then proceeded to the south-west by Hexham
and Ward rue, to Carlisle. After spending a
day at Carlisle with his friend Mr. Mitchel, he
returned into Scotland, and at Annan his jour-
nal terminates abruptly.
Of the various persons with whom he became
acquainted in the course of this journey, he has,
in general, given some account ; and almost al-
ways a favourable one. That on the banks of
the
ROBERT BURNS. 163
the Tweed, and of the Tiviot, our bard should
find nymphs that were beautiful, is what might
be confidently presumed. Two of these are par-
ticularly described in his journal. But it does
not appear that the scenery, or its inhabitants,
produced any effort of his muse, as was to have
been wished and expected. From Annan, Burns
proceeded to Dumfries, and thence through
Sanquhar, to Mossgiel, near Mauchline, in Ayr-
shire, where he arrived about the 8th of June,
1787, after a long absence of six busy and
eventful months. It will easily be conceived
with what pleasure and pride he was received by
his mother, his brothers, and sisters. He had
left them poor, and comparatively friendless ; he
returned to them high in public estimation, and
easy in his circumstances. He returned to them
unchanged in his ardent affections, and ready
to share with them to the uttermost farthing, the
pittance that fortune had bestowed.
Having remained with them a few days, he
proceeded again to Edinburgh, and immediately
set out on a journey to the Highlands. Of this
tour no particulars have been found among his
manuscripts. A letter to his friend Mr. Ainslie,
dated Arrachas, near Crochairbas, by Lochleary,
June 28, 1787; commences as follows :
" I write you this on my tour through a
country where savage streams tumble over sa-
M 2 vage
J 64 THE LIFE OF
vage mountains, thinly overspread with savage
flocks, which starvingly support as savage in-
habitants. My last stage was Inverary to-mor-
row night's stage, Dumbarton. I ought sooner
to have answered your kind letter, but you know
I am a man of many sins."
Part of a letter from our Bard to a friend,
giving some account of his journey, has been
communicated to the Editor since the publica-
tion of the last edition. The reader will be
amused with the following extract :
" On our return, at a Highland gentle-
man's hospitable mansion, we fell in with a merry
party, and danced till the ladies left us, at three
in the morning. Our dancing was none of the
French or English insipid formal movements ;
the ladies sung Scotch songs like angels, at in-
tervals ; then we flew at Bab at the bowster y
Tidlochgorum, Loch Erroch side,* &c. like
midges sporting in the mottie sun, or craws prog-
nosticating a storm in a hairst day. When the
dear lasses left us, we ranged round the bowl
till the good-fellow hour of six ; except a few
minutes that we went out to pay our devotions
to the glorious lamp of day peering over the
towering top of Benlomond. We all kneeled ,
our
* Scotch tunes.
ROBERT BURNS. 165
our worthy landlord's son held the bowl ; each
man a full glass in his hand; and I, as priest,
repeated some rhyming nonsense, like Thomas-
a-Rhymer's prophecies I suppose. After a small
refreshment of the gifts of Somnus, we proceeded
to spend the day on Lochlomond, and reach
Dumbarton in the evening. We dined at an-
other good fellow's house, and consequently
push'd the bottle ; when we went out to mount
our horses, we found ourselves tc No vera fou
but gaylie yet." My two friends and I rode
soberly down the Loch side, till by came a High-
landman at the gallop, on a tolerably good
horse, but which had never known the orna-
ments of iron or leather. We scorned to be
out-galloped by a Highlandman, so off we start-
ed, whip and spur. My companions, though
seemingly gayly mounted, fell sadly astern; but
my old mare, Jenny Geddes, one of the Rosi-
nante family, she strained past the Highland-
man in spite of all his efforts, with the hair-
halter : just as I was passing him, Donald wheel-
ed his horse, as if to cross before me to mar my
progress, when down came his horse, and threw
his rider's breekless a e in a dipt hedge; and
down came Jenny Geddes over all, and my bard-
ship between her and the Highlandman's horse.
Jenny Geddes trode over me with such cautious
reverence, that matters were not so bad as might
well have been expected ; so I came off with a
few
166 THE LIFE OF
few cuts and bruises, and a thorough resolution
to be a pattern of sobriety for the future.
<c I have yet fixed on nothing with respect
to the serious business of life. I am, just as
usual, a rhyming, mason-making, raking, aim-
less, idle fellow. However, I shall somewhere
have a farm soon. I was going to say, a wife
too ; but that must never be my blessed lot. I
am but a younger son of the house of Parnassus,
and like other younger sons of great families, I
may intrigue, if I choose to run all risks, but
must not marry.
