ticular



ROBERT BURNS. 125

ticular manner to the impressions of beauty ;
and these qualities, united to his impassioned
eloquence, gave him in turn a powerful influ-
ence over the female heart. The banks of the
Ayr formed the scene of youthful passions of a
still tenderer nature, the history of which it
would be improper to reveal, were it even in
our power, and the traces of which will soon
be discoverable only in those strains of nature
and sensibility to which they gave birth. The
song in vol. iv. p. 17, entitled Highland Mary,
is known to relate to one of these attach-
ments. " It was written," says our bard, " on
one of the most interesting passages of my
youthful days." The object of this passion died
early in life, and the impression left on the mind
of Burns seems to have been deep and lasting.
Several years afterwards, when he was removed
to Nithsdale, he gave vent to the sensibility of
his recollections in the following impassioned
lines. In the manuscript book from which we
extract them, they are addressed To Mary in
Heaven !

Thou lingering star, with less'ning ray,
That lov'st to greet the early morn,

Again thou usher'st in the day

My Mary from my soul was torn.

O Mary ! dear departed shade !
Where is thy place of blissful rest ?

Seest thou thy lover lowly laid ?

Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast ?

That



126 THE LIFE OF

That sacred hour can I forget,

Can I forget the hallowed grove,
Where by the winding Ayr we met,
To live one day of parting love !
Eternity will not efface

Those records dear of transports past ;
Thy image at our last embrace ;

Ah ! little thought we 'twas our last !
Ayr gurgling kissed his pebbled shore,

O'erhung with wild woods, thick'ning, green ;
The fragrant birch, and hawthorn hoar,

Twin'd amorous round the raptured scene.
The flowers sprang wanton to be prest,

The birds sang love on every spray,
'Till too, too soon, the glowing west

Proclaim'd the speed of winged day.
Still o'er these scenes my mem'ry wakes,

And fondly broods with miser care ;
Time but the impression strouger makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.
My Mary, dear departed shade !

Where is thy place of blissful rest ?
Seest thou thy lover lowly laid ?

Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast.
To the delineations of the poet by himself, by
his brother, and by his tutor, these additions are
necessary, in order that the reader may see his cha-
racter in its various aspects, and may have an op-
portunity of forming a just noiion of the variety,
as well as of the power of his original genius.*

We

* The history of tlie poems formerly printed, will be
found in the Appendix to the third volume, in which

these



ROBERT BURNS. 127

We have dwelt the longer on the early part of
his life, because it is the least known, and because
as has already been mentioned, this part of his
history is connected with some views of the con-
dition



these poems are contained. It is there inserted in the
words of Gilbert Burns, who, in a letter addressed to the
Editor, has given the following account of the friends
which Robert's talents procured him before he left Ayrshire,
or attracted the notice of the world.

" The farm of Mossgiel, at the time of our coming
to it, (Martinmas, ] 785,) was the property of the Earl of
Loudon, but was held in tack by Mr. Gavin Hamilton,
writer, in Mauchline, from whom we had our bargain ;
who had thus an opportunity of knowing, and shewing
a sincere regard for my brother, before he knew that he
was a poet. The poet's estimation of him, and the strong
outlines of his character, may be collected from the de-
dication to this gentleman. When the publication was
begun, Mr. H. entered very warmly into its interests,
and promoted the subscription very extensively. Mr.
Robert Aiken, writer in Ayr, is a man of worth and taste,
of warm affections, and connected with a most respect-
able circle of friends and relations. It is to this gentle-
man The Cotters Saturday Night is inscribed. The
poems of my brother which I have formerly mentioned,
no sooner came into his hands, than they were quickly
known, and well received in the extensive circle of Mr.
Aiken's friends, which gave them a sort of currency, ne-
cessary in this wise world, even for the good reception of
things valuable in themselves. But Mr, Aiken not only

admired



128 THE LIFE OF

dition and manners of the humblest ranks of so-
ciety, hitherto little observed, and which will per-
haps be found neither useless nor uninteresting.

About



admired the poet ; as soon as he became acquainted with
him, he shewed the warmest regard for the man, and did
every thing in his power to forward his interest and respect-
ability. The Epistle to a young Friend was addressed to
this gentleman's son, Mr. A.H. Aiken, now of Liverpool.
He was the oldest of a young family, who were taught to
receive my brother with respect, as a man of genius, and
their father's friend.

