Page images
PDF
EPUB

day,' is fatiguing to English ears, and I should think not very agreeable to Scottish.

"All the fine satire and humour of your Holy Fair is lost on the English; yet, without more trouble to yourself, you could have conveyed the whole to them. The same is true of some of your other poems. In your Epistle to James Smith, the stanzas from that beginning with this line, 'This life, so far's I understand," to that which ends with, Short while it grieves,' are easy, flowing, gaily philosophical, and of Horatian elegancethe language is English, with a few Scottish words, and some of those so harmonious, as to add to the beauty; for what poet would not prefer gloaming to twilight.

“I imagine, that by carefully keeping, and occasionally polishing and correcting those verses, which the Muse dictates, you will, within a year or two, have another volume as large as the first, ready for the press; and this without diverting you from every proper attention to the study and practice of husbandry, in which I understand you are very learned, and which I fancy you will choose to adhere to as a wife, while poetry amuses you from time to time as a mistress. The former, like a prudent wife, must not shew ill humour, although you retain a sneaking kindness to this agreeable gipsey, and pay her occasional visits, which in no manner alienates your heart from your lawful spouse, but tends, on the contrary, to promote her interest."

The poetic Epistle from Miss Janet Little was ushered in by the following account of herself :

"SIR,

"Loudon House, 12th July, 1789.

"THOUGH I have not the happiness of being personally acquainted with you, yet amongst the number of those who have read and admired your publications, may I

be permitted to trouble you with this. You must know, Sir, I am somewhat in love with the Muses, though I cannot boast of any favors they have deigned to confer upon me as yet; my situation in life has been very much against me as to that. I have spent some years in and about Ecclefechan, (where my parents reside) in the station of a servant, and am now come to Loudon House, at present possessed by Mrs. H- : she is daughter to Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop, whom I understand you are particularly acquainted with. As I had the pleasure of perusing your poems, I felt a partiality for the author, which I should not have experienced had you been in a more dignified station. I wrote a few verses of address to you, which I did not then think of ever presenting; but as fortune seems to have favored me in this, by bringing me into a family, by whom you are well known, and much esteemed, and where perhaps I may have an opportunity of seeing you; I shall, in hopes of your future friendship, take the liberty to transcribe them.

[blocks in formation]

There are nine other verses-some worse, none better than these. The Milkmaid had little of the Ploughman's inspiration.-ED.]

SIR,

No. CLV.

TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL,

CARSE.

Ellisland, 16th Oct. 1789.

BIG with the idea of this important day at Friars Carse, I have watched the elements and skies in the full persuasion that they would announce it to the astonished world by some phenomena of terrific portent. Yesternight until a very late hour did I wait with anxious horror, for the appearance of some Comet firing half the sky; or aerial armies of sanguinary Scandinavians, darting athwart the startled heavens, rapid as the ragged lightning, and horrid as those convulsions of nature that bury nations.

The elements, however, seem to take the matter very quietly they did not even usher in this morning with triple suns and a shower of blood, symbolical of the three potent heroes, and the mighty claret-shed of the day.-For me, as Thomson in his Winter says of the storm-I shall "Hear astonished, and astonished sing"

The whistle and the man; I sing

The man that won the whistle, &c.
Here are we met, three merry boys,
Three merry boys 1 trow are we;
And mony a night we've merry been,
And mony mae we hope to be.

Wha first shall rise to gang awa,

A cuckold coward loun is he:
Wha last beside his chair shall fa'

He is the king amang us three,

To leave the heights of Parnassus and come to the humble vale of prose.-I have some misgivings that I take too much upon me, when I request you to get your guest, Sir Robert Lowrie, to frank the two enclosed covers for me, the one of them, to Sir William Cunningham, of Robertland, Bart. at Kilmarnock,-the other, to Mr. Allan Masterton, Writing-Master, Edinburgh. The first has a kindred claim on Sir Robert, as being a brother Baronet, and likewise a keen Foxite; the other is one of the worthiest men in the world, and a man of real genius; so, allow me to say, he has a fraternal claim on you. I want them franked for to-morrow, as I cannot get them to the post tonight.-I shall send a servant again for them in the evening. Wishing that your head may be crowned with laurels to-night, and free from aches to-morrow,

I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your deeply indebted humble Servant,

R. B.

[The bard seems to have prepared himself for celebrating a contest which did not take place for a year afterwards. The whistle was contended for 16th Oct. 1790: the successful competitor, Fergusson, of Craigdarroch, was killed by a fall from his horse, many years after this jovial contest; he excelled in ready eloquence, and loved witty company.-ED.]

No. CLVI.

TO CAPTAIN RIDDEL.

SIR,

Ellisland, 1789.

I WISH from my inmost soul it were in my power to give you a more substantial gratification and return for all the goodness to the poet, than transscribing a few of his idle rhymes.However," an old song," though to a proverb an instance of insignificance, is generally the only coin a poet has to pay with.

If my poems which I have transcribed, and mean still to transcribe into your book, were equal to the grateful respect and high esteem I bear for the gentleman to whom I present them, they would be the finest poems in the language. As they are, they will at least be a testimony with what sincerity I have the honour to be,

Sir,

[ocr errors]

Your devoted humble Servant,

R. B.

« PreviousContinue »