*' I am afraid I have almost ruined one
source, the principal one indeed, of my former
happiness ; that eternal propensity I always had
to fall in love. My heart no more glows with
feverish rapture. I have no paradisical evening
interviews stolen from the restless cares and
prying inhabitants of this weary world. I have
only * * * *. This last is one of your distant
acquaintances, has a fine figure, and elegant
manners ; and in the train of some great folks
whom you know, has seen the politest quarters
in Europe. I do like her a good deal ; but
what piques me is her conduct at the commence-
ment of our acquaintance. I frequently visited
her when I was in , and after passing
regularly the intermediate degrees between the
distant
ROBERT BURNS. 167
distant formal bow and the familiar grasp round
the waist, I ventured in my careless way to talk
of friendship in rather ambiguous terms ; and
after her return to , I wrote to her in
the same style. Miss, construing my words
farther I suppose than even I intended, flew off
in a tangent of female dignity and reserve, like
a mountain lark in an April morning; and
wrote me an answer which measured me out very
completely what an immense way I had to travel
before I could reach the climate of her favour.
But I am an old hawk at the sport ; and wrote
her such a cool, deliberate, prudent reply, as
brought my bird from her aerial towerings, pop,
down at my foot like corporal Trim's hat.
" As for the rest of my acts, and my wars, and
all my wise sayings, and why my mare was called
Jenny Geddes ; they shall be recorded in a few
weeks hence at Linlithgow, in the chronicles of
your memory, by
" Robert Burns."
From this journey Burns returned to his friends
in Ayrshire, with whom he spent the month of
July, renewing his friendships, and extending his
acquaintance throughout the county, where he
was now very generally known and admired. In
August he again visited Edinburgh, whence he
undertook another journey towards the middle of
this
168 THE LIFE OF
this month, in company with Mr. M. Adair, now
Dr. Adair, of Harrowgate, of which this gentle-
man has favoured us with the following account :
" Burns and I left Edinburgh together in Au-
gust, 1787. We rode by Linlithgow and Carron,
to Stirling. We visited the iron-works at Carron,
with which the poet was forcibly struck. The
resemblance between that place, and its inhabit-
ants, to the cave of the Cyclops, which must
have occurred to every classical reader, present-
ed itself to Burns. At Stirling the prospects
from the castle strongly interested him ; in a
former visit to which, his national feelings had
been powerfully excited by the ruinous and roof-
less state of the hall in which the Scottish par-
liaments had frequently been held. His indig-
nation had vented itself in some imprudent, but
not unpoetical lines, which had given much of-
fence, and which he took this opportunity of
erasing, by breaking the pane of the window at
the inn on which they were written.
" At Stirling we met with a company of tra-
vellers from Edinburgh, among whom was a cha-
racter in many respects congenial with that of
Burns. This was Nicol, one of the teachers of
the High Grammar-School at Edinburgh the
same wit and power of conversation ; the same
fondness for convivial society, and thoughtless-
ness
ROBERT BURNS. 169
ness of to-morrow, characterized both. Jacobiti-
cal principles in politics were common to both of
them ; and these have been suspected, since the
revolution of France, to have given place in each,
to opinions apparently opposite. I regret that I
have preserved no memorabilia of their conversa-
tion, either on this or on other occasions, when
I happened to meet them together. Many songs
were sung ; which I mention for the sake of ob-
serving, that when Burns was called on in his
turn, he was accustomed, instead of singing, to
recite one or other of his own shorter poems,
with a tone and emphasis, which though not
correct or harmonious, were impressive and pa-
thetic. This he did on the present occasion.
" From Stirling we went next morning through
the romantic and fertile vale of Devon to Har-
vieston, in Clackmannanshire, then inhabited by
Mrs. Hamilton, with the younger part of whose
family Burns had been previously acquainted. He
introduced me to the family, and there was form-
ed my first acquaintance with Mrs. Hamilton's
eldest daughter, to whom I have been married
for nine years. Thus was I indebted to Burns
for a connexion from which I have derived, and
expect further to derive, much happiness.