" The Brigs of Ayr is inscribed to John Ballantine,
Esq. Banker in Ayr ; one of those gentlemen to whom
my brother was introduced by Mr. Aiken. He interested
himself very warmly in my brother's concerns, and con-
stantly shewed the greatest friendship and attachment
to him. When the Kilmarnock edition was all sold off,
and a considerable demand pointed out the propriety of
publishing a second edition, Mr. Wilson, who had print-
ed the first, was asked if he would print the second,
and take his chance of being paid from the first sale.
This he declined, and when this came to Mr. Ballan-
tine's knowledge, he generously offered to accommodate
Robert with what money he might need for that pur-
pose ; but advised him to go to Edinburgh, as the fittest
place for publishing. When he did go to Edinburgh,
his friends advised him to publish again by subscription,
so that he did not need to accept this offer. Mr. Wil-
liam Parker, merchant in Kilmarnock, was a subscriber
for thirty-five copies of the Kilmarnock edition. This

may



ROBERT BURNS. 129

About the time of his leaving his native coun-
ty, his correspondence commences; and in the
series of letters now given to the world, the chief

incidents



may perhaps appear not deserving of notice here ; but if
the comparative obscurity of the poet, at this period, be
taken into consideration, it appears to me a greater effort of
generosity, than many things which appear more brilliant in
my brother's future history.

" Mr. Robert Muir, merchant, in Kilmarnock, was
one of those friends Robert's poetry had procured him, and
one who was dear to his heart. This gentleman had no
very great fortune, or long line of dignified ancestry ; but
what Robert says of Captain Matthew Henderson, might
be said of him with great propriety, that he held the patent
of his honours immediately from Almighty God. Nature
had indeed marked him a gentleman in the most legible
characters. He died while yet a young man, soon after
the publication of my brother's first Edinburgh edition. Sir
William Cunningham of Robertland, paid a very flattering
attention, and shewed a good deal of friendship for the
poet. Before his going to Edinburgh, as well as after,
Robert seemed peculiarly pleased with Professor Stewart's
friendship and conversation.

" But of all the friendships which Robert acquired
in Ayrshire and elsewhere, none seemed more agreeable
to him than that of Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop, nor any
which has been more uniformly and constantly exerted
in behalf of him and his family ; of which, were it pro-
per, I could give many instances. Robert Was on the

vol. i. k point



130 THE LIFE OF

incidents of the remaining part of his life will be
found. This authentic, though melancholy re-
cord will supersede in future the necessity of any
extended narrative.

BURNS

point of setting out for Edinburgh before Mrs. Dunlop
had heard of him. About the time of my brother's pub-
lishing in Kilmarnock, she had been afflicted with a long
and severe illness, which had reduced her mind to the
most distressing state of depression. In this situation, a
copy of the printed poems was laid on her table by a
friend, and happening to open on The Cotter's Saturday
Night, she read it over with the greatest pleasure and
surprise ; the poet's description of the simple cottagers,
operating on her mind like the charm of a powerful
exorcist, expelling the demon ennui, and restoring her to
her wonted inward harmony and satisfaction. Mrs. Dun-
lop sent off a person express to Mossgiel, distant fifteen or
sixteen miles, with a very obliging letter to my brother,
desiring him to send her half a dozen copies of his poems,
if he had them to spare, and begging he would do her the
pleasure of calling at Dunlop House as soon as convenient.
This was the beginning of a correspondence which ended
only with the poet's life. The last use he made of his
pen was writing a short letter to this lady a few days before
his death.

" Col. Fullarton, who afterwards paid a very par-
ticular attention to the poet, was not in the country at
the time of his first commencing author. At this distance
of time, and in the hurry of a wet day, snatched from
laborious occupations, I may have forgot some persons

who



ROBERT BURNS. 131

BURNS set out for Edinburgh in the month
of November, 17^6. He was furnished with a
letter of introduction to Dr. Blacklock, from the
gentleman to whom the Doctor had addressed
the letter which is represented by our bard as the
immediate cause of his visiting the Scottish me-
tropolis. He was acquainted with Mr. Stewart,
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the university,
and had been entertained by that gentleman at
Catrine, his estate in Ayrshire. He had been in-
troduced by Mr. Alexander Dalzel to the Earl of
Glencaim, who had expressed his high approba-
tion of his poetical talents. He had friends there-
fore who could introduce him into the circles of
literature as well as of fashion, and his own man-
ic 2 ners

who ought to have been mentioned on this occasion, for
which if it come to my knowledge I shall be heartily
sorry."

