verses

PAGE 157 NOTE 178.-An allusion to one of the questions (namely What is effectual calling?") in the Catechism propounded by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, and which continues to preserve its currency throughout Scotland.

PAGE 157, NOTE 179.-A child born to the poet by a servant girl of the name of Elizabeth Paton. She grew up exceedingly like her father, and became the wife of Mr. John Bishop, overseer at Polkemmet in Linlithgowshire, and died there, Dec. 8, 1817.

PAGE 157, NOTE 180.-Tootie lived in Mauchline, and dealt in cows. The age of these animals is marked by rings on their horns, which may of course be cut and polished off, so as to cause the cow to appear younger than it is. This villainy is called sneck-drawing, and he who perpetrates it is a sneck-drawer.

PAGE 157. NOTE 181.-The airlessearnest money. (See also Glossary.)

PAGE 157, NOTE 182.-A writer in Ayr, and particular friend of the poet, Mr. Chalmers, asked Burns to write a poetic epistle in his behalf to a young lady whom he admired. Burns, who had seen the lady, but was scarcely acquainted with her, complied by penning the above.-CHAMBERS.

PAGE 185, NOTE 183.-"These verses, in "These verses, in the handwriting of Burns, are copied from a bank note, in the possession of Mr. James F. Gracie, of Dumfries. The note is of the Bank of Scotland, and is dated so far back as 1st March 1780. The lines exhibit the strong marks of the poet's vigorous pen, and are evidently an extempore effusion an extempore effusion of his characteristic feelings. They bear internal proof of their having been written at that interesting period of his life, when he was on the point of leaving the country on account of the unfavourable manner in which his proposals for marrying his 'bonny Jean' (his future wife) were at first received by her parents."-MOTHERWELL.

PAGE 138, NOTE 184.-There is some doubt as to the authenticity of these pretty lines. It has been averred upon very good authority that the manuscript in the hand writing of Robert Burns, is yet extant, and in the possession of Mr. AAt any rate, as the verses are not unworthy of the bard of Ayr, they may be accepted. They were first published at Liverpool, in a periodical called the Kaleidoscope.

wife of his fondest affections had forsaken him. From the time, and other circumstances, we may conjecture that the present alluded to was a copy of the Kilmarnock edition of poems, then newly published. The verses appeared in the Sun newspaper, April 1823. CHAM

BERS.

poet, then

PAGE 153, NOTE 186.—"The first time Robert heard the spinuet played upon, was at the house of Dr. Laurie, minister of Loudon (about October 1786). Dr. L. had several daughters-one of them played; the father and the mother led down the dance; the rest of the sisters, the brother, the poet, and the other guests, mixed in it. it was a delightful family scene for our lately introduced to the world. His mind was roused to a poetic enthusiasm, and the stanzas were left in the room where he slept."-GILBERT BURNS. Dr. Laurie was the medium through which Dr. Blacklock transmitted the letter, by which Burns was arrested on his flight to the West Indies, and induced to go to Edinburgh. letter has since been in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Balfour Graham, minister of North Berwick, who is connected with the family by marriage. Dr. Laurie, and his son, who was his successor in the pastoral charge of the parish, are both deceased.

PAGE 159, NOTE 187.-Diogenes.

This

PAGE 159, NOTE 188.-This meeting took place, October 23, 1786, at Catrine, the seat of Professor Stewart, to which Burns was now taken for the first time by Mr. Mackenzie, surgeon, Mauchline. Lord Daer, who was eldest son to Dunbar, fourth Earl of Selkirk, and had been a pupil of Mr. Stewart, was a young nobleman of the greatest promise. He had just returned from France, where he cultivated the society of some of those men who afterwards figured in the Revolution, and had contracted their sentiments. He was cut off in November, 1794, leaving the succession open to his younger brother, the late Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, distinguished by his exertions in the cause of emigration.-CHAMBERS.

PAGE 159, NOTE 189.-Major Logan, a retired military officer, still remembered in Ayrshire for his wit and humour-of which two specimens may be given. Asked by an Ayr hostess if he would have water to the glass of spirits she was bringing to him on his order, he said, with a grin, "No, I would

rather you took the water out o't." Visited Visited on his deathbed by Mr. Cuthill, one of the ministers of Ayr, who remarked that it would take fortitude to support such sufferings as he was visited with; "Ay," said the poor wit, "it would take fiftitude." At the time when the above letter was addressed to him, Major Logan lived at Parkhouse, in Ayrshire, with his mother and sister, the Miss Logan to whom Burns presented a copy of Beattie's Poems, with verses. The major was a capital violinist.

