Page 42,33. A certain preacher, a great favourite with the million. Vide the Ordina tion,' stanza ii. R. B. Page 42, 34. Another preacher, an equal favourite with the few, who was at that time ailing. For him see also the 'Ordination,' stanza ix. R. B. Page 43,25. This stanza does not appear in the Edinburgh edition. l 22, col 2. Page 43 Killie is a phrase the country folk sometimes use for the name of a certain town in the west (Kilmarnock). R. B. Page 48. The scene of the Jolly Beggars' was the Change house of Poosie Nansie's in Mauchline, a favourite haunt of all kinds of vagrants. It is said that Burns witnessed the circumstances which gave rise to the poem in company with his friend James Smith, Although the most dramatic of all Burns' performances, it was not a favourite with his mother and brother, and he never seems to have thought it worthy of publication. Mr. George Thomson had heard of its existence, and in 1793 wrote the Poet on the subject. Burns replied, 'I have forgot the cantata you allude to, as I kept no copy, and, indeed, did not know of its existence; however, I remember that none of the songs pleased myself except the last, something about 'Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the priest.' It was first published in Glasgow in 1801. Page 48, 34. The heights of Abraham, where Wolfe gloriously fell. Page 48, 136. El Morro, the castle which defends the entrance to the harbour of Santiago, or St. Jago, a small island near the southern shore of Cuba. It is situated on an eminence, the abutments being cut out of the limestone rock. Logan's Notes of a Tour, &c. Edinburgh, 1838. In 1762 this castle was stormed and taken by the British, after which the Havana was surrendered, with spoil to the value of three millions.' Chambers. Page 48, 141. Captain Curtis, who destroyed the Spanish floating batteries during the siege of Gibraltar. Page 48, 143. The defender of Gibraltar, George Augustus Elliot, created Lord Heathfield for his services. John Page 54. Gilbert Burns states that the 'Verses to the Mouse' were composed while the author was holding the plough. Mr. Chambers relates a pleasant circumstance in relation to the event, and the poem to which it gave rise. Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years afterwards, had a distinct recollection of the turning up of the mouse. Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who he observed became thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to Blane.' The gaudsman's rush after the terrified creature may have suggested the lines: 'I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Page 55. 'A Winter Night' was first printed in the second edition of the poems. Page 57. Davie was David Sillar, a member of the Torbolton Club, and author of a volume of poems printed at Kilmarnock in 1789. Gilbert Burns states that the Epistle' was among the earliest of his brother's poems. 'It was,' he adds, I think, in summer, 1784, when, in the interval of harder labour, he and I were weeding in the garden (kailyard) that he repeated to me the principal part of the epistle. I believe the first idea of Robert's becoming an author was started on this occasion. I was much pleased with the epistle, and said to him I was of opinion it would bear being printed, and that it would be well received by people of taste; that I thought it at least equal, if not superior, to many of Allan Ramsay's epistles; and that the merit of these, and much other Scottish poetry, seemed to consist in the knack of the expression; but here there was a stream of interesting sentiment, and the Scotticism of the language scarcely seemed affected, but appeared to be the natural language of the poet; that, besides, there was certainly some novelty in a poet pointing out the consolations that were in store for him when he should go a-begging. Robert seemed very well pleased with my criticism, and we talked of sending it to some magazine; but as the plan afforded no opportunity of how it would take, the idea was dropped.' Page 57, 37. Ramsay. R. B. Page 59. With reference to the poem Gilbert Burns writes, It is scarcely necessary to mention that the "Lament" was composed on that unfortunate passage of his matrimonial history which I have mentioned in my letter to Mrs. Dunlop, after the first distraction of his feelings had a little subsided.' Page 61, 19. Dr. Young. R. B. Page 61. Gilbert Burns, in writing of the 'Cotter's Saturday Night,' says, 'Robert had frequently remarked to me, that he thought there was something peculiarly venerable in the phrase, "Let us worship God," used by a decent sober head