lately turned up in Dumfries. The first is a letter to Mr David Newall, writer in that town, who was factor on the Dalswinton estate it refers to the forming of a drain, which it would appear that Burns and his landlord were to pay in common; and short as it is, and relating to a matter so commonplace, the character of the writer nevertheless peeps out : DR SIR-Enclosed is a state of the account between you and me and James Halliday respecting the drain. I have stated it at 20d. per rood, as, in fact, even at that they have not the wages they ought to have had, and I cannot for the soul of me see a poor devil a loser at my hand. Humanity, I hope, as well as Charity, will cover a multitude of sins; a mantle of which-between you and me I have some little need. I am, sir, yours, R. B. Enclosed in this letter is an account in Burns's handwriting between himself and D. Halliday, inferring a debit of £10, 17s. 3d. for wages and the building of a yard-dike, and a credit of £11, 1s. 6d., composed of so much in cash, so much in meal and cheese, and certain other sums paid for Halliday. This account does not appear to be that referred to in the letter to Mr Newall: it seems to be merely a memorandum of the state of D. Halliday's wages at the Martinmas term. It contains, however, equally characteristic matter, for the poet makes an error of summation to the extent of 5s. in Halliday's favour, and overpays him 4s. 3d. besides. As to this 'poor devil,' too, he took special care that he 'should not be a loser at his hand.' His friend, Mr Ramsay of Ochtertyre, paid him a visit in the course of a tour this summer or autumn, in company with the Rev. Mr Stewart of Luss. To quote a letter of Mr Ramsay to Dr Currie : 'Seeing him pass quickly near Closeburn, I said to my companion: "That is Burns." On coming to the inn, the ostler told us he would be back in a few hours to grant permits; that where he met with anything scizable, he was no better than any other gauger: in everything else, that he was perfectly a gentleman. After leaving a note to be delivered to him on his return, I proceeded to his house, being curious to see his Jean, &c. I was much pleased with his uxor Sabina qualis,' and the poet's modest The classical associations of Mr Ramsay would naturally carry his mind on this occasion to "Quòd si pudica mulier in partem juvet Domum atque dulces liberos (Sabina qualis, aut perusta solibus Pernicis uxor Appuli),' &c. Hor. v. Od. 2. mansion, so unlike the habitation of ordinary rustics. In the evening he suddenly bounced in upon us, and said, as he entered: "I come, to use the words of Shakspeare, stewed in haste." In fact, he had ridden incredibly fast after receiving my note. We fell into conversation directly, and soon got into the mare magnum of poetry. He told me that he had now gotten a story for a drama, which he was to call Rob Macquechan's Elshon, from a popular story of Robert Bruce being defeated on the water of Cairn, when the heel of his boot having loosened in his flight, he applied to Robert Macquechan to fit it, who, to make sure, ran his awl nine inches up the king's heel. We were now going on at a great rate, when Mr S [tewart] popped in his head, which put a stop to our discourse, which had become very interesting. Yet in a little while it was resumed; and such was the force and versatility of the bard's genius, that he made the tears run down Mr S[tewart]'s cheeks, albeit unused to the poetic strain. *** From that time we met no more, and I was grieved at the reports of him afterwards. Poor Burns! we shall hardly ever see his like again. He was, in truth, a sort of comet in literature, irregular in its motions, which did not do good proportioned to the blaze of light it displayed.' If this was a laborious, it was also a hopeful time with Burns. He had only as yet been a twelvemonth in the service of the revenue, and already, by the kind interest of Mr Graham, his promotion to a supervisorship, inferring an income of £200 a year, was contemplated. So bright, indeed, were the prospects of the poet, that Nicol affected, or perhaps scarcely affected, to dread his forgetting his old friends, as appears from a characteristic letter of his to Mr Robert Ainslie, dated August 13, 1790: 'As to Burns, poor folks like you and I must resign all thoughts of future correspondence with him. To the pride of applauded genius is now superadded the pride of office. He was lately raised to the dignity of an Examiner of Excise, which is a step preparative to attaining that of a supervisor. Therefore we can expect no less than that his language will become perfectly Horatian-" odi profanum vulgus et arceo." However, I will see him in a fortnight hence; and if I find that Beelzebub has inflated his heart like a bladder with pride, and given it the fullest distension that vanity can effect, you and I will burn him in effigy, and write a satire, as bitter as gall and wormwood, against government for employing its enemies, like Lord North, to effect its purposes. This will be taking all the revenge in our power.' By rating Burns as an enemy of the government, Nicol could only refer to his predilection for the cause of the Stuarts. In no other respect had Burns as yet become liable even to the suspicion of a hostility to the existing powers. In the autumn of 1790, Dr James Anderson, an agricultural and miscellaneous writer of merit, planned a small periodical work of an entertaining