--Jed, pure be thy crystal streams, and
hallowed
thy sylvan
banks!
banks!
Robert Burns
--I
find Miss Lindsay would soon play the devil with me--I met with some
little flattering attentions from her. Mrs. Somerville an excellent,
motherly, agreeable woman, and a fine family. --Mr. Ainslie, and Mrs.
S----, junrs. , with Mr. ----, Miss Lindsay, and myself, go to see
_Esther_, a very remarkable woman for reciting poetry of all kinds,
and sometimes making Scotch doggerel herself--she can repeat by heart
almost everything she has ever read, particularly Pope's Homer from
end to end--has studied Euclid by herself, and in short, is a woman of
very extraordinary abilities. --On conversing with her I find her fully
equal to the character given of her. [296]--She is very much flattered
that I send for her, and that she sees a poet who has _put out a
book_, as she says. --She is, among other things, a great florist--and
is rather past the meridian of once celebrated beauty.
I walk in _Esther's_ garden with Miss Lindsay, and after some little
chit-chat of the tender kind, I presented her with a proof print of my
Nob, which she accepted with something more tinder than gratitude. She
told me many little stories which Miss ---- had retailed concerning her
and me, with prolonging pleasure--God bless her! Was waited on by the
magistrates, and presented with the freedom of the burgh.
Took farewell of Jedburgh, with some melancholy, disagreeable
sensations.
--Jed, pure be thy crystal streams, and hallowed thy sylvan
banks! Sweet Isabella Lindsay, may peace dwell in thy bosom,
uninterrupted, except by the tumultuous throbbings of rapturous love!
That love-kindling eye must beam on another, not on me; that graceful
form must bless another's arms; not mine!
Kelso. Dine with the farmers' club--all gentlemen, talking of high
matters--each of them keeps a hunter from thirty to fifty pounds
value, and attends the fox-huntings in the country--go out with Mr.
Ker, one of the club, and a friend of Mr. Ainslie's, to lie--Mr. Ker a
most gentlemanly, clever, handsome fellow, a widower with some fine
children--his mind and manner astonishingly like my dear old friend
Robert Muir, in Kilmarnock--everything in Mr. Ker's most elegant--he
offers to accompany me in my English tour. Dine with Sir Alexander
Don--a pretty clever fellow, but far from being a match for his divine
lady. --A very wet day * * *--Sleep at Stodrig again; and set out for
Melrose--visit Dryburgh, a fine old ruined abbey--still bad
weather--cross Leader, and come up Tweed to Melrose--dine there, and
visit that far-famed, glorious ruin--come to Selkirk, up Ettrick; the
whole country hereabout, both on Tweed and Ettrick, remarkably stony.
_Monday. _--Come to Inverleithing, a famous shaw, and in the vicinity
of the palace of Traquair, where having dined, and drank some
Galloway-whey, I hero remain till to-morrow--saw Elibanks and
Elibraes, on the other side of the Tweed.
_Tuesday. _--Drank tea yesternight at Pirn, with Mr.
Horseburgh.
find Miss Lindsay would soon play the devil with me--I met with some
little flattering attentions from her. Mrs. Somerville an excellent,
motherly, agreeable woman, and a fine family. --Mr. Ainslie, and Mrs.
S----, junrs. , with Mr. ----, Miss Lindsay, and myself, go to see
_Esther_, a very remarkable woman for reciting poetry of all kinds,
and sometimes making Scotch doggerel herself--she can repeat by heart
almost everything she has ever read, particularly Pope's Homer from
end to end--has studied Euclid by herself, and in short, is a woman of
very extraordinary abilities. --On conversing with her I find her fully
equal to the character given of her. [296]--She is very much flattered
that I send for her, and that she sees a poet who has _put out a
book_, as she says. --She is, among other things, a great florist--and
is rather past the meridian of once celebrated beauty.
I walk in _Esther's_ garden with Miss Lindsay, and after some little
chit-chat of the tender kind, I presented her with a proof print of my
Nob, which she accepted with something more tinder than gratitude. She
told me many little stories which Miss ---- had retailed concerning her
and me, with prolonging pleasure--God bless her! Was waited on by the
magistrates, and presented with the freedom of the burgh.
Took farewell of Jedburgh, with some melancholy, disagreeable
sensations.
--Jed, pure be thy crystal streams, and hallowed thy sylvan
banks! Sweet Isabella Lindsay, may peace dwell in thy bosom,
uninterrupted, except by the tumultuous throbbings of rapturous love!
That love-kindling eye must beam on another, not on me; that graceful
form must bless another's arms; not mine!
Kelso. Dine with the farmers' club--all gentlemen, talking of high
matters--each of them keeps a hunter from thirty to fifty pounds
value, and attends the fox-huntings in the country--go out with Mr.
Ker, one of the club, and a friend of Mr. Ainslie's, to lie--Mr. Ker a
most gentlemanly, clever, handsome fellow, a widower with some fine
children--his mind and manner astonishingly like my dear old friend
Robert Muir, in Kilmarnock--everything in Mr. Ker's most elegant--he
offers to accompany me in my English tour. Dine with Sir Alexander
Don--a pretty clever fellow, but far from being a match for his divine
lady. --A very wet day * * *--Sleep at Stodrig again; and set out for
Melrose--visit Dryburgh, a fine old ruined abbey--still bad
weather--cross Leader, and come up Tweed to Melrose--dine there, and
visit that far-famed, glorious ruin--come to Selkirk, up Ettrick; the
whole country hereabout, both on Tweed and Ettrick, remarkably stony.
_Monday. _--Come to Inverleithing, a famous shaw, and in the vicinity
of the palace of Traquair, where having dined, and drank some
Galloway-whey, I hero remain till to-morrow--saw Elibanks and
Elibraes, on the other side of the Tweed.
_Tuesday. _--Drank tea yesternight at Pirn, with Mr.
Horseburgh.
