1

Highlander; a bargain for which I am indebted to you), in the style of our ballad-printers, 'Five Excellent New Songs.' The enclosed is nearly my newest song, and one that has cost me some pains, though that is but an equivocal mark of its excellence. Two or three others which I have by me shall do themselves the honour to wait on your after leisure: petitioners for admittance into favour must not harass the condescension of their benefactor.

You see, sir, what it is to patronise a poet. 'Tis like being a magistrate in Pettyborough; you do them the favour to preside in their council for one year, and your name bears the prefatory stigma of bailie for life.

With not the compliments, but the best wishes, the sincerest prayers of the season for you, that you may see many happy years with Mrs M'Murdo and your family-two blessings, by the by, to which your rank does not entitle you-a loving wife and fine family being almost the only good things of this life to which the farmhouse and cottage have an exclusive right-I have the honour to be, sir, your much-indebted and very humble servant,

R. BURNS.

TO PROFESSOR DUGALD STEWART.

ELLISLAND, 20th Jan. 1789. SIR-The enclosed sealed packet I sent to Edinburgh a few days after I had the happiness of meeting you in Ayrshire, but you were gone for the continent. I have now added a few more of my productions, those for which I am indebted to the Nithsdale Muses. The piece inscribed to R. G., Esq., is a copy of verses I sent Mr Graham of Fintry, accompanying a request for his assistance in a matter to me of very great moment. To that gentleman I am already doubly indebted for deeds of kindness of serious import to my dearest interests, done in a manner grateful to the delicate feelings of sensibility. This poem is a species of composition new to me; but I do not intend it shall be my last essay of the kind, as you will see by The Poet's Progress. These fragments, if my design succeed, are but a small part of the intended whole. I propose it shall be the work of my utmost exertions, ripened by years: of course I do not wish it much known. The fragment beginning 'A little, upright, pert, tart,' &c., I have not shewn to man living till I now send it 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;

1 Kilpatrick was the name of a neighbouring blacksmith. Burns alludes to a piece of Highland mutton, which somehow may have been obtained through the medium of Mr M'Murdo from this personage.

but, lest idle conjecture should pretend to point out the original, please to let it be for your single, sole inspection.

Need I make any apology for this trouble to a gentleman who has treated me with such marked benevolence and peculiar kindness; who has entered into my interests with so much zeal, and on whose critical decisions I can so fully depend? A poet as I am by trade, these decisions are to me of the last consequence. My late transient acquaintance among some of the mere rank and file of greatness, I resign with ease; but to the distinguished champions of genius and learning, I shall be ever ambitious of being known. The native genius and accurate discernment in Mr Stewart's critical strictures, the justice (iron justice, for he has no bowels of compassion for a poor poetic sinner) of Dr Gregory's remarks, and the delicacy of Professor Dalzell's taste,' I shall ever

revere.

I shall be in Edinburgh some time next month. I have the honour to be, sir, your highly obliged and very humble servant,

R. B.

We learn from the above letter to Mr Stewart, that he meditated a laborious poem, to be entitled The Poet's Progress, probably of an autobiographical nature. He enclosed various short pieces designed to form part of this poem, but none have been preserved except the following:2

A SKETCH.

A little, upright, pert, tart, tripping wight,
And still his precious self his dear delight;
Who loves his own smart shadow in the streets,
Better than e'er the fairest she he meets.
A man of fashion, too, he made his tour,
Learned vive la bagatelle, et vive l'amour ;
So travelled monkeys their grimace improve,
Polish their grin, nay, sigh for ladies' love.
Much specious lore, but little understood;
Veneering oft outshines the solid wood:
His solid sense-by inches you must tell,
But mete his cunning by the old Scotch ell;
His meddling vanity, a busy fiend,

Still making work his selfish craft must mend.

It is painful to come to the conclusion, from a remark and quotation in a subsequent letter, that this selfish, superficial wight

1 Dalzell was Professor of Greek in the Edinburgh University.

2 It is not unlikely that the lines on William Smellie, already introduced, were intended to form a part of The Poet's Progress.

