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The hour approached for Burns leaving Edinburgh. The final meeting with Clarinda, promised for eight in the evening, had taken place, exactly as a great pen has described the ideal of such partings—

-'I had

Most pretty things to say: ere I could tell him
How I would freely think on him at certain hours;
Such thoughts and such; or I could make him swear
The shees of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honour: or have charged him
At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,
T'encounter me with orisons; for then

I am in Heaven for him; or ere I could
Give him that parting kiss, which I had set

Betwixt two charming words: comes in,' &c.'

Burns left Edinburgh on Monday the 18th of February. He took Glasgow in his way, mainly for the pleasure he anticipated in a meeting with Richard Brown, whose vessel, the Mary and Jean, was now advertised as to be ready at Greenock on the 1st of March, to receive goods for Grenada. Arriving at the Black Bull Inn, he lost little time in penning a letter to the impatient Clarinda.

TO CLARINDA.

GLASGOW, Monday Evening, Nine o'clock. The attraction of love, I find, is in an inverse proportion to the attraction of the Newtonian philosophy. In the system of Sir Isaac, the nearer objects were to one another, the stronger was the attractive force. In my system, every milestone that marked my progress from Clarinda, awakened a keener pang of attachment to her. How do you feel, my love? Is your heart ill at ease? I fear it. God forbid that these persecutors should harass that peace, which is more precious to me than my own. Be assured I shall ever think on you, muse on you, and, in my moments of devotion, pray for you. The hour that you are not in my thoughts, be that hour darkness; let the shadows of death cover it; let it not be numbered in the hours of the day!'

'When I forget the darling theme,

Be my tongue mute! my fancy paint no more!
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!'

I have just met with my old friend, the ship-captain-guess my pleasure to meet you could alone have given me more. My brother William, too, the young saddler, has come to Glasgow to meet me; and here are we three spending the evening.

1 Cymbeline. 2 Edinburgh Advertiser, February 15, 1788.

Mr Richard Brown.

I arrived here too late to write by post; but I'll wrap half-adozen sheets of blank-paper together, and send it by the Fly, under the name of a parcel. You will hear from me next post-town. I would write you a longer letter, but for the present circumstances of my friend.

Adieu, my Clarinda! I am just going to propose your health by way of grace-drink. SYLVANDER.

The bard proceeded next day to Paisley, where he already had established friendships; then to Dunlop, where he stayed two days. From Kilmarnock he gave Clarinda an account of his progress.

TO CLARINDA.

KILMARNOCK, Friday [Feb. 22].

I wrote you, my dear madam, the moment I alighted in Glasgow. Since then I have not had opportunity; for in Paisley, where I arrived next day, my worthy, wise friend, Mr Pattison, did not allow me a moment's respite. I was there ten hours; during which time I was introduced to nine men worth six thousands; five men worth ten thousands; his brother, richly worth twenty thousands; and a young weaver, who will have thirty thousands good when his father, who has no more children than the said weaver, and a Whig kirk, dies. Mr P. was bred a zealous Antiburgher; but during his widowerhood he has found their strictness incompatible with certain compromises he is often obliged to make with those powers of darkness-the devil, the world, and the flesh. *** His only daughter, who, if the beast be to the fore, and the branks bide hale,' will have seven thousand pounds when her old father steps into the dark factory-office of Eternity with his well-thrummed web of life, has put him again and again in a commendable fit of indignation by requesting a harpsichord. 'Oh these boardingschools!' exclaims my prudent friend; she was a good spinner and sewer till I was advised by her foes and mine to give her a year of Edinburgh!'

After two bottles more, my much-respected friend opened up to me a project-a legitimate child of Wisdom and Good Sense: 'twas no less than a long-thought-on and deeply-matured design, to marry a girl fully as elegant in her form as the famous priestess whom Saul consulted in his last hours, and who had been second maid of honour to his deceased wife. This, you may be sure, I highly applauded; so I hope for a pair of gloves by and by. I spent the two by-past days at Dunlop House, with that worthy family to whom I was deeply indebted early in my poetic career; and in about two hours I shall present your 'twa wee sarkies' to the little fellow. My dearest Clarinda, you are ever present with me; and these hours, that drawl by among the fools and rascals of this world, are

only supportable in the idea that they are the forerunners of that happy hour that ushers me to 'the mistress of my soul.' Next week I shall visit Dumfries, and next again return to Edinburgh. My letters in these hurrying dissipated hours will be heavy trash; but you know the writer. God bless you! SYLVANDER.

Next day he arrived at Mossgiel.

TO MR RICHARD BROW N.

MOSSGIEL, 24th February 1788.

MY DEAR SIR-I arrived here, at my brother's, only yesterday, after fighting my way through Paisley and Kilmarnock against those old powerful foes of mine-the devil, the world, and the flesh; so terrible in the fields of dissipation. I have met with few incidents in my life which gave me so much pleasure as meeting you in Glasgow. There is a time of life beyond which we cannot form a tie worth the name of friendship. Oh Youth! enchanting stage, profusely blest." Life is a fairy scene: almost all that deserves the name of enjoyment or pleasure is only a charming delusion; and in comes repining Age, in all the gravity of hoary Wisdom, and wretchedly chases away the bewitching phantom. When I think of life, I resolve to keep a strict look-out in the course of economy, for the sake of worldly convenience and independence of mind; to cultivate intimacy with a few of the companions of youth, that they may be the friends of age; never to refuse my liquorish humour a handful of the sweetmeats of life, when they come not too dear; and, for futurity

The present moment is our ain,

The niest we never saw!'