of a family introducing family worship. To this sentiment of the author the world is indebted for the "Cotter's Saturday Night." The hint of the plan and title of the poem were taken from Fergusson's "Farmer's Ingle." When Robert had not some pleasure in view in which I was not thought fit to participate, we used frequently to walk together, when the weather was favourable, on the Sunday afternoons (those precious breathing times to the labouring part of the community), and enjoyed such Sundays as would make one regret to see their number abridged. It was in one of these walks that I first had the pleasure of hearing the author repeat the "Cotter's Saturday Night." I do not recollect to have read or heard anything by which I was more highly electrified. The fifth and sixth stanzas, and the eighteenth, thrilled with a peculiar ecstasy through my soul.' Page 62, 18. Var. Does a' his weary carking care beguile. Page 65, 17. Pope's 'Windsor Forest.' R. B. Page 65, 123. Var. That stream'd thro' great unhappy Wallace' heart. First and second edition. Page 65. Gilbert Burns writes, Several of the poems were produced for the purpose of bringing forward some favourite sentiment of the author. He used to remark to me that he could not well conceive a more mortifying picture of human life than a man seeking work. In casting about in his mind how this sentiment might be brought forward, the elegy 'Man was made to Mourn' was composed. Page 66, 133. In Burns' memoranda the following passage is prefixed to the prayer: 'A prayer, when fainting fits, and other alarming symptoms of pleurisy, or some other dangerous disorder, which indeed still threatens me, first put nature on the alarm.' Page 67, 14. Var. Again by passion would be led astray. For all unfit my native powers be. Page 67, 1 28. 'The first time,' says Gilbert Burns, Robert heard the spinnet played upon was at the house of Dr. Laurie, then minister of the parish of Loudon, now in Glasgow, having given up the parish in favour of his son, Dr. Laurie has several daughters: one of them played; the father and mother led down the dance; the rest of the sisters, the brother, the Poet, and the other guests, mixed in it. It was a delightful family scene for our Poet, then lately introduced to the world. His mind was roused to a poetic enthusiasm, and the stanzas were left in the room where he slept.' Mr. Chambers states that the morning after the dance Burns did not make his appearance_at the breakfast table at the usual hour. Laurie's son went to inquire for him, and met him on the stair. The young man asked Burns if he had slept well. Not well,' was the reply: 'the fact is, I have been praying half the night. If you go up to my room, you will find my prayer on the table.' Dr. Page 68, 21. In Burns' memoranda the poem appears with the following sentences prefixed: There was a certain period of my life that my spirit was broke by repeated losses and disasters, which threatened, and indeed effected, the utter ruin of my fortune. My body, too, was attacked by that most dreadful disorder, a hypochondria or confirmed melancholy. In this wretched state, the recollection of which makes me yet shudder, I hung my harp on the willow-trees, except in some lucid intervals, in one of which I composed the following.' Page 70, 13. This poem was addressed to Andrew Aitken, son of the poet's patron, Robert Aitken, to whom the 'Cotter's Saturday Night' was dedicated. Mr. Chambers states that Mr. Niven of Kilbride always alleged that the 'Epistle' was originally addressed to him. After this line, in a copy of the poem in Burns' handwriting, the following stanza occurs : Page 70, 22, col. 2. If ye hae made a step aside, Some hap mistake o'erta'en you, And if nae mair mistakes are made, Page 71. Burns when meditating emigration to the West Indies was in gloomy mood enough, and in this ode, although in it he mocks at fortune, there are not wanting touches of bitterness, which are all the more effective from the prevalent lightness and gaiety by which they are surrounded. Page 71, l 29. Var. Our billie, Rob, has ta'en a jink. Page 71, 135. Var. He's canter't to anither shore. Page 71, 138. Var. An' pray kind Fortune to redress him. Page 71, 39. Var. "Twill gar her poor, auld heart, I fear. Page 71, 20, col.2. Var. An' scarce a bellyfu' 'o drummock. Page 71, 37, col. 2. Var. Then fare you weel, my rhymin billie! Page 71, 7. This poem did not appear in the first edition. Page 72. In the 'Caledonian Mercury,' of date 20th December, 1786, in which the 'Haggis was printed, apparently for the first time, the concluding stanza appears as follows: Ye Pow'rs wha gie us a' that's gude, Wi' great John Barleycorn's heart's blude, An' on our board that king of food, A glorious Haggice. Page 72. The dedication to Gavin Hamilton, the poet's friend and patron, did not, as might have been expected, open the volume published at Kilmarnock. It, however, finds its place in the body of the work. NOTES. Page 74,30. The 'lady' referred to in this line was, Mr. Chambers informs us, a village belle. He adds that her name was well known in Mauchline. Page 75. This Address was written in Edinburgh in 1786. 