R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[199] “Tweedside” is by Crawfurd; “Ah, the poor shepherd,” &c., by Hamilton, of Bangour; “Ah! Chloris,” &c., by Sir Charles Sedley—Burns has attributed it to Sir Peter Halket, of Pitferran.
CCXXXV.
TO MRS. DUNLOP.
[One of the daughters of Mrs. Dunlop was married to M. Henri, a French gentleman, who died in 1790, at Loudon Castle, in Ayrshire. The widow went with her orphan son to France, and lived for awhile amid the dangers of the revolution.]
Dumfries, 24th September, 1792.
I have this moment, my dear Madam, yours of the twenty-third. All your other kind reproaches, your news, &c., are out of my head when I read and think on Mrs. H——’ssituation. Good God! a heart-wounded helpless young woman—in a strange, foreign land, and that land convulsed with every horror that can harrow the human feelings—sick—looking, longing for a comforter, but finding none—a mother’s feelings, too:—but it is too much: he who wounded (he only can) may He heal!
I wish the farmer great joy of his new acquisition to his family. * * * * * I cannot say that I give him joy of his life as a farmer. ’Tis, as a farmer paying a dear, unconscionable rent, a cursed life! As to a laird farming his own property; sowing his own corn in hope; and reaping it, in spite of brittle weather, in gladness; knowing that none can say unto him, ‘what dost thou?’—fattening his herds; shearing his flocks; rejoicing at Christmas; and begetting sons and daughters, until he be the venerated, gray-haired leader of a little tribe—’tis a heavenly life! but devil take the life of reaping the fruits that another must eat.