XL.
TO MR. GAVIN HAMILTON.
[This letter was first published by Hubert Chambers, who considered it as closing the enquiry, “was Burns a married man?” No doubt Burns thought himself unmarried, and the Rev. Mr. Auld was of the same opinion, since he offered him a certificate that he was single: but no opinion of priest or lawyer, including the disclamation of Jean Armour, and the belief of Burns, could have, in my opinion, barred the claim of the children to full legitimacy, according to the law of Scotland.]
Edinburgh, Jan. 7, 1787.
To tell the truth among friends, I feel a miserable blank in my heart, with the want of her, and I don’t think I shall ever meet with so delicious an armful again. She has her faults; and so have you and I; and so has everybody:
Their tricks and craft hae put me daft;
They’ve ta’en me in and a’ that;
But clear your decks, and here’s the sex,
I like the jads for a’ that.
For a’ that and a’ that,
And twice as muckle’s a’ that.
I have met with a very pretty girl, a Lothian farmer’s daughter, whom I have almost persuaded to accompany me to the west country, should I ever return to settle there. By the bye, a Lothian farmer is about an Ayrshire squire of the lower kind; and I had a most delicious ride from Leith to her house yesternight, in a hackney-coach with her brother and two sisters, and brother’s wife. We had dined altogether at a common friend’s house in Leith, and danced, drank, and sang till late enough. The night was dark, the claret had been good, and I thirsty. * * * * *
R. B.