pable of making a better use of it, when attain ed, than is generally done. I beg you will not give yourself the trouble of writing to me when it is inconvenient, and make no apology, when you do write, for having postponed it; be assured of this, however, that I shall always be happy to hear from you I think my friend Mr. told me that you had some poems in manuscript by you of a satirical and humorous nature (in which, by the way, I think you very strong), which your prudent friends prevailed on you to omit, particu I HAD the pleasure of your letter by Mr. Creech, and soon after he sent me the new edition of your poems. You seem to think it incumbent on you to send to each subscriber a number of copies proportionate to his subscription money; but you may depend upon it, few subscribers expect more than one copy, what-larly one called Somebody's Confession; if you ever they subscribed. I must inform you, however, that I took twelve copies for those subscribers for whose money you were so accurate as to send me a receipt; and Lord Eglinton told me he had sent for six copies for himself, as he wished to give five of them in presents. will entrust me with a sight of any of these, I will pawn my word to give no copies, and will be obliged to you for a perusal of them. I understand you intend to take a farm, and make the useful and respectable business of husbandry your chief occupation; this, I hope, will not prevent your making occasional addresses to the nine ladies who have shown you such favour, one of whom visited you in the auld clay that there is nothing in the business of husband- Your friend and obedient servant, No. XLIV. Some of the poems you have added in this last edition are beautiful, particularly the Winter Night, the Address to Edinburgh, Green grow the Rashes, and the two songs immediate-biggin. Virgil, before you, proved to the world ly following; the latter of which was exquisite. By the way, I imagine you have a peculiar talent for such compositions, which you ought to indulge. No kind of poetry demands more delicacy or higher polishing. Horace is more admired on account of his Odes than all his other writings. But nothing now added is equal to your Vision and Cotter's Saturday Night. In these are united fine imagery, natural and pathetic description, with sublimity of language and thought. It is evident that you already possess a great variety of expression and command of the English language; you ought, therefore, to deal more sparingly for the future in the provincial dialect :—why should you, by using that, limit the number of your admirers to those who understand the Scottish, when you can extend it to all persons of taste who understand the English language? In my opinion, you should plan some larger work than any you have as yet attempted. I mean, reflect upon some proper subject, and arrange the plan in your mind, without beginning to execute any part of it till you have studied most of the best English poets, and read a little more of history. The Greek and Roman stories you can read in some abridgment, and soon become master of the most brilliant facts, which must highly delight a poetical mind. You should also, and very soon may, become master of the heathen mythology, to which there are everlasting allusions in all the poets, and which in itself is charmingly fanciful. What will require to be studied with more attention, is modern history, that is, the history of France and Great Britain, from the beginning of Henry the Seventh's reign. I know very well you have a mind capable of attaining knowledge by a shorter process than is commonly used, and I am certain you are ca TO MR. W. NICOLL, MASTER OF THE HIGH-SCHOOL, EDINBURGH. Curlisle, June 1, 1787. KIND, HONFST-HEARTED WILLIE. I'm sitten down here, after seven and forty miles ridin, e'en as forjesket and formiaw'd as a forfoughten cock, to gie you some not on o' my land lowper-like stravaguin sin the sorrowfu' hour that I sheuk hands and parted wi' auld Reekie. My auld, ga'd gleyde o' a meere has huchyall'd up hill and down brae, in Scotland and England, as teugh and birnie as a vera devil wi' me. It's true, she's as poor's a sang-maker This mare was the Poet's favourite JENNY GED DES, of whom honourable and most humorous mention is made in a letter, inserted in Dr. Currie's edition, vol. i. p. 165. This old and faithful servant of the Poet's was named by him, after the old woman, who in her zeal against religious innovation, threw