'Fair Burnet' was the daughPage 75, 29. ter of Lord Monboddo. Burns' admiration for her was intense. Page 75. The Epistle to John Lapraik was produced,' says Gilbert Burns, exactly on the occasion described by the author. It was at one of these rockings at our house, when we had twelve or fifteen young people with their rocks, that Lapraik's song, beginning, "When I upon thy bosom lean," was sung, and we were informed who was the author. Upon this Robert wrote his first epistle to Lapraik; and his second was in reply to his answer.' Page 78. William Simpson was the schoolmaster of Ochiltree parish. Page 80. The postscript to the foregoing 'Epistle' may be considered as a pendant to 'The Twa Herds,' which was making a noise in Ayrshire at the time. Page 81. John Rankine lived at Adam-hill, in Ayrshire; he was a man of much humour, and was one of Burns' earliest friends. Page 81, 14. A certain humorous dream of his was then making noise in the country-side. R. B. Of this dream the substance is thus 'Lord Krelated by Allan Cunningham. was in the habit of calling his familiar acquaintances "brutes" or "damned brutes." One day meeting Rankine, his lordship said, "Brute, are ye dumb? have ye no queer story to tell us?" "I have nae story," said Rankine, "but last "Out with it, night I had an odd dream." "A weel, said the other. by all means," ye see," said Rankine, "I dreamed that was dead, and that for keeping other than good When I company on earth, I was damned. knocked at hell-door, wha should open it but the deil; he was in a rough humour, and said, 'Wha may you be, and what's your name? 'My name,' quoth I, 'is John Rankine, and my 'Gi wa' wi',' dwelling-place was Adam-hill.' quoth Satan, ye canna be here; yer ane of Lord K- 's damned brutes: Hell's fou o' them already!'"' This sharp rebuke, it is said, polished for the future, his lordship's speech. The trick alluded to in the same line was Rankine's making tipsy one of the 'unco gude.' Page 81, 29. A song he had promised the author. Page 82. Friar's Carse was the estate of Captain Riddel, of Glenriddel, beautifully situated on the banks of the Nith, near Ellisland. The Hermitage was a decorated cottage, which the proprietor had erected. Fame, a restless airy dream. Gent's. Mag. Page 82, 123, col 2. Pleasures, insects on the wing; Page 82, 126, col 2. Var. Make the butterflies their own. Gent's. Mag. Page 82, 31, col 2. Var. But thy utmost duty done. Gent's. Mag. Page 82, 142, col 2. Var. Quod the Bedesman on Nitheside. Gent's. Mag. In Page 83. The subject of this ode was the widow of Richard Oswald, Esq. of Auchincruive. She died December 6, 1788. Burns himself states the cause of its composition. January last, on my road to Ayrshire, I had to put up at Bailie Whigham's, in Sanquhar, the only tolerable inn in the place. The frost was keen, and the grim evening and howling wind were ushering in a night of snow and drift. My horse and I were both much fatigued by the labours of the day; and just as my friend the Bailie and I were bidding defiance to the storm, over a smoking bowl, in wheels the funereal pageantry of the late Mrs. Oswald, and poor I am forced to brave all the terrors of the tempestuous night, and jade my horse-my young favourite horse, whom I had just christened Pegasus-farther on through the wildest hills and moors of Ayrshire to the next inn. The powers of poetry and prose sink under me when I would describe what I felt. Suffice it to say, that when a good fire at New Cumnock had so far recovered my frozen sinews, I sat down and wrote the enclosed ode.' Being dead, the poor lady could hardly be held responsible for disturbing the Poet's potations with his friend the Bailie! Page 83. In February, 1791, Burns wrote respecting this poem: The Elegy on Captain Henderson is a tribute to the memory of a man I loved much. . . . As almost all my religous tenets originate from my heart, I am wonderfully pleased with the idea that I can still keep up a tender intercourse with the dearly beloved friend, or still more dearly beloved mistress, who is gone to the