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And would to Common-sense for once betrayed

them,

Plain, dull Stupidity stept kindly in to aid them.

What further clish-ma-claver might painver
been said,

What bloody wars, if sprites had blood to shed,
No man can tell; but all before their sight,
A fairy train appeared in order bright;
Adown the glittering stream they featly danced
Bright to the moon their various dresses
glanced;

They footed o'er the watery glass so neat,
The infant ice scarce bent beneath their feet
While arts of minstrelsy among them rung,
And soul-ennobling bards heroic ditties sung.
Oh had M Lachlan, thairm-inspiring sage, cat-gut
Been there to hear this heavenly band engage,
When through his dear strathspeys they bore
with Highland rage;

Or when they struck old Scotia's melting airs,
The lover's raptured joys or bleeding cares;
How would his Highland lug been nobler

fired,

ear

1 A well-known performer of Scottish music on the violin. -B. James M'Lachlan, a Highlander, had been once foot. man to Lord John Campbell at Inverary. He came to Ayrshire in a fencible regiment, and was patronized by Hugh Montgomery of Coilsfield (afterwards Earl of Eglintsune), who was himself both a player and a composer.

And even his matchless hand with finer touch

inspired!

No guess could tell what instrument appeared,
But all the soul of Music's self was heard;
Harmonious concert rung in every part,
While simple melody poured moving on the
heart.

The Genius of the stream in front appears, A venerable chief advanced in years; His hoary head with water-lilies crowned, His manly leg with garter tangle bound. Next came the loveliest pair in all the ring, Sweet Female Beauty hand in hand with Spring;

Then, crowned with flowery hay, came Rural
Joy,

And Summer, with his fervid-beaming eye;
All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn,
Led yellow Autumn, wreathed with nodding

corn;

Then Winter's time-bleached locks did hoary show,

By Hospitality with cloudless brow;

Next followed Courage, with his martial stride, From where the Feal wild woody coverts hide;1 Benevolence, with mild, benignant air,

1 We have here a compliment to Montgomery of Coilsfield -Soger Hugh-alluded to in the preceding note. Coilsfield is situated on the Feal, or Faile, a tributary of the Ayr.

A female form, came from the towers of Stair;1 Learning and Worth in equal measures trode From simple Catrine, their long-loved abode: 2 Last, white-robed Peace, crowned with a hazel wreath,

To rustic Agriculture did bequeath

The broken iron instruments of death;

At sight of whom our Sprites forgat their kindling wrath.

LINES ON MEETING WITH BASIL, LORD

DAER.

Professor Dugald Stewart, the elegant expositor of the Scottish system of metaphysics, resided at this time in a villa at Catrine, on the Ayr, a few miles from the bard's farm. He had been made acquainted with the extraordinary productions of Burns by Mr. Mackenzie, the clever, liberal-minded surgeon of Mauchline. At the request of the professor, Mackenzie came to dinner at Catrine, accompanied by the poet. Burns was sufficiently embarrassed at the idea of meeting in the flesh a distinguished member of the literary circle of Edinburgh; but, to increase the feeling, there chanced also to be present a young scion of nobility-Lord Daer, son of the Earl of Selkirk a positively alarming idea to the rustic

1 A compliment to his early patroness, Mrs. Stewart of Stair See note to Epistle to Davie, vol. i. p. 63.

A compliment to Professor Dugald Stewart

bard, who had as yet seen nobility no nearer than on the Ayr race-course, or whirling along the road in carriages. Lord Daer, who had been a pupil of Professor Stewart, had called, it appears, by chance. Of the meeting, Burns and Stewart have left their respective records.

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 sprachled up the brae,
I dinner'd wi' a Lord.

I've been at drucken writers' feasts,
Nay, been bitch-fou 'mang godly priests,
Wi' reverence be it spoken ;

I've even joined the honoured 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!

And 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 power!

clambered

To shew Sir Bardie's willyart glower, bewildered stare And how he stared and stammer'd.

When goavan, as if led wi'

branks,

moving stupidly

And stumpin' on his ploughman shanks,
He in the parlour hammer'd.

I sidling sheltered in a nook,
And at his Lordship steal't a look,

Like some portentous omen;
Except good sense and social glee,
And (what surprised me) modesty,
I marked nought uncommon.

I watched the symptoms o' the great,
The gentle pride, the lordly state,
The arrogant assuming;

rude bridle

devil-a-bit

The fient 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 weel's anither;
Nae honest worthy man need care
To meet with noble youthful Daer,

For he but meets a brother.1

1 Lord Daer was a young nobleman of the greatest promise. He had just returned from France, where he cultivated the society of some of those men who afterwards figured in the Revolution (particularly Condorcet), and had contracted their sentiments." The foregoing verses were really extempore, but a little corrected since."- B.

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