787._

MY HONOURED FRIEND,

I will soon be with you now, in guid black prent;--in a week or ten
days at farthest. I am obliged, against my own wish, to print
subscribers' names; so if any of my Ayr friends have subscription
bills, they must be sent in to Creech directly. I am getting my phiz
done by an eminent engraver, and if it can be ready in time, I will
appear in my book, looking like all other _fools_ to my title-page.

R. B.

* * * * *

XLVIII.

TO THE EARL OF GLENCAIRN.

[The Earl of Glencairn seems to have refused, from motives of
delicacy, the request of the poet: the verses, long lost, were at last
found, and are now, through the kindness of my friend, Major James
Glencairn Burns, printed with the rest of his eminent father's works.]

_Edinburgh, 1787_

MY LORD,

I wanted to purchase a profile of your lordship, which I was told was
to be got in town; but I am truly sorry to see that a blundering
painter has spoiled a "human face divine." The enclosed stanzas I
intended to have written below a picture or profile of your lordship,
could I have been so happy as to procure one with anything of a
likeness.

As I will soon return to my shades, I wanted to have something like a
material object for my gratitude; I wanted to have it in my power to
say to a friend, there is my noble patron, my generous benefactor.
Allow me, my lord, to publish these verses. I conjure your lordship,
by the honest throe of gratitude, by the generous wish of benevolence,
by all the powers and feelings which compose the magnanimous mind, do
not deny me this petition. I owe much to your lordship: and, what has
not in some other instances always been the case with me, the weight
of the obligation is a pleasing load. I trust I have a heart as
independent as your lordship's, than which I can say nothing more; and
I would not be beholden to favours that would crucify my feelings.
Your dignified character in life, and manner of supporting that
character, are flattering to my pride; and I would be jealous of the
purity of my grateful attachment, where I was under the patronage of
one of the much favoured sons of fortune.

Almost every poet has celebrated his patrons, particularly when they
were names dear to fame, and illustrious in their country; allow me,
then, my lord, if you think the verses have intrinsic merit, to tell
the world how much I have the honour to be,

Your lordship's high