How like you my philosophy? Give my best compliments to Mrs B., and believe me to be, my dear sir, yours most truly,

R. B.

From the same place he wrote to Clarinda, whose letters to him express the most eager solicitude for his communications. The letter has not been preserved. It was probably on Monday the 25th that he proceeded to Dumfriesshire, with a sagacious friend, Mr James Tennant, farmer, Glenconner, designing with his aid to view and judge of Mr Miller's farms on the banks of the Nith. He had not a very confident hope of being able to pitch on one which it would be prudent to take on lease; but the result was otherwise than he had looked for.

1 This was to the last a favourite quotation of Clarinda.

TO CLARINDA.

CUMNOCK, 2d March 1788.

I hope, and am certain, that my generous Clarinda will not think my silence, for now a long week, has been in any degree owing to my forgetfulness. I have been tossed about through the country ever since I wrote you; and am here, returning from Dumfriesshire, at an inn, the post-office of the place, with just so long time as my horse eats his corn, to write you. I have been hurried with business and dissipation almost equal to the insidious decree of the Persian monarch's mandate, when he forbade asking petition of God or man for forty days. Had the venerable prophet been as throng [busy] as I, he had not broken the decree, at least not thrice a day.

I am thinking my farming scheme will yet hold. A worthy intelligent farmer, my father's friend and my own, has been with me on the spot: he thinks the bargain practicable. I am myself, on a more serious review of the lands, much better pleased with them. I won't mention this in writing to anybody but you and [Ainslie]. Don't accuse me of being fickle: I have the two plans of life before me, and I wish to adopt the one most likely to procure me independence. I shall be in Edinburgh next week. I long to see you: your image is omnipresent to me; nay, I am convinced I would soon idolatrise it most seriously-so much do absence and memory improve the medium through which one sees the muchloved object. * * * I hope, as I go home to-night, to find a letter from you at the post-office in Mauchline. I have just once seen that dear hand since I left Edinburgh-a letter, indeed, which much affected me. Tell me, first of womankind! will my warmest attachment, my sincerest friendship, my correspondence— will they be any compensation for the sacrifices you make for my sake? If they will, they are yours. If I settle on the farm I propose, I am just a day and a half's ride from Edinburgh.' We will meet-don't you say 'perhaps too often!'

Farewell, my fair, my charming poetess! May all good things ever attend you! I am ever, my dearest madam, yours,

SYLVANDER.

TO MR WILLIAM CRUIKSHAN K.

MAUCHLINE, 3d March 1788.

MY DEAR SIR-Apologies for not writing are frequently like apologies for not singing-the apology better than the song. I have fought my way severely through the savage hospitality of this

1 The distance is a little over seventy miles. At this time, I presume, there was no public coach on even so important a line of communication as the road between Edinburgh and Dumfries. A mail-coach commenced running upon it on the 1st of September 1790.

country, [the object of all hosts being] to send every guest drunk to bed if they can. . . . .

I should return my thanks for your hospitality (I leave a blank for the epithet, as I know none can do it justice) to a poor wayfaring bard, who was spent and almost overpowered fighting with prosaic wickednesses in high places; but I am afraid lest you should burn the letter whenever you come to the passage, so I pass over it in silence. I am just returned from visiting Mr Miller's farm. The friend whom I told you I would take with me was highly pleased with the farm; and as he is, without exception, the most intelligent farmer in the country, he has staggered me a good deal. I have the two plans of life before me: I shall balance them to the best of my judgment, and fix on the most eligible. I have written Mr Miller, and shall wait on him when I come to town, which shall be the beginning or middle of next week: I would be in sooner, but my unlucky knee is rather worse, and I fear for some time will scarcely stand the fatigue of my Excise instructions. I only mention these ideas to you; and, indeed, except Mr Ainslie, whom I intend writing to to-morrow, I will not write at all to Edinburgh till I return to it. I would send my compliments to Mr Nicol, but he would be hurt if he knew I wrote to anybody, and not to him; so I shall only beg my best, kindest, kindest compliments to my worthy hostess and the sweet little Rosebud.

So soon as I am settled in the routine of life, either as an Exciseofficer or as a farmer, I propose myself great pleasure from a regular correspondence with the only man almost I ever saw who joined the most attentive prudence with the warmest generosity.

I am

I am much interested for that best of men, Mr Wood. I hope he is in better health and spirits than when I saw him last. ever, my dearest friend, your obliged humble scrvant,

R. B.

TO MR ROBERT AINSLIE.

MAUCHLINE, 3d March 1788.1

MY DEAR FRIEND-I am just returned from Mr Miller's farm. My old friend whom I took with me was highly pleased with the bargain, and advised me to accept of it. He is the most intelligent, sensible farmer in the county, and his advice has staggered me a good deal. I have the two plans before me: I shall endeavour to balance them to the best of my judgment, and fix on the most eligible. On the whole, if I find Mr Miller in the same favourable disposition as when I saw him last, I shall in all probability turn farmer.

I have been through sore tribulation, and under much buffeting of the Wicked One, since I came to this country. Jean I found

1 The letter had no date, but has been so indorsed by Mr Ainslie.

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