ELEGY ON SIR JAMES HUNTER BLAIR SiR JAMES HUNTER BLAIR, Son of John Hunter, bailie in Ayr, was born 2nd February 1741; was apprenticed in the banking house of the brothers Coutts, Edinburgh; became, with Sir William Forbes, joint partner in the bank ; assumed the name of Blair when his wife-a daughter of John Blair of Dunskey, Wigtonshire-succeeded to her estates in 1777; greatly improved the estates in agriculture and trade; partly rebuilt Portpatrick, and started a packet service to Ireland; was also an active citizen of Edinburgh, for which he was chosen M.P. in 1781 and 1784, and in 1784 Lord Provost; was created a baronet, 1786; and died of putrid fever 1st July 1787. To Robert Aiken Burns wrote:-"The melancholy occasion of the foregoing poem affects not only individuals but a country. That I have lost a friend is but repeating after Caledonia.' Further, in the Glenriddell Book he thus prefaces his Elegy :-'This performance is but mediocre, but my grief was sincere. The last time I saw the worthy, public-spirited man—a man he was! how few of the two-legged breed that pass for such deserve the designation!-he pressed my hand, and asked me with the most friendly warmth if it was in his power to serve me; and if so, that I would oblige him by telling him how. I had nothing to ask of him; but if ever a child of his should be so unfortunate as to be under the necessity of asking anything of so poor a man as I am it may not be in my power to grant it, but by God I shall try.' The piece (which is quite generously described by its author) was published in Currie (1800), but was not reprinted in Edition 1801. Crawford Tait Ramage, in Notes and Queries, 4th series, vol. v. pp. 593-4, gave certain variations from a мs. inscribed on a copy of the Kilmarnock Edition-мs. (A). A copy in a boyish hand, corrected and signed by Burns, is in the Watson Collection HUNTER BLAIR ELEGY ON MS. (B). The Elegy is also inscribed in a book to which we have had access through Mr. Brown, Princes Street, Edinburgh-Ms. (C)—and in the Glenriddell Book-мs. (D). STANZA 1. LINE 2. 'Dim, cloudy, sank beyond the western wave,' Ms. (C). STANZA II. LINE 2. 'Once the lov'd haunts of Scotia's royal train': 'The King's Park, at Holyrood House' (R. B.). 3. 'Or mused where erst the saint's reverèd well,' Ms. (A); 'erst revered waters well,' Ms. (B), and deleted in Ms. (C):-'Saint Anthony's Well' (R. B.). 4. Or mould'ring ruins mark the sacred Fane': 'St. Anthony's Chapel' (R. B.). The well and ruins are situated on the heights a little to the south-east of Holyrood House. STANZA III. LINE 2. The wingèd clouds, flew o'er the starry sky,' Mss. (A and B), and deleted in Ms. (C). STANZA IV. LINE 2. ' And 'mong the cliffs display'd a stately form,' Ms. (A). 3. 'In weeds of woe̱ that pensive beat her breast,' deleted reading in Ms. (C). STANZA V. LINE I. 'Wild to my heart the filial pulses flow,' MS. (A). 4. 'The lightning of her eye in tears embrued,' MS. (A). STANZA VII. LINE 2. 'With accent wild and lifted hands, she cried,' deleted reading in Ms. (A). 4. Low lies the heart that swell'd with honest pride,' Currie. STANZA IX. LINE I. 'I saw my sons resume their wonted fire,' Ms. (A). 3. 'But ah! now hope is born but to expire,' Ms. (A). STANZA X. LINE I. 'My patriot falls, but shall he fall in vain,' MSS. (A and D); with 'strain' in 3. ON THE DEATH OF LORD PRESIDENT ROBERT DUNDAS of Arniston, descended from an old in 1754, and in 1760 became Lord President, in which ON THE capacity he acquired a high repute for courtesy, fairness, DEATH OF and ability. He died 13th December 1787. In a letter DUNDAS to Alexander Cunningham, 11th March 1791, Burns states that he wrote the verses at the suggestion of Alexander Wood, Surgeon, and that Wood left them, together with a letter from the author, in the house of the Lord President's son (see ante, p. 407, Prefatory Note to The Dean of Faculty); that Mr. Dundas never took the smallest notice of the letter, the poem, or the poet'; and that since then he (Burns) never saw the name of Dundas in a newspaper but his heart felt straitened' in his 'bosom.' He makes a similar statement in an interleaved copy of his Poems presented to Bishop Geddes, but adds-Did the fellow-the gentleman-think I looked for any dirty gratuity?' No doubt Dundas did think so: none, either, that Burns, by this time a person of importance, was