left his native land. It
was only after Jean Armour had become the mother of twin children that
there was any hint of diffidence about sailing. In a letter to Robert
Aitken, written in October, he says: 'All these reasons urge me to go
abroad, and to all these reasons I have one answer--the feelings of a
father. That in the present mood I am in overbalances everything that
can be laid in the scale against it.'

His friends, too, after the success of his poems, were beginning to be
doubtful about the wisdom of his going abroad, and were doing what they
could to secure for him a place in the Excise. For his fame had gone
beyond the bounds of his native county, and others than people in his
own station had recognised his genius. Mrs. Dunlop of Dunlop was one of
the first to seek the poet's acquaintance, and she became an almost
lifelong friend; through his poems he renewed acquaintance with Mrs.
Stewart of Stair. He was 'roosed' by Craigen-Gillan; Dugald Stewart, the
celebrated metaphysician, and one of the best-known names in the learned
and literary circles of Edinburgh, who happened to be spending his
vacation at Catrine, not very far from Mossgiel, invited the poet to
dine with him, and on that occasion he 'dinnered wi' a laird'--Lord
Daer. Then came the appreciative letter from Dr. Blacklock to the Rev.
George Lawrie of Loudon, already mentioned. Even this letter might not
have proved strong enough to detain him in Scotland, had it not been
that he was disappointed of a second edition of his poems in Kilmarnock.
Other encouragement came from Edinburgh in a very favourable criticism
of his poems in the _Edinburgh Magazine_. This, taken along with Dr.
Blacklock's suggestion about 'a second edition more numerous than the
former,' led the poet to believe that his work would be taken up by any
of the Edinburgh publishers. The feelings of a father also urged him to
remain in Scotland; and at length--probably in November--the thought of
exile was abandoned. It was with very different feelings, we may be
sure, that he contemplated setting out from Mossgiel to sojourn for a
season in Edinburgh--a name that had ever been associated in his mind
with the best traditions of learning and literature in Scotland.

CHAPTER V

THE EDINBURGH EDITION

Edinburgh towards the close of last century was a very different place
from Edinburgh of the present day. It was then to a certain extent the
hub of Scottish society; the centr