a stool at the Dean of • His subsequent compositions will bear testimony Edinburgh's head, when he attempted in 1837, to in to the accuracy of Dr. Moore's judgment. troduce the Scottish Litu gy. On Sunday, the 23d and as hard's a kirk, and tipper-taipers when three years, at thirty pounds sterling a-year; she taks the gate, first like a lady's gentlewoman and am happy some unexpected accidents interin a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle, but vened that prevented your sailing with the vesshe's a yauld, poutherie Girran for a' that, and sel, as I have great reason to think Mr. Douhas a stomack like Willie Stalker's meere that glas's employ would by no means have answerwad hae disgeested tumbler-wheels, for she'll ed your expectations. I received a copy of your whip me aff her five stimparts o' the best aits publications, for which I return you my thanks, at a down-sittin and ne'er fash her thumb. and it is my own opinion, as well as that of such When ance her ringbanes and spavies, her crucks of my friends as have seen them, they are most and cramps, are fairly soupl'd, she beets to, excellent in their kind; although some could beets to, and ay the hindmost hour the tightest. have wished they had been in the English style, I could wager her price to a thretty pennies as they allege the Scottish dialect is now bethat, for twa or three wooks ridin at fifty mile coming obsolete, and thereby the elegance and a day, the deil-sticket a five gallopers acqueesh beauties of your poems are in a great measure Clyde and Whithorn could cast saut on her tail. lost to far the greater part of the community. I hae dander'd owre a' the kintra frae Dum- Nevertheless there is no doubt you had sufficient bar to Selcraig, and hae forgather'd wi' mony a reasons for your conduct-perhaps the wishes guid fallow, and monie a weelfar'd hizzie. I of some of the Scottish nobility and gentry, your met wi' twa dink quines in particlar, ane o' patrons, who will always relish their own old them a sonsie, fine, fodgel lass, baith braw and country style; and your own inclinations for bonie; the tither was a clean-shankit, straught, the same. It is evident from several passages tight, weelfar'd winch, as blithe's a lintwhite in your works, you are as capable of writing in on a flowerie thorn, and as sweet and modest's the English as in the Scottish dialect, and I am ■ new blawn plumrose in a hazle shaw. They in great hopes your genius for poetry, from the were baith bred to mainers by the beuk, and specimen you have already given, will turn out onie ane o' them had as muckle smeddum and rumblgumtion as the half o' some presbytries that you and I baith ken. They play'd me sik a deevil o' a shavie that I daur say if my harigals were turn'd out, ye wad see twa nicks i' the heart o' me like the mark o' a kail-whittle in a castock. I was gaun to write you a lang pystle, but, Gude forgie me, I gat mysel sae notouriously bitchify'd the day after kail-time that I can hardly stoiter but and ben. both for profit and honour to yourself and country. I can by no means advise you now to think of coming to the West Indies, as, I assure you, there is no encouragement for a man of learning and genius here; and am very confident you can do far better in Great Britain, than in Jamaica. I am glad to hear my friends are well, and shall always be happy to hear from you at all convenient opportunities, wishing you success in all your undertakings. I will esteem it a particular favour if you will send me a copy of the other edition you are now My best respecks to the guidwife and a' our common friens, especiall Mr. and Mrs. Cruik-printing. shank and the honest guidman o' Jock's Lodge. I'll be in Dumfries the morn gif the beast be to the fore, and the branks bide hale. Gude be wi' you, Willie ! I am, with respect, Dear Sir, yours, &c. JOHN HUTCHINSON. Amen! SIR, No. XLV. FROM MR. JOHN HUTCHINSON. Jamaica, St. Ann's, 14th June, 1787. I RECEIVED yours, dated Edinburgh, 2d January, 1787, wherein you acquaint me you were engaged with Mr. Douglas of Port Antonio, for No. XLVI. TO MR. W. NICOLL. Mauchline, June 18, 1787. MY DEAR FRIEND, I AM now arrived safe in my native country, after a very agreeable jaunt, and have the pleasure to find all my friends well. 1 breakfasted with your grey-headed, reverend friend, Mr. Smith; and was highly pleased both with the cordial welcome he gave me, and his most ex. of July, the Dean of Edinburgh prepared to officiate