hopeful of not a present in money but-a place. In a letter to Charles Hay, Advocate, published in The Scots Magazine (June 1818), where the piece appeared, Burns gives a different account of its origin :— "The enclosed poem was written in consequence of your suggestion, last time I had the pleasure of seeing you. It cost me an hour or two of next morning's sleep, but did not please me; so it lay by, an ill-digested effort, till the other day that I gave it a critic brush. These kind of subjects are much hackneyed; and besides, the wailings of the rhyming tribe over the ashes of the great are . . . out of all character for sincerity': which well enough describes both the quality and the effect of a performance meriting no better reception than it got. From The Scots Magazine the piece was reprinted in Mackenzie and Dent's Edition, Newcastle 1819; and in Hogg and Motherwell, Part III. 1834. It was printed in the Aldine Edition, 1839, from a мs. the Glenriddell Book, and a Ms. is Museum. It is inscribed in ON THE DUNDAS LINE 3. Down from the rivulets,' the com common reading, DEATH OF but the Wisbech MS. and the Scots Magazine have 'foam.' 10. 'Sad to your sympathetic scenes I fly,' Aldine Edition. 33. 'Ye dark waste hills and brown unsightly plains,' Scots Magazine and Aldine Edition. 34. 'Inspire and soothe my melancholy strains,' Scots Magazine; To you I sing my griefinspired strains,' Wisbech Ms. and Aldine Edition. ELEGY ON WILLIE NICOL'S MARE PROBABLY William Nicol (see post, p. 452, Epitaph for William Nicol) bought the nag for use in his holidays at Moffat. She got into poor condition, and Burns offered to take her to Ellisland to recruit. When, however, he had got her into good enough condition for Dumfries Fair, she suddenly died of an unsuspected affection of the spine. In the letter, 9th February 1790, enclosing the Elegy he wrote:-'I have likewise strung four or five barbarous stanzas to the tune of Chevy Chase, by way of Elegy on your poor unfortunate mare, beginning (the name she got here was Peg Nicholson) :"Peg Nicholson,"' etc. No doubt, the mare was named after Margaret Nicholson, who, being insane, tried to stab George II. on 2nd August 1786. The Elegy was published in Cromek's Reliques (1808). For an opportunity to inspect both letter and stanzas we are indebted to Sir Robert Jardine of Castlemilk. STANZA 1. LINE 2. As ever trod on iron,' erroneous reading. LINES ON FERGUSSON PUBLISHED in Chambers (1852). Chambers does not say in whose possession was the copy of The World whereon he found the verses inscribed. ELEGY ON THE LATE MISS BURNET OF MONBODDO ELIZABETH BURNET, the 'fair Burnet' of the Address to Edinburgh (Vol. i. p. 240), was the younger daughter of James Burnet, Lord Monboddo. Burns was a frequent visitor to Monboddo's house in 1786-7; and kind of worshipped the fair hostess. His favourite for looks and manners,' wrote Mrs. Alison Cockburn, 'is Bess Burnet-ne bad judge indeed.' In a letter to William Chalmers (27th December 1786) he describes her as 'the heavenly Miss Burnet,' and declares that there has not been anything nearly like her in all the combinations of beauty, grace and goodness the great Creator has formed, since Milton's Eve on the first day of her existence.' Being asked, after his first visit to the house, by Father Geddes, if he admired the young lady, 'I admired God Almighty more than ever,' he replied; 'Miss Burnet is the most heavenly of all His works.' This fair and gracious creature died (of consumption) 17th June 1790, in her twenty-fifth year. In the Elegy Burns once more 'falls to his English'; and with the wonted result. Yet it was long on the anvil. In enclosing a copy to Alexander Cunningham, 23rd January 1791, he states that he had been hammering at it for months; and so dissatisfied is he with the result that he still calls it a fragment. He was wise enough not to include it in Edition '93. The copy, as sent to Cunningham, was printed in small type in Currie (1800). It lacked the closing stanza, which Currie printed on another page from a letter to Mrs. Dunlop. A Ms. wanting the introduction belongs to Mr. Adam, Buffalo, U.S.A. Our text is from the Afton Lodge Book. STANZA II. LINE 4. As by His noblest work the Godhead best is known,' Currie. STANZA V. LINE 4.. And not a muse in honest grief bewail,' Currie, and Adam Ms. VOL. II. 2 D |