world of spirits.' Page 84. Readers curious in the transmission of poetic ideas may amuse themselves by comparing this epitaph with Wordsworth's Poet's Epitaph. Page 85. Writing to Mrs. Graham, of Fintry, 'Whether it is that the story Burns says, of our Mary, Queen of Scots, has a peculiar effect on the feelings of a poet, or whether I have in the enclosed ballad succeeded beyond my usual poetic success, I know not; but it has pleased me beyond any effort of my muse for a good while past: on that account I enclose it particularly to you.' Page 86. Robert Graham, Esq. of Fintry, was one of the Commissioners of Excise. Burns met him at the house of the Duke of Athole. The 'Epistle' was the poet's earliest attempt in the manner of Pope. It has its merits, of course; but it lacks the fire, ease, and sweetness of his earlier Epistles to Lapraik, Smith, and others. Page 88,7 10. By a fall, not from my horse, but with my horse, I have been a cripple some time.' Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, 7th February, near Page 91. 'When my father,' writes Gilbert Burns, feued his little property Alloway Kirk, the wall of the churchyard had gone to ruin, and cattle had free liberty of pasture in it. My father, with two or three other neighbours, joined in an application to the town council of Ayr, who were superiors of the adjoining land, for liberty to rebuild it, and raised by subscription a sum for enclosing this ancient cemetery with a wall; hence he came to consider it as his burial-place, and we learned that reverence for it people generally have for the burial-place of their ancestors. My brother was living at Ellisland, when Captain Grose, on his peregrinations through Scotland, stayed some time at Carse House, in the neighbourhood, with Captain Robert Riddel, of Glenriddel, a particular friend of my brother's. The Antiquarian and the Poet were "unco pack and thick thegither." Robert requested of Captain Grose, when he should come to Ayrshire, that he would make a drawing of Alloway Kirk, as it was the burial-place of his father, and where he himself had a sort of claim to lay down his bones when they should be no longer serviceable to him; and added, by way of encouragement, that it was the scene of many a good story of witches and apparitions, of which he knew the Captain was very fond. The Captain agreed to the request, provided the Poet would furnish a witch story, to be printed along with it. "Tam o' Shanter produced on this occasion, and was first published in Grose's "Antiquities of Scotland." The following letter, sent by Burns to Captain Grose, deals with the witch stories that clustered round Alloway Kirk. was 'Among the many witch stories I have heard relating to Alloway Kirk, I distinctly remember only two or three. Upon a stormy night, amid whistling squalls of wind and bitter blasts of hail-in short, on such a night as the devil would choose to take the air in-a farmer, or a farmer's servant, was plodding and plashing homeward with his plough-irons on his shoulder, having been getting some repairs on them at a neighbouring smithy. His way lay by the Kirk of Alloway, and being rather on the anxious look-out in approaching a place so well known to be a favourite haunt of the devil, and the devil's friends and emissaries, he was struck aghast by discovering, through the horrors of the storm and stormy night, a light, which, on his nearer approach, plainly showed itself to proceed from the haunted edifice. Whether he had been fortified from above on his devout supplication, as is customary with people when they suspect the immediate presence of Satan, or whether, according to another custom, he had got courageously drunk at the smithy, I will not pretend to determine; but so it was, that he ventured to go up to-nay, into-the very Kirk. As luck would have it, his temerity came off unpunished. The members of the infernal junto were all out on some midnight business or other, and he saw nothing but a kind of kettle or caldron, depending from the roof, over the fire, simmering some heads of unchristened children, limbs of executed malefactors, &c. for the business of the night. It was in for a penny, in for a pound, with the honest ploughman; so, without ceremony, he unhooked the caldron from off the fire, and pouring out its damnable ingredients, inverted it on his head, and carried it fairly home, where it remained long in the family, a living evidence of the truth of the story. 