Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

neglected in the printed list, which is very incorrect, are supplied at the subscription price. I was not at Glasgow, nor do I intend to go to London; and I think Mrs. Fame is very idle to tell so many lies on a poor poet. When you or Mr. Cowan write for copies, if you should want any, direct to Mr. Hill, at Mr. Creech's shop (28), and I write to Mr. Hill by this post, to answer either of your orders. Hill is Mr. Creech's first clerk, and Creech himself is presently in London. I suppose I shall have the pleasure, against your return to Paisley, of assuring you how much I am, dear Sir, your obliged, humble servant, R. B.

[blocks in formation]

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 very devil wi' me. It's true she's as poor's a sangmaker and as hard's a kirk, and tippertaipers when she taks the gate, first like a lady's gentle-woman in a minuwae, or a hen on a het girdle; but she's a yauld, poutherie girran for a' that, and has a stomach like Willie Stalker's meere, that wad hae digeested tumbler-wheels-for she'll whip me aff her five stimparts o' the best aits at a down-sittin, and ne'er fash her thumb. When ance her ringbanes and spavies, her crucks and cramps, are fairly soupl'd, she beets to, beets to, and aye the hindmost hour the tightest. I could wager her price to a threttie pennies, that for twa or three wooks ridin' at fifty mile a-day, the deil-sticket a five gallopers acqueesh Clyde and Whithorn could cast saut on her tail. (29)

I hae dander'd owre a' the kintra frae Dumbar to Selcraig, and hae forgather'd wi' mony a guid fallow, and mony a weelfar'd hizzie. I met wi' twa dink, quines in particular, ane o' them a sonsie, fine, fodgel lass -baith, braw and bonnie; the tither was a clean-shankit, straught, tight, tight, weel-far'd winch, as blythe's a lintwhite on a flowerie

[ocr errors]

thorn, and as sweet and modest's a newblawn plum-rose in a hazle shaw. They were baith bred to mainers by the benk, and onie ane o' them had as muckle smeddum and rumblegumption as the half o' some presbytries that you and I baith ken. They play'd me sick a del 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 God forgie me, I gat mysel sae noutouriously bitchify'd the day, after kail-time, that I can hardly stoiter bot and ben.

My best respecks to the guidwife and a' our common friens, especially Mr. and Mrs. Cruikshank, and the honest guidan o' Jock's Lodge.

I'll be in Dumfries the morn gif the beast be to the fore, and the branks bide hale. Guid be wi' you, Willie! Amen! R. B.

NO. LVI.

TO WILLIAM NICOL, Esq.

Auchtertyre (30), June, 1787.

MY DEAR SIR.--I find myself very comfortable here, neither oppressed by ceremony, nor mortified by neglect. Lady Augusta is a most engaging woman, and very happy in her family, which makes one's outgoings and incomings very agreeable. I called at Mr. Ramsay's of Auchtertyre (31), as I came up the country, and am so delighted with him, that I shall certainly accept of his invitation to spend a day or two with him as I return. I leave this place on Wednesday or Thursday.

Make my kind compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Cruikshank and Mrs. Nicol, if she is returned. I am ever, dear Sir, your deeply indebted R. B.

NO. LVII.

TO MR. W. NICOL,

MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, EDINBURGII.

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. I breakfasted with your grey-headed, reverend friend, Mr. Smith; and was highly pleased both with the cordial welcome he gave me, and his most excellent appearance and sterling good sense.

I have been with Mr. Miller at Dalswin

ton, and am to meet him again in August. | pliments to Mrs. Nicol, and all the circle of From my view of the lands, and his reception our common friends. of my bardship, my hopes in that business are rather mended; but still they are but slender.

I am quite charmed with Dumfries folks:Mr. Burnside, the clergyman, in particular, is a man whom I shall ever gratefully remember; and his wife-guid forgie me! I had almost broke the tenth commandment on her account. Simplicity, elegance, good sense, sweetness of disposition, good humour, kind hospitality, are the constituents of her manner and heart: in short-but if I say one word more about her, I shall be directly

in love with her.

