T was by that name he now began to be | morning he breakfasted with a large known, just as in the next generation party at the next farmhouse, tenanted another poet of as humble birth was by James Stodart; took lunch with spoken of as the Ettrick Shepherd. some friends at the bank in Carnwith, and rode into Edinburgh that evening on the pony, which he returned to its owner, a few days afterwards, by John Samson, the brother of the immortal Tam. This is but a sample of the kind of receptions which were henceforth to await Burns wherever his coming was known. If such rejoicings were pleasing to his ambition, they must have been detrimental to his bodily and his mental well-being. The first persons of a higher order who sought the acquaintanceship of Burns were Dugald Stewart, and Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop. The former of these two was the celebrated metaphysician, one of the chief ornaments of the Edinburgh University at the close of last century. The latter continued the constant friend of Burns and his family while she lived, and nearly the last use he made of his pen was writing a short letter to this lady a few days Burns reached Edinburgh on the before his death. "Old and young, 28th of November, 1786. The one high and low, grave and gay, learned man of note there with whom he had or ignorant, were all alike delighted, any acquaintance, was Professor Duagitated, and transported by the vol- gald Stewart, whom we have already ume which Burns published. Plough- mentioned. But it was not to him, or boys and maidservants would gladly to any one of his reputation, that he bestow the wages they earned so first turned. During the whole of this hardly, and which they wanted to pur- winter, he lived with an old Mauchline chase necessary clothing, if they might friend, who was humbly lodged in procure the works of the poet." Baxter's Close, Lawmarket. He shared with this poor lad his single room and bed, for which they paid three shillings a week. It was from this lodging that the poet emerged, a little while afterwards, to go forth into the best society of the Scottish capital, and thither, after the brief hospitalities he received, he had to return. Burns now gave up the thought of going to the West Indies, and determined to set his face towards the Scottish capital, and try his fortune there; hoping that in new excitement he might obtain renown, and escape from the demons of despair and remorse which had been for many months tugging at his heart-strings. His journey from Mossgiel to Edinburgh was a triumphant progress. He rode on a pony, lent him by a friend, and as the journey took two days, his restingplace the first night was at the farmhouse of Covington Mains, in Lanarkshire, hard by the Clyde. All the farmers in the parish had read the poet's verses, and were anxious to see him. They were all asked to meet him at a late dinner, and the signal of his arrival was to be a white sheet attached to a pitchfork, and put on the top of a corn-stack in the barn-yard. When Burns came in view, the white flag was hoisted, and all the farmers were seen running from their houses, and converging to the point of meeting. A night of excitement and conviviality followed, and on the following But though Burns, for the first few days after his arrival in Edinburgh, wandered about companionless, he was not long left unbefriended. Mr. Dalrymple, of Orangefield, an Ayrshire county gentleman, introduced him to his relative, the Earl of Glencairn, who, as long as he lived, remained the poet's friend. But the fame of Burns soon spread, and within a month he had been welcomed at the houses of all the celebrities in the city. Lord Monboddo, Robertson, the historian, Dr. Hugh Blair, Dugald Stewart, Dr. Adam Ferguson, the "Man of Feeling," and many others. On the whole, the native good sense of the poet carried him well through this ordeal. As Mr. Lockhart has observed, "he showed, in the whole strain of his bearing, his belief that in the society of the most Dugald Stewart, in his cautious way, hints that Burns did not always keep to the learned circles which had welcomed him, but sometimes indulged in eminent men of his nation he was | times indiscriminate and extravagant. where he was entitled to be, hardly His wit was ready, and always imdeiguing to flatter them by exhibiting a pressed with the marks of a vigorous symptom of being flattered." All who understanding; but, to my taste, not heard him were astonished by his won- often pleasing or happy." derful powers of conversation; these impressed them, they said, even more than the genius shown in his finest poems. Mr. Walker says: "I was not much" not very select society." Tavern life struck by his first appearance. His person, though strong and well-built, and much superior to what might be expected in a ploughman, appeared to be only of the middle size, but was rather above it. His motions were firm and decided, and though without grace, were at the same time so free from clownish constraint as to show that he had not always been confined to the society of his profession. His countenance was not of that elegant cast which is most frequent among the upper ranks, but it was manly and intelligent, and marked by a thoughtful gravity which shaded at times into sternness. In his large, dark eyes the most striking index of his genius resided. They were full of mind... By the 21st of April, 1787, the ostenHe was plainly but properly dressed, sible object for which Burns had come in a style midway between the holiday to Edinburgh was attained, and the costume of a farmer, and that of the second edition of his poems appeared company with which he now asso- in a handsome octavo volume. ciated. His black hair, without pow-published by subscription, and in the der, at a time when it was