cellent appearance and sterling good sense. in St. Giles's. The congregation continued quiet till the service began, when an old woman, impelled by I have been with Mr. Miller at Dalswinton, sudden indignation, started up, and exclaiming aloud, and am to meet him again in August. From Villain! dost thou say the Mass at my lug threw the stool on which she had been sitting, at the Dean's my view of the lands and his reception of my head. A wild uproar commenced that instant. The bardship, my hopes in that business are rather service was interrupted. The women invaded the mended; but still they are but slender. desk with execrations and outeries, and the Dean dis engaged himself from his surplice to escape from their hands."-Laing's Hist of Scot and, vol. iii. p. 122. I am quite charmed with Dumfries folksMr. Burnside, the clergyman, in particular, is a man whom I shall ever gratefully remember; and Stirling, and am delighted with their apand his wife, Gude forgie me, I had almost pearance: richly waving crops of wheat, barley, broke the tenth commandment on her account. &c. but no harvest at all yet, except in one or Simplicity, elegance, good sense, sweetness of two places, an old Wife's Ridge. Yesterday disposition, good humour, kind hospitality, are morning I rode from this town up the meanthe constituents of her manner and heart; in dring Devon's banks to pay my respects to some short-but if I say one word more about her, I Ayrshire folks at Harvieston. After breakfast, shall be directly in love with her. we made a party to go and see the famous Caudron-linn, a remarkable cascade in the Devon, about five miles above Harvieston; and after spending one of the most pleasant days I ever had in my life, I returned to Stirling in the evening. They are a family, Sir, though I had not had any prior tie; though they had not been I never, my friend, thought mankind very capable of any thing generous; but the stateliness of the Patricians in Edinburgh, and the servility of my plebeian brethren, (who, perhaps, formerly eyed me askance), since I returned home, have nearly put me out of conceit altogether with my species. I have bought a the brother and sisters of a certain generous pocket Milton which I carry perpetually about friend of mine, I would never forget them. I with me, in order to study the sentiments-the am told you have not seen them these several dauntless magnanimity; the intrepid, unyield- years, so you can have very little idea of what ing independence, the desperate daring, and these young folks are now. Your brother is as noble defiance of hardship, in that great per- tall as you are, but slender rather than othersonage, SATAN. 'Tis true, I have just now a wise; and I have the satisfaction to inform you little cash; but I am afraid the star that hith- that he is getting the better of those consumperto has shed its malignant, purpose-blasting tive symptoms which I suppose you know were rays full in my zenith; that noxious planet so threatening him. His make, and particularly baneful in its influences to the rhyming tribe, I his manner, resemble you, but he will still have much dread it is not yet beneath my horizon.- a finer face. (I put in the word still, to please Misfortune dodges the path of human life; the Mrs. Hamilton.) Good sense, modesty, and at poetic mind finds itself miserably deranged in, the same time a just idea of that respect that and unfit for the walks of business; add to all, man owes to man, and has a right in his turn that, thoughtless follies and hare-brained whims, to exact, are striking features in his character; like so many ignes futui, eternally diverging and, what with me is the Alpha and the Omefrom the right line of sober discretion, sparkle ga, he has a heart might adorn the breast of a with step-bewitching blaze in the idly-gazing poet! Grace has a good figure and the look of eyes of the poor heedless Bard, till, pop, "he health and cheerfulness, but nothing else refalls like Lucifer, never to hope again.' God markable in her person. I scarcely ever saw so grant this may be an unreal picture with re- striking a likeness as is between her and your spect to me! but should it not, I have very little Beenie; the mouth and chin particularly. little dependence on mankind. I will close my She is reserved at first; but as we grew bette letter with this tribute my heart bids me pay acquainted, I was delighted with the native you-the inany ties of acquaintance and friend- frankness