I never, my friend, thought mankind very capable of anything generous; but the stateliness of the patricians in Edinburgh, and the civility 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 pocket Milton, which I carry perpetually about with me, in order to study the sentiments, the dauntless magnanimity, the intrepid, unyielding independence, the desperate daring, and noble defiance of hardship in that great personage, Satan. 'Tis true, I have just now a little cash; but I am afraid the star that hitherto has shed its malignant, purpose-blasting rays full in my zenith,—that noxious planet, so baneful in its influences to the rhyming tribe,-I much dread it is not yet beneath my horizon. Misfortune dodges the path of human life; the poetic mind finds itself miserably deranged in, and unfit for the walks of business; add to all, that thoughtless follies and hair-brained whims, like so many ignes futui eternally diverging from the right line of sober discretion, sparkle with step-bewitching blaze in the idly-gazing eyes of the poor heedless bard, till pop, "he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again." God grant that this may be an unreal picture with respect to me! but should it not, I have very little dependence on mankind. I will close my letter with this tribute my heart bids me pay youthe many ties of acquaintance and friendship which I have, or think I have in life, I have felt along the lines, and damn them, they are almost all of them of such frail contexture, that I am sure they would not stand the breath of the least adverse breeze of fortune; but from you, my ever dear Sir, I look with confidence for the apostolic love that shall wait on me "through good report and bad report”—the love which Solomon emphatically says "is strong as death." My com

U

P. S. I shall be in Edinburgh about the latter end of July. R. B.

NO. LVIII.

TO WILLIAM CRUIKSHANK. (32) ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, EDINBURGH. Auchtertyre, June, 1787.

I HAVE nothing, my dear Sir, to write to fortably situated in this good family—just you, but that I feel myself exceedingly comembarrass me. notice enough to make me easy but not to I was storm-staid two days at the foot of the Ochill Hills, with Mr. Tait but was so well pleased that I shall certainly of Herveyston and Mr. Johnston of Alva, spend a day on the banks of the Devon as I return. I leave this place I suppose on Wednesday, and shall devote a day to Mr. Ramsay, at Auchtertyre, near Stirling-a My respectful kind compliments to Mrs. man to whose worth I cannot do justice. Cruikshank, and my dear little Jeanie, and if you see Mr. Masterton, please remember me to him. I am ever, my dear Sir, &c.

NO. LIX.

R. B.

TO MR. JOHN RICHMOND.

Mossgiel, July 7th, 1787.

MY DEAR RICHMOND.-I am all impatience to hear of your fate since the old confounder of right and wrong has turned you out of place, by his journey to answer his indictment at the bar of the other world. He will find the practice of the court so different from the practice in which he has for so many years been thoroughly hackneyed, that his friends, if he had any connections truly of that kind, which I rather doubt, may well tremble for his sake. His chicane, his left-handed wisdom, which stood so firmly by him, to such good purpose, here, like other accomplices in robbery and plunder, will, now the piratical business is blown, in all probability turn king's evidences, and then the devil's bagpiper will. touch him off "Bundle and go."

If he has left you any legacy, I beg your pardon for all this; if not, I know you will swear to every word I said about him.

I have lately been rambling over by Dum,

barton and Inverary, and running a drunken race on the side of Loch Lomond with a wild Highlandman; his horse, which had never known the ornaments of iron or leather, zigzagged across before my old spavin'd hunter, whose name is Jenny Geddes, and down came the Highlandman, horse and all, and down came Jenny and my ladyship; so I have got such a skinful of bruises and wounds, that I shall be at least four weeks before I dare venture on my journey to Edinburgh.

Not one new thing under the sun has happened in Mauchline since you left it. I hope this will find you as comfortably situated as formerly, or, if Heaven pleases, more so; but, at all events, I trust you will let me know, of course, how matters stand with you, well or ill. 'Tis but poor consolation to tell the world when matters go wrong, but you know very well your connection and mine stands on a different footing. I am ever, my dear friend, yours, R. B.

NO. LX.

TO ROBERT AINSLIE, Esq.

Mauchline, July, 1787.

MY DEAR SIR.-My life, since I saw you last, has been one continued hurry; that savage hospitality which knocks a man down with strong liquors, is the devil. I have a sore warfare in this world; the devil, the world, and the flesh, are three formidable foes. The first I generally try to fly from; the second, alas! generally flies from me; but the third is my plague, worse than the ten plagues of Egypt.

I have been looking over several farms in this country; one in particular, in Nithsdale, pleased me so well, that, if my offer to the proprietor is accepted, I shall commence farmer at Whitsunday. If farming do not appear eligible, I shall have recourse to my other shift; but this to a friend.