generally list of the subscribers appeared the worn, was tied behind, and spread names of many of the chief men in upon his forehead. Had I met him near a seaport, I should have thought him to be the master of a merchant vessel." was then in Edinburgh, as elsewhere, more or less habitual in all classes. At these meetings all restraint was cast to the winds, and the mirth drove fast and furious. With open arms the clubs welcomed the poet to their festivities; each man proud to think that he was carousing with Robbie Burns. The poet, it is said, gave way to all his impulses, mimicking his superiors in position, who, he fancied, looked coldly upon him, paying them off by making them the butt of his raillery, letting loose all his varied powers of wit, humor, and satire, and throwing off, from time to time, snatches of licentious song, to be picked up by eager listeners. It was Scotland. Nothing equal to the patronage that Burns at this time met with had ever been seen since the days of Pope's Iliad. The proceeds from Dugald Stewart says: "Burns was this volume ultimately made him the passionately fond of the beauties of possessor of about £500, quite a little nature. The idea which his conversa- fortune for one who, as he himself contion conveyed of the powers of his fesses, had never before had £10 he mind exceeded, if possible, that which could call his own. But unfortunately, is suggested by his writings, and his the money was not paid down to him predilection for poetry was rather the without delay, and the poet was kept result of his own enthusiastic and waiting for many months for the settleimpassioned temper, than of a genius ment of his claims-months during exclusively adapted to that species of which he could not for want of cash composition. The remarks he made turn to any fixed employment, and upon the characters of men were which were, therefore, spent by him shrewd and pointed, though frequently unprofitably enough. inclining too much to sarcasm, while During the summer and autumn of his praise of those he loved was some-1787, Burns made several tours to vari set out on a long tour to the northern ous districts of Scotland, famous either only towards the family; his feeling for scenery or song, but it is note- for "bonny Jean" was far other. worthy that the scenes he visited called Having accidentally met her, his old forth no poetry, save here and there an affection revived, and they were soon allusion that occurred in some of his as intimate as of old. later songs. He visited his family at After a short time spent at Mossgiel, Mossgiel, and it is said that his mother he returned to Edinburgh. There he met him at the door of the small farm-encountered law troubles, which he house, with this only salutation, "O, speedily got rid of, and on August 25th Robbie!" She had the true Scottish reticence or reserve, but though words were not mony feck," her feelings were strong. Burns had left home, to quote the words of Lockhart, "comparatively unknown, his tenderest feelings torn and wounded by the behavior of the Armours, and so miserably poor that he had been for some weeks obliged to skulk from the sheriff's officer to avoid the payment of a paltry debt. He returned, his poetical fame established, the whole country ringing was asked by Nicol if he had read with his praise, from a capital in which Burns's poems, and which of them he he was known to have formed the won-liked best. The boy replied, “I was der and delight of the polite and much entertained by 'The Twa Dogs,' learned ; if not rich, yet with more money already than any of his kindred had ever hoped to see him possess, and with prospects of future patronage and permanent elevation in the scale of society, which might have dazzled steadier eyes than those of maternal and fraternal affection." and Death and Dr. Hornbook,' but I like best' The Cotter's Saturday Night,' although it made me greet when my father had me to read it to my mother. Burns, with a sudden start, looked at my face intently, and patting my shoulder, said, 'Well, my callant, I don't wonder at your greeting at reading the poem, it made me greet more than once when I was writing it at my father's fireside ! '"' The genius of Burns was not shown in depicting scenery alone, and for its own sake. All his really inspired descriptions of it occur as adjuncts to human incident or feeling, slips of landscape let in as a background. Again, Burns was never at his best when called upon to write for occasions on this tour, was one to Mrs. Bruce, an Though Burns's tours among the in-marking, that she had a better right to teresting districts of his native country confer the title than some people. are disappointing in their direct poetic other sentiment she pleased Burns by fruits, yet, in another way, he turned expressing in the toast she gave after them to good account. He had by that dinner, "Hooi Uncos," that is, "Away time begun to devote himself entirely strangers," a word used by shepherds to the cultivation of Scottish song. when they bid their collies drive away This was greatly encouraged by the strange sheep. Who the strangers appearance of 66 Johnson's Museum,' were may easily be guessed. a publication in which an engraver of Burns returned to Edinburgh in the that name living in Edinburgh had latter part of October, 1787, and there undertaken to make a thorough col- spent five months in a way which to any lection of all the best of the old Scot- man, much more to such a one as he, tish songs, accompanying them with could give small satisfaction. He had the best airs, and to add to these any no money to enter on the contemplated new songs of merit which he could farm, or any other regular way of life. lay hands on. Burns had supplied Probably he hoped that something him with four songs for the first