near the family seat of the Montgomeries of | Not rustic muses such as mine, Page 40, col. 2, line 1. This and the six following stanzas appeared for the first time in the second edition. Page 40, col. 2, line 5. Barskimming, the seat of the Lord Justice Clerk. R. B. (Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee, afterwards President of the Court of Session.) Page 40, col. 2, line 11. the late Doctor, and present R. B. Page 40, col. 2, line 17. R. B. Page 42, col 2, line 16. Catrine, the seat of the second volume of Mr. Robert Chambers' Life and Works of Burns,' are printed the following additional stanzas of the Vision,' taken from a MS. in the possession of Mr. Dick, bookseller, Ayr. After the 18th stanza of printed copies. With secret throes I marked that earth, A Lindsay, race of noble worth, Where, hid behind a spreading wood, Sweet shone their high maternal blood An ancient tower to memory brought, Who' far in western' climates fought There, where a sceptred Pictish shade In colours strong: Among the rest I well could spy A diamond water; I blest that noble badge with joy After the 20th stanza, Near by arose a mansion fine, 1 Captain James Montgomery, Master of St. James' Lodge, Torbolton, to which the author has the honour to belong. R. B. With holly crowned: But th' ancient, tuneful, laurelled nine I mourned the card that fortune dealt, There nature, friendship, love, I felt, Hail! nature's pang, more strong than death! Of dying friend! Not even with life's wild devious path Your force shall end. Page 42, col. 1, line 15. This poem was first printed in the second edition of Burns' works. Page 43, col. 1, line 21. When this worthy old sportsman went out last muir-fowl season, he supposed it was to be, in Ossian's phrase, 'the last of his fields,' and expressed an ardent desire to die and be buried in the muirs. On this hint the author composed his Elegy and Epitaph. R. B. Page 43, col. 1, line 22. A certain preacher, a great favourite with the million. Vide the Ordination,' stanza ii. R. B. Page 43, col. 1, line 23. Another preacher, an equal favourite with the few, who was at that time ailing. For him, see also the 'Ordination,' stanza ix. R. B. Page 44, col. 2, line 7. This stanza does not appear in the Edinburgh edition. Page 44, col. 2, line 30. Killie is a phrase the country-folk sometimes use for the name of a certain town in the west (Kilmarnock). R. B. Page 49, col. 1, line 5. The scene of the 'Jolly Beggars' was the Change house of Poosie Nansie's in Mauchline, a favourite haunt of all kinds of vagrants. It is said that Burns witnessed the circumstances which gave rise to the poem in company with his friend James Smith. Although the most dramatic of all Burns' performances, it was not a favourite with his mother and brother, and he never seems to have thought it worthy of publication. Mr. George Thomson had heard of its existence, and in 1793 wrote the poet on the subject. Burns replied, I have forgot the cantata you allude to, as kept no copy, and, indeed, did not know of its existence; however, I remember that none of the songs pleased myself except the last, something about 'Courts for cowards were erected, Churches built to please the priest.' It was first published in Glasgow in 1801. Page 49, line 9 fr. bottom. The heights of Abraham, where Wolfe gloriously fell. Page 49, line 7 fr. bottom. El Morro, the castle which defends the entrance to the harbour of Santiago, or St. Jago, a small island near the southern shore of Cuba. It is situated on an eminence, the abutments being cut out of the limestone rock. Logan's Notes of a Tour, &c. Edinburgh, 1838. In 1762 this castle was stormed and taken by the British, after which the Havana was surrendered, with spoil to the value of three millions.' Chambers. Page 49, line 5 fr. bottom. Captain Curtis, who destroyed the Spanish floating batteries during the siege of Gibraltar. Page 49, line 3 fr. bottom. The defender of Gibraltar, George Augustus Elliot, created Lord Heathfield for his services. Page 54, line 6 fr. bottom. A winter Night' was first printed in the second edition of the Poems. Page 58, col. 1, line 23. Gilbert Burns states that the Verses to the Mouse' were composed while the author was holding the plough. Mr. Chambers relates a pleasant circumstance in relation to the event, and the poem to which it gave rise. 'John Blane, who had acted as gaudsman to Burns, and who lived sixty years afterwards, had a distinct recollection of the turning up of the mouse. Like a thoughtless youth as he was, he ran after the creature to kill it, but was checked and recalled by his master, who he observed became thereafter thoughtful and abstracted. Burns, who treated his servants with the familiarity of fellow-labourers, soon after read the poem to Blane.' The gaudsman's rush after the terrified creature may have suggested the lines: 6 'I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, Page 59, col. 1, line 13. Davie was David Sillar, a member of the Torbolton Club, and author of a volume of poems printed at kil marnock in 1789. Gilbert Burns states that the Epistle' was amongst the earliest of his brother's poems. 