Burns, if he held by his intention, left Mauchline on the 10th of March, on his return to Edinburgh. A letter to Miss Chalmers speedily announces a notable event in his career:

TO MISS CHALMERS.

EDINBURGH, March 14, 1788.

I know, my ever dear friend, that you will be pleased with the news when I tell you I have at last taken a lease of a farm. Yesternight I completed a bargain with Mr Miller of Dalswinton for the farm of Ellisland, on the banks of the Nith, between five and six miles above Dumfries. I begin at Whitsunday to build a house, drive lime, &c.; and Heaven be my help! for it will take a strong effort to bring my mind into the routine of business. I have discharged all the army of my former pursuits, fancies, and pleasures-a motley host!— and have literally and strictly retained only the ideas of a few friends, which I have incorporated into a lifeguard. I trust in Dr Johnson's observation, Where much is attempted, something is done. Firmness, both in sufferance and exertion, is a character I would wish to be thought to possess; and have always despised the whining yelp of complaint, and the cowardly, feeble resolve.

6

Poor Miss K.1 is ailing a good deal this winter, and begged me to remember her to you the first time I wrote to you. Surely woman, amiable woman, is often made in vain. Too delicately formed for the rougher pursuits of ambition; too noble for the dirt of avarice; and even too gentle for the rage of pleasure; formed indeed for, and highly susceptible of, enjoyment and rapture; but that enjoyment, alas! almost wholly at the mercy of the caprice, malevolence, stupidity, or wickedness of an animal at all times comparatively unfeeling, and often brutal.

R. B.

Patrick Miller, banker, brother of the Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland, had recently become possessed of a beautiful estate in the lower part of the valley of the Nith. The lands and castle of Dalswinton had once been the property of the great family of Cumming, the ruin of which is dated from their opposition to Robert Bruce, by whom the chief was slain in the Greyfriars' Church at Dumfries. The estate consists partly of some fine holm-land adjacent to the river, and partly of a series of gravelly terraces ascending towards the hills, and partially clothed with

1 Miss Kennedy, sister of Mrs Gavin Hamilton. This lady, who is so frequently alluded to by Burns, survived him about forty years. She was, like most longlived people, of a cheerful, benevolent disposition. When several years above ninety, she had the misfortune to break her arm by a fall down stairs. Her nephew, a medical man, immediately went to her in great solicitude, thinking that such an accident at such an age must have been very discomfiting indeed. The good old lady was on the contrary quite placid and happy. Isn't it,' said she, such a great mercy that it is not my leg; for in that case I might have been lame for life!'

THE DALSWINTON FARMS.

243 wood. Mr Miller, we have seen, had patronised Burns immediately after his arrival in Edinburgh. Besides sending him a present of ten guineas, he had expressed a strong wish to have him for a tenant-partly animated by a belief that farming was the course of life, apart from literature, best suited for the poet, and the most likely to preserve him from the temptations of society. Burns, with some reluctance, had gone at the end of autumn to see the lands which Mr Miller had to offer; he had returned to see them again in March, when, contrary to his expectation, he found reason to hope that a subsistence might be realised out of one of the Dalswinton farms. Three were offered to him-one, named Foregirth, a fine piece of the haugh, bearing heavy crops of wheat; another, called Bankhead, only a little less rich; and one called Ellisland, adjacent to the river, on its right or opposite bank. The factor, father to the late Allan Cunningham, shewed Burns over them all, and explained their various merits. There cannot now be a doubt of the superior eligibility of Foregirth of which it is related that it yielded forty pounds an acre in the famine year of 1800, and that the tenant of that period left it a gainer by three thousand pounds. Burns, however, was captivated by the fine situation of Ellisland, with its views up and down the river, and of the beautiful pleasure-grounds of Dalswinton, and he made what the factor called a poet's, not a farmer's choice.

