XX.
THE REPLY.
[The minister of Gladsmuir wrote a censure on the Stirling lines, intimating, as a priest, that Burns’s race was nigh run, and as a prophet, that oblivion awaited his muse. The poet replied to the expostulation.]
Like Esop’s lion, Burns says, sore I feel
All others’ scorn—but damn that ass’s heel.
XXI.
LINES
WRITTEN UNDER THE PICTURE OF THE CELEBRATED
MISS BURNS.
[The Miss Burns of these lines was well known in those days to the bucks of the Scottish metropolis: there is still a letter by the poet, claiming from the magistrates of Edinburgh a liberal interpretation of the laws of social morality, in belief of his fair namesake.]