Mr. Erskine's songs are all pretty, but his "Lone Vale" is divine.—Yours, etc.
Let me know just how you like these random hints.
[141] "Yestreen I had a pint o' wine."
VIII.
April 1793.
My Dear Sir,—I own my vanity is flattered when you give my songs a place in your elegant and superb work; but to be of service to the work is my first wish. As I have often told you, I do not in a single instance wish you, out of compliment to me, to insert anything of mine. One hint let me give you—whatever Mr. Peyel does, let him not alter one iota of the original Scottish airs; I mean in the song department; but let our national music preserve its native features. They are, I own, frequently wild, and irreducible to the more modern rules; but on that very eccentricity, perhaps, depends a great part of their effect.
IX.
June
1793.