I am at present quite occupied with the charming sensations of the toothache, so have not a word to spare.
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
CCCXVIII.
TO MRS. RIDDEL.
Supposes himself to be writing from the dead to the living.
[Ill health, poverty, a sense of dependence, with the much he had deserved of his country, and the little he had obtained, were all at this time pressing on the mind of Burns, and inducing him to forget what was due to himself as well as to the courtesies of life.]
Madam,