and instructive character, to be entitled The Bee. It commenced in December of this year, and was continued till January 1794, when it formed eighteen duodecimo volumes. Dr Anderson appears to have secured the good-natured interest of Dr Blacklock in behalf of his undertaking, and the blind poet is found in September to have addressed a playful poetical letter to Burns, entreating him to become a contributor: TO MR ROBERT BURNS. EDINBURGH, 1st September [1790.] How does my dear friend, much I languish to hear, The Bee, which sucks honey from every gay bloom, Now with kind gratulations 'tis time to conclude, But I, feeble I, must to Nature give way; From verses though languid my thoughts must unbend, THOMAS BLACKLOCK. A fragment of a letter of Burns to Dr Anderson, which Cromek recovered, evidently refers to this application: TO DR ANDERSON. SIR-I am much indebted to my worthy friend Dr Blacklock, for introducing me to a gentleman of Dr Anderson's celebrity; but when you do me the honour to ask my assistance in your proposed publication, alas! sir, you might as well think to cheapen a little honesty at the sign of an advocate's wig, or humility under the Geneva band. I am a miserable hurried devil, worn to the marrow in the friction of holding the noses of the poor publicans to the grindstone of the Excise! and, like Milton's Satan, for private reasons, am forced To do what yet though damned I would abhor -and, except a couplet or two of honest execration *** R. B.1 We have already seen a little of the correspondence between Burns and his youngest brother William, and of the substantial kindness shewn by the former to a youth in a manner thrown upon his care by the death of their father. The young man died in London in September 1790, and the expense of his last illness and funeral appears to have been promptly discharged by the poet, as the receipt for it is dated 8th October. It chances that some documents, evidencing the promptitude and exactness of Burns as a servant of the government, have been preserved and recently brought to light. The first is a petition of T. J., farmer at Mirecleugh, addressed to the justices of peace for Dumfriesshire, reclaiming against a fine of £5 which Collector Mitchell had imposed on him for 'making fifty-four bushels of malt, without entry, notice, or licence.' 1 This little piece of business is here for the first time put into proper order. By Dr Currie the versified epistle of Blacklock was published nakedly, with the date 1789. As it is, nevertheless, in the place it should have occupied if dated 1790, and as December 1790 is the date of the commencement of The Bee, I have no doubt that '1789' is one of the many chronological errors and misprints of Currie. The fragment of Burns's letter is printed by Cromek under 1794, and by Allan Cunningham is supposed to be addressed to Dr Robert Anderson, the early patron of Thomas Campbell, and editor of the British Poets. These editors had alike failed to observe the palpable relation of the one letter to the other. J. stated that he had been in the habit of making malt for forty years without making entry of his kiln or pond, which he deemed unnecessary, because the malting was always effected at one operation, and not till notice had been given to the proper officer. With respect to notice' on this occasion-having inquired of Mr Burns which was the best way of sending it to him, he had been informed that a letter might be sent to 'John Kelloch's,' in Thornhill, whence it might be forwarded by post. He had brought Mrs Kelloch to swear that such a letter had been sent to her by J.'s son for Mr Burns, but had been mislaid. He offered to swear that he had sent the notice to Thornhill in good time, and had had no intention to defraud the revenue. With respect to 'licence,' J. averred that he had only been prevented from renewing it as usual this year because Mr Mitchell, on his applying for it, had put him off to another time, on the score of being too busy at the time to grant it to him. In respect of J.'s petition, the justices, Mr Fergusson of Craigdarroch, and Captain Riddel, ordered the collector to stop proceedings until they should have had an opportunity of inquiring into the truth of what it set forth. Then came Burns's 'ANSWERS TO THE PETITION OF T. J. 1. Whether the petitioner has been in use formerly to malt all his grain at one operation, is foreign to the purpose: this last season he certainly malted his crop at four or five operations; but be that as it may, Mr J. ought to have known that by express act of parliament no malt, however small the quantity, can be legally manufactured until previous entry be made in writing of all the ponds, barns, floors, &c., so as to be used before the grain can be put to steep. In the Excise entry-books for the division, there is not a syllable of T. J.'s name for a number of years bygone. 2. True it is that Mr Burns, on his first ride, in answer to Mr J.'s question anent the conveying of the notices, among other ways pointed out the sending it by post as the most eligible method, but at the same time added this express clause, and to which Mr Burns is willing to make faith: "At the same time, remember, Mr J., that the notice is at your risk until it reach me!" Further, when Mr Burns came to the petitioner's kiln, there was a servant belonging to Mr J. ploughing at a very considerable distance from the kiln, who left his plough and three |