MR. ERSKINE. Collected Harry stood awee, And ey'd the gathering storm, man LINES WRITTEN UNDER THE PICTURE OF THE CELEBRATED MISS BURNS.* CEASE, ye prudes, your envious railing, True it is, she had one failing, Had a woman ever less? * "The Miss Burns of these lines," says Mr. Cunningham," was well known to the bucks of Edinburgh while the Poet resided there." Her history may be guessed from the following passage in his letter to Mr. Peter Hill, Bookseller, Edinburgh, 2nd February, 1790:-" How is the fate of my poor namesake, Mademoiselle Burns, decided? O man! but for thee and thy selfish appetites and dishonest artifices, that beauteous form, and that once innocent and still ingenuous mind, might have shone conspicuous and ON MISS J. SCOTT, OF AYR.S OH! had each Scot of ancient times EPIGRAM ON CAPTAIN FRANCIS GROSE,§ THE CELEBRATED ANTIQUARY. THE Devil got notice that Grose was a-dying, And saw each bed-post with its burden a-groaning, lovely in the faithful wife and the affectionate mother; and shall the unfortunate sacrifice to thy pleasures have no claim on thy humanity?" § Printed in the Glasgow Collection in 1801. Mr. Grose was exceedingly corpulent, and used to rally himself, with the greatest good humour, on the singular rotundity of his figure. EPIGRAM ON ELPHINSTONE'S TRANSLATION OF MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS.* O THOU whom Poetry abhors, Whom Prose had turned out of doors, Heard'st thou that groan?-proceed no further, 'Twas laurel'd Martial roaring murder. EPITAPH ON A COUNTRY LAIRD, NOT QUITE SO WISE AS SOLOMON. BLESS Jesus Christ, O Cardoness, Alas, alas! O Cardoness, Then thou hadst slept for ever! * Printed in the Glasgow Collection in 1801. In a letter to Clarinda in 1787, Burns asks, " Did I ever repeat to you an epigram I made on a Mr. Elphinstone, who has given a translation of Martial, a famous Latin poet. The poetry of Elphinstone can only equal his prose notes. I was sitting in a merchant's shop of my acquaintance, waiting somebody. He put Elphinstone into my hand, and asked my opinion of it. I begged leave to write it on a blank leaf, which I did." EPITAPH ON A NOISY POLEMIC.+ BELOW thir stanes lie Jamie's§ banes: Thou ne'er took such a bleth'rin' bitch EPITAPH ON WEE JOHNNY.|| Hic jacet wee Johnny. WHOE'ER thou art, O reader, know An' here his body lies fu' low- + This Epitaph was printed in the Kilmarnock edition. "Jamie," was James Humphrey, a mason. "Wee Johnny" was John Wilson, the printer of the Kilmarnock edition of Burns' works, where it was inserted without Wilson being conscious that he was himself alluded to. EPITAPH ON A CELEBRATED RULING ELDER.* HERE SOwter Hood in Death does sleep; To Hell, if he's gane thither, EPITAPH FOR ROBERT AIKEN, ESQ.+ KNOW thou, O stranger to the fame EPITAPH FOR GAVIN HAMILTON, ESQ.‡ THE poor man weeps-here Gavin sleeps, * Printed in the Kilmarnock edition in 1786, in a copy of which the name is supplied in the Poet's handwriting. To whom the Cotter's Saturday Night is inscribed. This occurs to the Kilmarnock edition. This Epitaph is likewise in the Kilmarnock edition. |