Burns
on an unfortunate occasion preferred to that of his host, alone comes
in for unaffected eulogy. The plain and manly directness of these
prose sketches is in striking contrast to the ambitious flights which
the poet attempts in many of his letters.

Dugald Stewart in his cautious way hints that Burns did not always keep
himself to the learned circles which had welcomed him, but sometimes
indulged in "not very select society." How much this cautious phrase
covers may be seen by turning to Heron's account of some of the scenes
in which Burns mingled. Tavern life was then in Edinburgh, as
elsewhere, more or less habitual in all classes. In those clubs and
brotherhoods of the middle class, which met in taverns down the closes
and wynds of High Street, Burns found a welcome, warmer, freer, more
congenial than any vouchsafed to him in more polished coteries.
Thither convened when their day's work was done, lawyers, writers,
schoolmasters, printers, shopkeepers, tradesmen,--ranting, roaring
boon companions--who gave themselves up, for the time, to coarse
songs, rough raillery, and deep drinking. At these meetings all
restraint was cast to the winds, and the mirth drove fast and furious.
With open arms the clubs welcomed the poet to their festivities; each
man proud to think that he was carousing with Robbie Burns. The poet
the while gave full vein to all his impulses, mimicking, it is said,
and satirizing his superiors in position, who, he fancied, had looked
on him coldly, paying them off by making them the butt of his raillery,
letting loose all his varied powers, wit, humour, satire, drollery,
and throwing off from time to time snatches of licentious song, (p. 058)
to be picked up by eager listeners,--song wildly defiant of all the
proprieties. The scenes which Burns there took part in far exceeded
any revelries he had seen in the clubs of Tarbolton and Mauchline, and
did him no good. If we may trust the testimony of Heron, at the
meetings of a certain Crochallan club, and at other such uproarious
gatherings, he made acquaintances who, before that winter was over,
led him on from tavern dissipations to still worse haunts and habits.

By the 21st of April (1787), the ostensible object for which Burns had
come to Edinburgh was attained, and the second edition of his poems
appeared in a handsome octavo volume. The publisher was Creech, then
chief of his trade in Scotland. The volume was published by subscription,
"fo