ROBERT BURNS, 107
in the rooms of Stewart, Blair, or Robertson. . , .
But Edinburgh offered tables and entertainers of a
less staid character, when the glass circulated with
greater rapidity, when wit flowed more freely, and
when there were neither high-bred ladies to charm
conversation within the bounds of modesty, nor
serious philosophers nor grave divines to set a
limit to the licence of speech or the hours of
enjoyment. To those companions, who were all
of the better classes,
the levities of the rustic
poet?s wit and humour
were as welcome as
were the tenderest of
his narratives to the
accomplished Duchess
of Gordon or the beautiful
Miss Burnet of
Monboddo ; theyraised
a social roar not at all
classic, and demanded
and provoked his sallies
of wild humour, or
indecorous mirth, with
as much delight as he
had witnessed among
the lads of Kyle,
when, at mill or forge,
his humorous sallies
abounded as the ale
flowed.?
While in Edinburgh
Bums was the frequent
and welcome guest ot
John Campbell, Precentor
of the Canongate
Church, a famous
amateur vocalist in his
time, though forgotten
now ; and to him Bums
applied for an introduction
to Bailie Gentle,
After a stay of six months in Edinburgh, Burns ? set out on a tour to the south of Scotland, accompanied
by Robert Ainslie, W.S. ; but elsewhere we
shall meet him again. Opposite the house in which
he dwelt is one with a very ancient legend, BZissit.
be. th. bra. in, aZZ. His .gz)Xs. nm. and. euir. In
1746 this was the inheritance of Martha White,
only child of a wealthy burgess who became a
banker in London. She? became the wife of
to the end that he might accord his tribute to the
memory of the poet, poor Robert Fergusson, whose
grave lay in the adjacent churchyard, without a
stone to mark it. Bailie Gentle expressed his
entire concurrence with the wish of Bums, but
said that ?he had no power to grant permission
without the consent of the managers of the Kirk
funds.?
?Tell them,? said Burns, ?it is the Ayrshire
ploughman who makes the request.? The authority
was obtained, and a promise given, which we
believe has been sacredly kept, that the grave
should remain inviolate.
2s CLOSE*
Charles niIlth Earl of
Kincardine, and afterwards
Earl of Elgin,
?? undoubted heir male
and chief of d l the
Bruces in Scotland,?
as Douglas records.
The countess, who died
in 1810, filled, with
honour to herself, the
office of governess to
the unfortunate Princess
Charlotte of Wales.
One of the early
breaches made in the
vicinity of the central
thoroughfare of the city
was Bank Street, on
tlie north (the site of
Lower Baxter?s Close),
wherein was the shop
of two eminent cloth
merchants, David
Bridges and Son, which
became the usual resort
of the whole Ziteraii of
the city in its day.
David Bridges junior
had a strongly developed
bias towards
literary studies, and,
according to the memoirs
of Professor WiE
son, was dubbed by the Blackwood nits, (? Director-
General of the Fine Arts.? His love for these and
the drama was not to be controlled by his connection
with mercantile business ; and while the sefiior
partner devoted himself to the avocations of trade in
one part of their well-known premises, the younger
was employed in adorning a sort of sanctum, where
one might daily meet Sir Walter Scott and his
friend Sir Adam Ferguson (who, as a boy, had
often sat on the knee of David Hume), Professor
Tradition points to the window on the immediate right (marked *)
as that of the mom occupied by Burns.