PAGE 160, NOTE 190.-With the characteristic humour with which he wrote the elegy and epitaph of Thomas Samson and his own elegy, Burns wrote this address to himself, when he anticipated his departure for the West Indies, and before the brilliant career of his reception at Edinburgh had fixed his views as to life.

PAGE 161, NOTE 191.-The haggis is a dish peculiar to Scotland, though supposed to be of French extraction. It is composed of minced offal of mutton, mixed with oatmeal and suet, and boiled in a sheep's stomach. When made in Elspa's way, with "a curn o' spice" (see the Gentle Shepherd), it is an agreeable, albeit a somewhat heavy dish, always providing that no horror be felt at the idea of its preparation. The Edinburgh Literary Journal of November 7, 1829, makes the following statement:-" About sixteen About sixteen years ago, there resided at Mauchline a Mr. Robert Morrison, cabinet-maker. He was a great crony of Burns, and it was in Mr. Morrison's house that the poet usually spent the 'mids o' the day' on Sunday. It was in this house that he wrote his celebrated Address to a Haggis, after partaking liberally of that dish, as prepared by Mrs. Morrison." The Ettrick Shepherd has, on the contrary, averred that the poem was written in the house of Mr. Andrew Bruce, Castle Hill, Edinburgh, after in like manner partaking of the dish. It was first published in the Scots Magazine for January 1787.

PAGE 162, NOTE 192.-Miss Logan, sister of Major Logan, to whom also Burns had previously addressed a poetical epistle. (See antea, page 159.)

PAGE 162, NOTE 193.-Mr. Ilay Campbell, of whom we have had several occasions to speak as the subject of complimentary allusions. He was subsequently president of the Court of Cession, and died in 1823.

PAGE 162, NOTE 194.-The Honourable Henry Erskine, whose talents as an advocate had secured him a distinguished reputation. He died in 1817.

PAGE 162, NOTE 195.-Mrs. Scott of

Wauchope, in Roxburgshire—a lady of taste and talent, and fitted to use the pencil as well as the pen-had addressed (February 1787) the lines, printed in small type, to Burns, which called forth the ensuing verses, as a reply or acknowledgment.

PAGE 163, NOTE 196.-Mr. Woods had been the friend of Fergusson. He was long a favourite actor in Edinburgh, and was him self a man of some poetical talent. He died, at his house on the Terrace, Edinburgh, December 14, 1802.

PAGE 164, NOTE 197.-The hero of Mackenzie's Man of Feeling, of which Burns always spoke in such warm terms of admiration.

PAGE 164, NOTE 198.-Written at Selkirk, May 1787, in the course of the poet's southern tour. Mr. Creech was the poet's Edinburgh publisher, and seems at this time to have been in high favour with him. Burns afterwards found reason considerably to change his feelings towards Creech, who appears to have given him much uneasiness by protracting the settlement of their ac counts. The truth is, that Mr. Creech, though a man of literary talent, great pleasautry as a companion, and the first publisher of his day, had a weakness about money matters, and could scarcely draw upon his ample funds for the liquidation of an ordinary debt, without something more than allcommon persuasives. He enjoyed high reputation as a teller of quaint stories, and lived on familiar terms with many of the literary men of his day. His house, in one of the elevated floors of a tenement in the High Street, accessible from a wretched alley called Craig's Close, was frequented in the mornings by company of that kind, to such an extent that the meeting used to be called Creech's Levee. Burns here enumerates as attending it, Dr. James Gregory, author of the Conspectus Medicinæ; Tytler, of Woodhouselee, author of the Defence of of Mary Queen of Scots; Dr. William Greenfield, professor of rhetoric in the Edinburgh University; Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling; and Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy. Mr. Creech more than once filled the chair of Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and is noted as the only person who ever saved money off the salary then attached to the office. With reference to his penurious bachelorly habits, a native caricaturist once set the town in a roar by depicting, in connection, the respective kitchens of the chief magistrates of London and Edinburgh, the former exhibiting every appearance of plenty that could be expected

in a large and munificent establishment, and the latter displaying a poor old pinched housekeeper spinning beside a narrow fireplace, where the cat was perched for warmth upon a gathering coal. Mr. Creech died in 1815, aged 70 years.-CHAMBERS.

