ured an introduction to the family of
Belches of Invermay, that, on crossing the river Earn on his southward
journey, he might be enabled to see the little valley, running down
from the Ochils to the Earn, which has been consecrated by the old and
well-known song, _The Birks of Invermay_.

It thus appears that the old songs of Scotland, their localities, (p. 076)
their authors, and the incidents whence they arose, were now uppermost
in the thoughts of Burns, whatever part of his country he visited.
This was as intense and as genuinely poetical an interest, though a
more limited one, than that with which Walter Scott's eye afterwards
ranged over the same scenes. The time was not yet full come for that
wide and varied sympathy, with which Scott surveyed the whole past of
his country's history, nor was Burns's nature or training such as to
give him that catholicity of feeling which was required to sympathize
as Scott did, with all ranks and all ages. Neither could he have so
seized on the redeeming virtues of rude and half-barbarous times, and
invested them with that halo of romance which Scott has thrown over
them. This romantic and chivalrous colouring was an element altogether
alien to Burns's character. But it may well be, that these very
limitations intensified the depth and vividness of sympathy, with
which Burns conceived the human situations portrayed in his best
songs.

There was one more brief tour of ten days during October, 1787, which
Burns made in the company of Dr. Adair. They passed first to Stirling,
where Burns broke the obnoxious pane; then paid a second visit to
Harvieston near Dollar--for Burns had paid a flying visit of one day
there, at the end of August, before passing northward to the
Highlands--where Burns introduced his friend, and seems to have
flirted with some Ayrshire young ladies, relations of his friend Gavin
Hamilton. Thence they passed on a visit to Mr. Ramsay at Ochtertyre on
the Teith, a few miles west from Stirling. They then visited Sir
William Murray at Ochtertyre in Strathearn, where Burns wrote his
_Lines on scaring some waterfowl in Lock Turit_, and a pretty (p. 077)
pastoral song on a young beauty he met there, Miss Murray of Lintrose.
From Strathearn he next seems to have returned by Clackmannan, there
to visit the old lady who lived in the Tower, of whom he had heard
from Mr. Ramsay. In this short journey the most memorable thing was
the visit to Mr. Ramsay at his pictu