dantly proved, but here he drops into a bombastic imitation of the eighteenth-century ode. The motive is genuine, but both sentiment and language are yeasty. The Scotch portion is as strong, beautiful, and true descriptive writing as he ever produced. The opening description is modeled on Fergusson's Daft Days.

118 25. you: anticipated from 'you' in 1. 30. Forces are meant. Blow, blow: paraphrased from the song in As You Like It:

118 37.

119 44.

'Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude,' etc.

The three stilted strophes in irregular metre which follow are in the mood of Man was Made to Mourn. The return to common sense in 'I heard,' etc., is as happy as it is natural.

120 93-96. This furnished Coleridge with the closing thought of the Ancient Mariner,

'He prayeth best who loveth best,' etc.

On the 28th of November Burns entered Edinburgh and took up his abode in a poor lodging. His fame had preceded him. His acquaintance with Professor Stewart almost immediately gave him entrée to the world of letters. Another of the Ayrshire gentry introduced him to the Earl of Glencairn, who immediately led him into the world of fashion. In a few weeks his wonderful personality had brought the whole capital to his feet. Presently Henry Mackenzie (author of the Man of Feeling) announced in the Lounger the rise of a new poetic genius; Lord Glencairn introduced him to the favor of Creech, the publisher; the gentlemen of the Caledonian Hunt took up the subscription list, and the financial success of a new edition was assured. Meanwhile the poet collected material hitherto unpublished and produced some new work.

TO A HAGGIS (1786, December).

On December 20 it appeared in the Caledonian Mercury, a longestablished Scottish newspaper, though not the first by a century.

A Haggis is a peculiarly Scottish dish, consisting of a mixture of oatmeal, chopped meat, suet, and seasoning, boiled in the stomach of a sheep; the chopped meat is usually the vitals of the same animal. Allan Cunningham comments: 'The vehement nationality of this poem is but a small part of its merit. The haggis of the north is the mince

pie of the south. Both are characteristic of the people; the ingredients which compose the former are all of Scottish growth, including the bag which contains them; the ingredients of the latter are gathered from the four quarters of the globe. The haggis is the triumph of poverty; the mince-pie the triumph of wealth.'

121 1.

121 6. 121 9. haggis.

121 13.

121 19.

Fair fa': 'fair befal,' a form of good greeting.

as lang 's my arm: cf. 'like a tether,' H. F., 215 (note).
pin: the wooden pin used for fixing the opening of the

horn for horn: 'spoonful for spoonful '; the horns are hornspoons, and they helped themselves out of a common dish in the middle of the table.

121 24.

Bethanket: grace after meat'; cf. the 'Selkirk' grace,

'Some hae meat that canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,

An' sae the Lord be thanket?

121 25. Cf. the contempt he pours with similar good nature on French brandy, Sc. Dr., 79, p. 66.

122 33.

122 43.

'His spindle leg no thicker than a good whip lash.'

Ye pow'rs: in the Mercury this verse ran,—

'Ye powers wha gie us a that's gude,

Still bless auld Caledonia's brood

Wi' great John Barley-corn's heart's blude

In stoups an' luggies;

And on our board that king o' food,

A glorious haggice.'

Chambers asserted that this was an impromptu grace, out of which the Address' grew.

TO THE GUIDWIFE OF WAUCHOPE-HOUSE (1787,

March).

This lady, Mrs. Scott, struck with the power displayed in the Kilmarnock volume, addressed to Burns a clever epistle in rhyme, in which she affected to doubt that he was 'wi' plowmen schooled, wi' plowmen fed.'

'Gude troth, your saul and body baith

Were better fed, I'll gie my aith,

Than theirs wha sup sour milk an' parritch,

And bummle through the single carritch,'

(i.e., single or shorter catechism). Burns in reply tells how he came to be a poet. In his autobiographical letter to Dr. Moore (Aug. 2, 1787), he repeated the substance of this poem, and gave at length the episode of Handsome Nell.'

122 3. thresh the barn: thresh the grain crop with the flail; cf. V., 6, note.

122 4. yokin: from 6 to II A.M. is the forenoon, and from 1 to 6 P.M. the afternoon 'yoking.'

122 5. forfoughten: in his autob. letter he calls it the 'unceasing moil of a galley slave.'

123 10. rig and lass: it was the country custom to pair off men and women on the harvest field; a pair took a 'rig' between them.

123 15-20.

For this early patriotic ambition, cf. Ep. W. S. and notes, and see also The Vision, Duan Second.

'Thy rudely carolled chiming phrase
In uncouth rhymes.'