of her manner, and the sterling sense ship which I have, or think I have in life, I of her observation. Of Charlotte, I canuot have felt along the lines, and, d-n them! they speak in common terms of adiniration: she is are almost all of them of such frail contexture, not only beautiful, but lovely. Her form is elethat I am sure they would not stand the breath gant; her features not regular, but they have of the least adverse breeze of fortune; but from the smile of sweetness and the settled complayou, my ever dear Sir, I look with confidence cency of good nature in the highest degree; and for the Apostolic love that shall wait on me her complexion, now that she has happily re"through good report and bad report"-the covered her wonted health, is equal to Miss love which Solomon emphatically says "Is Burnet's. After the exercise of our riding to strong as death." My compliments to Mrs. the Falls, Charlotte was exactly Dr. Donne's Nicoll, and all the circle of our common friends. mistress : answer about you al: I had to describe the able company, raises an honest glow in my bo little ones with the minuteness of anatomy.som. No. XLIX. TO MR. GILBERT BURNS. They were highly delighted when I told them that John was so good a boy, and so fine a scholar, and that Williet was going on still very pretty; but I have it in commission to tell her from them that beauty is a poor silly bauble without she be good. Miss Chalmers I had left in Edinburgh, but I had the pleasure of meeting with Mrs. Chalmers, only Lady M'Kenzie being rather a little alarmingly ill of sore-throat, somewhat marr'd our enjoyment. I ARRIVED here safe yesterday evening, after I shall not be in Ayrshire for four weeks. a tour of twenty-two days, and travelling near My most respectful compliments to Mrs. Ha-six hundred miles, windings included." My milton, Miss Kennedy, and Dr. M'Kenzie. I shall probably write him from some stage or other. I am ever, Sir, No. XLVIII. TO MR. WALKER, BLAIR OF MY DEAR SIR, Inverness, 5th Sept. 1787. I HAVE just time to write the foregoing, and to tell you that it was (at least most part of it), the effusion of an half hour I spent at Bruar. I do not mean it was extempore, for I have endeavoured to brush it up as well as Mr. N- -'s chat, and the jogging of the chaise, would allow. It eases my heart a good deal, as rhyme is the coin with which a poet pays his debts of honour or gratitude. What I owe to the noble family of Athole, of the first kind, I shall ever proudly boast; what I owe of the last, so help me God in my hour of need, I shall never forget. Edinburgh, 17th Sept. 1737 MY DEAR BROTHER, farthest stretch was about ten miles beyond Inverness. I went through the heart of the Highlands, by Crieff, Taymouth, the famous seat of Lord Breadalbane, down the Tay, among cascades and druidical circles of stones to Dunkeld, a seat of the Duke of Athole; thence cross Tay, and up one of his tributary streams to Blair of Athole, another of the Duke's seats, where I had the honour of spending nearly two days with his Grace and family; thence many miles through a wild country, among cliffs grey with eternal snows, and gloomy savage glens, till I crossed Spey and went down the stream through Strathspey, so famous in Scottish music, Badenoch, &c. till I reached Grant Castle, where I spent half a day with Sir James Grant and family; and then crossed the country for Fort George, but called by the way at Cawdor, the ancient seat of Macbeath; there I saw the identical bed in which, tradition says, King Duncan was murdered: lastly, from Fort George to Inverness. I returned by the coast, through Nairn, Forres, and so on, to Aberdeen; thence to Stonehive, where James Burnes, from Montrose, met me by appointment. I spent two days among our relations, and found our aunts, Jean and Isabel, still alive, and hale old women. John The little angel baad!—I declare I pray- Caird, though born the same year with our faed for them very sincerely to-day at the Fall of ther, walks as vigorously as I can; they have Fyars. I shall never forget the fine family-had several letters from his son in New York. piece I saw at Blair; the amiable, the truly William Brand is likewise a stout old fellow : noble Duchess, with her smiling little seraph but further particulars I delay till I see you, in her lap, at the head of the table; the lovely which will be in two or three weeks. The "olive plants," as the Hebrew bard finely says, rest of my stages are not worth rehearsing: round the happy mother; the beautiful Mrs. warm as I was from Ossian's country, where I G- ; the lovely, sweet Miss C. &c. I wish had seen his very grave, what cared I for fish. I had the powers of Guido to do them justice!ing towns or fertile carses? I slept at the faMy Lord Duke's kind hospitality, markedly mous Brodie of Brodie's one night, and dined kind, indeedMr G. of F. 