The friendship of Mrs. Dunlop was of particular value
to Burns. This lady, daughter and sole heiress to Sir
Thomas Wallace of Craigie, and lineal descendant of the
illustrious Wallace, the first of Scottish warriors, possesses
the qualities of mind suited to her high lineage. Preserving,
in the decline of life, the generous affections of youth ; her
admiration of the poet was soon accompanied by a sincere
friendship for the man ; which pursued him in after life
through good and evil report ; in poverty, in sickness, and
in sorrow ; and which is continued to his infant family,
now deprived of their parent.



132 THE LIFE OF

ners and appearance exceeding every expectation
that could have been formed of them, he soon
became an object of general curiosity and admi-
ration. The following circumstance contributed
to this in a considerable degree. At the time
when Burns arrived in Edinburgh, the periodical
paper, entitled The Lounger, was publishing,
every Saturday producing a successive number.
His poems had attracted the notice of the gen-
tlemen engaged in that undertaking, and the
ninety-seventh number of those unequal, though
frequently beautiful essays, is devoted to An Ac-
count of Robert Burns, the Ayrshire ploughman,
with Extracts from his poems, written by the ele-
gant pen of Mr. Mackenzie.* The Lounger had
an extensive circulation among persons of taste
and literature, not in Scotland only, but in va-
rious parts of England, to whose acquaintance
therefore our bard was immediately introduced.
The paper of Mr. Mackenzie was calculated to
introduce him advantageously. The extracts are
well selected ; the criticisms and reflections are
judicious as well as generous; and in the style
and sentiments there is that happy delicacy, by
which the writings of the author are so eminently

distinguished.



* This paper has been attributed, but improperly, to
Lord Craig, one of the Scottish judges, author of the very
interesting account of Michael Bruce, in the 36th number
of the Mirror.



JtOBERT BURNS. 1S3

distinguished. The extracts from Burns's poems
in the ninety-seventh number of The Lounger,
were copied into the London as well as into many
of the provincial papers, and the fame of our
bard spread throughout the island. Of the
manners, character, and conduct of Burns at
this period, the following account has been
given by Mr. Stewart, Professor of Moral Phi-
losophy in the University of Edinburgh, in a
letter to the editor, which he is particularly
happy to have obtained permission to insert in
these memoirs.

" The first time I saw Robert Burns
was on the 23d of October, 1786, when he dined
at my house in Ayrshire, together with our
common friend Mr. John Mackenzie, surgeon,
in Mauchline, to whom I am indebted for the
pleasure of his acquaintance. I am enabled to
mention the date particularly, by some verses
which Burns wrote after he returned home, and
in which the day of our meeting is recorded.
My excellent and much lamented friend, the
late Basil, Lord Daer, happened to arrive at
Catrine the same day, and by the kindness and
frankness of his manners, left an impression on
the mind of the poet, which never was effaced.
The verses I allude to are among the most im-
perfect of his pieces ; but a few stanzas may
perhaps be an object of curiosity to you, both

on



134 THE LIFE OF

on account of the character to which they re-
late, and of the light which they throw on the
situation and feelings of the writer, before his
name was known to the public*

" I cannot

* This poem is as follows :

This wot ye all whom it concerns,
I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns,

October twenty-third,
A ne'er-to-be-forgotten day,
Sae far I sprackledf up the brae,

I dinner'd wi' a Lord.

I've been at druken writers^ feasts,
Nay, been bitch-fou 'mang godly priests,

Wi' reverence be it spoken ;
I've even join'd the honour'd jorum,
When mighty Squireships of the quorum,

Their hydra drouth did sloken.

But wi' a Lord stand out my shin,
A Lord a Peer an Earl's son,

Up higher yet my bonnet ;
An sic a Lord lang Scotch ells twa,
Our Peerage he o'erlooks them a',

As I look o'er my sonnet.

But oh for Hogarth's magic pow'r !
To show Sir Bardy's willyart glowr,
And how he star'd and stammer'd,

When



f Clambered. t Attorneys.
j Frighted stare Wild, strange, timid, stare. E.