123 32. that hairst... my partner: see above. He was then fifteen, and the girl was Nelly Kilpatrick, 'Handsome Nell' of his first song. Among her other love-inspiring qualities she sang sweetly, and it was her favorite reel to which I attempted giving an embodied vehicle in rhyme.'. (Letter to D. M.)

124 53.

Ye're wae men: cf. Green Grow the Rashes, —

'For you sae douce, ye sneer at this;

Ye're nought but senseless asses, O.'

124 57. For you ref. to Mrs. Scott's epistle; she was the wife of a country laird, and therefore not bred to feeding and milking cows. 124 60. marl'd plaid: note the rolled r. She had said in her epistle,

'O gif I ken'd but where ye baide,

I'd send to you a marled plaid.'

Burns called at Wauchope-House on his border tour, but was not charmed with the 'guidwife,' nor do we hear more of the plaid.

124 61. ware: worn. This is Burns, but it is neither Scots nor English; Douglas has a preterite 'ware.'

124 65. 'Than any one whom ermine ever covered.'

Early in the year the Earl of Buchan advised Burns to 'fire his muse at Scottish story.' The poet answered that he wished for nothing more than to make a leisurely pilgrimage through his native country, ... and, catching the inspiration, to pour the deathless names in song.' But Prudence, he says, counsels differently. 'I must return to my humble station and woo my rustic muse in my wonted way at the plowtail.' — (Letter to the Earl of Buchan, Feb. 3, 1787).

Still the proceeds of his Edinburgh edition enabled him partially to satisfy his longing. May and part of June he spent in a tour over the Border country, and on August 25 he started with William Nichol (who afterwards brewed the peck o’maut) on a tour through part of the Northern Highlands. With Burns the Border tour was poetically unproductive; it remained for Scott to reawaken the Border minstrelsy. But the Highlands, besides touching the romantic chord of Burns's Jacobite fancy, brought his mind more finely into tune with the old Scottish melodies. He was now returning to pure song, and for the rest of his life songs were to form, with only one exception of first importance, the entire bulk of his poetical production. On May 4 he had begun his connection with Johnson's Musical Museum, to which he contributed in all 184 songs.

THE BIRKS OF ABERFELDY (1787, Aug. 30).

'I composed these stanzas standing under the Falls of Moness, near Aberfeldy.' - B. They are partly an echo of an old Aberdeenshire ditty, The Birks of Abergeldy. The melody is old Scottish, and bears the impression of the ancient scale.

HUMBLE PETITION OF BRUAR WATER (1787, Sept. 5).

Passing through the north of Perthshire, Burns spent two days at Blair-Athole with the Duke and his family. Athole entertained him with Highland hospitality, and on his departure recommended a visit to the falls of Bruar. Burns went, and found that they were 'exceedingly picturesque and beautiful, but their effect was much impaired by the

want of trees and shrubs.'

Three days later he sent this poem to Mr. Walker, the Duke's family tutor, afterwards professor of Latin in the University of Edinburgh.

126 11. spouts: spoutings or leapings.

126 26. twisting strength: 'A happy picture of the upper part of the fall.' Walker.

127 34.

wishes: the petition was, of course, granted.

127 47. robin: the Scotch robin, the redbreast, is a different bird from the American, and is about the size of a sparrow. It is Scotland's only song-bird in late autumn, and its soft, clear trill is in fine accord with the 'pensive' season.

128 62. hour of heav'n: hour of heavenly bliss.

128 69.

reaper's nightly beam: light of the harvest moon.

128 71. darkly dashing: an Ossianic epithet. Under the circumstances, it shows how closely Burns observed.

128 81-88. 'The Duke's fine family attracted much of his admiration; he drank their health as "honest men and bonie lasses," an idea which was much applauded by the company.'-Walker.

THE BANKS OF THE DEVON (1787, October.)

This was composed to one of the melodies he picked up on his northern tour, - 'True old Highland,' a Gaelic air he heard sung at Inverness, Bannerach dhon a chri. The heroine was Charlotte Hamilton, sister of his friend Gavin (the 'Gau'n' of Ep. M’M., 25, p. 44). The song is 'singular as a compliment to a handsome woman, in which he did not assume the character of a lover.' - Lockhart. See also Fairest Maid on Devon Banks, note.

129 3-4.

'Miss Charlotte Hamilton ... was born on the banks of the Ayr, but was, at the time I wrote these lines, residing at Harvieston, on the romantic banks of the little river Devon.'- B.

BLYTHE, BLYTHE AND MERRY WAS SHE (1787, October).

'I composed these verses while I stayed at Ochtertyre with Sir William Murray. The lady. was the well-known toast, Miss Euphemia Murray of Lintrose, the Flower of Strathmore.' - B.

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