hen
boasted--Dugald Stewart, Robertson, Blair, etc., and was a guest at
aristocratic tables, where he bore himself with unaffected dignity. Here
also Scott, then a boy of 15, saw him and describes him as of "manners
rustic, not clownish. His countenance ... more massive than it looks in
any of the portraits ... a strong expression of shrewdness in his
lineaments; the eye alone indicated the poetical character and
temperament. It was large, and of a dark cast, and literally glowed when
he spoke with feeling or interest." The results of this visit outside of
its immediate and practical object, included some life-long friendships,
among which were those with Lord Glencairn and Mrs. Dunlop. The new ed.
brought him L400. About this time the episode of Highland Mary occurred.
On his return to Ayrshire he renewed his relations with Jean Armour, whom
he ultimately married, took the farm of Ellisland near Dumfries, having
meanwhile taken lessons in the duties of an exciseman, as a line to fall
back upon should farming again prove unsuccessful. At Ellisland his
society was cultivated by the local gentry. And this, together with
literature and his duties in the excise, to which he had been appointed
in 1789, proved too much of a distraction to admit of success on the
farm, which in 1791 he gave up. Meanwhile he was writing at his best, and
in 1790 had produced _Tam o' Shanter_. About this time he was offered and
declined an appointment in London on the staff of the _Star_ newspaper,
and refused to become a candidate for a newly-created Chair of
Agriculture in the Univ. of Edin., although influential friends offered
to support his claims. After giving up his farm he removed to Dumfries.
It was at this time that, being requested to furnish words for _The
Melodies of Scotland_, he responded by contributing over 100 songs, on
which perhaps his claim to immortality chiefly rests, and which placed
him in the front rank of lyric poets. His worldly prospects were now
perhaps better than they had ever been; but he was entering upon the last
and darkest period of his career. He had become soured, and moreover had
alienated many of his best friends by too freely expressing sympathy
with the French Revolution, and the then unpopular advocates of reform at
home. His health began to give way; he became prematurely old, and fell
into fits of despondency; and the habits of intemperance, to which he had
always been more or less addicted, grew upon h