succeeded, I don't know, but I shall be happy to have your opinion on Friday first (24th Nov.) when I intend being in Ayr. I hear of no returns from Edinburgh to Mr Aiken respecting my second edition business, so I am thinking to set out beginning of next week for the City myself. If my first poetic patron, Mr Aiken, is in town, I want to get his advice, both in my procedure and some little criticism affairs much, if business will permit you to honour me with a few minutes when I come down on Friday.-I have the honour to be, Sir, your much indebted humble Servt. ROBERT BURNS. MOSSGIEL, 20th Nov. 1786. We obtain some further insight into the prospects of Burns from a second letter of Dr Blacklock to Mr Lawrie, written on the 27th of November. 'Some time ago,' says the blind poet, 'I took the freedom of troubling you with a letter, acknowledging the favour of Mr Burns's Poems; but at that time my mind was so full of their merit, that it entirely escaped my memory to inquire how much I was indebted for it; nor was this all, for instead of sending the letter by any of the channels to which I was directed, it was conveyed by the post, as I did not know where to find them' [the aforesaid channels].* [Before Saturday last] 'a report had reached me that a second edition of the Poems was projected, consisting, according to some, of twelve, or, according to others, of five thousand copies, at the expense of the gentlemen of Ayrshire, for the author's benefit.' Dr Blacklock feels disposed to remonstrate with the Ayrshire gentlemen for proposing so large an edition, as it might too long postpone another with additions; but he would fain offer them at the same time his warmest acknowledgments for the generous concern which they discovered in favour of poetical merit, and for that exquisite taste by which it has been so warmly and justly distinguished. It has also been suggested to me,' he adds, 'that my former [letter] to you was intended for publication [prefixed to the new edition]. I have not the least recollection of what was said in that letter. It was an lamented deceased friend, Colonel Francis Cunningham (youngest son of the famous Allan), who, shortly before his death in 1875, had copied it from a lady's album in Boulogne-surMer, in which the precious holograph was enshrined.' Mr Scott Douglas adds: The poem referred to did not accompany the letter.' 'A Winter Night,' in its revised form, was included in the Edinburgh edition of 1787, and will, therefore, appear in the second volume of this work. *This is a curious trait of the past. The postage of the letter of 4th September was fourpence; and the writer deems it necessary to apologise for not sending it by some private hand or a carrier. unpremeditated effusion of pleasure and gratitude. So far, however, as I remember, there occurs to me no reason for retracting anything which it contained; yet you must grant me that it is one thing to talk to a friend, and quite another to address the public. I must therefore, if the letter is really designed to be printed, earnestly solicit you to review it, and to erase or correct anything which may appear to be careless, bombastic, or hyperbolical.' It had been thought of some consequence by Mr Lawrie that the Poems should be shown by Blacklock to Dr Blair, who might be considered as the highest tribunal of criticism then in Scotland. Dr Blacklock now tells his country friend: 'A priori, I will venture to assure you that most, if not all, of the Scots poems will fail of gaining his approbation. His taste is too highly polished, and his genius too regular in its emotions to make allowances for the sallies of a more impetuous ardour. Nor can he enter into the sentiment of Mr Pope Authors, 'tis true, may gloriously offend, And faults commit true critics dare not mend. It is a remarkable indication of the eagerness with which the Kilmarnock volume was received, that no copy could be spared for the poet's own family at Mossgiel. Burns had always been free in communicating his compositions to his mother and sisters. They now heard reports of his spreading fame without surprise, for they had long ago learned to regard him, with pride and pleasure, as an extraordinary genius. Yet it is understood that it was not till the Edinburgh edition was published in 1787 that they possessed his collected poems in print. They urged him to try his fortune in the capital. Gilbert, in particular, warmly favoured this step, and did all in his power to smooth the way for the journey. APPENDICES. િ B No. I.-BURNS'S ANCESTRY. URNS, as stated briefly in the text, was descended, through both father and mother, from small farmers. On the father's side, the family can be traced back through four generations of Kincardineshire yeomen, and there were tenant-farmers of his name on the estate of Inchbreck in that county in the middle of the sixteenth century. At the top of the poet's authentic genealogical tree stands the name of Walter Burnes, of whom nothing is known but that he died in depressed circumstances in the parish of Glenbervie, in the Mearns, before the middle of the seventeenth century. An air of mystery has been thrown round Walter Burnes by a tradition, which lingered on into the present century, that his real name was Campbell, and that he was a refugee from Argyllshire. It was thus stated by John Burness (author of Thrummy Cap'), a relative of the poet's, in a letter of date 1824, as having been communicated to him, thirty years before, by the Rev. Alexander Greig, Episcopal minister in Stonehaven, who was connected by marriage with the Burnes family, and died in 1793, at the age of 86: Walter Campbell, proprietor of a small domain in Argyllshire, named Burn-house, took part with James the Second at the Revolution, by which means he incurred the displeasure of the Duke (sic), and the whole family (who espoused the side of King William) was, much about the time of the noted massacre of Glencoe, obliged to abandon his native country, and to wander to the Lowlands as a fugitive, accompanied by his only son, Walter, then a boy; he dropped the name of Campbell, and was known by that of Burness, probably a corruption of Burn-house, the place of his birth.'* This story does not bear examination. Walter * A later and prettier version of this story is given in The Evergreen (Spring, 1895, Edinburgh, Patrick Geddes and colleagues) by Mr Alexander Carmichael, in an article on 'The Land of Lorne.' According to Mr Carmichael, Walter Campbell, son of Campbell of Bailendeor in Lorne, who was hereditary almoner to the Abbey of Airdchattan, killed about the middle of the seventeenth century a band of poets, known as the 'Strolling Burnes (there is no authority for the Burness spelling so early) and his son Walter (d. 1670) were dead long before the massacre of Glencoe (1692). It is of course possible that the author of 'Thrummy Cap' confused the Civil War with the Revolution; if so, chronology at least does not prevent the acceptance of the story. A Walter Campbell, driven from Argyllshire between 1638 and 1660, might have settled in Kincardineshire, changed his name, and have had a son who died in 1670, and a grandson born in 1655. But the tradition cannot be verified, and it lies under suspicion as an attempt to account for the origin of a name in a certain district a century after its first recorded occurrence there.* Besides the statement of Professor Stuart of Aberdeen (who was in the beginning of this century proprietor of the estate of Inchbreck, Glenbervie, on which several descendants of Walter Burnes held farms) that in 1547 lands on the estate were rented by persons named Burnes, we have the testimony of the parish register of Arbuthnot, in which, from 1635 onwards, numerous entries occur of Burnaces and Burneces. And the name of John Burnes, servitor to Sir Alexander Strachan of Thornton, knight-baronet, appears as witness to a disposition granted in 1637 by the Earl of Traquair, Treasurer of Scotland, in the name of the Scottish Exchequer: Thornton is close to Inchbreck. The genealogy of Burns on the father's side runs as follows: (I.) Walter Burnes, who died in depressed circumstances in the parish of Glenbervie, in Kincardineshire. His son, (II.) Walter Burnes, being left in indigent circumstances, learned a trade, and, living industriously and frugally, saved a little money, by which he was enabled to take the farm of Bogjorgan, in Glenbervie parish, where he lived till his death in 1670. The farm was on the estate of Inchbreck. It extended to 60 acres, Scots measure. He had a son, William, who succeeded him in his farm, and who died, probably in 1715. Walter had three other sons, two of whom settled in the parish of Benholm. In Walter's will his name is spelt (by a clerk) Burnece. Connected with William's tenancy of Bogjorgan, a document has Satirists.' Campbell was forced, in consequence, to flee from his native district. 