volume might yet be done for him by the great of "The Museum," and the second and powerful, and that a helping hand volume was now in progress; and would be held out to lift him from henceforth the entire productive faculty poverty and obscurity. But he was of Burns was engrossed by this publi- doomed to disappointment. We hear cation and one other of the same kind. no more this winter of his meetings He employed his Highland tour in with literary professors, able advocates hearing all he could that had any bear- and judges, or fashionable women. ing on his own absorbing pursuit, and passed most of his time with jovial in collecting materials that might pro- companions, and amused himself with mote it. With this view, when on his various flirtations. Two young ladies way from Taymouth to Blair, he had he especially distinguished by his atturned aside to visit the famous fiddler tentions; their names were Margaret and composer of Scottish tunes, Neil Chalmers and Charlotte Hamilton; he Gow, at his house, which is still pointed corresponded with them both, and adout, at Tuver, on the Braan water. dressed songs of affection, if not of As the poet passed through Perth he love, now to one, now to the other. secured an introduction to the family Though they admitted him to their of Belches of Invermay, that on cross-friendship, neither of them encouraged ing the river Earn on his southward his advances. They were better" adjourney, he might be able to see the vised than to do so." Perchance they little valley, running down from the knew too much of his past history and Ochils to the Earn, which has been his character to think of him as a husconsecrated by the old and well-known band. song, "The Birds of Invermay." Just about this time Burns met with Among other visits Burns made while an accident through the upsetting of a hackney coach by a drunken driver. | by her father, the consequences of her The fall left him with a bruised limb, renewed intimacy with the poet having which confined him to his room from become apparent. Burns provided a the 7th of December till the middle of shelter for her under the roof of a February, 1787. During these weeks friend; but for a time does not appear he suffered greatly from low spirits, and to have intended doing more than this. the letters which he then wrote show Whether he regarded the original prihis discontent with himself and with vate marriage as entirely dissolved, and the world, and contain some of the looked upon himself as an unmarried gloomiest bursts of despondency which man, is not very clear. Anyhow, he he ever gave vent to, either in prose or and Clarinda, who knew all that had passed with regard to Jean Armour, seem to have thought that enough had been done for the seemingly discarded Mauchline damsel, and to have carried ou their correspondence as rapturously as ever for fully another six weeks, until the 21st of March, 1788. On that day Sylvander wrote to Clarinda a final letter, pledging himself to everlasting love, and following it by a copy of poems, beginning: — verse. While he was suffering from these miserable feelings he made the acquaintance of Mrs. M'Lehose, and a violent attachment on both sides was the consequence. This lady had been deserted by her husband, who had gone to the West Indies, leaving her in poverty and obscurity to bring up two young boys as best she might. She was "of a somewhat voluptuous style of beauty, of lively and easy manners, of a poetical fabric of mind, with some wit, and not too high a degree of refinement or delicacy — exactly the kind of woman to fascinate Burns." Fair empress of the poet's soul, presenting her with a pair of wineglasses as a parting gift. On the 24th of March he said fareFor several months he visited her well to Edinburgh, and never returned unremittingly, and entered into a cor- to it for more than a day's visit. Berespondence with her, in which he ad- fore leaving town, however, he had dressed her as Clarinda, while calling arranged three pieces of business, all himself Sylvander. These letters have bearing closely on his future life. been published separately and are well First, he had secured an appointment known. One could wish for the poet's in the Excise, through the kindness of sake they had never been preserved. "Lang Sandy Wood," the surgeon who Lockhart says: "Blended with a pro-attended him when laid up with a fusion of forced compliments and un- bruised limb; next, he had concluded real raptures, there are expressions in Burns's letters which one cannot but believe that he meant in earnest, at the moment he wrote them. Clarinda, it would seem, must have regarded Burns as a man wholly disengaged, and have looked forward to the possible removal of Mr. M'Lehose, and with him of the obstacle to a union with Burns. How far he may have really shared the same hope it is impossible to say. We only know that he used again and again language of deepest devotion, vowing to love Clarinda to death, through death, and forever!" While this correspondence was going on, Burns received the news that Jean Armour had been turned out of doors a bargain with Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, to lease his farm of Ellisland, and lastly, he had obtained a business settlement with Creech regarding the second edition of his poems. Dr. Chalmers estimates the profits that accrued to Burns from this transaction to be as nearly as possible £500. Of this sum Burns gave £180 to his brother Gilbert, who was now in pecuniary trouble. "I give myself no airs on this," he writes, "for it was mere selfishness on my part; I was conscious that the wrong scale of the balance was pretty heavily charged, and I thought that throwing a little filial and fraternal affection into the scale in my favor, might help to smooth matters at |