ROBERT BURNS. 135

u I cannot positively say, at this distance of
time, whether, at the period of our first ac^-

quaintance,

When goavan,* as if led wi' branks/f*
An' stumpan on his ploughman shanks,
He in the parlour hammer'd.

I sidling shelter'd in a nook,
An' at his lordship steal't a look,

Like some portentous omen ;
Except good-sense and social glee,
An' (what surpris'd me) modesty,

I marked nought uncommon,

I watch'd the symptoms o' the Great,
The gentle pride, the lordly state,

The arrogant assuming ;
The feint a pride, nae pride had he,
Nor sauce, nor state that I could see,

Mair than an honest ploughman.

Then from his Lordship I shall learn,
Henceforth to meet with unconcern,

One rank as well's another ;
Nae honest worthy man need care,
To meet with noble youthful Daer,

For he but meets a brother.

These lines will be read with no common interest by
all who remember the unaffected simplicity of appearance,
the sweetness of countenance and manners, and the unsus-
pecting benevolence of heart, of Basil, Lord Daer.



# talking stupidly. Goavan-looking round with a strange inquiring gaze.

E.
t A kind of bridle.



136 THE LIFE OF

quaintance, the Kilmarnock edition of his poems
had been just published, or was yet in the
press. I suspect that the latter was the case, as
I have still in my possession copies in his own
hand-writing, of some of his favourite per-
formances ; particularly of his verses " on turn-
ing up a Mouse with his plough ;" " on the
Mountain Daisy;" and "the Lament." On
my return to Edinburgh, I shewed the volume,
and mentioned what I knew of the author's his-
tory, to several of my friends, and, among others,
to Mr. Henry Mackenzie, who first recom^
mended him to public notice in the 97th number
of The Lounger.

<{ At this time Burns's prospects in life were
so extremely gloomy, that he had seriously
formed a plan of going out to Jamaica in a very
humble situation, not however without lament-
ing, that his want of patronage should force
him to think of a project so repugnant to his
feelings, when his ambition aimed at no higher
an object than the station of an exciseman or
gauger in his own country.

cc His manners were then, as they continued
ever afterwards, simple, manly, and independ-
ent ; strongly expressive of conscious genius
and worth; but without any thing that indi-
cated forwardness, arrogance, or vanity. He

took



ROBERT BURNS. 13?

took his share in conversation, but not more
than belonged to him ; and listened with appa-
rent attention and deference, on subjects where
his want of education deprived him of the means
of information. If there had been a little more
of gentleness and accommodation in his temper,
he would, I think, have been still more interest-
ing ; but he had been accustomed to give law in
the circle of his ordinary acquaintance ; and his
dread of any thing approaching to meanness or
servility, rendered his manner somewhat decided
and hard. Nothing, perhaps, was more re-
markable among his various attainments, than
the fluency, and precision, and originality of
Tits language, when he spoke in company; more
particularly as he aimed at purity in his turn of
expression, and avoided more successfully than
most Scotchmen, the peculiarities of Scottish
phraseology.

" He came to Edinburgh early in the winter
following, and remained there for several months.
By whose advice he took this step, I am unable
to say. Perhaps it was suggested only by his
own curiosity to see a little more of the world ;
but, I confess, I dreaded the consequences from
the first, and always wished that his pursuits and
habits should continue the same as in the former
part of life; with the addition of, what I con-
sidered as then completely within his reach,

a good



138 THE LIFE OF

a good farm on moderate terms, in a part of the
country agreeable to his taste.

" The attentions he received during his stay in
town from all ranks and descriptions of persons,
were such as would have turned any head but
his own. I cannot say that I could perceive any
unfavourable effect which they left on his mind.
He retained the same simplicity of manners and
appearance which had struck me so forcibly
when I first saw him in the country ; nor did he
seem to feel any additional self-importance from
the number and rank of his new acquaintance.
His dress was perfectly suited to his station,
plain and unpretending, with a sufficient atten-
tion to neatness. If I recollect right he always
wore boots ; and, when on more than usual ce-
remony, buck-skin breeches.

" The variety of his engagements, while in
Edinburgh, prevented me from seeing him so
often as I could have wished. In the course of
the spring he called on me once or twice, at my
request, early in the morning, and walked with
me to Braid-Hills, in the neighbourhood of the
town, when he charmed me still more by his
private conversation, than he had ever done in
company. He was passionately fond of the
beauties of nature ; and I recollect once he told
me, when I was admiring a distant prospect in

one



ROBERT BURNS. 139

one of our morning walks, that the sight of so
many smoking cottages gave a pleasure to his
mind, which none could understand who had
not witnessed, like himself, the happiness and
the worth which they contained.