PAGE 164, NOTE 199.-Edinburgh. PAGE 164, NOTE 200.-The Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh, of which Mr. Creech was secretary.

PAGE 165, NOTE 201.-James Hunter Blair was born at Ayr, in 1741. He pursued a successful commercial career, and became a member of the banking firm of Sir William Forbes and Co., and died on the first of July, 1787, universally esteemed.

PAGE 165, NOTE 202.-The Royal Park of Holyrood.

PAGE 165, NOTE 203.-St. Anthony's Well.

PAGE 165, NOTE 204.-St. Anthony's Chapel.

PAGE 166, NOTE 205.-"The first object of interest that occurs upon the public road after leaving Blair, is a chasm in the hill on the right hand, through which the little river Bruar falls in a series of beautiful cascades. Formerly, the falls of the Bruar were unadorned by wood; but the poet Burns, being conducted to see them (September 1787), after visiting the Duke of Athole, recommended that they should be invested with that necessary decoration. Accordingly, trees have been thickly planted along the chasm, and are now far advanced to maturity. Throughout this young forest, a walk has been cut, and a number of fantastic little grottoes erected for the conveniency of those who visit the spot. The river not only makes several distinct falls, but rushes on through a channel, whose roughness and rugged sublimity adds greatly to the merits of the scene, as an object of interest among tourists." --Picture of Scotland.

PAGE 167, NOTE 206.-Robert Dundas of Arniston, elder brother of Viscount Melville; born 1713, appointed president in 1760, and died December 13, 1787, after a short illness. Burns sent a copy of the poem to Dundas's son, afterwards Lord Advocate and Lord Chief Baron, but received no answer to it, which he greatly resented.

PAGE 168, NOTE 207.-Printer, Edinburgh-author of the Philosophy of Natural History, and member of the Scottish Antiquarian Society. He died in 1795, in the fiftyfifth year of his age.

PAGE 168, NOTE 208.-A club to which Burns and Smellie belonged, and which met in Douglas's tavern in the Anchor Close,

Edinburgh. It took its name of Crochallan Fencibles from a beautiful plaintive Highland air, Cro Chalein-literally Colin's Cattlewhich Douglas occasionally sang with much effect to his guests.

PAGE 168, NOTE 209.-William Tytler, Esq. of Woodhouselee (born 1711, died 1792), a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet, had published in 1759 "An Enquiry, Historical and Critical, into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots," in which the favourable side of her case is adopted.

PAGE 169, NOTE 210.-One of a series intended for a projected work, under the title of The Poet's Progress. These lines were sent as a specimen, accompanied by a letter, to Professor Dugald Stewart, in which it is thus noticed:-"The fragment beginning, a little, upright, pert, tart, &c., I have not shown to any man living, till I now send it to you. It forms the postulata, the axioms, the definition of a character, which, if it appear at all, shall be placed in a variety of lights. This particular part I send you, merely as a sample of my hand at portrait sketching.

PAGE 169, NOTE 211.-For more explicit particulars in respect of Miss Cruickshank, to whom these lines are addressed, the reader is referred to the notes on the song entitled the Rosebud.

PAGE 169, NOTE 212.-It is somewhat remarkable how comparatively few of the pieces written by Burns from this time forward have been addressed directly to "Clarinda," whose influence over him is so powerfully evinced in the letters (already mentioned in that portion of this volume which is devoted to the poet's correspondence), which passed between him and this fair object of admiration. In the foregoing notes to the life we have already had occasion to enter into some particulars respecting the career of Mrs. McLehose (Clarinda), and we shall have further occasion to allude to her hereafter, on which account great detail in this place would be superfluous. It should, however, be remarked that the beautiful song My Nannie's awa, and some others of the most exquisite productions of Burns, were dedicated to his passion for Clarinda, although she be not directly invoked.

PAGE 170, NOTE 213.-An early friend of Burns at Kilmarnock. These lines were written in the year 1788, at the period when Burns was commencing his household and farming career at Ellisland.