'It was,' he adds, 'I think, in summer, 1784, when, in the interval of harder labour, he and I were weeding in the garden (kailyard) that he repeated to me the principal part of the epistle. I believe the first idea of Robert's becoming an author was started on this occasion. I was much pleased with the epistle, and said to him I was of opinion it would bear being printed, and that it would be well received by people of taste; that I thought it at least equal, if not superior, to many of Allan Ramsay's epistles; and that the merit of these, and much other Scottish poetry, seemed to consist in the knack of the expression; but here there was a stream of interesting sentiment, and the Scotticism of the language scarcely seemed affected, but appeared to be the natural language of the poet; that, besides, there was certainly some novelty in a poet pointing out the consolations that were in store for him when he should go a-begging. Robert seemed very well pleased with my criticism, and we talked of sending it to some magazine; but as the plan afforded no opportunity of how it would take, the idea was dropped.' was Page 59, col. 1, line 37. Ramsay. R. B. Page 61, col. 1, line 1. With reference to the poem Gilbert Burns writes, It is scarcely necessary to mention that the " Lament composed on that unfortunate passage of his matrimonial history which I have mentioned in my letter to Mrs. Dunlop, after the first distraction of his feelings had a little subsided.' Page b2, line 9. Gilbert Burns, in writing of the Cotter's Saturday Night,' says, 'Robert had frequently remarked to me, that he thought there was something peculiarly venerable in the phrase. "Let us worship God," used by a decent sober head of a family introducing family worship. To this sentiment of the author the world is indebted for the "Cotter's Saturday Night." The hint of the plan and title of the poem were taken from Fergusson's "Farmer's Ingle." When Robert had not some pleasure in view in which I was not thought fit to participate, we used frequently to walk together, when the weather was favourable, on the Sunday afternoons (those precious breathing times to the labouring part of the community), and enjoyed such Sundays as would make one regret to see their number abridged. It was in one of these walks that I first had the pleasure of hearing the author repeat the "Cotter's Saturday Night." I do not recollect to have read or heard any thing by which I was more highly electrified. The fifth and sixth stanzas, and the eighteenth, thrilled with a peculiar ecstasy through my soul.' Page 62, line 2 fr. bottom. Var. Does a' his weary carking care beguile. Page bb, line 4. Pope's Windsor Forest.' R. B. Page bb, line 20. Var. 1st and 2d edition. That stream'd thro' great unhappy Wallace'' heart. Page 67, col. 1, line 21. Burns copied 'Winter, a Dirge,' into his Commonplace Book in April, 1784, and prefaced it with the following reflections, As I am what the men of the world, if they knew such a man, would call a whimsical mortal, I have various sources of pleasure and enjoyment which are in a manner peculiar to myself, or some here and there such out-of-theway person. Such is the peculiar pleasure I take in the season of winter, more than the rest of the year. This, I believe, may be partly owing to my misfortunes giving my mind a melancholy cast; but there is something even in the Mighty tempest and the hoary waste Abrupt and deep stretched on the buried earth," which raises the mind to a serious sublimity, favourable to every thing great and noble. There is scarcely any earthly object which gives me more - I do not know if I should call it pleasure - but something that exalts me, something that enraptures me than to walk in the sheltered side of a wood, or high plantation, in a cloudy winter day, and hear the stormy wind howling among the trees, and raving over the plain. It my best season for devotion: my mind is wrapt up in a kind of enthusiasm to Him who, in the pompous language of the Hebrew bard, "walks on the wings of the wind." In one of these seasons, just after a train of misfortunes, I composed the following.' is Page 67, col. 1, line 29. Dr. Young. R. B. Page 68, col. 1, line 1. Gilbert Burns writes, "Several of the poems were produced for the purpose of bringing forward some favourite sentiment of the author, He used to remark to me that he could not well conceive a more mortifying picture of human life than a man seeking work. In casting about in his mind how this sentiment might be brought forward, the elegy Man was made to Mourn' was composed. Page bo, col. 1, line 9. Burns