" During a residence of about ten days at
Harvieston, we made excursions to visit various
parts
170 THE LIFE OP
parts of the surrounding scenery, inferior to none
in Scotland, in beauty, sublimity, and romantic
interest ; particularly Castle Campbell, the an-
cient seat of the family of Argylej and the fa-
mous cataract of the Devon, called the Caldron
Linn ; and the Rumbling Bridge, a single broad
arch, thrown by the Devil, if tradition is to be
believed, across the river, at about the height of
a hundred feet above its bed. I am surprised
that none of these scenes should have called forth
an exertion of Burns's muse. But I doubt if he
had much taste for the picturesque. I well re-
member, that the ladies at Harvieston, who ac-
companied us on this jaunt, expressed their dis-
appointment at his not expressing in more glow-
ing and fervid language, his impressions of the
Caldron Linn scene, certainly highly sublime,
and somewhat horrible.
" A visit to Mrs. Bruce of Clackmannan, a
lady above ninety, the lineal descendant of that
race which gave the Scottish throne its brightest
ornament, interested his feelings more powerful-
ly. This venerable dame, with characteristical
dignity, informed me, on my observing that I be-
lieved she was descended from the family of Ro-
bert Bruce, that Robert Bruce was sprung from
her family. Though almost deprived of speech by
a paralytic affection, she preserved her hospita-
lity and urbanity. She was in possession of the
hero's
ROBERT BURNS. 171
hero's helmet and two-handed sword, with which
she conferred on Burns and myself the honour of
knighthood, remarking, that she had a better
right to confer that title than some people. * *
You will of course conclude that the old lady's
political tenets were as Jacobitical as the poet's,
a conformity which contributed not a little to
the cordiality of our reception and entertain-
ment. She gave as her first toast after dinner,
Awa* Uncos, or Away with the Strangers Who
these strangers were, you will readily understand.
Mrs. A. corrects me by saying it should be Hooi,
or Hoohi uncos, a sound used by shepherds to
direct their dogs to drive away the sheep.
" We returned to Edinburgh by Kinross (on
the shore of Lochleven) and Queen's ferry. I
am inclined to think Burns knew nothing of
poor Michael Bruce, who was then alive at Kin-
ross, or had died there a short while before. A
meeting between the bards, or a visit to the de-
serted cottage and early grave of poor Bruce,
would have been highly interesting.*
" At Dumfermline we visited the ruined ab-
bey, and the abbey-church, now consecrated to
Presbyterian worship. Here I mounted the cutty
stool, or stool of repentance, assuming the cha-
racter
* Bruce died some years before. E.
172 THE LIFE OF
racter of a penitent for fornication; while Burns'
from the pulpit addressed to me a ludicrous re-
proof and exhortation, parodied from that which
had been delivered to himself in Ayrshire, where
he had, as he assured me, once been one of seven
who mounted the seat of shame together.
tf In the church-yard two broad flag-stones
marked the grave of Robert Bruce, for whose
memory Burns had more than common venera-
tion. He knelt and kissed the stone with sa-
cred fervour, and heartily (suits at mos eral)
execrated the worse than Gothic neglect of the
first of Scottish heroes."*
The surprise expressed by Dr. Adair, in his
excellent letter, that the romantic scenery of the
Devon should have failed to call forth any ex-
ertion of the poet's muse, is not in its nature
singular ; and the disappointment felt at his not
expressing in more glowing language his emo-
tions on the sight of the famous cataract of that
river, is similar to what was felt by the friends
of Burns on other occasions of the same nature.
Yet the inference that Dr. Adair seems inclined
to draw from it, that he had little taste for the
picturesque, might be questioned, even if it
stood
* Extracted from a letter of Dr. Adair to the Editor.
ROBERT BURNS. 173
stood uncontroverted by other evidence. The
muse of Burns was in a high degree capricious ;
she came uncalled, and often refused to attend
at his bidding. Of all the numerous subjects
suggested to him by his friends and correspond-
ents, there is scarcely one that he adopted.
The very expectation that a particular occasion
would excite the energies of fancy, if commu-
nicated to Burns, seemed in him, as in other
poets, destructive of the effect expected. Hence
perhaps may be explained, why the banks of
the Devon and of the Tweed form no part of the
subjects of his song.
