my gratitude to you, as a gentleman to whose goodness I have been much indebted; of my respect for you, as a patriot who, in a venal, sliding age, stands forth the champion of the liberties of my country; and of my veneration for you as a man, whose benevolence of heart does honor to human nature.

There was a time, Sir, when I was your dependant; this language then would have been like the vile incense of flattery-I could not have used it. Now that that connexion is at an end, do me the honor to accept of this honest tribute of respect from, Sir, your much indebted, humble servant, ROBT. BURNS.

Notwithstanding his assertion in January of this year to Mrs. Dunlop, that henceforth he would "set a seal on his lips as to these unlucky politics," Burns was by no means a silent observer of the progress of events in France. When Dumouriez, after achieving great victories over the armed enemies of the Republic, suddenly deserted the French army, on April 5, 1793, some person in the poet's hearing having expressed joy over that renegade step, as a triumph to the cause of order, Burns immediately chanted his well-known parody of “Robin Adair,” improvised on the spot :

"You're welcome to Despots, Dumouriez."

See page 160, supra.

John Francis Erskine, Esq., of Mar, grandson of the rebel earl of 1715, and recently restored to his ancestral privileges, having been told that Burns was placed under a species of official persecution in consequence of the liberality of his opinions, put himself in communication with Mr. Riddell of Glenriddell, expressing his sympathy for the poet, and suggesting means to relieve him from his thraldom. This brought forth a grateful letter from Burns addressed to Mr. Erskine, characterised by Dr. Currie as displaying "great elevation of sentiment," in which, while giving an account of the whole transaction, he "defends himself from the imputation of disloyalty on the one hand, and from the charge of having made unworthy submissions on the other hand, for the sake of his office." We take the text of that letter from the Glenriddell MSS., where the author has headed it with the following Preface, hitherto unpublished.