erday.

I am, my dear Sir,

Yours,

R. B.

* * * * *

XIII.

TO MR. JOHN KENNEDY,

DUMFRIES HOUSE.

[Who the John Kennedy was to whom Burns addressed this note, enclosing
"The Cotter's Saturday night," it is now, perhaps, vain to inquire:
the Kennedy to whom Mr. Cobbett introduces us was a Thomas--perhaps a
relation.]

_Mossgiel, 3d March_, 1786.

SIR,

I have done myself the pleasure of complying with your request in
sending you my Cottager.--If you have a leisure minute, I should be
glad you would copy it, and return me either the original or the
transcript, as I have not a copy of it by me, and I have a friend who
wishes to see it.

"Now, Kennedy, if foot or horse."[157]

ROBT. BURNESS.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 157: Poem LXXV.]

* * * * *

XIV.

TO MR. ROBERT MUIR,

KILMARNOCK.

[The Muirs--there were two brothers--were kind and generous patrons of
the poet. They subscribed for half-a-hundred copies of the Kilmarnock
edition of his works, and befriended him when friends were few.]

_Mossgiel_, 20_th March_, 1786.

DEAR SIR,

I am heartily sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you as you
returned through Mauchline; but as I was engaged, I could not be in
town before the evening.

I here enclose you my "Scotch Drink," and "may the ---- follow with a
blessing for your edification." I hope, some time before we hear the
gowk, to have the pleasure of seeing you at Kilmarnock, when I intend
we shall have a gill between us, in a mutchkin-stoup; which will be a
great comfort and consolation to,

Dear Sir,

Your humble servant,

ROBT. BURNESS.

* * * * *

XV.

TO MR. AIKEN.

[Robert Aiken, the gentleman to whom the "Cotter's Saturday Night" is
inscribed, is also introduced in the "Brigs of Ayr." This is the last
letter to which Burns seems to have subscribed his name in the
spelling of his ancestors.]

_Mossgiel, 3d April_, 1786.

DEAR SIR,

I received your kind letter with double pleasure, on account of the
second flattering instance of Mrs. C.'s notice and approbation, I
assure you I

"Turn out the burnt o' my shin,"

as the famous Ramsay, of jingling memory, says, at such a patroness.
Present her my most grateful acknowledgment in your very best manner
of telling truth. I have inscribed the following stanza on the blank
leaf of Miss More's Work: