It took upo' the wifie's heart, and she began to spew, And co' the wee wifeikie, I wish a binna fou, I have heard of another new composition, by a young ploughman of my acquaintance, that I am vastly pleased with, to the tune of The humours of Glen, which I fear won't do, as the music, I am told, is of Irish original. I have mentioned these, such as they are, to shew my readiness to oblige you, and to contribute my mite, if I could, to the patriotic work you have in hand, and which I wish all success to. You have only to notify your mind, and what you want of the above shall be sent you. Mean time, while you are thus publicly, I may say, employed, do not sheath your own proper and piercing weapon. From what I have seen of yours already, I am inclined to hope for much good. One lesson of virtue and morality delivered in your amusing stile, and from such as you, will operate more than dozens would do from such as me, who shall be told it is our employment, and be never more minded. Whereas from a pén like yours, as being one of the many, what comes will be admired. Admiration will produce regard, and regard will leave an impression, especially when example goes along. Now binna saying I'm ill bred, Maun ay be harland in their trade, And sae maun I. Wishing you from my poet-pen, all success, and in my other character, all happiness and heavenly direction, I remain, with esteem, Your sincere friend, JOHN SKINNER. Sir, No. XXXVI. From Mrs. ******* K******** Castle, 30th November, 1787. I hope you will do me the justice to believe, that it was no defect in gratitude for your pune. tual performance of your parting promise, that has made me so long in acknowledging it, but merely the difficulty I had in getting the Highland songs you wished to have, accurately noted; they are at last inclosed; but how shall I convey along with them those graces they acquired from the melodious voice of one the fair spirits of the hill of Kildrummie! These I must leave to your ima gination to supply. It has powers sufficient to transport you to her side, to recall her accents, and to make them still vibrate in the ears of me. mory. To her I am indebted for getting the inelosed notes. They are clothed with "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn." These, however, being in an unknown tongue to you, you must again have recourse to that fertile imagination of yours to interpret them, and suppose a lover's de scription of the beauties of an adored mistresswhy did I say unknown? The language of love is an universal one, that seems to have escaped the confusion of Babel, and to be understood by all nations. I rejoice to find that you were pleased with so many things, persons, and places in your northern tour, because it leads me to hope you may be induced to revisit them again. That the old castle of K*******k, and its inhabitants, were amongst these, adds to my satisfaction. I am even vain enough to admit your very flattering application of the line of Addison's; at any rate allow me to believe that "friendship will maintain the ground she has occupied," in both our hearts, in spite of absence, and that when we do meet, it will be as acquaintance of a score of years standing; and on this footing consider me as interested in the future course of your fame so splendidly commenced.Any communications of the progress of your muse will be received with great gratitude, and the fire of your genius will have power to warm, even us, frozen sisters of the north. The friends of K*******k and K*******e unite in cordial regards to you. When you incline to figure either in your idea, suppose some of us reading your poems, and some of us singing your songs, and my little Hugh looking at your picture, and you'll seldom be wrong. We remember Mr. N. with as much good will as we can do any body, who hurried Mr. Burns from us. Farewell, sir; I can only contribute the widow's mite to the esteem and admiration excited by your merits and genius, but this I give as she did, with all my heart-being sincerely yours, E. B. No. XXXVII. To the EARL OF GLENCAIRN. My lord, I know your lordship will disapprove of my ideas in a request I am going to make to you, but I have weighed, long and seriously weighed my situation, my hopes and turn of mind, and am fully fixed to my scheme if I can possibly effectuate it. I wish to get into the excise; I am told that your lordship's interest will easily procure me the grant from the commissioners; and your lordship's patronage and goodness, which have already rescued me from obscurity, wretchedness, and exile, embolden me to ask that interest. You have likewise put it in my power to save the little tie of home that sheltered an aged mother, two brothers, and three sisters, from destruction. There, my lord, you have bound me over to the highest gratitude. Vol. II. D My brother's farm is but a wretched lease, but I think he will probably weather out the remaining seven years of it; and after the assistance which I have given and will give him, to keep the family together, I think, by my guess, I shall have rather better than two hundred pounds, and instead of seeking what is almost impossible at present to find, a farm that I can certainly live by, with so small a stock, I shall lodge this sum in a banking house, a sacred deposit, excepting only the calls of uncommon distress or necessitous old age: These, my lord, are my views: I have resolved from the maturest deliberation; and now I am fixed I shall leave no stone unturned to carry my resolve into execution. Your lordship's patronage is the strength of my hopes; nor have I yet applied to any body else. Indeed my heart sinks within me at the idea of applying to any other of the great who have honoured me with their countenance. I am ill qualified to dog the heels of greatness with the impertinence of solicitation, and tremble nearly as much at the thought of the cold promise as the cold denial; but to your lordship I have not only the honour, the comfort, but the pleasure of being Your lordship's much obliged And deeply indebted humble servant. Dear sir, Of ORANGEFIELD. Edinburgh, 1787. I suppose the devil is so elated with his success with you, that he is determined by a coup de main to complete his purposes on you all at once, in making you a poet. I broke open the letter you sent me; hummed over the rhymes; and, as I saw they were extempore, said to myself they were very well but when I saw at the bottom a name that I shall ever value with grateful respect, "I gapit wide but naething spak." I was nearly as much struck as the friends of Job, of afflictionbearing memory, when they sat down with him seven days and seven nights, and spake not a word. I am naturally of a superstitious east, and as soon as my wonder-scared imagination regained its consciousness, and resumed its functions, I cast about what this mania of yours might portend. My foreboding ideas had the wide stretch of possibility; and several events, great in their magnitude, and important in their consequences, occur red to my faney. The downfall of the conclave, or the crushing of the cork rumps; a ducal coronet to lord George G, and the protestant interest; or St. Peter's keys to ** You want to know how I come on. I am just in statu quo, or, not to insult a gentleman with my Latin, in "auld use and wont." The noble earl of Glencairn took me by the hand to-day, and interested himself in my concerns, with a goodness like that benevolent being, whose image he so richly bears. He is a stronger proof of the immortality of the soul, than any that philosophy ever produced. A mind like his can never die. Let the worshipful squire, H. L. or the reverend Mass J. M. go into their primitive nothing. At best they are but ill digested lumps of chaos, only one of them strongly tinged with bituminous particles and sulphureous effluvia. But my noble patron, eternal as the heroic swell of magnanimity, and the generous throb of benevolence, shall look on with princely eye at "the war of elements, the wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." |