and thou
proufoundest
hell,
Receive thy new possessor!
Receive thy new possessor!
Robert Burns
R. B.
* * * * *
LXIV.
TO MR. JAMES SMITH,
AT MILLER AND SMITH'S OFFICE, LINLITHGOW.
[Burns, it seems by this letter, had still a belief that he would be
obliged to try his fortune in the West Indies: he soon saw how hollow
all the hopes were, which had been formed by his friends of "pension,
post or place," in his native land. ]
_Mauchline, 11th June, 1787. _
MY EVER DEAR SIR,
I date this from Mauchline, where I arrived on Friday even last. I
slept at John Dow's, and called for my daughter. Mr. Hamilton and your
family; your mother, sister, and brother; my quondam Eliza, &c. , all
well. If anything had been wanting to disgust me completely at
Armour's family, their mean, servile compliance would have done it.
Give me a spirit like my favourite hero, Milton's Satan:
Hail, horrors! hail,
Infernal world!
and thou proufoundest hell,
Receive thy new possessor! he who brings
A mind not be chang'd by _place_ or _time_!
I cannot settle to my mind. --Farming, the only thing of which I know
anything, and heaven above knows but little do I understand of that, I
cannot, dare not risk on farms as they are. If I do not fix I will go
for Jamaica. Should I stay in an unsettled state at home, I would
only dissipate my little fortune, and ruin what I intend shall
compensate my little ones, for the stigma I have brought on their
names.
I shall write you more at large soon; as this letter costs you no
postage, if it be worth reading you cannot complain of your
pennyworth.
I am ever, my dear Sir,
Yours,
R. B.
P. S. The cloot has unfortunately broke, but I have provided a fine
buffalo-horn, on which I am going to affix the same cipher which you
will remember was on the lid of the cloot.
* * * * *
LXV.
TO WILLIAM NICOL, ESQ.
[The charm which Dumfries threw over the poet, seems to have dissolved
like a spell, when he sat down in Ellisland: he spoke, for a time,
with little respect of either place or people. ]
_Mauchline, June 18, 1787.