was-Creech-the same 'Willie' whom he described in such affectionate terms in May 1787, and to whom he then wished 'a pow as auld's Methusalem.' The dallyings of the witty bibliopole over his accounts, his keen tenacity towards his own interests in every transaction, and the essential stinginess which lurked under a complaisant manner, had combined to disgust Burns entirely with one whom he originally looked upon as a kind patron, and a man of agreeable talents and character. I could not pretend to say to what extent there was any solid justification of the antipathy of Burns, or even to what extent our poet was prepared for a serious and open avowal of such opinions regarding his publisher. It will be seen that on a second settlement of accounts in February, Burns was satisfied with the measure of justice extended to him by the bookseller; and in May he addressed him a civil letter. Afterwards he resumed his expressions of disgust and antipathy, but again became reconciled; and this state of things existed at the time of his death. On the whole, it is probable that Creech acted too much according to his wonted instincts towards Burns, although with such a show of fairness as occasionally disarmed the poet of his resentment. If some of his old associates in the literary trade are to be credited, it was not in his nature to have treated Burns with justice. On the other hand, Dr Currie seems to have been convinced that there was no cause to blame the publisher. He says in a letter to Messrs Cadell and Davies, Dec. 30, 1797: It is true there was a difference between our high-souled poet and Mr Creech, and some of Burns's friends have a notion that Mr Creech did not use him liberally. For my own part, I have found the correspondence among Burns's papers, and I can see no proof of any ill-usage. The bard indulged occasionally in sarcasms against men of character; yet I can discover that his deliberate opinions were the result of a judgment profound and nearly unbiassed, and differing much from the effusions of his sensibility. Among the Edinburgh characters drawn by him, I think I can discover that of our friend Creech (for the names are not given at length in his Diary); and if I do not deceive myself, it is a capital likeness, and on the whole favourable." I have heard that the letters of Burns to Creechmany of them bearing intemperate charges and insinuations against the publisher-were finally submitted to Mrs Hay (Margaret

1 Manuscripts in possession of Joseph Mayer, Esq., Liverpool. We must differ with Dr Currie as to the favourableness of the sketch.

Chalmers), who exerted her influence to have them destroyed; which was done. Dr Currie, a few days after the above date, wrote to the same gentleman: 'Mr Creech informs me, that whatever little difference subsisted between Burns and him, had been made up long before the bard's death, and that he shall do everything in his power to serve the family.'

то

ELLISLAND, 22d January 1789.1

SIR-There are two things which, I believe, the blow that terminates my existence alone can destroy-my attachment and propensity to poesy, and my sense of what I owe to your goodness. There is nothing in the different situations of a Great and a Little man that vexes me more than the ease with which the one practises some virtues that to the other are extremely difficult, or perhaps wholly impracticable. A man of consequence and fashion shall richly repay a deed of kindness with a nod and a smile, or a hearty shake of the hand; while a poor fellow labours under a sense of gratitude, which, like copper coin, though it loads the bearer, is yet of small account in the currency and commerce of the world. As I have the honour, sir, to stand in the poor fellow's predicament with respect to you, will you accept of a device I have thought on to acknowledge these obligations I can never cancel? Mankind, in general, agree in testifying their devotion, their gratitude, their friendship, or their love, by presenting whatever they hold dearest. Everybody who is in the least acquainted with the character of a poet, knows that there is nothing in the world on which he sets so much [value as his verses. I have resolved, sir, from time] to time, as she may bestow her favours, to present you with the productions of my humble Muse. The enclosed are the principal of her works on the banks of the Nith. The poem inscribed to R. G., Esq., is some verses, accompanying a request, which I sent to Mr Graham of Fintry-a gentleman who has given double value to some important favours he has bestowed on me by his manner of doing them, and on whose future patronage, likewise, I must depend for matters to me of the last consequence.

I have no great faith in the boasted pretensions to intuitive propriety and unlaboured elegance. The rough material of Fine Writing is certainly the gift of Genius; but I as firmly believe that the workmanship is the united effort of Pains, Attention, and Repeated-trial. The piece addressed to Mr Graham is my first

1 Misdated in the original 1788.

2 Supplied on conjecture, to make up a blank in the original.

essay in that didactic, epistolary way; which circumstance, I hope, will bespeak your indulgence. To your friend Captain Erskine's strictures I lay claim as a relation; not, indeed, that I have the honour to be akin to the peerage, but because he is a son of Parnassus.1

I intend being in Edinburgh in four or five weeks, when I shall certainly do myself the honour of waiting on you, to testify with what respect and gratitude, &c.

This letter appears to have been addressed to some Edinburgh friend of the upper class-possibly Henry Erskine. Though written with evident effort-even the handwriting having a laboured airit contains some striking expressions, and is valuable for a repetition of the poet's just and sound opinion on what is necessary to excellence in literary composition.

On returning a newspaper which Captain Riddel had sent to him for his perusal, containing some strictures on his poetry, Burns added a note in impromptu verse, exhibiting that wonderful facility of diction which he possessed even under the greatest rhyming difficulties:

EXTEMPORE TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL,

ON RETURNING A NEWSPAPER.

ELLISLAND, Monday Evening.

Your news and review, sir, I've read through and through, sir,
With little admiring or blaming;

The papers are barren of home-news or foreign,

No murders or rapes worth the naming.

Our friends, the reviewers, those chippers and hewers,
Are judges of mortar and stone, sir;

But of meet or unmeet, in a fabric complete,
I'll boldly pronounce they are none, sir.

My goose-quill too rude is to tell all your goodness
Bestowed on your servant the poet;

Would to God I had one like a beam of the sun,
And then all the world, sir, should know it!

1 Allusion is here made to Captain Andrew Erskine, brother to the Earl of Kelly, a poet and musical amateur residing in Edinburgh.