Rattling roaring Willie,
Ye’re welcome hame to me!’
He has also described Smellie as coming to Crochallan with his old cocked hat, gray surtout, and beard rising in its might:
‘Yet though his caustic wit was biting, rude,
His heart was warm, benevolent, and good.’
The printing-office of this strange genius being at the bottom of the close, the transition from the correction of proofs to the roaring scenes at Crochallan must have been sufficiently easy for Burns.
UPPER BAXTER’S CLOSE.
Where Burns first resided in Edinburgh.