when medi- He's canter't to anither shore. An' scarce a bellyfu' o' drummock. Then fare-you-weel, my rhymin billie! Again by passion would be led astray. If one so black with crimes dare call on Thee. For all unfit my native powers be. Page 71, col. 1, line 1. The first time,' says Gilbert Burns, Robert heard the spinnet played upon was at the house of Dr. Laurie, then minister of the parish of Loudon, now in Glasgow, having given up the parish in favour of his son. Dr. Laurie has several daughters: one of them played; the father and 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 poet, then lately introduced to the world. His mind was roused to a poetic enthusiasm, and the stanzas were left in the room where he slept.' Mr. Chambers states that the morning after the dance Burns did not make his appearance at the breakfast table at the usual hour. Dr. Laurie's son went to inquire for him, and met him on the stair. The young man asked Burns if he had slept well. 'Not well,' was the reply,' the fact is. I have been praying half the night. If you go up to my room you will find my prayer on the table." Page 72, col. 1, line 1. In Burns' memoranda the poem appears with the following sentences prefixed: 'There was a certain period of my life that my spirit was broke by repeated losses and disasters, which threatened and indeed effected, the utter ruin of my fortune. My body, too, was attacked by that most dreadful disorder, a hypochondria or confirmed melancholy. In this wretched state, the recollection of which makes me yet shudder, I hung my harp on the willow-trees, except in some lucid intervals, in one of which I composed the following.' Page 73, col. 1, line 1. This poem was addressed to Andrew Aitken, son of the poet's patron Robert Aitken, to whom the Cotter's Saturday Night' was dedicated. Mr. Chambers states that Mr. Niven of Kilbride always alleged that the epistle was originally addressed to him. Page 73, col. 2, line 8. After this line, in a copy of the poem in Burns' handwriting, the following stanza occurs: If ye hae made a step aside, Some hap mistake o'erta'en you, And ne'er o'er far demean you. And if nae mair mistakes are made This poem did not Page 75, col. 2, line 19. In the Caledonian Mercury of date 20th December, 1786, in which the 'Haggis' was printed apparently for the first time, the concluding stanza appears as follows: Ye Pow'rs wha gie us a' that's gude, An' on our board that king of food Page 75, col. 1, line 25. The dedication to Gavin Hamilton, the poet's friend and patron, did not, as might have been expected, open the volume published at Kilmarnock. It, however, finds its place in the body of the work. Page 77, col. 1, line 27. The lady' referred to in this line was, Mr. Chambers informs us, a village belle. He adds that her name was well known in Mauchline. Page 78, col. 1, line 7. This Address was written in Edinburgh in 1786. Page 79, col. 1, line 1. The Epistle to John Lapraik was produced,' says Gilbert Burns, 'exactly on the occasion described by the author. It was at one of these rockings at our house, when we had twelve or fifteen young people with their rocks, that Lapraik's song, beginning "When I upon thy bosom lean," was sung, and we were informed who was the author. Upon this Robert wrote his first epistle to Lapraik; and his second was in reply to his answer.' Page 82, col. 1, line 7. William Simpson was the schoolmaster of Ochiltree parish. Page 83, col. 2, line 7. The postscript to the foregoing epistle may be considered as a pendant to The Twa Herds,' which was making a noise in Ayrshire at the time. Page 84, col. 1, line 25. John Rankine lived at Adam-hill, in Ayrshire; he was a man of much humour, and was one of Burns' earliest friends. Page 84, col. 1, line 28. A certain humorous dream of his was then making noise in the country-side. R. B. Of this dream the substance is thus related by Allan Cunningham. Lord Kwas in the habit of calling his familiar acquaintances "brutes or "damned brutes." One day meeting Rankine, his lordship said, "Brute, are ye dumb? have ye no queer story to tell us?" "I have nae story," said Rankine, "but last night I had an odd dream." "Out with it, by all means," said the other. "A weel ye see," said Rankine, "I dreamed that I was dead, and that for keeping other than good company on earth, I was damned. When knocked at Hell-door, wha should open it but the Deil; he was in a rough humour, and said, Wha may you be, and what's your name?' 'My name,' quoth I, 'is John Rankine, and my dwelling-place was Adam-hill.' 'Gi wa' wi',' quoth Satan, 'ye canna be here; yer ane of Lord K's damned brutes — Hell's fou o' them already!'"' This sharp rebuke, it is said, polished for the future his lordship's speech, The trick alluded to in the same line, was Rankine's making tipsy one of the 'unco gude.' Page 85, col. 1, line 9. A song he had promised the author. Page 78, col. 1, line 35. 