No More Learning

TO MR. ROBERT MUIR,

KILMARNOCK.

[The Muirs--there were two brothers--were kind and generous patrons of
the poet. They subscribed for half-a-hundred copies of the Kilmarnock
edition of his works, and befriended him when friends were few. ]

_Mossgiel_, 20_th March_, 1786.

DEAR SIR,

I am heartily sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you as you
returned through Mauchline; but as I was engaged, I could not be in
town before the evening.

I here enclose you my "Scotch Drink," and "may the ---- follow with a
blessing for your edification. " I hope, some time before we hear the
gowk, to have the pleasure of seeing you at Kilmarnock, when I intend
we shall have a gill between us, in a mutchkin-stoup; which will be a
great comfort and consolation to,

Dear Sir,

Your humble servant,

ROBT. BURNESS.

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XV.


TO MR. AIKEN.

[Robert Aiken, the gentleman to whom the "Cotter's Saturday Night" is
inscribed, is also introduced in the "Brigs of Ayr. " This is the last
letter to which Burns seems to have subscribed his name in the
spelling of his ancestors. ]

_Mossgiel, 3d April_, 1786.
DEAR SIR,

I received your kind letter with double pleasure, on account of the
second flattering instance of Mrs. C. 's notice and approbation, I
assure you I

"Turn out the burnt o' my shin,"

as the famous Ramsay, of jingling memory, says, at such a patroness.
Present her my most grateful acknowledgment in your very best manner
of telling truth. I have inscribed the following stanza on the blank
leaf of Miss More's Work:--[158]

My proposals for publishing I am just going to send to press. I expect
to hear from you by the first opportunity.

I am ever, dear Sir,

Yours,

ROBT. BURNESS.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 158: See Poem LXXVIII. ]

* * * * *




XVI.


TO MR. M'WHINNIE,

WRITER, AYR.

[Mr. M'Whinnie obtained for Burns several subscriptions for the first
edition of his Poems, of which this note enclosed the proposals. ]

_Mossgiel, 17th April, 1786. _

It is injuring some hearts, those hearts that elegantly bear the
impression of the good Creator, to say to them you give them the
trouble of obliging a friend; for this reason, I only tell you that I
gratify my own feelings in requesting your friendly offices with
respect to the enclosed, because I know it will gratify yours to
assist me in it to the utmost of your power.