PAGE 170, NOTE 214.-The first of these sets of verses was written in June, and the second in December, 1788, with reference to

a hermitage in the grounds of Friars' Carse, near Ellisland, the seat of the poet's friend, Captain Riddel of Glenriddel.

PAGE 171, NOTE 215.-Captain Riddel had, in the course of poring over a newspaper, fallen upon some critical remarks respecting some production of Burns, and had accordingly despatched the paper to the poet, that he might have an opportunity of observing what was said of him. And it was in returning this paper that Burns accompanied it with the comical note in verse, entitled an "Extempore to Captain Riddel." PAGE 171, NOTE 216.-"The Mother's Lament was composed partly with a view to | Mrs. Fergusson of Craigdarroch, and partly to the worthy patroness of my early unknown muse, Mrs. Stewart of Afton."-BURNS.

PAGE 172, NOTE 217.-"In January last (1789), on my road to Ayrshire, I had to put up at Bailie Wigham's in Sanquhar, the only tolerable inn in the place. The frost was keen, and the grim evening and howling wind were ushering in a night of snow and drift. My horse and I were both much fatigued with the labours of the day; and, just as my friend the bailie and I were bidding defiance to the storm, over a smoking bowl, in wheels the funeral pageantry of the late Mrs. Oswald; and poor I am forced to brave all the terrors of the tempestuous night, and jade my horse-my young favourite horse, whom I had just christened Pegasus-farther on through the wildest hills and moors of Ayrshire to the next inn! The powers of poetry and prose sank under me when I would describe what I felt. Suffice it to say, that when a good fire at New Cumnock had so far recovered my frozen sinews, I sat down and wrote the enclosed ode."-BURNS. PAGE 172, NOTE 218.-Mr. James Tennant had been an early and constant friend of Robert Burns and his family, and had taken an active part in the selection of the farm of Ellisland for the poet.

PAGE 173, NOTE 219.-Mr. Cunningham mentions that the poor animal whose sufferings excited this burst of indignation on the part of the poet, was shot by a lad named James Thomson, son of a farmer near Ellisland. Burns, who was walking beside the Nith at the moment, execrated the young man, and spoke of throwing him into the

water.

PAGE 174, NOTE 220.-At the period at which this biting and well-directed rebuke from the pen of Burns appeared, the neighbourhood, and, in fact, the whole Scottish Kirk was agitated by the most violent controversy, and the Ecclesiastical Courts were

engrossed with the persecution vindictively instituted against Dr. William McGill. This was about the month of August, 1789. The original ground of this controversy, in which Dr. McGill was now figuring, was this:-In 1786 he had published a treatise, entitled, A Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ, in two Parts-I. Containing the History-2. The Doctrine of his Death. Dr. McGill was at that time one of the ministers of the parochial church of Ayr, and his treatise was alleged to be fraught with Arian and Socinian doctrines, which were deemed injurious to the interests of the clergy. Dr. McGill thus became the butt of many attacks levelled, partly at his person and character, and partly at his work; but he took little or no notice of any of these sallies, until a minister, who had hitherto been a warm and personal friend, became his most bitter assailant. This was Dr. William Peebles, of Newton-upon-Ayr, who in his centenary sermon, preached on the 5th of November, 1788, gratuitously denounced the treatise as heretical, and Dr. McGill as a person "who with one hand received the privileges of the church, while with the other he was endeavouring to plunge the keenest poignard into her heart." McGill published a defence, which led, in April, 1789, to the introduction of the case into the presbyterial court of Ayr, and subsequently into that of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Meanwhile, the public out of doors was agitating the question with the keenest interest, and the strife of the liberal and zealous parties in the church had reached a painful extreme. It was now that Burns took up the pen in behalf of McGill, whom, it is probable, he sincerely looked on as a worthy and enlightened person suffering an unworthy persecution. The war raged, till, in April 1790, the case came on for trial before the Synod, when McGill stopped further procedure, by giving in a document, expressive of his deep regret for the disquiet he had occasioned, explaining the challenged passages of his book, and declaring his adherence to the standards of the church on the points of doctrine in question. Dr. McGill died March 30th, 1807, at the age of seventy-six, and in the forty-sixth year of his ministry.—Abridged from Murray's Literary History of Gallo

way.

PAGE 174, NOTE 221.-Dr. McGill.

PAGE 174, NOTE 222.-Upon the commencement of the proceedings against Dr. McGill before the Synod, the municipal authorities of Ayr published a testimonial in the newspapers, averring their high esteem

for the defendant, both as a man and a minister.