'Fair Burnet' was the daughter of Lord Monboddo. Burns' ad- Page 85, col. 1, line 29. Friar's Carse was miration for her was intense. In a letter to Mr. the estate of Captain Riddel, of Glenriddel, Chalmers in December, 1786, he describes her beautifully situated on the banks of the Nith, as the heavenly Miss Burnet, daughter to Lord near Ellisland. The Hormitage was a decorated Monboddo, at whose house I have had the cottage, which the proprietor had erected. With honour to be more than once. There has not reference to this poem, Burns wrote to Miss been anything nearly like her in all the combina-Chalmers, in September, 1788, One day, in an tions of beauty, grace, and goodness the great hermitage, on the banks of the Nith, belonging Creator has formed, since Milton's Eve on the to a gentleman in my neighbourhood, who is so first day of her existence.' On returning from good as to give me a key at pleasure, I wrote as a first visit to his Lordship's house a friend follows, supposing myself the sequestered venasked Burns what he thought of the young lady. erable inhabitant of the lonely mansion.' 'I admired God Almighty more than ever,' was the reply; Miss Burnet is the most heavenly of all his works.' Miss Burnet died of consumption in 1790, and Burns wrote a poor elegy on the occasion. Page 85, col. 1, line 34. In a copy printed in the Gentleman's Magazine the following couplet occurs here; Day how rapid in its flight! Page 85, col. 2, line 32. Var. Beneath thy morning-sun advance. Mag. Page 86, col. 1, line 11. Var. the transmission of poetic ideas, may amuse Gent.'s themselves by comparing this epitaph with Wordsworth's Poet's Epitaph. When thy shades of ev'ning close. Gent.'s Mag. The important query of their state, Page 86, col. 1, line 22. Var. ebb or flow Wert thou cottager or king, Peer or peasant? no such thing Pleasures, insects on the wing; Var. Page 86, col. 2, line 20. Make the butterflies their own. Gent.'s Mag. Page 86, col. 2, line 25. Var. Var. But thy utmost duty done. Gent's Mag. Page 86, col. 2, line 36. Quod the Bedesman on Nitheside. Gent.'s Mag. Page 86, col. 1, line 38. The subject of this ode was the widow of Richard Oswald, Esq. of Auchincruive. She died December 6, 1788. Burns himself states the cause of its composition. In January last, on my road to Ayrshire, I had to put up at Bailie Whigham'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 by 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 sink 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.' Being dead, the poor lady could hardly be held responsible for disturbing the poet's potations with his friend Bailie! ... Page 87, col. 1, line 12. In February, 1791, Burns wrote respecting this poem. 'The Elegy on Captain Henderson is a tribute to the memory of man I loved much. As almost all my righteous tenets originate from my heart, I am wonderfully pleased with the idea that I can still keep up a tender intercourse with the dearly beloved friend, or still more dearly beloved mistress, who is gone to the world of spirits.' Page 88, col. 2, line 23. Readers curious in Page 89, col. 1, line 9. Writing to Mrs. Graham, of Fintry, Burns says, 'Whether it is that the story of our Mary Queen of Scots has a peculiar effect on the feelings of a poet, or whether I have in the enclosed ballad succeeded beyond my usual poetic success, I know not; effort of my bey it has pleased me beyond a hat account I muse for a good while past; on enclose it particularly to you.' Page 90, line 1. Robert Graham, Esq. of Fintry, was one of the Commissioners of Excise. Burns met him at the house of the Duke of Athole. The Epistle' was the poet's earliest attempt in the manner of Pope. It has its merits, of course; but it lacks the fire, ease, and sweetness of his earlier epistles to Lapraik, Smith, and others. Page 91, line 3. In August, 1788, Burns sent Mrs. Dunlop sixteen lines of this epistle, which run as follows. "The following are just the first crude thoughts,' he writes, 'unhousel'd, unanointed, unanell'd! Here the muse left me.' 'Pity the tuneful muse's helpless train — Weak, timid landsmen on life's stormy main: The world were bless'd did bliss on them depend; Ah, that "the friendly e'er should want a friend!" The little fate bestows, they share as soon: Unlike sage, proverb'd wisdom's hard-wrung boon. Let prudence number o'er each sturdy son Ye wise ones, hence! ye hurt the social eye; Page 92, line 1. By a fall not from my horse, but with my horse, I have been a cripple some time.' Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, 7th February, 1791. Page 92, line 11. Var. The peopled fold thy kindly care have found, The puny wasp, victorious, guards his cell- Even silly women have defensive arts, Page 92, line 28. Var. No claws to dig, his dreaded sight to shun. No nerves olfactory, true to Mammon's fool; |