" In his political principles he was then a Ja-
cobite ; which was perhaps owing partly to this,
that his father was originally from the estate of
Lord Mareschall. Indeed he did not appear to
have thought much on such subjects, nor very
consistently. He had a very strong sense of re-
ligion, and expressed deep regret at the levity
with which he had heard it treated occasionally
in some convivial meetings which he frequented.
I speak of him as he was in the winter of 1786-7 ;
for afterwards we met but seldom, and our con-
versations turned chiefly on his literary projects,
or his private affairs.

" I do not recollect whether it appears or not
from any of your letters to me, that you had ever
seen Burns.* If you have, it is superfluous for
me to add, that the idea which his conversation
conveyed of the powers of his mind, exceeded,
if possible, that which is suggested by his writ-
ings. Among the poets whom I have happened
to know, I have been struck, in more than one

instance,

* The Editor has seen and conversed with Burns.



140 THE LIFE OF

instance, with the unaccountable disparity be-
tween their general talents, and the occasional
inspirations of their more favoured moments.
But all the faculties of Burns's mind were, as far
as I could judge, equally vigorous; and his pre-
dilection for poetry was rather the result of his
own enthusiastic and impassioned temper, than
of a genius exclusively adapted to that species
of composition. From his conversation I should
have pronounced him to be fitted to excel in
whatever walk of ambition he had chosen to ex-
ert his abilities.

" Among the subjects on which he was ac-
customed to dwell, the characters of the indi-
viduals with whom he happened to meet, was
plainly a favourite one. The remarks he made
on them were always shrewd and pointed, though
frequently inclining too much to sarcasm. His
praise of those he loved was sometimes indiscri-
minate and extravagant ; but this, I suspect,
proceeded rather from the caprice and humour
of the moment, than from the effects of attach-
ment in blinding his judgment. His wit was
ready, and always impressed with the marks of
a vigorous understanding; but, to my taste, not
often pleasing or happy. His attempts at epi-
gram, in his printed works, are the only per-
formances, perhaps, that he has produced, to-
tally unworthy of his genius.

" In



ROBERT BURNS. 141

" In summer, 1787, I passed some weeks in
Ayrshire, and saw Burns occasionally. I think
that he made a pretty long excursion that season
to the Highlands, and that he also visited what
Beattie calls the Arcadian ground of Scotland,
upon the banks of the Tiviot and the Tweed.

" I should have mentioned before, that not-
withstanding various reports I heard during the
preceding winter, of Burns's predilection for con-
vivial, and not very select society, I should have
concluded in favour of his habits of sobriety,
from all of him that ever fell under my own ob-
servation. He told me indeed himself, that the
weakness of his stomach was such as to deprive
him entirely of any merit in his temperance. I
was however somewhat alarmed about the effect
of his now comparatively sedentary and luxuri-
ous life, when he confessed to me, the first night
he spent in my house after his winter's campaign
in town, that he had been much disturbed when
in bed, by a palpitation at his heart, which, he
said, was a complaint to which he had of late
become subject.

" In the course of the same season I was led
by curiosity to attend for an hour or two a Ma-
son-Lodge in Mauchline, where Burns presided.
He had occasion to make some short unpreme-
ditated compliments to different individuals from

whom



142 THE LIFE OF

whom he had no reason to expect a visit, and
every thing he said was happily conceived,
and forcibly as well as fluently expressed. If I
am not mistaken, he told me, that in that vil-
lage, before going to Edinburgh, he had be-
longed to a small club of such of the inhabitants
as had a taste for books, when they used to con-
verse and debate on any interesting questions
that occurred to them in the course of their
reading. His manner of speaking in public
had evidently the marks of some practice in ex-
tempore elocution.

" I must not omit to mention, what I have
always considered as characteristical in a high
degree of true genius, the extreme facility and
good-nature of his taste, in judging of the com-
positions of others, where there was any real
ground for praise. I repeated to him many pas-
sages of English poetry with which he was unac-
quainted, and have more than once witnessed the
tears of admiration and rapture with which he
heard them. The collection of songs by Dr.
Aikin, which I first put into his hands, he read