se, his father and family
living in Dunse. Starting thence with Ainslie, Burns traversed the
greater part of the vale of Tweed from Coldstream to Peebles, recalling,
as he went along, snatches of song connected with the places he passed.
He turned aside to see the valley of the Jed, and got as far as Selkirk
in the hope of looking upon Yarrow. But from doing this he was (p. 061)
hindered by a day of unceasing rain, and he who was so soon to become
the chief singer of Scottish song was never allowed to look on that
vale which has long been its most ideal home. Before finishing his
tour, he went as far as Nithsdale, and surveyed the farm of Ellisland,
with some thought already, that he might yet become the tenant of it.

It is noteworthy, but not wonderful, that the scenes visited in this
tour called forth no poetry from Burns, save here and there an
allusion that occurred in some of his later songs. When we remember
with what an uneasy heart Burns left Ayrshire for Edinburgh, that the
town life he had there led for the last six months had done nothing to
lighten--it had probably done something to increase the load of his
mental disquietude,--that in an illness which he had during his tour
he confesses that "embittering remorse was scaring his fancy at the
gloomy forebodings of death," and that when his tour was over, soon
after his return to Edinburgh, he found the law let loose against him,
and what was called a "fugae" warrant issued for his apprehension,
owing to some occurrence like to that which a year ago had terrified
him with legal penalties, and all but driven him to Jamaica,--when all
these things are remembered, is it to be wondered, that Burns should
have wandered by the banks of Tweed, in no mood to chaunt beside it "a
music sweeter than its own"?

At the close of his Border tour Burns had, as we have seen, visited
Nithsdale and looked at the farm of Ellisland. From Nithsdale he made
his way back to native Ayrshire and his family at Mossgiel. I have
heard a tradition that his mother met him at the door of the small
farm-house, with this only salutation, "O Robbie!" Neither Lockhart
nor Chambers mentions this, but the latter says, his sister, (p. 062)
Mrs. Begg, remembered the arrival of her brother. He came in unheralded,
and was in the midst of them before they knew. It was a quiet meeting,
for the Mossgiel family had the true Scottish reticence or reserve;
but though their words were not "mony f