was carried on with much satisfaction to
both parties. The letters, which chiefly relate to the preparation of
Johnson's _Musical Museum_, then in the course of publication, have been
included in his published correspondence. Burns never saw Mr Skinner; he
had not informed himself as to his locality during the prosecution of
his northern tour, and had thus the mortification of ascertaining that
he had been in his neighbourhood, without having formed his personal
acquaintance. To Mr Skinner's son, whom he accidentally met in Aberdeen
on his return, he expressed a deep regret for the blunder, as "he would
have gone twenty miles out of his way to visit the author of
'Tullochgorum.'"

As a man of ingenuity, various acquirements, and agreeable manners, Mr
Skinner was held in much estimation among his contemporaries. Whatever
he read, with the assistance of a commonplace-book, he accurately
remembered, and could readily turn to account; and, though his library
was contained in a closet of five feet square, he was abundantly well
informed on every ordinary topic of conversation. He was fond of
controversial discussion, and wielded both argument and wit with a power
alarming to every antagonist. Though keen in debate, he was however
possessed of a most imperturbable suavity of temper. His conversation
was of a playful cast, interspersed with anecdote, and free from every
affectation of learning. As a clergyman, Mr Skinner enjoyed the esteem
and veneration of his flock. Besides efficiently discharging his
ministerial duties, he practised gratuitously as a physician, having
qualified himself, by acquiring a competent acquaintance with the
healing art at the medical classes in Marischal College. His pulpit
duties were widely acceptable; but his discourses, though edifying and
instructive, were more the result of the promptitude of the preacher
than the effects of a painstaking preparation. He abandoned the aid of
the manuscript in the pulpit, on account of the untoward occurrence of
his notes being scattered by a startled fowl, in the early part of his
ministry, while he was addressing his people from the door of his house,
after the wanton destruction of his chapel.

In a scene less calculated to invite poetic inspiration no votary of the
muse had ever resided. On every side of his lonely dwelling extended a
wild uncultivated plain; nor for miles around did any other human
habitation relieve the monotony of this cheerless solit