e of learning and literature; the
winter rendezvous of not a few of the nobility and gentry of Scotland.
For in those days it had its society and its season; county families had
not altogether abandoned the custom of keeping their houses in town. All
roads did not then lead to London as they do now, when Edinburgh is a
capital in little more than name, and its prestige has become a
tradition. A century ago Edinburgh had all the glamour and fascination
of the capital of a no mean country; to-day it is but the historical
capital invested with the glamour and fascination of a departed glory.
The very names of those whom Burns met on his first visit to Edinburgh
are part of the history of the nation. In the University there were at
that time, representative of the learning of the age, Dugald Stewart,
Dr. Blair, and Dr. Robertson. David Hume was but recently dead, and the
lustre of his name remained. His great friend, Adam Smith, author of
_The Wealth of Nations_, was still living; while Henry Mackenzie, _The
Man of Feeling_, the most popular writer of his day, was editing _The
Lounger_; and Dr. Blacklock, the blind poet, was also a name of
authority in the world of letters. Nor was the Bar, whose magnates have
ever figured in the front rank of Edinburgh society, eclipsed by the
literary luminaries of the University. Lord Monboddo has left a name,
which his countrymen are not likely to forget. He was an accomplished,
though eccentric character, whose classical bent was in the direction of
Epicurean parties. His great desire was to revive the traditions of the
elegant suppers of classical times. Not only were music and painting
employed to this end, but the tables were wreathed with flowers, the
odour of incense pervaded the room; the wines were of the choicest,
served from decanters of Grecian design. But, perhaps, the chief
attraction to Burns in the midst of all this super-refinement was the
presence of 'the heavenly Miss Burnet,' daughter of Lord Monboddo.
'There has not been anything nearly like her,' he wrote to his friend
Chalmers, 'in all the combinations of beauty and grace and goodness the
great Creator has formed since Milton's Eve in the first day of her
existence.' The Hon. Henry Erskine was another well-known name, not only
in legal circles, but as well in fashionable society. His genial and
sunny nature made him so great a favourite in his profession, that
having been elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in 1