She wrote him an indignant letter, forbidding him to continue the correspondence; but in the summer of 1791 she made overtures for reconciliation in two letters, in one of which she enclosed lines on 'Sympathy,' Burns called on her in Edinburgh on 29 Nov., after she had resolved to join her husband in Jamaica, and they met for the last time on 6 Dec. On 6 Dec. 1831 she wrote in her 'Journal;' 'This day I never can forget. Parted with Burns in the year 1791, never more to meet in this world.' Burns's song, 'O May, thy morn was ne'er sae sweet,' is supposed to commemorate the interview, and on the 27th he sent her the matchless parting song, ' Ae fond kiss, and then we sever,' 'Behold the Hour,' and the first two stanzas of 'Thou gloomy December.'
Mrs. Maclehose sailed from Leith for Jamaica in March 1792. It seems that her husband calculated that she would decline the invitation to join him, and intended to make that an excuse for refusing to contribute to her support. On receiving her acceptance of his invitation, he endeavoured to dissuade her from sailing by false statements regarding the prevalence of yellow fever and the outbreak of a rebellion in the island. He received her very coldly, and her health becoming seriously affected by the climate and her unpleasant position, she returned to Scotland in August. Burns and she for a time occasionally corresponded, the last letter of Burns to her being one of 25 July 1794, in which he declares that it is impossible to write to her in mere 'friendship,' as she had requested. In March 1797 she obtained a judgment in the court of session for a yearly aliment from her husband of 100l.; but she found it impossible to enforce payment, although it enabled her to obtain a sum of money on her husband's death in 1812. She died in her residence on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh, on 22 Oct. 1841, in her eighty-third year. Of her three children one died in infancy; Andrew became writer to the signet, and died in 1839, and William died in 1790. A silhouette of Clarinda, by Myers, done in 1788 at the request of Burns, was engraved by Alexander Banks for William Scott Douglas's edition of Burns, where is also a woodcut of a silhouette of her at the age of forty.
In 1796 Mrs. Maclehose, when Currie was preparing his 'Life of Burns,' promised, on condition that the letters she had addressed to Burns were returned to her, to help Currie by selecting 'such passages from our dear bard's letters as will do honour to his memory, and cannot hurt my own fame.' On this promise Mrs. Maclehose's letters were given up, but no use was made by Currie of her 'selected' passages. Burns's letters to her were published in 1802 without her permission, and the whole correspondence, arranged and edited by her grandson, W. C. Maclehose, appeared in 1848. It is now included in most of the collected editions of the works of Burns. An additional letter by her is published in Appendix to vol. v. of the edition by W. Scott Douglas.
[Life by W. C. Maclehose, prefixed to Correspondence; Summary of Burns's Career and Genius, by Professor Nichol, prefixed to the Library Edition of his Works, 1877, &c.; Works of Robert Burns, passim; Stenhouse's Notes to Johnson's Musical Museum.]
McLELLAN, ARCHIBALD (1797–1854), coach-builder and amateur of works of art, born at Glasgow in 1797, was son of a large coach-builder in that city, and was brought up to and finally became partner in his father's business. He was for many years a leading citizen in Glasgow. He became a magistrate before the age of twenty-five, and reached the position of 'deacon' of his trade, subsequently holding the office of 'deacon-convener' in the Trades' House at Glasgow. He was for over thirty years a member of the town council, and though a strong conservative in politics, did much to assist the passing of the Scotch Municipal Reform Bill. In 1833 McLellan published a small volume entitled 'An Essay on the Cathedral Church of Glasgow,' in which he called attention to the neglect and dilapidation into which that building had fallen. He also took a great share in promoting its restoration. McLellan, however, was deeply interested in the fine arts. He was a friend of Sir David Wilkie, Sir Francis Chantrey, and other artists, and collected for himself a library and a collection of works of art, containing many pictures by the old masters of great historical and artistic value. These he intended to present or bequeath to the city of Glasgow to promote the study of the fine arts, and purchased a site in Sauchiehall Street, on which he commenced to build a gallery. McLellan died, before the works were completed, at his country residence, Mugdock Castle, Stirlingshire, on 22 Oct. 1854, in his fifty-eighth year, and was buried in the High Church burying-ground at Glasgow. He conveyed by deed of bequest his collections to certain trustees on behalf of the citizens of Glasgow. After his death, however, his affairs were found to be so much involved that the trustees were unable to carry out his bequest. Eventually the corporation of Glasgow agreed to purchase the