A similar train of reasoning may perhaps ex-
plain the want of emotion with which he viewed
the Caldron Linn. Certainly there are no affec-
tions of the mind more deadened by the influ-
ence of previous expectation, than those arising
from the sight of natural objects, and more espe-
cially of objects of grandeur. Minute descrip-
tions of scenes, of a sublime nature, should never
be given to those who are about to view them,
particularly if they are persons of great strength
and sensibility of imagination. Language sel-
dom or never conveys an adequate idea of such
objects, but in the mind of a great poet it may
excite a picture that far transcends them. The
imagination of Burns might form a cataract, in
comparison with which the Caldron Linn should
seem
174 THE LIFE OF
seem the purling of a rill, and even the mighty
falls of Niagara, a humble cascade.*
Whether these suggestions may assist in ex-
plaining our Bard's deficiency of impression on
the occasion referred to, or whether it ought
rather to be imputed to some pre-occupation, or
indisposition of mind, we presume not to decide ;
but that he was in general feelingly alive to the
beautiful or sublime in scenery, may be supported
by irresistible evidence. It is true this pleasure
was greatly heightened in his mind, as might be
expected, when combined with moral emotions
of
* This reasoning might be extended, with some mo-
difications, to objects of sight of every kind. To have
formed before-hand a distinct picture in the mind of any
interesting person or thing, generally lessens the plea-
sure of the first meeting with them. Though this pic-
ture be not superior, or even equal to the reality, still it
can never be expected to be an exact resemblance ; and
the disappointment felt at finding the object something
different from what was expected, interrupts and di-
minishes the emotions that would otherwise be produced.
In such cases the second or third interview gives more
pleasure than the first. See the Elements of the Philo-
sophy of the Human Mind, by Mr. Stewart, p. 484. Such
publications as The Guide to the Lakes, where every
scene is described in the most minute manner, and some-
times with considerable exaggeration of language, are in
this point of view objectionable.
ROBERT BURtfS. 175
of a kind with which it happily unites. That
under this association Burns contemplated the
scenery of the Devon with the eye of a genuine
poet, the following lines written at this very
period, may bear witness.
On a Young Lady, residing on the banks of the small
river Devon, in Clackmannanshire, but whose infant
years were spent in Ayrshire.
How pleasant the banks of the clear-winding Devon,
"With green-spreading bushes, and flowers blooming fair ;
But the bonniest flower on the banks of the Devon
Was once a sweet bud on the braes of the Ayr.
Mild be the sun on this sweet blushing flower,
In the gay rosy morn as it bathes in the dew !
And gentle the fall of the soft vernal shower,
That steals on the evening each leaf to renew.
O spare the dear blossom, ye orient breezes,
With chill hoary wing as ye usher the dawn !
And far be thou distant, thou reptile that seizes
The verdure and pride of the garden and lawn !
Let Bourbon exult in his gay gilded lilies,
And England triumphant display her proud rose ;
A fairer than either adorns the green valleys
Where Devon, sweet Devon, meandering flows.
The different journeys already mentioned
did not satisfy the curiosity of Burns. About
the beginning of September, he again set out
from
176 THE LIFE OF
from Edinburgh on a more extended tour to the
Highlands, in company with Mr. Nicol, with
whom he had now contracted a particular inti-
macy, which lasted during the remainder of his
life. Mr. Nicol was of Dumfries-shire, of a
descent equally humble with our poet. Like
him he rose by the strength of his talents, and
fell by the strength of his passions. He died in
the summer of 1797. Having received the ele-
ments of a classical instruction at his parish
school, Mr. Nicol made a very rapid and singular
proficiency ; and by early undertaking the office
of an instructor himself, he acquired the means
of entering himself at the University of Edin-
burgh. There he was first a student of theolo-
gy, then a student of medicine, and was after-
wards employed in the assistance and instruction
of graduates in medicine, in those parts of their
exercises in which the Latin language is em-
ployed. In this situation he was the contem-
porary and rival of the celebrated Dr. Brown,
whom he resembled in the particulars of his
history, as well as in the leading features of his
character. The office of assistant-teacher in the
High-school being vacant, it was, as usual, filled
up by competition; and in the face of some
prejudices, and perhaps of some well-founded
objections, Mr. Nicol, by superior learning,
carried it from all the other candidates. This
office he filled at the period of which we speak.