Allan Cunningham, who was well-informed on this point, says'Ellisland is beautifully situated on the south side of the Nith, some six miles above Dumfries: it joins the grounds of Friars' Carse on the north-west-the estate of Isle towards the southeast: the great road from Glasgow separates it from the hills of Dunscore; while the Nith, a pure stream running over the purest gravel, divides it from the holms and groves of Dalswinton. The farm amounts to upwards of a hundred acres, and is part holm and part croft land: the former, a deep rich loam, bears fine tall crops of wheat; the latter, though two-thirds stones on a bottom of gravel, yields, when carefully cultivated, good crops both of potatoes and corn; yet to a stranger the soil must have looked unpromising or barren; and Burns declared, after a shower had fallen on a field of new-sown and new-rolled barley, that it looked like a paved street.' That the land really was in a wretched state, and only to be rendered tolerably good by a large expenditure of capital for improvement, fully appears from an acknowledgment by the landlord himself.1

1 Mr Miller gives an account of his estate at the time of his purchase, in the General View of the Agriculture, &c. of Dumfriesshire. 8vo, Edin. 1812. His letter is dated 24th September 1810. 'When I purchased this estate, about five-and-twenty years ago, I had not seen it. It was in the most miserable state of exhaustion, and all the tenants in poverty. Judge of the first when I inform you, that oats ready to be

There is no reason to suppose that Mr Miller drove a hard bargain with Burns. He granted a lease of seventy-six years, at an annual rent of fifty pounds for the three first years, and seventy for the remainder; agreeing further to give his tenant three hundred pounds to build a new farm-steading and enclose the fields.1 The only reservation he made was one which the poet must himself have been pleased with—a right to plant a belt of about two acres to screen the farm on the north-west, and a scaur or precipitous bank which overhung the river. Mr Miller constituted in himself one of the attractions of the place, for he was, to all appearance, kindly disposed towards Burns, and he was far from being a commonplace neighbour. His mind was active, intelligent, and inventive. He was at this time conducting expe riments for the propelling of vessels by means of paddles-a project which led to the introduction of one of the greatest mechanical improvements of modern times. At the suggestion of his sons' preceptor, James Taylor, and with the practical aid of an ingenious mechanist named Symington, one of his paddle-boats was tried, with a small steam-engine on board, on a lake adjacent to Dalswinton House, in the ensuing October, and proved to be completely successful. Unfortunately Mr Miller was not persevering in his projects, and on some obstacles occurring, he abandoned that of steam navigation. It was, however, from his boat, when lying in neglect at Port-Dundas, that Fulton and Henry Bell severally took those plans which they respectively realised on the Hudson and the Clyde in 1808 and 1812. It is a remarkable fact that Mr Miller and his family, though latterly landless, and reduced almost to poverty, never received the slightest acknowledgment from the nation, of the concern which the former had had in the application of the steam-engine to navigation.

While in Edinburgh on this occasion, Burns accomplished two other matters of business of no small importance to him-the obtaining an order from the Board of Excise for his instructions in the technicalities of that profession, and the adjustment of his accounts with Mr Creech, the publisher. In a short series of letters to Clarinda, found dateless, but which undoubtedly belong to this period, allusion is made to these circumstances.

cut were sold at 25s. per acre upon the holm-grounds. When I went to view my purchase, I was so much disgusted for eight or ten days, that I then meant never to return to this county.'

The account which Gilbert Burns gave Dr Currie regarding his brother's lease of Ellisland is slightly discrepant, but I have no doubt he is mistaken. I never understood,' he says, ' that Mr Miller gave my brother the choice of any farm but Ellisland, on which Mr Miller fixed the rent himself, but allowed my brother fiftyseven years of a lease, and to point out what restrictions he should be under in the management.'

CORRESPONDENCE WITH CLARINDA.

245

SYLVANDER TO CLARINDA.

Monday Noon [17th March.']

I will meet you to-morrow, Clarinda, as you appoint. My Excise affair is just concluded, and I have got my order for instructions: so far good. Wednesday night I am engaged to sup among some of the principals of the Excise, so can only make a call for you that evening; but next day, I stay to dine with one of the Commissioners, so cannot go till Friday morning.

Your hopes, your fears, your cares, my love, are mine; so don't mind them. I will take you in my hand through the dreary wilds of this world, and scare away the ravening bird or beast that would annoy you. I saw Mary in town to-day, and asked her if she had seen you. I shall certainly bespeak Mr Ainslie, as you desire. Excuse me, my dearest angel, this hurried scrawl and miserable paper circumstances make both. Farewell till to-morrow.

