his residence in
Dumfries. To the _Museum_ Burns from first to last gratuitously
contributed not less than one hundred and eighty-four songs original,
altered, or collected.

During the first year that Burns lived in Dumfries, in September,
1792, he received an invitation from Mr. George Thomson, to lend the
aid of his lyrical genius to a collection of Scottish melodies, airs,
and words, which a small band of musical amateurs in Edinburgh were
then projecting. This collection was pitched to a higher key than the
comparatively humble _Museum_. It was to be edited with more rigid
care, the symphonies and accompaniments were to be supplied by the
first musicians of Europe, and it was to be expurgated from all leaven
of coarseness, and from whatever could offend the purest taste. To
Thomson's proposal Burns at once replied, "As the request you make to
me will positively add to my enjoyment in complying with it, I shall
enter into your undertaking with all the small portion of abilities I
have, strained to their utmost exertion by the impulse of
enthusiasm....

"If you are for English verses, there is, on my part, an end of the
matter. Whether in the simplicity of the ballad, or the pathos of the
song, I can only hope to please myself in being allowed at least a
sprinkling of our native tongue.... As to remuneration, you may think
my songs either above or below price; for they shall be absolutely the
one or the other. In the honest enthusiasm with which I embark in your
undertaking, to talk of money, wages, fee, hire, &c., would be
downright prostitution of soul."

In this spirit he entered on the enterprise which Thomson opened (p. 152)
before him, and in this spirit he worked at it to the last, pouring
forth song after song almost to his latest breath. Hardly less
interesting than the songs themselves, which from time to time he sent
to Thomson, were the letters with which he accompanied them. In these
his judgment and critical power are as conspicuous, as his genius and
his enthusiasm for the native melodies. For all who take interest in
songs and in the laws which govern their movement, I know not where
else they would find hints so valuable as in these occasional remarks
on his own and others' songs, by the greatest lyric singer whom the
modern world has seen.

The bard who furnished the English songs for this collection was a
certain Dr. Wolcot, known as Peter Pindar. This poetizer, who seems to
have been wholl