I set out for Edinburgh on Monday morning; how long I stay there is uncertain, but you will know so soon as I can inform you myself. However I determine, poesy must be laid aside for some time; my mind has been vitiated with idleness, and it will take a good deal of effort to habituate it to the routine of business. I am, my dear Sir, yours sincerely, R. B.

NO. LXI.

TO ROBERT AINSLIE. (33)

Mauchline, July 23rd, 1787.

for which I set great store by you as a friend, MY DEAR AINSLIE.-There is one thing and it is this, that I have not a friend upon and it is this, that I have not a friend earth, besides yourself, to whom I can talk nonsense without forfeiting some degree of his esteem. Now, to one like me, who never cares for speaking any thing else but nonsense, such a friend as you is an invaluable treasure. I was never a rogue, but have been a fool all my life; and, in spite of all my endeavours, I see now plainly that I shall never be wise. Now it rejoices my heart to have met with such a fellow as hopeless fool as I, yet I trust you will never you, who, though you are not just such a listen so much to the temptations of the devil, as to grow so very wise that you will in the least disrespect an honest fellow be cause he is a fool. In short, I have set you down as the staff of my old age, when the whole list of my friends will, after a decent share of pity, have forgot me.

Though in the morn comes sturt and strife,
Yet joy may come at noon;

And I hope to live a merry merry life
When a' thir days are done..

Write me soon, were it but a few lines just to tell me how that good, sagacious man, your father, is-that kind dainty body your mother-that strapping chiel your brother Douglas-and my friend Rachel, who is as far before Rachel of old, as she was before her blear-eyed sister Leah.

NO. LXII.

TO MR. ROBERT MUIR.

R. B.

Stirling, August 26th, 1787. MY DEAR SIR.-I intended to have written you from Edinburgh, and now write you from Stirling to make an excuse. Here am I, on my way to Inverness, with a truly original, but very worthy man, a Mr. Nicol, one of the masters of the Highschool in Edinburgh.-I left Auld Reekie yesterday morning, and have passed, besides by-excursions, Linlithgow, Borrowstouness, Falkirk, and here am I undoubtedly. This morning I knelt at the tomb of Sir John the Graham, the gallant friend of the immortal Wallace and two hours ago I said a fervent

[ocr errors]

prayer for old Caledonia over the hole in a blue whinstone, where Robert de Bruce fixed his royal standard on the banks of Bannockburn; and just now, from Stirling Castle, I have seen by the setting sun the glorious prospect of the windings of Forth through the rich carse of Stirling, and skirting the equally rich carse of Falkirk. The crops are very strong, but so very late that there is no harvest except a ridge or two perhaps in ten miles, all the way I have travelled from Edinburgh.

I left Andrew Bruce (34) and family all well. I will be at least three weeks in making my tour, as I shall return by the coast, and have many people to call for.

My best compliments to Charles, our dear kinsman and fellow-saint; and Messrs. W. and H. Parker. I hope Hughoc (35) is going on and prospering with God and Miss M'Causlin.

[ocr errors]

If I could think on any thing sprightly, I
should let you hear every other post; but
a dull, matter-of-fact business like this
scrawl, the less and seldomer one writes the |
better.

Among other matters-of-fact I shall add
this, that I am and ever shall be, my dear
Sir, your obliged
R. B.

[ocr errors]

NO. LXIII.

TO GAVIN HAMILTON, Esq.
Stirling, August 28th, 1787.

wise; and I have the satisfaction to inform you that he is getting the better of those consumptive symptoms which I suppose you know were threatening him. His make, and particularly his manner, resemble you, but he will still have a finer face. (I put in the word still, to please Mrs. Hamilton.) Good sense, modesty, and at the same time a just idea of that respect that man owes to man, and has a right in his turn to exact, are striking features in his character; and, what with me is the Alpha and Omega, he has a heart that might adorn the breast of a poet! Grace has a good figure, and the look of health and cheerfulness, but nothing else remarkable in her person. I scarcely ever saw so striking a likeness as is between her and your little Beenie; the mouth and chin particularly. She is reserved at first; but as we grew better acquainted, I was delighted with the native frankness of her manner, and the sterling sense of her observation. Of Charlotte I cannot speak in common terms of admiration: she is not only beautiful but lovely. Her form is elegant; her features not regular, but they have the smile of sweetness and the settled complacency of good nature, in the highest degree; and her complexion, now that she has happily recovered her wonted health, is equal to Miss Burnet's. After the exercise of our riding to the Falls, Charlotte was exactly Dr. Donne's mistress:

Her pure and eloquent blood Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, That one would almost say her body thought. Her eyes are fascinating; at once expressive of good sense, tenderness, and a noble mind. (36)

MY DEAR SIR-Here am I on my way to Inverness. I have rambled over the rich, fertile carses of Falkirk and Stirling, and am delighted with their appearance: richly waving crops of wheat, barley, &c., but no I do not give you all this account, my harvest at all yet, except in one or two places good Sir, to flatter you. I mean it to rean old-wife's ridge. Yesterday morning Iproach you. Such relations the first peer in rode from this town up the meandering Devon's the realm might own with pride; then why banks, to pay my respects to some Ayrshire do you not keep up more correspondence folks at Harvieston. After breakfast, we with these so amiable young folks? I had made a party to go and see the famous a thousand questions to answer about you. Caudron-linn, a remarkable cascade in the I had to describe the little ones with the Devon, about five miles above Harvieston; minuteness of anatomy. They were highly and after spending one of the most pleasant delighted when I told them that John (37) days I ever had in my life, I returned to was so good a boy, and so fine a scholar, and Stirling in the evening. They are a family, that Willie was going on still very pretty: Sir, though I had not had any prior tie-but I have it in commission to tell her from though they had not been the brother and sisters of a certain generous friend of mineI would never forget them. I am told you have not seen them these several years, so you can have very little idea of what these young folks are now. Your brother is as tall as you are, but slender rather than other

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 Mackenzie, being rather a little alarmingly ill of a sore throat, somewhat marred our enjoyment,

[blocks in formation]

OF BLAIR ATHOLE. (38)

Inverness, September 5th, 1787.

MY DEAR SIR.-I have just time to write the foregoing (39), and to tell you that it was (at least most part of it) the effusion of a 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. Nicol'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 shail ever proudly boast-what I owe of the last, so help me God in my hour of need! I shall never forget.

The "little angel-band!" I declare I prayed for them very sincerely to-day at the Fall of Fyers. I shall never forget the fine family-piece I saw at Blair; the amiable, the truly noble duchess (40), with her smiling little seraph in her lap, at the head of the table-the lovely "olive plants," as the Hebrew bard finely says, round the happy mother-the beautiful Mrs. G-, the lovely, sweet Miss C., &c., I wish I had the powers of Guido to do them justice! My Lord Duke's kind hospitality-markedly kind indeed:-Mr. Graham of Fintry's charms of conversation-Sir W. Murray's friendship:in short, the recollection of all that polite, agreeable company, raises an honest glow in my bosom. R. B.

among cascades and Druidical circles of stones, to Dunkeld, a seat of the Duke of Athole; thence across 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 (41),-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 Macbeth; there I saw the identical bed in which tradition says king Duncan was murdered; lastly, from Fort George to In

verness.

I returned by the coast, through Nairn, Forres, and so on, to Aberdeen, thence to Stonehive (42), where James Burness, 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 Caird, though born the same year with our father, walks as vigorously as I can;-they have had several letters from his son in New York. William Brand is likewise a stout old fellow; but further particulars I delay till I see you, which will be in two or three weeks. The rest of my stages are not worth rehearsing; warm as I was from Ossian's country, where I had seen his very grave, what cared I for fishing-towns or fertile carses? I slept at the famous Brodie of Brodie's one night, and dined at Gordon Castle next day, with the duke, duchess, and family. I am thinking to cause my old mare to meet me, by means of John Ronald, at Glasgow; but you shall hear farther from me before I leave Edinburgh. My duty and many compliments from the north to my mother; and my brotherly compliments to the rest. I have been trying for a berth for William, but am not likely to be successful. Farewell. R. B.

NO. LXV.

TO MR. GILBERT BURNS. Edinburgh, 17th September, 1787.

NO. LXVI.

Sept. 26, 1787.

MY DEAR BROTHER.-I arrived here TO MISS MARGARET CHALMERS. (43) safe yesterday evening, after a tour of twenty-two days, and travelling near 600 miles, windings included. My farthest stretch was about ten miles beyond Inverness. I went through the heart of the Highlands by Crief, Taymouth, the famous seat of Lord Breadalbane, down the Tay,

I SEND Charlotte the first number of the songs; I would not wait for the second number; I hate delays in little marks of friendship, as I hate dissimulation in the language of the heart. I am determined to

« AnteriorContinuar »