'Another story, which I can prove to be equally authentic, was as follows: 'On a market-day, in the town of Ayr, a farmer from Carrick, and consequently whose way lay by the very gate of Alloway Kirk-yard, in order to cross the river Doon at the old bridge, which is about two or three hundred yards farther on than the said gate, had been detained by his business, till by the time he reached Alloway it was the wizard hour, between night and morning. Though he was terrified with a blaze streaming from the Kirk, yet as it is a well known fact, that to turn back on these occasions is running by far the greatest risk of mischief, he prudently advanced on his road. When he had reached the gate of the Kirk-yard, he was surprised and entertained, through the ribs and arches of an old Gothic window, which still faces the highway, to see a dance of witches merrily footing it round their old sooty blackguard master, who was keeping them all alive with the power of his bagpipe. The farmer, stopping his horse to observe them a little, could plainly descry the faces of many of his acquaintance and neighbourhood. How the gentleman was dressed, tradition does not say, but that the ladies were all in their smocks; and one of them happening unluckily to have a smock which was considerably tco short to answer all the purposes of that piece of dress, our farmer was so tickled that he involuntarily burst out, with a loud laugh," Weel looppen Maggy wi' the short sark!" and, recollecting himself, instantly spurred his horse to the top of his speed. I need not mention the universally known fact, that no diabolical power can pursue you beyond the middle of a running stream. Lucky it was for the poor farmer that the river Doon was so near, for notwithstanding the speed of his horse, which was a good one, against he reached the middle of the arch of the bridge, and consequently the middle of the stream, the pursuing,vengeful hags were so close at his heels, that one of them actually sprang to seize him: but it was too late; nothing was on her side of the stream but the horse's tail, which immediately gave way at her infernal grip, as if blasted by a stroke of lightning; but the farmer was beyond her reach. However, the unsightly, tailless condition of the vigorous steed was, to the last hours of the noble creature's life, an awful warning to the Carrick farmers not to stay too late in Ayr markets,' This letter is interesting, as showing the actual body of tradition on which Burns had to workthe soil out of which the consummate poem grew like a flower. And it is worthy of notice also how, out of the letter, some of the best things in the poem have come: 'such a night as the devil would choose to take the air in being, for instance, the suggestion of the coupletThat night a child might understand The Deil had business on his hand. It is pleasant to know that Burns thought well of 'Tam o' Shanter.' To Mrs. Dunlop he wrote on the 11th April, 1791-' On Saturday morning last Mrs. Burns made me a present of a fine boy, rather stouter, but not so handsome as your godson was at his time of life. Indeed, I look on your little namesake to be my chef-d'œuvre in that species of manufacture, as I look on "Tam o' Shanter' to be my standard performance in the poetical line. 'Tis true, both the one and the other discover a spice of roguish waggery, that might, perhaps, be as well spared; but then they also show, in my opinion, a force of genius, and a finishing polish, that I despair of ever excelling.' Page 93, 146. The following lines originally occurred here: Three lawyers' tongues turned inside out, They were omitted at the suggestion of Lord Page 95, 18. It is a well-known fact, that witches, or any evil spirits, have no power to follow a poor wight any further than the middle of the next running stream. It may be proper likewise to mention to the benighted traveller that when he falls in with bogles, whatever danger may be in his going forward, there is much more hazard in turning back. R. B. Page 95, 126. "Tam o' Shanter,' as already stated, appeared first in Captain Grose's 'Antiquities of Scotland.' To the poem the editor appended the following note: To my ingenious friend, Mr. Robert Burns, I have been seriously obligated; for he was not only at the pains of making out what was most worthy of notice in Ayrshire, the county honoured by his birth, but he also wrote expressly for this work the pretty tale annexed to Alloway Church.' Grose's book appeared at the close of April, 1791, and he died in Dublin shortly after. Page 95. For information respecting Captain Grose's intimacy with Burns see preceding note. Page 95, 27. Vide his 'Antiquities of Scotland.' R. B. Page 96, 18. Vide his "Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons.' R. B. |