from his Ayrshire friends, some letters of recommendation: some of his rural acquaintance coming, as well as himself, to Edinburgh, for the winter, did him what offices of kindness they conveniently could.[1] Those very few, who possessed at once true taste and ardent philanthropy, were soon earnestly united in his praise: they who were disposed to favour any good thing belonging to Scotland, purely because it was Scottish, gladly joined the cry; those who had hearts and understandings to be charmed, without knowing why, when they saw their native customs, manners, and language, made subjects and materials of
poesy, could not suppress that voice of feeling which struggled to declare itself for Burns: for the dissipated, the licentious, the malignant wits, and the free-thinkers, he was so unfortunate as to have satire, and obscenity, and ridicule of things sacred, sufficient to captivate their fancies: even for the pious, he had passages in which the inspired language of devotion might seem to come from his tongue,: and then, to charm those whom nought can delight but wonders, whose taste leads them to admire only such things as a juggler eating fire, a person who can converse as if his organs of speech were in his belly, a lame sailor writing with his toes for want of fingers, a peer or a ploughman making verses, a small coal-man directing a concert―why, to those people the Ayrshire poet might seem precisely one of the most wonderful of the wonders after which they were wont to gape. Thus did Burns, ere he had been many weeks in Edinburgh, find himself the object of universal curiosity, favour, admiration, and fondness. He was sought after, courted with attentions the most respectful
and assiduous, feasted, flattered, caressed, treated by all ranks as the first boast of our country; whom it was scarcely possible to honour and reward to a degree equal to his merits. In comparison with the general favour which now promised to more than crown his most sanguine hopes, it could hardly be called praise at all, which he had obtained in Ayrshire.
In this posture of the poet's affairs, a new edition of his poems was earnestly called for; he sold the copy-right to Mr Creech, for one hundred pounds; but his friends, at the same time, suggested, and actively promoted a subscription for an edition, to be published for the benefit of the author, ere the bookseller's right should commence. Those gentlemen who had formerly entertained the public of Edinburgh with the periodical publication of the papers of the Mirror, having again combined their talents in producing the Lounger, were, at this time, about to conclude this last series of papers; yet, before the Lounger relinquished his pen, he dedicated a number to a commendatory criticism of the poems of the Ayrshire bard. That criticism is now known to have been written by the Honourable lord Craig, one of the senators of the college of justice, who had adorned the Mirror with a finely written essay, in recommendation of the poetry of Michael Bruce. The subscription-papers were rapidly filled; the ladies, especially, vied with one another who should be the first to subscribe, and who should procure the greatest number of other subscribers, for the poems of a bard who was now, for some moments, the idol of fashion. The Caledonian Hunt, a gay club, composed of the most opulent and fashionable young men in Scotland, professed themselves the patrons of the Scottish poet, and eagerly encouraged the proposed republication of his poems. Six shillings was all the subscription-money demanded for each copy; but many voluntarily paid half a guinea, a guinea, or two guineas; and it was supposed that the poet
- ↑ He resided during the whole winter in the lodgings of one of his Mauchline acquaintances, Mr John Richmond, who had come to Edinburgh in order to study the law. One room and one bed served both. It was from this humble scene in the Lawnmarket, that he issued to attend the brilliant parties of the duchess of Gordon and other fashionables, and to this den he retired, after hours spent amid the lustres of the most splendid apartments in the new town.
