The Complete Works of Robert Burns Part 293

Blair--Sup with the d.u.c.h.ess--easy and happy from the manners of the family--confirmed in my good opinion of my friend Walker.

_Sat.u.r.day._--Visit the scenes round Blair--fine, but spoiled with bad taste--Tilt and Gairie rivers--Falls on the Tilt--Heather seat--Ride in company with Sir William Murray and Mr. Walker, to Loch Tummel--meanderings of the Rannach, which runs through quondam Struan Robertson's estate from Loch Rannach to Loch Tummel--Dine at Blair--Company--General Murray--Captain Murray, an honest tar--Sir William Murray, an honest, worthy man, but tormented with the hypochondria--Mrs. Graham, _belle et aimable_--Miss Catchcart--Mrs.

Murray, a painter--Mrs. King--d.u.c.h.ess and fine family, the Marquis, Lords James, Edward, and Robert--Ladies Charlotte, Emilia, and children dance--Sup--Mr. Graham of Fintray.

Come up the Garrie--Falls of Bruar--Daldecairoch--Dalwhinnie--Dine--Snow on the hills 17 feet deep--No corn from Loch-Gairie to Dalwhinnie--Cross the Spey, and come down the stream to Pitnin--Straths rich--_les environs_ picturesque--Craigow hill--Ruthven of Badenoch--Barracks--wild and magnificent--Rothemurche on the other side, and Glenmore--Grant of Rothemurche's poetry--told me by the Duke of Gordon--Strathspey, rich and romantic--Breakfast at Aviemore, a wild spot--dine at Sir James Grant's--Lady Grant, a sweet, pleasant body--come through mist and darkness to Dulsie, to lie.

_Tuesday._--Findhorn river--rocky banks--come on to Castle Cawdor, where Macbeth murdered King Duncan--saw the bed in which King Duncan was stabbed--dine at Kilravock--Mrs. Rose, sen., a true chieftain's wife--Fort George--Inverness.

_Wednesday._--Loch Ness--Braes of Ness--General's hut--Falls of Fyers--Urquhart Castle and Strath.

_Thursday._--Come over Culloden Muir--reflections on the field of battle--breakfast at Kilravock--old Mrs. Rose, sterling sense, warm heart, strong pa.s.sions, and honest pride, all in an uncommon degree--Mrs. Rose, jun., a little milder than the mother--this perhaps owing to her being younger--Mr. Grant, minister at Calder, resembles Mr. Scott at Inverleithing--Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Grant accompany us to Kildrummie--two young ladies--Miss Rose, who sung two Gaelic songs, beautiful and lovely--Miss Sophia Brodie, most agreeable and amiable--both of them gentle, mild; the sweetest creatures on earth, and happiness be with them!--Dine at Nairn--fall in with a pleasant enough gentleman, Dr. Stewart, who had been long abroad with his father in the forty-five; and Mr. Falconer, a spare, irascible, warm-hearted Norland, and a nonjuror--Brodie-house to lie.

_Friday_--Forres--famous stone at Forres--Mr. Brodie tells me that the muir where Shakspeare lays Macbeth's witch-meeting is still haunted--that the country folks won't pa.s.s it by night.

Venerable ruins of Elgin Abbey--A grander effect at first glance than Melrose, but not near so beautiful--Cross Spey to Fochabers--fine palace, worthy of the generous proprietor--Dine--company, Duke and d.u.c.h.ess, Ladies Charlotte and Magdeline, Col. Abercrombie, and Lady, Mr. Gordon and Mr.----, a clergyman, a venerable, aged figure--the Duke makes me happier than ever great man did--n.o.ble, princely; yet mild, condescending, and affable; gay and kind--the d.u.c.h.ess witty and sensible--G.o.d bless them!

Come to Cullen to lie--hitherto the country is sadly poor and unimproven.

Come to Aberdeen--meet with Mr. Chalmers, printer, a facetious fellow--Mr. Ross a fine fellow, like Professor Tytler,--Mr. Marshal one of the _poetae minores_--Mr. Sheriffs, author of "Jamie and Bess," a little decrepid body with some abilities--Bishop Skinner, a nonjuror, son of the author of "Tullochgorum," a man whose mild, venerable manner is the most marked of any in so young a man--Professor Gordon, a good-natured, jolly-looking professor--Aberdeen, a lazy town--near Stonhive, the coast a good deal romantic--meet my relations--Robert Burns, writer, in Stonhive, one of those who love fun, a gill, and a punning joke, and have not a bad heart--his wife a sweet hospitable body, without any affectation of what is called town-breeding.

_Tuesday._--Breakfast with Mr. Burns--lie at Lawrence Kirk--Alb.u.m library--Mrs. ---- a jolly, frank, sensible, love-inspiring widow--Howe of the Mearns, a rich, cultivated, but still unenclosed country.

_Wednesday._--Cross North Esk river and a rich country to Craigow.