PAGE 174, NOTE 223.-Mr. John Ballantine, the Provost of the town of Ayr, who had taken an active part in the demonstration in favour of Dr. McGill.

PAGE 174, NOTE 224.-It was by Mr. Robert Aiken (the lawyer, the friend of Burns, and he to whom the "Cotters' Saturday Night" is dedicated) that Dr. Mc Gill was defended before the Synod. Mr. Aiken, as we have before had occasion to remark, was not a little distinguished for his eloquence as an advocate.

PAGE 174, NOTE 225.-Dr. William Dalrymple, as remarkable for his humble, modest demeanour, as for his superior talents and worth. He was senior minister to the collegiate church of Ayr.

PAGE 174, NOTE 226.—John Russell, the preacher, who also figures in the Holy Fair. PAGE 174, NOTE 227.-The Rev. James McKin, who figures as the hero of the Ordination.

PAGE 174, NOTE 228.-Alexander Moodie, the minister of Riccarton, who figures also in the Twa Herds.

any chance, in the right way. Notwithstanding the antipathy he could scarcely help feeling towards Burns, one of the poets'. comic verses would make him laugh heartily, and confess that, "after all, he was a droll fellow."-CHAMBERS.

PAGE 174, NOTE 235.—Rev. Mr. Stephen Young, of Barr.

PAGE 174, NOTE 236.-Rev. Mr. George Smith, of Galston. This gentleman is praised as friendly to common sense in the Holy Fair. The offence which was taken at that praise probably embittered the poet against hita.

PAGE 174, NOTE 237.-Mr. John Shepherd, of Muirkirk. The statistical account of Muirkirk contributed by this gentleman to Sir John Sinclair's work, is above the average in intelligence, and very agreeably written. He had, however, an unfortunate habit of saying rude things, which he mistook for wit, and thus laid himself open to Burns's satire..

PAGE 174, NOTE 238.-The poor elder,. William Fisher, whom Burns has so often. scourged.

PAGE 174, NOTE 230.-The clerk was Mr. Gavin Hamilton, whose defence against the charges preferred by Mr. Auld, had occasioned much trouble to this clergyman. PAGE 174, NOTE 231.-Mr. Grant, of Ochiltree.

PAGE 174, NOTE 232.-Mr. Young, of Cumnock.

PAGE 174, NOTE 233.-The Rev. Dr. Peebles. He had excited some ridicule by a line in a poem on the Centenary of the Revolution:

'And bound in Liberty's endearing chain." The poetry of this gentleman is said to have been indifferent. He translated the Davidies of Cowley, which some of his brethren, not exactly understanding what was meant, took the liberty of calling Dr. Peebles' “Daft Ideas."-CHAMBERS.

PAGE 174, NOTE 234.-"Dr. Andrew Mitchell, Monkton. He was so rich as to be able to keep his carriage. Extreme love of money, and a strange confusion of ideas, characterised this presbyter. In his prayer for the royal family, he would express himself thus: "Bless the King- his Majesty the Queen-her Majesty the Prince of Wales." The word chemistry he pronounced in three different ways-hemistry, shemistry, and tchemistry-but never, by

K K

in 1807.

PAGE 175, NOTE 240.-Waited for.

PAGE 175, NOTE 241.-This small piece,. which was an imitation, was forwarded to the Star Newspaper for publication in the month of May, 1789; and it was in recompense for this contribution, that Burns was put on the free list, and supplied with the paper gratuitously, which, however, he received very irregularly. In allusion to the very uncertain manner in which the paper was delivered to him, he addressed the subjoined lines, on one occasion, to the pub lisher :

Dear Peter, dear Peter,
We poor sons of metre
Are often negleckit, ye ken;

For instance, your sheet, man,
Though glad I'm to see't man,
I get it no ane day in ten.

PAGE 175, NOTE 242.-"Mrs. Dunlop, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Wallace, of Craigie, and at this time widow of John Dunlop, of Dunlop, in Ayrshire, and resident at the last mentioned place, became acquainted with Burns on the publication of his poems at Kilmarnock, and was ever after his steady friend. She was a woman of excellent understanding and heart, with a considerable taste for elegant literature. She died in 1815, at the age of eighty-four.