's charms of at Gordon Castle next day with the Duke, conversation-Sir W. M's friendship-in Duchess, and family. I am thinking to cause short, the recollection of all that polite, agree-my old mare to meet me, by means of John Ronald, at Glasgow; but you shall hear farther This is the "wee curlie Johnnie," mentioned in from me before I leave Edinburgh. My duty, Burns's dedication to Gavin Hamilton, Esq. To this and many compliments from the north, to my gentleman, and every branch of the family, the Editor mother, and my brotherly compliments to the is indebted for much information respecting the poet, rest. I have been trying for a birth for Wiland very gratefully acknowledges the kindness shewn to himself. liam, but am not likely to be successful.Now married to the Rev. John Tod, Minister of Farewell. Mauchline. "The humble Petition of Bruar-Water to the Duke of Athole." No. L. FROM MR. R thing to delight the public in due time: and, no doubt, the circumstances of this little tale might be varied or extended, so as to make part of a pastoral comedy. Age or wounds might have kept Omeron at home, whilst his Ochtertyre, 22d October, 1787. 'Twas only yesterday I got Colonel Edmon-countrymen were in the field. His station stoun's answer, that neither the words of may be somewhat varied, without losing his Down the burn Davie, nor Dainty Davie (I simplicity and kindness A group forgot which you mentioned), were written by of characters, male and female, connected with Colonel G. Crawford. Next time I meet him, the plot, might be formed from his family, or I will inquire about his cousin's poetical talents. some neighbouring one of rank. It is not inEnclosed are the inscriptions you requested, dispensable that the guest should be a man of and a letter to Mr. Young, whose company and high station; nor is the political quarrel in musical talents will, I am persuaded, be a feast which he is engaged, of much importance, unto you. Nobody can give you better hints, less to call forth the exercise of generosity and as to your present plan, than he. Receive faithfulness, grafted on patriarchal hospitality. also Omeron Cameron, which seemed to make To introduce state affairs, would raise the such a deep impression on your imagination, that I am not without hopes it will beget some To improve both air and soil, 1 drain and decorate this plantation of willows, Now fondly marking the progress of my trees, And happy with my lot style above comedy; though a small spice of them would season the converse of swains. Upon this head I cannot say more than to recommend the study of the character of Eumæus in the Odyssey, which, in Mr. Pope's translation, is an exquisite and invaluable drawing from nature, that would suit some of our country elders of the present day. There must be love in the plot, and a happy discovery; and peace and pardon may be the reward of hospitality, and honest attachment to misguided principles. When you have once thought of a plot, and brought the story into form, Dr. Blacklock, or Mr. H. Mackenzie, may be useful in dividing it into acts and scenes; for in these matters one must pay some attention to certain rules of the drama. These you could afterwards fill up at your leisure. But, whilst I presume to give a few well-meant hints, let me advise you to study the spirit of my namesake's dialogue, which is natural without being low, and, under the trammels of verse, is such as country people in their situations speak every day. You have only to bring down your own strain a very litA great plan, such as this, would concenter all your ideas, which facilitates the execution, and makes it a part of one's pleasure. tle. I approve of your plan of retiring from din and dissipation to a farm of very moderate size, sufficient to find exercise for mind and body, but not so great as to absorb better things. And if some intellectual pursuit be well chosen and steadily pursued, it will be more lucrative than most farms, in this age of rapid improve ment. Upon this subject, as your well-wisher and admirer, permit me to go a step farther. Let |