'He crossed the river Awe at the Brander, where Macdougall and Bruce had fought a battle, and continued his course up Glenorchy and down Glenlyon among friendly clansmen, and possibly kinsmen, and after many weary wanderings to and fro, settled down in Kincardine. Bailendeor is in the near neighbourhood of Taynuilt-Bunawe. Taynuilt means burnhouse, from taigh, house, and willt, oblique form of allt, a burn, stream. Whether Walter Campbell himself ever divulged his real name in Kincardine is not known. But being from Burnhouse, he became known among his neighbours in Kincardine, as "Walter Burnhoose," shrivelling down through the years to " Burness," and in his great-great-grandson into Burns.' The practice of calling a man after his occupation, or the place where he lives or whence he came, is common throughout Scotland. Walter Campbell of Bailendeor in Lorne thus became Walter Burness of Bogjoram in Kincardine, and great-great-grandfather of Robert Burness, afterwards 'Burns.' It has often been remarked that the genius of Burns was Celtic, not Saxon. And this shrewd observation was made by those who were ignorant of the historical fact. A curious fact connected with this subject is the mention by Horace Walpole of a correspondence carried on in 1742 by John, Duke of Argyll, with the head of the House of Stuart, under the pseudonym of Burnus (so Walpole spells it). lately been discovered, which gives a very exact description of the accommodations required for a Scottish farmer at the beginning of the eighteenth century: Ane note of the biging off Bogjorgine Belonging to William Stuart heritor thereoff given up be William Burnasse present tenant of the sd. Rowm and James Burnesse late possessore of the halff thereoff upon the seventainth day of Jully 1705 years Imp [a ffyr] houss consisting off thrie couplles ffour horses two taill postes ane midle wall with ane post ffrom the ground with ane rooff two pares in the syd with ane door bandet locked and bared and with ane window off two lightes bradet bandet and snecked with ane loume all to be sufficient Item ane barne consisting of ffyve couplles four horses two taill postes ane Rooff thrie pares in the syd with ffor door locked and bandet and back door bared and steepled all to be sufficient Item ane byre consisting of four couplles two in the syd ane rooff with door and door cheikes bandet all to be sufficient It is declared be both parties that if ther be no other inventur ffound betwixt this and Whytsonday nixt 1706 yeares that this shall be ane tr[ue] inventur off the said William Burness at his removell from the said Roum In witnes beffor these witnesses Robt. Middletoun in Broombank and David Watson in Polburn wryter hereoff R. Midletone witnes Will. Stuart D. Watson wittnes and wrytr W B (III.) James Burnes (b. 1655), another son of Walter (called Birness in the Fordoun Presbytery records, 1727), became tenant first of Hawkhill, and afterwards of Bralinmuir, Inchbreck, at a rent of £300 sterling; his descendants continued to occupy the latter farm till after the beginning of the present century. He died in 1743, at the age of eighty-seven. In the time when James Burnes lived, the Highlanders still kept up their old habit of making predatory incursions into the Mearns. On one occasion,' it is recorded, 'when some catterans, as they were called, made an approach to Bralinmuir, the goodman adopted the expedient of hiding his loose cash in the nave of an old cart wheel, which usually lay in the jaw-hole before the door, to perform duty as a sort of stepping-stone. Both ends of the aperture being plugged up, and the wheel laid down, as usual, in the puddle, the catterans stepped upon it in entering the house, without the faintest suspicion of what they were treading upon.' By Margaret Falconer, James Burnes had five sons, four of whom he set up in farms. His will, in which these children are named, is the document which established beyond doubt the poet's lineage as here recorded. It was discovered, under date 28th January 1743, in the Stonehaven Sheriff Court-books, by the late John Craig Thomson, Sheriff-clerk depute there. He left 500 merks among his children. One of them, named James, his successor in the farm, was well remembered in the country. In advanced life, he married for his second wife a girl so young and inexperienced that she could not spin or |