I
then received, and still recollect, with very great pleasure.

"His person was strong and robust: his manners rustic, not clownish; a
sort of dignified plainness and simplicity, which received part of its
effect perhaps from one's knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His
features are represented in Mr. Nasmyth's picture, but to me it
conveys the idea that they are diminished as if seen in perspective. I
think his countenance was more massive than it looks in any of the
portraits. I would have taken the poet, had I not known what he was,
for a very sagacious country farmer of the old Scotch school--_i. e._,
none of your modern agriculturists, who keep laborers for their
drudgery, but the _douce gudeman_ who held his own plough. There was a
strong expression of sense and shrewdness in all his lineaments; the
eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament.
It was large, and of a dark cast, and glowed (I say literally
_glowed_) when he spoke with feeling or interest. I never saw such
another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most distinguished
men in my time. His conversation expressed perfect self-confidence,
without the slightest presumption. Among the men who were the most
learned of their time and country he expressed himself with perfect
firmness, but without the least intrusive forwardness; and when he
differed in opinion, he did not hesitate to express it firmly, yet at
the same time with modesty. I do not remember any part of his
conversation distinctly enough to be quoted, nor did I ever see him
again, except in the street, where he did not recognize me, as I could
not expect he should. He was much caressed in Edinburgh, but
(considering what literary emoluments {p.122} have been since his
day) the efforts made for his relief were extremely trifling.

"I remember on this occasion I mention, I thought Burns's acquaintance
with English poetry was rather limited, and also, that having twenty
times the abilities of Allan Ramsay and of Fergusson, he talked of
them with too much humility as his models; there was doubtless
national predilection in his estimate."

I need not remark on the extent of knowledge and justness of taste
exemplified in this early measurement of Burns, both as a student of
English literature and as a Scottish poet. The print, over which Scott
saw Burns shed tears, is still in the possession of Dr. Ferguson's
family, and I had often heard him tell the story,