SYLVANDER.

SYLVANDER TO CLARINDA.

Tuesday Morning [18th March.]

I am just hurrying away to wait on the Great Man, Clarinda; but I have more respect to my own peace and happiness than to set out without waiting on you; for my imagination, like a child's favourite bird, will fondly flutter along with this scrawl, till it perch on your bosom. I thank you for all the happiness you bestowed on me yesterday. The walk-delightful; the evening-rapture. Do not be uneasy to-day, Clarinda; forgive me. I am in rather better spirits to-day, though I had but an indifferent night. Care, anxiety, sat on my spirits; and all the cheerfulness of this morning is the fruit of some serious, important ideas that lie, in their realities, beyond the dark and the narrow house,' as Ossian, prince of poets, says. The Father of Mercies be with you, Clarinda! and every good thing attend you! SYLVANDER,

SYLVANDER TO CLARINDA.

Wednesday Morning [19th March.] Clarinda, will that envious night-cap hinder you from appearing at the window as I pass ?2 'Who is she that looketh forth as the

1 In the authorised edition of the Clarinda correspondence, dates three weeks later are conjecturally assigned.

2 Probably the poet, at the time of writing this letter, lodged with Nicol, whose house was in Buccleuch Street; in which case the Potterrow, where Mrs M'Lehose lived, would be on the line of his walk into town.

The residence of Mrs M'Lehose at the time when Burns visited her, was a small flat, or floor of a house, situated over an alley which yet bears the name of General's Entry, in consequence, it is said, of General Monk having lived there when in command in Scotland. The house, accessible by a narrow winding-stair behind, is very humble in its accommodations, and now occupied by poor people. Alison's Square, where Miss Nimmo lived, being right opposite, we can readily see how Clarinda would feel the necessity of being cautious about the number of Burns's visits.

morning; fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners?'

Do not accuse me of fond folly for this line; you know I am a cool lover. I mean by these presents greeting, to let you to wit, that arch-rascal Creech has not done my business yesternight, which has put off my leaving town till Monday morning. To-morrow at eleven I meet with him for the last time; just the hour I should have met far more agreeable company.

You will tell me this evening whether you cannot make our hour of meeting to-morrow one o'clock. I have just now written Creech such a letter, that the very goose-feather in my hand shrunk back from the line, and seemed to say, 'I exceedingly fear and quake!' I am forming ideal schemes of vengeance. Adieu, and think SYLVANDER.

on

SYLVANDER TO CLARINDA.

Friday, Nine o'clock, Night [21st March.]

I am just now come in, and have read your letter. The first thing I did was to thank the divine Disposer of events, that he has had such happiness in store for me as the connection I have with you. Life, my Clarinda, is a weary, barren path; and wo be to him or her that ventures on it alone! For me, I have my dearest partner of my soul: Clarinda and I will make out our pilgrimage together, Wherever I am, I shall constantly let her know how I go on, what I observe in the world around me, and what adventures I meet with. Will it please you, my love, to get every week, or at least every fortnight, a packet, two or three sheets, full of remarks, nonsense, news, rhymes, and old songs? Will you open, with satisfaction and delight, a letter from a man who loves you, who has loved you, and who will love you to death, through death, and for ever? Oh Clarinda what do I owe to Heaven for blessing me with such a piece of exalted excellence as you! I call over your idea, as a miser counts over his treasure! Tell me, were you studious to please me last night? I am sure you did it to transport. How rich am I who have such a treasure as you! You know me; you know how to make me happy; and you do it most effectually. God bless you with

'Long life, long youth, long pleasure, and a friend!'

To-morrow night, according to your own direction, I shall watch the window: 'tis the star that guides me to paradise. The great relish to all is, that Honour, that Innocence, that Religion, are the witnesses and guarantees of our happiness. The Lord God knoweth,' and perhaps Israel he shall know, my love and your merit. Adieu, Clarinda! I am going to remember you in my prayers. SYLVANDER.

The poet, on leaving Edinburgh at this time, sent Clarinda a pair of small decorated ale-glasses, along with a copy of verses: