r the sole benefit of the author," and the subscribers were so
numerous that the list of them covered thirty-eight pages. In that
list appeared the names of many of the chief men of Scotland, some of
whom subscribed for twenty--Lord Eglinton for as many as forty-two,
copies. Chambers thinks that full justice has never been done to the
liberality of the Scottish public in the way they subscribed for this
volume. Nothing equal to the patronage that Burns at this time met
with, had been seen since the days of Pope's Iliad. This second
edition, besides the poems which had appeared in the Kilmarnock one,
contained several additional pieces the most important of which had
been composed before the Edinburgh visit. Such were _Death and Doctor
Hornbook_, _The Brigs of Ayr_, _The Ordination_, _The Address to the
Unco Guid_. The proceeds from this volume ultimately made Burns the
possessor of about 500_l._, quite a little fortune for one who, as (p. 059)
he himself confesses, had never before had 10_l._ he could call his
own. It would, however, have been doubly welcome and useful to him,
had it been paid down without needless delay. But unfortunately this
was not Creech's way of transacting business, so that Burns was kept
for many months waiting for a settlement--months during which he could
not for want of money turn to any fixed employment, and which were
therefore spent by him unprofitably enough.

CHAPTER III. (p. 060)

BORDER AND HIGHLAND TOURS.

Some small instalments of the profits of his new volume enabled our
Poet, during the summer and autumn of 1787, to make several tours to
various districts of Scotland, famous either for scenery or song. The
day of regular touring had not yet set in, and few Scots at that time
would have thought of visiting what Burns called the classic scenes of
their country. A generation before this, poets in England had led the
way in this--as when Gray visited the lakes of Cumberland, and Dr.
Johnson the Highlands and the Western Isles. In his ardour to look
upon places famous for their natural beauty or their historic
associations, or even for their having been mentioned in some old
Scottish song, Burns surpassed both Gray and Johnson, and anticipated
the sentiment of the present century. Early in May he set out with one
of his Crochallan club acquaintances, named Ainslie, on a journey to
the Border. Ainslie was a native of the Mer