TO MR. GEORGE LOCKHART,
Merchant, Glasgow.
[Burns, more than any poet of the age, loved to write out copies of his favourite poems, and present them to his friends: he sent “The Falls of Bruar” to Mr. Lockhart.]
Mauchline, 18th July, 1788.
My dear Sir,
I am just going for Nithsdale, else I would certainly have transcribed some of my rhyming things for you. The Miss Baillies I have seen in Edinburgh. “Fair and lovely are thy works, Lord God Almighty! Who would not praise thee for these thy gifts in thy goodness to the sons of men!” It needed not your fine taste to admire them. I declare, one day I had the honour of dining at Mr. Baillie’s, I was almost in the predicament of the children of Israel, when they could not look on Moses’ face for the glory that shone in it when he descended from Mount Sinai.
I did once write a poetic address from the Falls of Bruar to his Grace of Athole, when I was in the Highlands. When you return to Scotland, let me know, and I will send such of my pieces as please myself best. I return to Mauchline in about ten days.
My compliments to Mr. Purdon. I am in truth, but at present in haste,
Yours,—R. B.