Go to Montrose, that finely-situated handsome town--breakfast at Muthie, and sail along that wild rocky coast, and see the famous caverns, particularly the Gariepot--land and dine at Arbroath--stately ruins of Arbroath Abbey--come to Dundee through a fertile country--Dundee a low-lying, but pleasant town--old Steeple--Tayfrith--Broughty Castle, a finely situated ruin, jutting into the Tay.

_Friday._--Breakfast with the Miss Scotts--Miss Bess Scott like Mrs.

Greenfield--my bardship almost in love with her--come through the rich harvests and fine hedge-rows of the Ca.r.s.e of Gowrie, along the romantic margin of the Grampian hills, to Perth--fine, fruitful, hilly, woody country round Perth.

_Sat.u.r.day Morning._--Leave Perth--come up Strathearn to Endermay--fine, fruitful, cultivated Strath--the scene of "Bessy Bell, and Mary Gray," near Perth--fine scenery on the banks of the May--Mrs.

Belcher, gawcie, frank, affable, fond of rural sports, hunting, &c.--Lie at Kinross--reflections in a fit of the colic.

_Sunday._--Pa.s.s through a cold, barren country to Queensferry--dine--cross the ferry and on to Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 298: Another northern bard has sketched this eminent musician--

"The blythe Strathspey springs up, reminding some Of nights when Gow's old arm, (nor old the tale,) Unceasing, save when reeking cans went round, Made heart and heel leap light as bounding roe.

Alas! no more shall we behold that look So venerable, yet so blent with mirth, And festive joy sedate; that ancient garb Unvaried,--tartan hose, and bonnet blue!

No more shall Beauty's partial eye draw forth The full intoxication of his strain.

Mellifluous, strong, exuberantly rich!

No more, amid the pauses of the dance, Shall he repeat those measures, that in days Of other years, could soothe a falling prince, And light his visage with a transient smile Of melancholy joy,--like autumn sun Gilding a sear tree with a pa.s.sing beam!

Or play to sportive children on the green Dancing at gloamin hour; or willing cheer With strains unbought, the shepherd's bridal day."

_British Georgics, p._ 81]

THE POET'S a.s.sIGNMENT OF HIS WORKS.

Know all men by these presents that I Robert Burns of Mossgiel: whereas I intend to leave Scotland and go abroad, and having acknowledged myself the father of a child named Elizabeth, begot upon Elizabeth Paton in Largieside: and whereas Gilbert Burns in Mossgiel, my brother, has become bound, and hereby binds and obliges himself to aliment, clothe, and educate my said natural child in a suitable manner as if she was his own, in case her mother chuse to part with her, and that until she arrive at the age of fifteen years. Therefore, and to enable the said Gilbert Burns to make good his said engagement, wit ye me to have a.s.signed, disponed, conveyed and made over to, and in favours of, the said Gilbert Burns, his heirs, executors, and a.s.signees, who are always to be bound in like manner, with, himself, all and sundry goods, gear, corns, cattle, horses, nolt, sheep, household furniture, and all other moveable effects of whatever kind that I shall leave behind me on my departure from this Kingdom, after allowing for my part of the conjunct debts due by the said Gilbert Burns and me as joint tacksmen of the farm of Mossgiel. And particularly without prejudice of the foresaid generality, the profits that may arise from the publication of my poems presently in the press. And also, I hereby dispone and convey to him in trust for behoof of my said natural daughter, the copyright of said poems in so far as I can dispose of the same by law, after she arrives at the above age of fifteen years complete. Surrogating and subst.i.tuting the said Gilbert Burns my brother and his foresaids in my full right, t.i.tle, room and place of the whole premises, with power to him to intromit with, and dispose upon the same at pleasure, and in general to do every other thing in the premises that I could have done myself before granting hereof, but always with and under the conditions before expressed. And I oblige myself to warrant this disposition and a.s.signation from my own proper fact and deed allenarly. Consenting to the registration hereof in the books of Council and Session, or any other Judges books competent, therein to remain for preservation and const.i.tute.

Proculars, &c. In witness whereof I have wrote and signed these presents, consisting of this and the preceding page, on stamped paper, with my own hand, at the Mossgiel, the twenty-second day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six years.

(Signed) ROBERT BURNS.

Upon the twenty-fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six years, I, William Chalmer, Notary Publick, past to the Mercat Cross of Ayr head Burgh of the Sheriffdome thereof, and thereat I made due and lawful intimation of the foregoing disposition and a.s.signation to his Majesties lieges, that they might not pretend ignorance thereof by reading the same over in presence of a number of people a.s.sembled. Whereupon William Crooks, writer, in Ayr, as attorney for the before designed Gilbert Burns, protested that the same was lawfully intimated, and asked and took instruments in my hands. These things were done betwixt the hours of ten and eleven forenoon, before and in presence of William M'Cubbin, and William Eaton, apprentices to the Sheriff Clerk of Ayr, witnesses to the premises.

(Signed)

WILLIAM CHALMER, N.P.

WILLIAM M'CUBBIN, Witness.

WILLIAM EATON, Witness.