It
ROBERT BURNS. 177
It is to be lamented, that an acquaintance
with the writers of Greece and Rome does not
always supply an original want of taste and cor-
rectness in manners and conduct -, and where it
fails of this effect, it sometimes inflames the na-
tive pride of temper, which treats with disdain
those delicacies in which it has not learnt to
excel. It was thus with the fellow-traveller of
Burns. Formed by nature in a model of great
strength, neither his person nor his manners
had any tincture of taste or elegance -, and his
coarseness was not compensated by that roman-
tic sensibility, and those towering flights of ima-
gination, which distinguished the conversation
of Burns, in the blaze of whose genius all the
deficiencies of his manners were absorbed and
disappeared,
Mr. Nicol and our poet travelled in a post-
chaise, which they engaged for the journey,
and passing through the heart of the Highlands,
stretched northwards, about ten miles beyond
Inverness. There they bent their course east-
ward, across the island, and returned by the
shore of the German sea to Edinburgh. In the
course of this tour, some particulars of which
will be found in a letter of our bard, vol. ii.
p. 89, they visited a number of remarkable
scenes, and the imagination of Burns was con-
stantly excited by the wild and sublime scenery
VOL. I. N through
178 THE LIFE OF
through which he passed. Of this several proofs
may be found in the poems formerly printed.*
Of the history of one of these poems, The
Humble Petition of Bruar Water (vol. iii. p. 353),
and of the bard's visit to Athole-house, some
particulars will be found in vol. ii. No. 29 ;
and by the favour of Mr. "Walker of Perth, then
residing in the family of the Duke of Athole,
we are enabled to give the following additional
account.
" On reaching Blair, he sent me notice
of his arrival (as I had been previously ac-
quainted with him), and I hastened to meet
him at the inn. The Duke, to whom he brought
a letter of introduction, was from home; but the
Duchess, being informed of his arrival, gave him
an invitation to sup and sleep at Athole-house.
He accepted the invitation j but, as the hour of
supper was at some distance, begged I would in
the interval be his guide through the grounds.
It was already growing dark ; yet the softened,
though
* See vol. iii. Lines on seeing some water-fowl in
Loch-Turit, a wild scene among the hills of Ochtertyre,
p. 358. Lines written with a Pencil over the Chimney-
piece, in the Inn at Kenmore Taymouth, p. 36 1. Lines
written with a pencil standing try the fall of Fyers, near
Lochness, p. 363.
ROBERT BURNS. 179
though faint and uncertain, view of their beau-
ties, which the moonlight afforded us, seemed
exactly suited to the state of his feelings at the
time. I had often, like others, experienced the
pleasures which arise from the sublime or
elegant landscape, but I never saw those feel-
ings so intense as in Burns. When we reached
a rustic hut on the river Tilt, where it is over-
hung by a woody precipice, from which there is
a noble water-fall, he threw himself on the
heathy seat, and gave himself up to a tender,
abstracted, and voluptuous enthusiasm of ima-
gination. I cannot help thinking it might have
been here that he conceived the idea of the fol-
lowing lines, which he afterwards introduced
into his poem on Bruar Water, when only fan-
cying such a combination of objects as were now
present to his eye.
Or, by the reaper's nightly beam,
Mild, chequering thro' the trees,
Rave to my darkly-dashing stream,
Hoarse-swelling on the breeze.
" It was with much difficulty I prevailed on
him to quit this spot, and to be introduced in
proper time to supper.
" My curiosity was great to see how he
would conduct himself in company so different
N 2 from
l0 THE LIFE OF
from what he had been accustomed to.* His
manner was unembarrassed, plain, and firm. He
appeared to have complete reliance on his own
native good sense for directing his behaviour.
He seemed at once to perceive and to appreciate
what was due to the company and to himself,
and never to forget a proper respect for the sepa-
rate species of dignity belonging to each. He
did not arrogate conversation, but, when led into
it, he spoke with ease, propriety and manliness.
He tried to exert his abilities, because he knew
it was ability alone gave him a title to be there.
The Duke's fine young family attracted much of
his admiration ; he drank their healths as lionesL
men and bonnie lasses, an idea which was much
applauded by the company, and with which he
lias very felicitously closed his poem.f
" Next day I took a ride with him through
some of the most romantic parts of that neigh-
bourhood, and was highly gratified by his con-
versation. As a specimen of his happiness of
conception and strength of expression, I will
mention a remark which he made on his fellow-
traveller,
* In the preceding winter, Burns had been in company
of the highest rank in Edinburgh ; but this description of
his manners is perfectly applicable to his first appearance
in such society. E.
f See vol. iii. p. 357.
ROBERT BURNS. 181
traveller, who was walking at the time a few
paces before us. He was a man of a robust but
clumsy person; and while Burns was expressing
to me the value he entertained for him, on ac-